Address—Tim Ruga
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OK, let's start our meeting by singing #24 in the appendix. Nothing but Christ is on. We tread nothing for everything lost for Him below. Nothing save him in all of our ways. I want to talk a little bit about that today. 24 in the appendix.
Nothing but.
Crisis on retreat?
Love, you've gone right, so I'm slave.
So.
Let's pray.
Our God and our Father, we thank Thee that we have such an object. Our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank Thee that we can take up with Him every day of our lives here on earth and get to know Him better. But we thank Thee that thou has given Him not only to be our Savior, but also our constant companion.
And that one with whom we will spend all eternity.
We pray that that would give us more of a heart for him now and that his love, his person, his glory, and every part of him would fill our hearts while we're here in this world as we know it will in that coming day, we commit this meeting to the we pray that thou will just bless thy word is that is shared today.
And we ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen.
Let's start by turning to Matthew chapter 6.
Matthew 6 and.
Verse 24.
No man can serve 2 masters.
For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God in mammon. Now if you go to the companion verses to these in Luke chapter 16, you will see that in that chapter speaking, starting out talking about an unfaithful servant, a steward, and the subject there is money. And so you're wondering what this word mammon is, is speaking about money. I think riches is what's referred to there.
In Luke chapter 16.
And so we could talk.
About God versus money. But this afternoon I want to speak about Christ versus the world, because the principle is true.
It's true of things that oppose, it's true of two masters simply so that you can't serve 2 There's only one that you can serve. And in our house, we have a a picture that sits by the computer in our living room, and it's a picture of a man who's I would guess to be in his 30s, and he's standing.
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With one foot.
In one canoe and the other foot in another canoe.
And you can see these two canoes, and they appear to be slightly diverging. And this man is not standing straight upward. He appears to be going slightly backwards. And it's not hard looking at that picture to imagine what must have happened in the next moment. And so it's a really good object lesson. The verse is printed on the picture.
Because it's not possible.
Now we think we can do it, we think we can serve 2 masters, but like I said, I want to.
And take this up in order today.
In connection with Christ and the world today, I'm speaking to believers. We who are here profess to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ. It is possible that there are some here who have not trusted in Christ. I will not be speaking primarily to you. And yet the principle still remains. First Corinthians chapter 16 and verse 22 Says if any man love not.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. The Lord is coming.
And so even you, you have a choice. You've got the choice of going after what your heart desires, those things that attracted in the world, or you can choose Christ, but you can have both. And so.
In the gospel, we can only preach Christ. That's your only hope.
And if you haven't yet trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, this is something you need to do today. Put your faith and trust in Him as the only one who can save you from your sins. But like I said, my purpose is to speak to believers. And so if you're a believer here today.
Please listen to what I'm going to say. I'm not going to speak this perfectly because I can't.
I'm speaking about choosing between 2 masters and the only way to do this perfectly is to be devoted. I am not. I ought to be. I purpose in my life to be and I failed many times. There was only one man, whoever lived on this earth who is devoted in all his ways. He could say I do always those things.
And that please him Speaking of his father. And his father could speak from heaven and say, This is my beloved son, in whom I have found all my delight.
To some degree or another, we fail. And yet still, as believers, we have a choice to make. We're either going to follow after Christ or we're going to follow after something else. And I'm talking about the world today.
So let's go and just look and define our terms a little bit. We'll go to First John chapter 2.
It might strike you that already some of the things I've said were similar to what was said in the Sunday school by brother Mark.
I was struck by how what was on his heart was similar to what the Lord had put in my heart, and perhaps that's what the Lord would have for it at the beginning of these meetings.
Is to really think about what our relationship is with the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are, we are going to stand. We've got a whole week right now to be challenged about that.
And it's relatively easy to make a stand and a choice when you're surrounded by others who at least profess that they want to go on with and walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's a lovely thing. But then we're going to leave here. We're going to go back to the world. We're going to be challenged individually in the world as to where we stand. And that challenge is going to come over and over again until the Lord Jesus comes. And so we really want to think about this.
First John 2, verse 15.
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him, For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passeth away and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Now we're talking about the world, and in defining our terms, the world is that place that is really the system of the world. The Lord Jesus in his prayer said, pray to the Father. He said, I pray not to take them out of the world, but to deliver them from the evil. And so there's a whole system of things in the world around us.
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That is opposed to God and is opposed to Christ, and the word of God calls that the world.
And it's that system we're talking about. It's really important that we understand that, because you go back into the workplace or to school and you talk to the unsaved person who's next to you, and you find out that, well, this is somebody who's in the world, but how can it be bad to be talking to them? Well, that person is in the world if they don't know Christ.
But it's not speaking specifically about them, it's talking about the system that they're in and that they're enjoying and that motivates their heart.
It's talking about all that this the world desires, going after, the things that entertain it, the things that motivate it, all those things that were here when our Lord Jesus Christ was here.
And before he left, he said when the Holy Spirit has come, he will convince the world.
Of sin, of righteousness, of judgment.
Speaking of that second one of righteousness, he said of righteousness because.
I go to the father.
If there was righteousness in this world, anything that pleased God, the Lord Jesus Christ would have been here still. But He's not, and we're going to talk about that some more so.
These three things.
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, these are the things that.
Fill up what the world is.
They correspond to each one of us. They speak to us who they speak about the other two enemies we have, the flesh, the devil speaking about the world today.
Our flesh, even though we're saved, desires the world. Satan uses the world to try to get us, and so we can take up those enemies in yet another way that the world doesn't. But the world is my subject because it's what is so often used to attract us and take us away from Christ.
These three things, the lusts of the flash, that's the body.
The lust of the eyes, that's more of those things that appeal to us and capture our affections that be our soul and the pride of life at which comes out of us as to maybe there are more thinking part our spirit.
All of that is appealed to, and Satan appealed to that rate in Genesis chapter 2 when he first approached man and caused man to fall.
And Eve saw after Satan spoke to her about the fruit of that tree.
That it was good to be desired for food. It's good food, rust of the flesh, and it was something that was to be desired. So they saw with their eyes it was a good thing. And then also it was the one that something can make one wise. If I had that, I would be wise and then people would know. I'd be able to discern things and pride came in.
And so Satan deceived, and he was deceived us. The fact that we're believers does not mean we're immune to this, because we have.
Still the flesh within us that will respond to what he says.
Now.
Having spoken briefly about Christ and the world, I just want to ask a question. Why should we?
And be devoted to Christ. Why should we choose that master? Now, I hope that answer to that question would be very obvious to every believer that's here. And yet, if you're honest, and I'm honest, we will say, we'll have to admit that we struggle with that answer, don't we? Because if we didn't struggle with that answer.
Satan would never be able to tempt us with the world.
We wouldn't get away into these other things. We would have a devoted heart for Christ.
But the fact of the matter is there's other things that come in and I want to talk about some of the reasons because it's good to see that.
There's a basic reason.
And that is that the Lord Jesus.
Bought you.
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He created you and He bought you. Let's go to 1St Corinthians chapter 6.
First Corinthians, chapter 6.
Verse 19.
What?
Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, that you have of God, and you are not your own, but you are bought with a price.
Therefore, glorify God in your body.
That's what it says.
He owns you. He owns me. He.
Created us too. He's not full rights over us.
We call him Lord, don't we?
There came a day when you believed in your heart, and you confess them as Lords. What it says in Romans 10/9 right? If thou shalt believe in thine heart, thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead. Thou shalt be saved. And so there came a day when you were saved.
And that's what happened. You said He's my Lord. You had believed on him.
And yet having called him Lord.
What living reality did that have in your life?
Thank God it had some. It had some. If you're a believer here today, it has some reality in your life. It has had some reality in my life. And yet, how weak has it been? How often has the failure been there?
Because He owns me, because He created me, I ought to be giving everything to Him, let alone this fact that I've called Him Lord. Look for a moment in Luke chapter 6.
This is a verse that has condemned me many times.
Maybe it is condemned you too. If not, it's good for it to start condemning you now.
Luke 6 verse 46 Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say now those are absolute terms.
That's black and white.
You almost read a verse like that and say if you call him Lord, but you don't do what he says and you're not a believer at all. Thank God the word of God doesn't quite speak that way. And yet the Lord Jesus said this. Why do you call me Lord and you don't do the things that I say?
That's very stark. That's very abrupt to speak that way. And yet that's what it is. If we say he's Lord, He's the one who rules over our life. He's the one who we own as the authority in our life, and yet we're going to do what we say. What are we saying? In effect, He's not the Lord.
I'm the Lord, I'm the one who governs my life. I decide.
That's what we're saying. We don't think of it that way.
If we did, we wouldn't be believers at all.
But it's good to think about what the effect of our actions is. The effect of our thoughts is is to deny His rightful place as Lord over us if we act that way.
You know, there's another higher motive.
For serving the Lord.
And that is, not only did he buy us, but he bought us with his blood.
He gave up everything that he had so that he might have you is that he might have me. But that's a great reason. The problem is we don't often think about it. We don't often realize it. We don't often think about what He really did for us. And it was really good to be here this morning to remember the Lord and his death. And the Lord knew that we would need that, and He instituted that feast that we would.
At least once a week to do that, because our thoughts and our minds and our hearts need to be recalled to what he did.
It's that important and we should do it many times in the intervening moments that through the week until that time comes again when we remember him and his death.
Let's go over to the verses that our brother read this morning in Chapter 7, just a page over.
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I.
The verse at the end of Luke 7.
We have here.
About Simon, again, I'm going to skip most of the story, but just talk about the woman now.
And.
First of all, the Lord said to him, he said there was a certain creditor in verse 41 which had two debtors, 1 owed 500 pence and the other 50.
And when they had nothing to pay, frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most?
And Simon answered and said, I suppose he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou is rightly judged. Now here is a lot of the problem that we have. Sometimes they don't really think about what we are, what we have done. And this woman knew. And so the Lord Jesus says here.
A little further down, just one part of that.
He says verse 47.
Her sins, which are many, are forgiven.
For she loved much.
But to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.
Now tell me, who in this room has had little forgiven them?
Really. Have you had little forgiven you, or has it been much?
It's been much for all of us, hasn't it? We don't often think about it, but it has been much for everyone of us.
And so if we really consider that fact, how much it was that we were forgiven, what will it produce in our hearts and lives? It will produce a sense of gratitude for Christ.
I want to go through another example, John chapter 20.
It's another woman.
She didn't have much intelligence about what was going on.
But she understood something. She had been forgiven much.
And all of her hopes in this world had come to an end.
They had been buried in a tomb, and she was in that place looking at that tomb, and she came there and she found something had changed, and she didn't know what it meant, and her heart was broken because the whole object of her love now was gone.
John, Chapter 20.
And.
Verse 11 But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weaving. This is after verse 10. The disciples went away.
And verse 14, let's just skip to there. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing and knew not that it was Jesus.
And Jesus said unto her.
Woman, why weepest thou whom seeketh thou?
If.
She's supposing him to be the gardener said unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabbi and I, Which is to say, Master.
Now this woman didn't know much, but she had a heart for Christ, and here she is at this tomb, weeping like we said, and she's looking there.
He's gone. She turns around and sees this man. And the words that she says, I've often been struck by them. She just says here.
Sir, if thou is born immense, tell me where thou hast laid him.
He's just, she's talking about him and him. Who's she talking about? Well, maybe the gardener could figure it out by whose tomb she was sleeping in front of. I don't know. I don't think they would have labeled it, and certainly not the time there. I'm not sure how she reasoned that.
I suspect she didn't reason that for her there was one person in the whole world.
He was gone.
Her heart was devoted.
That's the kind of heart he's looking for.
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He doesn't need the intelligence. He wants the heart. He wants the heart filled with love.
To vote, the Lord chose this wicked woman.
Whose heart had been touched by His grace? He chose her to appear to her first, and He gave her the message to go to the disciples.
It wasn't the intelligence of faith, but it was the heart of devotion for him.
That's what we're talking about today.
That kind of a heart for the Lord Jesus Christ, you know.
The world had ended for her. There was no more there. That's where the world is for me and for you. In fact, let's go to Galatians Chapter 6. See that again.
I know these things are often spoken on, but we need them, We forget them. Galatians 6, verse 14.
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
Here it is.
We too. Our life in this world ended at the cross.
The world sees us too dead there.
There's no more. The world put him on the cross. The world gave him a grave. That's where his life in the world ended, but for the power of God.
And that's where our lives end too, with that grave. We are buried with him. We are risen with him.
Now when we look at the world, we see that whole system of things that took our Savior once and would take him again.
And crucify him and we're with him.
Or at least we ought to be.
That's our place.
Let's go back to Matthew chapter 6.
Because I want to speak about these things.
Practically.
Matthew, Chapter 6.
And let's just go up a little farther.
Verse 21.
Where your treasure is, there will your heart be. Also here again is talking about money.
I'm talking about Christ, it's true.
Christ is your treasure. Your heart will be there.
If your treasures in the world, the things of the world, whatever it is, your heart will be there. But you're not going to have both. It's a simple choice.
To have both is a moral impossibility.
Verse 22 The light of the body is the eye.
If therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
If I be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness?
The Lord Jesus is speaking to disciples here.
And he's speaking about those who would have light.
And he's now talking about two kinds of an eye. And what he doesn't say here, I want you to notice, is that there's a single eye and there's a double eye. He doesn't speak that way because there's not a double eye.
There's a single eye and there's an evil eye, and I'm going to tell you the evil eye is single too.
But it's not single for Christ.
The evil eye is a single eye that's on anything else but Christ.
And that produces one thing inside of the believer, and that is moral darkness. And the Lord Jesus said, if that light that is in you, be darkness, and how great is that darkness? The darkness inside the believer that comes from an eye that is not for Christ is greater darkness than the darkness that you find in the unbeliever. How great is that darkness?
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Oh, God can recover us from it.
Thank God, and he does. He's faithful. He doesn't believe. He doesn't leave us where we are.
But we need to understand this verse 24 No man.
Can serve 2 masters.
For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise for the despise the other.
You cannot.
Serve Christ.
And the world.
You cannot serve God and Mammon, it says here.
And moral impossibility. Earlier this year, I met that man.
Like I said, he appeared to be about 30 years old when he was standing in those two canoes. When I met him earlier this year, he was in his 70s, so that was an old picture.
I asked him what happened to you? Oh, he said one moment later. I was wet. I was very wet. I went right in the water. I want to tell you that man, although he's not gather to the Lord's name, that man is going on and live his life for the Lord Jesus Christ. He's had a devoted heart for Christ and now in his 70s, he lives his life for Christ.
He's done it.
We can do it.
Let's just go a little farther on here. You say, you know, I know I have to live my life for Christ, but.
I also want to live for myself.
There are things I need in life. I've got to make a career. I've got to do things first for myself.
No, you don't.
No, I don't.
None of us have to do that. I thought so when I was young and the Lord impressed on me. This 33rd verse. Let's read it. Matthew 633.
Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Except that's not the way I read it.
Seek ye first, all these things.
And afterwards the Kingdom of God is righteousness will be added unto you. That's the way I read it.
Yeah, I'll go out, I'll get money.
I'll get things under control in my life and in the world.
I'll enjoy some time right now.
Later on, I'll have time for Christ.
Have you heard that lie before?
Straight from the devil.
If you haven't heard that lie then maybe the only one in the room. I've heard it many times from him.
It's a lie of the devil, and like every other lie of the devil, you can easily find out because it goes directly contrary to the word of God which says.
Seek you first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
Did God say that? Yeah.
God manifests in the flesh, is it true?
And to doubt it is to doubt God Himself.
All these things shall be added unto you. Put him first, and all the rest is added to you. Are we willing to do it? You know our brother was talking earlier much about hearing the word of God.
We've just talked about the moral impossibility of serving 2 masters.
Word of God makes us very clear that there is only one thing we can do and that is to put the Lord Jesus Christ first in our life.
I want to talk just a little bit again about what our brother was bringing up.
That is, to spend time with the Word of God.
If we are going to put Him first in our life, we have to know what He is going to say to us, but we can't know what He's going to say to us unless we take up the Word of God.
It's no sense saying you've got a heart of devotion for Christ. If you care nothing for what he says, why do you call me Lord? Lord and you don't do the things that I say. You don't even care to know what it is that I say.
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You don't take up the word and read it.
So let's go on. Let's look at Luke chapter 10.
We'll probably refer to this this morning.
And we'll just start from verse 38 again.
Luke 1038 now came to pass. As they went, he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
And she had a sister called Mary which also sat at Jesus feet and heard his word.
What a place that is.
There's 40, but Martha was cumbered about much serving and came to him and said Lord.
Does not dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?
Bid her therefore.
That she helped me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha.
Martha aren't much careful. They were careful and troubled about many things. But one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her.
There was one thing needful, and Mary was there to get it. Martha wanted something else. She went.
And spent time serving the Lord. That's a good thing, a wonderful thing to serve the Lord. Martha also had devotion for him.
I don't want to speak bad about her, but the Lord taught here about what was the one thing.
That was needful and it was that thing that Mary was doing.
Mary spent the time.
To know what the Lord was going to say. And you know, later on a test came, a test that no other disciple passed.
You go to the Gospel of Matthew and you read there how this the Lord was walking up towards the cross of Calvary five times over in that gospel, he told the disciples specifically.
What he was going to do?
That he was going to go and he's going to suffer, he's going to be betrayed, he's going to be offered up.
And they couldn't hear a word, he said.
They hadn't spent the time.
And they were thinking about other things, their thoughts, their hearts.
Were attached to him in some way, but they were also.
Divided, they weren't able to serve 2 masters either.
They wanted the cheapest place in the Kingdom. Their thought was on the world as they envisioned it.
Their own glory in it, not His glory.
There came a time.
Recorded in John chapter 12 just before the cross.
Where?
This woman Mary comes into the house with the Lord Jesus was and she had a pound of ointment spike in our.
Judas, Judas tells us.
We could get 300 pence for it.
That's what he thought it was worth.
Spirit of God says it was very costly.
And Mary took that, and she used it to anoint his feet.
And the Lord explained what she did because nobody else understood she understood.
She was anointing him against his burial.
And she's the only one who was able to do it.
A little bit later, the Lord was crucified. The other woman. They loved him very much.
They went to the grave. They wanted to go take his body and anoint him so much. They loved him.
But they hadn't spent that time with him to know what his mind was. They hadn't heard his word.
And so they weren't able to do it. When they came there, they found an empty tomb. He was gone.
And they loved him too, but there was only one who was able to anoint him against his burial.
It was this woman.
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Mary, the one who sat at his feet and heard his word.
She's so treasured and valued what he said. That's how far her heart went in devotion for him. The disciples didn't know till long after this.
Little later they were running away in terror for their lives. It was until after the Lord rose again that they knew what happened.
But here Mary knew.
That's what it means to be devoted.
Not only to love him, but to have that care, to sit at his feet and hear his word, and to do that over and over again.
Let's see another example by that devoted one himself, the Lord Jesus. Go to Matthew chapter 4.
Here he was tempted, just like we all are, by our enemy, Satan.
With of course 1 notable difference. The Lord Jesus could not be tempted with evil being God.
He was holy.
And yet he stood in the temptation to provide that example for us.
And I'm just going to pick out the second one.
Verse 7. Matthew 4. Verse 7. Jesus said unto him that Satan.
It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
Verse 8. Now the second temptation.
Satan persists in it.
Read that last verse and the first temptation because it's important.
We may go away from this meeting thinking I stood a test. You may have a test that comes and you stand against the enemy. Well, be sure he's going to come right back again.
Verse 8 the 2nd temptation again.
The devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them.
Has Satan done that to you?
Oh, he's sure done it to me. And to my poor failing eyes, the glory of the world has looked pretty bright.
It's silly though. Put your eyes on Christ that changes.
Verse nine He said unto him, All these things will I give thee a foul, fall down and worship me.
Now we've got idolatry.
Our brother spoke about idolatry this morning.
I liked how he said that. Beware of nouns. It's a good point.
Person plays her thing about anything can become an idol. Come between US and the Lord.
And so Satan would tempt the Lord to come and worship him, go into this very gross form of idolatry. The Lord answers verse 10. He says, get the hand. Satan is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
Now here are the two points that we're talking about today.
We can only have one master, you can have two.
Take up with the world or anything that Satan has to offer, as he did here, is to lose the other. Thank God not for eternity. You can't lose your salvation.
But practically in our lives down here, we will lose the Lord Jesus Christ as our Master. We will lose the practical presence of his life in our lives.
It's a great cost.
And the Lord Jesus said, no, you can't turn me aside from that path of devotion. Everything I have is for Him.
And I won't listen. And what did the Lord Jesus use?
The very same thing that you and I have. I think our brother was was stressing this morning the word of God.
He answers Satan, and that's what it is.
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And by thy word thou has kept me from the path of the destroyer, tells us in songs.
It is the Word of God that will keep us from that which Satan wants to take us and turn us into that path that is belongs to Him.
He will tempt you to go into some other way. And it doesn't look like it's the path of Satan. It may not even look like the world.
But the test is Christ.
Is that thing whatever it is? Is it that which would draw me closer to Christ, or is it that which would take me away?
Let's just look at a few other verses about hearing the Word of God, Luke chapter 6.
We'll just read a few verses here, and just for the expression of them, one is in Luke 6.
Verse 47 Whosoever cometh to me and heareth my sayings and doeth them, I show you to whom he is like. And then the Lord talks about the the house built on a rock and the one on the sand. But the point here is this expression hearing and doing. Let's go to Luke 11.
Verse.
28 But he said, yeah, rather blessed are they that hear the word and keep it. Now it goes even a little beyond just doing.
Doing is great. Hearing is vital. We're not going to do if we don't hear. By the way, I hope we got that point. If you don't hear the word of God, you're not going to do it. And it's not enough to have heard it once. We forget.
Spirit of God reminds us those things that He has said unto us, and it's that which cleanses our way day by day. But here it goes beyond to keeping It's not that you did it once, but you're going to keep doing it.
You got his word and you're not going to let it go because his word came from him and you love him. You devoted to him and so you're going to keep it. It's more important to you than anything else.
And his word, he recognized himself.
The living Word of God.
And so his word is that which has value in the life of a believer, if we want to please him.
John 14.
John 14 and verse.
15.
If he loved me, keep my commandments.
Like I said, it does no good to talk about being devoted to Christ but caring nothing about what He says. That's meaningless. Why do you call me Lord? Lord and you don't do the things that I say. He says if you love me, keep my commandments. Verse 23.
Jesus answering, said unto him.
If a man loved me, he will keep my words.
Simple commandments, His words, whatever they are, say, well, I'll just keep whatever He directly commands me. No, it's His word. Whatever he said, that's the expression of his heart. That's what he desires here. It is the word of God. We have it in our hands. We can take it up every day.
And by keeping it, we love him.
It doesn't mean we don't go to the Lord Jesus Christ and tell Him that we appreciate what He's done for us. It doesn't mean we don't pray. Yes, we do that too. That's plainly there.
The Word of God tells us that, so we know that as well. But we're going to take this precious book up. We're going to know what it says, and we're going to do it. We're going to keep it.
But there's one other practical thing. There's many practical things that could be raised with this, but I want to talk about the coming of the Lord Philippians Chapter 3.
Because this is very related to the subject.
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And we'll just take a few verses out of this.
But verse 13, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Paul had his eye, and that coming glory, and all that was going to be his in that day.
Thank God when that day comes, everyone of us will be perfect.
Our hearts will be fully undivided.
Then.
Wouldn't wait for then, he said. Right now, forgetting the things that are behind, he says. I'm pressing for that. What's the alternative to that?
Let's look a little further on here verse 18 for many walk of whom I've told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly.
And whose glory is in their shame?
Who mind earthly things?
Can we do this as believers? Yeah, we can. Does it mean then we're going to destruction? Thank God, no.
But we take the place of these ones spoken of in this verse. We get away from Christ and we have that evil eye. This is where we end up.
Verse 20.
Where we end up, by the way, is mining earthly things, not destruction. Hope that was clear.
For our conversation has citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working, whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.
And so we have before us this coming glory. The Lord Jesus is just about to come. He's going to come out of heaven as Savior. I think it's a better way. This should be expressed. And He's going to deliver us from everything here. But that should take our hearts. That should capture our hearts and take us completely away from this world.
To His glory.
You know.
Our time is just about gone. I want to skip ahead then to just one other thing and go to Hebrews chapter 13.
Hebrews 12. Sorry.
Because now.
We're sitting here, we're considering this, and every single one of us, speaker included, is that just a certain point in the journey of our life?
And whatever happened before this point in our life has happened, and there's nothing that we can do right now to change the fact that it happened.
But there's everything that we can do right now to change what will happen in the future.
And so as I look around at this group, I see many who are young, many who are older and.
It always strikes me the same way and sorry if I've said this before, but here it is again that we have a choice.
And tomorrow we're going to have another choice, and every day after that, until the Lord comes, we'll have another choice. And that will be a choice as to what we're going to do.
And it has often struck me that among those in assemblies, often we're going on very weakly. We say it's a day of small things and we're struggling and we're saying where are the others that can come in and be a help and encouragement to me.
And few are saying where are the others that I can go be a help and encouragement to.
Because that's what we have the privilege of doing.
I'll tell you where is the one who can be a help and encouragement to you. He wants to live every moment of your life with you.
He wants your heart devoted to him and you can lean on him anytime, day or night. He will never move.
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He'll never let you down.
His side is perfect, he's only looking for living relationship.
Look what it says in these verses.
Verse 12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees.
And make straight paths for your feet, less that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed.
And follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.
That's enough right there, you know, as I think about all the young people here.
Can cut most of your life in front of you.
You especially need this.
Simply because you've got more life. If the Lord doesn't come to live for Him, then those of us who are older do.
What's the cost if you don't?
Those of us who have gotten older have seen the cost many times in our own lives, sometimes in the lives of others.
Maybe the Lord is married for you.
You're going to marry the right one.
Are you going to make that choice for yourself without him, and hope that somehow he overrules as he might do in your life and gives you the right one?
I'm going to tell you right now many who have gotten older.
And lived their lives without reference to him, even though there were two believers made a terrible mistake in that regard.
Others of us have gone and gotten into sin.
Others have gone out and gotten the wrong job.
You're going to get a job, young people. What job will it be?
Is it a job we're going to see first seek these things and afterwards the Kingdom of God is righteousness. Are you going to make sure that your job allows you to be where the Lord is?
This is very practical. You can't say Lord, Lord and don't do the things that he says.
Is it possible that you're going to go out without the mind of the Lord and get yourself a great school debt that you're going to be paying off or half your married life?
I'm not speaking against education.
That's what the Lord wants you to do. You'd better do it.
But ask them.
What does he want you to do? And if you're going to live your life for yourself right now as a young person, you're not in a position to know. If you're not going to take up this precious word and get from him what this book says, you won't know.
And this is the critical time of your life where when you make these decisions and you're wrong, you're going to live with those decisions the rest of your life.
So don't go away from here and say this isn't important, it is. It's vital. It affects your whole life.
And I pray God you won't think back at some future date and say I wish I had paid attention to that then.
You don't need to make the mistake and the way you won't make the mistake.
Is to stay close to Christ.
Starting from now.
Those of us are older, so we've made lots of mistakes. Can we not live our life for Christ now? Can we not go on in our assemblies seeking to be used by Him now?
Yes, we can.
Can we not go and encourage our brethren?
Give to the Lord the expression of our hearts before Him in His presence. Seek to be used any way He chooses.
Yes, we can.
If we love him.
It's not in the power of our strength that we can do any of those things, but in the heart of love and devotion for him.
You know, that's the practical side as to our day-to-day life, but you say what is?
The attraction really, because the world has the great attraction. I just want to end on that in Psalm 16.
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This Psalm is speaking.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was a devoted man.
And what it says about him here and most of these verses apply to us.
Who followed him? We're in Christ. We have his life now.
I'll just read a few of them in closing verse five. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup. Thou maintainest my lot.
The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places.
Yeah, I have a goodly heritage and I'm going to tell you right now.
A living day by day relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ in His Word is so far beyond anything that the world can give.
Many in this room perhaps have tasted and known that. If you haven't, I just say try it. You'll discover a joy that you can never possibly know in this world.
Verse eight, I've set the Lord always before me.
Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
This one doesn't need support. I'm not saying he shouldn't have it. This one is able to support others. Oh yes, the Lord uses brethren to help one another. Thank God for that. I've received plenty of that help.
Because I didn't really get what I needed from the Lord, and yet He was always there and to be in this place. Now we're ready to be used by Him to help another. And the Lord knows as many who need it. And our primary help ought to be the same thing. To lead them to Him, put them next to Him, they can. Lean against Him, they can. He can never be moved.
I shall not be moved. Is that because I'm strong?
Not for a moment. You put me by myself, you'll move me in an instant. But when I lean up against him, you can never move me.
Same with all of us.
He's the rock that cannot be moved. Never.
Any of us leaning on him are unmovable.
Away from him we've got no strength whatever.
Verse 11. Last verse.
That will show me.
And the path of life.
And my presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. We often think about this as heaven, and it is.
But I'm going to tell you this heaven on earth as well, that we can all have by simply dwelling in His presence.
We don't have to wait till then for this first to be true. It's true right now by having that devoted life, living relationship with Christ, enjoying fellowship with Him through His Word, and speaking to Him. That's my encouragement at the beginning of these meetings. I hope as time goes on through this week.
That will encourage one another on in the Lord and then as we go away from here.
That will live our lives true for him and not it turned away by that one who wants to take us after the world. No man can serve 2 masters. Let's pray.
Our God and their Father, we thank thee for.
That precious man, that one who is devoted, that one who is our Savior, Redeemer, our Lord.
Our companion for eternity. We thank thee that we have him right now.
Is our object, our hope, our life, our All in all we pray.
That that would make this more real in each one of our hearts, day by day.
Each one of us here would live lies for him and for thee, devoted to him.
We thank thee that soon will be in another place.
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With the temptations of this world are over.
But until then, we just confess our weakness and we ask for thy help. We ask in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.