Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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Isaiah chapter 8, and the sixth verse. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. And could we turn also to Galatians chapter 2?
Galatians chapter.
Chapter 2 and the 20th verse. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Well, dear young people, what I had on my heart this afternoon.
Was to speak about the cost.
By which we have been redeemed to speak a little of the cost of following Christ.
And until that, there is a cost in not following him when we consider what he has done for us.
And the reason I have read these first scriptures is because it brings before us the person who has brought us, brought us at so great a cost.
There is another verse that I might mention and that is that verse in first Corinthians chapter 6. It says ye are bought with a price.
Oh, what a wonderful thing it is when we think of this person who has bought us.
In all, there's a tendency in the world today to go on in utter independence of God. But you and I are dependent creatures. We have received our life from God, and as it was said to Belshazzar long ago, the God in whom thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.
And Paul too, speaking to the philosopher.
On Mars Hill, he said in him we live and move and have our being. You know, we'd like to go on, perhaps independently of God. It's so natural to our human heart.
In fact, it's something that develops in us as we get older if we're not watchful. That is the spirit of independence. We know how a child, as soon as it can walk, how it likes to go out on its own, push away mother's hand and walk by itself, gets a little older and goes to school. And the child comes home very pleased that he can now tell his mother something that he has learned.
Apart from his parents.
A little older, he begins to earn his own living, and he can say to his father and mother, I have got my own money now and then, a little farther, I can make my own plan. I have my own home. It's my life.
Hold your young people, and May God grant that as we consider these things, we may realize ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price, and therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God.
And you know, it's not a difficult path. It's a very blessed path. In fact, this is being acknowledged in some ways. Although men are leaning upon man instead of upon the Lord in school, there are more counselors and guidance teachers continually. And why is this? If we're independent creatures, why is it necessary to have a guidance teacher?
They have counselors if we're independent.
All you say, but we need a little bit of help. Yes, that's true. Do we acknowledge it and think that the only source of health is from man? And then too, I suppose there are more psychiatrists than ever before. And why is this? Well, people are becoming more and more confused about life and what it's all about.
And are trying to find the answers but the point is, are they turning to God?
Garden and not only wish to bring before you dear young people, and it's a very blessed thing to learn it when we're young, but that is the marvelous, wonderful resource we have in our creator. It says remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, before the evil days come and the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them.
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Why wait until troubles?
Common overwhelm you? Why not right here in the bloom of youth, turn to the Lord and find what a resource you have in Him.
And has me proved his love? Our brother read to us this morning from Proverbs chapter 8. And there we see God as the Creator God in his Son. And when all the foundations of the earth were laid, his delights were with the sons of man. And I love to think as we gaze upon the wonders of God's creation, as we think of the blessings of health and all the things that can be enjoyed.
In a land like this, who was it provided all these things? It was a creator God. It was men who cared for you and who cared for me has given you and I life and breath and all things.
And more than this, when we spoil this world, he showed that he still had an interest in him.
He didn't want to have the joys of heaven alone. I've enjoyed that verse where when the Lord Jesus was here upon earth, it says when the time came that he should be received up, he set his faith to go to Jerusalem. That is the force of this verse. The time came that he should be received up. Oh well, He had so perfectly.
Glorified God his Father in every step of His.
Pathway that he could have gone back to heaven in his own right. He could have gone back and had the joys of heaven alone because he was worthy. Now those gates would open to him that the King of Glory might come in. But oh, he would have had the joys of heaven along. And who did he want to have there? He wanted you. He wanted you and worked for because he wanted to.
Here all the joys of heaven with you, and He will find more delight in that eternal day in your blessing then you and I will find in being there.
There's a little song that says he and I, in that bright glory, 1 deep joy, shall share mine to be forever with him, his that I am there. And so if I can speak in this way, I want you, dear young people, to make a better acquaintance with this wonderful person, the one whose name is mentioned here.
Unto us a child is born. Yes, there was one born in.
This world different from any other child because every other child born into this world was born in sin. But he was born. He was born as we're told about. Holy thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. God come down a heavenly stranger love to sinners to proclaim.
So it says unto us, a child is born.
And there as Simeon looked at that babe and took him up in his arms, he said, Lord, now let us know thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. And dear young person, you will never have peace in your pathway. You'll never have that wonderful joy that you're entitled to if you don't know that Blessed One, if you haven't, as it were, taken him to yourself.
I trust you've taken Him as your Savior about that. You might see that He wants to be more than just your Savior. He wants to be everything to you. And isn't this verse a lovely unto us? A child is born unto us, A son it doesn't say is born, but is given. Why? Well, it was God's Son that was given. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. True, He was born a child.
But from all eternity he was the Son, and the Son was given. Yes, God's beloved Son came down here in order that, as the little hymn says, dwells in that bosom. Norfolk. In that bosom lies, and came to earth to make it known that we might share his joys.
And the government shall be upon his shoulder while we're living in days when.
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Wise men, concerned man are wondering what is going to happen, His government going to crumble. Are we going to see a complete breakdown? Well, there's one who can set everything right and he is going to set everything right. But he can tell you the government upon his shoulder, just one shoulder is enough.
To manage all difficulties of government, and the problems multiply continually. But here's one that babe of Bethlehem's Manger, that one, the eternal Son of God. He can and he will carry the government upon his shoulder another day. But he's doing something more wonderful right now.
He's carrying the Lambs upon his shoulders. Oh, have you been?
Brought to Him. Is there a young person here that's not saved and you've never yet received the Lord Jesus? Or I beseech you, this afternoon He wants to take you up and place you upon his shoulders of strength, carry you upon His heart of love, and carry you all the way home. He wants to do that.
The government was upon is upon his shoulders about the lamb.
Is placed, as we're told, in the 15th of Luke. He picked up that lost sheep and he carried it upon his shoulders, rejoicing, rejoicing all the joy of his heart in having one brought to himself. How do you know that place of security? Are you rejoicing in that?
Well, I say again, we'd like to bring before you something of the glory of this person. His name shall be called wonderful. We all love that little chorus that we sing. His name is wonderful. And oh, how it brings before us as something of the glory, how that person. I remember one of the brothers telling us about our lake a good many years ago.
That someone was visiting from Europe.
And he didn't know the English language too well, but he noticed how often they used the word. Wonderful was a wonderful day. It was wonderful food. It was wonderful soup. It was wonderful just about everything. And he said in his broken English, he said, don't you have some word that belongs only to the Lord Jesus Christ?
Well, he said. I was quite struck.
By that expression, and it is very interesting, friend, that I don't believe that the word wonderful is associated with anything else but the Lord himself and the work that he does. Oh, how blessed of them. His name is wonderful. He's a wonderful Savior. He can save the violence. It doesn't matter how far you have sunk in sin.
How far you have got away, How much you have disappointed?
Your parents, how much you have got away from him, perhaps into things that they don't they don't know about, but you know only too well in your own heart. Well, I tell you, he's a wonderful savior. He's able to save the violence. He's able to bring such to himself.
But he's more than that. He's a wonderful friend. Friends of this world often disappoint us. I'm sure we have all set at times. Well, who can you trust? Because you've told some friend something and he disappointed you. He let you down all that. There's one a wonderful friend of that little song. What a friend we have in Jesus.
All our sins.
Greece to bear sometime perhaps you've gone to an earthly friend. You've tried to unburden your heart, and then that friend has disappointed you. But all you can go to the Lord, and you can unburden your heart. He invites us in these words. Pour out your heart before him is not a lovely expression. Pour out your heart before Him.
All those things that are bothering you right now.
Those things that seem so insurmountable and you say nobody knows, No one understands my inner feelings. Perhaps there isn't a human, but there's one whose name is wonderful, Wonderful friends.
May His wonderful in everything we've been having in our meetings, all His. He's wonderful at the gathering center. What a wonderful thing that we can be gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that wonderful? The person who serves heaven and the heaven of heaven cannot contain Him. And to think that He would design to be in our midst like He did to the disciples.
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Of old, and showed them his hands and his side, and said, Peace be unto you, O his name is wonderful.
And then Counsellor. All life is full of problems. We often don't know what to do. But his name is Counselor because he knows everything ahead of time. That someone has said. Prophecy is history written ahead of time.
Time and the one who can foretell the future of this world and who could tell things that were going to happen to the prophets of old. Doesn't he know your future and mine? Doesn't he know what's just around the corner in life for us? Doesn't he know everything that's ahead? Yes, he does, and he can be and he wants to be.
Your counselor, he wants you to turn to him and find.
And that he is acquainted with all your ways that 1139 Psalms Whither shall I flee from thy presence? There is not a thought in my mind, but no law. Lord, thou knowest it all together all. He knows everything. And his name is counselor. Or you say, Well, I've often asked him, and he doesn't.
Reveal things to me. Well, just let me suggest this one little verse to you.
In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy path. Notice that little word all You know, sometimes we have a big problem and we go to the Lord and we want the answer. But there's a great many other things in life that we really don't want His answer. We prefer our own choice.
We've made our own decision and we're.
Going to go our own way, but some big decision that we think might affect our happiness. We come to the Lord. We want to know his mind well. He says in all thy ways acknowledge him. That speaks to my heart.
Or are we just looking up to Him and acknowledging Him in all our ways and saying, Lord, I don't want to make one single move in life. He's interested in your friends. He's interested in the food that you eat. I've always enjoyed the fact that when the Lord visited Abraham at his camp, he even described the meal and said that the food was tender and good.
Told about the trouble of preparation.
He's interested in everything, and he's interested in your friends. He's interested in every single decision of your life. And his name is Counselor. And who is he? The mighty God.
Sometimes we can give counsel to another person, but we can't work things out for them. We can suggest that they do something that we just can't work it out, and we say this would be a good idea, but I don't know whether it'll work out.
But here's one whose name is Counselor, and He's the mighty God. He's in control of everything. There isn't a single heart in the universe that he isn't able to move. It says He fashions the hearts of all, and when it says that, I believe it's the 32nd Psalm, He fashions their heart. Now that is the hearts of people are controlled by the Lord, and He can make some people.
Are friendly to us or otherwise. And so the one who is wonderful, the one who is counselor, is a mighty God, the mighty God.
And then it says the everlasting Father or the Father of eternity, the Father of eternity, there isn't a thing in the past that he doesn't know. There isn't a thing in the future that's going to happen that he doesn't know all about.
The whole thing is all completed in his counsels and purposes, and that's the one to whom we go or can go for counsel. Oh, what a wonderful person this is all dear young people again. I say I want to make a better acquaintance with him, don't you? Oh, you say, if I could find an earthly friend that was anything like what this is describing.
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Why he would surely be my best friend. Well, this one wants to be your best friend. He's living. He's not a dead Christ, he's a living Christ. He says I am he that liveth and became dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.
Amen. And have the keys of hell and of death. Yes, He is a living savior and he's interested in you. And then it says the Prince of Peace. Oh, he's going to make everything work out all right in the end. Isn't this blessed? Some days going to rain as Prince of Peace. And I'll have to look forward to that time when just like the Queen of Sheba when she came to.
King Solomon, she had a great many.
Hard questions, questions for whom she could find no, for which she could find no answer. But when she came to Solomon, she asked him all the hard questions. And it says there was nothing hid from him that he told her not and only like to look forward through hard questions in my life brought perhaps through hard questions in yours.
And you say Florida from the Lord answered to them.
For me now, well, he does know his promise to do this.
There are some things that just aren't explained in this life. How about he's going to give us the answer to all these questions And what about the answers with a very frustrating and disappointing when she found out the answers. Oh no, when she found out the answer, she said the half has not been told me how thou exceedest the fame that I heard. Happy are these thy men, and happy are these thy servants.
That stand continually before thee. Sometimes to our hard questions the answer may seem unpleasant, but when he explains them all in another day, Why, we're going to be like the Queen of Sheba. Oh dear young people, can we trust him now?
Can we trust Him? Now you may have heard me comment before that perhaps it bears repeating that I love to read Romans 8 verse 28 and 29 together. We all know Romans 8 and 28. I think it says, for we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.
And what is the next verse for whom he did foreknow?
He also did predestinate to be confirmed to the image of his son, that he might be the first born among many brethren. Well, you notice the.
Proposition 4 there, commencing that 29th verse. Why does that come in? Well, I like to just illustrate it like this.
That you ever start to read a storybook and you came to a very sad chapter and you just couldn't figure out how it would ever work out. There was such sadness that the tears ran down your face as you read the chapter. At last you couldn't contain yourself anymore and you turned over to the end of the book.
What did you do that for? Well, you wanted to see how the story ended and if it ended all right, you could read that 3rd chapter with confidence. Now, when you read the 28th chapter verse of the 8th of Romans, don't forget to read the 29th. God knew just how inquisitive we were and how we want to know how things would ever work out for good. So he tells us the end of the story. He says you're going to be conformed to the image of his Son and.
Working this out in your life and mine. And he wants us to have that confidence in him.
And this person, I say, is so wonderful. And how much did he think of us? I know some wonderful people, but maybe they don't think I'm very wonderful. They don't think so much about me, you know, even though I think they're wonderful, not this isn't the way. It is this person who is so wonderful. He also thinks a great deal of me, he thinks.
So much of me that he loved me and he gave himself for me. His love couldn't give more and would not give less. Oh, isn't that wonderful? Isn't it very blessed? And so when you think of this person so wonderful, he doesn't want you to think of him as someone who is a God afar off, a God who just doesn't have any personal interest in you.
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But now it reduces it down to a personal pronoun in that lovely verse in Galatians 2 That we read.
The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. John called himself the disciple whom Jesus loved, but he didn't have any monopoly on that because the the scripture tells us having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. What was the difference with John? Well, he just knew it and enjoyed it, that's all.
And it's true of you, dear young person.
The Son of God loved you.
And He gave himself for you, if you know Him as your Savior, and he has an interest in you. And saw the commencement of that verse in Galatians 2 is, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. That is when we realize the glory of this wonderful person, when we realize that He loved us and gave Himself for us.
Part of ourselves.
Through the self. Come in here.
Well, now Paul says I am crucified with Christ. He said I see in that place where he displayed his love in such a wonderful way, I see the end of old Paul. I see that he's come to an end there. And he said I am crucified with Christ. But he said I'm still living. But he said Christ lives in me. Oh, isn't this blossom?
That Christ lives in you.
That Christ lives in me and that in our hearts now the very blessed Savior lives there, and that you and I can rejoice in the company of this one and our pathway here. It's often been remarked, we're not going to have a different new life when we get to heaven. We already possess.
The life of Christ we already possess the life that.
Suited to heaven. And I just like to think that when we get to heaven, we're going to say, well, at last we're in our element. At last we're in the place where we always wanted to be and where we can totally relax.
You know the feeling when you get home, you take off your shoes and you feel this is home. I can relax now. I'm sort of tired. It's been difficult talking to people, but now I can just relax. That's what heaven's going to be. Heaven's going to be home, and we're not going to be strangers there. We possess the life that suited to us, and the person we're talking about is the person whose presence fills that land. And that's what.
Heaven, heaven to us. And dear young people, we, we can know this now, we can enjoy it now.
Enoch walked with God in a difficult day, and my desire for myself and for you is that we might know something of walking in his company here. I would like to say something about the cost and if you would turn with me to.
Galatians are to 1St Corinthians 6. I'd just like to read that verse that I read. Galatians chapter 6 and verse 19.
Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own. We are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God.
Would you also turn with me to Lamentations? That's immediately following Jeremiah? Lamentations chapter one, verse 12.
Is it nothing to you? All ye that pass by, behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, forwith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
From above hath He sent fire into my bones, and it prevailed against them. He hath spread a net for my feet. He hath turned me back, and hath made me desolate and faint all the day. The oak of my transgressions is bound by His hand. They are raised and come up upon my neck. He hath made my strength to fall. The Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise.
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Up And would you turn with me also to the Gospel of Luke in the 22nd chapter?
Luke 22 and verse 41 And he was withdrawn from them about a stone cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me, nevertheless not my will, but thine be done. And it appeared an Angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
Well, as I said, I wanted to speak to you of the glory of this person who had bought us.
These verses perhaps bring before us in some little way the cost of our redemption, the cost of our redemption. We first of all think of the person, if I received a gift, we'll say from the president or from the Queen of England, why this would be very wonderful. That's such a gift came from a person like that.
If I realize that the cost was great, why I would value it the more. And so when we think of what it costs the Lord Jesus to make us His very own, surely our hearts feel a debt of gratitude. And in that passage, speaking prophetically of his sufferings in Lamentation chapter 1.
He calls attention and asks.
Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by?
I wonder how much it means to us. Have we really stopped your young people to consider what it costs the Lord Jesus to make us His very own?
You know, he could create this world by just speaking pictures, He spake and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. It only took the word of his mouth to create this universe, this whole vast system of stars and this earth in which we live. The heavens and the earth. He just spoke.
But to save one soul, to fit for one soul, for heaven cost him the agony of those hours on Calvary's cross when he was made sin for us.
And all when we think of the Lord Jesus Speaking of this.
And the sorrow, Was there ever any sorrow like his?
Can we ever think of anything comparable to what the Lord Jesus went through when He suffered there for our sins? The very anticipation of it in the Garden of Gethsemane caused him to sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground, and there upon the cross, that cry that run out from the darkness.
My God.
My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Thank God we will never fully know what it meant to Him to bear all that judgment. It's impossible for us to enter into it because all solemn thought of those who die without Christ. Those who die in their sins will have to drink the cup of judgment for their sins.
And they'll never be able to exhaust it.
Those who die in their sins will never, through an endless eternity, be able to utter those 3 words. It is finished now. They'll never be able to say that.
But for you and for me there was one upon Calvary's cross who so completely exhausted all the judgment due to our sins, that he could say it is finished. Oh, what a wonderful thing, what a cost, I say. And the anticipation of it caused, as it were to him to sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling.
Down to the ground, perhaps there's been some trouble in your life and you say I just broke out in the sweat but all. Nothing compares to what the Lord Jesus went through in His holy soul in that garden of Gethsemane. Nothing compares to what he endured when he was forsaken of God but there upon the cross.
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Dear young people, that was the cost.
Can we hesitate someone through a little?
A catalog in our door and there was some jewelry there. One of the pieces of jewelry, I believe it was a necklace, was valued and being offered for sale for $30,000. We thought what a tremendous price for a necklace and if anyone received a necklace that cost that much, what would you think of the person that was willing to spend that much on you in order to give you?
A necklace that all dear young people.
So we have been redeemed at a tremendous price. And it says in First Corinthians 7 ye are bought with a price. Be not the servants of men. Are you a slave to your friends? Are you afraid to say no to those friends of yours? You'd rather say no to the Lord Jesus than say no to your friends.
You'd rather say no to him.
Because he's up there and you can't see the look in his blessed face when you say no to him. But you know that one of your friends would frown and would call you foolish. And so rather than say no to your friend, you say no to the Lord Jesus.
Or when we think of the cough, I say again, let's meditate a little on the cast. This morning we were gathered for the express purpose of remembering the cough. The Lord Jesus didn't want us to forget it, and He himself instituted the Feast of Remembrance so that we wouldn't forget the cost of our redemption. It didn't move my heart like it should.
I would desire that it would move my heart more.
But surely it did move our hearts some this morning as we saw of that bread broken, we partook of that cup and we realized that it was just a symbol of what He went through when He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, and He shed His precious blood to put away our sins. We are by Christ redeemed.
The cost his precious blood, and I appeal to you, dear young people.
For to consider the cost.
As my father used to often say, if the love of Christ doesn't constrain our hearts to live to please Him, nothing else will. Nothing else will. I could stand here and tell you all the things that are our duties as Christians and it wouldn't move your heart or mine either, unless we realize that the Lord Jesus has a claim of love.
Upon us. He's paid the price, and the price is far, far beyond our comprehension. I can't dwell upon it because I might add some words to God's blessed holy book, but I just ask you to just sit for a few moments and think of what the Lord Jesus went through because He loved you and because He wanted you to be His companion of Aaron, the glory.
Forever. And then hear him say to you how this very afternoon ye are not your own. He are bought with a price, and the Spirit of God has come to indwell your body to make sure, if I can use that expression, that the work that He has begun will be completed, and that you will be up there beyond all sorrow and sin and misery in His presence to enjoy forever the fullness.
Of that work that he has accomplished, because his love won't have its rest until he has us and all the redeemed, a little hymn says.
For I alone thy loved ones, all complete, around Thee, there in glory there shall meet. And may the Lord cause us to meditate a little on the cost to him. How could we turn to a couple of scriptures about the costume?
To us in.
Luke Chapter.
14 Luke chapter 14, verse 26.
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If any man come unto me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yeah, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciples.
And whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me, he cannot be my disciple. For which of you intending to build a tower, sitteth not down 1St, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Hast haply after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying.
This man began to build and was not able to finish. For what king going?
To make war against another setteth not down 1St and consult us whether he be able with 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000, or else whether the other.
While the other is yet a great way off, he sends an ambassador and desireth conditions of peace.
So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
Now let's turn over to Hebrews.
Chapter 10. Verse 32. But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions, partly whilst ye were made a gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly whilst she became companions of them, which were so used.
For ye had compassion of me in my bond, and took joyfully the spoiling of.
Your goods, knowing in yourselves now that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance, cast not away there for your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward for ye of need of patience.
But after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise for yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
While perhaps in these two passages we have brought before us the cost of following Christ.
I call your attention to the fact that it doesn't say you can't be saved, it says you cannot be my disciple, and a disciple is a follower.
There are those who are trusting in Christ as their Savior, something like Lot. He had a saved soul but a last life.
But the Lord wants us, as we consider what it cost him, to make us his very own, to think about that it's going to cost us something, to be identified with a rejected Christ here in this world. And the Lord Jesus never set before his disciples an easy path. Over and over again he warned them that they would be despised, that they would be rejected, that they would be.
Set aside that they would be put in prison and that some of them would be put to death for Christ's sake. And here, young people, it's a great mistake for us to think that if we accept Christ as our Savior that we're promised an easy path. We are promised a path of joy and peace, but we're not promised that it's going to be an easy path. And if prices are assuming everywhere in this world.
In everything that we go to buy, I believe we could.
Say there's something else that is ascending to It's going to cost more to follow Christ. It's going to cost more to follow Christ. As the end approaches, has the darkness comes in and the true character of this world comes out in its opposition to Christ, it's going to cost us something to be followers of him. And through the Lord Jesus spoke very faithfully.
You say it didn't use a strong word, hey.
He has to use a very strong word and he wanted just to see that sometimes we are going to be misunderstood even by those who were nearest and dearest to us. One time when Samson.
And had one who was very dear to him. And yet because he was called to be a Nazarite, he wouldn't tell her the secret between his soul and God, she said. You don't love me, you hate me.
Yes, she didn't understand.
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But what was that secret between his soul and God? And you know, sometimes if we're really going to follow Christ, there has to be a secret.
Between our souls and God, which we have to be content that perhaps others may not understand, perhaps those that we love may not understand either. And the Lord Jesus spoke very faithfully here about what it was going to cost to follow him.
Or does that mean that He is robbing us of joy? Oh no, the joy of His company is the most marvelous thing on earth. The Lord Jesus, the Lord, he was the Man of sorrows, rejoiced in spirit. Why did he rejoice in spirit? All because He found in His Father's will a path that was one of peace. He said the good pleasure of thy will, O God.
Is my delight.
And so it's quite interesting here that he tells us to sit down and count the cost.
You know, there's some young people and because they get with a group of young people and you have a good time and maybe you get together for a weekend and you just have a wonderful time of fellowship. And so you think, well, I'm going to follow Christ. Well, it's very nice to have a good time with the young people. It's a good time when we're singing together and when we're enjoying the things of the Lord together.
But remember.
Remember, if that is what is sustaining your Christian life, it's going to break down. It's going to break down because that'll never keep you in the day of adversity and in the day of trouble. You and I as Christians need to count the cost, Dear young people, It's not always going to be gathering for skates and things and all this kind of thing. It's going to be sometimes suffering.
Being persecuted.
Being misunderstood, missing a promotion in the office, missing some friend that seems very nice, but he doesn't or she doesn't want to follow Christ. And so you say the Lord Jesus must be first in my life, He must have the 1St place. And so the Lord Jesus tells them here, sit down.
And count the cost, and when he says here whosoever does not.
Bear his cross in the 27th verse of the 14th of Luke. He doesn't say my cross, he says his cross.
That is, your life is different from mine, and my life is different from yours. You have things to bear in life that I don't have to bear. Perhaps I don't understand. When Ezekiel was sent to prophecy to the ones by the river Chebar, it tells us that he sat where they sat.
For seven days before he said a word.
Some of us are too prone to say what other people have done should do when we never have been in their position. We've never sat where they sat. But here we find that when Ezekiel was sent, he sat where they sat.
And you have a cross, the bear. I have a cross, the bear. And you know what it is, and I know perhaps what mine is. And perhaps you think yours is more difficult. Perhaps I think mine is more difficult. But remember, dear young people, it's the cross that he gives. Yes, the Lord is the One, and He gives us just what he sees.
Is needful for training us.
In our Christian pathway, as someone has said, the draft to consume and the goal to refine and that thing that you think is holding you back may be the very best thing in your Christian life. The Lord may have allowed that, and He has the purpose of love in it, but He wants you to count the cost. He wants you to take up your cloth and follow Him.
To say, Well, whatever he plans in my life, whatever he orders in my life, I take it from him and seek grace. To say Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.
Because as it goes on to say that if not, if we don't count the cost, then we might start and not be able to finish and we bring dishonor. And how often we have seen young people and because they have just gone along with others in a somewhat easy path and then when the testing time came.
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So they had never counted the cost and they turned back.
And I would encourage you, dear young people, we're here in these meetings and we're having a fine time for three days. We have many such opportunities to get together. When you go back to your own little meeting, it may not be just like this. Perhaps there aren't other young people. Perhaps there are people that seem to snub you a little bit.
There are. You say there's nothing going on and I don't feel that anybody understands.
It's easy here. Well, dear young people, count the cost.
Gonna ask something, but what did it cost the Lord Jesus to buy you? To redeem you and me? What did it cost him? Did he have an easy path?
Was the bearing of the cross an easy thing for him? But he loved you, and he loved me enough to pay the price in full. When he came to the point that he could have had the joys of heaven alone, he said no. I wanted John and I want Mary up there, and I'm going to pay the price to have them there. Dear young person, are you and I going to pay the price to have his approval in our lives to have his well done.
Done. Oh, if so, it's well worthwhile.
In that coming day, to see the smile on his blessed face when he says, well done as the little hymn says, For how will recompense his smile, the sufferings of this little while.
Well, you say, I don't like to be misunderstood. It's far harder than you think. Well, he acquaints us with this situation in Hebrews 10, and he tells us that there were people that were made a gazing stock by reproaches and offenses. They became companions of others. I've heard young people say, well, you don't like to be a gazing stock, You don't like to be misunderstood. No, neither do I. It's awfully hard. But my Savior was made a gazing.
They put him up there on the cross and they spit in his face.
They crowned him with thorns, they mocked him, they put on him a scarlet robe, and they made him a gazing stock. And Paul said, You may be made a gazing stock too, But he said, Cast not away there for your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. Dear young people, may the Lord encourage you to go on. Don't give up.
It's only a little while.
And he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. No, when he comes again, and you see his face, and see how he valued those little things that you and I could do for him.
Oh how well repaid we will be. And he's done so much more for us. He's not going to forget anything that you've done for him. He'll manifest and reward it in that day.
But now just one more Let us turn to First Peter chapter one, First Peter chapter 1 and verse.
17 Verse 16. Or perhaps I should begin at the 14th verse. As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy.
And if you call on the Father, who, without respect of persons, judgeth according to every man's work past the time of your sojourning here in fear.
Well, I mentioned that I just wanted to say a few words about the cost of not following Christ.
And in this passage, what does it mean past the time of your sojourning here in fear? What are we to fear? We certainly don't fear the future. We know we're going to be with Christ and that eternal happiness of His presence. But dear young people, there is a cost in not following Christ. There is a cost.
There is such a thing as the government of God.
And I've often fed a Christian can be the happiest person on earth, or he can be the most miserable.
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A young person after he was saved.
An older brother said to him In these words he said, the Lord has saved you. You might as well make the best of what he's done for you, because you'll never be able to enjoy the world again in the same way.
You're spoiled for the world, dear young people, you may go back into the world, you may try the former lust, the things that you enjoyed in your unconverted days, but remember, you're in a different position now. You're 1 of God's children in whom the Lord loveth. He chasten us and.
He paid the price that we might be his. It cost something to follow him. But shall I say it costs far more to go your own way. It costs far more. And what did I mean when I say a Christian can be the most miserable? If he loses the joy of the Lord and he can't have the joy of the world, what has he got?
He can't enjoy the world and he's not enjoying the Lord. There's only one thing for him that is to get back to the Lord, to get back to him. And so I just want to warn you there, there is a government of God, dear young people.
And God tells us in his word about Lot that we mentioned a moment a moment ago. Lot was a saved man. Lot is going to be in glory.
And no true child of God can ever be lost because the price has been paid by the Lord Jesus. But Lot had a lost life. He had a saved soul, but a lost life. And dear young people, as I look into your faces, I desire that you wouldn't have a lost life, that you would have a life that would be preserved and brought out to praise, honor, and glory.
At the revelation of Jesus.
Christ.
There is such a thing as losing your life. There is such a thing as coming under the governmental ways of God and the tears and souls of many dear children of God who chose their own way. All what sorrow it often brings, all May God grant as you are in the formative years, as it was pointed out yesterday.
The decisions that are often made at times like this, how far reaching they are.
May it be your desire to think of what the Lord Jesus paid for you and to look up and say, Lord Jesus, I want to follow thee. Dear Mr. Darby made this comment. He said the path of the Christian is worthwhile. If it were 1000 times harder than it is, then I say it's surely true that no one whoever came to the end of the path was ever sorry that he followed Christ.
But now is the time in your youth before you do those things that will bring sorrow into your life, that will bring loss into your life. May God grant that the love of Christ may constrain your heart and mine, that we may live not unto ourselves, but unto Him.