St. Louis Conference: 2009
Table of Contents
We Are Living in Serious Times
Address—Bob Thonney
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Sit upon thy Father's throne.
Path of shame and suffering, o'er thy heart shall grieve and mourn no more. And Lord, now we wait for thee to come, and to take us to thy Father's home.
What ecstatic joy it will be to spend eternity with thee.
Lord, we rejoice.
I found some good.
Old things by.
Turn to Second Peter, chapter one.
Second Peter, chapter one.
Simon Peter.
A servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ.
To them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power hath given unto us all things.
That pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue.
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
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And besides this, giving all diligence.
Add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge.
And to knowledge, temperance, and to temperance, patience, and the patience, godliness, the godliness, brotherly love, and to brotherly love, charity or love.
For if these things be in you and abound, they make you, that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful.
In the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten.
That he was purged from his old sins.
Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence.
To make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things, you shall never fall.
For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.
Yeah, I think it meet as long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance.
Knowing that shortly I must put off this my Tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able after mighty cease to have these things.
Always in remembrance, for we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His Majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory.
This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.
And this voice which came from heaven, we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount.
We have also a more sure word of prophecy. Where unto ye do well, that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn.
And the day star arise in your hearts, knowing this verse, that no prophecy of the scriptures of any private interpretation.
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Rather than I'm sure we're all aware to a certain extent of the seriousness of the days we live in.
God has given warning to this world in a lot of ways.
That tsunami that hit in Indonesia, Awful. I think it was 275,000 lives snuffed out.
And the tragedy not being so much those 270-5000, but the millions that were left with life without any homes.
The little children that were wandering around not knowing where their parents were.
Terrible, awful tragedy.
Here in this country, people were.
Confident in the structure of the government.
Better than one moment to the next.
The banks started failing and what they considered to be secure was gone, vanished right in front of their eyes. I was interested in speaking to a brother who speaks in investments not too long ago.
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Who, uh, works and invest in monetary investments and he said. Seems like we've come back from the Brinks.
Of collapse. But he says the way the US government is spending money is totally unsustainable.
And it doesn't seem any seriousness about addressing the issue.
What does that mean? It means it's just a matter of time when everything we know.
The relatively easy life we've had in the United States of America is going to go down the tubes.
It says in first Peter chapter 4 the end of all things is at hand.
Be therefore sober and watch unto prayer.
Soberness watching. We are exhorted to it in several places in Scripture. Soberness is in contrast with drunkenness. Not speaking about materially being drunk, but it is getting under the influence of present things to the point where we don't walk as Christians ought to walk.
And watching is in contrast with sleeping.
Brother.
I really believe the Lord is trying to awaken us because it's getting down to the moment when He's going to take us into the Father's house.
What really speaks to me is Lot in Sodom. Those angels came to him and said we're going to destroy this place, get everybody you can and let's go. But Lot had to be literally dragged out of Sodom.
Why? She's so connected to that way of life. And it seems to me that's what's happening today. The Lord is speaking to us in so many different ways, and yet we are. We are tied to life as it exists in this world. You ready to go, brother? Are there things pending that keep you from wanting to go right now?
Oh, how it speaks to my own soul because I can't stand here and point the finger in the other direction. I know that the world that I'm passing through has affected me as well as anybody else.
That the Lord is coming, brethren.
In first Peter.
We have the government of God in the House of God.
In Second Peter, we have the government of God in this world.
Now God is working amongst his people.
In his household because before he starts with the judgment of this world.
He's going to deal with us, his household. He's dealt with me, Brennan, he is dealing with me.
And I think many of us can relate to that. But he's going to take the judgment of this world in hand. And that's what's so solemn about the Book of Revelation. You have the judgment of this world. It's a book of judgment. But before he begins the judgment of this world, he is walking in the midst of the seven candlesticks those.
That are the testimony in this world and he's observing.
What's going on amongst his people he's judging?
His eyes are as a flame of fire. You may be able to hide things from your brethren.
Or from your parents, or whoever else you cannot hide from the eyes of him, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, extremely penetrating. Oh, how that searches my own heart. So often we can be even in a right outward way, but not right in our spirits.
And here's the one that weighs the motives of the heart.
Oh dear, brethren, we're living in serious times and as Peter takes up this issue in second Peter of the government of God in this world.
Especially in chapter 3 where you have mentioned the day of the Lord and then finally the day of God.
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The day we live in today is what we sometimes refer to of.
In first, uh, Corinthians chapter 4, the marginal reading says the man's day. That's the day we live in today.
Man has his way, he does his thing.
And he doesn't want anybody to stand in his way or judge him. And sometimes we even get under the influence of that kind of a spirit of things. The Lord keep us from it.
But that's man's day. That's where we live. Everything is centered in man's.
The whole culture we're passing through is that way.
And the advertising? You owe it to yourself. We've often mentioned Burger King. I like Burger Kings. Have it your way. That's their saying, yeah.
That's the culture we're passing through.
And it's dangerous. You know why it's dangerous? Because man thinks he can have it his way and it's going to terminate in the emergence of a man. That's called the willful king in Daniel Chapter 11.
Who is really the Antichrist? I really believe it's a good possibility that man is alive in the world today.
And people in this country show so much that spirit of things, willfulness.
Doing your own thing.
But there's a day coming, Chapter 3. It's called the day of the Lord, when the Lord Jesus is going to come back in person to this world. He's going to set his feet down on this globe again, and he's going to reign supreme from sea to sea. And it's going to be so tremendously glorious when he comes with his people.
Just thrills my soul when I think of that day.
That we're getting close.
It's gonna be so tremendously glorious.
That after he sets up his Kingdom.
It is said that no one will need to say to their neighbor, Know the Lord, for all shall know me, for the earth shall be.
Covered with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea, wouldn't it be a tremendous day when no one will be ignorant of the glory of the Lord? That day is getting close, brethren.
Tremendously tremendous to think of the major changes that are just ahead for planet Earth. We're not going to keep on having democracy.
Democracy has turned out to be the vehicle where man exerts his own will.
In ignoring the will of God. Terrible to think about it, that's what's happened in our world. I'd like to go over this first chapter in brief form.
Just to cover some of the exhortations that the Apostle Peter gives us tremendous things as he speaks of the end of the chapter of the amount of transfiguration experience, which was really a preview of the coming Kingdom.
Preview of what we could call the Day of the Lord, when the Lord Jesus is going to reign supreme in this world.
Interesting in verse one, he addresses the believers first of all as a servant.
And then as an apostle of Jesus Christ, I think that's beautiful.
And brethren, we're all servants of the Lord. It's not like it's special class that they're the servant, the Lord. We are all servants of the Lord.
Yes, you may have a job at a certain company.
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You're told to do it hardly as to the Lord, because you serve the Lord Christ. No sloppiness in your job. If you're gonna do it for him because he's observing, do it heartily unto the Lord. We're servants. And then he speaks here in verse one of this.
Like precious faith, I think that's.
Tremendous. Peter speaks a lot about precious things, things that are valuable. I don't think we can value enough the faith that he has put into our hearts. Faith is a gift of God. How does he give it to us? You know how he gives us faith? Through the hearing of the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. It's interesting to me to watch.
When I am speaking the word, especially when I am given the gospel, people that are listening.
Remember when I first went to Chicago area 1962?
Was in Oak Park at that time the meeting and there was a lady that used to come to the meetings.
And she used to be very polite, dressed very nice.
But it was evident as she sat there, she was not listening.
Not listening.
Wasn't too many years after that that she passed away.
I fear she was not a saved soul.
How is it when the word of God is open and read, do you listen?
So important.
This is not just a normal book. This is the word of the living God. This book will be opened in heaven forever.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my word, we shall never pass away.
Wonderful to have this book in our hands.
Tremendously important to have your ears opened.
When this word is read, sometimes you may not appreciate a certain speaker. You just don't like the way he talks, and so maybe you just kind of turn off the volume when he's up there speaking. Don't do it. Listen, God uses any instrument He sees fit to use to give His word, and we ought to have ears to hear.
Balin, that false prophet, God used a donkey to speak to him.
What did Balaam do?
He talked back to his donkey.
Man, I think I would just been kind of stunned and listened.
Not Dylan. He didn't have an ear to hear. He had his own agenda.
So what God said to him through the mouth of the donkey, he appeared to.
Have accepted it, but really the way he went shows that he did not really listen to God.
And I found that in my life that sometimes God uses the most unexpected instrument to speak a word to us.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear how important it is to hear, because faith comes by that hearing. If you want faith, you need to cultivate a hearing here.
I look at verse two. It says grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
It's interesting. This is what's sometimes called the mathematics chapter because in verse five we're told to add, but here in verse two we're told the MO, that there's something that is multiplied. Really it isn't we who are the multipliers in verse two, it's God.
When it comes to our part, yes, we are to add. But multiplying? How does that come? How does grace and peace multiplied? To us, brethren, it's through the knowledge of God and of our Savior Jesus Christ. Find that very precious to think about.
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We know God is that wonderful, the God of the universe, the God that put it all into order and that maintains it. We know that God.
Wonderful.
And the more you get to know Him, the more is grace and peace going to be multiplied to you.
You know, brother, and it really comes down to a contrast to the day we're living in, where man makes himself so much the focus of everything, what I want, what I like.
But it's not that that's going to give you grace and peace.
No, you want grace and peace to be multiplied in your life. It's going to come through the knowledge of God and of our Savior Jesus Christ. I found it such a blessing just to try to switch channels.
This world wants us to think about ourselves.
Don't be that way young people. Don't be self-centered. self-centered people are miserable people.
Get your channels changed to somewhere else.
To this that we're talking about to who our God is through the knowledge of God and of our Savior Jesus Christ. You know, God is so tremendously infinite in his being. Sometimes it's put this way that God inhabits eternity.
He created a little bubble called time and we live in that little bubble.
God doesn't inhabit time as such. In the essence of his being, he inhabits eternity.
Where there is no time but God became a man.
And entered his own creation in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we can know God.
Because he came to right where we are. I think that's so tremendously wonderful. He became a man. He was born into this world same way we're born through a woman.
The only difference is that there was number sin, absolutely no sin in him. He was the holy Son of God.
And yet he passed through the midst of the pathway of life that we go through.
And you know, he didn't come in elegance, He came in tremendous poverty. It really speaks to my soul, the Lord Jesus as he passed through this world, never had.
Hardly anything to his name.
A house.
Maybe a donkey? He had to borrow a donkey to fulfill the scriptures in entering into Jerusalem mounted on a donkey.
The only thing I can really think of that he had was his clothes and they took those away from him when they crucified him.
Why did he live that way through this world? You know why I think, brethren, that he lived so poorly in this world.
Because he came from the Father's house, He knew the elegance and the glory and the joy and the love of that house, and there was nothing to compare with it down here in this world. And that's why he lived down here as a Pilgrim and a stranger. After his resurrection, they said to him on the way to Mass, Art thou a stranger in Jerusalem? Yeah, He was just a stranger in Jerusalem.
That's all.
Wonderful to think of him. Well, we can get to know God, and the more we get to know Him, the more grace and peace will be multiplied. Gotta keep on going here. Verse three says that His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain into life and godliness through the knowledge of Him. There it is the knowledge of Him again that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding.
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Great and precious promises. There's that word precious again.
We have a book full of the promises of God. Wonderful to take them for ourselves and to prove that our God is a living God through those promises of His precious Word.
You know, sometimes we believe more, brethren, the circumstances of life that we're passing through. Some time ago I was talking to a young sister.
And she was distraught by some of the trials that had taken place and she said.
Lord has left me alone, I said. How do you know that?
That's the way I feel like he's left me alone. I say, has your feelings ever change? Oh yeah. Does the word of God ever change? No. Word of God says I will never leave you nor forsake you. Are you going to believe the word of God? Are you going to believe your feelings?
But she had the grace to.
Recognize that she needed to believe the word of God. And that's the secret, brother. And this book is full of promises, tremendous promises, precious, exceeding great promises. Do we take them? It's by those promises that we are given divine power for all things that pertain into life and godliness in this world.
But now verse five, he says beside this giving.
All diligence does that word mean?
Does that mean, well, if you kind of like to do it, you can. If you don't want to do it, well, that's all right. Is that what diligence means? I don't think so.
I think you know what diligence means. It means you put your decision and energy into this. And brethren, we need to be diligent about what he's going to exhort us about. He's talking about faith. Yes, you have that like precious faith, but now give diligence to add to that. And there's seven things in this list that we are to add to faith. First is.
Virtue. Moral courage, I think it really means just like James exhorted in his epistle.
Faith without works is dead. Don't just talk to me that you have faith. Show it to me.
Have moral courage to put it into action.
I think it's so important in our lives, brethren. There's so much just an outward profession of faith in God without anything that relates to it in a practical way. That's not what God wants in our lives. He wants reality, and if you profess that faith in Him, then be real and act it.
But.
Virtue needs to be tempered too. With what?
Knowledge. Yes, we need the knowledge of the Word of God. Some people sometimes talk about virtue or moral courage or power.
But it's without the knowledge of the word of God when they get into trouble.
So and knowledge needs to be.
Added temperance and to temperance patience.
But you can be so patient that you're not godly, so you better add some godliness to your patience.
And you can be so godly that you don't show any brotherly kindness. So you better add some brotherly kindness to your godliness.
And then the last word in the list is charity or love. That's the other word in the original language that's translated love generally and Mr. Darby's translation. It's interesting to see the places in Scripture where those two types of love are.
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United together like they are here. Brotherly love the way I understand it, I trust it's the right way. Is that it is the mutual appreciation of one of another I've gotten to know brother Jim. I appreciate you, brother.
Perhaps you appreciate me.
And there's that mutual appreciation of each other. There ought to be that scripture says in Hebrews chapter.
13 Let brotherly love continue.
We need to cultivate it, brother, and that's why we come together, have times together where we can talk together, we can share our burdens, we can pray together.
But sometimes there's difficulties.
You know, let those difficulties come in and separate us. That's where we are to add to the brotherly love, divine love. And this is the love that loves when there's nothing lovable.
Supposing I did something bad to you, brother? I hope I don't do that.
You can still love me, brother.
But that's not brotherly love. Now that's the divine love.
Brother, I think we need to be stirred up about this. You know if you look in John's writings 7 times we are commanded to love one another. He doesn't say you can do it if you like. No, we're told to love as Christ loved us. We are to love one another. It's the love of decision. It's not the love of emotion, it's the love of decision.
And it's a costly love. God so loved the world that he gave.
Are you willing to pay a price in your professed love to one another? Well, the Lord help us brethren to go over this list. We profess faith in the Lord Jesus, but we need to be real in that faith. We need to see to it that we add these seven things to our faith and notice now in the verses that follow.
He mentions a number of times.
Notice verse 8 for if these things.
Notice verse nine. He that lacketh these things.
Verse 10 if you do these things.
Umm verse umm.
12.
I will not be, I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of.
These things in verse 15.
I will endeavour that you may be able after my deceased to have these things always in remembrance. So he's speaking about those seven things that are to be added to faith in those verses. Uh, 5-6 and seven.
Good to go over them, challenge our souls.
About this these things from time to time, but verse 8 says if we these things be in you and abound they make you that you shall be neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't it nice to be fruitful people that are fruitful doesn't mean fruit, you know is not exactly work.
It's down in western Argentina the other day.
You go and bust through the roads of that part of the country.
Just filled with grapevines and all sorts of fruit.
And the purpose is that these vines would bring forth fruit. It's interesting to see how they're treated, how they're protected, how they're, umm.
Oh, they're umm, how do you say it?
Pruned, yeah, thank you. Thinking the Spanish word, but uh, how they're pruned so that they will be fruitful and God wants fruit in our lives. These things be in you and abound. They will not leave you to be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and that forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
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Sad when that happens.
Verse.
10 again speaks to that word. Give diligence to make your calling an election sure. In other words, election is a truth that we enjoy.
But show that you are one of God's elect by the way you act.
I think that's what he means here. Make your calling an election. You sure? For if you do these things, you shall never fall. Here's the recipe to never falling in our Christian faith.
Then verse 11 Challenge me tremendously, brother, so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
What kind of an entrance do you want to have? Remember brother.
John Airsman speaking about this and he said.
In his mind there were two pictures. One was of a vessel, those old sailing vessels, and one of the vessels comes in with all the sails out, comes in.
And comes into its place, into the port. Another vessel comes in and it's been in a bad storm and it's all tattered. Just a few sails out to kind of pushing it along. It gets home to port too, but it's not exactly what you call an abundant entrance.
What kind of an entrance do you want into that everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Are you interested into in an abundant entrance?
And brethren, this is where that day, that future day, should live in our souls. We are made not for man's puny little temporary day down here. We are made for a day of supreme glory, of union with Christ in that coming day.
And the way you and I live.
Well determine whether there is an abundant entrance. God wants all his people to have an abundant entrance.
But it says and the way it says it, so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So the rest of the chapter takes up that subject, the Kingdom.
That's ahead of which we are going to have a part as associated with the Lord Jesus in His glory, but I want to.
Speak of these other verses here first verse 12. I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them and be established in the present truth. I like that expression, the present truth.
You know what? This book isn't old. This book is.
The present truth, It has the word of God.
With principles that apply just as much today.
As as when there was first given.
It is the living and abiding word of God. Somebody has said. It's more up to date than the newspaper that came out this morning in the Saint Louis Dispatch.
Wonderful to have this book in our hands. And you know what? You can be established in the present truth, brethren.
But we need to be negligent not to ever give up putting these things into remembrance. You know, sometimes I feel that as Americans, we always like new, innovative ideas.
This book isn't exactly new.
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Let's not be afraid to go over the principles of the Word of God again and again. The very foundations of our Christian faith are being undermined in the world where living in and we need to go over those precious foundational truths as to who the person of the Lord Jesus is.
The eternal Son of God.
Completely sinless.
And at the same time, he is the Son of man.
I love what brother Chuck Hendricks used to say as God. He had a father but no mother.
As man, he had a mother but no father.
Wonderful truth of His person, God and man in one glorious person. Oh how fresh it is. It is to meditate on Him, to have our thoughts on Him, brethren, not on ourselves.
In all Hebrews, chapter 12 Says consider.
Him, brethren, that's Christianity. In the Old Testament, under the law, the focus was on man if he could keep the law.
Never happened.
Never happened.
That God, in effect, is saying, OK, I'm done.
I want to show you who I am, and in the person of the Lord Jesus we have the full display of the glory of God.
Wonderful to think about it.
It's who He is and how important to have clear, right teaching as to the Word of God.
The work of Christ is another thing that is extremely foundational that we need to be clear about.
Pointed out to me the other day in Argentina.
Of One of the teachings of covenant theology is that the righteousness that the believer has is the righteousness that is imputed by God.
But that the Lord Jesus had because of keeping the law.
That is not correct teaching as to the righteousness that belongs to the believer. It's the righteousness of God because of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That completely leaves out the work of Christ.
Many of those older covenant theologians did not have that point clear. This happened to be a quote from John Bunyan.
John Bunyan had a lot of good things to say, but he was not clear on that point, how important it is to be clear on these points, to go over them and to get those foundational things solid in our souls because they're being undermined. And he says not only.
Will I not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things? But I'm going to die, he says. I'm going to put off this Tabernacle.
As the Lord Jesus has showed me, John 21, He showed him that he was going to.
Uh, be taken away that he did not wish to go. But then he says, I will endeavor that you may be able after my deceased to have these things always in remembrance. And here we are 2009. We're talking about these things. Thank God we have them in remembrance. And it's important, brother, to go over these things again and again. Let's not get weary of going over the same scriptures.
What we need to be exercised about is that it be the leading of the Spirit of God.
Remember.
I think it was George Whitfield.
John.
Do you remember if that was the boy preacher?
Is it George Whitfield?
Yeah, that's what they call the board preacher, right?
Remember, he had a week of meetings, gospel meetings, and each night as you get up he announced his text through the whole week.
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He had preached only on John 316 and he got up the last night and he said.
As I start my meeting tonight, the text I'm going to give is John 316. I can't think of a better way to tell you of a God of love.
You know, it's not wrong to use the same scriptures, but it's important that we seek to be led by the Spirit of God. And if it's the Spirit of God that leads in that way, there will be freshness for as much as we know it and maybe are established. We need to go over it again and again. And now he comes to this part at the end of the chapter that speaks of really what is a preview of the coming Kingdom or the day of the Lord.
That is spoken of in chapter three. He says, verse 16. We have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His Majesty.
Eyewitnesses.
You know Christianity is not based on.
Just a mere set of doctrines.
It's based on historical fact of things that actually happened in this world and the apostles were witnesses as to what happened, eyewitnesses also, he says in verse 18, this voice which came from heaven, we heard those two channels, the eye.
And the ear John uses the same two channels in first John chapter.
One verse three says that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you.
That ye also may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship is truly with the Father.
And with his Son Jesus Christ. So what was it that they saw that day? They saw His Majesty. It is beautiful to go back. We don't have time to go back to Matthew or Mark or Luke where it's declared those times when they saw His Majesty.
I'd like to understand that word majesty a little bit better. It's a term that's used to royalty.
Often, Majesty, maybe somebody can help me out on that. After the meeting, Majesty, they saw. His Majesty says he was transfigured before them. His clothes were white as the light, His face shone as the sun. O brethren, the glory of the Lord Jesus. When he comes back in that coming day, we have no clue about it. In fact, it's interesting when you deal with the question of the Lord's coming.
We know, I think we're taught that there are two specific parts of the Lord's second coming, the rapture, when He's going to call His people to meet Him in the air and take us into the Father's house. And then the one that comes at the end of the great Tribulation period, that's called the Revelation of Jesus Christ, sometimes called the manifestation or the appearing. Those three terms are used in connection.
With when He comes back, I really believe, brethren, that according to Scripture it is going to be the most absolutely glorious display of power and glory this world has ever, ever seen or ever will see when God introduces His man in power and glory. That woman hung dead on a cross is going to be introduced in power and glory not very far.
In front of us.
He's gonna reign supreme, and you and I are gonna be eyewitnesses when he comes back.
Peter got a glimpse of that glory.
And he couldn't forget it.
He received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory.
There's another term I'd like somebody to help me with.
Excellent glory.
How does glory differ from excellent glory? I can't explain it, brethren. I just revel in it. That's what the.
Apostle Peter is talking about.
When that voice came from heaven, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
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And this voice which came from heaven, we heard.
When we were with him in the Holy Mount.
Yes, they saw it. They heard it. And Peter wasn't the only witness. There were three there that day, Peter, James and John, who were eyewitnesses who heard that voice.
Let's say. Sure thing, brother.
This Kingdom is coming, and I don't think it's very far away.
But God is going to establish His Kingdom here in this world in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's coming to reign supreme. Like to just go to the third chapter briefly.
To show there what it speaks about the day of the Lord.
Verse 10. The day of the Lord is at the end of the Great Tribulation period, when the Lord Jesus comes back in power and glory to establish His Kingdom.
Says the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.
It doesn't come that way for us brethren, but he comes in judgment as a thief in the night in the witch. Notice between those two statements is a semi colon. Because the day of the Lord begins at the end of the great tribulation period and runs for 1000 years. And at the end of those thousand years, in that same day of the Lord, the heavens shall pass away with a great noise.
And the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
That's what takes place at the end of the day of the Lord.
We have it, uh, given in the end of chapter 20 of Revelation and 21 The first verse is there, and then it says verse 11. See then that all these things shall be dissolved. What manner of persons like you to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God?
That's eternity. That's after this world that we know today. This present creation has all completely vanished.
And it says in the which wherein dwelleth righteousness in the millennial day, righteousness will reign today.
Grace reigns through righteousness. In the millennial day, righteousness will reign. But in the eternal day, where there is no sin, there's no need for any more raining.
Righteousness dwells, O the glory of that coming day. We just give you a little thought that I've enjoyed my soul. I've heard from some of our older brethren. Why is it in Scripture that so little is said about that eternal day?
And the explanation has been given that it's so tremendously.
Glorious that if God would speak to us of it, we don't have the capacity to be able to take it in yet. But it was put in this way that the millennial day will be glorious and extreme and the Millennium is like the anti anti room into the palace. And so we will go into the millennial day. You can read about the millennial day. There's lots.
About the millennial day in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament.
Read about it, get to know it, and then that will be the introduction into that eternal day, that day of God wherein dwells righteousness.
1 Peter 1:1-5
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Wonder if would be profitable and of the Lord to take up first Peter chapter one.
I just make that suggestion. A lot of trials amongst the Lord's people and difficulties, just as the Saints were having that Peter wrote too, and perhaps it would be for our instruction and encouragement.
First Peter chapter one.
Peter, an Apostle Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Athenia, all act according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit under obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
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To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not away reserved in heaven. For you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
Where he greatly rejoice, though now for a season if need be, You're in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than that of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire.
Might be found under praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Whom have you not seen ye love, And whom for now ye see Him not yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently. Who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you? Searching what or what manner of time? The Spirit of Christ.
Which was in them to testify that signify, when it testified beforehand, the sufferings of Christ.
And the glory that should follow.
On whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us, they'd administer the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into.
Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts and your ignorance.
But as he which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. For if you call on the Father, who without respect of persons, judgeth according to every man's work.
In fear, for as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things, with silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your father's.
But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spa, Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who by Him to believe in God.
They raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.
Seeing you have purified your souls, and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart, fervently being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible.
By the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away, but the Word of the Lord endureth forever.
And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.
Context of who the Apostle Peter is writing to. It's those who had believed of the Jewish nation. We know that on the day of Pentecost and subsequent to it, in the early chapters of the Acts, there were great multitudes of the Jews who believed. We know that the nation as a nation had rejected the Lord Jesus, cried for his crucifixion, had him taken outside the walls of Jerusalem and nailed to a Roman cross.
But there were multitudes that believed in the early days of Christianity of the Church.
Those to which Peter said on one occasion, repent and be baptized and save yourselves from this untoward generation. That is, they were needed to be severed from the genera, the the nation that had rejected the Lord Jesus. And then we find that through circumstances later on, they're scattered from their homes. There's an invasion and they're scattered.
And they were suffering what are referred to as fiery trials. They'd lost everything, naturally speaking. And the apostle Peter writes to them to encourage them that though they may have lost everything in a temporal or natural way, they had gained everything spiritually through and in Christ. And brethren, isn't that what's going to encourage us in the days in which we live? You know, sometimes some things are mentioned for prayer and some burdens and trials that really seem to weigh us down.
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I think sometimes the tendency of our souls is to think we're the only ones that have ever had to face these kinds of things, and it's so difficult today and so many trials.
Well, it is difficult today, brethren. There are a lot of trials and there are a lot of things that are unique to.
Where we are in our history as the Lord's people right at the end. But brethren.
Our brethren in past ages, right back to the Old New Testament here, have been going through difficult circumstances. It's never been easy to live in the world in which we we live. There have been unique situations and trials and difficulties relevant to every generation. And our brethren back here that Peter was writing to, they were facing a lot of things, a lot of difficulties, But Peter instructs them as to what they have now that is of eternal value that they can never lose.
And that they have one who is providing for the mall through the Wilderness journey.
And a wonderful hope and future at the end. And that was really my exercise in suggesting this portion.
That, brethren, we look beyond the trials and the difficulties, not that we become indifferent or callous to them. God allows them to exercise our souls individually, as families and collectively. And we don't want to be callous or indifferent to what God allows in our lives. But by the same token, we need to realize, as Peter says, that we have a living hope and those things that our eternal value that we can enjoy and appreciate now and those things that we will enjoy and appreciate in a deeper way.
At in the end when we finally arrive at the Father's house.
Found on the setting of what Peter Wise writes the way he does, and that is.
These people, to whom he writes, had previously had all their expectations and their vision, if you will, connected with the earth.
They were Jews, and for nearly 2000 years the Jewish people had the right, if they were obedient to the word of the Lord, to expect a long life and earthly blessing.
And now Peter is writing to a people and he's they've lost everything. They're not going to have an earthly blessing.
It's not presented to them, but he says you do have a living hope.
That's better than an earthly blessing. Earthly blessings end in death eventually.
But Peter presents because of the resurrection of the one they followed, the Lord Jesus Christ. You have a living hope. And further, Peter always looks at salvation as at the end of that journey.
We so often and rightly and properly according to different scriptures, say we are presently saved when we put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we are from judgment. But Peter looks at it as a salvation that comes at the end of a, I'm going to say a very dangerous journey and.
So the picture in the Old Testament is the children of Israel who have had to leave the world, Egypt, and they're on their way to their promised land and they have to go through a wilderness. And, uh, you stop. And you think how many of them made it literally made it a very small number of the men who were responsible at the time they left the land of Egypt, only two out of hundreds of thousands of them.
Successfully went to the end of the journey, and brethren, I think.
If we don't recognize the world as a wilderness, we will constantly not get what God is saying to us in this chapter. We're not gonna really listen. We're not gonna pay attention. We're not gonna be able to apply it to ourselves unless we have recognized that we too are in a wilderness and our goal, our expectation.
Is to take that journey to its safe conclusion to the father's house that Jim mentioned in what he said in the first.
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Why he addresses them as strangers. They were strangers perhaps for two reasons. One, they had been driven from their home, home and their homeland, and they were strangers in that sense, in a natural sense, just as I am in that sense, a stranger in the United States of America because I'm a Canadian by citizen, by birth, and by citizenship. But they were strangers in another sense. And you get it later on in the second chapter.
Where he says, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, that ye abstained from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.
And so, as you say, Peter is the wilderness book. In Paul's ministry, we're already seeing seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus and so on. In Peter, it's Christ in you, the hope of glory. We're passing through this wilderness with the hope before us. We're still here in this wilderness world. And we need to recognize, as Dawn said, that we are strangers and pilgrims. If I can put it very simply, a stranger is one who doesn't belong.
And a Pilgrim is one who's just passing through. We find the expression again in connection with those who are listed.
Near the beginning of the 11Th chapter of Hebrews, it says that they didn't receive the promises, but saw them afar off.
And confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. And it's interesting there that it is in the same order that you get it in Peter. Not pilgrims and strangers, but strangers and pilgrims. Because we need to 1St realize that we are a stranger, that we don't belong. And then we will realize we're just passing through. If I can put it this way, when I enter the United States or any other foreign country.
The first question they ask me is my citizenship and when I tell them I'm a Canadian.
The very next question they usually ask is, how long are you going to be in this country? Because they recognize that as a stranger, I'm just passing through. And so we need to recognize that we like these ones Peter was writing to. We are indeed strangers here. And brethren, we're only here for a little time. There's a wonderful future, as Don said, at the end of the wilderness journey.
Chose to take the Children of Israel out of Egypt.
To the promised land of Canaan. They didn't dream it up themselves. It wasn't their idea.
He had something better for them than they had in Egypt, where they were actually in servitude.
To the world, to Pharaoh, who really in that sense is a picture of Satan.
They didn't fully realize their servitude, but the Lord did, and so He chose to take them. And as we have in this second verse, elect according to the foreknowledge of God. God in a past eternity made some choices concerning us.
And having made those choices, he separated us to himself by the Spirit.
For himself, and he purposes to.
Bring us to a given place and conclusion. In order to do it, it was necessary for us to come under the shelter of the blood of the Lord Jesus that would fit us to be partakers of what He purposed for us. I say that because He gets into trial and tribulation, which Jim said was something on his heart. We all passed through it.
But, brethren, the trials are in the ways of God.
With purpose.
With purpose when the children of Israel got out into the wilderness and they lacked food.
They said to God, why'd you bring us out here to kill us for? Why didn't you leave us in Egypt? A lot of times when we lack something, we pray, Lord, give it to me, I need it. And in some cases, what we need is what we had in Egypt, and we'd like to have it back. And so the hearts of the children of Israel, because they were not many of them looking forward, but only thinking about what?
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They had in Egypt wanted to go back when they ran into trial and difficulty and suffering. And so the Lord had to work with them to recognize that Egypt wasn't going to be their destiny. And sometimes the trials of the way test us as to whether or not we're going toward Canaan or we're heading or wish we could head back to Egypt.
But they had been separated from it and they could not go back.
They had crossed the Red Sea. They could not in that way go back.
Properly into the land that they had left. And the Lord loves you and I too much to let us really go back and be happy there. We can try.
But as some have said.
The man of the world, to a measure, can find pleasure in this world because he only has one nature, a sinful nature that this world is set up to try to.
Keep him in peace.
We have the nature of Canaan, and consequently we cannot go back to the world and ever have true, lasting peace in it. We're spoiled for it, and if we try, we can be the most miserable people on earth. And yet our joy can be the happiest of people on earth if we, with Peter, take the journey in true spirit.
Very gracious to the people.
Uh, right after the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus to bring many together there in Jerusalem. And I am thinking of Acts 2 where he all, uh, mentioned them, he says.
Parisians in verse 9 Parisians and meats and illuminates and as well as a methamphetamine in Judea and Cappadocia, and Pontus, in Asia, Frege and Pamphilia and Egypt, and then the parts of Libya about Kiran and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, creeds and Arabians.
We do hear them speak in our tongues of wonderful works of God, though He had gathered at a certain time all these people to gather in Jerusalem and.
When the Holy Spirit came down, they came out of where they were and that secluded place and preached to all the crowds that were there of those many nations, the wonderful things of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think that's how it also got to us eventually.
The nation of Israel in the Old Testament was an elect people, weren't they? They had been chosen by God when Abraham answered the call of God by faith. God told Abraham that they would spring from him a great nation. And that nation was a chosen nation, and they were given the oracles of God and a hedge built about them and the privileges of being God's people in the Old Testament.
But here were those, as we said earlier, who had disassociated from the guilty nation, that very nation who had rejected the Lord Jesus. And now as individuals, they are elect. And isn't it tremendous, brethren, to think that we're elect, that none of us were an afterthought with God? They might have wondered, as we've already alluded to, what's happened here. They had been promised, if they were faithful in the Old Testament, they would be established in the land and God would keep their enemies at Bay. And.
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It would be great blessing for them. Now all that was gone. They'd lost that. But he says no, you're elect according to the foreknowledge of God, not as an afterthought, not because the nation had failed as a nation.
No, this had all been in the counsels of God from a past eternity.
There are two things that are uncharacteristic of God, if I can put it that way.
And that is that there are no surprises with God, and there are no afterthoughts with God.
You know, we get a lot of surprises. Sometimes things happen and we're surprised. God is never surprised. Have you ever been surprised by some circumstance in your life? God wasn't surprised. He had that all planned for you and with a purpose and a purpose of blessing and so on. And there's no after thought with God either. And you and I were never an after thought with God. These believers, these Jewish believers, they were never an afterthought with God.
They were elect according to the foreknowledge of God. And what a comfort it must have been for them to realize, if I can say it reverently and carefully, they weren't connected with Plan B. Sometimes we have to implement Plan B when Plan A fails. God, I say, never has to do that. Well, what a tremendous truth to get a hold of in our souls. We're elect according to the foreknowledge of God.
He chose this before the foundations of the world.
There is nothing in existence as to this present creation. When God chose you and me, you say, how could he know you? There was no people in existence. That's where that word foreknowledge comes in.
God knows everything. He inhabits eternity. To him there is no past, present or future. He is the eternal 1 And so he knew that you would be sitting in this room before the foundation of the world. He chose us. And in Romans 8 it not only says he chose us according to his foreknowledge, but he predestinated us. It's interesting, those two.
Words in first Peter one it's election which is choosing he chose persons, but when it's predestination it's to a position when he shows you he had a position in mind and so the position or the pre we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son in verse 29 of Romans 8 it tells us.
So wonderful things to get a hold of in our souls we are enjoying now, but they were in the thoughts of God before there was ever any universe in existence.
Here in verse two it speaks of the sprinkling.
Of the blood.
We know on the night of the Passover.
Let the Lord pass through the land.
And every household where the blood was not applied to the door closed in the lentil there was judgment fell.
And the first born was put to death.
Every single household in the land deserve judgment.
There wasn't an exception to that.
But God, by the blood, spared from that righteous judgment through the substitute of the Lamb. And so it is with every one of us in this room. We all deserve judgment, but by the work of atonement, every one of us who knows the Lord Jesus has been spared by it.
In the 18th verse of the chapter we have that blood spoken of as the blood of redemption.
We were slaves in Egypt.
And we were slaves to sin.
And the Lord Jesus paid the necessary price to deliver us from that slavery and to set us free.
And in liberty before himself. But in this verse it says unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood.
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It isn't in this verse the protection from the righteous judgment of God. It's not the redemption that the tremendous price that's been paid to set us free.
But it's like in the Old Testament, all the service, all the vessels that were to be used in the service of God had the blood sprinkled on them. The priests and their garments were sprinkled before they began their service, if you will. And so it is that thought here, brethren, God in the past eternity made a choice concerning us.
And the Spirit has set us apart to the fulfillment of that purpose of God.
And in order for it to be carried out properly with God, there's two things mentioned. There's obedience. We've been called unto obedience. We are to walk today, tomorrow, until the Lord comes in that place of obedience. And secondly, think of the tremendous purpose of God, so great that you and I have been sprinkled, as it were.
By the blood.
As belonging to him, it's his right. It's his claim over us.
And if you say, what claim does God have to me, think of the blood.
Think of the blood.
That's God's claim with respect to your life and mine.
And the respect that we have to be submissive to His claim on us to go through this journey in obedience and unto Himself.
A lot. It's, uh, it's interesting to contrast it like you say, Don and Exodus 24. There's, uh, three verses I'd like to read that kind of contrast with this scripture.
It's when the law was implemented in.
It says in verse six of Exodus 24 Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And he took the book of the covenant and read it in the audience of all the people. And they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do and be obedient.
Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood.
Of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.
There was obedience to a perfect law which they never were able to keep. But here in this verse it's but through sanctification of the Spirit we are.
Elect unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. So the obedience is not the obedience of the law here, it's the obedience of Jesus Christ.
So we obey, we have that nature, that very nature now, that loves to be obedient.
And that's the obedience we have been sanctified unto, so that as the Lord Jesus was obedient unto death. Now that's the life that you and I possessed. And so you have the question of obedience like you say further down in the chapter and verse 14, it says as obedient children.
And verse UH-22 seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth.
So the question of obedience, that's what we that's the nature we have. It's the nature that loves to obey God, not because of the legal code, but because we are followers of the Lord Jesus. We have been bought with his precious blood.
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Speaks of being called out, doesn't it and called out by the Spirit of God. Every one of us had to experience that that at a specific time God called us by the Spirit and he separated us from that what we were in first of all the evil in the world, but then also.
Maybe many of us.
Have been in some institution where they were sprinkled, let's say with water and.
And told that they were saved, but they were not called out of the world. And told that they had to be saved by the blood of Jesus.
And that's what happened to me too. It was many years later that I was, I did understand by the preaching that it was the blood of Jesus that was applied to me and to all of us, which saved us.
Hey, brethren.
We say, blessed be God.
We say, blessed be God.
Peter encouraged his brethren to see the greatness of God and what he purposed for them and was going to carry them through to the end.
Suppose we were here this afternoon and we had no hope except this world. What would we talk about? What do we think about? What would we encourage each other in?
In one form or another, I suppose it would be basically what the scriptures tell us man does. Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die, in other words.
Let's get as much as we can out of life. We never know when it's gonna end. It may be tomorrow we die. Let's try to find some happiness and joy in it. And that's the end of it. As far as what life's all about. He says the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a living hope.
Why do we associate our hope with living as a living hope? Because our Lord Jesus Christ was in this world ahead of us.
He lived here. He died here.
But he's not in a tomb.
He is raised from the dead.
And so that same power that raised our Lord Jesus from the dead is the power of our hope. It's a living hope. It's a hope that doesn't matter what happens in this world today, tomorrow, or the next day, it isn't going to change that hope.
There's absolutely nothing that can happen in this world.
With all that man can do that can rob us of anything that God has promised to us. And so we we are, we say, blessed be God, the one who has brought us into this living hope, given us the assurance of it by the raising of the one that has gone ahead of us, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Savior and the one that went through the path of the wilderness of faith ahead.
And where did it end for him? It's in the glory. Where is it going to end for us, no matter what?
In the glory.
A position that they had been brought into had nothing to do with themselves. It was the work of the Godhead in Trinity. And so we have the Spirit brought before us. We have God the Father brought before us, and we have the Lord Jesus Christ. We have grace and we have peace and we have mercy. And it's again in contrast to what you have in connection with the inheritance in the Old Testament, because he's about to take up the the inheritance that they now had in Christianity.
The inheritance in the Old Testament and the maintenance of it depended on their faithfulness.
If they were faithful, God established them in the land. As we said, He kept their enemies suppressed and at Bay.
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They had fruit at harvest time, there was a balance of rain and sunshine and so on.
But it depended on their faithfulness to a great degree. It was read to us how that they had said.
All that the Lord our God has said that will we do, and we know they utterly failed.
And now it had come down to where, as we said, they've been scattered from their homes here as believers in the early days of Christianity.
And they might have wondered, well, everything's failed, everything's gone wrong. Well, they had failed as a nation, the Jewish nation.
But thank God something was brought in that didn't depend on their faithfulness.
Now, our faithfulness and practical sanctification and so on is certainly an important line of things that runs through the Word of God, but that's not what we have here. We have God's faithfulness in bringing them into this position.
Maintaining them, bringing them through so that at the end they were going to safely make the other side, so to speak.
As John said, there were very few, just two that we read of who made it across the wilderness and through the Jordan and into the good of their inheritance. But every believer is going to make it in the end.
Because we have not a dead hope, but a living hope. You know, in the Old Testament everything really spoke of death, didn't it? Everything was stamped and marked by death. But we have a living hope. And a living hope is really what sets Christianity apart in contrast from what you have in the Old Testament as well as the other so-called great religions that are practiced in the world today.
Everything other than Christianity really ends in death. That's that's where their hope ends really in a sense, and everything is stamped with death. But brethren, we have a living hope. Why? Because we have a living Savior. Over His tomb is written. He is not here, He is risen. Come see the place where the Lord lay and our assurance that we are going to come into the full reality.
Of our hope and reach the Father's house, the other shore, glory, heaven, whatever you want to call it.
Our assurance of that is the fact that God has raised him from the dead.
And seated him at his own right hand. The resurrection, the ascension and glorification of Christ are God's, Amen. They're God's confirmation to the work of Calvary and that he is satisfied. And so we have one who's risen from the dead, as he said here. And on that basis we have a living hope and every assurance of what comes at the end of the journey.
Christianity really begins with Christ and resurrection, doesn't it? And the life that you and I now possess in Christ is a life in resurrection. It's a life that is beyond death.
These bodies we have still are connected with the first creation, and so it may be that death will touch him. But the life we have in Christ is a life that can never die. So the moment that death may touch these bodies, we are translated right into the presence of the Lord Jesus. Death can only serve us to translate us there. Our life is a life that cannot die. That's life and resurrection in other.
People that were raised from the dead, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, as far as we know, uh, died again. But the life we have now is a life that can never die. Absolutely never.
So it's connected with a living hope.
Enjoy it.
Common to almost all the epistles, and is also common. We so often read right over it, I guess because we read it always. But the end of verse 2. Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied.
Grace brings before us the love of God in action, expressing what's in His heart toward us and all that He does.
And we have in that piece that comes from God, a piece that he can give.
That we can't provide for ourselves and that God can maintain for us that we don't lose it.
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But we, in spite of, if I could put it that way, all the grace of God toward us, all the goodness of God toward us, all his peace on our behalf, we still need. What's in verse three is abundant mercy, brethren, we just can't do without it.
Mercy occupies itself with.
Unworthy recipients of grace, it sees them in their need.
And having shown grace, sometimes God has to then turn around and recognize we're not receiving it from himself as he gives it, perhaps not appreciating it, but he doesn't say, oh, that's an unworthy object of my attention. What's the use working with that person? They don't appreciate it. They, they offer something that's worthless to me and exchange for my love and so on and so forth.
And God reaches in great mercy.
And says you need that too. Good. I'm good for it. I'll do it for you. And we are the objects of the mercy of God. And it's only because of that that will ever get to the end safely. But we will get to the end safely because God in his grace and mercy will never let loose of us.
Hold on to the truth of the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus, don't we? When the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, he remained on earth long enough to give complete and ample testimony to his own.
That he had not just risen in spirit, but that he had bodily risen from the dead. On one occasion he said to his own, Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bone, as ye see me have. And I say, we need to tenaciously hold on to this truth, because in first Corinthians chapter 15 we read, If Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain, and ye are still in your sins.
And what hope would we have for our loved ones who've gone before, What hope would we have for ourselves if it wasn't based on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus? It's Christ the first fruits afterwards, they that are Christ at his coming. And there's a verse in First Corinthians 15 that we sometimes misquote, and I'm going to misquote it the way we often quote it, and then I will quote it properly to show that the difference.
Sometimes we quote it like this, if in this life only we have hope.
We are of all men most miserable. That is not what the verse says. We've left out part of it, and a very blessed part of it. It says if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we have our If in this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. Even if it was hope in Christ, but only for this life, we would be a sad people, wouldn't we? But brethren, we have hope not only in Christ for this life. That's true.
But we have hope in Christ for the next life as well. And if it all ended here, and Paul takes up the subject at great length in Corinthians and other places, if it was only hope for here, why would you give up present advantage? Why would you give up things down here? How could these Saints go on who had lost everything naturally, materially speaking, if they didn't have a hope beyond, if they didn't have something beyond the earthly inheritance and earthly possession, why there'd be no use going on?
It all you could do was just throw up your hands. Why did Paul give up so much of this world because he not only had hope in Christ, but he had it for the next life As for this life, but he had it for the next life and brothers, we need to keep this in view. We have a living hope and he's going to go on now to explain connected with that hope is not a corruptible inheritance. They lost that but he says you have an incorruptible.
Inheritance and not an earthly inheritance. They lost that as a nation.
But he says you have an inheritance that is heavenly, and it's an inheritance that can never be exhausted and you can never lose.
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I think it's interesting to note, uh, contrast along that line, Brother Jim, in Revelation chapter 2, connection with the addresses to the churches, Smyrna, uh, is persecuted there. And it says in verse nine, I know thy works, Revelation 2:00 and 9:00, I know thy works and tribulation of poverty, but this uh, uh, parentheses, but thou art rich.
And I know the blasphemy of them would say they are Jews, and are not, but are the of the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation 10 days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. But I was thinking of that. But thou art rich in the midst of all that. And contrast that which is said of Laodicea.
In the third chapter.
Verse 15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou Wert cold or hot.
Umm, so then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew the out of my mouth, because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not.
That thou art wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked, I counsel thee to buy a me gold tried in the fire that thou mayst be rich and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. And anoint thine eyes with I salve that thou mayest see.
So in the ways of God, the estimation of what is poverty and what is riches is often different. What than what the natural man or what we might think?
As an incorruptible, at least not presently. Perhaps the Millennium might be looked at differently, but in present things, there's no such thing as an incorruptible inheritance. There's absolutely nothing that a person can pass on to somebody else in the world today.
Uh, that is called an inheritance. That is not potentially corruptible.
It's also defiable. Anything that man passes on from one generation to the next is always subject to defilement. And as it says it, it's not an inexhaustible thing. It fades, it wears out. Its value is often lost sight of from one generation to the next. And so it is too, that man often writes his will, and he's going to pass it on to this one or that one or the next one. And.
Umm, sometimes that person doesn't even live long enough to get it.
They don't even outlast the person that planned to give it to them.
And so the contrast is placed here for us. God says to us, he says, I have a different kind of inheritance for you. It's an inheritance that will satisfy your heart for eternity.
It can't be corrupted, it can't be defiled. It will never lose its value and fade away. I've reserved it for you. Nobody's going to come along and take it from you. And so we are kept.
For that inheritance by the power of God. And God uses the means of faith to connect us with it and keep us in it to the end. So we have something that we could never ever expect or look forward to in this present life or this world, and it's far better.
Tense that we pass on to our children.
All right, just the other day, a story of a mother.
Went to be with the Lord and left behind five children and they all gave testimony to her mother what she did for them.
It was not earthly goods.
They all spoke about the things that her mother taught, taught, taught them about God, about the Lord Jesus Christ, about a life living in Christ and for Christ and that's all five of them gave that testimony. Now if children that we rear, they could give a testimony.
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From us that way in which we have brought them up for the Lord Jesus Christ, for in eternal inheritance and what it really is to have an internal inheritance, then we can say we have served the Lord, we have brought children to him for an internal inheritance.
Heritance that is received in a natural way can be squandered. Sometimes it's squandered. And yet, as careful as someone may be with their inheritance, every time you go down to the bank and draw on that inheritance, the inheritance itself becomes less. But we have an inheritance that can never be squandered in that way, and it never becomes less because we have the unsearchable riches of Christ.
And it's that which we are going to enjoy for all eternity. We can enjoy it now.
But we're going to enjoy it for all eternity. But not only that, as Dawn said, maybe the person doesn't, uh, well, let me back up a moment. Suppose someone offer or tells you they're going to leave you an inheritance. And so you expect that inheritance. But maybe the person in their last years of life, maybe they needed assisted care living or something like that. And when the time comes that they pass away, maybe the inheritance was used up. There was nothing left to pass on, it was gone.
But we have an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not away. Not only that, but as Dawn said, maybe someone tells you they're going to leave you an inheritance, but you predeceased the person. You weren't kept for the inheritance. And so by the time that the person passes away and the inheritance is passed on, it has to go to somebody else. It's divided between others, perhaps, but brethren, we can't lose.
It's reserved for us and we're preserved for the inheritance. We have something that we can't lose. Now, brethren, are we enjoying what is rightfully ours in Christ this afternoon as we're going to enjoy it in a deeper and fuller and more and an unhindered way in a coming scene of glory? He we ought to. We can't use it up, brethren, we can't. We can't. It won't become less, but we need to go down and we need to draw on the bank again and again and again.
They had lost their earthly inheritance, so to speak, what they had been promised naturally as the Jews. But they had something where moth and rust would never corrupt, and thieves would never breakthrough and steal, and that's treasure in heaven.
It does seem like the world we live in, brother, and the Lord is allowing.
The banks to fail and people's retirement funds have vanished and everything. I, I, I really think the Lord is trying to get our attention to be occupied with those things that are above those things that are imperishable. That's what we're called to, not to earthly things. And sometimes we have our hopes too much placed in those.
Retirement funds and and I think the Lord is showing us that we need to live in view of what's we have in Christ. He's promised to take care of us. I don't mean that we shouldn't be.
Wise in the way we handle the funds that the Lord has put into our hands. But we cannot place our trust in that. And sometimes, unconsciously, we are looking to trust in that.
No, God wants us just like these believers to enjoy what is imperishable, that inheritance that is reserved for us and we kept by the power of God for it to enjoy it. It's interesting, the question of the inheritance as you take it through Scripture, perhaps a little bit different in the epistles of Paul, but perhaps in a wider.
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Uh, spirit, uh, wider sphere in, uh, Ephesians chapter one, you have the inheritance and it's every created thing that the Lord Jesus is going to take when he comes back in power and glory and we are going to be coheirs with him in that day. So it's the whole sphere of created things.
In Ephesians chapter one, heavenly and earthly, it's all our inheritance.
Tremendous. It really frees us from.
Materialism and wanting to get more and more. Why are you going to struggle so hard to get more and more if you're going to inherit all things in just a few short years? It doesn't make any sense. Let's be satisfied with what the Lord has given us and live to serve Him, because the inheritance is sure.
Here it's more the spiritual side of things, isn't it, Said the unsearchable riches of Christ, those things that we have that we can't see because those are the things that are eternal, aren't they? And so, as you say, in Paul's ministry, it's a little bit different. It's created things. But again, I believe there's a contrast here. The Jews were used to seeing. They were used to that which was physical. Their inheritance, and rightly so, was physical. It was the land and the good of the land and so on.
And they will yet, in a coming day, be blessed in that way. They are going to be established in their inheritance to a degree that they've never been before. But now, he tells these ones who'd lost things naturally and physically, you've got something that you can't see. It's reserved in heaven for you, but it's very real nonetheless. Have you and I ever seen with the physical eye any of our spiritual blessings? Not one of them.
We haven't seen one of our spiritual blessings with the natural eye, but they are very real to the eye of faith and in the power of the Spirit of God. We can grasp onto those things and enjoy them in our souls. Now as that we're, as I say, we're going to enjoy them in a far greater way. And so if all things as far as creation are ours and all we have, all the spiritual blessings like Bob said, what else do we want, brethren, why are we building?
For things down here, why are we putting such hopes again? Not that we want to be frivolous with our.
Some material things that's required in stewards that a man be found faithful. But brethren, why do we put such hope and confidence and energy into the things that are reserved under fire when we have such a wonderful inheritance and future and hope ahead? If we can just get a grasp of all these precious things in our souls, it will make a vast difference in our perspective as to natural and.
Temporal things in the here and now. I think Bob was speaking in the meeting of the some of the advertising slogans they use. And I know they're just using them like Burger King to promote products. Have it your way. But they often, they often reflect the spirit of the age. And one that has impressed me is Air Canada's frequent flyer program is called Aeroplan. And their slogan is live for the moment, not the spirit of the age.
Live for the moment. Get things down here, accumulate things down here. Just live for the here and now.
Peter's telling us, live in view of the future, live in view of the end of the journey. You have a living hope. You have an inheritance reserved in heaven for you. Now what's going to encourage your feet one step after another through the fiery trials of the wilderness journey? It's to have the end in view. Where there is no vision, the people perish.
Nsnoise.
We also say #234 verses 1:00 and 5:00.
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Matthew 19.
Verse 27.
Then, answered Peter.
Then answered Peter, and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and follow thee.
What shall we have therefore?
Gospel 1
Gospel—Al Coleman
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Return to #2 in our Gospel hymn sheets.
Come to Jesus gently calling you with care and toil, oppressed with your guilt, however appalling. Come, and I will give you rest #2.
Nsnoise.
Nsnoise.
I'd like to also say #44 at the back of the hymn sheet into a tent where a gypsy boy lay dying alone at the close of the day. And this mess and the core says this, tell it again, tell it again, Salvation story. Repeat or and or till none can say of the children of men. Nobody ever has told me.
Before, let's sing this one.
I didn't know one of the nobody ever had fooled today if it would be a way by again. Now we have time together.
Salvation Army.
Home in all my friends play. I'm not sure I'm going to call them.
Nobody ever had no teaching me on.
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And 9:00 39.
959-5399 Velocity of a little thousand and grandpa's daughter in hindsight.
Again, how do I get?
Salvation Government.
To help my dad's sangha and I'm jealous and all the man.
Nobody had ever had something to do.
First of all, turn with me to John's Gospel Chapter 7 and that well known verse, verse 37.
One of the most incredible verses in the whole of the Word of God. I know that the most incredible verse of all is John 316. Isn't it? For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have.
Everlasting life. And I believe this, this verse that we're going to read right now. John 737.
Is just as incredible as John 316 because I believe that in this verse we have a very, very.
Just.
How would I call it the there's a There's a terrible urgency to this verse.
A terrible urgency to this verse. You know what it says here. And that last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come to me entry.
And so here they were. It was a feast of Tabernacles. It was the last feast of the year, and they were having a good time.
It wasn't carried on the way it was instituted in Leviticus, Leviticus 23. They were just having a feast, a feast of the Jews and the Lord comes by.
And he and he preaches this word, this verse.
That last day, that great day of the feast. And I'm thinking that today, here we are, 2009.
And this world has been going on now, the day of grace, for over 2000 years.
And it's going to come to an end one day. The Lord Jesus is coming. His coming is as sure as the dawn.
And really, I'm waiting for that moment, that wonderful moment that is soon to come upon us, when the Lord is going to descend from heaven with a shout and the voice of the Archangel.
And take us all home to be with him.
But, you know, it says here that last day, that great day of the feast, and I want to treat this Gospel meeting tonight as being the last Gospel.
And it could be the last gospel.
The last Gospel.
You might never hear it again.
You know if you're lost and in your sins if the Lord was to come tonight.
00:10:02
You would never have another chance.
I went to a hospital a little while ago and visited a friend.
And I gave him a couple of gospel tracts to read.
And I went home.
And the Lord, I believe, spoke to me that night.
And I felt that I needed to go back again because there was a terrible urgency.
For him to hear the precious gospel. But you know, when I got to this room, it was too late.
He was in a coma. But dear, no dear friends tonight, if you're still lost, it's not too late yet.
It's not too late yet. You can come tonight. You can come because the Lord Jesus.
He's saying to you, come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He delights to save. He wants to save. And though the Lord was standing that day, and he was shouting to that crowd, if any man thirst, let him come to me. And you see, coming to him, it's a person. It's not coming to a conference and not coming to a church. It's not coming to anything else, it's coming to a person.
Neither is our salvation and on any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There's only one Savior for this world, one Savior for this world, the Lord Jesus Christ that blessed one, God's beloved Son who hung upon Calvary's cross 2000 years ago. Man could put the Lord Jesus up in that cross, but the very sphere that pierced his side.
Drew forth the blood to save, and I say this tonight, that the blood of Jesus Christ.
God's Son cleanseth us from all sin. I'm here tonight because the my Savior shed his precious blood to wash away all my sins and I am, I am saved and I am on my way to heaven. Can you say that tonight? Can you say that tonight? Oh, I trust that you can. He's a wonderful Savior. He delights to save. And I say to you, dear young people, if there's one here, one young person that's.
Still not saved. You know you're missing something wonderful. You are. You're missing something wonderful. To know that Christ is my Savior and I'm on my way to heaven. Can you be able to say that tonight? If you know Him personally, you'll be able to say that. And that last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried. Can't you just see him there that day? And that crowd? If any man thirst, let him come to me and dream.
And you know, there's so many people that today are thirsty, longing for some satisfaction, something in this world.
The Lord has given me the ministry in downtown Skid Row, Vancouver, where I've been down.
Quite, quite often down there and I see all these folks and they're looking for something that would satisfy their soul, some little peace that they pick up off the street. You know what it is and, and, and it doesn't satisfy them. It's only for just a few hours and then.
Down again.
I I want to, I want to turn to the book of Jeremiah.
And we're going to look at a man there. His name is Zedekiah.
And let's look at the history of this man. So let's turn, first of all, to Jeremiah 52.
Jeremiah 52.
Zedekiah was one and 20 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hammettel, the daughter of Jeremiah of of Libna. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all the Jehovah had done. For through the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, till he had cast out from his presence.
Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon, and it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the 10th month, in the 10th day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came, he and all his army against Jerusalem.
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And pitched against it, and built forts against it round about. So the city was besieged until the 11Th year of King Zedekiah. And in the fourth month and the 9th day of the month, the famine was sore in the city. So there was no bread for the people of the land. Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled and went forth out of a city by night, by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the King's garden.
Now the Chaldeans were by the city roundabout, and they went by the way of the plain. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after king and overtook Zedekiah on the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him. Then they took the king and carried him up into the king of Babylon to Ribna in the land of Hamas, where he gave judgment upon him.
And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. He strew also the the Princess of Judah in Ribla. And he put out the eyes of Zedekiah. And the king of Babylon bound him with chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death. Now I want you to turn just over one page.
Lamentations of Jeremiah.
One page and one verse. The very first verse.
How does the city sit solitary that was full of people? How would she become a widow? She that was great among the nations and Princess among the provinces? How was she become a tributary? When I look at that verse in the first chapter of Lamentations, it's just as if.
I'd like to put it this way as if God is opening the doors for us to just take a peek at what it will be like after the Lord comes.
Here the city of Jerusalem had been besieged.
And Nebuchadnezzar's army had surrounded that city and burned with fire the city of Jerusalem. And then when we come to the first chapter of Lamentations, what what do we find? How did the city sit solitary that was once full of people? You know what will happen after the Lord comes. This world will be decimated of its population.
It will be a solemn thing for this world after the Lord comes.
And Oh dear one, tonight we don't want you to be there. And that's why the gospel is going forth tonight.
We don't want you to be there.
What a solemn thing it is gonna be after the Lord comes.
But yet God and his long-suffering, mercy lingering over this world, not willing that any should perish. And so the gospel goes out again. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. What think he of Christ? What shall I do with Jesus, which is called the Christ? That is the question that you must answer for your own self.
What shall I do then with Jesus, which is called the Christ? What are you going to do about Him? Are you going to accept Him as your Savior or are you going to reject them? Are you going to go out to this room tonight? Still a lost dinner. You could be in this situation after the Lord comes. What a terrible time it will be. Thank God I'm not going to be there. By the sovereign grace of God, He saved my soul.
What about you tonight?
There was Eddie Kaya in chapter 52. What does it say here? The very first verse, Zedekiah was 21 years old when he ascended the throne. And what does it say? He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. Zedekiah was not a safe soul. He didn't love the Lord. He didn't want the Lord in his life. And we're going to see some of the things that that that.
Uh, happened to je uh, to Zedekiah. Did he have a chance? Did he have a chance? Did God give him a chance? Yes, he did. Yes, he did. He had every chance. And so tonight I'm saying this to you and tonight you have every chance to be saved. Tonight God has allowed you to come and hear the gospel tonight. Yes, he has a wonderful God, the long-suffering God giving you every chance.
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To be saved. How wonderful that is. What a wonderful, gracious God.
21 years old, he was a man and he was responsible. And friend, tonight you're hearing the gospel once more, and you are responsible for what you hear because God will hold you responsible for what you hear.
I give a track to a man downtown. The track. Was this torn in half?
He threw it on the ground. I said, Sir, God is going to hold you responsible for that very act.
Diberiac.
Yurita, a gospel sign on a billboard. You read it, God is going to hold you responsible for it. God is going to hold you responsible for it. I think of this too, that many here tonight are children of the Saints. How many gospel meetings have you been? And still you've rejected the gospel message. How many?
You wanna know how many I was in before I before I came to the Lord Jesus? I'll tell you, it was a lot of gospel meetings, a lot of gospel meetings. But God in his long-suffering, mercy saved this person and he's able to save you. Yes, he is. I say this again to you. What shall I do then with Jesus, which is called the Christ? You know what Pilate said, I'm gonna wash my hands of all this. I'm gonna stay neutral.
That's what Pilot wanted to do. I'm going to stay neutral. You can't do it. It's impossible. You can't stay neutral in the things of God.
It's either accept or reject. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth in him. Is there a middle part to that verse? No, there isn't. It's either or or. Will you accept Him or will you reject him? Here was that he Kaya He was given every opportunity to come to the Lord.
Turn with me to uh.
Let me see, I've got some here.
Jeremiah, chapter 36.
Uh, yes, I, I'll just briefly go through, uh, Jeremiah 36 here. This is Jehoiakim, not, not Zedekiah, but.
Jeremiah was told to write in a book and give it to Jehoiakim. And you know, in this chapter what, what did they do? Umm.
Let me see.
Uh, let's start at verse 20. And they went into the king, into the court, but they laid up their role in the Chamber of Elisham, described and told all the words.
In the years of the king, so the king sent Jehovah I.
N.
Thus saith the Lord, thou hast burned this roll.
Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come?
I spilled the water all over the place anyways.
They burnt the roll.
Jeremiah.
Southeast sent this.
Message This message of judgment that was coming upon the nation of Israel.
He sent this message and what did the king do? He burns it.
And there are many souls today are throwing away the word of God, not reading the word of God. You see, here is a precious word of God.
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You know, what are you going to do about this precious word?
It's beautiful, it's wonderful. In this are words of life. I cannot get up in the morning without reading the word of God. I cannot get go to bed at night without the precious word of God. Here is words of life. Young man, young girl here tonight.
Is this your constant companion? Is this your constant companion? But how many there are that have thrown away the precious word of God like they did here. And it says here they weren't even afraid.
They were never afraid. You know what? You know what God said to Jeremiah? Never mind Jeremiah. Write it again, write it again, tell it again. You see, that's what we were seeing it tonight. Tell it again, tell it again. Salvation story. Repeat or nor till nobody can say. I've never heard of it before.
How many here tonight have never heard the gospel before? I don't think there's one. But have you accepted it? Have you accepted it?
And so, you know, I, I really.
Dear ones, tonight Jeremiah to me is a inspiration to my soul. You know, because in the you you start, you start in the first chapters of Jeremiah, God told him. He says no, I want you to go home and tell the nation of Israel.
I want you to tell them that judgment is coming. I want you to tell them that. And you know what Jeremiah did? He kept on, he kept on saying the same thing over and over and over again. Judgment is coming. Judgment is coming. Go to go to the next chapter, Chapter 37.
Verse 16 When Jeremiah entered into the dungeon and into the cabins, and Jeremiah had remained there many days, and Zedekiah the king sent and took him out. And the king asked him secretly in his house and said, Is there any word from the Lord? And Jeremiah says that there is. For he said, He thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon in that wonderful, in that solemn.
You know.
Zedekiah comes secretly to to Jeremiah and he says, is there a message from the Lord for me? You know there is a message there one tonight from the Lord to you. It's the precious word of God that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That is the message of the gospel tonight. The message that the Lord Jesus could say, come unto me, all ye that leave were and are heavy laden.
And I will give you rest. That is the message of the gospel. Have you accepted it?
Zedekiah didn't want everybody to see you this, so we took them aside secretly and says is there a message for me? There is. And that's what I like about Jeremiah. He kept on preaching the same thing and for 2000 years, dear ones, the same message has gone out to whosoever will Christ Jesus.
Came into the world to save sinners. The same message, and it won't stop. It won't stop until the Lord comes, so it won't.
Chapter 38.
Then Shepatia the son of Maban, and Gedelaya the son of Pasher, and Jacob the son of Shemalaya, and Pasture the son of Mechelaya, heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken unto the people, saying, Thus says the Lord, He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence, but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans will live.
For he shall have his life for a prey, thus that the Lord, this city shall surely be given unto the hand of the King of Babylon's army.
Which shall take it? Therefore the Princess said unto the king, We beseech you, let this man be put to death. For thus he weakened at the hands of the man of war that remained in the city, and the hands of all the people in speaking such words unto them. For this man seeketh not the welfare of his people, but the hurt. Then Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he is in your hands. For the king is not he that should do anything against them.
00:30:24
Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into a dungeon of.
The Hamleck that was in the court of the prison. And they let Jeremiah down with cords, and in the dungeon there was no water but mire. So Jeremiah sank in the mire. He preached the same message. I say again, the same message is going out to whosoever will, whosoever will may come and take of the water of life freely.
This is the message tonight. The Lord Jesus died on Calvary's cross to make it all possible, whereby we might have eternal life, whereby we might be saved. This man receiveth sinners and eateth with him. What a Savior we have.
He received sinners, He received me, and he can receive you tonight if you'll only come to him. Oh, he wants you to come to him. Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. But Jeremiah kept on. He kept on the same message. Yes, there is judgment coming on this world.
There is as sure as I stand here, are you heeding the message? Are you heeding the message? I remember my mother, when I was a young lad, often said to me, Al, are you listening to me?
I'm saying this to you tonight. Are you listening to the Lord Jesus? Are you listening to God?
Are you listening to his precious word? There is words of warning to you.
Tonight, are you gonna heed the warning?
Because.
Jeremiah kept on preaching. What did they do? They put him in a dungeon and it says. And Jeremiah sat in the mire.
The sufferings of Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. He weeped.
For the nation of Israel.
And their condition.
He sank the mire. You know, I love this. It's a beautiful Jeremiah sank in the mire. And you know, in Psalm 69, what does it say? I think in deep mire where there is no standing. Oh, to think of what our blessed Lord did for you and I on Calvary's Trust. You see, Jeremiah is just a little type of the Lord.
So was Joseph, he was a little type of the Lord in Genesis 37. What does it say of Joseph? They put him in the pit, and there was no water in the pit. What does it say of the Lord? All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Oh, to think of what the Lord Jesus suffered on Calvary's cross for your sins and mine, when he became the sin bearer there on Calvary's cross. Think of it, the depth of all thy suffering. No heart could ere conceive the cup of wrath or flowing for us.
Thou didst received an oath of God forsaken, to think of him crying out there.
On calories cross my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why would why did he cry out that?
Because of my sins, that he, that blessed, holy, spotless Lamb of God, who never sinned, who never even had the thought of a sin.
There on that cross in those dark hours. Bore my sins, pay the penalty that I deserved. What a Savior. What a Savior. His love for me, His love for you, His love for guilty sinners. He did it all for you. He could say it is finished. It is finished. Yes, indeed. Finished. Every job sitter. This is all you did. Tell me, is it done? That's all you need to do.
Is to come to him, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. I think indeed mire, where there is no standing. The Lord Jesus did not on that cross.
00:35:07
Because what He suffered for you and I, these are just beautiful little types of the Lord.
And now look at, now look at a little bright spot here, verse seven of chapter 38.
Now when? Ebad Malak, Ethiopian.
Here he is a black man.
One of the units which was in the King's house heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon.
And the the king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin Yvette Melich, went forth out of the King's house, and spake to the king, saying, My Lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the Prophet, whom they have cast into a dungeon, and he is to die for hunger in the place where he is. For there is no more bread in the city than the king commanded. He makemail like The Ethiopians, saying, From thence take from thence 30 men with thee, and take up Jeremiah the Prophet out of the dungeon before he died.
So Yvette Nella took the man with him, and he went into the House of the king under the treasury, and took thence old cast coats and rotten, old rotten rags, and let them down by cords unto the into the dungeon to Jeremiah. And Eve Ed male like the Ethiopian said unto Jeremiah, put now these old class clothes and rotten rags under thine arm holes under the cords, and Jeremiah did so. So.
They drew up Jeremiah out of the dungeon, and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison in this beautiful.
Oh, Yvette Malek, the Ethiopian, he was so concerned about this dear servant of God and this dear servant of God, he said, I want you. And they just got all cash coats and rotten rice. And that said, they brought Jeremiah out of his dungeon. You know, it says in Psalm 40, what does it say? He lifted me up also also out of a horrible pit, not of the miry clay.
And he set my feet upon a rock, and he established my going, and he put a new song in my mouth. Even praise unto our God. That's what He's done for me. Has He done this for you? Do you know this wonderful Savior who died on Calvary's cross for you? This wonderful Savior whose arms are outstretched to you and wants to save you tonight? What about Yvette Malik, the Ethiopian? What do we find about him?
Let's turn over to umm, let's see.
Umm.
Think Oh yeah, Chapter 39.
Chapter 39 and verse 16.
Go and speak to Ebed Millik, Ethiopian saying thus saith the Lord of hosts.
The God of Israel, Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for evil and not for good, and they shall be accomplished in that day before thee, but I will deliver thee in that day, saith the Lord. Thou shalt not be given unto the hand of the man whom thou art afraid, for I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee.
Because in this beautiful thou hast put thy trust in me.
Saith the Lord. Oh friend, tonight have you put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you know Him personally as Lord and Savior of your life? Have you put your trust in Him? Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thy own understanding. Come to the Lord Jesus tonight. You know you can be saved right in your seat. As you're sitting there in your seat. God be merciful to me, a Sinner.
That is the sinner's prayer. Will you come to him tonight? Will you accept Christ as your own personal Savior in this beautiful to see this here was a here was one who identified himself with that man that went down into the pit. And oh, thank God that I have identified myself with the Lord Jesus Christ, that one who went into death for me. He did it all for me.
On Calvary's cross, what a wonderful savior, What a Isn't that wonderful to be a child of God? Isn't it wonderful? Judgment will never fall on the child of God. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. You'll never come under the judgment of God.
00:40:20
My sins are all gone.
My sins are all gone. How about you?
Are your sins washed in the precious blood of Christ? Do you know Him as your Lord and Savior? And so how wonderful it is that God, in his long-suffering mercy, has had this gospel meeting tonight, even though it's been feeble.
And he wants you to be saved tonight. He's giving you another opportunity to be saved. Just one more opportunity. What are you gonna do with it?
What about it tonight, your young friend, tonight.
Can I make this one?
Story that I've told over and over again that has been graven on my heart so many, many times that when Brother Reuben and I were in Nigeria.
And we were told to preach the gospel in the prisons there in Nigeria.
And there was a row of 16 prison houses, and each one we preached the gospel to, there would be about 4040 men in each, uh, in each prison house.
And uh.
All you could see was black faces. It was beautiful to see it. And we got to the last prison house and it was an enclosed affair, cement affair. And when we walked into that and the door climbed behind us.
We were in that prison house. You know, it's kind of a eerie feeling when you when you're going to a prison house and the door climbs behind you.
Terrible thing to be in prison, terrible thing to be.
In prison without Christ. And there are many that are in prison when there are sins. And so we came into this last, uh, gate there, uh, prison house.
And there were six men in there.
And the text that the Lord gave me was that text that I have repeated many times tonight. What shall I do then with Jesus, which is called the Christ? The most important question that a person can ever answer is that question, What shall I do then with Jesus, which is called the Christ? And I ask you that question tonight very sincerely. You have to answer it. You can't remain neutral as pilot did. You have to answer that question.
What are you gonna do about the Lord Jesus Christ?
And there are those that men heard that heard that question, and it was for the last time.
Because we asked as those men, as we left that building, we asked what was that? What were those men were all about and what was to happen to them? And they were going to be taken out and executed and shot.
What a solemn thing. But you know, the beautiful thing of it is that has been ingrained in my soul ever since that day, was that God gave them more and more opportunity to be saved.
One more opportunity to be saved. And dear friend tonight he's given you one more opportunity to be saved tonight.
Are you going to lay hold of it?
Are you gonna put your trust in me like eBay Malek?
How wonderful to be able to put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
What about dear friend, I plead with you tonight come tis Jesus gently call it ye with care and toil oppressed with your guilt. O he's you know he can save the very worst, the very worst I and and and then a wonderful that the very worst Sinner is in the in with the Lord this very moment, the apostle Paul.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
And let me, let me Fr let me quote another, another person, my sister-in-law, she's now with the Lord.
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And she made this statement about 50 years ago, and she said to me, she said.
Al, if God can save you, there's hope for my son. And God saved me. Save my son. We've been gathered for over 50 years. A wonderful God is the grace of God, the grace of God. And if you hadn't known me when I was 20 years old, you would have said.
That is hopeless. That is hopeless growing up in a Christian home and hopeless.
But by the sovereign grace of God, he saved me. And the very worst one here tonight, He can save you.
Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out never turn anyone away. He has a perfect record. He never turned 1 Sinner away. That came to him in faith.
And so I asked you, I urge you tonight, come to Jesus, the Savior of sinners. He will save you. He will save you. He will save you now.
1 Peter 1:6-12
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Verse 40 by thy Holy Spirit reveal in US thy love shall inherit with thee are head above. May all this consolation our trembling heart sustain sure though through tribulation the promised rest to gain.
187.
It started the first six of our chapter.
First Peter one verse 6.
Brandy greatly rejoiced, Though now, first season if need be, you're in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith be much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found under praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Whom have we not seen Elon, And whom, though now ye see Him not yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable.
00:05:22
Full of glory, receive the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently. Who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, Searching what or what manner of time? The Spirit of Christ.
Which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand, the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, unto us, they'd administer the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into. Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
As obedient children not fashion yourselves according to the former lusts and your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy.
For if you call the Father, who without respect a person judges according to every man's work.
Past the time of your soul journey here in fear, for as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your Father's, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world. What was manifest in these last times for you, who by Him do believe in God?
They raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.
Senior, purified your souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit, unto unplanned love of the brethren.
See that you love one another with a pure heart, fervently being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.
The grass withereth, and the flower thereof faileth falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.
There are two things that God has always done for His people in every dispensation, and that is He has always set before them a goal and a hope and the end of things. And then He has always provided for them in their present need. And I believe in the book of Peter and in this chapter we have this brought out very beautifully. Yesterday we spoke of our hope as a living hope.
We spoke of the inheritance and that which is yet future, that which we're looking forward to and he's going to, again, as we go through these verses, bring before us the appearing in the day of manifestation and so on.
To keep our souls focused on what is ahead. But He's also going to bring before us the present pathway.
And these verses that we've begun with, they bring us really back to the reality of where we are now.
We're not home yet. We're not in the full good of what we spoke of yesterday. Our hope is not uncertain. It's referred to in Hebrews 6 as sure and steadfast. Only hope in Christ can be referred to in that way.
But it's only hope in the sense that we're not in the full reality of it yet. It's a certainty, but we aren't there yet. There are trials. We've been reminded both mornings and our prayer meetings of the trials and difficulties that some are passing through. But you know, everyone of us here are going through something. We all have something young and old that we feel some little trial to various degrees that we feel in the path of faith and service.
Now these brethren were going through fiery trial. They were going through things that I've never been called on to pass through Indiana, the path of faith and service.
And so the apostle Peter now is going to bring this before them and encourage them in the trial. We're not going to see the removal of all the difficulties. Brethren, we're not immune to sin and its effects and the trials.
00:10:02
That affect our neighbors and others just because we know the Lord Jesus. No, there is no temptation taking you.
Or trial taken you but such as this common demand. But what Peter is going to point out is the rest of that verse in first Corinthians. But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tried above that ye are able to bear, but will with the trial make a way of escape that she may be able to bear it. So I say again, we're not going to see the removal of the trials and difficulties. They're going to be with us till we get to the end. But there is full provision for, uh, for us as we go through the circumstances of life that he allows in his wisdom.
Is all in love.
It's in wisdom that's true.
But the behind it all is the love of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Father.
He he cares that we are going through testing times and what a delight it is that he's behind it.
The President of the United States.
Is there because he chosen appointed him to be the president of the United States. And when I think of the criticisms that the president is getting, and that may be true that he deserves it. But behind this all there's the love and the wisdom and the power of God himself.
Don't forget that God is behind all of this, His love.
It is working for my good and for yours.
So he could say to them in the beginning of the verse we started with, we're in you greatly rejoice. Well, at the end of last reading meeting we, you might say, ended on the high note of thinking about our inheritance. And you can't think about your inheritance with the Lord in glory and whatever measure in which we understand it and enjoy it without bringing joy to the heart. And so we look forward to something and we're encouraged as Jim said.
By that hope, which is a sure hope to us, and by the provision of God that we're not going to come short, but we're going to get safely there eventually. But then he goes on to say, though now for a season, that is a period of time if need be.
If need be.
Trials often are necessary.
We often pray to get out of them and that they be short and they be done with quickly. But as Peter recognized, he said if needed. And brethren, the trials of life are very often necessary for our good.
Is another in the past it said there's always a needs be on our part and a purpose of love on God's part in them. But if we go back and see in the children of Israel in the wilderness.
The Lord said I'm putting you in the wilderness, but I'm going to test you.
I'm going to humble you and I'm going to prove you and we're going to see what's in your heart. And it's the trials of life that bring out what's really there. Many times when everything is going the way we would like it to go, it doesn't really test us in the same way that you bring a trial into our life and then it manifests what's really there.
As to the hope of that person?
I wouldn't say it if he was here this morning, but a couple of times I had the privilege of visiting Lemoyne in the hospital. And the characteristic that I most appreciated and enjoyed in visiting with Lemoyne in the hospital was he was the same Lemoyne. He was the same Lemoyne. The trial hadn't changed his focus. It hadn't changed his enjoyment of the Lord. That same quiet spirit that tends to characterize Lemoyne was present.
In the trial, what is it? It says here in the next verse. It's the trial of your faith.
00:15:04
That is.
The first thing that separated man from God.
Was unbelief.
Unbelief entered into the heart of Eve and Adam, and it resulted in a act of disobedience, sin. But the root of that disobedience came from unbelief. And when we are in trials, it's a test of faith. Do I fully, as I did, went out when there wasn't any trial? Do I have the same unchanging confidence?
In the heart of God or does the trial expose that my confidence in God is depending in some way on the circumstances of life, in which case it really isn't depending on faith at all. And so it was for them, he says, the trial of your faith and goes on to say that's precious.
This precious, isn't it? We don't covet trials in our lives. And trials are very real, as we've already said in these meetings. And uh, no chastening for the time seemed to be joyous. But I would like to just say this about trials. Trials, as you say, brother Dawn, are allowed for different reasons in our lives. You know, sometimes the tendency of our hearts is to look at somebody that's going through a trial and say, well, the Lord is chastening that person. There must be some sin or something in that person's life.
You know they came to the Lord Jesus concerning the blind man in John nine, and they said, Who hath sinned this man or his parents, that he was born blind? The Lord said, neither this man nor his parents, but that the works of God might be manifest in him.
There was going to be glory brought to the Lord Jesus and to God the Father through the healing of this man through the circumstance.
That had been allowed in his life. And God allows trials in our lives for different reasons. But the real blessing comes when we get before the Lord in our own souls. Not judging a trial in another's life, but get before the Lord in our own souls. Now why did God allow this in my life?
Why has he allowed this circumstance in my life? Because.
It may be in his chastening, but it might be for another reason. It might be to, uh, bring out what's in our hearts, as you say. It might be to prepare us for something. Sometimes we go through a trial so that we can comfort others with the same comfort where with we ourselves are comforted of God. And there's a need to be and I need to be exercised because when I learn in my own soul before the Lord what the needs be in my life is then there's going to be submission through the trial to the trial.
There's going to be peace through the trial, there's going to be the lesson learned, and there's ultimately going to be fruit and glory brought to himself and then blessing to to others. And so it's the truck, it's the faith that's precious. There are a number of things in Peter's epistles that are precious to the heart of God. And one thing is this, when the when the faith goes through the fire.
And it comes out and it's pure. It's gold. It's, it's refined, he says. It's precious. One little story. Brother was visiting a sister and she was in a convalescent hospital and she hadn't moved from that bed for a long, long time.
And she said to the brothers, she said, there's nothing I can do here to get reward, nothing I can do for the Lord. Well, he quoted her wisely that verse in Hebrews that says cast not away. Therefore thy confidence for of such is great recompense of reward. And when there's confidence and faith through the trial and it comes forth as as gold, it's precious to the heart of the Lord Jesus and he's going to reward us for it in the coming day.
That love of the Lord Jesus is manifest in every bit of it, and not only love, He is wisdom as well, and he has power and He has the ability to do what He wants to do to display that wonderful, wonderful, wonderful love of His.
The Daniels, Three friends.
It was evident that God was able to deliver them from the fiery furnace, but instead He delivered him through the fiery furnace. And if you would have asked them afterwards, I'm sure they would say we would not have wanted to miss that experience, to walk in the company of the Son of God through that fiery furnace. What would have been better, brethren, for them, for the Lord to deliver them from the fiery furnace?
00:20:29
I think it was far better that He delivered them through the fiery furnace. And so the Lord submits us to those terrible fiery trials. In life. We don't know much about persecution, but the Lord is not limited. He's going to allow trial in one way or another. He's going to test the faith that He puts into our hearts. He gives us the faith to begin with, and then He tests it.
Abraham, what a man of faith. He was the father of the faithful.
But what a tremendous test he gave Abraham, that son, your only son, the one in whom all the promises of future descendants rusted. Take him and offer him as a sacrifice.
Was there any back talk with Abraham? As far as the Scripture says, there's nothing, just simple obedience. He rose early the next morning to put into effect what God had asked him to do. And I I often think, brethren, that when God puts a fiery trial in our lives, it's because He wants to share something special with us.
And so let's not miss it. We want to like Don says. We want to get out of it. We ask the Lord to deliver us from it.
Lord, help us, brethren, to see God's thoughts in the fiery trial. But what impresses me in these verses, brethren, is what gives us rejoicing in the midst of trial. He seems to be contradictory. How can you rejoice in that same verse six? It mentions heaviness, heaviness and rejoicing. Do they go together? They're doing this verse.
How's that?
And in the end of ver or in verse five, it speaks about faith.
To me that's the secret. It's that confidence in God. Notice in verse eight as well, whom having not seen, ye love, in whom though now ye see him not yet believing.
Ye rejoice with joy, unspeakable and full of glory. It's the believing. It's that trust in Him that brings the rejoicing.
Look at another verse that seems.
So clear in that way as Romans chapter 15.
And verse 13.
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace.
In the living, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.
It's in believing in that confidence in God.
I don't know. I often think of that test that the Lord gave to Abraham to offer up his son.
What a tremendous test. Far rather, I would take that knife and plunge it into my own breast and into my son.
But, brethren, did Abraham grasp the picture that we see so beautifully in that chapter? I don't know.
Perhaps.
But if we could just see that that God in these trials is bringing us into something that it will be enriching in our Christian pathway. So let's accept them. Let's give thanks for them. Let's trust them even when it hurts terribly.
It's the trials that strengthen our faith, isn't it? That's how our faith grows.
Sometimes we might pray and ask the Lord to increase our faith. The disciples did that. They said, Lord, increase our faith. But the Lord answered the disciples to show them that how our faith grows is to put it in operation. And it's interesting in connection with the trial that Abraham had, the test that he had in offering up his son Isaac, that it didn't come just after he was called out of earth, the Chaldees.
00:25:20
Because God never tests us above the faith that He gives for the test.
And he knows exactly where we are in our Christian experience. If I can put it this way. Suppose Abraham had had that test very shortly after he came out of UR. I suggest he may very well have not been up to it. He may very well have failed the test. But he had proved God in the other smaller tests and trials along the path of faith and service for many years.
And those tests and trials had caused his faith to grow, so that when the great test came, he was up to it, accounting that God was even able to raise him from the dead. I think he had every expectation that he was going to have to plunge that knife into the heart of Isaac, his son. But did he stagger at the promise? No, in his mind he knew that God was able to raise him from the dead.
And that the promises were still in Isaac, as God had said, but his faith had grown because he had proved the Lord in all those circumstances. And brethren, that's one reason we're given trials.
So that our faith will grow, so that it will be proved. And let's not not that we go out and look for trials, but let's not shun the trials and the difficulties. Let's learn and be exercised. And they're only for a season.
And what are they, brethren, in relationship to what's ahead in Romans 8, He says. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in US.
When we look back and view it in a coming day of manifestation, oh, we're just gonna marvel at his ways with us. And what are a few little trials and difficulties, not that they're not real, but what are they going to be in comparison to the glory in that day and the reward that he gives and that which is going to be revealed in in US and we're going to share with Him for all eternity.
The greatest?
Test.
That anyone has ever gone through.
Was endured by God Himself.
At 12 noon.
On Friday.
On the Jesus His Son was on the cross of Calvary.
Jesus had prayed before the before he went there. Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
Nevertheless.
Not as I will, but as thou wilt.
So at 12 noon on Friday.
The iniquity of.
Every believer in this room and.
God laid on him, now that I'm telling you.
Jesus suffered.
What we all deserve to suffer.
Without end.
We'll never suffer a stroke.
Because at at least at 12 noon.
All the suffering of all the believers.
And let's leave it at that. All believers, their suffering was over with.
But us we. But we still have suffering here, not there.
Not when we after we have stopped breathing and our heart stops beating, there are no more strokes.
For a single one of you us.
00:30:03
And at 3:00, it was dark when he, when he did that, got dark.
But and it will start until 3:00 in the afternoon.
Sail on the cross.
Jesus said 3 words and you all know what they are.
It's finished.
It's finished.
No more suffering for any of you.
That's where the test came for God Himself.
He laid on his son.
The iniquity of us all, it's over with.
The suffering.
After we die, not a stroke He can. The heaven and the earth and the sea and all that in them is.
But he can't put a stroke on me or you.
Believers, our suffering is over. Jesus did it, he said. It's finished.
Uh.
Marvelous, marvelous words.
It's finished.
Our suffering is done.
And maybe some suffering between now and and the time our heart stops beating.
S.
As all these other tests are.
And we might complain there be some complaints when it's carried on.
But after it was over with with Abraham, he gave thanks. He was thankful for the test.
And we are thankful.
For the test for Abraham, if if God tests him, he'll certainly be kind enough and wise enough and full of love enough.
To test us too. Now complain that complaining generally goes on while we're suffering, but when it's over with, let's give thanks.
It would take away our complaining if we realize that He's doing it for something so tremendously positive. Look at what it produces in verse seven. Rather than the suffering that may be allowed in our lives, it's that it might be found. And to praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ when the Lord Jesus comes back in power and glory from heaven.
And all His Saints are with Him. Every eye shall see Him, and we are going to be manifested with Him in glory. Then it will be evident what He was producing in US through those sufferings. It was something that would shine in that day of manifestation and glory when we come back with the Lord Jesus.
Oh, what a day we look forward to.
It's important to realize that because we don't always see the end of the thing, now do we? We don't always understand exactly what the Lord is it has been doing in our lives. Maybe there's someone here and you say the Lord allowed a trial and I just don't understand what the Lord has had for me in the trial. Now it's true that many trials and circumstances in our lives, we look back and we say I see what the Lord was doing, but I think there are many things we're never going to really understand this side of glory.
When the children of Israel were in the wilderness, there were many things they never really understood while they were in the wilderness.
And they often questioned the ways of God. Why did Moses bring us this way and that way to kill us with hunger and thirst and we're tired and we're weary and so on.
But when it's all summed up in the Psalms, it says he led them by the right way.
Now, brethren, that's the way we're gonna view it. Sometimes we maybe question the ways of God in our lives and we don't see the full end of the the thing, but there's a day coming when it's all gonna be manifested.
And we're going to say, like Israel, he led us by the right way, and we're just going to praise him for the perfection of his ways. Because when we see it in the light of his presence, I suppose that the judgment seat of Christ, it's going to show the perfection of all God's ways with us. And at the end of Revelation 4, the four beasts said, Amen, Those beasts that represent God's governmental ways in the earth, they just say we see it all now.
00:35:11
Everything was working out As for a purpose. And brethren, that's what we're gonna say too. We're gonna say Amen to all his ways. Are you and I content to wait that day? There's so much we don't understand, like you say, but I've often thought, Jim, even the things we think we understand, we will understand so much better when we stand at the judgment seat and the Lord pulls back the curtain says, now I want to show you what I had in mind.
Through that trial, oh, the glory that's going to be given to God when we see what he was doing in our lives. We can't really fully understand it here. Even those things we think we understand now, we're going to understand so much better then.
I'd like to think about the trials in a little different way too.
We know that affects the individual under the trial to the greatest extent and then his immediate family, his friends, the local assembly. Just like you throw a rock into a still pool of water. The greatest splash is right there where the rock hit, but it goes all the way to the to the shore. If one member suffer, all suffer with it. But are we suffering with that one in the trial? Are we just saying, well, I'll pray for you and I don't mean to minimize prayer.
Don went and visited.
Our brother Lemoyne added in his trial he ministered to them that way. Turned back a page or two to James. James chapter 2. It talks about faith and faith and action. Verse 16. If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food.
And what did you say unto them? Depart in peace, be warmed and filled. Maybe that's praying for him, notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body. What does the prophet Even so, Faith, if it hath not works, is dead.
Being alone, you know it's an opportunity for the rest of us, too.
To minister to and help that one that is in, in that trial. Now, I'm not saying, uh, if it's a financial need, we ought to just open up our checkbook and, uh, totally re leave them of that trial because the Lord has allowed that, but he's also allowed it for us. So we have that opportunity to be a help. Jehovah's friend sat with him when they start opening their mouths, they weren't too much help, but initially they sat with him, just, uh, being with him.
You know, sometimes that's what we need to do for one who is in a trial is just to be with them.
So we do have that opportunity as those who might be observing.
First, Peter about Peter himself.
And defend these words. I wonder if you look back in his past life, remembered how he had denied his blessed Lord. Remember how he cut the servants right here? He did that.
Wanting to to hinder the Lord from going to that cross and he did many things and his wonderful to see as he progressed in the trials and testings of life in John chapter 21.
This has been very touching to my heart in John 21, and I'll just read a few verses. And so they die. And Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He says unto him, Yeah, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lamb.
You said him again the second time, Simon's son of Joseph lovest on me. He said on him, Yeah, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Thee my sheath unto him. The third time Simon, son of children, Jonas lovest now me. Peter was grieved because he intended to him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
Very, very I seem to the youth thee, when thou was young and walketh with it, I wouldn't. When thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall third thee, and carried it without. It's not this fake. He signified by what death he should glorify God. When He had spoken him death, he said unto him, Follow me. And I thought about that in my own soul, and I thought of what a wonderful ending he had, because He humbled Himself.
He took the trial, He benefited from these trials of his testing, his faith.
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And the Lord brought him through, and now the Lord could use him.
Till yeah, they're not wonderful. Oh, that speaks to my own soul that we might go on well for him through all these trials and testings because our hearts might be touched, and that we might learn what he has for us and the blessing he gives us to all these different trials, that we might end well, our life.
Our parents, or perhaps some are grandparents.
And I guess what I'd like to just think about for a moment is.
I think Speaking of for those who are parents.
One of our greatest trials.
Yes, the agony that we often go through.
That our children would go on to follow the ward.
And sometimes those children might be not just under 20 years old, but even in their 20s and 30s and.
Perhaps more.
And I just like to encourage each one of us who our parents or grandparents.
In these trials.
Of wishing and hoping and praying that our children would go on for the Lord.
So just keep praying. Pray without ceasing.
And trust that the Lord will work in their hearts.
In the hearts of our children and grandchildren to follow the Lord.
When they get to be.
25 or 30 years old.
We can't really tell them what to do.
Sometimes we feel like we've failed when they were younger.
Perhaps we have.
But we don't need to give up praying for them and trusting the Lord.
Robert said with Moses he was 40 years of age before he came out for the Lord.
It was a long time, wasn't it, Moses? Mother had him for justice a short time, and then she had to send him off to the palace to be trained as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. And I say it was 40 years of age before there was fruit from those early days and were not even told whether she was around to see it. Maybe she'll have to wait for that coming day of manifestation to see the results of her early laborers and no doubt her prayers. And so I think it's an encouragement, as you say, to parents, not to give up.
And as we said earlier, we don't always see the end of the story here in this life. But it's interesting, isn't it in this chapter, that in the midst of it, Peter puts before them the perfect example and the perfect object. And you have it at the end of verse seven and then connected with verse 8, Jesus Christ, whom not having seen ye love, in whom, though now ye see him not yet believing, ye rejoice with joy.
Unspeakable and full of glory, Paul said, sorrowful yet always rejoicing. Bob was talking about things that don't seem to go together, contrasts and we would say oxymorons and so on.
That's one too, isn't it? Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. But I believe the joy comes in the trials and circumstances of life, in the measure in which we have the enjoyment of Christ in our souls. That's what's going to give us joy. When Paul and Silas were in Philippi and put in prison for preaching the gospel, it was a difficult circumstance. They felt the cold, damp floor of the prison.
They felt those chains and their backs bleeding and so on, but they could rejoice in the trial, not because they didn't feel the trial, but because they had the joy of the Lord in their souls. And what's going to carry us through, brethren, is not the removal of the trials, as we've said, but it's Jesus Christ whom not having seen ye, love, and in the measure in which He is real and precious to our hearts.
And the object and example before our souls were going to be spurred on. In fact, in the next chapter he speaks of it again. He speaks of the sufferings of Christ, and who, when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered, He threatened not. You say, how could he do such a thing? He committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. He had the fault, the fact before his soul, that God had the record down properly.
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That there was an end and that there was a day of blessing and manifestation and fruit ahead. And he was looking forward to that, knowing the import of the verse that says weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Now do we have Christ before us as that perfect example, an object. And so I say, it's not the circus, it's not circumstances that give us joy in our Christian pathway. We're thankful for nice circumstances, but it's the enjoyment of Christ in our souls that lifts us above the trials and carries us through.
Oh, in silence, I don't think.
Uh, saying immediately, did they? It was at midnight. So it may have taken a little while for them to come around to that. And sometimes it there is times of heaviness, brethren, Scripture speaks of it here, but it's the believing that gives the joy that's so marked there in verse 8. Yet believing ye rejoice. So when we get our focus around to.
God is in this circumstance. Where is He?
What are we supposed to do now and all this problem?
Remember old brother John saying that maybe Silas said to Paul, Paul, did you really see that vision about us coming over here? We're in a problem now. Who is going to get us out of this fix? And I'm sure they must have had their times when they were really down. But it's believing the promises of God that bring joy. And then.
They could open their mouths and pray and sing praises to God.
Brethren, it takes a little bit of time sometimes to get around to that, but when we do, that's where the rejoicing comes in, in belaving.
The joy and peace comes when we acknowledge and God what happens. Because as you mentioned yesterday, the just briefly there that first Peter is the government of God with believers and 2nd theater is the government of God with the world. So when God deals with the world, we look around, we see all the wickedness and we might be confused by it. In Second Peter there the believers, we are told that the government is over this world.
And it's going to fall, but it hasn't fallen yet, but it will, God will judge it in first Peter, we see the hand of God and the Lord and everything that happens to us. So it's not always chastisement, as was mentioned, but every circumstance we can really take from the Lord and, and acknowledge his hand in it. So Paul and Silas, uh, we don't know what went on in the prison, but what is going to give them peace is not saying there is a ruthless, hateful enemy out there and the Lord is going to.
Come in and deal with that. But that the Lord's hand is in this. He allowed this, and so then you can have peace. And that's the one I know for myself. And I'm sure everyone of us acknowledged that when we wrestle an unhappy and are discontented is when we are struggling against the fact that the Lord allowed this and we're trying to find a way out of it and trying to get the Lord to take it away. And the Lord's hand is in it. And as pilgrims and strangers, perhaps the confusion that these poor Jewish believers had is that they.
Seeing the government shifted from the world placed into the hands of man into the to Israel to administer judgment on disobedience, and then it's placed in the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, and Lord dies and all is lost. Just all of their expectations are gone. Humanly speaking, they're perhaps confused now they're scattered. Well, God and the Lord, if we can put it that way, still loves them, and His hand is directly upon them so that they can.
Acknowledge that every single thing that happens, Lord's hand is in it and it's for their blessing and because he loves them. And so you think of the Midianites there when they went through the Canaan, there is pilgrims and strangers. They make a deal and take Joseph into Egypt. They had no responsibility to anybody, their pilgrims and strangers. But for ourselves as pilgrims and strangers here, we, we have to get it out to someone and uh.
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To always remember that.
Faith honors God.
Faith honors God. We may not understand everything in trials, and we do not, and we recognize the trials bring with them a heaviness in the spirit and in the soul many times. But God is always honored when He's trusted and in order to motivate us, if you will, to the greatest possible degree to trust Him.
God manifests himself as worthy of trust.
And so if there's ever a question in our souls as to whether God's ways with us are fair, or whether the trial is too severe, or why it's happened to me, and so on, it's a great blessing to the soul to go to the cross and see God's Son die for us. And there God, as it were, says.
This is my love to you. This is how far I will go for you. Will you trust me?
When we have here in the chapter in the the Lord Jesus and then we rejoice because He is placed before our souls as an object of the heart that is perfectly, completely worthy of trust.
Look at me, he says, or God says to us. Look at my son. Is he worthy of your trust?
And consequently, when the day of manifestation comes.
God will be honored and appreciate and so reward everyone who passed through a trial.
In trust.
Because it was to his honor, it was to his glory that he was trusted. And he will delight to manifest as it were. He'll say now this one here went through this trial and they trusted me. And oh, what an honor. I appreciate it. And I wanna say I appreciated that in that one of my children to trust me in that way. And so much of the process of life and many of the trials of life are teaching experiences.
To teach us to trust so that we can honor God. We had a little a few minutes ago read to us by Brother Bob Peter.
And about Peter and John 21.
Peter love the Lord Jesus. He wanted to follow him, but his trust, his confidence was in himself.
I can do it and I will do it and if needs be, I'll go to death with the Lord Jesus. And then the Lord had to put him. There was a needs be to teach Peter that his confidence, his trust wasn't in God.
It was in himself and he fails in the trial, in the testing, but the consequence was, is that the Lord?
So taught him to trust in him.
And to not trust in himself that the Lord, as it were, says now, Peter, I'm going to entrust, I'm going to entrust to you the most precious of things that are precious to me, my sheep and my lambs. And you're going to care for them for me, Peter. And so when we learn, even in the trials by failure, if we are with the Lord in it, we learn from it, we grow by it to learn to trust. And then.
The Lord in turn uses us in that way, in being helped to others and so.
Even failed testings, God has a purpose in good that can renew, result in blessing to our souls and others through us.
About the cross is illustrated beautifully when the children of Israel came to Mara.
The waters of marrow were better, and sometimes we come to what seems like bitter experiences in our lives.
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But what was it that made the water sweet? The only thing was to throw the tree into the water. And sometimes, perhaps as we go through the trials of life and the tests, the only thing that will make the water sweet is to go back to the cross, as Dawn said, and to see what the Lord Jesus paid for us. To see what it cost God, To see what it costs the Lord Jesus. And can we doubt his love in the trials and circumstances of our lives when we see the great cost? When we see God so loving us that He gave His Son?
When we see the Lord Jesus who loved us and gave himself for us. And then I was thinking too, in connection with the comments about Paul and Silas and what our brother Graham said.
Often wondered when they sang and praised at midnight, if they didn't recall that verse in the 119th Psalm. It's the 62nd verse that says at midnight will I arise and give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments. They realized by midnight that what God was doing was right and just, that he had a purpose in it. And so if we can realize has been said that God has a purpose.
And that what He is doing in our lives is right. And for our good and for His glory, we're going to be able to arise even at those midnights in our lives. And there's lots of midnights in our lives. Lots of.
Dark experiences in our lives, but if we realize that what he's doing is right and justice.
Then and trust Him, then we can arise and give thanks as well.
Reason umm we've commented that God is honored by faith. The another important benefit of trial is through it we get to know the Lord Jesus better. Just to show that turn over to another wilderness book, Hebrews Peters of book of the wilderness and so is Hebrews really I just not going to take very many minutes. I hope to show something here.
That we learn the Lord Jesus in the trials of life if you go to Hebrews chapter 10.
And verse 35 says, Cast not away, therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Here's the particular verse. Now the just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them which draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. That statement that just shall live by faith is the introduction to the next chapter that we all know so well.
The 11Th chapter of Hebrews. And then we have this whole chapter about faith.
And people who live their lives in faith and people who died in faith, people who suffered in faith and so on. And then you get in chapter 12 verse one, it says, wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, and let us run with endurance, the race with patience is set before us. In other words, in the 10th chapter he says.
We got a race to run. We've got to we've got to go through it in patience, but let's not draw back. Don't give it up. Don't say I can't do it as it were, as man would say. And then he gives us a cloud of witnesses of people who've gone ahead of us and gone through the path of faith and the trials that are connected with such a life. And then he, he says, listen to the witnesses. But this is the verses. I want to get to verse two of chapter 12.
Looking unto Jesus.
The author and completer of faith, that is. He says, OK, you've seen the witnesses, but now I'm going to put a supreme example before your souls. Look at the Lord Jesus.
He is the man who went through the whole path of faith.
He completed it. He didn't draw back.
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But He went right through as a perfect example for us. And then it says, well, what? How did He do it? For the joy that was set before Him endured the cross. This is not atonement here. This is not looked at as our sins being paid for, but rather in His life of faith. How great were the trials that He had to go through. He endured the cross.
The shame.
The rejection, the suffering that was connected with it and as an encouragement to his own soul as he did it, he could look beyond it and he could say, well, I see the joy, I see what's before me. And now having endured that and turned aside from the shame of this, of his life rejection, then he says he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Where's it all going in, brother?
It's going to end in the glory, It's going to end at the presence of the Lord Jesus. So then he says, how about you verse three, You consider him, you think about the Lord Jesus and what he suffered. And then that's so that you won't be faint and give up and be weary in the trials that come before you. And he says you haven't resisted unto blood. Nobody in this room is resisted under blood.
That means nobody here has died.
To maintain the faith.
Many of our brethren have, but none of us have gone to the ultimate step. And so it's put before us in a way that.
If we're in it and feel it, we're going to at the end of the road when we get to heaven and we look back at these trials of life that we've passed through.
We can say, oh Lord Jesus, thank you.
That I was able.
Or I shouldn't say I was able, but you passed me through the trials of life so that I could know your heart and you wouldn't know His heart the same way if you didn't pass through them, brethren, you could not. It's the shared experience that brings the commonness of appreciation of what another has gone through. Do we want to know the Lord better? We'll never know that extent of.
His trial of faith. But in any little measure in which we pass through the trials of faith, when we get home to glory, we will. And even now as we pass through them, we get to know his own heart better. It's worth it. We would never wish when we get to heaven and look back and say, the Lord said, well, it was kind of tough, so I spared you from having any trials of faith. We'd have to say then, oh Lord, I wish I could have known you.
As I do not because I didn't experience the same.
Mentioned Abraham offering up the son. Uh, he actually expected to slay his son and to receive him back in resurrection. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, umm, if you read there, he very, they're very careful about how they answer the king because as was said, they could have been delivered from ever going through the fire. They could have been delivered through the fire, but they also said that they would be delivered even if they passed through death. They didn't say that directly, but it's, it's very well implied there that they would be delivered from Nebuchadnezzar.
No matter what happens and they were going to be obedient and Paul and Peter were delivered from prisons. They weren't always the last time they weren't umm, as was mentioned, the Lord, he was obedient unto death. And even in first Peter the same line of things is brought up that we often read Lord's Day morning about him in chapter 2 or even here unto verse 21 where he called because Christ also suffered for us.
Leaving us an example that's not in substitution or in atonement, but that you should follow in the steps. Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. Who when he was reviled, reviled not. Again, when he suffered, he threatened not.
But committed himself to him, the judges righteously, who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sins should live under righteousness by whose stripes we are healed. He had to go through death for that and so he we aren't always delivered from the specific trial that the Lord puts us through, but there's another aspect of that God is glorified through it and so we don't do things.
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As a testimony or for a testimony?
But it is a testimony that Abraham did what he did, that the three friends of Daniel did what they did, that, uh, Daniel went through the lion's den, that they were faithful. It was not a testimony of them, but of God and of his faithfulness and of his righteousness. And, uh, it's, it's good to remember that because a lot of times we are, we have to live with things and, uh, the Lord allows it. And we need to see the Lord's hand in it and not only just submit, but see the Lord's hand in it and glorify the Lord in it.
So Peter presents the end of the thing here. And when Peter takes up salvation.
It's usually in view of that which is yet future. It's interesting again because remember he's writing to Jewish believers.
And in the Old Testament, when they turned to the Lord and they were faithful, they expected and looked for physical deliverance from their enemies and the circumstances. But what Peter is seeking to bring before these believers now is that don't look for deliverance down here. You're not always going to see deliverance from the circumstances. Again, they might have thought, well, we've tried to be faithful to the Lord.
We're trying to go on for the Lord and it's just one trial and difficulty after another.
Peter says you're not going to see the removal of the difficulties down here just because you're faithful to the Lord. But there is an end in view. And brethren, that's what we have to keep in view too. We have the salvation of our souls as far as our sins being gone, we're saved from wrath through Him. It tells us in Romans 5, thank God we are on the basis of the work of Calvary, not one charge of sin can ever be brought up against us.
But there is a salvation that's yet future. Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. It's the salvation of the body and the complete deliverance from all the circumstances of life and the trials that we have been Speaking of. And so Peter is going to go on in these verses now to bring this before them, to encourage them to quietly go on. Simply trust in the circumstances. You might not see the end of it in this life.
But there is certainly a glorious end in view.
Important to recognize that the Lord Jesus is presently a rejected man.
And that to be identified with him brings with it that same position of rejection which results in the present world in trial.
I say that because we live in an age when it's when the trust is in the Lord Jesus as Savior. We look forward to the glory and we say, wonderful, I'm going to glory. It's going to be a wonderful time. But our lives often seek subtly, perhaps to avoid the identification with the Lord Jesus because it brings trial with it.
We've talked about different kinds of trials and so on, but one of them that comes, and Scripture is very definite that suffering comes before glory.
And so, brethren, let's not be unwilling to be identified with the Lord Jesus. Let's not be unwilling to speak about Him to our fellow man because he might think less of us if we do, and so on, recognizing that.
He being rejected, we being in that place with him, is a place that brings with it the trial.
That is every uh says it says all that will live in godly in Christ Jesus.
Shall suffer persecution because that's his place now, and it's a privilege in that way. And that kind of suffering brings with a joy, not so much the heaviness that we see in this chapter, but the disciples counted it.
A privilege and a joy to their souls.
To be counted worthy, to suffer for his name's sake.
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So each one of us is tested in that way too. Yep, I'm going to glory. But while I'm I'm there, I'd like to go down the path just as easy as I can so that, well, I get there. But that's not really the path of faith. The true path of faith is to identify with the Lord Jesus and take what comes until.
Glory at the end.
Putting what Mr. Rule was saying in slightly different words, we often speak of the exchange life, that we exchange our fallen life for his risen life, and that we live by the power of the resurrection. I no longer live in the flesh, but I live in the spirit, and the power of his resurrection lives through me, creating good works in my life. But in this exchange, we not only exchange for the good, well, it's still good.
But our sufferings we exchange for his sufferings, my terrors for His cares, as we enter into our relationship in a risen Savior in heavenly places we set aside.
We consider dead to the things of this world, to my sufferings are set aside. But in setting aside my sufferings and my cares and my worries, I enter into his sufferings. And what does he care about now? The church? Do I feel the pain of the division, the divided church that we live in the midst of? Do I feel the pain when a brother falls into sin?
I feel the pain that he feels and the cares that He cares. This is where Christ wants to take us while we're on this earth to where we care. As He cares, He takes our burdens and we experience His burdens. To suffer with Him here is to suffer in the things that He cares about. Not whether I have a nice car, not whether I'm well or sick, but how the body of Christ is prospering.
How my brethren are growing in the things of Christ.
And how we go on and honor him here.
We shall also reign with Him, and so He is coming to be glorified in His Saints, and admired in all them that are about Him in that day.
And so, brethren, are you and I willing to be identified as Don said, with a rejected Christ?
The Corinthians were seeking to reign before the time, and Paul said, would that we did reign, that Christ did reign because we'd be reigning with him. But he said this is not the time now. Christ is the man who took a journey into a far country to await his Kingdom, and he's still waiting for that. And so with the Kingdom in view and the fact that we're going to reign and be glorified with him and so on in that day, that gives us then the moral courage, doesn't it, to be identified with him now.
If Jonathan had only identified with David in his rejection, he would have sat next to him on the throne, but he wasn't willing to suffer the reproach that David did. David's a picture of Christ in his rejection, fleeing as a bird to the mountain, sleeping in The Cave of Adalom. And you know, there were many men who associated with David in his rejection. You say, why did they do that? Why did they leave the comforts of home? Why did they flee with David and sleep and live in circumstances?
That perhaps weren't as comfortable as they were used to or would have liked all they knew.
That David was the Lord's anointed. They knew that though he was rejected and haunted by Saul at the time, that the day was coming when he would reign in the palace and they would be associated with him. And so, brethren, this I say, gives us the courage to identify now. Not to look for the easy path, not that we go out and look for opportunities to suffer, but not to look for the easy path, but to identify with the rejected Christ, knowing that He's going to identify us with Himself in that day.
And declare I and the children whom God hath given me.
On the illustration of Jonathan, because I think it's very apartment.
Jonathan's father saw is a type to us of man in the flesh and the best that man can be in the flesh, actually, and the best that man can be in the flesh is really the worst. But just as that's why Saul in the New Testament, who is a picture of the same to us before he saved, truly was the worst because he was more advanced in what man can be in the flesh than anybody else had been.
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And the consequence was, it took him farther from God in his soul than any other man can go.
But in Saul.
Had a son.
David, I'm sorry, Jonathan. And we learned that from a New Testament sense of it.
Jonathan loved David. That means in this application Jonathan trusted in David and loved David and it tells us of his love for David.
But he also was a son of Saul, and he would not give up the palace.
To be identified with David in his rejection and he lost his life over it. And brethren, if we put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and love our David but won't give up the palace, we can lose our lives over it. That is, we can have a life that goes through this world and the consequences. No fruit for God because we are unwilling to separate.
From Saul, the man in the flesh, at least as far as the honors and the good things that come from the life that Saul had. And that's what it is. When we won't identify with David and take the place of suffering and rejection with him until he reigns, we put ourselves in Jonathan's place and it is a sad history.
God says the powers that be are ordained of the Lord.
We have and and this this country a man in the place of leadership.
Umm, not everyone seems to agree with his ideas and so forth. Well, I don't know whether they're right or wrong personally, but this I know the man who is speaking.
His mind and bringing things through, uh, to be part of his rule, uh.
Are coming from the man whom God ordained. Uh, so while we are going through a testing period, if you want to call it that, uh.
We can be sure that we when we kneel before God or we speak to God as you might mention his name.
And pray for him that he will be used of God in the in the office that God put him in his uh, and uh, in the end.
Will be thankful.
To the praise and glory of God. It is God's deposit in US and as you go further down we see the angels are even impressed with this. It is what God is depositing us. The faith that God has given us at that day. It is that which is going to be found to his glory and to his praise. It is what God has given us When it's fully tested, it's fully goes through trial and the beauty of it comes out then God receives the glory. That is what this portion is about. That is why fellow down there able to.
They are believing in Christ, full of glory. Feel as amazed when he sees these people. You guys did not see Jesus Christ. I saw Jesus Christ. But when I see the way you, you've responded to me, You love him, and you believe into this one and the glory, the beauty of that faith comes out. It is weighty and it is impressive.
So as much as the trials may be sorrowful, the greatest joy or the things that brings God, the glory is the faith that is being tried and you know it. It is that which brings, I think that celebration. It is that which brings the the happiness. It is that which brings the glory. Let us, let us be grateful the opportunities God gives us to go to trial that his own glory might be exalted or his own glory might be manifested. And that is where you can rest. And this is where you can relax that Father, whatever it is.
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And it's all be to your glory.
Is our position, brother, and that we are brought into understanding these things. The prophets in verse 10 that wrote those things down searched them and didn't really fully understand them.
I often think of David, who was a prophet, wrote in the Psalms. They pierced my hands and my feet.
He probably wondered what did that mean? Crucifixion wasn't in practice at that time. He probably looked at those scriptures and says, I don't understand this. My hands and my feet haven't been pierced. So they searched those things and it wasn't revealed to them. Verse 12 Says, unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us.
We now understand those things unto us.
They did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them which have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. And not only the prophets, but the end of verse 12. The angels desire to look into these things. Angels do not have the Holy Spirit to understand these things like we do.
What a privilege. We look back into the Old Testament and we see that God.
Had seen this all beforehand and that he had written it into the scriptures.
Those Old Testament prophets were mighty men of God.
They were mightily used of God, but they did not have the understanding that we now have.
Yeah, in this day.
But the spirit of Christ was in them. So whether it was Abraham or Joseph or, uh, the prophets, uh, they really had limited understanding as to what they're writing, but it was the spirit of Christ that we recognize in them. It wasn't just a coincidental story that we can make an application to. Like, you know, if a brother preaches in the gospel, he might use an example of something he observed and then make an application. And, uh, but if you actually question the people, they.
You know, that's the last thing you're thinking about. But I suppose in the coming day, it's when those Old Testament states are there in the glory and it's all revealed to them, they're going to recognize why they did it and why they were, why they behaved as they behaved. It wasn't that like when Isaac, you think of him being bound upon the altar, he submitted to that the measure that he was obedient and he took his place as he should have taken his place as his son.
Was a spirit of Christ being displayed in him, And Christ was fully displayed, but Joseph?
Uh, his behavior through his life, it was the Spirit of Christ, uh, that was displayed there, not just because it's a story that we can get something out of and make an application, but God, the Spirit of God was working in them and he had a nature and he was given instruction by, uh, the word of God and by what was revealed to him and measure, of course, but uh, we see in Joseph, the Spirit of Christ wasn't the Spirit of Joseph.
With the spirit of Christ that was seen in him, it's a marvelous thing to read those Old Testament types and figures and where their conscience was involved. Not like a balaam, but, uh, the other of the Saints there when they behaved for a reason out of obedience to the light that they had. But Christ knew fully what he was displaying.
Day by day at the last verse. Help me then.
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I'm 84.
Psalm 84, verse 6.
Who passing through the valley of Vaca?
Make it a well.
The rain also filleth.
Pools.
Things God Is Thankful For
Address—Don Rule
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.
We'll begin this afternoon by singing together number 93.
From the palace of his glory.
From the home of joy and love.
Came the Lord Himself to seek us. He would have us.
There above.
And in past and distant ages, in those courts so bright and fair ere we were.
Was he rejoicing all he won with us? To share number 93 will need a starter.
3, 10-4 10-4 09, three 03.
Spray.
Turn with me for a verse in Second Corinthians Chapter 9.
2nd Corinthians Chapter 9 and verse 15.
Thanks.
Be unto God for His unspeakable gift.
Thanksgiving Day, I had the privilege with my wife of being with part of our family and spending the day together.
And as we have done at other times, we enjoy after the meal.
Going around.
From the littlest ones to the oldest ones and letting each person share something.
That they have to give thanks to God for.
And I find it interesting and fascinating and encouraging to my own heart to see.
Sometimes what?
Eight 1012 year old have to thank God for as well as quite a bit older ones too.
After we did that.
We turned it around in this way. It didn't go to everybody, but particularly for the younger ones, they were asked can you name something?
That God is thankful for.
I was very touched with two of the answers, or not answers really, but two of the things that were said.
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One of my grandsons said.
God is thankful when we put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Nice, isn't it?
We have in Luke 15 that expression that when one of us puts our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.
There's joy.
In heaven, in the presence of the angels of God. It doesn't say the angels are joyful, but I'm sure they are.
But it says in the presence of the angels of God, because the Father.
The Son and the Holy Spirit are thankful and as a result, joyful when each one of us put our trust in the Lord Jesus and became part of God's family.
I was more touched.
By another answer.
God is thankful.
For his son.
Can't beat it. I don't believe, brethren.
God is thankful for His Son.
So desire of my heart this afternoon that.
And I trust it's the desire of God's heart to.
That as a result of being together in this little time, that is that where when the meeting comes to its end.
That you would like to link your hand with God.
And with God say we are thankful.
For the sun.
Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.
Turn with me for a verse in Second Timothy, chapter one.
Second Timothy. Chapter One.
Since we were reading about suffering, I'm going to read a little more context here without comment, but it relates to our morning.
Time together in the Bible reading.
Verse 8. Be not therefore, ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.
Nor of me, his prisoner.
But be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.
Who has saved us and called us with an holy calling?
Not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace.
Which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ.
Who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel?
You can hold your finger here if you want. Before we comment, turn over to Ephesians chapter one.
And verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings.
In heavenly places, in Christ, according as He hath chosen us, in Him before the foundation of the world.
That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.
We have in these two passages.
Something that took place before the world ever was made.
Before people were ever created.
The counsels of God in past eternity.
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It's amazing, really, that the creator of the universe.
Would choose to tell us about such things, but he has.
He was thinking about you.
And he was thinking about me.
And he determined certain purposes within himself.
For you and for me, I speak to you as a believer. If you're not a believer, then what I say doesn't apply to you.
Unless you believe.
God is thankful for the Son.
Like to try to present to you as it is enjoyed in my own soul that thought.
In past eternity.
There's God, God the Father, God the Son.
And God the Holy Spirit.
And in the heart of God is love. He is love.
And I can only express it as a creature.
But maybe you can only understand it as a creature too, so it's all right.
God says.
I'd like.
To create some creatures.
And I want those creatures that I create.
To enjoy what I enjoy.
To share with me what is of enjoyment to my own heart.
Of the Lord Jesus is wisdom, it says. I was daily his delight.
The Father loved the Son from all eternity.
And found his pleasure, his joy in his son.
And he determined that he would have.
Creatures.
That could enjoy with him.
What was number one in his own soul or heart?
His son.
And so he created man in his own image and after his own likeness.
And he placed him on the earth.
We know the story.
We also know what happened.
It's not a very pretty site.
I don't know about you.
But I must be honest, or will be honest with you this afternoon and say I often find reading the Old Testament depressing on my spirit.
I'll give you an example of it.
Turn with me to Genesis.
Chapter, I think it's seven or 8/6.
Chapter 5.
Genesis chapter 5.
Verse one.
This is the book of the generations of Adam.
In the day that God created man in the likeness of God made he him.
Male and female created he them and blessed them and called their name Adam in the day when they were created.
And Adam lived in 130 years and begat his son in his own likeness.
After his image and called his name Seth.
In the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were 800 years, and he begat sons and daughters, and all the days that Adam lived were 930 years.
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And he died.
And Seth lived for six.
Verse 11.
He in and he died.
Verse 12 Cain lived.
Verse 17.
Well, I miss.
Umm verse 17 and he died.
Our first fourteen, it says. And he died.
And then his son Mahalahil lived, and he died, and so on.
That's sad, isn't it?
It's the cycle.
Of the whole earth.
And he lived.
And he died, and he lived and he died.
And if you leave out the purposes of God, you can look at this room and I can look at you and I can say, and you lived and you died.
And you lived, and you died.
Not very encouraging to my soul, nor yours either.
Not really the intent or purpose of God either.
To have a creature that he would have to look upon and say and he lived.
And he died, and she lived, and she died.
Is that all that your life is?
I say to you as a little word of warning, if you're in this room this afternoon and you don't know the Lord Jesus.
That's going to be your life.
You live, you die.
And of course, we know there's more than that. After that comes the judgment.
But God had a purpose.
Concerning.
Us as it relates to his son.
We don't want to take the time to trace all that history in the Old Testament. I want to go to the New Testament, you might say, pick up the story of man as seen in John's Gospel, chapter 5.
John's Gospel, chapter 5 and verse 24.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word.
And believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life.
And shall not come into really judgment.
But is passed from death.
Into life.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is.
When the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear.
Shall live.
For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son.
To have life in himself.
Man's history as he's born, he lives, he dies, and Adam all die.
The cycle of the world, it's inescapable.
It's not a very joyful fact, but it's true nonetheless.
But God in his love and in his purposes.
Had something else for his creature.
When Adam sinned, he died.
We know he died physically.
But he also died morally. As far as his relationship with God, he was dead. Godward. He was dead in trespasses and sins.
And when the Lord Jesus came into this world, he came into a world full of dead people.
Morally speaking.
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Thankfully there were some that had life when he came, but looked at in a general way, it was a world full of dead people.
But God's not limited by that, and so in the person of the Lord Jesus.
He said I'm going to speak to the dead.
And they that here shall live, Some heard, some lived.
In fact, the history of man lead to judgment.
And that wonderful verse in John 5 and 24 for those who hear.
He says.
Shall not come into judgment.
That is, for them there is no judgment ahead. There is nothing to be faced.
And we're not here this afternoon to go in, particularly to the gospel itself, but.
Here was a world of dead people facing judgment, and he says, I'm going to go into it.
I'm going to present.
A message they who hear.
Will not face judgment, but will be taken from death.
They lived, they died, will be taken from that place of moral death into a place of life.
Into a place of life.
It's tremendous, tremendous thing.
To be brought into out of death.
Into life.
Turn with me to.
John's first epistle.
John one verse one.
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen.
Which our eyes have looked upon and our hands have handled. Of the word of life.
For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and has been manifested unto us, that which we have seen and heard. Declare we unto you, that ye also.
May have fellowship with us. That's the apostles.
Fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father.
And with his Son Jesus Christ, and these things right we unto you that your joy.
May be full.
What's happened here?
What are we reading about?
God in a past eternity.
I'm gonna represent this way God.
Chose to create a creature named Man.
And had the purpose that that creature man would be so brought into association and fellowship with himself that they together might enjoy what he enjoyed, which is the sun.
God's thankful for the sun.
But how could it happen?
What had to take place in order for that purpose to be realized?
It is a work. It is something that only God could ever have imagined or dreamed or thought up, would never have entered into the heart of the creature to even think about it or desire it or even know the blessedness of it.
Or how it would be accomplished?
Here's God dwelling in eternal light, in love and life.
And now, as we've looked at a little bit, here's man.
In a state of death.
And corruption. And violence. And sin.
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What's to bridge the gap?
The Sun.
Son.
Here's God in all his essential beings and deity, and here's man, the creature.
In all his loneliness, really, he didn't realize it, but his, I'm going to say his puniness, his tininess, his littleness.
It's the sun that bridges the gap.
It's the sun that brings the Father and ourselves together.
It's the sun that makes us to be able to have the right to be brought into God's family and be his children.
It is by Christ Jesus that God accomplishes the purposes of His own heart.
God the Son.
Comes down to where man is.
And takes humanity.
Into union with his deity.
It's an absolutely incredible thought.
That God bridging that gap.
That the sun would leave that place of honor and glory and majesty and light and power.
And come all the way down.
In his person.
To become a man.
To become as a man mortal.
To become as man, having a body of flesh and blood and all the limitations that go along with that.
The need to eat and sleep.
Get tired and so on.
The Sun.
Comes down all the way.
To accomplish the purpose of God.
The disciples witnessed it.
They saw him.
They watched him, they handled him, the word of life, that eternal life which he had within himself that we read of in John five. He still had it as a man, for he was still the Son.
And so there he is among men.
To display yes, to manifest yes all the God is.
And as they watched him, and as they observed him, he was full of grace and truth.
But if I can say it properly.
God was still God.
And man was still mad.
Man couldn't be brought.
Into the presence of God as he was.
Man, by his very nature as he was, could not understand or comprehend or know God properly.
He was dead.
In his trespasses and in his sins.
He was without God, He was without hope.
He was to live and die.
The next generation live, die, and so on.
He came unto his own, His own received him not.
Worse.
He was hated.
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We have time to get farther into this epistle. We'll see why.
He was hated.
He was rejected.
He was crucified. We will not have this man.
But in the worst act of man, and the worst effort of Satan against God, he God being God.
You accomplish is a tremendous.
Work.
So that man could be brought into a new place with God.
He dies, he rises again, and as we know this afternoon.
He's living forever.
And he's living this afternoon as he watches us here in this room.
At this moment, with his heart upon us, with his love toward us.
With his desire that we respond.
To that love.
At God's right hand.
But what takes place?
We read in the Old Testament they didn't know really what life and death was all about.
But the message of the gospel is to bring life.
And immortality to light.
Among other things.
The purpose of God is now out to be told, to be realized, to be enjoyed.
For God to have a creature that can enjoy his Son as he enjoys him.
He has to be like God.
He has to have.
Something of deity.
In his being.
Try to introduce the thought this way.
When I was a boy, our family had a dog, I.
Forget how old I was, maybe 5-6, seven years old, and Bell, our dog, arrived as a baby pup.
And they spent the next 15 years in the family circle.
As a loved dog.
We love Val Val loved us.
We played with Bell, Bell played with us.
But in some ways, she never understood us.
Never did learn to understand why sometimes she was outside and we were inside.
And she had to live in a little house called a dog house.
And why, when she wagged her tail and looked at us with, you know, the kind of look, won't you bring me in the house? She still had to stay outside sometimes.
I'm sure she never did understand.
And we couldn't make her understand either.
Why not?
Because she was a dog and we were human beings. She did not have a life. She did not have a nature capable of understanding us fully. Yes, there were some things she knew and enjoyed, and so did we. And I suppose in one sense, we never fully understood her.
But we loved her.
The point is.
If we are to know God.
As God in the way that he wants us to.
We have to share in the same kind of life and nature.
God wants us to feel as he feels, think as he thinks.
Love as he loves, and so on.
We couldn't do that in Adam.
But we can in Christ.
So how does God do it?
He does it through the sun.
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He puts in us.
The life of Christ.
To share it with Christ.
That last comment is important to share it with him.
Said this before, but it's important to understand it. Everybody in this room has their own individual life. I have mine and you have yours.
And you can die, or I can die and you can live.
My death and your death aren't tied together. My life and your life are not in that way, tied together.
Yours is separate from mine.
But when God brings us into the place that.
He has brought us into as our destiny.
He imparts eternal life into us to share.
With the sun. And so it says in Colossians. Christ, who is our life.
It's important.
Because I can't die unless he can.
My life is as secure, that is, the eternal life that I have is as secure as his life is.
It's also the fact that.
He is deity and He has life in himself.
Independent of anything or anyone.
But God bringing me into relationship, and you into a relationship with himself is such that.
Will always be dependent. Will never have a life that's independent.
Will always be the creature.
And so that's, I believe why we participate in the life. It's our life, but it's Christ who is our life.
So what does that bring us into?
Life has a nature connected with it and so we won't take the time to turn to it. But we read in first, second Peter is it.
Where Bob was reading yesterday afternoon.
Partakers of the divine nature.
Partakers of the divine nature.
God has given us a life that is divine, that has a divine nature.
Scripture uses that expression so that unlike Bell who could never understand me.
Properly or fully as I might have wanted.
We received that which causes us to enjoy.
What he enjoys.
To have the same thoughts as he has and so on.
Says here that your choice has brought us into fellowship. That's commonness of thought and interest and feeling. And so we've been brought into this wonderful fellowship with God concerning his Son.
Let's look at it a little more though.
Notice verse five. This then is the message which we have heard of him. And declare unto you that God is light.
And in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie.
Then do not the truth.
But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another in the blood of Jesus Christ his Son.
Cleanseth us from all sin.
God is light.
Everything is holy and pure and perfect and out in His presence.
And the only possible way that you and I can ever have fellowship with God is on those terms.
That everything is holy and pure and out in His presence.
No darkness in it.
It's amazing, brother.
That we can literally have a fellowship with God.
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In holiness and light and purity.
There's no other way.
Simple illustration but I use it sometimes it with some kids in a detention center and I say to them when I leave the detention center I don't plan to go rob the 711.
Because I seek to walk in fellowship with the Lord Jesus. And if I plan to leave here and go rob the 711.
He wouldn't go with me.
Our fellowship would be separated and broken.
So it is.
But it's the purpose of God that it be so.
That is that we have fellowship with him on immensely high ground.
Romans 3 All have sinned and come short.
Of the glory of God Romans 5 We live in in the hope of the glory of God. Why? Because when God's done His work, we will live up to that measure of the glory of God.
And so he has it here.
But John introduces what's true of us and we don't have time to go into it but.
What's true of us is sins there, isn't it? Yes, it is still. It won't be eventually, but at the moment it is. And so he says to us, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. That is that blessed man, that Son of God has done in his work, that which removes every barrier, everything that would separate us.
From being suited to having fellowship with God.
And so if sin comes into the equation.
You can cleanse it and remove it so it's no longer there.
Verse nine, he says, and I just want to make comment about verse nine and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
You know, when you sin, it tends to bring unrighteousness into your life. What do I mean by that? I'll give an illustration. When I was a boy, the next door neighbor boy and I were good buddies and we like to do things and we'd like to build forks and have different places that my younger brothers couldn't find that were our secret hideouts and all that. And we were building one, one time and I needed a spring.
And so our basement had a a door in it that led upstairs out on the outside of the house, and I took the spring off the door.
We needed it.
Couple of days later I intended to replace it after I got one but I forgot and a few days later we were sitting at the dinner table and my father said I'm sure there was a spring on that door that went up to the basement. I can't understand what happened to it.
I thought at the time, thankfully you didn't ask me and I said nothing.
That was unrighteous.
That was unrighteous.
Righteousness is acting consistently with a relationship.
And my relationship to my father was such that if I were to be righteous about it, when he expressed what happened to that spring, righteousness would have told me, you say.
But that's the characteristic of man. He's not only disobedient directly, but after his disobedience he will tend to act in an unrighteous way.
To cover it up or not expose it.
Wonderful that it says here God requires the exposure we have to confess, but God will deal with us and work with us to cleanse us.
From all unrighteousness.
Our time is running its course.
Wanna just look at a few things here? And John, let's go to chapter 2 and verse 7.
Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which he had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which he had heard from the beginning.
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Again, a new commandment I write unto you, Which thing is true in him?
And in you, because the darkness is past, and the true light now shines.
Just want to pick up a thought out of this verse. And that is when the Lord Jesus was in the world.
He was the perfect expression of God, of light and love.
And they saw him. They looked at him.
But it says in this verse which thing is true in him?
And in you.
That is what was true in him as to light and love God purpose so that we could have fellowship with him. That it be true in us too.
And so he imparts that life to us, that it can be true in US.
He makes it good in us by giving the Spirit of God.
To direct it, to animate it, to energize it.
So that we can walk in it.
The Spirit is Romans 8, says the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. That's the spirit of our lives now in Christ Jesus.
Lives to be directed, controlled, animated, given power by the working of the Spirit of God which dwells in us, so that in a practical sense, even now, what we're talking about can be lived out and enjoyed in our lives.
Let's go to verse 13.
I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him, that is from the beginning. You can't go beyond that.
He repeats it in a few verses later.
Yesterday we were talking about the inheritance together.
Came before my own heart in this way.
Suppose you told me that my inheritance was to be a jewel.
That was to be my inheritance.
Wonderful Jewel.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
Is that jewel?
And that that's what I'm to have for the enjoyment of my soul for eternity.
That jewel himself.
You can't go beyond that.
Ye have known him that was from the beginning, to know the Lord Jesus as he was on earth, as He is in heaven.
Is a jewel that satisfies? Does it satisfy God?
Is God satisfied? Is he looking for something more, something beyond the sun? I say not.
I say not.
He is totally, eternally satisfied in his delight.
In his son.
And he says, I'm thankful for my son and the father has entered into that similar type of object and enjoyment and you can't go beyond that.
That's as far as you can grow spiritually.
In your life and your eternity to enjoy the sun with the Father as He is.
I have written unto you, young men, because you are strong.
And the word of God abideth in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.
Let's go down where he expands on that. We'll make some comments about it for the young.
Uh, those of us that I'll say want to be young men.
Verse.
14 Our verse umm verse 15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
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For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world, and the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.
John takes things down to their essence and shows them to us. He doesn't bring out all of the conflict that's in us because sin and the flesh are still there and that causes certain problems in us that are have to be dealt with as we have another epistles. But in taking it down to his essence we see in John that.
There's certain things that are fundamentally opposed to each other.
One is Jesus Christ.
And Satan.
They are at the very essence.
Opposed to one another in all that they stand for and all that they are.
And Satan wants to have the place that Christ has.
And he opposes all that he is.
Two other things that are set in contrast to each other is in opposition to each other is the Father and the world.
We talked about the father this afternoon and his desire that you and I enjoy the sun as he enjoys him.
What is it that will rob you?
Of that enjoyment.
The world. The world.
In any measure.
The Father sent the Son into the world. The world says to the father, we don't want him.
God's purposes as Father concerned the Son. And so here's a world in which we live. Who is.
Opposed to everything that the Father is for.
Satan is behind it using the sinful nature of man.
To present to his lust.
The things of the flesh.
The pride of life and so on. And in doing so he keeps man from the father and from the son.
The last exhortation of this epistle is, Children keep yourselves from idols. Is there a single thing in your life that the world has got a hold of you that is separating you from fellowship with the Father?
I hope God wants me to say this.
I found it an immense blessing in my life.
In my fellowship with my father and his son.
When I stopped.
Reading the newspaper, listening to the radio.
And going on Google Internet to see the news.
The Lord Jesus is a jewel.
That you will not find in this world.
And everything that tends to draw your heart away, whether it's not bad in itself, but if it takes a claim on your time and your energy and it's unnecessary, I urge you.
You'll be happier.
And you will find a fellowship with a father that you cannot have in association with this world.
One more point.
Chapter 4.
Verse 11.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another.
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No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in US and His love is perfected in US.
Hereby we know that we dwell in him, and He and us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
John says that the.
One of the marks of having this life that we've been talking about this afternoon is.
Love.
We all love our families, I assume. We love people that are lovable.
But this is the love of God that loves the Sinner.
Loves the man who is in rebellion against himself.
And it's marked here by.
It it strikes me strongly and solemnly that he would choose to express it to us as love your brother.
Yes.
Good illustration of it this morning.
Just walking down the hall.
Dave Jennings was coming the other way with Billy.
We came together and he.
Put his Walker to one side and he embraced me.
And he said I love you.
Next words.
Were the good ones. I can't help it.
I can't help it. I can't help but love you.
That's the love we're talking about here.
I went in and got a cup of coffee or something, wasn't there. But at 2 minutes or less and I came back out the door and I'm walking down the hall and Dave and Billy hadn't made it to the room yet and.
Edgar, as I was passing him in the hall, he had his arm around Billy.
And he said.
I love her.
And I can't remember exactly, but this was the thought anyway.
And I think that's the exact word. That's the love we're talking about.
In Spite of. And anyway, it's that love that loves because it's its nature to love, and that's God, and he loves in that way.
Why does Dave love that way?
Why does Edgar love that way?
The last point I want to try to explain what it says here when it says the love of God is perfected in.
Love, all divine love, has as its source God.
Its source is not in man and never will be, just like the life that we have.
Is in Christ.
So the love, the divine love, is in God.
And what happens is when we receive the life of Christ.
We have the receptability for that love, and that love flows into us from God, its source.
And when it is there from God, it is free then to flow out to others.
But it's not in US, independently of God.
Dave and Edgar.
Love that way because the love of God, like a stream, flows into them.
And out of them.
And if they don't abide in His love?
If they allow things to come into their lives, it will stop up that flow.
The source will still be there, but in a practical, flowing sense it will not be.
Flowing out.
And so it is when sin comes into the life, and that's the love of God perfected in US.
01:00:00
It's a perfect love and it works in US. And why is it that way? Why is it all work the way we've talked? Because if it was in US, independently of God, we would be so proud we couldn't even talk to each other. And that's not love. It keeps us humble for eternity in our right place as the creature. And the more we understand it, the more humble we will be.
For we will recognize that all of it comes from the heart of God. Our life, our love, and everything else is the result of His grace toward us, and it makes us a Worshipful, dependent, even obedient creature for eternity.
1 Peter 1:13-25
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Oh Jesus, precious Savior, oh, when wilt thou return our hearts with woe familiar to thee our Master turn. Our woe is thine. Lord Jesus, our joy is in thy love.
But woe enjoy all lead us to thee in heaven above.
Hymn #23 in the appendix.
Nsnoise.
When they gave all the water and all our help and Thunder.
And Father we.
I suggest we start at verse 13.
First, Peter one verse 1344. Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children. Not fashion yourselves according to the former lusts and your ignorance, but as he which has called you as holy, so ye be ye holy in all manner of conversation.
00:05:02
Because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons, judges, according to every man's work, passed the time of your sojourning here in fear. For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your Father's, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world.
Who was manifest in these last times for you? Who by him to believe in God that raised him up from the dead?
And gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God, seeing you have purified your souls, and obeying the truth through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren. See that you love one another with a pure heart, fervently being born again, not a corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away.
But the word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
And God brings the truth before us, says to our position and as to what is ahead and our standing and our hope. And whatever aspect of the truth it might be, there's always something to exercise our consciences and our hearts concerning our walk. There's a practical effect that the enjoyment of the truth is going to have on our lives.
And we've been speaking much from the first part of this chapter concerning our hope concerning the inheritance, looking forward to the appearing, the day of manifestation, and so on. But now he brings before us some some very practical statements in connection with our life and our conduct as those who have this wonderful hope and who ought to be living in view of that day of manifestation.
You have a similar thought in first John chapter 3 where he speaks of the time when we're going to be with and like Christ.
And there again it's the appearing. We know the change will take place at the Rapture. But in first John three he says when he shall appear, that's the day of manifestation. We shall be like him, for we shall see Him as he is.
And then he says, And every man that hath this hope in him.
Purifiers himself even as he is pure. That is in the measure in which you and I are living in the reality and the enjoyment of our hope and what is ahead. It's going to have a practical purifying effect on our lives. And so he exhorts us to gird up the loins of our mind. Be sober. He exhorts us as to obedient children, not fashioning ourselves after the former loss. Be holy.
And so on. Practical holiness, all these things are exhortations in view of what has gone before. That's what the wherefore indicates takes us back to what has gone before. And now he says this. The reality of these things in your soul will have, ought to have, and will have a practical effect even on your thought process.
This exhortation he begins with, I suggest, is really something that we need to take heed to. And I want to just say a little word, word of warning to parents who send their children to public school. And I've sent my children to public school. So I'm not saying a word against public school, but we need to be very watchful and careful because there is a great deal today in the public school system and in the world we live in.
That teaches us to empty our minds. We are never taught to empty our minds. We are taught to gird up the loins of our mind. We are taught to bring every thought into captivity and to the obedience of Christ. And it's done very insidiously in the Western world. It's done under the guise of relaxation. And I know even in the school system in the area I come from in eastern Ontario.
00:10:01
They get the children to sit in a circle and they get them to close their eyes and they get them to try to empty their minds.
And they say it teaches them to relax and so on. But if we try to empty our minds, brethren, then Satan's gonna have lots of things to fill the vacuum nowhere to fill up our minds with Christ. We're to store up our minds with the word of God. And that's really the thrust of the verse in Colossians chapter 3 that says set your I know the King James says affections, but.
Perhaps better translated. Set your mind. If you have a margin, you have a note to that effect, and Mr. Darby translates it that way.
Set your mind on things above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.
That is what we are to do. And so this is girding up the loins of your mind. And we're not to allow wandering thoughts either. Not only are we not to empty our minds, but we're not to allow our minds just to run every which way we would like them to run. Because if you allow that, Satan's got lots of tributaries to take those minds down that are going to lead to very bad things. And so we need to be careful. Satan seek seeks to use the mind to.
Fill us with anything but Christ, and if we allow that, then it's going to lead to unholy, unrighteous actions in our lives that will not be for our good or for His glory.
And I think that's the thought. And girding up the loins of the mind is to control your thoughts. Don't let them go helter skelter. Anyway, don't let.
Uh, the media control your thinking. It happens a lot more than people realize here in this country. And sometimes we as believers allow ourselves to let, uh, let our thoughts be controlled by the media or any other form this world has. We need to renew our thoughts with the word of God. And it's interesting going through the epistles almost.
Every epistle has something about our minds, our thoughts.
Here it is, gird up the loins of your mind. You know, they used to have long flowing robes and when they wanted to walk they had to control that. And so they gathered up their long flowing robes and they had some kind of a belt to put around it to control it.
We need to have our thoughts controlled too and brought into subjection to the Word of God.
Look at a verse in Second Corinthians chapter 10.
For one instance, because it's it's filled. The Word of God is filled with the.
Exhortations about our minds and our thinking. We are what we think about. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. 2nd Corinthians 10 and verse.
Verse four, it says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. There's strongholds of teaching.
In this world, humanism is one major stronghold of teaching in the Western world.
And it has a lot more effect on us than I think we like to realize at times, brethren. Verse five says, casting down imaginations or reasonings, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. How important to be careful of our thinking.
Have right thoughts about things. It's another verse, a couple of verses in Philippians chapter 4 that speak about the same thing.
Three that didn't.
Verse six of Philippians 4. 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 mines, there's the thought processes through Christ Jesus. So when we've discharged the things that weigh us down, what do we occupy our minds with verse 8. 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 a good report.
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If there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. There's quite a filter to put your thoughts through. Is it true?
Is it honest? Is it just? Is it pure? That'll filter out an awful lot in this world. Don't let your minds be occupied with stuff that is impure. That is not true.
It seems to me quite a scary thing in today's world, that truth and fiction is mixed together in a way that people begin to not be able to distinguish what's true and what's false. That is scary.
Brethren, the Lord give us a love of the truth.
That's what in Second Corinthians or Two Thessalonians 2 is mentioned.
Those that have not received the love of the truth will be deceived.
In the coming day by the Antichrist. So we need to be careful of our thoughts. One other place, I know there there's lots that could be mentioned, but in Hebrews 12, I think Don mentioned this this morning.
But Hebrews 12 and it says.
In verse 3 after Speaking of the Lord Jesus.
And how he went through the cross. He endured the cross.
The word is verse three. Consider him.
The old version of the Spanish reads it this way, translating it literally. Reduce your thoughts to him.
Instead of being thinking about ourselves.
Think about him.
Control your thoughts, don't let them go helter skelter after anything.
That is very important in today's world. I know myself, and I have to say to the dear young people, it's not easy. You have to learn to discipline your mind. Sometimes I'm reading the scriptures itself and my mind is way off over in some other direction, and I have to stop and bring my mind back. That's what it means to gird up the loins of your mind, control your thinking processes, bring them into subjection.
To God's thought, God's Word, how important?
And that's the key, because in Ephesians it's the first part of the armor that's mentioned.
Interesting, isn't it, Because it seems to be the foundation or criteria for effectively taking up all the rest of the armor and utilizing it in a proper way. And it says there, let your loins be gird about with truth. And so, as Bob said, it's not just bringing our thoughts into a certain circle of things, but it's based on the word of God. We've got to have a basis for our thought process.
If it's go, if we're going to think on the things that are pure and lovely and holy and so on. And that's why it's important, as we used to be exhorted by others when we were young people, to fill up our minds with the word of gods. And someone used to use the illustration of you fill a glass with water to the brim, there's no room for anything else. You fill the cup with wheat to the brim, there's no room for the chaff. That's what we need to do, and it's by reading.
The Word of God. We cannot have right thoughts unless they are based on the Holy Scriptures.
Somebody said my mind is like a sieve, the water just runs right through it. But how do you do with mine like that? You put the sieve right into the bucket of water and it'll stay full of water.
00:20:09
Help Cat.
Umm live properly without a proper hope.
So we have to have our minds on the right object.
And steadfastly so, but as he says in the verse, and hope, Mr. Darby translates it hope with perfect stead and fastness. What a nice expression that we are to put our hearts on our home that is set before us, that is at the end, as the Lord Jesus did, is brought before us in Hebrews.
12 who, for the hope that was set before him, endured And uh, so it is with us too. We.
Man needs a hope if there's no hope, if there's, as he would say, no light at the end of the tunnel, there is a constant depression that comes upon the soul if it has no hope. But thank God, he's given us a hope. It's not that we don't have one, but He has given us a hope, and it's a perfect one. And so it's what we need to walk steadfastly toward the end.
When Caleb.
And Joshua's spies went into the land of Israel.
Caleb, 40 years after that, in fact more than 40 years by the time it came around because they'd always been in conflict in the land. He still had that piece of property that he had seen over 40 years before. And he says to Joshua, Joshua, I want it, let me have it and I'll fight for it. And so it is that a proper hope one can lay hold of and just.
Not give up, but keep on with it.
Say, because we've mentioned several times that Peter is the wilderness book. And if we were to go back to the 16th of Exodus where you have the children of Israel at the beginning of the wilderness journey, they, they get discouraged, they start to murmur and complain. They were looking back in the wrong direction. They were looking back to Egypt and Moses cried to the Lord. And what did the Lord tell Moses? He said tell the people to turn around. They're looking in the wrong direction.
And when they turned around and looked out over the wilderness, it wasn't particularly to see the miles and miles of hot sand and rock and.
All the things that were between them and the promised land. But it tells us there that they saw the glory of the Lord in the cloud.
And as long as they had that in view and the hope of the promised land.
Then they were encouraged to go on step by step when they started looking at present circumstances.
When they started looking back and hankering for the fish and so on, and I've eaten the fish and the melons and the leeks and the cucumbers of, of Egypt, I can well understand from a natural standpoint why they wanted to go back and get some. They're very good. But the point was they hankered after that, which in tight was the food of the world, but it was the result of losing sight of what was ahead.
As you say, Brother Dawn, man is made in such a way that to persevere, whether in natural things or spiritual things, he needs a goal, He needs a hope. Why does a person give up present advantage if they don't have an eye to the future? Why does a young fellow live in a room that doesn't have kitchen privileges and he heats his macaroni on a hot plate and doesn't go out with his friends when he like? Why does he do that? Well, he's studying, he's saving his money and he's getting his degree and he's got that in view. Graduation day and a job and so on.
If he loses sight of that, he's going to, he's not going to give up present advantage. And that's why it says in Proverbs where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint. And brethren, why is it sometimes we get so discouraged or we become so overwhelmed with the conditions of in our lives or in the world? Why is it we hanker after the things of the world and in our hearts go after those things?
00:25:00
It's because we lose sight of the hope. It's because we lose sight of the end and the goal. And that's what Peter is setting before these these these believers. They'd lost everything. No use looking around or back. But he says you've got something hope to the end or hope in a steadfast way. Don't give up that hope because it is in Hebrews assure and a steadfast hope. But if you just allow me to back up, we missed the word sober.
And I want to make a comment because Bob was talking about it the other day in his meeting and it's very important. But let's just say this before we comment on the word in its context, it doesn't mean.
That Christians go around with long faces, does it, Bob? No, we don't want to go around like we're sad and justice always attending a funeral. No, a Christian ought to be a happy person and our faces and our countenances, countenances ought to show our joy in the Lord. But when he uses the expression sober in the Scriptures, it's in contrast to the spirit of the world, which is frivolity and amusement. This world is drunk today.
With frivolity and amusement and people going after pleasure. And it's Satan's way of keeping the unbeliever insensitive to his ruin and keeping the Christian from enjoying their portion in Christ and their hope. And we want to be very careful that we don't get caught up in the spirit of the age. There is a sobriety that is characteristic of a Christian, but it's a sobriety that we can practically manifest with a happy smile on our faces.
Go one step back again, further talking about disciplining our minds.
Most of our older ones, they had a job before they were retired.
I remember I had the job. I had to remember numbers and dials and drawings and I had to put them properly together. When I punch in in the morning, my mind had to be set on the drop that I was going to do that day, and that job had to show results in the evening after my 8 hours were over whatever I worked and these results were evaluated.
By my boss, not every day but at least every week. But that's the same with us. Our mind in the morning should be set on prayer 1St and then have a word with the Lord or read a scripture that would set us well on the day and that would even help us to do our our job properly because it reminds us from scripture what we are supposed to do.
Then our mind is sent that on our God too, and the same Avenger and the house when we have conversation, a very good thing to keep our mind.
Disciplined when we talk to neighbors usually, and that's what's the thing I heard in the East Germany when they lived under Co communism, people were so afraid to talk to each other, so they talked about nothing about the weather, mainly that they couldn't transgress.
While we have the liberty of the Lord, we can freely be occupied with the things of God.
And let us discipline our mind that way.
Soberness is acting in the full capacity and capability that God has given us. When a person is drunken, they are impaired in their ability for soberness, and I say a person.
Uh shows that he is drunk by the way he talks and by the way he walks.
And in the same way we are exhorted not to be drunk with wine, but to be filled with the spirit. And the person that is filled with the spirit is noticeable by the way he talks.
And by the way, he walks as well. And that's what is to be characteristic of the believer, because the Spirit of God is the one that's to guide us. Lord, help us, brethren, we are living in serious days, really serious days, and we need to do it with the full capacity that God has given us.
00:30:21
I'd like to ask a question in verse 13. What is the grace that is to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ?
As well as the world.
Is not occupied with Jesus Christ.
This is an important admonition for my soul.
I don't deserve this.
Occupation.
Tremendously important. Valuable.
To think on him.
His word, His ways, His thoughts, may they be my thoughts. I don't deserve it.
Because I have a different mind which likes to see what's going on in the world, newspapers and etcetera, etcetera.
But God would have.
My mind.
Centered around the thoughts, centered around the person.
Of the man.
Who stayed?
Firm and said.
At the end of his prayer and Father not.
My will, but thy will be done.
As to the matter.
I'm going to Calvary's cross or not.
Thankfully, he said.
Thy will be done.
What matchless grace this is.
That this man who never departed.
From the will of God.
And saw what was coming at the cross of gallery already. He saw and knew about that.
The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. Yes, he knew that. And he said, If it be thy will, take this cup from me.
You think on him?
And his words.
And his ways?
Let that occupy your heart and your mind.
Question. I would just suggest that at least part of the thought here in this expression is that, well, let me say this first. This morning we mentioned that one of the things that the day of manifestation will do is show the perfection of all God's ways with us in a way that we haven't seen and understood before.
But another thing it will do is to give us a sense and understanding of the grace of God like we've never had before.
When we see everything manifest in the light of His presence and His sense of what is commendable and so on, we're going to look back, brethren, and we're going to realize that everything in our lives was a result of the grace of God, not just our salvation. But if there was any response in our hearts and any fruit for His glory in our lives, it was God that worked in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
Maybe I can use a simple illustration. The Lord said that a cup of water given in His name would not lose its reward in that day.
But when it's all revealed and manifested in that day, we're going to realize that first of all, He provided the cup of water. Secondly, He provided the opportunity to give it. Thirdly, He put the desire in our hearts to give it. Well, brethren, that's going to give us an appreciation of the grace of God that we've never had before. No wonder we're going to cast our rewards back at His feet and give Him all the glory.
00:35:29
And So what a day of not only glory will be revealed, but grace will be revealed and manifested to our souls like we've never known and appreciated it before.
Maybe that's at least part of the thought in this expression. But maybe you have a thought, Bob. Oh, that's nice.
They enjoyed too, in connection with that in John 17.
Umm John 17.
And verse 23 in the Lord's Prayer here he says to the Father, I and them endow in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou has sent me, and has loved them as thou has loved me.
This is the the world may know, uh, brings before us the day of the revelation of the Lord. That's when the world will know. And when the world knows, it will see us in association with the Lord Jesus and the world will say he loves them as he loves the Son. And that will be one of the at least expressions of the grace of God.
That Jim has been talking about everything that will be our place then is the result of the grace of God. And so it won't be because to our glory and honor, but it will be to him. And one of the things that will be revealed that the world will see is he loved them as he loved his own Son.
Don, give us that last statement. I I did. You dropped your voice. He loved them as he loved his own son. Yes, thank you.
To walk as obedient children are children of obedience, not because we're required to or it's a hard thing, but when we think of His love, of his grace, of the hope that's before us and all that we're going to share in that day. Isn't that really, brethren, the springboard or the motivation that there would be obedience in our lives now it's not hard to obey when we think of.
The person that loves us, what's provided and what's at the end and his well done and the fact that it's all going to be for his glory in the end. Is it hard to act in obedience in that way? And when we think of those things, and so he says as obedient children, and then he warns us. And not fashioning yourselves according to the former loss and your ignorance. Don't go back to the way you acted before.
Don't go back to what you were before. Keep the goal in view again with Israel.
They looked back too many times. Thank God they never got back into Egypt.
They never got back their positionally, but in their hearts they returned unto Egypt, into Egypt and it caused some sad consequences in their history.
In Ephesians chapter 2 it speaks of uh.
Our condition.
Before the grace of God.
Came into the picture and at the end of verse two, it speaks of us as children of disobedience. That's what's characteristic of the man without Christ. But now we are children of obedience. That's what's characteristic. You have a life and a nature that loves to obey God.
You're a believer in the Lord Jesus. That's the life you have.
And as we were mentioning earlier in verse two, it's the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. It's the obedience of Jesus Christ. We're sanctified into that. So now the exhortation is to as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts and your ignorance. So that's what's characteristic of.
00:40:27
The believer in the Lord Jesus. It's another verse or two I'd like to point out in the book of Romans, uh, first of all in chapter one.
And uh.
Verse 5.
He says by whom we have received grace and apostleship.
For obedience to the faith among all nations. For His name. And look at the last chapter of Romans.
And verse.
25 and 26.
Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ.
According to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began.
But now is made manifest by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God.
Made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.
That's what's characteristic of faith. You really have faith in God. You're going to want to obey Him.
And if you don't obey him, it shows a lack of faith.
And so we were speaking this morning about Abraham. He trusted God, and when God asked him to do something that was extremely difficult, there was not even a second thought in another direction. He simply obeyed. How important that is in the life of the believer to obey implicitly, unquestionably, the Scriptures. You know, sometimes we try to.
Maybe we don't understand Scripture very well and perhaps that leads to problems in our lives, but we need to pay attention to the details of Scripture and sometimes give the illustration. And I have enjoyed it that when the Lord Jesus used Peter's boat to preach from the water's edge and afterwards to recompense Peter, he said launch out into the deep for a haul.
Of fishes and let down your Nets.
Peter maybe thought that he was a fisherman and the Lord was a Carpenter, and he said we fished all night and have taken nothing. But he said, that thy word I will let down the gnat.
What happened? He let down the net, but the net broke because of the multitude of fishes.
When we don't pay attention to the details of Scripture, we think we know a little bit better.
We get into problems. So they called their their friends and they brought two boats and they both just about sunk. There's a lot of problems connected when we don't pay attention in simplicity to the word of God. The Lord give us that kind of implicit obedience to His Word.
Involves the will.
And man is disobedient because he self willed.
But God has one, and only one perfect will.
And he forms children of obedience to do that one and only perfect will. So as the children of God, our place is to say, as the Lord Jesus, the perfect man did, teach me thy will. Oh my God, that's what we need. We need to know His will as his children so that we can do it.
00:45:03
And the Lord Jesus whole life could be summarized in one sense. And I delight to do thy will, O my God, because he never acted as having a will of his own in his life of obedience. But the world is lawless.
Thus means it is self willed.
And it seeks to be independent, which is the other aspect of it. Self will and independence are what characterize man in his sinful condition. But the child of God is like the Lord Jesus as a man, perfect independence and perfect in obedience. He never acted just because something was good. He never acted because there was a need.
As for example, when he was told that Lazarus was sick.
He waits, He doesn't act. He might have said, oh, Lazarus is sick, we better get there right away and see what we can do, which is what the natural man would think and perhaps do. But he waits until it's the Father who gives the instruction, and then he acts.
And uh, so it says to when he was tempted, he was always tempted to get outside the will of God and act on his own will. And so when he is presented with temptation, as has been said before, we know the will of God through the Word of God. And he always responded, giving the will of God in the matter by the word of God, and he would not even for the necessary food for his body.
Act outside the will of God. He said. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Father. And so even in the matter of eating, Satan tries to get the Lord Jesus out of his Father's will because he had been without food for 40 days. But he he doesn't rise to that temptation.
And shows us the perfect pattern that we need for our lives.
Which begins with that same purpose of heart, to do the Father's will.
And not exercise the will of our own.
Mm-hmm.
Well, practical to characterize us as well, isn't it? And so that's what we get in the, uh, 16th verse. But I, I just, uh, 15 and 16, but I, I just want to say a word about this word conversation. Now I realize that Mister Darby has a footnote that says that this word conversation really encompasses our whole manner of life. And certainly that's right. And that's the way we have it many times in our English Bible.
But if you'll just allow me for a moment to focus in on this word conversation, because it's part of it.
It's more than that, but it's part of it. And you know, we've been talking about that which we.
Here and listen to that doesn't encourage us, it distracts us. It spoils and hinders our fellowship.
With the father and with the son. And we need to be very careful what we listen to, but we also need to be very careful what we say.
What is our conversation in our first of all, in our interactions with one another? What do we discuss and we and speak of? Do we speak of that which edifies and encourages us? If our thoughts are governed by the Word of God, as we were saying earlier, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. And David said, Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord.
And so we need to be careful what we say that our conversation and our words might be edifying. What about in our interaction with, uh, the world, our neighbors, those we go to school with, those that we work with, you know, the, in the, uh, early church, their conversation betrayed them. They took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. And so often in the word of God, we find that what a person said.
Made a statement as to who they were and and and so on. And so I just say yes, our whole manner of life and we need to have some exhortations and comments.
00:50:02
In that regard. But what about our conversation? But you know, if we listen to bad conversation, we're gonna speak bad conversation too. What comes out is usually what we have taken in, what we hear and what we listen to. And if you fill your ears with things that are unholy conversation and talk that is unholy. And you can get it lots of places by turning some buttons and push, pushing some buttons and turning some dials. And if that is what we feed on, then it's gonna come out through our mouths and we're not going to have holy conversation. I don't mean we can't enjoy natural things and.
And so on. That's not what I'm saying. But is our conversation acceptable in the sight of the Lord?
And for the blessing of others.
By, well, different ways. But one of the important ways that children learn is by imitation.
And any of us that have been parents have realized sometimes that we'll say to ourselves, where did the child ever learn that and suddenly will wake up to the fact that they had been imitating us in some aspect or another of our life.
And so here, when he says be holy for I am holy, he's speaking to us as his children.
And God himself, our Father, is holy. He has given us a holy nature.
And he, as it were, might say to us, imitate me, be what I am. And thankfully, unlike us as natural parents who sometimes are sorry when our children do imitate us and learn from us something that we wish they didn't, children learn values, not only just actions, but what is it that interests us? What is it that's motivating us in our lives? What is it we find our pleasure in very often?
That's how they learn what is of importance to them and what's of value to them in their lives. But as children of God, he says, be holy, for I am holy. And thankfully with God, his pattern is always perfect. We never learn anything from God as a Father which would lead us in the wrong way or in the wrong direction. It's inconceivable.
And so we need to be occupied with our Father, we need to be occupied with the Son, and we will have perfect pattern in which to learn from and follow.
The Psalms it speaks several times. I think it is of the beauty of holiness.
Holiness is beautiful.
To God first of all.
But I often think brother in holiness is separating from that which is contrary to God and delighting in that which is, uh, God's delight as well. That's holiness and.
We all like to go to a wedding. What's so attractive about a wedding?
Swear a woman separates herself from all the rest to just one.
And we enjoy that. It's beautiful.
Holiness is beautiful to God.
And so sometimes, I think sometimes young people get the idea that holiness is so unattainable and never going to be holy in this world. Yes, there is that aspect that it is something we are perfecting in the fear of God, as it says in 2nd Corinthians 7. But.
I think it is helpful to see that our position in Christ is one of perfect holiness.
We have been chosen in Him that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. That's the position He has set us in. And now according to this verse, we should make it a practical thing as well.
And I sometimes say this, if a girl is going to be married and she has in this beautiful white dress and she goes outside into the parking lot and there's a bunch of cars that are kind of dirty out there, how's she going to walk around those cars? Let me tell you, she's going to be very careful. Why is she so careful? Because she has on a beautiful white dress. And brother, and it's when we enjoy the fact that God has brought us into this place.
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A perfect holiness. That's the position you occupy, not by your own efforts, but by the work of Christ.
Now let's walk in the enjoyment of that, and let's be careful that we walk in holiness of life practically as well. It's beautiful, brother, it really is.
Holiness means a delight in what is good and to abhor what is evil. God finds his delight in good.
But evil is a terrible offense to him, and he abhors it, and he wants his children to find their delight like himself in that which is good, and to have a if I could say re be repulsed by what is evil.
The flesh loves.
Evil.
The flesh loves it. That's why if we live in the flesh, we go after what the flesh wants. But as God's children, having God's divine nature, we have been given that which does delight in good and is abhorrent in its nature to that which is evil. And so he says, be holy as I am holy.
And part of what helps us in that is in the next verse he says, if you call on the Father.
Who, without respect to persons, judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. That is, we live before the eye of holy God our Father.
And we need to live before him with proper respect of himself.
A lot of times children in their speech habits and patterns sometimes show that they don't have a correct respect.
For the place of the Father.
In Proverbs chapter one it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, and a little few chapters later it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. There's no man on earth and there's no man that has ever lived who has understood wisdom or knowledge, who didn't give God.
At the foundation of it all, His right place. Nothing is right, nothing in our thoughts is right, nothing in the order of our lives is going to be right unless it begins with God having His proper place of respect in our souls. It all begins with God. And so he says here. Our Father is God, He is holy. He will act toward us even as His children.
In a way that is consistent with himself. And so we better walk with that proper reverence, that proper respect for our Father. If we do not, he doesn't cease to be our father, but he will bring us under his discipline to teach us for our good.
Thought that I have enjoyed in this section of the chapter.
In the Old Testament, and it perhaps is something that Peter must have had in mind as he wrote this, we have in the seven feasts of the of Jehovah, the first feast was the Passover and the next feast that followed immediately really it was connected with the Passover was the Feast of unleavened Bread, and they too went together the.
Passover, of course, was on the 14th day of the first month, and then from that day they measured seven days, an entire complete period. And in those seven days, there was no leaven to be found in their food or in their houses. But it's connected rather than it's important that it be connected. And that's what you see here in these first verses. We're talking about holiness and obedience.
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It's the Feast of unleavened bread. But why do we live this way?
Because we, for as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your Father's, but with the precious blood of Christ. There's the Passover. And so the two things go together there in this chapter. And what gives us power to live as we ought to?
In holiness of life.
Is to realize the cost that the Lord Jesus paid on the cross to bring us into this position of blessing. And sometimes, you know, to eat bread with that has no leaven in it. It's kind of hard, isn't it? It doesn't rise and you put it in the oven, it comes out kind of hard.
People say live without sin, live holy. Come on, that's kind of hard in the world we're living in. That's kind of hard. Why is it hard? It's because we have not kept it connected with the feast of the Passover. It was to be eaten with on at least last, at that first day at least it was to be eaten with the Passover lamb, and that's where the lamb had to be.
Roasted in the fire, it could not be put in water or it could not be cooked in another way. It could not be eaten raw. It had to be roasted with fire. When we look at the Lord Jesus going in to those hours of darkness.
Where the fire burned directly on the land for three solid hours. No complaint from that center cross is the Lord Jesus undertook the judgment of God for our sins. Brethren, it makes the Feast of unleavened bread a real feast when we keep it connected as it properly is. And I say, sometimes our children say, oh, it's kind of hard. Why is it kind of hard?
Because we haven't kept it connected. As Scripture connects together, the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread go right together. The Lord help us to keep it in that connection.
We have in these first two chapters of First Peter at least three times the word precious. And it's interesting the order in which they appear because first of all, he speaks of the precious blood of Christ. That's the basis for everything. And when he speaks of the precious blood of Christ, that's not our estimation of it, that's God's estimation.
Back when the Passover lamb was killed and the blood was sprinkled, it was sprinkled outside the home for the eye of God.
God's eye rested on the blood of the Passover lamb, which spoke to the heart of God.
Of that which He was anticipating, when his Son would go to the cross, and as that Passover, he would offer himself there, and his blood would be shed. And so we find here that this isn't so much our estimation of the blood of Christ, it's God's estimation. Now, brethren, the blood of Christ ought to be precious to our hearts. But aren't you and I thankful that our acceptance before the Father?
Our redemption isn't based on our estimation or value of the blood of Christ.
And not only that, but we're not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold. You know, silver and gold change in value. If we were to go and check the money markets when they reopen on Monday, we might find that the price of silver and gold on the world market is very different than it was a week ago or a month ago or a year ago. Silver and gold change, money changes in value.
Sometimes from day-to-day.
But our redemption is based on something, brethren, that doesn't change in value.
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And the blood of the Lord Jesus is as precious to the heart of God.
As when it was shed at Calvary's cross. But then just to go on with what I said, if you notice in the sixth verse of the next chapter.
Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture. Behold, I lay and sigh in a chief cornerstone.
Elect precious than he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
Now here we have something else that's precious to the heart of God, and again, this is God's estimation.
And that's the person of Christ, because it's the person that gives weight to the work.
The blood of Christ is precious because the person of Christ is precious to the heart of God. And isn't it interesting that the first two times you have the word precious in Peter's ministry and there are several times that follow through. It's a word that.
Somewhat unique to Preeter's ministry, but the first two times it's God's estimation.
Of the work and the person of Christ. Aren't we thankful for that? And now he says in the seventh verse of the second chapter.
Unto you therefore, which believe He is precious. Now that's third, isn't it? Again, He ought to be precious to us. But what is it that's going to give us a sense of the preciousness of Christ? It's to, at least in some measure, view it from God's perspective, and to enter into the preciousness of the blood of the of that Lamb, and the preciousness of the person of Christ.
That's going to deepen the preciousness of the work and the person in our own soul. But I say again.
It's his value, it's his estimation first, because that's what we base our hope on.
We have precious faith in the first part of the chapter, too, don't we? Yes, you're right. Thank you. Yeah.
That's what.
Values those things that you spoke about. Yeah, it's nice.
Seven verse again.
It's and there's this brothers discussion of Jim, uh, it made it more price unto you, therefore, which believe, I trust that's 97% of in this room here today.
He Christ is precious, but unto them which be disobedient the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner.
I'm not just sure someone who understands about the stone more than I do might be able to give some more, uh, comments about it, but it's Speaking of Christ.
He from previous verses is Jesus, He is precious. But unto them which disbelief unbelievers do not have the Holy Spirit in them, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same has become the head of the corner.
God says.
Whether you believe it or not.
My son is going to be.
Put in his rightful place, he's going to be the head of the corner.
And we can't change that.
Because God has.
They these matters in his, in his, uh, mind and his affections for his son and I, I'll commit there, quit there.
My comment here that.
The world doesn't value things as God does.
And it's important for us to recognize that because.
We're taught in the Word of God to seek to understand how God puts a value on something and then let that be its value to our own souls.
The world looks in the Lord Jesus in a certain way and says he's worthless.
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They have no use for them. We don't want them, we don't need them, we got rid of them and so on. And it is very, very easy for us in our constant contact with the world to unconsciously take in its value system.
To the loss of our own souls.
But the Word of God is that which teaches us to understand and because we have the right life to appreciate and value things as God values them, and then hold on to them with that value. And so it is with the truths of Christianity. We might be able to lift them and say we believe them, and that might be true of us.
But when we get home to glory and we are going to give an account for the value that we placed on them, When the children came back from the captivity of Israel, they were entrusted with some of the holy things that had been taken into captivity to bring back to the land. And when they got back to the land.
They gave a count each one by number and by weight.
And we will also be giving an account at the end of our journey through the wilderness of those things of the treasure House of God that have been given to us to take through on the journey.
And come to the other end, and we will give an account for them by number and by weight. I'd like to think of it in my own soul this way, that God looks at your heart as a treasure chest, and he puts in your heart treasures concerning Himself and His Son.
And when he you get to the other end, he wants to open up the treasure chest of your heart, and he wants to see in it and mind those things that he has put there of himself and of his son and said, ah, it's here. It's been carried by measure and by weight.
And we hope there's not a lot of.
Of things that we have brought from Egypt.
Back to the land.
That, uh, we're adding to the.
Pressures that we get in the land.
You'll have to leave those at the door.
You won't get to take those in.
I appreciate the value of the blood of Christ and like Jim says, it's God's estimation first of all, that is important. When the destroying Angel went through the land of Egypt, there was only one question that was asked as he went from house to house. Is the blood on the door? If they didn't ask her, nice people living here or or kind of bad people that are living here, Nothing of that.
Only one question is the blood on the door and where the blood was on the door, He passed over that house. There's only one thing that God respects in connection with our salvation to protect us from that awful judgment that's going to fall. It's the precious blood of Christ. Oh brethren, how we need to value that deeply in our souls as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot.
Thank God.
For that Lamb 4 ordained before the foundation of the world, but manifest in these last times.
For you.
Wonderful. God had it all in mind before this world was ever formed.
But let's touch the last verses of this chapter, brethren, before we.
Close because this is the last reading of these meetings and and it's so wonderful this about the word of God now having purified seeing you have purified your souls and obeying the truth. There's that obedience again through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently. There's those two words for love. One is.
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The filet O they brotherly love and the second one is the.
Divine love that Don was speaking at at the close of his meeting. Those two things go together in our Christian testimony. And then it says, Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and the glory of men as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower falleth away.
The word of our God endureth forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. How wonderful to have the Word of God in our hands. What a precious thing it is, and it's so impressive.
How fast life goes by. I look at you young people and it's nice to see you here.
Beauty, strength, intelligence, and But how long is it gonna last? Where will that beauty be in 100 years? Where will that strength be?
It will be all gone. There's one thing that will remain. The word of our God abideth forever. Oh, how important it is. You see, youth.
Don, I've known you for quite a few years. You and I used to go down to South America together when we were younger.
You're not the same today.
The flower has fallen and the grass is withered, but there's something that I still enjoy with you, brother.
It's the word of our God that abideth forever. Isn't it treasure? Isn't it a treasure, brethren, to enjoy something in our hands today? It's gonna be the enjoyment of our lives forever. And that heavenly sphere.
And it's living as we, I think we said earlier in these meetings. And so for all eternity, we're going to have a fresh enjoyment of this blessed book that we hold in our hands. We'll never exhaust it. Now we know in part and we prophecy in part. And I realize that when we get home to glory, that which is in part shall be done away. But I suggest because it's a living book that will never really in a sense, exhaust it and will certainly never tire of it for all eternity.
And rather than to think that the precious things that we have touched on in these meetings, and we've touched on them in a very basic way, we've skimmed the surface of this chapter that we have sought to take up together for our edification. But to think, brethren, that this is one of the very chapters that we're gonna go over in the Father's house, we're gonna understand fully in the Father's house, and the whole word of God is going to be spread before us. You know, man has tried to get rid of the word of God.
They've tried to eradicate it from the face of the earth. They've burned it in bundles and.
Sought to get rid of those who orally propagated it by burning at them, at the stake, and so on.
But they never have, and they never will. Why, brethren, because the originals in heaven.
Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven, and So what a prospect, What a hope, brethren.
If we've enjoyed a little bit in these three readings that God is so graciously given us to sit through and share together.
What will the enjoyment of these precious things be for all eternity? Oh, if that doesn't quicken our feet through the wilderness and spur us on, then nothing will. But brethren, we have a hope, as Peter's been saying to us through the pages of the Divine Word.
What a hope it is, what an inheritance it is. What a word we have, brethren. May these things encourage our hearts. I know it's difficult today.
We are still in the wilderness. I know there's some here who perhaps weep within as they think of going back to the grind of life that we've had the privilege of being sheltered from for a few days. You say there's so many trials in my personal life, the family circle, the assembly, at work, at school. But brethren, if we keep this hope before us, I say again, every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself.
Even as he is pure.
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Gospel 2
Gospel—Jim Hyland
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Let's begin the gospel meeting this evening with hymn #37 on the gospel. Hymn shape the gospel of Thy grace. My stubborn heart has won for God so loved the world He gave his only Son that whosoever will believe shall everlasting life receive. I'm going to suggest we stand up to sing this and if someone would please start #37.
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We're going to begin this evening by turning to five portions of the word of God. The first one is in the Old Testament. It's in the book of Ezekiel.
Ezekiel, Chapter 33.
Ezekiel, chapter 33 and verse 4.
Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning.
If the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
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He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning His blood shall be upon him.
But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. And now for a portion in Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 7.
Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 7 and verse 24.
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine.
And doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man.
Which built his house upon a rock and then a familiar portion in John's Gospel chapter 3.
John's Gospel chapter 3 and verse 16.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life, and then in the 4th chapter.
Chapter 4 and verse 13, Jesus answered and said unto her.
Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up.
Into everlasting life and one more portion for now in Romans chapter 10.
Romans, chapter 10.
And verse 13.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Well, this might sound like a rather disjointed group of portions from God's Word to read at the beginning of a gospel meeting, but the careful reader will notice that there was one word at least, that was consistent through all these five portions of the Word of God. And it's the Word that I have on my heart, distress, and connection with the gospel message tonight. And that is the Word whosoever, because you know it has been impressed upon my soul of light.
That the gospel is universal, the gospel is for all.
And there's nobody tonight in this room that can say they're excluded from the message.
You know, sometimes messages go out in various ways in this world, and they're for a certain and select group. There are places too, that I suppose if we were to show up tonight at the front door, even here in the city of Saint Louis, for one reason or another, we would be refused entry. We would be told that we weren't members, we hadn't paid certain dues, we didn't belong to a certain club or group.
I have sometimes seen those turned away from the business lounges in the airport because they don't have.
The proper status and credentials, and they're refused entry into those places.
Those places are exclusive and reserved for certain people that have certain status. But all the wonderful thing tonight about the gospel is that it's for whosoever often, said the little girl, one time at the end of a gospel meeting, was asked if she understood what the word whosoever meant. Why, she said, Of course it means you and me and everyone else, and that's how simple it is tonight.
The gospel is for everyone here. It doesn't matter if you are young, a boy or a girl.
Able to understand what is being said. It doesn't matter if you're a young person. It doesn't matter if you're what we would refer to as middle-aged. It doesn't matter if you're what we would refer to as a senior citizen. It doesn't matter what your social class is. It doesn't matter you're standing in life. Know the gospel is for whosoever and how thankful we are. And you know, in the day in which we live, the gospel is going out to corners of this world.
Where it's never gone out before you realize that the Bible this very day is being translated into languages and dialects that it's never been available before.
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Gospel literature in many, many languages is going out around this world.
By various means. But tonight we are not so much concerned with somebody else. We are concerned with you. We are concerned with those right here in this room, in this building this evening. Because the gospel is for you. And I do pray that you would open your ears tonight to take in the precious word of God, and that the word of God would have the desired effect tonight, and that there would be such a work that before this meeting is over.
You would come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. And we started with this very, very solemn portion in the book of Ezekiel.
Because we find here that there is a warning to whosoever doesn't listen when the trumpet sounds. You know, the trumpets in the Old Testament, they were for various reasons, and sometimes those trumpets were to give warning. And if the trumpet gave a signal that indicated warning and they didn't listen, they didn't take heed to it. They had nobody to blame but themselves.
You know, it is a serious thing to realize tonight that if you end up in a lost eternity.
You will have nobody to blame but yourself. In fact, I sometimes wondered if that isn't the most frustrating part of a lost eternity.
Apart from the fact that there's no hope, the fact that you will realize.
That you had warning and you didn't heed it and when the warning was given in Israel.
And the Watchmen had delivered his soul. Then it was up to the individuals to take heed to that warning.
And if they didn't take heed to the warning, then when the sword came and they came under judgment, I say they had nobody to blame but themselves. And you know, if you don't get saved tonight, you have this gospel meeting to rise in judgment of you in a coming day. Isn't that serious to consider that you will remember this gospel meeting in a lost eternity and you will remember not, perhaps, what was said in commentary.
But you will remember the word of God. You will remember these portions of Scripture that have been read in your ears.
And they will come back to rise in judgment of you. They will come back to show to you.
As you are there in that place of awful torment called hell or the Lake of Fire.
And you will remember that you had opportunity and you didn't take heed to it.
And you know this whosoever has no exclusions either, you know, there's going to be no excuses, as people sometimes imagine at the gate of heaven, there's going to be no excuses raised at the Great White Throne judgment tonight. If we were to go to the courtrooms of this land, we would find that people are caught red handed on a videotape, they're seen committing crimes and they have all kinds of excuses.
To present to the judge and before the jury all kinds of reasons why they are not guilty.
All kinds of reasons why they shouldn't come under the penalty of the law and sometimes people.
If they get a good lawyer or the judge is lenient, they may get off. Or there was some loophole or some typo in the report when it was written up. They may be let go without having to bear the penalty of their crime against society. But all those who stand at in that courtroom in that day every tongue, shall be silent. Everyone will stand there realizing their guilt.
And realizing not only their guilt, but the justice of the penalty.
That they will bear for all eternity when they are bound hand and foot, and cast into the lake of fire.
Where there's weeping or gnashing of teeth, you know Susanna Wesley raised twenty children.
Imagine 20 children. I can hardly take that in. But she raised twenty children.
Two of which were John and Charles. Charles will be long remembered for his hymns.
Which are still sung around the world today.
John will be remembered for his unceasing laborers.
In preaching the word of God, sometimes four or five times a day, often to thousands of people on the hillside and other locations. But you know John, when he was a boy, he was rather frivolous and careless, and he didn't seem to have much concern for his soul and eternal issues. And one day, he flippantly said to his mother, he said, oh mother, how can you will you be happy in heaven?
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Without me there. She looked at John. He was a young boy, but she said to him, John, if you go on refusing God's offer of mercy when you stand at the great white throne, I'm going to stand with Christ, and I am going to see the right rightness agree with the rightness of what is done when you are taken and cast into hell. You know that never left him, and it wasn't very long after.
That he began to seriously consider eternity and the awful consequences of going on without Christ.
And eventually he did come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior, and God raised him up as a mighty preacher in those days.
And he preached the word faithfully for many years. And so I want to plead with you.
Before we pass on to these other verses, I wanna play with you not to turn away from the warnings that God is giving you tonight. And I suggest many of you have had warnings prior to this on many, many occasions. Because you know God said my spirit shall not always strive with man. God isn't always going to warn you. God isn't always going to give you opportunity to sit in meetings like this.
And so we read in Matthew's Gospel Chapter 7. I didn't read the whole story there.
We know the story well. Most of us have heard it in Sunday school and from the days of our youth about the wise man and the foolish man. There's a song that the children sing in Sunday school with some actions about the wise man who built his house upon the rock and the foolish man in contrast, he built his house upon the sand. But here we find the Lord Jesus. He tells this story.
And he says that.
Everyone that heareth the therefore, Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man. Are you going to be wise or foolish tonight? You know, I'm afraid there are a lot of foolish people in this world, people who know the way of salvation, people who need know that they need to be saved. But you know, they go on.
Neglecting, they go on rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ, and God says they're foolish.
The Lord Jesus said that the foolish man is like that man who built his house upon the sand. There was nothing lasting, there was nothing abiding. But whosoever listened to the word and heeded the word, was like a wise man who built his house upon the rock. Now if we were to go through the word of God, we would find over and over and over again, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament.
That the Lord Jesus is brought before us as the rock because a rock speaks of something solid.
A rock speaks of something unmovable, something firm. What are you resting your eternity on?
On the shifting sand of the beach? Or are you resting your soul's salvation on the solid rock, that rock being Christ. Just a few weeks ago I was in England and I was visiting in Bridgewater, which is near the City of Wells where Wells Cathedral is. And not far away from the city of Wells is a place called Barrington Comb.
And Barrington Comb is a rather insignificant piece of real estate.
Except for the fact that it is where Augustus top lady.
As the story goes, wrote that timeless hymn that is sung around the world this very night.
Rock of Ages cleft for sin Grace hath hit us safe within and we went out to Barrington Comb one afternoon and I stood at what is still known today as the Rock of Ages. Again, it's a rather insignificant quest in the Rock. It's not so much what it looks like, but what it represents. Because there again, as the story goes, is where Augustus Montague, top lady.
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In, I believe the year 1763 stood.
In that rock, sheltered from a storm on his journey from one town to another.
And wrote on the back of a playing card, which was the only piece of paper he had in his possession, the words of that hymn Rock of Ages. You know, that hymn has a very interesting history. It was translated into Latin by the very famous Prime Minister of England, Gladstone. He translated, and I don't know Latin, but they tell me it was a very nice good translation. And Prince Albert, who was the husband of Queen Victoria.
Requested on his deathbed that that him be sung to him just about the last words that he heard.
This side of glory were the words of Rock of Ages, but there Augustus top Lady stood sheltered.
From a storm that raged along that part of England that afternoon, and his mind turned to spiritual things.
And he penned those wonderful words. Are you shut safe in the rock? Are you resting on the Lord Jesus Christ like Augustus top lady was? Oh, many have come to know the Lord Jesus and found shelter not from a storm here in this world, but a storm of judgment that is coming on this world in a future day. Because God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness.
By that man whom he hath ordained, and the shelter from that storm that's coming in his future day.
Is not in some rock, some cleft in England or any other country?
Because in that day they're going to cry for the rocks and the mountains to fall on them and hide them from the wrath of the Lamb and the face of him that setteth upon the throne.
And they're not going to find shelter. Why? Because they refused the Rock of Ages. They refused to find shelter in the only shelter there is from that coming storm of judgment. Are you scared when we speak of judgment? I hope you are. I hope it concerns you. I have seen people concerned as a hurricane rages across the sea. People get, people get concerned, they start moving.
They start making preparations and I have had opportunity and it's a very disconcerting thing, but I have had opportunity to help make preparations in wake of a hurricane that's going to hit in a certain place. You know, when you're on an island, there's nowhere to go. If you're on the Gulf Coast, you can start heading inland, but when you're on an island, all you can do is get some plywood and close the shutters and nail things down as secure as possible.
But there's nowhere to go. And people, they take those warnings very, very seriously. When a volcano starts to rumble, people take those warnings very, very seriously. But what about the warning of judgment? Are you wise or are you foolish? Are you taking it seriously tonight? You know, sometimes when I stand in a position like this and look into the back row, sometimes I see people, young people and.
Sometimes those who are not so young and they don't take it seriously.
Sometimes you see people laughing and talking and passing notes. They're not heeding the warning that God is giving. But these things are serious. We're passionate about it tonight, because from the word of God we know that these things are a reality. All people say, where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they are until now.
Let's think of it in another way tonight before we pass on to these other scriptures. Suppose you were to draw your last breath tonight.
You know, there was an elderly lady laid in her grave.
This afternoon.
A lady that I knew, I wouldn't say very well, but I have visited.
On a number of occasions and we always enjoyed something of the Lord together.
And for many years she has been ready to leave this world and meet the Lord Jesus. And I can say with every confidence she's absent from the body and present with the Lord. But you don't have to be elderly to be laid in your tomb.
00:25:04
You know, I wondered today in thinking about it, how many young people or even boys and girls were laid in their graves in cemeteries around this world? That we don't know at all.
I would imagine if we were able to pull some statistics this evening.
Of those who have died, even just in the United States, and have been buried today.
I think we would be surprised at the vast range of ages.
Of people who have entered the grave this very day.
We have heard, some of us of a young sister in the Lord, 21 years of age, who is clinging to life.
It doesn't look good, naturally speaking, but you know the last time I was in the city of Regina?
I sat at a table in her home and after the meal was served, we got out the Bibles and we enjoyed the precious things of Christ together.
If she passes away this night, I have every confidence that she is absent from the body.
And present with the Lord.
But I wonder if you were to be carried out of here tonight on a stretcher and it was confirmed that your life was gone.
And that the body and the Spirit were separated, which constitutes physical death.
And someone turned to me and said, do you think that person was really the Lord's? Would I be able to say or anybody else in this room with confidence? Yes, we know that boy, that girl, that young person, that older person is really the Lord. We saw it in their life. We heard it in their words. They had confessed Christ, They enjoyed the things from the Bible that we've enjoyed in these meetings.
Or would we have to turn away with some sadness and say I don't really know.
Wouldn't that be awful? Wouldn't that be awful to just have to turn away and say, well, I hope so, but I don't really know.
If you're not saved tonight, you know this meeting is more or less half over as to the time that was scheduled on our card for this meeting, and I am not going to promise you that the other half of this meeting is going to conclude.
You know time goes by very quickly. In fact, time always goes by faster for the speaker than the hearer.
But here's something else to think about in time. Do you realize that as we sit here tonight?
A decade of this century has slipped by.
Think about that.
You know, when I was at Bible Truth some weeks ago and we were preparing to ship 2010 calendars, that really stirred my soul. Because, you know, it just seems like yesterday everybody was worried about why 2K and what was going to happen when the calendar flipped over to the new century and there's a new Millennium or however people referred to it, and where they're going to be. Crashes in the computers and our cars wouldn't start the next morning and all this kind of thing. Why, it doesn't seem very long ago at all and yet a decade of this century.
Has slipped by and we're going to turn in a few weeks the calendar to 2010.
Time stands still for no one. We're rushing on to eternity.
But you know, the clock of life is wound, but once, and no man hath the power.
To know just when that clock will stop at late or early hour. I was on the island of Cannawan one time and I saw those words engraved on a tombstone. I thought it was an interesting epitaph.
I was in a cemetery not long ago, just walking through the graves and looking at the tombstones. Very interesting to see what's graved on tombstones. But I came to a certain tombstone and it had one word on it saved.
I thought that was beautiful. It didn't need anything else. Evidently the person that was buried beneath that stone knew the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior.
And with confidence, whoever was left behind to take care of their affairs and perhaps at the request of the deceased.
Had had on that tombstone engraved, that one word saved.
00:30:00
I've never seen it, but I am told that there is a certain graveyard.
In the state of Louisiana, that has another word on it.
Waiting. Someone there, buried beneath that stone.
Who's waiting for the Lord Jesus to come? Because you know the Lord Jesus is coming.
The coming of the Lord draws nigh.
We don't know when the Lord Jesus is coming. We haven't been told. But I like the little chorus that the boys and girls often sing Jesus will come again. And though we don't know when, the countdowns getting lower every day, do you realize that as we sit in these seats tonight, we have never been closer to the Lord's coming than we are right now? We have never been closer to the Lord's coming.
Than we are right now. Think about it.
Things indicate in this world that the coming of the Lord is very near.
That this world is ripe for the judgment of God. And I want to impress upon your soul tonight that when the Lord Jesus comes.
And every true believer is gone from this world.
There will be no opportunity for those who sat in a Gospel meeting like this.
There will be no further warnings or invitations to come to the Savior.
For any who have heard the gospel of the grace of God.
And have either neglected it or rejected it. It is so serious when once the master of the house has risen up and shut to the door. Scripture tells us that they're going to come and they're going to knock and they're going to say Lord, Lord, open unto us. You know, the very fact that they say Lord, Lord indicates that they knew the way they knew about the Lord Jesus. Wherever you get that expression in scripture, Lord, Lord, it always denotes profession.
Those who have heard and perhaps professed to know the Lord, but there was number reality in the heart.
And they come, and they say, Lord, Lord, open unto us, But they had opportunity.
And those words come back to ring in their ears for all eternity.
Depart from me. I never knew you. No. The door of grace, the door of mercy, The door of heaven will never be opened again.
To those who have refused God's offer of salvation, I plead with you.
Not to be foolish tonight. And then we read that well known verse in John's Gospel, chapter 3.
You know my I've often told about my father. He was a man who kept copious notes, in fact.
I suppose we filled after his passing boxes with notebooks, and some of them were interesting, but some of them we had to get rid of, and they went, I'm afraid, in the dumpster. But my father kept notes on lots of things. He was always writing things down, and my father told me before he passed away that he had kept track of the Gospel verses that preachers began their gospel meeting with.
Gospel meetings that he had been had attended over the years, I suppose Maybe notes that went back 50-60 years, I don't know. But he said when he added it all up that more preachers started their gospel meeting with John 316 than any other verse. I thought that was very interesting and this verse is one of the perhaps the best known verses.
In the whole word of God, we heard the other night about a man who preached from this verse for seven nights in a row.
And it was fresh every time for God. Southern loved the world.
Are we thankful for the love of God tonight? We have been speaking at great lengths about judgment.
But you know, judgment is God's strange work because God so loved the world.
That he gave his only begotten son. God has proved his love.
Beyond a shadow of a doubt in this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. He so loved the world that He gave. We had read to us in these meetings that verse that says thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift, That's the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of Light.
00:35:12
With whom? There is no variableness nor shadow of turning. We have just passed Thanksgiving.
And Solomon, the wisest man, whoever lived apart from the Lord Jesus, he said twice in Ecclesiastes, For a man to eat and drink and enjoy the fruit of all his labor, it is the gift of God.
When we sit down to a meal, the very fact that we have food and the strength to enjoy it is a gift from God. Yet I wonder how many people on a daily basis stop for a moment before they partake of a meal and thank God for that gift. But the most wonderful and outstanding gift that God has ever given to man is the gift of his Son. That unspeakable gift, the Lord Jesus. Have you ever stopped and thanked God?
For his unspeakable gift, Paul bursts out at the end of that chapter in Corinthians.
And in going over some other gifts and the joy of Christian giving in that chapter, he says thanks.
Be unto God for his unspeakable gift God gave his Son.
I'm thankful that I can stand by the apostle Paul and say the Son of God who loved me.
And gave himself for me. In fact, I like to stand and say it this way.
The Son of God who loved Jim and gave himself for Jim. Could you come up here tonight and stand with me?
And put your name in that verse. Oh, if you can't tonight remember God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That whosoever there's our word again. Whosoever that all inclusive word, it's you're not. Don't stay away because you have some fear of being refused. Maybe sometimes you stay away from something because you say, well, I don't know if I'll really be accepted when I get there.
You don't knock on a certain door because you say I don't know if they'll really want me or let me in. Oh, don't stay away tonight because you're afraid of being refused. No, tonight the gospel is for you that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Are you gonna perish tonight in your sins?
Are you gonna pass out into a lost eternity without hope? You know there's nothing worse than a hopeless situation. Hopelessness, I think, is about the worst word in the English language. To go to the doctor and to be told that the case is hopeless, To know that there's no cure, nothing that can be done. What a sad thing that is, especially for the unbeliever who only has the natural life.
To cling to but all your taste tonight as a Sinner is not hopeless. It's hopeless in your own strength, that's true.
But it isn't hopeless because God has a cure. The Lord Jesus died on Calvary's cross.
He shed his precious blood and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son.
Cleanse us from all sin. Do you realize that there is a sure cure for sin tonight?
You know, you go to the doctor and he gives you some antibiotic or some other medication or treatment and you know, he might have to say, well, I hope this works. I think it should. It's worked in others.
But you know, there's a sure cure for the disease of sin tonight. We don't have to wonder at the value of the blood of Christ. There's power, power, wonder, working power in the precious blood of the lamb. I'm not going to tell you tonight to avail yourself of the blood of Jesus, and hopefully it'll work. The doctor may say that about some antibiotics, but I'm going to tell you tonight, avail yourself of the blood of Christ and your sins will be gone, and they'll be gone forever.
He'll blossom out as a thick cloud, and as far as the east is from the West, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. And we have forgiveness through the blood of the Lord Jesus. Oh, there's only one cure, but it is a sure cure tonight. And so whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Can tell you a little story at this juncture in our Gospel meeting.
00:40:02
Because not many weeks ago I was in on the island of Saint Vincent, just north of Grenada and South of Saint Lucia and West of Uh Barbados. And there is a village which I visited many times in northern Saint Vincent called Sandy Bay.
And that evening, in the cool of the day, I leaned back on the railing of the veranda of a little home owned by a man named Esford. And Esford told me a very interesting story as I stood there with brother Garvin, Seymour and this man that I had met on a previous occasion but never had much contact with. And he told me a very interesting story that happened.
In 1986. In 1986, Esford owned a boat, and that boat would often travel from Sandy Bay, Saint Vincent, about 26 to 30 miles across the open water to view Fort St. Lucia. He would often take people that wanted to go over to Saint Lucia. He would often go out and fish in various things, but one day they had planned a trip to Saint Lucia. He.
And four other men. The main thrust of the trip was to take a man from Sandy Bay whose name was Mr. Charles.
Over there a Christian man, a believer in the Lord Jesus, to pick up some parts for his vehicle.
We still have to go to Saint Lucia and Trinidad for car parts. Brother Hans, who's here tonight, will attest to the difficulties of getting car parts. Sometimes it takes literally weeks and days, and after you get those parts, it takes sometimes days to get them put on and so on, And sometimes they're not the right parts, and they make them fit and they make them do and so on. But they were going to make this trip on a certain afternoon.
That morning, Esper got up in Sandy Bay and he got on his motorcycle to go down to Kingstown, which is in the South of Saint Vincent and is the capital of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. He made that trip. It would have been in those days, about two and a half hour trip. It's a little bit less now with the better roads, but even today it's still a windy coastal mountain Rd. and he made that trip down there to do a few errands and to secure the proper paperwork.
For himself and his poor traveling companions who were hoping to leave late that afternoon.
For Saint Lucia, he ran his errands in the city and got his paperwork and he started back out.
And as he was coming back out and in some of these countries, they don't worry about whether you have dotted lines or solid lines or curves or not.
Everybody's in a hurry to pass everybody else and get where they want to go, And he pulled out to pass a Jeep. But what he didn't realize was, as he pulled out to pass that Jeep, a motorcycle behind him had decided it was going to pass both he and the Jeep in front of him. And you can see you can well imagine the inevitable. There was a motorcycle accident, those two motorcycles sideswiped and Ashford was thrown off his bike.
And of course he didn't have a helmet on and he was thrown into the ditch where he was badly bruised.
And hit his head.
There was a house right there on the side of the road, and a friend of his, who, ironically enough, was going to be part of the party that went to Saint Lucia that afternoon, was standing in his doorway and he rushed out to try to save Ashford from banging his head on the rock. He wasn't able to do it, but he was right there, and he was able to minister to him physically. After a while, it was determined that he wasn't seriously hurt. He had a bad headache and a few bruises.
Didn't seem like there were any broken bones and the friend of his was a mechanic as well.
And so they did. A few adjustments to the motorcycle, and Esford headed on his way back up to Sandy Bay, telling his friend that he would see him a little later in the day. When he got home. He wasn't feeling just the best, and his wife pleaded with him not to make the trip that afternoon and not feeling so good. He decided that her advice was probably the path of wisdom, and he agreed to let the other four go with his boat, but he wouldn't make the trip.
00:45:00
That afternoon, when they were ready to launch the boat, he went down to the water, down to the beach to see the other four off, along with his cousin David.
As they were about to launch, the other four said to David, why don't you come along with us? Take Ashford's place. Apparently he had the necessary paperwork already, as he made regular trips across there, and though he wasn't really prepared for the trip, he knew that he had friends and relations on the other side that would take care of him for the night that they planned to spend there. And so at the last minute, they persuaded him to jump aboard.
And away they went. They made the trip over to View Fort, and then by a Jeep they traveled up to up to the north to Castries, which is the capital of Saint Lucia. I've made that trip many times myself. They secured the parts they needed and did their business, stayed overnight with friends and family, came back down to Beaufort, got in their boat, were seen by another party who was leaving, and they headed back across the water.
Later that evening, the other party that had seen them leave landed in Sandy Bay, Saint Vincent, and they made inquiries in the village as to whether the others had arrived back safely.
They were told that they hadn't seen them, that the boat hadn't arrived, and so after some time they became concerned and the boat that had come over from Saint Lucia went back out to sea to look for the boat that hadn't returned.
And to this day, no one has any idea what happened to that boat and those five men.
There's still today a great deal of pirating that goes on in those waters. There's a lot of drug trade and smuggling, and still today many people disappear. But to stand here and speculate as to what happened would be simply that speculation. Did they? Were they capsized by a wave? Did an undertow pull them under? Were they overtaken by pirates or smugglers? Nobody knows. To this day, only God saw what happened out there on the open waters.
But as Esper told me that story, it was with a great deal of emotion.
Because as he related to me, his cousin David, who took his place, was not a believer.
He did not know the Lord Jesus. Mr. Charles did, and I don't know about the others.
In the boat, but David did not. Now what happened in his last moments, we don't know. Hopefully he considered eternal issues and turned to the Lord Jesus. But here was a man who took Ashford's place.
He had left a wife and five children behind and he's gone into eternity.
I have wondered as I have recounted that story in my own mind.
What would have happened if you were in that boat, if I was in that boat?
And not only that, but to take it a step further in connection with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here was David, who took Ashford's place in that boat, not knowing.
That he would never return to Sandy Bay Saint Vincent, not knowing that he would never see his wife and children again.
But you know, the Lord Jesus came into this world, and he took my place at Calvary S Cross.
He died for me. He shed his precious blood, and when he came into this world, he knew exactly.
What was going to happen? He knew that his pathway would lead to the cross and that he would give his life for me. But he also knew something else too, that a moment would come when he would rise from the dead, and a moment would come when his feet would leave this planet and he would return to heaven. And he knew that as the savior of sinners, there would be a vast multitude saved down through the ages as a result.
And that the day would come when he will give a shout. And it hasn't happened yet, but soon as we've been saying.
When he would give a shout and the fruit of the work of Calvary, those who came to know him as savior.
Would all be gathered home to the father's house around himself. But I want to say again, as we have recounted the story the best to the best of my memory, as to the details.
00:50:00
Where would you be tonight if you had been in that boat? You know, all Ashford could say to me was God knows best, and God has a plan.
Interesting, isn't it? God does know best, and God does have a plan.
But God's desire for you tonight is that you would come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.
As your Savior, God's desire is that you would be saved.
Tonight I read the verse in Romans chapter 10 Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord.
Shall be saved. You know, that's the third time that verse appears in the word of God.
It appears in the book of Joel. It's quoted by Peter when he preached on the Day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.
And we have it for the third time here. Isn't that interesting? Three times. You know, when God says something once, we need to pay attention God. When God speaks, it's serious. God means what he is saying. But when God repeats something three times, doesn't that give import or impact to what he says? Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord.
Shall be saved. Have you called upon the name of the Lord tonight?
You know, it's that simple tonight. It's that simple. It's that easy.
And the word of God abounds with stories of people who did that very thing.
Do you wanna be saved tonight? Do you wanna go out of these doors in a few moments with the assurance that you're on your way to heaven? All you have to do is speak to the Lord in your heart. You know you don't have to say anything aloud.
Because he knows what you say, even though you don't utter one word aloud, but just to speak to him in your heart.
To confess your need to tell him that you want to be saved, that you receive his gift, the gift of God being eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But I want to read in closing, two further portions of the Word of God. These two portions are found in the Book of Revelation, First of all in Revelation chapter 20.
Revelation Chapter 20.
And verse 15.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life.
Was cast into the lake of fire. You know, this is a solemn contrast with the statement that we read in John's Gospel chapter 3, because there we read whosoever believeth in him.
Should not perish. But here we find that whosoever's name was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. You know what? The Great White Throne judgment books are going to be brought out and records gone over, and lots of time to go over those records. Nobody's going to be hurried through in the courtroom of God today. They throw cases out and they rush things through for the sake of time, and the courts are jammed with case after case.
And things aren't always examined properly, but you know, the Great White Throne judgment.
Is the last great act of time and the first great act of eternity. And there will be lots of time to go over things, and even the book of life will be brought out to show to the person that their name wasn't there.
Lest there's still a doubt in their mind that they had, that they that their name should have been there, and that they should have received mercy, there it is, as we would say in black and white, a blank, shall I say, a blank line where their name could have been. But the book is brought out, not to prove to the Lord Jesus, but to prove to the individual that their name is not found written there, and whosoever, no exclusions.
Whosoever.
Was not found written in the book of life. Was cast into the lake of fire. But I want to end on a little different note than that.
Just turn over to the last page of your Bible, Revelation chapter 22.
And verse 17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.
And let him that is a thirst say, Come and whosoever.
Uh, I'm sorry, I let him that heareth say, Come, and let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will.
00:55:06
Let him take of the water of life freely. Here is the last invitation from the word of God. You know to me it is so precious to realize that almost the last words of Scripture are one more invitation you're having tonight at the end of this gospel meeting. One more invitation, and it's to whosoever, just as the invitation at the beginning of the meeting was to whosoever.
So it's still tonight at the end of the meeting to whosoever do you have a thirst tonight. I don't mean a physical thirst, Maybe you are thirsty tonight and waiting to go out and get a cup of water, but do you have a spiritual longing and thirst?
You know, I've had opportunity to visit on the island of Dominica, a little bit of trivia, but Dominica was the name of Christopher Columbus, father. That's why you have the Dominican Republic and Dominique and you have the name several times in the islands. Dominica, Columbus was Christopher's father. But nevertheless, the island of Dominique is a very poor island, I think next to Haiti. It's one of the poorest islands, one of the poorest countries in the Caribbean. It's subsistence living and people eking out an existence every day.
But you know, there is one tremendous natural resource on that island and they say.
And I have checked it. You couldn't prove it by me, but they say that on the island of Dominica, there are 365 rivers, streams, tributary springs, some kind of water, fresh water on the island of Dominica, you know, that's one for every day of the year 365. But you know, tonight at the end of this meeting, God is offering you the water of life. Because, you know, whenever I'm in Dominica, I never seem to be able to satisfy my thirst. It is so hot and humid on that island.
That I never seemed to satisfy my thirst from the water from those springs and tributaries, and actually.
From many of those springs I wouldn't drink the water. I often buy bottled water. But you know there is a tributary tonight flowing from God, the Lord Jesus himself, the water of life. And it will satisfy your thirst for 365 days of the year, and it will satisfy your thirst for all eternity. And the invitation is to whosoever to come all tonight, come to the Lord Jesus, whosoever will.
May come and take of the water of life freely.
What Are You Worth to Jesus?
Children—Tim Totems
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In the swimming pool, I counted over 25 kids this morning. I see 123456789. There comes 1011121314. We're about missing half of them.
We have a good number of children. Let's start our Sunday school, go to the very Backpage and I'm going to.
Pick the first song and I'm going to then ask some of you boys and girls to pick the next several songs.
#44.
Into.
The Salvation.
Story, repeat or endorse.
Uh, L9 Can't say of the children of men. Nobody ever has told me before.
Yeah, he thought me up for little boy sent unto me the good times a joy. Need I not perish? My hand will be hold nobody.
Ever the story I told.
And again.
Tell it again.
Salvation story reaped more and more.
09/10 say of the children of men. Nobody ever has told me before.
No, I can't say I'm not children. I can't. Nobody, ever.
Matthew, do you know how much time we have for this Sunday School?
On the little card, do you know how many minutes we have?
He thinks an hour. No, it's less than an hour. Lane. 5 minutes. 45 minutes. That's right, 45 minutes. Do you think it takes 45 minutes to tell someone the gospel?
No, I don't. I don't think it does either. In fact, umm, my parents put on a a camping trip at our lake one day. One night and as I was sitting around the campfire I heard a boy about some of you boys age. They were playing behind me and one boy said to another boy, do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior?
And that probably took less than 5 seconds to say. And that's not the whole gospel, but.
The other little boy said MMM, MMM, no.
And then they kept on playing. So anyway, it doesn't take long. OK, let's sing another song. How about a a girl?
And we need some more girls up here. I know we have some around. Like I said earlier, I counted over 25 swimmers last night in the pool and we have about 14 kids up here. So please feel free to come on up. I know it's scary.
Guess who's the most scared here this morning?
OK, how about a girl with a song on the Backpage?
Which one? Which 142? Thank you.
42.
00:05:02
A little child.
Far away.
I believe I'm right by the right by the side.
OK.
#47 Thank you. 47 when he coming.
All his dreams.
That and him on when the stars of the morning.
His bright brown adorning.
60000200.
Little gel brown.
OK, either a boy or a girl this time for another song.
OK #5 would you look on the very back page and pick one from the back the the way back?
How you how you use this one?
Pick one from that side.
44 #44 Actually we, we started with #44 take another one.
Jesus loves me.
OK #40 Jesus loves me. Umm, as we sing, Jesus loves me.
I would like all the grandfathers to sing the first chorus the first time. Just grandfathers on the chorus the first time.
That's me. I'll. I'll be helping you.
And on the second verse, all the grandmothers sing the chorus.
All the grandmothers sing the chorus on the second verse and then we'll just continue verses 3-4 and five like normal. OK, first chorus is grandfathers and 2nd chorus is grandmothers #40 Jesus.
Let's do him belong. They are weak. By the height we've got, he is strong.
She does love me though. I'm bad and he went to make me glad. Way to hold me in his arms.
Hits me safe from every arm. Yes. Jason Clark, please.
Yeah, 2005 me.
Yes, she's a plastic. The Bible tells me so.
Shining plains on high. Come to watch me where I lie.
Yes, she's a lovely.
Yeast is I love me.
Yeah, let's see that. I will tell me so.
Nsnoise.
Yes, Jesus of me.
The Bible tells me so.
All right, let's do one more for right now. One more song, Lane.
41.
#41.
Around the throne of God in heaven.
Are all forgiven? Well, heavenly hands and brains taking glory.
Glory, glory face through God and life.
00:15:26
OK, we can set our hymn sheets down for a few minutes and let's do close our eyes now and look to God for something for our hearts.
I want to talk to your children this morning about value.
On the table here you see.
A little cardboard box.
With two Styrofoam cups turned upside down and on top of the Styrofoam cups you see something stuck in the cups.
What do you see?
Paul.
Dirt.
He's right.
He sees he sees dirt stuck in these cups.
What value does dirt have?
How much is this dirt worth, Paul? Do you have any idea?
I see some boys over here telling secrets to one another.
What are you thinking, Kevin?
Nothing. What did you say?
Here's the other cup it has.
Thicker piece of dirt.
When I went outside this morning to get these pieces of dirt.
I thought about.
Me and one of these days I'm going to die and I'm going to become.
Dust or dirt, That's what the Bible says that.
Dost thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Umm, some of you have Bibles, Let's see if I can pick on you. Uh, Michael, would you read for me Psalm 139?
And four verses here. Psalm 139, verses 14/15/16 and 17.
Please.
Actually, would you read the next verse also please?
Thank you, you read that nice and clear.
Clearly.
When you.
God created Adam and Eve.
Umm, He made them from the dust of the ground, and then he breathed into them the breath of life, and there was wonderful togetherness, God and his new creature, Adam. And then a little later he made Eve from one of Adam's ribs.
And we know how Adam and Eve sinned, and it was just a little sin of disobedience. And yet it that one sin has plunged the entire human race into estrangement.
From God.
Our minds are against God. We do not believe that God is good, and so that one sin has plunged.
00:20:03
Boys and girls, and eventually men and women into sin.
Well, these two pieces of dirt.
Have inside of them something of value and I'm going to put that one in the water and put this piece of dirt in the water.
And I'm going to.
Slosh it around a little bit here.
When I was trying to make it stick, it wouldn't stick and now it won't come off.
OK, there. It's coming.
What? This young lady here? What do you think I could have hidden inside this one piece of dirt?
Maybe a ring? OK, that would be something of value. It's not a ring.
What do you think it might be? Money. Ah, that's that's it. Oh, here's a little silver one. How much is that piece of money worth?
$0.10 OK, he's got it. That one's a dime.
Alright, we'll, we'll put this dime up here in that cup and we have one more piece of money and oh, I told you what it was.
Sometimes it takes quite a bit of work to get us clean, you know, when we're, when the Lord is looking at us and we don't want to come and oh, there's kind of some scrubbing and.
Umm, it was kind of cute to me this morning. I was beckoning to.
One of the children in the back row and I was trying to encourage them to come up to the front row and this child.
Turned around and looked behind them to see who I might be beckoning to.
Well, there's nobody else behind them. They're in the very back row. I wonder if God is pointing his beckoning hand at you and you're.
Looking to see somebody else that he might be talking to? Is he talking to your heart this morning to come to him? Oh, look at this coin. Here's a bright shiny one.
A pretty copper penny here.
How much is a penny worth? 1 cent?
You know when I was you kids his age I could buy a piece of candy with one cent. I was in the store 2 days ago and it would I could only buy one piece of candy with a dime. Now a pack of gum that has.
I think 14 pieces cost $1.49. That's $0.10 per stick.
In a way I want to tell you that.
You are worth.
You, you are. You are at least worth the face value of these coins.
If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, you have marvelous intellect and bodies. I, I've seen you kids run and, and splash and play and thankfully you have you, you're not paralyzed or, uh, you're, I don't see any blind children here this morning or deaf children. You have marvelous capabilities of, of doing things.
But there is something missing if you don't know the Lord as your Savior.
Though you are very valuable to him, there's a something of more value that you're missing.
And so these coins here are worth 1 cent and $0.10.
Now I'm going to trade these coins. I'm going to take this penny off. I'm gonna put a different penny on.
It's not quite as shiny as this first penny.
And I'm going to take this dime off and put a different dime on.
Again, it's not near as shiny as the 1St.
Dime.
And I'm also going to give each of you children.
One of these, uh, similar Dimes and pennies. So let me do this quickly.
00:25:00
You're welcome.
OK, I gotta go back around now and give each of you a penny.
Take a look at your coins.
And see if you can find a date on them.
Look for a date, it will say 19 something.
Do you do you see a date on any of your coins? What does it say?
1945 OK, that sounds, that sounds close, sounds right.
1943 is 1 here.
1942.
1944 hey.
Anybody here, uh, born in 1944? Oh. Doug Buchanan.
Wow.
Here, young man, here's a penny for you.
Uh, how about 1942?
Oh, over here, 19420 back there.
These are what we call antique coins.
Where you going?
OK.
There's a little pile of.
Pennies and a little pile of Dimes. I bet there are some people in this room who have never seen a dime with this picture on the front of it. Is that the Mercury Mercury dime?
It's worth $0.10. Take it down to the Walgreens and I believe you can buy a piece of gum if they sell them individually. You can buy a piece of gum for $0.10.
I don't know what you can buy with this penny and they call this a a wheat scent because on the backside of it.
Is a picture of some wheat heads. They don't make these anymore.
The wheat scents and the mercury dime.
They're worth a penny for face value and $0.10 per face value.
And I didn't look in my coin collector book because I don't really keep up on coins, but for antique value and you kids might.
Wanna look in an antique book? I don't know what I gave you. It's possible that one of your coins is worth, uh, $50,000, although I doubt it.
Those have been picked through, but there is a nickel out there, the 1913 nickel. If you ever find this particular nickel, I think it's worth thousands of dollars and some people I've heard try and take a 1918 nickel and erase, couple the marks of the 8 and make it look like a three.
To try and trick people, but.
These coins, now that you have have a different value than just the face value. They have an antique value. They're kind of rare. You probably have never seen one of these coins before and.
If you put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
You're not antique, but you are rare. And so you have an additional value that I want to encourage you to cultivate because Christians in this world, umm, every now and then you see one of them.
OK, you go to meeting every week with Christians, but sometimes at school you see somebody do something very kind.
Very thoughtful.
You see somebody.
Who doesn't react in a mean way with other children and you think?
I wonder if they're a Christian, Don't you?
OK, uh, let's have another verse here. How about, uh.
See you have a Bible. Would you read Matthew 10 verses 29 through 31 for me please?
Matthew 10.
Matthew 10, verses 29 through 31.
00:30:21
Thank you.
You are of more value than many sparrows. God knows about any of these sparrows that are flying through the trees and they land and sometimes there's a big flock of sparrows. Umm.
By the way, you kids watch things in nature, Do sparrows walk or do they hop?
Very good.
Do Robbins walk or do Robins hop?
I think Robin's hop. Do crows walk or do crows hop?
Crow's Walk.
It's interesting some birds walk.
I got that mixed up. Some birds hop.
Even just for a short distance, they hop to the next spot and they hop to the next spot. God has created these little animals with their own unique things. And the little sparrows we read here.
Every now and then we hit one with our car. I don't cry about it. I don't even go back and pick it up and bury it. I just, I just leave it.
We are of more You children are of more value than many sparrows, the very hairs of your head. And I like to think of you dear girls, whose mothers uh.
Curled your hair this morning and brushed your hair. Your mothers don't know how many hairs are in your head, but God knows he has a very intimate knowledge about you.
Have you? Have you come to the Lord Jesus and.
Let him search your heart and.
Find out those hidden sins that you have. Have you seen him dying on the cross for your sins? And you come and ask the Lord Jesus to be your Savior, to take your sins away.
One of these songs that we sang this morning, you, some of you kids have heard a little child of seven. That was a little song that exercised me to come to the Lord.
Because I thought that someone who was seven years old or six or five is automatically saved. And then one day I turned 8 and I had not taken Jesus as my savior yet.
Anyway, I was.
I was not saved and thankfully the Lord Jesus brought me to himself.
So we have a face value and we have a a rare value. And I wanna encourage you children to look to the Lord and.
And work those things for the Lord that you don't see very often in the world. Uh, OK, I'll tell you one thing about me. Uh, I was a Christian in school and one day going in the lunch line.
Some kids were crowding in front of me and I I pushed and shoved them out and I just went inside the door and the lady said I never thought I'd see you do that.
See, she knew I was a Christian. So are there things that we are doing that?
Are not very Christian like.
Now I have pulled out of my pocket one more thing, a little package.
This is basically the way it was given to me.
15 years ago.
Who has? Who can tell me what date 15 years ago was Kevin?
94, maybe it was 14, OK.
It happened in 1995.
This also is.
A coin.
I'm going to walk around and show it to you children.
Do you have any idea how much it's worth?
It's face value. How much do you We've been talking about face value and antique value.
What's its face value?
00:35:01
He says half dollar. No, it's not a half dollar.
Yes.
This is a $1.00 coin if I took this to the store.
I could buy something for $1.00.
But this coin?
Is worth far more than $1.00.
Somewhere on this coin, it says.
One ounce fine silver.
Anybody in this room know how much an ounce of silver is worth today?
Some years ago it was worth 32 do yes.
$20 OK, so on the.
Coin collectors store.
I could at least get $20.00 for this one coin, but this coin has another value to me and I'm gonna tell you the story. And as I tell you the story, I want you to link my story with your life and the Lord and what the Lord might be doing in your life.
My wife was involved in a serious car accident that killed one of our children.
And it really beat up my wife in the accident. She had broken bones and, and, uh, internal organs that were damaged. She was in the hospital and it was very possible that she would not be able to come to the funeral for our one daughter who was killed.
Well, the Lord allowed her to get strong enough that she was able to come home. We we buried our child on our property.
It was allowed us to do that.
Kayleen was buried on the farm.
And we had the funeral and a neighbor had invited everybody over to his barn to come and eat a meal at the barn. So while everybody left from the funeral, I carried my other daughter in who was in the wreck. She was in a, she was four years old and she was in a, a, a body cast. So I had to carry her up the stairs and lay her on the couch. And then I got my wife in a wheelchair. I got her in the house.
Situated comfortably.
And then I left to go over to the barn where people were eating.
When I got to the barn.
Like a lot of our, uh, all day meeting meals.
A number of the plates were empty.
So I'm going through the line by myself, picking out a little bit of food here and a little bit of food there.
Can you kind of get the feel of how I'm feeling? I'm feeling sad. What's another word that would describe how I'm feeling?
I'm by myself.
What? Miserable. OK, thank you. Umm, that's a good word, Kevin.
Lonely. Amen.
And lonely. That was the word I was really feeling. But miserable. Yeah. And sad. And I go out into, I go out to the door and look at all these people talking and chatting and eating and I find a place at a table.
And I go and sit down by myself.
And I start to eat.
And after one of my bites, I look up.
Across the table opposite me to the next table beyond and a friend was sitting there.
And he just looked at me.
And smiled.
Well, last night as I was thinking about this, I started to cry. I'm not crying right now.
But it it brings over me a fresh flood of refreshment and joy and.
Uh, delight. Even now I can look back sitting at that table thinking how miserable I was feeling and lonely and that friend had his business with his children and, and things.
But just that look as he looked over at me.
Was of such a value to me and then a few days later he said Tim.
00:40:01
I just want to give you something from my heart to yours. And he didn't, really.
Say what it was for.
I I'm even struggling to tell you what it's for, you know?
Just a little something to encourage my heart.
Children.
I love the way you look up and look at me expectantly, expectantly had the Lord has the Lord looked at you with the the joy of his salvation and have you responded to him with.
An acknowledging look of thankfulness. Lord Jesus, thank you.
I think many of you have. I trust all of you have.
And then as you go on through life, and I know that youth is fun and frivolous, sometimes that means you forget quickly the important things in life. But are there times in your life when you really consider what the Lord has done for you? And when you're rushing into school or you're rushing somewhere, do you take the time to hold the door for someone who's not as fortunate as you are?
Do you take the time to?
Share something, even a smile and.
I really want to smile at each of you to encourage you to pass it on.
And our time is up, but just recently at Cracker Barrel.
I saw a saying about a smile.
And maybe we can all practice that a smile is something crooked that sets many things straight.
A smile is something crooked that sets many things straight.
That is.
The first place we can start and I left out one my most important verse or a very important verse.
Uh, would you read 2nd Corinthians 4? Seven for me please?
Two Corinthians 4-7 and then we will close.
Thank you.
I've been carrying this silver dollar around with me.
I have this treasure.
In my pocket. But I have a better treasure. I have the Lord in my heart, and I have the Holy Spirit in me.
If you know the Lord is your Savior, you have that Holy Spirit. Also. We have this treasure in earthen vessels.
The City - the Place God Has Chosen
Address—Doug Buchanan
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Open our meeting with him #184.
Love the simplicity of this hymn as to the person of the Lord Jesus.
184 and we're just going to sing the 1St 3 verses.
There is.
Praying all to stay in heaven.
And.
Like you say, how are you doing all afternoon? All afternoon?
Before we get into our subject.
The meeting place, God's meeting place. I've got a question.
Before coming over here, I was looking at the map of the state of Missouri.
The show me state.
There are over 1400.
Cities or towns in the state of Missouri.
Now I have traveled North and South and east and West in the state of Missouri and visited a good number of those.
But probably not much more than 100 or so.
But I wanna tell you tonight or this afternoon that.
I'm thinking of A1 particular city or town.
In Missouri, that's special to me.
And I'm going to ask someone here to tell me.
What the name of that city is?
I'm not going to describe to you what that city is like. I will tell you that.
I like it.
I would love to go there.
And umm, I have found.
Umm, precious things visiting that city.
Can someone from the state of Missouri tell me what the name of that city is?
Describe it a little bit more closely.
Fenton.
Out of 1400 and some cities, a brother told me the name of the city that was on my heart.
A computer ano analysis couldn't do that.
What are the odds of someone telling me the name of that city?
One in so many million, probably.
And yet a brother tells me.
What I have on my heart speak on.
A city.
There is a place.
God looks down to this world and he chose a place.
To gather his Saints together, He did it in the Old Testament.
And he's done it in our day, too.
Is it a difficult thing to figure out where that is?
What's the secret to finding that place?
Will careful analysis of doctrine.
00:05:06
Of teaching a gift.
Or all these other things combined guide us to that place.
Is that how a brother could tell me that name?
You know the answer.
God has chosen a place.
It's a wonderful thing to discover that.
It's not our intellect, our gift.
Or careful reading of our Bible necessarily in itself.
That's going to reveal to us.
Where the Lord God would have us meet with Him.
It's snowing the heart of God.
That will give us to know where that place is.
Not even necessarily what goes on on that place.
How wonderful it is to learn to know the heart of God.
And then figure out that place.
Yes, He gathers sinners, and he takes them and puts them into the best place, and it's all his work.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. This wonderful verse that has been close to our hearts for many years and being gathered to the Lord's name is a dear subject. But what I'm going to bring before our souls today is not so much from the Newt, oh, the New Testament.
We're going to be almost exclusively in the Old Testament.
As an example.
Of these things that we're talking about, let's begin in reading a verse in Exodus chapter 25 where I believe for the first time in the Bible we have God speaking about.
A gathering place.
It doesn't come out in the book of Genesis, but it comes out after redemption in the book of Exodus.
In Exodus chapter 25 and verse 8.
Let them make me a sanctuary.
That I may dwell among them.
Jehovah God of Israel.
Is revealing himself to the people.
That he had redeemed out of Egypt.
And he wants to dwell with them.
This is our God too.
He wants to dwell with his creature, his people, and He's made provision for that.
Deuteronomy.
Chapter 12 To continue, it's my purpose to trace through some scriptures in the Old Testament on this subject.
Showing the exercises that God put different people through.
So they would realize that place where he wanted to dwell with them.
These are principles that show us God's way.
Deuteronomy chapter 12.
And verse 10.
But when ye go over Jordan and well in the land.
Which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit. And when he giveth rest, you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety. Then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. Thither shall ye bring all that I command you, your burnt offerings and your sacrifices.
00:10:01
Your ties, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows, which he vow unto the Lord.
Moses spoke these words near the close of his lifetime, before the children of Israel got into the land.
That he was going to give them the land of Canaan and he.
Told Moses that when they got into the land, he would choose a place.
To meet with them and when he did so, then they were to go to that place.
And offer their sacrifices.
Jehovah, the God of Israel, dwelling with them, wanting the company.
The sacrifices and all that they spoke of, which we know in reality speak about the work of the Lord Jesus, but it was a picture beforehand of that which was to follow and so.
This was the instructions given to the people of Israel.
I found a very interesting to trace this through.
How the people of Israel found that.
You know, there are two places in particular that come that we're going to notice as we follow this through.
We're going to notice something about Shiloh.
And then we're going to notice about Jerusalem.
The Ark of the Lord was particularly in those two places.
First of all, they went to Shiloh.
But that was not.
The in place that the Lord had chosen.
You know, this morning we had read to us those beautiful verses in Genesis about Abraham and Isaac and Abraham going up to that place.
We see there God revealing to Abraham who walked by faith.
Faith which was obedient.
And God gave him.
A beautiful expression of fellowship to.
Share together with God.
And what God was going to do one day in a future day when he was going to give his son.
To be the sacrifice.
I don't believe in glory. There's gonna be anybody.
Quite like Abraham in fellowship with God.
In what Abraham went through.
The soul searching of his heart.
The yielding Ness.
And having something to share in common.
With God.
The Father and the Son.
This is what God wants to bring his people into.
It isn't just finding a place.
It's relationship fellowship.
God wants our fellowship.
Yours and mine.
You know, sometimes it's hard for us to get to that place.
He needs to work with us. It took a long time in the history of Israel.
For them to find that place.
Which, by the way, ends up being the same place.
Where Abraham offered up Isaac, Mount Moriah.
Close to Jerusalem.
The Temple Mount.
Where Solomon built the temple.
Let's, umm, let's go on.
And we're going to read a number of scriptures.
Let's go on to the book of uh.
Joshua.
00:15:00
Chapter 15.
Joshua chapter 15 and verse 63.
As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out. But the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day.
Why did God write this verse right here?
Well, I believe in part.
It was because he had this place in view.
Any comments that?
The children of Israel had not yet taken possession of this particular place. It was still in the hands of the enemy.
There is an enemy.
There is an opposition to God's desire to fellowship with his people.
For us, it's not a natural physical enemy, it's a spiritual host of wickedness in heavenly places.
There's nothing more than Satan and his hosts would seek to do.
Than to keep the Lord's people from enjoying.
Fellowship with Jesus Christ and God.
And so that's why there's warfare.
That's why this truth has to be held to firmly.
Our convictions need to be sure and firm. We need to remember that you just can't go with the flow.
And expect to end up.
In close proximity to God.
It won't take you there. There's opposition, there's battles to be fought.
And so go on passing on over to the book of judges, you know, there's the same thing.
In chapter one and verse 21, they could not drive out the Jebusites. They were the children of the curse that had been cursed. And uh, like similar to what was read this morning concerning the times of Noah when God repented and judgment must fall. It was the only remedy for the wickedness that was there. And so it was with the lands of the inhabitants of Palestine.
Abraham had to live his whole life and Isaac and Jacob too as pilgrims and strangers because iniquity of the amorite wasn't full.
But in Joshua's time.
It was that time was ripe for judgment and it was to be given to God's chosen people.
And it was an act of obedience on Joshua's part to go out and take the land.
There's an enemy.
There's an interesting little story in the Book of Judges.
Uh, we'll briefly notice it just for a comment. Chapter 19. This is a very sad chapter, and we're not gonna get into the details of the chapter, but I wanna call attention to one thing.
About Jerusalem.
This chosen city that God had in mind to put his name there.
And Uh Ju and the Book of Judges, chapter 19 and verse 11.
We have a man traveling with his wife going back to his home.
And it got dark and he had to find a place to stay into lodge.
And they passed by Jerusalem. Notice what it says.
And then and when they were by Jebus, now that's.
The That's the Canaanite name for Jerusalem. The day was far spent, And the servant said unto his master, Come, I pray thee, and let us turn in unto this city of the Jebusites, and lodge in it. And his master said unto him, We will not turn aside. Hit her into the city of a stranger that is not of the children of Israel. We were Passover to.
00:20:18
Gippya.
This is rather sad.
The very city that God had chosen to place his name still in the hands of the Jebusites.
You know, as the as the people gathered to the Lord's name.
Because of our failure.
Because of our not laying hold as we should to our possession as being gathered to the Lord's name, there's many a people of God.
They cannot find lodging.
Can't be fed or they aren't fed.
Because we haven't taken possession.
We haven't held up the Assembly of God as it ought to be held up.
And the many of a.
Passer by a neighbor, A Christian friend.
Come to the meeting and they don't see.
The right representation that they ought to see. They can't lodge there. There's been many a St. that's been wounded and driven away, as it were. Perhaps not rightly so, but still because of sensitivities.
Find it very difficult to come to God's meeting place.
That's sad.
I believe it's true though, today as it was then.
If we ever start focusing brethren on our side of the meeting place, we always have to hang our heads with shame.
But there's another side to look at it from, and that's God's side.
God is faithful.
God worked over the years to make this place Jerusalem.
Very clearly known as God sent her.
And it didn't really happen until the end of David, King David's time.
That it was so.
How many 100 years was that?
Close to 500.
4500 I believe.
Hasn't been different in the church history either, I don't believe.
Now I want to go back to the book of Joshua again. In chapter 18 we spoke about Shiloh.
That's where the arc.
Of the Lord first ended up.
Joshua, chapter 18.
Verse one.
They have. They have entered into the land. They have taken possession of a good part of it under the leadership of Joshua. Now they're getting ready to describe the land, to divide it up between the 10 tribes. They're 9 1/2 tribes.
Says in verse one, and the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh and set up the Tabernacle of the congregation there, and the land was subdued before them.
And there remained among the children of Israel 7 tribes which had not yet received their inheritance.
And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, How long are ye slack to go?
To possess the land which the Lord God of your Father's hath given you, give out from among you three men for each tribe. And I will send them. And they shall rise and go through the land, and describe it according to the inheritance of them. And they shall come again to me, and they shall divide it into seven parts.
Judah in their coast and so on, and then dropped down to verse eight and the men arose and went away. Joshua charged them that they.
That went to describe the land, saying go and walk through the land and describe it, and come again to me, that I may here cast lots for you before the Lord at Shiloh.
00:25:18
This is a wonderful part in their history.
God was fulfilling what he had promised to give them the land.
We can certainly say that in Christian, in Christianity even more so. God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings.
In heavenly places, He's given us a good land. There are many wonderful truths to enjoy.
But I suggest to you that this is not in itself the basis.
Of finding that place that the Lord has chosen.
It wasn't Shiloh that God had chosen to place his name.
This was a provisional place along the way. This was the place where they divided up the land.
If I could just make an application of it in this way.
There is such a thing as using the truth of God.
To describe where you mean.
Without the realization of where the Lord Jesus is.
There are many groups gathered together on wonderful, good biblical principles.
But when we get to heaven, we're not just going to be talking about doctrine and biblical truths.
When a couple gets married, they don't just enjoy this the code of conduct that the husband and the wife are going to share through the rest of their life and use that as a standard of their relationship.
No.
There's a higher level of dealing together with things in a human relationship.
And there is with God too. These are wonderful things. And without this land.
Yes, they couldn't find the meeting place, but this doesn't in itself.
Lead.
Or if we stop at this point.
We've come short.
Of God's meeting place.
How was it that our brother?
New the name of the town I was thinking of.
He knew something about me.
The way I gather, he knew something about my interests.
And he was able to come up with the name of that city.
If I had to ask anybody else in the town of Saint Louis.
I didn't know me. I don't think they could have come up with the right answer.
It's so wonderful, brethren, to get to know our God.
What he's like.
What he desires, what he loves.
What do you have, ******? And the more we get to know him.
The easier it is to see his instruction and guiding hand.
You cannot, I do not believe, rightly fine.
The place of the Lord's choice of meeting together with his own, without knowing the God.
The Father, the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's a wonderful way to learn something.
And so they described the land here.
And if I did it?
I'll just pass on my my comment about why Shiloh was, uh, where the arc remained for a long time.
I kind of have looked at it this way.
The Ark ended up there by default.
You know, there are many, there are many Christians that end up where they are meeting by default.
Circumstances just.
Happened that way and they take it. I've heard Christians say, oh, I was converted, converted with brothers, so and so. That's where I'm going to stay. All my life I've heard others say my mother was a devout so and so, and I'm not gonna give up that religion.
00:30:17
Default.
You can end up at the right place even by default.
Thank God that if you do.
It's a wonderful thing, but it's even it's better.
Individually, every one of us.
Get to know him.
And I I believe your convictions will be.
Firm.
On what you personally have found through the knowledge.
Of the Lord Jesus and of the Father, as it says, as the truth is in Jesus. You see, truth is not independent of a person.
The truth of God is best known and developed in relationship with the person who brings us where we are, Jesus.
Let's, umm, notice, uh, let's go over to the Book of Psalms.
And Psalm 78.
Interesting 2 verses here written many years later about Shiloh.
Psalm 78 and verse.
We'll begin with.
Verse 59.
When God heard this, he was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel, so that He forsook the Tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men, and delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand. He gave his people over also unto the sword, and was wroth with his inheritance.
The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not given to marriage.
Their priest fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
He smote his enemies in the hinder parts. He put them to a perpetual reproach. Moreover, he refused the Tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah and Mount Zion.
Which he loved.
And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he had hath established forever. He chose David also his servant, and took him from the she caught sheepfolds, and so on.
Here we have a commentary on the history that had happened.
We're going to go back and notice a detail or two about this in the book of Samuel.
When they had lost the sense of the Lord's presence.
And the Ark was taken captive.
God was teaching the people of Israel.
They still had not found that place, that permanent place.
In Jerusalem, where?
He would have a permanent dwelling place on Earth for his people.
And so I believe we can take learn principles in the in in, in this regard, the Lord has to put us through lots of trials sometimes.
Whether it's to unlearn or to to learn.
It's his faithfulness that did that with Israel.
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He was so patient.
He, uh, put up with a lot.
Going back then to First Samuel.
I want to notice something there in chapter 3.
Let me just find the verses here.
And verse chapter 3 and verse 21 and then we'll turn on over to the, uh, the.
The umm.
The 4th chapter.
Verse three, Chapter 3, Verse 21. And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord.
Now down in Chapter 4.
And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us today before?
The Philistines let us fetch the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh.
Unto us, that when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies. So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims, and so on. You know the story, I'm not going to read more of it. But they were battling the children of Israel, battling with the Philistines.
And.
They had lost the sense of the presence of the Lord and looked at the ark.
Could I say as like a charm or like a protective hand over them, that if they brought that art into the army of Israel?
Then their enemies would be defeated.
And the Lord let the ark be taken captive.
And fall into the hands of the Philistines.
It's a sad thing.
When we use.
Statements about the presence of the Lord.
To justify.
Or give us strength.
Or give deliverance.
This was a very wrong thing to do.
I wanna mention a contrast to this. It it which should come out at the close of the meeting, but I'm going to go ahead and mention it now, something that I believe I see that stands in contrast with this.
Using the Ark of the Lord.
Has an emblem or a position among us of the people of God to give them deliverance.
Without the proper respect to what the art stood for.
The art.
That is, God was not that physical wood and gold, that was the ark was composed of.
The gold and the wood represented his presence, and, uh, he could dwell there when it was properly.
Maintained in due order, but they had lost the sense of proper respect for the Lord's presence.
They went on with the form. They still had the object, the ark there.
But they had lost the sense of the Lord's presence.
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And it tells itself out by their behavior.
Can God condone this?
No.
Well.
David in contrast to this when he had failed.
Late in his life and this really happened.
Not too long before.
He discovered where the ark was supposed to dwell forever.
His son rose up in a rebellion against David. Absalom rose up and David had to flee.
And when he was fleeing?
The high priest came with the ark and said I want to go with you and take the ark along.
And David said no.
Put it back in its place.
If the Lord delight in me, he'll bring me back to it.
You know, brethren, we can make ourselves the focal point.
And when we do so.
The Lord, as it were, hast accommodate to us, and David would have nothing of that.
No.
If God was going to allow judgment to come in, it wasn't the ark of the Lord's fault, and he wouldn't cling to the ark of the Lord as his salvation.
He would let the Lord be where the Lord chose his place to be, and he would not make the ark revolve around himself.
Just to be practical, brethren, on Lord's Day morning.
Is it just a matter of convenience not to go sometimes with us to meet the Lord?
When we do that.
If it's not convenient to go today.
We're really giving the Lord second place.
David would not do that.
And so he sends the ark back.
And the priest stays there with it, and God works.
And it was true. David had failed, and that's the reason this had happened to him.
When one of his sons and David lost four sons because of his failure, and this was one of them.
But he submits to it.
And the Lord brings him back.
Back in the book of early book, early part of Samuel, where we're reading when Eli's sons were so wicked.
The ark was taken, and the glory of the Lord departed.
And so that introduces another phase of the history of the ark. It went down among the children of the Philistines. And is God able to stand up for his rights and to make his holy presence known? Yes, he is, and he did if Israel failed. God makes His Holiness known.
And so it finally came to the Philistines. They they couldn't have the ark anymore there, and they want to send it back, and they're made to send it back with an offering. And so the art begins this course back again.
Still took a number of years before it got to the place where the Lord wanted it.
And David was instrumental in the in the, in that.
First Samuel, chapter 6.
Umm.
Verse 20.
The Ark comes back.
Well, let's let's begin in verse 19.
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First Samuel 619 And he smote that his God Jehovah smote them in the best shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. Even he smote of the people. 50,000 and three score and 10 men.
And the people amended because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.
And the men of Bashima said, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?
And to whom shall?
He go up before us.
And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Jerome, saying the Philistines had brought again the ark of the Lord.
Come ye down and fetch it up to you.
Who is able to stand before the ark of the Lord?
God is teaching them.
Of His Holiness.
You see, this is what they had forgotten, and when the ark just became an IT, it may save us.
Now they're learning something about the holiness of God.
They realize it.
God is teaching them. He is bringing them to know who he is. Oh, it's a wonderful thing to have a God that teaches like this.
He does that in the Christian age too. He teaches us. He brings us along.
Makes his holy presence known.
The first reaction may be to flee, not to want that presence. But.
It's kind of like Peter when he came into the presence of the Lord the first time, or one of the first times, and he realized who the Lord was. What did he say? He said department from me.
Oh, Lord, for I am a sinful man.
Did Peter really want the Lord to leave?
Don't blame SO.
But he realized something of his own, being who he was.
And the Lord didn't leave, He bore with Peter.
This is our God teaching us about His Holiness.
But there is beauty in holiness.
There is wonderful fellowship in holiness with God.
They're learning that.
Now we'll pass on over to Second Samuel.
Chapter 6.
And uh.
Verse.
Verse one.
Again David gathered together all the chosen men of Israel.
30,000.
And David arose and went with all the people that were with him from Bailey of Judah, to bring up from thence the ark of God, whose name is called by the name of the Lord of hosts.
That dwelleth between the cherubim. And they set the ark of God upon a new card, and brought it out of the House of Abinadab. That was in Gibeah, and Oza and a hijo, the sons of Abinadab drove the cart.
And they brought it out of the House of Abinadab, which was at Gibeah, accompanying the ark of God, and Ohio went before the ark.
And then then, uh, dropping down.
And, umm.
Verse 6 and when they came to.
Nakon's threshing floor as a put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it, for the oxygen shook it.
And the anger of the Lord was kindled against us, and God smote him there for his air, and there he died by the ark of God. And David was displeased because the Lord had made a breach upon us, and he called the name of the place Perazzo to this day. And David was afraid of the Lord that day, and said, How shall the ark of the Lord come to me?
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The wrong reference point. The Ark of God come to me.
What's wrong with that?
The wrong reference point.
The arc, the presence of the Lord, is the focal point.
God brings us there and we go there.
I believe Joshua learned a little bit of that principle when the Lord spoke to him the first time, when he he met him as an armed soldier. And Joshua said, art thou for us or for our adversaries?
An Angel of the Lord says nay, that is captain of the host of the Lord.
Am I come now? Come take off thy shoes.
From thy feet, for the place thou standard is holy ground.
This is holy ground, brother, the presence of the Lord.
It's not to be played with lightly. We're not to make our position the reference point. How shall the ark of God come unto me?
David is learning this too, but I believe he did learn it.
And he didn't stop and we, we're not going to read the whole history, but you know, the history of how later on he, he saw it again and he, he realized, he said we sought it not after the due order. You see, he consulted with the captains when he should have consulted with the priests and the Lord.
It's not a matter of man's warfare. It's not a matter here of battle.
There are wars to be fought.
There are battles to be fought.
Let's go back and.
In chapter 4.
I want to read it something. This just came before me just a few minutes ago before we started this meeting and just pass it on.
Second Samuel 5 and verse 6.
And the king and his men went up to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, which spake unto David, saying, Except I'll take away the blind and the lame, Thou shalt not come in. Hit her, thinking David cannot come in, hit her. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, the same as the city of David. Now turn over to the book of Chronicles. I want to notice a little detail there.
Umm, First Chronicles Chapter 11.
Notice what David says this occasion, verse 6.
And David said, Whosoever smiteeth the Jebusites first shall be chief and captain.
So Joab, the son of Zeruaya, went up first and was chief.
Interesting little detail here. We all know what Joab was like.
Some have said Joab knew he couldn't be first, so he wanted to be second.
And he did.
He got to be second, first under David, that is, you know, there's there's such a thing among the God's people, recognizing the Lord is first.
But a desire to want to be second to him.
And this LED Joab to be most valiant of the mall and he got the position.
Sometimes God uses warrior men like that to get his purposes done.
But I don't believe Johab properly laid hold of the presence of the Lord in Israel.
It's not a lone warrior strength that will guide us to the Lord's place. The Lord sometimes does need to use valiant men, men of faith, and so there's more to it than that. David was a man after the Lord's heart.
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And he's the one who found out that place. And so at the end of his life, umm, when he had offered up the sacrifice, David could say, well, let's in closing, read in the, uh, in, uh, I can find it the end of SEC Second Samuel. Uh, our time is.
Up here, but uh.
Chapter. The last chapter of Two Samuel.
And.
The Angel of the Lord had smitten many in Israel, and David offered a sacrifice and that the destroying angels stopped.
And now you have here still in possession of the land verse umm.
Verse 18.
And Gad came that day to David, and said to him, Go up rear, and altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Aruna the Jebusite.
And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as the Lord commanded.
Then then dropping down into verse.
24 And the king said unto Aruna, Nay, but I will surely buy it of thee at a price neither will Ioffer burnt offering.
Unto the Lord my God, of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor.
And the auction for 50 shekels of silver. And David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord was entreated, and the plague was stayed from Israel.
This was God's dwelling place, and David found it.
And so it is God taught His people the place that He had to meet together. Well, may the Lord help us in our day to see the principles of these things and to seek the Lord's guidance and find that place.
Gospel 3
Gospel—Tim Roach
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Good evening. Maybe we started our meeting this evening by saying #4 Christ is the savior of sinners. Maybe someone could start that for us.
Brightness of Savior of sinners. Christ is the Savior for me.
While I will take him to darkness now, I didn't bring thy own praise.
Say you're up there in the world. Say you're on January, like me.
70753.
No problem.
Thank you. I love you and I figure out they figure out there's like me.
Shake it up for my God.
See if the shaker for me.
Yes, Yes, Sir. Thank you for calling me.
In Acts 16 verse 31 it says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's a very common gospel verse because that is how you get saved believe on the Lord Jesus.
Umm, I think it is good to know who your audience is when you are preaching the gospel.
We heard last night or the other night about some working down on the Skid Row.
I just recently heard about a couple of fellows who were who were working down on or who were working as whole or they were homeless for some time and they went to some gospel meetings at a mission in order that they could get some food to eat. And but they first had to listen to the gospel before they could get their food. And they they said about 80% of the time the people who came in would preach about health, fire and damnation.
But yet these people.
That are living on the streets, many of the ones that I meet with in Malawi, they know what hell is like here on earth. It's nothing like the real actual hell, but they live in terrible circumstances.
They know what it is like.
To live a life with no hope.
They know that they are lost. They know that they are sinners. They know that there is judgment ahead.
And like Paul and Silas when they were speaking to the Philippian jailer in Acts Chapter 16.
They didn't have to explain to the jailer that he had to repent from his sins.
He came in, he knew he was a Sinner. He was ready to be executed.
Because some prisoners had, he thought some prisoners had escaped, and he was afraid to meet eternity. He was afraid, and so he comes in trembling. Before Paul and Silas. He had already knew he was a Sinner. He knew he was in danger.
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They didn't have to tell him about that, and so he could simply tell this man.
Believe.
On the Lord Jesus Christ.
As I look at you this evening, most of you have been here for three days.
You've heard a gospel meeting on Friday night. You've heard a gospel meeting on Saturday night. There was a Sunday school this morning.
What more can I say to explain the gospel to you in a way that you can understand?
Maybe you are already saved?
But maybe you are not.
It is you who I want to speak to tonight, those of you who do not yet know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
Menu of You have been to Sunday school many times. You hear about the love of God.
You know what it's like to be brought up in a Christian home. Things are nice, things are easy, and you haven't done anything terribly wicked.
You don't know that you're lost.
Like those people on Skid Row. I was speaking with a man in Malawi sitting on the curb next to him as he was there on the street, a street person.
He says. You preachers, you come in here and you talk about hell.
And about eternal life, he says. What do I want eternal life, for this life is miserable. What do I want to live eternally like this for?
He didn't quite understand what eternal life was.
We have it pretty easy here.
Most of us.
But you need to know Jesus Christ as your Savior. Let's go to Numbers, Chapter 33.
I'm going to talk a little bit about Joshua as he went into the land of Canaan and some of the things that happened there when they came up to Jericho.
And before they went into the land of Canaan, which was the promised land.
Josh was sent in two spies to check out the land to see how they are going to make their strategy for war. And as they went in, they came to the city of Jericho, and the city of Jericho is a big city. It had a big wall all the way around the city, a high wall, and it was a big wide wall. And on the wall there were some houses that were built. Well, they went, they were going to find a place, a motel that they could stay in there in Jericho while they were there.
They found this house on the wall run. The operation was run by a lady named Rahab. Rahab was a prostitute and she welcomed these men in to her motel and there they stayed.
But yet this this woman.
We will see that she was working, that Faith was working in her.
We're told in Hebrews that by faith she received those spies in peace. She let them come into her house. She was afraid of them.
All the people in Jericho were afraid of those Israelites.
But she let them come in people in the town, they heard that these two men had come into her house and they go to check em out, say who where are those people that came to check out our land? And she says, well, I don't know who you're talking about. They came to me, but they they left, they're gone. But really she had taken them up onto the roof and she hid them under some some grain and stuff and she laid it out nicely and put them underneath so they couldn't find them.
I remember when I was a kid, maybe 10 years old, or I used to write to my grandpa, Adrian Roach, and letters. Now and then I asked him a question. In one of the letters they said who in the Bible told a good lie?
Well, he wrote back to me and said, you know, there's no such thing as a good lie. You always need to tell the truth.
And then he listed several possibilities of people who who maybe I was thinking about.
But even though Rahab told the lie, she was a woman of faith.
And we'll find that out as we go through here. But here in before they went into the land of Canaan, we'll find here in #33, verse 50, the Lord spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, when you are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan, listen to what it says here. Then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you.
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Oh, there's a problem in the land. They had to get rid of these people who were in there. They were sinners. God did not want his people of Israel to be mixed up with the sinners of the world. Maybe you have some friends back at your school or at your place of work or your neighbors. You have friends that are not saved, you say, Oh yeah, well, I need to be friends with them so I can give them the gospel. That's true. But God does not want us to be mixing our lives together with the unbelievers.
If you are not yet saved.
The Sinner friends are going to keep you from coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. They're going to hinder you from listening to the gospel. They're going to mock you. They're going to laugh at you, and they're going to try to keep you from hearing the gospel. And so we found these Sinner friends in the land, and they were told to drive them all out of the land from before you. And then it says destroy all the pictures and destroy all their molten images.
And quite plucked down all their high places. There's four things there, the inhabitants of the land.
The pictures, the molten images in the high places, the pictures they were to destroy the pictures. The pictures might speak of the entertainment in the world that that attracts your hearts and your minds and tries to take your mind away from God. Amusement. Entertainment is amusement. Amuse means to think. When you say amuse, it means without thinking.
And so Satan has many things in this world to take our minds, to occupy our minds, to give us empty minds so he can fill it with anything he wants to.
And then it says molten images. They need to destroy the molten images. And in that land there was, they had idols that they bowed down, they worshipped to. They prayed to their gods. You drive around the suburbs around here today you're going to find.
Statues molten images of Mary sitting in some of the the the yards around.
People worship Mary. They pray to Mary. Mary's dead, She can't answer prayers.
But people think that Mary.
Is a God.
They take Mary to represent God and they put more importance on her. Well, you say, well, I don't do that.
But what do you have that's in your life that's more important to you than God?
That's no different than having a statue of Mary in your front lawn.
Idols that are more important to you, things in this life, possessions.
Occupations.
Entertainment.
Then it says to destroy quite plucked down all their high places.
There's things in life, places that we go.
The high places where were they is the places where they put their their idols that they worship.
And to you maybe it means the high places, maybe will mean those places that you go.
To do those things that occupy your heart and your mind, have more importance to you, and it takes away glory of God. It's the places you go. To do those things well, they had to go into the land and they had to tear these things down, destroy everything.
Before they went into the land to possess it. And you have these wicked influences in your life and your need to get rid of those things out of your life, those sinful things, the sinful ways before you can enter into an enjoyment.
In the peace, with the peace of God.
There is sin in Jericho. Jericho was a wicked city and they had to go in there and destroy things in that land before they could go in.
Jericho will be destroyed, but yet those of you who are unsaved, you have sinful things, wicked things in your life that need to be taken care of, and they need to be confessed to God dirty things.
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As you come born into this world, you are born as a Sinner, and as you get older, you become a bigger Sinner and you do bigger sins.
When I was Some of you have heard this story before, but when I was in Malawi.
There was this lady who came through one of the villages and she was a prostitute.
And she had gotten herself pregnant and she had this baby. And she went into what we call a chimpoozy. A chimpoozie is a a toilet. It's not like the ones we have here, but it's a oh, they build a big tank under the ground, a big hole, and they fill it in and they just leave a small hole. And they will. They sometimes call it a squatty potty. But this lady, she went in there to have her baby. She didn't want the baby, so she took this newborn infant.
And she put it in that hole and she pushed it down and she stuffed it down into the toilet and it fell down into there, into the slop and all the stink, the filth.
That baby was born in filth.
Some of the neighbors, they heard the baby crying.
And they came down and took the bricks of the building apart and lifted up the dismantled the toilet.
And rescued the baby.
But that baby was born in Phil. When you were born into this world, you are born in sin.
You are born with a sinful nature. That sinful nature is a dirty, filthy nature that will make you sin, that will take you down into a lost eternity in hell.
That's sin you.
Are a Sinner and that is a problem.
Because God says the soul that sins, it shall die. You say, Oh yeah, well, everybody dies. You put up in a little box and you stuffed in the ground and they throw the dirt over you. That's it. That's the end. But let me tell you, that's a lie. That is not the end because it is appointed unto man once to die. And after death, the judgment, you will be raised again from the dead. There is life after death and you will find that after death when Jesus.
Is ready to judge you. He will take you up out of the grave, and you will stand before God.
And you will have to answer to him.
What did you do with Jesus?
Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior?
The soul that sins, it shall die.
In the Book of Revelation, if you were to go to chapter 20, you would find that the books were opened.
And your whole life is listed there in those books.
Your sin is recorded.
And we're told that death and hell are cast into the lake of fire.
The soul that sinneth it shall die. When you die, you will then be thrown into the lake of fire, into eternal damnation, eternal punishment. You will have a body that will exist forever.
Your body, your soul, you will be thrown into this place of eternal damnation, eternal separation from God.
The soul that sins, it shall die. Let's go to Joshua chapter 2.
Joshua Chapter 2. Because you are a Sinner, there is danger you will.
Face the danger and the judgment of hell.
Rahab.
She knew about danger.
And she was afraid.
And she says here in verse 9 when the people were talking to her.
She was afraid. And she said, all the people, the land, were afraid. And she said unto the men, I know that the Lord.
Has given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.
There was terror in the land because the children of Israel were going to come and destroy.
The wicked in that city and the wicked in that city were afraid. Maybe you are afraid tonight. Maybe you are afraid of God. Maybe you are afraid of eternity in hell. But fear is not going to save you. Trembling is not going to save you. Oh, there was terror in this city, and they eventually were destroyed. But their terror did not save them. Being afraid of hell does not save you. It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance.
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It is not the fear of health.
But these people, they were fainting.
Because of the terror in verse 11 Says, as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt. Neither remained there any more courage in any man. And so their courage found their hearts melted. They were afraid.
Of the danger of the judgment that they knew was coming.
Tonight you are in danger of hell fire the danger. The judgment is coming. You can't escape that judgment.
Unless you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior.
I hope you are afraid. The fear won't save you, but I hope you are afraid.
I want you to fear God. I don't want you to fear man. I want you to fear God.
Hell is very real.
It's called the Lake of Fire.
Some of you heard this story too, but there was a a little girl in Malawi. She's three years old. Her name was Elaine, the mother and the father. They named her after my wife.
Elaine So the girl's three years old. She went down and she sat in a pot of boiling hot porridge that was sitting on the fire.
She sat in it and she burned herself on her bottom and down her legs and she was screaming in pain.
The Bible tells us that there's weeping, there's wailing, there's gnashing of teeth in hell.
Can you imagine being thrown into the lake of fire with that torment of that pain? This little girl, she was screaming and crying. She spent many days in the hospital.
I had to give her many, many injections to help her deal with the pain.
But she got burned.
Her mother.
Her father, the village that raises the children.
They don't teach about danger.
You need to experience it. That's how you learn. There. You learn that fire is hot by putting your hand in the fire and getting burned.
I don't want you to go to hell and find out that hell burns.
I want you to know about the danger before you get there.
And so they we have the Gospel Meeting tonight.
Many of you have been raised in Christian homes. You've heard the gospel many times.
You don't think you're really that bad?
You don't know that you're lost.
But you are there is danger, and I want you to know about that danger to this afternoon.
We talked about that Philippian jailer who trembled in his sin.
And then there was Felix.
He trembled when he heard the gospel message from Paul because he was afraid of judgment to come.
But it didn't save him. King Agrippa was very much the same, he said to Paul. You almost persuade me to be a Christian. Almost.
Where is Agrippa tonight?
I don't know. He's probably in hell because he he was only almost saved.
What about you?
Are you almost safe?
Are you almost saved?
You know the gospel message. You pray to God, you pray to the Lord.
You say Lord, Lord.
You're almost saved.
But almost.
Is not good enough. Almost, but lost.
I don't want you to be almost saved. I want you to be altogether saved, to believe on the Lord Jesus and to accept Jesus as your savior.
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Let's go to Chapter 2.
Well, I guess we're already in chapter 2. Let's go to verse 12.
There is a way of escape. There is judgment, but there is a way of escape. Verse 12.
Now therefore I pray you swear unto me by the Lord since I have showed you kindness. Now this is Rahab talking to the two spies. She says, since I have showed you kindness, that you would also show to me kindness unto my Father's house and give me a true token. She wanted to be saved from the danger.
Oh, do you want to be saved from the danger of hell tonight? Do you want to be saved from the judgment that is coming because of sin? Oh, the Lord Jesus, he wants to save you. He doesn't want you to go to hell.
The Lord Jesus has love for you. Maybe you've never experienced love, true love.
Oh God has true love for you.
If you knew how bad hell was. If you knew how much Jesus had to suffer on the cross.
If you knew the extent of the suffering of the punishment of sin that Jesus endured on the cross.
That is the same measure in which Jesus loves you.
He loves you a lot.
Well, Rahab, she wanted a true token.
That she would have salvation from the judgment.
And so she talked, talked to the spies, and said, give me something. Well, she wanted to save herself. She wanted to save her family too. And the man answered her in verse 14, our life for yours. If you utter not this our business. And it shall be when the Lord hath given us the land that we will deal kindly and truly with thee. And then she let them down by a cord through the window, for her house was upon the town wall.
And she dwelt upon the wall.
And then she told them.
Get to the mountains, lest the pursuers meet you there. See, people were gonna They came in to find the two spies. They wanted to kill them, but she rescued them, and she helped them to escape. And she How did they escape? They took this scarlet cord, the scarlet, this red rope, and she put it down over the wall, out of her window, down over the wall. And they climbed down and they ran to to safety.
Well, the.
The two spies, they said, you take this red cord, you roll it up, you put it in your window, and that will be the true token that you will be saved. When we come in, we will not destroy you, but if you don't have that red cord in the window.
You will be destroyed with the rest of the city.
We also have a true token. If you come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, there is a true token for you. There is the blood of Jesus Christ, and this red cord is a picture of the blood of Jesus Christ.
That cleanses us from all our sin. It is a true token. The the red cord was evidence of a reminder, that of the promise of Joshua, that he would not kill them, that spies were speaking on behalf of Joshua. They gave her a promise.
Or the blood of Jesus Christ. It is a token to us of the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ that our sins will be washed away. Our sins will be taken away.
If we have trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The red cord was a way of escape.
For the two spies, it's also a way of escape.
For Rahab and her family, Rahab was to give the gospel message to the rest of her family and tell them if you come into my house when Israel comes to destroy the city, you will be safe.
And so the red cord was a way of escape from the judgment.
Verse verse 21.
She said, according to your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they departed. And she bound the scarlet line in the window. And they went and came unto the mountain, and abode there three days until the pursuers returned.
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So she put the scarlet line in the window. The red cord, she put it in the window as.
For her safety. It reminds us again of the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ has so much value. We had a meeting this morning and Sunday school about value. While the blood of Christ has extreme value for you for your salvation, We can be redeemed by the blood of Christ. You can have remission of sins from the blood of Christ. There's propitiation, there's atonement, There's cleansing through the blood of Christ.
We are brought nigh by the blood of Christ. It takes away our sins.
You cannot underestimate the value of the blood.
And then we see in verse 22, Rahab had told them to go out and hide in the mountains for three days. And the people who are looking for you, they will give up and then you can be free to go home. And so they went out, they went down the cord, they ran up to the mountains, and they hid there for three days, three days hidden. That speaks to us of the three days of death.
They did not return to their own people of Israel. They were gone. They were missing for three days.
That was the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
A picture of the three days that the Lord Jesus had died, Christ died for our sins.
He was buried, and on the third day he rose again and so.
The verse tells us that if you believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And so we we see in this picture salvation, and we see redemption, salvation from your sins. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
And the blood of Christ can redeem you from your sins and take away your sins so that scarlet cord was evidence.
That Rahab had faith.
You too can have faith in the blood of Jesus. Let's look at a verse in Romans chapter 3.
Romans chapter 3 and verse 25.
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins.
That are past and so.
We are protected from those wrath of God and the penalty of sin by the blood of Christ. Do you have faith in the blood?
Do you believe that the blood can take away your sins? Jesus died for you. He took that punishment. It was not an easy thing for him. Before he went to the cross, he prayed to the Father and said Father, if it be possible, take this cup away from me. He did not want to have to go to the cross, but he was willing and he did. He went to the cross because when he had sinned, put on him.
It was a terrible thing for him.
But yet he willingly took that sin.
To take away your sin. And he shed his blood.
Chapter 3.
And verse 13.
We see that the priests, they took the ark of the Lord and they went into the waters.
They had to go about 3000 feet further upstream so the people of Israel could would not come too close to the ark of God and they were able to cross the stream on dry land because when the priests went into the water, the water stopped and it started to build up behind them.
But the feet of the priests were in the water and it says here in verse 13.
In the middle of the verse.
The Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters.
Of Jordan, the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters.
You see, the children of Israel had to go through the Red Sea, through the waters.
The Lord Jesus had experienced the waters of judgment.
As he went to the cross, the punishment was poured on him. Wave after wave of judgment went over Jesus.
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And then the Lord Jesus could rest.
There's peace for you. Maybe you are troubled about your sins tonight and you want to be saved.
You can trust.
In the blood of Christ you can trust in the work of the Lord Jesus.
The God is satisfied with Jesus. When Jesus finished the paying the penalty for your sins, he could cry out. It is finished. That means the work of salvation, the work of redemption was finished. There was nothing more that needed to be done.
To be pay the penalty for your sins, it is finished and God was satisfied that Jesus had completed the work.
God is satisfied with the blood of Christ. You too can be satisfied. And so the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters.
Let's go over to Chapter 6.
And verse verse 3 here, when when the children of Israel were going to come up to Jericho, they're going to destroy the city and they came up.
And the they had, they went into spy out the land so they could plan their strategy. But the Lord said, this is how you're going to do it. You're going to go in and you're going to the whole congregation of people are going to March around the city once each day for six days. And so they went in and then on the 7th day they're going to March around the city 7 times.
And it says here in verse three, you shall compass the city all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days, and seven priests shall bear before the ark 7 trumpets of ram's horns. And the 7th day you shall compass the city 7 times.
And the priest shall blow with the trumpets, and it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout, And the wall of the city shall fall, shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.
Here we see that there is judgment. The judgment came.
It's not just something we talk about. It's not just something that's never going to happen. It is a reality. It's going to happen. Job chapter 36, verse 18 says there is wrath. You can't get away from that wrath of God except through the blood of Christ. We talk about a loving God, and that is true. God is a God of love, but God is also a God of wrath and anger. We're told that God is angry with the wicked every day.
But he's also a loving God.
And his love goes out to you and there, but he warns you that there is judgment. And in verse 20. So when the people shouted, the people shouted. When the priest blew the trumpets, and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout that the wall fell down flat. So that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him. And they took the city, and they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and *** with the edge of the sword. Verse 24. And they burnt the city.
With fire.
There may be some young people here today.
Some children, some older people, everyone in that city was destroyed, the old and the young. And they killed all the animals too. They utterly destroyed the city and then they burnt everything with fire.
There's going to be utter destruction also in hell.
You can't get away from God. You can't hide from God. Some people like to burn their bodies when they die with ashes and have them sprinkled over the ocean, thinking that God could never put them back together to bring them to judgment.
But that is not the case. There will be destruction in hell. You will stand before a righteous God. But yet the next point is that there is salvation. There is salvation for the righteous. And if we see here in verse 22.
We see Joshua had said to the two men that had spied out the country, go into the harlot's house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath as she swear unto her. And the young men that were spies went in and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had. And they brought out all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel. Verse 25. And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father's household.
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And all that she had and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day, because she hid the messengers which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. God will not destroy the righteous with the wicked we find if you read Romans 5 and verse 9.
We are justified.
I better read it.
Romans 5 verse 9.
Much more than now, being justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. So because of the blood of Christ, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved from wrath through him. And then if you go to 1St Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 9, again it talks about the wrath. For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. And so God is not willing that any should perish. He does not want you to experience the wrath of hell because His love is so great.
He was willing to take the wrath of God upon himself so that you could be set free. While Rahab was saved by her faith, she was saved by her faith, and Rahab knew that she would be safe because that scarlet cord was in the window. She knew she was going to be safe because she had that promise of salvation from the spies that Joshua had sent. And you and I, we have peace. We can have peace too. That our sins are gone, We can have.
Assurance of our salvation because of the blood of Christ that was shed for us. You know, Rahab, she was just as safe in that house. While the walls were falling down all around her house, she was safe there. She was just as safe as if.
She had already been taken out of the city.
And you and I, we are just as safe also.
You are say, if you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are just as safe tonight as if you had already been taken to heaven to be with the Lord Jesus. Rahab had peace. She knew she would be taken into that land of Canaan to be with Israel.
God honored her faith. Rahab was even part of the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And she knew she would be safe in the Land of Israel. She knew she would not be destroyed. Let's go to Ephesians Chapter six, Chapter one.
Ephesians Chapter One, verse 6.
To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through the blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace.
We can be safe through the blood of Christ.
You can be accepted in the beloved. Rahab was accepted because of that red cord, because of her faith. If you have faith in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, you too will be accepted in the beloved, accepted in the Lord Jesus Christ.
You are Ju, just as she was safe. You and I can be safe. We find that in John, Chapter 10.
It says My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and I give unto them eternal life.
And they shall never perish. You will never perish if you have trusted in the blood of Christ, If you have trusted in the work of Christ, you will be safe. No man can pluck you out of his hands. You are in the hands of the Lord Jesus.
He will not let anyone take you out. He will not let yourself do anything that can take you out. Yes, you may fail, but you cannot get out of the hands of the Lord Jesus and you have double security because you are also in the hands of the Father.
There are no greater hands in the universe. You are safe. Not even Satan can take you out of his hands. And in John chapter first, John chapter 5 and verse 13 says, these things have I written unto you that you may know that you have eternal life?
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This is not something you don't you have to worry about. You can know. You can know tonight that you have eternal life and you can never lose it.
I want to make one last point.
And this point is that you need to choose life. If you were. If we go to Matthew Chapter 7, we'll find that there are two roads.
One is the broad Rd. that leads to destruction, the other is the narrow Rd. that leaves leads unto salvation. Matthew Chapter 7, verse 13.
Enter you in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat, because Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth to destruction.
The Broadway that leads to destruction. Oh, it's that's the easy way. That's the way everybody takes. I remember that in Malawi. A couple weeks before I got there in October, there was a bus driver. His there were two buses and the first bus driver, he said to his boss, you know, I'm not gonna take this bus with me. I'm not gonna drive this bus over the mountains because the brakes are not very good. Well, the boss said, well, if you don't wanna take that bus across the mountains, you're fired. Well, the guy says fine, I'm not gonna do it.
I don't wanna, I don't wanna crash, but yet.
This man, he went and found his friend, a relative said, why don't you drive this bus over the mountains? And the fellow said, OK, I'll do it.
As they came, it was a long journey, about 8 hours from the long way up to well, they got up to the mountains and they were coming down the mountains. Two buses, one following the other. The first guy was in the bus without the good brakes, he comes down.
Around the bends, picking up speed, no brakes. He comes to the edge of the precipice and he can't make the turn. He goes off the road into the mud, hits a tree and the bus flips end over end down over the precipice several 100 feet to the bottom. People were falling out of the bus as it fell through, as it crashed over the edge and there fell down down.
Down to their death.
68 people killed in an instant.
It was a Broad Rd. It's the way everybody went.
But it LED them to destruction.
When you stand before God.
And he finds that you have been raised in a Christian home.
When he finds that you have heard the gospel once, twice, maybe many times.
But you have rejected it. You haven't accepted Jesus Christ as your savior.
He's going to say to his attendants, bind, tie him up, hands and his feet and cast him into outer darkness and you will be falling down, down, down into the pit of Hell. There is no escape. There is no hope. You will never be rescued from that downward journey into Hell. That's where the Broad Rd. takes you. But I want you to choose life. I don't want you to go on that Broad Rd. down into hell.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, Thou shalt be saved. Take take the narrow way.
There's few that find a narrow way. There's many that go down the Broad Rd. but there's only a few that accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. Do you want to be one of those few who accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? Maybe you want to get off the Broad Rd.
That leads to destruction. And you want to choose life tonight. How are you going to choose life? Do you just make a decision that from now on I'm going to decide to keep the commandments? I'm going to decide to follow the Bible. I'm going to decide to be good to my neighbor. Is that how you get saved? No, it's not because you will fail. If you try to do those good things, sooner or later you will fail.
I want to give you a clear, easy message how you can be saved. Some people say it's as simple as ABC. First a you can agree with the Lord Jesus Christ that you are a Sinner.
Agreed that you can't help yourself. You can't do any good things to be accepted by God. You can't be good. There is none good. God says you're all sinners. You're in danger of hell.
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You need to agree that you are a Sinner, just like the publican who is in the story we read about.
His prayer was God be merciful to me, a Sinner. He recognized that he was a Sinner. You need to do that tonight. Admit to God that you are a Sinner.
The second is B. Believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Believe that Jesus gave himself to be your substitute.
And to bear your sins and believe that he died.
On the cross for your sins, and believe that he shed his blood to take away your sins.
Do you believe that?
And then we have C.
Confess.
Confess Jesus as Lord. We have that in Romans 10 verse nine that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus says Lord and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. What does it mean to believe in Jesus as Lord?
Is Jesus your Lord? What does that mean? It means you have repented from your own ways, from yourself will, and turned yourself over to Jesus Christ.
Repented.
God says believe and repent. If you don't believe, God says you will be damned. But if you do believe, God says you have everlasting life if you.
Repent. If you don't repent, God says you will perish. But God commands you to repent in his love. He does not want you to be destroyed in hell. So he says believe. On the Lord Jesus he says repent.
Luke chapter 6 and verse 46 says that why do you call me Lord, Lord, when you don't do the things that I say for you to do? Maybe you are here tonight and you have been in the meetings. Maybe you're even gathered and you broke bread with us this morning.
But you say, Lord, Lord, but when you go home tomorrow and you go back to your life, to your daily life, and you start doing those things you've always done.
And you forget about God, and he is not the Lord of your life.
Let me tell you, you have no guarantee that you are saved.
Because you must repent and follow Jesus as Lord if Jesus is not your Lord.
You haven't really repented. If you have not repented, you will perish and so you have no guarantee that you are saved if you have not turned away from the sinful life.
Confess Jesus as Lord that also has the thought of telling others. Tell someone else that you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. Maybe your mother doesn't know that you're saved.
Maybe they think you are.
But it's good for them if they really know. And it helps you to have assurance of your salvation if you can tell somebody. I know Jesus Christ as my savior. Let's sing #12 just as I am without one plea.
Just as.
Well.
Lot of my games and I don't know.
Anything so hard?
00:55:16
Mm-hmm.