St. Louis Conference: 2023
Table of Contents
The Remberance or the Lord
Address—B. Prost
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While others are coming in, I'd like to suggest the hymn to sing at the beginning of the meeting, the very last hymn in the book #85 in the appendix.
That might seem like an unusual hymn to suggest in an address primarily for believers.
But you will see why when we come to what we want to talk about.
Number 85 in the appendix written by a woman by the name of Clara Taylor.
As far as we know, she never married. Wrote the hymn well over 250 years ago, in 1742.
We don't know a lot of voter. Far as I know, she never left the Church of England. In those days there wasn't a there weren't a lot of other places to go.
But her heart was right.
Very right.
She had a deep feeling, a deep understanding for what the Lord meant to her.
So let's sing that hymn together number 85 in the appendix.
The cross.
The cross. Oh, that's our game.
Because on that the Lamb was slain. It was there the Lord was crucified.
It was there for us. The Savior died.
The.
I really hesitate to speak on the subject that is before me.
But it has been on my heart for quite a long time.
And when I was asked a few days ago to take the responsibility for this meeting.
Immediately that subject came before me, and I trust from the Lord.
And I asked the Lord, I said, Lord, if it is not what you would have me speak on, make it abundantly clear.
And I trust with the Lord's mind, we can go ahead.
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To speak a little bit.
On the remembrance of the Lord.
I've had the privilege, as many of you know, of traveling a good deal, not only here in North America but also in different parts of the world.
And I don't want anyone to get the wrong impression.
But generally, when any of us go to visit an assembly, we end up with a sense in our souls.
Of where those dear brethren are in their souls, what they are enjoying.
How are how they are getting on spiritually?
Paul could say of Timothy.
And I'm quoting from the Derby translation. He could say I know of no one who will care with genuine feeling how you get on.
Sometimes that I'm at a prayer meeting in an assembly. I always enjoy it. It's a wonderful time.
Sometimes I'm at a reading meeting and there is a lot of precious truth brought out.
Wonderful. Sometimes at a gospel meeting. Now, the gospel is primarily an individual responsibility, but it's wonderful to see it connected with the local assembly.
But may I say this I trust without offense.
If I want really to know how those dear brethren in any given assembly are getting on.
Let me be at the remembrance of the Lord.
Because it is there, perhaps more than in any other meeting.
Where our two state of soul.
And how our heart is with the Lord.
We've been talking in the prayer meeting and I really enjoyed it. Wonderful verses one after the other about how the Lord is willing to provide for us, how God provides bread for His people, and how that when we come together like this, we can count on God.
To give us that which we need.
I wasn't intending particularly on quoting poetry, but the words of a poem comes to mind come to mind, written way back in the 1800s, supposedly by a beloved sister by the name of Elizabeth Wilcox, although the authorship is sometimes disputed.
But in the era of sailing vessels, the pole went like this.
One ship sails east and another W for the self. Same winds that blow.
But it's not the gales, it's the set of the sails that determine the way we go.
The winds of the sea.
Are like the waves of let me straighten it out.
The winds of the sea are like the waves of time as we journey on through life.
It's the set of the soul that determine the goal and not the calm.
Or the strife.
More than one brother who prayed in the prayer meeting revert referred to the strife in this world.
You and I don't feel it quite the same way here in North America as those in the Ukraine or those in the land of Israel and many other parts of the world.
But there is plenty of strife to upset us in one way or another.
And in order for you and me to enjoy the bread that God wants to give us, in order to be able to enjoy everything that Christ has for us.
To use the imagery of that poem, the sail has to be set to go against the wind. I am no sailor, don't get me wrong, but I've read enough about sailing vessels to know that when you want to beat against the wind, you have to set the sail in a certain way and be able to do what they call tack.
And sometimes the headwind is so strong that that's impossible.
In human things, but in divine things, we can always sail against the wind.
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And then the second verse went on to say, it is the set of the soul that determines the goal and not the calm or the strife. And you and I in these last days need our soul set.
In the right way.
The brother that emailed me asking me to take this meeting mentioned specifically, he said. Bill, remember there are going to be lots of young people there and lots of children.
And I trust what we have to say this afternoon, we'll have an appeal to each one.
Let's turn to God's Word for some simple verses that we all know well, Luke's Gospel chapter 22 first of all.
And again, these are very familiar, no doubt to most, if not all of us.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 22.
And verse 14.
And when the hour was come, he sat down, That is the Lord Jesus, and of the 12 apostles with him. And he said unto them with desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. Excuse me.
For I say unto you, I will not anymore eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.
And he took the cup, Now this is the Passover cup, not the cup of remembrance. And gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divided among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God shall come.
And he took bread, and gave thanks, and break it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me.
Likewise also the cup after supper saying this cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you.
Now over to the book of the Acts Chapter 20. Acts Chapter 20.
Acts 20 and verse 7.
And upon the first day of the week.
When the disciples came together to break bread.
Just leave it there and then one verse back in First Kings.
First Kings.
And you'll see the connection of that verse in a moment.
First Kings chapter, I think it's 17.
Yes, first Kings 17.
And verse 12.
Well, let's read verse 11 to get the connection.
Elijah had just asked the widow of Zarephath to bring him a drink.
Verse 11 And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruise. And behold, I am gathering 2 sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.
And Elijah said unto her.
Fear not go and do as thou hast said, but make me there of a little cake first.
And bring it unto me, and after make for thee, and for thy son.
For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the crews of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth the rain upon the earth.
The remembrance of the Lord.
Is unique in all of the assembly meetings. Why?
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Because, and I want to emphasize this because it's crucial, it is the one meeting when we come together to give, not to receive.
And without wanting to be critical at all, much of evangelical Christendom has turned the Lord's Day into a day when we come together to hear a sermon.
And that seems the norm.
And again, we are not critical. I'm thankful for some who do remember the Lord every Lord's Day, but many do it only once a month, or even fewer times than that.
But what does it say? In Acts 20, the disciples came together to break bread.
And we didn't read the verse, but if we were to go to Revelation chapter one, we would find that the apostle John on the Isle of Patmos, where I suppose he could not break bread because he was probably all alone there, could say I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day.
The Lord must have the 1St place and we don't have time to consider all the scriptures that bring that before us, but it is a theme that runs throughout the Word of God, that what is God? Word always comes before what is manward worship always comes first and then service.
And so when we come together to remember the Lord.
It is a time when we come to give.
We ought to come together with that uppermost in our minds that here are precious Lord and Savior who loved us and died for us.
Has called us to come together and has said this.
Do in remembrance of me.
There are others here beside myself.
Who will remember our late brother Eric Smith?
And I can still remember being in his home quite a few years ago now.
When he lived in Florida and speaking a bit together about his life.
And how he had come to know the Lord, and then had come to be gathered to the Lord's name.
And I can still remember his saying to me and to some others of us that were there.
Oh, he said, to be present at the remembrance of the Lord.
Is a privilege, A privilege that I value more highly than anything else, and it is the dearest place to my heart this side of the glory.
I asked myself, is that true of you and of me?
Many years ago and I was not there.
An old brother whom I knew very well.
And he wasn't in our local assembly apparently. Went up to the table to give thanks for the emblems.
And although he didn't know it then, it was the last time he would break bread.
Before the week was out, he was with the Lord.
And apparently as he walked up to the table, he was so overcome with the privilege.
That he said.
Write a little loud. Oh, he said. May this precious remembrance of the Lord.
Never become religious ritual. May it ever be fresh in our minds.
I speak to my own heart as much as to any other here. It is easy to get into a routine. It is easy to come together every Lord's Day simply because it is what we do every Lord's Day. And I am so thankful for that. I am looking largely at those who have been brought up in homes and in families gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You have attended the remembrance of the Lord.
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Week after week, where the Holy Spirit had liberty to lead whomsoever He would to give thanks, to give out a Him.
And ultimately, to give thanks for those precious emblems of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Why do I lay such an emphasis on it all? Because if our hearts are right as to Christ and if everything that he has done, the appreciation of His grace, His love, his sufferings.
After all, aren't they going to be our theme for all eternity? Indeed they are.
And if we read the 5th chapter of Revelation, and we are not turning to these scriptures because I know you are familiar with them, we read there that John saw a lamb as it had been slain. And I believe those wounds, as has often been commented on, will not be scars. They will be wounds that will remind you and me for all eternity of the precious.
Grace and love.
And the fact that he suffered for us.
What a privilege then, it is down here to remember the Lord.
In the world where he was rejected.
You know it is a privilege we won't have in the same way in the glory. There will be no problem with praise up their will there.
The old sinful self will be gone.
No longer will we have a body of humiliation, it will have been changed into a body fashioned like under His glorious body. No longer will be there will there be the distractions and difficulties of the outside world.
Everything will be perfectly suitable to that wonderful song of praise for all eternity.
But there's a special character, a special quality.
To the priests that's offered down here where there are many difficulties and many problems.
And the Lord Jesus appreciates it more than you and I can ever think.
And we think first of all of Him and what it means to him. Think of the Mount of Transfiguration, all that glory displayed there in the presence of Peter and James and John, where the Lord together with Moses and Elijah.
But what were they talking about? What was their conversation about?
Ah, they speak of his deceased, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. Oh, that gives us the theme of heaven.
That which will occupy our hearts for all eternity. Oh yes, the glory will be there and I don't take away from it.
But if I may be permitted, I'll quote the words of a one of our good writers from the 1800s, Brother John Bellitt. He said the glory will be wonderful, but even more precious than all that glory will be the celebration of the grace that brought us there.
But in order to illustrate my point, let me tell you a story.
And forgive me if you've heard me tell the story before.
I grew up in the Niagara Peninsula in Hamilton, where fruit farming was very common, and there are those here from Michigan who are very familiar with that.
Too. We had an old brother in our local assembly who was a farmer and he told me a story that happened a way back in the Depression, back in the 1930s.
And in order to understand this, you have to understand a bit of the geography of the area.
Because through the area where I lived there is what is called the Niagara Escarpment, and it goes down into Western New York. It's actually the overhang over which Niagara Falls goes and it goes way up into Ontario into the Bruce Peninsula.
And below that escarpment and going on down to Lake Ontario, the soil is beautiful, very sandy, easy to work with, and the climate is much warmer.
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But up on top of the escarpment, the soil is hard. Believe in me. I have put a hole in a shovel into it many times. I can vote for it.
And this dear brother owned a farm up on the escarpment. And he told me a story once of how the fruit inspector for the province of Ontario, who was going around in the Depression, came to his farm. And he noticed that in the back of his car the inspector had a big basket of beautiful big Peaches. And I guess they were nice, big, luscious, just the right colors and everything.
And his heart sank because his are much smaller.
And they didn't in any way compare in looks to those Peaches.
But he brought some hope for the inspector and they were not like some that we buy today where they picked them green and you have to put them on the counter for a good while to let them ripen. They were good and ripe.
But they were small.
The inspector took a bite into one of them and his eyes lit up, he said.
My the flavor. Oh.
Should have you got more of those?
All the brothers said to him, well look, you've got way better ones in the back of your car already. Oh yes, he said. They're nice, but they don't compare to the flavor that yours have.
The praise that is offered down here has the character, if I could use the term, in a picture of that which is grown on hard ground.
And it won't be able to be offered in the same way in the glory.
Do we appreciate that?
I said there was going to be something I hoped for everyone here.
And I'd like to talk a little.
To each class of people here, if I may be allowed to do so.
And if I may be allowed to say a few things.
As an old man.
I have to recognize where I am on the calendar.
And some of the things I'm going to say.
You'll say, Bill, where's the scripture for that?
And I don't have one.
But I trust that it is, if I can use the term, some spiritual intelligence that has been garnered over the years and largely from many of those brethren who have gone before.
Who gave their judgment on certain things?
I'd like to talk to the brothers here first of all.
Come together to remember the Lord. It is brothers you and I that have a big responsibility because the sisters are not to take audible part. We'll get to them in a minute.
Are we sensitive to the leading of the Spirit of God?
It's not enough simply to fill the time.
With some kind of activity.
And then at the end, go and remember the Lord.
Let me turn to one scripture that I think is important and we'll mention it, Matthew's Gospel.
Chapter.
26.
A little phrase here.
Verse 40, Matthew 26, and verse 40. And he cometh under the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and Seth unto them, or Seth unto Peter. What could you not watch with me one hour?
Leave that now and go down to verse 45.
Then cometh He to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest. Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
I believe there's a hint here.
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When the Lord says one hour.
I can well remember many years ago being at a Bible conference like this.
And I'm sorry to say, and we were all guilty.
There was an evident lack of responding to the spirits leading.
And it went past the hour and no one had gone up to the table to distribute the emblems. And I remember afterward in conversation with our late brother Clarence Lundeen, who shook his head. And then most of you who might remember him will know that he was not normally an emotional man. But that time he was, he said, Brother Bill.
We were all guilty.
I can remember another old brother of my acquaintance in my growing up years who would speak about sleeping away the hour, and I believe that's what the Lord meant when he spoke to his disciples. When He said rise up, let us be going. He didn't mean them to continue on sleeping. Yes, they had been physically asleep, but they had been morally asleep and that was the real problem.
And we can come together and go through the motions and be morally asleep.
Very sad.
Two things are mentioned, but I want to preface them with this remark.
I would 1000 times rather.
Bear with her weakness and have it exposed rather than cover it up with human arrangement.
But let me make a couple of comments, because I say to my own heart, as I say to your heart, dear brothers, we should never be satisfied.
With weakness and failure as if it has to be the norm.
Let's be exercised.
It's very easy to sit there, especially in a larger assembly, and say let the others take part.
Are you and I ready, dear brothers, to get up and offer thanks?
Maybe you say, but I'm not eloquent. I don't have the language to do it. Another brothers can do it so much better.
That's not the point.
If you read Leviticus chapter one and we won't turn to it, it brings before us the burnt offering.
And there were those that were capable of offering a Bullock, others who were capable only of a sheep or a goat, and finally those who are capable only of a turtle, dove or pigeons. What does it say after each one? The very same thing.
It is an offering made by fire of a sweet savour under the Lord.
And I am reminded of early, and I'm glad I'm really going back, so pardon me.
I could remember our late brother Jimmy Smith from Southern California.
That goes back a year or two.
And he told a story of how he had been told he wasn't there at a meeting.
Where a number of those who were normally more active in the breaking of bread were not there.
And a dear brother, with much reluctance, went up to the table.
To give thanks for the emblems.
I can remember Jimmy Smith's voice breaking too, as he told the story. He said the dear brother could hardly pray he didn't have the language.
But all he did was go up there and with tears running down his face, he said, Lord, we thank thee.
Lord, we thank Thee.
And then he broke the bread.
And those who were present said they had seldom felt the Lord's presence so real.
And the power of the Spirit so strong as on that occasion.
It's not a matter of language now. There's nothing wrong with a prayer of that.
In the imagery of Leviticus, one offers a Bullock. That's wonderful. The Lord appreciates that.
I've said this before and I want to say it just once more and leave it.
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It's a sign of our weakness and failure to turn the remembrance of the Lord into a Him sing.
I can remember reading in our written ministry.
Where a brother asked a question in a reading meeting and he said in the presence of an older brother.
Would you hesitate just as much even to give out of him?
Oh, the older brother said.
I would hesitate more to give out a him than anything else.
He said because it is so easy to miss the mind of the Spirit and to give out the wrong one, It is so easy to give out a hymn that is far beyond our understanding and our state of soul.
And he said furthermore, it is easy to do it as an excuse.
Let's not be ashamed to get up on our feet and pray.
And brethren, please don't misunderstand me. Hide 1000 times as I say, bear with failure and cover it up with a ritual and human arrangement. But we need to be exercised.
And if there's a pause in the meetings, no one's saying anything. Let's not just give out of him to fill the time. No, let's be exercised. What the Spirit is leading me to do? Maybe nothing.
But I remember reading and I just leave it with the leave this I remember reading.
The notes.
The Bible conference well over 100 years ago, and somebody had taken down everything that happened in the remembrance of the Lord.
I have to say I was rather impressed.
Because there were eight brothers that got up and gave thanks.
And there were only three hymns. Some.
No, I don't want anybody to go away and say Bill Cross said there could only be 3 hymns at the remembrance of the Lord. You know I don't mean that.
1000 times no.
But I do say.
The hymns are wonderful.
Oh, what they mean to us.
Someone has said words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling.
But singing a hymn brings the two together. Singing makes you feel a thought, and it's true.
And let me use that as a springboard to say something about singing.
It's not the loudest singer that necessarily feels the most as to the words, no.
But do we sometimes sit there and not sing?
No, everybody Can't Sing. I know that. And some.
Have a hard time singing on key I know that, but most people have good voices.
I speak particularly, if I may.
To young people, Are you ready to lift your voice, and singing unto the Lord the praises to Him? Not for me.
Not for my brethren, it's for him, no. Yes, we all get the odor of the ointment, definitely when we're in the place where worship is going on.
Let's not be afraid to sing.
We'll all sing in heaven. The voices will be perfect.
Let's not sit there with our mouths closed or gaze around the room or something like that.
If our hearts are right, we will want to sing unto the Lord.
We'll leave it at that.
What about the sisters?
It's not proper for them to take audible part, but can you be in the current of the spirits?
Thoughts. And what he's doing. You indeed can.
And you are more important than you think, because behind the scenes, what you bring to the remembrance of the Lord is of supreme importance.
It's easy to be distracted, it's easy to sit there and don't think I haven't had the experience.
Of something coming into my mind.
Or something in the room, the antics of some baby in the next row, or something else that can be a distraction.
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Let me offer you a solution to that.
And it came from an old brother who's now with the Lord, he said. If you feel extraneous thoughts coming into your mind.
Or find something that is detracting you from thinking about why you are there.
Simply close your eyes, look up to the Lord and say, Lord, I thank thee.
That thou seest me.
Not in all the weakness and failure that I am.
But rather in all the perfection of Christ himself.
And that has what it takes to turn our minds around and bring them into the right focus.
But there's something else that is needed and we will just quote the scripture and it's found in First Corinthians 11, it says.
Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat.
Now, that verse has been wrongly used to say that anyone can come and remember the Lord simply by deciding in his or her own heart that they're ready to do so. That's a misuse of that Scripture. That Scripture is talking about those who are already recognized as being believers and at the Lord's table.
And it means self judgment.
And we can't expect to live for self all week long and neglect the Lord all week and then suddenly come together on Lord's Day and find.
That we are going to be able to offer something to him.
If we're going to offer something to him, there needs to be that occupation with him.
All week long.
I'm telling a lot of stories, but I'll try and finish on time.
I grew up in Hamilton, ON, Canada and there was a very elderly sister who was there for many years, although during much of my childhood she had moved back over to Toronto, ON. Her name was Emily Gosby. She never married and she was so old that she could very well remember sitting on JN Darby's lap as a little girl.
This was told to me by a brother in that assembly who was old enough to be my father.
And as a young man he was sitting there in the remembrance of the Lord, and the Spirit of God was leading him very strongly to give out of him.
And he couldn't bring himself to do it.
After the breaking of bread, some other brother gave out that same hymn.
But it wasn't lost on Emily Godsby.
Outside in front of the meeting room, people were chit chatting as they often do, and there were a group of young men there and she had of course no idea. But she said quietly, she said, you know, brothers, I fear that someone quenched the spirit this morning.
I felt strongly that the Spirit was leading some brother to give that hymn out before the breaking of bread.
Now I thank God someone gave it out afterwards, but I think someone quenched the spirit. Now the brother in question told me this himself and he was old enough to be my father. He said I sat there with my OR. I stood there with my head and it went down, down, down.
And finally I had to confess up to her.
Miss Cosby, I'm the I'm the guilty one.
Well, she didn't have to rub it in.
She didn't have to rub it in. No, she was in the current of God's thoughts and in the current of the spirits leading.
Young people.
Are you remembering the Lord and his death?
It's your privilege and I have known, and I'll say this out loud.
Although I hope it isn't true very often that there have been young people who hesitated to go and ask to be asked to remember the Lord because they said I'll be. My behavior will be scrutinized by the brethren if as soon as I take my place at the Lord's table.
I can tell you something interesting, it's nothing new.
The same brother.
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Whom I quoted a while ago, who in going up to the Lord's Table for the last time, said, May the precious remembrance of the Lord never become religious ritual.
As a young man back in the.
How long ago would it have been? 1890s maybe? I would suppose somewhere in there.
Hesitated to remember the Lord because there were some things in his life that he knew were not in keeping.
And he was afraid that when he went to ask for his place, some of those things might be brought to his attention, and he realized they were not in keeping with one who took his place at the Lord's Table. He said that himself.
But then one verse got him in Second Timothy chapter 2.
Let everyone that nameth the name of the Lord. I'm quoting the Darby. Now depart from iniquity all he said.
I named the name of the Lord even if I'm not breaking bread. I can't use the fact that I'm not breaking bread as an excuse for bad behavior. The Lord is calling me even if I name his name, to depart from iniquity.
And he went and asked to remember the Lord. May I encourage you?
To do that.
And when you come to remember the Lord, remember.
You were just as integral a member of the body of Christ as anyone else.
Sing the hymns, Sing them well.
Open your Bible.
The Lord doesn't always use older brothers to take part and it's very refreshing to me to see a younger brother get up.
And give thanks. Wonderful. We're to have a hymn that the Lord lays on his heart.
Children.
There are lots of children here and I am so glad to see you. It does my heart good to see you here with your parents, to see you running around and enjoying yourselves.
But also sitting here at the meetings.
And maybe you are not quite old enough, although the Word of God does not give us any definite age as to when you should ask to break bread. Isn't that interesting?
It gives us some guidelines and not going to go on to the end of them now, but the point is.
Are you?
Thinking about what especially the breaking of bread is all about.
May I suggest parents?
If your child is old enough to read and write, I think you should be exercised about letting them have.
Their own Bible and hymn book.
It's all right to pull a Bible off the shelf at the meeting room in a hymn book from the supply that are available there. But it's nice, children, to have your own Bible. Why?
Because it's good to read it yourself at home, your own Bible, and have your own hymn book.
I remember well as a boy when I bought my own Bible.
For some reason which I never did understand and still don't, my father was dubious about it.
But I still remember because it was not his money, it was my own money that I was going to pay for it. Back in those days, over 70 years ago, the Bible was $2.10.
And when the individual that was running the book room saw me, she took the two the $0.10 off, so it only cost $2.00.
But I remember with what joy I could turn to the references in my own Bible.
The one time I didn't do it, I was at a gospel meeting and because there were Sunday school children sitting in the role with my parents, I had to sit behind with an old brother who was old enough to be my grandfather.
And of course, the gospel preacher turned to some scriptures and then started to preach.
And I close my Bible and put it in the.
Little rack there on the back of the seat, and the older brother didn't say a word, but after a moment or two he quietly reached out, retrieved my Bible, opened up to the appropriate scriptures, quietly put it on my lap. I never forgot it.
I can still remember and I know I'm telling stories about myself, but I can remember singing that hymn that we sung at the beginning of the meeting.
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Where it says.
What wonders cause could move thy heart to take on thee our curse? And smart. And I didn't know at that age that to smart for something meant to suffer for something. I took it in a different direction, which may bring a smile to your face, but I can assure you it was real.
Maybe other boys here can relate to this, but when I was growing up there were times when I was accused, and probably rightfully so, of being a smart aleck.
A smart aleck. I don't know if they use that term anymore, but I think we know what it means. And I remember singing those words and thinking.
As a boy with a limited understanding of a boy, the.
The Lord Jesus really have to suffer on the cross because I'm a smart Alec.
Children take in more than you think, parents.
Yes, I know small children maybe needs maybe need something to amuse them in meeting, but if they're old enough to read and write, I suggest.
In a humble way that it's nice for them to have a Bible in hymn book to open that hymn book.
To open that Bible, to learn where the places are.
And to be conscious of what the meeting is all about. Yes, it tells us concerning the Passover.
When your children shall ask you what meanie by this service?
But we don't have to wait for that. We don't have to wait for that.
They will learn much by observation.
And I say, brothers and sisters, children will learn from seeing how seriously you and I take the remembrance of the Lord as to what their attitude should be if I'm flippant and casual about it.
They will notice and they won't pay much attention if it means something to you and me.
They will take that to heart.
In the last five minutes, a couple of final comments.
Why do I leave? Why does the Scripture lay such an emphasis on the remembrance of the Lord?
Because if our hearts are right as to Him and everything that He is, everything that he has done for us.
Everything else falls into place.
That's why the remembrance of the Lord needs to take a central place in our lives.
Not just on Lord's Day, but every day of the week.
We remember a dead Christ, We remember him as he was, but he is no longer.
That means we know he's risen. We couldn't remember someone in death who was still dead. It wouldn't make sense. But we remember him in death because he is now alive.
But what he suffered force will be our theme for all eternity and when we remember the Lord.
And it has the first place in our hearts.
We don't have much time, but number one, it becomes the impetus.
The exercise for gospel work because in the morning when we go to remember the Lord, we present Christ.
To God the Father.
And we remember him, but then in the gospel we present him to a lost world.
I hope we don't go to the remembrance of the Lord and then say, well, that's over with, rest of the day is mine. Oh no, 1000 times. No, the Lord's Day only called that once in the Bible. Only once.
But that's all it has to be for the heart.
It honors and glorifies the Lord Jesus in the world where He was rejected.
Paul says in First Corinthians 11 you do show the Lord's death till he come. What does that mean?
It means that when we remember the Lord, the world looking on, and believe me, they know more than you think about what we do when we remember the Lord, even though they're not there.
It makes them realize that we by remembering the Lord in death.
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Realize that he is risen.
Risen and glorified, we show the Lord's death.
Then it's only till he comes.
The remembrance of the Lord ought to bring before us the Lord's coming, perhaps in a more real way that at any other time.
I've already mentioned it. It will be a theme for all eternity on earth. The song begins in heaven. More sweet and loud.
And finally.
The remembrance of the Lord, it's for the Lord we come to give.
But what happened after Mary of Bethany poured that ointment on the Lord?
If you read all the accounts, she poured it both on his head and on his feet. Wonderful. And we don't have time to discuss that now.
What happened? It was for him. She was oblivious to everybody else around her.
What was the result? Oh, the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. If we come to give, do we ever go away empty? No. If we come with the true thought in mind that we are there to give, to respond to His request, will we ever go away without a blessing ourselves? Absolutely not.
There doesn't need to be any ministry after the remembrance of the Lord.
The remembrance is enough, but there's room, there's liberty for ministry. Mary got a tremendous encouragement because there were those that were critical of her. And the Lord says, Let her alone against the day of my burying has she kept this. And then He says, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this which this woman hath done.
Be told for a memorial of her.
Of her.
Oh, how wonderful.
You and I will get a reward for remembering him down here.
Breaks my heart to think about it. A reward for remembering him? How could that be?
He values it.
But he'll rewards you in your soul even now.
Let's sing another hymn together, one that is well known #146.
#146 written by brother James G Deck.
The most prolific hymn writer in our hymn book.
We bless our Savior's name. Our sins are all forgiven.
To suffer. Once to earth he came.
He now is crowned in heaven. And notice the language in verse 30. Let thy love constrain.
Our souls to cleave to thee. Oh, what brings us together of her and makes our hearts right. It's the enjoyment of His love. It's His constraining love upon us that takes hold of our hearts.
And ever in our hearts remain.
That word Remember Me?
May I be allowed to propose a tune to this hymn that I think everybody will know?
The tune happens to be called Armington, but it's similar to another tune that goes up at the end of the first line and this one goes down.
So if we could pay attention to that, it fits this hymn very well.
Let me make sure I can get it right now.
Oh dear, gone from me. Never mind. Doesn't matter what the tune is, we'll start on one that everybody will know.
Way below.
1 Corinthians 10:15-33
Reading
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276.
Given what our brother Bill Prost shared with us this last meeting.
I'm wondering if it might be profitable, brethren, to take up the subject of the Lord's Table and the Lord's Supper we have in First Corinthians chapter 10 and 11.
What do you think about that brother?
I suggest we take up from chapter 10, verse 15.
And perhaps go through Chapter 11 if we can, I don't know how much.
We got 3 readings in this conference, so that works out. I'm not sure we'll just let the Lord guide us.
Should we read from that verse in chapter 10 to the end of that chapter today? That would be good.
10 and verse 15 I speak as to wise men. Judge ye what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
For we, being many, are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread. Behold Israel after the flesh.
Are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What say I then, that the idol is anything, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything?
But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice.
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They sacrifice to devils and not to God, and I would not that you should have fellowship with devils.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of devils.
Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?
All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth whatsoever is sold in the shambles that eat. Ask you no question for conscience sake. For the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. If any of them that believe not, bid you to a feast, and you be disposed to go.
Whatsoever is set before you eat, asking no question for conscience sake.
But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols.
Eat not for his sake that showed it, and for conscience sake. For the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. Conscience I say, not thine own, but of the other. For why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience? Or if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks?
Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.
No offense neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God.
Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.
It's interesting in these two chapters, 10:00 and 11:00.
We get the.
The only mention in the New Testament of the Lord's.
Table in verse 21 and in Chapter 11 and verse 20, the Lord's Supper.
And it's significant. It doesn't say it's Christ's table or Jesus's table.
It's the Lord's Table.
Which indicates that he is the one that has the authority at his table and at his supper the 2GO together.
But they are two distinct thoughts involved. The Lord's Table is the place where we celebrate the Lord's Supper, and the Lord's Supper is what we celebrate there. And of course, our brother Bill was speaking about that, and it's in Chapter 11. That's where we have the Lord's Supper.
And I find it interesting, brethren, that in the Lord's table in this chapter 10.
That what's mentioned first is the cup.
And then the bread.
It's not the Lord's Supper here, it's the Lord's Table.
And so it's important to realize.
What gives me a place at that table?
If I would go to Washington, DC to try to go in and sit down at a supper of the President of the United States, I wouldn't get very far.
We're not talking about the president, the United States. We're talking about the Lord of the universe.
What gives me a place at His table? Oh brethren, this is something that should be treasured in our souls. Nothing but that precious blood of Jesus.
That's what gives us that title to be there.
And then in chapter.
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11 We have the bread 1St and that's the way we celebrate the Lord's Supper, and then the cop which speaks of his precious blood.
Welcome sing #8 in our little clock in block. And I know it's not talking about.
The Lord's table, but it says our title to glory. We read in thy blood. I think that's the same as what you're saying, Bob.
While I was sitting down at the table of the President of the United States.
And somebody came up to me, where, where is your title to sit down here? What are you doing here?
I wouldn't have much to give, I'm afraid.
But to be able to sit down at the Lord's Table, to enjoy what is called here in a number of places, the communion or the fellowship of the Lord's Table.
And to be challenged, what gives you a place there?
The precious blood of Jesus. Oh, what a privilege, what a precious thing to enjoy in your soul. I say, dear young people, lay hold on it. It applies to us, but you have to lay hold on it in an individual way.
It is so tremendously precious.
Speaking right now in terms of those who have been sheltered under that precious blood in the Lords Table is freely open to us, but we do have to recognize that in a room like this, there might be someone here who.
Is not sheltered under the blood of the Lord Jesus and.
Thus, they have No title to be able to enjoy.
Being seated at the Lord's Table. And so we would.
Wholeheartedly desire each each person in this room would know what it means to be sheltered by the blood of the Lord Jesus.
I can recall being in Washington, DC.
And walking down past the fence around the White House and there was a gate and there was a man standing there at this gate and I saw people walking.
Up to the gate.
And that man, he had a list.
And he would look down the list and if your name is on the list, you go through the gate and into the White House. And I wouldn't be surprised they were serving a banquet.
I'm not sure if the president was there or not, but in any case, I would have liked to go through that gate. I would have really enjoyed going into the White House and sitting down at the table, but my name was not on the list, and there's no way.
I'm going to be able to enjoy that privilege.
But I like the way you bring that out, Brother Bob, because we have opportunity to sit down at the Lord's table with the Lord Jesus Christ himself. There he is. It's his table. And it gives him great delight to see us sitting there. And I, I do believe that.
It's the privilege, as you point out, of all who are sheltered, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. It's our title to be there, sitting at that table, enjoying fellowship with the Lord and with one another.
You could say that every true believer in the Lord Jesus has a place at that table because it's the fellowship of the body of Christ and every true believer is a member of the body of Christ. Doesn't mean that they're all there.
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We're going to get down to the verses that speak about what is becoming to those who recognize his lordship. And there are certain things that impede that. And so I think it is good to see that. But it's it's the widest fellowship of any fellowship in this world. It includes every single member of the body of Christ, even though.
They perhaps are not there, perhaps they cannot be there by things in their life that impede fellowship. But there are places there.
This is what Christians do. In contrast to what?
The Gentiles of heathen or the Jews did. This is the communion that is particular to us.
And so the first two things with the cup and the loaf, there's the communion of the blood of Christ. That's his physical blood shed on the cross, the value of all his sufferings and the the darkness of those three hours and his life represented in that blood was shut out before gone. And then partaking of that cup, we express, we are in communion, we're in fellowship.
With what took place when his blood was shed and all its value in the sight of God.
We're under the shelter, that blood.
And partaking of the loaf, we express communion or fellowship with his body.
In which He suffered, in those hours of darkness in his body, in which he gave himself and offered himself through the eternal Spirit to God without spot. Partaking of that loaf. We give expression to the fact we are in fellowship with the sufferings of Christ and all that is represented in His giving himself, His body given on that cross. And so it's unique.
It's particular.
To Christians, and it's a positional thing and think of how we how we speak of it. At times we might refer to somebody as being at the Lord's table.
Do we mean right now they're setting in a meeting where they're remembering the Lord and death? Well, no, no, I mean, they're at the Lord's Table. In other words, positionally, that's the place they've taken. And really, this chapter is taking up what we have positionally as being at the Lord's Table. The next chapter is going to get into the details.
Of our conduct when we remember the Lord and His death as those who are at His table.
But here it's more positional. When you are been received into fellowship at the Lord's table, you're there 24/7, you're always at the Lord's table, but there are times you come to remember the Lord and his death and partake of his supper. And so this is very much the positional aspect of things. And then he brings in a third thought and and that.
Will be developed that when we partake of that loaf, there's an additional truth brought in.
We partake of it as members of His body.
First of all, the cup represents his bloodshed. The loaf represents his body given on that cross in which he suffered. When we partake of it, we give expression to the truth that we are just like that. Loaf was one on the table. We too are one now if we came and we had the loaf.
And cup on the table. And we had sweet thoughts of the Lord and gave him thanks and and for what he did on the cross. And we all went home. Two things would not have happened. We would not have remembered the Lord in his death, because that's only in the breaking of the bread. And we would not have given expression to the truth that there is one body. Just the fact of having one loaf on the table does not in and by itself.
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Give expression to the truth that there is one body.
It's when we partake of that one loaf, we give expression to that truth, and that's what he takes up. Then as the third thing, communion with the blood of Christ, communion with the body of Christ, and then in partaking of that one loaf, we give expression to the truth. There is one body of which we are all members.
That one loaf represents the one body, and then as we partake, we are saying in part, I am a member of that one body. And it's beautiful, wonderful privilege to express that precious truth.
I remember being at a conference, maybe some of you remember in Toronto, I think there was 1200 brethren at that conference and that Lord's Day they brought a big loaf.
Doesn't matter the size of the loaf, brethren, but it represents the whole body of Christ. And we then express our fellowship. It's the fellowship of the body of Christ. How wonderful to be able to show that fellowship. We then travel to other countries and express that with our brethren in other countries. It's a particularly.
Significant.
Thing in my own heart and soul to be able to express that truth with my brethren in other parts. Sometimes our brethren that are new in the faith don't think it had a whole lot. And I still remember a conference I was two and a place called in the Alta Plano of Bolivia and they had a normal size loaf and I don't remember how many we were there, maybe 2 to 300.
In the room and somebody had given an exhortation that the Scripture says eat of that bread, says don't just take a pinch, take a big chunk. And by the time it was about halfway through passing, it was just about to be finished off. I don't know if I did the right thing, brethren, but I stood up and said, brethren, those brethren over there that haven't partaken are also members of the body of Christ. Let's leave something for them too.
And so that they would not take such a big pinch that they don't think I had sometimes on those things. But that's what we're expressing, brethren. We're expressing that we are members of one body. What a tremendous privilege in a world where there is so much division in the outward testimony. The truth remains to me. It is a such a special thing in my soul there is one body.
There's not more than one body. For as much as we have failed in the outward testimony, the truth remains. There is one body, and we can express that truth as we partake of that loaf at the Lord's table.
Take a look at those two expressions again, because we don't want to get confused.
The communion of the blood of Christ, that's his physical bloodshed.
The next expression, the communion of the body of Christ, that's his physical body given. We don't want to mistake that and mix that up with a second vert, the next verse.
This is not saying the communion of the Mystical Body of Christ composed of many members.
It's saying the communion of the body of Christ is physical body given on that cross. It's His blood and his body, His blood shed on the cross, His body given on the cross. Then the next verse brings in the truth that just like that loaf was one on the table, we are one, and we give expression to it in all partaking of one loaf sometimes in our.
Taking up the truth of verse 17.
We make the expression communion of the body of Christ at the end of verse 16 to say the communion of the mystical body of Christ composed of many members. That's not what it's saying. It's the bloodshed His body given He offered Himself. And then the truth of the one body composed of many members comes in in verse 17.
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So we could say that.
Strictly speaking, these are the only if I could use the term credentials needed to be at the Lord's Table.
To have our sins washed away through the blood of Christ, to recognize his finished work on the cross, and then by virtue of that we are members of that one body. That is all. Now, sad to say, difficulties and problems have brought in other things. We can get to some of that a little later on, but.
In its simplest form, to be at the Lord's Table is simply.
To have that blood of Christ applied to take away my sins, to recognize that Christ died for me, suffered for my sins, and then to recognize it as a result of all that I am made a member of the body of Christ. How very simple it is that we don't need to make it complicated, do we?
Clarification that fellowship will the word communion because they're not really words that we use in common English speech we do in meetings.
I'll, I'll have a go at what I at explaining them. They're two different English translations of the same Greek word. Fellowship, communion. Trying to get this idea across of sharing in the oneness with something.
The reason why it's important to understand a connection with this chapter because this part of the chapter is about fellowship. It's about identifying with something.
And when we partake of that cup of the the bread, we are identifying with the blood of Christ. We're identifying with the body of Christ. And as an unbeliever, you cannot do that if you're not washed in that shed blood, if you are not being brought under the shelter of that blood as we've been talking about.
There's another word that occurs in this chapter 2 That speaks of a less intimate.
Sharing in of something.
And it becomes important as we go through the chapter, the distinction between these two words. But just keep in mind that we took a fellowship when we put the word ship on the end of a word in English, it means the state of being so friendship, state of being friends with someone. The apostle Paul could tell the Philippians Saints, he says in the first chapter, he says always in every prayer of mine for you all making requests with joy for your fellowship in the gospel.
From the first answer, now the Philippians Saints had sent.
Perhaps money, but probably not. Probably.
A care package, we might say, in the modern world to the Apostle Paul. They identified with the Apostle Paul's work in the gospel. That's what the word fellowship means. And so when we partake of the bread, of the cup of the bread, that's the order that's given here.
We are identifying with what those things stand for and represent.
Then verse 18 he goes back to the Old Testament.
To develop his thought about fellowship. Behold Israel after the flesh are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers? I understand. I think that's the same word, isn't it? Nick as.
Yeah, Partakers is fellowship of the altar. You remember what happened in Israel, Why after Solomon's reign there was a split in the Kingdom, and two tribes remained with the altar of the Lord at Jerusalem, where the Lord had placed his name. And Jeroboam took 10 tribes and he established two other centers.
And Dan and Bethel was it, I forget, but he established 2 altars there and said this is the place where you ought to worship the Lord. And so there was a split. So it was important because they were showing fellowship with another altar. And so this is what he's referring to in these verses.
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Behold Israel after the flesh, are they not? Which are they? Are not they which either the sacrifices, partakers of the altar? What say I then? That the idol is anything? Because there were idols that those other altars, there was a golden calf there.
And so they were identifying by partaking there, they were identifying with the idolatry that was taking place there.
That the idol is anything or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything but. I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice because he's talking to the Corinthians and in the city of Corinth they had a lot of different idle temples.
They sacrificed to devils or demons and not to God. I would not that you should have fellowship with demons.
So in partaking at a Pacific place is to show fellowship at that place. And so that's a very important principle and that's something we need to keep in mind. Somebody comes from another fellowship. There are a lot of different fellowships in Christendom, and they come from a fellowship where some doctrine is taught.
That is derogatory to the person of the Lord Jesus.
Then we if we partake there, we're having fellowship with that. People say, I don't, I don't believe that I just go there to have to, to attend there. But they're showing fellowship with that. And that's that's important point that the apostle Paul is bringing out here. It's taken from the Old Testament and that is very important to take in. Keep in mind when we take up the question of fellowship.
I said there was a second word in these portions that also indicated sharing in, but it's a much looser connection.
And that's what we have in verse 17 where it says, for we are all partakers of that one bread. So someone may go along and say, well, I don't identify with this group's position, but I'm just remembering the Lord. And he says, well, even just in sharing in it, you are identifying with their position. But of the sacrifices of the Old Testament, the peace offering, which is the offering that most closely aligns with the remembrance of the Lord.
Offer also partook in that offering, and in so doing he identified eating is an expression of fellowship. And that's why it says back in First Corinthians chapter 5 that.
I've written unto you not to keep this as verse 11. Sorry. I've written unto you not to keep company. If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or idolatrous, or Raila, or drunken, or extortioner, for with such and 1:00.
No, not to eat or why not? Why shouldn't I eat with them? Because eating is an expression of oneness, is an expression of fellowship. So when the Israelite brought his peace offering and he ate of it and that was an offering too that his friends could also partake in, there was something for the there was something for the Lord, something for the priest is something for the offer and something for his friends. And they expressed fellowship in that offering. And so an Israelite that offered.
On that Alta.
Identified with it. That was the point of and that's why end of Hebrews, the apostle Paul could say.
Well, we won't get into the authorship of Hebrews, but I believe it was Paul.
He says in the 13th chapter.
In verse 10 we have an altar where they have no right to eat, which served the Tabernacle well. Why? Because they were identifying with that old Jewish system of things if they partook of those sacrifices.
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You can't get away from the identification. You may claim that doesn't mean anything to you and you're just remembering the Lord. And in this chapter, the apostle Paul is saying, no, no, it doesn't work that way. You partake. You are identifying.
I just like to say one more thing about verse.
17 And maybe somebody can elaborate on this or bring it out better than I can. I'm not sure if this thought is here where it says for we being many, but I like to think of that loaf on the table when it speaks to us, to that mystical body, the one body that we're members of.
It's not just Speaking of those that are present in the room.
It's not just Speaking of those that I want to be careful how I use this word fellowship. It's been talked about quite a bit, but I those that we are in fellowship with because we know there's many true believers that for one reason or another we're not in fellowship with. But I think every one of those that are truly the Lords that are under the shelter of that blood are represented in that low.
Now, Bob, in that meeting that you were talking about where it seemed like the loaf was going to be all gone.
I've never been to the meeting where the loaf was all gone. I always like to think of however much or little there is left of it that speaks of all the rest of the members of the body of Christ that weren't there partaking of it that morning.
Sphere that is smaller than that is sectarianism and we need to be careful of that. Doesn't mean that every member is partaking, no, but they are represented there. I think that is important.
It could hardly be.
Expressive of the fellowship that we are in as members of the body of Christ. If it didn't.
Anything less than that would not be.
Expressive of it, so it has to include each member and again, this is what is characteristic and so it does certainly take in each one. So it's it's I think that's the right thought, brother.
Bring out an example. Kind of hard for me to do it because it's.
It's a very, very painful somewhat Memory and me, but I believe it illustrates some of the points that we've just had over us in a very simple way.
My father in the household in which I LED had a table.
And it only belonged to one person.
Was my father's table.
And everyone of his children had a place at the table. There were seven of us, and we all had our place at the table.
And it expressed something of my father's authority over it. When we sat at the table, we expected my father to be there, and we sat at his table at what he provided for us through my mother.
This is the painful part, but it I think illustrates something of what just been said.
The most painful?
Discipline of my childhood came as a result of something I did.
And my mother and father decided that the appropriate discipline.
For that was for a week I was not to eat at that table.
I was to be confined to my room.
Which was above on a second story above where the kitchen was. And for that week I could hear every night the family sitting at the table enjoying their fellowship with each other, at which I was not present.
And that recognition of what I was not part of, that I have a place still there. My seat was empty.
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But it was there because it was one table. It was my father's table. It was under his authority. And if I could use the implication, I was invited there. And I don't think that's been said this yet in this meeting. Why do we look forward to it and heart, We look forward to it because the Lord's invited us. Not only the truth that we're part of the body and that the body is one.
But what really makes it what it is to the heart?
Is the one whose table it is and the realization in our own souls that were there because he wants us there.
He wants us there and.
The being there fulfills the desire of his heart and the desire of our heart. And if we're not there, who feels it the most? I believe He does. He feels it more than those who are not present that have a place that He has provided for them at it and so.
It is an important on what a different part that will be brought up or is alluded to in Chapter 5, that there can be something that hinders us from being there, but it isn't the desire of the one whose table it is. It's something that we have done or something in us that is a hindrance that has caused us not to be there. And of course, there's the possibility that we don't really appreciate.
What it is?
That has been given to us to set at his table.
I guess I'll add what I sort of did what I had, but I think I better should.
What I did?
That kept me from sitting at my father's table.
Was of a character that dishonored my father's name.
I was probably at the time six or seven years of age.
But I was with my mother in a store and I stole something. I asked my mother for it and she said no, not now. And when she was off another part of the store, I stole it and took it. But the consequence of it was it was a serious dishonor to my father's name, and it was of such a character that I couldn't sit at the table when there was that matter.
That had to be brought under discipline.
The consequence was for me, I've already given what was the hardest part of it, but the first part of it was my mother took me back to the store and I had to confess to the store people what I had done.
And I did.
That was, I'll be honest and say that was the easy part. The hard part was the separation from that which in my heart I knew I wanted to be part of and could not.
You are still part of the family. I had a seat but empty but I was. I didn't lose 1 iota of I couldn't.
You know my father couldn't, if you will. To be honest, the Lord could never disown us. He would never separate us from his body. It's one. It's eternally 1.
And so in that way, I always had a place at my father's table.
But you weren't in fellowship with your father at that moment.
No, I wasn't.
I just, I bring it up because I think it's a simple way of illustrating the truth of what's brought before us here.
Pardon me, it did you good.
And I think it's important rather than, as we read these verses, to recognize in very, very clearly it speaks of idolatry.
Verse 19 What say I then? That the idol is anything? And that's what happened in Israel. They established an idol in the north and the South of Israel, and they offered their sacrifices there at an altar that was established and verse.
00:45:17
So it's idolatry, and so we got to be careful in saying that all other fellowships are tables of demons. That is not.
Correct. It's where there is idolatry concern and that is the case in many sectors if you go to Latin America.
In the Catholic system, they have a lot of idols and they sacrifice to those idols and they have food at those tables and they partake.
But I think the principle that we want to take away for this, and especially for our dear young people, is the question of fellowship.
When there is someone that comes from a different group in believers in Christendom.
Maybe, they say, I'd like to break bread with you.
But they have something in their system that is not consistent with the.
Word of God that is perhaps derogatory to the person of the Lord Jesus. This question applies. This question of fellowship applies. Can we show fellowship? I've heard that even many evangelical groups hold that the Lord Jesus, even though he did not sin, could have sinned if he wanted to. That is serious error. That is not the truth. Can we show fellowship with that?
Sorry, I don't feel at liberty to show fellowship with that. And so the principle of fellowship is there rather than and I think that's important for us to see that we don't accept just anybody that comes in to break bread.
Because of this principle that we find here.
Idol was, in the classical sense, a stone image.
Or stone image is nothing isn't it just a piece of stone and the Corinthians, I think we're taking the position was just a piece of stone. It doesn't matter if we eat an idolatrous feet. We we're we're we're beyond that. And the apostle Paul has to point out no, those stone images represent demons. It's not devils is one devil many demons. They represent demons. It's I've never had the privilege of going to India. Bill, you've been there many times and others in this room no doubt haven't but understand that like on every street corner, everywhere you go, you see.
Idols and sacrifices and things burning being offered to idols, well, they represent demons. So we have 3 situations here. We have the Lord's Table.
We have what God gave Israel and that dispensation and we have what the Gentiles practice in paganism. And you might say, well, Israel that was, that was ordered of God, that that was ordained of God. What, why, why does it matter if someone comes in that is still celebrating the Jewish feast? Why, why shouldn't he be partaker at the Lord's table? Well, because he's still identified with that, even though it was established by the Lord and of the.
That previous administration.
He is identifying with that. And then when it comes to the Pagan feast, well, clearly.
If you partake of those sacrifices offered to the idols you are identifying with the demon worship connected with that, even if you know that that's just a stone that can't do anything for man, doesn't matter, you're identifying with it.
Yes, that's very good, brother Nick, and we need to remember that.
Although the idol is not anything, it's the demons behind it that are the big problem. Yes, any kind of an idol is bad, but it's the fact that they are satanic. They started after the flood. As far as we know there was no idolatry before the flood. But it would seem.
That when God allowed the flood, it was, if we could say it, a tremendous shock.
00:50:01
Not only to mankind, but also to say, here was the mighty power of God revealed in judgment again against evil.
But then Satan, as it were, said, I have power too, and I will persuade people through the use of idols that those demons that are behind the aisles and the Devil behind them with them as their head and his power is really God's power. And Satan has been doing that ever since.
Rather remarkable that the Apostle Paul in chapter 21 of Acts was never permitted.
To make an offering, it says that Paul took the man in the next day, purified himself with them, entered into the temple.
To signify the accomplishment of the days of purification. Until then an offering should be offered for everyone of them. Paul was never allowed to do it.
God allowed a disruption. He's taken away.
The attempt to murder him that God spared him, spared him from making that era, even though it was out of a heart of love for his brother. He said he would willingly have given his life for his brother if he could, but it was a misguided In Paul's case, it was.
A misguided thing that he was entering into, but the Lord wouldn't let him offer that offering.
But it lives in verse 21, this section. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot be partakers of the Lords table and the table of demons. Why not? Because there is no fellowship between the Lord and demons. That that is the point of it here. And so it's important to see the principle of eating together.
At the Lord's Table is showing fellowship together.
Says verse 22. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? If we're not going to recognize his lordship, brethren, when He is given His precious blood to save us, then we provoke the Lord to jealousy and He may have to intervene.
Governmentally in our lives, as he did in the case of the Corinthians in Chapter 11, but.
It's a question of his.
Government.
And then he says in verse 23, All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.
So and then he gives some illustrations of that as we go down through the chapter there. But we need to.
The exercise, brethren, I have a right. It's lawful that that idea so permeates our culture. Brethren, it's not a matter of my rights. It's a matter of his rights. It's his table. That's where he has authority. Are we not willing to give him that place?
In our lives of his authority, I think that's so important.
Think what I'm doing. Maybe I think I have a right to do that. That's not the question.
Is it edifying? Is this a help to my brethren, or is it going to be a stumbling block or a hindrance?
We need to be exercised by these things rather than.
I think it's good what you say, brother Bob, and just to consider how the Corinthians got themselves into this place, going back to chapter 8, and it's been referenced a couple of times how that they had knowledge they had.
Knowledge that the idol was nothing, but they were puffed up in that knowledge, and they were lacking love in that knowledge.
00:55:07
And so.
Going on in that knowledge without love.
That that pride, that spiritual pride that they had blinded them.
And they took it a step too far. It was true that the idol is nothing and things offered idols are nothing. But it's interesting that when we get into a mode where we're just doing something because we can and it's really sin, it's really self will that it blinds us. And then sometimes we take a step beyond that. And what they did was they didn't just eat the thing that was offered idols, but they went into the idol house and they.
Partook at the idle table.
And I just think it's, it's, it's a really good moral lesson for us that this is how they wound up in this situation was.
The spiritual pride, it was, it was the, it was the knowledge that wasn't regulated by love and it puffed them up. And then they actually, although they were correct about the idol in chapter 8, they took another step and they were blinded by that pride and they made a serious error.
And we're provoking the Lord to jealousy. So it's a really just a practical moral lesson for us that just because we can.
Doesn't always mean we should and to be careful that that although we may be technically right in an issue that us being right in that can contribute to spiritual pride that leads to blindness and we take another step that's wrong.
Back in the 6th chapter, we have similar words, all things along to me. Chapter 6, verse 12. Sorry, all things aloft 1 to me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any there is in connection with self. And I suppose that most people would sort of grasp that principle. You know, I shouldn't be brought under the power of drugs. I shouldn't be brought under the power of many things in connection with myself. But in this chapter, now this verse is in connection with others.
As Bob, I think you said or hinted at, we live in a world where that what I should do should be governed by the conscience of another is complete anathema. We live in a world today that says you need to be your authentic self no matter what.
How it offends or touches others. This is not Christianity. This is not scriptural principles. So you notice what verse 24 says. Let no man seek his own, but every man, every man, every man, another's wealth.
So now we have this verse. All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient in connection with others those around me. I can't do it because what effect it might have on others around me and the chapter goes on to develop this thought even further. It may sound a little contradictory because it goes on to describe that whatsoever is sold in the shambles that eat asking no question for conscience sake. So you can go along to the market and you can buy a piece of meat. You don't have to worry whether it's been.
Sacrifice, according to Islamic law, you don't have to worry whether it's being sacrificed according to, I mean, slaughtered, I should say, according to Jewish tradition. You don't have to ask yourself that question. You can take it home and eat it with a clear conscience. But if someone comes along to you and says, oh, did you know that that meat was offered to an idol, then you are to act not because of your conscience sake, but because of his or hers.
And as I said, this principle.
And it's at the root of the whole moral, immoral revolution that we're going through in this country in the Western world today that you are to live out your authentic self. This is a lie of the devil.
To live out your authentic self is a horrible thought. Read Romans chapter 3 if you have any questions as to what we are by nature.
And that is what is being preached, that we should live out. And we'll be told that if you deny those feelings, if you deny those things, that you're being hypocritical.
It's amazing how Satan takes up the language of scripture and turns it into immorality.
01:00:00
What you say there Nick is in verse 28, isn't it? Any man saying to you this is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that showed it.
And for conscience sake, for the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof conscience, I say not thine own. I'm supposed to respect whether it's going to be a stumbling block to another. For why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience? In other words, doesn't mean that it changes my conscience at all. I have my conviction about it, but I since we're expressing the truth of the one body.
And it's a fellowship. I'm sensitive as to what others may think or be hindered by.
Another side to this.
This teaching, I believe that we can recognize that one whose conscience is bothered by something that.
They could have. Liberty would indicate that there was a weak conscience.
And it should, it should be our desire not to leave a soul in the condition of having a weak conscience. But there should be instruction over time as growth is, is is possible to instruct a soul? So they don't, they don't have to continue in circumstances where they don't have liberty and so.
It's important that we don't offend a weaker brother.
But don't we want our brethren to be fully mature?
Well, we are to lookout other person because.
As has been pointed out, the world you know they want a person to promote themselves and.
The world looks up to somebody that's going up the ladder, you might say, and making a name for themselves. It's the world, the principle. But you know, this principle in verse 24 says let no man seek his own. And I noticed, Mr. Darby says.
Advantage. So often we look at the situation and we pass a judgment based on how we can be advantage by doing this or that or the other thing. But the fact is we ought to be thinking about what's good for the other person.
As opposed to myself.
It's remarkable to think about the Lord.
I just noticed in Romans 15.
It says in verse one, We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please.
Ourselves.
That everyone of us please his neighbor.
Not ourselves, please his neighbor for his good to edification.
For even Christ, please start himself.
What an example we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who sacrificed his own interests in order to benefit somebody else?
One other point perhaps that should be made. Here we are talking quite a bit about idols.
As opposed to the Lords table.
And of course, at the time this was written.
There were no divisions among believers, at least not outwardly. So Paul could accuse the Corinthians of systems, that is an inward division among them. They were identifying with certain prominent leaders, but there was no outward division in the Church of God. And so the contrast here in this chapter is between the Lord's Table and what existed all around them in a very, very real form.
Idolatry.
I have had young people and some not so young.
Give me quite a going over because they have said well, but surely you would not in any way accuse dear believers who are in some kind of evangelical church fellowship or something like that. You would not attach the name idolatry to them, would you? Surely you can't use this scripture in that way.
01:05:20
And I would only say this that.
God gives us here.
What occurred at the beginning in the setting in which in the setting that existed at that time?
Now what do we have? We have christened them all broken up, literally into hundreds of different groups.
Some individual, some connected in a network together.
Many of them.
And the question is, well, do these verses apply to that?
I believe in principle they do.
Because where it says in verse 18, are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar as we have already explained the moment I partake and let's say in this case.
Some emblems that are on the table in some group.
Whether I like it or not, and this has been brought out, I identify with what that group teaches and I can't pretend that I don't. The Word of God says I do.
Well, someone will say, then where is the Lord's table? Tell me where the Lord's table is. You think you're the only ones that have it?
How many times have we heard that?
Brother Bob brought it out very clearly. Hits of the Lord's Table.
But I have said to some people in scripture so confusing and.
Spirit of God, so indefinite in His leading that you and I, with an honest heart wanting to know where the Lord's table is, can't find it. Or we have to say, things are so broken up and so complicated that what do you do? You just have to go wherever you can find some fellowship and no.
I've never heard this quotation in a meeting before.
But I knew it well from an old brother.
Same brother that walked up to the table and said, may the precious remembrance of the Lord never become religious ritual.
He said in order.
It to be the Lord's Table.
The Lord must have set it up, and the Lordship of Christ must be owned.
You think about that for a few minutes to use a common expression.
It covers all the bases.
The Lord must have set it up. Suppose there were an expression locally here in Saint Louis of the Lord's Table, and someone else set something up in competition with it and did everything the same. And I have had that brought before me. Well, we're the same as you are.
Would that be the Lord's Table? Would it be Bob?
It certainly would not, would it?
And so the Lord must have set it up, and the Lordship of Christ must be owned. And I can remember our late brother, it was your father, Doug Clem Buchanan bringing out. He said, I do not have any right to go out and start a so-called church when there is already that in existence which exhibits the truth of the one body and thus constitutes the Lord's Table.
So I say that because I believe there's a lot of confusion out there today about this, a lot of argument. And I, I have had numerous words with people, correspondences with people about this very subject. And they keep coming back to it and saying, do you think you're the only ones that have the Lord's table? And my answer to them is absolutely not. It's not our table, it's his table. But I do insist.
That there is one table, and by God's grace I want to be there.
And in my own soul, I have the faith that I am there. But it's a matter of faith, not a matter of indisputable fact.
And if someone shows me that I'm wrong, I trust I'm willing to submit to that. But until then, I believe we can have the sense that we are where the Lord would have us. And I believe the Lord does for those that are honest lead to where His table is. I say that again because of the multiple arguments that we have heard using these scriptures and saying how can you dare attach idolatry to dear believers?
01:10:19
Who are going on in some group that is not what you would call the Lord's Table?
I don't think we say that evangelical groups or tables of demons.
But what we're saying is that we can't have fellowship with that which is not recognizing the Lord's authority and his person because that's what we're there for. I've had people challenge me to what they said to you, Bill, You think you have the Lord's table. We do not have the Lord's table. The Lord has his table. But my exercise is to be there and as far as I'm aware of in my own conscience.
I am there, but if you think you know better, I'm willing to listen to you, but I'm not going to be guided by what you say. I'm going to be guided by what the Word of God says. And I think we need to hold that truth and exercise of heart, brethren, because sometimes we give the impression that we think we're it. It's not that we are it, it's that Christ is the focal point. He is the reference point that is important.
Part of the reason, sorry.
Go ahead. Well, just one quick follow up. Part of the reason I say that is that we were talking about pride coming in and that is a very dangerous thing, isn't it? Sorry, Nick, go ahead. No problem. I, I just want to say, young people, if you're confused as to these things, you know, the Apostle John, we're going past our times. So forgive me. The apostle John wrote what we call abstract style, a style that was independent of experience. You need to look at Scripture independent of experience, independent of what you see around you in Christendom. You have to decide.
Is the Lord's table divided? Are there many Lords tables?
That's the that's what you got to decide first because if you come to the conclusion that there's many, then there are many centres of gathering. There's many.
Bodies there's and so on. You have to decide what Scripture says. And then, as Brother Bill said, the exercises, well, how do I find myself?
At a place that expresses the truth of the one body that expresses the truth of the Lord's Table, that gives him his Lordship. How do I find that? But if you're not excited, if you don't have an answer to the first question, then you're lost. Literally, quite literally. If you don't know where you're going on a road trip, you can't decide if there's one destination, you're not going to get there, are you?
They would sing over 210.
2:10 One spirit with the Lord, O blessed wondrous word, What heavenly light, what power divine, doth that sweet word afford? 210.
One spirit with the Lord.
Holy Lord.
Of God, I'm screaming for her and I love her.
Let's start over.
Different tune. Half of us don't know that way.
One spirit will.
All.
Gospel 3
Gospel—R. Thonney
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Good evening.
Welcome to the Gospel meeting.
Like to start the meeting by quoting.
3 verses.
First in the first John chapter one and verse 5.
God is light.
Second one in first John 48, God is love.
Third one, First John, 4/16.
God is love.
We're going to sitting number six on a hymn sheet.
God in mercy sent his Son to a world by sin and done.
Jesus Christ was crucified to us for sinners. Jesus died.
All the glory of the grace shining in the Savior's face, telling sinners from above. God is light and God is love.
God in mercy sent him.
No more showering.
She's a * and there's a game begin by the Glory Sun.
Gods and bring me to life. Oh.
Always gives us now.
Grace, somebody may not say the 1St man.
00:05:32
How wonderful that those two verses that we began the meeting with God is light.
What is light?
If you turn off all the lights in here, I wouldn't be able to tell who is in here.
I might be able to guess. It sounds like there's some people in here, but when you switch on the lights everything is clear. There's so many boys and girls on these front rows and back aways as well. Everything is clear. Nothing can be hidden in the light, but at the same time that God is light.
He knows every single thing about me. You know what? If you knew everything about me, you might not like me that way.
But you know what? God is not only light, His love, and He loves us not because of who we are, but because of who He is. We go to the prison in Lawrence County sometimes and I like to ask them in off times.
God loves us. Why? And one of the first answers I get is because we're his children. I said. Well, if you haven't accepted the Lord as your Savior, you're not his child.
But he loves you. Why? And they think again and they say, because we're as creatures. Well, that's true, we're as creatures. But I say the best answer I can give you, God bless you, because God is love. And the word for love there, if you study its meaning, it's a love of sacrifice.
It's a love that loves not because of what the object is, but because of the source of that love.
God is love.
You know, sometimes people talk about a loving God. I prefer simply to say God is love. And amazingly wonderful to know him that way.
And you know, God is so infinite in His being, so eternal, He never had a beginning, that it is hard for us in our minds to comprehend how great He really is. I can't imagine of a person who always existed, never had a beginning. Everything I know, everybody I know, has a beginning and an ending.
But here's a being that has no beginning and no ending. Besides that. You know what? God has never learned anything because He knows everything. Absolutely everything. And that's the amazing thing. Even though He knows everything about me, He loves me.
And to me, that is the most wonderful thing.
But you know God is so infinite, so grand, that he had to send his Son. God had a son. You know God exists in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And the Lord Jesus is the Son of God. And so God determined to send his Son into this world, and the Lord Jesus came into this world.
He was born in the city of Bethlehem, and you know when his poor mother.
Imagine nine months pregnant going from Nazareth to Bethlehem. I don't know how many miles that must have been. That must have been a tough one for that dear lady.
At the end they went to an inn to see if there was a room for them.
Sorry, no room here. You can go out there where the animals are. Maybe you can find a place to lie down out there.
And that's where the Son of God came into this world. He was born.
00:10:03
In a stable, his mother wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in the Manger. But nobody seemed to understand the magnitude of the fact that the Son of God had come into this world.
The angels came down and for the first time they saw their creator. God is invisible to created eyes.
But here, for the first time, the angels were seeing their creator and they said, where are these people that have the word of God in their hands? They should know what's going on. Yeah, they had the Bible in their hands. They didn't understand.
Oh, how sad that is. And so the angels went out into the fields around Bethlehem, and there were some shepherds out there, and that was the first ones to hear the news. Unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. So the Lord Jesus came into this world and was generally speaking.
Unknown. He grew up in Nazareth.
To me it is an interesting.
I we know that we have a record in Luke of the fact that.
I When he was 12 years old, the Lord Jesus was 12 years old. He went up to Jerusalem with his parents. Mary was his mother.
Joseph wasn't his real father. It was what we call his stepfather. Joseph was a Carpenter.
So the Lord Jesus turned out to be a Carpenter too. There's a lot of boys that just follow in the footsteps of their father. And the Lord Jesus turned out to be a Carpenter. Often thought I'd like to have a piece of furniture that Jesus made. Must have been made pretty well. Anyhow, that's what he was in this life. But at 30 years of age, one day he comes to where John the Baptist is baptizing.
And he says to John the Baptist, I want to be baptized. But John the Baptist realized that Jesus didn't have any sins. John's baptism was a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. John says, no, no, please, I need to be baptized by you and you coming to me.
Jesus said let it be for the time being.
Thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness. And so John baptized him. Why did he baptize him? Why did the Lord Jesus want to be baptized? You know, baptism is a way of identifying yourself. And so the Lord Jesus at that baptism of John saw two people, two groups of people there one side where.
The religious.
People of the world, of the Jewish world, they throbbly thought, we're just fine. We don't really need to be baptized. We're fine like we are.
On the other side were all these sinners, prostitutes and tax collectors and sinners, and they recognize their sin, and they were baptized.
Which of these two groups?
Did Jesus identify with you know, it was it wasn't with these religious hypocrites, it was with these that were sinners and repented of their sins and that's why Jesus was baptized this in that way identified himself with those that had repented. But you know the story of his life at the end of.
30 years he started into his public ministry.
And after 3 1/2 years of healing people, you know, you think you'd like to have a person around that could heal all the diseases there were. I look at some of these huge hospitals as I drive around the country. The Lord Jesus could go into that hospital and empty that hospital of all the sick people. Wouldn't you kind of like to have a person like that?
They did not want him.
They said away with this man. Give us Barabbas a robber and a thief and a murderer. That's the man we want, not Jesus.
00:15:08
And they took Jesus outside the city of Jerusalem, they took nails, and they hammered it through his hands and his feet, and they lifted that cross up there. And I think when that car cross fell into its hole, it must have jolted him because he says in the Psalms, all my bones are out of joint. Imagine a bone out of joint, how much pain it causes.
There the Lord Jesus was hung from.
9:00 in the morning to 3:00 in the afternoon. For six hours he suffered there. For the first three hours, people passed in front of him, insulting him and spitting on him.
They said if he's the Son of God, let God deliver him.
Did God deliver him?
No, why not? Didn't God love his son? Yes, he loved him, but you know what? He loved you and me as well. And there was no other way for us to be saved that then the Lord Jesus go to the cross and die as a sacrifice for our sins. So in those six hours that he was hanging on the cross, the second three hours.
Were hours.
Of darkness. From 12 noon to 3:00 in the afternoon, everything was dark.
And nobody could see the awfulness of what took place in those three hours of darkness.
Isaiah, the prophet says He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Oh, we, like sheep are gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.
The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Think of it. In those three hours, God laid on Jesus the iniquity of my sins. And in those three hours God punished Jesus. The full weight of divine judgment fell on the Lord Jesus in those three hours.
And for three hours you look at the record in the Bible.
There is no sound from that center cross silence as he suffered those waves and billows of God's judgment. If God was going to forgive you your sins, my friend, somebody had to pay the price for them. And it was Jesus in those three hours that paid the price in full. God's holy character had to be vindicated fully, and it was.
With the Lord, Jesus suffered in those three hours.
Only at the end of those three hours, there's a cry that comes out. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why did God forsake his Son? Because he was.
Bearing our sins in his own body on the tree. How awful, how awful, how terrible. We'll never understand the awfulness of what the Lord Jesus suffered on that Christ.
But before he died, he said it is finished and he bowed his head and died.
You know, the work of redemption was completely finished. And then a soldier took the spear and pierced it into his side, and out of his side comes blood and water. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission, there is no forgiveness of sins. And I want to read a couple verses that to me.
Really speak to my heart first of all in Acts chapter 10.
Acts Chapter 10.
And here Peter is preaching to.
A Gentile.
Commander of the Roman army, verse 36 says the word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ.
00:20:07
He is Lord of all the Lord Jesus because of his work on the cross.
As the position now being Lord of all.
And I think it is such a challenge to those of us who profess to know him. Is he really Lord in your life?
When it comes down to His desires for your life, you put your own desires in front of His desires.
Let me tell you, we live in a culture that glorifies.
Satisfying yourself. Do what you like, you have the right to it.
Is that right? I say when you sin against God, you forfeit your rights. You and I no longer have rights. There is one who has all the rights, the one who is Lord of all. Look at another verse in chapter 2 of Philippians.
Philippians, Chapter 2.
The end of verse five. Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself.
And became obedient unto death.
Even the death of the cross. Wherefore God has highly also highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ.
Is Lord.
To the glory of God the Father, because of what the Lord Jesus has done.
He is Lord of all.
And every knee is going to bow, and every tongue will confess him. Lord. I really think that that has been a problem in the Christian testimony in the United States of America is that we don't know what it means to own Him as Lord. That word is a word that recognizes His.
Supreme authority.
God has given him that place, and every tongue will confess him Lord. Even the demons of hell are going to have to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and they're going to do it in a decent way because it's to the glory of God the Father.
Oh, how important to recognize him as Lord. You children, you young people, recognize him as Lord the one you surrender everything to you. He is the one who has authority. You know, it scares me.
Being in meetings like this, so glad to see all you children here and young people too. But it it scares me when I think of some of those that have sat in meetings like this. I know.
Maybe 4:00 I could think of right off hand that used to break bread at the Lord's table and today they say they are atheists, they don't believe in a God. How can that happen?
It's because they've never come to the point of recognizing Jesus as Lord. I think I've told this story before, but I don't remember if everybody here might have heard it.
When we lived in Bolivia.
We arrived there in 1975 and we decided to build a house right next door to the meeting room in Montero, Bolivia, and I contracted a brother to do the building and one of the young men that was subcontracted.
00:25:14
Professed to be a believer too. He was breaking bread and he used to go with us on trips to visit some of the other meetings in the.
Amazon base in lowland area.
After we got our house done, why, he moved on to some other work, evidently, and I lost track of him. And one day I found him in a marketplace and I was so surprised to see him. And he says, yeah, yeah, I'll be back to meeting, I'll be back to meeting. He thought it was just meeting. I was worried about, really wasn't that at all. But anyhow, I lost track of him again.
If you would go with us to moan terrible Libya, they.
Have motorcycle taxis there. Instead of getting in a taxi, you can get on the back of a motorcycle and they'll take you where you want to go.
Well, these men that were motorcycle taxiists started appearing dead on the side of a road, one place and another, and nobody knew who was doing that until one day there was a man picked up on the side of the road. He'd been shot in the head, but evidently the bullet went through around the side of his skull and.
They took him into the hospital and he recovered and he told who it was that did it.
It was this man that helped to build our house, with whom we broke bread in Montero, Bolivia.
And he confessed it was a military government at that time, but he confessed to having killed at least 12. I forget if it was even more. Maybe people that way he would.
He would take them out in the country and tell them to stop and he would put a bullet in their head and then take off with their motorcycle and sell it somewhere.
But he not only didn't seem repentant, but he said.
Said, though, when I get out, I'm going to do a lot worse than that.
No sign of repentance.
One day, as they do in military government, they took him out into the countryside to supposedly an investigation as to where he might have sold some of those motorcycles.
But it really was with another purpose in mind and they kind of.
Didn't keep close track of them and all of a sudden here he is running towards this jungle and trying to get away and they said stop and he didn't stop. Boom boom boom.
And that was his, their way of taking care of that situation.
But when I heard it.
It shook me to the core. It shook me to the core. Is it possible that I broke bread at the Lord's Table with a person that is now burning in Hellfire? Yes, that's what happened. Is it possible that some of these people in here today are here, but they have never really surrendered to the Lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ, that one who went to the cross to pay the ultimate price of redemption for our sins?
And yet you say I want to have my own way. I'm going to do things my way.
Yeah, I'll believe in Jesus so that I can go to heaven at the end. You never have surrendered to His.
Lordship.
Another verse I want to read you is in Romans chapter 14.
And verse 9.
For to this end.
Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be.
Lord both of the dead and living. The Lord Jesus is Lord both of the dead and living. I don't know where you are in your soul. I can't see your heart.
But there is a God of light who is looking right down at you and knows exactly everything you're thinking.
Knows if you're holding back something from the Lord Jesus. He is Lord of all. But here it says He is the Lord of the dead and of the living.
That man that got killed?
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He's going to have to give an account to Jesus.
And he's going to.
Stand before him, he's going to be raised from the dead. Who knows where his body is right now?
Decomposed body, but he's going to stand before Jesus and give an account, and he's going to be.
Cast into the lake of fire, there's no one. There's no way you can escape him. You must meet Jesus. He wants to be your Savior now.
I plead with you to surrender to him.
What I say doesn't have much account, but what God says is something that you cannot avoid. You will meet with Jesus face to face. You will give an account to him. You will confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord.
How important that you do it here and now.
You know, it's so important. And I say.
Scripture speaks of two things that are necessary for salvation. Let's just look at them in Acts chapter 20.
Acts Chapter 20.
And.
Verse.
21.
The apostle Paul is speaking here, and he says testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks. Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, two things that are very necessary. Repentance means to rethink things.
It comes from the Latin word pent and it means to think.
Repent means to rethink.
You've been thinking with yourself at the core of your thoughts.
Repent. Change your thinking. It has to be Jesus at the center of your thoughts, and that's so important. But repentance does not save.
Repentance does not save. Look at a verse in Luke chapter.
13.
Verse one.
There were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
Jesus answering, said unto them, Suppose ye that those these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I say unto you, Nay, but accept ye repent, Ye shall all likewise perish to be saved you have to repent.
Repent isn't what saves, but it's necessary.
For salvation.
Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. What saves is faith in Christ. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. So if you don't repent, you can't be saved. That's number one thing. And so I ask you if you are thinking, dear young people, dear children, dear older ones too, with yourself at the center of your thoughts.
Repent. Make Jesus the center of your thoughts, not yourself. I see that our American way of thinking has really been a damage to so many people.
Now look at.
Want to go to Matthew's Gospel chapter?
27 Here we have one who repented himself.
It wasn't a true repentance, but it was he repented himself. Chapter 27 and verse one.
When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death, and when they had bound him, they led him away and delivered him to Pontius Pilate, the governor.
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Then Judas, which had betrayed him when he saw that he was condemned.
That was, Jesus was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned, and that I betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, what is that to us, See thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went.
And hanged himself awful. Here is one of the apostles.
The 12 apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, who saw the Lord's miracles, who listened to his words.
For 3 1/2 years, I suppose that Judas Iscariot actually did miracles as well. He preached the gospel of the King of King of the Kingdom.
And here he is, I think at the end of his life. But he thought was important was money.
He says Lord has walked out of so many traps and I hang and I deliver him, and I come to an agreement with the Pharisees to deliver him up. And I know Jesus would just walk out of the trap and I'll have those thirty pieces of silver in my pocket and nobody will ever know.
Didn't turn out that way.
The Lord Jesus didn't walk out of the trap. He submitted himself and Judas, it says he repented himself. It wasn't a repentance from God, because a true repentance from God is a repentance that's followed by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he went and hung on himself. It's not enough to repent if Judas would have gone back to the Lord Jesus and recognized and confessed his terrible act of of, of betrayal.
With the Lord Jesus have forgiven him. I'm sure he would have.
But he didn't have that faith to do that.
And where is Judas Iscariot now? He went to his own place. He is burning in Hellfire. How awful to think about. Is there anybody here that has repented, truly repented? I plead with you.
Think about it, make Jesus Lord of your life, don't be so self-centered. You know what? It impresses me that so many people are so self-centered and yet.
They are not happy people.
That's not a happy person, that's self-centered.
Second person I want to show you is in the book of Acts chapter 8.
Here we have a person.
Who believed?
Scripture actually says he believed he was actually baptized, wasn't he said.
Let's see.
Acts Chapter 8.
And verse.
Five. Then Philip went down to the city of Samara, Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. The people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.
Verse eight. There was great joy in that city, but there was a certain man called Simon, which before time in the same city used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that he himself was some great one, to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God.
To him they had regard because of that of long that of long time he had bewitched them with.
His sorceries when they believe Philip preaching the things concerning the Kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.
Then Simon himself believed also, and when he was baptized he continued with Philip and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done.
That interesting he believed he was baptized. Wasn't he saved?
00:40:05
Let's see a little further down what it says.
Verse 14. When the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For as yet he has not fallen. He was not fallen upon them only. They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, then laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.
And when Simon saw that through laying on in the hand Apostles hands, the Holy Ghost was given.
He offered them money, saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands He may receive the Holy Ghost.
But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent, that's what Simon lacked is repentance therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee, For I perceive that thou art.
Gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. Then answered Simon, and said, Pray ye to the Lord for me. None of these things which you have spoken come unto me. Think of that. He couldn't even pray for himself. He has somebody else to pray for him.
That shows the importance of repentance, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. It says he believed and was baptized, but he had never repented, was he said.
No evidence of his being saved for much as he believed and was baptized.
How solemn that is. Now let's go over to the 16th chapter, where we have a case of a person who.
Was repentant and believed, and we find that he was truly saved. Here we have the case of Paul and Silas being thrown into the prison. And they were beaten, and they were thrown into the prison, and their feet fast in the stocks. Verse 24.
And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed.
That interesting?
They didn't pray and sing right away. They must have been pretty sad for a while.
But at midnight they prayed and sang praises into God, and the prisoners heard them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, everyone's bands were loosed. The keeper of the prison awakening out of sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing.
The prisoners had been fled.
But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here. And he called for a light and sprang. In came trembling evidence of true repentance. He had been beaten, those two apostles, and now he was trembling, fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
They said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house, and they spake unto him.
The word of the Lord and to all that were in his house, and he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized he and all his straightway. So there's a case of one who repented and believed and he was truly saved. And so may it be so with each one here this evening.
Have you repented? Have you truly believed?
Have you confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord? Remember, He is Lord not only of the living, but of the dead.
Before we get to the end of our meeting here, we want to go over to the end of the Bible in chapter 20, where we have the Lord Jesus judging the dead. This is such an awfully solemn.
Portion because it shows that no one will ever escape meeting with Jesus. Whether you are living, when he comes again, whether you are dead, you will meet with Jesus face to face. There's no escaping of it.
00:45:14
There's so many people who think that when they die, I'll have my body burned and the ashes cast out over the ocean. Nobody will ever find me again.
Well, that's the case if it were people that were looking for him. But when it is God who does the resurrection resurrecting, why they will not escape, They will be found. And notice what it says here in Revelation 21 and verse 11.
And I saw a great white throne, and him that side on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away.
And there was found no place for them. This is the end of this present creation. Heaven and earth are going to pass away. And here in space is this great white throne. You know who's sitting on it? The Lord Jesus Christ, the one to whom every tongue will confess.
That Jesus Christ is Lord and the dead were raised and they stand before God.
And the books were open. Did you know that God keeps books? Every single person has a record of their life.
So many things in my life I'd forgotten about. Sometimes people come up to me and say, you remember that time when we were together? I totally forgotten it.
Yeah, that might be the case in our memories, but God has the record of it all. And so the books were opened and it says the dead were judged out of those things written in the books according to their works. Those things that are so shameful often think of ones like Hitler. When he stands before the Lord Jesus in that day, what is he going to say for the awful?
Slaughter of people that he committed and Hitler wasn't the worst male, I understand, killed at least 50 million of his own people, the Chinese people. What is he going to say? Stands there? It's going to be awful.
There is ultimate accounting for everything you do. You do not escape your accountability for what you do. And so here they are, says the sea gave up the dead which were in them, which were in it, and death and hades that really should be delivered up the dead which were in it, in them. And they were judged every man according to his works.
And death and hell were cast.
Into the lake of fire. This is the second death, and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. How awful. And I read this not to scare you merely, but to make you realize how serious the question of sin is. God takes it seriously. That's why Jesus suffered on that cross, to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
But if you don't repent of your sins.
You're going to have to give an account to God for your own sins in that day of accounting. How awful that is.
Lake of fire forever.
Still remember?
The High Plains of Peru, preaching in the gospel in a town where there is no electricity.
Front of the room we had.
Table and there were 4 candles lit on that table so we could read the Bible.
And I have preached on this portion here and I said I would like to ask for a volunteer. Somebody would come up here and put their finger in the flame of that candle for just one minute. I have a watch here and I'll make sure it doesn't go over the minute.
And to my surprise, I had a volunteer.
And he came up and I said, now when I say put it in there, I want you to put it in there and keep it in there please, until I tell you the minutes up.
OK.
I said what happened? You didn't even last for a second, but it hurt. OK, yeah, it hurt. But think about it. The lake of fire where not only your finger, but your whole body will bathe in the flames of hell forever and ever and ever without any hope of ever getting out. Isn't that enough to move you to come to Jesus? That's why he came. That's why he sacrificed himself.
00:50:21
So that you wouldn't go to that end. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And I plead with you tonight, if you're here, I can't see your heart, so I don't know who you are, where you are in this room. But I plead with you, if you're not real with God, get real tonight. Leave on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Repentance toward God, faith.
Toward our Lord Jesus Christ, how important those things are.
Let's just sing a hymn to close our meeting here.
On the front page.
Verse one.
Hymn #1 I mean.
Almost persuaded.
Almost persuade.
Now.
Persuaded.
For all of my history.
All you finish your time, some soul to say.
Oh, oh, persuade.
God come to the end.
Knowing Gods Will
YP Sing Address—J. Whitaker
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.
I want to talk tonight about.
Knowing God's will, all of us have, I'm sure, sat through meetings on this very subject. I know I have, and I don't have anything new to say.
We've all heard probably the same thing that I'm going to say tonight, but it's good to be reminded because.
We want to be.
Found in God's will.
I'm going to read a few verses, like 5 or 6 verses and.
Without comment and then go back and see if we can learn something from them. And the first one is in First Timothy.
Let's see First Timothy 2 verses three and four. If you have a Bible you can turn to it. If not, I'll just read it.
First Timothy.
And verse three says God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
The next verse I want to read is in Second Timothy.
Chapter One.
In the end of verse 8.
Second Timothy One.
End of verse 8 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.
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.
Next verse.
Is in Exodus chapter 3.
Exodus chapter 3 and this is the story of Moses when God called him.
Exodus 3 and verse 14.
Well, back up. I'll read verse 13.
And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your Father's has sent me unto you, and they shall say to me, What is his name? And what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am has sent me unto you.
And the next verse.
2 verses. We could probably sing them. I'm sure you know. I'm Proverbs 3, verse five and six.
Trust in the Lord.
With all thine heart.
And lean not unto thine own understanding, and all thy ways acknowledge him.
And he shall direct thy pass.
Let's go back to the one in First Timothy.
There's a lot of us here. We're all I was listening to Bernie's prayer this this afternoon and he mentioned about how we're all at different stages along life's pathway along our journey and and we are and whatever stage you're at, you want to be found in God's will.
It's something that applies.
To all of us and.
Some of you here, probably the youngest of us, might be thirteen and on up to.
You know, 50-60 years old, something like that. And some of you are most of you here are at the stage where you're kind of wondering some things, there's some some questions you'll have to answer in your life and it will set the course.
For your life and you want to be certain that you make the right choice.
Because it will affect the rest of your life. It's a point in your life.
That's so critical.
That you get it right.
How do you how do you know?
Some of these big questions, what are the answers like?
What do I do for a living? Where do I live?
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Who do I marry?
Do I have children or not have children?
Things like that, big questions and.
This verse in First Timothy.
Says God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth.
It's helpful to keep in mind that God has a plan.
And I liken it to like, say, if I live in Florida.
So you went down to Fort Lauderdale. There's lots of big ships there in the harbor. What if you got on one of these ships and you headed off into the Atlantic and you were on this ship and you were thinking.
You know, I'm thinking about asking the captain if maybe, maybe we could stop in Nassau, Bahamas and go shopping in the local shops there.
I wonder what he'll say. Maybe he'll do it.
It might be appropriate to ask that sort of a question of the captain if you were on a cruise ship.
And the captain might say, well, yeah, we were going to stop there anyway. Or he might say, no, we're actually going to go to Providenciales and Turks and Caicos. And you say, oh, OK, well, that's good. But what if you were on, like, a battleship? Would that be an appropriate question?
It wouldn't. You have to know what ship you're on.
God's will.
Is that?
All men be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. That's his. That's where the ship's going. So in a sense, you're sort of on a, on a mercy ship.
When you get saved.
You want to be found in God's will.
And so the kinds of questions that you would ask him would have that kind of overarching theme.
But he does have a plan for you specifically. There's lots of jobs on that ship.
Baby.
If we go over to the second verse we read and second Timothy one.
Verse eight and nine God.
Who has saved us and called us within holy calling?
You know.
When the Lord.
Took the Israelites. They were enslaved in Egypt. We all know the story. He brought him out of Egypt.
But God doesn't just save you just so that you get out from under slavery.
His goal, his purpose, was not just to get them out of Egypt so that they could wander around forever in the wilderness. He didn't want him to wander in the wilderness at all. He wanted him to go straight to the promised land. It should have taken him about 11 days.
But something went wrong.
And when God saves us.
He doesn't just save us, He also has a holy calling. He has something for you and for me to do.
And.
It's not according to our works. So when we pray to him.
What I meant to say before I even started as I wanted to tell you the punch line before I told you the question, but.
The solution, and we've heard this, to knowing God's will, is to study the Word.
And to spend time in his presence.
In prayer.
Or to live your lives in a state of prayerfulness so that you always have the consciousness of God being with you.
Umm.
It's good to go to him.
And.
Ask him to.
Put us into His will.
In other words.
It's it's a subtle difference between asking him what his will is for you and asking him what his will is and how you can fit into his will, where he becomes the focus and not you.
We don't want to try to bend God's will to fit our plans.
If you know what I mean.
I can't go to God and say.
I am so good.
I have all these gifts, I have all these talents, I have all these abilities. I have all these plans, all these desires, and I want you to fulfill them for me because you know the verse. Our righteousness deserves filthy rags. He's not interested in our abilities. He has his plans. He's given you a gift, a spiritual gift, and he expects you to use it, of course, but.
00:10:21
It's according to his grace, like this verse says.
He's the one who gives us the strength.
In Exodus, that story of Moses. I love that story and I'm sure you've you've read it.
I've been enjoying recently that that verse God is called Moses. And we all know that Moses, his life is divided up into three phases, right? He spent 40 years in Egypt. He was the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
And he made a choice. In Hebrews, it tells us he made a choice, a conscious decision.
To leave Egypt and to leave all of that privilege that he had.
And he he chose to be identified with God's people, and he led them out.
And he spent the next 40 years on the backside of the desert, said Herd and sheep. And Moses went from being a somebody to being a nobody.
And I'm sure.
If it was me out there, I would be.
Probably struggling with depression. Like why am I here? I had everything, I left it and now I'm here on the backside of the desert. My life's almost over. I'm all I'm 80 years old and what's there left in life for me? But that's right when God called him.
So even if you're 80 years old, God might have a plan for you. Now. Most of us these days don't live 220, but.
Like Moses did, but.
You could kind of divide his life up like this in the first half or first third of his life. He was pretty self confident. He thought he was the real deal. And I don't know what his plan was, whether he meant to go out and kill Egyptians one at a time, but you know, he killed the one and then he found out that he.
His.
His murder was discovered and so he he fled.
But after all of that, he.
Spent the next you know he learned what sheep are like and he.
By the time God comes up to him when he's 80 years old, he has no confidence.
And the last 40 years of his life, he learned to have confidence in God.
And what I've enjoyed about this verse, verse 14, when he says, who shall I tell these people?
That who shall I tell him sent me.
And God sent him to Moses. I am that I am.
I am has sent me unto you that.
In our lives, we have past tense, we have present tense, and we have future tense, right?
All of us live in the present.
No matter where we are, we're always here in the present. Every time you make a decision, you make it right here, the second in the present. And this.
Tense I am is in the present tense.
We want to live our lives.
With the awareness that God is with us.
If we would have read a little bit before, you know the story, how he sees the burning Bush.
And God sees that Moses turns a size and he says to him, take off your shoes. Seems like an odd request, right?
I don't know if this is somebody shared this with me and I've enjoyed it.
God saw.
That Moses had been through these 80 years of experience and he was going to draw on those experiences.
And.
It seems like what he was telling Moses is take off your shoes.
I'm going to send you to do something that you can't do. It's impossible.
But I'm going to wear your shoes.
I'll be walking in your shoes and they're not going to wear out. And we read that later.
Those shoes of Moses didn't wear out for 40 years.
00:15:08
Do you know who wrote the most books of the Bible?
Any guesses?
If you had to divide it up, it's either Paul or Moses, right? Well, in my Bible here, if you add up all the pages, Moses wrote 279 of them.
The Apostle Paul.
Wrote about 97 up.
And I just heard the other day I was listening to a, I don't know what you call them, a paleontologist or, or somebody who is.
Digging through evidence in the in the Holy Lands, looking for.
All sorts of clues about the authenticity of the Bible and things like that.
Said that.
Deuteronomy is written in the same format that the treaties between world powers were written in. It's an identical format and it's way over my head the exact way in which he did it. But Moses wrote Deuteronomy and he wrote it in a format.
That he probably learned in Egypt he was, he was going to be the next pharaoh probably and.
We go through these phases in our lives. I know like for myself.
There's times in my life where I'm like, man, this is just not not very much fun. I don't really know where I'm going.
For me.
There were times where.
When I I was going through high school, I can remember thinking about what I was going to do and the thought of spending four years in university did not appeal to me at all. And I, I told my dad no uncertain terms, that that's not something I was going to be doing.
Not to rehash a whole lot of my life story that's probably not that interesting, I took a lot of time zigzagging around doing this and doing that, avoiding what ultimately was God's will for my life. And of course, during this time when I wasn't exactly sure what I was supposed to be doing, just I wasn't going to go to school.
I did go to some school that was shorter and I worked in that field for a while.
And it was not satisfying.
And.
I wasn't really.
Taking my own advice here and spending time in the Lord's presence and and really seeing what he had for me.
And it wasn't until there were a couple of events in my life.
And you know, one of these things why I enjoy coming to meetings like this.
Is that?
You never know.
You never know when you're going to hear something that's going to make a big difference in your life.
And for me, I went to a California conference down in Burbank.
Must have been 30 years ago or so.
I wasn't planning on going.
But my dad again encouraged me to go and I went.
And I was at him saying, just like this, and Beth's grandpa, Don Don is your grandpa, right? Don Bellisoli stood up and he told the story about how he went through the exercise of soul to move to Newfoundland and do the mission work that he did up there. And I was there. The Lord made sure I was there and I heard it and it changed.
The course of my life when I was.
Trying to decide where to go and what to do and I wound up.
Going.
In a direction that was not really something I would have chosen. I'm a homebody. I like to stay at home and.
I wound up moving to South America and living down there.
Rewind 2 years prior to that, I had been there on vacation. Dean and Debbie Rule had invited us down there and.
I went and it was one of the best two weeks of my life and.
I don't mind admitting when I went there.
I knew my wife, of course. I'd known her for probably 10 years.
00:20:01
And, and we lived across the country from each other, so we'd see each other at camps and things like that and.
I, you know, I liked her, but I wasn't interested in her. And it wasn't until I was in South America and I.
Saw we it was like a sort of like a mission trip and we we followed Dean and Debbie around and we did what they did and it kind of gave me a little window into something that.
I felt maybe that's what the Lord had for me to do, and it wasn't until I was paying attention.
To his will that I noticed.
The woman who became my wife and I saw something that she was doing that was very parallel to the course that I now was on and.
I would encourage you I guess.
Some of your you know, beyond the stage, already married, have kids and all that, but.
For those of you who aren't, if you're just sort of.
Wondering that question? That's a big question. You know, who am I going to spend the rest of my life with?
Go to the Lord.
And.
Ask him to put you into his will.
Into the current of his will and just go and and do what he has for you and when when you start doing it.
You look around and you'll see, oh, you'll notice things. It's kind of like when you you ever buy like a?
Blue Toyota Prius. You've never seen a Prius before, but now all of a sudden you see blue Toyota Priuses all over the place. It's like they were always there, you just didn't notice it. And and for me, speaking specifically about who I married, she was always there. I just didn't notice her until.
I found out what God's will was for me and until I was willing to submit to His will, He wasn't going to show me the next step.
And I don't know how he will work in your life or how he has worked in your life. That's just how he worked in mine and I'm very thankful.
Anyways, not to belabor this point too much, but spend time in His word. Because when you read His word, you're fed, of course, but you also find out what's right and wrong. And so when you're asking Him things you kind of know, you can ask intelligently, because you're not going to ask something that you already know isn't as well.
And then spending time in his presence.
And.
It's not magic, it's not secret. We all know it. We've heard it.
Spending time in his presence is so wonderful.
And it's so essential. It's part, it's what's why I saved us. He didn't just save us to free us from the slavery of sin. He wants a relationship with us. And he doesn't want you just to wander around in the wilderness for 40 years. He wants to bring into the promised land. He doesn't want to feed you.
Just the the bare sustenance, like the man that was never his intention to give them mana. He wanted to get them straight into the into the into Canaan where there was the old corn. They wouldn't have to do anything. It was just there. It was already in the in the in the storehouses, the other people that they kicked out.
Had already harvested, they just had to walk right in and start enjoying it. But they didn't because they didn't have faith.
So I just encourage you to.
You know, things aren't you feel like you're you're spinning out there in left field. You're not really sure or maybe this is something that you're starting to think about. You're younger, 1314.
Read your Bible every day. It's no secret your parents have told you, your grandparents have told you, and just make a habit of it. Pick it up, read it. And the other thing is you know the verse study to show yourself approved unto God.
I know you should pick up your Bible and read it you know in the morning 15 minutes or however long you have.
How many exams have you ever passed by studying for 15 minutes just before you go to sleep? You don't pass too many exams that way to study. You really got into it, right? You don't know that you really need to, to get into it and, and just start digging in and, and one thing leads to another and it's so encouraging and that, and that's how you grow up.
1 Corinthians 11:1-16
Reading
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Guide us, O thou gracious Savior.
Guide us.
Grand Despair and.
We are. We are.
Riding.
All the swear by heart.
Oh God.
Oh God, sweetness.
Of life.
God blessings us. Come on, the Lord is in you. Touch everybody.
May we also sing the first verse.
And verses four and five of #168.
168 versus 1.
4:00 and 5:00.
The annoying.
No sign will appear.
Lord, for thy sailors and the sky.
So.
So.
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So.
I know there were a few verses in the end of chapter 10.
That weren't yet yesterday.
What if we're going to try to?
Follow Bob's exercise. Maybe we should go on Chapter 11. Is that suitable?
Suggested that we go on to the part about the Lord's Supper. I had thought that might be helpful to go through the first part of the chapter, but I leave that to my brethren too. And what the need is.
Appreciate.
That the Lord guide us says to that.
Looks like there's two reading meetings today.
Might be profitable to start from the beginning of the chapter.
Good.
And just try not to get hung up on the first two or three verses.
First Corinthians, Chapter 11.
Be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you, brethren, that you Remember Me in all things, and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you. But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.
Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered dishonour at his head, but every woman that prayeth her prophesis with her head uncovered dishonor with her head, for that is even all one, as if she were shaved.
Where's the woman be not covered? Let her also be shorn. But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, for as much as he is the image and glory of God. But the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man.
For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head.
Because of the angels. Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord.
Whereas the woman is of the man, Even so is the man also by the woman, but all things of God.
Judging yourselves? Is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair?
It is a shame unto him. What if a woman have long hair? It is a glory to her.
For her hair is given her for a covering. But if any man seemed to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. Now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not that you come together, not for the better, but for the worse.
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Or first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and I partly believe it.
For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. When you come together therefore into one place. This is not to eat the Lord supper, for any eating everyone taketh before other his own supper, and one is hungry and another is drunken. What have you not houses to eat, and to drink in, or despise ye the Church of God, and shame them that have not?
What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.
For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you.
That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. When he had given thanks, he break it and said, take E this is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me.
After the same manner also he took the cup when he had stopped saying this cup is the New Testament in my blood.
This do ye as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lords death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup.
For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself.
Not discerning the Lord's body for this cause, many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
Or if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged, but when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world.
Wherefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, carry one for another, and if any man hunger, let him eat at home. They come not together under condemnation, and the rest will I set in order.
When I come.
There was an older brother under whose ministry I sat for a number of years.
Who used to categorize some of the things that we have before us in Chapter 10 and Chapter 11 in this way, and it was an easy way to remember them.
He said, as we had yesterday in chapter 10, we have the Lord's Table.
In Chapter 11 we have the Lord's Supper.
And between those two, and in connection with them, of course, we have three things. And in the English language they all begin with an S.
First of all, separation, and we had that yesterday.
Then we have submission.
And finally, sobriety.
All very, very important.
And the Lord brings them in here in connection with both his table and his supper. I would only make a bit of a suggestion relative to what Bob said and relative to what our brother Jonathan said.
We have about an hour left in this reading meeting, and this afternoon's reading is a short one.
And there is so much in this chapter in connection with the Lord's Supper. I would just politely suggest, and I think it's already been hinted at, that we not get bogged down in the details at the beginning of this chapter to the detriment of considering what our brother Bob had on his heart, namely the Lord's Supper, because there is plenty there. I believe that would really be for our hearts and for edification.
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Would you agree with that, brother Bob?
Yes, I like to make this comment as well when we were talking yesterday about the Lord's Table.
As we mentioned yesterday, it's not Jesus's table, it's not Christ's table, It's the Lord's table. It's the place of authority. He has authority at his table. It's not my table, it's not the brethren's table, it's the Lord's table. And So what we have in the beginning of Chapter 11.
Is recognition of the order that God has set in creation to recognize the authority that He has designated. And we do that according to what we have in the first verses of this chapter. And I I agree with you, Bill, we can go on, but I think the young people especially need instruction as to why.
The sisters cover their heads and I would like to say that in the beginning of this chapter he's not talking about assembly meeting until we get down to verse 20. And there he says when you come together into one place, that's assembly meeting.
And he says this is not to eat the Lord's Supper, because there they were doing it in a disorderly fashion. And so he gives instruction.
How it is to be done from verse 23 on in this chapter. But I think it is important to see that there is a recognition not only when we are assembled together, but at any time we pray or prophecy that there here is an order. The angels are watching us, brethren, and they see.
In the church, the manifold wisdom of God, they don't have the Holy Spirit.
To instruct them in the things of God. They have the church to see and they are watching us. They see the sisters have a covering on their heads doesn't say their hair, but on their heads. Why is that It is to recognize God's order of authority. And so we have that in verse three. To begin with would have you know that the head of every man.
Doesn't say every brother, every man. This is something that was established in creation is Christ. The head of every woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. Isn't that interesting? Even Christ as a man recognizes his.
Place of of being under the authority of God.
And so God is the head of Christ. Christ is the head of the man, and the man is the head of the woman. That's the order of God's authority. And if we want to have order in our assemblies, it's important to recognize God's order.
I could just make a suggestion. I hate to turn this back to the chapter before, but I'm just looking at the number of verses in the last part of chapter 10 that have to do with the care of the sheep.
You spend almost as much time in Chapter 10 concerned with the care of the sheep, and as we take up this question or this, this teaching in Chapter 11.
We should do it with the Spirit that was shown in chapter 10, the care, the conscience.
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We should be gentle and we should go out of our way.
To be concerned for the need and I just I'm not trying to refocus our attention.
But as we take up this teaching, let's just remember that we may not all be at the same place in our understanding and we need to have a love and a gentleness and a care for the for those in the assembly.
Bill, and maybe you have some comments you'd like to make on those verses?
I think we covered it yesterday. I think that they're there. Those are very important verses.
For the the development of the sheep, not everyone is going to be in the same place in their conscience. There is a place for personal faith. Personal faith has to do with one's conscience. And so Paul is very gentle. He's he's very, he's willing to go way beyond.
His own liberty.
To make sure that there's.
There's the ability for souls to be brought along as they develop. So I just, it's amazing that in this subject, which is quite an important subject, you have such a space that is devoted to the care of the sheep.
I agree with you, Brother Phil. I'd like to read the last three verses of the last chapter.
Whether therefore, ye eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. It's not our setting ourselves forward, brethren, it's having God's glory and focus.
Give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God.
We have that sensitivity beyond those who are brethren, Jews, Gentiles, and then those that are brethren are under the Church of God. And then verse 33, even as I please all men in all things, not seeking my known profit, but the prophet of many, that they might be saved.
That verse was read in Romans yesterday. Even Christ pleased not himself. We live in a culture, brethren, where self pleasing is glorified.
That is not Christianity. Even Christ pleased not Himself what you are doing. Are you doing it to please yourself?
Your own thoughts or are you doing it to please others? And so we need to have that in view. That's very important.
At the same time, I say God gives us the norms in his own precious word, and we can't set them aside for it. This is what God has established, that there is headship and creation and in our culture, especially in the United States of America.
It is being given up the difference between a man and a woman, and it's led to severe.
Confusion to teach in children in their young days that they can switch sexes is is the the.
Highest form of child abuse. Terrible what has been done because we don't recognize God's order in creation. The Lord help us.
Like to quote a verse that first probably will see what's this have to do with the subject.
The foul shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus.
And believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead. Thou shalt be saved.
The most significant and most important change that's involved in life itself is when I come to that point.
00:25:07
That I recognize a person, Jesus Christ, as Lord.
One who has has already said authority.
More than authority though, to get the full sense of it. I couldn't give the full sense of it. But for my own heart, he's had.
He's the one that I look to, to guide and direct with authority all the affairs of my life. I didn't know that. I didn't recognize that relationship.
Until that verse was fulfilled, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord.
And believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead. Thou shalt be saved.
Chapter 10. Chapter 11. That is before us.
Is not simply what we got to do sort of idea that misses the point. The point is I am now under the headship of an individual and under that headship I look upon it as a privilege to seek his guidance, his direction and.
To have that respect.
And that honor given to him in the relationship that I now know with him.
And so it's the Lord's Table, and in that Lord's Table there is the acknowledgement and the recognition.
Of his place.
We don't come there as a democracy. We don't come there for us to give our own view on this and that and the other subject. We come there to recognize our head.
And follow it.
We trust.
Sometimes that when we trust that all the times that whatever participation is taking part in this meeting right now is a participation not with liberty to say whatever's on your mind, but rather to recognize that there's someone who is directing by the spirit what is being said according to the perfect knowledge and will.
And what is our place? Our place is to say yes, Lord, and respond accordingly to it. And so we didn't establish the idea of a table.
The head chose to have one.
We didn't decide.
How, if you will, in ourselves, His honor was to be known and respected and followed. But the beginning of Chapter 11 gives us the understanding of how He has chosen for us to outwardly express according to who we are and what our place is in the body, to how we express.
His headship, his place, his honor, and consequently, if it touches our hearts properly, then we're going to respond to it, Not as AI got to do it, but we're going to respond as a privilege given. We go on in this chapter as to the remembrance of the Lord. And so it follows in the same character. It's not just a supper.
I had supper last night and I'll say it was just a supper.
I had breakfast this morning and it was just a breakfast. But when I sit down on the Lord's Day morning, I partake of what's not mine. But I thank God for the privilege of partaking of what's his the Lord's Supper.
And so we do. I'm going to make one more comment on yesterday.
And respect to the whole subject, that is.
Very humbling.
To my own soul, at least.
I had occasion to know a brother quite well. We used to come into the book room.
00:30:06
And.
Share Christ together.
For sometimes an hour or two at a time, that particular brother was a laborer and another group of brethren.
I believe with all my heart that I'm where the Lord is in the midst.
That brother, I would say, equally believed with all his heart that the Lord was in the midst where he was.
But both of us.
Good walk.
This illustration we can enjoy the Lord together.
We could embrace his brethren in Christ.
We could talk about weakness and opportunity, but we also recognize this.
He and I could enjoy the Lord together and walk down the street on a Lord's Day morning.
And come to the end of a street.
And he turned left.
To remember the Lord.
And I turn right.
Could either of us say that the Spirit of God told him to turn left and me to turn right?
Could we charge the Spirit of God with division?
If he could rightly turn left and I could turn right, we would have to say the Spirit of God.
Was a source.
Of our behavior, and consequently of division in a practical sense, in the body of Christ. I say it, brother, because we ought to be humbled.
By being part of something that is to be to the glory of the Lordship of Christ that has been before the world badly spoiled. May the Lord help us.
To take up these things humbly.
And with a sense of our own weakness and failure, often to maybe do the right thing, but not the right spirit.
I want to thank.
Of how the Lord told Peter and John in Luke 22 to go and prepare.
Us the Passover.
And the next question they put to the Lord Jesus is where wilt thou that we prepared? And that I believe shows submission. And the Lord explicitly told them what to do.
And that just gives me great joy to realize that the Lord, he doesn't want to confuse us. He wants to lead us in a plain path.
And so the Lord said, when you go into the city, there's going to meet you a man with a pitcher of water.
And so it was, and so they go, and they found it tells us as the Lord had said. Well, why would it be any the otherwise? It's always as the Lord has said.
And so they asked another question.
Starts with.
Where? Where is the guest chamber?
And.
They're shown where to go, and again it's as the Lord had said. Now I asked myself.
You know, do I have a good attitude about submitting to the Lord?
And Brother Phil is speaking about how we don't see always the truth all at once.
But I really appreciate in Job chapter 34 and verse.
32 Now this is a good attitude. I think it's an attitude that we all.
Ought to have, and this is Job 34 and verse 32. That which I see not teach thou me.
If I have done iniquity.
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I will do no more.
Here is one that's acknowledging he doesn't know it all.
And sometimes we meet up with people like that and we get the impression that.
They seem to think they know it all, and you present to them the truth of God.
And it's water off, it ducks back. It seems to go in one year, not the other.
And but then we do find those that have a teachable spirit and that is so beautiful to see. And when we're willing to submit to the truth of God, we find that it sets us free. It sets us free from ourselves.
From the world.
I often think of.
How Darby, you know John Nelson, Darby, you could say lower thy feet. Lord Jesus, this is the place for me. Here have I learned deep lessons.
Truths that have set me free, free from myself, Lord Jesus, free from the ways of men. The chains of thought that once found me never shall bind me again. Not but I love. Lord Jesus conquered this wayward will, but for thy love constraining.
I had been wayward still.
And we all know.
I shouldn't say all. Most of us know what the Lord told us.
If you know these things, happy are you if you do that. But what I'm saying is that if there is confusion about where.
Is the Lord's table. Where should I go to sit down where the Lord is?
If I have confusion about this.
It's not the Lord's fault, it's my fault I got a problem. And I believe that there is that submissive spirit the Lord will teach us and show us where he would have us to be.
Where he is, that is where we want to be.
And if Peter and John had gone to a different room in the guest house, there might have been a table there.
And they might have sat down there, but.
The Lord Jesus would not have showed up at that table.
But where the?
Submitted to his direction.
There the table was, and there the Lord Jesus showed up.
So submission, it's it's, it's not easy in the flesh. We want to do our own will. We're stubborn.
It's not a good attitude.
As believers, it says we walk out the Spirit and not after the flesh. And I was thinking this morning of the happy time that we had here together, called it a praise and a prayer meeting, and surely praise and worship went up. If I went around and asked each one what they thought of the meeting this morning, I'm certain they would say that they were overjoyed. I remember we did it last year and it was the first time I'd ever been in such a format as that and it was quite exciting.
And I'm certain too that each one was filled up.
With joy, as we sang those hymns and read those verses and praised Him, gave worship. But what we have here is an order of things in divine worship, a sense in which we can come together in a way and bring glory and honor to Him. And that was the verse that Phil brought out. And I was looking at the same at the end of chapter 10. Whether therefore ye or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. And in speaking to a young man between the meetings this morning.
You know, it was determined through simplicity that.
I think of that verse. If so be you've tasted that the Lord is gracious. If each one of us have tasted that from the Lord Jesus Christ and we have been filled up with him, our hearts are full of Christ.
Should be the very natural thing as a believer. It should be our our own nature as a believer to do these things. You said if you know these things, happier you if you do them. And so it shouldn't be a work to submit. It shouldn't be any work to try to figure it out. He's written it out plainly for us to see. And he says, do it. And we say somebody already said it. Yes, Lord, that should be the response of our heart as a true believer in the nature of crush.
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Submission and dependence are painted by this, well, by Satan, as a sign of inferiority. They're not.
The most perfectly submissive and dependent man that ever walked this earth was our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Was He inferior and be blasphemous to suggest that He was? He is our perfect example and as Bob has indicated, there is an order given here. This is not just about submission as being the woman's role. We as men have a place of submission to our head as well.
And our failure in that submission has led to far more destruction in the Church of God.
Then I might suggest the woman's failure in her submission.
Division. Where does it come from? It comes from.
Those that are in a place of administration responsibility, failing to submit to the lordship of Christ.
But the question in this chapter is why the physical?
Representation of that submission. Why should the woman have a physical representation of that submission on her head when the man doesn't? Well, that's not true. The man also is to have a physical representation of his place in that order which God has established. He's not to have his head covered. And this subject came up in a cottage meeting in our local assembly recently.
And.
I must admit I'm ignorant of these things, but it was appointed out to me that it is very common in this present day to see preachers on YouTube.
And other social media standing forth, preaching with their head covered. And I, I, I, I quite frankly was stunned.
You know, that which is physical and outward doesn't seem like it matters much in the world in which we live. But you know when First Corinthians 7 says.
There end of chapter 6. Rather every in verse 18, every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. You know, we are made-up of spirit, salt and body, and it's easy to spiritualize everything.
And take away all outward signs of our Christianity. That's what we like to do by nature. We don't like to stand forth and.
Appear different in the world in which we live. It's human nature. But we have spirit, soul and body. And God is just as interested in our spiritual condition, the condition of our soul and also our bodies. What we do outwardly with our bodies is just as important to Him as those other three. There is an order there. There is an order, spirit, soul and body. I don't want to get the order things out of order, but God is.
Concerned with what we do.
Outwardly with our bodies, someone also suggested within. Isn't that just a religious thing to have your head covered?
You know, it's very easy to dismiss the things of God by labeling them. We can label things.
Well, that's just tradition, and yes, we have to examine the traditions. By the way, the word used in verse two keep the ordinances literally. In the Greek paradoxes, which means a handing down, it means tradition.
There are traditions of men which we must judge them for what they are. There are also things that God is handed down to us that we had to take heed to. We can't just label things because we want to get rid of them. The apostle James, well James probably the Lords brother, takes up in his epistle.
The outward walk of our faith. And he uses the word religion. Religion in itself is not an evil word. Religion, in the context in which James uses it, is simply the outward presentation of our faith. And that's what James is all about. James is begging the question, will the real Christians stand up? Who are you? Why can't we see you? Where's the evidence of your faith in your life? Show it outwardly. That's the subject of the book of James. And so he touches on religion.
The outward presentation of our faith before this world. It does matter to God these things, but nothing doesn't matter to God. It also says in this chapter that one that acts outside of the order in which God has created us as men and women. And this is very broad subject. Now, as Bob hinted at, not any dishonor of God, but the dishonor of themselves. They dishonor themselves.
00:45:28
Observation 22nd in the how they they went under the Lord's direction.
In the 11Th verse.
We want to say the master set under thee, where is the guest chamber?
We're actually with my disciples.
And I think if we're when we're looking.
At the remembrance of the Lord.
It's good to keep in mind that it is a guest chamber.
Because as we have in our chapter.
He says.
Until he come.
This remembrance of the Lord that we have the privilege of partaking of here in this world is a temporary thing until He calls us home to be in heaven with Him. It's a guest chamber. We have the privilege of being gathered around our beloved Savior, but it's a remembrance that will no longer be needed when we're at home with Him in heaven. And if we keep that in our minds that it is a guest chamber.
It is for this time we keep our focus on the head in heaven. I think that will help us.
In understanding the importance of the remembrance of the Lord here on this earth, but remembering that it it is a remembrance for now, for this time to keep.
Our affections on Him until He calls us home. And we should keep our focus on the head which is in heaven, and remember that it is now just a temporary thing, as dear as it is to our hearts. It's for the sea in this world and will no longer need it when we're united with Him in heaven.
Very nice to see in mocks, golf tournament, bus and then new translation.
Says.
It's a mock chapter 14, verse 14. I'm going to read it from J&D. And wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, the teacher says where is.
My guest chamber. My guest chamber. It is his guest chamber, not ours.
The word submission and the carefulness in which it needs to be used.
I don't believe the Lord Jesus ever needed that word.
To look at him.
His the word of the Lord Jesus was I delight to do thy will, Oh my God.
He knew no will but the will of God as a man, and it was his perfect delight to do that well.
As a result, as a man, he had no will of his own in that regard, when it was with respect to God.
The.
Situation. The condition with us is different because we have flesh in US, and because we have flesh in us, we have a will in that flesh which is in opposition to God.
But if we want to do the will of God.
And what's before us or anything else in life, and it's broad in every application.
We have to act properly in the Newman.
And not in the flesh. And if we're acting in the Newman, there's no issue.
Of having to use the word submission.
Because submission has the thought in it of being restricted from doing something that I want to do.
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And therefore I have someone else that's telling me they have authority over me and I can't do what I want to do.
But that lowers the truth.
That is not the proper really encouragement to do the will of God.
In the new man, we too can say, I delight to do thy will, Oh my God.
And consequently, as we have in these verses, in these chapters, I believe a more edifying way of seeing it is our Lord gives direction with authority.
And the Newman delights to follow it.
And if there is the flesh at work in us, then we're going to start thinking about submission because it involves will. And so I would encourage that we look to our Lord as Lord to give us direction and do so with authority, and that we respond to it in the new man.
Perhaps we can go through some of these verses here because.
You just have a short time to the end of the meeting and we'd like to get to the Lord's Supper next meeting. But notice again verse three, brethren.
I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ and the head of every woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying doesn't say merely in the church or in assembly meeting, but this is at any time praying or prophesying having his head covered.
Dishonorous his head, which is Christ.
Every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered, dishonoureth her head, for that is even all one, as if she were shaved.
Is there any woman like here down here that would like to have their head shaved?
Well, it would be better to put a covering on your head than to have your hair shaved.
For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. And if it be a shame for a woman to be a shorn or shaved, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head.
Or as much as he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man.
For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man for this.
Cause Ought the woman to have power or a symbol of authority on her head?
Because of the angels.
Remember, brethren, the angels can never sin. If they sin, it's automatic condemnation forever.
And they look and they see.
Mankind disrespecting, not recognizing, like Don was saying, the authority.
Of the Lord Jesus in our lives, and that authority should be willingly recognized.
Oh, brethren, what a privilege to do that. And so anytime we pray or prophecy, the man uncovers his head, the woman covers her head. And so sometimes people say, well, the woman is not taking part in the meeting. That's true. But when she sings, she's prophesying.
And first Chronicles chapter 25, the first verses, you'll see that the singers prophesied. How did they prophesied By singing. I think that's beautiful, brethren. And so it should be something that is willingly done and and respected brethren. This is the question of God's order in in creation. And so it's a privilege to do it.
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And so it's a matter. I say this sometimes, brethren, which is more serious?
Dishonor Christ or the woman to dishonor the man. To me, it's far more serious for us as men to dishonor our head because our head never makes a mistake. We in our place of headship over the woman. Do we ever make a mistake? Plenty of times.
And so it's far more serious, brethren, for us as men in this situation. And like Brother Nicholas saying, you see sometimes.
In singing and we have to recognize that they're not instructed in what we understand the truth of God to be. And so we should be careful not to be over critical, but to recognize at the same time this is God's order.
So you're saying that?
Bob Debt for a man to cover his head.
When praying, her prophesied is really to be covering up Christ.
To dishonor Christ.
Yeah, well, that's black, black print on white page. I mean, it's very clear. So then in verse.
Three, where it speaks about the head of the woman is the man we're talking about the 1St man, is that the.
Or is that not exactly the right thought? It doesn't say a brother, it says a man, and I take it that it is God's order in creation.
Am I right?
I think that's correct because in Galatians 3IN new creation there is neither male nor female, but we're still tied to the old creation. At the same time we're part of the new creation. So with respect to the old creation, God has an order and we're to display that, and that's for His glory, that we would display His order and create in that old creation that we're still tied to, but we're also part of a new creation and all those distinctions disappear. So the brothers and sisters have an equal status.
In the assembly and new creation no difference, but is being tied still to the old creation. There are things that are for God's glory, Christ's honor that were to display. I want to touch on take this opportunity to jump in Bob. I want to look at two other Old Testament scriptures because there's a beautiful aspect of things maybe we don't often touch on in connection with the sisters hair given to hers, a veil and then that additional covering.
On her head, she's praying or prophesying and those scriptures, first of all, Numbers chapter 5.
Won't read them all in Numbers chapter 5 we get God's direction to Israel under the law. If a man was jealous of his wife if he suspected his wife of infidelity, but there was no proof there was a trial that could be had and he was to bring her to the priest and there are a number of things that were to be done when he brought her she was to have.
An offering for her and numbers five and verse 15 and then.
He would The priest in verse 16 shall bring her near and set her before the Lord.
The thing I want to notice in all the things that are done here is verse 18. And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord and uncover the woman's head.
Why her husband had no confidence in her.
And so she was to uncover her head.
That sign of her place of subjection and submission to him, she was no longer in his confidence.
The church is never, never out of the confidence of Christ. The church is never suspect in the eyes of Christ. And so the sisters with their covered heads give a testimony to that fact that the church is ever, ever in his favor, never suspect by Christ. He always has his arm around her.
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The other one is in Numbers chapter 21 and there there are directions given if a woman is taken captive.
And a man would take her and bring her to his house to be his wife.
And Deuteronomy 21 and verse.
11 And see us among the captives, A beautiful woman, and has desired her. And now it's hammer to thy wife. Thou shalt bring her home to thine house, and she shall shave her head and pair her nails, and she shall put the raiment of her captivity from offer, and shall remain in line house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month. And after that thou shalt go in unto her, and she shall and be her husband, and she shall be.
Thy wife.
For a period of time she was to have her head shaved. She was no longer under the authority of her father, she was not yet married to a new husband, she was not under the authority of the man in that sense, and she was a captive. She gives expression in the shaved head of being in a place of *******.
Brethren, we are not captives.
Were espoused to Christ and that.
Hair given to the woman as her bail is expressive of that place. We're not in ******* we're not under law. We're espoused to Christ. He's our husband in that way. And so the the covered head and the hair is a veil give expression to the place in the affections.
Of Christ and the care of Christ under his headship that the church has, and it's a testimony to the angels of God.
Order of nature when we go back to Genesis.
God says it is not good for man to dwell alone.
I will make a help meet for him.
And so he creates the man and the woman.
But in the greater sense of it.
God was thinking about his Son becoming a man.
And in making his son take that place, and sending his son to take that place in manhood.
He said it's not good for men to dwell alone, and so in his heart that man will remain a man.
In manhood, for eternity. And so he says I'll get a help meet for him.
You're part of it.
You're part of the helpmate.
You are the bride of Christ.
You're part of his body.
And when we take up what's here in this chapter and in its broader sense, there is for him as a man.
The proper place that he has even as man.
As that in relationship to his wife, to be this bride as the head, it's to his respect and his honor that she be in that place to him.
We also have the word Lord to give it to us, the sense of it. But when we take up things like this, it's important to see that.
In the sense that that's why it is.
With respect to the man and the woman.
Because it's God looking at his Son as man and saying what is the proper place of him with respect to the woman.
And then we have the figure or the truth of the church brought in. And so it's important for us to recognize it is of nature. But it's of nature in respect to the fact of the sun becoming a man and as such as a man. He then takes his place as we have it as Christ to God, because God is in, as in God had supreme.
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There's no such thing as God being in relationship to anything else except in absolute authority and supremacy. And yet the Lord Jesus, in becoming a man, God wants him to have the honor and respect.
Supreme over all things, but as man, and I believe that what's embedded, if you will, in this teaching.
Has that truth at the very bottom of it and if we miss it, then we start getting involved in a whole lot of other things that lower the foundation that it's.
Important that we honor the one who has man is to be given the place over all things, creation itself as well as us.
There's 14.
Not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair it is a shame unto him, but if a woman have long hair it is a glory to her.
For her hair is given her for a covering and if you'll notice in the margin of my Bible, and I think it is in many Bibles, covering is in the margin of ale. It's a different word than is used in the first part of this chapter when it says a woman should cover her head. It's not the same word. Yes, the long hair is a covering or is a veil.
But scripture speaks of something besides that covering to cover your head.
Doesn't say cover the hair, it says cover the head. It's given to her for a covering. But now notice verse 16. Before we close, brethren, Finneyman seem to be contentious. We have no such custom, neither the churches of God. In other words, this is what we recognize and understand.
And that there's somebody that wants to be contentious. That's not the custom that we have.
Jeremiah 7 There's an expression.
Cut off a hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away. And how would I have taken from that? Is this. The outward signs are so important, but the inward reality that the sign is a testimony to is what God is looking for as well. And with Jerusalem they had the outward sign, but they didn't have the inward reality of submission and subjection to Jehovah.
Said well then get rid of the outward sign because there's no inward reality. And so we don't want to forget that inward reality of what those signs are a testimony to and our individual lives as well as in the assembly.
I think that's so important, Brother Steve. And would you agree that we get the same picture in the valve, the Nazareth, where if he broke that vow by allowing defilement into his life?
No one might know about it, Maybe he touched a dead body or something like that, and he could do it without anyone else having seen it. But he was not allowed then to wear the outward sign of a Nazarite without having the inward he had immediately to take to cut his hair and start over again. Same thought, isn't it?
We say #100 and 15115.
Yeah.
Joy and words for peace forever.
Just in connection with a lot of what we've had before us. And the first verse is in Genesis 25. Just like to read them. No comment.
Genesis chapter 25.
I'm sorry, Genesis chapter 24.
In verse 65.
For she had said unto the servant.
What man is this?
That walketh in the field.
And the servant had said.
It is my master.
Therefore she took a veil.
And covered herself.
The Book of Joshua, chapter 5.
Joshua, chapter 5.
And.
We'll just read verse 14.
And he said nay.
For those but as captain of the host of the Lord and my now come.
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Joshua fell on his face to the earth.
He did worship.
And said unto him.
What saith my Lord unto his servant?
And the captain of the Lord supposed said unto Joshua.
Loose thy shoe from off thy foot.
For the place where on thou standest is holy.
Joshua.
So.
We pray our God loving Father, we are so thankful once again for the time that Thou has given us together to be here.
Romans 6
1 Corinthians 11:20-34
Reading
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Number one in the back.
Forgiveness.
Of the world.
Forgiven.
Rather than think we should skip down to verse 20 or should we read some of the verses before that?
First Corinthians Chapter 11 and verse 20.
When you come together therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. For any eating everyone take it before other his own supper. One is hungry and another is drunken. What have you not houses to eat, and to drink in, or despise you the Church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.
For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you.
That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread.
And when he had given thanks you break it and said take eat. This is my body which is broken for you. This dude in remembrance of me after the same manner also he took the cup when he had stopped saying this cup is the New Testament in my blood.
Samuel
Address—J. Stewart
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Well, welcome to the meeting this evening.
I'll follow our brother Nick's lead and maybe we'll save the hymn for the end of the meeting.
Turn, please to Isaiah, chapter 50.
Isaiah chapter 50 for an opening.
Verse.
Isaiah 50 and verse 4.
The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned.
That I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary He wakeneth morning, by morning he wakeneth mine ear to hear, as they learned, the Lord God hath opened mine ear. And I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
In this introductory verse we find the Lord Jesus speaking prophetically in the book of Isaiah, and he says that every morning.
His father woke him.
And every morning, his ear was open to hear the message that his father had for him.
It was mentioned earlier in this conference that God never needs to learn anything, and that's true, but as a man.
The Lord Jesus woke up every morning to receive fresh instruction from His Father for what He should do that day. His ear was ready to hear whatever it was.
And the Lord Jesus had to do some very hard things.
And his heart was ready to do whatever God asked him to do.
I have it on my heart to speak about that heart and that ear, and I would like to look at Samuel and look at his call in First Samuel chapter 3.
But you know what, before I, before we turn there, there's just a comment that I would like to make.
You know when we.
Give practical exhortations, and when we give.
Instructions like this, especially when we talk about the heart.
You know, the heart is a tricky thing.
You can't make your heart do something it doesn't want to do. That is the thing with the heart. That's why it says in Proverbs to guard your heart above all that is guarded.
Because the heart is a tricky thing. And so when we talk about having a heart like Christ in Isaiah 50 or having a heart like Samuel and First Samuel chapter 3.
What's really important to remember?
Is that we are not under law as was brought out and what we're doing is we're actually presenting Christ to you. You actually already have a heart that wants to do what God tells you to do. It already wants that you have a nature that delights to obey and so it's.
It's almost unfair because I'm going to be presenting things to you that.
Your nature already wants to do and so that nature.
Will hear, I trust something of the of the life of Christ in Samuel and will say that's actually me that nature will identify with Christ in the life of Samuel and I trust will produce a response. And that's really what what we hope for this afternoon. So let's go to first Samuel.
First Samuel chapter. We'll start in chapter one. There's a lot of verses.
That I would love to read but we we don't have time. But we will read a few verses and you'll have to bear with me as I maybe jump around a little bit.
First Samuel chapter one, and we'll start with the end of verse 2.
Hannah had no children.
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And this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts in Shiloh, and the two sons of Eli, Hafna and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there.
And when the time was that Al Cana offered, he gave to Penina his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters portions. But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion, For he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her womb.
Verse 9. So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat by a seat, sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the Lord. And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore. And she vowed a vow, and said, Oh Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and Remember Me, and not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid a man child.
Then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life.
And there shall no razor come upon his head.
And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli marked her mouth. Now Hannah, she spake in her heart only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she had been drunken. And Eli said unto her, How long will thou be drunken? Put away thy wine from thee. And Hannah answered and said, No, my Lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord.
Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Delisle, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto. And Eli answered and said, Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition, that thou hast asked of him.
Let's jump down to verse 20. Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about, after Hannah had conceived that she bear a son, and called his name Samuel, which means heard of God, or God has heard saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord. Verse 27 For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition, which I asked of him. Therefore also I have lent him.
To the Lord, as long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord there. We're going to pass over Hannah's beautiful prayer that arches so high.
In this woman's heart she rises up to the counsels of God. It's a beautiful prayer, but we're going to just pass over it to verse 11. And Elkanah went to Rhema, to his house, and the child did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest. Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial or worthlessness they.
Knew not the Lord. We're going to pass over what they did just to read verse 17.
Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for men abhorred the offering of the Lord. But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child girded with a linen ephod. Moreover, his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. Verse 21.
At the end of the verse, and the child Samuel grew before the Lord.
Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel, and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation. And he said unto them, Why do ye such things? For I hear of your evil dealings by all those people. Name my sons, for it is no good report that I hear. You make the Lord's people to transgress. If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him. But if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him?
Notwithstanding, they hearken not unto the voice of their Father.
Because the Lord would slay them, and the child Samuel grew on and was in favor both with the Lord and also with men. Then a prophet comes to Eli and speaks to him. We're not going to read all of it, but just verse 29 will pick up. Wherefore, Kiki, at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have commanded in my habitation.
And honours thy sons above me to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings.
Of Israel, my people. Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house and the House of thy Father should walk before me forever. But now the Lord hath said, Be it far from me. For them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days come that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy Father's house, and there shall not be an old man in thine house.
00:10:20
Verse 34 And this shall be assigned unto thee.
That shall come upon my two sons on Hofnai and Finnehas. In one day. They shall die, both of them, And I will raise me up a faithful priest. That shall do according to all that is in my heart and in my mind, and I will build them a sure house, and he shall walk before mine anointed forever. Chapter 3 and verse one. And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli, And the word of the Lord was precious in those days.
There was no open vision.
Well.
This gives us the backdrop to the chapter that I have before me.
We've read a little bit about Eli, and in Eli we have the failure of the priesthood. The priesthood was what God gave to Israel in the wilderness, to be the link between the people and God. They could.
Appeal to God through the priesthood on the basis of grace, and God would act toward the people.
Through the priesthood on the basis of grace. But here Eli, who was the leader really of Israel as the priest at this time was corrupt and his sons were corrupt. You know, Eli was a descendant of Itamar, the four sons of Aaron, Nate, Abbottabay, you were slain and then there were two left, Eleazar and Itamar.
And Eliezer's son Finnehas.
Received an everlasting covenant of the priesthood.
Because he put away sin from Israel before God, but.
We find here that not the descendant of Finna has, but a descendant of Itamar was the priest.
And what we're going to find is things in these chapters reach an all time low in this phase of Israel's history, but God begins to work.
And one of the things he's going to set right is the priesthood, and he's going to.
Overtime, it culminates when Solomon sits on the throne. He's going to put things back to the way they should, and a priest of the line of Eliezer will be priests in Israel. But you know he's going to do more than that.
He was going to give something else that he had not given, a new dispensation, if you will. He was going to give a king.
And that king would.
Do something that Eli was.
Doing at this point, which was really to represent the people and the King would do that.
And that was really God's grace.
And you know Hannah, in her prayer she rises up to that. She references the King and the Lord's anointed. She was in the the mind and thoughts of God.
But Eli, under Eli the priesthood, descended into ruin. We find in chapter one that he was a man without discernment. He thought Hannah was drunk.
We find in chapter 2 That that Eli did not restrain his sons.
And he allowed them to go on in wickedness. He allowed them to go on in a way that dishonored the Lord and that made other people despise, that made the children of Israel despise the offerings of the Lord.
And you know, Eli spoke to his sons and he said what you're doing is not right.
But you know those words, because they weren't backed up by action, meant nothing.
Words alone mean nothing if it's not followed up by action.
And you might say, you know, Eli was a weak man. He was old at this time, but God had given him responsibility and he had authority and he could have acted. He could have taken his sons and pushed them out of the priesthood and taken that away, but he didn't do it.
The Lord says to Eli, You honor your sons more than you honor me.
00:15:03
You know, we contrast Samuel with Eli, but.
Contrast in your mind for a minute, Hannah and Eli.
Two completely different parents.
Hannah wanted a son, but she wanted a son to give him to the Lord. Isn't that beautiful? It's an encouragement to us as parents to not just raise our children for ourselves, that we might have a nice family, that we might have those warm feelings of having our family around us.
That's not the highest purpose. It's really.
For the Lord Hannah had that desire.
Eli is an interesting character.
Did Eli love the Lord?
I believe Eli did love the Lord. In a certain sense. He at least loved. We find at the end in chapter 4 when the ark is taken and the messengers bring back news, that Eli's two sons have been slain.
It was when he heard not that his sons were killed, but that the ark was taken.
That is heartbroken, he fell backwards and his neck broke, but the Lord.
Said to Eli, through that profit he said, Them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
By promoting his sons above the Lord, Eli was saying the Lord Eli was actually despising the Lord.
It's a pretty solemn thing.
You know in chapter 3 it says air the lamp of God went out in the temple the the lamp.
Was still there. The menorah the the Candlestick was still there, but it was going out.
And the Lord was about to forsake, it says in Psalm 78, it says He forsook the Tabernacle of Shiloh. He was about to forsake it.
The light was getting dimmer and dimmer in Israel.
It hadn't gone out, but it was getting dimmer.
In the verse that we began with, the first verse of chapter 3, it says there was number open vision. The word of the Lord was precious in those days. It doesn't say that the that God wasn't speaking, it just says that it was very rare.
Nobody was publicly known to receive visions from the Lord. You know, Talks and Amos about a famine and a day to come. Not a famine of bread and water, but a famine for hearing the word of the Lord.
You know, that's what we need is to hear the voice of the Lord, hear what He has to say to us. It's not a matter of intellectual gaining of knowledge, but of hearing the voice of the Lord and what He is saying to us. That is what we need.
And where does God turn at a time like this when the the candle is going out?
It seems hopeless, but there's a woman.
And the woman is barren. She can't even have children. And this?
It's where God turns.
To a woman who.
Had tremendous faith.
It's really a picture of the day we're living in.
And her faith is a tremendous example.
She names her son Samuel, which means God has heard.
God heard her prayer.
And what we're going to find in chapter 3 is that Samuel fulfills his name in reverse. She names him Samuel. God has heard my prayer, but Samuel will come to hear God speaking to him in the third chapter. It's amazing to see how that the meaning of that name is turned around. You see it again with Moses.
He was named Moses, drawn out of the river, but through his life he fulfills his name in another way, drawing Israel out of Egypt.
What I want to impress on us as we, in a few moments just look a little bit at this chapter, is the character.
00:20:02
Of the one that God would turn to in grace.
To preserve his people at an all time low, you know, God was going to give another dispensation and that was profits. He was going to give profits. You know it says in Acts, we won't read the verse, but it's in Acts 3. It says Samuel and all the prophets that follow Samuel was the the head of a whole new.
New order of things where God was going to give prophets, where he was going to speak directly through a prophet to his people.
And Samuel was the 1St of this order.
It was really God's grace. And so God is going to work because that's who He is. He is going to show grace because that's who He is. But He wants to use us. And what is the character of those that He will use in this way? We're going to find in this chapter. It's an ear that is inclined to hear.
What God has to say, no matter what he says, even if it's hard to hear.
An ear that will that wants to hear, and a heart that is willing to obey.
I want to impress that on you.
Verse two. And it came to pass at that time when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see. And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep, that the Lord called Samuel. And he answered, Here am I. And he ran to Eli and said, Here am I, for thou callest me. And he said, I called not.
Lie down again. And he went and lay down.
We know the story well. The Lord called Samuel and he did not recognize that it was the Lord. He was just a boy. You know, we talked about the children in this room. The Lord is going to begin to speak to you, and you may not recognize it at first.
But overtime, if you listen, you will begin to recognize the Lord Himself speaking to you. He wants to have a personal relationship with you.
Samuel was ignorant of that. And that's how we all start.
Eli didn't recognize it either. Perhaps he should have the first time, but God speaks once again twice a man perceiveth it not. It wasn't until the third time that Samuel that Eli recognized it was the Lord speaking to Samuel.
But if he did anything right, Eli gives to Samuel that third time.
A perfect instruction.
And he says to Samuel, Go and lie down in verse nine. And it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, speak Lord, for thy servant heareth.
And Samuel went and lay down in this place, And the Lord came and stood and called us. At other times Samuel, Samuel and Samuel answered, Speak for thy servant heareth.
So Eli told Samuel this is what you need to do.
You need to say this when the when the Lord calls you again. Speak Lord, thy servant heareth. It is a simple sentence, but it means so much. It means Lord.
Say what you have to say to me.
I'm willing to hear, and I believe it also implies I'm willing to obey.
Then the Lord told Samuel what he had for him, and it was a brutal message to hear. It would have been very difficult as a young child to hear what Samuel heard.
And he was afraid to say it to Eli.
But Eli wanted to hear what it was.
And it was going to be.
Along the lines of what the Lord had told Eli that he was going to be cut off and his house would be cut off. So the Lord was bypassing Eli and going to this young child who lay in the in the by the Tabernacle outside there with the presence of the Lord was.
00:25:02
And he spoke to him, and Samuel was ready to hear what God had to say.
Are we ready to hear what the Lord has to say? Do we? Can we say in sincerity like Samuel? Speak, Lord, by servant heareth.
It's almost time to close.
You know, this is just a small sliver of the life of Samuel, which is rich for our instruction.
Eli had grown cold to the voice of the Lord because he would not act.
He knew the right thing to do.
Perhaps he said I'm too weak. Perhaps he said I'm too old, or I can't offend my sons. A slap on the wrist, a word of rebuke was not what the Lord would have him to do.
Samuel, the little boy girded with a linen. He thought it speaks of purity and service.
Had a heart that was willing to receive what God said and to obey.
Let's just read the last couple of verses of this chapter. And Samuel grew, verse 19. And the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.
I think that's an image from archery. None of the arrows missed the mark. When he spoke, it came to pass. He had the word of the Lord. God said, you know, I can use this channel. He's willing to listen and he's willing to act. And God says I'm going to use this channel and he would use it time and time again. And all Israel from Dan, even to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord.
And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord. May we have that character. It's a beautiful character. I just want to read a couple of verses in the New Testament that have been on my heart recently in connection with hearing.
And understanding the voice of the Lord, John 7 and verse 17. You don't have to turn there, but I'm just going to read a couple of verses.
Verse 17 of John 7 If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God.
Or whether I speak of myself, sometimes we say, well, I don't understand. The Lord says here, if your heart is willing to obey.
Then you will understand and know whether it is of me.
Or whether I've received it of God.
A heart that is willing to do. John chapter 8 and verse 34.
You know Nick's brought out mentioned a phrase, was it fake it till you make it? Never heard that one used before in in connection with the spiritual things.
And I I probably would won't use won't use that again. But here's a verse for fake it till you make it.
John 8 verse 43. Why do you not understand my speech? Even because you cannot hear my word? The Jews did not understand the words, the phraseology that the Lord was using, because they didn't know the truth of it. We must obey and do what God has called us to do, and in that we will understand the truth of it and then we will understand the words.
Obey even if we don't understand. Now Christianity is not characterized by doing without understanding why.
It's characterized by knowing and the intelligence of these things. But we must obey, and then the Lord will reveal the meaning of it to us.
There are other scriptures that was going to turn to we're out of time, but that.
Spirit, that character.
Of being willing to hear whatever God has to say to us and to do it. Can we sing that Sunday school song?
They'll give me Samuels ear.
Oh, give me Samuel.
Sear the open ear, oh Lord.
00:30:19
Oh dear, beside your son.
Of holy heart and grace.
For every time.
Gospel 9
Gospel—W. Dear
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Good evening.
One and all, we're here to proclaim the good news of the Gospel.
Of Christ, what a wonderful message we have to proclaim.
I was sitting in the row and.
I heard some discussion in the road behind as to who was to take the gospel.
And this name and that name was mentioned and I know there are many in this hall here tonight.
Who would very capably preach the gospel?
But I've been asked to give the message tonight, and now you know who it is and we're going to sing a hymn. Let's begin with.
A question #14 Have you been to Jesus?
For the cleansing power, are you washed in the blood of the lamb? Could we stand as we sing #14?
Jesus for the.
Are you walking daily by the same side?
You lost in the blood.
Pressure from within the privacy Why are you watching the blood on the land?
You washed in the blood of the land.
When the bright green cometh will never grow in the blood of the land.
When you're so big, ready for the mansions, right? And we washed in the blood of the land.
Are you watching the?
At the outset of this meeting, I want to take the opportunity to thank each and everyone of the brothers that were in that prayer meeting.
Just a few minutes ago.
Crying out to God for the salvation of your soul.
And asking for help for the speaker that he might present the message of the gospel in a simple and a clear message. I want to thank you each one who had part in that prayer meeting. And I want to thank each one here tonight who continues in prayer on behalf of the Word as it goes.
00:05:12
Forth, because it tells us. I believe it's in Psalm 127.
That.
Accept the Lord, build the house. They labor in vain that building.
I noticed on the back it says children's hymns and courses. Now we have a number of children here.
Boys and girls, so nice to see you here in the front row. And I don't think we as all the ones we get tired of singing these children's hymns. And so one of my favorites is number 44 on the back of this hymn sheet. And it goes along with the message that I trust the Lord has laid in my heart this evening #44.
And we can just remains seated.
Into a tent where a gypsy boy.
Salvation, salvation, we can't be saved. Nobody ever has stolen to me.
Tell me again.
Something like that.
Salvation Story.
Of the children of men, nobody ever had so many before.
Boy.
Stand up to me like a tiger.
And I'm not perish, my hand will be old. Nobody ever read the story of soul.
Now where I am.
Salvation Story.
Of the children of men, nobody ever has told me before.
When they bring on the last words of his breath, just as he answered the pounding of death.
Roman Santa's son whosoever sent me.
When I am sure that he sent him for me.
Tell me about you.
Now we didn't sing the last verse. There's another verse that goes smiling, he said as his last eye was.
He was smiling.
While he was breathing his last breath, so gypsy boy, he was in a tent, he was dying. He never heard about Jesus, never ever before. Not like you here tonight, I'm sure.
Perhaps everyone has heard about the Lord Jesus Christ, but this little gypsy boy, he listened to the message and I wonder, would one of you boys have any idea what verse it was that the missionary spoke to the little boy? It's a verse, as we sang, that has.
Words like God.
Sent his son. It has the word whosoever.
00:10:04
In it, it has the word parish in it. Would anybody have any idea? Oh, number of hands. OK, what do you think?
That is so good. You got it right, John 316 And so I would like to speak on this verse tonight. And you know, I don't make any apology for speaking on perhaps one of the best known, if not the best known verse in the Bible.
John, 316.
And I think there's somebody here that could probably quote that with no problem.
OK, you want to quote it? Sure.
Perfect. Thank you very much.
I was on a plane.
It wasn't that long ago and so I was sitting beside this gentleman and he was reading his magazine.
And.
I was able to engage him in conversation.
He was a middle-aged man and.
He was a financial advisor.
And he was running a successful business in City of Denver.
And he was, I think, 67 years old, 67 years old. So we talked and we talked about the economy and we talked a little bit about the housing market and so on.
And, you know, I think he had some good advice, you might say, from a natural standpoint. But then I said I'd like to ask you a question.
Have you ever heard?
John, 316.
And it rather startled me. He said, no, what is it? What is that? He did not know about John 316. So I had the opportunity to quote to him the verse just like you quoted it here tonight. And he listened and.
We had a good conversation.
So we don't want to take too much for granted with respect to John 316.
Now, some years ago.
There was a young man, he loved to play football.
And he was really good at football.
So this particular day there was a championship game to be played. But this man, his name is Tim.
He knew that there was more to life than playing football, and he wanted to spread the good news of the gospel.
He had been raised in a Christian home.
And so he's trying to think, how is it that I can reach out?
To souls that are in need of Christ.
And this is what he did.
You know, football players.
Often they put a rectangle of like black.
Underneath their eyes. I'm not sure what it's made out of that, that black smudge. It's underneath their eyes like that, and that means that maybe the sun will not.
Disturb their eyesight. In other words, this black will absorb the sun.
Instead of it reflected into their eyes so they can't see where the ball is.
So Tim's thinking.
I know what I'm going to do.
I'm going to write on that black rectangle.
John.
3.
16.
And that's what he did.
And so he went out to play the game.
And it was highly publicized. It was a championship game.
And.
As it was, he did very well.
And Tim's team won the game.
After the game.
00:15:01
There was a PR man came to Tim. I want to tell you something, Tim.
Over 90 million.
Googled John 316, you know, means that Google. They put it in the computer to see what is John 316? What's it all about?
And Tim was so elated. Well, I wonder, does that mean that there could be possibly 90 million people that don't even know what John 316 is all about?
Well, we don't want to take too much for granted. It's a wonderful verse. I think it was Martin Luther.
He spoke of it as being the gospel in miniature.
And in fact, what Martin Luther said he thought, he thought it was at the heart of the Bible.
John 316. Well, you know, in John 316 we have.
A verse there that even boys and girls can understand. Not difficult words, but they are words that in a condensed form give us the deep and marvelous truth of the Gospel. And these are powerful words. So I would like to turn to John.
Chapter 3, verse 16 tonight.
And speak from this verse.
It says.
For God.
So loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
This verse in the King James Version has 25 words.
25 words in John 316.
No greater gift has ever been seen.
12 About God.
And 12 about me.
Son in the center.
Verse 16. John 3.
It starts for God.
For God.
I see boys and girls here tonight, older ones and.
You wanna learn more about God? I had a man, dear brother.
Give me a little text.
Probably.
I don't know, could be 50 years ago.
And I still got the little text and he made-up these little texts.
Using a piece of quarter round I believe it was, and then he just lettered 2 words on there. He said God first.
And I still got that sitting on my shelf. God first. Well, here in this.
Verse We have God. First we need to start with God. You know it tells us in the Bible, in Genesis 11, in the beginning, God.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and that's marvelous to think about. You know, God is great. He's so big.
And we live in this little tiny planet.
I mean in relation to the universe. You need a microscope to see the planet Earth because the universe is so huge.
If you were to travel.
At the speed of light, and that's very fast. That is 186,000 miles. Now listen to this per second.
Can you imagine that?
This world, this Earth, you go around one time, you've gone about 25,000 miles. You go around again, you go on 50,000 miles, you go around about 7 1/2 Times. Now you've gone out 186,000 miles roughly. Can you imagine going around the earth?
7 1/2 Times in one second.
Imagine that.
00:20:01
That is very, very fast now if we were traveling.
That fast, and that's the speed of light.
How long would it take us to get to the moon? Would anybody here know how far away the moon is? How many miles? Yes.
OK, you think it take two days? All right, What do you think?
What?
8 miles to the moon.
All right, anybody else? We're still looking for the right answer.
Yes.
Two months.
Anybody older here tonight tell me?
I know what it is.
240,000 miles. You got it right. Thank you very much, Mr. Prost.
240,000 miles to the moon. Now if you're traveling at the speed of light to the moon, you're going to get there in a little over a second.
That's fast now does anybody know how far it is to the sun?
Thank you very much. Exactly 93,000,000 miles now if you travel from the earth to the sun.
At the speed of light, it's going to take about 7:00 to 8:00 minutes.
Now we're going to go to the closest star.
It's out there in space.
You know how long it would take to get to the next closest star.
It's 4.2 light years away I believe.
That means it would take over four years traveling at the speed of light to get out to that first star out there, that huge star. And it's only one star.
Milky Way has billions of stars.
And it takes I don't know how many thousands of light years to go across Milky Way, but to tell me there's there's billions and billions of galaxies as huge as Milky Way and they're out there in space.
I must say, I lookout at night, I see a few stars twinkling out there. I don't think about those millions and billions and trillions of stars out there, but they're there. Who put them there?
Yes, you got it very good. You know what tells us in Genesis chapter one? He made the sun. He made the moon.
And he made the stars also. Isn't it nice he made the stars also? 5 words.
It's not difficult to understand. Take God at his word, people, they think there was some kind of a Big Bang and all of a sudden got all these stars scattered all over the place. And I mean, no, that's not according to the word of God. And I want to tell you here tonight we got the Bible. You see this book I got in my hands.
This is the word of God.
And the Lord Jesus said.
I'm talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God and the one who spoke these words of John 316, he said.
Heaven and earth are going to pass away, but my words.
Words, WORDS, words shall not pass away. That means every word that he spoke. It's important. It's pure. I believe it's in Psalm. It tells us that the words of the Lord, they're purified. Is it seven times? Pure words, pure words, and they will not pass away.
Well, I'm so thankful to have this book in my hands here tonight.
Yes.
The Bible.
It's like a.
Rock.
Undaunted.
With the raging.
00:25:04
Storms of time.
And it's pages burned with the truth eternal.
And his pages glow with a light. Sublime.
We have folks. Name is.
Walsh last name is Walsh and we came home one day and I drove by their house and the house was a charred ruins.
It appeared from everything was destroyed in that house. What has happened here? So we went and we spoke with them. There was a fire, some kind of electrical fire I believe that started and it was just a total loss, but.
Tara Walsh, she said. I want to tell you something. You'll be glad to hear this.
There was two or three items in the house that did not burn, and she said one of them was the family Bible.
And that made an impression on her, and it's made an impression on me too.
The Word of God is imperishable, so.
John 316 For God, starting with God, God always existed.
I got a ring here on my finger. It doesn't have any beginning, it doesn't have any end.
It's just round, no beginning, no end. And that's.
How God is? He never had a beginning and he will never have an ending. And you know God.
It tells us here.
So loved the world, so we could say that God.
Showed up. I think God is the greatest lover.
We had that brought before us last night the love of God.
We need to focus on it.
It'll make a difference in your life.
Hymn writers said.
Message came from heaven to cheer my heart. One day it's set to joy. Bells ringing. It chased my gloom away. It was in the good old Bible. John's Gospel chapter 3 verse 16 I discovered was written there for me.
John, 316.
It's done me good. It can do you good. I look in the hall here tonight. I know many, I would like to say all are enjoying in their soul the truth of John 316.
Who was it that spoke these words?
Nicodemus earlier in the chapter it tells us about this ruler came to Jesus by night.
And you know, he had some questions and the Lord Jesus spoke with Nicodemus and he said to Nicodemus, except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. That means.
We need a brand new life because we are born.
In sin.
And the Lord Jesus spoke with Nicodemus about that. He didn't understand. He thought the Lord was talking about going back into his mother, you know, and being born again.
But that's not what the Lord was speaking about.
He's talking about his spiritual.
Referred and I tell folks that, you know, I was born right here in Saint Louis.
But I was born again in Chicago.
And they don't know what I'm talking about. That gives opportunity to present the truth of the gospel. We need to be born again.
So the Lord Jesus spoke with Nicodemus, and then as we read on here, he gave Nicodemus the gospel. Wouldn't you like to be Nicodemus in here?
Hear the Lord Jesus speak these words.
You know, if the Lord Jesus came walking through that door there, you know what I would do?
00:30:06
I'd sit right down in that chair.
It's got a bunch of bottles of water. I just take the water off the chair, put it on the floor. I sit down there. I ask the Lord to come.
Take the podium and preach the gospel, because there's nobody that could preach better than the Lord Jesus, he spoke.
The truth he spoke with conviction, he spoke with passion, he was concerned for Nicodemus and he delighted to speak about his father and the love of God. And he was here in this world.
To tell boys and girls in older ones.
About that wonderful love.
And I can only just begin to tell you how wonderful it is it we can't Plumb the depth of the love of God. It's so grand. And I think we're all acquainted with that.
Him, and it sounds to me like an exaggeration, but I don't think it is. You know how the hymn writer put it. Could we with ink the ocean fill?
And we're the skies of parchment made.
Where every stalk on earth a quill.
Like a pin? A quill.
And every man is scribed by trade. You know what a scribe is? Well, a scribe is somebody that picks up a quill or a pin, and they write and they write and they write and they write. They do so much writing. They write books and books and books. They're called scribes.
But the hymn writer went on to say.
If every stock, that is every blade of grass, every stock on earth.
Was one of these.
And every man.
Ascribe a writer by trade to write the love of God above.
Would train the Ocean Drive.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.
Imagine that much ink in the ocean.
You could do a lot of writing if all the water in the ocean was in.
But the hymn writer said.
To write about the love of God, it would drain the ocean dry. I think about that and.
It's so wonderful, so for God.
Let's say God is the greatest giver.
And the greatest lover, it says he so loved. This is.
An intensity of love.
Shall we say the greatest love?
What about the world?
The world is the greatest number.
Would anybody have any idea how many people live in the world today? You know, Yes.
Thank you. Thank you.
8 billion people, men, women, boys and girls and this verse is telling you and me that God loves.
8 billion people.
It's the greatest number.
Now what comes next?
That.
He.
Gave could we say the greatest act?
God gives, what did he give? I read one time about some folks, I believe it was over in Germany, and they found a piece of paper that was laying in the street and they they picked it up.
And to begin to read it.
00:35:02
And it said.
God.
So loved the world that he gave.
And in the track was torn.
The next page was thorny.
To begin to wonder what is it that God gave? And they begin to search it out and they found out what it was that God gave. God gave.
His only begotten Son. This is the greatest gift.
And the apostle Paul, he said, Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
The greatest gift was God's own dear Son.
You know, this was impressed on me, and I know most here, I don't think everybody knows the story, so maybe I'll repeat it, but this story really made an impression on me. And this happened over in the East.
Albert Trecker.
Was at his post doing his job.
And his job was to open up this.
Drawbridge because.
This bridge was over the Passaic River, and so Albert Tractor, he worked in Little House, right by the bridge, by the river, the Passaic River. And so there were big boats that went down this river.
And so in order to allow the boats.
To go down the river, he had to work some controls to get the bridge to open up.
Now who's the train bridge? And so when the bridge was down, the train would go racing by.
So this particular day.
Albert Trecker had opened up the bridge.
To allow the big boat.
To go through.
He looked over there.
Here come his little boy, running up to see him. His name is Peter.
And Albert, you know, he loved his little son Peter so very much, he was glad to see him.
All of a sudden.
In the distance.
Albert hears a sound.
That's a poor excuse for a train. What's up? But in any case, he heard a whistle of the train. And you know, it was a speeding train filled with people coming out of the big city.
And he knew he had to put that.
Bridge down.
For the train to go across.
So he was in the process of working the controls put the.
Bridge them. He looked outside of the.
Little House in horror.
Peter, his son, had slipped on the embankment. It's like this is an embankment.
And he slipped right down in the grass, and he tumbled right down into that river, and there he was out in the river.
And Peter couldn't swim.
Alberts first impulse was I could have jump in and get my boy out of the river. He could have easily saved him from the river.
But then he thought, wait, there's that speeding train coming.
Albert had a decision to make.
It was.
Save his son.
And see all those people on that train.
Crashed into that open bridge.
And perhaps most be killed.
Or he could stay put down the bridge train comes across.
00:40:02
But what about Peter? He decided I'm going to stay at my post, and he stayed. And he made sure that bridge came down. It came down just in a nick of time.
And as soon as that bridge came down.
Into the water when?
Albert Trekker, It was too late.
His little son was dead, he had drowned, but all those people on the train, they were safe and the train speed on and took their the people to their destination.
You know, I thought about that. What went through the mind?
Of Albert Trekker as he sees his son there struggling in the water. The sun is drowning.
God made a decision.
You know God.
He could have saved his son.
But there would be no salvation.
For you, or for me, or for anyone else, God had a decision.
And it tells us what he decided in Romans chapter 8. It says he spared not his own son.
But he delivered him up for us all. What a wonderful God we have. And you know the Lord Jesus came into this world at the Father's bidding to do His will.
And he went to the cross, it tells us.
What the Lord Jesus thought back in the Psalms, I believe we have an expression of what was in His heart. In Psalm 88 it says there that.
Lord said I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up.
And that's what took place. The Lord Jesus went to the cross of Calvary and laid down his life, and the Father observed all that was taking place.
But you know, the Father sent the Son to be the Savior and.
We thank God from the bottom of our hearts for His willingness to sacrifice His Son. We thank the Lord Jesus for His love and going to that cruel cross. And there it was that he was lifted up to die.
What was it that held him to the cross? They took nails, and with hammers they pounded those nails.
Into the wood of the Cross.
This hand. This hand.
Then his feet.
The Lord said they pierced my hands and my feet and he allowed them to do this. He could have called 12 legions of angels to destroy.
All those.
Soldiers.
And all those people that were clamoring for his blood. But no, he chose.
To die so that others could be saved.
You know, they made fun of the Lord Jesus, he said. Oh.
He saved others himself he cannot save as he was hanging there on the cross.
He saved others.
Himself he cannot say well.
They spoke the truth. In order to save others, the Lord Jesus had to die.
Why do you have to die? Because I'm a Sinner?
Because you are sinners. The Bible tells us that all have sinned.
And come short of the glory of God in one place. It tells us that men sin just like they drink water. It's just happening over and over and over, and there is none that doeth good. No, not one. But God saw us in our desperate condition, and He was willing to send His own dear Son to bear our sins in His own body.
As it tells us in Second Peter 2 on the tree, he took my sins.
00:45:02
And yours too, if you trust him. And they were placed upon him, and God brought down the rod of judgment upon His own dear Son.
For your sin and mine.
For all who trust him, they can say that Jesus, he was punished for me. He was wounded for my transgressions.
Is there anybody here that would allow me to put their name in that verse?
Somebody that really knows that they're saved, I'll put your name in the verse and make it really personal.
If not, I'll put my name, Tim Stewart. Thank you, Tim.
So let's see how this sounds.
He was wounded for Tim Stewarts transgressions. He was bruised for Tim Stewarts.
Iniquities. The chastisement of Tim Stewart's peace.
Was upon him.
And with his stripes, Tim Stewart is healed.
Now I could put Tim's name in John 316 too.
Would there be anybody here be willing? Let me put your name in John 316.
OK.
That's right. Yeah, Jack. OK, Jack, let's see how this sounds for God. So loved.
Jack that he gave his only begotten Son.
That if Jack believes in him, Jack should not perish.
But Jack should have everlasting life. It's just that simple. It's good to put your name in these verses.
So we have already gotten down to about the middle of the verse, OK, It tells us He gave his only begotten Son. We could say his only begotten Son. That's the greatest gift that could ever be given.
So that's God's part. Now you notice what it tells us here in verse 16, right at the middle of the verse, son.
Son, what is at the center of our solar system? Anybody know it what's right at the center of the solar system? And all the planets are going around like this.
Yes.
That's right, the SUN.
Now in this verse.
It's the Son, it's right at the center of the verse, so there's 12 words about God.
12 words about me, son in the center. Now let's go to the words about you and me.
This is what comes next after Sun.
That whosoever. Oh, what a beautiful word this is.
Beautiful word, whosoever. Let's say that this is the greatest simplicity.
It's not difficult to get saved. Salvation is by faith, by grace. Are you saved through faith?
And that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. You know, in this gospel we have reference to believe or to believing. 99 * I counted up the number of times it was 99.
I had read that and I thought, well, that's a lot of times. I'm just wondering if this person I'm reading here, do they really know what they're talking about? So I counted, yes, 99 times. We have reference to believing, and you know what believing is? It's taking God at His Word and putting your trust.
In what he has to say.
And you believe day in and day out, so many things. When you came to this meeting tonight, you sat down on that chair. You sat down on that chair.
And you believed that that chair is going to support you because if you thought that chair was going to break down, you would not sit down, right? You had faith in the chair.
Now, you may not know the exact time that you sat down on the chair.
00:50:04
I mean, it was probably.
Around 7:00 or so, but you don't know the exact time.
But that doesn't matter. You sat down on the chair and you're still sitting on the chair because you have faith in that chair.
And you know, I believe.
That what God appreciates is when we put our trust in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Believe.
The Apostle Paul and Silas, they were cast into prison and you know the story well. Acts 16, I believe it was spoken of last night. There was an earthquake. The doors on the prison flew open. The prisoners could have easily escaped.
The jailer was about ready to kill himself. He had his sword out there because he knew if any of those soldiers, I should say prisoners, escaped.
He be executed.
Paul says do thyself no harm. We're all here.
And when he heard that, he tells it he called for a light.
Goes into the inner prison there and he falls at the feet to Paul and Silas. He asks a question.
What must I do to be saved?
In earnest.
Been an earthquake. The prison was crumbling. The doors were flying open.
And without hesitation, Paul and Silas give the answer. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And thou shalt be saved. It's just that simple. People say they believe, but do they really believe?
Some here have known what it is to jump out of an airplane with a parachute.
So if you get on the airplane.
Intending to jump out.
Of the airplane once it reaches, I don't know, 20,000 feet or whatever.
So the airplanes going down the runway.
You feel OK?
I got faith in this parachute and I got faith in this instructor knows what he's doing. Everything's OK.
You get up.
20,000 feet.
The door and the airplanes opened up.
The instructor says jump.
Lookout.
He says it's a good parachute.
Don't have to worry about the parachute.
And the jumper said well.
What about if I do something wrong, like on the way down I messed things up? The instructor says. Well I'm going to jump with you.
He looks at the instructor.
Really.
Instructor.
It says jump.
The man jumps.
He's put his faith.
Is trust in the parachute and the instructor that's believing what the instructor had to say. Now the greatest favor that we can do the Lord is to take him at His Word and to believe what He says. He tells us that Abraham believed God. Doesn't say only that he believed on God, it says he believed God.
And you know it was counted to him for righteousness. Without faith, it's impossible to please God.
And the reason it's so simple is because the Lord Jesus suffered on the cross for sinners, for you and for me. He came under the judgment and the wrath of a holy God for my sin and for yours. And now God is able to justify the Sinner as we had before us today. Declare the Sinner righteous, and God can be just.
Two, he doesn't have to sacrifice his.
Holiness or His justice in order to save you. Because Jesus paid the price. He took the judgment, He was judged. And now you and I, we go free.
00:55:00
Whosoever.
That's.
The greatest invitation.
The greatest simplicity in him, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the greatest person.
Should not perish. It's the greatest deliverance. Are you perishing here tonight? Do you know what it means to perish? It's spelled PERISH. It means to pass eternally ruined into Satan's hell.
This is serious.
What is hell? It's referred to as a lake of fire.
And there's no way out.
No exit. It's eternal.
Damnation. God doesn't want you to perish. He loves you. He wants you to be saved.
Should not perish greatest deliverance.
But.
You might say this is the greatest difference between perishing what comes next have it's the greatest certainty in that nice. You can be sure that you're saved and on your way to heaven. The apostle John, he said these things I write unto you that you may know that you have eternal life. God wants us to know beyond the shadow of a doubt that everything is good.
Everything is well for time and for eternity.
Because salvation does not depend upon you, it depends on Jesus.
And the Lord Jesus is offering a full and free salvation because his love for you and his precious blood that was shed at the cross.
When that soldier pierced his side forth with came throughout blood and water.
And it's the blood of Christ that cleanses from all sin.
No other remedy for sin rather than the blood of Jesus.
Now, finally, we have.
Everlasting life.
This is the greatest possession, the greatest possession that you or I could ever have. It does not cost you or me one cent because Jesus paid the price in a marvelous to think.
And what is eternal life? It's not only to spend eternity forever and ever and ever with Jesus in the glory in the Father's house, but it's to know God.
The Lord Jesus said this is life eternal, that they might know Dean, the only true God in Jesus Christ.
Who he has sent. Wonderful.
That we can know God and just keep on getting better acquainted and better acquainted, and that's what's going to happen in eternity. Are you prepared for eternity? There's a man over in Australia and for years he went around.
And he had this chalk and he right on the ground or on a wall.
One word, Eternity. He was the eternity man. Nobody knew who was putting this word out there.
Until finally, years later, they found out who it was. Man, by the name of Albert Stace I believe it was.
And it was determined that he might have wrote that word about 500,000 times.
Over in the city of, I believe, Sydney, Australia.
Eternity. And you know, I believe God used that.
To speak to souls. Eternity is long. Are you prepared for eternity? You prepare for this life.
You know, it's been said.
He who?
Provides for this life but takes no care for eternity. He is wise for a moment, but he's a fool forever. Please don't be a fool forever. Come to Christ, accept him. He wants to save your soul, He loves you.
It was a.
Car in town and sitting at the gas station there and I looked on the back end of that car. Big sign.
This is what it said on the sign please.
Do not go to hell. That's what it said. I'm signed.
I think that's going to make some people think.
01:00:00
The Lord Jesus don't want you to perish. God doesn't want you to perish. Think about this verse. John 316. What a beautiful verse.
Go God's way. People have their own way.
About a year ago.
There was a man, he left the party 11:00 at night.
Down in North Carolina.
He said his GPS.
So he was following the GPS down the road is dark.
Then realized that there was a bridge that had been washed out.
The next morning, his wife woke up. She didn't see her husband. Where is he?
They went out to search later that morning. They found that car upside down in the water below.
And that man had perished.
Well, you know.
There's a way that seems right unto a man, but the ender of other ways of death go God's way.
His way is salvation, and he that has the Son has life, and he that has not the Son of God, shall not see life.
Have You Learned to Appreciate Your Father and Mother?
YP Sing Address—P. House
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
So I'd like to tell you a little story before we start just to.
Set the stage a little bit.
This summer I did a job that lasted about four or five months and.
After a while you get to know people pretty well and in the course of time.
I was speaking to the.
Husband and wife, a little bit about the Lord, and I gave them a Bible and they told me the next day that their son had come home after work and had said, hey, what's this? And they said, oh, it's a Bible. He said, where'd you get it? I said all from Paul. He said, well, why didn't he give me one?
So they told me this story. Well, the next day Kerry Doug went out and we had another one for him. So when he got home from.
School or from where? From work. I guess he got his Bible and so he was really happy to have it, but he'd never had a Bible before. He didn't know anything about it. He didn't know how it worked, how to look up versus and he didn't know anything. They didn't either. So we had a little time together where we just started at the beginning where we looked at the table of contents and.
We talked about the New Testament and the Old Testament.
We talked about the Lord Jesus. We talked a little bit about.
How the earth was formed and all those kind of things.
And you say, well, why are you telling me the story? Well, I'm telling you the story because there's nobody here.
That can relate to someone that doesn't know anything about the Bible, doesn't know anything about God, doesn't know anything about the Old Testament, doesn't know anything about John 316 like we had tonight. So what I'm going to say right at the beginning is that every one of us, me included, has a tremendous advantage.
You know, when I was a kid, I hated that I was brought up in a Christian home.
I didn't like that.
But you know, now when I look back, I thank the Lord all the time from my dad and from my mom. You know, my bookmark in my Bible for my Bible readings is a picture of my dad and mom.
You know, when I was your age, a lot of you I, I didn't want a picture of my dad and my mom in my Bible. Now, I mean, my dad's in the glory.
My mom's an old lady. I love my dad and mom. They taught me about the Lord Jesus. What a tremendous advantage that we have, young people. We have so much.
Now I want to tell you a little bit about.
A situation that all of us have.
You know we need a we need purpose of heart to follow the Lord. We need it all the time.
And we need to have good habits for ourselves.
And sometimes.
Good habits can kind of wane a little bit.
Maybe we don't read our Bibles enough.
And maybe we don't pray enough, and maybe we have situations where we do what we think is right instead of praying about what to do.
And so.
When I look back as a young person, I really valued conferences.
Because it was an opportunity for me to reset a little bit.
And to think about where I was at.
And I used to really enjoy them. And there was some old brothers that made a real impression on my life. I could tell that they really appreciated what they had. And I want to challenge each one of us tonight. First of all, do we really appreciate what we have?
How many times if you thank the Lord for the Christian family that you have?
How many times have you thanked the Lord for your parents?
The people who brought you to meeting, who brought you to hear about the Lord Jesus, who had family readings with you night after night after night, how many times have you thanked the Lord Jesus for that? And how many times have you thanked your parents for what they've given you? It's a tremendous thing, you know.
I need to tell you another story about me. I'm sorry to talk about me, but I know this very well because it happened to me.
00:05:05
You know it's not really cool to tell your dad you love him, You know when you're 15182030?
It's it's just not cool, right?
Well.
When I was.
I don't know how old I was, but I'd grown up and I had my own kids and stuff, but.
One day my mom called and said dad sat a stroke.
He's not dead, he's still here, but he can't talk anymore.
And he's paralyzed on one side.
And my dad had Parkinson's, you know, where you shake. And so every time my dad got one of these diskinetic trauma things that he had, he would literally shake on one side for two hours.
If you can imagine shaking violently on only one side of your body, it was terrible to watch.
And at the end my mom would take a bath towel and she would rub my dad down and it would be soaking wet from sweat.
My dad suffered a lot, but my dad couldn't talk.
One of the biggest sorrows in my whole life.
Is that I could tell my dad, Dad, I love you. And I went to see him every week for months. He was 12 years like that. But for 12 years, I never heard my dad say I love you, Paul.
I lost out.
I had the opportunity to say, Dad, I love you and I didn't. It wasn't cool. I lost out so much. Do you think I told my dad I loved him after he couldn't talk anymore? I sure did. Every time I saw him, I told him that. I hugged him, I kissed him. I said, Dad, I love you. Nothing he could punch with a couple of fingers. I love you back.
But you know, that only lasted for a couple of years, and then his shaking was so bad he couldn't even do that.
So I just encourage you.
To tell your parents you love them.
I want to just read a couple of verses. I know this has been a long day and I've sat for a long time too. So Genesis chapter five first, and we're going to read a little bit about Enoch. He's one of the men in the in the Old Testament. That's been a help to me. Genesis 521 and Enoch lived 60 and five years.
And begat Methuselah in Enoch walked with God.
After he begat Methuselah 300 years, and begat sons and daughters, and all the days of Enoch were 360 and five years. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
Then Hebrews 11.
And verse.
Five, by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him. For before his his testimony he had the before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God.
Tonight, I want to talk to you a little bit about your testimony.
Your testimony.
You say, well, what do you mean exactly? Well.
I don't know how many of you are in high school, how many of you are in junior college, how many year and university, How many are done that and working? I don't know.
But you probably have friends.
People that you chum around with.
At your work or your school or whatever it is, what do they think about you?
Do they know that you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ?
Do they know that you have new life in here?
Do they know based on how you live before them, you know it says that Enoch walked with God.
That's a privilege to walk with God.
Now how do you do that?
How do you do that? You know Enoch lived for 365 years.
And then God took him.
00:10:00
Why 365?
There's 365 days in a year, right?
So I take it that he walked with God every day for 365 years.
Now none of us are going to live live to 365.
But we've lived a lot of days. You do the math. It's thousands for me.
Quite a few thousands.
But you have lots of thousands too.
How many days have you walked, forgot with God?
You know it's a privilege to walk with the Lord.
To enjoy him every day now, Daniel.
Daniel is.
Another man in the Bible that's been a tremendous encouragement and help to me.
As a young man, as a middle-aged man, as an old man.
And Daniel, chapter 6, he'd already live and lived through the reign of Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar. And here we have another empire in power. And he was servant to this man Darius. He was the most powerful.
Administrative person and the whole of the Empire. He was the head one and we know the story of how he got thrown into the den of lions and as a kid we enjoyed that story.
But I want to look at it from a little different perspective. I'm going to read just one verse in chapter 6 and verse 10 it says Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house and his windows being opened in his chamber toward Jerusalem. He kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did a four time.
As he did a four time, this characterized him.
And you know, these guys that didn't like him, they realized they could get him if they could prove that he was praying to the God, to the true God, right?
Soon as they saw him praying, they went to the rice and they're like, hey, you know Daniel, that Jew?
Well, that's the testimony he had. He was a man of prayer, and he didn't pray just once or twice. He played three times, and he kneeled down and he faced Jerusalem. And we know from the Old Testament about Solomon's prayer why he did that. Look it up if you want to learn why or you don't know why.
Daniel had this testimony and he had a daily walk with God.
So what about us?
What about me?
What about you?
Three times a day.
How many times a day do you read?
Once, twice, three times? Do you read it all?
I hope you do you pray in the morning.
You pray at lunch, You pray at supper. Do you pray when you go to bed?
I'm not making any rules, I'm just asking you questions. You don't have to answer me, but this is the opportunity we have.
And so this is an encouragement for us. You know, there's people in the Scriptures that walked with God every day.
Daniel prayed three times a day and everybody knew it, and it wasn't for show. You know, Daniel could have closed the windows when the edict came down from the king and he wouldn't have been in trouble. But as he did every other day, he opened the windows, got down on his knees, and he prayed to the Almighty God of heaven. And that's what we have.
We have that. What a legacy we have. Let's take advantage of what we have, OK?
Now we'll just stand on the Apostle Paul.
I want to just read a little bit.
About him too.
So in Second Timothy chapter 3.
He says to Timothy, he said in verse 10, Second Timothy 310 it says, But thou hast fully known my doctrine.
00:15:04
Manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, and so on.
Thou hast fully known my manner of life.
And so.
Now is an opportunity for each one of us to think about how we're doing.
What's our manner of life?
There's no rules, it's simply opportunities that we have.
Opportunities to walk with our God all the time.
To pray all the time. To read all the time.
But if we read for two minutes and that's it, we pray for 25 seconds and that's it.
We're missing out.
Think about who God told us about. He told us a lot about Enoch. He told us a lot about Daniel, and he told us a lot about the apostle Paul too, because he appreciated these ones. And what's written is for our learning and our our what we can gain from it too, isn't it? OK, now there's just a little bit more I want to read about Paul.
You know, there's some verses in the.
2nd Corinthians, Chapter 11.
And there was an old brother when I was young that taught us, you can remember all the things that the apostle Paul went through because it's found in Second Corinthians, Chapter 11 from 22 to 33. So two Second Corinthians, then it's Chapter 11, two ones.
Then there's two twos from verse 22.
To 20 to 33. So there's two threes. OK. So he talks a little bit about what he went through for the Lord.
But then it says at the end, beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
You know, I'm a little bit older now and I I can understand this verse a little bit better.
You know, there's a little more care we have as older ones maybe.
But I used to read this verse and wonder exactly what it meant, exactly what he was caring about. But you know, when you get a little bit older.
You appreciate people.
A little bit more because you know the kids of.
You know, the kids of of of the the dad and mom of the kids, right? And then you appreciate their kids and you just you benefit as you get older because you know a little bit more about people and the the kids of the kids and the kids and so on. And it's such an encouraging thing just to the apostle Paul had this care for all these dear ones.
Now I want to read then just in closing in first Timothy.
Can you hear me OK at the back?
OK, I'll just talk louder.
Chapter 4.
So first Timothy chapter 4 it says in the 12Th verse.
It says, Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in Word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith and purity. Till I come give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is indeed which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.
Meditate upon these things, give thyself holy to them, that thy profiting may appear to all.
Take heed unto thyself and onto the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and then that hear thee.
So here we have the apostle Paul, and he says, let no man despise thy youth.
You have your your young age and that's a good thing. You can enjoy sports, you can play them, you can have a good time together. Some of us that are a little older can't do that like we used to. So we have our youth, but let's not despise it and let's not let's be a testimony for the Lord as young people. And so these verses are very critical because one of the things is in conversation.
00:20:21
Yet it's important to what we say.
But.
This is a reference, I think, to the way, the manner of life, the way that we live.
And so my little encouragement for us tonight is that the apostle Paul.
He was an example of the believers.
The way he lived and everybody knew it and Timothy knew it. And then Paul told Timothy what he needed to do.
How we needed to live and so it's a little encouragement for us to be a help to other people that we really care about. Why? Because we want you to go on happily for the Lord Jesus. We want you to be blessed. We want you to to have something years down the line, but it's a daily thing now. So what you need to do is be near to the Lord every day to enjoy what you can to read.
To pray to have a walk with him every day so that when you get older.
And you're a man and a woman of God for the glory, for His glory. May each one of us have a real desire to please the Lord.
Many Were Made Sinners; Many Were Made Righteous
Children—H. Sikora
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Good morning.
That's better. It is a good morning. This is the day the Lord has made. It's a good morning.
Any other children, feel free to come.
Come up front because this meeting is especially for you. Sunday School, a message for children.
I hope you aren't disappointed.
My wife found out I had Sunday school.
And, she said, have an object lesson.
But.
The things I'm going to talk about this morning, you can't see.
So we're not going to have an object lesson, but we're going to try to speak very plainly.
So that you understand things that are important from God's Word. But meanwhile folks are sitting down and we can get started with some singing. Now you notice it says children's hymns and choruses.
I know there's a lot of other nice hymns in this hymn sheet.
But.
After we've sung most of these, maybe we can look at others. I don't know how much time we'll have to sing, but.
Let's start out with #41.
I love this hymn because it tells us of something that is going to happen someday.
I'm looking forward to that day. I'm really looking forward to it.
When all the children of God are going to be gathered around the throne of God?
And there's going to be such a song like you've never heard before, so let's sing #41.
Around the throne of God.
Well, we remember lasting life and Joyce and everything.
Glory.
Glory to God.
Brings them to the world.
Where all this descends. Joy and love about it. The children, they're singing glory.
Glory.
Glory to God.
And your children have a favorite Put up your hand.
I saw one here. Yes. What do you want to sing?
Number one, Oh, that's on the other side.
OK, we'll sing that. That's a serious song. Wow.
Almost persuaded.
Me to ask some souls to say.
00:05:10
No standard of life.
You know, maybe it's a good thing we sang that him.
Because it's just the opposite of the first one we sang.
Remember the first one around the throne of God in heaven. A happy place for those that have put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and accepted Him as their Savior.
This song.
Is about someone who it doesn't sound like they were ever saved. If they kept going the way they were, they will never be there.
If someone's almost persuaded to get saved.
Will they be in heaven? What do you think?
Almost no.
It's a serious, So this is a serious time. You know, this time will go by very quickly. So I want to ask a question.
Has anyone here learned the verse that was on the Sunday school paper last last week I was in Pella and I got a Sunday school paper and it has a verse on here. And if some of you went through the trouble to get the verse, did I say trouble?
If some of you.
Learned the verse and want to say it I.
Would be very happy if you would do that because we're going to talk about this verse a little bit.
That's something I have on my heart. After looking at the paper, I saw a hand just timidly go up. Does anyone has anyone memorized that verse and want to say it?
Can you you can help out? Can you say the verse? Do you know where it's found?
All right, go ahead.
Romans.
519.
As by.
Disobedience. Many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Romans 519 Oh, I should have used this. But you know, you had such a good voice, everyone could hear you. That's very good. Who else would like to say the verse?
OK.
For us, by one man's disobedience, many became.
So by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Romans 519.
Romans. Romans 519.
As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Romans 519.
Months 519.
As by as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners.
So bye, so bye.
The obedience. The obedience.
Of one shall many of you made righteous. Thank you. Thank you. You're gonna say it as well.
Which remains this awaiting when you were made sooner. So why they bending someone when you were made righteous almost 519 very good. I have some questions. You know some maybe we'll get to you.
00:10:08
It's easy to learn a verse and not understand what it's talking about.
So we'll go over this a little bit, it says.
As by one man's disobedience many were made Sinner.
What man is that talking about?
One man was disobedient, yes.
Adam, No, it wasn't Satan. Satan is not a man. Satan is an Angel that God created. It was Adam. He was disobedient. What does it mean to be disobedient?
Yes.
To disobey? Yes, certainly. What does it mean to be disobedient?
Do bad stuff. No, it's a little different. Let me explain it to you what it means to be disobedient.
God had told Adam not to do something.
He told him you can eat fruit out of all these trees here. There's delicious fruit, there's mangoes, there's bananas, there's apples, there's all sorts of good fruit, but there's one tree in the middle of the garden.
You can't eat that fruit.
What did Adam do?
He ate.
He disobeyed. To disobey means you've been told.
To obey something that you're told to do and you don't do it. And Adam disobeyed and.
What happened as a result of that?
Many.
Were made sinners.
When I was young, I didn't understand what a terrible thing that is. Many were made sinners.
You know it could say we were all made sinners because we all come from Adam. Hard thing to understand looking around and seeing all.
The faces all the different.
People that there are sometimes we sing red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in his sight because people don't even have the same colored skin. You go over to Africa and a lot of the people there have very dark brown skin, black skin, and they say the Indians had red skin. I don't know that it was quite red. And other parts of the world they had different look, completely different.
But there's something similar that happened to all of Adam's children.
Because you all come from Adam. Did you know that your great, great, great, great, great. And you can say that many, many times Grandfather was Adam.
He was Adam and because.
He sinned.
Many.
We all have become sinners, and that's a terrible thing because sin has brought all kinds of problems and difficulties into this world. And what's the end result of sin?
Death.
Oh, that's not nice. Maybe your children don't know too much about death. A lot of times, the first time children are made aware of death is when their pet dies. That's not nice, is it? I've seen kids crying over what happened to their pet. Death has come into this world and.
It passes on all men, and you can't escape that because we're sinners.
What has happened to this world is just awful as a result of disobedience. But it doesn't end there. It says by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Who is that talking about?
Yes, Jesus.
Yes, he was obedient. You know what? He was always obedient.
He did always those things that please the Father.
And you remember yesterday.
00:15:01
Our brother Stuart was up here speaking and he talked about the Lord Jesus and he said he woke up.
He was awakened every morning by his father, and what did he do?
He opened his ear.
Do you remember that he opened his here to get directions from his father?
And he did whatever God his Father told him to do, he followed through with that. He did it. He did it even when it wasn't so nice because the Lord Jesus was here and he was walking through the land of Israel.
And got his father, you know, he was there for 33 years. He was a young man.
And.
Near the end of the time he was there, he awakened and his father told him to go to Jerusalem.
That was a big city.
But.
There was a reason that he was going to go to Jerusalem.
He knew. It's not like you and I. We don't know what's going to happen to us tomorrow.
You don't know whether you're going to be well or sick, but he knew everything because he's God.
He's God. God was manifest in the flesh. God became a man.
And he walked this earth, and his name was Jesus, and he listened to what his father told him to do, and he was sent to Jerusalem, and he knew what was going to happen when he got there, you know what they were going to do to him.
They're going to put nails in his hands and his feet and nail him to a cross to die.
Now, if you got up in the morning and someone told you, we want you to go someplace where you're going to get nailed.
To a wall would you go.
Would you go? You wouldn't want to go, would you?
But the Lord Jesus was obedient, even though it wasn't nice.
He was obedient. He went to the Cross of Calvary.
And having those nails in his hands and his feet was not the worst part of it.
The worst part of it is he went there to suffer for sins he went there to suffer.
For my sins.
And for your sins, if you put your trust.
In the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well.
Let's sing another song.
How about #4 whoops, that's in the front.
Let's sing #47.
When he cometh When?
00:20:30
Two happy hymns we sang because we're going to talk about now is not so happy as a result of sin camp coming into the world.
What else has happened?
You know there's.
Fighting. You ever hear of wars?
Are there wars going on in this world?
There is where?
Israel, yeah, there's there's a war going around on there. Anywhere else?
In Ukraine, that's right. You girls are up on current events. Well, let me tell you.
That's just a small part of the battle that's going on in this world.
Did you know that there's a battle going on in Missouri?
There's one that goes is going on in this room.
It's real.
Because Satan's real. He wasn't just there in the Garden of Eden.
Satan, we can't say he's everywhere, but he has demons and he wants to make difficulties everywhere. And you know, last night the gospel was preached.
Did you know Satan and his demons were there?
What, did you know what they're there to do? We'll read that when the word is sown.
The enemy whose Satan and his demons they come and.
You read about this in Matthew chapter 13. They ****** up that which is sown.
They try to take it away. Satan is a thief. He doesn't want the word of God to take root in your heart and mind, and he snatches it away so it doesn't take root and bring forth fruit for God.
But he does more than that.
He plants that which is not good.
You ever sit in a gospel meeting and someone taps you on the shoulder and says, hey, look at this?
I think the Lord made him do that.
No, you're distracted. Satan is busy. He's busy. And so the word of God tells us.
That.
We need armor to protect us, and this is something that I should have mentioned when I was talking about Adam.
God told Adam, don't partake.
Of that tree did he believe?
Did he believe what God said? I don't.
Know what Adam thought.
I don't know what Adam thought.
But when Adam and Eve heard Satan tempt tempting, what should he have done? What should he have said he should have said? What would have kept him safe?
He could have said God said not to take the fruit off of that tree and everything would have been fine.
It's just that simple.
And you know what we call that when we trust God? It's called faith.
Faith. I want to talk a little bit about faith.
Faith is believing God, trusting him, and doing what he says. It's very simple.
And we're tempted to do something else all the time.
And so we need protection. And in the book of Ephesians, we're told that we need armor. And I'm not going to go into all the pieces of armor. I'm just going to talk about one of the pieces of armor.
It's called taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. You know what those darts are? Satan gives you doubts. We doubt God, we say. Is that really so?
00:25:22
That's just what Satan did in the garden.
He said God said if you eat the fruit of that tree you will die. Satan said you will not die.
And he was putting doubts in their minds, and they fell for it.
All right, and they partook of that fruit. So I want to talk about the shield of faith.
You need the shield of faith, and I have There's one little.
Portion in the book of Acts that helps me to understand better.
How the shield of faith is used?
You remember the story of the Apostle Paul.
He was, he was taken prisoner and he was traveling to Rome. How was he traveling to Rome?
How in a boat? And a great big storm came along. It was a huge storm. Have you ever been in a storm in a boat?
I have.
I went out fishing once.
And.
There was going to be a change in the weather, they call it. A cold front was coming in. It was going to blow in pretty hard.
And I got into this boat. It was a big, a pretty big boat. It was at least from here to that clock, maybe even bigger than that. It was a big boat.
And we were going to go out into the ocean.
I wasn't going to go fishing in a pond or even a lake. We're going to go to the ocean, and when you go in the ocean, you can go far out. And we went far out so far. After a while you couldn't see the land anymore.
All you could see was ocean.
And.
The water was very, very deep. You couldn't see the bottom. It was maybe 100 feet down there, all this water and then the wind started to blow.
What happens when the wind blows in the ocean?
Waves, these waves, it had been flat and it started to go like this, higher.
And higher.
And higher. And when you're in a boat.
And the waves get big. You're sitting down here and you look up and there's a big wave way up there.
That's scary.
It's way far over your head.
And pretty soon the boat goes up, way up, and you're sitting on top of the wave and you look down and it goes down, down and you're going to go slide back down into and it's frightening.
It's scary. The man that drove the boat wasn't scared because it wasn't really that serious, but it gave me a pretty good idea how scary it is to be out on the big ocean in a little boat with the wind. Well, the Apostle Paul, he was traveling in a boat and they came. It was a much worse storm than I was in. It was so bad.
Here's what it says.
Says all hope that we should be saved was taken away.
Even the man that owned the boat and was driving the boat said we're all going to die.
We can't be saved. The waves are too big, the boat's going to fall apart.
We're we're finished.
But you know, the Lord spoke to Paul.
And said, fear not, Paul. Don't be afraid, Paul.
And he promised Paul that the boat was going to reach the destination, promised Paul that Paul would get to Rome.
Now there were.
Over 250 people in that boat.
00:30:02
They were all afraid, all hope was taken away.
God told Paul, Paul.
You're going to get to Rome. Do you know what Paul said? Do you think he said the Lord? Lord? What about the waves? No, you know what Paul said. I believe God. That is faith.
That is what faith is all about, believing what God says. How do we know what God has said?
Has he given us his book?
God has given us His book.
And he said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. All that put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ will have their sins washed away. Have you said I believe God no matter what anyone else said That's faith you know sometimes for those of you that know letters.
Faith is FAITH.
Some of you are too young to know that, and we like to say it this way. Forsaking all I trust Him for getting everything else, I trust God, and Paul trusted God. That was a shield.
And those doubts?
I'm sure Satan was hurling doubts.
Everyone else was affected by what was going to happen. They all thought they were going to sink to the bottom. And Paul says I believe God and it gave him confidence, confidence in God.
How important is a shield?
Is it important in battle?
Let's read about. We'll read about three that had Shields.
The first one is in First Samuel 17.
Actually, he didn't have a shield. We're going to read about this man.
You ever hear about Goliath?
He had armor, didn't he?
He had a shield close to him, but he didn't have a shield. We'll read about this, it says.
Oh yes, the first Samuel 17 and verse 41 and the Philistine, that's Goliath came on and drew near unto David, and the man that bare the shield went before him.
Goliath didn't have a shield. Somebody else had a shield.
What good did that shield do Goliath do for Goliath when that stone came?
They're doing many good.
He didn't have a shield.
He was trusting someone else.
To hold up that shield and protect him. He didn't have a shield. That's a picture of somebody that doesn't put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have not put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, if He's not your Savior, you don't have a shield to keep you safe.
And Goliath came to a miserable end, didn't he?
He was hit by the stone.
And he fell down, you know?
I heard about a little boy.
Who? I don't know how old he was.
But he liked to hold on to his mama's dress.
Do you know why he did that?
Because he knew he should be saved. He wasn't saved, and he held on to his mama's dress so if the Lord came, he would go too.
Do you think that would work?
It's like, it's like Goliath that not having trying to trust someone else. Someone else can't save you. You can't put your trust in someone else. You have to put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. You need the shield of faith.
00:35:05
You need the shield of faith.
Let's read about another man that had a shield.
Second Samuel.
Yes, Second Samuel.
21 There was a king by the name of Saul. Saul had armor.
He had good armor. David had tried on Saul's armor.
Let's see what happened with Saul.
You know Saul was killed in battle.
How could he be killed in battle if.
He had armor and he had a shield. Listen to what happened.
For there he's talking, David is lamenting, he's crying for Saul because Saul was dead.
And he's talking about the mountains of Gilboa. That's the place.
Where Saul died.
Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain upon you, nor fields of offerings. For there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul.
Wow, what good does a shield do you if you?
Throw it away.
You know what the word of God says, if you've put your trust in the Lord, Jesus Christ says cast not away your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. Don't lose your confidence in the Lord.
He's always the same. He's always with you. He will always help you. Remember what Paul said. I believe God.
What a wonderful thing to say when Satan comes against us. I believe God.
We read others about others that had.
Shields Chronicles. First Chronicles, Chapter 12.
These were Gaddites.
It says in the middle of the verse they were men of might, men of war, fit for the battle that could handle shield and buckler.
Now, do you know what the difference is between a shield and a buckler? Maybe that's something I could have had as an object lesson, so I'll try to describe it to you.
A shield is something that's big. It could be maybe this this big.
And when the arrows or the stones are flying at you, you could hide behind it.
That's the shield.
But a buckler is a different kind of shield. It's small, maybe about the size of a dinner plate. And they put it on their arm. So if someone comes with a sword, they can put that up and keep the enemy from hitting you. And these men, they were men of might, and they knew how to use shield and buckler, and they used it. And there's another verse.
It's in the 91St Psalm. It talks about shield and buckler. I want to read that because.
That's a very precious Psalm to me.
Ah.
We're going to start with the first verse because I love this song. Listen.
You'll learn to love this someday too. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress. My God and him will I trust. Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the Fowler and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers.
00:40:02
Like a hand covers her chicks.
And under his wings shalt thou trust his truth shall be thy shield and buckwer.
The Lord is our shield.
You can't trust anyone. There's no one else that's going to take you home.
To glory to that scene of happiness.
Without knowing Him, He's a shield to protect us down here until He takes us home. The only way you will get to be around the throne of God in heaven is if the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior and all the way. If you put your trust in Him and have your confidence in Him and depend on Him, He will be a shield to you. He will be a buckler.
And he will help you through every step of your pathway down here.
So I hope you remember these few words about a shield. The shield of what was that word?
Faith.
The shield of faith. The shield of faith. We have time to sing a few more hymns. Your children. There were some up here that had hymns. We'd like to sing hymns from the back.
What do you want to sing?
OK #20 is not on the back is all right. We're going to go just with it's own from #40 to #47. What was that 43?
One door and.
Inside of you, one door and only one again.
Have another one from the back.
42O This is nice, a little child of seven.
Or even three or four. I used to wonder about that. You know why I used to wonder about it?
Oh, I hate to tell you this.
I was a little boy like you.
And like some here and I sat in Sunday school and I heard about being saved, putting my trust in the Lord Jesus.
For a long time I didn't do it.
I didn't do it.
And the Lord was gracious to me because when I was 10 years old, anyone here 10?
When I was 10 years old, I wasn't saved and I was almost killed in an accident.
I came that close to losing my life.
And I wasn't safe.
Don't put off being saved, says a little child of seven or even three or four may enter into heaven.
When I was a teenager, I was saved and then I would look at this and say.
Why wasn't I saved when I was three or four or seven?
Would have been much better, wouldn't it?
A little.
Bit unknown. Gracious, Sunny.
Treasure
Address—D. Rule
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100 and 11111.
I.
Saw.
I have gone.
Mercy.
Father.
From Christmas. Christmas.
Jesus.
Christ.
No, right?
Swear good evening.
No.
Crash in our swimming games.
I must wait, I saw grieving, sleeping.
Day I was walking along the back there and.
Some little girl about yay doll. I don't know she is. She was walking the opposite direction and somewhat impulsively I stopped her and said hello and she had in under her arm.
A stuffed animal.
00:05:00
And I asked her what the name of the.
Her belonging, her possession was, and she said, Princess.
I want to talk about that.
Princess was her treasure.
That was her treasure.
How long it'll be your treasure, I don't know.
But when I was her age I had the same.
I carried it around wherever I went.
That went to bed with me and ultimately my treasure was.
A rag. Practically, it was a mess.
It had run its course, we would say, and it's on my heart, I trust of the Lord, that we consider treasure.
So let's turn to Luke's gospel.
Chapter 6.
I think it's.
Fair to say, everybody in this room.
As things that you consider.
A treasure things that you value.
And you care about and God's Word talks to us about it and I think gives us some help in understanding what's worthwhile as a treasure. So here in Luke's gospel.
Chapter 6.
It says.
In verse.
45.
A Goodman.
Out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good.
An evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil.
For of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to Me, and heareth my sayings and doeth them, I will show you To whom He is like, He is like a man that built a house.
And dig deep and laid the foundation on a rock. And when the flood arose.
And the stream vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it, or it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth and doeth not is like a man that hath that without a foundation built in house.
Upon the earth against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell.
And the ruin of that house was great.
Little Princess the little girl had.
As a treasure.
What would have happened? I don't know if I'd said give it to me.
What would have happened was what was in that child's heart would have determined the value of that treasure. I call it a treasure, and I doubt not it was.
Here we learned where our treasures are kept.
You've got a treasure or treasures in your life and the keeping of those treasures.
Is your heart.
A Goodman out of the good treasure of his heart.
And also, by contrast, speaks about.
An evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart.
That immediately tells us that you can have good treasure and you can have bad treasure.
I hope as we look at the scriptures you will be able to have some sense to stop and ask yourself, what kind of treasure do I have?
00:10:19
None of us completely possible. It's not possible to completely know our own hearts, but we can have some sense from the Word of God that would help us to understand whether what we consider treasure.
Not what we consider, but what it really is to us, whether it's a good treasure.
Or a bad treasure.
Let's go over to Chapter 12.
Chapter 12. We'll start reading in verse 15.
However, I've already forgotten something I wanted to say about what we just left.
If you want to have a good treasure.
You better paid attention to what was said to you yesterday about what you hear. Samuel ended up with good treasure because he listened.
Listening.
In Scripture, is almost in always connected with the will.
And you're not going to have a good treasure if you don't listen to what God says to you.
Just to reinforce what was already said about Samuel yesterday, probably a significant number of.
You, whether you're young or old at that point, as I can remember in my own childhood when mom or dad said something and I went like this.
Why? Because I didn't want to hear.
I didn't want to listen to what was said to me.
What we just read goes on to talk about building A.
And building on a good foundation. And if you want to have good treasure, you've got to have a good foundation for it. And if you're not willing to listen to what God says to you and value what God says is worthwhile.
Yep, you'll have treasure.
But it'll be a lousy foundation and you'll lose it eventually.
So here in Luke chapter 12 and verse 15, he said unto them.
I don't think you'll have any difficulty whether you're.
If you're old enough to read practically that you'll have understanding deciding whether this man that we're going to read about.
Ended up with good treasure.
Said unto them, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully.
And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?
And he said this will I do.
I will pull down my barns and build greater.
And there I will bestow all my fruits and my goods.
He was accumulating his treasure. And I will say unto my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.
Take thy knees, eat, drink and be merry.
But God said unto him.
Thou fool.
This night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who shall those things be which thou hast provided?
The moral, the purpose.
Verse 21. So is he that layeth up treasure for himself.
00:15:04
And is not rich toward God.
A lesson that I get out of these words.
Beyond simply that, the man God called the man a fool.
Is his treasure.
Had no relationship in his heart to his relationship with God.
He accumulated what he accumulated, what he valued, what he lived his life for, without reference to God.
He wasn't rich toward God. He had no meaningful daily relationship in his life with God.
Pretty simple statement.
But it's an important understanding of the matter of treasure if I live without a relationship to God.
I'll never have a worthwhile treasure.
This man didn't.
So is he that layeth up treasure for himself.
And is not rich toward God.
OK, let's go on to a down farther in the chapter.
To verse.
30.
32.
Fear not, little flock.
For it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.
Sell that you have and give alms. Provide yourselves bags which wax not old.
A treasure in the heavens that faileth not.
Where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.
For where your treasure is.
There will your heart be also.
Two things that probably many things, but two that I wish to bring out to you a connection with.
Whatever treasure you have.
In your life at this moment.
There's a question.
Can you lose it?
Will you have it when you leave this life?
Are really worthwhile treasure.
Is yours?
If you have what's worth in, what I think Scripture would teach you is worth going after as a treasure.
Even if you die this afternoon, you'll still have it.
You'll have it.
And further than that.
If you have that kind of treasure, the treasures that God gives to us to value.
Our treasures that, as it says, they're not corrupted.
Thieves can't come and take them from us.
There are lots of treasures, right, that can easily be taken from us.
That's the first point.
Second one is verse 34 where your treasure is.
There will your heart be also.
In a moral way.
What controls our heart?
Controls our life.
Whatever this afternoon is the most important.
Part of this life that you have and your heart, whatever your heart.
Values the most is what controls your life.
00:20:00
Consequently.
The statement here is pretty important to think about.
Where your treasure is.
There will your heart be also.
Is what you value, what you treasure worth it?
Is it going to last?
I would appeal to young people when you start out. It's an important thing, even as a teenager, to stop and reflect on the life ahead.
And what are you going to go after? What are you going to value? What's going to be important to how you make your choices in life?
Well, stop and ask yourself.
What do you consider your treasure?
What is it that you want to have?
For yourself, what do you desire?
Because whatever it is, your heart's going to go that way.
Your heart's going to go that way.
The.
Princess.
Won't last.
A whole Princess.
I'll call it Mom Owner.
Maybe he's not going to hear this comment, maybe he's already gone home, but nonetheless, the little things that we have as a child was where our heart is, and it's all important to us. But it's also well to remember that there are certain things that don't last.
And other things that we learn as we grow that we need to recognize if they're going to be valuable. There are things that will endure.
And will last.
OK, let's turn over to Luke 18.
Luke 18 verse.
18 Luke 1818.
A certain ruler asked him saying, Good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?
Jesus said unto him, Why call us thou me good not as good, save one, that is God.
Thou knowest the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not kill, Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Honor thy father and thy mother.
And he said. All these things I have kept from my youth up.
Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing?
Sell all that thou hast, and distribute to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure.
In heaven and come.
Follow me.
And when he heard this?
He was very sorrowful.
For he was very rich, and when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said how hardly.
Shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdom of God? For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye, the needle's eye, than for rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. I think we learned some more about treasure here.
Sometimes.
We'd like to have.
Then in a drought broad sense, it's not wrong. We like to have multiple treasures.
And so we want this, we want that, we want the other.
But I think we can learn something here that's important in the matter of treasure.
Sometimes.
You can't have all of them.
00:25:00
You have to make choice.
And if you're going to have treasure in your life, sometimes you're going to make some choices because you can have this or you can have that, but you can't have both.
We can spend a lot of effort trying to have this and that and the other.
And end up not getting any of them that will last to us.
Here was a man, a young man.
And I haven't met a whole lot of people that whose life was all that good as his was.
He was a very.
Impressive young person or young man?
And he had a lot of things, a good reputation, a good manner of life. And the Lord doesn't say he didn't.
And he wanted to add to what he had, eternal life. He wanted to add to his what he was and have something more. He wanted eternal life.
He considered that a good thing to have, and it is. It's hardly a treasure you can look for that there are some, but eternal life is a fantastic.
I'm going to use the word treasure to have.
And yeah, Lord says.
Do this and then you can have that.
The doing this meant giving up some of the things that he valued up to that point in order that he might have something, in truth, far, far better.
And consequently we see in this that there are can be things in our lives that hinder us from having true riches, lasting treasure.
Is there something in your life this afternoon that you value that keeps you from doing what Jesus says to you here?
Says it to you and me as much as this young man, the Lord Jesus, if he were in this room this afternoon, could say to anyone of us.
Distribute.
What you have and follow me.
Follow me.
What do you have this afternoon that maybe it's not what he had, but what you have that is a hindering you from being wholehearted? Wholehearted meaning following him is more important than anything else that you might have to give up in order to do it.
And so.
He made a choice.
The Lord says, and I believe he does to you this afternoon, follow me.
You've got a choice.
You're going to follow him. They're going to go out of that room at the end of this meeting, following him. I hope you already are, But if you're at that point in life or you're going to go out this room having made a choice, at least for this afternoon.
That.
You either follow him.
Or you don't.
And if you do.
You'll have treasure.
That'll be yours.
For eternity.
We can say we guarantee you.
You'll never be sorry with your choice.
And so there are things that hinder.
The Lord looked at him, and the Lord was sorry, if you will, if you're that young man this afternoon, that young woman this afternoon, and you go out the door having made the wrong choice.
There's the Lord Jesus is going to feel sorrow because you made that choice.
There will be sorrow in his heart this afternoon. You have.
00:30:01
Within you to bring joy this afternoon to the heart of the Lord Jesus.
Or pain or sorrow to his heart, according to whether you make the good choice.
Or the bad choice.
Whether from you comes or is in your heart.
Lodging place.
Of good.
Or.
Bad, as it said in the first verse we read evil.
Is that the only point? We say, well, you know, but.
For now, for now, I want this. And then yes, after I've had this for a while, of course I'm going to do the important thing. I'm going to follow the Lord Jesus.
What's it say in verse 30?
Who?
Shall not receive manifold more in this present time and in the world to come life everlasting.
Never make the mistake, which probably most of us or maybe all of us in the room have made at one time or another, making certain choices that we thought at the moment were the best choice.
And then we would do the more important choice later.
He says, the Lord says, and Lord knows always what he's talking about.
You know, do we have ears to hear, are willing to listen to what he says and just because he says it, that makes it we know it's true.
And so he says manifold more now.
And more forever.
You'll never be able to have more.
It's not possible to have more.
Treasurer now and forever than doing what's said in these verses.
Follow me.
Follow me.
OK, let's turn over to Matthews Gospel.
Chapter 6.
Verse 19.
Lay not up for yourselves treasure upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves breakthrough and steal.
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.
Where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt.
And where thieves do not breakthrough and steal.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. We've already read in Luke.
I'll say the companion or the same thoughts in general, but I I'm bringing it here because I want to make an application of it.
To mothers and fathers.
And treasure.
There's not only the thought of my treasure and what's important in my heart, but I suggest to you, and we'll see it more strongly if in other verses, but the thoughts introduced in application, at least here.
Mom and dad.
Do you see your children as a treasure?
I hope you do.
You should.
Your children.
And this is somewhat the point our joint treasure.
It's a treasure you share, the two of you, your children.
00:35:03
Something that out of the heart of God has been given to you for your blessing.
And you're humbling and you're learning a lot of other aspects, but what I want to emphasize this afternoon is the treasure side of it and in the treasure side of it.
In my application I trust from the Lord is labor together that your treasure.
Has the destiny of heaven and all the choices you make keep in mind the importance of making them for your children With the thought that is this activity, is this value that I seek to present to my children? Is the importance of receiving the Lord Jesus while they're young?
Of value.
You know the answer.
And in that sense, in the application, lay up for yourselves together, treasure not upon earth, but in heaven.
Labor for your children with the intent and the purpose of sharing them.
In heaven.
Heaven is a collective place. It's a wonderful collective place, but we have ample scripture to show us that there's also going to be individual.
Things that we enjoy in heaven that are particularly ours.
And I suggest to you one of them is Mother and Dad.
When you see your son, your daughter in glory with you, you will have the forever shared enjoyment of that treasure and where it is.
It will be personally, individually yours.
With the Lord.
The Lord will share in it.
With you. And so he says don't.
Try to give your child all the advantages, the best life on earth, as a motive, as a as an object.
But rather the decisions that are made.
Our decisions that are intended to have that common purpose of seeking the blessing of your children.
Not as the first man who was not rich toward God. What good is it if you raise your children to be not rich toward God and put before them something else?
Which may produce for you eternal loss.
No shared treasure.
Where your treasure is.
There will your heart be also.
If your treasure is not heaven and connected with the things of heaven, you don't have the desire. Whether you know it or not, you don't have the desire to bring your children into a treasure that you don't have.
If you're not desiring yourselves.
The Heavenly.
The good thing?
Then.
Your heart.
Is going to seek something different for your children?
Don't.
Seek what's good.
OK, let's go on to Matthew.
Chapter 13.
Now everything's going to get switched around.
Talked about you and your treasure.
The emphasis for the rest of the meeting.
00:40:00
Is on God and on His Son.
You've been encouraged to have the right treasure.
Let me read to you, to him. We started with one stanza out of it.
By thee, O God invited, we look unto the Son, in whom?
Thy soul delighted, who all thy will hath done.
And by the one chief treasure.
Thy bosom freely gave.
Thine own pure love we measure.
Thy willing mind to save.
God has treasure too.
The Lord Jesus as treasure to.
God's chief treasure.
Is the sun.
By 1 Chief Treasurer.
God teaches us about treasure by giving us to understand Himself a little bit.
And when we see what God values, we can learn to see what we want to value. Don't you want to value? Don't I want to value those things that God finds a value?
His son.
I think can be safely said the hymn writer had it right.
That his son is his chief treasurer.
But what do we learn about God in that?
What should we benefit, if you will, directly from that?
God says my son is my chief treasure.
And I'm going to give him.
For you.
I'm going to give him for you.
You know, when you value something, normally we think about hanging on to it. As I said, I didn't try to take Princess away from its owner.
That was something valued and I wouldn't have tried to say, hey, give me, give me Princess, I want it.
I don't think in a natural sense we would have said to God, give your son.
But in infinite love, he did.
But what's the end result?
Salvation of our souls, Absolutely.
Otherwise, we would be forever separated from God. We would be forever separated from any kind of treasure. We would spend eternity.
In regret, as well as many other things, I.
But what do we have?
What is the result of God having shared his treasure with us?
He shares it with us forever.
We will have with our God, our Father, the enjoyment.
Of an eternally shared treasure, his son.
Trust that touches our hearts that it's true.
We.
If you want the best treasure.
Now and forever.
Learn what the Lord Jesus values. Learn what God values and holds to be treasure.
And desire it for yourself and your life.
Now let's turn over to Malachi.
Chapter 3.
Malachi Chapter 3.
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The verses I'm going to read.
Event on my heart for probably 10 days.
When they came before my heart, I had no awareness or idea I'd be standing here this afternoon.
I had no awareness or knowledge of what would be the subject of the reading meetings.
That we've had this weekend.
What God did, the Lord Jesus did.
And I would say in one sense, if you don't remember anything else of this meeting.
For those of you who remembered the Lord Jesus here this morning in his death.
I hope you'll remember these words.
Spoken, I believe in spirit from the heart of the Lord Jesus to you about something that is a treasure to Him.
Let's read it.
Malachi Chapter 3.
And verse 16.
Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another.
And the Lord hearkened. That means he listened. He paid attention.
He observed.
And heard it.
And the Book of Remembrance was written before him.
For them that feared the Lord.
And that thought upon his name.
And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts.
In that day when I make up my jewels, Mr. Darby. Translation, my treasure.
And I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
The Lord Jesus.
This morning.
Observed what took place in this room.
He observed.
Each and everyone.
That responded to his desire this do.
In remembrance of me.
Further than that.
Every word.
That came out of your mouth in the singing or in spirit every word that was read that you entered into.
Those words of scripture that were being read.
Every prayer in which your heart was in tune with the words that were being.
Presented to God was observed.
Was heard.
And what did it mean?
What did it mean? What took place this morning?
To him.
It says a book of remembrance.
Was written.
He is recorded in his book, his Book of Remembrance. We talked about remembering him, and we did. But here's his Book of Remembrance.
He has recorded in it your name.
And what you did this morning?
Because he values it that much.
It's that important to his own heart.
Them that feared the Lord.
And the thought about his name thought of.
Upon his name, did you think? Upon his name this morning? And remembering him? Of course you did. You couldn't have remembered him really without.
We had the doctrinal part of it in the reading meetings and the importance of His name and Jesus is Lord.
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And if we know him as Lord, we have a respect for him.
As it says here, they that feared the Lord, those that had appropriate, proper, reverential respect for the one they were remembering this morning. He saw it, He appreciated it.
He's recorded it.
We read the words this do.
Yesterday, at least.
There's a companion thought to these words. These were written to specifically written to Jewish people.
In the end, prior the last words, almost in the last book anyways, that was written before the Lord Jesus came.
And it was a word of encouragement to those in that situation, and it'll be a word of encouragement in the future and the tribulation to those in that a similar situation.
But it was in a day which was getting darker.
The day of Malachi was a day when things were getting harder and darker.
A companion, a parallel in the New Testament, in my soul, there were Saints in a place called Philadelphia.
And it says of those Saints in a day that was getting darker and closer to the coming of the Lord.
Says.
His valuation of what he appreciated there was Thou hast kept my word.
Did you keep his word this morning?
Keeping his word is this do.
Did you keep that word?
This too.
Now is kept my word.
And has not denied.
My name.
The world is denied his name.
His name?
As art thou, the Christ was asked him at the time he was crucified.
Are you?
Truly the person that has that name, he was being asked.
They said it was to him at that time. You say you're.
The Son of God, in effect, the I am.
They said that's blasphemy for you to claim that name.
And E Castile.
To keep his name.
One of the most wonderful opportunities to do it was this morning.
To give honor in a place where he's rejected.
To his name, to who he is.
And do so in a way that recognizes the consequences to him of that name, his death.
Verse 17.
They shall be mine, saith Lord of Hosts, and that day when I make up my jewels.
You're a jewel, you're a treasure to him.
We have our treasures. You are one of his treasures. We collectively are the Pearl of great price that he gave all for.
As the church.
Treasure.
You are to his heart.
Make a couple of comments about it.
I had my Princess, wasn't called Princess and as I said, it started out a nice looking lovely stuffed animal.
But the time came when it was a mess.
It wasn't from a natural standpoint, anybody else but me would have said I would don't, don't get that thing around me. It's not worth anything.
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It's dirty, can't even be cleaned anymore properly.
The Lord Jesus treats you as a treasure.
But you started out.
Where my treasure ended.
A mess.
In and of yourself, I'm going to say worthless.
And that's where God started. The other side of it is sometimes to have a treasure you staff to build it, you have to create it.
There's such a thought as a farmer, he puts I'm going to be in trouble since they're farmers that know what they're talking about where I don't in the room, but I will anyways. He starts with some seed, but he doesn't have a crop.
He has to slaver, he has to spend a lot of time and energy, he has to depend on whether and other things to looking to God to provide that he can't provide.
But hopefully in harvest time he gets his treasure. That is at least what he is has put his effort into.
His livelihood.
God gave you to His Son in a past eternity.
And in a certain sense.
You were.
As part of Adams race? Nothing.
Value there really.
But it is hard.
You're a treasure.
So he started to work.
And worked and worked. If you're sitting in this room, he's still working on you.
You're not done yet.
You're not yet what He wants you to be. As His treasure you have in credit. If you're the Lord, you have incredible value now.
You have life, you have the Spirit of God living, dwelling, I should say, in you.
He's going to keep working.
God is given is at work by the Spirit.
So that when?
I see you in glory.
They're going to be incredibly valuable treasure.
You're going to be just like him.
God is so pleased with his treasure of his Son that he wants heaven to be full of.
Those who are just like him.
And then heaven will be full of treasure.
All those that are his own.
But he won't.
Forget.
I doubt not in my own soul that the day will come.
When you're in glory.
With the Lord Jesus in a way that he alone can express.
Will tell you how much he valued what you did this morning.
That it was precious.
To his heart.
Let's sing.
Number 88.
I hope.
Verse 7 of 88 is a response of our hearts to what He thinks about us.
And what he's invested in us.
Let's sing 88.
Glory.
Crowd.
And.
From glory to glory.
Satisfied
Gospel—T. Blake
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So when I received the e-mail last week, it was made clear on it.
That I had the liberty to give forth the gospel or.
Speak a word to those who are the Lord's and I'd like to do both. So what I have tonight is for.
The St. and Sinner alike, and I'd like to start by reading a verse in Psalms.
Psalms 107.
And verse.
9 Psalms 107 and verse 9.
For he satisfied.
The longing soul.
And Phyllis, the hungry soul.
With goodness, thinking mainly of the first part, for he saddest by it.
The longing soul.
This week.
I plan on when I get home.
To meet up with a young man whose name is Daniel.
Daniel is probably about 30 years old and he's from Turkey.
I met him at a Verizon store.
And as I was explaining to him the difficulty I had with my phone.
He looked at me.
And he said, are you a pastor?
I said.
In part, yes.
I said. So you're a man of God.
And I said yes, I am.
I said, what makes you ask that?
And he said, well.
You can imagine what they see in a Verizon store. Most people coming in there, they're kind of irritated about whatever their silly phone is doing.
And he says, well, you have a piece.
And you seem satisfied.
Well, I don't know if that was a compliment or a rebuke, but.
What is this world?
Looking for.
We just had in the last meeting.
Treasurer, why do we have treasures?
Their satisfaction in that we are looking for satisfaction St. and Sinner alike.
And so tonight.
This afternoon.
Are you satisfied?
Do we need to think about that for a little while? Are you truly satisfied?
If not.
Why not?
It says that he satisfies the longing tool. What are you longing for?
Maybe after we sing a song I'd like to look at.
For individuals in Scripture.
The 1St 2:00.
The one had faith and the one didn't, and neither one of them were satisfied.
They didn't find satisfaction.
And then the next two individuals, the one didn't have faith.
The next one did have faith.
And they both found satisfaction.
So I trust.
The end of this meeting.
If we don't have satisfaction, whether we're the Lords or not.
That we might seek after that which truly satisfies our heart.
We all have to confess.
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There's things worth driving after.
Is it really that which will satisfy the heart?
So as we sing this song #19.
Please pay attention to the words on the page.
#19 O Christ, in thee my soul hath found, and found in thee alone the peace, the joy I sought so long, the bliss till now.
Unknown. Have you found?
That peace, that joy.
Have you found satisfaction?
It's only going to be found in a person.
That's the person of the Lord Jesus.
Do you love him?
And maybe you have found.
Satisfaction in him as to regards to your lost condition and sins.
And now you are the Lords.
Are you satisfied?
Are you really satisfied?
I know a lot of those who are the Lord's that are not satisfied.
Why?
Why?
It's something to search our hearts.
Now none but Christ can satisfy none other name. For me there's love and life.
And lasting joy Lord Jesus found in me.
Oh Christ.
And so.
So now I go.
I.
Stand Happiness.
I can learn for them.
By goodness, love.
I I sleeping joy Lord Jesus.
Coming.
I'm trying to translate.
Yourself.
Give me outside.
I will.
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And glad seeing joy.
Lord Jesus.
Sound can give me?
So the first individual I'd like to look at is in Matthew.
Chapter 26.
A lot of maybe the things I have have already been spoken on.
But the Spirit of God is able to maybe give us something a little more.
Matthew Chapter 26 the.
And verse 14.
Then one of the 12, called Judas Iscariot went unto the chief priests.
And said unto them, What will ye give me?
And I will deliver him unto you, and the covenant with him for 30 pieces of silver. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him. Chapter 27.
And verse 3.
Then Judas, which had betrayed him when he saw that he was condemned.
Repented himself.
And brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned, and that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, what is that to us, See thou to it. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple.
And departed.
And went and hanged himself.
That was the end of Judas.
What was he seeking?
For satisfaction? What did he think that he was going to find satisfaction?
In.
Money.
Without question. Without question.
He thought that if he could get 30 pieces more.
It's always that way, isn't it? It's just a little bit more. If he could just get 30 pieces of silver more, he'd be satisfied.
Dear One.
Is there anything in this?
That can satisfy your soul.
Truly satisfy you? Can money satisfy the longings of your soul?
I can go right here to Judas.
It did not.
Judas now.
According to Luke 16.
He is.
In Torment.
For 2000 years because he wanted 30 pieces of silver. He is now in Hades in a place of torment for 2000 years.
And he has at least another thousand to go.
For 30 pieces of silver.
And then there's coming a day.
When he's going to have to stand before that great white throne, which we had already in Revelation Chapter 20?
And from there, what happens?
He's going to be cast into the Lake of fire.
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And it's a leak. It's a place of containment. We heard that it you can't get out.
And it's fire. Fire speaks of judgment. But you know, in Proverbs chapter 30, it says there are three things, the eight that are not satisfied. What's one of those?
Fire, he will forever be unsatisfied. In the lake of fire he will never find satisfaction.
We were Speaking of some of these things in our reading last week at home.
And my daughter said, you know, maybe we need to hear more about this.
Of the condition of those that pass away and not know the Lord. And hell we don't. I don't like to talk about these things.
But the word of God does.
Maybe we need to hear more about this, and as a result, maybe we'd be a little more faithful in the gospel, do you think?
Those that we work with.
Work for our families? Are we concerned for their soul?
Or do we don't? We don't really care.
Is there any concern?
Judas is forever unsatisfied.
Like to look at another individual?
This one had faith, true faith.
But I I don't think when he passed away.
He did not find true satisfaction.
We'll turn to 1St Kings.
Chapter 3.
Solomon.
I'm just going to read pieces for the sake of time.
Solomon chapter 3, verse 5 And Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon a dream by night. And God said, Ask what I shall give thee? And Solomon said, Thou hast showed unto thy servant David, my father, great mercy, according as he walked before the in truth and in righteousness, and in uprighteousness of heart with thee, and thou hast kept for him this great kindness.
That thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. And now, O Lord my God.
Thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father.
And I am but a little child.
I know not how to go out or come in, and Thy servant is in the midst of Thy people, which Thou has chosen, a great people.
That cannot be numbered or counted for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge this day thy so great a people? And the speech please the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing, and God said unto him, Because thou has asked this thing, and has not asked for thyself long life.
Neither has asked riches for thyself.
Nor has asked life of thine enemies, but has to ask for thyself. Understanding, discern, judgment. Behold, I have done according to thy words. Lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart. So there's there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.
And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee already.
Should read verse 14 and thou wilt walk in my ways to keep my statutes and my commandments as thy father David did Walk. Then I will lengthen thy days.
What we see here.
Solomon had a good beginning. Everything was going for him. He was a man of God.
He had faith.
In the Lord.
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So he had a good beginning.
How about you?
Sometimes we think that as we get older.
Some of these temptations that the world has for us, they kind of go away.
How to how to work out for Solomon?
Did he continue on?
To keep the statutes and my commandments.
We all know he didn't.
Ecclesiastes.
Chapter 2 I think.
Ecclesiastes.
Chapter 2.
You know, I sent a text to a sister last week.
She was pondering some things.
And I told her.
The most unhappy soul living today.
It's not an unbeliever. That seems strange.
An unbeliever is living in the living up all they know in the life and Adam's race. That's all they know and they're going to live it to the fullest.
But it's one who?
Like Solomon?
He had tasted of the life.
We might say in our terms today he tasted the Lord is good.
But it wasn't enough, and he wanted some.
For much of the world, and so one who today.
Once to enjoy that life.
That is wholly apart from this world, the life of Christ. And then to embrace the world, on the other hand, is the most unhappy because they've had a taste of that which is really life. You can't have both and be satisfied. There are many that have both. Many. I work for a man.
Extremely, quite a few. Extremely wealthy.
Man.
And him and his wife, they are the Lords.
And I share with him that which is really life.
But they are the most unhappy of all the ones I work for.
Because he's striving after the things of this life.
Christ isn't enough. Is he enough to satisfy your heart and my heart? I'm talking to those who are the Lords.
Young ones.
It's the truth.
You know, here in Ecclesiastes you have Song of Solomon or you have Solomon. He's not only.
Giving us.
Leader in Ecclesiastes, he's the things that he meditates on, and so there's things that he can glean by meditating on the Word of God, and then there's things we glean by observation.
And Solomon also gleaned much through experience. And so he's given us some of these experiences that we may not experience that.
Some of us had to say have experienced some of these things.
This world has a big pole.
Doesn't it sometimes?
It can if Christ. If Christ doesn't satisfy, we're not looking to Him for our satisfaction.
And so I want to read chapter 2 and this is Saltman is really speaking as to experience because he didn't take heed to the commandments and to those statutes and this was the result.
And we'll see how many times it's all about me.
Chapter 2.
Verse one.
I said in my heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with myrrh. Therefore enjoy pleasure, and behold, this also is vanity. I said it of laughter. It is mad and a murder. What doeth it? I sought in my heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting my heart with wisdom, and to lay hold on folly till I might see what was that good, see what was good that good for the sons of men which they should do under heaven all.
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Days of their life I made me great works. I builded me houses, I planted me vineyards, I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruit. I made me pools of water to water there with the wood that bring us forth trees. I got me servants and maidens, and I had servants born in my house. Also. I had great possessions of great and small cattle, above all that were in Jerusalem before me. I gathered me all the silver and the gold and the peculiar.
Treasure of kings and of provinces. I got me men singers and women singers, and and the delights of the sons of men as musical instruments, and that of all sorts. So I was great and increased more than all that were before me. In Jerusalem also my wisdom remained with me, and whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them.
I withhold, I withheld, not my heart.
From any joy, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was the portion of my labor. Then I looked, Listen, this is a man who experienced.
Both realms.
He was a man that had faith.
But what did it come to?
We read elsewhere that his heart was taken away after idols.
He sought satisfaction there, too.
What was the end?
Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and all the labor that I had labored to do, and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit.
Under the sun.
Was he satisfied?
That all he had, everything he could want on this in this life.
Did it bring satisfaction?
To his heart.
It did not. It separated him from the one who could give him satisfaction, the one who his father knew.
And found satisfaction in the Lord.
He found no satisfaction.
Helped me when I was young. I was about 18 years old again, working for a man and his wife.
Very wealthy.
I was very close to. Thankfully the Lord preserved me.
But a son to them, I did everything. I switched the mattresses around. I pick up up in the airport, I'd take him to the airport, I'd turn on their heating blanket. I'd run into town and get things. I found a piece of property from the by at 18 years old and.
That's a dangerous age.
Do not get swept aside.
With the glamour that this world has.
I was driving their fancy cars.
But she told me something that I've never forgotten.
Dear one, younger one here if you think that.
Amassing things of this life is going to bring you satisfaction.
You are going to be disappointed.
It never works, but she said Tim before we had all this money.
We were happier.
This is when they they got it all.
But she said, Tim, before I had, we had all this money, we were happier.
What did it turn out for them?
Vexation of spirit.
It didn't satisfy.
Things here in this Earth will not satisfy.
Jeremiah.
Jeremiah, chapter 2.
Jeremiah, chapter 2.
And verse 13, he's speaking to his people, He's speaking to me.
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He's speaking to you.
For my people.
Have committed to evils.
They have forsaken me.
The fountain of living water.
And hewed them out. Cisterns. Broken cisterns.
That can't satisfy.
Can't hold water that can hold no water. That was Solomon.
He was hewing himself out, himself out huge sisters.
Did they satisfy his heart? The longings of his heart?
They did not.
They did not. He lost out. He lost out.
And just reference in the New Testament, in first John, we know these verses very well.
But it's good to.
Connect them.
First, John.
Chapter 2.
The Lord has given us examples in Scripture to help us.
Understand the truth behind what is written for us as we do we see in Solomon or a lot.
Chapter 2. 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, the satisfaction that we find in the father.
Is not in him.
This is truth.
And as we've had before, just believe it.
Why?
Why do we have to try to prove God? Are we going to prove him wrong?
No, we're not.
No, we're not.
We know these the things that have a grip on our hearts.
We know.
John, Chapter 4.
This has already been taken up and I'm not going to spend much time on it for the sake of time.
I think someone already referred to this.
And we know this, the woman at the well, very well. Chapter 4.
And we see.
That what was she?
Looking to find satisfaction in.
Did it satisfy your heart?
She didn't have faith.
Marriage Men.
Did it satisfy her heart?
It did not.
It did not and that's why the Lord came there, knowing that she was coming, as it were. He takes that water and and draws it right into her life.
And so if you don't know the Lord Jesus is your Savior, if you haven't put your trust in him, the Lord Jesus is here tonight saying, Come, come unto me, all you that labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
I know that Speaking of freedom from the law, but in the gospel, have you put your trust?
In the Lord Jesus Christ as the only one that can satisfy the belongings of your heart.
Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.
And what was the result? This beautiful world system that we have.
Totally in separation and apart from the Lord, can we find satisfaction when He rejected a lamb?
Abel found satisfaction in that lamb. We've had the Lamb of God before us. Can he satisfy our hearts, dear one?
Well, we know very well.
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That this Samaritan woman.
She found.
The Lord Jesus, she found satisfaction.
To what she'd been longing for.
In her heart, and he knew what was going on in that heart to that woman, for she left her water pot, as it were. She left those broken cisterns.
And she found one that could satisfy the longings of her heart. Have you found this blessed One, the Lord Jesus?
I've already had before us the geler.
And there needs to be, as has been very clearly pointed out to us, that we need to repent.
Repentance towards God, faith in the Lord Jesus.
And as that Geller was soon to enter into eternity without Christ.
As Paul cried out, do thyself no harm.
What did he do?
He called for a light repentance. Everything was in the open, whatever it took. He wanted that which would satisfy his heart.
Yes, he was trembling too.
What about you? What did they say? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?
And thou shalt be saved. Have you put your trust?
Lord Jesus Christ.
He's only one that can satisfy. The song we sing, only Christ can satisfy.
Come to him.
The door is soon to shut.
A man that I've known for a few years. He's also a landscaper. He's my age.
We didn't have much in common.
He was out to.
Possess the world.
And overtime, I've said things to him, not knowing what was going on inside his heart.
But one day he came, he called me and said to him, I want to talk.
I said OK, I'll be home this afternoon anytime.
And I can tell as soon as I saw him that something was something had changed.
And he said Tim.
I got saved. I got saved, he said. You know, Tim, I thought I thought I had life. I thought I was in possession of living life. But he said, Tim, now I have life. I really have life.
And he's trying to live it to his fullest.
A few days, months went by and he says, Tim, I want to come by and I just want to see you again and talk. And he comes by and.
He's like Tim I we talked about things of the Lord and that's all we talk about now.
And he's like, you know, I.
It just dawned on me yesterday, why am I amassing all of these guns? He was a hunter, but he was.
Kind of a thing today where you build up stock of guns and ammunition. He's like.
We're not here to kill people, we're here to save people.
What are we here for?
Did that satisfy him? All of a sudden, he saw he left his water pot. He saw that there was no satisfaction.
He found someone that could satisfy his heart.
What about you?
How old are you? Are you 50 years old?
And you haven't found the one to satisfy your heart.
00:40:03
Could there be? I can't imagine what the disciples thought when they were standing there in the garden. And here comes.
The chief priest and.
These men with swords and and Judas with them while wearing through their heart.
I can't imagine.
Dear one, do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior?
He knows your heart.
And he wants to satisfy it.
He's the only one that can satisfy your heart's affections.
Genesis.
Chapter 14.
Sorry, I'm running out of time.
So I'll just make it brief.
We know in this story that.
Abraham.
Rescued lot.
And all, and the king of Sodom and all of his goods, here we have one a man of faith. And I'm looking at this man as one who had found satisfaction. And he, he can give us a little lesson as to how do we keep ourselves from seeking to find satisfaction.
In broken cisterns and the things that this world offers us.
How can we protect ourselves?
From those things that bombard us every day.
Verse 17 And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Kedar Leoma, of the kings that were with him at the valley of Sheva, which is in the Kingsdale. And Melchizedek king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the Most High God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abraham, Abraham of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and of earth.
And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand.
And he gave him tithes of all. And the king of Sodom said unto Abraham, Give me the persons.
And take the goods to thyself.
And Abraham, Abraham said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up my hand unto the Lord, the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread, even to a shoot latch.
Abraham was tempted.
He went out and he met his or that roaring lion. But now here's the serpent.
He had a great victory and he comes back.
But who meets him before the King of Sodom? It's Melchizedek.
I just want to.
Christ.
And I'll use this example.
About three years ago.
I had to take a ride with a man.
Who I was working for that had hundreds of millions of dollars.
And I had to ride with him for about 3 hours.
And I knew.
There's a, there's.
A danger in being drawn into things because you see money and there's just there's something in us that.
We're attract, we can be attracted to that. And so I knew if I'm going to have this man sitting by me, what are we going to talk about or what is the Lord or what is Satan the serpent?
How could he?
Draw me a sigh.
00:45:00
So I took my Bible.
And I put my Bible right between our seats. That was my Melchizedek.
I wanted him to know.
That I had found satisfaction.
In the word of God.
Whatever he might offer me.
Was second.
And it spared me.
To this day.
And so there is that which we have to be so careful of.
Abraham was a man of faith, he was a friend of God. He, he sought to please the Lord. But here came a temptation. But he had taken from Melchizedek, from the Most High God. He was satisfied, he was completely satisfied. And so when the king Sodom comes and offers him.
The things of.
This earth maybe not evil in themselves perfectly good.
They didn't fit in Abraham's tent.
He was satisfied. What about you today?
Temptations come.
They come.
How are we going to overcome?
These temptations.
Abraham is a beautiful example.
We need to find our resource, our satisfaction in Christ.
He can and will satisfy us, and that's what can preserve us as we go out into the world.
We're satisfied.
Have you found?
Your satisfaction.
In Christ is he enough to satisfy the soul, It says.
That he shall see the travel of his soul. And what?
And shall be satisfied.
We can only be satisfied.
With that which God is satisfied with.
And he is satisfied with his Son, the Lord Jesus, and if we find her satisfaction in him.
It's an eternal, just like we had with those treasures. It's an eternal satisfaction. It's forever.
Judas is there, unsatisfied forever.
We find her satisfaction in Christ.
We are satisfied forever.
If you don't mind, maybe we could sing one more song. Sorry for going over.
Oh sorry, under a little flock if you have your little flock.
Handbook.
Number 57.
Thinking mainly, we've had the lamb before us.
Number 57, verse two sweetest Rest and peace have filled us. Sweeter praise than tongue can tell.
God is satisfied with Jesus.
Can you say the next part?
We are satisfied.
As well.
The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall.
Not want.
Exclamation mark. I think that's how David said it.
I shall not want.
Satisfied.