Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Good morning.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: Even though we're few in number, we trust that those that are not here will be here next week.
Some are vacationing, some are sick.
It's interesting.
We live in a time that's perplexing.
And as I was trying to maybe think of something, a thought come to my mind. And I had been listening to one of our ministers speaking. And while they were speaking, I took advantage of listening and looking at the surrounding scriptures.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: And I started writing.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: Oh, that's a great text, write it down.
And so then I thought, well, no, maybe since I've been sick and everything, I'll just look at something in the past.
But I just throw this out at you to just realize when the scriptures mentioned that there's nothing new under the sun, we can be a little skeptical with what's going on in the new developments in the world and all.
[00:01:43] Speaker C: But.
[00:01:43] Speaker B: I happen to reach over and into a box that I had several old sermons and I just throwing this out at you.
So that gives you an idea of what's going on and what we're dealing with today.
You know, I found a sermon that I don't even remember. I was, if I hadn't seen the date on it, I wouldn't even know when it was. But it was in August 29 of 1987.
And for whatever reason, I was visiting my old home church at Fairview, Oklahoma at the time that I gave this. And it was kind of an interesting.
And certainly we could look at it and say, well, times hasn't really changed that much.
I like to fell out of the chair when I looked down at some of the things it was dealing with.
Christian living and living upright in an upside down world was the title.
And I began to look down through there and I had some statistics of national conflicts in 87.
I don't remember what they were even now.
Indebtedness, the national debt. Oh, it went up 220 million in that year.
Now it's going up by the billion trillions rather.
But anyway, just to go to show you what has been is occurring again. And I could go on down through the list of bank failures and so on.
And if you read some of the statistics that's going on, it's rather frightening that there are banks that got shortages of cash.
So as a result, sometimes people are wanting to withdraw money all of a sudden and it's not available.
That's what was going on last, at least while I was in the hospital looking at some of the news.
But I'm going to shift gears and we're going to forget all of those worldly conditions around about us.
And I wanted to touch, kind of touch on something that would remind us of the way maybe we should live, the things of the past and the way that they were done in the godly sense of word.
So if you'd like to follow along in two, Peter three, I'm going to read that beginning with verse one as a scripture reading.
Now, it says this second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you in both, which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lust and saying, where is the promise of his coming?
For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God, the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water, and in the water thereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. But the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word, are kept in store, received, reserved under the fiery fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
Now, the apostle was writing to the brethren here in Peter to stir up their minds of remembrance.
God wants us to remember some of those things, and especially how we should live.
So my goal today is not necessarily what I would call a straightforward sermon, but a discussion at least, to stir up our pure minds by the way of remembrance, that we might be mindful of the words that were spoken to us and encourage us along the way.
Why?
Because the scriptures is so rich with practical spiritual advice, and if we will only apply it to our godly walk in the life we live.
So I want to discuss with you this morning a little bit, and it's going to be a little bit, because you'll understand why in a moment. But the world in which we now live is so upside down, polluted. Logically and seemingly, mankind in general has lost all common sense of what is right or wrong.
And I could throw out illustrations after illustrations, but it's good for us to remember.
I'll never forget my junior year of high school. We had a, for some reason, the original english teacher was sick or had some kind of conflict within her career. She was gone that year. So we had another teacher that come in, and she was reading, oh, some of the literature that she was reading.
Now, you probably couldn't read it.
But one of the poems, it was written in a poem form that happened in based on the settings of the word, I would assume somewhere in what you would call the northern reaches of Russia.
But there was a little community there and they realized what was going on.
And this was prior to the Stalin days.
So what happened to this?
And I'm just going to kick out americanized names, but they'd say, Mister Smith, your genesis, you start reading it because the Bible is going to disappear, the communists is going to burn them. So your genesis and you're going to be the next one and so on.
And that community, within the confines that poem, every member of the faith community became a book. Some of them was duplicated, obviously, so that whenever the bibles were stripped, somebody could stand up and quote from the missing scripture that the communist take.
So it helps us to wonder.
Now, keeping in mind some of the practical spiritual advice is given, which is so extensive that all I can do is barely point out a few examples because page after page, chapter after chapter, you'll find some hidden gleam.
In fact, as I happen to of all the years that I've read and so on, I noticed something in a verse and I'll point it out to you later, that it's almost like a mystery to us.
In Luke the 17th chapter in verse 26.
And I'm basically paraphrasing, but God said he saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that ever imagination of the thoughts of this heart was only evil continually.
Now that was the conditions in the days of. And in our King James version at least it uses the name no n o e. But it was Noah in that time situation.
But think of it, think of the seriousness, what it would be that God was so perturbed, upset in whatever else of emotions he might have towards man, that he says he repented it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart.
And the Lord said, I will destroy man.
He goes on to name the beast, the creeping things, the fowls of the air, things whom I have created from the face of the earth, for it repenteth me that I have made them.
He just wanted to wipe out creation. That's the way he felt, seriousness.
So thinking about it and then thinking, and I'll let you do your thinking, but think of what's going on in our society and within the world.
It's unreal.
It's almost so wicked that it's getting to where some of the things it's almost appropriate to even mention from the pulpit, because it's so revolting what's going on in the world, especially with people in high places and government positions and so forth.
But having reviewed basically the admonition that it is good to be reminded, to put here from time to time, to think back what was God saying or what was being said by the prophets as he was. They were writing with the Holy Spirit of God to think.
So, his teachings, to be reminded of his teaching, particularly as set forth in the holy work.
And I'm mindful of a statement that was made by one of the instructors at the Midwest Bible college when I was there, that if God had put the inspired instructions all in a single book, that man would have probably destroyed that book, and it would have been God.
So he puts a little truth here and a little there and so forth. So you got to pick out and see the gems.
So today, I want to just give you a little bit of what the scripture has to say about the practical spiritual advice to us.
In Romans, the 15th chapter in verse one, it tells us, and this is just an illustration, because I said there was literally thousands upon thousands, we couldn't catalog them all, and you wouldn't begin to want to hear it reminded, especially in one setting.
But we then that are strong, ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not the pleasures of ourselves, or not to please ourselves.
And what do we see in the world?
Most generally, a great deal of the populace wants to please themself rather than other people.
But literally, what I get out of that, in analyzing it just a little bit, the spiritually strong would be those that are walking uprightly, knowledgeable of the word, that they're concerned with the weak or the struggling brethren within the church willing to help each other.
[00:17:39] Speaker A: In past times, we have.
Did we lose sound?
[00:17:53] Speaker B: I don't hear myself.
[00:17:58] Speaker C: Say some words.
[00:17:59] Speaker A: Do what?
[00:18:04] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:18:05] Speaker D: Battery go out?
[00:18:06] Speaker C: Uh huh.
[00:18:06] Speaker D: Your battery maybe went out.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: I'm gonna switch you to the red mic.
[00:18:10] Speaker C: Okay? Okay.
[00:18:11] Speaker A: Just turn this one up, and we'll go on.
But anyway, as I was trying to iterate, to help one another and struggling.
[00:18:28] Speaker D: But.
[00:18:31] Speaker A: You will find in society now that, generally speaking, a great deal of the populace, they don't want to be told what they're possibly doing wrong or even warned of what the outcome might be, because it's touchy.
It didn't used to be that way so much.
And secondly, we see that so many is geared to the fact that.
[00:19:19] Speaker C: The.
[00:19:19] Speaker A: Self is in first place rather than second place.
So many as concerned about me, myself.
[00:19:32] Speaker D: And I, that we're not concerned with.
[00:19:38] Speaker A: Those that may be struggling along the way.
Notice another example in Romans, the 13th chapter, this time verse eleven.
[00:19:51] Speaker D: Starting with verse eleven, it tells us in knowing that the time, that now.
[00:19:58] Speaker A: Is the time to awake out of sleep.
For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
The night is far spent, the day is at hand.
Let us therefore cast off the works.
[00:20:14] Speaker D: Of darkness, and let us put on.
[00:20:17] Speaker A: The armor of light.
Let us walk honestly, as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, nor in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh.
Go fulfill to fulfill the lust thereof.
[00:20:46] Speaker D: Don't do that.
[00:20:50] Speaker A: That'S just an example.
[00:20:53] Speaker D: And to realize that when the apostle.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: Paul was saying this way back there, and already they were beginning to talk.
[00:21:03] Speaker D: About the end time conditions, how much worse is it today and how much.
[00:21:11] Speaker A: Greater is the impact on humanity?
He's telling us to wake up, be.
[00:21:22] Speaker D: Alert, to watch what's going on.
[00:21:31] Speaker C: But.
[00:21:31] Speaker A: We have to be exercise now.
[00:21:38] Speaker C: To.
[00:21:38] Speaker A: The disgrace to say this, but.
[00:21:44] Speaker D: There.
[00:21:44] Speaker A: Is events occurring today that.
[00:21:49] Speaker C: Would be.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: Interesting and people would want to know.
[00:21:56] Speaker D: But none of the current.
[00:22:03] Speaker A: Media.
[00:22:06] Speaker C: Which.
[00:22:06] Speaker A: Is primarily our local stations, they've got their own agenda now and.
[00:22:15] Speaker C: Nothing is.
[00:22:15] Speaker A: Being said about it.
And there's been some significant events that.
[00:22:22] Speaker D: Occurred that different.
[00:22:27] Speaker A: Podcasters, I call them, and so forth, has pointed out that, nope, not one word was heard on CNN or ABC or CB's.
[00:22:43] Speaker D: Or even Fox News. And some of those, they don't want to disturb us sometimes with the facts.
[00:22:56] Speaker A: The day is at hand in verse twelve.
And if it was at hand then, what is it now, we're 2000 years.
[00:23:05] Speaker D: Later and.
[00:23:13] Speaker A: We have developed.
[00:23:17] Speaker C: Ungodly.
[00:23:20] Speaker D: Electrical.
[00:23:25] Speaker A: Technology and such that's beyond our imagination.
I'm pretty sure, for example, that they have been working on what they call as an EMP, which would be an atmospheric atomic blast. It might not have any damage down here whatsoever, except virtually, since every car's got a computer in it. Nowadays.
[00:24:07] Speaker D: Every radio station, all of our.
[00:24:10] Speaker A: Electrical circuits has controlled by computerized switching that it would basically put us back in the dark ages, and it's pure wickedness.
[00:24:31] Speaker D: But wake up.
[00:24:34] Speaker A: And then it gives us the admonition to let us walk honestly and to put away the worldly ways that it's naming there.
[00:24:51] Speaker D: Be alert, wake up, be observant.
[00:25:03] Speaker A: Another statistic that I'll throw out with you, that I didn't intend to put in the notes.
They are so close.
[00:25:16] Speaker C: To saying and.
[00:25:19] Speaker A: Codifying.
[00:25:23] Speaker C: That.
[00:25:26] Speaker A: There are scriptural texts that you to read it on the airways would be considered hate speech. So it's not going to be allowed too far in the future.
That's already being highly pushed into Canada, but it's also elements of in the United States already working that direction.
Then I want to go back to second Samuel as an example.
[00:26:06] Speaker C: In two.
[00:26:07] Speaker A: Samuel 22 31 through 37. And we're going to just hit the highlights there.
In 31 it starts as for God, his ways is perfect.
The word of the Lord is tried.
He is a buckler to them that trust in him and to bring it.
[00:26:38] Speaker D: Down to us just.
[00:26:41] Speaker A: That's only the 31st verse.
[00:26:46] Speaker C: But it's.
[00:26:47] Speaker A: Declaring that his word is perfect, his way is perfect, the word of the Lord is tried. It's true, it's dependable.
And God is a buckler.
In other words, we could say it in other ways. He's our shield.
He's a guard or a protector to all that trust him.
[00:27:22] Speaker D: In verse 32, it says that who is God save for the Lord and who is a rock save our God?
[00:27:38] Speaker A: A rock is something that characteristically is not normally changed. In too many ways. It's pretty stable.
He's as strong he can stand for him.
God is my strength and power in verse 33, and he maketh my way perfect.
So we have strength and power through God's word.
Verse 34 talks about making us our feet like the hinds feet.
[00:28:21] Speaker D: That might be more than, I don't.
[00:28:25] Speaker A: Know exactly what species that would have.
[00:28:27] Speaker D: Been at the end, but it's a.
[00:28:30] Speaker A: Thought that we can see. And you've probably in your travels has.
[00:28:35] Speaker D: Noticed that's the mountain goat or mountain.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: Sheep that climbs on those precarious crevices, sometimes even jumping chisholms in the earth from one rock to another rock within the mountains.
[00:28:59] Speaker D: Sure footed.
[00:29:03] Speaker A: Verse 36 talks about it has given me the shield of thy salvation.
And again, we could look at the New Testament, but it talks about the.
[00:29:16] Speaker D: Holy Spirit as being our shield, our guard.
[00:29:28] Speaker A: Finally, in verse 37, it says, he enlarged our steps under me so that my feet did not slip.
[00:29:37] Speaker D: So he gives us a little surety.
[00:29:41] Speaker A: In our walk, stabilizes our christian walk as we go.
Now, sometimes we don't like to be reminded of some of the things, but also as an example, in proverbs 3017.
[00:30:07] Speaker D: It says, the eye that mocketh at.
[00:30:11] Speaker A: His father and despises to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out and the young eagles shall eat it.
[00:30:25] Speaker D: Pretty graphic.
[00:30:29] Speaker C: But.
[00:30:31] Speaker A: Clearly we're being reminded again and again, and if you've been in Sabbath school, we read another text very similar to that.
[00:30:41] Speaker C: That.
[00:30:44] Speaker A: Even a rebellious child was to be turned over.
[00:30:51] Speaker D: To the elders and stoned if the.
[00:30:56] Speaker A: Fail to obey and follow a mother or father in her ways.
I found it interesting, so I just throw this one in. But proverbs 34 who hath ascended into.
[00:31:22] Speaker C: Heaven.
[00:31:25] Speaker D: Or descended, who hath gathered the.
[00:31:29] Speaker A: Winds in his fist.
[00:31:33] Speaker D: Who hath bound the waters in a garment, who hath.
[00:31:38] Speaker A: Established all the ends of the earth.
[00:31:42] Speaker D: What is his name and what is his son's name?
[00:31:49] Speaker A: If thou canst tell, that comes closest to identifying the father and the Lord Jesus Christ in Old Testament.
Just an example, but it's an admonishment to remember.
Another piece of advice in ecclesiastes. Again, I'm just throwing out some here and yonder examples.
Ecclesiastes five, the first two verses.
It says, keep thy foot when thou.
[00:32:30] Speaker D: Goest into the house of God, and.
[00:32:35] Speaker A: Be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools.
[00:32:42] Speaker D: Kind of.
[00:32:42] Speaker A: Admission, to be ready to sit down and listen. And rather than trying to provocate or whatever you might think is important to you before the church group.
[00:33:04] Speaker C: For they.
[00:33:04] Speaker A: Consider not that they do evil.
[00:33:08] Speaker D: Be not rash with thy mouth, and.
[00:33:12] Speaker A: Let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God, for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth. Therefore let thy words be few.
[00:33:28] Speaker D: So be truthful and thoughtful in your.
[00:33:32] Speaker A: Speech, jumping completely to a different genre, but it's a good biblical advice.
The scripture even talks about in two corinthians 614 to be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness is what communion hath light with darkness.
[00:34:04] Speaker D: Just good advice, because you can see.
[00:34:10] Speaker A: The examples in the world.
[00:34:12] Speaker D: I don't need to portray them, but.
[00:34:16] Speaker A: It happens, and we realize that lots of times people may not be believers in any sense of the word, and one becomes a believer, an intercostal mo. And yet we've given other places.
[00:34:37] Speaker C: The.
[00:34:37] Speaker D: Advice to live peaceful, and who knows.
[00:34:43] Speaker A: We might convert that person in one. Peter 315 we're admonished, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer.
Every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear, to always be prepared.
I had the privilege, I guess you would say, of being invited to go with a I'm going to call it a non denominational because they had several people on other denominations. Obviously they were scarce on Sabbath, but keepers.
[00:35:48] Speaker D: But it was interesting to learn to see.
[00:35:56] Speaker A: But they were fantastic beyond any measure that I've seen in our church on testimonies.
[00:36:04] Speaker D: And how the Lord has helped.
[00:36:06] Speaker A: You in some way or another.
And as an outsider, even though I.
[00:36:14] Speaker D: Was just a visitor.
[00:36:20] Speaker A: I had a retired army captain who was leading the.
[00:36:28] Speaker D: Group, say now, in times past you.
[00:36:33] Speaker A: Was a minister.
[00:36:36] Speaker D: And you've held all.
[00:36:37] Speaker A: Kinds of church positions. But we're not here to counsel, we're not here to preach, we're not here.
[00:36:43] Speaker D: To do this, but we are here.
[00:36:46] Speaker A: To tell how the Lord loves us and cares for us and so on.
[00:36:51] Speaker C: And.
[00:36:54] Speaker A: I certainly had more opportunity, in fact, is the first visitation I made. They said, since you're a visitor, you can be a prayer partner.
In the course of two and a half days, I'll bet there was over 500 prayers.
I thought I was never going to.
[00:37:23] Speaker D: Get through praying because every little whimp.
[00:37:29] Speaker A: And whim that come up, or this little problem, or that little problem.
But it was a good exercise to see what we should do in being able and ready to witness, not necessarily.
[00:37:51] Speaker D: To preach, but at least to be.
[00:37:56] Speaker A: Able to portray God's message, Christ's message of salvation, that in the end.
[00:38:10] Speaker C: That.
[00:38:11] Speaker A: That person would be confronted with greater truth and knowledge.
So let us be reminded.
Our Bible literally gives us thousands upon maybe thousands of practical spiritual advices here and there.
And we've only touched on a very limited example.
And as a result, this presentation has just been to kind of stir up our mind, to remember.
[00:38:54] Speaker D: That somewhere in.
[00:38:56] Speaker A: God's word there's a piece of advice for just about anything that can occur under the sun.
[00:39:05] Speaker D: And that we should.
[00:39:08] Speaker A: Consider.
[00:39:13] Speaker C: That.
[00:39:17] Speaker A: This is only examples.
We could expand it to look into such areas.
For example, I'm just sharing this.
This is a limited list in itself.
But there's advice on scriptures, on our behavioral conduct.
There's scriptures advising us on our family.
[00:39:46] Speaker D: Life and our relationships, marital advice, our.
[00:39:53] Speaker A: Conduct, our speech, our attitudes, our relationship between believers and non believers.
And on and on we could go.
But I would say that our ultimate godly duty as his faithful followers and listeners would be that of example from ecclesiastes, the 12th chapter, verses 13 through 14.
Most of you perhaps maybe even reminded, remember it, but this is a reminder.
But it says to let us hear.
[00:40:38] Speaker D: The conclusion of the whole matter, fear God and keep his commandments.
[00:40:44] Speaker A: For this is the whole duty of man.
For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it.
[00:40:55] Speaker D: Be good or whether it be evil.
[00:41:00] Speaker A: So everything that we do is ultimately going to be judged by our maker.
And scripture tells us that we're going to someday stand before him and give an account.
So even though that this is just.
[00:41:22] Speaker D: An example.
[00:41:26] Speaker A: Let us realize that hidden within God's word is all the practical, spiritual advice that we really need for our christian walk. May the Lord bless.
