Pella Conference: 2018
Table of Contents
2 Timothy 3:1-7
Reading
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206.
Very small everywhere that needs to live fully here 206.
I have a heart, brethren.
The last two chapters of Second Timothy. Often we take up the first or second chapter, but I wondered if it would be the mind of the brethren and the leading of the Spirit of God that perhaps in these four readings we could consider the 3rd and 4th chapters. We're certainly living in days very parallel to the days that Paul described here for us. If we do that, I think it would be helpful in order to get a little outline of what we have.
To maybe to today, take in the two readings, take up the third chapter, and perhaps the Lord directs that way in the two readings, uh, subsequent, maybe the 4th chapter. If we do that, then I would suggest that this morning we read the third chapter of Second Timothy.
Timothy on my heart as well. And uh, we live certainly in second Timothy days and it is a pastoral epistle. So Paul wrote pastoral epistles to encourage the hearts of the Saints, in particular to, to encourage Timothy, we know, but it is a pastoral epistle and it was written for the encouragement in the day of ruin.
Three.
This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous boasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, cruise Breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce despisers of those that are good traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such.
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Turn away, for of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive, silly women, laden with sins, LED away with diverse lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jonathan withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith, but they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifest unto all men.
As there's also was. But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra. What persecutions I endured. But out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yeah, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child. Thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine.
For reproof, for correction, For instruction and righteousness.
That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
Well, it's been pointed out, this is a an epistle written to an individual. The apostle Paul by inspiration, had written a previous epistle to Timothy, and this is the second letter that he writes. I think it's helpful, as with all scripture, to take it up in its proper context. First of all, to realize that second epistles always bring before us and denote days of weakness and ruin and failure.
In other words, what has been exo, uh, set out in the first epistle, whether it's to Timothy or whether it's Peter's epistles or so, so on what set out in the first epistle, there's always going to be failure and ruin come in because that's the history of man. And so first epistles layout before us the truth of a certain aspect of the truth of God, a certain line of things. And then in second epistles there's warnings and end encouragement.
To return to that which was laid out in the first epistle. So second epistles always denote days of weakness and ruin and failure. Whether again 1St and 2nd Thessalonians, the 2nd Epistle to the Ephesians, you say, where's that? Well, John wrote an epistle to the Ephesians 2A, very short one in Revelation. And there we find that they had left their first love, they've been failure come in. Paul had written to them and given them that wonderful truth as to the heavenly calling of the believer, and so on.
But when John wrote to them, he had to warn them of the failure that had come in. They'd left their first love and so on. And so we find in Second Timothy that the apostle writes to Timothy, not just to warn him and certainly not to discourage him, but to encourage him to go on in days of giving up of the truth, days when the truth was being undermined and the souls of the of the Saints were being subverted.
And I say that because sometimes we read Two Timothy and if we're not careful, we can get a little downcast, we can get a little discouraged. We might say, well, can we really go on in days like we find ourselves, the days that the apostle Paul was warning in here, here in this epistle, Yes, we can. And after we go through the first few verses of this chapter where you have these warnings and exhortations, then we're going to find.
That there's encouragement, Paul's last recorded words by inspiration are to an individual to encourage him to go on until the end and to show that there are resources in Christ and provision to not just for Timothy, but for you and for me today to go on even in these last days in perilous times. One other little comment of introduction. Let's remember that what is described in this epistle.
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And when he begins our chapter by Speaking of the last days and perilous times, it's not the heathen world he's describing, nor is it so much physical things. Now, there's plenty in Scripture to remind us that the days before the Lord Jesus comes are characterized by violence and corruption and, and, and so on, like there were in the days of Noah and so on and, and, and that kind of thing. But that is not what Paul is talking about here in Timothy.
Paul is describing the professing church. It's a more, it's more of a moral side of things and it is not the heathen world he's describing. He is describing the professing church and what characterizes her in the end times, the days in which we live just before the Lord comes. And I think, brethren, if we take it up in that context, it's going to have real import to us. We think of the last days in perilous times as to what's going on and what we read in the newspaper and, and, and, and so on and what we see going on in the Middle East and so on.
Yes, that's another side of things, but what we're considering here are exhortations and warnings as to the character of the Church of God in the last days, and yet, as I say, encouragement to go on as individuals and collectively and as families in spite of it.
Notice that, uh, the first epistle to Timothy was written, Walter Scott says, about 8064, and then approximately 3 years later he's writing Second Timothy. So it does, it means really that the, uh, failure and the ruin came into the Christian testimony very quickly. And so we live in days where the truth was recovered approximately 190 years ago and, umm.
The truth of what it is to be gathered to the Lord's name and all the truth. Paul's doctrine was recovered innocent entirety and that was ministered, was taught and written of at the early part of the 1800s and the decline has been very swift in the Western Christian world, particularly during the last 50 years. The giving up of moral living, moral standards and the giving up of the truth of the that the Word of God was a principle gave us the principles of life.
In the Western Christian world, those things have been given up very rapidly. But in Timothy's, in this epistle, the Second Timothy was written approximately 3 years, maybe four years after the first epistle. So the decline was swift. So in these epistles, these pastoral epistles, you'll notice Paul's pastoral epistles are linked, are grouped together in the New Testament. And so you have First Timothy, Second Timothy.
Titus Philemon, and the reason they're there together is they are pastoral epistles and they give us instruction. They teach us what God's requirements are largely in the day of ruin, and personally are practically what our responsibilities are and how to live and how to overcome in the days that we live in. And so Paul was very careful to teach these things, and he presents these things to an individual so that we can learn them.
It's good to notice too, in connection with Paul, if he doesn't say the whole thing is all just a disaster and the yes, there is no recovery or it's not going to be a recovery. There's not going to be a revival. In the day that we live in. We know that the Lord's coming is very near. We don't have signs of the Lord's coming. We have indications that the Lord's coming is near. And So what we see happening in the world we can look at, but there are indications that the moral Fabric of society.
It's gone, it's damaged to a point. It'll never, there'll never be a recovery. And we're living right at the end of the age. But here he gives a remedy for the individual responsibility. Every one of us is responsible not to succumb to the sorrow and the declension, but he gives a recovery. And so it focuses, I believe in this third chapter on the Word of God. We need to have the Word of God before us.
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And it's the word of God and the teaching of the truth that's contained in the word of God that will preserve us in these last days. So we have he outlines the declension, you might say, gives a little more details as to what we have in connection with the address to the latest Seans. Here's the detail. Morally, this is what was going on. This is what's going on today. We, no, we don't need to be surprised. This is what characterizes the Western Christian world and the professing Christianity.
So.
The remedy is the word of God.
OK, 13 we get the parable of the sower.
So, which I trust we're all familiar with in.
Umm.
Verse 23.
He speaks of He that received seed into the good ground, as he which heareth the word, and understandeth it, which also bears fruit, and brings forth some an hundredfold. Some 60. Some 30.
And that's the gospel of the Kingdom in Mark's Gospel chapter 4, where we get the parable it tells us in verse 20.
These are they with uh.
Mark 4 verse 19 verse.
20 Yes, these are they which are shown on good ground, such as hear the Word and receive it, and bring forth truth, some 30 fold, some 60 some 100 But in the gospel of Marcus, the gospel of the servant, so you get an increasing.
It's the individual walking with God, isn't it?
In the public aspect, it's gonna diminish.
So the last days are always characterized by individual faithfulness. But I I would like to say this too, and we'll perhaps develop it as we go through some of the later verses, that there is also provision to go on in every sphere that God has set up for the blessing of man on the earth, because God doesn't institute something and not provide provision to go on in that institution until the very end.
And so the God set up two institutions for the blessing of man on the earth. The first was the family and the second was the assembly. Now it's true that the exhortations in the last days are to individuals because we are can be no more as no more as families or collectively as gathered to the Lord's name than we are as individuals. It starts with individual exercise. And so there needs to be that real genuine consideration today in our souls as to are we going on.
Individually.
In the truth of God and walking for the Lord's glory in the days in which we live. If we are, then there's provision to go on in the family circle. But we're no more as families than we are as individuals. But if we're going on as families, then there can be power collectively as gathered to the Lord's name. And we don't have time to do it. But if we were to go through Second Timothy, we would find that he encourages us in all three spheres of life.
Individually as families and collectively. Let me just point out one example and, and I'll preface my remark by saying this, it saddens me to hear sometimes Christians say, and those who were even once gathered to the Lord's name say, well, it doesn't matter anymore. Collectively the churches, things are in ruin, things are outwardly fragmented and it just doesn't matter anymore as long as we have Christian fellowship and so on.
But just go back to the second chapter, not not to back up, but just to notice a little expression here in verse 22. He says we also youthful lust. And then he says but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace. Now I want you to notice this not just individually, but with them that call on the Lord out of a Pure heart. And so in the midst of exhortation for Timothy to walk before the Lord in the last days as an individual.
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To me it's just as if he says, but remember Timothy, there is a collective aspect of things too. Even in the days of day of ruin. There is are those who does others who desire to go on and to walk in the truth of God and you go on with them. I've got my eye on those who he's got his eye on every believer. I don't mean that, but he said there are those who are seeking to go on for my glory collectively in a day of ruin.
And make sure that you go on in fellowship with them. And I think that's a great encouragement. And I just say again, brethren, God never institutes something for the blessing of man on the earth and that he doesn't make full and abundant provision to go on to the very end. That's why it says you do show the Lord's death till he come. Now again, people say, well, it doesn't matter where you break bread, as long as you remember the Lord in the breaking of bread.
Brother, he wouldn't say till I come if he wasn't going to make full provision for us to meet on a scriptural ground until He comes, doesn't ask us to do something, that he doesn't provide a scriptural basis and ground on which to do it. Well, I say not to digress from what we have here, but again, we're going to see as we go through these chapters that there's provision to go on to the very end. But brethren, we do need the warnings too. We need to be aware of what we are dealing with.
And I believe that's why in the midst of all this, we have these first few verses here, these first nine verses of this chapter, to make us aware of what is what, what we're dealing with. Not to discourage us, brethren, but to show us what the characteristic of professing Christendom or the professing church is in the days in which we live.
And when we're told to separate from evil, when we're told to come out from that which is not according to the mind of God and the word of God, we need to know what it is.
How are we going to detect it if we don't know what it is? By being familiar with it and immersing ourselves in it. No, not a chance. That's not. That's only going to defile us. That's only going to discourage us. But to be aware of it so that we can then, by the grace of God, walk in a path of separation from it.
We need to separate from because if we don't, it will affect us. And so it might be good to look at these things in this, uh, second verse says men shall be lovers of their own selves. We see that in the world around us. The common expression you'll hear in advertising is, umm, you need, you need to get this because you deserve it. The advertising, uh, merchants.
Appeal to self love. But we forget how insidious this is. I've heard people say, well, uh, they left the meeting. They left the assembly because they said I didn't get anything out of it.
Why did they come?
Did they come to get or they come to give? Now of course we come to get, we received from the Lord, but if we're looking at it from our own self love standpoint, we're gonna look at it from what did I get? And so it says here, men shall be lovers of their own selves. Covetous. What does covetous mean?
Covetousness is reaching out with the heart and mind for something that God has not granted, and this whole society is full of it, and it affects us too.
Uh, posters. Well, we, that's pretty common. We are boasting all the time. Proud. Well, we see pride in others.
But we're very prone to it ourselves. Blasphemers. Could someone tell us what blasphemy means? It's a word that you don't hear very much anymore.
Please of divine subjects.
So denigrating the person of Christ or denigrating the glories, His glories, His people, His word is speaking in a derogatory way of divine things or divine persons. Interesting that when the Lord Jesus confessed that He was the Son of God, the High Priest accused him of blasphemy because supposedly the Lord Jesus was.
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Denigrating God. And that's the so that's a good definition. Denigrating God. You see that in in in Romans chapter one.
Romans chapter one.
Verse 21 Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. That's a real responsibility.
A while back I was, umm, looking at a website of a company supposedly run by Christians and they had an interview of the president of the company and the president of the company.
Talked about the man upstairs.
That's no way to speak of God the man upstairs, but very acceptable in in the the world we live in.
And so that's impious, as you mentioned, brother. And then it says disobedient to parents. Well, we know what that is.
And it's a challenge to each one of us here who have parents still.
Disobedient to parents, then it says unthankful and unholy puts 22 interesting things together. We tend to forget to give thanks. We tend to be ungrateful, realizing that we forget that everything we have we have received.
And but it's to me, it's interesting that the two things are put together unthankful, unholy. That is, if we have a hard heart where we are not willing to thank God for what we have.
The very next step is to embrace evil, unthankful, unholy, and again you see that brought together in Romans chapter one.
Notice Romans 21 again back to verse 21, Romans chapter one, verse 21, the middle of verse. Neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. If we if we aren't thankful for what God has given us, we leave ourselves open to unholiness.
It's interesting, John, that you've compared to Romans, because in Romans chapter one, we have really the heathen or the godless world described. And here we find that things have become very parallel. The very things that describe the unregenerate man without his knowledge of God in that way now have come into the professing church in the last days. And I think there's a warning to all of us, brethren, because whatever characterizes the spirit of the age can affect us far more than we realize.
And that's why Timothy, and that's why we need these warnings. That's why we need to be aware of what characterizes professing Christendom today. So what what characterized what Paul described as characterizing the heathen world in Romans. Now he's warning Timothy that those very aspects of things have come into the professing church. And really as you if if if you were going to sum up what John has said.
It really all goes back to the fact that it's self-interest, isn't it? It's me first. Well, you've heard me say this before. It's not really even me first. Today my generation was the me first generation. The next generation is the me only generation. And isn't that as you say, I deserve it. I, I, I, I need. The world owes me something. God owes me something. I remember a man got on a plane one time in Saint Vincent.
And those little Dash 8 planes, they give you a boarding. When they give you your boarding pass, they give you a seat number.
For security reasons. But when you get on, it's open seating, you just get on and you sit down and everybody understands that that ever flew Layette, which is the local airline, a man got on one day. He was an older man and somebody was already sitting in the seat that had his boarding pass, had the number up. And he he made such a ruckus about it that they finally called the captain of the plane. But what struck me was he kept saying that seat, to sit in that seat is my God-given, right?
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That's that's what he felt. You see, it's, it's again, it's, it's, it's me first. We'll bring God into it, but it's really self-centered. Now again, I know we've gone over some of these things, but I'd like to just go back to two verses. First of all, in second Corinthians 5.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 5.
And verse 15.
Let me read verse 14 to get the connection. For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead, and that he died for all. Now notice this, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. So we're not to live to ourselves, we're not to be the center of our world, we're to live for Christ glory in his interests.
Now I'd like to go over to Romans chapter 12, repeat something that I know we've said many times, but I think it bears on what John has brought out in the beginning of our chapter, Romans chapter 12.
And again I'll read verse 1 to get the connection. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God, So as we had in Corinthians, we're not to live unto ourselves.
We who have come to know the Lord Jesus and rested on the finished work of Christ, we are to have Christ as our center. And that's really what we have in the second verse of Romans chapter 12. And I say that because when we read Romans chapter 12, we tend to think of being not conformed to the world as many outward things. Now it certainly has its application as to outward things, but I don't believe that's really the thrust of what we have when it says be not conformed to the world.
The work and what he's Speaking of is that the man of the world draws a circle, puts himself in the center of that circle, and he does everything for himself. Everything revolves Arkansas around him. He's the center of his of his world. When I was growing up in Montreal, they had a Canada Centennial, a great exposition in Montreal, and it was called Man and His World.
Man was the center of his world and different countries put up pavilions and brought their exhibits. Of course, if if you saw the things that were exhibited then as advancements in technology and society, why we we laugh at them now because that was back in 1967 and I'm no good at math. So you can figure out how many years ago that was. But my point is, brethren, we are not to live to ourselves now in our chapter these first.
A few verses to the probably to the end of verse four really have the thought it's worldliness. That's what he's taking up Worldliness has crept into the Church of God and what characterizes the worldly person self-interest. They're the center of the this their their world. What again, what is to be our center Christ and not just Christ, but if Christ is our center, then his interest here in this world, whether it's his people. We have the same care one for another. The members have the same care one for another. The giving out of the gospel.
Can be brought, brought in, and so on. Christ is our center.
That the Lord was not surprised as to how Christianity would end up. And I was thinking of Genesis chapter 49. There are prophetic scriptures. This, what we're reading is prophetic in the sense that the Spirit of God was recording what Christianity, what the profession of Christianity would develop into and what its end would be. Paul was used, Peter was used to speak prophetically of it. John was used to speak prophetically of it. God is not surprised, but it says in Genesis 49.
The Spirit of God uses the same wording and he says that Jacob called unto his sons and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. Now he speaks prophetically of what would take place, and he speaks of things from a Jewish perspective, from the perspective of the children of Israel. He speaks of the 10 tribes and then he speaks of their relationship to their Messiah, verse 25, even by the God.
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Of thy Father who shall help thee, and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with the blessings of heaven, above blessings of deep, of the deep that lieth under blessings of the breasts and of the womb, and the blessings of thy Father that prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors under the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. They shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.
Now he says, and it uses the same term in the chapter that we're just reading in the last days. But now this is from the church's perspective. So Israel's history, even with all the failure, it's going to be a glorious end. He says I'm going to tell you all about the last days and it's an encouragement to Israel. But now he says in the last days of the Christian testimony on this earth is going to be.
Awful it's going to be, he says, perilous times, dangerous and difficult times because of the moral situation that we find ourselves in. But what's the end of it? Chapter four, we need to remember that the chapter divisions are not divinely inspired. What's the end in chapter 4, verse 8? Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness as an individual, which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give me at that day.
And not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. So what is appearing? There's going to be great glory. There's going to be he's going to display, He's going to come with all of his Saints, and the whole end of it all will be glory brought to the Son of God. And so Paul encourages Timothy in this way. He uses the same term in the last days. But what's the last days of the church?
Really, a glorious church, not having any spot or wrinkle or any such thing. And the marriage supper of the land will come and she'll be displayed. And all that fine white linen which is the righteousness of Saints. It's going to be a grand display. But in the meantime, the reality of it is that everything that is committed to man falls into ruin. And so he gives these 19 characteristics. It's quite a solemn list, 19 things.
Detail and the Spirit of God is not surprised at what takes place. So as I say, it's prophetically written. Paul was used of God to tell us the future.
Verse four, if you notice, Mr. Darby's translation is profane and it says of Esau that he was a profane person. Why was he profane? Because he didn't value the inheritance. He didn't value the birthright. And brethren, again, we need to be careful. I know that there are, I'm gonna make a little application here and I, I know there are some here who have not been brought up in a Christian home perhaps. And thank God, you've been saved and.
The Spirit of God has LED you along in the truth and so on, and you find yourself happily gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. But many of us here were brought up with a godly heritage. Esau had a godly heritage, but as a profane person, he was willing to sell it for that which was momentary gratification, as we would say in modern day language. Just Ebola porridge. That's what he sold it for. No wonder God calls him a profane person.
It's a profane person is one who will give up something of value.
For momentary gratification. And isn't that what we see in the world today? If it feels good, do it.
And let your appetites and lusts go. And I sometimes hear people say, well, God made me that way, so why should I? Why should I limit myself in something that I want to do? Well, Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of porridge. And I, I look into the faces of many of us, like myself, who had a wonderful birthright. Are we going to give up that heritage for something that appeals to the flesh? You know, there's plenty in Christian circles.
There's plenty in professing Christianity Today that appeals to the flesh. And it may not be moral degradation, it may not be something that you could go to a list of very bad sins, so to speak, and say, well, this, I'm not going on with that. But there's that which appeals to the natural senses, and we want to be careful that we don't bring it into the things of God, into worship.
00:40:18
Into a Christian gathering. We don't, you know, the enemy is very busy today to add the word Christian to a lot of things. I I'm going to speak very freely for a moment. You know, I travel in, I traveled and I do travel in heathen countries. And not long ago I was in the jungle of South America, Guyana, South America. They're still voodoo. They're still the Amerindian religion. I've been in the interior of West Africa years ago.
I've been in Hindu and Muslim countries. You'll feel the power of darkness.
And you hear the beat of a TomTom drum at night and feel the darkness that is connected with it.
And then you come back to the western world and you turn on your radio and you hear that same underlying beat. And sometimes, and I'm gonna be very frank, brethren, and I hope I won't offend anybody, and if I do, so be it. You can turn on your Christian, so-called Christian radio and you'll hear the same underlying beat. And those of us who heard it in the jungle and felt the power of darkness connected with it, we wanna get as far away from it as we can.
Some of us were talking about tattooing. I'm speaking very plainly.
You know they have Christian tattoo houses now.
You see how clever the enemy is. He comes along and he says, well, those people, they profess Christianity and they, they know certain things are wrong. But I'll put a Christian spin on it. Brethren, we need to be careful. Remember what is being described here, not the heathen world, but what we do see coming in as the light of true Christianity and the word of God is being given up is that which comes from heathendom.
Sweeping in, not to push Christianity out, but to fill the vacuum, the void that is left as we give up Christianity. And I have seen in the jungle tattooing and body piercing and the the beat of the TomTom drum. There's no new thing under the sun. And when you see that which has been connected with heathendom for thousands of years come in amongst the Christian community with the banner of Christian on it, brethren, it's a warning to us and it's very, very serious and solemn. I know I've spoken very plainly, but I believe it's the truth of God and a warning for us.
Thing in an unprincipled manner, Doesn't he hear? And so people don't have principles today. Do we have principles? There are those things that are according to the truth of the word of God. And that's how we live in a principled way. And so in connection with the umm, natural affection and truth Breakers, we make an agreement. Do we keep our agreements? I give you my word, we shake on it or whatever it is. I know that there are business arrangements made in the past.
Used to be that brethren could shake on it, and their word was solid. Can we trust your word? Can you trust my word? And so we need to live in those principles that are given to us in the Word of God. False accusers, incontinent or implacable. I think Mr. Darby's translation. Fierce despisers of those that are good.
It's possible for us under the name of Christianity, to live in an unprincipled way. And so Paul brings this before us, that we need to have principles. We need to have convictions, not opinions about how to live, not opinions about how we should, uh, treat one another or how we should speak, but we need to have a conviction to live in a principled way. And so he brings out prophetically that in the last days just before the Lord would come.
There was going to be an unprincipled way of speaking and what would characterize those, and perhaps we might say in the Western Christian world, is unprincipled living.
Traders, heady, high minded lovers of pleasures rather than loving of lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away. So we're given absolutely the instruction to turn away from that which is unprincipled in the Western Christian world, even connected with Christianity.
00:45:05
About that, that word in verse, uh, three, uh, incontinent and Darby rendering that implacable, uh, to most people, uh, one translation may not be a whole lot more helpful than another. Implacable simply means not willing to have peace.
Because they're, they're, uh, it describes a person who's, uh, always, umm.
Irritating situation stirred as we say, and don't we find that even in the business world today? Well, it's my way or no way. And again, that can affect us in spiritual things, things as well. And brethren, we need to be careful again, we're speaking very plainly when it comes to issues amongst the Lord's people as much as lias in it within us. We're to live peaceable with all men. That doesn't mean we ever compromise the truth.
But we need to be exercised that we seek to go on with our brethren in a way that glorifies God. And so it's as you say, it's really a person who can't be appeased. And I and I and I, I know believers that you just no matter what you do, you can't please them. I've sat in brothers meetings and it's to my shame, but I have sat in brothers meetings and there are brothers. No matter what you say or no matter how you acquiesce to them, you're never gonna, you're never gonna please them. Brethren, we need to be careful again, not to get caught up with this kind of thing, but just to move along a little bit because we, I, I see this reading meetings almost over, but.
Just to SU to summarize again, so in verse one we have he's he's describing difficult times, the last days and difficult times as to just as you say, Robert, just before the Lord comes just before the rapture. Then as he goes on to enumerate certain things in verses 2-3 and four, it's worldliness. You know the churches in the world, but let's be careful. We don't get the world in the church.
That was the problem in the early days when Constantine, the emperor, the Roman emperor, emperor, embraced Christianity as an outward form of religion. What happened? It brought the world into the church, and I suppose there's never been a full recovery from that ever since. And so we have worldliness in the professing church, and then in verse five we really have the denial of the presence and power of the Spirit of God.
It's having an outward form of godliness but denying the power thereof. What is the power for the Christian life, whether it's our individually, whether it's as families are collectively, What is the power for the Christian life? It's the Spirit of God. That's why the Lord Jesus four times in the upper room before he left the disciples, and I think Phil mentioned it in his prayer. Perhaps the Lord Jesus spoke of the coming of the Spirit of God. He said he will be.
With you that's collectively, and in you that's individual. So there's the power of this and presence of the Spirit of God. It's unique to Christianity to be our bodies of the temple of the Holy Ghost. But the church collectively is also the temple of the Holy Ghost. But there are those today who deny it. How do they deny it? Well, one way they deny it is to set up a clergy in a hierarchy. That really is a denial of the power of the Spirit, the Spirit of God.
There are Christians come together and they come together and there's a man or man.
Sometimes women too, sad to say, who are appointed to take care of what they call the worship service or the teaching or the evangelical aspect of things and the general population in the fellowship they don't have an opportunity to take part of the Spirit of God would would would lead them. That's part of denying the the the power and presence of the Spirit of God. It's having a form of godliness.
But denying the power there are, there are certainly other things too.
Implacable.
Is, umm, oftentimes connected with wanting my own way? And so in the assembly and in the thing, in things of life and our family lives in, even in business life, it's God's desire that we shouldn't, umm, reflect the spirit of Christ. He never wanted his own way. A man that never wanted his own way. I do always those things that please my father.
00:50:09
And so we find in Christian testimony that men want their own way. We have a little, umm, illustration of it in connection with Barnabas. He wanted his own way just in one thing, in connection with the relationship of his, uh, nephew, I believe it was, perhaps it was a cousin, but, uh, he wanted that individual to be engaged in the work of the Lord with him and Paul. He wanted his own way, just in one little thing. But God has so ordered.
In Christianity.
That is the will of God and the word of God that governs, that ought to govern our assembly life, ought to govern our lives as individuals. It's the will of God and the word of God. And so he gives this list. It's a very, very strong indictment of the condition of things in which we live. And he says turn away from such. Turn away. It means reject.
And so you're Speaking of how the Spirit of God is displaced, Mr. Darby said. It was the sin of the against the Holy Spirit that really characterized the day that we live in at the end times. And so we're to reject that line of things. We're responsible as individuals to reject that which claims to have a form of godliness but denies the power, denies the Spirit of God and the activity of the Spirit of God.
His rights, you might say, to govern and to guide in the Assembly.
51 for a minute, just for a couple of verses in regard to this. This is, of course, David's confession in connection with his sin. But I think there's a couple of things that are good for us to consider in relationship to what we've been saying. We've just noticed that there are those who have an outward form of godliness, but there's no inward reality, and they deny the power thereof. And just notice what David says in his prayer here in verse 6.
Behold thou desirous truth in the inward parts. Again, we want to make this very practical as we go along. And brethren, God doesn't just want an outward show of things. And we can, even as gathered to the Lord's name, fall into that crap if we're not careful, because we can come to the meetings and we can carry on in an outward form. You know, it's interesting in Ephesus that they left their first love, but they were going on in such.
Order outwardly that they were even able to detect the false apostles. Things were in very much order outwardly, but it was no longer truth in the inward parts. And so we want to be very careful in that regard. But I want to notice something else in the in Psalm 51 as well. Again, as a warning to us in verse 11, the last part of verse 11. Now I'm gonna read this in Mr. Darby's translation.
Take not the spirit of holiness from me. Not an interesting statement. In other words, David said, don't let me get used to sin. Don't take the spirit of holiness from me. And brethren, again, as we said earlier, we can. We are more affected by what we see around us, even in the professing Christian world than we realize. And we can get used to things. We can get worn down. We can become insensitive.
We can even become callous to these things. I have. I know those that I've grown up with, true believers who love the Lord, and they're going on with things today. It's not that they've given up the Lord entirely, but they're going on with things today that are not according to the Word of God. And they're in systems today religiously that are doing things that are unbelievable, teaching doctrines that are are blasphemous, teaching that the Lord could have, could have sinned.
In systems that are now confused as to the Lord's coming and the appearing and so on and going on with things that really are are unholy, but in the in the name of Christianity, they've got used to sin. David said take not the spirit of holiness from me, brethren. What is going to preserve us? Well, we're going to find it out as we go on to the rest of the chapter. But I stress again, this has already been said by others.
What is going to preserve us in the midst of all that we are taking up is to walk in the presence of the Lord with the truth of God before our souls. When David sinned, what did he do when it was brought before, he immediately got into the presence of the Lord. Now I know it's di a little different there. It was an individual sin, it was a moral sin, but I believe the principle is the same. What's going to preserve us, to go on collectively is gathered to the Lord's name.
00:55:26
I trust there's no pride in our hearts at all. It's only grace if we find ourselves where we're at.
But what is gonna preserve us there, brethren, is to go on in the presence of the Lord, with a sense of His Holiness and what is acceptable to him, and according to his mind.
A little indication as to the work of the enemy. There's two groups that are mentioned. There are those that are LED, those that lead and those that are LED. And so there is a work of the enemy to deceive. He's a deceiver. He's presented in the scriptures as an old serpent, very experienced. He has tactics that work, They work very well. And so he, uh, his working is using those tactics and he has agents that are, he is using those that have.
In some way gone on in an unrighteous way and have had unrighteous thoughts and believed and swallowed some of the unrighteous teachings as to the person of Christ and his work. And he uses those agents to do his work. Some of them, sad to say, as you say, are believers. Those I, I've known real believers, true believers that love the Lord and are relying upon him have believed in faith that Christ died for them.
But they teach that Christ could have sinned. It's an awful thing. It's a blasphemous thing. God is the Son of God came into this world, He's God and he could not sin. He did not sin, he could not sin. And so here it says there, there are those that will lead. That's their purpose to lead. And their work is to lead captive into a line of umm, doctrine that is opposed to the truth of God. So they lead.
And their purpose really, they, the Spirit of God uses very plain language. They creep in to the houses, lead captive, silly women. It's really those that have no UMM have lost their ability to discern. They've lost their discernment. Often times in the Western Christian world, in the Christian UMM profession, even in the last 100 years, it's women that have been used of the enemy to rise up and to propagate some.
Line of uh, umm, error that has drawn away many others. And so there are those that lead and there are those that are lead LED away with divers lust. So speaks of those things that would they have a carnal nature, a carnal side of things that appeals to man and man in the flesh may not even be saved, but it appeals to him and we need to be careful. He's sounding a warning.
He's telling us how the enemy would achieve his purposes.
I don't think it's when he says silly women and I agree with you, but it's not limited to that. It's those again, as you said, and those driven by emotion and out of control. And again, there's a lot in Christendom today that's driven by emotion. And I have talked to some of my Christian neighbors even and they'll tell you on on Lord's Day on Sunday, they'll say, oh, it was so wonderful and this and that took place and.
And it's interesting that people will talk about, uh, experiences and experiences and experiences and, and, but what does it glorify? Does it glorify Christ? And let me say this too, very frankly, they talk sometimes people will talk about the Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit. We need to be careful. The main work of the Spirit is to glorify. Christ doesn't glorify himself. The only time the Spirit of God occupies us with ourselves.
Is in self judgment, but otherwise the main function of the Spirit of God is to glorify Christ.
And again, the Lord brought that out in the upper room when he spoke of the Spirit coming in anticipation. And if something makes so much of the Spirit, but doesn't glorify Christ, brethren, it's a yellow light. It, it, it's, it's a, it's a warning to us. And so there's these little tests that we can, we can practice in our lives. Is this making a lot of self? Well, I had this experience. I did this, I did that. I spoke in tongues and I, I was slain in the Spirit. I'm being very frank. And the Spirit did this and the Spirit did that. Oh, be careful, brethren. It's a form of godliness. But denying that, really denying the power thereof.
01:00:36
And what's the result? They're LED away with divers loss. That that. And you, you often find that, don't you? That the end result of it then is that there's empire flipping.
Yeah, so when there's false doctrine as to the person of Christ and the work of Christ, often times it brings in immorality and a loose life.
You know, if we wrote this today, if one of us wrote this today, we'd raise some eyebrows. There'd be some brethren that would come to see us maybe or send us letters or emails. They wouldn't dare to see us maybe. But uh, Paul was writing by inspiration and he spoke the truth. And so we need to remember that these are inspired. These words are inspired of God and he speaks of the truth in connection with their activity, to have religious activity, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
So they read the scriptures, they read the scriptures, they read the scriptures, but they really are not submissive to the teaching of the Spirit of God in connection with what he's teaching because they have a preconceived notion and they're trying to make the scriptures fit their line of doctrine. And so when we come into the presence of the Lord and we're taught by the Spirit of God, the word of God judges our thoughts, judges our motives.
Judges are actions. It's the Word of God that judges us. We don't judge the word of God. And so that's why when we come to a reading meeting like this, we don't say, well, I think, and then we give a line of things that we think our opinion. And then another brother says, well, I think, and then he gives his opinion. We're not talking about opinions. It's what the Spirit of God teaches in the truth of the Word of God, what he has brought before us and taught.
Now, I only went to a couple of different, uh, uh, Bible study groups, they call them at high school. When I was in high school, the women didn't cover their heads. Uh, the women took an active part and that sort of thing. I was encouraged as a young, uh, person to go to one of these groups. I went a couple of times, as I say, and that's how it was. My opinion is this, Well, the Presbyterian was speaking in her opinion was this. And then there was someone from the United Church, His opinion was this.
Someone from the open brethren, his opinion was this, we're not talking opinions and this is what the Spirit of God is bringing before his before us here, ever learning, never able to come under the knowledge of the truth. It's the word of God in submissive, in submission to the teaching of the Spirit of God that will give us light.
There's a great deal of education. People are learning, learning. They go on the Internet.
And you learn a lot of things off the Internet and there never was a day when there was so much information available so easily.
But that is not how we learn truth.
Everlearning says here, and this is sad, you think of people who spend their lives studying things, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Why is that? Because they don't come to the fountain of truth, the Lord himself. Uh, this couple verses worth looking at one in Proverbs.
Proverbs, chapter 14.
And verse 6A corner seeketh wisdom and findeth it not white. His attitude is wrong.
But he had someone, uh, during the prayer meeting, read about Mary sitting at Jesus feet and hearing his word. There was a place of submission there. There was the right attitude and she heard and she learned The scorners seeketh wisdom and findeth it not, but knowledge is easy to him that understand it. Understanding is has to do with hearing. And uh, just to reinforce that Proverbs chapter one.
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Proverbs chapter one and verse 5A wise man will hear.
Now who is he supposed to hear? Turns to Psalm 119.
So I'm 119 verse 97.
How many of us can say these words truthfully? Psalm 119, verse 97. Oh, how I love thy law. It is my meditation. All day through Thy commandments Thou hast made me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients. Who should know more than the ancients?
Because I keep my precepts, so on verse 102 I have not departed from my judgments, for thou hast taught me when we're taught by the Lord.
It humbles us.
Uh, like I said, man, make people in religious circles today. Today people make a great deal of education and the educated make a great deal of what they know. But if we're really taught by the Lord, we're humble. The truth, the truth of God properly taken in, humbles us.
It's very similar, Brother John in the 25th Psalm, verse 9. The meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will He teach His way. And so instead of exalting self, it's meekness and taking a low place in the presence of the Lord and being open to hear His word and be submissive to what He teaches. He's not going to tell us what we want to hear.
He's going to tell us what we need to hear and then on our part is submission and obedience.
Well, especially with this ever learning, there's uh, uh.
A lot of information that can be gathered and we all like to learn, uh.
It was, uh, brother, my age gathered to the Lord's name, umm, and we were discussing some things. He said it doesn't matter what translation of the Bible that you use, Brother Robert was just bringing before us of uh, uh, the person and work of Christ and how important it is. I had a translation once I was reading in Hebrews chapter 4.
The end of verse 15.
Where it says that he that wasn't, that wasn't all points. Tempted like as we are, it said, yet without sinning.
In other words, he probably could have given the opportunity, but he just didn't.
That book went in the trash and it's a well known translation that many people use as a translation of the word of God. It's not the word of God yet with out sin it touches his character. Be careful what you take up, but don't just pick up any translation to beat your soul. You'll get doctrines wrong, you'll come in subtly, and be careful what you leave at extracurricular.
Helps with the Bible. We talk about ever learning and when was there ever a day when of the making of books. There is no end but not just the making of books but of so-called Christian books.
The Christian bookstores are full of books being turned off the press every hour, it seems. But, and I'm not saying it's all wrong and I'm not saying it's all error, but brethren, we need to be careful. It says, considering the end of their conversation or their life. When I pick up a book that was written by a person who went on in the truth of God till the end of their life until the Lord took them, I have a lot more confidence in that purse, that book.
Than I do in someone who perhaps never has come into the truth that some of us by the grace of God have been brought into.
01:10:03
Us to be gathered to the Lord's name and so on. And often too, if you just read the flyleaf of the book, you can tell whether this book exalts self or whether it exalts Christ. Often just the flyleaf or the back cover will be enough. So as Mark said, there are translations out there that are not sound. We need to be careful, but there's much so-called written Christian ministry that we need to be very, very careful of as well.
They're ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
And Satan's great attempt is to mix a little error with the truth. It's like in the sons of the prophets in the Old Testament. Just a little bit of that wild gourd caused the whole pot of of me of of pottage to be become de defiled and unpalatable. Doesn't take much.
259.
No.
I'll get more Jesus, open heart and the poor life and again.
We shall give all.
The time as my fool and his death.
Seven Encouragements for Timothy
Address—Robert Boulard
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Let's sing hymn #287.
287.
Let's turn to Second Timothy again. I had a line of things that I had on my heart to just look at.
This meeting is roughly 45 minutes and I'd like to look at 7 things that Paul encourages Timothy with in this epistle and those things that are in Christ. He speaks in verse one. I'll just perhaps read them through and then comment on them individually. We won't have a lot of time to comment on each one, but you know Timothy had.
A wonderful outline of the Word of God of the New Testament truth that had been revealed to Paul.
And what Paul told the believers was that Christ was going to have a church. It was a great mystery. It was hidden in the Old Testament. They didn't, they couldn't search the Scriptures. They couldn't even look into the skies with telescopes or anything and never figure this out. It was a secret that God had. He had secrets in his heart. And it was revealed to Paul. And Paul was used of God to convey the truth of the heavenly calling of the church.
He conveyed it to the Saints at that time and then, as we know, he wrote.
These scriptures. And so he speaks of those things to Timothy.
And he encourages Timothy in the line of things, some things that can never change, some things that were a possession that he had immediately right then and then, right then and there. And they were absolutely unchangeable. And then these little glimpses of the truth that Paul gives to this man, perhaps not a young man at the time of, uh, Paul's martyrdom. This was written probably the same year that Paul was martyred. And Timothy had known Paul.
For about 16 years, maybe just a little more than that. And so he knew the apostle Paul. He walked in fellowship with the apostle Paul and now Paul was trying to encourage him. So in chapter one, second Timothy verse one, Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus.
00:05:16
And then if you just turn down to verse nine, it says who has saved us and called us with an holy calling.
Not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And then a little further on in that chapter in verse 13.
Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. And then in chapter 2, verse one.
It says Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace.
That is in Christ Jesus and then in that chapter a little further on verse 10.
Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation.
Which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. And then a little further on here in chapter 3 and verse 12.
It speaks of.
Yeah, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall.
Suffer persecution and then in that same chapter, verse 15.
That the and that form from a child thou has known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation.
Through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. So those seven little expressions that the apostle Paul uses in Christ, you know, it's, umm, there are many things that we have in Christ. And I'm one of these guys that make lists. I have lists in my Bible on, on many pages. I have lists, but in the back of my Bible, I have lists as well because I have a faulty memory. I put charts in the back of the Bible, uh, so that I can, uh.
Look at them and have my thoughts organized and what the apostle Paul will get into a little bit later. But Paul was interested in Timothy and that Timothy would have an outline of, uh, truth. And Timothy had studied Timothy had applied himself and he had a knowledge of what Paul taught. But in, in a day that, uh, this last letter that Paul wrote to Timothy, it's evident that perhaps he was disheartened.
And perhaps there's someone here that's disheartened, Someone here that sees.
A a fewness of numbers and God isn't counting numbers. That's not always after he's after fruit and he's working in us to form the characteristics of Christ in our lives. I've mentioned this morning that Christ in US, perhaps not that specific verse, but Christ in us, the hope of glory. It's really we're not indwelled with Christ, we're indwelled with the Spirit of God, but the Lord Jesus is with us. We can count on his presence he.
Hebrews chapter 13, he says.
Umm, He will never forsake us. Lo, I'm with you. Alway I'm not quoting it this right. I'm just going to read it here. There's a couple of passages of scripture that say the same thing, very similar. Chapter 13 of Hebrews verse five. Let your conversation or your manner of life be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have. For he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
And so we need to have a sense of the abiding presence of the Lord. That's why we don't pray and ask the Lord to be with us. He is with us, but we need to pray and ask him to give us a sense of his presence. Isn't it wonderful to walk through this world and see all of the moral corruption and the, the, the violence and that fills the Western Christian world and umm, violence and corruption fills the Western Christian world, the giving up of the word of God.
And the restraint of the Word of God, and we have all kinds of instability, but the believer walks through with a sense and should walk through with a sense of the presence of the Lord. Well, this first thing that Paul encourages Timothy with in his last letter, he says that he was an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus.
You have life. If you know Christ as Savior, you have life.
What kind of life do you have?
00:10:02
You know, in John's ministry, he talks about being born again. When John speaks about being born again, he says.
In a sense that you have a fallen nature and while you're physically alive, that life is corrupted and you need to have a new life and a new nature. And so John takes things up from that perspective. But Paul in his ministry says you're dead. In trespasses and, umm, sins, he says you're dead.
You're dead towards God, morally and spiritually dead, and it would take an act of God.
To bring you into blessing. And so that's why you know, the Lord saved Paul and you could read it in Acts Chapter 9. He intervened in Paul's life and on that day that he intervened, he quickened Saul. Saul was dead. He didn't hear the voice of God. He couldn't hear the word voice of God. Brother Gordon used to give us a little illustration that suppose we had a dead dog on the floor.
And he's got 100 lbs of books.
On his back, he doesn't feel a thing. He'll never feel a thing. You could talk to him, he won't move. That was like fall on the day that he met the Lord, he was dead. He couldn't hear the voice of God, very religious, but he was dead before God, morally and spiritually. And it took an act of God himself, the Son, the quicken him and he says live. And Paul heard the voice of the Lord for the first time.
And so you have life. If you've heard the voice of the Lord, you're quickened. And when you believe the gospel of the grace of God.
You believe that Christ died for your sins. Then Paul teaches us that we're sealed with the Spirit. The work is finished, and you have new life. You have new life when you're quickened.
I sometimes have told a story about my father. He was on his 4th birthday, you know, he was, he came downstairs, they said happy birthday, you're 4 years old. And he began to cry. He cried all day. On his 4th birthday, he said I'm going to die. Brought up in a nice, a Roman Catholic home. And umm, they said no, no, you're, you're all right. Everything will be all right. The priest will get you in and umm, you know, just you're young.
He said no, I'm going to die and I'm not ready to die. And he cried all day on his 4th birthday. And then when he was eight years old, a man next door, a farmer, gave him a Bible and he started to read it. I'm not going to go into the whole story, but at 20 years old he went to work on the railway and there was a young man in the next bed to him who was, I believe, a believer. He was brought up in a Christian home.
His name was Bert Hoole and umm, he got talking with him. He went.
To Rockway Valley, went to a gospel meeting, heard the gospel of the grace of God, and then someone gave him the gospel preacher that name that night, gave him a gospel tract, wouldn't let him out the door until he got a gospel tract, shoved him a bunch of gospel tracks in his shirt pocket and he got out of there. But you know, he read the matchless Pearl. He got saved. So I think sometimes, you know, at four years old, he was quickened with the Spirit of God. He was given life.
And God always completes the work that He begins.
And so 16 years later, he was sealed with the Spirit, and the Spirit came to dwell within him. And so he's with the Lord now. But you know the Spirit of God is going to be indwelling the believers for all eternity. It says He shall never leave you. You and I are going to be indwelled with the Spirit of God for all eternity. So Paul speaks of that life.
Which is in Christ Jesus you have divine life.
And it doesn't matter how unstable things become in this world, how unstable, how much wickedness abounds, how much moral corruption there is. You have a life that can never be corrupted. You have a life that is in Christ, that's bound up with that blessed One in glory, glorified man. And you are going to have your body, the very body you sit in here this afternoon, the very body you have is going to be glorified. It's going to be just like Christ.
At his coming, Paul gives us the details of those things. But you know, I think this is wonderful.
That the epistle opens the last epistle, last known writings that the apostle wrote. He says Timothy, you have life. Don't ever forget that you have life that was promised of God in Christ Jesus and you know that term Christ Jesus. When we use that term, Paul uses it pretty well exclusively, not Peter, not John, but it means.
00:15:03
When his title is given before his manhood name, Christ is the.
Equivalent, the Greek equivalent to Messiah. And so it's Christ Jesus. He's a risen, glorified man and your life is bound up with that. Blessed 10 What a future we have, What a life, what a life you have.
You have a life that's just, it's the life of Christ himself, and you can enjoy the same things that He enjoys and He wants you to enjoy those things.
Well, we turned down to the second point here that he wants to bring in verse 9.
Who have saved us and called us with an holy calling.
Not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
Well, you know, the order in Scripture always recognizes the order that God has in His Word.
It's not written like a sloppy grocery list or a sloppy a sloppy shopping list while you, when you go to the lumber yard or something like that, very orderly. You have divine life.
But you know, you have life and you have been called as a result, you have a holy calling and it's a not according to your works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which he was given us in Christ Jesus. And so you have been called, Paul could say to Timothy, you are called of God. What are you called for? Let's look in, uh, we were looking earlier enrollments and the readings chapter one.
In many different places we could turn, but chapter one is very easily.
Umm, you can remember it.
Romans chapter one, verse one Paul.
A servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle. You'll notice those are words are in italics.
Umm, to be so I just put a pencil line around them and just a, a slight pencil line through it and you could read it this way. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ called an apostle, separated under the gospel of God. And then a little bit later on, I think it's verse 7.
Uh, where does it say called Saints? Yes, verse seven, chapter one, verse 7 to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called Saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful to be called of God. But you know, when when you were called, you were called, you were given a gift when you were saved.
When you were quickened, perhaps?
I think it was when you were sealed, you were sealed with the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God came to dwell within you and you were given a gift.
Paul was called to be an apostle.
And he didn't say, well, I think I'd like to be an evangelist. I think I'd like to be a teacher. No.
They were called of God. Those older brethren, those that were apostles were called of God. But you are a St. It means a holy one. God has set you apart. You have a holy calling. And so Paul encourages Timothy, you know, he says you don't have to go on with this corruption. Don't feed on it. Separate from it. You'll notice that there's six different terms that are used in the epistle. Second Timothy.
Umm chapter two I think chapter 2 in the beginning of verse.
Chapter 3, He speaks of several different terms that speak of separation. Did you ever notice that? I'll just mention them in umm, chapter two of Second Timothy, verse 16, he says shun profane and vain babblings. And then a little bit, uh, later on he says umm.
I'm probably going to miss some, but uh, let's look here at, uh, verse 19, right at the end it says depart from iniquity.
And then he says in verse 21, if a man therefore purge himself.
From these he shall be a vessel unto honor sanctified. Verse 22, flee also youthful lusts. And verse 23, he says foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strife. And then the last one is in verse five of the chapter that we're reading the reading meetings, chapter three. He says right at the end that they're having a form of godliness, but denying the power they're up from such turn away.
00:20:18
And so he gives a warning that not everything.
That says it's Christian. Not everything, not everyone that claims to be Christian and takes the banner of Christ is honoring Christ. You know, I was in a, in Mexico or actually was in Texas on the Texas side at a flea market and uh, selling Bibles and books and so on. And sometimes, you know, we sold 300 or $400.00 worth of Bibles at a flea market.
And books, good ministry CHM umm in Spanish, uh, some of the mini ministry that's available at BTP.
All kinds of materials that were very good, solid ministry at a flea market in the Spanish language. And so we had some, uh, a girl come up and she said, do you have any JW Bibles, Jehovah's Witness Bibles? I said, no, we only sell Christian Bibles. She said, well, Jehovah's Witnesses are Christians. I said, no, Jehovah's Witnesses.
Call themselves Jehovah's Witnesses, but they're really not witnesses of Jehovah.
Witness of Jehovah recognizes that Jesus is Jehovah and so that's not Christian. Well, she went away disappointed that we didn't have any JW Bibles. But beloved brethren, let's be clear in our communication and we could be a help perhaps to some of those that are, uh, snared in, uh, unprofitable and.
They're deceived by the enemy and they're going on to destruction because, you know.
It says he that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
And so if you have a friend that doesn't have Christ, he doesn't have life, but if you have the Son, you bowed your knee to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you've accepted Christ as your Savior, you have life. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Well, the Apostle Paul spoke and he said, you're called a St. you're a Saint of God, you're a holy one, and you can be.
Thankful that it's a holy calling in Christ Jesus.
Christ could never sin. He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.
And you are called to walk with him as the Holy one, as one that is not taking part of and feeding upon the filth of this world. What a wonderful thing it was for Timothy, you know, to be reminded of these things. I trust it's an encouragement this afternoon for us to remember that we're Saints and it's not serving the church, not serving the Roman system and so on. And then, uh, doing two or three miracles and being recognized as a, as a St.
Oh, you'll forgive me for, I don't mean to enter to bring lightness into this meeting, but I was on an airplane flying from, I think it was from Toronto to Montreal. It's just an hours flight, uh, from gate to gate. And I sat beside Roman Catholic priest and, uh, I love talking to the Roman Catholics, you know, because my dad was a Catholic and he was brought up in that superstition and that ignorance. And so I began to, umm.
Yeah, speak to him of Christ. And it was evident to me that he was a believer out halfway through the flight, he turned to me and he said, oh, I didn't introduce myself. We haven't introduced ourselves. He says, my name is Father David. I said, well, I'm so glad to meet you, David. I'm Saint Robert. And so he was. He chuckled a little bit and that sort of thing. But we, it gave an opportunity to speak of divine things and to tell him and just the blessedness of what it is to be a Saint of God.
You're not an Angel, you wouldn't want to be. You're a Saint of God and you're you've got a holy calling. You were called to be a St. and here you were given a gift before the world began.
God is interested in you individually.
He knew you before you were born and he's interested in you individually and he's working with you individually to bring you into the knowledge of the truth and the appreciation of the truth.
Well, let's go on here, he says in verse 13. Hold fast.
Or let's read the new translation. Have an outline of sound words. Have an outline of sound words which thou has heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. So really, we have sound words in Christ Jesus. Solid, solid teaching. There was no error in what Paul taught.
00:25:19
You know, in chapter 15 of the Acts.
There were Judaizing teachers and they came to, umm, I think it was Antioch, and they came there and they said, you know.
Paul wasn't telling you the whole truth. He told you only part of the gospel, but you have to do your part. You have to be circumcised and keep the law or else you can't be saved. You we could read that in Acts chapter 15. I think it's verse one. They say state that and then a little bit further on in verse five, they kind of modified it a little bit because they got hauled up on the carpet for it.
But you know, Paul didn't leave out a part of the gospel. He gave it to us all in his entirety. Do you have an outline of it?
I carry this little piece of paper in my, uh, Bible to see if I can find it here. It's a a sheet of paper folded into four and umm.
Well, now that I say I think I have it. Here we go.
That's on that 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper. It's actually the European size, but I've folded it in a four like this.
And you know, Paul's ministry has he was given many revelations, but the sum of his revelations, most of it, most of what he taught can be categorized into four lines of doctrine. One is all of those things that we have in Christ. And if you took one quadrant of this sheet of paper and you wrote in Christ and then listed them listed, listed the scriptural references.
You could enjoy that for a long time. And then what's another part of Paul's doctrine? He teaches it about the coming of the Lord.
Lords coming, the rapture, the sequence of events and the change that's going to take place in our bodies. He tells us all about it. Paul teaches us not Peter or John. And then he tells us about the Lord's Supper was mentioned this morning.
A revelation was given to Paul till he come.
Says that we're going to be able to remember the Lord in his death the way he asked us to do it, till he comes. And he tells us the doctrinal significance of the loaf and of the cup. The Lord tells us the significance of it. Perhaps you might say from a Jewish perspective and from a historical perspective, but Paul tells us from the church's perspective.
The doctrinal significance. And then he tells us, umm, oh, what else? Uh, he tells us about the rapture, the, umm, the church, the great mystery, Christ and the church.
Wonderful. And he tells us that Christ is going to have a bride. One quadrant.
And he tells us how the church should meet and why, how it should be ordered, how the Spirit of God should have the lead, what the different types of meetings that there are in the church.
You should have an outline of Paul's doctrine. It's not as big as the Titanic. You can't understand it, and you can enjoy it and it was given to you. Well, Paul says to Timothy, have an outline, have an outline of sound words. Why is it important to have an outline of sound words? No, Mr. Darby said in his writings. He said it's not possible for us to live in a right way during the Christian era if we don't know.
Paul's doctrine.
It's not possible to live in a right way in the Christian era unless we know Paul's doctrine. I would add a little bit to it, know it and enjoy it and savor it, just like a good steak. Well, he was to have an outline, which is in Christ Jesus. It's connected with the person of Christ, the work of Christ, and the Church of Christ. All of the aspirations that you and I have are heavenly. We have a heavenly calling.
We know that there are different callings. There's a heavenly calling, We read about the holy calling, but there's a high calling of God. And so we could read those different, uh, aspects of the truth and get a little bit of an outline and understand those things and enjoy them. And I would just say this in connection with, with comment that was made this morning. Be careful what you read.
Read good ministry. There's lots of it. There's lots of good ministry. You know John Kemp.
00:30:04
I'm quoting John Kemp. He says, you know, in our homes we have enough books, Christian books, real good, solid ministry. We have two lifetimes worth of books. There's not a possibility of reading all those books in one lifetime. I wanna just give you a little challenge, particularly to the young people. Start your library. If you don't have your own library, start your library. I went into the home of a man recently, maybe a couple of months ago.
The traveling through Florida did not gather to the Lord's name, but exercised about.
He's left his false position and I came into his library and I probably John Kaiser knows the brother in Florida. I can't remember exactly. I can't remember his name, but I came into his house and he brought me into his library and I saw all of the old writings. I saw them all.
A whole wall for he says I'm still buying this stuff. He says it's going out of print because nobody's reading this stuff anymore. Hardly. And I want to make sure that I've got a copy. And so he's buying up these books of ministry and he's making sure that he's got it and if he wants to read it or his kids want to read it, they've got a copy of it. Well, thankfully we have books electronically as well, but read those solid books of ministry. And I want to give you a challenge. Can you read?
Book one. Book of ministry.
Build your library, buy some books. You pay $100 a $125.00 for a hotel room and **** it's gone. You'll never see the results of it, really. But if you buy 100 bucks, $125.00 worth of books, and you have some reference materials and something that you really think that you'd like to read, you'll profit in your soul now, and others will profit too. And so Paul was encouraging.
Timothy in this way, well, he speaks a little bit, uh, later on.
Here and he speaks in chapter 2, verse one. Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace.
That is in Christ Jesus.
That's the fourth thing, the 4th point that he brings before him. Now Timothy, he had just uh, you know, Paul had just written, he says umm, in verse 15 of the previous chapter, this thou knowest that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me, of whom are just and homogeneous. The Lord give mercy under the House of Vanessa for us.
Can't you just sense the pathos in Paul's voice as he thought about these things?
You know, we don't think of it very often, but you can read different passages of scripture in Paul Wept.
Paul wet Paul is thought, you know, here's Paul, he's facing the angry mob and he's just about to be stoned or whipped. And, uh, but here he's crying. What's he crying about? He's weeping about the Saints weeping that they wouldn't go on. And so he speaks of these had all gone away, those that we don't see anymore. And he says it was characteristic of the ages to go and to a popular line of Christianity. They didn't forsake Christ.
But they forsook the heavenly calling of the Church, and they began to live like worldlings, and the Church began to settle down into the earth, into the world very early on.
So the Lord by inspiration uses Paul. He says be strong in the grace.
That is, in Christ Jesus you have a Savior that never uttered an angry word, that those soldiers that were pounding the nails into his hands and to his feet.
You know what, it was common. I would think that it was common as those thieves were crucified 1 by 1, and then the Lord in the midst. I have imagined in my own mind, probably not unjustly, but I hear all the cursing and the swearing and the wrath and the anger coming out, the filth and the stench of the wickedness of the first man, Adam, as they were being crucified and they deserved what they were getting, but the blessed Savior.
It says he openeth not his mouth.
Before his fears, he was dumb. He didn't. There were only gracious words that proceeded from his mouth. He said, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And so Paul was telling Timothy, you know, many Saints have gone away and they weren't going to walk in Paul's doctrine. And he's in a sense, he says, don't feel sorry for me and don't feel sorry.
00:35:03
Just act graciously. Just be gracious in your thoughts.
And be gracious in your actions towards those beloved brethren.
And so he says the grace that is in Christ Jesus, you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. You know, I don't have time to look at it, but you look at it the very last words that Paul writes, he speaks of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then you read the very last words that John, the apostle John writes.
In Revelation, he speaks of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The very last words of Peter, he speaks of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And all of them just they saw a departure. They saw the height of the power of the church. It's in its pristine, umm, condition after its formation on the day of Pentecost. And they saw what the church should be like. And some of us who have been at the Lord's Table are among the Saints gathered to the Lord's name for 50 years or more.
We see what it used to be like and in the Old Testament as those, uh, young men, as the old men, saw the new temple in Ezra's day, Nehemiah's day.
They wept. They said it's not the same. It looks all right, but it's not the same. But beloved brother, isn't it wonderful? Paul speaks to Timothy. He says be gracious in your spirit and remember that Christ.
Had grace as he faced what he faced. While he speaks again a little bit later on here of salvation in umm chapter 2 verse 10, he says I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
Now you know that salvation is spoken of in different ways in the Word of God.
Had spoken of the eternal salvation of our souls and then our present salvation and present day that we live in. We need to be, our lives need to be saved, our testimonies need to be saved. Different things. But then we have a future deliverance. We have a future salvation.
Are the salvation of our bodies is not yet complete. The redemption of our bodies is not yet complete. But you know, the work is gonna be finished very shortly. The Lord's gonna call us. We're gonna, you're gonna give a shout of victory.
And we're going to be called into the presence of the Lord. And what Paul longed for is that Timothy?
Would have a saved life as well as a saved soul. And you have an enemy everyone of us has an enemy that will never give up. He will never give up trying to destroy our lives. And he doesn't care how he does it. He doesn't care what lies he uses, what tactics, what defeat. He wants to destroy your life, morally, physically, spiritually, he wants to destroy you.
And so Paul speaks here of having salvation.
In Christ Jesus with eternal glory. And so Paul, Peter was, I'm sorry, the apostle Paul was speaking to Timothy and he was Speaking of enduring.
And Peter, Paul had seen, I'm sorry. Timothy had seen Paul suffering at the hands of men. And apparently he probably saw him get a beating at Derby and being stoned and thrust out of the city. He'd seen Paul abused.
No, he says a little bit further on.
He speaks of uh.
Having being godly in Christ here chapter 3 verse 12.
Just make a couple of comments on this. Chapter 3, verse 12. Yeah. And all things, all that will live godly or live piously in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Just hold your place there and turn to Matthew's gospel, Chapter 5. We'll look at one verse there, couple verses, Chapter five, I think it's verse 11.
Yes.
Chapter 5 of Matthew, verse 11. Blessed are happy are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
00:40:15
You know, there was no man on earth, ever.
That face persecution like the Lord Jesus. No man that was harassed like the Lord Jesus day in and day out.
He was harassed and he was falsely accused.
He bore all kinds of abuse. That's what affliction means, you know, affliction.
To bear affliction and endure hardness as a good soldier. Affliction means to bear the reproof or the, uh, abuse of this world. And so all that will live godly or piously in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And so Timothy was going to suffer.
Timothy was going to suffer. If he was going to walk in communion with Christ and reflect the life of Christ and reflect the moral glories of Christ in his life, he was going to suffer for it.
Are you willing to suffer for Christ? Is it worth the cause of Christ to suffer for him and to live like a Christian, to dress like a Christian, to speak like a Christian? Is it worth while? There's a coming day of glory, and Paul speaks of it a little bit later in this epistle. Well, because we've run out of time, I'll just mention those seven things again in chapter one, verse one, we have the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus.
And then a little bit further on in verse nine we have our holy calling that is in Christ Jesus before the world began. Then we have in verse 13 that were exhorted to hold fast or to have an outline of sound words which thou has heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.
And then we have in chapter 2, verse one, the grace.
That is in Christ Jesus. Then we have a little further on.
The apostle Paul verse 10, the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and then in chapter 3 verse 12 we have the godly or the pious living in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. The last one is having faith salvation verse 15 from a child that was known. The Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
And so the Word of God is what is necessary to be able to safeguard our souls, safeguard our testimony, and to walk in communion with the Lord.
2 Timothy 3:8-16
Reading
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I suggest we read from verse 8.
Second Timothy 3, verse 8.
Now as Jonas and John brace withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith, but they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was.
But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, What persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yeah, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, but evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child. Thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfectly.
00:05:24
Perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
It'd be nice if we could get through this chapter this afternoon and get a little outline of what we have here, but I would like to just make this qualifying comment before we go on. And that is that this morning as we took up these characteristics, these things that characterize the professing church in the last days. It doesn't mean that every believer who isn't gathered to the Lord's name is characterized by these things because they while they may be in a false position or in on unscriptural ground as far as.
The fellowship they're connected with, they may exhibit moral piety and godliness, perhaps putting many of us to shame. And so there are many dear, sweet Christians that I enjoy fellowship with up to a point, who are not gathered to the Lord's name. Not only that, but brethren, we want to be thankful for any way that the gospel and the truth of God goes forth. I'd like to just take a moment and go to the book of Philippians because there we see Paul's spirit and attitude in connection with this.
With the, when the days of the Apostle Paul, there were those who were preaching and they were preaching out of contention. They were preaching with the wrong motive. Some were even hoping to add to his, his afflictions. He was in prison when he wrote to the Philippian Saints and many were hoping to add to his bonds and so on. But I want to read what Paul says here in that context. He says, uh, I'll read from verse 15 of chapter one.
Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill. The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. Now this is the verse I want you to notice particularly. What then, notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yeah, and will rejoice.
In other words, Paul was thankful for any way that the truth of God went forth. We have the privilege of shipping, uh, about 22 tons of Bibles and literature into the English Caribbean and Guyana, South America every year. And I'm thankful that probably 95% of that is taken and used by those who have never been gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, but they're believers who are getting out the gospel.
Encouraging the Saints of God, having young people's meetings. Sometimes we get orders for Bruce Anstey's pamphlets because they want to use them as study guides in their youth meetings and so on. We rejoice, we're thankful for any way the gospel and the truth is going out. And so the Lord said to the disciples on one occasion when they saw some that weren't walking with them, they said, should we go and forbid them or call down fire from heaven? Oh no, the Lord said, he that is not against us is for us.
And so I just say that to qualify our remarks this morning, lest there be any misunderstanding of, you know, it's it's interested, it's significant to realize that we who by the grace of God are gathered to the Lord's name, are in the great house in spite of ourselves. And so in the chapter before we have the church, the the House of God in the last days has become this great house, a mixture of profession and reality. But within that great house there are many.
True, sincere believers.
Who are seeking as to the light they have and the the measure of grace they've been given to go on to the Lord. So what we are talking about here are general characteristics that characterize us in the last days. If you just allow me to make one more comment and that is that in Scripture we are never told to separate from true believers. What we are told to separate from is evil. That which is not according to the mind of God, whether it's moral evil.
Doctrinal evil or an ecclesiastical connection that is not on scriptural ground and according to the truth of God and brethren in separating from one or more of those aspects of evil. If that means there are true believers I cannot go on in fellowship with, then I have to say so be it. But it is evil that we are told to separate from and it is the spirit of things in the great house that we are told not to let affect our own conduct and our and our walk. So I I trust that is helpful.
00:10:20
And then he brings before us these two Old Testament examples of Janus and jamborees. Now in the Old Testament, if we were to go back to Exodus 7 and, and and so on, we would find that there were in Pharaoh's court, there were these magicians that were brought to magicians that were brought out by Pharaoh. And they opposed Moses and Aaron in the miracles that they did and the truth they presented. They're not named in the Old Testament.
But here we find that the apostle by inspiration, he named them specifically and they sought to oppose what they were doing. And what's significant is they were able to copy many of the miracles and the things that Moses and Aaron did. And again, we need to be careful. There's much today that is a coffee or seems like it is the truth. But when we get right to the root of it, we find that there's something else.
Why are they mentioned here when they're not? When we're when the names are not given an access, what is the significance of their of their names being given here?
Because those that are imitators of the truth, and so they imitated the power of God. They didn't have the power of God, but they imitated it. And so I believe he gives the names because they are significant. The names mean Jenny's means he mocked or he deceived. And then this other name, Jan Breeze means a diviner or a sooth Sayer. And so it's evident that they were deceptive. They were using.
The power of Satan, they were under the influence of Satan. They were agents of Satan to oppose Moses at the time that he faced umm, Pharaoh and delivered his message. It's interesting in Acts chapter 2, I'll just refer to this, uh, in Acts chapter 2, verse 22, there's three words that are used in connection with the power of what the Lord, uh, did in his, uh, ministry, the work that his father gave him to do. It says Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles.
And wonders and signs. And then Paul by inspiration and 2nd Thessalonians uses the same words verse chapter two of Second Thessalonians verse nine. And he speaks of the imitation of the Antichrist and those that are his agents as well. Satan's agents, Second Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 9. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power.
And signs and lying wonders.
And so the Lord Jesus brought blessing from the heart of God to his people. Every work of, uh, every miracle act of power, a sign was he delivered, uh, souls from the power of sin and Satan. And there was tremendous blessing brought. But these are signs. They were evidence of power. But as you say, it was satanic power. It was the influence of the demonic world.
And so they're exposed and their names are given.
God leaves the He leaves that covered in the Old Testament, but he exposes it, and I believe partly because their names really mean deception. He mocked and a diviner. It exposes the fact that they were under satanic control.
Has then too, we find in the next verse that God is in full control of everything, and God only allows man to go so far. He only allows Satan to go so far, and so he says they shall proceed no further.
In other words, he says, Timothy, if I can apply it for our hearts, Timothy, I'm in full control. There's a rise of evil, and we see today the seeds of apostasy being sown. But, brethren.
Take comfort, we will never see the full blown apostasy this side of the rapture. Well, we're here in this world. There are two things that are hindering the full blown tide of apostasy from rising. One is the presence of the believer. We're the salt of the earth and salt is a preservative. Now the salt can lose its savor, we can lose our testimony, but we are the salt of the earth and so we're preserving the full blown tide of evil.
00:15:18
People say, oh, I'll be glad when those Christians are gone. They have no idea what they're talking about.
But there's something else too, and we get it in Second Thessalonians that the Spirit of God is here and he is hindering again the full tide of apostasy from rising, because he that now hindereth will hinder until he be taken out of the way. Because when we go at the rapture, the Spirit of God goes to, He doesn't leave till we leave, as we've already said in these meetings. That's why on the last page of the Word.
It says the Spirit and the Bride say come. Why does the Spirit say come? Because he's here, and he doesn't leave till we leave. And so we have the salt of the earth. There's the salt of the earth, the Spirit of God, the restrainer of evil, and they will be here until the rapture. And I say I find that a great comfort to my own soul. Yes, things are waxing worse and worse, and the moral darkness is deepening every hour over the Western world.
But brethren, it's only going to go so far. God puts His hand here, and like Janice and Jamboree, they shall. And it's the spirit of things. I think it's what he bringing out here more than the individuals. He uses them as an example, but he says that spirit of things, that progression of things, I've got my hand there and I'll only let it go so far.
Ends chapter 2 where you quoted in verse six. It speaks of another hindrance. And so he says what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. Now you know what withholdeth. What is it? It's the governments of this world that God has ordained. They resist. They are ordained of God to resist the evil and to keep a cap on it and to judge those that are evil. And then we have the Spirit of God as well.
In verse seven, so the apostle Paul speaks of two that resist evil, those governments that are raised up of God and then the Spirit of God as well. And I'm sure that what Jim has said too in connection with the believer we know in figure Lot was in Sodom and Gomorrah. God could not judge Sodom and Gomorrah until the righteous were removed. And so Lot was removed and judgment fell.
And the rest of the chapter, and this was really one of my main exercises in suggesting this portion, is to see now how Paul sets before Timothy encouragement to go on. And first of all, he brings before him, brings before Timothy Paul's life, what Paul had seen or what Timothy, I should say, had seen, exemplified in the life of the apostle Paul. And it's interesting.
You mentioned the list of things that God has in Scripture, and I've often said the same thing and let me just reiterate it.
Because it's been a help to me in my study of the Word of God. When God lifts two or more things in Scripture.
He doesn't list them haphazardly. I like to do the shopping when I'm home. It gets me out of the office and Faye, Faye doesn't like to, to shop if she doesn't have to. So she'll make me out grocery list. I think, uh, at home on Thursdays is when the, the various ads for the grocery store come. And so Faye will make me out of grocery list. And if I was to say to Faye, why did you list these items in that way, she'd say, well, it's just the way I California. I thought of the, what we needed or I came up with them as I flipped through the ads.
She doesn't list them in regard to the aisle that they're going to be found in so that I can go consecutively up one aisle and down the other of the grocery store. No, it's haphazard. And we often, as you said in the previous meeting, we often list things just haphazardly as they come. That came to mind. But I say to those who are younger, it was helpful for me to get a hold of the fact when I was young that when you see a list of two or more things, notice how God lists them. There's always an importance to the order.
And as we start verse 11 or verse 10 here, you'll notice what comes first.
But thou hast fully known my doctrine. Now if I had been writing this, I probably would have put some of the other things that are listed here first. Maybe the manner of life. Maybe my persecutions are what I felt I went through for for the Lord. But he lists, first of all, doctrine. Why? Because if we're going to have sound, if we're going to have a sound life, if we're going to walk for the Lord's glory.
00:20:21
There must be sound teaching at the bottom of it, at the basis of it. Now doctrine is just another word for teaching.
And so in this epistle, the first epistle and the 2nd epistle, you have the word doctrine or teaching 13 times. Paul is stressing to Timothy the need for sound doctrine and sound behavior is based on sound doctrine. It must be. And so Paul says, you fully know my doctrine. Now what was Paul's doctrine? Well, it's been brought before us already in these meetings.
It was the truth that Paul was given by divine inspiration.
And as we've had, you cannot really have sound behavior in your life and understand your true position and calling here in this world unless you go to Paul's doctrine. We're going to notice later on, we won't take it up now, but we're going to notice later on in this chapter. He brings other aspects of the word of God before us. But he stresses at the beginning, Timothy, you've heard my my teaching, what God has given me.
You've known it. Now, everything else that's listed, I believe there are nine things that are listed here, and everything else that is listed is built on sound doctrine. And that's the way we need to build our lives as well.
Robert, you mentioned about an outline of truth and I just explained, so we understand because there might be some here who say, well how can we have a outline of the whole word of God and how do you know it says Paul said on another occasion, we know in part and we prophecy in part, and you can spend your whole life studying the word of God or even Paul's doctrine and you're not going to get it all. We know in part, in prophecy in part, and not till we get home to glory.
Well, that which is in part be done away with. But on the other hand, it's not hard to just have some understanding of what the different writers bring before us, even the Old Testament just to see Genesis is the book of beginnings, Exodus, we have redemption and and Leviticus we have we have have worship Israel worship Numbers is the wilderness book and and so on Deuteronomy we remember.
And just to have some idea of of in in a sentence or two, what the Old Testament writers bring before us, the New Testament to realize that each of the evangelists that the four gospel writers, they each presented different aspect of things. Paul's ministry is a little different than Peter's ministry. John has a characteristic James and so on. Just to have some little understanding. And that's a safeguard. It's like the the jigsaw puzzle. I don't know if young people are children, do jigsaw puzzles like we did when we were children.
That was, uh, entertainment on a snowy winter's evening when we were growing up. But when we got out of 500 or 1000 piece jigsaw, what did we do? First we did the outline, we took the edge pieces and when we got the edge, the outline done, then it helped us to fill in the rest of the, of the pieces and not put pieces in the, in the wrong place or try to force pieces where they didn't fit. And so if you know what Paul's ministry, Paul brings before us the church.
The heavenly calling of the church, John brings before us the family of God and so on. Again, Peter brings before us the wilderness. Those are just little keys that keep us from miss applying Scripture. So that was fully known my doctrine. But then there is a manner of life and other things that that go with it. There's a practical side. So again, sound teaching will lead to sound behavior and a real testimony in our Christian pathway.
Typically taught us that we were heavenly citizens. We didn't belong to this world at all. And so his manner of life was consistent with it. And Paul taught the younger generation and he taught Timothy. Timothy had observed Paul in action. He was, Paul didn't speak one thing in private and then one thing in public. He spoke in a very consistent way in his, uh, testimony and in his teaching. We get that and might just turn to it in Acts chapter 20, I think it is.
00:25:30
And Paul says that in verse 20, Acts 20 and verse 20. I kept back nothing that was profitable on you unto you. He's speaking to the Ephesian elders, but have showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, Paul had a line of things that was given to him, of God-given to him by revelation.
By the risen head in glory. And he delivered that once to the Saints. But Timothy was diligent and he had an outline of that line of truth. He could understand and know and appreciate what Paul taught. I think Mr. Darby's translation says in verse 10 that he had fully followed up. Fully followed up.
He knew Paul's doctrine and then he observed Paul's life and then he observed Paul's purpose. Paul only had one goal. It was Christ, and he wanted to, uh, please his master. He wanted to please the one who had loved him and given himself for him. He had a real purpose to his life and he was willing to suffer long-suffering, charity or love, patience, persecutions. There are enemies without.
And there are enemies within.
Not all enemies are without. And so he speaks of persecutions, and I think he speaks a little bit further on of persecutions in verse 12. Yeah, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. That's the enemy from the outside who wants to shut down the Christian testimony, wants to shut down your testimony. If you're faithful to Christ. He wants to destroy that testimony. But then we have enemies within. Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. That's within the Christian testimony, what we were Speaking of earlier.
Those that say they're Christian, those that say they're trying to serve Christ, but really they're enemies from within and perhaps even imitating the power of God. And so the apostle Paul doesn't mince any words. He speaks very plainly. And so he's telling Timothy, he's giving this to him, this instruction that he might be safeguarded in an evil day. And we need to be safeguarded. Not everything that is written in the name of Christ.
That says it's Christian. Not every book is a book that we should read. And I was just reading. I read a lot of ministry because we need to be refreshed ourselves. If we're going to feed any anyone else, we need to be fed ourselves. I read a lot of mystery, and I have tended to read a little more of Mr. Darby's ministry lately, and it will surprise you that he writes at a very understandable level in many of his lectures.
If you read some of his lectures, very understandable. You don't need a PhD or anything to read Mr. Darby's writings. I would just encourage you as those that are younger in the faith or younger people, young men, read the that ministry read some of these older writers. It's not complicated. Some of the most profound writings that Mister Darby has are on some of those subjects of the Lord's coming and some of the.
John's ministry and so on, very understandable. And so Timothy had these outlines. He had observed the persecution in verse 11 in Iconium Antioch, Iconium Lystra. He knew how Paul had suffered for the truth. And Paul says, you know, it's all worth it. I endured. But out of them all the Lord delivered me. And so we can count on the Lord's deliverance. And if we're not going to be delivered.
From the persecution we'll be delivered through it. And the Lord Jesus was delivered. He cried unto his God on the cross. My God, my God, why is thou forsaken me? In in chapter in the 22nd Psalm, he speaks of crying to God and not being heard and so on. But he was heard and he was delivered by death and through resurrection. He was delivered not in the way that sometimes we might think we might. We have an idea of how we should be delivered.
00:30:10
But God knows how to deliver the faithful, and so He is able to deliver us in the way that He chooses.
Have an easy life in connection with his service for Christ. He wasn't appreciated even by his own brethren. He had to say all they that be in Asia are turned away from me didn't mean they turned away from the Lord, but they didn't follow on with the apostle Paul and the teaching that he he had been he had been given. He suffered from without as well as has been said and you know, brethren, we enjoy today.
The liberty in this land and on this continent to meet in this way, and we didn't have to lock the doors or meet in secret or like some of our brethren, trickle into a meeting so that the authorities don't see a stream of people with their Bibles coming together and so on. I've been in countries where we had to meet very circumspectly and where you only had a meeting one night in one place. And it was when the, when the brethren came, they made sure they didn't all get there at once. And maybe over the course of a couple of hours they would come and we'd have a cup of tea or a cup of coffee and it looked like a social gathering.
When it's time for the meetings, we shut the everything's closed up. Sometimes we don't sing because we don't want to.
Give any indication to those around that we're having a Bible meeting rather than we don't have to do that and thank God for it. But brethren, what we enjoy here in North America is not normal Christianity. Normal Christianity is what you have in the book of the Acts. A normal Christianity is what the Apostle Paul described here. And it's interesting. I think it's the 23rd verse of the 20th chapter of Acts. You can go back and look at it sometime.
He says there in summing up his his ministry and his travels, he says in every city bonds and afflictions abide in me. Now in coming to Pella for this conference this weekend, if I knew I was gonna have bonds and afflictions when I got here, would I have come?
Be a real test of faith, wouldn't it? And you'd want to be pretty sure you had the Lord's mind. But Paul said in every city when he went to Philippi or Troaz or Ephesus or wherever he went, he expected he was going to have some kind of physical persecution.
Rather, I'm looking for the Lord to come this afternoon. But if the Lord leaves us here, we may suffer in more ways than perhaps we do now. However, I used to struggle with this verse. Robert will forgive me because we mentioned this in Kirkland last weekend, but I want to just notice verse 12. Yeah. And all they that will live godly in Christ Jesus.
Shall suffer persecution, not might, and this used to bother me.
Because I thought, well, we don't suffer persecution the way Paul did or the way he described in the previous couple of verses. So are we living godly? But I believe this, that there are two kinds of persecution that a Christian is going to suffer for their faithfulness for Christ. One is physical. And there are many of our brethren today in other corners of the world who are suffering physical persecution.
In prison, being tortured and even facing martyrdom this very day, we may never be called on to do that here in North America.
But there is a reproach connected with following Christ. There's either physical persecution or there's a reproach. And I'm gonna say this to my own heart and I'll and I perhaps it will exercise your soul too.
If we are not suffering reproach in our daily life, whether it's in the neighborhood we live in, whether it's at work, at school, or whatever, we need to question our own souls. And I can't answer for you, and you can't answer for me, but we must need to question our own souls. Are we living godly in Christ? In other words, if I can put it another way, in the measure in which you and I reflect something of Christ.
In our lives from day-to-day there will be a reproach, and in the measure in which we seek to be faithful to the name of Christ without taking any other of the celebrated names in Christianity Today, there will be a reproach. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, and we might suffer reproach. No bearing his reproach. So I just say that to encourage our hearts. We're thankful for what we enjoy as liberties here. But if we are reflecting something of Christ and being faithful to him, to the to Paul's doctrine, to the truth of God's Word, we are going to suffer in one way or another.
00:35:32
It may come from our own families, Jim. Yes, absolutely.
Keep in mind I I know for years I didn't catch it. Uh, because.
We don't, it's not the way we normally express ourselves, but the word will here is not an expression of some future action. We say I will, uh, eat supper or something like that. And we're talking about the future of future action. But what's talking here? What's talking about here is those that desire, uh, to live godly or wish to live godly.
It's and and I think the persecution will be.
Somewhat reflected or reflective of the intensity of our desire to live godly. Now I'd like to ask somebody to tell us what this word godly means. We in the previous reading meeting, we talked about the word piety and pious, which are the words that Darby uses in his translation. But piety and Pius are not in current, umm, vogue and godly and godliness has lost a lot of his meaning too. Because somebody please tell us what it means to live godly and what godliness is.
Well, I have one that satisfied me, but I'd I'd rather hear somebody else.
To display, to appreciate and display the character of God down here, God like this, yes.
Ugliness is it's really a short form of shortened expression. God, we could say God likeness or we could say godliness. And so that's the desire of the Lord that we would express his moral features in this world. I was, uh, thinking of, uh, Acts chapter 19. It uses this word continue thou in verse our verse 14. But in Acts chapter 19, there was a beginning. When it says continue, it really infers that you began.
And that now you have to press forward and keep going. So there was a good beginning. Timothy had a good beginning. And so in chapter 19 of Acts and verse 19 or verse 17, it says this was known to all the Greek, Jews and Greeks also dwelling in Ephesus. And fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many that believed came and confessed and showed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts, brought their books together and burned them before all men.
And they counted the price of them and found that 50,000 pieces of silver. These are uh, books, uh, occult books. They are, it costs, I think it was uh, for a, a Roman slave, something like uh, umm, 30 pieces of silver. You could buy a slave for 30 pieces of silver. So you could buy with the value of these books, 16166 slaves. I mean, it was an awesome figure.
But.
The Apostle Paul and those that were engaged in the work of presenting Christ to the heathen in the darkness of the heathen world went into that world, into Satan's stronghold in Europe and in that part of the world where they were steeped in all kinds of satanic occult practice and so on. And they got saved. And there was a light that shone in the brightness of the glory of Christ was displayed in the persons of these individuals. And they had a fire, and they burned those things that they had been associated with before.
And someone has said, umm, this is the young man's fire. Have you had the young man's fire? Is there something in the life, something in the bookshelves that you have something in the home that you shouldn't have? You need to have the young man's fire. You need to get rid of it. Well, Timothy had, uh, fully followed up on the apostles doctrine. He understood it, he enjoyed it and he had a, an outline of it. He had a, he was a mature believer. And the apostle Paul says, continue.
It's not good enough just to have a good beginning. He says continue in it, continue thou and the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them. And so that's why this verse is exercised me when I was a young man and I still feel exercised about it is of whom thou hast knowing of whom thou hast learned them. I like to see the author of the book, and I like to as.
00:40:30
Brother Jim was mentioning a little earlier, you have a sense of how that man lived, who wrote and taught the truth of God. How did he live? How did, what was the end of his path? Did he continue on? We know that there's failure all abounds all over, but it's a wonderful thing to have a good beginning, but make sure we continue and continue on to the end and then there's a full reward. So the apostle Paul was encouraging Timothy in this way to continue in spite of the difficulties that he faced, the opposition.
He knew what he had learned from the apostle Paul, and Paul had received it from the risen Christ in glory.
What we read either is it is who we associate with.
Having, uh, a good rapport with our brethren. There's relationship in this starts out verse 10. But thou hast fully known my doctor, there was a relationship between Paul and Timothy. And so, uh, we go to act.
Chapter 4.
Verse 23, it says and being let go, they went to their own company. There's a relationship there. So on a practical note, dear young people, when you go home from these meetings, when you leave.
Where do you go? Who's your company?
Make it the Lord's people. Make it those who want to call the Lord out of a pure heart. Don't be found in company with those who reject the Savior and find their joy in the fleeting things of this world.
Establish your company with the Lord's people and seek to encourage them that way.
So with the pot with, uh, Daniel in the Old Testament, what was it that encouraged his three friends to stand fast? It was their association with Daniel in the first chapter. It's true that later on, I think the third chapter, the test came for them individually because Daniel wasn't there on the plains of Dora when they were told to bow down to the image and the story of the fiery furnace. I'd just like to say this too, about Daniel in connection with what's been said because.
Daniel first of all, had purpose of heart and we talked a little bit about purpose and it takes real purpose to stand in days like these. These Paul had purpose in his life. He had a goal, he had an object and purpose of heart is really a desire where the heart is motivated by an object because we might have a have a desire, but the sluggard desires and has nothing. It says, let me illustrate it this way. This is a little bit of a crazy illustration, but.
Here we sit on these chairs, and after the next meeting is over, there's going to be an announcement that the evening meal is going to be served in the dining room next door. And we might have every desire to go in and have a meal, but if we don't do something about it, if we don't have purpose, we'll never get up off these chairs and go in. We could sit here. I don't want to be funny, but we could sit here until we starve to death. It takes more than desire. If we're going to live for the Lord, it takes that real purpose of heart.
That real motivation, but what I want to point out in connection with the beginning of verse 14, where as Robert said, Timothy is exhorted to continue, it says at the end of Daniel chapter 13 words and Daniel continued. Isn't that beautiful? It started as a young man with purpose of heart, but go on through Daniel's life on to the 6th chapter and on to the prophecies that he's given at the end of his life as an old man.
But it didn't start when he was old. It started with real purpose.
And because he had that purpose, that desire not to compromise the truth as he had had it in his day, he continued, Brethren, that's what God wants in your life and mine. And that's what Paul's real desire for Timothy. Timothy had been committed with the truth. If we were to go back to the second chapter, Paul was passing the torch of truth to Timothy, which he was then to commit to faithful men who would be able to teach others also.
00:45:04
The truth is like the relay race, that the baton is passed, but not just to anybody, faithful men who can teach others also, and faithful men who pass, pass that along. And brethren, I trust I can say this circumspectly, but I started meetings like this and I heard the truth presented from my older brother who are with the Lord now. And I trust that by the grace of God and with the Lord's help, I can pass the truth on.
To you.
With the same purity in which I received it myself. That was Paul's desire for Timothy and those he passed the truth on. And I'll just say to the brothers here who have some responsibility, maybe in your local assembly, is your desire and exercise to pass the truth on in the same purity with which you received it. I know that many of us here can remember brothers, that we sat under their teaching in the local assembly and at conferences like this. Let's be exercised not to water down the truth. Yes, we wanna present it in a format.
That it can be taken in and and meditated on and enjoyed in with the generation. We wanna be sensitive to the generation we're serving, but we don't want to compromise or water down the truth. And so Paul's exercise here was to pass it on. I just want to notice a couple of things here. Continue Thou and the things that thou has learned and been assured of. Verse 14. Knowing of whom thou hast learned them. Now who was that? Well, it's been already mentioned. That was the apostle Paul. And again.
Paul, first of all, stresses the need for the ministry that he had been given by inspiration. Paul wasn't proud here. It wasn't just that this is what I've taught and you need to walk in it. No, Paul recognized that he had been given a special revelation concerning, if I can put it this way, the meat and the foundation of Christianity. He was the wise master builder. You get that in Corinthians. Others have built too, the apostles and prophets, the New Testament foundation. But Paul was the wise master builder, so that's first.
Then notice what he says in verse 16. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Now he says, Timothy, you don't just need what I've taught, but you need all the Word of God. This includes the Old Testament because in the Old Testament we have the figures and the foreshadows. We have the pictures and the illustrations. That's why we go back to the Old Testament and we draw on those illustrations.
Then, but not only do we need the Old Testament, but it's interesting go back to, uh, the 5th chapter of the previous Epistle to First Timothy, chapter 5, I believe it is. I want to read you an interesting verse here. It may seem completely out of context, but I'll tell you why I read it. Verse 18, First Timothy 5, verse 18 for the Scripture. Seth, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.
The labor is worthy of its higher. Now why did I read you this? Because this is a quote from one of the gospels. This is actually a quote from Luke chapter 10. In other words, the apostle Paul recognized the need for the Gospels as well. So we need the four gospels, the life of Christ, the perfect example, the work of Christ in not only in his perfect life, but the work of atonement, His resurrection, and so on. So we need the Old Testament.
We need the Gospels, we need the New Testament, we need Paul's doctrine. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. And that's why, brethren, it's important when we take up the Word of God to read the whole Word of God. Something I found helpful in my life and it's not a precedent, but, and we all have different bends to the way we take up the Word of God and so on. I found it helpful to read something in the Old Testament and something in the New Testament every day.
An old brother who used to serve the Lord amongst the people of God. When he was asked what his secret was in in reading the word of God, he said Wherever else I read in the scriptures, every day I made sure I read something in the gospel.
That was the balance he felt he needed the perfect example of the Lord. So we need all Scripture. Read it from cover to cover. You wanna have a godly life? You wanna exhibit godliness? You wanna exhibit moral piety? You wanna be a blessing to others? We need, yes, Paul's doctrine, but we need all Scripture.
00:50:00
In verse 15 it says from a child.
Thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make the wise unto salvation, and that again is salvation, practical salvation, which is in Christ Jesus. And so the Holy Scriptures, the Holy Scriptures, the sacred writings, I think are the sacred letters, Mr. Darby's translation.
We're given by God himself.
And what Timothy had was those Old Testament pictures. He had the pictures and the illustrations in the Old Testament. The Old Testament gave God's thoughts and his relationship with man before the cross. And then after the cross, we have the New Testament. And so they have the Gospels. And really, by the time the apostle Paul was martyred, the Word of God was almost complete. We know that the Book of Revelation was written a little later, perhaps.
Some of the epistles of John and so the word of God was complete, I believe, when John went to be with the Lord. But Timothy had the Old Testament scriptures. He didn't have a steady diet of it. After the Lord died and rose again, was ascended in glory. Now he had a new.
A new appetite, you might say. It was for the risen Christ and glory. And he read of that purpose that Christ had, and the teaching that Christ had in the gospel.
And in the epistles, so we need the picture book of the Old Testament, and we also need the doctrine. And so it's all Scripture. But remember, the Old Testament can be used to understand the principles of how God deals in relationship with man.
Things here.
Scripture is given for by inspiration is profitable for doctrine. That's what's right for reprove. That's what's wrong for correction. That's what sets right for instruction and righteousness, what keeps right. And I just have a question because this has come up, uh, this doctrine, we understand it was emphasized earlier in the chapter of that positive truth, but then it says reprove.
What is the difference between reproof and legality?
Uses conviction instead of reproof. And so it's really we need to have our thoughts reproved. The word of God reproves our wrong thoughts. We may not detect it at the present time when we're reading it, but the Word of God applied by the Spirit of God will correct us. And we can use the word of God to correct and to help to correct one another. But I believe there's a the spirit in which we correct one another, the spirit in which we use the word of God.
Is really what you're referring to legality. I may say that this is how it is and this is, there's no ends if there, but there are no Gray areas in the word of God. It's true, but I can apply it and I can use it in a kind way and just remember that it's the Holy Scriptures and it's God's mind in connection with a certain thing that I might be going on with. So it can be used for recruit, but it has to be done in the right spirit. I think this is, uh, what uh, Paul tells Timothy in the first, uh, epistle.
He says umm.
Let's uh read the first pistol, uh Timothy chapter 4, verse UH-16. Take heed to the unto thyself and unto the doctrine, continuing them. For in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. He was to use the doctrine, but use it in the right way.
Improving and scolding the Scripture never scolds us, but it does reprove us. Paul, when he wrote to the Galatians, he was very, very direct in what he wrote, but it really wasn't a scolding. It was a reproof in the spirit, in the proper spirit because of the things that they were taking up and they had gone they, they digressed from the truth that had brought them into the good of salvation. And so they needed, I believe Galatians is a book of, of reproof, but.
As we seek to interact with one another and present the truth rather, and we don't wanna scold one another, but we do wanna be faithful and reproof. I I wanna make one other comment too before we go ahead. Yes, that just directly brother John. Obedience to the word of God is not legality. Let's me re. Let's remember this obedience to the word of God is not legality. So if I desire to obey the word of God, the word of God says.
00:55:25
Uh, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. It's not being legal if I don't engage in, uh, that type of activity.
When we when we speak of legality, legality always has to do with the 1St man.
It's, uh, seeking to, to create righteousness in the first man. And when the believer doesn't realize, as we've been Speaking of being in Christ, our brother just gave us a meeting of being in Christ. Umm, and the, the blessings we have in Christ, everything we have is in resurrection life when we, when we begin to apply the principles to the first man.
Seeking to get fruit out of Adam. That is going to be le legality and umm, I it TH this is a this is a point that I'm sorry, Jim, I I I I know our time is, but this is a point that I'm not sure that we really make a good enough distinction when we speak of it says in umm, it says in first 12. Yay and all that live godly in Christ Jesus.
So it's godly in Christ Jesus. Well, that's in resurrection life, isn't it? That is in the new life. We are consciously enjoying the life that we have in Christ and the the desires that it has umm and the Spirit of God power in connection with that when we take up reproof and instruction and everything we directed to the first man that leads to.
Being under the law, it doesn't want to do any of that. So legality really is outward moral conformity without the heart being engaged.
It's, it's having a, a form of godliness, but de denying the power thereof, the power of our of our life in Christ is the Spirit of God. When we take up things as in, in the first man, in the energy of the first man, which is the flesh. We can even take up spiritual things in the flesh. Then we're there's gonna be pride. There's gonna be all those things that are characteristic of the flesh and umm, that is.
Not what the apostle Paul, uh, trained, you might say Timothy to understand, I know our time is gone, but just one little word before we pass on from this verse about the word inspiration, because it's a word we use today. And we, we, we don't always use it in the scriptural context. We talk about something that was inspired or that was an inspiring message or whatever. But in the context here, inspiration is God breathed.
Every word of scripture comes from God himself. The the the writers from Moses through to to John who wrote a little later than Paul. They all wrote exactly what God told them. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. I want to give you 1 little illustration that helped me when I was younger. There's some boys and girls here and so on. And here's the illustration that helped me to understand what inspiration is in the context of Scripture.
When I was when I when my girls were younger.
That sometimes they would put a pencil in their hand before they learned how to write. And I would put my hand over theirs and I would guide their pet, their pencil so that they would maybe write their name. And after that was done, they would take the paper and they would maybe go to my wife and say, look, mom, what I wrote now, who really wrote it? They held the pencil, but who held their hand and directed what they, what they were direct what they wrote? I did. And that's perhaps a feeble little illustration to, uh, make help us to understand.
That when the Word of God was penned, it was penned by men. Yes, God used men, a number of men through the centuries to write what He wanted to convey to us. But they did not write their own opinions. They did not write what they thought they saw. They did not write what they thought was the truth of God. They wrote exactly what God told them to write. And that is why, brethren, it is important to realize that every word of God is pure. We need it all. And never question the Word of God. You might question something I say.
01:00:10
You might question something I write, and you have every right to do so. But do not question the word of God. It is true from cover to cover because God wrote it.
Samuel & David
Address—Lemoine Smith
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.
Let's turn to hymn number.
288.
All thou whose mercy.
I have to do my gate for vowing leaving Monday morning.
Nsnoise.
Be quite frank and hardly know where to start.
But I want to bring a few things up. Umm.
Probably better to just touch on a thought since I trust most you are familiar with the scriptures.
Many years ago.
11170 BC.
There was a mother, there was a woman who was barren.
And she saw a need in Israel.
And she was from a priestly family.
And she said.
She went before the Lord.
At Shilo.
And she never even prayed out loud.
But she said, Lord, give me a son.
Then I'll give them to you.
I'm glad to see some little children here today.
Here, the hope of tomorrow.
If you grow up.
During the Lord.
Like this little boy Samuel, you'll know who I'm talking about.
00:05:04
In Samuel chapter 3 first Samuel chapter 3.
We'll touch one or two verses.
He's been brought.
To a place.
That was famous for the Lord, famous in Israel being there at Shiloh.
What priesthood was failing so badly?
This mother's prayer.
Was answered.
And then?
I'm not going to that detail, it distract me, but you know, it came to the point.
For Samuel the Lord speaks to Samuel in the night.
And.
So let's go to verse 19 of chapter 3. And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.
And all these were from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh. For the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord. Here's a young man.
Maybe he was a young teenager at this point.
And God raises him up in a place where there's umm.
Failure. Such failure in the priesthood that he's going to set it aside.
Imagine that awful thing.
But.
In First Samuel chapter 16.
Those of us familiar with the book would know that Samuel had gone out and eventually the people had rejected the Lord being king over them directly, and so he anoints saw and saw.
Is not good at obeying, and the Lord sets all aside.
So I want to touch on a little portion of a verse in, well, First Samuel 16.
The Lord said unto Samuel, How long will thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel?
Bill Langhorne with oil and go, and I'll send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided me a king among his sons.
Perhaps you're sitting here today.
And you're a little bit aware, or maybe not so aware of the Lord Jesus has given you a certain interest in being a help among the Saints of God.
I want to focus today a little on a leader. You could be a father in a home, you could be a leader in an assembly. It could be the oldest child in the family and there's others under you. There's different ways we can be leaders.
But I just want to focus on this.
The Lord, what's on the heart? And he says.
I have provided me.
A king among the sons of Jesse the Bethlehemite.
But I want to focus on that phrase I have provided me if God has given you a gift.
You may not always know it.
You may come to know it.
Sometimes other people may recognize it before you do.
So Samuel obeys. But verse 7 the Lord says don't look at the outward appearance.
He looks at all Jesse's sons.
But verse 7 the Lord says to Samuel, look not on his countenance, or the height of his stature.
Because they've refused him. He'd looked at the tallest, oldest. For the Lord seeth not as man seeth, For man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.
We all know, I trust most of us here. The history of David, he's not known for being perfectly obedient.
Sometimes.
He was a very bad example.
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But why does the Lord say this? The Lord looketh on the heart about this young lad.
God, who sees all and knows all, looks down through eternity.
Eternity before eternity passed, and He knows each one of us.
He knows those sins you'll commit before you ever commit them, and that was if you got any forgiven sins. They all happened after the cross, didn't they?
So if you're forgiven at all, it has to because the cross covered them, the blood of Christ covered them.
And he's looked on this heart, and that's what he looks at on you and in me.
The heart now.
I want to go to chapter.
Uh, Second Samuel.
Chapter 24.
So this background, it starts with a barren woman.
Wanting a son to give to the Lord.
And it's leading up through changes in Israel. The priesthood has failed, the prophet is established, the king is anointed, and now he come to a point in the King's life when he's near the end.
The previous chapter says the little heading says the last words of David.
Here in chapter 24.
I wanna keep your place at this chapter.
First Samuel 24 verse one. And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them to go say go number Israel and Judah.
Let's go to First Chronicles 21. Hold the place there.
First Chronicles, 21.
And here we get a different.
Perspective on what's happening. It says in verse one and Satan stood up against Israel.
And provoked David to number the people. What's happening to this leader?
What's happening in Israel?
Well.
The Lord's looking on the heart. We know that.
We read in the second Samuel 24 one the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. Let's go to Job chapter one.
In job chapter one.
Or six. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said, Under Satan, whence cometh thou? And Satan answered The Lord said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there's none like him in all the earth? Perfect and upright man, one that feareth God, and the steward fable.
And Satan answered the Lord, that Job feared God for not. Hast thou not made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thus bless the work of his hands, and his substances increased in the land. But put forth thine hand, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
You see, the enemy of your soul and mine can look at our exterior.
He can reason about it. He doesn't know the heart.
Verse 12 The Lord said unto Satan.
Behold already half as in thy power only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went out forth from the presence of the Lord. Awful things happen to Job, awful things happen to his children, awful things happen to his livestock is terrible.
Who has been tried like that?
Chapter 2.
The Lord says to Satan, verse 2, Where did you come from? Whence cometh thou? Satan answered the Lord, from going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. The Lord says to Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job? There's none like him in all the earth. Perfect upright man, one that feareth the Lord, and estew with evil. Still he holdeth as fast as integrity, although thou moveth me against him to destroy him without cause. Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, Yeah, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
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Put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone in his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he's in thine hand, but save his life.
So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with Thor boils from the soil of his foot and his crown.
He was in terrible, terrible shape. What I want you to notice is Satan had to get permission.
To touch the situation.
God is in control.
So it's important to see in these initial verses in Second Samuel 24 and First Chronicles 21, although it says in First Chronicles 21 Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number the people.
It says the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel in Second Samuel 24. Now let's turn to Psalm.
78.
Well, I think I.
You need to have the wrong.
Check.
No, it's chapter 78 and verse 56.
There's much to learn in that chapter like as there isn't a whole word of God.
Verse 56 Yet they attempted and provoked the Most High God and kept not his testimonies.
Speaking about Israel, but turn back and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers, they were turned aside like a deceitful bow. For they provoked him to anger with their high places, moved him to jealousy with their graven images. When God heard this, he was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel, so that He forsook the Tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among men, and he delivered his strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy's hand.
Awesome.
Isn't it?
Here's the very place where Samuel learns to hear the word of the Lord.
But it says He forsook the Tabernacle of Shiloh. What's the reason? Why was the anger of the Lord kindled? It's the condition among the people.
Why do we experience?
The present trial.
These things that the Saints of God gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. Our feeling in many coasts, so to speak, many places.
What is it he sees there once?
So.
First Samuel 21 verse 2, David said to Job to the rulers of Israel go number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan. Bring the number to me that I may know it.
Job has a good answer.
Here it's just Job in First Chronicles 21.
And verse 2. Verse 3.
The Lord make his people 100 times so many more as they be. But my Lord the King, are they not all my Lord's servants? Why then doth my Lord require such thing? Why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?
So here's one man's word in this book.
And it says, nevertheless the King's word prevailed against Joab.
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Council sometimes comes from a direction we wouldn't expect.
But many times it's for our good, for our balance.
We'll go on.
Joe takes the number, comes back with a census. I think it's nine months later.
Verse 8.
12 verse seven, and God was displeased with this thing.
Therefore he smote Israel.
So there was a condition that led to it.
What's the condition?
Today.
Is there worldliness and idolatry? The Lord knows what he's seeing. He looketh on the heart.
The King's word had prevailed.
And God is displeased at the result. Verse seven. And David said unto God.
I have sinned greatly because I've done this thing.
But now I basically do away with the iniquity of thy servant, for I've done very foolishly. And the Lord spake unto God. David Sears saying, Go and tell David saying. Thus saith the Lord, Ioffer thee three things, choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. So Gad came to David and said to him, Thus saith the Lord, Choose the either three years famine, or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while the sword of the enemies overtakeeth thee, or else three days the sword of the Lord, even the pestilence in the land, and the Angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel.
Now therefore advise thyself, what word I shall bring again to him that sent me. And David said unto God, I am in a great Strait.
Here's a leader.
Facing some kind of consequence?
He's given a choice.
Often when we sow to the flesh.
There can be consequences, sometimes they're quite painful, but it's because of the love of the Lord for His servants.
He had said when he was young, when Lord looketh on the heart.
David is more than disappointed with his conduct.
The Lord's not disappointed with David. Shouldn't have chosen him. He really did a poor job, no?
He knows what he's doing, and he knows what he's doing with you and me.
Great straight verse 13. Let me fall now into the hand of the Lord for very greater his mercies, but let me not fall into the hand of man. You see that heart.
No matter what the failure in David's life, he turned to the only heart that could help him perfectly.
No matter what the failure in your life or mine.
He returned to the Lord.
He helped perfectly.
So he falls into that hand.
Of someone who knows everything and from the beginning he knew the state of Israel that we read of in psalms. The Lord sent pestilence upon Israel and their fellow Israel 70,000 men.
Oh, how shocking.
I was pondering this meditating, I thought.
Can you imagine 3 days of funerals?
Spread over a nation.
Astonishing.
God knew the condition of the heart.
And God sent an Angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was destroying, the Lord beheld, and he repented him of the evil. And he said to the Angel that destroyed verse 15 it is enough.
See now, thine hand, the Angel, the Lord stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Let's go back. Hold that, please. The Second Samuel 24.
In Second Samuel 24 and verse 4.
We got Job's words, but we get more counselors. Verse 4 notwithstanding, the King's word prevailed against Job and against the captains of the hosts sometimes.
00:25:06
Her brethren see.
Where things may not be.
Done.
Purposed wisely.
Well.
Nine months and 20 days Versailles took to make this census. Could they have made a census legally? They could have. If it had taken a half a piece of silver for every man and given it to the Lord, it would have been all right, because that silver was redemption money that went to the Lord.
So you get this.
David.
Hart smitten in verse 10, as we had in Chronicles.
And consequences that we see that are very similar.
On down through the verses we get the Angel of the Lord again at the end of verse 16 as we've read in Chronicles.
And then we get David.
Speaking to the Lord.
What that must have been like.
To see an Angel with a drawn sword over Jerusalem.
Verse 17 David spake unto the Lord when he saw the Angel that smote the people and didn't speak to this Angel.
Speak to the Lord. No, I have sinned, I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my Father's house.
Consequences.
Must be if we.
Go back to First Chronicles 21.
For 16 David lift up his eyes and saw the Angel of the Lord standing between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem, and David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth.
Fell on their faces. You know there are times when the troubles are so bad. Morning.
Becomes us. Sometimes it's troubles we brought on ourselves.
But see the overall picture like you get in the Psalms. God saw something going on in Israel.
And the enemy.
Is allowed to provoke David with the Lord saw what was going on and so we have here.
They see this verse end of verse 16. And David and the elders of Israel, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces. And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered, even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed. But As for these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, O Lord my God, be on me and on my Father's house, but not on thy people, that they should be plagued.
And the Angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up, and set up an altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Horn and the Jebusite.
David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of the Lord.
Here's a man.
A Gentile.
Who lives?
There he has a fear of God, and he certainly has a fear of that Angel with his sword.
Ornan looked back.
And saw the Angel and his four sons with him. Hid themselves.
You know.
Men rightly fear death.
God's power is awesome.
That Angel with that drawn sword? Awful.
Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
We don't get in Second Samuel that he and his sons hid themselves.
But in Second Samuel.
Well, we'll stick with First Chronicles due to time.
00:30:00
David came to her name horn and looked, saw David, and went out to the threshing floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground. And David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar therein unto the Lord. Thou shalt grant me for full price, that the plague may be stayed from the people.
And Ornan said to David, Take it to thee, Let my Lord the king do that which is good in his eyes. Lo, I give thee the oxen for burnt offerings, and threshing instruments for wood and wheat for the meal to offering. I give it all King Sedorn, and nay, but I will barely buy it thee for full price, for I will not take that which is thine for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings without cost. So David gave to Ornan.
The uh for the place.
600 shekels of gold by weight. And David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings, and peace offerings, and called upon the Lord.
And he answered him from heaven, by fire, from the altar of burnt offering.
Here's a leader.
That feels his failure.
Here's the leader.
That weepingly bows to the consequences.
And he asked the Lord to take away the sin.
And the Lord tells him how to do that.
We read in the Psalms he forsook Shiloh.
Lord's doing something here.
Wonders.
So this.
We don't get many places in Scripture where fire comes down from heaven and consumes things.
This is one of them.
The Lord commanded the Angel, and he put up his sword, and again into the sheath thereof.
At that time David saw that the Lord had answered him in the threshing floor of running the Jebusite when he sacrificed there.
For the Tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at that season in the high place at Gibeon, But David could not go before it to inquire of the Lord, for he was afraid because of the sword of the Angel of the Lord. There's that.
Failure in priesthood.
Where Shiloh is set aside completely.
We see this. It's either sinned, these few sheep, what have they done? Wonderful to have a heart.
They would care for the people of God.
Exceptional.
Is always needed. What's that? Repent?
I have well I made a mistake. No, I have send.
I'll commit myself.
Through your hands, Lord.
You alone can take this as arisen.
And make it right.
We don't read in Second Samuel 24 of Fire from Heaven, but we read the Lord was entreated for the land and the plague that stayed from Israel.
The interesting thing is.
Here is something that out of man's failure, something wondrous is happening. What is it?
Let's look at that last verse again. David couldn't go there to Shiloh.
He's afraid of that sword.
But that fire had come down and had taken the oxen and the offering and everything went up, you know, burnt offering to God. What's the result?
Verse one of the next chapter. Then David said this is the House of the Lord God. This is the altar of burnt offering for Israel.
God changed things where he said I'm marking the place. This is where I'll vouchsafe my presence. What's the next verse? And David commanded to gather together the strangers in the land of Israel, and he set Masons to use stones to build the House of God. You know, if we went back in the history, we'd find that David.
00:35:08
Uh, let's see.
I think it's.
Maybe Second Samuel 7.
There you get David sitting in his house. Lord had given him rest round about him from all his enemies.
And he wants to build a house for the Lord.
And later in that same chapter.
The Lord answers him.
Inverse.
Well, you can read it. For sake of time I'll not go over it, but from verse eight through.
Verse 16 we get the Lord telling David what he'll do.
Marvelous. And then David goes in and sits before the Lord. Verse 18.
And he recognizes the greatness of God. I'm going to build you a house and that's something. And you and I today, we have a much bigger scope, don't we? We're part of the bride of Christ. We're part of the House of God. We're part of the great house as well. And to have life in the reality of this new position far exceeds what David had. But I've enjoyed meditating on this that.
Out of failure.
God operated in grace.
And caused a solid establishment of the place that he chose, and there Solomon's temple was built.
They're probably the very spot where Isaac had been laid on the altar. Amazing, isn't it, how grace comes in.
Though we have failed when we own our failure.
When we confess our sin now.
Let's turn.
To Galatians chapter.
5.
One of the effects of.
Repentance.
Of course is true humility.
And it brings about.
Something that's a fruit.
I would like to read.
Verse 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest. Which are these? Adultery.
Fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. So the list isn't complete.
Of which I tell you before, as I've told you in time past, that they would do such things. Shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. You know what I I couldn't find meekness in that list, could you? I couldn't find humility in that list, could you?
I couldn't. Let's look at chapter verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love.
Joy. Peace.
Long-suffering gentleness.
Goodness, faith, meekness, there it is a fruit of the Spirit.
When we're brought low like David was.
It's wonderful to know where the Lord has marked what He wanted.
That didn't bring back 70,000 men.
Astonishing.
But meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
And I'd like to touch just a bit on John chapter one.
00:40:04
My time is nearly gone, but.
I'm thinking particularly.
Of this wondrous person, our Lord Jesus Christ.
It's it's said of him.
Verse 18. No man hath seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He had declared Him which is in the bosom of the Father. Isn't that wonderful? Dear friend, dear Christian friend, here is a person who dwelt in the bosom of the Father.
And that person came to our earth to tell out.
The Father's heart.
Let's turn to Chapter 5.
He so dwelt in that heart. Verse 19.
Middle of the verse The Sun. The sun can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do, for what thingssoever he do it. These also doeth the Son. Likewise, for the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that Himself doeth, and he will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.
For as the Father raises up the dead and quickeneth them, Even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.
Think of that widowed name coming up with her only son on a beer.
And this communion between father and son.
Son, just touch that beer. We're gonna touch that beer and raise this man, this communion that went on continually. David learned more and more from his very troubles. The greatness of the grace of God that could come in. No failure had happened, you know, and that's what we need.
Constantly. Is that wonderful grace?
Of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, our time is gone. I'll just close.
Listen, Fi.
God is Love
Gospel—Jim Hyland
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
In the absence of the gospel hymn sheets, we'll sing #47 in the appendix of the Little Flock hymn book.
God in mercy sent his Son to a world by sin undone. Jesus Christ was crucified twice for sinners. Jesus died 47 in the appendix. If someone could please start it.
I'd like to begin this evening by reading several well known verses of Scripture. These are verses that I suppose most of us have heard quoted, or we've even learned them in Sunday school from the very early days of our youth. The first one is in John's Gospel, chapter 3.
John's Gospel chapter 3 and verse 16.
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. And then in first John, The First Epistle of John, Chapter 4.
First, John, chapter 4, and I'm going to begin with the last three words of verse 8.
God is love, and this was manifested the love of God toward us.
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Because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him.
And now I want to go back to John's gospel, this time to the 15th chapter.
John's Gospel chapter 15 and verse 13.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life.
For his friends and then a verse in Mark's Gospel, chapter 10.
Mark's Gospel, chapter 10.
And verse 21.
Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him. You know, it's interesting how the Lord sometimes confirms to you what He has laid on your heart to speak on on an occasion like this. And I was thrilled. This evening there was a little prayer meeting in the prayer room, and quite a number of brothers kneeled to ask the Lord for help for this meeting, and particularly that as the word was preached, souls would be saved.
But I had this subject on my heart of God's love, and there was a brother prayed this evening in the prayer meeting that there would be a message.
Of God's love presented to the lost. And that really thrilled my soul because.
To me it was just as if the Lord said what I've laid on your heart, I want you to read from the Scripture and speak on tonight.
And there's no greater subject tonight in this world than the love of God and the love of the Lord Jesus. You know, I suppose if we were to go to the secular bookstores and this, the towns and cities here in central Iowa are around this continent, we would find shelves and shelves full of what they call love stories. And I have no doubt there are people today who are buying up these books and they are reading them, perhaps.
Sometimes to escape from the real world.
Sometimes to fantasize and wish that they were in those kinds of situations.
And that they were loved like the ones that are portrayed in these stories.
But oh, tonight we have to tell you the greatest love story that has ever been told on planet earth, the greatest love story that has ever unfolded, and that is tonight, The love of God in sending his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of the Lord Jesus in coming into this world. And I know we have often read John 316 at the beginning of gospel meetings like this. You couldn't prove it by me, but my father, who knew the Lord from all, most of his life, he's with the Lord now. He took notes of verses that gospel preachers.
Started their gospel meetings with and near the end of his life he tallied up the verses that different preachers used at the beginning of their meetings. And he told me that the the most popular verse to start a gospel meeting with was John 316. That in his seventy years of life more preachers that he had sat on there had begun with this precious verse, and to my own soul it's a very precious thing and a thrill to be able to start.
Another Gospel meeting with John 316, starting with the love of God.
God Southern loved the world. Have you ever just stopped and thought about that little expression?
You think of the awesomeness and the greatness of our God, and yet God Southern loved the world. I I can't quote statistics like some people, but if we were to bring statistics here and quote them as to the number of galaxies and stars within those galaxies and the expanse of the universe and how it all was not just brought into being through the word of his power, but it's sustained by the word of his power as well. He's upholding it all by him. All things subsist, work under his direction.
It's staggering to think about. And yet we're just a speck. We're just a little marble in God's great creation. And this is where God sent his Son. God so loved the world and all. Tonight, I trust that by the Spirit of God, if you don't know the Lord Jesus as your savior, that that love will so grip and melt your heart that you can't resist but to come and receive the Lord Jesus.
00:10:06
To be able to leave this meeting, to be able to call God your Father and the Lord Jesus.
Your savior, Your friend, your Lord, Your guide. We only have a few moments tonight.
In the allotted time to speak about this subject of love. It's a vast subject, but I am reminded of the missionary Edgerton Young. Back in the early days of exploration in North America, Egerton Young was a missionary to the Canadian Indians in British Columbia in what is known as the Peace River District of British Columbia, and Edgerton Young went to that area amongst those people.
With a burning desire in his soul to present the gospel and the message of God's love to those who have had never heard it before.
Let me just put a little parenthesis in our story. You know, I often have in other parts of the world the opportunity to present the gospel to those that perhaps are hearing it for the first time or have never heard a clear gospel before. And it is a great challenge and a great exercise before God to seek my grace to put the message clear and simple.
But sometimes I wonder, as I look into the faces of an audience like this, if it isn't even a greater challenge to present the gospel to those who have heard it many times, and to those who have perhaps become dull of hearing there. Your heart has perhaps become hardened. You've heard it so many times, gone out of gospel meetings without receiving Christ, rejecting, neglecting, whatever the case may be.
It's a great challenge to present a gospel message in either situation. But here with Edgerton, young and a day was appointed when he, that tribe of Indians, was to meet and he was to present the message that he had brought.
And Edgerton Young stood up, they say, amongst 2 to 300 Indians.
And he opened to this precious verse, and he read it slowly and clearly.
And he read it again, and, as the story goes, for four solid hours.
He spoke from John 316.
When he finally sat down, every eye turned to one who seemed to be.
The principal chief amongst them, they were looking for his reaction.
That chief rose slowly and with a great deal of pomp and ceremony. He came in front of his people, and he turned to Edgerton Young and he said, Mr. Young, for some time I have not believed in our gods. I have not believed in the great spirit that my people worship.
He said. For some time I have had no peace in my soul, but you have brought a message today.
That has brought peace to my soul. Stay amongst us and preach this glorious story.
As long as you like.
Oh, it is a glorious story. It's a story, I say, of a love.
That outshines every other human love. God Southern loved. I love that little word so it gives intensity to it, doesn't it? It doesn't just say God loved, but he so loved. Do you understand tonight how much God loves you?
God so loved the world that he proved his love. You know, sometimes people say they love us.
And after a while we might go away and shake our head and say, well, they say that they love us, but it's just words. They don't really show it. We like people who prove in by their actions that they love us, that they mean what they say. But this book doesn't just tell us that God loves us. It shows us that God proved his love by sending his son, the Lord Jesus, into this world. God so loved the world that he gave.
I want to stress that for a moment because God is a giving God.
God's desire is to bless. You know, Satan is not our friend.
You know Satan tonight would like to keep you from coming to the Lord Jesus.
And he and his angels, demons are going to do everything they can.
To keep souls from coming under the good of redemption and deliverance.
00:15:00
Satan is not our friend. And remember this, Satan only wants you for what he can get out of you.
Satan is not a giver. He's a taker, and it tells us in the Book of Proverbs that the way.
Of the transgressor is hard.
I thought of it in connection with that very apartment picture back in the book of Exodus where the children of Israel were slaves in Egypt. It's a picture of what we are by nature. We're slaves of sin. We're in ******* to Satan and his host. And there they were in Egypt. Did Pharaoh care about the children of Israel? All he wanted them for was what he could get out of them.
As long as they could make brick and build his treasure cities, he was happy to have them. And it's interesting that there came a point even when he said to his overseer, the overseers, he said, don't even give them straw. They're gonna have to go out and gather their own straw to make Brick, but make sure they keep up their tally. That's the world, you know? I see it every week in the corporate world as I travel. I have privileges, because of my frequent flyer status, to be in the business lounges of the major airports of this continent and this world.
And I rub shoulders with the upper echelon of the corporate and the political world, and you soon realize that they're running harried.
They can't even sit on a plane from Ottawa to Toronto at 6:00 in the morning and enjoy a cup of coffee. As soon as the flight attendant tells us that we can turn our laptops on or our devices, they're feverishly working. They're upset if there is an Internet in the air. Now when they land, they they're either go to the business lounge to plug in and continue getting their PowerPoint presentation ready, or their car is waiting to take them downtown to their seminar or their business meeting. And tonight they're going to reverse it all. And when they get home late tonight, they're gonna go down to their office at home and they're gonna try to get ready for tomorrow. That's the world.
But all I'm thankful to tell you tonight that God wants you, not for what he can get out of you.
But he wants you for what he can give you. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.
And cometh down from the father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, nor shadow of turning.
God, who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with Him get freely give us?
All things that is the heart of God. God is for you tonight.
And he has provided a way of salvation through the gift of his Son.
God has given many gifts to man, and we're going to speak of it in a further in a moment. But the greatest gift God has ever given to this world and to mankind is the gift of his Son. I really believe that's the gift that the Apostle Paul referred to when he wrote to the Corinthians. He said thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift because every other gift and blessing that God has ever bestowed or ever will bestow upon mankind.
Is based on the giving of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever.
Believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Before we pass on, we better stress a very solemn side of the gospel, and that is that everyone of us born into this world are sinners, You know, before we even sin, which doesn't take very many moments after we're born into this world, but even before we sin, we're sinners. Every person born into this world is born with a sinful.
Fallen nature that we inherited because of Adam's sin.
When Adam sinned in disobedience and ate of the forbidden fruit, it says by one man's disobedience, sin entered and death by sin. So death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. And we want to be very clear on this. And God can have neither sinners or sin in heaven apart from something that he has provided. You know God has always taught from the beginning of time that sin is a thing that is not fit for his presence.
And so, when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, God immediately announced the news that the woman's seed would bruise the head of the serpent.
How could he do such a thing? Well, he first of all provided coats of skin for Adam and Eve, and that necessitated the death of and shedding blood of blood of an innocent victim or victim. But God was looking forward to the time when his Son, the Lord Jesus, that sinless sacrifice would go to the altar, would go to Calvary's cross, and there would be offered as that great supreme sacrifice and all those sacrifices in the Old Testament.
00:20:17
They were just pale reflections, people, foreshadows of what was really in the mind and heart of God.
Looking forward to his son.
You know, tonight, if you're not saved, you're on your way to hell. That's just the plain and simple scriptural truth of the matter.
I'm not going to pull any punches. I know that there are preachers today who gloss over this.
And they don't like to talk about hell. And I remember 1 preacher after a service.
An older brother, and it wasn't. It was a funeral service. And this, this, this preacher, he had preached a good word as far as it went. But an older brother that was in fellowship at the Lord's table, he said to this man afterwards, You never mentioned hell or a lost eternity. Always said we don't want to play on people's emotions at a time like this. People's emotions. We're talking about eternity. We're talking about forever.
Those who land in the lake of fire are going to be there forever and ever and ever and ever. You know, we talk about spending eternity. And I have no problem with the expression because even in Scripture, the Spirit of God puts things in human language so we can understand, at least to some degree, what the Spirit of God is teaching us. But, you know, it's interesting. Think about the the, the expression, spend eternity.
You know you can spend time, you can spend a bank account, but I'm not so sure you can spend something that has no ending.
How can you spend eternity? Now we use the expression. I use it myself because it helps us to understand what we're talking about. But when you really think about it, in a lost eternity, it's not gonna be like spending time and there's going to be a light at the end of the tunnel. It's not gonna be like prisoners. And I've been in many prisoners to preach the gospel and visit, and you often find calendars with checking off the day, prisoners talking about their parole date or their release date. There's a light at the end of the tunnel.
Unless you're there for life without parole, of course. But there's always that hope you're living for that they're living for that day.
When they'll get their release. But I think one of the most awful things about a lost eternity is there's no hope. There's no release date. The Lord told a story in Luke's Gospel about a man who ended up in a place of torment.
And you know he's still there. It wasn't a parable either. It was a real story. When there's a name connected with a story, it's not a parable.
Now the rich man is not given by name, but Lazarus, who went to a place of blessing. He is given by name a story about two men who actually lived in this world. And there, when they drew their last breath and departed this life, their eternal destiny was fixed. And the man who lifted up his eyes in hell, being in torment, he wanted one drop of water. You know what's interesting? He didn't ask to be released because I believe he understood that his eternal destiny was fixed. All he wanted was someone to bring him.
A drop of water to cool his tongue.
You know, I spend a great deal of my time pretty close to the equator, either in the jungle or the desert, and sometimes you wish you could just open a jar or a can and get one blast of cold air. You think it would be so refreshing, But not on the Sinai Peninsula, when it's almost 140°F. It's pretty hot. It's arid, but that's still hot, arid, or humid. I've been in the jungle of South America, 1° from the equator and almost at sea level.
It is so hot and humid, you think you're gonna take a heart attack because the air is so heavy.
And you feel every breath. You think if you could just get one blast of cold air it would be so refreshing. The man in hell asked for one drop of water for momentary relief. He never got it and he never will. Oh, it's a solemn, serious thing. But oh, tonight we have the love of God to present. And we found in first John chapter 4 where we read that God has clearly shown his love to us. And this was manifested the love of God.
If we were to go to a secular dictionary and look up the word manifest, we would find that a secular dictionary tells us it means to clearly show. In other words, God has clearly shown His love to us in the giving of His son. I'm going to repeat a little story, but I know I've told before, but to me it's so aptly illustrates what we have in this expression manifested.
00:25:23
I suppose most of us have heard or even read something of the life and exploits of David Livingstone. David Livingstone was an explorer for the British government back in the days when there was very little known about the continent of Africa, and he went there to map out much of that continent for the British government. But he went there too, with a far greater motive than just an explorer from the for the British government.
David went there again with a burning desire to take the good news of the gospel.
To those who were steeped in Heath and Umm, and had never heard it before.
You know, it's a very sad thing to go to places where heathendom is the order of the day. I have seen people bow down and worship idols made of various things. I have seen people who try their whole life to appease their gods. It's a very sad and a very solemn thing. But David Livingstone went with the gospel and many were saved, I believe. But the story is told of he and his wife.
And their young son who were staying amongst a certain tribe of Africans.
And preaching the gospel and the spirit of God was really working. But David knew that down the river.
With another tribe who had never heard the gospel. But they were warned. David and his family were warned by those that they had been living and working amongst not to venture any further into the interior, that they would never come out alive. But such was the yearning of David's heart that one day, against the pleadings of the natives, he and his wife and their baby got into a boat and started down that river.
When they got to that area, they were startled.
To hear all kinds of cries and war, whoops. To look along the Bank of that river and see natives brandishing Spears and running, hit her and yon, ready to do them harm.
And as they approached the beach, David tried everything possible.
To try to make those natives see that he had come in peace, but nothing seemed to work.
And after everything else seemed to fail, David turned to his wife.
And he said, hand me the baby.
And you can just imagine the emotions that must have passed between a husband and a wife. There they could see those natives on the shore, ready to do the man at a moment's notice. And David says to his wife, give me the baby. She hesitated and finally handed their young son to David. And as they approached the shallow water of the shore, he stepped out into the shallow water, and in his outstretched arms he held that child.
Toward those natives, and they said the effect was absolutely amazing.
That the baby held out to them was a symbol to them that David had come.
In peace and love. And as the account goes, David and his wife stayed amongst those natives for some time and there was great blessing. There were many saved as David told them, of a far greater love of God sending his son into this world. But oh, let's make no mistake about it, There are many who have risked their lives. There have been many like David who have risked their children for the.
Blessing of humanity but all the Lord Jesus.
He came into this world at the bidding of God, his father.
And he didn't risk his life. He gave his life. Greater love hath no man than this than a man lay down his life for his friends, we read.
And the Lord Jesus turned to the disciples who were with him on that occasion. And he said, Ye are my friends. The Lord Jesus came into this world, and he knew exactly.
What the cost would be, but there was no hesitation. His first and foremost motive was love and obedience to his father. But there was also that motive of love to you and to me, because he understood very clearly that there was no other way that God could reach out in blessing to man.
00:30:10
Except he come and go to Calvary's cross and lay down his life. You know, as we go through the Old Testament, it was mentioned today that in the Old Testament we have those pictures. We have those types and shadows and figures of what we have in the New Testament. Many beautiful pictures of the Lord Jesus. And there are some beautiful outstanding pictures in the Old Testament of the Father sending the Son.
To me, two of the most complete, and there are others but two of the most complete are Israel sending Joseph to his brethren and Jesse sending David to the camp of Israel when they were fighting with the Philistines. But you know, as I've read those accounts, I thought if Israel or Jacob, same person, if Israel had, had any idea of what was going to happen.
The day he sent Joseph to see how it was with his brothers, if Israel had had any inkling.
Of the treatment that his other sons were going to heap upon the son of his love.
The one who he had made a coat of many colors for, if he'd had any inkling that for years he was going to be under the impression that Joseph had been killed.
And that he would never see him again.
Would he have sent him on that occasion? I have often wondered. Israel didn't know the end of the story when Jesse sent David to the camp of Israel to take some supplies to his brothers. If Jesse had had any idea how his brothers would treat him, and that his oldest son Eliab was going to even judge the motive of David's heart for coming down. And that David was then going to go with five smooth stones and a sling and meet the champion of the Philistines, and from that point run for his life from King Saul and have to live in The Cave of Adela and suffer the way he did.
I daresay he would have kept him home feeding those few sheep in the wilderness.
Israel didn't know. Jesse didn't know.
Joseph didn't know what it was going to cost to be obedient to his father. David didn't know what it was going to cost to be obedient to his father. But God knew the end of the story, and the Lord Jesus knew the end of the story as well. The Lord Jesus knew that cost. But there was no hesitation on his part because he said, as he said, greater love hath no man than this. You're my friend. I'm going to go to the cross and I'm going to lay down my life.
For you, I'm gonna tell you another little story Again, it's a familiar story. It's in print. You can pick a little cracked up at Bible Truth, and you can read this story for yourself. But it's a story that took place many years ago on the Passaic River in New Jersey. The Passaic River runs some 80 miles across northern New Jersey, and the story is told about a man who was the keeper of one of the bridges, railway bridges on that river.
His name was Albert Decker, and Albert Decker was responsible for the opening and closing of that railway bridge as to whether there was a boat going through or a train coming. And one Friday afternoon he had opened the bridge to let a boat pass. He knew he had plenty of time to open the bridge, let the boat pass, and put down the bridge again for the afternoon train from New York City.
But as he began to put the bridge down, he noticed his young son Peter running up the embankment.
To be with his father. But as his son got to the edge of the embankment, he lost his footing.
And he went down to the dark waters of the Passaic River below.
As that was happening in, Albert Decker saw what was happening. He also heard, in the far distance the whistle of the afternoon train from New York City. Oh, I can't imagine what must have wrenched through a father's soul. He knew, if he took time to dive into those waters and rescue his son, that the bridge would remain up, and that that speeding train would go down into those waters and many souls would perish.
But there he stayed at his post, letting that bridge down, and it must have seemed an eternity.
00:35:05
As that bridge went down, and as he could hear the whistle of that train again, that bridge finally clicked into place.
That speeding train went across that bridge, and you can well believe that Albert Decker didn't lose anytime in diving into those waters.
But it was too late. Yes, he did reach the body of his Son, but his son had perished. He had given his Son to save the people on that train. Oh, I say this again. Just a pale reflection, a feeble story to illustrate God the Father giving his Son the Lord Jesus Christ. God is love.
Statement here made more than once.
In John's epistle, God is love. God is not an austere God.
I visit from time to time Hindu countries and when you see their gods.
In front of their temples, those gods always, I think without exception, have an angry look on their face, some kind of a frown or a scowl, something that repels you, something that makes you take a step backwards. And that's why I say these people spend their whole life trying to appease their God or their gods, but I don't have to appease my God tonight. Sometimes people say, have you made your peace with God? I could never make peace with God if I had all eternity to do it.
But I don't have to, because it tells us that he's made peace through the blood of his cross.
Let me just dress them for a moment. Another important aspect of the gospel, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
There is one and only one remedy for sin tonight, and that is the blood of the Lord Jesus.
I've often told the story about a little boy who went off to Sunday school and.
He'd gone to that Sunday school for some time, and one Sunday afternoon he came home very excited. And he said to his mother, he said, Now, mother, they told us at Sunday school there's something that God cannot see. Well, his mother was very disturbed because she had always impressed upon her young son. Now, son, remember, God sees everything. The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good.
And she reaffirmed it too. Yes, Mother, but there is one thing that God cannot see. Now remember, Son, God sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance. The Lord looks on into the heart. God can see right into your heart. He knows your thoughts. Yes, Mother. But there is one thing that God cannot see.
She was wondering if she should have let her son go to that Sunday school and finally she said to him, OK, tell me, what is it they taught you that God cannot see? He said, My mother, it's my sins when they're washed in the blood of Jesus. I thought that was a good answer and my sins are gone. He's blotted them out as a thick cloud as far as the East is from the West. So far as he removed our transgressions from us, we have through his blood the forgiveness of sins. I'm justified. I'm sanctified. I'm brought nigh by the blood of the Lord Jesus.
We so often sing that glorious gospel chorus. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. All precious is the flow that makes us white as snow, no other fountain. I know nothing but the blood of Jesus. The Lord Jesus came into this world. He died on Calvary's cross. He gave himself in love. He shed his blood. They took him down from that cross. They put him in a new tomb where no one else had lain. A scripture had prophesied.
And it says he died, he was buried, and he rose again the 3rd day according to the scripture.
We have tonight a living Savior. We've spoken in a very feeble way tonight concerning the love of God, the love of the Lord Jesus, the glorious gospel message, the way of salvation. But all I want to stress at the close of this meeting just have a moment or few moments left. I want to stress that there is a Savior in heaven tonight. Again, there are thousands, millions of people in this world.
Who are bowing down and worshipping someone who's in the tomb? Mohammed is in the tomb tonight. Confucius is in the tomb. All the so-called great religious leaders Buddhas in the tomb. They they've lived and they've died and people will spend money and time and energy to make pilgrimages to to these tombs thinking it's going to better them before their God. We have a tomb too.
00:40:17
But over that tomb are these glorious words. He is not here. He has risen. Come see the place.
Where the Lord lay. But I would just say too, that we read this little expression in Mark's Gospel, chapter 10.
Because there was a young man who came to the Lord Jesus, we're not told in Mark that he was young, but in one of the other gospels where we have the same incident, it tells us he was a young man.
And he came to the Lord Jesus and it says, Jesus beholding him, loved him.
God loves you. God looks down into this world and he loves you. But the Lord Jesus loves you too.
Just as he loved this young man, he's looking down into this room. He singled you out as an individual.
And he loves you and he wants your blessing. You know, the sad thing is.
This young man went away, and as far as we read, he never received the blessing. It tells us one thing thou lackest. The one thing he lacked was salvation. The one thing he needed most of all he lacked. And I trust there's nobody, either young or old, tonight, who's going to get up off the seats and go out of this room.
Lost and in their sins, again refusing the love of God.
The love of the Lord Jesus. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. If you could just get one taste of the love of Jesus tonight, if you could just get one taste of what he has for you, then you would want more. You never. You know, I never had to teach my children to like sweets. Once they got one taste for it, they wanted more. I never had to teach them to eat ice cream. Oh, I had to try to force them to eat a few vegetables and something like that. But not ice cream, not chocolate. It was so sweet. They got one drop on their tongue and they wanted more.
And that's the way it is. With the love of God, that's the way it is. With the love of the Lord Jesus.
Tonight are you gonna come and taste and see that the Lord is good? But I am going to close with one more scripture in First John Chapter 3. And this is particularly directed to those of us who by the grace of God, and it's only by the grace of God those of us who by the grace of God have tasted of His love and come to know Christ as our Savior.
First, John chapter 3 and verse one. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.
So we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him, not beloved. Now are we the sons of God, And it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. You know there's an event going to take place momentarily. I can't tell you when the Lord Jesus is coming, but at the end of this gospel meeting I know one thing for sure.
We are closer to the coming of the Lord Jesus than we were 145 minutes ago. We are closer to the coming of the Lord Jesus than we were when we entered this building a few hours ago. For the lost, it's going to mean the door of grace. An opportunity to be saved is forever over for those who've heard the gospel, for those who have been pleaded with to come to Christ, but for those of us who know the Lord Jesus as our Savior.
He That love that has been showered upon us we're going to enjoy for all eternity.
In the Father's house, that love that we enjoy now is going to so surround us as we sit down in the sunshine of it that it is going to, I believe, eclipse everything else. So we look into the face of the Lord Jesus and sit down with the love of the the full feeling, expression, whatever word you want to use of the love of Christ, the love of God. Oh, I can't wait. It can't be soon enough for me.
But I am burdened at the end of this Gospel meeting, that there might be someone.
Who still is outside of God's mercy and grace, still neglecting or rejecting? I'm going to pray now. If you don't know Christ as your Savior, talk to God in your heart. Talk to the Lord Jesus in your heart. He hears what you say. Whether you enter you, you say one word or other one word aloud, and the faintest feeblest cry will bring you into that place of blessing, that place of the enjoyment of His love and His blessings for the rest of this life, the rest of the time here and for all eternity.
The Lord our Security and Helper
Obey
Children—Tim Kaiser
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Hi there, are there any kids that want to come and sit up here in the front row? There'll be lots of space here looks like.
You can come up in your own time. How about we sing a song? I see one person. Do you have a song you want to sing? Yeah. What song?
The wise man OK, we don't have hymn sheets so we can sing by memory.
Now.
We usually sing four or five verses. I don't know, everybody knows them. So how about let's just start. The wise man built his house.
Upon the rock the wise man built his house upon the rock, and the rain came tumbling down.
Breaking down and the flood came. Rain came down as the flood came up.
And the thousand Suns and thumb light, if you build on Christ, who is the rock. So if you build on bright spirit run, if you build on Christ and it is a rock, you'll be saved by the judgment comma gratitude day Wednesday night when it comes, you will be in faith when the judgment comes.
Will be saved when the judgment comes if you will not write the wrong.
1St I'm missing right now, how does it start?
We always sing another one but I'm forgetting it. How does it start?
Is that what we're just saying? No. So build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Of your life on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the blessed things will come down. The blessings will come down. As your prayers go on. The blessings will come down as the prayers go along. The last things will come now. And as the prayers go up. And joyful, joyful, joyful you will be. I change everything. I change everything. All right.
Sisson.
When Mothers of Salem, OK.
I think I can at least start it.
When mothers are sick.
I saw that there. They cried and took them in his arms and said one Ferguson jailed me to come and do it.
Who has another song?
Is that #52 OK #52 and you said?
Go ahead, say it.
00:05:02
She said Jesus loves me, which is the same one. OK?
We'll sing 52 which is Jesus loves me.
Cheese.
And.
I will help you know.
It is not a problem.
By heroin, the way my sins let all the landfills. I'll come in. Yeah. Because I love me. Yeah. She's a lovely. Yeah. She's not something. You've got my hotel, Nicole.
Change and all of the dogs need to tell what I'm trying to be a railway hairstyle from his shining O one night he will watch me where I lie. Yeah, she's unplugged me. Yeah, she's not lost me.
Yeah, she's not loved me the Bible. Help me go.
OK, all right. We're going to sing some more later because I like to sing a lot and I like to hear little children singing. I don't get to sing little kids songs all that much.
Now I know some of you have learned a verse and.
How about?
Let's read it first.
And I always get a little bit of stage fright, so let's see if I can remember where it is.
Let's see here. Can anyone tell me where it is?
Someone say it out loud.
Let's see if someone can.
Tell me before I find it.
Oh, I found it. OK, it's Colossians 320 and it says, Children, obey your appearance in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Colossians 320 OK, who is ready to say the verse? And do I have the right verse?
Yeah, you ready to say the verse?
Good job, could use this thing here.
Just hold it out to him, OK? Who else wants to say it?
You don't have to use the microphone.
Are you ready to say it, Rosemary?
Not yet. OK, how about you?
No.
OK, here we have someone. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Colossians 320. Good job. OK, anybody else?
How about?
Well, just give that a rest for a minute.
This got dragged on the ground on the way in here.
Umm, who knows what this is?
00:10:00
And someone needs to tell me who's 10 years old or younger because I don't think the older people know.
It's a speaking tube.
How about you?
I didn't bring the uh, I didn't bring the, uh, microphone to.
He thinks it's a pool noodle.
Who thinks it's a pool noodle?
Ha, who thinks it is speaking tube?
You're right, and so are you.
We've been traveling in a van for two weeks and uh.
It's loud in the van.
And the kids can hear us when they want to.
So lots of times we can't hear them, and the more we say speak up, the quieter they talk. So late one night when I should have been sleeping, I went to a Walmart or a Target or something like that and I asked, do you sell any hoes? No, Sir, we don't.
Where is well I went I went looking for a hose to talk through.
And I found a speaking tube.
I think it works. Can you hear me?
Here, that's right.
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
It works.
You know, we're in a van for two weeks and it got real tiring trying to listen to each other.
And this really, really helped here. What Rosemary had to say. Not so much for Abigail.
Because she couldn't figure out how to use it, she used it like this.
It's fun to use it like this.
But you know.
We all are fortunate.
The Lord has given us the word of God in our hands and in a way.
It's a speaking tube because, you know, we live in a world that has a lot of things going on, lots of people trying to tell us what to do.
I can just watch my kids, you know, they're always telling each other what to do.
Watch everybody else. You know, I was sitting in the lobby this morning early and I saw a man walk in and he was wearing a shirt that says OBEY.
I had a good long conversation with him.
He was, it said, worldwide propaganda. Obey.
A lot of food for thought there.
There's a lot of people trying to tell us what to do, and that particular mark of clothing is trying to tell us what to wear.
But you know, God has given us the Bible and he.
He's he's talking right to us. Can you hear me?
Good SO.
This verse.
See if I can find it again.
I'm really bad when people are watching me trying to find things in here.
I'm really glad I learned that song about the books of the Bible, ha.
It says children. OK, so who here thinks this is talking to them? If it says children, who here is a child?
OK, I guess I'm a child.
That's my dad sitting over there.
OK, so it says children obey your parents and I asked one of my kids earlier.
Who are your parents?
That's what she said. Who is it?
She didn't know what the word meant. All right, who can tell me? Let's see. Can you tell me who are your parents?
Mom and dad, that's right. You know, there's words in here that we all have to learn what different words mean. Children, most children learn that word. Parents.
Apparently I hadn't taught my child that I was her parent. She didn't know that word. She knew dad, daddy, stuff like that. But OK, so children, it says.
00:15:09
God is speaking.
Children.
Well, they are your parents.
My children know what obey means. They learned that a while back. They know what it means not saying that. They've learned all that it means.
Dad, ha, have I learned all that obey means?
That's my parent.
Did you try to teach me a lot?
Was I very obedient?
So.
We all need to listen to this, don't we?
It says, children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. So it's really nice to have my dad here because I can ask him questions. He's my parents. It's good to ask your parents questions. So I'm gonna ask my one of my parents a question, Dad.
Oh, here I can get your microphone.
We need to be able to hear you clearly, so we won't use the speaking tube.
And, uh, I'm gonna ask you what pleasing means in a second.
So it says, children, obey your parents.
Why do we need to obey our parents?
Why should we obey our parents?
Well.
You know this verse that some of us have learned says, children obey your parents and all things, and God has said this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
What does that mean, Dad?
It's something he really likes, something he really appreciates, something he really enjoys.
And there's other reasons to obey our parents and to obey God, but we're told that. Could you say that again?
Something that is pleasing is something that is pleasing to God is something that God likes very much, that he appreciates very much, that He enjoys very much. So children, obey your parents in all things. So this is something that the Lord really enjoys. He likes, He appreciates it.
You know what? That doesn't speak just to the little children here, does it?
Sure, I'll show you in your box, you know each one of you kids. Some of you have your own Bibles too. And just like in my Bible, in your Bible, in Colossians chapter.
Three.
Verse 20.
There it is right there, Rosemary. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord, and you know.
We use that word please a lot. We say if we really want somebody to do something, please do this or that. It's very polite. It makes someone feel good when you use the word please, because really what we're saying is if it would please you, please do this if, if you would, if that's something that you enjoyed, something that you would feel good doing.
That's really where it comes from and we want if well.
If we have the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts, we do want because He puts that desire in us. We see in Philippians 213 He puts us, puts in us the desire to do what is pleasing to the Lord. And you and you and I are told, obey your parents in all things for this.
Is something that the Lord really appreciates and enjoys.
And wants, you know the children aren't the only ones told what to do. This list tells us. Tell us things for wives and husbands, fathers and servants, what they should do, how to please the Lord. Whatever you do, whatsoever you do, do it hardly as to the Lord, and not unto men. You know, sometimes when I'm correcting my children.
00:20:15
Because they've done something that does not please me.
I forget to tell them that, really.
When I'm telling you to obey me.
What I'm doing is.
I'm doing what God has told me to do, to teach you so that you can please the Lord. Because we don't. We're not born wanting to do what's right. We were born wanting to go our own way and do what we think will make us happy. And you know, I was talking to that man this morning. They had the shirt that said obey.
And I talked to him.
And he said that he went to church. He said that he listened to people preach.
And then as long as you were happy in life and not hurting anybody and you were OK.
And I'm afraid he.
He hasn't been.
Listening to God, he hasn't been reading his own Bible.
If you have a Bible and your parents have a Bible, they're going to be teaching you.
About God. They're gonna be reading God's word to you and teaching you what is right. And you know what? Your parents are gonna make mistakes and sometimes they're gonna have to apologize to you. Usually when I have to correct my children.
They have to apologize with for what they've done wrong. But you know what?
I have to say I'm sorry to God too when I've done wrong and apologized to my to my children too, because I've done wrong to them.
Now, is there anyone else that wants to say the verse I don't want? You can use the speaking to, or you can use the microphone, or you can say it just by yourself. Anybody that wants to say the verse.
OK, that's OK.
All right, how about we sing another song? People have hymn books now.
No.
#59.
Oh, sure.
Let's talk about.
The.
Great I am the way the truth of life in the Lord once I got he's on the corner and more and in the need Wonderful wonderful.
Wonderful.
I am seeing years after his recorded in Gothenburg. It is indeed, my Lord, wonderful, wonderful.
00:25:40
Is the wonderful wonderful wonderful in the dream of my Lord wonderful reach out to the rich child care Clover Lakes. How big drawer there and we're more yourself today 1/3 also.
Who has another one?
Number 98.
When we walk with the Lord.
Inside the river.
One more tree and one hour.
While we do his dream well, I want everything and go when it falls as we thought and no way.
OK.
One more chance. Anyone wanna whisper the verse to me through the speaking tube?
Do you want to lose me?
OK.
Good job.
Anybody else?
Children, obey your parents in all things.
For this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
We're all children here in one way or another.
Obedience is something that takes all of our life.
To do. It's not something we do just once.
And we keep learning.
I don't have anything more so unless somebody has one more song.
OK, number 99.
Jesus may come in the morning.
00:30:08
Jesus must make all I do.
He must make a busy evening.
4 here, coming soon.
Let me just look at that song here, Whisper.
Feed on God's Word.
In the morning, noon and evening.
Jesus might come this morning. Jesus might come while we're eating lunch. Jesus might come this evening.
Children, obey your parents and all things, for this is well pleasing.
To who? To the Lord, and he might come today.
He might come as soon as we're.
Follow in His Steps
Address—Jim Hyland
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I'd like to start the meeting this afternoon with 275 Our God is Light, and though we go across a trackless wild Our Jesus footsteps ever show the path for every child? 275 If someone could please start it.
By way of introduction to what I have on my heart this afternoon, I'd like to read 2 portions of scripture. The first one is in First Peter Chapter 2.
First Peter, Chapter 2.
And verse 21.
Or even hereunto where ye called, because Christ also suffered for us.
Leaving us an example that you should follow his steps and then in Luke's Gospel chapter 18.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 18 and verse one.
And he spake A parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint. I have it on my heart this afternoon to take up some instances in Luke's gospel where we have the Lord Jesus as the perfect dependent man in prayer. As we read in First Peter, we find that he's left us an example that we should follow in his steps.
00:05:04
Now, I realize that on our schedule, this is scheduled as a young people's meeting, and I have a particular burden for those who are younger. But it's not because those of us who old are older don't need these exhortations. And I would just say at the outset of this meeting, you young people, if you think life is tough now, I'm not going to stand here and tell you it gets any easier as we get older. There's more and more that comes into our lives more, more pressure of life.
The enemy doesn't give up, and there's always those things that affect us in one way or another and things that are unique according to where we find ourselves as to physical age.
And so it doesn't get any easier. And I used to be a young person sitting in meetings like this and wondering how I would get along in life if the Lord left us here. And life has been a struggle. But I've learned one thing. At least the Lord is sufficient. He's able for every situation. And we sometimes sing that hymn through every period of my life. Thy goodness, I'll pursue whatever period of life we're in here this afternoon.
Whether it's you young people, whether it's those of you who are raising families, those of us who are a little further along in the path of faith and service, I want to tell you the Lord is sufficient. He's able, and He's able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. And I want to encourage you again, you young people, especially that as you take up the word of God and read it, Go back to the Gospels again and again.
As we've heard in these meetings, we need every segment, every part of the word of God. We need the Old Testament. We need Pauls ministry, the other New Testament writers. We need the prophetic scriptures. All these are important. But we also need the Gospels, because there we have, as Peter has told us, the example that we should follow in in his steps, the Lord Jesus as the perfect dependent man.
He hasted through this world in the path of faith and service, and he is the only one.
Who began and completed the path of faith and perfection. That's really what it means in Hebrews 12, where we're exhorted. Looking unto Jesus. The author and finisher is not so much of our faith. The hour in our King James Bibles is in italics, but he's the author and finisher of faith. He's the beginner and completer of faith. In other words, he began and completed the path of faith.
Imperfection. And now he's seated at the right hand of God as the object for you and for me. And we certainly need that object, the heavenly man, there at God's right hand. But I say it's important to go back to the Gospels and to read them. I like to read something in the Gospels at least several times a week so that I have that perfect example. And as I say, we're going to go to Luke's Gospel.
Where the Lord Jesus said to his own men ought always to pray and not faint, and we're going to follow one aspect of the Lord's life, and that is the aspect of him as the perfect, perfect, dependent man in prayer. Before we do that, I'll just say reiterate what I know has often been said and perhaps even alluded to already in these meetings, and that is when you go back to the four gospels.
You have the Lord Jesus presented in four different aspects of his person and work. I'll just give you a very brief summary. In Matthew's Gospel is the Lord Jesus is presented as the Jewish King or Messiah. Matthew is the gospel that is most Jewish in its character. There we find things that are unique to Matthew's Gospel, such as the wise men coming from the east to worship him, the only gospel where you get the wise men coming.
To worship him, we find it's the most it's the gospel that has the most Old Testament quotes.
Interestingly enough, as Jewish as it is in its character, it's the only gospel where the Lord introduces the truth of the Church.
In the 16th chapter and the 18th chapter, he introduces the subject of the Church not developed, of course. Interestingly enough too, it's the Gospel that is most dispensational in its character. We find then, in Mark's Gospel the Lord Jesus is presented as the perfect servant. That's why there's no genealogy in Mark's Gospel, because back in those times it was not important for a slave or a servant to be able to declare their genealogy.
00:10:26
And Mark's Gospel starts with his public ministry, with his service, and it goes from one busy service to another, so much as it says they had no time even to eat. And you have words in Mark like a nun and forthwith and straightway he's there, the perfect servant. Interestingly enough, too, Mark is the gospel that's most chronological in its in its presentation, if you want to see the chronology of the activities of the Lord.
Go to Mark's Gospel. That's where you have that Luke then where we and we will speak of this in a few moments. As I say, we have the perfect dependent man, and Luke is the least chronological in his presentation of the person and work of Christ. Because in Luke's gospel, the Spirit of God is not concerned with chronology as much as he is concerned with a moral order of things. And so if you sometimes people are confused when they read Luke's Gospel because they say, well, I didn't think this event followed this or came before that.
Never mind that. See the moral order that's presented there. John presents the Son of God and it's the most doctrinal of the four Gospels, chapters taken up with with truth. As to the introduction of Christianity, for instance, the upper room ministry, it's only in John's Gospel where you have thir the 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th chapters where the Lord Jesus sows the seed.
Of the truth that is later developed in the Epistles preparing the disciples for his departure and as I say, the introduction of Christianity. But coming back to Luke's gospel, where we have the Lord Jesus as the dependent man time and time again, as we are going to see we will that we have the Lord Jesus in prayer. We're going to look at seven times in Luke's Gospel where we have the Lord Jesus.
In this way, before we make some more comments, let's go to the first incident and it's in the third chapter.
Chapter 3 of Luke's Gospel.
And verse 21.
Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized and praying that heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son in thee I am well pleased. Before I comment specifically on this first occasion here, I would just say that.
Prayer is the very breath of the divine life. In fact, I believe that it is a proof that there has been a work of God in the soul.
We find that with Saul of Tarsus, when he was converted on the Damascus Rd. you remember the story how that he saw that light shone down. There was a voice from heaven. And Saul of Tarsus answered and said, What wilt thou have me to do? And he was blinded, LED into the city and to a certain address, And Ananias was told to go and see Saul of Tarsus. And I can just picture Ananias saying, but Lord.
This man has come to persecute us. He's got a reputation for taking Christians in chains back to Jerusalem. He's got a reputation for really persecuting the Church of God. And now you want me to go and make myself known to him? But what was the confirmation that was given to Ananias? The Lord said to Ananias, You'll find him at a certain address, and behold, he prayeth. Seems to me that was all the confirmation Ananias needed.
Because as soon as Saul of Tarsus was saved, as soon as he was converted, he was in the attitude of prayer. I say prayer is the very breath of the divine life, and prayer is the expression of two things. It's the expression of dependence and confidence. And before we go on, I just want to say to you, young people, cultivate the habit of not only reading the word of God, but the habit of prayer in your life.
00:15:12
We've had many exhortations in these meetings already as to the importance of cultivating the habit of orderly, consistently reading of the Holy Scriptures and in when it comes to the word of God. That's how God speaks to us. But then we can come and we can speak to the Lord. It's a two way thing. So as Brother Tim brought before us in the Sunday School, he had that speaking tube and.
His daughter could speak to him. He could speak to his daughter, but his daughter could speak to him as well. And so he wants us to listen. That's true. It's vital. But he wants us to come and speak to him as well. Prayer, I say, is speaking to the Lord. It's freely addressing God. Isn't it a tremendous thing that you and I can come into the very throne room of the universe and we can freely address God?
We can freely speak to the Lord Jesus, the Lord of life and glory. If we were to show up on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, or Parliament Hill in Ottawa, where I come from, would we be allowed access to the greats of this world, those who are in high places politically? Absolutely not. Why? They'd arrest us and take us away if we tried to get in to the Oval Office or we tried to get into the office of the Prime Minister of Canada.
If we tried to get into Buckingham Palace and we've heard stories of people who've tried to break in, sneak in and they've been stopped and they've been arrested and charged. But we can come, I say into the very throne room of the of the universe. And we sometimes sing that hymn. Did you think to pray this morning? Did you did you come before the Lord this morning? I'm not asking you to answer me. You answering your own heart. Did you spend a few moments in prayer?
Because the habits we develop in our youth are what are going to stand us in good stead as we get older. For some of us, it's almost too late to try to form good habits if we haven't formed them already. Why was Daniel found three times a day in prayer as an old man in the 6th of Daniel? It didn't start in the 6th of Daniel. No. Daniel was characterized, I believe, as a man of prayer because it says he prayed three times a day.
And I love this little expression as he did a four time. It wasn't something he just started to do when he was promoted under the King Darius or something he did just because he was facing the difficulty in connection with the lion's den. No, it was the habit of his life. And so we'll see this as we go through these examples that the Lord has laid out for us, for you and for me in our day-to-day life.
And so we find here the Lord Jesus in prayer at his baptism.
Now, it's very interesting that in three of the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, we have this incident. But Luke is the only gospel that tells us that the Lord Jesus was praying at this time before I comment against specifically on that. This is a very beautiful incident in the life of the Lord Jesus, and there are three things that are very remarkable to notice in connection with his baptism. And that is first of all.
The Son of God had become tangible. He had come in incarnation. Even a secular dictionary will tell us that incarnation means Christ coming human form. What else could it be? It's the only the Lord Jesus who has ever come in this way. In incarnation. Here was the Son of God tangible. We find too that the Father becomes audible because those who stood on the banks of Jordan that day, they heard that voice from heaven declaring who this one was.
And for a moment the Spirit of God becomes visible. I can only think of two instances in Scripture where the Spirit of God became visible. One is here in the bodily form of a dove. The other is on the day of Pentecost when it came on those that were in the upper room in obedience to the Word of the Lord, there in the form of cloven tongues of fire. And so the sun becomes tangible, the Father becomes audible, and the Spirit becomes visible.
00:20:02
This might be just a little bit of side, but I've enjoyed this in connection with the bodily form of a dove. In connection with the dove that Noah let out of the ark. You remember that after the flood, Noah let a dove out of the ark. But the ark, the dove found no place for the soul of its foot. It came back to the ark, but finally the dove found a place that it could rest in this world. There was an object in this world, a perfect object, as one of the writers said, an object that might commend the place.
And finally the dove finds rest for the sole of her foot, and it's really the God the Father giving confirmation as to who this was before his public ministry, lest there was any doubt in the minds of those that looked on as to who this was that came to John for baptism. The Spirit of God comes in a bodily form, and the Father confirms that this was his beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased.
But we find, as I say, that the Lord Jesus was praying here, And as I say, I believe there are practical lessons that we can learn.
As to this example that we have, and I believe here the one of the lessons at least is that as we are independent on the on, before and prayer before God, we're going to enter in more to the fullness of who this person is. Do you want to know who the Lord Jesus is? Do you want to get to know the real essence of His being? There's no other way than spending time in in prayer.
And so we find here the Lord Jesus.
Uh was was in prayer? Umm And I say it's the only gospel of where he is. I might just make this comment too about heaven being opened and that is that when the Lord Jesus was here, heaven opened up because heaven was was occupied with the perfect object. And here the Lord heaven opened up because the Lord Jesus was praying. But for us heaven is open so that we can look up in prayer.
To God the Father and God the Son. So not so much that heaven can look down on that perfect object. He's not here in this world anymore. He's gone. He's with the Father. He's there at the right hand of God. And now heaven is open so that we can look up and be occupied with the one that God would always occupy his people with, with that perfect object. The one who began as we said and completed the path of faith is seated as the object for you and for me.
And we can come to him. And I say the more we're occupied with with him and the more we're in prayer, independence, the more we're going to enter in to the fullness of the place that we have to through grace. You know, we'll never, we'll never take the place of the Lord Jesus. He's the only begotten of the Father. But you know, we are the sons of God. We are the children of God. And I say if we want to really appreciate that and understand the position we've been brought into.
Then we're going to have to spend that time in prayer. But now let's go on. We're only going to look at these quickly for the sake of time, but let's go on to the fifth chapter now.
Chapter 5.
And verse 16.
And he withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed.
If we were to back up in these chapters, between the incident we just looked at and this expression that we just read, we would find that three times it is recorded that as the Lord Jesus had performed His, begun His ministry and performed some miracles, his fame had gone out. In fact, in the 15th verse of this chapter we read that again, there was there a fame, there was a but so much the more went there of fame abroad of Him.
We find that he had ministered in the temple. He had cleansed the leper he'd given.
He he healed a man who who was possessed of a demon, I believe. But there are a number of incidents, and each time his fame goes out. And what does the Lord Jesus do now? He withdraws himself from his public ministry to pray. Because I believe there are several things we learn from this, and one is that if we're going to have power in our service for the Lord.
00:25:03
We must spend time in prayer. It's often been pointed out in young people. I can't stress this enough. Prayer is the powerhouse of the Christian life. It's the powerhouse of our lives individually. It's the powerhouse of our lives as families. And it's the powerhouse of our lives collectively as gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. You know, when I was younger, I read a lot of the biographies of men and women of a past era who served the Lord who went off to other lands.
Or who ran orphanages and served the Lord in tremendous ways.
And I used to marvel at the faith and the power they had in their ministry and how the Lord provided at a moment's notice when all it seemed like all human health had failed. And the Lord came in. And I used to marvel at that. And then I realized the reason they had such power and fruit and testimony in their Christian lives and service was they were men and women of prayer. Martin Luther said, I dare not spend 3 less than three hours a day in prayer.
No wonder. He was a man used mightily of God in connection with the Reformation. He understood where the power came from. You want to have power in your Christian life. You want to have fruit in your Christian life. Service for the Lord is wonderful, but you need to withdraw yourself. When you've done something for the Lord, spend time in prayer. I believe too, Prayer is a safeguard against pride in our service for the Lord. Now, don't misunderstand me.
The Lord had nothing in him that would be would equate with pride. He was wholly harmless, undefiled and separate from sin, from sinners. But remember, again, we're looking at this as an example for you and me. He's left us an example that we should follow in in His steps. And if you've done something for the Lord, and you've got a pat on the back from your brethren, and there's nothing wrong with encouragement from our brethren, let another man praise thee and not thine own lips.
Not flattery, but praise. And I want to encourage us. If someone has done something from the Lord and you appreciate it, there is there is praise that we we can give but young person and those of us who are older too. Because as we often hear, pride is the last thing to die in a person. And perhaps even as we get older, the pride of life is perhaps more of a snare than than when we're young. But.
If you've done something for the Lord and you've been appreciated and thanked, get into the presence of the Lord.
That'll take care of any pride that there might be in your service. The other thing too is remember, the more prayer, the more blessing. I remember some years ago we were visiting in an area and there was a sister who very kindly drove my wife and I from 1 busy activity to the other. We were in another country and there were many opportunities for the gospel and for visiting our brethren and so on, and little Bible studies and meetings.
And this sister kept reminding us. Remember Jim, remember Faye, the more prayer, the more blessing. And so when we are are given a little service to do for the Lord, we need to spend time in prayer. Why is it so often we labor for the Lord and we don't see the results that we should? Well, there may be a number of reasons, but I believe perhaps one reason is we haven't watered the good seed enough with prayer. We haven't been before the Lord.
Beseeching His blessing on what has transpired in prayer, Now remember everyone of us, young and old here today, who know the Lord Jesus as our Savior. We have a little service to perform for Him. It may not always be a public service, but that we, each one of us, have a service, be exercised as to what that service is, and then be exercised to take it up in the spirit and attitude of dependence and confidence.
Now let's go to the 6th chapter.
Chapter 6.
And verse 12. And it came to pass in those days that he went out into a mountain to pray.
And continued all night in prayer. And when it was day he called unto his disciple, called unto him his disciples.
00:30:02
And of them he chose 12 whom also he named apostles. Well, here we find the Lord Jesus praying on the mountain. If we were to go to some of the other gospels, like Matthew chapter 14, we would find that on more than one occasion the Lord Jesus went to a mountain to pray. A mountain in Scripture often speaks to us of separation, and I want to make this practical remark in that connection.
Again, this does not personally apply to the Lord Jesus, but we need, I believe, exhortations in connection.
With separation as to answers to prayer. Because if you and I are going to have the answers to prayer that he wants to give us, we need to walk in a path of separation from this world.
One reason that we don't have the answers to prayer always, that perhaps we should, is because we're not walking in practical separation. In fact, sometimes we're harboring something inwardly. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Scripture says the Lord will not hear me. And so, as our perfect example here, the Lord Jesus often resorted to a mountain along with his God.
In separation from all that was around him.
Prayer. And here we find he prays all night. I have to confess I have never spent all night in prayer. There are only two examples in scripture that I can think of of those who spent all night in prayer. One is the Lord Jesus here, and the other with Samuel. You remember when Samuel realized the condition of things in Israel as a result of the people having chose King Saul for their king.
It says. He cried unto the Lord all night. You know, that really humbles me, brother.
I have never been so concerned or burdened or exercised as to the condition of things amongst the people of God that I've spent all night in prayer. But Samuel was so exercised and so burdened about the moral condition of things in Israel that he cried to the Lord all night. But here we find the Lord Jesus himself in prayer all night. Why? Well, it was just before he chose.
Those that were going to be closest to him during his public ministry. Now did the Lord Jesus know who he was going to choose? Of course he did. And he knew that Judas was going to be the betrayer, that he would remain an unregenerate man for those three years plus and do his awful deed at the end. He knew what the disciples were going to be like, that Peter would deny him that eventually, in the hour of his greatest need, they would all forsake him and flee and so on.
But he spends all night in prayer as an example for you and for me.
Before he chooses, I say those who were to be closest to him.
During his public ministry, how much time do you and I spend in prayer before we choose those who are closest to us in the various spheres of life? What about our partner for life? I know there are some relationships forming here, and there's some weddings in the offing. How much time do we spend in prayer before we choose a partner for life?
The partner young people that you have for life is either going to make or break your life. They'll make or break your life. You know, I remember officiating at a wedding many miles from here and some years ago, and there was a there were a number of young men on the front row at that wedding. They had been specially invited and they were specially given a prominent place on the front row in front of those guests as the wedding, the wedding took place.
And someone said after.
In connection with the groom, they were special friends of the groom and someone said that young man chose his friends well. They were godly young men that sat there as special honored guests of the groom.
I thought that was very interesting. And the girl that he married was AI believe, a God, a godly girl. He chose his friends well, not just his partner for life, but those he had associated with up until that point. What about our closest friends, those that we go out with on Friday night, those that we spend extra time with? Are they those that are a help to us in our Christian pathway? Have we really prayed about them?
00:35:10
David said, I am a companion of all them that fear thee and that keep thy precepts. We mentioned yesterday in one of the meetings in connection with Daniel and his three friends. You know those three friends chose Daniel. They were they were blessed because of their choice. And Daniel, I believe was blessed because he chose his three friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego very carefully. And so our partner in life.
Our friends in life are going to going to affect us in a very real way. What about those we associate with? Perhaps in business do we pray about where we work? I I realize in the in the business world, in the work a day world, we have to associate with the ungodly and so on. But do we really pray about it and ask the Lord to guide us and direct us and perhaps make us a testimony to those that we work with or we go go to school with?
What about other believers? What about the believers we meet with from week to week? You know, it says of the of Peter and John when they were released from the council in the book of the Acts and being let go, they went to their own company. What is our own company? This morning we were able to sit down at the Lord's table in fellowship with the Lord Jesus, Yes, but in fellowship with with one another. You know when the Lord Jesus and told the disciples to go and prepare the Passover?
It must have thrilled the heart of the Lord Jesus when he said, Where wilt thou that we prepare?
They understood very clearly that in the Old Testament it was not left up to them.
Where to prepare or to choose their own company? And they were able to sit down in company with the Lord Jesus and in company and fellowship with one another. I know it was the Passover that was particularly in view there, but the Lord Jesus knew that was going to be the very spot where after the Passover supper, he would take a loaf in a cup and institute the feast of Remembrance. So I say again as we go through life and the choices don't get any easier and the choices never end, let's be in in prayer as to those that we are.
Uh, Who are our associates in, uh, each of the spheres of life in which God has placed us?
Now let's go over to the UH 9th chapter.
Chapter.
19.
And verse 18.
And it came to pass as he was alone, praying his disciples were with him.
And he asked them saying whom say the people that I am? They answered and said John the Baptist. But some say Elias and others say one of the.
Of the old prophets is risen again. He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
Peter answering said the Christ of God. Now again we have this same incident in Matthew and Mark. But again, it's only in Luke's gospel where the Lord Jesus is presented as the perfect dependent man that the Spirit of God has inserted that at that time he was praying. There's a very interesting expression here. It says as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him. Not an interesting expression.
You ever been alone in a crowd? You know, sometimes I felt alone in a crowd. I'm with a lot of people, but I felt alone, perhaps alone, in a certain exercise that I've had before. The Lord, you know, the Lord Jesus, even in the presence of his disciples, he sometimes felt alone alone before his God. You know, the disciples were those, as we said, who were chosen to be closest to him during his public ministry.
But even sometimes the disciples didn't fully enter into what the Lord Jesus was telling them.
Or what he was doing or what he was going through. And it's OK to feel alone sometimes, as long as you're alone with the Lord or as long as you're alone with God the Father, You know, those are wonderful times. Maybe sometimes even amongst the people of God. Maybe you come to a conference and you say none of the young people really, really understand what I'm going through. Nobody really gets it. I'm going through some struggle and I just can't share it with anybody else.
I just can't go out after this thing like I used to. And I feel alone. Never mind, as long as you're alone with the Lord, as long as that draws you into the presence of the Lord, then you'll find that there will be blessing and comfort in your in your Christian pathway. But we find here he was alone praying. And then he asked this question of the disciples, and there's different answers. And finally Peters says, the Christ of God. Again, we learn a very practical lesson from what we have here.
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I believe that in the measure in which you and I spend time in prayer, we are going to be able to give testimony as to who again who the Lord Jesus really is, and we are going to be able to own His claims in our lives. I want to just pause for a moment and ask my own heart, and perhaps it will exercise your heart as well. How much do the claims of Christ?
Mean to me? How much do I really own them in my life? I'm not asking you now. If you know that Jesus says you're savior, that's wonderful. That's vital, of course. But do you know Jesus as your Lord now? I trust there's no thought, even in corners of our hearts as to the Lord Jesus being the outwardly reigning. Now I believe we had read to us this morning in the breaking of bread. We see not yet all things put under him.
But he does want that place in your life and mine. We sometimes sing a hymn, rain thou within our hearts alone. When we were young people, we used to sing that hymn. Lord of my life, I crown thee now Thine shall the glory be. How much is he Lord of our lives? Do we spend time in His presence and as a result give testimony to the fact that we recognize His claims in our lives?
This is just a little parenthesis, but I feel burdened because I find sometimes there are those who are truly saved, young people and sad to say, sometimes those who are not so young who have never been baptized. You know, I I feel rebuked when I meet a person who I know has been a believer for sometimes some time. And you ask them, have you ever been baptized? No, they've never taken that step of baptism. You know, God gives us a way.
That we can express what's in our hearts. This morning we have the institution of the remembrance, and that was to give expression to what was in I trust was in our hearts. That we might give expression to worship and praise and Thanksgiving. And to give testimony to this world that we recognize this one who the world still despises and hates. But there's another institution that has been given to us in Christianity where we can give expression.
To the fact that we want to own the claims of God and the claims of Christ in our heart, and that's baptism, you say, Well, I want to follow the Lord. The Lord knows what's in my heart. That's true, but he's given you a way to express it in the truth of baptism. There's many facets of baptism, but for our purposes this afternoon, I would simply say, if the recognition, it's the testimony that I want to own the lordship of Christ.
In my In my life again, I say too that these incidents of prayer show how important it is because we only get to know the person of Christ in the measure in which we are in prayer. You know, the Apostle Paul makes a very interesting statement in the book of Philippians. He says that I may know him. I find that a remarkable statement because you might say, well, didn't.
The Apostle Paul as Saul of Tarsus.
Get to know the Lord on the Damascus Rd. Yes, he did. He got to know him as savior. But the whole exercise and desire of Paul's life was that he might know him in a better acquaintance. And you never get to know someone until you spend time in their presence, until you walk with them, until you sit down with them, you never really get to know that person. A point Now thyself with him, one of the prophets tells us.
I'm gonna repeat a little illustration. I know I've used this illustration before, but I'll repeat it. You know, in Canada, where I come from, we're still part of the British Commonwealth and we're very interested in the British royal family. If you, in fact, if you were to come to my home and look on our coffee table, you would find some books there in connection with the British royal family and the new little Prince and Princess that we have in in California, in in.
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In England and and so on. And I know a lot of things about Queen Elizabeth and her family, but I don't know Queen Elizabeth personally. I know about her. But there's a great difference between knowing about someone and knowing the person. Now, this will never happen, I'm sure, but let's suppose for the sake of the illustration, I get an invitation in the mail and I'm invited to come to Buckingham Palace and everything's provided. There's a plane ticket. I landed Heathrow in London.
The Queen's uh, limousine is there to pick me up and chauffeur me through the gates of Buckingham Palace. And for one month I walk in the royal gardens with Queen Elizabeth. We sit at tea together. We have dinner in the official dining room together. Now I leave Buckingham Palace. I say, oh, I don't just know about the Queen. I know the queen personally. And that's the kind of relationship that God wants us to have with himself and with his son. But again, you'll never have it if you don't spend time.
Reading his word, listening to what he says to you and time speaking to him in prayer. But let's notice another incident here in this same chapter, verse 28.
And it came to pass about an 8 days after these sayings he took Peter and John and James.
And went up into the mouth to a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistening, and and behold, they're talked with him two men, which were Moses.
And Elias, well, this is the account we refer to as the mount of Transfiguration. It's really a little preview of the coming glory and what a wonderful privilege it was for Peter and John. Peter Uh James and John to uh witness this, the Lord Jesus. There a little flash of his his glory, the glory to come, uh speaking with uh Peter with uh Moses and and uh Elijah, Elijah.
I know that Peter got his eyes off the Lord and so on, and he needed a rebuke and so on. But here we find again the Lord Jesus in Mark's Gospel is found in prayer.
As this incident unfolds, and I believe again, what we have here is the ability to represent the Lord Jesus here in this world, to reflect something of Christ in our lives.
Only as we spend time in prayer again, I realize there's a prophetic character to what we have here.
But that's not so much what is occupying us as to our subject today.
You know in the measure in which you spend time, in the presence of the Lord Jesus, in that measure, and only in that measure will there be a reflection of Christ in your life. It's a very serious thing to think about. If there's going to be some reflection of Christ in your life and mine as we go about this world, it is only going to be in the measure in which we have come from His presence. You remember when Moses in the Old Testament.
Went up on the mount to commune with God and he came down from the mount. He had to cover his face. The children of Israel couldn't look on him because his face shone. But there's an interesting comment made about that. It says he wished not that his face shone. It wasn't that he tried to make his face shine. It was the unconscious reflection of being in the presence of God in in on the mount. And so for you and for me it's says in Second Corinthians chapter three. I think it's verse 18.
It says we all, with open face beholding in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory. To put it in very simple language, what that verse is telling us is, and the measure in which we're occupied with a glorified Christ, we will reflect something of those glories in our lives now, now, young people, brethren, there's a day coming when we're going to reflect the glories of Christ and the world is going to look up and see.
The glories of Christ perfectly reflected in each of His Saints. It tells us in Second Thessalonians He's coming to be glorified in His Saints and to be admired in all them that are about Him in that day. I marvel at that because when the Lord Jesus comes back and heaven opens to reveal Him coming, coming with the heavenly host, and wherever the world looks, when they look up, they're going to see Christ perfectly reflected in every believer.
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Tremendous to think about. But brethren, is there something of that in your life and mine now?
He wants there to be a reflection of Christ in your life and mind so that others will see something of that man. And it's serious to realize that all this world is going to see of Christ is what's reflected in your life and mind. And especially when they close the pages of God's word. They've rejected the light of God's word. What is this world gonna see of Christ? We're epistles known in red of all men. Go over to the 11Th chapter.
Chapter 11 And verse one. And it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done.
As in heaven, so in earth, give us day by day Our Daily Bread, and forgive us our sins.
For we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation.
But deliver us from evil? Well, here we have the Lord Jesus, and I want to notice what it says here as he was praying in a certain place.
I want to encourage you to not only have a stated time for prayer. That's helpful.
And not let anything interrupt it if you can help it, but have a stated place for prayer. You know, it's been helpful in my own life to have a little place where I can slip away and be alone with the Lord to be uninterrupted by anybody else. And so have a stated time, yes, but have a stated place for prayer. And so as He's praying, the disciples say to him, teach us to pray. Now I believe what we have here is not so much what we pray, but how we pray.
It's a pattern prayer that the Lord gave the disciples, and it was a prayer suited to their position at that time.
They were still on Jewish ground and so I don't believe what we're taught here is to just recite this.
And remember, it's not the Lord's prayer as so often it is dubbed. It's really the disciples prayer. It was the Lord Jesus teaching the disciples giving them a pattern for prayer. And while we find it, that which is connected with Judaism, yet there are some good things to consider. He teaches them to pray our Father. And if you notice in Mr. Darby's translation, the words which art in heaven are left out. They're not in the best manuscripts because to pray to the Father in heaven or thou art that art in heaven, that puts God at a distance. But in Christianity we don't put God our Father at a distance, no.
He's right there and so we need to address him and we have the privilege of addressing him as our father.
We don't. We're looking for the Lord to come at any moment. But you know, the Kingdom is part of our hope as well. We're looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing. We're going to speak about this in the reading meetings as we go on. Lord willing to the 4th chapter of Second Timothy. It's really part of our hope. We're gonna notice that we're to love His appearing that day when he reigns supreme and has His rightful place. Give us this day Our Daily Bread. Good to look to him for the daily needs that we have.
We don't pray for the forgiveness of sins in Christianity, but when we do sin, it says.
If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, and if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and so on. It's good to pray that we won't be LED away off the path of faith and into temptation and that will be delivered from evil and so on. We don't have time to go into this, but I say it's a pattern prayer. Go over it and consider it in the light of Christianity. And what a wonderful, what a wonderful thing it is to be able to come.
In in this way, I'll just say this too before we pass on.
You never find the Lord praying with his disciples. He prayed for his disciples. He never prayed with his disciples. There was always that difference. And he never asked his disciples to pray for him. He prayed for them. So we We look to the Lord for our needs. We pray to him. But.
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We we never pray. We pray to him, but we never pray for him as a divine person. So just a little, a little word of caution there.
Let's go now to the last one in closing to the 22nd chapter.
Chapter 22 and verse 41. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast and kneeled down and prayed. Before I comment on this, I just say just make the comments very interesting that the Spirit of God records here. He was removed from them about a stone's cast. Why? Well, I suggest this reason. The Jewish way of execution was by stoning, but the Lord Jesus was not to die by stoning.
No, he was to be taken by Roman soldiers and nailed to a cross. And so as the hour of Calvary approaches, he's removed from the Jewish order of things, so to speak, and God's timetable being perfect. The Romans are in power, and as was prophesied, he is to be taken out and nailed to a Roman cross, and to die a death of shame in that way. But we find here as the hour of his greatest trial approaches.
We we find he comes and he kneeled down and he prayed. I think it's in Matthew where it tells us he prayed three times and each time became a little more intense. This was very intense prayer. Are you going through some real trial in your life today? Oh, kneel down and pray now. It's true. We can pray in any situation, anywhere. We don't have to be in a specific, uh.
Position to pray. Jonah prayed in the belly of the fish. Nehemiah prayed standing in the presence of the king. But kneeling down, I believe shows there's a moral side of it. It's the submission of the heart to kneel down. And that's why it often speaks about kneeling in scripture, because kneeling down shows submission of heart and will. And here we find the Lord Jesus as the perfect dependent man.
He kneels down, and yes, he prays in his agony. But is there any hesitation on his point to go forth and accomplish the Father's will? Not for one moment he vows in the presence of the Father. It's true.
He's in an agony. He prays more earnestly. But all I say that he kneels down here because there's no hesitation to rise from the garden and go forth and accomplish His Father's will. Well, we've looked at these scriptures very, very quickly. As I say, I've taken them up with the burden on my heart, that they've been left to us as an example that we should follow in His steps. And I would just conclude my remarks this afternoon by saying this if the Lord Jesus.
As the perfect dependent man felt the need for prayer so many times in his pathway, here how much more you and I I say we need prayer. The day is coming when we won't need prayer. In the same way, we're going to be filled with praise for all eternity. But as long as we're here in the path of faith and service, there needs to be that exercise of dependence and confidence. Listen to him speak through the Word.
And then come to and speak to him in prayer.
2 Timothy 3:17-4:6
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The night is far spent.
In the sky.
Into the elderly. Lords don't come back.
Rain, Thyroid, Royal Oak in all of a thumbs up from night.
Oh, OK. August 2000.
Two to glory about the will from heaven revealed the savior is only.
His people may say.
Lord will hold for our Son and our you.
I would like to suggest that we begin with the 17th verse of the third chapter and then read the 4th chapter, but we didn't make any comments in connection with the man of God and I think it would be helpful.
Second Timothy.
Chapter 3 and verse 17.
Let the man of God may be perfect, truly furnished unto all good works. Chapter 4.
I charge thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in His Kingdom. Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth.
And to be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day.
And not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing, Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me. For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed unto Thessalonica.
Crescent to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry. Antichecus have I sent to Ephesus.
The club that I left at Troas, with carpets, window, comma, spring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord reward him according to his works. Of whom be thou aware also, for He hath greatly withstood our words.
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At my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear, and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto His heavenly Kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Salute Prisca and Aquila in the household of onosiferous Erastus, abode at Corinth. But Trophimus, have I left at my lead, them sick.
Do thy diligence to come before winter.
Huboulis greeted the impudence and lioness, and Claudia and all the brethren. The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit, grace be with you, Amen.
I suggested we begin with this 17th verse because I believe it's really the link between what we've had in the, in the, uh, third chapter and what we are about to take up here in the 4th chapter. And I think it's a great encouragement to see that even in the days in which we live there, we can still go on as men and women for God and serve the Lord acceptably. And I'd like to go back to a verse in the second chapter.
That, I believe, is linked with what we have here, verse 21 of chapter 2. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's youth. And then notice this expression, and prepared unto every good work. In our verse we read that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And I want to point out that little expression.
Not just some good works, but all good works and what makes a person a, uh, able to carry on all good works for God's glory in the, in the second chapter, it's separation from evil. That's what marks the man of God in the second chapter is separation from evil a clean vessel If you and I are going to be prepared to every good work in the service of God, the service of the Lord.
We must, it's vital, we must separate from evil. There must be, as I say, a clean vessel, another Scripture says be clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. And vessels in Scripture are so often used as a figure of the human body, the human form. And so whether it's doctrinally evil, whether it's moral evil, whether it's an ecclesiastical connection, a group, A fellowship that holds things contrary to the teaching of the word of God. If we're gonna be prepared to every good work.
We must walk in separation. But then we have a similar expression here in the end of the third chapter, because the other thing that makes the person prepared to every good work is that they they're an empty vessel full of the truth of God, full with the word of God going on in the truth. So there's the net, there's the separation from evil, but the positive side is you'll never be a vessel prepared on every good work unless you're walking in in the truth of God.
It's one thing to separate from that which is not true, but it's quite another thing to then take up with and go on in that which is the is the truth. Let me give you a little example. There was a young man, one time believer, and he exercised a number of people as to the truth of being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. He even brought them to a place, the place where the this truth was practically expressed as we did this morning.
In the breaking of bread and other assembly meetings, but they were turned aside. Why? Because he wasn't in fellowship there himself, they said. How can this young man talk to us about the and tell us that this is the truth of God when he isn't going on with it himself? I also knew someone personally who exercised someone else says to the truth of baptism, But when it all came out, this person had never been baptized themselves.
And it stumbled the person that he had brought the truth before. And so again, what what characterizes the man of God and makes them useful for all good work is separation from evil. A clean vessel, but then an empty vessel filled with the truth of God and going on and walking in that truth. And that's what Paul was bringing before this young man, Timothy. He wasn't telling him that it was going to be easy to go on for the Lord and to serve the Lord.
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But he was telling him in the measure in which he walked, in practical sanctification from evil, and in the measure in which the truth of God was a reality in his soul, that he could go on as a man of God. And every one of us here who know Christ as our Savior, we can, if we will, follow this instruction with godly exercise. And by His grace we can go on and be prepared to every good work if we are willing to follow the instructions that Paul gave to Timothy.
And that's why I say that's the link for what we have in this next chapter, because what Paul is going to go on and exhort Timothy, and for our benefit as well, is the ability to go on in service for the Lord until the very end. And though many had turned away and many had been discouraged, he's going to name a few who were seeking by the grace of God, as men and women of God, to go on in their sphere of life and service, even in spite of the fact that it was difficult times in the last days.
Might be helpful to know this how this term the man of God is used in the scriptures and when it is used the first time its first Samuel chapter 2 and verse 27 that is used the first time. And it's always used in connection with a failure and the low state of the people of God. And God raises up one that he can identify with. You might say one that can speak on his behalf.
And one that walks in the truth that he has. And so in in first Samuel chapter 2 and verse 27, it says, There came a man of God unto Eli, and said unto him, Thus sayeth the Lord, Did I plainly appear unto the House of thy father, when they were in Egypt, and in Pharaoh's house. And he gives them a rebuke in verse 29. Wherefore Kiki, at my sacrifice, and at mine offering, which I have commanded.
In my habitation and honours thy sons above me to make yourselves fat with the cheapest of all the offerings of Israel, my people. Well, it was a time of collective failure for the people of God and the priesthood in that at that time, Eli and his family, his sons had failed in their testimony in Israel and they had failed in the office of priesthood. And uh, and God then had one he could speak on his behalf and deliver a message.
From his heart of love, but yet in rebuke to Eli and to his sons. And so we have Timothy here named as he's, uh, got this title as the man of God. I think it's used in first Timothy chapter 6 as well. Uh, first Timothy chapter 6, verse 11, it says, but thou, O man of God, and he tells them, now, how is it that you're going to be able to be complete in all the will of God? How is it that you're going to be?
Able to be thoroughly furnished unto all good works. How is it? Well, he says follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Remember, this is another list in the Word of God, another list that is given. And it's the key to be able to walk in fellowship with the thoughts of God, and in the day of weakness to be able to walk in communion with Him.
And notice its righteousness first and then the expression of godliness that's really walking in communion with the Lord men righteousness or umm, then faith and love and patience and meekness. And so this expression is used, very notable. I wonder if the Lord could trust us to deliver a message for himself, would we be faithful in the delivery of a message on his behalf?
Are we walking in righteousness or are those things that are not according to the mind of God that we're allowing in our lives and He can't use us because of it? Eli was in the priesthood. He was the priest. He was the high priest, you might say in that way in Israel and God couldn't use him. He had to send a man of God. We have the example as well in First Kings. I think it's chapter 13, maybe verse one and or two, and the Lord sent a man of God out of Judah to speak.
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To King Jeroboam as he was about to offer on that altar and he had to send that man of God. There was a prophet in Bethel, but God couldn't use that one. He wasn't walking in righteousness and separation from the evil. He had compromised his path, but God used that man of God.
So then at the beginning of the 4th chapter, he charges Timothy in connection with his service preaching the word and and the things that follow, but he charges him before God. It's interesting. It's before God because he's been referred to as a man of God. So it's before God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because he said it's as if he says, Timothy, remember, as you go now to serve, serve as Paul says, as you go on to serve the Lord in my absence, remember.
The eye of God is on you and the eye of the Lord Jesus. And Paul wasn't going to be there to to shepherd Timothy any longer. He wasn't going to be there to mentor him, to watch over him. He had given him instruction. He was passing the truth on to him. But we find that this chapter is the last recorded word of the apostle Paul by divine inspiration. Very shortly thereafter he was led out and he gave his life as a martyr for Christ and for his testimony.
And he says, Timothy, I'm not going to be there to direct you and watch over you, but remember the eye of God is on you and remember your service for him needs to be acceptable to the Lord Jesus. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, we won't take time to turn back to it. You can look it up. The Corinthians questioned everything about Paul's ministry. They quest questioned his authority as an apostle. They questioned his ministry.
They even questioned his ability to present his ministry. But Paul said to them, that's OK.
We labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. Now, brethren, don't misunderstand me. We need to serve our brethren in a way that's acceptable to our brethren too of Asher. Let him be acceptable to his brethren. That's that's the balance. And if you do things that rub your brother in the wrong way, you're never going to have their ear and serve them acceptably. But in the final analysis, what was Paul saying? In the final analysis, I'm gonna stand before the Lord Jesus at the judgment seat of Christ.
And I'm going to have to give an account for my ministry and my service, and everyone of us are going to have to do that. Do we seek to serve in a way that is acceptable to the Lord Jesus so that in that coming day when we stand before him, he can say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. What's gonna matter, brethren, when we stand at the judgment seat of Christ? How well we got along down here, how acceptable we were to people down here?
Know what's gonna matter is his acceptance and his well done are sometimes said to the young people, you know, especially when we're younger. We want to be accepted. We want to fit in and we want to be accepted by our peers. It's not wrong to desire to be accepted, But the question is who's acceptance do we want? Paul's desire was to accept, to serve in an acceptable way. He said. Timothy, that's my prayer for you too. You remember you're gonna serve me in my absence.
With the eye of God resting on you and the Lord Jesus watching. Do it in a way that is according to the truth of God that has been set out before you and in a way that is well pleasing to Him.
Renders the wording a little differently, and perhaps I would say a little more accurately. I testify before God and Christ Jesus. Now he's presented as that heavenly man to whom all judgment is given, and God is the God who judges. He's a God who judges sin, but he is committed judgment to a man. The Lord Jesus Christ Jesus, the risen glorified man, is going to judge.
And it's part of Paul's doctrine that he says he's going to judge the living and the dead, and he tells us the distinction between when those events take place. And so the living are going to be judged at a different time than the dead. The living at his appearing will be judged. And so the Lord Jesus, let's turn to it. Let's maybe just Second Thessalonians, even Paul speaks of the difference, the distinction between the appearing.
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The distinction between the rapture and he speaks very distinctly as to the, uh, sequence of events. And so he says, uh, let's look at the appearing chapter one, Second Thessalonians.
Verse uh chapter one verse 7 to you are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God.
And that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints.
And to be admired in all them that believe, because our testimony among you was believed in that day. So he's going to judge at his appearing. He's going to judge the living and the nations there. He's going to hold court, you might say. And there's going to be sessional judgment. The nations will be judged as well. And so.
At the appearing of the Lord Jesus, the living will be judged. We could read other passages of Scripture, but then.
At the end of the tribulation period, seven years later, the debt, or I should say the at the end of the seven years while the Lord will appear, but at the end of the Millennium, he's going to raise the dead and he's going to judge them. And so we could read it in different passages, but he refers to it here. He's going to judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom. At the end of that Kingdom period, he's going to judge.
Though the dead, and so he gives that distinction.
And so Timothy was the word in light of this, and it's interesting too, that it is the appearing that's brought before us in this chapter. We'll notice that later on because the appearing has to do with responsibility. The rapture has to do with our our bless, our position and as to grace. But the re the the appearing has to all has always to do with responsibility. Now, I believe in these first couple of verses.
It's the Western world particularly that's going to receive the greatest judgments, the most severe and direct judgments, because they are they which have refused the light and those who have refused the have had the most light are held the most responsible, and they're going to come under the most direct and severe judgments. And Paul is telling Timothy, he says they're giving up the truth. They're giving up my doctrine, what I presented. They're living for themselves.
But remember, there's a day coming when judgment is going to fall. I agree with Robert. It has a broader application too. But remember those who the the nations who've had the most light are the nations and the people that are going to come under this most severe and direct judgment. And he says, Timothy, now you have a responsibility in view of that. You have a responsibility now to preach, to preach the word, be instant in season, out of season.
Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and and doctrine.
Timothy wasn't just to give up and say it's no use. Everybody's turning away. They've all forsaken what Paul has taught. They're all going their own way. They're living for themselves. So it's just no use. You know, there's an old expression. I know the young people won't remember it, but there's an old expression, hang crepe. That's an expression that comes from the old days when before the days of funeral homes where you went to view a body or to have a funeral service at a Funeral Home.
They used to lay out the body in the home and they had a crepe wreath that they hung on the door, which indicated to everybody that passed that house that there was death in the house. And the expression hang crepe is really an expression that ha came to mean, well, there's no use if the person's dead, there's no use. But it has a broader application. There's there's no use going that direction. There's no use trying that. That you're you're beating a dead horse is another expression I'm not trying to bring.
00:25:01
Worldly expressions into this meeting but just to make my point, Timothy wasn't just to throw up his hands and say there's no use after Paul was gone. He said Timothy is it the last days is it difficult times? Is there a giving up? Is there gonna be judgment on those who have rejected the truth. He said don't give up. Preach the word carry this out until the the end and we're gonna find then that Timothy is gonna be held responsible later on he brings this out. Paul was gonna be held responsible Timothy.
We're never going to be judged for our sins as believers, but as we've already said, there will be a day when we will have to give an account. Have we brethren in the last days sought to preach the Word? Now, Timothy had a special gift. I, I, I understand that, but I want to make a little broader application here. This is just an application because I look into the faces of brothers and sisters here. And we all have a responsibility to hold fast the truth and in our proper sphere presented faithfully to others.
Brothers and sisters alike, I know this was special for Timothy. He had a public ministry to fulfill. But we all, as we said earlier, have a service and a ministry to fulfill. Are we gonna do it or are we just gonna say, well, it's no use it just so those people, they don't wanna listen to what I'm saying. They don't wanna hear the truth. They don't wanna go on for, for the Lord according to what has been been laid out for us. No, we are to be faithful ourselves.
And as the Lord gives us opportunity, we are to be faithful in our ministry to others.
Timothy.
I remember year for years I thought that meant to be instant, like instant coffee.
Like, you know, ready to go. It's it has to do with it has to do with attitude. God Paul is addressing attitude here is turned to Luke 23 and verse 23.
That's where the Lord Jesus is before Pontius Pilate and 22 verse 22 Pilot says to the them the third time, why? What evil has he done Verse 23 and it says they were instant with loud voices. That doesn't mean they were prompt. It means they were urgent and that's what the meaning here and that's what the Darby translation renders it urgent and it's good to keep in mind that God is urgent and and he in Hebrews.
Chapter 12 Says our God is a consuming fire. God is urgent. He is patiently urgent and urgently patient.
For any opportunity that the Lord gives, you know, we don't have to get up in the morning and pray for opportunities to serve the Lord and speak for him. As much as we need to get up in the morning and pray that we will be in the state of soul and the proper spirit and attitude, as John has just said, that we will avail ourselves of the opportunities that are there. That's what it really means when it says redeeming the time or buying up every opportunity.
I can only point to my own heart. How many opportunities do I miss in a day? It's not that there weren't opportunities, but I perhaps wasn't in the right state of soul or spirit, uh, to, to avail myself of those opportunities. And then it says be instant in season. Well, there are those times when we are to be ready and in the proper spirit and attitude. Times like this when we're together. This is perhaps more in season when we come to the assembly meetings. Let me just say a practical word.
When we come to the reading meeting at home, are we ready to give something, to share something? You know, sometimes we come and we shake our heads and go away and say, well, wasn't much food. Well, we're no more individ, uh, collectively than we are individually. Were we ready in season? Where we urgent in season? Did we come with some exercise of soul to share what the Lord had given us perhaps on that passage or subject, But then there's out of season.
Now, I'm not so good at this, but I travel a lot with a man by the name of Garvin Seymour. Many of you, most of you have heard his name. He's a wonderful brother who is instant out of season. Sometimes we're together on the streets of a village on one of the islands or in Guyana, South America. And I look down the street and all of a sudden I realized Brother Garvin's got about a dozen young people around him and he's given them the gospel and they're hanging on every word. He has a tremendous gift in the in that regard.
00:30:11
That's being instant out of season. That's being ready for every opportunity.
And again, are you and I walking circumspectly so that we're ready for those times that the Lord is going to put in our way? I'll give you another example. The brothers with the Lord now. But it was an elderly brother in my home assembly for many years. And I was in the bank one time and there was quite a line up in the bank. This is a long time ago, before electronics were so prevalent, and they still wrote a few things out by hand. There was quite a long line up in the bank. And this brother was half a dozen people in front of me in the bank and he didn't know I was there.
But I saw him and someone turned to him and recognized him and they said, oh, uh, good afternoon and how are you today? Now, somebody asked me that in the bank. I probably would say, well, I'm fine and you know, but it's an awful wet day today and I wish it wouldn't rain so hard. And is that what this brother said? He said, no, by the grace of God, I'm very well. And he went on to give a short couple of sentence gospel to the individual. That was a, that was a brother who was ready, that was a brother who was urgent. So these things are very practical and very real.
And they are that which we can practice today. We don't have to look at this and say, well, that was OK back in Timothy's day or back in our grandfather's day. It's a different day. We can't do that today. No, this brings us right down to where we are today.
That it's not only limited to the gospel, is it, it's, uh, as we often apply it to the gospel and rightly so. But really the work that Timothy was given was he was to do the work of an evangelist we read here in verse five, but he was to also exercise his gift of teaching and ministering the truth of God among the Saints. And there would be a spirit of things in the day that he lived. And Paul was speaking prophetically in the next verse, he says that the time will come.
When they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lustral heap, they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And perhaps even in referring to the day that we live in, those that are pastors and raised up and elevated among the people and umm, they're told literally what they will be taught, what the people will tolerate as far as what the preaching will be. And so they preach what they're told to preach, and they don't go beyond the bounds that they're given.
But here Timothy was to preach the Word and he was to preach the Word, no doubt in the gospel, but he was to preach the Word in connection with doctrine. And so he uses this term. I'm going to read it in the new translation. It says be urgent in season and out of season, rebuke, convict, rebuke, encourage with all long-suffering and doctrine.
And so he was to use the word of God in a right way to encourage the Saints and to teach the Saints, and he was to use doctrine. It's, I think Brother Jim mentioned it yesterday. It's an old English word and it means teaching. He was to use sound teaching and he was used the word. Now just I don't like to tell too many stories, but I when it says here preach the word always brings to mind old brother Charles Hale.
And uh, we were at a Hessler all day meeting in Ontario and gospel preacher got up and he spoke for probably 15 minutes, maybe 20 minutes, didn't even open his Bible and he was telling stories. He was, uh, he was just speaking. I, perhaps he gave the gospel, I can't remember. And brother Charles Hale was in the audience maybe 3 rows back from the front. Then he stood up and he said brother.
Preach the Word.
And he sat down again and the brother opened up his Bible and he finally read a passage of Scripture. And he began to preach from that particular passage of Scripture that he read. Now that's pretty bold, perhaps you might say, and we don't want to encourage that kind of activity, but it really Paul was speaking to Timothy and he was saying, make sure you preach the word, make sure you use the word of God. That's what has power with the Saints. And that's what.
The Spirit of God can use to bring blessing and encouragement to the Saints. They need the teaching of the Word of God.
00:35:00
And so Timothy, as we already spoke, uh, yesterday, he had a good outline of all of the truth of God, all of Paul's doctrine, and he could address the needs of the Saints based on the truth that he knew. And so he used the word of God. Let's be exercised to speak the word of God to one another, to memorize the word of God and to be able to quote it in season and out of season.
About this word rebuke, I noticed that both the King James and the Darby translation mentioned it, and it's a it's not a popular word rebuke.
But I look back over my life.
And some of the most valuable experiences of my life have been when a brother faithfully rebuked me, pointed out to me something I needed to hear the reviews.
Been beneficial, I'd like to.
Refer to a verse in Proverbs. Rebuking is not something that's popular. It's something we shy away from. It's it is something we neglect. For that reason, Proverbs chapter 20.
8.
Verse 23.
Now it takes grace to rebuke that and and I'm not suggesting to go around it. There's a little saying it's been very helpful to me. The law condemns, we asked in the previous meeting, we talked about the difference between legality and reproving. The law condemns, legality condemns, grace humbles and a proper rebuke comes with grace and it humbles and it benefits. And the the verse I have in Proverbs is chapter 28.
And verse 23, he that rebuked a man afterward shall find more favor than he looked. Flat Earth with the tongue. You know, we can go up to a brother or sister and compliment on them on the meal. And we might be, I may not be flattering, it might be genuine, but there is such a thing as flattering. Sometimes we, we try to get on the good side of people by flattery. And the world uses flattery all the time and we very easily slip into it.
A flattery produces a an immediate positive response.
But.
It's deceptive. It doesn't do the person any ultimate good. If you wanna invest in somebody's life, if you wanna invest in the future, it says he. The rebuke of the man afterward shall find more favor than he that flattereth with the tongue. It's not that we look for opportunities to rebuke, but we need to not shy away from it when it can really help somebody.
So faithful as a woman in another proverb. And it's interesting that then he qualifies as we, as Timothy was, to speak in these different ways. It was to be with two things. First of all, with long-suffering. That is to be patient. You know, sometimes we think people should smarten up and see it the way we're presented right away. Sometimes it isn't always true. Our responsibility is not to make people see the truth.
But to present it faithfully, and it may sometimes be in the in reprove for and re and rebuke, but leave it there. Then don't force, try to force the issue. And so it's with long-suffering. And then what? And doctrine or teaching. Always use the word of God because as you say, brother Robert, it's the word of God that's gonna have the effect. I might come and I might tell you a lot of things that I think are wrong with something you're doing or not doing. But what's gonna have the effect in the end, My argument on the issue or to present the truth of God with long-suffering.
That's where the power really is. So whether it's whenever we present the truth of God, whether it's to edify, to comfort, to exhort, to rebuke, to reprove, whatever it is, we always want to use the Word of God. Now we can use the Word of God in a way that can cut someone's ear off too. And remember this, when you use the Word of God, it's the sword of the Spirit. It's when it's used in communion with the Spirit that it's going to have its power. Peter used to had a sword and he used it without the sanction of the Lord and what he did, and he only ended up giving the Lord more work to do.
And I can rebuke or reprove someone and do it in a bad spirit and without, and I can even use the word of God. But if it's not in the power of the spirit.
Then I'm only gonna end up giving the Lord more work to do in the end, as as Peter did. So these things are very practical, aren't they?
00:40:05
I think of the case where the apostle Paul was dealing with the question of division in, in first Corinthians chapter one. And umm, division was a, was a serious matter. You might say it was, it was the just the beginning seed that was planted in the church that has grown up into such ruin, umm, in the, in uh, the history of the church.
And yet the apostle Paul.
In.
Uh, in addressing that failure of the Corinthians, because really what they were doing was they were looking at men and they were choosing the, umm, the characteristics in man that was suited to really themselves in the flesh. And but the, what the apostle Paul, Paul does there in First Corinthians.
As he sets before them the truth of Christ crucified, the cross.
What did that do that actually set aside man, the 1St man completely and by the end of the chapter he has instructed them to the point where they see nothing to glory in in themselves.
But they see themselves in Christ as their righteousness, sanctification, redemption. He's actually instructed them out of the failure that they had fallen in, delivered them from looking at themselves in the first man and what they desired for the flesh and he he.
He he actually brought them into the them into the the the umm, the value of what the cross had done in presenting them in the new man. And I just bring that out. He he is reproving them, but he's he has instructed them to the point where they receive and they see receive correction. But it's it's.
Instruction at the same time.
It's interesting that he speaks of here here in this passage, isn't it? And I was thinking of Proverbs again in chapter 2 of Proverbs. One of the principles in Scripture is that we are to cultivate the ability to incline our ears unto the Lord. So it says in Proverbs chapter 2, verse one, my son, if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee.
So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart unto understanding. Well, he says incline nine year. Now it's kind of old terminology, but I only hear with one ear. I don't hear in my left ear. And I have to incline my ear sometimes to hear a brother with a soft voice.
And I have to incline my ear in the right direction to be able to hear because I don't have directional hearing. I got only here in one ear. And So what Paul is Speaking of here is this instruction is going to come. This reproof is going to come. If it was going to be given in a proper rebuke, he was going to need to have an ear that was willing to be inclined to hear the word of God. And you and I need to cultivate that.
Ability to incline our ears to hear, to want to hear. And what he's Speaking of is those that don't want to hear will not incline their ears. Their brother had this hearing too this morning. Very interesting. Are we connected with the word of God and willing to hear the instruction from the word of God, from our brethren? So they shall turn. They'll have itching ears.
And then they'll turn their away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. A fable is a lie. It's not the truth at all. It may have a little quantity of truth mixed into it, but it's not the truth, it's a lie. And so if we don't incline our ears under the truth, something else will come in, and we'll take the place of it. That's solemn, isn't it?
00:45:04
You know, I should cultivate the desire to know the Word of God and to turn our ears, open our ears to be able to hear it and the Lord. We're not going to be able to choose the vessel.
God may use someone to speak to us and to give us a message, and if the word of God is used, then there's going to be fruit.
I'd like to increase his fifth verse then in the new translation and Mr. Darby's translation because I think it's helpful. He says but, but, but that'll be sober now. Brother John has brought that before. It's interesting that Mister Darby has a footnote that says in the original language, it has the thought of clearness of mind. You know, he's given us a sound mind that tells us earlier in the book of Tim Timothy. Sometimes we speak the truth and people think we're crazy.
No, this is, this is the truth of God and this is what God has given us to say. Then say it in spite of those that have turned away and say, this is, this is not, uh, what it should be. And then he says they're evils. Now I know in, in the King James, it's afflictions, but I, I, I think it's a little different context here. It's not so much here physical affliction, but remember it, but notice the context. As we've been saying, it's in connection.
With them not just accepting the truth, but then presenting untruth, that which is not according to the word of God, fables and falsities and so on. And it's not that he's to bear with it or to go along with it.
But he says if you present the truth, be rest assured, there are those, there are those who are going to oppose it. And just just you're gonna have to, you're gonna have to bear that. It's somewhat akin to what Paul said to the, uh, Ephesian elders in the 20th of Acts. He said that after his departure, two things would happen. Grievous wolves would enter in not sparing the flock. That's from the outside. And then he said, and of your own selves, that's inward, of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things.
To draw disciples after themselves. And so we find here he's told to bear with, to bear evils, do the work of an evangelist. I personally, I know this difference. I personally don't think that Timothy was an evangelist because he was a guy. He was shy, he was reticent. If God, God always links natural ability with spiritual gift. I don't believe God is gonna give the person the gift of an evangelist and and cause them to be shy or reticent or to have a stutter in their voice or whatever. Now, now God can.
Person can overcome anything and.
But Timothy, I believe, had more of a gift of teaching, as you've been pointing out, but he was to do the work of an evangelist. This includes everyone of us in the room. You say, well, I'm not an evangelist. I'm shy like Timothy. But we can all do the work of an evangelist. We can all leave a gospel tractor, a wallet calendar when we leave a tip at the restaurant. We can all speak a little word here and there as the Lord gives us opportunity. But then what I really want to notice here, he says, Phil.
Up the full measure of thy ministry. Timothy had been given a ministry, a service for Christ, and he wasn't just to do it in part, he was to fill it up. Paul did that. He finished his course and he made full proof of it, of his ministry. I want to go back to an example in the book of Colossians of a man, another, a man who needed an exhortation in this regard. Colossians, chapter 4.
Colossians chapter 4 and verse 17.
And say to our kippers, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received of the Lord, that thou fulfill it. Paul was writing to the Saints at Colossi, and there was a man there named Archipelas were never told what his ministry was. In fact, we're never told that he preached a sermon, or he went out in the Lord's work, or he had a public work. But God had given him a ministry, and Paul felt that Archippus was not carrying out whatever that little ministry was.
And that he, and I believe Paul, felt that the Saints at Colossi were suffering a lot because he wasn't carrying out that ministry.
And brethren, I believe there are many assemblies gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ who suffer a lot because there are those in the assembly who are not carrying out the little ministry that God has given them.
00:50:04
And this doesn't just apply to those of us who are older, this applies to everyone of us.
And remember this too, that it doesn't start with the big things. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much. And I have noticed that the young people who stay behind after the fellowship meeting and help do up the dishes and sweep the floor and clean, clean up afterwards and get the chairs ready for the next meeting. Those, those young people who fulfill that little ministry, they are the young people that God often later on entrusts a greater ministry too. And even if he doesn't, it's important. It's not the greatness of the ministry or the service that counts.
It's doing it as unto the Lord. The slaves at Colossi might have been concerned that they weren't able to serve the Lord because they were slaves, their servants to ungodly masters. He says, don't do I service as men, pleasers, but in singleness of heart, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. He said. You fulfill the little ministry that God has given you even in service to your ungodly master, and that's counted as ministry for Christ.
And so Archippus needed to be exhorted in this regard. Timothy needed to be exhorted in this regard.
And Paul's desire for Timothy was that in the end he would be able to look back and say he had fulfilled the ministry that God had given him. Brethren, that's a wonderful thing. None of us here have finished yet. Some of us perhaps are a little further along than others, but none of us have finished yet. Are we exercised to fulfill our ministry so that when we look back in the coming day at the judgment seat of Christ, we'll be able to say we finished, fulfilled our ministry, and that we finished our course with joy. Paul could say both.
Both.
Well, in Galatians chapter six he says he speaks of humility here as well in verse 3. Galatians chapter 6, verse 3. For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.
You know, it's important for us to find out what our work is and how we're gonna find this out. But I think Brother Jim has brought the key to us is when we see something that needs to be done among our brethren, we could pray to the Lord and ask him for help to be able to fill the need that needs to be filled. And it needs to be. Perhaps I would suggest a work behind the scenes first. You have even in the apostle Paul, when he was saved, his name was Saul and he labored behind the scenes.
Perhaps in in Barnabas shadow for probably about five years, but he was in the wilderness of Arabia and in Damascus for three years, and then he was in Tarsus for two years. He was hidden away. He wasn't doing his work. God was preparing him for the work. And then he labored with Barnabas probably about five years and then perhaps on and off. We know that in Chapter 11 he was there in Antioch.
And then he was commissioned by the Lord himself to be the apostle to the Gentiles, and he and Barnabas went forth. But it says, let every man prove his own work. And so the Lord will give you something to do if you're willing to do something that's hidden away behind the scenes, and He will prepare you for a future work.
Significant or important to the Lord will bring it all out in the coming days. I had an older brother tell me once I mentioned something to him that I've done some little thing. He says in the ways of God there are no little things he said. So it kind of brought me up. It's very good and I've enjoyed the little expression that brother has in another assembly out east. He says, you know when you work for the world, you work for minimum wage, but he says when you work for the Lord you do a little something for him. You're working for maximum wage.
He said, you don't know what that is, but he says it's going to be maximum wage. And when you get to the judgment seat of Christ and he tells you how much it meant to him that you observe some of need among the people of God, perhaps in the meeting room, perhaps in the home of one of the Saints. Whatever it was, and you feel that need, you did it for him. He's going to pay. He's going to, it's going to be maximum reward, maximum pay, and he's going to never forget those little details.
00:55:05
So Paul was encouraging Timothy in this way.
That he was to make full proof of his ministry, not to set it aside, not to get disheartened in it because of the lack of response.
Sampling connection with what Brother Mark has just said, you have an Old Testament principle because you find with the Levites that every Levite had a service and a ministry to fulfill in connection with the Tabernacle in the wilderness. And it's been pointed out it wasn't the greatness of the service that mattered.
It wasn't that one Levite was to look at the other and say, well, I wish I was carrying the boards, or I wish I had the responsibility of those one beautiful curtains. No, the Levite that went around and picked up the pins or kept the cords from tangling. His service was just as important as the service of those that carried the boards and those that carried the bigger pieces of furniture and so on. What would you think if they got to the next place and they went to set up the Tabernacle?
And those the, the Levites that kept the pins together or the cords or kept the, the pans and the, the things that were needed for the to hold the ashes and the different a aspects of the sacrifice had left them behind and said, well, it doesn't matter. It's not that important. I'm not doing a great work like my fellow Levi. Well, they wouldn't have been able to set up and carry on the ordinances and sacrifices of the Tabernacle in the proper way. Every service was, was important.
And that's why I quoted the verse earlier that we're not to do I service as men pleasers.
It's with the eye of God, and it goes back to what we said at the beginning. Timothy was to fulfill his ministry with the eye of God.
And for the acceptance of Christ Jesus, not for man's approval or some pat on the back from his Fe, his fellow brethren. Paul says you're not gonna get that anyway. For the most part, that's not gonna be the case. And so I just say that and I, I think it's an encourage. I wanna encourage my fellow young believer. You know, Timothy traveled with Paul for quite a while. Timothy was in the background too, you know, if you take up a service.
And help an older you help an older brother or sister in a service they're doing for the Lord that's going to be a stepping stone for the Lord to commit something to you. If you're you ever help an older brother, you ever help an older sister in the local assembly with some service they're doing for the Lord. Joshua in his was a young man and he was Moses minister and because he was faithful in helping Moses as Moses minister God. Then when Moses passed up the scene.
He raised him up as a great leader to lead the people into the land. And again, that's what Paul was doing here. He was. He's gonna speak now in the verses that follow of his departure. He's finished his course. He's satisfied in his own soul that he has fulfilled his ministry. And now he's gonna pass the baton on to Timothy. The race here in Timothy is not the Sprint. It's not even the marathon here. It's the relay. That's the analogy he's using here in Timothy.
He had, he had been given the truth by the Lord himself. He'd been given the baton. Now he's passing it on to Timothy. Timothy is gonna have the responsibility to pass it on to faithful men who will pass it on and so on. We've already talked talked about that. But remember, Timothy was content to travel with Paul to serve with Paul. As Paul said, he served with me as a son, serves with a father in the gospel.
And now Timothy is raised up for this wonderful responsibility of taking the truth and passing it on to others. You know, God doesn't operate more careless than humans. Any of us who've been in business know that when you hire someone, you don't usually hire them at the top. You hire them at the ground level. And as they prove themselves, they move up through the corporation or the business. Now, would God run some his, his house more his business, so to speak, more careless than we? No, He starts you at the ground level, so to speak, if you're faithful.
He'll move you along and give you a greater responsibility.
Interesting experience.
I injured my hand working carelessly with a knife at work.
And I couldn't use my hand for.
A few months.
It was interesting. I couldn't do my normal work and I I like to work. I like to work hard. My body likes it too. Generally my head was telling my body to work.
01:00:11
Part of my body couldn't work anymore, and because my hand was injured, my arm couldn't do its normal work to support the hand. There was one particular job that needed to happen and there was nobody else to do it.
And uh, I talked it over with my boss and.
He sort of left and well, I guess it won't get done, but my head wanted it done.
We are all members of the body of Christ if we are believers.
And we all have our specific gifts.
But my head wanted a job done, and the job that needed done required two buttons to be hit at the exact same time. They were separated by a couple of feet and just looked like it couldn't happen. But they hadn't figured out that if it's hold the right foot to balance the whole body for a while and the left knee to stand up quick and hit the button at the same time as my right hand.
It took a lot of extra effort.
The whole body had to adjust because one hand was injured.
But if the head wants something done.
And there's a member that's not responding.
That is going to tell other members, even though it's not their gift to get in the game.
It's really easy to look and say, oh that needs to be done. Well so and so is gifted. Why is me in the game?
Well, perhaps.
Lord wants you to go to admonish or rebuke.
Or maybe.
He wants you to do something different than what you're used to doing, perhaps different from what you're gifting doing. But if Christ is in me.
And Christ is my head, and I see a need.
Then I don't have an excuse to not be involved.
In in going ahead and getting something done.
My sister's here just turned to a word as well in Romans chapter 16 because it's not only brothers that ought to be exercising this way. It says in verse 12, Romans 16, verse 12 Salute try fina and Trifosa who labor in the Lord salute the beloved purses which labored much in the Lord past tense.
And, uh, some of the writers suggest that this possibly was an older sister that was no longer able to do her work purses. And these two younger sisters try Fina and Trifosa began to do a work, a labor. Now, Paul, this is a little picture of the judgment seat of Christ, Romans chapter 16. And you have little insights to how Paul valued different ones. And it's the Lord values every one of us as individuals and he's noticing what's done.
And so this sister, Persis was a sister that labored.
Much in the Lord.
We're not told what she did, but it's like Grace Hurl. But I often thought of this dear sister. Never owned a new car or anything like that. Didn't have a beautiful house, Had an adequate house and raised a family for the Lord. Taught Sunday school for 50 years and every time there was a hobby class, she spent a week, maybe two weeks out at the meeting room preparing for for the hobby class.
She labored much in the Lord, and when she became incapacitated, incapable of doing that work anymore, it took two or three sisters to do the work that she was doing. We never realized how much she was doing, but she devoted her life to the cause of Christ, and she lived for the Saints and for the gospel. And so he names these names. They labor. I'll just say this.
There's many brothers that are named in this chapter 16 but none of them.
Does it say they labored? And so you and I that our brothers, sometimes we think we go out, we cut the grass at the meeting room or something. We labored and we sweat and so on. But the sisters, they labor. They labor week after week, day after day. And God values that labor. So Paul said to the Philippians, help those women which labored with me in the gospel. Not an interesting comment. Now they didn't preach the gospel on a in a public setting.
01:05:23
But they labored with him in the gospel. Paul did the preaching. But what did these women do?
Well, perhaps they went along to help provide meals and practical things. We don't know. But you know, I'm thankful as we have the opportunity in other countries to travel and present the gospel and so on. I'm thankful for sisters that have labored with me in the gospel. But I want to tell one little story to, to in connection with what Tim has said, because I think what Tim has said is very good because sometimes we can use the excuse. Well, it's not my gift.
It's not my ministry, and it might not be, but I'll tell you a little story that Tim's comments brought to mind. My father was not domesticated in any way. He made a good living for his family, and he raised his children well for the Lord.
But he was not domesticated and he certainly wasn't a cook. But I remember when we were children, my mother and I had gallbladder surgery and gallbladder surgery back in the early 60s was very different than it is today. You were in the hospital after about two weeks, 10 days or two weeks. It was serious surgery back in those days. And I remember my father donning an apron when my mother was in the hospital and cooking for his children. I will never forget it. It seemed like we ate burnt grilled cheese for, for two weeks. I, I know that's an exaggeration.
But I've. But I've often thought of that. My dad, it wasn't his ability. His ability was not in the kitchen. But he loved his children. And in the absence of my mother, he did the best he could. He filled in and he served his family the best way that he could. Now, when my mother returned, he was very glad to take the apron off and let my mother prepare the meals. But I thought of that. So you're gonna go home to your little assembly. Maybe someone who normally takes that responsibility is sick.
Or as you say, they're older now and they can't carry out that. Maybe, maybe it isn't exactly to your bent or your your your gift, but we can all fill in. Maybe the maybe the brothers that preaches the gospel gives a little word in the gospel. Sunday night isn't able to be there. Maybe you're not an evangelist, but you can get up and read a few scriptures and say a few words for for the Lord in the gospel. Tell what great things God has, has has done for you.
That's that's filling in, as Tim said. So I think that's a good word that we've had because I, I fear that sometimes we use the excuse and we just step back and say, well, that's, that's not my gift. That's not my ability. You know, these are days of weakness, brother. There isn't a lot of great gift perhaps, but thank, thank the Lord. The function and administration of your local assembly doesn't depend on gift. It depends on the Lord being there, the authority of the Lord in the midst and the exercise of each member of the body of Christ.
In fellowship in that little assembly, to seek to fill in and carry on for His glory and the blessing of His people.
312.
Lead on all my devils laid on to him Lord is.
By by Lavender.
Where are you involved?
01:10:38
Two soon, right? Does that show?
All day and all your dreams rain.
Healing.
Lord and.
First Kings.
Chapter 19.
First Kings chapter 19 and verse 19.
And so he departed thence and found Elisha.
The son of Shaffat, who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen before him, and he with the 12Th.
Large farmer.
Patiently going on with the last plow.
And Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him. Second Kings, chapter 3.
And verse 11.
But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord, that we may inquire of the Lord by him? And one of the king of the king of Israel's servants answered and said.
Here is Elisha, the son of Shaphat.
Notices which poured water on the hands of Elijah.
Two Women, Three Doors
Gospel—John Kaiser
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 evening.
You are each here more welcome than you know, or that I can express, or that you can imagine, or I can imagine.
I think.
If we all knew.
The love of God as we will know it, those of us who are saved.
We would.
Hardly contain ourselves in our seats tonight.
That's why I say you are more welcome than you know.
Let's begin my singing. Very familiar song and I'll take this ACC occasion to apologize to my fellow brethren for not bringing the hymn sheets this year. It was an oversight on my part.
It was on the list, but I didn't read the list.
Number 93.
Number 93.
What a friend we have in Jesus. You know most of the things that we sing in the way of hymns.
Are understatements. If they're true, they don't begin to fully express the truth behind them. It's just the opposite of the songs of the world. The songs of the world are generally overstatements.
The hymns tend to be hymns concerning the the Bible, the gospel concerning God. They tend to be understatements. What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God.
In prayer.
Number 93.
Thank you God in prayer.
Followed by it, we are before the end of the.
Oh, that everybody here knows the history behind this young, but it's my privilege.
To spend several hours every week in a juvenile detention center and we have a golf, we have two gospel services and a Bible study. And we often sing this him. And when we sing this hymn, I tell them the story behind it because I think it's very significant.
This hymn was written about 150 years ago by a Irishman named Joseph Scriven. He lived in Ireland, obviously.
Umm, and.
He got to marrying age. He got engaged to a girl.
And the day before their wedding, if I remember the story correctly, the day before their wedding, she drowned.
Uh, he moved to Canada to start a new life, moved to Port Hope ON.
And it wasn't too long and he met another girl and he got engaged to her and she died of tuberculosis.
00:05:09
And then?
He wrote.
What a friend we have a Jesus.
Verse 3.
Are we?
Solace means comfort.
If you don't have comfort in Jesus tonight.
This meeting is especially for you.
Tonight I want to talk about two women and three doors.
The two women are in the Bible.
And we'll begin with reading about one in Mark Chapter 5.
Mark chapter 5 and we'll start with verse 24.
And Jesus went with him.
And much people followed him and thronged him.
You know I started the wrong one.
Pardon me, I meant to go to Matthew 26 first.
I'll tell you why I went to Mark five first. I'm making thinking about this woman in Mark 5 for several days. But then I started thinking about this woman in Matthew 26 today and I thought she should be included. So let's go to Matthew 26 and we'll get back to Mark 5, Lord willing, Matthew 26 and verse 6.
Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the House of Simon the leper, there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head as he sat at meat. And when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much and given to the poor.
When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble you the woman? She hath brought a good work upon me.
For you have the poor always with you, but me you do not have always.
For him that she has poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Verily, I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world.
There shall also this that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.
I wanted to start the meeting with three points about this one. I really plan to plan to spend more time talking about the other woman in Mark 5, but there's three things.
I just learned where the mic is. There's three things that are very significant here.
Notice this woman. We don't know who she was, We don't know her background. She came and she anointed the Lord Jesus with some expensive ointment.
And.
The disciples.
UMM has something to say about it.
It says when the disciples saw it, they had an Indian nation saying to what purpose is.
This waste, now you might have sympathized with them.
Umm, I'll, I'll confess, I'm not into using expensive ointments. And, uh, they had seen a lot of poverty.
But they were wrong.
They had been with Jesus three years, or maybe not three years by this time. They had been spent a considerable time with Jesus.
They were his disciples, they spent considerable time with Jesus, but they had not learned to appreciate Him.
00:10:07
As this woman had, how she learned what what previous experience she had with the Lord Jesus, we don't know.
She doesn't say anything, she just comes in and anoints the Lord Jesus with this expensive ointment. Why do I bring this up? You know, we might look at the small number here. We might think of other similar situations where.
We say, what's the use? What's the point?
The point is that this woman honored the Lord Jesus. She was in the current of God's thoughts.
Which is why the Lord Jesus commanded her and said that.
Wherever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this that this woman hath done.
Be told from memorial ever.
She had, consciously or unconsciously, she had God's thoughts.
You know, we might tend to. And there are people who do they, they believe that preaching the gospel is foolishness. It's a waste. They might say that this meeting here tonight is a waste. I look in the room and I'm sure most here, if not all, have heard the gospel before.
But are we seeing it the way God sees it? Faith sees.
Things the way God sees them doesn't say we see everything the way God sees everything. Not suggesting that, but faith enables us to see what God.
Wants us to see, as he sees it, this woman. This was an act of faith. It would not have been commended otherwise.
She had an understanding of the value of the Lord Jesus Christ and so.
The first thing we learn here is that God does not think the way we do.
We need to understand that and never forget it.
This is something I stress so often when preaching to the boys at the detention center. God's thoughts are not our thoughts. That's why we're told to repent over and over in Scripture. Repent. The word pant means think. Repent means to rethink. And every one of us says in Acts chapter 17, God commands all men everywhere.
To repent. And so everyone in this room now knows why you're here, because repentance is something that's ongoing.
We all naturally think wrong thoughts, and we need to have God's thoughts.
So first thing, God doesn't think the way we do. Second thing.
This was not a waste. Yeah, so we understand that now. We know that the disciples thought it was a waste, but they don't understand the character of God.
If they left God out of the picture.
Did it ever occur to you that God never wastes anything?
God never wastes anything. You remember the Lord Jesus when he fed the thousands, He told his disciples to gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost.
Its characteristic. God does not waste anything. We waste things, we waste time, we waste money, we waste effort, we waste emotion, we waste our thoughts, we waste our lives because we don't know how to manage things. That's not God's problem. He knows how to manage everything. He's totally efficient. God never waste anything. It's wonderful to know that.
Even the things that we waste, as depicted in the feeding of the thousands, the people threw the stuff down and the Lord gathered it up or had his disciples gathered up. The things that we waste, God can do something with Him.
You may look over your life and say my life's been wasted. A good part of my life's been wasted.
Wait till you see.
What God has done with what you've neglected.
You know, when we get to glory, those of us that are going to be there, we're going to look back at the most mundane things in our lives and we're going to see every second in every circumstance glitter with the grace of God.
God is going to turn it all for good.
00:15:03
If there's someone here tonight that's depressed.
You're feeling defeated.
Don't leave God out of the picture.
He's capable for everything. He can manage everything.
The third thing we see in this sorry and we're gonna see in the next one is that God is interested in individuals. This woman walks in, doesn't appear that she was invited, doesn't appear that she said anything, doesn't appear that she was welcome.
But the Lord.
Spent some time speaking about her and I want you to know that God is interested in individuals. It's another thing I try to stress when I'm speaking to the.
Boys and girls at the juvenile detention center, because so many of them feel unwanted. They feel their lives are worthless. Nobody wants them. Nobody cares. God is interested in you tonight, more interested in you than you are yourself.
He's more, I say that again. He is more interested in you than you are.
He's been thinking about you longer. He knew about this evening.
Before you were born.
And so you're here tonight.
For his purposes, the Bible says the steps of a Goodman are ordered of the Lord.
There was this was, there was no, this was no accident. This incident we read about in Scripture. The Lord was in the right place at the right time.
This woman was in the right place at the right time.
And you're here tonight.
And I hope you understand this God's purpose to encourage you to bless you.
To help you tonight.
Now let's turn to.
Mark 5.
Mark chapter 5, verse 24. We're jumping into the middle of a story. There's a story within a story.
It says Jesus went with him. That's a ruler. We won't read about his story and much people followed him and thronged him. And a certain woman which had an issue of blood 12 years and had suffered many things with many physicians and has spent all that she had and was nothing better, but rather grew worse when she had heard of Jesus came in the press behind and touched his garment and said.
If I may touch but his clothes.
I shall be whole and straightway. The fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the plague.
And Jesus immediately, knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned and.
And about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? And his disciples said unto him, There were Thou seest the multitudes thronging thee, And sayest thou who touched me? And he looked about, around about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.
And he said unto her, Daughter, Thy faith hath made thee whole.
Go in peace and be whole of thy plague.
Again, here's a woman not named. We don't know what how she knew about the Lord Jesus, but she had faith. She came to Jesus.
Came behind unobtrusively.
Hoping not to be noticed.
She came to the Lord Jesus.
And thought, she said within herself, she was speaking to herself.
If I can only touch his clothing.
Another place says the border of his garment and because this story is told in two other Gospels. And so she she was just wanting to touch the Lord Jesus. She had faith that just this indirect connection with Jesus.
00:20:10
With healer.
Have you ever had an indirect connection with Jesus?
If a friend invited you here tonight, if your parents brought you here tonight, that was an indirect connection with Jesus.
But you know the Lord Jesus wanted more than that. He wanted more than an indirect connection. But notice the indirect connection was all that was needed. Why? It was faith. She just touched his clothing.
It was an act of faith.
You know, sometimes people say, I'm not sure I have enough faith. It's not the issue of how much faith you have. It's the the question is, who do you have faith in?
Have you touched? Have you had this contact with the Lord Jesus Christ tonight? You know this woman, she might have stayed in the crowd and she might have gotten close and.
If she hadn't touched him, would she have been healed?
It took the touch, a simple contact with the Lord Jesus. You know, we sang this hymn. What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. That's how we touch God. That's how we touch the Lord Jesus. Prayer. He hears, He's sensitive.
Far more sensitive than we are. He's listening.
And so this woman gets behind him, and she says it may touch his clothes. I'll be whole. And straight away the fountain of her blood was dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of the plague. And Jesus immediately, knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned in the press and said, Who touched my clothes? Now I wanna know that. I want you to notice there's two knowings in this story.
Jesus knowing and looking verse 33 it says.
The woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her.
Knowing.
God has given us this book so we can know.
It says in first John chapter 5 verse 13, these things are written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
So often that's been my privilege to preach the gospel.
I've been preaching the gospel since I was 13 years old. 57 years.
My grandfather started taking me into jails with him at that age. And so often I've talked to people and say, you're going to heaven. Always say yes, yeah, I'm going to heaven. Are you sure? Well, they say, I hope so.
Who are you trusting?
You say you hope so.
Is God not reliable? Is His Word not reliable?
The word of God says that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The word of God says the way to the sin is death, but the gift of God.
How hard is it to get a gift? The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The word of God says as many as received him to them. He gave the power to become the sons of God.
God has given us a book so we can know what's interesting. That knowing first mention here is the knowing of the Lord Jesus. He knew all about this woman.
He knew about her before she approached him.
But he also knew that he had touched her, that she had touched him. He knew that she had touched him.
You know there's a verse in Scripture that says the Lord knows.
Them that are His. And let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. The Lord knows who are His in this room here tonight.
Are you his? Do you know? You can know. That's why you're here tonight, so you can know. It's a wonderful thing to know.
You know, if this building caught fire, you'd wanna know where the exits are, right? You probably already do. Aren't you glad?
00:25:00
It's a wonderful thing to know.
This woman knowing.
Jesus knowing, excuse me, verse 30 in himself that virtue had gone out of him and virtue just means power had gone out of him, turned about in the press, that's the crowd and said who touched my clothes? If you read this story in the other Gospels, you would understand why the disciples interpreted it here, who touched me? Because that's what the Lord Jesus also said in the other gospels, who touched me touched his clothes.
It's the simplest contact. He recognizes it, he feels it. You know, talking about indirect contact.
There's such a thing as indirect negative contact too. You know when the apostle Paul.
Before he was saved, he was called Saul. When Saul, who later became the apostle Paul, was arrested on the road to Damascus, the Lord Jesus said to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And Jesus was in heaven.
And he got, he took very personally that indirect contact where Saul was persecuting Christians.
And Jesus said to Saul, why do you persecute me?
You know.
God.
Is involved in your life. He's very conscious, more conscious of you, of everything you do than you are.
Conscious of your thoughts.
You know, umm.
God holds us responsible for our thoughts. We could look at some stories about that too.
So he said, who touched me? And the disciples thought it was strange. Why would he? He's got a crowd around him. But you see, the Lord Jesus could tell the difference between a touch of faith and a touch of a mere crowd.
Have you touched the Lord Jesus in a positive way tonight or have you touched him in a negative way like the like Saul did? Have you been against him or have you trusted him?
You know, it's one or the other. There's no neutrality.
So he says, who touched me and he looked around to see her that had done this thing. But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her. You know, the the Scripture says the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God. It's a wonderful thing to know your relationship with God.
And you could know it tonight.
It's a wonderful thing to be ready to meet God.
So she came, fearing and trembling before him. Why? She didn't really know him. She had trusted him, but she didn't know his heart. She knew something had happened, but she didn't have peace.
And you know, there are those who who recognize power in the person of the Lord Jesus, but they don't have peace.
Because they haven't gotten to know him.
And so he said to her, I said, well, excuse me, verse 33 again She, the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing it was done her, came and fell down before him and told him all the truth.
She confessed to him what she had done. You can read about it a little bit more detail on some of the other gospels.
I want to talk to you about confession for a moment. Confession is important.
You know it says in script in Romans chapter 10 verse nine, if you will confess with your mouth.
Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead. You will be saved.
Have you ever confessed Jesus as Lord? It's a wonderful thing to confess Jesus as Lord. Why is it wonderful? Because it says if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, you'll be saved. It has a practical effect in our own lives, speaking up for the Lord.
00:30:07
And so this woman, she came and confessed to him, to the Lord Jesus.
And he says two things to her.
Uh, three things actually says daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole. Now this is an this word. Faith is a very misunderstood word. A lot of people say I have faith, but all it is is self-confidence.
Faith is taking God at His word. Faith now this.
This, this woman had heard. Obviously she'd heard something about the Lord Jesus.
And she?
Acted on what she'd heard, that's faith. Acting on what you've heard from God about the Lord Jesus Christ, That's faith. I wanna express, explain faith a little bit.
I like to tell the story of Brian and Laura.
Years ago there was a fellow that came to work with me. His name was Brian.
And.
He was just out of high school.
Maybe he'd had one job before he came to work at Bible Truth Publishers. But.
He was a young guy and maybe 20.
And after you worked a little while, he saved up some money and he bought himself a beautiful yellow motorcycle.
And I watched him enjoy that motorcycle for a year or two. He rode it to and from work and good weather and.
And then I noticed it wasn't, he wasn't riding anymore.
And I said to Brian, Brian, what happened to your motorcycle?
Oh, he said. I'm getting married.
Now I want to tell you how that worked. Let's turn to Hebrews Chapter 11.
Hebrews Chapter 11 verse one. It says now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things.
Not seen.
Well, Brian had met this girl named Laura.
And it turned out he liked it pretty well, and she liked him. And he proposed and she accepted. She promised to marry him.
He had a hope out there because faith and hope go together. He had a hope out there.
And his faith in Laura's word made that hope that was still months away.
A present.
Actionable reality. He wasn't married to her yet.
But he sold his motorcycle to pay for the honeymoon. He believed Laura. And that future thing, that distant, that unseen promised thing, that hope, became something that, in his present, made a difference.
It was the same with this woman who came to the Lord Jesus. She says If I can just touch the heaven's garment, she had a hope.
She reached out and that hope became a reality.
Now have you trusted the Lord Jesus?
Have you come to him in faith?
He knows.
Let's turn back to our story.
Mark chapter 5.
I should point out to you.
Then Luke in Hebrews Chapter 11 it also says a few verses further down. Without faith it is impossible to please God.
Faith is a requirement. This book requires faith. A relationship with God requires faith.
In God you need, you need to take God at His Word.
Without faith, it's impossible to please God. If you're trying to please God on your own terms, you're wasting your time. Would you, if you want to, went to work for an employer on your own terms, would you? Would you keep your job long? No. If you want a relationship with God, it has to be on his terms, and his terms are faith, he says. You have to trust me.
00:35:16
So he that comes to God must believe that he is.
Are you dealing with somebody real, somebody you can't see and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him? What does that mean? God is a rewarder means God is responsive.
A rewarder is somebody who dispenses something as a reward for some action performed.
God is a rewarder. He is responsive. He's responsive to both good and evil. He's a rewarder, it says here in.
Hebrews, eleven of those that diligently seek Him. In other words, God's not interested in a casual relationship. He loves you. He loves you deeply. He paid a tremendous price for your salvation.
A casual relationship is an insult.
So back to our version, our passage in Mark 5.
Hmm.
Mark five verse.
34 He says, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole.
He calls her daughter. He says he's compassionate. I want you to know the Lord Jesus is compassionate.
This was woman, I don't suppose had endured much compassion, that experience much compassion in her life. She had a an affliction which did not make her attractive. It was a an affliction that was distressing to her.
She was in need of comfort, and most people are.
Most people.
In this world are more miserable than anybody else suspects.
So this the Lord Jesus says to her, daughter, Thy faith has made thee whole.
Go in peace, and be whole of thy plague. Two things go in peace.
That's relationship. Go in peace. Do you have a relationship with God? Are you at peace with God tonight?
I want you to know that peace is not a dead relationship. Peace with God. The peace of God, Scripture says, passes all understanding. It's it's something dynamic.
It was a hymn written Oh, the peace forever flowing from God's thoughts of his own Son. Oh, the peace of simply knowing on the cross that all was done.
It's a dynamic piece. It's an enriching piece.
You know, umm, I can walk into an empty house and that's one kind of piece.
But I can walk into a house full of love, and that's another kind of piece. What should you prefer?
An empty piece The world. There's many people in this world that go on with an empty piece. They they've put God out of their lives. They have developed a seared conscience and nothing troubles them.
At least nothing they'll admit.
But it's an empty piece. It's a dead piece.
And it's not going to last.
The Lord Jesus said I have come, let's turn to it. John, chapter 14.
John, Chapter 14.
Umm verse 27. Lord Jesus said to his disciples.
To His disciples, those who believed in Him, who trusted Him. Peace I leave with you, My peace I giveth you not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. The Lord Jesus gives a peace that this world knows nothing of. This world tries to make a compromise peace and negotiating peace.
The Lord Jesus went to the cross and made a total peace.
00:40:03
He took care of every issue between you and God, if you'll have peace from Him on God's terms.
So he says to this woman back in Mark 5.
Go in peace and be whole of thy plague. This is a promise.
In other words, this wasn't a temporary thing. She was cured for life.
She was cured for life.
You know God.
Is interested in the relationship and he's interested in the issues that mar the relationship. So we have these two theories. Two things here. Go in peace and be whole of thy plague. Now this woman, it says she'd had this problem for 12 years. 12 years is a long term problem. Maybe there's someone here tonight who's been struggling with an issue for 12 years.
For a long time. Or maybe it feels like 12 years.
Maybe it's longer?
The Lord Jesus can make you whole of that plague. He can do it.
Now we've talked about the two women.
And, uh, you may wonder what this thing's up here for.
And I'm talking about the two 2 doors. 3 doors.
And I'm just knowing that most of us have the background. I'm not going to explain a whole lot, but I'm going to give you a presentation, something to stick in your mind, because I know visuals stick in our minds. And this is a visual I've never used before.
I when I found out I had this responsibility.
I thought of I have a whole collection of visuals I've used over the years and I couldn't think of 1 to use and then this came to mind and so I want you to consider it.
We'll call this your life Room.
It has three doors.
You came on in one of those doors.
And that door of birth.
Is one way.
You came in.
And you can't leave that door. That's the wrong one here.
Got the wrong one.
You can't go back, You may say. I wish I'd ever been warned. A lot of people said that.
A lot of people change their mind about it too.
That's a door, that is, it opened once you came in and it shut.
By the way, in scripture.
Let's look at a verse.
In Revelation chapter 3.
And read this verse 7 here that says.
Revelation chapter 3, verse 7.
These things and and to the Angel of the Church of Philadelphia, right these things, saith he that is holy.
He that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth.
And shutteth a No man openeth.
00:45:17
Anyone want to guess what these other two doors might be?
There's only one door into life in our lives, but there's two doors out.
Heaven and hell.
Serious. Now you may say, well, maybe one, maybe one door is death, but that's superficial. Let's get down to what's really sobering, serious reality.
There's 2 doors for exit.
Heaven and hell.
And someday.
God is going to say it's time to leave.
Let me ask you.
Which door are you going out?
I want to tell you this is not a picture of my life room.
You see, years ago I trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior.
And that door for me is locked, and this door for me is open.
Sometimes I.
Like, like tell the young people that if I die tonight, I go to heaven and I say why? Oh, because you're good. No. No.
It's because Jesus died for me.
This is a picture of my life room. This door is open. For me. That door is forever shut for me. That door is shut. Now let me ask you a question. If I were to draw your life room.
What would your doors look like?
I wanna tell you something.
It may be this.
Maybe that God is still offering.
To save, to bring you to himself, skip yourself. Remember, says in in.
Which quoted in Hebrews 11. He that cometh to God must believe.
Have you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ?
If you have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, hell is blocked for you. But I'm going to tell you something if you die.
Very serious thing.
I want you to remember this and think about it.
What your life room looks like.
Where you're going to go? Where you're going to spend eternity? With whom?
With whom are you going to spend eternity?
Psalm 119:1-8
2 Timothy 4:7-22
Reading
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Now the very God of peace.
Us Holy sanctify and grant us such a rich increase of power from on high, that spirit, soul and body may preserved free from staying be blameless until that great day, Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
N.
On in chapter 5.
Verse 23.
Very God of peace sanctify you wholly.
I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved, blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Suggest we start at verse 7, Second Timothy 4.
Try to perhaps just get a little outline of what we have in these last verses. There's lots here, but just in the hour or so, try to get an outline of Paul's last words.
Second Timothy 4, verse 7.
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing. Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me. For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica, crescents to Galatia.
Scientists to Dalmatia only Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me. For the ministry. Antikycus have I sent to Ephesus the cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus. When thou come us, bring with thee and the books, but especially the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord who reward him according to his works, but of whom be thou? Where also for he hath greatly withstood our words.
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At my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known.
And that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly Kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Salute Prisca and Aquila, and the House of onosiferous Erastus about it Corinth. But Trophimus have I left at my victim sick. Do thy diligence to come before winter. Hubulus greeted thee, and Putin's, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren.
The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy Spirit, grace be with you. Amen.
In the eighth verse, he's going to speak of what is yet future henceforth he says, and uh, he speaks of that which is laid up for him. But before he does that, in three short statements he sums up his Christian life. And it's not that Paul was being boastful here, because he could say earlier, by the grace of God, I am what I am. And Paul, perhaps like no other of the apostles, lays out the grace of God, not just the saving grace of God.
But the preserving grace of God that brings us along and brethren, if we've been brought along in the path of faith and service to any degree, if we there's any desire in our hearts that this morning to follow the Lord, it's only the grace of God. It's God that works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. But I believe when Paul writes this, of course he's writing by inspiration, but he is writing it with the with the a genuine feeling of satisfaction and peace before his God.
That he had carried out what had been set before him and given him to do that. He had sought by the grace of God to live for God's glory. He had sought by the grace of God to stand for the truth and to pass it on to this young man, Timothy. So he says. I have fought a good fight. Earlier in the pistol in the second chapter, he had exhorted Timothy to endure hardness as a good soldier. Paul certainly did that. We've made comments on it. Paul didn't have it easy.
He was withstood, He fought with beasts at Ephesus, he said, in every city bonds and afflictions, persecutions.
As he said, I more than you all and and so on. And there are lists that he gives of those things that he suffered. So he certainly fought a good a good fight. And there's a spiritual warfare we have too. And he takes that up in the book of Ephesians. And then he says I have finished my course or if you notice Mr. Darby's translation, my race. And we've already spoken of that in connection with the race here. It's more the thought of the relay, as we've been saying.
But he finished it. He doesn't say he won the race. That wasn't what he was striving to do, but he was striving to finish it. Maybe there's someone here and you say, oh, I, I don't, I don't know. I, I, I'm, I, I don't, I can't win the race. That's OK. If you finish the race, that's, that's OK. You know, when we were, uh, children, they used to have Sunday school picnics at Rita Ferry up where I come from. And when we were for the real little children, when we were, when we were little, they had the windmill race.
And so whoever was in charge made sure that they knew how many small children there were who would participate. And at the other end of the field there were, if there was 20 children going to participate, there were 20 windmills stuck in the ground at the other end. And it didn't matter if you won the race, what mattered is you finished the race. And everybody that finished the race got a windmill. And we were so happy. I remember being 5-6 years of age and getting my windmill. I was probably the if there were twenty children, I was probably the 15th one in, but that didn't matter. And so Paul says I have finished the right my race.
And then he says, and this is very important, brethren, I have kept the faith. Now faith is taken up in different ways in the Scripture. Sometimes faith is confidence in God. And I think someone mentioned without faith it is impossible to please God and so on. But when the article the is in front of it, it really it usually doesn't have to do with that aspect of things. Let's go to the book of Jude and I think you see it there.
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There are several places, but let me read in the book of Jude because it goes along with what we're we have in our chapter.
Uh, the third verse of the book of Jude. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend. Now notice this for the faith which was once delivered to the Saints. What is the faith once delivered to the Saints? What is the faith that Paul had kept? It's the truth of God. It's what has been given to us as a deposit from God.
It's not just salvation, but it's all that pertains to the glory of the Lord Jesus, His person and work, the truth that has been laid out as to our position as believers and our heavenly calling. The prophetic aspect of things, the faith, brethren, is this book we hold in our hands. Now are you and I going to be able to say at the end of our course, not in a boastful way, but in our own souls that we have fought a good fight?
We finished our race and that we've kept the faith. Not a tremendous testimony for Paul at the end of his life, brother. And I covet that for my own soul and I trust that each one of us covet that for our own soul. And again, as we've been stressing in these meetings, and I don't think we can stress it enough. This is written right at the end in in connection with difficult days, perilous times, the last days, times of giving up on the subverting of souls and the undermining of the truth.
Paul went on to the end.
He fought that fight, He finished that race, He kept the faith. And he says to Timothy, now you can do the same thing. And brethren, it comes right down to us. Today. We by the grace of God and with the resources we have from God in Christ can finish our course. And Paul said in another place, he finished it with joy. All Christians don't, but he finished it with joy.
And given from God, from the risen Christ and glory of revelation, given to Paul. He expected the Lord to come in his generation, as every believer, with a proper hope that blessed hope has. We ought to expect them in our generation. I believe that this generation is going to be a reality. He is going to come during our lifetime and very shortly. But in First Thessalonians chapter 4.
Paul was speaking by revelation, and he was teaching the truth that the Lord was going to come at the rapture and he was going to come for his Saints.
And so in verse 13 and 14 he speaks of the appearing and the Lord Jesus is going to come with his Saints and then in verse.
15 down to verse 18, First Thessalonians chapter four, he says that's how they got there, that's how they got into heaven. He tells them the details and the sequence of events that takes place. But if you'll notice, it says in verse 15.
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that speaks of the revelation that He got from God, that we which are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord shall not prevent or go before them which are asleep. So he expected the Lord to come in His generation, but it was a revelation from the Lord that he was going to have to pass through death. He was going to enter into martyrdom, and he was going to be offered up, as I believe that this is a little umm.
Expression that's used by the Spirit of God a little picture of the drink offering he was going to be poured out offered at the in the time of my departure. My release is at hand. He is he was ready if that was the will of the Lord, he was ready to depart to be with Christ far better and so he got this by revelation.
And to the Philippians, far better, he knew exactly what he was talking about. You know, if if John or James or any other New Testament writer had said to depart and be with Christ as far better, you'd say, yes, of course it's scripture and we know it is. But Paul had been caught up there. He knew what was ahead. He had been temporarily in the 3rd heaven. And it really gives weight to that little expression far better. And the only reason Paul was content.
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To be left on earth a little longer was for the furthest of the gospel and the blessing of the people of God. But it is interesting here that as he goes on, he talks, not hears so much of the rapture because as you say, now he realizes he's going to go to be with the Lord through the article of death. But he looks beyond that and he speaks of the appearing because as we've already said, the appearing has to do with responsibility.
Paul says I fought the fight, I finished the course, the race. I've I've kept the faith. Now he looks on to the day of reward. I just want to say this rewards, brethren, are never given to us as the object or the motive for following the Lord. The object for following Christ, for following the Lord is Christ himself. The motive is to be a heart that's attracted goes out to himself.
But rewards and the judgment seat of Christ are given as a nice little incentive. Not only that, but usually when we think of reward, we think of what it means to us. We're gonna get a reward. But I think it's good to move beyond what it means to us and to realize what it's going to mean to his heart. The Lord Jesus is looking forward to saying to you, just saying to me.
Well done now, good and faithful servant, you know, any of us again who've had children, we don't, we delight to reward our children. We've delighted to give them something. Maybe they've done something that pleases us, something we've asked them to do. And when they've done it, well, we've rewarded them. They look forward to that reward. But didn't it throw your heart as a father or a mother to be able to say to your son or daughter, you know, that really pleased me and I'm glad to give you this little, this little, little reward. I hope you enjoy it. That's what the Lord Jesus wants to do. Brethren. Are we going to give him that privilege?
Are we gonna give him that joy? Yes, we're gonna rejoice too. But he's going to rejoice in that day to be able to reward for faithfulness. So Paul says, henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. Now, the crowns in the New Testament are taken up in different ways. They're all always in contrast. So there's an incorruptible crown in Corinthians in contrast to a corruptible crown. Men give rewards.
Great men rise to power. They have their laurels or their crowns or whatever they pass away, Paul says in Corinthians. I'm running the race and I'm going to get a crown that's incorruptible. There's a crown of life for one who lays down their life here.
But why is there a crowd? Why is this a crown of righteousness? Because it's a reward for living righteously in an unrighteous world. Paul has re written of all the UN the rise of unrighteousness.
Not just in the world, the ungodly world, but the professing Christian world, as we've been saying, Paul says, is that where I sought to live righteously in an unrighteous world? And now there's a crown of righteousness. It's another, there's another reason it's called a crown of righteousness too. And that is because it it will establish our position in the righteous reign of Christ. A king shall reign in righteousness, it says, and Princess shall rule in judgment and our faithfulness to the Lord now.
Is going to establish our position in the righteous Kingdom. Be thou over 5 cities, be thou over 10 cities, and so on. But just go to Titus for a moment in connection with living righteously for the Lord now.
To the book of Titus in chapter 2.
And verse 11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. Now notice this. This grace is a teacher here. And what does it teach us? It teaches us that denying ungodlyness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and here's our word, righteously and godly when in this present world or this present age. When is that? That's right now.
And I say that because there might be especially somebody younger here and you might say, well, you know, that was all right for Paul's day. I know there were difficulties, but that was all right for Paul's day, Timothy's day, our grandfather's day. But it's a, it's a pretty dark day today. Yes, it is a dark day today. But we can live righteously for God's glory and have a crown of righteousness laid up for us even in the present age we live in because.
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If the day ever gets so morally and spiritually dark that we can't live for God's glory and live righteously in this world, then the Lord will take us out. But until that moment, we can live soberly, righteously godly.
In this present age, and Paul says the crown's not just for me, it's for you too, Timothy, and for all those, all those that love is appearing, Who are they? I trust that you and I this morning.
Present and future, those verses in Titus. Yeah, so. So Paul sought to live right? Just like he exhorted Titus to live righteously. Pulse, exhort Timothy here to go on in a day of ruin. But then there's us as well. That's Paul was looking on to others who would believe and have a desire to follow the Lord. And then he says the day is coming when we're all gonna stand together at the judgment seat of Christ. And he said it's gonna be a joy for him to reward us.
Picture given to us in the Old Testament in Ezra chapter 8IN connection with the faith.
We have the entire body of truth that has been delivered to us, everyone as individuals. And I'd like to just look at this very briefly a couple of verses. In Ezra chapter 8, they had the vessels of the temple that they were had been brought into captivity by the Babylonians and the king had proclaimed that they could go from Babylon back to the land of Israel. And so they were carrying those precious vessels and the articles of the.
Umm, the articles that were used in the Tabernacle, in the temple. And so they were given to the children of Israel, to the priest to carry back. So let's look at Ezra chapter 8, verse 24. Then I separated 12 of the chief priests, of the priests, Cherubaya, Pashabaya, and ten of their brethren with them, and weighed unto them the silver and the gold, and the vessels, even of the O the offering of the House of our God, which the king and his counselors and his Lords and all Israel there present had offered.
I even wait until their hand. 650 talents of silver, 600 vessels in 100 talents. He goes through in detail.
So the faith is what a brother Jim has just brought out the entire body of Christian truth, not one single part of it. Can we take a black Magic marker to and mark it out? And we find that when they arrived in Jerusalem in chapter 8 of Ezra verse 32, it says we came to Jerusalem and abode there three days. Now on the 4th day was the silver and the gold and the vessels weighed in the House of our God by the hand of Marimo the son of Uriah the priest.
And so he goes through the details. Not one article was missing in faithfulness. They had carried it through the wilderness. And at the end of the journey in Jerusalem, really in the presence of the Lord, the thing was all weighed out, all those vessels. And so you and I individually are responsible to hold the truth of God, all of it, every bit of it. There's nothing that we could lay aside in the sand in the wilderness, say this is too heavy to carry. It was all to be brought in.
And then it would be weighed. It's going to be weighed. And so he speaks to the crown of righteousness. And I just add one thing to what Jim said. Paul was treated like an unrighteous man. He was treated like a criminal. And he was put to death as a malefactor, you might say, a criminal in the Roman Empire because he was an idolatrous and he spoke of the living God and so on. And so in a future day, he says.
The crown that I get is going to be displayed before this world. Christ is going to give me a crown. He's going to give you a crown.
Everyone of us will have a crown of glory, and when will that crown of glory be displayed? It's going to be displayed at His appearing. And so you and I, when we appear with the Lord Jesus, we're going to be displaying those rewards that He has given to us. And those rewards and the glory that we are associated with in connection with the Lord Jesus will magnify his grace, magnify his glory.
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And so Paul, when Paul is seeing why he's going to have a crown of righteousness and the world is going to know that he was put to death as an unrighteous man, he was treated as a criminal, but God sees him as righteous. So this is what he's really referring to. And so he's going to, he loves the thought of the Lord's appearing. And you and I, if we have a right spirit, we're not taken up with this present age. We're taking up with the future when the Lord Jesus will have his rights and be glorified before this world. Every eye shall see him.
They may see him at a different time each. Each one is going to see him though every eye and all those rewards will be displayed at that time at his appearing.
I think we already mentioned if we had read on in Titus, the next verse, we won't turn back to it. Grace teaches us to be looking for two things, the blessed hope and the glorious appearing. Now the appearing is always, as you say, when He appears back in this world. And the appearing always has to do with responsibility, because when He appears, we're going to appear in glory with Him and the rewards that were given at the judgment seat of Christ.
Are going to be manifest at the appearing and the world is going to look up and see those who were despised and rejected now as the followers of Christ. And they're going to see them glorified with Christ and coming forth, uh, in that way. And so we are to love his appearing and to love his appearing too, brethren, I believe, is to rejoice in the fact that there's a day coming when the Lord Jesus is going to be vindicated in this world.
He hasn't had his vindication yet in heaven. He's crowned with a crown of glory and honor. But as we leave these meetings and we go back to the spheres in which we operate, we're going to sometimes hear the name of Christ in curse. He's still the song of the drunkard. He's still despised and rejected of men. But God is looking forward to that day, and I don't believe the heart of God will be fully satisfied until his Son has his full vindication.
Here on planet earth, where they spit in his face and nailed him to a Roman cross. And in Hebrews chapter 10, the Lord is looking forward to that day too. It says He seated at the right hand of God, and then it tells us what he's thinking about henceforth, expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. The Lord Jesus is sitting there anticipating the day when He's going to come forth, not crowned with a crown of thorns, the way the world saw Him last.
But crowned with many crowns are many diadems and coming whose right it is. But brethren, if I can just suggest too that we not miss these last few verses of the of the chapter. I know there's much that can be said, but there are some names and individuals mentioned in the end of this chapter, both as warnings and encouragement to us. Now just say this about verse nine. He when Paul says, do thy diligence to come shortly. If you notice, Mr. Darby's translation has come quickly.
Why did he say that? Well, two reasons. He wanted Timothy's fellowship. There was a man he could have fellowship with. All in Asia had forsaken him. He, Paul, Paul. I know Luke was with him, but Paul, Paul desired Timothy's fellowship. Someone that was of like mind, someone that they could enjoy the precious things of Christ together with. But as Robert said earlier, Paul realized he didn't have long for this world either. And Paul desired to see his son in the faith one more time.
Timothy, I'm not long, I'm, I'm gonna lay down my life as a martyr. I'd just love to see you one more time. This, this side of heaven. And as we go on to these verses that follow, remember this. There's a very human side that comes into things And I, I, I, I suggest we don't want to miss that. We can spiritualize a lot of things that are here and, and, and, and I, I don't have a problem with that. I, there's, there's applications we can make.
But to see the age of Apostle Paul, he wasn't sitting in comfortable chairs with air conditioning like we are today. He was, he was in prison. He, he didn't have the comforts of life like like we have. And the Apostle Paul felt things, he as a servant of God, as an apostle of Christ, he hadn't lost that human touch and that human sense. And I, I, I, I'd like us to get a little feel of it as we go down through these verses to see the human side of Paul.
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And how God takes care of his agent servant at the very end.
Spirit, soul and body, doesn't it Very practical, uh, the feelings of affection and, uh, the desire that he had for Timothy. And it should be found in us too. We should have a desire for the spiritual well-being of, first of all our families and, and, uh, our brethren. But there's also a very, uh, natural side of things which there should be.
A uh, a laws that is felt and enjoyed. Our assembly should be places where it should be known that there is a love for each individual that we would seek to be a blessing to spiritually, but we desire to see them go on. I think it was John that desired as as the Spirit.
Prospered that they might prosper and embody as well. And so there is that. Uh, we are, we are made-up of three parts.
Spirit, soul and body and and it's very, very important that that the Lord only knows the balance, but where the others, other parts of the being are neglected.
Then there's there's going to be a void that is left. It's going to be detrimental.
So one that was putting off the Lord's coming. In practice, I might not say that I really am not really waiting for the Lord to come, but my life will show whether I'm waiting or not waiting and watching. Those two words are used not very frequently in the New Testament, but they are used together, waiting and watching. And so Dimas, I believe his name means popular. And so he wanted to be, have the popular side of Christianity perhaps, and not so much the reproach.
Of Christ and the reproach of the Apostle Paul and his doctrine, remember.
It's the apostles doctrine, it's Paul's doctrine that teaches us about the rapture and the difference between the, uh, appearing and the rapture. And so the Lord Jesus is going to come for his Saints.
At the rafter, and then he's going to come with his Saints at the appearing. And Paul gives us the distinction. He teaches it throughout his ministry. And well, we've already spoken of it, that he's going to come with all of his Saints and they'll be glorified in those Saints. But Dimas had forsaken Paul, having loved this present world, and is departed in the Thessalonica. So it's a little picture perhaps in Thessalonica. They were marked by having turned to God from idols.
To serve the living and the true God and to wait for his Son from heaven. That's what characterized him in the first epistle. He goes to Thessalonica. We know that the apostle Paul wrote another epistle to the Thessalonians, and he brought before them the need to really remember that there was a distinction between his rapture, the rapture and the appearing, and that they had let go of that hope of his coming. And so the the Dimas went to that place.
He went to thus Malika. I wonder if it wasn't because his conscience wouldn't be as bothered about living for this present world as possible. To love the business world, to love the financial world, to love the manufacturing, love the farming world, whatever it is, and to sync our time and our effort into those things.
In this context is not the physical globe on which we live. It's helpful to see that the world is taken up in in different ways. Sometimes it is the physical planet on which we live. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That is, he came right here to planet earth in incarnation and went to the cross to accomplish the work of redemption. Sometimes the world is the people that inhabit the planet. God so loved the world. Well, obviously he didn't love a planet, if I can speak reverently, the people that inhabit it.
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But the world often is taken up in connection with a system of things that is set up by man in independence of God. There's the religious world, there's the social world, there's the business world, many aspects of of the world. And it's interesting that in Galatians chapter one and verse four, it tells us that one of the reasons Christ came and died was to deliver us. I want you to notice this.
From this present evil world. And so we have been delivered from this world. We're no longer positionally part of this world and its system. We're no longer under the judgment that is hanging over this world. But that's not what it says here about Demas. He didn't go into a present evil world, just the present world or the it's really the present age, isn't it? It's like it we, we had the verse. We can live soberly, righteously godly in this present age.
Whatever Demas took up with it wasn't wicked in itself. And Mr. Lundin used to say the same thing that you you have mentioned that perhaps it was the so-called Christian world. You know, it was one thing to associate with Paul the missionary when they he was out on the mission field and there was blessing from his preaching when he visited assemblies and they were built up. And so that was one thing, but it was quite another thing to associate with Paul the prisoner.
There was a reproach connected with that, and no doubt even a fear of death or or physical persecution. To associate with a man who was considered the head of this movement in many ways and to be associated with him, put yourself in real danger. And at best I say, at least I say as to reproach. And so Dimas didn't go off into something lewd or wicked, but there was something that characterized the spirit of the age.
That took him away from being associated with the Apostle Paul and what Paul had ministered and stood for.
Another little word of encouragement regarding this UMM Demas forsaken me. I believe it could be said that this weekend those who have made especially speak to the young, those who have made the UMM the attempt and made plans and spent money and and offered up their time to be here at this conference. I've had the privilege of being with the Apostle Paul.
And enjoying the truth that the Spirit of God would umm would further regarding the ministry that the apostle that was given to the Apostle Paul and in one sense you have chosen to be with him.
And it's an encouragement for those of us that are older to umm.
See, younger people and actually all the Lord's people that would would like to be subject to the revelation that God has given to the apostle Paul. And so we can exhort one another to do it. And yet I think that we can also recognize that we have done it by the grace of God and that we have enjoyed what was revealed to the apostle Paul.
And we recognize that it is this grace that finds us here.
Uh, just a little expression that our older brethren used to use in connection with the world. One was that the three parts really, when you read about the world and the scriptures or the age, the people, the planet and the program. And so all three and then also speaks of the world to come. It's a term for the millennial Kingdom of the Lord, though the world to come is going to be a, an age of glory and the Lord Jesus will be magnified throughout this entire world. So those.
Free expression is the people, the planet and the program. And also if you remember when you're reading the Gospel of Matthew, when you read the world, he says, just for example, I think it's the last verse, he says, lo, I am with you always unto the end of the world. It's really unto the end of the age. So it'll be a better reading, better rendering to read it the age. And so when you read in Matthew's Gospel, particularly the world.
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Remember that it's probably the age and Mr. Darby's translation will help. So here he mentions these different individuals and uh, we could spend, uh, the next half hour just on verse 10, but he speaks of Christians gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. The apostle Paul felt the loss of the fellowship of these dear ones. And he speaks very highly of Luke. He spoke of him as the beloved physician, but here he speaks of, uh.
Luke is with me.
And he speaks of Mark, who had had failure in his life and he had been profitable, or he was a servant to me, suitable for the ministry. And so he acted as a servant to the apostle Paul. And we can be walking in fellowship, as Brother Phyllis mentioned in connection with how we walk in this scene. Our lives are going to be walking and proving they're walking in fellowship with Paul's doctrine or not. And so here was Luke.
Ministering to the needs of the Apostle Paul.
At the end of his life and Mark taking up a little work of service and being characterized by umm ministering to Paul, but no doubt UMM doing a little service that would support Paul's doctrine.
10 Dimas, Luke and Mark are often mentioned together. We won't take time, but it's interesting that Dimas was one on two previous occasions.
Who was noted as a fellow laborer? The apostle Paul, in Colossians and in Philemon. He associated and labored with Paul. In other words, he began well, but he ended poorly. That's not what God wants in our lives. I am so thankful to see young brothers and sisters beginning well, but He wants us to end well as well, not just a flash in the pan or a good start. Dimas had a good start, but he had a poor finish.
Then we find I'm gonna skip over to Mark for a minute or John Mark, as he's referred to in other, uh, places. He began poorly. You know, there was a dissension, uh, back in the book of Acts because there was someone who wanted to take Mark. Was it Barnabas that wanted to take Mark on a missionary journey? And Paul just felt Mark wasn't perhaps spiritually or in some other way up to it and there was a problem. But now he says, uh.
Take Mark and bring him with the for his profitable TV to the ministry for the ministry. He began poorly, but he ended well. There was evidently Mark went home and considered what Paul had said and done and he learned from it, realized that perhaps he wasn't spiritually or even physically up to what they were going to face on the missionary journey. He evidently got into the presence of the Lord. He was exercised and he ended well.
Loop, though, began well and ended well. That's what God wants from every one of us. But I mentioned that there's a very human side to what we have here. And when he says Luke is with me, I think this is one of the most touching statements in in, in, in this whole book. Why did God make sure that only Luke was with him? Who better to minister to the physical needs of the apostle Paul?
At the end of his life, send the beloved physician. God made sure that the one who'd been so faithful and beaten and shipwrecked and and abused in so many ways and been so faithful in the truth, God made sure that of all people with him, not just to minister to him spiritually, but to minister to him physically, was the beloved physician. I find that a tremendous comfort, and I know there's some older brother here who gone on quietly for the Lord.
You know the Lord values what you've done, He values your service and He takes care of you right to the very end. And so Paul here, he could say only Lucas with me ministering to his spiritual needs, yes, a comfort to him spiritually, yes, but also being able to minister to him physically.
Oh, a picture perhaps in the book of the Acts in connection with Paul's companions. In chapter 19 it says verse 29. The whole city was filled with confusion. This is Ephesus, and having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions and travel, they rushed with one accord into the theater. So there was a riot. But then it speaks a little bit further on in chapter 20 and verse four, and name seven of his companions.
00:45:21
And so they're accompanied him Acts 20 verse 4, they're accompanying him into Asia. So Phaedra and Bria and I know that Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus and Gaius of Derby and Timotheus and of Asia, Tikakis and Trophimus, these be going before tarried for us intro us. And so Tikakas it seems that the apostle Paul.
Found him to be a faithful messenger, a faithful deliverer of a message to the Saints of God. And then he was also an encourager of the heart of the Apostle Paul. And, you know, we could speak of the different lessons in connection with all of those seven different companions of the Apostle Paul. And your life and mine is proving practically as to whether or not we're walking in companionship with the apostles.
And so this man was an encourager, and Paul could send tickets to Ephesus, the place where he was burdened. No doubt they had left their first love. Perhaps there was a process of leaving their first love, leaving the freshness. I think it's the new translation says that it's the best love or a note to that effect. And so the best love in a marriage is the first love, the freshness of love.
And what we find is the grind of life sometimes works away at that love and the affection that a a husband has for his wife. But it's a work of God in the grace of God, if there's that freshness of love throughout the marriage relationship. And so he speaks of this with Technicus and he commends him as it were. He sent him to Ephesus, I believe is an encourager.
Are you an encourager?
When the Saints, when you come to the Saints, when they speak with you, are you encouragement or they feel a little downcast after you came for a visit? We need to be encouraging one another so much the more as you see the day approaching.
Two, it's a very unselfish thing on the part of the Apostle Paul. Paul would have desired, I suppose, to keep tickets with him. There was one again like Timothy, who could encourage him and they could enjoy fellowship with Paul, says my brother, the brethren in Ephesus need him more than I do. I, I, I think again, that's a very human side of things, but I appreciate that. Brethren, are we willing to make sacrifices for, for the people of God?
You know, Paul might have said, well, if I can't go, I'm not, nobody can go.
If I, if I can't go, well, that's, that's it. It's all over. No, he said I, I can't go. But I've got a man I can send and I know that he'll be a help and blessing. I'd love to have him with me, but I'm gonna send him for the blessing of of the people of God at Ephesus. Brethren, you and I have that much concern and love for the people of God that we are willing to make some sacrifice for them.
Timothy, uh, that the apostle Paul had sent Timothy to the same assembly, he says in First Timothy chapter one, I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine.
So we live in an age of, uh, the spectacular, when people want to see something that's a spectacular or, you know, spectacular, uh, embellishments of doctrine and so on. But the truth of God is simple. It's clear and it never changes. And so I believe there's a little bit of a, an expression here, the confidence that the Apostle Paul had, don't you think in this man, he knew the truth. Get acquainted with all of the truth of God.
And so getting acquainted with it and then be capable of being able to stabilize your brethren in the assembly where you're from.
You know, wonderful just to be able to be a stability, and I believe this is indicative of Timothy as well as Tikakas. They could stabilize things.
00:50:05
Human side comes in again, doesn't it? Paul needed his coat. Winter was coming. I I say this, brethren, because we don't want to ever think that we reach a plane of spirituality where we become callous and indifferent to the circumstances of life. The circumstances of life that God allows are to exercise us and if we become callouser and different to them.
We're not going to learn the lessons. But Paul still wanted his coat. And what else did he want it. He wanted the books and the parchments, you say? Well, what good with the books and the parchments be with Paul? He he he's been given this wonderful deposit of the truth. He passed it on. Now he's ready to depart and be at hand. His departure was at hand. What's good with the books and the parchments? Gonna be he was soon gonna be in the presence of the Lord and absent from the body and present with the Lord. You know, I appreciated this in my grandmother.
My grandmother lived across the field from us when we were growing up and after I was married, not too far away from us, and we would often drop in, uh, on a even after I married, my wife and I would drop in on a a Friday night or perhaps a couple times a week. She was always there with her Bible at the table and a book of ministry that she was reading. And my grandmother lived to be just shy of her 100th birthday in her own home. The Lord preserved her mind.
And she told me, she said, Jim, every day I take a few verses and memorize them. She said, maybe tomorrow I won't remember at 99 years of age. But she said it's to my benefit to memorize. We memorize a few verses every day and to read something that helps me to understand what I've memorized. You say, well, why? She was 99 years of age. She knew she wasn't much longer, but she enjoyed the word of God.
And things that God had caused men to write that were edifying and helpful in the instruction of the word up until the Lord, the Lord took her. That was a tremendous testimony to me. And I think of it in connection with Paul. Maybe I hope I'm not stretching things here, but he wanted the books in the parchment. Those things that had been written, perhaps not just by inspiration, but other things that he or others had written. Paul wrote other things that were not included in the in, in the word of God.
He, he no doubt wrote letters to other assemblies. In fact, I think there's little indications in the epistles that he had written to other, other, uh, assemblies and individuals. And Paul values those things. There's a, again, there's older brother in here. And I, I appreciate when I enter the homes of my older brother and they're still studying the word, they're still valuing the books and the parchments, so to, so to speak. And I trust that we all learn to do that till we're called home.
Mr. Darby that had, uh, an extensive library, you may have heard the story, but uh, after he was, uh, gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, he had all of these classical books and, uh, many books, uh, that he had on his, uh, in his library. He wondered whether it was, uh, really very suitable. And he thought he might just get rid of all of the books. And, uh, he was, uh, faced with a man who was, uh, really, I don't know if he was agnostic or just, uh, a troublemaker.
But uh, he said, uh, he ridiculed the Scriptures. He said, uh, Mr. Darby said, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. All of it is profitable. And he happened to know about this verse. He said, well, I can tell you one verse is absolutely useless. And so he, he quoted this verse of, uh, the cloak that I left at Trois with carpets when thou comest bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments. Mr. Darby said, well, that's the verse that the Spirit of God used to tell me that I ought to keep my library.
And that it might be useful in the future. And so he kept his library. Every scripture is expired of God and it's usable even in the day that we live in.
Well, in verse 14, he brings in a little bit of a warning for Timothy. And Timothy needed to be warned of those that had not walked in fellowship with the apostle Paul and had opposed the truth, the heavenly truth of the church. And we're not told specifically what the details are, but we can oppose. And there are those that oppose the plain teaching of the heavenly truth of the calling of the church, and they can oppose the truth of the rapture.
00:55:05
The difference between is coming for the Saints and coming with the Saints. They can oppose the truth of what it is to be gathered by the Spirit of God to the precious name of the Lord Jesus and to walk in fellowship with Paul's doctrine. And so the coppersmith, he did much me much evil. Paul doesn't elaborate and he doesn't get angry, doesn't get vindictive. He warns Timothy in a quiet way. So just be careful. And then he says the Lord reward him according to his work, so he says in the governmental ways of God.
The Lord is going to deal with this. I don't need to get involved. And so we need to remember that in a day of failure, there's going to be the, uh, we're going to suffer abuse. Perhaps if we stand for the truth and stand for Paul's doctrine and present Paul's doctrine, defend Paul's doctrine, we may suffer some abuse. But remember, I think it's Paul that wrote it. I think it's even in Romans chapter 12, he says, uh, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. Let's not get vindictive or hard hearted about things.
And uh, let's be tender hearted towards our brother. And I think this is a game, a little picture, a little illustration that the Spirit of God gives us that Paul was not hard hearted to the people of God and those that opposed him. He had the Spirit of Christ and he prayed for them, no doubt. And this man, he just wanted Timothy to know that there was a little bit of a difficulty. He could face some opposition. He didn't get into any detail and he just went on. So let's have the same spirit.
There is a new translation, verse 14.
Alexander the Smith did many evil things against me. The Lord will render, will render to him according to his works.
So it sounds less.
Vengeful than the King James?
The matter and there are some things, brethren, that are never going to be fixed this side of glory. And it's only a work of God to fix and to restore a soul, to bring souls into repentance and restoration as a work of God. And let's not get involved to try to produce that repentance and that restoration. It's a work of God. Let's understand as Paul did, that he wasn't going to fix this situation with Alexander and he wasn't going to try to engineer things behind the scenes to fix Alexander. He just said the Lord is going to remember, uh, render unto him.
His reward and he didn't get involved.
And then even though next verse that didn't stand with him when he was, uh, brought up on trial, was he what did he feel it? Yeah, he felt it, but he didn't wish any ill against them. He says, I pray that it not be laid to their charge. That's the spirit. That's the spirit of Christ. And then just to move on. I just got a few minutes and there's a few names at the end. Then he speaks of the fact that no man stood with him. The Lord was with him and the Lord is with us. No matter. Maybe there's someone here and you say.
Nobody standing with me in my exercise. Sometimes even family members don't understand. Paul said that's all right. The Lord stood with me. He'll never leave us nor forsake us. As was quoted earlier, He's with us even under the end of the age. And then he was delivered because he had been in prison on a previous occasion and the Lord had had delivered him. I think when it's the lion here, it's not so much Satan, but I believe it's Nero that he, he's Speaking of. The lion is taken up in different ways. Satan is a roaring lion, but delivered out of the mouth of the lion. He was delivered from the Roman authority at that time.
But then notice verse 18. And the Lord shall deliver me. Not interesting. And yet he wasn't, he knew he was gonna lay down his life. Why does he say the Lord shall deliver me? Because he knew in living, laying down his life, he'd be delivered from the civil authorities and the opposition and persecution that he had. He, he had experienced. That's why Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego said to the king, we don't know if we're gonna, if we're gonna be delivered from the fiery furnace, but he will deliver a set of thy hand.
They knew one way or the other whether they perished in the furnace, whether they were brought through the furnace, they would be deliverance. But I brethren, if you just. We've only got 10. Go ahead Bob. You have something before. Yeah. It's just, uh, in connection with your comments, uh, umm, that uh, it may not be made to their charge. It was a really he was saying to the, uh, to Timothy, it's a sin of ignorance. He says if, if there's a Saint of God.
01:00:12
That doesn't go on in Paul's doctrine. Perhaps it's a sin of ignorance and it's the same spirit that the Lord Jesus exhibited at the cross of Calvary. He said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And so there's repentance. There's going to be future repentance and restoration for the nation of Israel because it was a sin of ignorance. And then we'll have the little example in connecting with Steven. He was laying down his life and he prayed for his persecutors. He said lay not to send to their charge.
And so he, he said it was a sin of ignorance. Paul says it's a sin of ignorance. If we don't walk in Paul's doctrine, it may be a sin of ignorance. And I think that's a nice spirit. Just gonna add that. Thank you. But we don't wanna miss these names. There's a few names mentioned at the end of this epistle and I've enjoyed I Washington. I wanna just mention how I've enjoyed it in connection with the three spheres of life, the different spheres of life that God has placed us in. Now we have some individuals that are mentioned here.
And again, as we said at the beginning of these meetings, I believe the last days are characterized by individual faithfulness. As we leave these meetings, God's eye is upon each one of us as individuals. He's looking for individual faithfulness in spite of whatever opposition we may face both in the religious world and in the natural world. And so there's these individuals. But notice how he starts.
I wanna notice verse 19. He starts with Pritzker, Priscilla and Aquila. Now they are mentioned several times. They were a great help to the apostle Paul in practical matters as well as spiritual matters. They were a couple. Now we never read that they had children, but what I've enjoyed is he says at the end of the top, at the end of things, there's a couple going on for the Lord. Isn't that beautiful?
Because there's provision not just to go on individually, but as husbands and wives. As we said, the first institution set up for the blessing of man on the earth was the marriage tie. Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden, and God has made full provision to go on as couples, as husbands and wives to the very end. Here was a couple, Priscilla and Aquila. Here they were going on as a couple. Then there's the household of Vanessa Forest.
I love this. There's some here who are raising families, households. There's provision to go on as households, not just into as individuals, not just as husbands and wives, but as households as well. Don't get discouraged. Fathers and mothers. Is the day dark? Is the enemy busy to smash the Christian home? Yes, indeed he is. But there's provision. There was a household here that could be commended at the.
At the, at the very end, and so I, I've just enjoyed this before he even mentioned individual. He says it's possible to go on in the marriage tie as couples possible to go on as, as, uh, families and households and then individuals as well. Brian, I, I think that's a tremendous encouragement. And what we all fall into one of those spheres, don't we, we're, we're either individuals, we are, are married or, and we, and, or, and, or, and we have, uh, we have, we have families.
Young and old, yes, no doubt some of these we're we're on in life now. Some were young. Timothy was young had had called a young man earlier his middle age. Folks here, no matter where you are in your Christian life, physically or spiritually, the resources are there.
Chapter 16 one of those times either as a couple, they're named six times in Scripture three times Quilla's name first and three times his wife Priscilla. But here in Romans chapter 16 he says Greek Priscilla and verse 3 greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, who have for my life laid down their own necks, unto whom not only I give thanks, but also.
All the churches of the Gentiles.
Likewise greet the church that is in their house. And so they they were particularly characterized by courage. This couple the enemy was going to get Paul. It looked like a done deal. Paul was going to get it. And it seems that equivalent Priscilla stood in the way and they took the abuse or they deflected the enemy's purpose to eradicate the problem Paul.
01:05:28
And so they were characterized by courage, but another thing that characterized them is that they had the assembly in their home. And brethren, I've used this very scripture in connection with some of these little assemblies in other places. And, umm, in Brazil, perhaps there might have a couple, two or three, maybe, uh, two or three families and they don't have a meeting room and they're exercising, they're sorry that they don't have enough to, uh, enough individuals to have a meeting room. And so we can go through these passages of scripture and show that it was normal Christianity at the beginning of the testimony.
To have the assembly in the home. And then we know that there are meeting rooms today and I think perhaps intro us, you would have had that, uh, third story meeting room and other places. But umm, this gathered Saints used to have large, large meeting rooms. And now in the day that just before the Lord's coming, many assemblies that we visit are in the homes of the Saints. And it takes sacrifice to have the assembly in your home, but I believe that there's a special blessing.
Let's not despise the day of small things, and if there's a little assembly meeting in the home, let's encourage those dear Saints. So Paul speaks of them, and he had a very high regard for them. Remember, he's giving a list of those that had distinguished themselves during his lifetime, and as he had ministered the heavenly truth, they had distinguished themselves in support of Paul's doctrine.
The last verse of this chapter is very, very important to consider because he says here something that is unique. He says the Lord Jesus Christ be with not you. That's true, but thy spirit. There are three epistles of the apostle Paul's that end in this way, Galatians, Philemon, and this one. And here we have now the last recorded words.
Of the apostle Paul to an individual by divine inspiration and why does he say the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit by spirit? The Spirit here is not the Holy Spirit, of course, it's our attitude. It's the attitude in which we operate from day-to-day as believers. Paul had been telling Timothy to go on in the truth to contend for the faith to stand fast.
To endure hardness as a good soldier, to run the race and all the exhortations that we've had before us in these meetings. Now he says, Timothy, I want you to do it in the proper spirit. And brethren, I this needs to speak to my own heart and perhaps it will speak to yours. Because as we see the breakdown of everything, the breakdown in government, the breakdown in the world, in the home, in amongst the people of God, even amongst those gathered to the Lord's name. As we see the breakdown of everything.
And as we seek to be faithful to the truth of God, we need to do it in the proper spirit. I'll give you a little homework. You can look it up. But it has touched my own heart in connection with Caleb. You remember when Caleb and Joshua came back from spying out the land, they stood firm for the trip. If I can put it this way, the truth as they saw it in their day, they brought up a good report. The other 10 spies, they brought up an evil report.
The congregation of Israel believed the evil report and they all spoke of stoning Joshua and Caleb. It's pretty, pretty severe. Well, it's pretty hard trial. They Joshua and Caleb stood firm. But there is a comment made about Caleb that you don't even have in connection with Joshua. It says of Caleb that he was going to go through the wilderness and get his inheritance. And here's the reason given. You can look this up, my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him.
He was faithful as He stood for the truth, but He did it in the proper spirit. He didn't do it in a hard, obnoxious way. He did it in the proper spirit. And so much did God value the spirit of Caleb that He recorded it in His eternal word for your encouragement in mind. And not only that, but when they did enter the land, and there were only two of that generation that we know for sure from Scripture that came through the wilderness and entered the land, Joshua and Caleb. But Caleb got something that nobody else got to either.
01:10:20
Caleb is the only one we read of that got a personal inheritance. All the rest got their inheritance by Lawton tribe and family. Caleb got a personal inheritance. Why? I believe it goes back to the fact that not only was he faithful, but he did it in the proper spirit. And that was what Paul was praying for. Timothy, the Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit as you take up the baton of the truth now and as you run with the torch and as you pass it on, if you do it in the proper spirit, then there's gonna be blessing. And then he says grace be with you. Why? Because grace meets our present need.
And so, brethren, we're gonna leave these meetings momentarily. Are we gonna be left here a little longer, a few moments, a few days? I can't tell you how long, but as long as we are left here, the grace of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is here to meet our present needs. The psalmist said the Lord will give two things, grace and glory. Glory is what comes at the end. That's what Paul was Speaking of earlier in the chapter. Glory is what comes at the end.
But grace is what meets our present needs. Do we need more grace? He gives more grace. Is it available to us all? Of all we received of His fullness and grace? Grace upon grace. Is it all we need? My grace is sufficient for Thee.
I really believe we should take this to ourselves because.
The apostle Paul says to Timothy, the Lord Jesus Christ be with thy Spirit. He's speaking directly, specifically Timothy. And then Paul thinks of those who might be present.
When Timothy's this epistle with Timothy might be read, and so he adds grace be with you. That's plural, and that's for us.
Yeah.
4747.
I was trying to find that him too. Brother John.
Yes.
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The Lord Our Security and Our Helper
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Talk at Picnic