YP Address—G. Hayhoe
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Place a turn to a couple of passages first in Numbers, Chapter 3.
Numbers, Chapter 3.
And verse 44.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the Levites instead of all the first born among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle, and the Levites shall be mine. I am the Lord.
And now in Romans chapter 14.
Romans, chapter 14.
And verse 11.
For it is written, as I live, saith the Lord. Every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God, so then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
Well, it's a great deal of talk to your young people today about finding one's identity. And I just had it on my heart to look at a few scriptures in which we see that God deals with us as individuals as to salvation and as to our pathway. You know, as far as people finding their identity until they are saved, It would be just like one of the stones that was afterwards put in Solomon's temple trying to find its identity while it was still.
Part of the rock that hadn't been dugout. And so until one has been brought to know the Lord as his Savior, he's part of the world that is hasting on to judgment. It is true he'll have to do with God as an individual, but how can he find his identity apart from the one who has given us an identity, if man denies that he has received his life directly from God? If he feels that he is only the product of evolution?
And does not.
See his individual responsibility to God. Why then he will never be able to find his identity, except he finds it within the circle of his own self will. And what a dangerous thing this is. That's what's filling the world with violence. Because man is a fallen creature. And when he tries to find his identity, if he does it in his fallen state, he just gets farther and farther away from God. He develops those.
Fond things in his nature.
Which only show his enmity from God and his impossible situation as far as finding any peace or happiness for his soul.
And so how wonderful it is that we have a revelation from God, we have God's book, we have that which brings before us the purpose for which we are here. We hear people say, well, what is life all about? What is the purpose for which we're on this world and what earth does it all lead to your friends, There are no answers from the wisdom of man when those wise men at Pathens long ago.
Attempted to discover God.
And each one built an altar, two different gods, unless they should have missed any. We find that it was Paul walked through the streets of their city. He found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. Man doesn't know God and he doesn't know himself apart from divine revelation. But this blessed book, it reveals to us those two important things. It reveals God.
Paul, writing to the Ephesians, could say, But after that ye have known.
God, or rather known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, that is that God has made himself known in this book, and how will you know yourself?
Well, if, if I walked into a dark room, how could I know what my clothes looked like? I might have very good eyesight, but in a dark room I couldn't tell what they looked like. I must come into the light. And so a man will never truly know himself until he gets into the light, until he gets into God's presence. And it says, the entrance of thy word giveth light. It giveth understanding to the simple.
And you, dear young people who have been brought.
Most of you are, at least a good many of you, in meetings like this, where you have sat under the sound of God's Word, you may not at once realize how privileged you are. But all I tell you, it's a wonderful privilege to be brought up under the sound of God's Word and where the Spirit of God has liberty, so that you have within in your hands a revelation from God.
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You have the possibility, the capability in God's presence, of finding out what God has.
Say about you and about me what he said has to say about himself and how he has made himself known. And this is so important. In fact, I believe that we could say that that's what repentance really is. Repentance is a change of mind, it says in Romans 12, and may not conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good.
And perfect will of God.
And then he goes on in the chapter to show us now what is the mind of the natural man? Well, his life all centers around himself. He can't rise higher than himself. He can't lift himself, as it's been said by his own shoe strings. No, he can't find himself. He cannot really know himself apart from the light. And so how are we transformed?
Well, when we come into the presence of God, we get God's thoughts and repentance by saying means that change of.
And what do we need a change of mind about? We need a change of mind about ourselves and we need a change of mind about God. And so I say again, if you have high thoughts of yourself, if you think you're somebody great and important, why God says in his word, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
He describes our natural hearts in a way that is not very flattering, he says.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart. I try the reins. Yes, He looks inside. He knows the sinkhole of evil that is in your heart and mine. And so in His presence and in the light of His Word, we realize what God has to say about us. But oh, how wonderful that we also learn that God doesn't in any way hide what we are.
He shows us clearly and definitely what we are, but says that he loves us in spite of it. You might have a friend who thinks a great deal of you, but you say, well, there's something. And I wonder if he finds that out, will he still like me as well? There's something that I hope you will never discover because he couldn't like me as well. But all I want to tell you, dear young people.
There's nothing the Lord will ever discover about you that He doesn't know, and He loves you just the same.
He loves you just the same, that one who is perfect light is also perfect love and one of grand thing to get into His presence and discover that He and knows all about us and yet loved us and not only loved us but proved His love in giving His son. And so I say this to start with as we have read here in Numbers chapter 3.
Now these Levites, now they were taken and given to.
Given to Aaron and Aaron appointed to each one his service and to each one his burden. That is, if we could put it in this way, Aaron gave them under God's hand, their position, their identity among the people of God. And this is a wonderful thing. We find that when Saul of Tarsus was saved, he said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
And then he discovered not what his own will was. His own will was to persecute the church.
His own will was to make a great man of himself in the world, but when he found out that he was contrary to the will of God than he in the presence of the very one whose name he hated, he said that what wilt thou have me to do? So here we find this very lovely expression. The Levite shall be mine. And oh, it's a wonderful thing, dear young person, to look up and say to the Lord Jesus.
I am thine I am thine all that's a that's a grand starting point and then as to your life, It says every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Am I just mention this that my father who many of you knew he said at one time, in fact he said it more than once. He said what gave me peace in my Christian life was that verse. Every one of us shall give account.
Himself to God, it's a wonderful thing. It's the only thing that will ever give you peace in your Christian life. To be able to say, well, I'm satisfied that I'm seeking to walk before the Lord in obedience to his word and give account of myself. If you're always thinking of everybody else and what they think, you will never, never find a peaceful, happy Christian life.
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But when you find out that the Lord sings.
You, and it says in First Corinthians chapter 12, God hath set in the body as it hath pleased him. God hath set in the body as it hath pleased him. Now he didn't put us all in the same place. He didn't give us all the same work to do. While Aaron didn't give all the Levites the same work to do. Some of them carried the holy vessels, and they might have felt this is more important. Others perhaps just carried the pins.
But the important thing was that they were doing the work, the service that had been appointed to them by Aaron under God's hand.
And then too, as to their burden, it says to every man his service and to every man his burden. Perhaps I hear a young person say, oh, well, if I just have the opportunities that that other young person had, if I only had the opportunity of being in a larger meeting where there were more friends, if there was more activity in the meeting where I am, if there was more instruction.
But the Lord has put you just where you are.
And he's not going to expect from you more than that which he has fitted you for, for the place in which he has put you. We may be surprised at the judgment seat of Christ to find out who received the most approval from the Lord. May not be those who seemingly have done something great, because one has often said.
That the more our service puts us in the public eye, the more danger there is of doing it for public approval. But to have to do things before the Lord, Like, for instance, Epaphroditus, whose service was to pray for the Saints. It took a real energy of faith to carry on a service like that, to go into his room and shut the door and pray for the Saints. He didn't put him before the public eye. Perhaps very few people knew about it but the Lord.
Lord knew, and so I want to say this in beginning, dear young people, each one of you have an identity, each one of you have a place. And I want you to think of yourself as being given some particular ability from the Lord, put in some particular family, put in some particular assembly, and given some particular work to do. In this day we find that young people often tend to rebel against.
Parents because.
They say they weren't given the bringing up that they should have. Well, that may be so. I'm sure I've failed many times as a parent. I acknowledge it. But I say to you, dear young people, the Lord has given you the parents you have. And if by His grace you seek to please Him and live for Him, you'll get a greater reward than someone who had better parents and better opportunity than you think you have. The Lord has put you.
In a particular place where he wants you to be.
And Paul could have said, well, after all, I was brought up in a home where they were very godly Jews, and I must just remain in that path. But no, he said that God called him and separated from him from his mother's womb, called him by his grace. And no matter what you're bringing up may have been, no matter what opportunities or lack of opportunities you may have had.
The Lord is planning your life and He has a place for you to fulfill.
And it's so important that you should have to do with him personally. It has often been said that the religions of the world are all those which are national or family, entirely impersonal. And that is when Paul visited the city of Ephesus, the whole city was a worshiper of the great goddess Diana. That was the characteristic of the city of the Ephesians.
And if you went to.
India. Why? You would say, well, the Indians are Hindus. If you went to some country that was Muhammad, you'd say, well, those people are Mohammedans. If you came to the United States, you say they're Christians. But now I want to show you that this when it comes to Christianity, it's not intended to be an impersonal, family, national thing. That was the great difference between Christianity.
The great difference was that God intended that it should be a person.
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All things. And so I'd like to turn with you to John Chapter 3.
John, Chapter 3.
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for an old man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Here we see the Lord Speaking of something that must take place before 1 can see the Kingdom of God. That is, it's an individual thing, except a man, except a man be born again.
A man might be a Hindu because he was born in a Hindu country and brought up in under the Hindu religion. A man might be a worshipper of the great goddess Diana because he was brought up in Ephesus and lived there. And there's a little tendency amongst us here, Young people, pardon me for speaking frankly of accepting things just because you've been brought up that way.
But a God wants it to be a personal thing with you. And I want to say at the very beginning.
Here have you had a personal dealing with God? Satan doesn't care how orthodox you are. He doesn't care whether you believe all the doctrines of the Bible as long as you don't have to do with God personally. But when when it becomes a personal thing, he'll do everything he can to oppose you having a personal dealing with God. It began a way back in the garden leading as soon as Adam sinned. What was it that he.
He wanted, he wanted to get away from God. He wanted to get away from God. He didn't mind something to cover his nakedness. And man doesn't mind a religion that gives him hide, that hides him from God. In fact, he favors that kind of a religion. The greater his distance from God, the better he likes it. The more impersonal it is, the better he likes it because he can say, well, my family was always that way. Our nation was always that way.
And so that's all it means to him. But oh, when you say to him, but you have to do with God yourself, you're going to have to answer to God yourself. Have you as an individual been born again? Have you received a new life from God? Oh, that's a different thing, isn't it? And all, dear young people, you may be born into the finest home. You may be brought up under the sound of God's word. But I say again.
Have you had?
A personal dealing with God. Do you know what it is to see in His presence that you are a Sinner, That you are a Sinner? Just as we were saying, like that great quarry where the stones were cut. Then one day they come with the tools and a stone is cut out, a stone to fill a particular place, and that stone is taken and put in its particular place in the temple.
And so it says in Isaiah, remember?
The rock from whence you're hewn, and the pit from whence you were digged. I was once part of the world that's going on to judgment. But I had to do with God personally. I saw I was a Sinner for whom Christ died.
I was very much impressed when I was just a boy by reading how a young man. And this was the way the gospel pressed itself upon his soul. He thought, Well, now, if there were no other sinners in the earth, but only myself, if I was the only one in the whole world.
The Lord Jesus would have had to leave heaven and die for me, or I could never be there.
It required his death for myself. It is true He died for many, He died for all, He bore the sins of many. But I say it is a personal thing and you can look to the cross of Calvary and say he died for me. It's not hard for to hear people say he died for sinners, He died for all. But have you made it personal? Can you say that you have personally received the Lord Jesus?
As your Savior, yes. So you have a new life. You have a new life from God. And what is that new life? Why, It's the very life of Christ himself. You receive it as an individual, but it has a collective result, shall I say, and that is as soon as you receive the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
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Why? What a wonderful thing you are now brought into the family of God.
You're an individual in the family of God. These Levites, what was their position? Well, they were taken as those who were redeemed out of Egypt. If you read the context there, you'll remember.
That when the judgment fell upon Egypt, God saved the first born in every family, where the blood was sprinkled in every family. Each one was an individual in a family, and he was sheltered from the judgment. And then these first born were numbered, and God said that that Moses was to take the tribe of Levi in place of the first born. So every one of them could say.
I was personally redeemed.
I was personally sheltered by the blood and that's why I am brought into this place, a blessing. And so how lovely it is here that this isn't a thing that you have to do with God personally. But I say again, it has a collective result. And so it says that when we are born again, we are born into the family of God and that's a great family.
We then are brought.
Into a relationship with every other child of God upon the face of the earth. And as one travels about, what a joy it is to shake hands with someone and be able to say that's my brother, that's my sister in Christ. As an individual. He or she received the Lord Jesus and now we're brought together, we're in the family of God. And so this becomes a collective thing.
And now let us turn to Acts Chapter 2.
Acts Chapter 2.
Now the last verse.
Well, perhaps we should read the 46th also. And they continuing daily with 1 accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, that eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
Here we see who it was that added them to the church. Was this something that they did themselves? How often we find in the preaching of today how people will agree. They will accept what we read in the 2nd chapter of Acts, that it's a personal, individual thing to be born again. But then they say that a person must join the Church of his choice. He must act in a choice of his own in connection.
Of the church that he wishes to join himself too. While it's outward, we read here in the 2nd chapter of Acts. How did Peter stand up and give any such advice? Did he even tell him to join themselves to the church that then existed? For at that time in Jerusalem, of course, and there was no other testimony but that which was owned of God. What did he say? Are you going join that church?
Oh no, notice what it says the Lord.
Added to the church daily such as should be saved. And this is a very wonderful and a very important thing. We don't join the church. The Lord does the joining.
When you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, the Holy Spirit of God came to indwell your body and united you to every other believer on earth and to Christ's head in glory. You became part of the church, not by some decision.
That you made in joining it. But by having received the Lord Jesus as your Savior, the Lord added you to the church. And in this day of confusion, this is very important. There are many who don't really know what the church is. They look upon it as something that is an organization of men or a particular group. I sometimes said to put it like this.
Well, in the company with whom I have fellowship, they didn't.
Receive me to become part of the church. But they received me because I was already part of the church and they wouldn't have received me or wouldn't have wanted to receive me unless I was part of the church before they received me. It's very important for us to see what the church really is. It is composed, I say, of all believers.
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And we know that this was the truth that was known and was enjoyed so much that during the beginning of the history of the Church of God on earth, we know it was soon lost. And as I was saying, before then, the church became a kind of a national or family thing.
And the church grew to be a great tree in the earth, and thousands of people were baptized and made part of the professing church. It became a great house. It became a mass of confusion where saved and unsaved were linked together. Where they added by the Lord, Oh no, it was by some action of their will and saved an unsaved were brought together.
And so, as we know, it became a great thing.
Well, and God raised up in the time of the Reformers, say, in the time of Martin Luther and Zwingli and other men of this kind. He raised up men who sought to restore the truth of justification by faith, who sought to restore to Christendom the knowledge that salvation was not by works or ordinances, but by faith.
But at that time, they still didn't learn what the church was.
So what did they do? They started another church with a bit more light, but it became the same thing as what they stepped out of. The one they stepped out of had been corrupted with a great deal of darkness and evil. So these started something with a great deal more light in it, but it was still a man made church.
Many of the preachers had the knowledge of the gospel. Many of them proclaimed the truth of salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus and his finished work. But they had formed another which became national. And I don't need to mention countries, but we know very well that there were countries who had national Reformed churches and national Protestant churches. And what was it? Well, it wasn't improvement, but it was still not.
The restoration of the truth of the Church.
But in the grace of God, about 150 years ago, God stirred up his people and there was a great work of the Spirit of God to reveal the souls what the church really is.
That it is not something that is man made, it is not something that you join by an action of your own, but it is composed of all those who are members of the body of Christ for those who have been saved and indwelled by the Spirit of God. And so there is upon earth that which is the true Church of God. And they sought an expression to it. They saw that the systems that men had set up were systems.
Formed and organized by men. Some had more light than others, some had more Christians than others, but still they were man made organizations. But they learned that the truth was that all believers were members of the body of Christ. Then how could they dare to call themselves by a name? How could they take a name as though they were a fresh group in Christendom and another type of reformation while.
Learned that they could meet as members of the body of Christ. They didn't profess to be the body of Christ. They didn't call themselves by a name that made another man made organization in Christendom. You say, well, why couldn't they call themselves the Church of God? Well, because they weren't.
The Church of God is composed of all believers, So what they could do was give expression to that truth. And that is what they sought to do by setting the one loaf on the table and seeing represented in that one loaf every member of the body of Christ, and as such to break bread as members of the body of Christ, even if there were only two or three.
That they could fulfill the Lord's desire that there should be.
An expression upon earth of that which is dear to Christ, members of His body.
Perhaps I could give a very simple illustration for the sake of each one here, and I'm thinking particularly of you young people.
Supposing that there was a father had, he had, we'll say, ten children.
And he makes a request of his children just before he dies.
He says something like this, he said. Now I'm going to be taken away from you, but I don't want you to forget me.
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And I'd like you to gather.
We'll say just for illustrations sake, once a week to Remember Me as your father and also to remember that you are one family.
So the children and loyalty to their father after he's gone.
They gather and they gather.
To remember their father and they gather to express the fact that their one family. But supposing one family. But supposing. As time goes on, more and more begin to stay away, Perhaps discord comes in the family and they become separated.
And maybe there's only three of them left who really want to fulfill what their father asked them to do. Would it be right for those three to meet together and say, well, we'll remember our father and we are the family now? Oh, you say, no, that would only be pride to do that because there are seven other members to the family, too.
But are they going to give up them doing what their father asked them to do? Because there are only three who wish to come and do what their father requested.
Paul, let us say, supposing that three of them say, well, we're going to meet together and we're going to recognize that there's just one family and that the whole 10 are members of that family. But we're not going to give up doing what our father asked us to do just because there are only three. Don't you think if their father could be present at that, he would say, oh, I'm so pleased that three of my children.
Want to do what I requested in the way that I requested.
I believe it would give pleasure to the heart of the Father.
Well, if I could use this as an illustration, I believe that we could say that this is what it is to meet as members of the body of Christ and your young people, perhaps being brought up in Christian homes, meeting many friends at school who love the Lord, meeting friends. And I'm glad if you do meet friends at school who love the Lord Jesus and they say, well, what's the difference between your company and ours?
Well, what's the name of your company and why do you go there and.
What really is the ground of your gathering? Are you any different from us?
Just let me put it in a simple way like this, that we are gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, we accept no other name but His, and that we meet not to say that we are the body of Christ, but to express this wonderful, blessed truth that we are members of the body of Christ. Supposing five members of that family organized and got together.
And took a name and said now you can join our group. Would you say that?
Fulfilling what the father asked them to do. Would you say that no matter how much they loved their father, they would be fulfilling their father's request? I would say no, that's not what their father asked them to do. He asked them to express that they were one family. And 1St Corinthians 10 says we, being many, are one bread, one body, for we're all partakers of that one bread.
Well, there may be trials and difficulties, there may be divisions come in among the people of God.
But I believe that we can see in this very simple verse that it was a personal thing.
Here was here were these 120 believers baptized by 1 Spirit into one body, and then as each individual was saved, the Lord added him to the church. That's what the Church of God is. Its expression on earth is something that is a privilege and a responsibility, but one when he is saved, is added individually.
And shall I say that's what your identity is in the Church of God?
You have first your identity as being a child of God, being one in the family of God, and God has a particular delight and interest in each individual. 1 is often said that on Aaron's heart there were 12 separate stones representing each one of the 12 sons of Jacob, and you have an individual place on his heart, but those 12 together made the effort.
Which was the nation of Israel. And on the table in Israel there were 12 loaves when they came back from the captivity. When they came back from the captivity in Ezra's time, even though just two tribes came back, they killed 12 bullocks. Why didn't they just kill 2?
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Why didn't they say, well just two of us of the tribes came back so we just killed 2O No Faith always recognizes that the Church of God is 1 and as individuals we are added. Well what a wonderful thing it is then, dear young people, to be added to the church.
And now let us turn to another verse in Hebrews 11. Brief mention was made of this this morning.
Hebrews, Chapter 11.
Verse 5.
By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him.
For before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God.
Here was a man who walked in a very evil day.
He walked as an individual. He wasn't a man pleaser, Paul said. If I yet please man, I should not be the servant of Christ.
And this is another thing, dear young people, I'd like to bring before you, and with the Lord's help, I'd like to emphasize it upon your heart.
We spoke about how.
The world has religions which are national or family, and I believe a matter of pleasing God can become a sort of a group thing instead of an individual thing. You can sort of say, well, as a group, the young people in our city think it's all right to do these things, and so we just all go along together. And this is destructive of individual conscience. It means that you just go along, and it usually means that you go along to the lowest common denominator.
Down to the level where you say, well, if one doesn't, we all do it. And that is not the path of pleasing God. The path of pleasing God is an individual thing. Enoch had this testimony that he pleased God. He walked with God, he sought the Lord's will and his life. He said, I'm sure many times.
As we read.
Teach me to do thy will.
And so it's important for us, dear young people, to seek to discover the will of God from his word. Now you say, well, that might mean that you have to be alone. Well, sometimes it might mean that, but very often the influence of such a person on others is very, very good.
Daniel was down in Babylon and as we have often noticed he had it all to school in Babylon and we find in the 1St chapter he was selected as one who was to attend school and to receive his education in Babylon. He didn't go along with the level of those who were in the world, who were part and parcel of the world.
And he had three friends there, and as far as we're told, he didn't ask his three friends what they should do. It tells us that Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the King's meat, nor with the wine that he drank.
That is, Daniel as an individual had a purpose, but he had three friends who loved the Lord as he did. Maybe they didn't have the courage that he did. Maybe they would have chosen an easier path. Maybe they would have said, well, we just don't have to be so strict as all that. We can go along with the rest, at least in measure, and let them know that we love the Lord in spite of all the things.
No, Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile.
Himself, where the kings meet, nor with the wine which he drank. And what was the result of Daniel's faith? What was the result of Daniel's testimony? Well, his three friends, instead of going along with the crowd, his three friends then were influenced by Daniel's faith and faithfulness. And we find that the four of them stood together. The four of them became a little testimony, a little nucleus in that school in Babylon that.
To the Lord, and it took a stand for him.
And dear young people, I say again, I wonder, are you seeking to please God? Do you search His word for yourself or do you just go along with the crowd? Once you start the path of compromise, it's very dangerous because first thing is you give up a good conscience. You say, well, I know what the Lord wants me to do, but I just can't go against the current.
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And so you give up a good conscience. And what is the next step?
Well, the next step is hypocrisy. You tend to visa, you pretend to be something you're not. You don't tell your parents what you did. You don't want to tell other people because you know that some wouldn't just approve. And so when you give up faith and a good conscience, it's a very slippery path. It's a very dangerous path, although what you say, you don't know what it's like in 1972.
Well, I say, dear young people, that I think it was.
I would say it's a little better in 1972 Than when Enoch lived. Enoch lived just before the flood, and God's word is the earth was filled with violence and corruption. We're not told that he had a single companion to help him, but it says he had this testimony that he pleased God. Where did he get the testimony that he pleased God?
Well, I expect he had it in his own soul, but I believe there were others whose conscience bore witness to the fact that here was a young man, amidst all the corruption and evil of his day, that had had an object outside of pleasing man. He was not a man pleaser. Paul had many temptations, I'm sure, in his day, to please men, to please others.
But he said, if I yet please, ma'am, I should not be the servant of Christ. And I'd like to say this to encourage you, dear young people, make the Lord Jesus the object. We read in our chapter this morning, looking off unto Jesus, and our brother pointed out that we're looking away from everything else, looking to please him and going through life with a sense in your soul that you're pleasing him. Now, this won't make you.
One who is harsh and unkind.
I have often said that the person who sought to please the Lord in everything, who never did one thing to please himself, never in one thing diverted from the path that was pleasing to God, was the Lord Jesus. He. He could say, the Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things which please Him was the Lord Jesus heart on other people.
Oh, I think he was the most gracious person that ever walked through this world.
How wonderfully he dealt with his disciples when they failed. How gracious He was to them.
How loving he was even before Peter denied him. He said, Peter, I have prayed for you that thy faith fail not. And if you have the Lord before you, it won't make you harsh on other young people, It won't make you hard on others. No, it'll make you gentle toward them. It'll make you love them, for you'll never win them any other way. You'll never be a blessing to any other young people by jumping on them, but you will if you walk to please the Lord and show them.
That you love them, that you're seeking their good, that you honestly are seeking to walk before the Lord for yourself, and that you love them.
And as one has often said, remember, we haven't all made the same progress in the things of God. We find in John's epistle that there were babes, and there were young men and there were fathers. There's different points in progress, Paul said, where two we have already attained. Let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.
I was struck in reading in Joshua chapter 1 where.
Joshua was exhorted to be strong and of good courage in crossing over the Jordan. And then he speaks to the 2 1/2 tribes who had settled down on the other side of Jordan and exhorts them to go over with their brethren and fight the battles of the Lord. And they reply and tell Joshua, yes, they said, we're going to do just what you said.
And anyone that doesn't do what you said, Joshua, should be put to death. That was a pretty harsh statement, wasn't it?
Did they go across the Jordan? Did they?
If you check the numbers, you will find that less than half of them, there were about 100,000 of them that were numbered that were telling Joshua we're going to go over the Jordan and anyone that doesn't to be put to death.
And they were the ones who were the most unfaithful. You'll always find that way, the ones who are walking close to the Lord. It'll never make you harsh to walk in the company of the Lord Jesus. It will give you grace. It'll give you enablement to be a help to others. It'll never lessen your sense of what sin is.
But how can you be a better health than to walk to please the Lord yourself? It says of Enoch he had this testimony that he pleased God. What a sweet, what a happy testimony for a man in an evil day. What peace it gave him as someone has written a little poem and after years long years of such blessed walking, one day he was not God said come, come from this world of.
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Weary sin, stained sadness.
Come to the Fuller Fellowship of Home Order, young people. Seek the Lord's approval in your life. Seek to please Him.
So we turn now to John chapter 12.
John chapter 12 and verse 26.
If any man serve me, let him follow me, and where I am there shall also my servant be. If any man serve me, him will my father honor.
Here we find 2 That it's an individual message. Here if any man serve me, let him follow me. And this is a very good thing for us too.
Service to the Lord His individual.
Perhaps you live in a meeting where there isn't very much activity and you say, well, there's nothing for me to do because young people never do anything very much for the Lord and the place where I live. But there's something for you to do individually. It's nice when we can do it collectively. It's nice when we can serve together. But as Aaron appointed to each one his service and his each one his burden, it was an individual thing.
Yet how there was also the things that they did together. And so it's a lovely thing to hear the call of the Lord individually. And I'd like to encourage each young person here to ask the Lord. Perhaps you live in a meeting where there are very few young people, where there's not much activity, but I'm sure that if you ask the Lord.
That he has something for you to do, if any man serve me.
Let him follow me. We know very well if we have a helper. If you're doing a little job and you have a helper, we'll say a man's a plumber and he has a helper. Well, he doesn't want his helper sitting out in the truck while he's doing the job. He wants to help her right beside him. So there's a tool that he wants. If there's some little thing to be held, his helper's right there.
Well, there may be times when there seems little to do but just to be close. Maybe the Lord will give us some wonderful service to do just because we were close.
And those of us who are parents know how much we love this in our children. Perhaps we're doing some little job.
And we have one of our children with us.
And the child isn't perhaps very capable, but there's just something we want to have held. And we say, dear, will you hold this? And how we appreciated having that child right there. And the child had the feeling, well, I help daddy, I did something for him. And dear young people, may this be the habit of our lives, to be so close to the Lord that if he wants a little job done, that you'll be so close to him.
That he'll say.
Well, when you do that job, you know, this has struck me in reading the prophets in the Old Testament that often there's quite a long gap. And the word of the Lord came at such and such a time. And then the next portion, it might be months or even years later, the word of the Lord came. But they were the Lord's messenger and the Lord's message, and they were just waiting to be called and to be appointed, be appointed to something to do.
And you may not feel that you're doing something.
Just because you're not working 8 hours a day to the Lord for the Lord.
But I don't believe that the ones who are most pleasing to the Lord are necessarily the ones who are devoting their full time to the Lord. I quite expect in heaven that we'll get many surprises and find out that perhaps some slave whom Paul said in Colossians was serving the Lord Christ will receive a great reward.
As a servant of the Lord, while someone else who seemed to be doing a great deal did not have the same approval from the Lord. Isn't this very sweet? If any man serve me, let him follow me. And so if you want to do some service for the Lord, keep close to him. Was mentioned in the meeting this morning about Joshua. Joshua accompanied with Moses for the 40 years of the wilderness. And if you read carefully.
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You will find only two or three instances where Joshua is mentioned as doing anything in the whole wilderness journey. He was really there didn't seem to be much for him to do.
We find him one of the spies going into the land. We find him that he was with Moses when Moses came down to the mountain. We finally even made a mistake on one occasion. But the instances of Joshua doing anything in those forty years are exceedingly rare.
But what an honor to him when Moses work was done for the Lord to say Joshua.
There's a great work for you to do now. A long time to wait. 40 years wasn't it?
But he stayed close to Moses. It says he was Moses minister. It says he departed not from the Tabernacle when it was set up. And the result was when the Lord wanted something done, here was a young man who was ready. So if you want to be useful to the Lord, start right today.
And say, Lord Jesus, I want to serve thee. And then he'll say, well, just stay close to me and I'll have little things for you to do. And perhaps someday I'll have something big for you to do, something that you'll be surprised that I should ask you to do it. And he'll give you something because you are close to him. If any man serve me, let him follow me.
Howard just looked briefly at Second Timothy chapter 2.
In verse 20.
But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor, and some to dishonor. If a man therefore courage himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto water sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.
In Two Timothy chapter 2, the House of God has become a great house.
Because man as the builder has brought in a lot of bad material, wood, hay and stubble. Now it's become a great house, and the conduct of the man of God becomes a little perplexing. What is he to do when the house has become a great house? Well, he can't leave the great house, and we're not called upon to leave professing Christendom. That would be apostasy. What is he to do?
Well, in the confusion of the great house, it is an individual call.
And the reason I'm saying this is because there's one thing that perplexes young people, and I've often heard them say it. Well, I can understand being separate from unbelievers, but I can't understand what it means to be separate from Christians.
Now this passage here sets this side of things before us.
Now there were those who were saying that the resurrection was passed already. Paul said, well, they might even be believers. The Lord knoweth them that are his. But he said the house has become a great house.
And God never calls upon us to separate from believers as believers, but He does call upon us to separate from inequity.
And I've often used this very simple illustration, supposing that I have said to my children now children, I don't want you to play with certain ones because they're bad company. And so I look out and we see, I see the three children out there and the whole three of them are in this bad company that I've asked them not to be associated with.
And I mentioned their names. I see Nancy, Harry and Eunice, I'd like you to come in right away.
I called them as individuals, didn't I?
While I wait a few minutes and justice one comes, just one comes. Do you think I would say to the one who came, oh, you shouldn't have left your brother and sister there? No, I would say I'm glad you were obedient.
And you know, the call is always an individual call.
My illustration doesn't fully fit in this way that when we do separate as individuals, we find the Lord has also called others but the path, the call is an individual one and you know what to expect that God is calling groups. He isn't he's calling individuals and the call to obedience, the call to walk in the truth is an individual call. And if you find yourself in a position.
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Where you are and you say.
Well, I'd like to come out if some of my friends would come, but I don't like to leave my friends there. I know they love the Lord, some of them more than I do. And I don't like to leave the work that I'm doing there because if I do, who's going to carry on the work?
Remember, the call is individual. The Lord says you come in obedience, and then it says when you do, you'll be fit for the master's use and prepared not to some good works, but to every good work, every good work. When you're in the path of obedience, you're prepared for every good work. So never look upon it as separating from believers.
You separate from what the Word of God condemns. You separate as an individual.
And you follow with those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
And so this call is individual. And just before I close, I'd like to turn to one more verse, if you will, in Song of Solomon.
Chapter 1.
At verse 4.
To draw me we will run after thee. The King hath brought me into his chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in thee. We will remember thy love more than wine. The upright love thee.
This is one of the remarkable verses in Scripture. Ordinarily in English grammar we don't change in a sentence from the singular to the plural, but twice in this verse there is a change from the singular to the plural. Notice Draw me, We will run after thee. Why does it change? Why doesn't it say, Draw me, I will run after thee. But instead it says draw me, we will run after thee. And then the King has brought me into his chambers.
And then to the plural, we will be glad and rejoice in Thee. Why is this change? Well, I've been seeking to bring before you, dear young people, your individual responsibility. You have an identity, you have a place, you have something to fulfill for the Lord. It's an individual call, but our lives always have an influence on others.
And if you should hear the call of the Lord and seek to please Him.
Who can tell that there might not be others as with Daniel, and they'll run after the Lord too. Each one of us, by hearing the call of the Lord individually, can be made a blessing to others. When we have come into His presence and are glad and rejoice in Him in His banqueting house as individuals, then there's a blessing for others too.
And so how lovely this is that we have brought before us. And I do trust.
That this will speak to the heart of each dear young person.
The Lord granted, in these difficult days, I say again in closing, you have an identity you have.