Talk—Bill Brockmeier
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We will be brief. Let's ask God's blessing and help our God and our Father. We thank thee. We can speak to one another in psalms and spiritual songs, and we trust that indeed we've made melody in our hearts to thee, blessed Lord, singing with a sense of grace for all that love and grace and goodness to us from the Thanksgiving or God, what can we say for all the bounty of joy and blessing that has granted us now? And yet, even in the midst of our joy, our hearts are heavy, I think, for your sister Rhodes.
Relative Christian, our God, may they all come in yet late hour cooking this dear soul.
And think of many loved ones that we have without the Savior, and those that are away from me at this time. Our God, for Thy sovereign working. Now I have just a few minutes. Our God, how we need Thy help, that we might have something that would be helpful, especially to the young. As we open Thy precious word for just a few moments we seek Thy help, Thy blessing our God and Father. Hearts should be drawn to the Lord Jesus in His precious name, Amen.
I've been whittling down what I had to say.
Significantly. So we're going to add 3 topics. I'm going to pin it down to one, and that's the subject of priorities. Matthew 2323.
And as you're turning to this verse and perhaps is an unusual verse to start with, I will say this may sound a little bit strange that what I have to say is not the most important thing you've heard tonight. And I just love to hear a gospel meeting. It's been a long time when I wanted to get saved all over again. You know, that's the most important thing to know your sins are forgiven and that you're on the way to see the Lord Jesus in heaven. You know, I had an Uncle George and Gordon and Faith had gone to see him. My grandpa Jimmy Smith was saved. He became from.
Unsaved home and he had a younger brother who passed 80 years old who had refused Christ for many years.
And the neighbor lady came and she led him to the Lord passed past 80 years of age. So we went to see him and had some lovely business with him towards the very end. And when we went to see him there in in in the convalescent home, civil Uncle George coming singing him for you. And he said yes. And he said, I said, what song he said sing Jesus loves me. And so I had a brief word of prayer with with him and they said, would you like to pray Uncle George?
Yes, he said he would pray and he he.
He said dear God.
Thank you for these folks that came to see a Sinner like me. And you know, he was filled with a sense of the grace of God and the wonder. And he came at 80 years of age. His only regret was it took him that long before he came to know the Lord. And you know, it's a wonderful thing. As I said, the importance of the gospel. Many of you, dear children, you've come to know the Lord early in your days. Now you have the life is before you, however short it might be to live for the Lord. It's not been given to live for yourself. It's been given to the one who loved you and gave himself for you.
Turn to Matthew 2323 and you say. This is certainly an odd scripture to read, but it makes the point.
The Lord said woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin and have emitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith. These ought you'd have done and not to leave the other undone. You know, there's interesting things in Scripture and I just see if I could encourage you to this. It is such a thrill when you're when you when you get to the point where you read the word of God and you can't wait to open and find it. And So what am I going to find in this book? What am I going to find?
Chapter so a lot of things you notice along the way and you say I don't know what to make of that but I have noticed it so we read this word whoa you know you go to Revelation you'll find 3 woes you go to Isaiah chapter 6 and you're going to find Isaiah 5 you find 6 woes and then you go to Habakkuk and two and you or I get 2 rather you find 4 woes well in this chapter we have 7 woes. Now what do you do with that? I don't know but there's a lot of different subjects that you can take up this is one of seven woes. Now what's the point the Lord is.
Bringing woes on the scribes and Pharisees that had an outward righteousness to be seen of men. And earlier in the gospel he said, you have your you have your award and that's the praise of men. You got what you're looking for. You got the praise of man. And he said, but now in this chapter, he zeroes it down.
And it's my application. I'd like to bring it before each of us tonight, he says. You pay tithe of mint and anis and coming. Good thing. No, he said. These ought have done.
But he said ye have omitted the weightier matters of the law, and he brings out what they are.
Judgment, mercy and faith and so I guess distilling what is the burden I'd like to share with you tonight is right priorities they had did in an outward way things and there was nothing wrong with their ties under the order that they were doing. But he says you've missed the way to your matters. You've missed the more important matters mercy and judgment and faith. Those things you've avoided you've been you've been focusing on other things that are not really that important and that's why I say the very most.
00:05:24
Important thing is the gospel and knowing where you're going to spend eternity that without a shadow of doubt you can rest on the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You've yielded yourself to him and you're waiting for him to come. Now we may not have long here. In fact, we don't have long here and you'll pardon me for just speaking personally. I don't know you very well, but you know I like baseball and I sometimes say so where are you in your curb really you got about retire said no, I'm rounding third heading home.
And that's true of my life, too. Work the math. And that's where you are. Some of you are just running on your way to first base, some of your coasting in the second around the third. It's the last lap. It's it's the end.
And so.
If the Lord leaves us here, there's there are things that are before you, there's decisions that you have to make and there are weightier things. There are important things and you want to make the right priorities. You make want to make the right decisions. And so I'm not going to turn to the rest of scriptures. We'll just call. We'll just quote a few along the way. I'll turn to him if I have to. Matthew 633, what is it? Seek ye first.
The Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Seek ye first.
The Kingdom of God, that's the number one priority, God and his righteousness. You know, the Pharisees were concerned about their righteous, but he's the sake, the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, what is important to him? And that's a very important point. As you start off your Christian life, what do you seek first? Seek first the Kingdom of God, the rights of God and what is for His glory, for what is his pleasure. He says all these things will be added unto you. He doesn't say seek the things of God first and then seek your things.
He says, seek those things, and those things will be added unto you.
Put the claims of the Lord first in your life. You know it says in Colossians, see whatsoever you do, do it heartily is unto the Lord and not in the men. And whatever we may be called to do, we can do it as unto the Lord. So that's very important. Proverbs 1817 says he that is first in his own cause seemeth just, but his neighbor cometh and searcheth them out or cometh searcheth them. You know, there's a couple of translations, his neighbor.
Cross examines him. I don't like that quite as well. I don't like the thought of cross examining my friends. But I give you a little illustration of that verse. When I grew up, it was a Fullerton assembly was in Buena Park was a large assembly and there was a vibrant afternoon Sunday school work. And I, I went, perhaps I was more in the way than I was held, but it was it was a it was an engaging work. It was a good work and there was different things that one could do. And anyway, I don't remember the exact specifics of it.
But I said to my mom on some point. I said, well, that's just not my exercise.
She says people just say that when they don't want to do something.
You know that stick with me for all these years because we've become very crafty. What's the principle of self will? Lawlessness is self will. The principle of sin is self will. But I, I fear and I don't need to point fingers at anybody, but right here we have, we have migrated in our, in our life and our Christianity to the point sometimes where I fear we, we sanction ourselves will with a cloak of Christianity.
That sounds good, doesn't it? That's not my exercise. People say that when they don't want, they don't want to do.
You can't very well argue with your mother on that. It says he that is first in his own cause seems just. I can give you 100 and why reasons why this is the right thing for me to do. But who am I really looking after my own 'cause the neighbor cometh and searcheth him out. Your friends know you and and and and say is that really what is motivating you? So we have to judge our own hearts because right? Our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know them?
I, the Lord know the heart, I try the reins. He knows the motivations behind us. We can give ourselves a clean bill of health and check it out. But the reality is the Lord knows where we're at. So seek He first the Kingdom of God.
And his righteousness, that's number one. And then he that is first in his own cause seemeth just, but his neighbor cometh and searcheth them. You know, I love that. I love the thought of Secundus and Scripture as a travel companion of Poly means. Second, he was willing to be second. Tertius, who wrote the Emanuensis for the Epistle of Romans, is named Turses. He was willing to be third. And I loved Cortis. I think there's a Cortis here. I'd love to meet your brother. I love it. Cortez a brother.
00:10:00
That's all you want? Cordless a brother.
A brother, but there's no Primo in Scripture. Why? Because in all things he must have the preeminence. And what is that? He must have the 1St place. That's the first thing. The 1St place belongs to the Lord Jesus. And you know diatrophies and assembly there in 3rd John says he loves to have the preeminence. He loved to have the 1St place, but there's no place for man is the first place in the assembly that's reserved for the Lord Jesus. So seek first the Kingdom of God. That's his priority. What is for his glory, not for mine. It's not to be seeking a first of my own 'cause I may seem just, but.
Reality is, it's not right but the Lord Jesus to give him that first place in our life.
Just one other comment as our time is gone and I want to two more things I'd like to share and I don't I don't know how I can tie them in there. But in terms of prioritization, I remember brother saying to me says when, when did you go to a Bible conference that somebody didn't exhort young people and all of us by extension, read your read your Bible and pray, right? But you know, you can't get any better advice in doing it's implementing that. It's the execution of that right In Corinth, they said Paul said you had a you, you did well. It was a great desire now.
Let there be a performing of it.
Let's get with it. Let's execute. Let's act upon what we know to be right.
Let's act upon what we know to be right and so reading the word of God and ministry is important. Pardon a personal illustration, but at the top of our stairs at home, we had us we had this bookcase and that had collected writings, the old volumes of GN Darby and I think Mr. Darby was the brother of of of choice to quote in meetings. Whether he said what he was attributed to saying or not, I don't know, but I I, I one day I grabbed up this dismissed Darby must be good and I pulled a collected writings off just at random. I don't almost 1012 years old.
And I looked at this and my eyes kind of glazed over, and I didn't pick up another book of ministry for a long time. I couldn't understand it. I don't know what he was saying. No, I should have asked my dad or I should have asked somebody for a little bit of help. I wish someone would have said, you know, like Brother Lindeen said many years later, He just said, yeah, Boston Books. I said, when parents have a copy, I asked you if you had a set of those books. I said no. I said, we'll take them. The set of Wollstone's books is good for you. Doctor Doug Walter Thomas, Perdo Walston. Great ministry and invigorated to give me a taste for ministry.
Now let's say in Ezekiel chapter I'm keeping my on the clock. I have to be done by 9 Ezekiel 1414 the.
I'll just reference it. The judgment is coming upon Jerusalem and.
The Lord steal the prophet, Ezekiel says. Though Noah, Daniel and Job were in this city, they'd only be spared for their righteousness, not the city.
I heard a thought many years ago, I didn't know the brother. I only met him one time as a young boy. His name is Clifford Brown. He spoke on that. You probably could hear it on on, you know, one of the websites that are very helpful to us. But he made this comment that stuck with me all these years. Ezekiel. He references Noah, that was way back and Job, which was perhaps further back, and Daniel.
Ezekiel and Daniel were peers. They lived at the same time. And think of the compliment that Ezekiel paid Daniel. He's putting with some pretty prestigious company with with with Noah and Joel.
And he speaks of Daniel's righteousness.
That's that's a quick buffer up to the point I'm going to make. I love the old writings, but you know, there are writings in this generation. They'll be very helpful to you. I'll give you 3 of them.
The Christian monthly periodical out of Bible Truth Publishers. Our brother Bill writes a lot of articles in it. Very helpful subjects. You can read one a month for a course a year. You can have 12 subjects that are very well covered. Very helpful. You can read a page and 1/2.
I'm not a reader. What you may not be a reader, but that's you can read that. The second thing is.
Bruce Anstey's books on the epistles, they're short and concise and to the point. They're very helpful. And now a brother Nick Simon's book, the entrusted his series on the entrusted deposit series. He's taken up tough subjects. As I told our dear brother, they are jam packed with truth. And I say those three things, current brethren, that are continuing on giving the truth that we've enjoyed.
Take advantage of those. We have weak assemblies.
It's not wrong to do a little homework, do your diligence. Are there a lot of other writings Yes, but you can avail yourselves of those even of brethren that you know personally take advantage of that. So that is so that not only the the matter of reading the Bible and the word of God, but also ministry. And the last point I want to make.
00:15:01
When I was in high school, I started playing, started playing some dentists. And this is, oh, my dad says, so you're playing some tennis. Sorry, I said, yeah, I said, won't want to play.
My dad played tennis, you see, let's go out to the high school and we went out there and my my dad was tall and lanky, but he's a very powerful man. So I thought we'll see how it goes. And he is first, Sir, blew me away. Paul went right past me and that I don't think we played tennis more than twice. He he he did just overpowered me with with his with his servant. And he could, you know, jump to one side of the the court another and hit it back.
He said when he started playing tennis.
That he said they had chalk lines on clay and after a while when the the ball would hit the chalk line, it would, it would cover over to mess up the line. He said, you know, sometimes you, you just don't know if it's in or out because it's all blurred there. He said, son, there's a within and without in the assembly and sometimes the chalk line gets blurry, blurred. You don't know if it's someone's within and someone's without.
OK, that was interesting. That's interesting. No, but I lead it to make a point.
So there was one issue, you know, there's always some type of issue among the Saints where there's differences of opinion on. That's all right, Honest opinions are all right. But I thought this was OK. I got to hear what my dad's going to say about this and.
Right or wrong, up or down, left or right, Which way is it? And he said, son, you know, it's not always noon. It's not always midnight. There is such a thing as dawn and there is such a thing as dust.
Now I'm going to leave you with that because.
There are things in the Word of God, chapter and verse, gospel verses you should all know. We should all memorize John 316 X 1631, Second Corinthians 8-9, Second Corinthians 915, Galatians 220. I can give you the reference and I rattle them off you and most of you could quote all those verses I quoted. You need to have those gospel verses down and you see someone. You got that elevator speech. You give time for one verse. You better have at the tip of your tongue. That's what the Scripture says.
There's other scriptures just as pointed and directed flee fornication. You can't 2 words, very powerful words, but there's a lot of things in scripture that are open for principles and you have to weigh principles. It's done. It's it may be dusk, it may be dawn. We want to get this chapter and verse down and say the Lord wants to bring us into communion and in fellowship with himself that we have is no mind because if I say on I'm not talking about these plain statements of Scripture.
If I say I have to have chapter and verse, I'm manifesting the state of soul that I wouldn't do it even if you gave me chapter and verse.
And how can I say that Exodus chapter 20 when they came down from the mount, they broke in the first commandment?
So I just say that in in terms of as you go on in your Christian life, avail yourselves of the ministry, memorize the word of God and those things that are specific and direct, but then understood there's many things.
That you're not going to be able to argue out and reason out. You have to be, I have to be in the Lord's presence with the word of God, open with principles to weigh them in his presence as to say, Lord, what would you have us to do? Everything is not cut and dry, especially when we come to heavy duty decisions. We don't want to be overly simplistic. And so I just say that to you, some things that were helpful to me and I hope there might be some help to you. I'm sorry for going over. I didn't think I would, but let's pray.
Our God and our Father, we thank thee for thy precious word. We thank thee for the privilege of fellowship with our brethren and singing hymns. We thank thee for the privilege of having Bibles in our land, in this land when so many are suffering for thee, Lord Jesus, even now, and grant our God to take advantage of this opportunities. We pray for our dear young brothers and sisters, especially our God, in these last days, these last moments of the Church's history on earth. Inspire them, encourage them.
Motivate them to get into Thy word, to reach out in the Gospel, to build up one another in our most holy faith, and preserve them from being sidetracked and and chasing down trails of no profit. We just earnestly commended Thee for blessing, thanking them for this time together, Father. And if should there be refreshments here, we thank You for them too. Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.