YP Address—C. Hendricks
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Alone aren't worthy ceaseless praises to receive for thy love and grace and goodness rise, or all our thoughts conceive. Someone raised that tune, please.
I love your voice.
Praise and praise.
Heaven.
Will swing its way.
In the door is my clear render on.
Oh my burns in water, and while thy were proclaimed.
Praise and praising.
Praising praise the Savior.
Savior.
Pray, pray, pray and praise him.
And.
Perfect and will sing in praise.
Ephesians 4.
Ephesians chapter 4.
Verse 17.
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord that she henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk.
In the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened.
Being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him.
As the truth is in Jesus.
She put off concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that she put on the Newman, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying? Speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steel no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands.
That thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that need it. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth.
But that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you with all malice, and be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Be therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us.
And hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savior, But fornication, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as it become of Saints, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving a thanks. For this ye know that no *********** nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.
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Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God.
Upon the children of disobedience, Benachi therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness, and truth, proving what is that what is acceptable unto the Lord?
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them.
In secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. For whatsoever doth make manifest his light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
I don't think we'll get beyond that this afternoon.
The last three chapters of Ephesians give us practical expectations based upon the doctrine of the first three.
We move in three areas of our lives. We move in the area of the assembly.
And that's covered in the 1St 16 verses of chapter 4. I have not read those verses this afternoon.
Assembly life, the verses that I have read is the second sphere where we move and that's the world.
Sphere of the world.
And then the third sphere, and that goes on. By the way, that second sphere I didn't read at all. It goes on to verse 21 of chapter 5. And then we have the third sphere, that of the family, chapter 522, into chapter 6, verse nine. And finally verse 10 says finding my brethren. And he says be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might put on the whole armor of God. So we have the armor taken up at the end.
We need the armor of God, all of it, in order to walk worthy of the Lord.
In the assembly sphere, in the sphere of the world, and in our family relationships.
What I've read this afternoon has to do with our walk out in the world.
He begins by saying in verse 17 this I say therefore and testify in the Lord chapter 4.
That she henceforth walk not.
As other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, And then he describes them, they had been this.
They, most of them had emphasis here, were saved out of being gentiles, having the understanding darkened, it's so important.
This is a young people's meeting and I especially thinking of the young, but it applies what I'm going to say applies to all, of course.
That you have to realize that you move in a world where those with whom you.
Come in contact every day that are not the Lord's. Their understanding is darkened.
They are alienated from the life of God.
Through the ignorance that is in them.
We speak a language. The Saints of God speak a language which the world does not speak.
They don't understand us oftentimes.
They are alienated from the life that you and I have.
We were once in their condition.
And know something about it. God was not in all of our thoughts. It's not in their thoughts.
So God has set us here to live a life, the very life of Christ.
So that they can see what Christianity is.
As we move amongst them.
Begins by teaching them.
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How that their understanding is darkened. Don't forget that.
They're alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness or the hardness of their hearts.
Those with whom we have to do every day at school, at work, at play, whatever it might be if they're not the Lords. This is true of them who, being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness. You remember when you turn on the television or the radio, you're going to hear from this kind of these kinds of people, those that.
Their understanding is darkened.
They are alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them. Because of the blindness and hardness of their hearts they are past feeling.
When I was a young man, a young boy, I should say this country has, though it's never been, as some would have us to believe, a Christian nation, but there were, there were those that feared the Lord that had to do with the founding of this nation.
And even the people of the world did not were not saved.
Yet.
They had the 10 commandments that they respected. It was oftentimes hung up in the school rooms.
This gives God's moral standard for man and.
There was a respect. I remember I was unsaved as a boy. I had a respect. I'll never forget the time when I was talking with my sister. And I said, will you swear to that on the Bible as she put her hand on the Bible and she swear to it. And I thought when I found out later that she had lied.
I was horrified. I don't know what it was. I wasn't raised as a Christian.
But I had a respect for this book.
And for someone to put their hand on this book and swear.
And be a liar was horrifying to me and there was a natural feeling.
In this country that was something like that there was a respect for.
The things of God.
That's all changed.
The moral standards of the country were taken from the Bible.
Even this nation so favored of God.
So blessed of God, it's something like I'd like to liken it like Israel was it had the law, it had the 10 commandments and and you know they didn't follow the Lord. And this nation began with the fear of God.
I know there were the drunkards and those that didn't follow the word of God, but.
There was a respect for the word of God back then.
In the 60s and 70s.
This all changed. It's all changed in my generation.
And as I read this, these verses where Paul is describing what these gentiles were, sounds like he's describing the present, the United States of America.
So have those that once revered.
God's Word, whether they believed it in their soul enough to be born again and saved.
I cannot say many didn't, but there was a reverence for it, a respect for it.
I remember when I was in Moses Lake, I said I had to come all the way in all of my journeys to Moses Lake WA, to hear these words. Fred and I were sitting at the breakfast table there at the Denny's restaurant and the waitress came to me and came to us and she said, what would you gentlemen like?
And when she came back, I said to her, I said you said something to me that I haven't heard for years.
Usually is. What would you guys like?
Speaking to 70 and older men, 70 years and older men, what would you guys like?
But this waitress showed respect. What would you gentlemen like? I haven't heard that for years. Have you?
There is no respect anymore in the part of the younger and even the waitresses and the waiters.
Towards those they're serving, but I found it. Moses Lake WA. It was most refreshing and I told her so and she got a special good tip because of it.
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Fred gave his and I went back and gave mine.
You might say that's a little thing.
We were talking once in one place. The sister went behind her and she brought out this picture of an iceberg.
It was the level of the water. All you could see was the tip and then you saw the huge iceberg underneath that no one sees. And I said, yes, we've been just talking about the tip of the iceberg, but it's an indication of something deeper, deep rooted.
When the Communists took over China.
What did they promote?
Was it the writings of?
When the Russians took over Russia, what did they promote?
Was it the writings of Karl Marx and Lenin and other communist leaders? No, that's not what they promoted.
They promoted evolution.
Get the people to believe that by.
And you've done away with God. And once you've done away with God, you can do whatever you want. And there's no authority on earth to tell you it's wrong. That's your opinion. I have mine.
And that's true. Your opinion is just as good as mine.
Sometimes we encounter that with our children if we have not instilled the fear of God with them.
You tell them and give them a command and and they say why and we say because I told you so.
Well, that's your opinion, Dad. I have mine.
They've learned that in school, you know, but if you told them God, the supreme authority of the universe.
Has given me the authority to raise you for him.
And to instill in you.
His moral principles for how you are to live your life.
That's why you have to be subject to me in your subjection to me as a father. You're being subject to God.
Who has assigned me that position?
Well, all you have to do is do away with the the absolute authority of the universe, and you've removed the only thing that's stable.
Upon which the society can exist, and without it, it will crumble. This country is headed for disaster, and so is Canada, and so is Western Europe, and so is every nation that forgets God.
Their understanding is darkened. They are alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them.
Those in the highest places of authority in our land are making decisions which are moral suicide.
Because they have no sound judgment.
There is No Fear of God before their eyes.
Where that exists, I remember talking to a young man once. He says let's just argue this point, seeing if we can come to a discussion to see if we can arrive at is there a God? I said forget it, I won't go one step in that direction.
You start with God in the beginning. God. If you don't start with God, your whole basis for an argument or for a discussion is futile and worthless.
The fool that said in his heart, there is no God.
Evolution.
It has caught hold like wildfire. Why? Because man does like.
Does not like being told what to do and what not to do.
And when we are just the product of some distant explosion or some gathering together of molecules and gas and some substance, and that all of a sudden, somehow, some magical way, it becomes organic.
And there's life. It's the most utterly ridiculous. Absurd.
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Piece of guesswork ever come out? It's not a theory that can be proved. It's not a hypothesis. That's an educated guess. It's not even educated.
And all you have to do is get people to believe that lie. As Adolf Hitler said, tell a lie over and over and over again and the people will finally believe it. Well, that's what our media is doing, pumping this poison, poison over and over again to the people.
And all moral judgment is gone.
Who, being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work. All uncleanness with greediness. Young people, this is the kind of world you're living in, and you'll never know how to find your way through it if you don't realize that's the kind of people that you're dealing with every day in the world.
But ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have heard him.
Have you heard him? Have you heard his voice? Do you know him? He is the very truth that the world says. There is no such thing.
Well, this country used to believe there was a basis for.
Moral living. And that was the Bible.
In the 60s and 70s that was given up. There is no God.
And man became the one that decided what was right and wrong.
If it was going to hurt man, that was wrong. If it was going to help him, that was right.
But we had another change in the 90s, the 80s and 90s.
They don't even have that any longer.
There is no moral standard. There is no right and wrong.
If you can classify it under the broad heading of love.
Then it's all right.
But the way the world talks about love, it has no concept of what love is.
While I'm going ahead of myself, let's just read on a little verse 21. If so be ye have heard.
Him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. Remember this. The truth is in Jesus.
A Christian had written a book and he was on a talk show.
And the talk show host was a humanist and she said to this brother.
How do you know that you have the truth?
In a very mocking, sneering type of tone.
And he said to her.
You can never know that you have the truth unless there is a truth to be had.
That stopped her.
And this book is the truth.
And it tells of one who is himself the truth.
And you and I are indwelt by the person of the Holy Spirit, who is the truth.
Doesn't that make you feel good? That of all the millions attaining millions on planet Earth?
We have the truth because we have His word and we have His spirit.
And we have the Lord Jesus himself, and those who do not have him, who do not know him, who are not in dwelt of the Spirit of truth.
They don't know it. The truth is in Jesus.
You're having put off, I'm going to correct this a little bit in verse 22 That you're that you're having put off concerning the former conversation concerning the way you used to live as these blind gentiles.
The old man you're having put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust. The old man is what we were, and Adam what we were in the flesh. We're no longer in Adam. We're in Christ, a new standing before God, and a new absolute state produced by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We are in the Spirit.
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Can't say that about an unsafe person.
Put off the old man with its corruption and its loss. You put it off when you came to Christ. You're done with that. And you put on the Newman, which after God is created in righteousness and through holiness or holiness of truth. Again we have the truth, righteousness, and holiness. The new man, It speaks of Christ. But in between those two statements, the putting off the old, the putting on the new, it speaks of being renewed in the spirit of your mind.
That's We were talking about this in our reading meetings. The importance of reading the word of God every day to make it making it a habit, Habit with you. You read the word of God as often as you, as consistently as you have a meal. Again, three meals a day.
More than, more than our necessary food, the word of God, that's how the mind is renewed. The spirit of the mind. Our very thoughts are affected by the the propaganda that's constantly being typed out through the media. You don't even have to turn it on. You just drive down the road and you see signs are pasted up and they'll put thoughts into your mind that are that are corrupt.
And sinful.
But our standing is that we put off the old man and we put on the new. We're being renewed every day in the spirit of our minds.
Because we have made the Lord our refuge, the word of God our daily.
Source of food We've been talking about the Lord come down and become the bread of God, our bread to sustain us, to nourish us, and the water of life to take it in. God has given us all needed to sustain us and to enable us to go on separate from this present evil world that we're passing through. These things that we see going on around us shouldn't surprise us. We're in the last days and evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. This is what God tells us.
The utopia of a present revival, which I've heard so often said by some radio preacher as I travel. I do listen to those sometimes, and it makes you sad.
Sad indeed to hear what's going on.
Let him that stole well at verse 25 put away, Wherefore put away lying.
Speak every man truth with his neighbor.
When I was at work, the most common sin that took place just every day.
They never batted an eye. Look, you're right smack in the eye and lie like just lies. Lie, just lie, doesn't seem to affect them. They don't care whether they tell the truth or not.
They're liars.
And this is characteristic of these last days. Satan is a great liar.
And yet people will steal him One politician. He was so cast down over the insurmountable task of bringing order out of the chaos that exists in the political arena, he said. If the devil himself could get us out of this mess, I'd follow the devil.
That's bad. That's a bad state of things when one can make such a ridiculous statement.
Wherefore putting away lines, speak every man truth with his neighbor.
But we are members one of another.
Some of us have gotten into the habit. It's a habit with us.
I'm in a you say we often do it the other way around. That's the way of the world, you know?
The Lord never did that. Never unthinkable to attribute something like that to him. He was the truth. He always spoke the truth.
Never spoke something that could be and mean the opposite.
Be angry.
Thought we weren't supposed to be angry.
Turned back to Mark Chapter 3 for a moment. We'll come right back here.
Mark, Chapter 3.
And he entered again into the synagogue. Jesus did. And there was a man there which had a withered hand.
And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him. And he saith unto the man which had the withered hands stand forth.
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And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days, or to do evil, to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace.
And when he had looked round about on them with anger being grieved.
For the hardness of their hearts he saith unto the man, stretch forth thine head.
And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored whole as the other. And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him.
How they might destroy him.
Because he had healed a man on the Sabbath.
The Lord looked round about him with anger at the hardness of their hearts.
There are sins that take place in our presence that ought to produce anger on our part.
It would be wrong to be indifferent to it.
But it says be angry and sin not. There is a righteous anger. We always ought to be angry with sin. But it says sin not. What is it meant by that? Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Brother Hale used to say to us, never lay your head down on your pillow at night with an unkind thought against anyone.
We have to hold our anger. It will soon we being who we are and with the nature that we have.
Or we still have that flesh nature. It would soon degenerate into sin, wouldn't it?
If we think upon it too long.
We ought to abhor it before that which is evil, plead to that which is good. We ought to abhor it, but not dwell upon it.
The angry and sin not Let not the sin go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. You hold your anger and you'll give place to the devil. He'll have advantage over you.
And the Lord knows that. So he has warned us, let him that stole steal no more. But the Old Testament, the 10 commandments, said that thou shalt not steal. Grace tells us something more. It says, let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor working with his hands, the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needed.
That no corrupt communication pro ceed out of your mouth.
How many times as we go through this world, we hear that? We hear the the vile language, the filthy jokes? We should walk away, we should turn a deaf ear, and sometimes we should even rebuke it.
Publicly if necessary.
Let no corrupt communication pro ceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying.
That it may minister grace unto the hearers. We have been hearing a lot of grace.
All that. We knew it better.
And grieved not, you can't grieve him away, but you can grieve him the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
In us because of the work of Christ, and he'll never leave us no matter how much we fail Him.
Don't grieve him, Paul says.
And then he says let all bitterness.
And wrath and anger and clamor and even speaking be put away from you with all malice, evil intent to injure someone else. That's what malice is devising a plan. Have you ever thought of killing someone?
You didn't do it, but you thought about it.
Malice.
Bitterness.
It's a canker. It will destroy you and it affects others. It defiles others.
That all bitterness and wrath and anger, well, it just said be angry and sin not there is a place for righteous anger. But this isn't that here.
It's just fleshly anger, wrath and anger and clamor, evil speaking. Let it be put away from you. That's what the Gentiles round about us do.
And I'm guilty of this. We're not to speak evil of dignities.
Michael the Archangel would not raise a railing accusation against Satan, but said the Lord rebuked thee.
That some of those who are in power and authority today.
Christians are, you might say, the first to speak very strongly against them.
Well, we're grieved over what's happening.
Over decisions that are being made and so on.
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But we're to hold our tongues and not to speak irreverently of those that God has placed in authority.
And be kind.
One to another.
Tender hearted Do you have a tender heart? Do I have a tender heart? Heart filled with compassion, you see?
You see those that are not going on maybe those that are under discipline and.
They had never been restored.
Does that bother you? Bothers me?
Bothers me.
It ought to bother all of us.
God didn't leave me out in the wilderness.
I never found my way back.
Shepherd sought the sheep.
Brought us back.
He restoreth my soul how often he has done that.
For my soul. For your soul.
Tender hearted, forgiving one another.
Now I'm going to read this as it should be read even as God in Christ has forgiven you, and that word forgiven here means to show grace to.
God has shown grace to me. God has shown grace to you.
When you think of that being placed in the place of exercising.
Discipline upon another fellow member of the Body of Christ.
Who am I to do that? Who are you to do that? Who are we to do that?
We're just as bad.
But the prerogative of love, divine love, leads us to exercise it.
Because love always seeks the blessing of its object. Always.
And when I discipline my child, and when you discipline your child, if it's not love that's motivating you to do it, you want their blessing. You want to them to be corrected. So they don't do that anymore. They don't learn that way. They don't speak those foul words that they may have picked up at school. You may have to discipline because they have uttered them.
The whole purpose of discipline is restorative, corrective that the person under discipline might be brought back to a state of usefulness in the Assembly.
Sad to say, I don't find that as often as I'd like to.
And I went to the Burbank conference last December.
I was delighted.
I felt it was worth going all the way, just for this one thing to find out. Here was a sister standing by her husband. She'd been out of fellowship. She'd left the meeting, he was still in the meeting, and here she was with him at the conference.
But I could hardly believe it. And he was just radiating with joy. And so was she.
Nothing more precious than to see a soul that's been out of communion restored.
Even as God in Christ has shown grace to you.
You therefore, followers of God, imitators of God, imitators of God's, a better word as beloved children.
And walk in love.
Just a few comments on this first part of chapter 5 and then I must close.
As Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself love, gives oneself love, is not seeking to get He came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. And that's love.
An offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. But then.
And I've often wondered why this next but fornication in all, and cleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as become of Saints, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving a thanks.
Those are strange things to be put next to those first two verses.
When it's describing the love of God and the love of Christ.
It's put there because if you can put any of those things that fornication and uncleanness and filthiness and all that under the caption of love.
And that's what the world is doing today. It's calling these illicit and wicked and corrupt lifestyles and expression of love. They can't help but they were born that way.
And they put it under love. They don't know what divine love is. They don't know what real love is at all.
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And they're calling their lust and their perversion and their wickedness. They're calling it love.
And once you content it that way, then you can do whatever you like because.
I love them.
What you really love is yourself.
And you want to have your desires, your sinful desires, fulfilled, gratified. You call it love, and so it passes. It's acceptable. That's where our society is today. And young people, you're moving in that society, Don't be fooled by the very words they use. They pick up the words of Scripture and they use them, but they don't understand them.
They corrupt them. They falsify them. They don't know what love is.
Love is always seeking the good of its object. Love is serving. Love is blessing.
Love is giving of oneself in order to help the other. It's not self gratification, but that's the way it's used today.
Well.
The hour went by awfully fast.
Let's close by singing number six.
Jesus, How much?
Of my name.
Please please.
Play.
All.
And.
Whoever.
Made.
Us more.
Jason.
Make sure to.
Make a strong.
I'm still.
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Here.
When?
And all who has and it's all.
Me.