Address—B. Prost
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Could we sing together?
The first three verses of #77 in the appendix.
Reading verse 30, Christ, or verse two rather. Oh Christ, He is the fountain, the deep sweet well of love streams on earth. I've tasted more deep. I'll drink above.
The background of this hymn is very interesting and very touching. If you look in the list of authors in the back of the book, you'll notice that it was written by a woman by the name of Mrs. Cousins.
But it was inspired by a man by the name of Samuel Rutherford.
Who lived well over 300 years ago in Scotland.
Very, very devoted man to the Lord, and I suppose he didn't know.
As much truth, if I could put it that way, as many here in this room know.
But oh, there was a devotedness to Christ in his heart.
That inspired him and many of his brethren to endure persecution and suffering.
Of the most intense kind.
He died, I believe, in 1661 and for the next 25 or 30 years in Scotland there was just a terrible time of persecution.
And these were the kind of things that sustained those people during that time. 77 in the appendix, just the 1St 3 verses.
The sons of Time are.
You.
Overnight.
For the landing *****.
00:05:20
Pray together.
After the last meeting, a brother came up to me and spoke very briefly to me.
And Justice told me that he would be praying for me.
But he said some words that I rather appreciated. And it was a very, very humbling thing to hear those words. He said, brother, we have just been on a mountaintop in that. And he referred, of course, to the reading meeting. And I said something back to him. Yes, brother, it's going to be, in a manner of speaking, rather a tough act to follow.
But I trust that the Lord would have something for us in these.
Next few minutes that would encourage and warm our hearts and what I have before me.
Is to speak a little bit about what Scripture says concerning the heart and the mind.
Turn first of all, then, to a verse that is well known, perhaps to most of us.
In Jeremiah chapter 17.
Jeremiah 17 and verse 9.
A verse that we need to remember.
Even though we have been saved for many years.
The heart is deceitful above all things.
And desperately wicked. Who can know it?
I, the Lord, search the heart.
All we need to remember, do we not, that our hearts naturally speaking our deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
I remember that being driven home to my soul a few years ago when our daughter was going to high school.
And she had some acquaintances there who had what we might call a passing interest in the things of God.
But when the Word of God was opened, and when these precious things were spoken about, there seemed to be so little response.
But I can well remember when a boy of their acquaintance, whom I had never met, got into difficulties with the law, and from everything I heard of that boy he deserved very much to get into those difficulties. He had apparently been guilty of something. He had been taken by the police, he had been, as I recall, put in jail. But what impressed me was to see the total emotion.
And what shall I say, going out of their hearts to that boy? There were tears shed, there were pleadings made, there were heart rending cries on his behalf, beseeching people to put up the money for bail in order that he might be let out of prison. Thinking of how sad it was that this had happened to him, and so on. And I remember thinking of this verse, the heart.
Is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. No heart for Christ.
No heart for that Blessed One who had, as we have heard more than once during these meetings, been taken by men's wicked hands and crucified and slain. But when one of their acquaintances, who was near and dear to their hearts, was taken, as far as I knew, for very legitimate reasons, oh, how much emotion it brought out of them.
And I thought how misdirected their hearts were. Oh, I say to each one of us, this is a voice. Because remember.
Jeremiah prophesied to those who knew something of the Lord in his ways. He prophesied to those who had a knowledge of the true God. And yet he has to remind them the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
But I'm so thankful that I know I am looking at a company that is composed largely, and maybe all may be completely, of those who have learned something, of the deceitfulness of their natural hearts, who have learned something.
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Of what that heart is capable of.
And have thy grace allowed that Blessed One, the Lord, to search their hearts?
To see what is there.
And to come to Christ in order that they might have a new life, a new life.
And I'd like to turn to another verse that is more appropriate for us as believers. Proverbs chapter 23.
Proverbs 23.
Verse 26.
Proverbs 23 and verse 26.
My son.
Give me thine heart.
We're just going to refer to that verse in Luke's Gospel, the 12Th chapter, that is well known to us.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And normally we don't think of the heart having to be trained or directed in a certain direction. It goes to wherever the object is that is near and dear to the heart.
But oh, I believe there is a sense in which Scripture does speak of the heart being directed in the right way.
And I know as I speak to you, and I speak most of all to my own heart, that we do have a desire to follow the Lord. I look around here and I see dear believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, some very young, some middle-aged, some older. And I know that down inside what we get in 2nd Corinthians 5 is so true. The love of Christ constraineth us. Isn't that true in your heart? I know it is.
I know it is, and even the believer who has gotten, if we could say it this way, as far away from the Lord as he could get.
Yet there is still a cord that can be struck in that heart and if there is reality there.
There will be a response to the claims of that Blessed One.
But here it says, My son, give me thine heart. This is not spoken to unbelievers.
We do hear the expression sometimes. I gave my heart to Jesus, and I don't object to that. In one sense, I know what people mean and I know that they simply mean that they came to the Lord Jesus and accepted Him as their Savior. But I would point out very gently that that expression is not really scriptural. The scriptural expression is My Son give me.
Thine heart.
May I be forgiven if I say that this is one of the things that we need more than anything else today.
Is the heart to be right?
We have had so much before us in these meetings and I have thoroughly enjoyed them.
We have had positive truth and we need that. We have had warnings and we need that. We have had the pathway of faith presented to us and we need that.
But all why is it then that sometimes those who know so much?
Find it so difficult to walk in it and I point right here. I point right here. Why is there not more response to these things?
I can remember a few years ago there was a dear brother in India who was having difficulty with some of the things that were discussed this morning. He was having some real difficulty with the truth of going outside the camp, and not only outside the camp, but unto him.
He made a comment to me right to my face. We were talking together, he said. If some of those dear brethren who lived in the last century, who had such gift, who knew so much of the word of God.
Missed the path, he said. How can I, a poor simple believer, hope to find it?
Well, I don't know whether what I said made the impression on him that I hoped it would.
But I said to him something like this. I said, dear brother, it is not a question of knowledge that keeps us in the pathway of faith.
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And I may say that some of us know that just a little too well.
No, it's not a question of what I know.
It's a question of where the heart is, because it's not the believer that knows the most, that walks the best. No, it's the believer.
That enjoys the love of the Lord in his heart the most. It's the one who has a sense in his soul of the Lord's love and who gives his heart to the Lord. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not in any way down grading the precious truths that we have in the Word of God. I'm not down grading the knowledge that we get in Scripture. To do so would be to slight the very one.
Who by his Spirit gave them to us. I have heard people say, quoting Scripture to support it. They would say, well, the apostle Paul said that he didn't know anything but Jesus Christ and him crucified. And that's enough for me.
Oh, is that the meaning of that verse? We'll talk about that in a little while. No, that is not the meaning of that verse. That verse.
Be used to excuse my enjoying all of the things that God has given me.
But the heart must be right before anything else can be right.
And I would challenge my own soul, as I do each one here this afternoon, to say where is.
Your heart turn over to 1St John for some verses that I have felt spoke very definitely to me.
I.
First John, chapter 3.
And to get the connection.
Will read from verse 18.
First John 3, verse 18.
My little children.
Let us not love in Word, neither in tongue.
But indeed and in truth.
Excuse me?
And hereby we know that we are of the truth.
And shall.
And shall assure our hearts before him.
For our heart, condemn us.
God is greater than our heart.
And N all things.
Beloved.
If our heart.
Condemn us not.
Then have we confidence toward God?
I'm sorry.
Not reading this very well, am I?
But what do these verses really mean to us?
We may take them in a simple way.
And I enjoy it.
But if I have allowed that in my life.
Which I clearly know.
Is sin.
Then my communion is broken.
And I don't have confidence toward God.
And I wouldn't take away from that thought in the least.
And that there is a need to deal with what is there.
It doesn't go deeper than that.
Does it go deeper than that? I wonder if it does.
It doesn't say here if our conscience condemn us, does it?
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And if I have sinned, my conscience condemns me.
But here it doesn't say if our conscience condemns.
It says if our heart condemn us or condemn us not.
My heart can condemn me when my conscience is clear, can it?
Is that possible?
My brother yesterday spoke in the open meeting about a woman who had been married six weeks.
I think I heard him properly.
And he said she came to him and said maybe I shouldn't tell you this.
But I don't love my husband.
And perhaps there was nothing.
Overtly, that she had done.
Maybe she had not and, let's be explicit, gone out.
And gotten involved with someone else.
Maybe she had not actively done that, which someone could point to and say.
You have sinned.
But her heart condemned her. Her heart condemned her. Why? Because there wasn't the response in her heart that deep down inside, she knew ought to be there.
And I wonder if that's the force of these verses.
And I believe there is something here that speaks to our hearts and yet is an encouragement because it says in verse 20 if our heart condemn us.
Should her heart condemn us? I believe that's the thought there.
God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. Oh, I believe we see a case of that in the 21St of John where poor Peter is having his heart probed by the Lord Jesus.
Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?
And twice over, Peter answers.
But he changes the word.
Because he doesn't, shall we say, dare to use.
The word for divine love that the Lord used in addressing Him. He uses the word filio.
For human love.
But all the Lord wasn't finished yet. The third time he says to Peter love a sell me and he uses in that last instance the word that Peter used for human love.
And poor Peter, finally he has to say, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee.
I don't know how you take that, but the way it comes through to me is, Lord, you know what's there, You know how real it is.
You know.
Whether it's true or not, you can see everything and all I would say to each one here this afternoon. If our heart condemns us, if my heart condemns me, what does the word of God do? Oh, it directs me first to that One who is love and who knows all things. It emphasizes what has already been said in these meetings, that we should never try to love the Lord any more than we do. But just to think of how much.
He loves us.
But oh, then it says here.
In verse 21, beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
Oh, it's a wonderful thing to have confidence toward God, isn't it? Not that you and I would ever get to the point that we would feel that the response of our love to the Lord's love was such that we are satisfied with it. No, no, I don't believe we will ever get to that point, at least not down here.
But nevertheless, scripture talks about our heart condemning us not.
To go back to that incident that we referred to a moment or two ago to that young bride, and I believe we could call her a bride married for only six weeks, who says I don't love my husband?
Would she feel comfortable in her husband's presence? Would she have confidence toward him? How could she?
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Perhaps there was number change in his life. Perhaps the response.
Of him to her had never changed.
But how could she feel confident? How could she enjoy his presence? There was something lacking.
Oh, that was what the Lord through the apostle John had to bring before Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2. Thou hast left thy first left, and that was the beginning of it all. The declension of Laodicea started with that.
Which the finger of God identifies in connection with Ephesus.
Thou hast left thy first love.
And if we are going to carry out anything that we have had before us in these meetings, practically in our lives, that must be the mode of spring.
I speak again most of all to my own heart, because I had the privilege of being brought up amongst those gathered to the Lorde name and I can remember from my very earliest days sitting in meetings like this.
And I can freely confess to you how many times I went away from meetings like that when I was old enough to take in the truth, when I was old enough to take, as it were, some responsibility for my own walk and saying.
With the Lord's help, I'm not going to slip again. I'm not going to get cold again. I'm not going to let these things go. I am going to live for the Lord. I am going to speak of Him. I am going to walk more faithfully. I am going to live out all of those things that we have had brought before us.
And I found out to my sorrow, that, to use a common expression, I ran out of steam.
I ran out of steam and maybe others here have found the same thing, and that's what's happening to many today.
The Word of God in a number of cases uses that expression that we faint not.
And I'm no Greek scholar, but if you look up the Greek word that is used in that connection, it has the sense of losing heart. Losing heart.
And that's what's happening.
And it's happening to me too, if I'm not careful. What do we need?
A pep rally? That won't do it.
Know what we need?
In the sense of His love in our soul, because it is His love, and our affections drawn out to that Blessed One.
That will keep us going. That will keep me walking before him.
Never ignoring my fellow man, we have it right here in this chapter. We read that verse, not loving in Word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
But all who set the example for us, who gave everything in order that we might be his.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
While our time is going, we said we would speak a little of the mind.
And Scripture distinguishes between the heart and the mind.
Now, in some of these things, we have to.
Recognize an overlap, and we have to recognize that perhaps we cannot define all of these things strictly in human care.
But Scripture talks about the heart and it talks about the mind.
And the heart speaks more of the affections.
But the mind speaks more of the intellect.
And the heart is drawn out by affections.
But the mind, and again our brother yesterday afternoon made mention of these things. The mind and where it goes is an act of my will.
That's why it says in Colossians chapter 3. I believe it is.
And our King James translation says set your affections on things above. But if you'll notice, J&D reads set your mind on things above, and where my mind goes is an act of my will.
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I can train it to go in this direction or the other. I can train it to do certain things.
Or I can let it go.
During the course of these meetings a brother made reference to water and fire, both of which in their place and under proper control are very, very useful to each one of us, but both of which when do tremendous damage. The mind is like that.
Turn, first of all, to 1St Corinthians.
Because, although perhaps not using the exact words.
I believe scripture recognizes.
A natural mind.
A carnal mind.
And a spiritual mind.
First Corinthians, chapter 2.
Verse 14.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him.
Neither can He know them because they are spiritually discerned.
The last verse, Verse 16. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?
But we have the mind of Christ.
There are so many verses that we could refer to.
Let's speak of the mind.
But here we have the natural man, the natural mind referred to.
The natural mind, perhaps, would bring before us.
I know I don't want to pigeonhole these things too tightly because once again, sometimes these things have to be felt in the soul rather than defined in human terms.
But Scripture distinguishes between that which is natural and that which is carnal, and to me that which is natural brings the forest, that aspect of man's mind which perhaps.
In one sense, is good.
Do you have an ability? We'll say, for example, in mathematics, God gave you that.
Do you have an ability to work with your hands because you have a mind that goes in that direction?
God gave you that.
And men have been given brilliant minds in this world. I can remember reading about a man by the name of Tesla who came from Eastern Europe, whose name will be forever, at least as far as this world is concerned, connected with the invention of alternating current in electricity. A tremendous man. And when you read about him, his mind could envision all of those things, even though tangibly they weren't there before him.
And he would talk to people about his concept because prior to that time there had been only direct current.
And he tried to persuade people that alternating current was the way to go, and he would draw pictures in the sand in order to try and convey to people what was in his mind.
He'd say, see my electric motor now see how I reverse it, wondering why other lesser minds, at least in that capacity, couldn't get through their heads what he was trying to convey.
And you and I all know today how well it worked the.
The mind a tremendous thing.
But oh.
The natural man receiveth not the things of God. Why do I emphasize that? Oh, permit me to say this.
And the tendency again is right here.
So much of the trouble that develops amongst the people of God is because the natural mind, perhaps a brilliant mind, starts to get at work in the things of God. And instead of being under the control of the Spirit of God, it thinks that somehow that brilliant natural mind, wonderful vote is can take up the things of God and work its way through them.
No, Why not all? Because the truth of God, the things of God are infinite, and your mind, no matter how brilliant, is finite.
And dear JND put it so well when he made this comment. Permit me to quote it. He said. Dear brethren, let us never forget that it is not we who have kept the truth, but it is the truth that has kept us.
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How needful that is, because Scripture doesn't occupy me merely with the truth, but with the one who is the truth and in having him.
I can live and walk in the truth. I can handle that truth.
But under the control of the Spirit of God. Now, does that mean that God cannot use your mind and mind? Indeed he can't. There are heights and depths of meditation in the Word of God.
That your mind and mind can never get to the end of it.
And I have marveled at times when I have read some of our written ministry and seen some of the tremendous things that our dear brethren have brought before us. But sometimes they don't even develop them. And those of you who have read know what I'm talking about. They'll say there's a there's a road up that way, Follow that. There's probably something interesting to meditate on up there. But then they never take you up that road. They leave you to follow it on your own. And here's another Rd. up there.
And they kind of give you a few brush strokes, as it were, to point you in certain directions.
Till you end up feeling like a child on the shores of an ocean and say how can I ever even scratch the surface of it all?
And dear brethren, that's all we do. Because for all eternity, those things.
We'll rejoice our hearts and will never in an eternity get to the end of them.
But all it's all said in verse ten of our chapter here.
Well, the last clause of maybe read verse nine, first Corinthians 2:00 and 9:00. But as it is written, I hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit.
All the natural mind is not going to get me anywhere in the things of God. The mind can be used, but all can only be under the control of the Spirit of God.
Now blessed, how blessed that is.
Well, our time is going turn to Romans 8.
For Romans chapter 8.
Verse 6.
Again, we could read many many other scriptures, Romans 8 and verse six. For to be carnally minded is death.
But to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
So then they that are in the flesh, or perhaps in flesh, cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now, if any man have not the spirit of Christ.
He is none of his.
All the carnal mind, I say again, in one sense, is the same as the natural mind, but they are distinguished because.
The carnal mind is the flesh.
And the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. Reread in Galatians.
So that you cannot, or perhaps more accurately, you should not do the things that she would.
And we don't need to say much about that. Our brother covered it yesterday afternoon when he pointed out that I may not be able to help. Wrong thoughts coming before my mind.
But I can help whether I let them stay there.
I may not be able to help things.
Coming into my mind either from within or from without. But I don't have to let them.
Carry on there, because as we had brought before us, as a man thinketh, so is he. And the more my mind goes over certain things, the more it's going to become the very natural tendency simply to carry them out. And when a believer falls into open sin.
Let us never forget that it is not a sudden thing, Not that we are capable of it, not that the flesh couldn't do it, But I don't believe the Lord allows that to happen to one of His own as a sudden thing. To put it bluntly, I don't believe that the kind of sin that requires assembly discipline happens overnight.
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I can remember well what a brother once said, and I thought it was very good, he said. There have been times in my life when I was in such a low state of soul that, had the temptation presented itself, I might well have done something which would seriously have dishonored the Lord in a public way, and demanded the discipline of my brethren.
And he said there have been times in my life when I was presented with such a temptation.
But had I been in a low state of soul, I might well have fallen into that temptation.
But he said, I thank God that he has not, at least so far.
Allowed those two things to happen at the same time. I appreciated that I can identify with that.
But sometimes the Lord does allow those two things to happen at the same time, and it doesn't happen suddenly. It happens because my thoughts have not been under the control of the Spirit of God. I have been carnally minded, and that can take many forms, can take the form of immorality, which, sad to say, is so rampant today, and you and I are bombarded with it on every hand. It can take the form of violence, which is also very rampant today and with which we are bombarded.
And those two things are the two ultimate attributes of the flesh corruption and violence.
But it takes many other forms.
That are related to those two things.
A carnal mind. But we don't have to have a carnal mind, the apostle says very clearly here, you are not in the flesh.
That's not your condition and by the grace of God we can look up and say Lord.
I thank thee that I am not.
Answerable to the flesh anymore that old sinful nature has no rights anymore.
And he says here in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you, are you saved? Then you can take that position where God is placed here. And remember, it is not a question of saying I have to keep fighting the flesh in order to get to a point where I am acceptable to God and I can say I'm in the spirit.
No, no, if you fight with the flesh, you'll get just as defiled as if you embrace it. I need simply to look up and say, Lord, I thank thee. And that position that I am in is that of being in the Spirit. And that's why in this verse that we just read, verse nine, it speaks of the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. Why the two are they not the same? Of course they are. But the Spirit of God brings before us more than nature and power of that one.
That person of the Godhead that indwells every true believer. I suggest that the Spirit of Christ.
Brings before us more the practical exhibiting of the fruits of the Spirit in my everyday life.
Or May God give us our time is gone.
To have our hearts and our minds right in these last days.
In order that we may be able to live out practically some of those good things that we have had before us.
Let's sing the last two verses of our hymn.
77 in the appendix.
Oh, I am, my beloved.
And my beloved is mine. He brings a poor, vile Sinner into his House of wine.
We never get beyond that, do we? We shouldn't anyway. Should never get beyond that.
Can well remember, don't mind my reminiscing a little bit. It comes naturally sometimes.
But I can remember.
Our late brother Harry Hay Holt.
Telling us that his father who went to be with the Lord.
Way back in 1913.
And who had been a man much used of God all his life?
One of his last requests was he said make sure and sing these last two verses.
At my funeral, why did he say that?
Because all of the knowledge of the word of God, all of the precious things.
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Ultimately depend.
On that blessed man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and what He is to our souls.
77 In the appendix, the last two verses.
Will cry on my beloved.
Mind.
Hey.
Oh no.
Blessed God, our Father.