Scranton Conference: 2012
Table of Contents
John 16:1-13
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Abides.
To answer all need.
The Father's good pleasure has laid up a store. Plentiful treasure is to the poor.
267.
Great God and Father, we thank you for the truth of this.
Brushes him that we have sung of the fullness that abides in Jesus our head.
An infinite fullness, very fullness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily.
And we are the poor father.
We thank you that that fullness can meet every need.
And delights to.
That we might as thy people, as thy body, Lord Jesus, might grow up unto thee, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ.
00:05:00
And so we look to Thee at this time, asking Father, that they'll be pleased to pour us out a blessing. Lord Jesus, that.
They'll direct us to the portion that we need. They'll lost our needs perfectly. We thank You for this will give us to be real before Thee. We pray. We pray that there would be the liberty of Thy Holy Spirit, Father. And again we thank you for this occasion and for the love and the energy that has made it possible behind us of our brother here. We ask for Thy gracious help, Father, and the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen. Amen.
Like to suggest that we read in the 16th chapter of the book of John's Gospel. It's a chapter we don't often take up. We often concentrate on the three previous chapters. But I was thinking of it in connection with the hymns we sang both at the prayer meeting and the one we sang.
Just at the beginning of this meeting, connection with.
Difficulties of still being here in this world and God's provision for us. I realize it's a long chapter, but perhaps we could read it anyway. And we certainly won't get everything in this chapter in a couple of readings, but it might be for a prophet to read the whole thing.
John's Gospel, chapter 16.
These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues. Yeah, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God's service.
And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor Me. But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go my way to Him that sent me. And none of you asketh me whether goest thou? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the comforter will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he has come, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness, and of judgment of sin, because they believe not on me, Of righteousness because I go to my Father and you see me no more, of judgment, because he, the Prince of this world, is judged.
I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when He the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come.
He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine. Therefore said I, that He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you. A little while, and you shall not see me. And again a little while, and you shall see me, because I go to the Father. Then said some of His disciples among themselves, What is this that He has said unto us? A little while, and you shall not see me.
And again a little while, and you shall see me. And because I go to the Father.
They said, therefore, what is this that he saith a little while. We cannot tell what he said. Now Jesus knew that they were desires to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves of that? I said, a little while, and you shall not see me, and again a little while, and you shall see me.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice, and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in travail, hath sorrow because her hours come. But as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembers no more that the the anguish for joy, that a child is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow. But I will see you again.
And your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.
And in that day you shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, he will give it to you hitherto heavy. Ask nothing in My name. Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto you in Proverbs. But the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father.
00:10:28
At that day you shall ask in my name, and I say unto you, that I will pray the Father for you. For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and him come into the world again. I leave the world and go to the Father. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speaketh thou plainly, and be and speaketh no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things?
And need us not that any man should ask thee. By this we believe that thou camest forth from God. Jesus answered them. Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh. Yeah, and now is come.
That ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.
Well, as we know these chapters in John's Gospel, we often refer to them as the Upper Room ministry, that is chapters 131415 and here the 16th chapter. And then at the end of it, the Lord Jesus in the 17th chapter, lifting up his eyes to heaven and praying not only for the little company that was around him on that occasion, but for all those down through the centuries in the ages that would believe.
The older brethren often referred to it as his High Priestly Prayer, the Lord's Prayer.
But it is interesting that there is a distinct break at the end of the 14th chapter, because all the ministry was not given in the upper room. The 13th and 14th chapters were expounded in the upper room. And then the Lord Jesus says at the end of chapter 14, Arise, let us go hence. And they see, it seems that they move from the upper room into the dark night of the world, to pass on to the Garden of Gethsemane.
And on the way to the garden, he gives these 15th and 16th chapters. And I think it's important to see that in, in taking up this chapter to understand its character. Because in the 13th and 14th chapters, in the upper room, in the shelter and separation of the upper room, he gives them that which sets them in relationship to divine persons as to where they are now and in connection with the Father's house and the hope of the Lord's return.
So he sets us in those chapters in relationship with himself, not here in this world, but the man in the glory as he was going to return to the Father's house. As I say, he gives us the hope of what is ahead. This world's not our home. There's something else far better waiting for us, and so on.
But as they begin their track from the Upper Room to the Garden of Gethsemane.
He sets them now in relationship to the world. He was going to leave them in a hostile world and in a world that was is still affected by the curse of sin. And so the 15th chapter we have the the truth of of fruit bearing and how that though he was going to leave them and go back to the glory, he there was going to be a way that they could bear fruit and give testimony to himself.
Being left alone in this world and so on. And he goes on to expound further of the Spirit of God and so on. And in this chapter again, he's stressing to them that life is not going to be easy in his absence. He is going to leave them in a world that's under the effects of sin and a world, as I say, that is hostile to everything that has been set up by God and established by Christ. But he says to them, never mind.
I'm going to continue to provide for you, and the resources that you're going to have at your disposal for living in a hostile world are going to be greater resources than you've had even with my presence physically with you. And so he leaves them with no illusion as to the condition of things that they're going to find around them. And brother and I believe that we need to be encouraged by a chapter like this.
00:15:17
Are things any better in the world than when the Lord Jesus was here? Are things any better in the world than we have unfolded to us in the early days of the Church, in the book of the Acts, and in the Epistles by the different New Testament writers know things are perhaps even darker, if it's possible. The moral and spiritual darkness is deepening over the Western world and over this planet every day. But, brethren, we have the same Christ.
We have the Spirit of God, we're linked to heaven, we're on our way there. Yes, we're still here. And I suppose none of us have any illusions as to the fact that we're still here. We're going through God's people are going through circumstances today that perhaps we've never passed through before physically and in connection with our relationships to the world and so on. But brethren, let's be encouraged as we take this up. And at the end of the chapters we had the Lord Jesus could say.
In the world ye shall have tribulation. Yes, we will, as long as we're here. But be of good cheer. I've overcome the world.
Important to see the.
The character as our brother Jim is outlined of the Upper Room ministry because it is in view of the Lord's absence.
He was going to leave them. He had been there, their support and strength during His earthly pathway, but now He was going back to the Father, and their hearts were filled with sorrow.
But he was going to send the divine person, the Holy Spirit, the comforter that characterizes Christianity.
A living man in the glory and the Holy Spirit of God here on earth. What an inestimable privilege we have. A divine person within us, living within us. And then he brings out the the the reproach, the persecution that would ensue.
Mainly from the religious world here, those that even might have a profession of Christianity, but we're really opposed to the Christ of God. And so he warns us of this, but at the same time shows us the resource that we have.
In Him glorified and by the Holy Spirit of God dwelling within us and also collectively.
It's nice to see that.
The Lord Jesus.
He informs his disciples ahead of time as to the sort of treatment that they would receive from this world.
And that they would experience persecution.
It wasn't something that should come as a surprise to them.
The Lord Jesus knows the future. He knows the end from the beginning.
As a wonderful thing.
To be able to look into the future.
And to know what is ahead and we experience trial and difficulty persecution from this world at the present time.
It should not be something that offends us or that surprises us.
Because the Lord Jesus, he says in the world you shall have tribulation.
He experienced it.
And.
He tells his disciples here about.
The comforter that would come and in his absence would indwell them.
And what a wonderful encouragement this is to us to realize.
That the Lord Jesus would not leave his own comfortless.
But he sends his Spirit. The Spirit of God comes to indwell each and every believer and is the comforter. Now notice in chapter 15 the Lord Jesus could say when the comforter is come.
00:20:06
Verse 26 Whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the spirit of truth.
Which proceedeth from the father he shall testify.
Of me.
And he speaks of it again in our chapter.
In verse 14 He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.
And so I believe through the power of the Spirit of God indwelling the believer, we can enjoy the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself right here and now, even though He's not bodily here with us. We have.
This wonderful person of the Godhead, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit to indwell us that.
Testifies of Jesus.
And.
I wonder.
How many hours of the waking day do we think about the fact that God dwells within you and me by your Spirit?
It's a marvelous truth.
Two great truths of Christianity to realize that there's a man.
In the glory, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ who walked here on earth a glorified man. There he is in the glory, but also God here on earth.
The Holy Spirit is God and dwells the indwells, the believer. So there was great comfort, wasn't there for the disciples. And it's written here for our comfort encouragement too. Greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world.
Referring to the Holy Spirit.
It is remarkable, isn't it, that it is religious persecution that the Lord Jesus brings before them. First of all, because he knew that that was imminent after his return to the Father. He knew that that's what the disciples were going to suffer. And so we see it immediately in the 4th chapter of the book of Acts, when Peter and John having given testimony and witness to Christ, they're brought up before the council. Not before some secular tribunal, but before the high priest and the religious council.
And it's interesting in that eighth verse of the 4th chapter, it says, and Peter being full of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit had been given between the chapter we're reading and the 4th chapter of Acts, the Spirit had been given. The instruction was here. So there were no surprises. The power, the promise had been given. And now Peter and John in the power of the Holy Spirit can give witness and testimony to the council and go out from the council and continue the work that the Spirit of God began.
On the day of Pentecost. But I say it's religious persecution that the Lord stresses, because down through the ages to this very time, I suppose there have been more slain and more persecuted under the banner of religion.
And even Christianity than perhaps in all the political wars that have taken place, we read about the Crusades and those wars and thousands and thousands of men, women and children indiscriminately slain under the banner of the cross and Christianity. And that's why the Lord said in the end of verse two that when they do it, they'll think they're doing God's service. And you know, the apostle Paul as Saul of Tarsus was doing that himself.
He went out to persecute the Church of God, the followers of Christ, and he said himself, he thought he was doing God's will. He thought he ought verily to do many things contrary to that way and to the to the name of Christ. Thank God he got turned around and his zeal and energy was then directed to the service of God and the blessing of his people. But I, I when we think of persecution, we often think of it in different ways, but to realize that it is religion that has been the greatest and is the greatest persecuted.
Of Christianity. But you say, how can those brethren stand? How did they stand at the stake and rejoice? How do our brethren who are in prison for their testimony today, how do they do it? They have the comfort and the power of the Spirit of God and it's through the Spirit of God that grace and power are given for the moment. And we we wonder at it. We don't need that until and we don't need that at the present. We sit here with complete liberty if we were to face that kind of difficulty.
00:25:23
The resource would be available for us as well.
Verse one, it says these things have I spoken unto you that you should not be offended or stumbled. And I think that's a a very important thing that we need to look at that if you look in what is taught among Christians today. It's a very great teaching that the world will be come better and better through the efforts of Christians and eventually we'll win.
The world for Christ. And as far as I understand it, a majority of believers think that this is what the Word of God teaches because they don't properly understand or divide the word of truth. And so the Lord is trying to prepare the disciples for the truth. What's really going to come here? It's not going to get better, but it's going to get worse. They didn't understand it and after the Lord rose from the dead, they struggled with it. They said in Acts 1, Wilt thou at this time return, restore the Kingdom unto Israel?
And the Lord had to tell them, it's not for you to know the times of the seasons. And they had to wait. No doubt, when the Spirit of God came, He brought them back to these very words. And they had to learn something of that. And so do we. We have to learn that we're in a time right now when the Lord is absent and things are not going to get better again until after He comes the second time.
And makes them better himself for us. We have this same portion as generally the 2nd epistle show us. It doesn't change, does it? And we need to learn dispensational truth that sets all of these things in their proper order so that we can understand where we are today and not be stumbled.
You were mentioning a gym about the war, the religious wars that have taken place in our time and history of bread, and we're living in the days of great wars when we think of the Arab world that they say we're fighting a holy war.
So their way of thinking, they believe they are and they'll give the life for the cause. But this is the example for still living in that day.
Of these crises that we're facing daily is that we're still fighting these wars today.
But it's a reality.
We follow our rejected Christ. We don't gather around a glorified Christ now. Tomorrow morning we will remember the Lord in his death.
But it's a round of rejected Christ. These people mentioned in verse two acted according to their conscience, but their conscience was not regulated by the Word of God.
Perhaps, perhaps you could have a word on the on the conscience. It's the knowledge of good and evil. But.
Unless there is, it is regulated by the word of God. Here these people were acting according to their conscience, but it was completely contrary to to God's word. Paul, Saul was in the same condition.
When he persecuted the Church of God. So the conscience must be brought into the light and teaching of the word of God. Is that right? Yes, because Paul, when he persecuted the church, he did it with a good conscience. He even said that he had lived in all good conscience between before God and man. And I don't believe that just referred to after he was saved, he had persecuted the Church of God doing what he thought. As the Lord said, they'll think they're doing God's service.
And so that's why we often say that our conscience is not our guide. The conscience is the check. It's the yellow light. But it it is not our guide. I'll tell a little story that'll make you smile, but it'll illustrate my point. The first time I was ever in Cairo, Egypt. And there are plenty of traffic lights in Cairo, Egypt, but they don't have the same connotation they do in New York or Toronto or any city or town in the Western world. And those traffic lights are completely ignored most of the time.
00:30:20
And I was having a meeting in Cairo and Brother Phil Ogali was with me and I was going to use the age-old adage that our conscience is like the traffic light. And Phil, who was translating for me, looked at me in an English. She said, Jim, that that illustration won't work here.
Because there's lots of traffic lights, as I say, but they lay on the horn and whoever has the most nerve or is going the fastest is going to be the first to get through the intersection. But I just say that because we cannot use the conscience as the guide. We may have a seared conscience, we may have a bad conscience, but we may have a conscience that may be good, but not guided by the by the word of God. And so God has given us the light of his Word.
And that's why the Lord Jesus on this occasion sought to instruct so carefully the disciples as to what was ahead. I know that the truth of what we have in these chapters is not developed till the epistles. But the Lord Jesus gave the seeds of Christianity and what was developed later on by the apostles to instruct them so that when the time came, yes, they had a conscience. But that wasn't the guide. It was the Word of God and the instructions that He himself had laid down.
But there was another problem here and we get it just to move on a little bit because we only have two readings. But notice verse five. He says, But now I go my my way to him that sent me, and none of you asketh me whether goest thou? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. You know the disciples weren't really concentrating and taking in what the Lord was saying to them. Why?
Because they were preoccupied with present circumstances and sorrow. And I want to make this practical application. And this is one of was one of my exercises in suggesting this portion. You know, there are a lot of sorrows today. And I realized there are brethren sitting in these chairs that are going through real heartaches, real sorrows and trials of one sort or another. But if we get over occupied and under those sorrows, we're not going to enjoy future blessings.
You know, the Lord Jesus was seeking to bring before them what was future in connection with the resources that He was going to send to give them, to get them through this life in connection with the glory that was ahead. They just weren't getting it because their hearts were so sorrowful, preoccupied with the circumstances that they knew they were going to face after the Lord left them. And brethren, I'm not, I'm not belittling the circumstances or underestimating the sorrows. I know there's brethren here going through trials that I've never been called on to pass through.
But what we need to do is to be occupied with Christ, to have the experience, the comfort of the Holy Spirit, to have the Father's House and the hope of the Lords coming before us to lift our focus and our vision above the circumstances and beyond this life and the horizons of this sad, sin, sick world. That we might have the experience of the joy that he later speaks of in this chapter.
The joy that isn't dependent on circumstances. And so let's not be preoccupied with the circumstances that we're overcome with sorrow.
But let's be occupied with Christ, that we might rise above the sorrows and difficulties and live for his glory.
Maybe the verse in the Second Timothy chapter 3 and verse 12 in connection with our chapter, Second Timothy chapter 3 and verse 12.
Yeah, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
I believe there is a word for our conscience there as we live our Christian life from day-to-day, maybe at school or at work.
00:35:02
No May the Lord keep us to live close to Him.
That His love, His grace and His truth will shine and reach the conscience of people.
Surely we're not looking for persecution, but if the conscience is reached, very often it will come.
You see Paul in many instances before he was saved.
He did, he persecuted his, he was going out carrying out threatenings and slaughter. And you did that with a good conscience before God. But then in Timothy, we read that he had a pure conscience. And as a pure conscience, I think it's a difference between a good conscience, a good conscience. He's satisfied with his own heart and what he's doing. But with the pure conscience, I think it's guided by the word of God. And when our conscience is is affected by the word of God, then it's going to have an effect in a godly way in our in our.
Actions.
Purge conscience is in connection with our standing before God.
A good conscience is in connection with our state.
It's not a contradiction. We have a purge conscience through the finished work of Christ that's brought out very clearly in the book of Hebrews. We have no more conscience of sins. But if I walk carelessly, I will not have a good conscience. My state will not be in accordance with.
My standing so a good conscience comes from walking in self judgment and carefulness before God, judging my my ways and my my conduct and my my manner of life.
To maintain a good conscience, we must walk carefully and.
Exercised before God.
But I think what Tim says is good because of pure conscience in the light of the word of God judges evil as well.
And so it when we get into the Word, we get that sense of what is right and wrong as far as God's standard, not the standard of the world, that changes. But when we get a sense of holiness in regard to God, then we not only have a good conscience, but we have a pure conscience, having judged evil in our lives.
There have been some navigators, especially those traveling towards the polar region.
That felt that they could rely upon their compass, and usually you can.
But there's magnetic interference as you get through the polar regions and they throw compasses off.
And that just shows that that compass could not be relied upon.
It's important to see that they were to know Christ in a in a different way. We're all familiar with that.
Occasion when the Lord spoke to Mary we it's in the same gospel in chapter 20. Maybe we could just turn to it chapter 20.
Verse 17 Jesus said on Seth unto her, Mary, touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your God. Well, as has been been mentioned, the Jews looked for the establishment of the Kingdom, and the Lord reigning in glory and power. It was a disappointment to them that the Lord had not come in that character, and.
And overcome their enemies they were.
They were under the power of the Roman domination, but the Lord speaks here of of knowing Him in a different way.
He was going to go back to the glory and they would no longer know Him in that earthly character as the Messiah to establish the Kingdom, to deliver the nation from their oppression and tyranny. They weren't to know him in that character.
Though we have known Christ after the flesh, henceforth knowing Him no more, we know Him now as a glorified man at God's right hand. And the thought here in the case of Mary has retained me not. That is, the Lord was not there to bring in the Kingdom, He was going to return to the glory, and Mary would know Him.
00:40:13
As a as a man at God's right hand.
One who would bring her into heavenly blessing and relationship which was not known under the Judaistic system or even while the Lord was here on earth so.
That relationship of father would be understood and entered into and the truth of.
The Church of God would be brought out. It was now knowing the Lord in a heavenly character and that's the way, brethren, that we know him now and when the Lord speaks in our chapter.
Verse 19 latter part of the verse, a little while, and ye shall not see me, and they gain a little while and ye shall see me. How would that be possible? Does that refer to the Lord's coming? No, it refers to the Spirit of God coming. When He would be the third person of the Trinity or the divine Person. They would, they would see the Lord.
Have a deeper understanding of the person of Christ and what they had in him through the Holy Spirit of God who would come to abide within the believer.
So there are three things that the Spirit of God does in this world, three things that the work that he has taken up in connection with the work that the Lord Jesus began. When the Lord Jesus was here in this world, He reproved the world of sin, of righteousness and judgment to come.
But the Lord Jesus was going back to the Father, and the Spirit of God was going to be sent down to take up that work. And so that's why just to to notice it.
Verse 8 And when he has come, that's the Spirit of God. He will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Now there are three things that characterize this world today. It's characterized by sin. It's under sin, it's without righteousness.
We have no trouble seeing that, and it's under judgment, and the presence of the Spirit of God here is not a test for this world.
The fact that the Lord has gone back to glory as and is a glorified man at the right hand of God, and that the Spirit of God was sent down on the day of Pentecost to take up this work is not a further test. The test was over at the cross. They rejected the Lord Jesus and said we won't have him. The test was over at the cross. The Spirit of God now is here to give reproof, to show that these things now.
The doom of this world, the judgment of this world is now sealed. And so we find first of all, he says of sin because they believe not on me. And so the Spirit of God is here and man, though his conscience may become very seared, he still there's still some consciousness of sin. The Spirit of God is here in this world reproving the world of sin. If I can illustrate it this way, someone goes down and they rob a bank and Scranton this evening.
As seared as their conscience has become, they still know they're doing wrong.
But it's remarkable to think that when the Spirit of God is taken out at the rapture, when we're gone and the Spirit of God is gone, the reprover of sin will be gone too. Now man will still have a conscience, but he'll have nothing in the same way to reprove his conscience. Open sin and rebellion will wreak havoc, because the Spirit of God is the reprover of sin, will be removed from this world. So he's reproving the world of sin, of righteousness again, as seared as man's conscience may become.
There's still some consciousness of what is right and what is wrong, and so of righteousness and then of judgment.
To come. And so when we preach the gospel in the power of the Spirit, we seek from the Word of God to impress these three things upon the soul, that the conscience might be reached as to sin and its effects as to the unrighteousness that is so prevalent and characteristic of the world today.
And the fact that there's judgment, the Lord himself said, now is the judgment of this world. Now is the Prince of the world cast out again. The the doom of this world is sealed. The presence of the Spirit of God shows very clearly that the devil's been defeated and judgment has been pronounced. So this is the.
00:45:09
Part of the function of the Spirit of God as being here in this world in the absence of the Lord Jesus.
They're not. The Apostle Paul before he was converted have ****** of conscience, you know.
In Acts Chapter 9.
We find that the Lord speaks to Saul.
So so a white persecutor style me says, who art thou Lord? And the answer is, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest.
It is hard for thee to kick against the prick. So even as the apostle in his unconverted days was persecuting the Church of God. What were these ******? Were they not ****** of conscience? I realized that he spoke of all we seeking to have a conscious sport of offense between God and man, but.
Seems to me he must have had some sense.
That.
He was perhaps not doing that, which was right.
Presence of Seoul.
At the martyrdom of Steven might have been one of those ****** of conscience.
Mentions his presence there on that occasion.
Another one has suggested the apostle Paul refers to kinsman that were in Christ before him, whether it was actually relatives or not. But if we think of relatives who are saved before us, what are they perhaps doing or what would they most likely be doing? That's praying for us. And that may have also been another prick of conscience.
We have in the 15th chapter the most severe condemnation of man in the Bible, chapter 15 and verse.
25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled, that is written in their law. They hated me without a cause. Without a cause.
It's it's the final Test of man in the flesh.
Before there were transgressions of the law and so on, man was a Sinner under the old Judaistic system, certainly.
But they might have said they had religion and they were religious people, but now here is the Son of God in their midst, the Holy One of God, sinless, manifesting the very nature and the very character of God. So the condemnation of sin, because they believe not on me.
They rejected God manifest in the flesh. They showed truly what was in their nature.
Opposed to to God himself, because here was God manifest among them. There was no cause of hatred toward him. There was nothing inconsistent in his life. There might be an us, there might be a cause in us, not in the blessed and the Lord Jesus. So it really showed what the nature of man was.
I think that's the point that.
Man demonstrated by his rejection of Christ what his true nature and character was enmity against God.
Illustrated in the Old Testament in connection with David in the 17th chapter. First Samuel we read in the 28th verse of Lives. Anger was kindled against David.
And so.
He makes further remarks, but then David replies in verse 29.
What have I now done? Is there not a clause? And in John chapter 12 The Lord.
Graciously says, for this cause, have I come on to this hour? So we see what was meant in man's heart, and we see what was in God's heart.
And I believe that this portion of First Samuel illustrates the verse that you just referred to John.
00:50:10
So what we find here is that the Lord Jesus is really saying to the disciples that union with himself in glory in a future time was going to be greater blessing than having himself physically with with them as he walked through this world during his public ministry. So Paul later on said, henceforth know we no man after the flesh, though we knew Christ after the flesh, henceforth know we him no more. And there was going to be by the Spirit of God now a union.
That was far greater and far closer than anything the disciples had enjoyed up until this point. And that's why he didn't want them to be sorrowful. He's saying, as it were, if you only knew what was ahead. If you only knew the blessing that you're going to be brought into after I go to the cross, accomplish the work, and rise from the dead, and I'm ascended back and glorified at God's right hand. I have tremendous blessing for you in Christianity that you not only not have not enjoyed prior to this, but you can't.
As long as I'm with you, you can't. And so we notice what he says here.
In verse 12, I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. They couldn't take in everything that He wanted to say to them in connection with the blessings that were in store for them in Christianity. He sows the seeds, He gives them some little thoughts, some little hints as we go along, but He can't expound to them fully because they don't have the capacity to take it in yet.
And if we were to go back in these chapters and ahead to we would find that this is developed because he when the Spirit of God was come, then they were going to have the capacity to fully take in these things and to walk in the power and enjoyment of them.
And so that's why earlier in these chapters he said that again, there were many things that he'd like to say to them, but he was only speaking a few things. But when the Spirit has come, he will bring to remembrance all things that I have spoken unto you. And we know in the acts that they often, on occasion, it says they remembered his words. They remembered the things that he had spoken to them. But now they had the Spirit as the Remembrancer to bring those things back to them and to make them good to them for the time.
And if I can just say this, which really introduces the next little section we have in our chapter, beginning with verse 13, where he's going to refer to the Spirit in a different context. The Spirit of God is given to meet us in our present need. It's been referred to as the comforter. It was introduced that way earlier in these chapters as the comforter. Why? Because that's what the disciples needed on this occasion. They needed comfort.
Their hearts were troubled, they were afraid. And so he introduces the Spirit of God as the comforter. Aren't we thankful for the comforter? The Spirit of God is still doing that work. You say I'm just so discouraged. I just, I don't know if I can go on. I'm overwhelmed by the difficulties and the sorrows. There's one who is the comforter and encourager. That's the Spirit of God ministering the things of Christ to us for our comfort and encouragement.
Now he's going to go on and speak of the Spirit of truth because it's the Spirit of God that brings before us the Word of God, the truth of God. As we've been saying, we have the truth of God, the guidebook. We have the word for us here in this book. It does. This book doesn't just contain the Word of God. It is the Word of God from cover to cover. But how are we going to understand it? You know, none of us would understand so much as John 316.
If it wasn't a work of the Spirit of God, it must be in the power of the Spirit if we're going to enjoy the simplest truth that is presented in this book. But we have the Spirit of truth who is brought before us in John's ministry, both in the gospel and in the epistle, 7 times. The Spirit and the truth are intimately connected. I'll just give you the first time in John 4 where he spoke to the woman at the well.
He spoke of, he spoke there, of they that worship the Father must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And I say seven times in John's ministry, the spirit and the truth are intimately linked together.
00:55:06
Before we go too far, I want to I'd like to go back to the.
When the Spirit of God will come, he will pre pre reprove the world of sin and righteousness and judgment and just make a comment about that.
Many people like to go out and and share the gospel with others, but they don't know how and this is kind of a nice little outline of the gospel.
First you need to present the fact of sin, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Many people don't believe they're a Sinner. They don't think they're what they've done is that bad? We go to Malawi and everybody thinks they're born a Christian and they only lose that if they do something terrible and they get caught for it.
And so we need to reprove the world of sin. Maybe you are sitting here today. Maybe you're a father or a mother, and you've been gathered to the Lord's name for many years.
I asked you to tell me how to get saved.
Well, you don't really know how to explain it.
You really don't know how to tell your children how to be saved.
You may be telling them, well, you just asked the Lord Jesus to come into your heart. Well, that doesn't work because the Lord Jesus can't come into a heart that's full of sin and you really don't understand how to present the gospel.
Well, maybe I ask you, Mom and Dad, are you saved? You've been going on a long time being gathered to the Lord's name. You've been gone on a long time. You look like a Christian, and you can say a lot of nice things, but do you really know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? Is he your Lord? Is he the guide of your life? And so we need to reprove the world of sin and convince men that they are sinners. Even if they're born and they haven't done any bad things, you're still a Sinner.
Because you're born with the nature of Adam, you are a Sinner. And so you need to be reproved, convinced that you are a Sinner because you can't be saved unless you're lost. And so first we need to convince a person that they are a Sinner, that they are lost, and then it says convince them of righteousness. The Lord Jesus, he came in all His Holiness and his sinlessness and the righteousness of God.
The righteousness of God cannot abide sin, and so we cannot go to heaven in the presence of God with our sin. And so the Lord Jesus was sent into this world to die on the cross for us, and so we convinced the world of judgment.
The two contrast there of sin and righteousness. They can't go together. And so we need to convince the world of judgment because sin and righteousness of God cannot go together. The Lord Jesus had to come into this world to be judged for our sins and they took him. They put him on the cross, and man and Satan combined in one terrible act of crucifixion against the Lord Jesus. But at the same time.
God, the wrath of God fell in the Lord Jesus Christ for my sin. Now the the gospel is offered to all whosoever will may come. But if you reject the Lord Jesus, if you reject that, that his payment of that judgment will, that judgment will then have to fall on your own head. And so that we have the sin, we have righteousness and of judgment. It says of judgment because the Prince of this world is judged. God created the hell for the devil and his angels.
He didn't create hell for you.
And yet the Prince of this world is judged, and if you are, if you reject the Lord Jesus Christ, you also will be sent into the same judgment into hell for eternity.
Like to.
Take up that same line again, there's a.
In connection with the 2nd chapter of Acts, when the Spirit of God did was sent down from a glorified Christ.
His very presence afforded the proof of these things that are brought out in our chapter of sin, righteousness, and judgment.
Not only did Peter give testimony by the power of the Spirit of God reaching men's conscience with the very presence of the Spirit of God did that work. So in the second chapter of Acts, when Peter speaks to the crowd there in the day of Pentecost.
He says in verse 32, This Jesus hath God raised up wherever we are all witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this which he now see and hear. Verse 37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart. They were pricked in their heart. They saw the power of the Spirit of God.
01:00:21
Displayed here in this world, the Spirit of God was here and it convicted them that they had sinned. They had crucified the Holy One, the just One.
And the Spirit of God being sent here was the result of Christ being glorified. Who glorified Him? God did. God took the man that they had rejected, that they had cast out, and set Him at His own right hand. And it was as a consequence of that that the Spirit of God was here. His very presence was the proof that they had sinned.
And what they had done to Christ, what was the next thing? God was righteous and putting him there at his right hand, because he had done no sin. He was a spotless one. And the Spirit of God's presence here was proof of that too, of righteousness and of judgment to come. What do they say? What shall we do? And he says, repent and be baptized, every one of you, for the remission of sins. And then the end of verse 47.
And the Lord added just the church should really be left out of the translation. The Lord added daily such as not were saved, but should be saved from what? The judgment that was going to righteously come upon this world for what they did to the Son of God and the presence of the Spirit of God affords proof that judgment is coming. And so there's a wonderful testimony reaching conscience and heart, and a result of separating those who are reached from this world upon which judgment was coming.
And also the very presence of the Spirit of God affords those proofs of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
World was in conflict with God, wasn't it?
God raised his Son from the dead, but.
The spirit of *******.
Came down because he had been rejected by man, but glorified by God. So there we see a divine righteousness. God was righteous in raising His Son from the dead. He couldn't leave him in the grave. He had glorified him about the whole question of sin, but he was in conflict with the world that put him on the cross.
It's nice to see two in these verses, and it's been brought out in a number of different ways, but just to look back at chapter 15, the very last two verses.
Starting with the comforter, when the comforters come, who I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me, and ye also shall bear witness of me, because you've been with me from the beginning. It's nice to see from there and through the verses in our chapter. Nothing vital has been committed to us. We're brought in and a wonderful, blessed way.
To share in that work of bearing a testimony. But it's not dependent upon us. He shall bear witness. He is going to bring us into all truth. He's going to show us those things to come. It's all dependent upon him.
Looking at this 13th verse again, where it says He will guide you into all truth, for He shall not speak of himself, some feel it should be rendered from himself as we have in the last clause of that verse. And don't we have a lovely picture of the Spirit of God and the eldest servant of Abraham in the 24th chapter of Genesis? Just look, let's look at it very briefly, Genesis chapter 24.
A few verses that I think we should note.
This one.
Was certainly trusted.
With the Genesis 24.
He was fully trusted by Abraham.
If we have enough first verse.
01:05:01
Or in the second verse. And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that rule us over all that he had.
I pray thee.
Thy hand on put my hand, I pray thee, under my thigh. And so he, he communicates.
A message to that elder servant, and that servant seeks.
To complete that message in that task and in verse 27, there's a clause in there it says by being in the way that the Lord led me and then when he reaches his destination, it's time for him to communicate. There are formalities that are going through.
The washing of the hands and feet, etcetera.
But then a meal is set before this servant, and the servant does not sit down to eat the meal before he communicates.
What was on Abrahams heart? And if we see that in verse 33 it says and there was set me before him to eat, but he said I will not eat until I have told my errand. And he said, speak on.
And he said, I am Abrahams servant. And then he goes on to tell how the Lord has had blessed his master. So that was a communication from Abraham wasn't it? And it was perfectly fulfilled by the servant. We often mark a message because ourselves get in the way. And this servant didn't let that happen, did he?
Shall not speak from himself brings out that the Spirit of God is here present in this world in the certain sense, in the same character and way the Lord was the eternal Son of God came into this world in a way that he'd never been before in the incarnation. Here is a dependent man, and he only spoke those things that the Father gave him to speak. The Spirit of God is very personally here, every bit as much as the Son of God when he was Incarnate.
And came into this world, he's personally here as a as in a sense dependent in that way as to what he gives out and what he says and what he teaches the disciples. He only speaks that which has given him to speak. So he doesn't speak from himself. He speaks. What is given him to speak has been brought out nicely from Genesis. It's not that he doesn't speak about himself or we'd have no doctrine of the Holy Spirit to take up from the Word.
He certainly does speak about himself in the Word of God. It's not divinely inspired by the Spirit of God, but he doesn't speak from himself.
When he's here and the character that he is now, should we direct praise to the Holy Spirit?
That is, that is not supported by any scripture. We praise the Lord by the Spirit of God, but we don't direct praise to the Holy Spirit of God.
And it's to guide us into all truth, not just part of the truth. The disciples were given some of the truth in the upper room, but there was much more, as we've been saying, to be developed and brought out in Christianity. And so once the Spirit of God is given and the Canon of Scripture is completed by the New Testament apostles and prophets, now we have all truth. Not that we know everything, but we have the capacity now to have the whole truth of God brought before us as to his counsels and purposes.
You might say also the Spirit of God always agrees with the word of God. The person tells me that they.
Our lead of the Spirit of God to do something I'll just give a.
Overt example, if a sister says that she is led by the Spirit of God to preach.
I would have to say a sister, your motive may be good, but you are not LED of the Spirit of God because the word of God.
Definitely forbid such. So the Spirit of God and the Word of God always agree.
01:10:00
Sing #156.
We pray.
Loving God and our Father, we thank Thee for the privilege that we've had to.
Here this ministry.
Of the Holy Spirit particularly.
Great encouragement that He is for us in this world. Thank You for the guy that He is to us into the truth. We just thank Thee Lord Jesus, for finishing the work that that was given to do. We thank Thee for sending the Comforter. And now as we have time together to be over Thy word, we pray that we may listen and learn.
01:15:04
And these things may fill our hearts and our lives. They benefit from these things. We pray for anyone in the room today who is not safe. We just pray for young and old. And Lord, we just pray that each one may be trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. So we thank Thee for the time together. We pray for our families. We pray for those traveling. And Lord, we just thank Thee for our dear brethren here.
It is called all these meetings, Lord, and as led by Thee to be a blessing to others. So we give thanks my name, Lord Jesus.
Routine Christianity
Address—Jim Hyland
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Like to start this afternoon with hymn #13 in the appendix?
Child of God by Christ, salvation rise or sin and fear and care joy to find in every station something still to do or bear. Think what spirit dwells within thee. Think what Father smiles are thine think that Jesus died to win thee. Child of God, wilt thou repine 13 in the appendix if someone complete started.
Let's ask God's help and blessing our blessed God and Father. How thankful we are to know that we're just at the end of the pathway, that soon we are going to hear that shout and be safe home in the Father's house. Our Pilgrim days as strangers and pilgrims here in this world will be over.
But we thank thee too, that in the meantime thou hast a path of faith and service for each one of us. We're thankful for the resources that we have to walk through this world as a testimony for thee and for the Lord Jesus, and to live for his glory while we're left here and now, as this meeting is upon us, we think of it.
As having been scheduled as a young people's meeting, we pray that there might be something that would be particularly for those who are younger, that they might be encouraged in the path of faith and service, but for each one to how we need encouragement, how we need the exhortations that thou hast given us, and how we need to be spurred on in our pathway here. So we look to thee for help and blessing. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and for his glory.
Amen. By way of introduction to the subject on my heart this afternoon. Like to read a portion in First Timothy? First Timothy, Chapter 4?
First Timothy chapter 4.
And I'm going to start with the middle of verse 7.
Exercise thyself unto godliness, for bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that is, that now is, and of that which is to come. We're going to look at some scriptures this afternoon, and we're going to speak, because this meeting is particularly for the young people. We're going to speak to the young people, but these exhortations and things that we're going to look at from the word of God this afternoon.
I suggest they're good for all of us, no matter where we are in our Christian pathway. And if we could put a heading on our talk this afternoon, I'd like to call it routine Christianity. Not that Christianity should be a routine thing in the way that we normally think of something being routine. You know, often we do things simply out of habit or routine. We think very little about it. But that's not what I'm talking about this afternoon.
00:05:00
I want to look at some things, and it's certainly not an exhaustive list, but a few things that ought to be part of our daily routine as we go about our Christian pathway waiting for the Lord Jesus to come.
I saw a little sign above the check-in over at Dreyer Hall last night and it said this getting out of your routine to experience God. But I'd like to reward word it a little bit for us this afternoon. And that is experiencing God in the daily routine of life because Christianity is a daily thing. You can look at some of the scriptures up sometime, but I was impressed one time in looking up the word daily in the word of God. And we're going to look at one or two of those scriptures. But there are quite a number of scriptures that bring before us things.
That ought to be part of the daily routine of our lives. And so, as I say, I'd like to look at the a few of these things, but I began with this portion in First Timothy. Tim Paul was writing to a young man named Timothy, and Paul was seeking to encourage Timothy to go on in the daily grind and routine of life. Because it is a daily grind and there's a daily routine to life, and it's important that we take up those things.
Natural things, family things, and so on. But with those things, there ought to be godly exercise. I know some of you young people have a regular exercise routine, and that's good. It's good to have an irregular exercise routine, especially if you are sitting in class most of the day. Some of you sit in an office, some of you don't get a lot of exercise in your daily work, and so it's good to have a regular exercise routine.
And Paul wasn't condemning bodily exercise. He says it profits for a little time. It profits for this life. And we don't want to let our bodies go naturally speaking. It's a very poor testimony to let ourselves go. God has given us these bodies to take care of. They're not our own. We need to take care of care of them in a proper way. And it says, no man yet hated this flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ the Church.
But amidst all that, there are things that ought to exercise us as to godliness or piety. And that's what I want to focus in on this afternoon, those things that ought to be part of our of our spiritual exercise routine every day. We need to go into this, if I can put it this way, Not into the natural exercise room, the physical exercise room, but there's a spiritual exercise room too, where we need to work out.
You go to the exercise room at the gym and you workout on different pieces of equipment. You don't always use the same equipment. Well, if I can put it this way, God has different pieces of equipment too. God has different routines for us as well. And I think it's important that we carry on these things if we're going to have power and strength and fruit in our Christian pathway and our testimony for Christ. Again, this is not an exhaustive list. We're going to look at these things very quickly.
And you can add to it in your private meditation. Let's go first of all to Psalm 34.
Psalm 34 You'll notice the title of this Psalm. It's a Psalm of David and verse. One says I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. We won't turn to it. I'll quote a familiar verse that corresponds to this verse in the New Testament in Hebrews chapter 13. I think it's verse 15. It says by him. Therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.
That is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. And so I want to speak first of all as to the exercise of praise and Thanksgiving in your life and mine after we're saved. That ought to really be the first thing. We often mention how that the 10 lepers after they were cleansed in the days when the Lord Jesus walked upon earth, that one of them, when he realized what had taken place, he returned to give thanks.
And you know, if someone has done a great deal for you, you're an ingrate indeed. If you don't return to give them thanks, the Lord valued the response of that man's heart. And he said, were there not ten cleansed, and where are the 9? How he would have loved to have had the response of every one of those ten men, but he certainly valued the response of that one person, that one man. And you know, if someone has done a great deal for you, not only do you thank them once initially.
00:10:09
But maybe every time you see that person you say, oh, I'll never forget what you did for me. I appreciate it so much. You thank them time and time again. And so he doesn't want the praise of your heart and mind just once in a while. He doesn't want it just on a special occasion or on Lord's Day morning when we're together to collectively pour out our hearts in praise and Thanksgiving. No, David said, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall.
Continually be in my mouth.
He wants the sacrifice of praise to God continually, not just even first thing in the morning and never again during the day, not just on the first day of the week and not through the week. He wants it over and over again. And young people, when we think of what He's done for us, we ought to be the most thankful people on the face of the earth. When we think of what He has saved us from and the fact that he reached out to us in our need, allowed us to perhaps be born into a family that where we heard the gospel.
And if not a family where we heard the gospel, at least on a continent, in a country and a part of the world where we heard the gospel and we got saved, we think of the work of the Spirit of God in opening our eyes to see beauty in himself. We think of the fact that He's brought us to His table, gathered us to his His name, all that he does for us individually, and then all that is ahead in that day of glory. I say we ought to be the most thankful people on earth, and I want to encourage you to cultivate the habit of praise and Thanksgiving in your life.
I know it's easy to get under the circumstances. I know it's easy to be critical. It's easy to grumble and complain. I do it a lot myself. But, you know, God doesn't want us to grumble and complain. It's OK to groan. At a conference recently this summer, we were speaking about the children of Israel and how they often groaned. And you know, when they groaned in Egypt, God heard their groanings and he came down to deliver them. But when they complained in the wilderness, he didn't look lightly on that.
He came in in his governmental ways and dealt with them, and so it's all right to groan the Lord Jesus. He groaned in spirit and was troubled. But don't don't get under the circumstances. Cultivate the habit of praise and Thanksgiving in your life. We don't just have a lot to be thankful for, We have everything to be thankful for. And so I began with this. This is perhaps the first thing in our Christian life, and that is to exercise ourselves.
As to the spirit of praise and Thanksgiving. But now let's go over to the book of the Acts, Acts, chapter 17.
You know, as we turn to these scriptures, it helps us keep awake as well. We turn to a scripture every few minutes. It brings us back. I know afternoon meetings are very difficult sometimes. In that regard, Acts Chapter 17.
And verse 10. And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night under Berea, who coming thither, went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those of Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and search the scriptures daily. Whether those things were so well, We've spoken of the daily exercise of prayer and Thanksgiving, but now I want to encourage us as to the daily exercise.
Of opening this blessed book and reading it. You know it's wonderful to come to a conference like this.
But we don't get opportunities like this every day, or even every week. It's not something we can do on a daily, or perhaps for some even on a regular basis. And it's wonderful when we can avail ourselves of opportunities like this. But what about on a daily basis? You know the Bereans, they had the Apostle Paul with them, but they he was only there for a short time. But it was the habit of the Bereans to open the scriptures daily.
And it wasn't just casual reading of the word of God. They searched the scriptures. And I'm not going to ask you this afternoon if you open this book and just read casually a few verses in the morning, close the book and hurry off to work or school and never think about it again. That's not what I want to bring to bear on our heart and conscience this afternoon. But do you really, on a daily basis, search the scriptures? To casually read a few verses? Only takes a few moments.
00:15:00
Or a few minutes at best. But to search the scriptures takes energy of faith. It takes discipline, and it takes a little time to do that. But the Bereans were more noble than those of Thessalonica. Now it isn't that the Brethren at Thessalonica weren't noble. They were noble, but the Bereans were more noble. The Thessalonians they listened to the Apostle Paul. They were thankful for the truth that was presented to them, but that wasn't enough for the Bereans.
You know, the Bereans listened to Paul minister the truth orally. And then what did they do? They went home and they got out whatever parts of the written word they would have had at their disposal at this time. And they wanted to make sure that the things that the apostle Paul was telling them were true were so to search whether these things were so. What things? The things they had heard from Paul, you say, Well, if anybody's word for it, couldn't they have taken the apostle Paul's word for it?
No, they wanted to make sure that the truth that Paul was giving them was according to the word of God that they had available at their time. And I want to encourage us all, but particularly you young people too, to get into the exercise of doing this. It's wonderful again to come to a conference like this, but are you going to go home and take the portions that were presented at these meetings and search them out? Say, is that really true, what the brothers were telling us from the word of God?
Is what we heard in the reading meetings and the ministry meetings really, does it really correspond to the truth that we have been given? When you do that, you'll really have it. That's why I'm always encouraged when I see young people with a notebook and a pen in hand jot down a few things. Maybe you won't take things down word for word. Maybe you won't make a lot of notes. But jot down the some of the scriptures that are turned to jot down a few key points and headings that were referred to and then when you go home, it'll jog your memory.
Oh yes, I'd like to look that up and see just how that is developed in the word of God. You'll be, you'll be noble. You'll be more noble than the other young people who just listen to the word of God and accepted it at face value. You want to be more noble. You've got to search the scriptures daily to see if these things are so. And you'll never have power in your Christian life. If you don't search the word of God daily, you know that we, the Apostle John and his epistle refers to young men.
And it tells us that young men are the glory of young men is their strength. I'm thankful for that. You know, I've had young men who've traveled with me to other countries, and I'm to the point in life. I'm glad to leave that suitcase of Bibles for a young man to carry. I'm glad to leave that load for the young men who are willing to lift it into the back of the vehicle as we travel from village to village. The glory of young men is their strength. But John says that the young men in his day.
That he was writing to were strong too. But they were strong not because they went to the gym and worked out twice a week. They were strong because the word of God was abiding in them. That's what gave them strength, because it tells us in Isaiah 40 even the youth shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall. Natural strength, even of youth, is not enough to meet the situations of life today, you know, sad to say, there's a lot of young people.
Are giving up today. A lot of people, young people, are just saying I can't make it in the path of faith. It's just too great. But you'll never make it in the path of faith and service for Christ if you don't open the word of God and exercise yourself in reading the word of God. And again, not just once a week. Don't just open the word of God when you have a little opportunity. Maybe on Lord's Day Morning or Lord's Day Afternoon. Open it daily and search the scriptures to see if these things were so. The scriptures are guidance and direction for our pathway.
Their food for our soul, their light for these dark times in which we live. And you'll be surprised as you read the word of God. You'll find that even without realizing it, your spiritual muscles will be strengthened so that you can go on in the path of of faith. But there's something else that goes with the reading, daily reading of the word of God. And to speak of that, I'd like to go back to the book of Daniel.
Daniel, Chapter 6.
Daniel chapter 6 and verse 10. Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem. He kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did a four time. Well, we often sing that little chorus. Daniel was a man of prayer, and certainly he was a man of prayer.
00:20:27
Believe it was the resource and power of Daniel's whole life. We find Daniel at the beginning of his life as a young man. He has the power and strength to stand and not compromise the truth, even in Babylon in a difficult circumstance. And now we find Daniel as an old man. You know, I used to sit as a young person in meetings like this, and I used to hear the older brethren get up and minister the truth and talk about going on for the Lord and so on. And I used to think, well, how can we ever do it?
They tell us things are getting worse and worse, things are getting more apostate and darker all the time, and how can we ever face the difficulties of life as we come a generation behind them? But you know, as I look back, I've proved, at least in some measure that the Lord is sufficient. And we find as we go through the word of God, that the young people and men and women who had power in their lives throughout their whole lives, from their youth to their old age.
Where men and women and young people whose lives were characterized by prayer. Prayer is the power of our of our Christian pathway. We read sometimes to the stories of the missionaries of past eras, George Mueller and all those missionaries. They had tremendous faith and experienced wonderful things in their lives. But when you read their biographies carefully, you find they were men and women of prayer. Martin Luther said, I have so much work to do for the Lord.
I dare not spend less than three hours a day in prayer. No wonder he was a man used so mightily during the Reformation. He got up early so he could spend 3 hours in prayer. We find that there are individuals in scripture who prayed all night like Samuel. When there was difficulty amongst the people of God, he cried to the Lord all night. I have to confess I've never been that burdened for the people of God or some condition amongst the Saints that I would pray all night.
The Lord is the perfect example. Before He chose his disciples, he spent all night in prayer. And so again, if you want power in the exercise of godly piety in your life, you're going to have to spend time in prayer. The more prayer time in prayer you spend, the more power and blessing there's going to be in your Christian life. And we find with Daniel, Daniel was a man who had a very busy life, you know, under all the kings he had been promoted.
And in fact, we find here under Darius that what invoked jealousy amongst his coworkers was that he had been promoted, He'd been raised, as it were, right to the top, and did invoke jealousy amongst his coworkers. But it's beautiful that we find that when the writing was signed that no one was to pray to someone other than the king for a certain amount of time. It never affected the routine of Daniel's life. That's why I say this is routine Christianity.
Because Daniel just went on with his life the way it had been. You know, if the government in this country rose up and decided to persecute Christians or some real difficulty arose in our personal lives, would it change our normal routine, or would we be able to go on with the normal routine of life in spite of what takes place? Daniel was able to do that. The reason I say that there's really two indications in the verse we read.
One is he went into his room and he prayed. And I want you to notice this, it says, his windows being open toward Jerusalem. Now Daniel realized from Solomons prayer at the dedication of the tempo that when the people of God were in difficulty, if they prayed toward Jerusalem, God's house and God's center, God would hear them. But you'll notice here it says his windows. I want you to notice this particular being open.
If Daniel had opened his windows on this occasion, he would have been courting persecution. If he had closed them, he would have been a coward. He did neither. He didn't have to open them. He didn't have to close them. It was the habit of Daniels life. Even when there wasn't a real problem affecting himself. It was the habit and routine of his life to keep his windows open toward Jerusalem as they'd been instructed, and to pray three times a day.
00:25:13
Because if you notice it says he prayed three times a day as he did a four time. He didn't pray anymore or any less beforehand. He didn't pray any less when he got into trouble when he things were going well. He didn't pray anymore when he got into trouble. I covet this for my own soul. This is I say, the normal routine of Christianity, the the believers life, because prayer is the very breath of the divine nature.
When Saul of Tarsus was saved on the Damascus road and Ananias was told to go and to see him, you can just imagine why Ananias held back. Well, Lord, I've. I've heard about this man and he's a persecutor of the Christians, and you want me to go and search him out? He's searching for us.
To persecute us. And now you want me to go and search him out? But what did the Lord say as a confirmation to Ananias? He told him that he would find him in a certain place. And he said, and behold, he prayeth. Ananias really didn't need any more confirmation than that. When Ananias realized that that Saul of Tarsus was in the attitude of prayer, he realized there had been a work of God in the soul. Because as I say, it's the very breath of the divine life. And so I want to encourage you first of all to discipline yourself, to find time for personal prayer every day.
Daniel had a quiet spot in his room where he could slip away three times a day and he could commune with his his God. And then when the difficulty came, he knew where to turn. But you know, you don't have to always be in a particular place, or even alone. It's beautiful to realize that there's never any position or place that a Christian has to be to pray. In fact, it's the one resource that a Christian always has, as long as they're conscious.
A conscious Christian may not be able to do anything else. He may not be able to speak audibly. He may not be able to see, He may not be able to hear. He may be handicapped in many ways, maybe not not able to move a muscle. But a conscious Christian can always pray. What a wonderful resource God has given us to help us through this pathway. I'll just mention I've often mentioned it before, but you know, there was another man in the presence of the king too later on.
His name was Nehemiah. You know, Nehemiah didn't have a chance like Daniel to go to his room and spread the matter before the Lord, because Nehemiah was in the presence of the king. You can read about it in Nehemiah chapter 2. And Nehemiah, as the King's cup bearer one day, was so burdened that he was sad in the presence of the king, and the King's cup bearer was not to be said in the presence of the king. And the king recognized that there was something bothering Nehemiah, and he asked him what it was.
And I can just imagine Nehemiah was trembling because Nehemiah knew that that king had the power of life and death. Those kings in those days whom they would, they slew and whom they would, they kept alive. And Nehemiah didn't have time to slip away and go to his room and pray about it. He didn't have time to gather his three friends together like Daniel had earlier in the book of Daniel, when they had a prayer meeting about another problem, about the King's dream. No, he had to give an immediate answer.
But we've often, I'm sure, have enjoyed what Nehemiah did. It says I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the King, and I know you've experienced it, You young people, you're driving your car and something's pressing on you. You know when you get to school or work, you're going to have a hard decision to make. And you're just saying, Lord, help me, give me wisdom in this. The boss says something to you. And you know, if you say the wrong thing, you might lose your job or maybe not get that promotion you were looking for.
And you just send up a swift little prayer. Maybe it was just Lord help. And it says, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not. But again, before we pass on, I want to just say this in connection with our theme this afternoon. And that is, you'll never be able to turn to the Lord in the difficulties and emergencies of life if you haven't cultivated the habit of prayer when things are going well. Daniel prayed as he did a four time.
It was the habit of his prayer of his life to pray even when things were going well, even when there were promotions and and life was going on, he still communed with his God three times a day. And then when the problem came, he knew where to turn. Maybe you have a friend like that. You have those happy times with your friend. And then when a problem comes, you say, I can go to that friend. I know where to turn because we've communed. And that friend understands my heart that under that friend knows me. You don't mind going to a friend like that.
00:30:22
And I just say this, too. When you have a friend and you've always gone to them and something comes between you, then you just feel like you can't go to that friend. You say something's come between us and I just don't feel free. Is that the way it is with your friend, the Lord Jesus? You say something's been allowed in my life and I just don't feel as free to go to him as I once did. Get before him and confess it. So you go to that friend and you have it out. And the next time there's a problem, you say, oh, I can go to that friend again. We've had it out. We have an understanding.
There's been forgiveness, and you don't mind going to that friend after that. Oh, I say, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness so that that communion is restored. And he wants to be that friend that sticks closer than a brother. He wants to be a very present help in time of trouble, but not just in the trouble. I say this ought to be, like Daniel, the daily routine and exercise of your life and mine.
Now I'd like to go to Hebrews chapter 3.
Hebrews Chapter 3.
And verse 13.
But exhort one another daily, or if you notice Mr. Darby's translation, encourage yourselves. Just hold your finger here. I want to read a verse in the Book of Malachi as well.
Malachi chapter 3 and verse 16. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it in a book of remembrance, was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. Well, I want to encourage you in two aspects of this. First of all, we read in Hebrews, Encourage yourselves daily. You know, there's so much to discourage today. We don't have to look for things to discourage, and sometimes I hear young people.
And sad to say, some of us who are not so young say, well, I'm just too discouraged. I just can't go on. There's so much to discourage. Yes, there is much to discourage, but discouragement doesn't come from the Lord. If you're discouraged this afternoon, you didn't get that from the Lord. You got that somewhere else. The devil is the the one who discourages and he wants to discourage you. He wants you to get so burdened and cast down that you just say, I can't go on.
But I want to encourage you to encourage yourself in the Lord. You know, David did that on an occasion. You remember when Ziklag was taken and burned with fire and there was so much to discourage. Their wives were gone and so on. It just seemed like the enemy had the upper hand. But David encouraged himself in the Lord. Oh, get into the Lord's presence. If you're simply looking at circumstance, if you're simply looking at others, yes, you're going to get discouraged, the Psalmist said. I've seen an end of all perfection.
And if we're looking for perfection down here, we're going to see an end of it. We're always going to find something that will eventually discourage. But you won't find it in the Lord. You won't find it in the God of all comfort and encouragement. And so let's learn to encourage ourselves. How can we encourage ourselves? Again, it's opening this book, reading it each day. It speaks of the comfort or encouragement of the scriptures. How much have you found encouragement in the scriptures recently?
That's where you're going to find it. You won't find it in the newspaper. You won't find it in a newscast. Don't get me wrong. I I want to keep my finger on the pulse of what's going on in the world. And as we travel around, we need to know what's going on. And we see it in the light of Scripture and and and so on it. We're not isolationists, but that's not what's going to encourage us if we're just occupied with the front page of the newspaper. And that's all it takes. It doesn't take the whole newspaper, just the front page.
We're going to be occupied with that. We're going to get discouraged pretty quick. But we need to go to the word of God and find the encouragement of the Scriptures. And then what do we do? We need to encourage one another in the Lord too. With David, he first encouraged himself in the Lord, that was first, and then he went down and encouraged the men that were with him. And there was a great victory in Israel because David encouraged himself 1St and then those that were with him. And I believe that's really the way it works, because.
00:35:02
You and I can't encourage one another if we don't encourage ourselves in the Lord.
We can only share the encouragement of the scriptures if we have that encouragement for our for ourselves. Why is it sometimes, and I'll speak to all of us, why is it sometimes we get together and we enjoy some good times together. We enjoy some chit chat and some natural things. Nothing wrong with that. But we come away and we say, well, we didn't really speak much of the things of Christ. We didn't really encourage one another much in the Lord.
Why is it? Well, if we haven't encouraged ourselves, we can't encourage one another. We can only share with our brothers and sisters what we have enjoyed in our own souls. And if we were to read the context in Malachi, it was a pretty dark day. Things were pretty discouraging, not just in the world, so to speak, but amongst the people of God, and it seemed like there were very few seeking to go on for the Lord and really for his glory.
Keeping his word and so on. But there were a few. But notice they weren't going on alone. They were going on together. They were seeking to encourage one another to speak often again, not just on an occasion like this. Wonderful that we can share things between the meetings and during the meals and in the evening as we mingle together. That's wonderful, and I'm thrilled when I see young brothers and sisters who are together and sharing things together.
But what about when we go home? I want to speak specifically to the young people for a moment because, you know, there's nothing more encouraging when a young person seeks to encourage their local brethren. Nothing more encouraging when a young person shares something with an older brother or sister in Christ. I'm always thrilled when I'm with a young person and they say, you know, Mr. Highland, I I enjoyed this recently and I had this scripture before me or I read this in my mind, but you don't realize how much that encourages.
Your older brethren. And so I want to encourage you to speak often, often one to another. And as you interact together as young people, what's going to build up your generation and edify the generation coming behind? Some of us? Oh, it's going to be to share what you have enjoyed of Christ. I know it takes courage sometimes. I was a young person once, and it takes courage to share something. No courage to share the baseball score.
No courage to share the last time you were out at the beach or something like that. And nothing wrong with that. Again, don't misunderstand me, but it takes real courage to share something from the scriptures. But you know what you'll find, young person that once you share something that you've enjoyed in your own soul, it'll clinch it for your soul. You'll really have it. Someone has said, and I think there's a lot of truth to it. You really don't have something till you share it with someone else. It'll confirm it to your own soul and you'll find that the person you share it with will have something often to share with you.
They'll add to what you've enjoyed or they'll they'll bring out something. Well, you know, I enjoyed something too.
And this way we'll be edified and we'll be encouraged to go on. We need the exercise then daily of sharing something of Christ and speaking often one to another. Now I want to go to 1St Corinthians, Chapter 11.
First Corinthians Chapter 11 and verse 26.
For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. Well, I realize this is a verse that we often focus on in a meeting like this, but I want to just bring out something very practical. I realize that most of us here, if not all, understand the significance of what we call the Lord's Supper. If we were to go back to the previous chapter, we have the Lord's table brought before us.
And the significance of the loaf and the cup in that regard. There the loaf is mentioned. The cup is mentioned first because the cup speaks to us of the blood of Christ. That's our basis. That's our the ground of our acceptance. At the Lord's table, the blood of the Lord Jesus. And then the loaf is mentioned 2nd and there the loaf more particularly signifies the body of Christ, made-up of all believers alive on the face of the earth.
And we, being many, are one bread and one body. But here in this chapter we have the subject of the Lord's Supper. We get that from the end of verse 20. And here we have the low 1St, and then the cup. That's the way the Lord Jesus instituted it in the upper room in Luke 22. And that is the way that we always celebrate it. And the loaf broken in the in the 11Th chapter speaks to us of the Lord's body given in death for us.
00:40:23
And then the blood of the cup, the blood that was shed on Calvary's cross for our redemption. But I want to make this very practical because sometimes I hear people say, well, you know, I can remember the Lord Jesus in my heart. Well, we should remember the Lord Jesus in our hearts, and not just on Lord's day, but every day of our lives. Do you and I stop every day and consider something of the work of Calvary?
Do we go in our thoughts back to the cross? Do we read a little bit, perhaps from the Gospels, of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus, so that we never forget the cost of our redemption? But we need then to carry out what the Lord said here, because this is not simply remembering the Lord in our hearts. This is eating and drinking. I know the young people have heard me say this before, but I often have wished that the word eat and drink.
Wearing capital letters in our Bible to eat and drink is something that takes physical energy. It takes exercise. Yes, it's not enough simply to eat and drink without any, without the heart affected, but nevertheless, he has asked us to do something physically to express what's in our hearts. You know, God always gives us a way that we can give expression to what is in our hearts.
And that's why it says when we eat and drink, we show forth the Lord's death. We give testimony in this world. I can't tell what's in your heart. You might sit young person and those who are not so young on Lords Day morning and you might pass the loaf and the cup by and you might say I.
I respond in my heart. I remember the Lord in my heart, but neither I nor anybody else knows what's in your heart. Only God does that, and He does appreciate what's in our hearts. All of our hearts should be affected when we're together on Lords Day morning for the purpose of breaking bread. But he's asked us to do something, to give expression to what is in our hearts. He's asked us to eat and to drink, and I know it's a little bit out of context, but I often think of the.
Question raised by Naman servants so long ago in connection with washing in the river Jordan. They said to him, if he had asked thee to do some hard thing, wouldst thou not have done it? Has he asked us to do some hard thing? Has he asked us to do something that's difficult? No. How simple. A loaf and a cup and this do in remembrance of me. And it's very interesting that you can go almost anywhere in the world today.
And you can still obtain at very little cost, and in some form may not always be like we think of it, but in some form a loaf of bread and in some form fruit of the vine he has, he chose emblems that are very simple emblems that are not costly.
Emblems that are for the most part universal, so that we would have this privilege all down through the ages. And how long till he come? And he wouldn't say till he come if he wasn't going to provide a scriptural basis on which to do it. People say today, well, it doesn't matter. Things are in such ruin and disarray. And Christendom, but it does matter. I say again, he wouldn't ask us to do anything if he wasn't going to provide a scriptural basis on which to do it. He will maintain that place.
So that there will be the privilege of not only remembering the Lord not only breaking bread, but partaking of the Lord's Supper at the Lords table until he come. And I just say again in passing that the privilege of remembering the Lord Jesus of eating and drinking of the loaf in the cup is a privilege that's only given to us for this life. If the Lord Jesus comes this afternoon, we'll never have or need that privilege again.
We won't need it in heaven. We're going to see a Lamb as it had been slain. We're going to see those wounds in his hands, in his feet, and in his side as fresh reminders of the work of Calvary. But until then, we need this reminder, and we need it often. Let's exercise ourselves to.
00:45:00
Be at the Lord's table and to eat and drink in the way he's asked us to do until he comes. Let's go to Matthews Gospel, Chapter 18.
Matthew's Gospel, chapter 18 and verse 21. Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me? And I forgive him? Till seven times. Jesus said unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until 70 * 7. Well, here we have something else that ought to be the daily routine exercise of your life and mine, and that is forgiveness.
Now, we're not talking here about things that are ongoing. We're not talking about sins that need to be dealt with, perhaps even sometimes by the Assembly. He's already taken up that subject previously in this chapter, But that didn't content. Peter. Peter wanted some further advice. How?
Off Shall my brother offend me? And I forgive him seven times. Peter probably thought that was a big number.
Probably thought that would be great if you if he forgave his brother seven times in a day, the Lord said no 70 * 7. What the Lord really was saying is it's to be unlimited. There's no limit. This is a very very simple and mundane thought, but I enjoyed it as a young person. One time we were taking up this portion in the local assembly in Smiths Falls and we came to this verse and the question was raised. What is the significance of it being 70 * 7?
And there was a long pause and an older brother who didn't speak up much. He said, well, perhaps it's because by the time you'd count that high, you'd lose count and have to start over. And, you know, I think there's a lot of truth to that. That's really what the Lord was saying. It has to be it. It it's to be limitless. And so Peter learned that when there were these things. And again, I'm not talking about things that have to be dealt with for the Lord's glory in that way, but personal offenses that come in, little things that Irkas.
And so on. How often are we to forgive, even in the course of a day? Oh, I say every hour of every day. And I believe that if we don't, it will stunt our Christian growth. Because as we find in Peters Epistle that when there's malice and those other things that are listed there in our hearts, what happens? Why, we're not going to grow. But when those things are judged and then we desire the sincere milk of the word, they'll be growth. But there are things that hinder growth, just like.
In a on a farm or in a garden, there are things that come up that have to be pulled and removed. Are they or they will hinder the growth of the vegetables and the crops that the farmer, the gardener wants to come up. And so I just say we want to, we need to exercise the spirit of forgiveness.
In our interactions and our daily exercise with one with one another. Now I want to go to let's go to 1St Corinthians.
First Corinthians chapter 15.
First Corinthians chapter 15.
And verse 31.
I protest by your rejoicing that I have in Christ and Christ Jesus our Lord. I die daily, and then I want to read a portion in Lukes Gospel.
Luke's Gospel, Chapter 9.
Luke's Gospel, Chapter 9 and verse 23. And he said unto the mall, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Well, here we have something else that ought to be the daily routine of your life and mine. Now I realize when the apostle Paul said I die daily, he was talking about it in a physical way because he was talking about standing in jeopardy every hour.
You know, when Paul went from city to city and place to place, he never knew if he was going to get out alive. In fact, he summed it up at the end of his ministry. He said in every city, bonds and afflictions. You know, I've often thought about that. If I were to come and visit you in your town or city, and I knew I was going to have bonds and afflictions when I got there, would I come, I'd want to be pretty sure I had the Lord's mind in coming. But the Apostle Paul said in every city he feared for his life from day-to-day.
And he certainly had every reason to fear for his life, because there were many who wanted to take his life, particularly of his own brethren, the Jews. And so he said, I die. I die daily. But I suggest there is an application for you and for me. And that's why I read here in Luke's Gospel the Lord Jesus said, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself. That's first. I would just say that to deny oneself is something that's inward.
00:50:29
It's to deny ourselves those things that are according to our own will, those things that we would desire to follow after the the the flesh. You know, this is a day when we're not taught to deny ourselves anything. We're taught to live to the full. If it feels good, do it. Nobody's to tell us to curb our appetites and desires, but we need to deny ourselves if we're really going to follow the Lord.
If we're going to be healthy Christians, we have to learn to deny ourselves A young person that gets up and goes to the gym, he denies himself. It takes discipline and natural energy. Maybe there are other things he'd rather do. Maybe he schedules for an hour after school. Well, maybe he'd like to go out and have a drink with his friends, coffee with his friends or something like that. But he says no, I need to keep in. I need to keep in shape. And maybe in the morning he'd like an extra hour sleep, but decides to get up and go to the gym and work out before class or work.
It takes self denial to do that. And if you're going to follow the Lord, it's going to take self denial. You're going to have to put your own will aside and to follow the Lord. And then he says here and take up his cross daily and follow me. That is to accept death outwardly. The to deny oneself is inward. Outward is the cross is something that's outward if you saw somebody literally dragging across down the road.
You'd realize that they have the sentence of death on them. That would be a testimony that they are on their way to their to their death. And we need to realize that we are in a world that's stamped by death on every hand. And do you and I walk through this world with that testimony to take up our cross? The Lord Jesus went to the cross. He bore that for us. But we have a cross too. And if we're again, if we're going to have testimony in our lives, we need to take up our cross.
And we sometimes sing that hymn where pilgrims in the wilderness are dwelling as a camp created things, though pleasant, now bear to us. Death stamp. Do they really bear to us. Death stamp sometimes told about two men who were in the dream of of.
John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress and as they passed through a place called Vanity Fair.
And they were offered every kind of pleasure and activity. They denied it on every hand.
Even though it looked glamorous on the to them looked like a lot of fun. But they had death stamped on those things that were around them and it brought them great reproach. They sought to put take them prisoner and even kill them because they walked through Vanity Fair. A type of this world like that, and you'll have reproach, you'll have death stamped on you. The world will say there's a person who has a lost life, but you might have a lost life as far as this world is concerned.
But you'll have life everlasting. You'll find it in the next World, so to speak. There will be a great reward for those who walk through this world denying themselves and taking up their cross daily and following the Lord Jesus. Let's go to Second Timothy.
Chapter One.
Second Timothy chapter one.
And verse 16 The Lord give mercy unto the House of Anessa for us, for he OFT refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chains.
I rejoice to see some young couples here who have recently started out on the path of faith together. A new home has been has been formed through you coming together in marriage, and that's a thrill. And as I get a little older, I'm thrilled to see those bright lights set up in various towns and communities. And I want to encourage you to set up a home that is for the refreshment not only of yourselves and your families.
But the refreshment of the people of God, you know, Paul found a home where he could be refreshed. It was the household of Vanessa Forest. And it is refreshing when any of us go to a household where the Lord is honored, where the scriptures are opened and spoken freely about. There's a place of refreshment. You know, as far as spiritually, there's very few places of refreshment today. There's the assembly, of course, but you know, really the home is the only.
00:55:22
Full bulwarks against the world today. Just being with the people of God doesn't necessarily preserve us, David said. I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. But the home can be and should be a place of refreshment, and it delighted the heart of the Apostle Paul on many occasions to be in this home. And so let's seek to open our homes for the people of God. We need refreshment, and we need it every day.
We don't just come and take a cold glass of water once a week or on certain occasions. No, we need the refreshment of good cold water on a regular basis. And those of us who spend a good part of our year in the tropics, in the desert, perhaps realize this in a very acute way. You come back a time and time again to that water bottle and you drink deep from it because you're in a physical wilderness. But we're in a spiritual desert. We're in a spiritual wilderness.
And we need that refreshment. I want to close by turning to one more portion. It's in the book of Luke, Luke's Gospel, chapter 12.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 12 and verse 37.
Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, that he shall make them to sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them. Well, I just want to speak in closing of watching something else that ought to characterize our daily life, our daily Christian routine, And that is watching. Watching for what? Watching for the Lord to return. You know, someday we're going to take that last step in the path of faith.
And I've often told about a young man who had a little motto on his bathroom mirror. It simply said, perhaps today I thought that was a nice exercise. He wanted to be reminded every morning when he got up and looked in the mirror that this might be the day of the Lords return. And that's a good exercise for us to be watching for the Lord. All we all say we're waiting for the Lord, but are we expecting him at any moment? Won't it thrill his heart when he comes to find some of us who are at least who are watching?
For his return. If you pull up to a House of a loved one and you see their face at the window.
Isn't that more than just walking through the door and finding them going on with their activities of the day? Oh, you're glad to see them. They may be thrilled to see you, but there's something special about having someone looking down the road watching for you, expecting you, knowing that you're coming at any moment. Are we going to give the Lord Jesus that thrill, That thrill of knowing that we're watching for his return? And so we've looked at these scriptures so very quickly this afternoon, young people, But I say go over them, add to them, make a list and add to them so that there will be these things.
Exercised.
In our spiritual workout room, if I can put it that way, that we might be strong, healthy, fruitful Christians while we watch and wait for the Lord Jesus to come and take us home where we'll we won't need Christian exercise again. We're going to sit down in His presence, and he's going to come forth and service forever. Let's pray our God and Father how thankful we are for Thy Word, for its encouragements and exhortations. And we pray that each one of us, young and old, this afternoon.
May take these scriptures to heart, and that we might indeed exercise ourselves unto godliness. So we ask thy blessing on thy word. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
John 16:13-33
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
124.
That's a God in our loving Father. We will give thee our thanks once again this afternoon. We thank thee as we're reminded in this him how thou being thy brain morning star and we think to us we're saying how Jesus that thou would quickly come and truly how much we need to be reminded of like soon coming. Blessed Lord Jesus, surely we long to be with thyself, but at the meantime we know thou has left us here.
For purpose. So we do look to thee with a little time that is left here on this earth, that that would help us to walk in a path that is pleasing to Thee, and that we may too be a testimony for Thy name's sake. And now we look to the end. We think of the blessing we have had with Thy word open before us. Would you pray that that will continue to give us a portion, A portion that would encourage our hearts, a portion that would draw us close to Thyself, blessed Lord Jesus.
And now we'll look to the end. We commit this meeting to follow into thine hand. We do pray that the Spirit may work freely, and we do pray that that would give us yet another portion. We think of many here of different ages. We think of the young people. We think of the children here. We think of some of us who are a little bit older. We do pray that Thou would give us those special portions to encourage our hearts by. We think to perhaps some here have heavy hearts here too. Thou knowest whatever it may be.
00:05:13
We look to Thee and we ask that I would encourage our hearts that Thou withdraws knowing that Thou are the only one that can satisfy our hearts. We look today and we commit this meeting into thine hand and asking for blessing once more in the name of our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ.
I suggest we start at the 13th verse.
I.
John, chapter 16, verse 13.
How be it when He the Spirit of Truth has come, He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of himself, but what he shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father has hath their mind. Therefore said I.
That He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you a little while, and you shall not see me. And again a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father. Then said some of His disciples among themselves. What is this that He saith unto us a little while, and you shall not see me. And again a little while, and you shall see me, and because I go to the Father. And they say it Therefore what is this? That He say it a little while. We cannot tell what He said.
Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do you inquire among yourselves of that I said, a little while, and you shall not see me. And again a little while, and you shall see me. Verily, I verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice, and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in travel, has sorrow because her hours come.
But as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembers no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world.
And ye now therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. And in that day you shall ask me nothing.
Barely, barely, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Hitherto have you asked nothing in my name. Ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs, but the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs.
But I shall show you plainly of the Father.
At that day you shall ask in my name, and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you. For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and and them come into the world again. I leave the world and go to the Father. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now that speaketh thou plainly, and speaketh no proverb.
Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee? By this we believe that thou camest for forth from God. Jesus answered them. Do you now believe? Behold, the hour cometh. Yay is now come, that ye shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things have I spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace.
In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.
This morning we spoke of three things in connection with the work of the Spirit of God in relationship to this world. He's in the world reproving the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, taking up, as we said, the work that the Lord Jesus began. And the Lord Jesus having returned to the Father, he sent the Holy Spirit down to take up that work. But in the 13th, 14th, and 15th verses, we have three things that the Holy Spirit does in connection with the believer.
With you and me. So he's talking now to the disciples. He's talking to his own, and he speaks of three things that the Spirit of God would show them. The first one is in the end of verse 13. And he will show you things to come. And so we can take up the prophetic scriptures. We can have an understanding of what is ahead both for us in the glory as far as the Lord's coming. What we don't have to wonder what's going to happen in this world where it's all headed.
00:10:23
Men of the world today are shaking their heads and saying where's it all going to end? But the Christian who's reading his Bible and is taught by the Spirit of God has more understanding of where this world's headed and how it's going to all turn out. More understanding than all the wise, worldly politicians and statesman who are trying to figure it out from a natural standpoint. And so he shows us things to come. Then in verse 14, he shows us something else.
He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.
So he presents to us the glories of Christ. How would we know the glories of the person of Christ apart from it's made good to us by the Spirit of God from the pages of the Word of God. You want to know Christ better? You don't want to know something of his glories. Open this blessed book and read. The subject is always Christ and the Spirit of God is there by type and shadow in the Old Testament and figure by his life in the gospel, by his.
By where he is now in Christianity and the fruition of his exaltation in the Book of Revelation. But then there's something else in verse 15. All things that the Father hath are mine. Therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it to you. And so the other thing the Spirit of God does for the believer is he makes known to us the councils of the Father, and we have that all spelled out for us. We don't have to wonder as to the councils and purposes of God.
Again, whether it's in connection with the Church, whether it's in connection with his earthly people, Israel.
Whether it's the blessing of the nations in a coming day, all this, the counsels of God the Father have been clearly spelled out with the Spirit of God-given to make it good to us. But our brother Bruce mentioned this morning the 24th of Genesis, and I'd like to go back there for a moment to another portion that just to follow on what he said, because I believe it's a very apartment illustration that we have.
Just say this, that the unnamed servant in Scripture or man is often a picture to us of the Spirit of God. Now I realize that servant, an Abraham servant, is named in another place, but in this chapter he is not named because he is a picture to us of the Spirit of God. Just in passing, give you another couple of examples. The man bearing the picture of water. The word the water is a picture. The word the man is the Spirit of God. The innkeeper when the Samaritan was brought to the end.
The servant who was over the reapers that Boaz communed with when he came and asked who the damsel was that was gleaning in his field. And there are many other examples but we have it beautifully here. But I want to read verse 53.
And the servant, to picture the Spirit of God, brought forth jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment, and gave them to Rebecca. He gave also to her brother and to her mother precious things. Now here we find three things that the servant, as a picture of the Spirit of God, gives to Rebecca's, to Rebecca, and to her family. First of all, there were jewels of silver. I think we very quickly see that silver is so often, almost invariably I think, a picture of redemption.
How do we have confirmed to our souls that were redeemed? It's the Spirit of God. He makes that good to our souls. Then there's jewels of gold. That's divine righteousness because we're more than redeemed. We're taught by the Spirit that we've been made the righteousness of God in Him. We're seen in all the perfection of Christ. There's raiment, there's garments that speaks of worthiness. And so we've been clothed in garments of salvation, and we walk with Him because we are worthy.
The overcut was the promise to the overcomer, I think in Sardis, in Revelation. And so it was the servant that brought these things out and gave them. They were provided by Abraham, but they were made good to those to whom the servant was sent by the servant himself. And I'm sure too, as the track across the desert with Rebecca took place, that the servant continued to present and tell what was ahead for Rebecca.
00:15:02
Out these things He was showing things to come, what was in store for Rebecca when she finally came and was united with Isaac as her bridegroom. And so this is the function of the Spirit of God through the Word. Yes, but he shows us these three things, things to come, the glories of Christ and the councils of God the Father.
In actual fact, the.
The word comforter is.
A word that does not express fully the operation of the Spirit of God. We think of comfort in the sense of sympathy, and surely that is a function of the Spirit. But it goes beyond that. Perhaps the English word comforter doesn't fully cover the.
The thought that this that is brought before us in that passage is one who supports and strengthens, one who takes up our case fully and answers for us.
In fact, the word comforter and advocate.
Which we have in first John chapter 2 are the same word in the original. So as has been said that we have two comforters. We have one in the glory Christ, a man up there as our advocate to restore us when we have failed. We have the Spirit of God as our comforter sustainer down here in our pathway. There's another.
Perhaps.
Definition of a comforter to It's one that is called alongside to help.
And.
It's always comforting to have one walking alongside of us, isn't it?
Some time ago I I read a story about.
A pilot that got into trouble while he was flying his light plane. It was a single engine plane and he was temporarily blinded and he still had not made a landing and he was able to get on the radio.
And request help.
And they said if you can hang on long enough, we're going to send another plane up to fly right next to you about 50 feet off your wing, and that pilot will be flying.
A plane with the exact same controls that you have in your plane and that person will relay instructions to you as to what vevers.
And knobs that you are to pull and to what degree you have to turn a knob or level. And as a result of that, that pilot made it down safely. And when I read of that, I I thought of that one, that word, the Greek word, which means one called alongside the help. And that certainly is an example of the meaning that is expressed in this verse too, isn't it?
Yes, that's helpful because the Lord again was seeking in these chapters to bring before the disciples that they were not going to be left without power for their pathway in His absence. You know, when the Lord Jesus was here, the disciples could go to the Lord Jesus with all their burdens and difficulties, any question they had. You remember when their hearts were burdened over the death of John the Baptist, they went and they told the Lord all about it, and he sympathized with them and drew them into a desert place to rest a while when the multitude was hungry.
He used them to feed the multitude, but there were 12 baskets leftover. They needed something to take away for themselves as well. They could get just as hungry as the multitude. They each had a basket to take away. And over and over again you see them going to the Lord, and He provided everything that was needed for them in His pathway.
But he wasn't going to be with them, as we've been saying, like he had been during his public ministry.
But he's saying to them that I'm not going to leave you as orphans, I'm not going to leave you comfortless, I'm not going to go back to the Father and leave you to stumble on till you get to the Father's house and I come back again to receive you there. No, I'm going to give you all the resources that are necessary every step of the way. So whether it was encouragement they needed, whether it was power to overcome in the difficulties of life, whether it was the appreciation and understanding of the truth.
00:20:20
Whatever it was, whether it was having a vision of what's ahead, all these things are provided by that the through the energy of the of the Spirit of God. Because the divine life is a perfect life, but it is a life that is a dependent life. It has no power of itself.
The Spirit of God is the energy for that life.
So even though.
They were about to lose.
The physical presence of the Lord Jesus.
The gain would be greater than loss because the fact that the Spirit of God would be given to indwell the believer.
Which the disciples they knew nothing about when the Lord Jesus was here on earth.
And.
Think of the truth that the Spirit of God.
Would lead into.
The highest truth of Christianity with respect to the church and the fact that we as believers, our members of the body of Christ, were united with our head in heaven. It's that which the apostle Paul.
Revealed through the power of the Spirit of God.
And Paul could I believe it was the Ephesian elders, he said, I've not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
Well, that could have never happened apart from the Spirit of God coming down to the world and indwelling the believer.
So.
Truly, the gain is far greater than the loss and.
Lord Jesus tries to impress that on the disciples here.
And also is constantly referring to the truth you know in verse 6.
Or seven, the Lord Jesus says, I tell you the truth.
While he was the truth, you could say I am the truth.
And I think of what the Lord spoke to.
Pilot.
Over in chapter 18, John's Gospel.
Chapter 18.
And verse 37.
Thinking particularly of the end of the verse.
But 1837 Pilot therefore said unto him, Art thou a king? Then Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilots saith unto him.
What is true? And before an answer was given, it says he.
When he had said this, he went out. I don't think he really was interested in the truth, just like many in the world today.
But how wonderful.
To have the truth, to come to know the truth, the living truth, that's the Lord Jesus. We have the written truth in our hands, the word of God.
And we have the spirit of truth.
To guide us into all truth.
We ought to be rejoicing as we contemplate the wonderful privilege.
That is ours.
As those that know the truth.
And to be able to.
Grasp it by the power of the Spirit of God you know, the Lord Jesus said, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Liberty. How do we get it? By knowing the truth. How do we know the truth? By reading the Word of God and looking to God by His Spirit to make it good to our hearts, to our souls.
00:25:05
Just one other portion comes to mind first, John Chapter 2.
And verse 27. First John 2 and 27. But the anointing.
Which I believe to be.
The imparting of the Spirit of God to the believer, the indwelling of the Spirit, but the anointing which he have received of him, abideth in you, and you need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you of all things.
And his truth, and his no lie, and even as it hath taught you.
You shall abide in Him.
So I believe.
We're going to spend eternity learning the truth, but it starts here.
On Earth.
It's inexhaustible.
Truth of God.
Well, as we often have pointed out, one thing that characterizes this day in which we live, the day of grace is the abiding presence of the Spirit of God. And isn't that a comfort to realize? Because earlier in John 14, when the Lord spoke of the coming of the Spirit, He said that He will abide for at with you forever. And the Spirit doesn't leave till we leave. That's why in the end of revelation it says, and the Spirit and the Bride say come.
Why do the Spirit and the bride both say come? Because the Spirit is here till we go at the rapture He will go. I realize God will work by His Spirit after the church is gone, but it will be in the a similar way as to the Old Testament, the way he worked. But the abiding presence of the Spirit of God with us and in US is what characterizes this age. And that ought to really comfort our hearts. Because again, the Lord was saying to the disciples, I'm not going to leave you without power for your pathway.
And that which will lead you to the end of the enjoyment of the, of the truth of Christianity, the truth of the Word of God. And so today, the work that was begun on the day of Pentecost is still going on. The players have changed a little bit. The disciples are gone. The early brethren are gone. But you're one of the players. I'm one of the players. We still have the same spirit that is referred to here. We still have the same spirit that was given on the day of Pentecost.
He hasn't changed. The Word of God hasn't changed. The Lord is still the same. The counsels of the Father haven't changed. And so the work goes on. And that ought to exercise us, brethren, that we would take up that work at what He has given to each one of us, and in the power of the Spirit, seek to live for God's glory until the Spirit and the Bride are taken out.
We read in Ephesians 4 chapter verse 30 verse that we are.
Often reminded of that, we are not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God.
Whereby we are sealed. There's thirty of the fourth chapter, whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption, not until we fail, but until the day of redemption. The security that's one of the functions of the Holy Spirit of God is to give eternal security.
The seal that we belong to Christ, but He will not depart from us, so let us be careful that we do not grieve Him.
In our walking ways He cannot minister to us comfort. If he is grieved by something in my life, we cannot grieve him away, but he will no longer minister Christ to our souls. Also Spirit of God is the earnest. Of course, that's a.
A figure that speaks of a foretaste of the glory. We have a preview of the Gloria.
A foretaste of what we are going to enjoy for eternity by the Spirit of God who has, is the earnest of the inheritance. We don't have the inheritance at the present time and its fullness, but we can have the enjoyment of those things in our souls before that day comes.
00:30:12
Well, we really learn from the next section then, don't we, that the Spirit of God bears witness of Christ and glory and the disciples bear witness of Christ on earth. And that work, as I say, is still going on. And so the disciples were still concerned. They were still there's hearts were still full of sorrow. They didn't really understand and enter into what was going to happen. All they knew was that the Lord Jesus was going back to heaven and they were going to be things that they were going to face.
In his absence. But what I believe he's seeking to bring before them in these verses that follow is that though they were no longer going to see him with the physical eye, that when the Spirit of God came to be with them and in them, He was going to make Christ in glory as real to them as if he was here physically. In fact, even more so. And so that's why Peter later on says, Whom not having seen ye love, though now ye see him not yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable.
And full of glory. So none of us have ever seen the Lord Jesus with the physical or natural eye. But is he any less real to the eye of faith? We're linked now to the man in the glory by the Spirit of God. That's one of the things in John 14 that the Lord Jesus gave the disciples initially for their comfort. At the beginning of John 14 he said, you believe in God, believe also in me.
What he was really saying is you've believed in, in God, whom you've never seen. Now you're going to have to believe in me in the same way you're going to have to by faith, believe in me in my absence at when I return to the Father. And so that's why in Hebrews we read, we see Jesus not with the eye of faith or the natural eye, I'm sorry, but we see him with the eye of faith and we see him not walking as the lowly man of grace here.
Not the rejected 1, not the despised 1A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, but we see him as the man of glory, crowned with glory and honor. And he says the disciples, if you could just understand that, you'd rejoice with me. I'm going on to the Father's house. I'm going back as the glorified man.
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. And if you could just see beyond the night and see the results of what is going to take place, and my return to the Father, and the results of the Spirit of God coming down, and your link with me as the glorified man, you'd rejoice too. He sympathizes with them here, but He also wants them to look beyond the what they felt was the night and the sorrow and to see the results of it.
We're told in Ephesians to be filled with the Spirit.
As we're filled with the Spirit and that verse, it tells us to sing to yourselves in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, making melody in your heart to the Lord. And we can speak to one another when we're filled with the Spirit, but the Spirit does more than make us sing hymns. And we have it, have it here. It says, He shall glorify me.
How does that affect me in my daily life?
Am I filled with the Spirit? Do I glorify the Lord Jesus? How does it affect my life?
When my interrelations with other people, do I offend people with my words? Do I make myself seem better than others by the way I I speak to them?
In Galatians chapter 5, we have the fruits of the spirit and if we're filled with the spirit, I believe our, our conversation between one another, I believe our, our meetings would be characterized by by the spirit. And it says here in verse 22, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. Verse 25.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. So the Spirit of God should have its effect in our daily life, in our interrelationships with other believers. That's why God gave us his Spirit. One reason why God gave us his Spirit and all the all the fruit of the Spirit is because he knows there's friction between Saints and it takes love and long-suffering and and so forth to get along with one another and.
00:35:15
It says He shall glorify me.
With our lives we can glorify the Lord. When we come together in a meeting like this, the ministry should glorify the Lord, and if it starts to begin to glorify a man, it's not from the Lord himself. And so it also says in in chapter 5 and verse 26.
I think this will be evidence whether a person is is led by the Spirit of God. At the end of the verse it says he shall testify of me. The Spirit of God is going to testify of the Lord Jesus and if we can be occupied with Christ, that's evidence that we have the Spirit of God.
And that's why He wanted them to have joy, not sorrow. And so the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. And so when there is the liberty of the Spirit of God to minister Christ to us, present His glories, and so on, and we're filled with the Spirit, as you say, then there will be that joy. Not that the circumstances may be any easier, but as He says here, your joy no man taketh from you in verse 2022.
And in verse 24, that your joy may be full, not half full, but full. He wants us to have full joy. The world has joy. They have happiness, but their joy is dependent at best on present circumstances. And you just introduced something adverse into the life of somebody who's not a believer. And whatever happiness they have is gone in a moment. And that happiness is not going to return until circumstances turn around.
But our joy is not dependent on our circumstances, but it is dependent on our being filled with the Holy Ghost, because in the measure, as Tim said, in which we're filled with the Holy Spirit, Christ is ministered to our hearts. And that is what raises us above the circumstances of life, not that we're callous or indifferent to the circumstances of life. If we become that, we're never, we're not going to be exercised by them in the way that we ought to. So we don't become callous or indifferent.
To them, but it raises, raises us above them. And this is a joy that only a believer can, can experience. So your joy no man taketh from you, and that your joy may be fulfilled, but it is only through the work of the Spirit ministering Christ that that can be true.
He was going to bring them into a new relationship.
With God the Father, it seemed to the Father. We get that a little later in the in the gospel when he sends that message.
By Mary in chapter 20 I ascend unto my father and your father to my God and your God and then later says receive the Holy Spirit is the power of that new life that they were brought into. He breathed into them at new character of life and the power of the Spirit of God.
And what an opening to them of the Scriptures. He opened their understanding and then later when the Spirit of God actually came and indwelt them, what a fullness opened to them to enjoy those things that the Spirit of God was going to show them and and a joy and in relationship with the Father to know God as Father as the Lord Jesus Christ knows him as Father. I just think of the disciples here in these words. The Lord knew what was going on in their hearts.
And they were sorrowful and they he knew they weren't understanding what he said.
And he knew what was going to happen. He told them earlier, tried to comfort them in connection with, you know, they were going to find out Judas was the betrayer, one of their own. They were all going to forsake him and think of how they felt, even especially Peter and see the Lord crucified the two on the road to Emmaus. We thought this was he that should deliver Israel.
And Mary weeping at the grave, the disciples in the upper room in fear of the Jews. The Lord knew all that was going to pass through their souls. And he's comforting them. And he says it's going to be a sorrow for a little bit, and you're not going to see me for a little bit, but then you are. And when you see me, there's going to be a fullness of joy that none can take from you. And I haven't meditated a lot on it, but just thought a little bit. What a.
00:40:26
Wonderful thing that must have been to them, says then, were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord?
Even the grave couldn't defeat him.
They belong to a man that even when they put him on a cross, and when they put his body in that grave, he rose up triumphant over the grave. What a Messiah they had, what a savior. Even death couldn't hold him.
What a turn of events for them, and what joy must have just.
Inexpressible, unspeakable joy just must have filled their hearts as as it began to dawn on them what it was when the Lord Jesus rose from the dead and they saw him again. And just to meditate a little on that, what must have gone through their hearts and the Lord's anticipating that in these verses.
He says, no one's going to take that joy from you. And I thought a little bit, maybe this isn't exactly the thought, but they knew they had a savior that nothing could stop. All they have thought death finally stopped them. Death brought an end to it all. And now they know even death can't stop what they anticipated. Was their anticipation fully correct? No. Oh, Lord, we'll at this time will they'll restore the Kingdom to Israel. You know, their hopes are renewed.
They just thought, oh, it's going to come what we've been hope for, He says, I've got something better for you. Don't that's in the Father's hands. You just do what I tell you to do. And something better than what their expectations had been was going to unfold. But think of the thrill of their heart to to have the Lord back again after they'd seen him put in that grave and all their expectations revived and centered in one that they knew even death couldn't touch.
And stop.
We might note a note that we don't pray for the.
The Spirit of God to come that that is not scriptural. He is here as a divine person now and there are some groups of Christians that mistake.
These truths and they pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Now we should certainly desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit, that is for him to be in control of us, our actions and words and so on. But we don't pray for His coming.
We know that the Spirit of God.
Came as a divine person at Pentecost.
Dwell among the Lord's people collectively, and also to indwell the believer, which was something that never was known before.
Giving them the conscious sense of.
Of relationship with with God as his Father.
Dwelling within the believer to comfort, to support, to strengthen. This was not known in the Old Testament, even during the time of our Lord's life down here. That's brought out in John 7.
The spirit of God it's anticipated fear of of the work of the spirit of God in the future day when he would.
Be a person, not an influence, but a divine person, not Incarnate. That's why the world doesn't know anything about the Spirit of God, because they cannot see him. He was not Incarnate, but he was definitely God in his person.
We talk about being filled with the Spirit.
If we don't pray for an outpouring of the Spirit to be filled, how do we get filled with the Spirit?
Well, if you have a.
A vessel that is filled with all sorts of rubbish and dirt before you can fill that vessel with.
With water you have to get rid of the rubbish and perhaps that's the point there Tim, that there's many things in our hearts and lives that are.
00:45:08
Hindering.
The operation of the Spirit in our souls, there's a hindrance there, obstruction. And if we get rid of those things and judge them, then the Spirit of God is free to.
To occupy us with Christ, To minister to us. He is not grieved then by what?
May hinder his action.
Yeah, we have, we have a lot of things that fill our lives and our minds and our hearts and some of them are necessary things. We have to work, we have to go to school, and we have other things that occupy our our minds and and.
Those are necessary things, but what occupies our hearts all the time? What fills our hearts? And is it sports or is it some book or is it what is it that occupies my heart? And like, like John says, if we get rid of those things that fill our hearts, it leaves room for the Spirit of God to fill it. And within when the Spirit of God fills our hearts, then there can be that overflowing of the Spirit of God. And John also mentioned about judging our hearts and things that are in our hearts that fill it up.
And it says in First Corinthians Chapter 11 and verse 28.
Verse 27 speaks about when we remember the Lord, and we eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Verse 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup.
Let a man examine himself. And so we need to regularly examine our life, our hearts, when things come up in our life that that maybe are things we shouldn't have said or done. We need to examine ourselves and judge those things in our hearts before they grow into a place that takes over our heart. And it says let a man examine himself, and so let him eat. It doesn't tell him to sit back and not take the emblems. It says let him eat. In other words, when you examine yourself and you find something that's not right in your heart.
We need to judge and judge it before the Lord and clean out our hearts so there's room for the Spirit of God to operate.
Perhaps we have it illustrated with the pots of oil in the Old Testament. You remember when the woman was collecting a few sticks to make a fire and bake, use her last bit of meal and oil for to make a cake for her and her sons. The prophet came along and what were the instructions? How many pots do you have? And she went out and collected pots. They were clean, empty pots. And as long as she had clean empty pots, the oil was sufficient to fill every pot.
And so every believer can be filled by the Spirit of God. We ought to be. But the vessel, as you say, has to be empty of self and it has to has to be clean. And so we talk about being filled with the Spirit of God. But a person who is filled with the Spirit won't be drawing attention to himself and his own experiences of the Spirit. A person who's really filled with the Spirit will be occupied with Christ.
He will reflect something of the glories of Christ because that is the function of the Spirit of God, the main function of the Spirit of God. And so if, if I meet a person, oh, they've had experiences of the Spirit and this and that, and yet you really wonder whether they really are filled with the Spirit. A person who's filled with the Spirit won't tell you they're filled with the Spirit. You'll see that because of their enjoyment of Christ and reflection of it in their life.
Earlier we were looking at Ephesians chapter 5 and.
In reference to being filled with the Spirit which this question is related to, there are a few things in the verses that follow that are worth practicing that are good for us and I think.
Free in US heart attitude that enables the Spirit to fill us In verse 19 we have speaking to ourselves and psalms and hymns.
And spiritual songs, that's something we can practically do in a positive way. And then the last part makes singing and making melody in your heart the Lord. That also is something we can do to have the heart that the Spirit of God can fill. And then it goes on. It says giving thanks. And our brother Jim was mentioning that in his talk this afternoon. In terms of praise, that's something that we can do that I think that encourages filling of the Spirit of God.
00:50:11
And then the last thing is.
Submitting yourselves 1 to another in the fear of God and submitting is something that is characteristic of divine light and characteristic of our Lord Jesus, and I believe that that's another thing that helps us to practically be filled with the spirit and attitude of submission to ourselves and to the Lord.
There's another resource then that's given to the disciples and to us for the path of faith in the absence of the Lord Jesus physically and that's prayer. And so in verse 23 he says in that day he shall ask me nothing. Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it you. Now there are four times in the upper room ministry that the Lord Jesus brings this thought before them a prayer and asking. I think it would be helpful just very briefly to back up and just quickly notice them and just.
A sentence or two in connection with their context. The first time is in the 14th chapter.
Chapter 14 and verse 13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. And so he introduces this thought of prayer in coming to the Father in his name, because when you we come in the name of the Lord Jesus, it's going to govern what we ask for, if you ask for something in someone's name.
You're not going to ask for something that you know wouldn't be in keeping with their character or what they would desire. And so we come to the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus. I say that's the qualifier. It helps us to ask for those things that we know would be according to the mind and will of the Lord Jesus and of the Father. So it's asking in the name. But then go over to the 15th chapter.
Chapter 15 and verse seven, If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. So here we have not so much the name, but the condition, the state of soul in asking if we abide in Him, we're going to ask what we will, and He'll do it, because in the measure in which we abide in Him, His desires become our desires. And so we find in the 37th Psalm.
He speaks of it there. He says He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
That doesn't mean He gives us everything we want, but in the measure in which we walk in His company, abide in Him, as I say, His desires become our desires, and we will ask according to His will. And we know if we ask according to His will, we're going to have the petition because He'll delight to give it to us. Now just drop down to the 16th verse of the 15th chapter. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.
That whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name.
He, he may give it to you. Well, here's the here we have, perhaps more particularly the one we pray to. That's why we generally pray to the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus. I realize there are times it's proper to pray to the Lord. He's the Lord of the harvest. And so as such, we pray the Lord of the harvest that He'll raise up laborers, thrust them into His harvest, provide for them, and give them fruit.
He's the head of the body and as the head of the body, we look to him for direction. But generally speaking, we are to pray to the Father in the name of the Lord. And then we find in our verse, in our chapter, the 23rd verse, it's when that is He says in that day, what day is that? It's the day when he was not going to be with them any longer. As I said earlier, when the Lord Jesus was with them, they didn't have to come to the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus. They came directly to the Lord Jesus.
They had questions and they had concerns and needs. They came directly to him. But again, as we've been saying, he's preparing them for the time. He's not going to be physically with them. He was going to return to the Father. So in that day you shall ask me nothing. In other words, he said you're going to have a far greater privilege than you have now of coming to me and asking me directly. You're going to have the privilege of coming to the Father whatsoever ye shall ask the Father.
00:55:18
In my name He will give it. And brethren, we have that wonderful privilege today of coming to the Father in the name, knowing that our Father delights to answer our prayers according to His will and for our good and blessing.
Just to go back to the joy my brother Steve was bringing out.
It must have characterized the disciples. You know we have it in Luke chapter 24, I believe we think of the two that were on the way to Emmaus.
And the Lord Jesus comes alongside of them.
And he says, what manner of communications verse 17 are these that ye have one to another as you walk and are sad, and then they relate to him about.
This one Jesus that they trusted would have redeemed Israel, and but he's been crucified and so on and so forth.
Well, they come to find out that this one is alive again and with them, and it speaks of their hearts and how they begin to burn. But I was thinking too, in verse 36 of this same chapter, it says, as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they thought they had seen a spirit, but they come to find out.
This is the one who had been crucified.
This is indeed.
The Lord Jesus and it tells us here in verse 41, while they yet believe not for joy and wondered, he said unto them, have he here any meat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish honeycomb. He took it and did eat before then. So here he is in body once again, having arisen from the dead, and he could hardly believe it. It tells us they believe that for joy.
But the joy, it just keeps increasing, I believe. And you come to the end of the chapter and of course the Lord Jesus returns.
Into heaven.
Verse 50 says He lifted up his hands and blessed them, and it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven, and they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with not just joy.
Great joy.
And we're continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.
Sometimes I wonder.
Why is it that this great joy doesn't characterize my own thinking more?
Well, I believe the Spirit of God, as we've been enjoying, can bring before us the glories of Christ and where He is today. He's no longer on the cross or in the grave, but He's in the glory.
And he's coming back.
We believe he's about ready to step out of heaven and call us to be with himself.
And so the prospect of the believer, it's glorious. That's all, because Jesus died and rose again.
And so the joy that characterized the disciples, it ought to be contagious. It's a wonderful thing.
Truth of the Resurrection.
So as our brother Jim brought out too, they returned with great joy from Jerusalem. The Lord was gone again. That didn't stop that joy because really in these verses that we is really the thought we see him even now by faith. So there was that time right then, but there isn't going back to glory didn't didn't spoil that joy just was great joy. Now he'd gone back to glory and so right now by faith.
I wouldn't want to lose sight of that. That was brought out earlier, Steven, because you see Steven later when he was martyred, he looked up and with his last breaths, he said, I see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. And what gave him the joy and the power to lay down his life as a martyr? He died triumphantly. He didn't die just bravely. He died with joy. And he's perhaps the first one that ever died in that with that sense.
01:00:21
But it was because he saw the Lord Jesus at the right hand of God. And what's going to give us the joy to go through the trials and circumstances? We may never be called on to lay down our lives like Steven, but there's lots. We're going to go back after this conference to real trials and difficulties. As we've been saying. What's going to give us the joy in the circumstances? We see Jesus it in, in Hebrews 12. He takes it up again, looking unto Jesus.
The author and finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God, that's what's going to give us the power and the joy. And so that's what gave the the disciples the power and the joy in the book of Acts to go on amidst the difficulties and the circumstances of life. So they had Christ as the man in the glory, and then, as we've been saying, they had the power of prayer.
I just say in that regard, as you go through the book of Acts, it's interesting that the chapters and the instances where there's prayer, there's always power and blessing to confirm to us, as we've been saying in these meetings already, that if we want power and blessing and joy and fruit in our Christian pathway, we must be men and women who are characterized by prayer.
Just notice too, our time is slipping away. In verse 25, he speaks of how He had spoken unto them in Proverbs. Or if you notice your margin parables, just turn back to Matthew 13 for a moment because the disciples asked a question there.
In Matthew chapter 13.
And verse 10.
And the disciples came and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. And so the Lord Jesus in his pathway often spoke in parables. And I just say this, two, parables are not fables. There's a difference between a parable and a fable. We were growing up, we had a book called Esop's Fables, and those fables, those stories about different animals and thing, events and things, were to teach some moral lesson.
But the parables the Lord told were not fables. He never spoke in fables. But a parable was a story to illustrate a spiritual or moral point, and the Lord often spoke in that way. And when the disciples asked the Lord well, why he spoke that way, he said it was because the people in general didn't believe. And so it was to, in a way, veil what he was saying to the general populace because of their unbelief in the hardness of their hearts. You can read that chapter and you'll find that out.
But he said to the disciples, it's for you to know these things. But we find as they come to the end of the Lord's pathway that even the disciples didn't seem to enter in to those parables that the Lord had spoken, as plain as they seemed to be, they just didn't enter into many of the things He was Speaking of, even though He used those illustrations from nature and so on. And so it's as it were, He says to the disciples, I'm not going to speak in parables anymore. He said these things are going to be made plain to you.
I'm speaking very plainly now, and when the Spirit of God comes, He's going to take what I've said.
And we'll say, and it's going to be very plain, so that I know it's a little different, but I think of that verse that says that a right, that way of righteousness is so plain that if wayfaring man, though a fool, may not err therein. And we don't have to err when it comes to the truth of God and the way of righteousness, because he doesn't speak in parables to us.
He speaks plainly by the Spirit of God. And in fact, the parables we understand and we shake our head at the disciples. How do we understand them? Because we have far more than the Spirit than the disciples have. We have the complete Word of God, the development of those parables in the epistles, and the Spirit of God-given in a way that the disciples never had.
In fact, we don't read that the disciples really understood.
Very much of what the Lord said until the Spirit of God came and and gave them intelligence, enlightenment. Think of Peter preaching the gospel on the day of Pentecost, the insight that he had to the word of God and the way in which he could unfold the scriptures. It was a result of the the presence of the Spirit of God.
01:05:25
There on earth.
Just one other little thing too that I think is so beautiful as the Upper Room ministry ends, and that is that it began in the 13th chapter with a confirmation of the Lord's love having loved his own, which were in the world. He loved them under the end, but it ends with a confirmation of the Father's love. And so the Lord Jesus says here for the verse 27 for the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me.
And have believed that I came out from God and so on in it. Beautiful. So we have the love of the Lord Jesus. He loves his own. He loves them under the end, but we have the love of the Father as well. And if we go through this world with the sense of the love of the Lord Jesus and the love of the Father, then we can to have the joy, have that joy we've been Speaking of and we can overcome in the trials. Because as we said earlier at the end of the chapter, he leaves them with no illusion.
To what's ahead in the world ye shall have tribulation. Didn't sound like a very nice thing to say to the disciples. Almost the last words he speaks before he lifts up his eyes to heaven and prays you're going to have tribulation Didn't sound like a very happy parting note. But he says in the world you shall have tribulation. But be of good cheer. He does end with a word of comfort. So often you have that be of good cheer. It is. I be not afraid, he said to them on the sea on a previous occasion.
Said to a man sick of the palsy, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee and so on. And so here he says, be of good cheer. How could the Lord say such a thing? He knew as Brother Steve said, he knew what was ahead for them. How could he say such a thing? Be of good cheer. He said, I have overcome the world and brethren, you and I can overcome too. We can overcome the daily grind of life. And I liking before we close to turn to the end of the book, to the to the end of Revelation and just notice.
Another little encouragement.
That we have.
In chapter 21 of Revelation, before I read this, I'll just say that in the second and third chapters where you have the addresses written by John by inspiration, penned by John by inspiration, there is an overcomer in each assembly. But the overcoming there is in connection with something very specific, a problem, a moral condition in the assembly. And then he says amidst that you can overcome and there's a special promise.
To the overcomer, but notice what we have in verse seven of chapter 21 of Revelation. He that overcometh shall inherit all things or these things. He's Speaking of the eternal state, And I will be his God and he shall be my son. The overcoming here, I believe is more general. It's really overcoming in the general grind of life.
And life, as we've been saying, there is a there, it's a general grind of life and sometimes it just seems like it's all we can do to just tread water and keep our head above water in the circumstances, in the sea of life. But we can overcome. The Lord Jesus overcame in every circumstance of life and he overcame the world. And now he says you can do the very same thing. We can be overcomers. We don't have to be overwhelmed.
We don't have to get under the circumstances of life. We can overcome in every circumstance because we have every resource. The resources that we have throughout these previous chapters are the same limitless supply that's available to you and me.
And if we sink on the sea of life, it's because we're not availing ourselves of the resources that we have. But if we avail ourselves of them, in that measure, we will be able to rise like Peter and walk on the water with the Lord Jesus hand in hand.
01:10:00
But I say we sink because we lose sight of the resources and we don't reach out and avail them. So it's to me, it's so encouraging. Yes, we're going to have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. And then he lifts up his eyes and he prays for them. A little picture, as we said, of that office, that resource that he's carrying on for you and for me. Do you realize that the Lord Jesus is praying for you every hour of every day?
And do you realize there's nothing that you and I pass through in the path of faith and service that he hasn't experienced and overcome himself as a man here in this world?
35 In the back of the book #35 in the back of the book.
All the pathos.
Say one word to love from.
All of my children.
Without the scriptures, Soccer. OH.
Right.
Infrared.
And screaming down and think.
All the.
We have something.
Our Father.
Our Father God.
Should we pray?
God and our Father, we just think again of this portion that we've enjoyed of that blessed man who is our Savior.
Who, before He would go up to the cross and suffer such as none of us could ever know or imagine, yet His thoughts were so occupied with the joy and the peace.
And the provision for his own.
And now, having done that work, he is ascended up on high and still there working, praying even now for us. And so we thank thee for him. We thank thee for these thoughts we've been able to enjoy together.
This ministry that he gave.
Knowing how much it meant to him to say those things at such a time.
And we just think too, of how he spoke yet again from heaven, and said, yet a little while, and he that will come.
Shall come and will not tarry. And so we look forward to that time very soon when he will come and we will see Him and have that fullness of joy in His presence. We long for it, our God and our Father. But we thank Thee for this time again that we've been able to share together a little foretaste at that time with Him. We give thee our thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen. Amen.
Gospel 1
Gospel—John Kemp
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Shall we open our gospel meeting tonight with #10 There is a Savior.
On high in the glory, a Savior who suffered Calvary's tree, A Savior is willing to save. Now as ever, His arm is almighty, His love great and free. Number 10 some brother would start.
There is a savior.
On my dear glory.
I'm saying.
I'm scared.
That's where I'm going to stand now. I've never.
Shall be in time.
Do you need anything?
More to share.
The spirit of the sin.
00:05:35
Shall we pray? Our living God and our Father, we thank Thee for the words of this hymn we have sung together. That there is at this moment a Savior on high in the glory, looks down upon this company here this evening with the same compassion as He had when He looked upon the multitude who were as sheep without a shepherd.
We thank Thee for such love. We thank thee for that unspeakable gift, our God.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ, who left heaven's glory.
To accomplish Thy will and to reveal Thy heart to us, we pray.
For blessing on the wondrous message that will go forth here tonight, that hearts may be prepared. Perhaps there is one or more in the company who is a stranger to Christ and to God. We pray that Thy word might be as a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces. We seek Thy help. We commit the meeting to the.
We pray that there might be joy in heaven over one Sinner that repenteth.
We ask it all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ before His glory. Amen.
We're going to sing another hymn.
#14 Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? What a personal question this is for each one in the company here tonight.
The remedy that God has provided for your deep need as a Sinner. So shall we stand and sing #14.
Have you been to Jesus for the closing power of the land?
Where you glory the rushing in history.
Are you?
Are you watching the?
World when the rides will grow.
And light in the blood of the light.
00:10:23
I.
We welcome each one to the Gospel meeting here tonight.
And we trust that the message will be clear and plain to each one, the youngest to the oldest.
Because you know you never leave a gospel meeting the same way as you.
Enter the room.
You are.
Under the sound of the Word of God and when you leave, if you are still rejecting the message of God's grace and love, then you are more responsible than when you entered the room.
God speaketh once, yet twice, yet man perceiveth it not.
And so the gospel never leaves a person the same way as he is found. And so tonight we have the privilege of announcing this wondrous message that has its origin in the very heart of God. Tonight, God's desire.
His earnest desire is for your eternal blessing. If you are still a stranger to God and to grace, tonight is the night the Lord wants to save you, bring you from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God. We have a verse in the book of James which I want to read at the outset, chapter 4.
And verse 14.
Whereas you know not what shall be on the moral.
What is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away.
What a clear statement of the brevity of life, my friend.
The sureness of eternity, your threat, your life is like a thread that could snap at any moment and you be ushered into eternity.
You do not know when the Lord will say, as He said to that man, that rich farmer in Luke chapter 12.
Tonight thy soul shall be required of thee. You have no promise of tomorrow and no lease upon life.
And God tells you that your life is simply a vapor. You look at a vapor from the kettle. The steam is gone in a few minutes.
Life is real, life is earnest, but the grave is not its goal. Dost thou art, and unto dust? Returnest was not spoken of the soul tonight. Everything else in your life is insignificant in comparison to the salvation of your eternal soul.
Because.
You have endless ages your soul must face in blackness of darkness or riches of grace. And tonight.
God is a God of infinite grace.
Who desires your eternal blessing? Our brother. Last weekend at Saint John, he spoke.
On a subject that touched my heart, he spoke on God being a happy God. I thought it was beautiful because really that is the disposition of the heart of God. Tonight He desires your eternal blessing. He has done everything possible to win your heart. What more could He do? God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And so, dear friend, tonight the Gospel message comes to you individually.
00:15:00
And God has an interest, a deep, earnest interest in your eternal blessing and salvation.
I think of that story.
From which the tract was composed. I'm not going to a crisis grave, are you? Sister Abigail lived in Buffalo. She was the daughter of John Townsend, who wrote the tract, wrote the letter to Queen Victoria and asked her the question if she was sure of salvation. I think everyone, most people in the audience, would remember that tract. It has been used of the Lord.
Anyway, Sister Abigail was an earnest track distributor. She never missed an opportunity and as she got on the bus or the, I suppose it was an electric tram in those days, this is going back about 100 years, She would give a track to the conductor. Well, he said, lady, I know you always give me these tracks, but I'm a good living man. Your intention is good, but.
I really don't need that.
Or, she said, remember, life is.
Brief You do not know when the call may come, and God says you must be saved. You are a Sinner. Oh, he sloughed it off.
It was only a few days after she had met the conductor.
That in.
Jumping from one tram to another, he missed his footing and fell under the wheels.
And was rushed to hospital in a very critical condition. But God spoke to that conductor in those hours, those last few hours of his life and he saw his need as a Sinner. He saw his guilt and from his heart came that.
Prayer, God, be merciful to me, a Sinner. And there, on his dying bed, he looked up to the Savior.
And was brought into.
The family of God by faith. And he said that Lady who gave me that tract, who used to give me those tracks, Sister Abigail.
I want you to tell her that her friend is not going to a crisis grave.
What a wonderful end for that man. But dear friend, this gospel message is for you tonight and God has a deep interest in your eternal blessing and you have no promise of tomorrow.
As I was in Brazil, I was reading about the Chicago Fire. I guess it was about 1872. I think most American people have read of the Chicago Fire. It was a terrible infernal which.
Devastated most of Chicago. At that time, Mr. Moody was having meetings, gospel meetings in Chicago.
At that very time and on the Sunday night, he preached a soul stirring gospel. But he said, now I want you to go home and think seriously about this message that you have heard, and next week come back and tell us your decision. You know, Mr. Moody said that was the greatest mistake that he ever made in his life.
Because during that week the fire broke out in all its fury and it it leveled most of the city and several 100 lost their lives, some who were in the meeting of Mr. Moody that night and had heard the the gospel message.
We don't know whether they closed in with God's offer of mercy, but he said, never will I do that again. And dear friends, tonight is the day of salvation for you. God is beseeching you. God is seeking to reach your conscience and your heart with the message of pardon. Oh, what a wondrous triumph we have to speak about.
We are a Savior unto God in them that are saved, and in them that perish.
00:20:02
You know, in the olden days of the Roman Empire, they would take their captives from different parts of their widespread domain, and they would.
Prayed them through Rome and with incense and.
Prayers to their gods. I suppose some of those captives in chains were destined to lose their lives. Some would get their liberty. The apostle speaks of that in Second Corinthians. He says we have a message of triumph. We have a victory that we are announcing tonight, the greatest victory that has ever occurred in the world's history.
The victory of the cross. But to some it is a savour of life unto life. If you believe the message, my friend, tonight it will be a savour of life unto life. If you reject the message, it will be a savor of death unto death. Some of those captives lost their lives, but some were going to have their liberty. Well, the gospel we have a a March of triumph. Tonight we have a message.
From the heart of God we point to the cross of Calvary, where?
The wondrous victory was accomplished by the Son of God, who came from the Father's bosom to reveal His heart. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. All we think of the heart of God, and we think of the journey.
Of the Lord of glory, the Creator of the universe, the one who spoke worlds into existence by the word of His power. We see him leaving the throne of glory, the very bosom of God, coming into a world that would reject him, spit upon him, ridicule him, cast him out, heap upon him every indignity possible. This is the Son of God who came.
For your salvation tonight He is longing to save you by his grace. The grace of God is like a golden chain that.
Stretches from the very bosom of God down into the deepest depths of man's sin and guilt and degradation, and lifts the Sinner who is in the horrible pit up to the throne of glory. That's what God.
Is willing to do for you tonight if you will bow the knee in repentance to the Lord Jesus. What a savior we have to announce the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men. I remember a story of Mr. Moody. He used to take words in Scripture and he'd go through the Bible and pick them out and.
Then he would develop his thoughts, his sermon, around one word in various parts of the scriptures. One day he searched through.
Word grace. And as he pondered it and went from Scripture to Scripture in the Bible, his heart was filled to overflowing with a sense of the grace of God so that he couldn't stay in his study. He ran down the stairs and he grabbed the first person that he met on the street and he said, what do you know about the grace of God? It had.
It had filled his soul.
And tonight, dear friends, that grace, that unmerited sovereign favor of God that none of us deserve.
Reaching out to you from the heart of God.
The Apostle Paul, he preached the grace of God.
We have in First Corinthians 15.
The theme of His message I have delivered unto you that which also I received, that Christ died for our sins. According to the Scriptures. He was buried and he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. The very theme of the apostle Paul was Christ, his person and his work. That's what filled the heart of the apostle, the grace of God.
00:25:15
The channel of that grace.
That can reach you tonight, and that has reached many in the company. Here was the person of Christ. That was the theme of the apostle, and that's the only theme that we have for you tonight, a person. It's not in a religion, it's not in rites and ceremonies, it's not in man's doing in any shape or form. It's the person of Christ you need.
The one who loved us and gave him gave himself for us on the cross of Calvary. We want you to close in with that offer of mercy. And then what was the authority that the apostle Paul had?
It was the testimony of the Holy Scriptures, the grace of God, the theme, the channel was the person and work of Christ. But the authority, the testimony of the Holy Scriptures was the foundation of His message. That's all we have tonight, dear friends, is the Holy Scriptures, which we hold in our hands, a revelation of the heart of God.
The very mind of God.
Is given to us and the way of salvation is made so plain, Nor there's a verse that says if any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema Maranatha. That's in First Corinthians 16.
That's a solemn verse. Do you really love the Lord Jesus? Is Is there a place in your heart and life for that person?
Who has demonstrated his love at such cost? Luke Shut was a young man of 16 years of age.
He lived in the 1700s.
And he attended a gospel meeting where?
The well known preacher John Flavo.
Presented preached a powerful message on that very scripture. If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha that is cursed when the Lord comes. It stirred the heart of this young man of 16 years of age. Luke shut, but he he quenched the Spirit of God. He would not yield to the pleadings of God's love and grace.
Luke Shot lived to be 100 years of age.
He was plowing his field, still had a fairly good measure of health.
Plowing his field.
And.
That sermon that he had heard.
86 years before or 84 years before came back to him as he plowed the field that verse that he had heard that had stirred his soul.
He says I don't love the Lord Jesus and I'll be accursed when he comes. I won't be ready.
There in that field, at 100 years of age, he bowed the head and bowed the knee to Christ, accepted him. He lived to be 116 and gave every evidence that he was truly a child of God. While you have no promise of that, my friend, but today is God's day of salvation.
Look for a few moments at Acts 16. We just will refer to a few characters here briefly.
In the 16th of Ox, I think we're.
Familiar with the?
This passage of Scripture.
Paul was the greatest evangelist outside of the Lord Jesus.
And here he is entering the continent of Europe, the first time that the Gospel ever entered the continent of Europe.
Was it a large, impressive campaign? No. It started with a prayer meeting by the Riverside.
00:30:02
And.
Paul got a summons, we might say in a, in a vision there that there was someone in Macedonia that needed help, that God had someone there in Macedonia that he was to present the message to. He didn't know who it was, so he went in faith. Let us read the passage here.
In Luke chapter 16.
11 Therefore losing from Troas we came with a straight course to Samastracia, and the next day to Neopolis, and from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia and a colony. And we were in that city abiding certain days. Where was the man that had called for him? Doesn't appear here.
But he used the opportunities that were at his, at his hand, here at his disposal. And so we find in verse.
Verse 12.
Verse 13 And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a Riverside where prayer was won't to be made. And we sat down and spake unto the women which resorted thither. Wasn't that an unassuming meeting here the great apostle.
Was in Europe, in Macedonia, Greece for the first time. There wasn't much response. There didn't seem to be.
Any preparation, but he was trusting the Lord, and he sat down by the Riverside. Verse 14 A certain woman.
Named Lydia a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. Well, we don't know what Paul preached. Perhaps he spoke as we have mentioned of First Corinthians 15. The no doubt the person of Christ was the subject that Paul presented.
But this woman, Lydia, she was surely a prepared heart. She was a quickened soul. She attended unto the message that was spoken of Paul. Her heart was prepared. We trust that your heart is prepared. She wasn't thinking of everything and anything. The apostle Paul was there and he spoke the word of God.
And.
She was like Cornelius in chapter 10. She was like the Ethiopian eunuch in chapter 8. They were all earnest seekers. Are you an earnest seeker tonight, or are you careless and indifferent about your eternity? How many there are in that condition?
Room for pleasure, room for business, but for Christ the crucified, not a place that he can enter in the heart for which he died. Such was not the case with Lydia. She was an earnest seeker. And if you're an earnest seeker, God is going to send you a message. If you're in earnest about your soul tonight, God has a message for you, and he's sure to send you one who can.
Explain to you the way of salvation.
Perhaps it is very done, very feebly tonight, but the message of salvation will be presented to you in all its fullness, as it was to Lydia here. And what a result. She gave evidence that she was truly born again. She came into the assurance of salvation. She was a pious soul. She attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.
She gave evidence she was baptized and her household. She besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. Here was.
The sign that her faith was genuine and real in the person of Christ. Because there was a change in her life. She now was baptized, she publicly confessed Christ, and she invited the servants of the Lord to enter her house.
And uh.
Perhaps that was the beginning of the assembly in Philippi.
00:35:04
But still, Paul.
He did not find the man that was calling for him.
But he continued with his work in Philippi.
And we come now to a second character here, and she is a deceiver, She is a false professor.
This damsel, this woman here verse 16. It came to pass as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her master's much gain by sooth saying The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God.
Which show unto us the way of salvation. Well, she was really a servant of the enemy. Now Paul could have received her compliment here, and he could have gone around the city with all the popularity of a preacher. But Paul was very wise and he knew that it came from Satan. And although he didn't want to come into collision with Satan.
The time came when he must not compromise. He must deal with this attack of the enemy. This woman doesn't speak about Christ. She had no room for him. She was under the power of the enemy. And it's a solemn thing. When the gospel is preached, the enemy is always there to oppose it.
And he may use craft as a serpent, and if that fails, as we see in our passage, he will use violence as a lion.
And so Paul?
Reproves the enemy here, as we see in verse.
Verse 17 the same followed Paul and us and cried saying these men are the servants of the most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation. Well that was true, but it didn't mean anything to her. And you know that reminds me friends of professed Christendom today.
There are many who have some knowledge of Christianity, of Christ, and historically they have a knowledge of the Lord and they go through various ceremonies and they make a profession that they are truly children of God, but they don't possess a divine life. They are still under the power of the enemy, but they have a profession.
And it is a solemn thing that many here in the United States and Canada, where I live, are deceived by the enemy of their souls into thinking that they are all right for eternity. They are religious and respectable. Are you like that? And still in your sins before God, still without Christ, you die in your sins. Where I am, you cannot come. Dear friends, don't go on with a profession without any reality.
Like this, the five foolish virgins we read about who had lamps and no oil.
They appeared to be ready. They were professors. How many we meet not only in the United States, but Malawi and other places who make a profession without any reality. Like the woman here, they may know the language of the gospel, they may have heard it many times and yet have never made a decision for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Trusting in their own efforts. You know God is not asking anything from you, my friend. God is a giver. His heart is reaching out to you, but He's not demanding something from you. Tonight. You've got nothing to offer in the 1St place. You're a bankrupt Sinner, empty handed, ruined, guilty, on the road to an eternal hell if you're not saved.
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. How simple, how precious. I've been to Italy a number of times and enjoyed.
Fellowship and company with Brother Giovanni. I think there's a Giovanni in our company here. I had breakfast with him. Giovanni.
00:40:03
Granite, dear brother, With the Lord, now an Italian brother, many times I've been in his home and enjoyed fellowship.
He loved the Lord and he loved to reach out with the Gospel to the Italian people. I used to go with Brother Piero Patrol, who is with the Lord now, an Ernest evangelist as some of you will remember. Anyway, I always enjoyed hearing how Brother Gudaniti was saved. Probably others have heard it, but I will repeat it. When he was a young man in.
Southern Italy, where he lived, He was taken up with the world and his friends. He used to frequent the pool table, the pool hall there, smoking and I suppose drinking and carousing and playing pool. But one day the door opened and a small man came in. He had a black book in his.
In his hand he opened it up. Brother Gunanita, you didn't know, even know what it was, but he shouted out at the top of his voice in that pool hall thick with smoke. He that believeth, verily I say unto you, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life close. The book went out and was gone. Those words from the Word of God penetrated.
The soul of Brother Giovanni, when he wasn't a brother at that time, it penetrated his soul. He didn't have rest. He had never heard anything of that nature before. He says I must find that man. Well, in Brother Grenade. He lived in an adjoining village, Cassano. So it wasn't long before he found who this man was. And he went to his residence, to his little apartment, which I have been in a number of times, and.
Knocked at the door. Are you the man that came to the pool hall the other day and shouted out to a message from the Bible? Yes, I'm the man. Well, he says, I haven't had any rest since I heard that word. Can I come in and hear more of what you you are talking about? By all means. It was Brother Piero Pato's joy to open the door to Giovanni and let him come in and sit down.
And hear the wondrous message. And there he accepted Christ. There Giovanni passed from death unto life. What a magnificent triumph, triumph. And his life was transferred, transformed. He was no longer in the pool, pool hall. He was preaching the gospel and was gathered to the Lord's name many years. Well, Satan was foiled in his attempt here in our passage.
To mix himself up with the work.
Paul saw that that was his purpose and it would have spoiled the work.
And so he commanded the demons to come out of this woman, and then Satan was defeated and furious. We go on with our passage here.
Verse 18 And this did she many days, but Paul being grieved, turned and said to the Spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour, when her masters saw that the hope of their games was gone.
They caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, and brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe being Romans.
And the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates rent off their clothes and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely.
Well.
Satan.
Satan's Kingdom was assailed, and he wasn't going to leave any stone unturned in opposing the message. And so he turns to violence here. He's the lion here. And Paul and Silas were dragged through the city, humiliated, beaten, with many stripes, thrown into the prison. But that's where God wanted them to be. God had a work for them to do in the prison that perhaps they wouldn't have done outside.
00:45:07
And there they were, in the stalks, bleeding and.
In the gloomy dungeon there the jailer had little mercy upon them. He was a cruel, hardened Sinner. So the third one that we are Speaking of an earnest seeker in Lydia.
False professor in the damsel. A hardened Sinner here a most hopeless case.
You would say it's unlikely, almost impossible, that a man like this would ever come to a gospel meeting. He was hard and cruel and rough, as jailers often are, because they deal with the worst cases in the the worst criminals in the area. But you know, God had his eye upon that mass, and this was the way that God used to reach him.
Through these circumstances and poor Paul and Silas, here they were in the dungeon.
But you know, they were acting.
As holy priests here, you know, we read of the holy priesthood in first Peter chapter 2 That's offering praise and Thanksgiving to the Lord, and they were acting in that capacity here. Let us read it. When they had laid many stripes upon them, 23 they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely, who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stalks.
Then he went to sleep.
And there they were.
In a most uncomfortable position, box bleeding, perhaps nothing to eat in the gloom of a dungeon, damp and cheerless. But you know they had something in their hearts. They were there for the Lord, they were there for the sake of the gospel, and God filled their hearts in their mouths. What is this that resounded through the prison cells?
Prayers and praises At midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God. The prisoners heard them. Never before had they heard such accents issuing from that prison, because Paul and Silas were acting as holy priests, and although they were with box bleeding, suffering in body there's, you couldn't confine their spirits in the prison.
They were in the joy of the Lord.
And from their redeemed hearts came forth those prayers and praises. The prisoners heard them. I think this is the first time they ever heard.
Language like this, often they had heard curses and blasphemies, but here were prayers and praises ascending and they couldn't understand this. But God heard the prayer of Paul and Silas. An earthquake was sent. Suddenly there was a great earthquake.
And so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bands were loosed.
God answered their prayer and sent that earthquake that shook that huge prison to its very foundations. The doors flew open, the bands were loosed, and of course.
Usually when doors are open in a prison.
The inmates don't stay there. They would say, let us get out, the doors are open. Paul and Silas could have done that, but they weren't. They were guided by the Spirit of God not to leave the prison because God had a work for them to do. And here they are acting as royal priests.
As we see here the.
You know, the earthquake, I don't think that really woke them up, woke the jailer. It woke them up, but I don't think it really spoke to his heart because he was just on the verge of hurling himself into a lost eternity. Satan was behind him, ready to give him the final push into hell. He was on the very precipice of eternity. He raised his sword to despatch himself into a lost eternity, and Satan was behind it.
00:50:14
But you know, the keeper of the prison was the one that God wanted to reach with the gospel message.
It wasn't the earthquake that that brought him to Christ. I don't believe. It wasn't even death that he feared. It was that wondrous message of love that came from the lips of Paul and Silas in verse 27, the keeper of the prison awakening out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice. Here he is acting.
As the as the royal priest here he is giving a message of love to this poor man. Do thyself no harm. We are all here. That was a message from the heart of God, a message of grace for that man. And he heard it and he believed it. And there he was trembling before Paul and Silas. How often we, how seldom, I should say, we see people trembling under the sound of the Gospel.
Felix trembled when Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. He trembled, but he said, Go thy way for this time. When I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. We never heard that he had a convenient season after that. But here the jailer was brought from death unto life. Oh, how wonderful and.
What a transformation. What a marvelous victory.
Of God in this man's life.
He thrust them into the prison in a cruel manner. Now what a change, what a contrast. He takes them, he washes their stripes, he sets meat before them. He rejoiced in the salvation that God has brought to, had brought to him and all his house. I think the apostles preached the gospel through the night in that household. Perhaps everyone got saved. We're going to meet.
The prison, We're going to meet the jailer in the glory.
I'm going to close with a little story.
As time is gone, I love this story.
Because I knew the man who was involved here in Ottawa.
His name was Mr. Ollie. Mr. Ollie. Although he was not gathered with us, he was an earnest preacher of the gospel. I've stood on the street corner with him. He preached all over the eastern part of the city. But Mr. Ollie came from Ireland.
And used to tell the story of Jimmy Mall. Jimmy Mall was a rough character. He came to Canada, worked in a gold mine, didn't want to remain there.
Tried to work his way back to England, couldn't get.
He couldn't get accommodation on the ship, so he was a stowaway when someone was not looking. He got onto the ship, got to England and began to farm with his uncle.
But Jimmy Moore had a void in his heart.
And he wanted adventure. So he says I'm going to join the Air Force. And he joined the Air Force and he had a, a fellow soldier there.
Who used to speak to him about Christ?
Jimmy Moore would say to him.
You're different to all of us. You don't go to the theater.
Or to you don't smoke and drink like go to the parties like the rest of us. What makes you, what makes you different? He says. Jimmy, I have Christ. He fills my heart. I don't need these other things. Oh.
But he says, I'm going over to Ireland and you come with me. My parents will be glad to see you. We will give you a weekend away from away from the Air Force. All right. So Jimmy Mall went over to England.
And his friend treated him hospitally. And he says, Jimmy, I'm going to a gospel meeting here. Would you come? Well, I've got nothing else to do, and I'm your guest, so I guess I will go. And at that gospel meeting, Mr. Ollie preached the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit. Jimmy Ma. It was a message from heaven to his soul. He saw himself a guilty, lost and ruined Sinner. And there he bowed the knee.
00:55:27
The verse that struck him was Ye must be born again. I say that to you tonight, dear friend. Anyway, Jimmy Ma bowed the knee to Christ.
And he says, now I know my friend, why you don't need those other things. Well, Jimmy Mall went back to England. He was still in the Air Force. He was shifted around to various aerodromes, different parts of Great Britain. Wherever Jimmy went, he preached the gospel. Everyone in the mess hall, everyone in the the recruits in the army or the Air Force.
Pavilions. There they all knew Jimmy Ma He. He was a burning and a shining light. Everywhere he went he preached the gospel and souls were saved. This was 1939.
Jimmy Moore was recruited on the HMS Glorious.
The ship, it was wartime. It was an aircraft carrier, a huge ship. 1100 men were on that ship. Jimmy Mall was one of them.
The story goes there was only.
Of that 1100 men.
There was only 7 survivors.
And one of these survivors told the story of what Jimmy Maud did.
The day before that ship was bombarded at close range and went down, Jimmy Moore asked permission to preach the gospel on the deck, and there the men were all gathered.
And he preached the wondrous message of pardon through faith in Christ.
500 men raised their hand and said they wanted to be saved.
Only eternity will reveal how genuine it was. The next day that ship HM Glorious with 1100 men, was bombarded by a torpedo and it was quite evident there was no hope. And it was, said Jimmy Moore, in the very jaws of death. He stood up and he preached the gospel to those, to his comrades.
Who were only a few minutes from from a watery grave. He preached the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit. Only eternity will reveal how many were saved. Yes, Jimmy Mall went down with the ship.
And as the writer says.
It wasn't those men. Many of them were born again at the last moment.
It wasn't life unto death.
It was death unto life because many of them received Christ as their Savior.
And we'll meet them in the glory. Well, dear friends, thank you for your attention to the Word of God tonight. We do pray that the Spirit of God will speak through the message that you have heard, that you will close in with that wondrous offer of mercy. Because the time is short. The Lord's coming is very near, and He wants you to be among that number who will join in that chorus.
That will sound throughout eternity. 1 little poem I'm going to read and then we will pray.
The Maker of the universe, as man for man was made a curse. The claims of law which he had made unto the uttermost. He paid. His holy fingers made the boughs which grew the thorns that crowned His brow, the nails which pierced His hands were mined in secret places. He designed, He made the forest whence there sprung the tree on which His body hung.
He died upon a cross of wood, yet made the hill on which it stood. Shall we give thanks? Our God and our Father, we thank Thee for the wondrous message of the Gospel, which comes from the heart of God. Though it has been presented feebly, we pray for blessing on the precious.
01:00:22
Seed the good seed from Thy Holy Word to each soul present, and may we.
Realize our privilege as ambassadors for Christ as we have spoken of Jimmy Ma to hold forth the word of life and be a testimony in this Dark World. We pray Thy blessing on the message to each heart. Tonight there may be joy in heaven over one Sinner that repenteth. We ask it in the name and for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. I want to sing in closing just a few verses of number.
9.
#9 Shall we stand?
Burst and maybe the last verses of #9.
Broken
Children—Paul Daplyn
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Good morning. I'd like to welcome everyone to the Sunday School in Montrose here this morning.
I only see three children in their front seats here. I'm sure there's more. They're old enough to sit up front, maybe they could come up now.
While we're waiting for those to.
Come up, maybe we could start.
By singing some hymns.
Before we do that, we're going to ask the Lord's help and blessing because we're going to open the Word of God and we're going to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ and what He's done for us in California Cross at Calvary.
And.
It's my exercise this morning to impress upon you.
His great love to us. You know why he went to the cross of Calvary.
It's shed his precious blood there to wash on our sins away.
If there's anyone here who hasn't yet.
Put their faith and trust Lord Jesus Christ. I trust the Lord's help this morning.
You'll agree, gain a greater sense of His love to you, what He's accomplished on the Cross of Calvary.
And how great a debt you have, because each one of us is a Sinner. We're born in sin, shape and iniquity. We read that in the 51St Psalm.
And you realize that there's nothing you can do to be made fit in the presence of God, except that you accept that you accept the Lord Jesus Christ into your heart.
Let him come in and wash all those sins away, and then they'll be joy in heaven. We read of that in the Bible, and you'll go on rejoicing too.
And after, we're going to sing for about 10 or 15 minutes.
And then we're going to open the Word of God and we're going to talk about our hearts for a little bit.
And then we're going to talk about something that's broken. We're going to talk about that a little bit too, something that has lost its purpose, it can no longer do what it's meant to do. So we're going to talk about that a little bit too. But before we do, we're going to ask Lords Helm.
Our gracious God, loving Father.
We just look to the.
Thank you.
Giving them only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ her Savior.
We thank thee, Lord Jesus.
For what that was done for us, and thy great low for us, that kept you there on that cross.
So suffered the judgment of our sins on the cross Calvary, every one of them.
Was paid for.
Lord Jesus, those three hours of darkness.
And then?
Thy blood was shed, Lord Jesus.
To wash all our sins away, we pray, Lord Jesus, that.
Each one here has put their faith and trust in Lord Jesus Christ. They are going on rejoicing in Thee.
Seeing beauty in thee and how lovely thou art, Lord Jesus.
We just pray.
If there is one that's still lingering or Jesus for whatever reason.
That they will come to thee today, Lord Jesus.
And if there's anyone here pretending to be Christian too?
We trust, too, that they will see the folly in it and.
And come to thee too, Lord Jesus, before it's forever too late.
So we thank thee for the privilege, Lord Jesus.
Pray for hearts that are ready to receive the good seed, Thy precious Word.
We ask it and I were the and precious and you, Lord Jesus.
Well, we have hem sheets here and.
You don't have to pick the the children's hymns on the back of the sheets. You can pick any of the other hymns there if you like. And if I can't get it started, we'll ask your brother to start it for us. So do we have one? Do we have a number?
00:05:04
One hand Good.
#38 OK.
I know not one.
By my Lord, Oh my God.
And that perspective.
I didn't say no.
I'm to him. I can't stop him.
Yes.
My heart.
But I woke. I have been.
Sweating.
And I didn't say.
Oh, 035, which I'm going to get everything together.
Unto him again.
That's a beautiful hymn for me. I didn't come to know the Lord Jesus Christ until I was almost 30 years old. That's it's so much better.
Come to the Savior when you're young.
Now there wasn't.
Time and when I was younger. I was 14.
Christian tried to bring me to the Lord Jesus Christ, but he asked me if I knew where I was going and I knew I was a Sinner so I.
Cold and I'm probably going to hell.
Tears started coming down his face. He said you don't have to go there, But you know, Satan used my friends to whisk me away.
So I couldn't hear the rest of the story.
And I talked about that a little bit when I had Sunday school here two years, two years ago. And it wasn't until I was 30 that I sucked to the Lord Jesus Christ in my heart.
We have another hymn.
We have another number.
OK.
46.
Spelling Song.
Gladi.
'S and he was all being of the highest spirit.
00:10:19
Well, we've had two boys ask for a number. Let's have a girl here. He'll be shy. We have a girl who would like to sing. Pick a number.
Do you have a number?
Oh, I'm sorry, 40.
Jesus.
Yes, gives us slightly.
In the Bible tells me so.
She just wants me.
To take your grandfather.
He will fly away my sin.
Why God gets old child come in?
Yes, give me some love to sleep.
Yeah.
So.
Jesus loves me.
And I never really win. I don't cry and shine and play the sun. Watch me where I live.
Yes, she's a slow sea.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm able to tell me so.
She is nice. Life made me grown standing but stay inside.
Of the way, if I trust him, should I die?
He will take me to my heart.
Yes please, I love me.
Yeah, yeah.
From the Bible tells me so.
That's probably the best known and the best love of children's hymns.
And with the Lord's help this morning, I'm going to.
Talk about how much the Lord Jesus loves us.
00:15:01
Even before we came to him.
And asked Him into our heart to be our Savior, to wash away all of our sins.
Well, I guess we could have one more hymn. So we got someone in the front row here would like to.
OK, 45.
Too little.
1.
1.
Right here. Take them, Lord Jesus, and let them be. Always so big and true to be. That's a nice hymn.
It's a wonderful thing and we.
Realize I need our need of a Savior, that we're a Sinner undone in sin. There's nothing that we can do except come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it doesn't have to be a long prayer. Ask him into his heart.
It's your heart, so he can save you.
So that you're fit and presence with him.
Enjoy forevermore.
I said we were going to talk a little bit about our hearts and, you know, before.
We accept the Lord Jesus Christ. Our heart was lacked with sin.
And then?
When we realize.
Our condition before God that there's nothing that we can do and we can't be in his presence because of the awfulness of our sins.
Then we turn to the Lord Jesus, because he's the only one.
Who's able to pay the penalty of our sins? And he's done that work. And it's a finished work too. I'm across Calvary shedding his precious blood to wash every one of our sins away. Everyone.
You know.
There's only one thing that can.
One person, I should say.
That can satisfy our heart forevermore. You know, God and his wisdom has made us that way, that there's nothing.
That will bring.
Everlasting joy in our heart.
Except his dearly beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ, you know.
It makes me think when you look, look at that, the way our heart is made, there's only one thing that can give you joy forever more, and that's the beloved, our beloved Son of our, of our Father the Lord Jesus Christ. It makes me think of a lock.
There's only one key, they'll they'll open that lock.
I mean, there's thousands of keys, but there's only one.
That can open it.
And we're going to kind of compare that to our Savior, Lord Jesus Christ. There's only one key to our heart, and that's our Savior, Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, there's lots of other keys there that Satan would show us. There's the keys of fame if you wanted to, if you were aspiring to be a famous actor or famous artist or inventor or, or some such thing.
I was also busy the key works where you're trying to do good deeds to you think you're making yourself fit to be the presence of God. There's a key so knowledge if you're inspiring to learn great things in university.
Is the the key of power if you're aspiring to be the leader of your town or your county or country or whatever the case may be?
00:20:02
These are all keys that are the enemy of our soul, Satan.
Has put before us to distract us from the only key that will truly.
Unlock our hearts so there's joy forevermore. There are vain distractions that have been put in our way.
To distract us from coming to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's what Satan, the enemy of our soul, wants to do. He wants to distract us by any means possible.
For coming to the Lord Jesus.
It's a being of hatred, Satan.
Especially towards those that love and glorify Lord Jesus Christ, an absolute being of hatred is unable.
Is completely unable to experience love or understand love.
Complete contrast from our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is love. He is love.
And.
If you're.
Someone who's gotten older, like myself, before we accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, you may have tried some of those keys, those other keys that don't work.
And you know.
When you.
Try a key in the lock that doesn't work it, it won't open the lock. And I suppose if you're strong enough and force the key may end up breaking the lock. You know, that's what can happen too, if you're trying these other keys that Satan has put before you that we've been talking about, the keys of works, the keys of fame, the keys of knowledge, the keys of power.
If you pursue that course.
Trying to get in satisfaction in your heart that way, what's going to happen is you're it's like forcing a key that doesn't work. It's going to break your heart. It's going to break your heart.
And Satan breaks hearts all the time.
That's his purpose.
As I said before, he's a being of hatred.
And he can't even understand love. He can't even understand it.
The Lord Jesus he is.
He's loved us, has such a great love too, that he suffered on the cross of Calvary in three hours of darkness. We're never going to know how much he suffered at the hand of God to pay the penalty of our sins. It's just it's we're probably never know how much he endured on the cross, Calvary, and those three years of darkness.
If he could have done it in less time, he would have, but he couldn't.
How great a work the Lord Jesus Christ.
Did on the cross Calvary you know?
He spoke the worlds into existence by the word of his power. I think Brother John Kemp mentioned that yesterday.
By the word of his power. But you know he couldn't do that with our sins and maintain His Holiness. He couldn't do it.
And.
He had to suffer on the cross Calvary.
The wash all our sins away.
There's a verse in chapter one of Hebrews.
And verse three, our brother John Kemp, I believe, mentioned it during the Gospel like last night.
And I was just wondering if there's anyone here who would like to read that verse for me. Is there anyone here?
Would like to read that verse for me.
If I don't see any hands coming up.
No, no.
OK, well I'll read it and maybe perhaps there'll be a few more verses that we're going to read about read as well. But it says in Hebrews chapter one and verse three, who, being in the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself, purged our sins.
00:25:14
Sat down, the right hand of the majesty on high.
That's our savior.
One tremendous power and glory and majesty.
If you could speak to the worlds of existence by the word of his power. But he couldn't do that one for our sins. He had to suffer for three hours of darkness and across Calvary.
I I.
Wanted to talk a little bit.
About something that's broken.
Something that's no longer can do what it was meant to do.
You know each one of us.
Has been put here for a reason I shortly before I accept the Lord Jesus Christ.
I realized I had to be here for a reason.
He'd already been working in my heart, drawing him to himself.
For I accepted him into my heart. I knew I had to be here for a reason. And that means that each one of us here have to be here for a reason too. I don't just mean sitting in our seats here in Montrose. I mean living our lives in this world.
And you know.
If.
We don't. We haven't accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.
We can never.
Do what we were meant to do, because God has a purpose, a divine purpose for each one of us.
But until.
We accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.
We don't have the power to do it. We don't have the power to do it. We can never do what we're meant to do. We can never do the purpose, the divine purpose.
We were made for.
And I just wanted to talk a little bit about that.
You know, I'm sure you children here have had a a toy that you really like that you played with and you enjoyed playing with it, but then perhaps because of an accident or maybe the thing wore out or whatever.
The thing became broken. Broken.
If any of your children had that happened to you where you had a toy you really liked and and it was broken, do you have anybody?
Want to talk about it?
Sure.
I had a big yellow tractor that I could ride on and then the rear axle broke so it was pretty useless. Yes, that's the point I'm getting to.
When something is broken and.
Is unable to do what I was meant to do. As our brother Jonathan has already mentioned, it's useless. And you know, that's like us too. Before we accept the Lord Jesus Christ, we're useless. We're useless to God.
Not that he needs us, but to, but it's his joy.
To have us do his will, to do what he's he's purposed for us in our lives to.
It's his joy, and it should be our. It should our joy, too.
And you know if.
You don't accept him as your savior. You're broken or or useless. I forgot to ask Jonathan.
How did you feel about that? When I was broken, Pretty sad. Pretty sad.
Pretty sad, he says. And, you know.
00:30:00
What about the Lord Jesus?
The purpose that he has for us.
In this world.
That we can joy in Him doing His will.
Hard to fulfill our divine purpose. What about the Lord Jesus if you never come?
To the Lord Jesus Christ.
It not only makes him sad, it grieves him. It really grieves him.
Because.
He's made the provision on the cross of Calvary.
There's a sadness there because you haven't come to him. And as Jonathan said, when you, when you can't do what you're meant to do, you're broken. You can't.
And, and it's just, you're just, it's, it's, it's become useless. And that's what I, I really wanted to kind of impress upon us that not having a, a sense of purpose in this world. You know, that's a, you know, that's an awful feeling not to have a sense of purpose. And, you know, there's a lot of people in this world that don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as a savior.
And they they don't seem to have any purpose in their life.
And it's only through our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, that we can.
Experience the purpose to do the purpose to do His will.
And have joy in him.
Now there's a verse.
In the Philippines.
It's in chapter 2.
Philippians.
Chapter 2 and verse 13 I was thinking of particular.
Is there anyone here would like to read that verse for me?
For it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
Thank you.
To do and to will of his good pleasure, you know.
When we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, we're able to do.
He works in us both to will to do of His good pleasure He gives us the power.
To be able to do it something that we never had before.
By the indwelling of His Holy Spirit.
Something that we never had before.
It's only by the indwelling of His Holy Spirit that we're able to do anything to please God. Before we were saved, there was nothing we could do to please God. All we had was was our sins. We had nothing else to offer to God except our sins. We have nothing to boast and.
All our sins are like as like filthy rags and speaks of a scripture, something that's disgusting and it's it's only through.
His love towards us and that we're able by the indwelling His Holy Spirit, that we are given the power to do His will to do what we're meant to do in this world.
And that's, he's, that's a, that's a wonderful thing, you know, after he's showing his love to us then.
He, he, he fits us so that we're able to, to, to.
Do those things that He would have us to do so that others around us can see the love of God through our works and through our words.
That they they want, that others want to come to Lord Jesus Christ. That's what each one of us has been.
Put in this world for to to do that work, to perform the will of the Lord Jesus Christ, to bring others.
00:35:02
To Lord Jesus.
But you know.
God in his love.
Has sought after each and everyone of us. Now it talks of in the Psalms. 33 Yet God speaketh once, yet twice.
But you know, I know in my life, and perhaps in yours too. He's spoken to you many more times than that to to realize.
The how great your sins are and and.
And there's nothing that you can do to.
Get rid of those sins except to put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I hope and pray that each one here.
Has.
Put your faith in Lord Jesus.
That's your no longer broken like Jonathan's tractor.
Useless.
But that you've come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. You've, you've come to him.
To him and have eternal life and you know.
We're told in God's Word and behold, now is the day of salvation. He doesn't promise us tomorrow. He doesn't even promise us this afternoon. The only promises now.
So if there's anyone here.
Who still hasn't put their faith and trust?
Lord Jesus.
That you'll bow your head quietly when you when we pray at the end of the meeting.
And accept him.
Into.
Your heart.
And go on rejoicing.
You know.
He wants to save you.
You know where his we belong to him.
Because he's made us.
Because he has made us. You know, there's a verse in 139th Psalm.
It's one of my favorite songs.
139th Psalm.
On verse 14.
Now I was just wondering if there's someone here would like to read 139, the 14th verse of that 139th Psalm. There's someone here would like to read that.
So I'm 139.
Well.
We need one of the older ones.
Verse 14.
I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right Well, thank you.
We are fearfully and wonderfully made.
And what's the result when we really realize that I will praise thee?
Glory, when each one of us will glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and give him the praise, the worship that He's so worthy of, not just because of what He's accomplished on the cross of Calvary is marvelous as that is.
But because of who he is.
The Son of God.
From everlasting for everlasting he always was.
And we consider.
That one.
And how he desires to be our friend, one of such great majesty and glory and power. And he wants to be your friend, even holds the very breath in your hand. And you wouldn't be able to have it except he gives, give it, gives it to you.
00:40:01
And he wants to be your friend, you know?
The Lord Jesus is the most wonderful friend and Savior that we can ever have. You know, Scripture tells us of him sticking to us closer than her brother and you know.
That's our Savior, the Lord Jesus.
Marvelous. Ours works.
His ways are unsearchable.
And as I've mentioned already, we'll never probably enter into what he had to suffer on the Cross of Calvary Gerardimus to ourselves, to himself.
So that we could be fit to be with him.
A soon coming day. You know, I mentioned too that.
With that verse, behold, now is the day of salvation, you know.
It could happen soon. We could hear that shout. We reread of that where everyone that.
Knows the Lord Jesus Christ will be caught of the scene and twinkling of an eye just like that gone.
Be with him.
Forevermore.
But you know.
I hope that you're ready.
You'll be able to hear that shout.
To be with him, to see him as he is.
If not, you'll be left behind for judgment.
And terrible. That's a terrible thing that will be, especially when you realize.
That you had that opportunity to accept Lord Jesus as your Savior.
And to.
But you refused.
And that makes the Lord Jesus has no pleasure in judgment of the wicked. It'll be.
He'll be sad because he's made that provision and you've refused it. If you've refused it, he'll be so he'll be sad.
There was a him and a Him in the axis of Grace.
God beseeching and man refusing to be made forever glad, I hope, dear one.
If you haven't accepted Lord Jesus as your Savior, that you will come to Him and will also be made forever glad.
That you won't be broken because of sin.
That you won't be broken so that you can't do what you were meant to do.
That deal may be made whole. Deal may be made whole for the blood.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray.
Father, we just thank thee.
What thou has done for us?
Giving none, only begotten. Son, we thank Thee, Lord Jesus, for what thou has done.
On the cross calorie to redeem us.
We thank Thee, Lord Jesus, for such a love as I that.
Hefty there on the cross Calvary.
We trust.
Everything that's been said this morning, Lord Jesus.
It's been.
For thine honor and thy glory.
And has been the truth according to the word of God or Jesus.
That if anyone here.
Hasn't opened their heart, the Lord Jesus.
That that key the only key.
The Lord Jesus.
Will come in.
And wash all our sins away.
That they'll go on rejoicing. We just look to the Lord Jesus.
Thank you for the privilege again of proclaiming these the only Savior sinners.
Thank you again for that finished work on the cross. We thank thee, thy worthy and precious name of Jesus.
00:45:07
Yeah.
Philippians 4:1-9
Address—Wally Dear
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Could we begin our meeting this afternoon by seeing 303?
#303.
When Israel by divine command the pathless desert trod, they found throughout the barren land a sure resource in God.
Verse 6 Lord, tis enough, we ask no more. Thy grace around us pours its rich and unexhausted store, and all its joy is ours #303.
When Israel?
Body divides the.
Cloud, they found out.
I should resource in love.
A glory.
Of marshmallow Marshmallow.
I.
Have progressed in here singular from us about your first.
Like every *** of a desertion.
But it's outside your heart.
And then it's thrown out of the world.
And.
Shall we pray?
Our God and our Father, we thank Thee.
This afternoon, that Israel's God.
Is our God.
And we think of thy earthly people and how they travel through that desert.
And how thou does provide for them at every step.
And they found a sure resource indeed, our God.
And we rejoice this afternoon to know.
That thou does provide.
For each of us.
In a wonderful way, as we pass along life's pathway, we thank Thee for that.
Food. That living food.
We think of Thy word. Thou is given to us to encourage our hearts. We thank You for Thy spirit.
By which we enter into and enjoy thy truth.
And so we feel so blessed.
And we thank Thee for one more opportunity to open Thy word and pray that as we continue this meeting that Thou wilt have Thy way. Thou knowest in particular need of each one present. And we pray that something from Thy word might be ministered in such a way that it would meet the need. Might be a wording season. And so we ask all now as we give Thee our thanks for this time.
00:05:26
Together.
Seeking Thy help and Thy own precious and most worthy name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
I would like to turn this afternoon.
To the book of Philippians.
I'd like to read the 1St 9 verses.
Of chapter four of the Book of Philippians.
And I believe in these 9 verses.
We have 9 exhortations.
Or could we say commands?
And they're simple.
And.
I believe that the apostle Paul in writing to the Philippians.
He wrote from a prison.
At least he was chained, perhaps to a guard, then prisoned.
About four years and you know he had at heart.
Not his own interests, but the interests of God.
And his people, what a deep love.
The apostle Paul had for the church, for the people of God.
Because he had a deep love for the Lord, he enjoyed the Lord's love in his own heart.
And it influenced what he thought, what he said.
And what he did and his was one beautiful life.
Well.
Let's read these first nine verses.
Philippians, Chapter 4.
And verse.
1.
Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, and longed for my joy in crown, so stand fast in the Lord. My dearly beloved, I beseech you odious, and beseech Sintequi, that they be of the same mind in the Lord.
And I entreat thee also, true Yoke fellow, help those women which labored with me.
In the gospel with Clement also, and with other my fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life.
Rejoice in the Lord alway. And again I say, rejoice, let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good, report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise.
Think on these things.
Now before I go any farther.
I have a question.
Is this meeting 3/4 of an hour or an hour?
One hour, I see somebody going like that, OK.
Well, I would like to say.
That.
The apostle starts off the chapter here. Therefore well when you see a word like this.
It's a good idea to read what comes before because what we just read.
Apparently flows from.
What was previously written?
And so let's back up and we'll read verse 20 and 21.
The apostle says for our conversation or citizenship is in heaven.
From whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, or body of humiliation, 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.
00:10:16
Here we have brought before us the wonderful truth.
Of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And these exhortations that we have just read.
Are given in light of his coming and it could be today.
And the apostle says, here we look for the Savior.
He doesn't say here we wait for the Savior.
Of course he was waiting.
But he was looking.
Are you looking for the Lord Jesus Christ to return?
I believe it would delight his heart.
To know that you're not only waiting for his coming, but you're watching for his coming.
Not that long ago, we.
Visited dear brother, his wife had passed away.
But he had a little companion in the house.
There's a little dog.
Can't recall the exact breed of the dog.
But a cute little dog Frisky.
And I know our brother thought a lot of this little dog.
And you know, we went to visit another assembly and on the way he told us.
That this little dog.
When he leaves.
Finds a place and a window sill.
And.
He sits there on the window sill.
And I thought to myself, that little dog.
He's got one person on his mind, this dear brother.
Maybe you wouldn't mind if I mentioned his name, Brother Huff?
So he tells us all about this.
While we were away for quite a time. And of course I didn't forget what he had to say.
About the little dog. And so we returned. It was night, it was dark.
And of course, we're going to wonder now.
Is that little dog in the window?
Well, we came close to the house, there was a light on in the house and sure enough.
There he was.
On the sill looking out and we drive up the driveway.
And that little dog off the windowsill bounced toward the door. So happy to see our brother return.
I thought to myself.
Am I as happy as that little?
Creature.
To think of the Lord's coming.
And will it just rejoice my heart?
To see him well as I look around.
The gymnasium here this afternoon.
I see those that have big smiles on their face. I know you're looking forward to the return of your Savior, the Lord Jesus, the one who gave his life that you might live.
The one who suffered untold agony on that cruel cross of Calvary.
In order that you and I, we might be delivered.
From judgment that we might go judgment free, we had it brought before us.
In a meeting this morning, the sufferings of Christ, what he endured.
On your behalf and mine.
It ought to cause in our hearts a response.
And we ought to each, I believe, be.
Looking for the Savior?
The Lord Jesus Christ and it tells us He will change our vile bodies.
These bodies of humiliation.
And you know, in talking with different ones.
We find out that there's many.
00:15:02
Dear Saints of God.
That are experiencing.
Physical problems and maybe they don't show it.
But when you talk with them, you find out.
A little bit about what they're going through and to my own heart, it's just amazing how some.
Go on with their affliction.
And when you look at them, you would never know it.
They still are beaming. And their faces.
They don't show it.
Well.
You know these bodies that are subject to illness, to infirmity.
They will be changed.
And it's going to happen in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Now this is the blessed hope that we have. And it tells us He's going to do it according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
You know Lord Jesus could say, all power is given unto me both in heaven and in earth, and He will subdue all things to Himself, even death, the last enemy.
Our Savior is victorious.
He arose a victor from the Dark Domain.
As we often sing, And he lives forever with his Saints to reign.
And we're going to reign with him.
And that's what we have to look forward to.
And we think about it as we experience the difficulties of life's pathway. This is not raining time now. This is training time. But the apostle and writing to Timothy, he said, if you suffer with him, you're also going to reign with him. And we look forward to that. Well, the apostle.
He carries on now into this next chapter. Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved.
And notice the language in this verse, what endearing terms the apostle Paul uses in referring to the Saints of God.
It's beautiful to read.
What?
The apostle says here.
My brethren.
He delighted to think of believers as his brothers and sisters in Christ.
And he speaks of them as beloved.
But not only that, dearly beloved.
Is that the attitude of my heart? How about yours to God's people?
And longed for.
Longed for. What does that mean?
Could that mean that he longed to be with them?
He longed to be in their company.
Perhaps it could mean that he longed for their good.
Their welfare.
But.
Whatever it means, the Apostle Paul had a very positive attitude.
Toward his brethren.
And then he speaks of them as my joy and crown.
You know it rejoiced the apostles heart to think of those at Philippi.
Who had come to Christ, and there was assembly formed there, and there were those there that were growing in the Lord.
And we find that they had fellowship.
With the Apostle Paul they appreciated.
What he was doing.
They appreciated the Apostle Paul.
And he speaks of it, you know, in chapter one. How that.
Verse three I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, for you all making requests with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
00:20:15
There were other assemblies that weren't quite.
As warm hearted toward the apostle as those at Philippi.
The one at Philippi the Apostle.
Could speak of these ones as my joy and crown.
Perhaps the Crown would speak of a future time.
When the Lord, the apostle would see.
The Philippians in the presence of Christ, that is coming.
You know, he speaks of that writing to the Thessalonians.
Are not even ye my crown of rejoicing? That is coming. And so the apostle, I believe, looks ahead. But here's what he says. So stand fast in the Lord, stand fast.
Don't change your position.
The enemy wants us.
To give up.
He wants us to quit.
But the apostle is saying don't quit, don't give up, stand fast in the Lord.
Now he's not saying that we should.
Stand fast in our own ideas, in our own opinion.
Because it could be wrong.
And we find that there are those they adhere.
To an opinion that they think is right.
Only to find out in time they were mistaken.
But rather than owning the mistake.
They continue on.
And it's not a happy situation, you know, somebody said.
The next best thing?
To not making a mistake.
Is to admit you've made a mistake when you have. I speak to myself as much as to anyone.
We had read from Luke 15 this morning.
What a beautiful account we have there of the Prodigal having gone so far.
Away from home.
Far from his father, but his father is thinking about him even in the fire country. I believe it was pointed out at Saint John.
That where it speaks of when the father sees him afar off, it's the same word As for the far country.
And I enjoyed the thought that even though that prodigal.
That wayward son was far away. The father's thoughts were with him.
Far away, he's looking forward to his return.
But you know when the sun came back.
He said 3 words and I believe these 3 words are perhaps the hardest.
Words to speak.
In the human language.
I have sinned.
Oh, there was repentance there.
That's what the father appreciated.
It was the start of blessing and we find that the Father seemed like he couldn't do enough for his son.
But there was a willingness to own.
Sin.
A willingness to own mistake.
Not easy to do because you know, the last thing that dies in man, it has been said, is pride. Pride and pride is a big problem. It really is.
The middle letter, the word pride.
Is.
Big eye.
Middle letter of the word sin.
I.
It's not good.
God doesn't appreciate pride.
You know he's not going to give his glory to another.
00:25:03
And God.
Is going to see to it that all glory goes to His Son.
He's given all things into his hand.
And when we get to the glory.
There's only one.
Who's get the praise and the adoration, and that will be?
The Son of God.
Of course, the father too.
The Father and the Son.
We're not going to see the Father with our.
Physical eyes, but we will see the sun.
But the Lord Jesus said he that has seen me has seen the Father so.
We're going to have a very real sense of the Father's presence.
When we get to his house and we look forward to that.
But all glory.
To the Son God would have all men to honor the Son.
Even as they honor the Father.
There's another word that has I right in the middle of it.
Faith.
FAITH.
Somebody said faith stands for forsaking all.
I take in.
I like that.
There's not a word. It has the word I twice.
Christian.
Christian.
And we've heard it said that, Christian.
Stands for Christ.
IANI am nothing.
Nothing.
Everything that we have, all that we are, that's in Christ.
And as I read down through this chapter here, how many times do we have 3 words in the Lord, in the Lord, in the Lord. And that's who the apostle wants you and I to stand fast. Not in our own thoughts, in our own ideas.
But stand fast in the Lord.
And again he says, my dearly beloved, you just.
I think it's so beautiful.
See how the Apostle addresses the Philippians.
The warmth of his heart for them.
It really warms my heart.
I'm sure it warms yours too.
Now.
It comes to mind that back in the.
Old Testament, Second Samuel, just like to turn there. And I know we're familiar with this, but.
I don't think it hurts to go over these stories.
I find that when I read the word of God.
I can read the same story over and over and over.
And.
I enjoy it.
It's so different in the books of this world when you read the book.
You put it back on the shelf.
Maybe you take it down another time, might read it again. Probably not.
But the Word of God is so different. We have this book and we've been opening it time and time again in these meetings.
Why is this? Because it's a message from God to you and to me.
And I know we have earnest hearted souls here this afternoon that want to know what God has to say. You want to go God's way. You know that going this way is the happy way.
And you know God in his grace.
His marvelous kindness.
Has opened up to you and to me, his counsels, his mind.
And.
It's just so beautiful to realize that you and I, we have a very.
00:30:04
Great place in his thoughts. His desire is toward us.
And we know that his desire is that his son should have a pride.
And you and I as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Are part of the bride of Christ.
What do you think the father thinks about the bride for his son?
You know, I believe there's nothing.
That God the Father.
Withholds from his son.
The Lord Jesus speaks of it.
He's given all things into his hands.
And the wonderful thing is that the bride of Christ is going to share those things.
All those things by virtue of the fact that we are His closest companion throughout eternity, we are His bride, and we look forward to the marriage supper of the Lamb. You know God has big plans for His Son.
And by virtue of this, big plans.
For you and for me.
Who is it that conceived this idea?
That the church.
With his son.
Should be so blessed while we sing to him, don't we? The thought is dying, referring to God the Father.
His purposes? Councils.
In a past eternity, He had you and me in his sights and.
He's made it possible whereby we can be brought into a relationship.
As children, but also as.
The Bride of Christ.
Well, coming back to this chapter here in Second Samuel 23.
And verse.
11 Now here we have David's mighty men brought before us.
And they did great feats.
In devotedness to the Captain of their salvation.
That was David. He became a captain over them.
And he met their needs, but they did mighty feats.
I believe it was in love.
For David.
And perhaps two, because of the fact that David was a man of God that had faith in God.
You know, if we have faith in God.
We not only appreciate God, but we appreciate those.
Who?
Serve him.
And certainly David was a man after God's own heart, a man who trusted.
In the Lord. But notice what this man Shama did.
Second Samuel 23 and verse 11. And after him was Shama the son of Aegy the heroite. And the Philistines were gathered together into a troop, where was a piece of ground full of lentils. And the people fled from the Philistines, but he stood in the midst of the ground and defended it.
And slew the Philistines, and the Lord wrought a great victory.
Now here was a man that stood his ground.
When everybody was running away.
He believed he was doing the right thing.
And he was, because it clearly tells us it was the Lord.
That gave him the victory.
But he stood his ground, and he saw this one going.
This other one going, I don't know, maybe they fought for time but they give up.
And they run away. And now here he is, all by himself.
Is he going to turn and run? No.
It said he stood in the midst of the ground.
You know, I'd like that thought, too. He was right in the midst. He wanted all of it.
00:35:03
You know, there's the middle of this gym here.
And.
If I had really long arms.
The best way to reach out to everybody?
In the audience.
Would be to stand right in the middle of that circle over there.
If I try to reach out from this point here, I might have long arms, but I probably couldn't reach way out over there into the corners. This man, he wanted all the ground. He wanted all the lentils. They were important to him.
And it tells us that.
When the other people said from the Philistines, it says he slew the Philistines.
So, you know, it's a word to my own heart that we.
We don't give up and quit when the going gets tough.
Of course, if we're all by herself, we might.
Ask am I on the right track? But if God shows us that we are, I believe.
We need to hold.
A grant.
The world places great importance on numbers.
Strength in numbers. The majority rules.
And we've got an election coming up in this country.
And of course, typically the one who gets the most votes.
Is going to be the one that rules in this country going to be the president?
The majority rules, but we find in the word of God doesn't work that way.
No, Often those that are acting according to God's mind, they're in the minority.
And maybe even down to one.
That's how it was here.
But it's been said before, I think it's worth repeating.
God plus one makes a majority.
So stand fast.
In the Lord.
The Lord is going to give you victory.
The Lord will stand by you.
Just as he did by Shama.
My brother John read from Second Chronicles. Is it chapter 20, Jehoshaphat, you know, he's faced with this tremendous.
Enemy.
He said we have no might.
Against this great host it comes against us. Neither know we what to do.
But our eyes are upon thee.
And the prophet, he gets up and he gives a word in season to encourage God's people. At that time, the battle is not yours, it's God's.
God fights the battle.
And of course, we know the outcome when this is the case.
It's VV.
Stand fast.
In the Lord.
Now that's the first exhortation. Now #2.
In verse two, I beseech you, Odious and beseech syndicate, that they be of the same mind in the Lord.
The same mind.
In the Lord.
You know, it tells us back in the Old Testament how good and how pleasant it is.
For brethren to dwell together in unity.
And we could turn to that. I believe it's Psalm 133, and there's a great blessing connected with that.
God appreciates.
That.
Practical expression.
Of the truth of the Church in this world.
And I must say, when we look about.
We see.
Such ruin.
And division scattering is so humbling to contemplate.
00:40:08
The present state of the Church of God.
But I would say this even though things are so bad.
God is the same.
And we've been speaking about the Spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit is God.
And we have the presence, the power, and the action of God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit at work on the earth today.
And.
Because things are so bad is no excuse.
Why we should give up, throw up our hands in despair and say what's the use?
Of trying to act on the principles of God's Word.
God is sufficient.
He is.
But you know the pastor notice here at Philippi.
There were these two sisters, apparently, and there was some disagreement between them.
And.
I don't know that it was anything too serious at this point, but you know, there can be seeds.
Of.
Divisiveness.
That if they're not dealt with.
They germinate, they grow, and things can go from bad to worse.
The Apostle Paul, he sensed that there was this problem, and so there is this exhortation.
Be of the same mind in the Lord again.
In the Lord.
Now there are those in the world today.
And.
Dare gather together. The world has all kinds of clubs.
You know, and some aren't bad, but some aren't good. But the point here is.
Is it in the Lord? See.
Be of the same mind in the Lord.
We have the mind of Christ.
We have the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God doesn't lead.
Away from Christ.
The Spirit of God leads.
To the center.
And Christ is the center.
Of the assembly.
So.
It seems to me.
If we were to allow the Spirit of God to have his way in our lives.
We would be in the same place.
Would we not?
The same mind in the Lord. It's so beautiful when there is harmony amongst God's people.
And.
I think it was our brother Robert. He was referring there to Ephesians about.
Submitting to one another, you know.
Over there in chapter 5 of Ephesians.
Verse 21 Submit yourselves 1 to another.
In the fear of God, in other words, we don't always have to have our own way.
Let's think about.
What might please the other person? Well.
Be of the same mind in the Lord.
You say, well, it's such an impossible thing. It seems to have.
That are at odds.
Come together.
And actually agree.
But the Lord can do that.
We don't want it.
Limit his power, because there's nothing too hard for the Lord.
Now there's a third exhortation, verse three, and I entreat thee also true yoke fellow. I take the yoke fellow to be a paraphritis because we know that Epaphroditus was a dear servant of God that worked with the apostle. And I think the apostle dictated this particular letter to a paraditis, and I believe he was the one that carried it.
00:45:21
But in any case, this is what he says. Help those women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life.
Help those women which labored with me. It's not that they were involved in public speaking.
But there were ways in which the sisters were helping out in the gospel outreach, and the apostle could see there was need for help. So he says, help those women which labored with me in the gospel and, you know, among the people of God.
You find that there are those that are ready to help.
Others, not so much.
Some.
Perhaps he wouldn't.
Go to to seek help.
But others, they're easy to go to because they're ready to help.
Ready unto every good work, and the apostle he wants.
His yoke fellow to help another admonition era exhortation.
Now we come to verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord alway.
And again I say rejoice. You know your pastor Paul, he wasn't in nice circumstances.
But as was brought out yesterday.
The circumstances.
Don't create joy.
In our lives now. If they do, it's very temporary.
But the Apostle Paul, I think he'd already been four years in prison, if I'm not mistaken.
And.
He's rejoicing, I believe, joy.
Is repeated more times or rejoicing in this epistle than any other epistle.
17 times or more I believe.
And so we see that the apostle had something more than circumstances to delight his heart, and we know who it is. It was Jesus. Rejoice in the Lord.
He thought about those that were professing Christians.
In the previous chapter.
He speaks about.
Many who walk, verse eighteen, of whom I have 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, whose glory is in their shame.
Who mind earthly things?
Well, certainly the apostle didn't rejoice in these ones.
But in spite of these ones that were so disappointing the Lord.
Was the same. He hadn't changed.
And the apostle could rejoice in the Lord, and so can you and I.
One there is above all others. Oh how he loves.
This is love beyond a brother's. Oh, how he loves.
Earthly friends may fail and leave US1 day, soothe the next day grieve us, but this friend will never forsake us. Oh how he loves. His love never changes and that's what we joy in. Rejoice in his love even though we can't rejoice always in one another.
The Lord is there, and we can rejoice in Him.
And when we do, this is a testimony to the worth.
Of Christ, people look at you, you got a happy face, you're beaming when things are going bad economies.
Hurting.
World conflict.
Problems at home and abroad and so on and so forth. What makes you so happy?
00:50:03
Well, it's because we have the Lord.
We know the Lord Jesus.
And we know that he's going to set everything right in the coming day.
In the meantime, He goes with us day by day, never will leave or forsake us.
He helps us through every situation in life.
Sometimes.
He takes us over it, the difficulty sometimes he takes us around it.
But sometimes you just take us right through it.
I think that, you know, and I'm driving down the highway.
And then the traffic gets all backed up.
And you wonder what's going on.
What's happening here? Is there an accident?
There's a construction.
You come to an exit detour, you go out.
And detour shows you right where to go.
And you get right back on the highway.
Beyond the problem.
That's a good feeling, isn't it, to go around a problem like that?
Or sometimes.
All of a sudden the traffic breaks loose and you just go.
Roof sailing right along.
The problem? All the sun seemed to disappear.
Well, sometimes that's how it happens in our own experience. You know, the Lord can take away a problem. Simple.
But then sometimes we just have to go down the highway, stop and go, stop and go, stop and go, and finally we get through. Well, the Lord takes us through.
The difficulties too. So in whatever way the Lord works.
Is going to.
Help us through.
Well, verse five it says, let your moderation be known unto all men, or your yielding Ness be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
Well, I believe the thought here is that.
We need to realize that the world.
We'll take advantage of the Christian.
And the world.
Threatens the Christian and so on.
But we don't always have to have our own way.
Because even if we lose out in this world, we're going to leave this world. The Lord is at hand, He's coming soon, and we're going to leave all this behind.
You know the Lord Jesus, it tells us when.
He was threatened. He threatened not again. When he was reviled, he reviled not again.
What did he do? He committed himself to him. That judges righteously.
He committed himself to God, to his Father, and it helped him through.
But if we're going to go through this world just fighting for our own rights.
We might be right, but it's going to hinder our testimony for Christ because that was not the attitude.
Of the Lord Jesus. They took advantage of Him.
But he knew that in the end.
All would work in his favor.
Now verse six, be careful for nothing or the thought here is be anxious for nothing. In other words, don't worry about anything. I think that's the thought.
It's another exhortation.
But we are creatures.
That tend to worry, don't we? And.
I remember hearing about an elderly lady and.
She said. You know.
I always seem to feel bad when I'm feeling good because I know before too long I'm going to be feeling bad again.
And, you know, we tend to look into the future like this and we worry.
00:55:00
But God wants us to take one day at a time. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Take no thought for tomorrow, because we're going to take thought for itself. It's going to take care of itself. And so God, he wants us to take one day at a time and trust Him.
For the next day.
And when we think about it.
I agree with that him, don't you?
#23.
We'll praise Him for what's passed and we trust Him for what's to come.
We look back, we can see that his way is the best way and he brought us to where we are. He's going to take us all the way home.
Now another exhortation in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving.
Let your requests be made known unto God, and what's the result? The peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
We don't keep God's peace. His peace keeps us. It's wonderful.
But the formula is.
In everything by prayer and supplication, the Lord wants us to look to Him independence.
And express.
Our request to him, but with Thanksgiving.
Oh, how important this is. Thanksgiving gives glory to God.
That's why there's not too much Thanksgiving, maybe in the world. There's not a willingness to give glory to God.
The Lord says, Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
How many times has the Lord helped us out and we thank Him because He is the one to give us deliverance and He gets the glory. And furthermore, thankful people are happy people, they really are.
We have so much to be thankful for.
I understand Matthew Henry. He was a Bible scholar.
And one day he was accosted by thieves.
And they robbed him.
While he wrote down the experience in his diary.
And he wrote. You know, I'm thankful for four things.
Number one.
That even though I was robbed, I was never robbed before.
And #2 That even though they took my purse.
They didn't take my life.
And #3.
And even though they took everything that was in my purse.
There wasn't really that much in it.
And #4.
I was the one that was robbed.
And it wasn't.
Me that did the robbing.
Now here's a man, he looks at this experience in his life.
And he gives thanks to God for it.
You know, it looks on the bright side, and that's so good, isn't it?
I think if the Lord himself.
And how this morning we had the privilege to remember the Lord Jesus in his death.
And we follow his example because he took the bread and he gave thanks for it. Think about it, that which spoke of his deepest suffering, he gives thanks for this and then the cup likewise.
So amazing. Well, may we give thanks too now.
We got about 2-3 minutes left, first eight, just a long verse.
But this simply tells us we need to be occupied with that which is good.
That which is good.
And pardon me, but I came up with this little acronym and I call it the J plug because I have a hard time to remember the sequence of what we have in this first. So the J plug, now it doesn't fit perfectly, but.
Let's see what we've got. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true.
Whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure.
01:00:02
Whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report.
If there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things, exhortation to fill our minds with that which is good. And this is what characterized the Lord Jesus Himself. And if we're occupied with Him, I believe these things will characterize our thinking. Satan is trying to get our minds, bombarding our minds with anything and anybody but Christ.
And.
He seems to be successful in so many cases. Now verse 9. Those things which he had both learned and received and heard and seen in me.
Do, and the God of peace shall be with you.
The apostle Paul, he was living embodiment of the truth that we have here in this portion. He was an example of the believers and the power of example. How great it is. And he says now you do what you learned, received, heard and seen in me, do it. And the Lord Jesus said, if you know these things, happy are ye if you do them.
And here is the wonderful consequence. It says the God of peace shall be with you. I think that's even more wonderful than the peace of God.
Because the peace of God is part of God. But now we've got all of God.
The God of peace going with us day by day. Well, may we be encouraged just to go on with the Lord the little while that remains. And He's 9 exhortations. Maybe we just take them to heart. And the Lord desires your richest blessing. He has your best interest at heart to your young people. He wants you to be thoroughly happy. He's a happy God, as we've had before us.
And he's made it possible that it could be so.
Let's just pray together. Our Father, we just want to thank Thee for this time together over Thy word. And these days of meetings, we do feel so privileged and so blessed, and we ask that that will keep us in the path of Thy choosing and that we might keep our focus on the Lord Jesus.
That we might be rejoicing.
In the Lord and I love.
In the exceeding riches of thy grace, and Thy power to meet our every need.
We thank thee for thy all sufficiency.
So we do commit.
The balance of the day-to-day.
And just give thanks for this opportunity to be together. And as we go our various ways, we pray that Thou will keep each one safe on the highways. And we we just shine for Thee in our little corners like little candles burning in the night. Wherever Thou has placed us, we ask it all, giving thanks in thy worthy name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
What a Man Should Look for in a Wife in the Lord's Will
The Way of a Man With a Maid
God's Plan for Man to Have a Wife - His Helpmeet
Gospel 2
Gospel—Robert House
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
The brethren here in.
Scranton area have asked me to present the gospel. They've asked me to take on that responsibility tonight and I'm glad for the opportunity. It's a.
Great burden. So I would like to ask the Lord for his help.
Lord Jesus, I come to Thee. I know I need the help of Thy Spirit. Ask for Thy guidance and wisdom.
Pray for those listening that if there's someone in the room tonight.
There is not, no.
Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, that they might have their heart touched and their conscience touched.
That there might be entrance of Thy word to give light and salvation. Thank you that it's Thy desire to have all men to repent, come to the knowledge, Thy Son, the Lord Jesus, and to have a future with thyself in heaven for eternity. We ask for thy blessing now and for Thy help in Jesus precious name, Amen.
I have two words on my heart today. Acts chapter 20.
And verse 21.
Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And if you turn to Hebrews chapter 6, please.
And verse one.
Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on onto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.
The two words that I have in my heart. The 1St is repentance, the 2nd is faith.
Repentance very simply is a change in the way I'm thinking and in the first verse that we looked at in Acts chapter 20.
It's repentance toward God.
And that means that our thinking has to change to be lined up with God's thinking.
And in the verse in Hebrews, its repentance from something and it's from dead works. Now it's the time of year when all the children are probably in their first or second week of school, and the Word of God talks about a teacher, and we're just going to take a couple of minutes and bring the teacher into this room.
The teacher is the law.
It's our teacher to bring us to Christ, and so we're just going to do a little bit of letting that teacher work. First question, what's the first commandment?
The first commandment.
In the list of the 10 words.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
What's the 1St and great commandment?
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.
With all the heart.
What's the first commandment with promise?
First commandment with promise. Honor your father and your mother.
That's the first commandment with promise. Now the school teachers here, and I won't let the school teacher teach and I'm going to let you.
See what the school teacher does in this way. I know a Sinner, and the Sinner that I know best in this room is me.
And I just want to tell you a little story from when I was the age of some of you teenager just turned 13.
Grade 8 and I wanted to go to school.
That first day we just had a nice weekend. My dad had kindly gone out and purchased some patio slaps to build my brother and I at basketball area with a net where we could play some hoop.
That was going to be real nice. And when the delivery came, I helped my dad unload those patio stones and my dad noticed one of them was slightly cracked. He said let's put that on top where we can make sure it doesn't break. And it very carefully helped them unload that patio stone and put it on top of the stack.
00:05:03
And that was on Saturday, but on Monday when I was going to school.
My mom saw what I was going to wear on the first day of school and she said no, you're not wearing your old jeans, you're going to change into some nice looking pants and I didn't like that.
And she made me change and I was mad. I got on my bike. I drove past the pile of patio stones and I saw the cracked one right on top. And as I drove by, I took my foot and I kicked it and I broke it off.
You think about the kindness of my dad wanting to build something nice for me and my brother. What kind of mean, spiteful person breaks something that he particularly tried to preserve? When I got home from school that day, my mother sent me straight to my room.
And that's exactly where I deserve to be till my dad got home.
Now.
What's the lesson of the school teacher?
Talking about me, honor your father and your mother. I dishonored my mother by my rebellious attitude. Have any of you ever had a rebellious attitude?
I've seen it in little 3 year olds, 4 year olds.
You know, you break one transgression of God's law, you're guilty of the whole thing.
The whole thing.
And when it talks about repentance from dead works though, any idea that you would be able to do anything that would please God?
Falls by the wayside because we're born sinners.
You know that as hard as I tried, there is absolutely no way that you can reattach the corner of a patio slab once it's broken.
I had no way to undo what I had done.
The same thing is true after that first time, you have a bad attitude. You don't honor your mother.
It's too late. Your chance of extending your life is gone.
And what can you possibly do?
You know, I'd like to extend that slightly.
Let's look in.
The Epistle of Timothy.
2nd Epistle of.
Timothy, Chapter 3.
And verse one this Know also that in the last days perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves.
And then in verse four, the last phrase, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.
What was the first commandment?
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.
What do we in these last days do all the time? We love ourselves.
And we love pleasure.
It's all about me. That's what our natural hearts do. We're guilty of breaking the commandments of God. It's a very, very solemn thing.
What can you possibly do about it?
No man can by any means.
Redeem his brother. You can't redeem your own soul. You're lost. And if that was all the story that I had tonight, it wouldn't be a gospel meeting. It wouldn't be a good news meeting, but it is a good news meeting. And that's the second word that I want to talk about. That was in those two verses, and that is faith. Faith towards God in the one verse, faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ in the other verse.
And the grace of God, the glory of the grace that shines in the face of Jesus Christ.
There's no way I could fix the patio stone.
My dad came into the room.
And he told me how he felt.
He told me what my behavior had been.
00:10:00
And I felt it in my heart.
And I told my dad that I was sorry for what I had done, but no matter how sorry I'd been, I could not fix that patio. Patio. Still, it was broken.
And so.
My dad forgave me.
And he found a way to make it work. He put the post for the basketball hoop right where the broken corner was.
And that's his grace to me, to still do what I didn't deserve. And that's exactly what I'd like to try and communicate to you right now about God in heaven.
God.
The Father in a past eternity.
With God the Son, God the Holy Spirit decided that in spite of the wreck that you are going to make the broken life that you're going to have by just one transgression 1 dishonouring of your father or your mother.
That he would find a way to restore what he take, what he didn't take away. God sent his Son. They called him Jesus.
God sent his son a babe.
To the Manger in Bethlehem.
God sent his Son.
For 3 1/2 years to the land of Israel and God sent his son.
To Calvary's cross.
On Calvary's cross.
God took my sins.
My dishonouring of my mother. My meanness to my father.
And he put them on Jesus Christ, his Son.
And he punished Jesus Christ for my sins.
And then God.
The.
Gave up his own life after he bore my sins. They took him down and they buried him. And God raised his Son from the dead. And that's the glorious power of the gospel, that Jesus Christ is raised from the dead. He's no longer held by my sins.
He's at God's right hand in heaven, elevated. There every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. He alone is worthy.
And the good news is of the gospel is that whosoever will.
Can believe in Jesus Christ, faith towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. This book that I hold my hands is a revelation of Gods. It's the truth.
He gave it, and that's part of the truth that I'm presenting to you tonight. He tells us, if you believe that Jesus Christ died, as the Scripture said, and that God raised him from the dead, that He died for your sins and was punished for your sins.
You believe that in your heart.
You'll be saved, and what that means is those sins.
That you committed those transgressions against the holy, holy God that broke your life, even if it's just one little crack.
It's gone.
God wants to make of you a new thing tonight, a new creature in Christ Jesus.
That whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. I experienced the grace of my father in finding a way to take the mess that I'd made on that Monday morning and still give me what his heart desired. A basketball court that my brother and I could play on. And it's the desire of our Heavenly Father to give you the life.
That you don't deserve.
To give you new life in Jesus Christ through faith in his Son. And so we have those two things. There's a need to recognize that you've come short of the glory of God and that you cannot do it on your own.
There's a need to change your thinking around and accept God's truth.
As it is, and then there's a need to believe, and that's what face about.
00:15:01
Believing that God tells the truth every time, and then when he says believe in my Son, that he took your place, that his blood, the blood of Jesus Christ cleansed us from all sin, that that's the truth.
And it can be yours tonight. You pass from death unto life by that belief. And you know, there's one thing for to know that they'll be rejoicing in heaven tonight for you believing that. But it'd be really nice if also tonight in this room, if you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, that you have confessed Jesus as Lord. And then there can be rejoicing at this conference.
I let you think about that while I pray.
Our God and Father, we thank Thee for thy love that would make thine only begotten Son.
The sacrifice for lost sinners such as me.
And the others in this room tonight.
Our God and our Father, if there's a person listening that has never accepted Jesus, thy beloved Son.
As their savior.
Touch their hearts now that they might accept Him.
He loves them.
He wants them. He died to redeem them. Help them believe.
Our Father, we ask for thy blessing now in Jesus precious name, Amen.
Open Mtg. 7
Open—T. Ruga, P. Daplyn, T. Roach
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
25125.
It seems.
Confused.
I was straight to us all, lived around with Saints.
To the following forever.
I praise.
My spirit.
The smile to the sunlight, Grace.
And the world can help every day.
Shine.
00:05:15
God our Father, we thank you for this opportunity to come together and.
Wait before Thee, our Godfather, for a word for us. And we thank you for this opportunity to be here this weekend and be with others who have been called into the fellowship of my beloved son. We're waiting for his return and have a desire to please him. And we just pray now as we sit in my presence, our God and Father, that the prophet might speak two or three.
And that we would have a word given to us that would would.
Stir us up would give us my mind for us at this time.
We pray for courage, for perhaps one who is feeling.
Timid that has a burden from thee, our God and Father for us. We cry out to Thee for for help, because we need my mind for us, our God and Father at this time.
So we ask this and we commit this.
It's our head into Thy hands, our God and our Father, waiting on the direction of my Holy Spirit. So we ask this and pray in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
I have just a short word on my heart at the moment.
When we were at the camp just a couple weeks ago at Michigan.
We had many things before, so one of the things that we discussed was a question raised by young people about dating and marriage and subject came up as to who we should marry and a lot of things were said there which I personally enjoyed. What brethren had to say at that time, mostly involving what the scriptures say is to.
What a young man in particular should be looking for in a wife. And just to give one example of what was said there, the last verse of First Corinthians 7 speaks about the woman who's free to marry, but only in the Lord. And brother who's here made the point that it doesn't say only in Christ, because that would mean as a young Christian man, you're free to marry any young Christian woman.
It doesn't say that, but it says the Lord. And so the idea is that there's the Lords will for you as to who it is that you should marry. And I just wanted to say just a few short words to young people here who are up to that point where you're considering this. Although I believe that what's on my heart has a much wider application than that. So if we could just go to Proverbs chapter 30.
And.
And we'll just read.
2 verses there, verses 18 and 19.
Say there be three things.
Which are too wonderful for me. Yay for which I know not.
The way of an eagle in the air.
The way of a serpent upon a rock, The way of a ship in the midst of the sea, in the way of a man with a maid.
Now I'm going to say something that my brother shared years ago about this verse and for those of you who have heard me say it.
That will be good, perhaps to hear it passed on again.
Brother shared with us that these four things have something in common.
And what they have in common is very important on the subject.
If you look at these first three things, you say, how are they connected? I'm sure there are spiritual applications that can be drawn from them individually. But what he brought out at that time, what I want to say today, is that these things leave no path.
00:10:01
The way of an eagle in the air.
You can see this bird move through the air and you can see that it has gone somewhere, but after it's gone.
There's not a path that is left behind that you can say that's where the eagle went. And so I can follow now that path for myself.
And the same with the.
Serpent on the rock, it goes across the rock and when it's gone, the rock is left there and you don't see a trail that you can follow to say I'm going to go the way the serpent went. And of course the ship in the sea as well, There's not a path that it followed. It's visible to the human eye. And when it's gone, the trail that it took is swallowed up. It's gone as well and you can't follow it with your eye.
And that is the point with the last thing is weigh as well the way of a man with a maid.
Now the brother who shared this thought with us was at a time many years ago, a number of us went to Bermuda.
The brother is here today.
And I'm glad he shared that with us. He wasn't married. He was a young man.
And he stood up a night when we all went out as young people and we had a hymn sing out on a hill that was very pleasant. And afterwards he got up and shared a little bit from the word of God. And I'm very grateful he did.
I was glad to get the help. He wasn't married then and I wasn't married then. My wife of now is there as well, and a number of others in this room. I'm sure they'll remember.
All right. Brother's here. He's been married many years. I've been married many years. And at least two others who are here. Couples who are here, married many years who are there.
But you can't follow our path, nor can you follow the path of.
Anyone else?
Who is gone ahead of you?
When it comes to this subject, and I'm glad for the brothers who stood up or spoke up at the Michigan camp and gave a lot of spiritual instruction as to what to do. They were mostly speaking about the word of God says this is what we should look for and this is what we should do. Things like Second Corinthians chapter 6 which say that.
That we cannot be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
The Word of God is very clear about definite objective instruction for us as believers that we have to put into practice in our lives. And so we can look at that kind of instruction from the Word of God and we can say that means may I must obey it, and that provides a bound.
But my exercise today is to say that's well and good, but you get to the end of that. And there's still the question now in the case of what I'm talking about, whom should I marry?
The scripture doesn't give the name of your wife, and the scripture doesn't give the name of your husband.
And so there's still the need for additional guidance.
And this verse the brother applied that way and always gratefully did.
And because there is a path that God knows and he knows individually what your path in my path should be. We're speaking about marriage, but we could also speak about.
Job or any of the other things that come up in life.
I said I just had a few more words, so let's just go to Proverbs 3 for the final ones that were on my heart.
Well known.
Someone said.
When it comes to marrying the right person.
It would probably be best if we waited until we were 90 or 100 years old.
Because you need a lot of wisdom if you're going to make a decision like that. And yet God hasn't called us to wait until we can get such wisdom as that as to who we're going to walk through life with.
Generally speaking, God calls us to marriage and when we're younger.
And to get that kind of wisdom isn't something that He's called us to do. Yes, we need to get wisdom from the Word of God.
00:15:01
And we need to learn all we can, as early as we can, so that we can be guided by the Word of God.
But when we're done, there's still the need for something more, and I believe we have it here. Proverbs 3, the well known verses 5 and six. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.
And all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy past.
The Lord knows the right one for you. He knows that path.
He's given very good guidance in the word.
But the details of it are known to him and I've often thought, and I've often suggested it too.
When it comes to this issue and indeed other issues of job and what have you.
Well, you need to spend a lot of time on our knees. We may not know who that one is, but we sure know the person who knows him.
We know him and we need to know him well.
We need to spend that time, young people, daily in the Word, yes, but daily on our knees too, asking the Lord for that guidance. He knows that path. We can't see it just any more than we can see it with the eagle, the serpent, or the ship, any more than we can see it with others who've gone on before us and hopefully left a good example. We can't see exactly how to follow that path because your path is different. God has a perfect plan marked out for you.
In your life and He knows it, and he's looking for you to be in that dependence on him, and so is his trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Those are two things that are hard to do. Trusting in the Lord with all our heart.
Perhaps I've never done that in my life, but I'm told to.
And I need to.
Sometimes I trust the Lord more than others, but trusting Him wholly? That's not easy to do because we're not people who are trusting people.
Even when I am trusting the Lord in some measure, there is still a degree in which I am leaning on my own understanding. I know, I know what's best for me and the thought that the Lord knows what's best for me and I might be completely mistaken. It's not something that I'm often very open to, and yet it's the truth.
And it's something we need to recognize that our own hearts are going to deceive us.
Every time.
And so.
We need to trust in Him with our hearts, but not be looking to our hearts or to our minds, not leaning on our understanding.
He says, in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path.
And everything we do in our lives, we need to acknowledge him. This is so important because.
We have this desire in some way to please the Lord. If we're a believer, we have that desire. It's just something that He put within us. And yet oftentimes we get eyes or hearts that are divided. The Lord calls it the evil eye. Matthew Chapter 7, I believe.
Where there's one eye for the Lord and another eye for the world is not the single eye.
And so we get Into Darkness and confusion.
And when we get that way?
We're not going to know what the mind of the Lord is, and we are going to lean on our own understanding. We are going to follow our own heart and before you know it, we're going to make a mistake.
Very often early in life.
And young people, you make that mistake at the beginning of your life where you are now because you are careless or didn't spend that time with the Lord. You're going to live with it the rest of your life. So this is so important to get it right right now. And all thy ways acknowledge him. Starting right off in the morning. Take up the Word of God, open it up and read it like we've been exhorted to do already here in these meetings.
And really take that time with the Lord, seeking his mind first of all, and then speaking to him.
00:20:01
Everything you do in the day following that, acknowledge him.
Put him first, give him the credit. Look to him.
Have that single eye for the Lord, and then it says.
He shall direct my path.
That path is marked. He knows it. It's uniquely there for you, and he'll make it just as plain as if the eagle left the trail behind him or the serpent left a mark right on that rock.
Or if the ship had left a plain path in the sea, the Lord will make your path just that, plain.
I just wanted to make some very brief comments about what her brother talked about.
Proverbs 30 there.
The way of a man with a maid.
No, and it's different for each one of us.
I know in my case.
When I met a girl.
Later he became my wife.
Something happened in Simon. Didn't happen before.
Which you know.
We were both before the Lord about it.
And.
We realize.
After quite a while.
We were going together for quite a while.
That we did have the Lord's mind, Mary.
And you know, that's a blessed thing. Now. I was 34 years old when I got married. I.
None of you young people have to wait quite as long as I did. But then.
I was.
I didn't come to Lord Jesus until I was 30.
And.
I'm glad I was spared in a sense. I was spared being in a situation where it's already married and coming to the Lord Jesus and.
And having.
A wife who isn't, you know, I was spared that. I'm thankful for it.
Umm, the only thing I wanted to mention was our brother mentioned about being.
Unequally yoked.
And.
Our wife.
Our husband, as the case may be.
Should be the Lord's.
And love the Lord and have.
Fervent desire to please the Lord. But there's also.
The situation of associations too.
Where if this one we've met and.
They're not gathered with us.
That we make it a real matter of prayer before the Lord.
To help this one realize.
The divine center. The place.
For the Lord Jesus has placed his name. It's ever so important.
That the two of you both.
I think.
Realize this and they're already gathered before you. Take that step of marriage because.
If you don't there, there could be difficulty afterwards. I'm just going to relate a story with you.
Umm, an end of my wife's.
She married, she was gathered, and she married a man that wasn't gathered. Yes, He was the Lord's, I believe, and yes.
He came to the meetings.
00:25:03
But.
He never took that step. He never took that step of asking for his place at the Lord's Table.
And as a result.
The children, it was in a certain sense, it was almost like a divided house. And as a result?
The children either never took their place at the Lord's Table or.
If they or they took their place and then later left, it's ever so important that you have one mind concerning this that you can go on together.
To please the Lord.
In the place where the Lord Jesus would have you to be.
Because if you don't, you could have a lot of heartache.
I just wanted to share that with you. It's a solid thing.
That you're sensitive to the promptings of the Lord, That you truly have his mind as.
The one you should marry.
And the only other thing I wanted to mention to for the brothers is.
We read about a virtuous woman in Proverbs and and that's a good thing each.
But.
Is she also a mother of Israel? Is she a mother of Israel? Does she have a real care?
For the Saints, everyone and the children of the Saints are going on well. And dear Sister.
The brother.
You're considering marrying.
Is he a spiritual father?
Not just the father of your own children.
A spiritual father that has a real care for the Saints. God your assembly.
Especially if there's been a young woman, it's been brought in.
It doesn't have spiritual parents. Does he take that step to help him grow one more Jesus?
All that you have a husband like that?
You consider.
Very carefully before the Lord, who is going to be your husband and the Lord.
When God put.
Created the heavens and the earth. He had a plan.
He wanted a wife.
He put Adam and Eve into the Garden of Eden.
He wanted them to populate the earth.
He made man in his own image because he wanted someone he could have communion with, someone he could have fellowship with.
Genesis chapter 2.
And verse 18.
And the Lord God said it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make and help meet for him a helper.
And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them.
And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all the cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. For Adam there was not found, but for Adam there was not found. And help me for him. And the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman.
And brought her unto the man.
Adam, he was alone. He needed a helper, he needed a companion. And the Lord put Adam to sleep, and he took from Adam a rib from his side. He did not take a bone from Adam's head. He didn't take a bone from Adam's foot. The man is not to be king over his household, over his family.
00:30:12
That's why he didn't take the woman from the foot, and the woman is not to rule over the man.
And that's why he didn't take it from his head, he took it from his side so they could go along together. And he took it from under his arm. And the arms are what we protect.
And provide. And so God wanted Adam to care for his wife, to protect her, and to provide for her, and to be 1 flesh with her. And the woman was to cleave, and he was to cleave to his wife.
And they shall be one flesh. And so God created marriage. God was thinking of the Church when Christ and the Church would be joined together. And that will happen in glory one day and perhaps soon.
Let's go over to Ecclesia or Proverbs 31.
We've been talking about.
Looking for a mate or God's will in finding a mate?
Well, God, he gives us things to look for in a woman. He gives things to look for in a man. And in Proverbs 31, God, I want to speak to the men first, the young men. God has given you directions onto our qualifications for you to look for when you're looking for a virtuous woman. And in verse 10, it says, who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far above rubies.
The heart of her husband doth trust in safely trust in her so that he shall have no need of spoil. So when you look for a wife, you need to find someone that you can trust when you can depend on.
Verse 12.
She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
Adam needed a wife, a helper, one to provide, one to protect, and the woman was going to be a helper to him. And that's what we have here. She will do him good, not evil, all the days of her life. And so you need to find a woman who's going to support you and and help you.
You, you, whatever your job or your profession may be, she can be a help to you in that. And then it goes on and it we find that.
I'm not going to read all these verses, but we find that.
She's very industrious around the home. She goes out into the fields, into the market to bring things back to the home. She's able to sell things so she can help help her husband be a help to her husband. But her her sphere is around the home. And verse 23.
Her husband is known in the gates when he sitteth among the elders.
That's a reflection back to the men.
Are you, are you going to be one who would sit in the gates, sitteth among the elders of the land, one who can make wise decisions for your family? Maybe be a help in the assembly to make wise decisions or to be a help to other other people may be looking for for advice, shepherding care.
We need shepherds in the assembly and God.
Wants the wants you to be a shepherd and your husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land and so young men, it's good for you to be able to.
Have wisdom to be able to help guide your home.
Verse 27 I'm not going to read all these verses. She looketh well to the ways of her household and eateth not the bread of idleness. When you look for a wife there, it's good to have one who looks to be a helper, one who can look to the ways of the household and to be able to fix the house up, get it prepared and ready for the home and the and the people who the children or, or or the husband in the home.
And she can be a support and a strength for the husband. And she eats not the bread of idleness a lot of times.
A woman can be spending a lot of time talking, gossiping, I.
00:35:04
And other things. But that's not what God wants you to look for in a wife. He wants one that would be beneficial to you. In verse 28, her husband, her children arise up and call her blessed. Her husband also, and he praiseth her.
And so, young men, you need to find a wife.
Like our brother mentioned, a mother of Israel, one who really cares for the children because.
A woman is a very.
Valuable asset to an assembly.
Just think of your mother. She raised you.
Your father, he had a part in it too.
But the mother is the one who spends most of the time with the children, raising them. There's a there's a proverb that says the one who rocks the cradle rules the world.
And the woman that you're going to marry, if you have children, she's going to have a big influence on those children. And those children are the future of the church.
If they come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, those children will be the future of the church and in the assembly. And if you raise your children and your sons to be to be godly and or and raise your daughters to to fear the Lord.
It can be a great benefit to the assembly and God's God's house.
And her children rise up and call her blessed. It's nice when you can support your wife, a woman that you can support in raising your children and.
Her husband also he praiseth her. You got to remember to praise your wife. Be down to verse 30. Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
It's nice to find a.
A nice looking woman.
Beauty doesn't last forever.
But you need something in a woman that's going to last.
She that feareth the Lord.
She shall be praised, so it's good for you to search for a woman who loves the Lord.
Cares about the things of the Lord and wants to please Him.
And, and it'll be a big help to you. Now I want to talk to the ladies. Let's go over to Timothy.
First Timothy, chapter 3.
Now ladies, you're going to be looking for something in a in a man.
And these qualifications here are good things to look for in a young man, because what a man is now.
It's going to form what he is in the future.
So if the man.
Well, let's let's read these these qualifications.
Verse one First Timothy 3 This is a true saying. If a man desire the office of a Bishop, he desireth a good work. You may say, come on, this is talking about overseers in the in the assembly.
What are we looking for here? That's right, That's right. You're looking for a man who can be God's man, who can be used of God, who can give honor to God, and that's what you want to look for. God has standards.
And these are God's standards for a man in the assembly. But God only has one standard for man.
And whether you are an overseer in the assembly or not, these are qualifications that will affect you.
And that a man should live up to and strive to achieve these standards in his life. And so that's what a woman should look for. And now I know some of these things take time to develop in a, in a, in a man. And so you need to kind of look at what they are now and try to see how they will develop and how can, how you can be a help to that person to help them develop their qualifications.
A Bishop verse 2, then, must be blameless. Blameless.
00:40:00
A young man.
Needs to be pure, the apostle Paul, he wrote to Timothy. He said keep yourself pure. There's a lot of things in the world today that can attract our hearts and our minds and our emotions and our lusts.
But a Bishop must be blameless.
The husband of one wife.
If you know a young man, he's had two or three girlfriends, five or six girlfriends, his relationships don't last long.
Chances are he's not going to be satisfied with you.
And it may be that you won't be married too long before he finds difficulties with you and he will divorce you move on to another woman.
So you want to find qualities that towards faithfulness and purity. Then it says be vigilant.
A Bishop, a man must be vigilant, watchful if you're going to marry a man, you want somebody who's watchful in the home and careful to keep things out that don't that don't help build the family up for Christ. You want you want to find a man who's vigilant to.
To bring.
Good things into the home, things that honor Christ and a man who will keep those things that are are attracting the the children to go off into the things of the world.
We need to be vigilant.
Then it says to be sober.
I know this is a.
Sober is one who makes wise decisions.
Another word, Another word for sober can be.
Or the opposite of sober can be foolishness. If a man is always joking, he's never serious.
He's always looking for something more and more exciting to to get to get to become excited over the different things and get the adrenaline flowing.
He's when when he gets to be older.
He's not going to be much different.
Unless God brings something into his life.
To speak drastically to him and to change him.
And so if you have a husband who wants to go out and and play all the time and never be serious, never be never be wise in in his activities and, and doesn't pay much attention to his wife or to his family and thinks more of himself than than of other people, well, then there's going to be difficulties in the home. So you need to find a man who's sober and who makes wise decisions.
With his his time and his possessions and his money and and his whole, his whole life. You need to find someone who's sober then of good behavior. I think that speaks to himself of good behavior of what is goodness. I think that's things that honor God. Also good works. Perhaps the Bible speaks much of A of a Christian doing good works. Does your husband want to does the man you're looking at?
Does he want to do good works to serve the Lord, to please the Lord, whatever those things may be? Does he think of others or is he selfish? And then the next one is given to hospitality. Hospitality is when you have people in your home you're at. You want to help people and you and other people are your focus. Hospitality.
Ladies, if you find a man who is hospitable.
When you start a home.
Much of the responsibility of the hospitality will fall on the woman.
And so that means hospitality should be part of the heart of the woman too. But sometimes we get, there's a lot of things in life that make us too busy. Or maybe we think we don't have enough room in our home, or we become a little selfish and we we don't want to spend time entertaining guests because maybe they don't, they're just not our style of people. Or, or if I bring them into my home, I won't be. They won't, they'll never invite me to their home.
But that's not the point. God wants a family, a man and a wife to be hospitable to other people. And if you happen to, by the way, if you happen to be an older brother in the assembly and if you happen to be a an overseer or a Bishop in the assembly, these are very pertinent qualifications for you too.
00:45:23
Because if you if you're not given to hospitality and sometimes we look, we have a little list of gatherings and it has names of people in the assembly you can contact. And sometimes the people that you contact aren't hospitable.
No, not that, that, not that the list of gatherings is a directory of, of hospitality, but it should be. It should be if your name's in there, you must be an overseer in the assembly and an overseer qualification must be hospitality. Because when we're hospitable to the Saints, you get to know those in your assembly. You get to get better acquainted with them. You know where they're, where their weaknesses are and where you can help them and to be a shepherd to them and care for them.
And that's God's plan for a man.
And it says not. Then the next point is apartment to teach, able to teach. Now I know that we're not all teachers, We're not all have the gift of teaching and, and some of us aren't able to teach as well as others. But apartment to teach, it's a good quality. It's and if you're able to do that, it's a thing that that can be learned.
Then it says not given to wine.
No striker striker is one who would argue in the care meeting.
What? Did you ever get any arguing in the care meeting?
Guess where it starts? It starts as a young man.
And you argue about everything your mother tells you to do. You argue with everybody around you. You want to get your own will, your own way.
And when you become a brother in the assembly and you go to the care meeting.
You'll that argumentative character in your nature if you haven't taken care of it while you're a young man.
It will get you into trouble and it will disrupt the assembly.
And it will disrupt your home too, because you'll be always arguing with one another and it won't be beneficial to your family.
And it says not greedy of filthy lucre.
That's money living for money. When you spend time making money, the more time you have making money, the less time you have with your family. God's given you the responsibility of your family, so you need to balance that out.
And says, but be patient. Not a brawler, not covetous. One that ruleth his own house. One that ruleth well, his own house.
Having his children in subjection.
Another purpose that God had Adam and Eve put together. He told them to go forth and multiply. His plan was for them to have children. I know some. I know that some people are unable to have children.
But that's a qualification for a man to be.
A responsible brother in the assembly is for him to have.
Children if he has no children.
He should not be a vocal mouthpiece in the assembly care meeting because in this in the home when you are you have children and you learn how to deal with issues and problems in the home, the homes, the training ground for the assembly. And so God has given these qualifications for you to look at these and try to to emulate these things in your own life and.
Let's go on verse 5. For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God? Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
It's easy to.
It's it's it's often a thing for us to be on our best behavior when we're around other people. Ladies, when you're around a young man, he's chances are he may behave in a good way. He may make a good impression on your parents, but he may deceive you. It says he must have a good report of those that are without and this is with or without is more Speaking of those outside the church, but it's a good principle for you to.
00:50:21
To check with other people if you want to know if about a man or you need to ask other people about him. Sure, he looks nice today and he can say all the right things, but when you get married, you're going to really find out what he's really like. But you can use that resource of other people. Ask the parents, ask the others in the in his assembly, find out from other people what is this person really like. And so these are things you can look for when you're looking.
For a. For a.
A mate one more point back in over in chapter five of First Timothy, chapter 5.
And this is back for the qualifications of a woman of a wife.
Verse 14 I will therefore that younger women marry bear children.
Guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.
Guide the house.
There's children in the home.
The woman's responsibility to guide the house. What does that word guide mean?
It means to rule almost as in headship. Sometimes you see a sign that says Christ is the head of this home.
But that's not right. It's the man who's the head of the woman. But yet this verse says it's the woman who's the ruler of the house. And so guess who gets to choose what color you paint the kitchen?
Guess who? Guess whose responsibility it is in the house? It's not the man's, it's the woman's. To make sure things run and operate properly in the home. The man is. He's the head, yes.
And he has a responsibility and the woman is submissive to the man and subject to him. But yet God gives the responsibility of the upkeep, the care, the the the living environment in the home is much of the woman's responsibility and says then it says, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.
Ladies.
Men too, but we need to be careful.
What we say about people.
Are we speaking the truth?
If you start to promulgate a lie, that's unproven.
It's going to hurt people. You're speaking reproachfully. You really need to be careful about that.
Time's up, so I better stop.