Address—Bill Prost
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Could we sing together a very well known hymn 46 in the appendix?
I can well remember this, him being given out when I was a young person.
But you know, I've got a problem already.
I was talking to a brother just a little while before the meeting and we were discussing which one of us had Alzheimer's.
And somebody's gonna have to get me my proper glass.
I don't like bifocals, but I have to learn to wear them.
#46 in the appendix on the Sirius side though.
This hymn was written by a man, George W Fraser, and probably some of you know a little bit about him. He lived back in the 1800s, and to use common language, he was a Rascal when he was a young man, had no use for the gospel, but then was brightly saved at a gospel meeting and went on to be gathered to the Lord's name. And I think I have it right that he wrote this hymn, if not a few days, at least very shortly before he was married.
So it shows you really where his heart was 46 in the appendix.
My heart and teeth. Oh dear sleep, my name is late 'cause I want to put it in the fridge and it's cracked and I may call my heart.
Of crap to survive.
And they're getting pretty good.
Let's pray together.
Loving God our Father, we thank Thee for the hymn we have sung together and for what we have expressed in it.
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And we do trust our God that we have spoken honestly from the heart as we sung these words together. Be thou the object, bright and fair to fill and satisfy the heart.
We thank the Lord Jesus.
That thou art before us, that thou hast gone before, that thou art now therein glory.
And that shortly we too will share that glory with thee.
And now we pray for help as we open Thy word together, pray for wisdom from thyself, and we pray that Thy Spirit might speak to each one of our hearts as we are gathered here together.
We do realize, our God, that we are living in the last days. We trust that we realize the solemnity and yet the blessedness of the days in which we are living.
And so we commend our time together to Thee, where we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
I would like to turn together.
Just a one verse.
A verse that was already read before us in the prayer meeting this morning in Revelation chapter one.
Revelation chapter one.
And verse 9.
I, John.
Who also am your brother?
And companion in tribulation.
And in the Kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.
Was in the aisle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
I'm going to read it again as it appears in the JN Darby translation. If I miss a word, pardon that, but I think it'll be in substance the way the Darby renders it.
I, John, who also am your brother and fellow partaker in the Tribulation and the Kingdom and the patience in Jesus.
Was in the aisle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus.
I have often enjoyed this verse.
I can well remember a brother ministering on it in an open meeting.
Well over 4045 years ago.
And I well remember the impression it made on me then.
Why did it?
We know that the Apostle John lived out all the rest of the apostles, and probably wrote the Book of Revelation a good thirty years after the Apostle Paul went to be with the Lord.
And I suppose by that time all of the other apostles had either died or, as history tells us, been martyred. And I believe most of them were martyred, if not all the others.
And here is John, at the end of his life, banished to the Isle of Patmos.
And given the responsibility of writing the Book of Revelation.
It's a book of judgment, primarily.
And it is primarily the judgment of God on that part of the world.
That has known the gospel, That has had an open Bible, That has known the testimony of Christianity.
The Word of God tells us about the judgment of God on other parts of the world, but Revelation primarily talks about God's judgment on that part of the world that has known something of Christ and of Christianity.
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But if God is going to judge this world, we read in Peter that judgment must first begin at the House of God.
And so before God takes up the judgment of this world.
We find in the early chapters of Revelation that God, through the Lord Jesus Christ, gives his verdict on the testimony as he saw it.
We don't have time to go into but, but we know that the various assemblies that are detailed for us in the second and third chapters of Revelation.
Taken in the the order in which they occur.
Give us a panoramic history of the Church down through the ages, beginning with the time when the apostles had passed off the scene until the time when the Lord comes.
We must remember that when God speaks in Revelation, it is not so much His grace in meeting us in our need, although thank God that is always there. It is not so much His provision for our failure, although thank God that is always there. But it is the Lord Jesus in the character of a judge saying if this is the place, if this is the position that you profess to take.
Here is what I see.
We're not going to go into Revelation chapters 2:00 and 3:00, but I suggest that in this verse that John speaks.
Revelation One and nine. We have perhaps the seeds of the difficulty in declension that afterward became the problem for the people of God.
Now we know that John and his ministry does not primarily give us assembly truth. That's Paul's ministry. In fact, I am not aware that John and his ministry at any point ever speaks of the church in its broad character. Individual assemblies, yes, but the church as we know it composed of every true believer. I am not aware that John ever speaks of that anywhere in his ministry, whether in the Gospels or the Gospel of John, I should say.
Or whether in John's epistles, or whether in the Book of Revelation?
But the testimony that you and I have in this dispensation of God's grace was of particular interest to John. And I suggest to your heart and mind that God, in this verse, among others, is showing us those things to which each one of us needs to pay attention.
I don't want to speak only to the conscience. I hope it will come through to the heart as well.
I enjoyed from this vantage point looking out over you all as that hymn was being sung at the beginning.
And I could not help but be impressed with the number of people.
Who obviously were singing it with all their hearts.
The look on their faces spoke of real.
Feeling in their souls as they sung those words together.
Young people, middle-aged people, older people. Now obviously in a company this size, I did not scrutinize every face, but I could not help but see that and it did my heart good.
And as I look into your faces, I know that there probably are very few here, if any, who would say I don't care. I'm not interested in the kind of testimony I bear as a Christian. I'm not interested in what the Lord thinks of my walk and my ways. I am not interested in whether I am getting the gospel out to a lost world.
Or whether my life is that of which the Lord could approve. I doubt if there is anyone, I hope not in this room who would talk like that.
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I have heard people talk like that. I remember well a young man my own age, and I am persuaded to this day that he is the Lord and that I can remember that there were some young people that were going out with gospel tracts and he showed no interest whatsoever. And finally a young sister, maybe a few years older than he, but not much, two or three years older, said something like this to them. Well, aren't you interested?
In getting the gospel out to these people.
Who need to hear about the Lord Jesus and I will never forget his words. He said something like this. To tell you the truth, I couldn't care less.
That was a long time ago.
45 years ago. Perhaps that young man is still alive, but what about his life? Oh, it has been a story of sorrow and difficulty and all kinds of problems.
Again, I am persuaded that he is the Lord's, but the Lord knows. But again I say, as I look into your faces, I am sure if I were to go to each one here and say, do you want to enjoy the Lord Jesus in your life, you would say yes. Do you want to walk through this world for His glory? Yes, I do. Do you want to stand before Him in a coming day at the judgment seat of Christ and hear his words?
Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Oh, I am sure that each one here would say.
Each one that knows the Lord. Even the younger children would say yes I do.
What then is the problem? What is the problem? And let's point the finger right here with me. Why is there not more faithfulness? Why is there not more blessing in my life? Why is there not more energy for Christ, more passion for Him, more enjoyment of His things?
I don't pretend to have all the answers because it can be different for each one of us.
But I suggest that the Spirit of God through John.
If we could use this expression was getting to the core of matters here.
In Revelation 1:00 and 9:00.
Here is John having been faithful for these many years, and I suppose by his life and his age he had the moral weight to say some of these things.
And here he is on this island. I've never been there, but I have spoken to those that have.
I suppose there were no other believers there. We don't read of any. I suppose that he was deprived of Christian fellowship and of that supreme privilege about which we spoke this morning of remembering his Lord in death. He was probably deprived of much that you and I would enjoy and hold dear. At least I hope we do. But here he is, and what does he talk about?
I, John, who also AM your brother. We're not going to dwell on all of these things, but there are some comments we want to make on them and perhaps leave you and me too to fill in the gaps.
He says I also am your brother.
And fellow partaker or companion.
I love that because here was a man who had a wonderful place. He was one of the 12 apostles. He was one who had known the Lord intimately during his earthly ministry.
And that, you'll remember from the early part of the book of the Acts, was one of the qualifications of being one of the apostles.
He had seen the Lord, he had accompanied with him, and so in the beginning of his first epistle he can say that which we have seen, which we have handled, and so on of the word of life, Speaking of the person of the Lord Jesus.
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But when it comes to writing to those with whom he identified as his brethren in Christ, how does he write your brother and companion?
I say to my own heart, and I say to each one here, let us each remember that no matter how much we may know of the word of God, no matter how faithful we may have been in walking before the Lord.
No matter what privileges the Lord may have conferred upon.
When it comes to other believers, when it comes to those who are also members of the body of Christ and part of the family of God.
We are simply a brother or a sister and a companion.
You know, it's a wonderful thing to be a companion, and here was John speaking in a situation where I suppose on the human level, he had no companionship. He probably did not have another believer in whom to confide. It's wonderful to be able to talk to someone, isn't it? It's wonderful to be able to unload on someone. I was glad to get a phone call from her brother several months ago.
He said, Bill, I just need to talk to somebody and he unloaded a serious problem that he was trying to deal with. I felt honored that he felt free to call me and tell me about it and that he felt free to speak about something that perhaps he didn't want to speak about to everyone.
And you know, there are times in our lives when that is most necessary.
But I do say this, that suppose you don't have that Oh the Lord himself, and we'll find that later on in this.
Book of Revelation, which we won't go into this afternoon, the Lord himself comes in and says.
I will be your companion, I will be your confidante, I will be the one who will listen to you and allow you to pour out your heart. And I will never get tired of hearing from you.
And so John takes that lowly place. But what I want to focus on this afternoon are the things that he mentions here.
Companion.
In what three things, three things here that he mentions companionship in their very much put together these three things here, tribulation and Kingdom and patience.
What is Tribulation?
Tribulation is a very strong word.
I am not any special scholar, but the word tribulation comes from a Latin root that is connected with flogging or scourging. Oof.
Not a very nice thought. Roman scourging, as most of us probably know, was a terrible thing.
Where they took this awful whip of leather thongs and sewed to it fits of broken glass and fits of jagged metal and little rocks and anything else of that nature that they could come up with. And then the poor victim was tied up and that was laid across his back by a man who was a professional, if you could use that word to describe.
Such an occupation.
He knew just how to do it.
And how to get the maximum amount of pain out of that awful whip? And the word tribulation is connected with that.
And John says I am your companion in Tribulation. What does that mean?
To you and to me.
Turn back, please, to a verse in John's Gospel.
Chapter 16.
John 16.
Verse 33. The last verse.
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These things I have spoken unto you, that in me might have peace.
In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.
This is one of two places in the Lord's life where He speaks of himself as being an overcomer.
It's one of the two places where he himself speaks of being an overcomer.
And what the Lord is bringing before us here is that you are going to be following a rejected Christ. I will give you an inner peace, but in the world you are going to have tribulation.
I want to lay before each one of us what has often been said but bears repeating, and that is that when it comes to salvation, for you and for me, it is free.
But discipleship is costly.
I say salvation is free.
But was it free when it came to the work on Calvary's cross? Was it free when it came to my blessed Savior in the three hours of darkness? No.
And yet you and I, as a result of that work, can sing in hymn 137 in our hymn book, the Father's face of radiant grace shines now in light on me.
May I reminisce again.
I can well remember.
Back, I suppose, in the 1960s, when I used to go to conferences like this, when I was the age of some of you young people.
High school and later on in college.
And I can remember how some of us young people used to gravitate to a brother long since with the Lord. He wasn't the only one, but he stands out. A brother long since with the Lord by the name of Eric Smith.
And we used to love to spend time in his company.
We would seek him out after the meeting. We would try, if we could, to sit and eat with him at the table. We would raise questions with him. We would ask him all kinds of things.
And we marveled at the hidden sight he had, how he could bring things out of scripture, how he could appeal to our hearts.
How if he stood up And mind you, I am not trying to.
Glorify a man? No, it was only a reflection of Christ. But how? When he would stand up in an open meeting and minister?
Young people would walk out with tears running down their faces.
Because of their hearts had been so touched by what he said.
You know, as I got to be a little more mature, I realized that all of that was not just some natural gift. All of that was not something that just happened, that just came because of the kind of a person he was. Now I realized that as I got to know him better, there had been a price to pay for that nearness to Christ.
There had been something that he had learned as we get in Philippians 3, where Paul says.
That I may know him and the power of his resurrection.
And the fellowship of his sufferings.
I learned that that dear brother had been through the fires of persecution and affliction.
For 40 years in South America, many times alone by himself, having been through all kinds of difficulties and troubles, I learned how that he had had to sit by and watch his first wife die of cancer when they had been married only a matter of a few years, I learned how that he had watched.
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His second wife also die of cancer.
And his third wife, whom I knew well. I watched her almost die of cancer too. I learned how he had been in prison for Christ under circumstances that were most difficult.
Oh, there was a price to be paid for the beauty and the sweetness.
Are you and I willing to pay that price?
Are you and I willing to put up with the tribulation unless I should be misunderstood? Yes, there are our dear brethren in other lands who right now, at this very moment, as we sit here enjoying peace and quiet.
Being imprisoned for Christ, being hounded, who would if they could meet together like this, but often are prohibited? And who if they do meet together?
Are always looking over their shoulder to see who might be following or who might be after them. There are those at this very moment who are laying down their lives for Christ.
And yet there are those who are rising up and saying, yes, by God's grace, I will pay the price.
I will take the risk.
I read a little while ago.
About a girl who grew up in fairly recent years in China. Her name was Ling.
And her mother was a believer.
But she had a very difficult upbringing because her father was very, very sick and he was not able to support the family, so that her mother often had to work very hard. And when she was about 9 or 10 years old, her father died of the cancer that had been eating away at him for many years. And there they were in a very difficult situation and laying along with her younger sister, turned their back on Christ and on anything to do with Christianity, because their attitude was what has it given us?
And the mother was heartbroken.
Didn't know what to do with these two wayward girls. No father that seemed to be able to be a help to them.
And here she was not very well herself, working very, very hard, and the authorities were not too.
Kindly toward her Christianity either.
And so she prayed.
She prayed.
And one day, Ling overheard her mother pray.
And her mother was saying like this, something like this, Lord.
I want one of my children at least, but preferably all of them, to follow you.
But I want you to take the one that is the most difficult and the most rebellious.
Because underneath it all, she has the most to offer. Lord Jesus, I want to offer you Ling.
Ling was about 14 at the time.
And she was furious. She was furious when her mother had got finished praying, she said, Mother, I heard that. What are you saying? Are you telling me that you are going to offer me up as a sacrifice to your God? And on and on she went.
Her mother said, knowling no.
But you have turned your back on the only one who can give you joy and peace. And if you would only follow Him and accept Him as your Savior and I believe the Lord could use you.
You know, that went right home. And it wasn't too long after that. I can't remember the time frame where Ling is. A young woman knelt down with her mother with the tears running down her face and accepted Christ as her Savior. And you know, from that point on, there was no turning back. Yes, she ended up in all kinds of trouble. She was taken by the authorities, ended up in all kinds of difficulties, spent years in prison.
Alka, I won't bother you with the details.
The point is, she was willing to pay the price of tribulation. Oh, but you say I don't live in a country like that. I live in the United States. I live in Canada or somewhere like that.
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You know, it's very interesting.
That when Ling started to become active for the Lord.
Sad to say, sad to say, and I hesitate to repeat this, but it's true. Those who at least once or twice and maybe several times she wasn't sure, turned her into the authorities.
For those who took the place of being Christians, those who were envious of the Lord's blessing on her work for Him, and who were envious of her bright testimony.
And they wanted to use a common expression to take her down a peg or two. Be prepared for that. I suggest that sometimes the tribulation in these favored lands comes from within. But there is tribulation. And in Second Timothy chapter 3, it tells us, yeah, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And the connotation of those words in Timothy.
Has to do, I suggest, with persecution, not always from the outside world.
But from within the great House that is spoken of in the second chapter.
Tribulation. Are we willing to pay the price? If you are willing.
Or as someone else has said, if you are willing to be made willing, the Lord I believe. I don't say we should go and look for tribulation. I don't say we should ask for it. That's not the thought.
But let's remember that that is the pathway that the believer needs to face. And that is one of the very areas I suggest, and I'm not pointing the finger except here, but it's one of the areas where there was failure that eventually was the downfall of the church's testimony was being unwilling and unhappy to face the tribulation. The devil said compromise a little and I'll give you an easier path. You don't need to do that.
After all, you don't need to mean what you say. Just say what they want and then go and do what you want anyway. You don't have to.
Be so difficult to live with, just go along a little bit. After all, the Lord understands, no?
Children of light, children of darkness, things are black and white. Let's go on.
In the Kingdom, the Kingdom. Why does it mention the Kingdom here?
We had a little bit about the Kingdom this morning because it was mentioned in our chapter in Ephesians 5, and it spoke there of some things which, if we carry on with them, prevent our having any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God. And it was well brought out that there it's not so much a question of eternal salvation, but a question of what is characteristic of God's Kingdom as opposed to Satan's Kingdom.
Why does John bring that in here?
Why does it say, and you don't need to turn to it, but it's in Acts chapter 20 where the apostle Paul and it's significant that he's talking to the Ephesian elders, the same people.
To whom the book of Ephesians was written, That is that assembly, he says. I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching the.
Kingdom of God will see my face no more. Why the emphasis on the Kingdom of God?
Why do people who are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ?
Why do people who are already risen and seated in heavenly places in Christ?
Why do people who are part of the bride of Christ, the fullness of him that filleth All in all?
Have to be told.
As it tells us in Ephesians, not to tell lies to each other, really not to steal, not to get angry and lose their temper with one another. Why do they have to be told not to engage in serious immoral conduct? Why do they have to be told not to engage in filthy talking? Why do they have to be told to treat their wives and their husbands in a proper way?
Aren't we beyond that? Aren't we beyond all that? When we get into Ephesians, haven't we put all that behind us?
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You know the answer, don't you?
You and I know the answer.
That within my heart and yours, there is an old sinful self that is capable of doing anything that it did before I was saved.
And if I don't walk with the Lord, it will do it and do it and do it again. And the trouble is that we get to thinking we're beyond it.
And then the devil gets a wedge in there. And that's why the Kingdom of God is so necessary, because the Kingdom of God.
Is a moral state which is characteristic of God Himself and which God expects to see in His Kingdom. Now there isn't a visible Kingdom today, is there? The Lord Jesus as the rightful King was rejected, and so the Kingdom today is a Kingdom in mystery.
But if you and I by grace acknowledge the rightful king, God says there is a moral character.
That is in keeping with that.
I hope this isn't a sweeping statement, but allow me to make it.
In an observation and experience, both in my own life and in the lives of others, I have seen many dear believers who were exposed to much precious truth from the Word of God. And I have seen dear believers who were exposed to much of that which we could talk about in terms of Ephesian truth, the precious truth of the one body, the precious truth of the Lord's coming for us at any moment, the precious truth of gathering.
To the name of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. And on and on we could go with those precious truths.
And I'm not speaking only of those who have been exposed to all that, but many other precious truths in the Word of God.
And it is true that I can lose my desire to walk in the good of all that. And that's why Paul says, I suggest in Ephesians chapter three, he says, please don't faint at my tribulations for you. That is, he wants them to enter in and walk in what he's been bringing before them.
But again, many times in my own observation and experience, and again in my own life and in the lives of others, the beginnings of declension have been because I have not paid attention to those things that become the Kingdom of God.
That's why Paul preached it so strenuously. That's why he says over and over again.
The Kingdom of God. This is not characteristic of the Kingdom of God. No, you can't do this. And so on.
Just driving down here in the car, my wife and I were talking about a dear brother that both of us knew many years ago. Very, very dear brother. I remember him well. Lovely wife, lovely family and we enjoyed that brother. I well remember being in his home years ago. I remember his being in our home with his family. And to all outward appearances, he is a very, he was a very godly brother. Where is he today?
Oh, his marriage broke up and all kinds of problems came in and he was the one that was at fault. What happened?
He didn't pay attention to the Kingdom of God. He didn't pay attention to his own heart.
He allowed what we had before us this morning to creep in. Something got a wedge in there and he didn't deal with it and it got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
Until it ruined his life, ruined his testimony, ruined his family. I'm not saying it'll come to that. But you know, you and I are surrounded by all kinds of temptations. And the devil makes it so easy, whether in magazines or on the Internet or on the television or in talk with people with whom we work, with whom we go to school, to become so well. It talks about it in First Timothy, about having a seared conscience.
We get immune to so many things that we hear that eventually we don't react against them the way we should, and pretty soon little things creep into our lives until we find problems in families, problems between husbands and wives, problems in workplaces, problems with simple down to earth moral things that ought to be, if we could use it, something that the believer doesn't even have to think about it. It says in our chapter, not even named among you.
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And yet they're being named.
John says I'm your brother and companion in the Kingdom.
Of what?
Of Jesus Christ. I like it the way Mr. Darby puts it.
In Jesus? Why are these three things in Jesus?
Oh, Lord is a title and Christ is a title. Lord brings before us his lordship, and that is necessary that we recognize the lordship of Christ. Christ is simply the Greek for the Hebrew word Messiah, and it means the sent one. And it's his title as the one who came to fulfill those prophecies and to take his place as the rightful king.
But Jesus is the name that he took coming into this world.
As the one who came to say, and Jesus is his personal name. Why is that brought in here sometime? If you have an opportunity, may I suggest that you go through the New Testament and you might have to take a Darby translation to help you out. And notice the few times, and it isn't all that many, where something is connected simply with Jesus but leaving his titles out.
Another one, for example, is in that same book of Ephesians that we're talking about. It's in chapter 4.
Where it talks about the truth as it is in Jesus.
Why is that brought in here? Why his name without any titles?
I suggest a thought, and it's not the only thought, but I suggest a thought when it says tribulation.
Lennon says tribulation in Jesus.
It brings before me that Blessed One in what He is essentially in His person and in His love to you and to me. It brings in a personal relationship.
The Kingdom. It doesn't say the Kingdom of God, although it is that it says the Kingdom Inn.
Jesus, it draws out my affections and what we need more than anything today, and I speak to my own heart, is to have my affections drawn out.
Because, as we said earlier, we are living right at the end of God's dispensation of grace.
And there is not much time left and I ask myself as I ask you each one, what am I doing with what the Lord has given me in North America? Here we have much. And at sometimes I can say it very openly. It proves to be a bit of an embarrassment sometimes, especially for some of us that visit foreign countries. And when people say do you have this, do you have that, do you do this, do you do that?
I don't believe on the one hand that we need to be defensive and apologetic about what the Lord has given us.
I liked what our brother mentioned this morning. I thought it was very, very good about how the scripture never talks about my going after things. He talks about our receiving them from God.
And I can well remember sitting in our home, and I was only a boy, if I suppose, in grade school, and brother Clifford Brown, formerly of Des Moines, afterwards of Burbank, CA.
Was sitting at our table. He traveled, of course, in the work of the Lord, and quite a few here will remember him. And I remember my mother saying to him, what does that verse mean in First Timothy 6 where it talks about?
God who giveth us all things richly to enjoy.
Clifford Brown looked down at his plate. My mother was a farm cook and I thought she was a pretty good cook, still do. And he looked at his plate and he said, I think this is what he meant. I think this is one thing he meant. And he dug in.
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That was good. I think he was right. And if the Lord has given you and me much in this world, I can be thankful for it. If He's given us good food, let's be thankful for it. If He's given us the means to come to meetings like this, let's be thankful for it. If He's given us the opportunity to have more than perhaps some parts of the world, we can be thankful for it. The question is, what are we doing with it?
What are we doing with it itself, at the bottom of it, or Christ?
Am I just enjoying it so that I can have it? And that is where it's at. And if I may pardon me, speaking directly to some young people here, and perhaps all of them, because I know you want to please the Lord and you're not growing up in a very easy world. Because when you go out there, I know dear young people that find that they've gotten a job, perhaps in a big city. And then when they get settled into that big city and go out to buy themselves a home, they suddenly find that the homes that you could have bought.
30 or 40 years ago for reasonable money, now have run up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now what are we going to do? How are we going to afford this home? And then pretty soon there are all kinds of arrangements being made. And I'm not pointing the finger because I don't have the answer for all of us. The Lord will give you the answer as to what you should do. The whole point is, I have to say to myself, how is all this going to stack up?
When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ, what am I doing with what the Lord has given me? Or am I willing to say, like the Apostle Paul could say in Philippians, that Christ may be magnified in my body?
Whether by life or by death.
If you want to, God will show you the way. But remember that verse that says if any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine? It doesn't say if any man will know his will. I know I've said this before, so pardon me if you've heard it before, but sometimes you ask a close friend for a favor.
And if it's a good close friend and you say, will you do me a favor?
There sometimes will be the response, sure, whatever. Tell me what it is, because that friend is willing to go just about to any length.
To do you the favor.
But other people you might go and say, will you do me a favor? And maybe a slight glimpse of a guarded look passes over their face.
What is it? What is it?
And implicit in that answer is, when I know what it is, I'll make my decision. Is that right? Have you all experienced that? I'm sure you have.
You know the Lord.
He loves each one of us.
And the Lord is glad to accept whatever we are willing to offer. What the Lord is looking for from you and me is a response that says Lord.
What is it? I'll do it.
Yes, Lord, just tell me what it is and with your help I'll do it. He doesn't want that guarded response that says, Lord, tell me what you want me to do and then I'll I'll think about it for a bit and I'll decide whether I can pay the price or not. I'm not going to find out the will of God if I'm going to do that. No, He wants total commitment.
And finally, here our time is nearly gone, it says.
Patience in Jesus. That word could also be translated endurance.
Endurance.
You know, you can read stories and sometimes you read them if you read the Reader's Digest, which I don't, unless I happen to sit in somebody's office waiting for them. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, but I don't see it very often. But once in a while you'll read a real life story and sometimes it will be a situation where somebody had incredible endurance.
In a terrible difficulty and finally made it through.
And there are stories down through the ages of people who have exemplified endurance.
God is looking for endurance in the believer and what we are finding today, and I admit that there is the tendency in my heart just as much as yours, is to say I am at the end of my rope.
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I don't think my wife would mind my saying this that occasionally when we've been doing something and working hard.
One of us will say to the other one, I'm about at the end of my rope or I'm at the end of my rope and that's the signal for the other one to back off from making too many demands at that point because the rope isn't gonna get any longer and a little rest is needed. A little rest plate or something like that. That's good. We understand that. And you know, sometimes though, we as believers do, we find that our rope is a little on the short side.
Do we find that we get to the end of our rope, that the devil just keeps on bringing trial after trial after trial? And maybe it doesn't seem all that bad when you look at it in the broad picture, but it just seems one thing after another. That's what he likes to do. Sometimes he comes down with some major blow calculated to smash you and me, and he does that perhaps in countries where there is open persecution.
I read another story not too long ago about a family where that happened to them and it was.
Just about enough to turn the poor woman's mind when she had to see.
Those who did not want Christianity come into her village, savagely break up her whole family, watch her children flee in all directions in order to get away, and find out later that her son, who was about 10 years old, had been brutally killed with a machete.
And thinking about that, thinking about that poor boy and what it must have been like in his last few minutes of life.
To face those wicked men and have that happen to him.
But she endured. She endured. You and I may not be called upon to face that, but the devil knows how to bring one thing after another into your life and mine. Maybe it's a personal problem.
Maybe it's a problem in the family, Maybe it's a problem in your local assembly.
Maybe it's a bigger problem that affects more than one assembly. It doesn't matter. But. And you say, Oh no, not again.
I talked to a dear brother a few years ago.
He and I knew each other very, very well when we were younger. We went to college together, shared the Word of God together. Together. We're gathered to the Lord's name together.
And don't think for anyone here that is listening to this that I am throwing any stones at believers who are connected with so-called denominations know. But he is connected with a denomination and I know he is not happy there. I know that in his heart he wishes it were otherwise. I said to him what happened? What happened?
Now we parted company as far as coming quote to to meeting well over 30 years ago.
But now I said what happened?
All he said, just so many problems, so many difficulties. He said my wife couldn't take it anymore. She said I can't take it anymore. I can't go through anymore like this.
Could I identify with them? Indeed I could. Can you identify with them? I'm sure you can.
Endurance, Endurance.
But what if I get to the end of my rope?
Oh, isn't it wonderful?
He gave us more grace when the burdens get heavy and so on. You know the words of that hymn.
And it ends up in the chorus by saying, for out of his infinite riches in Jesus.
Give us and give us and give us again.
I will tell you, and pardon the personal reference.
There have been a number of times when I have been on my knees and said, Lord, I'm at the end of my rope.
The Lord graciously has said yes, I know you are.
Now I want you to take a piece of my rope. I know your rope comes to an end, but I'm gonna give you a piece of mind.
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And I'll keep giving it to you as long as you need it until you get home. I have to keep going back because sometimes I get to the end again and I say, Lord, I'm coming to the end of that rope again. I can't do it anymore. The Lord says, yes, I'll give it to you again.
Somebody mentioned this morning that phrase an abundant entrance.
I say to each one of us here into my own heart, that's not just nice phraseology, it's reality. Every one of us here can have an abundant entrance.
And so the end of this verse says, why was John experiencing tribulation?
In the Kingdom and the endurance in Jesus for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus, the testimony of Jesus, that name is not liked, not wanted anymore in this world than it ever was.
But it's a blessed thing to bear His name, and He'll give us everything that is needed. Let's pray.
Loving God our Father.
Surely it humbles us as we consider these things in Thy presence.
And we freely own before thee.
How little we walk in the good of it all, and how easy it is.
For all of this to become.
Good sounding words at a conference like this.
With a lack of reality.
In our life.
We pray our God for thy help, pray that thou will give us to walk in the good of all this, that we may be willing to be a brother and companion in the tribulation and Kingdom and patience in Jesus until we are called home. For we ask it. Lord Jesus, for thy sake and in thy name, Amen.