Open—Bill Prost
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Some who were here who are here this afternoon.
Were also at Morningstar Camp.
And among other things up there, we talked about self judgment.
Then in his talk yesterday.
Our brother Bruce mentioned it as well.
Could we dwell on that for a few more minutes? I feel it's needed, and for my own soul perhaps more than any other.
Let's read a couple of scriptures together, first of all in Psalm 32.
Psalm 32.
And we'll read from verse 2, Psalm 32 and verse 2.
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
Now here's the verse.
When I kept silence, my bones waxed all through my roaring all the day long.
For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me.
My moisture is turned into the drought of summer.
Selah.
I acknowledge my sin unto thee and my iniquity, have I not hid.
I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin.
And now in Proverbs 28.
Proverbs 28.
And verse 13.
Proverbs 28 and verse 13.
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper.
But whoso confesseth, confesseth, and forsaketh them.
Shall have mercy.
And finally in first John.
Chapter One.
I John chapter one.
And verse nine, first John one and verse 9.
If we confess our sins.
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
And to cleanse us.
From all unrighteousness.
It's a wonderful thing to be saved, isn't it?
A wonderful thing to know, the Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior.
And to know as we read there in Psalm 32.
That our sins can be forgiven. We didn't read the first verse, but we could have blessed is the man.
Whose transgression is forgiven? Whose sin is covered?
Most of us, and I hope all of us here, know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, and I suppose we can all remember the bubbling joy.
That overwhelmed our hearts and our souls as we realized that that burden of sin was gone.
And perhaps the greater the sense of sin that we had.
The greater the joy when we realize that we were forgiven.
But maybe you have all had the experience.
And I suppose I can tell this story on one of my grandsons, because none of them are here.
And I won't tell you which one it was.
But he got saved at a relatively young age.
And a little while later he came to his father rather distraught.
Daddy, I still do bad things.
Poor, he thought. Everything was going to be fine after that.
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And while I have been on this trip, I talked to another father who told me the same thing about one of his children, who wondered why it was that there was still that tendency to sin after his child was saved.
But it's true, isn't it?
It's true, when we are saved, we have a new life in Christ.
But we find out very quickly that that old sinful self, that old sinful nature.
Is just as bad and justice as strong as it ever was.
What does that bring us to?
It brings us to that subject of self judgment.
And as Our brother Bruce quoted from a pamphlet that is well worth reading.
Self judgment is the inseparable condition of a walk in communion with God.
Why is that?
Because in order to enjoy all the good things that Christ has for us, the good things that our brother Dave Hayhoe brought before us in the address just a little while ago.
We have to exercise self judgment.
We still have that old sinful self.
It brings evil thoughts to our minds and if they are not judged, it comes out either in evil words or in evil conduct.
We want to mention something right at the very beginning here, though, because it's important.
The Spirit of God never occupies you and me with ourselves.
Except to judge self.
That's important because, and again, this was something we laid some emphasis on at Morningstar.
The Christian who is occupied with himself or even the Sinner who isn't saved, it applies a board.
The individual who is occupied with himself.
Is never happy.
That's why, in spite of all that we have at our disposal here in North America.
If an individual does not have Christ.
He or she is never happy. And that's why, with all of the glorification of self that is part of the culture of North America today, people see more and more discontent.
And yet sometimes we go to foreign lands where they have very, very little, and yet you can enjoy and sense the enjoyment of Christ in their souls. Why? Because they are not trying to fill themselves with that which can never satisfy.
And so God never occupies us with ourselves. Neither does the Spirit of God except to judge self.
It's a necessary thing.
For me, anyway, it's a daily thing.
If I want to walk in communion with God.
There are times in our life and our lives.
When we have a real sense of the Lord's presence, as we had a couple during the last couple of days, the Lord is always with us. And those two on the way to Emmaus, even though they were not sensitive to the Lord's presence, He was with them, but they weren't enjoying Him. Why?
Their eyes were holding. It says that they should not know him. And why was that all? Because they were on a wrong course. Oh, how gracious the Lord was, and we don't need to go over it all again. But how gracious the Lord was to follow them down that road, all of that distance to Emmaus, and to listen to them first of all, and that's important. And then to minister to their souls that which restored them.
But self judgment had to take place. All the details of it are not recorded in Luke 24.
But it happened. How do we know what happened? Because all of a sudden, when the Lord vanished out of their sight, they realized that they were in a wrong place on a wrong course, and there was no difficulty, even though it was night.
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To turn around and go all the way back to Jerusalem.
And there they found not only the other disciples, but the Lord himself.
But sometimes we go on in our Christian lives and things go very smoothly.
And we are very happy in our souls.
I presume this water is to be used.
Thank you.
And we go on very happily in our souls.
But then there comes a point and maybe you have experienced this and this is what I want to emphasize above everything.
There comes a point where the Spirit of God.
Seeks to bring before you some new truth.
Seeks to raise you, as it were, a little higher spiritually.
And suddenly you find that that old sinful self gets in the way.
And you feel terrible.
Is that a bad thing?
In one sense, yes, because the old sinful self never does us any good. But what I want to say is this.
The the old sinful self gets in the way.
It is a good sign because, and this is important.
To every new truth.
The Spirit of God seeks to bring before your soul and mind will find its corresponding and antagonist.
In some aspect of my sinful self.
Satan hates the precious truth.
That God gave from a risen Christ in glory.
Through men like the apostle Paul and the apostle John. And Satan will sometimes, and this may come as a surprise, but it's true.
He sometimes tolerate blessing in the gospel.
If he can take a dead shot.
At something like the truth of the one body.
The truth of the abiding presence of the Spirit of God down here during this dispensation, or at the precious truth of the name of the Lord Jesus, or at the heavenly calling of the Church.
Satan knows.
And this is quoting the words of another, and some will recognize the source. Satan knows that when the Church loses the sense of its heavenly calling, humanly speaking, it loses everything.
We can't lose our salvation. We can't lose that security we have in Christ. But Satan knows that if you can bring Christianity down to the level of a worldly religion, he's ruined our testimony and he's doing it today. I feel it. You feel it.
And the influence of the the world around us is having that strong tendency to drag believers down. And it's not only in North America we have more of the world at our disposal, but with the Internet, with Facebook and all the rest of it, the world has become much more homogeneous than it ever was before.
Self judgment.
It simply means that if you and I desire to walk with the Lord.
We have to 1St. We have first to know ourselves.
And then we have to recognize what is not according to the mind of God.
You and I may go along in our Christian lives, and as I say again, the Lord may be using us.
But then the Lord, as it were, says, now I am going to put my finger on something in your life which is a besetting sin. And let me say this, I am preaching at this man here as much or more than anyone out there. But the Lord lays his finger on something. Maybe no one else knows about it. Maybe no one sees it, maybe they do. But He lays his finger on it and says.
Deal with that. Deal with that.
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And well, remember quite a few years ago, now corresponding with a brother in another country.
And there was something in his life that the Lord was clearly speaking about to him.
I knew him well, and I ventured to bring it before him as well, because I knew that the Lord was speaking to him.
And his answer was rather interesting, he said. But Brother Bill, the Lord is using me and souls are being blessed through my preaching of the gospel, and souls have been gathered to the Lords name through my work for the Lord. How can it be that there's something in my life?
That needs correcting.
Have you or I ever felt like that?
Possible, isn't it?
Why was the Lord using that dear brother? Ah, because down here, which one of us would like to stand up and say watch me, I've arrived. I don't have to exercise self judgment. I don't have to be concerned about the activity of the flesh in me.
You know there's a bad doctrine. That's sad to say. Was started by very valuable men, John and Charles Wesley, who claimed that once a believer was saved, they could attain perfection down here.
But we don't find that in the word of God.
Someone asked a godly brother many years ago if it was possible to walk a Christian life without ever committing sin, and his answer was superb. He said. I know nothing stronger than the grace of God, but I know nothing weaker than my sinful flesh.
Rather, because I have no excuse to sin.
But at the same time, which one of us wants to stand up and say I've arrived?
No, we can't.
There is a need for self judgment, even if it's only to judge thoughts. And that's what we ought to do, because if we judge the wrong thoughts, they wouldn't translate into wrong words and wrong actions.
But back to what we were saying. The Lord is gracious, and He delights to use you and me.
Sometimes we hear people say.
You have to love me the way I am. Have you heard that?
I want you to love me the way I am.
Thank the Lord He does. He loves you the way you are. Otherwise He would never have reached out and saved you. He loves you.
But that's only one side of the coin. The other side is he loves you too much to let you stay that way.
And the Lord wants growth in you and me.
Growth and growth means that. Well, let's turn to the scripture in Second Corinthians chapter 3.
I think if I remember rightly, it was referred to already in these meetings, but we'll read it again.
Did you read it, Bruce? I think you did. 2nd Corinthians 3.
And I'm going to leave out a phrase that really shouldn't be there, and it makes it a little easier to read.
But we all verse 18 of 2nd Corinthians 3 with open or unveiled face beholding and leave out the words as in a glass. They shouldn't be there.
Beholding the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
To see growth in you and me. One day, when the Lord comes, we'll be perfectly like Christ. But the Lord wants us to be more like him down here.
That is your testimony to the world and my testimony.
That we become more like Christ.
Yesterday, when Brother Bruce was speaking, he mentioned that pamphlet to which I referred and he said he couldn't remember who.
Wrote her whether it was Gordon Hayhoe or Harry Hayhoe.
Well, it was Harry Hayhoe, but as I mentioned to Brother Bruce afterward, not that it matters who wrote what, but just to give credit where credit is due.
The original thoughts of that pamphlet, and most of the body of it, go back a long way to George V Wigram, who lived back in the 1800s, one of the very godliest brethren.
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And when he went to be with the Lord.
Someone paid him the highest compliment that could be paid to a believer.
He said.
Every time I met that man and was in his company.
I was reminded of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Give a better compliment.
Can you think of something more that could be said about a believer?
Hope it's OK to mention names, but it makes things come alive sometimes.
Dave Hayhoe and I were talking earlier today about some of the older people that we knew in our lifetime.
And I well remember a very godly sister who never married. Her name was Emily Gosby.
She spent most of her life in the Toronto Hamilton area, where I grew up.
I will remember her and I remember well when she went to be with the Lord at the age of 95.
She could well remember sitting on the lap of John Nelson Darby.
But what I'm going to say is not about her, but about her father, whom I never knew.
But I was told by my own father, who knew Mr. Cosby, that when he went to Mr. Cosby's funeral.
His neighbor, who was not a Christian, stood there by the casket.
And pointed at his body lying in the casket and said, you know that man never sinned.
Complement We know it wasn't true or he wouldn't have been in the casket.
But it was a pretty good compliment from an ungodly neighbor, wasn't it?
God wants to make you and me more like Christ.
God is willing to do it. We have a new life.
We have the Spirit of God as the power of that new life, indwelling every believer individually.
And as we had yesterday, dwelling collectively among believers as the House of God.
He is here.
To make you and me more and more like Christ.
But I have to get a few things out of the way.
We aren't going to dwell too long on the wares and why fours of all of this.
But we want to emphasize the need for it and the importance of it.
It's hard to confess sometimes when we're wrong.
And if you're anything like me, sometimes when the Lord brings a besetting sin before me.
Or perhaps he uses another brother or even a sister in Christ to bring it before me.
The thought that that sin is part of my old sinful self and that I am capable of it.
Is so awful to face that I go into denial.
When I used to practice medicine, I occasionally came face to face with drug addicts and with Alcoholics and others. And I met some who were in denial. I'm not an alcoholic. No, I'm not addicted to it.
But their family knew it, and so did everybody else that was close to them. And I knew it, but they wouldn't face it. And we can do that as a believer. And I have to say, and I trust I say it with tears, because the tendency is in my own soul that I have seen too many dear believers who are in denial about something in their lives that the Lord was seeking to bring before them in order that they might judge it.
And yet there was a denial.
What does it say? Turn back to I John 1:00 and 9:00?
We talked, first of all about an unbeliever coming to Christ. He too has to come as a lost, guilty Sinner. But most of us that grew up in Christian homes don't realize the depths to which the old sinful self can go.
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I didn't. I grew up in a Christian home and with godly parents who kept me from much of the sordid evil that is out there in the world. I didn't realize what was in my own heart.
But the Lord has ways of teaching us. He has ways of bringing us, as one brother said in our good written ministry, to an awful Cliff and grabbing us by the collar and hanging us over that Cliff and saying, do you see where that sin could take you? Have you had that experience? I have.
And then we realize what we're capable of and how awful that sin is.
If we confess our sins.
It's good to confess our sins.
But sometimes we confess in a general way.
I don't suppose it hurts to use this illustration because the brother about whom I'm talking has been with the Lord for many years.
But I knew him well.
And he was away from the Lord's table for a long time.
And when he wanted to be restored.
His brethren expected there to be a confession of what had led him away and kept him away for many years.
His reaction was, well, brethren, what do you want me to say? We've all failed. We've all failed.
Does that really do it in the sight of God? Can we get away with that kind of a confession?
Let's turn to Leviticus Chapter 5, Very, very important scripture.
Leviticus, chapter 5.
This has to do with the trespass offering, but it applies, as we said earlier, across the board.
And verse 5.
Leviticus 5 and verse 5.
And it shall be when he shall be guilty in one of these things that he shall confess that he hath sinned.
In that thing.
Ouch.
That hurts, doesn't it?
The one who came having trespassed, could not make a general confession. He could not make a blanket shotgun confession which included not only his own sin but that of others. He had to put his finger on that thing.
May I say a word to parents here that's important?
I remember well reading about a young woman. Maybe she wasn't so young when she wrote this, but she told of how that when she was young and she had.
Than naughty.
And had done that, which had to be punished.
She said my father would never leave me after the punishment until I had gotten on my knees with him and confessed that sin to the Lord.
Sometimes it took time, but she looked back and recognized how good that was.
In that thing.
Is it sometimes pretty awful? Is it sometimes hard to face?
Even men of the world have different views of sin, don't they?
Men who are in prison, who think nothing of armed robbery and murder and violence of every kind.
It's well known.
That if someone is brought into that prison, who's a pedophile?
They are out to get them because for them, what they did is excusable to some extent.
But what that other man has done?
Well, he deserves to die. And often, as you well know and I well know, those men have to be put in a separate place because their lives will be in danger if they are allowed contact with other prisoners who have committed all sorts of terrible crimes.
But they have this double standard, don't they?
All sins are not equal. We know that from Scripture. That's why the Lord Jesus said to Pilate he that delivered me up unto thee hath the greater sin.
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And there are other verses that would support that. So God doesn't view all sins as being equal.
Excuse me?
But at the same time, the old sinful self in you is no different from the old sinful self in Me.
And if there is that which needs self judgment, let's be willing to do it. Oh, how wonderful it is to be able to open that door.
I wish I could repeat the poll. It's a song again that has been sung several times and some will remember it's being sung a couple of times at Morningstar Camp. Something to the effect that my heart is like a house and it has different rooms in it and the Lord Jesus and I Speaking of a believer would visit from time to time in those rooms. But then there's one verse that says.
There is a room.
Where I don't go because I've got some things in that room that I don't want anyone to know.
And there's a need to open that door.
I hope this doesn't step on any toes, but I have occasionally been as a visitor in some homes where doors have been shut and locked.
And usually it was because the room was, in simple terms, a mess, and they didn't want a visitor to have to look at it. They didn't want a visitor to see the untidiness in that room.
You know, the Lord already knows what's in that room.
But he wants you and me to face it. Why? So that we can grow in our souls.
One more verse, because we could belabor this point all afternoon, but one more verse. Second Peter, chapter 3.
And to me, this ties in beautifully with what we've been saying.
The last verse of Second Peter 3.
But grow in grace.
And in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To him be glory both now and ever and forever. Amen.
What does it mean to grow in grace?
I used to look.
At some of my older brothers and sisters in Christ when I was young.
And in my ignorance.
I figured.
The old sinful nature must be pretty well burned out in them. They don't have the problems anymore.
I hesitate to make this remark, but I believe that it's every bit true and you won't read it anywhere. It was passed down by word of mouth.
Someone said.
And it was a believer.
Of John Nelson Darby. This may come as a shocker, but it's true, someone said of him.
I have seldom seen an individual.
In whom the two natures?
Were so strong.
Really. Yes. Why?
Because the more he wanted to learn of Christ, the more that old, sinful, sinful self struggled to get the ascendancy.
And those who knew him well sensed the number of times that self judgment had to be exercised.
How do we grow in grace? We grow because we appreciate more of the grace of God and what He did for us. We appreciate the depths of what happened at Calvary's Cross.
We appreciate what it meant for God to give his Son. We appreciate what it meant for the Lord Jesus to bear that load of sin because we realize more and more what was in our own hearts, what is in our own hearts.
But we can't realize it if we're in denial. We can't realize that if we don't exercise self judgment.
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Let the old nature be as bad as it can be, and it is bad.
Christ has died.
The sins have been cleansed, and more than that, the old man has been crucified with Christ. Now we don't have time to go into it. But don't confuse the old man with the flesh. They're not exactly the same. It's never said.
That the flesh has been crucified.
We are to reckon it to be dead.
But the old man has been crucified. We're in a new position.
In Christ beyond it all. But now the Lord says, I want you to live up to it.
I want to reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God.
But in so doing, you and I will find that it's a lifelong thing.
To exercise self judgment.
Just to go back as we close to one thing that we said at the beginning.
God doesn't want us to dwell on self. Sometimes dear believers get so occupied with thinking of all the wrong things that they've done. Excuse me.
Thinking of how bad they are and how sinful they are that they're down in the dumps and depressed all the time.
Satan likes that because Satan doesn't care whether you think about self in a positive way or in a negative way.
As long as you're occupied with self.
What's the solution?
God wants you and me not to be occupied with self, either positively or negatively.
Rather not to be occupied or thinking about self at all.
If Christ is before me, I won't have to think about self now and then I'll have to judge it. God wants me to judge it and then go on. I don't dwell on it. I judge it in the presence of God. No much more could be said, because in order to judge self, I can't use myself as a yardstick. I can't use others as a yardstick. I have to look to Christ himself. I have to judge in God's presence what that sin is.
But when I do, I get it out of the way. And then the Spirit of God is free to minister Christ to my soul, and I grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Well, I want to leave room for some of their brothers, so we'll sit down. But may the Lord impress this on our souls in these last days, so that instead of being conformed to this world that as we had in 2nd Corinthians 3, we become more and more like Christ and are changed into His image from glory to glory.