Pella Conference: 2008
Table of Contents
John 11:1-10
Reading
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Peter, chapter one.
First Peter chapter one.
In verse 17.
And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons, judges according to every man's work past the time of your sojourning here in fear. For as much as you know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your Father's, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, who was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest.
In these last times for you, should we ask Lorde Blessing?
John's Gospel, Chapter 11.
The chapter comes before my soul in connection with the reading meeting or the prayer meeting that we had.
In which we prayed for a number who are going through trials in their lives.
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And the verse that particularly came before my heart in the prayer meeting was He whom thou lovest is sick.
It's a great thing when a person is in a trial to have the sense in the soul that the Lord is with them in it. And we have in John 11 an instance, a wonderful instance in the Word, where the Lord draws near to those who were in a trial, if you will, and enters into the trial with them and in sympathy with them in it. And I believe we, it's well for our souls to see the Lord in that way.
Reading the whole chapter.
You stop when you.
We should at least get to Lazarus being raised I think.
John's Gospel.
Chapter 11.
Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus of Bethany.
The town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary.
Which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair. Whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, him whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister.
And Lazarus and he had heard therefore that he was sick. He abode 2 days still in the same place where He was. Then after that, saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judea again. His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee, and go as thou thither. Again Jesus answered, Are there not 12 hours in the day?
If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, but he seeth the light of this world.
But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him. These things said He, And after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then set his disciples Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death. But they thought that he had spoken off ticking up rest in sleep.
Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.
And I am glad, for your sakes that I was not there to be intent.
You may believe. Nevertheless let us go unto him Then said Thomas, which is called Idamus unto his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him. Then when Jesus came, he found that he had laid in the grave four days already. Now Bethany was was 9 unto Jerusalem, about 15 furlongs of.
And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him. But Mary sat still in the house. Then set Martha unto Jesus. Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. But I know that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.
Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believeth thou this she saith unto him, Lord, I believe.
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That thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.
And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister, secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for thee. As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto him. Now Jesus was not yet coming to the town, but was in the place where Martha met him. The Jews then, which were with her in the house, and comforted her when they saw Mary.
That she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there. And then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which came with her.
He groaned in the Spirit, and was troubled, and said, Where have ye laid him? Then said unto him, Lord, come and see. And Jesus wept, and then set the Jews. Behold how he loved them. And some of them said, Could not this man which opened the eyes of the blind have caused that even this man should not have died? Jesus therefore again.
Groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone laid upon it. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone Martha, the sister of him that was dead, sayeth unto him, Lord, By this time he stinketh, for he had been dead 4 days. Jesus said unto her, and say, said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory, glory of God.
Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me, and I knew that Thou hearest me always, But because of the people which stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus.
Come forth, and he that was dead came forth abound, hand and foot, with grave clothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Lose him, and let him go. Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him, but some of them went their ways to the Pharisees.
And told them what things Jesus hath done. Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a counsel, and said, What do we? For this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him, and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. And one of them named Caiaphas, being the high priest the same year, said unto them.
Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perished not. And this speak he not of himself, but being high priest that year he prophesized that Jesus should die for that nation and not for the nation only, but that also he should gather together in one.
The children of God that were scattered abroad, then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death. Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews, but went thence unto a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continue with his disciples. And the Jews pass over was night at hand, and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem.
Before the Passover to purify themselves, then sought they for Jesus, and speak among themselves as they stood in the temple. What think ye that he will not come to the feast? Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment that if any man knew where he were, he should show it, that they might take him.
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That when this trial comes into the life of.
Martha and Mary.
That prior to the trial there had been.
A personal, close relationship between their own souls and the Lord.
And as a result of that, they had some knowledge in their hearts of who He was and what He meant to them and what they meant to him. And consequently, when the trial comes, immediately their thoughts and their hearts turn to Himself concerning that trial. And so they call for him. And so it is in our lives when trials come.
If there has been prior to the trial, The Walking with the Lord in a relationship with Himself, whether the trial is upon our own person or someone we love, then immediately the heart and the thoughts turn to the Lord with a sense of Himself caring about it.
And sometimes we hear the expression nobody cares. They didn't say that at all. They immediately thought about. And in fact, they send a message to make known the news of the trial to the one that.
They knew cared more than cared he loved.
Lord Jesus was here and walked amongst men. There were very few homes really where the Lord Jesus was welcome.
It tells us the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. We read later on in this very gospel every man went to his own house. Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. And so there were very few homes where the Lord Jesus was really welcome. But there was at least one home where on a number of occasions we read that he delighted to turn his footsteps, perhaps weary in the pathway as a man.
And sit down in the company of those who refreshed His spirit. You know we think.
I think it's interesting to think of it in that light because so often we think of the blessing that was received by these three individuals in having the Lord Jesus in their homes. And certainly if we have in our homes the Lord Jesus as that unseen guest welcome in our homes from day-to-day, we receive a blessing in our souls, our own souls, and for our families and for those that are under our roof.
But to think of how the Lord Jesus valued it, His heart was often refreshed, I say, in the presence of those that loved Him in a world where for the most part, he was rejected and cast out from the very beginning.
And so to think of his portion, I believe really encourages our hearts and brethren, I might just say as we embark on this chapter and we get a little glimpse into this home and the sorrow that came in on this occasion, is the Lord Jesus really a welcome guest in our homes? It's the delight of his heart to have that proper place in our hearts and in our in our homes. And so how good to be exercised.
We're here to enjoy these meetings. We've come from our homes. We've left difficulties and sorrows behind for the moment perhaps. But when we go back, if the Lord leaves us here, is the Lord Jesus going to have his heart refreshed by being that welcome guest in our home, in every situation and every day?
Very striking here. I've enjoyed in my own soul that it doesn't say where the Lord Jesus was. It just says here that they sent for him. They sent in verse three. Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold whom thou lovest is sick. And so when there was that communion in there with the Lord, that occupation with himself has already been said. They thought immediately of their blessed Lord, that one who.
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Had that place in their hearts and the place in the home, and they knew where he was. And so it's lovely for us to just have that sense in our own souls of where the Lord is and to come into His presence and to seek to be there.
I'll just mention too that I've enjoyed this. Is that in Bethany? Here it means the House of affliction and Lazarus means the help of God. And so you might think that why is it that a man called Lazarus the help of God?
Would be ill, but he's a picture, I believe, of Israel and how.
There was that sickness, it was sin and needed to be dealt with and there was, it had brought in death and sorrow. And but the Lord Jesus here sees Lazarus as a man beloved, and he identifies the town of Bethany with the household of faith. It wasn't identified as some sort of a merchant city or something like that. But he sees this town of Lazarus and Mary and Martha. He identifies the town as being that town that had that household in it.
With those that he loved, who knew where he was, that had a conscious sense of where he was.
Trial The first word out of Martha's mouth that she sends to him is the word Lord.
It's very significant, brethren, she doesn't say Jesus, he whom thou lovest is sick.
But she says, Lord, to whom thou lovest is sick, and when there's a trial, comes into the life.
It's extremely important that the first sense in the soul when redressing the Lord about it is His authority in it.
Lord, it's acknowledgment that He has the absolute and supreme rights.
In connection with every trial. And so she immediately submits herself.
To that authority in the manner in which she addresses him and introduces him into the trial that he is going to share with her and go through with her the sorrow of it. As she weeps, so he will weep in it. But Even so, the first point of addressing it has to be because if it's otherwise, then the relationship isn't on the right footing.
To be with the Lord in it. It could be on some other basis that.
You ought to do it, or this is the right thing, or whatever it is, it doesn't matter. The 1St and important point is that in such we come and we say Lord.
I think it's lovely too, that it says very plainly that Lord Jesus loved. He whom thou lovest is sick. Then we are all loved of the Lord. But it's important to see that even though we're loved of the Lord, the Lord may allow us to become sick, but there's a reason for it. We find a very lovely reason here. Why?
Lazarus was allowed to be sick.
And he said plainly, this, this sickness is not unto death. But another thing that very precious to me is that fifth verse where it says Jesus loved Martha. See, her name is put first. Remember, she's the one that the Lord Jesus chided a bit with because Martha said of her sister.
Are you going to leave me and me to serve alone?
Speak to Marian ever to help me, but here you would have thought perhaps after that.
Martha wasn't loved as much because of the fact that the Lord Jesus had to tide a bit with her as He loved Mary. But here we have her put first. He and Mary is not even named in that fifth verse. Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
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I've always thought that's wonderful that the Lord let us know that he he not only loved Mary because Mary was a wonderful sister, but he loved Martha too.
Important, distant, and helpful in the trials and difficulties of life to move again, as I say, beyond what things mean to us and to move beyond ourselves. Because so often when a trial arises in our lives, the initial reaction may be, well, I've tried to please the Lord, I love the Lord, and He's allowed this in my life. Why has God allowed this? Why has the Lord allowed this when I've tried to be faithful and I've tried to serve the Saints and so on?
Martha might have thought this. She had served the Lord. She had to have a rebuke. That's true. Martha had some lessons to learn which the Lord so graciously sought to teach her. But it's interesting that in the 10th of Luke, where you have that incident that brother, our brother alluded to, you find there that it was the House of Martha. A certain woman named Martha received her, him into her home. Seems to me that she was the one who was responsible for that household.
It was her house she Fano felt, no doubt felt responsible in connection with the Lord Jesus being a guest there and so on. And so she might have felt later on when this trial arose. Well, here I've tried to serve the Lord, I've entertained him in my home. I've tried to keep this household together and keep it going on for the Lord's glory and so on. But is that what Martha did? No, I know Martha had some lessons to learn, but I love to read the few references we have to Martha because to look beyond sometimes what she said and did and to see that she really was in the enjoyment of the love of the Lord Jesus for her.
She did appreciate that, she did understand that. And so she doesn't say to the Lord, well, Lord, I've tried to love you and serve you, and this is what you've allowed. No, she said, Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick. She had an understanding that the Lord Jesus loved her brother, that he loved her. And then as you say, it's confirmed to us by the Scripture itself. He loved Martha. And I'm sure as Martha came to him and she said these words that have been brought before us.
It touched his heart too. He appreciated Martha coming to him again. She had some lessons to learn. She didn't understand what was really going on here and so on. But just the fact that she came as Brother Dawn said, she addressed him as Lord. She claimed his love for her brother, how much it meant to her. He did indeed love Martha, he loved Lazarus. Why is Mary not mentioned by name? Well, I think it's so beautiful to see she's connected here as Martha's sister.
He loved that little household and she was part of it. You might say, well, no doubt he loved Mary. She sat at his feet. It's just as if the Spirit of God says I don't even have to name her in this in this portion, no doubt of his love for her, but I'm going to the Spirit of God connects her with one that we might say, well, did he really love Marthas deeply? Indeed he did.
You know, brethren, God doesn't have any favorites. Maybe there's a household here and you're going through a trial and you think, you know, God loves my brother or sister more than me. God's got a favorite in this family. God had no favorites in this little household in Bethany. He loved them and he loved them all equally. And though he allows trials in our homes and maybe it touches certain members of the family what seem more than others, yet he loves each one of us as intensely and deeply as the other.
He may act in certain ways and allow certain things with each one of us in a family to teach us and to draw out our hearts and so on. But I say, I say again, we need to just stop and consider not so much our response, but his, his love for us. That's what really gives solace in the trial.
The Lord was the perfect servant here. He abode there still two days when he heard about Lazarus being sick, and in the meantime my Lazarus died. But we would have thought that.
Naturally speaking, we would have thought he would have rushed straight there and raised Lazarus right up, but he didn't do that. He didn't have a word from the Father.
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And he was going to do a greater work than that. Sometimes we find that it seems like when we cry to the Lord, why nothing, nothing happens for a little bit. But God in his time had Lazarus.
Adam die and he was laid in the grave, so that would have seemed like naturally speaking.
Shame to just stay there and let Lazarus die, but the Lord had a much greater.
Purpose and.
The largest time is the right time.
That's one of the hardest lessons to learn in the trials and circumstances of life is that God has a perfect timetable and nothing frustrates the purposes of God or his timetable. And I suppose when we prayed about something in a difficulty or trial, the hardest thing to do is to learn to wait. And I've been impressed. Some of us were mentioning this this week.
That I've been impressed in going through the Psalms, particularly the Psalms of David, to notice how often David speaks of waiting for the Lord or on the Lord. Those are the hardest things you say. I prayed about that. I thought I learned the lesson. I enjoy the fact that the Lord loves me, but the hardest thing when we prayed about something is to wait His time. And yet I believe that often that's the great lesson that He's trying to teach us.
You know, this is the day when in the business world, the corporate world, and justice in general in life, in society, we find that nobody's willing to wait for anything. This is the day when everything is instantaneous. We want to press a button and have our coffee and lattes immediately. We want to be able to turn on the computer and immediately have high speed Internet. We get frustrated when we the speed dialed on the cell phone doesn't work properly.
We sit and Stew in the airport because there's a half hour delay in our flight and all this kind of thing. And I know that we live in an instantaneous world and to keep up, to survive in the work a day world, we have to keep up. But brother and I believe we need to learn, as brother Max says, that God doesn't work instantaneously or as quickly as we like. And tribulation worketh patience gone off and allows these things in our lives to teach us patience.
This is just a little aside, but I would say that one of the things you should never pay pray for is patients.
Pray for grace, but don't pray for patience. There's only one way to learn it. And never pray for patience and want it right away because the Lord may teach us, seek to teach us patience. We don't know our own hearts. And He may seek to teach us patience, but we may have to go through some real trials and difficulties to learn it. And so this is one of the things that the Lord was seeking to teach them. But before we pass on, I want to just notice a little expression in the fourth verse.
Where he says this sickness is not unto death, and someone else can comment on the difference between death and sleep and so on. What they didn't disciples didn't understand. But what I want to notice is but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
Now I think this is important to understand because when a trial or a difficulty comes into our lives or into our homes, the initial reaction either of ourselves or those who know us, is that the Lord has laid His chastening hand upon us. And that may be true if the Lord allows something in my life or in my family, I need to be exercised as to why the Lord has allowed this and whether He's allowed it in His chastening or to correct me.
But brethren, it isn't all we saw. The Lord allows trials for different reasons. You know, again, if we were to go back to the 9th chapter, we find a man born blind from his birth. And the disciples said, and this again is the natural reaction of our hearts, who hath sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind. They figured there must have been some sin in this man's past or in his family, that he was allowed to be born blind like this. But the Lord again said neither this man nor his parents, but that the works of God might be manifest in him. And so there was going to be glory brought to.
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God and to the Lord Jesus through the healing of that man. And this was the same here with Lazarus.
This was the Lord had allowed this trial to come into this family so that there would be glory brought to God and to the Lord Jesus in the raising of this man. And this was another reason why he allowed him to die. He didn't come right away because there was going to be greater glory brought to the Lord Jesus and to God, not only in the family circle, but in that community as we read later on in the city of Bethany.
Through the Lord Jesus raising Him from the dead, this was something greater than just Him being healed while he was still sick. This was going to be something far, far greater and a far greater glory and blessing brought as a result. Well brethren, if we can just get ahold in our souls and I have to only point the finger at myself and leave it pointed there, but if we could just get a hold in our souls that what God is doing with us and through us and innocent in our families is right.
And if we are willing to submit and learn the lessons, it's going to be great glory brought to himself, to God, and blessing in our souls as well. Can we look at verse 40 together?
Verse 40 Jesus said unto her, said I not unto thee that.
If thou wouldest believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God.
Our brother has hit the key to this passage right there in verse four to bring glory to the God.
It's not an it's not a new thing in the New Testament. The sufferings of the Saints job.
There was suffering of a righteous man in the book of Job, wasn't it? It's an age-old question. It goes on and on and on. We have to realize that it is to bring glory unto God when John wrote the gospel. Look at chapter 20 and verse 31 together, chapter 20 and verse 31.
John 20 and 31 But these things are written. This is why he wrote the Gospel of John. But these things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ. That's how he presents him in the Gospel. John, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through His name. Now go back to our passage and look at verse 25 together.
Verse 25 of Chapter 11.
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life he that believeth in me. Though he were dead, yet shall he live.
Jesus had anticipation of his death and he put resurrection before.
Life I am the life, and resurrection is the way we normally would.
Think he would say it, but no, He said I am the resurrection and the life, Didn't He? In anticipation of His death? He knew what was taking place here and He wanted to show to Him that it was sleep and not death. He wanted them to know that it was to bring glory to Him because He is glorified and He brings glory to the Father. John tells us also in other passages. So therefore, if we can be glorified in the sufferings and the end results in our life.
That's the key to the answer.
If we're young, ones are sitting in our seat.
You look at your life and you said, did this part of it bring glory to God or not?
They're sweet and they're stubble and it's all going to be tried in the fire and the gold and the pure.
Is going to come forth, isn't it?
Did it bring glory to God? And sometimes these sufferings we don't understand why.
But when we come through them, in the end, we're a better Christian and those around us can see it. They saw the raising of Lazarus and Jesus had told her. Did I not tell you that? If you would believe, you would see.
The glory of God. And that's the key to the passage right there.
And with for this meeting raised a question.
The question was what is sweeter?
Than knowing that he is mine.
I don't know what the poet was thinking, particularly when they wrote that question, but there is something sweeter.
And that is to know that I am his.
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And there's a moral order to the trial that's brought out in this chapter, and the beginning of it all begins with the sense in the soul of the love.
That is in the heart of God toward us. Mary doesn't say I love him.
Lord, you have power. Do something about it.
But that's the natural kind of way that our hearts tend to work. And it's just the way we are. We know somebody, we love them, something of a trial happens to them. And the first thought in our hearts is, I love them and I don't want to see them in this trial. And so we say, Lord, you have power to do something about it.
Brethren, we need something more than that.
And Mary and Martha had it. Martha says, Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick.
That is, she had the sense in her soul that it wasn't the greatness of her own love for her brother.
That was to be drawn upon the problem or the need.
What was greater than her love for Him was the Lord's love for him. And she focuses on that. And so the going through a trial before there's a moral order, before it's a question of even of the glory of God or of the timing of a solution, or of the power to bring out an answer to the need, the first need in the soul.
In the trial is to make sure.
That there is a confidence in the love of God. And if it's not there, all is lost because the basis on which the soul seeks to go through it, it's going to be troubled in it. It's not going to have rest in it. There has to be in it the sense of the one who loves, and he loves supremely. He loves not. Our love is small.
For that soul, whoever it is, a husband, a wife, a child.
A family member or a brother or sister in the assembly. Our love is, by, relatively speaking, very small.
But if we can bring one into it whose love is supreme, then we can say you act according to the greatness of your love as you see it in this need. And there's rest in that. There's confidence in that because we can see in him a love that exceeds. And then we can. Then we can, as it were. We may as she did. She doubted his power.
She didn't realize that he had enough power to do a greater work than she imagined. She thought, Well, Lord, you could have helped if you'd been here, but you weren't here, so he died. But let us, brethren, not only recognize lordship in a trial, but rest in the greatness, not of our love, but the love of our God for the soul who is in the trial, be it ourselves or someone else.
You see that exhibited with Joseph too, don't you? Because when Joseph was in prison in Egypt, there was a point that came where perhaps he felt that he had received the answer and the remedy to his problem. Two men had a dream, the chief Baker and the chief Butler, and Joseph was able to interpret those dreams. And no doubt Joseph initially felt, well, this is my ticket out of here.
They're going to Remember Me. The chief Butler is going to Remember Me when he comes in and stands before Pharaoh again. And he's raised up. But that wasn't God's purpose. The timing wasn't right. It's true that God was going to deliver Joseph from the prison, but it wasn't the right timing. And again, God has a proper timing. And I think there's nothing more frustrating for human nature when we think we've pinpointed the remedy, but we we can't. It's not available.
We say, well Martha again she said, you know if Lord, if you'd been here, I know you could have helped as you say, but you weren't available. You weren't here at the right time. Your timing was off. That's really what she was saying Lord, why did you wait so long if you had only come to when we come when we 1St called for you?
And Joseph might have thought that, but I think it's so beautiful to see Joseph's spirit. He goes on quietly there in the prison for another two years. Because I suggest that Joseph had an understanding in his soul that the timing wasn't right. Yes, there would be God's answer in his own way and in his own time. And when we see the end of the story, don't we just marvel at the timing of God? Why God was going to raise up Joseph, not just bring him out of prison.
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But there was going to be great glory brought to God and blessing to the people of God and to the whole world as a result of God's timing. And so again, brethren, God has given us these stories, the story of Joseph, the story of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, to encourage our hearts in these very practical things. Again, to be in the sense of His love, but I say to be in the sense that what He is doing is on a timetable, that is.
Absolutely perfect if we are willing to submit to it.
Says, Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass.
It may not be to pass in the way or the timing that we thought it should be, but if we're willing to wait to let Him bring it to pass in his own time and in his own way, there will be fruit and glory brought that we never anticipated.
It's interesting that both of these women are exposed as being women of faith. One was active, perhaps energetic, you might say, and the other that says sat still in the home. And God, you know, he says that these two sisters, therefore his sisters sent unto him, and they joined together in their concern for Lazarus. And one as an individual is exposed as energetic. One is exposed as one who would just sit in the house.
And they had made a request to the Lord. They hadn't perhaps demanded it. I just want to turn to 1St John chapter 5. It's something that we need to bear in mind when it comes to the requests that we make in prayer. It says in verse chapter five of first John, verse 14. And this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to His will He hear us, heareth us, and if we know that He hear us.
Whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him. And so there was that work that the Lord was doing with these dear sisters. That was an individual work. He was working in their lives to produce fruit for Himself and in Lazarus as well.
And they didn't even know their own hearts. And yet in grace he exposes them as those that are women of faith and justice send to him. They make this request. Perhaps I shouldn't say that they made the request. It says that they just simply said, he whom thou lovest is sick. And in grace they sent to him in confidence. Now he was going to test their confidence. He was going to test that faith, and he was going to bring forth that fruit for himself as a result.
After the two days.
The Lord says let's go to Judea, that's where Bethany is. And immediately the disciples object and they say, Lord, you don't want to go there.
Last time you were there, they tried to stone you and it wasn't very long ago. So they immediately raised a question or an objection to the very idea of going to Bethany in spite of the known need there, in spite of the the trial that was taking place in the House of of Martha and Mary. And the Lord answers them by saying well.
Man who walks in the day, he sees, if he walks in the night, he stumbles. And I believe the Lord is giving us to see in that, that God always acts in everything. Not only as we've just had in love, but God always acts in every trial in perfect light. And you have to have both to properly take care of a trial with God.
Oftentimes we're at least slightly in the dark, if not significantly in the dark in a trial. We don't see our way in it. We don't know how to go, if you will. We don't know what the outcome of it's going to be. We may be faced with a decision and we don't know which decision to make in in connection with it. But it is a comfort to the soul to say God's in the trial as well because he loves me. He has taken upon himself to enter into that trial.
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As the Lord Jesus took it upon himself to enter into this trial that Martha and Mary were going through.
But when he enters into it, he enters into it in the perfection of light, and he doesn't stumble. He knows exactly how to go.
And exactly the way to meet what the need is of it. And so even when it's, you might say darkness in us sometimes is that we it is we can look beyond ourselves and we can say God loves.
And God is light, and God in the perfection of his own ways.
Is going to do things that maintain and act in that and it gives again a comfort to the heart if there can be that submission and confidence in the love and the light in which God will act and deal with whatever it is that we call trial in life.
Principal is always followed by the Lord Jesus. He had a purpose always, and where He went, and why he went, and at the time that he went, and that it brought out, as you were saying, Brother Dawn, in these verses, it said plainly in the end of the seventh verse, let us go into Judea again, and his disciples say unto him, Master.
The Jews of late sought to stone thee and gross thou thither again. But if the Lord Jesus had the light of God doing the will of God to go into Judea at that particular time, he wasn't concerned because God was leading him according to the light, and he was walking in that light. And so there was no danger in going to Judea as long as he was going to fulfill the purpose of God and.
Going in God's time and so it is with us. You know, we we oftentimes very, I'd say almost thoughtlessly go places, but never was. So with the Lord Jesus, he every place that he went, there was a was in the light of God's leading, doing the Lord's will and accomplishing God's purpose. We could check up on ourselves a little more about where we go.
And say, are we like that? Are we going where we go because God is shamed by the light of God. We know he would have us to go there. There's something he wants us to do there. And or are we just going on, as they say, on a whim, just doing what pleased us without any purpose or at all. But if you are being guided of God and that's what the Lord Jesus meant.
Walking in the day, he had to.
The will, the mind, and the light of God. And going where he was going, He wasn't going to stumble. But if you don't have God's life and you're going in the night any place, you could very well get into great trouble.
Let's sing just verse 2 of 319.
Just verse 2 of 319.
Our souls breathing.
We have our dream is good.
And our man.
Open Mtg. 2
Open—P. Jennings, B. Shane
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Pray.
Lord.
We all need.
Time.
Grace Day.
I have it on my heart this afternoon.
Carry on a little bit with the theme that we had.
And the reading meeting.
The value and the instruction and the help that we receives received through trials.
And the grace that has given us to do so.
I've witnessed those in the last.
00:05:02
A little while who have been called to pass through trials.
Experiences that they didn't ask.
To have to go through.
But they.
They were asked to go through.
And your heart goes out to someone who is in a far greater trial than you've ever experienced.
And.
Sometimes when the Lord hasn't brought you through some of the same trials, you're you're not able to comfort someone because with the comfort that you have been comforted with.
If you haven't been called to go through that trial before and so we can't always.
Use that experience that we have.
To enter into the depths of someone's sorrow or their pain.
Through experience.
But we can turn to the Word of God, and we can.
We can find the lessons.
That God has taught.
And I'd like to.
Turn to the first.
Scripture.
That I've enjoyed in connection with trials.
In Exodus.
Chapter 15.
I know that we have a tendency to sometimes.
Have wrong thoughts about the experiences God is bringing us through Indiana our lives.
We have a tendency to judge God by our trials.
And oftentimes, we're just plain wrong.
Let's read verse 23 of Exodus 15.
And when they came to Mara, they could not drink of the waters of Mara, for they were bitter.
Therefore the name of it was called Mara. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?
And he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree.
Which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet.
There he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them.
So the children of Israel had just crossed.
The Red Sea.
As it were, they just passed through the waters of death.
We can relate that to our salvation.
We've received the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. We've been set free from the penalty of our sins. We've been delivered.
By that work which the Lord Jesus accomplished on the cross.
And maybe in our expense, in our experience, our hearts are filled with joy.
And we think the Christian life is just going to be wonderful.
And here it is.
After they had just sung the song of Deliverance and their hearts were filled with praise.
What happens? God introduces them.
To bitter waters.
And should it be any surprise to us?
We're going to find as we go into the New Testament.
That God has a recipe for our spiritual development.
And that recipe has a main ingredient.
And that is tribulation.
And so sometimes as we.
As we begin to examine our trials and the circumstances that we're in.
We misjudged the Lord in His purposes for those circumstances that were being called to go through.
Maybe we think we've done something that.
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We shouldn't have done. Maybe we have, and by God's grace.
He's going to use that trial for our blessing.
God has a tendency and he has, he has the ability to take everything that we go through, whether it's something we've brought in our lives.
Through.
Decisions of disobedience.
Or whether it's just something that he's called us to go through every experience that he has in our life.
Is for blessing.
Here are the children of Israel come to get refreshment for their souls.
And the waters aren't what they thought.
That they would be.
They were bitter.
Maybe there's some here who have recently gone through trials.
And you thought, you know, I have a real desire to please the Lord. At least I thought I did.
I really want to go on for the Lord's glory.
I really want to be a blessing.
To those around me.
That I'm going through this wasn't what I had planned. Maybe I don't understand.
There's a solution to bitter waters.
First, they murmured.
The Lord God revealed their hearts. We need that, don't we? Trials do come so that our hearts might be revealed.
He has a way of getting to what?
We have, we have need of seeing.
He reveals their hearts.
That's a blessing.
That's something we need.
It's good when the Lord reveals our hearts.
But he gave them a solution too. He didn't leave them with just that.
Bad taste in their mouth of as it were revealing their hearts to them. He had a way in which those waters that the trial that they were going through, that experience which they were experienced could could be made sweet and that was to take a tree.
And throw it into the water.
And that's the solution.
For every trial.
That God passes us through.
It's a solution.
That will bring sweetness out of every trial that we're called to go through. Now, we might find this to be difficult.
That's OK.
Because God has solutions for.
Our difficulties.
He has lessons to teach us and that's a part of the process.
Sometimes.
We chafe because.
We don't always rise to the height.
We don't. We don't always have wings as Eagles that rise above our trials.
That's OK.
What is the tree that made those bitter waters sweet?
It's the cross of Christ.
It's the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That makes every bitter water sweet.
It's meditating on his sacrifice for us.
The Lord Jesus.
Came down from the heights of glory.
As God.
The Son of God in all of his glory.
He came down into a world where there was nothing.
Betrayals.
As it were.
He came down.
And he suffered.
For you and I.
All the way to the cross.
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Where he was nailed to a tree and he was lifted up.
And in his submission to his father's will, he received the judgment.
Of my sins.
And yours?
We see in that everything that we need to learn in our trials.
We see submission.
A willingness.
To do the Father's will.
The Lord Jesus told.
Mary and Martha.
That this was for the glory of God.
They didn't want to go through it.
They did not want to experience the death of their brother.
But the Lord Jesus, God had a purpose in it.
It was for the glory of God.
The Lord Jesus went through.
His pathway down here as a man.
To glorify.
God.
I like the comment that was made.
I just distracted myself.
I'll get back to that point.
There are trials that we're being called to go through.
But if there is that in our souls.
Which has the glory of God.
As.
Our purpose of being here if you and I in our souls.
Just desire the glory of God.
Those trials will be made easier.
Well, the tree.
Is placed in the waters and the waters are made sweet.
Every trial.
That you and I are called to go through.
Will be made sweet.
As we see.
And joy in our souls, the sacrifice that the Lord Jesus made for us.
There won't be.
A sacrifice.
Trials sometimes.
Cost us time.
Maybe the Lord sets us aside. Maybe he sets us down. Maybe he changes our plans.
Trials always involve a sacrifice.
Maybe it's a loved one.
Maybe it's a life.
And none of us.
Naturally speaking, desire to give those things that are precious to us.
So they're bitter.
But the cross.
Will make them sweet.
It's not maybe.
It will.
Let's just turn to Matthew.
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I love.
To meditate on the Lord Jesus and I don't do it enough.
But in his life.
Is sufficient instruction.
His example is all we need.
And here in Matthew Chapter 11.
And verse 25.
We'll speak just a little bit about what went before to get the context of what the Lord Jesus is speaking about. He had just.
Expressed his displeasure.
To city after city who had experienced his loving care.
His efforts?
To bring them into blessing.
His desire that as a hen would gather.
His chicks under his wing. Under her wing. They refused.
His desire to reach those souls with kindness, with love.
And with wisdom.
And it met with rejection.
It met with an expression of what is in the heart of man against God.
Really, it met with hatred.
The Lord Jesus as a man felt this.
And it was a trial to his soul.
After that verse 25.
After that he had abraded these cities.
At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed them unto babes.
Here we learn.
A key to accepting.
That which God allows in our life.
And it is submission.
Here he'd been through a trial.
Of rejection.
And he felt it in his heart.
But in the process.
He could express thanks to God.
Why?
Because he took it from his father.
Submission is a key.
A victory.
In our trials.
Victory in our trials takes faith.
We have to believe.
That God knows what he's doing.
Has he allowed something in our lives?
We have we're overwhelmed by.
00:25:00
Well.
Faith says I may not understand it, but I know the God that has allowed it.
And thus I can say thank you.
You know, it's a good thing to remember.
That God is always bigger than our trials.
Our trials may seem big.
But God is bigger.
The Lord Jesus knew.
That although he had not been able to reach those cities that he had labored for.
He knew that wasn't going to thwart the purposes of God for man.
And so.
In his trial, he could say.
I thank thee.
There's more in this chapter that encourages our soul.
About.
Listing the weight the trials bring.
In our lives, we don't have time because I want to leave time for others.
Trials are heavy.
If they weren't heavy, they wouldn't be trials. And we're going to find as we go on to the next portion, the trials are necessary ingredients in the Christian life and if there's going to be any development in the soul.
It's not going to come without trials.
The trials.
Don't need to be so heavy.
That we can't make it through life.
They can be lifted, the weight of them.
Can be lifted.
As we.
Go on our Christian life in the yoke with the Lord Jesus.
We won't take that subject up. We'll go on to Romans chapter 5.
I've enjoyed the book of Romans. Most you hear, no.
I've often wondered why this portion is right in the middle of what seems to me to be the doctrine of the gospel.
But one thing that I have come to realize.
Is it right here?
We have the process.
Of Christian development.
The whole purpose of God bringing us into his family.
Is to make us like Christ.
I want to speak reverently.
But knowing my own soul.
That is no easy task.
And it's not done.
By our own effort.
You know, it's good, young brothers, young people, if you'll spend time in the word when you're young.
And it's good if you'll spend time reading what brethren have written.
In years gone by, when the spirit of God.
Had maybe more liberty to reveal.
The truth of His word.
And that will be used in the process of our.
Christian Development.
But that's not.
All.
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We will.
Become more like Christ by this process.
And we really won't be aware of it.
Let me say it this way, it's not going to be by our effort.
I'm not diminishing the thought of diligence in the Word of God.
But the process by which God?
Brings growth and makes us more like Christ.
Is done.
By his own ways.
And that which he allows and that which he brings us through.
In our lives.
Have you wondered?
Why there have been difficulties?
Why trials have come and it seems as though sometimes.
It's not just one trial, but it's one after another.
After another.
After another.
And we wonder why.
Let's read from verse 3.
Well, let's read from verse one.
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
By whom also we have access by faith into the grace, and where we and wherein we stand, and we and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also.
Knowing that tribulation work is patience.
And patience. Experience.
And experience hope.
And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.
Which is given unto us.
I like to think of this as God's recipe.
For our Christian growth.
It's God's wise plan in making us more like the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you know, you notice what the first ingredients is, it's.
Tribulation.
We say we really don't. We really don't like trials and we don't.
There's nothing wrong with not liking trials because trials are difficult.
But we can value them.
And when we're in them.
We can rejoice.
Because we're not unintelligent.
As to God's process of making us more like the Lord Jesus.
He's given this instruction to help us to understand why they're there.
All of these things work for Blessing.
If we're in communion with the Lord.
Maybe we've seen those pass through trials.
Maybe they were. Maybe they've been the Lords.
Maybe they aren't.
But when trials come into their lives have come into their lives.
It appears as though it's had the opposite effect.
Of Christian development.
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And so.
How do we face our trials?
Do we face them in faith?
Believing God's Word.
That.
This trial, this tribulation, this difficulty, this pain, this sorrow.
Is going to produce something.
For the glory of God in my soul and in my life.
It's going to make me more like Christ.
The Lord never asked.
To be taken out of his trials.
Except when he was asked.
To be made sin.
Not beautiful.
It's perfectly consistent.
With God.
The only time he asked to be taken out of his trials.
When he was, when he was, his soul was going to be made sin.
And the rest of what God chose for him as a man.
Was received in perfect submission and obedience to His Father.
Did the Lord Jesus learn?
Things in his trials.
As a man, I think we can say he did.
Because it says he learned obedience by the things that he suffered.
Believe I quoted that somewhat correctly. Forgive me if I didn't.
He learned obedience.
By the things that he suffered.
That was an experience.
That was.
Something that he could only pass through as a man.
And so Tribulation.
Worketh patience.
Has there ever been anyone more patient than the Lord Jesus?
He's being patient right now.
He's waiting.
For this world.
To be set right.
He's waiting to receive his bride.
And he's waiting for his Kingdom.
And that's what the the trials and the tribulations in our life are for.
They're to teach us to wait.
Until God chooses.
His time.
Waiting isn't easy.
And by nature, we don't like to wait.
Trials teach us how.
We learn of individuals who've.
Been put on beds of sickness and there's no end insight.
What does that individual learn?
In submission to God.
They learn to wait.
Until God.
Chooses.
To relieve them of the trial.
Patience is a wonderful thing.
To learn.
And it makes us more like Christ.
00:40:03
Tribulation, worketh, patience or endurance?
And patients experience.
They lookout in the room I see a lot of.
Folks who have been on this path a lot longer than I have.
And I know that one thing they have over me.
Is experience.
They have been through the trials of this life.
In fellowship with God, and they have learned Him.
And in that sense?
They are like.
Everything we learn of God makes us like Him.
That's why young people.
We value.
Our older brethren.
Because of experience.
Maybe experience teaches us.
Not to panic.
When trials come.
Because we've learned.
That the last time God allowed something unexpected in my life, He was there to meet the need.
Whatever it was.
That's experience.
And young people.
That's what your trials are going to bring.
They're going to bring experience and if you go through your trials in submission to God.
You're going to come out of them.
With patience.
And experience.
And you're going to be more like Christ.
That wasn't received.
Wasn't gotten out of a book.
As wonderful as books are.
That's not how you got that.
You've got it through the process.
That God chose to bring you through.
Tribulation work of patience and patience.
Experience. I'll stop there.
Peace to the Book of James.
Book of James, chapter one.
Verse 2.
My brethren.
Count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations.
Diverse temptations means various types of trials.
But let patients have her perfect work, that she may be perfect.
An entire.
Wanting, In other words, lacking.
That we would be lacking nothing.
Verse six. But let him ask in faith, not wavering.
Without any doubts.
Verse 12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he has tried, he shall receive the crown of life.
Which the Lord has promised to them that love him.
I'm sure the Lord will bless the reading of this scriptures as well as other ones we've heard today. We may look at a couple more verses also.
00:45:02
When I was a young Christian.
I wanted to start studying something.
And I picked up a little book on James. I started studying James.
You're looking at a.
Person that has.
Learnt from the school of Hard Knocks.
I cannot learn from other people's mistakes. It doesn't happen in my life. I learn only from my own.
I learned them well.
My brethren, it starts out.
As to the saved ones, isn't it?
Count. It means to consider it.
Consider.
The topic.
When you fall into various types of trials.
It does not say if you fall.
Does it?
Brother smiling back there and shaking his head. Yes, you will fall, won't you, when you fall.
He's going to place you there. You will fall.
Not if you fall when you fall.
When you fall.
Into various types of trials. That's what it is in our life, isn't it?
A trial.
A trial.
That is testing.
Know this?
Right. Not if you're going to fall when you fall, brethren, consider it and know this.
That this testing.
Of your faith.
Work as patients.
We had one brother say don't pray for patience, pray for the grace.
It's going to work with patience, isn't it? And we need the grace to get through it.
We are going to be put there, we are going to be tested.
And it's going to work. Patience in our life.
Now we heard a passage that one thing would produce another thing would produce another thing. The tumbling down, wasn't it?
James does it in a little short passage.
James says.
That this testing of our fate is going to.
Work patience.
When you work at something, it's a slow process.
I have hobbies, as many people know.
Maybe not, but a lot of men in the assemblies that know me I like to build.
Hot rods from scratch, cream up.
And I have learned.
That if I charge into something of my own natural instinct then I'll mess it up.
And if I slowly think it over and go into it gradually.
I can conquer it.
And I can take the task on and eventually, sometimes in the middle of the night, I'll wake up and I'll have the answer to it.
And a lot of times.
When we're in the middle of a trial, we'll wake up in the middle of the night and there will still be with us.
And the Lord will.
Start to show us the answer and the way through that he's taken us and where we're going because we are going through something to a completed end.
And it's his.
Course that he has us on. When I was a young child, I had 45 records. I had the big hole in the middle. The round large albums had the little hole in the middle. We had to put this plastic thing over this steel shaft. This is telling how old I am. I know. And then we would stack these 40 fives on top of that plastic thing. And the 45 had one good song on one side and the other side was an unknown song. And you put these 40 fives on there and you put your favorite ones up and every once in a while you get in a hurry and you wasn't looking real good and you placed the wrong side up.
That's what the Lord does in our life. We get up in the morning, we're going to play Site A.
00:50:04
We know what we're going to do. We got it all planned out and all of a sudden we're on Site B and that's the Lord side. He's taken us through that course that day where He wants us to his way and we have to learn the lesson getting there because it's going to be His way and He's going to teach us and He's going to produce.
One other thing after patience, verse 12. Blessed is the man that endureth.
Temptations.
It is the endurance through it.
That patients produces.
Patients produces the endurance through the testing of the trial.
Turn with me to Second Timothy and we'll come back to James. Just I'm about done that part of it and I want to cover another little part.
I don't want to take up the whole lot of time here, but I just want to couple items here. Second Timothy chapter 3 and verse 17.
We'll read verse 1672, Timothy 3 and 16. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness.
That the man of God may be perfect.
Thoroughly.
Furnished unto all good works.
We have the word perfect here and we have the word perfect back in James in verse four that we read.
But let patients have her perfect work.
That ye may be perfect and entire, wanting or lacking nothing.
If we try to fight against the trial or the testing.
We're going against his will.
James says count it all joy when you fall into divers temptation. That's at the beginning.
That's not at the end when you come out of it.
He doesn't say, let me get you through this, these divers temptations, these various trials, and I'll teach you how to be happy about it afterwards. Does it? No, it's submissive thing. Count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. Lord, I don't know why you're putting me here, but for my own good.
You're going to teach me something. You're going to make me more perfect.
This perfect here is complete fullness maturity.
You are going to make me a more mature Christian.
So let's go into this trials of temptations together, and you teach me, and you help produce patience, and then you help produce endurance. So when we get through this trial, I will have learned it. And I'm just going to lay it on your hands that you're putting me here, and let's go through it together.
That's hard to do. What do we do at the beginning of a trial? We look up, up and say, Oh Lord, why is it me?
How many of us have done it?
Why is this happening to me? We shouldn't do that, should we?
We should look up and say Lord.
You're teaching me now.
Let's go through this together.
That I may be more perfect.
Lacking and wanting nothing thoroughly furnished.
Together.
It's hard to do.
I have to learn by experience the hard way.
I have to be taught.
I'm no longer a babe in Christ.
Sometimes I feel like.
Maybe there's some things I haven't begun to even scratch the surface unlearning.
I can remember one time when I was a young boy.
And one of the brethren was talking about the resurrection of Christ, and he said, that is the greatest miracle that ever took place on the face of the earth. And I'm standing back there listening to it as I quite often do when people are talking and not say nothing sometimes, sometimes I open my mouth too much. But I said to myself.
The greatest miracle was in this world was the day that Christ saved Bill Shane.
00:55:00
I was wrong.
The greatest miracle ever took place in the face of earth was the resurrection of Christ with His power.
Up from the grave he arose of the mighty triumph over his clothes. He was victorious over the grave and death, wasn't he? And that's the one who's helping us through these trials.
The one who has the power to teach us. The one who is perfect and always did the Father's will.
That's the one who loves us and wants us to be mature and wants us to be more like him.
Why should we even think about going through one of these trials or temptations on our own?
We have to place ourselves in the one who loved us, gave himself force, and bled and died on Calvary St. on our behalf.
That's the one who's taken us through these trials and temptations. That's the one who's going to bring us out on the other side. And we will have learned a lesson, won't we?
We will have learned it because he'll teach it to us.
You know there's a verse back in.
First, Peter.
Chapter 4.
There's some good verses in there. Let's just break into verse seven. We'll get down to the verse I was thinking of.
When there's such beautiful verses, we have to look at them. Chapter four, first Peter and verse 7.
But the end of all things is at hand and be therefore sober or sober minded.
He would want us to understand scriptures, He would want us to understand what things are like in the last days, wouldn't he?
Be, but the end of all things is at hand. Be therefore sober minded and watch unto prayer.
And above all things, have fervent charity or love among yourselves, for love shall cover.
A multitude of sins. I quoted that verse to another brother earlier today.
That's covering the multitude of somebody elses sins, isn't it?
Use hospitality one another without grudging.
As every man has received a gift, Even so minister the same one to another as good stewards the manifold.
Grace of God, we don't use that word manifold in English language very often.
I use it when I put a intake manifold on a car and the carburetor sits on top. But it has nothing to do with this verse, does it? Or should we use the manifold? In our language, manifold means the complete spectrum of everything about and not leaving out any one item.
About the grace of God.
If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. The word oracles means the word of God.
There was the words and tablets of stone, wasn't there? We have the word in our hand and on our lap.
We have the words of God that the Spirit produces out of our mouths.
Oracles of God, The words of God the man speak. Let me speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as the ability.
Which God giveth?
Don't ever sit in your chair and think you don't have the ability.
God gives each person the ability that he needs to use him.
We are his vessel.
And whatever portion of ability He gives us is the proper portion that He wants us to have, and He will use us and use your ability that He has given you.
Which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ. That's what we were talking about this morning. Got to bring honor and glory. This trial and temptations. Got to bring honor and glory to Him, doesn't it?
Whom be praised and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Now the verse I wanted to it's like a new topic. After a minute, it's like a beginning of a new paragraph. Beloved, we had brethren before, now we have beloved.
Think it not strange.
Concerning the fiery trial, which is to tempt you or test you as though some strange thing happened to you.
Everybody that also kind of knows me, I love to fish.
And there has always been boats in my life. My children will tell you that.
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There's always been a boat around, regardless of the size or shape. It's always been. Boats in my life love to fish, raised on the water.
We're all in the same boat.
We're all in that same boat.
To chuckle back there, Eli, We got to teach it the way we learn it sometimes too, brethren. The ability God gave me.
I'm all on the same boat with you all, they would say down South, wouldn't they? Same boat. I've been in trials. You've been in trials. The Indian talks about the moccasins on your feet walking in somebody else's. One just got off the platform and said there's brother out there that have been through it before me. And that's why we we, we.
Cherish his older brother.
Brother Lyle, Every time I shake his hand, I ask him how he is.
He's wonderful to be here. He's always positive. We pick up on the good things of our brethren. They've been through trials and temptations. They've been in that same boat that you're going through. Maybe not the exact way you're thinking of it, but they've been in that boat.
Don't think it's strange when this trial comes upon you. God's words clearly told you you're going to be in it.
So don't think it's strange concerning this fiery trial which is to test you.
What is the intention?
Of this fiery trial that's going to test you.
The intention is to improve.
And not.
To destroy.
Did you get that? Did you grasp it?
It's to improve and not to destroy.
You're on the right Rd.
You're on the right Rd. when you're persecuted.
You're on the right Rd. if you're in a fiery trial.
May we pray for one another when these trials are there.
There's power in prayer.
If they weren't happening to you, I would question something.
Don't think it's strange when you're there.
It brings forth the love of God. It brings forth the love to one another.
Because you can see what's happening to your brothers and sisters.
And then you're going to come out improved.
Complete, entire, lacking in nothing, mature, perfect. That's what He wants us to be like. Our Lord and our Savior. My time is up.
Gospel 3
Gospel—R. Boulard
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Perhaps someone can start it for us #25.
Soon became you. Thank you, Hideaway. Oh yeah, I want to stay.
In the night.
While the Spirit makes you come Sinner, do not longer roll.
Bless you, see you here. Hold. Just do being on the night.
I'm your pride just to land begin time.
I miss. I swear to flee by.
The night to the hearts of Jesus love.
For us must be counted cause here's the faithful life in cross and your priceless solely above the environment.
I'm your pride is not too late.
In time.
On your way you may I know again, and your pride is just in my hands.
Being online.
I'd like to turn to one verse just to open up this meeting tonight in chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes.
Just after the book of Proverbs comes the book of Ecclesiastes.
And we're going to turn to approximately 14 different portions of Scripture tonight as we consider two different forevers. There is a forever that you're going to spend, dear friend. Every one of us has a forever facing us.
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And as I meditated upon these two different forevers that there are that face every person, every man, woman and child in this world, they're so different. The believer has a forever with Christ eternal in the heavens, but there's a forever for those that are lost that leave this world without Christ. And it isn't a very pretty picture, but God in faithfulness has laced his word with those different forevers that we might have a clear picture.
Of what eternity is, and that we might fear him. Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 14.
I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever.
Nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it, and God doeth it that men should fear before him.
That which hath been is now, and that which is to be hath already been, and God requires that which is past.
Dear friends, tonight.
What God does, He says He does it and He does it forever. He does it and He does it forever and it can never be undone. And God in His grace and mercy has permitted that you would be born into this world and He created you. It says for thy pleasure. They are and were created. In Revelation chapter 4, I believe it's verse 11, He says that you were created because of it was His will and for your pleasure.
He has been, he has created you, and you're going to leave this scene. And he desired that you might leave it, having an understanding of his love and of his kindness of his grace, and that you might have the prospect bright and fair, unfailing that to see him face to face the blessed Lord Jesus himself, and that you might have a forever there in his presence eternally. But if you do not know the Lord Jesus as Savior and you leave this scene.
It's going to be a forever.
Of forever, something that God has done.
Nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it.
An eternal destination.
Cast into the lake of fire without God, without any hope, and for the eternity to be in that condition. Well, let's turn to the first forever for the believer. I'm going to look at them, one for the believer, one for the unbeliever. And in Ephesians chapter one, we're going to look at the first forever for the Christian, those that know the Lord Jesus as Savior.
Let's just pretend tonight that there's a forever written on the wall at the end of the room on this side, on the left side for unbelievers, those on the right side. It's a forever that's written for the believer. And this is what God says for the believer. He says in verse seven of Ephesians chapter one in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches.
Of his grace.
Dear friends, tonight everyone of us has sinned against a holy God. If we were honest with ourselves, we'd acknowledge that God was telling us the truth, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, he says in Isaiah. Every one of us has sinned.
And I want to just read in Daniel Chapter 7. Daniel Chapter 9 it mentions there.
7 words. I believe seven things in connection with sin. We look at it lightly, man tends to look at sin lightly, but God, with God, it's serious. And sometimes we make fun of things. In Canada at least, we say that there's probably 120 words to describe snow. But God has seven words that he describes sin by, and God knows what sin is.
And he wants you to know what sin is, what's so hateful to himself. And he says this.
In Daniel Chapter 9 and verse 7 Daniel says this. We have sinned.
Sin says that sin is lawlessness in first John chapter 3 and verse four. And then it says we have committed iniquity and that's really moral perversity to turn to do wickedly. And then he says we've done wickedly. It means to violate or offend the holy God. And then we've rebelled. Rise up against authority. All of us have risen up against the authority of God himself.
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And then it says a little further on in verse seven, right at the end it says.
They have trespassed because they're trespassed that they have trespassed against thee. And so the trespasses act and act against God. A trespass, a treacherous act against God, that's the natural heart of man has trespassed against God. And then in verse 11 he says all Israel have transgressed.
We've broken away from the authority for the command, a commandment of God. And then it says in verse 11, just in the middle, it says that they might not obey the voice. It's disobedience and to turn away from the word of God, Every one of us, God describes sin. It's a serious thing. We've broken away in lawlessness from His authority and from His word. We turn from it to our own wills and ways, but God in his love for the believer.
Offers free forgiveness. He says here in whom we have redemption. It's the work of the Lord Jesus to buy us back. We were sold into sin. We couldn't do anything else. We were so good at it. The natural man knows nothing but sin. And God himself sent the Lord Jesus into this world to buy back those that were sold into slavery and sin and *******. And so he bought us back and set us free by the shedding of his precious blood.
That he might offer forgiveness to the believer, That he might offer forgiveness to the unbeliever. But the believer has it right now, those of us that know the Lord Jesus as Savior, we have forgiveness and we have it forever.
The forgiveness of a holy God and forgiveness, you know, is really for the believer.
That which He has on the righteous, because of the righteous finished work of Christ upon the cross and because of the love of the Lord Jesus, we have forgiveness. Have you ever thanked God that you're forgiven, That you're not just a Sinner saved by grace? God doesn't look at you as a Sinner here tonight if you know the Lord Jesus as Savior. But if you don't know the Lord Jesus as Savior and you sit in your seat, you're an unforgiven Sinner.
And by the grace of God, he looked down from heaven tonight, the Savior, the Lord Jesus. And he offers free forgiveness. And if you'll take it, it's forever, never to be rescinded, and He never to be put into your face again. The thought of your sins as far as the east is from the West. So far hath he put our sins away from us, forgiven eternally.
Well, you know if we turn over to the.
Gospel of Luke we find there.
That there's.
Of forever for those that do not receive the Lord Jesus as Savior and that leave this scene in Luke's Gospel chapter 13.
We'll just read one, one or two verses here. Verse 27. He shall say, I tell you, I know you not.
Whence ye are depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, and the Kingdom of God, and ye yourselves thrust out.
The forever for the unbeliever that leaves this scene. The Lord Jesus is going to look into your face.
And say I never knew you, I know you not.
You never had that relationship with me. You never received your sins forgiven. They're unforgiven. I know you not as a cleansed Sinner, I know you not. And it says there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth because I believe unforgiven sinners that leave this world will have a sense that they have been forsaken of God, eternally forsaken.
And forgotten of God in the lake of fire. Oh to a solemn thing my friends. Tonight, if you do not know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, boy or girl sitting in your seat, young person, you've passed off as a Christian.
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I couldn't help but feel in my own soul the solemnity of the prayer meeting that we had tonight as I saw tears flowing and voices pleading with a merciful God that you might accept the Lord Jesus as Savior, receive Him tonight, and have your sins forever forgiven. The option, I shouldn't say the option, the alternative of sitting in your seat and not receiving Christ as Savior is to begin.
A forever In a coming day, very shortly, the Lord Jesus is going to come for his bride, and the Lord is going to forever forsake you because you wouldn't receive the forgiveness.
An offer of forgiveness because you've trespassed against a holy God and you need that forgiveness. There's only one way, God says there's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all.
Oh, there's enough of the preciousness of the blood of Christ to cleanse you from all your sin into, and God in his love tonight wants to forgive you, never to hold it against you again, if you'll accept the forgiveness, accept that free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let's look at Hebrews chapter 10.
We will see another forever.
There.
That is precious to those of us that know the Lord Jesus as Savior.
Chapter 10 of Hebrews verse 10.
By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering, and often oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool for by one offering.
He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
Oh dear friends, tonight the Lord Jesus came from the courts of glory, from the purest heights of glory where sin can never come.
He came into the filth of this wicked world as the Lamb of God, and he was offered on the cross of Calvary a sacrifice, a perfect, holy, sinless sacrifice in the sight of God as that Lamb of God. A sweet smelling savour went up to God, and that offering was made once forever ends up being accepted by God, because he hath raised him from among the dead, and seated him upon his right hand of the majesty on high.
And dear friends, tonight, those of us that know Christ as Savior, we've accepted that offering.
It was made the person of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, and we say he is altogether lovely, Altogether lovely. And we lay hold upon that offering. We see that on the cross of Calvary Christ were there in those three long dark hours, bore the judgment for our sins and his own body on the tree. And we lay hold of that one offering for sin that God has forever accepted and that has been offered on our behalf.
And for yours, if you'll receive them tonight, there is no other offering. You know the Lord Jesus could cry.
Could.
In the garden of Gethsemane He prayed this way. He said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless not my will, but thine be done just before the offering was to be offered as it were just before he was going to be made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And then we don't get the answer as it were in the Old in the Old Testament. We don't get it until here in chapter 10 and verse.
Of Hebrews verse four, it is not possible for the blood of bulls and of goats.
The blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. It is not possible. Oh, dear friend, tonight, there is nothing that can take your sins away. There is no offering that you could possibly make that would be acceptable to a holy God, apart from that offering that was made at the cross of Calvary. Have you thanked Him for it? That offering for sin? Oh, that offering, perfect, holy, sinless Lamb of God that was there as your blessed substitute, if you'd receive Him.
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As Savior, well, those of us that know the Lord Jesus as Savior will be taken up.
With that blessed man eternally, and we're going to thank him and worship him as that beloved 1.
Eternally. And we're going to remember that offering that was made on the cross of Calvary. We're going to remember it eternally.
But if you don't know the Lord Jesus as Savior, why you turn away from that offering?
That Savior that is being offered tonight, there's another forever for you. It's in first John chapter 2 and verse 2.
Says this first John chapter 2 and verse two. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
God has made a sacrifice, has provided the sacrifice. My son, God himself provide himself a sacrifice, a lamb for a burnt offering, Abraham could say to his son Isaac. But here.
He is the propitiation for our sins. God sees the efficacy of the finished work of Christ and the blood that was shed that is sufficient to cleanse everyone in the world from all of their sin. God has made every provision that you could have your sins forgiven.
That's why it says, but also for the sins of the whole world. But, dear friend, tonight.
If you walk out of this room lost, and you leave this world without your sins forgiven.
Without that offering for sin, having been accepted by yourself, having thanked God for it and received the Lord Jesus as Savior, you're going to forever owe a debt that you can never pay. You're going to forever owe a debt that was paid for me at Calvary's cross that I could never pay. You're going to owe that debt because of sin towards God that can never, ever be paid. And you will have a sense.
In your soul, in the darkness and blackness of the lake of fire, that that debt can never be paid. That you pass by the offering, that propitiation for our sins, that offering that was made at Calvary's cross. You passed it by and the sins were never forgiven. The debt was never paid.
Well, let's turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5.
And there we'll see.
Another one of the forevers for the believer.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 5.
Let's just read verse 14. It says, For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead, and that he died for all. That they which live should not henceforth live under themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
Verse 17. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new, and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.
Dear friends, tonight everyone of us was born into this world and sin, and we not only sinned against God.
But.
We were estranged from God.
Our natures were opposite, the nature of God is holding us, the nature of the lost fallen man in the sin, not Adam creature directly opposite to God, and he needed to be reconciled to God.
And God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.
God in his love sent the Lord Jesus, his well beloved Son, to look upon his creature man who had disobeyed him and was walking in a way that was contrary to himself and to His holy nature, and he desired that man should be reconciled unto himself. Oh, what a plaintive call was made in the garden of the Lord. When Adam fell into sin, the Lord said to Adam, Where art thou?
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Where art thou? He couldn't have fellowship with his creature man that he had created to enjoy.
That sweet communion with that creature that he had created, that one that had been created spirit, soul and body, and that had a God consciousness and could appreciate the things, eternal things, the things that God enjoyed. And so we needed to be reconciled to God himself. God didn't need to be reconciled to man. God had not trespassed against man. God had not offended man.
But you and I had offended God, and we needed to be reconciled to him and the Lord Jesus.
Came himself.
And reconciled us to himself. God was in Christ reconciling the world.
Unto himself, You know, I read a little bit of American history recently.
The time that the.
Constitution Constitutional. Congress was convened in Philadelphia.
And some of those events during the Revolutionary War, there was a man, you well know him, Benjamin Franklin. And he had a son by the name of William. And when the Declaration of Independence was signed, we know that Benjamin Franklin was one of the authors. And his son William sided with the British. And he was in a high position in the government of New Jersey and he sided.
With the British and he fought against his father Benjamin.
He worked against his father, Benjamin, one father and one son who had walked dearly and nearly together. They had walked in communion together before that event. And years later, when Benjamin was in France, almost 80 years old, he ready to return to the North America.
His son William had lived in England. William and Benjamin hadn't spoken for years, and William came down from England to meet his father.
At the shores on the ocean of France. He wanted to be reconciled to his father. He pled with his father. He wept in the presence of his father. But Benjamin was so.
Insulted.
So stricken with what his son had done during the Revolutionary War and how he had fought against his own father, Benjamin Franklin refused to be reconciled to his son.
He refused to be embraced by his Son. He refused, and he took that ship and he came to the United States of America and he never saw his Son again. They were never reconciled in this world. But dear friends, God looks down upon you. You've offended him, and you're not a friend of God if you're sitting there in your sins and practicing sin, enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season.
And God wants you to be reconciled to him, and he's not going to be satisfied until.
He's exhausted everything to bring you unto himself, and that you might be reconciled to him.
Tonight and so God has his son presented to you tonight as that one who was reconciling came and reconciled those that loved him, that desired to have their sins forgiven. Let's just turn to Philip Philippians chapter. I think it's chapter 3.
In verse 18.
For many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.
Oh, I thank God that I'm forever reconciled to a holy God, that I'm reconciled to that blessed man, Christ Jesus, who God sent as an ambassador, as it were, to bring me back to himself and have embraced him by faith. But dear friends, tonight there's a forever for those that leave this world and have never been reconciled to God. You leave this world without Christ and you're going to be an enemy of God. Perhaps you're an enemy tonight and you haven't really stated it, perhaps publicly, but sitting in your seat.
You sit there as an enemy of God, an enemy of the cross of Christ. Why does it say the enemy of the cross of Christ?
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Why didn't it just say the enemy of Christ? Oh, it's the enemy of the cross, the sufferings of Christ. You didn't want that rejected Savior. You didn't want that man who this world took and crucified on Calvary's hill. You desired to walk in this scene with those that desire to walk a popular with a in a popular world, in a popular Christ rejecting world. You didn't want to identify with that finished work of Christ upon the cross of Calvary and with God's man.
You didn't identify, you refuse to be reconciled, and if you leave this scene unreconciled to God, it'll be to be forever in the lake of fire as an enemy of a holy God, never, ever to be reconciled. Oh, it's a serious thing, dear friend. Tonight, if you are not reconciled to God, you're walking in an estrangement to that loving Savior. Receive him as your Savior tonight. God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
Oh, He just desires you to obey His word, and He's not left an option. He desires us that we might be reconciled immediately. Let's turn to 1St Corinthians chapter 15 at the end of the chapter.
Says in verse 57.
1St Corinthians 15 and verse 57 thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh dear friends, there's death. We know we I should have read perhaps verse 55. Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is never defeated by sin. God is never defeated by sin. And man fell into sin and it looked like all of God's purposes were thwarted. Purposes of blessing and purposes to enjoy the communion, your communion and mine to enjoy our company. It looked like God's purposes were never going to be accomplished, but God sent his Son, the Lord Jesus.
In love into this world, that sin might be defeated, that sin, hell and death might be defeated, that Satan might be defeated, and that you might come under the blessing of God. And that you might share in that victory, that everlasting victory, that victory over sin that was won at the cross of Calvary. And it's only at the cross of Calvary that that sin could be defeated, that enemy.
Of death could be defeated, and so the believer.
Will forever in those courts of glory thank Christ for the victory that was wrought at Calvary's cross. Not one of us that no crisis Savior will ever forget that victory over sin and death.
And the enemy of our souls, not victory, will be forever, will forever rejoice in that victory.
But dear friend, if you don't know that Lord Jesus, if you never have received the Lord Jesus as Savior, you're not going to have a victory to rejoice in. You're not going to have a victory to claim there. But you've been defeated by sin, defeated by the enemy, and in a lost eternity without God, without hope in this world. Let's turn to Ecclesiastes chapter one, the book of Ecclesiastes again, chapter one.
And verse 10.
I just want to read a couple of little verses here.
Chapter one of Ecclesiastes. Let's read verse 14.
It says, I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and behold all this vanity and vexation of spirit. And then in verse 11 of chapter 2.
I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do, and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.
Oh dear friends, tonight there's a victory that was won at the cross of Calvary, that you might rejoice in the presence of the Savior eternally forever. But if you leave this scene without Christ, if you leave this scene having been defeated by the enemy of your soul and taken into a lost eternity because you refuse the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, there's going to be emptiness and frustration forever.
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There's going to be vanity and vexation of spirit. Vanity means emptiness and vexation of spirit means frustration. There's going to be emptiness and frustration in the darkness, the blackness and darkness of a lost eternity in the lake of fire. You'll never be satisfied.
Never, never be satisfied and have that emptiness and frustration for eternity, vanity and vexation of spirit. Oh what a forever that is. You don't want to be in that lost eternity. You want to have Christ as Savior tonight, that dear loving Savior who came into this world that you might be spared the judgment of a righteous and a holy God because God will judge sin. It says here, and I'm going to read in Psalm, the 17th Psalm is for me.
I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake with that thy likeness. You know, for the believer, those of us that have received Christ as Savior, we're going to be forever satisfied in the presence of our Savior. Forever satisfied. Forever satisfied with His finished holy work. Forever satisfied with His love. Forever satisfied that we were picked up in the condition of sin, an awful ruin that we were in, and brought into his favor and blessing.
Well, let's turn to Revelation Chapter 5.
We'll see another forever there.
In connection with the believer.
Just want to read from verse 11, Revelation chapter 5 and verse 11.
And I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders, and the number of them was 10,000 * 10,000, and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice. Worthy is the land that was slain to receive power and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and blessing and glory, and every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them.
Heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
Forever and ever. And the four beasts said Amen, and the four and 20 elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth forever and ever.
For the believer, sins forgiven, forever forgiven, forever reconciled to a holy God.
He's going to forever exalt his blessed Savior.
Eternally we're going to exalt Christ. There's going to be the fruit of our lips giving thanks and praise to His holy name. There's going to be fruit for God in that eternal scene that will never cease. It will never cease that joyous occasion, that new day that in his eternal presence we're going to forever exalt Christ. What a forever for the believer. But you know, dear friend, the believer has that forever.
And the unbeliever in chapter 6 of Genesis, I want to just point this out in connection with the unbeliever. The beginning has an end and God pronounces judgment on the evil. And he says in Genesis chapter 6.
And verse five, God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth.
And there was every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
There's a forever for the unbeliever.
He's not ever going to be cleansed from his sin.
He'll be forever evil. Forever.
Evil never, ever capable of opening his mouth and speaking something kind, something good, something to praise is God. Nothing ever eternally to be able to present to God. That would be a favor to God. Forever evil, and so is his heart. The thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. We could read scripture upon scripture that would prove the evilness and the wickedness of man and you wouldn't need to read too many scriptures.
00:40:07
To have that brought before you. But dear boy or girl, young person tonight.
We're speaking this way tonight because there is an end. There's a beginning. Your life had a beginning. It was born. You were born into this world. But there is going to be an end. And when God makes an end of your life in this scene.
There's going to be a forever, and the forever of the believer is that which we would desire for you.
To be there in that glorious scene, to forever rejoice with the Savior, the Lord Jesus. But that decision, that obedience, that act of obedience and submission to the will of God and to the Word of God tonight is required. God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. But you know, it's the love of Christ that constrains us. Isn't that lovely? It's the love of Christ. We have a Savior on high in the glory that loves us and desires our eternal blessing.
Well, let's turn to the last book in the Bible, the last page of the Bible, and find for the believer here, another forever.
Revelation chapter 22 and verse five says there shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign forever and ever.
There's going to be an association with that man in the glory forever as the head of all.
You and I have very little idea of what it is to think of those that belong to the Lord Jesus that have been eternally forgiven and reconciled to God, made heirs of God. Join heirs with Christ as sons of God to be forever associated with that blessed man Christ Jesus, who wrought such a victory at the cross of Calvary to cleanse us, to shed His precious blood, to cleanse us from all sin, and then forever be in His presence without fear.
Associated with him as the head of all things. Oh dear friend tonight, have you ever thanked him for that? Have you ever thanked him for that mighty work on the cross of Calvary to bring you into that position of blessing and favor in his sight? Well, the unbeliever doesn't have that forever to look forward to. Any First Thessalonians or Second Thessalonians, I should say. Chapter.
One says in verse 8.
In flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints, and to be admired. And all them that believe, because our testimony among you is believed in that day.
Well, the Lord Jesus is going to come.
He doesn't desire for you to be among those that he will judge.
He came as a savior, and God went out of his way. He went to great inconvenience to bring you into blessing.
He sent his own beloved son.
It was very inconvenient. It wasn't convenient to go to the cross. It wasn't convenient to come into this wicked, sin filled world.
But He came into this world because He wanted to bless you. He wanted you to be saved, to have your sins forever forgiven, and to be in His presence. But those that refuse obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The best news that God could give man was that His Son, the Lord Jesus had come and that He was offering the gift of eternal life through His own Son and that the the blood of His own Son.
The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin. That you could be cleansed, forever cleansed from your sin. But the forever for the unbeliever is to be forever punished with an everlasting destruction. Oh, there's going to be.
There at that judgment seat of Christ, at that great white throne, I should say, let's read it in Revelation chapter 20.
One of the portions that we really don't like to read.
But in faithfulness to Christ and in love for your soul, we read it tonight in chapter 20 of Revelation. Verse 11 Says, I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it, and from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.
00:45:26
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them.
And they were judged every man according to their works, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. You know, this white throne is the color of victory. White is the color of victory. Those of us that know something perhaps about design know that white encompasses the entire spectrum of the colors of the rainbow. Every color is found.
In the color white, Black has no color in it whatsoever. That's why it's black. There's nothing in it.
You can't extract color from black, but white has every color in it, and white is the color of victory and righteousness and judgment, and that's why the throne is white. God is going to judge in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained.
That man whom he sent to show love, kindness, peace, mercy to his enemies, to reconcile his enemies.
To offer them forgiveness forever.
To offer them that reign with himself instead of being enemies cast out from his presence eternally.
He sent that well beloved one, the very same one that he sent is the one that's going to judge.
On that white throne.
And if you leave this world without Christ, and you land.
In before this white throne, a righteous judge will sit upon that throne, and that righteous judge will review your life. And if your life, if your name is not written in the book of life, he is going to cast you. Scriptural language. He's going to cast you instead of that tree that was cast into the waters of Mara that we read of this afternoon. That could make the bitter waters sweet.
It's going to be that you are taken and cast from the presence of the Lord, from the presence of the Savior that could have saved you if you had received Him as Savior. You're going to be cast into the lake of fire. And I say this reverently, but the door is going to be shut and it'll be sealed and it will never be opened again. Never. Hell will never be open again. The lake of fire will never be opened again. And all those that have refused Christ.
Will have a forever in that place of unfruitfulness, eternal unfruitfulness. But praise God. Thank the Lord for his kindness to you and I, those of us that receive Christ as Savior and humble ourselves and confess that we're sinners, dogs of the Gentiles, having no hope without God in this world at one time. But we've laid hold upon Christ himself and accepted the finished work of Christ for ourselves, not of works, lest any man should boast. It is the gift of God. We've laid hold and taken that gift.
Why? There's going to be eternal fruit for God in his presence, and we're going to be forever satisfied. Are you going to be?
Among that company, are you going to be among those that will?
Be in that company. Let's sing one more hymn.
#26.
There is my name in the blood, I thought. You see, I want there is light at this one night for me.
My favorite rejoicings from Jesus sacrifice.
The light. Never. I sing again.
I have no brain.
Never can start.
What Is Coming in the Future?
YP Sing Address—B. Imbeau
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.
OK. In just a second you'll have a chance to ask me a question, but I want to ask you a question and that is what is the theme of the meeting so far in the conference?
Eddie Tribulation trials problems.
You know your parent, you think kids. If your kids, you think parents, you know. OK, so there's something for everybody.
OK.
There's a future in this world.
There's a future now. What about this future?
And so there's going to be some people here that have some questions about that future.
And so I'm gonna elicit questions from you. And of course, if you don't ask the questions, I will ask you the questions.
So who wants to start?
Who wants to start with a question?
Shall I call on someone?
Titus, go ahead.
Then I will ask you a question.
There is a time of trouble that's coming ahead for this world, and how long is that time of trouble going to be?
OK, can you turn me to a verse that says it's seven years long?
No, you can't. But you can come very, very close to that.
So perhaps that should raise about two or three questions right there. OK, well, let's ask, uh, someone else. Another question, Christelle.
There's someone that's sometimes called the Beast.
What is the beast or Who is the beast or?
Then you'd better you'd better ask me a question.
OK, you ready to ask me a question?
Oh, Oh my. Wow. You know, that is a really, really good question.
You know, there's, there's this time that's gonna come along that's gonna be 7 years and the Bible refers to it as a week.
Maybe someone can?
Ask or if or figure out how a week and seven years kind of get along together. But anyway, during that time there's going to become a person. There will be a person who is going to head up what's called the revived Roman Empire, the revived Roman Empire. And very likely we are sitting at this moment in a place called the revived Roman Empire, or at least part of it. And whoever is going to be the head honcho of that is called the beast.
He's called the Beast because he's a very wicked, cruel person.
And the Bible calls them a beast.
And so we call them the Beast.
A wicked, cruel person.
I wonder if he has any buddies?
There's a young man here who spends some time in probably one of the hottest places in the world.
And that'd be you, right? Where do you hang out occasionally?
Maybe I have the wrong person.
You sometimes go overseas? No. OK, well, I might have the wrong person then. Who are you?
Oh, OK. Thank you.
OK.
Who can tell me what country nowadays is kind of a center of going to be a center of prophecy? Maybe your brother can help me out.
Russia, No.
No, not Russia.
Yeah, they're pretty cool, but, uh, they're, they're not going to be the center of things.
Yeah, yes.
Iraq, Yeah. You know that you're getting really, really close to someone. A little closer, but. And your name is.
Caitlin. Caitlin. Connor.
Minnesota.
OK.
Yeah, Iraq.
Is Iraq ever mentioned in the Bible?
Tim.
Yeah, there's, I was saying this to him, but yeah, there's one. You're Tim also, right? So Tim. Yeah.
00:05:06
OK.
Yeah, pretty wild places over there who at the moment is occupying Iraq.
Oh.
Who is occupying Iraq?
US, yeah. How many days did it take for the United States to take over?
Iraq.
No idea. Well, they have an idea. It was less than a month. It was 28 days.
28 days the United States took over a country that was 7000 miles away.
And took him over.
You know, if we were Romans, whoa, man, we would have thought that was so cool. The Romans never took over anybody in 28 days. Well, they probably did somewhere smaller, but.
You know, that's pretty impressive. And especially from 7000 miles away. Oh yes.
The Romans would have cheered. They would have thought that was pretty cool. They would have would have run it a little bit different. But, you know, I was very impressed. I was very impressed that when the United States, who may be part of the revived Roman Empire, that we think of Europe as as kind of the good idea, as kind of we think of Europe as being kind of the center of that.
You know what the United States set up? The head person over there was called counsel.
You know, one of the big honchos in the Roman Empire was, it was a pro council. That's right. And they took over a country. They would, they would put up, uh, someone, they call them a pro council and that's the United States. Did this guy, the guy's name was Bremen if I remember right, or Brennan or Brenner or something.
OK.
What's going to kick off the Tribulation? Tribulation is that word used in the Bible.
Yes, it is where.
Might be I usually think of somewhere else, but it is used in the Bible. OK Rachel, you have a question.
You should.
He.
You have a question, Luke.
When OK can the tribulation happen without the rapture happening?
What do you think?
OK, well that's obviously one of the biggest events that's going to happen before the Tribulation is that every single person who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be gone. And if you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ tonight, you will still be.
Somewhere here, maybe here in this room if the Lord comes this evening, or in your home city if the Lord comes next month.
And you will go through these seven years of tribulation.
OK. So that's the first big thing. What's the next big thing that's going to happen?
Next big thing Real important.
What are these countries of this world just love to do? They get together and they have these big, uh, summit meetings and everything and they're talking about what?
They just.
Yes, peace. We just love peace, don't we? As we fire a missile at them, of course.
And so.
The big empire, or what's going to be the empire, which maybe the United States might be Europe, but anyway, you get the idea. They're going to sit down with Israel. OK, so Israel, Caitlin. No, not.
Who said Iraq over here? Yes, OK, Thank you.
Uh, it's really it. Israel is probably more the center of things, though they're not very far away from each other, Iraq and Israel. So whoever is the honcho over here is going to make a peace treaty with, with Israel. Not actually a peace treaty. It's more of a a cooperation treaty.
For to protect Israel. To protect Israel now who has the strongest army in the world?
Who has the strongest army in the world?
00:10:03
Right now.
It would be the United States, as a matter of fact, if you took the armies of the world, lined them up, and you took the next 20.
Countries The next 20 countries that the budget that is spent on the United States is equal to the next 20 countries budgets for military.
OK, what's the second strongest military in the world?
Israel.
OK, it's second. It's possible it's third, but I don't think so. It's second. Don't mess with Israel, OK? They kind of get out there and they bomb things in Iran. They just bomb something in Syria about a month and a half ago. And, you know, a lot of this stuff is kind of kept below, a little bit below the radar isn't big news. It's like, hey, you know, this is common occurrence. If someone messes up within 600 miles of Jerusalem, Israel is right there on the doorstep saying hi.
And that's the way it goes.
So they're going to make a connection the the the beast or what will be the empire of the beast and Israel are gonna make a pact together, Say we're buddies.
Very, very important because.
That is going to start what's called the tribulation. It's going to last for seven years.
Do you think this time is a spiritual time or a political time or just a military time? What do you think?
What do you think about it? But yeah, so you're Aaron, right? What do you think?
Time of war. But you know, it's a big religious time too, which is really weird. Big religious time halfway through. This is through the tribulation time. There's gonna be a big idol set up in Jerusalem. They're gonna build a temple.
Don't ask me how or where, but I can give you a pretty good guess that one of the, uh, that probably one of the agreements that Israel, the United States gonna make together or I shouldn't say United States because we don't know who it is, but.
That probably one of the things is, is hey, you make an agreement with us, we're gonna get along here. And guess what, Israel, We're gonna do something really cool for you. We're gonna kick everybody out of your country except for you.
Now, if the United States could take over Iraq in 28 days, how long do you think it would take them to clear out the West Bank in Gaza?
I don't know your name, but you can make a guess, yes.
Well, let's ask the question again if the United States could take over the country of Iraq in 28 days.
The West Bank and Gaza, which is about the size of.
Connecticut.
How long do you think that the United States would take to clear that out?
Yeah.
Says two weeks, probably less than that, but it could be done. No one would doubt it could be done. So the deal is we'll give you a country.
And we'll protect your borders. We'll send helicopters around your border. Yeah, at one mile intervals, 24 hours a day. And, uh, no one's going to pester you, OK?
That was easy.
So they're gonna say, good, we're gonna build our temple now, and they're gonna go right on up there in Temple Mount. They don't even have to tear down the mosque that's up there. They don't have to because the temple was about 100 feet away from there. And they can build a temple. And after about three years, 3 1/2 years, someone's gonna come come along with a really smart idea and say, you know that fellow over in Europe or the United States, wherever he is, the guy who's the beast.
He is such a hero. He is such a hero. We're going to make an idol of him and we're going to stick it in our temple.
Oh nasty, what does God think about something like that?
What do you think, Bethany?
God doesn't doesn't look on that with very great favor. Well, but it's really not God's temple. They built it themselves. They can do what it with the what they want, right? Think again. You know, if you call something as belonging to God, you know what God can take you up on that and that's true in your own life too.
00:15:09
If you say, yeah, I'm a Christian and you say my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and you go and build something else inside there, guess what? God has something to say about it.
Yeah, so God's paying attention to all this.
OK, let's jump to the end. By the way, the the idle gets set up in the middle of the Tribulation. That's after 3 1/2 years. So let's jump forward another 3 1/2 years and say there's all these battles at the end of the Tribulation, and we have a name for those battles the Bible does. What do we call it? You can find books and movies and all kinds of stuff with this name. Yes. Armageddon. Oh yeah, Armageddon.
It just sends shivers up here spine, doesn't it?
Well, no, because we're not all that familiar with war.
You go hang out in some parts of the world right now. You'd be familiar with war, but we're not very familiar with it over here.
Who's going to kick off the big wars over there called Armageddon? There's going to be a country over there that's going to be the.
Let's see.
That's going to kind of initiate a whole series of of battles that are going to happen really, really fast.
Just just pick a country over the Middle East. That's where everything's going to happen, yeah.
They are late bloomers. The Russians wait until every until the smoke is cleared and then they think they can kind of move in, so they come way at the end.
Syria. Who said Syria very close? Who's South of of Israel?
Egypt, Yeah, actually Egypt. Egypt is going to be the person who's going to, uh.
I'm gonna hand this up to Caitlin, please.
Let's see who else has been.
Helper here.
Bethany.
You guys over here.
And those two, the two guys above you there?
I have a few of these. Anyone else can have them also? And if I OK, who's uh, so Egypt, right?
Do you think the Egyptians like the Israelis?
Nah. Does anybody like each other in the Middle East? No.
You know what they say over there? They say if you leave us alone, we'll fight like brothers. If you mess with us, we'll fight with you like.
OK, or the other way around. But anyway, you get the idea. If you just leave them alone, they will just battle without themselves. They all hate each other in the Middle East. They do not like each other.
The groups in Iraq, there's like four groups at least in Iraq and maybe more. And they would slit each other's throat if they could, if you'd let them. And that says won't let them. But if you just back out and go, haha, we're going home, there wouldn't be any Iraq left, almost.
Not because they'd be taken over, but because they just battle it out themselves St. warfare.
I know some people that are from that area.
Lady was born actually in this country, but she's Palestinian and she spent four years over in Ramallah, which is kind of the capital of the, uh, the Palestinian state.
Her opinion is very clear and very obvious, she says. They are crazy.
I wouldn't spend, I wouldn't. I wouldn't go back there again if I had to.
That simple.
That's where our family is from. Yeah. So those people are crazy.
So Egypt's going to try to meddle with Israel and who mentioned Syria? Somebody mentioned Syria here.
OK.
And they're gonna go, no way, Israel's ours. And bam, they're gonna attack Israel. Just plow over the place. And then when they're done doing that, they're gonna attack Egypt. Good friends they are.
00:20:12
Along with a bunch of other countries.
And lo and behold, the folks from the West are gonna come in, like from Europe or from the United States or whatever, and they're gonna go, wait a minute, somebody just got done attacking Israel. We're supposed to be protecting Israel.
But you know, they're too late.
Sorry, we're just a little bit too late. So they come into the Middle East and they're going to really take over. Yes, Sir.
Yeah.
Let's see, you mean right at the end thing, Egypt is going to attack Israel.
The Syrians, which are north, are going to go, hey, that's we're going to, we want Israel. And so they're going to attack and take over Israel actually. And when they're done doing that, they're just going to take over Egypt.
OK, now Saddam Hussein, who's no longer in this world.
He wanted their flag has three colors or something on it. It was a big thing. He wanted Syria and Egypt and somebody else to all be kind of old buddies and make a big country over there. And they pretend that they're friends, but they're not.
The folks that live in Syria do not like the Egyptians and the Egyptians don't like them. Nobody likes each other.
It's really, really interesting.
So in other words, it's like a powder keg. Once you let the fuse go boom, the whole thing is going to basically blow up. OK, now look, somebody from the West is going to come charging in. There might be the United States or Europe combination. And you know what? They're going to meet somebody there, somebody they never anticipated. And Sarah, who do you think that's going to be?
They're going to meet somebody out of heaven.
Who might that be?
It'll be the Lord, right? What a surprise.
Hi. You're messing in my territory. That's what the Lord's gonna say.
We call that the appearing.
The appearing. What is the appearing? Well, it's just that when Jesus shows up.
Hi, I'm here world.
Do you think that's the end of the Tribulation, though? Oh, no, you can't stop these. You can't stop these people. They are on A roll. They are an absolute role. And so folks come over from Iran and they charge into the Middle East.
And well, believe it or not, the Lord's there. Surprise, surprise, at about that point, they shouldn't be too surprised.
Yes.
When do they return to the Lord? Actually during the tribulation?
And especially during the last half.
So during that whole time of seven years, the Lord is going to be working with people individually just like He worked individually with this person. And I don't know your name, but what is your name? Clayton Jennings. OK.
And has worked with each person here. And that's how the Lord is going to work with those people for seven years. And actually there's probably going to be way more people saved or at least come to the knowledge of salvation during those seven years than any other seven-year period in world history.
Pretty cool, huh?
Yes.
You're not.
There's only one way of salvation that's through the blood of Jesus Christ.
Same way you do through the power of the Spirit of God.
Well, depends on your definition of saved.
What happens to them? They have eternal life. They have, uh, a new life. They're born again and some of them will die because they will have their heads cut off and they will go to heaven. They will not be part of the bride of Christ, though.
Yeah, there's different families in heaven. Like probably at least seven different families. Yes, there.
00:25:00
That was cool. Yes, Barry.
Very good. I was hoping that was gonna be one of the questions that would come up, but since someone seemed to have too many questions, yes. Thank you.
OK.
Did you hear the question over there? Could you hear him OK?
What does any of this have to do with us? Josh, do you have an answer?
If a lot of these things are going to happen in the future, none of us are going to be around. What does it have to do with us? Why are we talking about it tonight?
Why does anyone in this care? Yeah, why does anyone care in this room?
That's a good question.
You know what?
Number one.
Why does anyone care? Good question. I think that's excellent question. First of all, if the rapture is what's gonna start off everything, then we expect to leave here and that should make our lives different. OK? Should also encourage us in preaching the gospel, letting your friends and relatives know about it, and to see if you you know they'll accept Christ as Savior before this time happens.
Also I saw a hand though. Just a second, yes.
Oh, OK.
Also, it kind of indicates what kind of God we have.
Why don't you think about that?
Do we have a God of grace?
What do you think? Less?
You have a question, OK.
Why is 666A special number and chosen for the devil you say?
For the beast.
Good question. I don't have a really really good answer but.
OK, we'll get to that in just a second. But do we have? Let's see.
Abigail.
Hannah or Anna?
Hannah, sorry.
Do we have a God of grace or a God of vengeance?
OK.
I appreciate that.
And you know, we talk about a thing called the tribulation and we go, all these things are going to happen and God's really getting down on everybody. But you know what? During that time, whoever asked about the, the, uh, remnant, there's going to be millions of people saved. Well, some people don't like to use the word saved. There'll be millions of people born again during that time.
And so out of trouble will come blessing.
And God's final result after those end of those seven years is blessing for this world, tremendous blessing, blessing that has never ever been seen, ever seen before in this world. That's going to be God's end result of this time called the Tribulation. So yes, he's a God of he's holy, but he's a God of grace. 666 Not exactly sure, except that six is kind of a people call it man's number.
Because the number seven is considered like a perfect number.
And you gotta be a little careful, because you can find some really good sixes in the Bible that refer to Christ.
So, you know, we can't say that six is always a bad number.
But, uh, absolutely. You know, 666 is gonna be the number of the beast.
Umm hum.
Well, yes.
That's correct. Just like the Roman emperors, they, they, they made statues of them, of themselves, and have people bow down and worship their, their statues and worship them and so forth.
00:30:13
Uh-huh.
Well, not it. I assume it.
How does it affect us now?
Yeah.
How are we involved?
Well, I can sure tell you a couple ways that you're involved.
Who owns the Bible here?
How many of your Bibles are going to be left here when you go to heaven in the rapture?
How many people do you think are going to read your Bible?
Probably quite a few.
There'll be a lot that'll be burned.
It'd be a shame somebody burning your Bible, but there's going to be a lot of the Bibles that are going to be left around and people are going to come to know who Lord is.
Even the books on your shelves, the notes you put in the pages of your margins, people are gonna read those.
I don't know about during the tribulation in the Millennium we will the 1000 years.
Will be part of the administration of the Kingdom.
Yeah, Chris.
Yes, a lot of that'd be dramatically noticeable. The judgments that God will bring on this world that come in, in terms of, of seals and trumpets and vials and thunders will be very dramatically known and felt, some of them literally felt on the earth. Yes, it'll affect the politics, you know, the the leaders will become very oppressive.
Will, you know, skyrocket, uh, persecution against fringe groups, uh, that are not appreciated by the government will be basically pursued, knocked off.
Yeah, and all of those are going to be be directed by things that are happening in heaven, which is opening up seals, blowing up trumpets, pouring out bowls of stuff.
Yeah, you can read that all in the Book of Revelation.
Yes.
Absolutely. So that's involvement that we have here. Barry's question.
To show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass, and consent, and signify it by his Angel, and to his servant. John Verse three. Blessed it is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy.
And keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand. So here our Lord is given a revelation from God to give to us to servants and we are blessed to read, to hear and to keep the things that get kept here that are in this book. That was I I found a very personal and I I read it more. This is written to me.
It is.
00:35:00
That's right.
Now these are written to the the churches.
Whole Book of Revelation.
OK, now I haven't been very good about handing these out. Who wants?
You sure?
Oh OK, that's 1000 years later.
That's a question that I don't think we have a real clear answer to. We'll be with the Lord, OK? So wherever he is, we will be. So if he's going to be spending time on the earth and administration of his Kingdom or whatever will be with him, OK. If it doesn't seem like he's going to be spending all this time on earth, though.
Just a feeling that you get from Scripture. He's not going to always be spending time in Jerusalem. So wherever he is, we will be.
OK, and that'll be during the 1000 years. After the 1000 years, there will then be the burning up of the universe, and there'll be a new heaven and new earth.
Yeah.
We really got way ahead of ourselves on that. But that's, that's good because we need the perspective. Yes, Dan.
I have stopped using the word Antichrist.
Because it's become way too confusing trying to describe who is and why you think he is. And so you won't find the Antichrist mentioned in Revelation or any of the prophecies of the Old Testament, you'll only find it mentioned in the book of First. John mentioned directly that word Antichrist, so I've stopped using that and just use the beast for the head of the Roman Empire and the false prophet as the king in Jerusalem.
No, I think it's given the illusion of life, but I don't think it does.
You know, hang in there for another four years and you'll find out for sure.
And yeah, we're gonna see all this. We're gonna be watching all of this going on, and you're gonna go wow.
This is pretty amazing.
OK, yes.
Yes.
No. OK, better do that.
God Desires To Be a Shelter for Us
Our Responsibility in the Path of Faith and Service
YP Address—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.
Again this afternoon with hymn #30 in the appendix.
Rest of the Saints in glory, the laborers bright reward how constant sounds before me forever with the Lord rest through the toil of Jesus. For Saints their death remain an endless rest and precious a rest from sin and pain. I'm going to suggest we stand up to sing this hymn #30 in the appendix and if someone will please start it.
Saints and glory.
The laborers bride.
Reward.
How constant sounds?
Before me.
For the war, granddad's freedom and our lives.
Four Saints there does screaming.
I was rather.
All the rest from sin.
Whatever, you want to be harder.
Oh my God.
We're in the air.
What all the new?
Creation of God and let's Rush will share.
Before we turn to some New Testament portions that are on my heart this afternoon, I'd like to introduce our subject by reading a verse in the book of Proverbs, Proverbs, Chapter 29.
Proverbs, chapter 29.
And I'm just going to read the first part of verse 18, and I'm going to read it in Mr. Darby's translation.
Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint.
We're going to go in a few moments and we're going to speak of our responsibility in the path of faith and service in light of the hope that has been set before us, the hope of the Lords coming. But I thought it might be helpful to begin with this verse where there is no vision. The people cast off restraint. I was having lunch with a brother today and he told me that he appreciated people who had vision, people who have vision in the workplace.
People who have vision and practical things as well as spiritual, because this verse that we read together applies to every aspect of our lives.
It applies to our personal lives. It applies to our family life. It applies to our business life, our assembly life, our spiritual life, every aspect of life. I was impressed one time to look up in Webster's dictionary the meaning of the word circumspect, because the New Testament tells us that we're to walk circumspectly, and Webster's dictionary tells us that the meaning of the word circumspect is careful to consider.
00:05:15
All circumstances and consequences.
That is, to walk through this world with vision, realizing that what we do today has an impact on tomorrow. Everything we do today is going to have some consequence in our life down the road. It may have a consequence for a little time just in connection with time, but it also may have a consequence in connection with eternity. Any of us who do business in a Third World country know that in those countries, one reason the country doesn't prosper. Get ahead.
Is because there is no vision. They only live for the moment. And brethren, if we live for the moment, young people, if we're only living for today, where there's going to be consequences down the road, not only for time, but there's going to be eternal loss, not lost as far as our salvation. If you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, that's been settled once and for all. But there's going to be loss as far as the judgment seat of Christ when things are manifest and is brought out what was for his glory and what was not.
Because it tells us that when we stand there, we're going to suffer loss. There's going to be that which was not for his glory, which is going to be burned up, and we're going to be glad to see it gone. But how sad it is to think of that day when there's going to be lost, no regrets and fullness of joy in heaven, but loss as far as that which he can say. Well done, thou good and faithful servant. And so I'd like to look at this in view of the Lord's coming.
Let's go to the first of all to the 14th chapter of the book of John.
John chapter 14 and I want to read an expression just about the middle of verse 3.
I will come again and then a part of a verse in Luke 19.
Luke 19 and justice the last clause of verse 13.
Occupy till I come well in John 14, where we read we know the context here. Here were the disciples gathered around the Lord Jesus in the upper room for the last time before he went to the cross, and He gives them this wonderful ministry in preparation for his departure from them. He was going to leave them in the world.
He was going to go to Calvary, accomplish the work of atonement, and then return to the Father. He was going to return to heaven. But he makes full provision for them in his absence, and one of the wonderful promises and provisions that he gives them is the promise that he's going to come again. And young people I know sometimes when we're younger, it's hard to get a hold in our souls of the promise of the Lord's coming as a living reality.
I realize we have plans and goals and aspirations connected with this life.
And it's not wrong to have plans connected with this life. We're going to speak of that for a moment. But, you know, I've been impressed to realize that everything in the New Testament in connection with Christianity is in view of the coming of the Lord Jesus. That's the pivotal point. That's the point for which we are waiting. That's the culmination, so to speak. And my exercise this afternoon is to encourage us not only to the fact that the Lord Jesus is coming.
And that he's coming very soon. But to encourage us to live in view of that day, to have a vision of the coming glory, Because you know, if you don't have an eye to the future, you're not going to give up present advantage. Why is it so often that our hearts are set on things down here? Why is it so often we place such great value on the temporal and material things of this life? Oh, it's because we don't have the future before us.
Now don't misunderstand me. God has given us many mercies to enjoy in a land like this, and He's given us these things to richly enjoy. And we want to be careful that we never despise the mercies and the opportunities that God has given us in North America and the Western world.
But by the same token, we want to keep in view that these things are temporal and transient at best. I guess it was driven home to my own soul in a very real way a few years ago when my father went home to be with the Lord, and we had the arduous task of cleaning out 51 years of accumulation from his home. And to put it very diplomatically, it was just stuff. But I realized the import of that verse that says.
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We came into this world with nothing, and it is sure that we can take nothing out. And how thankful we were as we went through my father's stuff to realize that he had eternal riches and that he had something beyond this life that he was looking forward to, that he had a portion with Christ. And my father, I believe, especially as he got older, was living in the daily enjoyment and expectation of the Lord's coming. But young people, we don't have to realize. Wait till we're that old to realize.
That the truth of the Lord's coming is a reality, that the Lord Jesus may come and that he may come today. You know, it's often been pointed out that the value that the children of Israel placed on the temporal possessions that they had was in relationship to the nearness of the year of Jubilee, because when the Jubilee came, everything had to be returned to its original owner. In other words, if a man bought a field in the 49th year.
Why? He obviously didn't pay much for it because he knew in one year it had to be returned to its original owner. And if we could just realize how near our jubilee is, I say it would place the proper value on the things that we have down here. And here we find again this little company of disciples around the Lord Jesus. And their hearts were troubled. They were afraid. And I know you young people, you face real difficulties and young people. The only reason I'm talking to you is because this meeting was scheduled especially for you.
But it isn't that we who are older don't need these reminders and exhortations too. But you know, especially when we're younger, perhaps we face real decisions in our lives. Decisions that we face with real trepidation, sometimes with real fear, because we know that these decisions are going to have an import and an impact on our lives for the rest of our time down here. But isn't it wonderful that we can look beyond the decisions, beyond the circumstances?
Beyond what we face when we leave this place after this weekend is over and realize that there's something far better.
And so, for their comfort here, he gives them this promise. I will come again.
Now, I realize it's 2000 years or so since the Lord Jesus made this promise, but we're just on the eve of the fulfillment of this promise. And one thing is sure, we've never been closer to the fulfillment of this promise than we are right now. And I suggest that it's about to be fulfilled as we see things in this world ripening for the judgment of God and the abounding of iniquity and sin not only practiced today, but preached and glorified in human rights.
Glorified in this world, can we doubt that we're not just on the eve of the Lord's return? Has he ever made a promise that he can't or won't fulfill? All the promises of God in him are yay and in him Amen, to the glory of God by us. And so, just to stop and to meditate on these few words, I will come again. What consolation and comfort that gives to the soul. Because before this meeting is over, we may indeed hear the Lord Jesus give that shout.
And call us home, I've often said. But I enjoyed reading about a young man who had a little motto on his bathroom mirror. It simply said, perhaps today because he wanted to be reminded every morning when he got up and looked in the mirror, that this might be the day of the Lord's return. I thought that was a good exercise, and so I will come again. But you know, we're still here, and God has set before us a path of faith and service through this world. And we often speak of our walk for God. We often speak of our service.
And that's why I read the little expression in Luke 19, because here he says.
Occupy till I come Now again, we're going to notice as we look at some further scriptures that everything is in view of the Lords return and here we're to occupy in view of His return. This is in connection with the parable told by the Lord Jesus of the noble man who took his journey into a far country.
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Expecting to return for his Kingdom at a future date and in his absence he gives responsibility to his servants. This is just a little bit aside, but when you have the same parable in Matthews gospel, you have a difference in the responsibility and the same reward when he returns.
Because in Matthew's gospel it's a question of God's sovereignty and every man is going to have praise of God and everyone of us are responsible. God has committed the truth to us and we're responsible with what we do with it. But here we're in Lukes gospel, It's man's responsibility. We find that there is the same responsibility and a difference of rewards because when the Lord Jesus returns and we stand to the judgment seat of Christ.
He's going to reward for faithfulness in that day, and I think it ought to exercise us and encourage us to realize that there's a day when he's going to reward for any faithfulness. Anything that's been committed to our hands, he's going to reward. And we are responsible. It tells us it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. In a moment we're going to go on and look at some scriptures that bring before us.
Some of the things that we are to be occupied with in view of the Lord's return.
But let me just say this before we turn to those scriptures that often in our Christian pathway, we take a step, we make a decision. Maybe it's in connection with school or some vocation that we feel exercised to follow in life or whatever it might be somewhere to live what a partner in life and so on.
And as we take that step, we have to, in the fear of the Lord, say, well, we trust we had the Lord's mind in this. When we look back in retrospect, often it's confirmed to us. We say, Oh yes, I see, thank God I had the Lord's mind. Sometimes perhaps we look back and we say, well, maybe we didn't really have the Lord's mind in doing this or that. But what I want to point out is that in the scriptures we're going to look at, it's not a question of should we do this.
But it's a question of are we doing it? Because we're going to find that these exhortations are direct commands, so to speak, direct exhortations as to some of the things that we need to be occupied with in view of the Lords coming.
And when we have a direct scripture, then the only happy thing is to carry it out, we're told in James where he takes up the subject of practical faith. It says be doers of the Word and not hearers. Only in John 13. And I know it refers to something very specific there, but I believe there's a broad application when it says if you know these things, happy are ye if you do them.
And so, as we look at these scriptures, may they exercise each of our hearts. Are we really carrying out these things that the Lord Jesus has asked us in His word to do in view of his soon return? Let's go first of all to 1St Corinthians Chapter 11.
One Corinthians Chapter 11 and verse 26.
For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. Well, just to get the context of this verse, we find that in the chapter before he has taken up the subject of the Lord's table, in the 11Th chapter He takes up the subject of the Lord's Supper. And into my own soul at least, everything that has gone before in connection with the Lord's table and the Lord's Supper is summed up in this precious verse.
As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come. I like this little word often. I'm glad that the Spirit of God has inserted it in this verse. And you know, as you read through the book of the Acts in the early history of the brethren, you find that very quickly it became the exercise and joy of the early believers to meet on the first day of the week to break bread.
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In Acts 20, when they came together, that was why they came together on the first day of the week.
I've sometimes said that in that portion, in connection with the Saints in Troas, they didn't come together on that particular Lord's day to simply have happy fellowship one with another, although they did. They didn't come together simply to hear the ministry of the Apostle Paul, although they had that privilege on that occasion too. Paul and those who were with him were visiting there on that occasion, but know the Spirit of God is very careful to tell us.
Their purpose in coming together, they came together on the first day of the week to break bread. And was that our joy this morning? As we got up this morning, Was it with the joy in our souls to realize that we were going to have one more privilege of sitting down at the Lord's table to partake of the Lord's Supper? You know, we need this reminder, and we need it often. And so it says as often, not just once a month or twice a year or on a special occasion.
No, the Spirit of God knew, and the Lord Jesus knew that we were going to not only need a reminder.
But that we were going to need it often, again and again and again.
But you know, I'm saddened when I sit during the breaking of bread and the loaf and the copper passed from one to another.
And I sometimes see young people and, sad to say, some who are not so young.
Past the loaf and the cup by Does it mean no more to your soul and mine?
But to sit there on Lord's Day morning and hear those good Christ exalting hymns sung together, hymns that bring before us in such a precious way the person and work of the Lord Jesus. Bring before us his sufferings and his exaltation, as we read scriptures concerning the person and work of Christ, as we hear expressed in praise and worship from the brothers who stand up to give a little word in that way.
Does it mean no more to our souls than to let the loaf and the cup pass by, and not remember him in the breaking of bread? And where is the heart so hardened, And who is so vile as he that see at the Savior suffer? And Seth? It is nothing to me, and I often think of that question raised in the Book of Lamentations on Lord's Day morning. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Is it nothing to you? Is it nothing to me?
And then I hear people say, well, I can remember the Lord Jesus in my heart. Well, that's wonderful, because it always ought to be in our hearts, and we ought to remember the Lord Jesus in our hearts every day. I trust, every day of our lives, there's some remembrance in our souls of what the Lord Jesus has done for us. But there's something physical that he has asked us to do, to give expression to what is in our hearts. And so it says as often as ye, I want you to notice this.
Eat and as often as ye drink. I've sometimes said, I wish those words were printed in capital letters in our Bibles. Eat and drink. You know, it would do us all well to highlight or underline those two words in this verse, because he has asked us not only to remember him in our hearts, but he has asked us to eat and to drink. Young person, did you enjoy that privilege? No privilege like it on the face of the earth.
But to sit down at his table, to feast at his table, and to partake of those emblems, to at least be able to say in some measure the desire of our souls was to thy name and to the remembrance of thee.
Because if it brings joy to our hearts, think of what it brings to his soul. We heard this morning in Sunday school of Mephibosheth. What would you think? If Mephibosheth had come to the palace and he had refused to eat at the King's table, would that have satisfied the heart of David? Not for one moment. David's desire was not only to bring him from Lodi bar into the palace to live there, but David's desire was to sit down in fellowship and communion with Mephibosheth.
At his table every day, and the desire of the Lord Jesus is to have you there.
And if you don't partake of the Lord's supper at the Lord's table, not only do you lose in your own soul, but you rob the Lord Jesus of what he desires so very much. He doesn't want to have to wait for till that coming day to have you around himself collectively with all the people of God. Wonderful that's going to be. No, He wants you now with the people of God to sit down and to remember him in the breaking of bread as often as Yeats this bread. And drink this cup you do show the Lord's death.
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Till he come. Because, brethren, we're not going to need this privilege when we get home to glory. The breaking of bread in the way that the Lord Jesus instituted it in the upper room is something that's only given to us for this life.
And when you look into the face of the Lord Jesus in that coming day, are you going to be able to have the joy of knowing that while you were here in this world, you remembered him in the breaking of bread? And what excuse will you give him at the judgment seat of Christ? What excuse will you give him that you didn't remember him? That you didn't eat and drink while you were here in this world, that cast him out? You'll have nothing to say.
You'll have no excuse. This is perhaps just a little aside. But you know, I've often wondered why the Lord Jesus chose a loaf of bread and fruit of the vine. Now we understand, I trust, the significance of the loaf of bread and the glass of wine. That bread this morning, in its unbroken state, represented to us every member of the Lord's body, every believer alive on the face of the earth this morning, whether they knew it or not.
Or whether they practically express it in the breaking of bread or not is seen in that loaf, and we need to keep that before our souls, lest we become narrow and sectarian in our view. Every believer is represented in that loaf. There is one body, but you know, when we break it, then it speaks to us of the Lord's body given in death for us. The cup, of course, speaks to us of His precious blood. You notice it's given separate the separation of the blood from the body.
Was the proof of death. And so it's not all combined in one it's given separate. The Lord instituted it that way, and that's the way we often we always celebrate it. But again, why did the Lord choose a loaf and a cup? Well, you know, the Lord chose something that was universal. And though the ages have ruled on since the institution of this precious feast, you know you can go almost anywhere in the world today and with very little difficulty.
And at very little cost, in some form may not always be the form that we think of it in. But in some form you can obtain a loaf of bread and fruit of the vine. To me it's just as if the Lord said, I want to make this accessible to my own in any age, so that they have the privilege of remembering until I come. And how long is it till, brethren? It's till I come. You do show the Lord's death till he come.
And, brethren, he wouldn't ask us to do something that he isn't going to provide a scriptural basis on which to do it. If he's asked us to remember him, to partake of his supper at his table until he comes, he's going to maintain a place where we can do it on a scriptural ground. I find that a great comfort. But all I say, the day's coming when we won't need a loaf in a cup on the table. No, we'll sit down in his presence, have those wounds in his hands and in his feet and his side as a fresh reminder. We'll praise him for all eternity.
But until then, may each of us be exercised that we would sit down at his table each week to eat and drink in the way that he has asked us to do. He has said this do in remembrance of me. Now let's go to First Timothy.
Chapter 4.
One Timothy, Chapter 4.
And verse 13.
Till I come give attendance to reading.
To exhortation to doctrine. Now, I'm going to take this verse a little bit out of its context. In its context, Paul was writing to this young man, Timothy, and Paul was anticipating the time when he would see Timothy face to face and he would be able to communicate further with him the truth of God. But he says, until that time, give attendance to reading. But I think there's something very good for us to consider in light of the line of things that we're taking up this afternoon.
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Because we can apply this as a direct exhortation from the Lord Jesus himself. We've spoken of the Lorde return and how everything in Christianity is in view of that. That's the focal point. And so until he comes, brethren, young people, we need to give attendance to reading. To give attendance to something is to be diligent in it, to really pay attention, not just casual. And I want to encourage our hearts the so afternoon.
To more than just casual reading of the word of God, I want to encourage us and just briefly, without turning to other scriptures, go over some scriptures that would encourage us as to the importance of giving attendance to reading in every aspect of our Christian lives. We need the word of God first of all in our personal lives. Young people, did you take time today before these meetings began?
To read something of the word of God in your busy schedule when you get home next week. And I know life is busy. I know life is pressured. It is for all of us. And if you think as you get older it's going to get any easier. It's not. Life is pressured. Today. Life is busy. But I want to encourage you to take time to read God's precious word. If you have no time to read God's precious word, you're busier than God ever intended an individual to be.
And I know it takes discipline. I know it takes discipline to get up a little earlier in the morning or schedule some time in the evening to really get into God's Word. But, you know, we're told to search the scriptures again, that's more than just reading a few verses and not really searching God's word, not really giving attendance to reading. Do you search the scriptures? Do you get out your concordance or some other helps on some scriptural commentaries that are helps to you?
And really search things out, follow out lines of truth. You know, young people, God doesn't encourage laziness in any aspect of our lives, whether it's our practical lives or whether it's our spiritual lives. And God has woven the truth in a way that we have to search it out. It is the glory of God to conceal the thing. The honor of kings is to search out the matter. It speaks of the slothful man not roasting that which he took in hunting.
And so we need to give attendance to reading first of all in our personal lives.
Then I want to just say a word to fathers here. Those of us who are heads of our homes. Some of us were considering this past week how that the children of Israel, when they went out to gather the manna. It wasn't everyone that went out to gather the manna, it was the heads of the homes. Every man was to gather for himself and those that were in his tent, responsibility of the head of the home. And I'm thankful again for the memory of a father.
Who sat at the breakfast table every morning to read something of the word of God to his children and young people as they trickled out to the breakfast table and hurried off to school. It took real diligence and energy to do that. But there was a man who gathered for himself and for his household, and I want to encourage fathers. Maybe it isn't always in the morning that you're able to do it, but set aside a time when you bring the family together and you read a portion of God's word to them.
How well you'll be repaid for that time and for that energy. Then we need to avail ourselves of ministry in the assembly. And that's really the context of this when he was told to give attendance to reading. And so it's really public reading of the word of God, because in the days of Timothy in the early, there were very few who could read or had a Bible of their own, a copy of the word of God themselves, certainly probably no one in the early assembly with a master's or a PhD.
And there were perhaps only few that could read. And so when the assembly came together, Timothy, who had a gift from the Lord in ministry, he was to give attendance to that. But again, I want to encourage each of us to avail ourselves of ministry in the assembly. You know, it's wonderful to be at a conference like this, but we're going to go back to our little assemblies from which we came. Are we going to be exercised to be there on Bible study night? Are we going to be exercised even though it might be?
In ever so much weakness, maybe you say, well you know they read a portion and doesn't seem to be any gift or much exposition of the portion.
00:35:00
But the Lord is there. You're there. The Spirit of God is able. The word of God hasn't changed. And let's be careful. One of the great sins of Israel in the wilderness was that they despised the simple manner that God gave them. And we need to be careful that we don't despise the simple manner that God gives us in the local assembly. And God is able to feed us and meet our need in that way. And we need to meditate on the word of God too, it says.
Oh, how love I thy law. It is my meditation all the day. Have you learned to meditate on God's word? It's light, an instruction for your pathway. It's food for the new man. I say we need to give attendance to reading this precious book we hold in our hands. Young People is more up to date than the daily newspaper. It fits what's happening today, just as it did with our parents and grandparents. And it'll do the same tomorrow.
We need it each day. And we used to sing a little chorus when we were boys. Oh, cling to the Bible, my boy. We used to sing another little chorus in Sunday school. Feed on God's word in the morning. Feed on God's Word at noon. Feed on God's Word in the evening. To keep your heart in tune. Let's learn to value the word of God. Avail ourselves of it that we might have power and strength in our Christian pathway. You know, the young men in John's day were strong and John commended them, but they weren't strong because.
They went down to the gym and worked out twice a week. Nothing wrong with that. Bodily exercise profits for a little time.
But they were strong because the Word of God was abiding in them. They had taken in the word of God. It was a part of them, and it was what gave them power and strength to overcome the enemy and to walk through this world for God's glory. I can't overemphasize enough the power and the importance of God's Word in every aspect of your life and mine. Now let's turn to Revelation Chapter 2.
Revelation Chapter 2.
And verse 25.
But that which ye have already hold fast till I come. And then notice verse 11 of the third chapter. Behold, I come quickly hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Well, notice again it's in view of the coming of the Lord Jesus. And here he says that in view of his coming we're to hold fast. But maybe I hear someone say when I read this verse. Well, Jim.
You don't understand what it's like out there. You don't understand what it's like in school or college or university. You don't understand what it's like in the workforce and the opposition of the enemy and how dark the day is. Well, perhaps I don't. I realize that the moral and spiritual cloud that hangs over the Western world is darkening every hour, But perhaps I really don't realize how dark it is out there. But one thing I do realize is that the resources that you and I have in Christ to hold fast to the precious truth of God.
Are the same as they've always been. And he wouldn't ask us to hold fast young people if he isn't going to give us the resources to do it, because they'll never be such a thing as saying the day is so dark that we can't hold fast. There'll never be an excuse for compromise or giving up some aspect of the truth in your life and mine. No, we can live soberly, righteously and godly when in this present age.
Right where we are today, if the day ever gets so dark that we don't have the resources to live for God's glory.
The Lord will take us out, but until He comes, we can hold fast. And holding fast to something denotes energy put forth. Because I'm not going to tell you that it's easy to live for the Lord, especially in days like this. It does take exercise. We talk about exercise, and we're told to exercise ourselves unto godliness. And exercise takes discipline. It takes energy. It takes hard work it takes.
Putting forth of ourselves And is it any different in spiritual things as it is in natural things? No.
But I say where no man goeth to warfare at his own charges. Everything's provided to hold fast till he come. And when it says that which he have, what is it? It's the truth of God we've been given.
00:40:01
Jude wrote of appalling days of apostasy and giving up of the truth. But he says, he says there, 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 delivered to the Saints. I want to encourage you not to give up. It seems easier sometimes to give up. It seems like the path of least resistance. But there's a joy and a blessing.
Withholding fast, Barnabas went down and encouraged the early brethren that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. They'd hold fast to what they had in himself. But you say, I don't know how much longer I can hold on, How much longer can we go on? Things are getting so bad and so difficult. Well, that's why I read the Exhortation to the Saints in Philadelphia, because in Thyatira they're simply told to hold fast till he comes.
But in the exhortation of the encouragement to Philadelphia, there's an extra little encouragement added. He doesn't just tell them to hold fast till he comes, he says, Behold, I come quickly, hold fast. Not wonderful. I'm going to repeat an illustration that I've sometimes used in speaking on this verse.
Suppose you're up on a roof working and you're working there and you slip and as you're going over the side you grab hold of the gutter and you're holding fast and after a while you feel your fingers begin to slip and you say, I can't hold on any longer and someone on the ground says the ladder's almost here. Not only is help coming, but it's coming fast and it's almost here. What does that encouragement, why it gives you that fresh burst of energy just to re grip that bar for a few moments because you know it can't be long. Young people, brethren, that's what he's telling us. I'm not just coming, but I'm coming quickly. Just hold fast a little bit longer. I know there's opposition, he says. Is that where I see the breakdown of everything?
But you know, I think of Timothy again, because in the second epistle of Timothy, Timothy saw the breakdown and the ruin of everything. But he's told, Continue thou, Timothy, go on, continue in the things that thou hast learned and been assured of. He says, Timothy, You can go on even in difficult times, and we can, brethren, we can. So he says, Behold, I come quickly, hold that fast, which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
Now nobody, even the devil himself, can take our salvation from us, but another man can take our crown.
Maybe I'll repeat an illustration again that I've often used, but let's picture 20 runners going out to run a race, and they run the race, and one of those runners comes in ahead of all the other runners, maybe a whole lot ahead of the runners. And he's brought to the winner's circle and the wreath is being placed upon him. He's being given the medal, and all of a sudden there's a replay. And the replay shows that this athlete broke one of the rules. Now what happens?
Well, the runner who came in second but kept the rules is brought to the winner's circle.
And the crown is taken off the 1St and another man takes his crown. Another man gets the reward.
And, brethren, it's true that every man will have praise of God at the judgment seat of Christ. But as I said earlier, there will be loss. And if I'm not faithful in what God has committed to me, God's going to have someone else to step in and take my place. Just as that second athlete stepped in and took that first man's place, so God will have those, I believe who are faithful and seek by the grace of God to hold fast to his truth until he comes. Oh, it's only by grace.
But may you and I seek grace to hold fast, not only in light of the fact that he's coming, but that he has also promised. Behold, I come quickly now let's go to John's Gospel, chapter 21.
John's Gospel chapter 21 and verse 22.
Jesus saith unto him, If I will, that he tarry, till I come.
What is that to thee? Follow thou Me. Well, just to get the context. Here we find that Peter, who had denied the Lord three times with oaths and curses, he's been restored to the Lord. He's been restored in his own soul. He's been restored publicly in front of his brethren. And now the Lord Jesus is speaking to Peter and telling Peter something of the pathway.
00:45:09
That Peter was going to have in following the Lord. And as is so characteristic of Peter, Peter sees John standing by. And as the Lord is telling him these things, he points to John. And he says, But, Lord, what will this man do? In other words, he said, Lord, what about John? What kind of path do you have for John? And the Lord gave him this answer, if I will, that he tarry till I come. What is that to thee? Follow thou me.
Let me illustrate it this way. When we were children at home, particularly my sister, who's next to me and myself, we would often be given a task to do. It might involve, after the evening meal, cleaning off the table and doing up the dishes. And Mother would leave us to that task. And after she had given us what she felt was ample time to complete that task, she would come into the room and she'd find that we had not done what she asked us to do.
And she would say to me, Jim, you're not doing what I asked you to do. And I would always point to my sister and say, but Jennifer's not doing her part. And Mother would always say, you do what I asked you to do and I'll take care of your sister. Now in a sense, that was what the Lord was telling Peter, Peter, I have a path for John, and I'll take care of John. But you're responsible to follow in the path that I'm laying before you. Because I think sometimes even in our path of faith, we may justify some compromise in our lives by saying, well, you know.
It's just accepted now amongst the Lord's people and everybody's doing it. No God has set before us a path of faith and service, and I know there's a collective side of things and we're to bear one another's burden and have a exercise one for another. If I see a brother or sister is not going on in the path of faith in a way that I feel is a detriment to them. I've got a responsibility, and you do too, to go and with love, speak to that brother or sister, seek to warn them of the course that they're on. But in the final analysis, who are we going to answer for?
Am I going to have to answer for you? No, I'm going to have to answer for myself. Was Peter going to have to answer for John? No, Peter was going to have to answer for Peter, if I will, that he tarry till I come. What is that to thee? And notice how individual it becomes. Follow thou me. Is that difficult? You know, the Lord Jesus has not just set the truth before us, but he says follow me. He puts his own sheep forth and he goes before.
And the sheep follow him. You know, it's a lot easier to follow someone than just have them give you directions, isn't it? We like to be able to follow someone. If I'm in a strange city or area, I like to have someone to follow rather than them. Just give me directions I remember one time.
My wife and girls were with me and we got into a city I wasn't familiar with and we were trying to find a certain home. And we drove around and around and around. And finally I swallowed my pride and I stopped and I asked directions and a lady came out of the gas station and she said not exactly, but something like this. She said, well, you go down and you turn right at the first corner and then you'll come to AY and take the left fork of the Y and go about half a mile and then it'll curve around. And when you curve around you watch. And by that time she knew by the look on my face.
That I wasn't taking all that in. She said that's OK, I'm going that way, Just follow me. And it was a lot easier to follow her. And so the Lord Jesus, he puts us forth in the path of faith and then he simply says follow me. But it's intensely individual. Are you and I willing to leave these meetings to follow the Lord Jesus with a fresh exercise? Maybe there's someone here and you say, well, I haven't followed the Lord Jesus the way I ought to have. I haven't been as faithful.
In my Christian pathway. But you have the rest of your time. If the Lord Jesus leaves us here, a few more moments, a few more days, perhaps you can follow him in the path of faith and service, in view of the fact that we're just going to take that last footstep and be safe home. Now let's go to 1St Corinthians chapter 4.
First Corinthians chapter 4.
And verse five, Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts. And then shall every man have praise of God. Well here, in view of the Lord's return, we're told to judge nothing before the time. Now before I bring out what is particularly on my heart in reading this portion, I want to set it again in its proper context.
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Because if we were to go on to the next chapter, the 5th chapter, we would find that there was something that needed to be judged at Corinth. There was an action, there was a sin, it was a very serious sin, and it needed to be judged for the Lords glory and for the clearing of sin from the assembly and the eventual restoration of the individual involved. And sometimes we do have to take up and judge matters in that regard. But it's interesting that before he tells them of this action, that needs to be judged in the 4th chapter, its motives. In the 5th chapter it's actions. In the 4th chapter it's motives.
It's the hidden things of darkness and the councils of the heart. In other words, brethren, while we need to judge actions for the Lords glory, we can't judge motives. We've often heard it said we can't judge the motive of the heart. The Lord does, but we can't. And so here he says judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes. Because there are some things are never going to be straightened out this side of glory. Perhaps someone here, and you say, well you know that person did something against me, that person said something and the Lord never came in to straighten it out.
Well, you know, it may never be straightened out this side of the judgment seat of Christ, but it will when we get home.
I know it takes faith to count on that. You know, Paul loved these Corinthian brethren. He sought to minister to them and it said he had to say the more he loved them, the less he was loved. But he said that's okay. He said we labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. He was looking not for man's approval, but he was looking for the Lord's approval. Whose approval do we really want? I know when we're younger particularly, we want to fit in. We want to be part of the crowd. We want the approval of our peers and of our friends.
But what we really need to seek first and foremost is the Lord, the Lord's approval, and to just leave things, Paul said. I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day, he said. I just leave those things with the Lord.
Lord Jesus himself, who suffered so much in the path of faith, how could he do such a thing? He committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. He just left those things Mary when she poured out her ointment at the feet of the Lord. You know, not only did Judas speak up against her, but one of the gospels tells us that all the disciples spoke against her. But God had the record down properly and the Lord Jesus placed a proper value on what was done. You know, John the Baptist, his ministry wasn't for the most part appreciated, but the Lord Jesus said of those born among women.
There hath not risen of greater than John the Baptist. And so can we just leave those things. I say there's many tangles in our lives that are never going to be straightened out. Things we don't understand in the circumstances of life and what the Lord allows others to say to us. Maybe even in the assembly. You say, Jim, there's so many problems in our local assembly and we just hate to go back to it next week. But the Lord knows he's able to tangles of life to undo. And you know, I say we're not always going to see it straightened out this side of heaven. We need to leave certain things with the Lord.
You know, Solomon looked at things just from a natural standpoint, and he said that which is crooked cannot be made straight, and the rough places cannot be made plain. Isn't that the way we feel about things sometimes? But you know, there's a glorious answer to that in Isaiah 40, where there the prophet looks on to a future day of glory. He says the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough place is plain, and all flesh shall see it together. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Can't you and I count on that day?
When all things are going to be made plain, and when we see it all from his perspective, we're going to praise him for all his ways there. When the children of Israel's history in the wilderness is rehearsed in the Psalms, it says he led them by the right way. You know, that's not what they said in the wilderness. They said to Moses, why did you bring us this way and that way to kill us with hunger and we're thirsty and so on. But when it's all viewed in retrospect, he led them by the right way. We don't always see it now, but we're going to look back and we're going to say he led us by the right way.
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We're just going to praise him for all his ways with us. Oh, I want to encourage you. Is somebody offended you? Some circumstance arise in your personal life, maybe in the family or even in the assembly. You say the Lord just doesn't seem to come in and straighten it out. Oh, just leave it. There's a day coming when it will be straightened out, not as to our sense of how it should be done, but to his sense of how it should be done in that day. Well, we won't take time to turn to it, but I would just say in closing that on the last page of God's word.
He gives three last confirmations that he's coming. I think that's so precious. He doesn't close the book without saying behold or surely. I come quickly and the last recorded words of the Lord Jesus in the word of God are surely. I come quickly. And the last recorded words of the Saints of God in Scripture are Amen even. So come Lord Jesus, Is that the response of your heart and mind this afternoon? Do we look up and say Amen even? So come Lord Jesus.
And the last provision of the book is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. If I can just summarize it this way, the last promise of the word of God is surely I come quickly, The last prayer of Scripture is Amen. Even so come Lord Jesus. And the last provision of Scripture is the grace of our Lord Jesus. Christ be with you all. Amen. Well, may our hearts be encouraged to live in view of eternity, in view of the coming of the Lord Jesus.
That we might be occupied with those things that he would have us to be occupied with. And young people, those of us who are older. Won't it be wonderful in that day to look into his face, and to have a sense of his commendation and approval, and to hear him say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou in to the joy of thy Lord, let's pray.
John 11:11-27
Reading
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Day 5.
Through waves, through clouds and storms, God gently clears the way #55.
Through ways, through water and storms.
Every day we lay hands on the soil.
And again, where the swords and.
When he may experience his arm.
Who shall win his world?
When we have been.
Friends.
1St and shall stand.
Isaiah 54 and verse 11.
Oh, thou afflicted, tossed with Tempest, and not comforted.
Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.
Particular verse in mind, Brother Dawn, where you thought we should start.
11 to verse. 40 through verse.
45.
John's Gospel, Chapter 11.
The Gospel of John, Chapter 11, beginning at verse 11.
These things said he, and after that he saith unto them.
Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus speak of his death. But they thought that he had spoken of ticking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there.
To the intent ye may believe. Nevertheless let us go unto him.
Then said Thomas, which is called Didamus, and to his fellow disciples let us also go, that we may die with him. Then when Jesus came, he found that he had laid in the grave four days already. Now Bethany was knight unto Jerusalem about 14 furlongs of, and many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother.
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Than Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him. But Mary sat still in the house. Then said Martha, unto Jesus, Lord, if thou didst come here, my brother had not died. But I know that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.
Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection.
At the last day Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believe us thou this.
She saith unto him, Yeah, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ.
The Son of God which should come into the world. And when she had so said, she went her way.
And call Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come, and call it for thee. As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto him. Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him. The Jews then, which were with her in the house, and comforted her when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying.
She goes onto the grave to weep there. Then when Mary was come where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which came with her?
He groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, and said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, Come and see. Jesus wept. Then set the Jews, behold how he loved him. And some of them said, Could not this man which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?
Jesus therefore again groaning in himself, cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone laid upon it. And Jesus said, Take ye away The stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he had been dead 4 days. Jesus saith unto her, said, I not unto thee, that if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God.
Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid, and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me, and I knew that thou hearest me always, but because of the people which stand by, I said it.
That they may believe that thou hast sent Me. And when he thus hast spoken, he cried with a loud voice. Lazarus come forth, and he that was dead came forth, and bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Lose him, and let him go.
Oh.
There are many things we don't understand.
And when we're in trial?
We're in pressure and quite often the things that we don't understand in the trial become a great and increased burden to our souls because of the pressure of the trial itself.
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And when we don't understand, we often tend to misunderstand.
And so it's a, it's something that we need to be conscious of that we would learn through the trials of our lives to always have a confidence in God that doesn't depend on understanding. Because if there's a lack of trust in our hearts toward our God when we don't understand, we put ourselves in a place of perhaps misunderstanding him.
And here these not Martha and Mary in this case, but the disciples who were with the Lord Jesus.
They didn't really understand at that point in their history until after the resurrection and New Testament teaching concerning the difference of sleeping and death and so on. And so the Lord was going to go and they thought.
Lord, that's not a wise thing to do. But Thomas, so they asked him and Thomas says to them, even though we get an answer from the Lord and they don't understand the answer really, Thomas says, well, let's go and we'll die with them.
It shows a desire in his heart and so on not and yet to me it's a precious thing. One more thought connected with it and that is even when we don't understand the Lord understands our perspective. Sometimes it's not a proper one really. But one other thing that's a precious thing of this chapter to my own heart is that the Lord Jesus with every soul in which he interacts here his disciples, Martha, Mary.
He always understood their perspective on the matter and he ministered to their need according to that perspective. So in the matter of sleep and death and so on, he he realizes they don't understand and, and yet he sees them. And so he just says to them, well, he's dead. And from another perspective, he was dead. He was truly dead.
But it's a wonderful thing for us to appreciate that the Lord.
While we don't understand, the Lord does understand and for our own benefit with one another to try to learn when a soul is in pressure to be able to enter into their perspective on the matter and seek to be a help from that standpoint rather than necessarily trying to force them to see our own view of it.
Chapter 3 The Lord speaks to Nicodemus, and he says in verse 12, If I have told you earthly things, and you believe me not, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven. And so here in John's Gospel, Chapter 11, I've enjoyed in my own soul the thought that the Lord was here speaking to them with a heavenly language.
And heavenly thoughts. And as we read John's gospel and as we read the word of God, he brings before them and before our own souls that which is heavenly and a heavenly perspective. And they hadn't had that perspective before. And so in kindness and grace, he just explains things the way that they could understand them. And he speaks to them as friends. Our friend Lazarus sleepeth. And it just brings before us, doesn't it? How in James chapter.
2IN verse 23 it says that Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God. So Lazarus was one of those that was there and Bethany that was characterized by having faith in God and believing what the Lord Jesus had told him. And the Lord Jesus could refer to Lazarus as a friend.
It might be helpful to to just explain why the Lord Jesus speaks of it as sleep. Here. As Brother Dawn said, he makes it very clear what he's referring to. Our friend Lazarus is dead, but sleep is taken up in three different ways in the Word of God. There's physical sleep. The Lord Jesus, weary with his journey, put his head on a pillow in a boat one day and went to sleep. Physical sleep. There's also sleep, which describes the lethargic or indifferent state that a believer can fall into.
Spiritually, and so in Romans we're told now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believe. That's not an exhortation to wake out of physical sleep. That's an exhortation to wake up as to the reality of where we are spiritually and in our history and so on. And there are a number of exhortations to believers to wake up in that way. But then sleep is referred to in connection with the.
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Death of a believer and it's important to realize that in scripture, whether it's the Old Testament or the New Testament, it is only those who died in faith who are referred to as being asleep and when it refers to being asleep, it is the sleep of the body. You know there has there's a sect that has propagated what is called soul sleep through the ages and that is very wrong we know from the 16th chapter of Luke that when a soul dies, when a person dies, they are in the conscious sense either of.
Torment or the conscious sense of enjoyment for the believer, it's absent from the body and present with the Lord. Our loved ones who've died in faith are in the conscious sense of the Lord's presence. Those who've died in their sins are in the conscious sense of torment. And so it's not soul sleep that it refers to, it's the sleep of the body. When he says our friend Lazarus sleepeth the body, He had been laid in the tomb. His body had died. He was asleep. Now why is it referred to?
Asleep, because sleep is a temporary state of things. And so tonight, in the normal course of things, we're going to lie down and go to sleep. And again, in the normal course of things, we have every expectation that it's only a temporary state of things. We'll sleep for a few hours and then, all things being well, we'll wake up, we'll get up out of our beds, and we'll go on our way. And so when we laid my father in the grave, what comforted my heart was to realize this was only a temporary state of things.
This was not the end of the story. And as we stepped back from my father's grave with tears, we knew that our comfort was that we knew that that body was laid there only till the resurrection. And so This is why he refers to Lazarus being asleep. His body was laid in the tomb, and it was more temporary than these sisters and others realized. He was going to raise him. But even if he hadn't been raised on this occasion, it was still a temporary state of things waiting.
For the for the resurrection.
Want to bring in my thoughts here. It's not in this chapter, but it's connected with.
Going through tribulation in our lives.
In Luke 24.
Lord Jesus, after his resurrection, went on the road to Emmaus with two of his disciples.
And.
He draws near to them and he starts down the road with them. They don't, as we know, we know the story. They don't recognize the Lord Jesus and they ask him, don't you know what went on in Jerusalem? And he says what things? And then they go on to explain to him all that had taken place.
The point I want to make out of that story, in connection with the subject before us, is there are times in tribulation when the need of a soul is to be listened to.
It's not necessarily always to say something or explain something at first in it, but there is often a need in a soul to have a sense of someone listening to them. And then afterwards, according to the Lord's direction, there can be that answer to the need of what it is. But it's a well for us to remember in seeking to help one another in our tribulations, that we.
Recognize that need.
And the Lord Jesus, not so much in this chapter as there, but the Lord Jesus perfectly doesn't ignore the questions that are raised here in the chapter, but as they come up and are presented to him concerning the things that were bothering or distressing or not understandable in connection with Lazarus death, he has an answer from God for them. We're not always that way. Sometimes someone asks us a question about something and we have we should be.
Willing to be honest with the soul and say I don't know.
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I don't have an answer. What the Lord does. We can always point them to the Lord. We're thankful though, in contrast to ourselves, as in this chapter, there was never a question in the Lord's life that he didn't know the answer and he didn't know how. He always knew exactly how to to meet that need. I will also mention it sort of beside there were times when people answered the question, asked the Lord a question.
And He chose not to answer it, or He chose to give an answer that had nothing to do directly with the question. And we can be thankful for that as well, because the Lord always knows our need and He ministers to our need. And if He sees that an answer to a question is not going to meet our need, He doesn't always give us a direct answer to it, but He always knows perfectly what we need and will give us, if we look to Him, that.
And so sometimes we need to say to the Lord, Lord, meet the need.
Without necessarily saying Lord give me an answer to my question.
Maybe in that regard, Don be helpful just to turn back to a little incident in First Kings 10 that I've enjoyed in this duck connection in connection with the Queen of Sheba. Because we often speak about the Queen of Sheba and how she saw Solomon's wisdom and the things that she enumerated in connection with the court of Solomon. But when the Queen of Sheba came to Solomon, there was something standing in the way, something that had to be taken care of first.
And we know Solomon is a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus. Let me just read a verse or two here, verse chapter 10 of First Kings and verse one. And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions. It's interesting that as this story begins to unfold, there were these hard questions. Those were the first things. And those things were sort of standing in the way. And maybe there's someone here and you've come to this conference this weekend and you've got a lot of hard questions.
You say there's a lot of things I don't understand from the Bible, a lot of things I don't understand about how to follow the Lord and what He'd have me to do, and a lot of things I don't understand in the circumstances that He has allowed in my life of late. And you say I've asked people and I get an answer, but it's really not what I'm looking for. And then I ask someone else and they kind of build on it, but I'm still not satisfied. Well, the Queen of Sheba had these hard questions.
But she came into the one who figures to us, the Lord Jesus in type. And I believe there's a great lesson for us to learn, brethren, and that is, it's wonderful to have people that we can go to with hard questions. Wonderful that we have loved ones and brethren that we feel have discernment and will give us an answer. But there's nothing like getting into the presence of the Lord with those questions. And you know what's interesting, in the history of the disciples in walking with the Lord, they often asked what seemed like questions they should have known the answer to.
And questions that almost seemed like they were strange questions to ask, almost out of context sometimes. But they asked those questions and to see the patience and grace of the Lord Jesus in answering those questions. Nicodemus asked questions. The Lord finally said, Art thou a teacher in Israel and knowest not these things? And yet the Lord patiently went over those questions with Nicodemus.
And so graciously answered them. But she asked these, she had these questions and then just notice.
The last part of verse two. And when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. You know, there's very few people you can do that with, very few people. You can tell them or ask them everything. You know, there are things perhaps on my heart today. And if I went to you and asked you or I started unburdening my heart, you'd say, whoa, whoa, whoa, just a minute, Jim, that's enough. I've got problems of my own and my family, problems and problems in my own assembly. I can't take any more.
But you can go to the Lord with everyone of those hard questions, with everyone of those burdens. And brother, sister, if it takes five hours, he's still willing to listen. And he doesn't keep office hours. You know, the Lord stayed up one night to talk to Nicodemus. Nicodemus waited till night, but never mind. He came with those questions. And the Lord was willing to stay up at night with Nicodemus. The Lord doesn't keep office hours like some people do. And so she communed with of him with all that was in her heart. And then what? I love this.
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And Solomon told her all her questions. There was not anything hid from the king which he told her not. You know, when she got into the presence of Solomon with her questions, every question was answered to her satisfaction. And when she eventually turns away and goes back into her own country, her heart was satisfied. This book we hold in our hands is sufficient in the presence of the Lord and the power of the Spirit to answer every hard question, every difficulty, every enigma that rises in your life and mind today.
If you and I are willing to get into the presence of the Lord, you're going through some trial. You asked people about it. Get into the presence of the Lord, ask Him about it, and all your hard questions will be answered and your heart will be satisfied. And we're going to find with Mary, when she got to the feet of the Lord and she unburdened before the Lord, that's when her heart was satisfied. She got the answers really quicker than Martha. Not that Martha didn't have words from the Lord, but the answers were solidified in the soul of Mary, I believe quicker than Martha, because Mary knew where to turn.
The.
Maybe I could just add another comment too, not to get away from our portion, but just go to Matthew 14 for a little expression in connection with trials and being able to accept trials and difficulties from the Lord and so on.
I won't read this, but just to give the context before I read an expression here. The last part of Matthew 14 you have the disciples in the ship constrained by the Lord Jesus to get into the ship and go to the other side. As they're in the ship, the Lord is up on the mountain praying. The wind is contrary, the waves are high. This was a real trial and difficulty in the lives of the disciples. If I'd been there, I probably would have been wondering if I was going to the bottom too.
But I want to notice.
When the Lord comes to them in verse 27, Matthew 1427, but straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer. I want you to notice these three next words. It is I.
And brethren, I just want to stop for a minute and meditate on those 3 words. To me, these are some of the most precious words.
In the Word of God, in connection with trials, why were the disciples afraid?
Why were they troubled? Because they didn't see the Lord Jesus in the trial. But to me it's just as if the Lord Jesus says, I've brought you here, I've allowed the circumstance, I'm above the storm, I'm in control, I'm with you. And I believe as we go through the trials, yes, the wind may be contrary, the waves may be high.
But just to stop over the roar of it and hear his voice say it is I.
That's what's going to give us comfort. That's what's going to give us courage. That's what's going to help us to submit. Not to look necessarily to be delivered from the trial, but that's what's going to help us to submit to his will in the trial just to hear him say.
It is I, I say. There's no more comforting words hardly than these.
There's a principle in God's Word that we really see even in this gospel, in this chapter, that we're taking up, and that is that God always reveals Himself to faith. He desires to enter into that which that communion with his creature man. And so it says in Hebrews Chapter 11. Without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. And then what was read yesterday?
In James chapter one, verse six, let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. And so we have, you know, that principle brought out here in this chapter. And the confidence that these ones had as they were in His presence, they had the faith that he had the answers, that he knew the answers, and they had the confidence that they could go to him and ask the question and would receive a plain answer. And it's the kindness of our God to desire us to just come as children.
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And to as those that are perhaps defenseless and perhaps as simple in faith as a child to come in the circumstances that we have and that we face in life and don't understand. Yet if we come in faith with that simple desire to know the answer and to have an answer from himself, from his heart of love, He reveals himself to faith. He may not give us the answer that we want to hear, but He gives us an answer. He gives it to faith.
I.
Back to the little something we had in the first reading meeting on this chapter at least the same general point that has to do with we say sometimes, why doesn't the Lord act now? And we get it, concerned with the timing of actions.
Notice.
Verse six it says when he had there, when he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode 2 days still in the place where he was.
And now down to verse 17. Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already.
Suppose the Lord had, the instant he heard the news, gone.
Immediately.
Would it have made any difference? Absolutely not. He would have only been dead 2 days less, but he would still been dead. And that was the issue anyways, was death. And yet the Lord remaining for two days had nothing to do with God's dealings with respect to His power and what He would do.
Because it's important, I think, in my own soul to recognize that God is outside of time completely.
God deals with us in time because we're creatures, but God himself is outside of time, and he orders everything according to the counsel of his own will. And there's never ever because of timing considerations.
Any difference in how God will resolve what He purposes to do? We often in matters of time say, if only I had done this or done that sooner or later or whatever.
And it's true in human responsibility, it's now is the time to seek the Lord, and we are within time and we have responsibilities connected with time. But it's also well for us to see our God is outside of all those considerations. And when He purposes a certain outcome, it's going to happen without regard to the clock, if you will.
It's always appreciated in my heart the thought that did anything happen today or will happen today that catches God by surprise.
Is there going to be any trial or tribulation coming to life that today that God?
I'm surprised about or or was unexpected or something like that. Brethren, God lives on a throne of rest and peace that is never touched by any circumstance of what's going on in this world at this time. There is no event, there is no aspect of time that God suddenly says, oh, what am I going to do now? I hadn't anticipated that.
I didn't realize that was going to happen, and now I'm going to have to change something. Not so God. When we look up to God, we are to learn to know him as a God who changes, not a God who in his own counsels and will is always at rest, never disturbed by anything. And he controls and he controls everything according to the council of his will.
And peace does not come in the absence of trial and difficulty. It comes in the presence of God, in the measure in which you and I are living, in the presence of God and the conscious sense that the Lord is with us, holding our hand. That's where peace is going to come. Sometimes we think, oh, if we could just get the trial behind us, if we could just get out of this circumstance. But what was it that gave confidence to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?
It wasn't the absence of the trial, it was the fact that they enjoyed a special sense of the Lord's presence in the trial, because when they spoke to the king, they didn't know if they were going to be delivered out of the furnace or through the furnace. They said that the Lord was able to deliver them from the fiery furnace, but they didn't say he would. And they said no matter which way, he'll deliver us out of your hand, O King. But they had to go through it. It wasn't very nice to think that.
00:35:25
Because of their faithfulness, they had to go into the fiery furnace. But don't you think that was probably the best experience of their life because they enjoyed a special sense of the Lord's presence? And so sometimes we look back on those severe trials in our lives and we say, oh, that was when I had a special sense of the Lord's presence. That was when he was made dear to me in some way that I would have missed otherwise. And I think Mary experienced this, perhaps in a deeper way here in this chapter than even her sister Martha.
And I want to notice in what connection with the comments Don made a moment ago, the 20th verse.
Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him.
But notice this. But Mary sat still in the house. Now Martha. When we read of Martha, she seems to be a person that I can perhaps relate to. She was a doer, always liked to be busy, maybe even trying to help a situation in the 10th of Luke. She was careful and troubled about many things, cumbered about much serving, and so on. A person that always seemed to need activity and beyond the go. And as the Lord approaches Bethany, Martha runs to meet him.
But Mary sat still in the house. You say, how could Mary do such a thing? Was Mary indifferent to the situation? Did she feel the loss of her brother Lazarus any less than Martha? No, she felt that she loved her brother Lazarus just as deeply as Martha did. But Mary had sodded his feet as a learner and perhaps entered into his heart at this point, at least in their history, in a little deeper way than Martha. And Mary knew that the Lord Jesus was coming.
In his own time and in his own way, she also knew that when he came, he was able to take care of the situation according to his estimation of what was right and proper and best for them in the situation. And having entered into the heart of the Lord Jesus, having sat at his feet as a learner, she could sit still in the house. She could she could have peace and rest, not in the absence of trial, but because she entered into the heart of the Lord Jesus and she had been in his presence.
And at his feet on a previous occasion. And brethren, what is it that's going to give us the peace and confidence to sit still amidst the difficulty?
Not to be trying to help the situation. It's true. Later on when they said the Master calls for you, she immediately rose up and goes and falls at his feet. She knew where to go when the time came. But I loved this little expression. And Mary sat still in the house. You know there are three expressions in Scripture that go so well together. Stand still the children of Israel on the banks of the Red Sea. They were to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Samuel told them the same thing in connection with the failure that had come in among in Israel when they chose a king. He again told them to stand still and hear the judgment of the Lord on the matter. Sometimes that's all we can do brethren just.
Stand still.
Then we need to be still. Those 46 Psalms says be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. In other words, there he's encouraging his people that there's a day of deliverance coming. It may not be as quickly as they desired, but there's a day of deliverance coming. Be still. Well, we need to learn that for our own souls as well. And then to sit still, you know.
Naomi said to Ruth in a very difficult situation. Sit still, my daughter, until they'll see how the matter will fall.
For the man will not be in rest until he finished the thing this day. That's the end of the third chapter of Ruth, and it's in connection with Boaz. In other words, Boaz being a picture of the Lord Jesus, Naomi understood that there was one in full control of the situation.
And knowing there was one who was in full control of the situation and who would not rest until it be brought to fruition according to His purposes of blessing, she could encourage another to sit still even at a difficult time. Brethren, Arboaz is in full control. Brethren, the Lord Jesus, like in John 11, is in full control. And Mary understanding this, Naomi understanding it, could encourage Ruth to sit still. Mary understanding it could sit still.
00:40:11
And wait until his time.
Expected as well as seen back in verse 2 with respect to Mary.
It says of her it was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.
A soul that has learned to worship.
Is one who has learned to appreciate the person in what they are even more than what they do. It's often been said, we worship the Lord. We worship our God for who he is. We thank Him. We praise him for what he's done.
And Mary, in her own soul's experience, had gone somewhat beyond her sister Martha. Martha understood the Lord in matters of service, but Mary understood His person more, and His heart and the greatest comfort to a soul in such needs as they had. Mary was better equipped, if you will, in her own soul for the trial because she had learned to know and worship.
The Lord Jesus.
There are ways, brethren, that we can't estimate the importance of what we did this morning.
We came together in the presence of the Lord Jesus that the Spirit of God might produce in us.
A response to what the Lord did for us, and also that the Spirit of God might fill us with worship as to His person.
And such things are preparatory at times in our lives to what the Lord will pass us through.
And if we don't walk with the Lord?
Such as were an opportunity to be together to worship. We weaken ourselves in the very matter when the Lord brings a trial into our lives.
That's one aspect, another aspect of preparation if you will, that is often necessary. That the Lord would give us if He sees that he's going to bring a trial into our life is seen in the Garden of Gethsemane. And in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Lord Jesus sought to prepare the disciples for the trial that was ahead of them. He told him, He said watch and pray lest you enter into temptation.
The Lord Jesus Himself was being prepared for what was going to take place to Him the next day. He was in agony in His own prayer with His Father over the matter of what was to take place ahead, and He, as we often mostly do not, but He could see.
And he saw the need for them, and he gave them an opportunity and he gave them instruction to be on their knees in prayer. And so it was that when the testing came, they weren't up to it. They hadn't been in a state of dependence ahead of time. And so when it comes, Peter acts in nature.
The acts and the self-confidence of the flesh. The acts in a sense of his own love for the Lord.
And it all fails him and he's not able. He can't go through it and he feels it and he goes out. And as we know his own history, so it is with us too, the Lord.
Sees what's ahead in our lives, sees what we need. And He will. If we are walk with him, He will. He prepares and then he provides and he. He doesn't fail us. He didn't fail Peter just because Peter failed.
Passed the test in the trial that through which he was going to the testing to which he was going to pass. The Lord didn't say, well, Peter, I told you and you didn't do what I said. And now this has come on you. You know we're that way sometimes, aren't we, brethren? We see something in somebody's life we think that's going to cause trouble down the road. So we tell them, we warn them if you will. And then our natural hearts, when the problem, if it does come, comes, we're ready to say didn't remember I told you.
And.
You got what's coming to you. We might not use those words, but sometimes the heart says that not so with the Lord. His love is perfect. And when he anticipates Peters going to fail, he laborers for Peter along with his own. What a night for the Lord. He wasn't only before God as to his own what was before him, but he was before God for the disciples as well. And so.
00:45:29
For the people and the next day we have beautiful examples of how the Lord acts in grace.
In the very midst of the greatest trial that a man has ever gone through or ever will go through in the Gospel of Luke, there are beautiful examples of how the Lord Jesus on the cross is ministering to others in the spirit of grace.
We look at Luke chapter 10 together for reverse.
Luke chapter 10 together for a verse. That'd be verse 39 of Luke 10.
Speaking about Martha and she that's who she would be, had a sister called Mary who also sat at Jesus feet and heard his word. Our passage today in Chapter 11 verse 32. Then when Mary was come where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been there, my brother had not died when Jesus therefore saw her weeping.
Chapter 12, Verse 3.
Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house is filled with the odor of ointment.
I know that this has been explained to us here, I'd just like to briefly cover just again.
Three different positions.
The hymn writer wrote the words.
Beneath the feet of Jesus.
Would take my place. I believe the words are.
The positions and where have we been at the feet of Jesus?
Mary there at the feet of Jesus.
As our brother said, was learning.
She owned him as a prophet.
And she sat and learned.
From the Lord Jesus Christ at his feet.
Here in verse 32.
She was crying when Jesus therefore saw her weeping.
She said, Lord, if thou had been here, my brother had not died.
She was craving for sympathy.
And she acknowledged him.
As her priest.
Craving for sympathy.
In chapter 12.
She has an expression of love.
And gratitude.
And she acknowledges him.
As the Lord.
She takes her glory, her long hair, after she's put on this costly ointment and wipes his feet with her glory.
And positions herself out of gratitude and love.
This morning at the table, we was there out of gratitude and love.
We were at his feet.
Today our topic is sympathy.
And those here that have had.
Times of sorrow and times of trouble and tribulation.
And we have to be able to go to the feet of Jesus.
Craving for sympathy.
To our high Priest.
That knows what we're talking about. Turn with me to please to Hebrews chapter 4.
Hebrews chapter 4 in the very familiar verse 15.
For we have not a high priest who cannot be touched.
With the feelings of our infirmities.
It has the word not in there twice, so it's never saying. We do have a high priest who can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities is what that means.
But in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
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He's the only one who could set.
On the seat of grace.
And we come to him.
At his feet to have him.
Feel our feelings.
Wanted him to sympathize with us.
Our great high priest. Why can he do that? Because he's been there, hasn't he?
He's experienced it and he's up in heaven and he understands our weeping and our tears here on earth.
And so we see the latter part of verse 33 in our chapter.
He groaned.
In the spirit and was troubled.
Loud lamenting.
He groaned in the spirit.
Because he saw her weeping.
And he felt what she felt.
Later on in verse 35 when it says Jesus wept, it was a quiet silent weeping with tears flowing down.
But in verse 33, he groaned in the spirit, was troubled. He had compassion.
Loud lamenting because he understood the one who was at his feet.
It's beautiful to see the Lord graciously answer Martha's questions, isn't it? Martha should have, perhaps if she had the quiet confidence and entered into the heart of and purposes of the Lord Jesus. More, she should have perhaps sat still in the house with Mary and waited for the Lord Jesus to come. She perhaps shouldn't have. Seems almost like a rebuke she gives the Lord. If you've been here, my brother had not died.
She perhaps was a little out of turn or out of line, not in the right spirit. In saying that, I think it's so beautiful to see the Lord Jesus so graciously speak to Martha. He loved Martha and He took her up where she was in her soul. And first of all, brethren, I believe there's a great lesson for us to learn in a practical way in this. Sometimes souls come to us and maybe we feel they should have entered into things a little more.
You see, that person's known the Lord for many years. They should understand things and they should know the Scripture. And haven't they been through these things before? Not the way we tend to feel sometimes. And maybe even rebuke souls who are going through a real struggle. Lord Jesus didn't do that. And again, so often you find in situations like this in the gospel is when precious truth comes out for our learning and instruction.
Again, to go back to Nicodemus, we use in the gospel that verse John 316, one of the perhaps the best known and well used gospel verses of all time. But it was the result of Nicodemus asking some questions and the Lord taking time to graciously answer them. When the Lord Jesus said in the 14th chapter, I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. That was the result of a question from a disciple who really perhaps should have known the answer, but he asked the question and because of the Lord's gracious answer.
Another precious truth is brought out with Martha here. There's some precious truth brought out too, in connection with death and resurrection and so on.
I want to just point out in connection with the Lord's answer here, that we spoke about sleep being taken up in three different ways, but death is taken up in three different ways in Scripture too. And if we don't understand that, we might be confused as to what the Lord Jesus was saying to Martha here. Death sometimes is taken up in connection with the physical. As the Lord had said, Lazarus is dead.
That he physically died and death in Scripture always denotes the separation of two things, and physical death is explained to us in the body without the spirit is dead. When the spirit leaves the body, the body is physically dead and it's buried usually. But then there's also just to skip over there's also.
There's the second death, that is, there's.
Eternal separation of a person in a lost eternity from God. So awful will it be after the Great White Throne Judgment to be eternally separated from God in the lake of fire. It's called the second death. But then there's also one who's dead in trespasses and sin. There's spiritual or moral death. Your iniquities have separated from you, from your God. Sin separated man from God, and man is viewed as dead in trespasses and sin with no ability to take one step toward God.
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And so those who hear the voice of the Son of God, they hear and they live here in your soul shall live. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so this is these aspects of death are here in our chapter. There's physical death. There's one who's dead in trespasses and sin, and they hear and they live. But then there's one who.
Is going to rise again at the third day, that rise again at the resurrection, one who's physically in the grave, they're going to hear the voice of the Son of God and they that are dead are going to rise.
The Lord explained earlier on in this gospel, so it doesn't mean that a person who's saved isn't going to physically die. They may physically die, but they're.
They're going to live again, they're going to live in, they have eternal life and they're going to be raised. The body sleeps. It's a temporary state of things. And as he explained to Martha, they're going to rise again in the end of the gospel when he said.
Of John if or to Peter, of John if I will, that he tarry till I come. What is that to thee follow thou me. Some of them thought that he wasn't going to die, but it tells us very plainly there that's not what he said, that John wasn't going to die. And we know John did die in the natural course of things in exile for his testimony. So a believer dies physically, their body sleeps, but they have eternal life and they're going to hear the shout and they're going to be raised again. That body is going to be raised again at the resurrection. So it's helpful to see these different contexts and perspectives, perspectives, perspective of things.
I just want to go back to a couple of the comments that you made about sitting in the house. And I just point out that in Mr. Darby's French translation that he renders it that she continued sitting where she remains sitting. And so it reveals her character and it reveals her confidence in the Lord. And so sometimes there is that which comes into our lives in connection with trial and instead of continuing.
In the path of confidence with the Lord there may be that tendency to arise and to try to.
Just to change our circumstances, but you'll notice and as often being noticed that Mary didn't rise up until it says in verse 31, when ** *** knew that the Lord had called her. It says Mary that she rose up hastily and went out. And so she was waiting for a call as it were from the Lord. She was going to wait.
In the house, and she remained seated, and when she got the call, she understood that the heart of the Lord had met her in her need, as it were, and had called her to comfort her. Perhaps we know that she asked the same question that Martha did, but the difference was that she wept, she wept. The heart was really engaged and it touched the Lord, and she came, and perhaps a different tone of voice, a different.
Way with the heart touched with Christ. And so, you know, we just take that for a lesson. We often would come into circumstances and we pace back and forth. We pace back and forth, we make phone calls, we do all kinds of things, but to just remain in the place of faith and confidence in Christ is really what we need.
Also needed to in this trial God saw need in her heart.
We saw that Martha needed to know himself better.
And so he what he's doing isn't just with Lazarus.
It isn't just to restore to them a brother into the household and make them happy in doing so and so on, but he had a purpose of love in his heart toward them that was going to enlarge them.
01:00:01
Was going to be to their everlasting benefit. And in the case of Martha.
His conversation with her when he talks to her first and alone, her thought is, well, even now you're here now he wouldn't have died, but now you're here. And well, Lord, whatever you ask, God will do it. She didn't have the confidence that God do it for her, but she did that God would do it for the Lord. And so you can ask God for me and he'll do it.
And his answer to her, He says.
Thy brother shall rise again that satisfy her, no.
No, that didn't satisfy her. She wanted action. She wanted it now. She wanted a specific and certain result.
That's what would satisfy her. She had an agenda, if you will, as to the right solution to the problem. She just didn't have the power to carry it out.
And so she turns to the Lord and said, well, Lord, if you've been here, you would have, you could have asked God and it would turn out differently than it has. So the Lord says to her.
Your brother will rise again. She says, well, I know that the Jews knew that there was going to be a resurrection, but that was a long time in the future. That was in the last day that wasn't going to be today's solve today's need. They wanted Lazarus now and so that wouldn't that wasn't a satisfactory answer to her and the Lord says to her in the next verse.
He says I'm the resurrection.
And I'm the Light. And that's what she really needed. She needed to know who he was, as she hadn't known him before. She needed to know that the Lord himself was really the answer, not something only that He might do. And often I believe in trial. The Lord is drawing us to himself, that we might know himself better.
And to know him, to learn his heart, to learn confidence in his person.
Is often a better answer than what our natural hearts would.
Crave in a solution.
And so the Lord often gives us something better than we wanted.
In the sense that we really wanted something else, but as it was for her.
He says whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall not die, and yet he has to push the point home to her, he said. Do you really believe it?
Do you really believe what I say to you as to who I am? And sometimes the Lord has to push on our hearts sometimes and say to your heart, Donald, do you really believe it?
Do you really believe it? Do you really believe in me?
Do you have confidence in me regardless of when or how or what I choose to do?
And do you see me as the resurrection? Here's death, the kind of the ultimate separation as to this light?
And yet, he says, Do you believe in me? It's the resurrection.
The always ultimate answer to everything himself.
Of life. But she didn't know Him as the source of life, and she needed to know both. Not the grace of God to just bring us into that knowledge and to enjoy the person of Christ in that way, both ways.
So both Martha and Mary knew where to turn in their extremity. They may have had different understanding and intelligence as to what was happening and as to the purposes of God and the person of Christ and so on. But isn't it beautiful to see that they both knew where to turn? And isn't it wonderful you might see a believer and maybe they have very little understanding of the deep things of God or the person of Christ and.
The Bible, but they know where to turn in their extremity. And I'd rather see a Christian who is very simple in the things of God or the things of Christ. And yet when the problem comes, they know where to turn. And so Martha and Mary, they both go to the Lord Jesus. And maybe there's someone here and you say today, well, so again, there's a lot of things I don't understand and I wish I could enter into, but what we want to encourage you is to go to the person.
Maybe you don't have all the answers and maybe you won't even get all the answers in that way, but your heart will be satisfied in the presence of the person. And not only that, but I'd just like to say this too, in connection with our comments in this reading, that we will never have peace and rest of soul in the circumstances of life without submission. Remember, one time because of a very tragic event, I had the solemn responsibility.
01:05:30
Of standing up and taking the funeral of a young brother in Christ.
And as I stood up to take that funeral, I looked into a sea of several hundred faces and a good percentage of them where this young man's peers, young people from all over North America.
And I said to these yet to those in the audience, I said, I realize that many of us have come here today looking for answers. And I said I don't have the answers as to why this was allowed. But and I said, even if God came in and gave us all the answers now as to why this event was allowed, I said without submission.
We still wouldn't have peace even if we had all the answers.
To why God allowed this circumstance without submission to his will and a sense of His having allowed it.
We wouldn't have peace and I believe, brethren, sometimes we even get the answers. The Lord allows us to see why.
He allowed this trial in our lives and we still wonder why we don't really have settled peace in our soul. As to the circumstance, well, I suggest, at least for my own soul, that it's often because I haven't fully submitted to his will. You know, it's interesting in the life of the Lord Jesus that the only time you read of him rejoicing is in Luke's gospel, and it's at a very difficult time in his pathway. It's a time when he had to look around at the cities he'd come to bless and pronounce judgment on them.
Because they'd rejected him, Did he feel it? Indeed he did feel it. But he says that same hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit. You say, why? How could he do such a thing? Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Perfect submission to His Father's will brought a joy and delight even at a difficult time, because He could. He knew the import of that verse that says joy. Us weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
He knew there was a purpose and that God had it all in control, and submitting to that to His Father brought a perfect joy and delight, even though he felt it so very keenly. And brethren, if there's going to be joy in our circumstances, if there's going to be peace and rest in our souls, it is not going to necessarily come with just the answers. It's going to come with submission to His will.
She was singing #9 in the appendix #9 in the appendix.
01:10:37
Sainsbury's.
Congress, your heart.
Read a couple of verses in Ephesians chapter one.
Ephesians chapter one and verse 10.
That in the dispensation of the fullness of poems, he might gather together in one all things in Christ.
Which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him.
Verse 12 That we should be to the praise of his glory.
And then in the second chapter of Ephesians.
In verse four, but God, who is rich in mercy.
For his great love wherewith he loved us.
Even when we were dead, and sins have quickened us together with Christ, by grace are ye saved, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places.
In Christ Jesus.
That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace.
In his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Gospel 8
God's Wisdom vs Man's Wisdom
YP Sing Address—D. VanHolstyn
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, I look here, I look at everyone and I see.
A number of young people, and I think, you know, everyone here must be a Christian.
But you know.
I think of the the book Pilgrim's Progress. There was a young man Christian dream, a dream about a young man named Presumptuous.
Presumptuous, he traveled the pilgrim's path.
All the way to the Celestial City.
And he knocked at the door and they didn't let him in.
And then he heard those words. I never knew him. Depart from iniquity.
Oh, I pray that each one in here.
That they when they were younger, they acknowledged that their Sinner and they came to know the Lord as their Savior. They came through the cross, the wicked gate.
They didn't come any other way, you know, I met a young lady. I asked her. She was about maybe 22 years old. I asked her how she got saved.
And she said I was born a Christian.
No, you're not born a Christian.
You had to, at one time or another, put your trust in Him. You had to acknowledge you're a Sinner.
The Lord Jesus, He washed away your sins, and then and only then are you on your way to glory, your fit for God's presence.
That's all I have to say about you. If you're like presumptuous, you need him.
But I really want to talk a few minutes about those that know the Lord as their savior.
You know.
This is the end of a school year and.
I know my one of my boys is graduating in 8th grade. They're gonna have a graduation ceremony. My other son, he's graduating from high school and two other young ladies from Grand Rapids are graduating from high school this year. And also my other son and another young lady are graduating from the university.
And you know, I was thinking on that line.
You know if.
They never asked me. I'm not a velvet Torian, so they never asked me to give a speech when I graduated. Maybe some of you they have, but you know.
If I were, if I was the bell, Victorian and I were to talk to each one of you.
I wanna talk to you in LA in light.
Of we're going to a a graduation and there's some advice valedictorian has only I want to not talk in view of.
Man's wisdom, but what God has to say to each one of you and me.
Let's just first turn.
To the book of Ecclesiastes. This is good advice for each one of us.
It says Ecclesiastes 1.
What profit hath a man of all his laborers, which he taketh under the sun?
We'll go down to verse 9.
It says the thing that he ha, the thing that hath been. It is that which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done. And there is no new thing under the sun.
You know, we always like to do exploring and we like to think that we're the 1St to do this.
And we're the 1St to climb this, you know?
The wisest man that lived on the earth beside the Lord, he said. It's all vanity.
There's nothing new under the sun.
00:05:08
It says also, Solomon said in.
In chapter 2 and verse one I said in mine heart, go to now I will prove thee with myrrh. Therefore enjoy pleasure, and behold, this also is vanity.
Solomon could say all the pleasures.
That are in this world, they're all vanity.
Vanity is emptiness.
It says.
In verse chapter 2, verse 11. Then I looked on all the works that my hands hath wrought, and all the labor that I have labored to do, and behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
And there is no profit under the sun. Oh, you know this world.
In all that it has to offer.
Is all vanity. It's emptiness. It leaves us empty.
It it cannot satisfy. God has made me and you so that this world only Christ can satisfy the heart.
You know, it says there's a verse in.
Jeremiah.
Jeremiah chapter 45 verse five, it says seek thou. Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not.
You know.
The people that lived during.
The time when Babylon, when Babel was built. It says in believe it's.
Genesis about chapter 19 it says they built a tower.
They built a tower. I can.
To reach to heaven and it says that.
That they might make a name for themselves.
You know, this world would have to would try to. It's Genesis 19.
The world would say you know when you leave, when you leave this school, that you have the whole world before you.
You might say the whole world in your hand, but Solomon says it's emptiness.
But the whole spirit is to make a name for himself, you know, and.
You can do that. Perhaps you would make it very well in business and perhaps you would even.
Get a building named after you. I know we have in Grand Rapids, uh, Van Andel Arena.
And we have many other buildings that are named after people.
But in view of eternity, what good is it?
It isn't it? It doesn't. It does nothing for us.
Oh, I might say what you and I, Those are things to avoid.
Those are pitfalls that we can fall into. But you know, I wanna look at just a few verses.
And something that can satisfy your heart.
It says.
In Proverbs.
Proverbs.
Chapter 2. Verse 14.
I read verse 13 yeah. If thou cryest after knowledge and lift it up thy voice for understanding. If thou seekest her for silver and searcheth for.
As for hid treasures, thou shalt understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God you know.
00:10:02
I remember not too many years ago being in your seat.
And.
Wondering what I was going to do.
And wondering and I looked around me and I saw, I saw people and.
And they?
They were they were rejoicing and rejoicing in the Lord and.
Remember.
I had a a roommate.
And.
When I was working in Toledo.
And I would come home from work and.
He would come home from work and he would get out his Bible and start reading it, and he would spend the evening reading the Bible and I would go out and perhaps play some basketball, maybe some tennis.
And then we both go to bed and we'd do that the next day and he'd get home from work and he'd read his Bible. And I thought, well, that's funny.
There must be something to it.
And we were together for not too long, maybe three months or so, and it was.
I thought, well, you know.
How can he do that? Just come home and work all day and then read the Bible and then he seems so happy and.
So I said, well, maybe I ought to try it.
So rather than going out.
Playing some basketball, I decided I was gonna spend the evening reading the word of God.
To my amazement, it was I had a joy, a joy in my heart.
I said, whoa, this is this is neat.
And I remember.
Pacing back and forth because I found a little gem in scripture by myself.
And I was so excited I couldn't sit in my chair and I got up and I walked around and I came back and sat down. We read for more. And this happened a number of times where I just couldn't sit still. There's something in scripture. There's something that the Lord.
Wants. He wants those treasures when you find them.
The real and they bring a joy in your heart and I want to tell each one of you.
You know, you might say, and you say, well, that person there, he's pretty, pretty square, but you ever tried it? Have you ever sat down just you and the Lord?
And just let him. Let him show you those treasures.
They're they're wonderful.
You'll never regret it.
You know.
Solomon, I mean Paul, Paul could say at the end of his life.
You could say I have fought a good fight.
And what that really means is.
That after all the struggles that he went through.
It was worth it.
And you know, I think of each one here.
Some of you, no doubt, are going through struggles.
But if you do it.
If you seek in a small measure to.
To serve the Lord, it will be worth it.
It'll be worth it, you know?
If you talk to old people.
You'll never meet a person who served the Lord.
00:15:01
That regrets doing it.
But you can meet many people.
Who at the end of their life they said it was a wasted life.
Perhaps they were a Christian all their life and nobody even knew it. They lived a life of self and it.
It just leaves us empty.
You know, even Jim's meeting.
He spoke about a vision and we need, we need that vision.
If we live for the day.
We're gonna die.
For the day.
It says in.
Corinthians.
First Corinthians, chapter 3.
Verse 13 Every man's works shall be manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's works of what sort it is.
Oh, there's going to be a day, a review day coming.
What are we going to say?
Perhaps we've known the Lord as our Savior. What are we going to say when we meet Him?
You know when, David?
Was in rejection in The Cave of a Dollom.
There was one person who loved David and his name was Solomon.
But you know Solomon, I mean, excuse me, Jonathan, but Jonathan did not.
Suffer with David in his rejection.
And He was the loser in the end, and you and I will be too. There's only the only the little time left here that we can suffer for His name's sake. We can, you might say, during his time of rejection.
Because in glory we'll never have that opportunity again. But now we have that little opportunity where we can identify ourselves with Christ.
Who died and rose again?
Well.
I don't really have.
Anything else to say but I want to tell you that.
If you decide, it says in Proverbs, my son, give me thine heart. That's what the Lord wants is our heart.
We decide we wanna serve the Lord. You know Joshua.
We won't take time to turn, but you could look at Joshua. I was looking about Joshua and his life. And Joshua it says if he he was a the minister of Moses or a servant of Moses, and that's what he did first.
If you follow the life of Joshua, he started out, he served.
Moses and then later on in his life we see he led the people of God.
I think of now is a time where you can, you can serve, serve the Saints.
And if the Lord would leave you, each one of you would.
Perhaps be held in responsible positions responsible in the assembly.
To carry on.
The truth maintain we would pray for each one. And that's all I have to say.
John 11:28-45
Lessons from the Life of Solomon
Parable of the Talents & Pounds