Address—H.E. Hayhoe
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Oh, beloved brethren, what a precious book that is.
It's the only book in the world that is a revelation.
The only book in the world that is comfort to our hearts in a world like this.
And all how blessed it is to have the voice of God and to know.
That nothing that God has promised.
Will ever fail all the promises of God. In him are ye, and in him Amen unto the glory of God by us.
And that God loves every one of his children.
Not because of what he sees in you, but because he is loved.
And God has no favorites.
Every Christian blessing is a gift.
Every Christian blessing is a gift, and every believer is equally blessed of God.
Oh, how precious and how blessed. Well, we've been looking at John's Gospel. The subject is large, but supposing we turn to John 10.
And just follow.
The.
11Th verse.
I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
Could he give more?
Would love give less? The Good Shepherd gave his life for the sheep.
Again the 14th verse I am the Good Shepherd and know my sheep and I am known of mine as the Father knoweth me. Even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. The reason that verse is there is because the sun is.
The manifestation of the Father's heart for all our failures.
Sinners are Saints springs from unbelief of the goodness that's in the heart of God.
God's purpose is the blessing of the whole Adam race for whosoever will may come.
And if you have accepted Christ as your Savior, God's purpose is your blessing.
And the likeness of that blessing is such that language itself fails to tell the blessedness of the coming scene of glory. Paul caught up to the 3rd heaven.
Found no human language by which he could tell of the glory of that scene.
But all how precious to know that every child of God is going to be there.
So we have here in the 17th verse. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man take it from me, but I lay it down of myself.
Or isn't that precious? Isn't that precious? He yielded up his life. He didn't die like any other of Adam's race. This is the only gospel that tells us that he dismissed his Spirit on the cross.
And in the death of Christ.
Typically, it ended our Adam history.
And in John's ministry, we are born of God.
A new creation with a life capable of enjoying the things of God. Isn't that precious? As we said in our meetings, take even Paul's ministry.
Wonderful hours, the revelation of coming glory is given to us in His ministry. We need a nature that would enable us to enjoy its blessedness. And that's exactly what the ministry of John brings before us.
And the soft trees on my heart especially that I hope to develop.
I will say in these words that now the exhortations of Scripture come from the heart of God in glory to us as His children and in divine things.
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You only enjoy it as you walk in it.
You only enjoy it as you walk in it. Our brother was Speaking of the breaking of bread and remembering the Lord in his death. And it made me think of a dear sister that first took her place and broke bread with us in Ottawa. And after the morning meeting was over and I spoke to her, oh, she said to me, I didn't know I could enjoy the Lord so much as I did this morning.
I didn't know I could enjoy him so much.
Well, so it is. This is the Gospel of John.
He leaned on the Lord's bosom, as our brother told us in his address. Bob fitted that servant for the very line of ministry that he intended that that dear servant should give forth. And what we find that I hope to bring out is that the path of obedience, and walking in that path brings joy and gladness.
And not only so, but at peace that passeth all understanding.
Peace that passeth all understanding. I remember my wife in the hospital, the bed beside her. The woman died while my wife was in the hospital.
As she felt death approaching, she was nervous. She was excited. Or am I going to die? Am I going to die? I heard her say it. Am I going to die?
Ah, how blessed it is to be a child of God. And in the ministry of John we find the blessed truth as we will turn to it right now in John 14.
Let not your heart be troubled. Isn't that precious?
Let not your heart be troubled.
He believed 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 to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.
John was in the good of that. I'm so Paul could say when he was in prison.
And Nero, the cruelest emperor that ever sat on the throne.
Was his captor. He could say to depart and to be with Christ is far better. To depart and to be with Christ is far better.
Oh, how lovely it is to be a child of God, not only to know that your sins are forgiven.
But to know that blessed man in the glory, and to know his love, and to enjoy in one's soul the peace of God. For God is the God of circumstances, and nothing happens in your life and mine but that which is ordered of hidden to do us good at our latter end.
Now we'll turn back to for a moment or two, to the book of Job.
Will you turn to the 7th chapter?
17th verse.
The most wonderful truth in the Bible that I've ever discovered in all my life is this.
That God has become a man in the person of Christ, took a life not subject to death, but capable of it.
Took a life capable of suffering. Why you know that the heart of God might be known.
In order that our sins might be put away.
Ah, how precious that is, how blessed that is. Only once in all eternity has God become a man and gone to the cross in order to have a family with him in Yonder glory.
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And grace has made us members of the body of Christ.
And children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
So here we have what is man, that thou shouldest magnify him, and that thou should have set thine heart upon him, and that thou shouldst visit him every morning, and try him every moment. How long wilt thou not depart from me, says Job, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle? He means really death. Now the next verse I shall read, as in Mr. Garvey's translation.
Have I seen what do I unto thee, unto thee old.
Observer of men.
Although observer of men, why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself?
Oh, he's an observer, and He'll never let a trial come into your life and mine, but that which is in the purposes of His love to do us good at our latter end. He tells you that in the 8th chapter of Deuteronomy. He tells it again in Jeremiah. Unless I have the chapter wrong, I'll give it to you.
Jeremiah.
The 24th chapter.
And the fourth verse again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel, like these good things, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good, for their good.
There isn't a circumstance that ever occurs in your life or mine.
But that which is ordered of God in love and in wisdom, to do us good at our latter end.
What we need is to be in His presence, exercised to profit by it for his employees, but nothing happens by chance.
Our whole life history is ordered of Him and ordered in perfect wisdom. As I grow older, brethren.
What has been such a comfort to me is that precious truth that the peace of God that passeth all understanding.
Make Garrison our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
As I watched my own beloved wife almost taken from me on October the 20th and I stood for the bedside.
Reverse. The Lord gave me words. As for God, His way is perfect.
Ask for God, His way is perfect, and the peace of God passed through my mind and gave triumph, even in myth, in such a triumph. Oh how lovely it is to be a child of God and to know that that blessed Savior who died upon the cross is head over all things to the Church, which is His body.
And.
Nothing happens but that it is of His ordering in perfect wisdom and in perfect love.
Oh, how blessed and how precious it is. Oh, God gives us in life's history to prove the living reality of the precious Word of God. Speaking along those lines, would you notice the 27th Psalm?
Psalm 27.
The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? You notice the Lord is in capital letters. That's always, that's Jehovah.
Jehovah is the ever existing covenant keeping God. Now notice when the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes came upon me.
To eat up my my flesh They stumbled and fell. Though on a host should encamp against me. My heart shall not fear. The war should rise against me. In this will I be confident.
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Now one thing about desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life.
To behold the beauty, that word beauty, by the way, brethren, should be graciousness. To behold the graciousness of the Lord, and to inquire of him in his temple.
At the proper reading of that verse.
Well, it's what you and I desire and seek after that forms our whole life history down here.
And every article you read in the magazines of today.
Every teacher in school will put the desire of present things before you, the world and its glory. The Bible is the only book in the world that will tell you to lay up your treasure up there.
One thing have I desired of the law, Oh, it isn't enough to desire it, but to seek after that requires the energy of faith.
Oh, to seek after.
And is there blessing in that path? What I want to impress and I hope the Lord will enable me to do it is, and we tried to say it in our meetings, if you walk with God in the path of obedience and communion.
You'll have a taste of heaven in your soul before you get there. You'll have a taste of heaven in your soul before you get there.
Are you hesitating as our brother indeed exhausted in connection with the path and the breaking of bread?
To share the Lord's rejection, to be outside the camp and share his rejection. He's a place of infinite blessing to one soul.
Oh blessed if you are really gathered to him.
And realize his presence in the midst, the preciousness of it becomes more and more to your soul as the years roll on. And the thought of going home is just going home to one with whom you have walked through this world. And that's exactly what we get in John's ministry, which I hope to be able to bring before you.
Will you turn now to the 63rd Psalm?
And the 63rd Psalm is in the last.
Half of the prophetic week when the Beast and the Antichrist are in power. The 27th Psalm is in the first half of the week before.
The awful days of the Great Tribulation have taken place, but the 63rd Psalm is in the last half of the week.
Hear what the psalmist has to say when the darkness is increased.
And the enemy is rising in power.
He says, Oh God, thou art my God.
Early and in the Hebrew language I understand the word early has coupled with it the sense of earnestly.
Early, earnestly will I seek my soul fisted for thee, my flesh longest for Thee, in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is to see Thy power and Thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary, because Thy loving kindness, or thy thine enjoy favours, is better than life.
Listen, never allow anything in your life that will rob your soul of communion.
If you're a child of God, you can never be lost, but you can lose communion. You can lose communion. And what is communion?
Oh, it's the enjoyment of the person and work of Christ in your soul. The Spirit of God that dwells within us never occupies us with ourselves, saving to judge ourselves, but His normal indwelling is intended to occupy our hearts with Christ.
And if you and I are not in the enjoyment of Christ at this very moment, we're out of communion.
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That blessed Spirit and dwells within us in order to take up the things of Christ and make them real to us. And there's no happiness like it. That's why the psalmist says Thy loving kindness is better than life. My lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless Thee. While I live, I will lift up my hands in thy name. Now notice the next verse.
My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness. Wasn't that true of the Apostle John?
Why does he say, little children, keep yourselves from idols? Why did the Lord use him specially to give us that precious gospel and the epistles of John, in which, as we've had before us in our readings three times over in the Gospel, it says these things. Write I unto you, that your joy may be full.
In the 15th chapter of John, its fullness of joy through obedience. In the 16th chapter, its fullness of joy through answered prayer.
In the 17th of John, it's fullness of joy through communion with the father in the known and enjoyed relationship of a child.
Oh, how blessed that is.
How precious we will not have a new life in heaven.
God has satisfied His own heart in making us His children to enjoy in our souls by the Holy Spirit that which will be fullness of joy to us up there, when everything will contribute to that joy. But let every storm, every trial.
Every difficulty in your life so take you into His presence there to find what our precious Savior found. Whereas walking through this world is the rejected man. He was the man of perfect peace.
Will return to a verse that will express that in Colossians chapter 3.
The third chapter of Colossians, the 12Th verse, put on therefore, as the elect of God, fully and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of frettingness. Now the next verse is the one that I wanted to call your attention to. It shouldn't read the peace of God. Let the peace of Christ preside in your hearts to the which also you are called in one body and be thankful. Let the peace of Christ.
Preside in your heart. Did anything disturb the peace in which he walked?
Nothing ever disturbed that perfect peace.
That precious Savior walked through this world and was tried and tested in every way in which you and I can be tried in the past of obedience.
But he says, My peace I give unto you.
My peace I give unto you and brethren, the older I get, the more I feel the preciousness of it. Not only to know that heaven isn't is one's home at the end of the journey.
But the peace as one looks into the future, even if left down here.
Oh, how lovely it is to know that wisdom and love and power will never allow anything to happen in your life and mind but that which is to do as good at our latter end. Oh, isn't it lovely?
In that lovely brethren and precious, isn't it blessed? Ah, but to enjoy it, we must walk in it. So let's turn back to the practical side in Job now.
Turn again to the Book of Job, this time to the 40th chapter, Job.
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We quote the verse part of the verse that was quoted last night, the third, the 4th.
The fourth verse, Behold I am vile. Where didn't God bless the Job right at that very moment? Why did God continue speaking to him after he said behold I am vile? Well will you turn over and notice the 42nd chapter of Job?
Then Job answered the Lord, and said, I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholding from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I understood not things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Here I beseech thee, and I will speak. I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the year, but now mine eyes see at thee.
Wherefore I am far myself.
And repent and dust and ashes.
When did Paul say In me, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing? Did he say that when he was unconverted?
Did he say that? No, he said that after he was converted. Why? You and I learn after we're converted, not only that we're sinners and vile, but we learn that in our flesh dwell of no good thing.
Did the blessing come even then? Did God pour out the blessing upon Job even then? Let's go a little further down in the chapter.
And notice.
Without reading unnecessarily the 10th verse and the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.
Ah, when you own your vials, you get saved, you get saved, you're forgiven. But after you're forgiven, you still have to learn that in me, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. After you got saved, you expected perhaps some very nice fruit. Ah, but you have to learn after you're saying there's no fruit bearing apart from communion.
Without me He can do nothing. Without me He can do nothing. In me, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Ah, but that isn't the end of the story either. It must be practiced in your life. Do not allow anything that would hinder the blessed Spirit of God pouring into your soul the river of His grace.
The river of his grace and soul. When Job prayed all, they falsely accused him.
Why is it there's not more of the enjoyment of Christ in many of the Saints? Because there's feelings often between the Saints.
They don't speak to one another. Perhaps somebody has hurt your feelings and you don't speak to them. You've got a little unforgiving spirit. The blessing is yours.
But you don't enjoy it.
Why try Job didn't get the blessing until he prayed for his friends that had falsely accused him and that God poured out the blessing. He poured out the blessing and notice as we go down in the chapter, the 11Th verse. Then came there unto him all his brethren.
In that lovely.
All his brethren, and all his sisters, and all that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house.
Oh, isn't that lovely when you see a little assembly gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus? When there's no feelings against one another? When they're walking with God in communion and they're enjoying Christ together? Oh, isn't it such an assembly? Lovely to meet brethren?
Why is it there is so little overflow of praise? Why is it there are souls are not filled? More largely the blessing is yours. But notice we go on. And they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all evil that the Lord had brought upon him. Every man also gave him a piece of money, and everyone an earring of gold. Why an earring of gold?
Why an earring of gold?
Practical righteousness is expressed there.
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That which will refuse to hear anything.
That would be in any wise detrimental to the glory of God, or hinder the flow of affection one for another. And even though there be failures, we can never act in discipline, whether his father's in a family or an assembly in action, except love be the motives spring.
An earring of gold. There must be that practical righteousness.
Who had an ending to the book of Job. What an ending to the book of Job and how it tells us the way of blessing brethren, that's just what one hand on their heart in suggesting John's gospel to us in our readings for John gives you the enjoyment of the Father's house before we get there.
Turn back to John and see how that's developed in John's Gospel. Will you turn to John 14?
We're not going to the detail of it, but notice verse 21. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them heed is that loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. And as we remarked, every exhortation in Scripture is founded upon what you possess.
That new life is characterized by the very spirit of obedience.
But it needs to be an act of exercise. Now notice the 23rd verse. Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man loved me, he will keep my word. Leave out the S. There shouldn't be there. He'll keep my words. That's the whole revealed mind of God.
Every part of it becoming precious to one soul. How do you and I?
Prove our love to Christ.
By how loud we sing or how well we sing? No. If you love me, keep my commandments.
His Word becomes precious to our souls, and the fruit of it is that we walk with God in communion. You get the principle of it, so lovely brought out in the 19th Psalm that I'll turn back to it.
Psalm 19.
The verse 7.
The law of the Lord is perfect. The law is the revealed mind of God in this arms, rejoicing the heart.
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous. Altogether more to be desired. Are they than gold? Yeah, than much fine gold.
Sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is thy servant warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward. Then the psalmist says, Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults.
Oh, isn't that precious? Isn't that blessed? Who can understand his errors? If I had time in the address to carry you through the book of Job, you'd find there that Job didn't realize.
Two things that God had to correct.
One was I thought I should die in my nest.
I I thought I should die in my nest of God has two ways of taking our hearts up there.
Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. Here's two ways of doing it. Wooing us by His love and weaning us by circumstances.
And the tendency of our hearts is to settle down here and make life as comfortable.
With what we possess in the surroundings of it as possible.
May I say this, I remember the first time I went to California in 1930, Now remembered well, the brethren said to me, Mother Hayhoe, you'll be moving out to California. I said, brethren, if the climate brings me out here, it isn't the mind of the Lord.
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I hope I'll not go to California until the Lord tells me to go there.
We need to have his glory before our souls. And Job says I thought I should die in my nest and God stirred it up. Why? He wants your heart's affection. He values them. My son, give me thine heart and he's done everything possible to win your affections.
But there's another thing, and that is.
Job even said that he esteemed His word above His necessary food. But there was self righteousness in Job and God had to breakdown that self righteousness. He didn't realize it was there. And God, when he broke it down, what did he do? He poured in a double blessing at the end. He poured in a double blessing at the end.
I've often said to our young people in Ottawa.
No St. of God ever walked with God.
And then at the end of his life said I wish I hadn't done.
In there I repeat, I often do repeat, brother, but I repeat again in the things of God. You only enjoy the thing as you walk in it. You may listen to ministry and you may give it your assent to it, but if you're going to enjoy it in your soul, you must walk in it. That's why on the 14th of John.
The blessedness is brought before you. The river is deep and wide in the 14th of John. The 15th of John that we had before us was abiding in Christ. Why? Because that's the way of enjoying. The 16th of John is the Holy Spirit come down to occupy us with the person of Christ and show us things to come.
Things to come, Why?
Because the things that are seen are temporal, The things that are not seen are eternal.
All man's glory will shortly be a heap of rubble.
All man's glory. The whole world is under the judgment of God, and there will be nothing in which man can glory in the eternal state.
Anything that exalts man.
Is not of God.
Where no flesh of glory in His presence.
No flesh should glory in his presence, and anything that exalts man is not of God. I said to a lady on the train. I had a little talk with her and she professed to be a Christian and I think perhaps she was by our conversation. Shortly she picked up a magazine and began reading it. I looked at her and I said lady.
I said every magazine you read will put the world and the spirit of the world into your heart. Lady, I said the Bible is the only book in the world that will tell you to lay up your treasure in heaven.
Lay up your treasure in heaven, oh you dear young people.
You dear young people, education is necessary up to a point, but the object of it should be to glorify Christ in the past.
Of obedience and loyalty to him, to himself, and anything beyond that.
Is just rubbish to be burned up at the end.
All you say that's a picture that's not very attractive. Well, that's the very thing I'm trying to correct in this very address this afternoon. That is, the enemy will tell you that such a path is a hard one and a difficult one, and tell you how much you must give up. But the enemy will tell you will never tell you that, John, that accompanies giving up the world.
And getting cracked. Getting cracked. And that's why we remarked in our reading meetings that three times over in this gospel, these things write I unto you, that your joy may be full.
Think of the cost by which God in His grace has made you one of His children.
Does he want your happiness? Oh, he desires the happiness of everyone of his children.
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And the voice of God in the Word would lead to that path. And so he says here in this 23rd verse, My Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. Isn't that precious in that blessed and precious? Well, we looked at the 15th chapter. Shall we go over just a little bit to the 17th of John?
And the 11Th verse.
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, what is holiness? Holiness is a nature that abhorred evil and delights in that which is good. Does the believer possess such a nature? Indeed he does.
With the Ephesians 4, verse 24 tells you that.
Just hold this 17th of John and turn over to it.
Ephesians 4.
Verse 24.
And that she put on or having put on it is really the new man. Now I understand the word for new there to be something that we would have in the English language brand new that is not renewed, but something never possessed before.
Having put on the Newman, which after God, what does that mean? That means after the true nature of God.
Is created in righteousness. That's a character.
True holiness.
As I said to a man on the train who was talking to him, I think it was coming here. Oh, I said. I don't go to the theater. Our brother was talking about the television one. There's a television in our in the room where I've been sleeping since I've been here.
Was there any desire in my heart to look at it? Not one.
Not a desire.
There wasn't the slightest thought of doing so.
Oh, if you're enjoying Christ, you've got something so infinitely better that you don't want that rubbish so infinitely better. I remember when I was a young man working for the big firm in Toronto.
They sent me up to the theater to get a check from the manager for some curtains they had made.
And I was just a young boy, but I was saved and they gave me a pass for the theater for myself and any girlfriend I'd happen to have.
I put it in the stove as soon as I got home.
It would didn't cost me anything.
I put it in the stove, didn't want it.
Oh, I know this. If you have any desire for it, you're out of communion.
If you've got Christ in your heart, you've got that which is so infinitely better that that even the temptation isn't there. You've got something better. And what God would have is so right, Christ upon your heart and mind, that we find our joy and our pleasure.
In His presence, enjoying His love in our souls.
Oh dear, I like the way the psalmist puts it, so we'll turn it over.
To the Psalm.
The 4th Psalm.
The 4th Psalm in the 7th and 8th verses.
Thou has put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. Isn't that lovely? Now it's put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. You know the Ten Commandments where thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not.
Oh, but what about the truth that we have in Christianity?
All right, it's the wounds of his love.
It's the warnings of his love, and so it is that they are not negative commandments.
Know their positive drawing our hearts in the path of obedience and loyalty. If ye love me, keep my commandments. Now notice the next verse. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.
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Isn't it precious? Isn't it blessed to end the day? We're getting close to the end of this day and when it arrives and we lie down in peace and sleep in the lovely, to get on our knees and put ourselves into His blessed hands.
And lie down in peace and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.
Doesn't that remind you of John 14 that says, My peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. You believe in God, believe also in me. My peace I give unto you.
And the peace of God is that which garrisons both heart and mind, and God would have us to live in the blessed sense of it in our souls, that we are constantly the objects of these loving interest and care. And He's doing the very best He can for every one of us according to our state of soul. Will you turn to a verse in Corinthians?
That establishes the truth so preciously.
2nd Corinthians.
The 9th chapter and the eighth verse.
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.
Notice all grace is unmerited favor.
He's given every one of us all that he can trust us with.
Are we using that which He has given us for His glory? Remember this, brethren, that every act in our life has for its object either self or Christ.
And do not resent criticism. I hope you brethren will criticize me. If you see that which needs correction, far better to have it corrected than to go on carelessly.
Lord, by word or deed it was far better for Job. Far better that those three friends even falsely accused him. God overruled it. He overruled it for Jobs blessing and without it.
Job would have would not have had the blessing that was in on the heart of God for him. Don't resent criticism. Don't resent it. God allows it. Nothing can happen but that which God allows. He allows everything that takes place in your life's history and mine. And we need to be exercised thereby.
Look beyond the person and see the hand and purpose of God in it.
Oh yes, and oh, how lovely it's brought out and it's been deeply a help to my soul in my Christian life, to that which I'll call your attention to before I close in connection with Paul.
2nd Corinthians that we're looking at.
And the 12Th chapter. And the 15th verse.
And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.
That verse has been a strengthening to my soul. Notice the 13th chapter in the fifth verse.
The seventh verse.
The next chapter in the seventh verse. Now I pray to God that you should do no evil, not that we should appear approved.
Because they've been saved through Paul's ministry. But that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. What does that mean? All Paul says, Even if you count me a reprobate, I'll be happy as long as you're walking in the path of the truth.
Oh, how much of self there is both in the speaker, how much of self there is in the speaker, and in every one of us. But Paul says even if you count me a reprobate, I'll be happy if you're walking in the truth.
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There's the Spirit of Christ in that dear servant of the Lord, and here it's written down. It's written down for our encouragement. Remember always that God is able to supply our need upon every occasion. There can never be.
Accidental happening in your life or mine. God is the order of every pathway of every St.
And His purpose is always to do us good at our latter end, and there's never in anything allowed but that which love and wisdom allow. Let us learn, each of us, to take our circumstances from the Lord, and our difficulties to the Lord. And here may I, in the in what I've tried to bring out, practically remind our souls too, in a reading meeting.
When the subjects come up in a reading meeting.
Remember, edification in the things of God is to be the object. Never introduce anything that would not be for the edification of the Saints. Now I'll give you one more verse before I close.
In second Peter chapter one.
Verse 3.
According as His divine power have given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that have called us, it's really by glory and virtue. But there's just one thought that I wanted to bring out here, and that is His divine power given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. He hasn't answered all our curious questions.
I often say to my brethren, in a Bible reading of that kind, supposing we answered your question.
Would it lead to godliness in your life?
Well, we can afford to let it drop. Then gently, we can afford to let it drop. Perhaps it's some prophetic scripture and you're not clear about it and the brother you ask isn't clear about it. Oh, I say, never introduce into a reading meeting what is not for edification, for edification, that which will bring and make Christ more precious to the things, and our walk more in conformity to his mind and will.
But those things that would create discussion unprofitably should be left out. God has given to us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. For instance, I'll give you 1 illustration. Supposing saw a brother ask me what kind of a body?
Will men have when they appear before the Great White Throne? They'll be raised. What kind of a body will they have? I don't know.
Scripture doesn't tell us.
But supposing you did know, would it increase your godliness? Would it make Christ more precious to you if you did know? Often ask yourself that question, and remember that when we come together, it is for edification that Christ may be more precious, and that godliness may characterize our walk while we wait for the moment when He'll receive us unto Himself.
Well, will we sing the 288 hymn beginning at verse 2?
Preserved thy flock most graciously within thy sheltering fold, Move them from every harm away, And in my safeguard hold till thou shalt fully have obtained in US the fruits of grace, and we enjoy that never end. Shall see thee face to face. 288, beginning at verse 2.
Live in my children.
I say, I say God.
The fruit of grace.
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And we enjoy.
That never end how he replaced him.
Increase.