Pella Conference: 2016
Table of Contents
The Wilderness Teaching Us About God and Ourselves
Address—Bill Prost
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Good afternoon, could we sing together part of hymn #76?
Him #76.
Rise, my soul, thy God directs the stranger hands no more in peace.
Pass though on his hand protects the strength that has the captive freed. Written by a relatively young man at the age of 37 back in 1837, and the initials are well known JND Britain as a young man starting out in the work of the Lord and enjoying the thought that the Lord was before him.
Will sing the 1St 6 verses please of number.
76 And perhaps we can sing it to the same tune as what a friend we have in Jesus.
I would like you to turn with me, please, to a very familiar scripture in Numbers Chapter 21. Numbers Chapter 21.
This scripture is extremely well known.
And I would suppose that most of the children here are familiar with what we're going to read.
But it has much in it for our souls. Numbers 21 and we'll start reading.
In verse 4.
And they, that is the children of Israel, journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom.
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And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.
And the people speak against God and against Moses.
Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light bread.
And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of Israel died.
Therefore the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned.
For we have spoken against the Lord and against thee.
Pray unto the Lord that he take away the serpents from us.
And Moses prayed for the people.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, And it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
Again, I say a very well known story and this is not.
Especially a young people's meeting. But allow me to say that I hope the children and the young people will be able to understand what is brought before us in this scripture, but also those of us that are older.
Because here, the children of Israel, we're getting very near to the land of Canaan.
And we know of course, that it was actually only perhaps 11 days journey had they gone there directly. And that was God's purpose for them. But because they caused so many problems, when the spies looked out over that land of Canaan, you will remember that ten of the spies came back.
With a bad report.
And as a result, the Lord said, you will turn around and you will go 40 years through the wilderness until everyone that is over the years of 20 has died and your children that you were complaining about would fall prey to those giants in the land of Canaan. They will be the ones to go in.
Do you know the wilderness is not part of God's councils?
That is why when you read the history of faith in the 11Th chapter of Hebrews, you find no mention of the wilderness.
The mention of the Red Sea, yes. The mention of the Jordan, yes. But no mention of the wilderness. But the wilderness is part of God's ways with us.
And we learn two things in the wilderness. We learn what God is.
And we learn what we are.
It's not very nice sometimes to learn what we are.
But you know it is necessary.
Not to be occupied with ourselves, that's not the point.
The Christian that is occupied with himself is never happy.
Pardon my repeating that the Christian who is occupied with himself is never happy.
But if I don't realize myself and what I am, I will never really grow in my Christian life and in the desert. I learn what I am, but I learn what God is too.
And there is a parallel between what happened here.
And the day in which you and I are living.
Because the children of Israel at this point, and if you look at the chronology, I believe this is correct, they were only perhaps two years away from the land of Canaan. They had already been in the desert 38 years.
Only two years away.
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For you and me, I hope it's less than two years.
A few years ago, a man by the name of Harold Camping made a rather wild prediction about the Lord's coming.
And he made a date which was in the spring of the year. And then after it didn't workout, he said, well, I made a mistake. It's going to be October.
I said to someone I hope he's wrong and they looked at me rather shocked. I said I hope it's a lot sooner than October.
We're not expecting it to be two years.
But the point is, they were almost at the end of the journey here. And what happens it says in verse.
For the end and the soul of the people was much.
Discouraged because of the way? Hmm.
If you notice in the Darby translation it uses the word impatient.
And we might say, well, after all, can you blame them for being impatient?
But they weren't impatient in the right way.
They were impatient with the Lord.
And there is a lot of discouragement among believers today, and not only those gathered to the Lord's name. As I travel around, I not infrequently have a chance to talk to those who are dear believers but who are not gathered to the Lord's name, and the discouragement and the difficulties about which they tell me.
Is very real.
Difficulties differ from nationality to nationality and culture to culture.
But they are there.
And they are real.
And the sorrows and the heartaches that beset the Saints of God.
Are sometimes very hard to bear.
And they are there for two reasons. They are there, first of all, because we follow a rejected Christ.
And if we think somehow that we are going to have a nice, comfortable existence in this world and lead what we might call good, morally upright lives and then go to heaven at the end, oh, thank God for all that. But if we think that that is all there is to it, we will find that the Lord will stir things up for us. Because we are.
In a world that has rejected him.
But there is another reason which is coupled with the first one.
And that is that Satan is doing his utmost in these last days to spoil.
Any little iota of Christian testimony that he can.
It says in the Book of Revelation, when Satan is cast out of heaven, that he cometh down with great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
That's in the middle of the Tribulation week.
But we might transpose that to our day, because Satan is no fool, and he knows that the day of grace is drawing to a close, and in that sense he knows that he has but a short time.
And I believe he's redoubling his efforts to trouble and discourage believers. I've said this before, and I don't mean to make a joke in the middle of a serious address, but if he can get you and me paralyzed in our Christian lives.
He has accomplished his aim.
Like the person who comes into work and I've seen it sometimes on a Monday morning, bleary eyed and groping from a lack of sleep and looking for the cup of coffee or something. And you say to them, how are you this morning? Well, I'm here as if don't expect too much more, at least not for a while until I get this coffee down me and until I kind of get my act together.
And the devil wants to make you and me as if we're just, well, we're here.
That's about it.
Here the people became discouraged because of the way.
Impatient.
The word also, and anyone can look this up, has the sense of grass or wheat or something being cut down, just not able to go on.
And you know.
We have to realize that discouragement.
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Is a sin.
Discouragement is a sin.
Do we realize that?
A dear brother, long since with the Lord, made this remark, which stuck with me.
He said the believer who is truly humble is never discouraged.
I remember reading that over 10 times and really trying to wrap my mind around it. The believer who is truly humble is never discouraged.
I must have read that 30 years ago. And you know it's true. It's true because when we are discouraged, it is because we are expecting something and not getting it. Sometimes from our fellow man, sometimes from our fellow believer, and sometimes, sad to say, from the Lord himself.
And we're not getting it. And then we get discouraged and it's a sin because pride has lifted itself up. And it literally says, Lord, I have this coming to me. We don't often think of discouragement that way, do we? And don't think that I have not been discouraged. Don't think that I am pointing the finger at any of you here.
But it is a sin before God, because really it is pride lifting its head up in God's presence and saying.
This ought to be happening and it isn't happening.
And these Israelites were discouraged, impatient because of the way.
And what happens?
And the people, and notice the order here. The people speak against God and against Moses.
The Lord was at the root of the problem in their minds, and they spoke against God. And how solemn that is. And maybe you and I wouldn't do it out loud.
But have we in our hearts become impatient with the Lord sometimes and upset with His ways with us? It can happen, can't it?
And don't get me wrong, I am not accusing anyone of all of this. All I say to my heart and to yours. As the old saying goes, if the cap fits, maybe I should wear it. Is that fair?
They spoke against God and then against Moses. And if I become upset?
With my brethren, if I become upset with the condition of things among my brethren.
Once again, that is self and pride.
Is there plenty to be upset about? Yes, there is.
But there is also plenty to be upset about right here, isn't there?
And you know, the man of God that the Lord used in difficult times among his people in both the Old and the New Testaments were those who were the first to identify with the ruin and the failure. You think, for example, of a man like Moses? He identified with the people of God and interceded for them.
And a man like Ezra who identified with the failure of the people of God and interceded for them. A man like Daniel who associated himself with the failure, even though you could say, but he wasn't part of it. He was a godly man, but he connected himself with it and the Lord could use him.
And the one man. Can you think of who it was who interceded against the people of God in the Old Testament?
The only case where the failure of an Old Testament St. is recorded in the New Testament.
Dear Elijah.
And the Lord says, as soon as he did that, I can't use you anymore. I can't use you in that spirit anymore.
And you know, this passage really speaks to my own soul, because these people, they spoke against God and then against Moses.
And you know when we start finding fault with the condition of things.
Feeling the burden of it, feeling the last days and the failure of them, yes.
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Bearing a real exercise before the Lord and groaning about it, yes.
But complaining about it? No, no.
The world has a saying. Are you part of the problem or are you part of the solution?
Well, it works in spiritual things too. And what do these people have to say?
Verse 5. Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?
For there is no bread, neither is there any water, and are so loathe this light bread.
They are hankering to go back to Egypt. It was still there.
Way back when the spies went into the land, they were so upset at the bad report of those 10 spies that they said let's make a captain and go back to Egypt.
And you know.
There are two things that are connected in their lives in the wilderness that ultimately speak to your heart and mind, and in English they both begin with AC.
First of all they made a golden calf, and then they made a captain, or wanted to, to go back to Egypt. A calf and a captain. The calf speaks of idolatry, the captain speaks of rebellion against God.
And both can happen even in the Christian's life, maybe not actual idolatry, but in spirit idolatry, which is chasing after the things of this world and wanting to go back in spirit to Egypt, which speaks of the world. And they couldn't get that out of their system, as we say.
Do we have trouble with that? Sometimes? Yes, we do.
Worldliness bothers us in North America more than we realize, because it's insidious and it creeps in and there are opportunities here, perhaps not the way they once were, but it creeps into my heart, It creeps into my Christianity, it creeps into my life and spoils my enjoyment of heavenly things.
And as a result, they said, there is no bread and no water.
Had the Lord ever failed them?
Can you imagine the amount of food needed?
To serve probably between 2 and 3 million people every day, and yet the Lord had done it at this point for 38 years.
He had never failed them.
And the same with water.
And I want to say this to your soul and mind. Sometimes we hear a complaint we are not being fed.
Some of us who are older take that to heart because it can happen where the kind of food that you young people especially really need is not given to you in the right way. We admit that and it's humbling. And I sometimes ask young people after a Bible conference, did you enjoy it? And it always gratifies me.
And they say yes.
And I'm always humbled when they sometimes say I had a hard time understanding some of it.
But the point is, the Lord wants to feed your soul and mind. He wants to do it. And if you and I want food, the Lord will give it to us. You will remember in the book of Judges when Gideon.
Was threshing wheat behind the wine press? It was at the same time that the media Knights were taking all the food that belonged to Israel. Where did he get the wheat? I don't know, but he got it. He was going to have food and God will provide you and me food. But let's be careful that we're not like these Israelites that call it light bread. Oh dear, what a way to talk light bread.
That manner spoke of Christ.
Do we get tired of the ministry of that Blessed One?
That one who fills all things at God's right hand now.
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That one whose earthly pathway gives us the example for our lives down here.
Are so low that this light bread.
And yet there is more in Christ to fill your soul and mind than anything in this world to discourage and take away. There is more to give us enjoyment in our hearts.
But you know, we have to get the other things out of the way. We have to get the hindrances out of the way. That's all we have to do. And what a difference it makes. Are we willing to do that?
Well, you know the Lord dealt with these people here and it says in verse six and the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people and much people of Israel died.
We hardly need to comment on what the serpent speaks of, do we?
Because it was the serpent that caused all the problems in the Garden of Eden. It was Satan appearing in the guise of a serpent that caused all those difficulties.
Brought them in.
And he still referred to in scriptures that old serpent, the devil, and he's out there waiting to bite you.
He can't do it unless the Lord allows it.
But may I say this, the Lord is allowing Satan as a fiery serpent to bite many of the Saints of God today. And I'm not referring to anyone thing, don't get me wrong.
A serpent's bite can take many forms.
And don't again misunderstand me. In no way am I implying that all of the difficulties and problems in a believer's life are traceable back.
To worldliness and disobedience to Christ.
Nor are they all due to Satan's influence, no.
But I do say this, that as it was in the case of Job, so often in the case of believers that the Lord is allowing Satan to bite.
And the power of Satan is very real, and he can only go so far as the Lord gives him permission.
But here he sent these fiery serpents among the people, and he is doing that among many of the people of God today, and not simply in North America. It's happening everywhere in this world. Fiery serpents. Why does the Lord do it?
Oh, because he wants to recall us to himself.
Are we willing to be recalled to themselves?
Now again, don't misunderstand me, I lookout here and I see older ones, I see people who are middle-aged and I see a good number of young people. And it does my heart good to see you here. And I know that in many of your hearts and maybe most of you, there is a real desire to go on for the Lord and you have a most difficult day in which to live for the Lord, because the devil is marshalling all his forces.
And men's hearts are beginning to fail them for fear because of the condition of things in this world.
And all I would say to you is, and we don't have time to dwell on it, but there is a path for faith and it is a happy path.
There is a path for you today through all of the complexity and irregularities of this world.
We may look at the economic situation, we look at the political situation, we look at the condition of the Church, which is worse than anything.
And we may look at other angles of things in this world and say, oh, how can I possibly make any headway in this world?
And you know what is happening.
Morally and spiritually, as it says here, much people are dying.
Not physically, but morally and spiritually. Many people are dying in this world. Many believers are morally and spiritually dead because of the bite of the serpent. They are basically saying this is too much.
This is too much.
And compromise becomes the way to get around it. Because if we're willing to compromise, Satan will.
You'll make a way for life to be easier if you're willing to compromise. Young people in my dear brethren, don't do it. Don't do it.
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Make no compromise, You and I have been given the most precious truth that God ever gave to man.
And we live in the most wonderful day in the history of the church, right on the eve of the Lord's return. Maybe you say, I would like to have lived back in the early days of the church, or I would like to have lived 150 some odd years ago when there were tremendous revivals in every part of the Western world and there was tremendous blessing in the Gospel. Tremendous blessing.
Half of me would too.
In one sense. But in another sense, I wouldn't trade. I wouldn't trade. Why? Because it's wonderful to live right near the end, on the eve of the Lord's return, right on the cusp if you like, to see everything heading right up to that wonderful time.
Well, the Lord sent fiery serpents, and what happens? Our time is going verse seven. Therefore the people came to Moses.
And again notice the right order and said we have sinned.
For we have spoken against the Lord and against thee.
They recognize that their first.
Complaint had been against the Lord himself and then against His servant. Let's remember that if I find fault with someone else, one of my brethren.
And I don't mean that it's wrong for us to identify perhaps areas where someone else whom we know well is perhaps going down the wrong road and seeking to be a help to one another. That's scriptural. But complaining and finding fault just for the sake of doing it?
That's wrong. That's really speaking. First of all, against the Lord and against thee. But notice what they say. Pray unto the Lord that he take away the serpents from us.
And you know, my first thought is when there is a serious problem or difficulty and they can be very, very serious.
As I travel around, I get to know some of you better.
And I know as I look into your faces, I can see those right now sitting in this audience whom I know are passing through deep waters. My heart aches for you. I see some who have family problems, real difficulties, financial problems, other difficulties that maybe they don't voice out loud too often.
But they are a constant ache in the soul that never goes away.
And our first thought, perhaps, is to pray, Lord, take away the fiery serpents.
Moses was a man of God, and what does he do when he prays?
And I say this to each one of us. It simply says in Moses prayed for the people. He did not pray that the fiery serpents would be taken away. He prayed for the people. Why? Because he knew that underneath it all, the Lord had blessing in store for them far greater than merely taking away those fiery serpents. He knew that if there was a cause, the root needed to be addressed, and he didn't want them simply to have.
Problem taken away. He wanted there to be real blessing. He wanted them first of all to know themselves, as we said, and then he wanted them to know the Lord in a deeper, fuller way.
And what happens here?
As I say, probably the youngest child here, except the baby's, knows that what happened next. Verse eight. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole, And it should come to pass that everyone that is bitten, when you looketh upon it, shall lift.
Moses prayed and the Lord gave an answer.
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And I say to your heart and mind.
Sometimes we get the idea that the more people that pray about a matter, the more likely the Lord is.
To answer.
I was rather amused in reading in our written ministry quite a few years ago now, where? An older brother said.
He said whenever I want something, want the Lord to do something quickly, I ask some young people to pray for him. He said because they don't see any of the difficulties, of the problems. They just pray simply and in real faith. And very often the Lord does it. Well, that was an interesting twist, but the point is.
Prayer is founded not on the fact that allowed crescendo of prayer going up to heaven will get the Lord's attention.
But prayer is rather founded, as another dear brother most aptly put it, prayer is founded on the immense privilege of our having common interests with God.
May I repeat that prayer is founded on the immense privilege of our having common interests with God.
It is far better for one individual to be praying for a situation who has the mind of the Lord and is walking with the Lord.
And 1000 people who merely hear about a problem and start praying about it.
Moses prayed for the people, he prayed in fellowship with the Lord, and the Lord told him what to do.
Make a fiery serpent. That's the last thing that you would have thought would have been right to do.
Can you imagine an Israelite looking at one of those serpents coming along and biting him and saying, and look, there's another one up on a pole just to remind me of it?
Uh, there was something most precious there.
And this is for our hearts.
We all know.
What that fiery serpent spoke of.
If there's any doubt, it tells us in the New Testament, doesn't it? It tells us very clearly.
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, third chapter of John, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
The Lord Jesus had to be made sin on the cross.
In order that you and I might be saved. In order that the bite of that fiery serpent might be nullified.
That's the first lesson to learn from this is to be taken back to Calvary's cross.
You and I are getting discouraged by the way, if you and I are getting impatient if you and I are finding the way rather rough and difficult.
We need to go back to Calvary's cross and see that one there who gave everything for you and me. And it's particularly poignant when you look at what this serpent spoke of, because it speaks of Christ being made sin for us.
It doesn't speak of the physical sufferings of Christ, terrible though they must have been. It speaks of what took place in those hours of darkness when he was made sin and forsaken of God. In order that you and I.
Might be brought into blessing.
We need to go back to Calvary's cross.
But there's another point to be made here too, and that is this.
If that serpent of brass speaks of all the judgment of your sin and mine laid on him.
And it really should be copper, not brass. Brass is an alloy, but copper is pure, and it should be copper. A serpent was made of copper.
And copper in Scripture or brass speaks of judgment.
But it also speaks of self judgment.
And there needed to be, not merely.
In tight here a going back to.
So where their redemption originated, there needed to be self judgment.
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It's not an easy thing to do and God never, never occupies you and me with ourselves except in self judgment.
But it's a necessary thing.
And has another has very well remarked many, many years ago that self judgment is the inseparable condition of a walk in communion with God, Self judgment. And if I am unwilling to exercise self judgment, I stunt my growth as a believer, because there is an area then of my heart which the Lord wants to open up.
And to cleanse out, as it were. And I if I firmly close that door, do not let the Lord in.
And how often that's a problem. I remember once, quite a few years ago now, there was a dear brother who had.
A particular thing in his life that he needed to judge. And I guess I knew him well enough to draw to his attention. And his first response, as I kind of half expected it would be, was to, as we would say, to get his back up a little and.
To say, well look brother, the Lord is blessing me in this area of my life and that area of my life and in this area of my life.
How can there be something that I need to deal with? The Lord is using me.
Oh, I said brother, thank God he is.
But I said, brother, I grew up on a fruit farm, which is true.
And I said we learned that we pruned a good tree far more carefully than we pruned one that was not producing fruit very well. But the good tree needed pruning.
The good tree needed pruning.
Why? In order that it might produce more fruit. And I said the Lord is using you brother, but he's trying to prune something that will allow you to bear more fruit. Well, I'm very happy to say that he took that advice and he dealt with that issue and he is producing even more fruit today.
But sometimes we refuse to believe that we need self judgment. We say no, I don't have that problem.
We're in what we call denial.
And that's a solemn thing, isn't it?
Self judgment a very necessary thing.
And so Moses makes that serpent of brass, and puts it upon a pole.
And it says.
If a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
All we need more living Christians today. We need more Christians that are alive for the Lord's glory, alive for his interest down here. It's a day of opportunity. We just heard in the prayer meeting about the opportunities in Brazil, although they are so frequent and so many that there are not enough workers to satisfy the needs.
There is plenty to do for the Lord.
In these last days, the fields are white to harvest, plenty to do, not only in preaching the gospel, but in seeking to be a help to souls that are saved. The needs are tremendous.
And may I say this, that I am persuaded that there is a lot of gift and a lot of energy there that could be used for the Lord.
Let's see Grace to do it for him. Let's not become discouraged because of the way. Let's not.
Allow the serpent.
And his bite.
To kill me morally and spiritually.
Let's look to that serpent of brass. Let's first of all, have our hearts touched.
By that sacrifice on Calvary's cross.
Let's have our conscience is touched.
And be ready to exercise self judgment.
And we all have to do it.
And let's be among those in these last days who live.
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Our time is gone. Let's finish that hymn, please.
#76.
The last four verses.
Last verse There are no stranger God.
And that's meant to be a hyphenated word. There are no stranger Gods shall meet thee, stranger thou in courts above.
He who to his rash shall greet thee, greets thee with a well known love on his death bed. The author of this hymn made these remarks. He said, Well, it will be a strange thing to be in heaven.
But he said.
Thank the Lord it will not be a strange Christ. It will be 1 whom I have known and loved.
For many years.
#76 verse seven and we'll sing it to the same tube.
Hebrews 11:1-7
Reading
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Hebrews Chapter 11, you made reference to it, brother, and your address, and I think there's a lot there that can be a help to us as to faith. And it mentions pilgrims there too that we sang about.
What do you think?
I think that would be very good chapter to take up.
MMM.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report.
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness.
That he was righteous God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being dead, yet speaketh.
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found because God had translated him. For before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. But 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.
By faith Noah, being warned of God, of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
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By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after.
Receive for an inheritance obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.
For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised therefore sprang there even.
Of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises.
But having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is in heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.
For he hath prepared for them a city.
By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten Son, of whom it was said.
That in Isaac shall thy seed be called accounting. That God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph, and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel.
And gave commandment concerning his bones.
By faith, Moses when he was born was hid three months of his parents because they saw that he was a proper child.
And they were not afraid of the King's commandment By faith. Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God.
Than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, For he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
By faith He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the King, for He endured as seeing Him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the first born should touch them.
By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians are saying to do, were drowned.
By faith, the Walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days.
By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with him that believe, not when she had received the spies with peace.
And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, of Barrick and of Samson, and of Jephthah, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouth of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant, and fight turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
Women received their dead, raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, Yeah, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented.
Of whom the world was not worthy, they wandered in desert, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise. God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
00:10:21
We go back to the 10th chapter and the 20 of the 38th verse. It says now the just shall live by faith, and if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
Kind of is the introduction to this chapter that is about faith.
And it's not so much in verse one, a definition of faith, but it is what faith does.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
In the second chapter it says we see Jesus Christ.
Crowned with glory and honor.
How do we see him?
Have we ever seen him with our eyes?
No.
Not with our physical eyes, but with the eye of faith.
And it becomes so real.
What Scripture tells about his occupying that place of highest glory in the presence of God, It is the evidence of things not seen. So it becomes real to us even though we haven't physically seen it and so.
The definition of faith has been given and I think it's helpful in John chapter 3.
And verse 33. Just remember 333.
It says.
In this verse he that hath received his testimony has set to his seal that God is true.
That's faith. That's the definition of what faith is. We believe it. God cannot lie.
There's something we do that God cannot do. God cannot lie. So even though I do not understand.
I believe it.
Because God cannot lie, I said to his seal. That God is truth.
So that is the definition of faith.
Takes God at His word without question, and God values that very much. In fact, just notice the 35th verse of the 10th chapter of Hebrews. And we see how much God values that confidence in Himself and in His Word. Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which has great recompense of reward. The story has often been told, but I'll repeat it because it touches my own heart.
Of a brother who was visiting in a convalescent hospital and he was going from bed to bed giving out some gospel tracks as well as speaking to those that he knew who were there as believers and seeking to encourage and the stories told that he came to the bed of a lady who'd been lying on that bed for many years, unable to do to move very much. And she was a true believer, but she looked at this young brother this day and she said, you know.
I've been lying here feeling so bad today because there's nothing I can do here on this convalescent bed that I can get reward for, nothing I can really do for the Lord. Well, this brother very wisely opened his Bible and read to her this verse. Cast not away. Therefore thy confidence, for of such is great recompense of reward, and God values that faith. Maybe there's someone here today and you say I'm facing an insurmountable difficulty, just nothing I can do.
Just seems like there's nothing it's a hopeless situation. Just have faith. Maybe there is nothing we can do other other than just trust the Lord. And just before we launch on this chapter two, I've enjoyed how that faith in this chapter does three things. Faith brings us into relationship with God and you get that perhaps in the first three individuals that are mentioned and in in the in the first 7 verses you have able.
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Enoch and and Noah faith brings us into relationship with God.
But then faith also brings into view the unseen world, things that, as you say, we don't see with the natural eye, but are very, very real to faith. And as we go down these verses and notice some of these individuals like Moses and others, faith brought into view some things that no one else saw in their day. But they were, while they were not brought to view naturally or physically speaking.
They were no less real to the eye of faith. Then at the end of the chapter, we learned too that faith gives the spiritual energy.
To overcome obstacles even in the face of real persecution and martyrdom.
And many of our brethren are experiencing that in a very real way, in ways that most of us here perhaps will never experience in our life. So faith brings us into relationship with God, it brings us into view things in the unseen world, and it gives us the spiritual energy to live for Christ and for his glory in spite of whatever obstacles and opposition there may be in our pathway.
Is based on the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. It's not just some vague idea that pops into my mind that I fixate on.
No, it is something that is definitely communicated by God.
And you might say in these first individuals, Able and Enoch and Noah, they didn't have the word of God in their hands yet. There was some communication, I suppose Abel heard from his parents about what God did when they had sinned and how there were animals that were killed so that they could be properly covered.
Before God, and so it's based on some communication from God.
It's important that this not just a vague idea. No, it's based on something very certain. And for us who have the word of God in our hands, God never contradicts His word. So how important it is to challenge ourselves? We say we have faith. Does the faith you profess is it based on the word of God?
That's the faith that God will honor. And like you were saying, Jim, it.
Takes into, uh, recognition that which is not seen with the human eye.
And I often think of David when he faced Goliath.
For David.
The battle was not David versus Goliath, it was God versus Goliath.
It says.
In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence, and that word confidence that you read in the end of chapter 10.
Con is where it means with.
C is the word for faith with faith.
O brethren, wonderful to see that strong confidence on David's part as he runs toward the giant. I've often thought if it was me, I think I might have stayed back a bit and taken my shots from there. But David, his confidence was such that he ran.
Toward Goliath and he was not disappointed brethren that's our God we need to take him into the picture like was brought out there's difficulties in the path that we're treading today who doesn't have problems I go around from 1 Country to another I hire the problems they have most of the problems I don't have much of an answer for sometimes I can give a scripture to but.
Sometimes I say to the brethren, can't you tell me?
00:20:01
About somewhere where I can go, there's no problems.
Sorry, there isn't such a place down here in this world.
But we have a God we can count on in those problems, and sometimes he doesn't deliver us from the problems.
He delivers us through the problems. But Bill was speaking about God. Didn't take away the fiery serpents, did they?
They asked that they would take those fiery serpents away. God didn't do that, but He gave them a way to be healed from the bite of those fiery serpents. So God's ways are different than ours, and that's why we're here in this world, to learn Him. Learn his ways, learn his faithfulness, His power, His love. Oh brethren, what a tremendous God we have. And we learn in here in a way that we'll never be able to get to learn him in heaven.
Right here and now.
I think what we find in this chapter here is that God's school and he gives a report card at the end of it. And, uh, so it's not a case of going to school down here, uh, uh, building a brick and stone and whatnot, but in God's school of adversity. And that's what we find with all these Saints here that are given to us, this, these names and some of them came through it and some of them died in it. And God did not give the same deliverance to all of them.
And so neither with any one of us too. And we all have our, our uh, lessons to learn in this school.
First, tell two tells us that they obtained a good report or a good testimony from the fact that there was practical evidence of faith in in their lives. And I, I just want to echo what's been said because I heard, I've heard people talk about blind faith. I've even heard people say faith is a leap in the dark, But those expressions are not scripturally accurate. There's no such thing as blind faith.
Faith is not a leaf in the dark. Faith always acts on what it knows at the time. It acts on the light that is given for the moment. It may not be light for a long distance ahead, but it takes the step based on what God has said at the time. And so, brethren, we need to, we need the light of God's Word. We need God's Word, but we also need faith. Then to take those steps, we talk about our path of faith.
It's step after step, it's lap after lap as we learn from the next chapter. It's running the race.
With endurance, that which is set is set before us. And so as you say, Brother Ken, they received a good report. They had, there was a good testimony, but it was because, as was said earlier, faith gave substance to their lives. It was evidenced in their lives. You know, in the Old Testament there were those who brought before us and you read their life and you say, oh, there's no doubt that person.
Had faith. Why? Because of simply what they thought. No, you know, I can tell you a lot of things. I can think a lot of things, but if I don't act on it, there's really no testimony in that. And so James takes up practical faith. And there we find that faith without works is dead. We can talk about our faith. We can sit here and we can talk about having faith. We can go over these verses, but faith without work?
Is dead. Why because there's no good report. There's no testimony if there isn't the works the practical evidence of it in our lives. And remember too in this chapter, it's not their failures but their faith that is brought out. None of these men and women were perfect in the sense of the their failure. There were failures. You go back and you read of the failures of some of these ones. But what he's focusing on here.
And what he values here is their faith. So I say that because don't be discouraged as we go through this chapter and say, oh, I could never stand by Noah. I could never stand by Enoch or Abel or Moses or Joseph or the ones that are mentioned at the end of the chapter. I could never stand by them. That's not the point. Yes, they were men of like passion, of passions, like as we are. They were, they were men and women who had failures in their life.
00:25:03
But God was able to separate the precious from the vile and to see their faith. And when there were failures in their life like Abraham and David and these ones, they got before the Lord about it and they confessed it and there was restoration and always a way back. So I just say that don't be discouraged by reading this chapter and say I could never live up to that. Here we have their their faith and there's a day coming, brethren, when God is going to the Lord is going to.
Go over our lives. He's going to set aside that which is not a faith, and then he's going to reward. Cast not away. Therefore thy confidence for of such is great recompense of reward.
Sometimes I look at the two words in that very first verse I look at.
So we have an assurance, don't we? We have assurance in place of a substance because God cannot lie. Now the faith assurance of things hoped for in our English language, that word hoped automatically carries a question mark with it to us. It does not carry the question mark.
Because of the assurance he has stated it, we will get it and there is assurance of it. So there are question mark is removed. That's what substance is trying to give you. I touch a chair, I say this is substance and it makes it hard for me to. I can't touch substance in a hole physically. But I can think of it now as assurance because God has said it and He cannot lie. So therefore it will take place, doesn't it?
For the evidence of things not seen, and that is the conviction of that. For I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. I have a conviction of whom I've placed my soul into for safekeeping. And that is the very same one that take care of those things that I have not seen. I have a conviction about the completion of my salvation. I was saved today. I'm currently being saved, but in the future.
I will be saved. I have a conviction about that. That's the and so when if we replace these two and we read it, the faith is the assurance of things hoped for, that conviction of things not seen. We almost can add the word yet in there, can't we? Sometimes the word if in the Bible, I'd like to take it and remove it and change it to when and and this is one of those things.
Because I will. There's no if in it. It's when it it will take place. They won't it I have a conviction of it.
Thank you.
God doesn't it? And that is the wonderful thing about it. If we can see something tangibly, then in that sense we don't have to exercise faith, do we? But what a wonderful thing it is when God gives us something in His Word and we rest on it, believe it, walk in the good of it, How God is honored in all of that.
We had a remark a few minutes ago that there's no such thing as blind faith.
Not in Scripture, but there is in this world, and there are many in this world who are exercising blind faith and who have their faith in that which ultimately has no substance, and they find to their sorrow, no doubt.
That things are not what they expected. I read on the Internet a little while ago about a woman who said when she died, all of those mysteries of life and death that I never understood will suddenly become clear to me.
I immediately thought, well, if you don't know the Lord, they will become brutally clear to you.
00:30:02
But that isn't real faith as spoken of in the Word of God. Is it real faith?
Seize the Word of God.
Rests upon it and honors the Lord. And that is the great thing, isn't it? When you and I exercise real faith before Him, He gets the glory.
And it's interesting in that regard, isn't it, that before he takes up these different individuals, he speaks of creation?
Because we accept by faith the Genesis account of creation, not because God has answered all our curious questions. And that's true in our lives too, isn't it? I remember one time standing up to address a large audience at a very, very tragic event. And I looked into the faces of many young people who had come on that occasion. And I said, I realized that there are many of us who have come.
From many places looking for answers as to why God has allowed this tragedy.
I said I don't have the answers and I said even if God were pleased to give us all the answers as to why.
He has allowed this in the lives of certain individuals and to affect us all who are here in one way or another. We still wouldn't have peace and we wouldn't need faith if we had all the answers. Now, God does often give us answers, but faith rests on God even though we don't understand everything. And so I accept the Genesis account of creation not because God has answered all our curious questions about how this and that and certain time frames and and so on.
But He has told us enough in His Word to show that He is Creator, and whether I understand it or have my questions answered or not, by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God.
And we have to really start there, don't we? Because if we don't understand that God is the creator.
And sustainer of the universe and accept it by faith. We're not going to be able to accept things in our lives by faith as well. If we're always looking for the answers to everything in creation and in the way the universe operates and so on, and why this and why that? How can we bring this down to our personal lives then and accept God's ways in our lives now? Brethren, I know it takes faith to just leave things with the Lord.
In our lives we'd like to have answers, and I'm not saying sometimes God doesn't give us answers. In retrospect, we look back and we say, OK, I see now.
Why that was allowed. But I believe too, brethren, there are many things in our lives we're just going to have to leave for a coming day.
But faith will be answered in a coming day.
Paul said I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed.
Unto him against that day, there is a day coming when we're going to see it all and we're going to understand. But in the mean time.
The just shall live by faith. It takes real faith to count on God and to just leave those things with Him. So there's no doubt other reasons why He brings in creation here. But I suggest again, if we don't start there, it's not going to trickle down to our personal lives.
Corinthians 13 we know in part, and that's the condition we're in today. If I would ask your brother Jim.
You know quite a bit.
Of all the information that can be known, what percent would you say you know?
Put a number on it, please. 0000.00001 Percent, That's probably off. That's way off too. That's true. It's just we know in part, brother. And as much as we might know, I remember speaking to some young people one time in a detention home and one young man says I don't believe in God because of the way things have happened in my life.
And I asked him that question, How much do you know of all that can be known?
So maybe about 30%. Wow, you are knowledgeable.
But here's a God that knows absolutely everything.
And with 30%, do you feel capacitated to judge what God does? I'd say you're pretty on pretty shaky ground. And that draws attention to the the word that you mentioned there in verse three, brother Jim.
00:35:14
By faith we understand. That's interesting, isn't it? It's not blind. Given the revelation of God that we have in the person of the Lord Jesus, we know that God is infinite. He is eternal. There is no measuring stick that you can put on him as to His knowledge, as to His power.
And given those facts, is there any, uh, question that he could call the whole universe into existence that we live in? Absolutely makes sense. Makes perfect sense. Let's go back to Psalm 33.
I really enjoy what it says there about Creation Notice.
Psalm 33, verse 6.
By the word of the Lord, where the heavens made, and all the host of them. By the breath of his mouth. Verse 9.
For he spake, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast.
Interesting by the word of his mouth, so that God created the whole universe, and as it says here, they were made of things which do not appear. For I'm going to make something. I make say this chair, I make it of things that are already existent. That is not creation. Creation is bringing things into existence.
That did not appear before How? By the word of His power.
Wonderful, tremendous to get a hold of that. And I think it is really basic in our understanding of the Scriptures that we accept God as a creator. God. He made it all and when He made it, He had a purpose. If I make this chair, I have a purpose for this chair. God had a purpose in making this universe to display His glory. To me. It is fascinating that they cannot.
Find the edge of the known universe. And even if they would find an edge, they would probably say what's beyond that? And I, I don't have an answer for those things. The point is that what we can see, what we can know about in our partial knowledge.
Brethren, it is made by the word of his power. He spake, and it was done. What a tremendous God we have been brought to know.
In the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's another thing he's doing by the word of His power too, and you get it in the first chapter of Hebrews, and that is he's upholding all things by the word of his power.
Let's go back to Colossians for a verse for a moment that I have found.
Very remarkable in this regard in Colossians chapter one.
And verse 17 and he is before all things and by him all things. If you notice Mr. Darby's translation, it's not consist but subsist because this chair that you mentioned consists of certain things. It consists of some hardware and plastic and some upholstery and and so on. But to subsist is more than to consist. To subsist is to work to under the direction of another.
And this whole creation works under the direction of the Creator. It subsists by the word of His power. Brethren, to think of it, the Lord Jesus, when he was wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a Manger.
He was upholding all things by the word of his power when he was asleep in the boat for a few moments of rest during his public ministry.
He was upholding all things by the word of his power when his hands were stretched on a Roman cross.
He was upholding all things by the word of his power. Tremendous to think about. He's the creator. He brought it into existence by the word of his power, but he's sustaining it by the word of his power. If he were to draw his breath back to himself, this creation would perish in a moment. How do we understand it all? Well, science is fascinating. I, I find science fascinating and books on the creation and so on. And God has allowed man.
00:40:24
To delve into lots of things and to send his probes up into space and to see many things.
But brethren, we have to accept it all by faith. He is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe.
And so many, so many today are teaching that he is not, that it all happened by certain theories and certain cosmic accidents in in the cosmos and so on. Young people don't accept that for a moment. Maybe you can't reason it all out. You don't understand it. But we have been given, as Bob has said, we have been given enough.
For lack of a better word, enough information in the Word of God to grasp clearly by faith that God and His Son the Lord Jesus are the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. You and I do not need any more than the testimony of this book. True science always corresponds with the Word of God, but I don't need science to by faith understand that He is the Creator and Sustainer.
The very starting point is that we must believe God and that he is. And if we don't do that, we can't understand because it's through faith that we understand that we don't get faith except from God and he gives it to us. And so the very starting point is that I must believe that God is and the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him so to try and understand anything about the universe as as being mentioned.
There's there's no point in it. It's the wrong, it's the wrong starting point because hi, first of all, I have to believe that God is. And when we, when we really get that into our soul, then we understand all the rest. But we don't have to argue about it. We don't have to question it because God is.
One of the key things in this third verse is through faith. We understand. We tend to think of this chapter about all the worthies of the Old Testament, but actually begins with us.
You know, we might look at some of these examples and as being said and think, oh, I wish I had the faith of, of Abraham or, or one of the others mentioned. We can't even begin to think like that if we at the very beginning, as you have just said, cannot accept that God has framed this world by the word of his power. Another point on faith too, because I think as has already been mentioned, it's so confused in this world. The world talks about faith, but it, it, it is nonsense. It's some nebulous thing that has absolutely no meaning. How faith rests on a rock is the most concrete thing there is.
If faith is accepting God at his word, what's the opposite of that? Well, of course it's not accepting God at his word. Well, then who is whose word are you going to accept? Or my word? And you see, that's why you want to see things. Well, then I can weigh it up. If I see something, I can come to conclusion myself. And that's the opposite of faith. And it says in first John that sin is lawlessness. It's it's, it's acting according to my will, doing what I want to do in independence from God. That is the complete opposite of faith.
So when we speak of faith, this is already being said over and over again. It's simply accepting God as His word and it's all in connection with things we cannot see because as I said, if we could see it, well then we would want to weigh up, weigh it up and come to our own conclusion about it. You know, it's not much different what we're talking about than what we find in Foca Proverbs where it says lean not unto thine own understanding.
That's not faith.
The Pharisees and.
Scribes, when they were standing at the cross, they said, come down that we may see.
And believe, that's the way this world talks about it. But the Lord Jesus said to Martha in the 11Th chapter of John, if thou shouldst believe, thou should see the glory of God. So it's believing to see. Whereas this in this world, like you were saying, it's seen first to believe. If you don't show it to me, I'm not going to believe it.
I sometimes say, have you ever seen your brains?
No, Uh, do you believe you have some? You've never seen them. Uh, it, it doesn't make sense.
00:45:17
Put a bit of structure on the chapter here and this is what shall I say man made structure and should be taken as such. But there is a reason why the chapter here I would suggest is put the way it is.
We get three men at the beginning here.
Abel, Enoch, and Noah.
And all exercised a tremendous faith in the framework of the day in which they live.
But I believe there's a reason why God picked these three men because.
And I'm just suggesting maybe we need to move on because we have three meeting meetings and a long chapter, but.
Abel showed the absolute need for a blood sacrifice.
Yes, the skins had been offered in that sense already if you refer to them that covered Adam and Eve in the beginning when they sinned, but this is the first real recording of a blood sacrifice.
Enoch is one who walked with God and he pictures for us. The church doesn't. He caught up without going through death.
Noah, he had tremendous faith too, because he believed in something that he'd not seen before. But he pictures, I would suggest Israel being carried through the Tribulation period, coming out on the other side and going into the millennial earth. There you get the whole picture of God's dealings with man.
Then with Abraham and his family you get 7 occasions of faith in connection with Abraham and his family.
And it's remarkable because Abraham is really the father of faith, isn't he? And Paul points that out in both Romans and Galatians that we are in that sense, the children of Abraham. And so he points out aspects of faith in Abraham's family.
Then, in connection with Moses and the children of Israel, you get 7 more occasions of faith in connection with God's earthly people.
Then in verse 32, you get 7 more individuals mentioned or groups of individuals and the real, shall we say, point of faith being brought in that ultimately it will be rewarded, not necessarily down here, but in resurrection. And I know that's an artificial structure on the chapter, but would you would you agree with that, Bob? Is that a reasonable way of looking at the?
Broad picture in it.
And so if we think of it that way, it's not.
It's not exactly everything that's here in the Word of God, but it's, as we would say, in worldly terms. It's something to hang your hat on when you're reading this chapter. And it shows, I believe, why God picked the individuals he did because there were plenty of others in the Old Testament that had faith. We don't see Daniel's name here, for example. He exhibited wonderful faith in a number of others.
But God is using these examples to show His.
Purposes and what he is doing, and of course, ultimately, in the case of the book in which this chapter is contained, to show those Jewish believers the importance of the exercise of faith and not as they wanted to expect a visible Kingdom right away, they weren't going to see it. The real reward for faith comes in resurrection and that's what comes at the end of the chapter.
And so in these first three individuals, it's really the faith that saves, isn't it? And so he brings out Abel first. We might have, if we were writing this chapter, we might have put Adam first because Adam was a man of faith. But it's able showing us that every blessing is based on the death of an innocent victim. There's no blessing for man. We couldn't be sitting here talking about faith in God.
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And what is ahead and what we have as our hope, if it wasn't for the death and the shedding of the blood of the Lord Jesus, that perfect sacrifice.
And all the sacrifices from Abel down, Abel sacrifice down were just pale reflections and feeble foreshadows of what was in the heart of God. And so it's all based on the death and shedding of blood of an innocent victim.
And Abel is one has been said, who passed out of this world, a man of faith who passed out of this world through the article of death. Then Enoch, who was taken out of this world without going through death, and he was saved from that which was ahead by being raptured to heaven. Isn't that as we've been saying? That's what we're looking for. The church is looking for the rapture. We're going to be taken out of this world before the judgment falls.
And then Noah is one who was saved, but in a very different way. And I know we often use this story in the gospel, but I think it's been put in its proper perspective. Noah is saved, but through the flood. The ark is provided and he is saved through the flood. The picture of God's earthly people who will be saved through the tribulation, we're going to be taken out before it, but the God's earthly people are going to be saved through it.
And they're going to come out on a, on a cleansed earth. So however we apply these different stories of these men and, and they can be applied in different ways in the gospel and prophetically and so on. But as we said, it really has to do with the faith that saves.
Recognized what he evidently heard from his parents about the fall into sin, and the only thing that would fit him in the presence of God was the death of an innocent victim.
Cain brought of the fruit of the ground. He did it totally ignoring that God had cursed the ground.
And so he brought the fruit of a cursed earth to God.
And God was not pleased. You cannot act.
Ignoring the word of God and please God, it doesn't happen. God honors His word. And the Lord reasoned with Cain. He said if you do well, there's a sacrifice at the door. He could have gone that same route that Abel had gone, but he didn't. He went out of the presence of the Lord. Sad to think of Cain and where he ended up.
So it's important that.
Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him.
Wonderful. He had this testimony that he pleased God.
And he didn't do any major acts.
He didn't kill a giant like David.
He didn't do some of the major things, like Moses bringing the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.
What did Enoch do that was so impressive?
He walked with God.
300 years.
That is impressive, brethren.
I find it hard sometimes to walk with God one day.
300 years. And I've often thought if we would ask Enoch, Enoch, how'd you do it? He would say a step at a time. And that's the secret, brethren, to walking with God. Do it a step at a time. You don't have to look ahead for one day, one year. Just do it a step at a time in the consciousness.
That the Lord is with us. Oh, how wonderful it is. And it was so that then at the end of his life, he walked right into the presence of the Lord. He did not die. He was not because God took him.
00:55:04
I'm sure you've heard maybe of the story of the young girl in Sunday school who told the story of Enoch, and I enjoyed the way she put it.
At the end of one day, the Lord said to Enoch, Enoch, we've come so far today in our walk together. I think you're closer to my house than your house. You come home with me. And he went home with the Lord. I love that walking into the presence of the Lord.
We're going to walk into the presence of the Lord one of these days. It could happen today. Let's take each step with Him, because one of them is going to be the last step, and we're going to go right into the pleasance of the Lord.
That's what's ahead for us.
Going back to your comments about Abel.
So that he was to offer up a sacrifice of blood for redemption. How did he know that? And as you mentioned, he had to have learned it from his father, from it, from Adam. And I think that's encouragement to.
Parents here, our kids need to learn from us about the necessary the the need for a redemption sacrifice, the need for a blood sacrifice, the need for the blood of Jesus Christ.
And so that means the children need to know that they're sinners and so they get it all falls back on the parents to the especially the fathers to teach the children about the ways of God and then the the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Able to do this and to overcome in spite of the family situation. And I say that in a very practical way because sometimes I hear people say, well, it's hard to live for the Lord in my situation, the family I come from, the circumstances in which I find myself. Abel's brother, own brother, rose up and slew him because by faith he offered a more excellent sacrifice than than Cain.
And so faith can triumph. Faith does triumph against all kinds of odds and difficulties. And whether it was able, whether it was Enoch in his day or Noah in his day, or any of the other men and women that are listed subsequent to these three first individuals, remember, brethren, they were not easy times. You know, sometimes we read these stories and we think, well, that was OK Back in those days, things must have been easier.
They were not easy times. This world has always been wicked. From the fall of man right down. Satan is the God and Prince of this world. We're in a world where sin has taken its effects.
And these men, Enoch lived in a wicked day. Noah lived in a wicked day. The thoughts of man's hearts were only evil continually. Violence and corruption filled the earth. There was a man of faith. And not only that, but as you say, Tim, when they went into the ark, he took his family with him. I, I enjoyed a little commentary. And I, I say this, I trust brethren with all humility, but I, I enjoyed a little commentary on Noah.
That he was a man who lived by faith, served the Lord.
And also brought his family under the good and blessing of what was provided for their salvation at that time. I, I, I thought that was that. That was very exercising. But remember, none of these men and women lived at easy times. They faced unique problems and difficulties in their day, just as we did. But the resources that we have in God and Christ today to live by faith.
Are the same limitless resources and supply that have always been available to God's people. And we have far more than these men and these women in the Old Testament have. We have we have the work of Calvary accomplished. We have a man living for us. We have the completed Word of God. We have the Spirit of God indwelling us, and on and on and on. What resources we have, brethren, if these men could live by faith, and if he not could walk for God with God for 300 years.
Can't we seek grace to walk with God for justice the few that are entrusted to us?
If you think about no companionship did he have.
Eight souls were saved. Methuselah probably died the year of the flood, so there was nine, perhaps others also died the year of the flood. But you know, we like numbers. We like lots of companions going the same walk as we are because then we feel good about it. But Noah was, I think, very lonely in in, in a human sense, isn't it? I think that's important.
01:00:29
So you have in verse seven, it speaks of Noah's faith.
But his family is mentioned there, and it's interesting. Through his faith, he prepared the means by which his family could be saved. But each one of them were adults. They had their wives, and they were the ones that entered by faith into that ark as well. But it doesn't mention their faith here. It mentions Noah's faith and I think as it's been.
Brought out, this is a real encouragement to households of faith. Oh, what a blessing it is to be brought up in a Christian home. And God recognizes the family unit, thou and thy house. It's something that runs through all of Scripture. When God saves the person, he's interested in the whole house.
Hold of course, each one in their time have to exercise their personal faith in the Lord to be saved.
But we as parents can provide the means by which they can be saved.
And that's what Noah did. He prepared the ark. He didn't just.
Sit down and cross his arms and say, well if God wants to save my family, he will save them. No, it was getting up and working.
Pretty huge arc he built for the saving of his house.
It had a lot more room in it than just his household, but it was what he built and God used that and he was able through that means that his whole house was saved. I think that's a beautiful encouragement to Christian families. Exercise your faith to include your children. Bring them up for the Lord. In First Corinthians 7, it says that children are holy.
Doesn't say they're saved necessarily until they exercise their own faith in the Lord Jesus.
But they are separated. God looks at him because of the faith of the parents as separated.
To himself act in that, that is faith.
Verse 6 interposed between Enoch and Noah, which to me lends a tremendous emphasis to the whole thing.
Without faith, it is impossible to please him. There it is absolutely clear.
For he that cometh to God must believe that he is.
And what that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. That is, God will always reward the one who seeks him out and seeks to walk according to faith.
Do we really believe that?
An old brother, whom some of us can well remember, used to make this statement in very decisive and thundering tones. All our failure, whether as sinners or as Saints, ultimately stems from our unbelief of the goodness that's in the heart of God. Do you remember hearing that, Bob? I do, too.
All our failure, whether a sinner's or a Saints, ultimately stems from our unbelief.
Of the goodness that is in the heart of God.
He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. And I believe that verse, excuse me, I believe that verse is put in here right at the beginning of this chapter because.
The efforts of Satan, right from the beginnings of man's history, were to say, Yeah, hath God said, and then to try and cast an element of doubt into the goodness of God. But God is a God who is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, whether it was able or Noah or Enoch.
01:05:15
Whether it was Israel in their day, whether it is you and I in our day, the pathway of faith is always a blessed path and a path that pays eternal dividends. So we need to remember that, don't we?
Comment please on that first part. It says he that cometh to God must believe that he.
Is on that part please?
Well, I guess, brother Bob, that verse came to life for me by a brother that you knew better than I, our late brother Eric Smith. And he used to say to some of us young people, he'd say the Lord lives, you know, the Lord lives. And he'd look at us with those piercing eyes and.
I think, well, for a moment, yeah. Well, why? Why do you bother telling us that? Did you think I didn't believe that the Lord lived?
But what he meant was that the Lord, if you could put it this way, he lives, but not merely as some distant God who wound the world up and set it in motion and then sort of took his hands off and let it go. But he's one who lives and moves and takes a real interest in every aspect of your life and mine.
How could you add to that, Bob? How does it come through to you? Yeah, I think that's right. And it shows that faith is based on the revelation of who God is.
And then He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. If you do not know God, you have no basis of knowing who you are yourself. To me it is, it is incredible to see how increasingly in our country here, the United States of America, where Christianity has flourished for a long time, but they're giving up God. They're giving up his word.
And young people are trying to figure out who I am, and I gotta have my own identity. And what impresses me is that they are increasingly lost because they've given up God. And if you have given up God, you don't have any basis to know who you are.
So it's important to know He is and He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Christianity, or I should say eternal life, is the knowledge of the true God and of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what eternal life is.
Of faith and it brings pleasure to him. You know that was one of the things with Eliphaz who was a friend of Job. He says can a man be profitable unto God?
Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous? Yes, it was. It was a great pleasure to the Almighty. And that doesn't mean to say there wasn't a need to be in Job's life. But Alex has completely missed the point. God has an interest in your life and my life, and a walk of faith brings pleasure to God.
Walk In
Address—Jim Hyland
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Like to begin the meeting this afternoon with 278?
Savior, we long to follow thee daily, thy cross to bear and count. All else, whate'er it, be unworthy of our care. 278 I'm gonna suggest that we stand up to sing this might be helpful for those who can and if someone would please start it.
Savior way long.
Holiday.
My God.
Ecclesiastes, Chapter 11.
Ecclesiastes, Chapter 11 and verse 9.
Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth.
And walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes.
But know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment, and then go over to the book of Romans, Romans chapter 6.
Romans chapter 6 and we'll begin reading at verse one. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid? How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
Know ye not that so many of us as we're baptized into Christ Jesus Christ, we're baptized into his death?
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism and to death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father.
Even so, we also should walk in newness of life. I have before me this afternoon a very, very practical subject, brethren, something that I trust will be of a help to each one of us, no matter where we are in our Christian life. I realize that there are many here in this room who are far farther along in the path of faith and service than I am. There are many here who are raising families.
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There are many young people, there are many boys and girls, and God has something to say to each one of us from his living word.
And what I have before me this afternoon is this little expression walk in. And it's a very practical expression. And we're going to see as we turn to a number of scriptures that God has given us, that which would encourage us to walk for his glory, for the glory of the Lord Jesus, and as a testimony to others while we're still here in this, in this world.
God has said, as we've had before us already in these meetings, a path of faith and service before us.
And God has given us everything we need for that path of faith and service.
And so I remember our brother Bob Brimlow, when he used to bring practical things before us in meetings like this.
He would say to us now this is where the rubber meets the road and what we have before us this afternoon, I trust, will be where the rubber meets the road.
Because I realize there are many of us here who are facing real difficulties and problems.
Twists and turns in our Christian life, facing things that we have to say like those of old.
We've not passed this way heretofore. But God, I say, encourages us, and it gives us many instructions in His word as to our spirit and attitude, and as to those things that he would have us to be occupied with and take up in the path of faith. But before we touch on some of those things, I read in the book of Ecclesiastes, because here he speaks of walking in the ways of all thine heart.
And when you read the verse, at first you might think he's telling us to just live it up.
To just live and follow the appetites and desires of our natural heart and to make this, this world, a playground in which to indulge ourselves. But then he qualifies it, doesn't he? He says if you walk in the ways of all your heart, if you just live for yourself, there's a day of judgment coming. God is going to bring you into judgment. Now, for the unbeliever, how solemn it is. And if there's someone here who doesn't know the Lord Jesus as their Savior, it's a very solemn thing to realize.
That if you go on and walk in the ways of all that the natural man desires and would have you do all, there's a day of judgment coming. There's a day when you will be taken and banished from the presence of the Lord Jesus in a lost eternity. But even for those of us who know the Lord Jesus as our Savior, well, we'll never be judged for our sins. In that way, Heaven is secure. Thank God, because of the mighty work of Calvary. Yet you know we are going to stand as believers at the judgment seat of Christ.
And we are going to have to give an account of those things done in the body.
Whether they were for God's glory, whether they were for the blessing of others.
Or whether we just lived for ourselves. Oh, I want to encourage each one of us. You know, this is the selfish, selfish age. We talk about taking selfies. Everybody's taking selfies as I travel. I see in the airports, the train stations, wherever you are, everybody's taking a selfie. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. Don't misunderstand me. I I've done it myself with my wife and I. But I'm just saying, isn't that the spirit of the age when it comes right down to it?
It's a selfish age. It's the me first stage, It's everything rotating around myself. But that's not the way it's to be in the Christian life. And that's why I read in the book of Romans. Because here we're exhorted to walk in newness of life. If we were to back up in these chapters, we would find not only what we are and we're naturally speaking and God sentence on the 1St man, but we would find what God has brought in by grace.
And at the end of the previous chapter, the 5th chapter, he has said where sin abounded, Grace did much more abound. And then he raises the question, what shall we say then? In other words, in light of this, are we just going to go on now and live for ourselves? Are we just going to go on and do everything for self? You know, we often quote the verse later on in the 12Th chapter where it says not to be conformed to this world.
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But to be transformed by the renewing of your mind, I believe that really in the context, to be conformed to this world is just what we've been saying to draw a circle, as the natural man does, to put himself in the center of that circle and do to do everything for himself. But that's not the way it's to be in Christianity. And so are we going to continue on in this way? And there's much we could say. And he speaks of baptism. Baptism is really.
Figure of death. It's the recognition that we have died with Christ. It's the end of the old man.
And as to the end of the old man and the recognition of it, we are to walk in newness of life. There's to be a new center in our life now. That new center in our life is to be Christ and his interests. And how much is it true in your life and mine? I can only point the finger at myself. But what exercises my own soul, perhaps exercises your soul? Are we really living for Christ and for others?
Are we walking in a way that is exhibiting the new life? Because you and I, who know the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we are now the possessors of divine life. We've been given a new life. It's the very life of Christ. It's a life that delights. It's a life that can do nothing but please God and please the Lord Jesus. But are we walking in newness of life?
Because this is really, as he says, in another place, what really life is. It's what life is really all about. It's faith, as we were saying earlier, that gives substance that gives reality to our life. To live for the moment, to live for self, is not reality.
It's not reality. Oh, it may seem so, but it is really. It is not what life really is. It's to live for Christ.
And his interests. And I want to encourage you. You know, I've appreciated about Caleb in the Old Testament. It says he wholly followed the Lord from the time he was a young man for his whole life. Wouldn't you like that commendation after your name? Wouldn't you like that commendation in the coming day that you wholly followed the Lord? I say this is what life is really all about. And just talk to those.
Who've walked with the Lord for years. In fact, suppose we were able to talk to.
Enoch this afternoon who walked with God for 300 years and say.
Enoch wasn't really worth it. 300 years. That's a long time. Oh, I'd say it was worth it and more. And you talked to an elderly St. of God here who's followed the Lord, who's walked for the Lord, who's walked in newness of life and asked them has it really been worth it? Or they'll tell you if they're honest that there's been all kinds of problems and difficulties, ups and downs in the believers life, but they'll tell you too.
It's really worth it. This is what really what life really is. And so we're to walk not in the lusts of the flesh and so on, not following the appetites and desires of the flesh, but to walk in newness of of life. Oh, I say again to my own soul, is this really true in your life and mine? And so were to walk first of all in newness of life. But now I want to go on to the book of Galatians.
To take this just a step further, Galatians chapter 5.
Galatians chapter 5 and verse 16.
This I say, Then walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
And then notice the 25th verse. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit, only spoken of walking in newness of life. But now we're exhorted to walk in the Spirit, because the Spirit of God is the power for the divine life. It's often been pointed out, and rightly so, that the divine life that you and I have in Christ.
00:15:02
Is again a perfect life, but it is a life that must have power.
And the power for the divine life is the spirit of God. I'm going to repeat an illustration that I know we've often used, but I think it's helpful in understanding this. We'll suppose that out in the parking lot this afternoon you have a vehicle with the best engine that money can buy, the best engine that will say Mercedes can put in a in a vehicle and you go out and you turn the key.
And there's no power, you say. But they told me this is the best engine that money can buy. Well, it may be, but you're not going to have power to drive down the road with that engine in your vehicle unless you put gasoline in that engine. There has to be something inside that engine, as, if I can put it this way, an unseen commodity that gives power to that engine. And so we fill it with gasoline.
And you go out and you turn the key and now there's a spark and the engine roars the power.
You put it in gear and you press on the gas pedal. Now you've got all the power you need.
To drive down the road. And so we are the possessors of divine life, but the power for that life.
Is the spirit of God because there's no excuse in your life and mine.
We mentioned earlier in the Reading meeting that we have far more resources at our disposal to live for the Lord today than all those who were listed in the 11Th chapter of Hebrews. We have the full light of God's Word. We have the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ in coming into this world. We rest on the finished work of Calvary.
We have a hope, sure and steadfast. And I know they had hope in the Old Testament, but it wasn't in the same way that you and I have it in Christianity. And So what resources we have, we have divine life, We have the Spirit of God, and all these things are ours now to utilize. And so we can, we are to walk in the power of the spirit of God. I've enjoyed it in connection with the blessing of Asher. You can look it up, but in the 33rd chapter.
The book of Deuteronomy. It speaks of Asher. There it says, Let Usher be blessed with children. That's fruit. You want to bear fruit for God. I suggest that every believer here deep down wants to bear fruit for God's glory. It says to let him be acceptable to his brethren. And then it says and let him dip his foot in oil. Oil, invariably in the word of God, is a figure of the Spirit of God.
The foot would of course speak of our walk. And how are we going to have a meaningful powerful walk with for God through this world? We've got to dip our foot in oil. It's a walk in the power of the spirit of God. And then it says thy shoes shall be as iron. That's power. And then it says and as brass that's endurance, because it tells us let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. And then it says the part of the verse we often quote.
And that I often see on the walls of the homes of the brethren that I have the privilege of visiting.
And as thy days, so shall thy strength be. You want strength for the day. You want power and endurance in your Christian pathway. It's a walk in the power of the spirit, and it's going to be one or the other. As he says here in Galatians, we're either walking in the spirit or we're going to fulfill the lust of the flesh. We're going to go back to those things that once characterized us. And in Ephesians chapter 2, if you read carefully the 1St 3 verses of that chapter, it tells us what we once were. We were walking according to the course of this world.
The Prince of the power of the air. We were the children of disobedience, the children of wrath we were fulfilling.
The lusts of the flesh and of the mind. But to walk in the power of the Spirit is to be under the full control.
Of the Spirit of God. Again, how much is that true in your life and mine? We're told in Ephesians not to be drunk with wine, but to be filled with the Spirit. Because again, to be drunk is to be out of control. But to be filled with the Spirit is to be under the control of the Spirit of God. And it's the Spirit of God then to be led by the Spirit, to walk in the spirit we're going to be.
00:20:10
We're going to be LED in those things that again are for his glory and that path that he has for us. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. You know, when we got saved, the Spirit of God came to indwell us, and that's why we're told we're not our own. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Who are we letting have control over our bodies? The world says this is a a playground. Use your body as you like.
Fulfill the lust of the flesh. That's not the way it is to be with the child of God.
Or to be under the full control of the Spirit of God. We're to glorify God in our body.
And in our spirit, which are gods. So we're to walk in newness of life, and we're to walk in the power of the spirit of God. Now let's go to the book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 2.
Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.
Which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them now if we were to back up in the previous verses. The Apostle Paul, writing by divine inspiration, has made it very, very clear to the Ephesian brethren and to us that good works never saved us from our sins. I stand here this afternoon, by the grace of God, to tell you that I am on my way to heaven.
I have beyond the shadow of a doubt, salvation, the salvation of my soul.
My sins are gone. Why? Because of any good in me, Because of any little spark of divinity that was placed in the proper environment.
And flamed up into something wonderful. Not a chance. No scripture is very clear in these verses are very clear that it's not by works of righteousness, but that we have done. But according to His mercy He saved us by grace. Are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves? It is the gift of God. Works never saved a soul. We are justified by faith, however.
Good works are part an intricate part of the Christian life. Now you'll notice here that it's not doesn't say, doing good works. That's true. We ought to do good works. But you know, even the man of the world can do good works. And I am thankful for those who have a charitable spirit and do many good things. I've been thankful for many of our neighbors back in the town of Smiths Falls who are very helpful and if there's a problem.
In our community, there's those who are there willing and ready to help and to do many good works. But that's not what this is talking about here. Here he's talking about good works and working and walking in them. That is. Good works are to be what characterized the believer every day of our lives. It's not just that when things are.
A necessity calls for it. We jump in and we give some money to some.
Charity, or to even the work of the Lord or whatever it may be. It's not that we're just available in an emergency to do some good work and to help someone.
But it ought to be the very breath of the Christian life every day. We ought to be characterized by good works. So he says we're his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. But now he has ordained that the Christian walk in good works again. He has a path for us, and we ought to get up every day. I'm speaking very practically.
We ought to get up every day and not so much say to the Lord what good work can I do today but to pray that that might be what characterizes our life? So does others look on, whether it's the world or whether it's other believers that they see us walking in those those good works, You know, it's perhaps a little bit different, but we think of the Lord Jesus and his love and going to the cross and giving him self for us.
00:25:05
When we think of that, what it ought to be, the motivation, the springboard for us, giving ourselves in service to him and to one another, and we ought to present our bodies a living sacrifice. Not an interesting statement. A living sacrifice. You know, we spoke about Abel today, and you know Abel laid down his life. He he offered a sacrifice, a blood sacrifice.
And he laid down his life because of it. His brother rose up in anger and hatred and slew him. At the end of Hebrews 11, we're going to notice others who gave their lives in one way or another because of their faith and their testimony.
For God and for the Lord. And many of our brethren today are dying because of their faith.
But you and I, though we may never be called to lay down our lives as a physical sacrifice.
We are called to lay down our lives as a living sacrifice, to give ourselves in service to him and to one another. We ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren, it tells us. And so we're we're to walk in these good works that he has before ordained. We're looking at these verses, Brethren, very quickly this afternoon, in just a few minutes that are allotted to us.
But perhaps before I go on, I would just say I trust that you will go back over these verses.
You know, the really the purpose of oral ministry is to whet the appetites.
Of the believer that we would go and search these things out further. This is just a little parenthesis in our talk, but I've often thought of it in connection with the Bereans. You know, the Bereans, like the Thessalonians, they had the privilege of listening to the oral ministry of the Apostle Paul. But the Bereans were more noble than those of Thessalonica. Now the Thessalonians were noble too, because they listened to the ministry of the Apostle Paul.
But there were those who were more noble because they took what they heard and went home. And whatever parts of the word of God they might have had available at that time, they searched the scriptures to see if those things were so. What things? The things that they heard from the lips of the Apostle Paul. So we come to meetings like this. We hear many things. Perhaps we get just a little outline of something like we're seeking by the with the Lord's help to do this afternoon. But I trust you'll go back over these things and search them out for yourself.
Now let's go to Ephesians chapter 5.
Ephesians chapter 5 and verse two And walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour. Well here we're to walk in love again when we think of the Lord Jesus you know, it says having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end when we think of that great love of the Lord Jesus.
And where it took him, Oh, I say again, that ought to be the motivation. It ought to be the springboard for you and for me. Because the Lord Jesus said if a man loved me, he will keep my commandments.
And he also in speaking to the disciples in the upper room. I believe it's in the 15th chapter of John.
He told them that they were to love one another with the same love.
That they were loved by himself isn't that interesting. They were to walk in love. And he said to them, by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples. He didn't say, if you keep my words and walk in truth and so on, and we'll speak of those things in a moment. But he said, if you have love one to another, their love one to another was going to be a tremendous testimony after the Lord Jesus was gone. But I say again, the love that you and I are to walk in.
And the love that we are to practically exhibit in our interactions one with another.
And in our love for souls in the gospel too, is to be no less love.
Then the love of God the Father and the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I find that very searching for my own soul, I find that very humbling. You know, it's easy on an occasion like this to come together and to exhibit practical love. And I look around and I see brethren giving each other a Big Bear hug. And that's wonderful. And I love to give my brethren a hug and those I haven't seen for some time and so on. But what about when we go home to the little assembly that we come from?
00:30:24
Perhaps it's a lot more lot different there. Those that we know best, those that we rub shoulders with from week to week, those that we sit in the meetings with, and maybe there's just a handful. But is there that same love shown one to another? You know the Lord Jesus? When he gathered those disciples in the upper room, it was just a small company of them, just a few of them. But he exhorted them on Southeast in several ways.
In the upper room, to have that love one for another, it's a very practical thing. We can talk about divine love.
We can talk about loving one another, but again, it's that expression I heard from the brother some years ago. This is where the rubber meets the road. Do we really show that love in a practical way from day-to-day and week to week, amongst those we interact with on a regular basis? Now let's go to the Book of Colossians.
Colossians Chapter 4.
Colossians Chapter 4.
And verse five, walk in wisdom toward them that are without redeeming the time. Well, here we're to walk in wisdom.
You know, it's one thing to have knowledge, and knowledge is good. You know Peter at the end of his ministry, he said grow in grace and the knowledge.
Because we need knowledge, there has to be a basis. It's often been said that sound principles are sound. Doctrine lead to sound behavior, and so we've got to have the knowledge. And I want to encourage everyone of us to read our Bibles every day to seek to learn more from the word of God. But knowledge is has often been pointed out is not enough. And often in Scripture, like in the first chapter of Colossians, we have three things brought together.
Knowledge, wisdom and understanding if we were to go back to the book of Daniel.
We would find that Daniel particularly, but I believe also in connection with his three friends.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they not only had knowledge, but they had wisdom and understanding, and that's really what preserved them in the court of the king. And all those years you think of Daniel and all those years that he lived under those various kings with knowledge, wisdom and understanding. Because knowledge is is information, it's the basis, and we need that. We need the knowledge. But then wisdom is the ability to take that knowledge and to use it in a proper way.
I won't go into detail because some of you have heard me say this before, but you know, I never was very good with my hands and to get out of junior high I had to take a shop and it's the only year I had to take a shop and I opted for woodworking. I think the teacher gave me an A on the little project I struggled with all year and said don't ever send this guy back to a woodworking shop. But you know, I was able to open a textbook.
And to learn the theory of woodworking, but to take that theory and put it into practice.
I found was quite another thing. And so there's one thing to have knowledge, but then God can give the wisdom to take the knowledge of the word of God and to utilize it in a proper way.
And I believe it's the men of Issachar in the Old Testament. Then we read they had understanding of the times because we'll never really have understanding as to how to act and react in the day in which we live without knowledge and wisdom. We need those three things. And so again, we've often put it into a neat little formula, a little algebraic formula K + W = U.
Knowledge and wisdom is going to lead. It's going to equal understanding in our Christian life.
And so he speaks here of walking, not simply in knowledge, but he speaks of walking in wisdom. You know, I have known, sad to say, some of my own generation that I grew up with. And they had a lot of knowledge. They had a lot of scriptural knowledge. But sad to say, they didn't take it and apply it in a proper way. And sometimes it has led to very sad things in their pathway.
00:35:23
And so we need to walk in wisdom. Now let's go to 1St John.
First John chapter one.
In verse 7. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.
And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
And then I want to read a verse back in Ephesians again in the 5th chapter.
Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 8.
For ye were sometimes darkness, but now ye are light in the Lord walk as children of light. Well, I want to be careful in commenting on this portion in First John, because what first what John is bringing before us in his epistle is that which is true of us, whether we recognize it or not, whether we walk in the good or enjoyment of it or not. And it's really the thought is, since we walk in in the light.
As He is in the light that is you and I, who know the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we have been brought into the light. We've been brought from darkness into His marvelous light, as it tells us in another place. That is where we are positionally. And because we are there positionally, we are brought into fellowship with the Father, with His Son Jesus Christ, and as a result we have been brought into fellowship with one another.
We have been brought into fellowship with the family of God. Nothing changes that.
We are in the light, we walk in the light, but again, I want to make it very practical.
And that's why I read the verse in Ephesians chapter 5, because that's the practical side of it.
You know another has said we walk in the light, we are in the light, but we can choose to walk on the Sunnyside of the street or the shady side of the street. We can choose if if we're not careful to walk in a way that we walk in the shadow. You know Jacob did that in the Old Testament. You know he wrestled with the Angel at Peniel and or he walked in the shadow for this it tells us the sunset and he walked in the shadow for 20 years. It doesn't tell us that the sun rose until he wrestled with the Angel at Peniel and then it says the sun rose. Isn't that solemn to think about.
He walked in the shadow for 20 years because.
He walked into a great degree in his by his own devices, by his own strength. He chose what he thought was best, tried to get the blessing by scheming, and so on. And so I suggest that you and I, while we have been brought positionally into the light, we can walk in the shadows if we're not careful. And so we are the children of light, and we need to be exercised that we walk in the good and enjoyment of that light.
You know, it's interesting to me that Ephesians is such a practical book.
You know, we we think of Ephesians as this wonderful truth that is brought out in the first three chapters, and certainly it is. It's tremendous truth as to our position on our heavenly calling in Christ and so on. But it's also a very practical book, just a little homework. Go through the book of Ephesians and see how seven times he mentions our walk. Very interesting, very practical.
Because there is a walk that is in keeping with those who have been brought into the light.
Of Christianity Now just one more thought and we'll go to 3rd John.
3rd John.
Chapter third, John, and just for the sake of time.
Let's read verse three and four, for I rejoice greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. I do want to read a verse in Psalm 86 as well.
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Psalm 86.
And verse 11. Teach me thy way, O Lord, I will walk in thy truth. Unite my heart to fear thy name. Well, here we are exhorted to walk in truth. John was writing to this brother Gaius. And John, it thrilled John's soul to hear that there was one who was walking in truth.
That is, one who had not only heard the word of God, not only had had the truth of God set before him.
But one who was seeking by grace, and of course it's only by grace, but with seeking by grace to walk in the good of what had been brought before him. And John said, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth, and it is a thrill. You know, some of us are a little further along in the path of faith, and we look back and we see some of you who are younger and you're coming along in the truth. We see a real desire.
And a real exercise to walk in the truth of God that thrills our souls, to see that that exercise in your in your life. And it's interesting with David in connection with this little prayer of his in the 86 Psalm, because you notice the title of the Psalm is a prayer of David. And he prays not only that he would know the truth, but that he would walk in it. Teach me thy way, O Lord, I will walk in thy truth.
Is that the desire of your heart and mind?
Because it's one thing to know the truth of God. It's quite another thing to put it into our footsteps.
To walk in obedience to the word of God. To walk in the truth of God every day.
And you notice too, David mentions the heart here, because I just want to say, at the end of the meeting, it is a question of the heart. We've spoken of our walk and all these things, but it comes down, doesn't it, in the end to a question of the heart? Because where the heart is, then the feet will follow. Where the heart is, the feet will follow. And we can talk about walking for the Lord and walking in these various ways that we've had before us, but if our hearts are not affected.
Then it's not going to have the proper effect that it ought to have. It's not going to get down again.
Where the rubber meets the road, we've taken up these verses. So very quickly I believe you'll notice there were seven things that we noticed in the New Testament that we are to walk in. It's that which qualifies our walk, that which has to do with our spirit and attitude. As to our walk for God and for the Lord, I trust that in some measure at least, they will exercise your soul and mind and that we will seek grace to walk in that way.
That He has for us until we take that last footstep, and it can't be long, Just another footstep or two. Just another few moments and we're going to hear the shout and we're going to sit down in His presence. And won't it be worth it all when we sit down in His presence and He comes forth to service and minister to our every happiness and joy for all eternity. To think back and to realize that by His grace and in the power of those resources given to us, we walked in the way.
That he had forest down here.
Gospel 1
Gospel—David Whitaker
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Good evening. Welcome to the Gospel meeting.
I'd like to sing together with you.
Hymn #12A well known gospel hymn.
And I wondered one time how many people have been saved.
Singing as hymn and someone came to me and they had some believe it or not, they had some documentation Christians that had said yes they were saved during the same. I don't remember how many they had garnered, but wouldn't it be wonderful if someone tonight.
Was saved singing this hymn. That's number 12, just as I am, without one plea.
But that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come.
Well, I might ask the question, is any teenager here know what a Ducati 998 is?
I might ask you later on if you do.
Anyway, I'll start off with a little story and then I intend to make the gospel with God's help.
Crystal clear.
I'm going to tell a story that I'm going to read a couple of gospel verses.
Let's just say there's a man.
He's on his way home, perhaps, and he goes through the woods. Dark woods.
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Night has come on. It's cold, freezing.
And lo and behold, he loses his way.
And he's in the trees and he's wandering off through there and oh, my fear comes over him because he is really and truly lost.
Well, he keeps his eyes open, and he sees a light. Oh, what a relief, what a blessing that is. And where does he go? He goes to the light. He goes to the light.
And he's rescued.
Another man.
He's on his way and he's in the woods. It's dark, it's freezing cold and he's totally lost. He does not know where he's at.
And that man sees a light.
It becomes a terrifying thing to him and he runs and he hides further into the darkness. What is the difference?
Well, that last man had just robbed the bank and killed the killed the teller.
And he was wondering about that light being the police.
You see the difference tonight? Men and women, they love darkness rather than light, because why? Their deeds are evil. Their deeds are evil and they go like cockroaches for the dark. The dens of this earth are dark. But you know something?
God sees everything in our hearts in this room tonight. He sees it all.
I thought that to be an interesting story when I heard it.
I would like to read some gospel verses so if this meeting doesn't complete.
You will have had the gospel.
Clear, crystal clear. John 316. What a verse that is.
For God so loved the world.
That he gave his only begotten Son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That is the gospel. You have heard it and you notice there's a word in there that we've been thinking about today. Very precious word is called faith believing. And verse 17 equally clear. God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world.
But that the world through him, might be saved.
This book that I have in my hand here is the most unusual book in the world. There's no book like it. It's called the Word of God. I'll hold it up.
What a book, Precious, precious book. In it God tells us his counsels.
And I think I can find the verse in Let's see, Is that right? I think it is, yes. Zechariah 6.
It says even He shall build the temple of the Lord Isaiah. Zechariah 613. I'll be turning to several verses and I'll try to read them faithfully.
Even he shall build the temple of the Lord Zechariah 6/13.
And he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne.
Here's an interesting expression that I'm coming to. And the Council of Peace shall be between them both. Who is that? Is that the Council of Peace that God has in mind for you tonight?
That has in mind for blessing for this whole earth.
A council of peace between the Father and the Son.
And he's gonna bear the glory. He's gonna receive the glory God has told. Well, I'll put it this way. And Amos, it says the Lord will do nothing except he revealeth his secret unto his servants, the prophets. So he's told those people with faith what he's gonna do in this world.
I'll tell you a little story.
00:10:00
Umm, minor profits.
Uh, volume. Uh, well, let's see, uh, William Kelly, page 109 and 100 and page 109 a 110.
Here's a man, he said. This is just my thoughts.
And he says, I think I've founded them on scriptural knowledge and principles. William Kelly.
He said United States is energetic. I'm not putting exactly the same words. United States is a young 150 years ago he wrote that.
A young nation full of energy.
And he says it rose in a hurry, and it will fall in a hurry.
I was in the lobby last night at the hotel.
And I saw those words coming true.
We think of this country as a stable thing, not a stable thing.
This country has forgotten God has left God out.
But in this book that I have here tonight, we have the Councils of God.
The Lord will do nothing except he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. And I can go over to Psalm. I believe it's 24.
And it says this. You don't have to turn to it, I'll read it.
It says.
The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, those that have faith.
And he will show them his covenant.
Out of the verse of Abraham shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?
God has a heart to tell faith what he's gonna do. And so we've been given this marvelous book here, the Word of God. It starts before this world was ever here.
And it takes us on through a development of God's thoughts and His heart concerning the creation, introduction of sin, the fall of Adam.
The faith of Abraham, all those wonderful stories, and then it tells us, brings us into the New Testament.
And it tells us about the loveliness of God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It takes us through as Christians, through a life here of his care and tenderness, and then talks about his death, burial and resurrection and his ascension back up into the glory, and then a tribulation that's coming, and then a millennial, millennial time that's coming.
And then?
An eternal state. There's no book in the library.
I'll tell you that if you were to file this book, I went through a library one time. I said, well, where would the person file? Under what heading would you file?
The Bible and I had to look kind of hard. Would I look under dinosaurs? Well, the book isn't about dinosaurs. When I look about history, well, there's a lot of history in there. It's all true too, by the way.
I look about the condition of man. That social talks about social condition, man. I don't know where you put that book. It's God's word. It's unique and it's no, it's given as a gift to us. We can carry it around in our purse, in our pockets and the dash and the glove compartment of our cars. We can have the word of God there and it tells us everything we need to know. Isn't that beautiful?
Well, another verse of scripture. Remember I want to keep it simple. There may be people here tonight and glad you are that have never sat in a gospel meeting in their life.
Let's look at.
Romans.
Performance 1017 says so. Then faith. We've been talking about faith this afternoon.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. That's what we have on our hands if you have a Bible in your lap tonight.
It's the word of God and it was brought to us a huge cost.
Here's another verse that speaks about.
Faith Believing. Romans 10/17.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Isn't that wonderful?
But with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
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So this book tells us Earth's earliest ages in the book of Job it speaks about.
Swaddling clothes. He wrapped it in swaddling clothes. Interesting expression. You won't find any other book on Earth. It'll tell you about Earth's earliest ages. So 38, by the way, is where you find that expression halfway through the chapter.
Earth's earliest ages. If he didn't tell you, you wouldn't know. And if you don't have faith, you still don't know where you came from.
Then it tells us about Satan entering the 1St man, Adam and Eve. We know that.
Satan entering the garden, deceiving and we find out about the fall of man and what a fall that was.
And.
Death, or rather sin, came in, and death has reigned REIGH.
Sin came in, and death is reigned.
And it's rained right on through today.
I live about 10 miles, maybe 15 miles from what's said the worst city in the United States for murder.
Place called Tukwila minion name.
Death every night seems like Chicago. Death every night horrible. Is that what God intends to know? Sin has cut a terrible deep groove in this earth, hasn't it? And we've all, in some degree or another, experienced that awful, awful groove, that terrible stain of sin. Well.
In this development of God's thoughts and His Word, He brings us to a blessed person.
The Lord Jesus Christ, that's God's man perfection displayed here on earth.
And how he went to that cross of Calvary, and he yielded up that only life was had a right to live.
And he gave himself.
A sin offering for us to the glory of God.
They took and they scourge that man after they declared him to be righteous. Nothing wrong. Pilate had him scourged and then they took that back.
It says the plowers plowed upon my back.
They made they may beat their pearls. Why?
Oh, the heart of man, so black, so.
They put that back against that wooden cross and they stuck it in the ground and they could look up and say, if you who you say you are, come on down, we'll believe. Well, we'll go into that later.
So.
Man thinks that.
He has some standing before God, but he has nothing to stand on. And God has seen this problem, this terrible dilemma that man is in, and he says I have to provide a way be so that I can show up my heart to them and give them a salvation that they can never lose.
Oh, how precious that is.
I was told a few hours ago that this city that we're living in here.
Lots and lots of churches per capita, probably as many as anywhere.
And a little comment was made under a little quieter voice that said that I think that a lot of them are trusting in their good works.
Before God.
Well, I wanna tell you something. God realized that. That's how man thinks.
And so we had a generation there.
That God had to destroy with a flood wicked. And you know something I wanna say this there was a seven days of grace yet seven days.
And then the door was shut on that arc. And then there was a town called Nineveh, I think was 40 days, and Nineveh's gonna be overthrown. And there were other occasions in Scripture where you find a period of time was given. A most serious one was the time of Sodom and Gomorrah.
00:20:19
Sodom and Gomorrah, that was a time of Jericho, but I'm thinking of Sodom and Gomorrah. There was a few hours, a few hours. The sin of Sodom had, uh, increased to where God could have no more patience with that city. And those angels came in and they whole lot, his wife, his two daughters out of that simple city.
Oh yeah, here's a man. He was sitting in the gate.
Of Sodom we won't go into the story. Genesis 1819. He was sitting in the gate of the Sodom, administrating that place, probably trying to make it a better place for his family. But iniquity of that place had filled up. And so those angels came, and they came to Lot's door there. And you know what Lot said? He said to the men of the city, Oh, don't do this, my brethren.
What this righteous man has vexed his soul to the point?
Where he could save brethren to those sodomites.
By the way, Sodom has spoken of 16 different books of the Bible. Look it up.
Sodom, Gomorrah, Adma, Zebom and even in the book of Job it says.
Unclean. I can look it up for you. The margin says sodomites. Well, that's where we are tonight. I don't know that this meeting is going to end, because when the Lord Jesus comes, he's going to take his own up.
Sodom was given a few hours, a very few hours.
How long has the Day of Grace been going on?
2000 years amazing, amazing story. So for those of you in the room tonight that feel, I don't know how you feel. I don't know your heart thought does.
What about this business of performing?
Good works.
To gain favor with God, we are going to look for a few moments at the story of the giving of the law and contrast that with what we have in Christianity in the New Testament. Could you turn with me, please, to Exodus?
They were not very nice.
They'd been tap taken out of Egypt, a great, wonderful redemption that was through the Red Sea. You know, those things really happened.
And they were carried, figuratively speaking, on eagle's wings. What a beautiful expression that was. 90 days.
They'd been out there six weeks.
And they had complained about this and complained about that, but nevertheless the Lord said in this verse here verse Exodus 19, verse four, ye have seen what I did on the Egyptians, He got rid of them.
And I bear you on eagle's wings. And more than that, I brought you to myself.
Now, therefore.
Umm, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for the all the earth is mine.
I think of the Lord Jesus.
He obeyed the Father's voice.
And he kept this covenant. And what a peculiar treasure he is. That's not the context here, but that's nevertheless the truth. What a beautiful, beautiful Savior we have to offer tonight. So verse 7, Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together and said, look at this.
All that the Lord has spoken, we will do.
Oh my, there was a bunch of people out our way called Promise Keepers.
And uh.
Matter of fact I saw a whole van full of pastures were going down there to put their hats on and be promised keepers and I thought to myself, I didn't say it to him, I should have probably. How can you keep anything? We have proved ourselves year in and year out, day by day. We can't keep anything. We are all fallen, broken race of people.
00:25:15
There was a neighbor work next to me and he went to his pastor and he says pastor, I got this problem I got.
That problem, I I got this problem, laid it out, his pastor wisely said to him. You're a broken man in a broken world.
I have to realize that that's our condition and now to step up to the plate and say we will perform.
No.
Here it is, all that the Lord has spoken. We will do. There's a promise, keeper.
And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord. I'm going to read this section here and just takes about four minutes. And the Lord said it to Moses. Go verse 9.
Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, and the people, that the people may hear, when I speak with thee, and believe thee forever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the Lord. The Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people, sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes, and be ready against the third day. For the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai. And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up.
Into the mountain, or touch the border of it. Whosoever toucheth the mountain shall be surely put to death. There shall not a hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through. Whether it be beast or man, it shall not live. And when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the Mountain West. And Moses went down to the mountain unto the people, and sanctified the people. And they washed their clothes, and he sent the people. Be ready against the third day. Come not at your wives. And it came to pass on the 3rd.
In the morning, there it is. There were Thunders Lightnings.
Thick cloud upon the mountain, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the nether part of the mountain. And the Mount Sinai was all together on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in a fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace.
And the whole mountain quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.
And the Lord came down upon the Mount Sinai on the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they breakthrough unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish.
And let the priests also, which come near to the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them.
And Moses said him for the Lord that people cannot come up to Mount Sinai for without charges, thus saying, set bounds about the mountain, sanctify it.
And the Lord said unto him, Away, Get thee down.
Thou shalt come up, thou and Aaron with thee, but let not the priests and the people breakthrough to come up unto the Lord, lest he break forth upon them. So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them. Now this is something I would like to contrast with the coming of our blessed Savior the Lord Jesus Christ into this world.
Thou shalt set bounds. Here's a display.
Of the holiness of God, a holiness that if you are in your sins, Sinner, young person, old person.
You will meet the vengeance of God, it says. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands.
Of a living God fearful thing.
And if we don't approach God on God's terms and God's ways.
We will have to experience the holiness of God, wrath of God against sin. It can't be any other way.
It was a little girl, perhaps 16 years of age, came into the school where my wife was teaching and she said this.
She said to my wife is.
As hell, uh, can hell ever be full?
And my wife gave her a verse that says hell and destruction are never full. And then she said under her breath, I don't have a chance.
00:30:04
Oh, my wife told her, you have a wonderful chance. You have every chance. You can accept Christ as your Savior, and you don't have to go there. We're not going to dwell much upon that awful subject of hell, but there it is. There it is. If you're going to meet God on your terms, that is. All of your righteousnesses added up amount to filthy rags.
You will meet God on those terms, and you will suffer, and you will experience the vengeance of eternal fire. That's not my words.
The wrath of God against sin.
And so here they are. They're asking to perform for God.
So the Lord said, Moses going to the people, sanctify them today and tomorrow, wash their clothes and be ready against the third day, and so on. I'll come down. The sight of the people now shalt set bounds unto the people round about. Oh, here we have a contrast, brethren and Sinner friend, turn with me, please, to Luke chapter 8.
We have such a contrast here.
Here's a boundary.
Here's a a border of a garment or a border of a mountain. And here we have a border of a garment. Luke chapter 8 and verse 43. It's not a comparison. It's such a contrast and it's so beautiful, so beautiful.
And a woman having an issue of blood. Luke 843.
This woman had spent all her living upon positions neither could be healed of any hurt Case was hopeless.
She came behind him and she touched the border.
Of his garment, I think the Book of Numbers said that there's a ribbon of blue there. Makes you think of that heavenly man. She reached out tremblingly from behind, and she touched the border of that garment. And what happened?
Well.
Came behind and touched the border of his garment. Immediately her issue of blood staunched.
And Jesus said, who touched me? All he knew he knew, but he would like to hear.
Her confess it.
Who touched me? And now here we have these disciples and they start to ridicule him. Really. And they're saying, uh, you know, all these people are bouncing up against you. What do you mean? In other words, don't be ridiculous. Oh, somebody.
Somebody touched me, he said. Because virtue's gone out of me. He knew. He knew all along. Beautiful.
So here we have Exodus chapter 19. The holiness of God says, don't you dare touch that mountain. Don't you dare touch that mountain. Here comes the Lord Jesus. And he said, who touched me?
And what happens?
The woman.
Saw that she was not hid, she came trembling. Now send her friend. I want to say this, If you take Christ as your Savior tonight, it may be the most frightening day of your life. You may be scared, you may be trembling because you've finally got into the presence of God.
And what a fearful thing that is.
It may be the most scary day of your life.
You know, they talk about conversions where there's so much joy, all that it's true in some cases, but not all.
No, there's a fear because we're on divine ground.
And.
That peace comes later. So beautiful. Look at this. She was shaken and she was afraid, and she was trembling.
She saw that she was healed immediately.
He said unto his daughter. There is relationship right there, daughter.
The mountain it was Stand back, get away, don't come near, don't touch, or you'll be killed.
Here's a woman. She came. She touched the border of his garment.
00:35:04
And she was healed and she was brought into a relationship, and she was spoken peace to peace like a river.
Well, the question is asked. I will ask you, have you ever reached out? And you know, I'm not asking you to reach out and touch.
Reach out and embrace.
A touch of faith, a little tiny bit of faith will do the job and you may be shaking in your boots.
But if you have a tiny bit of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Can you tell him you're a Sinner? You tell him you're at a distance. You tell him you're broken, you're hopeless and helpless and godless in this world, and you need him.
A little touch of faith will save your soul. How much better to embrace.
Well, go on back to.
The 13th verse.
The 19th chapter.
Lexus.
There's another hand. Touch it.
He shall surely be stoned.
Or shot through, Whether it be beast or man, it shall not live. And when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mountain. Later on it says the trumpet grew louder and louder. Think of that wonderful verse that says grace upon grace.
Oh my, that fearful trumpet.
Declaring the righteousness of God against sin.
Moses went down from the mountain unto the people, and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes, and it came to pass. Verse 16 a third day.
In the morning that there were thunders, lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mountain, and the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud. And the people that were in the camp, they trembled. It's a different kind of trembling.
Well, and he brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at another part of the mountain.
Sinai was all together on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in a fire.
Oh, how did the Lord Jesus come down into this world? He came down.
Such accessible grace. He came down and they laid him. Doesn't even say he was born in a Manger. He was laid in the Manger. What humility, what grace, what love, what compassion, what tenderness, what an identification with his creature.
Beautiful, beautiful.
They could look upon him and instead of the trumpets growing louder and louder, blaring out that.
Decree and the island. The mountain, shaking, smoking fire like a furnace. What do you have? I think it's Luke Chapter 2. Let's look at it.
Verse 2.
And verse Luke 2.
Number six. And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
And she brought forth her first born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, laid him in a Manger.
Because there's no room for them in the end.
And they were in the same country, shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the Angel of the Lord came upon them in the glory of the Lord, shone round about them, and they were so afraid. Oh yes, presence of the Lord, There's fear. He has to speak peace to your heart, no matter what condition you are. And He does that to those that believe.
The Angel of the Lord said unto them.
Let's see, yeah, they were so afraid. Verse 10. And the Angel of the Lord said to them, fear not, for behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
00:40:04
And it should be assigned on to you. You should find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a Manger. I'll compare this next verse with what we have there in Exodus. And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God, saying glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace and goodwill toward men.
All the grace of that statement, Isaiah.
Is it 61?
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
Psalm 102.
The Lord, verse 19.
The Lord hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary. From heaven did the Lord behold the earth.
To hear the groaning of the prisoner, to loose those that are appointed to death.
Oh what a accessible savior we have. What a what a God to send his son down to this poor sin stained world places under a curse.
Now we go on here and it says.
Verse 19.
Alright, verse 20, the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mountain. You know something?
The Lord Jesus came right down like we said that to that Manger that animals were.
And then it says.
Uh, and I don't think they ever did see the Lord God.
I don't think it's every time.
There was a fire. There were there. He was the fire and the smoke and the Thunder and the lightning and all those things. They could see it here.
But did he ever display himself? No.
The book, the first book in the Bible, or rather the first Testament, starts with a God.
And then it ends with a curse.
The New Testament starts with.
Jesus Christ.
And ends with a blessing.
Soul Center, where do you fit in here? Are you going to meet him as a holy, thrice holy God, or are you going to meet him as a as a savior of sinners?
We'll look on here.
Verse 21.
And the Lord said to Moses, go down, charge the people.
What a contrast that is. The Lord Jesus was given directions to go down and bless the people. Bless the people. If you come under the shelter of the precious blood of Christ, young person, are you standing outside the door you will face?
Judgment.
And you will pay for those sins that you did last Friday and Saturday night.
Or you're under the shelter of the precious blood of Christ.
The Chinese lady.
In the shop a week ago.
And there was a man sitting on my left here. His name was Don Argue. He was the president of the college where we have the conference over there.
And he was visiting with her about the gospel.
And she was interested and so we were able to say to her.
Have Judgment Day behind you, not ahead of you. Make sure Judgment Day is behind you, not ahead of you.
And this man gave the gospel, and he stood up, and he prayed with this Chinese woman.
I'll tell you a story.
This man standing here, he was sent out by the Bill and Hillary Clinton, he and two other men to search into the.
Different nations of the world where there was religious persecution. So he had a free ticket to go wherever he wanted to go. This man's name is Dawn. Don't argue. And dear Christian brother, sweet man, he's over in China and he's talking, he said to this Chinese woman is standing there. He says, you remember this?
00:45:12
Chinese king, emperor, president, what do they call it? And he said, you know, is in play or whatever his name was, I can't remember, She said, yes, he was the, uh, president of, uh, China. This is 15 years ago.
This man was visiting with him. This man knew English. He was talking to my friend Don. He said, uh, to Don. He said, I don't understand the Bible. Well, Don said, you know, it's, umm, New Testament, an Old Testament. Yeah, he said, I understand that much. And then Don gave him a little gospel and he said, I have a Chinese Bible for you, Mr. President. He gave him the Bible.
And he said, now you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, read John's gospel. Read John's Gospel. So I don't understand the Bible. So you read John's gospel.
And so the man, he's walking away and he turns around. He says the, uh, Dawn argue. He said, uh, John's gospel. In other words, he was going to read it. Well, Mr. Dawn came back to the United States and he's sitting in his office, Kirkland there somewhere Bellevue, Chinese man came up to me and said, Don, you're, you're a famous man in China.
Which is, you know, who wouldn't mean no, no.
We suggest you're a famous man in China. He said, what do you mean? He says what you did there, you're giving that Bible to the president and given him the gospel and tell him to read the book of John. He says all those house churches, televisions had that on screen. He says you're a famous man in science to witness something like that.
God has his ways. I mean that beautiful well, so here we have it. Go down, charge the people in Seoul, you and I.
We have experienced the blessing of the Lord and have maketh rich, and yet of no sorrow with it so precious. So we're going to go on.
So they're gonna breakthrough the gaze. You know, we sing that song.
Gazing on the Lord in glory, our hearts in worship bow, and then we sing, sing those songs. Uh, grace is a sweetest sound that ever reached our ears. If you want to come on the basis of law, you got a real rough road ahead of you If you want to come on the basis of God's grace and his love.
You've got eternal blessing ahead of you. Someone has said wrongly that a law the transcript of the mind of God.
No, no, no, no, no.
You get a transcript of the heart of God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
His heart. Oh, there's a warmer heart. Never beat. Think of that.
Warmer heart never beat.
He could take up those children in his arms. He put his hands upon them and bless them. One man, he wanted to visit the Pope, Pirapado, he's over there in Rome, Italy, by the Vatican business, and there's a bunch of the guards with their bayonets in front of the door, and there's an opening that leads up to the Pope.
And so he's walking along like this with his tracks, and he's giving them out here and there. And then he gets that opening. He turns sideways. He's going to slip through.
And these guards took that bayonet and they woo.
He says to think of it, this man, he said. You can't go in there.
I just wanna go see the Pope.
No, he said. You can't go in there, he says. To think that that man is supposed to represent the Lord Jesus Christ, the most accessible man that ever lived. You won't let me go see him.
Well, that's his story.
Yes, you can come tonight. You can come believing. You can just bow your knees. I've heard this story. I think this brother might have told it. I have a story almost exactly like it. Airline pilot came into the office there and started to talk about his conversion. He said I was proud pilot, stubborn man.
He said. But I knew I had an issue. God had an issue with me about my sins.
00:50:05
And I knew I had to bow my knees, the Lord Jesus.
I went in my bedroom.
I put one knee on on the ground, on the floor, but he said that other knee wouldn't go down. He said no, if I went out of here without bending both those knees, I'd be lost. You have to break yourself down in the presence of God. He's watching. And so he took his hand that he jammed that other knee down to the ground and he got saved.
Now, that might not be your condition tonight, but you need to bow yourself. You know a man. He bows his head, he bends his shoulders.
He bows his back, he bends his knees and he's put his face down. And if he does it with a right heart and there's repentance towards God, and there's faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth him from all sin.
That's a fact.
Well, we'll go on.
That was an external cleansing there to wash their clothes.
138.
I'll read you a beautiful song here. Hang on.
Listen to this.
Soft.
Soft, the voice of mercy sounded.
Tweet as music to the ear. Elijah was on the top of a mountain one time and he was listening for the voice of God and the fire came. The voice was not there and the wind came and the rocks were flying around up there and he was listening for the voice of God. The mount was shaken. No, but then.
You open up Brother Darby's Bible. It says this a soft, gentle.
Voice.
You.
Have you ever opened opened your ear?
And you've heard that soft channel voice that's saying depart from iniquity.
Take me as your savior.
Confess your brokenness, your godlessness, your sinfulness, and accept the Christ of God is your Savior. Look at this.
Soft, the voice of mercy sounded sweet as music to the ear.
Grace abounds where sin abounded. This the word that sooth our fear.
Grace, the sweetest sound we know Grace is sinners here below.
Grace. We sing God's grace through Jesus. Grace the spring of peace to man. He made peace through the blood of His cross.
Grace that from each sorrow frees us. Grace too high for thought to scan.
Grazed the theme of God's own love, grace, the theme, All themes above. There's nothing like it.
Don't meet God in your sins. Don't meet God with your pile of good works, what you think are good works. There's not a balance up there where you put your good works on one side and your bad works on the other, and you just hope and pray that the good works exceed the bad works. That's foolishness. God requires that which is past. There's nothing you can do in the future to help yourself.
You're lost. And are you like that man? That was sinful man. His conscience was working on him and he's lost and he.
Sees a light and he runs further into the darkness.
And one brother said one time he said no Adam and Eve they had.
A child that was born lost.
Were born into this world, born lost as we are, but.
It's like a Mama sheep.
She gets lost, she leaves the fold and she's going over hill and Dale and valley and through the woods and lo and behold, that sheep gets lost. While she's out there. She has a baby lamb.
Is that you?
Mother and father gave birth to a lost soul.
00:55:04
A little lamb, you know something you don't have to stay lost.
You don't have to stay lost. You can be saved. Tonight. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin.
And so we'll go on.
Safe in Christ, the weakest child.
I was gonna ask that young boy, you know, young fellows here, what a Ducati 998 is. This is not for you old folks. This is for us younger ones.
It's a high-powered motorcycle. My employee has one. Had a girlfriend, Christian boy.
Nice, nice brother. Well, one of the weaker moments, he was going across the Lake Washington floating bridge there in Seattle, and some of you have been there. It's about a mile and a half flat, goes like that and you go up into town. Well, he came through the tunnel and he goes down on the red. Lo and behold, there's a policeman.
And So what does he do instead of just back off?
He has a girlfriend on the back. Instead of back off, get down the speed limit. He lets her roll 130 mile an hour down across that bridge, flying across that bridge. But you know, something has a conscience. And he gets on the Mercer Island there and he knows the policeman is on his tail. And so he slows it way down to a crawl. Matter of fact, he might have even stopped.
And the policeman came and he said, how fast were you going? Well, he didn't tell him. He said I couldn't catch you.
Now I said to this guy, this Vladimir, this employee, I said.
Do you think that's something that took you out of out of?
Uh, grace with the Lord.
Did that. That was a sinful deed. You know you had a life on the back of that car, a motorcycle, including your own.
And uh, I made him think about that. No, you don't lose your life. You don't go to hell because of some misdeed that you've done. What you do is you go to the Lord and you say Lord and you don't even ask for forgiveness.
What you do is you go and you identify like the brothers brought out meeting before you identify what you did. That's what I did. I did a terrible deed. I could have killed somebody.
And fellowship is restored.
Relationship was always there. Fellowship was restored. Oh, this God we have, He has given us a salvation. If we could lose it, we would lose it. But we've been given a salvation that we can't lose.
Never perish. You see, with how precious that is. I know our time's gone. Oh, God, I'm gonna. We have a Savior that's gonna take us home into the glory land. And we're gonna see this heart of his displayed fully. It was displayed there at the cross, but we couldn't take it all in.
You know what it says in time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Samson and Barrick and the prophets and all that time fails another place that says umm.
I suppose.
The many other things which Jesus did, I suppose if they should be written everyone, the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. There we have space fails another place that talks about our understanding fails something beyond our understanding. You know something, folks, we're going to a place.
Where space doesn't fail, time doesn't fail, understanding doesn't fail, and what's more than that, We'll sit there.
And we'll talk about the grace of God that was poured out upon us in all of our lives.
There's people in here 104 years of age and they would have to say the grace of God has followed me all my days.
I was at that lady's house when I was a young boy, and she was old then.
Yeah, it's true, lover. All of our days, All of our days.
All of her days. What about you, Senator?
Are you gonna face this wrath that we've been reading about? Or you can look into the face of your Savior, Lord Jesus Christ, Be eternally blessed and saved.
Think about it, think about it. I don't think there's going to be another conference in this town next year the way things are going.
01:00:03
Things are falling apart. Park down around our ears as we speak.
God has his timetable. Grace. There's a day of grace is almost up.
May you really consider these verses? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou shalt be saved. Let that precious blood of Christ that flowed so freely from that side, that gift of God.
Let it be for you tonight. You just say yes. Lord Jesus, in your heart, bow, bow that knee.
Refuse the Evil; Choose the Good
Salvation - What Is It? Do I Need It? How Do I Get It?
Children—Virgil Redman
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.
I'm going to try and answer 3 questions I want you to keep in your mind.
Three questions. OK, I'm gonna, I'm gonna answer 3 questions in our singing and what I'm gonna talk about is 3 questions. God's plan of salvation. Salvation. What is it and do I need it and how do I get it? Three really important questions. And you just think about that when we start singing and everything. So I guess we can get started. So I think most of the children.
Are on the back, but we'll sing whatever you want to sing. So anybody have a song they wanna sing? OK.
#40 All right.
Alright, favorite.
Jesus loves.
VIRERAIVER A N D O N G O N D I N G O V I N G O N G I N G O N G O K O R T O N G T E N T O N G O R T O N G O R T ONGONTON Qurayments 2014 and grade two are pretty, pretty late. Run everywhere.
And I won't bring dry cleaning up on me.
You know, boys and girls, I just love this book. You know why I love this book so much? Because it tells me that Jesus loves me. Isn't that a good news? That's so wonderful. And you know, there's so many boys and girls all through this world. They don't know that Jesus loves them. I didn't know that Jesus loved me, and I was.
Well, I was pretty old.
I was pretty old and I didn't know that until I read that Jesus loves me. So this is a good book, and it's a wonderful book that gives us good news. Who else has a song? OK, just a seat over here next to my buddy Evan.
00:05:16
Hey, Diego 46.
Uh, spelling song? Are you guys good at spelling? I'm not very good at spelling, all right.
Glad ***.
N ANDANDUNANDANDINGONETONJANDANDANDENTENTENDENDENDENTEDNGTENTENDENGONGANDENDENDENDENGONDONDONGONDONGOI don't think I don't see all the time because all of the Speaking of the speaking I come across from and you are laughing all night and dreams you.
10000100.
Have you ever noticed singing this song, it says that he wants all the girls and all the boys. He doesn't say I want some of them. I only want the good ones. No, he wants all the girls and he wants all the boys. Isn't that wonderful? He wants everybody. He doesn't leave anybody out. Who else has a song? Yes, 29. Oh, OK.
We're going inside the book.
What is 29 all right?
Yeah, that's a good one.
A ruler once came.
In all the people are not dead. You're in my life. You're not. You're still alive.
Well, it says here a ruler once came to Jesus by night. Well, we knew who it was. Who was this ruler? What was the name of this ruler that came to Jesus?
Nick, Nick. Nick Nick what?
What Nicodemus and he was a ruler of the Jewish people, very high important person. And he knew all about the Jewish laws and everything. But imagine his his surprise when Jesus said, well, you have to be born again. Well, Nicodemus was whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute. Hi. And he was thinking about being born naturally, but we have to be born from above, huh? We have to be born through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And be saved. And that's spiritual growth, isn't it? It's being born from God. So it must have been a real surprise. OK, we another song, yes.
00:10:15
28.
OK.
Some brothers start that please.
Well, hopefully we might be able to sing maybe another one or so. But all right, well, we're going to say our verses. Who would like to say verse? I have this microphone. OK, You want to say that? That was a lovely hymn you gave out. I tell you, I don't know what the verses are. So.
He's at cover of his scent. Shall not prosper.
But whoso confesses and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Proverbs, 2813.
OK.
The currency shall prosper, but he shall not prosper. But he that shaketh his sin confesses his sins shall have mercy. Proverbs.
2028.
13 All right, well, that's a great verse because that's just what I'm going to talk about today. So that's amazing. Anybody else?
Alright, see, that covers his sins. Sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth.
Yeah, and forsaken them shall have mercy. Proverbs 2813. That's a tongue twister. In it you just say confess. That's good enough.
He that covers his sins shall not prosper, but he that but who so confesseth and forsaken.
His them shall have mercy on verse 2813. Good. Anybody else want to say a verse? Huh.
He that he that covers his Finch shall not prosper, but who so confesses and forsake of them shall have mercy. Proverbs 2813 Very good, very good.
00:15:02
You wanna say a verse seven? Do you have a verse to anything?
Go ahead.
I can't help you because I don't know what it is.
Your money savers.
No, maybe later. OK, No problem. OK. Come on. Oh, sorry, dear. Go ahead. It's good. You don't wanna say it. OK, Well, that that's alright. No problem. OK, I'm gonna read a verse before I start talking about my story.
It's in Isaiah.
Isaiah 59. Very important verse.
Isaiah 59 verse one, it says, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither is his air heavy that it cannot hear. You know if I was in the very depths of the ocean and in a fish's belly, you think the Lord could hear me if I prayed? Yeah, really good. What about Jonah? And suppose I went up to the very highest mountain, almost 30,000 feet.
I'm climbing some pretty high mountains but not 30,000 feet.
Would the Lord hear me then? What if I was on the moon? Would the Lord hear me then if I was on the moon?
So it says here the Lord's hand is not shortened that he cannot save, neither is there heavy that he cannot hear. No matter where we are, no matter how trouble we are, if we pray to the Lord and say, Lord save me, he'll hear us warning and he can save us. Isn't that wonderful? Well, what about the next verse? Oh, but he says your iniquities. What's iniquities? Well, it's like a sin.
He says your iniquities have separated you between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you.
That he will not hear. So you know, if we still have our sins on us, if we have not come to the Lord Jesus and be saved and be born again, as we've been thinking about.
Then there's a big separation between me and God, and that separation goes on forever. It goes on forever.
And so there's something between the center that's lost in his sin and God, who is holy and righteous, that has to come together. And that's the Lord Jesus, isn't it? He brings us both together because God can't have his sin in his presence.
Kenny because he's holy, righteous. And how do we get rid of our sins? Well, it's impossible for men, so I want to tell you a story about a man.
Who lived a long time ago.
And this man?
Was a master at.
Escaping from things. He was an escaped artist a long time ago. And when I was your age, we had this game we played. It was a silly game, but we tied ourselves up and we see how fast we could get out of, you know, the ropes and stuff like that. Well, this man, he would go to these giant theaters with all these people and he would perform these acts of escaping from all types of various.
Jails and they would put him in.
Safe and locked is safe and he'd get out of it. Or they put him in a cage, locked the cage up and he'd get out of it and they would even, oh, did I tell you his name? His name was Harry Houdini.
Yes. Ha. Have you kids ever heard of Harry Houdini? You have. Well, you're a smart kid. Wow. OK. Well, anyway, Harry Houdini was one of the best escaped artists. And they would put him in a they would hang him upside down.
Tie his feet up and tie his hands up and blindfold him and put him in this water tank. And they would put a cover over the water tank and lock the water tank. And he was in this water. And a couple of minutes they pulled the curtains back and there he was outside the cage. I mean, outside the water tank. How did he do that? I don't know. It was a trick. And he was the master of that. So one day this man came along. He said, well, I've got some handcuffs and.
There, there nobody can get out of them. And he big old handcuffs and he put them on this.
And he said, well, anybody can get out of my hand 'cause I'll pay him a lot of money. Oh well, Harry, dude. And he said, OK, put him on me. And so he put him on that. A few seconds later, he was out of it. So there was nothing that he couldn't escape from. Well, I want to put on a little demonstration. I want to see how that would work, don't you? I want to see somebody get out of something, escape. So I've got a volunteer.
00:20:17
Would my volunteer please come down?
Oh, you could call him my victim. No, he he he's a volunteer. Thank you, Lance. Now.
If I tied you up with a bunch of rope, do you think you'd get out of pretty good? Well, yeah, Pretty. All right. Well, I don't have any ropes, but I have these. OK.
All right, we're going to try this out. Put your hands behind your back, OK?
We're gonna see if our junior escaped artist. Could you put your sleeve up a little bit? There you go. OK, we're gonna. Oh, boy. Now this this won't hurt you too much. The last time I tried this on somebody, he got better after a week. No, no, no. I'm just kidding. Just kidding. The swelling went down in a couple of days.
Yeah, OK.
OK, here we go. OK, now you do your best to try to get out of them. I I don't don't break my cusp. It's just a toy. They're not real. Now you get you you try. I'm going to finish the story with Harry Houdini. I got another story to tell. You try to get out of them. OK. OK, so anyway, so this here you do any Harry Houdini? He said I'm gonna try one big.
Another trick, a very dangerous one. So it was in the middle of the winter.
And he, he went down to this river that was frozen, and he cut a hole in the ice. And they got this big crane and they tied his, they chained his legs together and he tied his hands. And they put a blindfold on him. And they load him down in this freezing water. And he was down there for a few minutes. And then they raised the crane up and he went there.
He escaped, but they were looking at this water in this hole and they were looking and they were looking.
No, Houdini. Where'd he go? Well, so they looked around and he was so cold he got disoriented and he didn't know where to where, you know, where the hole was. And they were saying it's over here, it's over here. You know where they finally broke the ice and they got them out of there. And, uh, I guess he was pretty sick afterwards. You know, he, he got pneumonia and got cold. So I don't really know how he died. But you know the strange thing on his deathbed he says I'm gonna do my last. Great.
I'm gonna come back from the dead. Yes. I'm gonna beat the grave. Did he ever come back? No, he never did. Nobody comes back from the grave. You know, death is final. So. Anyway, so that's what happened. I don't know exactly how he died. Somebody probably knows, but. Well, how did you do? I didn't do very good. You didn't do very good. Well, you're still in there. He's not much of A Houdini, is he? OK. Well, alright. Well, I gotta.
I got a I can set you free. I you, you there you go. Let's see. I got AI got it. I got the I got the oh, here it is. I thought I was going to have to feed him at lunchtime. OK, well, we'll, we'll get you out of these uh, hopefully this key. Oh, there we go. Oh well, OK, OK, OK. I got you, I got you.
Where we at? Oh, OK.
You notice I haven't done this much.
I could have read you right, You know, you you remain to be silent now. OK. Thank you very much. Glance. That was great. All right.
Well, that's just a little demonstration. He couldn't get free without the key. It's a good thing I didn't lose the key. All right, I'm going to read another verse, and this one is in Second Timothy. Very important verse. Very important verse.
And 2nd Tim uh, second Timothy chapter 2 and the last verse of chapter 2 verse 26 it says.
That they may recover themselves out of the sneer of the devil who has taken captive, who are taking captive by him. That is the devil.
At his will. What a verse. You know, the devil lays traps. He tries to trick us, just like Houdini tried to trick everybody. It was just a trick. But you know, the devil tries to trick us.
00:25:06
And he lays traps for us. And, you know, there's so many people.
Are prisoners.
They're they're, they're being LED captive by Satan's will. And Satan is our enemy. He's our adversary. Have you ever heard that word adversary? He's the enemy. He's the enemy. He hates God and he wants to destroy you. So we can't listen to his lies because he likes to lie.
So, so there's so many people that are handcuffed and they're being LED away to a lost eternity. He wants to take as many as he can, boys and girls. Well, you, you say, well, I can't see no handcuffs. Well, they're there. They're being LED prisoners. They leaned captive by his will. And he's laying traps for people all the time. Let's read one more.
Now I forgot to say one thing I could have not only handcuffed.
My assistant there, I could have handcuffed him as I did, and I also could have blindfolded him. Huh. And if I blindfolded him, well, I could lean him away around anywhere I wanted, and he wouldn't. He wouldn't know where he was going, would he? I should have brought AI should have brought a blindfold. Well, OK, NE, next time I'll bring a blindfold. We'll get him. OK. So in Second Corinthians, there's another wonderful verse.
Listen, what else Satan does? This is the devil working.
Can we trust the devil? No, we can't. He's a liar and he's the father of it and he wants to deceive you. He wants to trick you. He says here in Second Corinthians chapter 4 verse three, it says if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost because in whom the God of this world has blinded their minds or blinded your heart of them which believe.
Believe not.
Believe what? Believe the gospel, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine into them.
Well, who is the God of this world? What is Satan? He is controlling this world.
And he says, if our gospel be hid well, who is hiding the gospel? God isn't hiding the gospel. He tells us how to be safe. He tells us all about Satan, his tricks, how he's leading us captive, how he's has us prisoners by his will and he's trying to wake us up. He's got that glorious high beam that's it's reaching right into our hearts.
It is trying to open up our hearts. He's trying to reach our conscience to open our hearts and say yes.
I'm a prisoner, I'm guilty, I'm a Sinner, I'm law. I need to be saved. This is what God is trying to do with the gospel, and that's good news. He's trying to bring us together through the Lord Jesus Christ. We can't save ourselves. There's not one sin that we can get rid of. And you know, Satan lies to us and he throws traps and he throws lies into us and he wants to keep us. California. He doesn't want you to come to the Lord Jesus. He doesn't want you to be saved.
Hey, why don't you just keep going on the way you are? You see, in three ways, Satan keeps us three ways. Satan keeps us from coming to the Lord Jesus and being saved.
The war first one is neglect. Let's just neglect to get saved. Well, I'm just gonna put it off for another day. It it's not convenient. It's not the right time. It is the right time because God's word tells us now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. Remember I told you those three questions? Salvation. Well, we all need it.
And God's provided a way for us to be saved, that we can be saved and have our sins washed away.
But Satan says, no, no, put it off. You're young. You don't need to come right now. That's a live Satan. And there's so many kids that are just putting up. What does that mean? To neglect means to put it up. We all know what it means to neglect something, right? We have all the, you know, sun, clean up your room, take out the trash or do this or do that. And we say, well, OK, I don't have to do it right away. I'll just put it off.
I was at the airport once.
And I didn't know, I, I, I, I misread the time that the airplane was taken off and I got there just as the plane was taken off. I just, uh, neglected to go at the right time. Well, it would just cost me inconvenience. But we don't want to neglect, we don't want to put off being saved because we don't know what tomorrow's going to be tomorrow.
00:30:08
Maybe too late, you know, if the Lord Jesus came right now.
Would envy would, would the all the seats be emptied or would there be some boys and girls that have been putting off getting saved? Would you be left behind? Oh, what an awful thing. What a terrible thing that your parents are gone and everybody else is gone and you're sitting there wondering what happened because you waited too long. We don't want to wait too long to get saved. You wanna get saved and you wanna do it now. Don't listen to Satan because he doesn't want you to say what's the next thing he does.
Well, some people just reject the whole thing. They say no, I don't believe in God.
I don't want God. I don't need God. I don't believe in the gospel. I'm not going to get saved. I just three days. I know people like that. They just reject it all together. Oh, what a terrible life, Satan. You know, there's billions of people today who worship a God. It doesn't even exist. That's right. And there's more millions of people today who worship a man. Should we worship a man?
No, but they worship this man, you see, Holy Father. Well anyway, so.
We don't wanna reject the gospel because God has offered us just a wonderful way to have our sins washed, the way he's offered us a way of salvation that will last forever. He wants us to be part of the family of God. Do we want to be part of the family of God? I do, absolutely. Yeah. Well, the third thing, the 3rd way that God. Excuse me, The 3rd way, that Satan.
Tricks us. He lays a trap for us.
And the lies that he tells us, the 3rd way is that we tend to be saved. We're just pretending. Oh, that's terrible.
You know, I remember once in, in, in camp this 10 year old girl and you probably have heard the story. Excuse me if I tell it again, but I'll never forget this as long as I live. It was at, uh, Brighton Morningstar, which I'll be going to here in a few weeks. And in the evening time we have questions and answers and we, uh, we sit around a fireplace and it's kind of cold and we have a open tent and there's about 40 or fifty of us standing there.
And you can ask questions.
And it doesn't matter whether you're 10 year old or 100 years old. So, uh, this little girl, she raised the question. She's had a question. She says, well, my older cousin said that there's no God, he doesn't exist. It's a fairy tale. Well, this brother, he explained to this girl that yes, God does exist. You look around, you can see God's handiwork.
He sent his beloved son to die on the cross to take your place.
He was a substitute for sin, and that he shed his precious blood.
And now he's risen from the grave and he's at the right hand of God and he wants to be your savior. And he can save you from your sins and wash you from all your sins and bring you into the family of God and give you eternal life and so forth and so forth. And so he asked this little girl and I, I wouldn't do this myself directly, but this is the brother that does it. He said to this little girl, are you saved? Well, this girl could have pretend. She could have just said, you know, just pretend and say, yeah, I'm.
You know, and that would've been the end of it. And some girls and some boys do that. They're just pretending and they've never repented. They've never come to the lo uh, to come to God on their knees and say, God, I'm a Sinner, I'm lost, I'm guilty, I need to be saved. God, what does God know that we're sinners? Does he know all about? He knows everything about well, why do we have to tell him if he knows it all? Because he wants to hear it from our lips. He wants us on our knees. He wants us to say.
I need to be. I did that over 50 years ago when I first heard about this. This was the first time I I got on my knees. How do you pray to God? You don't even know you've you've heard it over and over. I never heard it before. So I got on my knees. I said, dear God, save me. I'm glad I'm guilty. I'm a Sinner. You said I was. And I took God's side against myself and I turned all my sins over to him.
And he washed my sins in the precious blood of Christ.
And so he wants to hear that from us. We must repent. We must have gone. We must confess. It's acknowledging that you are a Sinner that God says you are. That's all it is. So this little girl, she says, no, I'm not saved. Isn't that something? A 10 year old girl?
00:35:04
And then the brother said, well, do you want to be saved? Yes. Oh, yes, I wanna be saved. So this brother, he went around the fireplace and they both kneeled down in the dirt. Now that's your little girl really wanted to be saved. How bad do you want to be saved if you're not saved? How bad do I wanna be saved? Well, I wanna be saved really bad. So they kneel down in this dirt and all everybody looking at them.
And you did excuse me, this little girl said, the sweetest purr you'd ever want us to hear. She said, oh, dear God, I'm a Sinner. I'm lost. I wanna be saved. I have to be saved. Jesus coming in my heart and saved me. And thank you for dying on the cross. And for she she got up and she had a smile on her face. Everybody else was crying. The whole tent was crying. Bill remembers that. I know he does. Yeah. Boy, what a time. I just. I'll never forget that as long as I live.
If I live to be 105, I'll never forget that so.
So anyway.
It was amazing. The next thing, the next couple of days.
She went up to this brother that she prayed with and she says I want to be baptized. How'd she know that? She just wanted to be identified with the Lord Jesus that died for her and washed her sins away. She said I want to be baptized. Isn't that something she wanted? She knew that she wanted to be better. That's a very important thing to be baptized. So anyway, so that's how Satan.
Leads us on.
As a prisoner of him to a lost eternity. And he doesn't care how he does it. He doesn't care how he tricks you, as long as you stay his prisoner. I'm gonna read one more verse. Well, I won't. I won't need to read it. I'll just quote it. It's in Hebrews chapter 2, verse three. Now, I know you kids have memorized this first, and I know you've probably said it before as a memory verse.
It says that how are we going to escape if we neglect so great of salvation?
How are we going to escape? From what? Well, from from a lost eternity, From the lake of fire. That's where Satan's trying to take you. You know, if I offered you a gift, what would you have to do? What would you have to do to make that gift your own?
Yes. What would you have to do? You accept it? I gave Evan here some cars the other day. What did you have to do to take for the cars to be yours? When I said here's some cars, what did you do?
You took them, didn't you? Yeah. And they were yours. God is offering us a wonderful gift. A gift of eternal life. What does Satan want to do? He wants to destroy you and take you to the lake of fire. Oh, eternal life. Lake of fire. Hmm. What a decision. Well, there isn't any decision. God is offering you a gift of eternal life. And what do you have to do? Have to make it good to your own soul. You have to receive it.
And so it says, how are we gonna escape? How did Lance? He probably could have gotten out of it eventually.
But I had the key, didn't he? Didn't I? God has the key to save you and to bring you into the family of God. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth and the life. Isn't that wonderful? It says that call, whosoever calleth on the name of the Lord shall be saved. What a wonderful verse we have in John 316. My time is almost up. He says God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever.
Believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Jesus might be saved. Isn't that a wonderful gospel of good news? We don't have to listen to Satan. We don't have to be his prisoner. We don't have to be LED around captive by him. No, we can come to God and say I need the gift, I'm a Sinner, I'm lost, I'm guilty.
And it says, how are we going to escape if we neglect, if we put it up? Don't put it off, boys and girls.
God loves you. He's provided a full, complete salvation.
The Lord Jesus went to the cross.
He died for you to put away your sins. You just have to acknowledge to God that you are a Sinner, that you are lost, and you know that precious blood that Jesus spilled on the cross.
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It's still good today. It hasn't lost its value. God sees that, that precious blood, and he can apply it to yours. He can. He can wash your sins away. There's still power in that blood today, and it will be for all eternity. There's power in that blood to wash all your sins away. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, can cleanse you from all your sins. But you, you must come God's way. God has a wonderful plan of salvation, and you must come.
According to God's wonderful plan and it's so easy just like that 10 year old girl, she came, she she, she realized she was lost. She realized she needed to be saved and she did what she had to do and she received the Lord Jesus into her heart and was saved. The Lord Jesus can't come into a black heart as our brother here mentioned once I remember that we must repent. We must acknowledge and confess that we're sinners, then we can.
The Lord Jesus to come into our hearts. You can't come into a black heart. That's why it's so important to repent.
So remember, I'm gonna close. Remember now how are we gonna escape if we put off or neglect so great a salvation? Does anybody have one more song we have time for? Yes.
#4.
Well, we're singing from this book. Are you singing from this book? We're singing from this book. We don't have any other book. Is is that the one you want from this?
Is this the one you want for? Great. That's my favorite song. Listen to this first stanza. Fact. I was going to read it. How did you know that I was going to read this? Hmm interesting. Christ is a saver sinners. Christ is a Savior for me. Listen to this verse of this line long. I was chained in sin's darkness. Are you still chained?
In Satan's darkness, tied up, chained, handcuffed is as long. I was chained in Sindar. Now, by his grace, I'm set free. I set Lance free.
God wants to set you free too. Let's sing a song #4.
00:45:13
Well, you know, this is quite amazing that the verse for next week is one of the verses that I was going to read, but I I just forgot about it. It's in Proverbs. In fact, it's mentioned twice in Proverbs.
You know what verse that would be? Verses mentioned twice in Proverbs? Probably not. There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. You know, a man thinks he can get around God, but you can't trick God. You can't fool God. God has a plan and he's laid out in the word of God, and it's a good plan and it will take us all the way to heaven.
Is the Lord Jesus Christ is the way the truth and life? But man says, well, I've got a better way, I've got a better way, but there is no better way.
The Lord Jesus is the way.
Old Nature and New Life and Grace
Hebrews 11:8-22
Reading
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180 We are but strangers here. Heaven is our home. Earth is a desert drear. Heaven is our home.
Dangers and sorrows stand round us on every hand. Heaven is our Fatherland. Heaven is our home. Hymn #180.
We are.
Hebrews 11, verse 8.
By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed.
And he went out, not knowing whither he went.
By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful. Who had promised therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky and multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable.
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, for they that say such things.
Declared plainly that they seek a country, and truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is in heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city.
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By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son.
Of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called accounting, that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure.
By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.
By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph, and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child.
And they were not afraid of the King's commandment.
By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect under the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
Through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the first born should touch them.
By faith they passed through the Red Sea, as by dry land, which the Egyptians are saying to do, were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days. By faith they harlot Rahab perished not within that believed, not when she had received the spies with peace.
Then what shall I more say, For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, of Barrick, of Samson, of David also and Samuel, and of the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought, righteousness obtained, promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quench the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, wax valiant and fight and turn, turn to flight the armies of the aliens.
Women received their dead, raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection, and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yet moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
And Diesel, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise. God, having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
One of the things that characterizes faith and shows that a person has faith is obedience to the Word of God. And so we find here that as Abraham is introduced to us, and as was mentioned yesterday, he's the father of faith, we find that immediately it speaks of his obedience. Abraham received a word from God to rise up and to leave her, the Chaldeans.
And what did he do? He obeyed. And we see that a number of times, don't we, in Abraham's life.
Later on, when the Word came to take his son, his only son whom he loved, and to offer him up in one of the mountain places where God would show him, what did he do? He rose up early in the morning. There was immediate obedience. He when he obeyed. In the beginning he went out not knowing whether he went. When it was a question of Isaac. He didn't know where the place was that God was going to show him. And in a sense, he really didn't know the end of the re of the story except that he knew.
That, I think, would be the air. And if he had to slay his son, then God would raise him from the dead and so on. But there was immediate obedience. And so that's why in the book of James, when it speaks of faith and operation, practical faith, and it speaks of Abraham, it tells us there that he was justified by faith. That is, it was his obedience, it was what he did that showed that there was real faith. And it's beautiful to see that in one another, isn't it? You see a person, a brother or sister in Christ.
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They say, oh, I know that brother, that sister has faith. I've seen the math in obedience to the word of Word of God. And so this is what is going to give evidence in our life that there is real faith. How do I know a person has faith? I see their desire to please the Lord and to act in obedience to His Word.
It's called the obedience of faith because if you are really, truly convinced that God knows more than you do and better than you do, you're willing to obey him. If you don't obey, you are basically saying I, I think I know a little bit better.
That's really what it comes down to.
We tend to think that God spoke to me. I would certainly obey.
But God sometimes speaks through others, and so in Ephesians 6 it says, children obey your parents.
And that's an expression of faith.
Children's.
Are you faithful children? Do you obey your parents?
And we're told to obey the authority.
And obedience to the authority where we can do it in submission to God as well. That is an expression of faith.
We take our circumstances, including the authorities that God puts over us, as from Him.
And I, I like the way it says here. It doesn't say that Abraham did anything special. We we think of an acts of faith as being something outstanding or spectacular. It just says he obeyed.
Now he was used to packing up and traveling. That was the the people of those days were nomadic.
He did it as a course of, uh, a, a, a natural expression of his life, but it was in obedience. And I just like to back up just to, uh, one verse and mention something else that, uh, has a, a connotation that maybe not be appreciated. And it says of Noah says moves with fear.
There's nothing wrong with fear.
Fearless place is a very healthy thing.
When I'm driving down the road, I fear to cross the yellow line with a double yellow line. Uh, I I'm not keen on driving the wrong way on the opposite side.
Uh, fear in this place is very healthy. The world says, well, we shouldn't, you shouldn't drive people, uh, to the Lord in fear. But it says Noah was moved by fear.
Because it says he is born of God and fear in his place is healthy, and that being moved by fear can also be an expression of faith.
Reward at the end of it wasn't there.
You were saying, John, that the people were nomadic in those days, and that is true, but when Abraham, or Abram as he was before, was in her of the Caldes, he may not have been. It was a fairly advanced city for its day, and probably had a number of conveniences that were not so readily available if you were living in a tent, but Abraham knew.
That God would reward him. And I would just suggest, as we mentioned yesterday, that inasmuch as there are 7 specific things connected with Abraham and his family that are done by faith, God has picked out certain examples of faith which in a general way have a view to giving up present advantage.
In order to have future gain, and that is really, if we could say it this way, what Christianity is all about and the efforts of Satan are to bring in to Christianity those principles of Judaism that would say, well, you have to have it now. And what is down here is supremely important. But the fact is God was showing those dear Hebrew believers.
00:15:20
That Justice Abraham and his family had given up a present advantage in order to look down the road to that which was before them. So they too, instead of looking for a visible Kingdom, instead of looking for present gain, were to look ahead to the future.
And we might mention in connection, and it bears on what our brother Nick was saying in the last meeting.
Much of Christendom and we are part of Christendom. Let's never forget that. Let's not look out there Christendom and say that's separate. No, we are part of it. But much of Christendom today has embraced so-called reconstructionism or covenant theology, which basically says that we are to get involved in straightening out this world and in making it ready for God's Kingdom.
That is not what we have here, do we? No, we have Abraham standing apart from this world and his family and rather going through it as strangers and pilgrims and yet looking ahead to that which was theirs in the future. And as we have been saying, because of their faith, they obeyed.
And you never give up present advantage unless you have something an eye to the future.
Unless you have something better in the future. So the illustration has been sometimes used of a young person. They go off to college or university and they live in a very small apartment or they room with someone. They don't go out with their friends when they'd like to socialize. They pinch pennies. They stay in to study. Why do they do that? Well, they have an eye to the future. The young person says, when I get my degree, then I'll get a job, good job or a better job.
And things will be will be different, but if they lose sight of that, they're not going to give up present advantage.
Air Canada has a frequent flyer program called Aeroplan and their slogan is live for the moment and not the spirit of the age. Now I realize that's just a slogan to get you to fly a lot and to build up points and get air miles and so on, but I really believe it sums up the spirit of the age to live for the moment, to live for present advantage. But that's not the way these ones that we have listed here in these next verses live. They all had, as we have had before us, an eye to the future.
And why did Abraham give up the advantages of ur the Chaldees? He looked for a better city.
He looked for a city which has foundations whose better make builder and maker is God. He had something before him, and this is what caused the patriarchs to give up present advantage, to live, to wander us and sojourn as strangers and pilgrims because they had something. It wasn't tangible, but it was real. And so we look on, brethren, if we lose sight of what is ahead for us.
If we lose sight of Christ and glory, we're not going to press toward the mark. You think of the apostle Paul.
Who gave up present advantage? More than Paul. Paul had it all. Paul was brought up in a very noble family, no doubt wealthy in today's language. He was had attended the best university, what we might say Harvard or Cambridge or Oxford. He had perhaps what we'd refer to today as a PhD. He had popularity, he had political success, he had fame. Why did he give it all up?
Oh, he had Christ and glory before him. He had the prize before him.
Brethren, if we could just get one glimpse of what is ahead, 1 inkling of what is a head in the Christ and glory, and what is ahead when Christ comes back to set up his Kingdom, why would we want things down here now? Or why would we, as Bill has said, why would we want to be building for the Kingdom now without the king? Brethren, it's the it's a vision of what is ahead.
00:20:07
Turns it. We could quote it, but turn to a verse that we often quote in the book of Proverbs.
And I think sums up what we're saying. Proverbs 29, I believe it is.
Yes, Proverbs 29.
And verse 18.
Where there is no vision, the people perish, or I believe Mr. Darby's translation is the people cast off restraint. You know, if we don't have vision of what's ahead, we are going to live for the moment and we're not going to exhibit in our Christian pathway the character of strangers and pilgrims, those who don't belong and are just passing through. So we need to have vision, and what is the vision that we have need to have?
Christ and glory before us, that better country.
That glory that is going to eclipse in a coming day? Everything else.
Act 7. The God of glory appeared unto our Father Abraham, when he was yet in Mesopotamia.
I have wondered. There doesn't seem to be anything in the Old Testament record of Abraham seeing a city, but I've wondered when God appeared to him as it mentions whether he saw a city. But here it distinctly says he looked for a city. Chad Foundations, whose builder and maker was God.
Abraham was a wealthy man. He had 318 servants. Anybody here has a company with 318 employees? I I doubt it. But here's a man that had 318 servants and yet he never lived in more than a tent. Why? He was looking forward to something better. And brethren, it is true.
When I think of the difference between earthly glory and there will be earthly glory in the millennial day, wonderful to read in Isaiah another prophets of the tremendous glory that's going to fill the earth during the millennial day. But brethren, what is more heavenly glory or earthly glory heavenly far supersedes.
Earthly glory, and that's one thing. Brother Bill, you mentioned covenant theology. One of the things that it teaches is that God blesses with material things, brethren, material things we have, and God gives them to us and they're to be used for him. But they are not, properly speaking, our blessings. Our blessings are spiritual and they're in heavenly places in Christ.
God, if he gives us material things, they are only means to be used for a few short years in view of that day when we're gonna have to leave it all behind. Our blessings are spiritual and they're heavenly. We're called to heavenly glory. And oh brethren, like you say, Jim, if we could only glance it, we would be ruined. As for anything down here.
We wouldn't be interested.
Please don't distract me with that stuff, we would say. And I still remember Brother Lundeen speaking about being pilgrims. He says a Pilgrim is somebody with simple living habits. Oh, brother. And I covet that for myself. I'm a good pack rat. I can't believe how much stuff I get and keep.
When we're gonna leave it all behind at a moment's notice?
Let's live for the other side. Let's live for that city that Abraham looked for.
This builder and maker was God. It's interesting in verse 10 it speaks of the city. He speaks of it again in verse 16, but he also, it also speaks in verse 14 of a country. They speak a country. We know in another portion it is a heavenly country.
We are called to heaven, brethren. We are not called to anything right down here.
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And that's the subtlety of this covenant theology that it teaches.
That we are to be great down here for God.
God may give you many things, that's a big responsibility, but it is not, properly speaking, our blessing. I like to think of it as mercies the Lord gives us for a few short years. You can lose it. You can't lose your heavenly blessing. And to live in view of that side is really what we're talking about here.
In a country some miles from here, very poor country. Going to visit a sister in Christ one morning, and as we approached her home, she wasn't a home like any of us have. She was sweeping out her little house in her little stoop in front, and she was singing so that I suppose half the village could hear her. I have Christ what want time more?
You know that really does something to you.
So let's understand this. She didn't have anything of this world's goods. And I we don't want to sit here and condemn those who have much of this world's goods. We're thankful for those who you have used and do use the means that God has given them for the further of the gospel and the Lord's work. But those are not the things that count. You know, there are those who have not only given up or never had this world's goods.
For Christ. But there are those who have and still are laying down even their lives for their testimony.
And you say, how could they do it? But let's turn to Acts Chapter 7 and see how Stephen could give up everything and even face martyrdom.
In his day, just let me read here because it goes along with what we're saying. I'll read verse 54, Acts 7 to get the context. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and gnashed on him with their teeth. Now notice this. But he being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw, notice this, the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God and said, behold, I see heavens open. The Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. You say, how could Stephen face?
That stoning, Awful death stoning. Oh, he looked up into heaven.
He saw something better, he saw something out of this world, he saw the glory of God. He saw the Lord Jesus standing there to welcome him home. Tell you a little story again, I've told it before, but it touched my heart in this regard. John Wesley was the man who traversed up and down England and in other parts of the world to get out the gospel, gave up the comforts of home and so on, faced harsh weather and.
Travel in those days wasn't what it was in our day. Didn't get on a nice airplane or have a nice vehicle to get from one place to the other. But the story's told that one time John Wesley was going past one of the great Manor houses in England, and the gardener and groundskeeper of that house was working out around the gate. And John Wesley stopped his carriage and talked to got in conversation with the groundskeeper.
And as it turned out, the owners of the home were not in residence, and when the groundskeeper saw that John Wesley was interested in the grounds, he offered to give him a little tour of the house and grounds, which he did.
And when they came back to the gate, John Wesley said to this groundskeeper, he said, I too have a liking for these things.
But there is another world. There is another world. And that's what really we're saying, isn't it? And that's what we learn with this portion. With Abraham. There was another world ur the Chaldees was a great city, all the conveniences that the day could offer and more. But Abraham saw there was another world. There was another country, a better country. There was another city. And with that in view, he could act by faith in obedience. And do you think?
Brethren, he'll ever be disappointed. We're going to talk to Abraham another day. Say, Abraham, you're sorry you gave up earth, the Chaldees for all those difficulties you had. You had problems with your nephew. You thought you were gonna have to offer your son Isaac. You had problems with your wife. You had problems with this and that and the other thing. And your descendants, through Ishmael, became the constant enemies of people. Was it worth it? Oh, he'll say it was worth it and more. And, brethren, isn't that the way we're gonna view it in a coming day?
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Is the path of faith really worth it? You know it's better to go over a rough Rd. in good company with a better object in view than to settle down here and have present advantage. You know the the devil showed the Lord the kingdoms of this world. What in a moment of time? Is that what we're living for a moment of time? Or are we living for that which is eternal?
I think many of us might be thinking, well, I'm not going to get my backpack and sell my house and become a Pilgrim. What we think of as a Pilgrim. And many young people are thinking, well, you know, I'd like to have a wife and a family and a house and a job. So how does all this equate to that? Are those desires wrong? Well, I think it's what we make our life, isn't it? We can do all those things. We're not all called to be John Wesley's. We're not all called to.
To, uh, give up literally all earthly possessions, but we can still do those things living in view of that which is to come and not living for this present world in this present moment. And so it doesn't mean that we have to become what we think mentally in our mind being pilgrims. But you notice it says strangers and pilgrims. And actually, Jim, we have a.
A tape. We used to have a tape. Young people don't know what a tape is, do you? But, umm, and it was a meeting from somewhere. And in there you point out that I put this so many times that we're strange as folks and then pilgrims. So we don't get hold of that. Then we'll never be pilgrims if we don't realize that this world is foreign to us. You know, there's one blessing in the political chaos that is occurring in this nation right now.
And that is people, Christians, some of them are waking up to the fact that maybe we don't have a pot in it after all. I know a woman, a mother of a friend of my son who posts on Facebook quite a bit, and she posted an article that says something to that very effect. Well, maybe as Christians, we don't have any pot in the political system of this nation. Up to that time, I think she has always seen her obligation as to vote and so.
You know one thing about trials, as much as we hate them.
It shows that it, it, it, umm, we, we quickly become to realize that we're in this world like a fish out of water that we don't fit here.
We can have houses, we can have jobs, we can have families. We can do all those things for the Lord with a view to that future blessing that's ahead of us. You know, the man of the world doesn't really have much choice but to live for the moment. But even in that regard, he's often wiser than believers in Luke. He talks about the.
Luke 16, It says the children of this world and this generation wiser than the children of light. You know, the the man of this world is always making investments, trying to get himself richer down the road.
But as Christian.
You know, what investment are we making? Where are we laying up treasure? Is it here or is it in glory? And we can lay up treasure in families and children for glory. That's something that we can take to glory.
Well, you were mentioning there were seven things. Would you mind going over that in Abraham's?
Descendants or is family?
I believe they're all.
They're all what we see here in those verses started by faith, Verse 8 by faith Abraham.
Verse 9. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise.
Verse 11 Through faith. Also Sarah.
And then verse 17 by faith Abraham, that's four.
And then verse 20 by faith Isaac, verse 21 by faith Jacob, verse 22 by faith Joseph.
And to me, there's something that particularly brings it home to our souls. And I just suggest the thought. I don't believe that when Abraham was called out of her of the Caldes and throughout most of his life down here, that he really knew where the reward would be.
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I don't believe that he actually knew for sure that it would be heavenly.
He knew there was a reward down the road. He knew there was a better country. He knew that he would receive the promises in resurrection. But where and how? I don't believe he knew, it says in verse 16. But now they desire a better country that is in heavenly since he has been taken.
In death, I believe he knows now, if we could put it that way, where that future is.
But I don't believe he knew at the beginning.
But you and I know, you and I know God has revealed everything in his purposes and ways to Paul's ministry. So how much more we have than those dear Old Testament believers? We look at Abraham's faith and we honor it, and well we might. And as we have pointed out previously, we are the children of faithful Abraham in the sense that through faith we lay hold of what God is giving us.
But how much more we know we have the word of prophecy, Peter says, made more sure. Why? Because Peter saw on the Mount of Transfiguration where the future was. And God has told us all that, hasn't he? So there's no question Abraham simply believed God and so did the others. And as far as Joseph went, he said, I want those bones carried away to Canaan because that's really where we are.
That's really where we're headed. That's where our home is. But I honestly believe that for Joseph, that's as far as it went.
Now he desires a better country. But you and I know that all already, don't we? So we, if we could say it reverently, we have no excuse. We have no excuse, do we, to fall back into the attractions of the things of this world. And yet we do, and I do, and the tendency is there.
Unless we keep our eyes fixed on that country that is ahead of us, that really gives import to their their stories and their history. Because as you say, they didn't know the end of the story in the way that we do. You know, we go back and we read their stories even in their practical life. We read their stories and we read them with confidence because we know what took place in their lives and how God undertook for them.
And so on, even in a natural way. But it was interesting to me. One time the young man I knew got saved and he'd never read the Bible, but he got saved and we were going through one of the Old Testament stories. And he kept surmising what might happen in the life of this individual as we went through the story. And it made me realize he didn't know the end of the story. I've read those stories and heard them all my life and so.
Later on, you read the story of Daniel and the three Hebrew children. We read that story with confidence because we know what happened.
But they didn't have. They only had light for the step that they were taking at the moment.
And if they could act on in faith with the little light that and knowledge that they had, as has been said, how much more we. But I'd like to go back for a moment to what Nick, uh, brought up in connection with this little expression, strangers and pilgrims. It's an expression that appears twice in the New Testament. We have it again in first Peter chapter 2 and verse 11. And as Nick pointed out, it's strangers and pilgrims. And that's the way it is in first Peter as well.
Important when God gives a list of two or more things to realize that God doesn't let things haphazardly like.
I do. I might list two or three things on the list and you say, why did you list them in that order? Well, it's just how they came to mind. No godless things in a proper order and has been said. We will never understand or have the character of pilgrims until we realize we're strangers. Because a stranger is one who doesn't belong. A Pilgrim is one who's passing through. So if I can illustrate it this way, when I cross at the American border.
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The first question they ask me is what is your citizenship? And I say I'm a Canadian.
And the very next question they ask is, how long are you going to stay in the United States? Because as soon as they realize I'm a stranger here, a foreigner, that I don't belong, they were also recognized that I'm only passing through. I'm only going to be here for a little time now. Well, suppose I decide to take out American citizenship and I become an American citizen. Now I cross into the States. I put down the US passport. They're not going to ask me how long I'm staying in the United States.
Because I'm no longer a stranger or a foreigner here. And brethren, we need to realize that our citizenship is in heaven.
We no longer belong to this world. Yes, naturally speaking, we tell the customs authority that we're Canadian citizens or U.S. citizens or whatever we may be. That's in a natural way. And I just encourage you don't get smart with the authorities.
Tell them what your citizenship is as far as this world goes, because you can get in trouble otherwise. But realize too, that we are strangers here in this world. We were singing Heaven is our home.
It's our fatherland as we were singing, and so with that recognition that we are strangers.
We recognize we're just passing through. Suppose I crossed into the United States and they asked me why I'm coming to the United States, and I tell them I'm coming to get involved in the election that's taking place in the United States and to run for office or to lobby for some cause in the United States. Why They say you're not allowed to come into this country and do that. You don't belong here. You're not a citizen. Only citizens can run for political office. Only citizens are allowed to lobby for the causes of the United States, and so on.
They'd immediately recognize that. But, brethren, do we recognize that in connection with our heavenly citizenship as quickly as the authorities recognize that in a natural way? If we did, it would spare us from getting involved in many things.
Truly, they had been mindful of that country from when they came out. They might have had opportunity and returned, you know, as long as we get the idea that it was pretty miserable life back in Abraham's time. And as Bob has already mentioned, he had many servants. He was certainly not a poor man and no one that lived a poor lifestyle. Actually, we know quite a lot about her Chaldeans. We know that it was a thriving city and that was.
And, you know, for what they were used to at every modern convenience and every, umm, entertainment had quite the nightlife. And so The thing is, is if we become occupied with those things, we have a heart and, and nature that craves and seeks those things. And once we come settled down in them, then they become, uh, second nature to us. You know, when I first came to this country, moving from Australia to the United States may not seem like you're moving between.
Countries, the language is almost the same, but it it took me at least two years to feel comfortable here. But the longer I stayed here, the more comfortable I became until now. Someone asked me last summer, do you feel like this is your country? Well, I don't know that I say I feel like this country. There are some things that I'll never get used to. But yes, I feel quite comfortable here. In fact, crossing the border and then coming back, I definitely feel like I'm returning home.
The longer you settle down.
The less sensitive you are to the customs that are foreign to what we are now by nature.
I'd like to read 3 verses together. Uh, in chapter 10, could we read verse 34 please? The latter part, Part B, the last half of verse 34 in chapter 10, knowing in yourselves that you have a you that you have in heaven, a better and an enduring substance. When we started with verse one, we took on that topic of substance.
And I used the word assurance. And here we have knowing in yourselves. And we see that being tied in together now with our original verse that we started the chapter with. Now turn with me please, over to chapter 13.
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Chapter 13 and let's look at verse 1313 and 13.
Let us go forth therefore unto Him without, or in other words, outside the camp, bearing His reproach for we, for here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. Now this one here is tied in together with separation, isn't it? And it shows that in a coming day they will be separated from this world, won't we? And so we see separation in that, because it's tied in with verse 13. But we go outside the camp. We did that this morning when we came around the emblems, didn't we? We separated from the world.
And one of our brothers read from Song of Solomon that we have over us a banner of love. The father put all things else was shut out. We had his love here this morning. We were separated for one specific thing. And separation is showing here again in the continuing city that is yet to come. We're seeking it, aren't we? We're looking upward and waiting for his return. Now, I would like a little help from my brother in chapter 12.
And verse 22.
But ye are come to Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels.
We as a believer, priest, we don't go to Mount Zion. That was the law. We go, excuse me, Mount Sinai, that was the law. We go to Mount Zion, the gospel.
It starts out, we are come. It's almost like we are already there. Could somebody touch on that and fill me in on it please?
Make a suggestion, brother Bill, as we know, the two mountains here, uh, that which is referred to in verse 18 down to the end of verse 21, and then the one referred to in verse 22 down to the end of verse 24, They are the two mountains, aren't they, of law and grace? And Mount Sinai spoke of the giving of the law.
And of course, every Israelite had a thorough knowledge of what that stood for. But Mount Zion spoke of that which God was doing in grace to Israel. And we don't need to go into it by raising up David as their king. They wanted a natural king who would go out to war and who would be, you might say, one that they could look up to as the other nations did.
And the Lord allowed them to have that in the person of Saul for 40 years. But then God introduces David and he's the one who 1St I believe introduces the name of Mount Zion. And in the sense that he says year come to it I believe.
To me anyway, it simply states the blessed position into which those Jewish believers had already been brought. That is, they weren't in person.
Excuse me in heaven, but they had been brought to a place where they now had heavenly hopes, not an earthly Jerusalem, but a heavenly Jerusalem. And they brought been brought to everything which.
Kind of reaches a crescendo there in verse 24. And to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, that is, they'd been brought into a place where everything depended not on what they could do, but on what God had done.
I don't know that I could carry it any further than that. How would you put it, Brother Bob?
Diane was.
You remember when David sinned at the end of his life in numbering the people, and then God sent to the destroying Angel for a plague for three days in Israel and he came to Jerusalem?
And the Lord said, hold thy hand, And he got David to offer a sacrifice.
In the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And once that sacrifice was offered, the Lord said to the Angel, put your sword into your sheep. How could that happen? Because sacrifice had been made. And that's the place of sacrifice. That was the place where Abraham offered up Isaac. That was the place where the temple was built and where sacrifice was made.
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And it's not far from there that the Lord Jesus was crucified. We have come to that place. This is where we are in grace.
It says Vegas not come to a mount that might be touched where the sound of the trumpet was heard where the sight was so terrible. These are the things that contrast to faith touched, seen, heard, but ye come unto Mount Zion. We are come there by faith and and then you know it. It fits with what we have in Ephesians chapter 3 where it says of whom the whole family in heaven and earth. His name. One of the great mistakes. The covenant theology is not just to understand.
That God is going to be glorified in both heaven and earth. So there will be a Mount Zion, and then it goes and a heavenly Jerusalem, and it goes on through these very families that are going to be all to the glory of God. But we are come by faith in contrast to Mount Sinai, which stands the law, in contrast to uh, umm, Zion, which would speak of grace.
Uh, the one could be seen and felt and heard. The other we've come to by faith.
Titus was just about to destroy the city of Jerusalem.
That the temple and the rest was going to come to nothing. There wouldn't be a stone left upon a stone.
In spite of Titus's orders. And so for the Spirit of God to bring forth epistle like this to attach the hearts of his redeemed to a heavenly calling.
It's marvelous, really, when you look at I was thinking, where does?
John ate and verse.
56 fit in with our chapter.
Well, I'll read John 8 and verse.
56.
And further, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day.
Andy sighed and was glad.
Sent her the juice unto him, Thou art not yet 50 years old. And hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
So Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad. Where does that fit in with our chapter?
I suggest verse 13.
These all died in faith, not having received the promises.
But notice there's four things.
Having seen them afar off and he saw that promises are far off, I would guess when he says my day, that it would be the day of the Lord, the day when the Lord will reign supreme.
But it doesn't stop there. In verse 13, they were persuaded of them. You're persuaded. That's more conviction than just.
Merely seeing something.
And then the next is embrace them. When you embrace something that's pretty well your whole being, he embraced it. Abraham did, and then confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. I think that's a interesting succession of verbs. He saw, he was persuaded, he embraced.
Yeah, I didn't hear anything guys in verse 39. Does it Bob?
Having received the witness, in other words, I obtained a good report.
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Yeah, I'm sorry, I didn't hear you speak. Yeah, I I would suggest too. It's really, it's really in that same sense, the everlasting gospel, isn't it, that the Lord was going to have the victory in the end. And in that sense, I believe Abraham knew, as Bob was pointing out, that there was a day coming when, despite all the mischief that was going on in the world as the result of sin, that God was going to have the victory in the end.
And he embraced that. And as Bob has said, there's the succession of verbs there that shows what a conviction and a grip it had on his soul.
So we know that Abraham had faith by what he did. And we read the story in the Old Testament and there have been a number of things brought out in this portion that show beyond a shadow of a doubt that he had faith. But then we find out in the next instance in connection with Isaac, he had faith by what he thought. Very interesting, isn't it? Now again we go back to the Old Testament and we read the 22nd chapter of Genesis, and there we again we see he had faith by what he did. He rose up early in the morning.
He saddled his *** he took the young man, he followed the direction of the Lord when they got to the base of the mountain, he left the young men and the ***** and he took the fire in the wood and his son, and so on. So we know he had faith by what he did. But here we tells us he had faith by what he thought. Gives us an insight into what he was thinking, accounting that God was able even to raise him from the dead. This is how he didn't stagger at the promise. You know, I have often wondered.
As Abraham took that knife and that laid the wood on his son, and as they traveled up that mountain together.
I've often wondered, did Abraham have the thought that he was going to have to kill his son?
Perhaps he did, but he knew that even if he had to plunge the knife into the heart of Isaac, God would raise him from the dead. That's how he staggered. Not at the promise. Now that is tremendous faith. Now we realize that God allowed so that there was a substitute for Isaac and Isaac. Abraham didn't have to go that far, of course.
But think of it and brethren, what do we think? You know, we can do many things, but what is our you know it speaks about bringing every thought into captivity under the obedience of Christ. When we read the word of God and God speaks to us through His word, does that affect our thought process?
If it does, then our actions are going to follow. But if I start to question things in my mind.
Well, suppose this and suppose that, and suppose the other thing. I'm not going to act in faith, and I believe that the great work of the enemy is often to get us to doubt in our minds as to what God says and the reality of how it's going to turn out. You know, it's interesting that the first recorded words of Satan in the Word of God are half God said raising, trying to raise the doubt in the mind of Eve. Had God really said that?
And the first recorded words of Satan in the New Testament are Satan's words to the Lord Jesus.
If thou beest the Son of God, trying to raise a doubt in the mind of the Lord Jesus.
Was he really who he? He said? And so we need to be careful, brethren, that we don't allow our minds to wander into doubt and reasoning as to what God says.
Because if we do, we're not going to act in faith. Suppose Abraham as they traveled up that mountain and thought, well, now.
You know, God has said this is the air, and now I'm supposed to kill him. But what about this? And what about that? No, he accounted. He rested wholly in his in his mind. He rested wholly on the word of God. And what a reward there was as a result.
His words to his servants, His Son, his, you know I and the lad will go and worship and come again.
Practical side of this two, and perhaps I can be allowed to comment on it for a moment.
Verse eleven of our chapter.
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We talk a great deal about Abraham's faith, and rightfully so. As we have already mentioned, it's referred to a number of times in the Old and in the New Testaments.
But here it also says through faith, also Sarah. And it goes on to talk about her receiving strength to conceive, seed and so on. God provided a man of faith with a wife who had faith, real faith. Now there were times when Abraham's faith failed him. There were times when Sarah's faith failed her.
But God provided him with a wife who had faith.
Sometimes it's very difficult today.
I see young people sometimes who have a hard time. I've talked to young men who badly wanted to get married and didn't seem to be able to find a wife suitable for them, at least not by their standards anyway.
I have seen young women upset a little bit concerned because.
The clock was ticking and nothing was happening.
And I freely confess it can be difficult.
We see it perhaps even more of a problem in some other countries where it's considered a disgrace to the family if a girl isn't married by a certain age.
And they're going to do something about it whatever way they can.
But how wonderful to see here how God provided.
And we find out that he provided for Isaac too, in a wonderful way.
And Abraham's servant didn't have to.
Scour the whole of Mesopotamia to find the right girl. Did he?
The Lord led him to the right one.
And so I just say that as an encouragement to each one here, especially to young people. Do you have a desire to please the Lord? Do you have a desire to be married and perhaps to have a family? It's a God-given desire and it's a good one. Now, sometimes God doesn't work it out that way and some he calls to live a life for himself without a partner. I would only say this, that a single life.
In fellowship with the Lord is far, far better than a bad marriage.
But at the same time, if the Lord wants you to have a partner, He will provide.
And if he provides, he will provide according to your faith and one with whom you can share in your walk with the Lord. I believe this passage is a real encouragement to us by pointing out that not only Abraham had faith, but also Sarah.
With all thine heart and lean not to thy own understanding. Trust him young people, he knows how you feel. He understands that he was a man here in this world too.
He knew what it meant to be lonely and trust him. He can provide in his own way and time. And I think it is very significant that brother Bill and verse 11 because Sarah, if you look at the Old Testament account when the Lord said to Abraham, Sarah at this time next year will embrace the sun and there it says that she laughed.
And it doesn't look like she had much faith, does it?
And sometimes we form judgments, brethren, by outward appearances, doesn't look like there's any faith in that person. Let's be careful to not do that because God sees when there is real trust in your heart. The same goes for Isaac in verse 20. By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. You look back at the story of how Isaac asked Esau to go out and get some good venison, and then he would bless him.
Doesn't look too much by like faith.
But the time came when.
The whole plot comes to light to Isaac and he realized he's been deceived by Jacob and.
01:05:00
Uh, Esau says. Don't you have one blessing for me, Father? Just one blessing.
Who is this that came and took the blessing? Yeah. And he shall be blessed. I think that's where Isaac came through in faith, because he knew that God had said that the younger or the elder would serve the younger. So faith is something that sometimes doesn't appear very evident outwardly, but God sees it.
It's chapter we often have a look at of Genesis. There Isaac called Jacob and blessed him. There was no games. Now there's nothing going on like that. He calls him and he says, God Almighty, bless thee and make thee fruitful, multiply thee, that thou mayst be a multitude of people, and give thee the blessing of Abraham to thee and to thy seed with thee. Unequivocal.
It's not now any competition with Esor.
He gives the blessing to Jacob, the blessing of Abraham.
21 Brethren.
I think it's so beautiful too, by faith. Jacob when he was the dying just seems to touch these two, Jacob and Joseph when they were dying.
And that beautiful the way Jacob's life ended. In a certain way, Jacob's life ended far more brightly than Isaac's. Isaac was blind, and he didn't seem to have discernment. Yes, there was faith there. Scripture tells us so. But.
Jacob's life. Where's Jacob at the end of his life? Down in Egypt? What's he doing down there? You know what he's doing? He's blessing Pharaoh, it says in Hebrews. I think it is without controversy. The lesser is blessed of the greater, and morally speaking, Jacob was higher than Pharaoh at that juncture.
Isn't that beautiful, brother?
Mile, that's scoundrel. That's schemer. Is this what God does? When he learned to lean rather than says he was leaning on the top of his staff and that's what has to happen. He had to be broken and he limped all the rest of his life. He had to have that staff, probably because of that, but he had learned to lean.
Oh, what a story it is.
To scheme to get the blessing. I I think it to me what he says to Pharaoh is one of the most touching scenes the life of Jacob Joseph says when you go in father and they Pharaoh asks you what you do for an occupation. Do not tell them you're shepherds. Tell them you keep cattle.
To me, it's so beautiful. Jacob had learned not to get the blessing by scheming. And so he goes in and Pharaoh says what do you do? He says we keep cattle. Pharaoh says the whole land is before you. Not beautiful. He had that wasn't the Jacob you read about earlier who tried to scheme and tell half truths and wasn't exactly upright because he thought it would get the blessing. He'd finally learned to lean on his staff independence and to be completely honest before God and his fellow man. And what a blessing he got as a result of it. Brethren, it took him over 100 years to learn it.
If we could just learn it in the few that God has given us here on earth, how much happier we would be as pilgrims and strangers, strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Wasn't that where he had that struggle with the Lord? That seemed to be the changing point. He wrestled all night. And sometimes, brethren, we wrestle, we wrestle, we wrestle all The Dark Knight. We can't seem to get what we want.
But then the Lord says, let me go.
For the dawn is rising.
And he says I will not let you go unless you bless me. He couldn't struggle anymore, but he could hold on. That's tight.
It's not going to get the blessings brother, and by your struggling you're going to get him by faith.
01:10:00
Go ahead. You were gonna finish your talk about that.
I just make one little comment at the end that I believe in these four men here, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. We do also get a little encapsulation of the Christian life.
In Abraham you get calling.
In Isaac, I would suggest you get Sonship.
In Jacob you get.
Government or discipline? And in Joseph you get glory.
Gospel 2
Gospel—Bob Thonney
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Good evening.
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it, for therein is the righteousness of God manifested from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith.
Let's sing #37 on our hymn sheets.
The gospel of thy grace, my stubborn heart has won. For God so loved the world He gave his only Son, That whosoever will be lay, shall everlasting life receive.
#37.
Let's turn to Romans chapter one.
And we'll read from verse one.
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ.
Called to be an apostle. Separated into the Gospel of God.
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Which he had promised before by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures.
Concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh.
And declared to be the Son of God with power.
According to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
By whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations. For his name, among whom ye are ye also the called of Jesus Christ.
The verse I quote at the beginning of the meeting, verse 16, the gospel is called the gospel of Christ that you notice perhaps in verse one.
It's called the Gospel of God.
It's the same gospel, but God is the author of the gospel. He is the one that was moved in compassion toward a world that was going astray, and he is the author of this message. But in verse three it says this message is concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Wonderful.
Person that we have to talk about, who is he says he was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. In other words, he was a real living man in every sense of the word except one difference between US and him. He was born.
Holy every one of us are born sinners.
We've heard about that today, how we are born in sin. We have a nature that likes to sin. The Lord Jesus did not have a human father. He was born of a virgin. And when he was to be born, the Angel that brought the message to the Virgin Mary said that.
Holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
He was holy, intrinsically holy. In other words, His Holiness was something that was not able to be compromised in any way. And yet the marvel of it, he came into this world that was full of sin and disease and death and confusion.
And that's the world we live in tonight.
But he has also, it says in verse 4, declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. So he's in the flesh. He's the son of David. Yes, he is a very real man, but he is also the Son of God. And when we use that.
Turn the Son of God we're talking about.
His deity, his God in every sense of the word.
Wonderful as such as the Son of God, he never had a beginning. That's something that just blows my mind.
He always was, because he's the eternal God.
And yet he came into this world and that amazing fact to think that our God, the creator of the universe that we live in, has come into his own creation in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of David according to the flesh. He is the Son of God declared to be so with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead.
You know, when somebody dies, you might have tremendously good doctors, but what are they going to say when somebody dies? When they draw their last breath and the sensor of the heartbeat goes straight, What are they gonna say? The doctors? Those intelligent doctors?
Take them to the morgue. That's all the farther they can go.
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But we're talking about a person that knows how to resurrect from the dead wonderful persons at all. And in the Gospel record we have three persons that the Lord Jesus raised from the dead.
One was.
A young girl, about 12 years of old old and she had just died, and the Lord Jesus came.
And he went in to where she was and took her by the hand.
And raised her to the from the dead. Another one was a young man who had died and they were on the way out of the city going to the cemetery. There was a procession going with them.
And the Lord Jesus was arriving at that city. He was going into the city and there was a company with him too. One company was on the way to the cemetery. The other company was going the opposite direction. In which company are you tonight, my friend? Are you heading towards?
The cemetery Do you know when you will die?
I'd like to ask people, especially I travel a lot and when I get a taxi sometimes I say, you know this city pretty well, don't you? They said yes. I've worked here for quite a few years. Can you tell me the road to heaven? Because, you know, I'm not sure how long my life might last.
And they will give any number of replies.
But it is a wonderful privilege to tell them I know the road to heaven. We're not talking about a religion. We're not talking about a philosophy. We're talking about a person, a historical person who was born into this world, who lived, who died, and who rose again.
So there they were.
They met this procession going out of the city towards the cemetery, and the Lord Jesus stopped the funeral procession, and there they were, carrying on their shoulders that young man who had died. And he says, he comes up and says to the young man, Young man, I say unto thee.
Rise and he got up and started talking. I really wonder what he must have said.
I remember talking to a brother in another place and he said, I think he must have said, oh, thank you, Jesus, thank you so much. I don't know, that's speculation, but I'm sure he must have been grateful for the touch of this person. But there was another one that the Lord raised from the dead.
He was dead for four days.
I'm in this tomb.
And his sisters didn't want that tomb opened, for obvious reasons. And the Lord Jesus came to that place, and his sisters were crying, and Jesus wept. Why did he weep? He knew that he was going to raise him from the dead.
You know what It shows me that God is a God who understands your grief.
He feels that, and he saw the awful confusion.
That sin had brought into the human race, and he felt it deeply.
And he says.
Take off the stone from the from the tomb, and he says, Lazarus come forth and that dead man was all swathed with grey clothes, the way they used to bury him in those times. But the Son of God had spoken. And when the Son of God speaks the dead here and they obey.
And that man came out of his tomb, and the Lord said, loosen and let him go.
But you know there is one other that the Lord Jesus raised from the dead.
And I wanna talk to you about him. It was the very Son of God himself. He went to that cross because as we had in verse 16 and 17, God is declaring himself to be righteous. Yes, God is completely righteous.
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And if he's gonna save souls like you and me?
Somebody has to pay the price of our redemption. He can't just gloss over our sin.
Every single sin that you and I have committed must receive it's just penalty from the hand of God Himself. God is righteous and there are no exceptions. If there would be 1 little sin that God passed over, it would call in question His holy character. Absolutely impossible.
Every sin will receive, it's just punishment from the hand of God.
But for that reason, the Lord Jesus came into this world. He came.
To seek and to save the lost. And at the end of his 33 1/2 years, the Lord Jesus was taken by the religious rulers that day and taken to Pilate, the Roman governor, and condemned to the most awful death they could ask for, the death of crucifixion.
You study the history of Pennsylvania, the capital punishment.
In this world you will find that crucifixion is probably the most cruel death that there could be. The Lord Jesus, even though they could not pin any guilt on him, was condemned to the death of the cross. Pilot had him scourge, and I understand that Roman scourging is called the living.
Criminals often died under the scourging of the Romans. It was a whip that had sharp things in the points and ripped open his back. They crowned him with thorns. Those thorns were not just some little small things like on our rose bushes. They were.
Long thorns, and they placed that on his head and they took sticks and they whacked him across the head.
And they led him out of the city of Jerusalem. Outside that city, here comes three men that must die that day.
Two of them were malefactors, thieves that.
Human justice had decided, should not live any longer.
One other was the glorious Son of God.
The creator of the universe, He was included with the transgressors.
And they nailed him to that cross by his hands and his feet.
He was lifted up. It was approximately 9:00 in the morning when he was crucified, and he hung there from 9:00 till 12 noon. And they passed before him and mocked him and jeered him. They said, amongst other things, if he be the Son of God, let God deliver him now.
God didn't deliver him. Why not?
You know why? Because there is no other way for you and me to be saved except that that person die. And so he hung there on that cross and it came to 12 noon and something that never happens happened that day. It got dark.
And nobody could see what was taking place.
On that hill of Calvary, outside the city of Jerusalem, from 12 noon to three in the afternoon. It was then that God settled the question of our eternal redemption. If some if you were going to be forgiven your sins, somebody had to pay the price of redemption.
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And in those three hours?
God laid on him the iniquity of us all, and that storm of divine judgment broken all his fury on his head. For three hours the waves and billows of God's judgment rolled across him, and there was no complaint from that center cross where he was hung.
And then close to the hour.
The ninth hour, which was 3:00 in the afternoon. There's a cry from that center cross. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
God forsook his son. Why did he do that? Didn't he love his son? Yes, he loved him.
But he loved you, he loved me.
There is no other way God had to turn His face from His own beloved Son.
Lord Jesus, always in his life, His life was.
To do the will of God and to accomplish His world.
And at that moment, God for a second.
Oh, I don't know how to understand it. I just stand there and I have to say he paid the price in full. Shortly after he cried another cry. It is finished.
The price of redemption was paid in full by the blessed Son of God.
The Lord Jesus Christ and he bows his head and dies. Oh, what a story it is that we have to talk about.
Then the soldiers were told to make sure that those three that were crucified were dead and so they came with a spear and they came to 1 malefactor and broke his legs. They could no longer sustain themselves.
They would be hanging only on their arms because there is no support in their legs. And they died one and the other. And then the soldier came to Jesus and he saw that he was already dead, and he didn't break his legs, but the soldier took his spear and pierced his side.
And now flood blood and water without the shedding of blood is no remission. And so the price was paid in blood for my redemption, and God has been satisfied. Jesus was taken down from that cross and he was placed in a tomb. And the third day.
When they came.
The women that came to anoint his body, and when they got there, they found that the stone was already rolled away. You know what? The Angel that came down to roll the stone to one side did not come to roll the stone to one side so he could get out. No, he rolled the stone to one side to show that he was already gone.
He was already resurrected from the dead.
The Lord Jesus, because of who he was, raised himself from the dead. Yes, it was God the Father who raised him too. But he says in John's Gospel, I have power to lay down my life, I have power to take it again. And because of who he is as the Son of God, the Lord Jesus.
Took his life, He rose from the dead in his own power. Oh what a glorious person. The Lord Jesus is a living resurrected man. And we know the story in the in the Gospels and also in the book of the Acts 40 days he was here.
Showing himself to be alive to those of his disciples.
One time there were 500 together at one time and they saw him. No, it was not hallucinations. It's interesting to me to see that in human history. Even if you do not want to believe the testimony of the word of God in human history, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is one of the best established facts of human.
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Three, So you must face the question. He rose from the dead. And if he rose from the dead, you know what that means? Every single person that has ever died on planet Earth is going to rise from the dead as well.
Oh, it's a wonderful story, but I want to get back to this question we have in verse 16 and 17.
Therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. That is as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
God has shown Himself to be righteous. Today we heard a message about the law.
And the law was a way in which a person could perhaps be justified. But you know what? If you're going to take that ground before God, you cannot fail, not even once. It says in James, he that keeps the whole.
Law. And yet fans in one point he is guilty of all, in other words.
You have to be completely perfect. There's absolutely no other way it will be, and I'm pretty sure that there's no one in this room.
That will say that they're completely perfect.
Remember in Peru one time we were in a Bible meeting and a man came in, was evident he had been drinking.
And after the meeting was over, he says, Sir, I wanna be saved. And I said, well, that's good, you want to be saved.
You're a Sinner, aren't you? Oh no, I've never sinned, I said. You've never sinned, Sir.
He says, well, one time I beat my wife up, but I've never sinned. So people have their funny ideas about sin.
Scripture says it very clearly. There is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is no way that you can stand before God on the basis of your own righteousness. Sorry, you've blown it. There's no way.
And so is there any other way we can be righteous with God? I wanna turn over to the third chapter to see.
What it says there? Because here we have the answer, the wonderful answer of the gospel.
Verse 19 And now we know that whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Therefore, by the deeds of the lost, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.
Is that clear enough? I think it is.
For by the law is the knowledge.
Of sin. But now notice this, The righteousness of God without the law is manifested.
Being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe, For there is no difference, for all have sinned.
Comes short of the glory of God. This message of righteousness is to all, but only upon all them that believe. It's contingent on you accepting God's testimony, believing it. How is it verse 24?
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Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Here we have in verse 24, it speaks about redemption and that's what we've spoken of in the Lord's death. He paid with His blood the price of our redemption, and redemption means to buy back for God. You know God made the whole creation in the beginning.
And he said it is on its course and everything went wrong.
Adam and Eve sinned, and all their descendants were plunged into sin.
It got so bad before the flood that God had to destroy this world with a flood, and then it began again afterwards and as we see today in the world.
There are wars and destruction and deceit and killing and hatefulness, unfaithfulness.
On every side it's awful what's happened, but the price has been paid. Redemption's price has been paid, and one of the results of redemption is that God can declare righteous the person that believes in Jesus.
Says in verse 25 whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. That word propitiation is a word that we don't use a whole lot.
But it simply means that which vindicates God's holy character, so that when he comes forth to forgive and to justify the believer in Jesus, he is not compromised in his character. Sometimes. Give the illustration, supposing you were caught stealing.
And you were taken to court. And since I'm a friend, I go to court.
And I try to justify you before the judge. Am I righteous in justifying trying to justify you? You know that's not the case. It won't happen.
And what would happen if you would find a judge? I don't suppose there are, but supposing a judge?
That sits on his court and every criminal that's brought before him, whether it's murder, whether it's robbery, whatever it is, the judge says I'm going to forgive you.
Everyone. He forgives them. What would you say about that kind of a judge?
You'd say that guy doesn't make the last stick, he's a bad judge. Get him out of here. We need ones that will make the last tick, and that's the truth of the matter. But how then can God forgive and be righteous? How can he declare righteous a guilty Sinner and be righteous?
It's because of what Jesus did on that cross.
He paid the price of redemption. He has made propitiation. God's holy character is fully vindicated in the price that Jesus paid on that cross so that God is not compromised when He comes out to extend pardon to the guilty Sinner. Oh, what a wonderful message this is. And here in verse 25 and 26.
It's about.
The question of justification being justified here, it says in verse 25 whom God has set forth the Lord Jesus to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. In other words, before Jesus came into this world, there was a lot of people that lived.
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Before that time, and they were sinners, and some of them had the forgiveness of their sins. How could God be righteous?
It was because of what Jesus was going to do on that cross. He paid the price of propitiation and redemption so that God has shown himself to be righteous because of what Jesus did on that Christ.
But now we come down to verse 26 and we're talking about now.
To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. Oh, this is wonderful, wonderful news. God has been so fully vindicated in the work of the Lord Jesus that God can say to you if you simply believe the message of the gospel.
I declare you righteous.
According to God's own standard of righteousness. You know, sometimes it says, people say it's the righteousness of Christ, but it never really says that in Scripture. It's the righteousness of God.
That the believer in the Lord Jesus has when he believes the message of the gospel God is just and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus.
Wonderful message, I can say. Because of my faith in the Lord Jesus, I stand before God tonight on the grounds of what Jesus did for me on that cross. God Himself has declared me to be righteous according to His own standard of righteousness. That's what it means here in this verse 26.
Have you believed the message?
This is what it's saying.
He is just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus wonderful, wonderful message of salvation that we have because of what the Lord Jesus did on that cross.
I'd like to go back now to the first chapter again and read some more in this chapter because it quite accurately describes the world that we live in.
Verse 18 says for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. Verse 17 the righteousness of God is revealed, that is for faith. But there are people who refuse to believe the message of the gospel.
And we must be fair to you.
That if you are among that number, there is wrath as well. You know what wrath means. Wrath is not the same as anger. Anger is an emotion, but wrath includes retribution.
And there is retribution ahead for this world, for those who will not repent and believe the gospel. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. To me, that's most serious. Do they hold the truth?
Oh yes, they hold the truth, but they hold it in unrighteousness.
Be careful. Be careful if you're there.
That's not the way to hold the truth.
Verse 19 Because that which it may be known of God is manifest in them.
For God hath showed it unto them, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world.
Are clearly seen being understood by the things which are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
Miss Sullen does he without excuse.
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No human being on the play face of this planet will be able to excuse themselves in the Day of Judgment.
Because God has given testimony not only in His precious word, but according to this verse 20, those things that are made declare His eternal power, and God had so that they are without excuse. God has made this universe that we live in.
And its existence, its exactitude, is a testimony.
To his eternal power and Godhead.
It's got to be somebody tremendously powerful that put it all into existence, you know?
I love to study the universe.
Read books about it and it's fascinating to me to see the immensity of the universe. We are, of course, on planet Earth.
A little planet. Relatively speaking, it's a little one. 25,000 miles would get you completely around the planet.
But at 93,000,000 miles there is.
The Son who gives light and warmth to this planet. Thankfully, it is set at a distance just exactly right so that it's not too cold nor too hot, but it sustains life in this world. All these things are a testimony to God's eternal power and Godhead.
And of course you know that.
There are a number of other planets that are rotating around the sun, but the sun isn't the only.
Burning object in the solar in the Milky Way Galaxy. I understand some of the most recent books I've read. They say now it's about 200 billion other stars.
In this Milky Way Galaxy, tremendous, you realize that there's only about 7 billion people on this planet and this we're talking about 200 billion stars all rotating.
In clock like order.
Is it possible that it just happened? I have seen those who calculate.
Statistics and say that it is virtually impossible that it would have happened. By itself, it's not possible.
Somebody had their hands in it. Yes. It was the God that we're talking about. He is the one that made it. I just saw that. You get the picture a little bit more.
They say now that there are at least.
250 billion more galaxies in the universe that they know about. They're keeping on pushing the numbers up, but scientists or astronomers now say there are more stars in the universe than there are brains of sand on the beaches of the world.
Can you say that nobody made that?
Doesn't make sense. If I would say to you, look at this watch on my arm, you know how that came into existence. There was an explosion in the junkyard and this came out of it. You would say that guy's lost it and you'd be right.
No, it had to have a maker. Just this little watch and we're talking about the immense universe that we live in.
It gives testimony to his eternal power and Godhead that you know what? People don't want to accept that. Because if they accept that, they know they're going to have to be accountable to God and they escape that as much as they possibly can. And so they invent theories.
That they themselves really are.
00:45:01
Are becoming fools, it says in verse 21. Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. Neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. You know what impresses me?
A Truly.
Wise person admits how little they really know the people who profess to be wise. Scripture says here they become fools.
And change the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four footed beasts and creeping things. Do you know this? How?
This comes down, down, down man is it the head of his of the creation? And it goes from man to birds to four footed beasts and creeping things, worms and people turn to worship creatures more than the Creator. Notice that now verse 24 forward.
We have three times it says that God gave man up because of his.
Unwillingness to face the truth squarely. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves.
The first time God gives them up, it's his body.
Who changed the truth of God into a lie? Now it's not only holding the truth and unrighteousness, it's changing it into a lie and saying that these things are normal for the human race worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen. But now again it says for this, 'cause God gave them up unto.
Vile affections.
Factions is a part of our soul. It's what we like, what we dislike. And you and I have a soul. We are a tripart being, body, soul and spirit. First God gave them up in their own bodies to dishonor themselves between themselves, and now he gives them up to vile affections for even their women to change the natural use.
Into that which is against nature.
Brother spoke about sexuality today. It's a very real thing in the human race, very beautiful thing when it's done according to God's design.
But when man changes the truth of God into a lie.
Why then God gives them up to vile affections? Verse 27 And likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust, one toward another men, with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.
Thank. You can see very clearly what it's referring to, homosexuality. People think they're free to do what they want to do with their own body. Who are you to judge me? I say I'm no one to judge you, but there is somebody who's going to judge you if you engage in that kind of activity.
There was four cities.
On the plains of Jericho that God destroyed with fire and brimstone because of this sin of homosexuality. And they want to push the word of God to one side. They want to ignore it.
They ignore it. They're going to suffer the same things that Sodom and Gomorrah and admin and suffered in that day. I don't know if you realize what.
Brimstone is on the High Plains of Bolivia where we lived for some years. We didn't live in the High Plains, but we, uh, I often visited there. They are uh, veins of sulfur that are laying right on the surface of the ground and they can go in with a front end loader and load up.
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Trucks with this sulfur and when I've been up there they will have maybe a a little piece.
In the home and the sister in her kitchen, if she wants to get the fire going, throws a little piece of sulfur on there. It's extremely flammable. And they tell me that if when they go in with those front end loaders, they have to be very careful not to car cause sparks because it can start a fire and the whole thing will go molten.
So brimstone is molten sulfur. Can you imagine God reigned fire and brimstone and those?
Cities were completely destroyed. Yes, you can ignore God to a certain point, but the time is going to come when God is going to judge this world in righteousness. He is righteous. And if you refuse and you take your own way, to me it is incredible how people are going their own way, how this country is going downhill so.
As they are verse 28, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. Here is the spirit. The mind is connected with the spirit. It's the ability to reason, but reprobate means.
Void of judgment. A mind that's void of judgment. To me, it is incredible.
What's happening in our country?
The Internet the other day I was.
Yeah, watched a little clip of a Christian news agency that was out West and interviewing students at a university and the question that they put to them, what difference do you see between men and women? And so many of them said, really, I don't see any difference at all. It's all in your mind.
They've lost it.
Our mind void.
Of judgment, that's where we're going.
Oh, how solemn it is to ignore God being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers back fighters, haters of God. Why do they hate God? Because they know that if they accept the existence of God, then they're going to have to be accountable.
Despiteful, proud bolsters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents without understanding, covenant Breakers without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who, knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
Not only do they do them, but some of them have pleasure watching others do them.
Is that possible that that's where our country is going? I see it very clearly and I plead with you, if you are engaged in any of those things that are listed here, to repent tonight. That's the secret. Repent means to change your thinking comes from that Latin word pent in Spanish. It's pinsar to think.
Change your thinking.
You know where sin leads you. It leads you to results that are never positive, always negative.
Repent, change your thinking. Don't go that direction.
And believe in God's salvation. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.
How awful it's going to be soon after the Lord comes to take his people out of this world. I just want to say this would be awful to think of the Lord coming right now and taking his people out. Would there be somebody left sitting here?
You know what, as I travel around and see different countries the way they are, I have to say that after the Rapture, this country is gonna be one of the most awful, awful places to have to exist.
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That there is I'd far rather I'm not planning to be around after the Rapture, but I'd far rather, if I had to, to be down in the jungles of South America where at least there's a banana tree.
And a river to fish out of. But here in the United States, think of the tremendously large cities. Think of the people that are well armed. You can just imagine the awful things that are going to take place in this country because people have not accepted the gospel. With all my heart, I plead with you.
To think seriously about your future.
And all those who are real believers here, join me in saying to you, repent of your sins, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
Our Part - Trust and Receive God's Gift
Hebrews 11:23-40
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156.
No, we're not.
Getting ready, we pray. We pray, Lord.
We pray. We pray on the water.
Start brother Bob, 23.
11/23.
By faith, Moses, when he was born was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child and they were not afraid of the King's commandment.
By faith Moses, when he was come to years.
Refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ. Greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.
For he had respect under the recompense of the reward.
By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
Through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the first born should touch them.
By faith they passed through the Red Sea, as by dry land, which the Egyptians are saying to do, were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encompassed about seven days.
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By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believe, not when she had received the spies with peace.
And what shall I more say, For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, of Barrack, of Samson, and of Jeptha, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quench the violence of fire, escape the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant, and fight turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
Women receive their dead, raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yeah, moreover of bonds and imprisonment.
They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy, They wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise. God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
And yesterday there is another series of seven.
With Moses and the children of Israel here.
And once more I believe we see an example of.
In Moses case particularly, putting off present advantage in order to have future gain.
Humanly speaking, I suppose Moses had every advantage that we could think of. He was brought up in Pharaoh's court, and Egypt was the leading nation in the world of that day, so that he had every advantage.
And I suppose it would not have been out of the way for him to have thought, as some believers do today. Look at what I can do for my people who are slaves.
If I'm in a position of power and authority, which he likely would have been.
But he looked beyond all that, didn't he, and was willing to suffer affliction, as it says, rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
And so once again, it's a real example to us too. And that faith, of course, carries on when we see the children of Israel forsaking Egypt, Moses, of course, taking that position as the leader. But then, uh, once again, we see them leaving a place that their hearts continually hankered after, even in the wilderness, in order to go to a land that God had said he would give them.
So once again, it's a a lesson of faith for us and again.
Very, very apropos for the Christian life where we give up what is immediate advantage that looks very good to us by sight, in order to have that which we can gain by faith.
We come to this transition point in the chapter, I think helpful to look at the back and forward at the last seven. We just finished. The promises are prominent and there's patience. It's the patience of faith that kept each of those going forward and kept them going on toward the goal that was up ahead.
There were certainly problems in Joseph's life. There were problems in Jacob's life, there were problems in Abraham's life, but they're not listed here in the chapter.
Because of the key feature, the prominent feature is that the face kept them going on until it was ahead and the promises in this section of the chapter, what seems to be prominent foremost are the problems. It starts right out in the first verse that we read and it says uses the word afraid. And then we run across things like affliction. We run across approach, reproach. There's death mentioned, there's drowning there's.
00:10:14
All these difficulties, the mocking is the scourging and so on. What comes ahead? There's the problems. That didn't stop faith either. I thought of it as a way that's helpful for me and remembering the structure of the chapter, to think of these first seven like we're on a road trip. Many people drove to get here. There was a promise up ahead of what would be at the end, and there was a need for patience especially. Well, I shouldn't say especially, I was going to say especially for children, but it's just as true for me and perhaps for others.
Hey, are we there yet? We've probably stopped saying it out loud, but we keep thinking it internally. For some of us, there's a need for patience to get all the way to the end. But there might be potholes and car trouble, and there might be roadblocks. There might be things along the way that would stop us as well. And so there needs to be energy for faith to push on through them. There needs to be the energy of faith to get past those problems and through them and not just sit down, give up, turn around and go back because of the problems in the way.
And so these ones from Moses forward give us examples of ones who pushed through those roadblocks or in some cases they didn't push through them. They were, they suffered those scourgings and imprisonments and some were killed, but none of them turned around and went back. And so the problems on the road didn't make them turn around and go back. And there was perseverance to their faith that kept them moving on.
Yes, that's very helpful because as we mentioned, I believe in the first reading meeting.
In this last section of the chapter, it's really the faith. It's faith that gives energy.
In spite of obstacles and problems, and we don't want to, in these meetings, give the impression that if we follow the Lord, it's all going to be.
Sunshine and smooth sailing and smooth roads. No, there may be many obstacles, there's many difficulties and so on.
And these ones face things that I suppose most of us will never have to face.
In the path of faith and service, however, the difficulties that we face today, brethren, are very real.
And just as our brethren in other parts of the world are facing problems that are very real and things we've never been called on to face yet, the problems and difficulties that we're going to face when we leave these meetings in seeking to follow the Lord in the path of faith are no less real. And it is interesting that this section starts with Moses parents. And I want to say a word about that to encourage the hearts of parents, not just those who are in the midst of raising children.
But those of us who have raised our families and perhaps things haven't always turned out the way that we had prayed and thought that they would.
I want to encourage our hearts because we don't know the end of the story yet.
And it's very interesting with Moses parents that they had the faith to take Moses and to hide him in that little ark of bulrushes that they made and how God undertook for them and for Moses in the end. And so we find, if you notice Mr. Darby's translation of the verse we began with, it says when they saw he was a beautiful child, you know, they weren't moved with fear here.
We spoke of Noah earlier. He was moved with fear. They weren't moved with fear.
I suggest it was faith that was motivated by love. They looked at this little baby.
You think of Moses taken up out of the waters and after they had put him there and handed back, what emotions must have gone through a mother's heart to see how God had taken care of her son in the waters of the Nile? But we find that, and I want to say this particularly to mothers, but to those of us who are and have been fathers as well.
Moses mother was given a special charge to take Moses away.
And to nurse him for Pharaoh's daughter. We are not told in Exodus chapter 2 how long she had Moses.
But the day came when as a young boy, he had to be sent back to the palace to be raised as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. And to me, it may be small consolation to mothers who have raised children who are not gone on for the Lord. But it's interesting to realize that it was. Moses never came out for the Lord or took a stand with the people of God till he was 40 years of age.
00:15:09
Not interesting. He was 40 years of age and we don't even know if Moses mother was alive to see.
The results and fruit of her early laborers with her son. If she was, it was a long time to wait. If she wasn't, she'll see it at the judgment seat of Christ where it will all be brought out. And I just say that to encourage those of us who are parents. Maybe we haven't seen our children go on for the Lord. We keep praying, of course.
But just remember, we haven't seen the end of the story yet.
And Moses parents faith was eventually honored whether they were alive to see at this side of heaven or not.
And I I think that's an encouragement to us. And so he 40 years of age and Moses comes out for the Lord. One other little comment about the expression here, the son of Pharaoh's daughter. You notice he wasn't raised to be Pharaoh's son, but the son of Pharaoh's daughter. What do we learn by that expression? Well, Pharaoh would bring beside before us perhaps, if I can put it this way, the raw side of the world.
We know what Pharaoh and his taskmasters were like when the children of Israel were there in Egypt.
But the son of Pharaoh's daughter would perhaps bring before us the nice side of the world.
Moses was raised in the best of circumstances that were probably available in the world at that time. It was the night wasn't the raw side of the world. It was the good. It was the good things. It was the comforts of this world. But the day came when Moses refused all that, all the comforts and niceties of this world that the Kingdom of Egypt could offer.
Why did he do it? He took a stand for the Lord and with the people of God that challenges exercises my own soul. What are we seeking? And I just say to those who are younger, what are you seeking in this world? To be the son of Pharaoh's daughter, to have it all nice and comfortable. Nothing wrong with comfort. We're thankful for this wonderful venue and the wonderful hotels we've enjoyed this weekend. The kindness of our brethren and the goodness of the Lord.
But, brethren, are we willing to take a stand with the people of God, to serve the people of God, in spite of what conditions it might be, in spite of the opposition that there might be. Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
Comment about Moses if you turn back to Exodus and you don't need to I'll just read it. It says there and the woman conceived and bear a son and when she saw that he saw him that he was a goodly child or beautiful child, she hid him three months and when she could no longer hide him, she took him for took for him in Acabulas and so on. We know the story. The chapter only mentions those three months that she hit him. I wanna suggest that Providence is not faith.
Sometimes.
We get reached the end of ourselves and we commit ourselves to Providence in our despair. But that in itself is not faith. Another lesson to learn from this too is it seemed like a terrible child, a terrible time to bring a child into the world. And today, the day in which we live, might equally seem a terrible time to bring a child into this world. But this child that God, that that this couple brought into this world was Moses.
The deliverer of his people. So I don't think that we can make our decisions based on the circumstances we see around us. That's not faith. And then just a general comment about this portion of the Scriptures. Why is it here in the book of Hebrews, there are Hebrew believers, Jewish believers that had received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah. They had gone along with the Christian testimony. But number one, things weren't turning out the way they'd expected. Number one, they expect the Messiah to come and establish a Kingdom.
And then two, having gone along with the Christian testimony, they didn't expect persecution. Everything seemed to be saying this is the wrong path.
And there are perhaps those in this room that have gone along with the Christian testimony and look around the room and see each year numbers dropping a little bit, the assembly shrinking in size and saying, well, Providence must be telling me circumstances must be telling me that this is not the right path. This is not the right place to be. We cannot be guided by circumstances. We were just. We will be turned out of the path of faith if we do that.
00:20:17
Providence government circumstances, but faith governs our heart and our conduct and so Jonah learned that as well. I mean he, he thought, you know, circumstances were God had ordered that boat there, you know, but.
That wasn't safe on Jonah's part and we can run into those circumstances ourselves when we see see our path changing in a certain certain way.
But have we gone to the word of God about it to show, to, to realize or to find out whether this is the path for faith? And so as you say, it's, it's very important that we don't take our course necessarily from Providence, the, uh, and from circumstances.
It says that Moses was hid three months and I think there is a time.
That children can be hid from the influences of this world, especially in our homes, if our homes are sanctuaries, brethren, and they should be a sanctuary from the evil influence of the of this world. And it's a constant struggle.
To be careful that this world doesn't get into the home and affect children in their young years. It's so important because they're formative. I heard one report that said that a child is 70% formed as to its personality by the time he reaches 3 years old and 90% when he reaches five years old. So those first years are so important.
That they be hid from the influences of this world. But what happened? We know when he could no longer be hit. And it's been mentioned that she took an ark of bulrushes and put him exactly where Pharaoh had commanded that all the children be put, but in a way that he was preserved. That's faith. They saw that little child and they put him there.
And I often thought, brethren, when?
Moses daughter took that child back to the palace.
The Pharaoh might have said I commanded all those children be thrown into the river. She could say, father, your command was fulfilled. He was in the river. I took him out and that's what Moses means. Take him out, a beautiful brother and the faith and then as it was mentioned that we don't have.
Any evidence of faith working in Moses until he was 40 years old?
And brethren, it impresses me the way that God works in every life in a different way. You cannot lay down rules as to how God is going to work. He works differently in each one. And I'm sure that Moses mother, when Pharaoh's daughter said, take this child away and raise it for me, she must have told Moses a lot about the children of Israel, Moses.
We're here in Egypt, but we really, this is not our place. Our place is somewhere else. It's in Canaan. That's the land we're called to. And I think in time Moses reflected and he identified himself with those slaves instead of the people of Egypt. Wonderful way that faith operates in each one.
Different I you know, you go from country to country and hear the story of how God has worked in different lives and I just marvel brethren, I get to hear quite a few stories and it's always different. No one exactly like another. But these are principles and I say to young people get a hold of the principles of the word of God act on them because they are so important.
In the world that we live, it's not being guided by circumstances or Providence as has been mentioned, but act on the principles of the Word of God and act and view the future.
00:25:10
Yeah, when you were talking, Brother Bill, it reminded me of what Jim Elliott said. He is no fool who gives that which he cannot keep.
To gain that which he cannot lose. Think about it. It's a tremendous statement, and that's what the Christian life is. It's giving up what we have here because we're not going to be able to hold it very long anyhow, but using it and in view of the future, that day when things will be forever eternal, in that scene to which we are called eternal glory.
So Moses was 40 years old when he came to years.
He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose rather to suffer.
You like to suffer.
You like to suffer, Bill.
Chosen.
None of us would choose it, and I hope we don't, because we're never told in Scripture to seek persecution or to seek reproach or to seek suffering. But if we're faithful, we're told that it will come without. We don't have to go after it. And Moses knew very well that that was going to be the pathway that was ahead of them.
He did this when he became great.
That would be the time most of us would choose to, to, to not refuse those things. We've got them already. So now we've arrived. But here Moses had had them already, but he chose rather and to refuse all those things that he was given. And so it's, uh, that's very interesting to see that that's not the normal way of doing things. And you chose affliction because it was the children of Israel that were in affliction.
And he identified himself with that brethren. There are so many of our dear brethren in other parts of the world that are afflicted today.
Do we know what it means? I don't think we know much what it means, but.
Brethren, I fear that we sometimes don't identify with that as much as we might. The Lord help us, at least in our prayers, to to intercede for them. And I really do believe that if there's a heart there, it will be ways in which we can interact and be a help to our dear brother and in other parts of the world.
Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And when I was younger I used to ponder that verse because again, we sit here and cut relative comfort this morning. We're not afraid of the government arresting us or people coming in and shooting us, dragging some of us off to prison to have a Bible meeting. But I would just make this suggestion to apply it in a practical way to our own lives.
That in the measure in which you and I are faithful to the Lord Jesus and reflect something of Christ in our lives, while we may not suffer physical persecution here in North America.
There is always a reproach connected with the name of Christ and His testimony. And if you and I leave these meetings with Christ, reflecting in our lives and seeking to be faithful to Him, even to be gathered to the Lord's name as a reproach, Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, and we might suffer reproach. No bearing his reproach, if we take only the name of Christ in the way we seek by grace to meet us gathered to His name.
There's going to be, there's going to be a reproach connected with it even from other believers. And so it encourages us, Moses, faith encourages us to take that stand with the people of God, with others who seek to be faithful. You know, I've had the privilege on more than one occasion of standing at the Red Sea and baptizing Egyptians. You know what they tell me?
00:30:00
When we take this stand, either ourselves or with our families.
There's a real reproach connected with it. They're not going to get ahead, they're not going to get a promotion, they're not going to get a good job. They're going to be watched by the government often.
I've never been put to that test myself in the path of faith, but that really stirs my soul. And to think, brethren, how easy we have it here. Some little sneer, some little reproach that we get for following the Lord, or speaking faithful, or standing with the people of God, or being gathered to the Lord's name and going to that little meeting room down the road.
Brethren, let's seek to be faithful. You know Moses.
Again, will he ever be disappointed? He took that stand with the people of God. You know, he refused to be great in the greatest Kingdom of the day. And where was the reward? Well, later on, 1500 years later, long time. But 1500 years later, he stood on the Mount of Transfiguration. Little preview of the coming glory. It's a long time to wait for the reward, wasn't it? Or at least part of the reward.
But 1500 years later, he stood with Christ.
On the Mount of Transfiguration. And I want to say to Moses when I see him another day, Moses, was it worth it to give up?
Maybe giving up having a pyramid erected to your honor, some statue to your honor?
Oh, he'll say it was worth it and more because the kingdoms of this world, as we said the other day, are for a moment of time. The things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal. And Moses endured as seeing him who is invisible. And I never realized till I visited Egypt a number of times when it says he esteemed the reproaches of Christ greater than the treasures of Egypt. I don't think most of us really understand.
What that meant, the treasures of Egypt and the greatness of Egypt, as our brother Ogali will attest to. They were something that still remarkable in the history of this world today. Gold covered everything in those days, from chariot wheels right up. He gave it all up because he esteemed the reproaches of Christ greater than the treasures of Egypt. Oh brethren, when we get the glory.
We see the Lord Jesus, and then when we come back to reign in His Kingdom with Him, oh, we're gonna wonder why we didn't give up more down here for His sake.
Get into the land, didn't he?
But in a far better context than he would have before.
Noteworthy here, isn't it that?
It says.
In verse.
24 By faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
Then in verse 27 it says by faith he forsook Egypt.
Uh, I would suggest that that does not refer to the time when he fled from Pharaoh in order to go into the backside of the desert.
Those 40 years are passed over because they were part of God's ways. It was not, in that strict sense, part of the pathway of faith. Just as the wilderness journey of the children of Israel is passed over in silence. By faith they passed through the Red Sea, verse 29, and then verse 30. By faith the walls of Jericho fell. Nothing said about the wilderness journey. Part of God's ways, but not part of His.
And in that sense, not part of the pathway of faith. But it was necessary for both, wasn't it? Moses needed that time in the backside of the desert. Israel needed that time in the desert itself. And so do we. Again, it's not part strictly Speaking of the pathway of faith. It's part of God's ways with it. And I don't suggest for a moment that faith was an exercise in those.
Years, I believe it was. And actually it's rather interesting to note apropos to what you were saying, Jim, that.
Moses did not fear the wrath of the king when he forsook Egypt.
00:35:00
But what was it that eventually broke Moses?
It was what came from within, from his own people.
What eventually caused him to get what Scripture calls a provoked spirit and to act contrary to the instructions of the Lord? It was what he had to endure from his own people. And so if you and I don't feel the persecution from the outside world in the same way that some of our brethren do.
Sometimes the Lord allows it to come from within, shall we say?
The profession of Christianity, and that's even harder to take in some cases, isn't it? And we see, as was mentioned earlier, Nick was mentioning it, that sometimes it can be potentially discouraging to see.
Assemblies getting smaller to see, conferences getting smaller to see this one and that one who says I'm going somewhere else? It can be very difficult. And sometimes there is, and we have seen it. The mockery, oh, are you still connected with that? Oh my, and so on. That can be harder to endure than if the man of the world makes fun of our Christianity.
And that is eventually what took Moses down. But we don't find fault in that sense. We merely comment on it because it's recorded in the Word of God. Because the provocation was certainly plenty severe. And speaking for myself, I think I would have broken down long before Moses ever did. But we just say that those years that the Lord trained him, whether in the desert or.
During the wilderness are not mentioned here, but they are part of God's ways with us, and you and I will find we have to go through them too.
Umm, a steaming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasure of Egypt, having respect and to the recompense of reward. And we may have difficulty identifying with those things. It's been helpful. I came across a statement once that I was he. I found helpful in this regard.
The least thing from the hand of God.
Is better than the best the world can offer.
Now, some things God gives us are not all that attractive.
But the least thing from the hand of God is better than the best the world can offer.
OK, So what? What understanding did Moses have? It says here, esteeming the reproach of Christ. Was he looking forward to the Messiah? Or what's the thought there?
Suggest Tim that.
The author of the book of Hebrews, Probably Paul.
Is writing from the vantage point of New Testament light, just as he says earlier in the chapter, but now?
Verse 16 They desire a better country that is in heavenly. As we mentioned yesterday, I don't believe at the time that Abraham knew that the reward would be heavenly. Now he knows it. I don't believe that Moses necessarily knew.
That it was the reproach of Christ. Yes, they knew. And he had it revealed to him that there was one coming down the road, and he prophesied about him, one that would be greater than he. And he said him, shall ye hear? But what did he know about God in Trinity? Very, very little, I'm sure. What did he know about the revelation of Christ? Very, very little. But it was the reproach of Christ. And I suggest that Paul calls it by its New Testament name, if you like, even though Moses didn't enter into it at the time in the same way that we can.
00:40:03
But remember that Paul was writing, and we assume it was Paul for New Testament believers who had been brought into that position, who knew who the Lord was, who had seen the Messiah, and who, as we were saying yesterday, were experiencing terrible reproach because of following Christ. It was very difficult for a Jewish believer in those early days.
Everything was against them. It was the reproach of Christ, and I believe Paul calls it the same thing.
Would you, would you agree with that, Bob? Is that a fairway of looking at it? Yes. It's hard to maybe understand because the Lord Jesus has not come as the Christ at this time, but I think that whenever there is the revelation of God in whatever measure it is given.
This world is against that, and there is that conflict, that reproach, in any age. Daniel felt it when he sought in Babylon to live for God. He was made to feel it. There were those under the reign of Darius that had him thrown into the den of lions.
Conflict. Are you gonna avoid it? There's no way to avoid it.
You can't avoid it. And so Moses esteemed that greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. O brethren, to realize that God is going to have His purposes fulfilled in the end, and we're living in a world system that is against God. Are you going to go with the flow?
Or are you going to stand for God?
That's the reproach, isn't it?
Oh, of course, Egypt was at that time an idolatrous nation, and their worship was anything but that of the true God. So that, as you say, any mention of the name of the Lord brought reproach when when Moses did forsake Egypt and LED the children of Israel out of it.
What was his initial contact with Pharaoh like? Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and so on? Who is this Lord you talk about? And of course we know that the resultant plagues gave ample evidence. Had Pharaoh been willing to pay attention of who the Lord was? But always from man's history since the Fall, the natural mind has been at enmity with God.
And of course, God's revelation in Christ brought out the supreme hatred of man, didn't it?
27 he endured.
As seeing him who is invisible.
That's what faith does.
It lays hold on that which is not seen.
In Second Corinthians chapter 4, an important verse.
The end of the chapter.
Says while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are.
Not seen for the things which are seen are temporal.
But the things which are not seen are eternal, tremendously important principles here. We live in a world where we it's really a materialistic age and you're taught in schools and in business to react according to where there will be profit, and that's business. But that's understandable.
But as a Christian, you should base your life on things that are not seen. And those things that are not seen are eternal things. Just look around you right now. This room, it's a nice room, nice chairs, everything nice. How long is it gonna last? What will this place look like in 100 years?
00:45:12
I don't know.
But it's temporal. It's just for a time, it's passing. And are you going to stake your future on that which is temporal or that which is eternal? And brethren, we have in Christ that which is eternal, and you can only lay hold of it by faith. And that's what Moses did. He endured.
As seen him who is invisible.
Wonderful, wonderful reality, brother, and may the Lord help our dear young people, especially in this materialistic age, not to get distracted by material things. Yes, we have to deal with them. Yes, we have to have certain measure of things down here, but this is just a means to an end. It is not the end. Don't make it an end in itself.
So we live for another day. We live for another world, a world that is eternal.
We're called to eternal glory. Wonderful.
It wasn't it, it was him. And I think that's the key to the book of Hebrews as well, because the Lord Jesus, none of us have ever seen him with the physical eye. We didn't have the privilege like John and others who saw him with their eyes and their hands handled of the word of life and so on. But he's no less real to the eye of faith. And so Moses saw a person. He saw him who is invisible.
In the beginning of this book we see Jesus. How do we see him? Not with the physical eye like they did when he was here, but is he any less real to the eye of faith? And brethren, what we need to do if we're going to be preserved and encouraged to press on in the path of faith, is to have a vision of Christ before our souls, to look up by faith into the open heavens. You know, when the Lord Jesus was here as a man on earth.
Heaven opened up so that Heaven could be occupied with the only perfect man that ever walked this planet.
But heaven is just as open today, not so much that heaven can look down, but that we can look up. And so at the end of this chapter, in the beginning of the next one, at the beginning of the next chapter, he encourages us to run with endurance the race set before us. And how are we going to do it? It's to look unto Jesus, the one who began and completed the path of faith in absolute perfection, and he's the only one who did.
But with him as our object to see him who is invisible to the physical or the natural eye.
But real to the eye of faith, brethren, that's what's going to give us the courage. How could Moses go on?
You know Moses life is taken up in three sets of 40 and how could he go on?
Year after year and those last 40 years in the wilderness, you say, how could he do it? You know, I think it was Bill mentioned about him losing his patience with the people of God. And I say just once in 40 years. I know it was once too many, but to me it was a pretty good record. I, I don't think I would have lasted that long.
But He endured us, seeing Him who is invisible. He had whatever vision he had of the Lord before his soul. He could go on in spite of the problems. And brethren, not that we want to dwell on it, but let's remember this. We're not necessarily going to see the removal of all the difficulties down here. Sometimes we'd like to pray. We pray and we'd like the difficulties removed. But the Lord doesn't always remove the difficulties. But what He does do is give the faith and the grace.
And the energy to go through the problems and difficulties to endure enduring is different from deliverance. We'd like deliverance. But he says no. If I don't deliver you from it, I'll give you what's needed to endure it.
She'll lose it.
And he loses his life. For my sake shall save it.
00:50:06
If we had the power of God, we certainly would change some circumstances in our lives, but if we had the wisdom of God, we would change absolutely nothing.
3 verses, verses 29, or rather 2829 and 30. They're not the last three, I shouldn't say that, but these three I would suggest bring an order before us in the Christian life.
In verse 28 there was the keeping of the Passover because if we could put it this way, in Egypt, the Lord was against them. Was He really? No, because He was providing a way whereby they would not lose their first born. But I think it was mentioned earlier that the Lord couldn't pass over the Israelites and bring judgment on the Egyptians.
Without the blood, because the Israelites were no better than the Egyptians. And of course, we need to remember that too. As I've often said, I have no right to look down my nose at a man who is an unbeliever. I may have to be faithful with them. I may have to speak to him about where his end is. But I have to say there but for the grace of God, where I go to.
But the Israelites, by faith, put that blood on the door, trusting that it would keep the destroyer from coming into their homes, and they were preserved.
But then they go through the Red Sea. That speaks of deliverance, doesn't it? In the sense that we recognize that if in Egypt the Lord is against us.
At the Red Sea, Satan is against us.
And there Satan and all his hosts come against us, and Pharaoh and all that the world could muster came after them. But the Lord overthrows them in the Red Sea. And I believe it was mentioned yesterday that the Red Sea speaks of baptism and speaks of being.
Dead and arisen with Christ. And as we've already often mentioned, it's the first record of singing in the Bible when they stood on the opposite Bank of that Red Sea.
But then.
There's more, isn't there? The wilderness is passed over because it wasn't, in that same sense, part of the walk of faith. It was part of God's ways. But then what happens by faith? The walls of Jericho fell. Oh, there is going to be conflict in our Christian lives if we want to enjoy the land of Canaan. And many dear believers are content to stay on the opposite Bank of the Red Sea.
Without entering into that land of Canaan, because it speaks, doesn't it, of our heavenly calling. And if the church loses the sense of its heavenly calling, as we've sometimes said, and this is quoting another, it loses, humanly speaking, everything. And so there is going to be conflict. And those walls, well, we know when the spies went in the first time, they said those walls are rising up to heaven and those.
Giants there. They made us look like grasshoppers.
But when it was a matter of obeying the Lord, those walls came down without any human effort whatsoever except to blow those trumpets. And so we will find it in our Christian lives that if we want to enjoy those heavenly things, conflict will be involved. But I suggest there is an order here, the sprinkling of the blood, the deliverance through the Red Sea, and then finally the crossing of the Jordan and the conflict.
In the land of Canaan. And we will find it. It will come in that order in our Christian lives.
Interesting. We were speaking yesterday about the obedience of faith, that faith is obedient. And when it came to Jericho, it was for seven days marching, for the first six days marching around.
Once every day.
And then the 7th day, seven times around.
I wonder if there was any complaining?
00:55:01
On their part, what is the purpose of this?
There doesn't seem to be any cracks forming in the walls.
Brethren, it is.
Paying attention to what God says, that's faith and it's obedient. And when, like you say, they went around the 7th time and blew the horns, the walls came down.
Pay attention to what God says. He means what He says. Sometimes I don't understand it very well and so I might have to go back and look at it better.
But pay attention to it. Faith is obedient.
So then you have rehab mentioned, it's interesting. God brings from that city one individual that lived on the wall that was to fall down. He redeems a person that comes right into the royal lineage of the Lord Jesus. Beautiful.
Not sure, maybe somebody has a thought on this, but uh, why It's Rahab the harlot. It mentions it still Ray hard the harlot grace of God, isn't it? She's mentioned in that way, I believe every time she's mentioned and I believe it's it's not so much to attach a stigma to her, but to show the grace of God. And it's interesting, isn't it, Bob?
That when you go back and read the story, it wasn't just Rahab. Her face is what shines here, but her household as well. And again, I think that's an encouragement. Maybe there's someone here and you say I've failed so bad in my life, how can I now raise a family for the Lord or go on for the Lord?
Their sin has consequences, but there's always.
The grace of God that comes in where great sin abounds, grace much more abounds. And so with Rahab in that wicked city, Jericho, yes.
We noticed Moses parents earlier in in in in wicked Egypt, how they raised their child for the Lord in a marvelous deliverer. He became Rahab and her household were saved through her faith. It's interesting too, that when you read the story, you say, well, how much faith did Rahab really have? Now we know she had faith by taking the spies at their word, but you know, she was she was really a traitor. She betrayed her company and she told lies.
But God again was able to separate the precious from the vile and the faith. In the end, in spite of those things, the faith comes out. She hangs that scarlet cord, that rope in the in the window again, showing us a picture of the basis of all blessing is the work of Christ, the blood of Christ. And as a result, it was she and her household. And as you say, she's brought into the royal line.
It's not part of our subject, but just a little homework. Go back and read the 1St chapter of Matthew where you get the lineage of the Lord Jesus in connection with the royal line of things.
And notice the women that are brought out there, women that are brought in to the royal line by the grace of God. You have Tamar, you have that Rahab, you have Bathsheba. Again, I quote the verse where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. And that's true in all our lives, brethren.
And I would suggest that perhaps there is another reason why the Spirit of God brings Rahab's name in here in the book of Hebrews.
She was a gentile, wasn't she?
And at the time that the book of Hebrews was written, we know that those Israelites, those Jews, were having at least some of them a terrible time with blessing, going out to the Gentiles. They had a very difficult time with the gospel being preached to them. And of course, Peter had to learn a real lesson as to receiving the Gentiles. But it was not easy. It took a while.
01:00:06
And even after all that had happened, there came a time when Peter got carried away and Paul had to withstand him for separating from them. And I just, I just suggest the thought that her name is brought in here, among other reasons, to show that God was reaching out to the Gentiles long before that. And he had brought in Rahab not merely into the congregation, but into the royal line, as we've noticed.
And now, of course, in the church, God was reaching out to the Gentiles in a wonderful way and going to bring Jew and Gentile together as we get in Ephesians 2IN1 Body by the cross.
So I just suggest that it was a little indication to those Jews that this had not been something new or some new thought of God. He had prophesied in the Old Testament that the Gentiles would be brought into blessing. And of course we know that looked on primarily to the Millennium. But here now in the church, God was going to bring both into blessing, in that one body into the church without any discrimination.
And the name of Rahab here, I suggest, would have reminded them of that precious truth.
Verse 32 mentions others too. He says time would fail me and our time is going to fail us here too. We only got 10 minutes left brethren, but.
It's interesting these pairs that are mentioned, Gideon and Barrick, Sampson and Jeptha, David and Samuel.
I'm not sure why, but they're all mentioned in the reverse order of time.
Barrick was before Gideon, Jeptha was before Samson, and Samuel was before David. Have you ever thought about that, Bill?
Tested that there is a strength to faith, that is, the darker the day gets, the, umm, brighter face shines. And so the reverse in each of the first two pairs is uh, because it becomes harder and harder for uh.
Men of nature to go on. Therefore there's more the need of faith. And so that's why Gideon and Barrack are reversed by Sampson and Jeptha are reversed, perhaps with David and with Samuel. Each one of the ones that comes before Gideon, Barrick, Sampson, Jeptha, were those that bore rule in the land and David's placed with them. Samuel's placed with the prophets that come after and were mentioned after. So it's given in that order.
Thank you.
I never came to any solid conclusion it it. I wondered if I had heard that thought. And I wondered, too, if perhaps some of these men displayed more faith than others. Because we know that Jeff had serious failure in his life. But that's that's very good, Steven.
The grace with Rahab, she's also the first one in the chapter that had a house in the land. You go back through all the other Old Testament worthies, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Moses, not a single one had a house in the land. Rehab's the 1St and she's a Gentiles was mentioned and the walls fall down in town. Not to build up her house, but to let her out. It was a place that had been judged and she's let.
To escape from it. And here, as was already mentioned, these Hebrew Christians were in danger of, of going back of being discouraged of looking at what's going on in the in their lives and and turning back from Christianity. And so the only one that had a had a house there up to that point in the chapter, I'm sure getting an embarrassing Samson and we know David at houses, but up to that point in the chapter, rehab is the first one and her city is destroyed so that she can escape.
So the ones that are listed here, and then he goes on to give a summary of what they did, They through face subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, and so on. There's no doubt as we read their stories and their history that they had faith to various degrees. And there are no doubt those that we can think of that are not listed here, that like Daniel and the three Hebrew children and so on, who are no doubt alluded to.
01:05:12
But then as our time is gone, it says in verse 36.
And others.
And we say, what about them?
I I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Yes, I'm sorry and others. And then he repeats it in verse 36. Thank you. And you say what about them? Did they have less faith than the ones that have been previously mentioned? Because when we read what happened to them, they didn't have deliverance like like the the other ones. They suffered in a way. They *** **** down their lives, they were beaten trials of cruel mocking and so on.
You say, did they have any less faith? No, these all died in faith. And I think this is an important principle for us to realize because maybe we come to the end of a chapter like this and we've considered these Old Testament men and women of faith and all the things that they did and how they conquered and triumphed and accepted wonderful deliverances and there were miracles in their life and so on. And we say, well, I I've never experienced this kind of thing in my life. Maybe I don't have faith.
No, these other ones, we can't look at them and say they didn't have faith. And brethren, we can't look at our brethren in other parts of the world today who are in prison being tortured, laying down their lives and say they don't have faith. They may have greater faith than those of us who live in in relative ease and maybe are sneered out and reproached for our testimony. And so these ones Scripture confirms.
They had their faith was just as valuable, just as great, just as important. We'll receive just as great a reward in a, in a coming day. So and others. And I say that because sometimes in the Christian world today, the Christian community today, there's this thought that if we're not experiencing some great miracles in our lives and outward expressions of the Spirit of God and and so on. Well, you don't have faith.
You know, I, I, I, I, I heard this and I, I, I could hardly believe it, but I heard a preacher. Well, I'll tell the story. I, I was in a cafe in Freeport, Bahamas one day and having a cup of coffee and waiting for John Mark Council to finish his business so we could fly back to Nassau that evening. And there was a television on and there was a pre, one of these preachers on, in on the television.
And all of a sudden, this preacher stopped and said, if you have faith, put your hand on your television screen with me and we'll pray for a new car for you today.
You know, I thought after I thought, you know, it's going to be a lot of people who put their hand on that television screen and they're not going to get a new car and they're going to be told it was because they didn't have the faith that that is not what we learned from Scripture, brethren. These ones that were tortured and saw in asunder and wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins.
Could you? Could they set you? It be said of them they didn't have faith and that's why they suffered.
Scripture confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt that they.
Had faith. And so as we leave this place, brethren, let's seek by the grace of God to go on trusting the Lord. We may not have great deliverances, we may not see great outward miracles in our lives, but whatever we are called to pass through in our path for the Lord, the key is to have complete confidence in Himself, in His Word, and to act in obedience.
No matter what. And what about these ones that that died, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. God had something better in mind for them.
And whatever God allows in our lives, God has something better in mind for us. And what is the end of the story?
Whether we die of natural causes or whether we're martyred for the testimony of Christ, we're going to reach the goal and we're going to be there with glorified bodies and the days coming back coming when we're going to come back. And a king shall reign in righteousness, and Princess shall rule in judgment. And he's coming to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that are about him in that day.
01:10:08
All the triumphs of faith in the latter group is the sufferings of faith, but they're both faith and the Scripture says if any man suffer as a Christian, happy as he, so we don't have to look for these a new car and all these other things that they're trying to say that you have to have faith for. But there's the suffering. And just like the Lord Jesus, it was the suffering and the glory that falls.
Lord, wasn't it at the end And that's isn't that. What each of us covet brethren, is his well done and His good report at the end.
Ask Brother Cannon.
What scripture can you give me to show that the Old Testament believers will be raptured at the same time as the church? And he gave me verse forty. I thought it was a very good verse. They, the Old Testament believers we've been talking about, without us shall not be made perfect.
To depart and to be with Christ from this life is far better, but it is not the perfect state. Brethren. The perfect state is what you are referring to, Brother Jim. When we will be given our new bodies and we will be in resurrection glory with the Lord, conclude that they might obtain a better resurrection in that as well.
There was some women received their dead, raised to life again, but others were tortured and they died. They weren't raised to life again. They weren't spared. But am I correct in saying that that better resurrection they look forward to is that resurrection that we have in the last verse? I had a man once trying to tell me that there's different, uh.
Qualities of resurrections that we'll have as believers and to use this verse as an example of that. But that's not what it's saying.
Umm, number 1187.
I've left the home.
Grass.
316 Just three and four 316.
Living for Jesus
Address—Tim Roach
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.
Good afternoon Uh, we've had a little bit in our readings about the, uh life of a Pilgrim and a stranger in this world and the life of faith. Umm like to speak a little bit about uh the Christian living in this in this world. And let's start by seeing #234. We're not of this world which fadeth away. We're not of the night, but children of day, the chains that once bound us by Jesus.
Are riven. We're strangers on earth. Our home is in heaven, and I want us to look at the difference there is between the church, the believers, and the world. There is a difference, and God looks at us as being different and special to him #234.
How may I help you today? Thank you so much, Mr. And how long will it take me to subscribe to the next day? Thank you for this number.
Speaking to someone.
Uh, because I'm not going to do that.
I don't want to buy a plane and everybody if I'm going to run so many of my life.
Nsnoise.
I want to talk and we Christians, we live in a corrupted, sin, corrupted world. And this present world, it has much to offer and to attract the Christian, but at the same time this world is drawing our hearts away from the Lord Jesus.
In this present world, it offers some things that maybe aren't bad in themselves, but we might allow these things to entertain us and to amuse us and to.
And to make us forget about living for Jesus. And so we end up becoming distracted by this present world. But we also live in a present evil world.
00:05:09
And there's a world that includes pride, jealousy, ***********.
As like was mentioned yesterday.
Homosexuality. It's a cop out. *********** is a cop out.
This world offers a girlfriend or a boyfriend. No, no, that's not a bad thing if the boy is old enough to work and to provide for for the the family and but.
But the problem is that this present world offers you a boy or a girl.
Who wants to have an emotional attachment? And that's good for marriage, But after the emotional attachment comes.
Then there comes the body, the touching the body and what you need to know is that romance is a progression and after you touch the body the eventual step is.
Sex without marriage. And so we need to be careful in these, in in our romances and our affections for one another, until we're ready to be married, until the unbelievers.
At school or at work or wherever you may meet them, they appreciate your Christian qualities.
But they don't want Christ. They want the Christian qualities, but they don't want Christ. And you will eventually be forced to make a choice between Christ or your friend.
And so the present all evil world. It offers sex without marriage. It offers suicide. It offers abortion. It offers disobedience to parents and other bad things that Christians that we've done before we were saved. And so in this present world, we Christians were called to live a holy life in separation from this present world.
Sometimes when we talk about holiness, the teaching of holiness is presented as a bunch of do's and don'ts, and then we become under law. And some people think that's holiness if we can keep these laws. But that's not what holy living is. Holiness is what I think. It comes from the Holy Spirit, and you turn in the new life, the eternal life that we have, the life of Christ, and part of that is energizes us to.
To love our neighbor and to love those in our assembly, and to love the lost Sinner next door, or to reach out in kindness to someone who's suffering from an addiction. I know it's easy to criticize. I know from experience that it's easy to criticize those who maybe don't live up to a standard that I think they should.
But the love of God should be able to flow through us and out to others.
I know we tend to shy away from that homeless alcoholic who's begging on this side of the street because we know he's going to use that money. He'll probably use that money to buy more alcohol.
And I've I've done this myself. I cross the street when I see someone up at the way so I don't have to meet them, so I can avoid a confrontation. But is that the way we should do it? If we're always avoiding the alcohol, like we're the beggar on the street, how then will they hear the gospel?
Let's go to Romans 10. We had this verse earlier this weekend, Romans 10 and verse 14.
How shall how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
I understand that many of these addicts, they need Jesus. They need him so bad because they're bound in their sin and they're bound by their addictions and they cannot get free by themselves. But just a little act of kindness by you might be what the spirit of God can use to blow like the wind. And we don't know where it's coming from. We don't know where it's going. But the Spirit of God can work.
In a person's heart and soul through a little act of kindness.
00:10:03
And so the Spirit of God can accomplish the purposes of God to set that captive free from his addiction, whether it's an addiction, an addict on the street.
Or if it's a *********** addict in your home, or if it's a backslidden Christian, that little act of kindness can represent Christ.
Can represent the goodness of God that leads to repentance.
It's the goodness of God that leads the Sinner to repentance. Now let's look at Galatians 6.
Galatians chapter 6 and let's look at verse 10.
As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men. OK, so from this verse we understand that we do not have a choice to whom we are good. The verse says do good to all, and so Christ died for all.
Said whosoever will may come. And so we go into all this present world, and we and we do good to all, so that some may hear the gospel.
All may hear the gospel, and so that some might be saved. And so God uses us.
We're his vessels, and it is by you and myself that it's by us. The gospel is preached. Now, God could have, I suppose, have sent an Angel down to to preach the gospel, but he chose you. He chose us believers to do this job. It's a privilege for us. And he says this is your ministry, and he gives you this ministry to tell others and so young people.
And and older people here too. All the believers here today.
You have a purpose.
Here in this present world, let's go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5.
2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 18.
All things are of God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ.
And hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.
There's the ministry he's given to us, verse 19 to it, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
And so God has given to each of us, you included. He's given us the ministry of reconciliation, and he says to us, go and preach the gospel.
But first we need to love the sinners. We need to love our neighbors. We need to love the backslidden Christian. And so you can't witness to somebody on your own. God has to put that love into your heart, and he already has. We have that love when we're saved. We have eternal life. And and when we believe, the Spirit of God dwells in our hearts. And what is the fruit of the spirit?
The fruit of the Spirit is the first thing is love, and so we have the love. We just need to use the love. We love because he first loved us. And so we don't go out and preach the gospel as a job. We don't share the word of God as a Job, but we do it as an overflow of love in our hearts that is put there by the Spirit of God. Let's go to John, Chapter 15.
John chapter 15 and verse 9.
If you are of the world, the world would love his own.
But because you're not of the world. But I have chosen you out of the world. Therefore the world hates you.
We are born into this world. We live in this world with all the wickedness and the temptation around us, and we are influenced by all the entertainment and the amusement and the pleasures of this world. Yes, we are in this world, but we don't belong to this world.
As you, as you go through life as a Christian, you need to understand that we are different from the unbelievers. You, as a believer, are special to God. We are the children of God. We're the heirs of God. We're joint heirs with Christ. We are more precious to God than the people of the world, and so He has separated us. He sanctified us and separated us from the world.
00:15:27
And so we are peculiar to him. We're peculiar we're his special possessions. And so the world we understand, the world is in no way equal to you, the believer, the people of God.
John 18 verse 36.
Jesus answered.
My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews? But now is my Kingdom not from hence? In other words, Jesus is saying do not lower yourself.
Two, to the equality of this present world by faith. By faith, we have a higher purpose for the Lord. We're here to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're here to live for Jesus. We can give glory to the Lord Jesus. We are the light of the world that can shine for Jesus. And not only that, we have a heavenly position. We're the bride of Christ.
And we will be married to Jesus. We have a home in heaven, and that's where our future is. Our future is in heaven. The people of this world, they don't have a future like that. But you do. You are special to God. And so that our future is in heaven, we're not put here in this world to clean it up. As we heard in the readings, we're not here to clean it up and get it ready for Jesus to come and reign with us. That's not what we're here for.
We believers are above that. We are above the worldlings in importance to God and the Lord. Jesus emphasizes this in John chapter 17. Let's look, let's go to John 17.
And in verse 14.
He says. I have given them thy word, and the world has hated them because they are not of this world, even as I am not of the world.
I pray not that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. And so we are in a more privileged place than the world. And therefore the world will hate you. If you live like a Christian, if you represent Christ to the world, they will hate you. Now look in verse 22.
And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one, I and them and thou and me, that they may be made perfect in one. And that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and has loved them as thou hast loved me. God wants the world to know that he loves us and has put us into a special place.
Into the one body of Christ, and he wants us to act in a way as to represent the fact that the body is 1. And even though there is a lot of division and confusion in the body of Christ, we are required by the desire of Christ to function as a witness to the world that there is one body.
Yes, we may be separate. We may be separate from many of the Christians.
Who do not act in the unity of the Spirit, but that does not take away our responsibility to function as the one body being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in the unity of the Spirit.
Let's read verse 24.
Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me.
Be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.
Jesus wants us to be with Him where he is. You see, Jesus does not want the worldlings to be with him in the Father's house. He wants you. He wants us believers to be with him in the Father's house until you see we believers. We are peculiar to God. We are His special possession. We belong to Jesus Christ. And so we know. We know from all of this that God.
00:20:21
Is not a God of equality we often hear people demanding.
Equal rights?
And when we're in Malawi, often we'll give food, a little food to one person. And if you do that, you need to give a little bit of food to everybody, because everything must be equal.
Communism and socialism, they try to keep the the common people all at the same level.
One of the presidential candidates recently stated that she wants to put a six cent tax on every soda pop sold in the country.
And she wants to do that because she wants to support universal daycare from from very young age. And so she wants to take the children out of the sphere of the parents authority and so that the government can begin to indoctrinate the children at an earlier and earlier age.
Governments do not like home schoolers, or perhaps private institutions.
They prefer to institutionalized children and teach them all the same way and the government system is controlling what the children are learning and in this way the government is able to control what the world is becoming.
The government of this world, they are attempting to equalize man in order to form one world government. And in part, they're using global warming, climate change, the green revolution, sexual identity. And they want to bring all nations into conformity so that all the nations have one goal, even in Africa, unless unlo, they're they're bribing the nations to accept homosexuality.
And if they don't accept it into their into their culture, they're not going to receive any funding from the Western world. And so governments of this world are attempting to equalize man in order to form one world government, and this requires taking God out of society.
It is, Mrs. Clinton said recently. She said we need to redefine religion.
Hi. I'm afraid of what that might mean. But Mr. Obama, he also said we are not a Christian country and so this world.
Is becoming a degraded and immoral and godless society. There's one thing that's happening in the world that I think we should all realize, and because I believe it's going to be a spiritual danger that's on the rise and you can Google it and check it out.
The Western world is fast turning to the worship of Baal and Asterisk.
Yeah, the Arch of Bell was recently destroyed over in in that area where ISIS is. The ISIS destroyed it and and now if you check it out, they wanted to build an arch of bail in New York.
There's a lot of uproar about it. So they they they haven't. I'm not sure if they've done it yet or not. They put one in London, they put several of them in other parts of the Western world, the Arch of Bail. And so they want to worship Bail and Astra, the very God that Israel worshipped and it's becoming on the rise in today's society. And so this is all a precursor to A1 world system that's headed by the satanically energized beast and he.
Who is going to be aided by the Antichrist And Satan knows that he's going to have that Jesus is going to have.
One perfect, oh the perfect, one world system of government. And so Satan is quickly trying to to set up his own system in place to get that in place in order to override what he thinks is the future of Christians and and the Jews. And so Satan is bruising, the heel of Jesus, the seed of the woman. Now if the government can eliminate Christianity in schools.
And the universities that they can bring all the students into an equality that the governments can control. Let's go to Ephesians 6.
00:25:15
Ephesians chapter 6.
Now I want to address families because all of this Antichrist control of the children, it puts a big strain on the Christian family and the Christian family culture. And it adds a great responsibility to the parents to prepare their children for what they're going to face in this present world and in this society and in this culture that's being promulgated in the schools. And let's look at Ephesians 6 and verse 4.
It says here in ye father's provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. There is a a what can I say? There's an ideal ideology of raising children, allowing them to make their own decisions, and not really disciplining them because they want to. They want their children to make their own decisions. And so it's not turning out very well, as you can imagine, without discipline, but.
The Word of God condemns that it says fathers.
Raise your children, and nurture and admonition of the Lord. So we are required by God to raise our children as Saints.
Because they are Saints, if they're saved, if they know the Lord is their savior, we're required to raise them as Saints. But if they are not saved, we need to raise them as Christians anyway. It doesn't delineate here in this verse whether or not your child is saved or not. You raise your children as Christians on Christian principles with Christian values, and God tells us to bring your children up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord.
And so.
Years ago and even today, women fought for equal rights to work like a man and to be able to go to war. And now men are fighting for equal rights to be gay and to use the women's restrooms. Why? It's because equality is an attempt to deny the reality of sin and eliminate God from society, and so everybody must feel equal.
Or it isn't. Or it isn't fair. But that's not so with God. God has special plans and special blessings reserved for certain people that he has chosen to spend the time of eternity with.
And we're gonna and he wants to spend that time in the Father's house in heaven. And these special people are the ones who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior.
If you want to be one of these special people.
You need to repent to God and have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in Acts 1631 Says Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved and you will be added to the body of Christ and you will be put into this special position that God has special care for these ones. Let's go to Galatians chapter one.
Galatians chapter one and verse 4.
He gave himself about the Lord Jesus who gave himself for our sins.
That He might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. And so, with all the preparations that God has made for us, get this A believer cannot remain the same spiritually. You'll either progress or you'll regress. You'll go forward or you'll go backward. You'll either live for Christ or you'll live for yourself.
In this present world.
Now, as a believer in this world, we need to be prepared to live as a Christian in this present world.
And baptism, I believe, prepares a person for the Christian life.
Whether a person is saved or not, the meaning of baptism is the same.
Now there's some people say baptism doesn't do anything or mean anything, but there's many things that baptism means.
00:30:00
And does. But baptism states in one aspect that from this day forward, this person is going to live and act like a Christian in this present world. And that is why some heads of households in the Bible, they baptized everybody in their household. And it was their way of saying that if you live in my house, you're going to act like a Christian in this present world and so in this present world.
Where authority is not respected.
We often find that heads of households do not take the responsibility for those who live in their house and they don't insist that they should live and act like a Christian. And this responsibility fathers and heads of households. This responsibility includes such things as music and the movies. I'm not saying all music, I'm not saying all movies, but you need to be discerning of what you allow into your home in these areas, in the magazines and the deck of playing cards that introduces the occult into your.
Family.
Do you allow these things into your home?
If you want to have a Christian home, the people living in the home must act like Christians, and the things that we allow into our homes must give honor to Christ.
And that is why somebody like Lydia in Acts Chapter 16 made sure that everybody in her household was baptized. It didn't matter matter whether it was a mother-in-law or a servant or perhaps a child. If you were going to live in Lydia's house, whether you're saved or not, you'll be baptized as a Christian because from now on you're going to live and act like a Christian. That's part of the meaning of baptism and so.
Lydia respected that, and she wanted that for her family so that they might learn to live and honor Jesus Christ, so they might become a part of their their life, so that they might someday realize that they need to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior so they can live to what they're to what they're symbolizing through the baptism.
And so.
Baptism is even more critical for a person who has been saved to be sure that he is baptized in preparation for the life he is about to begin the life of a Christian in this present world. Let's go to Romans chapter 6.
Romans chapter 6 and verse 4.
We are buried with him by baptism into death that, like his Christ, was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father. Even so, we also should walk in newness of life.
This verse shows us that baptism has more meaning for a true believer and so when you accept to be baptized.
You are like acknowledging that you are special to God. You are like the one special Pearl in Matthew 13 for which the merchant man sold all that he had to buy you for his own self.
Having made some comments about baptism, I'm not trying to to promote household baptism. That's not my that's not my responsibility. That's for the head of the household. You can decide what you want, but I'm just telling you what the people in the OH in the Bible did and why they they did it. And that same responsibility whether you baptize your children or not. If you're going to have a Christian household, you need to raise your children as Christians.
Because Ephesians 6, verse 4 doesn't say anything about baptism. It says parents, fathers, you have the responsibility to raise your children in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord and so.
Baptism. It says that you no longer belong to this present world, you belong to Jesus Christ, and you are ready to walk in the newness of eternal life. And so baptism again, it looks forward to the change that will take place in your life as you live like a Christian in this present world. Let's go to Second Timothy 4.
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Second Timothy 4. Now as a as a Christian, as a person who's been baptized, it is wise for you to be true to your baptism and to live a life devoted.
That gives honor to the Lord Jesus Christ. And now here let's look at Second Timothy chapter 4 and verse 10.
It is a demos has forsaken me, having loved this present world and is departed.
Dimas was not faithful to his baptism. Demas deserted Paul and he preferred the easy life without the stigma of Christianity. How does this happen to a person like Dimas?
It is a slow process. This present world offers simple pleasures that take the place of our Bible readings, our Bible studies, and our personal prayer, our communication with God.
And so then, worldly friends, they begin to take our interest and turn away our interest from spiritual things. And then the sin that we allow in our lives. It makes it hard for us to distinguish between right and wrong.
And it's like a Christian in a in school who has unbelievers for friends and he's going to con. He's either going to conform to the and he's going to conform to the world in order to be accepted by his friends. And So what was, what was Dimas chasing in this world, in this present world, we don't know exactly. Maybe it was a girlfriend.
Maybe it was food.
Or success. Or luxury. Maybe he wanted a fast chariot. Maybe. Maybe he was down at the Roman Coliseum, uh, watching the Olympic Games on a Sunday afternoon instead of going to the Assembly fellowship meeting where they were discussing Paul's doctrine.
Or maybe he was looking for a more dynamic and exciting church.
There's reproach. As we heard earlier today, there's reproach to living like a Christian, and Dimas felt the reproach of being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ back there when Paul was here on earth. There's also a cost to live as a Christian. You may have to miss the Sunday afternoon playoff games.
Or you may have to miss a family reunion.
In order for you to be assembling together with your fellow believers on Lord's Day Morning.
Let's go to Luke chapter 14.
Now we know Dimas. He turned his back on the Lord Jesus and he deserted Paul.
Perhaps Demas was afraid of persecution, and so he turned to the world for his comfort and his protection. Whatever his reasons were Dimas denied the name of Christ. He wanted Christianity without the cost, without any loss, anyone of Christianity without the reproach, and look what it says in Luke 14, verse 27 says, whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me.
Cannot be my disciple.
Other Christians can easily become discouraged and disheartened by a Christian who backslides into the world and they go back to things they used to do before they were a Christian, or they go back to new things that the world has to offer. Dimas was probably a discouragement to his family and friends, and we know he was a discouragement to the Apostle Paul. Well, there's another bad consequence of of running with the world.
And dishonouring your your baptism. And that is that a much needed light in this thin darkened world is being hidden.
When demons started running with the world, he deprived the world of a light, a light to the testimony of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. When Demas had been baptized, he had put on Christ.
And once you have put on Christ through baptism.
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You cannot take Christ off.
You cannot undo your baptism.
You are still responsible to live like a Christian in this present world.
Demas, we find, was not true to his baptism. Let's go to Galatians chapter 3.
Galatians chapter 3 and verse 27.
For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
If I have put on Christ, that means that I should look like Christ.
And then I should act like Christ.
When I have been baptized, I am accepting my responsibility to live like a Christian, and by my fruits, that is, by my actions, you should know that I am a Christian.
Well, baptism. It also looks forward to a godly life. A godly life both morally and doctrinally.
But you know, not every Christian needs to be baptized.
I see some of you looking. That's true. Not every Christian needs to be baptized. Umm.
I'll have it. I'll give you an illustration I've used before and you so you've probably heard this but and there was a war and the soldiers they were fighting each other and they were in there in their trenches and.
The one soldier was fighting and he got shot. He was mortally wounded and he was dying laying there in the trench, and he said to his friend next to him in the trench, he says, hey, I'm dying.
And I I'm not ready to meet God. What do I need to do? How? How can I be saved? And so he asked his friend. His friend didn't know, so his friend asked the next man in the trench.
And it went on down the line. Nobody knew what this man needed to do. Finally they got to 15 or 16 men down the line. And man had a New Testament. And he opened the New Testament and put his finger on a verse and said, here, show him this verse and read this verse to him until they send it back down the line, showing each one the verse. And when it got back to the first man, he read it to his friend John. 316 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Well, the man he heard that wonderful news, he says, I believe, and he died.
That man did not need to be baptized.
Why? Because that man was not going to live here in this world. He was going straight to heaven. He was like the thief on the cross who died there on the cross, the Lord. He didn't need to be baptized. The Lord said today, you're going to be with me in paradise. Baptism is for our life that's going, look, looks forward to the future of our life, that we're going to live here in this world as a Christian. And so baptism looks forward to the change that's going to take place.
In your life, in this present world.
Baptism does not look back as a reward for a person who has proved that he is a Christian.
Let's go to Titus, chapter 2.
Titus chapter 2 and we'll see here in verse 12 That it gives both a negative aspects and the positive aspect of living a godly life in holiness. And it says here in Titus two teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts. That's the negative side. We deny those things that we should live. And here's the positive side, we should live soberly, righteously and godly.
In this present world, so soberly, living soberly is dealing with ourselves.
Living righteously, I believe, would be interacting with other people, and living godly would be interacting and dealing with God. And so we should live soberly dealing with ourselves. There's a number of things we can do in dealing with ourselves in this present world, and that is.
Timothy Paul told Timothy. Keep yourself pure.
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And Judith says, keep yourselves in the love of God.
It says keep yourself unspotted from the world.
And another place that says keep yourselves from idols. And so there's these things that we have in our own responsibilities, our own lives, so we deal with ourselves in our lives. We live soberly. Let's look at Philippians chapter 4.
Now God has given us a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind. And so in dealing soberly with ourselves, it is important that we control our thoughts because our actions and our words, they they all they come from our thoughts and so we need to have a sound mind. And let's read Philippians chapter 4, verse 8 and this these give.
This verse gives us some things that we can think about. Philippians 4, verse 8.
Finally, brethren.
Whatsoever things are true, Whatsoever things are honest. Whatsoever things are just. Whatsoever things are pure. Whatsoever things are lovely. Whatsoever things are of good report. If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things.
So living soberly.
Effects my body, my spirit, soul, and body, and that relates to my thoughts.
My feelings and my actions. And so it's all taken in and living soberly before God. The second point in our verse in Timothy was that we should live righteously, and this is interacting with others. And we have that verse we read in Galatians 6, verse 10 doing good about doing good to all men. I'll read that verse again Galatians 610 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men.
Especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
Some of some examples perhaps of doing good to all men is we love our neighbor as ourselves. Who is my neighbor? I believe that could be anybody who's within your area. Your neighbor might be that guy who dangerously cut you off on the highway 5 minutes before you both got into the exited off into.
A rest area. Can you love that man as yourself?
It generates feelings in our hearts when someone cuts us off on the highway and we feel we need to get back, get even with them, and we. But that's not the way we need to think. God he the Lord Jesus died for that person just like he died for you. And so love our neighbor as ourselves. And then we have another verse that tells us bear ye one another's burdens and so it is your responsibility.
From this verse it it gives us the responsibility to sympathize with the suffering Saints.
And and if, if you suffer from a similar ailment, God expects you to empathize with your companion. And so we need to realize, however, that if somebody is showing you care and concern, you need to accept that love and don't think that you're above the cares and the prayers of your brethren. And then another another point.
Of doing good is hospitality.
We can be hospital. We can be hospitable, especially to the household of faith. And that is other believers, not just the ones here in this assembly hall.
But the household of faith extends to all Christians that to common bond that we have with all believers and so we can be hospitable and that's one way we can do good to all men. The Third Point in that verse we had in in Second Timothy was that we should live godly. Now when we live godly, this is interacting with God. We said earlier maybe about reading and praying and sort of communication with God.
But we need to live with the consciousness.
Of who God is, who he is, He is the Almighty.
He's the everlasting. He's the creator God, to whom belongs all the glory, honor, power, praise, love, and respect. That all belongs to him because of who he is. And this will result in worship and praise to God because of who he is. And so the results of godly living, I believe, will be a life of obedience, love.
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In reverence towards God.
We have reverence towards God. We can We can be reverent toward God when we are at school, or when we are at work or in We can be reverent with our actions and with our words. And we can even be reverent according to who our friends are.
To give God honour by whom we choose to be our friends. And so we also give reverence to God when we come into His presence at the Bible meetings. If you listen, everybody's quiet.
We're giving reverence to the person of the Lord Jesus.
In reverence, I believe it starts at home and then it's carried over into the assembly meetings, and it also extends out to other areas of life where we can be reverent to God.
I think another point of godly living is to give place in our life to Jesus as Lord, allow him to have authority and rule.
In our lives and so we can ask.
Lord, what do you have me to do? And so, as we've seen, Christians should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Maybe we could close by saying hymn #247.
Now this.
This this tune has to be fit, sort of.
Umm, as I love.
You man, for I can't hear you. Come on tomorrow to be just No.
What happened when I saw the sun and so on and so I'm going to go and find a boy and I can't have a great day ahead of me.
I'm going to.
Address Paul's Doctrine
Address Apostle Paul
Prophecy pt1
Prophecy pt2
Butter and Honey - Refuse Evil Choose Good
Y.P. Address 7
You Have to Do Your Part - No You Don't