Impact of maturity

We're going to read in Psalm 78. Psalm 78. I've already found out two reasons why I came to this conference.

And actually, I could probably go away satisfied already. You see, one of the things that's been impressed on my mind already this morning, as we followed the history of God's people. Before I was saved, I was not a people, Peter wrote, but now I'm one of the people of God.

What an awesome privilege. What an awesome responsibility. What a blessing to be known as one of the people of God.

And also, I learned a impacting thing. I'm a pushy American. I can't help it, I guess.

Wasn't that in my gene pool? Well, no, I learned that I'm responsible for who I am and what I do. Not my parents, me. I have to accept responsibility for who I am and how I behave myself before you and how I speak to others and how I testify to the world when I preach the gospel or live before them in daily life.

So what would you say, I was just thinking about this, what would you tell your grandchildren and perhaps your great-grandchildren as to the reason why you are in an assembly of God's people? Why you haven't left when others have? Why you stay here for years? Sixty-six years God's allowed me to be among his people as a believer. What would you tell your children and your grandchildren? Or what have you told them? Or if you haven't, is there a reason why you have not yet taken the time to stop your work and to make it a personal matter that you relate to those of your families and those around you why you are where you are, what you believe, and why you believe it, and why you're passing it on to the next two or three generations that are behind us? Listen to these words. Give ear, O my people, to my law.

Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us.

We will not hide them from their generation, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, even the children which shall be born, who should arise and declare them to their children, that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments, and might not be, as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their heart aright and whose spirit was not steadfast with God. By way of introduction, I'd like to speak to you about the impact of maturity, and we will be looking at the preservation of life.

That's one of the reasons that those of us who are older are responsible to those who are younger, and you that are younger, so that you know who we are, why we're here, and what we hope and pray will be your life, a preservation of life for you, your children to come, and those behind you. And we'll read there in Genesis 45 in just a moment. The second thing we will be speaking about is the perception of truth.

That's one of the things that those of us who are older, by God's grace, have learned, at least to a measure and hopefully to a good degree, that truth does not change no matter what the government might do or the supreme court might say or religious denominations might teach. God's truth has not changed one bit, and we'll read about that briefly in Genesis 50. Then there's another part of what we do as an impact, not just the preservation of life and the perception of truth, but the perpetuation of worship.

Worship should be as normal in the life of a believer as breathing, and it's not a worship service when we sing a hymn, we were just praising our God. I hope everything you do is worship. Then we'll be speaking perhaps, but you'll have to pardon me, I'm a bit long-winded so I may not cover all this, that's why I'm giving you the headings.

The proclamation of consequences when we fail. So with that in mind, turn back to Genesis chapter 45. Genesis chapter 45, and here's the scene.

Joseph's brothers have come down to Egypt, and we heard about him earlier today, and one of the things that he came to understand, not at the beginning, but by the time of our reading, he understands why he is there. Notice verse 5, "'Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither, for God did send me before you to preserve life.'" Notice verse 7, "'God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity.'" So God wanted to preserve life, God wanted to preserve the next generation in the earth and save your lives by a great deliverance. God wanted to save their own lives lest they died.

"'So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God.'" Now drop down to verse 10, "'And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast. And there will I nourish thee, for yet there are five years of famine, lest thou and thy household and all that thou hast come to poverty.'" Verse 13, "'Ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that you've seen, and ye shall make haste, and bring my father hither.' He fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept. Benjamin wept upon his neck.

Moreover, he kissed all his brethren and wept upon them, and after that his brethren talked with him.'" You talk about transparency. This finally happened after all those years. Finally there was an openness among brethren that couldn't be hid.

You see, in our lives as believers, there is a time when it's very important as we look back for the preservation of the life of the young that follow us, our children, but perhaps most of us who are older, our children are adults with their children. And so sometimes we find ourselves more capable or able to teach our grandchildren than their own parents are. Sometimes parents get tongue-tied when their adult sons and daughters are not following the Word of God.

There's ways that we do it, ways that we can, but I would strongly suggest that what we find here is they're going back over a certain history. There is always a value in giving an account of how God has dealt with us, and how we came to understand the gospel, and how God actually convicted us of our sin, and how he brought us to repentance, and how he brought us to faith in Christ. Tell your testimony to your grandchildren.

My mother was pretty articulate, but particularly when she wrote. So she used to write to our children and all of her grandchildren, and she never did. She never allowed us to read fairy tales when we were growing up.

We could read missionary books, we could read history books, we could read books about Bible stories, but she said, I don't believe in fairy tales, I believe in fact tales. And so she told us the history of her family right from the time her father was saved at the age of 13 in Omah, North Ireland, and was kicked out of his home at the age of 17, and came to North America and began preaching the gospel at the age of 19, with a man who had brought the gospel to him, James Campbell, who's buried in Boston. My father, in turn, told us where we came from.

His grandmother, saved at the age of 16 in Plymouth, England, under the preaching of Robert Chapman of Barnstaple, and how her oldest son was saved under the preaching of George Miller and Henry Craik in Bristol. And all through our life, we were taught and instructed and unfolded the fact that we have a marvelous history as the people of God. The people of God are not a were a no people, but now the people of God.

Names like Oliver Smith in this area are well known by those who are older. Those of you who are younger probably didn't know him, or you only know him by reputation. He was a classic gospel preacher who had his own style.

He would preach warnings for about 10 minutes, then he would preach grace for another 10 minutes, warnings another 10 minutes, grace another for the whole hour. He took meetings all by himself. And the reason was he knew what was important to him should be important to you.

And it's the way I believe this is one of the things we passed on to our children's children, the salvation of our own soul and what led up to it, and why we are at this moment where we are today in our Christian life. That's how we preserve the life of our children. We do not stay tongue-tied.

When do you start telling your little one that they need to be saved? I was with a preacher one time, and he picked up a baby, a newborn baby in a lady's house. She wanted him to hold the baby, and he was a bachelor. I don't know whether that entered into it, but as he held this baby in his hands, he said, well, God gave you another little sinner.

Well, I thought we were going to be put through the door. But you understand, our children have to understand who they are. It's a wonderful heritage if you've got Christian parents.

Some of you don't. Well, thank God you're starting a whole era of people, if the Lord tarries, that will be looking to you to lead them to life, to show them what life is about, physical life, but spiritual life particularly. Actually, I really don't care how long I live.

I just care about how well I live. I would like to, and I am enthused. I am totally enthused about the Christian life.

It works. It works when you're poor. It works when you don't have food.

It works when you do. It works when you're sick. It works when you're well.

The life that God has given us, let us know where it, to our young people, where it comes from and how it can be preserved in their lives and in the lives of their family. Start praying with your children before they come out of the womb. I heard, but I don't know whether it's true, that there can be impressions created in children before they are born.

So some mothers sing, and when they can sense that a child is, becomes at ease when they're, before they're ever born. Well, what a thing for a child to come into a family, and when the first song that they hear is, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the... That's impressive. Start with the children and the children's children with the preservation of life.

Turn over to chapter 50, and notice at verse 20. So he's talking to his brethren again, Joseph is, and he's telling them that in verse 20, as for you, he thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass, as it is written, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Notice down in verse 23, and Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation.

That's great-grandchildren. Maybe some of you had that already. The children also of Makar, the son of Manasseh, were brought up upon Joseph's knee, and so on.

I was wondering how far I could go in the lives of my grandchildren, and maybe someday great-grandchildren, and I read all the way through the Bible after I became a grandfather to try and find out how I'm supposed to do it according to the Word of God, and I found out a lot of places where grandparents are mentioned. But in every case, I'm never given the permission to put my nose into the life of my daughter and her husbands. My daughters and their husbands have that responsibility to raise them, but I have been given by God the privilege and responsibility of introducing my grandchildren to the truth of God, to the Bible.

I am obligated as a grandparent to tell my grandchildren the gospel. But not stopping there, I have to tell them why I do what I do as a believer, why I go as far as an assembly. What's important to God has to be important to me.

You ever gone over your children or grandchildren, the assembly, and what's different about an assembly as opposed to other denominational groups? We're not just the best church in town. I hope you understand that. There is a big difference between a scripturally gathered assembly of God's people who follow the Bible only, and those who have written out their own statements of faith that they have to learn in the catechism or all the other things that people learn to try and become a part of a denomination.

And so oftentimes there's a ceremony at 13 or 14 when you're supposed to be able to pass the test and become a member. Assemblies are composed of people who are children of God by faith in Jesus Christ, people who can give a testimony of faith in Christ, how they became from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, and why it's important to them to follow the Bible. No matter what other people might do or say, go over how assemblies are different.

A man who preaches the gospel, actually there's two of them are my brothers-in-law, both of them came from non-Christian backgrounds, and one of them said the first time he was saved, not in an assembly, but the first time as a new believer that he sat back on a Sunday morning and he watched the order, guided by the Holy Spirit of a remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was 21 years old, never knew much about the Bible, but when he watched and heard the different brethren stand to pray, watched the dignity and the order of the assembly, saw the distinction between women and men, saw the silent sisters, and watched and heard the audible worship of the brothers, sitting by halfway through the meeting, he said, this is the way it's supposed to be according to the Bible. Now he was 21 years old, saved less than six months, and he knew the first time he saw a break in the bread, this is of God.

My father-in-law in Newfoundland, the first time he heard the gospel preached by Herb Harris and Douglas Howard, just in a gospel meeting in a tent, that night on the way home, he said to his wife, my mother-in-law, still alive at 94, soon be 95, the only surviving member of that original assembly, he said, Sadie, these men are of God. He was 26. Another one of my brothers-in-law, looking for something that was real in his life, had his master's degree in science and all the things that he had been taught.

Heard one time, the first time he was in a gospel meeting at a conference just like this, he heard a man simply explain what it means to believe through the illustration of Blondin walking across on a tightrope across Niagara Falls. And he said to a man, would you think I can carry a man over? And he said, yes. Well, he said, get on.

And man said, no. He said, that's the difference between believing and unbelief. And the Lord saved him that very night in his own room.

He's an elder in an assembly today. And he's quite concerned, as we were speaking a couple of weeks ago together, he's quite concerned, he said, because I don't know whether our young people know why this is such a significant place. They've been brought up in it and they don't seem to realize that this is the house of God.

This is where God meets with his people. This is where we bring our offerings of worship and sacrifice. All the sacrifices come to God from this place.

I hope you understand that assemblies of God's people, like this one in Garneville, and the one down the road in West Union, and the one over a little farther in Dunkerton, and the one over in Waterloo, and Cedar Falls, and Marion, and Stout, and Heightsville, and all the assemblies over in Wisconsin. I hope we understand that we are not a bunch of franchises with stripes on the front of our building or golden arches. We are God's house.

Everyone is an individual, autonomous assembly of people who have gathered to a person. And we do so under the name and authority of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is up to us to pass on to our young, whether it's public or private, the perception of truth.

It has to come from the Bible. Be prepared when your children are first saved to start. Talked to a child here last night.

I think there are about seven, and they're saved. You start to teach and disciple your children when they're born again into the kingdom of God. And if you find it difficult, that's where grandparents step in.

And grandparents, don't wait. Once a child has come to Christ, teach them to pray, and pray with them, and let them hear themselves pray out loud to their Heavenly Father. They need to learn how to talk to God and mean it from their hearts right from the time they're saved.

Start with your grandchildren and children when they're born again by the Spirit of God. I can see Joseph with these little children on his knees. That simply means they were educated by their grandfather.

He's the one who told them what they needed to know. Not their father, the grandfather. And he gave them direction.

And of all the things that you feel are important in your life, I would strongly say to you, your big obligation, your priority in life is those little children of your daughters or sons. Don't abandon them, because their parents may not be as solidly ground in the truth as you are. Let them know that for 50 years or more, you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good.

Let them know that you haven't changed what you believe. Let them know that the scriptures applied in life actually work in every situation of life. Let them know that God answers prayers.

Let them know that God does miracles. And by the way, we've been praying about those brothers late last night. We got an email.

The first hearing yesterday or on the 7th, this is the only phrase they used, went well. There was only one person came up, was willing to step out and make a charge. The man who, I don't know what they call a prosecutor or whatever he was, he kind of softened the whole thing down.

However, that's only the first hearing. The second one comes up. Can you imagine having to stay in this area long away from your family? So pray on.

God does answer. We prayed last night. We went home and here's an answer.

And I first, right as soon as I heard it, I said in my soul, Father, thank you from the bottom of my heart for hearing the prayers of thy people on behalf of these few men. And please give them the courage and need. Now I know some of those, one or two of those men, and they call me uncle.

Well, that's okay. I'm really old enough to be their grandfather, but that's okay. Keep that in your mind.

God does answer prayer. Oh boy. Sorry.

That's a problem of old age. I'm going to go a little bit farther over to chapter 27 of Exodus, Exodus chapter 27. But just by a bit of review in the connection with Jacob's sons, let us remember that when things are difficult, that's not the end of the story.

God brings blessings out of despair. God can bring plenty out of famine. God can bring good out of what we think is bad.

And what God has been doing through us and God's ways with us are the best way we can promote that for the sake of our young. Over in Exodus chapter 27, we have a little phrase that I wanted to read to you as they are talking about this tabernacle and the vessels and all the things that are unique in it. And in verse 21, it says, in the tabernacle of the congregation without the veil, which was before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the Lord, it shall be a statute forever unto their generations on behalf of Israel.

You understand how we perpetuate worship. Can you teach it? Well, we can say what it is. And generally, the closer you come to a person of awe, the fewer words you have to say.

I remember being at a worship meeting one time and there was a brother, he certainly knew how to use words and pray. But 10 minutes in a worship meeting, you know, before long, it doesn't make too much difference about Mary Magdalene or the other Mary or the whole story. And I came to understand that if a person prays a long time in public, generally you talk a long time to a person you haven't been talking to for a long time.

So if you're finding it kind of urgent, the more precise a person can be in worship, the more real it becomes. Don't complicate worship. Assembly order is a wonderful thing.

I was in a number of assemblies, but one assembly, I remember the first Sunday morning that we had a breaking of bread. There was probably, I think there was 15 brethren there. None had ever watched it before.

We'd made a couple of dry runs for a few weeks before so that people could see kind of what it's like. Didn't have the bread or the cup, but we let them know the value of speaking to the father about his son and how it lifts the soul when we remember the person. And then we show forth the work of the cross and what it means to us and to God.

One brother stood up. He said, Father, thanks for Jesus dying for me. I guess that's it.

And he sat down. Those of us who are in meetings like this would probably say, not very good. But I cried because this man couldn't read his own name, but he knew what he wanted to say.

Father, thanks for Jesus dying for me. And he sat down. Yes, that's it.

I don't know how you prepare yourself for worship, but in preparation for worship and in the perpetuation of worship, don't come unprepared and let your children and your children read it ahead of time. Now, my wife and I have made it a practice, because we got it from our parents before us, that on every Lord's Day morning, we read Matthew, Mark, or Luke, or John, the crucifixion or the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. And on the fifth Sunday, it might be Isaiah 53 or Psalm 69, we read that and have our children read it too.

So when I ask a question now, who's the mother of Zebedee's children? Our children could answer. Or you say, what's the point of that? Just to make sure they're listening, so that they know what is happening. Now, when I'm looking at you here, where do you begin your worship? When you walk through the door of the Gospel Hall, take your place around the table? I would strongly suggest that what happens on a Lord's Day morning as we come to remember our Savior, that's one of the ways that we worship together.

It's the moral center of an assembly. One of the things we do at that particular time is we express what we've been worshiping about before ever we got there. Just a suggestion for you brothers, always have a hymn at least ready.

Always have some scripture that you've read ready. Always be prepared to pray precisely. Ladies, exactly the same thing.

Because your prayers are as important in a worship meeting as that of the brethren. Perhaps more so, because you can say what you want to say without being stuck for audible words. Let us all remember that we are a kingdom of priests.

Before I sit down, I'm just going to mention this to you. Our Lord Jesus, if we were to read in chapter 28 of this chapter of Exodus, we would read that the high priest had the names of God's people on his shoulders, verse 12. He had the names of God's people on his heart, verse 29.

He had the names of God's people in his heart and on his head. Let us remember when we teach our children and our grandchildren, there is an impact that those of us who are maturing farther along than our children in our Christian life, we need to help them understand that we're here for the preservation of life. We're here to bring them perception of truth.

We're here to help them perpetuate worship, and we're here also to proclaim that there are consequences for our failure in the hopes that they will never do that.