Address—G. Hayhoe
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General Meetings, Montreal, October 1975.
Addressed by Gordon Hayhoe.
Thine Jesus, thine no more. This heart of mine shall seek its joy apart from Thee. The world is crucified to me, and I am Thine. I trust this is true of each one of us here, and even those who do know the Lord is our Savior. I think we must sing this hymn as a prayer, and I trust it will be from our hearts.
Why Jesus died?
Ah.
Would you turn with me first of all to 1St Corinthians chapter 6?
First Corinthians chapter 6.
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And the 19th verse.
What? Know ye not, that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit.
Which are gods? Well, they're young people. This afternoon I'd like to speak about this subject. You are not your own. You are bought with a price. And I'd like to speak of how we can acknowledge the Lord's rights and claims over us. And particularly, I had three things before me how we should let him speak to us, and how we can speak to him, and how we can speak to to others about him.
And so in this verse we have first of all the recognition of his rights.
And of His claim over us. I trust that each one of us here know the Lord Jesus as our Savior. If you do, you belong to Him, You have been bought, indeed with a great price. We can never fully estimate what it cost God to give His Son, nor can we fully estimate what the Lord Jesus went through upon that cross of Calvary in order to make us His very own. How great the cost.
And yet, how wonderful that he loved us enough and that he gave himself.
For us that we can say like the Apostle Paul, the son of God.
Who love me and gave himself for me. I heard of a young couple who had this verse hanging in their room, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, and a man came in to transact some business with them.
And while he wrote the room, he was sitting there just reading that text over and over again.
And when they came back, he said, I don't wonder you're happy if you really believe that. And dear young people, we really do believe this. We know it's true. The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And if there should be anyone here this afternoon and you don't know him as your savior, let me tell you that he loves you. Christ died, for all the way of blessing is open for you.
And you can be brought into the circle of blessing this very afternoon, if you will just yield to His claims, if you'll just turn to him in repentance and faith, there's blessing for you. There's cleansing through His precious blood that cleanses from all sin, and you can be blessed this very afternoon.
And then it tells us here now that when we are saved, when we do receive that cleansing, just like the cleansed leper on top of the blood.
Was placed the oil, and so we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit of God.
We have a power now for our walk, because how can we ever go against the current of this world if we didn't have the power for it? The current of this world is getting stronger and stronger as it sweeps on toward judgment, and I'm sure you all feel it. Two dear young people feel it much more, perhaps, than those of us who are older. Those of us who are growing older aren't exposed to it in the same way, but as you go to school and as you work in offices.
And as you contact the world, you realize more how strong the current is that is against you. Well, God is not asking us to go to warfare at our own charges. He's not asking us to do anything in our own strength. He provides all that's necessary. And when he made us his own, a spirit of God, that divine guest came to indwell our bodies. And he's the Comforter. He's the one who sheds the bronze, the love of God in our hearts, and He is the power to for our walk as well as the pledge.
Now that we're going to be carried through, the captain of our salvation is going to bring us safely home to glory. What a comfort, what a consolation. But we can't ask ourselves this afternoon, how much do we really acknowledge his claims? Isn't it true that we're really liable to have a certain corner of our heart and that we keep for ourselves? We're not fully yielded. It's as though we said, well, I know the Lord has done a great deal for me.
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But there are certain things in my life I think I should choose for myself.
Well, dear young people, can you really believe that the one who loved you enough to die for you and to prepare for you, that home above where no sorrow will ever enter, that place where there will be pleasures forevermore, not for a month or a day or a year, but forevermore, Can you doubt that he is seeking your good and your happiness?
In the 8th chapter of Proverbs we find that when this world was built, when it was prepared, it says his delights were with the sons of man. And I remind you again that he is delighting in you, shall I say, The Lord loves young people as they spring up into manhood and womanhood, He loves to see them. And there's a verse in Jeremiah that says, Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me and say?
My father, thou art the guide of my youth. Oh dear young people, to have a guide through your youth in school. They have guidance teachers, But these guidance teachers often give the wisdom of this world and not the wisdom of God. But we have guidance from one who knows all about us, who knows our frame, who understands all about us, knows our family background and everything, and who's really seeking our good and our blessing.
Every step of the pathway here, well, perhaps someone might say, but it's very hard to discover the Lorde mind. It's very difficult to know what is his will for us. Well, let me put it this way. Do you think he wants you to know? Do you think he's holding it back from you as though he didn't care whether you really knew his mind and will or not? And that you really want to know, but he doesn't want to show you?
Think that this is so. Well, I assure you it's not so. A scripture says, if any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. Another first says, in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. And it tells us in the 10th chapter of Jeremiah. Oh Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself.
It is not in man that Walketh to direct his steps. So I want to begin by saying that the Lord wants to show you. He wants to direct you. He wants to take the place as leader in your life and to be the captain who guides you in all things. And so if you and I are willing, why he's more than willing to teach us and to show us the way. Of course we know what the hindrance is.
It's our own wills. We all have that stubborn will that likes to have our own way.
And it tells us in the 53rd of Isaiah we have turned everyone to his own way.
It says in the second of Ephesians.
That we followed the course of this world. And so the two things.
Are linked together in our lives. We want to have our own way and we want to be accepted by our peers. We want others to feel that we're sort of one and part of the crowd. And so I believe we can say that these things are the hindrance. We only have to read through the scriptures to see that through the history of man upon the earth, of those who seek to sought to walk to please God were often misunderstood.
Often found themselves, yeah, perhaps I could say always found themselves in the minority rather than in the majority. Because the Lord Jesus said street is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
And it's not wrong to desire to be accepted. Everyone of us have that desire, and it's not wrong to have that desire. But the question is with whom do we wish to be accepted? Paul said that it was the great labor of his life. He said, I labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. He wanted to be acceptable, accepted. We like to be accepted. We like to feel that our appearance is accepted. Our clothes are accepted. Our personality is accepted. This is not wrong.
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About the question is, whose acceptance do we seek? Do we really speak the Lord's acceptance well, if we really seek His acceptance, and to do His will? And isn't it lovely? And that he wants us to know it, and he wants to make our joy not half full, but full, as it says these things right, I unto you that your joy may be full. And so this afternoon, without having particularly the thought of studying before you certain things that you might say, well, this is what I should do.
I would like to speak to you about those principles that I believe should guide and direct our pathway.
Because I have often said that when I find out that a young person really wants to please the Lord.
Then I don't worry about them because I know the Lord wants to show them the way. I know He wants to bless them. And when we really have that desire, then how he delights to show us His mind and His will, to give us his joy, his peace, his love for our present portion and His home at the end of the journey. And so, with this in mind, I'd like to speak to you about those three things I mentioned first of all.
To let him speak to us, and I suppose we could say the way he speaks to us is through his word. I wonder if we could turn to Psalms first of all in the 78th Psalm.
Psalm 78 in the first verse.
Give ear, O my people, to my law. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children. Showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and His strength, and his wonderful works that he has done, for He established a testimony in Jacob.
And appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children.
That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children. That they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God and keep His commandments. Oh, you also turn with me to the 119th Psalm and the 97th verse.
Oh, how I love Thy law. It is my meditation all the day. Thou through thy commandments, has made me wiser than mine enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients. Because I keep Thy precepts. I have refrained my feet from every evil way.
That I might keep thy word, I have not departed from Thy judgments.
Thou has taught me how sweet are thy words unto my taste, nay, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through thy precepts I get understanding. Therefore I hate every false way. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And now just one more passage in Jeremiah chapter 13.
Jeremiah, chapter 13.
And verse 15.
Hear ye and give ear. Be not proud, for the Lord has spoken. Give glory to the Lord your God before he caused darkness and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains. And while he looked for light, he turned it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness. But if he will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride.
And mine eyes shall weep sore and rundown with tears, because the Lord's flock is carried away captive.
Well, we can see from these scriptures perhaps two things in connection with letting God speak to us, and that is how he wants to give us instruction for our pathway and then the solemnity of refusing that instruction that he gives us. So these verses that I have read have to do with letting God speak to us. Oh, how important this is to your young people, not only for you, but it's important for me. The Bible speaks of an old and foolish king who will no longer be admired.
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So it doesn't matter how old we are, we still need the word of God. We still need its instruction. We find that there are warnings for youth and there are warnings for old age, and there are just as many dangers in old age as there are in youth. The only reason I'm speaking to you is because this meeting, especially for you. But it isn't because I don't need it myself, because the warnings are just as much needed for me As for you. Well, in the first one that we read in the 78th Psalm, we find here the instruction given that should be passed on from generation to generation.
And I think it's nice in this fourth verse, but it says we will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord.
And his strength and his wonderful works that he hath done. And surely as we read God's word, we find those three things The praises of the Lord, His strength and his wonderful works that he has done. Oh, just think, all that has been revealed to us in this precious book. I can't overestimate the wonder of God's precious word. There are some people I know who doubt the inspiration of this blessed book.
Believe that It's the inspired word of God. They're practically saying that God hasn't given us any message that we can rely upon. He's put us in this world and He's made us responsible, and yet He hasn't told us how we can please Him. He hasn't given us any warnings. Is that so? Is it really true?
No, dear young people, we have a reliable message from God. We have His book, and this precious book has stood the test of the ages. It stands. It contains within itself abundant proof as to its veracity. Hundreds of its prophecies have already been fulfilled. It's more up to date than the daily newspaper. It fits what is happening in this very present age just as much as it did 50 years ago.
And it'll do the same tomorrow. It's God's book, it's God's message, and it tells us the praises of the Lord. Oh, how wonderful when we think that the one who made all things is the one who deserves the praise of our hearts. And then it says.
And his strength, because when we speak about these things, we might easily say.
All but it's a very difficult path. It's very easy for you to stand there brother, hey ho and talk about it. But you know, when you meet the situations, it's an entirely different thing. But God gives the strength that we need the beloved apostle Paul, who probably knew more of suffering for Christ than any of other, any other of God's messengers. He said I can do all things through Christ.
Which strengtheneth me. He found that there was a source of strength for his pathway. His strength? And you may be faced with real difficulties at this time. There may be some situation in your life. And as I'm talking, you're saying I don't know how I can get over the hum. I don't know just how I can make this. It's a big grade to me, and I'm afraid it's too much for me. What is it too much for the Lord? Are you like those men who went in to spy the good land?
And ten of them, when they spied the good land, they said it was a good land. But they got their eyes on the giants and they got their eyes on the high walls, and they said there's giants there and the walls are high. It's a good land that we can never possess, that it's too much for us.
How about the other two? They saw the giants. They didn't underestimate them. They saw the high walls, but they also saw the Lord. And they said if the Lord delights in us, why he'll bring us in, He'll give us the land. The 10 measured themselves in comparison with the giants, and they said we felt like grasshoppers beside the giants. But the other two, they measured God.
Beside the giants. And it was the giants that looked like grasshoppers because God was so much greater than the giants. And so it is. There are things that are insurmountable in our human strength. They're just entirely beyond us. But it tells us his strength, his wonderful works that he has done. He has proved himself in the past. He has helped his people through all kinds of problems and difficulties.
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It tells us in Peter, there hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man.
1St Corinthians 10 I believe it is. And God is faithful. Yes, he is able, and he passes his own through all the same temptations that men of the world.
Face. And then he shows that he's able to sustain them in these situations and give them the strength for them.
Adele And then it goes on to tell us that these things are to be passed on. And that's what I'm trying in my little measure to do to you today.
I was once a child and a young person sitting in the meetings. I occupied the place of the young people. I heard, those who were older and as I listened to them.
I'm sure I often wondered about how I was going to be able to get along through the problems of life, but now I can look back and say the Lord is sufficient. He's able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.
So he speaks of his wonderful works that he hath done, and we declare these things to our children.
And they passed them on to others and I'd like to encourage you to your young people.
To read God's precious Word and make it the habit of your life. Be sure that each day you pick up your Bible and read something from that wonderful book, God's Word. It has a message for you. I know that some of you are very busy.
Life is terribly pressured in these days and it's hard to find time for the things of God. It's very difficult to even find 2 minutes. It seems sometimes. To get over God's precious word for the enemy seems to squeeze so many things. And I have found in my life the truth of that little ham. Take time to be holy. You'll never have time unless you take time. There will never be such a thing as saying, well, I had plenty of time. It just seems you always have to take time.
For the things of God, But oh how well you'll be repaid. For it And more of the missile, I'll tell you that. What you read and what you take in and use. If the Lord leaves us here, you will remember what you read. When you're older, you will enjoy, but you won't remember. It won't stay with you. It's when you're young that you can read these things and take them in, and they become part of yourself.
That's why in the end of the book of Leviticus, when it's talking about the value of people in connection with vows, it says that the man who was, the man who was I think 20 years of age, he was worth 60 shekels. And Can you believe it, when he passed, when he passed 60 years of age, his his value went down to, I think it was 15 shekels. That's quite a drop, isn't it? Doesn't make some of us who are older feel very important.
When we realize that God places such a great value on the young people, and he tells us that our value has dropped considerably because we can't remember, I don't mean that we can't be useful and that we cannot stand with the precious things that we have known and enjoyed, but we can't take them in and retain them in the same way that you can. Dear young people, our energies have begun to wane a little bit, but your energies are right at their very best.
And so you need direction. Many of you go to school and to college.
And the trade schools to prepare yourself for your occupations. Do you think you can go through a world like this with all its confusion, with all its many paths, with all its temptations, and you don't need any direction at all. You don't need directions from your maker. Can it be that you should actually think that? That at your age of life that you don't need to? You never thought that in connection with your job you didn't go down and apply for a job that required skill?
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Tell them, well, I'm not at all trained, but I think I can do it. The first question they're going to ask you is what training have you had?
And so, may I ask, have you made it the habit of your life to read God's Word?
Are you seeking to take it in as the very voice of God, your Father, to you? Have you sought this instruction from him, that passage? Let's turn to it again in the 119th Psalm.
This 119 Psalm is a very remarkable Psalm has 176 verses. The headings on it I believe, are the letters of the Greek alphabet. And remarkable as it is, it has the whole Greek alphabet. Here it's the longest chapter in the Bible and in every verse almost. I think there's one or two, but in almost every verse in the whole Psalm.
There is some mention of the word of God, either called commandments or statutes or testimonies.
Or thy word, some word that has to do with God's message to man. The longest chapter in the Bible. The whole alphabet, as we might say, knows all about it from A-Z. Why the whole thing is here And where are we going to get all this information? It's God's Word.
It's God's word. And you, as our brother Chapter Brown used to remind us so often, we can never be wiser than God. We can never be wiser than God. There isn't a situation in life that I can have more wisdom than God has given in his precious word. Some of these verses that we read, that 97th verse of this 119th Psalm, oh how I love thy law. Who do you and I find our delight in this precious book?
Are we like another who said, thy words were found? And I did eat them, and they were unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. Do you find delight in this precious book, God's revelation of himself to you, and a marking out of the pathway for you? And it says, it is my meditation all day, and I don't like to speak of myself, but you know, I read a great many of these stories in the Old Testament.
Without having any real understanding of what they meant. And I used to read them and they were just stories that my parents told me and that I read. But as I've grown older, those stories have assumed a great importance in my life. And I tell you when I have tried to make the habit of my life, that whenever any situation arises in life, I try to think of some incident in God's word where someone was placed in a similar situation.
And I have found that every situation that comes up, God has given a story in His Word, where men and women were placed in similar situations. And God has shown us how they acted, whether they acted wisely or unwisely. And He has shown us the wisdom and the blessedness of following His Word and the folly of disobeying it. And the Bible is God's picture book. It abounds with these wonderful stories.
And so I want to encourage you, you say, Well, I hear a brother get up and he talks about some story in the Bible, but it never meant that to me.
But if you read it, then when the situation arises in your life, that God by his Spirit can bring that story back to you. He can fit it into the affairs of your life and make it a blessing. But you know, I, I must repeat what my father once said, because people say, well, I don't understand the Bible, so what's the use of reading it? He used to say, But the Spirit is the remembrance, Sir. And he said God doesn't work miracles to encourage laziness.
If you and I neglect his word, he's not going to work a miracle to bring something back to us that we never read. He intends us to read it, and then he brings it back to our minds and he makes it a blessing to us. And then it says.
Thou, through thy commandments, has made me wiser than mine enemies, for they are ever with me. Yes, there are many enemies when you go to school, or enemies.
When you go to work their enemies, you're going to meet those who are going to try to trip you up. You're going to meet those who are going to try and turn you aside. I don't need to tell you this. You've experienced it already and you say I don't know what to say to them. But God can make you wiser than your enemies. He can give you the wisdom to answer what they say, and you'll be surprised that when you answer by God's word.
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If you say, well I don't believe that way, then they'll try to make you believe their way. But if you cool the verse of scripture.
There's a power in this wonderful book. It says it's the sword of the Spirit and when it's used in communion by the Spirit, it is really strong. The Lord met Satan in all his temptations by just simply answering. It is written.
And so it says, wiser than the mine enemies, for they are ever with me, and I have more understanding than all my teachers or thy testimonies are my meditation. That is, when you go, they teach you things. They sound often quite sensible and logical, as they sound as if they were a little wiser than God's word. But you have more understanding than them, because you have received your instruction from 1:00.
Whose wisdom never fails? Whose very name is wisdom? Or how often men have had to change their opinions. They've often said the books that we studied when we went to school. They're so outdated today that you'd probably laugh at them if I pulled them out and showed them to you. You'd say why we've left those things behind long ago. Wise men change their opinions, but God's Word is suited to our day.
And it tells us here you have more understanding that all your teachers, all your young people.
Store up your mind with God's Word and when you're faced with infidelity and atheism.
When you're faced with the changing standards of man and they say, well, people used to think those things were wrong, but you know you're you have to keep step with the times and people's ideas change all. Be careful. You're not going to be judged by the opinions of man. God's word doesn't change. God's word is ever the same, and he's able to direct you and instruct you. And then the result in the 101St verse.
I have refrained my feet from every evil way that I might keep thy word. And so in the last verse he says I hate every false way. Here we have again I say the blessedness of God's Word. And so before we go on to speak of the next, let me again say to you, read God's Word each day, value it, and even if you only have a little time.
I found comfort by what it says about the gathering of a manna. It tells us that each person was to gather an Omer a certain amount for each day. And it tells us the men were to gather for their households too. Responsibility of the head of the home.
But then it tells us as you go on, it says they gathered some more, some less. And perhaps you might say, well, I don't always have a time to read a chapter. Perhaps it's long and I don't have time, while God has put in something very wonderful in that chapter that I thoroughly enjoyed. And that is, it says that some gathered more and some less, and then it says it came to pass.
Measured it into their Omer. He that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. Now, that is, if you have time to read a great deal, well, thank God for it. You won't have anything over. You need it all. But if you don't have time, the important thing is to measure it into your armor, to take that portion and fit it into the needs of the day. Fit it into the needs of the day, and you'll find that it'll become a great blessing because you'll find it. It's suited to just what you need. God knew what you were going to need that day.
And so you can fit it into the needs of the day. So this, perhaps we could say these scriptures bring before us the importance of God's Word, and that one other scripture in Jeremiah. I say again, it's a warning. It's a warning. And it says that if you refuse to hearken, the time will come when you want to have light for your pathway and your stumbling on the dark mountains.
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Oh, there's many young people that have come to that point in their lives, that they have refused the instruction, and then they come to the Dark Mountains, those situations that are just impossible. And they say, oh, if the Lord would only guide me, but they rejected all his instruction. And what did Jeremiah say? Well, he said, I'll just have to weep for you. You'll put yourself in a position.
By disobeying God's word. Where now all I can do is weep for you.
All dear young people, there's a lot of wrecks along the pathway of life, but you won't have a wreck.
If you follow the light and wisdom of God's Word, read it each day, seek to learn what God has for you. And it says Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace. May God grant that you'll let God speak to you each day through His Word. I say again, let Him speak to you. He speaks to you through His Word. Don't neglect your Bible.
There's a little song the children saying cling to the Bible.
My boy, may you value it, May you cling to it in your youth. And as you we grow older too. Now let's turn to the next one, and that is speaking to the Lord. So first of all, I'd like to turn to Hebrews chapter 13.
Hebrews, chapter 13.
And verse 15.
By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.
And that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
And now let's turn to Matthew, Chapter 6.
Matthew Chapter 6.
Verse 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou art shut thy door, pray to thy father which is in secret, and thy father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.
And in Acts chapter 2.
Acts, Chapter 2 and verse.
42.
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers, And then one other passage in Nehemiah, the book of Nehemiah.
Three books before the Psalms Nehemiah, chapter 2.
Nehemiah 2.
And the fourth verse. Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, If it pleased the king, and if thy servant have found favor in thy sight, that thou would ascend me unto Judah, unto the city of my father's sepulchers, that I may build it.
Well, I've read these four different passages and I believe they bring before us speaking to the Lord.
As I said in the other scriptures, it's the Lord speaking to us and how He makes himself known and His will made known through His word. But now in these verses we have speaking to the Lord. The reason I read first of all in Hebrews chapter 13 is because the first thing is worship, and that is we speak to Him in Thanksgiving and praise and dear young people cultivate the habit of praise and Thanksgiving in your life.
Cultivate the habit, I say, of praise and Thanksgiving in your life. It's easy to develop a critical, grumbling spirit. It's very easy. And as we go through situations in life, it's very easy, if we're not watchful, to become like the children of Israel and only look at the circumstances and not see the hand of love that is behind them all about if we see God's hand in our circumstances.
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If we cultivate the habit of praise, it's a very blessed thing. Someone has said we cannot always see God's love in our circumstances, but we can always see His love displayed at the cross. That's why when the waters were bitter, the only thing that would make them sweet was to cast the tree into the water. And I'm sure some of you are facing situations and you are saying right now, I can't see how God is showing His love to me.
In a situation I'm in about, you can see that he loves you by looking at the cross.
You can see what he paid for you. You can see the home that he has prepared for you in his glorious promise that he's going to come again and let that fill your heart with praise and Thanksgiving. And I'm sure, as I say, if you cultivate this habit, it's going to make a difference in your life.
And so let us learn to speak to the Lord, to thank him.
Every day, over and over again, for all his goodness, thank Him for dying on the cross to save us. Thank Him for every blessing that we receive along the way. Thank Him for all the answers to prayer. Cultivate the habit, I say, of offering.
Sacrifice of praise to God continually the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name, and then till when we come to the meeting, as we did this morning. I've been much impressed by that verse, and none shall appear before me. Empty. When you come to the meeting, come to give, come to give. The Lord is there, and you can give to Him. Give the sacrifice of praise.
Just think of what he's done. Perhaps you say. Well, the meeting seemed to drag. There didn't seem to be much praise about you. And I can come to the meeting to give and even the sisters can give to. I believe that's why in the 12Th chapter of John, it doesn't tell us about a man who anointed the feet of the Lord. Because we might say, well, the brothers can take part. How about it with the sister? It was Mary who anointed the seed of Jesus.
And the house was thrilled with the order of the ointment. And a sister whose heart is full of praise, a sister who is flew on with the Lord in any meetings is a tremendous blessing. To the meeting is a great encouragement in the meeting, from which others can receive help and encouragement. So let us cultivate first of all the habit of thanking the Lord over and over again, praising Him for His wondrous grace. It's going to be our eternal occupation above.
And then in the other three scriptures that I read, we have prayer brought before us in three different ways. First of all in connection with what we might call private or closet prayer. Secondly, assembly prayer, and then thirdly.
What we might call instantaneous prayer or another scripture pray without ceasing. Now I believe those three things are important in our lives too. Now, that is, we have spoken about the importance of reading God's word, but we also need that time of prayer in the Lord's presence. It's a grand thing to cultivate the habit of getting a loan with the Lord. Perhaps the family pray. That's very nice. That's very lovely.
When the family kneel down and you kneel down and there's a family prayer.
But there is such a thing as getting along with the Lord. The Lord said about a certain problem that the disciples had. This kind goeth not out, but by prayer and fasting. And many of us have found the blessing of getting somewhere just along with the Lord and just as the scripture says, pouring out our hearts before him, just telling him the whole situation because he loves to hear us. Come when you have a friend that you have confidence in, that friend comes.
And he does just that. Or she does just that. They just pour out their hearts and when they've done it, you say we understand one another, we understand one another. Isn't it a grand thing, dear young people, that you have a Savior who wants you to come and pour out your heart before him? There are things you can't say in the Bible, in the family, reading a prayer, prayer time. There are things you can't say in the assembly prayer time, but the you can say them when you're alone with the Lord.
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And so the Lord Jesus said, go into your closet, shut your door, just get along with the Lord.
And oh, what a blessing this is. Many of us can look back and think of those victories.
Have ever won upon our knees. The little poem says Satan trembles when he sees the weakest St. upon his knees. So don't forget the importance of talking to the Lord in prayer in your closet. We praise him, but then we need to come and pour out our request to him. And then there's the second one. Now there is assembly prayer. That in the second of Acts I believe refers to assembly prayer.
It says Speaking of those 3000 who were saved, it says they continued steadfastly.
In the apostles doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers. These, I suppose we could say, are the assembly meetings when we come together for the reading of the word, for prayer, for the breaking of bread, we need these meetings, But here it's particularly prayer. A difficulty arose in the 12Th of Acts, and they gather together as an assembly to bring this matter before the Lord. And the Lord answered their prayer and delivered Peter.
And he has often answered assembly prayer. There are things that come up in the assembly prayer meeting that concern the people of God as a whole that are concerned concerning God's interests here in this world. And it's a good habit to be at the assembly prayer meeting.
We don't come to the assembly prayer meeting to get. We come to pour out our hearts to make our requests known unto God. Again I say this comes in the part of talking to the Lord, talking to Him. He talks to us through His word. Now we come and talk to him. And then we come to the third one. And here was a man named Nehemiah. He was the King's cup bearer. He was in a very tight spot in his business.
And those.
Men who had authority in those days had the power of life and death, and Nehemiah was afraid in the presence of the king, that if he said the wrong thing, that he might perhaps even have his head cut off.
Perhaps you say, Well, I often have situations and I'm afraid if I say the wrong thing I'll lose my job.
Or I won't get a promotion that I'm hoping for. It's just so difficult when you're working just to know what to say and the right thing. And sometimes something comes so fast, so quickly you just don't know how to answer. And if you say the wrong thing, it's just too bad you can't take it back.
Isn't that so? We often have situations like this. Nehemiah had a situation like this, but prayer was the habit of his life. And so when the king said, Nehemiah, for what are you making requests before he answered the king, He said, it says, So I prayed unto the God of heaven, and I said unto the king, I don't believe the king knew that that little prayer had gone up. But Nehemiah knew and the Lord knew.
And the Lord gave him wisdom, and the Lord gave him favor in the sight of this great king. It was a tremendous request that naturally speaking, had never expected it would ever work. But when he made the request, the king granted the request, and even more than he asked.
All friends weren't in touch with the one who says that the King's heart is in his hands, the one who rules the universe, the one whose head over all things to the church, which is his body. Dear young people, cultivate the habit of having, shall I say, an open line between yourself and the Lord, that you can just turn to him at any time? Some boyfriend asked you a question. And before you answer.
Stand up a swift prayer. Somebody asked you to go someplace. Before you answer, send up a swift prayer. You might give the wrong answer. You might say the wrong thing, and it might affect your whole life. All dear young people, the Lord wants us to talk to Him.
He wants us to talk to him. He's talked to us here. He's told us his will. Now he wants us to talk to him.
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He wants us to talk to Him in prayer and praise. He wants us to talk to Him in our closet. He wants us to be at the assembly prayer meeting and talk to him there. And he wants us in every situation, whether it's in the office, whether it's when you're driving your car, at all times, as it says in First Thessalonians 5. Pray without ceasing, pray without ceasing. So we can talk to him, but now, the last one, we can talk to others about him. Let's turn to Philippians chapter 2.
Philippians chapter 2.
And verse 15.
That she may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life. That I may rejoice in the day of Christ. That I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Here we have, perhaps we could say, two ways that we can talk to others about him.
One is the life we live and the other is the words that we speak. That's why it says holding forth the word of life. I might say that consecration means both hands full. Somebody comes in on your birthday and both hands are full of parcels. There's a great deal of warmth and there's a feeling that that brings us both hands are full. And here these, they say, these are all for you. Well.
Isn't it nice that as Christians we can have both hands full, full of lot, full of Christ if we let him talk to us? We've talked to him now. Can it be that we don't want others to know what a wonderful savior we have? Are we going to keep all these good things to ourselves? The world has many empty hearts. The world realizes that what it has doesn't satisfy. You only have to read its magazine.
Or to read its comments or listen to its comments and you find how people have no solution for the increasing problems and they just don't know what to do. Isn't it lovely that as Christians we go through this world and we can let them see that we have been with Jesus, blameless and harmless? The world is watching us. We have a testimony to live. Sometimes they won't listen to what we say.
But they will listen to what they see in our lives. They can't help it. They watch us. They say sometimes they'll make a comment like this to you. Well, you have something that we don't have, and especially in times of stress, they'll say that.
Because the world can get along when things are moving along fairly well and smoothly and they're getting promotions, and it's a time of inflation and lots of money. And so people often don't think so seriously. But then difficulties come and they'll turn and they'll say you have something, you have something. Oh, isn't it lovely? It serves, you shine as lights in the world. The Christian just shines out.
And one Christian in an office, he sort of shines out. People notice him, they see that he's different.
And so that's one of the ways that we are a testimony in the world, and so we speak to the world about our Savior. When Moses came down from the Mount, he didn't have to tell the people that he had been with God. They knew it because his face was shining. And then it tells us in a 16th verse holding forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.
That is. Now when they see this, we say, well, here's the reason I know the Lord Jesus. I know what he's done for me. He's my savior. The way is open now to present Christ to them. And we have the opportunity of speaking to others about him. Oh dear young people, we need these things in our lives. We need to go on through this world. God doesn't intend you to go through life with an empty heart. He has filled your heart. He wants your joy to be full.
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He's done everything that love could do to win your heart and mind. He's told us we don't belong to ourselves. He's he has delivered a message to us so complete that it covers every situation in our life and warns us about every difficulty he has opened, the way that we can talk to him anytime, 24 hours in the day. People have what they call a watch line and they can phone long distance. But isn't it lovely that you and I have a line that can be open at all times? We can talk to the Lord.
At anytime we can go into our closet and talk to him. We can come to the meeting. What a lovely thing. And then when the world says and what do you have that we can then talk to them about him. He's everything to us. He's won our hearts. And when we get home to glory, what are we going to do? Well, certainly up there we won't need instruction for our pathway, but it does say forever. Oh Lord.
Thy word is settled in heaven.
We won't have to make requests up there because we'll have everything that we want, but forever we'll be talking about him. We'll be talking about him and talking to him. Oh my God, Grant dear young people, now that we may acknowledge His claims and seek to live to please him as we think of the nearness of his coming. I just like to read one little verse here in the 86th Psalm before I close and.
Perhaps it can be the desire of our hearts. Psalm 86 and verse 11.
I'd like to read verses 11 and 12. Teach me thy way. O Lord, I will walk in thy truth. Unite my heart to fear thy name. I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart. I will glorify thy name forevermore. May the Lord grant it may be so with each one of us.