I'll Be Honest: Recent Episodes
I'll Be Honest | illbehonest.com
Tim Conway opens with a student’s challenge: “If society says genocide is OK, would it be OK?” He shows how genocide—the mass killing of men, women, and children—exposes the absurdity of moral relativism. He then turns to divine authority: “If God says genocide is OK, it’s OK,” pointing to Saul’s loss of his kingdom for disobeying God’s command.
In this Ask Pastor Tim (from 2019) we study Ecclesiastes 7:16—“Do not be overly righteous, nor be overly wise”—and unpack what Solomon really meant by that warning. We’ll walk through three foundational hermeneutical methods (compare Scripture with Scripture, examine context and genre, cross‑reference translations), see how translation differences affect our understanding, and survey New Testament passages that call us to genuine holiness without slipping into legalism or laxity.
What true Christianity really is, is a the topic that Stuart Olyott opens in 2 Thessalonians 2 :13 – 3:5 and paints a portrait of “true Christianity.” A real Christian, he says, is saved—a word “stronger than helped or rescued”—delivered from God’s wrath through Christ’s death and resurrection. That rescue rests on God’s loving choice, the Spirit’s sanctifying work, and believing the gospel truth: “God chose you as the first‑fruits to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth”.
A thoughtful exploration of the “secret walk” with God through the intertwined practices of prayer, meditation, and temptation. Drawing on Martin Luther’s insight and inspired Scripture (Psalm 27:14; Isaiah 40:31; Philippians 4:6–7), the sermon emphasizes the importance of waiting on the Lord, slowing our frantic pace, and punctuating life with Sabbath stops.
In this episode of A Walk With Mr. O, a group of Christians debates whether doctrine really matters. Mr. O responds by showing that the world around us is full of doctrine—just not biblical doctrine. He explains why Christians were once called atheists, how belief systems shape everything, and why it’s impossible to live a faithful Christian life without clear, sound doctrine.
Feeling like the lone believer in your family or office? Walk with Mr. O as he reveals how one faithful life can launch a gospel chain reaction. Also, want to have fewer regrets in your life? Stuart Olyott shares four slow-paced habits — single-tasking, savoring each moment, taking micro-Sabbaths, and resisting hurry — that keep your impact high and your regrets few.
According to Romans 9, you might wonder why we should even evangelize. But if you keep reading into Romans 10, you see that God uses means and messengers — and that we must go and proclaim the gospel. People often overreact in two ways: either they think predestination makes evangelism pointless, or they fear evangelism denies God’s sovereignty. Both extremes miss how Scripture holds these truths together.
In this deeply personal interview, Pastor Mack Tomlinson recounts his year-long battle with spiritual darkness and chronic insomnia, how the Psalms became his lifeline, and the miraculous moment when God delivered him through a trusted friend’s counsel. He offers practical wisdom for pastors facing similar struggles—emphasizing the necessity of preaching God’s promises to ourselves—and closes by sharing specific prayer needs for faithful preaching, writing, family, and health in the seasons ahead.
In this message Mack Tomlinson walks us through Psalm 73’s honest journey from envy and self-absorption back to a Christ-focused heart. You’ll see how comparing yourself to others feeds “me-ism,” why bitterness clouds your vision, and how a single shift in perspective—fixing your gaze on Christ—breaks the cycle and renews your strength.
In this two-part walk, Mr. O speaks gently to those weighed down by life’s sudden storms. Part 1 addresses the crushing feeling of being overwhelmed—when everything hits at once and you don’t know where to start. Part 2 explores those unexpected waves of discouragement that seem to come out of nowhere. If you’ve ever felt like giving up or like you’re drowning in responsibilities, this quiet walk might be what your soul needs.
Young Man: Sometimes I lose spiritual interest. Mr O, a strange thing happened to me yesterday. It has happened before, but this time it was far worse.
Mr O: Go on, tell me about it.
Young Man: Well, in my morning Bible reading and prayer I had a really good time with the Lord, and then I experienced a real sense of His presence throughout the day. But everything changed in the evening . . . .
Mr O: I can see that you are upset, but try and tell me more.
Young Man: I don’t really know how to describe it. When the time came for me to read and pray in the evening, I simply didn’t want to do it. My conscience was troubled for a short while, and after that I couldn’t care less. Spiritual things lost all their appeal, so I put my feet up and spent the whole evening flicking from channel to channel on the TV.
Mr O: And what happened this morning?
Young Man: When I woke up I was filled with a sense of shame. I sought the Lord, wept over my wasted evening, confessed everything to Him, and found pardon and peace at His cross. But, Mr O, what happened to me yesterday evening? I really need to know.
Mr O: You know what happened. Your confession proves it. You sinned. But let’s be clear; your sin didn’t lie in your failure to read the Bible. As we have seen before, daily Bible reading is a privilege, but it’s not an obligation. Your sin lay in the fact that throughout a whole evening and night you abandoned your God. You walked out on Him. By your actions you told Him that you could manage without Him.
Young Man: But I can’t manage without Him, Mr O! I love Him! So why did this happen, especially on a day when I had walked with Him so closely?
Mr O: Tell me about your time of prayer yesterday morning. Did it include all the requests that are found in the Lord’s Prayer? The reference there to ‘daily bread’ makes it clear that these are the things that we should pray for every day. Did you pray anything that resembled ‘lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’? ‘Evil’, of course, means the evil one. Did you pray that you would be supported in the day’s temptations and delivered from the devil?
Young Man: No, I didn’t. And, to be honest, I hardly ever think about the devil. I hope you don’t mind, but I have to say that I am shocked. The Saviour commands us to prepare for temptation, and to pray for deliverance from the devil, every day! He knows that everyone who doesn’t think regularly about the devil is heading for serious trouble. You surely have read the verse which says, ‘Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.’ (1 Peter 5:8).
Mr O: We meet the devil in the third chapter of the Bible, and the whole of the Old Testament is about the way that his ‘seed’ tries to prevent the coming of the woman’s Seed, whose suffering is going to ruin him. In the New Testament we find that every book except Titus, Philemon and 3 John makes direct reference to either the devil or to his allies. We are still reading about him when we are three chapters from the end of the Bible. And yet you say that you hardly ever think about him!
Young Man: I am stung by your rebuke. So are you saying that I wouldn’t have behaved as I did yesterday if I had taken the devil into account?
Mr O: Yes. Everything in this life which restrains personal holiness is from the devil. But we don’t have to give in. Christ has defeated Satan. Say ‘no!’ to him and he will go away. He will! 1 Peter 5:9 says, ‘Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world’, while James 4:7 says, ‘Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you’. Hallelujah!
In this first conversation from A Walk with Mr. O, Stuart Olyott responds to two deeply honest questions: “Why am I still sinning so much?” and “I want to be a better Christian, but I’m failing.” With warmth and clarity, Mr. O uses a simple illustration to show how growing awareness of sin is often a sign of drawing closer to Christ, not further away. He reminds us that our hope rests not in our progress, but in our Saviour’s perfect righteousness.
Q&A session from the 2025 Fellowship Conference with Stuart Olyott, Michael Durham, and Geoff Thomas. Topics include worship, emotions, sanctification, relationships, and more.
“Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand”—were first addressed to “Israel, my servant Jacob,” yet in Christ belong equally to “offspring of Abraham,” Jew and Gentile alike. My aim is to show you how to meditate on those five promises during your trials, hold fast to the confidence they provide, and trust that God truly remains present—strengthening, helping, and upholding you through every challenge.
Fellowship Conference New YorkFellowship, Preaching, and Singing that Center on the Glory of GodFellowship Conference in New York, July 17–19, 2025
Register Now
Conference ScheduleThursday, July 17* 1st Session: 6:00 pm * 2nd Session: 7:30 pm
Friday, July 18* Corporate Prayer: 10:00 am * 3rd Session: 10:45 am * Q&A Session: 12:15 pm * Food & Fellowship: 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm * 4th Session: 5:45 pm
Saturday, July 19* Corporate Prayer: 8:30 am * 5th Session: 9:00 am * 6th Session: 10:45 am
Where?Grace Reformed Baptist Church
36 Smith St, Merrick, NY 11566
In this preaching class Stuart Olyott shows that “preaching is not the most important thing” and that “being an example is much more important than preaching.” Drawing on 1 Timothy 4:11, 1 Peter 5, and Ephesians 2:14–17, he explains why the “sort of life you live” must precede your words, why “little Jesus’s” must speak from a heart-to-heart place, and how true preaching is “the exposition and application of the word of God.” By focusing on character, conscience, and clear, Christ-centered illustration rather than mere lecture, Olyott equips pastors to leave their congregations “longing” rather than “loathing” at the close of a sermon.
Amidst the stirring scenes of God raising up laborers across America—crowded farewell gatherings, spontaneous offerings, and hearts set ablaze for China—one quiet moment stood out to Hudson Taylor:
Very different from these stirring scenes was the memory that lingered in Mr. Taylor’s heart with special sweetness. It was in Mr. Frost’s hometown of Attica the incident had taken place, at one of the first farewell meetings. The father of a dear girl in the party, Miss Susie Parker, had come over from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and was sitting near the platform. Seeing a wonderful light on his face, Mr. Taylor invited him to say a few words.
“He told us with a father’s feelings,” Mr. Taylor loved to recall, “what his daughter had been in the home, to him and to her mother; what she had been in the mission-hall in which he worked, and something of what it meant to part with her now.”
“But I could only feel,” he said, “that I have nothing too precious for my Lord Jesus. He has asked for my very best; and I give, with all my heart, my very best to Him.”
The phrase “Nothing too precious for my Lord Jesus” became the most valuable lesson I learned in America, blessing me immensely ever since. Often, amidst heavy correspondence, when it’s time for united prayer, I’ve pondered whether to continue working. But then, I remember that phrase, and it guides me to prioritize fellowship (with Christ), leaving tasks for later, experiencing unburdened joy.
In the early mornings, even when tired, that time is unparalleled for connecting with the Lord, tuning my spirit for the day’s challenges. The phrase echoes again, “Nothing too precious for my Lord Jesus”, inspiring me to rise, refreshed, knowing fatigue fades in His presence. This mindset has also supported me in parting from my loved ones in England, proving countless times how God has blessed me through these words.
Chapter 30 | Hudson Taylor And The China Inland Mission: The Growth of a Work of God
Stuart Olyott uses vivid analogies from hospital wards and apartment elevators to show, from 1 Corinthians 15, why the gospel alone outranks every doctrine, practice, and spiritual gift. By unpacking Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection in accordance with Scripture, he urges believers to center their faith and ministry on this life-saving message.
This sermon from John 20:17 focuses on The Love and Acceptance of Christ. Drawing from Jesus’ appearance to Mary Magdalene after His resurrection, it highlights how Christ shows love to those who feel ashamed, weak, or unworthy. It points to the evidence of His love: personal revelation, restored relationship, complete forgiveness, and union with Him.
As believers we must consider the example of Jesus Christ--specifically let us consider his prayer life. Jesus was often found alone praying to his Father. He often prayed throughout the night and he even prayed before making decisions. This shows us the importance of connecting with God through prayer and relying on Him for direction.
Chapter 11 from Gardiner Spring's, "The Power of The Pulpit" | It is beneficial for us to keep such an example of ministerial diligence before our eyes. Through Paul’s life, we can better appreciate how much can be accomplished by the patient and self-sacrificing efforts of one devoted servant of God.
Effective diligence encompasses the entirety of a minister’s life, requiring full dedication to the work of the Gospel. For a minister, time is more precious than rubies. A diligent minister carefully manages his time, gathering up every fragment so that none is wasted. There is nothing he feels more solemnly accountable for, nor anything he uses more cheerfully or intensely, in service to his Lord. While he, like everyone, needs moments of rest, it is essential that he chooses these moments with an honest conscience, fully aware that, when faced with the choice between labor and rest, it is natural to lean toward rest.
Jesus made it clear: “Out of the heart come evil thoughts” (Matthew 15:19). The Pharisees looked righteous on the outside, but inside, they were full of hypocrisy and sin. Legalism shifts the focus from heart transformation to external rule-keeping—missing the point entirely. True purity isn’t about following rules; it’s about a heart changed by God. Are we focused on appearances, or on real transformation?
Matthew 15:18-20
18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a man.
19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander.
20 These are what defile a man, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile him.”
Tim Conway | James Series | Romans 9 shatters human pride, reminding us that salvation is not earned but rests entirely on God's sovereign mercy. This humbling truth forces us to abandon self-reliance and stand in awe of the God who has mercy on whom He wills. When we grasp this reality, it silences our objections and drives us to worship rather than debate. Instead of questioning God’s justice, we are left marveling at His unsearchable wisdom and undeserved grace.
Bob Jennings | Then I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, along with the living creatures and the elders. Their number was described as myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands. They cried out with a loud voice:
“Worthy Is The Lamb that was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing; and every created thing, in heaven, on earth, under the earth, and under the sea, is declared by Him who sits on the throne and by the Lamb, ‘Blessing, honor, glory, and dominion, forever and ever!’”
Bob Jennings | Open with me, please, to Hebrews chapter 7. I was thinking, just as credit card companies advertise their cards—their benefits. One card advertises there’s no annual membership fee, another card advertises you have free travel insurance, another card advertises you even get money back for the purchases you make with this card. Just as they advertise their benefits, so also, in a sense, a great deal of the New Testament and really the Bible—the whole Bible—in the same way is setting forth the blessings, the benefits, and the privileges that we have as Christians, that we have in Christ. That we might walk worthy of the calling, that we might possess our possessions, that we might not neglect, or moreover, that we might enjoy such a great salvation as we have in Christ. And it is indeed a full salvation.
Mike Morrow | Excerpt from: Christ Died to Bring Us to God | You know, I am really conscious that we have to be careful on this business of assurance. I'm really conscious of that. I spent a week or two from Sunday through Wednesday with a young preacher last week. This dear brother has absolutely no peace about his salvation. He has no peace about his salvation. And there have been a lot of people who've tried to deal with him, and I tried to help him, but ultimately I couldn't help him. Only God can give you peace. I could not help you. And I kept pointing him to Christ. - Mike Morrow
Ask Pastor Tim | Are you struggling with doubts about your salvation or fearing that you've committed the unpardonable sin? You're not alone. In this discussion, we explore the topic of of assurance in the Christian faith, addressing common fears and providing biblical insights to strengthen your confidence in Christ.
Pride. It's self-focus. It's self-worship. It's believing that I deserve recognition. And what it will do is it will prevent me from going to God. It will prevent me from loving God, supremely loving others, supremely dealing with other people's sins in the right way, resolving conflict. Brethren, pride is believing lies that are not true and so detecting it.
As never before, I feel the urgent need to delve deeply into the mysteries of prayer—the secret of successful praying.
On the horizon, I see truths that, if attained by God’s grace, could in some measure shake hell and slow its destructive influence in the world and the Church today. These truths are found primarily in John 17:21-23:
“That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.”
Bob Jennings | January 22, 1997 | In 1 Corinthians 5:6, Paul urges believers to cleanse themselves of “the leaven of malice and wickedness” and to embrace “the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” Drawing from the Passover Feast in Exodus 12, Paul illustrates the Christian life as a spiritual feast characterized by honesty and integrity.
Tim Conway | Series: James | Humility and pride stand in stark contrast. Pride elevates the self, distorting our perception of who we are in relation to God. It fosters a sense of self-sufficiency, making us believe that we can stand on our own without divine assistance. On the other hand, humility aligns our hearts with God's truth, recognizing our dependence on Him. It's about having a proper estimation of ourselves—not thinking too highly of ourselves, nor thinking too low. Humility acknowledges God's supremacy and our need for His grace.
Bob Jennings | Article | Written on 10/5/1998 | Who can control this sex drive? The fear of disease is a small deterrent to immorality. There is only one force that can truly control lust—the power of God in the heart, a foundational element of what it means to become a Christian. That is, when Jesus enters the heart, the power and tyranny of sin is broken. True, godly men like David fell into sin, but the distinction is this—they did not live in it. Their lives were characterized by purity and victory before and after. You see a lustful man or woman? Do not be deceived. He is not a true Christian; he will not go to heaven (See 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10). The woman chaser will be cast into hell by God Himself.
One of the things that Scripture says is we are to be children of light, and children of light have a unique responsibility of exposing the darkness. We are supposed to call out the deeds of darkness that are around us, whether in the world, our workplaces, schools, or within our own circles. It is a hard thing to confront people about their sin, and you are going to find that you are not going to be liked in certain circles. But that is a responsibility that we have as children of light, to shine that light in the world, even if it costs you a relationship.
Mike Morrow | Brothers and sisters, today we delved deep into the powerful message of Ephesians 5:18, urging us not to be drunk with wine but to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We explored how the early church thrived on this divine filling, drawing strength, boldness, and unity from the Holy Ghost. From John the Baptist being filled from his mother's womb to the apostles empowered at Pentecost, Scripture is clear: the Holy Spirit is essential for true spiritual vitality.
Article | George Müller - I fell into the snare into which so many young believers fall—the reading of religious books in preference to the Scriptures. While I no longer read French and German novels, as I had formerly done to gratify my carnal mind, I failed to replace those books with the best of all books. Instead, I read tracts, missionary papers, sermons, and biographies of godly persons. Among these, I found the biographies the most beneficial, though they might have been more helpful if they had been well-selected, if I had read less of them, or if they had encouraged a deeper love for the Scriptures.
Read article: https://illbehonest.com/careful-and-consecutive-bible-reading
Listen to full audiobook: https://scrollreader.com/audiobook/answers-to-prayer-from-george-mullers-narratives/
Nathan Rages | Our conscience is the internal moral monitor hard-wired into every human by the Creator. This sermon explores eight questions about our conscience:
-
What is it? (Rom. 2:14-15)
-
How does it change at conversion? (Heb. 9:14,10:22, Rom. 9:1)
-
Is it always accurate? (Acts 23:1, Rom. 14)
-
Should you always obey it? (Rom. 14:22-23, 1Tim. 1:19)
-
Can it be damaged? (Matt. 23:24, Col. 2:16-18, 1Tim. 4:2)
-
Can it be re-calibrated? (Acts 10:12-15, 2Tim. 3:16-17, Heb. 5:14)
-
Is it possible to keep it clear? (2Tim. 1:3, Heb. 13:18, 1Pet. 3:16, 1Tim. 1:5,3:8-9, Rom. 14:22)
-
How can that “clearness” be maintained? (Acts 24:16, 1John 1:5-9, Rom. 13:5, Matt. 5:23-24)
Nathan Rages pastors in Columbia, Missouri at Redeeming Grace Church.
Have you ever wondered why prayers go unanswered or why internal conflicts seem so persistent? This sermon on James 4:1-10 explores these struggles, delivered during a week of prayer and fasting. It takes an honest look at the root of spiritual apathy and divided loyalties, challenging us to examine our motives and our relationship with God.
Bob Jennings | When we come together as a church, praying at prayer meetings becomes an essential part of our fellowship. Rooted in 1 Corinthians 11:18, our gatherings are more than just Christians sharing the same space—they are intentional assemblies in the name and power of the Lord Jesus to worship, study scriptures, sing, and pray. Praying at prayer meetings distinguishes us from merely performing communal tasks like helping someone move or painting a house, emphasizing our spiritual unity and devotion.
True wisdom is not measured by knowledge or words but by the way we live, as demonstrated in James’ challenge: “Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.” This wisdom from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, and sincere—a stark contrast to the bitterness and selfish ambition of earthly, demonic wisdom that leads nowhere but destruction.
Tim Conway | In this “Ask Pastor Tim,” someone asked how many times can Christians fall into sin. What is ultimately behind their question, and what does this reveal about their view of salvation?
Bob Jennings | Article | After becoming a Christian, I used to recoil at the idea that there was such a thing as Christian maturity—a growing up to be done. Didn’t I already have everything in Christ? Wasn’t I complete in Him? Were they suggesting that I needed to reach some higher stage? While it is true that, positionally, I have everything in Christ, it is not yet fully reflected in my condition. For instance, when my son was born, he was fully and completely mine from that moment on. Yet, there is much growing up ahead for him. It will take years before he becomes fully matured, filled out, and able to navigate life on his own.
Read the article: https://illbehonest.com/signs-of-spiritual-maturity
This Ask Pastor Tim Bible study addresses why blaming God for not being saved is wrong and offers biblical guidance on handling idols in your life that you cannot completely remove.
Are you navigating your spiritual journey safely, or are hidden pitfalls like rigid practices, exclusivity, leadership cravings, legalism, and the desire for praise threatening your true walk with God?
This chapter is taken from G.D. Watson's book, "Spiritual Feasts".
Read the article: https://illbehonest.com/dangers-to-deep-spirituality
When a church member leaves, it often brings challenges and lessons that require careful reflection. Recently, a longtime member of our congregation departed, and this change highlights two significant issues: how the decision was handled and the decision itself. Addressing these concerns helps us honor God, strengthen our fellowship, and learn from these experiences.
In this episode of Ask Pastor Tim, two important questions are addressed: First, what principles should guide a single father in deciding how to dress his toddler for church, balancing practicality with reverence? Second, is a church building truly a "sacred place," or does the New Testament offer a different perspective on sacredness? Pastor Tim unpacks these topics, exploring modesty, cultural expectations, and biblical teaching on the nature of worship spaces, while offering practical and compassionate advice.
I. Transgression and Fulfillment (Romans 11:11-12)
Transgression as Riches
“If the Jews transgression be riches for the world, and their failure be riches for the Gentiles. How much more will their fulfillment or fullness be?”
Apostle to the Gentiles
“But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then, as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry.”
Jealousy as Reconciliation
“If somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen, and save some of them, for if their rejection the Jews rejection, be the reconciliation of the world.”
A solemn privilege to gather and reflect on eternal truths.
The vast difference between speaking about seeking God and truly seeking Him.
The urgency of cultivating a heart that cannot rest until filled by God Himself.
“He will rob you of all satisfaction in lesser glories to drive you to seek Him.”
This sermon from Psalm 27 exhorts believers to find their confidence in God as their light, salvation, and strength amidst life’s trials. It emphasizes David’s personal experience with God’s deliverance and invites listeners to wait on the Lord with courage and assurance. Through communion with God and a focus on eternity, it calls the weary and faint-hearted to trust in the finished work of Christ, the only true source of hope and peace.
This sermon expounds on the immeasurable love of God as revealed in John 3:16, highlighting His profound sacrifice in giving His Son for a rebellious world. With vivid illustrations, it invites sinners to see the depth of divine love that transforms lives, calling everyone to respond in faith and repentance. It speaks with urgency, weaving together God’s justice and mercy, and ends with a heartfelt plea: “Do not perish; believe in Christ and receive everlasting life.”
James 3:1 delivers a sobering warning: those who teach will be judged with greater strictness. Words carry immense power, and those who preach or teach God’s truth bear a heavy responsibility. This verse reminds us that teaching is not a position of pride but a calling of careful stewardship, where every word spoken will be weighed before the Judge of all. Few should rush into this role without considering the accountability it demands.
Are you a busy struggling mom feeling overwhelmed, impatient, or lacking grace—especially toward your loved ones? In this video, we unpack biblical wisdom and encouragement for Christian mothers. Discover why focusing on Christ’s love, not your own performance, transforms your heart and home. Learn practical truths from 1 Timothy 2:15 and Galatians 5 about finding strength, faith, and joy in God’s promises. Let this be a reminder: you are not alone, and His Spirit is at work in you.
Rahab the harlot demonstrated a faith that was alive and active, trusting God fully and acting courageously to secure salvation for her family. Discover how her story in James chapter two challenges us to live out our faith through genuine works.
The following is an excerpt from A.T. Pierson's book, "Shall We Continue In Sin?":
And now, in one word, Paul turns our thoughts to the practical aspect of this union with Christ. What does all this mean, and how is this truth to be transformed into life? How is the believer to put this theory into practice? (Psalm 1; John 15).
The answer begins now to be given and is found in one word: Reckon—the equivalent of another word, Count, which first appears in Genesis 15:6: “Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” What Abram did that was counted as righteousness is clear from the original meaning—Abram amened God. When God declared something, though humanly impossible, Abram said, “Amen, it shall be so, just as God has said.” This act of faith, this saying Amen to God, is further described in Romans 4:3, 17-22. Refer to the entire passage. Compare this with Hebrews 11:8-19.
In these passages, several phrases clarify the meaning of the word Reckon: “Against all hope, he believed in hope,” “he did not consider his own body, already dead since he was about a hundred years old, nor the deadness of Sarah’s womb.” “He did not waver at God’s promise through unbelief but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully convinced that what He had promised, He was able to perform.”
Bob Jennings | Romans 15:4 | The Old Testament encourages believers today by playing a foundational role in shaping their lives. Its teachings, described in Romans 15:4, were written to instruct, inspire perseverance, and offer encouragement and hope. In this blog, we explore the ongoing relevance and impact of the Old Testament for Christians today.
Our mission is to uphold the unity that God has established within the body of Christ. While harmony may face challenges, the foundational oneness remains intact. Avoid judging others based solely on denominational differences. Instead, focus on fostering fellowship with all genuine believers, prioritizing the heart of the gospel over superficial divides.
So how do we redeem the time? By walking wisely. Not as fools, not wasting our days in laziness or frivolity, but by seeking God’s will and making every moment count for His kingdom. Study His Word. Seek His face. Look for every opportunity to speak of Christ to those around you. Be like a merchant seeking treasures—always on the lookout for ways to glorify God in your work, your conversations, your life.
Lee Dodd & Michael Durham | Lee Dodd and Michael Durham explore the process of returning to God when one's heart feels distant. They emphasize the importance of true repentance without falling into legalism, highlighting that genuine confession is not just about saying sorry but involves feeling about sin what God feels.
In recent times, the topic of disqualifying sins, particularly adultery, has become a pressing issue in church leadership. What does Scripture say about restoring a man who has fallen into such sin? Can he ever return to a position of leadership?
Can Christians play games like Deceit or other board games where lying is a key part of the gameplay? In this video, Pastor Tim tackles the question: “Should Christians play games that involve lying?” Discover biblical principles and practical advice on whether games that encourage deception align with a believer’s walk with Christ.
Brethren, this isn’t about whether works save us—that’s not the point here. James is not contradicting Paul. The issue is this: true faith, the kind that actually saves, is never alone. It’s completed by works. That’s what James is saying. Look at Abraham—he believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. But it was when he acted, when he offered Isaac, that his faith was shown to be real. Faith without works? It’s dead. It’s like a body without the spirit—there’s nothing there. The question James is asking is this: can a faith that has no works really save you? The answer is no, because real faith is always proven by what it does.
Brethren, this isn’t about whether works save us—that’s not the point here. James is not contradicting Paul. The issue is this: true faith, the kind that actually saves, is never alone. It’s completed by works. That’s what James is saying. Look at Abraham—he believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. But it was when he acted, when he offered Isaac, that his faith was shown to be real. Faith without works? It’s dead. It’s like a body without the spirit—there’s nothing there. The question James is asking is this: can a faith that has no works really save you? The answer is no, because real faith is always proven by what it does.
In this discussion, Michael Durham and Lee Dodd explore the question: How can the church nurture and encourage spiritual gifts? They share practical ways churches can identify, develop, and support the spiritual gifts of their members, focusing on building up the body of Christ.
Tim Conway | James Series | The believer lives by faith, facing situations like Israel entering the Promised Land. Do we have a faith that trusts God in the face of great opposition, or one that crumbles when things get tough?
Michael Durham | 2024 Fellowship Conference New York | #7 | Intimacy with God is not based upon your pursuit of God; it’s based upon God’s pursuit of you. - Michael Durham
“You’ll never pursue God unless He creates a hunger in your heart for Him. He is always the great initiator, the great pursuer.”
"The desire for God that sets you to seek Him... is the very proof that God is in your soul. That doesn’t originate with you—it’s God-given."
In this video, Pastor Tim tackles a challenging question many Christians face: Can we, as believers, support brands and products that may promote values or causes we don’t personally uphold?
Ask Pastor Tim | Should Christians rely on medical treatment first, or turn to God in times of illness? Drawing on the story of King Asa in 2 Chronicles 16, this discussion unpacks the delicate balance between faith and medicine, exploring how to honor God while also understanding His provision through doctors and treatments.
Question: Are there things we should be aware of as we set the sail for the wind of revival to come? Our humility, our attitude, our piety, our faithfulness. Are there things we are responsible for? Obviously, it is of the LORD, and revival is all of the Lord. Answer: I don't think this generation has truly understood prayer.
Have you ever considered Luke 13:24? In response to someone asking if only a few are saved, Jesus says, "Strive to enter through the narrow door." What does that mean? And why does Jesus say only a few will do so? What does Hebrews also say? "Let us." How do you get in? By what? Striving. Now look at Hebrews 4:3: "We who have believed." Anybody feel better now? Here's the thing—apparently, the author of Hebrews believes that making every effort to labor to enter God's rest and believing to enter God's rest are not incompatible. Striving and believing go hand in hand.
How many times have we heard, "I had to sacrifice so much for my family to do God's will"? If you've ever said that, you really need to go before the Lord and repent because He's going to call you on the carpet. What you've done is accused Him. - Paul Washer
This sermon from James 2 invites us to reflect on the significance of partiality in our lives and its deeper implications. Tim focuses on how favoritism violates the royal law, "Love your neighbor as yourself," and stresses that partiality is not just a small flaw but a serious matter of love, law, mercy, and judgment. James connects partiality to judgment, reminding us that mercy triumphs over judgment, and that God will look for this mercy in His people on the final day. The message explains how true Christianity is a phenomenon—a transformation from selfishness to genuine compassion.
Paul Washer | 22:43 | Q&A | 2024 Fellowship Conference New York | In this video, we dive into the misconceptions surrounding short-term mission trips and the biblical definition of a true missionary. Using real-life examples, we address the danger of sending untrained youth to the mission field and why missions should be focused on elder-qualified men who are proclaimers of the gospel. We also discuss the importance of understanding that the Great Commission is a theological endeavor and explore the vital roles of evangelists, pastors, and teachers in missions.
My friends, have you ever watched a free climber hanging on the side of a cliff, hundreds of feet in the air, with nothing but his fingertips and toes keeping him from falling to his death? It's a terrifying sight, but it's also a powerful picture of what it means to hold fast to our hope in Christ.
In this sermon, we'll be looking at Hebrews 10:23, where the writer exhorts us to "hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering." We'll explore what it means to have a confession of hope, how to maintain an unwavering grip on it, and why the faithfulness of God is our ultimate foundation.
We'll also be looking at the many ways in which our hope can be challenged, both from within and from without. But we'll see that, by the grace of God, we can stand firm in the faith and hold fast to the confession of our hope, even in the midst of the storms of life.
How do you approach areas of life or certain situations that arise that might not be sinful in and of themselves and might even be necessary, but can easily become entanglements in your heart or easily become idols? For example, in the past, I talked to sisters about fasting and how it might start out well, but then the motive of losing weight creeps in.
(0:00) The Question
(7:04) Part 1 – Avoid Legalism
(30:55) Part 2 – Bring Your Conscience Before God
(42:50) Part 3 – God Promises to Cleanse Us of Our Idols
(1:11:41) Part 4 – So What Do I Do?
This sermon explores the Christian life through the lens of God’s “unbreakable chain” as outlined in Romans 8:28-30. It vividly describes the five links in God’s plan of salvation—foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification—showing how they secure the believer’s eternal destination.
Stuart Olyott | 2024 Fellowship Conference United Kingdom | This sermon explores the Christian life through the lens of God’s "unbreakable chain" as outlined in Romans 8:28-30. It vividly describes the five links in God's plan of salvation—foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification—showing how they secure the believer’s eternal destination.
Emotional affairs often begin subtly, forming deep, inappropriate attachments that can devastate marriages and dishonor God. These connections, though initially hidden and seemingly harmless, can lead to destructive consequences, both emotionally and spiritually, for all involved. As Christians, we must guard our hearts with diligence, seeking fulfillment in Christ and maintaining purity in our relationships.
0:00 – Introduction
3:56 – Example of how subtle this is…
9:03 – What does the Bible say?
13:00 – Is there a root cause?
15:38 – Vulnerable circumstances
16:23 – Workplace evangelism
17:02 – Women discipling men?
17:59 – What about an age gap?
20:07 – Don’t overreact!
21:18 – Is your conscience clear?
22:49 – Where does this all end up?
25:08 – Conclusion
Emotional affairs often begin subtly, forming deep, inappropriate attachments that can devastate marriages and dishonor God. These connections, though initially hidden and seemingly harmless, can lead to destructive consequences, both emotionally and spiritually, for all involved. As Christians, we must guard our hearts with diligence, seeking fulfillment in Christ and maintaining purity in our relationships.
0:00 - Introduction
3:56 - Example of how subtle this is...
9:03 - What does the Bible say?
13:00 - Is there a root cause?
15:38 - Vulnerable circumstances
16:23 - Workplace evangelism
17:02 - Women discipling men?
17:59 - What about an age gap?
20:07 - Don't overreact!
21:18 - Is your conscience clear?
22:49 - Where does this all end up?
25:08 - Conclusion
I want it to be so clear what the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is, so that you can conclude, I hope, that you have not committed it, and so that you can rest assured that every other sin will be forgiven. - Ryan Fullerton
The fight to stay unstained from the world is mainly a matter of not being double-headed. It’s a battle of the mind, a fight to stay singular in our devotion to Christ. - Tim Conway
David conquered the giant Goliath but fell to a bigger giant, that of fleshly lusts. When you look at his life as a whole, you just cannot believe that this great sin happened to him. He went from having such a sensitive conscience, when his heart struck him for cutting Saul's robe, to being so hardened that he sent Uriah to the front lines to die in order to try to cover up his sin of adultery.
I love theology, but how’s that theology getting down to the children? You boast about having all the children in the service—wonderful. But what are they doing? My whole question is, what is the fruit of it? There’s a lot of pride now about not having youth groups or children's church. If you want to boast about that, fine, but I know places—like John MacArthur's church—where they have children talking about truths I don’t even hear adults talking about, and they learned it in that children's group. We need to rethink things. - Paul Washer
Lee Dodd | 2024 Fellowship Conference | Session #5 | My sermon has two simple parts, first an informed look at the Cross, and secondly, a felt look at the Cross.
Standing against the doctrine of cheap grace, which dismisses the pursuit of holiness, is crucial. At the same time, we must be vigilant against the spirit of legalism. This discussion will delve into the formalism of self-righteousness and explore how to maintain a genuine faith while upholding a commitment to holiness.
And He said to them, “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby so that I may preach there also, for that is what I came for.” Now, it switches from the ministry of healing and demonstrations of power and signs and wonders to what we all know is the priority: proclamation. And how well is that going to go for any of us without prayer? I want to be very careful with what I say. You can teach a parrot to speak sound theology, but it doesn’t mean that any of it has impacted him.
Let me say something else, and this is hyperbole—it’s a bit exaggerated, but I want you to see the main point. I have two young men in front of me. Both of them have the same sound theology; both of them speak the same. One of them got it from reading all the best systematics, and the other got it from reading the Word of God and then comparing what he learned to other books. I can tell the difference.
Look, it’s not just about knowledge, even the good knowledge that I found in many of the systematics. It’s about the Bible. The Bible is the living Word of God—it is alive, supernatural, and transformative. And yes, I love the Puritans and the Reformers, and John Gill, and so many others, but their writings are not the same. They’re just not. And so, you must spend time with Him.
Now, before I go on, I want to say this: someone who hasn’t worked out for 20 years comes to my garage and says, “Brother Paul, I want to work out with you, and I want to do everything you do.” The next day—well, the next month—they can’t walk. They’re like a spider that’s been stepped on. They’re so sore that they’re never coming back again. Now, why did I give you that illustration? If you’re sitting here tonight and you’re thinking, “I neglect the Word all the time. I neglect prayer all the time. If I even read a chapter a week, it’s amazing. And I’m always on the run,” I don’t want you, first of all, running out of here thinking that God has scolded you terribly and is waiting to judge you. I want you to know that what I’m speaking are words of love.
Secondly, I don’t want you going home or getting up tomorrow morning and reading 35 chapters and trying to pray for two hours, because it won’t last. It never lasts. What I want you to do is start where you are. I want you to go back to your pastors or go back to other men or women and say, “Hold me accountable. I have seen that this is absolutely essential, and I need help until I get moving in this.” If, next week, you are reading one chapter a day every day and praying for 10 minutes, it’s still better than the zero of this week. Grow. Talk to your pastors. Talk to other men. Make commitments with each other to get in the Word of God and study it. Make commitments to pray. Make commitments to simply walk with Him in communion, and everything in your life will gradually begin to change, and He’ll become real. He’ll become real.
Do you wrestle with your own soul in order to embrace by faith the benefits of the LORD? Do you say to yourself, “O my soul, do not forget all of His benefits!”
Do you wrestle with your own soul in order to embrace by faith the benefits of the LORD? Do you say to yourself, "O my soul, do not forget all of His benefits!"
Despite their flaws and brokenness, God used a remarkable list of people to accomplish His purposes. If God can use these broken, flawed individuals, he can use you too believer.
Taken from: The Growth of The Kingdom & Those In It - Craig Mussulman
-
Noah - Drunkenness
-
Abraham - Dishonesty
-
Jacob - Lying
-
Leah - Unattractiveness
-
Joseph - Abused
-
Moses - Stuttering
-
Gideon - Fear
-
Samson - Womanizer
-
Rahab - Prostitution
-
Jeremiah - Youth
-
Timothy - Youth
-
David - Adultery
-
Elijah - Suicidal
-
Isaiah - Nakedness
-
Jonah - Disobedience
-
Naomi - Widowhood
-
Job - Bankruptcy
-
John the Baptist - Doubt
-
Peter - Denial
-
Disciples - Sleepiness
-
Thomas - Doubt
-
Martha - Worry
-
Mary Magdalene - Prostitution
-
Samaritan Woman - Divorce
-
Zacchaeus - Smallness
-
Paul - Murder
-
Lazarus - Death
Michael shares a powerful testimony of how he unknowingly shifted from relying on God to building his church on his own strength. During this season, the church grew in numbers, but something was missing. It wasn’t until Paul Washer preached a convicting message that the Lord opened Michael’s eyes, revealing that his congregation feared him more than they feared God. This realization led to a deep spiritual awakening and a humbling experience, where God stripped away what Michael had built to restore the church on a foundation of true faith and reliance on Christ.
There is something to live for! Eternal glory—and that’s what this prayer is all about. What you need to understand is that preaching, witnessing, preaching on the streets, and going into mission areas are all part of the cleanup—it's all cleanup. The real battle is fought on your knees. The battle is fought on your knees. - Paul Washer
About the sermon: This sermon explores the deep significance of Jesus' life as our ultimate example, focusing on His humility and total dependence on the Father. Even though Jesus was fully God, He chose to live as the "Second Adam," perfectly obedient and reliant on God to undo the damage caused by the first Adam's fall. The message emphasizes the vital importance of communion with God, showing that true strength and wisdom come from a life of prayer and intimacy with Him. It's a call to believers to recognize their own weaknesses, lean on God for strength, and live each day seeking His glory and advancing His kingdom. Through this, we are reminded that our spiritual life thrives only when rooted in a deep, ongoing relationship with our Heavenly Father.
When Amos spoke, he was referring to David’s tabernacle as an example, highlighting that Christ’s original intention—the Gospel—was to reconcile both Jew and Gentile to Himself, putting to death the enmity between them.
Acts 15:13-18 – After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. And with this, the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, ‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.'”
“The joy of my salvation just doesn’t come. There are times when I don’t feel it, even though I repent and walk in purity. It seems that the joy of salvation in the Christian life remains elusive. I see Psalm 51 addressing this. What should I do when I have repented biblically, but the joy still doesn’t return? Is there some sin I’m unaware of that’s holding it back?”
"The joy of my salvation just doesn’t come. There are times when I don’t feel it, even though I repent and walk in purity. It seems that the joy of salvation in the Christian life remains elusive. I see Psalm 51 addressing this. What should I do when I have repented biblically, but the joy still doesn’t return? Is there some sin I’m unaware of that’s holding it back?"
This question comes from Luke. I’m going to deal with this because we just dealt a little bit with this at our Spanish speaking Grace Group, and I saw this and I thought, this is along the same line of what we were talking about the other day.
Hello. I’ve sent an email here before, and I’m thankful for the response that was given. Recently, I’ve been listening to more lectures and sermons, and it benefited in my knowledge from them greatly. In the past. I have searched for the answer to the following question for a very long time.
So if you’re being discerning, this is the last one, guys. So hang with me. We’re almost done. 20 more minutes. So you’re listening to this guy thus far. “I searched for the answer for in question for a very long time.” Nothing really take issue with. “I’ve researched and read the Bible and prayed about it, but I can never come to a solid conclusion on what the answer is.” Okay, here’s the question: “Does faith by itself save you? Does faith by itself save you?”
[Please note that the following transcript was auto generated and has not been proofed.]
Again, you’ve got to be critical here. You’ve got to be thinking, not negatively critical, but you have to be thinking and just thinking Scripture.
Question: Hello, dear friends, and I’ll be honest. First off, thank you for your ministry. God has used your material wonderfully over the years in my life. Some of Pastor Tim, James’ brother Paul’s sermons were instrumental in my conversion. They have been a great help to me in my walk and in growing in holiness and desire for Christ. Why do we see healings, conversions, and other fruit and manifestations of power sometimes from ministries that present questionable teaching? I’m not speaking of the larger, more public word of faith or New Apostolic Reformation so-called ministries that are so popular these days. He says this, “I’ve noticed in my city in Canada, a good number of instances of what appear on the surface to be genuine miracles come out of churches whose leadership tends toward the direction of word of faith.”
Okay, let’s not just assume things. Somebody give me a good definition of the word of faith. What is that?
Given over to the prosperity gospel and name it claim, it, whatever you say will happen. They think that if they say it, it somehow is going to automatically make it happen. Anybody know about the New Apostolic Reformation? I mean, I know it’s a you know about that. I mean, it’s a Pentecostal/charismatic type group. I know they have like sevenfold, seven mountains of something. Anyway, what do you know about them? I just watched some stuff on the Urban Gospel TV network, and some people say it doesn’t even exist. Basically, it’s, there is not a base. People do things that there are modern apostles and that this Apostolic Reformation will be, just like the Protestant Reformation with New Apostolic teachings.
He says that I’ve noticed in my city in Canada, a good number of instances of what appear on the surface to be genuine miracles come out of churches whose leadership tends toward the direction of word of faith. Here’s his question: Are these instances of the Lord honoring faith? So he’s asking, are these instances of the Lord honoring faith even though their knowledge is flawed, or are they false miracles? Do they fall into the category of Matthew 7:21-23? And of course, that’s where people are doing many mighty works in his name. And he says, I never knew you. In the end, these people seem to have genuinely performed miracles in the name of Christ. How do we handle these cases?
The issue is admittedly of particular interest to me, as the young woman I’m pursuing with the hopes of future marriage gets pulled into these circles a lot because of close friends she has in them. Her uncle also pastors one of these churches. So obviously this guy is getting a perspective through this girl. She’s got an uncle in this. So things are being communicated back to him. He’s observing things, whether it’s through her eyes or however. She sees the issues and potential dangers in associating with them but is swayed by what appears to be the spirit moving in their midst in evangelism and healing, where many other churches here lack initiative.
I’m greatly appreciative of whatever insight you might have to give on the subject. One of the things that pop out at once is the girl is swayed by what appears to be the spirit moving in their midst in evangelism and healing. So what happens is you observe what you think is miraculous. You’re swayed to believe it’s genuine because of the miraculous. And then what happens is you embrace their theology as probably genuine, maybe slightly flawed, but as a whole, embraceable. Why? Because you’ve authenticated this thing by the fact that you observe the miraculous. Any problem with that sort of thinking? Like maybe it’s backwards? Does that occur to you that that’s backwards? Does it occur to you that if you think that way, or you’re swayed that way, that you’re playing right into the hands of the devil? Does that occur to you?
Because if I am swayed by what appears to me to be miraculous. Brethren, let’s just ask this question he’s posing. But, like, think about this. Why do we see healings, conversions, and other fruit and manifestations of power sometimes from ministries that present questionable teaching? Well, maybe they’re converted. Maybe they’re not. Maybe they’re healed. Maybe they’re not. Manifestations of power. The arm of the devil’s powerful God is more powerful. But the devil is pretty powerful. And the devil can do powerful things that, even if possible, might deceive the elect. Somebody said somewhere one time. And so my wife doesn’t like when I say that. She said, Tim, don’t say that. And they think that you don’t know what you’re talking about.
So I want to talk about the possibilities here. This guy has presented something. What are the possibilities? Obviously, one possibility is the whole thing is totally demonic. It’s a demonic false religion and anything apparently supernatural is either a deception, it isn’t really, or it’s a supernatural expression of some demonic activity in their midst. That’s one possibility. Two, it may be that the people he’s dealing with actually have the truth, even though he says that they’re off in some areas or, you know, they tend towards some certain direction. Maybe he’s wrong. Maybe they’re right. And maybe what he’s observing in them is altogether genuine. Maybe he’s right in that this is a situation where their doctrine is right in the core, but they’re kind of off in some other places, maybe some things we might say are more minor, and because they believe and they have faith, God does something there that he doesn’t do in a lot of reformed and Calvinistic groups, because Jesus doesn’t do many mighty works in certain places because of unbelief. Maybe there’s a whole lot of Calvinistic unbelief out there, and maybe some people that are in charismatic circles, maybe they have enough of the gospel where they’ve genuinely got saved, Pentecostal circles, and they have more faith than we have. Maybe there’s a possibility there.
Now, here’s the thing. We’re not there. One of the, what does Scripture tell us to do? What’s that? That’s to test the spirit. Where is that text found? First John 4. You should all know that we’re told to test the spirits. Okay, let me ask you this. What does that mean? Tell me what that means. Well, out doctrine and the devil’s way out there. Doctrine. Let me ask you this. If you came along and you found this church, and you found that, and you start looking around and it’s like, there’s sexual immorality, there’s fornication, there’s adultery here. And these brothers are suing each other. They’re off on the resurrection. You got people teaching weird doctrine here. And you guys over there, they’re speaking in tongues, and gays are prophesying. It’s like you look at it and they’re suing each other. And there’s obviously a problem with the women in the church, and there’s idolatry here, and there’s division. And the rich people aren’t waiting for the poor, and people are getting drunk at the Lord’s Supper. What do you think? They’re speaking in tongues. You think it’s genuine? You think it’s genuine? Test the spirits. What conclusion are you going to come to? Well, I didn’t know it was first Corinthians, I think it. You think it’s false? You might get. I was just getting a letter on the 13th. One, two, four. It says if there arises among you a prophet or dreamer of dreams who gives you a sign or a wonder and the sign of the wonder comes to pass, now which he spoke to you saying. This life. You are the God that you are not known. Let us serve him. We shall not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams, but the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.
So clearly, if somebody is trying to move us away from worshiping the God of Scripture, we would really need to know who the God of Scripture is. You know? Just watch. Just think with me. I find, without exception, the devil attacks two things always. He attacks the person and work of Jesus Christ, and he attacks the scriptures. Look at any movement. Look at any church. Look at whatever they profess to be or are. Look at what they say. Somebody comes along and says, what do you think about Seventh Day Adventists? What do you think about Seventh Day Baptists? What do you think about Church of Christ? What do you think about these different things? You know, all sorts of movements spring up in this group or that group, and just go right there every time. What do they believe about Jesus Christ? What do they believe about his work? His person? What do they believe about scriptures? You examine them at that level. You will expose the devil every single time. He attacks those two things. He can’t tolerate them. He hates them. You want to look for testing the spirits? What spirit is this of? And be very careful. In much of the false Pentecostal charismatic circles, the spirit in those religions exalts himself. The spirit of Scripture exalts Christ. Make no mistake about it. That’s what Jesus says. He will glorify me. And so then you want to look for that.
The devil in the garden attacked the word. You look at the error. Just think about like first John. What’s the error? It’s to say the wrong thing about Christ. If you’re looking for the Antichrist. So if we’re testing the spirits, listen. There is a large amount of unbelief in reformed circles. I believe it with my whole heart. You can tell how much people really believe by what they’re willing to trust God to do, how much they’re willing to step out in, trust in. I can
remember Brother Andy, a missionary that we support, and he was talking about people like Amy Carmichael. If you look carefully, Amy Carmichael, obviously a woman, she was in India. She rescued all sorts of children from these Hindu temples. She took over a thousand children in. She would preach to men. You see, I don’t like that. She’s a false prophet. Andy has made the point that there are certain people throughout church history that know 100 times less than us, but they do a thousand times more.
So be careful. Listen, if you test people at the level of what they believe about Christ and the level of what they believe about Scripture, they may be charismatic, they may be Arminian, but just be careful. Be careful, because sometimes people don’t agree with you in certain areas. Women in a mixed congregation of the church should not be. I mean, we don’t approve of women elders and women preaching to men, but historically things like that have happened. Is that a reason to cut them off? Like, you start looking at their life and you almost have to hang your head in shame at what they accomplished for the Lord. I know this. I quoted from a book at this last conference, the fellowship conference by John Nevins. John Nevins was actually a Presbyterian. He lived in the days of Hudson Taylor. He was working in China, and he began to have experiences with the demonic. So what he did was he reached out to all of these good, solid, doctrinally solid missionaries that were working in China. He wanted to hear their stories. You start reading, and I read today, and one of the missionaries that wrote to Nevins was relating his experiences. He said that what he found is when you had these brand new Chinese converts in simple faith, they opened up their Bibles and saw how demons were dealt with in Scripture, and they were just naive enough to turn around and simply apply what they found in Scripture to their own lives. And God blessed it.
Jeff was telling me he was recently reading a book put out by a Methodist from Asbury College who was writing on the miraculous. Jeff recounted situations in other countries where they would actually ask the American missionaries not to pray with them, and the Americans feel, why? Because you don’t believe in and. I think there’s something to that. And so, you know what? Sometimes you get things happening in Canada. It’s really none of our business. I mean, it doesn’t have anything to do with us. It has something to do with this guy, but it doesn’t have anything to do with us, and we’re not close enough to really be able to test the spirits. But we recognize that, you know what? I’ve had similar thoughts before that I have a feeling there are some groups out there where their faith is just simple enough, and they’re seeing God do things that we don’t get to see, because in simple faith, they have an expectation that God is going to do them. They may not cross every single T with us in God, every single I with us. But they have a simple faith in the Lord Jesus.
The thing is, he’s talking about in Canada and he’s observing. He’s observing not just one church or one person. He’s kind of being general. So I don’t know. You don’t know. I don’t know because we don’t know them. We’re not even, we don’t have the perspective to be able to test the spirits. But just because somebody disagrees on some peripheral things, you’ve got to look at the heart. You’ve got to look at the gospel. You’ve got to look at what is their take on Scripture. I mean, brethren, I can tell you this, that one of my great heroes is John Wesley. As Arminian as he was, and some of the perspectives he had on things like, you know, perfectionism or election. He probably had far more fruit than any of us will ever have. I know he was a hero of Spurgeon’s and sometimes we almost start by, you know, how perfect is somebody’s doctrine in aligning with what we think of Calvinistic Christianity. And brethren, sometimes there’s people out there with a whole lot less knowledge that have a whole lot more faith. So be careful that you don’t measure things by the wrong thing. You test in the spirit. Go to the heart of the matter. You can never get away from this. What do they say about Christ? What do they say about the Scriptures? If you’ve got them solid on those two points, be very careful that you dismiss them because the devil isn’t in the business of making people solid on those points. Any comments or questions with regards to that?
Brethren, you know what we don’t want? We don’t want to get to the end and have written off. I can remember one time calling one of these Reformed Baptist churches when I was down here at Community Baptist Church. I mean, they grilled me on what my position was on the Sabbath. And it’s almost, and you know, a lot of these guys from that group, they admit that they were swallowed up. They looked down their noses at everybody. They were hypercritical, hyperjudgmental. If you didn’t believe exactly how they believed with regards to the law, in regards to this, in regards to that. Brethren, as much as we do to one of the least of these children, we do it to him. I want to be very careful that we’re not dismissive of some of his genuine people, just because they don’t agree with us in every place. Be careful with that. Sometimes we can get this mindset, well, if you’re not of us, you know, should we call down fire on these people? Should we tell them to stop? Should we do this or whatever? And it’s like, don’t be of that spirit. Be careful. I tell you, one of the things they found when massive persecution came to Romania and they started throwing all these professing Christians into prison, you know, if you know about Richard Wurmbrand, you know, when you’re sitting in that dungeon, you care if the guy was a Methodist or a Lutheran, an Arminian? If you’re all sitting there and you’re in your chains and you’re breaking bread together, and your only hope is Christ, you don’t care if they were charismatic. God does save people in other circles than ours, folks.
Anything else on that point? I never heard your opinion on cessationism. Brother, if we’re going to cling to Scripture, then let’s cling to Scripture. I will say this. You will not find any verse in your Bible that says that anything given to the early church has ceased. It doesn’t exist. You may think certain things have ceased. You know what’s interesting? I was talking to Mac Tomlinson the other day. You know, Mac might preform with regards to this. Mac can’t sit. He hasn’t been able to sit for 50 days. He has told me again, God has been visiting him during this entire 50 days, and it has provided him an opportunity to really pour himself into his next book. You know what? He’s doing a book on the miraculous and the Scottish Covenanters. This is key for the Scottish Covenanters. Many of these guys were the Westminster divines. These are the guys that a lot of the reform movement in both Presbyterian and Baptist circles look up to. They, I mean, these are not guys that are easily dismissed. What Mac is doing is he’s researching all the supernatural that happened among these guys. How they freely spoke about prophesying and just, they were very persecuted. Sometimes they didn’t have Bibles. God was using them in all sorts of ways.
What’s the point? Well, these guys, the Scottish Covenanters, come along 15, 1600 years after the apostles, and they’re still seeing those things at that time. Brother Andy, some of you were here the last time he came here. One of our sisters said, can you tell us about things you’ve witnessed over there? He said, I could, but it would be sensationalized. So he chose not to. But I’ve sat with him in private and your mouth would hang open, and I’ll tell you, you hear some of Paul Washer’s stories about when he was in Peru. The same thing. Tozer said it and I, but you’ve probably often heard me say this, but Tozer said, you want to see the miraculous look on the front lines. You know, you can get a guy that comes along, one of these cessationist guys like John MacArthur, and say, well, where is it? I mean, if all this stuff is happening today, show me where. The problem is, when we are in our nice, air-conditioned building and there’s no real persecution, I mean, people aren’t busting in here and throwing us in jail. We basically have a very comfortable setting, and we have full Bibles and everything that we have. It probably ought not to surprise us. But, you know, when you get out there in the raw and you’re facing the devil, where, you know, in Hinduism and the rawness of Buddhism and Islam, and it’s right there in your face, you’re dealing with these things out there where the devil is not hiding behind the white shirt and the tie on Wall Street. It’s like this stuff is kind of in your face. There’s you get in environments where there’s persecution and there’s, what Andy said was, to the degree that you saw demonic activity, he said over and above, you saw God do things through the church supernaturally.
He cannot come here and talk among his supporters about the things he’s witnessed over there. Mac was telling me that Paul Washer was recently speaking in the context of something like the John MacArthur churches, and he was talking about the supernatural things, and he could tell a coldness was developing with his audience. Paul began to tell them about what God did in Spurgeon’s ministry and what God did through
the Scottish Covenanters. He said the guys were disarmed, because once you start talking about these guys that are your heroes and they experience these things, we’re always revisionist. Men love to revise history. So guess what? Banner of Truth comes along and they write a biography of Martin Lloyd-Jones. They don’t want to tell you about all the supernatural stuff that he experienced. Why? Because they don’t like it. So somebody comes along and writes their books on Spurgeon, and they’re not going to tell you about all the supernatural experiences. Yet they don’t like it. They’re not comfortable with it. They want to erase it. They don’t want to see. This is why it’s so great that Mac is actually keen in on these aspects of the Covenanters, because these guys are behind the Westminster Confession. It’s the staple confession of Calvinistic Presbyterianism today, from which the 1689 London Baptist Confession came. When you get the guys that make up some of the stalwart personalities that were behind these things and you find out that they’re out there having these kinds of experiences, well, you know what? There’s not a lot of people talking about it. Mac’s hoping to produce a whole book on it. He’s getting original resources. He’s been over to England and different libraries. He’s collecting all those together. And then God puts him in a situation where he’s got back problems and hip problems, and he’s out of commission, like on his back for 50 days. He feels like glory, and God’s meeting with him. He said, I have so much liberty to write this book. I told Mac, you’ve got to finish that before you die. We need that book.
He asked me just the other day, would you write all sorts down and just take an hour and the thoughts on prophesying and whatever your thoughts are on that. I just say be biblical because there is a text somewhere, and folks, this tells us not to despise prophesying. Now, you might have to figure out theologically how you define that term. The way to do it is to look at every place it’s used in your Bible, especially the New Testament. Look at every place that word is used in some form or another in the New Testament. Do an exhaustive study of every single place it’s used and get a good feel for what it was, what it was intended to do. Develop and derive your definition there because you’re not supposed to despise it. Answer me. Are you despising it if you write it off as something that doesn’t apply today? I would say so. It seems to me that would be the perfect example of despising it. Now we may have to define it. Is it broader than predicting the future? I think it is. If you study, I’ve studied probably not only every New Testament use but every use in the entire Bible. If you’re going to get a feel, you’re going to develop a feel. I want to be biblical. That’s where you’re going to be biblical. You do topical studies out of your Bible and you start looking. If we’re honest with Scripture, it’s like, where’s that verse that says all these things have stopped and ceased? Look, I recognize that when and we’re all safe and quite comfortable, well, is there a reason for certain things to happen?
Historically, you can look at times when tongues have been given, but you know what it’s like. The situation demanded it. What these charismatics are doing with it. For one, they don’t have interpreters. Get rid of tongues speaking with no interpretation, which the Bible says silence. If you don’t have an interpreter, get rid of all the non-interpreted tongues. You just got rid of 99% of all the tongues. Let’s just be biblical. The thing is, if we’re all sitting here and we all speak the same language, who needs tongues? You don’t. We don’t. But go read Richard Wurmbrand. You get thrown into a communist prison. Just read about the things that happen. I’ll tell you, if you were in prison, you were in a dungeon, you’d want those things to happen too. The situation demanded it, and Christ came and visited his people in wonderful ways.
One of the reasons we say a lot of the things we do is we don’t simply don’t know the history. We’re so much caught up in this revisionist thing. We’re so selective on who we’ll read and it’s all been tampered with. They give us their rendition of what history looks like. Sometimes we get a step out of that and go back. Anyway, brethren, you know what my prayer is on a regular basis. Lord, I don’t know what you’re willing to do right at this hour and in this place, but Lord, please, whatever the fullness of that is, give it to us. Please don’t. I mean, it was said of the Corinthians that they came behind a no gift. So I didn’t say, Lord, whatever gifts you’re giving today, please give them to us. Because there’s always purposes. It’s not just so you can sit back and say, well, I want to. That’s neat. There’s always spiritual purposes. There’s spiritual warfare. There’s encouragement. God gives these things for a reason to help his people. You read about what prophesying is. I mean, it’s to encourage the church. Anything else on that?
Why do we sometimes witness healings, conversions, and other manifestations of power in ministries that present questionable teachings? I am not referring to the larger, more public word of faith or New Apostolic Reformation ministries that are widely known today. Specifically, I've observed in my city in Canada that some churches with leadership leaning towards word of faith teachings seem to experience what appear to be genuine miracles. Why might this be?
Tim Conway | James Series Part 10 | James 1:27 – Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
The 2024 Fellowship Conference UK is a time of fellowship, preaching, and singing that centers on the glory of God.
Generation QuestionsWhen? September 6-7, 2024
Where? Watchorn Church, Alfreton Derbyshire, United Kingdom
Who is preaching?
Jeremy Walker
Ryan Clarke
Tim Conway
Geoff Thomas
Stuart Olyott
Where can I register?
Register
In the family-integrated movement, it is often taught to have no form of children’s Sunday school. Should the whole family be together the entire time on Sunday morning? Is it unbiblical to have a children’s Sunday school? What about the topic of “ragged schools” and outreaches to lost children? As a church, are you willing to reach out to lost kids in rundown neighborhoods and even bring them into the church, risking your kids getting lice from them in order to share the Gospel?
Often in the family integrated movement, it is taught to have no form of children's Sunday school. Should the whole family be together the entire time? Is it unbiblical to have a children's Sunday school? What about the topic of "ragged schools" and outreaches to lost children? As a church, are you willing to reach out to the lost kids in rundown neighborhoods and even bring them into the church, where it might be "clean," risking your kids getting lice from them in order to share the Gospel with them?
The gospel is simple and available to all. No, it is not. I tried to be saved, and it did not work. Yes, it is complicated. How do I repent correctly and have enough grief? She is exactly right. What must I do? I have done everything. Do done. You seem to be trying to save yourself. Stop trying to do and trust that Christ has done everything required on your behalf. Listen to what this pastor shared on how simple the gospel is.
The gospel, however, must be simple if it is to be made available to all. Aren’t you thankful that you don’t have to have a Ph.D. in philosophy to be saved? I mean, that would be awful if you had to be an expert in all the various philosophies and know how to thread the needle through the good and the bad of all the different philosophies of the world and all the religious teachers. If you had to sort all that out. What a disaster that would be. But we have something else entirely. We have a simple, basic gospel, easily understood and made available to all. And if even children can be saved, then it must be simple. How can you have a gospel that children can be saved by a message they need to believe if they can’t understand it? It has to be simple and basic, and the gospel must be simple because it’s not something you have to accomplish, but rather receive. It’s simple because someone else did it all. You just have to receive it. If it were instructions about all the things you had to do in order to be saved, you might expect it to be very complicated. You have to do this, and you have to do it this way and not that way and not that way and not that way and not that way, but this way. Not that way and not that way. Just being impossibly hard. All the things you have to do perfectly. But someone else in the gospel. The good news is someone else had done all the things perfectly that we couldn’t do right. Christ came and lived a sinless life and died as a substitute sacrifice for you. That you might just believe that and receive it. Have your sins forgiven, be made right with God, be ushered into the kingdom of light? What a thing! What a simple gospel.
Many in the world are offended at what a child can understand. Let’s think of it this way. Suppose you had been dealing with a problem for years and years. It was causing you lots of time and money and effort to deal with this thing. And for years and years, you have been dealing with it in a certain way, or you’ve been trying all sorts of new things all the time, trying to figure it out ineffectively, and then all of a sudden, someone else comes up with the very basic, simple idea that when you hear it, it feels too simple. It feels foolish, like a child came up with this thing. It’s ridiculous. You might laugh at the person and say something like, no, no, that would never work. And the idea is rejected. But suppose someone, your neighbor, decides, you know, maybe that is a good idea. And they just they implement it and it gets used and it works. And immediately the entire problem goes away. Now you can see that the idea was rejected merely because it was simple when in fact it was the best solution, the only solution.
Now, some people still don’t like it because it feels beneath them. They might say something like, well, I wouldn’t, you know, I wouldn’t think of something like, I’m smart. And I didn’t think of that, but I wouldn’t think of that because that’s too simple. A simple-minded person would come up with that solution. I’m not like that. I’m sophisticated. That’s beneath me. It’s like, well, but the only solution there is, it’s like, well, okay, but that’s, you know, but I still deal in the realm of complicated things. And that’s, that was why I didn’t come up with that. That sort of a thing. I wouldn’t think of something like that because it’s just too simple. The reason that person thought of it is because they’re so simple-minded. The person who’s intellectually prideful will look down on even the best solution merely because it’s simple.
This is the way it is with the gospel. Many people reject the gospel because it’s simple. It’s just too basic. It’s too childish. A little kid can believe it. How can this be the grand solution? The power of God in the world is something a child can understand. Seems ridiculous. It’s got to be more complicated than that. And you can imagine all the long-robed professors at colleges and various places, you know, not liking the idea that the greatest thing they could know is something that little children could understand, the thing that would transform their life and society. It’s not all they’re learning, but this very simple message to say that the message was, can save the world and fix the greatest and most difficult issues facing humanity, can be easily understood by a child, is deeply offensive to many. It’s simply too low a thing for them. It requires nothing from them but humility, sincerity, and honesty. But what they love is intellectual complexity and puzzles and competing schools of thought and the grandiose language of teachers and personalities.
It is what Paul says to the Corinthians: Greeks seek wisdom. Many today are put off by what they consider the utter childishness of the Christian message. To be sure, a person must humble themselves as a child to enter the kingdom, right? Unless you turn, Jesus says, and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. You see, the gospel is not about making much of you, but requires you rather to realize your foolishness before God or anyone who refuses to do that ever enters the kingdom. You need instruction from God. You need His help. And it’s a simple message that He’s offered to help you with. It’s basic. God sent His Son into the world so that anyone who would believe in Him would live forever and not perish in judgment. It’s pretty simple.
This excerpt is from Pastor Chad Thompson’s Roman series, which you can listen to on Christ Fellowship of Hannibal’s YouTube channel.
"The gospel, however, must be simple if it is to be made available to all. Aren't you thankful that you don't have to have a Ph.D. in philosophy to be saved? We have a simple, basic gospel, easily understood and made available to all. And if even children can be saved, then it must be simple. The gospel must be simple because it's not something you have to accomplish, but rather receive. Someone else did it all. You just have to receive it." - Chad Thompson
Sixteen years after the death of Mary Ann (mentioned in the preceding sketch), I was summoned to the sick-bed of her sister. She was a younger sister, whom I had never seen since she was a mere child, and of whose religious character I had no knowledge. She had married; and after many trying changes, she was now in the city of New York. A kind lady, one of my own friends who resided in that city, and who had formerly known something of her family in another State, had accidentally heard of her illness, had called upon her, and now did me the favor to bring me the sick woman’s request, that I “would go and see her.” She told me I should find her in a very destitute condition, very much unbefriended and alone, though she had herself done something for her, to make her a little more comfortable. I received this message in the evening, and early the next morning I made my way to the house, to which she had directed me.
I found the sick woman in a boarding-house, among strangers, where nobody knew her except her husband, and manifestly nobody cared for her. She was in the garret, in a little room close under the roof of the house. The scanty furniture and the whole appearance of the room, showed me, at a glance, how unenviable was her condition. There was but one chair in the room, and this was used for a table (the only one she had), on which were placed some vials of medicine, a tea-cup and a saucer, which constituted all the furniture of the room, except her humble bed. But all was neat and clean. If there was scantiness, there was decency.
As I entered the room, I perceived at once her hopeless condition. She was emaciated, pale, tormented with a hollow cough, unable to speak but in a whisper, and her cheek was flushed with that round spot of peculiar red, with which I had become too familiar to mistake it for anything else than the fatal signal. I approached the bed on which she was lying, told her who I was, and offered her my hand.
“I am very happy to see you,” said she (speaking with effort and only in a whisper, and compelled to pause at almost every word). “I did not suppose you would remember me at all, and for a long time I could not have courage to send for you, or let you know that I was here. But I remembered you visited my sister, Mary Ann, when she died, and I had a great desire to see you.”
“I am very glad,” said I, “to be able to see you; but I am sorry to find you so ill. I wish I had known that you were here, sooner.”
“You are very kind, sir; but I was afraid to trouble you. I have not seen you before, since I was a little child; and I supposed you had forgotten, that there was such a person. I am very thankful to you for being so kind as to come to see me.”
“Have you been sick long?”
“Yes sir, a good many months. I have lately been growing much worse, and I want now to get home to my mother, this week, if I can. I think I should be better there for a little while, though I cannot tell.”
“Do you think you are well enough to go home?”
“I hope I could go in the boat and live to get there. The hottest of the summer is coming on soon and our place here is very uncomfortable; but most of all I want to see my mother, once more before I die.” And the big tears rolled fast over her fevered cheeks.
“I hope,” said I, “you may be able to see her; but you do not seem to have much strength just now.”
“Indeed, sir, my strength is all gone. I cannot stand on my feet any longer. Before I became so weak I used to work with my needle and help my husband earn something; and then, we had a more comfortable place. But I can do nothing now and so we came to this garret to save rent.”
“Have you much pain?”
“Yes sir I am in great pain now, the most of the time.”
“Do you expect ever to get well?”
“Oh, no sir, I shall never get well. I know I am to die before long; the consumption is a hopeless disease. This painful cough will soon end my days.”
“Are you afraid to die?”
“Oh, no sir,” said she with a smile, “Jesus is my hope. He will save me.”
“Trust Him,” said I, “you trust eternal rock. He has promised,”
Interrupting me, she replied, “What can anybody want more than the promises? It seems to me the promises are enough for everybody; so sweet they are so full. Why, God has promised to make an everlasting covenant with us poor sinners!” And tears of joy coursed down her smiling face.
I conversed with her as long as I thought it best for her. All her conversation was in the same happy strain. She appeared very much exhausted, and I had little hope that her desire to “see her mother once more,” would ever be gratified. Indeed I did not think she would live till sunset. I prayed with her, and promising to call again in the afternoon, I left her.
Some little arrangements were made for her comfort, and in the afternoon I called there again. She was evidently worse, but her joy was full. Said she, “I bless my God for all my pain for the disappointments of my past life, and the strange strange way in which he has led me on. I have had trials many trials. My husband did not prosper as he hoped to do, and sometimes we have been in distress. But my trials have done me good. Now we have few wants. You know I cannot eat anything now, and I hope his wages will keep him from suffering. I came to this little room when I could not work any longer, on purpose to relieve him. The rent is cheaper here in this little garret, and I want to be as little burdensome to him as possible. I used to think when I first made a profession of religion trials would overcome me; but God makes me happy in them. I find if one is not worldly trials are easy to bear; and if we look towards God and heaven they are nothing at all but mercies.”
“And does your husband feel as you do? Is he a pious man?”
She turned her languid head upon her pillow, glancing around the room, to see if the nurse who had been procured for her, had left the room, and perceiving she was not there, said she: “I suppose I may speak freely to you about my husband, since we are alone. He is not religious, and that is the trouble of my heart.”
She could say no more: she wept and sobbed aloud. After a little time, becoming more composed, evidently struggling to suppress her emotions, she continued, “I must leave that I can’t speak of him. Oh, it seems to me as if the careless, who neglect salvation, have never read God’s promises. If they had and knew what they meant they could not help trusting them. I am happier now than ever I was before. It is sweet to suffer this pain, when Christ puts such delights into my soul.”
She was now stronger than I had expected to find her. I prayed with her, and promising to see her again the next day, I left her.
I was prevented from calling to see her the next morning, as I had intended; and when I called in the afternoon, I perceived her end was very fast approaching. Her countenance was changed, her pulse more feeble and fluttering, her voice was now perfectly restored, and she could speak with strong, clear articulation. She mentioned her recovered voice as an instance of God’s goodness to her, and both she and her husband took it as an evidence that she might live to reach her home. To me it was only an evidence to the contrary. She did not appear to be at all aware how near she was to death, and still entertained the hope of starting the next day, “to go home to her mother.” I felt very reluctant to crush that hope; but I thought she ought to be made acquainted with the prospect before her. She was still very weak and in some pain, and when I mentioned her sufferings to her, and expressed my sorrow that she had so much to endure; her face lighted up with a glad smile: said she, “Oh, it is pleasant to suffer, when we know it is our God that brings us to it. He does not afflict me too much. My poor body is weak and almost gone; but my God fills me with the delights of his love. My heart is full of joy. I am perfectly happy. I shall soon be where Christ is, and love Him forever.”
“I suppose,” said I, “you are aware that you cannot now last but a little while; and are prepared to go, at any moment when God bids.”
“I have no desire, sir, to get well. Why should I have? There is nothing in this world for me. You see we have nothing. I have parted with all my little furniture and my clothes, to get bread and pay our debts; and I don’t want the world; it is nothing to me now, and I leave it willingly. I am happy. God makes me happy. Christ is enough for me. I love to trust God’s promises. I trust Him for all I want, and He makes me very happy. Death seems like nothing to me. It is my friend. I welcome it. Dying is only a step, and then
I shall be at home, at home!” and tears of joy coursed down her smiling face. The last word-home, which she had uttered, seemed to remind her of her earthly home, and she added, “To-morrow, I hope to go home to my mother, and see her and all my other friends once more; perhaps I may.”
“I am afraid not, my dear friend. You are very low, and I wish you to be ready to die at any moment.”
Turning her death-glazed eyes upon me, she asked, “Shall I die to-night? If you think so, tell me plainly. Don’t weep so for me. I thank you for all your kind sympathy; but I am perfectly happy. God fulfils to me all His promises. I leave all in His hands—gladly, joyfully. But I think I can live to get home. You think I shall die to-night. I thank you for letting me know it; and I am ready if God calls. But if I am alive, may I see you in the morning? God will reward you, I know, for all your kindness to me.”
“Yes, my child; you may expect me here in the morning; but if you have anything you wish to say to me, you had better say it now.”
“I have no more to say, but to thank you again. Your kind words have done me great good; and it has been sweet to me, very sweet, to join with you in prayer. Help me to praise God for the delights that fill my soul. Don’t weep so for me.”
I prayed with her, and praised God as she desired, and then bade her farewell. “Do not think I weep because I am sorry,” said she, “I weep because I am overcome with joy. Delights fill my happy soul. This is the dawn of heaven. My heaven is begun. Dying is sweet to me. I go to my blessed Lord. I thank you for coming to me. Farewell, farewell.”
Early the next morning I returned to that privileged garret. It was empty! Even her corpse was not there! She had died about four hours after I left her; her body had been placed in its coffin, conveyed on board the vessel, and on the very day in which she expected to see her “mother once more,” her mother received the lifeless corpse of her child.
It now lies buried in the grave-yard of her native valley. She and Mary Ann sleep side by side. And they shall rise together from the dead, in that coming day when our Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven, ‘to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe.’
If grace is there, how instructive, how glorious is
The Death of the PoorTread softly—bow the head—
In reverent silence bow;
No passing bell doth toll—
Yet an immortal soul
Is passing now,
Stranger! however great,
With lowly reverence bow;
There’s one in that poor shed—
One on that paltry bed—
Greater than thou.
Beneath that beggar’s roof,
Lo ! Death doth keep his state
Enter—no crowd attend:
Enter—no guards defend
This palace gate.
That pavement, damp and cold,
No smiling courtiers tread;
One silent woman stands—
Lifting with meagre hands
A dying head.
No mingling voices sound—
An infant wail alone;
A sob suppressed—again
That short, deep gasp, and then
The parting groan.
Oh! change—Oh wondrous change—
Burst are the prison bars;
This moment there, so low,
So agonized, and now
Beyond the stars.
Oh! change—stupendous change
There lies the soulless clod;
The sun eternal breaks—
The new immortal wakes-
Wakes with his God.
I’m going to ask this: How many did not look in a mirror today? Look at that. Everybody look around. We all know why we looked in the mirror, right? Why do you look in the mirror? I was pointing over the top of you, but I know I look in the mirror because when I don’t, I end up with sideburns that are way down here. You know, I shave in the shower and I can’t see where. And so, stuff… You got to look in the mirror because stuff is out of place, stuff is wrong, stuff’s messed up.
Ladies, you’re looking for where the makeup goes. You’re looking for the blemishes and the wrinkles, and you got some wild hairs coming out of your ears, and you got to deal with it. Why? Because you want to be presentable, you want to be beautiful, you want to be pretty, you want to be handsome. You just don’t want to… You know, my wife is going to say, “If you go up to the pulpit with that thing or this or that…” She was fixing my hair last night and cutting it. Why does all that happen? Well, when you look in the mirror, we’re trying to fix the things that are wrong and the things that are out of place.
That’s exactly it. Is everything in order? Is my hair brushed? Yes, it’s falling out, but you try to deal with what’s left. Is there food in my mouth? My wife asks me if there’s food in my teeth. She needs me because she doesn’t have a mirror at the moment. But we look in the mirror for a reason.
Why are you here today? You see, when you come and sit under this in a spiritual sense, it’s exactly the same. That’s what he says. It’s just like that. You come and you sit under the word to have your defects brought out and revealed in order to be a doer. Are you here for other reasons? I mean, that’s the issue.
Then look at this, James 1:22: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” You never know what is… How often the Bible warns us about being deceived. It’s deceiving yourself. Self-deceived. That means you deceive you, or you deceive. What’s that mean? Well, you believe you’re a Christian. You hope you’re a Christian, and you’re not a Christian. You believe that you’re on your way to heaven, and in the end, it’s not going to prove true. You hope to miss hell, but you’re wrong. That’s the idea in all of this.
The defect is evident right at the point where your life meets this word. That’s the issue. That’s what’s happening in this place. It’s not implemented in your life. Well, how is that like the guy that looks in the mirror and forgets what he looks like? Well, it’s obvious. It’s the idea that you go to look in the mirror and you see your hair needs brushing. But the moment you look away from it, you don’t go for the brush or the comb. You just forget.
Well, how’s that? That’s like the guy that comes in here, the gal that comes in here, and they sit under the word, and they hear it, and there’s some tinge of conscience. There’s some stirring. The Spirit begins to speak. They feel it. But then what happens? They walk out of here and it’s gone. There’s no change.
Do you recognize that doing that on a regular basis… You see what it says? There’s the idea of deception. What are we supposed to do when we look in the mirror and see things aren’t right? We, brethren, we’re supposed to fix it. And that’s the idea when you come under this word.
I mean, this happens to some. Some of you sit here, and the word comes, and you walk out, and there’s a fair level of conviction. Your conscience has been stirred. The Spirit of God is working. And you go out and there’s confession. Or even as you’re sitting here, you’re like, “I’m the man.” You’re not fighting. You’re not resisting. “I’m the man.” And you recognize something’s got to be changed.
And then what happens? See, if you’re a doer of the word, you come under it, and you go out, and change has happened to your life after having been in the word. Your life… We thought, we sang, “the beauty of holiness.” Brethren, you go to the mirror on the wall because there’s an idea about beauty. You can’t… to this because there is a spiritual idea of beauty.
Brethren, do you realize that Jesus Christ saved us to beautify us? Yes. That’s the picture of how Christ loved the church and the washing with this water. And he’s taking out all the wrinkles and all the defects. He’s beautifying us. That’s what this is meant… That’s what his word is for.
Brethren, don’t see this as torturous. Don’t see this as burdensome. This is Jesus who promised to save us from all his people, from all their sins. And that’s the pollution of it, to make us beautiful. There’s a beauty in the holiness, and that’s what’s happening. Scriptures, that spiritual mirror that reveals where I lack in holiness, where my righteousness is defective, where I’m not like Jesus as I ought to be.
So, brethren, just remember how beautiful you recognize. You heard it today. Jesus was talking about you carrying that cross and we follow him. We imitate him. Think. Don’t you find Christ altogether beautiful? You see what Jesus is doing? He gives us the word not to be some torturous thing. Brethren, we’ve got the spirit of adoption, not the spirit of bondage.
This is… His commandments are not burdensome. Hasn’t somebody said that somewhere? Brethren, not burdensome. This is for the beauty. Remember how beautiful Christ is. He… Don’t you find him glorious? His perfections. When you think about him dying on that cross as he walked through this life, and he’s bidding us carry our cross and come after him.
This all has to do… I mean, he is the most gloriously beautiful being of all. And what he’s doing, his words to us are words meant to bring us into conformity to his beauty. That’s what we’re talking about here. That’s what mirrors are all about. Scripture is a mirror to look into that we might see what we need to correct, that we might be beautiful.
And remember, this whole thing is backed by promise. Brethren, what are the promises of the New Covenant? Let me just give you a couple of them. “I will put my law within them” (Jeremiah 31). “I will write it on their hearts.” This is promise. You see, brethren, when you sit here and you come unto the word, listen up. The promise is a promise of help. It’s a promise of power. It’s a promise that God is going to give you the ability. It’s not going to be an impossibility. God has put his own word behind it. His own promise. He’s backed it by his own name. “I will put my law within them and will write it on their hearts.”
And then Ezekiel 36: “I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules.” You like that? That word “careful.” This isn’t sloppy, where we just sit under the word and then we’re sloppy in the way we are. Careful. That’s what God’s promising, that in his people he’s going to put a carefulness.
And then I know I think of this verse all the time: 1 Peter 2:24: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you’ve been healed.” You see the kind of healing he’s talking about? It’s not just in a legal forensic fashion. There is a healing where I die to sin and live to righteousness. That’s what he hung on that tree for.
So, brethren, when we hear and don’t do, we need to recognize we are rigid in the most glorious being ever seen, the most glorious being in the universe.
James 1:26 – If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.
0:00 – Has Anyone Not Spoken a Word Today?
1:04 – What Kind of Conversations Have You Had?
15:43 – The Only Religion That Is Not Worthless
24:03 – This Gives Us a Firm Warning
31:51 – Who Are the Most Problematic People in the Church?
34:06 – What Bad Speech Must We Put Off?
39:58 – What Good Can We Do with Our Speech?
57:06 – Conclusion
In verse 18, of His own will, He brought us forth by the word of truth. This is God saving us. He does it through the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures (James 1:18). Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear. And as I made the case last time, the hearing is obviously connected to the word of truth, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God (James 1:19-20). And you’ll see in verse 21 he picks back up this idea of the word: therefore put away all filthiness, rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word. It’s interesting. He’s speaking to my beloved brothers. We can talk to Christians this way, folks. We can say that they need to put certain things off in their life, receive the implanted word, and it’s able to save your soul (James 1:21).
Brethren, we are being saved. And there’s a way. God. Not us, not in our own strength. There is a way God saves, and it’s got to do with a relationship with the word. It’s able to save your souls. And how does it save your souls as you’re receiving it? And what does receiving have to do with verse 22? Not just hearing it. Be doers of the word and not hearers only (James 1:22). You see, there’s deceit if you hear only. Deception, obviously, has got to do with whether or not we’re a Christian.
Now we keep reading. If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, then we’re going to get a metaphor. He’s like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away, and at once forgets what he was like (James 1:23-24). Verse 25 is where I want to focus today: but the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing (James 1:25).
You know, this idea of being a doer and not a hearer only is something that James is going to keep at. When we get into chapter two, this idea that if you really want to validate faith, it’s validated by your works. You remember he’s going to bring up Rahab; he’s going to bring up Abraham. This is where he’s headed. He’s going to keep us in this tone of doing, doing, being doers of the word.
Okay, let’s dive in. Perfect Law of Liberty. Now, most of our translations say the perfect law. Verse 25, the law of liberty. Actually, if you’ve got certain translations, they like to put in italics what is not actually in the original, you’ll see that it actually reads in the Greek, the perfect law of liberty. The law isn’t in there twice. Many of the translations add it twice just to, I think, to pull out the perfect law. And then they reiterate the law of liberty.
So what is that? What is the perfect law of liberty? Is it the same as the entire Word of God? And I would say absolutely. Consider the metaphor. Now, look, I recognize this law can be used in different ways in the Scripture. You have to take the context to figure out the scope of what the author is talking about when he talks law. And there are different. Law can be like a principle or like the law of gravity. Also, law has to do with commandment here.
Just consider the metaphor. Look at verses 22 and 23. Be doers of the word, not hearers only. Verse 23: if anyone is a hearer of the word, and then what does that do? Well, it produces this idea in James’s mind of an illustration concerning a mirror. And in verse 25, what is the mirror into which we look? Well, obviously, it’s the word that he’s been talking about, except here he calls it the perfect law, the law of liberty.
And what he’s doing is he’s stressing three aspects of this word, of this mirror into which we look. And you see what he’s stressing. He’s stressing that it’s law, it’s perfect, and there’s liberty. And so, brethren, do you recognize that whenever God expresses His will, then is the ultimate law God telling us what to do, what not to do, expressing His will to us? That’s law. God comes along and He says, here’s my son, my beloved son. And He says, hear Him (Matthew 17:5). And Paul can come along and talk about the law of Christ. Christ is speaking. Christ is the Son of God. Christ came and has spoken on behalf of His Father. He’s relating to us what God wants us to know. And it’s called the Law of Christ.
There is law here. There’s an expression of the will of God. This law is perfect. You see that word? Those who look into this perfect law, brethren, perfect eye. Are you really grabbing that? You know what that means. That this is perfect. It really does mean this, folks, that I don’t need supplements. This is sufficient. I recognize it’s not sufficient for learning calculus, but it is sufficient for the things in life that really matter: how to be right with God, how to walk with God, how to have your soul saved. That’s the idea.
Brethren, to equip the man for works that please God. To equip a man of God perfectly. This is where we get it. You don’t need additions. You don’t need addendums. You don’t need other books. Brethren, it’s. Other books can be good only as much as they rightly divide this perfect word. Mentors, counselors. Others are only as good as they come back to this word. This is perfect. Now we sing about this: the law of the Lord is perfect (Psalm 19:7). Some translations say convert or revive. There’s this idea of a restoration of refreshing.
Brethren, do you recognize? Perfect. If you will seek to conform your life to this book, the greatest that man can achieve, the greatest excellency, the greatest beauty, the greatest perfection that men can achieve in this life is going to come from being conformed to this book. You can’t get away from that. Brethren, this is really sufficient. Perfect. So don’t add to it. Don’t take away from it. Not even in your mind where you’re saying, well, I need something else. You get there. I mean, brethren, how often do you feel like I need something else? This is just not working.
But, brethren, our problem is typically not being doers of this word, not coming back and living in this word and knowing it and living it and having it characterize our life. That’s the issue. Aren’t the answers there? How to be in the will of God? It’s in this book. Extra-biblical books, extra-biblical stuff, extra-biblical people, extra-biblical whatever. The mentors that you. Brethren right here, brethren, we really have to be people who can come to the Word of God and find it to be perfect and find it to be sufficient, and recognize that we got to run there.
The law of liberty, the perfect law of liberty, brethren. But let me tell you this, I get thinking about liberty, the law of liberty. But how does Scripture speak? I’ll tell you how Scripture speaks where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17). We read that the law of the Spirit of life sets us free in Christ (Romans 8:2). Brethren, there’s only freedom in this law if you’re a Christian because you know what Romans said. You know what Romans eight says about the law and in the last verse, brethren, the reality is this, that God frees us from our natural hatred to His law when He saves us. So now we find delight in the very thing that we used to detest. And the thing is, you know what the psalmist said: I delight to do Your will. Oh my God, Your law is within my heart (Psalm 40:8). I mean, David speaks for us. Is the Christian not free?
This is the beauty. I want you to recognize this. The Christian is free, not free to sin. Brethren, we are free to be like Christ. We are free to do right. We are free to obey. We are free to go down the path that really beautifies men. Free indeed. If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed (John 8:36). And we are indeed free. And we’ve got this perfect law of liberty. It’s set before us. We’re free to love. We’re free to be pleasing to God. Free from the bondage of sin and Satan.
You know what? We’re free from following the course of this world. Following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit. Get this. The spirit that is at work in the sons of who? Isn’t that amazing that people that are lost in this world are characterized as sons of disobedience? Not us, not us, not if our trust is in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is not the title for us. We’re sons of obedience. There’s a difference there. We’re sons of obedience. If we are.
Brethren, look, verse 25, the one who looks into the perfect law looks. Now, that is not a glance. That is a word that means to bend over. It’s got the idea of the person bent over to gaze into the depths. There’s an intensity. Somebody says it means to stoop sideways
. Some of the commentators actually say that this is the word that’s used when they come and they stoop to look into the empty tomb. There is an idea here of a real intensified look. And brethren, you know what Scripture says. You want wisdom. What do you do? You search for it. It’s like hidden treasure (Proverbs 2:4). Brethren, you go out there in the streets and you go walk around. You don’t find rubies scattered on the ground and diamonds scattered on the ground and gold scattered on the ground. You get it, dig for it. It’s the same thing with wisdom. That’s what Scripture tells us. It’s not just some casual glance.
Brethren, if somebody told you there’s a book over there and it is perfect, it perfectly describes what you should do and how you should live your life in order to please God. There’s a book over there that tells you the way to heaven. It tells you the way to the greatest joy, the greatest good, the greatest of all. This is a book, and it’s over there. And it’s perfect. What are you going to do? You’re going to ignore it. I mean, that’s what we’re being told here. When you go look, when you really look and notice it says perseveres. The Young’s Literal Translation says continues there, brethren. That idea of perseverance is the idea of the look. You look into the law, the law of liberty, and you’re looking with perseverance. You continue there. That’s the idea.
You know what? Sometimes you get people, you recognize this. You watch people you’re seeking to pastor, people you’re seeking to point people. You got to live in this book, live in this book, and you get people that have this occasional enthusiasm. But then as far as the word of God goes, they dive into it. You know, they have some New Year’s resolution. They’re going to read through their Bible and whatever, and they’re going to come to the Bible study here. But then it’s surrounded by vast seasons of just coldness and apathy. For a long time, I just assumed. I know what God did in my life and the hunger He gave me for the word. And so. And I remember the days I moved down here to Texas and out there at CBC, and it just seemed like, and you know, everybody’s carrying their Bible and this is so good and this is so healthy. I went to Bible churches up in Michigan, and they were carrying their Bibles. And it’s like people carry their Bibles. People are interested. There’s just an assumption. God’s people are in the word. God’s people are in the word. And I’m assuming that. And more than once my wife has said, Tim, I wouldn’t assume that. And it’s, we gotta persevere here.
There was a brother visiting last week. I don’t know if he’s here today. He told my daughter, Joy, that he visited another church in San Antonio, and he said he walked in with his Bible and the pastor looked at him and said, Oh, you won’t need that here. We’re not that serious. You know what Spurgeon said? Spurgeon said, Some of you can write damnation in the dust on your Bible. I would say that pastor can write damnation on his Bible.
Brethren. Perfect. Think of it. All that God has spoken and preserved as absolute truth is recorded in this book. The stuff that He wants us to know. And He can give us everything that could be known. But He’s given us 66 books of exactly what He wanted His people down through this. The running centuries of time. Here it is. This is what’s been preserved for us. It’s perfect. What are you going to do? You’re going to make it the 10th most important thing that you’re going to do today? Is that what is going to be? Are you basically going to live? Well, maybe I’ll get to it. I’m going to play my video game, and I’m going to watch my movie, and I’m going to go on Facebook and I’ll do that, and I’ll eat and relax, and then I’ll relax some more. And maybe if I have time. What are you, crazy? What are you doing? This is perfect.
I mean, brethren, this is something to get worked up about. God’s people going along, and I prioritize. Brethren, we live in a time when, I’ll tell you. You better be careful. All these little toys and all this technology, it saps people’s time and energy and attention away from that which is perfect. And all that time you spent on Facebook, you think that’s perfect? Video games. Guys, I hear guys in this church come home and play video games. It’s like, hey, be honest. The amount of time you spend on video games, what if you spent it in here? The amount of time you spend on movies or TV or whatever. What if you spend it here? The time of. I mean, it’s like these things. What are we doing? Do we not have souls? This is able to save your soul. That’s what it says. So it. Here it is. A doer who acts. That’s verse 25. Did you know this? That when you come to this book, this book gives us a work to do? Did you know that you can’t be hearers only? You got to be doers. That means doers of what? Doers of the word. That means when you go in here, God’s got something for you to do. You agree with that, right? And, brethren, what I’m going to do is show you in a second. The primary thing for you to do is not simply figure out how to make it to the meeting on Sunday. Now, that’s important. But isn’t that the main thing He’s calling us to do? You only come here to get equipped for the things that you’re supposed to be doing.
Brethren, we read in our Bible a work of faith. Have you ever read that? A labor of love. Fruits that are meat or suitable for repentance, or the obedience of faith? That’s the way our Bibles read. Brethren, what you’ll notice here is verse 25 is a beatitude. You remember the Beatitudes there in the sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek. They shall inherit the earth. There’s a promise given. This is a beatitude. Blessed is the doer who acts. He shall be blessed in his doing. Let’s see and get this. He shall be blessed in his doing. That’s exclusive. You say, what do you mean? Do you recognize that it’s only those who do, who are blessed? Because if you back up to verse 22, the person that hears and doesn’t do isn’t in the camp of the blessed, is in the camp of the deceived. That’s the kind of thing that we’re dealing with here.
Brethren. It doesn’t say blessed are those who just simply accumulate lots and lots of biblical knowledge. That’s not what it’s saying. Listen to this. You’ve probably seen this, but I’m going to throw some of these verses together to try to give you the impact of this. Have you ever noticed the Bible’s insistence that you, being blessed, is directly related to your obedience to God’s Word? And it’s inescapable. Listen to this: Psalm 19 that we just sang. Moreover, by them, he’s talking about the rules of the Lord. The Word of God. The commandments of God. Listen to this. Moreover, by them is your servant warned, and in keeping them, there’s great reward (Psalm 19:11). Not just knowing them, keeping them. Listen to this: Psalm 119. Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart (Psalm 119:2). Or how about this? You remember the woman in the crowd? She raised her voice and she said to Jesus, Blessed is the womb that bore you, the breast at which you were nursed. He said in Luke 11:28, Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and keep it. Are you recognizing the connection, blessing to keeping the word? John 13:17, If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. Our brother was in Revelation. Revelation ends, in the last chapter. Behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book (Revelation 22:7). You can’t get away from it, folks. Blessing. I’m not saying you can’t live your life in disobedience to God and not know some of the kindnesses of God. He allows the sun and the rain just and the unjust, I recognize. But we’re talking about true deep spiritual blessedness is attached to this reality. And that’s the way Scripture speaks. You’ll be blessed in your home. You’ll be blessed in your workplace. You’ll be blessed in that family arena. You’ll be blessed in your prayer life. You’ll be blessed serving the church, blessed as a citizen, blessed in the recesses of your own soul.
So here’s the thing. This is what I want to do that James doesn’t do. At least he doesn’t do it yet. He is going to do it. But I want to step in right here and actually look back. We’re blessed if we look here. We receive this. We’re doers and not hearers only. We’re blessed. The doer of the word is blessed in his doing. So that’s a big book. What should we do? Some things undoubtedly could come to your mind right now. But what do we do? I was thinking, where do I start? Well, I figured this. Let’s let Scripture dictate where we should start. Have you ever read any place that said maybe from the mouth of Jesus himself, that there are some things in this book that are weighty? Have you ever read that? There
are. Remember Jesus speaking to the Pharisees, scribes, and the Pharisees, and He says, you guys do this, this, and this, but you neglect the weightier matters (Matthew 23:23). I would say that if we’re going to look in this book and we’re going to be doers, not hearers only, we’re going to be these blessed doers. Then you know what, brethren? We need to really be striving to embrace that which is weighty in the mind of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so let’s turn in your Bibles. Go to the verse, Matthew 23, because that’s where He talks about weightier matters of the law.
Again, in tune with James. James is saying, you’re blessed if you do. He says, if you don’t do but you hear, only you’re deceived. Well, listen, Jesus talks the same way. He’s going to talk to some people who are not doers of the weighty matters. And He doesn’t say you’re blessed anyway, or you’re blessed because you do these minuscule things with the dill, the cumin, the mint. He says, woe to you, woe to you. That means they’re in trouble, folks. They’re not in a good place. Obviously, Jesus does not want us to neglect these weightier matters. And what are they? Justice and mercy. Some translations say kindness. And I mean, I’m going to point out, why am I making that emphasis in a second? But justice, mercy, or kindness? And some translations say faith, some say fidelity, some say faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others (Matthew 23:23).
So think about that. Woe to you. That’s the camp we find ourselves in if we neglect weighty stuff. Now remember, a doer acts. These guys did not act on the weighty matters; they neglected. You got to act. Actions are key, brethren. Passivity is the opposite of activity. Do you recognize something? Oftentimes, we can talk about the surrendered life. We need to be surrendered to Christ. But, you know, sometimes there’s almost this idea that if we surrender to Christ, we’re passive. That’s not true. That is not true at all. To be surrendered to somebody is to do what they say. To be surrendered to Christ is to be very active in the things that He calls us to be active in, not passive. You need to grab that. So true surrender calls for true obedience and true activity according to what God has said in His Word. And of all the acts one, you got to distinct that the weightier matters are the issue. And, you know, the Old Testament stresses just this as well.
Remember this, He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you? But to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8). That’s why I brought kindness in before. Do you recognize the Old Testament? What Jesus says is exactly the same thing. Justice. Mercy. These guys neglected that. Now, when I talk justice right now, you remember we were singing Psalm 19 and judgments, the judgments of the Lord. But you know, that doesn’t mean that somebody is going to be punished in the end. The judgments of the Lord there is and be basically a synonym for the rules, the commandments of God. In fact, justice. Listen, I’m going to use the term right now, and I don’t want you to think about it the way you were thinking about it when Jeff brought it up. The idea of justice, it fits, undoubtedly, with what Jeff said. But don’t think of our court system. Justice is what you do when you uphold the law. And remember, we’re looking into the perfect law of liberty. That’s where we’re looking. Justice is basically just the administration of what is right. What is fair, by God’s standard. And here’s the thing. The justice he’s talking. See, these guys? They were taken advantage of. Widows. And when Jesus comes along and He says you’re neglecting justice, it’s that. It’s that which is right by God’s law that goes side by side with mercy and kindness. Brethren, do you know it is a just thing to, according to God’s law? It is a very just thing to show kindness to people and to be merciful. Often when we think justice, we’re thinking, well, they get what they deserve. But do you know to be just at this time, before the end and before the judgment? It is a very just thing to obey what God has set forth. And you know what He said as much as possible. What should we be doing? He’s as much as.
Let’s not the verse. I have as much as possible. You know, somebody said it. Not the piece. Other good were to do good to others, especially. So let me say. God’s law. If we’re looking for justice, if we’re looking for that which is just and oftentimes justice is, is side by side with righteousness as well. But if you take what is just, it is to do good to all men. As much as possible, we do good to all men, especially those of the household of faith. This is the idea. Listen. This idea of mercy and kindness, the justice that goes with that. This is weighty, folks. Jesus comes along and He says, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice (Matthew 9:13). Again, that was Matthew 9. In Matthew 12, He says, if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless (Matthew 12:7). Proverbs 21:3: To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. You go to Jeremiah. Remember this: to the sons of Josiah. God said this. Do you think you’re a king because you compete in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? What did he do? Then it was well with him. He judged the cause of the poor and needy (Jeremiah 22:15-16).
See, judgment is not just giving people what they deserve for their crimes. The judgment here is to judge the cause of the poor and the needy. That’s how Scripture speaks. We’re talking about the weighty things. We’re talking about looking into this book. God wants us to be doers of it. So this is the kind of thing that He wants us involved with. He wants us concerned with. James himself is going to tell us almost immediately, you know, what true and undefiled religion before God is? What is it? This is to visit the orphan and the widow in their affliction (James 1:27). And I’ll tell you, that word visit is a broad word. That doesn’t mean you pay a visit and you show up at their door and they open it. You say hello. Visiting them in their affliction. That means you’re seeking to mitigate their affliction and their suffering and their needs.
Out of all the things. Think of it. I have scanned Scripture studying Judgment Day. And I mean, we get these broad things like we’re going to have to give an account for the things that we did in our body. But I come back to this over and over. The one place where you actually have the person’s deeds, I don’t know. There’s places like Romans 2 where it talks about, well, the people over on this side, they’re selfish, and they did this. And the people over here, well, they’re doing good. They’re patiently doing that. I mean, there’s things like that, kind of broad. But you know what’s very interesting? Matthew 25 captures the justice and the kindness, and Jesus steps in and says, you know what’s going to differentiate? I got people over here on the right hand who were doers. You know what they did? They found the hungry and they fed them. And He says, I was hungry and you fed me (Matthew 25:35). Now, listen, we’re to do good to all men, especially to the household of faith. The household of faith is Christ as much as you do it unto one of these little ones. You’ve done it unto Him. And He says, I was hungry, and you fed me. You think this is weighty? Out of all the things that Jesus could have said that He’s going to look for on that day when He’s evaluating your life and my life. Don’t read that as though that’s like some story or fairy tale that’s detached from you. It’s not detached from you. You’re going to be there in all the nations that are gathered there. You’re in that crowd. And you know what? As He divides, there’s some doers and there’s some that didn’t do. There’s some that did something about hungry people and needy people and widows and orphans. Homeless people. Sick people. There’s that. This is weighty, folks. This is really weighty.
And again, I come back to the Old Testament and I recognize you get these. You’ve got these people that God actually says He makes statements about them. He says to His people, Israel in Isaiah, declare to my people their transgression (Isaiah 58:1). What was their transgression? Well, He starts by saying, they seek Me daily. Was that transgression? Is there something bad with that? They delight to know My ways. Well, that sounds great. As if they were a nation that did righteousness. You see that? You got to get that. They were portraying themselves as seeking God and delighting to know His ways, as if they really were concerned about righteousness. And get this: and did not forsake the judgment of their God (Isaiah 58:2). You know what
judgment means. It’s the legal claim. You see, God says, you neglected this. You forsook this, the judgment or the legal claim of their God. They ask of Me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God. They say, why have we fasted? You see it not. Why have we humbled ourselves? You take no knowledge of it. Behold, in the day of your fast, you seek your own pleasure. You see, there’s the issue, selfishness. You fast only to quarrel, in other words, of seeking themselves. They’re not seeking others and not seeking the care of others. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose? Will you call that a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?
And then He says this. You want to know what pleases Me. And brethren, this is no different today. This is no different than the picture that Jesus gives us for Judgment Day. And dividing the sheep and the goats and those on the right hand. They were doers. And He says to them, you weren’t doing the things that mattered. We can be very good at doing lots of stuff, but we miss the weighty matters. Well, I’m a churchgoer. I own a Bible. I go to the Bible study. I plan on going to the ladies’ meeting. Those things are great. It’s great to hear. It’s great to learn. But here it is. Of all that God has to say to His people, Israel, all that He desires that they do in their religiousness, religiosity. They’re doing many things, but in all of it, they’ve forsaken that legal claim of God, that judgment of God, which is what? What is His legal claim? So that. And the very thing that is heart and soul of what God wants is missed.
What is justice according to God’s perfect law? What’s it look like? Listen to this: Is this not the fast that I choose? This is. This is the heart of the matter, is what God is saying to them. Just like it was the heart of the matter with Josiah. Don’t think you’re some king because you come along and you’ve got riches or you got wealth, or you’ve got cedar, or you’ve got these different things. There is a king. And he gave himself to the poor and needy that you know what God said? That’s what it is to know Me. And it’s no different today, this fast that God is looking for. What’s it look like? Is not this the fast I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, undo the straps of the yoke. We’re looking to set people free from their afflictions, their bondage. Let the oppressed go free, break every yoke. Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, bring the homeless poor into your house? This sounds a whole lot like what Jesus was saying there in Matthew 25. When you see the naked, to cover him, not hide yourself from your own flesh. Verse nine: if you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted. And you know what James says? If you’re a doer, you’re blessed in your doing (James 1:25). Are these people blessed? Then shall your light break forth like the sun, your healing shall spring up speedily, your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer (Isaiah 58:8-9).
I mean, there’s a promise of answered prayer. There’s a promise that God’s going to be there. There’s a promise of light in our life. There’s a promise of just righteousness. Go before you. You’re going to have a reputation of being righteous, of being upright. You’re calling, and God is saying, here I am. Then shall your light rise in the darkness, your gloom be as noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, satisfy your desire in scorched places, make your bones strong. You’ll be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt (Isaiah 58:10-12).
You know what? God came along and He said, Satan, have you considered Job? And you know what He said about Job? Job was blameless and upright (Job 1:8). Okay? What does blameless and uprightness look like? Job said this: I was a father to the needy, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know (Job 29:16). This is not just simply passivity, where I wait for a need to come. This is actually a man who is searching. He’s got his eyes moving back and forth. He’s looking for the need.
Brethren, we have to get past this, thinking that Christianity is primarily about what we don’t do.
That is key. I did some searching in the past and listen to this world. Religions basically tell us to leave people alone. This is Buddhism’s Udonna Varga: “Hurt not others with that which pains yourself.” Hindus’ Mahabharata: “This is the sum of duty. Do not to others, which if done to thee, would cause the pain.” Judaism’s Rabbi Hillel: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow creature. This is the whole law.” Confucius says, “Do not to others what you would not wish done to yourself.” The Apocrypha: “Do not do to anyone what you yourself would hate.”
The parent comes along and asks a child, “What did you do to your brother?” I didn’t do anything. It’s always what we don’t do. Ask somebody at evangelism, “Are you good?” “I never murdered anybody.” I mean, that’s that. You know what? When Jesus commends people and says to them at the end, to those that are to enter into joy, what does He say to them? “Well done” (Matthew 25:21). You don’t give a commendation like that unless they had done something worth the commendation. The idea is they did something.
Jesus could have said to those on His right, “Well, I came to your door and you didn’t kill Me.” Yeah, but the guys on the left can say that. You see, that’s exactly the point. Is that why we don’t? You see, the guys on the left? They didn’t kill Him. The guys on the left didn’t spit on Him. You know what they did? Nothing. They didn’t do anything. Just indifferent. And you know what? The religiously indifferent are all around us. Just because we carry a Bible doesn’t mean we can’t.
Brethren, the idea is the guys on the left didn’t do good or bad. They just avoided it all. They just ignored it. They acted like the needy didn’t exist. Brethren, see Christianity for what it is. Christianity is not just this list of negatives. You see, sometimes we have this idea. Wasn’t it like this when we were lost? This is how I saw Christianity when I was lost. Christianity is all about what it’s against. You know, Christianity. If you’re a Christian, you got to be against this and against this, and it’s all these negatives. Do you see the heart and soul of this? Is not that. The heart and soul of this is to love and give your heart. When we’re lost, we’re just takers. We’re not givers.
All of a sudden you get saved and Christianity is radical. I mean, brethren, do you recognize we’re called to be the followers of this blessed one who is called the friend of tax collectors and sinners? And Scripture says He’s anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power. And what did He do? He went about doing good and healing all those who were oppressed by the devil. God was with Him (Acts 10:38). I mean, that’s weighty. What Jesus did is weighty. He went about doing this good. He went about and He was seeking out people. And He was just constantly doing good, constantly.
Brethren, you know what? Jesus comes along and He says, hey. Let me tell you something. If I take all the Old Testament, which He calls the law and the prophets, He said, you want to know if I take all that Moses said, all the prophets and all your Old Testament? And I basically boil it down to the weighty matter. What are we left with? You know what we’re left with. Jesus tells us, listen to this. Whatever you wish that others would do to you. Do you see? That’s how it’s different from all these world religions that tell us just to leave people alone. It’s not that. Do. This is the law and the prophets (Matthew 7:12).
Now we can admire this. All this golden rule it says is glorious. But what a wonderful scene it is. We can typically quote it. But you know what Jesus says right after this, just a few verses later, everyone then who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like the wise man who built his house on the rock (Matthew 7:24). Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them, will be a foolish man who built his house on the sand (Matthew 7:26). This is precisely what James is saying. Doers, not hearers.
The golden rule. This is the law and the prophets. What does that mean? The law and the prophets. Jesus said, “Don’t think I came to abolish the law and the prophets. I did not” (Matthew 5:17). But you know what He says when you boil it all down, it comes down to this: You’ve got to treat others the way you want to be treated. And He says, give yourself to treating other people the way you want to be treated. The spirit of the law, the spirit of what Moses gave us, is summarized and boiled down to a single principle. Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. For this is the law and the prophets (Matthew 7:12).
That’s the same substance. You see the true intent. It’s not a list of restrictions. It’s not, brethren. Being a Christian is not just trying to do the bare minimum so that I can get in. That’s not the idea here. If that’s all I see, just some mechanical list. And in regulations and negatives. Brethren, you recognize you missed the very heart of the law. You missed the weighty stuff, which is what? Justice. Mercy. Luke’s rendition says the love of God. That’s the issue.
Folks, don’t simply be someone able to quote the Golden Rule. We’re supposed to implement it. So how do you implement it? How do we do this? Weighty stuff. Think Jesus assumes that whatever I want others to do to me, others want me to do to them? That’s what He’s assuming. I desire to be visited when I’m sick or clothed. If I don’t have clothing or fed or cared for, that’s the idea. You desire encouragement. So do I. You desire not to be forgotten. You desire to be helped when you have some need come up. You desire to be dealt with kindly. You desire to be well spoken of. You don’t like people to gossip about you. You don’t like people to do evil to you. You don’t like people to steal from you. You don’t like. You don’t like those things. You don’t like to be forgotten.
How quickly we forget others. We do. And we don’t forget our own needs. Brethren, it’s like out of sight, out of mind. But we’ve. Brethren. The thing is, we. How do we implement? The idea here is that you just have to think, how do I want to be dealt with? What kind of desires do I have and spin the thing around? Put yourself in the other place. Job searched out, John said. You know what? If I was out there and I. And I was just forgotten and I had these needs and nobody knows and I’m just forgotten. Oh, we hate to be forgotten. And he says, I’m searching it out. I’m searching out people’s needs so that they’re not forgotten. And I brought them to my table and I found clothing for them. And I did these things. This is how you implement this. You’ve got to be proactive, folks. You’ve got to be intentional. You got to be deliberate. And, brethren, it’s the perfect law of liberty. We’re free. We can. We’re just free to love people in the different ways that God has gifted us, or with the things that we have. But you got to be intentional. You got to be deliberate at this. You got to think. You got to imagine yourself in their place. Isn’t that what the author of Hebrews says? Didn’t he say, put yourself in the very place of the people that are in prison? That’s what he said (Hebrews 13:3).
What does that mean? That means I actually think about them being over there and what they’re suffering. And, you know, if I was there, I’d kind of like, somebody bring me food and I’d like somebody to bring me a Bible, and I’d like somebody to do this. And then, brethren, that’s the idea here. If you were there, why. So you’d want is to be just forgot, and you’d want people to remember. And we don’t forget our own needs. And the idea here, here is we’re not. Jesus doesn’t want us forgetting the needs of others. I mean, brethren, imagine if the whole church was actually, I mean, striving to be doers of this striving to treat other people and love other people the way that we want to be. I mean, brethren, you turn the world upside down. And you know what? It did make the church this literal heaven on earth. But, brethren, do you recognize what we’re talking about? We heard in the first hour about the fact that the bride made herself ready. What was she clothed with? There’s fine linen. It’s the deeds of the saints (Revelation 19:8). These things follow us. I mean, when you compare Revelation 14 and Revelation 19, the deeds of the saints follow us and we’re robed by them. How does the bride make herself ready? By her deeds? That is how we’re seeking to do this, folks. This is and this is the issue that we’re dealing with.
And you just think about Mary. She did what she could (Mark 14:8). Brethren, do you realize you’re not called to do what other people are called to do? You’re called to do with what you have. You’re called to use the spiritual gifts you have and the money you have, and the time you have and the life you have for these things. I mean, Jesus said, whoever loses his life for Him, they find it (Matthew 10:39). Brethren, I’m calling you to that life. Go lose your life for Him. Do what Mary did. Do what you can. Mary did what she could. God doesn’t expect more than that.
Brethren, the thing is, the problem in all of this, we know where it is. It’s selfishness. And Romans 2 speaks this way. Those who are self-seeking do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness. There will be wrath and fury (Romans 2:8). Basically, you know what characterizes the people on the left? The goats. They’re self-seeking. Well, that’s obvious. They’re self-seeking because they didn’t help the people in need. They didn’t visit the sick. They weren’t mindful when people were homeless and naked. The whole thing can be boiled down to self. Just selfish, self-consumed self-deification. Our Lord would have us to love our neighbor as our own self. But you know why we don’t? Our neighbor just isn’t all that important to us. We’re important to us and our needs are important to us. And we feel them keenly. And we have a real problem. Brethren, you got to put yourself in other people’s place, and you need God to help you. And you need to have the warmth of Christ there. You don’t need to look at other people. It’s just like, well, they’re nothing special. I’m the one that’s important. There’s no room for them on my throne. Well, it’s just self-deification. I’m entitled. They need to bow to me. Treat others like I want to be treated. I don’t think so. I don’t like you doing that to me. But I have no problem doing that back to you. I mean, but that’s how we are naturally, folks. That’s by nature. We’re preeminently self-absorbed, preeminently a taker, not a giver. Oh, you see people in the church like that. They take, take, take, take. They don’t give. That’s a blight on all of this. And, you know, in the end, where they’re going to prove to fall out, they’re going to be on the left.
If there’s anything that ought to characterize Christians in a very selfish world, it is that we’ve been gripped by the grace of God to change us. Some radical change here, of course. By nature, people in the world, and we when we were lost, or you if you’re still lost, you’ll be kind to people to an extent, to a degree, just so long as you know it makes you look good and it serves your own interests. But by nature, we just don’t have the capacity to embrace those weighty matters. Why? The whole time I’m just consumed with me, exalting me. And you know what happens when you exalt you? You don’t much like the God of Scripture. Why? Because He’s the kind of God who dreadfully interferes with my self-importance. You know, the God of Scripture threatens me, and we tend not to like that.
But then what happens? Brethren, you know what happens. Then all of a sudden, we’re confronted. The gospel comes in, and the Son of Man, we see Him lifted up, His body broken. I mean, we come to Him to be healed of the selfishness, and that blood is very healing, and we become these new creatures, and our eyes get opened. Did you have that? I mean something, the Spirit comes in, and the first aspect of that, of the fruit of the Spirit is love (Galatians 5:22). And did you have that happen where suddenly your eyes get open, you begin to notice other people in a different way than you did before. Suddenly there’s a spirit of compassion. There’s this. Do you recognize it? All this. He died. He shed His blood for the stinking kind of selfishness like mine. The Spirit under conviction with all of that stuff. But all of a sudden, then what happens is supernatural compassion arises in us, and we begin to look around. You know what happens? We begin to notice others. We actually really look at them like they have eternal souls, and they have feelings and needs. An entirely new view of other people. That’s what happens, especially of those of the household of faith. We really, and God gives us an endearment there, and God help us to see people as more than just these impersonal blobs who block us in the checkout line. I mean, there’s people there, and they’ve got souls, and these are real people.
Brethren, again, I say it: Whoever loses their life for Christ’s sake and for the gospel, they’ll find it (Mark 8:35). Brethren, this is the kind of thing that He’s called us to. This is a true and undefiled religion before the Lord (James 1:27). We’re going to get to that right here, and then we’re going to dive into that more as far as what James is saying.
Brethren, listen. Does the gospel call us to work? Yes. Does Christ call us to work? Yes. And sometimes people hear all these things, especially dogmatic talk, like the Sermon on the Mount or like James, and you just, you get hit with all of this and it’s like, where’s grace? Brethren, let me tell you something. The thing that differentiates this from Catholicism and from any kind of salvation by works, the great thing that you need to remember, and this is as weighty as anything, is, we look into this perfect law of liberty (James 1:25). Is this reality that without Christ you can do nothing (John 15:5). And the reality is, whoever abides in Him, in Me and I in Him, he it is that bears much fruit. And this is what we want. This is the fruit. This is all these deeds that make up this robe that will be robed, these deeds that follow us, this much fruit apart from Me. You can do nothing. You can do nothing of any value. Oh, you can be in motion, but you can’t do anything that’s worth anything to God. That’s the idea.
The great key to living the Christian life is found right here. All these weighty things. This is what He wants us about. But if you’re going to do this and you’re going to have deeds to lay at His feet, brethren, I’ll tell you this. Everything we do, we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do these good works (Ephesians 2:10). And God does them through us. God does them in the power of Jesus Christ. That power of Jesus Christ is that Holy Spirit. You want to know, we are branches. We’re plugged into the vine. You know what that sap is that comes out that we rest on? It’s the Holy Spirit. That’s where the empowering comes from. You’ve got to rest here. This is the key. This is the center of it all. There’s no greater truth concerning your time and my time in this world and in all these things that Christ has called us to do.
Fruit is not ultimately a matter of you being strong or you being weak, you being mature or you being immature. That’s a greatly gifted or little gifted. Christ is the key to making your life rise above nothingness. Christ is that key. If my link, if my life with Christ is right, all is right. This is the issue. It doesn’t matter what accomplishments you’ve had, what attainments in Scripture you have, whether you’ve gone to seminary, how extraordinary your conversion was. None of that matters. How well you know your Bible, how eloquent, how fervent. That isn’t the issue. You’ll not produce fruit detached from Christ. You got to live with Him. You got to live close with Him. The idea here, it’s all related to a person. There’s more to be had. But how is it going to be had?
And you look around, folks, look around at Christianity. Look around. There is so little power, so little supernatural, so little that is impressive. About so many. If there’s going to be that which is, it’s all related to a person. You ought to rise above nothingness. It’s involved with this person who said, whoever abides in Me, I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. Listen, the strongest branch is no different from the weakest branch. If it’s severed from the vine, it just doesn’t matter. The branch. What does a branch have a responsibility to do? Be plugged into the vine. Draw the sap and bear the fruit. That’s the responsibility of it. Absolute dependence. The branch in itself has nothing. It is nothing. It knows nothing. It can do nothing. Brethren, don’t you think that maybe we ought to be in the place where we’re studying and we’re meditating, and we’re trying to really get a grasp on what it means to be nothing. You see, the problem is we walk around and that idea of nothingness just isn’t permeating our thinking all the time.
We get, you know, one of our big problems is dependency. Independence, rather. Independence Day. Didn’t we just have that? We like to be Indian Americans. We like to be independent. We don’t want anybody else’s help or we want to break fruit. We want to be free from all of it. But there’s an absolute dependence here. Much work goes on in the church, but I think if we’re honest, there’s often little power. What’s the issue? Connection is the issue. That’s what abiding is. You got to live there. There’s got as brethren, brethren, brethren, brethren, as close to Jesus as possible. That’s the key. That’s the key.
And as much as, I’ll just say, brethren, you got to live in this book. But, brethren, you got to live communing with Him. You got to live talking with Him. You got to live in prayer. Brethren, don’t you realize we draw all our nutrients from Him? All of our wisdom, all of the power to live this life, all of our encouragement, all of our direction, all of our help. It’s from Him. Sister, God never gave you a husband to fill that spot. Money doesn’t fill that spot. It’s Christ. It’s Christ alone. No religion, no pastors, no mentors, no counselors. Not other Christians. Nobody else is going to fill that spot. It’s Christ. You can go to the Bible study. You can be around other Christians. You can come to the meeting. But, brethren, there’s no substitute for you living in the presence of Christ and walking with Him and talking with Him and abiding in Him and letting that image burn into your own being of who He is. That’s the way we get to see Christ and know Christ and trust Christ and hear Christ and love Christ. Run to Christ, find Him, abide in Christ. Oh, it’s in Him. And I tell you, you live in the fragrance of that reality. And then you put your sights on the weighty matters. He went about doing good. And I tell you, there will be fruit, there will be transforming fruit. Oh, oh, oh, Christ.
Father, I pray that you’d help us to live in these realities, to be doers, to consider the weighty matters—the justice, the mercy, the kindness, the needs in this world. Help us to all be like Mary, not to be concerned with what other people can do, but doing all that we can do. Oh, what it would be for every one of us to hear the same commendation that she heard. She did what she could. Give us grace to do what we can. Every one of us has different measures of health, different places in life, different amounts of energy, different amounts of money, different amounts of spiritual gift. Lord, help us be faithful. Well done. Help us be doers, not hearers only. Help us to know the fullness of the blessing that the doers of Your word will be blessed with. I pray it all in Christ’s name. Amen.
James 1:22-25 - But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
0:00 Introduction and Overview
3:20 What Is the "Perfect Law of Liberty"?
11:06 We Don't Glance but We Look at God's Word
18:51 Blessed Are Those Who Hear and Obey
21:33 Let Us Look in God's Word at the Weighty Matters
35:41 What Pleases God?
37:01 What Is Justice According to God's Perfect Law?
39:58 Christianity Is Not Primarily About What You Do Not Do
46:26 How Do We Implement This Into Our Lives?
50:04 You Are Called to Do What You Can Do
55:18 Where Is Grace in All of This?
1:02:00 Closing Prayer
In this sermon, Tim Conway exposes 26 mental gymnastics we perform, 26 excuses we make after the sermon, and 26 ways we talk ourselves out of obeying God’s Word, even when convicted by its truth. Drawing from James 1:21-22, he’ll reveal the gap between hearing and doing, challenging us to move beyond mere conviction and into active obedience.
0:00 Introduction and Reading Text
2:30 Where We Will Go Next Time: What is the Perfect Law of Liberty?
3:38 Have an Anger Problem or a Problem with Rampant Wickedness?
12:35 Be Hearers of the Word, Not Hearers Only
14:54 How Many Did Not Look in a Mirror Today?
24:49 The Mindset Behind Why People Hear and Don’t Do
26:11 1 – The Casual Listener
27:39 2 – Listening on Behalf of Someone Else
29:23 3 – Create a Category Where the Text Does Not Apply to Us
33:16 4 – We Wait for God to Do Something
34:12 5 – We Imagine Someone Else Is Going to Do It
36:06 6 – I Am Praying About It
37:16 7 – The Wretched Man Complex
38:17 8 – Always Looking for the Next Mentor or Counselor
39:52 9 – The Person Easily Offended and They Reason Themselves Out of Obeying
42:00 10 – Living on Past Obedience
43:41 11 – Living on Future Obedience
45:18 12 – Living on Someone Else’s Obedience
46:14 13 – The Imputed Righteousness Excuse
48:09 14 – It Is Just the Preacher Saying It, He Didn’t Prove It from the Bible
49:11 15 – Because of Exceptions to the Rule You Dismiss the Entire Obligation
51:23 16 – I Can’t Understand It, So I Don’t Need to Worry About It
52:21 17 – You Lie to Yourself About You Doing What You Are Not Truly Doing
53:28 18 – Others Do Not Obey So I Don’t Need To
53:58 19 – I Am Partially Obeying So It Is OK…
55:10 22 – Doctrine Instead of Obedience
55:39 23 – Discouraged by Past Failures
57:07 24 – Disobeying God by Obeying Man-Made Legalistic Commandments
57:36 25 – Or the Scriptures Are So Broad in an Area That You Miss Applying It
58:48 26 – I Am in a Trial So God Cannot Expect Me to Obey in That Area
1:00:20 Where Can I Run Faster for Christ?
1:03:08 27 – Our Mindset of American Christianity Makes Us Not Think Like the Bible Does
1:07:29 Closing Prayer
In this sermon on Mark 3, we explore the context of Jesus’ teachings on blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, distinguishing it from other sins that can be forgiven. The discussion includes the meaning of blasphemy, Jesus’ warnings, and the relevance of these teachings today, offering hope and clarity to those with sensitive consciences.
00:00 – When You Exposit a Book, You Cannot Overlook Any Text.
03:24 – Opening Prayer.
04:26 – The Context in Which Jesus Says What He Says.
11:38 – Beelzebulb?
16:10 – The Strong Man Is Now Like a Dog on a Leash.
18:59 – What Is Jesus NOT Claiming?
20:39 – Who Is Jesus Primarily Warning?
25:42 – What Constitutes Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit?
29:36 – What Does Blasphemy Mean?
32:44 – What Distinction Is Jesus Making?
34:27 – Who Here Has Never Had a Blasphemous Thought?
41:31 – Was This Text Just Reserved for Jesus’ Day and Does Not Apply Now?
43:41 – Hebrews 6:4
51:03 – 1 John – A Sin Unto Death.
54:44 – A Word to Those With a Sensitive Conscience.
56:08 – Do You See What Jesus Is Saying? All Sin Will Be Forgiven!
1:00:41 – How Does This Fit in the Context of Mark 3?
1:02:16 – Closing Prayer.
The book of Hebrews. Now listen to this. The book of Hebrews tells us this about the work of Jesus. It says this: He came that he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil (Hebrews 2:14). Jesus came that he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who, through fear of death, were subject to lifelong slavery (Hebrews 2:15). Did you catch it? They were subject to lifelong slavery. Why? Fear of death. Terrified of death. It produces all kinds of fear of missing out. It creates all kinds of religiosity. “Better be good enough to get past the fear of death. Better be good enough not to be condemned by God.” It creates all kinds of carnality. “I’m never going to be good enough for God. Might as well get drunk. Stoned. Sleep with as many people as I can. Just give myself as much luxury as I possibly can.” It creates all kinds of sin out of fear. Christ takes away all that fear by dying on the cross for sinners. He says there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). He eliminates the accusation of the devil. The devil is called the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10). Well, I have news for you. Christ is a justifier of the brethren. He is. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). And the devil will lay out a coffin for you, and he’ll make that coffin look like a garden. But when you jump into that garden and find out it’s poison, he will be there with accusations to nail the coffin shut on your hope. Christ! Breaks coffins open. Christ takes people out from the dead. He eliminates the fear of death by paying for all of our sin. And by freeing us from the power of the Dark One. And so you need to resist his power of accusation because it’ll keep you stuck in a rut of ungodliness for your whole life right now. No matter what you’ve done, no matter what you’ve done. If we played it on the screen up here, it wouldn’t matter. It’s all covered in the blood of Christ. It’s all eliminated by his perfect righteousness and his perfect justice. And amazingly, if you understand that there is now no accusation that can stick to you. You actually get a fresh power not to keep doing the things that the devil will accuse you for. Again and again and again.
James 1:18 – Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. 19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
What does it mean for God to bring us forth “by the word of truth”?
Why is it essential to be “quick to hear” and “slow to speak” according to James?
How does anger hinder the righteousness of God, as James describes?
How can we effectively receive God’s Word with meekness?
0:00 James 1.19-20
5:37 Let Us Consider the Context
9:35 Quick to Hear What?
11:40 History of the Ministry of the Word at GCC
16:02 Scripture in the Life of the Christian
30:44 What Does He Mean by “Know This”?
36:38 Receiving the Word Is Not Automatic
43:04 Do You Read Your Bible Every Day?
45:00 What Does James Mean by “Be Slow to Speak”?
50:19 Controlling Proud Thoughts and Opinions
53:00 What Does “Slow to Anger” Mean?
57:26 A Closing Thought – God Is Speaking
59:22 Do You Leave Prayer Meeting Early?
1:03:16 Closing Prayer
This sermon delves into what the Bible teaches about demonic oppression and possession, providing scriptural insights and practical observations to help understand this matter.
0:00 Sermon Opening
5:22 Is It Demonic Oppression or Possession?
11:30 Demonic Possession Is Obviously Dark, It Is Not Subtle
13:15 Demonic Oppression Is Rare
14:04 Jesus’ Compassion and Power Are Drawn to Help These People
15:54 How Can You Tell That Someone Is Demonically Oppressed?
18:51 Sign of Demonic Oppression: Self-Destructive Behavior
20:37 The Devil “Made Me Do It”?
21:40 Mark 5: They Can Possess Supernatural Powers
24:05 Prayer for Help in the Sermon
24:37 Mark 6: They Respond Strongly to the Presence of Christ
29:00 How Should We Apply This Teaching?
29:17 Keep a Broad View of Spiritual Warfare in Your Mind
35:47 How Do We Get Ready to Help the Demonically Oppressed?
36:51 Be Full of Faith!
39:15 Be a People of Prayer and Fasting
41:01 Have an Appreciation for Specific Spiritual Gifts
47:21 Closing Prayer
The reason most cultures have categories for “the supernatural and spirit possession” is not because they are backwards or pre-modern, but because they are more in touch with Biblical reality than we are. We often talk about not letting our culture trump the Bible. We don’t want to be “woke” like the culture; we want to be biblical. Yet this issue runs so deep that we don’t even notice it. Any focus on one thing for a prolonged amount of time is viewed as a dangerous potential for imbalance, rather than recognizing that the boat may indeed need rocking.
0:00 Preview
0:46 Introduction and Text
2:39 Opening Prayer
3:57 A Kentucky Man Who Deeply Cared for People
5:57 Cultural Baggage Can Hinder Us from Walking Out the Faith
7:03 As a Westerner, What Is Your Perspective on Demons?
13:23 Does Your Culture Have a Category for the Supernatural?
21:27 Demons Are Fallen Angels
23:57 Satan Leads Legions of Demons
25:45 What Do Demons Do?
26:56 First, the Devil Works Through Lies
29:36 Second, the Devil Works Through Destroying
31:36 Third, the Devil Works Through Temptation
33:28 Fourth, the Devil Accuses You
37:08 Fifth, the Devil Is a Cosmic Warrior
40:13 In Closing
41:20 One of My Favorite Verses
45:54 Closing Prayer
In just a month, the Fellowship Conference New York will take place. If you are in the area, it is worth considering attending. For more information, visit https://illbehonest.com/fcny/
This topic is really sensitive, and what I’m about to say might make some of you uncomfortable. Someone wrote in, “I want to talk about a significant struggle—a place of battle, struggle, falls, and failures. About 3 to 4 years ago, God saved me, and since then, I’ve changed in many ways. However, one particular sin has barely changed: the sin of masturbation. I’ve been heavily addicted since I was 12, and now, at 23, I’ve had some small victories but keep falling back. Honestly, I still feel like a slave to that sin. Does this mean that the Son has not set me free yet? Or even worse, that I’m not saved?”
One of the most distressing instances of religious darkness and despondency that I have ever been called to witness was that of a poor girl, whom I first knew when I was called upon to visit her in her last sickness. She was not twenty years old, her health had departed, and she seemed to be doomed to an early grave. A seated pulmonary affection deprived her of all hope of recovery, and she had no hope in God. From her earliest childhood, she had had excellent religious instruction. Her parents were pious people, and though they were poor, they had carefully educated her. She had been a scholar in the Sabbath school from her childhood, under the weekly instructions of a teacher who loved her and who had taught her with assiduity, kindness, and skill. But though she had been long the subject of religious impressions, and had carefully studied her Bible, and earnestly prayed to be directed into the path of life, she had never found peace with God.
When I first knew her, none but herself had any special fears that her life was near its end. She was then able to be about the house, and sometimes, in pleasant weather, to walk out into the fields. But she had given up all expectation that she should recover, and she now addressed herself to the work of preparation for death, to which she looked forward with an indescribable anguish. She regarded it as the commencement of eternal woe.
At first, I felt no peculiar discouragement on account of her religious depression. I regarded her fearful distress of mind as only the natural accompaniment of a just conviction of sin, and confidently expected that she would soon be led to hope and peace in believing. But it was far otherwise with her. She attained no peace. As week passed after week, she continued in the same despondency, receiving no light, no hope, no comfort. She read, she examined, she wept, she prayed in vain. And as her health declined more and more, her mind became wrought up to an intensity of anguish most distressful to witness. It was enough to melt anyone’s heart to hear her cries for mercy. Never did a sinner plead more earnestly to be delivered from going down to perdition. She cried for mercy as if standing in the very sight of hell! She had not a single gleam of light. Her soul was dark as a double midnight and seemed plunged into an ocean of horrors. No one, I am sure, could have listened to her dreadful wailings without feeling a sympathy with her, which would have wrung the heart with anguish.
I visited her often, conversed with her many times, and taught her most carefully all the truths of the Bible, which I supposed could possibly have any tendency to awaken her faith in Christ and prepare her to meet Him; but I never had any evidence to the last that anything I ever said to her was the means of any benefit.
I wondered at her continued despair. It seemed to be the more remarkable on account of the clear views which she appeared to have, of the character of God, of His holy law, of her condemnation by it, of her wicked heart, of redemption by Christ, and of the faithfulness of God to fulfill all his promises. I often examined her thoughts and feelings on all such points as well as I could, in order to detect any error into which she might have fallen, and which might be a hindrance to her faith and peace, and in order to persuade her to trust all her eternal interests to the grace of the great Redeemer. She had not a doubt about any of these truths. She knew and bewailed her guiltiness and depravity, she fully believed in the love of God towards sinners, and the willingness of Christ to save her, unworthy as she was; she said she hated sin with all her heart; she longed to be holy; she did not believe that she hated God, though she would not say that she loved Him; she admired “the kindness and love of God our Saviour” towards sinners; and wanted, above all things, to have an interest in His redemption, and be sure that He had accepted her.
Months before her death I believed that she was a child of God. I thought I could discover every evidence of it, except hope, and peace, and the spirit of adoption. She had now come to believe that she had some love to God; “but,” says she, “I am afraid God does not love me, and will cast me off forever, as I deserve.” I strove, in every possible manner, and time after time, to lead her to the peace of faith. By holding directly before her mind the character of God, the redeeming kindness and work of Christ, and especially God’s free invitations and firm promises; I strove to lead her to an appropriating faith, which should beguile her into a half-forgetfulness of herself, by causing her to delight in God. By teaching her according to the Scriptures what are the evidences of a new heart, and then by taking her own declarations to demonstrate to her that her own exercises of mind and heart were precisely these evidences; I labored hard to induce her mind to rest upon the “witness within.”—a witness really there (as I believed), if she would only hear and heed its voice. I explained to her what I honestly supposed to be the cause of her darkness, that is, her bodily condition, which prevented her from seeing things as they were, by throwing a deceptive and dismal cloud over everything that pertained to herself. At times, when she appeared to me to be coming out of her gloom and to be standing on the very borders of a light which she could not but see; a single recurring idea about herself would fling her back into all her darkness, and she would weep and wail in despair.
I had been describing heaven to her, and referring to its song of redemption, ‘who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,’—
“Others will be in heaven,” said she, “but I shall be cast out! From the distant region of my doom, I shall behold my companions by the river of life, happy, happy spirits, perhaps I shall hear their song; but no such home for me!”
“How came they there?” said I. “They were not saved by their goodness. They were no better than you. Jesus Christ saved them by his blood, and he offers to save you.”
“He passes me by, sir. He called them, and they obeyed the call in due time; but he does not call me!”
“He does, my child, He does. He calls you now, ‘Come unto me.’”
“If He does, sir, I have no heart to hear Him! My day is past! my day is past! I shall be cast off as I deserve! Oh, I wish I had never been born!”
“Your day is not past. ‘Now is the day of salvation.’”
Her only answer was tears and groans.
Such was her melancholy condition, as she declined more and more. Her strength was now almost gone. She evidently had but a few weeks to live, if indeed a few days even remained to be measured by the falling sands of her life.
One day, (some weeks before her death,) after I had been stating to her the evidences of a regenerated state, and she had clearly described to me her own views and feelings, which seemed to me to accord with these evidences in one particular after another almost throughout the entire chapter; I said to her, with some earnestness,—
“Mary Ann, what do you want more, to convince you that you are a child of God? What do you expect? If these things do not convince you, what could? What evidence more do you want? Do you want an angel to come down from heaven here to your bedside, to tell you that you are a Christian, and shall go to heaven as soon as you die?”
“Oh, yes,” said she, in a transport of emotion, clasping her death-pale hands, “that is just what I want—just what I want.”
“That is just what you cannot have,” said I; “God is not going to give you any such kind of evidence.”
I then explained to her how she must rest upon spiritual evidences, as all Christians do, and not on any evidence of the senses, or supernatural occurrence outside of her own heart.
As she approached fast her end, and evidently could not survive much longer; I was greatly disappointed and saddened that her mind continued in the same unbroken gloom. I had not expected it. I had looked for a different experience. But it now seemed that her sun must go down in clouds!
One Sabbath morning, just before the time of public service, I was sent for to “see her die.” She could still speak in a very clear and intelligible manner, better than for weeks before. Her reason was continued to her, all her faculties appeared as unimpaired and bright as ever. All that I could discover of any alteration in her mind appeared to me to consist simply in this,—she now thought of herself less, and of her God and Saviour more. I told her, as I was requested to do, that she was now very soon to die. The bell was tolling for me to go to the pulpit, and, having prayed with her, commending her to her God, I gave her my hand to bid her farewell. “Will you come to see me at noon?” says she.
“My dear child, you cannot live till noon. The Doctor says you cannot live half an hour. I will come here as soon as I leave the church.”
I went to the church and preached; and as soon as the service closed, I went immediately to her house. She was still alive. One of her friends met me at the door, and hastily told me that soon after
I left the house, an hour and a half before, she avowed her perfect trust in Christ, and her firm confidence that He would “take her home to heaven.” “I am full of peace,” said she, “I can trust my God. This is enough. I am happy, happy. I die happy.” A little while after, she said she wanted to see me “once more.” She was told I was in church, and that she could not live till the sermon was closed. “I shall live,” said she firmly. She seemed to refuse to die. She inquired what time the service would close, and being told, she often afterward inquired what time it was. She watched the hands of the clock, frequently turning her eyes upon them, in the intervals between her prayers and praises and rapturous thanksgivings. As I entered the room she turned her eyes upon me; “Oh,” says she, “I am glad you have come; I have been waiting for you. I wanted to see you once more, and tell you how happy I am. I have found out that a poor sinner has nothing to do only to believe. I am not afraid of death now. I am willing to die. God has forgiven me, and I die happy,—I am very happy. I wanted to tell you this. I thought I should live long enough to tell you. I thought God would not let me die till I had seen you, and told you of my joy, so as not to have you discouraged when you meet with other persons who have such dark minds as mine was. Tell them to seek the Saviour. Light will come some time, if it is at the last hour. I prayed God to let me see you once more. He has granted my last prayer; and now—now I am ready.”
Her voice faltered; she could say no more. I prayed some two or three minutes by her bedside; we rose from our knees, and in less than five minutes more she was dead. ‘Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.’
It was pleasant to hear this dying girl affirm her faith, and to witness her joy at the moment of death. But I do not know that this joy amounted to any more real evidence of her effectual calling to Christ by the Holy Spirit than she had presented before. Faith is one thing, and feeling is another. It is the faith that saves. It is the feeling that comforts. But the faith may exist where the feeling is wanting. The principle may exist where its action is wanting.
If this poor girl had died in all her darkness and fears, I should not have despaired of her. Amid all her glooms of guilt, I thought she exhibited proofs of faith. It seemed to me that it was faith, which made her attend to the truths of the Bible, with such careful scrutiny and enduring perseverance, at the very moment when she saw no light in it for her;—that it was faith, which made her pray so fervently and without faltering, month after month, at the very time when she did not suppose she received any answer;—that it was faith, which kept her, in her most gloomy times, perfectly free from any besetting doubt that there is salvation for sinners in Jesus Christ, freely offered to them in the love of God;—that it was faith, which made her so perfectly assured that peace with God is attainable, and made her long for it as the only thing she cared for;—yea, that it was faith, which gave to her very glooms their most terrible aspect, creating such a confluent and continuing conviction that if Christ was not found, everything was lost. Her grief was not that of an alien and an enemy, but that of an affectionate, but disinherited child.
The very point of her anguish consisted in this,—namely, that she believed Christ to be a full and free Saviour, and yet could find no evidence in her heart that she trusted in Him. The promises were precious things in her heart’s estimation, but they seemed to her to be precious things which she did not embrace. She distrusted herself, but not God. She was afraid to believe that she was a believer. She was so tremblingly afraid of getting wrong, that she dared not think she could possibly be right. On this ground, I was led to believe that Mary Ann was a child of God, long before that memorable light shone on her soul in the hour of death. She was in darkness, not because she had no faith, but because she did not believe she had any. She had a title to heaven, without having eyes to read it.
Her mother, father, and physician, (who was a pious man), and all her friends, as I suppose, regarded this bright close of her earthly experience very differently from myself. They appeared to look upon it as the commencement of her faith, thinking that God had first appeared for her in that time of her first triumph and joy. Such an idea in similar cases, I suppose, to be common, and I suppose it to be an error, and a very misleading one, especially to many unconverted sinners. Such unconverted sinners hear of instances like this, and, therefore, hope that it may be just so with themselves, when they shall be called to die. On the ground of this hope, they speak a deceitful peace to their own hearts, without any definite, determined, and prayerful efforts to prepare for death,—just leaving it to that coming hour itself to bring along with it the preparation they need. Their secret thought is,—such a one, who always lived without religion, died in peace at last, and why should not I? Delusive thought, and often fatal! These persons never stop to inquire what had been the previous heart-history, the struggles, and prayers of those whose peaceful death they mention. They themselves are not living such a life as their now departed acquaintance did, who died in peace; and, therefore, they have no good reason to think they shall die such a death. Too hastily they say of such a one, “he lived all his life without religion.” They say what they do not know, and what probably is false. If anyone would hope to die like Mary Ann, let him live like Mary Ann. Her supreme aim, and her agonizing prayer for months, sought the favor of God. To gain this, she omitted nothing which she deemed a duty,—she deferred nothing to a future hour. To gain this was all her desire, and no discouragement could make her falter, or turn her aside. ‘Go thou and do likewise,’ if thou wouldst die like Mary Ann.
“Bide your time!
Watch patiently with meek eyes the prideful and criminal,
Sit at the gate and endure the mockery of the heathen,
Smiling and self-possessed,
Oh, you who are promised a victor’s reign,
Wait for the day of victory.”
N.H.J.
This chapter tells the story of a great tragedy, as it contains the incident that revealed Saul’s unfitness to be the founder of a line of kings. Had he passed this test, there is no doubt he would have been not only the first monarch of Israel but also the father of a royal dynasty, and the entire future of the chosen people might have been different. But, as we shall see — though at first his kingdom promised prosperity for his nation — it evidently lacked the elements of permanence and continuity, and of becoming Israel’s lasting defense against external invasions and internal corruption.
Let us consider this story not only because it significantly impacts the history of God’s people but also because it is full of lessons for us. Turning from Saul to David, Samuel said, “The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14). It is clear that, in some way, Saul had ceased to be “a man after God’s own heart,” and we must carefully examine the reason so that we can avoid the pitfalls that caused his downfall.
You will note that the chapter recounting this tragedy — the overcasting of a bright morning and the spoiling of a fair and beautiful promise — also describes the unutterable distress to which the chosen people were reduced by another invasion of the Philistines. For instance, we are told in verse 6 that the people of Israel were in dire straits, distressed, and hid themselves in caves, thickets, rocks, and pits; indeed, some even crossed the Jordan and abandoned their homeland in its hour of extremity. Those who remained with Saul and Jonathan, as the nucleus of the royal army, followed them trembling (1 Samuel 13:6-7). A spirit of fear had settled upon the entire nation; the old national spirit had decayed; it seemed as though they could never again stand against the Philistines, no more than a flock of sheep against a pack of wolves.
We are also informed of the vast number of Philistines, who had gathered from all parts to crush the movement toward national existence symbolized by Saul’s coronation and Jonathan’s exploits (1 Samuel 13:3). We can overhear the news brought to Saul by a panic-stricken messenger, who, with the exaggeration of abject fear, described the Philistines as numerous as the sand on the seashore (1 Samuel 13:5).
A further proof of the hapless misery of the people is found in verse 19: “There was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, ‘Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears.'” So the Israelites had to go down to the Philistines to sharpen their plowshares, mattocks, axes, and sickles (1 Samuel 13:19-20). Never in the history of the chosen people were there more dire calamities, more absolute hopelessness and despair, than those surrounding Saul and the entire country at this time. At this juncture, Saul seems to have withdrawn his troops, such as they were, from Michmash, and taken up his position at the ancient site of Gilgal, where the act of circumcision was performed after Israel crossed the Jordan under Joshua. There, on the level land and therefore exposed to the assault of the Philistine hosts at any moment, Saul pitched his camps while his heroic son, Jonathan, maintained a post of observation near the Philistine hosts.
While Saul with his soldiers remained at Gilgal, every day saw the reduction of his forces. Men deserted, either fleeing across the Jordan or hiding in some hole or corner of the hills.
It may be asked why, at such a time, Saul did not make a desperate effort against the Philistines. Why did he wait there day after day, as his army evaporated before his eyes? Ah! Therein lies a story — to understand which, we must turn back a few pages in the inspired record. In 1 Samuel 10:8, during that early morning interview when Samuel designated Saul for the crown, he told him that the crisis of his life would overtake him at Gilgal — a prophecy whose fulfillment had now arrived. “You shall go down before me to Gilgal; and behold, I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice peace offerings. You shall wait seven days until I come to you and show you what you should do” (1 Samuel 10:8).
I. SAUL’S MISTAKEThis command, given three years earlier to Saul as he stood on the threshold of his vast opportunities, involved two things, each constituting a supreme test.
First, whether he was prepared to act as God’s vicegerent; not as an absolute monarch determining his own policy and acting on his own initiative, but as God’s servant, receiving the marching orders of his life through the prophet’s lips; not acting as an autocrat, but as one to whom there had been a delegation of Divine authority.
Second, whether he could control his impetuous nature, curb his impulses, and hold himself well in hand.
It was this embargo that Samuel had laid upon him that made him wait day after day. Can you not imagine how his chosen advisers and warriors would come around him and urge him to do something? Might they not have pointed to the Philistine hosts encamped at Michmash, gathering like a storm cloud? Might they not have told him how, unless he acted quickly, his paternal estate would be wiped out before the invasion? Might they not have pointed to the dwindling hosts and said, “Rise up and do something; it is better to die beneath the Philistines’ hand than allow them to pounce on you like a bird of prey on a trembling dove!”
But he waited day after day. “He waited seven days, according to the set time that Samuel had appointed; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from him” (1 Samuel 13:8). Then, within a brief space of the allotted time expiring, he could wait no longer. He thought that Samuel must have forgotten the appointment or had been intercepted in making his way from Ramah through the Philistine lines. He had waited until within half an hour (because offering a burnt offering and a peace offering could not take much longer), and then spoiled everything by his inability to delay further. He said to the priest, who still lingered by the ancient site where God had been worshipped and the Tabernacle posted, “Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings.” “And it came to pass that as soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came” (1 Samuel 13:9-10).
Ah, if only some sentry standing on a pinnacle of rock could have looked over into the adjacent valley and seen the form of the old man drawing nearer to the camp, he might have warned the king, crying, “Samuel is coming!” But there was no one to stop him — nothing but the warning and remonstrance of his own heart. It was shown that he could not wait for God in absolute faith, trusting that God would not fail or deceive him. He was careful to maintain an outward rite, but the spirit of devotion and faith was altogether lacking. As he was, his successors would become, to the undoing of Israel; therefore, his kingdom could not continue.
The one lesson that comes back to us with almost overwhelming force is that the man who is after God’s heart is the man who will obey God to the letter, who will wait for God to the last moment, who will dare to stand amid a diminishing and dwindling army, and even see disaster imminent, but, because he has not received God’s marching orders, will stand still until God sets him free.
How many religious people there are who, as they review their past life, can recall moments when they did not know what to do. An inner voice — still, sweet, but commanding — bade them wait and trust; but many other voices, loud and strident, summoned them to act; so that the still, small voice of faith, of resignation, of absolute obedience, was silenced. The one rash word was spoken, the one irrevocable act performed, betraying the weakness of the heart, the ineffectiveness of the resolve. When all was over, Samuel came, and we reproached ourselves, saying, “Oh, if I had only thought that God was so near, I would not have acted as I did: woe is me; why could I not wait?” Samuel always comes just at the last moment; but it is so hard to wait until he does come. “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And He arose, and rebuked the storm, and said, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:25-26). God has not given us the spirit of fear, but the spirit of power, love, self-discipline, and self-restraint.
Man becomes so weary of waiting, and it seems as though God were so slow. God’s mighty processes sweep around such a wide orbit. One day is as a thousand years, but He is coming as the morning, as the spring, as the millennium. “His going forth is as sure as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, like the spring showers that water the earth” (Hosea 6:3).
II. SAUL’S DISINGENUOUS PLEANotice Saul’s explanation to Samuel. He said, “I said to myself, the Philistines will come down upon me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the Lord. So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering” (1 Samuel 13:12). That was insincere. He laid the blame on circumstances, essentially saying, “The circumstances of my situation forced my hand; I did not want to do it, I was most reluctant, but I could not help myself; the Philistines were coming. The scepter was wrested from my grasp, and I had to obey the imperious voice of the misfortunes that fell thick and fast upon me.” His speech reminds us of Aaron’s, who stripped the people naked before God and their enemies, and sought to excuse himself by saying, “They gave me their earrings; I cast them into the fire, and out came this calf” (Exodus 32:24).
We are all prone to speak in the same tone. When the rash word has been uttered and the proud act done; when we have refused to obey and have seen the house of our life toppling down upon us, or consumed in the flames of our folly, we have said, “Circumstances compelled me; I had to do it, and I did it: I forced myself; my hand was forced.”
O soul of man, you are greater than circumstances; greater than things; greater than the mob of evil counselors. You are meant to be God’s crowned and enthroned king; to rule and not to be ruled: to obey God only, and to resist all other attempts to bring you under the yoke. Rouse yourself, lest it be said of you also, that your kingdom shall not continue.
III. THE BETTER PATHIn response to all this, Samuel, speaking in the name of God, said, “I have chosen a man after My own heart, who shall perform all My will” (1 Samuel 13:14). In Jesse’s home, the lad was being prepared who could believe and not make haste. Listen to the way this man after God’s own heart spoke in later years: “I waited patiently for the Lord; He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up from a desolate pit, out of the miry clay; He set my feet upon a rock and made my steps secure” (Psalm 40:1-2).
Wait, wait for your Lord’s timing. Let your heart stop its feverish beating, and your pulse no longer register tumultuous waves of emotion! To act now would only disappoint the highest hopes, mar the Divine purposes, and set stones rolling that shall never be stopped. Wait for God; stand still, and see His salvation. His servant is coming up the pass; his steps may not be as speedy as we would wish, but he will arrive at the perfect moment — not a moment too soon, but not a moment too late. God’s messenger is timed to come when the heart has almost failed, the steps almost gone, and hope almost vanished. “The Lord is near” (Philippians 4:5). Oh wait, my soul, wait, wait upon God; for God cannot be behind, as He will not be before, the allotted and appointed moment.
And when He comes, there will be laughter for tears, harvest for sowing, blue skies for clouds, and long days of rapturous bliss that will make you forget the shame and reproach of the past!
This is Chapter 15 from F.B. Meyer’s book “Samuel the Prophet,” which is in the public domain. We have also made slight revisions to this chapter.
Turn to James 1, and I would like to begin reading in verse 13.
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
So James starts off in this verse by saying, “Let no one say…” There’s something he doesn’t want you thinking, saying, feeling. “Himself tempts no one, but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.”
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
Now, brethren, let’s just let’s pray before we dive into this. Father, we’re thinking right now about how you’ve given to us financially. Lord, I pray that you would give us now just the ability to comprehend wonderful things out of your word and to hear. Give us ears to hear what the Spirit has to say to the churches. Lord, we ask it in Christ’s name. Amen.
Now smooth flow, well-developed thought. No, not with James. Not not. I like the way my mind operates. James. James seems disconnected to me. Verse 17 seems disconnected. “Every good gift, every perfect gift.” You see what he was just talking about? He was saying, “Don’t, don’t. When you’re tempted, don’t be saying that is God. That tempted me.” And then he comes over to say, “Every good gift, every perfect gift is from above.” Almost seems like disjointed. He’s jumping over to something else.
Verse 18, “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth…” I mean, if I’m honest, I find it difficult to find continuity. Now you might just say, “Well, he’s a random thoughts. He’s over here, he’s over here, he’s over there.” And perhaps, perhaps, maybe there’s more continuity here than first meets the eye. Perhaps, perhaps it goes like this.
I mean, one thought that occurred to me is how all of this fits together is, is the fact that, well, maybe verse 13 stresses what God is not the author of, while verse 17 stresses what God is the author of. And then you go to verse 18, he’s the source of everything good. And so he he hones in on everything good. He takes us to the greatest good in verse 18.
I mean, if you’re working backwards through this, you might say the source of man’s greatest good is the source of everything good (verse 17). And he can never be the source of evil (verse 13). Perhaps that’s how it fits together.
But I’ll tell you this. You can tell something in all of this. James is concerned with how we think about the Lord. That ought to jump out at you. He wants us to stop blaming God and start thanking God.
And I see blame in verse 13, don’t you? God’s response, “Hey, don’t say this.” I mean, some people do say it. And you know what? We say it more than we think. “Hey, look at the situation. God’s created me the way I am. God’s responsible for this. He made… Didn’t he make all these laws?”
I said it last time. “Didn’t he put that tree in the middle of the garden? Well, if God doesn’t want Adam and Eve to fall, why put that tree there? Why give us the laws that he gives us if he doesn’t want us to fall into the… I mean, he’s given us laws that are impossible to keep, and the circumstance is… I mean, God’s put me in the circle if he didn’t like me tempted. Can’t God prevent me from being tempted? Aren’t I supposed to pray? ‘Lead me not into temptation.’ Obviously God can not lead me into temptation. So if I get led into temptation, isn’t that him? Isn’t that his fault?”
And see, verse 16 checks us. “Don’t be deceived.” He is not the author of those things. In fact, don’t be deceived (verse 17), he’s not like that. You know what he’s like. You know what he’s like. He’s like the God that takes us from 1500 in the whole to 51 in the positive, with all our bills paid.
He is a giving God. And you see, the idea back in verse 13 is he’s a taking God. “Now. He just he does this. He takes away my joy and he takes away my freedom and he takes away…” He’s just a taker.
“Every good gift, every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
Brethren, do you know what? I really think it takes being thrown into hell for men to really recognize how much God gives them. I just sat at my desk and I’m thinking, “What is God given me?” I looked over and I saw a pair of scissors. Do you care about having a pair of scissors? You can give you scissors. You can cut paper straight.
I’m sitting there. And you know what? When I walk out in the woods, when I go to Brackenridge, or I go over to Cibolo Creek or, whatever it is, anytime I see a Cardinal, I just think of Christ blood shed for me. I’m sitting there in my office, and a cardinal flies right in the tree outside.
Can you imagine how you will never hear a bird sing? You’ll never awake from a restful night. You’ll never taste food. Not even a drop of water. You’ll never see colors. You’ll never run. You’ll never feel the embrace of somebody else. Putting on a warm sweater in the cold. Or finding shade under a tree in the heat. You’ll never walk through the grass. You’ll never come home from a day’s work or having been on a trip for God gives us transportation. God gives us fathers and mothers and sons and daughters and friends and never.
I mean, he’s he gives us everything. He gives us fingers. Do you ever just sit and think about your fingers? Or do you ever just sit and think about your eyes? That you have eyes? That God actually made marriage. He made he made the differences of the sexes and what that means to us. You never just stop and look around. I mean, he’s given us the ability to think so we can make a speaker so that when I speak, it’s amplified.
I mean, it’s like we have so much, we have so much. We haven’t. I mean, in the past we had men’s bathrooms, but they’re not as nice as the ones now. Going back there before was like, you didn’t know where you were going.
He gives us so much. I mean, even the people with the least. You look around and there’s, there’s colors and we, we have animals and there’s just… do you recognize if all of a sudden all of it was taken away? Is it…
We have so much we just take it for granted our wretched state. Naturally. You know what Romans one says? “Although they knew God, what?” They didn’t honor him as God, and they didn’t… what? They didn’t thank him. That’s man. Thankless.
You just try to cross God out suppressed God, thankless. And see, the thing is, we just were thankless. And if we do entertain that, there’s a God. Well, why did God let the Twin Towers fall down? Why God see the tsunami? And why this and that? You see, it’s God’s a taker. He takes life. He he makes our lives miserable. Man has this tendency to look at God like that. It’s like Satan coming along and saying, you know, God just doesn’t want you to have that fruit over there. He’s he’s depriving you. He’s robbing you. That’s how man tends to think it’s like God’s just to take her. Oh, yeah. Yeah. God has given us so much. Amen. And evil doesn’t come from God. He’s good. What this is saying is good comes from God. Every perfect gift. I mean, you think about perfect, it means the ultimate that which cannot be bettered. And obviously in verse 18 he gets to it. But you see the picture here. Do you know when it calls him the father of lights? This is not just simply saying that, God, this is talking about the heavenly lights, like the sun and the moon and the stars. This isn’t just saying that God created those things when it talks about him. No variation. The old Puritan Thomas Manton said that variation is an astronomical term. That idea of shadow, which you have to recognize is this when the sun is at noonday, straight overhead, there’s no shadow I know underneath you, but there’s on the sundial. There’s no shadow you cast no shadow. You see, the idea here is that God comes down with those rays and he sprays this goodness down from his being in giving, giving, giving. You see the sun. The sun sets, the sun rises. The sun can be eclipsed. The sun doesn’t always strike the Earth at the same angle. But God, his light strikes at the same angle to where there’s no shadow. He is a giver. Parents instill that in your children. If you need anything, you go to him. He’s the giver. He’s the source. He’s the help. There’s no shadow at all this. This is talking to us about our divine Son. Him giving, giving, giving, giving. So thankless we are. And brethren, how many times have we asked for water? And he’s given us wine? I’m. Isaiah says, arise, shine, for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. That’s the idea. So you’re so prone to have hard thoughts of God. And James wants to take us right out of that, brethren, our safety lies in God’s unchanging giving ness. That’s what we have here. What wretchedness, brethren! I mean, what jumps out at me is what wretched wretchedness that we even have to be told. This, but we do. Why, you know what? We’re complainers by nature. Aren’t you? Brethren, we complain about so many things. We’re unhappy. Now. You just imagine how jealousy and envy fits into all this. When God gives so much and gives so much, and yet discontent. And then verse 18, like I said, God’s most perfect gift in James estimation, out of all the good that God sprays down into these beams, James singles out one thing above all else. And what is it? You see it there. This is really where I want to focus my attention right now of his own will. He gave us something. He brought us forth. Young’s literal translation reads this way he did beget us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Now listen, that the new English translation, I just throw it. I don’t usually use this, but I just thought it gives good expression here. By his sovereign plan, he gave us birth through the message of truth. I like that brought forth was brought forth mean. What does beget mean? It’s delivery of that with which somebody is pregnant. Its birth. But obviously this is not physical birth being talked about here. What makes it obvious in the first verse? Well, not just the first fruits aspect, but the word of truth. This birth happens by God’s word. This happens by the God, the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. That’s how Ephesians talks. That’s what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about good news. We’re talking about the we’re talking about the best news and what happens. This birth comes as a result of being exposed to this word of truth. It’s you remember how Peter says it. How’s Peter? Say it. He basically says the same truth. Anybody remember? I’ll help you. You’ve been born again. How? Not one way. Not of charity. Yeah, not. Not of perishable, but of what? Imperishable. Which is what I. Yeah, he calls it. They’re the living and abiding word of God. If we’re brethren, you recognize what we’re talking about here. What is this gift? This gift is a birth. This gift is a spiritual birth. We’re not just talking about some mere spiritual improvement here, or getting religion or some kind of little moral upgrade, or, you know, how you people make New Year’s resolutions. It’s trying to get their act together. It’s nothing like that. Nothing like that at all. This is nothing less than a full blown miracle that God does by his will. That’s what we’re being. Paul talks about it like this. At one time you were darkness. Now you are light in the Lord. How do you come? Light? But he, the father of lights, he has a will. He wills to shine that light on us. What’s the result? You get brought forth through the birth canal of his word into the glorious light. And, brethren, if you remain the same, you recognize, brethren, if you remain the same, how can it be said that you’ve been brought forth? How can it be said that there’s a new birth? A baby is delivered from the womb, the darkness of the womb of mama comes out into the light. Isn’t that what Scripture says? At one time you were darkness. Now you’re light in the Lord, out of darkness into his marvelous light. That’s the way Scripture speaks. Now, brethren, we have to really grasp this. Notice what it says. It’s God’s decision of his own will. He brought us forth by the word of truth. God is not forced to do this. He consults with nobody. God’s will is the reason behind why anybody is ever born again. What motivates God? You know what Moses said to Israel? You remember what he said. He said, you know what, guys? You really need to understand. You know why God said his love upon you? Because God set his love upon you. He said he’s not. Because you were greater in number than anybody else. You weren’t more impressive. You didn’t have mighty your armies. You were more handsome. You weren’t more beautiful. You weren’t more righteous. He says. He just lays it down to this. He said you were the fewest. It’s because the Lord loves you. That’s the conclusion. Or you come over to the Psalm. It says it in Psalm 1918. He rescued me. Why? David says, because he delighted in me. But you notice he doesn’t say, well, because I was handsome. I was young and ruddy and handsome. And so he delighted in me. He was the least. When Samuel was sizing up all the sons of Jesse, he didn’t start by saying, you know, he thought, it’s got to be this guy in the well, this is okay. So this guy. You know what Scripture says God loves because he chooses to love. God delights because he chooses to light. When it’s all said and done, brethren, that’s the Supreme cause. Don’t we read that one day? Jesus? He looked up to his father. You remember that Matthew 11 after that whole incident where he’s basically cursing, causing in Capernaum in Bethesda? And he just says, father, I thank you. You’ve hidden these things from the wise and the prudent. He says, you’ve revealed these things to babes. Do you remember what he says next? Such was your gracious will. It’s his will. Why does one guy see and one guy doesn’t see in the end, what does it come down to? God’s will. That’s what James is expressing. Brethren, this gives us one of the purest and most beautiful pictures of the freeness of God’s love. So if I’m saved, brethren, who gets the credit? Wait, didn’t I receive Christ? Didn’t I believe? Doesn’t John 112 say that to as many as. Received him believed in his name. He gave the right to become so. It wasn’t it me? Didn’t I do that? Didn’t I receive him? Didn’t I believe? Doesn’t it say I did? Yes. So am I. Am I the initiator? Am I the ultimate cause I know a lot of people read verse 12 and they don’t read verse 13. You ever notice that when he’s 13, say, well, it says something like this. Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, in other words, of the will of God. You believe you received because it was the will of who? Not man. It’s a sovereign thing, brethren. So the question of the hour is this. When we read of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth. Let me ask you this. Who’s the US? Brethren, statements like this ought to make us step back and ask, What is Christianity? What is the church? How did we get here? Brethren, any idea Christianity is mainly the result of something that I do, or that you do is always completely, utterly, hopelessly wrong. The true church is not a result of our efforts, ultimately. I mean, we need to put away any thinking that the Christian church is initially that it’s ultimately the result of our action, our decisions, or the brethren, or we got to put away the idea that Christianity is some sort of duty. And I know there’s some of you that come here. You feel like I got to go there. It’s like, you gotta keep doing this. Why? It’s it’s a duty to come here each week. Just kind of hoping the service won’t be too long. Brethren, true Christianity is always the activity of God carrying out his will. We need to stop and ask sometimes how did the church ever come into being? And you know what? What I recognize is this when you have James and this guy was a leader at Jerusalem, and he’s speaking to the scattered tribes likely scattered through the persecution that came about from Stephen, likely people that were scattered from Jerusalem who he had previously pastored. Let me ask you something. Where did those people come from? A lot of them. You know what a lot of the people that he’s writing to undoubtedly were converted at Pentecost. There were 3000. You get why? I mean, this is close proximity to that. James was there early. You get these people. The reason I’m bringing this up is because Pentecost resonates with James 118 and, brethren, acts two. Think about it. Turn their turn to acts two. We’re talking about something that is so important. This has to do with where Christianity comes from, where the church comes from. How does it, how does it? How does the church even survive to this day? How is it that that these, these Galilean fishermen came down from an upper room and and somehow this thing has survived at this very hour? I mean, acts two, brethren, this is something so entirely different from what so often passes for Christianity in the minds of most people, regarding the nature and the life of the church, what do you have in acts two? I’ll tell you what you have. You have these guys, and all of a sudden they come down from this upper room and they’ve had tongues, fire experience, and they come out on the streets and they begin to proclaim the mighty works of God. And they’re doing it in tongues. And you got these people from all over the world, and they’re hearing this in their own tongues and and they think that they’re drunk. And so what happens? Peter? Peter, a Galilean fisherman who who wasn’t so impressive not long before this, denying the Lord is there. There he is, in all of his weakness and all of his whatever. And he’s he’s out there and he begins to speak, and he begins to tell them about Joel and that this is a fulfillment of the prophecy. He talks to them about this prophet, and then he goes on, he talks about another prophet. He calls David a prophet there. And he quotes he quotes David from Psalm 16, and then he quotes again from what? Psalm 110. It’s so we he’s dealing with the the outpouring of the spirit. He’s dealing with Psalm 16, the resurrection. He’s dealing with Psalm 110, the fact that he ascended, he seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. This is what’s happening. But, brethren, so often people are ignorant. They’re ignorant about what Christianity is. You get people that, well, they live in this sinful life and suddenly, I don’t know, something happens. They get their conscience bothering them, they recognize enough of the truth and they start coming to the church. They start coming. They feel like it’s a duty they got to. They got to work this thing out. People ignorant, they constructing their own ideas in their head. They face, face death. They realize something about hell. They’re misery. They’re disturbed by the thoughts of what might happen. And they try to smooth over the conscience and the brush away the fears with a a little bit of church going. But, brethren, in the end, is this biblical Christianity? Is this what we find, or is it more like James 118 and what happened in acts chapter two? See what I see when I look at James 118 is I see that worked out. This is very concise form, but when you go to the day of Pentecost, it’s like this is where it all happens. This is where it all started, brethren. What happened? Those who received his word were baptized and they were added that day. About 3000 souls. What does it mean to become a Christian? Do you know it means to be added? What does it mean to be added? It means if you’re added to something, it means before you were outside that something, now you got added to their number and to what the ranks of who? Well, in acts 247 it says the Lord added to their number day by day those who are being saved. You see that. Have you wrestled with this question? is very emphatic about these people. These people are the first fruits of the Lord. These are the ones dedicated to him. These are the ones set aside. You remember what the first fruit was? It’s that it’s the best. It’s the first. It’s that what you bring. And it’s dedicated to the Lord. The owner no longer has any rights to it. It’s totally his. What does it mean to become totally Christ? To be dedicated, to be a first fruits? Like I say, this is emphatic. Do you recognize what he’s saying? The only ones that are the first fruits, the only ones are those who, by God’s will, have been begotten by the word of truth. They’re the only ones. And you see this worked out here. What’s it mean to become a Christian? Brethren, we have to wrestle with these things. What happened to them? Because the reality is same thing better happened to us. Has it happened to us? I mean, I know this what happened that day? The Lord did it. Why? Because it says the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Well, that that connects perfectly with James, doesn’t it? Of his own will. He begot us. And here it says he’s the one doing it. He’s the one adding these people. And James says, God’s brings us forth by the word of truth. Now, if we go to acts two, any sign of that? I mean, like I said, get simple Galilean preacher by the name Peter, and he’s saying something, cites the prophets eight. Psalm 16, cites Psalm 110, and you recognize what happens as he’s speaking. There’s a crowd of people much like you. You’re listening. This is, isn’t it just the craziest thing that God designed it, that a guy would stand up and talk and you actually come here each week and you sit there and listen? The same kind of thing happened that day. A guy is talking, people are sitting there listening. Why are they listening? Because the guy’s saying something. Is it worth hearing? Well, I don’t know. That all depends on what the guy says. And what’s he saying? Well, he starts saying, hey, you know what you’re seeing right now? This is a bunch of drunken Galileans. This is what Joel talked about. He starts talking. There’s your word of truth. The prophet said this. The prophets prophesied this. This isn’t catching God by surprise. This is exactly what God said was going to happen. And he starts, you know what he does? He starts bringing out facts. He starts hitting the people right between the eyes. Remember, word of truth, word of truth. You know, brethren, the Bible is an honest book. You got you get truth in here. This is the truth, the supreme truth. And he’s hitting them right between the eyes with it. And he says, in the end, you guys, you need to face this. The solid facts of this book, this is history, folks. Where did the church come from? I that’s it. Those people in Jerusalem were suddenly confronted. They’re confronted by what? What could they say? What could they possibly do? Something astounding began to happen there. The crowd was confronted. You know what began to happen? The phenomenon of James 118. Peter didn’t stand there and debate limited atonement with these guys. He didn’t say, well, you know, you guys all need to go up to that upper room and have a tongues of fire experience like we all had. It’s none of that. He quoted the prophet Joel. He quoted another prophet, he expounded Scripture as a certain fact of history. You know what he said in acts 222, men of Israel hear these words Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God, with mighty works and wonders and signs, that God did through him in your midst. This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by objective facts. You know what Peter did? He worked out his argument. He laid it out. Doesn’t matter your background, your sins, you’ve committed, your ethnicity, personality, psychological makeup. You know what he did? He hit these people right between the eyes. Whether they were tall or short, whether the young or old. He hit them between the eyes with these facts. The word of truth. Jesus of Nazareth. You want truth? Jesus of Nazareth is a historical figure. He’s real. And there he is. He came. He did certain things. He announced himself to be somebody. Somebody says, hey, why should I believe such things? On what grounds? Truth, brethren. Truth. It is important you know what? We are so deceived. We come into this world and the the, the deceiver of the whole world. We’re under his power. We walk through this life, we’re deceived. We think things are the way they are, and they’re not that way. That’s how these people were. What do you think it means to repent? It means to rethink. It means change your mind. Something kind of happened. You come face to face with this word of truth, and you’ve got minds that have been deceived by sin and the devil, and this world’s outlook on things, and suddenly you’re confronted by it. Truth. You ever been hit by truth to where it rocked you? It thrilled you. It threw you off balance. Some of these people are like brothers. What do we do? Like we’re in trouble here. You suddenly get hit by the truth and you recognize this isn’t this. This isn’t a circus. And I’m headed to what? Some ethereal delight in the end. And everything’s going to be good. I just hope it all works out. And hopefully I’ve been good enough. And suddenly they’re hit by it. The realities are quite different than you thought. And suddenly what? There’s life. So how did all this happen? There were the confronted by this. They begin this. They begin to think God said, I am. God has revealed certain things about his son Jesus. I mean, in this book it’s taken up with what his life, this is where Peter was. He talks about Jesus. Jesus Christ is the fact he’s the center. He’s the primary truth. And in the midst of all of this, they’re confronted by this Jesus. You ever been confronted him by Christ through the word of truth, to where suddenly God caused you to spring forth into life suddenly your eyes are opened. Suddenly you see things entirely different. They line up with truth, brethren, that’s our task. Hold forth this word of truth. Why did God send his son? You know, the vast majority of people don’t know we were down on the street Saturday. Here’s a young couple walk over to them and start talking about. They have no idea, no idea what it takes to get to heaven. No idea how good you’ve got to be. No idea whether they have been or not. Listen. You live, you walk, you talk. In the midst of this world, the truths expressed in the gospel happened in your world. They happen here. This has to do with you. This can’t be avoided by just talking about science or medical advances or anything like that. Brethren, do you recognize there’s none righteous, not a single one. We’re coming face to face with death. And after that, the judgment. There is really a God. There’s a heaven and hell. You can’t avoid these things. Everybody’s got to face the fact of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it doesn’t matter who you are, brethren, this is the kind of thing James is hitting us with this reality. People really do get born again. One of the things that blew me away when I first got saved is I. I couldn’t believe it. I walked through this world for 25 years of my life as a nominal Catholic, never recognizing that there were actually people in this world that were born again. I couldn’t believe it. What? I’ve been just living my life and all the wild and all the fun and living like there’s no death and there’s no there’s no God to give an account to in the end. And just suddenly, seriously, there are people who were spiritually alive walking around me, and I didn’t I didn’t even understand it. Brethren, you have to ask yourself this. If I come face to face with the word of truth, and he who said, I am the way and the truth had been, I so confronted by this, that in my confrontation with it something akin to a second birth has taken place, something so radical, so life changing. Has that happen? Is this what James is saying of his own will? He begot us and it’s always through the word. There it is, brethren. The thing is what you have to recognize. Like when I was lost, like most Catholics, superstitious, I had this over on my dresser. Not this one. I but I had a Bible on my dresser thinking that somehow it would ward off evil. I never read it. I just like it. Kind of emanated a an evil reject or or like if you put it under your pillow somehow it was lit and it was magical. Brethren, that’s not what’s being talked about here. The word is not a good luck charm. You recognize what’s going to happen, you’ve got to read it or hear it preached. You’ve got to be confronted by it. You’ve got to think up. You’ve got to begin to ask questions about it. Rethink, repent, change it. People don’t want to think, give me the bottle. Give me the drug. Give me the thing. It’s too painful to think people are desperate all the time to evade the facts. What is the spirit? Move us to think about, brethren. Those people in Jerusalem were made to think about what they were hit between the eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that they had been rejecting him. Yes, they killed him, but you would have to. Don’t make them more guilty than you. You’ve been rejecting them just like they have. If you’re sitting here lost. Yeah, right. That’s I mean, that’s what they were hit by. They were given these objective historical facts about this person and what happened. They were cut to the heart. How’d that happen? Well, we can see this was more than just their own involvement and their own decisions and their own actions. God was at work. Something was happening inside them. Something was happening to them. Brethren, have you ever been cut to the heart by the message of truth? Now I recognize somebody like Timothy grew up under a godly grandmother and got, you know, the children coming up like that. They may not experience that kind of thing. But these are these are primarily adults sitting here for them. This is the mark of the true message in the true church, the true people of God. I’m shaken, I think, in my thinking, Jesus Christ, all of a sudden is taking a position in my mind that he never took before. I saw him as unimportant and low and died suddenly. He’s the chief position. Suddenly, first thing we have to face, brethren, in this word of truth, is the person of Christ. His life, his death, his resurrection. The spirit opens my eyes to the relevance of Christ and the relevance of Christ to me. Suddenly this all matters. What he did, how he lived, what he did on that cross. It matters to me. I come to recognize I’m involved in this. This has to do with with. Brethren, we recognize that Christ is at the very center of all of God’s plan and all of his perfect purposes here. And I’ve been rejecting him. Yet you’re waking to this brethren that think. And what happens is they’re thinking that leads to conviction. And you know what you start telling you? I’m not a good person. I’m not what I thought I was. There’s fear. There’s concern. Brothers, what are we supposed to do? That’s what they begin asking. Like we’re. We’re afraid. We’re convicted. We need help. We’re in trouble. Have you opened the word of truth? And I listen, don’t downplay this. Of his own will. He began us through the word of truth. Something akin to that needs to be a reality in your life, or you’re not one of the first fruits. This is what happened on that day of Pentecost. Men and women never face the facts of the word of truth. Most people, they will not take the time. They will not go here. They continue lost in darkness and misery of sin, all the while not begotten, not brought forth, not knowing where they’re going, not understanding, not understanding life, not ready to die. Always afraid. Truth. Oh, God has given us a source of truth. Peter’s sermon alone can’t account for what happened on that day. How did it happen? How do you become cut to the heart? This occurs as Joel is opened up and Psalm 16 is opened up, and he’s telling him, that’s not David. David’s body’s right over here. It’s corrupting in the grave. This one talking about him. And God seated him at his right hand. There it is. Psalm 110. Brethren, I’ll tell you in the end this is what accounts for the church. This is why she exists to this day. God’s in it. God does it. God energizes his power. He breathes life into her. Let’s see the only explanation. Something is happening by his will to us. It happens to us. Have you ever been aware of that? Hey, listen, so often people get this idea that they need to become religious. Oh, this is some big fearful thing and prison is before them. Or there’s a war and they’re in the foxhole or, you know, you got different things. Christianity is often something people take up, like a hobby. That’s not what we’re talking about here. What we’re talking about is something God does by his own will to us. Have you ever been aware that God has been doing something to you from outside of you, by a power greater than you? That’s what we’re talking about here. This is Christianity. It is a supernatural thing, is a miraculous thing. That’s what we’re faced with, happens by his will. Christianity happens to me. I remember that I’m going along. And brethren, when it started happening to me, I actually said at one point, God, leave me alone. Let me go back and enjoy my sin the way I did before something was happening to me. And at first I wanted to try to escape it. It wasn’t. I wasn’t feeling good under that. He was stripping away all the self-righteousness in it. It was hurt, it hurt, it was uncomfortable. And finally you get to the place, what do I do? Lord, help me. And brethren, the thing is, though many things are commanded to us, we are taught we are commanded to strive to enter and we are commanded to repent. We’re commanded to believe. We’re commanded to do all sorts of things. But, brethren, in the end, it’s the power of God coming upon you and changing you. You have to have an encounter with the word of truth and the Christ in that word. And God meets you there. And that’s what happens. Why God sent his son to die, why God preserve it all in a book for me to read. This is have anything to do with me. I mean, you got to get to the place where it’s like you’re confronted by this. This word of truth isn’t about any old truth. It doesn’t teach us about calculus. This is the truth, the supreme truth of all of history. Why Jesus Christ? And you know, I’m talking to the young couple and I’m and Saturday and it’s like, no, it doesn’t, it doesn’t even compute. And that’s how I was for 25 years, just walking through my life. If you were to come, it was like, I wouldn’t have wanted to talk to you out there on that sidewalk because I had an agenda. It was some kind of pleasure, some kind of I’m going to go get drunk or do something. Don’t talk to me. I don’t want to know about this. When what happens? God comes in and he makes it all come alive to me. When a man becomes a Christian, he just suddenly conscious. He’s being dealt with from outside. God’s doing something. There’s no oftentimes we can’t explain exactly what’s happening or why it’s happening, but but we know it’s happening. It’s this is the reality, folks. And so we need to put these questions to ourselves. Have you faced God’s Word and been concerned, been jolted? Have you read Scripture and come to realize things about yourself that you never realized before? If your eyes been open? Jesus is not what you thought. Jesus. Not so unimportant as you thought. God’s not some pushover, but holy, holy, holy, like we saying is that a have you been confronted by him? How much have you really thought about him? Who is this? We begin to think. Think, brethren. Yeah. The world has this idea that Christians are idiots and don’t think they’re the great thinkers, the free thinkers. Brethren, that’s not what our Bibles tell us. Our tell us that if anybody has thought it’s Christians, they’re thinking and their rethinking and their mind. Something is happening in the mind. Brethren, the issue is this if you ever read God’s Word and had it really grip you, you may say, oh, I read my Bible, but that’s not what I’m asking you. Have you been moved by it? Have you been thrilled by it? Has it radically changed? Your thinking? Has got done something? Has it caused it? I mean, have you come and you’ve been confronted by this book where you suddenly, why am I going to die? What is life all about? Who is this Jesus? Why did he come? Why did he die? Do you have an encounter with a living God in the truth? That something like that, you begin to feel things and ask questions that you never asked before? Judgment. What is that all about? Why have I been so careless? You recognize that this crowd, they were the same people that were crying out for him to be crucified. Not too long before this, and now all of a sudden they’re saying to these Galilean fishermen, not quite the people you get. There were no Gamaliel, not quite the people you go to to ask for help. And yet they’re just cut to the heart. God is doing something. They it’s like it doesn’t matter that it’s Peter or Thomas or any of these other guys. What matters is they’ve been hit by this truth of who Christ is. It’s knocked them over, they’re cut to the heart, and now they’re looking for help. Brethren, this is what God does in the midst of all of it. And so this is the essence of Christianity, brethren. It’s not you and I just dragging ourselves into the service and doing everything and trying to make something happen and feeling nothing. And God’s not here, and God’s no, there’s no reality. And God some abstraction far out there and far, brethren, that’s not true Christianity. We don’t want that. We don’t want what men can do. We want what God can do. We want God to put together a group of people that are brought under this conviction and see Christ now all together, lovely and and all. He’s there. Everything in there. Desire is for him and their life is for him and all on the altar. How does that happen? Because you’re born again. Because you’ve been birthed this way. Everything changes everything. Radical brethren, what do I do? Do I do I go and say, well, you know what? It’s by his will. I guess I can do nothing. So I guess that’s what I’ll do. I just do nothing. I need to be saved. I’m a sinner. Yeah. I born in sin under the wrath of God. There’s no hope in humanity. Only hopes confound is in God and He. This is by his will. So I guess if God’s going to do it, he’s going to have to do it. And there’s just really nothing I can do. Brethren, the Scripture never comes to such conclusions. Jesus never told anybody to do that. And these guys, when they said, what must we do? They didn’t say that either. Do nothing, brethren. What I would tell you to do is back up a verse in James and go to verse 17 and say, If God is this father of lights, and he is so giving, then I’m going to him. I need some things and I’m going to him. And if it says that he births people through the word of truth, what would be the next obvious conclusion? Do nothing. I mean, if God is setting himself forth, is so giving, I’m going to start talking to him and I’m going to give him no rest till I get everything from he’s so giving. That’s how he’s setting himself. I’m going to go to the giving God. See if you have this mindset. God is just a taker. God really doesn’t want to save me. God is hesitant. God just makes it hard. I’ve I’ve cried out to him before and I got no response. You start. That’s all a lie. I said exactly what the devil wanted Eve to thank all the lies. You know what the truth is? He is a giver and a giver and a giver. So go to him to get. And the place you want to go to him is you’re talking to him. Just keep your face in here. Because if you’re begotten by the word of truth, by thinking, by contemplating what’s really here, go to the Gospels. Go where Christ is revealed. Go look at the day of Pentecost. Go there. If God is a freely giving is verse 17. In John and James one claims that motivates me to just want to cry out to him. This is what James wants us to think. God’s not holding out on us. God’s not the author of bad and the author of sin. God is the author of good and perfect things, and he is so giving. And what I find, brethren, is that when God sent His Son into this world, search those gospels. Any time people came to him asking for something that wasn’t sin, he gave it. Yes, there was a guy that he wanted the brother to split the money with him. Jesus is going to have any part of that kind of covetousness. But brethren, people that went to him, even when they didn’t get saved in the end, because how many lepers were there? There were ten lepers. Only one came back. Jesus gave and gave and gave, and the father gives and gives. And this is Christianity. It’s a message you need to be saved. And that God has provided a means whereby that can happen. Supernatural, miraculous. I’m not telling you to be good. That’s not the message here. There’s no use telling folks to get religious or to try harder. Brethren, we need to be delivered from death and darkness and damnation, and thank God he delivers. He is. He doesn’t just give us trees to shade our yard brethren. He gives eternal life. He gives his son. He gives the spirit. He gives himself. Oh, brethren, this is it. If you control your religion. that’s proof it’s not biblical Christianity. And the question is, do you know this living God? Have you heard his voice? Have you felt that touch of God upon your soul after being in this book? That’s the question. Are you aware you’ve been dealt with by God? If all you have is what you do, what you think, brethren, you’re not a Christian. That’s that’s the reality that you get from James 118. It’s always the hand of God working through the Word of God first. For brethren, you need to recognize if this has happened to you. You are a first fruit. That means it is that fruit that that farmer brought before he did anything with the rest. It’s the first. It’s the best. And God has claim to it. It’s dedicated to him. You’re no longer your own. If God has done this to you, he owns it all. But obviously the Scripture puts an emphasis on if you’ve been bought by the blood of Christ that puts you in this very elite group and you’re his no longer living for yourself. Your first fruit. And so I would just say this May God give us grace at Grace Community Church to have all of us living lives of first fruit. You know what that would look like if we’re all just dedicated, no longer living to self, Holy to the Lord. Father, I pray that these realities yes, we want the real thing. We want the book of acts. Lord, do we want the reality? We want you to do what we can’t do. And Lord, we know you have a will, and we see it expressed here. And we know that in the midst of seeing your will all expressed, we see what a giving God you are. And it makes me want to be bold to ask you for so much more, and you’re so willing to give exceedingly abundantly beyond what we ask or think. And so, Lord, I pray that these brethren would feel great liberty in their soul to ask you for all sorts of things. They would feel great liberty in their soul, and just a desire to be here. When this church gathers to pray, to lift up voices to the God who has a will and does all these glorious things and miraculous things, it actually adds 3000 to the church in a single day. Oh Lord, there’s nothing impossible for you. And our eyes are open to see the impossible things that you’ll do with us and through us in the days ahead. We ask for it in the name of the living Christ. Amen.
James urges us not to blame God for our temptations, reminding us that God is the source of all good gifts. He contrasts the idea of God as a taker with the reality of God as a giver, emphasizing the importance of gratitude and perspective in our relationship with Him. Is it not glorious that God sent His only Son to save us sinners!
(00:00) How does the logic of James 1 fit together?
(03:49) Stop blaming God and start thanking God
(05:41) Do you realize all that God has given you?
(09:34) No shadow of turning with the LORD?
(12:38) Verse 18: He brought us forth?
(18:16) If I am saved, who gets the credit?
(48:32) This is Christianity!
(51:17) Closing prayer
I’m going to pray. And then after I pray, we’re going to have our sister Ginaphr share her testimony. Hopefully, the babies will be okay. After that, we’re going to go out and baptize our sister Ginaphr. I realize some of you might wonder why, since Ginaphr is already a member of our church and has been baptized. She’s going to share her story about what God has done in her life before we step outside to baptize her again. So, brethren, let me pray, and then we’ll give our sister that opportunity.
Good morning, church. As he said, I’m here to share my testimony with you. I know that might be shocking to some of you; it was to me as well. I’ll just start from the beginning. I grew up going to church before I could even walk, with my grandparents. There wasn’t ever really a time when I didn’t at least know, in my head, that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. However, looking back, there wasn’t any real understanding or teaching about sin, about how great God really is, and how He sees our sin.
I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma where everybody goes to church and says they’re a Christian. It’s easy to just fit into the mold, say the right things, learn the lingo, and act a certain way because everyone around you is doing the same. But shortly after Caleb and I started coming to this church, I really began wrestling with where I was spiritually. Being under good preaching stirred something in me, and I started questioning whether I was truly a Christian. I kept trying to convince myself that I was, based on various reasons, but it was an internal battle that I never spoke about to anyone.
A couple of months ago, Tim gave a sermon on sin and our conscience. For so long, I had been pushing things down, like when your trash can is full, and you keep pushing the trash down to make room for more. During the sermon, he talked about having a liberated conscience. I remember thinking, “What in the world are you talking about? That can’t be true,” because it wasn’t true in my life. I was in constant turmoil inside. I actually remember sitting in my chair, looking out at the church, and thinking, “Is that what every Christian here feels like? Because I definitely don’t have that.”
Towards the end of that sermon, Tim said, “Some of you out here know that this is you. Don’t ignore this.” As soon as he said that, all the trash I had been pushing down exploded. I knew I needed to talk about it and let it out. After that, my parents came into town unexpectedly, and I remember feeling so much anger because they didn’t tell us they were coming. This anger and struggle with loving my mom added to the weight I was already feeling.
A few days later, Caleb asked me how I was doing, and I finally opened up about my lack of assurance and where I was spiritually. He sat down with me, read 1 John 1, and laid the gospel before me. It was like hearing it for the first time. That night, after Caleb went into another room, I confessed all my sins to God. I realized for the first time how vile and grotesque my sins were before a perfect and holy God, and that I deserved hell.
In that moment, Jesus’ words from Matthew came to mind: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and you will find rest.” I believed He heard me that night and saved me. The weight lifted, and I felt a joy and peace I had been chasing for so long. The next day, I was so excited to love my mom genuinely. My parents were the first people I got to tell about my salvation, which was really special.
That’s what the Lord has done in my life. I want to apologize to all of you for deceiving you, even though I was also deceived myself. If anyone out here feels the way I did, don’t wait. Please don’t keep silent. You can come to Him, and He promises rest.
One of the reasons I’m standing here tonight, beyond Craig being ill, is because today is May 29th. Twenty-two years ago at 7:18 Eastern Daylight Time, we were sitting in Trinity Missionary Church in Petoskey, Michigan, having just gotten the call. About 12 hours before that, our son had died. Craig wanted me to talk a little bit about that, this being the anniversary. I want to talk about three things related to this: prayer, providence, and comfort.
I know a lot of you have never seen a picture of him. We don’t have many pictures of John, but we do have one that has been enhanced a little for us and made clear. You can see it on the TVs. That was not too long before he died. He was 19 when he died. I won’t go into the story about how all the things led up to the prayer that I prayed, where I prayed, “God, if you need to break me to use me, break me.” Well, a month later, John died.
When you pray, be ready for God to answer. God may not answer in the way that you have planned, but He does answer. I did not plan on this being the method by which God would break me. I was pretty confident that God would break me nicely and that it wouldn’t hurt too much. But it hurt. It hurt a lot. I had known ever since I got involved in the prison ministry six years before that I needed some compassion training because, by nature, I am very much a “get over it” kind of guy. Our three youngest children are very much like their dad. They are very much “get over it” kind of people.
I had been talking with the chaplain at the hospital in Petoskey, Michigan, about going through some chaplaincy training in the hospital, but that never came through. But I got my compassion training on May 29th, 22 years ago. So what do you do now? I’m not the only one. Sheryl’s not the only one who gets news like that. We’ve had other people in this room get that call. What do you do for them? The first thing you can do is pray because you can’t change anything. When that call happens and you get that news, words are not going to change anything.
What do we do with prayer? We can pray certainly for the people involved. We can pray for the lost people involved. Our youngest son was 13 when this happened, and he was lost. He spent the next six years furious at God because his big brother had died. But people were praying for him. Six years later, he was in college. The story about how he got to that college is interesting. He wanted to go to Michigan State. On the way down to register, about an hour or two into the three and a half to four-hour drive, he said, “I can’t go to Michigan State.”
Remember, he’s lost. He said, “I can’t go to that place” because he remembered what his big brother had said. Our oldest son, who’s in his early 50s, went to Michigan State and transferred out after a year because of how pagan it was. Our youngest son was on his way to Michigan State to register, planning to pick up our middle daughter on the way. He gets to Saginaw and tells Sarah, “I can’t go to Michigan State. I got to go to Bethel.” Bethel College was the denomination college for the church we were attending at the time. They turned around, came home, and we made calls to get him into Bethel College. Remember, he’s lost and mad at God.
He went through his freshman year, with chapel mandatory three times a week, still mad at God. He returned for his sophomore year, and during a chapel service, while sitting with two guys, the Lord saved him. Providence. One of the two guys sitting with him is now our son-in-law, and he and Hannah have seven children. Providence.
After John died, he died on a Wednesday. The next day was Thursday, the day I usually went to the prison. It had been 24 hours since John died, and I told Sheryl I was going to the prison that night. She wasn’t exactly thrilled, but I knew I needed to go to the prison that night, so I did. I called up Terry Corrente and asked if there was room in the car. Yes. We went, and the guys already knew that John had died. They had been praying. I went and told them how I felt, how bad it was, and a bunch of stuff. I also told them about the love of God because God sent His own son to die. I get it now. My son has died. I know it’s a different level, but I get it.
As a result, one of the guys there, a murderer, had never addressed the pain he had caused his victim’s family for 20 years. He was from northern Wisconsin, went across the border into upper Michigan, killed a young girl, and was doing his time. He was a friend of mine. He said, “I never knew what the family had gone through, the pain I had caused until that night.” He wrote a little article and sent it to publishing houses, wanting to make a little bit of money. Mennonite Publishing House took him up on his offer, published the article, and sent him $35. He thought he had all the money in the world. The article reached 12,000 people through newsletters and then 145,000 people when Nazarene Publishing picked it up. Providence.
Six months later, going into another prison, I was going to do a message on a Saturday morning. The prisoners attending had not heard the story. One prisoner asked to talk to one of the spiritual counselors, of which I am one. They came up to me and said, “Jeff, so-and-so wants to talk to you.” I didn’t know who he was. They pointed him out, and I said he would have to wait until after I got done. After I finished my message about John dying, God’s grace, and people praying, I sat down with him.
When John died, his best friend, who was later arrested, was looking at three felonies, one of which was driving drunk and causing death. I sat down with this young guy, and he said, “Jeff, I did what killed your son. I’m doing 7 to 15 years for driving drunk and causing death.” Out of the 52,000 prisoners in Michigan at that time, he was in that prison, picked by the chaplain, to talk to me. Providence.
What about comfort? Second Corinthians 1:3-4 talks about comforting others with the comfort we have been given in Christ. People can identify with the pain. Not everyone can feel the pain, and that’s good. You don’t want to feel the pain. But let’s be frank: death is a reality in this age. It’s appointed for a man to die once, then face judgment. May 29th, 22 years ago, made me very focused on one thing: we all need to be ready to die now. You can’t rest on being ready yesterday. You’ve got to be ready now.
Not everyone gets old like me and dies. This is serious. The people involved with us back then get it now. One of the guys who was in the chaplain’s office with us when what happened that instigated the prayer that started this whole thing? He was a volunteer and ran a housing unit. His daughter was killed a few weeks ago in Minnesota around age 40. Our pastor at the time who did John’s funeral, his 43-year-old son dropped dead three years ago, and they still don’t know why. People die.
When I’ve told the story about the three guys coming to our house that morning, the first guy who showed up just died a couple of weeks ago. We don’t get to take a day off from being a Christian. We can’t put in for PTO or vacation. We’ve got to be ready now because none of us know if we’re going to make it to 7:30.
I know I talk about death and dying a lot, but that’s because I want us all to be ready, and I want us to pray for each other that we are all ready. Many people we thought were ready over the last 20 years are no longer ready. It’s scary to see people walk away. It’s scary to see people who you thought were firm in the faith walk away.
We need to pray. Yes, we pray for people to be saved, but let’s pray for people to remain saved. I know that sort of flies in the face of our Calvinistic doctrine, but if we use means to get people saved, we use means to keep people saved. We pray for each other. We pray that we persevere. We pray that we endure to the end because we don’t know how long our race is. It might be a sprint. It might be a marathon. We don’t know. But we’ve got to finish the race.
So we need to pray for each other. We need to comfort each other because we are going to have people die in this room. You’re all going to die. People we know and love are going to die. How can we comfort them? One way is to pray for them. We felt it. People have asked, “How do you deal? How did you deal with it?” The way we have dealt with it is that God answered people’s prayers and gave us abundant grace for 22 years.
How does Scott deal with his mom dying? How does Bob deal with his wife dying? How does Shamika deal with her brother dying? You’ve got to have grace to get through it because it hurts. It’s always going to hurt in this life. But God will grant grace when God’s people pray for grace for the afflicted, for the people who are grieving.
I just wanted to say that. I thank people to this day who pray for us. This is not an easy day. Our family text thread has no joking around on May 29th. It’s pretty somber every year. It’s pretty somber for my wife on Mother’s Day every year. It’s a little bit somber for me on Father’s Day every year. We all deal with things like this differently.
You know that I have quoted Revelation 21:1-4 a gazillion times. I’m not going to do it now, but that has been my passage for 22 years now because there will be a day when there will be no more crying, no more pain, no more tears because the former things will have passed away. Praise God when that day comes.
So let’s pray right now.
Oh Father, we ask that you incline your ear to us. In this age, we know that your word says we enter the kingdom through much tribulation. Tribulation might look different for one person compared to another, but tribulation is still tribulation. Trials are still trials. Pain is still pain. Father, we know some people enter the kingdom through much physical pain. Some people enter through much emotional pain. Some through financial trials. But Father, there are trials, there are tribulations. They’re real, and we don’t want to minimize them in other people’s lives. Help us to be compassionate with others. Help us to understand that even though their problem is not ours, their problem is still a problem. Their trial is still a trial, and their tribulation is still a tribulation.
Father, help us to bear with one another in love. Help us to be patient with one another. We ask for more grace today. We can’t just pile it up from yesterday and take it out of the closet. We need today’s grace today. We’re all going to need more grace tomorrow. We’re all going to need more help tomorrow. Father, help your people to help each other. As things happen, it can be easy to be this army that shoots our wounded. We don’t want to shoot our wounded. Help us to nurture, comfort, and come alongside our wounded. Help us even when we don’t know what to say. Help us to know when to be quiet, help us to know what to say, help us to be wise, help us to be discerning. Help us to see the reality of the tears people experience in this age.
We ask this in Christ’s name, Amen.
In making visits to the sick, I became acquainted with a woman belonging to my congregation, with whom I had very little acquaintance before. She was in a very distressful state of mind.
“I am a sinner,” says she, “I am the vilest of sinners! I must soon meet my God, and I have no preparation to meet Him! I see before me nothing but His wrath, His dreadful wrath forever! Indeed I feel it this moment within my soul! It drinks up my spirit! God curses me now; and oh! how can I bear His eternal curse, when He shall cast me off forever!”
“God is merciful, Madam,” said I.
“I know He is merciful, sir, but I have despised His mercy; and now the thought of it torments my soul! If He had no mercy, I could meet Him: I could take the curse of the Law, and it would not be the half of the hell which now awaits me! But oh, I cannot bear,—I cannot bear the curse of the Law and the Gospel both! I must account to the Lord Jesus Christ for having slighted His offers! I have turned a deaf ear to all His kind invitations! I have trampled under foot the blood of the covenant! and I am soon to appear before Him, my feet wet with His blood, instead of having it sprinkled on my heart!”
(She wept and wailed, as if on the borders of the pit.)
“Madam, there is no need that you should appear thus before Him. The same offers of mercy are still made to you, which have been made to you before. The same throne of grace still stands in heaven; the same God is seated upon it; the same Christ reigns as Mediator; and the same Spirit is still promised ‘to them that ask Him.’ The invitation of God is as broad as the wants of sinners: ‘Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.’”
“I know it, sir; I know all that. And this is the burden of my anguish—the offer is so free, and I have no heart to accept it! If the offer was accompanied by any difficult conditions, I might think myself partly excusable for not accepting it. But it is all so free, and, fool that I am, I have all my days shut up my heart against it; and even now, I am rebellious and unbelieving. Oh! my heart is senseless as a brute’s! It cannot feel! It is harder than the nether millstone!”
“I am glad you are sensible of that; because it prepares you to understand the promise, ‘I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you.’ God says this; and you perceive He makes His promise for just such hearts as yours.”
“Oh, I wish I could believe it! My heart won’t believe. It disbelieves God! It makes Him a liar, because it believes not the testimony which God gave of His Son!”
“Madam, think a moment; if you did not believe that testimony, you could not be distressed on account of your unbelief. If you were hungry, and you did not believe there was any food upon the earth, you could not be distressed because you did not believe there was food enough. You might be distressed because there was no food, but you could not be distressed because you did not believe there was any; you would not wish to believe in a falsehood, or in what you deem a falsehood.”
“I have not any doubt of the truth of God’s Word, sir; but my heart does not trust in it. It will not trust. I have no faith.”
“You have sometimes thought you had faith?”
“Yes, I did think so; but I was deceived. I have made a false profession. I have profaned the Lord’s table! When I was a young woman, in Scotland, I first came forward, and I have attended on the ordinance of the table ever since, whenever I could. But I see now that I have been only a mere professor—one of the foolish virgins. For forty years I have been a communicant; and now, when my days are nearly done, the Lord frowns upon me for my sin. I feel it; I feel it. His wrath lies heavy on my soul! He knows I am an empty hypocrite, and He frowns upon me in His awful displeasure!”
“How long since you found out that you had no true faith?”
“I have suspected it a great many times, but I was never fully convinced of it till since I have been confined to the house with this sickness.”
“Before you were sick did you enjoy a comfortable hope in Christ?”
“I thought I did, almost always after I made my first sacrament. That was a very solemn day to me. It was before I was married. I was nearly twenty, and my parents and the minister had often enjoined my duty upon me; and after a long struggle with my wicked heart, and after much prayer, I thought I was prepared. But I deceived my own soul! I have been deceived ever since till now; and now God fills me with terror! I shall soon meet Him, and He will cast me off!” She wept piteously.
“Have you lived a prayerful life since you came to the communion first?”
“Yes, I have prayed night and morning; but I see now that I never prayed acceptably.”
“Are you penitent for your sins? Do you mourn over them?”
“Yes, I mourn; but I have ‘only a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation.’ My soul is in torment! God will cast me off! I shall be lost forever! Lost! Lost!”
“It is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.”
“I believe it, sir. He is a great and glorious Saviour.”
“Your Saviour, Madam, if you want Him to be.”
“No sir; no, not mine; not mine.” (Again bursting into tears.)
“Yes, Madam,—Yours, if you want Him;—yours in welcome;—Yours now, on the spot;—Yours, if you will ‘receive and rest upon Him, as He is offered in the Gospel;’—yours, if you have never received Him before;—yours still, even if you have profaned His covenant, as you say, for forty years. You have only to believe in Him with penitence and humility. Christ is greater than your sin.”
As I was uttering these words, she continued to repeat the word, “No, no, no, no,” weeping most distressfully. Said I,—
“Madam, suffer me to beg of you to hear me calmly.”
“I will try, sir.”
“I utter to you God’s own truth, madam. I tell you Jesus Christ is for you. He is offered to you by the God of heaven. He proposes to be your Prophet, Priest, and King, to do for you all you need as a sinner to be saved. He is an all-sufficient Saviour. And in the presence of His merits, I defy your despair. Salvation is of grace—of God’s grace,—of grace operating in the infinite love of God, and by the infinite humiliation of His Son. Here is fulness, the fulness of God. ‘Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.’ Jesus Christ did not fail in His attempt, when He undertook to redeem sinners. He did His work well. His love brought Him from heaven, and took Him through all the path of His humiliation, from the cradle to the grave. He bore the curse, and sinners may go free. He reigns in heaven, the King of glory, and sinners may meet Him there.”
“Indeed, sir, He is a wonderful Lord. He hath done all things well. I am glad He is on the throne. When I can catch a glimpse of His glory, my heart rejoices.”
“And His glory lies in grace, Madam; such grace that He invites you to cast all your cares upon Him, for He careth for you.”
“I praise Him for it; I will praise Him forever. I rejoice that Christ is Lord over all.”
She appeared to have lost her trouble. She had become calm; and she continued to speak of the love of God, and the adorable condescension of Jesus Christ, for some minutes. She asked me to pray with her, and praise God for His wondrous grace. After prayer I left her, supposing that her despondency had been but for a few minutes, and would not return.
The next week I saw her again, as she had requested me to do; and I found her in the same deep despondency as before. She continued to speak of herself; and all I said to her gave no alleviation to her anguish. Several times I visited her. Uniformly I found her depressed, and sometimes left her rejoicing, and sometimes sad. I could not account for it.
At length it occurred to me, as I was thinking of the different conversations I had had with her, that her mind had uniformly become composed, if not happy, whenever I had led her thoughts away from herself, to fix on such subjects as God, Christ, Redeeming love, the covenant of grace, the sufferings of the Redeemer, the Divine attributes, or the glory of God. Afterwards I tried the experiment with her frequently, and the result was always so. I finally stated to her that fact.
“Oh, yes sir,” said she, “I know that very well. It has always been so with me ever since about the time I made my first sacrament. If I can get my mind fixed on my covenant God and Saviour, then I can rest. But how can I rest when I have no faith?”
“But, Madam, can you not remember, in your dark hours, what it was that made you have light ones? and can you not then recur to the same things which made them light, and thus get light again?”
“Oh, sir, I cannot see the sun through the thick clouds. God hides Himself, and I cannot find Him; and then I mourn. I know it is Satan that would drive me to despair. He shoots out his ‘fiery darts’ at me, and my poor soul trembles in anguish. I cannot help trembling, even when I know it is Satan. I have such awful doubts, such horrible temptations darting through my mind, and such blasphemous thoughts, that I feel sure God will cast me off.”
This woman never recovered from her sickness; but the last ten weeks of her life were all sunshine. She had not a doubt, not a fear; all was peace and joy. Alluding to this, she said,—
“God does not suffer the adversary to buffet me any more. Christ has vanquished him for me, and I find the blessed promises are the supports of my soul. I fly to them. I fly to Christ, and hide myself in Him. I expect soon He will ‘come again and receive me to Himself,’ that I may be with Him ‘where He is.’ I shall behold His glory, and Satan shall never torment me any more.” She died in perfect peace.
There is a difference between the despondency of a believer, and the despondency of an unbeliever. A desponding believer still has faith. It only needs to be brought into lively exercise, and his despondency will melt away. He becomes desponding, because he has lost sight of the objects of faith, and has fixed his thoughts upon himself and his sins. Let the matters of faith be brought up before his mind, and they are realities to him,—unquestionable realities. He only needs to keep his eye upon them.
The despondency of an unbeliever is different. He does not despond, because he has lost sight of the objects of faith, for he never had any faith; and there is, therefore, no preparation in his heart to welcome the doctrines of grace, of free forgiveness, of redemption through the blood of Christ, of eternal life for sinners. These things are not realities to him. His faith never embraced them. When, therefore, in his despondency, whether he looks at his own wickedness or looks at God, he sees only darkness. Especially, the love and mercy of God, the death of Christ for sinners, all redemption, are things as dark to him as his own soul. He does not realize them as facts; much less does he embrace them for himself. In the self-righteousness of his spirit he desponds, because he thinks himself too guilty to be forgiven. He is a mere legalist; he sees only the law,—not Christ.
But there is only one way of relief for believer and unbeliever in their despondency. They must look to Christ, and to Christ alone, all-sufficient and free. A believer has a sort of preparation to do this; an unbeliever has an obstinate reluctance. He thinks only of himself and his sins. Nothing can magnify equal to melancholy, and nothing is so monotonous. A melancholy man left to himself, and the sway of his melancholy, will not have a new thought once in a month. His thoughts will move round and round in the same dark circle. This will do him no good. He ought to get out of it.
Despondency originates from physical causes more than from all other causes. Disordered nerves are the origin of much religious despair, when the individual does not suspect it; and then the body and mind have a reciprocal influence upon each other, and it is difficult to tell which influences the other most. The physician is often blamed, when the fault lies in the minister. Depression never benefits body or soul. “We are saved by hope.”
The audio of this sermon is from Geoff sermon preached on May 19, 2024 at Grace Reformed Baptist Church. The transcript is from when he preached in 2011.
Luke 15:26-32 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found’”
This parable is generally known as the parable of the prodigal son, but it may also be called the parable of the running father, or again it could be referred to as the parable of the two lost brothers. There were, you remember, two groups listening to Jesus’ preaching. There was a crowd of immoral men, careless about the law of God, men like the traitorous tax collectors. The first son symbolically represented those men, morally loose and marginalized, the under-class of Galilee, the sexually promiscuous, the scandalous and the drunkards. Then there was the other group, who were righteous both in their own eyes and in the eyes of their neighbours. These were the religious leaders of the land, men such as the Pharisees, the leaders of the network of synagogues and legal experts concerning the meaning of rabbinic traditions, self-appointed guardians of public decency. I am saying that this second class of men is represented to us symbolically by the older brother. He is introduced to us at this juncture by our Lord. The only other reference even to his existence we find in the opening words of the parable, “There was a man who had two sons” (v.11), but subsequently there’s been no mention of this older boy until now in verse 26.
When we first meet him where is he to be found? Working in the fields, as he’d been toiling away all the time his younger brother was living it up in the distant city. The older brother represents the old morality of the nation, the religious folk who’ve been shocked at immoral people being drawn to the Lord Jesus, standing in their thousands to hear him preach. These righteous living people have taken offence because such sinners have been welcomed by Jesus and he has offered them rest, that is, grace and mercy from God. The religious group in the land couldn’t and wouldn’t rejoice at these conversions, at prodigals turning from their sin to God.
Do we have these two groups in society today? Of course we do. They were in school with me; there were the blaspheming, drinking, smoking readers of Playboy, boys with no interest at all in Christianity. Then there were others, the smartly dressed boys with good quality blazers who spoke nicely and always wore clean white shirts. Their trousers were creased and they worked diligently, passed their exams and became prefects and went to university. Yet they were as disinterested in the Christian gospel as the other group. Neither group had any interest in ourselves when some of us were saved and we made the journey home to our Father and we began a Christian Union and a Bible Study in school. There were few from either group who would stay behind for our meetings; they were off down the hill into the village and onto the school bus home, the rebels sitting in the back of the bus and the posh boys sitting in the front. Two groups of lost boys, all traveling to hell, some in a dirty way, trawling the gutters, whilst others were going to hell the posh way, but all on the broad way and all going to destruction every one hostile to Jesus’ gospel. Why weren’t the posh boys from good homes with hard working fathers and mothers drawn to us? Why were they just as hostile in their own way to the gospel as the foul-mouthed boys who cheated their way through school? This parable will tell us.
1. THE RESENTMENT ACKNOWLEDGED.Let me point out that there’s nothing wrong with being a dutiful older brother. Imagine if both the boys had taken all their inheritance, and blown it together on wine, women and song in the distant city. It would have been doubly disgusting. That did not happen. We are thankful to God for hard-working responsible men and women, and that is what this older brother continued to be while his younger sibling was living it up with his fair-weather friends in the distant city. Then one day walking back from the fields after wearying work ploughing, sowing and weeding from dawn, this older boy – though only in his early twenties – thought he could hear something. As he got nearer the farm he heard unusual sounds . . . yes it was music, and soon the sight of dancing – maybe these were entertainers who had been brought in, and it was not long before he could smell a barbecue of roast veal. The farm workmen had changed their clothes into party suits and frocks. Then, “He called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’” (vv.26&27). The older brother’s response is not one of pleasure at the family being reunited, of a brother thought to be dead but alive and home again. He was outraged at this celebration; he objected so strongly that he wouldn’t enter the farm, or the room where all the eating and drinking and music came from. He refused to meet his long-lost brother.
Terry Johnson’s observations are helpful: “You can understand why the older brother felt this way. The prodigal brother had been living scandalously. His return, as his brother saw it, was no occasion for celebration but for shame. Where the Prodigal had been, and what he’d been doing would become the gossip of the town all over again. ‘We’ve been trying to move on,’ he might have been thinking. ‘For months all that our neighbours have been talking about has been this lad’s departure and his journey to the ‘far country.’ They’ve never stopped asking me questions about him, have we heard from him and how was he doing. Just when everything was finally quietening down he’s turned up and stirs it all up again. It just brings further disgrace on the family. Pack up the band! Put the musical instruments in their boxes. Let everyone go home. Pull the curtains. Hide the boy in the back bedroom” (Terry Johnson, The Parables of Jesus, Christian Focus, 2007, pp. 290-291).
The entry of the older brother into the narrative, at just a mundane level, is a stroke of literary genius. In this parable we’ve been presented by the Son of God with an extraordinary portrait of Almighty God, the Father of every returning repentant Prodigal and his welcome of them, uninhibited and exuberant. There is his complete acceptance and his free pardon. We see that God immediately produces all the insignia of sonship, and freely bestows them on his son, the most glorious gifts, free pardon, union with Christ, even giving the boy God the Holy Spirit. His own father, whom he has disgraced and offended and abandoned, and in many ways deluded, rejoices at the Prodigal’s return. But here is the older brother, the moralist, and he can’t make head or tail of his father’s response. He can’t understand how this boy ever got past the door! He can’t imagine why his father didn’t send him straight back saying to him, “Go off to your prostitutes. Get back to your swine!” He can’t understand a free forgiveness. He can’t understand how such a man could be taken back into the family and loved, his full sonship restored, with no precautions and no probation.
The father was taking the most appaling risks because this boy might renege. He might bring new disgrace; he might return to the far country when he’d saved a bit of money. There was no guarantee of that not happening. So the older brother sat outside and he moralized. He’d definitely not have him back, or he’d have kept him at least in the servants’ quarters. He’d have given him work to do. He’d have said, “Earn your spurs!” He’d have watched him, and tested him, and judged him. That is how the world acts; it is cynical about conversion; it mocks the new birth.
It was put to a speaker recently in a university Christian Union meeting. “Is it fair,” he was asked by a student, “when a man and woman have lived a faithful and respectable life of honesty and goodness for 50 years, though they are not Christians, that when they die unsaved without God, that they should be condemned? Then there’s a profligate; he might have been a serial killer, and he is converted in a prison from which he’ll never be let out, and that murderer goes to glory when he dies, is that fair?” If the student asking the question were in charge of eternity he’d never allow that. There is this Prodigal, and he’s been a real rotter, and all the world says, “You can’t welcome a sinner without safeguards. You can’t receive a sinner back home without spelling out the conditions. You can’t let him sit at the family table. You can’t leave that man alone with his father. It can’t happen. It is indecent.”
That is how the human heart thinks and works. It doesn’t see that all have sinned and that the essence of sin is to defy and ignore God. It invents purgatory where it dumps all sinners, where men and women have to spend hundreds if not thousands of years in its purging fires before they’ve earned by their sufferings the right to enter heaven. It is unthinkable for them that when repentant thieves died they could go that very day to be with Jesus in paradise. Are you aware that when Saul of Tarsus was converted that God was the only one who believed that he’d been changed permanently. It was impossible, the church felt, that this conversion was a fixed divine change; “We have heard from many about this man of the damage he’s done to the church in Jerusalem. Now we’re being asked to accept him as a disciple and a brother and a preacher?” At the very least Ananias thinks that Saul ought to be put on probation. “Let’s wait and see how it goes with him, but we daren’t bring him into the inner circle.”
We’ve all seen such cases and the same response. We ourselves have said when someone from a bad background professes to become a Christian, “We’ll see . . . let’s see how long it lasts.” I’ve said in my own heart, “Let’s see how long I last; let’s see how long you last,” because both you and me are at least equally probable candidates for apostasy. You are watching someone saved from the world, and even as you rejoice in the change you are preparing yourself for news of his fall. Yet frequently he’s the one who keeps going and it’s someone else, an elder or a deacon, the last one you’d expect, who falls. We are not prepared to have a feast yet, but God who knows everything is there and he is extending his own welcome. He is gifting that man and owning him by sonship insignia. So the older brother did not share in the father’s joy and very publically expressed his resentment.
2. THE RESENTMENT ANALYZED.i] He resents his life having been a life of service. “‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you” (v.) He looks at the years of farming with his farmer on the farm that he is soon to inherit. “It’s been work, work, work! It’s been virtual bondage.” So he whines and exaggerates. What else would he rather have been doing? He’s never really understood what being a son means. His outlook is typical of religious sinners. How do they view the Christian life? As some grim sacrifice they’d have to make, all they’d have to give up, the fun they wouldn’t have; it’s been a burden. They are the people who tell you that they’d had to go to church “twice on a Sunday” and Sunday School, and that they’d given money to the church. It’s all been a grim duty to them, not a delight, not an extraordinary privilege to hear of the living God in all his beauty, truth and grace
Serving God, I say, is a privilege. When we serve God we think – “What an honour! To glorify and enjoy God! To love my neighbour as myself! I do it all out of gratitude, not for reward. I’d do it all over again and my regret is that I didn’t give him more.” Rewards there are in this life, and rewards there shall be in eternity, but they don’t provide the big motive for serving God and serving our neighbours. Grace does that. Love so amazing so divine as the death of Christ for my sins demands my soul, my life, my all. It should have been enough for the older brother that he could live in the presence of this wonderful father. Many have never had fathers; many have had rotten fathers while this boy has had a man of wonderful affection and kindness – his own beloved Dad. He has enjoyed his father’s provision of food, clothing, shelter, and love. It should be enough for us – whatever the cost of discipleship – that the Creator of the universe has become our Father, that our sins are forgiven, that we have been promised eternity in heaven with him, and that he loves us and supplies all our needs in this life richly.
Haven’t we all noticed over the years that among those who are real Christians, whether ministers, missionaries, church officers or members, there’s a complete absence in their conversations of any mention of ‘sacrifice’ or ‘work’ or the ‘cost’ of serving God? Ask them what they’ve given up to do camp work or beach missions or teach Sunday School or run a book shop, they’ll say, “No sacrifice. We enjoyed it. We gave up what we couldn’t keep and we’ve gained what we can never lose.” They’ve received so much that their sacrifice has been as nothing. They just want to contribute. They’ve wanted to serve the Lord any way. They’ve been ready to give and work and go and do anything in any way that they could, 24/7, and they’ve counted it their highest privilege.
One problem with the older brother is that he views service as a quid pro quo. ‘I’ve been slaving,’ he says to Dad, ‘yet what have I had from you in return for all I’ve done for you, not even a kid.’ He’s been working in order to be paid. He sees work not as grateful service for a darling father but as contract labour. He thinks he is earning his inheritance through hard labour whereas his prodigal brother has failed. He doesn’t see the rich rewards of health and work and being this man’s son as a gift, and he is resentful. The older brother is a lost man just like every religious sinner. He is outside the feast because of his righteousness. It’s not his sins that have created a barrier between him and his father, it is his moral record. Religious sinners are legalists. They imagine that their religion has merited their forgiveness. They think they’ve earned any blessing they’ve received. They fail to understand that they could never do enough or do it well enough to earn a place in heaven with God, to merit their inheritance, to gain a place in the Father’s household. The sin of their father Adam and their own many sins that have touched everything they’ve ever done have dirtied any offering they could make to God. We can never be good enough, or work hard enough. Christ by his life and death has earned it all for us. He has merited it all for us. He has paid for the whole status and inheritance that God has given us. So the older son resents his life of service.
ii] He resents his life of obeying his father. The older brother continues his rant in verse 29, “I never disobeyed your orders.” True, and the question would be, “What orders? Extreme orders, harsh orders, and unpleasant orders?” Not at all. Good, acceptable and wise orders. “You’ve not been rewarded? You got no occasional ‘kid’? Is that what obeying your father was all about? Getting a kid now and then to kill and eat with your friends? No pay off has come from obeying Dad, and so your obedience has been wasted? Your obedience has made you a loser? It seems to me from this remark that the older brother envies his younger brother’s time in the distant city. He secretly wishes that he’d had the guts to have gone off.
He isn’t thinking, let alone saying, that obedience is its own reward. Keeping your marriage vows is its own reward. Our parents never said to us, “Very well done, son, for keeping your marriage vows.” Keeping them was happiness enough without some pat on the back. We didn’t need their murmurs of approval for that. That wasn’t the second mile! This older son has failed to see how ‘good’ and ‘righteous’ and ‘holy’ and ‘spiritual’ is the law of God, and he’s not blessing God for ever enabling him to hear and keep God’s commandments. The Psalmist delighted in God’s law, and he meditated on it day and night. He found it more desirable than gold and sweeter than honey. He said, “O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day.” What blessings had come into his life from keeping God’s law! Remember what the apostle John said to New Testament Christians, “His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). Christ’s yoke has been an easy yoke; his burden has been light, but this was not how the older brother saw it. The real need of a religious sinner is a new heart. He needs to be born again. He needs to become a new creature in Christ, and then he’ll love to obey his Father. So he also resented the life of obedience.
iii] He resents the amazing grace his father had displayed. “When this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him” (v.30). Notice he refers to his brother as “this son of yours.” He cannot bring himself to speak of him as his own ‘brother.’ He is seething with resentment. He complains that his brother has consumed the family wealth, devouring the portion of the estate that had been given to him with morally degrading choices – prostitutes! Think of it! So how could his father celebrate at the defiling return of such a man into the family circle? He thinks his father is a weakling to treat the prodigal like this. He knows better; he knows more; he is wiser and more just than the old man. He thought he should be telling the father how to deploy the best robe and the ring and the slippers.
At this point, you realise, the older brother hasn’t seen his brother or heard anything he’s said. Is his brother a repentant man? Is there contrition? Is there conviction of his folly and much regret? Is he returning as a servant and not a son? None of this seems to matter to him. Wouldn’t the father have told him these things, and then did the older brother scoff? “I don’t believe it.” You remember that the prodigal son had sinned one great sin. It was not that there had been a pattern of such sins in his life, that he was frequently going off for a dirty week-end to another town. No. It was one odious sin, and one grace of repentance commensurate with it, and the father had responded to that in loving kindness, and that is what the older brother could not accept. The older boy had no room in his theological world or in his religious experience for grace, for mercy, or for forgiveness. As far as he was concerned, his younger brother was a guilty dog, he’d committed terrible sins, and he was forever disqualified from restoration. He certainly shouldn’t be given a celebration immediately upon his return. No mercy now for one like him. How different God is and aren’t we mighty glad? The Psalmist asks, “If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” (Ps. 130:3). God doesn’t stand watching us and marking a cross on some heavenly clip board for every sin of ours. We couldn’t stand before him if he did. He has marked our every iniquity against his Son on Golgotha once and for all. The handwriting of ordinances against our sins was marked against Christ, and thus there can be no condemnation to us. We can stand and live today because Jesus lay dead in the tomb; he was dead for our sins.
I am not saying that we’re to shrug at one another’s sins. We don’t accept each other’s sins. There is not one person here who has not done something in his past for which he is deeply ashamed. We don’t ask anyone to accept our sins, but we all must accept each other’s repentance! There’s an enormous distinction between sin that is condoned (“Well, we are all sinners . . .”) and the same sin renounced and hated and wept over and abandoned. We may not say, “Ah well, we all have our hang-ups” and then affirm each other in our gossip, pride, hypocrisy, promiscuity, or drunkenness. No, what we affirm in one another is our faith in Jesus Christ and our sorrow for our sins. “I too am a sinner” I tell you; “Mine are of a different stripe from yours. Maybe mine are worst than yours. Maybe mine are worst than King David’s. But we are all in equal need of mercy, so where is there room for censorious complaints at the goodness of God to terrible sinners?” Sin isn’t just going off and breaking the rules. Sin is also putting yourself in the place of God and passing judgment on others.
The elder brother knows nothing of this. He cannot show mercy to his brother. So has he ever received mercy from God? He is harsh. He is censorious at his father’s kindness to his wayward brother. Is a man who cannot forgive a forgiven man? Is a man who cannot show mercy a recipient of mercy? Has he ever understood the grace of God? Has he ever received it? Would such a man ever sing of the amazing grace of God? The older brother is the Pharisee. He doesn’t think that he will ever need the divine pity, and he thinks that worse people should not receive grace. They need justice. I want to say this, that the heart sins of religious men are far worse than the ‘worldly’ sins of the irreligious men. Jesus reserves his harshest words not for the tax-gatherers and sinners, but for scribes and Pharisees. The older brother fails to see himself and his brother as different kinds of sinners. They are both sinners, but the older brother can’t see it while the prodigal is deep in shame.
I have often told you the story of the religious man who had not missed his morning devotions for 40 years. Then one morning he chanced to oversleep and in a dream the devil came to him to wake him up. “Come on! Wake up sleepy head! It is time for you to wake up and pray.” “Pray? You want me to pray?” he said in astonishment. “Why should you want me to pray?” “Ah well,” the devil said, “I have been in the presence of God and it was wonderful and I want you to enjoy this too.” The man now was more afraid than ever and scorned the devil; “I cannot believe that you’d want anything good for me,” he said, and he woke up in a cold sweat. Then he thought about himself more and more deeply, about his sense of self-righteousness and his pride at his time-keeping and discipline and that he had never missed a day’s Bible reading for forty years, and what a grip that self-confidence had got of his life. Then he came to realize as never before that God loves our sins when they are mixed with repentance more than he loves our virtues when they are mixed with pride.
3 THE RESENTMENT ANSWERED.The father goes out again. He had already gone out earlier this day and ran along the lane to bring his prodigal son home, but now he goes out again to the other son and he justifies to him what had been done to welcome his erring brother. He is not intolerant or scornful to his older son. He doesn’t disdain him or tell him to shape up and not be silly. He doesn’t ask him, “Why didn’t you go off to that city and find him, and help him, and bring him home?” The shepherd had gone searching for the sheep until he’d found him and carried him back.
The father is taking his son’s resentment and pain seriously. He wants love and fellowship between himself and this boy, his dear firstborn child. He speaks to him tenderly. Do we do this? Did I do this to the church members who used to be on the church role of membership but who didn’t appreciate the gospel of the blood of Jesus Christ? They didn’t like being told that all their righteousnesses were as filthy rags. They didn’t want to be told that our only hope of eternal life was through the merits of the Redeemer whom God had sent. He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in. Was I patient enough with them, and did I love them, and did I patiently explain again and again the gospel of free grace? For years before I arrived in the pulpit they had gone on doing what the modernists had told them to do especially in their formative years, “Do your best, and live a good life, and follow the example of Christ.” It wasn’t surprising that they found the historic Christian faith as I preached it revolutionary, its appaling analysis of the human condition, dead in trespasses and sins; the sacrifice of Golgotha the only means of reconciliation; only by personal faith in the Redeemer could the divine mercy be ours. Was I patient with them as they looked blankly back at me? This father was patient with his self-righteous critic; “Let me just say two or three things . . .” he said to his son:
i] Everything belongs to you. Because the father had been so generous and merciful to the Prodigal it was not at all detrimental to the older boy and his expectations. He still would get the farm. It was in the will. Nothing was to be changed in the arrangements. The older son was to have everything. The father assured him, “Everything I have is yours,” (v.31). Do you appreciate the immeasurable fulness that there is in the grace of God that’s been given to you? There is a super-abundance of every single grace, mercy, pardon, forgiveness, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness and self-control. If God gives his grace to a wretched wicked sinner who repents it doesn’t mean that there is an atom less for you. There is no less at all! If God welcomes him into his heaven it doesn’t mean there is less space for you in heaven. There is no east or west; no north or south in heaven. It is vast, unmeasured and boundless; plenty of room for sinners. It is like a tadpole in the river Thames complaining that “ . . . another egg has spawned and yet another tadpole has been born and soon the river will be overcrowded.” Plenty of room for you little tadpole. It is like the sea worrying that the sun is shining on it all day, and that soon the sun will burn itself out. “Be more restrained O great sun. Shine just for three days each week and reserve your supplies of warmth and light so that you can shine longer!” Don’t worry Father Neptune there is illimitable warmth and light in the sun to shine on you for another million years.”
So let the older brother know that all that the Father has he will give to each one of his sons, that of his fulness they will all receive and grace for grace. There is plenty of wealth to go around. If God is merciful and blessed to king David, and to the blasphemer Peter, and to John Newton and to terrible criminals then he has immeasurable mercy to give to you too. You will not suffer if prodigals are welcomed to the same heavenly home. You will lose nothing of all that you deserve for your faithful work. God says to every Christian, “Everything I have is yours because my Son, Jesus Christ has purchased it all for you.”
ii] You always will have me. The father was there for his son, please let him appreciate Abba Father, and erect no barriers between him and his Dad. What a father! One in a million, loving and pardoning his erring brother like this. If he should fall the same mercy would be shown to him. Hasn’t he much to learn from his father? He will always be there to turn to, to obtain advice from, to receive comfort, to get wisdom, to hear him speak of how providence dealt with him as a young man and throughout his life, how he learned of God’s mercy and was empowered to show mercy himself. This man is his father and he’s not living in Egypt or Greece but on the same compound, sitting at the same table, sharing in the same work, and loving him and working all things together for the good of the boy. What a privilege! The younger son has now discovered the stature of his father – but at what cost! Now the older boy must find it too.
You will not have your dear family with you for ever. There will come a time when your closest friends will be taken from you, but you will always have our heavenly Father to bless and keep you, to make the light of his countenance shine upon you and be gracious until you, to give you peace. What a blessing, an involved and loving Father for all the years of time and for eternity. Appropriate God each day of your life. Be thankful for God always. He loves you as he loves his own Son. Not one degree less, and he plans to complete the work he has begun in you and present you faultless in the great final day. You always have God! This pathetic older brother wanted the father’s goods such as his young goats for a feast with his friends – more than he desired the father himself. Neither boy has loved his father for what he is in himself, but each one of them had loved him for his own self-serving ends. If this older brother had properly thought that one of his chief ends in life was to give pleasure to his great father then he would have immediately joined the feast.
iii] You must always rejoice in repenting sinners coming home. “But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found’”(v.32). We do not dwell on what a certain person once did, how wretchedly he behaved. We’re to forget the things that are past. He has repented; he has left that place with all its shame and he’s not going back. He’s been a wicked fool, yes, but he’s changed, and the change in him is as great as the change from being dead to being alive, as being lost to being found. What is preferable? Being alive! Being found! Then are these not great changes for which we should celebrate? If God rejoices in heaven, and if all the angels dance for joy at a sinner coming home then we would be ungodly to be sulking and suspicious, saying, “Yes, but . . . these are early days, what if . . . what if . . .” We have to celebrate and be glad at the credible profession of trust in the Saviour and the hatred of the old sinful way of life.
“My son,” the father is saying, “I still want you in this feast though you have publically rejected my welcome and shown your rebellion in separating yourself from us. I want you to come in. I am not going to disown your brother, and I am not going to disown you. Come! Pour contempt on all your pride and come!” The boy would shame himself if he rejected the father’s invitation. Let this boy see that he is just as self-centered and just as much a grief to his father as his brother has been, that he has no right to feel superior. Let him cast himself on the arms of grace that would embrace him too.
12th June 2011 GEOFF THOMAS
In James 1:12-16, the passage highlights the blessedness of those who endure trials, emphasizing the eventual reward of eternal life promised to those who remain steadfast in their faith. It warns against attributing temptation to God, affirming that temptation arises from one’s own desires rather than divine influence. The progression from desire to sin to death underscores the seriousness of succumbing to temptation, urging believers not to be deceived but to remain vigilant in their faith.
James 1:12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.
0:00 – Introduction
1:50 – Teaching on James is tougher than it would appear on the forefront.
3:34 – God can’t be tempted with evil?
6:37 – Temptation, tested, peirasmos?
9:33 – Why am I doing this word study?
11:13 – Trial versus being tempted to sin?
14:54 – What does peirasmos lead to in both cases?
15:30 – First—the positive view of peirasmos.
21:46 – Second—the negative sense of the word.
22:42 – Is the desire for sex a bad desire?
29:53 – Notice “fully grown” in verse 15.
31:35 – Let us combine together the positive and the negative views of this word being used.
37:18 – A list of the ways we blame God for our sin.
46:31 – We must be steadfast!
47:22 – Are you unmerciful?
59:24 – Not purposely sinning in a day?
1:01:40 – Closing prayer.
In James 1:12-16, the passage highlights the blessedness of those who endure trials, emphasizing the eventual reward of eternal life promised to those who remain steadfast in their faith. It warns against attributing temptation to God, affirming that temptation arises from one's own desires rather than divine influence. The progression from desire to sin to death underscores the seriousness of succumbing to temptation, urging believers not to be deceived but to remain vigilant in their faith.
0:00 - Introduction
1:50 - Teaching on James is tougher than it would appear on the forefront.
3:34 - God can't be tempted with evil?
6:37 - Temptation, tested, peirasmos?
9:33 - Why am I doing this word study?
11:13 - Trial versus being tempted to sin?
14:54 - What does peirasmos lead to in both cases?
15:30 - First—the positive view of peirasmos.
21:46 - Second—the negative sense of the word.
22:42 - Is the desire for sex a bad desire?
29:53 - Notice "fully grown" in verse 15.
31:35 - Let us combine together the positive and the negative views of this word being used.
37:18 - A list of the ways we blame God for our sin.
46:31 - We must be steadfast!
47:22 - Are you unmerciful?
59:24 - Not purposely sinning in a day?
1:01:40 - Closing prayer.
I especially want to speak to those of you who are currently using God’s sovereignty against yourself. And I say against yourself, because that’s exactly what you’re doing. If your reasoning is like this:
“Well, God’s sovereign, and you know he chooses whom he will, so I can’t do anything. He’s going to have to do it. It’s all I’ve got to wait for him to do it, you see. I mean, I can’t save myself. If I’m going to be saved, he must save me. I mean, he has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will. He’ll show compassion. He elects some, and some he doesn’t. And so God’s got to do this thing.”
And you know what? All that’s very true. God’s got to save you.
He is sovereign. But why are you not allowing that to work for you? Why are you allowing that to work against you and not for you? Why are you only using half the Bible?
Why do you refuse to listen to this same Christ who says, “Whoever comes to me, I will not cast out? I will not cast away.” Who says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” That is just wide open. This sovereign God leaves his gospel wide open and chooses to receive everyone who comes to him by faith.
Everyone who humbles themselves and responds to his call in obedience. Just quickly here, this is so simple. The gospel is so incredibly, wonderfully simple. And it’s shown us in the picture of this man with a withered hand. Here he is in verse five. Jesus is addressing this man in verse five with the withered hand. You know, it was a problem that this man was completely, I mean, completely incapable of fixing and solving it.
Jesus says to him, “Come here.” And you know what he does? He comes. He obeys him. And Jesus says, “Stretch out your hand” in verse five, and you know what he does? The man obeys him. Notice what he doesn’t do. He doesn’t say, “I can’t, Lord.”
Even though he couldn’t. Jesus is actually asking him to do something that was absolutely impossible for him to do: stretch out his hand. But his obedient response to Jesus’ command released enabling power to do what otherwise he could not do. And his hand was restored. A transformation took place. That’s what happens when those who truly believe in this Son of God, in the sight and belief of that Son of God, results in obedience to his call.
And the evidence of salvation is transformed life.
Minus the transformation here, what do you have? You’ve got demon worship. “You’re the Son of God,” the demons said. But obedience to Jesus’ call yields true and everlasting transformation. It does. And so I bid you, and I warn you, stop making excuses and answer Christ’s call today. Right now. Come to him. Embrace him. Trust him. Fall down before him and do so with joy.
Not the dread of his condemnation that these demons had. Father, thank you for such a wonderful Savior. Lord, thank you that you’ve opened our eyes to behold him. Lord, we see through this lens. It’s difficult at times. We’re thankful that you don’t leave us there, though. Thankfully, you bring us from grace to grace and faith to faith.
And Lord, you’re working in us both the will and duty for your good pleasure. Lord, I pray, help us as a church. Help us to recognize this evil feeling in this whole system and this whole garrison set out to oppose your son. Lord, I pray you give us grace to overcome. I pray you’d help us, Lord, advance his kingdom.
Lord, you’re so worthy.
I especially want to speak to those of you who are currently using God's sovereignty against yourself. And I say against yourself, because that's exactly what you're doing. If your reasoning is like this: "Well, God's sovereign, and you know he chooses whom he will, so I can't do anything. He's going to have to do it. It's all I've got to wait for him to do it, you see. I mean, I can't save myself. If I'm going to be saved, he must save me. I mean, he has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will. He'll show compassion. He elects some, and some he doesn't. And so God's got to do this thing."
Believer, though you may be lowly in this world, do you rejoice in the great riches that await you in paradise with Christ? While the world may pursue what they believe brings true honor in this life, we must remain steadfast, enduring trials and suffering, honoring the Lord.
0:00 – Introduction
0:59 – Notice the book of James emphasis on having joy.
6:28 – First—the lowly brother.
14:32 – Charles Spurgeon on who is truly honored before God.
28:32 – Ephesians 2 tells us of the great height that us who are lowly will be exalted to.
37:19 – God’s Word shows us we have the greatest riches in the universe.
39:35 – Second—the rich…
46:51 – How to define money?
52:19 – Third—the man who remains steadfast when under trial.
57:52 – Closing prayer
Jesus Christ crushed the head of the serpent, yet Isaiah 53 states that God the Father crushed Christ—Christ was bruised so that the serpent’s head would be bruised. Through the Savior bearing this condemnation for us and then rising again, we have received life and escaped the wrath to come. Glory to God!
Golgotha was a place of physical stench and death, but when Jesus was raised upon that cross and His blood was shed for our sins, it was the sweetest aroma that ever entered the throne room of heaven. “Jesus Paid It All.” If you’re in Christ, He has cast your sins out of His sight, as far as the East is from the West.
Believer, do you consistently seek wisdom from the LORD? Wisdom encompasses more than just knowledge; it entails the righteous application of knowledge in one’s life. You don’t have any wisdom if you know the right way and you don’t go down it. Believer, we need to diligently pursue wisdom, as it forms the foundation for making righteous decisions and leading a life that pleases God.
0:00 Introduction
3:29 Who Should Be the Wisest People on Earth?
7:26 What Is Wisdom?
15:14 Tim’s Definition of Wisdom After Considering the Context of Scripture
32:40 Wisdom or Weightlifting?
34:45 The First Motive for Asking for Wisdom Is Need
42:17 God Does Not Reprove You for Coming to Him for Wisdom
49:58 James Now Warns Us Against Doubt
Believer, do you consistently seek wisdom from the LORD? Wisdom encompasses more than just knowledge; it entails the righteous application of knowledge in one's life. You don't have any wisdom if you know the right way and you don't go down it. Believer, we need to diligently pursue wisdom, as it forms the foundation for making righteous decisions and leading a life that pleases God.
0:00 Introduction
3:29 Who Should Be the Wisest People on Earth?
7:26 What Is Wisdom?
15:14 Tim's Definition of Wisdom After Considering the Context of Scripture
32:40 Wisdom or Weightlifting?
34:45 The First Motive for Asking for Wisdom Is Need
42:17 God Does Not Reprove You for Coming to Him for Wisdom
49:58 James Now Warns Us Against Doubt
Stuart shared the following exhortation prior to a morning prayer meeting at the 2024 Fellowship Conference. The thoughts shared really helped put prayer in perspective: in view of our Father’s vast universe, He yet looks down and hears us!
Matthew 6:7 “But when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.”
God isn’t actually interested in lots of long prayers you know? “Therefore, do not be like them,” that couldn’t be plain I could it?
“For your father knows the things you have need of before you ask him. In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in Heaven.”
I want you to pretend that this Bible here is 740,000,000 miles wide. That is the width of the solar systems, and that little dots at the end of the sentence, I think you call it a period, is that right? We call it a full stop, and that little dot there, can you see it there on your Bible? That’s the sun in this solar system. Just that little dot there, and the Earth, can you see the Earth on there? Of course, you can’t because it’s a million times smaller than that little dot.
Now then, let’s take this solar system and that little dot, which is the Sun, and that tiny, tiny little thing, which is 1,300 million times smaller than that little dot, and let’s put it into the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Ocean, of course, runs from the Americas to Africa and all of us from the North Pole to the South, and this little page, these two pages floating around in the Pacific Ocean, and that little dot, and that tiny little dot times smaller than that, is the size of the sun in our galaxy.
Now think of a million Pacific Oceans. Now think of a million million Pacific Oceans. Of course, you can’t, can you?
And now think of 2 million million Pacific Oceans, and think about that little dot and the other one you can’t see, which is so much smaller, and remember that that’s just the corner of the universe that we know about.
And the God Who inhabits Heaven and Earth, who is our father in Heaven, there’s a God who is three and yet one. He became incarnate, he became a man, he took on a human nature only in that little tiny dot, which you can’t see, in 2 million million Pacific Oceans, and you’re very small, and so am I, on that little tiny unseen dot, but that’s where God in his grace became incarnate.
And that’s where he said, when you pray to this God of this universe, this God in heaven, say “our father”. And the immensity of it baffles us and escapes our attention. Prayer is enormous, vast, immense, incomprehensible. I’m the tiniest, tiniest, tiniest, tiniest little thing in this vast universe, and he says call me Father, come to me like a child comes to a father, worship me because I’m God in heaven, but come comfortably to me, you Christians, because I am your Father. Trust me, love me, open your hearts to me, but remember, don’t pray to my father, pray our father, because I expect you to pray with and for others. That’s what he said, that’s what we must do.
Stuart shared the following exhortation prior to a morning prayer meeting at the 2024 Fellowship Conference. The thoughts shared really helped put prayer in perspective: in view of our Father's vast universe, He yet looks down and hears us!
In the midst of our affliction, let's heed Paul's words. Despite the challenges, he speaks of overflowing joy. He reminds us to rejoice in our sufferings and to be sorrowful yet always rejoicing. Though tears, sorrows, and groans are real, in the darkness of suffering, God calls us to sing. - Tim Conway
0:00 - Opening Prayer
0:39 - A Series on the Book of James
2:20 - Which James Is This Who Wrote the Letter?
9:25 - What Should We Emphasize About the Book of James?
12:59 - Considering the Text
14:53 - Are You Joyful in the Trials You Are Facing Right Now?
22:32 - Nightingales Sing in the Dark
25:02 - Let Us Do Some Counting, Some Thinking...
37:49 - What Happens When You Face Your Trials With Joy?
39:34 - How Should We Think When in a Trial?
43:00 - Testing of Faith Produces Steadfastness
52:44 - If We Are Going to Sing in Our Trials We Must Realize That the Affliction Is Light
58:48 - People Are Watching You as You Are Suffering, What Are They Witnessing?
Stuart Olyott, author of “Preaching Pure and Simple,” discusses how to deliver sermons in a manner that is captivating and impactful. He outlines five characteristics of preaching that effectively communicate the message of Jesus from the Bible in a memorable way.
0:00 – Preview
0:37 – Introduction to 5 Great Characteristics of Good Preaching
5:42 – Characteristic 1: Use Your Imagination
24:45 – Characteristic 2: Dramatic Power
42:13 – Ordinary Voice
49:39 – Characteristic 4: Bombs – Assaulting the Conscience
55:42 – Characteristic 5: The Spirit of God
1:05:48 – QA1: Can Unction Be Expected Every Sunday?
1:08:44 – QA2: If Unction Is All That Is Needed, Why the Other 4 Points?
1:09:29 – QA3: Give Specific Applications or Let the Spirit Do So?
1:11:28 – QA4: Exegesis
1:13:02 – QA5: People Taking Notes?
1:16:27 – QA6: How Do You Decide What to Preach On?
1:18:02 – QA7: How Did You Do Family Devotions?
1:20:49 – QA8: What Advice Do You Have for Growing in Prayer?
1:22:40 – Closing Prayer
Let’s turn in our Bibles to Philippians to develop then things that Stuart said on Wednesday. Philippians 4 verse , Rejoice in the Lord always, Again, I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Don’t be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Well, we’re going to consider, I suppose this morning, one answer to the question, what is a Christian? And there are various ways of answering that question. You can answer it then ethically concerning our conduct and our behavior, and you can say, well, there in the Ten Commandments, And as those commandments are opened up in Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7, Romans 12, you can understand a Christian is someone who lives like this. Or you can answer it then in the truths that we believe. And I suppose it would be what is found in the letter to the Romans. We are those who believe the teaching that Paul outlines so extraordinarily in the letter to the Romans. So you have one answer. which is to do with how you live, and then you have another answer to the question, what is a Christian, in what you believe. But there’s a third answer too, also, and it’s really to do with our affections. the emotional life of a believer. And it is that which the Apostle is bringing before us in this particular section. And he is telling us that there are three characteristics, then, of how a Christian lives. And the first is he’s characterized by joy.
Verse 4, he rejoices in the Lord in every circumstance. He’s writing this from prison. He’s chained to a series of sentries who keep their eye on him. He talks to them. So here is the apostle who, when he’s beaten up and whipped and is in prison, Philippi, he then can sing and rejoice always in the Lord. There’s no circumstance whatever that justifies a Christian not rejoicing in the Lord. So a Christian is a joyful person. He’s a happy person. And we see that, for example, when the Ethiopian eunuch was converted through the testimony of Paul in the explanation of Philippians that he was reading. He baptizes him. He goes on his way rejoicing. Paul could have said he goes on his way believing. He goes on his way repenting. He goes on his way a more thoughtful and wiser man, but he doesn’t.
He ceases on the emotion of joy, or when Philip before that had been the preacher in Samaria, and there was a great blessing, a great revival in Samaria, and we’re told there was great joy in the city. And again, Luke could have said there was great repentance and a great love amongst the brethren, and those things would be true. But he seizes on the fact that a Christian is a joyful, is a rejoicing person, and so that’s the first characteristics here. Rejoice in the Lord always. And secondly, the next emotion he speaks of is reasonableness or gentleness. And there’s no word, I’m told, that can translate exactly this Greek word that the authorized version says, moderation. Though the word is referring to a Christian being a self-disciplined person. He doesn’t fly off the handle at the drop of a hat. He’s not loud. He’s not extrovert. He’s not an extremist. The Christian is accessible, and you can approach us, you can talk to us, and we will listen to you. We don’t want to turn everything into a joke. There’s a sweet moderation about us. We’re gentle people, like our Savior. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild. And he’s left us an example that we follow in his steps. There’s a reasonableness, there’s a gentleness. about every real Christian. You’re not afraid of us.
And then thirdly, there’s this grace of contentment. And it’s stated here in the negative form, the Christian is not characterized by neurotic anxiety. He’s not obsessively alarmed by some of the details of living in the groaning world. The Christian is never paralyzed with worry. He’s talking about being fretful, about being anxious and knowing troubling worries. His response is not one that bears no relationship to the problem that’s facing him. Psalm 107 and verses 26 and 27, this describes this anxiety. They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths. In their peril, their courage melted away. They reeled and staggered like drunkards. They were at their wits’ end, suddenly going from ignorance to blind panic in eight seconds. Paul is talking about losing your sleep over things that don’t deserve it, over things you can’t control, over things that God says He’s going to take care of them. Paul is talking about a distracted mind. A mind that’s torn between things that are important and things that do not matter at all. Stuff that’s virtually trivial, and we are being emotionally deranged by them. And it’s commonly observed in your families that are not Christians, in the world around us, Many men and women, many young people, emotionally deranged. It’s almost a hallmark of the 21st century, a generation that’s obsessed with things that are seen and heard, deranged by stuff that might happen. and Paul is saying if you are trusting in a living heavenly father who cares for you deeply if you have a savior who is a wonderful counselor and he ever lives to speak for you to his father there’s this woman in san antonio there’s this boy and they’re in Great, great difficulty, Father. Send the Holy Spirit. Send Christians into their lives. Give them wisdom. Let them live differently from the world around that has no counselor. and no great high priest speaking, whispering their names into the ears of their Father in heaven.
So I want to open this. I’ve got a logical development here, four points about which no Christian should be anxious And the great section in the New Testament is in the Sermon on the Mount. It’s in Matthew chapter 6, and the last half of that chapter is the most basic and wise sermon of the Lord Jesus about the dangers of anxiety.
So firstly, he says we mustn’t be anxious about trivia. That’s the first point. That’s where he begins. Things like eating, our meals, an obsession with, am I eating enough? Am I eating the right food? Will I have money one day to buy food for myself and my family? And Jesus says, look, God feeds billions of mice and rats and sparrows and crabs and flies. How much more will he take care of those who are his? Lovely children, whom he’s loved with an everlasting love. And so we are not to worry, will we have money for food? Or worry about what we wear? Let’s dress suitably. But there are Christian teenagers who are crippled. with worry about wearing last year’s colours, or last year’s sports shoes, and they say to their parents, I’ve got nothing to wear. And haven’t you learned that this world is a world of vanities? Without having God, men only have themselves and they have ego. That’s all vanity of vanities. It’s all vanity. We have Jesus Christ. And so we have everything. Everything we need for today. Bright hope. for tomorrow our loving Father is going to supply all our needs richly in Christ Jesus, and your priorities are not to be the statesman for what is the latest fashion in your gang. You seek first the Kingdom of God, so point one, don’t be anxious about trivia.
Secondly, don’t be anxious about things over which you have absolutely no control. There is a total eclipse. coming very soon. You’ve got no control over it at all. And Jesus is showing the folly of anxiety when he says, here’s a man of diminutive height, and he’s worried all the time. He says, I’ll never get on. I’ll never get a good job because I’m too short. And he’s worried and worried. Oh, that’s all he talks to you about. I’m not a happy man, he says. And all his anxiety does not add a single inch to his stature. And someone else is worried. They’re worried. Maybe I’ll die before All I paid for my pension gets to the date when I can accrue money from it. That worry doesn’t help him to live a day longer. There’s a pregnant mother and she’s concerned whether the baby that she’s carrying is developing properly. The doctor assures us perfectly normal. No, the baby is fine. There’s this boy, he’s done exams, and there’s some examiner somewhere, and he’s marking, and the boy has to get a certain grade, and all the weeks waiting for results to come out, he’s worrying about whether he’s got the right grades. doesn’t help him at all. He’s not going to get better grades by it. He can do nothing. Parents worry about their new baby’s IQ than others. They have a thunderstorm and they worry that thunder, lightning is going to strike their homes. He said, they can’t do anything about it. That’s the precise hallmark of neurotic anxiety, an obsession with things over which we have no control. So Jesus is saying to us, before you start worrying, say to yourself, if I worry, will things change? And we have to learn to realize that such matters are totally and absolutely beyond our control. If there is nothing whatsoever that we can do about it, why are we obsessively worried?
Number three, we mustn’t be anxious about problems that have not yet materialized. Jesus says, don’t worry about tomorrow. And all of us do. The possibilities and the problems, the losses and crosses about tomorrow. Someone I love might die. My daughter’s husband might leave her. My husband may be made redundant. I may lose my child, all my children. There may be a third world war. The sky may fall on the town. I might make appalling discoveries about my health. I can dwell on all sorts of possibilities that might happen tomorrow and become neurotic and depressed. Jesus says a famous word, you know it, I’ll unpick it for you. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof, you know that King James Version. Evils occur every week to everybody. It’s a fallen, groaning world. There are evils today. There will be evils tomorrow. Don’t make today’s problems worse by thinking of what might be evils tomorrow. And you’re worrying about tomorrow’s problems. Don’t make them worse. Today you will receive a blend of joys and sorrows, and every day of your life in this groaning world there will be a blend of wonderful blessings and trials. That is the life in a fallen world, not the life of heaven. Today you will be given grace to cope with what God has given you today. God’s gift of today. Each day has its own share of troubles. There’s a moment or many a day when difficulties come before us. We’re asked questions. We’re under pressure. We’re being laughed at. We’re being threatened. And we’re praying our own prayers to God. We’re saying, Lord, help me now. Give me grace now. Help me now. Here’s Joseph, and Herod wants to kill. This baby. And Joseph then says, right, we’ll have to move out of our country. We have to go to Africa. Jesus went to Africa as a baby. He went to Egypt. And there, a message finally came in a few years’ time. Herod was gone. He was no more. The threat had been lifted. You can go home. The right action was taken. by Joseph don’t add then to today’s pressures worries about what might be happening tomorrow and we do we see it our girlfriend tells us at work our neighbor talks us as we’re outside the house Their present is mortgaged. Their today is a strain because they’re worrying about what might happen tomorrow. It is sufficient for the emotional energy that God has given you that you can cope today with the problems and pressures that are on you today without adding to them what might happen this year. Sufficient to the day is its evil.
Fourthly, we mustn’t be anxious about things about which God has promised us He will take care of them. All right? It’s a command. We’re not to be anxious. Verse in our text, we’re not to be anxious about anything. It is a sin to disobey that command. It is as much a sin as not loving your neighbor as yourself. God is going to take care of you for your entire satisfaction. And you have no right to justify it by saying, well, that’s my disposition. My mother was a worrier, my grandmother was a worrier, and I’ve inherited it. I’m a worrier too. It is a sin to be a worrier. God’s grace is greater than your personality. And there is no point in you justifying your personality by saying, well, I’m more sensitive than other people. I take things more keenly than other people do. I have vision. I have concern. Those fancies of yours are no excuse. The reality is you have less faith The reality is you have less trust. Jesus, he talks about some of his followers and he says, oh, you of little faiths. Your Heavenly Father knows you need many things today. You need them. And He will provide all that you need. They’re essential. He feeds mice and rats and crabs and crows and squirrels. He looks after flies and snails. He clothes a muddy patch and He makes it a beautiful green field. God provides. But not for me, O ye of little faith! The argument of the Lord is if he provides for rabbits and squirrels and frogs, he will much more provide for you because he loves you eternally and he’s preparing a place in heaven for you. God will take care of you. It is a sin to be anxious. The Lord is going to look after every one of us. You are not the exception. You know, there’s a story of a man, he was a terrible worrier. He was known everywhere in his community for his worries. He walked like a, like a question mark. Ha, ha, hand, ha. Oh, people saw him and they felt, oh, poor darb, oh, look at him, look at him. One day they saw him, he was alert, his shoulders were back, he was, so a friend went on to him and said to him, You’re different today. You seem to have changed. What’s happened? I have a friend and I pay him and he does all my worrying for me.
Well, I might say, is that right? How much does he charge you? Two hundred dollars a week, he says. How can you afford $200 a week. Well, that’s his worry, he says. Now, that’s an illustration. It’s coming in like an express train, isn’t it? You know what I’m going to say? You’ve got a savior who absolutely freely and lovingly and delightfully says, cast your cares on me because I care for you. There are duties tomorrow, there’s housework, and there’s the garden, and there’s our jobs, and our studies, and there’s our health to be checked, and there are places of temptation to avoid, and there are suitable steps to address, so that we wisely deal with the things that we have to on a Monday and a new week. And always we will be trusting the King of love who’s there with us, the shepherd who loves us so very, very deeply. It’s a matter of trust. It is a matter of trust. Trust the Lord with all your heart. Don’t lead into your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, his presence, his care for you, your debt to him. The way he’ll never leave you, when you walk through the valley of the shadow, the goodness and mercy that have followed you all your days doesn’t end with your last breath. It goes on. His rod and his staff drives evil away, and you’re there with him forever. Have you trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. That’s, we sing it, and we’ve got a meaning from our hearts. In his arms he’ll take and shield thee. Thou shalt find thy solace there in Jesus. You bring a burden to the God who cares for us. They won’t be distracted. Who would be distracted if we didn’t have him? Do we worry about daily bread? He’s going to provide for it. He says, ask and say, give us this day our daily bread. And our children, they are gifts from the Lord. The Lord will care for them.
I think our great problem is becoming obsessed with things concerning which we have no promises from God that he will give those things to us. He hasn’t said every Christian’s going to live till they’re a hundred. He hasn’t said every Christian’s going to be rich. He hasn’t said that. He hasn’t said every Christian is going to pass all their exams. Many a godly Christian has failed his exams. He’s never promised that we’ll never be ill, or that each one of us is going to get married, or that each married Christian is going to have a quiver full of children. God hasn’t made those promises to every believer. and we’re not to trust God to provide them, and we’re not to say, name it and claim it to God, because God has never promised such things to every single Christian. What God has promised is that he will work all things together for our good, categorically. unashamedly, unrelievably for every single Christian. He has promised all grace will abound towards us always. He has promised he will supply all our needs. He’s promised nothing can separate you from my love. He’ll never be away from us. He’ll always be there. And you would be justified in worrying and being anxious if you ever found God not keeping those promises to you. Otherwise, We are not to be anxious about anything. Absolutely nothing can justify a Christian responding to the challenges of being a Bible lover of Jesus Christ. In 2024, nothing can justify him not but worrying about this and that. We are to declare our lives worry-free lives, our homes worry-free homes, our congregation a worry-free congregation. Sickening worry is to be banished from our lives. We’re not to be anxious about trivia. We’re not to be anxious about problems that haven’t yet materialized. We’re not to be anxious about things we can’t control, and we’re not to be anxious about things that God has promised he will take care of them. You can trust him to take care of these things. So, we’re not to be anxious. Goodbye anxiety today.
So how do you deal with your worries then? Well, Paul’s counsel. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be laid down to God. So what do you do? Well, firstly, let him know. Are you weak and heavy laden? Take it to the Lord in prayer. Bail it out. Don’t keep it to yourself. Don’t bottle it up on a two o’clock in the morning toss and turn. Have you trials and temptations? Take it to Him! What a privilege to carry everything to the creator of the universe in prayer. And, you know, it’s your experience and it’s my experience, but there’s a problem, and we’ve prayed about it, and we’re talking to God about it, and as we talk about it to God, It shrinks, and we’re seeing it in perspective. Just to talk about this matter to our loving Heavenly Father. The Son of God is a wonderful counsellor. and our troubles seem to shrink in the light of his kindness and his sympathy and his tender care over us. He understands us so much better than we understand ourselves. He looks at every part of our requests. He examines it. We brought it to him. It’s a huge problem, and so must have. huge problems, and he looks at it, and he thinks about it, and he thinks of the implications of what we are asking for, and he really psychoanalyses us, and he turns it round and round, and he knows the whole of our future, and he knows all the implications of answering our prayers in the way we are asking for them.
You know, I told you this, I’m sure. I had a friend who was in love with a girl in the congregation and he asked her mother and father, could he take her out for a meal? And he was late 30s and she was 18. And they talked together and they said, no, she’s too young to start a serious relationship and the age gap between you is too big. We don’t want you. We don’t want you to ask her out.” And there he was, a pastor. No romance in the manse. And then he saw a nice fellow in the congregation starting to sit next to her. in the church and help her to find the passage in the Bible and the hymns and talk to her. And then the boy came on to him and he said to him, Pastor, you see, I got friendly with so-and-so. Can you help me now about courtship? I want to do this to God’s glory. Can you give me some advice He said to me, I’d have made her a far better husband than he would ever. And here am I having to advise him. I felt so sorry for him. I don’t know what I would have done without a wife as a preacher. And I said, you know, You know, Romans 8, 28 says, all things worked. I felt so pathetic trying to give him advice. He said to me, it’s all right, Jeff. It’s all right. You know, we believe when you ask God for something, either he gives you what you ask for, or he gives you something better. And that word that he gave me when I was trying to comfort him, that has been a pastoral word that has comforted a lot of people in my ministry ever since. That is living by trusting in him. And two years later, he met his present wife, and I married them and preached at his wedding, and they have four children, and et cetera, et cetera. You trust, you see, you trust that God will provide. And secondly, don’t forget to be thankful. Verse six, you got a real problem? Well, you mustn’t minimize it. Oh, and if you come to me, I won’t say, it’s nothing. I won’t say that. I try to get in your shoes and see it as you say it. But I would say to you, that’s not the only thing you’ve got, is it? This problem at the back of your mind, this problem about the next month now. You’ve got more than that in your life, haven’t you? You have got. Come on now, be honest. You’ve got more than that problem. You’ve got blessings. You’ve got blessings, haven’t you? Yes, you’ve got blessings. And has goodness and mercy followed you all the days of your life until now? Is that? Has God done that? And when you’ve gone through deep waters? You know, I nursed my first wife through Alzheimer’s and I was with her and holding her hand and she breathed the last. I never thought it was going to, I thought I was going to, we men die first. I thought I was going to, I would have the family around and I’d imagine and they would sing. And she went. She went from a state of grace to a state of glory so sweetly. and I was given enormous pieces and my girls came within quarter of an hour and we hugged one another and cried together and I read. I fought a good fight, finished the course, kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord will give me. In that day, not to me only, but all who loved his appearance and God established me in peace. I could thank him for her wonderful life and thank him that he was helping me now at this time. That’s the reality. Always something to thank God for. Mix your prayer, your needs, and your sorrows with thanksgiving. And then thirdly, you leave your worries with God. That’s the challenge. We bring them to Him. Five minutes later, we’ve picked them up again. We’ve told Him about it, and then we’re acting as if we haven’t told the wisest and the most powerful and loving of lords and friends who’s promised that He’ll help us in every time of need. Don’t be anxious, but do be praying. I think those two things, they can’t live together. Your anxieties are going to kill your prayers, or your prayers are going to kill your anxieties. That’s it. Paul is is telling us that we offer the problem to God and we give Him facts. Millions of answers, hundreds every day, all our lives, God blessing. We wake in the morning and we sit on the edge of our beds and just give Him our minds and our affections and our fingers and our plans for the day. And then through the day, He leads us every step of the way. And we gather on a Sunday morning and we say, our mighty fortress is our God. That’s what we say. That is the Christian alternative to worry. And those of you who are not yet Christians and you come here curious, drawn, but have little problems, take those little problems to the Lord. I know I’m not a Christian, I’m drawn, but I have certain problems.” Tell him all about it. Start your conversation with the Lord now. Say, he’s telling us about, the preacher’s telling us about not being anxious and, you know, I’ve been a worrier. I’ve not known what to do with my worries. Talk to God now. That’s the alternative to your worries.
The Old Testament, you know, the problem of your past, past wickedness, your past sins, the guilt of them, and how they can suddenly remember. You wonder about her. I wonder how she did. I kicked her in the teeth. I wonder how she is now. and you worry. Your past sins, the pain, the hurt you caused your parents, the bad years. All our past sins are forgiven sins. They are all under the blood of Jesus Christ. They are cleansed. They are pardoned. They do not come as a barrier between us and God now or when we see him. He won’t be smiling at some people and then, yeah, you better come in to others, tut-tutting. It won’t be like that. We are in Christ. We are a new creation. God has made him to be sin for us. Who knew no sin? He’s the Lamb of God. He has taken away all our guilt, our shame, and our blame. Is there nail to the cross of Calvary? and we are without it, and that’s the joy.
I can’t understand some of you hearing that and knowing that that is the Christian message, and yet you say, yes, but. Yeah, but. Would you dare say that? to such a loving and mighty Savior as our Lord Jesus Christ. And He’s being offered to us, and we’re being told to come to Him. You know, coming to Him is when God takes the words the preacher has said, and He applies them to our heart. And He says, You come now. You come. I’ll give you rest. You come, and I’ll give you rest. And that’s the Holy Spirit drawing, you say. Just as I am. Without a plea. Here I am, Lord. Not a very good person. Many regrets. Sorry I’ve been on the borders of the kingdom of God for so long. And always found an excuse. No more. Yes, but no more. An end of that. Here I am, marvelling that you could show your love to someone like me, that you would take me on board, that you whisper my name to your father, and you’ll keep me and bless me all my days.
And then you see the new status, the peace of God that passes all understanding. Keep your hearts and minds. You say, I won’t be able to go on as a Christian. I won’t be able to keep going. But God’s peace will keep you. If you keep your heart and your mind. You see what it says here? It’s God’s peace. It is not only that he works on your peace of mind, and he does, and he helps you to think more wisely and to cast your cares and enjoy a more peaceful life. That’s all true. but He gives His peace. You know, the peace that the Father has with the Son, and the Son has with the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit has with God, and there’s no tension between them. There’s no neurotic anxiety between the members of the Godhead. They all care for one another and trust in one another and love one another, and there’s a peace in heaven.
He’s some God. That peace comes to us and that’s the explanation of how people you’ve known who’ve had great, horrid trials, and yet have said, it’s all right. It’s all right, Pastor. God is keeping me. God’s own peace. It keeps us the images of the security team that are guarding this building, guarding the Pentagon, guarding the White House, and they’re there, they’re armed, and they’re watching. Anyone climbing over the fence, anyone wanting to attack, and they’re guarding, and the peace of God, it guards us. the devil comes a bit too near, Christ yanks the chain, and he can’t touch us, he can’t touch our loved ones, the peaceable.
You can go from today with the peace of God, your priceless possession, a peace that you can’t understand, a new life in Christ. It guards us. Should all the hosts of death and powers of hell unknown put their most dreadful forms of rage and malice on, I shall be safe. For Christ displays superior power and guardian grace. Ah, the voices from the pit, go away, go away. the voices from the pit saying, nice accent, very nice, eloquent, yes he could make you believe black was white, but I can’t be a hypocrite now, all my years I’ve not been a believer and I want to be strong. Don’t listen. That’s from the pit. It’s not too late. All the hypocrisy, all the things, bring them.
He welcomes you in all your sin and guilt. He doesn’t ask for perfect faith. He asks for faith, faith in Jesus, the God of peace that brought Jesus from the dead. You know, He’s here today, our Savior. He’s here. He’s given me this message today. He’s brought you here because he loves you. And his desire is that you should be one with him forever and ever. He, we’re told, delights in pardoning. Give God delight. by saying, here I am, here I am. Take me, bless me, use me, keep me, not for the years of Tarim alone, but for eternity. Don’t think of just today. Don’t be as Lenin sings, living for today. Live for eternity. Live for Jesus. Live for the God of peace. Don’t be anxious anymore. Trust in this great God.
You’re heavy laden. He’ll give you rest. The peace of God that blows our mind. Offered to you now. receive Him, as the Holy Spirit takes His Word and just applies it so gently and lovingly to you. My Heavenly Father, do bless your word now. Oh, thank you that you are the God of peace. And thank you, Lord, that you give us peace and that your goodness and mercy have followed us and you’ve loved us. You’ve seen us wandering and the way we are prone to leave all the good things that mum and dad told us. And we have an itch for what is foul and how and lustful and greedy. Oh, Lord, what fools we’ve been! Here we are, and you know us, and you love us still. Please enter our hearts now, and be our God from now on, and we, your unworthy Loving servants, hear our prayers, forgive our sins, become our Savior. For Jesus’ sake, amen.
My life may and will have many problems, but there is no reason for me to ever lose my peace. The LORD has promised me a peace that surpasses all understanding, a peace that cannot be explained. Will you not pour out all your cares upon the LORD and ask Him for help today?
0:00 – A Warm Greeting
0:35 – Philippians 4
1:54 – Who Is Paul Writing To?
5:06 – Why Is Paul Writing This Letter?
9:02 – One of the Saddest Verses in the New Testament
11:53 – One of the Greatest Verses—No Reason to Lose My Peace
14:41 – Question 1 – What Sort of Peace Is Given?
21:37 – The Peace From Christ
27:40 – Question 2 – How Do I Get This Peace?
36:15 – Question 3 – What Does This Peace Do to You?
42:45 – In Closing
43:42 – Closing Prayer
45:19 – QA – In Practice, How Do You Pursue This Peace?
47:14 – QA – Where Have You Gone Wrong in This Area?
48:37 – QA – Can You Lack Assurance and Have True Faith?
[The following is an automatic transcript and has not been proofed.]
Well, it’s a considerable privilege to be here. I’ll speak just for a few moments so you can get adjusted to these tones from across the Atlantic. Some people seem to have a bit of trouble understanding the King’s English. I feel comfortable in Texas because normally when I’m in the US, I say it’s nice to be back in His Majesty’s rebellious colonies. But of course, Texas was never one of His Majesty’s colonies, so I can’t say that to you. Thank you very much for rebelling against somebody else.
Now, we’re going to go to Philippians today, so we’re going to chapter 4. So, we’re going to Philippians chapter 4. A Philippian, of course, is somebody who lives in Philippi. Philippi was a Greek city. If you were a citizen of Philippi, you were a citizen of Rome. You had all the privileges of a citizen of Rome, even though you’d never live there, as long as you lived in Philippi. There was a Church of Christ there, I’ll be talking about that in a minute. And we’re going to read Paul’s letter to the Philippians, chapter 4, verse . Be anxious, for nothing. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in, that’s the correct translation, in Christ Jesus.
Now, the Philippian church was a lovely church. It started when the sun shone on a flower. The flower was a woman called Lydia. She was a businesswoman. And the sun which shone was the gospel message as Paul preached it one Saturday afternoon by the riverside in Philippi. And as the sun, the gospel message, shone on the flower of Lydia without any noise, without any fuss, the flower opened quietly and Christ came in to Lydia’s life. That’s how the Philippian church started. The Philippian church continued with an earthquake. Not everybody comes to Christ the same way. There was a jailer. A jailer in the Roman Empire was always a retired military person who would shed blood. It required an earthquake to bring the jailer to Christ, and so the church started with Lydia, and her staff and her family servants and the jailer and his family and servants. It was a lovely church, this Philippian church. It was founded in the year 50 and it was mostly Greeks but a few Jews.
What’s this church composed of? probably a lot more different than that church. But already it was a mixture, a mixture which would have surprised the world. So mostly Greeks, some Jews making up the Philippian church. Paul preaches there, he doesn’t stay very long, but to make sure that these young Christians are looked after, when Paul has to go and Silas goes with him, they leave Luke behind. Luke, who wrote the Gospel. And Luke stays there six years, looking after these new Christians and seeing this church develop. And when Paul’s been away ten years, he writes this letter to the Philippians, and we’re very privileged to have it in front of us.
Now, I hope you’ve got it open now, Philippians. Paul doesn’t just write to the elders, he doesn’t just write to the deacons. So look at Philippians 1, verse . Paul and Timothy, born servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops, that’s the elders, and deacons. So, here I am, Paul with Silas. I’m writing my letter, he says, to you boys and girls. I’m writing my letter to you teenagers. I’m writing my letter to you church members. Oh, and by the way, I’m also writing my letter to the elders and to the deacons. Nobody is to be left out in this letter, which is why these two verses are for everybody in the church this evening. Philippians 4, .
Now, why is Paul writing this letter? Well, he’s in prison. He wants to talk a bit about that. The Philippians have been very kind to him and sent him some help. He wants to thank them. That’s what we should do. He’s sending some people back to Philippi, Timothy and Epaphroditus, to encourage them. But that’s not the real reason why he’s writing this letter. In your Bible, how many chapters are there in Philippians? Four, in your normal Bible, how many pages are there in Philippians? Four, and yet in four pages, four chapters, Paul mentions joy or rejoice 17 times. There’s no letter like this in the New Testament. So personal, so happy, and so heartbroken. Because the joy in the church is likely to disappear soon. In fact, it’s already on the way out. And we’ll find out why.
Let’s look at it now. Chapter two, verse two. Fulfill my joy by being like-minded. Now, why would he write that? because some of the Philippian Christians were no longer like-minded. He goes on, chapter 2, verse , having the same love, but they didn’t all love the same thing and they didn’t all love each other anymore. Being of one accord, of one mind, the church was in danger. There were church members who were not comfortable with some other church members. If you like, there were some church members sitting over there because they didn’t want to sit with you over there. And there were some people who came in late because they didn’t want to meet anybody else on the way in. And that’s what was happening in Philippi. Look at chapter 2, verse 3. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. Why did he write that? Because they were church members now, instead of saying them, them, them, them, them, we’re actually saying me, me, me, me and my wife, me and my family, me and my friends, me, me, me. So the church, which had been so happy, was now becoming an unhappy church because of these ungodly attitudes.
Look at verse four, chapter two, verse four. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Stop thinking about yourself first, says Paul. Start thinking about others as much as you think about yourself. It’s a shame, it’s sad, it’s a heartbreaking letter that this happy church was now beginning to be an unhappy church. Look at chapter two, verse 14. Do all things without murmuring and disputing. Why would he write that? Because there were people who were grumbling. They were grouchy. And disputing. Some people like to talk simply because they like an argument. And there were some of those now in the Philippian church. It’s really sad that this is happening.
Now look at chapter 4 now. Chapter 4 verse 2. This is one of the saddest verses in the New Testament. I implore Euodia and I implore Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel. Can you just imagine these two women? Euodia and Syntyche. Eurodius. Did you get the pun? Did you get the play on words? You owed ya. And he said, you sinned, I see. Sintaiki. There were people looking at each other like that, pointing the finger. You’re not what you should be. You’re not what you should be. You’re not what you should be. That’s the way they were beginning to think.
So, Paul is writing this letter But we’re coming to chapter four, verse six. When I was a boy, a very young boy, a very, very young boy, I was taught a prayer to pray before I went to bed. It began like this. Jesus, tender shepherd, hear me, and all my conscious life I’m glad to tell you that I’ve known this, that Jesus is a tender shepherd. Now here’s a church in a mess. People are falling out with each other, people are suspecting each other, people are arguing with each other, people are not pleasant with each other, there are people who are not comfortable with each other, and Jesus tender shepherd speaks through the Apostle Paul to this church and gives that church this great promise of chapter 4, verses 6 and 7. And I think tonight you should stand back and you should admire the kindness of Christ. These Christians aren’t what they should be. They’re disappointed with each other. But Jesus, in his kindness, sends his apostle to bring us this great promise. He’s so kind, you know, and we call it grace. This is undeserved kindness by the head of the church to a church which is no longer what it used to be.
Now, so why not just pause for a minute and look again at chapter four, verse six? Let me read it again slowly. Be anxious for nothing. But in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. That great missionary to China, Hudson Taylor, every day of his life used to say this, there is a living God. He speaks in the Bible. He means what he says. And he does all that he promises. Now, just keep those words in mind and run your finger or your mind through chapter four, verses six and seven again. There is a living God. He speaks in the Bible. He means what he says. And he does all that he promises. So what this passage is teaching you is this. My church may have problems, but there is no reason for me ever to lose my peace. So when you get home tonight and somebody says, what did he speak about? There’s the answer. My church may have problems, but there is no need for me ever to lose my peace.
So we’re going to ask now three questions. What sort of peace? We’ll ask that first. How do I get this peace? We’ll ask that second. And what happens after? We’ll ask that third. What sort of peace? Well, I decided to look up in the dictionary. Yeah, I’ve still got one. I don’t do it all on Google. I decided to look in the dictionary. I looked up peace and this is what it said. Peace is a state of undisturbed calm and quiet. And the moment I read undisturbed calm, I was sitting by a lake and there weren’t even any ducks on it. The water was just completely untroubled. Didn’t have to build a bridge over troubled water this time. Peace is a state of undisturbed calm and quiet. My church may have troubles, but there is no need for me ever to lose undisturbed calm and quiet. That’s what the Bible is saying. Think of it. Now, there are many troubles in this world. There are international troubles. There are national troubles. There are family troubles. They’re tough, aren’t they? And there are church troubles. And they’re the hardest of all, I think. I think they are the hardest of all. And now I’m reading a Bible passage which says, my church may have troubles, but there’s no need for me ever to lose a state of undisturbed calm and quiet.
Look at verse six, chapter four, verse six. What sort of peace? Be anxious for nothing. So it’s a piece which is the complete absence of worry. Ooh, think of that. Absence of worry. No worrying. So you’re no longer nervous, you’re no longer on edge, you’re no longer uptight, you’re no longer fearful, you’re no longer uneasy, you’re no longer haunted by, oh, what’s going to happen next? anxious for nothing. And look at verse 7. The peace of God, what? The peace of God? Come back to that in a minute. The peace of God which surpasses all understanding. You can’t nail it down. Now today I was offered an ice cream and I accepted, knowing that I was going to give this illustration. But I didn’t know that in this great United States of America, you actually had salted caramel ice cream. But you do. I think you call it caramel salt or something, but it’s the same thing anyway. How do you describe salted caramel ice cream? And so somebody says, well, what makes it wonderful? What does it really taste like? And you think, well, it’s a little bit salty, and it’s a little bit caramelly. Oh, try it for yourself. That’s what we do, isn’t it? There’s some things in life you experience them, but you can’t nail them down. You can’t actually put it into words. That’s what Paul is saying. With God’s peace, it surpasses all understanding. So, the children can’t understand it. The adults can’t understand it. The folk have been to seminary. They can’t define it. No book can actually put into words what it is. But it’s the reality of which Paul is speaking in this passage. Now, if you go on YouTube, you’ll find a lady sitting at a piano. It’s a really nice tune, and this is what she sings. Like the sunshine after rain, like the rest which follows pain, like a hope restored again, is the peace which Jesus gives. Oh, the peace which Jesus gives. It never dies. It always lives. Like the music of a psalm, like a glad eternal calm, is the peace which Jesus gives. What’s wrong with that song? The peace of God surpasses all understanding. The peace of God is not like anything. I like the song, by the way, and I still sing it. But actually, it won’t do. Because God is not like anything, and the peace of God is not like anything. It’s supernatural! It’s the personal experience of what the Father is experiencing, the Son is experiencing, and the Holy Spirit is experiencing. And just as we, when we believe, receive eternal life, which is the life of God in our soul, So says the apostle Paul, you may experience the peace of God in your soul. You may have the peace which God has, you may have it. It’s too big to handle, this verse. Jesus said something about this. Listen to these words. You’ve heard them before, but just listen. Peace, I leave with you. Now listen. My peace, I give you. Not as the world gives, do I give to you. Have you read the gospels? Have you read Matthew? Mark? Luke? John? Then you’ll know about the peace of Jesus. He’s been teaching all day, and he gets into the boat, and the boat sets off across the lake, and it’s just a lovely day, and the wind is just kissing the tops of the waves, and they come up all white and foamy, and the sky is blue, and it’s a perfect end to a perfect day, and then there’s a terrible storm, and even the men who are fishermen are terrified because the water is pouring into the boat, they’re going to sink, they’re going to perish, And where’s Jesus? He’s in the back of the boat sleeping. He’s sleeping in the storm. That’s his peace. Oh, don’t you care that we’re perishing? And in that boat which nobody can stand up in, he stands up. And he speaks to the wind and the waves, and he says, peace. And then there’s an undisturbed calm and quiet, except inside the apostles’ hearts because they’re actually frightened by this whole experience. And then they hit shore, And look who’s coming. There’s a man with no clothes on, yelling and shouting like a lunatic, because actually that’s what he is, possibly with the remnants of chains and shackles hanging from him, cutting himself with stones so that he’s bleeding. You would be terrified if you met that man. He’s so strong that he’s broken the shackles and the chains, and nobody’s been able to tame him for years. But Jesus says, what’s your name? Legion, for we are many. He’s demon possessed, but not with just one or two, with dozens, maybe hundreds. And Jesus speaks. And the next thing we know, the man is sitting, clothed, and in his right mind. You have an undisturbed Jesus, and an undisturbed Jesus. And then, they cross the lake again, and when they get back to where they started, more or less, there’s crowds of people waiting on the shore for Jesus, waiting for him to speak. bringing him their complaints about their illnesses and their needs. And there’s one person who particularly demands his attention and says, it’s urgent, it’s urgent, it’s urgent, it’s urgent, it’s urgent, please, my 12-year-old daughter is going to die, it’s certain she’s going to die, but if you could get there in time… But he doesn’t hurry. Because there’s peace in the heart of the Son of God. And on the way, he stops to heal a woman who’s been bleeding for 12 years. And he’s unflustered, unhurried, unruffled, and everybody else is tugging him along, as it were, at least mentally, let’s get to the girl’s house. And you have a undisturbed, calm Jesus. Eventually he gets to the house and there’s crying and there’s wailing and there’s shouting and there’s screaming and there’s weeping and there’s moaning and there’s mourning. And an undisturbed Jesus walks in, tells them to leave, walks into a bedroom where there’s a little white pale corpse, gets the little girl’s hand and says, Talitha, Kumi, little girl, I say to you, get up, give her something to eat. And Jesus looks to the Christian and says, come on now, this peace which surpasses all understanding, my peace I give to you. Oh, the peace my Savior gives, peace I never knew before, and my way has brighter grown since I’ve learned to trust Him more. What sort of peace? Well, we’ve answered that, except we haven’t answered it because it surpasses all understanding. Number two then, how do I get this peace? Well, look at it, chapter four, Philippians, verse six. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. How do I get this peace? The answer’s there. You tell the Lord everything. You tell the Lord everything. You talk to the Lord about you. your sins, your doubts, your fears, your mistakes, your misunderstandings, your perplexities, your troubles, your past, your present, your future, your wife, your husband, your uncle, your aunt, your children, your parents, your brothers, your sisters, your job, your neighbors, your leisure, your school, your studies, your church, your pastor, your fellow elders, the chairs that you’re sitting on, the amplification, the new walls and the new doors, you talk to the Lord about everything. Everything. Have you ever met Christians who say, I really find prayer hard? Why? Why? When all the time you’ve got a tender shepherd, and he’s saying, come on men, come on women, come on you lads and girls, tell me everything, everything, everything. And you ask him about everything. Lord, How can it be that you love me so much that you died for me? Lord, you know all about my sin, but how could it be that you could love a sinner like me? Lord, what am I to do with my difficult neighbors? Lord, how am I to behave to my unbelieving wife? Lord, How can I do better as a mother or a father or a parent? You ask him about everything. Everything. How could I be a better church member? Actually, one of the best ways to find that out is actually say to the Lord, Lord, how could I be a worse church member? And then when you’ve answered that, you’ll know how to be a better church member, surprisingly. You talk to the Lord about everything. You ask him about everything. Have you got a doubt? Tell him about it and ask him the answer. Have you got a fear? Tell him about it and ask him for the answer. Have you got someone you don’t get on well with? Talk to the Lord about them. Ask him, yes, to do something in their life, but first of all to do something in your life so you might know what to do. Is there anything in your life, come on now, is there anything in your life which you’ve not talked to the Lord about? Is there anything in your life you’ve not asked the Lord about? This is what the Apostle Paul is teaching us. With thanksgiving, he said. Did you notice that? So every day sometime you’re going to say something like this. Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me your great salvation, so rich and free. Thank you, Lord, for my health. Thank you for my Food. Thank you for my friends. Thank you for my house. Thank you for my hearing. Thank you for my sight. Thank you for my senses. Thank you for my church. Thank you for my pastors. Thank you for my… With thanksgiving. So there’s nothing between. You talk to the Lord about everything. You ask him about everything. And you thank him for everything. So I do know a couple which they’ve got something written over their double bed where they sleep and it says, hallelujah anyway. And maybe sometimes you feel like that at the end of the day, it’s been really tough. But hallelujah anyway, but I don’t actually think that’s really what Paul’s getting at. Do you know that there’s an invisible hand at work? And even our setbacks are part of his plan. Even our tears, which are real tears, I’m not gonna play that down, are nonetheless part of his fatherly care for us. So we thank the Lord for everything. This is the old hymn, count your blessings. Do you know that hymn? Name them one by one. When did you last do that? But usually when people sing that hymn, they’re thinking about all the good things which have happened to them. But some of the greatest blessings are the bad things which happened to you. C.H. Spurgeon, the great preacher says, one of the greatest blessings you can have in life is good health. But there’s a greater blessing than that. It’s illness. Well, he should know, he was ill for a third of his life and kept out of the pulpits a third of his ministry. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, there is such a thing as praying yourself empty. You talk to the Lord, and you make requests to the Lord, and you thank the Lord, and you talk to the Lord, and you ask questions to the Lord, and you make requests to the Lord, and you thank the Lord, and eventually you’ve nothing left to say. Ah, but somebody says it’s not like that with me. I talk to the Lord about this, and then by the time I’ve talked to him about other things, that thing’s come back again and is worrying me again. Well, talk to him again about it then. And you’ll find that if you talk to the Lord about everything, some things come back. So you talk to the Lord about them, and they come back, and talk to the Lord about them, and some of them come back. And talk to the Lord about them, and fewer of them come back. And then suddenly you find you’ve nothing left to say. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding is now your experience. All your anxiety, all your care, bring to the mercy seat. Leave it there. Never a burden he cannot bear. Never a friend like Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, is your best friend. So, what sort of peace? How do I get this peace? And what follows after that? Philippians chapter 4, verse 6. be anxious for nothing. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds In Christ Jesus. This piece does something to you. It affects your mind. And you can’t stop it affecting your mind. Your mind is, as it were, being guarded, garrisoned, directed, protected. You think about Jesus. Well, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. You think about his eternal person. You think about his Old Testament appearances. You think about his conception, his birth, his life, his miracles, his teaching, his Gethsemane, his cross, his burial, his resurrection, his presenting himself alive by many infallible proofs. His ascension, His sitting down, representing you, His coming again. You think about it. You think about His care today, His promises for tomorrow, His forgiveness for yesterday. You think about the fruit which His Spirit brings about in your life. You think about your job, but you think about the fact that you’re a conjoined twin with Jesus Christ. I’m told that 160 times in the New Testament. I’m in Christ, and Christ is in me. So I do my work in the presence of Christ, with Christ, with the strength of Christ, and for Christ. My mind cannot rid itself of Jesus Christ. That’s what the peace does to you. And, look, verse seven, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. When I think of his eternal existence, I love him for that. When I think about how he took on a human nature, I love him for that. When I think that he went through every temptation that any of us and all of us will face, and he went through all those temptations without sin, I love him for that. And when I think of his teaching, his parables, his Sermon on the Mount, his last words to his disciples in the upper room, I love him for that. When I think of his cross, I love him for that. and when I think that he was limp and lifeless, lying in the tomb. I love him for that. Who would have thought that God, who cannot die, would die so that I wouldn’t have to? I love him for that. And when I think how he provides my needs, and I can count on his presence and his promises. And when I think that he says, I will never leave you or forsake you. And when I read, I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you. I love him for that. And when I think that all history which appears to be out of control actually is accelerating towards that great day when the sky will be rolled back and the trumpet will sound and I’ll see the Lord in the air and be snatched up with the dead in Christ and meet Him there. I love Him for that. And then when I think that there’s a voice which is going to say, come, you blessed of my Father into the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And I will hear that voice and the invitation will be made for me. I love him for that. And when I think that eternally, I’m going to be in a place where there’ll be no sun, because all the shining will be done by the Lord Jesus Christ. I love him for that. It’s pretty wonderful really to be a Christian, isn’t it? Don’t you agree? And it’s remarkable that to a church where things have gone wrong, this kind, kind, kind Saviour puts that promise there. Be anxious for nothing. But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Has he finished? Not quite. Are you in tension? Suspicion, difficulty with another person? Ah, but now you’ve heard the sermon. Perhaps they’ve heard the sermon. Now you’re experiencing the peace. And they’re experiencing the peace. And now your mind is flooded with Jesus Christ. And their mind is flooded with Jesus Christ. And the Philippian church once more is filled with joy. Thank you for listening to me. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your holy word. We thank you that there is a living God. We thank you that you do speak in the Bible. We thank you that you do mean what you say. We thank you that you do all that you promise. We worship you, Lord, this evening for your kindness, that in a church which was in such a dangerous position, you gave such a wonderful promise. We thank you that you preserve the promise. It’s become written in scripture. and all the churches of Jesus Christ have this promise made to them. Every Christian in every church, in every part of the world, in every generation has this promise. And we thank you, Lord, that when we get to heaven, we shall find that not one word has failed of anything that you’ve promised. And now we pray. Bless this church, this Grace Church here, and grant that the men and the women and the girls and the boys who make up this church will believe this promise, lay hold of this promise, and find that wonderful gift which you give, this peace which surpasses all understanding, all human intelligence, all definition, which keeps our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. O Lord, hear our prayer. Grant us this blessing. We pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. After the sermon finished, a few questions were asked in regards to the message. The first being, practically, how do you pursue this peace? So the question is, in practice, how do we do that? You’ll have to find your own way on that one. But what I do is I go out for long walks. I find it much easier to pray walking. Some people don’t. Some people find it easier to pray in a room. Some people find it actually easier to pray in the dark. I can’t pray so easily at home because I see things, you know, oh, there’s a bit of dust over there, that needs cleaning off. And there’s a smell of onions in the kitchen, I must go and put an aerosol in. You don’t have those sort of distractions, but I do. So I just get out of the house and I talk to the Lord, and talk to the Lord, and talk to the Lord. That’s the way I found that’s helped me the most. I’ve been doing that since I was a teenager. When I was a teenager, late teenager, we moved from a city into a very, very tiny village in West Wales. I was about to become a theological student. I had no money, I had no transport, I had no friends, I knew nobody in the county, so I just went for walks. I studied Greek in the morning and went for walks in the afternoon and evening, and I found that you can talk to the Lord, and you can talk loudly, and you can shout in the countryside, and it’s terrific. Then I moved to a city. What do you do then? Well, you can talk to the Lord in a city too, I found. You can walk down the road with taxis making their noise, and trucks with all their exhaust, and even in the pouring rain under an umbrella, you can still talk to the Lord. So that’s the way I do it. You’ll have to find your own way. The essential thing is, tell him everything. Where I’ve gone wrong is when I’ve not told him everything. Sometimes as Christians, we sin. And then there’s a little voice which says, come on now, you better do better than that. And we feel something, a little voice says to us, you can’t really talk to the Lord until you’ve got your act together, till you’ve improved. That’s the devil’s voice. And I listened to it from time to time. No, if I’ve sinned, I must confess it and talk to the Lord about my sin. After all, He came into the world to save sinners. That’s why He came. He knows all about failures, and I’m one of them. But that’s where my mistakes have been, listening to that other voice which says, so come on now, improve, improve, and then talk to the Lord about it. That is not the Lord speaking. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. That’s where I’m made by big mistakes. You have to talk up because I’m deaf and I’m in a foreign country. Yes. You’re going to have to translate that for me. I genuinely can’t hear you. Can a person who lacks assurance have true faith? Yes, they can. Assurance is not of the essence of faith, as the old confessions say. God wants all Christians to have assurance. We’re told that quite clearly on the pages of the New Testament. But the very fact that we’re told that is because some Christians do actually lack assurance. I simply ask people, do you pray? And they always say yes. So I say, well, why would God listen to you? And if they say, well, because I need him so much, or God listens to me because I’m sincere, or God listens to me because I pray with urgency, I know I’m talking to a non-Christian. But if someone says to me, why should God listen to me? Well, because of Jesus and what he did on the cross. Ah. So deep down they have assurance, but up till now they haven’t begun really to realize it. But they are actually depending upon Jesus Christ for their acceptance with God. But assurance can waver. We know that from experience, we know it from the Bible, and we know it from the great confessions of the church. So you can be a true Christian without assurance, but you can’t be a true Christian without clinging to Christ.
The question often arises: If the supernatural described in Mark 16:14-18 is relevant today, where is it? Why aren’t we seeing it? However, folks, this often stems from a kind of defensive exegesis of scripture. It involves looking at ourselves in the mirror and seeing nothing, yet when we look in the scriptures, we see something. Then, we define what’s real based on what we observe in ourselves rather than what we find in the scriptures.
0:00 – Mark 16
3:34 – Opening Prayer
3:54 – Do You Take Mark 16 to Be Scripture?
7:12 – Trying to Cast a Demon Out in Nepal
13:08 – How Do These Experiences Compare to Mark 16?
23:25 – I Challenge All of Us…
38:21 – The World Needs the Church, Do You Believe That?
44:21 – I Long for Us to Have This Same Effective Energy for the Lord
46:11 – Closing Prayer
Stuart Olyott, author of “Something Must Be Known and Felt,” discusses the nature of spiritual experiences in his sermon based on Luke 24. May our hearts indeed burn as we read the Scriptures and walk with Christ.
0:00 Introduction
1:24 Luke 24, Burning Hearts
6:07 Who Were the Two People Walking on the Road?
7:43 1 – Analyzing the Passage: Two Disciples’ Experience
11:54 The Nature of Spiritual Experience: Understanding the Three Legs
14:20 2 – Shared Spiritual Experience Between Two Disciples
18:55 3 – The Author of That Experience
21:48 4 – The Means of That Experience
27:35 What Are Emotions? Understanding Strong Movements of the Will
32:32 Manipulating Emotions
33:59 Reciting Sequence for Emotional Manipulation: 1 2 2 3
36:01 5 – The Result of That Experience
46:06 My Heart Burns When I See Christ in the Scriptures
48:56 Closing Prayer
Michael Durham challenges the congregation to reevaluate their perception of grace, contrasting it with the righteous judgment of God. Through an exploration of Isaiah’s vision and personal reflections, the sermon calls for a renewed sense of wonder at God’s grace and a deeper fear of His holiness.
0:00 – Introduction and opening prayer.
5:05 – An address to your hearts.
8:07 – I was asked to preach the funeral of a person who had killed themselves.
9:58 – We should not be offended at the thought of God judging a person.
12:56 – Observe God’s holy judgment of King Uzziah.
25:49 – Why do you excuse certain sins you commit?
28:58 – Isaiah did not grasp the holiness of God until this day…
39:49 – Years ago the Lord began to depend my understanding of the fear of the LORD.
44:20 – Seeing the amazing grace of the Lord Jesus Christ!
50:34 – Closing prayer.
(Please note that the following transcript has not been proofed for errors.)
It is indeed my privilege to be here tonight and I confess that it’s a privilege of grace, not deserved.
Would you pray with me?
O gracious father, God of all grace, God of mercy. God of infinite love, we call upon you. And we do so in the merit of your blessed Son, Jesus Christ the Lord. We call out his name because he is our advocate, and I am so grateful. But even now he prays. He intercedes for us men. My prayers seem so pitiful and puny compared to his father, but our hearts, our hearts yearn for thee.
We long to see your gracious activity in our midst. We long to once again to behold the manifestation of your glory and your holiness. And so, with our voices blended with his, hear us tonight. Do not deprive us. We pray. Look upon his merit, his achievement, his performance. And for his sake be kind to us. Make your word alive.
Be it be a sword in thy hand. And may you reap your harvest and your spoil. To the glory of his name. Amen. The text. We pray the Lord be pleased to speak to us from tonight. It’s from Isaiah chapter six, verses one through five.
And I found it quite interesting that in both messages previous to tonight, this text has been mentioned and referred to and therefore I. I do not believe that’s an accident or a coincidence. I really struggled whether I should preach from this text because a few of you have heard this text preach from me, but with all of my prayers I felt impressed by the Lord that this was the text for tonight.
And therefore I put my confidence and trust in him. Therefore take he. Then listen. For I do believe the Lord has something to say to us. Isaiah chapter six I want to speak on the theme is Grace still amazing? Is grace still amazing? In Isaiah chapter six, beginning with verse one. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
Above it stood seraphim. Each one had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of host. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the post of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out.
And the house was filled with smoke. So I said, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of host. Nothing like this had happened to the prophet Isaiah. Seeing God in the temple terrorize the prophet, and he cries out in absolute horror.
Woe is me, for I am undone. I want to lay aside the prophet in our text, just momentarily, because I want to address your hearts. I am truly troubled by what I’m seeing in most of our churches. Something is terribly wrong, if not immoral. When we are shocked by justice and not by grace.
You should be much more surprised by grace than judgment and we come into this world deserving judgment. We come into this world in the negative balance and God being righteous and holy, he is right to judge us and he does not owe us his mercy. You do not come deserving of any kindness of the Lord. This we know.
I know you know you cannot have grown in church or come to know Christ without this to be fundamental to your understanding. But somewhere along the line in our fundamental understanding of God’s grace, we have lost its wonder.
If you would say that some tragedy might very well demonstrate the righteous judgment of God, you will bring upon your head the indignation of people. And it just isn’t the unchurched. Many and much of Christendom will find your statements hard to swallow and to accept. They seem to be still angered when you suggest that the Lord still has a righteous temper.
Even you may be now starting to feel somewhat uncomfortable that God can and will dispense justice before the great and terrible day of the Lord. And so I’m very concerned what I am seeing the last couple of years in my travels in good churches. This has nothing to do with the fringe churches, the churches that are unbiblical and unsound.
I’m talking about all the churches represented here and others. If you’re surprised by God’s judgment and not his grace, you have a theological and a heart problem. The death of Christ did not remove all displays of God’s justice and retribution. Remember? And Aeneas and Sapphira, they were struck dead and carried out feet first, because they lied in church.
I think even sincere saints are often surprised by the revelation of God’s judgment, and we are often indifferent to his displays of mercy. I remember many years ago being asked to preach the funeral of a young man who had attempted murder and then committed suicide. He found out that his girlfriend was consorting with another man, found them together, put five bullets into her body, then turned the gun and killed himself.
His former stepfather was the only Christian associated with that family, and so they asked if he would ask me, his pastor, to preach the funeral. And at that funeral, I could not offer any hope to them that they would see their loved one or friend again. But I told them I wasn’t there to preach men into heaven or to hell.
But then at the same time, I could not give them any assurance they would see him again. And then I committed to give them the only help and hope that I could offer them. And that is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I told them that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and he died for the ungodly.
And then I called upon them to repent of their sins and to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Because I did not preach that young man into heaven, and give them the assurance that he was in a better place. You would have thought that I was the one who had shot and killed him. The anger in that funeral home was unmistakable, and it was aimed at me.
We despise a God who is right and true in his judgments, and we demand a God who will only show us mercy. We’re offended if he anything than anything else other than leaning at our senses, are shocked by the thought of God judging a person or a church, or a family, or a society or a nation. Before the great day of the Lord.
We have seemed to think that all of his judgments are postponed to some future, as the old divines called the great designs for the final Judgment. But where did we get that? That’s not in the Bible. We can define holiness, and yet we can do so often without experiencing it. And I’m sure, I’m sure I’m persuaded that the problem confronting us today, right here at this juncture in church history, is that most churches today lack the fear of God.
That’s a whole. We really do not fear the Lord. Oh, I don’t mean we don’t fear him, but we do not fear him, as the Bible teaches. Do you? Do you really? Do you fear him so much that you fear sin? Years ago, I wrote an article for a digital magazine that we published, and I wrote about fearing sin, and I reader replied and said that you should only fear God.
You should not fear sin. I responded and said, we should fear anything that is associated with that which God hates. If we truly fear God, we will fear that which he hates. Beloved, you can know God is holy and not experience him. It isn’t knowing that God is holy that saves you. It is knowing the God who is holy that saves you.
And this is eternal. That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent. That’s what saves you. Knowing him in reality personally. And so I ask, are you ever amazed at grace? The songs we just sing. Was there a flush that came over you of wonderment, amazement that he would do this for me?
Amazing love. How can it be that thou, my God, should die for me? Or have you learned the words so freely that you can sing them with no thought or feeling? Has grace become common and routine? Well, thank you for letting me address your heart. Let’s get back to the text. Now, I want to direct your attention to God’s holy judgment of you.
Desire.
First, it’s noteworthy to mention the scene setting words in the year that King Uzziah died. Isaiah was one of the noblest and best kings of all of Judah. Second longest reigning king, 52 years and perhaps not since Solomon had Judah so prospered as it did under the administration of using. But most importantly, Isaiah was a lover of God.
He loved the things of God. Isaiah was born and reared under the great King Hezekiah, and at the time of our text event, Zaya was the only king that Isaiah had ever known. Isaiah was called to preach under his under his administration, and he was aware that Zaya was one of those national treasures that would be hard to replace.
But there was one glaring blot on an otherwise great record. At the height of his glory, he dared to take something upon himself that was not for him to take. He was the king. Yes, but this was one thing forbidden to him. Executive privilege stopped right here. He dared to enter into the Holy place and assume the ministry of the priest, and offer incense in the temple.
He dared to enter and offer worship to God in a way that was not permissible for him. And while the censor was in Eusebius hand, a white spot broke out on his forehead, and God afflicted him with the most dreaded and incurable disease of his day leprosy. And the end of his life was a disgrace. The Bible states it in a very matter of fact way and Second Chronicles 2621.
Here’s what it says. King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He dwelled in an isolated house because he was a leper for he was cut off from the house of the Lord. Cut off from the house of the Lord. Does that mean anything to you?
It was a shameful, reproachful thing to use. And now here’s the prophet Isaiah in a vision taken to the very place where all of this happened. By vision, God carries him up to the temple and shows him the very place where he was. I had grabbed the sensor and God struck him with leprosy. Now would you consider for a moment Isaiah’s dilemma with me?
Why was this sin visited with such swift and severe wrath? Now, I don’t think I’m running off into speculation to ask that question, and to say that I think you, Zaya, is feeling that perhaps you Zion’s punishment doesn’t fit the crime. Stop and think with me. How could the Lord have been so harsh with a good man? All that the monarch had done was an act of worship.
What he wanted to do was draw closer to God, to him, participate in a more intimate kind of worship. Some of the kings of Judah had led the people into grave sin. Some had even offered their children to the sacrificial fires of the idols that they worshiped. Even David’s sin of adultery and murder cannot be considered small or petty.
And yet many of those kings did not suffer the shame or pain of using as punishment because of the zeal for God using a wish to draw closer to him. He wanted the privilege of honoring worship to honor the Lord. Why then, was he judged so severely? Well, wicked kings seem to escape such severity. I mean, his great great great great great grandfather, David was all the time talking about being in the house of the Lord and serving in the house of the Lord, dwelling in the house of the Lord forever.
Well, he even said one time, I’d rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord. He just wanted to be close to God and so did Josiah. Why such severity? And there’s only one reason. You, Zion, knowingly failed to acknowledge the holiness of God. Instead of his act been seen as an act of holy worship, it was a defiant transgression that ignored the infinite holiness of God.
What he meant to be worship was literally abominable. He dared enter into the presence of God. Listen carefully. By his own righteousness, taking upon himself the duty reserved only for the sanctified to set apart the priest. He made a statement about God. Here’s that statement. He was saying that man could enter into God’s presence by his own goodness.
Do you understand? Does this make sense? How often we enter to the place of worship? Unthinking thinking. We deserve to be there. Thinking we merit. You desire. He may have done great things for God. He may have been a dear king and a good man up to this point. But none of those things gave him the right to enter before a holy and awesome God.
Listen carefully. I know that the Christian is washed in the blood and therefore has access to the presence of God. But we do not come by our own merit. Amen. We do not come any other way but the mercies of God. Therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Yes, come boldly to the throne of grace, that you may obtain mercy.
But how can you come? Not without the blood of the lamb. Amen.
And for some of us who know the Lord washed in the blood, forgiven of our sins, robed in his righteousness, we have forgotten the price by which we have access. And we consider it a mundane thing, something the writer of Hebrews said, be careful, be careful. Josiah sin because he didn’t fear God enough to obey him. He dared to think he was holy enough, which can only mean he dared to believe that God was not much more righteous than himself.
He forgot God was infinitely holy, and that no man can presume to enter into his presence. We just cannot presume that. And somehow we have twisted this word, grace and faith. To to be defined as presumption. Taking it for granted. Assuming all is well. Because we are under grace.
Well, we may be able to impact this now. But how was Isaiah to know this? How could the despondent prophet see all of this? Remember Isaiah being a mere man who had suffered from the same affliction? I suffer from? I suffer from the sin of relativism. I have this problem that I see my sins relative in comparison to others.
I want to categorize my sins and I especially like to categorize them in the lower echelons of sin. Not that bad, you see. Not that terribly important. And I’m not the only one that has that characteristic. If you’re breathing here tonight, you have it too. We do that. We do think that there are some more grotesque in their sins than us.
And so we judge sin based upon this, this imaginary standard. But the problem with that is we’re still sinners and our sin colors taints our judgment of right and wrong. And when we worship God without being mindful of who we are approaching, we may think we are honorable, but God thinks something very different. So here’s mournful Isaiah trying to understand all of this.
But he can’t. He just can’t. We barely do here tonight. And we have the benefit of history and the New Testament scriptures. There was only one thing that could help this prophet. Only one thing that could cure his relativism. What was it? Witnessing the holiness of God. And my friends. That is the only thing that we heal us tonight and all that God would be gracious to turn this place into a holy place, sanctified by the manifestation of his presence, that we too might have our hearts gripped again and remember how holy he is.
Oh, that he would do it! It’s been my prayer for days and weeks now. Go, Lord, split the heavens. Render them come the helm we need to see. We have forgotten. We know it intellectually. Doctrine is embedded into our Supreme Being. But Lord, we need that reality. You are holy, infinitely more holy than we are. That’s our cure.
Tonight. I Isaiah’s dilemma is not so different from yours and mine. Even though I’ve explained why God was angry with what you desire. Isn’t there still something within you that said, yeah, I get that. But still, I just don’t think it’s quite fair. I think it’s a little overdone. I don’t think God was just trying to prove a point, but I don’t think I deserved that.
Yes, I have sinned. Couldn’t be as bad, you might argue, as King Manassas sinned. And by the way, King Manasa martyred the prophet Isaiah. Tradition says he put him in a hollow log and had him sworn in. Two and yet manifest himself in the end was forgiven and restored to the throne.
But yes, I is cut off from the house of the Lord.
Have we forgotten that it’s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God?
Have we forgot that without the advocacy of our precious master and Lord Jesus, we have no right to come in and of ourselves? Oh, if God’s grace was withdrawn from me tonight, I would still be the abominable man that I was when he found me. And probably far worse. Having tasted the good things to come.
Isaiah is struggling with all of this. How is it, my friend, that you can excuse certain sins you commit? You don’t see them as sins as clearly as the Bible states them. You can watch men and women do things on TV that you wouldn’t do, but you’ll watch it and call it entertainment. Look at the church today. The world of Christendom.
There’s such a such a cheapening of our great God and our worship. We come a new way and style. We please. We come lax a days ago. Look at our demeanor. Look at our appearance. Watch what we do, how we speak. And why? Like Isaiah, are we puzzled over God’s judgments? Thinking it’s unreasonable? Too strict. Why does grace not move our heart to tears?
Why are we not shocked and still bewildered that God has shown you favor instead of wrath? Why are you not surprised that God loves you?
The reason for all of this and why you can so easily excuse yourself and your sin, is that you are not convinced of God’s surpassing holiness. We heard that this morning when the fear of the Lord grips the heart. It does so because you are conscience of the all seeing eye. The abiding presence of God. Listen to Joseph.
How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? He knew he was under the the surveillance of God. He knew God was watching. He knew God was there. And yet we have easily forgotten this. We don’t practice the continual, abiding presence of God. We act as if God is not there and therefore there is no fear of the Lord.
The reason for all of this, the reason we can so easily convince us because we’re not convinced of the surpassing holiness of God. We do not know what the words God is holy really mean. And when you remove the holiness of God from worship. Not just gathered praise and singing, but a life lived under God worship. When you remove holiness from the worship of God, your worship becomes either entertainment or ritualism.
And many of us in this room has fallen to one error or the other. Sins no longer a violent, wicked, just a behavioral problem. And the gospel is just another self-help therapy. There’s no Christianity, no Christianity without holiness. None whatsoever. Isaiah did not grasp the holiness of God as he ought to before this day. I’m convinced of it.
And he was a prophet. Therefore, to help Isaiah, God invades Isaiah’s space. Oh, would he invade our space tonight?
Oh, to once again be moved and overcome, overwhelmed that God is holy and I’m not the Holy of Holies. Was no longer a place to Isaiah. It became a person.
And there he is, sitting on his throne. His royal robes flows down, fills every space, drapes the furniture. Creatures appear so beautiful that they’re terrifying. Six wing creatures crying out Holy, Holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory, and the harmonic voices of those beautiful creatures reverberated the pillars of the temple, and a cloud of smoke filled the room, and he saw God and beloved, what Isaiah saw God.
That God has not changed. He still high and lifted up. He is still the Holy One of Israel, the Holy of Holies. Yes, not a place, but a person. And tonight we are in the presence of this Holy One. Whether we feel it or not, whether we acknowledge or not, whether you have the spiritual sensibility to know it or not, he’s here.
He’s in this place, and his word is being proclaimed through a faulty and weak servant. But it is still nonetheless the word of the Lord. Will you hear it? Will you heed it? Will you let him have his way and invade your space here tonight? Have you been overwhelmed and smitten with the sense of God’s holiness that you wanted to hide? Have you ever?
Or have you never seen such purity and beauty before? Never saw it to the degree you were terrified to. Many professing Christians never experience the terror of the Lord. And I wonder how they can be Christians. I honestly don’t know how.
We don’t fear sin because we don’t think of it correctly. We don’t see it for what it is. We don’t see its vileness because we don’t understand holiness. And of course, we don’t understand the nature of the holy because we really don’t know God. And again, I don’t mean you don’t know him. It doesn’t mean you’re not to say, but you don’t know his essence.
Oh, you do not know the deep secrets of his heart that he’s made known to his friends, his very intimate love and heart for his people.
Why would the mother of that son. That day, as I stood at the head of the casket of her son. Why would she stand and look at me and say, I don’t care what anyone says, my son is in heaven. Why would she say that to me? One reason only. She didn’t under understand the certain standard of holiness, for if she did, she would have not been shocked by the judgment of God.
No, no, no. She would have been shocked that she had not been condemned long ago, and that she was not in hell at that present moment.
At that moment. Isaiah saw it all, and there were no more questions except one. Do you know what that question was? Would he survive?
Was he next to receive the judgment of God? Would he break out in into leprosy leper spots up here, or would he be carried out feet first? I mean, there was no escape there. He was. There was God. He was caught. And he cries out. Woe is me, for I am undone. I’m a man of unclean lips. And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.
Oh, yes, he knew he had dwelt in the midst of a people of unclean lips. He’d been preaching to them. But today he knows he too is a man of unclean lips. Why? He tells you. Because I have seen. My eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. Sin was no longer relative before this day. Isaiah. Of course, he knew God was holy, but now it was more than an intellectual understanding.
Now he had seen the Holy One and he realized that his sin was incriminating. And he’s a prophet.
I mean, he’s a man that if we were in the presence of, we would be quite inferior feeling. But he’s not in the presence of another man. He’s in the presence of the thrice holy God and in his presence. Isaiah’s sin was repulsive not just to God, but to the prophet himself. Well, that’s what I need tonight. I constantly need the mirror of the holiness of God that I might behold my need for his holiness and his continued grace.
Oh, dear Christian. When was the last time? How long has it been since you were overwhelmed and amazed that you are his? Counted his child. Oh, I pray God revive us tonight. How could you desire to survive? He felt hopeless, rightly condemned. God’s holy presence had done its job. God is so holy that the least of sins has no right to survive in his presence.
One sin is like a germ that would destroy a sterile laboratory. It can’t be tolerated. And there he is in the presence of Almighty God.
Beloved. My concern tonight. And I preach out of a burdened heart. I. I assure you, is that we do not make the same mistake to do that so many others have made it, and that is because we are forgiven of our many sins. That we do not see the need to pursue holiness. We must never forget. Follow peace with all men and holiness without which.
No man shall see the Lord.
I’m not advocating you sharpen your pencil and start making your list. Of new duties and things you can you can reform and do better. Hear me? There is only one hope for us tonight, and that is God’s mercy. And that he would display his holiness to each one of us. So that the post in the pillars of our hearts shake with holy fear in the name we need the fear of the Lord to be restored in our eyes.
The lesson of you, sire, should cause you to tremble. It’s a it’s terrible to lose the fear of the Lord. The opposite. It’s the opposite. Is pride and arrogance and willful presumption to believe that you can enter into God’s presence. Because God is gracious.
It’s taken license with the the grace of God, ignoring holiness. No, no, no. Yes, I can come into his presence because he’s gracious, but his grace doesn’t excuse my sin. His grace forgives my sin because he dealt with it already. But that same grace that justifies is the same grace that pursues you and sanctifies you. And for too long we have been too happy to separate the doctrines of justification and sanctification.
We want to miss the error of the Roman Catholic Church, of course. We do not mix them in that unholy mixture as they. But my dear friends, they are connected. Let me say it again. The same grace that justifies is the same grace that sanctifies, one justifies and pardons. And that same grace now works to give you the desire and the power to please him.
And that’s what holiness is all about, being conformed to the image of his dear son. What do you say? What do you feel when some brother or sister corrects you, rebukes you for your sin? Do you feel something of of despise for them, or do you quickly justify and say, well, listen, that’s all law. You know we’re under grace.
Beloved, do you not remember that he is holy and that his love is holy? His love? Let me say it again. Is holy.
Several years ago, the Lord began to deepen my understanding of the fear of the Lord.
Up to that point, being a saved Pharisee.
Performance was very important to me. Making sure that I walked in a upright way. And that’s important. Yes. But one day my heart was found out by God to be lukewarm, maybe even cold. I hate those seasons. How about you? I despise them, I hate them. I don’t, I don’t relish or enjoy when my heart can’t seem to find him.
And and the conscious awareness of his presence is gone and just kind of slowly erodes. And here I am in this wilderness, longing to come before God again and to know the sweetness of his presence. This had been going on for weeks. Crying out to the Lord. Oh Lord, help me! Help me! Where are you, Lord? Where are you?
And on this particular day. Oh, praise be to his name. The gospel came back again. The gospel. And I was reminded of how much he loved me in Christ. How much he loved me in His Son. Oh, I must interrupt my story to remind you that there was another great display of holiness also. And you find it in Matthew.
Matthew chapter 27 and beginning with verse 54. Matthew 2754.
So when the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, truly this was the Son of God. I suggest and submit to you that the holy vision of Isaiah comes second to what these men saw on Calvary’s hill outside the walls of Jerusalem. There was the greatest display of the holiness of God ever to be seen more than the burning bush, more than Bethel.
More than this blessed and extraordinary experience the prophet here has in Isaiah six for there that centurion, the one given the authority to to insure the death, the execution of our blessed Lord, he witnesses all of these things the earthquake, the darkness, the demeanor, and the words of our blessed Savior. And he becomes greatly afraid. Unfortunately, the Bible doesn’t tell us what happens to that man.
It’s perhaps because he doesn’t understand all that he saw, if any. But we do. And on that morning when I was wrestling with a cold, cold heart, God took me back to Calvary’s hill. And there I saw holiness. What did I see? I saw him not in a vision, but in the word of God. By the help of the Holy Spirit, I saw my Jesus hanging, condemned.
He stood in my place, and I saw the father unleash upon him the curse and the wrath and the retribution that I deserved then, and I still deserve tonight.
And I remembered that he was cut off from the house of the Lord. And I can’t explain that to your theological mind. You theologians, please excuse me that I can’t go any further than that. But this I know nor thought. My heart. He took my sin, and he suffered all of the wrath of God. And that meant to be cut off from God, forsaken by God.
Remembered no more for good by God.
And he was remembered for your evil. Remembered for your sin. Remembered by God for your transgressions. Right? And when I saw that again, having been preaching for many, many years.
My heart was overwhelmed by love. So amazing, so divine. I was overcome by it, that I felt something I never felt. Literally. My heart began to beat out of rhythm, trembled, and now I’m physically shaking. Because that day I saw in the retribution of God on my sin in Christ, the love of God for me. And although again, I have been saved for many years.
No, I was a child. But this morning, fresh love poured out by the Holy Spirit came. And I was so moved that God became terrible to me using the authorized versions language I was. He was terrifying. And here was the question that came flying out of my mouth. How can you be who you are and love me like you do?
I have never known anyone who loved like this.
And at that moment my eyes again. My understanding was helped. That’s what holiness means. Altogether different. Altogether pure. Magnificent. Beautiful. And isn’t the love of God that in more. And at that moment his love became something out of this world. I can’t even compare it to the love of my wife for me, or my love for her to do so.
Would you be blaspheming against his infinite love? Who is a God like this so holy that he can love so wicked people like us? Me?
And since that day, the fear of the Lord has a new dimension for me.
How can I sin against a God who loves me more than the expanse of the universe? How can I grieve such a heart of a being like this? Beloved, wouldn’t you agree with me that there’s something defective with our love and holiness tonight? Something is amiss that we can easily excuse ourselves and be terribly surprised if God rebukes us, disciplines us.
Why, my friend, are you more inclined to indulge your flesh so long as you can maintain your public image? Control yourself. Not enough to not sin in a way that would ruin your reputation. But care not for the heart that would send His Son to the cross for you. I don’t mean to condemn in that question. I’m trying to get you to see that what really happens when we transgress our father’s love for us and his will for us, is that we grieve him not a little, but much.
Because he loves you more than anyone else, more than you can measure. Great. Must that grief be when we sin against him?
His grace become ordinary, routine, commonplace, while the fear of God is non-existent. Isaiah left that day. I’m confident, stunned that he was able to escape alive. He knew he deserved wrath and he was astonished by mercy. He came that day to the temple thinking he was a holy man. He left that day truly humbled by the knowledge. There’s only one who’s truly righteous and truly holy.
And the experience so changed Isaiah that that man would one day. Right? But we are all an unclean thing, and all of our righteousness are as filthy rags. Beloved.
When you see God through the eyes of a true biblical understanding, you’re always shocked and amazed that God has not ended your miserable existence, but instead is giving you his gracious, loving kindness. Grace. Grace still amazes the man, the woman whose eyes have seen the thrice holy Lord of hosts. May we see him tonight?
Father.
If this is our only prescription for healing tonight, then we pray. Come, open our eyes. And may we experience holy love. Love divine. Thank you. Father, very much. Beyond my ability to thank you.
For your mercy towards us. Towards me.
Lord, that that person who’s heard all of this tonight.
They can’t grasp it. Apart from your holy work. Pardon, I pray awaken, illuminate. Show them you in your son. And for those of us, Lord, who have seen and drifted from it, restore us tonight. Come to us. Visit us. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
The total eclipse is a global spectacle, but did you know there was an event where complete darkness lasted for three hours? And it was not caused by an eclipse. Our Lord came into the world miraculously. He started His public ministry with a miracle. Throughout the three and a half years of His ministry, He performed many miracles. And it’s completely fitting that, as the Son of God is on the cross, He continues to work miracles. The first is a mysterious darkness. Did you see it there? Verse 45, now from the sixth hour, and Luke says, over all the earth, and it’s not an eclipse. No eclipse can last three hours, any sort of eclipse. In Egypt, Diogenes saw the darkness. And he wrote in his diary, “It was a mysterious darkness.” Now tonight, it will get dark, and it will get dark because of the absence of the sun. But this was darkness in the presence of the sun. The darkness of Calvary smothered the light of the sun at noon. And it’s God’s commentary on the nature and the intensity of the sufferings of Christ. The sufferings of your Savior were so intense and so awful that God hid them from every human eye. And I’m left there, standing at the cross. And I say, “Oh, Calvary! Where my sin, all my sin, every sin of mine, was punished.” He suffered the just for the unjust. That He might bring me to God. Do you currently walk in darkness? That is, spiritual darkness. Jesus says to you in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
A woman approached a pastor, troubled by a recurring dream. She described living in a protective bubble, impervious to illness, spite, accidents, and disasters until an authoritative voice granted these misfortunes passage, allowing them to affect her. Seeking explanation, she learned from the pastor that this was not some dream, but it reflected a reality where nothing could harm her without God’s permission. This divine safeguard, he explained, meant that she, like all believers, lived under God’s protection, making them the happiest people.
A woman had a dream and went to her pastor. She said, “Pastor, I had a dream. It really troubles me. Please, pastor, help me. I keep having this dream, the same thing again and again. And it’s beginning to hurt.”
“Tell me your dream,” said the pastor.
“Well, it’s like this, pastor. In my dream, I’m living in a bubble. Then, an illness comes along, but it can’t get into the bubble until a voice says, ‘Okay, you can pass.’ Then I become ill. I’m living in a bubble, pastor. And then, there’s someone saying spiteful, horrible things about me. But they can’t hurt me until the voice says, ‘Okay, you can pass.’ And then, they hurt me. Pastor, it’s like this: There’s an accident coming along, or a burglary, or unemployment, or a bereavement, or something indescribably awful, but it can’t get past unless the voice says, ‘Okay, you can pass.’ And then it happens to me. Pastor, please explain the dream.”
And he said, “It’s not a dream. Is it? Nothing—nothing—can touch you without the express permission of the ever-present God who says, ‘Okay. You can pass.'”
I live my whole life. You live the whole of your life, Christian, protected by the fatherly presence of God. You and I should be the happiest people in the world. Amen.
But we fail, don’t we? And yet, that’s not the end of the story. I came out of the prayer meeting one night; it was a terrible night. It was just a short walk to where I lived. It was pouring with rain, and the wind was blowing. I walked along the streets, hoping to get through the doors. Then there was a sound of brakes and a horrible thud, and a woman lay bleeding in the middle of the road. To my amazement, within a moment, there was a crowd around her, saying, “We’ve sent for the ambulance. Hold on. Don’t give up. Help’s on the way.” And she died.
And I thought, it’s never like that in the Christian life. We have our collisions and our calamities, our falls and our failures, and the moments when we’re really as low as it can possibly be. And no one ever has to say to us, “Help is on the way.” Because my Bible, and yours, says, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
This excerpt is taken from the full sermon, “God Is Not Far From Each One Of Us“.
Stuart Olyott | 2024 Fellowship Conference | Session 2 | Acts 17:27 – So that they would search for God and perhaps grope around for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
0:00 – Introduction and a Comment on America and Texas
1:42 – Text – Acts 17:27
2:53 – Is God Far Away?
4:51 – Point 1 – How Does the Bible Teach the Nearness of God?
16:48 – Point 2 – A Message to Those Who Don’t Know God
28:17 – Point 3 – To Those Who Do Know the Lord
34:51 – Do You Want to Win Souls to Christ?
36:13 – Lastly, Let Us Think About Your Death
Where do you look when things are the hardest in your life? Do you look unto the LORD Jesus Christ? In this excerpt Mack Tomlinson considers how the LORD helped him in a hard time in his own life when he was facing open heart surgery.
Psalm 123:1 A Song of Ascents. To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens! 2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he has mercy upon us. 3 Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt. 4 Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud.
1 John 4:8 – Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. – In this sermon, from 2009, Michael Durham preaches on the theme of “God Is Love”.
Psalm 25 (Unto Thee, O Lord) | O my God, I trust in Thee: I trust in Thee, Let me not be ashamed, Let not mine enemies triumph over me!
» View: Psalm 25 (Unto Thee, O Lord) | Song
Christian, are you giving into the self-centered nature of self or seeking to go and do good and serve others?
» View: Turn From Self-Centeredness to Christ
Prayer is powerful and God answers every prayer, no matter how we perceive it. This book is a testament to the power of prayer.
» View: How I Know God Answers Prayer (Audiobook)
In Galatians 6:4 Paul says, "Let us not grow weary of doing good," but what is the Bible's answer to not growing weary?
» View: Not Growing Weary: The Bible’s Solution
Who do you really trust in? There are two kinds of people: those who trust people and those who trust God. Whenever a Christian finds themselves in a crisis, they have someone to turn to.
» View: Who Do You(Really) Trust?
And she said, "I've committed murder." And I said, "Now, hold on, hold on. What have you... How have you committed murder?"
» View: A 5-year-old Saved, Convicted Her Anger Was Murder
In the 1970s, Keith McLeod (1922-1997) was involved in the Canadian revivals and experienced some remarkable occurrences.
» View: Remarkable Occurrences In The Ministry
The first and worst cause of errors that abound in our day and age is spiritual pride. In this article Jonathan Edwards exposes this sin.
» View: Undiscerned Spiritual Pride
Cindy Currin shares about the counsel Paul Washer gave at a time in her daughter's life when she was struggling with assurance...
» View: Paul Washer’s Counsel to My Daughter, “Just Chuck It”
Egotistical and Arrogant Calvinists? More directly stated, sovereign grace, for example, Calvinism, especially the doctrines of grace...
» View: Grace and Humility or Are You An Egotistical and Arrogant Calvinist?
The 2023 Fellowship Conference UK is a time of fellowship, preaching, and singing that centers on the glory of God.
» View: 2023 Fellowship Conference UK
What happens to you when you are tested? Does that peace grip you no matter what the test is? How stable are you?
» View: Are You At Peace During a Severe Trial?
Jesus speaks some profound words in John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.
» View: What Does Jesus Mean, “My Peace I Give to You”?
You can only survive as a Christian in America in 2023 by being aware of your impotence that every load is too big.
» View: How Will You Survive In 2023, Christian? Prayer
As believers, we must consider the example of Jesus Christ–specifically let us consider his prayer life. Jesus was often found alone praying to his Father. He often prayed throughout the night and he even prayed before making decisions. This shows us the importance of connecting with God through prayer and relying on Him for direction.
» View: The Praying Christ (2023 Fellowship Conference)
Jesus tells his disciples that it is to their advantage that He leaves. Does this mean the believer is losing their teacher...
» View: The Spirit Is Not a “Substitute Teacher” Filling In For Christ
Often, when people think about God's love for those who believe, they neglect to think about his love which is evident in his divine correction of us.
» View: The Forgotten Factor of Divine Correction
We ought to practice spiritual disciplines by faith regardless of how we subjectively feel. Q: In the process of adopting...
» View: Practice Spiritual Disciplines by Faith Regardless of Feelings
Blessed are the peacemakers, according to James chapter 3. Could it be said that you are pursuing peace and unity within your church?
» View: Are You Dynamite Or A Peacemaker In The Church?
Are you actively seeking godliness in your life? 1 Corinthians 9:26 - So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.
» View: Do Not Box As One Beating The Air
1 Timothy 4:16 - Keep a close watch on YOURSELF and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
» View: Take Heed To Your Character
Gatepost | January 1974.
Brownlow North, the grand-nephew of Lord North, George III’s Prime Minister, was conducting services n Edinburgh. At the close of a meeting, a young man asked if he might speak with him. “I have heard your sermon sir,” he said, “and I neither care for you nor your preaching unless you can tell me, why did God permit sin?” “Then I’ll tell you,” the preacher at once replied; “God permitted sin because He chose to.
The man was taken aback by the ready retort referring this mysterious subject to God’s good pleasure, which permitted sin for reasons altogether wise, but not fully revealed to us.
The preacher repeated, “Because He chose to,” and as the objector stood speechless, he added, “If you continue to question and cavil at God’s dealings, and, vainly puffed up by your carnal mind, strive to be wise above what is written, I will tell you something more that God will choose to do. He will, one day, choose to put you in hell. There were such questioners as you in Paul’s time, and what the apostle said to them, I say to you. “Nay, but O man, who art thou that repliest against God?”
There is something inherently wrong with a neat systematic theology that answers all the questions and gives man the smug complacency of having, by his puny intellect, “known the mind of God.” How shall the pot reason with the potter or the clay chide its creator? Yet it is so, both in the realm of the professed believers and that of the confessed unbelievers. No essential difference in this respect is seen between the liberal and the conservative, the modernist and the fundamentalist. Both have devised a creed about God, set God aside and worshiped the creed.
The liberal or modernist interprets God in the light of contemporary circumstances or the light of present day “knowledge.” God, to him, is circumstances or the light of present day “knowledge.” God, to him, is obliged to adjust Himself every time the scientific world makes a “new discovery” or the sociological institutions adopt a new textbook. Man is at the center of this activity. When man changes, God has to accommodate Himself to the current idea of what God must be, to be wise and just. All the mystery, all the supernatural, all the awe and respect due to an inscrutable God is gone. He is a product of simpering humanitarians.
The conservative or fundamentalist interprets God in the light of the “tradition of the elders.” He is not nearly so biblical as he would like to have us believe. Indeed, in many places, the Bible so flagrantly contradicts and denies his sacred convictions that he is obliged to divide God into “dispensations” and seasons in which He behaves one way at times and other ways at other times. This provides a right handy device whereby he can wisely explain God in any kind of circumstance. He is relieved of the embarrassing alternative of saying, “I don’t know.” He thinks that, as a man of God, he is obligated to justify and defend God’s actions by a theological system about God. This, he calls “defending the faith.” A more likely term would be, “making faith unnecessary.” We are told the “system” is right; therefore, we need not trouble ourselves about God’s being right. We are not trusting Him anyway. We are trusting our trust in the system about God.
The confessed unbeliever makes no attempt to justify God. He is an unbeliever because, according to his sovereign reason, God, if there were one, would be unworthy of his worship. If He created the world, He made a mess of it.
The agnostic makes the mistake of imputing man’s fallen characteristics to a Holy God. He makes God like unto “corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.” He would demand that God’s reason be confined to a fleeting moment in time which comprises man’s life-span. Yet God is eternal and everlasting to everlasting. A short glimpse of any movement of a work of art can never make known the message and purpose of tragedy or comedy described in the entire production. How much less should a worm under a pebble comprehend the scope of the great Rocky Mountain Range?
If God could be explained, He could not be God. If there is no supernatural, then all is superficial and not of God. Man’s duty is to fall down before Him; worship and adore Him; seek to know Him. Perchance, He might be merciful enough to reveal His glory in salvation.
Back to our story:
“Is there such a text, sir, as that in the Bible?” asked Brownlow North’s questioner. “Yes, there is, in the ninth chapter of Romans. I recommend that you go home and read that chapter, and after you have read it, and learned from it that God claims for Himself that right to do whatever He pleases, then remember that there is another thing that God has chosen to do . . . He has chosen to send Jesus.” Then in a few words Mr. North set before him the way of salvation from sin and wrath prepared by God in sovereign mercy.
The following Friday the young man returned . . . so transformed that Mr. North scarcely knew him. He told Mr. North that after reading the ninth of Romans, he pled for pardon in the name of Jesus and was enabled to believe he had been heard. “God, for Christ’s sake, chose to pardon me,” he said.
Do you question God’s ways? Read the ninth of Romans and see that He is sovereign. Read also the tenth of Romans and see that “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Wolves and a snake seek to cause division and obstruct the truth. Those who take on the characteristics of the wolf and the snake should be avoided, and we should take care to not fall prey to the enemy’s tactics.
Note: Having just preached on a similar topic, I afterward ran into this sermon of Tim’s from 2010. He gave this right before a minor split occurred in our local church. There is such wisdom to apply here for all believers that we might be those who promote unity in our churches and not cause division.
Text: Romans 16:17-20
0:00 – Text – Romans 16 – wolves and snakes.
1:40 – Preachers are often put in situations where they experience the very matter they are teaching.
2:54 – Are there wolves and snakes nearby?
5:21 – What are we supposed to watch out for?
9:24 – Remember Absalom? Take note of his strategy in attacking the leadership.
14:11 – Tim shares an example of how this happened at his old church.
16:22 – Beware of those who speak evil of church leaders.
21:41 – Are you awake to recognize what is going on?
23:24 – General observations about wolves.
28:57 – You might not realize that these wolves have a demonic influence.
39:27 – Wolves do not come in with 666 stamped on their foreheads.
42:19 – The smooth guy comes in and targets the pastor’s rough edges.
46:27 – Wolves have flawed doctrine.
49:00 – Grandmother…you must be born again.
50:59 – People are deceived.
52:18 – The snake’s head will be crushed.
Are you aware of the power and impact of prayer on human history? As Spurgeon said, “it is not ONLY a prayer meeting.” It is to pray before God, in faith, through having been cleansed by Christ’s blood, that we can impact history by our prayers.
Revelation 8:1 – When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. 3 And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, 4 and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.
This exhortation was shared prior to a morning prayer that was held at the 2023 Fellowship Conference. John Greene pastors in Mt. Pleasant, Texas at Grace Baptist Church.
There are pressing needs that you and I have prayed about, and we have asked the LORD, “How long, O LORD?” But deliverance has yet to come, and we feel as David does. The temptation to give up is strong during that time. It can be easy to forget how many prayers the LORD has answered in the past when we are under pressure.
During the 2023 Fellowship Conference, Pastor Nathan Rages, from @RedeemingGraceChurch shared this exhortation before a morning prayer meeting.
[Unedited transcript.] Well, I have a brief thought before we pray. And it’s from the 13th Psalm. If you’d like to follow along in your Bibles or just listen. Some 13 will read the first two verses. David is crying out to the Lord and he says, How long, Oh, Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? Did you hear the repeated phrase there? Four times. He asks the question, How long? How long the Lord alone will it be? David was in some kind of really bad fix, wasn’t he? He was. He was feeling the pressure. Things were bad. Things had been bad for a while. Things were continuing on bad. And it felt as if God had forgotten him and forsaken him and hidden his face from him. And David is crying out in a very natural way. Lord, how long will this go on? How long before you’re calm? How long before you show up? How long before you deliver us? And David is not alone in the Bible when asking God this question is a Psalm 80. I notice that Assaf asked the same question. He says, How long will you be angry with the prayer of your people? Or the question. Habakkuk asks the question, How long Oh Lord, will I call for help? And you will not hear the martyrs. In Revelation Chapter six, they ask the question, How long? Oh Lord, until you avenge our blood and bring judgment. How long? Then? I suspect the same question enters into our prayers on many occasions. How long the Lord will this all this excruciating trial continue? How long, Oh, Lord, will I keep falling into this besetting sin, seeing that I want victory? And how long before my lost loved ones are finally, say, how long will it be? How long will our churches be troubled as they often are? How long will apostasy continue? How long will our Gospel witness seem so powerless? How long before we have what we just sang about? Before we have before we have showers of blessing? Yes, we’re thankful for mercy drops, but we long for the outpouring of the Spirit of God in historic revival. Right? Not just read about these stories, but see God at home in wonderful ways. And we say, How long, Lord, how long until it happens? The need seem so great. There are pressing needs that that we have prayed about. Some of you have prayed about certain things, hundreds of times, thousands of times, sometimes with tears calling upon God. And yet the deliverance has not come yet. And you might feel the same as David. How long or how long the Lord will I keep praying? Why keep longing? And this need not be met? How long, How long will it be? And the temptation is to finally give up. Say, Well, I’ve waited on God long enough. Yes. Is it going to work? I guess prayer doesn’t work for the big stuff. No, it’s not going to really break. So we’re not really going to do anything. Oh, please don’t do that. Remember what our Lord taught us? He taught us. He taught us that at all times. We ought to pray and not lose our right when we’ve waited a long time, when it seems like it’s been a very, very long time. We’re tempted to give up, to lose heart. Don’t lose heart. And it’s so good that David did not lose heart in this psalm either. The first verse is he’s talking about about how long. But in the last verse he expresses a wonderful confidence in God. The end of the song, verse five, he says, But I have trusted in your loving kindness all along. As this trial continued, he continued to trust in God and specifically to trust in God’s loving kindness, His steady covenant, faithful love. And and then he says, My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord. He’s looking forward. And he said, Yeah, it’s been a long time. It’s been a long time. Help hasn’t come yet, but it will come. I’m certain. I’m certain the Lord will be faithful. The Lord will do glorious things. There are days of of rejoicing and celebration ahead for when God does break through, when God does meet these big needs that weigh on my soul. And then the last line, because he has dealt bound to flee with me sometimes. Sometimes when we’re when we’re really under pressure, we forget how bountiful God has already been in the past. And we need to call those things to mind and say, look, he’s not he’s not answer this prayer yet. Well, look at all these other things. He has I mean, bountiful is bound to be blessed. And so so that can encourage us to say, yes, Lord, it’s been a long time. I might even say how long? How long it’s been, Lord. But. But I know how you’ve blessed in the past. I’m confident that I can trust you for the future. Days of rejoicing are coming, and so we can have both elements in our prayers and perhaps right in our prayers this morning, we would have both elements or some things we say, How long, Lord? How long until the deliverance comes? But on the other hand, Lord, we’re confident that the deliverance will come. You will act. There will be days of of a fullness of joy as we see your glorious answers to prayer in the future. Amen. During the Fellowship conference, Pastor Nathan Ranges from Columbia, Missouri, shared this exhortation before a morning prayer meeting.
Intellectual knowledge by itself does not have the capacity to change the heart. It is insufficient to make you experience the love of God. Don’t, please. I plead. Don’t make the mistake of the Pharisee. They had a perverted view of the sufficiency of Scripture. And such a view will leave you dead in your sins. Listen to what Jesus says to them in John 5. You search the Scriptures for in them. You think you have eternal life. And these are they which testify of me. But you are not willing to come to me. That you may have life.
Here’s the Pharisee. He believes the Word of God is just that inspired infallible, directly from God. And he believes that it is sufficient to the point. If he just believes that it’s sufficient, he’s safe. He has eternal life. He made the mistake of severing the Word of God from God. The word from the word. You see, Jesus would say, If you really have searched the scriptures and believe in its sufficiency, it would sufficiently point you to me and you would come experience or knowledge given to us by the Spirit. Rest on intellectual belief and the truth of Scripture. Yes. But it’s never, ever reduced to that alone. It’s based upon the factual declarations of Scripture. But it is the experience of the reality to you, of those doctrines believe listen again, it is a direct and personal encounter of the love of God. Just as the Apostle prayed that the Ephesians would have and that you may know what is the breadth and the length and the depth and the height, and to know the love of Christ, which has the knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Did you hear that you may have a knowledge that has intellectual knowledge.
This excerpt was taken from the full sermon. The Look of Love: Jesus is Love for Peter by Michael Durham.
In Matthew 22 Jesus compares his kingdom to that of a king who gave a wedding feast for his son and invited people to this feast. Have you responded to his invitation? Has it been lost in the mail? Is the clothing you are wearing appropriate?
This sermon was preached at the 2023 Fellowship Conference by pastor Mark LaCour (https://www.gracebiblefellowship.com/), he was burdened to share a sermon directed at the children.
0:00 – Matthew 22.14 – Making Your Invitation a Reservation
3:32 – The distinctions between the Old and New Covenant–we can touch the ark.
10:10 – Those whose invitation got lost in the mail.
11:55 – Those whose invitation they put in the wrong folder and don’t prioritize it.
14:07 – Did you read the small print on the invitation?
15:51 – What does this wedding garment look like?
20:28 – Does it matter how much faith I have?
22:04 – What problems start to come in and affect our coming to Christ?
33:46 – You have been invited.
38:24 – Those who have heard and know are now more responsible.
39:15 – Children–come to Christ.
41:04 – Closing prayer.
We’re here measuring our love, trying to gauge our love, comparing ourselves one with another. But God’s love, as far as we’re concerned, is settled. We know God loves us. It’s our love that’s vacillating, isn’t it? And so the focus shifts from God’s love for us to our love for God. And when this occurs, God’s love becomes more difficult to experience because His love becomes based upon merit. Now, the more I feel I love him, the more I feel loved by him. And if I feel I love him little then I feel I’m loved by him. Little Peter was determined to prove his love to Christ. Blinded by his own determination, he failed to see the love of God. It’s right here in the church. Look at Luke 2231 to 32. Here is love. Fast as an ocean, right? Staring him in the face and he can’t even see it. Simon. Indeed. Satan has asked for you that he may shift you as we. But I’ve prayed for you that your faith should not fail. And when you’ve returned to me, strength in your brethren. Jesus loved Peter so much that he would not have his disciple blindsided. He would not have him unprepared for the hour of temptation. Even in the garden he again exhorts. He and the others pray that you enter not into temptation. He loves Peter so that he warns him he would have him avert this if at all possible. Whatever it is, I’ve. I’ve prayed for you. It’s most interesting when you come to John 17 and you note who Jesus says he will pray for and whom he will not pray for. He clearly delineates. I pray for those whom you’ve given me and those who will believe on their testimony. But then he also just as clearly delineates who he will not pray for. I do not pray for the world. And in that category is one man named Judas Iscariot. He says, Father, I have kept those whom you’ve given to me in your name, except the son of perdition. Except the Greek grammar tells the statistics of another. This is another of a different kind. He’s not one of the chosen. He left. He’s not been loved before. The foundation of the world. Jesus does not pray for Judas. Judas. But he prays for Peter. Why? Because Peter has been the object of his love. Forever. Forever. And he loved him to the end. And so he warns him. He prays for him. He loves him. But Peter rejects in his own weakness. And therefore he rejects his need for the love of God. Please hear me. Please hear me. It always works this way. There are no exceptions here. When you reject your need, when you refuse to own it automatically, you have rejected your need of God’s love. And thereby you close your heart to the movement of a Holy Spirit within who would make you to know the Father’s love. I prayed for you that your faith should not fail. In this sense, Peter said. Thank you very much, Lord. But I. I don’t need your prayer in these matters. I’ve got this. You just wait and see. When the going gets tough for everyone else, all Peter will be right there, standing beside you. You just wait and see. Dear ones, the love of God must be received in weakness. The greatest thing that could happen in this conference is all of us to be humbled, to be brought low again. You’ve got to come to the plate place of complete desperate dependency upon God alone. No trust in your righteousness, no confidence in your obedience, nothing in you recommending you to the favor of God. Nothing but his amazing, unconditional love and spiritual transformation and reformation. Demand that you will be willing to be loved by God, undeservedly. There is none of this. Father, watch me and make me make you proud today. No doubt that you’ll never be willing until you see that there’s nothing else for you to do but to accept his love. Dear friend, this sinner, you are outside of the covenant of grace. You’re not among his people for this very reason. You will not accept his love as it is for you. Because you see yourself above it and not needing it. I’ve got this. I’m a good person. I’m as good as the next man. There are some people I’ve heard of even in the church who stand in pulpits who I feel like I’ve done better than them. Most of us are afraid to see ourselves as God, to see us naked and bare with all our flaws, frailties, and failures visible. To feel God’s searching gaze and feel his love requires this awkward sense of embracing worldly. What you are a person who will never, ever deserve grace and cannot please the Heavenly Father in your utter weakness and inability. You just can’t do it. You’ll never be changed until you face the truth about yourself and accept it and be okay with it. Some of you will be offended by this and I apologize beforehand, but really, I don’t think the problems with me or even how I see it, we have to be able to come to the place where we’re okay with being sinners saved by grace. [Note: Transcript not yet proofed.] Watch the full sermon here.
What was the power of Christ’s look to Peter after he had denied the LORD? And are you and I looking to the LORD to see His look to us? Are we resting in and trusting the unconditional love of God for us as believers?
0:00 – Text – Luke 22.31ff, The Look of Love
1:52 – Do you see your spiritual poverty?
5:41 – Illustration – Child trying to gain parents’ approval by their own power.
7:45 – Many believers struggle with God’s unconditional love.
8:27 – Peter struggled with grasping the unconditional love of God.
15:23 – Peter’s pride blinded him.
16:48 – Are you wrongly trying to gauge your love for Christ?
24:11 – Consider Peter’s conversion and experience of God’s love.
25:11 – Having objective knowledge that God loves me.
27:30 – Having God’s experiential love.
32:00 – Faith that God loves you without experiencing God’s love.
33:46 – The Pharisees’ mistake towards the Scriptures…
36:03 – Peter’s conversion.
44:32 – What was the power of Christ’s look to Peter?
48:07 – John Newton – Looking to the cross.
49:39 – This love is more than a theological fact lodged in your brain.
50:30 – How can I experience this love?
59:01 – One final note–Peter turned and looked at Jesus.
1:02:11 – Closing prayer.
In the early part of my ministry, I was requested by a clergyman to attend a meeting for religious inquiry and converse with the young men who were there. I spoke to each one separately. Nothing occurred to impress the circumstance particularly on my memory. Twenty years afterward, I met with a clergyman, who called up my recollection of that meeting. Said he; “I was there, and you spoke to me. Do you remember what you said?” I had no recollection of the particulars. “Well, I have,” said he; “and I will tell you how it was. I have long wanted to tell you. You asked me, if I was seeking the Lord, and I told you that I was trying to.
You asked me, if my trying had done me any good; and I answered, that I did not know as it had. You told me then, that you could tell me the reason why it had not:—the reason was, that I had sought with only a part of my heart. You went on to say to me, you must search with all your heart, not half of it: ‘Ye shall seek me and ye shall find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart?’ (Jeremiah 29:13) I wondered you said that. I thought I was seeking with all my heart. But this idea, ‘with all your heart,’ remained with me. I could not get rid of it; and finally I found out, that this was exactly my difficulty. I had been seeking for months but with a part of my heart only. Your words, ‘all your heart, all your heart,’ led me to the knowledge of my character, and into the right way. I have often thought of that meeting; and wondered, that you should know me so well. That circumstance has since been of great use to me, in conversing with anxious inquirers.”
Ministers must sometimes draw their bow at a venture. But it is better to take aim. There are some scripture arrows, which we should always have in our quiver, because they are sure to hit. They will at least ring upon the harness, if they do not penetrate the joints. They will alarm if they do not kill.—After we have “toiled all night and taken nothing;” if we cast our net on the right side of the ship, it will not come in empty.
There is but one way to Christ. Faith saves: the Faith of the whole heart. Jesus, save me—or I die!
Gatepost
Vol. 4, No. 1 | January 1978
1 Kings 13:1, 2, 8-11, 13-19
And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the LORD unto Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. And he cried against the altar in the word of the LORD, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the LORD; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men’s bones shall be burnt upon thee . . . And the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place: For so was it charged me by the word of the LORD, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest. So he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel. Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel; and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel: the words which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father . . . And he said unto his sons, Saddle me the donkey. So they saddled him the donkey: and he rode thereon, And went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak: and he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that camest from Judah? And he said, I am. Then he said unto him, Come home with me, and eat bread. And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee: neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place: For it was said to me by the word of the LORD, Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest. He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him. So he went back with him . . .
I am about to be misunderstood.
Nevertheless, the very fact that the thoughts expressed here will be shocking is added reason why they ought to be said.
A grey-haired head on a prophet of God does not indicate superior wisdom. In fact, it might be a warning to hear him with extreme caution.
We have been warned against the novice, instructed to lay hands on no man suddenly, encouraged to seek a man of experience in serious and important matters. Now I suggest we exercise the same caution about extreme age as we do about the premature youth.
The passage in 1 Kings 13 is not to be taken without warning. Here is a true prophet of God with a direct commission and specific instructions on how it is to be carried out. He executes it faithfully and carefully with admirable courage. He does not shirk to pronounce the curse of God’s judgment upon king Jeroboam. God faithfully vindicates His man by withering the hand put forth to apprehend him. He then again attests to His approval of His servant when the repentant king prays his hand to be restored. The prophet’s prayer is heard and the withered member healed. Also, we must admire the prophet’s courage and devotion to every detail of duty when he refused the king’s invitation to dine with him in regard to the Lord’s command that he is to “eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the way that thou camest.”
The fact that this true and faithful servant of God, in the face of all this, was persuaded to turn away from the explicit command of God by an old prophet at Bethel underscores our point. What physical threat, intimidation, flattery, and favor could not do, an old prophet of God did. He successfully turned a true child of God away from the path God had assigned, and occasioned his destruction. This is a point that ought not be considered lightly.
Of course the primary lesson to be learned here, is to obey what God tells you no matter who tells you that God told them you ought to do something contrary. But the second lesson is also important: An old prophet does not mean an infallible oracle of God; and because he is an old prophet, he may be a particular treacherous snare.
During the past few years, it has occurred to me that a man could have a deeply rich and fruitful ministry for most of his life, and then in his later years do, write, or embrace something that almost, if not actually, disgraces the Lord’s name and casts a shadow on his entire ministry.
Consider a few contemporary cases in point.
Case one: A Scotsman, converted to Christ in his youth, became a devoted and flaming evangelist. His ministry included some marvelous revivals in Easter Europe, a number of which countries now are locked up behind the Iron Curtain. He is the author of scores of inspirational books, biographies and booklets centering around true evangelism, revival and the Holy Spirit. His entire ministry was characterized by joyous victory. Even in some of the most depressing and contrary circumstances, he seemed to be never without a pronounced sense of the Lord’s presence and power. Yet in the last few years of his life, he became a cringing, whining picture of defeat. He was convinced the Lord had forsaken him, feared the company of people and was in constant depression. It must be said, however, that it grieved him extremely to be in such a condition, and he mourned continually, fearing his present state would bring a reproach on his life’s work and would be a stumbling block to those who knew him.
Case two: A prolific writer of great stature, who (as is so often the case) was not fully appreciated until his decease, wrote some of the best books and commentaries from the Reformed viewpoint of this century. As he grew older, he became increasingly bitter and intolerant of those who held views contrary to his own. He first ignored, then fought and railed against a mighty God-sent revival in the Islands off the coast of Scotland where he then lived. Before he died, he was known to have a serious drinking problem. Fortunately, because he was in an isolated part of the world and he was not accepted as he is today, his latter years’ deterioration was not widely known.
Case three: Another famous preacher and writer of deeper life books, though more in the Arminian persuasion, has been used to found one of the foremost Missionary Societies in Britain. In his old age, his lectures and at least one of his more recent books is nothing less than thinly veiled Pantheism. He stoutly declares it is not, but it has all the main elements of the ancient heresy. This man is still a strong voice in deeper life movements, along with his false doctrine.
Case four: Here is another man, a powerful evangelist from the old country. His star has faded, his type of preaching which once stirred thousands, is no longer heard seriously. Even though his preaching ministry is for all practical purposes finished, he is still in demand as a novelty or a drawing feature in conferences and in some churches. He is lonely in his rejection, sick and disillusioned over the apostasy of churches. He has been associated with a number of evangelical associations. Dissenters soon are drawn to him, through his powerful influence and strong denunciations. A split soon follows. He continues to attract malcontents and soreheads, who mistakenly associate his severe denunciations with their own hatreds and prejudices. He, in turn, mistakenly identifies their hatreds and prejudices with his own holy indignation at the apostasy of churches and evangelism. In such a way he strengthens the hand of the wicked in their uprising and rebellion against their spiritual leaders.
Case five: One of the most prominent evangelists of this country is now well up in years, but continues to attempt a driving pace. His preaching in the past has been superb. The fruits of his evangelism are everywhere. By his own example in prevailing prayer, he has inspired many into the ministry of intercession. But now his preaching does not have the power it once had. Crowds do not attend as they once did, and those who come do not respond as he has been accustomed to. In his frustration, he will at first cheapen the terms of salvation, then lower the commitment of response, begging, and then harangue and harass people to come forward. In once conference which I attended, he displayed a boorish contempt for an humble, yet mighty man of God who was ministering there at the same time. He refused to stay in the building when his colleague was ministering, and jealously attacked his ministry at every opportunity.
Case six: Here is another recently deceased man of God, a native of this country and one who spent practically all his life preaching and evangelizing in it. He was a mighty and effective preacher of the grace of God in salvation. Never too popular, he became increasingly rejected in his latter years. He was persuaded that all organized churches were apostate, the whore of the Apocalypse, and spent his last years warning people to “come out.” The great flood of deception and apostasy of our times goaded him into an obsession with “false prophets.” This, coupled with an old man’s natural interest in the second coming of Christ succeeded in turning his interest away from his sound and profitable ministry to the quagmire of speculative prophecy. The mark of the beast, the Antichrist, the great tribulation, false prophets and the millennium. He began to call all preachers who did not agree with his views of prophecy false prophets. Since his views were so radical, scattered and uncertain, this meant just about everyone. He drove away all his sound minister friends with these radical obsessions, so that when he died, his followers consisted mainly of a few women who had rebelled against their husbands and pastors. These expect to carry on what they have been led to believe is “the end of time ministry” he left with them.
Case seven: An English educator, though not a clergyman, was one of the stoutest defenders of true Christianity of our century. Having been a renowned atheist before his sound conversion to Christ, he became an intellectual barrage against the heresy of humanism. His books, essays, and lectures on crucial religious issues were clear, profound, and powerful. Yet in his later years, the death of his wife threw him into such a state of profound grief and despair, he wrote a book that put in serious question all his stalwart stands for the faith. He complained against God, railed against the hopeless and futile state in which he found himself, and foolishly charged himself with having had no faith at all. There is nothing in this latter book to commend faith in God and plenty of fuel for the fires of skepticism.
Case eight: Here is an old veteran preacher from the mountains of the Southeastern United States. His preaching, books, records, and tapes have warmed and thrilled the hearts of people who love truth and righteousness for fifty years. He is especially a master at taking the word of God and cutting to pieces the shallow evangelism, the phony Churchianity, and the utter foolishness of churches today. His sharp satirical style has set in bold, clear relief the far departure of popular evangelical Christianity from the purity of the early church and the person of Christ. Indeed, so bold and clear have been his prophetic denouncements and cry for repentance, that only his keen wit has kept him a place of popular acceptance in the very church situations he deplores.
Yet this precious man seems to have, in recent years, capitulated to popular demands to produce the same sort of artificial results his whole ministry has decried. After preaching, he will stand and make one silly proposition after another, until he has practically the whole congregation stand down front, indicating, if not that they love Christ and want to serve Him, that they love mother or country or any other such acceptable and inoffensive proposition. After attending such a blatant display of compromise, one is made to wonder if the man really meant all he has preached and written for fifty years, or has it been just his particular brand of religious merchandise.
The above examples are of actual men either now living or recently deceased. To give their names would serve no practical purpose. I am sure some of my readers will recognize some of them. Many other such illustrations could be set forth, and we could go back into the past and pick up scores more. But these suffice to illustrate the point.
It is significant that the Levites were not allowed to enter into the service of the Tabernacle of the congregation before the age of 25, nor allowed to continue in it past the age of 50. Numbers 8:24-25 says, “This is it that belongeth unto the Levites: from twenty and five years old and upward they shall go in to wait upon the service of the tabernacle of the congregation: And from the age of fifty years they shall cease waiting upon the service thereof, and shall serve no more:” The marginal reading on “wait on the service of the tabernacle of the congregation” is “war the warfare.”
After reading this, it occurred to me that most of the problems in churches and in evangelical Christianity center around either very young or very old men. What pastor has not had to deal with the subtleties, the deceit, the eccentricities of an old preacher in the congregation, in the community, on the radio, TV, etc., who by his past reputation, accomplishments, and present persuasive powers, has gained a following from the flock?
The gospel ministry, if a man is really in it intensely, takes a terrible toll on the mind, emotion, body, and whole psychological makeup. It is a rare man indeed, who can continue under such a strain into the twilight of his life and maintain sound judgment. The courageous cliché, “I’d rather burn out than rust out,” sounds noble and commendable. But the fact is that preachers do not usually go out in dazzling brilliance. They usually fizzle out long before they shut up. No man’s star burns brightly his whole life span unless he is martyred, killed, or translated, as Elijah.
No man gains perfection in this life. Unsound ideas harbored in the back of the mind but kept suppressed by an alert mind that is disciplined by God’s word may be spoken or written when judgment weakens and personal discipline is slackened. Weaknesses of the flesh, petty jealousies, fears, lusts, and secret desires that have been suppressed for years often burst out in old age as senility takes its toll on the mind, and the body weakens. Ministers are not impervious to becoming childish, insecure, and petty in old age. As their following diminishes and other men’s increase, jealousies may arise. In order to hold on to men’s admiration or attract others, one may leave sound doctrine in favor of sensational extra-scriptural teachings. He may hold out, as an attraction, experiences, and power that the scriptures do not promise. They are likely to pass over the glaring faults, ignorances, and prejudices of the few followers they have, flatter and puff them up with vain-glorious illusions of their own spiritual superiority, knowledge and wisdom.
Rebellious soreheads, childish, immature believers, and young novices, are all prime targets for such an old prophet’s weenings. Flattered that they have been selected by this great man to learn at his feet and to succeed him, they greedily and thoughtlessly devour every word he throws out. It is little wonder that such men are then remembered more for the error than their truth.
Because a man’s ministry has been great in the past, young preachers are likely to attempt to emulate him even when he is at his worst. Because he has been a stalwart defender of orthodox truth in the past, the false teachings of his old age are likely to be accepted. Because of his dogmatic unwavering stands throughout his life, his faltering doubts in his old age may cast doubts about the certainty of any truth.
What are we suggesting in this? Should men be retired from the active gospel ministry at the age of fifty? Certainly not! The grace and providence of God, and the great variations in capabilities and durabilities of men preclude our setting rigid limits on a man’s usefulness in the gospel ministry. Rather, here is what I am suggesting:
God’s men should welcome the closing of their ministry, as did John. “I must decrease that He might increase.” Instead of trying to hold on to the limelight, continually pushing to expand our horizons, or clinging tenaciously to the measure of ministry we have had at our peak, we ought to be encouraging younger men to move in. We ought to be pulling in our personal powers and influence and recommending our followers’ confidence and support to our successors. All of us have ideals, goals, objectives, and longings, that we will never attain in this life. Forget about them. You cannot master every musical instrument in one lifetime. Be content with the glorious ministry God has given you and step aside for the next fellow. I am not suggesting retirement. The Levites that “ceased waiting upon the service of the tabernacle of the congregation” did not retire completely. Rather, they “ministered with their brethren in the tabernacle of the congregation to keep the charge.” So can we, as we become “old prophets,” be assistants and helpers to the men whom God has raised up to replace us in the ranks to “war the warfare.”
Now a few words of caution concerning our attitude and responsibilities toward the old prophets. Don’t write off an old man simply because he is old and “out of touch” with what is going on today, or doesn’t understand contemporary issues. But neither accept his ministry as infallible simply because of his grey head. Here are a few things to watch out for:
-
A bitter, critical, railing spirit tending to put down every other ministry or work outside his own.
-
Be cautious of one who tells everyone to “come out” from whatever he is in. No man can call another man out. Only Christ can tell a man to come out to Him. But when a man tells you to come out, he is not saying “Come to Christ,” but “Come to me.”
-
Avoid someone who has an obsession with his interpretation of difficult and obscure passages of scripture, especially those related to prophecy. It is not likely the Holy Spirit has left the Church ignorant of these things for 2000 years and revealed it privately to one old prophet in the fading years of his life.
-
Watch out for new teaching that has not been a part of his greater ministry. A departure from the emphasis that God blessed in the most fruitful years of his life. “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” God does not change a man’s ministry, nor does He give him a new doctrine after his anointing is gone.
-
Be on the lookout for a negative spirit which ministers defeat, discouragement, gloom, and depression.
-
Make sure to avoid those who claim to have infallible revelations by the Holy Spirit that are not consistent with the scriptures.
-
Beware of a man that demands to be heard because he is aged. A greyhead no more validates what a man says than the fact that he is the bishop or the Pope. Homes for the aged are filled with gray heads devoid of sound judgment and spirituality. A man’s credentials consist, beyond his proven ministry, of the anointing of God, not his titles or his age.
We owe a great and impossible debt of love and gratitude to the old prophets who have served us well. They are our spiritual fathers. We ought therefore to honor them as our parents in the Lord, and see that their physical and emotional needs are well cared for. We ought to visit and care for them, kindly entreat and hear them. But we must remember that they are old prophets, and their day is past. The weight of the burden of ministry is now shifted to our own shoulders. The same God that was mighty in them will be mighty in us.
What is a Christian? How do you define a Christian when you go to the Scriptures? What comes to mind when you think of someone who is a Christian? What are improper ways that people view what it means to be a Christian?
0:00 – Introduction – Am I in a state of salvation?
1:20 – What does a Christian mean to you?
2:20 – To the preachers–why not do a series about this topic?
3:19 – Let us ask Paul what he would say – Galatians 2.20.
4:06 – Answer 1 – A Christian is a human being, “life I live in the flesh.”
12:50 – Answer 2 – The Christian has human affections, “wished myself separated”.
14:44 – Answer 3 – The Christian has native weaknesses and strengths that remain.
26:53 – Answer 4 – The Christian has a wonderful view of Jesus Christ.
43:07 – Answer 5 – The Christian has the assurance that this is true, “Son of God loved me…”
49:05 – Answer 6 – The Christian is someone who has unlimited access to Christ, “Christ lives in me…”
52:06 – Application – Am I a Christian? How do I come to this Christ?
55:45 – Closing prayer.
“I was saved when I was young. All seemed to go well until my twenties, when I was plagued with blasphemous thoughts, which plagued me day and night for some years. Several ministers advised me to ‘trust the Lord’ or ‘pray about it – but the more I did so, the worse it became! I seriously contemplated suicide. It was at this juncture that I asked Doctor Martyn Lloyd-Jones, for help. He did not help me until he was satisfied that I was a Christian. He then diagnosed my problem immediately! He advised me (rather surprisingly) not only never to think about the problem again but never to pray about it either. I was not really ‘praying’, I was simply reminding myself of my problem.
The next week things became infinitely worse! I returned in distress to Lloyd-Jones, who said he had expected it! It was proof that Satan was behind it all, seeking to take control of my thought life. He added a warning not to let Satan do so with any other problem whatsoever. I thank God that the Doctor gave me that advice – the best pastoral advice I ever had. Satan was crushed under my feet – and remains so after all these years. I still wonder at the Doctor’s extraordinary insight – unquestionably God-given. The advice others had given had led me into the grossest bondage.”
Iain Murray said that Martyn Lloyd-Jones counseled believers realizing, “If a Christian feels he is in a state of defeat it is because he is being controlled by his subjective feelings instead of by an understanding of the truth. Deliverance from this condition, therefore, depends upon a total change in approach: Christians are to look not at themselves and their problems but at what God had done for them; their need is not the ‘hospital’ but the ‘barracks’ where they will forget their own ‘troubles and ills’ and learn to fight in the army.”
Lloyd Jones said, ‘We must get rid of that notion of the clinic and the hospital; and we must look at these things more in terms of God and His glory, and the great campaign which He inaugurated through the Son of His love and which He is going to bring to a triumphant conclusion.’
Many Christians have testified to the practical effects of Lloyd-Jones’ counseling along these lines when they were looking for a quite different solution.
This testimony was taken from Banner of Truth’s book, David Martyn Lloyd-Jones – The Fight of Faith, on pages 408 to 409, by Iain Murray. To listen to more resources on the unpardonable sin go to the topic page on illbehonest.com or do as Lloyd-Jones counseled this man never think about the problem again because by doing so you are only reminding yourself of it and playing into Satan’s tactics. So instead of going to the hospital, go to the barracks and fight for the advance of the LORD’s kingdom.
There is a longing in every one of our hearts for someone we can trust and count on. Everyone longs for someone who won’t let them down. Someone who is trustworthy. We want someone who will not lie to us. Someone who won’t let us down. Someone whose promises I can stand on. Believer, you have that in Jesus Christ, He did rise from the dead, our faith is not futile.
This excerpt was taken from the full sermon, “The Resurrection: A Fact Of First Importance“.
A fact of first importance is that Christ was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures.
Have you ever been hurt by another Christian and offended by them? Are you restoring broken relationships? Are you loving the brethren regardless of who they are? Are you doing everything you can to love others? Fractured relationships are so important to resolve that we have a book in the New Testament that deals with this very matter.
0:00 – Preview
0:20 – Introduction to the sermon.
1:30 – What is my goal? Calling you to love the brethren regardless of who they are.
4:02 – Paul sees Onesimus’ situation as an opportunity for two brothers to choose to love one another.
7:56 – In every relationship love needs to win.
9:13 – Point 1 – A relational problem.
11:23 – If you break your wrist do you go as quickly as possible to get it healed?
15:20 – Point 2 – Paul’s appeal.
26:31 – Throw the grudges in the garbage where they belong!
30:05 – Point 3 – How do we live this love out practically?
42:37 – If this applies to us, what are we waiting for?
50:52 – John Bunyan sought to help two reconcile and it led to his death.
53:07 – Closing prayer.
Men want something spectacular, something supernatural…but not something scriptural; but if the living Word won’t move you why do you think some miracle will? Consider Jesus’ astonishing words in Luke 16:31 – He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’
0:00 – A testimony of a remarkable conversion.
1:44 – The “Hell Fire Club” opposed the “Holy Club”.
3:35 – Thorpe mocked George Whitefield as he shared…
4:46 – The Word of God pierced Thorpe’s heart and led to his conversion.
6:33 – Luke 16, The Rich Man and Lazarus.
9:09 – Opening prayer.
10:19 – A summary of the three headings of the sermon.
12:53 – 1 – What men want.
17:20 – People often are wanting more than just the plain proclamation of Scripture.
21:27 – 2 – What men need.
26:16 – 3 – The sufficiency of Scripture
30:18 – Scripture is like a pillow for the believer’s weary head.
36:48 – Believer, are you confident in your Bible?
38:17 – Closing prayer.
Believer, there is every reason to overflow with hope in the God of hope who overflows with love for you. Romans 15:13 – May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
To the south of me, there are 42 villages that have still not heard the gospel. In 2023, how is that possible? In most remote parts of the world, there are still people without a gospel witness. What is the reason for the church’s silence? My heart breaks for these people. Who’s going to tell them?
Listen to the full sermon on SermonAudio.
What does Paul mean when he says our works will be tested by fire? Will they burn up or survive the judgment? In this Ask Pastor Tim, we look at what 1 Corinthians 3:13 means and does not mean. Paul is saying that our works will be judged to determine if they were done for the glory of God or for our own gain.
1 Corinthians 3:12-15 – 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw–13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
[Note: The following transcript needs to be proofed errors.]
Saved so as by fire, this often gets questions from people. First Corinthians Chapter three, verse six, . Paul says, I planted Apollos watered. Now, obviously that is farmer language that is being applied to church planting. Paul broke up the the fields and in the forests he broke up the rocky ground. He broke up the the wild lands and he created fields for farming. He planted the seed there and Apollos, he comes along afterwards and he he builds on top. He does the work that has to happen after he watered. But God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything but only God who gives the growth. And by anything, he doesn’t mean that they don’t matter. It doesn’t mean that they’re not essential to the church being established. But if it’s kind of like we say, if God doesn’t protect the city, I mean, we keep watch in vain. If God doesn’t build, we build in vain. The fact is that God has to give the increase. God have to give the growth. We can plant the word of God, but God has to make it sprout. He has to make it come up and become fruitful. Only God who gives the growth He who plants and he who waters our one? Well, he’s not saying we both do the same thing. He’s basically saying we’re both in the same category and each will receive his wages according to his labor. Now, that’s key because what he’s saying here is, no matter how much it’s God who gives the growth, each one of us are responsible. That’s where the wage comes from. And it’s it’s not this. This obviously is a reward. It’s not it’s not these guys working for their salvation. This is a reward. But we are going to be rewarded according to our labor. And even though he said before, we’re nothing in verse 9 he says we are God’s fellow workers. I mean, we work with God, but God is the one that’s essential in all of this. He doesn’t really need us, but he does use us and we work along with him and God works through us. You are God’s field. He’s talking to the Corinthians. God’s building. In other words, that’s I mean, like the Corinthians. They’re the ones that are being planted This is the field. This is where the planting is happening. This is. And then he changes his metaphor. God’s building, according to the grace of God given to me like a skilled master builder. So you see the whole metaphors change now, but it’s according to the grace of God. So it’s all dependent on him. But it’s given to men. It’s given to me. But Paul says, even though it’s given to me, we all have to work. We all have to labor. And we’re going to receive wages. Or it’s it’s the wage of a reward. Like a skilled master builder. I laid a foundation. Someone else is building upon it. We see the metaphors changed, but that’s the same imagery. I plant someone else waters. I lay the foundation. Someone else builds upon that foundation. To metaphors. But we see one guy starts the work, Other guys come along and they begin to fulfill that work. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid. Now, that’s interesting. He says, Let let each one take care how he builds upon it. The foundation, he said, I laid a foundation. Someone else is building on it. Let each take care how he builds on it, and then he reverts back to the foundation in verse 11. No one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. And what he’s saying is not just no one can lay a foundation other than that he’s saying it is laid. And I laid it and he said, I laid the foundation like a skilled master builder. I laid it. Let me tell you what it is. It’s Christ. That is what I laid. And so everyone needs to take care how he builds on it. In other words, you better be using the same building materials that I use to lay that foundation, because in the end, that’s how we’re going to be. That’s how our labor is going to be evaluated. And you see what he says in 12. If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw. So the first three are good, the last three not so good. Each one’s work will become manifest for the day, will disclose it. We’ve got judgment day. It’s going to show us what all of this is because it will be revealed by fire. And the thing about gold is it can stand the fire Silver. It can stand the fire. Precious stones. You take diamonds, they can stand. The fire would hay, stubble or straw that doesn’t abide the fire. The fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. You see that? Now it’s reward. It was wages before. Now it’s reward. So we see what it is. But notice, the reward is based on the building materials. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself. And this is interesting. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss. Though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. And it makes sense. He’s going to be saved. But he and his works are going through the fire. And the idea here is the idea here is that Christians can suffer loss on judgment day. Why? Because our works are going to be tested and some of our works are going to be burned up. If it’s wood, hand stubble, it’s going to be burned up. And the truth is that he speaks in absolute terms. We know that we’re we’re his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. The fact is this Christ has a people of particular people, peculiar people of his own possession. And we know this. We are a people that he has saved for that very sake. To accomplish good works, to be a peoples is ours. Of good works. And he said, By this, you prove to be my disciples. We know this, that that the fruit in our life. You can tell the tree by the fruit. But though he speaks in absolutes, here we get the idea. Judgment day is going to burn burnable stuff away. The building materials here. It seems to be he’s talking about himself in a palace I planted. Others came along and watered. Or I laid a foundation. Others came along and built. Well, you are the field. You are the building. Who? The church. And so we see building going on. But, you know, the thing is, we’re all builders. To some degree, I was just thinking about Paul using the term built. Here’s some examples. Let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual up building. So each one of us are involved in building each other. This building gets built as each person is added and as each person is strengthened and edified. That’s our word built up. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up or it says it. Here we are, God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. You are. So we are. We’re God’s building. And how do we get built? Well, God builds us. But how does he do it? Through human instrumentality. And it’s not just through apostles and prophets and pastors. We’re each building. You get texts like this. I want you to all speak in tongues. But even more prophesy. The one who prophesy is greater than one who speaks in tongues. Unless someone interprets so that the church may be built up. So you have all that strive to excel in building up the church, he says. Let all things be done for building up. We know that there’s we know apostles, prophets of angels, pastors, teachers have been given to equip the saints for the work of the ministry for building up the body of Christ. Then Paul goes right on to say that the body grows. It builds itself up in love. So the body itself builds itself. Let no corrupting come from your mouths. But only such as is good for building up. My point is this We’re all building. We’re all building, We’re all building one another. And we all are living lines. We’re all living lines where what we do is going to be tested in the end. And anyways, that’s a very sobering passage. What we know is this We all have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Why so? So that what was done in our bodies is going to be brought to judgment, It’s going to be examined, and there’s a quality about things. It’s like some of the things we do. If you look at the quality in God’s eyes, it’s gold. There are other things that we do that in God’s eyes. It’s it’s, hay, it’s something, but it’s not going to stand the fire. And so we want to be certain, not just that we do things, we’re going to be certain about the quality of what we do. How can quality be bad? Well, I was reading something to Joshua from John Piper, and he said something like this he said, wood hay and straw seem to refer to things like when we think about people in the ministry, perhaps defective teaching, not blatant gospel denying heresy, but some lesser erroneous, distorted teachings. And he goes into it is whether it’s our works or a teaching, our love, whatever, if it’s unwise, if it’s irrelevant, if it’s misapplied, if it’s poorly explained, if it’s superficial, twisted to fit unbiblical traditions or worldliness, I think those are really good thoughts to apply. We want to we want to think about our our doctrine. We want to think about if we’re supposed to be building up one another. Well, one of the things would be this We need to be making attempts to build up one another. You recognize what I’m saying? If if we’re even going to get to the place where our building is going to be tested for, whether it’s Diamond or whether it’s some kind of chaff, we actually have to be making an effort to build up one another. I mean, we have to apply ourselves to the building process. You don’t want to be the person that comes there when you don’t. I think for the for most Christians, what’s going to happen is we’re going to we’re going to have a pile of diamonds, but we’re also going to have all this other stuff over. And I think it’s all mixed together. And when the fire hits it, you know what’s going to happen? Oh, you hit you hit a pile. You got a pile of dried up grass there and you spread some flakes of gold and silver through it. What happens when you hit it with the flame thrower? Well, you’re just going to basically blow all that worthless stuff off. It’s going to burn up. It’s going to turn to ash. It’s going to blow away. And what you’re going to be left with on the ground is now going to be what’s really valuable and what’s going to stay in the fire. And that’s that is exactly how Paul is describing the day. And you just think about him. He talks this way in Romans talking about judgment day. He says when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires, they’re allotted themselves. Even though they do not have the law, they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus, we can go through with that day, that day, the day Paul speaks about that day in in various places, and very obvious what it is when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, to be marveled at among all who believe because our testimony made the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day. Anyway, we we see how Paul uses it, but that day is coming. We really every one of us have to think. It’s like you don’t you want you don’t want to take it lightly. Like, you know, you go down, you go down to the city center and you seek to evangelize. Is it possible, like what would be an example of would he stumble? Well, I, I know this, like in teaching. I just I just think in teaching, I got to teach the scriptures. I got to make Christ Central, I got to make him preeminent. I got to teach Scripture the way I’ve got to be balanced, the way Scripture is balanced. I got to go seek to emphasize the things that Scripture emphasizes. I want to seek to bring the glory of God out. I want to seek to to make this real. And in I mean, can a guy who just speaks monotone possibly lose something, a guy that just wants to put up tradition or talk about the 1689 London Baptist Convention all the time, or we as we live our lives, we want to think about motive. I mean, can you do what two people can do the exact same thing? And I almost guarantee you that motive. No, I will guarantee you. Why? Because First Corinthians chapter four says that it’s Paul is telling them, don’t judge anything before the time we wait, God’s going to come. He’s going to sort all the motives out. You know what that means? That means that our motive can make the difference between two people doing the same thing. But one is going to be stubble and one is going to be gold. Why? Because of motive. One guy could do something selfishly or hypocritically. Somebody else could do it for the glory of God. And we have to watch all that. Anyway, we’re at the end of time. We’re 5 minutes past. But those are verses that are we are all heading towards Judgment day. Any time we get some teaching on Judgment day for us to think about, we really want to think about it. You want to soak it in because you can’t escape it. It ought to form our lives. It ought to be it ought to be something that quickens our step makes us think how? Listen, there is, you know, you you know, one thing you can’t get away from. There’s nowhere in there where Paul says rewards are foolish, rewards are selfish, rewards are carnal. Don’t even think about it. And no, he speaks about rewards. There is desirable like like you want. You want gold and silver and precious stones and get the reward. You don’t want it to get burned up. You don’t want to be saved. So as by fire, you don’t want it, you don’t. And judgment day, I mean, maybe, maybe somebody would think, Well, I’m just glad I made it in. Why would you want to think that? I mean, if if if you’re serving the Lord Jesus Christ in your trusting in Him, then why would you not heed all the admonitions to be as fruitful as you possibly can and have the greatest possible reward? Why would you want to waste your life to to be the guy? What do you want? If. I mean, don’t you think that’s just crummy thinking? To think, Oh, I just want to slip in the back door and just barely get in? I mean, that’s. That’s really shoddy thinking. It’s like, Oh, God has saved me. I mean, I want it to be acceptable to him because. Because obviously, if it gets burned up and I get no credit for it, well, that means God’s not pleased with it. Why would I want to live and try to do things God’s not pleased with? Wouldn’t you agree?
There was in my congregation, at one time, a woman about forty years of age, who was a subject of wonder to me. She was one of the most intelligent and well-educated of the people; she had been brought up from her childhood in the family of a clergyman, as his daughter; she was very attentive to the observance of the Sabbath; she was never absent from her seat in the church. As the mother of a family, she had few
equals. Everybody respected her. But she was not a member of the church. And whenever I had endeavored to call her attention to the subject of religion, she was so reserved, that I could not even conjecture what was her particular state of mind. I was told that she never spoke to anyone, with respect to her religious feelings.
My ignorance of her views and feelings led me to be in doubt, about what to say to her. I felt that I was groping in the dark, every time I attempted to converse with her. Sometimes I suspected, that she secretly indulged a hope in Christ, though she told me to the contrary. At other times, I suspected, that she was relying upon her perfectly moral life for salvation, though she denied this also.
I could not persuade her to seek the Lord; nor could I ascertain what was her hindrance. And I was the more surprised at this, on account of the profound respect that she appeared to have for religion; and her deep solemnity whenever I spoke to her on the subject. I had hoped, that by a conversation with her, I might get a glimpse of her heart, that the
peculiarity of her state of mind would casually become manifest; and thus I should learn what it would be best for me to say to her. But she was too reserved for this. After several trials, I was still in the dark. I did not know what she thought or felt—what it was, that kept her from attending to her salvation.
I called upon her, one day, and frankly told her my embarrassment about her. I mentioned her uniform taciturnity, my motive in aiming to overcome it, my supposition that some error kept her from religion, and my inability even to conjecture what it was. I said to her, that I had not a doubt; there was something locked up in her own mind, which she never whispered to me. She seemed very much surprised at this declaration; and I instantly asked her, if it was not so. With some reluctance, she confessed it was. And then, after no little urgency, she said she would tell me the whole, not on her own account, but that her case might not discourage me from aiming to lead others to Christ.
She then said, that her day of grace was past that she had had every possible opportunity for salvation—that every possible motive had a thousand times been presented to her—that she had been the subject of deep convictions and anxiety often that she had lived through three remarkable revivals of religion, in which many of her companions had been led to Christ—that she had again and again attempted to work out her salvation; but all in vain. “I know my day is gone by,” said she. “I am given over. The Holy Spirit has left me.”
She spake this in a decided manner, solemnly and coldly, unmoved as a rock! It surprised me. And as I was silently thinking for a moment, how I could best remove her error; she went on to say, that she had never before now mentioned this, for a number of years—that she fully believed in the reality of experimental religion—that she believed all that she had ever heard me preach; except when once or twice, I had spoken of religious despair—that, as her day of grace was past, she did not wish to have her mind troubled on the subject of religion at all—and asked me to say nothing more to her about it.
I inquired how long she had been in this state of mind. She told me she had known for eighteen years, that there was no salvation for her. I inquired if she ever prayed. She said she had not prayed in eighteen years. I inquired if she did not feel unhappy to be in such a state. She said she seldom thought of it—it would do no good and she never intended to think of it again. I asked:
“Do you believe the heart is deceitful?” “Yes, I know it.”
“It may be, then, that your wicked heart has deceived you, in respect to your day of grace.” This idea appeared to stagger her, for a moment; but she replied,
“No; I am not deceived.” “Yes; you are.”
“No; I am not. Nothing can save me now; and I do not wish to have my mind disturbed by any more thought about it.”
“Why do you attend church?”
“Only to set a good example. I believe in religion as firmly as you do; and wish my children to be Christians.”
“Do you pray for them?”
“No; prayer from me would not be heard.”
“Madam,” said I, emphatically, “you are in an error. I know you are. And I can convince you of it. If you will hear me, lend me your mind, and speak frankly to me, and tell me the grounds on which your despair rests, I will convince you, that you are entirely deceived. I cannot do it now. It would take too long. You have so long been in this state, and have fortified your error by so many other deceptions; that it will take some days to demolish the defenses you have heaved up around you. But I can do it. If your mind will adhere to a thing once proved to you if when a thing is fixed, your mind will let it stay fixed, and not just have the same doubt after the demonstration, that it had before it; I am perfectly certain you may be led to see your error. May I come to see you again about it?”
“I had rather not see you. It will do no good. It will only make me miserable. I did not intend to tell you how I felt; but when you found out, that something was concealed, I would not deceive you. But I wish to hear no more about it. My day of grace is past forever.”
“No, it is not,” said I, most emphatically. “Your deceitful heart has only seized on that idea, as an excuse for not coming to repentance.— Allow me, at least, to come and see you.”
“I had rather not, sir.”
“Madam, you must! I cannot leave you so! I will not! I love you too well to do it. I ask it as a personal favor to myself; and I shall not think you have treated me politely, if you refuse it. May I see you a little while to-morrow?”
“I will see you,—if you so much desire it.”
“I thank you, my dear lady. You have greatly gratified me. You will yet believe what I have said to you. I know you can be saved. And you
know me well enough to know, that I am not the man to make such strong declarations rashly. All I ask is the opportunity to convince you. I will see you to-morrow.”
In all this conversation, she seemed as unmoved as a stone. She did not shed a tear, or heave a sigh. She could talk about the certainty of her eternal misery, as if her heart were ice.
The next day when I called, I asked to know the reasons or evidences on which her dreadful opinion rested. She told me one after another, referring to many texts of scripture; and did it with a coldness which made me shudder. Of the certainty of her eternal enmity to God, and her eternal misery, she reasoned. so coolly, that I almost felt I was listening to words from the lips of a corpse!
Perceiving that she would probably decline seeing me again, and wanting time to study her case more carefully, I suddenly took leave of her. I had expected the old affair of the “unpardonable sin,” or “sin against the Holy Ghost;” but I found a far more difficult matter.
I called again. Evidently, she was sorry to see me. But I gave her no time to make any objections. I desired her to listen to me, and not yield her assent to what I was going to say, if she could reasonably avoid it. I then took up her evidences of being forever given over of God, beginning with the weakest of them; and in about an hour had disposed of several in such a way that she acknowledged her deception “in respect to them.”
“But,” says she, “there are stronger ones left.”
“We will attend to them hereafter,” said I. “But remember, you have found your mistake in respect to some; therefore, it is possible you may be mistaken in respect to others.”—This remark was the first thing that
appeared to stagger her old opinion. She said nothing; but evidently, her confidence was shaken.
I saw her time after time, about once a week, for five or six weeks; examined all her reasons for thinking her day of grace gone by, except one, and convinced her they were false. Evidently she had become intellectually interested. There was but one point left. She had never in all this time expressed a wish to see me, or asked me to call again. I now called her attention summarily to the ground we had gone over, and how she had found all her refuges of lies swept away, save one, as she had herself acknowledged; and if that were gone she would think: her salvation possible;—and then asked her if she wished to see me again.
She replied that her opinion was unchanged; but that she should like to hear what I had to say about this remaining point, which, (as she truly said,) I had avoided so often.
I called the next day. I took up the one point left—this last item which doomed her to despair; and as I examined it, reasoning with her, and asking if she thought me right, from step to step as I went on, the intensity of her thought became painful to me. She gazed upon me with unutterable astonishment. Her former cold and stone-like appearance was gone; her bosom heaved with emotion, and her whole frame seemed agitated with a new kind of life. To see the dreadful fixedness of despair melting away from her countenance, and the dawnings of inceptive hope taking its place, was a new and strange thing to me. It looked like putting life into a corpse. As my explanation and argument drew towards the close, she turned pale as death. She almost ceased to breathe. And when I had finished, and in answer to my question she confessed, that she had no reason to believe her day of grace was past,—instantly she looked as if she had waked up in a new world. The tears gushed from her eyes in a torrent—she clasped her hands—sprung from her seat, and walked back and forth across the room, exclaiming, “I can be saved! I can be saved! I can be saved!” She was so entirely overcome, that I thought she would faint, or her reason give way. I dared not leave her. I said nothing but remained till she became more composed, and took my leave with a silent bow.
The next Sunday evening, she was at the inquiry meeting. She appeared like other awakened sinners, nothing remarkable about her, except her very manifest determination to seek the Lord with all her heart.
In about three weeks, she became one of the happiest creatures in hope, that I ever saw. She afterward united with the church, and yet lives a happy and decided believer.
The gospel is addressed to hope. Despair must always be deaf to it.
Entire despair is incompatible with seeking God. Despair cannot pray. The last effort of the devil seems to be, to drive sinners to despair. “We are saved by hope,” says the apostle.
Few errors are harmless. None are safe. Truth is never injurious. And I can have no sympathy with those ministers, who think an error may do an impenitent sinner good. Tricks are not truth.
The fact is there’s an intolerance in Christianity and it offends people. In fact, let me tell you something. If you have not seen the intolerance of Christianity and been absolutely persuaded by this intolerant aspect of being a follower of Christ, you know what? You have probably never really come face to face with true Christianity. That’s just a reality, because the Christ of Scripture stands alone. Absolutely. You know what Scripture says? There is salvation in none other. There’s no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. We’ve got to be his uniqueness has to be preserved. We cannot bend here. We cannot flex. If you think you can find God apart from this Jesus, you’re altogether mistaken. You haven’t really listened to Scripture. We’ve got to be intolerant. We can never say God can be known without Christ. It’s just not possible. Brethren, we have to be utterly intolerant at this point. Absolutely. And because all true Christians are intolerant at this point. It unites us all. We’re united in this, when we come in here. If there’s anything we can say about this group of people, I mean, among the true Christians in this place that come together, it’s this We’re inflexible about who Christ is. We’ve got one Christ. He’s the one defined in Scripture. He’s the one that declares the father. Philip. I’m the one. Look at me.
This excerpt was taken from the full sermon, “Jesus Is God: Whoever Has Seen Jesus Has Seen The Father“.
In John 14:9 Jesus said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Jesus places himself in the same category as the only true God. Would you also place him in such a category? Do you have any gaps in your understanding of Christ? Denying Christ is more than just denying his existence; it is denying who he specifically claimed to be.
Series: The Upper Room Discourse, Part 7.
0:00 – Introduction
3:36 – There are gaps in the disciple’s understanding of who Christ is.
7:59 – Do we still have gaps in our understanding of who Christ is?
24:16 – Christ is the one who declares who the Father is.
26:37 – Observe the harmony that the Father and the Son have.
35:18 – Jesus and the Holy Spirit’s main task was not to always defend the doctrine of the Trinity.
40:22 – There is an intolerance in Christianity that should offend people.
42:05 – What will comfort you and me in trials?
54:09 – In conclusion.
But you know what Paul said, “What are you doing? Weeping, Breaking my heart. I’m ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Is that where we’re at? We, you know, we say it confidently when the sun is shining. If God were to take your parent, your spouse, your child, your health, or your closest friend is Christ still everything? Brethren, no one’s saying it’s easy. But a tell you, a God given faith is no matter how much God crushes us, puts us in the vice, it’s still I’m a dying man, I am going to face God on judgment. I need Christ more than anything else. And these guys, they’re being faced with a difficulty that is testing them to the point that they may fall away. And you know what happens? A lot of times people. People get put in in in the fires. “Well, if God is going to treat me this way, I’m out of here.” And you know what? They may not totally reject Christianity, but they do. They walk away when loneliness grips you in your singleness. I mean, it grips you. Do you still believe that God delights in purity? What do you really believe when you’re lonely? What do you really believe when it gets hard, you still believe God delights in marrying in the Lord only? Or do you cave? You know what happens? A lot of times people get in the furnace and they redefine God. They had some idea about who he was and what he wants in his word. But suddenly life gets hard. They say, “Oh, God will understand.”
This excerpt is from the full sermon. A Remedy for Troubled Hearts by Tim Conway preached on February 26, 2023. Or watch a similar video that deals with the same topic. Content or everything would be okay if by Jesse Barrington.
Do you have a troubled heart? Christ counsels us and gives us a remedy for troubled hearts. By speaking words of stability and anchoring us, Christ helps us avoid falling away.
In order to save the lost, we must convince them that they need to escape God’s wrath and show them the way of escape through Jesus Christ. The good news is often treated lightly because many don’t realize how intense the wrath of God is. When they realize this, hearing of a way out will be all the more wonderful.
Are you displaying to your lost children the fatherhood of God through your unconditional love? What happens after they have sinned grievously? How do you respond to them?
Excerpt from the full sermon, “The Prodigal Son“.
As a believer is it always wrong to not pay taxes? How should a Christian view paying taxes if the government is supporting wicked practices?
0:00 – Is it always wrong not to pay your taxes?
2:05 – What should a Christian think about the Boston Tea Party?
4:57 – Did the British treatment of Americans justify not paying taxes?
7:47 – What if the government collects taxes for something that is not its God-given duty?
14:26 – What is it that changes the world? Political protest or the Gospel?
17:06 – Personally I cannot see a place where I would not be justified in paying my taxes.
19:44 – What if the government imposed a 100% tax?
21:24 – Audience question: Can you think of a time when you would break the law?
[Note: This transcript has not been proofed for errors.] Is it always wrong to not pay your taxes? By this? I don’t mean the secretive and cunning practices of tax evasion, but explicit and public protest. Against a form of taxation. When Jesus was asked if it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, he responded that we ought to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s. Paul in Romans 13, also teaches Christians what to do with regard to taxes and explains that God has ordered government for a particular purpose and that in order for the government to fulfill that purpose, it must collect taxes. Romans 13:6-7, some would argue that if the government tries to collect taxes for something that is not its God given duty, namely rewarding the doer of good and punishing the evildoer, Christians have to object to it. I can see where that view comes from, but at the same time struggle to believe that the Roman emperors used the taxes that they collected only for those legitimate God given purposes. Is there, however, a case when Christians would want to not pay taxes? And what would that look like? I can think of tax money going for immoral practices such as government-funded abortion procedures, etc.. What about American history and the whole thing about taxation without representation or paying taxes to a tyrannical government?
Let me ask you something. This is an easy question to ask here. Our American Revolution. Do you remember we had a Boston Tea Party. We all know about that. What do we do with the Boston Tea Party to it? Through the tea out of the boat? There are some Americans dressed up like Indians, and they went out on the tea ships that had come over from. They probably came from India, but they were owned by the British and they throw a tea in the harbor. You can imagine if you lived in a colony and you were being taxed. And I’m sure those Americans liked the tea. They had English blood and Irish blood and Scottish blood and Welsh blood flowing through their veins, most of them. And so, you know, some of them came from Germany and wherever Austria. But the fact is that to have your taxes just indiscriminately raised and you have no representation in London. So basically, people that live around the United Kingdom, they at least have representatives in parliament. They’ve got a voice. But Americans had no voice. So they threw the tea in the harbor and they and they eventually I mean, they went to war. They didn’t want the British not only imposing taxes without representation, but the fact is that the redcoats could commandeer a house. They could come in and eat all your food, mistreat your family. And so imagine that. Imagine that the price of everything is just going up. Why? Because the king, the parliament, they see opportunity for bringing a lot of wealth out of the United States over to England, and they’re sending soldiers over there. And the soldiers basically have the right legally from the British court system established in the U.S. if their own soldiers can can just come and go and they can commandeer houses and food. And you wouldn’t like that if somebody did that to you. Now, is that a reason to not pay taxes? I have basically said in the United States that if I had lived during the time of the revolution, I would not now because it wasn’t there. And I don’t know all the factors. It’s difficult for me to say exactly what my attitude would have been if soldiers did something to a family member or something like that happen. But just from the standpoint of taxation without representation, there’s nothing stated about that in Scripture. There’s no place in Scripture that says that as I honor the emperor, the emperor has to make sure that I have a congressman or a representative in Washington or in London that doesn’t exist. And so just on that basis alone, I would not, if I was a pastor in 1776, I would not just on that basis, I would not have been able to condone and lead the church in that direction. I would not have been able to, with a clear conscience, take up arms and fight against the king who was the rightful ruler at that time. Now, once the Americans did it and there was an American government established, I would have submitted to it, but I would have submitted to your king because it would have been my king and I would have submitted to him because that that seems biblical. And did the taxes get increased? Yes. But who’s to say when the taxes are too high? Well, we say as the consumer, it’s we always are saying they’re too high. When when are the taxes not too high? When there are no taxes, that’s that. And if they get increase, don’t we complain when the energy gets increased and we complain? Somebody has got to answer for this. Right. But I would not have been able to do that. So the question is this. Actually, I, I feel it given two ways here, that it says that if government tries to collect taxes for something that is not its God given duty. Like it says in Romans 13, namely rewarding the doer of good and punishing the evildoer, if the government tries to collect taxes for something that’s not its God given duty. Do Christians have to object to it? I can see where that view comes from. Now, see, he’s actually asking two questions. Does a Christian have to object to it? And is there a time to withhold paying, paying taxes? What I would say, based on what we know from Scripture, is that, yes, we can object to it, but then, yes, we still need to pay our taxes. So if I have a voice to object, then why would I not object? But but even they’re like, do I object to the fact that the the U.K. government, that I pay taxes to use this money to to pay for abortion? Do I object to that? I object to that. But what am I going to do, not pay my taxes? I mean, I think it’s right to bring up the Roman government. They used money on all sorts of wicked things as well. But you know what they also used it for? They used it for infrastructure. They used it for aqueducts. They used it for their road system. They used it for all sorts of things that are in the interest. They used it for their court system. They actually had laws. You know what? Most of these countries, even even Germany and Adolf Hitler’s day, I mean, they had laws against stealing. They had laws against murder. They had laws that basically made it it made life manageable. It kept order in the society. And so is there a place for me to not pay taxes because a portion of it might be used for a wicked purpose? Well, we don’t see that. I mean, when Jesus said, bring me the denarius. Well, I mean, whose picture was on there? Do you know whose picture was on there? Which Caesar do you imagine was Augustus? Yeah. Just. But. But, I mean, the fact is, if we look at the Caesar’s we and we look at the Roman Empire, we see what they did. Certainly. Certainly as soon as Jesus says render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. That automatically assumes what all the governments of the world are going to look like. And you know what? Jesus is introducing a time when there’s no there’s no theocracy. In other words, there’s no government system where God like like Old Testament, Israel. Where you’ve got God who’s ruling. But that’s not the kingdoms of this world are not of that nature. As soon as he identifies Caesar, we see the very kind of government he’s identifying. What kind? The worldly government, all it all the different kings and queens and presidents and prime ministers and and the tyrannical sorts and the dictators and all the pharaohs and what I mean, fill in the blank, all the different names that leaders have been given. And and that’s what he had in mind. That’s what he was saying, rendered to Caesar. He had he had exactly that kind of very unsaved people leading and in doing what they do. And there’s no indication how can we object to it? Yes, we can object to it. We can object to the fact that our money might be used. And if we have a platform for it, is there a place to make that objection public? Well, I guess everybody has to have a clear conscience themselves quite honestly. I do not think that I’m called to spend my life protesting. Why? I think it’s a waste of time. Why? Because we’re talking about where some money goes. Are they going to abort the children anyway? I would rather pray that God will do something to bring that to an end. Overturn Roe v Wade. And you know, effectively what they did in the United States is it basically outlawed abortion in many states? Not all of them, Not not the liberal states, but in the conservative states, it basically. And so I think praying if if you can vote somebody into office, that’s likely going to have that kind of agenda. But, you know, I just don’t find that the New Testament church was anywhere encouraged to become these political radicals. It is. It isn’t there. You know what we’re supposed to do, evangelize the world? The greatest thing I could do for for any kind of government or any kind of country is proclaim the gospel. And if God will use it to awaken that generation. You know what happens when revival comes in? Even two, three, % of the people get saved. I mean, you know what they’re saying? I think, if I’m not mistaken, I read somewhere where the Hebrides revival in the 1940s, 49, I believe only 2% of the people in the Hebrides Islands were saved. If I’m not mistaken, it closed down when only that percentage of people get saved. And there’s a movement of God like that. Their jails closed, their court systems basically shut down the dance halls, shut down. And what I hear is you can travel to the Hebrides Islands even now, and you still feel the results of that. My point here is this. What is it that changes the world? Is it. Is it political protest? What changes the world is the Gospel. What changes the world is is us imitating Christ and basically going and seeking to make disciples among these nations? It’s it’s not. There is simply nothing counter to these the animist and these reconstructionist guys and these post middle guys. Our primary objective is not to reinstate a theocracy among the nations. It just isn’t. It’s not. Jesus didn’t do it that Jesus had some interaction with government. Paul had interaction with government. John the Baptist had interaction with government. But if you look at them, what’s Paul doing? Paul’s Paul’s proclaiming he’s he’s proclaiming the gospel, he’s proclaiming righteousness. He’s proclaiming this coming judgment. He’s proclaiming he’s basically he’s he’s you know, what he did and ultimately was shipped off to Rome and John the Baptist. I mean, his interaction with Herod was not trying to get some kind of a some kind of new taxation system. He confronted Herod about his adultery and Jesus interaction with government. I mean, you hear how he talked to pilot. What was his basic point? Look, my kingdom’s not of this world or or my guys would fight. In other words, he didn’t come to set up this earthly kingdom here and to have some kind of reconstructionist idea about what government should look like. So my thing is, yes, I can object to something, but then it’s like, well, how much time would I want to give to it? Quite honestly, I don’t want to give any time to it. If somebody else determined they wanted to give some time to it. Okay, they got it. They have to make that decision. And I think one of the things that we want to we want to kind of way out is what is the likelihood that my involvement is actually going to matter? Because I want to use my my life wisely. And last thing I want to do is spin my wheels, trying to bring about some political reform or taxation reform. When my one puny voice is just, I would rather pray that God would bring revival upon this country. God would have mercy upon the people God would save. Why? Because that seems very consistent with Scripture. But I and I personally cannot see a place where I would feel justified in not paying my taxes and not I’m not going to cheat on my taxes. When God saved when I was lost, I, I was I did a number of things that I didn’t even know how. I don’t even remember that I, I so mindfully just rebelled against the IRS. The Internal Revenue Service. I, I just think after I got saved, I became I just recognized I was shoddy with regards to my tax returns and so I went to the IRS and I basically said, here’s my situation. I told them I got saved. I know his convictions about these things and I just think I probably owed taxes. And so anyway, I ended up paying back taxes. But I just think whether it’s I mean, I’m a resident of the U.K. and I believe I ought to pay my taxes here. And I’m a citizen of the United States and I believe ought to pay my taxes there. And I don’t like it. I don’t like how much they take. But you know what? If God tells me to pay it, I can look at it just like giving money to missionaries. It’s what God wants me to do with it. And I can look at it and think he’s pleased that I’m doing this. See, I think that comes down to the real question. Is there a time when you’re paying taxes and you think God’s not pleased? Because that would be the time when you would say, therefore, I’m not going to pay him, but I can’t think of a situation where that would be the case unless somebody that wasn’t legitimately the government was trying to force me to think that they had some authority, that they don’t really have. And that might be a case. But when the government’s authentic and it’s it’s the government of the U.K. or the United States, I’m going to pay my taxes. And I can’t think of any situation where I wouldn’t just simply because Jesus said render to Caesar what’s Caesar’s. And Caesar has the right to to tell us what the tax is going to be. Now, what about if they called for everything? I mean, what if they basically taxed me to the point that I can’t feed? I’m just going to hope that God would not allow it to come to that. And I would hope that if we actually got to that place, there’s going to be anarchy, because I’m not going to be the only one hurting if if their taxing us with everything else. That’s basically where eventually the people are going to rise up and resist that. But kind of like what happened is, you see, the thing is the Christian didn’t really have to be behind the revolution. They could have submitted to the king, but inside they submitted to the king and paid their taxes. But inside they were really hoping Washington would not Cornwallis back out in the ocean. I mean, you can you can hope that. Why? Because life would be better and our dollar would go farther and we’d be able to feed our family better. And yeah, I mean, I can submit to a government but hope that the government will change but not be involved in making it change. Any thoughts on taxes? I will say this year your country, I’m doing my taxes right now in your country. I mean, when you look at everything they take out, it’s all got social attach to it. An offshoot of the question. And we might not have time to really go into any depth. But I guess I was just kind of curious if you had anything to say with regards to the time in which you would break the law of a nation. A time when I would break the law and break the law. Well, we’re going to break the law when they tell us to do something that God forbids or they tell us not to do something God tells us to do, and so am I going to break the law. I broke the law. And I mean, I’ll say it when they said we needed a lock down, we didn’t. We met, we got Steve. Steven Holland did give us his building and he was happy to have us there. And we were happy to go there and pay and help them financially and and you know, Steven is of the same mindset is me that no, we’re told not to forsake the assembling together of ourselves. And the government said, stop assembling yourselves and don’t sing. And Scripture says to sing. And so we’re going to sing. We’re going to take the Lord’s Supper and we’re going to meet together. And so it’s there. If God tell that, that’s when I’m going to break the law, when God tells me to do something and the government tells me I can’t do it, that’s when I’m going to and that’s that’s what those early disciples said. I mean, we you you guys judge. I mean, we obey, man. We’re going to obey God. And so that’s the that’s the issue. When my obeying the government is obeying God, well, then I want to obey government. When my obeying government is disobeying God, that’s when it becomes the issue. So really. But do we have to sort that out? Yeah, we have to sort that out. I mean, everybody has to sort that out on what that means. They wanted to quarantine me. See, I was traveling enough and every time I’d come back they were quarantining me for two weeks. And I finally said, Nope, I’m not doing that anymore. Why? Because God called me to pastor this flock here, not to sit in quarantine for two weeks every time I travel well. And finally I just said, okay, Ruby, there is a way to actually obey and be able to travel. And that’s just simply to go ahead and get vaccinated. Now, you know, somebody can question whether I should have or not. If I had it to do again, I wouldn’t have done it. But it did ease my traveling restrictions and it eased all the different kinds of tests that you had to take and everything. And but anyways, we all everybody has to sort that out. Everybody has to flesh through those things.
How does Jesus respond to those who say, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus” in John 12:21? Are they even able to see Jesus? Christ calls those who want to see him down the same path that he is going–a path to die and lose your life in this world.
We read in Act 11:19 that some were speaking to Jews only. However, verse 20 mentions some unknown men from Cyprus and Cyrene who spoke to non-Jews. A great missionary sending church arose from Antioch as a result of these men understanding Christ’s mission to all nations. Do you neglect to reach out to certain people groups in your own life for some wrong reason?
In whatever sphere of life believers are involved in, the Lord desires that they advance his kingdom. Sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with others. It is even possible that the Lord will scatter believers through persecution in order to spread His gospel.
Are my pet dogs going to heaven? Is my pet an idol? How would you respond to someone who says, ” sincerely hope that I will be reunited with my beloved pets in heaven.”? On the Internet, this is one of the most commonly searched questions regarding the Bible.
0:00 – Question
5:10 – Talking to a median?
10:39 – Anything in the Scriptures that indicates there are animals in heaven?
17:05 – When Romans 8 speak about creation is it referring to animals?
18:58 – What is in the new heaven and new earth?
26:03 – What about Ecclesiastes 3?
At the earnest solicitation of a friend, very dear to me, who had herself just come to a happy tranquility of mind, I sought an interview with her sister—an accomplished young woman, of about seventeen years of age. I found that the attention of my new acquaintance had been directed to religion some few months previous to this; but though her mind was still very tenderly affected, yet she had ceased to pray. She appeared very much discouraged and very miserable.
“I have given up trying to seek God,” says she, “it does no good. I would give anything to be a Christian, but I never shall be!”
“You ought not to say that, my child,” said I, “You do not know that. I know you may be a Christian, if you will; for God has never said, seek ye my face in vain.”
“Well, sir, it seems to me that I can never be a Christian; I have that feeling; it comes over me every time I think about religion.”
“And is that the reason why you have ceased to pray?” “Yes, sir; my prayers will do me no good!”
“How do you know they will do you no good?” “Because I don’t pray with a right heart.”
“And do you expect to get a right heart without prayer?” “I don’t expect to get a right heart at all, sir.”
“Well, if you could get a right heart, would you get it without prayer?”
“I suppose not. But all my praying is only an abomination in the sight of God!”
“Does not God command you to pray, to seek Him by prayer; to seek His aid and favor?”
“Yes, sir; I know He does.”
“Then is it not a greater abomination in His sight when you neglect prayer, than when you pray as well as you can?”
“Perhaps it may be,” said she, sadly, “I don’t know; but if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”
“Then you had better not regard iniquity in your heart. You ought to give God your heart; you ought to repent; you ought to ‘cease to do evil,’ and ‘learn to do well.’
I then took up her Bible which was lying upon the table, and read to her, and explained the first five verses in the second chapter of Proverbs: the first ten verses in the fifty-fifth of Isaiah: and the twelfth and thirteenth verses in the twenty-ninth of Jeremiah. Then I appealed to her,— “Is it not plain that God requires you to pray? and is it not just as plain that He connects encouragements and promises with that requirement?”
“Yes sir, I suppose it is.” “Then, will you obey Him?”
“I would, sir,” said she, “if I had any heart to pray,” and burst into tears.”
Do you want to have a heart to pray?” “Oh, sir, I do wish I had one !”
“Then, cannot you ask God to give you such a heart? Cannot you go to Christ, and give up your heart to Him, and beg Him to accept you, since He loves to save sinners; and trust Him to put a right spirit within you, as He has promised to do?”
In this way, I reasoned with her out of the Scriptures for a long time.
It appeared to me that she was deeply sensible of her sins. She was evidently very miserable. She longed to be a Christian. But she was prevented from every attempt to seek the Lord, by the discouraging idea that her prayers would be useless, and were an offense to God. I had no expectation that she would gain any blessing without prayer, and therefore I requested her to listen to me, as calmly as she could, (for she had become much agitated,) while I should mention to her some things which I wanted her to remember. She tried to repress her emotions; and drying her tears, lifted her face from her handkerchief,—
“I will hear you, sir, very willingly; but you don’t know what a wicked heart I have.”
I proceeded,—
“The First thing I would have you remember is this: that your God commands you to pray. That is your duty. Nothing can excuse you from it. Wicked heart as you may have, God commands you to pray.
“The Second thing is, that God connects His promises with these commands. You have no right to separate them. The promise and the command stand together.
“The Third thing is, that when you do thus separate them (saying the promises are not for such wicked hearts as yours), and therefore refuse to pray, you are not taking God’s way, but your own. You are teaching Him, instead of suffering Him to teach you. Your duty is to take His way. His thoughts are not your thoughts.
“The Fourth thing, therefore, is, you are never to despair. Despair never yet made a human being any better; it has made many a devil worse. Hope in God, by believing what He says. You need not have any hope in yourself; but you may have hope in God, and you may pray in hope.
Never despair.
“The Fifth thing is, that your wicked heart, instead of being a reason why you should not pray, is the very reason why you should pray most earnestly. It is the strongest of all reasons. Pray just because you have a wicked heart. Such a heart needs God’s help.
“The Sixth thing is, that a great many persons have thought, and felt, and talked about prayer just as you do; and afterwards have found out that they were rnistaken, have prayed, and have become true and happy Christians. I could name to you, this moment, at least a dozen, whom I have known and have talked to, just as I do now to you. They have been persuaded to pray, and they are now happy in hope. If you will go with me, I will introduce you to some of them, and they will tell you their own story. Remember this: others just like you have found out their error. You may find out yours.
“The Seventh thing is, that your impression about prayer is a temptation of the Devil, it is a falsehood, a deception, a lie designed to keep you in sin and misery. Not that you think your heart worse than it is; but that you do not think God so gracious and merciful as He is, to hear the prayers of even such a heart. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you.
“The Eighth thing is, that this idea of yours (about not praying with such a heart), is just an idea of self-righteousness. You are ‘going about to establish a righteousness of your own, and have not submitted yourself to the righteousness of God. Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness.’ You wish to pray with such a good heart, that God will hear you on that account. This is pride, wicked, foolish pride, a spirit of self-righteousness, self-justification, and self-reliance. It is this which keeps you from prayer.
“Do you understand me?” “Yes sir, I think I do.”
“And are not all these things true?” “I don’t know but they are, sir.”
“Then will you pray? Will you begin now, today?” “Yes sir, I will try.”
For a time she faithfully kept her promise. Several times after this I conversed with her, and though she did not appear to me to become more unhappy, yet she did appear to me to become more truly convicted. Her conscience seemed to be more awakened. Her mind seemed to be more influenced by the principles of truth, and I fondly expected that she would soon find ‘peace in believing.’ But she did not. She yielded to the old temptation. She neglected prayer; and, in a few weeks, divine truths ceased to affect her!
I strove to bring her back to her closet duty, but in vain! Years have passed, she is still without hope!
What does it mean to be glorified? in John we find these terms used over and over again. John 13:31-32 – When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man GLORIFIED, and God is GLORIFIED in him. 32 If God is GLORIFIED in him, God will also GLORIFY him in himself, and GLORIFY him at once.
As I was leaving the place of a morning prayer meeting, which was attended, in a time of revival, very early in the morning; a young man about sixteen years of age came to me, and asked permission to accompany me home; for “he wanted to talk with me.”
“What do you wish to say to me?” said I. “Why—I want you to tell me what to do.”
“I have told you, again and again. I can tell you nothing different— nothing new. You must repent if you would be saved. You must give up your self-righteousness and flee to Christ. The Law condemns you. The sovereign grace of God only can save you. You must give up your miserable and long-continued attempts to save yourself. You must give God your heart, as he requires, and as I have explained to you already, many times.”
“Yes, I know that; but I am so distressed! I cannot live so! I want you to tell me something else.”
“I cannot relieve your distress. Christ alone can give you rest. I have nothing else to tell you. I have told you all the truth—all you need to know.”
“I thought,” said he, “perhaps you could say something, that would help me; if I went to your house.”
“So you have said to me more than once, and I have told you better.
God only can help you. You must rely on him.”
“But I should like to talk with you again about my feelings, in your study.”
“It would do you no good. You have nothing to say, that you have not said before; and I have nothing new to say to you.”
“Well—may I go home with you?”
“No. Go home. Man cannot help you. The whole matter lies betwixt yourself and God.”
He turned away, the most downcast creature I ever saw. It seemed as if his last prop was gone. He walked as if his limbs could scarcely carry him.
I had not been at home an hour before he came to tell me, that his burden was gone. He said, that after I “had cast him off,” all hope forsook him, and he “had nowhere else to go but to God.” Before he reached his home, (about a mile,) he had given all into the. hands of God; and he felt so much relieved of his burden of sin and fear, that he thought he “would turn right about, and come right back and tell me.”—“But,” said he, “I do not believe I should have gone to God, if you had not cast me off.”
Anxious sinners are often kept from Christ, by their reliance on men. A significant amount of religious conversation often diminishes their impressions. It tends to blunt the edge of truth. It keeps the heart in a kind of reliance on men. Conversation with judicious Christians and
judicious ministers is vastly important for inquiring sinners, but there is a point where it should cease. All that men can do is contained in two things—to make sinners understand God’s truth, and make its impression upon their hearts and consciences, as deep as possible. If they aim at anything more, they are just trying to do the work of the Holy Spirit.— Visiting among inquirers one morning, I called on five different individuals, one after another, in the course of a single hour, and in each case was sorry I had called at all: for in each case, after a very few minutes of conversation, I was fully persuaded that God’s truth was deeply felt, and that anything which I could say would tend to diminish the impressions, which the Holy Spirit was making on their heart. I aimed to say just enough not to have them think 1 did not care for them; and got away as soon as I could, for fear of doing an injury. Every one of these individuals afterward dated her religious hope from the same day.—No man can preach so powerfully as the Holy Spirit. It is vastly important to know when to stop. The divine writers understood this. They are perfect examples. Their silence is to be imitated, as well as their utterance.
Brethren,
There will be two Fellowship Conferences in the near future. On February 23-25, 2023, there will be a smaller one in New York. Visit https://illbehonest.com/fcny/ for more information.
Also, for the thirteenth time the Fellowship Conference will be held again in Denton, Texas on April 6-9, 2023. Registration for this conference opens on January 31. For more information go here: https://illbehonest.com/fellowship/
The videos from last year’s conference can be viewed here: https://illbehonest.com/series/2022-fellowship-conference
What is the purpose of these conferences? As the tagline says, “Fellowship, preaching, and singing that center on the glory of God.” In the past decade, countless numbers of people have come out of false doctrine and encountered the true Gospel. Many of these people were isolated and lacked fellowship, and the conference helped provide encouragement and an opportunity to build deeper relationships with other believers. As a result, more sound churches have been established, and we have all been able to fellowship with one another. So the Fellowship Conference, as its name suggests, focuses on fellowship with other believers as a significant reason for our gathering. It is also part of the reason why we’ve never posted ahead of time who is going to speak. We would much rather have people drawn to a conference to fellowship with other believers than to hear a specific man preach.
I ask you to pray for these conferences, that they will meet the needs of different believers and that the lost would come to know Christ.
James
Tim discusses six sobering lessons that we can learn from Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.
0:00 – Introduction and overview of Judas and the upper room discourse.
19:00 – Lesson 1 – Judas was someone’s son.
29:58 – Lesson 2 – Judas was not forced to do what he did.
41:29 – Lesson 3 – Judas’ heart desired to sin.
53:42 – Lesson 4 – Judas had the money bag and yet Jesus did not remove him from having such.
56:17 – Lesson 5 – Comparing Peter and Judas.
1:02:58 – Lesson 6 – The disappearance of Judas at night–what an incredible example of what can happen when you have the greatest truth and abandon it for the darkness.
Many times, we get guys who are looking for these rules about what it means to walk in the Spirit. The spirit is a place of freedom. It’s a place of freedom. Why? Because I have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Even if I fall into sin today, I am still forgiven. And so I’m not accepted by God on that basis. That’s already been dealt with. That’s taken care of. And now I’m free. I don’t have to walk around and do penance. Christians don’t have to wait until the day of atonement to make sure that all their sins have been atoned for. And we have freedom. And now we can use our freedom to be creative and come up with ways to love the brethren and love people in the world.
And if you just come up with some list of rules like you’re going to rigidly try to keep to walk in the Spirit. Often what happens is, “Oh, I need to live in the spirit. I’m going to.” So. So you’re thinking about living in the Spirit. It’s almost like it’s almost like that. That’s the opposite of what you need to be doing. It’s like that become so introspective and so absorbed with yourself. And what you’re really seeing here is it’s like Paul is saying, stop being absorbed with yourself and stuff, because that’s what people who want to be under the law and under the list and under the rules and under the rigidity are always doing. They’re thinking about what am I doing. How am I performing? And I got to do this to please God, and I got it rather than looking at the cross. Because the thing is, you’ll you’ll recognize in Galatians 1 and 3. Both start with Christ Crucified Christ dying. That’s the real focal point of the faith of this gospel that Paul’s setting forth. That’s why he said these guys are pursuing another gospel because they’ve moved away from that reality. They started by the hearing of faith. They started with their eyes set on Christ.
What happened? Judaizers came along and they said, you know, you guys really need to be thinking about other things here. And they pulled their eyes off of it. And the reality is we can pull our eyes off of Christ just as fast trying to come up with some new scheme. You know, you talk to one another. Well, what do we have to do to walk in the spirit? Well, I’ll tell you what to do. You know, you need to read this. This book over here. You know, you really want to do it. You know, you go to go to this conference over here and this is what’s going to really make you holy. And I’m not saying there’s anything necessarily wrong with going to a conference or reading a book, but you can get it in your head. You know, here’s the secret formula for walking in the spirit.
The formula for walking in the spirit is namely this. It is to absorb your life with Christ and have faith in him and trust. I’m accepted by him. You’re trusting there and your eyes are on him. That the Spirit is pleased to come along and in his mysterious way. I mean, how does where’s that channel that that the Spirit of God is here, But some in this room He may be pouring power in to more than others. And the one reality that you just can’t get away from in Scripture is that we receive and we are supplied by the Spirit of the hearing of faith. Right. And it’s faith in Christ That’s always the issue. If somebody is tapping the power of the Spirit more than others, their eyes are glued on Christ. Their hope is set more firmly. They’re embracing. They’re clinging to him, they’re crying to him, they’re looking to him. They’re hoping in him. They’re in the Scriptures, looking for him. They’re digging him out. Their delight is in him. Their thoughts are on him. And that’s where the spirit is pleased. And you see what happened to the Galatians relations. Have these teachers come along and they’re like, you know, they’re trained to they’re trained. They’re saying, look, you know, look over here. Look, look at this. Get your eyes off Christ. They weren’t saying it like that, but that’s what’s happening. It’s like their eyes are on Christ. But then they’re saying, you know, let your eyes follow my fingers over here. And next thing you know, their eyes aren’t on Christ anymore. And Paul’s saying, You foolish Galatians, where are you looking now?
Audience: I think of the Colossians that had all of the regulations they wanted to submit to, and Paul said that they were of no value and stuff in terms of the indulgence of the flesh.
That’s right. You see you have that man-made religion, all these rules and everything, but we know this the religion of God, the religion of the scriptures and the religion that the Spirit of God is most excited to throw his power into, or the only place he’s excited to throw his power into is that which glorifies Christ. And if we’re seeking any other way, any other means of sanctification. But the reality is that in all of this, it’s not just a matter of observing ourselves with Christ. It’s then as free people, we go out and we imitate him. I mean, you can’t just see him and then be passive, see him and be static. It’s see him. And he’s always saying, follow me. And then when you get to the end, it’s the people who did the things Christ did and lived like he lived and sought to love, like he loved, but sought to give of themselves sacrificially and deny themselves like he did. Who in the end, our hearing. Well done. Who are you hearing? I was hungry and you fed me. But I like Galatians 5:13 because it sets flesh over against love. Love isn’t some new legalistic rule in bondage that’s thrown on our shoulders. That’s not what it is. Love is is a freedom and it’s a spirit. A spirit raw fruit. And we bear fruit for God. I mean, that’s what scripture and that’s where Romans seven says, The reality is we had to get away from the law. We’re married to Christ. We belong to another to him who died and was raised from the dead so that we may bear fruit for God. We belong to him. We need to be married to Christ, intimacy with Christ. That’s how we bear fruit for God in John.
We are facing one of the great realities of salvation. Do you know what it is? The purpose of Christ is to save us from being selfish, self-important little people. This is all around us and it comes up in the church as well. There are people who are fighting for the throne rather than fighting for the towel. Small people, because Jesus says, you want to know the real path to greatness? There are also people who strive for greatness in the wrong places. What he’s really saying is, you’re not great. You’re the smallest of all people. Small people strive for importance.
It is possible to preach a sermon like this and have someone listen to it. Instead of hearing how it applies to you, you think, “Oh, I’m glad so and so is realizing they need to straighten out their life over there.”
My brethren, how disgusting it is to find people who are just hung up on what other people do or don’t do for them among those who are supposed to be imitators of Christ. Do you know what? There are thin-skinned people in the church who are always uptight. They are always angry. Something doesn’t seem right. It seems like people aren’t doing things in a way that appeases them.=
“Well, they didn’t greet me.”
“They didn’t talk to me.”
What happens next? People walk around, hurt. They walk around depressed and self-pitying. What’s the reason? I don’t get greeted by others. I am not talked to by them. I am not served by them. I don’t get anything from them. I am not respected by them. As a result, we get people who mope around. It makes them pout. As a result, they become childishly vengeful. “Well, if they’re going to treat me, that way, then I’m going to do this to them.”
You see what Jesus is saying, guys, You were just at that table and you guys were asked, Seriously, I’m going to the cross in a few hours. You guys are always there arguing about who’s going to be greatest. He walks around and washes all of their feet. What is it? Let me ask you this. What is it people that are pursuing when they want to be important when they want to be great, what are they after in this quest for importance? Well, you know what it is. People think that that’s where they’re going to find happiness. They’re going to be happy because they get recognized. They’re there. Someone knows. Somebody pats them on the back. But I think the thing we have to ask is, does it really bring fulfilled it? I mean, are your best days really the days that somebody complimented you for something? I know that could be encouraging. I’m not talking about encouragement here. I’m talking about people that are running around seeking to be great all the time and who are uptight when that doesn’t happen. People who are not willing to serve others, people who are constantly measuring everything by what they can get, get, get, get. That’s this mindset. I’m going to be great. I don’t know if Peter would have got to bent out of shape if one of the other guys might have to all of a sudden started washing everybody’s feet. Why? Because he was just arguing with that guy about who is going to be the greatest. And yeah, I might embarrass him a little bit, but people want to be happy. They think they’re going to find it this way. And you know what Jesus says in the midst of all of this? Listen to what he says. If you know these things, what things If you know these things, blessed are you. If you do that blessed. Blessed, that means you’ll be glad, you’ll be happy, you’ll be joyful, you’ll be fulfilled. If you know these things, if you know that the way to greatness is by serving others. And that’s the way to happiness and that’s the way to joy, and that’s to wish those things. If you really get that, it’s not having the highest position, it’s not getting people to talk about you. You remember what happened. Jesus looked at people that sought the glory of men, and he didn’t count that as a high thing.
This excerpt was taken from the full sermon Go Low like Christ The Upper Room Discourse Part 2 by Tim Conway.
Although Jesus was about to undergo the sufferings of the Cross, he was still loving his disciples until the end–what an amazing expression of his love.
Where in these five chapters just Jesus even bring up the fact that his own soul is troubled? Where does he even bring up his own suffering? You know what he doesn’t even bring up his own death except in an offhanded way that he’s going to the Father. Do you get my drift here? It’s like out of love–do you know what happens over these five (John 13-17) chapters? If you’re John if you’re James if you’re Peter it’s like wow you feel like you’re the center of the universe. Jesus is seriously enduring this kind of stress this kind of weight is on his shoulders and yet he takes these five chapters and it’s just summed up here he loved them to the end. That’s what we got here just turning his attention solely on these guys I mean how selfless can you get the expressions of his love for his disciples it’s just without equal. Would you think this would just be five chapters of self-pity right? Get the guys to cry on your shoulders with you that this is going to be so bad. Instead, you know what he’s concerned about? He’s concerned about building them up he’s concerned that with the trial he’s going to go through it’s going to be a massive trial for these guys too massive and he’s seeking to prepare them he knows he knows that these guys are going to be tempted to fall away.
From the full sermon: No Fruit Without Death | The Upper Room Discourse, Part 1 – Tim Conway
Why does Jesus say, “If I don’t wash you, you have no share with me”? It is clear that foot washing represents something, and if Peter rejects the sign, then he rejects the reality and, in doing so, rejects Christ’s teaching. Listen in as Tim studies this out and considers two primary lessons we can learn from this passage.
0:00 – Opening prayer.
0:56 – John 13.1-20.
5:05 – What do we have here? A living parable.
6:20 – What do we know about foot washing?
8:59 – Jesus turns the topic of foot washing into a matter of whether you belong to him or not.
10:25 – First lesson from the foot washing.
15:40 – A lesson about the dirt that we get on our feet.
21:45 – Second lesson taught from the foot washing.
32:54 – Jesus is calling all of us to go low and have humility.
38:20 – How much would you be missed if this afternoon you were taken out of this world?
41:38 – What does this portion of Scripture tell us about God himself?
46:49 – What was the Devil’s greatest tactic in the garden?
53:47 – Closing prayer.
Tim begins a series on John 13-17 in which he examines Jesus’ address in the upper room discourse.
0:00 – Introduction to the discourse of John 13-17.
5:57 – Jesus prepares his disciples to lead the charge to turn the world upside down.
9:24 – Is there no significance to the church?
15:03 – What will be my approach to this series of sermons?
15:48 – Take a moment to consider the setting in John 13-17.
20:06 – Taking a closer look at the context and timing of the events and taking note of what they indicate.
24:29 – Can you recall any time when you were in the presence of someone who was deeply troubled? How does Christ respond in such a troubling time?
27:12 – The public ministry of Jesus has come to an end.
32:33 – Jesus’ ministry has come to an end, and he has been rejected by most.
39:32 – What else is going on at this hour? Is the Devil being cast out?
42:33 – The Lord Jesus Christ’s ascension is near, fulfilling Psalm 24.
46:03 – The disciples are sitting there with freshly washed feet, hearing that Christ is returning for them.
46:39 – What is going on in John 12.20? Does it seem strange to you?
52:21 – What does it mean that the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified?
53:59 – As a result of Christ’s death, he will bring in souls–even Greeks, British, Americans, etc.
55:52 – What does Christ mean when he says that those who love their lives will lose them?
57:34 – Do you want to see Jesus?
1:02:12 – What are these disciples ready to do? Serving Christ and hating this world.
1:07:30 – So what is the upper room discourse all about? Let me give a brief summary.
1:07:51 – What do you have to die to, to be more fruitful as a member of this church?
1:12:14 – Closing prayer.
Does James chapter 4 exhort us not to make plans for the future? Being overly passive is bad, things don’t just happen by accident, you need to be intentional and plan ahead.
Does James 4 teach that planning for the future is wrong?The person with the question feels like James 4, speaking about not planning out our life because all such boasting is evil. And I would just say this: Is the passage from James actually saying that any sort of planning for the future is necessarily wrong. Or what is it saying? Does somebody want to look it up? Audience: Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. As it is you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is an. Tim: Does that forbid planning or does it, it is what it is actually forbidding, or saying that if you say what you’re going to do with such certainty, were you should actually check yourself with the humility to say, well, look, this is what I’m planning to do. But if the if the Lord wills, I want to be very careful. I don’t know if you all have experienced this, but if when I’m talking about the future, if I am to assertive about the future or I have noticed that as soon as I will say something to certainly about the future, it’s like right there, God’s going to say: Now it’s not going to happen that way. I recognize that pattern. Maybe you haven’t. I don’t think James 4 is teaching that we can’t have plans because even in the Proverbs, even though okay, I grant maybe Proverbs 29:18 isn’t the place you want to go when it comes to being a visionary. But I would say this. There are other Proverbs that definitely talk about making plans and talk about it in a positive way. Let’s look at some of these Proverbs 12:20. Whoever gets there, just go ahead and read it. Audience: The seed is in the heart of those who devise evil for those who plan, but those who plan peace have joy. Tim: There’s nothing wrong with planning right there. If I’m if I’ve got plans of peace, plans of good plans of righteousness, certainly there’s nothing wrong or twisted about that. How about Proverbs 15:22. Audience: Plans fail when there is no counsel but with many advisers they succeed. Tim: Yeah, I mean, that’s not denouncing plans. That’s saying if you want to be really wise, not only make plans, but make them with counsel, get other people’s opinions about things wise people’s opinions. Somebody look up Isaiah 32:8. Audience: But he who is noble, plans noble things and on the noble things he stands. Tim: Don’t you love that? That certainly isn’t condemning making plans. Not in the least. And you remember the apostle Paul. Remember, he ran into an issue with the Corinthians where they were kind of questioning him because he had made plans to visit them and then it didn’t work out. Does anybody remember that? And he said, What am I saying? Am I saying yes and no? Am I going back and forth here? And he’s saying, No, I made plans to come to you. And I meant to come to you. But it didn’t work out.
Passivity is bad, things don’t just happen.Look, let’s talk about this for a second. I really believe that over-passivity is bad. I believe it’s bad in the family. I believe it’s bad in business. I believe it’s bad in the church. I believe it’s bad for countries over passivity, where there aren’t plans, where people are not looking to the future. You know what? Things do not happen by accident. People who are most godly in the Christian walk don’t end up that way by accident. You want to look at the most godly people in history. You want to look at the ones whose names, you know, read their lives. Look at them. Do you think Hudson Taylor ended up on the foreign mission field by accident? Do you think William Carey just happened to jump on a boat one day and it just mistakenly took him over to India? Do you think that happened? These guys planned, you know, this, that men and women who have sought to walk most closely with the Lord they had…there like Mueller, who said it is my aim to get happy in the Lord each day. He had a plan, he had a goal, and he sought certain means to get there. How about John Wesley, who said, I am going to pray until I pray? And that was his practice every single day. You know, people don’t accidentally end up with great prayer lives. They don’t accidentally end up reading their Bible through once a year or twice a year. They don’t accidentally get to where they walk really close with the Lord. You don’t accidentally fast. You don’t accidentally end up being a godly person with a godly walk. That doesn’t happen. And you know what? What do we we should not go through life not asking questions like, where do I want to see my family in ten years? Where do I want to see the church in five years? Those are the questions you have to be asking. Because what people with goals, people with no goals, people with no vision, they don’t do much in life. They flop around because they never know where they’re going. People who succeed in this world, whether it’s in the realm of Christianity or whether it’s in the realm of business or sports, they don’t get there by accident. And people who succeed in the family, they didn’t get there. I mean, look, I remember when Ruby and I got married and when we were raising children. If Ruby saw a family where they had their act together, if Ruby saw where the children were well-behaved, the children were all safe. Ruby was over there speaking to that mother and finding out what she did. Why? Because she knows that doesn’t happen by accident. She knows that this lady did something this family did something to get where they are. If you don’t have goals, you don’t ever achieve them. Why? Because they didn’t exist. People who don’t have goals and people that don’t have plans and people that don’t have vision, they just end up sitting and passively waiting. And oftentimes they just end up going nowhere. These things don’t happen by accident. Paul had a vision. Paul had a plan. I mean, you look at it and you can see Paul had a strategy and you can hear his strategy. Do you ever hear there’s times when he’s saying, you know what, there’s no more room for me over here. I’m not going to build on another man’s foundation. I got to go over here. Why? He had a plan. He had a strategy. What was his strategy? His strategy was take the gospel to the big cities, to the highway crossings, the the the harbor cities, the influential cities, the places of commerce, the places of travel. Let’s take the gospel there to these main arteries. Let’s preach it. And see churches planted there. He didn’t evangelize. Everybody know that. But because that wasn’t his plan. His plan was you plant churches, okay, now works done works done for him. Now you move on somewhere else. There was a plan. There was. There was a purpose here. There was a trajectory he was aiming at.
Plans may get interrupted, but that doesn’t make them bad.Now it’s true. Okay. My purpose is this. He would tell people why don’t you know? I don’t want to go up there because I’ve got a purpose. I want to get back to Jerusalem by this time. Well, it’s true. He planned to get to Rome, and they were going to help him on his way to Spain. Well, he got to Rome another way then he thought. The Lord intervened. People with plans, those plans always get interrupted. But it’s not bad to have plans. It’s not bad to make your plans with counselors. The Lord may interrupted at any time. And we’re always as Christians, we’re going to be humbled. Submitted to that. Thy will be done. Because his will is going to be done doesn’t mean that we don’t do anything. It means that we’re always in the place where, if the Lord wills, I’m going to do this tomorrow, I’m going to go over here. I’m going to go over there. What’s wrong is when you leave, if the Lord wills out, not just in word, not just because it’s as a little appendage that you add on. It’s just this incantation that you say, It’s not like that. It’s coming from a heart that surrendered. This is what I’m planning to do. But what you’re expressing to people is the same thing you’ve expressed to the Lord in prayer. Lord, I want to do this and we want to do this. And, Lord, our objectives are going to be this. If you would have us to do it, if you don’t want us to go in that direction, than show us which direction you want us to go in. Just like Paul, he had a plan. Let’s we’re going to go up there and Asia and then he was he was prevented. And then, okay, now what do we do? And we go over here and then he has a vision and okay, now it’s going that way. And constantly you’re what constantly is what scripture says. You acknowledge the Lord. He’ll direct your paths. So we’re constantly we’re making plans, we’re strategizing, we’re looking, but we constantly lay those plans before the Lord and put. I mean, I think all the time saying, Lord, this is what I plan to do. This is where this direction we’re headed. And if you don’t want us to go in that direction, we serve the Christ who opens doors and nobody can shut those doors. And he closes and nobody can open them. And he he directs his people.
How do you get confirmation from your church about missions?Audience question: I’ve had numerous conversations with John S. where he’s talks about American Christians with regards to going on the mission field, that so many of them are hindered by this idea that if God is calling into the mission field, I’m going to have some big dream or get some special revelation from that. And I think he was just more taking the approach. Matthew 18 or Matthew 28, tells us just to go and maybe it’s a little different. Well, I would say this, that as we’re looking, there are things in my life where I’m making plans. But this thing about counsel and even though this you might not consider this to exactly be counsel, I think it’s roughly that. But if I’m thinking about doing certain things, but I recognize that the thing that I’m thinking about doing also requires that I be qualified to do it. Then there would be an expectation that the church would back up my desire to do that. There would be a confirmation amongst the people of God that, Yes, brother, you should be doing that. I mean, just to launch out and go run around and do things that the people of God, the community of God’s people are not recognized using, you ought to be doing. I think that’s like running without counsel. I mean, I think you’re just you’re here’s one of the things about the plans we make. One of the things about the plans I make is I would really like to succeed in doing those things. And I think you’re on your path to not succeeding if you’re running without being sent. And there is a sense in scripture of being sent. There’s no question about that. In fact, that’s that’s really where that apostolic word group or the missionary word group comes from, one being Latin, one being Greek. But it has that idea of being sent, you know, the well-known passages in Romans 10. There’s that sense of being sent. I think that there’s something to that. The reality is that the foreign mission field will chew people up and spit them out if they’re not ready and called to do that, do I think that everybody in the church should just head off to the mission field? Do I believe that there’s a sense in Scripture that everybody is called to that just because Matthew 28 says when it says that therefore everybody’s qualified for it? I don’t believe that at all. And I believe that if you send people to the mission field that are not qualified, you’re going to end up with problems and and I know a lot of you don’t know the early history with [names removed for security reasons] but they had Americans in the Far East and it they had to send them all back because they just were not prepared to be there. And I mean, the reality is Glenn is not a missionary. He’s not he’s not over in the country. He’s in doing missionary work. I mean, he’s over there working there. The reality is that the people going forth from our church, you know, there has been a sense of calling, a sense of sending. It may be true that you don’t need to see it written in the stars, but in the same way that a man senses a call to the ministry, there are ways that God communicates that. And I would say one of the primary ways is just through the support and recognition of God’s people. If that’s lacking, I would have a real difficult time believing that a person should run because it doesn’t have the feel that they’re actually being sent.
What confirmed your call to pastorate?Audience question: Pastor Tim, what confirmed it for you that like you were called to be a pastor. Tim: See, that was a big thing, God’s people. I remember driving to the church and David, they were going to vote on me out of Community Baptist Church. And I was saying to Ruby, you know what, if five people don’t vote for me? And she she finally just said, There’s no sense worrying. I don’t even know if you remember that. You remember driving there that day. Ruby: To Community? Tim: For some strange reason, we we came that little road. I don’t know if we missed our turn or we’re going to vote. The day they were taking the vote. Ruby: All I remember saying is, you don’t remember this, that I it just struck me the weight of it. And I said, Is it too late to change your mind? Tim: Here’s the thing. The Lord took me to Stockdale, and as I preached and sought to lead the group down there, God, God filled that little place to the point where Pat asked me if I wanted to pastor it. My desire was for the inner city, so I declined. But it was apparent that God was doing something. And then I had a real, there was one night I was walking the streets of Floresville. That’s where I lived. We were planting the church in Stockdale, but we were living in Floresville minutes away and walking the streets one night praying. It was just like the Lord really confirmed there was a real settled sense that He was taking me into the ministry. But I think ultimately it came down to God’s people saying, Yes, brother, we believe. We believe that’s what you should be doing. And so first step was the church. Unanimously, it was 100% voted yes, we believe you should be in the ministry. And then it was the elders, the five, the four well, probably three other elders at that time in the house who said, go plant a church in the inner city. And the church stood behind me and 11 others were willing to follow me. And so the Lord, the Lord confirmed that. But, you know, one of the things [named removed] has said is that, you know, one of the one of the things that God does in somebody that he’s raising up to lead and to preach to God’s people is they have a unique relationship with this book. And there’s no question about it. From the time of Lord Save Me, I had such a hunger for the word of God. I just I mean, I was in it all the time listening to sermons about it all the time. There was just such an insatiable hunger. And it was there were other factors, but those are some primary ones.
Where there is no vision the people perish?What about this verse? Where there’s no vision, the people perish. Well, you can look at that like, Oh, well, you know, when we have when we have you have governmental leaders, you have family leaders, you have church leaders. You know, we talk about their visionaries, oftentimes inventors or somebody, you know, they’ve they’ve got these goals. They’ve got a vision. We talk like that. And that’s how that text is. Often it’s looked at that way. Well, see, if you you know, if you don’t where you don’t have people with a vision for the future, the people perish. But that’s not that’s not the meaning of vision in scripture. I mean, vision in scripture has to do with revelation. It’s more like the reality that if you don’t have what’s a vision? A vision is like a prophecy. A vision is God giving revelation. Contrast experience has been blessed as he keeps the law. So it’s like people without, you know, a knowledge of. Right, exactly. People without a knowledge of God’s revelation, they perish. That’s for lack of knowledge. That’s the idea. And so I would agree with him that that couple there and this is this is common for people to take that passage out of the King James Bible and misinterpret it. If you just hear it from other translations, it it is a bit more obvious, the ESV: no prophetic vision, the people throw off restraint. The New King James, no revelation. People cast off restraint. The New American standard, no vision. People are unrestrained. The Holman Christian: Without revelation the people run wild. And yes, it’s over against the Proverbs are oftentimes they’re they’re comparing opposite ideas. Somebody look at 1 Samuel 3:1 You remember in those days there there was that revelation was lacking in that day there there was an absence of visions to me. Read that first. Audience: The boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli, and the Word of the Lord was rare in those days, and there was no frequent vision. The word of the Lord was rare, no frequent vision. And that’s bad. That’s bad when the word is absent, when God’s not raising up preachers, when God’s not giving revelation, when the word of God is not taken seriously, people run wild.
0:00 – Does James 4 teach that planning for the future is wrong?
3:44- The Corinthians accused Paul of making plans and not following through.
4:13 – Passivity is bad, things don’t just happen.
8:58 – Plans may get interrupted, but that doesn’t make them bad.
11:09 – How do you get confirmation from your church about missions?
15:30 – What confirmed your call to pastorate?
18:54 – Where there is no vision the people perish?
Have you ever asserted something is in the Bible without knowing for sure that it is? It is important that we take responsibility for affirming what one was uncertain of and maintain a high level of sensitivity to keep a clear conscience. The clip below shows Tim taking it seriously to maintain a clear conscience and not let what bothered him from the previous study be swept under the rug as if it did not matter.
James: Here’s a clip I edited from a 2019 Ask Pastor Tim Session. Tim was humble enough to clear his conscience about something he had said on the previous Tuesday. He acknowledged to us that he had affirmed something without for certain knowing if it was in fact in the Bible. This is just a good example to me of him living out Paul’s words in Acts 2416 of always taking pains to have a clear conscience.
Tim: If remembered, one of the questions that we had is, Is it right to say that God killed Christ? And, you know, we were talking about that. And I just felt convicted afterward. And I think I think James mentioned, “Yeah, just like the Bible says, that David killed Uriah.” Remember when he said that or something like that? And then, and then I said, yeah, like that. And, and then James, I think James kind of put a question mark on the end of that. Like I’m not really like he wasn’t really sure whether it said that. And I said, “Yeah, it says that, yeah.” It’s the kind of thing where you know, like I’m laying in bed that night and I thought I didn’t really know if the scripture said that, but I was affirming it. After James said that, I’ve got on the computer and I’ve looked. Well, it does say that, but I thought, you know, it’s like a little thing that other people and they might not even notice it happens, but it just bugs your conscience. Not only does it bug my conscience because I was affirming it when I didn’t exactly know it. And so there’s an honesty issue there. But even more, if I’m going to handle the word of God, I never want to be in a position where I’m telling you that something is so and I don’t really know, even if later on you look and it is so. But if I’m affirming it when I don’t know it and in any way, it kind of it happened because I thought James knew. But then when he kind of put the question mark on the end and I’m affirming it, it was like, I shouldn’t have affirmed that because I didn’t know. But anyway, I wanted to hit that first. And the where. Does it say specifically? You can look at it, it’s it’s 2 Samuel 12:9 I believe that it which you remember what David did was he basically had Joab put Uriah on the front lines and it was actually the enemies of Israel shooting from the walls who killed Uriah. And yet when the prophet Nathan comes to David, you have it there, James. You can read it. “You have you have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and it’s taken his wife to be your wife. And have killed him with the sword.” There it is right there. You kill them. So anyways, proves the point. But also I just for conscience sake, wanted to make clear that when I affirm that I really didn’t know. So onward.
The Fellowship Conference is organized to help bring believers together for like-minded fellowship around the things of the Lord. For more information and registration: https://illbehonest.com/fcny/ When? February 23-25, 2023
The reason today exists is that God wants more people to be saved than are currently saved. He’s willing to prolong human history to get them into his kingdom. Every morning as you rub the sleep out of your eyes, you should be aware of the fact that today is a time for evangelism.
It says the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness. But is patient towards you not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Now, what’s Peter doing? He’s reminding us that there’s two kinds of slowness in the world. We’ll use a landlord to illustrate them. You have got one landlord who doesn’t come to pick up the rent, and the reason he doesn’t come to pick up the rent is the same reason he doesn’t come to fix the roof or the faucet. It’s because the guy’s lazy. It’s because he’s just negligent. It’s because he’s not motivated to do what he said he would do. So he’s slow to pick up the rent. For the same reason, he’s slow to do everything else. Then you got another guy who’s on top of picking up on the rent, but he knows you don’t have the money. And he’s like, I’ll wait another week. But his waiting is not because of his negligence, but because of your need. He is waiting for your good. Not because of his negligence. And in the case of God. The reason he allows evil to go on so long. The reason he allows the day of God not to happen so fast is for this. So that more and more and more people can repent. He’s patient. Peter will say later in the chapter, “Count the patience of God as salvation.” Beloved, what this meant to me as I was thinking about this week was this.
The reason today exists is so that the people I know can be saved. The reason there is another day is so that the people of Tunisia or Egypt or Morocco can hear the gospel. The main reason today exists is not primarily, I’m saying primarily, so that you can fit in all the things you need to do in your 80 years. The reason today exists is that God wants more people to be saved than are currently saved, and he’s willing to prolong human history to get them into his kingdom, which means that every time you rub the sleep out of your eyes, there ought to be this awareness today exists for evangelistic purposes. Because of God’s patience, the heavens have not been destroyed, the final judgment has not yet come. And as one preacher put it. Alistair Begg actually, if that word is to grip us for a minute, maybe we would even just all leave the service right now and start calling friends and family who we know are under the imminent judgment of God, but unbelievably have been given another day to repent and maybe the phone call would look something like this.
“I know you know I’m a Christian, but I’ve been want to talk to you about this, having a chance to talk to you about this. Can I talk to you about it right now? Can we have coffee this week? I just don’t want to presume on the patience of God. For him time is long, but for me, it’s very short. And he’s extended this day so that you can be saved.”
From the full sermon, “Looking Forward to the Second Coming Amidst the Scorn of Scoffers“.
That work that Jesus is talking about is the business of saving souls, furthering the gospel, and advancing the kingdom. It’s often hindered by procrastination. You see that in John 4:35. “Do you not say, ‘There is yet four months and then comes harvest’?” Procrastination. In farming oftentimes things it’s about that much time four months, 120-day corn you know from planting to harvest and maturity. And so he says don’t say that don’t think that way that…
Maybe sometime it’ll be in the future, there’ll be time to see a harvest in the future.
Sometimes I’ll be able to be used by God,
maybe sometime I’ll take on this and memorize the book of the Ephesians.
Maybe sometime in the future I’ll do this or that.
Procrastination is a very big thing in hindering us from doing the work of Christ in the business of souls. The Lord had an urgency about Him. I must be about my father’s business. And again and John 9, we must work the works of him sent me and accomplish his work. Oh, there’s. It’s so easy to have so many excuses. I can remember for myself after I resigned my work with DeKalb Company and went for eight months up in Canada with Keith McLeod. Then I came back. Living at home was driving a gravel truck for Vaylard Zupke. It was just 20 miles from the town in which I grew up. The farm community where I grew up in just 20 miles away. And I thought at different times about going over there… I never did get over there. And now I look back and I wish that I had just started out from where I grew up and gone right up and down every gravel road, combed them, plowed them, gone to every door and knocked on every door and just sad what this woman said, “Come, see a man…” Come see a man that saved me, that told me that everything that I did that dealt with my sin…come see a man, I have been saved! All that I had to done to say that go from door to door. Now most of them are dead and I’m afraid perished in hell.
At the time I was thinking, well, sometime in the future, some I don’t have a ministry yet. So sometime in the future when I have a ministry, then I can do things like that. It was wrong thinking. Yet, four more months… Then I’ll do it. No, right now. Now is the time, right? If I just started right there, it would have been my ministry right there, you see. May the Lord help us to not be hindered by procrastination. Often the hardest part of any job, whether it’s prayer or studying your math, is just getting the book out and getting started. Haven’t you seen that so many times? Why this job wasn’t as hard as I thought it’d be, the hardest part was just getting started and getting over that ‘yet four months’ mentality. The Lord says, Lift up your eyes here in verse 35 Here’s what you say. Now I say to you: Lift up your eyes. Look on the fields. They’re white. They’re ready. They look at them coming. People are all around. Souls are everywhere. Needs are everywhere. You’ve got the truth. Don’t say, “Yet four months.” Come on, right now. Lift up your eyes. Get a vision. Go to another country like Susan did if you’ve got to. And see the masses of humanity that have never heard the name of Jesus, that are still thinking that baptism saves them or whatever like that, we have the truth, we’ve got the answers. The world waits. Oh, Lord, here I am. Send me, use me. You see? Don’t take this idea of “yet four months.”
The time is going by so quickly. So quickly. Just the other day we planted a cantaloupe patch and now here it’s all over. The harvest is over. The summer’s gone. Just like that. You see, Jeremiah says the summer is over the harvest is ended and we’re still not saved. So quickly our youth goes by. I can remember when I was driving that gravel truck for Vaylard I was 25 years old, standing there on a pile of dirt waiting for the loader to come or something. And here I am, 25. Old Carl was riding with me, Vaylard’s dad. He was 75. Boy, there’s a lot of years ahead of me. I’m 25. He’s 75. But just like that, here I am at age 56, where did it go? What happened? And you see, I remember when I was converted, I, I kept hearing other people say the time is short, our life is short, time is brief, it’s fleeting, fleeting, fleeting. And I remember different times purposing and in my own mind, “I’m not going to…” I’m going to try to redeem the time to the best of my ability and not have regrets when I come to the end. But it doesn’t matter how hard you try, it still happens anyway. It still goes by so fast and you feel like you could have done, should have done, so much more.
This excerpt is from the full sermon, “The Work of Christ”.
In this Q&A from 2002, Paul was asked what discourages him the most in his own personal life.
Are you content with God’s providence in your life? In God’s economy is there truly any “wasted time”? If God in his providence put me there then it is not a waste, there is no waste in God’s economy of building people to be like Christ.
In the last message of this series, we will consider Genesis 18, and how the Lord tested Abraham. All that the Lord was teaching Abraham was leading up to this point.
The Lord has been in the process of teaching Abraham, and showing him truths about Himself that he wants his people to know.
I’ve talked to so many men who think that their lust problem, their masturbation problem, is a 15-minute-a-day problem. I honestly think it’s related to the other 23 hours and 45 minutes where there’s a complete lack of self-control. It’s just for 15 of those minutes, you’re alone. But a great growth in self-control, in general, will result in greater victory in the particulars.
Again, think about the way the Bible speaks about fighting sin. Colossians 3:5 Paul literally is put to death the members of your body. Romans 6. Let not sin, therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. You and I have bodies full of sinful passions, even after our hearts are made new, the spirit is within us, our bodies are ground zero for the desires of the flesh. Our sinful desires do not float like clouds that cover us in a sin mist. No, it is bodily that we experience temptation. Our bodies are good creations of God, but they are fallen and they are in need of a good resurrection. And until that resurrection, we fight all the laws that are present in our physical bodies. This may seem too physical to you, but I tell you what. You’ll get more victory thinking this way.
What do we need to do to avoid sin in our hearts? We need very often to exert extreme control over our bodies. Think about some of the passages in the Bible that speak about dealing with sexual sin. They always involve how you use your body. First Corinthians 6:18. Flee from sexual immorality. What does that mean? Don’t be where sexual immorality is. Is sexual immorality present?
Is she just one arm’s length away from grabbing your tie and kissing you run away from there.
Is he trying to seduce you aggressively?
Get out of there. Flee. Run away. Joseph should not have settled down beside Potter for his wife to do his devotions and some evangelism. It was right to run. Running is the most spiritual thing you can do when in the presence of imminent sexual immorality. Think about job. He controlled his eyes. I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then can I look at a young woman? A woman approaches you. She’s decided that you’re going to look at half of her breasts based on what she’s wearing. What will you do? You stare straight in the eyeballs and treat her like the child of God. Or at least the woman made in God’s image that she is. And you do not look or sin. Notice this brothers or sisters fighting for the purity of our hearts involves the body. But not just any body. But your body. Did you notice the way the passage speaks to us? It’s so radical and free of legalism. Is it striking? If you’re right eye causes you to stumble. You gouge it out. And if your right-hand causes you to stumble, you cut it off. But guess what? What makes you stumble might not be what makes me stumble. And what makes you stumble might not be what makes me stumble. And very often what we do is we get a little. You know, one guy says, you know what? Whenever I’m on Netflix. I can’t just scroll through it. The minute I see someone scantily clad, I’m pushing that thing. I’m looking for the the movie with nudity. I’m all in. And so what does he does do? He tells all of Christendom that they can’t watch Netflix. Thank you. Your Phariseeism. We appreciate you how helpful you’ve been to all of us. You have to recognize where you struggle and then you have to get severe. Wherever you struggle. You need to get radical. You need to do a postmortem on the last time you fell. What happened? Where was I? What was I looking at? What enticed me? And I need to make no provision for my flesh in those ways.
This last Wednesday, we saw a couple who had fallen into sexual immorality, restored and gloriously baptized. We saw a man who is cheating on his wife, disciplined. After the meeting, I had another man walk up to me and tell me, you know, I’ve quit three jobs in my life to avoid sexual immorality. Now, you might say, Well, maybe you should just build some boundaries before you need to quit. Well, that’s probably true. But he’s still a married man. It seems extreme to do many things that it will take to stay pure, but it will not seem extreme in eternity. I can’t tell you how much “Must See TV” I’ve missed over the years. Am I missing out? My wife and I do not think so. Are you watching anything that would cause you to last? Don’t even finish the season. Are you wearing clothes that get the attention of the wrong kind of guy or give you the wrong kind of joy? Put something else on and throw those clothes in the trash. We must all fight to the death to walk in the purity of heart. Jesus calls us to.
This excerpt was taken from the full sermon Fighting Lust preached by Ryan Fullerton at Immanuel Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky.
Chad Thompson | Part 2 of the 2022 Men’s Retreat series on the Life of Abraham. View part 1 here.
Before we move on, I want to make sure we notice something. What is lust? Lust is adultery. What is lust? It’s desiring what adultery would accomplish but doing it in our minds. Meditating on it, enjoying it, taking it in, in our minds. That is what lust is. It is adultery. But I want you to notice that what Jesus is teaching here indicates a tremendous care on God’s part for the part of you no one ever sees. He’s not just after your public obedience. He’s not just up after you keeping up appearances. He’s not just after you keeping yourself out of trouble. He’s not just after you giving a stiff arm and keeping the family together. He’s after your heart. What’s happening inside of you that no one but God can see? That’s what Jesus is after. He’s after the very depths of your being. Who you are in the hidden place as more than one Puritan said I am sure, Is who you are before God, and that is it. The modern ethics of our day says. If you want to do something, it doesn’t hurt anybody. There’s no problem with that. If you want to smoke pot, no one gets hurt. That’s no problem. This kind of thinking is a problem for at least two reasons.
First, we might not be as good at knowing what isn’t hurting people as we think.
The second and by far the most important problem with this kind of thinking is that it says, if I’m not hurting anyone, then what’s the big deal?
Well, the problem is that it misses that we were meant not for ourselves, not for our neighbors, but for God. What are your actions doing to God? Do you know there’s no one more. Sensitive in the universe to what’s happening in your heart than God, not you, not your spouse, not your closest friends. God is intimately and actively and continually aware of every motion of your heart. He knows you better than you know yourself, and he cares more than you care about what’s happening where no one can see. Our inner world was made for God’s pleasure. Our inner lives are ultimately not private. They are always open to the one who knows all things. And he is deeply interested in what is going on in our hearts. It’s true that if you fantasize about another man’s wife, you may never act on those fantasies. But your thoughts are known to God and he cares about what you’re thinking. He cares about the one you’re thinking about. He is out to preserve his or her dignity. Sanctity, holiness more than you are. And He wants the holiness and dignity and integrity of every single human being that was ever made. He wants that upheld in every mind that was ever made. God wants to be exalted everywhere. God wants to be everything in everyone. He wants to be adored and glorified, and he wants his truth to be perceived in the remotest mind. The most hidden secrets of the heart. When he says: This is my image. He wants everyone to say to stand at attention and say and I will treat it as such. It’s not my plaything. It’s not my place for perverted pleasures. It’s yours God. Everyone I look at is yours and me, the one doing the looking. I am yours to everything belongs to God Everything is for God. God is everything. God is the most important thing in every single circumstance and in every mind. And so adultery in the mind is adultery, because the one who’s offended by adultery is God. We’ve got all these politicians telling us that broken families destroy civilizations. It’s absolutely true. And it’s so secondary. The great sin of adultery is the sin against God. It’s God who matters in any and every motion of our hearts. The Bible says, Man looks on the outward appearance. The guy looks clean cut. That guy looks faithful. That guy looks like he’s got it together. That person puts on a good front. Man looks on the outer appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. What does he see? God wants to create people who aren’t acting. He wants to create a new people who aren’t faking it. God wants to create people who love Him and love His commands from the heart. The goal is not that you convince your parents you’re pure and then you sneak into sin. The goal is not that you convince your spouse that you’re pure or your church that you’re pure, and then you sneak in to sin. The goal is to be known by God and for God. To say Blessed is the pure and heart. They will see God. What are you going to do on your first day in hell? Exult that you tricked everyone but God? Will that be your comfort? As the weeping and gnashing of teeth begins? Everybody thought I was pure. Everyone except the one who mattered.
Christian… When Jesus calls you to flee lust, he is calling you to what your heart most deeply wants. Remember, you can’t separate the parts of the Sermon on the Mount. It’s a sermon that was written for the poor and heart, for those who are pure in heart, for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. It’s a sermon for the born again. There was one book ahead in my library called Sermons for the Spiritual Man Sermons for Christians. That’s what the Sermon on the Mount is. It can affect an unbeliever like me. Sure it can. It can save an unbeliever like I was the first time I read it. But it’s for the regenerate. It it’s for the born again. It’s saying your heart has been made new. It wants to be pure. It hungers and thirst for righteousness. Now here’s what I want of you. Eliminate lust from your heart ax it out, chop it out, gouge it out. Do whatever it takes, eliminate it utterly. You will never be happier. Because your heart will be what it was meant to be. A sanctuary for communion with the Almighty, with the Savior, with the Prince of Peace, with the Lord of Love. And Beloved if you hear Jesus commands to keep all your lust out of your heart, and you’re still planning that hook up, still keeping that girl’s number in your pocket, still planning to look at that pornography, still planning to dress immodestly, to feel someone else’s desire for you. Then I want to tell you what Jesus told a man one night in the Gospel of John. You must be born again. You need a new heart. You need a new set of desires implanted in your soul. You can hear Jesus commands all you want, but if you are dead in your trespasses, and sins. They will never have any appeal to you, you must be saved. You must be born again. Christianity is supernatural. It comes in and it makes new people. And those new people want what Jesus has got. They long for the teaching He brings.
This excerpt was taken from the full sermon Fighting Lust preached by Ryan Fullerton at Immanuel Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky.
Believer, are you overflowing with praise to God because of the truth of your adoption?
» View: I Was Predestined To Adoption: Praise God!
That alarmed me and shamed me. I thought, then, that if there was no escape from men here, there could be no escape...
» View: I Found No Escape From God’s Pursuit Of My Soul
Just make me like Jesus. I never knew it would hurt so much not to be made like Jesus, because I'm not made like Jesus yet, but to be in the process.
» View: Humility: Make Me Like Jesus
Jesus, who is peace, preached peace, and now we are at peace with one God. Our peace with God should also reflect our conduct among believers and promote unity within the church.
» View: Peace Was Preached by Him Who Is Peace, And Now We Have Peace
“I have taken Him at his word.” It struck me in an instant, as a triumph of faith. "God knows I have taken him at his word...
» View: Simplicity Of Faith: Take God At His Word
Today we are asking in what ways does the book of Genesis speak of Jesus, the son of God? Where did Moses write of Jesus in Genesis?
» View: Where Did Moses Write of Jesus in Genesis?
What does the Bible say about joking and laughter in the life of the believer? We consider some of the following questions...
» View: What Does the Bible Say About Joking And Laughter?
Are you wasting a lot of time studying false teachers rather than studying the truth of the Word of God?
» View: Do I Waste Too Much Time Studying False Teachers?
Often people will say, "It is too difficult for God to save me, I am too far gone." This is a statement of unbelief in the power and mercy of Christ.
» View: It Is NOT Too Difficult For God To Save You
What is the purpose of a series on Abraham? In this first sermon we will consider Abraham's call within redemptive history.
» View: Abraham Part 1: Abraham’s Call Within Redemptive History
This bow and it's drawn back and it's bent and he's ready to fire. But he doesn't want to fire. He's pleading with them, calm. Don't make me shoot you."
» View: God Is Pleading With You: Don’t Make Me Shoot
Jesus Christ Is Ready, Willing, And Able to Save Sinners. Now with a title like that you might think I am giving an evangelistic message.
» View: Jesus Christ Is Ready, Willing, And Able to Save Sinners
Is there something or someone I am unknowingly coveting? Do I unconsciously covet riches and prosperity?
» View: Am I Unknowingly Coveting Something?
Where will you be in a hundred years? The sword of God's righteous wrath is lowered right now--is the time to return to the LORD.
» View: The Sword is Lowered Right Now: Return To The Lord
What is some advice you can give to me when fighting besetting sin? What about when I feel like the temptation is just too difficult?
» View: “This Temptation Is Just Too Difficult” – Battling Besetting Sin
Matthew 24 speaks about of "the abomination of desolation", what is this speaking to? There are certain passages of Scripture, like Matthew 24...
» View: What Is The Abomination of Desolation?
And so I ask you lost person, has he done you any wrong? Why do you strike him? What is the Lord done in your life...
» View: Stop Striking Christ, Start Trusting Him
Christian, if you lay aside your Bible you are in a dangerous place. God's Word is always true, despite what we feel, whatever God says is true.
» View: What God Says Is True: I Shall Not Want (Psalm 23)
Do the laws created by the government need to be derived from Jesus' teachings? Does the Bible call for us to seek to bring this about?
» View: Should The Government Create Laws From Christ’s Teaching?
When it comes to reading the Bible, what could you say to someone who is physically sick and finds it difficult to read?
» View: Do You View God The Father Too Harshly?
What does the bible say about cutting ties with toxic family members who are having a negative effect on us?
» View: Is It Okay To Cut Ties With Toxic Family Members?
When we come to know Christ we tend to get rid of the "big" sins, but then often we start to tolerate what some call, "respectable sins".
» View: There Are No Small Sins, Repent of “Respectable Sins”
How should we read the Bible? In this study, Tim talks about different things the believer should have when they come to read and study the Scriptures.
» View: How Should We Read The Bible?
Has it ever struck home to you that there is something you need to forsake and say, "No more!"
» View: Enough! I’m Putting The Lord First
Character matters, Joseph forgiving his brothers was significant; rather than responding in anger towards his brothers.
» View: Character Matters: Significance of Joseph’s Forgiveness
Do you consider your ways? Are you investing your time and energy into the Lord's work or is it all about self? What are your priorities?
» View: Consider Your Ways: What Are Your Priorities?
Paul says there are spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Do you ever stop and think about the spiritual warfare that is happening all around us?
» View: Spiritual Warfare – Are You Aware Of The Battle?
Like the youth of today, Josiah too lived in an evil day, and yet it is said of him that he truly followed the Lord. He is an example to young men...
» View: Josiah’s Example Is A Call To Young Men
Though someone is on fire for God, their fire is not necessarily my fire. My life in the end is not going to be evaluated by the life of another.
» View: Don’t Get Lost In The Church Crowd, Where Are YOU At?
How would you define someone who is wicked? How does the Bible represent them? According to the Bible, the wicked forget God and do not seek him.
» View: Keep Seeking God, Don’t Turn Back
What word does God give to a nation in revival? In Zephaniah, we find God's message to those in the midst of Josiah's revival...
» View: A Startling Message To A Nation In Revival
How does the believer pursue holiness and yet not become self-righteous? How do we combat self-righteousness and pride?
» View: How To Pursue Holiness But Not Become Self-Righteous?
Faith embraces what is not seen. Think of all that you and I have not received as believers and yet we are by faith trusting the Lord that these realities will come to pass. He sees when we see what this world can’t see and we act on it. And you know what? God is pleased when we do that and He is displeased is when we do not act by faith.
I ask you this? What’s not seen? Well, as he develops this. One of the things it’s not seen is creation. You do recognize this? That so often an issue. I would challenge you to do this sometime. Just simply read your Bible from Genesis to Revelation. With a pen in hand and mark every single place in your Bible where it talks about God being the Creator, you will be overwhelmed. There are so many places. It is mind-boggling. Why do we believe that God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing? Because God’s Word says so. And it says so over and over and over and over again. And were you there? And did you see it? No, you did not. What is not seen?
» View: Faith Is Based On What Is Not Seen
The Holy Spirit within the believer marks the beginning of the progressive sanctification process for the believer.
» View: Process Of Progressive Sanctification
How well are you evaluating and discerning the signs of the times? What is the condition of the church?
» View: Evaluating The Signs Of The Times
What is Biblical Christianity? The great heart of Biblical Christianity, preached by the apostle Paul, and inspired by the Holy Spirit...
» View: What Is Biblical Christianity?
How did King David begin his day? If so we can peer in and see how he often did then could we not glean something about how to imitate this man of God?
» View: How Did King David Begin His Day?
As believers, we require the Holy Spirit's help when we pray. Do you rely upon the Spirit when you pray?
» View: We Require The Holy Spirit’s Help When We Pray
What does the calamity in Luke 13 mean for you and your church? How should we respond? How does Jesus respond?
» View: The Greatest of Calamities
Billy McCurrie went from being a terrorist to evangelist; hear as he shares about how the Lord Jesus saved his soul.
» View: From Terrorist to Evangelist: Billy McCurrie’s Testimony
Geoff describes the progression of apostasy that happened in someone's life. They started reading an anti-Christian, atheistic site...
» View: Read Anti-Christian Site, Left Church, Left Faith, Left Wife
Do you have an objective like Paul's, to keep the faith and to not abandon Christ?
» View: Keep The Faith And Finish The Race
How can I discern between my heart genuinely being moved by the truth versus emotionalism?
» View: A Heart Genuinely Moved By Truth vs Emotionalism
Galatians 5:4 says, "You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace."
» View: Severed From Christ & Fallen From Grace
Look it is the only way that people are going to come to a place of salvation. Then there ought not to be silence from our lips.
» View: There Ought Not To Be Silence On Our Lips
How does a Christian experience fellowship and communion with God?
» View: How Do I Experience Fellowship With God?
How should I share the gospel with an atheist? So I was saved about two years ago from, well, atheism, and I have a pretty atheistic family.
» View: How To Share The Gospel With An Atheist
I want you to sit absolutely still. I don't want you to move or plan or decide or look away. Nothing...I want you to bring nothing to Him.
» View: Sit Absolutely Still | Jesus Has Done It All
Do you find any godly man or woman praying in scripture and they don't expect an answer? What does that mean if you're praying but you don't expect an answer?
» View: Do You Pray and Not Expect An Answer?
What do you find when you go to the book of Nahum? You find that it reveals God is dangerous and that God is good.
» View: God Is Dangerous But Good
Are you satisfied with what Jesus has done on the cross? Or are you saying, "Jesus died, yes, but I must..." You must what?
» View: Are You Satisfied With What Jesus Has Done?
How can we cultivate God's presence, and have a more real sense of God's presence?
» View: How to Cultivate God’s Presence in My Life?
Has the gospel given you a reason to lose your life? Can you say that the Gospel is absolutely everything to you?
» View: Has The Gospel Given You A Reason To Lose Your Life?
Ryan Clarke: What does it mean to say behold? It means to stop. Stop. Gaze upon him. Gaze upon this Christ. There he is. The Lamb of God. Who came to take away the sin of the world. This sacrifice is sufficient. This sacrifice this morning is sufficient to wash away your sin.
Geoff Thomas: I never want you to think in terms of ”Oh, I’ll do things!” Til to Jesus’ work you cling by a simple faith. Doing is a deadly thing. Doing lands in death. Sit. Survey.
Billy McCurrie: In the Lord Jesus. God is pleased to pardon and accept those who believe even though we have sinned and deserve only condemnation. My friends, you see how different this is from the story of religion.
Tim Conway: Have you found something in the gospel that makes you consider this life altogether differently? Has some glory jumped out at you and grabbed hold of you to where it constrains you. Now there is a glory in this message. There is something marvelous. There is something in this Christ revealed in this message.
» View: Sit And Behold The Cross of Christ | Fellowship Conference UK
This video follows Emily Tiegreen, a now widowed mother, as she observes the faithfulness of God during a season of suffering multiple miscarriages...
» View: God’s Faithfulness To A Widowed Mother
What is the evangelistic responsibility of the church? Are you obeying the command to go and evangelize?
» View: Evangelistic Responsibility Of The Church: Go!
Can you give Biblical advice on how to battle in spiritual warfare? How do I win spiritual battles?
» View: How Do I Win Spiritual Battles?
Another secret reality that belongs to God can be summed up in this question: Am I one of the elect? Has God chosen me?
» View: Am I One Of The Elect? Has God Chosen Me?
So we see in his life that Jesus both weeps as well as warns. The Lord Jesus was full of pity and compassion and wept and shed tears...
» View: Jesus Weeps As Well As Warns
Are there mysteries that God has kept a secret? Deuteronomy 29:29 says, "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong...
» View: Six Mysteries God Has Kept A Secret
In an hour of trial, the disciples failed despite the privileges they had. They had spent three years in the presence of Christ and seen Lazarus rise from the dead.
» View: The Failures of The Privileged Disciples
When we reflect on the praying Christ and his humanity we come away realizing all the more that there is no way that you and I can face any day without prayer.
» View: The Praying Christ and His Humanity
He never missed a quiet time all his life. Never missed it. years without missing his morning prayers, the alarm would go.
» View: Never Missed a Quiet Time in 40 Years, But…
Nothing can be the object of saving faith except what God has revealed in His Word. So what has the Lord revealed in His Word?
» View: What Is The Object of Your Faith?
Song of Solomon 4:9-10. I want to speak on the theme, A Parable of Love. Although I've selected this as our main text.
» View: A Parable of Love (Song of Solomon)
At times the life of faith might feel risky and dangerous. We are people who don’t like risk, but we crave security and long to have control over our situations. We don’t like being exposed and vulnerable and yet inevitability that is where a life of faith brings us. The Lord will put you and me in situations to test if we really believe in the Lord right here and right now.
0:00 – Is the life of faith risky?
4:46 – Six characters from Hebrews 11 who exercised faith in God.
18:30 – Do you think about the faith Jesus exercised?
20:50 – How do we apply this to ourselves? 1) These are not examples of blind faith.
24:54 – 2) These are not examples of reckless presumption.
26:52 – 3) They were actually the safest when their actions appeared the riskiest.
30:40 – 4) Expect challenging tests in your life.
35:38 – Can I believe those same promises for myself?
[The following is an unedited automated transcript of what Geoff Thomas shared at the prayer meeting prior to the Fellowship Conference.]
I draw your attention to Philippians 4 and the very well-known words in verses 4-7. Rejoice in the Lord always, again, I will say rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Three things here that characterize us, characterize each Christian is joy in the Lord. We sing hymns and they don’t sing in Buddhist temples or in mosques, and then listen to a cantor singing in a synagogue. But we sing boys and girls, men and women, families, individuals. We sing. We are expressing our joy. We rejoice in the Lord. And secondly, a Christian is characterized by gentleness. It’s it says self-control. It’s self-discipline. We’re not wild-eyed fanatics. We’re not extremists. We are gentle. You know, welcoming one another and the way we share meetings and speak. And then thirdly, we’ve been delivered from neurotic anxiety We are not men and women who are paralyzed with worrying. We are not losing sleep about things that don’t matter. There are three or four areas he’s talking about here. He’s talking about trivial “What am I going to wear?” “I going to wear I can’t wear this color.” “I can’t wear these training shoes next summer.” They were last year we worry. Kids worry about trivial. And again, we worry about things we can’t control. You know, you wish you would an inch or three inches taller worrying about it won’t had an inch to your stature. Will I live to get my pension? I paid into it all of the time. Worrying won’t make you last a day longer. You worry when the thunders roll that your house is going to be struck by lightning. Will my examiner, who now has the papers that I’ve sent in, will he will he be fair and just? Is the baby in my womb OK? And we worry things we can’t control. If you worry about things like that, then what will change? Will things change? And thirdly, there are problems that have not yet materialized and you worry about what might happen about tomorrow. This might happen. There might be a world war your company may closed down. There’ll be a rebellion in the church. This might happen. That might happen. Jesus has sufficient until the day. Is this even added to today’s worries with tomorrow’s possibilities? And then the fourth thing about which we are not to be anxious are the things that will take care of God says I will supply all your needs in Christ Jesus. And you know, if you say, Well, my mother was a worrier and I am a worrier and I’ve got a worrying disposition. It’s not because you’re more sensitive than others of us. It’s that you’re not believing. You’re not trusting. Oh, ye of little faith. Jesus says, oh what peace we often forfeit and what needless pain we bear because we don’t carry everything to God in prayer. So we are to cast our cares on Him. That’s what he’s there for, to receive our cares. Jay Adam’s stor: This man, his reputation in the in the community was he was a terrible thing he walked like a question mark all the time and shuffled along Then one day a friend saw him and he was real alert. And this friend was enormously impressed with this. So he said, Hi, Bill, how are you? I’m fine. I said, Yes, fine. I said, “You’ve been such a worrier. Oh, it’s all gone. I’ve changed totally.” How did that happen? There is someone I employed, and he does all my worrying for me. Oh, one how much does he charge you? He charges me $50 a day. “50 bucks a day!” “How can you afford that?” Oh that’s his worry. He says now you understand that his story, what it’s about. It’s about the caring, loving shepherd of all of our soul. The one who says, take my yoke upon you. It’s easy. My burden is light, come to me. I’ll give you rest come to me with your worries. Casting all your cares upon him for he cares. It matters to him. How you are the savior who wept when he saw the people rejecting him in Jerusalem. So how are we to deal with our worries? Well, we read the words together. The six be anxious for nothing. But in everything by prayer and supplication. With Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of going, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. That’s what He tells us to do. So you you bring to God a supplication. You bring on a petition, you know, the petitions the people take to the Senate and to the White House, and they gather the 10,000 and they are summoned with their cases and they’re ushered in and treated very kindly. Lots of people have trouble with something and they bring it to high authority. You and your wife, you’ve got a concern for family, of course, and you bring together in your morning devotions, you say, Lord, please, this is our concern about our little girl. In everything by prayer and petition, you bring it to God and you look at the problem in the light of Scripture. You look at a problem in the presence of the Lord. And just by talking about it in his presence, you are talking about the wonderful counselor who knows everything, every possibility, all the future, who knows what your real needs are, your real concerns. When you go and you you turn it around and you talk about it in his presence and it shrinks and it shrinks when you do that in the light of his love, of his only competence, it’s a wonderful, great place to present your requests. He is so sympathetic. He’s more willing to listen then we are to ask. And he gives the very best counsel he can see the implications of what you’re asking for in the future, what we don’t know. And he turns it and he it and he answers, he is a prayer-answering God. So often it dissolves our concerns. When we’ve said there’s a prayer, we poured it out to him, go to God, go to go with it. So don’t forget to present your petitions to the Lord. Remember Mary and Martha and their brother they told Jesus. Remember the disciples of John the Baptist told Herod that killed him. And they went and told Jesus and we had to go to this wonderful, caring, living, powerful, sympathizing person, we are to go to Him. And then we had to mix what we say with Thanksgiving verse 6: with Thanksgiving you’ve got a problem. But it’s not all you’ve got? Is that the only thing you brought to the conference then? A big problem? Or of other things of thanksgiving of many blessings since last we gathered here. What about the anticipations about seeing dear friends the expectations that the gospel will come to you not in word only, but in power of the Holy Ghost. And as with much assurance. So are there not things you can thank God for? For the safe journey, all these things that I’ve mentioned shouldn’t you pause and not just hurry to him and say, But Lord, But start, “Are Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be your name,” was a great name, is the name of our Savior. So you just tell God your worries. You must say, “Ah Father, thank you for my dear parents, thank you, Will my husband and my wife and my children and my church and my pastor. And thank you for peace. Thank you for the blessings that I’ve received. A fundamental principle of prayer is that you don’t bring petitions to God without also bringing gratitude. Even if it’s where you’re not tonight. You’re not in the flames of hell. You’re here today of grace. I think it’s one of the most difficult lessons as we move through the desolation of some of the fearful, strange providences that God would bring into our life. That we can thank God that we have much light on other things. There’s no circumstance in which the Christian can ever say, “I have nothing to thank God for.” There are always many things that we have to thank God for despite the suffering we may be in. And then you’ll come to this great conclusion that prayer and worry, are mutually exclusive, these two things cannot live together. The worry is going to destroy the prayer. Or the praying is going to weaken the worry. Paul says you go to God and offer him the problem and you get it done. And then you cry to him that you’ll be able to leave it there. Rolled out at his footstool and in his presence. Don’t get up minutes later, and start to worry about it again. That’s the great challenge of having a loving savior. You think of the whole problem of our past sins and we can keep dragging them up. “Wonder how she is doing now?” “What is happening there.” And Oh, we sigh, and your wife will say to you What you saying about all just a little just sadness, little regrets. Now that all your sins are forgiven sins, every one of them, so that Jesus was able to speak to a woman some area and he was able to tell her that you knew all about her husband. She’d found the guy she was living with and she talked and he talked to her, answered her question, told her about himself. And then you remember what happened, how she went to him, and she said to them, Come, come and meet him, and told me everything. Isn’t this the Christ isn’t this the Messiah? Come, come when Jesus talks to us, when Jesus reminds us of something, when there’s been a flush of pride and ego and the Lord wants us sweet and usable in His hands, and he might just say, let’s just think about this we still say, Come and meet a man Who told you me, he told me, the Lamb of God, the sin atoner, a great atonement, the great answer for all my needs, you say don’t forget you’re a sinner saved by grace. Our sins are buried in the deepest sea. And we know to look for a snorkeling kit and do some aqua diving and try to retrieve them. He’s dumped them in unattainable depths. It will never see the light of God again. So you petition him and you present your request to him and you leave it with him. You can’t handle your own guilt. You can’t. It’s too big for you. But it’s a grain of sand to the maker of the universe. And he will take it from you. Deep in unfathomable depths of never-failing love He treasures up his bright desires and works his sovereign will. Blind unbelief is for sure to error. and scan his work in vain, God is his own interpreter He will make it plain why it happens. You won’t be in heaven twisting your hands in frustration and forever it will be seen to your total satisfaction in the great day. so I’ve told you about certain ways in which we foolishly worry and how wrong it is and the ways of we are to deal with it. We are present it to God. We thank Him for His mercies, and we tell are to leave things at his feet. And then finally we’re told something wonderful happens that the peace of God that replaces our worries and the peace of God is a reality. The Bible that’s on your lap when you feel it pressing down on your knees. Now, that’s a tangible reality. A congregation of Christians singing together. You hear them, you can sense them, you can see them. It’s a reality. And God’s peace is as real as those things. It’s just as tangible. It’s surpassed all understanding, and it guards your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. It’s a wonderful concept. We’re told here that the living God, the only God there is the God of peace. You go into him and He’s peace in Him is peace. The deeper you go, the more peace you see there is from God. There’s no little explosion in a dark corner of heaven where just peace operates furtively and it doesn’t exist. In other words, there are no fears in God. There are no obsessive fears in God. There are no distracting anxieties in God. They’re not gwaning tensions in God. The Father has no such fear. And the Son and the Holy Spirit. And there are no psychological tensions or criticisms or hurt that one ever possibly do to the other. He is called in Scripture: the blessed one! He is completely integrated. He’s completely fulfilled. He’s a unified personality. He is a God of total satisfaction, of total attainment, the God of peace. And that is the peace that He gives to us: His peace. The peace of the divine One, of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. He gives that peace to him when we’ve gone to Him with our fears and worries. It’s not that He is working on our peace though he may well be, and may well have to or any of the graces that we have and strengthens them. It’s wonderful, but it is that God’s own peace becomes ours. So take to God your worries. So unmanageable, so uncontrollable, so unpredictable. It can wake you up at 2:00 in the morning so destructive and you take them to him. You take them and you petition him with this problem. That’s my problem now. And I am leaving them with you. Please give me your peace again and again. Never stop. It seems incredible. I think some of you think I’ve got it wrong. Can I have God’s own divine peace again and again? And my only reason for insisting that it is so is it is because the words of our ex make it so great and the peace of God will go in your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. It’s a picture of the security stop. It’s the picture of the soldiers. It’s the picture of the soldiers guarding the Russian spies coming into the Ukraine and the Ukraine soldiers that aren’t that God is watching, looking in the no go zone and in every way guarding their families and their towns and their homes. And the peace of God is is just like that, and one of the consequences of the newest believer being drawn to Jesus Christ is having the life of God in our souls. Being joined as a branch in the living vine and of his life, coming into us we bring to him our sins and our fears and worries. And he takes and he exchanges it by giving us His immense peace, and this conflict does not trouble him when he hears about we’ve done things and he gives us his peace. That’s that’s what the gospel senses. That’s the baby steps of the gospel come unto me. All ye labor under heavy I will give you rest. Come to me. Weary burdened, please bring it to me. I can cope if all of Dallas came tonight to Jesus. All the young people with their attentions, all the women with their fields, all the men with their problems Let them come to him, he can handle it. He’s confident enough to do so. And what he will do, we will give you a rest what our reality in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He gets my anxiety and I get his his peace.
Let us pray together. Our heavenly Father, thank you, thank you for these words. How well do we know these words? All this incomprehensible, glorious and it’s mine not for the years of time alone, but for eternity, this peace is mine. Bring our cares and our concerns you’ve heard them so often about loved ones, about issues these in Your Grace sweetly help us not to pick them up and worry about them again and again, but leave them with the Lord Jesus Christ. Deliver us from spoiling all that we will hear in these next days by the attack of anxiety that are fiery darts from hell. Help us to keep the shield of faith high through the week and to say I have peace of you, Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
0:00 – Three things a Christian is characterized by: 1) Joy in the Lord 2) Gentleness 3) Not paralyzed by worrying.
4:57 – Story to illustrate the point of not being anxious.
9:30 – Do you go to the Lord in prayer with your cares?
10:27 – Do you give thanks when you take your cares to the Lord?
12:48 – There is no circumstance we can be in which we will find we have nothing to thank God for. There is always something to give thanks to God for!
14:01 – What about our past sins?
17:40 – The peace of God replaces our worries.
24:48 – Closing prayer.
The Fellowship Conference, which happens annually in Denton, Texas, is starting this Thursday. If you are interested in watching the conference live, you can do so through the following links. Please note that all times are CST timezone.
April 14 – 7:00pm, Session #1
April 15 – 10:00am, Session #2
April 15 – 7:00pm, Session #3
April 16 – 10:00am, Session #4 (This session will not be streamed.)
April 16 – 7:00pm, Session #5
April 17 – 9:30am, Session #6 (For securities reasons this message is currently not available).
Finding it impossible, on account of the number, to have much conversation with each individual at the inquiry meeting, I at one time abandoned the practice of conversation for a few weeks, and addressed them all together. I found this was unacceptable, and concluded, therefore, to return to the former custom.
It was on one of those evenings, when about seventy persons were present, and I was passing rapidly from one to another, that I came to an individual who had never been there before. Said I: “What is the state of your feelings on the subject of your salvation?”
“I feel,” said he, “that I have a very wicked heart.”
“It is a great deal more wicked than you think it,” said I; and immediately left him, and addressed myself to the next person.
I thought no more of it till a few days afterwards, when he came to me with a new song in his mouth. He had found peace with God, as he thought, through faith in Jesus Christ.
Said he: “I want to tell you how much good you did me. When I told you that I had a very wicked heart, and you answered that it was a great deal more wicked than I thought, and then said nothing more to me, I thought it a most cruel thing. I expected something different. I thought you would say more, and my soul was wonderfully cast down.
I did not believe you. I was angry at your treatment. I thought you did not care whether I was ever saved or not; and I did not believe you knew anything about my feelings. But the words rung in my ears, A great deal more wicked than you think. I could not get rid of them. They were in my mind the last thing when I went to sleep, and the first when I woke. And then I would be vexed at you for not saying something else. But that was the thing which drove me to Christ. I now know it was just what I needed. I thought, when I went to that meeting, my convictions were very deep. But I have found out they were very slight. You hit my case exactly. If you had talked to me, my burden would have been diminished. But you fastened one idea on my mind. You drove the arrow deeper, when I expected you to do just the contrary; and I could find no relief till I gave up all into the hands of Christ. I know you read my heart exactly.”
After some few minutes conversation with him, he said to me, “I want to ask you a question. I have been thinking of it a great deal, and I cannot conceive how you know what to say to each one, where there are so many. We have been talking about it some of us, and we cannot understand how it is that you can know our thoughts and feelings when nobody has told you. How can you know what to say to one after another, when there are so many, and some of them you have never seen before, and they say so little to you?”
“I have only one rule on that subject,” said I. “I aim to conspire with the Holy Spirit. If I perceive any one truth has impressed the mind, I aim to make its impression deeper; because the Holy Spirit has already made that impression, and I would not diminish it by leading the mind off to something else. If I perceive any error in the individual`s mind, I aim to remove it; for I know that the error is of sin, and not of the Holy Spirit.”
“But,” said he, “our impressions are so different.”
“No matter. They are of the Holy Spirit if truth has made them; and he can choose the kind of truth which is appropriate to any sinner, better than I can. I just aim to conspire with the Holy Spirit.”
Said he, “I am confident if you had said much to me, or anything, to turn my mind away from that one thing, it would have done me hurt. You have no idea how much you increased my trouble that night. I somehow wanted you to lighten my burden – you made it heavier. Then I was soon led to see that none but God could help me. I had partly begun to think my heart was improving. I found out the contrary and turned to God in despair. He gave me peace, through Jesus Christ.”
[The following transcript was auto-generated and thus may have mistakes.]
The problem with these Judaizers and the unbelieving Jews in any really on any unbeliever, it’s the very same problem we see take place with Sarah and Abraham: the problem with self-reliance. It’s a problem, they did overcome and repent but they thought the promise plus something else, didn’t they?
The promise was, was God plus their little contribution. The Judaizers were no different. They thought Jesus is the answer. But you got to have Jesus in the knife to or Jesus and just a little bit of law, just a little. Brother, in the end, it’s endless with the plus sign. We got religion all over the world will gladly lay hold of Jesus but unless you’re embracing Christ crucified in him alone, his finished work on that cross as your full sufficiency before the holy God of heaven. You have no hope before him. It’s not Jesus atoning work plus something you do, meaning any contribution in that you add.
What are you relying on you do yourself no service to ignore that question. You don’t want to leave here today not knowing the answer you really want to take this in? What am I really relying on? It’s an eternal question with eternal consequences. Are you relying on God’s promise provision? His son, Jesus Christ or are you really relying on Jesus? Plus, there’s something else. My attendance, my feelings, a prayer. I was excited one time there was this moment where I got the baptism certificate, you know, and I you know. My dad’s a pastor. And, I mean, people you’d be amazed what slips out of people, what they’re really trusting in. Well, I’m trying. I believe when I know when I get there, I talk to people that you think are Christians. What is your hope when you stand before God? Well, I really hope at the end I’ve done enough. I really hope I’ve trusted enough. I really it’s all about them. If your answer comes back to you, you’re in trouble.
There are only two religions in this world, only two, a religion of bondage and a religion of freedom, true freedom, absolute freedom. You have either the way of Cain, a way built upon self-reliance, self-sufficiency, and self-accomplishment. And then there’s Sarah, the way of Abel. It’s a way of faith, a way of complete abandonment, of self, and complete reliance upon the God who made me. And his provision for my soul. Christ, only two and one, of course, is true Christianity. The other is everything that is not true Christianity.
I’ll close by quoting We sung it Luther’s words. Therefore, my trust, it’s in the Lord and not in my own merit on him. My soul shall rest. His word upholds my fainting spirit. His promised mercy is my fault as my strong as my anchor right there my comfort and my sweet support. I beg you to trust in Christ today. You don’t want to leave this world without Christ saving me, knowing Jesus Christ and trusting Him and Him alone as your only hope for eternal life as your only hope for recovering for your sin. We all need one. You won’t be able to ever do it. You can’t do enough to appease God Jesus Christ has done it all.
[Closing prayer] And Father, we are so thankful He has Lord, I just going through this study, Lord, just realizing the exposure that these Jewish people had and yet remained in darkness and Lord, that you would be pleased in the fullness of time on the other side of the globe years, centuries later. Consider my soul that you would allow Sarah to be my mother, that I might know the covenant blessings of Abraham. Well, all to you. We owe and we praise you for such kindness and mercy. Lord, you stood before your own people and said, these things are hidden to them, but you’ve revealed them on to us. And we praise you and we thank you, Lord, help us live in the light of the wondrous Gospel of Jesus Christ. Lord, I pray, have mercy on our children. Lost loved ones here and visitors that are outside of Your Grace. Lord, rain down and mercy upon them. Please open their eyes and their heart to believe and receive the forgiveness of your son. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
This excerpt was taken from the full sermon, “Two Women, Two Covenants, Two Unexpected Children“.
In chapter 9 Amos’ prophesies shift from speaking of judgment to speaking about a movement of God and the ruins being rebuilt. What is he speaking about and who does this apply to? Is Amos speaking of an abundant ingathering of souls? And if so, when is that harvest?
0:00 – Do the prophets focus too much on judgment?
4:00 – Amos 9.11, we have a shift from judgment.
13:02 – Is this message consistent with the New Testament?
14:54 – “In that day”? When is this?
19:55 – Does the New Testament quote this? Acts 15.
27:02 – James is saying that what they were seeing was what Amos prophesied would happen.
34:20 – Amos is making a promise that there is a connection between the House of David and us Gentiles (non-Jews).
45:40 – If this belongs to us, then where is the harvest?
50:52 – A flow of God-given blessing? Is this “grape” country?
1:02:10 – What does he mean that ruins will be rebuilt?
1:05:06 – Do you think this is really saying that God will plant the Jews in Palestine forever?
1:08:07 – There is a harvest coming.
1:16:05 – Closing prayer.
Israel wanted the day of the Lord to come, thinking God would wipe out the pagan nations, but rather the Lord’s issue was with them and their lack of showing mercy. There is no true seeking after God that is not at the same time seeking to shower mercy. When asked if you are a true believer, does someone ask you, “Do you show mercy?”
0:00 – Meet the prophet, Amos.
4:40 – Amos gives us nine chapters which the majority of is judgment.
10:45 – Do you recognize the holiness of God and the awfulness of our sin?
12:13 – What is the “day of the Lord”?
19:16 – Did the judgment come upon Israel’s enemies or upon them?
24:36 – What characterized Israel? Are you religious?
31:00 – What specific sin does the Lord keep denouncing and calling out in regards to Israel? They show no mercy.
33:55 – Israel wanted the day of the Lord to come, thinking God would wipe out the pagan nations, but rather the Lord’s issue was with them and their lack of showing mercy. There is no true seeking after God that is not at the same time seeking to shower mercy.
42:58 – When asked if you are a true believer, do you ever ask: Do I show mercy? Do I love people?
47:00 – If you say you love God and hate your brother then you are a liar.
53:49 – James Boice quote on procrastination.
55:23 – The last chapter of Amos shifts its focus.
1:01:00 – Closing prayer.
Published in July 1981.
A few years ago a pastor planning to have a Bible Conference on the topic of prayer asked me if I knew anyone who was an active “prayer warrior” and who also could preach and teach on the subject. The question caused me some thought, and my thinking raised other questions in my mind. I knew of a number of people who did a great deal of praying, and I knew of a number of preachers who did considerable preaching on prayer. But those who prayed did not do any teaching on the subject. And those who preached about it did very little of it themselves. Making a mental note of that, I put it on the shelf and pondered it from time to time.
More recently I have been asked a number of times if I knew anyone who was a “real intercessor,” or anyone who “had the gift of intercessory prayer.” There was a time when I thought I could answer that question with a positive yes. But observations over the years, a more careful study of the Scriptures, and considerable personal experience have caused me to examine that terminology a bit more carefully.
Our English word “intercession” comes from the Latin intercedo, meaning “to go or pass between.” That is generally what we have in mind when we use the word. The Hebrew and Greek words from which intercession is translated do not always mean exactly that.
In the Old Testament, the Hebrew paga originally meant “to strike” or “to fall upon.” It is used ten times in the sense that men fell upon others to do them violence. Hence Doeg fell upon the priests of the Lord and slew them (1 Samuel 22:18). Later it came to be used in a good sense, as to “assail someone with petitions.” That is the sense in which it is generally translated as “intercession” in the Old Testament.
The New Testament equivalent, entygchano, means “to meet,” or “to come between.” It is used twice in the ministry of the Lord Jesus, once of the Holy Spirit, and once describing Isaiah’s cries to Jehovah against Israel’s destruction of the prophets and altars (Romans 11:2-3). The only other time human intercession is mentioned in the New Testament is in 1 Timothy 2:1, in which we are enjoined to make intercession for rulers. But the word translated “intercession” there is also translated as “prayer’ in 1 Timothy 2:3 with respect to asking God’s blessings upon food.
Here, then, are some of the questions which arose in my mind: Did Jesus really teach His disciples how to pray? Or did He just teach them to pray? Is there an “art” or “skill” or special “spiritual gift” to pray or to intercede? Is there a valid ministry of intercession? Are there people who do nothing but pray for others and the ministry of others? If so, then are their prayers more acceptable than others? If their prayers are more acceptable than others, upon what grounds? Is it possible to appropriate those grounds in order to make our petitions more successful? Would it be expedient to seek out “intercessors” when we have a hard problem, a stubborn obstacle, a desperate need, a greatly desired object? And then could we have more confidence and faith in the success of such intercession?
Jesus exhorted, urged, and encouraged his disciples to pray on a number of occasions. But it does not appear that He taught them very much about how to pray. Most of what may be regarded as teaching were in a corrective sense. Religious people pray as naturally as birds sing, dogs bark, and sheep bleat. The existence of a God demands that He be worshipped and petitioned. His disciples were warned against praying in the way religious people, ignorant of the true and living God, prayed. They were not to pray as the heathen, using vain repetitions. They thought the longer their prayers, the more effectual they were. They were to believe God when they prayed, otherwise their prayers were faithless, unacceptable to God, and only superstitious religious exercises. They were not to parade and display their prayers for the ears and admiration of men. Their prayers were to be a direct and intimate petition to their God. They were to pray to a loving Father, not an impersonal, uncaring God. They were to pray to the Almighty, the God of the universe, the High and Most Holy One, not a buddy-buddy or a “good old Joe.” They were to pray to an Omniscient God Who knew their needs before they asked them, and One whose good pleasure it was to hear and answer their petitions. They were also taught that their prayers would be acceptable for Christ’s sake. That is, they were to pray in Jesus’ Name. So praying in His Name, they were taught that they always had immediate and unhindered access to God’s throne, and were so urged to come to God boldly, unhesitatingly.
All these teaching relevant to prayer are simple basic truths that every Christian should be conscious of. They are truths in which he should be catechized early in his Christian experience. A lack of knowledge of these indicates, not only a person’s incapacity to pray properly, but a sad deficiency in the knowledge of God and the nature of true salvation. There seems, therefore, to be no particular art or skill to pray. It is the natural consequence of a person rightly related to God.
While all prayer is not intercession, intercession is most certainly a high form of prayer. It might be helpful for us to review some of the intercessions in the Scriptures.
Biblical Examples of Intercession One of the first recorded intercessions is found in Genesis 18:22-33, in which we find Abraham interceding for the wicked city of Sodom. His intercession must be considered a failure if we view the salvation of Sodom as its objective. God destroyed Sodom.
Moses was often driven to intercession on behalf of the rebellious and idolatrous Israel. One such occasion is found in Exodus 32:31-32, in which case he offered his own eternal salvation on behalf of them. In this case, God had mercy on the people, and we may regard this intercession to have achieved its desired end.
Samuel interceded for the rejected Saul all night long (1 Samuel 15:11), but failed to deter God from His purpose to take the kingdom from him.
Such weeping, mourning, and intercessions the prophet Jeremiah made for apostate Israel has not been excelled. Yet we find God saying to him, “Pray not for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear thee” (Jeremiah 7:16). “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go” (Jeremiah 15:1). Jeremiah’s intercession failed. And God promised that Moses or Samuel could have done no better.
When the Apostle Peter was thrown into prison, intercession was made by the church for him day and night, and God miraculously set him free. Was there no one to intercede for John the Baptist when he was imprisoned and beheaded? Must we assume that the church did not likewise intercede for James when Herod imprisoned and slew him? Was there no intercessor for the Apostle Paul imprisoned in Rome awaiting execution? And how about the time Paul and Silas were set free from the Philippian jail when we have no record of an interceding church?
What Do We Learn From These Examples? If we are to learn anything from the testimony of these intercessions, it surely must be that men, the best of men, do not change the purpose of God by their intercessions, even when their hearts, and in their prayers, their motives are pure and their lives are right. If there is a peculiar gift of intercession, then either these men did not have it, or such a gift guarantees no success. Is there anyone alive today who would like to tackle what God said Moses and Samuel were unequal to?
The lists of gifts and ministries in the New Testament omit any mention of the gift or ministry of intercession. Such an omission does not at all preclude the existence of such a gift or ministry. Indeed, many gifts and ministries exercised today have no scriptural name. But other scriptural considerations cast serious doubt on the existence of a person who is peculiarly an intercessor in the vocational or calling sense, in a special way in which other Christians are not, and separated to that ministry alone.
The term “intercessor” occurs only once in the Bible. “And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor . . . ” (Isaiah 59:16). This passage could be more accurately rendered, as “that there was no one to intercede.” The subsequent scripture indicates the setting forth of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Saviour and Intercessor on the behalf of a fallen and ruined people. Indeed, we shall see that He alone is The Intercessor.
Every intercessory prayer made by men in the Bible is made by men actively engaged in another ministry. They were prophets, priests, patriarchs charged with the responsibility to watch over the souls of men. They came to intercede when their charges became embroiled in fearful and desperate circumstances, when they sinned, when their behavior threatened the wrath of God. We have no record of someone cloistered away who did nothing but pray. It is true that there could have been such persons, but it is not likely that the Holy Scriptures should have kept us totally ignorant of such a thing, especially if such a ministry was to be a pattern among God’s people on earth. We have no record of a child of God walking with God who had to seek out an intercessor to “pray a particularly difficult matter through.” Indeed, there is the case where the heathen Abimelech was told to seek the prayer of the God-fearing Abraham on his behalf (Genesis 20:7-17). The critical, arrogant, and ignorant friends of Job were told that they would be forgiven for their folly when the object of their tormenting accusations prayed for them (Job 42:8-10). And covetous Simon the sorcerer, still in the bonds of iniquity, cries out for Peter’s intercession on his behalf (Acts 8:24).
But these cases give no precedent or warrant whatever for one Christian to seek out another Christian with the gift of intercession to do his praying for him.
The Dangers Of A So-Called Intercession Ministry There are other factors that render a human ministry of intercession capable of much mischief. Let us assume that such a ministry did exist. There are these people who can get prayers answered in a way that no one else can. There are people who can get ahold of God on our behalf and secure the petitions we desire of Him. Have we not then thrown out the exclusiveness of Christ’s mediatorial ministry? “ . . . One mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). Will we not then idolize such an intercessor? Will we not superstitiously put our confidence in him and in his prayers to get us or our loved ones saved, to gain us the success or deliverance we seek? Will we not fear him in such a way as we should fear none but God? Is this not just another old humanistic dodge to find a gimmick that works, and therefore bypasses the will of God? If we cannot get done what we wish done in any other way, we will do as foolish Balak thought to do and get someone who has the inside track with God to do it for us.
It is a mark of foolish, irreligious, godless people who seek others to do their praying for them. Those who refused the command to come to the feast sought to have the servant “have them excused” (Luke 14:18-19), to intercede on their behalf and get them off the hook. Deluded Romanist’s hope in the intercession of the “Blessed Virgin.” The wayward child hopes in the prayers of his godly mother back home. And the preacher who shirks his own responsibility to take his position as a seeker at the throne of graces hopes to find an intercessor which will make his ministry spectacularly successful.
One other heresy is implied in the idea of a special gift of intercession among men. If we are to believe that one Christian is to be received by God in such a way that others are not, then he must have some special standing that makes him and his prayers more acceptable than the rest of us. Upon what ground do I expect to be received by God? The Person and imputed righteousness of the Son, Jesus Christ. Do you expect to be received on any other grounds? I hope not. Then, upon what more excellent grounds is the intercessor to be received? That we think some men are received more readily is proof that we do not have full and ultimate confidence in Christ alone. We imagine some peculiar gift or some superior level of sanctification, sacrifice or other goodness on our behalf will gain us something Christ cannot. Do we not depreciate the excellence of our dear Lord and count His blood inferior to another attainment? God forbid such blasphemous thoughts!
There Is Only One Intercessor In the understood sense of “intercessor” as one who stands between and pleads the case on another’s behalf, only one person can properly be regarded as such: The Lord Jesus Christ. He is God’s Lamb, the Elect, the appointed Substitute who took our place under the wrath of God at the Cross, and Whose righteous obedience now represents us before the throne of God. It is in this imputed righteousness that we have access to that throne. His Name is our credentials of hearing, His Blood presents us blameless without spot or blemish of any sort, and His Wounds plead our cause.
We should not consider Christ’s intercession as a forensic activity. He is not occupied with arguing our case before the court of heaven in an attempt to influence the Father to be favorable to us. Rather, His personal intercession is affected by His mediatorial presence. He represents us in His very being. It is not what He says that secures our favor, but what and Whom He is. “He ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25). As long as He stands, we stand righteous and acceptable before God. And He so stands forever.
But Christ is our intercessor in another sense, through the Holy Spirit. Thus He not only presents us acceptable to God, but sends the Holy Spirit to enable and help us to rightly present our petitions to Him. Man, of himself, is poorly able to discern the will of God and so pray in God’s will. But “he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:27). He also helps us to pray with unutterable groanings (Romans 8:26).
Therefore, when we seek human intercessors, and put confidence in the gifts, abilities, or ministries of others, we are despising the full and perfect intercession of Jesus Christ on our behalf, and putting an idolatrous faith in man.
Should We Ask For The Prayers Of Others? Yes! Now, we must quickly state that we are to desire, seek and solicit the prayers of others on our behalf. The New Testament is filled with requests of prayer from one Christian to others, not only for prayer in a general sense, but specific requests. But this is not an idolatrous transference of faith in the Lord Jesus. It is simply an application of the means whereby God has ordained that His grace be ordinarily bestowed upon His people and their labors. No special gift or ministry is thereby suggested, but what is altogether common among the saints.
We are also admonished to pray and to intercede for others. The bounds of our responsibility to intercede know no ends. We are to pray for our ministers, our brothers, and sisters in Christ, for the salvation of loved ones, for rulers, even and especially for our enemies and persecutors (Matthew 5:44). These prayers will arise from duty, obedience, and from the heart. They must not be meaningless mouthings, but sincere cries to our heavenly Father.
Of all these petitions, God may give us assurance that He has heard some and will answer as we have prayed. Other He will not, since, although it is His will for us to pray for all, it is not always His will to do all we pray for. Such unfulfilled intercessions should not be considered failures, however, or displeasing to God. Abraham’s petition on behalf of Sodom, Samuel’s for Saul, and Jeremiah’s for Israel must not be considered useless failures. They brought these men into harmony with the will of God. Likewise, our sincere intercessions will also bring us into a more perfect harmony with the nature of a gracious and compassionate God, Who, having not willed the salvation of all men, yet desires the salvation of all. Such a paradox is displayed as Jesus wept over Jerusalem, yearning in His soul for its salvation, yet knowing even His intercession could not forestall its destruction. We are told to love and pray for even our enemies, “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”
Can We Every Say A Particular Person Is An Intercessor? Finally, we might ask the question: Could we ever say of anyone at any time that this particular person is an intercessor? Most certainly, yes! Any Christian becomes an intercessor as soon as a desperate need appears concerning anyone or any situation to which his ministry applies. When such happens, his heart is pricked and bleeds, his soul bows in anguish, he enters into the suffering with the object of his petition, and as naturally and spontaneously as breathing, he assails the throne of God on behalf of his charge. We are all of a holy priesthood (1 Peter 2:5-9) to offer up spiritual sacrifices unto God. The principal occupation of priests is intercession. We need no special gift or skill to do this. The nature of Christ by the Holy Spirit within us immediately responds to need with intercessory prayer. These prayers are then made acceptable to God before the throne by our faithful eternal High Priest the Lord Jesus Christ.
If your life is in heaven with Christ but your mind is here on earth, it should be no surprise if your spiritual life begins to wither and decay. If you’re becoming entangled by the things on earth, one look at the glory of Christ can set you free.
The excerpt is taken from the full sermon, “The Delusion of Do Not Religion“.
This study is a follow-up to, “What Do I Need To Do To Be Saved? (Part 1)” where Tim continues to examine different ways people get confused when confronted with the question of how to be saved. There are many subtle ways by which a person can turn salvation into a work or qualification that they must complete in order for the Lord to save them. Tim goes through the Scriptures, specifically John’s Gospel, to examine how the Bible itself specifically words things.
0:00 Logo intros.
0:12 – Recap from the previous study.
4:02 – Are you trying to believe that which an unbeliever has no right to believe? There is a difference between believing you are forgiven before you are actually forgiven.
8:26 – How can I place my faith in Christ?
15:15 – The Bible does not tell you to believe that you are saved but to believe that Christ will save you.
20:13 – Start of a survey of John’s Gospel and the passages that speak on how to be saved.
28:50 – Christ takes away sin, so he can take away your sin.
39:11 – Rest in what Christ has done and that you know is true.
51:00 – John 3:14 – bit by the serpent? Believer, you are healed when you are not? Or look and live?
58:49 – Receive Jesus’ testimony.
1:12:45 – John 5:24 shows us we must believe what the Father has said.
1:20:24 – How can I place my faith in Christ? Well, why do you place your faith in anything?
1:28:00 – John 6.
1:39:44 – What do I need to know about myself?
1:46:29 – In closing…
1:53:59 – Someone ask a question and Tim answers by overflowing with glorious thoughts about Christ.
What is the difference between being discerning compared to hyper-critical when hearing a sermon? Am I listening with ears tuned in to find fault rather than ears to be fed and hear the truth? In this study, Tim Conway considers how we can approach this in a Biblical and balanced way.
00:00 – Logo intros.
00:14 – Question – Being Berean or hyper-critical?
02:46 – The study of how we hear sermons?
04:09 – Is the fault with the preacher or the listener?
15:30 – Speakers have to earn the hearer’s trust.
23:49 – Luke 8
28:02 – It is about understanding what you are hearing.
42:00 – How are you processing the Word you hear?
44:01 – Are you a lazy and sloppy hearer?
46:39 – The overly critical person does not benefit from the good that was said.
51:45 – Do not miss the next truth that the preacher says is very good.
53:14 – Discontent or not appreciating your own pastors due to the famous internet preacher?
54:02 – James 3.1 – few teachers
1:07:41 – Are you listening with pride and arrogance?
1:10:49 – What were the Bereans seeking out in Acts 17?
1:12:14 – Approach preaching with a spirit of humility.
1:13:21 – Do you come into the service with a chip on your shoulder?
1:16:11 – The Devil is in the business of snatching up the Word.
1:20:00 – Satan wants you to be ineffective.
1:25:19 – Judgmental people are proud people.
1:27:10 – So how should I listen?
1:29:46 – GFM previously had the opposite issue – listening to errors and not being critical enough.
1:32:02 – Let love cover?
1:33:31 – Charles Spurgeon on knowing your Bible well.
This question is an emotional one as we live here in 2022. It will be interesting to see how this issue plays out over time as the Lord tarries in His return. The question? “Is lying to get a COVID passport sin?” Is lying to get a COVID passport sin? Six months ago, we published a video with our stand on the COVID vaccine, and I still stand by what I said in that video. We are now two years into the whole reality of COVID, and our question today is addressing a real issue Christians have to deal with.
As I said, I stand by what was said six months ago. In that video, I stated that there may well be consequences for not taking the vaccine and we have seen that proven to be true. We have seen governments place restrictions on people who have not received the vaccine. Employers have fired employees. Things are not what they were three years ago, to be sure. I’ll be Honest is located in San Antonio, Texas, known as “Military City, USA.” The United States military has placed standards upon men and women in the military and those men and women have had to make some hard decisions. We have people in our church serving in the military. We get it. As a pastor, I and my fellow pastors have to counsel, when asked, how to deal with this or that situation involving COVID and vaccines and mandates for people whether they’re in the military or not. Yes, I know… this involves real people having to make decisions which can become serious matters of conscience as they try to obey the Lord and the word of God. Today’s question is real-life. Not just real-life here, but around the world. Missionaries. What about crossing international borders? Crossing borders to spread the gospel. To do ministries of mercy. Two of my fellow elders are missionaries. We have several members of our church who have been sent to other parts of the world. They either have already, or will at some point, have to deal with the subject matter of today’s question. COVID passports.
It doesn’t matter, for purposes of discussion here, whether the COVID passport is one that will get you across a border and into another country, or one that will let you in the door at a workplace, or one that will let you attend a sporting event… and I could go on. It’s the passport in all its forms that we’ll cover here and now. Is it OK for the Christian to lie to obtain one? First, let’s examine why a Christian would consider one – it’s quite plain and simple, but let’s just set the stage.
Many have chosen to not receive any vaccine, much less the COVID vaccine. Many have strongly held view of this dictated by their conscience or their understanding of certain aspects of medicine and science. We have people in our church who are very much anti-vaccine and that was the case before COVID. At the same time, we have some in our church who are pro-vaccine. Some are in the middle somewhere, maybe not always pro-vaccine, but not always anti-vaccine, either. We leave it up to each person’s conscience, as we said in the video six months ago.
In the last six months since we did that video, governments and others have made the vaccine mandatory and are requiring proof of having received the vaccine in order to permit people to do this or that – cross borders, retain employment, enter this building or that building. Yes, things in 2022 are not like they were in 2019, to be sure.
Given that, though, we’re discussing here the Christian who for whatever reason has chosen to not receive the COVID vaccine – and now needs a COVID passport of some sort to do something they desire to do – cross a border, retain employment and so on. Is that Christian given license in Scripture to obtain a passport under false pretenses – to lie, to be more frank, because of the place their conscience is at with regard to the vaccine – perhaps they see it as unjust, or a draconian measure not permitted by a Constitution, or they have a medical condition which would make it unwise for them to receive the vaccine. Whatever the reason is, the Christian has chosen to not get the COVID vaccine and now needs documentation stating they DID get the vaccine. Time to answer the question: Is lying to get a COVID passport sin?
Yes. Yes, it is. I think you knew I was going to say that. Why would I say that? Lying is, whenever spoken of in Scripture where a moral judgment is made upon it, said to be sin. Even in the last two chapters of our Bibles it is spoken of as that which is wicked and the basis for people being sent to Hell – Revelation 21 verse eight tells us that one category of people who whose portion will be the second death in the lake of fire are “all liars.” Chapter 22, verse 15 tells us that those people outside the city of the New Jerusalem will include “everyone who loves and practices falsehood.”
I know you may already be getting ready to put something in the comments about Rabah and the Hebrew midwives and I’m well aware of their stories. But I ask you this: are they in either case commended for lying? Scripture is silent on that. They’re commended for their faith and for fearing God, but not for lying. Read the passages. Read what is said about Rahab in Hebrews and James… lying is not said to be a virtue of hers. We never see an exception given – Scripture never says, don’t lie, EXCEPT in this situation over here. No. Scripture doesn’t speak like that. People of truth – whose Yes is Yes – is an absolute for you and I as Christians.
Think about the life of Christ. Would He lie? I know you’ll say, “No.” Well, Paul says to imitate him – Paul – as he imitates who? Christ. Paul was willing to be a man of integrity and tell the truth even if it cost him his life – Acts 25:11, as he’s still in custody, having done nothing to deserve the imprisonment and he’s in the custody of Rome, knowing Rome does in indeed kill men unjustly – they did it with Jesus Christ, right? Paul says this in Acts 25:11: “If then I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything for which I deserve to die, I do not seek to escape death. But if there is nothing to their charges against me, no one can give me to them. I appeal to Caesar.” Paul was maintaining his integrity – his imitation of Christ, even if would cost him his life.
I think of the statement of Job’s wife: “Do you still hold fast your integrity- curse God and die” – Job 2, verse 9. Job did hold fast – and he did not curse God. Aren’t we supposed to be people of integrity? I know the response might be, “But jeff, this is just WRONG.” I’m not arguing that. I’m not a fan of the guidelines myself. But my personal view isn’t the issue here and neither is yours because we all as Christians have the word of God which commands us to be people of the truth because our Savior is truth Himself. Yes, I do hold that your choice to get or not get the vaccine is a matter of conscience and please know I agree with it being a matter of conscience. But as you obey your conscience there, your bible and my Bible don’t grant us the freedom and license to deal with that which chafes at our conscience by becoming liars. It just doesn’t. Even if it involves missionary activity.
Missionaries are trying to cross this border or that in order to call people out of the darkness and into the marvelous light. Christians aren’t to be like the world… even if you think the end justifies the means. One thing people kept saying in the comments in our earlier video was “Trust the Lord.” Amen. Trust the Lord HERE, as well. You and I do not have biblical warrant to lie to achieve what we think may be a greater end, or because we think the Christian faith might be somehow endangered, or we ourselves might be endangered because we’re Christians. Thinking you can lie for any of those reasons turns you into a functional Muslim obeying the Islamic doctrine of taqiyya, which grants a Muslim license to lie if he feels Islam is threatened or if he or she himself is threatened for being a Muslim. We’re not Muslims and we don’t obey Allah, the Qur’an or the Hadith. We obey the word of the living God as we have in it our Bibles and that word says, “Don’t lie.” “Don’t practice falsehood.” If you’ve told people to trust the Lord in counseling people to not get the vaccine, I have a challenge for you: trust the Lord that he will work things out if you do NOT lie to get a COVID passport. Maybe you can’t cross this border or that. This door or that door in employment.
Let’s talk about something Paul said – 2 Corinthians 4, and it involves conscience, since conscience is such a big factor in all of this. Verse one: Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. Think about it. I know this is in the context of proclaiming the truth, but there’s application beyond that – don’t we, as people of the truth, want to commend ourselves to the consciences of the lost? That we’re people who don’t practice cunning and underhanded ways?
I also want you to think about the slippery slope you’d start sliding down by lying. Where else are you going to lie because something grates at your conscience? How about in your family life? Your marriage? Raising your kids? What if your kids start lying because Dad did, and Dad rationalized it? What if your wife starts with this one lie and then lies about something else and uses this conscience issue as justification and now you don’t trust her with anything because she’s playing the conscience card as she lies? Do you see the problem? Sin, unchecked, rationalized, justified as situational… will just be like a snowball rolling downhill and it’ll keep growing and growing and please, it could end up making shipwreck of your faith, of your marriage, of your family, of all manner of things. Hold fast to your integrity… isn’t that what we’re supposed to do in all things, even when it’s really really hard? Yes, it is. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ never budged on matters of integrity, and neither should we.
So that’s my answer. “No.” Don’t lie to get a COVID passport. It’s sin to do that. Don’t do it. I’ll even say this: if you’ve been thinking about how you can lie to get one, recall what Jesus said about lust and adultery – you’ve already lied in your heart, and you need to repent and ask for forgiveness from the Lord. Amen.
What do I need to do to be saved? How do I trust in Jesus? How do I know if I am believing in Him? Why am I not being saved? I am seeking the Lord for salvation and he is not saving me! Sadly many have stumbled over these questions. In this study, Tim goes to the Bible to see how the Scriptures speak in regards to these most important questions.
0:00 – Question – I am seeking the Lord for salvation.
5:53 – I am trying to figure out how to trust in Jesus.
07:06 – Does the Bible tell us HOW to trust or does it just tell us to trust?
12:23 – Should we ask what does he think about his own sin?
17:38 – Don’t ask people to believe something about themselves that might not be true.
21:12 – Some verses on this.
22:16 – Matthew 3.2
25:45 – Matthew 7.13
30:34 – Matthew 9.9
33:10 – Many are waiting to feel something.
37:00 – Don’t try to go into some state of euphoria before you believe you are saved.
48:03 – Matthew 10.38 – Die to self and follow Christ.
1:17:14 – I am trying to figure out how to follow Jesus.
Does your eschatology view fit with a two-age program? In this study, Tim goes to countless passages in order to help us interpret Scripture from Scripture itself. Once we’ve seen the big picture it should all the more motivate you to live by the power of God that this present age is characterized by in the believer’s life.
0:00 – Logo intros.
0:05 – Preview of the study.
1:09 – Ephesians 1, an age and an age to come.
6:01 – What does the term age mean?
9:33 – Matthew 12, they considered they were in a age and that there was another to come.
12:31 – Mark 3, parallel accounts can help us see the big picture.
15:18 – Mark 10 speaks of rewards in this age.
19:37 – 1 Timothy 6, be convinced of a two-age structure leading right out into eternity.
23:21 – Luke 20:34
28:41 – Galatians 1
31:30 – This present age goes on to the point of where eternal life starts.
32:31 – 2 Corinthians 4:3-l4
34:36 – John 6 tells us when we are resurrected from the dead.
40:26 – Do you see this framework we are developing based on these passages?
41:48 – Matthew 13
45:15 – What is my point so far?
46:54 – Hebrews 6
51:00 – 1 Corinthians 15:20
57:43 – Step back and just see the big picture!
59:25 – Why do the postmill people think glory days will come?
1:00:33 – 1 Corinthians 15:51
1:03:04 – 1 Thessalonians 4:16
1:04:11 – John 12:48 – the last day is judgment day.
1:06:55 – Matthew 28, this is the age of missions.
1:10:12 – Ephesians 1, back to the start.
1:16:50 – Postmill people feel like something is lacking right now.
1:26:08 – Use the power of God that is at work in your life!
1:32:06 – Do you see? This age is characterized by victory.
1:34:46 – Does this not make you want to shout?
1:35:25 – Be cautious of any system that would portray the book of Revelation as not relevant to you today.
1:37:48 – Question – What about the age to come from the Old Testament?
1:40:28 – Question – Revelation 20 – spiritual or physical resurrection?
The Gatepost | October, 1981
John Robinson, an Anglican clergyman of the Puritan party who became persuaded that he should separate from the established church near the beginning of the seventeenth century gives us some valuable insights to the limitations of denominations and movements. To the first small company of Puritan emigrants departing for Plymouth New England with elder William Brewster, he said,
“I charge you before God and His blessed angels, that you follow me no further than you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ. If God reveals anything to you by any other instrument of His, be as ready to receive it as you were to receive any truth by my ministry, for I am verily persuaded the Lord hath more truth yet to break forth out of His Holy Word. For my part, I cannot sufficiently bewail the condition of those reformed churches which are come to a period in religion, and will go at present, no further than the instruments of their reformation. The Lutherans cannot be drawn to go beyond what Luther saw; whatever part of His will our God has revealed to Calvin, they will rather die than embrace it; and the Calvinists, you see, stick fast where they were left by that great man of God, who yet saw not all things. This is a misery much to be lamented.”
In The Torch of the Testimony John Kennedy goes on to say:
John Robinson has aptly stated one of the most essential elements in the life of the church, namely the ability and freedom to progress, to develop in the understanding of the Scriptures. At the same time, he has just as aptly pointed out the root of sectarianism or denominationalism. Limitation to a particular aspect of Scriptural truth. In that a denomination propagates a facet of divine truth, its work may be good and useful, but its weakness lies in its limitation, because it neither sees the whole truth nor is it willing to go on to apprehend it, so occupied is it with the blessedness of the amount of truth it does understand. It cannot be said that any Scriptural expression of the church apprehends the whole of truth. Such fulness of knowledge will be ours only in eternity. But the church, fully recognizing the limitations of its understanding, must be pressing forward with a divine urge to know more, unrestricted by bounds imposed by human understanding. That vital, spiritual growth is essential to church life.
Denominations vs Movements What has been said above is largely true of both denominations and movements. But there are some basic differences in the two. Denominations usually have their origin in a powerfully gifted man with a message from God. Invariably he does emphasize some particular aspect of truth and neglects others. He also usually has a pretty big bone to pick with the sphere of Christendom from which he came. These characteristics are carried on into the churches which succeed him as his posterity. But if he is to leave a stable denomination that will survive, his message must be broad enough to sustain spiritual life and growth.
Movements, on the other hand, are somewhat broader in the ecclesiastical sense, but considerably more narrow in total teaching and practice. Movements also do not have one principal founder but erupt on the scene in a number of varied places with as many diverse teachers. They cross denominational lines, spreading their influence across the whole of Christianity. They are precipitated by some lack, some neglect, some deficiency or vacuum which has been created by established churches who are unwilling to move out of the ruts they have wallowed out for themselves. Or they arise as an outraged cry against heresy and unbelief which has dragged the churches down into apostasy.
The total teaching and practice asserted by the movement is restricted to that particular sphere to which it addresses itself. For that reason, such movements can be a mixed blessing. They can be a great help to us if we will give heed to the truth to which it draws our attention, repent of our error and add its light and life to that which we are already walking in. But if we drop everything we already have, discard out of our treasure all things old, and grab only what is new, we will be greatly the loser. Consequently, movements always have great casualties along with great blessings.
We do not need to join movements. We need to give heed to any profitable teaching they may have for us. But such teachings alone are far too narrow to mount a balanced ministry.
Always Having a Negative Bent Another danger of becoming too closely aligned with a particular movement is the debilitating effect of an inevitable negative bent. Movements often have prophetic tones. I do not mean they necessarily teach future events, but there is a part of them which is compelled to “cry out against false altars.” They come to address a problem in the church. This is good, and indeed it must be done. But our contentious flesh delights more in cutting someone or something down than it does in building up. If we are not careful we will find ourselves warring against our brothers in Christ for no other reason than the fact that they will not beat our drum. We become more interested in what we are against than what we are for, more obsessed with cutting down brethren and justifying ourselves than exalting Christ. This is especially true if we have suffered some rejection and persecution for the stands we take. We shall have need of much grace lest in reply to unjust provocation we find ourselves making an enemy of a brother in Christ.
B. B. Caldwell once said, “God begins with a man, uses that man. Then people start a movement which ultimately is no more than a monument.” The late Rolfe Barnard declared, “Any time a man subscribes himself to a human system of theology, he is a dead man. He is no longer able to think, and he can no longer study the word of God with a free mind. He is boxed in his system and can go no further.”
If a man has something to say, give him your ear. But do not give him an exclusive hearing. If a movement supplies a spiritual lack in your life, receive it. But be assured, that movement is no substitute for Christ or the whole of the Christian church.
This question came in from one of the new Christians in our church, who was reading Philippians chapter two and asked this question: “What does it mean to work out your own salvation?” Ok. Let’s address this. If you want to get your bible, we’ll be starting in Philippians chapter 2.
The first thing that comes into some people’s minds when they see this is, “I thought salvation wasn’t by works, it’s by faith?” It’s a valid question. We know from elsewhere in Scripture that Paul himself, who wrote this phrase in Philippians 2:12, also wrote the lengthy teachings in Romans and Galatians on salvation by faith alone apart from works. Paul is not contradicting himself here. Working out your salvation isn’t just stated here in Philippians 2. The verse in question, though, contains our question, so let’s read the verse: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” Let’s look at what’s going on here.
Paul is writing to the church at Philippi, and he speaks quite highly of this church in the first eleven verses of the letter. When we get down to verse 21, Paul starts to talk about life. The Christian life. In verse twenty-two he talks about living in the flesh and the fruitful labor of this life in the flesh, as he states his wrestling match of desiring to depart and be with Christ – verse twenty-three, but also stating that for the present, remaining alive in this world is more necessary on account of churches like Philippi – verse twenty-four.
In verse twenty-seven, though, is where we can get to more direct application and interpretation on the question we’re looking at here. Paul issues a command: “Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.” That’s an active imperative, even though your bible, like the ESV, may use “Let” – “let your manner of life” – this is something Paul wanted the Philippians to do – “your” in verse twenty-seven is plural – it’s a charge to the church as a whole, and when it’s a charge to the church as a whole, it’s also a charge to each individual within that church. I know there’s more to say here but for the sake of this video, we’ll move on – but we’ll return to verse twenty-seven in a few minutes.
Paul gives some counsel on how to live early chapter two, keeping in mind chapters were not in Paul’s original – it was one continuous stream of thought. In verse five of chapter two, he switches to writing about Christ’s example of humility and continues through verse eleven. It’s in light of that – going back to chapter one where he began writing about the Christian life, that we have the instruction to the church and its individual members in verse twelve of chapter two.
Verse twelve. “not only as in my presence but much more in my absence.” Keep that in mind as I read from verse twenty-seven of chapter one: ”whether I come and see you or am absent.” Coming and seeing them or being absent. In my presence, much more in my absence. The connection is there. Really just two ways of saying the same thing. Paul wants this church to life in a certain manner whether he’s physically there or not. He doesn’t want them to put on a holy appearance just when the apostle comes to town. He wants them to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel ALL the time. And he wants them to work out their own salvation ALL the time with fear and trembling. The phrase “fear and trembling” could be worthy of its own video and again, time doesn’t permit us to break that down and do it justice.
I think inherent in the question that this new believer sent me was what I mentioned at the beginning: “Work? I thought it was by faith?” Is it by faith, or is it by work? Let’s dig into the answer.
One basic issue with the question is, as is so often the case, a matter of definitions. When Scripture speaks about “salvation,” is it only speaking about that moment when a person is declared to be justified – their sins pardoned, the penalty for them removed, and the person declared to be righteous by God? No, it doesn’t. Scripture uses “salvation, or being “saved,” to describe three stages in the Christian life – yes, it talks about the moment a person is declared to be justified, but it also talks about salvation as the ongoing Christian life AFTER a person is declared justified, and it also talks about salvation as that which will come to its fullness on the last day when the dead are raised and given glorified bodies and will dwell with God and the Lamb forever in the age to come. Here, in Philippians 2 verse twelve, Paul is addressing the second – what the Christian life is to look like AFTER having been declared justified – the process known as sanctification. Is it Paul’s burden here to give us a comprehensive, all-encompassing teaching on the Christian life? No. So don’t think that what Paul doesn’t say here is absent from the teaching of Scripture. In its immediate context, Paul is writing to a church that is doing well, and he wants them to continue to do well, whether he gets to see them again face-to-face or not.
He gives this exhortation to work out their salvation in light of Christ’s example of humility in verses five through eleven – because Christ did this, you, Philippians, ought to do THIS – as indicated by the “therefore” that begins verse twelve. What Jesus Christ did, and the Philippians having received justification – salvation – by faith, as a gift, as verse twenty-nine of chapter one says – is to then result in what Paul wants the Philippians to do in verse twelve of chapter two – AND in verse twenty-seven of chapter one. Walking in a manner worthy of the gospel. Working out their own salvation. Two ways of saying, really, the same thing: what does your life look like, Philippians – you…the church as a whole, AND all the individuals within it?
We’re going to go back to that question that comes into people’s minds… does this make salvation by works? No. It’s all about faith at its root, but…the faith that justifies produces something and that something is works. Obedience. You think about Ephesians 2, verse s eight and one. Paul says the Ephesians were saved by grace through and not by works – it’s the gift of God so man will boast. But the next thing he says is that the Christian is God’s workmanship… create for a reason… created in Christ Jesus FOR good works… good works which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
The Christian life is not just one of passivity… it’s at once being passive AND being active. We have our rest in Christ… Matthew 10, verses 28 and 29. We receive faith as a gift – again, Philippians 1:29. We receive everything good from God as a gift – 1 Corinthians 4:7. At the same time, that faith, that resting, is to produce activity. Wrestling against the ruler, the authorities, the cosmic powers of darkness over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil. There’s nothing passive about wrestling… Scripture uses metaphors like wrestling to establish its points… wrestling is hard, it’s exhausting and it’s WORK. We have Scripture telling us to strive after the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord in Hebrews 12:14. We have Scripture telling us the mortify sin… kill the deeds of the flesh in Romans 8:13. We have the book of James that in its five short chapters issues more than 50 commands for the life of the Christian. It’s about becoming more and more conformed to the image of Christ as we walk through this life.
I imagine, though, somebody, in listening to this so far, might be a little bothered by how I read the text from Philippians 2:12. I stopped at the end as if there were a period there. There’s not. The thought isn’t complete, and it’s not complete even if your verse twelve has a period, like the King James does. All your English translations of note start verse 13 with the word “For.” Whether verse twelve ends with a comma or a period, you just can’t leave out verse thirteen. “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” Is it our working out our salvation, then, or is it God working in us? Yes. Yes, it is…. We can only work out our salvation BECAUSE God is working in us. A minute ago I cited Romans 8:13 and the killing of the deeds of the flesh…killing them by the work of the Holy Spirit in us… becoming confirmed to the image of Christ as I just said…and 2 Corinthians 3:18 says we are being transformed from one degree of glory to another – how? It comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Yes, Scripture wants us to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel, working out our salvation… …sanctification… which 1 Thessalonians 4:3 says is God’s will or us… that growing in holiness between the time we are justified and the time we either die or Christ returns, whichever comes first. Do we rest in Christ by faith, or do we work out our salvation? Yes, again to both… and I think you’ll find the more you rest in Christ by faith, the more you will work out your salvation…. faith always has to come first… but that faith that comes first, if it is the faith that has truly saved you, will produce the working out of Philippians 2:12. Amen.
What does the prophesy in Joel 2 have to do with you and me today? As much as we may long for the outpouring of the Spirit we cannot let our desires misinterpret Scripture, so what does the text say?
0:00 – Consider the flow and timing of the book of Joel.
2:30 – Joel gives us a look into the future.
7:00 – When will God pour out His Spirit on all flesh? Peter tells us.
11:22 – What does Joel’s prophesy have to do with me and you in 2022?
15:21 – How many of our old men dream dreams?
16:47 – As much as I might want this for today, I cannot let my desire cause me to misinterpret Scripture.
19:06 – 1 – Be careful what you emphasize.
28:52 – 2 – Is this also for today as much as it was in Peter’s day?
39:48 – 3 – How do we tap the Spirit’s power?
42:14 – 4 – Testimonies of people who experienced these things.
47:42 – 5 – Where does the Spirit show up in Acts 2?
53:25 – 6 – I conclude the prophecy of Joel 2 does apply to us.
56:45 – 7 – Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
57:44 – 8 – We need the Spirit’s power.
1:07:23 – Quote from Duncan Campbell.
1:08:13 – We need right doctrine but clothed with power from on high.
1:11:53 – Closing prayer.
Ephesians 4 reminds us of the character that is required to cultivate and maintain church unity. How will you and I build a lasting community? How will you survive and thrive as a long-term member of your local church?
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by I’ll Be Honest (@illbehonestwillyou)
The book of Joel makes it loud and clear that natural disaster is not some accident, but rather the Lord is the ultimate cause behind it all.
In recent news headlines, a Catholic Diocese declared that an Arizona priest used one wrong word in baptisms for decades, and thereby they believe those baptisms are invalid. Are any Catholic baptisms valid? What do they believe actually saves you? This news headline is a springboard into talking about the Gospel and how it is that a man or woman can truly have their sins forgiven in Jesus Christ alone.
More Resources:
Is Baptism Necessary for Salvation?
Baptism or Christ
The heart that has once been drunk with fanaticism is ever after exposed to the same evil; it will mistake excitement for true religion. Fanaticism is not faith. When the affections and mere-sensibility of the heart are excited, and the understanding and conscience are but little employed, there is a sad preparation for a false hope or some wild delusion for fanatical faith.
In this sermon, Tim talks about some of the current issues Christians are facing. Will some be arrested and put in prison for preaching the Gospel to the lost?
The lost sinner clearly sees the power of God in the creation and yet rather than give thanks to Him, they suppress the truth and deny Him. Oh, what shame of foolish humanity to see the power of God and deny such power!
Watch Part 2, “Thankfulness – Let The Redeemed of The Lord Say So (Psalm 107)“
Jesus declares that there are two types of people, and both are builders, one who is wise and one who is foolish. So are you building your life on the words of Jesus Christ and obeying what He says? The whole sermon on the mount has been a test from Jesus for you and me to recognize what type of builder we are.
0:00 – Introduction
3:24 – Who are you like? The wise or the foolish man?
05:44 – What does it mean to be wise?
10:07 – What does the wise man do?
12:09 – There are two types of people, both builders.
16:44 – When Jesus speaks, what happens to you?
24:33 – Is Christ precious to you?
28:57 – What about the person who has no foundation?
36:08 – This sermon is a test from Jesus.
41:58 – Noticed how often hell is threatened.
45:17 – The warnings should not make you despair but drive you to Christ.
46:35 – Do you think you are a Christian?
49:11 – Does this series annoy you?
Is it easy to be a Christian? Yes, easy if you will stop trying to save yourself and trust in Christ alone. Here is an excerpt from this audiobook chapter: She said that she had such an awful fear of God’s wrath and such a desire to be a Christian that she could think of nothing which she would not do in order to be saved. “Yes,” said I, “You would do everything but one, that is consent to do nothing and let Christ save you. You are just going about to establish a righteousness of your own and that is the great reason why you have not submitted yourself to the righteousness of God for Christ is the end of the law to everyone who believes.”
What a powerfully used passage Matthew 7:21-23 has been in the last decade. It contains words of our Lord Jesus that have been used by God to shake many out of a state of false religion. Yet for the believer, they must not fall into fear and doubt when they hear these words but rejoice that Christ is their own. It is only by God’s grace alone that we are not workers of sin but are workers of righteousness.
00:00 – Reading the text Matthew 7.21-23
00:50 – 1 – What would you say before God?
07:51 – 2 – Lawlessness
14:32 – 3 – Day of judgment is a day of many surprises.
15:59 – 4 – Does Matthew 7.23 contradict the fact that we are saved by grace through faith?
25:35 – 5 – If your ‘grace’ does not change you it is cheap grace which is fake grace.
28:23 – 6 – Verses that speak about what grace through faith looks like.
36:50 – 7 – What are the causes of deception?
44:45 – 8 – What if I don’t want to embrace God’s standard of purity?
52:12 – 9 – Does God know you or has he never known you?
1:04:32 – Closing prayer.
If a professing believer came to you and confessed to a struggle with drug addiction, how would you counsel them? What would you say from the Scriptures in order to point them in the right direction?
The Fellowship Conference is an annual conference held in Denton, Texas (April 14-17, 2022). We gather to hear the Word of God preached and to fellowship with other believers. Registration starts January 15, 2022, at 1 pm. Who are the speakers? As happens with each conference, the preachers are not announced ahead of time.
Register + More Information
Jesus warns us that there will be many false teachers who come and are disguised. How can we know them? Why give this warning? Is not grace so gracious that we don’t need this warning? How do you know I am not a false prophet?
0:00 – Have you heard what Jesus said?
1:20 – Matthew 7, considering the context.
4:16 – Verses 15-20.
6:59 – Are there prophets today?
14:51 – Is your authority some confession or the Bible?
17:39 – False prophets don’t like to tell you the hard things.
19:35 – False prophets are disguised.
23:04 – How can we know them? Fruit.
33:29 – Why is this warning given? Not as a threat to the false prophet but to you as a warning.
39:07 – Is not grace so gracious that we don’t need this warning?
44:48 – People quote Ephesians 2.8-9 but forget to quote verse 10.
45:34 – False prophets want to reinterpret Jesus for us.
56:59 – How do you know I am not a false prophet?
57:37 – We need genuine faith because we face real trials.
1:00:22 – Are you a decided follower of Jesus Christ?
1:09:15 – Worn out? Look to Christ.
1:10:52 – John Wesley quote on being all out for Christ.
1:12:02 – Closing prayer.
Susannah Spurgeon – Ten Years After (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1895), pp. 6-7.
I can see two pilgrims treading the highway of life together, hand in hand, heart linked to heart. True, they’ve had rivers to ford, mountains to cross, fierce enemies to fight and many dangers to go through. But their guide was watchful, their deliverer unfailing and of them, it might truly be said in all their affliction, he was afflicted. And the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity He redeemed them. And he bare them and carried them all the days of old. Mostly, they went on their way, singing. And for one of them, at least, there was no greater joy than to tell others of the grace and glory of the blessed king to whose land he was hastening. And while he thus spoke, the power of the Lord was seen and the angels rejoiced over repenting sinners. But at last, they came to a place on the road where two ways met. And here, amidst the terrors of a storm, such as they had never before encountered, they parted company. The one being caught up to the invisible glory and the other battered and bruised by the awful tempest, henceforth toiling along the road alone. But the goodness and mercy, which for so many years had followed, the two travelers did not leave the solitary one, rather did the tenderness of the Lord lead on softly and choose green pastures for the tired feet and still waters for the solace and refreshment of his trembling child. He gave, moreover, into her hands a solemn charge to help fellow pilgrims along the road there with filling her life with blessed interest and healing her own deep sorrow by giving her power to relieve and comfort others.
If the Christian speaks to an unconverted sinner, in love, and alone, and without disputation, and in humility, and in the spirit of prayer, his words will do no harm. He may not be able to do good, but at least he can try. The unconverted in the midst of God’s people, meeting them every day, their friends, their associates, and neighbors, certainly ought not to be able to declare, “nobody said anything to me,”—“no man cared for my soul.”