Address—Bill Prost
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Over 330.
I realized I was looking at that clock from the side, so we'll for bear starting the hymn for a minute until everyone gets in here. 330 What raised the wondrous thought? Or who did it suggest that we the church to glory brought should with the sun be blessed?
I've always been interested in people that wrote hymns.
This one, if you look in the back of the book you will see, was written by Brother Wigram George V Wigram.
Well known brother who lived back in the 19th century and I'll tell you a story about.
Mr. Wigram, that has always touched my heart. There's a very earnest young man when he was first saved and 1St getting into the good of the things of the Lord and.
Later on in his life, when he was, I suppose, in his 70s, and he made a remark that really went to my heart, he said, you know, back in those days.
We had to pray out the truth of God on our knees.
He said now you can buy it up cheaply and read it in a book.
Hmm, we're glad for those books, aren't we? Some of which he wrote. But he felt the impact of the truth on his soul because he had to pray it out along with others on his knees.
I say to my own heart, and I say to each one of us here this afternoon, May God give us the grace not only to read this precious book, not only to avail ourselves of the good written ministry that the Lord has provided for us, but also to pray out that precious truth on our knees #330.
Well, I'd like to start by reading 3 verses together.
And maybe you can guess what I have before me from reading those verses.
First one is in the book of Proverbs chapter 29.
Proverbs, chapter 29.
And verse 18.
Proverbs 29 and verse 18.
Where there is no vision, the people perish. Or, as the JND translation reads, where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint.
But he that keepeth the law, happy as he.
And then over to the Book of Lamentations, chapter 2.
Lamentations, chapter 2.
And verse 9.
Referring to Jerusalem.
Prophet Jeremiah lamenting over the city of Jerusalem.
Lamentations 2 and 9. Her gates are sunk into the ground. He hath destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her Princess are among the Gentiles. And then here's the part that I wanted to emphasize. The law is no more. Her prophets also find.
No vision from the Lord.
In one final verse in second Peter chapter one.
Second Peter, chapter one.
Verse eight, second Peter chapter one and verse 8. For if these things referring to everything that Peter has talked about in the first 7 verses. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you, that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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But he that lacketh these things is blind.
And cannot see a far off and have forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
What do I have on my heart to talk about?
Vision.
Vision This is to be a meeting for young people.
And you know, I don't mind admitting to you when they ask someone at my age to speak to young people, I tremble because I've got children, they're middle-aged now and I have grandchildren. And sometimes the gap between the world that I grew up in and the world in which they are growing up seems just to get wider and wider and wider.
And sometimes I don't understand some of the things that they are dealing with.
Sometimes they get a bit of a laugh and I don't mind it about some of the things that I talk about and the way I relate to things. That so-called generation gap has always been there.
But as we had this morning, this precious book does not change. And we want to talk a bit about vision in the sense that Scripture speaks about it, and I want to speak in a way that even younger children here can relate to it.
There are some here that are doubtless real true believers in the Lord Jesus who aren't teenagers yet, and I hope there are many of you. And I hope that some of the things about which we talk today you can relate to.
What does it mean to have a vision in the sense in which we have it here in Scripture? I believe it means to be able to see above and beyond what you can actually see with your eyes that is going on around you.
No. Of course, a vision in Scripture can sometimes be some special thing that the Lord gives individuals. For example, the apostle Paul, I believe, had seven distinct visions during his lifetime which are recorded in the Word of God. Direct visions from the Lord communicating to him. Others had dreams and visions in the past.
But what I want to talk about is.
A vision of things from God's perspective that rises above.
What you and I can see all around us.
Because the tendency in our world today is to be governed.
By the world around us.
Can we have a vision that relates only to this world? Yes, Men have had that many times.
As I was contemplating this meeting, I thought of an illustration. And since we are here in the United States of America, it works. One of the founding fathers, and you all know this better than I do as a Canadian, but one of the founding fathers of the United States was a man named Thomas Jefferson. And I had the privilege of visiting his home a couple of times there in Virginia and hearing a little bit about him and reading a little bit about him and.
When America was being formed as a country, as you well know, there were only 13 colonies on the eastern seaboard of the country and Jefferson had a vision by the time he became the 3rd President of the United States, of a country that would stretch from sea to sea.
And other people told him it won't work. It's crazy, it can't be done. It's too big of a country to administer.
To try and govern, to try and travel across.
You have to remember that in the days when Jefferson lived, I suppose, he'd never seen anything that went any faster than a horse. He never saw a train, never saw a plane, that's for sure. And here he was having a vision of a country thousands of miles wide.
He said it'll work, it'll work.
And he sent out Lewis and Clark to.
Look over the country to map it out to see what it was made of. He had a vision.
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Sad to say though, and I don't wish to spend a lot of time on it, but there's a it's very, very real doubt.
That he ever knew the Lord. He took the Bible and chopped everything out of it that he didn't like, made the so-called Jefferson Bible. What a way to dare to do chop things out of the word of God. Oh, he believed in a God, no question about that. But he didn't believe in the Christ of the Bible. But what we want to talk to you about this afternoon is a vision that takes you above this present world.
Because you are not living in a very easy world today.
It's a very different world from the one in which I grew up, and the stability of things that you were perhaps thinking and many others were thinking too, would go on indefinitely, suddenly isn't there anymore. And the Lord is beginning to show us, I believe, where things are headed and giving this world perhaps a little, and I emphasize the word little, a very little taste of how things are going to come.
Right apart during the Tribulation period.
But God never allows things to come upon man without giving him what you and I would call.
Fair warning. And God is giving everyone fair warning today. But you and I are feeling the effects of it too. And I know some of you young people have found that your careers have been at least interrupted, if not totally messed up. And maybe plans that you have made for things like a career and marriage have suddenly been sidetracked. Even younger children. I don't know.
Suppose it happened here in the US to some extent, certainly happened up where I live in Canada, where children were suddenly compelled to do all their work at home.
Had to get out their computer and do it all online homeschooling, they weren't allowed to attend classes and so on. Some thought that was great fun, others it really caused huge problems. And those, and I know there are not many perhaps here in that category, but there were those in what we might call the lower socioeconomic classes that had a terrible time with that because they didn't have a home environment that promoted good study habits.
And it messed their lives up something awful.
And maybe some of the plans that you otherwise had made suddenly don't seem to be happening anymore. It's terribly difficult in the least where I live in Canada for young people even to own a home. When I was growing up, you could go and work in an industrial plant, you could own a home, you could raise a family, you could drive a car. You could have a reasonably normal life without much education.
Now, even if you get the education, sometimes you don't know where you're going.
It is a difficult world.
God wants you and me to have a vision.
And I want to talk about three things this afternoon that I trust will give us a bit of a vision and then I want about want to talk about two conditions that are necessary for it.
The first vision I want to talk about and the most important one.
Is a vision of coming glory, and to see that, let's turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 4.
We could turn to many different scriptures, but these will.
Do for our purposes Second Corinthians 4.
Verse three. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. And I'm going to read this as it is again in the Darby translation, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine under them.
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord.
And ourselves, your servants, for Jesus sake. And here's the verse. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
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Verse 16.
For which 'cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.
For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Paul had that vision, a vision of coming glory, and it animated his whole life. Do you and I have that vision?
Remember while reading in some of our written ministry a.
About how a young brother approached an older brother about a serious problem, and I believe it happened to be a difficulty among the Saints of God, a difficulty that threatened to cause serious problems among the assemblies at that time and in that place. And the younger brother said to the older brother, whatever is going to become of us?
And maybe there are some young people out there today.
Maybe some in this room who were saying in a measured manner of things, maybe not to do with assembly problems, but the principle is the same whether it is an individual problem in your life or in my life or a collective 1, whatever is going to become of us. And the older brother's answer was priceless. Oh, he said.
Scripture knows no future for the believer but glory. Oh, I love that. No future for the believer but glory. Why did you say that? Because the only future you and I are promised down here is what the Lord gives us in John's Gospel chapter 16 in the world.
Ye shall have tribulation.
And you and I in North America have largely been shielded from that.
And I'm thankful for it. I'm thankful for it. The Word of God can be freely read, It can go forth very freely. Books can be printed, ministry can be done, and all kinds of travel can be arranged, and so on.
I read once on the Internet, it said what is the country?
But if you have that citizenship, you can visit more countries in the world than any other one. What citizenship enables you to visit more countries in the world than any other one?
You can probably guess right here, the United States of America.
I value that, and I value that as a Canadian I can do almost as well.
But.
We can't expect it to be guaranteed.
Sometimes telling a story.
Relates to this a little bit and I want to tell you 2 quick stories to emphasize the .1 of them, to emphasize it to younger children here and one of them perhaps to emphasize it to those that are a wee bit older.
A vision of coming glory. What does it consist of? Does it consist necessarily of understanding everything we talked about this morning? Oh, it's wonderful for that to have a grip on your soul and mine.
Back about 500 years ago in France, just as the Reformation was beginning to break the truth of the Gospel out to Europe, there was a little girl by the name of Arlette, and she was 10 years old, and she lived with her mother. And her father was one of those who had grasped the truth of the Gospel and who realized that all along they had been given a doctrine of.
Justification by works by the Roman Catholic Church. And he was so enamored with that gospel that her father went out everywhere with other men of his age bracket. And they did their best to spread that gospel, but at the risk of their lives.
Well, as time went on, Arlette's mother got sick and went to be with the Lord, and that compelled little Arlette to have to travel with her father and those other men.
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And they went from place to place. Sometimes they met up with people that were sympathetic to them and they could stay with them. Sometimes they found abandoned cabins in the woods where they put up, and so on.
But to make a Long story short, eventually they got caught. The authorities caught up with them, took those men to to prison and eventually before a judge. And they were compelled to come before that judge and to witnesses to what they had been preaching. And when they faithfully witnessed to it, they were condemned to be what was called.
Burned at the stake. That meant they were had wood piled up all around them and then they were tied to those stakes and the wood was lit and they perished in those flames.
And that's what happened to those men. I suppose there were about four or five of them, including our Let's Father.
And there was little Arlette.
Who was spared because she was a child?
Standing there looking on, Can you imagine, can you children imagine, what it would be like to see that happen to your parents?
It happened many times.
The little Arlette had realized in her soul as a little girl what it meant for martyrdom. She had been warned by her father what could happen, and suddenly it got home to her soul. This is really happening. This is real.
I don't know whether I can tell you what happened without choking up, but this is not a made-up story. This is true.
Little Arlette was standing there beside some other people who were holding her. All of a sudden she broke loose and before anyone could stop her.
She ran into the flames.
Stood beside her father.
And suffered martyrdom along with them.
Vision. Vision of coming glory.
Did she know what you and I discussed this morning in the meeting? No, she didn't. She didn't know that. But.
She had a vision beyond everything around her and all the things of this world meant nothing to her. She was going to be with Christ.
Another story of an older man that I've told before in the same country of France back about the same time.
And how?
He perished right in front of the well known Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. I remember visiting it once and standing outside in the courtyard and closing my eyes and trying to imagine being there 500 years before when a French nobleman by the name of Louis Berkwyn rode to his death in the same way.
In his best robes on horseback.
And gave up his life for Christ with all boldness rode in his finest robes.
People couldn't understand it, this young man throwing his life away.
Was it thrown away? Oh no, it wasn't thrown away. Not one little bit.
He went boldly to his death, but in the audience there, there was a 15 year old boy who was there only out of curiosity. He was just, well, something for excitement, and he didn't pay too much attention to things like that. People got hardened to it after a while.
But as he stood there and watched that man ride down the street of Paris and then boldly take his place and perish in the flames.
He went home with his cheeks flaming. He went home with his whole mind turned upside down. He said that man's got something. That man's got something, and I want it. I want it, and I'm going to find out what he got.
Maybe you've heard me tell that story before. The boy was John Calvin.
And it resulted in his searching, searching and coming to Christ, and as it were, picking up the torch where Louis Berquin laid it down.
A vision of coming glory.
You know the things which are seen are temporal.
I valued the privilege of getting married. I valued the privilege of having a home of my own. I valued the privilege, and I don't deny it, of having a good career.
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And I wish it for everyone of you here, those things that are, I hope they're available to everyone of you. But as we had this morning, are those things an end in themselves, or are they a means to an end? You and I have an unusual and unique experience of living right on the cusp, as it were, of the Lord's coming for us.
But he wants us to have that vision of coming glory, to see over and above everything that is going on in this poor world, over and above the COVID problem, over and above the war in the Ukraine, over and above all the things that are coming in. And there will probably be more if the Lord doesn't come.
A vision of coming glory.
But we want to look at something else. Our time is going.
If we are going to have a vision of coming glory, there's another vision we need to have, and to see that, let's turn to Galatians 6.
Galatians, chapter 6.
And verse 14.
But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me.
And I unto the world.
You know, there's a verse in Ecclesiastes, we won't turn to it, that says.
Say not thou, what is the cause that the former days were better than these? For thou dost not consider wisely or inquire wisely concerning this matter. You know, when people get to my age, they often start reminiscing a little bit and talking about the so-called good old days, because we often remember the good things and forget about the bad things.
And so we talk about those good old days.
Well, that was very true in some ways and there were some very good things that happened in former years. But Ecclesiastes and Solomon wrote, it warns us not to inquire that way. And I remember well a brother making a remark in a reading meeting that I really enjoyed. He said, if you are going to look ahead, look all the way to the glory.
But if you're going to look back, look all the way to Calvary's cross.
Do we have a vision of Calvary's cross? In one sense, we say, how can that be a vision because it's history. Yes, it is. But it is possible in the world of today to forget about what Calvary's cross means. Yes, we admit, and I hope there is no disagreement on this in this room.
That it represents the time when our blessed Savior suffered for us, the just for the just, for the unjust.
To bring us to God.
Precious truth. And if there is anyone in this room today that is not saved, oh, there's only one way to be saved, to come to Christ.
But here in Galatians 6 and 14, we have another angle to that scene, there at the cross, because that cross of Christ means more than simply my salvation.
It separates me from this world and you know, we like to forget about that aspect of things and every aspect of Satan's work all down through the ages.
Ultimately has been to do different things. Yes, he has tried, as we had before us this morning, to bring things in that took away the glory of Christ, either from his person or from his work. But one other thing Satan has tried to do, and sad to say, he's been very successful, is to bring Christianity down to the level of a world.
Worldly religion.
And if Christ is not before me, and if I don't know and realize and enjoy the heavenly calling of the Church, I have, humanly speaking, lost everything.
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And that's why Paul is so careful to warn these dear Galatians believers. Why was he so concerned about them? Because they were trying to bring in the rule of law as a way of life. They were admitting that you needed to be saved by faith. They were admitting that you needed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
But they said you've got to have a rule.
You've got to have a rule by which to live the Christian life.
We had that before us this morning. We don't live by rules and regulations. Why not? Because that exalts man at the expense of Christ.
Let's go all the way to Calvary's cross and when you and I view the world around us.
The best antidote to worldliness is a fresh view of Calvary's cross.
Now don't get me wrong.
We need to live and move in this world. We need to earn a living, we need to interact with the world and separating from the world in a total way, the way they did right in the early part of the Church's history. By the 4th century AD, they were separating themselves into monasteries and convents and hermits were going way off into the back of the beyond and living all by themselves in little huts and.
Some of them were even building platforms on tops of poles and sitting on top of those poles in every kind of weather, and people going and passing food up to them that they hauled up with a string, and so on. And it did exactly what we had in our chapter this morning. Not in any honor. Why? Because it was to the satisfying of the flesh.
All the pride there of man was sticking right out.
The devil knows what he's doing when he brings Christianity down to the level of this world. And one of our good writers from the 1800s said I fear worldliness among believers more than I fear bad doctrine. Not that bad doctrine isn't serious, it's very serious, but it can be more easily identified and dealt with with the word of God.
But worldliness is insidious. Worldliness creeps in because we have to live and move in this world.
And it's very easy to adopt the ways of this world.
And I say to you, as I say to my own heart, the world is making a tremendous bid for you and me today. And sometimes it's very tempting to come down to this world's level in order to make things go properly. Oh, it makes life much easier. And the devil dissuades us by saying, well, just come down to the level of the world a bit and don't be quite so.
Particular about things and so on. You can reach a lot more people with the gospel and you'll get along a lot better in this world.
It's true, it's true. I remember well hearing a story, this happened quite a few years ago now, about a young girl who was in her teens and an older brother who was full time in the work of the Lord. I won't name him, but I knew him well. He was visiting in their home and he was talking about the world and how that it did not like either Christ or Christians.
And this girl ventured to speak up and she said, well, you know, I go to high school and when I.
I have friends there and she said they don't, they don't treat me badly. They treat me pretty, pretty nicely. They don't really give me a hard time or anything. Well, the older brother was wise enough to say you tried talking to them about your blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. You try talking to them about their need of a savior. Try telling them that they are sinners before God.
As you once were and that they need a savior. Try telling them that your hopes are heavenly and not earthly and see how they react.
The same brother had occasion to be back in that same home, I guess about a year later and he asked her. He said, well, did you try it out? What I told you last time I was here, did you try it out?
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Yes, she said. And you were right. You were right. You were right.
It's very true. The world does not want either Christ or the Christian who is faithful.
So we need to have a vision of coming glory and a vision of Calvary's cross.
There's one other thing that I believe the Lord would give us today, and to see that, let's turn to Second Peter, chapter one.
We've already been in that chapter, but there's another verse I'd like to read.
Second Peter, chapter one.
Verse 19.
Second, Peter one and 19 We also have a more sure word of prophecy, or perhaps more accurately, we also have the word of prophecy made more sure. And then referring to that word of prophecy, it says, Where unto ye do well that ye take heed.
As unto a light that shineth in a dark place.
Until the day dawn and the Day Star or Morning Star arise in your hearts.
What is Peter saying? Oh, he's saying that one of the lights in a dark place.
Excuse me, is the prophecy of the word of God.
You and I can look around us and see the condition of things in this world and it looks very serious. And men of this world are already beginning to find the truth of that verse in Luke's gospel chapter 21, where it talks about men being perplexed and how their hearts are failing them for fear.
Seeing the rolling waves and so on.
Let's read that verse. It's in Luke chapter 21 and I'm not quoting it accurately.
Luke's Gospel chapter 21 Now this is referring to a future day, but it's beginning to happen now.
Luke 21 and verse 25.
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, that I believe would concern those in government and upon the earth. Distress of nations with perplexity. The sea and the waves roaring. Men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.
Many are having their hearts failed for fear today. They don't know what's coming. Where's it going to end?
First of all, it was COVID and then when things seemed just about to be settling down a little. Now there's the war in the Ukraine. Many are saying, are we in for a nuclear war? Are we in for a total World War 3?
Prophecy, a light that shineth in a dark place. And I confess to you that I am not the student of prophecy, that some are. But what a wonderful thing it is to get into the Word of God and to realize that God has told us ahead of time everything that's going to happen.
So that you and I can look out on the world today and we can say, Oh yes, Oh yes, God is setting the stage for events that are going to happen and when we are called home.
But what we had this morning is crucial because if we don't understand the mystery of God, then prophecy doesn't make sense to us. And I say this very, very kindly, but how many dear believers I have talked to who have talked about prophecy? And I say it again.
Kindly, they have been so mixed up. Why? Because they don't see the mystery of God.
They don't see the heavenly calling of the Church. They don't see that the clock of prophecy was stopped for the Church period, and God is going to start it again when you and I are called home. Why is that? Because the Church is not the subject of prophecy. Prophecy concerns the earth.
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But it also concerns the honor and glory of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. But because prophecy concerns the earth, it isn't about you and me. We're a heavenly people.
It's almost ludicrous sometimes, the way things go.
This was a man who was an unbeliever and a brother called it to my attention. He'd seen it on the Internet. And as probably many of you know, there have been those frequently all down through the ages who have tried to persuade people that the book of Daniel was written as history and not as prophecy because what Daniel writes, for example, in Chapter 11.
So portrayed what was going to be the history ahead.
Of the Medo Persian Empire and the Grecian Empire and the Roman Empire that they said he couldn't have written it as prophecy. It's so good that he had to have lived after the fact and written it as history. And this poor man was writing on the Internet and oh, Oh dear. It was almost worth a chuckle. Why? Because he said, oh, he said that Chapter 11 in Daniel, he said, I don't know what happened. He said everything he wrote up.
Verse 35 is bang on, he said. It's just so accurate. The history is written so, so precisely. But then when he gets to verse 36, he just lost it somehow. And everything after verse 36 is just gibberish. It doesn't make any sense at all. You can't work into anything that ever happened that makes any sense.
I know I see Bruce with a Bruce with a bit of a grin on his face and a few others too. Why?
Well, between verse 35 and 36 is the church period and everything from verse 36 on his future. Of course the poor man couldn't make any sense out of it. Trying to relate it to history. It's all future.
The church is not the subject of prophecy, but to understand prophecy you have to understand Christ in the church. And when that is clear, then prophecy becomes an open book. Every detail, No, the details are subject to interpretation, but the broad principles of prophecy, the book of Daniel, the book of Isaiah, everything that's written in the minor prophets.
The Book of Revelation and so on. It all becomes an open book, and then suddenly you and I can be intelligent as to what's going on in this world.
A light that shineth in a dark place. Then we're not tempted to interpret what's going on in the world by things we see. We look at it through the eyes of the word of God. So I say to each one.
A vision of coming glory, a vision of Calvary's cross, and the enjoyment of prophecy. Very, very important for you and me today. And I would encourage you if you would like to look into prophecy, there is plenty available to help you read this precious book first and foremost. But there are plenty of those.
Who have gone before?
And I'm going to reiterate Bruce Conrad's remark from yesterday. If we know anything about prophecy and about this precious book, it's because we have stood, as it were, on the shoulders of giants that went before.
But sometimes those giants went a long way back. They went a long way back. Were there giants back in the days of the Reformation, considering what they knew? Indeed there were. Indeed there were.
Maybe I tell too many stories, but there's another one that has touched my heart and it again, this one occurred in Scotland and it impressed itself on my heart because my wife and I when we were visiting our brethren in England and had a very enjoyable time. We took a week and went up to Scotland on our 25th wedding anniversary and I managed to go to Saint Andrews in Scotland where a man by the name of George Wishart was burned at.
Back in the year 1546.
Faithful man.
In a comparatively young man, too, 33 years of age, a temporary of John Knox, whose name is much better known. And the prison is still there where they kept him, an awful prison shaped like a like a bottle with an opening at the top about 6 feet wide. And then it goes underground and widens out and they let you down by a rope into it. It's still there. You can see it.
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And then there's the place marked out on the street.
With a big circle on it and the stones are painted white with his initials on those stones. GW.
But talk about a giant. Did he know everything that you and I know back in those days? I'm sure he didn't, but this is a true story. The morning he was to be taken out and to be burned at the stake for Christ, the captain of the soldiers who was responsible for carrying out the sentence and had to obey orders or he would have been burnt too.
The captain was a Christian, he said. George.
Have you got any last request?
Quite a thing. What would you ask if you knew that you were going to be executed in a few hours? What would your last request be?
His was interesting.
He said, you know, you know your way around this town. He said to the captain, you know who the true Christians are. He said, if you can get them together, I'd like to break bread one last time.
Can you imagine?
It happened. The captain gathered them together.
And an eyewitness said it was the most moving experience. He said George Wishart got up and broke the bread.
He said to see a man standing there totally calm, totally in control of himself, totally at peace in his soul, giving thanks and celebrating the Lord's Supper, when he knew that a few hours down the road he was going to be with Christ, Oh, he said, that was an experience. He said it touched my whole life. Well, it might.
See a giant on whose back some of us have stood? Indeed we have.
Well, we have 10 more minutes for two last things.
Maybe, you say to me, and I wouldn't blame you.
OK, Bill, very easy for you to talk.
You're at the end of your life. You've had your career, you've had a marriage, you've owned a home.
And you've had things pretty good. And that is blessedly true. But where does that leave us young people? What about what I need right now?
I remember talking to a couple on the street in Toronto many years ago when I was handing out tracks in Toronto, ON and I was they stopped to talk and we were able to give them the gospel. The man said that I'm I'm in big trouble right now. He said. Eternity.
That's that's ahead. But he said I need some help right now. I'm in trouble right now financially and medically and a few other ways. I need some help right now.
Well, the story has a happy ending. I wasn't a rich man, but I had a few dollars in my pocket and I was able to help him out. And I have the joy of telling you that he and his wife both eventually did get saved. But the point he was making is I need help right now.
Turn to Philippians chapter 4.
Philippians, Chapter 4.
And that well known verse 6.
Be careful or anxious, it could read for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known unto God, and then down to the 19th verse. But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
And then back to Matthew's Gospel chapter 6.
Matthew chapter six. Well known verse that we scarcely need to turn to.
And verse 33.
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But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Does the Lord know you need food to eat? Yes, he does. Does He know you need clothes to put on? Yes he does.
Does He need, does He know you need a home to live in? Yes, He does and you know He does. I have to say from my experience, exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. Is He going to provide for you and me down here? Indeed He will. But there are priorities and you and I need those priorities.
Seek ye first the Kingdom of God.
And I say without any hesitation to each one here, and especially you, beloved young people, you're often on our hearts and we pray for you as we see the days getting darker and the difficulties getting more profound in this world. I say, Lord, give each one to look to thee and to do what we have here. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.
Is the Lord able to provide? Yes, He is. Can He give you something in a circumstance where perhaps there seems to be absolutely no way? He can indeed, and He delights to do it. And I have to say in my own experience that when I have trusted the Lord and honestly sought Him first and foremost.
He has been so generous with me that I have been ashamed to take the largeness of the blessing.
But there's a condition.
There's a condition and that's the last thing I want to mention.
This time to first Peter.
First, Peter.
Chapter One.
And this is an extremely important condition and very much needed in the world of today.
First Peter one.
And verse 15.
But as he which hath called you is holy.
So be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be holy, for I am holy.
Notice that it does not say be holy as I am holy.
No, there is only one who walked through this world in absolute perfection before God.
You and I still have the old sinful self, the flesh.
But because God is holy, he calls on you and me to be holy.
And it's getting harder and harder to do that in the world of today because as open sin becomes more common, there has never yet been a sin that was rampant in the world that didn't creep in amongst the Church of God. And I tremble, as I say, as I see the condition of this world.
I went to university in the 1960s.
And I still remember the shock and disbelief as we saw very suddenly and relatively quickly, the moral principles and the moral practices that had governed the world, at least in North America up until that point, cast aside.
And then, in a manner of speaking, we thought we were in the basement or in the cellar maybe is a better word. A basement speaks of something a little more refined. But we thought we were in the cellar.
But then later on, when, as time went on, it seems as if the concrete floor of the cellar gave way to reveal a yawning pit of such dimensions that we haven't yet seen the bottom of it. And some of us never thought we'd see the day when we found enshrined in law the awfulness of immorality.
That is so contrary to the word of God, and it invades the profession of Christianity.
You and I cannot expect to have a vision of coming glory, or of Calvary's cross, or of prophecy, nor can we expect the Lord's blessing in our lives if we are deliberately allowing sin in our lives that has not been judged.
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Is it easy to fall into sin? I know it only too well.
I was talking to one of my neighbors the other day. His wife had been sick.
And I've known him, he walks his dogs around our survey and I sometimes meet up with them. Very caring man, very nice individual. But I knew his wife had been sick so I went down just to call on him. I don't mind mentioning this. It's well known fact that a brother up home in Rio Ferry makes Maple syrup mostly to give away, and he supplies as much as we want in little pipe jars to give away with the gospel tract his own.
Said he has written up attached to it. So I went down and had a chat with his beloved man whom I know fairly well.
But he didn't want to hear the gospel. He didn't want to hear about Christ. He didn't want to hear about how things were in this world and how bad they were getting.
He didn't want to hear any of it. I said, well, you have to remember that the word of God says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Oh, he said, I haven't done anything that bad. And he went on to tell me about his life and how he'd been a good union steward and tried to help people out and so on.
Well, I said, you know, I haven't done anything, I suppose that bad in my life compared to what goes on in the world, having grown up in a Christian home. But I said, Sir, what bothers me the most and what ought to bother you is not the things that I've done, but the things that pass through my mind that I never carried out because they show what I am in nature.
And.
That that set him back on his pins, as we might say. He looked a little taken aback.
Yes, we have all had thoughts of things that maybe we never carried out, but if we would judge the thoughts that others can't see, then others would not have to judge the things that we do that they can see.
Well, our time is gone.
May the Lord bless His word to us.
I'd like to sing a verse or two of another hymn. I know our time is gone, but maybe we can spare a little bit of extra time. And I'd like to turn to number 77 in the appendix.
And part of the reason I turn to this is that here is another shoulder, shoulder on which we have stood.
This hymn was written by a woman by the name of Anna Ross Cousins. But she didn't. She was not the original of the hymn. The original hymn, well, I take that back. She wrote the original hymn, but it was based on the life of a man by the name of Samuel Rutherford.
Who lived back in the 1600s, went to be with the Lord about 1661 I believe. And if he hadn't died of natural causes that soon, they would have probably burned him too, because he was out and out for the Lord. He was a Scott and so.
This this hymn was written largely from an appreciation of his writings, and part of the reason I'd like to sing these last two verses is.
It exemplifies a little bit of what our brother Jonathan, the band, brought out this morning, and that is that the real power of Christian living is that verse in 2nd Corinthians 5. The love of Christ constraineth us. It's not enough merely to have an intellectual knowledge of things, an intellectual knowledge of coming glory or of the cross or of prophecy.
My heart has to be touched and there has to be a relationship with Christ.
77 in the appendix and will sing just the last two verses.