Children—J. Bilisoly
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Girl, nice to see you all here this morning and I'd like to just say if any of you other boys or girls would like to come up to the front while we're singing, why don't you just do that? Just feel free to come right on out to the front. There's still some seats here available. So who would have a song for us this morning to begin with?
Does anyone have a song that they'd like to sing? You might be more familiar with some of them on the very Backpage of the little hint sheet that we're using.
Yes.
#45 was requested.
Too little.
And glory.
And Lord Jesus and when we.
Always, always.
Bring up and through through the very good. Who has another one that they would like to sing this morning?
OK.
#40 Thank you.
Turn out again.
Yes, it's right for me.
Yes, I'm supposed to be.
Love, you come from sleep.
The Bible.
Tells me some verse 5.
Yeah.
You know, boys and girls, yesterday evening as I was up in our room at the motel, I could hear all the boys and girls playing in the swimming pool. And our room is just up from the swimming pool, so I could hear pretty well. And, you know, I didn't hear any arguing. I didn't hear any discordant sounds. It sounded like everyone was having a nice time. And I heard a lot of laughing and saying, Mommy, watch me. How do you watch me? You know what just made my heart glad to think of all your little kids being together.
To have each other to play with. What a wonderful thing it is to be able to come to a conference like this, isn't it? And I was just thinking of what our brother Bauman told us yesterday about the heritage that we have. And, you know, children, you certainly do have a wonderful heritage. I know you don't enter into it very deeply now, but you will more as you get older. And that's kind of along the lines of what I want to talk about this morning. And maybe we'll sing just a few more. But before we do, why don't we fold our hands and close our eyes and let's ask the Lord Jesus to help us, OK?
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OK, who would like to pick a number to sing?
I don't believe we've heard from a boy yet, OK #11.
Would it be OK if we sang the 1St and the last verses of this song? Is that all right? OK, thank you #11 and verses 1:00 and 4:00.
Will your anger?
Unfold their rings of stride when you come from time.
OK, who has another?
I think we have time for a couple more.
OK, got #14 #14.
Again, why don't we sing the 1St and the last? Is that all right?
#14 verses one and three.
Have you been to Jesus?
Are you lost in the blood of the blood?
How are you, Father?
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How are you?
In the world.
In my soul and take blood.
Gardens of this early blindness? No. Why? You are in the blood of the blood of the earth.
OK, why don't we have one more? And I saw him that went right up.
46 All right, 46.
Gladly I happier I be alright.
And.
We have to have a first time, so you're going to let us say.
And see all that we call all the tree that I are eldest and I have to be one of all the real quiet schools. Driven teeth are you?
Very nice, Thank you. Boys and girls. You know, there's a little statement made in one of these hymns that we sung on the Backpage #45 and in the second verse it says one little heart for him. Now in my youth, and I'd like to ask you a question that I asked a little girl backward. We live.
And the question was?
Where is your heart? You know, sometimes what was that inside? He said. Good. Sometimes we take for granted, we use these expressions so, so frequently and we take for granted that we all understand them. But I just wanted to talk a little bit this morning for just a minute or two about our hearts because I think it's important that we understand what that means. I asked this little girl back home.
Someone was speaking to us and I she was sitting beside my wife Carmen and I and I wanted to see if she was following so I said to our whisper to her as her daddy was speaking. I said where is your heart and she said it's at home and it's pink.
And I don't think she understood what I was asking. She was thinking of some little toy that she had at home. It was shaped like a heart and it was pink. Well, boys and girls, that's right. It's it's inside of us. And we can't, it's hard to describe.
Just where it is. And I don't think that that's so important. The important thing is that, like we said earlier, to receive the gospel, we have to receive it through our hearts. Someone has said that the heart is kind of the seat of our passions, our affections. It's the part of us that can love. It's the part of us that can be angry. It's the center of man's being, someone else has said. And that's kind of hard to understand, even for me. I, I don't really understand what that means.
But anyway.
Let's look at a verse in Romans chapter 10.
That would bear out the thought that we have to receive the Word of God into our hearts in order for there to be blessing. Now I know it comes into our ears 1St and into our minds, but then if it stops there, we're not going to get the blessing from it as God would intend us to have. But if we look at Romans chapter 10 and a familiar verse, verse nine, I'm going to read this verse to us and maybe the 10th verse as well.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Oh boys and girls, it's so important that when we hear the gospel as.
We're hearing this morning that Jesus died upon the cross, that he loved us, and that he paid the penalty for our sins. If we will have him as our own Savior. Oh, if we believe that message from God, if we believe that he's Lord and.
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That God hath raised him from the dead. It says here thou shalt be saved. But we have to believe it in our hearts. We have to believe it inside, not just hear it and make a a confession that's not real with our mouths.
It's easy to say things sometimes with our mouth, but when it comes to the heart, from the heart out of our mouths, it takes more effort, doesn't it? It certainly does. Well, you know, I was just thinking of how much you boys and girls have to be thankful for that. You can be here at this conference, even at your young and tender age. You can be here and listen to the gospel and listen to the word of God and be with friends with other boys and girls, too. What a wonderful thing that is.
What a wonderful heritage you have. You know, it reminds me of what the apostle Paul said to Timothy, and I'm just going to read that in Second Timothy chapter 3.
Verse 15.
It says and that from a child that has known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. You know, boys and girls, Timothy had a wonderful heritage too, from a child he had heard the Holy Scriptures. And can't you say that too? Yes, you can, because you're sitting here this morning as a child and you're hearing the word of God.
And so you too can say, like Timothy said, that you from a child have heard the Holy Scriptures. But what are we doing with them? Are we receiving them into our hearts? Well, that's the important thing. That's what we want to get across this morning, that we need to receive it, the word into our hearts, you know, it tells us in Psalm 119.
And verse 11.
The psalmist there could say thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. Thy word have I hid in my heart, and am I not sin against Thee? Oh, I hope you boys and girls are doing that. And I, I have a feeling that some of you have learned a memory verse that you could have stood up and said this morning. And I wish we had time for each of you to say your verse.
Because it's so encouraging to hear you say it. But you know, I want to encourage you that even if you don't get that opportunity today, the Lord Jesus knows that you have spent some time and energy to memorize that first. I hope you've hit it in your heart. Because if we hide His word in our hearts, it will keep us from sinning against Him. And that's what He wants. He wants us to take His Word and hide it in our hearts. And maybe you won't need it.
Right this minute. Maybe you won't, but you might too. Because thoughts come into our minds that are wrong thoughts.
And the word of God can correct those wrong thoughts or sometimes after meeting, between meetings, we're tempted to do something. It's just not very good. Our conscience says I shouldn't do this, but I feel like doing it. That's our will at work. So the word of God get in our hearts can correct that action before it takes place. That thought of doing something that's not right. And so how wonderful it is and how important it is.
That we hide the word of God in our hearts. And then another verse in Proverbs chapter 23.
And verse 26.
It says, My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe thy ways.
Of dear boys and girls, I'd like to apply this as if it were the Lord Jesus that was speaking to us. Give me thine heart. He wants our hearts, He wants our hearts affections for Him. And you might think, well I'm so little, I'm so little, can I really do something for the Lord Jesus? Well, let me ask you this, do you know how to pray?
How many here know how to pray?
Yeah, I think everyone there is a chance they gave us some thought. That's something you can do. I want to share something with you. Not to point to our family, but we've had a burden for a neighbor for some years that has lived next to us. And we just had a feeling that this neighbor wasn't saved, but we wanted him to be saved. And so we pray for him as a family and just the couple like a week or so ago.
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My wife Carmen was talking to this neighbor's wife and she said GAIL, that's his name. She said Gail's getting saved. He got saved. And you know, that was such an encouragement to us because we have been praying for that dear man and now he's the Lord's and it's so wonderful. The Lord delights hands. Our prayers voices are also so you can pray. You know, we're just commenting some of us lately on how we keep changes from year to year.
And you know how many days are in a year? How many days in a year?
365 of those riot. You know, it's amazing to me that a 365 days almost ago we were here in this room and some of the same people that were there then are here now. And yet there's some changes, some changes. Time brings changes, doesn't it? We're getting older, each of us. We're a year older now, 365 days older. And I was just commenting to my wife, Carmen.
How many Saints among us are getting up in years? The boys and girls? You know, it's wonderful to see these seats here filled up with boys and girls. And this thought comes to mind, that if the Lord were to leave us here, I don't feel like he's going to leave us here this long. But if he were to leave us here for a number of years, you boys and girls would have to be the ones that would start filling in the ranks. Do you ever think about that? Did you ever think about that?
You have to kind of take over some of the responsibilities that we've depended on some of these older ones to do for so long.
And now it would be your responsibility.
Well, you know, the Lord Jesus wants to prepare you even now for that responsibility. And I'm sure that if I were to ask each of the daddies and mommies in the room here, and I were to ask him, what are you the most concerned with about your dear voice and your dear children? I think they would say, like John said in his third epistle, I have no greater joy than to see that my children walk in truth. And does it say that my children know the truth?
Because that would be true, a true statement too. No, it doesn't say that. It says that my children walk in the truth. Oh, that's a little different, isn't it, than just knowing the truth. It's good to know the truth. We can be thankful for sound ministry. We can be thankful for a sound doctrine. The things that we hear that are true, but we've got to hide them in our heart. We've got to hide this word in our heart in order for it to enable us to walk in it, to practice it to.
Be able to walk in that truth.
Boys and girls, how important that is. Well, you know, there's something that that kind of kind of burdens me very much this morning. It's, it's a joy to me to see you here. But you know, there's something else that burdens me and that is that I know that we have an enemy. We have an enemy and he wants to lead us away from the Lord Jesus. And I believe that in every one of your lives, everyone of your boys and girls lives, there comes a time in our life when this enemy is going to make a bid for us. He's going to hold out things to us.
We're going to have to make some decisions. Are we going to follow the Lord Jesus or are we going to listen to what he's holding it up to us? Oh, that's an important thing, important question to decide. So, you know, boys and girls, I, there was a lady down the street from where we live and she was telling us not too long ago, she was not saved in it. I mean, she was not brought up in a Christian home like you have been. She was saved out of the world.
And she thought she was so happy that she was saved. And she was just saying, you know, there's nothing out there. It's emptiness. It's emptiness. And I want to bring that across with a little object lesson this morning, if we can, that this world doesn't have anything satisfying to offer us. You know, we sung last night when our brother gave the gospel. We sung the the words of that hymn. Now, none but who?
Can satisfy? What was it now? None but.
Christ Jesus, let's write. None but Christ has satisfied. But you know, boys and girls. I wondered if there's anyone here this morning that likes chocolate.
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Does anyone like chocolate? You do, Huh? Who else?
Looks like just about every hand. How about on this side? Looks like about every hand here likes chocolate, you know.
I wondered if I could offer something to Caleb. Could Ioffer something to you? Caleb, if you'd like to step up here, I'd like to give you something. I think you'll recognize what this is.
Do you know what that is, Caleb? What is it? A Hershey's bar. Hershey's chocolate bar. Would you like that? I'd like to give it to you, so I'm going to give it to you.
Now, is there something wrong with that, Caleb?
Let's let's just see so everyone else can see.
I think Caleb's right. I think that candy bar is is empty. You know, boys and girls, there's nothing inside of this candy bar. As appealing as it might look, there's nothing in this candy bar that can satisfy.
It's gone. It's empty.
There's nothing there.
You know, that's, that's sad, isn't it? Because there are so many things in this world that are like that. They look appealing and they look good, but they're it's emptiness. It's emptiness inside. And that's the point we want to make this morning, boys and girls, that this world has nothing to offer you that can satisfy your heart now.
It would be sad if that was the end of the story because we live in this world.
And what are we going to do if there's nothing to satisfy our hearts?
You know it says that he filleth the heart with goodness. Who's that Speaking of? Who fills our hearts with goodness? Who can tell us?
God does, the Lord Jesus does. That's right. And He wants to abundantly bless us. And so I would feel bad if I had Caleb go back to his seat and all he took back with him was an empty rapper with nothing inside. Wouldn't that be disappointing, Caleb?
It would be. So I'm going to give you something and I want you to have it. And this boys and girls, the Lord Jesus wants to abundantly bless us. So I have something for Caleb and Caleb, maybe you'll do me a favor and and you'll let your daddy and mommy help you with that and maybe you can even share it so that others could enjoy it. That would be nice. Thank you.
The Lord wants to abundantly bless us. It says in John 10 and verse 10, I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. Well, boys and girls, I want to quickly look at an account of someone that turned to this world and found that there was emptiness there. Let's look at Genesis chapter 13.
Genesis chapter 13.
We're just going to read a few verses starting at verse 10 and Locke lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Even as the garden of the Lord like the hand land of Egypt, as thou comeest them to Zoar bin Lot. Here's a decision, boys and girls. Bin Lot chose all the plain of Jordan and Lot journeyed east and they separated themselves. That is Lord and Abraham.
Heather and Abraham dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent towards Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. Now turn over to chapter 19 and verse one.
And there came two angels to Lot at Even, and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom, and Lot, seeing them, rose up to meet them. And he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. Now he's in Sodom. He's in the gate now. Verse.
12 And the men said unto lot, Hast thou hear anything besides son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters? And whatsoever the host in the city, bring them out of this place, for we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxing great.
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Before the face of the Lord, and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it. And Lot went out and spake unto his sons in lock, which married his daughters, and set up. Get you out of this place, for the Lord will destroy the city. But he seemed as one that mocked, or I think Mr. Garvey and his translation says, as one that jested, that is, is one that just spoke foolishly.
And so he seemed as one that mocked or jested unto his sons in law.
Verse 24 And the rain. And the Lord reigned upon Sodom, and upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and all that which grow upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt, the boys and girls. Here's the story of a man that chose the world. He left Abraham, and he left Abraham in a lofty place.
Up on the mountaintop where he could see all around him. And he went down and he got closer and closer to Sodom until he was living in a wicked city, a very wicked city, a type of the world. Oh, it's a terrible place. And it, it says here that he seemed as he mocked. How could he speak to his sons in law when he was carrying on in a city like that? You know, it just seemed like he mocked to them. He lost his testimony before them.
They just, they, they thought he was being foolish when he told them to flee. And his wife, oh, his poor wife, what happened to her? She turned and looked back. Her heart was still there. And she looked back and she became a pillar of salt. So he lost his wife. And if we were to read on about this man's history, we would find that he lost his dignity, he lost his honor. He did some terrible things. And he became the father of two children, two boys, one's name was.
Moab and the other one's name was Ammon, and they became.
The parents of peoples, of a race of people that became a terrible, terrible plague to the children of Israel, God's people. Now just think about that a minute. His, his children became the cause of much grief and sorrow to the Lord's people. That's sad, isn't it? That's sad. Well, boys and girls, these are warnings for us in the word of God. Now I have something else in here and I'd like to give it to someone.
Does anyone like chewing gum?
OK, on the end, would you like to come up and have some chewing gum like to give it to you?
There you go.
Something wrong with it?
So what's wrong with it? Don't you tell?
Me that. That is so disappointing.
Can you do anything with that?
Not really.
You could wish that it were full.
Or you could throw it away because it's not really good for anything else, is it? But it looks good. It looks like the real thing, but it's empty inside. Again, just like the things of this world, boys and girls, Emptiness inside. Nothing to satisfy. What's your name? Sadie. OK, Sadie, I don't want to leave you with an empty package of gum because that's that's not really something that you would get any enjoyment out of, is it? So I want to leave you with something better than that.
Just like the Lord Jesus, boys and girls.
Wants to give us so much more than what this world can offer. So why don't you have that instead? Is that better?
OK. Thank you. You can sit down now.
That's just like our Lord. He wants to give us so much more than what this world offers. You know, our hearts are too large to be filled by the emptiness of this world. Boys and girls, let's read about another individual that found that this world could only offer nothing, emptiness. Look at Ruth's the book of Ruth.
Ruth And this is a story about a man and his, his wife and their two sons. Let's just read verse one. Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land. And a certain amount of Bethlehem Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Naylon, and Chilean epithites of Bethlehem Judah. And they came to the country of Moab and continued there.
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And Elimelech Naomi's husband died, and she was left and her two sons.
They took them wives of the women of Moab. The name of the one was Orphan. The name of the other was Ruth. And they dwelled there about 10 years. And Nylon and Chilean died also, both of them. And the woman was left of her two sons and her two husband and her husband, you know, boys and girls. That tells us in the first verse that they sojourned in the country of Moab. That just means that you're not really intending to stay there very long. You're just going to be there a little while you're passing through kind of they've gone down there because.
There was a famine and in the land of Bethlehem, Judah. But, you know, it really was an act of a lack of faith that took them down there because the very name Bethlehem Judah, Bethlehem means House of bread. Judah means House of praise. Oh, that doesn't seem like a very good place to leave, does it? No, they shouldn't have left.
And first they sojourned, but then it says that they.
Continued there or? Yes. And the end of verse two they continue there and then in verse four it says they dwelt there. Can you see the progression? First they sojourned, then they continued and then they dwelt. And how long were they there? Does anyone remember?
About 10 years. It says the word of God. Now, do you think that they had intended to be there 10 years? I don't. I don't think they had any attention at all of being in Moab for 10 years. The boys and girls, that's what happens.
We listen to the enemy, we get into the things of this world and sometimes it's hard to get away because He wants to get advice on us. He wants to get advice on us and hold us there. But listen to what she says in verse 21. And this is the point I want to make. I went out full and the Lord brought me home again empty.
You know, you might, she might have, we might think, well, she had to go because her husband went. But you know, I think the word of God would give us the liberty to say that she was influential in this decision too. I think most husbands and wives, when it's a decision like moving, they confer with each other. But not only that, she says, I, I went out full and the Lord brought me home again, empty. Boys and girls, listen to that word. She said I had I was full when I left. How did she leave?
Well, she'd gotten discouraged.
And she went down into Moab and the Lord had to empty her as a word. He removed everything from her and brought her back empty so that he could fill her again. Oh, boys and girls, you know, the Lord can restore our souls and oh, he doesn't want us to depart. He doesn't want us to go into this world and.
The taste of this world, we might be there for 10 years, we might be there longer. And so the Lord Jesus wants you to be kept. I have one more thing here I want to talk about. I see our time is almost gone and I wondered if there was any boy here that likes raisins.
Is there a boy that likes raisins?
Do you like braces? You don't. OK, You like braces. OK, You want to come up and have some lasers? What's your name? Stanley. OK, Stanley says he likes raisins. And I wonder if Stanley kind of has a feeling of what's going to happen here.
Stanley, do you think you know what's happening here?
He thinks I'm going to give him another empty box. Well.
Not this time, Stanley. This one's full, doesn't is it? Feel full?
Would you like to? He says it's something else other than raisins. Let's see. What is it, Stanley? He says it's full of sand.
Well, he's right.
It looks like raisins, but it's not. It's full of sand. And you know, boys and girls, not only are the things of this world empty, but they can be harmful and damaging, too. I wouldn't want to give this to Stanley. I would be afraid of him eating this, and I know he wouldn't anyway. You know, boys and girls, this is what Satan has to offer. And you know, I want to tell you a story that was sad to me, but it left an impression. But before I do.
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I want to give Stanley something because I don't want him to go back to his chair with that box of sand.
That wouldn't be very nice. So I want to give him something to take with him. Thank you, Stanley. The Lord wants to abundantly bless this dozen boys and girls. This. I was walking downtown one time near where I work and I saw a man and he was digging in a trash can. Has anyone done that, you boys and girls? Probably not. This man was digging in the trash can and he pulled out some food and he began to eat it. He wasn't the least bit ashamed. He just began to eat them food. Now, someone, can someone tell us why?
This man would do that.
He was hungry. He was hungry.
That's right. This man was so hungry that he began to eat that food. He didn't care who was looking. But you know, boys and girls, as he did that, as he ate that food, there were lots of nicely dressed men and women like us this morning walking by that street, walking right by this man. And this thought came to mind as I watched that man. I thought, how many men and women and boys and girls are feeding on the things of this world that cannot satisfy the heart?
Because they're hungry, but it's a different kind of hunger. No, they would never be caught getting in a trash can like that man was.
Their heart is hungry. That's a very good answer. Their heart is hungry. The boys and girls who can satisfy the hungry heart.
Who is it, the Lord Jesus? That's right. And so I trust that you boys and girls would remember that, that it's only Him that can satisfy our hungry hearts. And He wants to do that this morning for each of you. And I want to close with singing a verse of that same hymn that we sang that our brother had us sing last night in the gospel #19.
You know, verse three says I tried the broken cisterns, Lord, but ah, the waters failed. And boys and girls, I want to just leave this with you, that you don't need to try the broken sisters. You don't need to. Lord Jesus wants to preserve you. If I had a bottle of poison sitting on this table and I would never do this, but I said don't drink that, that that poison could harm you. You could lose your life.
I know that there's not a boy or a girl here. I don't believe that she would come up and say, well, I just want to see. But you know, that's what we're doing when we, the word of God so plainly tells us that this world has nothing to offer but it can harm us. And then when we turn and we choose it, aren't we saying, well, I know better than the Lord?
I think I can handle things. That's what we're seeing in our hearts. It's like we're reaching out and drinking that poison and a lot of foolish thing to do. So let's think about this. We don't need to try the broken sisters. This is the experience of someone that had and had been saved.
And they could write this for two boys and girls don't need to do that. The Lord wants to preserve you and be able to use you as you grow older. And even now He can use you. Now let's sing verse one only of #19 in the course.