Read & Study the Bible Online - Bible Portal
All is Changed When Jesus Comes to Stay By Paris Reidhead* “All is Changed When Jesus Comes to Stay” is essentially the theme of our Message this morning, found in Matthew, Chapter 19, the portion that was read for us in our New Testament reading. Our Lord spoke of His generation, saying, “Eyes have they and see not. Ears have they and hear not. Minds have they and perceive not.” (Matt. 13:14) And our Lord had come to bring something entirely new that contradicted all the rules and axioms of that which had gone before. It could only be seen by those whose eyes had been anointed with eye salve, whose eyes had been opened by the Lord. And so, in the light of that Word, and as we progress in the study of this portion, letting the Spirit of God speak to our hearts, let us think of it in these terms, seeing as we ought to see. The first thing that we see as we have it recorded in verses 13 and 15, we ought to see that the only ones that the Lord Jesus receives are those who come as children. His Words are as follows: “Then were there brought unto Him little children, that He should put His hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto Me: for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. And He laid His hands on them, and departed thence.” (Matt. 19:13-14) Can you imagine what was in the heart of the Apostles, that they should have forbidden, as we are told they did, those who were to bring their children. Now the artists have depicted this, I think, in an idealized manner, not in keeping with the occasion. Some of us have been in the Near East and know the squalor and filth, and sickness and disease, that characterizes the people that have not sufficient to eat, and have no medical care, as these undoubtedly did not have had. There was great sickness everywhere. Personally, I believe that these children were the hopeless cases. The Lord was in the Village, ministering. He had come, and there followed Him a great Company of people. Everyone would know about it. The very air would carry the news that the Teacher was there. The day has been spent, listening to Him, letting Him take of the things they knew not and explain them unto them. Everyone who could go was there. I am sure that these children were not the healthy little children that the artist painted. (I have children in my own home, and I know that if there is excitement anywhere, they are there with permission, of course, if there is time to obtain it. But they will often make the permission retroactive and go immediately, because they cannot miss anything. I think any child that was able to scamper had been there from the very beginning of the day, right in against the Lord.) The other writers tell us that mothers brought their children. I believe that these were the blind, and the paralyzed, and the palsied, and the demented, perhaps. These were the children that were in the back rooms in the little houses. No use to go. No use for the mothers to go, until along about evening when mother, going to get the water at the well, looks up and sees the man who had been blind from birth, admiring the sunset in the sky, and watching the birds, and remarking about the houses. She quickly goes over to Mary whose little child is blind. She says, “Look. You know you didn’t go today, but you should. You ought to go, because I just saw the blind man, and he can see. And maybe the Teacher can help your little child.” And so, she reaches down to pick him up out of the crib, and off the mat to carry the little one to the Lord. And while this news is coming to her, the news is filtering out to the other mothers, and they gather timidly on the edge of the Village, and walk together where the crowd is assembled under the trees, and approach the edge of that company quietly, and with some fear and misgiving. And the disciples, gathered around in knots and groups, talking about the Lord in these terms: Why does He spend all His time in Galilee? There is nothing in Galilee. He ought to be down in Jerusalem, influencing the Pharisees, and the Sanhedrin, and getting together some Political strength. What is He doing up here with these poor people. Look at those children. Did you ever see children like that before? My... And they are complaining about the Lord’s lack of wisdom and understanding, and intelligence, and the work that He is doing. And when the mothers get abreast of the disciples, one of them says, “Say, look. The Lord is tired. He has had a very, very busy day, and office hours are closed now. You had better take the children home. We will be back here a little later.” And the Lord understands everything in the hearts of men, and He knew what was in their hearts, and so over the heads of the group He speaks, saying, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me. And forbid them not.” And so the mother breaks through the crowd as it opens before the Lord’s command, and there she carries this little one that she loves so who has never seen her face, blind from birth, and the Lord just reaches out His fingers and brushes them against His lips, and then rests one on each of the eyes. And when He lifts the fingers, the eyes, bright and clear, look up, and the little one sees the face of the One whose voice has won his heart for the first time. And then, the mother brings the little palsied child, every muscle working against itself, every nerve in anarchy. And as the little limbs flail the air, the Lord Jesus just reaches that hand that has pointed and caused planets to take their place, and stars to burst into flame, and He rests it on the brow of the little child where the cortex is injured, and the muscles are instantly brought under the control of healthy nerves. And the first controlled action of the little child is to reach up and gently touch his mother’s cheek. And all the time the disciples are standing by, somewhat cynical and sardonic. You see, they have not seen. Their eyes have not been opened yet. They have been so prejudiced by the teachings of the Pharisees that they have not been able to hear the teachings of Christ. They have been so influenced by all that had gone before that they cannot be influenced by what is coming at the moment. And so, the consequence of it is, they are contesting among themselves who will be first in the Kingdom, and who will sit on the right hand, and who on the left. And our Lord looks up and says, “Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto Me: for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” What is He saying? He is saying that this new Kingdom that He is going to establish is not going to be as that of the past, where the King has gathered to him the strong and the noble, and rewarded them according to how they have served him. But here is a King who is going to make up His Kingdom among those that are broken and crushed, and hopeless and helpless, and bankrupt, are at the very end of themselves. We have seen our Lord’s teaching. We have heard Him as He spoke in the Beatitudes and described these Subjects of His, saying that they are broken in spirit, they had been brought to the end of themselves. This characterizes little children, you know. A child learns, learns because he does not know and wants to be taught, respects the authority, listens carefully if he is interested in the subjective matter at hand. And so it is that those who come to Him must come with all their prejudice and preconceived notions laid aside, all their religiosity, all their ideas, sometimes even their indoctrination; they have got to lay it all aside, and sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus and let Him teach them. He said, “Little children.” And then there is patience with a little child, in spite of all their impatience, there is also a measure of patience. There is a measure of expectancy. I remember years ago, when our oldest boy was too young for a bicycle. But we began saving money, and he would put in some by work of some chore or other, and we would give him a similar amount, and we watched this sum grow for that bicycle. And then the sum was reached in July, but we felt that he was just too young to be on the street with a bicycle, and so we said, “Well now, Sonny, the bicycle is provided, and you can have it at Christmas.” Another six months would help, we felt. And so from that time on, everyone that came, He said, “You know, I’ve got a bicycle.” “Oh? Where is it? Can I see it?” “Well, you can’t see it yet. I’m getting it at Christmas.” But he had learned that, because he had been promised, because it was there, he had it. And so it is, our Lord said, The kingdom of heaven is going to be made up of people that have it because He said it. And that is why the Scripture says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Heb. 11:6) You cannot. Enoch had this testimony that he pleased God, that he believed. And little children will, you know, until they have been disabused of it. And so, when you come to Him, you have to come as a little child. I guess everybody would be saved if they could feel saved before they trusted the Lord. Everyone would be saved if they could know they were before they believed. But the Lord has marked it out so clearly. He said, You have just got to believe; sort of cast yourself out over the abyss of Eternity on the arms that He says are there, those nail pierced hands that you can’t see, but He said He has extended. If He has extended them on the Cross to die for you, do you not think He will extend them to you when you in simple faith cast your never dying soul on the merit of His shed Blood, His poured out Life. Oh yes. “For by Grace are ye saved, through faith.” (Eph. 2:8) Then He has also said that there must be an attitude of obedience. This is to characterize the little children that come into His Kingdom. There comes a time, of course, when we become rebellions. We always punish children for a rebellion which is not anything more really than curiosity. They have just been so curious that they had to find out what was under the plant that made the flowers bloom, or whether there was some color down there or not. They just had to find out what it was that made the tire stay up, and so when they cut the tire found out there was nothing in there after all. Curiosity is often mistaken for perverseness. But generally, with a little child, if you tell him something, especially in a field where he is learning, he is prepared to obey. I am amazed how children can learn certain things because they have had the reason given to them, and they understand it, and they adhere to it, and they will respect it. And our Lord has said that His Kingdom is going to be made up of those that come, committed to obey Him. But this has something else here. The helplessness of the little child is also involved. As I have spoken of the sick, the blind, for every illness of the body there is a concomitant illness of the spirit. Blindness of mind is probably more devastating than blindness of the eyes. And deafness of the heart is infinitely more destructive than the deafness of the ear. And the various illnesses of the body that torment us are often but pictures of the deeper maladies of the human spirit. And so it is that one is helpless. You know that in blindness - physical blindness there is a helplessness. In lameness, there is. In leprosy, there is. And thus that is now lifted from the helplessness of the child to the helplessness of an adult whose life has been crippled by the terrible things of sin. And He has said that anyone who comes to Him has to come just bringing nothing. This is so hard! It is so hard! The reason more people are not happily related to Christ, wondrously satisfied with Him, is because they just cannot be helpless enough to need a Savior like ours. Everybody has something to offer, something to bring. So many times when you are talking to someone about Christ, they say, “Well, you know I am not good enough yet.” They have not had insight into their helplessness. If they had, they would know that a lifetime of what they consider makes them good simply makes them the worse. Anyone that comes to Christ has to come helpless. Righteousness: filthy rags. Good acts: but as crimes, added to our guilt. The only kind of people He can save are helpless people, lost people. It is so hard! You know there are five words everybody has to learn to say before they can come to the Lord. Have you learned to say them? If you could learn to say these five words, five statements, it would change your life completely. Let me give them to you: I am at fault, forgive me. It is so hard to say, even to one’s own family or friends. How often lives are brought into sheer agony and misery because one is not willing to say, I am at fault; forgive me. With God to say, I have sinned, forgive me. This is what the publican did who went down to his house justified. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I am at fault. Forgive me. And then the second statement that one has to learn to say is, I do not know; teach me. It is so difficult! Where do we acquire, and how soon do we acquire the omniscience complex where we know everything. We do not have it in respect to school and other things, but generally speaking in the things of the Lord it seems that so quickly we acquire it. Things of religion. You go out and talk to people on the street about their soul, and about Heaven, and about religion, and immediately they are an authority. If they would just become, as did that Philippian jailer, you know, falling at the feet of the Apostle: I do not know; teach me. What must I do to be saved? And then the third statement we need to say, is, I am afraid. Comfort me. I am afraid. Everybody is afraid. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Pro. 9:10) And the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Have you been able to say that? You know many times people carry such a blustering front because, really, deep down within them, they are so terribly frightened. Life is so overwhelming, and it carries with it such terrifying qualities and danger. Have you learned to say, I am afraid: Comfort me. This is how you come to the Lord. I am afraid, afraid of Hell, afraid of sin, afraid of death. I am afraid. Comfort me. And then there is a fourth statement that you should learn to say and be able to say, and keep saying whenever you need to. I can’t. Help me. I can’t. I can’t. We are the omnipotent Americans, you know. Our forefathers carried their Covered Wagons on their back across the Mountain Ranges and settled the West Coast; and so if we just lift hard enough we can do anything, the omnipotent American complex. And it is amazing the way it has infiltrated lives, and so many times people’s lives are wrecked because of it, just ruined because of it. There are some things you cannot do, some things I cannot do. And I am happy to know it. I remember in a Pastor’s home in Stuttgart, Arkansas, the little girl, 51⁄2 - nearly 6, she said (so I had to give her credit for the last three months) She was nearly 6. And she played the piano quite nicely. I said, “Dear, could you teach me?” She said, “I don’t know. There are some people you can’t teach, but I’ll try.” And so I sat down beside her on the piano bench for a little while and she explained to me, and after a few minutes she looked up and smiled. She said, “I don’t think I can teach you.” Well, I am confident of the fact that she was right. I never learned yet. So when it comes to the matter of Piano? it is not hard to say, I can’t. I can’t. And so it is true with life. Everybody is ignorant, only of different things. And everybody is powerless, only in different ways. And so, if you can come to the place with your relationship with the Lord — I can’t. It was Reginald Wallace, whose books have been such a tremendous blessing, who said, in one of his writings, “The happiest day in my Christian life was the day I realized that I couldn’t live it.” Have you come to that place yet? Have you? I can’t live the Christian life. He put it on such an exalted plane, and such a high level, that it is obvious He never intended you to live it. The Christian life can only be lived by Christ, and the way it is to be lived through you is by Christ living His life through you. And this is what He wants to do. I can’t. I can’t save myself. I can’t atone for my past sins. I can’t earn forgiveness. I can’t, but He can. And Christ then becomes your life. And then, fifth and final statement of course, that one word that unites you savingly with God’s Son: I am lost. Save me. I am lost. Save me. You see, the Lord Jesus only came into the world to save lost people. The reason there are not more people being saved is because there are not more being lost. We know that judicially they are in God’s eyes, but after all it is not only in God’s eyes. It is in the individual’s eyes. He does not force His grace. I am lost. Save me. This is the cry of the wounded heart. These are the children of whom the Kingdom of Heaven is made. But there are certain terms that the Lord asks, also. We ought to see them. We ought to see with this anointing with His eye salve who it is that is in this Kingdom, and then we ought to understand the terms. We ought to see what it is that He requires. “Suffer the little children to come unto to Me.” Surrender everything you have unto Me. Verses 16 to the end of verse 22: “And, behold, one came and said unto Him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal Life? And He said unto him, Why callest thou Me good? there is none good but One, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto Him,” Which? “Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honor thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. The young man saith unto Him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?” (Matt. 19:16-20) I pause to say this, that everything that he had up until this point, good as it was, was not enough. And he knew it. And I am sure he had done everything from outwardly, from the standard by which he judged. He was speaking honestly, and candidly. He had no reason to pretend in the presence of the Lord. All these things have I kept from my youth up. You have studied them. There is not anything there that with diligence and thoughtfulness, and constant attention, one cannot do. But the doing of them in this level on which he was able to perform them did not give him certainty of eternal life, or peace. And how many there are that have come into the Church, by baptism, or by learning the catechism; they have been baptized in water; they have learned Scripture verses. And they could say, “What must I do to have eternal life?” And you would say to them, “Well you must learn the Scripture. You must learn the Westminster Shorter Catechism, be taken into the membership of the church. You must tithe. You must have a family altar. You must live separated from the world. And they would cry out, ‘Yes. All of these things I have done from my youth up, and what lack I yet?’ Because the doing of these things cannot be equated with eternal life.” And this man knew it. And he was not putting his trust in the fact that he was of the sect of the Pharisees, and diligent in all the religion of his fathers. He said (He now is encountering God.) This is what he has not done previously, you know. He has seen the Law of Moses, and the religion of the fathers, but he has not had a personal meeting with God, and now he must meet God. And that is why our Lord Jesus said, “Why callest thou Me good? There is none good but God.” And He allowed the young man to call Him good, for He was God. But the young man had to meet God, and to know God in a personal, vital experiential manner, if he was to have eternal life, because eternal life is not in the Commandments. It is not in the Ritual. It is not in the Ceremony. It is not in the Dogma and the Doctrine. Life is in a Person. This is the reason the Word so explicitly says, “He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36) Salvation is in a Person. Thus we have Paul’s warning, “Examine yourself whether you be in the Faith. Prove your own selves. Know you not your own selves how that Christ be in you, except you be reprobate.” (II Cor. 13:5) Christianity is a Person, Christ living in vital relationship with the individual. And thus he has to meet Christ. And he does meet Him now, and the Lord Jesus presents Himself as He is, Lord and Savior, but He presents first His Sovereignty. For if the young man is not willing to recognize His Sovereignty, he can have no part in His Saviorhood. Thus in Romans 10:9, the same principle: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus to be Lord, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” And He is saying that not only is this new thing made up of those that have come as little children, but also those that have come in total abandonment of all that they have to Him. He has said, Now that I am to take the place of God in your life, you have accepted Moses and the traditions and Judaism in the Temple, but now you must accept Me. I am God, and I am to take this place in your life. And He said, “Sell all that thou hast, and give it to the poor,” and ... elsewhere in Mark, He said, “Take up your cross, and come and follow Me.” (Matt. 19:21; Mark 8:34) It is a personal encounter with the living Christ that changes one, brings one out of death into life, because Christianity is in Christ. I have pointed out that one might have ceaseless life by being forgiven and pardoned now through the administration of the Church, but because it was ceaseless would not mean eternal at all. Eternal has to be just as long on the other side as you expect it to be on this side. It has to be just as old in the past as you expect it to be in the future. And eternal has to have no beginning as well as no ending. And there is only One that has eternal life. It is God. And thus he must meet God. And the only terms on which God has ever offered Himself is in a total and a complete and absolute abandonment to Him. It is now presented then, here in these words, “Sell all that thou hast, give it to the poor, and come and follow Me.” You say, “Well of course that was Law. That was Israel.” No. That is the basic principle of repentance. That is the basic submission. That is the essence of the crime, that God calls sin. Sin is selfishness, self-will, self-rule, self-government, living to please one’s self, living by one’s own standards, living for one’s own glory, and our Lord has put His finger on it. Now the young man had kept the Law because it was good for him to do it. It established him in his group, and it was the proper and profitable thing to do. But now he is coming to the place where the knife of God’s authority cuts right across the main tendon of his self- interest, and God will not draw it away. He cannot remove it. It has got to go through. “Sell all that thou hast.” Everyone that has saving relationship to Christ, I believe has had to meet Him on these terms. I do not necessarily say that one has met Him on these terms at the moment of his assurance of forgiveness. But I do not believe that God gives assurance of forgiveness, and certainty of pardon to one whom He knows will not meet Him on these terms. You say, “I never heard this.” I am not concerned about the fact that you hadn’t heard it. I am asking what you are doing about it now that you are hearing it. Do you see the difference? It is not a question of whether you heard it as the initial presentation of Christ. You should have heard it then. The fact that you did not hear it is not of great concern to me at the moment. It is not what you would have done had you heard it then. It is, what are you doing with it that you are hearing it now? Are you prepared to abandon to Him? There are implications to Faith in Christ. It is not only Faith that He is the Savior, but He is the Sovereign. He has been exalted by the right hand of the Father to be a Prince, and a Savior, and He is to be received as He is presented, a Prince as well as a Savior. Now the young man is rejecting God. God who spoke on Mt. Sinai is the same God who speaks in front of the young man. The finger that wrote on the Tables of Stone is the finger that points to the young man and said, “Go sell all thou hast, and give it to the poor...: and come and follow Me.” The same Law given on Mt. Sinai stands in front of this young man. And he evidences the nature that his rebellion by his unwillingness to do what God tells him to do. And everyone that has saving relationship to Christ has submitted to God, and this is what God asks of everyone who would come to Him: a total abandonment of all rights; as it is here presented, “Sell all that thou hast.” Do you mean to say, therefore, that everyone that comes to Christ has to have an option, unload his stocks, and sell the titles and deeds in his business? Well I am not concerned that they should go on the Market, but I am concerned they should go into the nail pierced hand of the Son of God. And if He says, Put it on the Market, in due course and time, then they ought to be put on the Market. But they ought to be first put in the nail pierced hands of the Son of God. They ought to be all turned over to Him. You are His? How can you be His and have that which is your own. It is a total abandonment to His Sovereignty that He is now establishing as the basic threshold into this new thing. Then we find that as He says, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me,” then He says, “Surrender everything you have unto to Me,” and then of course the next thing we find is He is saying, “Secure everything you need from Me:” Then said Jesus unto His disciples, “Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.” (Matt. 19:23-24) When His disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” (Matt 19:26) What are we seeing? Our Lord is coming back again to the rich man, just as He did when He got through with the Sermon on the Mount, and He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, and the pure in heart, and the meek.” (Matt. 5:3, 8) Utterly contrary to human nature. And coming down from the Mountain, He saw the leper and touched him. And He said, Just as I can completely and instantly change this leper into a clean man, so I can completely and instantly change the heart of the rich man. Now who is the rich man? I have never met any of them, any in my life. Everyone that I ever met that I thought was, always told me he was not, and pointed to somebody else he thought was. In due course, I got to him, and he thought he was not. And so it was passed on. I really never met anybody that was. But I submit to you that riches is not measured in terms of decimal points and digits. It is in terms of the heart attitude: and you go down on the street and find the man that is sitting there, sequestered in his filth and in his depravity, and his iniquity, and his sin, and he hides behind the bottle. And I submit to you that he is unprepared to give up the comfort and the security, and the warmth and the fraternity that he finds around the bottle, and come to Christ. And this is his riches. To you, it is nothing but squalor and filth. Riches are not a matter of decimal points and digits. Riches are anything that stands in the way of one coming in total abandonment to The Son of God. Maybe an erstwhile imagined talent, or an ability, or it may be some inheritance. It may be something utterly inconsequential. People will live their whole life in rebellion against God, held back by nothing but a delusion: Something that might sometime be theirs. No. No. Riches are anything that stands between a soul and God. It is not how much, or even what. It is the effect that it has. And this young man had great possessions. How much is great? He imagined them to be great. Somebody else would say, “Great? That wasn’t great.” It isn’t a question of how much he had. It is what they did to him. I told you about Deng, the boy out in Dinkaland Land. We held the envelope opened to him, and forced him to take, or insisted that he take the bead off. It was part of his dowry. It represented five cows, the equivalent of five cows toward the 21 that he needed to be married. And it was proof of his status and of his accomplishment, his wealth, one little red bead. And when we said, Deng you have to take it off, he looked at this bead. The tears just streamed down his cheek as he dropped it in the envelope and knew he would not see it for eight months. It was riches to him. To me it was just a dirty bead on a dirtier twine. It had no meaning at all, but it kept him. And so it is that our Lord is saying that it is a miracle of Grace that anyone is saved, anyone is saved. And if you are here today and have been broken by the Spirit of God and have come as a child, and have abandoned yourself to His Sovereignty, and are His, it is a miracle of Grace. We sing it you know: It took a miracle to put the stars in place, It took a miracle to hang the world in space; But when He saved my soul, Cleansed and made me whole, It took a miracle of love and grace!1 It does. And if you are in Christ today, it is a miracle. You say, “Will Christ perform that miracle on me?” Yes. He provides everything. All you have to do is be able to say, I have sinned: Forgive me. I do not know: Teach me. I am afraid: Comfort me. I can’t: Help me. I am lost: Save me. The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief, it makes no difference, whoever it is. He came to bring everything. He won’t change His terms. He demands a total surrender of all you have. But when you have done that, He provides everything you need. It is everything He is for everything you are. It is everything He has for everything you have. And if you are not willing to trade what you are, and what you have with all your sin and need and failure and iniquity, for Him in His righteousness and Grace, and Love, and Power, there is no part of you, for you in Him. But if you are willing to come, stripped and broken, and bankrupt and helpless, and cast yourself at the feet of the Son of God, then He will trade everything He is, and everything He has for everything you are, and the little you have. Shall we bow in prayer. “Except ye be converted and become as little children. Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” Are there any little children here today, that say, I am at fault, I have sinned; forgive me: I do not know; teach me: I am afraid: comfort me: I can’t; help me: I am lost; save me? Any little children? Anyone that is hearing Him say, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and 1 will give you rest. Take My yoke 1 “It Took a Miracle” By John W. Peterson, 1948. upon you, and learn of Me. For I am meek and lowly in heart. And ye shall find rest unto your souls.” (Matt. 11:28,29) Perhaps before we close there might be someone that would raise their hands and say, Yes, I am that little child. Pray for me. I want help. I want to put myself in the way of help. I am testifying by this upraised hand that I am bringing all I am, sin and need and failure, to exchange for all He is in Righteousness, Love, and Grace, and Power. Pray for me. Would you put your hand up in these closing moments? Anyone? Anywhere? Will you remain behind. Stay in your seat or speak to me at the door. We will be so glad to talk with you if you have any need. Now, Father, look down upon us. Thou dost see us, and know us, and know all about us. If anyone here is not Thy child, this is how Thou wouldst receive them. And those who would profess to be Thy children, and are indeed, are this kind of people. And those who would profess to be Thy children and are not this kind of people must not be in fact Thy children. And so, Father, we pray that Thou by Thy Spirit will bind the truth upon our hearts, and let it not be taken away. Let it do its work. Bless everyone that is present. Let the Word linger with them through the hours of the day. May the meditation be sweet in the Lord. And give us the joy of speaking with, and praying with some needy heart today. For Jesus’ Sake. Amen. Let us stand for the Benediction. And “now unto Him who is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of His Glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour be Glory and Honor, dominion and majesty, now and forever. Amen” (Jude 1:24,25) * Reference such as: Delivered at The Gospel Tabernacle Church, New York City on Sunday Morning, July 16, 1961 by Paris W. Reidhead, Pastor. ©PRBTMI 1961

Be the first to react on this!

Group of Brands