St. Thomas Conference: 2017
Table of Contents
Jude 1-4
Reading
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Yes, should be saying #72 in the appendix.
Reading from verse 572 in the appendix. I am an empty vessel. Scarce one thought or love of love today I've ever brought. Yet I may come, and come again to thee with this the empty sinners only play thou lovest. May 72 in the Appendix.
Call credit service centers.
Great improve all kills in their House of kicking in the house.
I can hear a lot of outline behind the beginning of the time. Standing in the right now, just powerful mind. What's the name of a lot of coverage? So cold, so crazy.
With Prada and the crowd was $10 million. What's that was being hard on the hard on tune into?
Umm.
Rain, what's up with your heart?
Was everything's great like that? The whole town?
Oh, no, I don't know if you have a chance to hear anything, but that's still there's $1400. You're gonna see how much you're temporary about. You have a lot of money. You make 1090 lbs, but you're going to produce Wilson's only quick.
Of all of the life beginning.
Thank you. Oh my God.
Implied on you to believe me.
And did you take anything with us right now? I can take any place. We have the same time situation or I don't know.
If you promised a collective.
And all of my love and all of the inspiration and what I mean. It's probably a lot of everything I can tell you.
I've been strange myself.
Let me read a few verses from the second book of Kings chapter 4, getting the first one.
00:05:03
Now they're private with the sons of the prophets and Elijah saying, thy servant husband is dead, and thou nice that thy servant did fear the Lord, and that the creditors come and take him, and my two sons in London.
You know, I just said on her, what should I do for them? Tell me what? That's in my house.
And she says I have a that's not anything in the house like the front body.
Then he said, Go borrow vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels. Borrow not a few of them. When they are coming, shut the door upon thy sons, they shall pour out into all those vessels.
And they were shall set aside that with his thought. So she went from him, and shut the door upon him, and upon her son, who brought the vessels to her. And she poured out, and it came to pass from all vessels before that she said unto her son, Bring me the vessel. And he said to her, No, he's not a vessel anymore.
And the oil static showing how aggressive.
How gracious farming far away. Come before me today to give you thanks and praise and worship for the person and work of the Lord Jesus, in whose name we approach the in whose name we make our request.
And we got some fish. What we are by nature, we are empty vessels.
There's nothing here that's fine nature.
And we have a need to be satisfied.
We are hungry, we need our work, and we need the ministry of our Holy Spirit to make it good to our hearts and our conscience.
So we pray as we might open my word.
They'll fill our empty vessels.
We thank you for the Ministry of Life. Holy Spirit, we do private.
Hi Holy Spirit, I have never did this. We hope my work together.
You occupy us with ourselves, Lord Jesus, while we wait for me to come.
And we thank you for those words. They all stayed.
So we do private the result of these meetings we may take home things that are gonna be a blessing to us as we go in and out much like the household of faith as a whole and so we just pray for that they'll guide us as to the scripture that we may take up. We pray for a blessing on my words may be minister. We pray that those that speak may speak to the oracles of God. We ask these things tremendous to run up in here and give me thank you thanks in the worthy and precious name of the Lord Jesus Amen.
Going out for something that I'm hard, I was thinking of the book of Jude. We're living in a gate that is very similar to that. Perhaps we influence on encouragement.
Afterwards together Book of Jude.
Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called mercy unto you, and peace and love be multiplied. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exalt you, that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the sinks. For there are certain men crept in unaware.
Who were before of old ordained to this condemnation ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how, that the Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroy them that believe not. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he had reserved.
00:10:27
An everlasting change under darkness.
And to the judgment of the great day, even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner giving themselves over the fornication and going after strange plush are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these healthy files of flesh despite dominion and speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael the Archangel.
When contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, who does not bring against him a railing accusation, But then the Lord rebuked it. But these people of those things which they know not, but what they know naturally, as root beasts in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the era of Balaam.
For reward and perish in the gay, gay saying of quarry. These are spots in your feast of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. Clouds they are without water hurry about of winds trees whose fruit wherewither with without fruit try is dead, plucked up by the roots, ranging waves of the sea, forming out of their own shame Wandering stars, to whom it's reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
And Enoch also the 7th from Adam prophesized of these, saying, Behold, the Lord come us with 10,000 of his things, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that our ungodly among them.
Of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against them, these are murmurs, complainers walking after their own lusts. And their mouths speaketh great swelling words, having man's person in admiration because of advantage. But beloved, remember in either words which were spoken before the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you.
There should be markers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit, but beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keeping yourself in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life, and of some having compassion, making a difference, and others.
Save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh are now unto him that is able to keep you from falling.
And to present you 12 lessons before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever are in.
Let me let me go to comment much on this, but I thought there are a few things that I have on my heart in this chapter concerning today. We find there are phrases such as contending for the faith which once delivered, uh, which was once delivered to the Saints. How precious it is for us to be reminded what many truths that was delivered and yet perhaps in a sense forgotten, given up. Perhaps. So this perhaps could be a reminder.
For us as we go through this book, you talk a lot about apostasy in this chapter as well as as we go on, but what's interesting is we go back to the very beginning of the chapter. We noticed the writer reminded us who they were. First they said Jude, for who is Jude, Jude, Judas, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James. And I stand corrected in saying this. Could this be the brother of James, who's the brother of the Lord Jesus himself? We find in John's gospel, believe this in the 7th chapter is that his brethren didn't believe in him.
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But yet we find after the resurrection that, that they have learned that he is the Lord. And so we find James was a prominent, uh, testimony for those who contended for the faith in those states. And now we learn Jude also has written a vocal a, a simple epistle to encourage our heart. And there he will tell us things that perhaps he wasn't kept or written elsewhere. We find that he even tell us about Enoch at the testimony, how to require testimony that we may not hurt off. But now he reminds us Enoch the 7th to Adam, the preacher of righteousness.
Other than the book of Jude, we really didn't know a whole lot about Enoch's theory. But here it's house as God has always reserved for himself. Here's to encourage our hearts that we can go on for his name and voice forward. And toward the end of the chapter he tells us He's the one that's able to keep us from falling. So it will be no strength of our own. It is all through Him and by Him alone.
And before you're recognized as well as first three, when we read that, it says you should earnestly contend for the faith, the faith which was once delivered onto the Saints, that once there doesn't mean that Once Upon a time it was delivered as a past event.
I believe it means that it was once for all. So it was a it was the the gospel delivered to the Saints at that time is the gospel. Nobody can improve on it over time except at that point. And you wanted the chapter to read about, you know, cloud driven without water and so on. We'll try to improve the gospel over time and sanitize it and change it. But that wants to live around the Saints wasn't just that point in time delivered. It meant once for all the final word.
Interesting too, that in this book of cute, you'll find if you look back to second Peter, that many similarities between the two books, but they're not the same. And, uh, his brother was mentioning and Jude was the brother of the Lord Jesus. Uh, we find that from Galatians where Paul is speaking about James there and he says James the brother of the Lord. He goes on further to say that James and uh, Peter Hersyphus, he calls him there and John seemed to be pillars.
They are among the Lord's people. So it's very interesting to put that together that these ones that their brother also mentioned in John Chapter 7, the Lord's brethren assist did not believe in him, but there came a time when I told when that they did believe in him. They're seen there in Acts chapter, uh, at the end of Acts chapter one, continuing with the group waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit after the Lord ascended into heaven, the Lord's brethren are mentioned there and these two, Jude.
And James were with them and they had gone from this place of not believing in the Lord Jesus to having believed in Him and having their lives transformed. They saw the power of God at Pentecost and time went on and they saw things change. They saw after a while evil teachers came in among the Lord's people. And that in particular is what Peter takes off. I believe that's the difference between second Peter and and Jude. Peter takes off the false teachers, primarily emphasizing them.
They come in among the Lord's people and that the effect of what they had done is taken off by Jude. The false teaching and the false teachers resulted in a moral giving up apostasy. And that's what Jude is talking about here, that moral departure from the ways of God. And as he says here in the end of verse four, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord and God the only Lord God in our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is what happens as a result of false teaching, and there's much false teaching that is coming to christen them today, and even many of us have been exposed to it. And so this is important, very important, to get an epistle like this, not to think that everything is OK and we can just go on as if there's no corruption that has come in among the Lord's people in these last days, because the corruption has come in and we need to be aware of that, and we need the expectation that we have and this epistle.
We need to go on and to earnestly contend for that faith which is once delivered unto the Saints.
I think it's interesting to note that two had to come the same way as anyone else in spite of him being the brother of Jesus. But it took a little while. But he introduces himself as his servant. It's wonderful to see that. And I believe that is essential for each one of us to recognize as being servants of the Lord and to each other. So he's a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James to them. And then he says sanctified, preserved, called mercy.
00:20:17
Under you and peace and love be modified. It's a it's a nice introduction. It's not the kind of introduction that we see very often, but he's not exalting himself. But he had something to say and he wanted to put it in writing, but he did not do exalt himself in any way because in the end of the book that was read to us, he says to the only wise God, our Savior.
Hold on two steps in verse. One is first is sanctified and then preserved. And the sanctified has the only way that we can be sanctified that is set apart unto God is by coming to Jesus first. So it's by way of the Lord Jesus Christ that we can be set apart for God. And sanctified also implies holiness. And that is one of the great things that has been weakened and abandoned through the attack of Satan over the years to the point where there is an awful lot among Christians of blending.
With what the world, you know, delights in and, uh, and making it, trying to make it compatible, the one with the other. Well, you can't. It's set apart and umm, and we all kind of to greater or lesser degree fall into that, I'm sure. But then there's the preserving, preserving side preserved of Jesus in Jesus Christ and called. So God is over all of that, but it's the Lord Jesus is our shepherd. He's been declared to be our shepherd and he acts that way and we experience it as we go along.
And, umm.
And called, we often use the word called as those who are called to be children of God, but it can also re reference those who, uh, are hearing the gospel and haven't believed yet. And, uh, and I think probably we can, uh, let both stand in this, in this verse. Others may have a thought on that, I don't know.
Sanctification.
Is a there is separate sancti. Sanctification is a work of God that takes place.
And that's God's side, and He is the one who has done it. It speaks in Peter of sanctification through the Spirit. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Then there is practical sanctification in connection with our walk, isn't there?
And it's nice to see in this, this, uh, epistle, the epistle of Jude, where there is so much, uh, warning against the condition of things. It's, it's nice to see that sanctification and preservation are the first things that are brought before us. When a person accepts Christ as their savior, they are San, they have been sanctified in a past eternity, blessed to enter into that.
Oh yeah, if I may borrow what our brother Gordon Heho, a comment that he made in connection with sanctification, there have been a help to me.
You said you, you go into a grocery store and you see a whole lot of Peaches, baskets of Peaches, 4 quart baskets that are sitting there and you look at them and you look at them and you say, I'm going to take this one and I'm going to take this one. And you take those out and you put them near the cash register and you go about picking up the other things that you want to get. And you come and when you come to the cash register, you pay for all your things together.
When you picked out those Peaches, you set them apart as ones that you wanted for yourself.
And brethren, you and I have been set apart in a past eternity, marvelous in this, uh, in this book of Jude, you have sanctification brought before from the outset. And then we have also preservation. You know what? Especially you sisters that do a lot of preserving and canning and in the UTQ the fruit and you and you preserve it.
And you keep it for another time later on. Saints of God that have been brought to Christ. We've been preserved for a day that is yet to come, and nothing can touch the believer in Christ. Isn't it lovely to see how the book of Jude starts in this way?
There are three books that I, uh, I have, uh, I think particularly bring before us the character of the day that we're living in, which is the last day we have. We have other books, other epistles I'm referring to that are ministry for, for umm, to build up in connection with the truth of God. But the character of the last days, it seems to me is second. Peter three has been referred to.
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Second Timothy chapter 3, actually first chapter 2, is it or three? Three. I think in the last days difficult times will come. And second Peter chapter 3, particularly, I think, I think Tim, you referred to second Timothy, uh, second Peter chapter 3. Now you notice in our chapter here, uh, in the book of Jude, you have in verse 18.
How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time. God has put in His word the character of the day that we are living in, and we have been equipped for walking for His glory through a world that is in opposition. And we feel that worse and worse. And as we read this epistle and you come to the end of it, what do you find?
Ye beloved, building up yourselves in your most holy faith. And I think that what that says to me is this, there's a pathway for the Christian whatever age, right through to the end.
Surprise God is that any of you have been to be open valley in British Columbia. You'll find a lot of Rd. stands with Peaches and it's a sign there that says, please don't pinch me. I bruise. And it makes me think of, uh, we shouldn't try the spirits. Uh, are thinking, well, I'll try this or I'll try that. You'll get ruined just like each.
It's nice to see here James and his brother.
Taking this low place.
As a servant of Jesus Christ, they.
Knowing that they were born of the same mother, he would never dare to call himself a brother of Christ. He took the low place and called him a servant, just like we could never dare to call ourselves in subsequently greater than what we are. We are very low servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. It makes me think when he came with his other three brothers.
At the time when the Lord Jesus was ministering in the house.
And he sent people there through the Lord Jesus.
They said people.
To call the Lord Jesus.
And want to speak to him while he was ministering.
He was in a quite different position at that time. They wanted to call him out to tell him that he should not take a great place like he was taking there among the people that he was ministering to. They had quite a different outlook of him at that time, but they must have gone all four of them, I believe.
Quite a different experience with the Lord Jesus after his resurrection.
They call has now served themselves now servants they are, we would say they got saved. They believe in the Lord Jesus found in their brother being the Lord and Savior.
They they take their place.
And even at this time where they were so much in at the same place with the others who were persecuted.
And, uh, looked down upon.
He took advantage of the calling of the Holy Spirit to write this epistle.
When we think of the profits in the Old Testament like Moses.
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At at others they would say, well, I can't do this job. I I'm too young or I'm, I'm, I'm not gifted than any other excuse they would find.
And this servant now?
Naturally born with the Lord Jesus by the same other.
He takes a really low place.
And he ventures to write that episode. He he makes no excuse.
So he must have no doubt been caught by the Holy Spirit to do that.
So the same with us, we should never be ashamed to talk about the Lord Jesus, especially since we are.
Saved, and we are redeemed by His purse, by his sacrifice.
When we are called to talk about the Lord Jesus or say something in favor of Him, it's a privilege to do that, and let's not shut from that.
I was just thinking too about the preservation here. Umm, back to Jude and James. They are the brothers perhaps of the Lord Jesus. And as they were growing up, I'm sure they called him Jesus. But eventually they learned to know him as Christ Jesus Christ. And later in the chapter he calls him Lord Jesus Christ. So they recognize that this one they grew up with is Jesus, was God Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ, and they had been sanctified by the Lord Jesus.
By God the Father, they were preserved in Jesus Christ and they were called. And I just think of that preservation just looking in John chapter 10 and uh, in verse 2728, it says here in verse 27, my sheep, Oh there the Lord, he claims them for his own. They hear my voice. He called them. He's calling you and I as well. He called us and he calls us our sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life.
Oh, the preservation there, we've been given eternal life and they shall never perish. When you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are preserved. You are preserved, preserved for the Lord's honor and glory. You're preserved for his own. You belong to Him. He can call you my sheep. There's other versions that says that we're peculiar unto Him. That means we belong to Him. We're his special possession, and we belong to the Lord Jesus. And so Pete, Jude, and James, they could recognize that. Recognize that.
That the position that they've been put in through the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you belong right in this verse too, as sanctified, preserved and called and as we've heard these instructions in this chapter. They are for each one of us.
This is a rather short chapter, there are only 25 persons in there, but sometimes it's nice to look at the outline. I know I often sit here and that's why I listen to other copies sort of go what are they talking about and reduce the thought. But if we have a little outline to follow, I think it might help a little bit. So I'll try to attempt. I'm not very good at outlining, but here we have to look at the 1St 2 verses as an introduction to the chapter. So we spoke on that. Jude introduced himself of who he is and who he is addressing to.
And then we find versus three and four, these two verses, I believe he's saying what he really wanted to tell us, uh, in other, what the purpose of this chapter of this chapter or this letter. Then you'll find from verse five on to perhaps, uh, verse 13, he used examples of ovals which used the word apostasy in perhaps other to explain what that word really is to be, uh, for the apostasy that he speaks of. And then we find from verse 14.
To verse 16, he speaks often man Enoch the 7th from Adam speaks of his his faithfulness and presenting the gospel. That's the preacher of righteousness. And then we find from verse 17 to perhaps verse 23, there's some exultation. There are difficulties coming in. We know that it speaks about the evil man gripping in clipping in, but we know God is about us. So we do something exaltation so that we once again reminded he that is enough. It's greater than he that is in the world.
And then verse 24 and 25, that's the as if it were at the conclusion that dog is the one and the only wise dog for us. So I hope that will be a little help as we go through the chapter.
I can go back to attendance about this thing.
00:35:05
That's important because there's a lot of younger ones here today, and if you are thinking the way I thought when I was your age, the whole subject of contending for the faith that was once delivered to the Saints is for older people. It's not for you. That's the way I thought anyway. But that's not what this book says. It says it belongs to all of us. It's written. The first verse has been brought out by a brethren very clearly. It's everyone who is a believer.
It's who this is addressed to. And then he says in verse 3, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints. And so.
This subject is about that which is being given up. We get that in the next verse as we saw, but the first message is that it's important that we all understand that intending for the faith belongs to each one of us as believers. It doesn't belong to someone else. Now Jude doesn't take up so much with that faith is he develops more the characteristics of the last day. As our brother Al already mentioned, in order to get what the faith that was delivered to the Saints is, we have to go back to the rest of the teaching of the apostles.
The epistles that came before Jude lay that all out, and we need to take that up and study it diligently. And we're not going to be able to contend for the faith that was delivered to the Saints if we don't know what it is. And, you know, every believer does know at least one thing, and they know that the Lord Jesus Christ is their Savior. And they know enough about what that means to have believed on him that at least everyone knows. And you can contend for that. And if you just got saved today.
Then don't wait to contend for that, but also don't wait and leave the rest of the faith because it's speaking about the whole body of the faith, the truth that God committed to His people. That's what He's talking about here. Don't wait and leave that up to other people. Dig into the Word for yourself. And that's why this is important for us here today. This isn't just something that the older ones in this room should be talking about. Maybe the younger ones zone out for another time. This is speaking to you. If you're a believer, these verses are speaking to you.
And you need to take heed to it. As we go through this chapter, we'll find Jude tracing out all the characteristics of what are in the last time. We're going to see that their characteristics that are about us today and not in the world. That's not what you was talking about. He's talking about what's in Christendom and some of the things that we'll come to in this chapter. Perhaps many of us in this room have been guilty of or are guilty of right now. We need to recognize that and we need to take hold of the truth.
OK, things like what we're coming to.
Seeking evil of dignitaries. Have you ever done that? It hasn't been so long ago since I've done that. There will be plenty here to exercise this on the word of expectation. But as to the faith, we need to take it off individually, every single one of it, not leave it, not leave this to others. And it says contend for it. Does that mean to go out and be contentious? No, it doesn't mean that at all. Just turn to one verse real quick. Second Timothy.
Chapter 3. I'm sorry, Chapter 2.
In verse 23, it says a foolish and unlearned questions, avoid knowing that they gender stripes. And so as you talk to others who are bringing in error and in particular some of the moral corruptions that we have laid out in Jude, they're going to be all kinds of things brought up and raised. He says don't even go into that.
It says in verse 24, the servant of the Lord, who is that every believer is a servant of the Lord, a bondsman. That's what Peter, that's what James and Jude at the beginning of our epistle were servants of the Lord. Bondsman, the servant of the Lord must not strive. So we contend for the faith, but we don't strive in it. It says, but he must be gentle to all men apartment to teach patient and meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves, if God for adventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. And so there's a tone that's very important in how we contend for the faith and it's in meekness and humbleness that we do it, but we're never going to do it unless we learn what the word of God has to say.
I like the uh.
Beginning of the third verse and Mr. Darby's translation, he brings the same idea. And I think in connection with sanctification, that's the word beloved. And, uh, that's what, uh, when you think of, uh, Christianity and, and what we have as being saved by the Lord Jesus, we're brought into the family of God.
God the Father loves us, the Lord Jesus loves us. That's why God set us apart for himself and his special gift to his Son, the Lord Jesus. And, uh, he brings us into love for each other as well. And that's what, uh, when you're talking about, uh, contending for the faith and not striving, I think it's important to remember that we ought to do these things in love and for the, uh, benefit and the blessing of our brother.
00:40:17
Can you get that in the second verse which precedes the third verse?
Mercy unto you, and peace and love be added. Is that what it says?
No mercy, peace and love be multiplied. We know the difference between 5 * 5 is 25 and 5 + 5 is only 10.
And God would have us to enter into the magnitude of His love. You remember the story in the fourth of John or the woman that the Lord met at the well?
And a well of water being put in her that would spring up into everlasting life. And what was the result? She went and said to the men, Come see a man that told me all things that ever I did. Is not this a Christ? What was that? It was the overflow. It was the overflow. And brethren, if we enter into the second verse, it'll make it easier for us to enjoy and to defend or contend or whatever for in the third verse.
The enjoyment of Christ in the soul is so important for us and God. I love the verse in the 5th chapter of Romans where it says the love of God is spread abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost that is given unto us. And that's why I believe is why we need brethren, the breaking of bread. We need to remember the Lord because we remember the love that took him to Calvary and it has an effect on us in our lives.
Should have an effect and give us a desire to, to, uh, walk in the goodness of it and to hold what he has given to us. And you notice in this chapter that Jude, he wanted to talk to them about the love of God. That was that was the overflow that was in him. And the Lord seemed to be leading him in a different direction here to talk about earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the Saints, but it sprung from his desire.
To, to, umm, enjoy the love of God. And I, I, uh, I find in my own life, I feel I'm, uh, not like, if I may so say, a John Kemp who is so forward and so direct in giving out the gospel. I need to enjoy it myself. And it makes it easier to give out to others. And, uh, I, I think that the, if you look at, if you look at, we won't take time to it, But if you looked at second Peter chapter 3, where we have again the character of the last days, you find it says there grace and peace be multiplied. It seems it says here.
Grace and peace be multiplied. So I think that it, I mean it springs from a life that is enjoying the Lord. It makes it so that it's it's it, it shows in our faces as we meet up.
Was never too young in the faith, too content of the faith. I was looking at it and John's gospel Chapter 9. Might just look there for a minute. Might encourage the younger ones. Doesn't really matter how long you've been saved. Contend to the faith speaks there about the blind man.
In Chapter 9 that the more is healed and the 13th person they brought to the Pharisees end up with a four time decline and was a Sabbath day when she made the play and opened his eyes. And again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received the site he sent on to them. He put clay upon my eyes and I washed and I do see.
That was the first, it might say, contending for the faith of this young man that was saved by the Lord, his bicycle sealed.
It ended the 20 uh, 24th, 1St and again call day demand that was blind said on to him, give God the praise. We know that this man is a Sinner. He answered and said, whether he be a Sinner or no, I know not one thing. I know that we're uh, whereas I was blind. Now I see the second time he contended for the faith and then, uh, says further on downs.
He says now we know in the 31St version, we know that God here is not sinners, but if any man be a worshiper of God and doeth as well him, he hear it since the world began, and not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was blind. This man were not of God. He could do nothing. And he answered and said unto him, that was all together for his sins, and teach us and the cast of oath. So the punishment that he received for being faithful and contending for the faith was excommunication. I'm sure that.
00:45:09
Some today and other lands I've heard about that confess the Lord as our Savior were baptized.
That their families have disowned them and cast them out and there is a price to pay for being faithful to the Lord. But here we see a man that was just saved and how he contended for the faith among these religious leaders.
The way he writes in the second verse here.
It must make us to understand that he has by that time developed a special and deep love of his fellow believers, not just of his nations like and some of the other epistles that the writers have done.
All believers are included here when he says Mercia to you, and peace and love be multiplied.
He can't. He cannot say his say it.
Urgent enough?
How he feels about his fellow believers.
He doesn't just address his, uh, believers of his nation where he grew up.
Which of course he appreciates very much too, but here he includes all those who love the Lord Jesus.
If we could write when we are writing a letter, we could address our fellow believers or our loved ones in that kind of a.
Appreciation and feeling.
Edward Waters for all of those with whom we are in connection or whom we know.
I would wonder if I could right away, right like that. Mercy after you, and peace and love be multiplied.
That really would be re receiver of that message.
Touch, be touched in his heart. It would draw us together.
I was thinking of this verse and, uh, brother Dave, you mentioned about the love of Christ in our hearts and, uh, I was thinking of that verse in, in Second Corinthians that says the love of Christ constraineth us. And I really believe here that Jude had a real burden on his heart, didn't he, uh, for the Saints. And he intended to talk to them, as you say, about the common salvation. But when he saw what was coming in among the Saints, he had a real burden. And we all know that in that particular day, it was the Gnostics that were coming in with false doctrine and trying to spiritualize, uh, the truth.
And, uh, so he says here.
I, I exhort you and you know, I was just thinking that we have in Corinthians also that we are to present words of edification, exhortation and comfort. We know that edification builds up the Saints. Exhortation stirs up the Saints and, uh, words of comfort binds them up. And I think that's very important. But here he's trying to stir up the, the Saints because of the evil doctrine that was coming in and, umm, he said he should earnestly contend for the FA for the faith. The faith here is not just.
Faith in the Lord Jesus. It's really the truth of God that has been presented by the apostles. Is that not correct?
And so he says that was once delivered to the faith, uh, to the Saints. And, uh, I was just thinking that the truth of God has been presented once. Isn't that correct? I go back to what our brother Matthew was saying earlier. The truth of God, there's nothing to be added to it. It has already been given to us. I was thinking of a verse in Colossians chapter one. I just mentioned it happening, Colossians chapter one. This is, uh, the apostle Paul speaking.
And he says in the 25th verse whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. I understand in the new translation that should read to fill full is the Word of God. In other words, it was given to the Apostle Paul to complete the word of God as we have it. I heard just recently umm Christian telling me about this person he was listening to on the Internet.
And, uh, the person said, you know, I just got this revelation from God that has never been given before. And there are people saying things like this, but the word of God is clear. The, the Bible is complete. It doesn't have to be added to. And I think we have to be very careful about listening to people on the Internet or on the radio because many of them, uh, take away or add to the word of God. We have to be very careful.
00:50:12
There was that said that that which is true not new, that which is new is not true.
In reference to the gospel we have here nice here to make a connection with the book of Jews to the book of Nehemiah. I believe that there are some parallels. We've been just thinking about the consenting for the faith and if we turn to the 4th chapter of Nehemiah.
In verse 13, therefore sat high in the lower places behind the wall, and on the higher places. I even set the people after their families with their swords, their Spears, and their clothes.
Analogous like some assurance, and verse 14 in the middle of the verse, since I see we we not be afraid of them. Verse 21 So we labor in the work, and half of them held the spheres from the rising of the morning till the stars appear likewise at the same time, said I unto the people, Let everyone with his servant lodge within Jerusalem, that in the night they may appear to us and labor.
On the day.
And so we see.
Later there's of the building that is mentioned later in this book of two, there's a contending and the building. So in the second chapter there's an admonition in the middle of birth 18, let us rise up and build. So they should make them their hands for this good work. So we see especially in verse three children on the wall. So there is this connection with this little book of Nehemiah and.
It's nice to connect that with the Short Book of Jews.
We have lost.
A lot of good behavior when we only communicate with in in the Internet, Facebook and and the and the like instead of writing.
We have lost touch with our fellow men and especially our brothers and sisters and our relatives and we just put a note through the electronics and and have them receive it instead of writing a personal letter.
If we write very little in our personal personal letter, that would touch people and those whom we address to much much more than just looking.
At at the.
Labs on our Internet, on our computer.
And writing at it, well, sure a very clear and very readable, but it has not the same impact on people. And if you write a personal letter and handwriting.
You are. You hardly said that. It's gonna be more in it. And then if you name at the end the name of the Lord Jesus, when you look at the different epistles here written in this book, you always find at the end.
Like to the only wise God our Savior be glory and magnitude, dominion and powerful style, and ever if that would be the end of a personal letter that would touch the hearts.
Whether we write a personal letter or we have a blog on the Internet, whatever it might be, it's important that we earnestly contend for the faith. And it was mentioned in, uh, Colossians one verse 25, that about Paul. He had completed the word of God. We were not going to expect any new revelations. But if you know, when Paul wrote his writings and then John wrote the Book of Revelation after that, isn't that a new revelation? I don't believe so.
Because what John wrote about had already been told, but in the book of Daniel. And so he was just ex expressing or expounding on or talking more about the same thing that's already been revealed. And so it's the apostle Paul had completed the word of God and that was the the truth, the faith that was once delivered to the Saints.
00:55:07
So they were these ones who would come in and verse 4 certain men crept in unawares and Jude saw this. They no doubt looked like nice people at first. They didn't notice it at the beginning, but later on it became manifest that these were those who were corrupt men and teaching and acting in a terrible way. And so he says here, who were before of older danger, this condemnation.
They were going to come into condemnation from God. That would be their end. But the warning is to the Saints. They don't look this way at first, but we need to judge what are they saying? What are they doing? And then he brings out two things in particular that were characteristic of them. He says they turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness. They despise the grace of God. They use that to say, oh, it's OK. As Christians we can do whatever we want. And they turn right against the holiness of God, using his grace against His Holiness. That's wicked.
But that's what's still done today. What is the effect of a teaching? Does it turn men towards greater holiness to become more like the Lord himself, or does it turn them more to their own loss? These ones, however fair their appearances, however fear their words are, the effect is to turn towards the loss of man. And he's going to go through and talk about examples of this lust workout worked out in life. The other thing that they did at the end of the fourth verse is denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. I think it should be the only master.
And Lord Jesus Christ speaking about Him as the one who is the Master. And you see.
Again, in verse one hell, Jude introduces himself as servant of Jesus Christ or bondsman. He recognized that that one who was his half brother was his master and his Lord. He recognized his authority, his lordship. He owned a massage. He lived under him as the one who was going to do what the Lord Jesus Christ said.
Whereas these other ones, what do they do? They despise authorities. They rail on them. We get that as we go through this.
Epistle, the examples are given next. But first of all, these are the characteristics, and they told us here in the fourth verse so that we can recognize it. And in the examples we'll go on to enlarge on that so we can recognize it more accurately and that which is perhaps taught or acted out around us in Christianity.
It does say in uh, Mr. Darby's rendering of the end of the verse and denying our only Master and and Lord Jesus Christ.
When we write birthday cards and the like it it's very easy to do just to put your signature there.
And and send it away. But here he says, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, That's one thing that we should never forget. Bring in something and communicate something about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Or at least about our common salvation that we have received through him that would.
Have put some importance to the message which we want to.
Communicate to whomever we write the message. And it's not just for first days Christmas we can't forget.
Because we got nothing to do with it.
And the and some of the other worldly things that take so much time and effort to be occupied with, which really don't mean anything. There has to be meaning. We got to write diligence.
About our common salvation. That would really re put forth a message.
Here he has an exercise of heart, and he says for me to write unto you and exert you, that you should earnestly contend for the face. That's something we need to do.
Earnestly cut.
Exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith.
That's the only real thing that we have is the face of the Lord Jesus.
Faith in our Savior, the only God who makes sense.
The only person in our life who ought to be.
Kept in mind.
01:00:03
And that is that faith that was once delivered unto the Saints.
If you would ask one of those churchgoers and ask them are you a St. what would they say?
Usually the Saints of religion say they are dead.
But when we write, we write through real change, through living Saints, not to dead Saints. The G the biggest and most popular so-called religion in in this country and in many western country.
They will. They really don't have much to say at who they are and who.
They honor as their real God and and the one who needs to be honored.
It's a great thing to honor each other in in most people's minds, but it's greater to write something to honor the Lord Jesus.
It's like at least a 10 or something. Seems to have to really.
Believe in what? What that something is. I know I didn't always contend for faith in my life while I've been here.
But we really have to believe in what it is in order to fight for it. And I was thinking of Saul and when that great light shone down upon.
An alert converted them and and changed his life from terrible life. He had. He had been and.
Then we had Paul and of course, as our brother has been talking about writings, we have all of his his writings here and we see how wonderful Paul's doctrine is to us. But you know, in Acts 20, he said that I might finish the course with joy. And in Second Timothy four, he says I have fought a good fight and have kept the faith.
He believed in what he was doing. He believed in what God had for him. The Holy Ghost came upon him and he fought hard for those things. And so do we believe in what the Lord has given us. Look in, uh, Hebrews chapter 12 and he tells us again, He reminds us.
In verse one, wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which must so easily beset us. The very things that we're about to look in, look at in Jude. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, We need not look at anything else while we're here.
But Him, we don't realize that sanctification that they've spoken of already today, that He has separated us to himself, and that we need not defile ourselves with the things of this world.
Then it's gonna be hard to contend for the faith, but if we can remain separate from those things.
And we're walking closely with him. Then we have great enjoyment of it. And so he finishes here, he says, looking on to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, comma endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. That was what Paul had before him. That was why Paul could contend so hard for the faith. That was why he could preach the gospel so well everywhere he went. That was why he had such a love that many would be saved. He had that before him. Do we have that before us today?
Marketing on the diligence that was exhibited on the part of one that was writing. And there is another scripture in second Timothy chapter, uh, one I believe, where the word diligence is used again. And it brings before us a very touching and practical example in the life of the apostle Paul in verse 15 of that chapter, it says.
This thou knowest that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me. Then he mentions 2 individuals defense verse 16 it says, Lord give mercy unto the House of Vanessa for us. For he off refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain. But when he was enrolled, he sought me out very diligently and found me. Well, that's the same thought that the same uh, expression that is used and it goes beyond.
Just carrying out a formal act or a formal request wasn't just a letter that was written, It was written with much diligence. It wasn't that a person was looking for another, but it was a person that was looking diligently. And so we have these words to, uh, you know, a sense of greater meaning and, uh, we can appreciate the fact that they're with written that way.
01:05:07
And brother David Saul was speaking earlier, uh, he mentioned that, uh, the word hypothesis, which of course we get into a little later some.
Evidences of it, but he said that somebody else can give a definition. Well, I go back to a long time ago when I was a teenager. Uh, Harry Hajo was one of the principal speakers at conferences like this and he, his definition of apostasy, which he, we're, we're in, He emphasized each word individually went like this apostasy is willfully turning away from revealed truth.
Time zone.
Shipment number three 18318.
Uh, all those different diarrhea exercise.
Blood and rear and put everything in.
Oh, my grace, that's all I've found. I'm the one who came here because.
Oh God.
Still look like him and I'm going to come to the Windsor and Seven. I don't know how to sleep, sweetheart.
There's a confusion in the eye.
We don't know why we can, actually.
Umm, together today I'm going to and take care of it. I'm trying to get it with uh, uh.
That's all right.
Congrats to you.
And tell the things that I'm following up on my information.
My computer is holding our hands low.
On your blah blah, blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Shout between them tomorrow. So I'm going to be, uh, qualified to tell you.
All the land of God flare up in the clouds, 10-4, 1, 10-4, 5 together, but it's all on my own.
Our blessed God and our loving Father, we are thankful this afternoon to be together this way, to consider the truth of Thy precious Word. We we thank You for that which Thou has seemed fit to have before us, and we will now just make this him Our prayer. Oh Lamb of God, still keep us close to Thy fierce side is only there in safety and peace. We can abide with foes and snares around us and lusts and fears within. The grace that sought and found us alone can keep us clean.
01:10:08
So we thank people for this time together through thou continue to bless us and guide us as we fellowship together and as we read Thy word together and in the going forth of the Gospel of life. Lord Jesus, we pray in thy blessed and precious name, Amen.
Hymnsing
The Lord Asleep in the Boat
Jude 5-8
Reading
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We sing hymn #231.
We are pilgrims in the wilderness. Our dwelling is a camp created. Things so pleasant now bear to us. Death 231.
We're pilgrims in mind.
I can't hang on.
To figure out.
Things I don't know, I don't know. We waited a long time.
And I had a great time in the heart of our last time, our fire and sun threatening God.
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Bing.
And and you have.
You don't know what I have to do in the union. One of my life is considered to have the maintenance business and everything and I I said blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, $100. That happened to me.
You just read a couple of verses before we pray.
First in the book of Ezra.
Chapter 9.
Verse 4.
The first part of the verse.
Then were assembled under me and.
Everyone that trembles at the words of the God of Israel.
Look at Nehemiah.
Chapter 8.
10 verse one.
And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the Watergate.
And verse 2 And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation, both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, on the first day of the 7th month, be read therein before the street that was before the Watergate, from the morning to midday, before the men and women and those that could understand and the ears of all the people were attentive onto the book of the Law.
00:05:29
Verse 5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above the people, and when he opened it, all the people stood up.
And verse 7.
Jessica Bonnie and Cherubaya Jamen echo Chabophya.
Gordadia.
Via Salida, Azariah, Jazzabad and Pariah and the Greenwich Florida people to understand the law and the people who stood in their place. So they read in the book of the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. And then verse 10 Then he said unto them, Go your way, keep the fat and drink the sweet and fortunes unto them.
For whom nothing is prepared, for this day is wholly unto the Lord. Neither be sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. And we look to the Lord for guidance. Help our loving God and our Father received the scriptures that have been read this morning. Think of the people that were attentive unto the Word. We think of the people that were gathered together at the right place by the Watergate, and we know that classic would result as a result of them being assembled there.
We pray this morning as I word is read and comments are given.
That there might be, uh, that which is distinct, that which each of us can appropriate and understand from the oldest to the youngest. And we thank you too, that those who were not able to be present on the occasion were thought of and so a portion was to be sent to them. And as we return home from the conference, may we be mindful of the fact that we have been fed and that we can share that which.
Uh, has been given to us and share with them. We seek thy help, uh, today and all of the meetings, but especially in the readings now that, uh, we may be guided of thee and uh, that thou art blessed. Those that are assembled here this morning. We ask this in our saviors worthy and precious name. Amen. Amen.
Start with verse five perhaps?
Even the Book of views.
Beginning of verse five, dude, Verse five. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this. How does the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not? And the angels, which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He had reserved into everlasting change under darkness?
Unto the judgment of the great day, even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities above them in like manner giving themselves over the fornication and going after strange flush, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh despite.
Dominion and speak evil of dignitary.
Yet Michael the Archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, does not bringing against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuked thee. But these speak evil of those things which they know not, but what they know naturally as brutes, beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe until them, for they have gone in the way of Cain.
And ran greedily after the era of Balaam for reward. And perish in a gainsaying of Corey. These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, Feeding themselves without fear. Clouds they are without water carried about of winds, Trees whose fruit wither, witherers without fruit.
00:10:29
Twice, yet plucked up by the roots.
Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. And Enoch also the 7th from Adam, prophesized of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with 10,000 of His Saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that our ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds.
Which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are murmurers, complainers walking after their own lusts, and their mouth speaketh Gray swelling words, having man's persons in admiration because of advantage. But, beloved, remember E the words which were spoken.
Before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you there should be markers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves sensual, having not the Spirit.
But ye beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God.
Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life, and of some have compassion making a difference, and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.
To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty.
Dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
If I could, because there are so many who were not with us when we began this portion yesterday, I just like to give a quick summary of some things. In verse three, we saw that it was the desire of Jude to write about the common salvation that the believers had in the Lord Jesus Christ and to enjoy Christ together. But he was not able to do that. Instead, he was constrained by the Spirit of God to write what we have in this chapter.
And that was to.
Warren the Saints against evil men, and to exhort them to earnestly contend for that faith which was once committed unto the Saints. And so he goes on to.
Speak about these ones who had crept in among the Lord's people unawares, and he speaks in verse four about two things that were characteristic of them, and that is, they followed their ungodly lust, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.
And they despise authority, and in particular the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, having introduced the subject that way goes on in the verses that we began with today to give 3 examples from the Old Testament of where this happened in the past for our exhortation. And the first we had in verse five was the example of the children of Israel and the wilderness, and how after seeing all that the Lord had done.
They despise that and they were then became an example of these ones who turned away from God in His grace. The second, of course, is the angels. The third one would be Sodom. And Gomorrah takes up these three examples, which we'll look at now, but to show about these evil men. And then we'll go on to other examples a little further down verse 21, there's three more examples brought in to show the different types of characters.
00:15:07
Uh, uh, this evil that was brought in.
Brought in by particular men who we referred to yesterday as apostates, those who, having professed the Lord Jesus Christ, turned away from him. In the Old Testament, of course, it would have been professing God, professing truth, that which they knew. But in our time, it's those who profess to be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then they turn away and say, no, it's nothing. And perhaps the main verse to show what these ones are, if you can just turn there for a moment, would be in Hebrews chapter 6.
Hebrews, chapter 6.
It says in verse four, it is impossible for those who are once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. And so that's what we're talking about, these ones who had professed to be believers, but then they turned aside and said it's nothing.
The Lord Jesus Christ and his death didn't matter and so they crucified to themselves the Son of thought afresh in doing so. And Judith is even a little worse because it's taking up the ones who were leaders and became maybe primary examples. Peter speaks of them in first, Peter second. Peter 3 is the evil teachers Here we see their evil acts in Jude and we find there's no hope for these ones. And so it is in our chapter when we go through these examples we see and each one of them.
That there is.
No hope. So you go to verse five. You find that they're destroyed at the end of the verse, verse 6.
They're reserved and everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Verse 7, the end of it, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. The ones who turn away in this, in this manner are forever lost. And so you say, well, why should we take this up? Well, the one thing is to be warned about it and to be on guard. But there's another reason our brother and Dorothy like cement, uh, remind us of this. And that is that there's a spirit of apostasy. These things that affected the ones that we have here can affect any one of us who are true believers.
And so we need to be aware of them and we need to recognize that when it happens in our own hearts and judge it. And we need to turn back and get right with the Lord whenever this begins to rise in us. So it's a very important chapter to consider.
To pick up on the what Tim just said in this application to each of us here by giving a brief summary of versus 5-6 and seven, because there's a moral progression downward from verse 5:00 to 6:00 and from verse six to verse 7, verse five, the root principle is unbelief. Unbelief in the heart has has been so often quoted in the goodness that's in God's heart toward us. And then later in the chapter in verse 21, there's the antidote given. But verse five is unbelief, unbelief in the goodness of God, in the goodness of God and his provision for us.
Verse six, the root principle is disobedience. The angels in Psalm 103, verse 20, are spoken of in their characteristics. One is power. The 2nd is that they are obedient and they're ministering spirits. And as servants or ministers, their chief responsibility is obedience to their master. That's given up in verse five and verse six. It's unconstrained luck at the end of this moral progression downward. And so Tim just mentioned the importance of the application to each of us here.
And so in our own lives, if there is soil in our heart of ungratefulness, unbelief in the goodness of God toward us, if there's a complaining and bitterness that's in the heart may not even come out of our mouth, but that's where our thoughts go when we're on our own. That's the soil of verse 5. The shoots come up in disobedience in verse six, and there's the full crop of unfettered lust in verse 7.
I think it might be profitable to look at the background, shall we say, of what we get in verse five of of umm, we get that in numbers 14 or 13 and 14, where the spies have gone up to the land and they brought back the fruits of the land and there was a.
A bunch of grapes because he took two men to carry.
00:20:00
And, uh, but then the spies mentioned that the children of Anneck were there in verse 35 of Numbers 13. And when they, and there we saw the giants. The sun's panic, it comes from the giants. And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers. So we were in their sight in verse chapter 14. And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried and the people went together that night.
And that verse four. And I said one to another, Let us make a cap and return unto Egypt. What were they saying?
They were saying that God couldn't perform what he promised.
And so we find it's, it's the sin of unbelief. We we get the apostle takes it up in Hebrews 4, the end of sorry, the end of chapter 3.
So we see they could not enter in because of unbelief. By limited God, the creator and sustainer of the world, they limited him. They they promised them the land of of Canaan, but they limited him. They said he can't do it.
And so we find that that sin is unbelief, and I think the apostle refers to it. And this really effects us in chapter 12.
Well, chapter 12, Hebrews 12 and verse one wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let aside, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily protect us. Now the the definite articles there in the Greek, I mean it's there in the Greek, it's there for emphasis. But what is the sin that the apostles referring to? I believe it's the sin of unbelief that we got in chapter 4 and it's something that can affect us. We can limit God. We can say God won't do that.
And so, umm, I think we've uh, perhaps to give the opposite view here as to what our thoughts should be, umm, perhaps we can refer to the, umm, the, uh, very fine reply that Shadrach ate Meshach and Abednego give to the gives to Nebuchadnezzar. Umm, And if I can find it, I think it's in, uh, Daniel 3.
The 17 this is Jan. This is this is this is this is faith in action in the in the remember that first, first verse of the 12Th chapter of Hebrews. What's the contrast? The contrast is unbelief in contrast to faith as we got it in Chapter 11. Here's faith in action.
If so be this is the Oh, perhaps we should read this verse 16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If OB our God whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and it will deliver us out of our hand, O king. But if not the known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou set up.
They acknowledge the sovereignty of God. They acknowledge that God in his sovereignty may allow them to become martyrs.
I doesn't hold with that. God could deliver them from the fiery verses. It was an easy thing for God delivering for a fiery furnace. We'll deliver them from the fiery furnace. So we get that contrast between faith in action as we get in the reply from our Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to to Nebuchadnezzar and unbelief, unbelief limiting God as to what he can do.
Well, who were the 1St annual laborers?
Adam and Eve were the first unbelievers because they listened to the devil directly and they believed what the devil said.
That's real unbelief.
We got people like that going around from house to house today.
They are even.
Uh, worse because they say that they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they're in reality, there are those who's trying to smeet to.
See come into houses and.
To teach people about what they believe and.
And their their biggest.
Mistake which makes him makes it obvious who they are because they insist that the Lord Jesus Christ was created and they have their own Bibles called the New World Translation, which is uh, really a false book all the way through.
00:25:07
I remember when I first came in contact in in Canada, it was with their writings was given to me by my landlady and I, I thought to myself, I wasn't even an unbelievable believer then. I was also not thought. I thought, well, what is this?
It it is important when anybody gives us something to read which we don't know, that we check it right away with the scriptures if that is what the scriptures teach us.
And there are many of those.
Faults so-called Bibles.
In print today. And there are those people who distribute these things.
And they are the ones who are turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness.
That's what it really is.
False.
Falsehoods.
There's a great difference between a backslider and an apostate.
The descriptions that we have in these verses here are particularly in connection with those who have apostasized our brother Lauren Perry. Harry, you gave a good definition last yesterday. Nor, uh, Lorne, do you recall what he said in connection with apostasy?
Yeah, to written my memory for all my life again, most of my life, uh, Mr. Harry Hajo repeated often. Apostasy is willfully turning away from revealed truth.
Now Peter was one in the Scriptures who was never an apostate.
He accepted Christ and he was restored.
And uh, we read of apostasy our brother Red from this Hebrews chapter 6, and we also have in chapter 10, don't we, of Hebrews as well? It's impossible to renew.
Once. Once a person turns willfully away.
There's nothing less that God has to offer. He gave his best, He gave His Son. And if a person refuses that, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation that to me I think would we could say was apostasy. Umm, the steps toward it are really starting with the fifth verse here, it seems to me, in connection with faith that has been mentioned here.
That, umm, there was a mixture of believers and unbelievers that came out of Egypt, wasn't there?
And those that were pretenders, professors.
They turned away and it led to apostasy and my right in my thoughts there.
Matches that in Hebrews chapter 4. Brother. I think I left it.
English Chapter 4.
Is there less, therefore fear less, the promise being less than a bettering into the his rest? Any of you should seem to come short of it. Not to us was the gospel preached as well as unto them. But the word of God preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that hurt us.
And so there was a mixed multitude, as you said, that came out, but there were those that didn't have faith. And in Hebrews Chapter 11, it says without faith it is impossible. Please God. Faith is what justifies man before God. In every distillation, faith is needed before God. Today we have a full revelation of the gospel presented to us from God through the apostle Paul, and we have, uh, Christ's death on the cross and its resurrection.
And faith is needed to enter into that today. But the Old Testament saying say believe God as Abraham did and it was accounted to Abraham for righteousness as it was all Old Testament Saints. But faith was needed to commend the blessing before God at every dispensation. No exception even today has to be faith.
I'd like to, umm, make a comment with regards to, uh, the sin of unbelief.
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We, we talked about it. Uh, our brother is just umm.
Given us a shining example of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
Who had a decision to make under great pressure?
That that's usually when.
The sin of unbelief looms on the horizon is under great pressure.
Uh, just this past week I was visiting with a girl.
And, uh, we were talking about her dad, who's a cancer patient.
And I went to visit him.
And, uh, I got to the door and there's these dogs barking behind the door.
So I knocked on the door and he opened the door and umm.
I step inside and uh, there's four Rottweilers inside. There's two of them in cages. They're the pups and they're 90 plus pounds. The other two are the male and the female, umm, the female, umm, the female is actually also in a cage. The male was not. The, those of you have dogs know that the 90 plus pounds, the big dog, the male sitting on the mat in the corner was 160 lbs.
So I walk in the door and and the man says to me don't worry about the dogs, they're not gonna hurt you. And and the male immediately gets up and purposely marches towards me. Quickly puts his head right up against my leg with his 160 lbs pushing.
And he lets out his growl from the bottom of his chest that sounded like a Harley being revved up. And and I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm standing there and I'm not sure where to put these hands that are shaking now. You know, I really didn't believe what that man told me. He told me these dogs were not going to hurt me. And you know, brethren, the circumstances into which the sin of unbelief comes across our pathway, They are real hard circumstances. They're like what? We've just.
Considered in connection with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. And it takes real moral power and moral courage in our personal lives to be able to withstand the sin of unbelief. I dare say if those 12 spies had have gone and they had gone to that promised land and there had been no giants, they would have come back with a glowing report just like the two. But usually when that sin of unbelief.
Is right on our horizon.
The conditions are tremendous pressure with the enemy of our soul seeking to put the pressure on. And may I suggest that those here that we're Speaking of are different than in those in Acts 20? These are those who crept in. It's interesting to read Mr. Darby's translation in connection with these ones because they slither in unnoticed, as it says in Mr. Darby's translation in Acts 20. The apostle warns that he says there are those among you.
We're going to rise up.
In different classes, and it's good for us to be able to differentiate between the two classes, but in order to usually what happens is we're so focused on those who among us have risen up, we don't see these other ones. Slytherin in May. I just suggest that the sin of unbelief is something that is very, very real.
This past were a point of clarification.
Do you speak any bad apostate? It doesn't speak of them creeping out. So to these apostates that stay within professing Christmas.
As deceivers.
Some of them do.
And uh, that's what we have here. I believe he turned for a moment to 1St John chapter 2. You find there's others who don't stay. That's really good with our brother Dave was just bringing before us. We have all different characters have been brought out from the scriptures. But in first John chapter 2, umm, if I find the verse, uh, nineteen really back in verse 18, little children, it is the last time. And as you have heard that Antichrist shall come. Even now there are many antichrists.
Whereby we know that it is the last time. So this is talking about this character as well, these apostates. And notice what he says next in verse 19. He says they went out from among us. They went out from us. That would be from the apostles, but they were not of us for had for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. And so there certainly were ones who did go out as well. But it's good to know all the different cases are taken up. There's some like in Acts 20 that are, uh, from the leaders.
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There's some who come in maybe who are like that for a while and then they go out and there's others who just stay there and continue to make the trouble.
An example of that I think of other Tim and Acts chapter 15.
Mentioned about those that were apostates said they went out from London apostles and uh, we didn't have any authority to do so says there in in chapter 15 verse one assertion certainly which came down from Judea.
Thought the brethren had said, except he be circumcised after the manner of Moses, he cannot be saved. And then further on down. This is in the 24th verse there for as much as we have heard that certain that's those ones in verse one which went out from us have troubled you with words averting your soul saying you must be circumcised and keep the law. Keep the law to do we gain no such command. So they didn't have any right-handed fellowship to do what they were doing.
And they went out from the brethren in Judea, in Jerusalem, and, uh, they were teaching a lot. So we have an example of that. They, they left.
I think we get the same progression.
In our chapter.
In, uh, First Corinthians chapter 10, I just mentioned it.
First Corinthians, chapter 10.
And umm, reading from verse six now these things were our examples, uh, to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they lost it. So as we were saying, the children of Israel, they were characterized by unbelief, weren't they? They didn't believe the goodness of God. They wanted to go back to umm, Egypt and enjoy the leeks and the garlics and the com cucumbers.
And so they lusted, uh, of those things. What did it lead to? Uh, verse, uh, the next verse? Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up the plate. So there we have apostasy, don't we, The turning from the Lord to idols. And then of course, we have the third step. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed and fell in one day. Three and 20,000.
So that's it ended up in moral, immoral, umm, uh, wickedness. And of course it brought down the judgment of God on them. So I believe we have the same principles here, do we not, as we have in verses 5-6 and seven of our chapter.
I had already been spoken about the IT says in verse four that they crept in unawares. And if you turn to 2nd Kings chapter 439.
And one went out into the field to gather some herbs and found their wild vine, and gathered their own wild gourds, his lap bowl, and came and shred them, shred them into the pot of pottage, for they knew them not.
And umm, I'm a middle-aged shareholder, middle-aged, I guess. And I think of my journey of faith. And there were times when I thought, well, what's the harm in this or what's the harm in that? And, and actually, umm, those thoughts that I had were really shredding in and giving up things that were so important if I really examine them carefully. And as we've been considering that we need to earnestly contend for the faith.
And so Ira would encourage us.
To really be careful as I come back on my journey that I had not always considered things in the light of scripture and I instead let my own human reasoning get into thoughts as though what should what should be allowed or what's wrong with this or etcetera. And Proverbs tells us to keep our heart more than anything that is guarded for out of it are the issues of life. And so I would just encourage us. There's a there's also a song that has lyrics that says it's a slow fade when we give ourselves away. Maybe some younger people are smiling and recognize that.
And so there might be some big things that would come in our life and we'd say, well, I'd never do that. I'd never compromise on that thing. But in fact, holding very carefully to the truth that we have is so, so important because it is the shredding in, it is the creeping in. It is those things that sometimes can really take advantage of us and then turn over to, uh, first Samuel.
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First Samuel, chapter 8.
And verse 5.
And he said unto them, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy waist, so thou maketh the King to judge us, like all the nations.
So at first when I read that verse, I thought, well, you know, I there's a certain benefit to a governmental order and other things like that. And, and you'll see where I'm going with this in a minute. But you know the human reasoning, make us a king to judge us like the nations. But The thing is, please Samuel, when they said, give us the king to judge us. And so Samuel prayed unto the Lord, and the Lord said to Samuel, hearken unto the voice of the people, and all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me.
And so again, as we consider things, we really need to be before the Lord and them and have our eyes focused on the Lord because logically you could say, oh, the king isn't such a bad thing. But the Lord says, no, they have rejected me. And then in verse 11, he goes on to warn them and say, you know, this will be the manner of king. They'll take your sons and all kinds of bad things. And they continued. It says in verse 20, it says that they may, uh, also.
Be like all the nations and that our king may judge us. And so so they they proceeded in that way regardless they, they had their mind set that way. That's why it is so important to keep our hearts guarded. But then in first Samuel chapter 12.
Verse 19 Then they began to recognize. And so the people said to Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not, for we have added unto all our sins this evil to ask us a king. So they're my logic of well, the king isn't such a bad thing, but really it was rejecting the Lord. And then they finally recognized it was an evil thing to ask the king. And Samuel said to the people, fear not, you have done this, all this wickedness.
And so sometimes again, these, these small things, you know, and, and I used to think perhaps maybe we're too narrow or we think too carefully about things, but there's no such thing as being too careful with the word of God. In Acts chapter 17, we're reminded that they search the scriptures daily to see whether these things be sold. And that's what I would encourage us to do. And then lastly, just looking back and conclude again, umm, in verse two, so mercy and peace and love be multiplied. And that was spoken about yesterday.
5 + 5 versus 5 * 25, so lovely multiplied and then over in verse 20, kind of bookending this, this real dark state and condition, so to speak. But beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God. And so keeping our eyes focused on the Lord, we indeed are living in the last days. There's no question about that.
And and I would just encourage us to keep our eyes focused on the Lord. Be careful when you're thinking about things. It's not human reasoning. It's not what's popular. It's not well, some people don't like that. It's really whole heartedly following the Lord who loves us so much and has given us everything that pertaining to life and godliness, he tells us. And so can we wholeheartedly really follow the Lord And sometimes we have to make hard decisions, but it's not a popularity contest. It's really about.
Keeping.
Our eyes on him and running that race and laying aside every sentence so easily besides us. So, uh, just a few thoughts there.
Brother referred to that scripture in Second Kings and the head read down further.
And there's not always the time to refer to that, but.
Expressly says concerning, uh, those, uh, shreds that were put into the pot. Expressly says there is death in the pot. It's telling us like it is, and sometimes we gloss over things.
Try to sweeten things, minimize things, but Scripture tells it here like it is. But then there is an antidote that we have here. And in verse 41 it says what he said. Then bring meal and he cast it into the pot, and he said pour out for the people that they may eat and there was no harm in the pot. Well, the meal would speak to us of Christ, wouldn't it? And we also think of that Scripture in the 15th chapter of Exodus, those bitter waters.
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And.
Uh, at, at Mara and verse 25, it says, and he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree which we had when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. So we're thankful for the fact that they were not left without a resource. And so if they had looked, uh to and applied what we have here in these two scriptures.
In the, uh, pouring in of the meal.
And casting that tree into the bitter waters, then there's less.
To ask for meditation is the fact that when these things creep in, do we have a tendency to leave it to what we would call, uh, uh, trying to think of the word, uh, the oversight? Or should this be an exercise of each one of us to find out what these things are that are leaking in and how do we go about being exercised, about remedying it? Do we depend too much upon?
Our laboring brethren or.
Uh, leaders of our assembly.
Uh, it's just an exercise I have. Do we exercise our own hearts to try and weed out these days?
Any thought on that?
Believe even what we were taking up in connection with those that have or have crept in unawares and perhaps may still be doing so. There are a number of things that we should consider. One of the things is care and reception and then there is the shepherding that is necessary afterwards. And I think there are more attention were paid to both of these things. Both are very important that.
We would have perhaps invest of a problem.
And Satan is very subtle.
Uh, back in World War 2.
And one of the local assemblies in our area, there was a German spy that became connected with one of the assemblies and was not until considerably later that his true identity was revealed.
And I I don't want to put any blame on the local brethren there, but it shows how subtle the enemy can be. And so we have to be before the Lord in terms of reception and in terms of our shepherding when those people are received.
This is a kind of a practical point for young people in in line with what we're Speaking of here.
So through the personal responsibility to fortify ourselves as well.
And I, I noticed an interesting parallel and you see these otherities out. You can, what we've seen in June and the first chapter of Romans, you look at June, uh, verse.
I forgot my glasses at the hotel, so give me a moment here.
Uh, first four, when I talk to the certain men, they crept in unawares. It says that they deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. And let me read the progression downward into umm.
File. Since you turn with me to Romans one, we see a similar progression, but there's a key difference. I think we need to highlight Turn to Romans 1.
And we look at first.
Start in verse 18, Romans one, verse 18, and it says for the class of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth and unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them. For God has shown it onto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even in eternal power and God is that they are without excuse. So here in Romans one we have the general revelation of God in creation.
So Goddard deals himself generally to every man in his creation. Every man is held accountable to his creator because of that. Can you turn back to JU You'll notice that while enrollments one, it says they had the general revelation of God and they rebelled against him and they redo that chapter. You see them descending down through idolatry into moral evil sins. You turn back to Jude. The key difference here is that you have these men that rebel against revealed revelation, specific revelations. They knew at least the head knowledge.
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That their Lord was the Lord Jesus Christ. It wasn't just that general revelation of creation, it was specific. They acknowledge head knowledge.
Which makes them incredibly dangerous because they can speak truthy things that may appeal to the ears of those listening and they convince people. So how do we protect ourselves against that? Well, I would think of Paul's instructions to Timothy, if you turn to Timothy, Second Timothy, chapter 3.
Second Timothy, chapter 3.
And reading from verse 13.
It says, The evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue thou on the things that thou hast learned, that has been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child that was known, the Holy Scriptures, which were able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction and righteousness. The man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
We could make one more turn to Proverbs.
Robert Chapter 2 and.
Again, this is how how Jude employed us to.
Pulled to the face that was once given to us and also how do we defend against those that would corrupt that that state with things that sound like truth because they do have an all head knowledge. Well, if you reach chapter 2 and I'll read the whole thing that it is long from verse one through to verse 9. You get these the writers and Florence the reader to receive the words of God the hide his commandments within your heart cry after knowledge.
And then in verse six and says the Lord giveth wisdom, out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
And if you get to verse 10, it says when wisdom, what is that wisdom? The wisdom gains the words of the Lord that we're told to umm, put it within our heart in the first few verses, verse 10, when wisdom entereth into Vinehart and knowledge is pleasant onto thy soul, that wisdom is now intimate to your heart. It's not just in your head. Discretion shall preserve thee and understanding shall keep these from what? To deliver these in the way of the evil man and the man that speaketh forward things who leave the path of uprighteousness to walk in the ways of darkness.
To rejoice to do evil, and delight in the prowardness of the wicked, whose ways are crooked, and they are prowered in their paths.
So by reading God's word, uh.
Getting a hard knowledge digging into our heart when we do have an apostate or, uh, teacher, false teacher that's speaking things that sound truthy because they're using buzzwords of Christianity or they have some truth contained within them. Having that knowledge of scripture is ultimately what can help defend US against accepting what they say. And when somebody says something, we may not know right off, whether it's right or wrong, but like the Bereans care facts, the word of God and test what their men are saying, whether it's true or not. So I just use that as kind of practical, umm, something to take away from this chapter. It's kind of practical instruction or application. Certainly for myself. I, I, I see that the need to read more scripture so unfortified against these things.
But it's proven out there as a as a way to protect yourself against these types that stay within the church and and teach falsehoods.
We're finding it hard to creep away from verse 4, but it does say that these men crept in unawares. They weren't sure about who they were, how they got in, and it could be that.
Some of these people are in your assembly.
Maybe they're maybe it's a young person rebelling against the revealed truth, willfully revealing against it for it could be an older person who's laying down a lot of standards and things that are not according to the word of God, extra things about Christianity that aren't part of the word of God and expect everybody to live up to their standards. And well, a certain amount of crept and unawares. We have some who are as we are Speaking of in this chapter, who are the apostates. They're not true believers.
But then there's also some who are being.
Umm, deceived by these ones who are true believers. And as has been mentioned, there needs the shepherding care to, to, to help encourage those who have been deceived and to teach them. But those who are not true, it says that they have been were before of old ordained to this condemnation. Now if we read that, we may think, oh, these people have been chosen to be condemned, but that's not what it says. It's it's talking about those the condemnation was given, was ordained for those who had become apostates. It didn't say that this one was going to be an apostate.
But the condemnation was for those who committed the sin of apostasy, and they turned away, willfully turned away from revealed truth. And so we get in verse 7.
That these ones are set for. These three instances are set forth as examples of suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. That sounds pretty severe.
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To have a person might even be your friend who rejects Jesus Christ.
And the result is vengeance of eternal fire. It's not something that you spend 1000 years in and then you get to go to heaven. This is eternal. It's eternal damnation.
For those who would apostatize and turn against the truth that's been revealed in God's Word.
Thankful for the brother here who asked the question about both individually and collectively keeping these things. And if you turn to Jeremiah chapter 15.
And furthering on what was commented about, umm, individually taking things in as well, uh, Jeremiah chapter 15, verse 16.
Thy words were found and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. I am called by Thy name, O Lord God of hosts. And recently ours had the benefit of being at a meeting where Bill Cross was speaking about our spiritual diet and umm, and it certainly provided a good parallel because there, there was a time in my life and perhaps many in this room could say that it's even perhaps your time in life now or was.
Where your spiritual diet was.
Was very limited. If you looked at my spiritual diet, I probably would have been in intensive care because they would have said this guy's got no food. He's he's almost dead. And that's because I occasionally read. I went to the meeting because I listened to the reading meetings and but I was not taking in the words like it says here, finding the word and I didn't eat them and I word unto me.
The joy and rejoicing of my heart.
And it says in Psalms a very familiar, very simple verse taste and seeing that the Lord is good and and you know, I could not taste or enjoy what other people were doing unless I tasted it and enjoyed it myself. And again, that very simple parallel that Bill set out about just practical food. And you can tell in your own life when you're not eating well, you become tired, you get susceptible to sickness and everything else.
And the word of God is so rich and such a treasure for us and I neglected it way too much. And so if there's anyone here who has been neglecting, today is the day to consider changing that and making it a habit of your life to really enjoy the word of God and to take it in. And if you say, well, sometimes it is hard to understand, it tells us in Second Peter that some things are hard to be understood. I'd encourage you to read from the Bible Truth Publishers website.
If you have, uh, electronic media, because if you read the Bible from the Bible truth, uh, publishers website, then as you finish your chapters, you can go down to the bottom and there will be ministry on the chapter or ministry on verses in the chapter. And so as you read something, if you were stuck and wondering, well, I'm not exactly sure how to apply that. You can get some additional food there and it's all available at your fingertips. So I would encourage us to individually do that, although I do agree too.
From a collective responsibility.
We do have have responsibility as well at the table, etcetera to do the right thing. And lastly, in Ephesians chapter 4, you know part of the the faith that we need to contend for patient chapter 4, verse 1/2.
7:00 So I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you walk worthy of the location where when dear called with all loneliness and meekness and long-suffering, preparing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body, there's one spirit, and even a dear cold and one hope of your calling. 1 Lord, 1 faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all, and in you all and and to every one of us is giving grace. And so.
It is a very individual thing too. I mean, the assemblies are the, what we see there is really the product of our collective spiritual fitness, so to speak. And if we're not exercising ourselves into things of the Lord and we're not feeding on the Lord, it's no wonder that we'd be surprised when, when, uh, as Dave was talking about, when those hard times come, do we have the, the strength and the fortitude to face them with the Lord? And so I encourage each of us to, to try to.
Take in the Lord more and more, you'll never be sorry.
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The two groups mentioned there is act caption 20. It was a fossil call when he is addressing the elders and Ephesus before he would depart to be with the Lord, he gave instructions to them.
Uh, verse 28, it says, there, take heed therefore unto yourselves to all the flocks over which the Holy Ghost have made you overseers to feed the Church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, us during the flock. That's what we have here in, uh, in our chapter in Jude. And then it mentions, uh also of your own selves come in, arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.
Their true believers, but they have self in view and not the Lord.
And then verse 31 Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn you everyone night and day with tears. Now brethren, I commend you to God, to the word of this grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified or set apart in Christ.
It's also the word of God that is able to keep us.
And to teach us and to be able to give us discernment when perhaps are those that may be among us that are not true, we need to serve it from the word of God to be able to recognize those types of people. Uh, the apostle Paul spent two whole epistles in Corinthians to try to expose them to the Corinthians that they would recognize them. He didn't try to root them out, but he tried to expose them so that the Corinthians Saints would be on the judge themselves.
In rooting them out, he may have uprooted some good wheat along with the, the tears like we haven't. Matthew 13. So he was careful not to do that, but nevertheless, he sought to, uh, different things that there were those among them that were of all the teachers and that they should recognize them. And, uh, and so, so should we, we should be able to recognize what is false among us. And we, we can do only do that by the word of God.
He takes your occasions to umm.
Two, towards recognizing these.
False ones among us are very helpful, but I think we need to remember too that there is that spirit of apostasy that we need to recognize as well that can come within each one of us. So I think it was very helpful what was mentioned before about faith and how we can fail and faith, and that's what we had.
In in verse 5, then our brother mentioned in verse six, we get down to the second thought which is disobedience. First is unbelieving, then disobedience. This can happen to every single one of us who are.
Believers, it's not just a matter of, of those who are false among us, but it's a matter of that old nature that we all have and the fact that we can be LED astray. And, and so I, I just point that out because I think it's good to remember that the enemies within, not just the house and, uh, we look at this, these are very severe warnings, every one of them. This next one is about the angels, which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation.
Yes, reserved and everlasting chains unto under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Tells us in Matthew chapter 22. And the Sadducees came to the Lord, and a question about resurrection.
The Lord answered them and said that in the resurrection it is not so, but he says there's neither marriage nor giving in marriage, but they are as the angels of God in heaven, showing that in heaven the angels of God are not married or given in marriage. Yet here we find that there were ones who left their first estate and they went on to something else. And the next verse tells us about Sodom and Gomorrah and something very significant in that verse it says.
Even as Sodom Gomorrah, the word even connects it.
And the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, going after strange Flash. These ones, these angels apparently were disobedient. They left the place that God had put them in. They came down on the earth, I believe we have in Genesis chapter 6, until for them, uh, those of the daughters of men, and they corrupted themselves and they corrupted things in the earth. And it was a terrible thing. And so they're put here as an example.
And God didn't leave them that way. He put them in chains to be reserved unto everlasting darkness, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day. It says here these things are very serious, and yes, they're serious for the one who goes astray. But insofar as we as believers.
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Leave that which God has shown to us, and we go back and become backsliders. As our brother was mentioned, we can never be an apostate, but we can become backsliders and get into a terrible state in a terrible way. It's good to hear these verses and good to take the warning.
Because we have a loving father who is not going to leave us there. He's not going to put us in these chains and reservists to everlasting fire, but he is going to deal with us as a father and he's going to, uh, correct us as his children and sometimes many of us in this room. And I can certainly tell you that that correction can be very difficult and it's not worth it that praises his name when he does it. He doesn't just leave us, go down this way tells us in First Corinthians 11, he said that, uh, if we would judge ourselves, then we should not be judged.
With the world, God's gonna judge them, and these apostates are gonna be judged that way.
He will judge His own as a Father who loves us. But we can judge ourselves first. We can read these verses and we can see that there's a path of obedience that God has called us to. He's put us in a certain way and we can heed that. And in that path we can find blessing. But to go out of it can be very hard.
Just like to add something and recall a remark that was made by our brother David. Considering the verses in the 24th chapter of Luke's gospel. I know some are fairly hard on the way on the two that were on their way to Emmaus, but their their hearts were touched as a result of being in the Lord's presence. But in verse 33 it says and they rose up the same hour.
And returned.
Through Jerusalem that, that was a choice. They were going away from Jerusalem, but they made a conscious decision to go back to Jerusalem. So that's very important, isn't it, in our lives when we see, uh, ourselves getting further from the board and make that decision to go back to Jerusalem. Oh, just before that the Lord had opened up the scriptures to them. And that has an effect not our heart burned within a.
Natural man has nothing but his own lust.
He's unable to perceive divine things.
And in an effort to gratify that lust leads him to rebellion against God.
That rebellion leads to apostasy, and that, in its turn, is visited by overwhelming judgment. And so it is in all three of these cases, the judgment was thorough.
And so the character of evil here is brought out later and further on in these verses, natural group B's unable to perceive divine things, just like the examples we have in Israel there when they made the golden calves. What's become of this Moses? We don't know. An invisible Moses up on the mount would not satisfy them. Make us gods, something we can see.
And so there's natural man that's not satisfied with an ascended Christ, with an invisible Holy Spirit, unable to perceive divine things. He turns from God's order and he brings man's order in make us a captain to go back to Egypt.
Bring in something we can see, bring in something of man's order. We don't want God's way. And there's a turning away from God's order into in heaven above with the angels or the earth beneath with Sodom and Gomorrah.
Turning away from God's order, and we'll see that the character of these men is then to bring in man's order instead. And where is professing Christianity going to end? They're going to make themselves a king. They're going to make themselves a captain. He's the Antichrist. He denies the Father and the Son. And the overwhelming visitation of God's judgment upon what's left of Christianity led by that captain is the severest judgments that are found in the Book of Revelation.
In verse five, he said, I will therefore put you in remembrance.
Though he once knew this.
How that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed them that believed not?
01:10:07
What is he referring there to?
To the people that.
Had been taught all the things that Moses had taught them, and the Lord brought them out of Egypt.
But then there were those who rebelled against him when they did not want to go into the land that he had promised them.
He destroyed all them that believed not.
I always think there must have been those that was where over 20 years of old.
Who rebelled against the commandment of God to go in and take over the land of each, the promised land?
So there was a severe judgment.
God, and God is also a God of judgment.
He did so many good things to Israel and they knew that.
And yet, when it came to a.
A real act of faith. They failed. And there was not just a few that failed. Our whole generation failed.
I I sometimes think of what's what must have.
Be in the minds of those who have been condemned and his they still have to live out their lives.
Knowing that they were gonna have to be destroyed.
Because of unbelief.
To live all that knowledge the rest of their lives.
That they.
Must be among the ones who have to be destroyed.
That rebelled against the Lord.
So the character of these ones who have crept in to defile and corrupt Christianity is brought out in verse 8. Filthy dreamers.
They don't want revealed truth. They've turned from it. They have their own dreams, their own revelations that they propound.
Defile the flesh, corrupt in their moral ways. Defiled bodies promote corruption and moral things.
Despise dominion again.
Christ, He's up in heaven, head of the church, We can't see him, the Holy Spirit.
We don't need his leading. We can't see him either. We want what we can see. They despise dominion. They're not subject to God's order, and they speak evil of those very things, the thought of being subject to God.
No, it's man's will. Man's will is not worthy to be corrected by anything, let alone God, who we can't see. And this is the character of those who are defiling Christianity Today.
#46 in the appendix.
All right, our God and Father, we just thank you for this chapter that we've had before us.
This morning and Father, we just acknowledge that it's in all of our hearts to.
When we're under the extreme pressure of society around us that has turned completely from my ways morally.
And teach that the Word of God is wrong to fail in faith and in disobedience and into the same lusts that are being taught around us. Our Father had just prayed that each one of us here would be like Caleb and like Joshua who found their strength in walking with the and recognizing our God, thy power to help in every situation that they were put in. We just acknowledged Lord how both are coming is and yet we acknowledge too how easy it is for us to forget it.
And to just walk in the ways of everyone around us, just pray that these things wouldn't be just head knowledge, but today would impact every day of our life. And then as we have in the antidote at the end of the chapter, that we would keep ourselves in the love of God and realize it's our table to preserve us. We just ask this Lord Jesus and thy name, Amen.
Life of Samuel
Address—David Mearns
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Could we, uh, open our meeting this afternoon by singing hymn number 86?
And number 86. I would like to sing just the 1St 2 verses of number 86.
Oh, Lord, thou know.
Of heart by grave the squirt from cleaning and he went to swim with his mouth ever to God to the city of our hearts fly a little bit while I'm living in wandering wandering.
Perhaps we'll be able to sing the last verse at the end of this little climb together. Let's ask the Lord for His help.
Our God and our Father we.
Thank you most of all for the Lord Jesus.
We thank Thee for the pathway of that Blessed One and for the blessing into which we've been brought by that finished work on Calvary. We thank the our God that there is one now seated on high in the glory on our behalf.
And we long for that moment, Lord Jesus, when we'll hear that shout to be called home, to be with thyself. We long for that moment. And Lord Jesus, we would invite you to come, but we would be mindful to blessed Savior that we're still here.
And there's a manner.
In which to conduct ourselves.
While we're here we ask our God for help now as we would open my precious word and we would read from these blessed pages that there would be that that would be for the encouragement of each one of us here. God the needs are very.
Everyone here is on a different place in their pathway.
Each one of us is on a different camel to take us through the wilderness.
Some of us have to change camels sometimes. Some are bumpier than others. Father, we just ask that as we go through this scene, we would have an uplifted gaze. We'd ask these things, our God, as we give thanks in the worthy and the precious name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Turn with me, please, to the UMM, the book of First Samuel.
We are reading at home on the Lord's Day afternoon in, umm, you know, Thursday morning, rather in our Sunday school time. We're reading in Hebrews 11. And a few weeks ago, our brother George will be here. He suggested that, umm, that we look at a couple of chapters in, uh, in the book of Samuel, which we did, and it tweaked my interest and, uh, it's what I've been chewing on the last few weeks.
Is the life of Samuel. You know we often take up, umm, different characters.
Take up Jehoshaphat, we take up Josiah. Take up Hezekiah, we take up Jacob, we take up Abraham. Never heard Samuel's whole life being taken up. We sometimes take the earlier chapters, uh, in the Sunday school, but to see the life of Samuel and he's mentioned 143 times in the word.
To see the scope, it's interesting because the the although we have many characters in the Word of God, we don't have very many of them. Where we have their birth, we have their early days.
We have the next phase of their life. We have their their umm.
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Their, uh, their adult mature years.
As well as their death.
There are very, very few.
Characters in the word of God that we have that whole scope. And so I trust as we look at it, that certainly there'll be something for every one of us here and it'll touch our hearts to, to see the, the lifetime of this wonderful man of God. It doesn't seem like we had our, our, our mouths already wet as our brother took up a few verses from this, uh, from this book just in the last meeting.
Umm.
It's interesting the umm.
The I left my chair.
At the end of the last meeting, of course I was one of the ones I wanted to eat fast and I went and sat down at a table and sat down with a couple sisters and the sister said to me, So what happened to the dogs?
I said well.
Have the next meeting, maybe we'll hear about it then.
First Samuel chapter.
Chapter One.
We have here and I trust as we go through this, this portion as I said we did, we've looked at different.
Different scenarios in.
In Samuel S life and I just to perhaps I don't I don't do well with notes so I have a pile of clothes here that you're gonna have to pray real hard with me that.
That we'll have something that's got some sort of order to it Yeah. I would like to look at, as I said, I would like to look first of all at his mother, just to touch on it. And I've taken up his, his mother and the, and the, and then the coats before, uh, actually right from this platform, umm.
But I snapped what I really want to look at, I want to look at his mother, look at his early days, look at the days afterwards that, umm, that uh, uh, affected him as a young man to look at. Umm, somebody came in contact with. We, we know that he comes in contact with some young man. He comes in contact with some young women. I'd like to maybe touch on marriage. I'd like to maybe touch on a subject that we don't touch on at all, and that is singlehood.
Very, very important subject.
Amongst the people of God, singlehood, we don't do well with it.
At the end of Samuel's life, there's another thing we take. It's interesting. At the end of the Samuel's life, it says, and Samuel died.
You know, how is it that we never talk about death other than at a funeral? And at that time our emotions are.
They're they're, they're over the top. And, and it's, it's hard to perhaps address those things. And, and usually we, we try to completely eclipse the subject of the death with the coming of the Lord. And that is not a bad thing. That is not a bad thing. We, we, we, we appreciate the coming of the Lord is something that's eminent. You know, I lived with a sister.
Umm, before I was married, Ruby Wolf, you know, there's this, umm, there's this plaque we sometimes see on a wall, don't we? And it says perhaps today, this sister used to get up every day and as I go at the door, she'd say probably today, you know, I really enjoyed that. And it's, it's something that that we that's needful for us to have before us. But as I said, sometimes it eclipses.
The thought of death.
I was at a funeral a couple weeks ago.
Young man.
30 years old.
Not exactly expected.
Lord will leave us here for some time. It would affect.
Many of us.
Have we addressed?
That subject? Well, before we get there, let's look at his birth in First Samuel.
1St chapter There came a certain man of Ramaph.
Ramazzam Zofem of Mount Ephraim, and his name was El Cana, the son of Jerome, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu the son of Zuff and Ephrathyte, and he had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah, name of the other was Penina. Penina has children but Hannah had no children.
Just stop there.
Sometimes God in his sovereign ways.
Have seen to it.
Some of us have children.
Some don't.
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Both are ordered of him.
Both are a very blessed thing.
In this case we have.
Umm, we have a sister, Hannah, Umm, and she desired, I don't believe she just desired to have a son. She desired to have a deliverer for the people of God. That's what she really desired in her heart. It was a time in Israel's history that was at an all time low. And oh, she desired to have a deliverer for God's people.
Oh, that there were delivers here, these young men that are sitting in the front row, how we desire delivers for God's people. And when the time was that Elquina offered, he gave the Padina his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters portions. But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion, for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her womb.
And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb, and as He did so year by year, when she went up to the House of the Lord, she provoked her. Therefore she wept and did not eat.
Here's a woman who has seen some sorrow.
Verse 9 So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon the seat by the post of the temple of the Lord. Interesting. Now this line of priests is through the line of Itamar. It wasn't through the line of Eliezer, which changes later on in the book. And she vowed a vow here it says.
He liked to preach, sat upon a seat by the post of the temple of the Lord, and she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord a wept sword. And she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of hosts.
Thou L indeed look upon the affliction of thine handmaid, and Remember Me, and not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall come no razor upon his head. And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli marked her mouth. Now Hannah, she spoke in her heart, on her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought that she had drunken.
And Eli said unto her.
How will, how long will thou be drunken? Put away thy wine from thee? Anna answered and said, Nay, no, my Lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the Lord.
Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto. Then Eli answered and said, Oh, a bright spot in Eli's life, Go in peace, the God of Israel, grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him. And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat.
And her countenance was no more sad.
I want to look at this time, lest I forget to.
Umm, a verse in Chapter 9.
It doesn't say this about Hannah, but it gives the thought this morning in our in our prayer meeting.
Our brother Henry made a comment in his prayer that I really appreciated because I've been doing a little study on a comment that he made comment that he made in his prayer meeting this morning and I really appreciate it. He, he besought the Lord. He said, Lord look upon us.
Look upon us. Notice what it says in Chapter 9 here.
And verse 16 tomorrow about this time, I will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him to be captain over my people Israel, that he may save my people into the hand of the Philistines. For I have looked upon my people. That's a that's a statement we find a number of times in the word of God. We have it in connection with the people of God when they're under ******* in Egypt. And the Lord says I have looked upon their affliction.
We have it in connection with Leah. When Leah was to give birth, she said the Lord has looked.
Upon my affliction, you know, we go to the Gospels. What do we find in connection with Peter?
It says and the Lord looked on Peter.
Oh my, each one of us find the Lord looking upon us this afternoon.
For blessing in our lives. So here we find that although we don't have that expression here, we find the very same thought it came to pass. Verse 20.
When the time was come about, after Hannah had conceived that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord, and the man Alkena and all his his went up to OfferUp offer unto the Lord the yearly sacrifice in his vow. But Hannah went not up, for she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may be a that he may.
00:15:18
Appear before the Lord, and there abide forever in Alkina. Her husband said unto her, Do what seemeth thee good.
Tariantov weaned him, only the Lord established His word. So the woman abode and gave her son suck until she weaned him.
Now I'm just gonna read the next little portion here. When she had weaned him, she, she took him up with her with three bullocks and one heef of flour and a bottle of wine, and brought him into the House of the Lord in Shiloh when the child was young. And they slew a Bullock and brought the child to Eli. And she said, Oh my Lord, as thy soul liveth, my Lord, I am the woman you know. I just love this spirit.
Because.
You know, if you look in the next, if you look at her prayer and I I would encourage you to to look at Hannah's prayer. It it it's such a beautiful prayer. In the third verse of the second chapter she says talk no more so exceedingly proud. Let not arrogance see come out of your mouth for God is the Lord is the God of knowledge and by him actions are ways. I just think of all the many things that Hannah could could say to Eli at this time that would have been absolutely true. She could have said, you know, I'm the woman that stood here and you thought I was in a drunken stupor. There's none of that.
Beautiful, beautiful spirit that we hear, see here in connection with Hannah, she says, Oh my Lord, as I so liveth, my Lord, I am the woman.
That stood by the year, praying unto the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition, which I asked of him. Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord. And he worshipped the Lord there.
We won't do this.
But if we were to look at the circumstances.
Into which this young boy was taken to this place as.
As to what was going on there, it would have been the very, very last place on the face of this earth that we would have wanted to take our child.
But here's a woman, she has such confidence in the Lord.
What does she say in the next chapter? She says he will keep the feet of his Saints.
He will keep the feet of his Saints.
You know, I'm just gonna interject at this point.
The rest of the story that I told this morning.
And there might be some here that didn't hear it, so just reiterate. I was at a woman's house this past week and I had spoken to her with regards to her father. I'd gone to see her father. Her father's a cancer patient. He's not long for this world.
When I arrived at his house.
There was dogs barking. I rapped on the door, he opened the door. I came in there. There was there was two dogs in in cages. They were they were causing an awful fuss barking and they were the pups from the other two. They were as I said this morning, they were plus 90 plus pounds big dogs. The mother was a little bit bigger. The male who wasn't caged and was in the corner 160 lbs of him he immediately.
Stood up, marched toward me with purpose and quickly, and came and put his head right up against my leg and growled. This growl was, as I mentioned earlier, was like.
I, I only said it was like a Harley that was being Rev, but it was like one that had an old muffler. He was really growling. And to, to add to it, the other two dogs that were cheating, they were egging this other one on. And I'm thinking the man has just told me that, uh, these dogs, umm, they're not going to hurt me really.
Umm.
I don't know how else to explain the the situation except my eyes were really big.
And you know, umm, it's often that, lo, it's often like that, the scenarios that come across our pathway that umm, you know, the scripture says be not as afraid of sudden fear. It's something that we are afraid of sudden fear. Umm, the man, the man was grinning at me because obviously he'd seen this scenario happen before. He said, don't worry at all. He said, actually just reach down and start, uh, and start uh, rubbing them under the ears.
00:20:01
You know, I'm, you know, and I, I, I started to do that and you know, the dog, just the, the huge growl just kind of starts calm breakdown. And he was just, they sound like a purring cat. And I thought, well, that's amazing.
Here I thought, umm, uh, it was the end of May. And yet, you know, dear ones, often the Lord speaks to us just like that man spoke to me.
And we don't believe him.
We do not believe him. I didn't believe that man for a minute that this dog was not going to hurt me.
You know.
This portion that we have if we were to go into the UMM.
Into the the next chapter and you know, I'm, I'm just going to do something here that's umm, that's maybe gonna have effect on a certain amount of people here. Look at umm, look at umm, these new Bibles are hard.
I'm looking for the place.
Where it says umm.
It says here the Baron hath brought forth seven. Third is the fifth verse of the second chapter.
It's it's for those here.
Who have had the sorrow of the Lord taking home a little one?
And I, I know that there's a lot here that have had that sorrow, perhaps in miscarriage or perhaps like my wife and I to have a couple of children that, that were born and they lived for a short while and then the Lord took them home. Or perhaps there's some here who have had, uh, children taken home. There are lots in the word that have had this sorrow. And I would just suggest this because it says here in verse 20.
One of the chapter the Lord visited Hannah so she conceived their three sons, two daughters that's five and the child Samuel 6 but she says here in that in that earlier portion the Baron half born 7 for anybody that would like to speak with me after about this that have gone through that sorrow. I'd be happy and I don't wanna take it up now, but I believe that perhaps if you look at.
Some other scriptures in connection with this dear woman that she perhaps passed through that sorrow and I know it's a real sorrow and it's hard, you know, because often when I.
Often when there are dear sisters here that have the joy of looking forward to having a little one, and then the Lord takes them home and umm.
It's very, very difficult.
And umm, and only the Lord can come in in a special way and you know, people, well meaning people draw alongside and say, you know what? Time heals things and uh, but you know.
Once we have little ones that are born like that, umm, people ask us how many children we have. I always say 6.
Two little ones before they took home. They'd be 30 now.
But it's very real and those of you who have gone through that sorrow.
Umm, my heart aches with you knowing what the sorrow is and knowing too that here's a woman that had a sorrow to in a very special way. But take those scriptures and there's other scriptures to add to it. As I said, we could, we could look at if you and I always enjoy a time like this because there's many brethren that come up with many other meditations that they have in connection with these things. Let's, uh, let's pass on now.
To umm, to Samuel himself.
In the third chapter, the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. So here's this young boy.
The word of the Lord is precious. In those days there was no open vision.
And this is the portion that we, we, umm, we look at in Sunday school sometimes. I'm not gonna take it up in that vein. Uh, the Lord called Samuels. We have in the fourth verse, the sixth verse, the Lord called yet Samuel again and uh, seven first. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord. And the Lord called Samuel on the 8th, 1St the third time we have this discourse between him and Eli and the eighth verse where he arose and went to Eli and said, here am I for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child.
Therefore Eli sent him to Samuel. Go lie down, and it shall be if he called thee, that thou shalt say, Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth.
You know, that was wonderful advice for Eli, that that came from Eli. And that is tremendous advice for every one of us here. Speak, Lord, for thy servant, heareth. Do we do we do we do that in the morning?
00:25:01
Did we do that this morning when we got up? Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.
You know, we understand the concept of the Lord speaking and we like that.
And we understand the concept of hearing.
And we like that too.
But the concept.
Of being a servant.
And having no will of our own.
So that we really get the message.
That's where sometimes we have a hard time believing what the Lord says, just like I had a hard time believing that man when he said to me, dogs aren't going to hurt you.
Speak, Lord.
For thy servant.
Heereth.
I might say that if we say speak Lord, I'm going to hear.
That's not really gonna interrupt our lives very much.
But if we say, speak, Lord for thy servant, hear us.
And we really, truly want to take that character. It is going to interrupt our lives.
I I don't particularly like to have my life interrupted. I've had it interrupted lots.
But if we really, truly.
Pray here.
What Eli said to dear little Samuel. Speak, Lord.
For thy servant heareth it is going to indeed.
Rearrange.
Our life.
We know what happens.
Umm, let's say we take up these rest of these verses in the Sunday school. We we sing umm.
Oh, give me Samuel's ear. You know, I wonder if that actually comes from another portion.
In in in verse Chapter 9.
Just just a detail here that.
I I'm always amazed at the the the details of the of the Spirit of God lays out in in Chapter 9.
And verse 15.
And we would read it this way. Now the Lord had told Samuel a day before Saul came saying, and so on. But that's not what it says. It says the Lord had told Samuel in his ear.
No interesting detail.
In his ear. I those of you who are students, I, I would encourage you to look at Mr. Darby's note which transfers us over to the book of Ruth. And then it goes through a number of them in, in first and second Samuel in connection with this thought. But isn't that an interesting statement? The Lord had told Samuel in his ear that there would be no mistake as to his communication. And that's what the Lord's desire is for each one of us, that when there's a communication, it's not vague.
And that's where I have difficulty. The Lord gives me a very, very straight, clear message and I skate and maybe try to arrange the message a little differently. There's no question here, the Lord had told Samuel in his ear. Well, back to our chapter here. Let's go on to.
To the end of the third chapter.
Where we have some growth with Samuel.
And we could pick up on that.
Umm, in the previous in the previous chapter, the 2nd chapter, we find in 21St the child Samuel grew before the Lord and the 26th the child Samuel grew on here, the 19th chapter that Samuel grew. And I just maybe pause there for a moment. I hadn't thought of this at the time, but.
Many of us were here last year.
Has there been growth?
Has there been? Has there been real growth in our lives?
That's a searching question, isn't it? Now here in the in the in the 4th chapter.
It says the word of the Lord. The word of Samuel came unto all Israel. I'm going to compare this chapter here.
To what we have in UMM.
In the 7th chapter, So in chapter 4, the word of Samuel came to all Israel now. Now Israel went out against the Philistines of battle and pitched beside Ebenezer. The Philistines pitched in aphic. The Philistines put themselves in a ray against Israel. And when they had joined the battle, Israel was smitten before the Philistines and they slew of the of the army in the field about 4000 men. Where it's not given to us what the communication of Samuel was to the people of God, that's not given to us.
00:30:11
But what is given to us is that they went into battle. No direction from the Lord for them to go into battle. None.
And isn't that like me sometimes?
When there's no direction from the Lord to do something and I.
Decide that that's really what I should be doing. No direction here, and it didn't end well. Didn't end well at all. 4000 slain. Now let's flip over, as I said, to the 7th chapter.
The the communication here is very interesting because.
Samuel speaking in the third verse of Chapter 7, Samuel spake unto all the House of Israel, saying, If you do, return unto the Lord with all your hearts. And as I say, I don't know what he communicated to the people of God at that time, but evidently it wasn't listened to. If you do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and asteroids from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. Then the children of Israel did put away Balaam and Ashtaroth, and serve the Lord only.
And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to MISPA, and I will pray for you unto the Lord.
You know, Samuel was someone, it might be good to look at a couple of verses that turn over to, uh, the Psalms, Psalm 99 for a moment. Sorry for all these scriptures that we're turning to. Uh, we're not going to touch on all 143 times to mention Samuel, but there's a few that are very helpful for us. So Psalm 99 and the sixth verse.
We read three people that interceded.
For the people of God, Moses we read about a number of times, Aaron in #16 particularly Moses in Exodus 32, but Aaron in in Numbers 13, where we read that he stood between the living and the dead. And it says, and Moses, Aaron among the priests, and Samuel among them, that call upon his name. They called upon the Lord, and he answered them. And then turn over to the book of Jeremiah for a moment. Jeremiah chapter 15.
And the Lord speaking in connection with his people that have gone astray in Jeremiah 15 and the first verse then said, the Lord unto me through most, though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be towards this people. Here's two people he selects as those that earnestly interceded for the people of God. And that particular time in Jeremiah's day, he says it's going to be of no effect.
But Samuel was a man that interceded for the people of God.
And in connection with that previous chapter, when there was when there was failure with the with the Philistines, it says here in the eighth verse.
Of Chapter 7, First Samuel. The children of Israel came to Samuel.
They said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, and he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines.
Samuel took a ******* lamb.
And he offered it.
Wholly unto the Lord. And Samuel cried unto the Lord, and Israel, and the Lord heard him.
And Samuel was offering up the burnt, offering the Philistines junior to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered a great Thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomforted them.
And they were smitten before Israel.
And the men of Israel went out of mitzvah and pursued the Philistines, and smoked them until they came onto Beth's car. And Samuel took a stone and set it between Mispa and Shannon called the name of it Ebenezer, saying hitherto.
Hath the Lord helped us?
My brother shared with me once.
I can find it in my hymn book.
Some of these hymns have been altered.
UMM and I appreciate the alterations that are that are have been for our good and blessing. It's good sometimes to look at some of the original UMM exercises of those that penned these hymns #10 in our appendix goes like this. In the original, Mr. Newton penned it this way. His love and times past forbids us to think he'll leave us at last in trouble to sink.
The next two lines. This is how Mr. Newton penned it.
Each sweet Ebenezer.
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I have in review confirms his good pleasure to help me.
Quite through. Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that beautiful? And I appreciate the thought that we have in that tense hymn as well. It's a wonderful thing. But in connection with what we have here, Samuel took a stone, set it between Mispa and Shen, and call the name of it. Ebenezer saying hit her to Hath the Lord helped us? And isn't that something that everyone of us?
Can do as we look over our pathway.
Now the next chapter.
We had this brought before us this morning.
In the 8th chapter we progress. Now Samuel has brought his family up.
Looking to pass when Samuel was old.
He made his son's judges over Israel.
The name of the first born was Jewel.
In the name of the second the buyer. They were judges in Beersheba.
And his sons walked not.
In his ways, but turned aside after lucre and took bribes and perverted judgment.
All the elders gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel and to Raima, and said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways.
Before we go on to what our brother brought before us this morning in connection with the.
These first few verses.
They touch a pretty raw spot with many of us here.
That have had children.
That have been brought up in the fear of God.
But have decided not to walk.
In the ways in which they were brought up.
And I would suggest that this is one of the times.
In Samuel's history.
When the enemy came in like a flood.
With these two boys that he's had such high hopes for.
They were born as two little babies.
He sought to bring them up.
They came to the point where.
They were so showing some some ability. They came to the point where he thought he could put them in a position where they'd be a help to the people of God and it was disastrous.
And at that point in our lives.
The enemy says.
Throw the towel in.
It's of no use.
All this time and effort that you've poured into your child.
I would just like to.
The encouragement to any here.
Who have heavy, heavy hearts.
Who have wept and sobbed?
Over your children.
May I be an encouragement to you?
See Samuel.
And how he purposely went on from this point on in a manner that he was such a help to the people of God. Oh, how the enemy wanted to turn him aside at this point. How the enemy wants to turn us aside when that is our portion.
May the Word of God be an encouragement to us.
But these things are real.
And David could say in the early Psalms the 4th Psalm in pressure.
I'm enlarged.
Some of us have parents.
That have caused us grief.
Some of us have partners that have caused this grief. That is a time when the enemy wants to come in.
And destroy.
Wants to come in in a special way, a special attack to seek to get us to be discouraged and to get our eyes.
Off that blessed one, our Lord Jesus.
I don't know what it took.
To have the people of God always to have that upward gaze to to go through.
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The wilderness and every time that pillar of fire moved, every time the the cloud moved to have an uplifted gaze. You know they didn't always do it. And we know that because it says when they came to eat them.
There's this this discussion that goes on. There's this negotiation with Edom. I'd like to go through your land. And Edom says, no, you're not going to do that. Well, we're not going to. We're not going to eat anything. We're not going to drink anything. We're just going to stay on the Kings Highway. We're just going to go right through. No, you're not going to do it. I read that portion. I thought, why not just look at the cloud? Why not? Why not just look at pillar fire? Forget about what the enemy says. Just look at the cloud and do just what the cloud. You know, sometimes there are those times in our lives.
When we've been looking down and the cloud has moved and we haven't seen it and when we look up it's way over there and how did it get there? Did it go this way? Did it go that way? Did it go back this way 1St and then come around that way?
Those things are very, very real. And it's times like this in our life that the enemy of our souls would have us to get our eyes instead of being lifted up to have our gaze downward. Oh, maybe we'd be encouraged by Samuel's pathway. But now comes this very, very difficult time in in, in Samuel's life.
They come to Samuel and it says here as our brother read to us this morning.
The thing that pleased Samuel when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord.
Well, it sounds as Samuel, hearken unto the voices of the people in all that they say unto thee. For they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them, according to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt. Unto this day wherewith they have forsaken me and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. Now therefore hearken unto their voice. Howbeit solemnly, protest, protest solemnly.
What a time this was for Samuel to hear these words from the people of God and to to just be so burdened about it and to go to the Lord and know he was right.
And and to to be be able to tell the Lord the whole story and to say, you know, they shouldn't be asking for a king. And the Lord says, umm, give him a king. Really.
Sometimes there are those scenarios in our own life.
Now it says about the minivisacar they had understanding of the times.
Know what Israel ought to do.
And here the Lord said give him a king. You know what was at stake here. We find it in the UMM in the 12Th chapter.
This is what was at stake in this 8th chapter.
Chapter 12.
Chapter 12.
And verse 11 The Lord sent Zerubbabel, umm beaten Jephthah, and Samuel delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and ye dwelt safe. But when he saw that Nehash, the king of the children of Ammon, came against you, he said unto me, Nay, but a king shall reign over us, when the Lord your God was king. That is the issue. In the 8th chapter it was Nahash.
You know what characterized Nahash? We don't have the time, but if we were to to look at it in the rest of this chapter, what Ehas wanted to do, he wanted to poke out.
The right eyes of all the people.
That's what you want to do, and if you can, just picture an army standing there with their Shields.
And poking out behind behind that shield with that eye.
That's already poked out. You'd have to put your whole head out and make you susceptible to getting slaughtered by the enemy.
That's what the implications were of having their right eyes plucked out. And, you know, that's what the enemy of our souls. We hadn't, we had just in our, our reading, umm, uh, Thursday night, uh, in, uh, in Regal Ferry, in, uh, in first Corinthians, turn there for a moment because this is really what's at stake all the way through our lives in, in first Corinthians chapter 2.
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness unto him. Verse 14 of chapter two of First Corinthians.
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness under him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually.
Discerned. The enemy of our souls wants to do away with our spiritual discernment, and that's what's at stake there in the 8th and the 12Th chapter. So let's go back to the first Samuel.
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We're we're not doing well here.
With time, so we're going to skip over.
And.
Maybe look at the 15th chapter for a moment.
15th chapter.
Then came and and verse 10. Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying, It repenteth me that I have set up a Saul to be king, for he has turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments, And it grieves Samuel.
And he cried unto the Lord.
All night.
I mentioned Samuel was a was a real.
Man of intercession, this has challenged me. I don't know, but you feel you. You young folks here, have you done any all nighters ever?
Samuel did.
And it gave him tremendous moral power.
I, I, I pray lots and long. I don't know that I've ever done an all nighter. Samuel. It says he cried unto the Lord.
All night.
Now let's go back to Chapter 9.
So we'll look at two more portions. We'll look at the there's many, many that I had anticipated looking at, which we won't look at. We'll look at Chapter 9 and we'll look at Chapter 25.
In Chapter 9, this has to do with the ***** and has to do with Saul being being anointed.
And we find this, this scenario in the 11Th verse that has touched my heart because we find.
We find 2 expressions 1 here in the 11Th verse it says that they went up to the hills of the city. They found young maidens going out to draw water, and said unto them, Is the seer here? And they answered him and said, He is, Behold, he is before you. Make haste now, for he came today to the city, for that the sacrifice of the people today in the high place. And as soon as he'd be coming to the city, he shall straightway find him before he go up to the high place to eat, for the people will not.
Until they come, because they just bless the sacrifice.
Uh, I'm gonna read one other portion. Umm.
In in chapter 13.
I'm sorry.
Umm, where do we find the? There's a verse that says in connection with all there followed him a band.
Of men whose heart?
Whose heart Scott had touched.
Let me find that for me.
Thank you. Chapter 10, verse 26.
The next chapter.
And Saul also went home to give you, and there went with him a band of men whose hearts God had touched. And we don't have the time to look at the previous verses which have to do with Samuel, but I would like to make this comment to those here who are young men and those here who are young women.
It's a beautiful portion, isn't it, to see these young women going up to draw water. And there's been so many young sisters here that for my good and blessing have shared things with me to show that they've drawn water. And I, I would just make this comment because I, I made it earlier in connection with our young people.
We read in in Genesis. It is not good.
For man to dwell alone.
And maybe we push that.
Beyond what we should.
I say that because.
It's not for.
Every young sister in this room to be married.
It's not for.
Every young brother.
In this room to be married.
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It's a wonderful thing. It's it's something that I've enjoyed in my own life. It's something I look forward to as a young person, but it is not for everyone.
And sometimes.
We make it as gathered Saints. Very awkward for someone.
And that's not to be their portion.
And I would encourage you young people, if that is the portion that the Lord has for you, it's a wonderful portion.
If the Lord has for you.
To live a life of singlehood, That too.
Is a wonderful portion.
And let's be careful in our interaction with each other.
As to what perhaps the pathway of the Lord is for each one of us. My daughter challenged me a couple of years ago. I was on her case. Umm, she flagged a couple of guys by and as a dad, I'd like to see her married. And she said, she sat me down one day and she said, you know, dad, I'm very, very happy.
I am very, very happy. I am busy.
My life is very productive.
I'm very happy with my walk with the Lord.
I'm not sure the Lord wants me to be married.
So then a young man came along.
And drew alongside her.
And she said the same thing to him.
She said. You know.
I am very happy.
With my life.
The Lord is really blessed by efforts.
And you're gonna have to really convince me.
That to move out of this situation is better.
Dear sisters.
Those of you who.
Perhaps would love to be married, but maybe it's not what the Lord has for you.
I would I would encourage you to be like these young sisters.
That went up to draw water.
We don't read any sadness here, we read of those that live the happy, fulfilling life and there are those in the word that were like that.
Let's be mindful of what the Lord's pathway is for us.
The pathway of his choosing, if it is to be married, wonderful, but if it's not, wonderful as well. And I would say the same to you, dear young brothers. Now let's turn to chapter 25, chapter 25, verse one.
First Samuel 25 and verse one.
And Samuel died.
And all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house in Raima. And David arose and went down to the wilderness apparent.
That's an interesting statement, isn't it? Ann Samuel died.
You know there's a brother in our assembly.
He's in a nursing home. How now? Charlie Luby And we love very much.
It's very hard scenario now for for him and and Aleta who have been a tremendous blessing to those of us in Rio Ferry.
He's in the home, she's living in her house. Umm, she goes there every day. It's hard.
Charlie had a chat with me a number of years ago.
He said. You know Dave, umm.
We have an interesting perspective in our society on death.
I said all.
He said yeah, when I was a boy.
People came to the point where.
They realized where they were well and, uh, death was on the horizon and they got down to business and died. They put their house in order and they and they died.
You know, I I don't read here that Samuel's son, UMM looked the situation over and decided, you know, it's really time to pull the life support.
We live in a different society.
Then since Samuel lived there.
We live in a different society with regards to these things and because of that we we we don't talk about them as as to.
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We we enjoy the the thought of the Lord's coming so much that it it sometimes eclipses us being able to practically exercise the things that we need to do in our lives. Let me ask a question in this company, how many people have wills? Well, if we were really expecting the Lord to come today, why would I bother to do a will? You know, I did one.
Ten years ago and we just did another one and it's very different. We had little children there and we had uncles and aunts that were looking after these little ones and umm, there are practical things in our lives that we need to deal with. And one of the things that that my son Umm said that is going to be a scenario that that comes to the forefront that he sees all the time is what?
They call where he works a procedure and what is it we call lots of things procedures.
It's medically assisted suicide.
You know on Samuel's day that that that's, that wasn't something that was ever raised. It's not something that was ever raised 20 years ago.
It's been, it's been, it's been crowded into our society. God is the author of life.
And that's a wonderful thing, you know, I.
And I appreciated your YY, your grandfather, Ralph Earson. And he's, I appreciated him because we were in Florida within, I so enjoyed his Sunday school classes. Uh, was, was a delight. And it was, it was hard for me when he was, when your family moved them back to, to uh, to Chicago, but became that time in his life.
Where he's in the hospital and there's not too much time and a nurse draws alongside his bed and she's trying to find out just how coherent he is and whatever. And she says to him, so do you know where you are? And dear brother Ralph says, yes, I'm on my deathbed. That is a marvelous thing. You know, I don't understand the concept of we we have people that are that are they're way beyond their three score and 10 and and.
And and we we pray that.
They've got a terminal illness and and we pray that the Lord would raise them up. You know, I these things are real. There comes there comes a time when.
As I said, God is the author of life and it's a blessed thing. I remember being down in umm, in California, there was a, there was a group of us, Umm, Bruce, you may have been there. We were in umm, we were in Charles and Bernice's home. We were talking about the Lord's coming.
And umm, brother Charles was quiet and we several brethren were talking about the, you know, his, his coming and, and how wonderful it is. And at the end of it, he, he said that, you know, umm, I'm really looking forward to the Lord's coming too. But you know what I really want, what I really want is to go through the article of death, just like my blessed Lord.
And the Lord granted him that. And I believe that's the portion that we have. We know when we read a scripture that says blessed.
In the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints. I believe that's the thought someone going through the article of death just like he did. We don't talk about these things. We eclipsed it with the Lord's coming, which is is wonderful and that's what we need to have before us on a daily basis.
But if the Lord leaves us here, there are some of us who are going to be taken.
There was a time in my life where I.
Look death square in the face, the doctor said. You've got cancer.
And it was the king of terrors, as we read in the word of God.
How do we face these things when they come upon us?
Let's not end there though. You know it says he was buried in Rhema. If we're to turn to the UMM.
We've already gone over time here if we return to the 4th.
The umm, the 7th chapter just for one verse before we close.
Verse 15, Chapter 7, Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. He went from year to year and circuit the Bethel and Gilgal and Mispa and judged Israel in all those places. And his return was to Rhema, for there was his house, and there he judged Israel, and there he built an altar unto the Lord. You know what Rhema means? It means the high places. That's where Samuel dwelt.
That's where we need to dwell. That's a blessed thing.
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A blessed thing to dwell in the high places, to keep our eyes lifted up. That's where our gaze needs to be. Yes, there's these practical things that are needful for us, but we are looking for that moment when the Lord Jesus will give that shout to call us home to be with himself. And that's a marvelous, marvelous hope that we have before us all that we might dwell in Rhema. And you know, that's where they buried him. They buried him. That's where his heart was. His heart was in the high places, and that's where he was buried.
Wonderful story. You know, if we were to turn, let's let's turn to that last verse of that hymn that we we sang. If we were to turn the book of Acts, we find Samuel mentioned a number of times and it's always in a in a very positive note as he was such a blessing to the people of God. But let's turn now to that, to him.
Would somebody help me with the number even? Sorry, thank you Number 86, if somebody could raise the last verse.
Of number 86.
I'm going to stay in the electronics days.
'Re going to show like.
Those five training comments and then everything.
Is there anything different?
I don't know my magnifying.
We pray, our God and our Father, we thank Thee for Thy precious word. We thank Thee that we're able to sing thoughts like these, and we earnestly pray that Thy love would indeed constrain us.
We thank Thee for the life of Samuel, and we thank Thee, our God for each one here. We just would earnestly pray that each of us will be able to say on a regular basis, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.
And that we might find ourselves dwelling at Rhema and to be mindful too.
Of Ebenezer, as we look over our pathway and realize hitherto hath the Lord helped us, and so we just would ask our God now for thy help as we go through the rest of this day for thy blessing upon us, and we do so in the worthy.
In the precious name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Jude 9-13
Reading
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We hear the words of love. We gaze upon the blood hymn number 84.
We hear.
By anything about my creator following you to the time where I have to begin to play on.
Oh, one 7510 minutes.
Again and plough and the following look I want to hide. It's been a long time.
And then we can't do this with the neighborhood and the neighbours and the neighbours and the cerebral palsy and the MMM, MMM and the.
And we are today in the following program.
We wish they could come.
We do it again, we don't want to get in God anytime and we'll move on.
No, I don't know because I, I, I can see you make a difference.
Where you can go ahead and scrub the time one.
So the estimates with uh, verse nine of Juke.
Jude verse 9. Yet Michael the Archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, does not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, the Lord rebuked thee. But these speak evil of those things which they know not, but what they know naturally.
As brute feasts in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of pain, and ran greedily after the era of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of quarry. These are spots in your feast of charity, when they cease with you, feeding themselves without fear.
00:05:11
Clouds they are without water, carried a boat of winds. Trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit tray is dead, plucked up by the roots.
Raging waves of the sea foaming out their own shame, Wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
And Enoch, also the 7th from Adam.
Prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with 10 thousands of his things, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all, that our ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed.
And of all their heart speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
These are murmurs, complainers walking after their own luck, and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage. But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
How that they told you there should be markers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lust. These be they who separate themselves sensual, having not the Spirit, but ye beloved, building apo, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.
Keep yourselves in the love of God.
Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life and of some have compassion making a difference.
And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the government, fasted by the flesh. Now unto them that is able to keep you from falling.
And to present you faultless before the presence of His glory, with exceeding joy. To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
I'd like to clarify something that, uh, I repeated in the last two meetings, and that is the definition of apostasy, which is, which I said was, uh, quoting from an old brother years ago, uh, willfully turning away from revealed truth. Well, some might well interpret that, uh, saying as this way that if you've turned your back on the meeting, your apostate.
Well, that nothing could be further from the truth. That is, uh, a contradiction of, umm, what another brother described as the difference between backsliding and apostasy. Uh, and furthermore, the, the application, the first application of that principle is personal individual situation. It's a, a person who willfully turns away from revealed truth. So let's, uh, I just wanted to be clear about that.
Mm-hmm. OK.
Brother Stephen was mentioning about the connection between the two things that we have, the characteristics of the apostate.
We saw them back in verse four. Sorry to go back there again, but that's where they were introduced and it says that they turned the grace of our God to lasciviousness. That was the first thing, the loss that comes out. We saw the progression of that.
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Unbelief followed by disobedience and then unbridled lust that followed that. And the second thing was the end of verse 4, denying the only Lord God, really the only Master in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Because how that should be translated. And so they were despising the authority as well. And these things go together. Brother alluded to it. I just want to point that out.
Because that's what we have here in our 9th, 1St is the despising of authority. And their brother mentioned the highest level of that. That is the Lord's authority that ultimately is despised because all authorities derive from Him.
These things go together because if I want to do my own will and disobedience and lust, then I don't want anyone telling me not to do it.
Any authority that's going to be there to say, no, this is what I expect and not your will, I'm going to get rid of, I'm going to despise it and I'm going to speak railingly against it. And so they go and separately, together, and that's what we have in the world. The very denial of God and evolution is because man doesn't want to believe the obvious that there's a God, because if he does, then there's a consequence. There's something that God has said and therefore man is responsible to God.
And so it's convenient to rail against everything he sees and says, say that there's not even a God.
But we get other examples in our chapter, and the one in verse nine is Michael the Archangel. He contends with the devil over the body of Moses, and there we find that he's a good example. He won't rail against Satan because Satan had been given a place by God, and even though he fell, Michael still recognized that place that God had given to him, and it wasn't yet the time for God.
Uh, to authorize Michael to, uh, cast Satan out of heaven or to lose that place entirely, that will come. We read about that in the Book of Revelation. But until then, Michael would just recognize it, acknowledge that authority. And so in going back to what we were talking about in the last meeting, this spirit of apostasy and how we all need to be exercised about it, this is one of those key places, isn't it? There are authorities that God has set up.
And.
It's not just the apostates. Sometimes you speak against them, but.
Perhaps many of us at times have done this and so we need to take these verses and again look at that and say, are we doing what the Lord wants from us? So we recognizing that authority, which is from Himself and submitting ourselves.
There are two instances that come to mind that tie in with this verse, and one is in the 20. Uh, it's in the book of Acts.
The, uh, 23rd chapter of Acts.
In connection with, uh, Paul himself.
Before the high priest Verse 3 then said, Fall unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall, for sittest thou to judge me after the law commandment command us me to be smitten contrary to the law they that stood by said Revile us, thou God's high priest.
Then said Paul, I wish not, or I knew not, brethren, that he was the high priest. For is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the roar of thy people. So that's one case that, uh, comes to mind. The other, I believe is in First Samuel chapter 24.
Getting back to Samuel again.
And uh.
It's in verse 5.
Re read the latter part of verse four. Then David arose and cut off the skirt of souls robe privilege. It came to pass afterward that David's heart smoked, smoked him because he had cut off Saul's skirt. He said unto his men, Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord's anointed, anointed to stretch forth my hand against seeing.
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He is the anointed of the Lord. So there was that recognition in both cases and it it caused an apology on Paul's park and it it caused a confession on, on David's part. So in the case before us, the angels were prevented from doing so. But when it's done, we see the proper response in these two other cases.
And we see another that rail the fund, David as king. And David committed that to a future time, didn't he, For the Lord to recompense?
I'm sure the body of Moses got buried exactly where God wanted it to be buried. So Michael didn't give in to what the devil wanted, but at the same time he respected the power and that God had given to Satan, even though Satan was abusing that power. You cannot think of a worse being to have to put up with. Hitler doesn't compare. Saddam Hussein doesn't compare.
Guinness Khan doesn't compare.
To Satan, the Spirit of God has used the worst possible example and still saying to us that we need to respect those whom God puts in power. He sets them up. We have to respect them, but at the same time, we need to recognize that it is our responsibility, as the apostles said, that we ought to obey God rather than men. But if we're going to disobey, we still need to keep in mind the example of Michael.
As in verse 10, the thieves speak evil of those things which they know not.
Right, which is another characteristic and this is.
Indeed, something that happens a lot, they just speak according to what they decided or the facts. One of the places where this happens is the Word of God itself. Some of the apostates that have hurt the Christian testimony the most have been those higher critics that have gone to discount almost the entire Word of God and nowhere more than right here in this, uh, book of Jude.
The 9th 1St for instance is not mentioned elsewhere in the Bible. We have what whether Rob mentioned spoken of that God was the one who buried Moses, but not this account with Michael as far as I'm aware. And so men say that well either Jude made this up or he copied this from some other source that we have lost and they deny.
Inspiration a little further down they do the same thing. Enoch also in verse 14, seventh from Adam and this isn't mentioned in Genesis and so.
There was somebody who came and made a whole book of Enoch and apostate went and did that to try to discredit this, but that's not where this came from. The Spirit of God was the author of these words. We noticed before the similarity between this book of Jude and.
And second, Peter, particularly chapter 2. And so men will say, well, Peter copied from Jude or Jude copied from Peter. And again they're trying to discredit the word of God. These are apostates who do that. They speak evil of those things are railingly against those things which they understand not.
How much better by faith to rest on what we had presented from Second Timothy 3 the other day. I think someone mentioned that yesterday that all scripture is given by inspiration of God. This is God breathed. The Holy Spirit is the one who wrote these words, and so we know these things are true, and it doesn't have to be found somewhere else for the Spirit of God to have recorded it here. He knew exactly what happened at every moment in history. And when Jude wrote, he rode under direct inspiration of the Spirit himself.
This is in the sphere of professing Christianity. This isn't out in heathendom. I'm sure that's been mentioned already. And so within that sphere of professing Christianity, we hear those that speak evil of the things that they don't know, and they don't know them because they're unregenerate. They don't have a new life, they don't have.
00:20:05
The capacity.
To understand divine things, they have not the Spirit of God to open them up to them, as we had read to us earlier in first Corinthians 2. Those things only discerned by the Spirit of God. Other than that, no man can know spiritual thanks. And so they speak evil of those things they know not. How Can you believe that book if you took it up for what it says? It says it's in the shellfish. How foolish.
They don't understand.
They don't understand the things that we understand by the Spirit of God when we look at the Old Testament and see types and shadows of heavenly things.
They can't understand it. They speak evil of it and they take the word of God up and they put it down and they mock it.
Because they cannot understand it, like unintelligent beasts. Mr. Darby, I think, translates it that way. Unintelligent animals, brute beasts. What A brute beast is just unintelligent.
These show themselves to be worse because they're immoral.
A brew beast doesn't know anything about divine things either.
But he's not immoral.
These as what they know naturally as groupies, no different than unintelligent animals, But in those things, the very things which they do know just naturally as natural men and women here in this world, they corrupt those very things.
God's order in creation.
They show themselves to be more debased than the unintelligent animals that they're likened to here.
That has become the character of things and professing Christianity in all the morality and awfulness that is openly embraced, as was referred to earlier in the chapter, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.
Why did the devil dispute?
Uh, with, uh, Michael the Archangel regarding the body of Moses, what did he want to gain through that?
Someone has said that man likes to look at a shrine and he would like to have got a hold of uh, the devil would like to have got a hold of the body of Moses.
Made a Made a shrine.
So they could worship the shrine instead of the Lord.
And God wouldn't allow that.
At the end of the Second World War, when the Allies moved into Bavaria.
Into the area where Hitler had his headquarters at the Eagles Nest.
The Allies made a decision that they would utterly destroy that compound there so that.
A shrine be not made of that particular location, and it proved to be a very wise decision.
And that's the heart of men, isn't it? To to do that.
Not the general principle in the Scriptures, uh, in that, uh, all of the elements that were important and sacred in the Old Testament to the people of Israel have been generally obliterated. Things like the arc of the testimony, the tables of stone, the Tabernacle, the temple, and, uh, you could go on a long list.
And uh, I believe the purpose for that, the fact that nothing exists of that, even though men keep searching, they even conduct searches for the Lost Ark and they conduct searches for the even Noah's Ark resting place and so on. But no, no fruit of that, no results.
And the reason is because anything that was leftover from that old era would be regarded as a distraction from the re, the worship of the Lord Jesus, God's Son. And in fact, He personally replaces all those elements of worship in the Old Testament.
00:25:03
I think we get a picture of it if, uh, with the.
Uh, with the umm, brazen serpent, uh, you remember in Numbers why Lord told Moses to put the brace and serpent on a pole? Many looks shall live.
Well, if you turn over to 2nd Kings chapter 18.
Uh, you find there.
But Hezekiah, first part of the chapter. Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, 25 years old, would see when he began to reign.
And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. The fourth verse, what I'm thinking of, he removed the high places, and break the images, and cut down the Groves, and break in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made.
We're under those days. The children of Israel did burn incense to it, and he called it a Houston.
So there we see how the.
The very thing that was used of God to faith for the children of Israel to look and live, they made an idol out of it, didn't they? And Hezekiah, he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and he removed it. We walked by faith and not by sight.
Verse 11 That it's important that we look at.
Umm.
I'll just read the verse and then I'll comment on this. Well unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain. They ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
Well, what is the way of Cain?
Turn back to Genesis chapter 4.
And we'll read a couple of verses here.
Verse 3.
And in the process of time came to pass, that Cain brought forth the fruit of the ground, of the fruit of the ground, and offering unto the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the first links of his flock, of the fat, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering, but unto Cain and his offering he had not respect. Why? Because Cain, although he probably.
Had heard from his parents about.
God brought an offering, approached God with the fruit of the ground that God had said it's cursed.
Abel brought of the flock a lamb, and we know that it points ahead to the Lord Jesus in a beautiful way.
And, uh, Cain didn't want to approach God on those terms.
He wanted to approach God and his own way.
And God did not have respect to that since it was rejected and, uh.
I would just say to each of us.
Make a big deal about the blood of Christ. It's so important to what we believe and what we hold from the Word of God. Everything about the Old Testament points ahead to the cross.
And if we give that up?
We are in the way of King.
So I think that's what the way of Cain is. You know what's, uh, you think back through, uh, the Old Testament and all those sacrifices, right, that were killed. How could we take out a verse like Leviticus 2317, I think it is, or 1723. The life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you upon the altar. There is the blood that making an atonement for the soul.
So let's value that and hold it up.
So, you young people.
Enjoy meditating about the blood of Christ. When you preach the gospel, young men make a lot about the blood of Christ. It's so important. OK, I don't wanna talk too much.
00:30:09
They are available, so we don't have time to read the whole story of Balaam, but we know that the king of Moab wanted to curse God's people. He tried to get Balaam to do it.
Unsuccessfully a number of times.
And, uh, anyway, The upshot was Balan thought that if he could get the people of God to sin, then God would reach out and punish.
And we find in Numbers 3116 that says, Behold, these caused the children of Israel through the Council of Balaam to commit trespass against the Lord.
Uh, perhaps there's more to this, uh, era of Balm because I know that there are other places that speak of the doctrine of Balaam and perhaps the way of Balaam. But anyway, here Balen thought that God would have to reach out and smack down those people with through will, if I can say that respectfully. And he missed the fact that God is the God of love and grace and that's the message of the cross.
I look forward to hearing what other people would say about that. The last one is the gainsay of Core. We find that in, uh, I think it's #16 uh, we don't have time to read that story, but the coauthites were part of the tribe of Levi, and they were involved in the service of the Tabernacle, but they weren't the priests. And here these ones wanted to be the priests.
And they tried to step into the authority that God had placed, and it was wrong and so.
Let us be careful, especially you young people. Uh, give God his proper place.
And, uh, he will lead and guide in his way. It's so tempting for us to, you know, perhaps we could say, well, we could run this meeting a little better if we organized it. And, uh.
You know, maybe I'll have this hymn sung and then somebody will read these verses and somebody else will say something and it takes the Spirit of God out of it.
Be careful, God is the authority. So just a few things about that that we need to be careful of. And I'd like to hear other people's thoughts on this too. I think that's, uh, really great. I just, umm, wanna point out one thing that I really enjoyed about verse 11 and when it speaks of Cain, We were just taking this up in our Thursday night Bible reading in, uh, Pine Grove. And one thing that comes to mind with Cane is that.
He didn't know what God wanted, possibly because he wasn't walking with God like Abel was. Abel walked with God and therefore he knew what was on God's heart when it was required of him to offer a sacrifice. I'm sure Cain knew the stories that his parents had told him, and I'm sure he he could have known and should have known much better. But I think it's it's worth pointing out that Abel walked with God and because he walked with God.
He knew what the heart of God was. And I think walking with God goes for Balaam as well because it says the era of Balaam for profit. And another part of the story of Balaam that comes to mind is he tried to, he tried to live on both sides of the fences. He umm, he tried to walk as a prophet, walk with God, but at the same time he thought he could make a profit. He thought he could make a quick buck off of cursing the people of God as well. And so.
He, he attempted to to sort of live on both sides and that wasn't walking with God. And a certain verse that I've been enjoying lately that I think is applicable is in James chapter 3.
James chapter 3 and verse 11 and it says that the spring sends forth fresh water and bitter water from the same opening and the answer is obviously no. And so I think it's important to know that when it comes to walking with God, there's no room in our lives for for walking on both sides. The the Christian life doesn't afford the room to walk on both sides. And if we're if we're living in a lifestyle that really desires the things in Christ, but we also like the world and we also.
Like the things that they're over there and on the other side and we dabble with them and we think we can make profit on both sides, then we're, we're deceiving only ourselves. So I think, uh, I think with reference to Cain and both Balaam and this, it's important to know that, uh, walking with God will reveal what the truth really is and what he has for us.
00:35:16
I like the simple way Brother Charles Little put these fits first.
The first one, the way of Cain, he just mentioned his umm.
Of the preaching of good works, the gospel of works. And the second one, the era of Valium for reward was preaching for money. And the third one and the Harrison again saying of Korra was Cora wanted a place that did not belong to him. God did not give it to him. He wanted to take that for himself. And so all of these things came in early and christened them. There were those who rose up to the ranks of clergy and.
These are the very things that characterize that, and it's what characterizes Christians and generally today. It's not to say that every person in Christianity who is a so-called pastor, a minister, does all these things, but by and large this air of apostasy that came in early is what characterizes Christendom at large today.
I don't wanna go off on the side, but this is not the only thing that has spoken of, uh, concerning Balaam here. It's the error of Balaam in Revelation Chapter 2. It's the doctrine of bailout. And I have a few notes that I would just like to read that express, uh, the thought very clearly.
Says the doctrine of Balaam was his teaching Balak to corrupt the people.
Who could not be corrupted by tempting them to marry women of Moab?
Thus defiling their separation and abandoning their Pilgrim character. So that's brought before us in Revelation chapter 2.
In Second Peter chapter 2 and verse 15.
Says which have forsaken the right way and are going astray.
Following the way of Salem, the son of Bossor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.
Uh, he was anxious to make a market for his gift and I believe we, we see that numbers chapter 22 and again, I have a a note here.
Balum was a typical hireling profit, anxious only to make a market of his gift.
So the three things are referred to labellum, the error of balum.
Uh, and the doctrine of Balaam.
It starts out with denying fundamental truths.
When you think of the awfulness, really, of what Cain did, why bring a sacrifice, Cain?
Why is there a need to bring a sacrifice?
He really denied the fall. He said to God, look what I did for you, you owe me. And he brought a sacrifice without blood. He denied sin. He made little of sin. The Lord says there's an offering that lieth at the door. He wouldn't take advantage of it. He despised the provision of God.
And he persecuted the true child of God. He slew his brother.
You know Keynes never called a brother. Abel is 7 times. Keynes never called a brother once he wasn't a brother.
We think of applying it spiritually.
And so it's the doctrine of works is to approach to God, but really making God our debtor, making light of sin, denying the fall, and in all of that, what does that do?
That denies the true character of God is holy and righteous.
It's like God himself and his character.
And the progression then is to take those doctrines and preach them for money, make good money on that error.
In the end, man's exalted. That's Corey. And who was displaced when Cora exalted himself? Aaron was displaced. Who's Aaron? A picture of Christ, our great high priest.
00:40:09
Christ is put down.
And man is exalted. And where is that going to end? 2nd Thessalonians 2HE sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. It's man exalting himself into God's place is where that's going to end.
It's a progression down through these verses.
It's really the basis, couldn't we say, of all man's religion. It's all based on works and it is the natural thing. You talk to a person and you say to them.
Suppose you died tonight.
And you were standing before the pearly gates.
And there's Jesus on the other side, and he says to you.
On what grounds can I let you in here to heaven? I know, I'm talking putting it at a lower level here, folks.
But what's the answer that you give to a question like that? Well.
I I I do this or I do that? Isn't that the natural reply of man's religion? I like what someone has said that.
There are only two religions in the world, and one is based on what man does and the other is based on what God has done.
Well, the question was asked earlier about whether these were those who are.
More public or subtle, and number of thoughts were advanced about those who go into houses, as we have in the second John.
And uh, the fact is that they do all of those things. As we've seen, we have the likeness of Balaam here for reward. He was, he was really out there speaking against the people of God. It was a very public thing. And that's what we get it as we go down to these next verses. It gives really the whole gamut of things that these apostates do. It starts with, these are spots in your feast of charity.
Where the believers would come together and they would share and show love among themselves and to others. And in the middle of that they were ones who were running around doing this. It might be the more hidden side of things to do it subtly as we had at the beginning.
They came in unawares and that I understand. It's really the meaning here because the the word spots, I think it's hidden rocks is how Mr. Kelly translates that. And it's like those rocks that aren't marked out, there's no buoy or marker of any sort.
And their shallow, the boats come along and they hit them, their Shoals, their wreaths, or that which would call a shipwreck. And so it's that's the picture I think we have in the first one in verse 12 is that they're among the Lord's people. And they're there to question, to infuse doubts and to turn someone aside, which again is why this chapter is so important for us.
Because we can look at a lot of these things and say these are the characteristics of what we do see in Christendom, but it isn't so much.
And those gathered to the Lord's name. And thank God, that's true.
But yet it could be among those gathered to the Lord's name, there can be those who go around and would question or spread false teaching and false doctrine. And it has happened in the past. And so we need to be aware of that and on our guard and ready with the Scriptures when we're confronted with it, to give an answer and to earnestly contend for the faith that we have here in first Break.
Thinking about the reward, that reward does not necessarily have to be monetary, does it could be for applause, it could be for favor. And so that's something that has to be kept in mind. Uh, I was thinking of a portion that we had which.
Uh, really, uh, ties in a little with the subject that we're talking about, the 17th chapter of Judges.
00:45:07
And we see that the whole system that God had appointed is laid aside here.
Verse 10 It says, And Mike has said unto him, Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee 10 shekels of silver by the year in a suit of apparel. So forth. So that Levi went in, and the Levite was content to dwell with the man, and the young man was unto him as one of his sons.
And Mica consecrated the Levite and the young man became his priest and was in the House of Micah. Then said Micah, now know I that the ward will do me good seeing I have a Levite for my priest. Well here, here. This is for monetary gain, isn't it? And it wasn't because of that individual had the spiritual welfare of Mike and mine. And so that's what we have.
In many cases today, isn't it?
He was actually a grandson of Moses.
This 12 goes on to really.
So how these ones can be impressive in their own way, and very hard to detect in an outward way? They need to be tried by the truth of God. And so it has here. They feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. They're just going on with the Saints, not worried about retribution or anything.
For good reason. The Lord's people should be kind and they take advantage of that. And it says clouds, they are without water. We often saw this in Malawi. You'd have it dry for a long period of time and then the clouds would come and say, oh, good, now we're going to get rain. And days later the rain wouldn't have come. Say, what's wrong? There's plenty of water up in those clouds, but they're not giving any. It's an appearance of something, but nothing is supplied.
And that's what these ones are as well. There appears to be refreshments there, but nothing comes out of those clouds. And it says carried about of winds. We read about those, uh, winds of doctrine and, uh, Ephesians chapter 4. And this is what they capitalize on every thought or strange wind of doctrine they'll use to upset the faith of believers. And it says.
Trees whose fruit withereth.
Without fruit, her autumnal trees. I think the other translation has.
These, these are those that don't have anything. There's a pretension of fruit like the Lord spoke of with that fig tree. There should be something there, but yet there's nothing produced for God. And then finally it says twice dead, plucked up by the roots.
They're dead by nature, and they're dead and what they do by practice, as we often sing by nature and by practice. Far so we were, and these apostates still are, and their practices showing something even worse because they make a pretension.
What they're going on and upsetting things among the Lord's people and they're plucked up by their roots. There's no hope of any nourishment for themselves. And so it's a terrible picture of these ones that were given and one that the Spirit of God gives to us faithfully, that we need to test what people say, not look on the outward appearance or that which might impress us naturally. But is this thing what they're telling us? Is it according to the Word of God?
Or not and then testing it we can know for sure.
See, our time is nearly gone, but just to reinforce something that our brother Dave brought before us in the address before and ties in with this first and second Samuel chapter 2, where we read of the evil, uh, that was perpetuated by the sons of Eli. But I was thinking of verse 13, it says, and the priest custom with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the pre servant came with the flesh.
While the flesh was in seething with a flesh hook of three teeth in his hand.
And so forth. Oh, they were looking after their own portion and not after the people, were they?
So that's important to note.
00:50:01
55 in the back.
That we had to do whenever we're going to go.
Gospel 1
Gospel—Don Mackewich
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Good evening. We'd also like to extend a warm welcome to everyone who can be in this room this evening. It is a wonderful privilege to be able to share the gospel gospel with you. So thank you for being here this evening. We're thrilled that you're here. Tonight can be a life changing night for you.
Some hymn sheets were passed around look like this. And we're gonna begin by singing one of my favorite songs that's on the back. It's #40.
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so little ones to him belong. They are weak, but he is strong, the chorus reads. Yes.
Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me, The Bible tells me so let's sing it together. Jesus loves you.
And holds her out of the gaze. Come back to the old blinds in their hands. And they come back. And they are completely. Uh, I think he's getting together. And so I'm on. Yeah. I, I, I, I, I'm. I'm having a good day. And I'll have a lot of stuff. We'll have to create it.
8527 o'clock.
3:00 And you have a lot of issues. You don't have to go on completion. You have a lot of stuff. You need to buy glasses and then you're doing it. You got to have something to do with that before I was in today. It's just, it's just, it's about a lot of like a couple of pounds and we need to go.
To $3000 and they can use 1000 conditions that amount or any information and get up around and we get to start anything from ourselves and I need to provide you a lot of money and I yeah I see you've got a lot of well you're going to get.
A lot of money to get yourself as well. And you're going to do anything? Yeah. I, I, I, I I don't know. Excuse me now, but I'm pulling up. Well, I'll have to get it from the house. I'll probably, I'll probably make a total of the Commission. I don't know.
2001's name is rattle Skype Wow skate 2005 and give me a call about.
Yeah, I'm fine. Probably doing 015953. Well, I think it's almost a month and a month you'll have a lot of money to see if you're gonna have a lot of security. So you're a lot of community and I'll just go out to community. Yeah, Community 500 and four dollars. Yeah. So 5500 and total powerful communities.
I'd like to sing one more song for the younger ones who are here #43.
One door and only one, and yet its sides are two.
00:05:00
Inside and outside? On which side are you #43?
One door and only one.
Star I have to give you a lot of people and all the new ones. And yeah, I just thought it's potatoes. I have one chicken. I don't think I do.
Before we pray, we're gonna read one verse to get us started.
The verses that will be reading come from the Holy Bible.
This one comes from the book of John.
John is in the New Testament.
John, Chapter 3.
And we're gonna read verse 16.
You're welcome to put your finger on the verse as we read it.
It says for God.
So love the world.
That he gave his only begotten Son.
That whosoever.
Believeth in him.
Should not perish, but have.
Everlasting life.
Let's close our eyes, we'll bow our heads, we'll pray and ask the Lord's help.
We thank you, Lord Jesus, that this evening we can come together, we can open up the Holy Scriptures, we can read from Thy word and read the true account of how Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. We pray tonight that if there's one who is burdened with their sin, there is one who has an emptiness, a void that needs to be filled.
That if there's one who knows they're on the wrong Rd.
The road leading to hell. We pray that tonight they would have listening ears, tonight they would see your love for them, and tonight they would accept your free offer of salvation. We ask this in the name and in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Again, thank you all for coming here tonight. It's it's a wonderful privilege to be able to share the gospel with you for those who have been here.
All day during the Bible conference for those who joined us this afternoon and for those who are joining us this evening, we welcome you thank you thank you for coming we know that you have choices we know that you have options we know that there are other things to do on a Saturday evening. We appreciate you being here this evening tonight's message is wonderful and it's life changing for those who are listening to this podcast, for those who are listening to this recording on the Internet around the world, we.
St. Thomas ON, It's good to to have you joining in as well. So thank you everyone, and thank you for being here and thank you for listening.
We're gonna be pulling the Scriptures from this book. It's the Holy Bible.
It's not a textbook, it's God's Word. It's written by men and women who live many years ago, who lived in different parts of the world, written by ones who didn't even always know each other. But every word of God is true, and it's a very holy book to us.
And we're going to begin by reading a reference in the book of Second Timothy.
Chapter 3.
And we're gonna read verse 16.
Second Timothy chapter 3, verse 16 says all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction.
In righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. So as we begin tonight's message, we're gonna be reading from the Bible. It's it's full of good history and it's very important history, but it's more than that. It's God's word from the very first verse in the Bible, Genesis chapter one verse one, all the way to the very last book in the Bible.
The very last chapter, the very last verse, it is God's word.
It's not my opinion, it's not the opinion of those here in this room, it's not the opinion of Christians. It's God's word and all of it is true. God's word is true. Thy word is truth. Another thing I want to begin is bring out at the very beginning is that there is one God.
00:10:17
And one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
Let's turn to the to that verse.
It's in the book of, uh, First Timothy.
First Timothy chapter 2. We'll start with verse one again. Please follow along. It's not what I say, it's what God says. First Timothy chapter 2 and verse one it says. I exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, and for all that are in authority.
That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
For this is good and acceptable.
In the sight of God our Savior. And this is the heart of God tonight.
God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. So when I make reference to God, and Jesus is God, we're referring to one God. Sometimes people think that Christians believe in more than one God. We believe in one God, and Jesus is God.
One God, and the last thing before we get started, which I made reference to at the very beginning, is that God is love. God cares about you.
Cares about you more than you know. Perhaps you've never thought of it that way. That the God of this world, the God of this universe who created you and who created me, loves you passionately, loves you and longs to forgive you of your sins. The message that we have tonight, which is true, is life changing.
It is wonderful. God is love. It's an item going to follow a very simple outline.
I'm gonna talk about the birth of Jesus from the scriptures. We're gonna talk about his death.
We're going to talk about his resurrection and mention his soon return.
That is the gospel message.
Now, as I mentioned, the Bible was written by many different ones, men, women, ones who lived in different time periods, who lived in different continents. Some knew each other, some didn't know each other.
But in the very beginning.
God created this world, so no one is here by accident. No one is here by chance. You have a Creator, I have a creator, and our Creator is God. He created Adam and He created. Even from there, life has continued on all the way to 2017 right here in St. Thomas, ON.
And in the Old Testament, the Bible is broken down into two parts. The Old Testament, in the New Testament, different ones prophesied that there would be one who would be born. And this one who they prophesied would be Jesus. Think of that. Years before he was born, it was prophesied that Jesus would be born. Not only was the prophesied that he would be born, but it was also prophesied hundreds of years before he was born.
Where he would be born.
Not in Toronto, not in Montreal, but in Bethlehem.
That prophecy was fulfilled. It was prophesied that his mother.
He would become from a virgin. That prophecy was fulfilled. So as we read the Bible, it's not just historical facts and figures. Many prophecies have come true and those that haven't come true will come true. God's word is alive. It's quick and powerful. It's sharper than any two edged sword and the birth of Jesus Christ.
It really happened. Please turn with me to the book of Matthew. Matthew chapter one.
It takes me a little while to get there too sometimes.
So I'm reading in Matthew chapter one, kind of towards the end of the chapter. I'm going to start with verse 21. I'd like you to follow along if you have a Bible.
00:15:05
And it says that she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel.
Which is being interpreted God with us.
Then Joseph, being raised from the sleep that is the Angel of the Lord, had bidden him.
Unto him his wife, and knew her not till she had brought forth her first born son.
And he called his name Jesus.
Now why was Jesus born? Why is it so important that we have before us tonight Jesus?
We don't have before us a bunch of rules and regulations that we're gonna try to follow and try to become holy that way. That's not gonna help us. We have before us tonight a person, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God manifest in flesh. And tonight we're gonna be speaking about Him because He is the way, the truth, and the life, and he is the one who can forgive you.
Of your sins.
Tonight.
Down through the years, going all the way back to Adam and Eve, not a single person, including Adam and Eve down through the years lived a perfect life. And God is holy and God is perfect. And God desires to have a relationship with his creature, you and I, to be able to enjoy fellowship together, to be able to enjoy company together.
But because of sin.
We have been separated from God, our sins.
Have separated us from God and the Bible tells us in Romans chapter 3, verse 23 that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That includes me. I'm not perfect. Nobody in this room is perfect. We're not even going to try to pretend that we're good because it wouldn't work. God sees right through. He knows the thoughts. He knows the intents of the heart.
He knows our life from before we were born.
Until it ends.
And he sees the sins in our lives, and God can't allow sin into heaven.
Sin is awful.
Thin is terrible.
Is like that dirty diaper that stinks and you want to get rid of it. You want to get it out of the kitchen as fast as you can. You want to isolate it, You want to remove it.
Sometimes you go to people's houses and they ask you to take off their shoes because they don't want to have dirt come into the house. God can't allow sin into heaven and it is a big and serious problem. And so that is why Jesus came. Jesus didn't come to help the United States and help Canada and other countries solve their problems. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He was thinking of you.
When he came, and so he came into this world and he lived here.
In this world, for 33 years, always doing the will of his Father, He could not sin. He did not sin. He knew no sin. He went around helping people, healing people. He also went about speaking truth, changing lives, bringing forth truth.
He was God manifest in flesh.
But where we're gonna pick up the story now is that this world, the ones who were living at that time, and if we were living back then, our hearts would have been just the same.
We didn't want Jesus. The cry was away with him.
We will not have this man to reign over us. Man wanted to do his own thing. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone.
To his own way, we did not want Jesus and we're going to read reference briefly what happened to Jesus.
And This is why it's significant, because Jesus came into this world.
To go to a place called Calvary's Cross.
And as a substitute, take the punishment that you and I deserve.
That's why Jesus came. He was crucified, but he came to die and to be punished for the sins that you and that I had committed. Turn with me, please, to Matthew chapter 27.
00:20:01
So the scene now that we're gonna be looking at is Jesus on the cross and there's gonna be a cross on his right hand and there's gonna be a cross on the left hand side.
And Jesus is on the cross. The two thieves are on the cross as well. So picture the scene in the middle. There's a man, Jesus, who did not sin, could not sin, knew no sin, and on the right hand and on the left hand were men who were guilty and who deserve to die. But the one in the middle, he did not deserve to die.
Picking it up in Matthew chapter 27, it says verse 38 Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand and the other on the left, and they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads and saying, Thou that destroyeth the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.
Likewise also the chief priest mocking him with the scribes and elders said.
He saved others himself. He cannot save if he be the king of Israel. Let him now come down from the cross.
And we will believe him. Come on, Do you think they really would have believed him if he came down from the cross?
No, but he knew what lay ahead while he was there. He knew what lay ahead. And even though they were mocking him, even though they were taunting him, even though they were saying come down from the cross.
Did he come down? No, he didn't. I'm reminded of the 1St and Nehemiah, I believe prophetic Neo Nehemiah chapter six. He could say I am doing a great work. I cannot come down.
Jesus was about to be punished for the sins.
That you and I had committed. And there he was on the cross. He had already had the crown of thorns put on him. He had already been spit at. He had already been buffeted. And there he was people saying come down, if you are the Son of God, come down. But he didn't come down because He had. He had important work to do. I say that reverently. He was thinking of you tonight. He was thinking of me. And he knew that. Our greatest need.
Is forgiveness of our sins.
Verse 45 Now from the 6th hour there was darkness over all the land until the 9th hour and about the 9th hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani, that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me there on the cross for three hours?
God punished the Lord Jesus.
The one who did know sin. The one who knew no sin.
The one who could not sin, He bore the punishment that you and I deserve. You and I, we deserve to go to the lake of fire. We deserve to go to hell for our sins. That's the only fair outcome. But Jesus in love went to the cross and died as a substitute for you and I, taking on the punishment that we deserve if we will repent and put our faith and trust in Him. Some of the.
Ones in this room, you know what a substitute is. I teach school, elementary and middle school, and some days if I'm not there, there's a substitute teacher. Nowadays we use sometimes the word guest teacher, but there's somebody who's covering for me. So that's a classroom, has an adult in there. There would be chaos if there wasn't. There's someone in there as a substitute and we deserve to be punished for our sins. Jesus went to the cross.
As a substitute for us.
Punish me instead. I will go, I will die, I will bear the punishment so that you can be set free. Would you turn with me to the book of John, please?
So there is Jesus on the cross. He has been punished for the sins.
That he didn't commit punished so that you and I could have forgiveness of sins. Verse 32. I'm sorry, verse 28.
Matthew chapter. I'm sorry, John chapter 19, verse 20.
Sorry, sorry, sorry.
John chapter 19 and verse 28.
After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Seth, I thirst now. There was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled the sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth.
00:25:14
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said these are life changing words for the Christians in this world, those who know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. These words that he said on the cross are full of meaningful of importance because at this point he could say.
It is finished.
The work that he had done, the death that he was about to die.
The punishment that he had taken on Calvary's cross, the work was done and he could say it is finished. And the good news that we can proclaim here in Saint Thomas and around the world is that you do not and cannot work your way to heaven. The work has already been done. Jesus has paid the price in full, and tonight he offers you salvation.
Tonight he offers you salvation and listen to this. This is oh, this is so good. Verse 30.
Two.
I say it reverently, but let's just I'm gonna get to it. It's gonna be verse 34. Jesus had finished the work on the cross, Then came the soldiers and break the legs of the 1St and the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they break not his legs, but one of the soldiers with a spear.
Pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood.
And water.
In the Old Testament it says without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. In the Old Testament it says when I see the blood I will pass over you. And there it Calvary's cross, Jesus on the cross the work was done. Boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, the precious blood begins flow and it is the blood of Jesus Christ his Son that cleanseth us.
From Austin.
It is the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, that cleanseth us from all sin. So the sins that we have, the good news that we can share with you in the gospel is good news is that the precious blood of Jesus has been shed. And those things that you have, they can be forgiven tonight because the blood was shed in whom we have redemption through his blood.
The forgiveness of sins. Let's turn to that person first, John, just so you can see.
It's true. Oh, it's so good.
First John, chapter one.
It's OK if I go a few more minutes.
First John chapter one and verse 7.
Breaks tears to my eyes. First John chapter one verse 7, the end of the verse the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin and it is the blood that can cleanse sorry, sorry. It is the blood that can cleanse us from our sins tonight and Peter could say.
Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man has preached unto you Jesus.
That is preached unto you, the forgiveness of sins. How marvelous. But the story doesn't end there. Turn back to Matthew chapter 27.
Matthew chapter 27. I'm going to kind of paraphrase it at this point.
Jesus had borne the punishment. His precious blood had been shed.
His body was taken down off the cross. A wealthy man UMM named Joseph helped to make this a possible help to make this a reality and his body was placed in a tomb and a great big stone was put in front of the tomb and it was sealed shut and guards were stationed around that tomb.
That we can read it real quick. Matthew chapter 27.
Verse 64 Command therefore, that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples came by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead, so the last heir shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch, go your way, make it as sure as you can. So they went and made the sepulchre sure.
00:30:15
Feeling the stone and setting a watch.
So there Jesus was buried. A big stone was put in front of it.
It was sealed and it was guarded.
Now, as I talk about Jesus tonight, this is one of the most exciting parts of the gospel message. This next part, this is what separates Christianity from a lot of other religions.
Jesus and Christianity is not a religion by the way either, but Jesus was placed in that tomb.
And tonight, we're not following the teachings of a dead man, because that's not the end of the story.
He was put into that tomb.
But my friend, the good news is.
Three days later.
Three days later, Jesus.
Rose from the dead tonight we can tell you. Matthew chapter 28, verse 6.
Matthew chapter 28 verse five that there was a great earthquake. The stone was rolled back. Ones were allowed to look into the tomb. They didn't see the body of Jesus because there was nobody in there. No body as in nobody. There was nobody in there. The tomb was empty.
As a songwriter could say, up from the grave he arose.
With a mighty triumph or his foes tonight the good news is that the good news is Jesus is alive. Jesus is alive. He is not dead. He was dead, but he is not dead. Tonight the good news is Jesus is alive.
To verse 6, verse five, I know that you seek Jesus which was crucified. He is not here.
For he is risen, as he said. Come see the place where the Lord.
Laid.
Lei tonight, the good news, the glorious news is that Jesus is not dead. He is alive, and he was on earth and eventually he returned to heaven where he is tonight. And so as we talk to you about the Lord Jesus, we're not talking about a dead man. We're talking about one who loved you, who came into this world, who went to Calvary's cross and died so that you could have your sins forgiven.
Bore the The punishment that you deserve to be punished with was buried put in in the tomb.
And rose again, and he is in the glory now, and soon he is coming to take us home.
So tonight, as we wrap this up, again, thank you for listening. Thank you for being respectful to the Gospel message. Thank you for being respectful to the Scriptures.
There's about 400, maybe 500 in this room.
If you could just do me a favor right now, I need you to listen very, very carefully here.
I don't know your background.
But I do know that God loves you and he cares about you.
And tonight he would like to save you. Tonight he would like to forgive you of your sins. Tonight he would like to set you free. That burden of sin that you have, it's kind of like a beach ball. You kind of just try to suppress it and say, I hope it goes away, but it doesn't go away. It just keeps popping up. It keeps coming back. It's not going to go away tonight. Jesus is the one who can forgive you of your sins.
You say tonight I have a void in my heart. I've been trying to satisfy myself by the things that this world offers. I've been pouring myself into education. I've been pouring myself into stocks and bonds. I've been in pouring myself into real estate. I've been looking. I've been trying to read the different philosophers. I've been trying to fill that void. But tonight, I'll be real with you. It's not filled tonight. Jesus can fill that void.
Maybe tonight you're sitting here with the realization that if I were to die tonight.
I would end up in the Lake of Fire.
Tonight that your course, your trajectory of your life can be changed by Jesus Christ. And so tonight, as we get ready to close, I want to invite you to accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior. I want to invite you to say yes to the one who loved you and the one who gave his life for you.
00:35:16
What that looks like.
Just right where you're sitting. It doesn't even have you don't even have to get out of your seat. Come, come to the realization right where you're sitting that you can say in your in your heart, yes, I believe that what I've heard tonight is true. I believe that God's word is true and that I am a Sinner.
I also believe that Jesus gave his life for me on Calvary's cross, that his precious blood was shed for me.
And that if I repent and put my faith and trust in Him, I will be saved.
And if you do that tonight, you will right where you're sitting right now. You can just bow your head. You can pray.
From your heart, it's not a formula. Just in your heart you can say right now, Lord Jesus, I am a Sinner. I believe you died for me. Please come into my heart. Please wash my sins away. And He'll do that.
We love you, God loves you.
Lord willing, we'll be here again tomorrow unless the Lord comes tonight. We invite you to come back. We invite you to come to Sunday school. If you have questions about what has been said tonight, you have questions about what you heard, please see myself. Please see one of the other adults in this room. We'd be happy to talk with you. I was in your shoes at one time, too. I needed a savior, and he saved me.
Let's close in prayer.
Lord Jesus, we just thank thee that tonight if there's one in this room who hears you knocking at their hearts door.
One who hasn't yet said yes, Lord Jesus, come into my heart. One who has not said yet.
Please wash away my sins. We pray that tonight there would be those in this room who would say, who would ask you to be their Savior, who would repent and put their faith and trust in you. We give thanks and your worthy and precious name, Amen. Again, we love you. Thank you for coming.
Her Sins Which Were Many Were Paid For and Forgiven
Children—Paul House
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
To get started, right, children? All right, so we need some volunteers with some hemp.
Caleb.
#44.
Into a tent where?
-Huh.
So it's good to be.
Out with my head.
Tell me about it.
Valvation, Illinois.
Kill one can stay out of the children's house. I'll be here for the house won't give me.
Maybe you saw a lot of me and I was born against those above everything and I'm not considering any of your diet pain.
On that one, yeah, I've heard it's my time. So that's a meeting for a local woman and I don't know why I'm getting antibiotic at all. They're getting anything happens. So I don't know. I don't see anything like that. Again, I don't care. I don't care again.
I don't think so.
You can't say anything. I'm like, you don't bring them out of bed and all the while eating out and everyone has told me to be slow.
You're going to have any testimony or anything? That's right. Now, again, I don't think I'm going down validations so everything. Can you tell us?
When you can say that you don't blame my own parents and you know how long I'm getting at that at the very high and so I want to begin to give you.
Another one.
#46 please.
Maybe a girl this time, This girl here.
#47 OK.
When he come in.
The morning.
Let's outside.
Friday and four days from.
I was just thinking of a verse in the book of Luke chapter 18 with this hymn.
And it says this, And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them. But when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. And Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not. For of such is the Kingdom of God.
Suffer little children to come unto me. And so the purpose of our Sunday school this morning is that.
You children, if you haven't come already, you'll come this morning to the Lord Jesus because he wants you to come. You know, there was some people that didn't want the little ones to come to the Lord. Maybe they thought they weren't important or they weren't weren't big enough to understand him. But the Lord says Jesus said, Oh no, bring them to me. And the Lord Jesus wants each one of you boys and girls for himself this morning.
Let's have one more.
OK, Cassandra #5.
Let's sing the first verse in the chorus please #5.
Oh, happy day.
In your family.
Ly Hydration.
And fell asleep all around.
Dear Lord Jesus, we thank Thee this morning that we could have these songs. Some of them we have sung many, many times, and yet they're so special to us. They're special to us because of I love Lord Jesus, that is special to us too. And we thank Thee for each boy and girl that's here this morning. Thou just love them far more than we do.
And my desire is to have them for thyself. And so we just pray that each boy.
And each girl may know for sure that they belong to thee, Lord Jesus, that they might have opened their hearts to Thee, accepted Thee as their precious Savior. And if there's somebody here this morning that hasn't done that yet, we pray that this morning they may accept the Lord Jesus as their Savior too. And we thank Thee for this little boy that we have sung about.
This little boy that was dying, who had never heard.
How he could get to heaven. And we thank Thee that he came just as he was, and then he went straightway to heaven. And we pray if there's somebody here, Lord, again that's not saved, that they might get saved this morning.
In the meeting we pray in Jesus name, Amen.
00:10:03
Well, I wanna tell you children a couple of little stories if I can.
We all like stories, don't we? Yeah, I like stories too. Helps me pay attention.
So the first story is about one of my good friends that's here and.
There's round sil shiny things that go in a little tape player. What are they called?
CD's, right? Thank you, Caleb. So this man makes me see these of all the conferences from all over the place. And every so often he comes to our assembly and Mr. Daplin hands me some CDs. And you know, that's a real spiritual help to me because those CDs go into my truck and in my truck I have ACD player and I put them on my dash and I listen to the tapes.
So it may be from California, it may be from Washington.
It may be from Halifax. Wherever it happens to be, I listen to the meetings and I enjoy them.
And I get food from my soul.
Well, I was listening to a tape that I listened to one time and two times, and then I got my boys to listen to them, and then I listened to it again and again. You know why? Because I really liked one of the stories on the tape on the CD, and I tried to tell you the story. It kind of touched my heart.
Because I felt really sorry for this lady I'm gonna tell you about SO.
This man, Mr. Debut, when he first moved to to North America, he lived with a family in Ohio and they, they taught their kids at home. And one of the things that they did with their kids was they took the kids to a Court House every year as part of their education. So they would go and sit at the back and then the judge was at the front and people that had done things that weren't quite right.
Had done things that were wrong, like maybe they went too fast.
Or in this case, the lady stole something so they would sit at the back and hear what happened and what the judge would say and the children would learn.
How the judicial system works, how the judge hands down a sentence and the person has to be in jail or whatever it may be.
So the day went on for this family and for Mr. Debut and.
This lady got called up to stand before the judge and this lady was a very poor lady. Her clothes were bad and she doesn't but didn't look very well kept. And if I got the story right, it was just somebody that you'd really feel sorry for.
She was a poor lady.
And the judge said.
I understand, lady.
That you're here because you stole something, is that right? And she said, yes, I stole a bag of milk.
You think a bag of milk? Why would she steal a bag of milk?
What do you think, Abby?
Why would some a lady steal a bag of milk from the store?
Well, I'll tell you what happened. She had some children just like you.
A little little children and you know, she didn't have any food for her children.
And she wanted to have something for them to drink.
So she didn't have any money because she was so poor. I don't know why she was so poor, but she went to the grocery store and she tried to steal a bag of milk so that her little children could have some milk to drink. Isn't that a sad story? Aren't you glad that you know where your next meal is coming from? You probably had a good breakfast this morning. We can thank the Lord for that.
But this lady was so poor that she had to steal this bag of milk.
And.
The lady said to the judge. She said well.
I did it for my children and the judge, he put his head down like this.
He felt so bad, but she had stolen this milk. She was in court because she got caught stealing it. And he wouldn't be a righteous judge. He wouldn't do the right thing if he just said, well, that's OK, you can just steal whenever you want.
00:15:03
That doesn't work. There's consequences when we do what's wrong So.
The judge finally said. Well, lady.
The smallest charge that I can give.
Is a fine of $200.
The lady put her head down. She said I could never pay that. I could never pay $200.00. She had stolen a bag of milk that maybe cost two or three dollars in the state.
And here she had to pay $200.00, she said. I could never pay, I could never pay. She just put her head down like this.
And there was quiet in the courthouse.
And then the next man who was there for a traffic, traffic violation, he'd been speeding or something, he said. Your Honor, may I say something?
And the judge says, yes, you can, he said. Can I pay the for the lady? Can I pay the $200?
And everyone was quiet in the court.
And the judge said, well, according to this jurisdiction, if you pay the $200.00, then this lady can go free.
And the man said, well, I would like to pay.
And so the man took $200.
And he paid for that poor lady.
We're gonna talk a little bit about this this morning.
Let's turn to if we have our Bibles. If you don't, you can listen well. So Luke Chapter 7.
Luke Chapter 7 and verse 36.
And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisees house and sat down to meet. And behold, a woman in the city, which was a Sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meet in the Pharisees house, brought an alabaster box appointment, and stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them.
With the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee which had been in him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that touches him for Jesus Sinner.
And Jesus answering, said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he said, Master Sayon, there was a certain creditor which had two debtors, the one owed 500 pence and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both.
Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most?
Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.
And he turned to the woman, and said unto the unto Simon, seeest thou this? This woman? I entered into thine house, Thou gavest me no water from my feet. And she asked why my feet were tears, and wiped that, washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss. But this woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet.
My head and with oiled out it's not annoying.
But this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee?
Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. And they that sat at meet with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that can forgive sins also? And he said to the woman, by faith have saved thee, Go in peace.
00:20:06
So I just read a few verses from God's word, but these verses are very important verses because they are written for each one of us.
Big and little.
Big and little. You know, sometimes we think of these verses as being very simple, and they are very simple, but God made them very simple so that we would understand them.
You know, sometimes we think we're better than other people. Is that right? That's right. Sometimes we think we're better. And this man, Simon, he thought he was better than the Sinner lady.
He thought he was better.
So the Lord told this story about 500 pence being owed to this man and it couldn't be paid back and another person only owed 50. Now how many times bigger is 550? Can somebody help me? How many times bigger is 500 than 50?
It's 10 times right, 10 times bigger, so I want you to look up here for a minute.
Now, Jordan, I need some help this morning.
And all you know how to read good, so I want you to tell me how many liters that says.
55 liters. OK, now how about this one?
5.85 point 8 So this is about 10 times bigger than this, right? So ten of these would fit into one of these. So one of the people who owed this man money, he owed this much stuff.
If we filled it all up and the other person only owed this much.
Now the purse, the, the man who who was owed whatever it was, the money, he forgave both, both of the people. He forgave the person that owed this much and he forgave the person that owed this much. And the Lord said to Simon, Simon, which one of those people would be the most appreciative for being forgiven?
And Simon said, oh, the one that got forgiven this much, we can understand that, right?
We can understand that now. We're gonna do something else this morning. I need some people to help me.
And I'm gonna pass out some things.
I don't have enough for everybody.
This will make a start.
OK, this morning I wanna talk about our sins.
Do we all know what our sins are?
Our sins are the things that we have done before God that aren't right.
And there's lots of different ones that we can think of that we have done.
We passed them all out in.
Thank you.
OK. And I'm gonna go to Jordan 1St and I'm gonna get Jordan. Can you speak up Jordan really loud? What does it say on your balloon? Cheat, Cheat. Can you put that in there? OK.
Cheat. Oh, dear. Is it wrong to cheat, Jordan? Yeah, it is wrong to cheat. You know what? I've cheated.
I've cheated not just once, but many times.
Boys and girls, what about you? Have you ever cheated?
OK, well we'll see. Maybe there's some people that have never cheated, but you know what? I bet most of us have cheated.
OK, now what about this girl here? What's what do you have on yours? What does it say? Does it say it says bossy? Oh dear.
Have you ever been bossy?
I've been bossy not just one time, but many times.
OK, let's put that in there. OK, now what about this girl here? What do you got on yours? Let's see what it says.
Oh no, it says rude. You haven't been rude ever, have you?
00:25:04
I have been.
How about you? What is your Oh, a bully? Oh no, you haven't been a bully, have you?
I have been.
OK, let's keep going along here. What do we got next?
Oh, we're Have you ever whined? You have. Me too.
Disobedience. You've been disobedient.
Me too.
Many times.
Not just to my parents.
But I've been disobedient to the Lord.
How about you?
Pushing.
Oh, you never did that, did you? Sorry.
Have you ever pushed? I have to. OK. And what about you, Ru Ryder complaining? Oh, no.
What do you got fighting? Oh, that's not a problem at your house, is it?
Oh, it is. Oh no, at our house too.
OK, what do we got here?
Let's see, proud.
Oh dear, I've been proud before.
Boy, isn't there a lot of different sins when we think about it? What's this annoy? Oh no, we've all annoyed, I think too.
Your brothers? Yeah. Uh-huh. OK, Argue. Oh, you don't argue though, don't you? Right. Where's your dad?
OK, what's this one say? Steel. Oh.
Wouldn't it be terrible to steal? But we heard a story about a lady who stole a bag of milk for her little children. And we may say, well, those little children, they needed to have milk. But she did what was wrong. She stole, and that's a sin.
OK, now what do you got?
Oh.
Have you ever hated anybody? Oh, dear. Well, the Lord Jesus can forgive that sin, too. Cheating. Oh, boy, that's a big problem, isn't it? OK, Abby, what do you got?
Levi, what does it say?
A bad word? Hmm.
I've said a few of those, too. I tell you a story about that one time when my brother Rob over there, we were going to play hockey to rink and I was just a little boy your size, maybe a little bigger, and it got kind of warm the day before and there was a big puddle.
And I was walking along and this guy was going too fast and I was carrying my skates and my hockey stick and my helmet and this guy went right through a puddle right beside me and splashed me. Just totally covered me in slush. I was just dripping wet like this and I wanted to go ho play hockey so bad. And guess what happened? There was some bad words.
The Lord Jesus forgave those.
How about lying, Sam?
Oh no, many times. Me too.
And Damian, your says grumpy.
No.
OK, what have you got? Bad thoughts. Does God know our thoughts too? Wow, boy, that's kind of that. Doesn't make us feel too good, eh? Because we sometimes have bad thoughts. How about this fellow? What do you got? Covet? That means if somebody else gets a better Lego set than you and you want it.
Oh. Oh, I've been guilty of coveting, too. OK, what about stealing? Is that the next one? OK, we wouldn't wanna do that. But we've done it, haven't we?
How about you, Isaac? Mark. Oh, I've done that too, boy. I've done a lot of bad things. Hey now, were you boys and girls thinking that you've done some of these things?
We have, haven't we? How about this guy over here? Paulie, what do you got?
00:30:00
Lying. Another one. How come there's two of those? Is that a big problem for us? Yeah. Whoops.
Boy, we're running out of room.
OK, what's this one say? Bad thoughts? More bad thoughts. Wow.
And Clara, what have you got?
Say betray.
Oh.
Betray. Yeah. Who can think of a disciple that betrayed the Lord?
Judas yes, that was a terrible sin. That means that says to covet.
OK, what have we got over here? Litter.
You think littering is a sin? Yeah, because there's a sign that says do not litter on the side of the road and we throw stuff out the window sometimes. I don't like when people throw stuff on my front lawn, but they do.
But yesterday I got into trouble. You know why? Because I was eating an apple core. An apple, and I threw the core out the window, right onto the road. That's littering.
That's a sin that's disobeying a known commandment.
OK, what does this one say? Kill.
You, you kids have never killed anybody, have you?
Have you wanted to though?
OK, what we got here?
Vandalize, OH.
What does that mean, Caleb?
OK, wow, that's that's a bad thing, isn't it? OK, what do we got here, Cassandra?
Selfish. Oh, that is a bad thing, isn't it? OK, let's put all these sins up here.
Oh dear.
One of the points that I wanted to make to you children is that we do a lot of sins and we don't even think about it.
And we've done so many since that. It's like that bucket, it's they're overflowing. There's so many when we think about what we've done that's wrong.
And you know the man last night in the gospel that was telling us about the Lord and how he died on the cross and he shed his blood.
To wash away our our sins. And perhaps there's somebody here and you've never have your sins washed away. Well, today you can't have them washed away. All those things, cheating, stealing, all the things that we talked about in those on those balloons. There's so many things that we do all the time.
From when we're very little.
You didn't.
Well, but you know what?
MMM, OK, So what we just learned from these two is that we have done things that were wrong.
OK, so you just be quiet and let me finish, OK?
So in our story, we had.
The 500 and the 50.
Now both of these containers are very full.
And you know that Lady that Simon called the Sinner, she was a Sinner, but she recognized that she was a Sinner. She admitted it, she owned it, and she came to the Lord Jesus who could forgive sins and had her sins forgiven.
You know that man, Simon, He thought he was better.
Perhaps he didn't do as many sins as that sinful lady, but you know, his bucket was full too, just like up there, there's balloons falling out of that little bucket too. He was guilty of his sins, but he didn't think he needed to worry about his sins. And perhaps there's somebody here today and you're thinking, well, you know, I I'm not too bad. I'm better than him and him and him.
00:35:05
And those bad kids at school, I'm not. I'm not as bad as them.
They're really bad. They don't listen to the teacher, they disobey, they say bad words. They do all kinds of things. And I don't do that many bad things, but you do do some.
And when I was going through the list of things and talking to the people, the kit, you kids, most of you sort of said, huh, yeah, I had done that too. And I said, I've done that, I've done that, I've done that. And I'm like that Sinner lady because I came to the Lord Jesus when I was.
A young boy and I asked him to forgive my sins.
To die for me. And I believe that when the Lord Jesus died on the cross, he paid for my sins and I asked him to be my Savior. So my question for you this morning is, have you done that?
Have you recognized that you have done some of those things and that before God you're guilty for your sins, and the only way to have them gone is to have the blood of the Lord Jesus wash them all away? Now I want to tell you another story.
I want to tell you a story about a little boy that was 4.
And I'm gonna tell you about this little boy, because this little boy.
He was not always very good. He did some stuff that was wrong and he disobeyed his dad and he also said bad things and he had a bad spirit sometimes.
And I said to him a couple of times. I said.
Would you like to accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior? You know what he said, no, I don't want to. And I would say to him again, would you like to accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior? And he would say no.
And this went on and on for week after week. And this boy was a bad boy. Week after week he did things that were right. And I asked him, I said.
Don't you wanna accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior and have your sins all forgiven? No.
One day.
He did something that was very naughty.
And I said to him, I said, well, the only way that you're ever gonna have be able to do good things, as if you accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you're always gonna have troubles like this. Your sins are just gonna keep piling up and piling up and piling up. And you're gonna have trouble after trouble after trouble until you accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior. And then he's gonna give you a new life that's gonna help you to do good things for him.
And I said, wouldn't you like?
To accept the Lord Jesus as your savior. And he said, yeah, I would, I would, I would like to. And you know that little boy, he got down on his knees with his dad and his mom. I'm his dad. And he accepted the Lord Jesus as his savior just like that.
You know, I'm sure that he's saved.
You know why? Because I heard him ask the Lord Jesus to be his Savior, to forgive him all his sins, and to take him to heaven someday.
Do your dad and mom.
Do they know if you're saved or not?
If you are, why don't you tell them?
Then they won't worry, they won't wonder. They'll know. If you tell them that you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, that will make them so happy.
And if you haven't accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior yet?
Why not?
See that bucket? All the stuff you've done? What happens if you?
You die or the Lord Jesus comes and you still have that bucket of sins.
00:40:00
Then you have to pay.
For those cents.
Remember that story I told you about the lady and the judge said your fine is $200.00 and she said I never could pay that?
What about the mountain of sins that you have? You could never pay that either, and I've done a lot more than you. Children I could never pay. But who paid for me? The Lord Jesus paid.
Because I accepted Him as my savior and you know He wants to have you today.
He wants you for himself. He loves you. He loves you enough to die for you and to take your place and the punishment that you deserved. And that man reached in his pocket and he got $200.00 and he put $200.00 down. He had to work hard for that $200.00. And you say, well, it's only $200.00. That's true, but it's still $200.00. You could buy a a bike for that.
You could buy something else nice and instead of that the man paid the fine.
The lady said she could never pay, and you know if you go to hell, you'll never finish paying either for all eternity for those sins that you've done. So if you are saved and you never told anybody, tell them today.
So let's sing. We probably have time for a couple more, so let's sing a couple more.
Sam.
Number #6.
We'll sing the 1St, 1St and the chorus.
God in mercy.
Of the world. So I'll explore it and say, you know, you can see it's not time.
So the Lord Jesus did come and the Lord Jesus did die so that our sins could be forgiven. But you know, the Lord Jesus had to be punished. And we read about that this morning, our little family. We read about how it got dark.
And in those three hours of darkness?
The Lord Jesus was punished for the sins of each person that would come to him for forgiveness. So God is love. That's true, and that's wonderful. And he proved that by sending his Son. And the Lord Jesus proved his love by dying for us. But because God is light, our sins had to be taken care of. And the only way to do that is with the blood of the Lord Jesus.
OK, one more.
Levi.
24.
#24.
Just the first verse and the chorus we.
'Re all hungry.
We have gone.
Let's pray, Lord, we thank thee that we could have this little time together. We think of the load of our sins and how this man, Simon, he could see how sinful this lady was, but he didn't really think about himself. And perhaps there's somebody here this morning that thinks they're OK.
00:45:18
They're not as bad, they haven't done too much wrong. And yet, just like this little bucket.
That we have up here, the sins are flowing over the sides. And we just would pray, Lord, that that will help each one of us to realize that we're not better, but that we have done many, many, many, many things that deserve judgment. And we thank Thee for each person in the room today whose sins have been paid for by the blood of the Lord Jesus.
We thank the Lord Jesus for coming here.
In thy love and going to the cross and suffering for us. And we thank thee this morning, Lord Jesus, that we have the privilege to return thanks for what thou hast done for us. And now we pray for those dear children. We pray if there's a boy or a girl who is not dealt with their sins before they are God, that they will come to thee and ask for forgiveness even now as they're sitting in the chair where they are.
And when perhaps there's a boy or a girl and they've never told anybody that they've accepted thee, Lord Jesus, we pray that they might tell somebody after the meeting. And so we give thanks for this time together. Thank thee for thy goodness to us, and I love Lord Jesus, and we pray in thy very worthy name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
The Days of Noah; He Walked With God; He Provided for His Family
Muslim refugees brought to Gospel
Jude 14-25
Reading
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What number was that?
Exactly our God and Father, that we can have one more meeting, reading Thy precious words and about the Lord Jesus to be together under His teaching and influence. We thank you for the time that we have had here in this meeting, and we thank you for the Saints here who have.
Made everything possible to be comfortable with them.
So all the.
Work they did faithfully for all the guests that have come replace their name. The sawdust open doors like this and we also pray for the people that were here yesterday to hear the gospel and being taught about the thing of the Lord Jesus. We ask I have said as many as thou hast chosen would be.
Touched in their hearts that some got saved, we asked that.
This would be done by the Word of God.
And by the Spirit of God.
Whose influence?
We have all the time we have.
Thy blessing for the time together rest for today. We praise the name the Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen.
#47 at the back.
00:05:50
Umm.
Lord shout out the rain, shake the thigh and then I have to live. I'm going down.
And the flow on the green highest, I think it's finished in the middle of all of us and we're going to create new things in life one second.
The same eyes and reinstatement lower alcohol.
Interesting us now everything.
1000.
9008 thousand five grade A small tide in the wind Thursday they're staying and I don't think that no matter.
Rise the Lord.
Word will come again, so maybe we should start at verse 15.
Or 14? Excuse me.
Jude to pull up Jude beginning at verse 14.
June 14th, And Enoch also the 7th, from Adam prophesied of these things, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with 10 thousands of his sinks, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all, that our ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed.
And of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
These are murmurers, complainers walking after their own lusts, and their mouths speaketh Gray swelling words, having man's persons in admiration because of advantage. But beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
How that they told you there should be markers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves sensual, having not the Spirit, but ye beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.
00:10:27
Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion making a difference, and others save with fear, following them out of the fire, hating even the government spotted by the flesh now unto Him.
That is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory and exceeding joy. To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.
And birth is uh, 1415 indicate that.
A form of Christianity, though it wouldn't be Christianity, will persist after the Lord comes the same.
To be a future judgment? I think so. It's empty shell.
To Jude, say, similar to that which we get in the ninth verse in respect of Michael the Archangel, I don't think we resent elsewhere in Scripture.
But uh, the the Enoch prophesied these things. Is that something that was revealed direct to Jude?
Which would have been a direct revelation to Enoch. I don't know if any have noticed before but it says here Enoch is the 7th from Adam. If you go back to Genesis chapter 4 you find in the line of Cain that the 7th from Adam was lame who established the world system.
But when you come to the line of the 7th from Adam is Enoch, and in both cases the Spirit of God seems to stop and give a a wider description of those two men, one who was in the line of faith Enoch, and the other who was in the line of Umm of that of Cain. I might mention too that in Hebrews Chapter 11.
It says there in connection with Enoch and verse five that he was translated that he should not see death and was not found.
It's rather unusual that the Spirit of God says he should not see death because.
He died. I shouldn't say he died, but he was caught up to heaven at a reasonably young age. When you consider the others, he could have lived to be 900 years old.
But he didn't. He was taken up to the glory long before that. And the thought has been given that because he prophesied that that the Lord comes with 10,000 of his Saints to execute judgment, he was prophesying against the wickedness in the world at that particular time and that the people were actually plotting to kill him. And so and so the Spirit of God that he wouldn't see death caught him up to the glory.
And of course, they tried to find them and they weren't able to. I just mentioned that in passing. I thought it was rather an interesting thing.
Could I make one more comment or?
A few that we were talking to, uh, here at the conference and they were saying, I think they were mainly young people. They were saying, I hope they spend most of their time looking at verses 20 to the end of the chapter. And I think we have spent quite a bit of time speaking about, can I say, the solemn, umm, events that are taking place around us. But we need to be encouraged, particularly with these verses.
00:15:10
UH-20 to the end, I just make that comment.
Verses 18 and 19 certainly indicates the.
Type of spirit we have around us.
And the challenge in the verses that you mentioned, Stan, would be?
Are we gonna be different than that?
It's it's astonishing to me.
That the, uh, the Christian system has become so incredibly worldly. Thankfully I don't have lots of interaction, but.
Uh, the interaction that I've noticed is is sometimes very.
Shocking. And, uh, we're gonna be faced with that.
Uh, in the world around us is what is called Christianity.
The Spirit of God still pleads with us to go back to the basics and the reality of what being a Christian is all about.
And to live that way until, uh, I guess, uh.
Thought that the rapture is Nessa mentioned here. But until the Lord comes we have a role, a very important role as the light play.
I was thinking that.
Jude said at the beginning of this book that we are to earnestly contend for the faith. How can we contend for the faith if we're not building ourselves up in the faith? It seems to me that the devil is very, uh, clever today and stealing away our time that we don't spend.
Uh, our time digging into the word like we should, and I think it's very important, isn't it? To, as it says here, to build ourselves up in our most holy faith.
I know it's been said many times, but in these verses that we have verse 20 and 21, we really have 4 anchors, don't we? That can keep us in these last days. Go ahead brother.
Go ahead.
Well, building up ourselves in our most holy faith would bring before us the importance of reading the word of God, doesn't it? And not only reading the word of God individually, but also to make it our habit to get to the, uh, weeknight meetings. I think there's a tendency today, well, to think if we get to the breaking of bread, that's good enough, but we really need the assembly meetings, I believe to.
Umm encourage us and to build this up, uh, as well as the umm, the umm, importance of our private reading at home. The 2nd umm, the second anchor here, of course, is praying in the Holy Ghost and in the day we're living in. It's so important, isn't it, to umm ex to feel our dependence on the Lord to start each day by.
Uh, acknowledging that we're helpless without him. And, uh, we need to spend that time in prayer, uh, alone with the Lord, uh, pouring out our hearts to him. And it's often been said here that we don't pray to the Holy Ghost, do we? We pray in the Holy Ghost. So we want to pray according to the mind of God. And then of course, the third anchor is keeping ourselves in the love of God.
Uh re reminding ourselves how much the Lord loves us. I remember Albert Hale giving an interesting.
Umm, uh, illustration Many years ago he said when he went to work, umm, he used to walk along Beckwith St. in the winter time and he always made sure that in the morning he walked on the West side of the street and in the evening on the way home he walked on the east side.
And he said the reason was that the sun was shining on that side. And, uh, he, he illustrated with the fact that we need to keep ourselves in the love of God, enjoying his love to us. And then, of course, the, uh, fourth anchor is, uh, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's been often said, hasn't it, that, uh, it will be a real mercy when the Lord catches us out of this world.
00:20:10
The world is growing so corrupt and evil, it will be a real mercy when we're taken out and so I believe these are 4 anchors that can preserve us in these last days. I'm sure that other brethren have other thoughts on this.
I've heard it mentioned that way too. Uh, you mentioned the both the reading meeting, building ourselves up and praying in the Holy Ghost is referred to as our prayer meeting. Collectively too, as well as individually. We need to come together collectively for prayer as much to pray about.
And then, uh, the third one that you had mentioned, keep yourselves in the love of God reminds us of the breaking of bread on Sunday morning. Where are we brought before, before God and his love so much as on Sunday morning when we remember the cross, what God gave and what the Lord Jesus gave for us dying on the cross and, and we come together to remember him and his death that keeps us in the love of God.
And it should reserve us through the week and of course, looking up, waiting for his return.
And besides all that, all four anchors can be easily related together to the presentation of the Gospel.
Someone has said that what marks this dispensation above every other dispensation is that there is a man in the glory and there is the abiding of the Spirit of God here in this earth.
He indwells every believer and he collectively would seek to gather to the name of the name of the Lord Jesus.
I'd like in connection with the keep yourself and the love of God to think of that verse over in Romans, I think it's chapter 5. It says the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost that is given unto us. And umm, it's, it's he's a guest. He's a divine person that indwells us. And it says grieve not the Spirit of God. And it says quench not the spirit.
And the to leave room for him in our lives it to me it it it it will develops an overflow in our lives. You know, we got the new life which is being born again. But the Spirit of God is the power of the new life and he seeks to direct us to Christ.
And we have the word of God to guide us.
And this epistle with all the warnings that are in it.
Why having verses like this that it closes, it opens and it closes where there's a message to the Saints of God that there's a pathway for the believer right to the end.
And it takes faith to trust the Lord in difficult circumstances, and we need each other in the assembly to help us to go on.
And the prayer meeting is a blessed thing to go to. Sometimes we feel our weakness in connection with.
Where so few in number these days to where to for getting together, But again, I'll quote umm, Ernie Wakefield. He says it's a powerhouse of the, uh, of the assembly and to think of God in heaven as he listens to us.
As we ask him, it's a it's a wonderful thing and he does come in for us.
Both individually and collectively.
And his family.
Brother Lauren, you, you mentioned that, uh, these four anchors are also related to the gospel, but you didn't tell us how.
Well, to me it's, it's pretty obvious, but I will, uh, say what was in my mind at the time. I, I think that, umm, bankers, first of all, it's based on the word of God. The gospel is that's what we have to present. Second of all.
00:25:07
We want to accompany that with prayer because the power, there's power in prayer and it works effectively in watering the, the seed that's planted towards salvation of souls and the umm, keep yourselves in the love of God. Well, that's a the love of God is a foundation of the Gospels, what we present every time. And when we talked about that being related to the breaking of bread.
Then it brings in all the remembrance of what the Lord has done at, at the cross. And that, of course, is absolutely fundamental to, uh, uh, to the, uh, presentation of the gospel. And we also want to allude, uh, clearly to what comes beyond and the hope that the believer has, the sure and certain hope of a place in glory through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. So there's four anchors.
It seems like with enough and new age started.
Because those people that all perished in the floods.
They left a bad.
It has smelled about everything.
And now he speaks through enough. Now the Lord speaks through Enoch.
And addressing it.
And these people that now grow up.
So that they don't keep on doing the evil things that they did before the flood.
I think the difference being made is between those who are apostates and those who have been LED astray or affected by the spirit of apostasy.
But unless we're in the right state of soul ourselves.
In connection with the previous verse we won't be able to be of any help, so we have to be in the right state of soul first I think especially in connection with the praying in the Holy Ghost.
Not all prayer is in the Holy Ghost. He hears all our prayers, but we don't necessarily always pray in an intelligent way according to the revealed mind of God.
As the Spirit of God would be ordering things, He hears our prayers. The Spirit of God intercedes. Sometimes we don't know how we should pray, but it's really being in a in a state of soul prayer for watchfulness that's perceiving his mind.
And, uh, in that right state of Seoul, then we can make a difference. We can have a discernment between those who are apostates and those that the Lord might recover being affected by them. Apostates are not given any hope of recovery in Jude. The Lord is going to execute judgment. His unmitigated wrath is going to fall on them. He's going to convince them.
Of their ungodly deeds. But he's not going to convince them to repent. They had opportunity to repent and they didn't. But there are some who are affected by them and it's spiritual discernment, dependence on the Lord. We can discern that difference and be a help to those who there is opportunity for repentance and recovery.
I had a couple of questions similar to add on to what Bernie asked and I'd, I'd like to ask him to kind of tease out some practical application that we can take away from this chapter. And the first question I had was, umm, related to that. We read through the middle of this chapter about the apostates and we've connected those back to those in Hebrews 6 that were once enlightened by the Holy Spirit. Sorry, you're once enlightened tastes of the heavenly gifts from a part taker to the Holy Spirit.
If they fall away, it's almost impossible to renew them again onto repentance.
Seeing as they crucify themselves, the son of God of grass and put him in over shame. So my question is similar to what, uh, brother Stewart just spoke about is we have apostates that are destined for the blackness and darkness forever. And then we have this group of people that have been impacted by their teaching and there's still hope for them. So how do we identify between those two groups? We want to identify the apostates so they can be labeled and identified so they don't lead more astray. And yet we don't want to push out those that have just been corrupted by them. So what are the key differences between the two?
00:30:22
So one is the discernment that we've just spoken of through the Holy Spirit.
Having the discernment, umm, being able to distinguish. But one of the key things practically, I think is that the apostates, if you go back to verse, uh, verse four of our chapter have actively denied the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. And they're an unbelief. Whereas those that are impacted by their reaching have kind of skipped that part and have fallen into sin. They have not rejected God and denied him. That'd be one way, I guess you could determine between the two. And my other question I had was in relation to 1St 22 and 23.
How do how do you practically bring someone back using compassion? What's that look like And how do you pract practically bring someone back as we haven't Verse 23, saving them with beer, pulling them out of the fire. And let's get the sense in that verse that.
If you wanna contaminate yourself in with the smoke or the fire and you wanna pull them out quickly without contaminating yourself. And before I throw that question over the floor, I have a couple of thoughts on it and I'll look for correction or something to expound on it. So how do we practically use compassion to bring somebody back? And how do we save someone with a fears? And I was thinking of from a compassion standpoint, if you look back at the account of the profit needs and we brought Davidson before him. Umm, Davidson professional. So second annual.
Chapter 12.
David had submitted his Timothashiva yet Uriah Gillespie comes to David and second Samuel chapter 12 and he gives him a story of a rich man and a poor man who had blocked and and sheets. And he tells the story of how the rich man in the end steals from foreman. And David is upset by that story and wants to umm take recompense against the man that has stolen from the poor man. And in verse 7.
Here's how Nathan responds to David. Nathan said to David, thou our command.
So he he gave to David.
I'm parable to bring out David's gill. David responds to that shareable Nathan says, you are that man. And what does David respond to? How does David respond to that first 13 David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.
And Nathan said, son to David, Lord also has put away thy sin. Maybe that's an example of how you can reach somebody who's in sin with compassion and bring them back. And what's an example of how you might bring someone back with gear? And I was thinking of Jonah when he was sent to Nineveh.
The Attorney. The Book of Jonah.
Chapter 3 again, to get the sense in June that those that are gonna be saved by fear are being plucked out of that fire, that the person plucking them out are not, are not gonna be com contaminated with the sin that they're in.
I was thinking about Jonah when finally UMM came back from fleeing from the Lord and he actually went to the city of Nineveh in verse in chapter 3.
Start reading verse one of Jonah chapter 3. It says the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time saying arise and go into Nineveh that great city and creep onto it the preaching that I did thee so Jonah rose is 1009 of us according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great journey of three days. Sorry, it's an exceeding great city.
A three days journey.
Jonah began to enter into the city, a day's journey and he cried and said yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So what I first note here is that Nintendo is a large city took three days to get across it and Ninva was a very violent country. They did some important things in the eyes of God. We don't see Jonah entering fully into that city. He only went a mile into it. So I might suggest the picture there that we don't need to go into in the depth of someone's sin unless we become contaminated.
Jonas didn't fully enter into Nineveh nor did he yell out a list of the evils that they were doing instead. What did he do? He prompted them with fear he could yelled out cried out yet 40 days and then of us shall be overgrown so we didn't Contana himself with the city. We didn't list their sins he whether the word used fear to pull them back to where they were headed and we read in the rest of the chapter that worked that the continued and God bears on their judgment.
So I guess I'll ask the question again. That's how I would place it. But how do we practically use compassion? How do we practically use fear to save someone from the type of situation that we read out into?
00:35:17
Call.
Well, the next question and we heard that like, uh, what first came to mind was, uh, the, the man that fell among thieves and the Samaritan went down to where he was and took him to the end. That would be showing compassion and making a difference.
I don't think it's necessarily uh and I don't I'm not disagreeing with spelling everything got acquired just learning with their their apostate or not, but I think having compassion for a fellow manner in a difficult situation and you have the means to help them, whatever it may be.
Well, isn't there a verse that says for those who are spiritual?
To, uh, help these ones in need to go. There's definitely a person that.
Am I right?
Galatians 6 and verse one, brethren of a man, be overtaken in a fault, ye withdraw our spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
Spiritual man is one who is habitually in self judgment before God, seeing his own weakness where his own flesh is, and consequently.
Able to help others considering himself because he has the same flesh and so I think the fear.
Perhaps as really the thought saved with fear that I don't fall in a fire.
And uh.
But All in all, I think the main thought to draw from it, we're over in Bermuda a little while back in a reading meeting, have the same verse. Older brother was there named Mr. Smith, Clarence Smith. And uh, he said we need to get down in there and, uh, help him out.
And I said to him, brother, I said, why does it say pull him out and not push him out?
Said, well, if you push them out, you get them hurt, right? Pull them out. Don't leave your elevated place in a wholly separated walk with God.
Pull them up to that place. The Scripture never encourages us to get down in the ditch, but pull them up.
Mr. Garrett renders that first, snatching them out of the fire.
Part of that right state of soul is that the faith we're building ourselves up in is a holy faith.
It's a faith that leads us to a separated walk.
In such activity, if the Lord leads one across our path that we might be able to be a help to in that way, we don't want to ever lose our sense of the awfulness and the blasphemy.
Of the doctrines that those apostates hold and promote, should we find one entangled by those things, that we might be a help to hating even the garment spotted by the flesh?
We might get into a situation like that and tend to, in seeking to be a help, want to water down the true awfulness of what they're involved in. Don't. You'll get dull to it in your own soul.
Save them with fear.
It's a slippery path that they've fallen down into. Don't get on it yourself.
00:40:01
Hating even that garment spotted by the flesh.
That's helpful. Thank you. I uh.
I had in mind what happened in the book of Ruth.
When?
They go out from the House of bread and praise because there's a famine.
Of the false step.
And there's consequences in that family.
But then it says that Naomi heard that the Lord had visited his people and giving them bread.
I said she went out from where she was and her daughter-in-law with her and there's a process there and one of them goes and one of them stays back.
The end of the chapter. I think this is very moving.
So. So they went. They too went until they came halfway back and called it good enough. Is that what it says? It says they went until they came to Bethlehem.
And it came to pass when they came to Bethlehem that all the city told them, get lost. We don't need your kind of attitude around here. They have enough bitterness in our assembly. Buzz off.
Is that what it says? No, it doesn't, brother. And it says the whole city was moved about them. Is that nice?
I appreciated what you said, Steve, about not compromising God's standards. That's so important. Pull them out, not push them out.
There was marks of Moab on these women, no doubt.
But here it says the whole city was moved about them. I love that.
Reminds me of what the Lord's had in Matthew 9 when it says verse 36. When he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep, having no shepherd.
That beautiful thing and we don't have time to get into this. So this is a good private study for you young people. Study, umm, what shepherds do in Ezekiel 34.
So helpful.
Bringing back that which was lost, binding up that which is broken, healing that which is sick and so on. There's such a need for that. But like you say, Steve, not compromising or watering down or giving up God's standard, but to go alongside one that has fallen off, if you will, and have that compassion. So I don't want to take all the time, but I, I found what was said here to be very helpful.
We only have a few minutes, Can someone give us something on verse 24 and five?
I was just gonna make the comments, umm, connecting verse 14 and 15 with verse 24 and 25, and at the end of verse 14 it says, behold, the Lord comes with 10 thousands of his Saints.
And we see that. And then it goes on to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, and so on.
And so the Lord is coming back and he's looking at a verse in two Timothy chapter 4 and verse 8. There's several other area verses that talk about the Lord coming with his Saints. That's coming with you and I. So this coming here is not the Lord's coming at the rapture, but it's his coming with his Saints when he comes back with his Saints and in in, uh.
OK, let's read verse 8.
Of Two Timothy 4 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but to all them that love.
And so I believe these verses in verse fourteen of our chapter in Jude to be the appearing of the Lord Jesus and the looking forward. Are we looking forward to that day? Do we love that day when the Lord is going to come back and to take his rightful place as a king? And we can say as it says in verse 25.
To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power.
00:45:04
Both now and ever. And so it's a it's a joy to think of that day when the Lord Jesus is going to take his rightful place that belongs to him.
That's nice, Tim. I'd never connected that to the, uh, appearing. It's it's.
Good translation doesn't have falling but stumbling to keep you from stumbling.
You know the path for the believer is seen here, that it's possible to walk all the way till the Lord comes without one stumble.
Without one.
He's able.
We get off and out of dependence on him. We might tumble, but you know he's able.
He has provision for the pathway to bring us all the way home without one stumble.
Would any other path be worthy of him? Who's called us? No.
No.
He's made provision. We can walk all the way to glory. Enoch went for a walk one day with God.
And he kept walking till he walked right into heaven.
To keep you without stumbling.
All the way home.
In the past us, we're not just saved, we're preserved.
And so, uh.
We have that eternal salvation and uh, umm, I was just thinking in respect of, uh.
Verse 21 Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, which I believe is the rapture.
And he says unto eternal life, I have the present possession of eternal life, that there are certain benefits of eternal life that I will not come into the enjoyment of till the Lord comes. It's more immortality. That's just one of them. It's been in the presence of the Lord, isn't it, that we look for? It will be the fulfillment of all that God has promised us.
And so we have that, uh.
The time when we will be presented faultless before the presence of his glory with existing joy. I kind of noticed what Tim said. And, and, and of course, we look forward to the, uh, the display when the Lord will indeed have his rightful place of King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But before then, there's that blessing for us, isn't there? There's the rapture that the Lord's gonna come and we'll present this to himself.
In the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.
256.
Keep us, Lord, oh, keep us leaving to thyself, and still believe until the hour of our receiving promised joys with a 256.
Praise the Savior.
You know family, when we can't go out on lunch, we go and fly a little bit on the ground there to them all the way.
She didn't get the last 751.
7.
5.
Well, I want to be charged for him.
All right in the faithful of the same thing that ever.
One of our gods? And what's your dream about?
Your parents.
He was born in a place. You're going to go to the highest house and sit down. I'm a big living.
On the water Oh oh, oh, oh oh oh, oh oh oh oh, oh oh oh, oh oh oh God.
Gospel 2
Gospel—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.
What a pleasure to look at your faces.
Been a great couple of days, hasn't it?
Before we sing another hymn, let's ask the Lord for His help.
Our loving God and Father.
Thou has blessed us this weekend and there's so many rich blessings.
Father, thy Son, the Lord Jesus has done all things well.
Now, Lord, we ask for help for the Gospel meeting this afternoon.
Our God, we think of thy heart of love.
In sending the Lord Jesus into this world.
To be our Savior and Lord Jesus.
How we love to honor thee for going to the cross, shedding thy blood.
Giving up thy life and taking it again.
And Lord Jesus, thou art seated right now at the right hand of thy Father. Thou art the head. And how we thrill to think about it, we look forward to seeing the Lord. We own our dependence upon Thee. We ask for a blessing in this meeting in Jesus name, Amen.
OK, let's sing.
#322.
There is a stream of precious blood.
Which flowed from Jesus veins, and sinners squashed in that blessed blood lose all their guilty stains.
3/22.
There is a stream of precious blood W flow from the dark spains and sinners was goodbye, goodbye.
Today.
Of my life, God, I can't say great joy.
I didn't do anything.
But I recalled the shower of a branding.
Thank you. Welcome to our good evening.
Tomorrow and I said, and I fell praying on the streets of thy womb, and.
We should make a lot of thyroid and today the color of things from our soul and I'm feeling making power and experience.
Uh, the rain sounds.
Like a boyfriend.
Long, we're quick and we make it out of the house and bring back it through our forever condition of the movie being here.
Uh, it's not the one that's the 11, the cream. It's the cream for water. And I have it for all of my daughter's, so I'll tell you.
00:05:13
Everything here. No, no, no, no, no. You're saying it's a bottle and thumbnail?
Good, good.
I almost feel like just saying Amen and sitting down now.
But we're not gonna do that.
When I came here this weekend, I really didn't know what I was going to say.
Umm.
I had some thoughts, but the Lord is really.
Brought out some things at this conference that are so precious.
And so I want us to turn back to Leviticus, to a verse that was mentioned yesterday.
Leviticus, Chapter 11.
Chapter 17 sorry and verse 11.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood.
And I have given it unto you, given it to you upon the altar, to make an atonement for your souls.
Or it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
Now let's turn to.
1St Corinthians 15.
1St Corinthians 15.
In verse 3.
For I delivered unto you first of all.
That which I also received.
How that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures?
That he was buried.
And he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures.
Here we are on so-called Easter Sunday.
But, uh, to us, every Lord's Day is Easter Sunday. What a joy it is to be able to.
Have what we had this morning, and to be able to remember the Lord in his death, and to think about why He went to the cross, and the cost, and those beautiful pictures all throughout the Old Testament of the blood of Christ in its power, and then that glorious first day of the week.
You know those morning.
Disciples and the women, they come to the grave, you know, at the early, early.
They just love the message they got. Why I seek ye, the dead among the living.
He's not here, he's risen.
He's alive.
And we had, we, we started, uh.
In this conference talking about uh.
And one of the things that's mentioned was the, uh, the way of Cain. And it was mentioned that Cain tried to approach God with the fruit of the ground.
And how God could not have respect to that because it came from a cursed place. God said because of what Adam and Eve had done, cursed be the ground for thy sake. And Abel comes with the lamb, right? And God has respect.
Where did Abel learn that?
I believe Adam and Eve had told their sons about what happened that day when they had sinned and God gave them coats of skins, right? And there was death that day.
God clothed them in coats of skins. And all throughout the Old Testament we have, as we read in Corinthians, Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. And we read this morning of Abraham and Isaac, right? And the Lord comes to Abraham and he says, Abraham, I want you to take your only son, the one that all of the blessings that I have promised you is related to.
00:10:10
That line that you've waited so long for, I want you to take that soon, and I want you to bring him to the place I tell you, and then I want you to kill him.
To me.
Oh, that's.
What a picture of God the Father and God the Son, right?
Turn back to that. I just find that passage so moving in the gospel.
And here's Abraham and Isaac, and they're going along together.
And the question comes out.
My father, Isaac says to his dad. Behold the fire and the wood.
But where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
Abraham can say, my son God will provide himself.
A lamp or a burnt offering.
God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went. This is beautiful, both of them together.
Together.
And all throughout these, the history of this book, we find the father and the son going along together.
So many beautiful pictures of the blood of Christ. Think of the Passover.
When I see the blood, I will Passover you that lamb without blemish and without spot.
Uh, think of all the offerings throughout the just 10s of thousands of animals that were sacrificed, all that blood speaking to God, the blood of his Son, the Lord Jesus that was going to be shed on the cross for you and for me.
Because we're sinners and we find that without the shedding of blood there is no remission we had last night in the gospel.
All have sinned and come short to the glory of God.
And blood had to be shed.
And we come to the cross of Calvary.
And.
Yeah, we could read a lot about this. We'll just quote a few verses that came to my heart this morning.
Jesus, therefore.
Knowing all things that should come to pass went forth.
Think of that. He went forth, he says the pilot. He stands before him for this cause came I into the world.
The cup which my father hath given me to drink, shall I not drink it?
And he goes to the cross.
And he's crucified.
And God poured out the blame and the punishment for your sins and my sins, on the head of the Lord Jesus, God's beloved Son, the one person who had no sin.
The one person who didn't deserve to die.
Chilled on the cross and those hours of darkness, God pours out that punishment upon him.
So as in Isaiah, uh, his face was so marred more than any man.
This visits more than the sons of men.
There's another verse in Isaiah that I thought of this weekend that I'd like to share with you.
It's in the end of Isaiah.
Let's read the verse, uh, chapter 59.
Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither is here heavy, and it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you that he will not hear. That's a problem. Sin separates us from God. Sin is a robber. It was mentioned in the last meeting of the man there on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
00:15:02
And, uh, it's my understanding that that's quite a drop in elevation from Jerusalem to Jericho. Umm, I was, uh, speaking with a man that has been there. He said, uh, as the crow flies about 12 or 15 miles, but to drive it is about 40 because your switch back and Stan, you've been there. I never noticed.
Switch back. But it's certainly a steep drive. Pretty steep, right? So this man is going down. You know, sin brings us down. And what happens? He fell among thieves and they stripped him and beat him and left him there half dead. That's what sin does. Sin robs God of what is his.
And the Lord Jesus comes down to where we are.
Brings the stuff out of that place, puts us on his own beast pouring in oil and wine. Brings us to the end. Not a beautiful picture of the cross, what the Lord Jesus has done. But the verse I wanted to share with you now is, uh, this. Read part of 15 and 16 here.
So we'll read just a clause from verse 15 to see who's speaking. And the Lord saw it.
Now 16 and he saw that there was no man.
And wondered that there was no intercessor.
Therefore his arm brought salvation unto him that beautiful.
Lord, look down, you can see Steve.
There's nothing you can do for yourself.
It's hopeless, right? Nothing you can do.
There's no intercessor.
What does it say? Therefore, his arm brought forth salvation unto him. God did all of the work. There's nothing that you and I can do.
Merit salvation with God. He did it all. He sent His Son into the world to die for you.
His arm did it.
I find that very moving.
His arm brought salvation unto him.
The value of the blood of the Lord Jesus is so infinite.
You know, we, we pondered that this morning in a beautiful way.
How in Isaiah 53 God punished His Son the Lord Jesus for your sin and for my sin.
Says the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
And then it says, he shall see of the travail of his soul.
And she'll say, well, that's a good start. Now finish the rest of the pathway on your own. Is that what it says? Kyle? No, says he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. And God is satisfied with the work of the cross. It's complete, it's done. There's nothing more you can do.
In John Chapter 7 we find the Lord standing in a place, and it says that last great day of the feast Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Are you thirsty in your soul, friends?
Come to the Lord Jesus once you do that, as the Lord Jesus ever done you wrong. Ever.
Never. The Lord Jesus loves you. He went to the Calvary's cross to die for you. He shed his blood. You know, we see that we read at that time when he's hanging there in the cross, he cries out. It is finished, complete, done. The atonement is finished and then the soldiers come right and they're breaking the legs of the of those.
Crucified men because they wanted them to hurry up and die. And so they break the legs of this guy and they break the legs of that guy, and they come to the Lord Jesus in the middle and they see he's already dead.
Then he bowed his head and dismissed his spirit. You know, man didn't kill the Lord Jesus. He satisfied the eye of God in the question of your sins. And when he said it is finished, it says he dismissed his spirit.
00:20:07
Like no man. It's in John 10 to say no man can take my life from me. I lay it down of myself.
So what happens? The Roman soldier takes that sphere, I don't know how high that cross would be, and he just.
Ramps it up into the side of the savior and cruelty.
And what happens outcomes the blood.
And the water.
That blood that saves. We had last night a blood of Jesus Christ. His Son coences us from all sin. What a glorious thing.
Have you accepted that in your life, friends?
There's nothing you can do to merit God's favor in on your own power. Nothing.
The only.
Thing that you can do is to accept God's work, God's gift of salvation that happened at the cross. Have you done that? Have you done it?
Says in Romans chapter 10, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Beautiful verse.
Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord.
Let me save it. Have you done that?
Be done friends, God has provided everything you need.
He's satisfied with what the Lord Jesus did on the cross.
But it's up to you. God will not force His way into your heart.
He stands there.
Knocking on your heart's door, So will you let way you let him in.
You know, it also says in Romans 10 they have not all believed the gospel.
And I look across your faces, and I know that many, many, many of you dearly love the Lord. But I wonder.
Is there someone in here that has not believed the gospel? It's free, God loves you.
God has done everything possible to bring you into favor.
You'll never get into heaven with sin in your heart. Never. Are you willing to say yes? Lord Jesus, I believe that what you did on the cross for me.
Is sufficient another verse from Romans 10, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth.
The Lord Jesus, What does Lord mean? It means the authority. Are you willing to say with your mouth?
I make him the authority in my life. I surrender myself. I give my life to you, Lord. It's what it means if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus.
And the leads in your heart that God has raised him from the dead.
Thou shalt be saved.
Believe you know, someday you're gonna stand before God.
It might be at tonight. We have no guarantees about tomorrow. None. I could be dead in 10 minutes. You might be dead in 10 minutes. The Lord could come in a moment.
And when you stand before God.
Your mouth will confess Jesus is Lord. Are you gonna do that with joy on your in your face or hatred?
Your mouth will say the words. Oh I can't wait to look the Lord in the eye.
Say Jesus is my Lord.
Every knee shall bow.
Your knees.
Friend, your knees are gonna bow before that man.
00:25:02
Are you gonna be glad to do it, or are you gonna be there in hatred and rejection of Christ to be cast into a lake of fire? You don't have to be. God is loved.
God is light, we find in first John.
God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. There can be no sin in His presence. But what happened on the cross of Calvary for you friends?
Is enough We accept that. We take Christ's offer of salvation.
He wants you, He loves you, He died for you.
Will you take that?
I don't know that I can say much more.
You know I.
Jim, when you were talking about the refugees up here, this came before my heart. So when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion.
Because they were a sheep, having no shepherd. Oh, the Lord wants to take your life and to bring you into blessing, guide you and keep you and save you. Will you take that? Will you? Will you follow Him? Will you trust Him with your life? The Lord Jesus is the only trustworthy 1.
And never do you wrong. Accept him.
I think, uh, I think I would like to us to close with.
Saying #8.
And I think it would be nice if we stood up to sing it.
Oh Lord, we adore thee, for thou art the slain one that liveth forever enthroned in heaven.
Oh Lord, we adore thee, for thou hast redeemed us. Our title to glory we read in thy blood sing #8.
Oh Lord.
Be the Lord.
And tell everybody else.
For her first time from heaven.
Hi, how are you?
OK.
Many times.
We do this one and they need to be pretty great. We're going to get a lot of thank you creep, right? I can think we'll have a big.
Crazy.
Altar in my heart.
OK, so one more thing comes to my heart.
When I was a kid.
We had a camper.
On the back of it was a painting done by Mr. Beliselli of a him.
And this is part of it.
I just wanna ask this question to your soul.
Passing on working.
That's what we're doing, right? Passing onward quickly passing, yes, but wither witherbound.
00:30:09
Is it to the many mansions where eternal life is found?
I ask your heart tonight, is that where you're going?
Passing onward time, its course will quickly run.
Still we hear the fund entreaty of the ever gracious one come and.
And welcome.
Tis by me that life is one.
That's the invitation of the Gospel.
Come and welcome.
It is by me that life is one.
Let's close in prayer.
Our loving God and Father.
We thank Thee that thou hast provided Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be our Savior.
And Father, we pray that everyone in this room would know and love the Lord Jesus as Savior. We pray, Lord, for a blessing upon this conference, for a blessing upon thy word. We pray that.
The seeds that were planted in each soul would spring up in fruitful ground and bring fruit. Think of the.
Uh, refugees that were with us.
Last evening, Lord, and we think of the.
Umm.
Difficulties that they have had, and how thy heart goes out to them. Lord, we know very little of suffering.
We pray, Lord, that thou was blessed thy word to them.
We think of those here in this room.
Any that is yet without Christ, we pray, Father, that their hearts would be stirred to.
Know that Thou our Father art love, and that Thou hast desire a relationship with them, that they would open their hearts door.
Lord, we are about to part ways.
We pray for help and strength. We need thee, Lord.
Without thee we can do nothing.
Help us to be found faithful.
Help us to be an encouragement 1 to another.
Oh Lord, we pray that we would be found keeping ourselves in the love of God.
We thank Thee and we bless thee, our Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Open Mtg. 8
Open—D. Hayhoe, J. House
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
And we sing #70 in the appendix.
17 in the afternoon.
RAW Patrol.
And where it landed.
But was not.
Anything in the air.
Do not work in pleasure and fall.
Still forehead.
But our spirit.
Prepare.
And I thought they will hold some of the shadows on.
And give him what it is, what it is to be in the air.
And then, umm, I've been treated for my last sugar for my diary and then it's just all over the place, OK?
00:05:23
Uh.
We're doing a lot of things and following you. All right? I Have you already gone? My father again.
Nsnoise.
Uh.
2004 whichever day and fresh air.
And all the flowers are really into cherry and.
Blah blah blah blah. Terrific time.
I'll follow your heart.
All the stuff from heaven.
And I'm seeing.
And continue on yourself.
Mm-hmm.
Umm.
I don't know if you don't have anything in here.
00:10:17
Our loving God and our Father, we come to Thee in particular dependence this afternoon because we are waiting upon me for direction from Thy Spirit as to who administer Thy word to us. Uh, we know Thou hast uh, in mind the message for the right people at the right time, and we ask that this might be.
Uh, uh, put into the heart of the one or ones who.
Present thy word today. We thank thee that our focus all along has been the glories and wonders of the Lord Jesus Christ and the dangers that surround us. We're slipping into uh, uh, umm, temptation of Satan. And so we just pray Thee to, uh, continue to defend us from this.
And we pray thy blessing. Looking forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus.
And our, uh, endless time with him and his appearing in glory to this earth to take his rightful place. So we know that all this is going to unfold in thy good time, and we thank thee that it is. We can see the edge of it being very close. So we ask and give thanks in that precious name of the Lord Jesus our Savior, Amen.
I have a few scriptures on my mind, brethren.
And, uh, before turning to them, in view of the hymns that we sung together, I'd like first of all to turn to John 14.
Verse one.
Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in 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. The where I am, there ye may be also.
How many hundreds of times?
Have you?
Read these verses. Heard these verses.
Precious verses we sung about the coming of the Lord.
You know he anticipates it, brethren, more than we do.
He longs to have his own with himself.
I remember enjoying that little hymn, he and I and that bright glory 1 deep joy shall share.
Mine to be forever with Him. His that I am there. You know, we could turn to many other scriptures that speak about the coming of the Lord. Yet a little while that he that shall come will come.
Will not tarry.
Behold, I come quickly, hold that fast that thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
The coming of the Lord.
Is Z not the end of the story, but it's the beginning of the story?
To dwell with the Lord forever.
I'm sure that you, like me, have gone through moments where you have tried to imagine it.
Eternity rolling on and on and on. To think that God made you and me, and he made us forever.
From the time that you were conceived.
That, umm, he had eternal purposes in view for you.
And even before that, because it says predestinated before the foundation of the world.
Can you and I enter into it?
Very little.
What is on my heart, brethren, is to speak about Noah a little bit.
00:15:01
And uh.
Look, talking first, I want I want to turn to Luke's Gospel chapter 17.
We had umm.
In our Bible readings about this condition of things that was told about that could be expected in this world from the time of when Jude wrote it up until the time that the Lord comes.
And when the Lord was here.
I could read several verses here, but just to be brief about things, maybe it's best that I start with just verse 26.
As it was in the days of Noah.
So shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man.
They did eat, they drank, they married wise. They were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all.
Likewise also, as it was in the days of lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded.
But the same day that lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.
And verse 32 Remember Lot's wife?
It's not so much here. Speaking of Noah.
As it is speaking about the days of Noah.
You notice how it puts it in verse 26. As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man.
Now, what was it that characterized the days of Noah?
It's it's recorded in the next verse.
Verse 27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all.
Was there anything wrong with what they did?
They ate, they drank, they married.
Married wise and were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark. That is during the time that he was building that that great arc.
And they saw what was what he was doing, that there was a state of things among the people existing at that time where they just went on carelessly indifferent.
To what was happening.
What the what Noah was doing, they were insensitive to the to the message.
That Noah, in his daily work, was bringing before them.
And the reason that I that this is brought before us here is that the Lord says that as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days when the Son of Man come.
It's wonderful to be here at the conference for this short period of time, 2 1/2 days approximately.
But, brethren, when we leave here and we go back into this world.
Everything we touch in this world, everything around us, is a reminder to us of the of the carelessness.
Of the way that things are going on.
How did it affect NOAA?
When he saw all of this, we'll get into that a little bit.
So here.
It's it's. It's giving a an example of what took place.
Approximately 2500 years, a little less than 2500 years before the Lord was here and the Lord was telling about what was going to take place about 2000 years later.
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You know time means nothing to God.
He knows what is happening in your life and mine today, tomorrow and the next day.
Now, before going back to the book of Genesis and I want to look briefly two different thoughts that I've enjoyed in connection with Genesis 6 and Genesis 7, but before we go there.
Turn with me, please, to a verse in Hebrews Chapter 11 That is well known by most of us.
You know God can put so much into one verse.
Hebrews 11 and verse 7.
By faith.
Faith, What is it?
It's believing God and taking Him at His Word.
Did God speak to Noah?
Yes. Does he speak to you and me? You know it.
By faith, Noah being warned of God, of things not seen as yet, What does it mean?
Being warned of God, of things not seen as yet. I don't know if we know this perfectly true or not, but I do not believe myself that there was rain on the earth for the 1St 1600 years.
There was a dew.
That God gave.
To water the grass.
That beautiful creation where Adam was so on and God had told Noah that there was judgment coming and there was a flood coming, but they'd never seen it yet.
There is a judgment, beloved, that you and I know about all the grace of God that ever revealed it to your soul and mine. And that's what happened with Noah says he found grace in the sight of the Lord, in the eyes of the Lord.
So here it says.
In this verse, being warned of God.
Yes, there's judgment that is coming on this Christ rejecting world.
You know how it says there in the 17th of Luke about they married in the given in marriage and so on and the way the world went on.
Its intoxication.
And I don't mean necessarily drinking.
You know the age that we're in, beloved.
Let's be honest, it's affecting all of us.
Intoxication. The the media, the uh, the umm, uh.
Things like the Internet.
TV and all of these things that men's eyes are brought down to the level of this world and forgetting about the next World. It's intoxication.
So it says here in this verse, being warned of God, of things not seen as yet prepared an Arkansas.
For the saving of his house.
Dear young parents, you love your children.
Are you protecting them from the world at those very Oh my, how we enjoyed seeing those young children here.
Are you protecting them from the environment?
Are you pouring in the meal your mothers that have such a privilege of being in the home more than the father in most cases?
Well, I thank God for.
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Fathers and mothers, and we see it today.
And grandparents too.
The value of bringing the Word of God.
Being warned of God.
You have a few short years.
With the young.
I know when we were, my wife and I had the privilege of, I don't like telling about going to Florida, but we had the privilege of being there for four weeks, went to the meeting there in Tampa.
And it's lovely to be there to meet with the brethren and one brother.
John Myers will tell you his name.
Uh, you know, he has, he has such lovely thoughts and he was talking about Moses.
And you mentioned about Moses. I won't turn to it, but the way that it's worded there, he said, it really means that the mother had the privilege of having that boy Moses in their house for about seven years.
Before he entered into the court of Pharaoh. And what did that mother get into that boy during those seven years that made such an impact on him in his life?
Preciousness. And it's not just the word, it's the environment that is in the home.
You know, I mentioned the mothers.
Umm, I'll tell you what our brother John Burton said many years ago that I enjoyed, and you referred to a verse in Ephesians, which I won't turn to now, but he says it's the responsibility of the Father to bring love into the home and to maintain love in the home.
It's the responsibility of the father to bring love into the home and maintain love in the home.
It smites me, so believe me it does, but the character of the home is influenced so much by both the father and the mother, and it's lovely when the accord runs together in the home. I love my master, I love my wife, I love my children. I will not go out free.
Let's go on with this verse.
Umm, prepared in arc. You know what the arc speaks of?
Christ.
Christ.
This prepared in ARC.
To the saving of his house.
Doesn't make you think of Act 1631.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house.
Do you believe it?
Are you trusting them? You remember the story of, in Egypt, the responsibility of the father to take him to kill that lamb and to put the blood in the basin, and then to take the blood and to put it on the outside of the doorposts and for the family to be inside. When I see the blood, I will pass over you.
The security of the family that was inside.
Oh, to bring Christ. We heard so much about the Lamb brought before us.
Beautiful picture of the Lamb of God.
To the saving of the source by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. What does it mean that he condemned the world?
Let's turn back to now to Genesis chapter 6.
My hope beautiful the word of God is I'm only going to read a very few.
Few verses here.
It's hard to stop, you know, with the verses.
Verse one, chapter six came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth. Do you know how many people there are in the world today?
I hear over 7 billion that about Greg. Jonathan, you heard that?
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Over 7 billion people and it came to pass as men began to multiply on the earth. As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days when the Son of Man cometh. I think that the the increase in population that has existed in the last 50 years or more and then 100 years and so more is a is a another sign of the Lord's coming.
A man doesn't know how to handle these things.
Doesn't know how to handle and it came to pass as men began to multiply in the earth.
And daughters were born sons of daughters, and so on. And then verse three, My spirit shall not always strive with man.
I'll go down to.
Umm.
Verse five. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Her promised youth.
Repented the Lord that He had made man. Verse seven. I will destroy man from the earth.
Who I have created from the face of the earth.
Man would be destroyed from the face of the earth.
But not.
It doesn't from the face of the earth, but man goes on living forever.
Solemn thing to think of when we leave here and we go on our way that normally you and I, but everyone that you and I meet, that they're going to live forever in one of two places.
So.
Umm verse 8 Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
You know what Grace is based on.
I think it's a reference.
To the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
And he was brought into blessing, and he had such a fear of God.
That he and his wife and when God spoke to him, and without faith it is impossible. There was faith in the part of Noah to believe God for himself and to trust God in connection with his family.
He found grace in the sight of the Lord, and God spoke to him. And so notice as we go down.
It says in uh in verse 13.
God said under Noah.
Do you ever, do you ever talk to God in that way for yourself, that you want a message from Him for yourself?
You ever go to him like that?
I do not enough, but I do.
It's very important to seek the Lord's mind for your life in a corrupt world.
And so it speaks here.
Oh, I didn't notice, I didn't uh point out in verse 9. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generation and Noah walked with God. And you know, we find in the previous chapters tells us about Enoch walk with God and he was not for God took him. So here's another seat. God has a testimony to himself in this world.
Are you walking with God in your life?
Am I walking with God in my life?
He wants you to walk with him in communion. Now you see, when God gave him the instructions here in this chapter, he said, make me an arc of Gopher wood room shalt thou make in it. And it says that that verse back in Hebrews Chapter 11 verse six, that it says that he prepared an ark for the saving of his house.
I'm sorry, I can't quote the restaurant. I'm going to turn back to it.
Umm and says prepared in arc for the saving.
Oh, of his house, by which he condemned the world.
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You see, God spoke to him and said, no, I want you to make an ark. I'm going to. This world is going to be condemned. It's coming under the judgment of God. There's going to be a great flood in which it is going to be destroyed and the only way of safety.
Is through coming into the Ark.
And he believed God.
When the sun was shining every day.
He believed.
And you know what is happening going to happen to this world, beloved brethren, young people.
But there's a path for the believer to the end.
Oh, May God give us to desire it, to walk in the good of it.
As we go on in this life.
So he builds the ark. Can you picture it?
You ever try to visualize from the very day that he heard this message from the very God of the universe?
And the size of it.
And to cut down the trees.
And then to have the people around him to speak to him. Well, what are you doing?
You see, his lifestyle was so affected.
By the word of God.
It it became obvious to everybody around him.
As to what he believed?
And they kept going on their way.
There's two things in connection.
Umm, that we can learn one in the sixth chapter and one in the seventh chapter and just dwell a little bit more on chapter 6IN connection with umm, with Noah and building the ark with his outward testimony. No matter what he what he faced, he went on. And if you and I are going to walk with God through this world.
We're going to feel the opposition.
It is around us. You know how old Noah was when he entered the ark.
600 years old.
Nobody here that age. We have some that are getting up a few years.
You know, I believe and it's an exercise to me as I get a little older and my wife and I, we go on that our time be used for the Lord.
Do you live in a neighborhood?
When people, when you get up on Sunday morning and and you go to meeting, you think that the people aren't looking out the window and they say, oh, every day, every Sunday, those people go.
I know when you go up the Hammer Bay there and you go along the road, you see not only, uh, people go there, but you see the signs.
The tell about the love of God. You know people that are going by. Do you and I carry a testimony as we go through this world?
Can you picture Noah every day of his life?
How huge that that, uh, arc was?
The reproach that he bore for the name of Christ.
Well, it's, you know, it speaks to us, doesn't it?
We're going to leave here. We thank God for the privileges of being at the meetings. We're going to leave here and we're going to go back into the world.
And I, I feel this deeply for myself.
It says there about Noah that he walked with God.
And it will be easier for you and me to bear a testimony before the world if we walk with God.
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You know, it's the overflow of accounts. It's the overflow. And if we walk close to the Lord, it'll, it'll have an effect. It's like when Moses got up on the mountain, you know, when he was there for 40 days and he came down and his face was shining and he didn't realize it was shining, but the people saw it.
And if you and I walk with God, it's going to have an effect.
And on the neighbors and people at work, people at school.
It's a wonderful thing to be a Christian, to bear a testimony.
You know I umm.
I got up, uh, one night I couldn't sleep very well and I got up and I turned on the YouTube. Hope you don't mind me mentioning that.
I turned on the YouTube and I put in. I had a hem in my mind. Life at best is very brief.
So I typed it in and up comes to him. Life at best is very brief. And it didn't show a picture of the people singing. But you know what it showed a picture of? It showed a picture of the ark, Noah's ark, and the water around and people who were in the water and it was pouring rain.
And the artist had drew this picture.
Of the judgment had started and these people were looking up at that huge arc, but it was too late.
My and then not him. Life at best is very brief, like the falling of a leaf.
We're only here for a short time.
Now, just a thought or two, brethren, in connection with the 7th chapter.
7th chapter.
Verse one you see the Lord speaking again.
When we walk with the Lord, he gives divine communications. The Lord said unto him, Come thou in all thy house into the ark.
For thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
Yes, Noah got his wife.
His three boys and their three wives, eight of them inside the ark. And then in verse 16.
And they went in.
Uh, went in male and female ball flesh. That's Speaking of the animals as God had commanded, and then the end of the verse and the Lord shut them in.
The door was close, the door was wide open, all to come in and eight people go in and the door was shut.
How safe were they inside the Ark?
Now.
We had a letter.
That was just read out recently.
Uh, from our brother Don Ruhl in, uh, Addison and he told a story, I don't know if I can say it right or not, but there was a man.
There was a man that, uh, as many years ago.
He wasn't sure of his salvation.
He had accepted Christ, but he didn't know for sure because he had. He had failed in his life. He had sinned after he accepted Christ as a Savior.
So, and this goes back quite a few years.
Umm, Ernie Wakefield.
I think some here have heard Ernie Wakefield that right, Paul?
Ernie Wakefield went to see him.
And earning, Wakefield said to him when Noah was in the ark, if he had a fallen down, was he still safe?
And a brother went to visit them afterwards. And you know what the brother said to him? This old man, he said I'm in New York, I'm in New York. He got the picture.
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There is therefore now no judgment to them that are in Christ Jesus.
You belong to him, then you're safe in the Ark. Isn't it wonderful?
Safe from judgment.
Safe for all eternity? Well, may the Lord give us the value.
The preciousness.
Of belonging to him and may the Lord help us as we leave here to be like more like Noah and walking with God.
Maybe we'll just take the last couple of minutes. Many have been asking about the, how, the little, the history of the refugees. And so it was mentioned in our brothers meeting that perhaps I'd give a couple of words of what uh, took place to, uh, bring that about yesterday.
First of all, it started about two years ago when a young sister in our meeting, I think at that time she had 93 birthdays, gave me an article saying that the refugees coming to Canada, the world was coming here and we had many opportunities to preach the gospel in our own neighborhood.
And it gave me a little nudge. Contacted the Cultural Center in London.
And uh.
Was turned down flat.
Umm, we weren't allowed to have anything to do with the refugees faith.
We could feed them, we could educate their children, we could give them hospitalization and but their faith was out of bounds.
Of course I wasn't very happy about that and it's bothered me somewhat for a year.
And about 3 months ago, I have a scribbler by the phone and looking for something else, I came across the cultural centers phone number. I said to Lorraine, what do you think? And she said, well you got turned down pretty hard last year and.
It's up to you, dear. So I picked up the phone and I called them and I got a gentleman and he said send us an e-mail of what you want to do. And so we did and, uh.
Made a decision then that we were going to leave it entirely to the Lord. I wasn't going to call in another week and say hi, did you get my e-mail or anything? It took approximately a month for the phone to ring and it was a lady saying I got your e-mail and I like your proposal.
Umm, can we get together? And so, of course, we did.
And found a totally different attitude from this lady and another gentleman that was with her in that I told them that we wanted to preach the gospel and made it very clear the gospel that we wanted to preach. And she said, well, you have every right to be able to present your faith to them.
Leave them to accept it on their own, Don't hand out force them to take literature or anything like that.
After how we were going to be able to put this thing together because I couldn't, I don't know them, I didn't know their names, couldn't speak their language or anything. And she said go home and order your boss. And she said I will put the people on the bus. And Sarah that was here, here, Pardon me.
Hannah was here last night, personally contacted each one of those and got them on the bus. Lorraine and I had nothing to do but pray and uh, so umm, we talked with her about a week ago and she told us she had 45 coming and as you know, they did come last night.
Umm, so the Lord really opened the door this year?
And when she left last night, she was extremely happy and said anytime we wanted to get involved in activities to let her know and we'd sit down and talk about them. So we would really, really value your prayers for the future as the Lord leaves us here. You know that a world has a saying that there's only two things that are certain.
I won't tell you what they are because you already know.
I say there's two things that are certain that's the Lord's coming and that we're going to spend eternity with Him.
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But it does say occupy until I come. So it really, really value your prayers for not just Lorraine and I, but the local assembly that this open door, we would be given God's wisdom and strength to know what he has for us with these refugees. There's about 100 of them come every month into the City of London.
There's well over 2000 often there now and, uh.
Apparently others are telling me we had about six countries represented here last night. Umm, with the 44 people that were on the bus.
It has been a total encouragement to Lorraine and I and how it all the Lord brought it all together. As I say, open the door at the Cultural Center and, and uh, it kind of came to a, shall we say I had yesterday when we ended the meeting here about 24 hours ago, her brother gave out that him bring them in.
And then I don't know how many in 15 minutes, but.
Number of brothers prayed and I've never felt.
The exercise of the entire group and the way that we did and Lorraine and I spoke about it together in the hotel room last night that it just was amazing feeling that how we really felt the Lord undertaking and not the least of which when we.
Contact, uh, when we were making these plans.
They said the, the Cultural Center said they would send the, uh, staff and the translator. And so we went around the assembly and so forth and how we were going to do the things like translating or whatever. And then the Lord said, no, I've got more. And that was Moses.
Uh-huh. Just.
I I can't express it. OK, umm, how things just the Lord just kept bringing things together and the encouragement that you've all been yesterday and and over these three days, 2 1/2 days, I've never felt the like of it before. It's been a wonderful, wonderful feeling and I really do thank you and appreciate your your prayers. I appre. I would suggest.
Obviously that you would.
Continue to pray for us here and I would suggest that if you have refugees in your part of the world, umm, that you maybe want to think about it. If there's a, a center where they take care of them as to educating kids and doing all kinds of stuff for them, you may be able to approach them as we were did in London and there may be a work that we can have with these people.
They've come.
From countries where war and bombings and it's all that they know and they've never known peace. And so if we can bring them the gospel of peace, but above all that there may be that which was for the Lord's glory and for his honor, and that there would be salvation brought to souls. Maybe we just close the word of prayer.
Our God and our Father, we look up to thee now, and we thank Thee for the message that we just.
Had before us and how when I was looked down in the days of Noah and see the corruption and uh how to say I will destroy a man from off the face of the earth. And Lord thou did reduce the population of this world to 8 souls.
We look forward to thy coming and some would think that thy coming has been delayed many times.
But Lord surely will now look us down now and see this world, the corruption that exists.
It's certainly like the days of Noah. And so this would just give our hearts to rejoice that this it may be, it's getting so close to, I would say thy son, son, go claim thy bride. And we would be taken from this scene and go into that scene where there's no more sin, there's no more sickness.
No more sorrow.
Those are all things that we can enter into, but blessed Savior, we can never enter into the fact until we're there. What it will be to be with thee and to see Thy face.
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We pray that I will keep the hope of Thy coming before our hearts, for this is the one thing that would encourage us and strengthen us to go on.
Now we think of how there are those that are traveling on the road at the present time, and those that will soon be, we ask Thy care over them. We thank Thee for each one that was able to come and have the desire to come. And may there be real blessings in each one of our lives and real glory brought to thyself and to Thy blessed person. And so we just thank Thee and leave all and I worthy and precious name.
Amen. Amen.