Regaining what we lost

I want to read with you in 2nd John chapter 1, which is the only chapter, 2nd John and chapter 1, verse 8, 2nd John 1 verse 8. Look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Now some of our brethren will know that there is a question because of the varying Greek texts as to what the English translation should be. We're not going to concern ourselves about that this morning at all.

Some suggest that it's John looking to not lose his reward. Others are suggesting he's exhorting the believers not to lose their reward. There is a third thought about it that I think fits well, but we're not going to talk about that.

It is called rhetorical communion. You can look that up yourself if you're interested, but I think that's likely the answer. But that's not my concern.

I'm just using this as a starting point. We have come to this conference and it's possible, it is likely, if I think of myself, that over the months that go by we lose certain things in our Christian experience and we want to look at some of those that there might be a regaining at this conference, things which we may have lost because we don't want to lose certain things in our Christian experience because it diminishes our ability to live for God and to serve God and to worship God the way we should. So we want to look at some things that we can lose and I'll just take them one at a time so that we don't have to think of all the things that I've already read.

So the first one is well known and that's in Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24, after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, verse 13 of Luke 24, behold two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about three score furlongs. And as they talked together of all these things which had happened and it came to pass that while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.

But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. And he said unto them, what manner of communion communications are these that you have one to another as you walk and are sad? And the one of them whose name was Cleophas answering said unto him, art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And he said unto them, what things? And they said unto him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and to have and have him crucified. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel.

And beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company have made us astonished, or made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre. And when they found not his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels which said that he was alive.

And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre and found it even so as the women had said, but him they saw not. Then said he unto them, O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them and all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

And they drew nigh unto the village where they went, and he made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them, and it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and break, and gave to them.

And their eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? The first and greatest tragedy in a Christian life is that we lose sight of the Lord Jesus. He is the key.

The Apostle Paul said in Philippians, For to me to live is Christ. We do not have a religion, we have a relationship. I do pastoral care at the hospital right beside us where we live, and recently I was visiting one of the patients, and I asked her, I've known her for a long time now, four years, I asked her, Would you mind if I prayed with you? And she said, You can if you like, I'm really not a religious person.

So I prayed with her, and I reflected on what she said, because we have to be careful in the hospital that we don't cause ripples, but at the same time we want to be faithful. And I reflected on it, and I went back to her, because she has known me as a Bible teacher, she would likely call me a minister. And I said to her, calling her by name, I said, The last time we visited, you mentioned that you're not a religious person.

And I said, It might surprise you that neither am I. I am not a religious person. I said, I have a relationship with the Lord Jesus, and I was able to explain to her God's salvation. Where she stands today, where she is today, I don't know.

She passed away just in the last few days, and it makes me very sad, because I think of these people that we've known for a while, and they go out into eternity, and we're really not settled. And I've said to myself even this morning, Where is she right now? And likely not saved, likely lost, and enduring flames already. But we have a relationship with a person, and if we lose sight of him, we are in real trouble.

I see that in the book of Ruth. When you start Ruth chapter 1 and verse 1, that is not where the story begins. Elimelech and his wife Naomi, they go away.

But before they went away, there were problems. Two things that you see there. One is the names of the sons.

The psalmists tell us that children are a heritage of the Lord. What did they name their sons? Malon, Kilion. Malon means sickly, and Kilion means pining.

In other words, even if it were true that they had health issues, I don't know that, even if it were true, the thing is that they weren't looking at the blessings God had given them. Furthermore, when you come to chapter 2, around verse 12 I believe it is, when you come to chapter 2 and Ruth comes back from the field of Boaz, and Naomi asked her, Where have you gleaned today? She says, The field of Boaz. And Naomi's response is, Blessed be he of the Lord who hath not left off his kindness to the living, yes, but and to the dead.

Boaz was kind and supplied their need before they left, but they had lost sight of this wealthy man, this mighty man of wealth, and when they lost sight of him, they felt in order to save themselves during the famine, they had to find their own means. And when we lose sight of the Lord Jesus, we will wander. And here the disciples were broken-hearted.

They were despondent because they had lost sight of him. They had lost sight of the Lord Jesus. But isn't it wonderful that before the story ends, their eyes were opened? And I trust, brethren and sisters, this weekend we will get our eyes opened and see him again.

That's what we need, a fresh appreciation, a fresh vision spiritually of the Lord Jesus. If we have lost sight of him, thank the Lord we're here to see him again, to get a fresh appreciation of him, because if we leave this conference having our eyes opened because we have lost sight of him, we will go away from this conference a different way from the way we have come. We need to get what we have lost, and that is a lost sight of him, we need to get our eyes opened to see him again.

Linked with that, when that happens, let me take you over to the Psalms. Psalm 137. Psalm 137 and reading at verse 1. By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion.

We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof, for there they that carried us away captive required of us a song, and they that wasted us required us of mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. They answer, How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? So here these Old Testament Israelites, they had lost their song, and the reason that they lost their song is because they had departed. I want to tell you there's nothing more powerful than a joyful believer who's enjoying the Lord.

That speaks more than anything else, and I'm sure there are times in your life and mine when we've even just walked into a building, and our countenance has been an attraction to people, and they have seen something in us that they're longing for. Let us keep in mind that out there there is a weary world. They may have their songs, they may put on a happy face, but there is no one like a believer in the enjoyment of the Lord that is happier.

I sometimes wish they could invent a joyful thermometer that you could put in a person's mouth and see how much they're enjoying life. You know what happened? Most of the time the numbers would go up higher in the lives of the believers because of their joy in the Lord Jesus. Can I encourage us, first of all, to get back to enjoying Him, and when we enjoy Him, we will get our song back.

I love the hymn that Brother Lavery gave out last night. I forget the number, you can ask him, but it's been sung at recent conferences, and I haven't heard it much before, and it is such a beautiful hymn about the Lord Jesus, Jesus our Lord, and when our eyes are fixed on Him, our song will come back. Now let's go over to Revelation chapter 3. Again, this is a well-known passage, Revelation chapter 3, concerning the church at Laodicea, verse 14.

And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot.

So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. We don't read more, need to read more there, but here was a people, an assembly, and they had lost their sensitivity.

I don't usually use alliterations, but in the first one we have a lost sight of the Lord Jesus, second a lost song, here we have lost sensitivity. It scares me to think that I could even be up here speaking, and not know that I'm in a poor spiritual condition. That is possible.

And yet, because of that, I want to make sure that I am keeping in touch with God. Because after you've been preaching now, as I have for 50 years, why you think you can do it on your own sometimes. And I remember recently getting on my knees, I speak at the adult day program at the hospital from time to time, and a couple of weeks ago I was getting ready to go to the door to the room in the hospital where I speak, and I have about 45 minutes, and I can preach the gospel freely, and I thought to myself, I'm ready.

And then I got conviction. I thought, I'm ready? Have I asked the Lord about this this morning? I can't go there in my own strength, and so I got down on my knees feeling rebuked that I hadn't thought of it before. We sometimes lose sight of our condition, and I hope if we as believers have come together here this morning, and we think that generally things are fine, and really they're not, that we will get our eyes opened to our true condition.

And here the tragedy was not that the Laodicean assembly was away, but the fact that they were away and they did not know it. That's far worse. If we are away, and maybe there's some come to this conference, and you know that you're away, and you've come to get restoration, that's wonderful, but the tragedy could be that someone who's here thinks that everything's fine, and from the Lord's point of view, he is saying you really don't know.

May the Lord open our eyes to see our true condition if we've lost sensitivity. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 12. What I'm trying to do is just kind of set the table for the rest of our brethren.

I'm not trying to be expository. I just want us to kind of wake up, including myself at the beginning of this conference, so that we're ready for the rest of our brethren as they give us ministry, that we will take our temperature and see what condition we are really in. Now here the believers in Hebrews 12, they have become discouraged.

Verse 1, wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that has set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

Notice verse 5, and ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, my son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him, for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. What do we have here? The believers had become discouraged, and they had forgotten that in all the things that God was allowing, there was a purpose behind it, and they had lost sight of the purpose of God for them. And so I've written over this, a lost sense of purpose.

And I want to say to every brother and every sister here, it may be that we're speaking to some, and you have had a fall. And I mean something serious, where you feel like there is no hope for me anymore. I want to say that there is always hope.

I love chapter 3 of the book of Jonah. Chapter 1, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, that's chapter 1. But in chapter 3, it says the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. The second time.

God didn't throw Jonah away. He brings him out of the belly of the fish, and he says, all right, I want you to go. And God gave him a fresh sense of purpose.

I was talking to my wife this morning, and she gave me a beautiful quote, and I said, I'm going to use that in the ministry today if I have an opportunity. She got this from the Internet. There's some things good on the Internet.

She got this, and the quote was, if I have a purpose, if I have a pulse, I have a purpose. Isn't that good? If I have a pulse, I have a purpose. And so if you want to check your pulse to make sure you're really alive here this morning, do it.

But if you've got a pulse, God has not given up on you. Thank God that we can get back a lost sense of purpose. God has a purpose for us.

Let me give you one last one in the book of Judges, chapter 16. This Delilah was quite a woman in the life of Samson, and in verse 15 of Judges 16, she said unto him, how canst thou say I love thee when thine heart is not with me? Thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth. And it came to pass when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death, that he told her all his heart, and said unto her, there hath not come a razor upon mine head, for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb.

If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak and be like other men. So that's what they arranged to take place. And what happens? Verse 20, she said, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson.

And he awoke out of his sleep and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wished not that the Lord was departed from him. But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prison house.

So here's a man, and what had he lost? He had lost two things. He lost his separation, and along with it, he lost his strength. We are living in days when people are trying new innovations, and trying to see what we can do to reach the world.

I'd recommend at least the first few pages of Dr. David Gooding's book, True to the Faith, the Book of Acts. You can get it free as a PDF on the internet. And he points out that conditions in New Testament times are identical to the conditions of the world today.

We think, well, things are so bad in this world, they've never been like this before. They were exactly the same. He gives a whole list, and you almost think that you're reading today's newspaper.

And he points out that without innovation, without even a printing press, without any way to get out to the world with electronics, they turned the world upside down. What was it? It was their love for the Lord and separation from the world. And when we have that, we're covered.

And that's what we need. We do not need new tricks. We need fresh power and separation from the world.

And that applies to me as well as it applies to anybody else. I was impressed years ago in reading, there's this two-set volume by a Dr. Dallimore on the life of George Whitefield. And he said the man was so in touch with God that people were just smitten as he preached.

One time when he was preaching, Benjamin Franklin, who never became a Christian, was way back. And the man had such a massive voice, George Whitefield, that he said he could hear him clearly two miles away. That's amazing.

But in the audience sat one day 10,000 people. Could George Whitefield see them? No. He just saw the mass of people.

Way back in the crowd were two young men. And George Whitefield says, the door of heaven will close. And the young man said to his friend, oh yeah, he said, I know.

But you know, they say, if one door closes, another door opens. And George Whitefield immediately said, prompted I believe by the Spirit, there's a young man back there. And he says, if one door closes, another door opens.

He said, you are right young man. If the door of heaven closes, the door of hell will open. And the young man was smitten on the spot and saved.

Where does that come from? It comes from being in touch with God. And so I hope this weekend, my brother, my sister, myself, that we will get the things back that we have lost, and that there will be recovery. Personally, we all need it.

And as we do, I would pray that when we leave here, we will leave different people from the way we've come.