Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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I'd like to turn first of all to the book of the Psalms, the 18th Psalm.
For by thee I have run through a truth.
And by my God, have I leaped over the wall.
As for God, His way is perfect. The word of the Lord is tried. He is a buckler to all those that trust in Him.
For who is God, say the Lord, and who is the rock? Save our God? It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect.
Now let us turn over to second Peter.
Second Peter, chapter 1.
And the first verse.
Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ.
To those that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.
Through the knowledge of Him, and hath called us to or by glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us, exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue, and so on. I won't read all these verses.
The 11TH birth.
For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly, and to the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Elder young people, we know that the way that sin entered into the world in the very beginning was a doubt in the minds of Adam and Eve as to the perfection of God's wisdom. And in His ways He had made that garden for them. He had planted it. Everything in the whole scene was spoken of as very good, and there were Adam and Eve placed in that garden.
But there was one command given them. That command was to be a test of their obedience. It was a simple command. There could be no mistake about it. God said that they were not to eat of that one tree. They were not to reason about it or as to why it did look good for food. It did look pleasant to the eyes, and it was very pleasant to think of being wise.
But God had said he shall not eat it.
That was enough. God had spoken, and so they were tested about whether they would believe what God had spoken, whether they would acknowledge his right.
Whether they would believe that all he had provided was all that was necessary for their good and for their happiness.
But instead of believing what God had said, instead of following His instructions, they listened to the tempter. He came along and suggested to them that God was holding back something good from them, but the very best thing in the garden was withheld, and that God was not quite as good as they thought He was, and that why should they not take of this?
Seeing it was so good to look at, so pleasant to the eyes.
So good for food. And didn't God want them to be wise, saying they were his creatures? This was reason.
But we know what happened. They took it and sinned, and with it all the consequent misery came into this world. They didn't believe that God was as good as he had displayed himself to be. And now, dear young people, it's the very same thing today. We know that when the Lord Jesus, God's beloved Son, came into this world.
Satan came with the same temptation, the lust of the flesh and the flesh the.
To the eyes and the pride of life and the Lord Jesus meeting all those temptations brought in the wilderness by Satan, He answered in every case. It is written He had taken the place of a dependent man here in this world, and Satan could not get that perfect one out of that path. He answered every temptation. He became victorious.
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In demonstrated victory over all the power of.
Satan. And there he went forth as the one who had bound the strong man. Now to spoil his good.
Let me turn over to John's epistle. We find that Satan is at work with the family of God. He was at work with Adam and Eve. He was at work with God's beloved Son and failed miserably because of the perfection of that Blessed One. And now you and I have two natures within us. We have the old solemn nature that we receive by our natural birth.
And those of us who were saved of a new nature, a very life of Christ.
But Satan comes to us now with the same temptation, and it says all that is in the world.
All is in the world. The lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. Nor doesn't it sum up the whole world system on which Satan, as we already minded this morning, is a God and Prince, and he has this world fixed up of his palace, in which he rocks people to sleep.
And he does his very best to get them deluded to think that by.
Following their own wills and His suggestions that they're going to find something in the past that is apart from the word of God. But dear young people, what I want to speak to you particularly about this afternoon is that As for God, His way is perfect. As for God, His way is perfect.
And how are we going to find out about His way? Well, we've got this precious book. We have God's Word. More than this, as we shall see, He has given us a new nature that delights in Him, enjoys this blessed book He has given us. His Holy Spirit has a power to walk through this world to please Him.
We're offended, we're well equipped, but Satan is never going to give up.
In his attempt to try and lure us away if there's an unsaved boy or girl here.
Why, I know that He is doing everything he can to hold out the glitter of present things before you. It may not be what are commonly called worldly things. It may be education, the pride of life. It may be different things that He uses with one or the other. The lust of the flesh with one, the lust of the eyes, wanting to see everything that can be seen, and then perhaps with another, as I say.
Of attainment, feeling you've got somewhere in this world. Well, if you're unsaved, you have nothing else to live for. The world is in your heart and nothing else. You can't see anything else worth living for. That all that I say this afternoon, it just doesn't work. Falling upon deaf ears. Unless God opens your eyes. I'm ready to open your eyes. We had this morning.
The God of this world hath blinded the mind.
Of them, believe not, and Satan has blinded your mind to the goodness that is in the heart of God, to the perfection of His Word, and to the glory that awaits those that are His, and the judgment that awaits those who go on without Christ. I say blinded your eyes if you're unsaid.
Oh, May God open your eyes to see beauty in the Lord Jesus. He's able to do that.
He's opened many of our eyes. He sent us to the pool of Siloam. That is, that means sent. And when that blind man was blind from his birth, went to that pool of Siloam, his eyes were open. And when you see the Lord Jesus, the sent, one of God sent to save you, sent to open your eyes and to turn you from darkness to light.
Then, but not till then, will you see any beauty in Jesus.
Not till then will your eyes be opened to see the loveliness that is in him.
Well, I say again now, for I believe that many of your young people here are truly saved. Your eyes have been opened. You do know the Lord Jesus as your Savior. But Satan's constant work in the minds of young believers and older ones too, is to get us to questions that God's way is perfect, to give us a question mark in our mind.
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Is God's way perfect?
Is he doing the right thing in my life? Can I change this by some planning and scheming of my own? And Jacob likely set about to try and do some planning and scheming, hoping that by our own efforts in some way or other, we can bring some good things within our reach.
Oh, that's just what he did with Eve in the Garden, and he's still doing the same today.
But here it says, by thee I have run through a troop, and by my God have I leaped over a wall. O dear young people, are the wall in front of you.
And that which is beyond the wall can only be seen by faith. Here is the wall in front of you, and Satan has put that wall there.
And he doesn't want you to see it now. That's beyond that. Now there is blessing for you that God wants to fill your heart with joy and rejoicing. Our brother spoke yesterday of his beloved boy and how in spite of the fact that he didn't have his faculties so he could walk, why he was rejoicing in the Lord.
You found happiness in the Lord.
And you can leap over the wall that's in front of you and realize that As for God, his way is perfect. You see a wall in front of you. Perhaps you come to these meetings and you there seems to be something in front of you, a barrier to your happiness.
Or is it because there's a doubt in your mind about God's goodness? There's a doubt in your mind that His Word is perfect and that His way is perfect. If there is, if there's that doubt in your mind, why? I know there's a wall in front of you, and it's only by Him that you can leap over that wall.
That you can run through the whole troop that's against you because there is a troop that's against us. The whole current and stream of this world is against the believer and there needs to be that energy of faith that goes against the current.
But it all begins with this. As for God, His way is perfect. Perfect.
With God doing the best for Adam and Eve in the garden, Yes he was. Yes he was. Is he doing the best for us?
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? O dear young people, it's you and I ourselves that stand as a barrier to the happiness and the blessing that God has in store for us.
It's ourselves miserable self that stands in the way.
For it doesn't matter what handicap a person has or what wall it seems to be in front of you. Why, by him you can leap over it. You can find in him happiness. I like that verse in the 16th Psalm. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places. Yeah, I have a goodly heritage. All you say that the place I'm in is not a pleasant place.
Well, I like to think of it this way, that wherever the word of God comes home to your soul and power, it becomes a pleasant place.
When I meet Daniel up in heaven and I say, what do you think of the den of lion? I believe you'll say that was a pleasant place. That was a pleasant place. The Lord was there with me. They brought me. If you're gonna bend me, go. What do you think of the fiery furnace? That was a pleasant place. The Lord walked in with us.
Oh dear young Christian, the word of God come home to your soul and power this afternoon and you see that his way is perfect.
And what he has done for you is the very best for you.
Why, you will leap over the wall too, and you'll find that the very place where you are can be turned into a pleasant place. You know that Psalm, that 16th Psalm is prophetic of the Lord Jesus and he is spoken of as the man of sorrows. But he is man here could say the lines are fallen under the unpleasant places, all he found.
It is happiness in the will of his father as man. Reminds me of a little story I heard at a.
Man who went to visit a blind school.
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Well, perhaps I'm mistaken that it was a blind school. It was a group of children together, and quite a few of them could see, but there was one boy that was blind among them. That was the way that it was. There was one boy that was blind. The rest had their eyesight.
Now this man was speaking to them about the Lord, and he asked numerous questions and his blind boy was the one who had the answers ready every time.
And.
So he went on, and he spoke and gave the gospel, and at the end of his talk he turned to the blind boy, and he said, Now how is this?
These other boys don't seem to have the knowledge of the things of God that you have. Perhaps some of them are not saved. How is it that you're blind and they and they can see? Why has God afflicted you with blindness?
And the dear lad looked up, and he said, Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Now that boy leaped over the wall. Yes, he had. Had he run through the troops? Yes. Why? Because As for God, his way is perfect. And that boy knew that that affliction that he had, had been the means of blessing to his soul.
As for God, His way is perfect.
The word of the Lord is tried. It's tried.
I was stuck in reading the 12TH chapter of the Hebrews where it speaks there about looking unto Jesus. I've often been a little bit meditated and wondered just what was the thought about those great crown of witnesses?
But it impressed me like this that.
That great cloud of witnesses are all those who have walked the pathway of faith before. Do you face the difficulty in your life?
Oh, it's as if David said all the path of faith is worthwhile. Abraham said the path of faith is worthwhile.
And Daniel said, yes, the path of faith is worthwhile. Rahab said yes, it's worthwhile. There's many that have walked the path before, and there's a great cloud of witnesses for our dear young people. There's never yet a person who walked in the pathway of faith that hasn't proved that it's the best, the happy path. The word of the Lord is trying.
He is a Butler to all those that trust in him. Yes, he is an all sufficient savior and never has there been a person who has trusted in him in full confiding trust that hasn't found that it is the perfect path.
And so as the earth, another dear one said, he said the path of faith is worthwhile if it were 1000 times more difficult than it is. Oh, how wonderful. As for God, his way is perfect. Dear young people, praying that in your mind, frame it in your mind. Can I say in my mind too, because how often the enemy seems to succeed to putting a question mark after that in our minds.
God's way perfect in my life, all you say. But I failed, so how can I expect it? It's still perfect. It's still perfect.
It may be that he can't come in, in the fullness of the blessing that's in his heart, but he still wants to bless you. And the only hindrance is myself and yourself. We're the hindrance. There's no hindrance on his part. In one of the lost stages of Israel's history, in the book of Malachi, he said, Prove me now herewith that the Lord of hope, if I will not open you the windows of blessing.
The windows of heaven and pour you out of blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. Or they might have said we can't claim any blessing we failed. The prophet has been telling us how badly we've failed, but the Lord said I haven't changed, just prove me. He said, bring the tithes into my warehouse, into my house, and then prove me. In other words, if we have failed on it, get the thing right with the Lord.
And we'll find that he hasn't changed.
The same yesterday and today and forever.
For who is God? Save the Lord? You know that word? The Lord? That's Jehovah. That's the covenant keeping God. Israel's covenant keeping God.
When Israel when when the Lord made himself known by that name, it was when they were slaves down the land of Egypt, and he said Moses.
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I'll make myself known to you as Jehovah, the covenant keeping God. Isn't that wonderful?
Who is God? Save the Lord, just as we had this morning. All the promises of God in him are, yeah, they're sure to be carried out because we have a covenant keeping God. We have one who has promised and pledged, and through the work of his beloved Son, the way has been opened that all that is in the heart of God can flow out in richest blessings.
It is God that girdeth me with strength. It is God that girdeth me with strength. We feel so weak, but He girds us with strength. He gives the strength for this.
The joy of the Lord is your strength, and so He girds us with strength and maketh my way perfect. Why do we fail? Oh, we fail because we doubt His goodness. That's the reason we fail. And if we never doubted His goodness and walked in obedience and dependence, why he'd make our way perfect.
Could make our way perfect and he wants to and so I say his heart is full of blessing toward us all that we would lay hold of it again I say before I turn to Peter's epistle. Put that put that verse in your mind. Bring it there as to God, his way is perfect and the next time there's a circumstance arises in your life and disabled. How can this be all right, Just say.
Words over to yourself. As for God, His way is perfect. The word of the Lord is tried. He is a buckler to all those that trust in him. Now let us turn over to what we looked at and.
Peter's epistle.
Second Peter.
Second Peter, chapter 1.
Simon Peter.
I serve in the new apostle of Jesus Christ.
Why does it begin with this word Simon? Why doesn't he just begin with the word Peter instead of with Simon?
Well, because he didn't forget that he had failed.
And the first official he begins with Peter. But here he says Simon Peter, Simon Peter, if he's going to encourage them to add to their faith, virtue and so on, he doesn't forget that he didn't add to his faith courage. One time he lost courage in the presence of those who were the enemies of his blessed Savior. And so he says Simon Peter.
Oh, does the remembrance of some past failure in your life make you say?
All that I can. I can't really go on for the Lord. I've been such a failure. Well, this one, who's speaking here? He says Simon Peter. Simon Peter. And what had the Lord made him? He made him a slave, a bun servant, A servant could be translated, a barn surrender and an apostle. Oh, how lovely. Isn't this the grace of God?
Oh, how often it is that such an occasion.
We come to the general meeting.
Maybe we come here.
And the Lord.
Meet us here at our need. Perhaps we go home with a fresh or renewed desire to live for Him. Wouldn't it be lovely if many of the dear young people who have come here to turn around and go back to their homes, conscious of the fact that they have been saved by that matchless race, that God's will in His way is perfect?
And that although we have failed, he's the unfailing, unchanging 1.
Bond slaves we sang in our little hymn, Captive in the Chains of Love. His love is on our hearts, and he would lead us captive in those chains of love. And an apostle is a sent one. Well, of course we know that there was a there were 12 apostles. There were those who were chosen to be apostles. But there is a sense in which every believer is sent.
The Lord Jesus said in the 17th of John.
As my father has sent me into the world, Even so have I also sent them into the world. And so we have been sent into a world like this. We have been sent.
And then he says to them that have obtained.
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Like precious faith with us.
Well, this is true of each believer. We have obtained like precious faith. We could never go on in the pathway unless we have obtained that like precious faith. Oh, how important this is. The Christian pathway is a path of faith.
But God has given us that faith. Faith is the gift of God, says in Ephesians 2.
It says by grace, he says through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God and God has given to each one who is his faith.
The reason we don't walk by faith is because this faith is not an exercise. But He's given it to us. He's given us like precious faith. A faith that's necessary to go on in a world like this has been given to us.
Through the righteousness of God? Through the righteousness. Why does it say through the righteousness? Why doesn't it say through the love of God? Why the righteousness of God? Ah, because the question of sin had to be settled. God is a holy God. God cannot Passover sin, but the question of sin has been taken up and settled.
All Peter could never speak like this.
That the question of his sin hasn't been taken up and settled. I may this be impressed upon each one of our hearts.
That all the claims of God in righteousness have been fully met.
All we were.
No, sometimes in verse in first John 1 and 9 has missed you misused to unbelievers.
Says thou shalt. It says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. While we couldn't as unbelievers, we couldn't remember all our sins. It's impossible that verse is written to believers. Believers are to confess sin in their lives and be restored, but for none believer.
I like the way the little hymn puts it. Our sins, our gilding, love, divine confess, and born by thee. And isn't it a lovely thought that God took up the question of sin? God placed my sins on the Lord Jesus and it's all been settled. Not according to my thoughts about sin. I couldn't remember all the sins I've committed. And more than that, many things I might form are wrong. A wrong.
Knowledge along the appraisal of what is said and what is not, but all how, what gives me peace in my soul, is to know that God Himself, who knew all about me, took those sins and placed them upon the Lord Jesus. And the Lord Jesus bore all the Roth and judgment of God, and I have obtained like precious faith through the righteousness of God.
And our Savior Jesus Christ.
God gave to me the gift of faith, not faith in myself.
Some people have faith in themselves.
Some people have faith in their church, some people have faith in their feelings. They have faith in all kinds of things.
But we have faith in what God has done. The little hymn says it is a simple trust in what a God of love hath said of Jesus as the just. Or if it should be a doubting believer here, one, as it was mentioned last night, who still has doubts. Let me, let me again bring this blessed truth before you.
That the question of your sins was settled by God Himself.
And so that precious place that he gives is consequent upon the fact that sin has been settled according to his perfect knowledge of it.
His perfect knowledge of it. Some people get occupied with whether they have enough faith.
Well, you know, that isn't a question of that either. It's whether your faith is in the right person.
Some people have a great deal of faith in themselves. Some people have a great deal of faith in their experience.
Some people have a great deal of faith in their feelings.
But if there's just enough space to touch the Hamilton garment, you've obtained like precious plants, like precious faith, because it's through the righteousness of God. A question of sin has been settled at the cross, and all the promises of God in him are yeah, and in him, Amen to the glory of God by us.
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And then he says grace.
And peace be multiplied unto you.
Grace and peace all we need to always have the sense of grace. What did we deserve? What did I deserve? I deserve nothing but the judgment of God and not one blessing has ever come to me because I deserved it. The moment you and I have any thoughts that we deserve something, why we forfeit.
All right to it because we deserve nothing but judgment. And dear young people, when you come to the Lord with a request, don't come and say, well, I've tried to be faithful and claim it on that ground. It doesn't come on that ground.
These blessings come out of the goodness that's in the heart of God. He blesses according to his own heart. And how lovely it is. When that publican went up into the temple to pray, he had nothing good to say about himself at all.
He said God be merciful to me, a Sinner.
You got the blessing.
From the other man, the Pharisee talked. He talked about all his goodness. He wasn't like other men.
And he missed the blessing. There was no blessing for him on that ground. For this principle does Dome apply to unbelievers, It applies to Christians, it applies to believers. I believe we have a principle of that in the life of Hezekiah.
You know, Hezekiah was a faithful man. He was a good king in Israel.
And he went on for many years a godly king.
And then he took 6.
And when he took six, he played with the Lord and told the Lord that he had walked before him with a perfect heart. And because of that he asked the Lord to let him live a little longer because he had walked before him with a perfect heart.
Well, the Prophet had already told him that he was going to die.
But God in his permitted ways, you know, sometimes such a thing as God's permitted way.
It says He gave them their desire. He sent leanness into their soul. All your young people never plead anything from God because of your own life.
Bastion to us according to what's in his heart, for he sees what we need and he knows what's good for us.
Well, if one could put it in this way, God lengthened out the life of Hezekiah. And as though he should say, well, all right, Hezekiah, I'll try that heart of yours. You say it's a perfect heart. Now we'll see what kind of a heart it is. We'll see. And these solemn words are used about Hezekiah.
God left him that he might know all that was in his heart.
How do you walk to godly life? Yes, he has.
But He claimed something from God on that ground. All your young people, we have no claim only through what Christ has done. Every claim that we have is through that work that He accomplished. Because through that the hindrance has been removed that the heart of God can come out in grace. And one desires for his own soul that he would always have a fresh sense of the grace of God.
We don't deserve anything but judgment.
Over and over again we can say to ourselves, I don't deserve anything but judgment and come to him. Great.
And he seemed all the blind. And I believe that the deeper the sense of grace, the deeper the sense of peace in our soul.
The deeper the sense of peace. Why is our peace often disturbed in our lives?
Well, we sort of expected something and it didn't come. And then when we when it didn't come, there was a little question arose in our mind is, well, didn't I deserve it? Haven't I been trying to please the Lord? Didn't I deserve that?
And immediately our pieces disturbed because we were claiming it on the grounds of something in ourselves. But all if we just have the fence that every blessing is by grace, I believe that peace would preside in our hearts more than it does. Yes. Oh how lovely just to go through this world.
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With a sense that God is my Father, that He loves me perfectly, that He cares for me with an infinite, perfect loving care, and that He's and the Lord Jesus is the captain of our salvation, bringing many sons home to glory. All dear young people, peace will be multiplied in your life if the sense of grace grows in your soul. Or May God grant that it will and that you'll walk.
Life realizing that every day and every moment of the day where recipients of His grace, I believe if that soul will know what it is to have this peace multiplied to us through the knowledge of God.
And of Jesus our Lord.
And this is another thing that I wanted to mention to through the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord Satan's attempt is always to keep us from the true knowledge of God, the true knowledge of God. Some people have lost the sense that God is love, and so they live in fear and trembling. We know such religions of fear that don't know anything about.
A God of love.
Now, on the other hand, we see another extreme, those who say that God is such a God of love that he's going to Passover sin all together and that he's never going to punish it. Both are wrong. Both are wrong. That is, they're the extreme in the wrong direction. But God is light and God is love. And if God is going to display his love, he'll never do it by sacrificing his character as late.
Now he's light.
And he's love and what gives peace in the soul is not hoping that God is going to Passover something in our lives, but knowing that in the holiness of his nature and in the in the righteousness of his ways.
Why? He has taken up the question of sin, and he has settled it, and so it says, through the knowledge of God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.
All things know. Again, I say, this book that we spoke of is being tried. He's given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.
Many of you, dear young people, are going to school and to college.
You have to spend long hours poring over school books.
Listening to lectures, studying.
And so that you just get thoroughly engrossed in all these things that you're learning at school. But here's a book. It isn't too large.
It isn't too long, not nearly as large as some of the school books that the children carry homes, and this book contains all things that pertain unto life and godliness.
All dear young people, I believe we don't half appreciate the wonderful treasure that we have in God's Word. And I urge upon you, don't just read the New Testament. Don't just read a favorite chapter here and there.
It's all here that we need for our pathway.
I don't believe that there's a decision in your life and mine that we won't find wisdom in this blessed book for every single step of the way. And all how many young people bring sorrow and trouble into their lives because they don't follow the wisdom of this book? And some of them, sad to say, they have to say, oh, I didn't know the Bible said that.
I didn't know, the Bible said.
All dear young people, acquaint yourself well with us. Acquaint yourself well with it.
And those interesting stories in the Old Testament that we hear from our childhood, don't forget they're full of deepest moral instruction for us.
All these things that happened in the lives of the kings, the lives of the judges, the lives of the prophets, they're all full of instruction for us. It's all written down here, all things that pertain unto life and godliness. The whole pathway is marked out for us. And more than last, there's been a perfect example come down in this world.
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To walk the path, the Lord Jesus.
Himself, His divine power. There isn't a man in the world that has such power to do it, or wisdom.
Why you can take the man who has the greatest brain in the whole world.
And he couldn't begin to write even 1 Chapter of this book unless he should have been inspired by the Spirit of God.
The wisdom of this world is foolishness of God. And more than this, dear young people, the books that you're learning, that you're studying at school, in a few years they're going to be all outdated if the Lord leaves us here.
The books that we studied are thrown in the garbage. The books that were studied two or three years ago in the colleges, they're thought out today, tossed out.
Things that were accepted as facts scientifically a few years ago were all shaken up and abandoned today because men have found out different things.
But I tell you, you can safely take your stand upon this book, and heaven and earth shall pass away.
But my word said, the Lord Jesus shall not pass away. You'll never have anything to unlearn that you have received by the Spirit of God from this precious book or read it, acquaint yourself with it. Get down on your knees and pray if you don't understand an hour.
To teach you, because if there ever was a book of wisdom and all that you need for life and godliness, it's all here, all the blessed and privileged that you have. And again till you dear young people who are brought up in the meetings of those gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.
I'm bold to say, and I don't say it with any boasting, but thank God there is such a thing as a place on earth where the authority of the Word of God is recognized.
The authority of the word of God is recognized. You can go about to all kinds of religious places and an Italian that they accept the word of God that you'll find that they set aside certain parts of it.
They set aside certain parts.
And they'll, and if they, if they don't set it aside, they'll say, well, nobody understands that. Why do they say that?
Reason, they said, because they don't want to act on it. That's the reason. But when you sit in the meeting, the Lord gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, the Spirit of God is there. The Spirit of God cannot be separated from the Word of God.
The dear Mr. Darby said.
This was his expression. The Spirit and the Word cannot be separated without falling into fanaticism on the one hand, or rationalism on the other. And so those who take the Word of God apart from the Spirit, they rationalize it. And those who talk about the Spirit and set aside the Word, they find and fall into all kinds of extremes.
Just one more word of caution. We're living in days here, young people, when science is advancing as it never has before.
And sometimes we're inclined to say that the Bible says certain things that it doesn't say.
That is, there are some things, some people that say, well, the Bible says the Earth's only 6000 years old. It doesn't say that. It doesn't say that. It does say that the first man was Adam.
That's that's true. You can take your stand on that as firmly as you like and you'll never be shaken from it because it's the truth of God. The first man Adam was made a living soul.
Yes, but the Bible doesn't say the Earth's only 6000 years old, it doesn't say there weren't prehistoric animals, doesn't tell you it contains all things that sustain under life and godliness.
And sometimes people say things that the Bible doesn't say. But I caution you, be careful. But if the Bible says a thing.
Nothing's going to change it all. The advance of science will never contradict one statement of this blessed book.
Not one statement, anything that seems to contradict it is what Timothy calls opposition to science, falsely so-called. But another thing too I want to say, and that is never use the expression science proves the Bible. Turn it around. The Bible proves science.
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What was called science five years ago.
Is not called science today in some things.
Two years ago, they thought they couldn't flip the atom.
Brian said the atom can't be split.
Not a few years later, science said the atom could be slipped. You see, they science so-called changes.
Its oppositions of science falsely so tall. The truth of God never changes never changes. The Bible didn't say Adam couldn't be slipped. That was what man called science and then he changed this blessed book is ever the same all take your stand the Connor for not only this dear young people, but not only.
Answer some of these things, but this is most important.
It gives us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who hath called us to or by glory and virtue.
The Bible does tell us certain things about how this world was created and so on.
It brings before us rather and most importantly.
The knowledge of him.
It's a person. It's a person. The Lord Jesus knowledge will never keep anybody.
But a person will.
Christ, Have you got Christ? Dear young people, have you got Christ as your Savior?
He called us by glory and virtue. What is it that makes us content to give up the things of this world?
Only one thing, we have something better. We have something better. He's called us by glory, all the glory that is ahead of us.
If God created this seed in which we live, and sin has spoiled it all, how wonderful. He's called us by glory. And as we had in our reading this morning, there's a real man up there in the glory, God's beloved Son, and I want to direct your gaze to him. This world and all it has to offer is going to disappoint us.
That disappointed everybody that's gone after it, but it won't disappoint you if you know what the Bible says about it. If I heard that the building across the way was going to be burned down tomorrow, when when I saw it being burned down, I said, well, I was told about that anyway. It doesn't come to surprise to me. God told us here, young people, don't build your hopes here and you'll not be disappointed.
We've been called by glory and virtue. It is not for us to be seeking our bliss.
And building our hopes in a region like this, we seek for a city which hands have not filed. We pan for a country by sin undefiled.
Hold on to set your hopes down here. God has given you all you need for your pathway here. He's interested in your pathway. He's interested in the part that you choose. He's interested in the job you have. He's interested in the school you attend. He's interested in the food you eat. Yes, He's interested in everything. You're the Father's care, but He's called you by glory.
Got something better?
He's the captain of our salvation, leading us through an enemy's land. But all we're not going to stay here, dear young people. Our home's not here. And all I love to see dear young people start out in life realizing they have a father's care over them, but not expecting to find their home down here. You're only going to be disappointed if you do.
And he's called us by glory and virtue, and virtue that he is. He's not only set the glory before us, but He's given us the courage to go along against the strange.
Called us by glory and virtue, for by heart. Given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.
That by these he might be partakers of the divine nature.
All. Not only has God marked out the past then.
But he has actually given us the nature that's suited to heaven. Isn't that lovely?
He has given us the nature that suited to heaven.
The transplanted mum say man put him in heaven, he'd be miserable, he'd want to get out, he couldn't enjoy it. But we have been called to that place and we've been made partakers of the divine nature.
And that's how we escape the corruption that is in the world through life.
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That's how we escape it. You can't escape it otherwise, unless you have a nature that's suited to heaven.
Why? If your nature is only suited to this world, you'll live for this world. Now just turn over the page to the second chapter.
20th birth.
For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
They are again entangled therein and overcome the latter, and is worse with them in the beginning.
Some people take this risk to say you can be lost again, but the scripture is marvelously accurate. That's why I tell you to acquaint yourself well, well with it. Now I want to call attention. Notice the difference in the word?
In the 1St chapter, in the fourth verse it says having escaped the corruption, and in the 2nd chapter in the 20th verse it says they've escaped the pollution.
The corruption is the inward thing. The pollution is the outward thing.
And maybe if you brought up in a Christian home, you've escaped a lot of the pollutions of the world. Your father and mother have stepped in. But unless you've got a divine nature.
You'll go back to them, they'll go back to them. We've seen lots of the children the same and they escaped the pollution in their childhood, but they went back to them when they got older because they didn't have a divine nature. The job given us the divine nature.
A divine nature exceeding great and precious promises. We have a life that belongs to heaven.
And we've been called by glory and virtue. And so our home is up there.
And so how lovely this is. You have the power, dear young people, you have the life.
And that's why I'm talking to you this way this afternoon.
Because I know that every saved person here has, underneath everything, a desire to please the Lord.
Now what is brought before us in the few verses that followed, which I didn't read, I just skipped over and read one or two at this point. That is, that there needs to be an energy of faith to see that these things that God has put in there are developed in our lives, and so an entrance will be ministered unto us abundantly.
Abundantly, every gift that has Christ on board, if I can speak that way, is going to enter the heavenly harbor. But everyone's not going to have an abundant entrance. And dear young people, as I look over your faces and I see you here in the meetings.
And the time comes that if the Lord leaves us here, you grow up into young manhood and young womanhood. Remember that you're, as it were, filling up the vessel. And what are you filling it up with? Are you going to have an abundance?
Are you filling your mind with the precious things of Christ?
Are you going for that port of eternal glory? Are you going to try the port of pleasure and the port of fame and all the others on the way? You're a child of God. You're going to get to the port of eternal glory.
But he doesn't want you to get in there with all the cargo thrown overboard. He doesn't want you to get in there with everything lost.
Thank God we've obtained, like precious faith through the righteousness of God and of our Savior, our entry into the glory depending upon the work of Christ.
Your young people, the chart is the chart is given, the power is given, the life is given, the faith is given, the courage is given. All that we need. Now are we going to add these things to our faith? Are we going to accept, as it were, our sights for the heavenly glory and ask Him for the grace to go on for Him?
With that port of eternal glory before us, Oh dear young people, I appeal to you.
I appealed here. You can have a very unhappy life, our brother said yesterday. Are you happy? You ought to be a dear young people. You can't be happy if you're going after the things that are in disobedience to the word of God. If you're slighting this blessed book, and if you're not giving the Lord Jesus his rightful place in your life, it can't be happy.
Oh, May God grant that each one of our hearts shall be directed from earth to heaven.
To see that blessed, precious Savior. And oh, what a joy it is as we meet dear young people from year to year at these general meetings, to see that they're a little farther on toward the port of eternal glory. That's where the Lord is soon going to call us. He's going to take us there all. May God grant that we won't try all the harbors of this world along the way. He wants you to have an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom.
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Of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, may He grant that Christ might be more the all sufficient objects and portions of our hearts.