Toronto Conference: 1969
Table of Contents
Christ's Provision and Care for Us
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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General Meetings, Toronto, April 1969. Addressed by Gordon Hayhoe.
I'd like you to turn with me to the 8th chapter of the Gospel of Luke.
Luke's Gospel, Chapter 8.
And verse 19 then came to him his mother and his brethren, and could not come at him for the press.
And it was told him by certain, which said, Thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to see thee.
And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it.
Now it came to pass on a certain day that he went into a ship with his disciples, And he said unto them, Let us go over unto the other side of the lake. And they launched forth, and as they sailed he fell asleep.
And there came down a storm of wind on the lake, and they were filled with jeopardy, with water, and were in jeopardy. And they came to him and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water, and they ceased, and there was a great calm.
And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid, wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this? For he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey Him. And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee. And when He went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and wear no clothes, neither abode in any house.
But in the tombs.
Now if you turn over also to Hebrews chapter 1, Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 10.
And thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest, and they all shall wax old as doth A garment as a vesture shalt thou fold him up, and they shall be changed that thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.
And one more passage in Psalm 142.
Psalm 142.
And the third verse.
When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path.
In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me? I looked on my right hand and beheld, and there was no man that would know me. Refuge failed me. No man cared for my soul.
I cried unto thee, O Lord, I said, thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.
Well, they're young people. In reading these portions today, I was just thinking of the thought of change. In the meeting this morning, we were talking about that blessed one, the Lord Jesus, the eternal Word, the one who changes not.
But in the little story that we have brought before us in Luke 8, we have a change, not a change in the Lord, but a change in the circumstances in which His people found themselves. And I believe that we're living in such a time as this. We're living in a time when there are many changes on every hand. There is a change in connection with the life in the city. There is a change in the home. There's a change in education, There's.
Change everywhere and this is the challenge that is confronting each one of the young people today, that you must face this change and sometimes it almost seems baffling, it seems overwhelming because we have to go through this period of rapid change as we approach the end when the Lord Jesus is about to come. God has foretold us of this change. He has told us of what is going to take place in the.
Last days. And if we are acquainted with His Word, we know that the things that we see in connection with home life, in connection with what we see in business and in men's outlook, men's moral standards, all these things have been foretold in the Word of God. But the important thing for us is how to meet these changes, how to be able at such a time as this to meet them in the wisdom and fear of God.
And I thought that this little portion that we had here in the 8th chapter of Luke is a beautiful picture to us that might help us in this very connection.
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Here we find the blessed Lord Jesus in his pathway. Here he was serving his Father. He was going about doing good.
And we find here that his mother and his brethren come without desiring to see him. This brings before us the claims of nature. Those whom we love. And you know, those whom we love cannot always help us in the difficulties that we must face. We need to have the Lord. We need to have Him. It's nice when they can help us, but they may not always be able to.
And this is specially emphasized in the case of the Lord Jesus himself.
Because we know that when he was 12 years of age, he came up to the feast at Jerusalem and his mother and his brethren, and they went on and even forgot about him and started on a journey home without him. But all the Lord Jesus could say, wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? And dear young people, this is so important for you. You are facing situations at school, at your parents.
Don't understand, they can't enter into because those of us who are older and I speak of myself, we haven't faced these similar situations. Things were different. We're living in a time of change. But again, I say the Lord is sufficient. He is able for these very days in which we live. He is the one who has the answer because He's always ahead of things, not behind them. Man is always behind. He is forever, as it were, trying to catch up.
But not so with God. He's always ahead. He's always ahead of everything that's happening. And that's where prophecy comes in. He can tell us about events before they take place. He tells us in His word. I know the thoughts that come into your mind, every one of them. And so there isn't a man upon the face of the earth that has ever thought anything that God didn't know it beforehand. It says such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain to it, but.
That is the one whom we know, the one we read about this morning. His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. What a counselor to have not one who's behind the times, but one who's ahead of the times. One who knows just what you're facing in the office, where you work, in the school, where you are in your home life, in your life with the other young people. He enters into what fully and knows.
And He is the one who wants to be the guide of your life, as it tells us in Jeremiah. Wilt thou not at this time say, my Father, Thou art the guide of my youth, and He can guide you, because He knows well the Lord Jesus in answer, when they told him that his mother and brethren stood without, how lovely his answer.
My mother and my brethren are those that hear the word of God and do it.
All, I can't over emphasize the importance of the word of God. Advice is a wonderful thing. The Bible tells us we are foolish if we refuse to listen to counsel and advice. But the most important thing of all is the word of God.
Do you hear the word of God? Do you do it?
As you read the word of God, do you seek to act in obedience to it? Is that the guide that you take for your pathway? Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Have you made the precious word of God the guide for your pathway? Well, you can't have anything better. You have something that lives and abides forever. The Lord Jesus said heaven and earth shall pass away.
But my word shall not pass away.
And now we come to this very lovely little story in the 22nd verse. Now it came to pass on a certain day that He went into a ship with His disciples. I expect this was on the Sea of Galilee. They were on one side of the lake, and they were about to cross over to the other side of the lake. That's what made me think of the thought of change. They were in a certain position. There had been a certain work.
On one side of the lake. But now the time came that the Lord said a certain day, and He went into the ship with His disciples. All young people. Is the Lord in the ship with you? First of all, I want to ask you, do you really know Him as your Savior? Have you really and truly accepted Him? Can you say from your heart, I belong to Him? He's my own personal Savior.
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Oh has this.
Event taken place that you really can say that Christ is your savior. If not, what a terrible thing to try and find your way through life without Him. What an awful end. Even if you are wise and shrewd. Even if you are clever and can make good decisions, What a terrible thing at the end of life to find out that you neglected the most important of all decisions and that is to receive Christ.
Has your own personal savior. But then there is the thought, too, of taking the Lord into every situation, every move that we make. And if you're going to the other side of the lake, that is in this time of change, I ask you again, is the Lord in the boat with you? There may have been other little ships going across the lake at this time, Perhaps many of them. Perhaps many of them were good Mariners.
Had often sailed that lake and felt they understood all about the difficulties.
Of crossing that lake. Hello. I expect that this time it was quite smooth.
But there was 1 little ship that had the Lord in it. And I ask you again, are you in his company? Oh, if you're trying to go along without the conscious enjoyment of his company, what a loss. Oh, you say I know him as my Savior? Yes. If you do know him as your savior, are you seeking his company? Are you seeking to walk hand in hand with Him through life, knowing that he loves you and He cares for you? Are you making Him the.
Who is your constant companion and all the decisions? And as you face these changes in life which must surely come when you come to 12, when you come to 15, when you come to 18 and you pass on, have you decided that you want to have the Lord Jesus in company with you in every move that you make? How nice to find.
That this move to the other side of the lake didn't actually begin with a.
Thought of the disciples. It was the Lord Himself. He went into a ship with his disciples. It was His move, it was His plan, and it was his ordering. And he said unto them, Let us go unto the other side of the lake. He was the one that directed this course. A little song that we sing sometimes.
Why those fears? Behold, his Jesus holds the hand and guides the ship.
Spread the sails and catch the breezes sent to walked us through the deep. And so the Lord was the one who had suggested this. The Lord was the one who gave them direction for this and this great time, this terrible storm that they were going to meet those new problems on the other side of the lake. The Lord was the one who said, let's go over. He knew what was ahead and he was wisdom.
As it might seem most strange to us, it says here, well, first of all, it says and they launched forth. They, they obeyed his command when he said, let us go over, He didn't say you go over, but let us go over. Then it says they launched forth.
There was no mistake that they were following in the path that he had planned, in the path of his direction, not their own. And then it says, And as they sailed, he fell asleep.
Perhaps this sounds very strange to you. If the Lord was the one who was directing, why does it tell us that he fell asleep?
Well, you know, I believe the Lord puts us to a test. We can never take one step alone. And even when we are conscious that what we are seeking to do is to follow His direction, there are times of testing that even come in this path. Because Paul had decided that he wanted to follow the Lord and live for him. Did that mean there were no storms? Did that mean there were no shipwrecks? Did that mean there were no testings? Oh, I believe.
Perhaps He had more and if you have made-up your mind that you want to follow the Lord, there are going to be some storms and there are going to be sometimes that it seems to you the Lord has fallen asleep, that he is not paying any attention to the problems and the difficulties that you're having to face.
Just as we know that when.
In the city of Shushan Long Gold, it tells us that the whole city was asleep, and it seemed that Mordecai was going to be hanged in the gallows. But the Lord was not asleep. And although the Lord Jesus here fell asleep, he was still the Master of the universe. And that Blessed One, as we had this morning, was perfect man, and He was also perfect God. And at the time when you think.
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Lord is not coming to your rescue. He's not helping you. He's not holding back the elements that seem to be lashing at you. He is still wide awake to all that's going on. Hello. To our seeming understanding, he may be asleep.
And so it tells us. And there came down a storm of wind on the lake, a terrible storm of wind came down.
And it tells us in the book of the Psalms, the stormy wind fulfills His will. This wasn't any chance that this storm came down. As the storm broken in your life. Does the storm seem to just descend upon you? And you said, well, I thought that the Lord had directed me. I had looked to him. I had sought his guidance. Why does this storm come down? I thought I had him in the ship with me.
The disciples could look back and they could say, well, this wasn't ours.
Wasn't it the Lord that went into the ship with us? Wasn't it the Lord that said, let us go to the other side? Wasn't it all according to what he wanted us to do? Why it ended this storm come down. Ah, the Lord would test their faith. He would test them as to whether they had confidence in him in these difficult situations that they were about to face. And so even though we are seeking to please him, he is going to allow these tests the path of.
Faith is not an easy one. It was not for the Lord Jesus, who was there that ever so perfectly did His Father's will as the Lord Jesus Himself, and yet who had so much trouble, who had so much difficulty and rejection. But there was one thing that He always had the consciousness of his Father's presence. He could look up to his Father and say, I know that thou hearest me always.
Ah, he was ever conscious.
From the fact that he was in communion with his Father even in the storms that he faced in his blessed and perfect pathway. And it says, and they were filled with water. That is, God allowed this storm to, so to speak, go to its full fury until it just seemed as if the boat was going to sink. He didn't just let the storm come down and give them the pleasure of feeling that they were tossing on top of the water.
Not one drop went into the boat. You know, we like to feel that when a storm comes that not one drop gets into the boat, that God is just so much on our side that nothing can ever happen to us, no trouble can ever touch us. But here, not only does a storm come down, but the water came into the boat. And it says it came into such an extent that they were filled with jeopardy. They were filled with fear as they realized.
How? The absolute helplessness of their own position. What could they do?
It tells us here. And they came to him.
And awoke him, saying, Master, Master, we perish. Oh yes, they came to him. Oh, that's what he wanted them to do. And the Lord brings us to our own extremity. Yes, that's the place. That's what he does with the Sinner. He brings the Sinner right to the very end of himself, to the point where he feels that there's absolutely nothing he can do.
The very place where God desires him to be, where he has to cry out that he is lost to ruin, helpless and undone. And that is the point of blessing. The man who pled his own self righteousness was not saved, but the man who said God be merciful to me, a Sinner, he was the one who got the blessing. And the Lord deals in this way with us as believers.
He allows the fury of the storm to be felt. He allows all our resources to come.
To an end, if someone has put it like this, when we get into a difficulty, we start to think, and if we can think of one single way out of that difficulty, then we cry to the Lord very earnestly that He would get us out by that one particular way that we can see. And we see that one way. And we get into some other situation and we think, well, now the Lord could cause that person to do so and so.
And so we have particularly in mind that this is the thing that we want the Lord to do. But the Lord brings us to the point where we can't see what anybody would do. We can't see anything that could happen but harm. We come completely to the end of all our resources and all our ideas and everything, and then we have to, as it were, awake the Lord and say, Master, we perish, Master we perish.
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Ah, dear young people, how could you perish that the Lord in.
In the vault, How could you? Our times are in thy hand, Father. We wish them there. Our life, our soul, our all. We leave entirely to Thy care. And I believe that it's going through such experiences as this that teach us that we have to count upon a God who is able to do more than we can ask or think.
A God who hangs the earth not on something, but on nothing. A God who is able.
In the spite of the fact that there is no way out, that we can see no human resource possible, He is able. And then when he does come in, how wonderful. You remember the prayer meeting they were having for Peter, and it says prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for Peter. And yet when Peter came and stood before the gate, they didn't believe it.
And I wouldn't even believe Rhoda when she came and said that Peter was there. Now I believe that those disciples that were praying actually thought the Lord would come in. But I suppose they had some idea of Him coming in in a different way from what they expected. But He came in in His own way. He came in in a miraculous way. He showed that He was above all the powers of darkness.
That were arranged against Peter and just as he allowed James.
To be put to death, he could just as easily open the prison door and release Peter. Yes, dear friends, we trust in the living God who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe. And so it tells us. Here they awoke him and said, Master we perish, Master, we perish.
And here, then here, alls. He asked. They had pulled and tested and Oh dear young people, I I want to see you learn this lovely lesson while you're young.
If you have to wait until later on in life, if you have to wait until you're older, perhaps you'll learn it.
When you get quite a long way through life, but you'll have many sorrows behind and you wish that you had learned it younger. You'll wish that you had learned that the Lord was able for every situation when you were 12 years old, when you were 15, when you were 18, and in all these big decisions that come and we have to face in life.
Now in this changing age, they were going to the other side of the lake and we're going through.
In His present day, in the year 1969, we're going through a period of change. Everything's changing and it just seems that it's too much for us sometimes, but it's not too much for the Lord. He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.
And now isn't this nice? He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. Why does it tell us growth here, the wind and the raging of the water? Well, the wind would be like the cause and the raging of the water. The effect. You know, sometimes the result can be corrected. You can get into a difficult situation and you can get out of a difficult situation.
But the cause of it hasn't been corrected.
But isn't it nice that when the Lord acts that He not only corrects the result, but He corrected the cause, the wind and the raging of the water? If you had just stopped the raging of the water and why they couldn't have been assured that they would get safely over the rest of the lake. But the Lord is in control not only of the effect, but also of the cause.
And he knows the cause of everything that comes in your life and mind, as it tells us in Peter's epistle. If need be, he are in having us through manifold temptation. There is a cause in everything that comes, and each one of our lives is different. Your life is different from mine. My life is different from yours.
We have been brought up in different environments, but the Lord knows all about this.
He knows what it's like to live in the city where you live, in the meeting, where you live among the young people that you mix with. He knows all about that and he is able for the situations that you are facing. And he was not only able to stop the raging of the water, but he was also able, it tells us, to stop the winds. Oh, how wonderful this was. And what a wonderful.
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Savior we have, and it tells us here, Amanda.
A calm, yes. What peace it is when we see that he's under, he's in control of everything, that he is able for the situation.
And he said unto them, Where is your faith?
I want you to notice here that they were afraid twice. They were afraid when the boat was tossed about and was filled with water. And they were afraid when the Lord put his finger on their trouble. He said, where is your faith? Where is your faith? And we're often afraid when our little ship gets passed about. We're often afraid when we see overwhelming difficulties come upon us and we feel quite unable for.
I'm sure every one of us has had this, and we've been so relieved when the Lord came in and took care of the situation. And the Lord could have stopped right there. But then it would never have been a blessing for the future. It never would have helped them for the storms that they had to face, for the man that was going to meet them on the other side of the lake, if he hadn't also put his own finger on the basic trouble of this whole situation.
He said. Where is your faith?
Where is your site? We're living in days of reason. We're living in days when people like to figure everything out. And this is coming in even in spiritual things that want to figure everything out, want to reason it right through.
Oh how blessed it is to accept the word of God in simple faith. There may be many, many things that we don't fully understand, but we could always confidently believe what God says.
I quote the verse again. We trust in the living God. We trust in one who has power. Men think that God has to act according to the laws of nature. Well, sometimes He does, but He doesn't need to be bound by them. He's able to act on His own. He is able to come in. He formed the laws of nature and He can come in and act quite contrary to them. He can work out the plan in your life the way you'd like it to be worked out.
Work it out the very opposite to the way you think it should be. He's in control and so he said. Where is your faith? And can we each ask our hearts?
Are we trusting Him for our daily lives? All I say in my own heart how often I fail in this. The Lord has seen me through some storms and difficulties, but I still feel that the power of that rebuke. Where is your faith? Where is your faith? Isn't it strange? Dear young people, the Lord takes us out of 1 difficulty and when another comes, it seems that our faith fails again. That He has to say, where is your faith?
Well, you say I haven't got very much faith. How can my faith be increased? Well, faith is increased by learning in the difficulties to trust the Lord.
It tells us of the Thessalonians, your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of everyone of you toward another abundant. I'll tell you why I believe the Thessalonian faith was growing. They were going through a period of persecution. They were being, they were suffering for Christ's sake. And as they did, they learned to trust the Lord more and more, and they found that He was worthy of their trust.
How in your faith in a fellow man increase?
Perhaps you meet me for the first time. You don't know anything about me, you say. Well, I don't know whether I could trust him or not. But supposingly, we'll say you knew me for 10 years and I never disappointed you. Wouldn't that cause your faith to increase? Well, I might disappoint you. I'm sorry to say I would disappoint you, but the Lord Jesus never, would never, never. And if you want your faith to grow?
Start trusting him today. Trust him about the little.
Things trust him when the storm comes down, trust him when he seems to be asleep. Trust him when you don't know any way out and when you turn to your to those who are older and ask them and they can't seem to give you an answer. The Lord wants to show you that he is sufficient, that he knows everything, that he is able. He is your counselor, He is your guide. He knows.
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Has a plan for your life and if you have him in the ship.
With you and to leave all in his hands, He'll bring you through in the way that he sees best.
And it says, And they being afraid, wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this? What manner of man is this?
Who was it? Well, it was the Lord, for He commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey Him. The cause and the effect, all is in His hand, and He said, and they obey Him. Well, as I said, was this the end of the problems? Just because they got across the lake, just because they found their grounding on the other side of the lake and were safely landed, was that the end? Oh, no, no sooner had they.
Landed and here they meet this terrible sight, this man under the power of Satan. And so I can't tell you that when the Lord sees you through 1 difficulty that it's going to be all over. I must have to tell you the truth. We must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God. We must face more and more difficulties than I am persuaded that if the Lord leaves us here very much longer.
That when we, as it were, get across.
The lake, we're only going to find that new difficulties are going to arise. But was the Lord able for this man that had the legion of devils? The storm in the lake was bad, but to me, a man with a legion of devils possessed with this legion of devils, what a what a terrible situation Was the Lord sufficient for this? Yes, he was able to cast out the whole legion of devils and the man sat at.
The feet of Jesus clothed and in his right mind, yes, he was able for this situation too. And so it tells us that this vast universe in Hebrews where we looked, it says.
They shall be changed. We look upon this earth and people talk about the constant laws of nature. We look upon things as being fairly stable. Well, everything here is going to be broken up. This very world in which we live is going to pass away. But thou art the same. Thou art the same. We can expect to see more changes. We can expect to see things that we thought were stable go to pieces.
But all we have the Lord, we can safely trust in Him. And so I just like to turn again to the 142nd Psalm where we read Psalm 142.
The third verse, when my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. And there are times when our spirit is overwhelmed, when things seem so great, so difficult, so trying, that we don't know just what we should do. Isn't it nice to be able to look up and say, then thou knewest my path?
Then thou knewest my path, and so it tells us here in the fourth verse. And I looked on my right hand and beheld, but there was no man that would know me. Refuge failed me. No man cared for my soul. It seemed as if no one was interested. No one cared, but he learned to turn to the Lord. And so this fifth verse I cried unto thee, O Lord, I said, thou art my refuge and my.
And in the land of the living, yes, He is your refuge, He is your portion. And so I want to say, and to each dear young person here, be sure that in this time of change, in this time when everything seems to be.
Broken up when all that we once considered stable is beginning to break down, you still have the Lord turn to him, make him the.
Guide of your youth, and even when others don't seem to be able to give you the advice that you need, turn to the Lord.
Do His word, read it, walk in obedience to it and He will bless you and look up and say Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living. Could you have anything better than this? He is sufficient. He is able count upon Him and He'll never fail you. He'll bless you and all at the end of the journey when you look back. How you'll thank Him for every step of the pathway, I'm sure.
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Each one of us as we look back and see the way he led us, we'll say it was the right way. But young people, I have you especially upon my heart. I see what is taking place in this very day in which we live and I long that the Lord Jesus should be everything to you and that you would turn to him in all the circumstances of your life, in all the decisions of your life and don't listen to what is being said that.
Christianity is behind the times. The Bible is outdated. It's ahead of the times. God is sufficient. His Word is sufficient. And if you read it carefully and prayerfully and turn to the Lord, you will find that He does have an answer and He does have the help that you need for every single situation in the land of the living. Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.
John 1:6
John 1:32
God's Provision for His Servants
Ye shall teach your children
Three Appearings
Transgressions Forgiven, Sin Covered
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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.
Could you turn with me tonight to Psalm 32?
Psalm 32.
Verse One. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
For day and night to thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Seal off.
I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid? I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
For this shall everyone that is godly pray unto thee, in a time when thou mayest be found surely in the floods of great waters, they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.
I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye. Be not as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord mercy shall encompass him about.
Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, ye righteous.
And shout for joy all these that are upright in heart.
Could we also turn over to Thistle, to the Romans and the fourth chapter?
Romans, chapter 4.
And the fourth verse.
Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness, even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord.
Will not impute sin.
And just one more verse in the Epistle of John, the First Epistle of John and the 1St chapter and the seventh verse.
But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Dear Friends, 1 feels what a solemn thing a gospel meeting is.
Because every soul in this room is worth more than the whole world, the Bible says. What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? If I were here to address you about something that concerned your fortune for the rest of your life, I'm sure you'd be quite concerned. If I had a message that concerns your health for the rest of your life, I'm quite sure that you'd be concerned.
But, dear friends, we have something far more important than money or health, the poet said. To lose your wealth is much. To lose your health is more. To lose your soul is such a loss as nothing can restore. If you lost your health, well, you might possibly get it back. Or if you never got it back, you could.
Leave this world and go to be with Christ if you lost your money.
You might live without, without means for the rest of your life. You might get along somehow and then have eternal riches with Christ. But all friend, if you lost your soul, if it should be that you stepped into eternity, having up to the very day of your departure from this world a pocketful of money.
The best of health. What would it be if you stepped into eternity?
Without Christ. Some of our hearts were very saddened and solemnized today to hear of four young men who were suddenly up to this time in good health, with money, but suddenly, without a moment's warning.
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Carried into the very presence of God. Oh friend, we ask you to solemnly and earnestly consider this matter. If it had been you, how would it be with your soul? We read in the 1St chapter of Philippians of the Apostle Paul. He was a prisoner under the most cruel monarch that ever sat on the throne of Rome. He even said one time that he wished all the Romans had one neck, that he could kill them in one.
No, that's what a bloodthirsty man he was. And Paul the apostle was a prisoner under this man. And he said, he said having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Did he fear all the power of this man? He knew that if this man brought down the sword upon his neck, and I believe he did.
That it was only to usher him into the presence of the one who he knew.
As his personal savior. And he said it was far better. And we ask you, dear friends, to put aside those matters that might concern you in your daily life. It's true that you are naturally concerned about your health. You are naturally concerned about how to pay your debts and your responsibilities. But we ask you to just set those things aside.
Thinking of them for this hour will not do you any real good.
Good, but your soul. This is the most important question of your whole existence, and we ask you to solemnly, in the presence of God, consider this matter.
Perhaps you say, I don't like to think of those things. I don't like to hear the word sin. It's an ugly word. But I don't suppose you like to think about taxes. But still, one day the bill comes in the mail, demand for the payment of taxes. And whether you like it or not, it's a responsibility. It's a responsibility. You may throw it aside and say I don't like tax bills, I think they're too high, but that doesn't change your respons.
It doesn't change the demands that are made upon you. You may join in protests and say the taxes are too high, but the fact remains that you must pay them friends and those things of everyday life. I'm sure there are many things like this you don't like, but you know they have to be attended to. But dear friend, this matter of your soul, of your sins, of eternity.
This is something.
But you just can't afford to put aside lightly. You can't afford to say you don't care if you throw your tax bill into the waste paper basket. It doesn't change your responsibility. And if you throw your Bible into the waste paper basket, if you throw all the gospel tracts you receive into the waste paper basket, you haven't changed your responsibility to God one bit. In fact, I would say you've made yourself more responsible because of my.
Says, And every idle word that man shall speak, he shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. It says, Behold ye despisers, and wonder and perish, For I were to work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe if a man declared unto you, But if I only could stand here and make a demand about your sins, and tell you what it was to have to do with the thrice holy God.
Now this would hardly make it worse while for me to.
Stand here, I might as well let you go on oblivious to the future if there was no remedy. But, oh, dear friend, that is in the message of the gospel. The gospel means good news. The gospel means that not only do we tell you of your responsibilities, but we tell you of one who has met your need, one who went to Calvary.
And this verse in the opening verse of our chapter is so wonderful.
It says blessed or it could be translated. Happy is the man.
Whose transgression is forgiven and whose sin is covered. Just the same feeling, perhaps when that tax bill has been paid and you put it on the file mark paid in full, and you look at your wife and you say, well, that's a relief. That's a relief that's settled now. Ah, dear friend, utterly to have your sins forgiven. What a relief to have your sins gone forever from the only person.
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Person who has the right to make a demand upon you about those sins. And that's what we have to tell you tonight. And it's my privilege to stand up here, just a poor, feeble messenger, but to speak on God's behalf and tell you that God loves your soul so much that he has undertaken to settle this question of your sins at the infinite cost of the giving of His only begotten Son. Isn't that good news?
Wouldn't it be good news if you had a debt you couldn't pay to know that someone else had paid it for you? And isn't it good news to be able to stand up here tonight and read these words? Happy is he whose transgression is forgiven. Forgiven by whom? Forgiven by God himself. Who can forgive sins, but God only and God himself is the one the wants to.
Of you, unless there should be any doubt in your mind about who is eligible for this forgiveness, let let me quote that lovely verse in Acts 13. It says, Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man the Lord Jesus Christ is preached unto you, the forgiveness of sin, and by him all.
Believe are justified from all things from the which he could not be justified.
By the law of Moses. So this message isn't for any particular person Yammer all. It isn't for any particular nation. It is for all whosoever will may come.
Happy as he whose transgression is forgiven. I am oldest friends. But in these verses there are different words used in connection with something that we have done against God.
Now the word in the first verse, here the first word is transgression.
Transgression is to break an own command, and that is it's possible to sin and not know it. But the first one here is transgression. There are things that you have done in your life that you knew were wrong.
There's no person who can be so daring as to say never, never did I do anything. And no, it was wrong.
And, and, and not know, and never in my life did I do anything that was wrong, knowing it was wrong. Dear friend, I'm sure that your conscience tells you that there have been times that you have done things that were wrong, things that were sin against God.
And you know, God doesn't measure sin by our standards. God has a standard of his own. Doesn't matter what our standard may be, everything is finally going to be measured by God's standard. If you have a scale in your house and that scale actually weighs 14 ounces to the pound and six instead of 16.
That isn't going to change the Weights and Measures Act. That isn't going to sum How?
Miraculously mean that a pound is only 14 oz instead of 16 because your scale works that way. People talk today as if they had the right to set their own standards. They say sin is what you make it. No, friend, it's what God makes it. It's what God makes it, and the Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
And I want to tell you tonight that.
God has a very high standard. It's the standard of his own glory, the standard of his own holiness. And God will never, never change that standard. A man may change their weights and measures. We hear that some countries are deciding to change how their weight standards, but God will never change His standards. They're inflexible.
It says forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.
Holiness become a fine house, O God forever, forever friends, and God is holy but.
He forgives.
There's a lovely verse also in the Psalms that says If thou Lord should mark iniquity, oh Lord, who should stand?
But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
That thou mayest be feared, yet there is forgiveness with thee. Another verse says, enter not into judgment with thy servant, For in thy sight shall no flesh living be justified. And perhaps there's something that's weighing in your conscience, particularly tonight, something you know is wrong, something that your best friends don't know about, something that your wife, your children don't know about. But all how often in the.
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Out of your own room. It comes up before you and you wonder. You just wish that that thing could be blotted out from your conscience. Well, dear friend, we have good news for you tonight.
Happy is he whose transgression is forgiven and who forgives God himself, the very God that you send against the very God who searches your heart through and through and knows everything, is willing to forgive. What did it cost him to forgive? Oh, he doesn't pass over sin, friends. It tells us in Hebrews chapter 2 every transgression and disobedience.
Receives a just recompense of reward.
Every sin that's everything committed by men or angels is going to be punished.
God never, never passes sin unpunished. It must be punished.
Well, you say, what hope is there for us then, if God must punish sin? Well, that's what the gospel tells you, that God punished sin on the person of his beloved Son so that he might offer a pardon to you. Yes, every sin must be punished, but all how grand and glorious that it says in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah and the fifth verse, but he.
Was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with His stripes we are healed all. We, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. And this is the wonderful fact that in order to offer.
Forgiveness to you. There was a price that must be paid. Sin must be punished. And who could pay the price? The little hymn says there was no other good enough to pay the price of sin. He only could undo the door of heaven and let us in. There was no one who could pay the price of sin, only Jesus, only God's beloved Son. Has he done it? Has he done it? Yes, friends, He's done it.
He did it on Calvary's cross. He stood condemned in our place, and that we might be forgiven. And you can be happy tonight if you look back and see your sins, your iniquities, your transgressions laid upon the head of that blessed, sinless substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I've often mentioned the little incident. It's still precious in my mind of how I was visiting a deer Christian man in the city of Ottawa. I had often visited him in his illness, but this was the very last time before the Lord took him home.
He was getting weaker and weaker each time, and this time he could barely speak above a whisper. But he looked up, and in his midst of his suffering, his face broke out in a smile and he said, Gordon, isn't it lovely to know the judgments behind you and not ahead of you?
Friend, that's what it is to be saved. That's what it is to know that your sins are forgiven. At Calvary's cross, the question was taken up by the only One who knew every sin in your heart and in your life, the only One who forms the true measure of what sin really is in his holy presence. And God Himself took it up. God himself settled it, and God himself points you to that finished work.
Because it is finished, it is finished. Christ finished it.
Happy is he who is transgression is forgiven transgression. I say again, the things that you know were wrong, you still did them. They bother you. You know that you shouldn't have done them. They come back in your mind. And then there's another word here, whose sin is covered? Whose sin is covered? You know there are things that are sinful and yet they're not described as transgression.
The Bible.
Says that before the law sin was in the world, but there was no transgression because when God made known his holy law, when a man broke and he became a transgressor before the law was given, he still sin. What do you say? What is sin? I thought it was breaking a command. Oh no, the Bible says that sin is.
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Lawlessness. It's just doing my own will.
My own will just doing what I like with no reference to God. That's why the Bible says the plowing of the wicked is sin. You might say, well what's what's wrong with a man plowing in his field? How could that be counted sin?
Well, pardon a little homey illustration, but supposing you were a farmer and you woke up 1 morning and looked down in your field and there's a man plowing in your field.
And you call your wife and you say, look, there's a man plowing out in my field. I wonder who that is?
And saw you go out to him and you say, what are you doing?
Well, he said I didn't know something wrong in plowing. What's wrong with plowing? Telling me what's wrong with the Oh, you say that isn't the point. This is my farm, my property. You never asked me or said anything to me about it. And you have trespassed because you didn't ask me. Well, he said I could go home and get the harrows or some other instruments and.
Tell me what's wrong with it. Oh, you say. That isn't the point.
This is my farm, my property. You never asked me or said anything to me about it, and you have trespassed because you didn't ask me. Well, he said I could go home and get the harrows or some other instruments instead. Would you object to that? Oh, you say that's not the point. You have come in here and started to work in my land without recognizing.
Any responsibility to me, whatever.
Now, dear friend, I want to tell you this, You are in God's world. The Bible says the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. And for us to act in our lives as if we had no responsibility to God, his sin, its lawlessness, its independence of God.
And God says they that are in the flesh cannot please God. And until you have received the Lord Jesus as your Savior, He is telling you that your life is one of independence of God. And you need this blessed Savior. You need to receive Him, to recognize your responsibility to Him, to come into His presence as a Sinner, and to find in Him your Savior.
And then but not till then.
Can you please him?
Will he cover those sins? Will he actually put out of his sight?
All those sins and all those transgressions, yes, he's found a way. He's found a way, it says. God has devised means that he's banished, should not be expelled from him.
You know, if you just pass on in this chapter to the fifth verse, I just want to call your attention here, it says.
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I'd just like to mention that that word translated hid in the fifth verse is exactly the same word as the one translated covered in the in the first verse. In other words, God can cover your sins, but if you try to cover them yourself, God will see under the covering.
God will see under the covering. And this man when he got into the presence of God, he said I'm not going to try and cover my sins in God's presence. I'll let him cover them. That's just what Adam did. Adam sinned against God. So what did he do? He went to work to cover his own sins and he used a fig leaf aprons and those fig leaf aprons, I suppose, seem quite satisfactory to him and his wife.
Probably they looked at one another and said.
Yes, that's that's an acceptable covering. I'm quite sure it's all right. And this perhaps passed one another's approval that they had made a good acceptable covering. But in God's sight, it was not a covering at all.
It was not a covering at all. In God's sight they were found naked.
But did God make a covering? Oh yes.
God in his grace and at cost. What was the cost? Death had to come in.
It tells us that the Lord God made coats of skins and clothed them.
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Little animals had to die.
In order that the guilty pair might be covered not according to their ideas of covering, but according to God.
And God can cover sin. Yes, he can put it out of his sight. He can remove it forever. Oh, what a God we have. Are your sins gone?
There's a lovely verse that says as far as the east is from the West.
So far hath He promoted our transgressions from us. I'm glad it doesn't say as far as the north is from the South, because you might feel you could measure from the North Pole to the South Pole. But when it says from the east to the West, where is the measuring point thought of your friend? God has put the sin so far away that He himself will never find it, because it says.
Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Isn't that good news? Wouldn't you be happy to know that God had this to say about you? That your sins were forgiven, covered?
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Here's another word used. Transgression, sin, and equity. What is iniquity? Well, I think that it perhaps brings before us the horribleness of our guilt before God, the horribleness it says in another place.
Further on here thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin.
Barriers have the horrible lust, the evil intent behind it, for not only do we do what's wrong, but often there's a bitter evil intent behind it. You do a mean act to somebody. It's not only the action, but it's the meanness, the bitterness that was behind that action. Ah, friends, God looks into the heart.
Within, out of the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts.
Yes, God sees what's behind the action. Isn't it marvelous that he takes up the whole thing from the motive to the action to the transgression, the whole thing, because he must have a clean person in his presence to be accepted. And then it says here.
Imputed. Not iniquity. That is, He doesn't put it to your account. Well, why? Well, because he put it to the account of his Son. Yes, it was put to Christ's account.
Yes, how wonderful. When the Lord Jesus spoke about that cross of Calvary, He said Mine iniquities are not hid from thee. How could he speak that way? Ah, because the little hymn puts it, He made our guilt his own.
He made our guilt his own guess I'd guilt that should have been ours was his. It was read to us this morning in 2nd Corinthians 5. He hath made him to be sin for us made him who was the person he made sin, the one who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him and so.
Unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there.
There is no God.
You don't have to pretend when your sins are gone.
You have to pretend. If they're not, talk to people, and they like to pretend that they live pretty good lives. They like to pretend that they're a little better than they are. But I don't have to pretend anything to you, dear friends. I'm a Sinner. I'm a guilty Sinner. I deserve God's righteous judgment. I don't want to put on any pretense. I don't want you to look up to me and think, well, that person is a very wonderful, holy man. He's not like me.
I want you to realize that I'm just a Sinner.
Saved by grace.
I don't want to pretend anything, but I want to state in reality that the Lord Jesus has put away my sins.
That the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. Oh, I ask you not to pretend. This is what it means in the chapter when it talks about being upright. An upright person is a person who doesn't pretend. The world is full of pretense. People pretending to be better than they are. People pretending to be religious. People pretending this and pretending that. We meet more of it all the time.
But dear friends, when you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you don't have to pretend something in the presence of God. You can know that although He searches you through and through and knows every sin. Hello, you might have to confess like.
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Paul the apostle did. He said this is a faithful thing and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Did he pretend anything? No, he said he was the chief of sinners.
But he said that God had shown mercy to him.
Caused him, a chief of sinners, to be the messenger, to tell others of this wonderful Savior. And so in whose spirit there is no guile. Oh, I ask you, my friend, don't pretend. Remember the story Jesus told of the two men that went up into the temple to pray, to pray. One man went up there into the presence of God, and this is what he said.
I thank thee that I am not as other men are extortioners, unjust, or even as this publican. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. He took the place before God of a righteousness of His own.
But the other man, he didn't pretend anything at all. He didn't make one bit of pretend. He didn't even dare to lift up his eyes to heaven, but smote on his breast and said, God be merciful to me. The Sinner with no pretense in that was there. That was reality. And the Lord Jesus said that man went down to his house.
Justified rather than the other.
That man went down to his house justified. How grand. Why? Well, he didn't pretend he believed.
He saw what he was in God's sight. He acknowledged it.
Now the fourth verse says, for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the drought of summer. I believe this verse suggests, friends, that sometimes God has to speak to us through sickness.
You know, when we refuse to listen to His voice of love, to His tender entreaties, to His offers of pardon. Sometimes He must put His hand upon us through trouble and sorrow.
And if there has been a trouble coming to your life, if at this moment you are mourning the loss of a loved one, if at this moment there's been some calamity in your home, something that's upsetting you in your business.
God's hand is in that. God's hand is in that. He's stirring up your nest as it were. You know, Job said, I thought I would die in my nest. He was a prosperous man. Everything seemed to go his way, but God stirred up his nest and brought him into his presence till he said.
I repent and abhor myself in dust and ashes and sometimes God has to stir up our nest to. And if there's anyone here tonight and God has been passing you through some troubles and sorrows, and you say I'm just at the end of my tether. It just seems that everything has gone wrong in my life in the last six months or a year. Things are getting worse instead of better.
Oh dear friend, let me tell you, it's the hand of love that's upon.
You wanting to bring you to the real issues of life because the real issues of life are not material things. The real issues of life are.
What happens when you leave this world?
Yes, it says with God, the Lord belong the issues from death, the issues from death.
And Eli, you said to Job, have the gates of death been opened to thee? Oh, dear friend, do you know what's beyond death? God has opened them and told you what's beyond. And oh, if he has sent those troubles into your life, if you're at the end of your tether, if you have come to the point when you say life is only frustration, I don't see anything worthwhile in it.
God is speaking to you for your blessing, and so notice the.
Next verse. The fifth verse. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid.
That I'm not going to pretend any longer. I'm not going to go on in my sins any longer. I'm not going to try to provide a covering for myself any longer. I'm not going to soothe myself with thinking that just because I'm as good as my neighbor and as religious as the other person, that everything's going to be all right. Because you're measuring by the wrong standard if this is what you're doing.
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Oh dear friend, I plead with you tonight to do what this person did.
What the psalmist did. So this is the Psalm of David. I would ask you to do what David did. He acknowledged his sin unto the Lord. He didn't hide it, he acknowledged it before God. Oh, what joy there'd be in heaven if someone here would bow.
God is not asking you to make a promise and say, well, from this moment I'm going to live a better life. I'm going to serve God. I'm going to turn over a new leaf friend. He's not asking you to do that.
He's asking you to do just what the psalmist did here, just what we read in the Book of Job. The Book of Job. It says He looketh upon men. And if any say I have sinned and perverted there, which is right, and it profiteth me not, he will deliver him from going down to the pit. I have found a ransom. What did the prodigal do when he returned?
Did he say father? I'm going to live a better life from now?
I'll never disappoint you again. Perhaps he did disappoint his father again. I'm quite sure that he wasn't a perfect boy even after that. But one thing that he said was.
Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy Son.
He just acknowledged his guilt, that's all. What did the father do? He said bring forth the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring in his hand and shoes in his feet.
And then when you take your true place, friend, God will do the rest. He's not asking you for promises. He's not asking you to say, well, I'll give up this and I'll give up that. I'll lead a different life. I know I haven't been acting the way I should.
A man went to a gospel meeting in a little town in Ontario.
And when the meeting was over, he evidently hadn't got the message because he said to somebody, well, I'll certainly have to live a different life.
Dear friend, God wants you just to acknowledge you're a Sinner, and when you acknowledge that, God will do the rest. Oh, you say, don't you believe in living a different life after you're saved? Oh, God gives you a different life. God gives it to you. The gift of God is eternal life. What you need and whatever saved person has is.
A new life. Jesus said he must be born again.
He must be born again. What does it mean?
Well, it just means that the life you were born in is not the life that you need. You need a new life, and that's new birth.
You may be born in a Christian home. There's some boys and girls here. They've been born in a Christian home. Their fathers and mothers have prayed for them.
They prayed for you over and over again.
But you have to get a new life. It's wonderful to have a praying father and mother, but you must be born again. You must have a new life. And when you come in your guilt and acknowledge what you are before God, I say again, God does the rest. God does the rest, just like the Father did. He brought forth the best robe. He looked after it all. And so the psalmist here.
Said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord. That was all he did. He just acknowledged his guilt. Have you done math?
And you don't have to remember all your sins, friends. You never could.
You never could remember all your sins.
And even if you were asked to remember them all, do you think you could be sure that you had the right estimate of what sin was and the presence of God?
All you do is come and just tell God that you're a Sinner like that man did that went up into the temple to pray. He just said, God be merciful to me, a Sinner. You can't remember all your sins, but God does.
And God put those sins upon the head of the Lord Jesus for all those who trust in him. What a savior, What a wonderful savior. And He wants to be your savior. He wants to be your savior tonight.
And so it says, I confessed, and thou forgave us.
I confess and thou forgave us. Yes, he does the whole thing. And how many sins does he forgive?
While we read that lovely verse from the First Epistle of John and the 1St chapter, in the seventh verse it says if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
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If you're walking in darkness, you don't see dirty spots in your clothes. You don't even see if your face is dirty.
It doesn't bother you one bit because in the dark you don't see those things, but when you come into the light it shows up.
And dear friend, that's what God does. He brings you into the light.
Her brother who mentioned last night, I am the light of the world. God brings you into the light. And when does it show up? It shows up our sins.
But then what does God do? The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Oh, how wonderful. Every sin, Every single one. Yes.
A dear Christian man as he approached the end of his life.
One of his sons said to him, Father, do you have any doubts now?
He said I have no doubts about the value of the blood of Christ.
A dear Christian lady who had lived her life for the Lord Jesus as she came to the end of her life, she said.
He said it takes the whole Bible to live with.
But it only takes one verse to die with, and the verse that speaks comfort to my soul is this. The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanseth us from all sin. Dear friend, the light of God's presence will never see one sin. It will never discover one sin upon the soul that's been cleansed in the blood of Christ.
I confess thou forgave us.
What a happy result. Wouldn't it be lovely tonight if someone here just bowed in the presence of God and said, Oh God, I can't remember all my sins. I don't know how bad I am. I never thought I was very bad before, but now I realize that in thy sight I am a Sinner. If you just bow and tell him, you don't have to remember them all. You don't have to realize how great a Sinner you are. Just bow and tell him that you accept his estimate of your guilt.
And.
Confess the Lord Jesus, believe as it says here.
Thou forgave us. Oh, what a Savior. He wants to be your Savior tonight. And so thou forgave us. And he'll do that for you, my friend. Little hymn says thousands have fled to his pierced side. Welcome. They all have been. None are denied. He never turned any away. Everyone who has come.
It says him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Some people think, well you have to wait until you just feel terrible, until your sins burden you to tears, until you just feel so very guilty. Oh dear friend, don't wait 1 moment.
If God by His Spirit tonight has shown you you're a Sinner, just acknowledge that you are a Sinner in His presence.
And the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse you from sins that you can't remember, sins that you don't realize. It'll put them all away. As one who has been brought up in a Christian home, I'll tell you this that I've learned far more of my guiltiness since the Lord saved me than I ever realized before.
I didn't know how guilty I was. I knew I was guilty, but I didn't know how guilty I was. But the Lord has shown me a lot more since He saved me.
And I thank him that when he showed me, he also told me that when I received him that those sins that he knew about were all gone.
Friend, it's true.
It's true every sin.
How blessed, and for how long. Well, it says, for by one offering he hath perfected forever.
Them that are sanctified, a little song says, Blessed Lamb of God, thy precious blood shall never lose its power, till every ransomed St. of God be saved to sin no more. All that precious blood was shed, and that precious blood, when you accept Christ as your Savior, cleanse us from all sin.
And God is still inviting sinners and everyone who trusts in that precious.
Blood is cleansed.
Is fit for God's thrice Holy Presence, and you can walk in the light and all the light shows up.
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The blood cleanses from what a savior. He wants to be your savior tonight, friend.
The next verse says.
In the sixth verse. For this shall everyone that is godly pray unto thee, in a time when thou mayest be found surely in the floods of great waters, they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding place. Oh, what a grand thing to have a hiding place. This world is a world of trouble. There's all kinds of trouble, and I'm not standing here to tell you that when you accept Christ that you're not going to have any more troubles.
Paul said to the believers. We must, through much tribulation, enter into the Kingdom of God.
I'm not here to tell you that when you accept Christ that all your troubles will end.
But I do tell you that when you accept Christ, your sins will be gone, you'll be fitted for heaven, and you'll have one who will walk through the rest of the journey with you.
Thou art my hiding place. I'm sure you've sung little hymn that says, should 7 full storms of Thunder roll and shake this globe from pole to pole, no Thunderbolt shall daunt my face.
For Jesus is my hiding place. All can you look up and say Jesus is my hiding place? The next verse says. A few more rolling Suns at most will land me on Fair Canaan's coast. For I shall sing a song of grace and see my glorious hiding place. Oh, is he your Savior?
Friend he wants to be tonight.
Dare you put it off? Dare you say no?
Can you reject such wondrous love? Can you His claim disowned? Come give your all and gratitude all. Receive this wonderful Savior tonight. Thou art my hiding place.
When you say, I see a lot of problems ahead if I do that.
You don't know my life, you say. You don't know the problems that I have, the home that I come from.
The way my wife lacked, the way my husband lacked, the things that will happen. You just don't know what it means for me to confess Christ.
All He'll not only be your hiding place, but listen, I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way that thou shalt go.
I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way that thou shalt go, Dear friend, this one who wants to be your Savior will also be your guide, will also be your shepherd to lead you through the whole pathway of life. And it says here.
In the In this eighth verse I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye. Another translation is I will guide thee with mine eye upon thee. In fact, that's the way it reads in the margin. I will guide thee with mine eye upon thee. His eye will be upon you, my friend.
Yes, Oh, what a wonderful thing it is to have a savior like this.
I've known Him for a good many years. He's not only given me salvation, He's not only given me peace. He's not only given me a home in heaven, but all. How lovely. We've had problems individually in our lives collectively, but we've had one to turn to, one that we can look up to, and we have His word.
The best book that it's possible to have the wisdom of God for our pathway, one dear Christian man said. I never had a decision in my life that I didn't even either have a scripture or some principle of the scripture to guide my decisions.
Oh, friend, he's an all the way home savior. He's the captain of our salvation. He's our counselor.
He wants to be more than a savior to you. He wants you to. He wants to be your friend. He wants to lead you and guide you. And he loves us so much that when we get self willed, he sometimes has to act like the man who has the horse of the mule. He controls it by pulling the reins and perhaps grabbing back the poor animal and by the bit in his mouth that pulls him around.
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Sometimes the Lord said to do that with me too. He's had to pull me around.
But it's much better that he should pull us around. He doesn't like to guide us that way, but he loves us so much that he says I can't let you go your own way. It'll only get you into trouble.
Oh what a wonderful Savior, dear friend. He loves you. Christ died for you. The blood cleanses from all sin. Heavens opened to you tonight, and the one who wants to save you will take you every step of the way. He'll be your guard, He'll be your guide. He'll be everything to you. And if you get self willed even as Christians do sometimes.
He'll even use the bitten bridle to pull us around. But all he loves.
He loves us.
But then the next verse, the 10th verse, says, Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord mercy shall compass him about. Notice this friend, many sorrows.
I can't tell you the awfulness of those words.
I can't tell you the awfulness of those words, friend. I must warn you at the close of this meeting, in all solemnity, that if you go out in your sins and you die in your sins.
Just as I can't measure the gladness and the blessedness of knowing Christ in a home in heaven, I can't tell you how terrible it will be to be in outer darkness.
Under the judgment of God in hell forever.
Draw Me
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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As I'd just like to look, brethren, that little portion was suggested to my heart, I trust by the Lord, from the hymn that we sang in the beginning. Lord, thou hast drawn us after Thee.
Return to the 63rd Psalm.
Psalm 63.
O God, thou art my God. Early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth 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 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.
My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips.
When I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night, watches.
Because thou hast been my help.
Therefore, in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.
My soul followeth hard after thee. Thy right hand upholdeth me. But those that seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth. They shall fall by the sword, They shall be a portion for foxes. But the king shall rejoice in God. Everyone that sweareth by him shall glory, but the mouth of them that speaketh lies shall be stopped.
And just another portion, perhaps the one the hymn writer had in mind in the Song of Solomon.
The Song of Solomon.
Chapter 1.
And verse 4.
Draw me, we will run after thee.
The king hath brought me into his chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in thee. We will remember thy love more than wine. The upright love thee. I am black but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon, look not upon me because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me.
My mother's children were angry with me.
They made me the keeper of the vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I not kept. Tell me, O thou, who my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon, For why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?
If thou knowest not all thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherd's tents.
Well, in this 63rd Psalm which we read, I was thinking particularly of how.
The soul is brought before us here in the first verse. My soul thirsteth for thee.
And then in the fifth verse my soul shall be satisfied.
And then in the eighth verse, my soul followeth after thee.
And then a little warning in the ninth verse. But those that seek my soul to destroy it.
But how important it is, brethren, that our souls should be taken up with the Lord Jesus?
In the scripture we know that man is a triune being, spirit, soul and body. The spirit brings before us that part of the being that is God conscious. The soul is the seat of the appetites and desires. And so when we think of the soul we think of appetites and desires and how wonderful, since we have been saved, that we now have appetites and desires after God.
And in the 62nd Psalm, which is in the what is called the second book of the Psalms.
Prophetic of the time when Israel will be driven out, the godly remnant unable to go into the temple, and enjoy the precious privilege of being where the Lord had put His name. Why then, we find here that the soul, instead of thinking particularly of that building, thinks of the Lord Himself, and we may be deprived of the privilege at times of getting to the meetings. We may be deprived of the.
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Of fellowship one with another, but all we can never be deprived of the enjoyment of himself.
God's purpose is that no matter where we are, in what circumstances we may be, there is that One, the one who has spoken about in the young people's meeting, the one whom we've had before us in all his glory, who inhabits eternity. And he is the one who is able to fill and satisfy every longing of the heart.
So he says, O God, art my God, early will I seek thee, My soul thirsteth for thee. Well, we could ask our own hearts, how much is it our desire to be occupied with Him. We may be, as I say, deprived of certain things. Perhaps some here come from small meetings where there's little fellowship. Perhaps some live a distance where they're unable to get as.
Often as they'd like to where they can be over the precious word of God.
But there can always be, and there should always be in our souls, a fresh longing for the enjoyment of His presence, of His company. Is your soul and mine thirsting after Him? Well, if it's so, why He delights to fill and satisfy the longing of the soul. He is the one who is going to satisfy us for all eternity. It tells us they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house.
And thou shalt make them to drink of the river of thy pleasure.
Well, as the more we are thirsting after him, the more we'll find that this world, after all, is a dry and thirsty land. We may have certain expectations of things that we're going to get in a material way. I suppose many of us have certain things before us materialistically. We have desires naturally connected with this earth.
But these things may disappoint us. They often do.
And we find out by the disappointments of life, by the trials of life, that after all, this world is a dry and thirsty land. There may be some young people here going home from the conference, perhaps disappointed, perhaps frustrated. Well, how lovely this is. There is one who can fill the soul even in a dry and thirsty land where no water is, where there's nothing that seems to.
By the natural longings, but all those new longings that God has placed by His Spirit within us, they can be satisfied, fully satisfied in the Lord Jesus.
And what does he say? To see thy power and Thy glory. So as I have seen Thee in the sanctuary, our brother was Speaking of power. Well, where will we see that? To see thy power and thy glory? So as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Think of how that power was displayed.
We were sunk in sin, and the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.
To everyone that believe us, and perhaps we have wandered from him, all there's power to bring us back.
How lovely it is to hear, in talking to individuals at the meetings like this, of a soul perhaps here and there who was saved, to hear of another who has got away from the Lord and the Lord has restored him. Oh, to us this means more than the power that shot that rocket to the moon, the power that saves, the power that restores.
For you and I occupied with this, O brethren, is this the burden of our hearts? It's easy to get occupied with a display of.
Power man is seeking after it today, that power that shot the rocket to the moon, new cars that are more powerful than ever before, all kinds of Ways and Means that man is discovering of the vast powers that are here in the universe. But you and I can be occupied with a greater power to see Thy power and Thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
In His presence we get a proper sense.
Of values we don't have the false weight and the false balance. We get the true sense of values. And so this is what was the desire of the heart in the of the psalmist here. He said to see thy power and thy glory. So as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. And in this he had found something better than life, he said, because thy loving kindness is better than life.
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My lips shall praise thee.
Think of the natural things we would desire in life. I suppose every young person, and perhaps even as we get older, we have certain things that we would wish for in life. It's natural for us to plan in this way.
We'd like to have this and that in life. We hope for friendship, we hope for a partner, we hope for a home, we hope for the time when we can sort of enjoy a little bit of the natural things of life. Well, they may disappoint us, but we've got something better than life, something that Paul can enjoy in prison. He could lift up his hands before Agrippa with the chains dangling down and say, I think.
Self happy King Agrippa. And when King Agrippa said almost Thou persuadest me to be a Christian, he said, I wish you had what I have. He said I would to God, that not only thou that all that hear me this day were most almost and altogether such as I am. Except these bonds. Did he have the things that naturally make life and make happiness in a material sense? Oh no.
But what did he have? All he had the enjoyment of the loving kindness of Christ in his heart. Because thy loving kindness is better than life. Oh, brethren, I challenge my own heart, and I trust you. Challenge yours. And each dear young person here today. There's something better than those goals that you have set in life to desire.
This very moment that you would have and always have.
The enjoyment of the loving kindness of the Lord in your heart.
In my heart, that's better than life. That's better than all the things that we could naturally seek after.
Thus will I bless Thee while I live. Oh, this is what produces praise. Why is there not more praise in our hearts? Perhaps we might say, Oh, if I had a good job and if I had these things, I could surely thank the Lord. All the sweetest praise always flows from the heart that has learned to find its full and sure resource in the Lord. I'm sure that those songs of praise from the prison in Philippi were probably the sweetest.
Praises In that whole city there was there were two men with their backs bleeding, but there was praise. Why? They'd found something better than life. They'd found something that was better than all the other things they could seek after. And I believe, brethren, we were more in the enjoyment of this to be more praise in our hearts, more praise in our meetings, more overflows Thanksgiving to the Lord when we gathered.
Found himself to remember him when we gathered in the meetings to read his word. Our hearts would be overflowing. The world is frustrated. People are saying, well, what is it all about? What is life for? They haven't found this secret. But you and I, I trust and say we have found it, but we lose sight of the goals. We lose sight of the goals.
Thy loving kindness is better than life. Thus will I bless thee.
While I live, I will lift up my hands in thy name.
Then in the fifth verse my soul shall be satisfied. Satisfied. Ever find anyone satisfied with material things? Never.
The only happiness and material things is in acquiring them. It's in getting them. When we possess them by the pleasure of it is gone, but it's in acquiring them. And so there that's a soul is not satisfied. People who have money are not satisfied, people who have fame are not satisfied, but the heart that is enjoying the Lord, the heart that is enjoying his loving kindness.
Has found something better than life?
If Anne can say, my soul shall be satisfied as with Merrill and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips. It's not just that we feel. Shall I say that we ought to give out little hymn? We ought to stand up and thank the Lord.
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That soul overflows and blesses him with joyful lips, praises him because.
The soul is enjoying that which we have found in Him. What is going to satisfy us in glory? Will it be the street of gold? Will it be the gates of Pearl? Will it be those grand foundations of that glorious city? No, brethren himself.
The full, unhindered enjoyment of himself and of His presence. We can have this while we live. Thus will I bless thee while I live.
My soul shall be satisfied.
Then the sixth verse, when I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night, watches because thou has been my help. Therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.
Yes, when on the bed, how often? As we go to bed at night, thoughts come before us. It seems that very often the burden of life presses upon us.
When we go to bed, the events of the day, the disappointments, the frustrations.
The things that we know that we should pray about and want to pray about, they all.
Seemed to come upon us. And isn't this lovely? When I remember thee upon the bed and meditate upon thee? Oh, just think that there upon the bed at night we can look back and think how good he has been, how gracious he's been, how constant his care. What a faithful God we have.
Because thou hast been my help and we need His help. We don't have any strength of our own.
We can't take one step along but all what help in him.
And now comes this eighth verse. My soul followeth hard after thee.
That expression, hard after thee just means close. My soul follows closely after thee. Isn't this lovely?
Here then, when we have found that here's the one who satisfies, then what is the next thing? Well, we just want to stay close to him. My soul followeth hard after thee. Thy right hand upholdeth me. Oh, we need purpose of heart, brethren.
This is a day when we specially need it and what should be our purpose to be a great person in the meeting.
To accomplish something among our brethren? Oh no, just to keep close to the Lord.
Brothers said one time there was a problem arising in the assembly where he was there was most distressing and sad. The brothers meetings were unhappy and someone said well what are you going to do when this matter comes to an issue?
Well, he said, I'm just going to seek to keep us close to the Lord as I can. He'll show me what to do. Why wasn't that a good thing to do? It's the only thing. My soul followeth hard after thee. Thy right hand upholdeth me. There is no, shall I say, set pattern that you can say, well, this is what you have to do in such and such a circumstance. Every circumstance presents itself in a different way.
Christian life, but the Lord gives us grace when we're near Him.
To rise above the situation, to be able to have from him the wisdom to meet the fresh difficulties, the new problems that constantly arise. I was very much struck in reading one time. And dear Mr. Darby, someone asked him his advice about a certain matter.
And he had been given some wrong information in this matter and so he gave his advice in the matter.
And afterwards he found out that he was misinformed.
And he was sorry that he had given the advice he did based on this wrong information and this is what he said in replying, he said.
I gave wrong advice in this matter because he said I was misinformed, but he said that does not excuse me because he said the Lord was not misinformed. And if I've been near him, I wouldn't have made that mistake. All brethren, how important that we keep near Him. There's a lot of misinformation. There's a lot of things where we form opinions based on wrong information, but the Lord is never misinformed.
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He knows everything.
He knows everything and all. How good to be close to him. My soul followeth hard after thee. Thy right hand upholdeth me. And then he speaks of those who seek our soul to destroy it.
We're conscious of this. There are enemies about us. Our brothers just warned us of so many things that could come in to rob the soul.
Little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes. The Lord will take care of those, He said. The Lord will take care of all those things, those enemies. He said he'll, he'll look after them. But what do you and I to do? Notice the last verse.
But the Lord shall read, but the King shall rejoice.
In God, yes, we can rejoice. In Him there may be.
These things that happen, these attacks that are made, these things that almost seem more than we can meet. But all how good to know that in Him there's security, there's blessing, there's all that we need.
Well, that little passage and justice turn to it again in Song of Solomon. I just like to make a couple of comments about this.
Perhaps you noticed as I read it, something that to me was very striking.
In the fourth verse.
Draw me. That's the singular, and then immediately he changes to the plural.
We will run after thee.
And then he returns to the singular. The King hath brought me into his chambers. Then he returns to the plural. We will be glad and rejoice in thee.
Why is this change from the singular to the plural? Well, brethren, we've been talking about the application of these truths to ourselves individually. But what is the result when we apply the truth to ourselves individually? It has a collective result.
There isn't one of us.
Who, if we were drawn after the Lord individually, would not have an effect upon others?
And perhaps others would be attracted to follow Christ too.
Yes, if I'm drawn after Christ, perhaps others will be encouraged. We find this with David Daniel. Rather, he purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself.
But when he made this stand, three others stood with him and he could say we, how lovely and all. May each of us apply the truth to ourselves individually. Say, draw me.
And then there will be others who will be blessed by such a decision, and we can say we will run after thee. Then again, the King has brought me into his chambers. And then what?
We will be glad and rejoice in Thee when one souls is touched, when one soul is drawn after Christ. There is always blessing to others. The scripture says none of us liveth to himself, No man dieth to himself. Your life and mine has an effect upon others. Am I enjoying the Lord so that my life has an effect upon others? So they too.
What desire to be drawn after the Lord?
To follow him when I desire to be in his chambers. Then it says we will be glad and rejoice in thee. And then she says, she says.
I am black but comely. O ye daughters of Jerusalem, I just like to make a little comment on this. There's always a danger of us to look at outward appearances. The Lord looks on the heart, brethren, The Lord looks on the heart.
Is your heart and mind desiring to follow Him all? Let us each one be more concerned about where the heart is in seeking the blessing of our brethren. Seek their hearts. The Lord Jesus said, my Son, give me thine heart.
My son, give me thine heart. I was just thinking the other day how God said to the people they were not to make a graven image or any likeness of anything that was in heaven above. But then I turned over to the New Testament in Colossians and he said that the new man is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. And I thought of how you could fashion something from the outside.
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And make it just the way you want it. But what does God want?
He wants it to begin from the inside.
And so the new man is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. And when you and I are motivated by the Spirit of God through the new man, the image of God is produced in us in manifestation of the life of Christ. Oh, how beautiful. And yet how it touches our hearts. So she could say I'm black. The outward appearance might be perhaps disappointing, but comely?
In whose sight?
On his site, that is, the bride was conscious of the fact that in the sight of her bridegroom she was beautiful. He loved her, He saw her as dear to him. And oh, how precious that he looks upon us, and he sees us as dear to him. One is enjoyed in the Song of Solomon, but never once does the bridegroom reproach the bride.
He he lets her know at times that he is grieved, but he always.
Speaks of what she means to him, and seeks to win her heart. All brethren, the Lord wants our hearts. And when she asked the questions, she said, Tell me where thou makest thy flock to feed at noon. She said, why should I be as one that turns aside by the flocks of thy companions? It was a little disappointed. And he said, if thou knowest not.
O thou fairest among women, feed thee, follow the footsteps of the flock.
And feed thy kids beside the shepherd's tents. What was he really saying to her? Oh, he said, didn't you know that I wanted to be in the midst of my own?
You ask me where I make my flock. Why, if you want to know, follow the footsteps of the flock. I'm always in the midst of my own. Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Oh, may we value His company, brethren. May we know more of His precious love, so that our souls will be drawn after Him. And I'm sure that if as individuals, we can say draw me.
There will also be the collective result. We will run after the perhaps we say, well, there doesn't seem to be the freshness among the Saints. There used to be, doesn't seem to be the happiness in the meetings that there used to be. We'll look up to the Lord and say, draw me. And perhaps if I'm drawn more after the Lord, there'll be a result and others too will be refreshed and blessed and encouraged to follow this blessed Savior.
Until we see him face to face.