I am happy to be here. In the other place it was such a wonderful thing to see so many young people and so glad to be there. We are glad to see young people here too. We are glad to see children here. I would like to encourage you to read the Bible. I would would like to speak a little about the Psalm 2, this morning. There was some a time before I ever understood the depth of this Psalm, for that reason I would like to explain to young folk, when you folk read the Bible, it isn’t just reading verse after verse, it is well if we could look up references, little tiny references and find something of the same to understand the chapter; sometimes we could look up and when I began to look up and search out and dig in, this Psalm has been a great Psalm to me and if you want to put down the references as we go through and look them up later, it may be even-more help.
Now the first verse of this Psalm 2:1, Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing. Why do they imagine or have to dwell on a vain thing? Just in a general sense you can say that is just like a picture of the world today, people raging and raging about this and that and something else and just feeding on vain, empty things but, in reality, if we look up some references we will find this is a prophecy, this has a depth of meaning, this is talking about when Jesus was nailed to the cross of Calvary and when we get down to read all the matter we begin to understand some of the depth of the words in this chapter.
Let us turn for a few moments to Acts 4:25, I’ll look it up and read it, to you. “Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, why do the heathen rage…” This Psalm was written by David, this is something else good to know; in the reference it even says Psalms 2 and it says: who by the mouth of thy servant David..why did the heathen rage…against the Lord and against iris Christ. You can also look in the book of Luke 23, it tells when Jesus was before Herod, it speaks of Him before Pilate, it speaks of those rulers, you see a very sad picture. It seems that those two men were not agreed before but on this occasion they came together, the world could get their heads together and up against the Truth and Light and Salvation. The world was shouting that Christ may be crucified, raging, they were moved by those high priests and moved by the elders, moved by different groups, people who are moved by just what others say.
There was a time we read of this same Herod, if you want to look it up, this is the one that, when John was in prison and because of this young lady dancing, as they would say, so gracefully before them, he offered her even to half of his kingdom and she went to her mother and asked what should I ask for and she said the head of John brought on a platter. Isn’t that a terrible sad, horrible picture? John, the true messenger of God, one that was giving his all and his best, yes, it cost his life but I have pondered over what Herod said I will give you even to half of my kingdom, if Herod had vision, a spiritual vision, if he would have understood his values, he could have easily said unto her the life of John, the true messenger of God, the representative of Heaven, he is worth more than half of my kingdom, more than all of my kingdom, it can’t be given to you but the world sells out for nothing.
John’s life was taken but then Herod now is standing before Jesus and it says for a long time he had desired that he might see Jesus he had heard of those miracles He had performed and he was just hoping that on this occasion Jesus would show more of that power. When John was put to death it was to close the mouth of John that he couldn’t speak any more to condemn his life of adultery, he closed the mouth of John forever, yes, he closed the mouth of Heaven forever to him. He didn’t come humble and broken, he didn’t come asking is there anyway I can ever be forgiven, is there any way I can have salvation? No, he came with a wrong desire. When we come to this Convention, oh, that we could come with that broken contrite spirit, willing that God could speak unto us and that we could understand, yes, and that we would be willing, and gladly willing, to obey the voice of God.
I was very happy for what we heard last night of that still small voice of God speaking and moving in our conscience. Did you ever hear that still, small voice of God? I will explain this by a little short illustration. I remember one time there in Mexico, every Sunday after the Sunday morning meeting and a quick dinner we got a train to go a certain distance into the country part for a meeting in the
afternoon, usually the train was full. I remember this Sunday pushing in and getting on but down in the aisle it seemed like a small voice clearly saying move down the aisle and, to myself I began to think well, there’s people down there too, I am standing here, it won’t be long before I’ll be getting off, why move down the aisle? It wasn’t very many moments I understood the reason! I was standing by some people and their conversation, their filthy corrupt conversation and everything just made me push quickly and get down the aisle as soon as I could to get out of range of those voices. If I had obeyed the still small that speaks I would have moved on down the aisle, I would have escaped all. Yes, God speaks and He will speak and in this Convention, He is wanting to speak but He wants to speak’ in His quiet way to help us understand.
One of the ways it speaks in Hebrews, the way God has spoken, often and in many ways, to me one of the ways God speaks most clearly is by death. I’ll give you one illustration of this. in the city of Monterey are many professing people, some lovely young people even to the fourth and fifth generation walking in the way of God but there is one couple, both professing, they have several children professing but some of those children don’t desire the Truth. That is a sorrow and sadness to those parents. They don’t want to hear reason or take advice and one of those young men was working, having his own money, he felt the call of business but wasn’t willing; he got a car and it didn’t run just as fast as he wanted it to; he spent lots of money to get a bigger motor, to run faster and when he got that installed, racing up and down those streets at high speed it turned over a few times and threw him out. Death. This life was cut so short. Had he got any joy out of that? He could have got some kind of a thrill but it took him to the grave, a cold dark long future with no hope. That still small voice would like to speak to help us see and understand the vanity of the passing things in this life and were it is going to take us to. Soon after that two of his brothers, younger than he, professed. We hope it is not just emotion, not just for the moment, but it could be a choice for all eternity. Some other cousins have professed too. God sometimes speaks in a still small voice but it seems it takes a shout from heaven to waken some people, the shout of death.
Let us go along with that Psalm 2:2 a little more, I’d like to read the verse that follows after, 2v. The kings of the earth…take counsel together against the Lord…let us break their bands… The people in that time when they were shouting Christ would be crucified it was just like saying: we don’t want Him to rule over us but there was another that was placed that day before the public and he had a record, a dreadful record of crime and when Pilate ‘lifted him up before them to not let him go free, they cried out that he should be free and Christ would be crucified. What does this world want? They don’t want purity, they don’t want Truth, they don’t want Salvation, they want their own way. They thought: if we can just get rid of this Christ we can go along, He is just trying to tear up our lives.
It caused me to think of Cain and Abel, it illustrates so clearly this portion of Scripture. Two in the same home with the same parents, the same teaching but one let the devil talk to his ear. He told him it isn’t necessary to do just exactly like God has planned, you just offer the best of your crop, that is something very good. Abel, he offered according to the life of Jesus, a lamb. This animal, his blood was shed; the animal was speaking of the Christ that was coming to this world, that His life would be elven, His blood would be shed but I like to think it speaks much more than that. It speaks, not of an animal, it speaks like in Romans 12, I beseech you by the mercies of God present your bodies…holy, acceptable which is your reasonable service. That is what God wants to teach us in these meetings these days. We have a body, God a body has prepared me, yes, He has prepared you this body and in it He wants to dwell, He wants to reign, He wants to be salvation to us. Yes, when we think of that sacrifice, I beseech you brethren…present your bodies…it is your reasonable service; that is correct, it is right, it should be that way.
When we get to the gates of Heaven, do we want just to have a peek in? Do we want to get one foot in? No, we have to be all in or not at all and we would like to see the door open from side to side and that welcome: Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, Come! All God is asking for is just what we can’t keep to give us what can never be taken away from us. He is asking for this life, this life isn’t our own, it belongs to Him, life is lent to us, Ho is just asking we put it in His hands and He can show us how to live, how to have joy, He is showing us how we can be useful in this world, a living sacrifice.
I would like to tell you one experience. A couple listening in our meetings, Clarence was away at the time they professed, I remember so clearly, they had come from a country settlement quite a way South but in that country settlement the Gospel had reached that part and there were a number of people professing and the parents of this young man were professing people but he wasn’t professing. He married a girl from that settlement, almost like a neighbour, and that girl, her mother was very Catholic, she was strong in the Catholic belief and she told this daughter: don’t you marry that boy, they have a strange religion, they will get you roped in. She promised her mother never to be taken up with that religion but this young couple came to Monterey to work and their address was sent. We went to look them up and this young lady, when-she saw us coming to the door she hoped we wouldn’t knock, then she hoped we wouldn’t come in she knew who we were but he seemed anxious that we would come in and in the conversation we mentioned: wouldn’t you like to have a little meeting here, a Gospel meeting, and he said: yes. She was kind of boiling down inside! I hope they never come back but he had given the word and she did stay for the meeting. So, we appeared and they listened and others listened and the day came when she began to see and realise this is not a strange religion, this is the way of life and Truth like we have in the Bible; he knew it already.
She broke down in tears one day and wept bitterly. She said my mother tried to help me to understand that I should never get married with this man because they had a strange religion, I can never profess because it would just break the heart of my mother. I said: Do you love your mother, really love your mother? Yes. She was weeping, yes, I love my mother. You know this is right, you know this is the way of salvation, would you like your mother to get saved too? Yes, but its hopeless, it would never be possible. I said: if you want ever to help your mother you have to take the first step, you have to show to her by your life that you have found reality, you have found Truth. Oh, but she says, it would not be possible, but these things were working within and she couldn’t refuse. They both professed and it wasn’t long till a neighbour lady professed, a very interesting story too; it wasn’t long after that till one of the sisters professed and then another sister professed and then another sister professed and, yes, the day came that that mother professed also. That which was so impossible! Seek ye first the Kingdom of God… and these things are going to fall into line. That has happened more than once, yes, to let us know what it is just to put our life’s offering on the altar of sacrifice.
Abel came with his sacrifice it says God looked upon Abel then at Cains sacrifice. God is looking upon our lives, our sacrifice could be by force and not by love but Abel was putting his all and showing it by his own life; he gained God’s favour but it also says of Cain, God looked upon Cain and looked upon his life, his spirit, his action, he was outside; he wasn’t wanting to be inside, he wanted to be religious but in another way; that is not going to take us to Heaven, the spirit of the devil was controlling the life of Cain, yes, just like those people in the days of Jesus: if we could just get rid of this Christ, we could just do as we want. When God saw how Cain’s countenance fell, He could see there was anger inside but God tried to help Cain. If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted…? God painted a picture of how he could be right. God would like to show us in this meeting how we can get right and have God’s favour. If we do His will from our hearts, we love to do His will, to be broken, contrite, God is going to work in us but he didn’t let the Words of God penetrate his heart and rising up he went out and sought a way to bring death to his brother Abel. That is not going to make things right, that is not the answer today, no, we must look to God if we want the answer, the sue answer, the right answer, the answer is from God.
Maybe I’ll read another verse: He that sittest in the heavens shall laugh Christ was dying on the cruel cross in agony, it touched God’s heart but He was just laughing at that crowd and their way of reasoning. There is going to come a day they are going to see proof of their iniquity yes. It says here in 5v: Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath – there is coming a day. I’d like to just give another thought when you think of Paul, before he was ever converted, he was of the same people, he was of Israel, he was of the strictest sect of those Pharisees and it tells us very clearly when Stephen was stoned to death, there he was giving his consent, even holding the clothes of those that cast those stones that day. Would you say there would never be any hope for that man? But he was moved just by public opinion, blinded to the fact that his people were on the wrong track. We could be blinded, very blind to the fact of what is really true. God could see in the very depth of the heart of that man, that young man, it seems that there is sincerity but he is very deceived and from the other side of the grave, the other side in eternity.
Jesus spoke to him as he went that day: Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me? Who is it? He didn’t recognise that voice. In this meeting there could be a voice speaking to us, we might wonder where it is that voice has come from. That voice comes from Heaven, that voice would touch deep incur heart. God wants us to see and realise this is just not play, it’s a serious matter. Why dost thou persecute me? Who is it Lord? He heard the voice: I am Jesus of Nazareth… You would wonder, Jesus was already in Heaven, how could He be per luting Jesus? Wouldn’t it be true that if you had children and if you saw someone beating up on those children, it would be just like beating you too? Putting their finger in the apple of your eye? When they touch those, who Are doing God’s will, it was like touching Jesus and causing Him to suffer. Jesus said: why persecutest thou me? Who art Thou…? He told him who He was, he fell to the ground he was undone, a light brighter than the noon day sun shone about him, yes a light, the light of the gospel is brighter than all the lights in all this world and it would like to shine all round us and capture us, it would like to get to our heart, yes. He spoke of those words: What wilt Thou have me to do. The first time in his life in the spirit of true submission to that One that he didn’t believe in before, that One they thought a false prophet, now he could see: this is true, this is the salvation of God. How nice if we could be of those that have sincerity in the depth of our heart, God sees the sincerity and He sends His messengers across our path. There are a number of other things here I would like to explain. It speaks in Revelation that they are going to be broken like a potter/s vessel and come to naught.
There is also another verse I’d like to mention Matthew 4:8-10, when the devil came to Jesus he offered Him all the kingdoms of the world, he showed it to Him in a moment of time but Christ could just laugh at him, in this sense, He knew if He did the will of God He was not only going to be like the Author of eternal salvation but that He was coming back to this world His coming is nearer, His coming back to this world – and He is going to come like the King of kings and Lord of lords and the whole world is going to be His. He could have bowed down to Satan that day but Satan is a liar, Satan offers but could he have ever given what he offered? We don’t want to deal with some one that is not true, we want to deal with God, the God of Heaven. Let us quickly go on to some other verses.
I like very much what we have in Psalms 2:10, he wise now therefore, 0 ye kings. God likes to speak to kings. Paul had opportunity of speaking to rulers and kings and some were almost persuaded but weren’t willing. It tells us very clearly: l am wise now therefore, 0 ye kings, be instructed. These are days of instruction. Ye Judges serve the Lord. That is what God is trying to tell us: serve the Lord. When Paul heard that voice and was willing, he came in to serve; he turned his back on everything he was before to be like a new born babe, to learn to serve, to be a servant, he gave his life. What he caused others to suffer when he persecuted and even took them to prison and death, Paul went through those same experiences for the Gospel sake too and he was willing because he knew others have gone this way, it is my turn now to hold up the Kingdom of Heaven even before kings and rulers that they might have this opportunity and in that great judgment day there will be no excuse, yes.
It also speaks here in Psalms 2:11, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. To me, that seemed kind of a strange verse. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice. How can you rejoice when there is fear and also says with trembling? I like that verse, I enjoy that verse. When we think of fear that’s a reverent fear, we fear that we could disobey God, we fear that we could fall from His favour, let us fear lest we might disobey or displease God. Let us never, never, never lose this fear, this fear that we can displease God and if we are going to be willing to serve with this reverent fear, there is going to be rejoicing then. It says with trembling also. Then you see some that have gone shipwrecked, they have left the Truth and gone outside, doesn’t it make you tremble? This treacherous human nature, oh, if we just give a little room to this treacherous human nature, it could take us outside. hay we tremble when we think of it, and what it could be, may there be true reverence.
Let us go a little further, a few references you could look up – John 5:22-23 goes with v.12. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry with you. I thought of a kiss, not a deceitful kiss, a kiss of love and appreciation, a kiss to show our affection, are we trying to kiss the One that gave His life for us? Are we trying to show our affection. When Mary came with the alabaster box and broke it, yes, when she came to give her best and her all, Jesus said she bath done what she could, this is for the day of my burying and, He says, wherever the Gospel is preached in all the world… we should remember to tell what she did. Are we anointing the body of Christ. giving our best an -1 our all? That is what God is wanting. Kiss the Som… ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him. That reminds me of the 73rd Psalm It was good for me to go into the house of God that I can get my vision clear, get to see the same as God, and I see there’s just a few minutes more!
I would like to tell you another little incident that might help you to be true when no one seems to understand, you might think no one takes notice of your life but in a certain farming district there were poor people, there were several professing and they came to that settlement two young girls, paid by the Government, to spend time trying to teach the ladies in their homes more about hygiene, how to raise children, to have a balanced diet and gave them some hints how to be a better housewife. Here in Australia you never need anything like that but, you know, over there the Government saw maybe it’s a very useful thing and those two young ladies came to this part; it so happened they were having a room and board with a lady that was professing. You might think her life never speaks anything. She said to one of those young girls, her family there Catholic, strong Catholic, but the things in the home, the things she could see and little visits about these things, she began to desire to know more about this. It was coming round the time of our annual meetings, this lady of the home mentioned the Workers will be coming, we will probably be having a meal at my home, you will get to meet the Workers. She was anxious to meet those that could tell her about the Bible. The other girl, no, but she did and the Workers went to the home and had a little time at the home, had a nice visit with that girl and it seems she just grasped these things with a clear understanding and in the last meeting of that Convention the opportunity was given for any who would like to make their choice, she stood up, that was her choice. I want to live for God. When she went home and she told her folks about these things – PHEW!! Her mother, it was just like dying to the family and she had a sister that really was upset. She told them there is a meeting here in Monterey, that is where she came from, and I can go to the meetings here. That sister, she was so upset, she said: I am going to that meeting too. She thought: I’ll go just to drag my sister out of the meeting, make a public example, she will never want to go back again. Could you stand up against opposition? Yes, she went to that meeting but when she went into the room, it was a large room full of people, it was Sunday night study and Gospel meeting together. Well, her wings went down a bit. I won’t do anything. I am not going to listen and she didn’t listen. After that meeting she wouldn’t greet anyone, she wouldn’t shake hands with anyone, she thought she would drag her sister out. Her sister had some pretty rough times and many times in testimony with tears for all the yours: people who wouldn’t give ear, who didn’t want this because they couldn’t understand. This young girl, she quit that work as a social worker because to be a social worker she had to move around the country districts and one of the requirements was that she wear slacks, just like a pair of pants, and dress like a flan. She tried to explain to them: I don’t want to dress like that now. Well, she just quit the work, she didn’t want to go according to what they had planned but she offered for the Work. Well, it was a little too soon. We explained it would be better for you to work even house work, if nothing else, for a little experience, get a little grounding, she would have been past 20 already; she did that but when the time came when we thought she could then have a part in the harvest field, I suppose that her family began to realise she maybe is thinking of this. At that Convention she was going to be put on the list and she was going to be able to have a part in the Work. In the Monterey Convention everyone goes home at night, there are a lot of people, we have no bedding problems and everyone has their supper at home and stay the night, they have breakfast at home; everyone brings lunches for dinner. Well, on Saturday night when she went home, they had decided we are not going to let her go on Sunday. They must have realised something was going to take place. She had no way of gathering up any of her clothes, no way of even taking anything, but they said we are just going to stay up tonight – they thought she would take off during the night – and see you don’t go out the door, and they did, the mother and sister but after midnight they were also sleepy and didn’t know what to do; they decided we will go to bed, she is to sleep with mother and her mother wakes up at the least movement and she cannot get away. They went to bed and went to sleep and when she was quite sure mother was fast asleep, she quietly slipped out of bed and headed out the door; she didn’t take her hymn book or Bible, she didn’t take any clothes, she just got up and got away by the skin of her teeth; she went to a neighbour that lived near, who was professing, waiting for the morning to come to the meeting. When she came to the meeting that morning, she asked for a hymn book. I thought: that’s a strange thing, she has no hymn book! I was taking care of the seating and when dinner time came, well, there’s no problem there, so many took lunches they always have something to share; she had something to eat. It hadn’t dawned on me what had happened. She didn’t have a Bible. At noon time I mentioned after the last meeting we had to go out to the country where the other Convention is and, will you be ready, prepared? Yes, I’m ready and I thought: what does she have? She didn’t have anything but she said I will be ready. Well, after the meeting was over she started out, she comes along with the Sisters and on her way out she had opportunity to explain just what had happened. After supper out in the country there was a shower, not a shower of rain from the heavens, every one of the Sisters brought some piece of clothing, shoes, suitcase, a new Bible, a new Hymn Book, she had more than the rest. She is still in the work and now her mother has begun to show a little interest, She went to Convention for one day
Truth Archive 