Address—B. Prost
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But we began the meeting by city again.
That we sung already in this conference yesterday #34.
#34.
It has to do with the subject I'd like to speak on this afternoon, but before we sing this hymn.
Maybe I do too much of this, but I'd like to tell you a little bit about the author.
I've always had an interest in who wrote hymns and under what circumstances.
And if you look in the back of the book, you will see the name beside this hymn #34.
WP Mackay.
I can relate to him because he was a medical doctor.
He was born in Scotland in the late 1830s and had a very godly Christian mother.
But he didn't care for her Christianity and didn't care for the Lord and.
When he was fairly young, announced his intention to go to the city of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and study medicine. Well, his mother didn't want him to go. She thought he would get into the wrong crowd. She knew he wasn't saved.
And she was very concerned about him, but he was going and that was that.
However, she gave him a Bible when he left home, put his name in the front of it, put a Bible verse underneath it, and gave him that Bible and said, son, hang on to this, you may want it someday.
Well, as you can well imagine, he had a brilliant mind and he did well in medical school.
But he did get into the wrong crowd and got into things that he shouldn't have gotten into. And one night when he was drinking too much, he pawned to the Bible off for a little bit of extra money to buy more liquor and never gave it a second thought again.
Well, time went on.
Brilliant young man.
Did well in his studies, arose to become.
The leading doctor in a hospital there in Edinburgh.
One day, quite a few years later.
A man was brought into the emergency that had been very badly injured. I don't know the details of what happened to him, but anyway he was brought in very badly injured and.
Yet he seemed very calm and accepting it all very easily.
He said to Dr. Mackay. How? What's my condition? What am I going to end up doing? What's going to happen?
Oh, Dr. Mackay said. Ah, I guess we'll pull you through somehow.
Well, the man knew very well that his injuries were very serious and so.
He said. Doctor, I'd like the truth. I'm not afraid to die.
He said tell me exactly where things stand.
So the doctor said, Sir, he said, I'll be honest with you, you've got only a matter of three hours to live.
So they took him up to a bed in the hospital and the last thing the man said before he was taken upstairs was tell my landlady to bring the book.
Doctor McKay was busy with other things. Later on the next day he went up to the ward to see what was going on and he said of course the man had by that time passed away.
He said I want to know what was the book that he wanted.
He didn't even tell the landlady what it was. He said she know what it was.
Tell me. Tell me what the book was. Was it his bank book or was it a book with his appointments in it? Or what did he want?
The nurse said you go and take a look under his pillow.
So Doctor McKay went, lifted up the pillow, picked up the book.
And as you can well imagine, there was his Bible.
All that time, others had been blessed through it, including that man.
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And here he was a lost Sinner.
Was what he needed.
The Lord used it to bring him to Christ that very day and for the rest of his life. He used his time for the Lord.
Didn't live to be very old either. He died when he was in his mid 40s I believe. Something like that. So just a little background helps to make this hymn come alive for us.
#34.
Oh, Lord is risen.
Waiting till we all struggle.
To save all.
We want to.
See him and to say no more.
Our loving God and our Father, we look up to Thee again this afternoon, thankful for all that we have already enjoyed from Thy Word.
And thankful to our God for the precious truth contained in this hymn, the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and as thy word tells us, has become the first fruits of them that slept.
We thank Thee, our God, that everything in our lives, everything in Christianity, depends ultimately on resurrection. So we look to thee now for thy special help as we open thy word this afternoon, praying that Thou wilt bring before us that which would be suitable for us. Guide and direct us in every way we pray.
We ask all this, our God, thanking thee, that we can count on thee.
And doing so, independence in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Well, I have to confess to you that when I came to these meetings, I had been enjoying the subject of resurrection, and I was particularly enjoying the 15th chapter of First Corinthians.
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What we have had before us brings before us the fact that is what we have had in the readings in Ephesians 1.
Brings before us the present enjoyment of that resurrection life. Already that is what we have from those from a risen Christ in glory to do with those heavenly blessings which are ours. Wonderful.
But at the same time, at times in our life, we are also in the wilderness, aren't we?
In one sense, we're already risen and seated in heavenly places. That's Ephesian truth.
But in another sense, we're in the wilderness that is Philippian truth. And you can match up many of those Old Testament types with different books in the New Testament that illustrate the truth of them. And so let's turn to 1St Corinthians chapter 15.
And I'd like to dwell particularly on three questions.
That the Apostle Paul asks in this chapter.
Resurrection is a very broad subject. We cannot hope to deal with it all this afternoon, and I'm not going to try, because I have found over the years, both for my own soul and for others too, that it's often better to say a few things and deal with them.
Well, if I could use the term rather than try and say too much.
And that is no criticism, Brother Bruce. I want you to realize that I have, on my occasion, stood up to have an address and, as the English proverb goes, bitten off more than I could handle at the time. But First Corinthians chapter 15 has three separate questions in it.
All of which I believe Paul asks to exercise the Corinthians, but also to bring out something positive.
Because as you read through, just to give a moment or two of background, as you read through First Corinthians, it tends to be kind of negative, doesn't it? Paul has to deal with one problem after another.
That existed there in Corinth, and you and I probably can scarcely think of an assembly.
That had more disorder and more confusion and more things going on that needed straightening out than Corinth.
And yet at the end of the chapter or correction at the end of the book.
What Paul does is wonderful. He takes up one last error that was being propagated there, namely that some were saying that there was no resurrection of the dead.
And uses that.
First of all, to show the futility and the utter impossibility of that thought, but then to use it as what we might call a springboard to bring out wonderful truths concerning the resurrection of Christ and all of the ramifications of it.
Again, we don't have time to go through it all, but let's look at the first question.
1St Corinthians 15 and verse 12.
Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
In other words, Paul was saying what is behind this thinking? Where did it come from and what kind of thought, what kind of?
Spirit if you like.
Put that thinking into your minds so that now you are saying.
There is no resurrection of the dead.
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Paul had spent, as we know, a long time in Corinth, at least a year and a half, and we know from other things that Paul said that he would have made it very clear to those Corinthians about the truth of resurrection, about the Lord's coming.
About how that believers would be raised from the dead who had died in Christ. Yes, I know the details are given there in Thessalonians, but if he gave it to the Thessalonians, at least in brief, in a matter of about a month, surely he gave it to the Corinthians.
In a matter of a year and a half.
And at here they were listening to some who were saying.
There's no resurrection of the dead.
On the negative side, why does that thinking come in? And there are various reasons for which we will.
Get into a little more deeply when we get to the second question.
But on the negative side, Satan wants you and me.
Even as believers. Certainly he wants unbelievers to think that way, but he wants you and me, even as believers, to discount and if possible, to deny the resurrection of believers.
Why would he do that?
For those who are not saved, the natural man does not want to believe in resurrection.
Oh, he thinks in terms of perhaps, yes, I hope that when I die, I will go to heaven. And maybe there is life after death. But many would prefer to believe, and you have encountered this kind of talk, too, but this life is the end of everything. And that when we die, we die just as an animal dies, and that's the end of our existence.
There is nothing more.
But deep down inside.
Man knows that there is more.
Deep down inside, he knows there is something more.
There are those out there today who call themselves atheists.
Who do not believe there is a God. And I am reminded of a true story that took place quite a number of years ago, probably 75 years ago now and maybe more, where there was a man who met up with a believer in our area there in Ontario, Canada.
And when the believer began to speak to him about eternal matters, he said, Well, he said, I must confess that I have started to think about that a little bit lately.
He said, you know, I have been an atheist all my life. My father was an atheist, my grandfather was an atheist, and that's how I was brought up.
But then he went on to say.
It wasn't that long ago that I was at my father's bedside as he was dying.
He lay there on the bed, he wasn't in hospital, he was at home. And as he lay there on the bed he had lapsed into unconsciousness and we all were just waiting for him to take that last breath before he would be gone.
But he said I have to relate to you.
That all of a sudden he sat up in bed.
And in a voice that was laced with terror.
Said there is a God, there is a hell.
And I'm going to it.
He fell back down on the bed and was gone.
The man said I can't forget that scene. It has haunted me ever since and it wasn't that long ago.
And I believe that man, that who is talking to him, that brother who was talking to him, was able to lead him to Christ. But now for the positive side, because our time is going. What does resurrection mean to the believer? Everything depends on it. Why? Because for you and for me.
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Everything is going to happen that really counts.
In resurrection.
And that's why Paul.
Take such a long time in this chapter to connect the resurrection of Christ.
With the resurrection of the believer.
Now you perhaps would say, well.
Come on, Bill, you know.
We've all been brought up to understand the Lord's coming and the resurrection of believers.
And how that when the Lord comes, the dead in Christ shall rise 1St, and then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. We all know that. Do we need to be reminded of it again?
I speak to my own heart.
It is very easy to believe in all of that.
And it has been brought out already in these meetings to believe in all of that with a certain amount of head knowledge.
Which is all good. We need that we have to have some senses in order to take in knowledge.
We have to have a brain to take things in, but you know, it has to get down from here.
To the heart level. And that's what Paul meant to Timothy when he talks to him in Second Timothy chapter 3.
He talks to him about the things which sell us learned that's getting it up here.
And been assured of that's getting it not only in the heart, but in the walk.
And I say to my own heart, as I say to you this afternoon, does the thought of resurrection really grip my soul so that I realize that everything depends on it?
Or you say, perhaps I'm waiting for the Lord to come. I don't expect if I can use the English language this way. I don't expect to have to be raised from the dead.
I expect to be here when the Lord comes.
I don't think it's stretching things too much to say. It's still, in a certain sense, resurrection because it takes just as much divine power to change that body of humiliation that you and I have. And it will be a changed body, not a different body, a changed body, a recognizable body. We'll talk about that more later.
Just as much power as it takes to raise.
A body from the dead.
When the Apostle Paul was standing before King Agrippa and others.
He said why should it be a thought, incredible thing, incredible with you, that God should raise the dead.
And you and I as knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
We know that no matter where that body might, might go, what might have happened to it?
How it might have deteriorated, the Lord is able to.
As the hymn says, take that precious dust and remold it.
Back into a body which will be a glorious body.
But why is it so important?
Turn back for a moment to Second Timothy, chapter 2.
Second Timothy, chapter 2.
And I'm going to read verses 7:00 and 8:00, but I'd like to read the second of those verses, verse eight. I'm just going to quote it as it is in the JND translation. Follow with the King James and think to yourself, am I changing the meaning a bit?
Verse seven Consider what I say. That's Paul and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.
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But then Paul brings in what was central to his ministry.
And here's the verse as it is in the Darby translation. Remember Jesus Christ of the seed of David comma raised from the dead according to my gospel.
Does it change the meaning a little?
Paul didn't want Timothy to remember so much the fact of the resurrection.
He wanted him to remember the one who first of all rose from among the dead.
And why does he say that?
I believe it was because the Apostle Paul had never met, never known the Lord Jesus when he was on earth. He met him first of all on the Damascus Rd. when he heard that voice from heaven saying, I am Jesus whom thou persecuted.
Oh, you can just imagine. Here was Paul stricken to the earth by a light brighter.
Then the son and suddenly he realizes this is.
A risen Christ talking to me and everything that characterized Paul's ministry.
Had to do.
With a risen Christ in glory.
Some of us here are old enough to remember our late brother Clifford Brown, originally from Des Moines, IA, then lived in Burbank, CA for a number of years. He's been gone for well over 45 years, so you have to be a bit on the old side to remember him. But he used to say.
True Christianity.
Begins on the other side of the cloud.
Referring, of course, to the cloud that received the Lord out of their sight when the disciples watched him ascend up to heaven.
When the Lord Jesus.
Died on Calvary's cross.
What did it look like from a human perspective?
Those who pass by no doubt said.
He was a great prophet, but he was a miserable failure. Look where he is now. Look what's happened. All those miracles he did, all that good teaching. He did everything he gave.
His own followers have forsaken him. One of them betrayed him, another one denied him his oaths with oaths and curses.
His own nation condemned him, shouting and hollering at Pilot to crucify him.
And you remember the two on the way to Emmaus, the way they reacted, they were just devastated. Everything, it's all over with.
Was it?
An absolutely not.
No.
Through weakness and defeat, he won the Mead and crown. Trot all our foes beneath his feet by being trodden down. Where did the blessing begin in resurrection?
Many years ago in the Bible reading in Montreal, Canada and I wasn't there.
Was only reported to me, a brother. We won't turn to it. You can look at these scriptures.
A brother referred to John's Gospel.
Chapter 19 and at the end it's recorded that.
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes of 100 LB weight.
And involve the Lord Jesus in a burial fit for a rich man.
And as people will sometimes do in a reading meeting. And it was a good question.
A brother spoke up and said, well, he said. We read in Psalm 45.
All thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes, and cashem out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.
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And then he threw out the question, Why were there only myrrh and aloes in the burial of the Lord Jesus, and no cash?
Well, there was a well taught brother there that had the answer. Oh, he said you have to realize what those spices meant. He said myrrh speaks of beauty, but it has to be crushed in order to bring out the fragrance of it. He said that was the fragrance of Christ's death in the sight of a holy God.
But he said the Aloes speak of bitterness.
And just as they were bitter herbs with the Passover, so there was a bitterness with the suffering of the Lord Jesus, as he bore all the judgment of a holy God against sin, and was made sin for us.
But he said the mirror and the Aloes were there at the grave, but it wasn't time for the cache yet.
He said it's not mentioned by name, but he said the Myers and or the Cashiers in the next chapter.
You can look it up in John 20 where the Lord says to Mary Magdalene.
Because Cassia, he said, speaks of healing and comfort. And so the Lord said to Mary Magdalene, Go to my brethren, and tell them what I ascend. Touch me not, he says, for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren, and tell them I ascend unto.
My Father and your Father, and my God, and your God.
All the marvelous breadth and height and depth of blessing that comes in.
Everything looked like a total failure, but the untold blessed came in resurrection.
And then Paul brings it out so clearly that if Christ is risen, how can you say that we won't rise? Because if Christ is not risen, you're not even saved if he's here yet in your sins. And we aren't going to go into the depth of that this afternoon except to point out that.
For you and for me.
You and I are called to follow a rejected Christ, and we are not going to get even the reward of what we do for the Lord.
Necessarily down here.
And that's particularly apropos in this verse that we just read in Second Timothy.
Pardon me a moment.
It's particularly important because, as most of you know, Second Timothy was the last epistle Paul wrote.
He had been imprisoned, I believe for the second time in Rome, and he knew that this time he was not going to be released.
And he is telling Timothy, Timothy, the signs are already out there of declension that is going to come in all they which are in Asia, he could tell him, have forsaken me.
But there is not one hint of discouragement in the whole book. Burdened, yes. Concern, yes.
Tears yes, on Timothy's Part 2, but Paul says Timothy in so many words, it's worth it. It's well worth it. Keep on going and he reminds Timothy of the Lord Jesus Christ and says.
Where did the Lord Jesus get the reward for his faithfulness?
Not down here.
Now he'll be vindicated in this world, in the Millennium, as we have been talking about, and the Millennium, among other things, will take place for that very reason, for the public vindication of God's holy character.
But that's not what you and I look for. We look for heavenly glory.
And.
Paul says to Timothy, the Lord Jesus didn't get his reward down here.
He got it in resurrection. Same thing with the Apostle Paul. He could have been one of the most discouraged men around.
All they which are in Asia have forsaken me where some of his best, if we could say it.
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I don't want to use the term best assemblies. That doesn't sound right. Where but where? Some of the highest truth that he had given out. He had been free to give in Asia and he had spent time there.
And it went to his heart. It was disappointing, no question about it. But Paul says Timothy.
I've got nothing to be ashamed of. You carry on. And you too.
Will get your reward in the coming day. Well, let's go on now to the second question.
Verse 29.
Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all?
Why then? Why are they then baptized for the dead? And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?
What does it mean to be baptized for the dead some groups and they call themselves Christians anyway, they believe in going through a certain ritual of.
Being baptized for people that have died. But that is not the thought.
It simply has the thought that when a believer is baptized, he takes his place before this world as being identified with Christ.
And we get that in Galatians. Every one of you that has been baptized into Christ has put on Christ, put on Christ bearing the name of Christ in this world.
And in that sense, every time a believer is baptized.
He is there, as it were, to fill up the ranks of those who have gone to be with the Lord.
No one here today was there in the beginning when baptism was first instituted, Christian baptism. And yet here is a large company, relatively speaking.
Of believers.
We've all, in that sense, been baptized for the dead. We have taken the place of those who have gone before. It is a wonderful privilege.
But you know when we take that place, as we have already been reminded in what Brother Bob brought before us.
It is not to have an easy life and if I can say it, and I speak most of all to my own heart.
I don't like conflict. I don't like things that don't run on an even keel.
And I do my best to make them run on an even keel. But then, as Bob was aptly bringing out, the Lord doesn't allow that in our lives, does He? And sometimes it's just in simple things.
Give you an illustration, maybe some here can relate to that.
About two or three weeks ago, I happened to go down to my furnace room and I was going to change the furnace filter. And I do that regularly on a on a proper basis. And I keep my day book. I put it down so I don't forget about it. I put a new one in and then three months down the road I put it in my day book, changed furnace filter.
I went down and there I saw water dripping from a pipe.
Oh dear, I said, Lord, I have so much I have to do today, I don't need this. But it wouldn't stop. I said, well, it's not too bad. I'll put a bucket under it and hope that it quits by tomorrow.
Well, there wasn't much in the bucket the next day, but there was still dripping and I had to deal with it.
Pain in the neck, to use a common phrase.
But the Lord allows it, doesn't He? He doesn't allow us to get too comfortable down here, even if it's only things that have to do with this life. And sometimes He allows other problems in our lives, bigger and more difficult ones.
Like our brother Dave Newton being taken to the hospital or something like that.
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All kinds of things.
But nevertheless baptized for the dead.
But if there's no resurrection, why should we do that? Why should we do a thing like that?
Paul says there's no point to it and he gives the result of not believing in the resurrection in verse 32 he says if after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, you see how serious that riot in Ephesus was over the.
Goddess Diana and the silversmiths and so on. Paul thought he was going to lose his life over that.
He refers to it a couple of times, once here, and he refers to it again in Second Corinthians.
What advantage hath it me if the dead rise not let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. And I say to each one of us here this afternoon, that is what we are seeing in the world today.
The world looks terrible politically, economically, militarily, leadership wise, in every way. The future looks bleak. And then of course, on top of all of that, people are terribly worried about the environment. Dire predictions are being given to us about what's going to happen and what we better do and so on. And.
People are saying, what's the point? Let us eat and drink for tomorrow. We die. Take all the risks you want. After all, you're going to die anyway. You might as well have fun doing it. And if you do something that's very dangerous and you lose your life in it, well, all right.
Hoop it up, live life to the full.
If there's no resurrection.
And you know, without wanting to speak to anyone but myself.
We here in privileged countries like the United States and Canada.
And maybe some in Western Europe too. Some of that attitude, if we're not careful, can rub off on us.
And we can fail to do what the Lord could say in the parable of the pounds in Luke 19. Occupy till I come.
When we see the Lord's coming so close and when we see signs that are indicative of what are going what, what is going to happen after we're called home, it's easy to say.
We can afford to coast a little bit because we're so near the end.
We don't have to be too concerned. We're going to be taken home very shortly.
But we're brethren, Saints of God, entitled to say that at any time in the Church's history.
Yes, they were. Yes, they were.
And so Paul is saying to Timothy.
And in two Timothy, but he also says here to the Corinthians.
Why are we standing in jeopardy every hour? Why if, why are we facing difficulties in our lives? What's the use of it all?
This is quite some time ago now, but I remember sitting around the lunch table at our home and there were some there. I knew them all well. Some were believers and some I was pretty sure were not.
And when we have anyone into dinner or lunch, if there's any possibility of doing it, we always take the word of God out and read it. And I read a passage, I can't even remember what it was. Now, concerning this same thought. It wasn't this chapter, but it concerned the difficulties of the Christian life.
And what it meant to us.
And one of them spoke up, one of our guests spoke up and said.
Well, it really makes you wonder, why would you bother doing it all? Why do all that kind of thing? Why? Why walk that kind of path?
I did not know whether she was saved or not. I rather doubt whether she were.
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And I can't remember everything I said, but I said something like this. I said, you know.
You're in very old company.
Your attitude is not new. The Apostle Paul said it and it wasn't his own idea nearly 2000 years ago. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
And that is the natural outlook.
I say to each one of us here, the Christian life is worthwhile. Every ounce of it is worthwhile. And why is it so important for this reason that we are using the time we have down here to build for eternity? Do we realize that?
A brother again who's a ministry I sat under while I was young used to make this comment.
He said everything in your life and mine. Now this may sound rather sweeping, and if you challenge it, I understand, but I believe in a certain sense it's true, he said. Every action of in your life and mine will have both present and eternal consequences.
I remember thinking about that and thinking what a mouthful that is.
The things that we have done for the Lord, the Lord says we will get a reward.
The things that we have done, otherwise there will be a loss.
The Lord says so.
Now I am not saying and I don't want to get into this this afternoon.
Because it's very difficult to go down that road that one believer in eternity will have necessarily.
A greater enjoyment of Christ or something like that. We've all heard the illustration that.
Everyone will have a full cup, but some cups will be bigger than others and so on.
And.
I would only say to you in the words of one of our best old writers, he said.
When he was challenged with a question like that, he said it may be true, but because scripture doesn't go there, I don't either.
Good remark and I say the same thing.
But the point is, there will be consequences. You and I have an opportunity down here to follow a rejected Christ, and there will be a special reward.
For those who have honored him in the scene of his rejection, now you and I, as we often admit, do not have much in the way of persecution.
Not yet.
But it may come before the Lord takes us home, and I don't envy you.
Young families here about to raise children.
In the world that we are growing up in today.
Yes, I have children too, and I have grandchildren.
I even have a great granddaughter.
And I fear for those parents who want to raise children in the fear of the Lord. It's getting to be more difficult. Remember, the Lord will always give you a clean path. It may be narrower, it may be more difficult, but God will always give you a clean path right to the end, or God would not be God.
The path is worth it. Worth it. Let's not fall into the trap of coasting to the Lord's coming. Let's continue to occupy till he comes. The last question.
Verse 55.
Oh, death.
Where is thy sting, O grave? Where is thy victory? It's kind of a rhetorical question because Paul knew the answer to that very well. He wasn't asking as if, Tell me the answer to that. Oh, no.
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Yes, it says in the next verse. A sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. And the devil, sadly, has done a good job of trying to persuade men in some cases.
That there is nothing beyond death, as we've already said, or persuading them that everybody goes to some beautiful place.
Where all is light and everything is nice and we're all going to get there some way, somehow.
Yes, we can all go different ways.
But as we had pointed out in the Gospel, God has one way, and that is through Christ, and we cannot choose to come in our own way.
No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. And so Paul says, O death, where is thy sting, because death has an awful sting.
I can well remember.
Visiting a beloved brother in Christ.
Who was in a nursing home back home where I lived in Hamilton, ON.
I knew that brother well.
I can't remember not knowing him because he was part of our local gathering.
And he lived to be what anyone would call a ripe old age. He was in his 98th year when the Lord took him home, and I used to visit him. He was totally clear in mind right to the end. And he loved to go out. He was a farmer and he loved to get out in his car and get out into the fresh air.
He used to tell me, Bill, he'd say, you know, man made the cities, but it was God that made the country and so on.
So we'd get in the car and I'd take him out for an hour or two, drive in the good weather of course, and he enjoyed it.
But I remember once sitting talking to him in his room and all of a sudden there was a terrible commotion in the next room.
And the man in the next room, and I knew that man a little bit, he had no use for the things of the Lord.
But he began to shout and began to carry on, and later on at his shout turned to a cry and all kinds of commotion. Nurses arrived and eventually doctors and so on.
He realized that he was going, he was dying, and he did not want to die.
He was afraid to die. And that shouting and carrying on that crying went to my heart as I thought.
There's a soul passing into eternity, and he's afraid to die.
The sting of death.
Isn't it wonderful to have the sting of death taken away? Isn't it wonderful to have, as our brother Tim said in the children's meeting this morning, he could say I'm not afraid to die. Wonderful for the believer to say that. But you know, sometimes the believer, even the true believer.
Can somehow, if he's not careful, we can get away from the Lord, and then we begin to have doubts. Soul and in our soul by the devil.
And I don't mind admitting that there have been times in my life when not having been close enough to the Lord.
The devil is so doubts. What if it's all just something made-up?
What if you do get to your deathbed and pass away and find it's not the way you thought it was going to be?
The devil can sow those seeds in our hearts, and I have visited with more than one dear believer.
Who said I don't think I am saved anymore?
I won't be there. I've talked about the joys of being caught up when the Lord comes and I can remember one saying to me, well, Bill, I won't be there. I won't be there. I'm not saved. I've never been saved at all.
I'm sorry to have to tell you that no matter what I said to her, I couldn't get things straightened out. Eventually she did get peace again. I'm glad to report.
But many years ago there was another brother that I suppose had more wisdom and maybe more depth than I do. And when a sister and older sister said that to him on her deathbed, he could be a little blunt at times. And he said to her, well then, sister, why don't you just give up Christ and die without him?
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And he said it with a straight face, too.
But it worked.
Oh, she said. I'd never do that.
And then he said more gently, he said, sister, I knew you wouldn't. I knew you wouldn't, He said, because you are saved and all this is an attack of Satan. Let's remember that.
But just in the few minutes that are left.
I want to touch on something.
In a couple of ways.
Perhaps.
And I have thought about it as I get older.
And obviously others have.
I remember reading the last words of John Nelson Darby.
When he was on his deathbed. Or some of the last words anyway. Maybe not the last words.
He said something like this. He said, well, it will be a strange thing to be in heaven.
But he said it will not be a strange Christ, it will be one that I have loved and known for many years.
Beautiful.
But then I was very much encouraged on another occasion reading in GV Wiggum's ministry and he touched on the same subject as he was nearing the end of the journey.
And.
I don't think there was any question in his soul about his relationship with the Lord, but dear GV, Wiggum died of a broken heart more than anything else because of the troubles among brethren in those days that just.
I felt sorry for him and reading about it, he just threw up his hands, he said. It's all over with.
It wasn't true. Thankfully, we're still here today, 150 years later.
He went to be with the Lord, I think in 1877, but what he wrote was beautiful.
He said. Do we sometimes think about what we will do when we get to heaven?
He said there's one thing that ought to satisfy our hearts, Christ.
Will be there. Isn't that beautiful? Christ will be there. And it's true. It's very true. Is there anything beyond that?
Brother Bob, when he was talking in the Gospel, talked about the number of the stars.
And it went home to me a little time ago because I like reading those kind of books too. And I read a piece of information that just.
Boggled my mind.
They said that in the extent of our present knowledge, which is probably limited.
They said if you can think of all the grains of sand in this whole world.
There are at least 10,000 times more stars than there are grains of sand.
In this world.
And, you know, I'd like to think of all those stars as indicative of the glories of Christ.
It will take an eternity will never exhaust them.
But one more practical thing.
Sometimes we wonder about things in heaven.
And I'm going to say something that I am thoroughly convinced of, but it's always been a great comfort to my own soul.
To think about it and I've used it to comfort others. There may be those here who have lost.
Children, sometimes at a very young age.
And you have no doubt that those children are with the Lord.
Because they were too young to have set their will against the gospel of the grace of God. No question about it. That is very clear.
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But sometimes, and don't get me wrong, I have never lost a child.
In that way and at a very young age. And so I have never been through the experience, but I have talked to a number of parents who have gone through all of that. And sometimes the question is voiced, well, I wonder what he would have looked like if he had grown up or what she would have turned out to have looked like.
Sometimes when a child begins to grow, you say, well, I think he would have favored my grandfather, or she might have favoured my aunt or something like that. But you always wonder, what would that child have looked like in maturity?
You know we sing that hymn around the throne of God in heaven will many children sing.
And I would never take away from the truth of that. But we know from God's Word that when we do get up there.
Male and female will not exist anymore and suppose that you were to lose a six month old baby.
Is that 6 month old baby going to exist in eternity as a six month old baby?
I don't believe so, no. That child will be in the full maturity of understanding.
Able fully with intelligence to join in the praises.
I've sometimes told parents, do you wonder what that young son of yours might have looked like if he hadn't met with that tragic accident? Or that daughter that got a serious disease and was taken away before she could grow into maturity? I have told them with confidence and I believe for my own soul that Scripture would support it.
You will find out someday, not in a body of humiliation.
Which they would have grown up in in this world, but rather with a body of glory.
Fashion like unto his glorious body. Now of course, human relationships will not exist up there in the in the same way. We don't delve into that particularly because our time is gone. But I say that as a comfort, as an and as an encouragement. Oh death, where is thy sting, O grave, where is thy victory? For the believer? The Lord has won the victory.
The victory is there in resurrection, and because Christ is risen, you and I will rise. You and I will be changed, and we will enjoy that blessing for all eternity.
I know our time is gone, but maybe we could sing #4 in the appendix. In closing, I think it's a just a bit of a short hymn. His be the victors name who fought the fight alone. Triumphant Saints no honor claim his conquest was their own.
#4 in the appendix.
Triumph and say no on earthquake.
It is gone. Where is God's errors?
Find me the Sandy.
It was on me and from.
Draw.
ING.
Slay, slay, slaying.
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Glory.
To die.
For his church.
For thee.
Blessed God our Father, we come to Thee again, thanking Thee for the precious truth.
Of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from among the dead, thanking Thee for that victory that He has gained for us. To him be all the praise. And now we commend thy word to Thee, that Thou make it good to our souls, that we too might enjoy that resurrection life which Thou hast given us, that we might live in view of eternity and not for time.
Until that day when we are taken home.
So we commend thy word to thee, and ask all this our God, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.