St. Thomas Conference: 2012
Table of Contents
Revelation 4:1-4
Hymnsing
Devotedness to Christ
Revelation 4:4-11
Light and Darkness
Address—Don Rule
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Number 93.
From the palace of His glory, from the home of joy and love, came the Lord Himself to seek us. He would have us there above.
There, from that eternal brightness have his thoughts flowed forth in love number 93.
God's help and blessing.
Our God, we seek thy blessing.
Speak to us this afternoon. Give us each to know that it is Thy voice to us.
We ask our God to honor the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts and our thoughts this afternoon.
And do thy work by the power of thy Spirit, we ask, Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Turn with me briefly to a verse in Second Corinthians chapter 5.
First, it was read to us last night at the Sing.
2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and.
Sorry, chapter 4, Second Corinthians, chapter 4. The last verse, verse 18.
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.
Stop and think about that.
We look.
At the things which are not seen.
Many would say, what's that mean? What? What could possibly? How could you possibly look at something that's not seeable or not seen?
But I just want to make it's not the subject of the afternoon, but it's an important point nonetheless. And that is?
There are things that can only be seen with the eye of faith, and with faith God gives us the capacity to see things that otherwise could never be seen. We looked in the Word of God this morning and yesterday in things which cannot be seen.
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By the natural eye of the natural man. They can only be seen through the eye of faith.
Now let's turn to the subject before me, because it includes what we've just said. Turn to 1St John, Chapter one.
First Epistle of John, chapter one.
John says he has a message.
For us.
And that message, he says in verse five of chapter one. This then is the message.
Which we have heard of him, and declare unto you that God is light.
And in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.
Before we comment on this, let's turn back to Genesis chapter one.
Genesis chapter one.
Verse one In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light.
And there was light, and God saw the light that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night.
We're going to look the time we have.
On the subject God is light, God is light.
We all and God uses natural things to teach us spiritual lessons. He's created the world in such a way that when we see it, He can use it to us as an object lesson to teach us spiritual things. And so we have all of us, all our lives been exposed to light. We all have some sense of light and we consequently have a sense of.
Darkness as well the absence of light.
And God says of himself, he is light.
And in him is no darkness at all.
We also have the statement of God that light and darkness cannot share.
He divides them.
Every single person that's in this room this afternoon is ultimately going to end up in the presence of light.
Forever with no darkness.
For you are going to end up in darkness forever, where there is no light.
You are going to spend your eternity as a creature of God.
Created with the knowledge of himself and angels. Likewise, all creatures that are created with a knowledge the Guardians are going to spend their eternity either.
In life with God.
Or in darkness forever. It's an important matter.
To be concerned in that way.
God says God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
And then the immediately says speaks of fellowship. Fellowship is to have common interests and common understanding. And God is making a statement from himself to us that if we are to have fellowship with God.
It's on the basis that God is life.
It's impossible for God to have fellowship with anything that's not light.
In him is no darkness at all, and he divided the lot darkness from the light. They aren't to be together, they have no place one with the other.
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Our lives.
The only way we can have fellowship with God in our daily life or in our eternity.
Is in.
Perfect light.
Suppose I sin.
The moment I sin since darkness.
New love, Darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.
And the moment, the moment I act disobedient to God, that sin, we know that.
My fellowship with God in light is lost immediately.
I challenge myself.
In first John one it says we walk in the light.
I know to illustrate the importance of it.
Supposed, and I'll just be random about it. Suppose everybody's name was put in a hat.
This afternoon and we pulled one name out of the hat.
Young or old, doesn't matter, we pulled one name out of the hat.
And then God were to choose to put on the screen in front of us a record of the past week of that persons life.
Exposing it to the light.
That's why the next person first, John says the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin because otherwise we couldn't be sustained in life if we didn't have the provision of God, of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the value of his blood to God. Because who would say if your whole.
Life just for the last week, everything you said, everything you've done, everything that's passed through your mind were to be publicly displayed for all of us to see.
And so the subject of light and darkness is as its application to everyday light, everyday life. But here it's particularly we see the very basic principle of it that everything to continue must be brought into the conformity to what God is. God can't have fellowship with something that's not consistent with what he is, and he's light.
And consequently, when we look on to eternity, God says there will be no night there.
When we get to heaven, there will be no night there, because there will be nothing there.
That is inconsistent with what God is God in the Lamb or the light thereof.
And they will shine perfectly in the courts of glory, and in so doing, there won't be any need for any natural light in that place.
Notice then it says.
Verse 6 God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters to divide. Let it divide the waters from the waters. Verse seven, God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so.
And the permanent God called the firmament heaven. And the evening in the morning were the second day. I turn over to John's Gospel chapter one.
John's Gospel chapter one verse 3 All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.
Verse 9 That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, and he was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
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We know how the creation began with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
We know how sin came into the creation.
And it brought darkness with it.
And.
If you will, if you go forward in your thoughts to before the Lord Jesus.
Just before the Lord Jesus came into this world, I believe to the eye of God in a large extent. He could look down upon the earth and say darkness covered the taste of the deep. There are exceptions to that. There were believers with light in them, but in a general way God looked down and the scene was one of darkness.
And God's choice.
Was to enter into that darkness.
And illuminated.
The.
God's Son came down into the darkness.
And it says his life was the light of men. His life shined on man.
You know, if you have good eyes and it's a dark room, all you really need is somebody to turn the light on.
But the picture that God gives us of what he found isn't that.
He illuminated the world morally.
And it says the darkness comprehended it not. In other words, man wasn't just in the dark, he was darkness itself.
That's the way you and I started life Darkness. We weren't just in the dark, we were actually darkness itself.
Dark hearts, Dark minds.
In the word of God.
Blindness.
Is generally connected with unbelief.
In John Chapter 9 there was a blind man.
And he started life blind and there were lots of people that started that chapter.
With good eyes.
But it's a chapter full of blind people.
The one man physically blind, but many other people spiritually, morally blind. And in fact the Lord had to say to him, you say you see, therefore your sin, your blindness remains in you.
That one dear man started life physically blind. He got his physical eyesight, he responded to the Lord Jesus, and he got spiritual eyesight because he had faith.
I don't know. I look around the room and.
I wonder how many blind people are in the room.
Oh, I don't see anybody physically blind. But if you don't have faith, you're blind. And if you're blind, you don't see the light.
And you won't see the light, you won't understand, you won't get the blessing of God for your soul until that unbelief is dealt with. And you say, I believe.
And so here the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness comprehends it not.
It lightens every man.
Here's the very light of God among men and.
It says they knew him not.
No, I'm not.
Let's go back to Genesis chapter one.
Verse nine God said let the waters under the heaven be gathered together in one place and let the dry land appear, and it was so.
And God called the dry land earth, and gathering together the waters, he called the seas. And God saw that it was good, and he said, Let the earth bring forth grass.
Herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind. And the sea was seed was in itself upon the earth, and it was so.
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To my own soul, this is a picture of the cross and what happened at the cross.
The light comes into the world.
And it meets with darkness.
And there's the separation. Light and darkness can't be together. God divided them.
The one who was light was refused. An unknown man knew him not.
If you're blind spiritually this afternoon, you don't know him, you don't appreciate him.
You can appreciate the life.
If I could speak reverently or respectfully for God, He could have chosen.
To remove himself.
But he doesn't, does he?
God is love.
And so the person of the Lord Jesus goes deeper into the darkness.
We read of him on the cross. Darkness covered the earth. He entered into that darkness.
It goes farther than that.
In Scripture, death is a picture of darkness.
And he enters into that as well.
It's the love of God.
That would go down into that darkness in which man was.
That he might do the work to bring man up out of the condition in which he was found. We thank God this afternoon that He's light, but we also thank God that He was willing, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, to go all the way to where we were.
To rescue us from that condition of things so that we wouldn't remain in the darkness forever.
You know, the Bible talks about people being lost.
You can't live.
A good life.
If you're in the dark.
Stan.
If you're in the dark, you're going to be lost.
And that's the way man starts out life. He's lost.
That's the condition in which he's in. He's a thinner because he sins. He's lost because of what he is.
These darkness, such as condition and in his life.
To see, to live by. The psalmist says thy word is a light unto my feet and a lamp unto my path. He needs that to see the way to have a path to follow. And that's the only way through life really is God illuminates and we follow in that light. And if we don't have God, if we're dead in the darkness spiritually.
We're going to spend our whole life lost and die lost.
And then go to the darkness of the darkness forever. I just want to encourage if you're a young person here.
Why go through life lost?
In the darkness.
You can have the light of life, and so it says his life was the light of men. We have to have that life to have life. They're connected with God. Without life, there's darkness. But if you have the light of God, you have the life of Christ, you have life.
And then you enjoy.
And then you have a path, and you have light for your feet. But in order for it to be so, there was number fruit for God, for man.
Until the cross.
And at the cross, the Lord Jesus saw the waters of God's judgment were gathered together in one place, and he went into the darkness, if you will, under those waters of judgment, and he suffered them.
But God raised him from the dead, from that condition of death.
Into the dazzling light of glory, where he is the glorious Son of God there, but before there could be any fruit from for God in the earth. And we'll see this a little more in another example, but it says the earth brought forth grass and so there was fruit after the waters are gathered together in one place and the judgment.
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Cell.
Now notice it says in verse 14.
God said let there be lights in the firmament of heaven.
To divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years.
Let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, And he made the stars also.
The Lord Jesus is the greater light of day. The Church is the lesser light of night.
And each believer in this room is one of the stars.
Also.
Let's look first of all at the church as light. We've been in Revelation. Turn over to Revelation.
Chapter One.
Are we in the night?
Time or are we in the daytime? The Millennium is the daytime right now for this Earth. It's passing through the cycle of night.
Peter says that the dates are needs to rise up in our hearts because the day is about to dawn and the day is coming. We believe that the day star is risen. I trust in the hearts of us here because of the dawn of the morning is about to break.
And it will usher in the daytime of the millennial day. But right now it's still in the dark. And during the dark, God placed for his creation a lesser light to rule the night. And So what says here in Revelation chapter one?
Verse 20 The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in thy right hand are 7 golden candlesticks.
Candlesticks, and in fact in Revelite and Genesis one it calls them light bearers.
For the day and for the light, that which bears the light. And so here.
The Church was placed in the earth as a light bearer for God in the absence of the Lord Jesus.
It's a lesser light. It's not bright as bright as the sun, but Thursday night, driving across Michigan in the evening and in the dark.
Was full moon beautiful beautiful moon.
Last night when I left this building and I looked in the sky, I saw the same beautiful full moon.
And while I enjoyed it in its beauty, it also made me a little sad.
Last night.
When I looked at it.
Because I looked at it and I thought.
Is that?
What the Church is today in the world.
Is the Church that bright moonlight reflecting the glory of the sun?
Since it has no inherent light in itself, all the light of the moon is reflected.
From the Sun.
Is it?
Not according to.
The one in Revelation chapter one that evaluates it, he looks at it.
And he says if you don't bear the light.
I will remove you as a Candlestick. I will remove you as a light bearer.
I put you there for a purpose, and if that purpose isn't being accomplished.
If that light isn't shining on the earth, I'm going to remove you.
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We know.
At the end of the church is a light bearer for God is.
She's put there in faithful responsibility.
As she fulfilled it, is She fulfilling it today in the world? Does the Word look upon? The profession of Christianity is a great light for mankind.
We all know the answer to that.
Sad, but God is faithful with us. He tells us the truth and he has to replace her with a faithful light.
Which is soon going to do in the person of the sun.
Turn over to Ephesians chapter 5.
Ephesians.
Chapter 5, verse one.
Now we're going to look at the stars also.
Be therefore imitators of God as dear children.
Walk in love.
As Christ also loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour.
But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not once be named among you, has become a Saints, neither filthiness nor police, talking nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks.
For this she know, that no *********** nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolatrous, hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.
Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
Be not therefore partakers in them, for with them for ye were sometimes darkness.
But are now light in the Lord walk as children of light.
But the fruit of the Spirit, Mr. Darby translates it here, the fruit of the Light.
Installations chapter 5 is it. It's the fruit of the Spirit, but here it's the fruit of the light. The fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord, and have no fellowship.
With the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
We're just ashamed to even speak of these things, which are done of them in secret.
But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light.
For whatsoever death make manifest is light.
So here each one of us who has put our trust in the Lord Jesus. Our previous condition is found in John chapter one is ye were sometimes once in your life, your darkness.
And in darkness, no fruit for God in that life.
But here it says you who were sometimes or once darkness, are now light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light.
The light of life.
Is now in.
Us. And so we're like stars, little compared to the whole, but individually each one of us is a light in this Dark World.
I remember someone once kind of gave the idea, you know, it would be nice. We might think, oh, it'd be nice if all of us could come together on a weekend like this and, and if we could walk in harmony as we would like to and so on. It'd be nice if we all had a place where we could kind of live together in a community together and wait for the Lord to come. And some people have tried that.
It seems like a nice idea because it's a way of being separated from a lot of the temptations and so on of the world.
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Letter Brother wisely once said God hasn't chosen to put all his streetlights on the same street corner.
God has chosen to put you on a street corner to be alike there.
Whether it's a school, it's in your work.
To shine as well in the assembly and in the home.
And the consequence as we had in Genesis 1.
At first there was number light, no fruit, just separation. But here it speaks about a child of God and fellowship.
No longer fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but fellowship with God and fellowship with God is that which will produce fruit for God.
We're not going to have God's fruit of goodness.
Righteousness and truth apart from walking with Him.
And yet, brethren.
Young or old, it's a privilege.
Why did God create us?
Since he wants to have creatures he can love, he wants to have creatures to share his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ with. He wants to have fellowship with us in the light.
Today's coming when we're going to spend forever with God, enjoying the Lord Jesus.
Who dwells in the bosom of his heart, and will be our eternal joy as well.
We'll never get tired of it. But is it also God would say to us, we don't have to wait till you get to heaven.
We're not talking about something that you've got to wait for.
You can, you and I God, and you can enjoy together fellowship in light with the sun.
It tells us in first John chapter 2.
He that hath this hope in him.
That is the hope of being with and like the Lord Jesus.
Purify himself even as he is pure, that is, if the heart is constrained by the love of Christ, as we had in the same last night.
This is the apostle Paul said for himself, I want Christ.
And anything that contributes to my knowing him, I want it. And anything that would keep me from knowing him, I'm not interested in it.
So we make choices.
Some choices we have, some are made for us, but everyone of us has a certain amount of time every day that isn't claimed by specific responsibilities.
Do we share it with God in fellowship? Do we enjoy what God enjoys?
Our thoughts, our hearts, our intent? Or do we escape from the pressures of light somewhere else?
In our thought life, in our high life, in our foot life.
That is, do we think? Do we see, do we do things that would make us enjoy our fellowship as children of light, children of God, or do we go somewhere else?
So here, he says.
I have no fellowship with the untruthful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
Why was the Lord Jesus?
Rejected by many.
Do people like to be around someone who?
Makes them feel.
A little uncomfortable because their own style of life.
Do we seek out? Someone once said water seeks its own level.
Do we seek out those that would help us to know the Lord Jesus more or do we stick out those that want to do things that we can share together which may not be like.
And do we always like to have the light? Not always, do we? That's why most robberies are committed at night.
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Because if you're going to do something in the darkness and it's wrong, you want to get away with it. Why do we do certain activities? But the Lord Jesus, perfect light in his life, he never had to hide anything. He was an open book. We we would love to see a week of his life in all its detail.
So honoring to God and so blessing to man. But some envy that and some were convicted by it and so they said we don't want.
This man, what was the world doing? Choosing darkness?
And chose naturally chooses darkness over light because it's what he is.
But here we have the privilege.
Of being that, as it says here, for whatsoever death make manifest is light.
God's holiness.
Is an expression that he is liked, and it exposes everything in its true character, doesn't it?
Everything has been consistent with what God is, is exposed and manifested by the light. And so the light of the Lord Jesus perfectly manifests all that God is to us and we thank Him for it and we yearn to be more in the good of it in our lives. OK, let's turn back to again to Genesis chapter one.
Genesis chapter one.
And verse 26.
And God said, let us make man in our image.
After our likeness.
Verse 27 So God created man in his own image.
In the image of God created he him. Now over to 2nd Corinthians chapter 3.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 3.
Verse 12.
Seeing then we have such hope, we have great plainness of speech.
Not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished, but their minds were blinded, for until this day remain at the same veil, unticked away in the reading of the Old Testament, which Vail is done away in Christ.
And even unto this day, when Moses has read, the veil is upon their heart.
Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, but we all with open face beholding.
As in a glass, or the thought is without a veil, we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, we have received mercy. We think not, but have renounced the sitting things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, not handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
But if our gospel is hid, or if our gospel is veiled, it is hid or veiled to them that are lost.
In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel, or the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image, Genesis one of God, should shine unto them.
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants, for Jesus sake. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
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But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the Excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
There's light and there's light.
Scripture shows us that there's different.
Degrees of light are character to light.
Moses.
When he came down off the mountain the second time, not the first time, but that's important. But when he came down off the mountain the second time, his face was shining.
It was shining and the children of it, physically, the children of Israel, couldn't look on it.
And so he had to put a veil over that shining face so that they could he could speak to them and they could be in his presence. When he went into the presence of God again, he took the veil off in God's presence, but in front of man he had to put it on.
But before if we back off, if you go to First Timothy chapter 5, it says.
That God dwelleth.
In light.
That no man has seen, and no man can approach unto it.
No man shall see it. There is in the person of God, and the God had a brilliancy of light that is unrevealed and will never be known by us. God dwells, it says, an unapproachable light in the majesty of His own person.
That puts God in his place and it puts us in ours and we thank him for it. He says I am God.
And you are you. You are my creature, and I'm going to bring you into a brightness of light that will fully satisfy you. But I will always be God, and I will always be an unapproachable light.
We have Moses as an example of light, and it shines in his face. It's the light that was connected with God's majesty and character in the law mixed with grapes in the case of Moses, because when he first came down in the in law alone, there was no shining. But then God expressed his loving kindness to Moses, and when he came down the second time with the tablet, that was already a mixture of grace so that God could go along with his people.
But.
On the amount of transfiguration.
Which is millennial glory. The face of the Lord Jesus physically shines.
Like the sun?
When the apostle Paul was saved.
It describes what he saw as a light above the brightness of the noonday sun.
Lord Jesus says in John 17.
Father I will that they those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory.
I want to connect that with comments made in the first reading meeting by our brother Steve.
In the Father's house.
There are the shining out, shining of glory that we will see in heaven that will not be seen on earth, and it'll be above the brightness of the noonday sun, the millennial glory and the church and its visible glory for the earth coming out of heaven with God in Revelation 21 That some enjoyed last weekend.
Is the brightness of the noonday sun. But brethren, what God is prepared for us?
In the chambers of the Father's house goes even beyond that. It's not fully described yet. Lord says we yell. They're going to have to be there so they can see it. We're not yet in a place, but there are the brilliance and glory.
So can I express it? Let me express it this way. In Revelation, in the foundations of the heavenly city, you have jewels.
Described in Their Beauty.
Suppose we were all the most beautiful jewels were of the world were brought into this room and put in the center of the room, and all the lights were out.
Would we see any brilliance to him?
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Would we Dave, turn the lights out? No. You have to have lights or a jewel shows nothing.
The the glories that we think of are like jewels in that they're the outshining of that which starts with the source of light and God himself and I look at a faces of people that are.
Going to be adorned with the jewels of the glories of Christ and the pull out shining of what God is in his being, in his presence, and it'll be a dazzling display beyond what our present capacity would be to see.
And in heaven far beyond the brightness of the new, of the noonday sun. And we can't even.
See that now, physically, can we? Nobody's going to go outside on a very bright day and look straight at the sun. Nobody dares approach it either. It's unapproachable and it's light and it's just a natural expression of something for us.
In Adam and Eve in the garden, they were created in the image and likeness of God.
But that was marred by sin.
But there's a new creation.
And in that new creation which begins for us with Christ and resurrection and ascension into the glory.
He's the first of the new creation. He's this last atom.
It's a creation in which everyone that participates in it will bear the image of God.
Light, love, holiness, truth, righteousness.
All the attributes of God, those who participate in the denominator, have that life.
Will be.
Displayers of the image of God. But here we see for us there's no veil to hinder us because we have received the life. We're children of light. And so God says you don't have to have a veil in the Lord. Jesus is seen to you and his heavenly glory as he is now, as you may with the eye of faith, not the physical eye, but you may look upon him.
And you may see him.
And the Spirit of God and the word of God as you gazed upon him. I'm doing a work.
To make you like him. And so it says.
We are changed into the same image.
Changed into the same image by the Spirit of the Lord.
God's doing a good work in this room.
It may not be visible except to the eye of faith, but everyone of us at least gets a glimpse of it in each other.
Go look for the failures of your brethren. Look to see the glories of Christ in them.
You'll find it if you look for it. If you focus on it, it's there and it's a better jewel to.
To focus on then, the darkness of the past.
It says in first John chapter 2 That.
The darkness is passing. The true light now shines.
The world, in one sense, is in the night. It is in the night.
But in a wonderful other sense, as John presents it, the.
Darkness is passing and the true light now showing. It is because the true lights now shining in the souls of each that is his own in this room and throughout the world. And as those lights are there in the soul, it makes the darkness tasks.
And it will fully pass out until the millennial day when the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of God, and every man shall know the Lord, and the light will shine on the earth in its earthly glory.
But what does it say here? Just a word?
It's the gospel of the glory or the glorious gospel that it's the gospel of the glory of the Christ. We have a message from God to man.
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There's a man in the very presence of God, of light.
Accepted there.
He was a man who lived here on earth, but he's not here on earth anymore. He's accepted in the presence of God and all the holiness and light that God is. And it's a wonderful message because man can share in it.
By becoming one of his own.
So that he too has that saying destiny and place with God in light.
Satan's at work, verse four. The God of this world at blind, dead, blinded through unbelief.
The minds, and as we had in the previous chapter with Moses, the heart.
God blinds the OR Satan, given an opportunity, will blind the mind and blind the heart.
I deal with blind people every week.
I go where there's quite a few blind people every week, talk to them about the light of God and.
Very often.
All the logic in the world, all the words, all the conviction that the human.
Might bring to bear on such a person that does nothing without the work of God. It's the Spirit of God that works in them.
To awaken, to take away the blindness.
To off the veil, off the heart, and that's what we pray when we have the gospel that God would do that work in souls. So it says we we preach Christ, but what is it for us, the light.
In Genesis one, God spoke and there was light.
Brethren, God spoke to you and there's light in your heart. Same power. Genesis 1 spoke.
To you individually and personally, and the result of that speaking, there's light.
In your heart, and it's the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.
And is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.
There's the glory of his person.
There's the glory of.
Redemption.
We look upon his face on the Lord's Day morning by faith.
And we see the glory of God displayed in Redemption's work.
Greater glory than creation glory. We see that glory which is inherent in His person. We see that glory which is in Him as a man.
We look forward to seeing him in his millennial earthly reign of glory.
And all of them are available to us to look upon and enjoy and have in us as a treasure.
A treasure for our lives now, and a treasure that will we can take to heaven with us.
You know, there are lots of things that are called treasures that won't go to heaven.
But this is a treasure that will leave the earth.
And go to heaven and we can treasure it up to our souls now and our lives.
If we're just occupy with him, if we just allow that constraining love to draw us so that we would stand with the apostle Paul and say for me to live is Christ.
Let's pray.
Our God, our Father would just ask that, as we did in the beginning, Please bless. Please speak to us by the power of the Spirit into our hearts.
And our thoughts to.
That we might more fully enjoy and enter into the glory that thou hast displayed to us in the person of thy Son, that it might be the more the controlling.
Power of occupation and joy of our lives we thank the our God that while we once were afraid and feared and hid, we can now joy in the.
And have fellowship with the and of the same interests now and forever. We just bless the our God for loving us in this way and doing the work for us through thyself, Lord Jesus and Thy precious name, Amen.
Revelation 4:10-11
Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch
Gospel—Norm Hiebert
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Would extend the very warm welcome to everybody here tonight. Some of you have been invited to come in and we're glad you came in. And we trust that what we have to say to you will encourage your hearts. And if you're not saved, I trust it will swipe your hearts, as you may realize.
What we're talking about We're going to introduce you to the Lord Jesus Christ. Can we begin our gospel meeting this evening by singing hymn #32? What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Sing Sorry, old precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know nothing but the blood of Jesus. Can we stand please, and sing #32 What can watch?
No one can make sure anything.
Oh.
So we prayed. Blessed God, our loving Father, we thank thee for that precious blood of Jesus of which we have been singing. We thank thee this night, our God and Father, for the Lord Jesus Christ who came into this world to to die on that cross of Calvary, the Savior of sinners. And we thank you for each one of this room, Lord Jesus, that knows thee as Savior. But thou knowest whether there are any in this room that are still not saved.
Tonight we just beseech me, we cry to thee that they remain. Turn to Thee, Lord Jesus, as that one who can save. We commit thy word to thee. We pray that the vessel may be a channel for myself, a clean channel, a channel that would reach into the hearts of each one of us.
We ask it, Lord Jesus, in my blessed and precious name, Amen.
Can you turn with me please?
To Acts Chapter 8 Acts.
Chapter 8 Matthew, Mark, Luke, John Acts Acts Chapter 8 beginning at the second line of the first verse. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem.
00:05:07
And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.
Accept the apostles and devote men carried Stephen to his burial.
And made great lamentations over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and hailing men and women, committed them to prison. Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.
Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them, Verse 8.
And there was great joy in that city. Verse 26.
And the Angel the Lord spake of the Philip saying, Arise, and go toward the South, onto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went, and behold a man of Ethiopia. And you look of great authorities under Candace, queen of The Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem.
To worship was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip renfitter to him, and heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and said, Understand the style what thou readest. And he said, How can I accept some man should guide me?
And he desired Phillips, that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the Scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb dumb before his shears, so opened he not his mouth.
In his humiliation his judgment was taken away. And who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, I pray thee. Of whom speaketh the prophets this of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.
And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water, and the eunuch said, see, here is water. What does hinder me to be baptized?
Then go on to the 38th verse. And he commanded that chariot to stand still.
And they went both down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away. Philip and the eunuch saw him no more. He went on his way rejoicing back to verse 37, middle of the verse. And he answered and said, I believe. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
I was pondering the portion that we should consider tonight. I was thinking about many of the things that were said in the reading meetings earlier today. And I thought too, as I read that first verse the of Acts 8, that here we're reading something that happened maybe 30 some odd years after the Lord Jesus left this scene or somewhere around there. And the words that that that impressed me were persecution.
Scattering, murder, destruction, ruin and funerals.
Isn't that what we see in this world today? You don't have to go very far before you see all those things spread out. You all know about it, and I don't have to explain what each of those means. But what I would like to ask you what does it mean to you personally?
Are you taken up with that kind of thing? Is that the thing that's troubling you? Are your thoughts absorbed by that beloved young people?
Want to say at the start of this gospel, meaning I talked to a lot of you here in the last day.
My heart goes out to you, I love you.
And I've shed a few tears for you because there's some here this evening who are not saved.
00:10:02
You know, whether you're saved, I don't. The Lord knows. And tonight I want you to listen carefully as we consider this Here we are talking about things that are happening. But you know, there's something very beautiful here too. In the fifth verse it says.
Sorry, back your fifth verse. Then Philip went down to the city of Samara, Samaria, and preached Christ unto them, and the people with one accord gave heed.
Under those things which Phillips fake hearing and seeing the miracles which he did, oh, this was a wonderful thing. Things were happening. Tariff was out there presenting the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't introduce himself as Philip. I'm a great man. I'm an evangelist. No, he just went out there and he spoke about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, you know.
Phillip was a busy man.
He enjoyed what he was doing and he did it in the power.
Of the Holy Spirit.
Digital. Sometimes the Lord intervenes, even for those who have been given the responsibility to preach to big groups. We have a big group here tonight. It's a privilege to speak to you, but you know something, it's even more important that you individually understand the word of God. Here we have.
An instruction in verse 26.
And the Angel of the Lord spake to Philip. Oh, you know, for those of us who love to preach.
About our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we better have our ears tuned because if we speak at our own power, we may miss the point. We may miss one of your beloved young people or older ones here this evening who know not the Lord Jesus as Savior. We may miss one or two or some of you who have put on a front and you pretend to be Christians. Young people, this is a reality. This is the thing that's happening. There are some that are just putting on a little show.
If I speak too tough, I'm sorry in a way. But if it speaks to your heart, I'm glad. Tonight you have to face that reality. Here he was an Angel told him to go South.
Go South.
But did he argue? He spent the Lord. We got such a lovely conference here. I don't want to go South. I don't want to go. I want to stay right here because I'm enjoying all these people, is speaking to them.
He didn't argue, it just tells us he went.
He went S not to Florida, not Hawaii.
But to Gaza, would you like to go to Gaza today? I don't.
That's not a very safe place to go. You went to Gaza. This world is not a safe place, my friend, unless you have put your confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, many years ago, I was about six or seven years of age. I was saved. I had an aunt, a faithful aunt who was babysitting us, and she was telling the story of Daniel Three Cents. I was scared because I had visions of what it would be like to be cast into a furnace.
But you know, the Lord spoke to my heart, and I was saved.
Now, do you know when you were saved? Maybe you don't. That isn't essential.
But you know something, you gotta know that you are saved. I've spoken to people to say, well, I, I, I hope so. I think so. But you know, we should know. So in first John, we have a verse that I always like to refer to.
And first John chapter.
Five and verse 13 it says these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know, KNOW that you may know.
That you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. There it is. That's not my word. I didn't write this. This is God's word that you can know. God's word tells us that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That means everyone in this room, young and old alike. I sinned many times.
But you know, the Lord Jesus Christ save me, and I am eternally secure. Nobody can take that away from me. So here was someone who listened to the Lord. Oh, for those of us who are Savior, are we listening to the Lord?
00:15:02
You may have something for us.
He may ask you, he may want you to just be a friend to somebody, just to be friendly to them, to talk to them.
Watch the periphery of the groups here. Dangerous if we don't, because sometimes problems happen.
While he obeyed, he went to Gaza.
Maybe it wasn't as dangerous in those days as it is now, but he went.
And it tells us in that 20 go back to Acts in the 27th verse. And he arose and went, and behold a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority, under Candace, queen of The Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasures, and had come to Jerusalem for the worship.
Was that a coincidence? No. Phillip knew that there was going to be something there for him to do. He didn't know who it was.
But there was somebody there that needed to be told about the Lord Jesus Christ and he went out there and he did something very interesting. You know that man's name isn't given in Scripture. He was a no name man.
The good that the Lord doesn't put always put the names in that way we can put our own name in there.
He went to this man and he was the finance minister.
He was a finance minister. Our finance minister here in this country is Mr. That doesn't matter.
Doesn't matter. He's just so sassy. Finances. But Can you imagine what you know? Just just picture this. Here he is going across the desert and he sees this entourage. I don't think he was by himself and driving the coach himself. I think he had an entourage of people around him because he was very important to Candace the Queen.
In Ethiopia and here he was at.
He was told to go near to him and listen. What a peculiar thing that is, to go nearer to this man. Can you imagine running up to the limousine of the President of the United States and knocking on this Windows 8 or to the Prime Minister here in Canada, knocking on his window? You'll be down on your back in seconds.
The security would be so tight. We don't hear anything about any security. And if it was, they didn't interfere. Why? Because the Lord had sent him to do a job.
Then in verse 28.
He was returning and sitting in his chariot and reading a book.
Reading a book.
We've read a book today. We read quite a bit of that book today. I couldn't begin to remember all the verses we read, but we read a good book today. We learned something I did. I learned something very important. How wonderful it is for the servants of God to come and tell us about what this book has for us.
It tells us in this book something very important. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
God's Word gives us the solution. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
Saved. Was saved.
Well, first of all, the Bible tells us that we're all sinners. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. A Sinner that is not saved will never enter heaven. You, you, you are you saved?
Brother and sister that are very special to us.
Asked a very simple question of an 87 year old man.
Are you safe? Well, I'm a Goodman. I don't probably don't need that critical question.
Critical question Are you saved? Are you saved?
He was saved.
To the joy of the family members. Then we heard of a 90 year old lady.
Same thing. She was a good lady, didn't need anything.
Are you safe? No, she wasn't.
She was, but she accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as her Savior. 9087 and 90. Then we hear from the little work going on.
00:20:02
In E Michigan, the brother phone, he said six people were saved for Shiro. Isn't that wonderful?
You know, just before we came in here.
Some of us were in a room there and the prayers that were set up to the Lord brought tears to my eyes.
There was a cry to the Lord that there was, there was someone here that wasn't saved, that they might turn to the Lord Jesus Christ now, before it is delayed because God's Word tells us, behold, now is the day of salvation. Now is the right time.
What does the Lord say in his word? Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Do you think you can sneak through another way?
No, if you aren't saved before you die, or if you aren't saved before the Lord Jesus Christ comes, he's going to have to say to you, depart from me. He workers of iniquity. I never knew you. I never knew you. Simple as that.
Yeah, but isn't your God of love? Indeed he is. He is a God of love. He loves you so much if he didn't love you.
If he didn't love you, he would have taken all his own home and left you to die. And so tonight I challenge you to ask yourself each one, Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? Are you born again?
That makes a difference. You know some of argued that the reason the reason that Cain was bad and the other was was good is is not clear.
It must come in their DNA.
But you know, if I can use that application, I believe that we find an able a new person.
I'm going to stretch signs a bit tonight at a new DNA. That's what the Lord will do for you. He'll change you if you accept Him as His Savior. How do you do that? You have to admit that you are a lost Sinner, that you deserve nothing.
You deserve nothing but a lost eternity. You know you get some real encouraging things. As you know. I do a daily ministry called Gems from my reading.
A year or two ago I had a beautiful, beautiful e-mail. Very touching.
And this person said to me, you'll never believe where I'm reading this gem. I'm in a foxhole. There's shooting going on up there. There are bombs going off. And on my little electronic device, I picked up your gym that somebody kindly forwarded to me. You don't know who I am. I mean, never meet you, but I'll meet you in glory.
Never heard from him again. There was number name on there. Wonderful. The Lord has a way.
Of getting his word even in a foxhole.
When he ran into the chariot and he said to him, do you know what you're reading? Again? I say, Can you imagine asking the president, United States, the Prime Minister, Cassie, what are you reading there? Do you know what you're reading?
Let's not try to answer that, but but this man had a good answer. This eunuch had an ideal answer, understands that what's our readers And he said, how can I except some man should guide me.
We're telling you tonight, we're telling you tonight, number one, you're a Sinner #2 you have no access into heaven #3 You can have access into heaven by simply acknowledging that you're a lost Sinner.
And that you need the Lord Jesus Christ to save you. He will save you, you will see. You know, I remember one time.
Told the story before.
My father-in-law, Tom Deere.
Many years ago we were visiting and he took his suit to the dry cleaners.
When the suit came back, there was a note pinned on his lapel. Looked at the note, he gave it to me.
And here it was, a note from one of my children.
I want Jesus to wash all of my sins away. An appropriate note to accidentally land up in a dry cleaning establishment.
It's that simple. It's that simple.
Tell the Lord Jesus Christ that you're a Sinner and don't wait till the end of this meeting because time is of the essence. Now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. So then we find and very interesting thing. Not only did he get by the security, not only did he get by the embarrassment of knocking on the on the window, if that's what he had in his chariot, but he was invited to come up and sit down with him. Well, now that's that's really something was was he intimidated by that? I think I might be.
00:25:28
I might be. It'd be kind of nice to be able to do that. You know, our Prime Minister is a Christian.
I read a story how he was saved.
But my prayer for him is that he will not compromise, that he will not compromise his Christianity. So we can pray for him. We pray for all those in power and authority. It's a wonderful thing to know that there are those in power and authority that are Christians while they came up and it says.
They're in verse 32. The place of the scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb, dumb before his sheep.
So open he not his mouth.
In his humiliation his judgment was taken away, And who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this of himself, or some other man?
If you have been here this past day and yesterday.
You know who the Lord Jesus Christ is and all that He is, the Savior of sinners.
I wonder if I can borrow somebody for a glass of water. He is the Savior of sinners.
And the Lord Jesus Christ knows what you need tonight.
This is really serious stuff.
You know, I said that. Say that to Mike Justice. He has my kid. This is serious, guys. This is serious stuff. Thank you very much.
But tonight he wanted to know who this was. He read from Isaiah, the Old Testament.
This was many, many years before the Lord Jesus Christ was born. Can you imagine going back to Isaiah and it tells us how the Lord Jesus, it forecasts it. Well, these fellows got sat down and they began to talk. What do you think? You talked about the weather. That's a favorite subject. No, to talk about politics and other favorite subject of some of us. And I'm not proud of that either. Gas prices. Oh, that's a that's a very difficult thing.
The stock market.
No, no, no, to all of them. They didn't talk about that. They didn't talk about that at all.
This man had come from Ethiopia to Jerusalem.
And he was.
Sad. He was very sad because all he found there was.
Coldness. Formality. No answers, Disappointment.
Disillusionment.
And he was going back.
Said tonight if you leave this building.
Sad because you don't know Jesus as your savior? You may not have another chance.
You may not have another chance. Think about it. He gives us a chance now.
God speaketh once, yet twice, yet man perceiveth it not he that being often reproved hardness, his neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.
Well, you know, allow me to stretch this a little bit and apply it to the gospel.
Philip preached unto him.
Christ, it was an individual thing.
You spoke directly to this bank. What did he tell him?
What do I tell you about accepting Jesus as Savior? In First Timothy One and 15, we read Christ Jesus came into the world.
To save centers, we talked about that this meeting.
In the beginning, God.
In the beginning, God.
1St 4 words of the Bible.
We talked about God. We have to do that because if you don't believe in God, what are you going to do If you don't believe in God and as you continue in that pathway and you should die your sins, It's a terrible, terrible situation.
00:30:14
You know, I had a we had a man in our office when I lived, worked out West, who was an excellent businessman.
And he and I were sitting together in his office. We were had a major, major problem. And he, well, I could tell he was very upset about it.
I told you the story before.
Please bear with me.
And we had to face some pretty critical things. Lunchtime came out and around and the two of us decided to go out for lunch. And as we went out of the office here where the television cameras trained on us and I won't even go into the explanation of what happened. So this man went one way and I went the other. We had lunch, came back, we came back. His car was parked a bunch of his office. He wasn't there, wasn't there. What I'm looking for him, couldn't find him.
Finally asking me, where is this man? Where's Ralph? That's his name is Ralph.
I don't know, let's start looking. Went to another office and I went around the desk. There he was.
On the floor, dead. Dead.
You know what he said to me? The last words I heard him say to me.
Norm, what more can we do?
What more can we do?
Ralph told me one time, he said, Norm, if you're going to have, if you're going to have a gospel meeting, don't have it on my office.
Well, it took him away. He was gone too late. I don't know whether he was saved or not. I didn't think he was. But you know, at the funeral I met his mother, a dear, dear, lovely woman, and she said, you know, well, he was a little boy.
You were the Sunday school to a little hall, Sunday school hall regularly.
I pray to God.
That there was life there, but you know, his actions didn't prove it. He was a good living man, but there he was a worldly man. His actions didn't prove it. A young man said to me one time, oh, I'm saved. I'm saved. I can never be lost. I said, well then how come there's no fruits?
By their fruits ye shall know them, young people.
Is what you're doing a fruit that shows that you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ?
I ask you that question, are there fruits? Can the person sitting beside you see that there's something different about you? By their fruits, you shall know them.
You know, about a year or so ago.
Our neighbor by the name of Dave, who walks his lovely collie dog by our place, came over and he said, Norm, my wife just died. I said, oh, David, Sarah, he said, yeah, and his he said her mom and dad died just a few months before. It was about a week or two apart.
No relatives on her side of the family. I said, Dave, what about your site? Said none.
He said Norm could you do something for me? I said sure, anything I can do for you all will do. We've had them in for a cup of tea and he reached in his pockets and pulled out two pictures. He says he's the only two pictures I have of my wife. Do you think you could take them and enhance them so that I have some memory? I said sure I think we can do something for you. So anyway time went on and my neighbor next door hit by the name of Chris drove his truck by our place and I hate I waved and dancing. Chris did you know that Dave's wife died?
Oh, that's terrible. It's terrible, I said, you know, that's why it's so important to be ready. I could hear him slip his truck into gear, start moving forward. And he said once the paperwork is done, it's all over.
That's all he thought of it. That's not the end of the story.
That's not the end of the story.
Dave came back to me about two or three weeks later and he said, you know, Norm, I'm not a religious man, but you, don't you, you're sending these papers out to me every week. The gems. I said, what? He said I get these every week. It's very nice, but you know, I'm a religious man. I said, Dave, I want to tell you something right now. I did not design that. I don't know how that happened. I don't know how that happened. I think I do. I think the Lord allowed it. He said I enjoyed it.
00:35:15
Well, you know the Lord works in such wonderful ways. Now tonight, my friend, you may never have heard the gospel message from this portion. Maybe it will speak to you. So anyway, what do they talk about? They talked about Christ Jesus coming into the world.
And Phillip was quite capable of doing that. He had done it to a large audience. He was speaking to one man now.
What else do you think they talked about? Well, he came into this world.
And then we read in the gospels that unto you is born this day a Savior, which is Christ, the Lord Jesus.
Came into this world as a baby in a Manger. He was God in the flesh. He was perfect in every way. He could not fail, He could not sin. He never will sin. He was, he was perfect. He came into this world and for 30 years, 30 years. So we didn't see much of him. And then he ministered for three years.
Oh, this holy, perfect, spotless one came into this world and did nothing but good. He healed the sick. He caused the blind to see. He comforted the the fatherless and the widows and the orphans. He did only good. He couldn't do anything else but good.
But you know, man did not want him. If you were to read the first part of this, we find that a man by the name of Saul hated the name of Jesus. He was a vehement man. We're not going to talk about him very much.
But you know, man today does not like the name of Jesus. Jesus came into this world.
Then another thing they talked about. They talked about how man treated the Lord Jesus.
How they took him in the garden and bound him and led him away.
To judge him, how they beat him about the head with a rod, put a crown of thorns on his head.
They scourged his back, They spit upon him. That's the Lord Jesus, the perfect man.
How could they do that? How could they do that? If you take the time to read the gospels, you'll find that the feet there were two things, one on either side. One thief said to the the both of them said the same thing. They rejected him and one changed his mind. He said to Jesus on the cross.
Remember Me when thou comest into thy Kingdom, Jesus said. Today. Shalt thou be with me in paradise today.
To date.
Someone was said when I asked whether he wanted to be saved, he said well I can wait, this is last time I have time to do it. Look at the thief.
The answer was which thief? Which thief?
That is the question to you. Where are you putting your allegiance? Where are you putting your confidence?
In your skills.
In your career and your money.
All those things, they have a way of disappearing.
You need to put your confidence in your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know the Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross. He was raised between heaven and earth.
Terrible suffering.
The Roman way of causing suffering was to crucify somebody.
The Lord Jesus hung there on the cross.
That one thief turned to him and he said today, and you know, again I say, as I said earlier today, you can be saved.
Right where you're sitting, it would be wrong for me to say to wait because I don't know when he's going to come. And you know, that's another thing I believe that they might have talked about.
First of all, they buried him.
Buried the Lord Jesus, they put a watch on there. They put a seal on the on the grade. They had guards around it just so that they wouldn't steal his body and say that he had risen. But you know.
We sing in Sunday school. Our God is so great, so strong and so mighty. There's nothing our God cannot do.
00:40:01
The Lord Jesus rose from the dead.
Those as friends who loved him went to the grave.
They were told he is not here, he is risen. You know, people are celebrating what they call Easter. When Lois and I were leaving the house yesterday, this fellow Chris and the neighbor across the street who is Roman Catholic.
Chris said to me, I'll see you in church. This is the man who put his his truck in gear and went away. Now I don't know whether he was mocking. I kind of think he might have been.
But you know.
The conscience is working. Oh, if there's someone here that's not saved, please don't wait any longer.
Please don't wait any longer. I don't know how many more times I can repeat that, but you know, I don't think that Phillip had to say that to this man.
The preached Christ to him.
You know, I have some grandchildren who like to play hockey.
And one day I was watching him play, watching him play and afterwards was a bit of a noise and I said how can you hear anything with that equipment over your ears?
He said, well, I don't listen to anything.
With my daddy's voice.
Are you going to listen to the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ tonight? There's going to be a lot of noise. And when we close this meeting, there'll be noise in here. You're going to be distracted. If you hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to you, react now and say, yes, Lord Jesus, I'm a Sinner. I need to be saved. I need to be saved. In this great country of Canada, we're allowed to gather like this. We're allowed to preach the gospel.
How long will that last?
How long will that last? May not last too much longer.
And then I believe he said something else to this Ethiopian. Let me just read it. I'm adding something to this, but you'll forgive me because I think it's so beautiful. In Acts chapter one, it says. And while they looked steadfastly verse 10 toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel.
Which also said, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? The same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall soul come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven. That's a message to you. Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus ascended into heaven. There were witnesses of those that saw him go to heaven. And the message was he's coming again. The Lord Jesus is coming again soon. I don't know when It could be before this meeting is over. And if that's the case and you're not saved, you'd be too late.
Ever too late. If you reject the Lord Jesus Christ of dying your sins, you're not going to have a second chance.
But now you still can make a choice. You can still make a choice.
We read in John, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.
'Cause Word tells us, For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Young people.
I feel a burden for you.
You guys and the girls are going skating and playing hockey in a few minutes.
Hockey is a rough game.
I don't want to scare you unnecessarily, but if you don't want to listen.
To the message of the gospel. The Lord may have to teach you in some other way.
I know our time is gone, but I need to tell you one more story I remember a few years ago.
Some of us from the different assemblies work together playing hockey. And the goal was scored on a fellow and he slammed the stick on the ground and I thought, oh, this isn't good.
00:45:02
I must go and talk to him.
When I was when we were finished, he was impaired. Next day he was an eternity. He took his life.
I wasn't diligent enough to follow through and go and talk to him. He was a Christian.
Talked to him many times. He was a Christian. He loved the Lord. He's now an eternity. Now I want you young people.
To watch your friends, those of you who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, observe you, sitting around you. Maybe somebody has a question.
I'd sure certainly glad to talk to anybody who has a question. If you're not saved, it's a very, very important thing. By their fruits, you shall know them well. The the.
The gospel message may stop tonight. Your thought of that. This may be the last gossiping. We will never all be together like this again.
Individuals maybe if the Lord leaves us here, but I doubt we'll all the same people leave together. Some will be missing.
Some will be missing.
One more verse.
That tells us here.
The unit went on his way.
Rejoices the unit what honors way rejoicing Oh Happy Day that fixed my choice on be my Savior and my God. Well may this growing heart rejoice and tell its raptures. Albright happy day happy day. When Jesus washed my sins away. He taught me how to watch and pray and live. Rejoicing every day happy day happy day when Jesus washed my sins away. It is done, the great transactions done. I am my Lords and he is mine. He drew me.
And I followed on, glad to confess the one divide. I think if this song was known, then that's the one the unit would want to sing. Oh Happy Day, Oh Happy Day. All that sorrow the the terrible things he had seen.
Vanquished forever, put away, and he was going back to his job, a new man born again. Let's sing the last verse of #5.
The last verse number verse 5, verse three rather and the course now.
Right. Listen, God, our loving Father, we thank Thee for the Gospel message.
We thank thee, our God and Father, that thy word tells us so clearly, that thou art not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. We thank you for the verse which tells us, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not.
We thank you Lord Jesus that Thy word tells us, Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Our God and Father bless thy word that would thou confuse in the hearts of each one of us for encouragement and for any non saved or Father, we just cry to the earthly that thou will speak to them that they may not continue to put on an act upfront, but that they may just.
Confess to thee that they're sinners, that they need thee as Savior.
God and Father, we commit thy word to thee and thank Thee and my blessed and precious name. Amen. Now the noise level is going to go up.
And it always is sad for me when I see that because there may be some that are really concerned here about their salvation. Please, let's all be very much in prayer, quiet prayer, and just look around. Thank you, appreciate your attention.
Who Is Your Guide?
Children—Bernie Roossinck
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, everybody.
You guys hear me? OK. All right. Good morning. Good morning, kids. There's lots of room up here and I really love kids. I got 4 girls.
So don't be shy, I don't mind. And you'll have to forgive me if I can't remember your all of your names, but we're going to swing some this morning off these hymn seats and there's some real nice ones on the back. So who would like to be first?
Rachel.
OK, number one, that's OK if you pick on the front two. Number one, my dad had this painted on the back of our camper when I was a kid.
Number one.
Almost first way.
In our soul and soldiers.
OK, who wants to be next? Yes, Sir #38 #38 thank you.
Okay #38.
I know, that's why.
I'm getting all no other life.
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There's lots more room up here, kids said. Don't be scared. Yes Sir, Number six.
All right, you know, I think to so we can have more songs. Let's sing the 1St and the last verses. Is that OK with you?
OK, so now let's sing together number six.
God in mercy.
OK, now it's a girls turn. Mary Ann.
OK, very saying #1 how about one off the Backpage?
44 OK.
Into it. That's a good one. This one reminds me of the Gospel parent.
Where's regs? They remind you of the gospel time, doesn't it? We used to sing this.
Hundreds and maybe thousands of times into a tent #44.
Into.
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Alex.
25.
OK, we'll sing the 1St and the last verse. Is that OK, Alex?
All right #25.
Life.
Let's have one more so we give it to a girl.
What would you like?
OK, you want #3 what did you want?
18 And then, well, we can do two more. We'll do #3 that sounds good.
We'll sing the first and last one of verse of #3 and then you wanted #18 right, Okay.
They already sang that one. Can we you sing 18? Go ahead. And Mercy sent us out. Different one. Same theme though. We'll do three and then we'll do 18. And after that I'm going to ask about the memory verse.
So let's see the first and last person #3.
By Hope.
You know, when I was a kid, Mr. Nolan was my Sunday school teacher. Remember that Derek? And Derek took his fishing trail, fishing at a place called Wild Coat Ponds. And to get there, he had to walk through what we call the Newfoundland of Bog. And I got off the trail.
00:15:05
It wasn't very long. I was up to my waist and mud.
And Derrick had to come and pull me out of the mud.
Sinking sails, But kids, the Lord Jesus is a rock.
And when our feet are, when our souls are trusting by faith in the Lord Jesus, we're on the rock.
And there's no sinking in that, is there? About none. OK, now we're going to sing #18 We'll sing the first and last of this one, too.
#18.
God loved the world.
I think it's going to work.
Bill, can you help me out?
OK.
Let's put our hen seats down for a while.
Sir, we all know this book that I have in my hand.
The precious word of God, before we open it, let's just bow our heads together and ask the Lord self, shall we?
Our loving God and Father.
We thank Thee this morning for all of Thy love and grace and mercy to us.
We thank the Father especially for sending Thy Son, the Lord Jesus, into this world to be our Savior.
We thank the Lord Jesus for going to the cross.
And laying down by a life.
So that our sins could be washed away in thy blood.
Now, Lord, we ask for help this morning. We ask that you would bless each of these boys and girls.
And that they would know and love thee, Lord Jesus as their Savior.
We ask for help this morning in Jesus name, Amen.
OK did anybody happen to memorize last weeks verse?
It's kind of a good I better make sure that I know what it is.
All right. When you guys want to say it.
00:20:03
Would you like to see it? Would you like to say it for everybody? OK, talk right into this.
Luke 817 Nothing is secret that should not be made manifest, neither anything that shall not be known. Luke 817 Well done. Excellent. Would you like to do it? Yes.
17 nothing is secret that's from ultimate manifest neither anything hid that from optimal. Great summit team. Well done. Thank you boys. Anybody else like to try it?
That's okay because we have a limited amount of time anyway.
So nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest.
You know when I was a kid once.
My dad told us there were some rules and Reg and I thought, well, as long as he didn't know about it, it wouldn't matter. So we set up a station in our attic.
To do something secret.
But it was really disobedient.
And in the course of that project, a light bulb was installed.
That happened to be touching the rafters of the.
Eric And before long the smoke began to roll and the secret was out.
And we got in big trouble. That wasn't right. But you know the Lord's, the Lord knows everything, and it says the eyes of the Lord.
Are in every place beholding the evil and the good, so we can't hide from God. Then it also says he who formed the eye. And who is that Alex who formed the eye?
The Lord God did he who formed the eye, shall he not see? He does, doesn't he? He does.
Well, I have something here with me. What is this right here, kids?
That's assignment.
Don't know.
What do you think, Marianne? What's this? Nope, it's not a phone. Cameron. What is it?
Nope, it's not an iPod. What do you think of this? It's a GPS.
Is that what you were going to say? It is. Now why do I have this in my pocket?
What do you think?
So I know where to go.
Yeah, you think that this thing could think if I had this in my pocket, I I could get lost.
No, you know, I believe that too for a while.
So I travel some and.
I work in agriculture so I'm usually off the main drag and I noticed when I was in Wisconsin that.
The road means not only don't they have names, they're just letters like XYZ but every time he tains townships they change the name. So they would say well I want you to go to a 2-4.
But in between that it was about six other names, so.
So I decided I needed to have this and.
Before I talk about this are one other thing.
If this is a good guide.
What do you think? This guide us to where we want to go.
Alex, is this a good guy sometimes? OK, does any of you kids have your Bibles with you?
Hey somebody want to read a verse in Jeremiah chapter 3 for me?
I love this verse.
And if you don't have this underlined in your Bible, I suggest that it would be a good thing to do.
OK, Jeremiah chapter 3 and if you could read verse four for me, could you do that?
Broke down a lot from this time. Cry unto me, my father. Thou art the God of my youth. Thank you.
Will fail not cry unto me at this time, my father.
Thou art the guide of my youth. You know, when you're young, you need a guy, don't you? But when you're older, you need a guide even more. I found out. Am finding out.
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And what a good desire, what a good thing to ask the Lord, Will thou not cry unto me from this time? My father, thou art the guide of my youth.
You know the Lord has a plan, a path for your life.
The Lord has a desire for your life, that you would be fruitful, that you would know Him and boys and girls never seem like you're. You wish you could be older. You ever think that?
Yeah, I used to think that, and now that I'm older, I wish that I could be young again.
And I am sort of young, but I but I remember when I was six or 754.
I want to behold again.
You know the Lord.
Wants to bless your life. He wants to be the guide of your life. Did you know that, Simon? But the Lord has a plan for you. He does.
SO wants to be your guide, you know.
Many years ago now at a conference like this.
A brother named Kim Wilkin was preaching the gospel.
And you know what happened that night?
I got a six or seven. You know what happened that night, Rachel?
The Lord spoke to my heart.
Probably some in this room that we're probably in that gospel meeting in Sackville, NB.
The Lord spoke to my heart and I got saved at a conference just like this.
And you know, the Lord has been my guide since that day. It's probably been 30.
30 some years ago now.
And a memory exactly how old I was.
So to you moms and dads too, I know it's a lot of work to bring your kids to a conference, but do it.
I met the Savior.
At a conference like this, and if you asked my mother the night of that conference, he probably would have thought, I can't wait to get home, but it was worth it. Now let's go back to this guide.
You know, last year we went to Lawrenceville conference and I mentioned to you guys that I work in farming and I like tractors and I like land.
And Barnes, I really like being on the freeway, so I knew that this little thing here.
And our family, she's called Matilda because of the little voice that if I I knew very well how to get from the hotel to the conference on the freeway. But it was springtime and I wanted to see, I don't know if Sam Buchanan's in here or not.
I wanted to see.
Tractors and stuff, big stuff. Maybe that's just the boy that I am. So I said, I told my wife, well, if we just go off this other way and Matilda will recalculate, we'll get there just fine. So, and we went. It was good.
We went by tractors and we went by Barnes and Fields and after a while the road started to get a little bit narrower, but Matilda said you're still on the right path.
So I was. My wife wasn't quite so sure, but I was.
I was sure you know the way seems right and tells us in the word of God there is a way that seemeth right to a man or a woman or a boy or girl, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
It seems right though.
Actually the path that I'm on right now is. It seems right.
But you know what kids? This is our guide. This is our guide the the Word of God.
So we carried on and I followed Matilda.
And pretty soon the road went from 2 lanes to one lane. But I was used to that because I am always on agricultural pathways.
00:30:03
But I knew I had to get across the river and pretty soon we came out to the Wabash Cannonball Bridge. Everybody heard of that.
OK, well that bridge is about the width of this aisle way.
And last spring, the rivers were flooded. And there's a little short.
Wooden rail and just railway ties and two wooden planks down the middle.
But it didn't say not to go and Matilda said this is the right way, so we did.
Yeah, I looked over the side of the bridge and the river was muddy and it was wide and it was swollen. And I I told the kids that I halfway expect to see an alligator pop up here in a minute when we got to the other side. And then we were in Saint Francisville, which I knew was on the way to the meeting room.
To the conference. So I thought, well, this is great. And then we had to stop and pay a $1.00 toll to a guy in a little shack.
But I thought, well, that was fun.
So up the hill into St. Francisville we went.
Then it was black top again. I thought, well that worked out fine.
And then we went down the hill on the other side of Saint Francisville.
And the road turned into third again, which didn't bother me.
Because the way seemed right, didn't it always?
And my guide said, Yep, you're right on the money.
And after a while, the road turned into an irrigation pivot track.
But the GPS said it will continue past this and then you'll come up by the Elville Elementary Center. And I was sure that that road would go through so and I worked.
And presently we came to a mud puddle about from here to those tables over there are bigger.
And that said stop and turn around. And I said, now this has to go through.
So we went.
And after that there was a big tree that is falling across the track.
And you would think that I would stop and turn around, but I didn't.
And then we came down to the Wabash River and it was really muddy and I began to get very concerned that we were there for the rest of the day.
Because we came to a cul-de-sac and a big bunch of bushes and the GPS said go straight.
And there was no way to go straight. The guide was wrong. How could that be? The way seems right though. But it was wrong.
And I tried to, I turned my wife's van around with I just basically I put the hammer down because I told her if we get stuck now we're walking.
And we went back up the hill to Saint Francisville and the whole time, Matilda said, do a U-turn at the next available opportunity.
But I knew that Matilda was no good.
This little guidance system is Matilda.
Does he trust it? Yes. You know, I found out afterwards that Matilda was half right and I was half wrong. But anyway, we got out of there. We got up to the water tower in Saint Francisville. And then I said, now what are we going to do? Because I don't know any other way. And this was my I was relying totally on this. And now I'm lost. And so I, we stopped the lady that was walking the dog and she probably looked at our van and thought, what?
The world have you people been doing? But she kindly told us how to get to the conference, and remarkably, we weren't even late.
Which is remarkable for our family.
But anyway, do you think I learned my lesson from that?
I didn't.
I was so sure that I had to be the Lawrenceville roads that were bad and that Matilda that I decided to trust her on the way home too.
And pretty soon we were in Central IN at another cul-de-sac someplace else. And my wife said, give me that.
But the way seems right, kids, it seems right, but it wasn't right. And I realized afterwards I had it set for the shortest distance and left the best route.
00:35:05
And it was an unpassable seasonal Rd.
It seemed right.
You know kids, the Lord Jesus wants to be your guide, the Lord said in John chapter 15.
I am the way.
What does that mean? One of the ways? What do you think?
Is there you think there's many ways to get to heaven? No one.
So the Lord said, I am the way.
That's a really reliable guide, isn't it? I am the way. That's the word Jesus speaking.
Turn over to Psalm 16 with me.
The very precious.
Fact, even though this has nothing to do with the guy that we just mentioned, kids, the very first verse of this song says this. Preserve me, oh God, for in thee do I put my trust. Can I suggest, kids, that that would be a good thing to start your day with that prayer? Preserve me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust.
When I was thinking of the last verse.
It says Thou will show me the path of life.
That will show me the path of life. I think the Lord is interested in your life.
What do you think, Cameron? Do you think the Lord is interested in? How old are you, Cameron?
And yet the Lord cares about what 9 year old kids care about.
Yeah, you know, the word Jesus was nine months. Yeah.
That's pretty neat to think about, isn't it, Alex? How old are you?
Almost nine. I think the Lord cares about things that Alex cares about.
The word is interested in your life, the Lord wants to bless your life and He'll show you the path of life.
All through your life, from the tiniest kid to the oldest person in this room, the Lord wants to show us the path of life.
Not only the path of life to get to heaven, which is important, vital to know that your feet are on that pathway of faith on the narrow Rd. that leadeth to life.
That's what we had in the gospel meeting last night. Enter in at the straight gate and.
Headquartered exactly while looking it up and we're running out of time, but you see it's essential kids. The board wants to have your heart and that puts your feet in the pathway of faith and service for him and the Lord will show you and you know when you get older there are other decisions that come before you like what should I choose to do for my work and when you get older, maybe who should I get married to or where should I live or any number of things.
And the Lord cares about that, and he'll show you the path of life.
Turn over to.
Some 119.
And this is a well known verse.
Verse 105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
My word is this word of God right here, young people, boys and girls.
The Lord will show you in this book the Word of God.
So way up under my feet, white under my path. Isn't that lovely to think that the Lord has that?
Isn't that beautiful to think of that?
One more in Proverbs chapter 3.
This is a well known verse to many of us too.
Roberts chapter 3 and verse 6.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and He will leave it up to you to find your own way home. Is that what it says?
00:40:01
Is that what it says? No, in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Who could be more reliable than the Savior to direct your path?
It would be nice to be able to say to the Lord, show me Lord. And he does. He does do that. It's right here in his word. And you kids, I know some of you are maybe not up to the age where you're reading well yet, but develop a a habit of opening God's word.
When you're young, because it's worth it. This is the guy. This is not going to set you on the wrong path. This is the guide for many years. When I was a young person, I went to the Bellsouth camp.
And here's this is so and one of the things that was done there every night, we spent 15 minutes with the word of God.
Open.
And it's a habit, boys and girls, that you will never regret.
This is the guy right here. This is the guy, and now we're out of time. Almost.
But I I want to just emphasize one other thing with you kids and that is.
The Lord wants to have your feet in the path of life.
We had in the Gospel meeting last night, the Lord Jesus went to the cross and he gave up his wife. There he is, kids hanging on the cross, God's beloved Son, there he is.
And you know who he was thinking about.
You know who he was thinking about when he was hanging there.
No.
I think he was thinking about you.
You believe in it.
There he is, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus hanging on the cross. And Simon, he was thinking about you, he was thinking about me and each one in this room and the Lord Jesus says.
Open your heart. His blood was shed for you and.
Young people, boys and girls, the most important decision that you're ever going to make.
Is to say yes to the Lord Jesus and to open your heart to Him.
And put your feet in the path of life, real life, eternal life. It's worth it.
Maybe it's a close. I don't think this song is in our seats, but we probably know it. Let's sing together at the hearts door. The saviors waited.
We do that together.
Here we go.
You sing that again.
OK, let's bow our heads in prayer.
Our loving God and Father.
We thank these for being our guide.
We thank thee for thy word.
We thank Thee for giving the Lord Jesus to go to the cross for us.
Lord, Thou knowest the purposes that you have for each one of these young boys and girls.
Oh Father, we pray that their hearts would be open.
00:45:02
To respond and their lives would be fruitful and useful.
In bringing honor and glory to the Lord Jesus.
Our hearts.
Give thanks this morning. We pray that that was blessed thy word.
And we ask it in Jesus name, Amen.
What God is Doing in Us
Priorities
Exercise
Revelation 5:7-on
Christ Came
Gospel—Jim Hyland
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
We'd like to begin The Gospel Meeting this evening with Hymn #10 on the Gospel Hymn sheet.
There is a savior on high in the glory. A savior who suffered on Calvary's tree. A savior is willing to save. Now as ever, his arm is almighty, His love great and free. Hymn #10. Let's stand to sing this and if someone will please start start it.
Let's ask God's help and blessing our blessed God and Father how thankful we are tonight for that Savior of sinners. And we're thankful for each one in this room who has come to know the Lord Jesus as their Savior. We're thankful for that finished work of Calvary, that Precious Blood that has made it all possible. And our hearts rejoice tonight too, to realize that the gospel is going out around this planet in many ways.
00:05:26
By in many places in our God, we pray that there might be much fruit for thy glory wherever the Gospel goes out this day. But now our hearts are particularly burdened as another Gospel meeting has been scheduled for this room. We pray that if there's someone here tonight who still lost and in their sins.
But tonight they might realize their awful condition, that they might realize that they are sinners, but that they might realize too that thou has provided a great savior. So we pray that thy word might have its effect tonight, that it might be as that hammer that breaks the rock in twain, but it might be that sword that pierces. We pray that thou at work mightily in the power of the Spirit tonight. So we ask thy help and blessing. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and for his glory.
Amen.
Like to begin this evening by reading 4 portions of the Word of God. Very familiar portions I might add. The first one is in First Timothy chapter one.
First Timothy chapter one.
Verse 15.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief, and then in John's Gospel, chapter 10.
John's Gospel chapter 10 and verse 10.
The thief cometh not, but for to steal and to kill, and to destroy I am come that they might have life.
And that they might have it more abundantly And then in John 14.
John's Gospel, chapter 14.
And verse 3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also. And one more portion in the Book of Revelation, Revelation, chapter one.
Revelation Chapter one and verse 7.
Behold, he cometh with clouds.
And every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him. And all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.
Even so. Amen. I have it on my heart this evening in presenting the gospel, to speak from these portions which bring before us first of all, the fact that Jesus came into this world. Isn't it a wonderful fact to know that the Lord Jesus came into this world in incarnation? He came as a man. He could say a body Hast Thou prepared me? And we've traced it many times.
To that stable in Bethlehem where the Lord Jesus was born of a virgin, and where later on some shepherds heard the news out on the hillside of Judea and came to see the Lord Jesus born in Bethlehem. Manger to think of the angels looking down into this world.
For the first time, seeing their creator to see him not in power and glory, but come as a babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a Manger, accepting certain limitations in coming into this world in that way. We've traced him growing up. We've seen him as a 12 year old boy sitting in the temple asking questions and how they were all amazed at his understanding and answers.
This is just a little aside, but you know, it's interesting to read that account in Luke, because the Lord Jesus answered the very questions that he himself raised. He was sitting in the midst of the those who should have known the answers to the questions he raised. But you know, he had to say to them later on ye do err not knowing the scriptures. He said to Nicodemus, Art thou a teacher in Israel and knowest not these things? And they certainly didn't recognize him for who he really was.
00:10:08
We've traced his public ministry. We've seen him going about dispensing blessing on every hand. And what a loving pathway it was. As he took young children up in his arms. As he addressed multitudes on the hillside and down by the sea. As he took individuals aside and spent time with them. As he sat weary with his journey and spoke with a woman who came to psych cars well.
Again stayed up one night to answer some questions that Nicodemus had. But we have traced his pathway to, as we sometimes sing a path uncheered by earthly smiles that led only to the cross. Because the Lord Jesus came into this world not simply to live a perfect life, not simply to dispense blessing and healing on every hand, but he came into this world to go to Calvary's cross.
And there to give himself as that great sacrifice for sin, because the wages of sin is death. And there was number other way that blessing could be dispensed for eternity apart from the Lord Jesus going to Calvary cross. And here we find that the Apostle Paul records by inspiration in writing to this young man Timothy This is a faithful saying. You know, the word of God is full of faithful sayings.
But isn't it interesting that there are a few sayings like this that our attention is particularly drawn to, lest we miss the fact that this is a faithful saying? If every saying of God is faithful, how much more, if I can put it this way, a saying that begins with the confirmation, This is a faithful saying, you know, if I look into the this audience tonight.
I realized that most, if not all, have heard the gospel message before. God has been very faithful with you. I have had many opportunities to stand up and present the gospel to audiences where I felt that perhaps most in that audience.
Had never heard a clear gospel before, Perhaps never heard the simple story of Jesus and his love. And it is a tremendous challenge to look into the faces of an audience like that and seek grace from the Lord to present the message simply and clearly.
But sometimes I wonder if it isn't even a greater challenge to look into the faces of those two with whom God has been faithful with for so many years.
What does God have to do tonight to wake you up to your need?
I remember some years ago I was driving across the United States of America.
And I was going through the state of Oklahoma and I was going through Oklahoma City when my transmission went out. The Lord was very merciful and I was able to get to a transmission shop.
And as I entered that shop and approached the counter, I was thankful to see on the counter.
A stack of New Testaments and gospel tracts with a sign free Take one. You know, that made me feel a lot better. It's rather disconcerting to get into a strange city and have car problems. You're always afraid that someone's going to perhaps take advantage of you. And so I was thankful to see these New Testaments and Gospel tracts on the counter. The office door opened and the owner of the shop, as I found out later, came toward me.
And as he crossed the floor, I realized that he had either been born severely handicapped or there had been some incident in his life that had caused him to be the way he was. It was all he could do to cross the floor. His limbs were somewhat twisted, his arms and legs. He spoke with a decided lisp.
And as he came forward, I introduced myself and it became very quickly evident that he was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he said to me, he said, you see this body I have? He said this is what it took for me to come to know Christ as my Savior. This is what it took for God to get my attention. He said. As a boy and as a youth, God spoke to me softly many times.
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He said I grew up in a Christian home. I came to Sunday school. I came to gospel meetings. But I hardened my heart as I got into my teens. I started to run with a bad crowd. I bought a motorcycle. I started to live a wildlife. And he said one night.
Coming home from a drunken brawl, I was in a very serious accident. They never thought I would pull through. But he said, as a result of that accident, it sobered me up. And I came to know the Lord Jesus as my savior. And he said, I thank God every day for these twisted limbs and the pain I deal with on an hourly basis. And I look into your face tonight and I know you've heard the gospel many times. Most of you at least.
And I wonder what God is going to have to use in your life to wake you up. He's speaking softly. His desire is that in the power of the Spirit, He speak in a still small voice. But if you don't listen, God loves you. He's merciful, and He may have to speak very loud. But this is a faithful saying. God is faithful, and this faithful saying tells us very clearly.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, no doubt about it. We stand tonight, and on the authority of God's Word, we present to you the man Christ Jesus.
The one that's we've been saying who went to Calvary's cross? The one who allowed Wicked Man to take him and nail him to a Roman gibbet. Do you realize? As they lifted the hammer that pounded those nails, he gave them the very breath and strength to do it.
As they lifted that cross, and the Lord Jesus hung there as a spectacle for men and angels, He gave them the strength to lift that cross. He gave those the very breath that they used to curse him and revile him as they passed by, and as many sat down and watched him in his agony.
He giveth to all life and breath and all things, and yet Daniel could say to the greatest king of the day.
The God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified? But Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He came to dispense blessing, and he came to die for sinners. He came to shed his precious blood.
I have had opportunity for many years.
To go each January to the Bahamas.
And with liberty from the Bahamian government to go from school to school.
And to present the gospel to the student body at a prearranged time.
They will March those students usually into an outdoor courtyard. There are sometimes as many as 1500 students. They stand at attention while I have opportunity to present the gospel to them. And when I'm done, I'm able to leave material, messages of love, a wallet, calendar, something with the scripture so that each student at the end of the day can take something home with the word of God.
We try to make the message for them as simple as possible. Often I will try to work in something in their current events, something from their history or geography, and I remember 1 January I was flying from Toronto to Nassau.
And as I was on the flight, I was wondering and praying about what to present to the boys and girls and youths in the schools in the Bahamas that year. And as I was considering this, I reached forward and took the In Flight magazine out of the seat pocket in front of me.
And I sort of idly thumbed through it and I noticed an article that caught my attention.
It was an article, really an advertisement, but a several page advertisement advertising and telling about a new museum that had just opened a few months before in downtown Nassau. It's there and if you ever have opportunity to visit it, it's very interesting. It's called the Pirates of Nassau Museum and it goes through the history and it's rather well done, the history of pirates that sailed back in the days of pirates.
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Around the Bahamian waters.
And it was very interesting. Something just seemed to say to me, take some time when you get to NASA and go downtown.
And see that museum? In those days, I stayed in an apartment that was just a few blocks from that museum. And so when I got settled in my room, I went down and I went through that museum.
And they went through the various famous pirates that sailed around the Bahamian islands. And as I listened to the commentaries and saw displays with the history of those pirates, one thing struck me that those pirates.
Came to the waters of the Bahamas and landed on those islands for one reason. They had one motive, and that was to get something for themselves. They came to the Bahamas to get they wanted the treasure they wanted, anything that they felt was of value, and they didn't care in plundering whether they killed, whether they destroyed whatever it took. They were going to get what they came after.
And I was able to go from school to school, having gone through that museum and learned a little of their history.
And to tell the boys and girls and the young people that while the pirates that came to Nassau came to get, there was a man who came into this world not to get something for himself, but he came to give. He came to give. He came for blessing. He came at the bidding of God his father, and he came into the world to save sinners. Just a little aside, but perhaps it will impress upon us the awful reality of a lost eternity.
And rejecting God's offer of salvation through the man Christ Jesus.
But I've always been fascinated with one of those pirates.
His name where he's commonly known as Blackbeard, and he is no legend.
His name was Arthur was Edward Teach. History tells us he died somewhere around 1778 or 7/17/18. I'm sorry. And he was a very real person, one of the most ferocious pirates that ever sailed the Caribbean. And the story goes that on one occasion he said to his men, we're going down below in the ship.
You know, he would wear in his hair and in his beard these cords, braided cords that he would keep smoking.
And it would give him a fierce kind of look around his face a very gave him a very ferocious aura, which is exactly what he wanted to create. But he said to his men, one day we're all going down below and we're going to light some sulfur and brimstone and we're going to close the Hatch and we're going to see who can stay down in the hold of the ship with that burning acid and brimstone.
The longest. And so he forced his men down that ladder.
The Hatch was closed, and he lit that brimstone, and one by one those men, choking and gasping for breath, ascended that ladder and got out of there.
Blackbeard prided himself in the fact that he was able to stay down there the longest, and I shudder to tell you what he said that he said that because he was able to stay down there the longest.
He was best suited of all his men to spend time in hell.
Not solemn.
You know the solemn thing about it is.
That there was a hatch in a ladder that those men, including Blackbeard, behave. Albeit be he the last one finally got out of there. But in hell, there's no hope. Hell is hopeless.
How will be for eternity? There was a man that the Lord Jesus told about who went to hell and he never asked to get out of hell because I would. I believe he knew his destiny was fixed. All he asked for was that somebody come over to him and bring him momentary relief.
From his situation, he never got it and he never will.
Oh, it's a solemn thing to reject God's offer of mercy and salvation when you know the gospel message that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
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We might ask the question and it's partially answered here. Why did the Lord Jesus come? Well, this verse tells us it leaves us in. No doubt he came to save sinners. But there was a further reason given to us in the verse that we read in John's Gospel chapter 10.
Because there he said, the Lord Jesus said himself, I am come that they might have life.
You know the wages of sin is death.
But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. I want to ask each of our hearts tonight, Are you the possessor of divine eternal life tonight?
Do you have everlasting life? God is offering it to you tonight as a free gift. It's there, as we would say, for the taking, and I am thankful for many who have received the Lord Jesus.
From time to time I have the solemn responsibility of taking funerals.
And some of the hardest funerals I've ever taken are the funerals of unbelievers.
Young man I grew up with called me one day. I hadn't seen him for years. We were close friends.
In our cottage days around Bass Lake at Rita Ferry. But he called me just out of the blue one day.
He said. Jim, my grandmother has passed away.
He said Her grandchildren.
Have no illusions as to where she is in eternity.
But we would like there to be a testimony at her funeral.
There will be a few there. And would you come and take Grandma's funeral?
I talked before the funeral to some that I knew had visited this lady. She was, I believe, in her 90s.
I talked to some who had visited her and kept up a contact. In later years. I tried to get some thread, some shred of evidence that maybe there was a spark of life there. The more I talked to people, the more I realized that that Lady was probably in a lost eternity, and it was a solemn thing to stand up and take her funeral. On another occasion, I stood up to take the funeral of a man in his 80s and his ten children were on the front row. They all knew the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. Every one of them.
And they said to me before that funeral, we're afraid that our father hardened his heart to the end.
I'm going to repeat a little incident that I know some of you heard me say last week in Lawrenceville.
But it has really impressed itself upon my soul.
Few weeks ago I was in Saint Vincent.
West Indies. I landed on a Thursday evening and Friday. Saturday and Sunday I attended 3 funerals, 3 very different funerals.
I first of all attended the funeral of a lady who was in her seventies, 74 years of age. Her name was Irma Collins.
Irma Collins was born.
With deformed legs, she never walked.
And at 8 years of age, her parents dropped her off at what we would call the poor house.
I won't try to describe it to you. I believe James House has been to the poor House with me.
If you think I'm exaggerating, you can ask him after the stench.
What you hear, what you see, it's defies description, but Irma was for many years a bright testimony.
As a young girl, she came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as her Savior, abandoned by her parents and taken up by the Savior of sinners, the great shepherd who cared for her all her life. And you would walk in there. In the midst all that squalor, there was a bright spot. Oh, Irma wasn't perfect. She had her complaints. But you never left without a bright smile and a hug and a thanks for sharing the word of God.
She passed away.
00:30:05
And you'll pardon me, but.
As I went to her funeral.
And as I looked into her face.
I couldn't help but think of that expression far better.
And I'm going to use very bad grammar to.
Try to convey something that perhaps can't really be conveyed. But all I could think of was for Irma. It was much more, far better than for most. I know for every one that passes into the presence of the Lord its fullness of joy. But to think of Irma?
Going from that corner in the poor house to the presence of the Lord Jesus.
It just did something to my soul that I will never forget.
The next day I attended the funeral of a young man, 29 years of age, grew up in a Christian home. His mother still gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus in Camden Park, Saint Vincent. But as a young man he turned his back on all that.
Lived a very, very wild life, went off to Trinidad and as a result.
Of his wildlife, he got one of those dreaded diseases.
And a few weeks before his funeral, he came home to die. And as far as we know, he hardened his heart to the end, too.
The next day, I stood up and looked into the faces of 350 people.
Who had crowded a hall in Dixon Village and the courtyard outside. They had come to pay their last respects to a 94 year old sister who had had one of the brightest testimonies in her village that I have ever seen.
She, to the end of her life, was a joy to visit. Everyone who knew her knew that she belonged to the Lord Jesus Christ. And she had, some days before I got to Saint Vincent, quietly slipped into the presence of the Lord again, absent from the body and present with the Lord. But what about you? What about you, if someone had to stand up this week and take your funeral?
Would they have the assurance from your testimony that you were with the Lord Jesus?
That you had accepted him, that you had received that gift of eternal life, That you were washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus, of which blood we read, The blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Or would the person who stood up to take stand up to take your funeral have to say, well, I'm not sure, but everybody else here has opportunity, you know, That's what you have to do at a funeral where you're not sure if the person was saved.
You have to say you know it's too late for the person in the coffin. But this funeral is not for the dead, it's for the living.
Because the living still have opportunity. You have opportunity tonight. The Lord Jesus said I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. But we've talked about those who've drawn their last breath and been laid in the grave. But I want to stress something else too, and that is what we read in John chapter 14, where the Lord Jesus said I will come again.
He came the first time Christ Jesus came into the world. The Lord Jesus said I am come when he was here, but he also has said I will come again. We sang about the Lord Jesus tonight, but not so much on earth. Yes, we did sing about the crucifixion, but we also saying there is a Savior on high in the glory. The Lord Jesus rose from the dead. He seated at the Father's right hand.
He's there as the savior of sinners. But he says I will come again. And when he said to the disciples, I will come again, he gave it to them as a promise, as a comfort. Their hearts were troubled. They were afraid as they thought of the Lord Jesus going away and leaving them.
They had walked with the Lord Jesus, those years of his public ministry, and now he had told them that he was going to return to the Father. They were afraid. They were scared. But he said as a comfort and as a promise, I will come again. And he said, when I come again, I'm going to take you to a wonderful place called the Father's house. And by going to the cross, by dying and shedding my blood, by rising again, by going back to the Father's house, I'm going to have that place prepared for you.
00:35:23
So that I can come again and receive you unto myself. But the seriousness of the matter is the coming again of the Lord Jesus is going to mean different things for different people.
I know there's just so many here tonight who thrill when we speak of what we often call the Rapture, the coming of the Lord Jesus when he descends from heaven with a shout. And the voice of the Archangel and the dead in Christ rise 1St. And we which are alive and remain are going to be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. And we're ever going to be with the Lord. And yes, we do comfort one another with these words, but what about you tonight when we talk about the coming of Christ?
Does that make you feel a little bit uncomfortable? It should. It should make you feel downright scared. Because if the Lord Jesus were to come tonight before this Gospels over in the next few minutes, which may very well happen.
There will be an instantaneous exodus from this room of those who are saved.
And there will be, for those who are lost, the reality of looking around and seeing empty chairs and realizing what has happened.
And to realize too the hopelessness of the situation, because it tells us when once the master of the house has risen up and shut to the door, then they come and they begin to knock, and they say, Lord, Lord, open unto us, and what's going to happen?
A voice is going to come from the other side of that door. The door isn't going to be cracked open to see who's there.
A voice is going to come from the other side of that door depart from Mia. I never knew you. You know the message. If we could boil the message of the gospel down tonight to one simple statement, it might be this come unto me. But the message to those who refuse that invitation and statement tonight will be depart from me. It's come unto me tonight it may be depart from me.
Later on, that's why we are serious about preaching the gospel, because it is serious. It's eternal, it's final. And if you leave this world without Christ, it's the end. Or if Christ comes tonight, it's the end of any opportunity to receive.
God's offer of salvation and mercy, but it's not the end for you.
As we've been saying, the end will be to stand at the Great White Throne judgment and to be cast into the Lake of Fire.
I remember several years ago, after a Gospel meeting in Trinidad, a young lady, young girl stood up. She was 16 years of age.
She stood up after that gospel meeting and she said I want to let everybody know that tonight I've come to know the Lord Jesus.
As my Savior, you know, most of us at that gospel meeting initially were shocked.
The reason we were shocked is because Abigail was from a Christian home.
And not only was she from a Christian home, but I had stayed in her parents home many times. In fact, on that occasion Brother Garvin Seymour and I were staying with her parents.
And if you had asked us that morning whether we thought Abigail was the Lords or not, we would have given an affirmative yes. We would have said yes. I'm sure she knows the Lord. She always seemed interested when the Bible was read.
She always joined in the singing of a hymn around the table. She was always at the meetings. To all outward appearances, it looked like she was a believer.
But she was not.
And that night, as the gospel was presented by Brother Garvin, it touched her heart. The Spirit of God used the word of God in the power of the Spirit, and she came to know the Lord Jesus as her savior and all what rejoicing there was in that meeting room that night. We sang some hymns, we prayed, we rejoiced together, We shed some tears of joy.
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But I thought about that incident and I thought, I wonder how many 16 year olds.
Sit in a gospel meeting like this, coming from a Christian home, opening their Bible at the dinner table when the Bibles read, joining in the singing of the hymns. But there's no reality in their hearts.
Judith accompanied with the disciples and the Lord Jesus for probably over three years.
And, you know, so clever was Judas and his cover up that he never gave himself away. You know, when you're with people, traveling with people, you get to know them pretty well. I've traveled with some brothers and you get to know a side of those brothers that perhaps nobody else really knows, even just with three or four weeks. Sometimes. Judas traveled with the other disciples all those years, but he was so clever in his cover up that when they came to the table at the end.
And the Lord said there was a betrayer amongst them. They all looked at each other and said, is it I? Is it I? They had to ask the Lord, who is it? You would have thought that at least some of them would have suspected that it was Judas, that he might have done something that would have given him away. But I believe the solemn lesson we learned is it's possible to be a professor, to not be real, to not know the Lord Jesus, but to pass amongst family and friends.
As knowing Christ as your Savior, you know the Lord finally exposed the heart of Judas. And your heart will be exposed someday too if you go on rejecting the Lord Jesus. But before we close, I just want to comment on the verse I read in Revelation chapter one as well, because there we have really another part to the coming of the Lord Jesus in John 14. He said I will come again and receive you unto myself. That's his coming to take away the believers at any moment to the Father's house.
But there is a day coming when he's going to come back to this world. Not in loneliness and grace. Not wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a Manger. Not walking the dusty streets of Palestine. Not weary with his journey sitting thus on the well, Not as taking a few moments to rest his weary head on a pillow in the back of a boat. No, he's coming in power and glory, and every eye is going to see him in that day.
And there's going to be a great whaling because he's going to come in power and judgment.
He's going to come in glory and it tells us later on they're going to cry for the rocks and the mountains to fall on them.
And to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb in the face of him that sitteth upon the throne. Are they going to find any refuge then? Not for one moment. They're not going to be able to escape in that day. Are you going to be part of those who want to escape judgment and are not able?
It will be a very serious thing. And as I say, the end result will be to be cast from the presence of God for all eternity into a place where there's no love, there's no friendship, there's weeping and gnashing of teeth, there's wailing, there's torment. There's no relief in that place. But oh, tonight, how wonderful that we've come to the end of this gospel meeting and the Lord hasn't come, I really wondered.
If I would be able to take my seat after this gospel meeting, or if the Lord Jesus would come. We've had some wonderful things before us in this meeting concerning that future day of glory. It's going to happen. It's going to happen at any moment. The Lord Jesus is going to come, and then things are going to unfold on this in this world, but all tonight in God's long-suffering, patience and grace. Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
He has allowed another gospel meaning to run its course, and as I pray now, if you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, I beseech you to bow your head and quietly talk to Him in your heart. He hears what you say, even though you don't say it aloud, but talk to Him in your heart.
Confess the fact that you are a Sinner and receive him as Savior. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And scripture tells us whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Let's pray our God and Father.
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We're thankful for the gospel, and we're thankful for that unspeakable gift of the Lord Jesus Christ, thankful for that precious blood. We rejoice in the resurrection and ascension of Christ, and we're thankful that He is coming again but our God and Father. In the meantime, we pray for blessing on Thy word. We pray that no one would go out of this room lost and in their sins. Use Thy word and convicting power tonight, and by thy spirit draw souls to the Savior. We ask Thy blessing.
We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and for his glory. Amen.
Open Mtg. 7
Open—R. Thonney, R. Boulard, J. Kemp
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276.
Could we also sing #225?
Reading verse three While here in the valley of conflict we stay or give us submission and strength, as the day soon free from afflictions to Thee we shall come and find with our Savior a heavenly home. 225.
Miss.
We pray.
Can we ask one question? Our loving God and our Father, we thank Thee for our precious Savior. We thank Thee, our God, that our hearts are being prepared even now for that home call that we're about to hear. We thank the for the comfort of the Scriptures that we have this afternoon.
We pray for thy blessing upon thy precious word, that those two or three that might be LED of thy spirit.
To take part in this meeting, I'd indeed have a word of expectation, comfort, and.
To stir us up and to build us up edification as well. We just pray that there might be something for each one here.
We know it is our desire to communicate with man, and we thank thee that as those that are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ is, I desire that we would go on in faithfulness, devotion to thyself.
In an orderly way until I was come blessed Savior. So we pray to our God for thy blessing this afternoon upon our brother Bert Council, his family members. We ask you to comfort their hearts with his son of how soon we're going to be home. We thank me that the separation is not very long now and by faith we can see that there is evidence that we're about to be taken out of this scene very shortly. And so help us our God encourage our hearts. We need it and we need to be strengthened in the path of faith.
That we might go on in a way that is acceptable disease and with devotion for the Lord Jesus we thank because I love to us. In the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
Like to go back to the chapter that our brother read from yesterday afternoon.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 4.
Speak a little bit more perhaps?
We've been enjoying.
In the ratings, what is future?
And that heavenly.
Seeing that we are going to be part of and it is interesting even connection with this world to think about the tremendous changes that are going to take place.
The earth is going to be filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. No one is going to have to say to his neighbor, know the Lord, for all shall know me. Wonderful day that's ahead. Tremendous, but I'd like to speak on.
00:10:06
For the present moment, the what God is doing in us. You know, brethren, it is interesting, whatever measure the Lord has given me, to see what He is doing in different countries of the Western world.
To see that it is not.
Near so much what I do, it's what he is doing. Maybe I can be an instrument, maybe I'm a hindrance, but it's what he's doing and the way he does it is so different than the way we do it so often.
So I'd just like to read that part of this chapter. We'll start with the first verse.
Seeing we have this ministry, we spoke about that a little bit yesterday in the third chapter. Ministry of condemnation is contrasted with the ministry of righteousness, which is what is what we have today. We have this ministry, he says. We have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth.
Commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. Truth of God goes into the soul through the conscience. That's why we commend ourselves not to the intellect, not to the reason, but to the conscience. That's the way the Lord Jesus did. He often answered his adversaries, but he didn't answer their questions. He answered their conscience.
Verse three. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.
In whom the God notice that small G Speaking of Satan, God of this world, hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, or the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, it's not what we are that is important, but Jesus Christ Jesus the Lord.
And ourselves, your servants, for Jesus sake, for God.
Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness that shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God?
In the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the Excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
I think we realized that the Treasury, the earthen vessels that he's speaking about, are these human bodies we live in.
And it speaks of the treasure. What is the treasure?
Refers to back to verse six. The treasure, brethren, is the Light.
Of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. To be able to say we know God, the God of the universe, the infinite God, the eternal God, the God that has no beginning, no ending. When I try to think of a God that's eternal, it just blows my mind. Everything I know in creation has a beginning and an end. To think of a being who was always there, never had a beginning.
Don't grasp it very well, but.
I can say I know him. It's like somebody standing down at the seashore.
And say, I have seen the ocean. OK, great. How much of the ocean have you seen? Well, that's another matter. But you can rightly say I have seen the ocean. And we, you and me, can say we know God. To me that is so tremendously precious, man. We have been brought into the light of the knowledge of the of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
I think I've mentioned that before, but I think it is so striking. The Muslim religion says that God is unknown and unknowable.
How tragic over a billion people in this world.
Have no knowledge of the God they profess to know.
No knowledge unknown.
00:15:00
And you tell me you know God.
That's the treasure that is a treasure that is in these earthen vessels. This vessel is not so important. It's dispensable.
But the treasure that I have inside is something that is eternal, wonderful to be able to say that we know God in the person.
Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and so it says in the face of Jesus Christ.
What kind of a God is it that you know?
Brother John, what does God like?
You say you know him.
But how? What does he like then, if you know him?
God is a God of love, isn't he? God is a God of light, as we heard yesterday, and you see it in the Lord Jesus. Wonderful though, to be able to realize how glorious a God, how perfect a God. That's what I marvel about in the Lord Jesus. So.
He was often in this life surrounded by those doctors of the law. There's anybody I fear in life. I've had some.
Legal proceedings against me at times, and I must say, I've learned to fear lawyers because they can take your word and spin it around to mean just exactly what you didn't mean to say. That's the way they're taught to be. The Lord Jesus was surrounded by lawyers and they always went away completely confounded. You can't trip up a perfect man.
And he was completely perfect in every way. Sometimes when he was asked a question, he didn't answer.
Remember when they brought that woman taken in adultery and they said this woman was taking adultery?
We should stone her according to law of Moses. What do you say? They knew he preached forgiveness of sins, and they thought they had him between a rock and a hard place. He didn't answer. He stooped down and he wrote on the ground. But then he gets up and he says a word that is not the answer to their question, it's an answer to their conscience. He that is without sin amongst you, let him first cast the stone at him, at her. You know their hypocrisy. If it was adultery, there had to be a man involved. And where was the man?
And if he was going to condemn her, he'd have to condemn the whole lot of them. And he had not come to condemn. He had come to save wonderful, wonderful, glorious Savior. They all went out and they left her alone with Him. There was one man there without sin. And so when he stood up, he said, Woman, where those thine accusers, No man condemned thee. She said, no, manlord.
There was one that could pick up the stone to cast it here. But he hadn't come to condemn, he had come to say.
Beautiful, beautiful Savior, go and sin no more, neither do I condemn Thee. Well, we could go on and on talking about the glories of our Lord Jesus, but here in verse seven, I want to focus on a point here, brethren. It's often been illustrated these verses by the story we have in the Old Testament of Gideon.
And his 300 men.
It's a lesson that he had to learn. It's a lesson we have to learn.
The last part of verse 7. The Excellency of the power is of God and not of us.
And so when Gideon blew the trumpet to have the children of Israel to come together to war against the Midianites.
32,000 I think it was, came after him.
And the Lord said that's too many. Tell those that are afraid to go home.
And so a large part of the army went home and the Lord said you still got too many. If I give you the victory, you're going to boast of it yourself. And so.
Bring them down to the water. I will prove them there. And when it was done there was only 300 left it seemed.
Foolish 300 men against the host of the Midianites, and what were they carrying out to battle with them?
In one hand was.
A earthen vessel.
With a lighted torch inside. And the other hand was a trumpet. And they stood around the camp of the Midianites at night. And at a good given signal they broke the vessel and the light shone, and they they blew the trumpet, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. And the enemy rose up and beat each other down. And it was a tremendous victory. But it was the Lord. The battle is of the Lord. The Excellency of the power is of God and not of us. And that's a hard lesson for us to learn.
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Oh brother, and the Lord has to deal with us because we tend to glory in what we are ourselves, and we hinder the blessing that He wants to give.
In what way was Pauls vessel broken? We have it in versus?
8:00 and 9:00.
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed.
We are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted.
But not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed.
You like to be troubled on every side.
You find that enjoyable?
I don't think so. You like to be perplexed.
No, you like to be persecuted. We don't suffer too much persecution over here. But sometimes, you know, at school, you let your light shine. They're not going to let you be included, and it's not that pleasant.
Cast down. Do you like to be cast down? No. This is the way Paul's vessel was broken. We can say it this way.
But why does God allow the breaking of the vessel? It's so that the light can shine, while the vessels of Gideons then were not broken.
The light didn't shine. It was when they were broken that the light shine.
And you know, sometimes God allows trials in our life that are very unpleasant.
Why we say what is the purpose?
Brethren, the Excellency of the power is of God and not of us. It's what He's doing, not what I'm doing. It's what He's doing.
Now go to verse 10 and 11 and I want you to notice as we read these two verses that they are somewhat similar, but there is a difference.
Let's read them carefully. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
Both versus speak of death and then life.
Life comes after death in these verses, and it's the life of Jesus. It's life in resurrection. That's the life that you and I have today, brethren. It's life and resurrection. It's life that's beyond death.
And it's wonderful to realize it.
But, brethren, what has been a challenge to my own soul is that in the Americas, especially here in North America, it seems that we like to live without taking into account first the death of the Lord Jesus. What does it mean to bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus?
The Lord Jesus died for us.
The verse was quoted yesterday in Second Corinthians chapter 5, next chapter.
He died for all.
That they which live may not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
So you and I have life in Christ, but it's a life that is beyond death. And so if you want to really enjoy that life that is yours in Christ, if you want to really live it, you're not going to practically manifest that living until you bear about in your body the dying of the Lord Jesus.
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He died for my sins, so when sin presents itself to me.
What is my response?
Is there anything in me?
That responds to that if I understand my position in Christ.
Has nothing to do with me. I'm beyond death. I'm on resurrection ground. What has impressed me is that here in the United States, it seems in Canada, it seems like we enjoy living.
I fear sometimes that we're living our own near natural lives. It's not that we die physically, but we don't put into effect this principle of bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. That's the life of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh. I don't know how to make it maybe a little bit simpler. Could I say it this way if I live to for my own pleasure every day?
Is what I like to do, the car I like to drive, the job I want to do?
If it's all what I enjoy, tell me, are you going to see the life of Jesus in me?
I suggest you're not going to see the life of Jesus.
No, I understand my position. I no longer live unto myself, but unto him who died for me and rose again. And that's what it means to bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. Our whole culture, brethren, is built on the premise of pleasing ourselves. I'm not saying that things are necessarily wrong.
But it's a false principle of life.
I enjoy thinking of those apostles in the first days of the Church's testimony and how they lived.
They really live that resurrection life.
You know, they took them into custody several times and they threatened them.
With punishment and they threatened them. We're going to kill you if you keep on speaking in that name.
Can you scare a dead man by threatening him? We're going to kill you. It had no effect on those apostles. They went right on preaching the gospel message because.
Because they had already passed through death, they were living on resurrection ground, and so it wasn't a question. They killed them. OK, that's fine.
But brethren, it seems like in our culture we have learned to like life just as we know it. In the United States at least, we talk about the American dream. I don't know what they call it up here in Canada, but it's probably somewhat the same. But.
President, that is robbing us of what our true life really is.
And I just want to challenge you that that's not what we are called to live.
Bearing about in the body of the dying of the Lord Jesus. That's what we should do every single day.
That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our bodies.
Now notice verse 11. We which live are always delivered unto death. Here is something that goes a bit further. It's something beyond our control were delivered to it.
And brother, I must say I have been challenged in my own.
Heart and soul by seeing some of those that the Lord has delivered to pretty tremendously difficult circumstances. Some have mentioned sister out West who has a young family of four children and she's if the Lord doesn't intervene very directly, she will be called home.
What a tragedy. Naturally speaking, we say a little family to lose their mother. What a tragedy. Why does God allow that?
We're delivered unto death for Jesus sake. It's something outside of our control and God allows those things in our lives. It's not what you wanted, it's not what you look for, You're delivered to it. Why? That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest and here it puts in our mortal flesh.
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When I hear the testimony of our brethren in parts of the world that.
No persecution means.
In our brethren, our suffering persecution in parts of the world.
You know what? The Chinese, I understand Chinese brethren. I have not had direct contact with them, but I've read some books of them and their testimony.
You know what they say, Don't ask the Lord that the persecution cease. That keeps our testimony vibrant.
Brethren.
Why is the testimony seemingly going?
Downhill in the United States.
I really believe it's this principle that we're talking about.
That we are living to please ourselves. I'm not saying that we do it purposely, it's just the whole.
Current of the culture that we live in.
Self pleasing.
That is not the life of Christ.
Brother Dawn read in Matthew chapter 16. Maybe I'll read it again and to me it connects directly here.
Matthew Chapter 16. When Peter.
And the other apostles were told that the Lord Jesus was going to Jerusalem and he was going to be crucified and killed and rise the third day. Peter he give them.
Lord, this shall not be unto thee.
Just the same way we would think, I have to say for myself.
And the Lord Jesus rebuked him. Notice what he says in verse 24. And Jesus said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself.
And take up his cross and follow me.
Deny himself.
What's the need of denying yourself?
I got money in my pocket. I can buy it that thing that I need.
What's the need of denying myself?
That's the principle of the life that we have in Christ bread in denying ourselves. We don't live any longer for ourselves. We live for him who died for me and rose again.
And then he says in verse 25, For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
I fear that many are losing their life, not losing their salvation, not losing their soul, losing their life. Are you living life in a way that when the Lord calls you home, it will all be gained for you? Like the apostle Paul could say, for me, to live is Christ, to die is gain.
He lived.
For what was beyond, not for things that are temporal.
But all it just seems to me that we are part of a culture and I think it has done damage to the Christian testimony. And when I say Christian testimony, I'm speaking in general, the whole Christian testimony, the idea, the principle that just permeates our culture. And brother and I stand up here and I trust you're not thinking. I'm pointing the finger at anybody. I'm pointing the finger at me because I can see how that principle is deadening in my own life to please myself.
We've been bought with the price of the blood of Christ.
And we no longer live to please ourselves, but to please Him who died for us and rose again.
So.
Here Paul says in Second Corinthians.
411 We which live are always delivered to death. Sometimes, you know, we don't put into effect what we have in verse 10.
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, and so the God who wants that light to shine out of our lives.
He delivers us to death.
So that the life of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
Used to be a brother out in Gresham OR in the hospital Brother Oscar Frazee.
00:35:06
Would take us to see him if you were out there. He's with the Lord now, His name was.
You went to see him. Ninja Bill.
You remember that brother in the hospital?
I was thinking his name was Oscar, but Oscar Frazier is the one that took us to see him. But anyhow, he was a brother. He was a brother in the Lord that.
When he was about one year old, the doctors did a.
Operation on his neck and turned out that they paralyzed him from the neck down.
And the only part of his body had any control of was the face, and he turned out to be ******* in his face, and his face would go into all sorts of contortions.
And it was almost embarrassing to look at and try to look away because his face went into such contortions. But I still remember Brother Oscar was the only one that could understand him. Albert was his name I remember now.
Is Albert or Oscar could understand him and so he would kind of translate for him. But I remember when they got talking about the Lord, how that poor twisted, contorted face and the body that was laying on that stretcher just shone with the glory of the knowledge of God. So it took a broken vessel, but everybody in that hospital knew that Albert was a believer in the Lord Jesus. The light shone out of that broken vessel.
And I'm not saying we have to die, brethren, but I really believe we need to get a hold of this principle of living. Our life is not what we look like down here. It's not that which is seen, as it says in the end of this chapter. It's that which is not seen, that which is seen as temporal. You're living just for a few brief moments of time. Are you living for God's eternal day?
Now notice what he says in verse 12.
Our chapter. So then death worketh in us, but life in you. He's speaking to the Corinthians so that there could be blessing for those Corinthian brethren. What did it mean? There had to be death in him so that there could be life?
In them.
I'd ask you young people, you older ones too, do you want there to be blessing in your life?
Do you want there to be fruit that will last for all eternity? I know you would say yes to me.
What is the answer?
Death to us, life for others. And I'd like to turn back to John's Gospel, chapter 12, just briefly.
Do some verses that the Lord Jesus spoke and somewhat related to what we read in Matthew.
Chapter 12 of John's Gospel.
Verse 24.
Here Philip brings Philip and Andrew come and bring these Greeks to the Lord Jesus.
And the Lord Jesus recognizes that the Gentiles will be able to come into blessing only because of his death. So he says in verse 24, Verily, verily, I send to you, accept a corn of wheat, fall into the ground and die. It abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
Here's a grain of wheat.
Going to put it up here on this podium.
Keep it nice and dry. Don't let anything happen to that grain of wheat. No microorganisms. Start working on it. We're going to keep it nice and safe.
Is that our life? If that's our life, no fruit.
No fruits. What are you going to do with this grain of wheat? I'm going to take it outside. I'm going to put it down the ground.
The moisture makes it swell and it's going to start to rot and it's going to die.
Isn't that wasteful?
In that death of that little grain of wheat gives birth to a new life in which there will be much fruit. And of course, the Lord Jesus here in verse 24 is referring to Himself.
But brethren, it doesn't stop there. He goes right on in verse 25 to quote a verse that is somewhat similar to the verse we read in Matthew chapter 16. He that loveth his life shall lose it. He that hateth his life in this world shall keep it into life eternal. You love your life here. You love what you're doing.
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You're going to lose it.
You hate your life. That's a pretty strong word.
I wrestle with that. Hate your life. That's the word the Lord Jesus uses.
In this world, you'll keep it to life eternal.
I just want to challenge you, dear young people and older ones, to.
Live.
This life that we're talking about.
You know, you hear stories, and I must say we here in the West don't know much about persecution or sacrifice too much. I heard a story and I'll just tell this story briefly.
I think it happened in Iran. In the northern part of Iran, there was a man and his wife, a brother and the Lord and his wife that were traveling across the country and they stopped in a little town.
To go into a store to get a bottle of water to drink, and against the side of the store was this man leaning against the wall with a machine gun in his hand.
And as the brother got out of the car, his wife.
Gives him a little Bible, says give this Bible to that man. And so he shoved it in his pocket and went into the store and.
Came back out and got in the car and his wife says, did you give that Bible to that man against the wall of the store? Can't you see he has a machine gun? You want me to die? And he gets in and he starts up the engine, says I prayed about it and I decided I wouldn't give it to him. And so they take off and they go. But the argument continues in the car. And finally they stopped at the edge of town. He says, what are you asking me? You want me to die today?
Give that Bible to that man, she said she was insistent in finally said, OK, you want me to die, I'll go back. Give it to him. And so went back and stopped the car and the man was still standing there and went up to him and gave him the Bible.
Then broke down in tears, he says, You know what? Three days ago, where I live, my native village, an Angel appeared to me and told me to come to this town and wait. Somebody was going to come by and give me a Bible.
Well, it might have been.
A question of giving up his life, but rather what is more important, obedience to him?
For our lives, what is more important?
The rest of the story is that brother.
And the Lord lost his life in persecution in Iran not too much longer after that.
But it's a story I read and I trust it's true. I heard it from sources. I believe her, right? But this is what's happening in parts of the world today. But you and I, in a certain way, are challenged in the same way. Are you living to yourself? You are going to lose your life. And to me, it is the most tragic thing to see somebody come down to the end of their life and they have only lived for themselves in this world. They might have.
A tremendous amount of material things, but they have nothing beyond.
I plead with you, there are so many opportunities to use your life in that which will last for all eternity.
And that's my desire to encourage you. Notice what the Lord Jesus says here in verse 26. If any man serve me, let him follow me. And where I am there shall also my servant be. If any man serve me, him will my Father honor. What is more important to you? Honor from this world, her honor from the Father.
Dear brethren, I have often been asked, why do I think that the assemblies here in North America seem to be getting fewer and fewer?
00:45:05
And those in South America seems to be extending.
And I cannot say I understand the full picture. It's God's working the way he is to me. It is a wonderful experience to witness it. And I encourage those of you who are able to go to South America to go down and witness it. See your dear brethren. They asked about you, they're interested in you. They pray for you. We're one body in Christ.
You know what? Some go down there and they don't know how to speak Spanish. You know what?
The fact that they came just to see their brethren and to show fellowship with them means a tremendous amount to our dear brother down there.
So I encourage you, you might have an easier vacation going somewhere you enjoy. But you know what? Our life is not about what we want any longer. Our life is to please Him who died for us.
And rose again.
I'd like to just turn to Acts Chapter 9 and read a couple of verses there and.
With the Lord's help.
Just to give you the burden of my heart.
Something similar to what our brother Bob the Lord laid on his heart.
Just some of the priorities that came to.
Characterize the life of the Apostle Paul. He had one priority before he was a saved man, before Christ saved him, and that was to wipe out the name of Christ and to murder and to imprison those that love the Lord Jesus. But after he was saved, his priorities were forever changed.
They were changed to the day he left the scene as a martyr. Well, it just says here in Acts Chapter 9 that.
Verse One saw yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound under Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly they're shrine round about him, a light from heaven.
And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecute us, Thou me? And he said, Lord, Or he said, Who art thou, Lord?
Just turn to Chapter 22.
Verse seven. Acts 22. Verse 7.
And I fell into the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecute us, Thou me? And I answered, Who art thou, Lord?
And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, who now persecutest. And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid, but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me. And I said, What shall I do, Lord?
And the Lord said unto me, Arise and go into Damascus, and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do. And when I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of them that were with me by Cain to Damascus.
Well, I just want to point out here that this very first priority that Paul.
Expresses is this.
Through 4 words that we have in the English Bible.
What shall I do, Lord?
Up to that point in time, he had been a very determined man and thought he was doing God's will, God's service.
By persecuting the church. But I question whether he really asked God.
For that direction, we're in the energy of the flesh. I believe it was in the energy of the flesh. It was a very energetic man.
And instead of using those energies to the glory of God, he used them, as he says a little later on in Philippians, the Epistle to the Philippians. He used them to his own glory, that energy.
His first priority after having received Christ.
Having seen the Lord Jesus in all of the brightness of his glory above the brightness of the sun.
He asked this question first. Who art thou, Lord? He wanted to know the person of the Christ.
He wanted to know who it was that it appeared to him.
And then he wanted to know what lay in store for the rest of his life.
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Lauren.
Notice one of those words that we don't use very often in the English language. Many people pray in the name of Jesus.
But it's nice, you know, if we can pray and ask what we're asking and give thanks for what we're giving thanks in the name of the Lord.
Jesus Christ.
But it's something for us to acknowledge that there is one who is worthy to be the Lord.
In our lives.
Paul began to get his priorities straight as soon as he'd seen a vision of Christ.
Can you ask that question?
You'll forgive me for giving a little personal.
Story You know there are some defining moments in life.
And sometimes the Lord allows those defining moments to occur. Some of you remember where you were.
On September.
The 11Th.
2001.
Those were moments that were defined. That was a day that was divine and defining to the Western world was already mentioned in these meetings. Many think differently today because of that day.
But on this recent trip that I had, I recently visited an assembly Reynosa, Mexico.
And I looked into the faces of brethren that had faced death.
Did the brethren there had laid on the floor?
Of their homes for a Lord's Day several weeks back.
While the drug cartel fought out in the neighborhood of the meeting room in the neighborhood where they live.
The drug cartel was fighting it out with the government troops and the police.
They lay on the floor all day long to stay out of the spray of the bullets.
I looked into the faces of those brethren.
And their priorities were changed. Their priorities were different to my priorities.
They say death.
What shall I do?
Lord.
We were there and had several meetings, I said. Partway through one of those meetings, perhaps the first one, there were five, I said, brethren, we've already taken an hour of your time and said that doesn't matter.
Would you please continue? We continued.
Brother Bob said this.
Since I don't know why our priorities aren't what they are, why we're so weak, why the assemblies are weakening, why we're so weak in our souls.
But I believe that it is this that we do not face, danger we do not face.
The effects of what the enemy is trying to do to destroy the name of Christ, to destroy those that name the name of Christ, and to destroy those that will live for Christ.
In this world.
We're just not exposing our true colors. There was a man that was saved few years ago.
Dear brother in Christ, Roman Catholic. And he said to me maybe three or four weeks after he was saved, he said, you know, brother.
As we had our Bibles open, he said. You know, persecution didn't work very well.
Satan didn't do his job really very well with persecution, tried to slaughter the Christians at the beginning of the Christian age and the Roman church persecuted, he said. But you know, prosperity is working beyond his wildest dreams.
Lives are being lost.
Because of prosperity. But what a difference it would make if we got up in the morning.
And said, What shall I do, Lord?
What shall I wear, Lord?
Where should I go, Lord? Should I go, Lord?
Instead of deciding for ourselves.
Let's turn back in the book of Acts to chapter.
15 I think it is.
Acts Chapter 15.
In verse 25.
It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have sent, therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth. Now we're not going to recount the whole story here.
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But there was a crisis in the time of.
The Assembly the Church of God approximately 21 years after the church had been formed on the day of Pentecost.
The enemy had been seeking to destroy the Saints, destroy the Assembly says in Chapter 8. I believe we read it yesterday. There was a great persecution, great persecution, the Saint for scattered.
This is 21 years later.
And the Saints were scattered. They preached the gospel where they went. Souls were saved.
But now.
There was going to be a different tactic that the enemy would have to destroy and that is to corrupt the truth of God and to add something to the work of Christ and to say to the Saints in chapter 15 verse one, except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, he cannot be saved. And it was a bold faced lie. But here there were men, four men that are pointed out in verse 2526 and 27.
Paul Barnabas.
Judas and Silas, four men and God has something to say about them. He says this, that they were men that had hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to read it in the way that it's presented in the new translation. It says this men that have given up their lives.
For the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You and I think of hazard of very risky business.
And it was risky for them to go out and to preach the gospel of the grace of God to the Gentiles, to the idolatrous wicked.
Satanically influenced Gentiles. It was it was a very difficult thing. It was a risky thing. And they faced riots. Paul could say I die daily. He faced death every day.
But the Spirit of God here records that they were men that had given up their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. What did that mean? What does that mean?
It means that they had a choice of whether to go out and to face the Gentiles or to face the religious Jew.
To face death every day or not to?
God had called these men Barnabas and Paul. You could read it a little earlier in the book of Acts, and by the grace of God, he'd risen up, raised up Judas and Silas. Silas, you know, is called the faithful brother in first John chapter 5. The faithful brother sums up his whole life. 3 words. But those men looked at the Commission that the Lord had given them to accomplish that work that he'd given them to accomplish.
As those that would represent him and preach the gospel of the grace of God, and to bring the light to the Gentiles and to the Jews. And they well knew that if they went out into that Gentile world.
That it could probably, it would probably cost them their lives.
And so he says that they were ones who had given up their lives for the name.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ, they'd already done it.
The hope means that they.
Estimated the value of their present lives, the lives that they could live.
And they could live to please themselves. They could live to.
Enjoy the things of this world. They could live in comfort.
They can hide their light under the bushel basket. They could hide their light under the bed.
Or they would go forth in the energy of faith and preach the gospel and as if it was like this. I think of it in this way that the apostle Paul at one time Barnabas and perhaps Judas and Silas, they at one time said, Lord, we've lived our lives up to this point.
We've lived them the way we wanted to live them.
We've accomplished what we wanted to accomplish. We never asked any permission. We never sought the will of God really for ourselves. We just lived the way we wanted to live, and now we're willing to obey the call to go forth under the Gentiles.
Here's our life, here's my life. You can have it. I'll give it to you.
01:00:00
High cost, high cost in their life. They knew Silas, you know, was going to go to the Gentile city of Antioch. He was going to preach the gospel. He was going to go with Paul on his second missionary journey.
And they face death when they went to Philippi.
But at the beginning, the Apostle Paul, I believe in the presence of God.
Offered up his life, he said. All right, I'll go in service. You can have my life.
I'll leave it for you.
Well, I trust everyone of us would have the grace this afternoon and the safety and the comfort of this room.
To be honest with ourselves as to the selfishness of how we lived up to this point.
The ease, the comfort.
Into.
Offer up our lives for the name.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know what it cost Paul, don't you?
He wrote 14 epistles. If you count the 14 the Epistle to the Hebrews, you know what it cost them.
To give us those epistles, don't you?
Cost him his life.
Are you reading them?
Paul had some priorities.
You have to face death to set his priorities straight, but he set them straight.
Perhaps we just look at one more priority, give a little time perhaps for one more for others to stand up.
First Timothy, chapter 6.
Verse 19.
Let's read verse 17, First Timothy 6, verse 17. Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high, high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy, that they do good and that they they they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
Mr. Garvey's rendering is in his translation says this, that they may lay hold of what is really life.
And then just turn over to Acts chapter 20.
In verse 35, let's read verse 34.
Acts 20, verse 34. Yeah, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. I have showed you all things. How that's so laboring. He ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said it is more blessed to give than to receive. Well, the Lord Jesus was a perfect giver. He gave all that he had, and he said that it is more blessed to give than to receive. He left this world, He had nothing.
Gave it all away and gave his life. He offered up his life as we read this morning.
What a sacrifice. What a sacrifice of sweetness to his God and Father. I'll just say this afternoon to encourage you to offer up your life to the Lord.
You don't know how he uses it. You don't know how to use your life. Paul didn't know how it would be used, really.
Paul didn't know he would get the martyrs crown. Paul didn't know that he was going to write 14 epistles.
Paul didn't know the impact that he was going to have on the Christian testimony in his day and down through the ages until the Lord comes. He didn't know the full extent of it.
And here, he says, he used he labored in a practical way to provide for his own needs.
And to provide for those that were weak, those that were not well off. And he exhorts in First Timothy 6 that those who are rich do who who do have.
Means to use the means that they have to further the Christian testimony in their day. It was a priority with the Apostle Paul to use what he had to strengthen the Christian profession in his day.
It was a priority with the apostle Paul from the day that he was saved to say, What wilt thou have me to do, Lord?
It was a priority.
It was a priority with him once he understood.
That have serving Christ was going to be a difficult thing. It was a priority with him to offer up his life to the Lord.
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And to live that life one day at a time, to the glory of God, and to face death every day.
I just want to encourage everyone of us here.
To look at the priorities in life.
And say, do I have my priorities straight?
The Lord is just about to come for his own. Do we have the priorities straight?
Would you permit me to make one more comment? Isaiah chapter 58?
Isaiah chapter 58, verse 13.
Now this is Speaking of the Sabbath day, but I want to apply it to the Lord's day.
Isaiah 58 verse 13 If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord honorable, and shall honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor seeking thine own words. Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father. For the mouth of the Lord have spoken it.
I believe, brethren, we need to examine ourselves in connection with how we treat the Lord's Day.
I know we call it Sunday here in North America.
But you'll forgive me, I just looked into the faces of brethren that face death.
For a whole day, lay on the floor on the Lord's Day.
And when they were able to be together on the Lord's Day.
I want to tell you it showed that they wanted to be together in the presence of the Lord on the Lord's day, and they wanted to use that day for him.
All of it.
Not even the kids.
Were restless and wanted to go out and they did go and play during the lunch hour and so on.
But they sat respectfully, and they listened to the word of God. They faced death.
How are you using the Lord's Day?
Are you honoring the Lord?
Soon over Brendan, soon over the time to honor the Lord Jesus, to give him the respect the honor.
And to give them the dignified presence of ourselves in His presence, to give him, show him dignity and honor in a public way on one day of this this week, the first day of the week, soon over.
Maybe the exercise to read this Isaiah chapter 58 verses 13 down to the end 13 and 14 and to just I suggest to read it as if we're reading about the Lords day and to ask ourselves, are we really using the Lorde day in the right way? May it be a priority with us.
To give him the first day of the week.
Give it to him.
Maybe we won't give him a whole life. He'd like to have your life. He'd like to have all of all of it.
But given the life.
Given of the time that you have given the Lord's Day, give him the honor.
That is his. May God give us the grace to do it.
Well, there's very little time left to brethren. I don't plan to speak at any length, but truly what our brethren have brought before us has spoken to our hearts and consciences.
But we might be exercised to use the opportunities, the talents, the time, the resources that we have, not for ourselves, but for the glory and honor of our Lord Jesus. I'm sure when we get to glory, we won't be sorry for anything that we may have sacrificed. And perhaps it's very little in in in my own case.
But whatever is done for the Lord.
Is valued by him, recorded in the Book of Remembrance. That book will be open someday. The Lord will reward faithfulness. Not that reward is a motive for service. I think we know that. But it truly is an incentive that those little acts of service and sacrifice in our lives are going to be rewarded in that day. Are you thinking of a verse in the First Corinthians chapter 3?
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People are familiar with it.
And it has in view the judgment seat of Christ, which I think we have already referred to in these meetings, when all our lives will be reviewed, manifest. Our sins will not be brought up to condemn us, but our works will be resurrected. What we have done, our conduct down here, our lives will be showing for what they are.
How we have lived our lives today and in the days that may be before us, there will be reviewing, they'll be rewarding and they'll be rejoicing, but also there may be loss. How someone can feel loss in that day, I don't know, but the Word of God says this chapter, First Corinthians 3.
Verse 13. Every man's work shall be made manifest for the day she'll declare it. What day is that? It's the judgment seat of Christ.
That will take place shortly after we are ruptured into His presence. And because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built, thereupon he shall receive a reward. Isn't that encouraging? And that reward will go on through the millennial days. We are now forming the capacity.
For the place that we will fill in that coming Kingdom, there will be a reward. And I believe myself some people question this, that that reward will go on into eternity. Either doeth the will of God shall abide forever. Those things that we do for the Lord down here will not be lost in the eyes of the world. It may be foolishness, but it's precious in the eyes of the Lord. I often think of the sisters that attend the meeting.
Faithfully, maybe it's in much weakness, the prayer meeting or whatever. There will be a reward for your presence at the meeting. You are very needful in the in the assembly meetings, though you may not take, you do not take part publicly. Anyway, our verse here again. If any man's work abide which he had built there upon, he shall receive a reward. Verse 15. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved.
Yet so as by fire, as our brother Bob has remarked, a saved soul, but a lost life. How sad. I think we all know the prime example of that is the life of Lot. He was a man that followed Abraham, but his heart was in the world and the things that were seen occupied him. He gravitated toward Sodom. He gave up his tent and his altar, and he ended up in that wicked city of Sodom.
With the government of the judgment of God hovering over it. He lost, he nearly lost his life lost his testimony is that a kind of a termination that we would want to know and there would be loss in our lives as we read here. He himself shall be saved. We're going to meet lost in the glory. No doubt he's a righteous man that that's his soul every day yet so as by fire save so.
But what he had done burned up.
Because he lived for himself and he lived for the world trying to improve it. Well, brethren, we've gone over this a number of times. We won't belabor it anymore. But may we think of that verse while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen? There'll be a reward of bright, marvelous reward for any little faithfulness there has been in your life and mine our resources.
You know, I've often said I was traveling in Malawi, taking some money out of the bank there a few weeks ago, and.
Speaking to a young man who was coming out of the ATM machine, I said, you know this money here, it belongs to another man.
It doesn't belong to you. How are you using it? And So what we possess really in the in the pecuniary of the financial area, it really belongs to God. We are only stewards responsible for how we use what has been committed to us. The reckoning day is coming. The Lord is going to return the nobleman from the far country he's going to take.
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He's going to review.
And look at the way in which the goods or the talents or the gifts were used when He returns. How have we used what He has committed to us? And if it was used for his glory and honor, and the furtherance of His interests and the preaching of the gospel, there will be a reward. It will last for eternity. Well, the judgment seat of Christ is.
A solemn time.
And it should exercise us, not that we have any fear of punishment, but there is going to be a review of our lives. You know, I've noticed lately that.
In the account that David gives of the mighty men who accompanied him in the time of his rejection when he was haunted by Saul, you will remember there was a list given of those that had shared in his rejection.
That were faithful perhaps in The Cave of Adulon. They had performed some wonderful services for David, for the Lord. But there's one place in that list that is blank. And sometimes we might wonder there's there was one name that was it should have been penciled in there, but it's blank. Who it was, I don't know. We're not told. Was it Joab? Was it Jonathan for that person, whoever he was, he lost his crown.
He didn't follow David in the path of rejection. We follow a rejected Christ. Brethren, we gathered around, not a glorified Christ this morning. I rejected one. And if we share that rejection, there will be a reward and a crown for any faithfulness in our lives. May the Lord energize us to live the rest of our time, which may be very short, not for ourselves, but unto Him that loved us and gave Himself for us.
You sing the last verse of 252.
May we still God's mind discerning to the Lamb for wisdom gold. There are no wonders daily learning, all the depths of mercy know.
God our loving Father, we bow at the close of this meeting and we thank thee, blessed God, that thou would speak to us at this lead date in the churches history. We feel, Father, that the coming of the Lord is just around the corner and then it's over. In this world. We seek grace from thyself, Father, to walk in the good of what thou has committed to us. So we pray for one another. We ask you to bless the balance of the time here and then, Father, as we each.
Leave here to go to our homes, we ask the.
The Dawards, I give us the grace to go on, Lord Jesus more to please Thee and not to please ourselves. We out go and give thanks to my name. Amen. Amen.