John Rippon served faithfully at his church for fifty years. His work helped establish one of the most important Baptist churches in history.
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00:00 --> 00:03 [SPEAKER_03]: Revived thoughts is a production of Revived Studios.
00:09 --> 00:11 [SPEAKER_03]: This is Troy and Joel and you're able to see two Revived thoughts.
00:17 --> 00:19 [SPEAKER_01]: Those red lips must grow pale.
00:20 --> 00:29 [SPEAKER_01]: The face will lose its beauty, but let the saints comfort one another with these words, absent from the body present with the Lord.
00:31 --> 00:36 [SPEAKER_02]: Every episode, we bring you a different voice from history in a sermon that they delivered.
00:36 --> 00:40 [SPEAKER_02]: Today we're going back to London in the late 18th century.
00:41 --> 00:42 [SPEAKER_02]: Let's do a sermon by John Rippin.
00:43 --> 00:44 [SPEAKER_02]: Troy, how you doing?
00:45 --> 00:46 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm doing pretty good man.
00:46 --> 00:47 [SPEAKER_02]: How are you doing sir?
00:47 --> 00:48 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm doing good.
00:48 --> 00:48 [SPEAKER_02]: We got another John.
00:48 --> 00:49 [SPEAKER_02]: Back to back, John.
00:49 --> 00:52 [SPEAKER_02]: We had we had John Hus last week and now we're doing John ripen.
00:53 --> 00:56 [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, we it has been well stated by the show.
00:57 --> 01:00 [SPEAKER_03]: But I'm just going to put this fake statistic out here real quick.
01:00 --> 01:03 [SPEAKER_03]: 50% chance that if you're a child's name, John.
01:03 --> 01:10 [SPEAKER_03]: they're going to be a pastor and I don't think that's real statistics, but golly there are a lot of them, you know, it didn't exist.
01:11 --> 01:19 [SPEAKER_02]: For for there are like, into the recap or something, we should we should actually like go through our archive and find what the genuine statistics of.
01:19 --> 01:21 [SPEAKER_02]: clon variations John.
01:21 --> 01:22 [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's the thing too.
01:22 --> 01:29 [SPEAKER_03]: You're just counting John's but there's you know, yon, which we had last we had last week with yon has and then we also have E.D.
01:29 --> 01:32 [SPEAKER_03]: I remember there was a gene gear song that's just John in French.
01:33 --> 01:33 [SPEAKER_03]: You know what I mean?
01:34 --> 01:37 [SPEAKER_03]: Yohan is was a German who's also just John.
01:37 --> 01:40 [SPEAKER_03]: I mean like it's really ridiculous how many
01:40 --> 02:02 [SPEAKER_03]: Variations of the name has come through the show, so it would we should do that Remind us in the end of the year how many johns we had we if you this is an old you know If you remember this and people do by the way I somebody tagged us and something only like a week ago online because somebody was like Had put up a poll and said, you know, which faint which famous johns at this and someone tagged her via thoughts and was like hey
02:02 --> 02:17 [SPEAKER_03]: It's the, it's the old name that John because we Joel and I ran a church history trivia show in the very early days Revive thoughts and we had a question that was named that John and we would put up a quote or something They did and we would have like 18 different John's people had to choose.
02:17 --> 02:18 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so probably hard
02:18 --> 02:27 [SPEAKER_03]: It was a very John Calvin, you know, and you, you, Jonathan Edwards, and J.C. Ryle, which is just John Charles Ryle.
02:27 --> 02:36 [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, there was so many, and then you had to say which one was this, and people, it almost always stumped them because it's, I mean, it's almost impossible to nail it down anyway.
02:37 --> 02:39 [SPEAKER_03]: John Riffett, we're excited to have him.
02:39 --> 02:40 [SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to read a couple of nice comments we got here.
02:42 --> 02:48 [SPEAKER_03]: Somebody said, yes he said on YouTube, just listen to this, just relish into this awesome episode.
02:48 --> 02:49 [SPEAKER_03]: Love you all.
02:49 --> 02:50 [SPEAKER_03]: Revive thoughts.
02:50 --> 02:51 [SPEAKER_03]: Many exclamation marks.
02:51 --> 02:55 [SPEAKER_03]: I wish you guys could catch the energy, I didn't do it, just to say it all.
02:55 --> 02:57 [SPEAKER_03]: Well, another one was in reference to.
02:58 --> 02:59 [SPEAKER_03]: That's the thing.
02:59 --> 03:02 [SPEAKER_03]: So I saved the screenshot of the comment, but I'm now real.
03:02 --> 03:04 [SPEAKER_03]: We've no idea what he just relish and do.
03:05 --> 03:06 [SPEAKER_02]: You know what ever one is?
03:06 --> 03:07 [SPEAKER_03]: See, that was awesome.
03:07 --> 03:11 [SPEAKER_03]: If you're listening right now, you should go with this into every revive thoughts episode.
03:11 --> 03:14 [SPEAKER_03]: And then try to get a switch one makes you feel that energy.
03:14 --> 03:16 [SPEAKER_03]: And that's probably the same one that yes, it was listening to.
03:18 --> 03:24 [SPEAKER_03]: I believe, I was Spotify, the name is Bonners, but that's like B-O-N-R-S-E-3-2.
03:25 --> 03:41 [SPEAKER_03]: Love y'all now always entertaining the four minute learning so much to be all and through releases on martyrs and missionaries five star all the way Thank you appreciate that Richard was about to fight what a great episode on William nib never heard of him when inspiration looking forward to the suggested episode of him on Mars missionaries guys.
03:41 --> 03:43 [SPEAKER_03]: I've sold at least on doing a Mars missionaries on him.
03:43 --> 03:44 [SPEAKER_03]: I really have I
03:44 --> 03:55 [SPEAKER_03]: She seems to be excited about it, so we did, I think, a very great episode, and I think she will do a follow-up companion episode in the future that will also be filling the gaps that we weren't able to cover on our show.
03:56 --> 03:58 [SPEAKER_03]: Phil, man, this guy is sick.
03:58 --> 04:00 [SPEAKER_03]: Give this sermon a listen at Raveithos.
04:00 --> 04:02 [SPEAKER_03]: Christianity has witnessed a sub, a quote.
04:02 --> 04:07 [SPEAKER_03]: Christianity has witnessed a sub for nearly 300 enslaved souls in Jamaica and has shattered their chains.
04:07 --> 04:10 [SPEAKER_03]: William Nibb, people love the William Nibb one, and I got him on him.
04:10 --> 04:11 [SPEAKER_03]: I'm really glad.
04:11 --> 04:12 [SPEAKER_03]: I loved it as well.
04:12 --> 04:21 [SPEAKER_03]: I was, I would, I couldn't believe I'd never heard of that guy before, but then again, a bunch of people really liked our recent episode on Frank E. Higgins, whom nobody had heard of before either.
04:21 --> 04:27 [SPEAKER_03]: It's just, Church history is never ending well of just amazing people for God, whom the world has forgotten.
04:28 --> 04:31 [SPEAKER_03]: And one more, it could occur, 97.
04:31 --> 04:32 [SPEAKER_03]: I'll just modify.
04:32 --> 04:36 [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, a man hallelujah revived him knows I'm the audience.
04:36 --> 04:36 [SPEAKER_03]: This would be awesome.
04:37 --> 04:43 [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, that was from our top five episode where we said we should start to revive him also coming about how him's coming together.
04:43 --> 04:43 [SPEAKER_03]: Well, you know what?
04:43 --> 04:51 [SPEAKER_03]: This isn't revived him knows, but this episode actually does tell us the story of how we got one very famous him.
04:51 --> 04:56 [SPEAKER_03]: Um, I think you probably have heard of it Joel and we, but this is, we're not going to spoil it for you.
04:56 --> 05:00 [SPEAKER_03]: We're going to wait till we get into the episode a little more and then we'll tell you what that famous him is.
05:00 --> 05:03 [SPEAKER_03]: This is what they call in radio a hook.
05:04 --> 05:10 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, John Ripon, you probably have not heard of him, but you definitely know his connections.
05:10 --> 05:15 [SPEAKER_02]: You definitely know the circles that he ran and we'll connect those dots as the episode progresses here.
05:15 --> 05:18 [SPEAKER_03]: But you know, and I will agree with you, Joe.
05:18 --> 05:19 [SPEAKER_03]: I don't think most people have heard of him.
05:20 --> 05:22 [SPEAKER_03]: I don't really kind of seen his name here and there.
05:22 --> 05:28 [SPEAKER_03]: But the reason I picked this sermon was because two different people over the span of one week, I don't know where.
05:28 --> 05:29 [SPEAKER_03]: Don't know each other at all.
05:29 --> 05:35 [SPEAKER_03]: They emailed us slash messages just and said, have you considered doing a Dr. John Rippin episode?
05:35 --> 05:40 [SPEAKER_03]: So I don't, I want to say you haven't heard of him, but maybe there's some famous person that's been promoting Rippin.
05:40 --> 05:55 [SPEAKER_03]: We get suggestions, but rarely do we get two people suggesting the same person the same week, and never is it like, not almost saying unknown, but almost nobody like John Rippon in the sense of like he's just, it's not Charles Spurgeon or John of the Nedwards.
05:55 --> 05:57 [SPEAKER_03]: It's a guy that's not super duper famous.
05:57 --> 06:03 [SPEAKER_03]: So, I don't know, that's far the reason I was like, well, maybe it's the time we're getting double suggestions here on this guy.
06:03 --> 06:06 [SPEAKER_03]: Maybe we're the one in the dark, and everyone else maybe it was this.
06:06 --> 06:08 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
06:08 --> 06:38 [SPEAKER_02]: Dr. John Ripon is trying to mention that's all right born in the year 1751 We don't have any record of his Childhood upbringing the first kind of notes we have and this is again not uncommon, especially in this era are your college records That's kind of the first paper chair that we can usually find you went to Bristol college and he talks about being baptized at the age of 16 at 20 years old he was graduating and He received word that a church in London
06:38 --> 06:59 [SPEAKER_02]: their their pastor had passed away and they needed a replacement and so you know he's kind of fresh out of college once to be a pastor he's gonna he's gonna go for it and it was kind of a hard shoe to fill because that pastor that previous pastor that had been there that passed away he held that position for 51 years and that pastor was the main name doctor John Gill
06:59 --> 07:25 [SPEAKER_02]: uh... who we've covered in this program we've actually done an episode on as well ripping again twenty years old untested but he went out on faith he went out on a foot and uh... did a probe probationary period with the church and uh... most people it seems like like them enough enough for him to secure the position but now without a little bit of friction now without a little bit of challenge uh... there was reportedly forty members of the church that split off
07:25 --> 07:33 [SPEAKER_02]: Again, it seems like they're upset at picking such a young pastor and untested pastor So I don't know how big the church was at the time for it.
07:33 --> 07:44 [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's a church church church Transitions in general are are a bit rough, especially if you have a pastor that's been there for 51 years and fast Yeah, yeah, it's that's a tough
07:44 --> 08:12 [SPEAKER_03]: position to fill without I really can't admit I mean anybody who takes on that job Yeah, there's no way you're going to make everyone happy there and maybe if it's like the pastor's son It's you know, he's kind of seen that okay We knew he was coming but you the higher a guy who lives in a nearby town he's 90s 20 years old Nobody knows them you know that of course is going to be a bold thing to do and so it does not surprise me that people got a little upset
08:12 --> 08:35 [SPEAKER_03]: uh... and maybe they were right to get upset i i don't know i will say though uh... and i i think you would be hard press to find many churches were fifty one year old pastor not fifty one year old pastor fifty one year served pastor is replaced perfectly smoothly is just going to be difficult but rip into something really cool i think it shows a lot about his integrity and his quality in this moment
08:35 --> 08:42 [SPEAKER_03]: When the church split he was quoted as famously saying somebody got told the news 40 people are leaving They're going to start their own church.
08:42 --> 08:52 [SPEAKER_03]: He famously answered it by saying only 40 left I am more surprised how many wanted to keep me and that's a pretty you know That sounds clever, but it is kind of like wow.
08:52 --> 08:58 [SPEAKER_03]: That's that's a good attitude to have he's saying wow only 40 because look when you're
08:58 --> 09:19 [SPEAKER_03]: a new pastor when you're at first in the get you're putting your feelings your heart into that that is an emotional thing and you know having 40 people say we're out of here that's gonna hurt your feelings of course and he found a way to spin it in the opposite direction and making us so bad but he goes instead further he encourages that congregation to not have any negative feelings to not have a negative split
09:19 --> 09:25 [SPEAKER_03]: But in fact, he raised support for the new church and donated the church was able to donate 300 pounds.
09:26 --> 09:29 [SPEAKER_03]: I have no idea what that is today, but I imagine 300 years ago that was a lot of money.
09:30 --> 09:33 [SPEAKER_03]: He also helped leave the consecration of the new church.
09:33 --> 09:37 [SPEAKER_03]: So he kind of like was there an opening day, gave a speech to support them.
09:37 --> 09:45 [SPEAKER_03]: And if you wanted to be mad, you had a good reason because the new church picked a 19-year-old.
09:45 --> 09:49 [SPEAKER_03]: So they told you you're too young, but we technically found somebody younger to be our new pastor.
09:49 --> 09:50 [SPEAKER_03]: So you're right, like, okay.
09:52 --> 09:55 [SPEAKER_03]: By the way, Dr. John Gill, when he was hired, I believe he was only 22.
09:55 --> 10:01 [SPEAKER_03]: So the guy you replaced was hired as a guy who was only two years older than you when he got the job.
10:01 --> 10:08 [SPEAKER_03]: You take the job, you're two young, 40 people split off, but they do put a 19 year old, a guy younger than you in charge.
10:08 --> 10:09 [SPEAKER_03]: What a mess, right?
10:09 --> 10:12 [SPEAKER_03]: But the guy at the 19 year old was one of the deacon son.
10:12 --> 10:17 [SPEAKER_03]: So you had every reason to get bitter and mad about this, but he didn't.
10:17 --> 10:30 [SPEAKER_03]: he raises support, he speaks at the church on opening day, and he actually keeps up a friendly relationship with them for like the next four in the, and this church goes on to have, you know, many prosperous years and does really well.
10:30 --> 10:47 [SPEAKER_03]: And I think it tells you a lot about Rippin, that his heart for God was bigger than his personal, probably not disrespects and hurts and feelings, it would be very easy to get annoyed, but he reconciled, put all those things aside,
10:47 --> 10:58 [SPEAKER_03]: Both that other church flourished and reached a lot of people for God and his own church was able to move on from this Flourish and not be destroyed by the church split, but flourish and Thuy for God.
10:58 --> 11:04 [SPEAKER_03]: He saw the bigger picture by far, and I I guys say I was really a 20 year old doing that.
11:04 --> 11:05 [SPEAKER_03]: I was really impressed
11:05 --> 11:12 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so in a lot of ways, Ripon, he was very different than his predecessor, John Gil, the man that came for him.
11:12 --> 11:13 [SPEAKER_02]: He was an academic.
11:13 --> 11:21 [SPEAKER_02]: He was a scholarly, theological, minded, you know, he was the one that was writing the systematic theology books.
11:21 --> 11:24 [SPEAKER_02]: Um, that was not John Griffin.
11:24 --> 11:27 [SPEAKER_02]: He was he was like more of the the personality type, right?
11:27 --> 11:41 [SPEAKER_02]: So he made up for kind of the lack of heavy theological scholarly writing with like a kind hard loving attitude shepherding approach to his people.
11:41 --> 11:49 [SPEAKER_02]: He was a people's man, like he loved building those relationships, he loved listening to them, helping them, counseling, guiding them in it.
11:50 --> 11:51 [SPEAKER_02]: So I do think that's it.
11:51 --> 12:08 [SPEAKER_02]: And that might be an interesting where if I have conversation topic is kind of because we do often see people usually fit into one of those two kind of ministry broad categories of your more academic scholarly,
12:08 --> 12:15 [SPEAKER_02]: And honestly, I feel like it's the scholarly ones that go down in memory better, like they're more remembered.
12:15 --> 12:22 [SPEAKER_02]: Probably just because they have more writings to reference of those who lose in charge of remembering people.
12:22 --> 12:26 [SPEAKER_03]: The seminaries, but the seminaries are going to put together the field.
12:26 --> 12:28 [SPEAKER_03]: They're going to favor the theologians, right?
12:28 --> 12:29 [SPEAKER_03]: Because that's going to be
12:29 --> 12:46 [SPEAKER_03]: You know, books and stuff that they're reading too, they're not going to favor necessarily the gentle loving pastor of 15 years who knew the name of every congregate and showed up for every event, but that doesn't, you don't read that book in the seminary, so it doesn't get passed on quite as easily.
12:46 --> 13:01 [SPEAKER_02]: During his tenure there at the church, he led almost 1 people into baptism and we talked about the previous pastor John Gill there being the pastor there for 51 years.
13:01 --> 13:06 [SPEAKER_02]: Over the course of Rippens' life, he actually managed to beat that record, which is an awesome thing.
13:06 --> 13:11 [SPEAKER_02]: They have such stability, long-term stability at a church for that long.
13:11 --> 13:13 [SPEAKER_02]: It's an incredibly rare thing.
13:13 --> 13:27 [SPEAKER_02]: Both in and still to this day, but when you start your ministry at 20 years old, and you live to be 83 years old, and you never change churches, he ended up with a 63-year stint being the pastor of that church.
13:27 --> 13:30 [SPEAKER_02]: So, I think that's super cool.
13:31 --> 13:38 [SPEAKER_03]: Although Ripon didn't write the systematic theology, he did do a lot of writing, and he was especially interested in history, which I respect that my man.
13:38 --> 13:43 [SPEAKER_03]: He not only wrote Baptist history articles, ran like a newspaper, like I'm not a newspaper.
13:43 --> 13:45 [SPEAKER_03]: Everyone looks like journals for that.
13:45 --> 13:49 [SPEAKER_03]: He wrote the biography of John Gill, which is very helpful for people who want to learn about him.
13:50 --> 13:54 [SPEAKER_03]: But he also, he, for fun, he was cataloging a nearby cemetery.
13:54 --> 14:01 [SPEAKER_03]: He kind of went out there, learned the headstone to the people there, went in the town, to find out who those people were.
14:01 --> 14:09 [SPEAKER_03]: track of the cemetery so that someday people who wanted to know who was buried there and what their names were and what their lives were, this guy was doing it.
14:09 --> 14:11 [SPEAKER_03]: So you could tell he really cares about history and learning things.
14:12 --> 14:18 [SPEAKER_03]: But where he really left his mark was compiling a hymnil that would become very popular in Baptist circles.
14:18 --> 14:25 [SPEAKER_03]: The most famous song that was compiled and introduced to the world in 1787 was how firm a foundation.
14:26 --> 14:30 [SPEAKER_03]: Do all of you heard of how firm a foundation?
14:30 --> 14:33 [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I know your church still uses those back to symbols.
14:33 --> 14:35 [SPEAKER_03]: I don't think it's this hymnal, right?
14:35 --> 14:40 [SPEAKER_03]: You guys got the updated edition, I think, but, you know, it's still a classic.
14:41 --> 14:45 [SPEAKER_03]: And I was actually listening to it this week, just to get in the mood for it.
14:45 --> 14:48 [SPEAKER_03]: And it's still, it still goes very strong.
14:48 --> 15:02 [SPEAKER_03]: What I did not know, it's important that John Ripon is associated with the song, but you know right the song, in the himnal that he compiles, he puts it in a tribute to the writer of the song as the letter K.
15:03 --> 15:10 [SPEAKER_03]: I don't think it was somebody's name was K. I'm guessing that they had a, this was like a stand in for their last name or something.
15:10 --> 15:11 [SPEAKER_03]: But we don't know who it is.
15:12 --> 15:13 [SPEAKER_03]: Many guesses as to who it might be.
15:13 --> 15:15 [SPEAKER_03]: He had a good frame name Robert King.
15:15 --> 15:16 [SPEAKER_03]: So that would be a good off.
15:16 --> 15:21 [SPEAKER_03]: There was another famous songwriter that worked with him sometimes named Kirkham.
15:21 --> 15:22 [SPEAKER_03]: So it could have been him.
15:22 --> 15:25 [SPEAKER_03]: could be another person and we just don't have any clue.
15:26 --> 15:28 [SPEAKER_03]: So no one knows for sure who K is that wrote it.
15:29 --> 15:35 [SPEAKER_03]: So it's kind of forever associated with John Ripon because even though he didn't write it, he's the one who's bringing it to the world and we don't know who did.
15:36 --> 15:37 [SPEAKER_03]: But still it's great song.
15:37 --> 15:39 [SPEAKER_03]: I looked at some how firm a foundation fact.
15:39 --> 15:42 [SPEAKER_03]: So revived him knows, you know, precursor would look like this.
15:42 --> 15:49 [SPEAKER_03]: Andrew Jackson's favorite song apparently had his son over him while he was dying on his deathbed is like Ray's family's gathered around.
15:49 --> 15:50 [SPEAKER_03]: He was like, let's sing
15:50 --> 16:01 [SPEAKER_03]: You know, I want to hear one more time how firm a foundation before I go, both Robert E. Lee and Theodore Roosevelt specifically said, got to have how firm a foundation at my funeral when I die.
16:01 --> 16:17 [SPEAKER_03]: There are compelling stories of civil war soldiers on the North and South singing and being overheard by their enemies like their marching and stuff and the other side is hearing the other side seeing how firm a foundation and being like, oh, this is kind of weird that we're shooting at people that sing the same songs we do.
16:18 --> 16:19 [SPEAKER_03]: And then
16:19 --> 16:26 [SPEAKER_03]: In the Spanish-American War in 1898, the army was made up of groups from both the North and the South, and they were supposed to be fighting the Spanish.
16:27 --> 16:31 [SPEAKER_03]: But the army was having trouble getting along, because the South was still bitter about how the Civil War went.
16:31 --> 16:39 [SPEAKER_03]: The North was still looking down on the South, and so the companies from Virginia and companies from Pennsylvania or New York aren't getting along together.
16:40 --> 16:46 [SPEAKER_03]: And on Christmas morning, they started singing on their own
16:46 --> 17:16 [SPEAKER_03]: you know people wrote down like that just everyone coming together to sing that song kind of united them and got them to realize like yeah I heard from different parts of America we had different sides of the Civil War 40 years before this but you know we had the same we have the same foundation so pretty cool the impact of that song and that's just you know mostly war solar war stories obviously many many people could say no that's the song that you
17:16 --> 17:23 [SPEAKER_03]: You know, I remember singing at my church as a kid or whatever it is, so it's a beautiful song and I'm glad that Kay, whoever they are wrote it.
17:33 --> 17:41 [SPEAKER_02]: Ripin towards the end of his life, he could feel his decline, you know, it's harder to keep up, it's harder to get your sermons out each week.
17:41 --> 17:56 [SPEAKER_02]: And so he and, you know, the leadership of the church actively searching for a replacement and towards the end of his life, that would occupy much of his prayers is that God would bring a replacement for him at the church.
17:56 --> 18:05 [SPEAKER_02]: And after he died, the next two pastors over the congregation had shorter ten years than it, they weren't quite the right fit for the church.
18:06 --> 18:13 [SPEAKER_02]: But finally, the church heard of this young man out in the country, a man that was only 19 years old.
18:13 --> 18:23 [SPEAKER_02]: and extended an invitation to him, you know, just like Rippin was young when he became the pastor, also, you know, Rippin's predecessor, Giel, he was also a young man.
18:23 --> 18:29 [SPEAKER_02]: So they thought another young man might be able to stay and minister for a long time.
18:29 --> 18:41 [SPEAKER_02]: And it praise the Lord they ended up being right for the next 38 years, a young Charles Spurgeon took over the pulpit and exploded the size and influenced that that church had over the British Empire.
18:42 --> 18:53 [SPEAKER_02]: Rippin himself and he wasn't as famous as his predecessor or his successor, but his work holding down the church left his mark on history and those who would attend his church later on.
18:53 --> 19:12 [SPEAKER_02]: this sermon that we're about to listen to is a funeral sermon and we've edited it's a bit we've cut out some specific references to the like the actual funeral ceremony and such but with that being said as it's presented here he gives the audience just a powerful description of the gospel and the need to know Jesus.
19:29 --> 19:35 [SPEAKER_01]: I would, in the most respectful way, propose to this assembly a question that our Lord once asked the crowds.
19:36 --> 19:38 [SPEAKER_01]: What did you go out to see?
19:38 --> 19:47 [SPEAKER_01]: In a gathering this large, it may be suspected that some have come merely to hear what might be said about a frail and imperfect minister.
19:48 --> 19:50 [SPEAKER_01]: A man with the same weaknesses as ourselves.
19:51 --> 19:58 [SPEAKER_01]: Others have come this evening to offer a final token of respectful affection for a man of
19:59 --> 20:03 [SPEAKER_01]: but there are nobler purposes than these for our coming together.
20:04 --> 20:12 [SPEAKER_01]: Let us use the moment's set apart for devotion to learn how we may safely and peacefully pass through the important hour of death.
20:13 --> 20:22 [SPEAKER_01]: The Vineral Bull Paul and the passage before us urges Timothy to faithfulness and diligence in the sacred work of ministry.
20:23 --> 20:27 [SPEAKER_01]: Our text stands among the reasons he gives to strength in that exhortation.
20:27 --> 20:30 [SPEAKER_01]: the time of my departure is at hand.
20:31 --> 20:41 [SPEAKER_01]: It is as though he were saying, do all you can to promote the glory of God in the honor of Christ, for I must soon leave the church and the world.
20:42 --> 20:43 [SPEAKER_01]: His mind appears calm.
20:44 --> 20:45 [SPEAKER_01]: unsettled.
20:45 --> 20:51 [SPEAKER_01]: He is not reluctant to think about this solemn moment, but instead considers it with heartfelt joy.
20:51 --> 20:59 [SPEAKER_01]: Happy, truly happy are those who can adopt his words with feelings of blessed gratitude.
21:01 --> 21:09 [SPEAKER_01]: So let us first consider the death of Paul, and of other good men, as it is described in our text, a departure that is at hand.
21:10 --> 21:19 [SPEAKER_01]: Among the ways Scripture describes the death of the righteous, there are two that vividly portray a calm and gentle passage out of this mortal life.
21:21 --> 21:22 [SPEAKER_01]: One is sleep.
21:23 --> 21:24 [SPEAKER_01]: Our friend Lazarus sleeps.
21:25 --> 21:29 [SPEAKER_01]: And again, those who sleep in Jesus, God will bring with him.
21:30 --> 21:32 [SPEAKER_01]: Another description is departure.
21:33 --> 21:41 [SPEAKER_01]: I will attempt, as the apostle Peter, that after my departure, you may always be able to remember these things of which I write to you.
21:42 --> 21:49 [SPEAKER_01]: Peter uses the same word to describe his death as Paul uses when speaking of the departure of the children of Israel out of Egypt.
21:50 --> 21:53 [SPEAKER_01]: That was a going out from trouble and bondage.
21:54 --> 21:57 [SPEAKER_01]: This is a release from sin and sorrow.
21:58 --> 22:09 [SPEAKER_01]: The wicked have reason to expect that they will be driven away in their wickedness, like chaff before tornado, but it is not so with the righteous, their death is a departure.
22:11 --> 22:16 [SPEAKER_01]: First, the death of a good man is the departure of a prisoner from his chains.
22:17 --> 22:27 [SPEAKER_01]: When this letter was sent to Timothy, nearo the cruel was emperor, and Paul was a prisoner
22:27 --> 22:36 [SPEAKER_01]: And that condition he writes to his beloved son in the faith, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner.
22:37 --> 22:45 [SPEAKER_01]: And again, may the Lord show mercy to the household of an esophagus for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.
22:46 --> 22:52 [SPEAKER_01]: And again, I suffer trouble as an evil doer even to the point of being bound.
22:52 --> 22:57 [SPEAKER_01]: But someday he will be no longer in a prison, and no longer in chains.
22:58 --> 23:07 [SPEAKER_01]: I am ready to be offered, and the moment my blood is poured out like a drink, my chains fall away, and I am released forever from prison.
23:08 --> 23:14 [SPEAKER_01]: A palace awaits me, not nearos, but the palace in the skies.
23:15 --> 23:20 [SPEAKER_01]: In the Apostles' deliverance, we see a picture of your own, O distressed believer.
23:20 --> 23:25 [SPEAKER_01]: The sorrows of the wicked begin at death, but yours will end.
23:25 --> 23:37 [SPEAKER_01]: The time is not far off when you, who are now troubled on every side, or persecuted for righteousness sake, will be troubled no more, persecuted, no more.
23:38 --> 23:46 [SPEAKER_01]: Secondly, when holy people die, they depart like travelers leaving an inn on the road and returning to their long-desired home.
23:48 --> 23:53 [SPEAKER_01]: God's holy people and former times were pilgrims and believers today are of the same kind.
23:54 --> 23:57 [SPEAKER_01]: You are not meant to remain in the wilderness forever.
23:58 --> 24:04 [SPEAKER_01]: Your stay here is like that of a traveler at an inn where everyone is basically a stranger.
24:04 --> 24:15 [SPEAKER_01]: He enters it not intending to remain, but when morning comes, to set out again to where the end of his journey, and end he always keeps in view home.
24:16 --> 24:19 [SPEAKER_01]: But Christians, you have a home in heaven.
24:19 --> 24:22 [SPEAKER_01]: There is my house in portion fair.
24:23 --> 24:27 [SPEAKER_01]: My treasure and my heart are there, and my abiding home.
24:28 --> 24:31 [SPEAKER_01]: For me, my elder brother's weight, while angels back in me away.
24:31 --> 24:34 [SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus bids me.
24:34 --> 24:35 [SPEAKER_01]: Come.
24:36 --> 24:51 [SPEAKER_01]: If a man who had been freed from chains and prison were brought into a palace, allowed to see its splendour, and for only a few hours to taste its pleasures, and then sent away, never to again enjoy the feast of princes.
24:51 --> 24:58 [SPEAKER_01]: He would have a little solid reason to congratulate himself on such a brief experience of happiness.
24:59 --> 25:07 [SPEAKER_01]: but Christians, when you depart, you ascend to the palace above, and that palace is your home forever.
25:07 --> 25:16 [SPEAKER_01]: It is the dwelling place of the great king where Jesus lives, and which is to be your everlasting residence.
25:18 --> 25:28 [SPEAKER_01]: It is true that there is a dangerous river between this world and the heavenly
25:29 --> 25:32 [SPEAKER_01]: Do we hesitate and become afraid of crossing it?
25:33 --> 25:47 [SPEAKER_01]: Many believers in Christ have done so, but let us remember that our dear Lord passed through this flood before us, not as a single individual, but as the divine representative of his redeemed family.
25:48 --> 26:00 [SPEAKER_01]: As a result, every one of them will cross it safely, if not triumphantly, just as the Israelites crossed the Jordan until all had passed over completely.
26:01 --> 26:11 [SPEAKER_01]: At present, we are still on the wilderness side of that river, and have not yet come to the rest and the inheritance which the Lord our God is giving us.
26:11 --> 26:19 [SPEAKER_01]: But in view of what lies beyond the river, on the banks of Canaan, let us lift up our heads with holy joy.
26:19 --> 26:27 [SPEAKER_01]: Who among us is unwilling to leave an inn along the road in order to enter our own peaceful home?
26:28 --> 26:33 [SPEAKER_01]: God forbid that through fear of death, we should spend our entire lives in chains.
26:35 --> 26:41 [SPEAKER_01]: Does Christ stand in no relationship to us?
26:42 --> 26:43 [SPEAKER_01]: didn't he die?
26:43 --> 26:49 [SPEAKER_01]: Is it an entrance into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth?
26:50 --> 26:53 [SPEAKER_01]: Is it a descent into everlasting anguish?
26:54 --> 27:00 [SPEAKER_01]: No, to a believer in Christ dying is simply going home.
27:00 --> 27:03 [SPEAKER_01]: Thirdly.
27:03 --> 27:13 [SPEAKER_01]: The departure of believers at death may also be illustrated by the sailor who weighs anchor from the shore and sets sail for a safe and beautiful harbor.
27:15 --> 27:31 [SPEAKER_01]: To this image, Paul seems to allude in our text, and this is how we should understand him when he uses the same word in his letter to the Philippians, having a desire to
27:32 --> 27:45 [SPEAKER_01]: The sailor leaves many friends behind, not without mixed sad farewells, yet how ready he is to sail if his closest friend in the world is waiting for him in the port to which he is bound.
27:46 --> 27:53 [SPEAKER_01]: In the same way, the apostle desired to leave the shore and was reconciled departing from his friends in the church.
27:54 --> 27:59 [SPEAKER_01]: Not for the sake of departure itself, but because he had a friend in the heavenly harbour
27:59 --> 28:03 [SPEAKER_01]: infinitely greater than all his earthly connections.
28:04 --> 28:07 [SPEAKER_01]: He desired to depart in order to be with Christ.
28:09 --> 28:13 [SPEAKER_01]: This would be more than compensate for all the pain of separation.
28:14 --> 28:24 [SPEAKER_01]: The emotions are rarely more deeply stirred than Winston's dear friend's meat and part, but religious friendships are of the noblest kind.
28:25 --> 28:31 [SPEAKER_01]: Scripture records joyful meetings in the Old Testament and sorrowful partings in the new.
28:31 --> 28:38 [SPEAKER_01]: When Bo asked came into the fields among his reapers, his greeting was well-suited to lighten the day's labor.
28:39 --> 28:45 [SPEAKER_01]: The Lord be with you," said the master to his workers, and they replied, the Lord bless you.
28:46 --> 28:48 [SPEAKER_01]: What a beautiful meeting this was.
28:48 --> 29:00 [SPEAKER_01]: If people in every station of life were to follow such an example daily, the wilderness would blossom like the rose, and Eden itself would seem restored.
29:01 --> 29:05 [SPEAKER_01]: When Paul was separated from his friends, it was a day of tears.
29:06 --> 29:15 [SPEAKER_01]: At Militus, he sent for the elders of the church of Ephesus, gave them a solemn charge,
29:16 --> 29:24 [SPEAKER_01]: They all wept deeply, embraced him and kissed him, grieving most of all because he had said they would never see his face again.
29:24 --> 29:28 [SPEAKER_01]: Did they all weep while he felt nothing?
29:29 --> 29:37 [SPEAKER_01]: When the believers at Sessaria begged him not to go up to Jerusalem in the face of danger, their weeping broke his heart.
29:37 --> 29:44 [SPEAKER_01]: Yet the difference between those separations and the one spoken of in our text is striking.
29:44 --> 29:50 [SPEAKER_01]: In those moments, he parted from only some of his friends, and only within a small region.
29:50 --> 29:54 [SPEAKER_01]: Here, he is leaving everyone he knows on the earth.
29:55 --> 29:58 [SPEAKER_01]: How must this departure have affected his heart?
29:59 --> 30:04 [SPEAKER_01]: Was it a small thing, do you think, to be separated from all the saints below?
30:05 --> 30:08 [SPEAKER_01]: We see the deepest sensitivity in his soul.
30:09 --> 30:12 [SPEAKER_01]: I am torn between two, he said.
30:12 --> 30:17 [SPEAKER_01]: Between my connections on earth and my connections in glory.
30:18 --> 30:32 [SPEAKER_01]: Yet on the whole, I feel myself carried forward, joyfully compelled to set sail and to be with Christ, compared with whom there is no one on earth or in heaven that I desire.
30:32 --> 30:38 [SPEAKER_01]: This is better, yes, unspeakably better than anything I have ever known.
30:38 --> 30:46 [SPEAKER_01]: There was a time when Paul's defense drew this confession from King Agrippa before the whole court.
30:47 --> 30:50 [SPEAKER_01]: You almost persuaded me to become a Christian.
30:51 --> 30:59 [SPEAKER_01]: The honor of that moment was unforgettable, but it pales when compared to being glorified with Christ in heaven.
31:00 --> 31:12 [SPEAKER_01]: Another remarkable part of Paul's history tells us that he was caught up into the third heaven and came near enough to the worshipers there to hear things that mortal tongues cannot express.
31:13 --> 31:18 [SPEAKER_01]: Yet it is far better to be an active, admiring, adoring participant.
31:18 --> 31:28 [SPEAKER_01]: Faintly, yet truly joining in the work and sharing in the joy of the heavenly world one day,
31:29 --> 31:37 [SPEAKER_01]: But it satisfy you, my brothers, to be carried to the gates of glory, if you were not admitted as a citizen of that city.
31:39 --> 31:56 [SPEAKER_01]: Or do you not long, with sales raised and under a favorable wind, to have a rich entrance into the everlasting harbor, to be with Christ?
31:57 --> 32:09 [SPEAKER_01]: Listen, Jesus Christ says, I am the one who lives and was dead and behold, I am alive forevermore to care for my dying people.
32:10 --> 32:25 [SPEAKER_01]: If this is so then, take courage, my friend, press on and break through the stormy sea, with steady course, know this, we shall one day arrive at the fair harbor of eternal bliss toward which we are always steering.
32:26 --> 32:32 [SPEAKER_01]: There, let my fragile plank bring me to shore and I shall be satisfied.
32:32 --> 32:33 [SPEAKER_01]: Watts is lyric.
32:35 --> 32:46 [SPEAKER_01]: Fourthly, the death of the saints is the departure of one part of a person from the other, of the division of soul from the body.
32:47 --> 32:50 [SPEAKER_01]: The apostle is here speaking of this division.
32:51 --> 33:05 [SPEAKER_01]: Death is not the destruction of either the body or the soul, but the breaking apart of the union that once joined them.
33:06 --> 33:13 [SPEAKER_01]: but on the very day that the renewed soul is parted from the body, it will be present with the Lord in paradise.
33:14 --> 33:33 [SPEAKER_01]: This is what the author of our text anticipated, but must our immortal souls be dislodged from their houses of clay while dust returns to dust, and must this body die, this mortal frame decay, and must these active limbs of mine lie moldering in the clay.
33:34 --> 33:39 [SPEAKER_01]: To all these questions, one passage of Scripture gives a sufficient answer.
33:40 --> 33:43 [SPEAKER_01]: It is appointed for men once to die.
33:44 --> 33:46 [SPEAKER_01]: Those red lips must grow pale.
33:47 --> 33:49 [SPEAKER_01]: The face will lose its beauty.
33:49 --> 33:53 [SPEAKER_01]: The sparkling eye will become dim and lifeless.
33:54 --> 33:57 [SPEAKER_01]: The hands and feet will grow colder than we have ever felt them.
33:58 --> 34:08 [SPEAKER_01]: We must go the way of all the earth, but let the saints comfort one another with these words absent from the body present with the Lord.
34:09 --> 34:19 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, this kind of departure, the apostle speaks of it as near at hand, and his imprisonment circumstances combined to make him expect martyrdom.
34:20 --> 34:25 [SPEAKER_01]: Before going forward, I may need to address a misunderstanding.
34:26 --> 34:29 [SPEAKER_01]: Does anyone say that this tuck sounds like the language of fear?
34:30 --> 34:33 [SPEAKER_01]: Spoken at a moment when the man's courage had failed him.
34:34 --> 34:39 [SPEAKER_01]: That his dread was imagining dark scenes which the future never actually brought about.
34:40 --> 34:47 [SPEAKER_01]: If this is the objection, I reply that suspicion and error once again walk together.
34:48 --> 34:50 [SPEAKER_01]: Our apostle was never a coward.
34:51 --> 34:52 [SPEAKER_01]: He was a martyr.
34:53 --> 35:01 [SPEAKER_01]: The trustworthy record of history assures us that he was beheaded at a quai salviae about three miles from Rome.
35:02 --> 35:08 [SPEAKER_01]: But on the way to his execution, he was the means of converting three soldiers who had been assigned to guard him.
35:09 --> 35:13 [SPEAKER_01]: And two within a few days, themselves became martyrs for the faith.
35:13 --> 35:19 [SPEAKER_01]: that this noble confessor submitted to the fatal blow with the greatest cheerfulness.
35:20 --> 35:32 [SPEAKER_01]: And that he was buried on the via aus deincisse about two miles from Rome were constantly in the great later erected a church to his memory around the year Andy 318.
35:33 --> 35:38 [SPEAKER_01]: And our text does not seem to express sorrow and grief anymore than it expresses cowardice.
35:39 --> 35:46 [SPEAKER_01]: What possible reason for lamentation can be drawn from Paul's situation, or from the way he describes it.
35:47 --> 36:01 [SPEAKER_01]: The apostle was about to depart like a prisoner released into a palace, like a traveler leaving an in for his home, like a sailor quitting the shore of an undesirable land for a far better country.
36:02 --> 36:12 [SPEAKER_01]: In short, he stood on the very threshold of being freed from everything that could trouble him, and of possessing all the happiness his soul could desire.
36:13 --> 36:18 [SPEAKER_01]: For him to be absent from the body was to be present with the Lord.
36:19 --> 36:21 [SPEAKER_01]: Was there anything distressing in this?
36:22 --> 36:27 [SPEAKER_01]: Were these not the very blessings for which he longed most intensely?
36:28 --> 36:36 [SPEAKER_01]: We are entirely unfamiliar with Paul's history, and thus we are prepared to answer that last question with a firm, yes.
36:37 --> 36:47 [SPEAKER_01]: All of Scripture would be stripped of its joyful and triumphant strains if the verse containing our text were the language of sorrow.
36:47 --> 36:50 [SPEAKER_01]: You know this was his source of joy.
36:50 --> 36:56 [SPEAKER_01]: His words on this occasion blend clear reason with holy rapture.
36:57 --> 37:02 [SPEAKER_01]: believing he rejoices with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
37:03 --> 37:26 [SPEAKER_01]: And I freely declare that it seems impossible to wish for myself or for you in life or in death a higher blessedness, a greater measure of heaven on earth than the apostle experience when he expressed the sentiments contained in our text.
37:26 --> 37:33 [SPEAKER_01]: Secondly, let us attempt to draw from this subject the practical lessons it is designed to teach us.
37:34 --> 37:46 [SPEAKER_01]: First, if we must certainly die and leave the world, this should teach us to put into perspective both our joys and our sorrows regarding earthly things.
37:46 --> 37:56 [SPEAKER_01]: The same decree that appointed the end of the human race has at once shortened the season of our pleasures here and limited the duration of our sorrows.
37:57 --> 38:07 [SPEAKER_01]: It is impossible to listen attentively to our tax without hearing in it a voice of both caution and comfort concerning these things.
38:08 --> 38:17 [SPEAKER_01]: In times of sunshine, when wealth, reputation, and pleasure court are favor, it warns us that all these are vanity.
38:19 --> 38:23 [SPEAKER_01]: In times of trouble, it gently says, do not refuse comfort.
38:24 --> 38:26 [SPEAKER_01]: Your afflictions will come to an end.
38:27 --> 38:32 [SPEAKER_01]: prosperity and adversity are woven together in the experiences of human life.
38:33 --> 38:37 [SPEAKER_01]: Prosperity is often a midday sun followed by evening.
38:38 --> 38:44 [SPEAKER_01]: Adversity is a night that, for God's people, will surely be followed by a joyful and triumphant morning.
38:45 --> 38:56 [SPEAKER_01]: If God had appointed this present world to be our everlasting state of existence, we might have been prepared to excuse the person who treats his house as his only home.
38:57 --> 39:03 [SPEAKER_01]: His earthly comforts as lasting possessions and plants everything with centuries of boundless future in view.
39:05 --> 39:14 [SPEAKER_01]: In that case, we might have measured our losses of lesser good by the countless years without it, and our gains by the endless ages during which we could enjoy them.
39:15 --> 39:20 [SPEAKER_01]: then it would have been natural to give a fuller voice to our sorrows, and to our songs.
39:21 --> 39:44 [SPEAKER_01]: But since the time of our departure from both the pleasures and pains of this life is near, the mournful song should be brief, and our triumphal song, which is often harmful and sometimes deadly, should never be sung without humility and restraint.
39:45 --> 39:50 [SPEAKER_01]: The conclusion from this is that those who we should weep as though they did not weep.
39:51 --> 39:55 [SPEAKER_01]: Those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice.
39:55 --> 39:58 [SPEAKER_01]: Those who buy as though they did not possess.
39:59 --> 40:03 [SPEAKER_01]: And those who use this world as though they did not cling to it.
40:03 --> 40:07 [SPEAKER_01]: For the present form of this world is passing away.
40:08 --> 40:13 [SPEAKER_01]: And can any lesson be more plainly taught by the brevity of human life than this?
40:14 --> 40:24 [SPEAKER_01]: When we forget death and eternity, our souls cling to the dust, and we pursue the same objects as those whose portion is entirely in this life.
40:26 --> 40:39 [SPEAKER_01]: But when we seriously remember that in a few days we may be here no longer, that by the next lords day our funeral sermon could be preached, that this very evening we might
40:40 --> 40:58 [SPEAKER_01]: Then we are ready to say with the Evangelical Erskine, down with disdain earth's palm I thrust, bid tempting wealth away, heaven is not made of yellow dust nor bliss of glittering clay, or with the more poetic wats.
40:59 --> 41:09 [SPEAKER_01]: There's nothing round this spacious earth that suits my vast desire to boundless joy and
41:11 --> 41:23 [SPEAKER_01]: When you think about it this way, it becomes comparatively unimportant to me whether I am rich or poor, whether I meet with the smiles or endure the scorn of others.
41:24 --> 41:29 [SPEAKER_01]: Earthly happiness loses half its attraction because its hold is uncertain.
41:30 --> 41:34 [SPEAKER_01]: And my afflictions are light because they last only for a moment.
41:34 --> 41:42 [SPEAKER_01]: Let us, therefore, hold our enjoyment with a loose hand, and not carve deep channels of grief into our faces.
41:43 --> 41:55 [SPEAKER_01]: The generations before us have taught us that weeping must not stop the sewing, and our best friend has assured us that those who so entiers will reap enjoy.
41:57 --> 41:57 [SPEAKER_01]: Secondly,
41:58 --> 42:06 [SPEAKER_01]: If the time of our departure is at hand, isn't it fitting that we look back and ask how we have filled the positions we are about to leave?
42:08 --> 42:19 [SPEAKER_01]: There is a work assigned to every person in their lifetime, and it is recorded to David's honor that after he had served his own generation by the will of God, he fell asleep.
42:21 --> 42:25 [SPEAKER_01]: Have we served our generation, or any significant part of it?
42:26 --> 42:31 [SPEAKER_01]: to examine this matter seriously is an indispensable duty for those who preach the gospel.
42:32 --> 42:35 [SPEAKER_01]: It is also highly appropriate for all Christians.
42:36 --> 42:42 [SPEAKER_01]: There is no one present who should say, please, may I be excused from this?
42:43 --> 42:49 [SPEAKER_01]: If we, who profess to be ministers of Christ, always attended to the duties of our calling.
42:50 --> 42:59 [SPEAKER_01]: Believing in our hearts the great truth contained in this text, how differently would we study, live, preach, and pray?
42:59 --> 43:10 [SPEAKER_01]: Can we say that we have not held back from declaring the whole council of God so far as it has been made known to us?
43:10 --> 43:19 [SPEAKER_01]: that we have steadily aimed at the eternal good of those entrusted to our care, rather than at momentary and empty applause.
43:21 --> 43:26 [SPEAKER_01]: In short, have we watched over their souls as those who must give an account?
43:28 --> 43:29 [SPEAKER_01]: Are you a servant?
43:30 --> 43:39 [SPEAKER_01]: Can the people you serve say as Lavin once said of Jacob, I have learned by experience
43:40 --> 43:42 [SPEAKER_01]: or are you the head of a household?
43:43 --> 43:47 [SPEAKER_01]: Do you govern all within your home with a sincere heart?
43:48 --> 43:51 [SPEAKER_01]: Some of you have a name and a place in the house of God.
43:52 --> 43:53 [SPEAKER_01]: What good have you done there?
43:54 --> 43:58 [SPEAKER_01]: Did you ever intend to do good and then actually do it?
43:59 --> 43:59 [SPEAKER_01]: What was it?
44:00 --> 44:06 [SPEAKER_01]: Are you a blessing to your minister and to the small sacred circle in which you live?
44:06 --> 44:16 [SPEAKER_01]: If your pastor were to give you a letter of recommendation to a distant church, would it be fitting for him to write of you as Paul once did of another?
44:16 --> 44:21 [SPEAKER_01]: This person has been a helper of many and of myself also.
44:22 --> 44:34 [SPEAKER_01]: And what ways have you helped your pastor or the people, or if Christ the great head of the church were to write your history, could these words be written of you?
44:35 --> 44:40 [SPEAKER_01]: He has done what he could, or she has done what she could.
44:41 --> 44:45 [SPEAKER_01]: I fear that many in this audience are not Christians.
44:46 --> 44:50 [SPEAKER_01]: Yet they belong to the human race, and so I speak to them.
44:51 --> 44:54 [SPEAKER_01]: He has shown you, oh man, what is good?
44:54 --> 45:03 [SPEAKER_01]: And what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk
45:04 --> 45:08 [SPEAKER_01]: But have you done what God requires of you, as you should have done?
45:08 --> 45:20 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, let me earnestly urge both saints and sinners to enter into these solemn reflections for you will soon leave your work in life.
45:22 --> 45:28 [SPEAKER_01]: Thirdly, now if we are about to depart from this world, let us ask ourselves where we are going.
45:29 --> 45:34 [SPEAKER_01]: My soul, you must depart,
45:35 --> 45:35 [SPEAKER_01]: to heaven.
45:36 --> 45:40 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, that is a land flowing with milk and honey.
45:40 --> 45:43 [SPEAKER_01]: The eyes of the Lord are always upon it.
45:44 --> 45:49 [SPEAKER_01]: There is no night there, no pain, no curse, no death.
45:50 --> 45:52 [SPEAKER_01]: It's inhabitants like nothing.
45:53 --> 45:58 [SPEAKER_01]: All of them are perfectly holy, and therefore perfectly happy.
45:58 --> 46:03 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh my soul, are you going
46:04 --> 46:10 [SPEAKER_01]: But in the future state, there is also a link that burns with fire and brim stone.
46:11 --> 46:14 [SPEAKER_01]: Agonizing masses, writhe and misery.
46:15 --> 46:16 [SPEAKER_01]: Hear their cry.
46:16 --> 46:19 [SPEAKER_01]: We are tormented in this flame.
46:20 --> 46:25 [SPEAKER_01]: They nod their tongues in pain, their condemnation is accompanied by despair.
46:26 --> 46:30 [SPEAKER_01]: The smoke of their torment rises forever and ever.
46:31 --> 46:37 [SPEAKER_01]: Who can conceive the anguish of lost souls, never, never to have an end?
46:39 --> 46:48 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, what a difference, fellow mortals, fellow immortals, there is between everlasting joy and everlasting sorrow.
46:49 --> 46:52 [SPEAKER_01]: Some of the sons of men are already at Hell's Dark Door.
46:53 --> 47:00 [SPEAKER_01]: Others are riding at anchor just outside the fair harbor, and with the next tide will have their entrance.
47:01 --> 47:03 [SPEAKER_01]: But where are you going?
47:04 --> 47:06 [SPEAKER_01]: Where are you going, young man?
47:06 --> 47:11 [SPEAKER_01]: And you, in the middle of your days, and you, whose hairs are gray?
47:11 --> 47:16 [SPEAKER_01]: You say, to heaven, I hope to be saved.
47:17 --> 47:17 [SPEAKER_01]: Are you certain?
47:18 --> 47:19 [SPEAKER_01]: You are going there?
47:20 --> 47:20 [SPEAKER_01]: Fully?
47:21 --> 47:21 [SPEAKER_01]: Certain?
47:22 --> 47:25 [SPEAKER_01]: Do you never feel any fear about it?
47:25 --> 47:28 [SPEAKER_01]: Is it not possible that you are deceived?
47:28 --> 47:32 [SPEAKER_01]: And if you are, how dreadful the deception?
47:32 --> 47:35 [SPEAKER_01]: How irreparable the loss?
47:37 --> 47:39 [SPEAKER_01]: You say, I have been a good neighbor.
47:39 --> 47:46 [SPEAKER_01]: I have attended church or gone to meetings
47:46 --> 47:47 [SPEAKER_01]: You made your peace with God?
47:48 --> 47:50 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, astonishing ignorance!
47:52 --> 47:56 [SPEAKER_01]: There is an attempt among Baptists to encourage a foreign missions among the Heathen.
47:57 --> 48:00 [SPEAKER_01]: May their work be crowned with the smile of heaven.
48:01 --> 48:04 [SPEAKER_01]: What cause could possibly deserve more attention?
48:05 --> 48:09 [SPEAKER_01]: But brothers, how many Heathens are there still at home?
48:09 --> 48:17 [SPEAKER_01]: Listen, as British even speak of making their peace with God, O sinner, listen to the voice of Scripture.
48:18 --> 48:20 [SPEAKER_01]: The voice of faithful warning.
48:21 --> 48:25 [SPEAKER_01]: By the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in the sight of God.
48:26 --> 48:33 [SPEAKER_01]: Christ has made peace for his people through the blood of his cross, and there is salvation in no one else.
48:34 --> 48:41 [SPEAKER_01]: For there is no other name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved.
48:42 --> 48:53 [SPEAKER_01]: The work of Christ is gladly embraced, and the work of the Spirit truly experienced by all who are prepared, are we among that number.
48:55 --> 49:05 [SPEAKER_01]: Fourthly, if the time of our departure is at hand, shouldn't we give immediate attention to the concerns of our souls and eternity?
49:06 --> 49:18 [SPEAKER_01]: Among the many proofs of our depravity, we must, at least from time to time, have noticed this one in particular, the tendency to put our true happiness far away from us.
49:19 --> 49:22 [SPEAKER_01]: The language of true religion is this.
49:23 --> 49:27 [SPEAKER_01]: Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.
49:28 --> 49:31 [SPEAKER_01]: Now is the accepted time.
49:31 --> 49:33 [SPEAKER_01]: Now is the day of salvation.
49:34 --> 49:42 [SPEAKER_01]: You are all invited to come and ask for holiness and happiness for Christ, for grace and for glory.
49:44 --> 49:49 [SPEAKER_01]: If there is anyone here who is unwelcome, I know nothing of such a person.
49:50 --> 49:55 [SPEAKER_01]: You are all welcome, but I fear that not all of you are willing.
49:56 --> 50:03 [SPEAKER_01]: May this be a day of divine power, when Almighty grace enrolls you among the willing.
50:04 --> 50:09 [SPEAKER_01]: Some of you are putting off the messengers of mercy with the same excuse Felix gave to Paul.
50:10 --> 50:14 [SPEAKER_01]: Go your way for now when I have a convenient time I will call for you.
50:16 --> 50:16 [SPEAKER_01]: What?
50:17 --> 50:23 [SPEAKER_01]: Is it inconvenient now to listen to those who show you the way of salvation?
50:23 --> 50:26 [SPEAKER_01]: Are you sure you will have another day to hear them?
50:27 --> 50:32 [SPEAKER_01]: You have lived for many years as though it were inconvenient, must it still be so?
50:32 --> 50:46 [SPEAKER_01]: Is it inconvenient to walk in the pleasant paths of wisdom to ask for forgiveness for your sins, the sanctifying of your nature, and the salvation of your soul?
50:46 --> 50:49 [SPEAKER_01]: Is this inconvenient?
50:50 --> 50:56 [SPEAKER_01]: If it truly is so inconvenient to you, you must be able to give some reason for it.
50:57 --> 50:59 [SPEAKER_01]: Can you name even one excuse?
51:00 --> 51:02 [SPEAKER_01]: I ask for only one.
51:02 --> 51:09 [SPEAKER_01]: Give me a single good reason why it is inconvenient for you to be holy, to be like God.
51:10 --> 51:20 [SPEAKER_01]: Tell him on your knees why it is inconvenient to be safe and happy, unspeakably happy, in time and in eternity.
51:22 --> 51:23 [SPEAKER_01]: What reason can you give?
51:24 --> 51:28 [SPEAKER_01]: I can think of only one, and there is no reason at all.
51:29 --> 51:33 [SPEAKER_01]: It is a sophism, a falsehood, a fallacy without a proper name.
51:34 --> 51:37 [SPEAKER_01]: If you have any reason for your conduct, it is this.
51:38 --> 51:42 [SPEAKER_01]: Great God, it is convenient to be miserable.
51:42 --> 51:47 [SPEAKER_01]: Sin is preferable to holiness, sorrow is preferable to everlasting joy.
51:48 --> 51:52 [SPEAKER_01]: This is the reason if it deserves to be called one.
51:52 --> 51:56 [SPEAKER_01]: but who would dare speak this in the presence of God?
51:56 --> 51:59 [SPEAKER_01]: Who will defend it when they are in the place of will?
52:00 --> 52:09 [SPEAKER_01]: The rich man did not desire holiness, but does anyone say that it would have been inconvenient to be as happy as Lazarus?
52:10 --> 52:18 [SPEAKER_01]: Doesn't he cry, send someone to my five brothers or else they also come to this place of torment, bring me a drop of water.
52:19 --> 52:26 [SPEAKER_01]: But O lost man, why ask for a drop of water in an ocean of fire?
52:27 --> 52:31 [SPEAKER_01]: He asks to cool his burning tongue, but he asks in vain.
52:31 --> 52:35 [SPEAKER_01]: The time for conveniences is gone forever.
52:37 --> 52:49 [SPEAKER_01]: But if you cannot produce even one good argument to justify your past delay, what can you say about the present?
52:49 --> 52:53 [SPEAKER_01]: In fact, isn't it very soon for some in this assembly?
52:54 --> 53:11 [SPEAKER_01]: It may come suddenly, perhaps at this very moment, while we are speaking of it, before this sentence is finished, yet whether suddenly or not it will come as certainly and irresistibly as the pains of labor come upon a woman with child.
53:12 --> 53:18 [SPEAKER_01]: If this is true, then whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might.
53:18 --> 53:24 [SPEAKER_01]: for there is no work, nor planning, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, and the grave where you are going.
53:25 --> 53:32 [SPEAKER_01]: O that divine grace would enable you to take this advice and to take it without delay.
53:32 --> 53:40 [SPEAKER_01]: Here allow me to mention a few lines which one of our late ministers once told me, made a deep impression on his young mind.
53:41 --> 53:45 [SPEAKER_01]: If I remember correctly, he said they were spoken to him by his father.
53:46 --> 53:55 [SPEAKER_01]: We quote them not for their poetic merit, or they have little, but because they are strikingly descriptive, perhaps they describe you.
53:55 --> 54:13 [SPEAKER_01]: Haven't many of you often resolved to devote at least some part of your time to God, and then later you would attend to the concerns of your soul, but then you said, it is too
54:13 --> 54:14 [SPEAKER_01]: Tomorrow I will.
54:15 --> 54:16 [SPEAKER_01]: I will surely do it.
54:17 --> 54:18 [SPEAKER_01]: Tomorrow comes.
54:18 --> 54:19 [SPEAKER_01]: Tomorrow goes.
54:20 --> 54:22 [SPEAKER_01]: And still I mean to do it.
54:23 --> 54:32 [SPEAKER_01]: And so repentance is deferred from one day to another until the day of death arrives and judgment is the other.
54:34 --> 54:37 [SPEAKER_01]: Do not the first of these simple lines exactly describe you.
54:38 --> 54:42 [SPEAKER_01]: Can you name any words that
54:43 --> 54:49 [SPEAKER_01]: God grant that the last four may not prove prophetic of your sin and ominous of your misery.
54:51 --> 54:54 [SPEAKER_01]: Believers shouldn't you rise and act?
54:55 --> 55:00 [SPEAKER_01]: Do you not, in some measure, give your approval to the very sins we have been exposing?
55:01 --> 55:06 [SPEAKER_01]: Have you not been planning and planning again to give yourself holy to the service of God?
55:06 --> 55:08 [SPEAKER_01]: But have you actually done it?
55:09 --> 55:11 [SPEAKER_01]: When will it finally be done?
55:11 --> 55:14 [SPEAKER_01]: Is not the night far spent in the day at hand?
55:15 --> 55:22 [SPEAKER_01]: Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness without delay and put on the armor of light.
55:23 --> 55:31 [SPEAKER_01]: If the time of our departure is at hand, let us almost carefully ask whether we are prepared for death and glory.
55:32 --> 55:40 [SPEAKER_01]: Each mortal in this assembly asks himself, am I prepared to die?
55:40 --> 55:47 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, what will become of the ungodly, I fear make up a great portion of this listening crowd.
55:48 --> 55:51 [SPEAKER_01]: You seldom think seriously about death at all.
55:52 --> 56:04 [SPEAKER_01]: You try to drive the thought from your hearts, and if never earnestly begged God for Christ sake to prepare you for it, you are enemies of Christ, but you hate him without cause.
56:05 --> 56:07 [SPEAKER_01]: Are you prepared for the world above?
56:08 --> 56:17 [SPEAKER_01]: Some people, when considering a move to distant and foreign lands have said to themselves, we will be able to speak the language of that country.
56:18 --> 56:21 [SPEAKER_01]: Can you, Seniors, speak the language of Zion?
56:22 --> 56:29 [SPEAKER_01]: One of the ancient writers when asked, what is the language of heaven replied, holy, holy, holy.
56:30 --> 56:41 [SPEAKER_01]: So indeed, the angels cried to one another in the temple, and so veiled, adoring, they worship above, but you cannot speak this language.
56:42 --> 56:48 [SPEAKER_01]: You neither admire nor adore the Holy Father, the Holy Son, nor the Holy Spirit.
56:49 --> 56:58 [SPEAKER_01]: You do not sincerely approve of God as an infinitely holy being, nor of His holy law, nor of His holy gospel.
56:59 --> 57:08 [SPEAKER_01]: wise people when preparing to move to distant regions have also asked about the customs, the commerce, and the pleasures of the country to which they are going.
57:09 --> 57:17 [SPEAKER_01]: Ah, sinner, you would not enjoy the customs of the heavenly land, even though all its activity consists in blessedness.
57:18 --> 57:24 [SPEAKER_01]: You crucify the Son of God as far as lies within you and expose him to open shame.
57:25 --> 57:47 [SPEAKER_01]: But the inhabitants of heaven crown Him, and with every variety of song rejoice, worthy is the Lamb who is slain, to receive power and riches in wisdom, in strength and honor and glory and blessing, and so they spend eternity.
57:48 --> 57:56 [SPEAKER_01]: If you loved it, you could have a taste of it now, but you know that you feel the strongest aversion to it.
57:57 --> 58:04 [SPEAKER_01]: How can you be prepared for eternal glory when you would not enjoy its very work even for a moment?
58:06 --> 58:17 [SPEAKER_01]: If a sensible person were about to leave his country within a few days, he would consider
58:17 --> 58:23 [SPEAKER_01]: Now what single step have you taken in view of your journey from time into eternity?
58:24 --> 58:27 [SPEAKER_01]: Surely preparation for heaven is necessary.
58:28 --> 58:29 [SPEAKER_01]: Don't you think so?
58:31 --> 58:36 [SPEAKER_01]: Allow me to mention another illustration, even if I step outside my usual manner of preaching.
58:37 --> 58:40 [SPEAKER_01]: Our Blessed Redeemer often taught in this way.
58:41 --> 58:49 [SPEAKER_01]: If the master conveyed a powerful lesson through the parable of a fool, the rich fool, and the gospel, why should not his servants follow his example?
58:50 --> 58:52 [SPEAKER_01]: Bishop Hall did so, and this is his account.
58:53 --> 58:55 [SPEAKER_01]: There was a nobleman who kept a fool.
58:56 --> 59:02 [SPEAKER_01]: One day he gave him a staff and instructed him to keep it until he should meet someone more foolish than himself.
59:03 --> 59:08 [SPEAKER_01]: Not many years later, the nobleman fell seriously ill, even to the point of death.
59:08 --> 59:10 [SPEAKER_01]: The fool came to visit him.
59:10 --> 59:13 [SPEAKER_01]: The sick nobleman said, I must soon leave you.
59:14 --> 59:15 [SPEAKER_01]: Where are you going?
59:15 --> 59:21 [SPEAKER_00]: Asked the fool into another world, replied his Lord, and when will you return?
59:22 --> 59:22 [SPEAKER_00]: In a month?
59:23 --> 59:23 [SPEAKER_00]: No.
59:24 --> 59:25 [SPEAKER_00]: In a year?
59:26 --> 59:26 [SPEAKER_00]: No.
59:27 --> 59:28 [SPEAKER_00]: When then?
59:29 --> 59:29 [SPEAKER_00]: Never.
59:30 --> 59:31 [SPEAKER_00]: Never.
59:31 --> 59:32 [SPEAKER_00]: said the fool.
59:32 --> 59:36 [SPEAKER_01]: And what provision have you made for your welcome in the place where you are going?
59:37 --> 59:38 [SPEAKER_01]: None at all.
59:39 --> 59:41 [SPEAKER_01]: None at all said the fool.
59:42 --> 59:47 [SPEAKER_01]: Then take my staff, even as a fool, I am not guilty of folly like this.
59:49 --> 59:51 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, you seekers of religion.
59:51 --> 59:53 [SPEAKER_01]: Are you ready or not ready?
59:54 --> 59:58 [SPEAKER_01]: You say you were born
59:59 --> 01:00:06 [SPEAKER_01]: If your ministers have often assured you that if a person dies once before being born twice, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
01:00:07 --> 01:00:09 [SPEAKER_01]: You say that you have been baptized.
01:00:10 --> 01:00:10 [SPEAKER_01]: What then?
01:00:10 --> 01:00:16 [SPEAKER_01]: Are there not millions around you who have been baptized and yet were never regenerated?
01:00:17 --> 01:00:20 [SPEAKER_01]: But you add that you were immersed in baptism.
01:00:20 --> 01:00:31 [SPEAKER_01]: So as Simon Magus, after he professed faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and yet he remained in the gall of bitterness and the bond of aniquity, a deeply wicked man.
01:00:32 --> 01:00:43 [SPEAKER_01]: You go on to say that you believe the chief doctrine of natural religion, the unity of God, and this fundamental truth of revealed religion, the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
01:00:44 --> 01:00:50 [SPEAKER_01]: You believe that there is one God.
01:00:50 --> 01:00:57 [SPEAKER_01]: In the days of our Lord's incarnation, they made this true confession to Him, you are Christ, the Son of God.
01:00:58 --> 01:01:02 [SPEAKER_01]: Don't they believe these and other truths as fully as you do?
01:01:02 --> 01:01:06 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, listen to James' searching question.
01:01:07 --> 01:01:13 [SPEAKER_01]: What does it profit my brothers if someone claims to have faith, but does not have works?
01:01:14 --> 01:01:16 [SPEAKER_01]: Can such faith save him?
01:01:17 --> 01:01:18 [SPEAKER_01]: do you reply again?
01:01:18 --> 01:01:24 [SPEAKER_01]: But we understand these truths so well that we rank highly and even preach the gospel."
01:01:25 --> 01:01:26 [SPEAKER_01]: So did Judas.
01:01:27 --> 01:01:28 [SPEAKER_01]: Yet he was not ready to die.
01:01:29 --> 01:01:32 [SPEAKER_01]: He was called by Christ into the work of ministry.
01:01:32 --> 01:01:36 [SPEAKER_01]: but he was never renewed by the grace of the divine spirit.
01:01:36 --> 01:01:39 [SPEAKER_01]: How solemn are these words of our Lord?
01:01:40 --> 01:01:45 [SPEAKER_01]: Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?
01:01:46 --> 01:01:50 [SPEAKER_01]: And in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?
01:01:51 --> 01:01:59 [SPEAKER_01]: And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.
01:02:00 --> 01:02:04 [SPEAKER_01]: Now let me turn from mere seekers to those who claim religion.
01:02:05 --> 01:02:13 [SPEAKER_01]: You have been born again, you are holy brothers and sisters, partakers of the heavenly calling and clothes with the robe of righteousness.
01:02:14 --> 01:02:27 [SPEAKER_01]: Yet, although you already possess both a fitness of capacity and a fitness of title for the inheritance of the saints in mind, do you also possess a fitness of frame for death and glory?
01:02:28 --> 01:02:44 [SPEAKER_01]: If you enjoy that degree of spirituality and readiness for the serious change with which you would desire to die, our most imminent and useful theologians have distinguished between habitual readiness and actual readiness.
01:02:44 --> 01:02:49 [SPEAKER_01]: In habitual readiness, regeneration and justification are included.
01:02:50 --> 01:02:58 [SPEAKER_01]: For actual readiness, a high degree of inward sanctification and close communion with God are absolutely necessary.
01:03:00 --> 01:03:08 [SPEAKER_01]: In proportion, as we are personally made holy by the Holy Spirit and maintain fellowship with God, we are actually prepared for death.
01:03:10 --> 01:03:24 [SPEAKER_01]: Peter was more prepared to die when he went out and wept bitterly over his denial of Christ than when he was cursing and swearing and declaring with every solemn appeal that he did not even know the man Christ Jesus.
01:03:26 --> 01:03:38 [SPEAKER_01]: From this it follows that there may be some among you to whom the Lord has given grace and will give glory, who are nevertheless not prepared for it in the
01:03:38 --> 01:03:45 [SPEAKER_01]: You are not walking as closely with God as others have done, as many are now doing or as you ought to.
01:03:46 --> 01:04:09 [SPEAKER_01]: The person who has left his first love, whose soul clings excessively to the dust, who is overly shaped by the spirit and values of the world, who does not aspire to deep communion with God, who cares little for the honor of Christ, who prefers to hear only what he calls comforting doctrines and never searching warnings.
01:04:09 --> 01:04:19 [SPEAKER_01]: who wants to hear of the wickedness of the heart, but not of growth and grace, of past experience, but not of present mortification of sin through the Spirit.
01:04:19 --> 01:04:32 [SPEAKER_01]: The person who quiets his conscience with a vague hope that he may be saved, without earnestly pursuing God or seeking that assurance of personal interest in divine things which is attainable.
01:04:32 --> 01:04:46 [SPEAKER_01]: who has seldom alone with God in private, seldom watchful and prayerful, frequently ruled by sinful passions, and at times secretly making provision for the flesh to fulfill its desires.
01:04:46 --> 01:05:00 [SPEAKER_01]: And a word, the person who is generally far more captivated by this world and more pleased with making preparations to remain in it than with those holy exercises, by which we are trained for our removal out of it.
01:05:01 --> 01:05:15 [SPEAKER_01]: I say a person of this description, whatever allowances we may make in his favor, even if he is a believer is not, and indeed must know that he is not prepared for death.
01:05:16 --> 01:05:17 [SPEAKER_01]: but who am I describing?
01:05:17 --> 01:05:24 [SPEAKER_01]: You came to hear the character of another, but you may well have just heard your own.
01:05:25 --> 01:05:32 [SPEAKER_01]: Backslider, was you wish to die at the very moment when you most closely matched this description?
01:05:33 --> 01:05:38 [SPEAKER_01]: If Christ were now to call you away, would you be found by Him in peace?
01:05:39 --> 01:05:42 [SPEAKER_01]: Would you not be ashamed before Him at His coming?
01:05:43 --> 01:05:51 [SPEAKER_01]: Your Redeemer has something against you, hear His command, repent, and do your first works.
01:05:51 --> 01:05:57 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, that this funeral service may be the means of you are taking that gracious counsel.
01:05:58 --> 01:06:07 [SPEAKER_01]: Then the death of one will become the more abundant life for others, and the passing of our friend will be the burial of your follies.
01:06:09 --> 01:06:20 [SPEAKER_01]: Great is the number is of those who are wholly unprepared to die, and though there are quite a few people who are in a very terrible situation if death comes upon them yet,
01:06:20 --> 01:06:31 [SPEAKER_01]: to the honor of divine grace, it must be acknowledged that there are saints on earth who are imminently holy and ready to depart and be with Christ in heaven.
01:06:32 --> 01:06:44 [SPEAKER_01]: The person who has arranged his earthly affairs as well as he is able is prepared to die because he is done with the Lord commanded Hezekiah to do, to set his house in order.
01:06:45 --> 01:06:48 [SPEAKER_01]: but the truly prepared person has his heart in order.
01:06:49 --> 01:06:56 [SPEAKER_01]: He has been born again, has passed from death to life, and loves the brethren of every name throughout the world.
01:06:57 --> 01:07:05 [SPEAKER_01]: He has fled for refuge to the merit and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ as His all in all.
01:07:06 --> 01:07:11 [SPEAKER_01]: He gives divine honor to the Holy Spirit and agrees when the Spirit is grieved.
01:07:11 --> 01:07:18 [SPEAKER_01]: He loves the gates of Zion, longs for the day of worship many days before it arrives, and cries with the solemnest.
01:07:19 --> 01:07:22 [SPEAKER_01]: When will I come and appear before God?
01:07:23 --> 01:07:27 [SPEAKER_01]: Wisdom's ways are pleasant to him, and all her paths are peaceful.
01:07:28 --> 01:07:35 [SPEAKER_01]: In the diligent use of the means of grace appointed for this purpose, he has made his calling an election sure.
01:07:35 --> 01:07:40 [SPEAKER_01]: And therefore, it is no uncommon thing for him to say of his God.
01:07:41 --> 01:07:44 [SPEAKER_01]: I have loved you with an everlasting love.
01:07:44 --> 01:07:48 [SPEAKER_01]: Therefore with loving kindness, I have drawn you.
01:07:48 --> 01:07:51 [SPEAKER_01]: The Redeemer has loved me and given himself for me.
01:07:51 --> 01:08:00 [SPEAKER_01]: I am confident of this very thing that He who began a good work in me will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
01:08:02 --> 01:08:09 [SPEAKER_01]: His religion does not exclude confession of sin or sorrow, on account of it, he mourns and will become for it.
01:08:09 --> 01:08:15 [SPEAKER_01]: His conscience is tender, and if he falls into sin, his heart is ready to break.
01:08:16 --> 01:08:21 [SPEAKER_01]: Nothing will satisfy him as a guilty creature, except what satisfies divine justice.
01:08:22 --> 01:08:30 [SPEAKER_01]: Nor can he be happy as a defiled creature, except as he experiences the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit.
01:08:31 --> 01:08:47 [SPEAKER_01]: so far as he, from making sinful allowances for his imperfections that he believes good people in a proper sense should now answer to the description Paul gives of those who have come to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.
01:08:47 --> 01:08:47 [SPEAKER_01]: Therefore,
01:08:48 --> 01:08:50 [SPEAKER_01]: with a deep sense of his many defects.
01:08:51 --> 01:08:57 [SPEAKER_01]: He presses on toward perfection and aims at nothing less than sinless perfection.
01:08:58 --> 01:09:01 [SPEAKER_01]: He longs to come as near to it as possible here.
01:09:02 --> 01:09:09 [SPEAKER_01]: And the full expectation of enjoying it hereafter reconciles him to death and of the grave.
01:09:10 --> 01:09:12 [SPEAKER_01]: His heart gives weight to these words.
01:09:13 --> 01:09:16 [SPEAKER_01]: I will be satisfied when I awake with your likeness.
01:09:16 --> 01:09:37 [SPEAKER_01]: as he feels a version to sin, resists it, groans under it, desires to avoid even its appearance, to be delivered from its presence, and hates it greatly, so he can appeal to Christ and say, Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you.
01:09:38 --> 01:09:40 [SPEAKER_01]: His rejoicing is this.
01:09:40 --> 01:09:52 [SPEAKER_01]: the testimony of his conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with worldly wisdom, but by the grace of God, he has conducted his life.
01:09:53 --> 01:10:00 [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, believing he sometimes rejoices with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
01:10:01 --> 01:10:05 [SPEAKER_01]: To such a person, the commandments of God are not burdensome.
01:10:05 --> 01:10:10 [SPEAKER_01]: It is his food and his drink to do the will of his heavenly father.
01:10:11 --> 01:10:25 [SPEAKER_01]: He delights in the law of the Lord according to the inward person, and both his heart and his life agree with those godly men of former days who had said that free grace requires full duty.
01:10:26 --> 01:10:35 [SPEAKER_01]: He exercises Himself to keep a conscience clear toward God, and toward others, and as far as it depends on Him, He seeks to live peaceably with all.
01:10:36 --> 01:10:44 [SPEAKER_01]: And when He is endeavored to do all that Christ requires of Him, this is the humble and sincere confession of His heart.
01:10:46 --> 01:10:54 [SPEAKER_01]: I am an unprofitable servant.
01:10:55 --> 01:11:13 [SPEAKER_01]: It would be wrong for him to say, oh, that if only I were like I was in the old days, for it is better with him now in faith than it ever was before, he loves God, Christ, and God's people, with a strong and increasing affection.
01:11:14 --> 01:11:19 [SPEAKER_01]: More than ever, he has the same mind in him that was in Christ Jesus.
01:11:19 --> 01:11:25 [SPEAKER_01]: The fervor of his prayers keeps pace with the height of his spiritual attainments.
01:11:26 --> 01:11:38 [SPEAKER_01]: The more he understands the power of the cross of Christ, the more earnestly he prays that he may know Christ and the power of his resurrection in the fellowship of his sufferings.
01:11:38 --> 01:11:47 [SPEAKER_01]: Being conformed to his death, if by any means he might attain to a condition closely resembling that of the resurrection from the dead.
01:11:48 --> 01:11:51 [SPEAKER_01]: He lives continually in the fear of the Lord.
01:11:52 --> 01:11:59 [SPEAKER_01]: His days are filled with innocence and love, with duty and delight, with humility and gratitude.
01:12:00 --> 01:12:05 [SPEAKER_01]: He strives to maintain that frame of heart in which He desires to die.
01:12:05 --> 01:12:08 [SPEAKER_01]: He is waiting for the coming of our Lord.
01:12:08 --> 01:12:11 [SPEAKER_01]: Christ, His head, is in heaven.
01:12:11 --> 01:12:17 [SPEAKER_01]: His heart is in heaven.
01:12:17 --> 01:12:20 [SPEAKER_01]: the time of his departure is at hand.
01:12:20 --> 01:12:32 [SPEAKER_01]: He looks back on the land of service and suffering and says, I have fought the good fight and then looks forward to the land of triumph with exaltation.
01:12:33 --> 01:12:37 [SPEAKER_01]: There is laid up for him the unfading crown.
01:12:37 --> 01:12:49 [SPEAKER_01]: In the death of Christ, He sees His victory over death, and with a mixture of holy submission and longing, He cries, come Lord Jesus, come quickly.
01:12:50 --> 01:12:51 [SPEAKER_01]: Here is the man.
01:12:52 --> 01:12:59 [SPEAKER_01]: This is the Christian who without fear may say, the time of my departure is at hand.
01:13:00 --> 01:13:16 [SPEAKER_01]: And now that the close of this description I ask the congregation, especially the people of God, to pause for a few moments so that in the calmest and most serious exercise of their minds, they may answer our concluding questions.
01:13:18 --> 01:13:25 [SPEAKER_01]: If this were my dying day, wouldn't I wish my heart to resemble this full and finished picture?
01:13:26 --> 01:13:28 [SPEAKER_01]: Wouldn't I desire my home in order?
01:13:28 --> 01:13:30 [SPEAKER_01]: My heart in order.
01:13:31 --> 01:13:34 [SPEAKER_01]: Every Christian grace in active exercise.
01:13:34 --> 01:13:38 [SPEAKER_01]: My prospects clear, deaf beneath my feet.
01:13:38 --> 01:13:46 [SPEAKER_01]: Christ back ining me toward heaven and myself ready to spread my wings and depart from this heaven to a better one.
01:13:47 --> 01:13:50 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, what a blessing this would be.
01:13:50 --> 01:13:54 [SPEAKER_01]: But what grace is required for such a departure?
01:13:55 --> 01:13:56 [SPEAKER_01]: That grace may be obtained.
01:13:57 --> 01:14:01 [SPEAKER_01]: This is the death in which the bitterness is passed.
01:14:01 --> 01:14:04 [SPEAKER_01]: Yet how enable him I to prepare myself in this way.
01:14:06 --> 01:14:11 [SPEAKER_01]: O you, in whose hands our hearts are here the United Prayer.
01:14:12 --> 01:14:15 [SPEAKER_01]: Repair me Lord for your right hand.
01:14:15 --> 01:14:17 [SPEAKER_01]: Then let the joyful day appear.
01:14:18 --> 01:14:23 [SPEAKER_01]: Come death with some
01:14:34 --> 01:14:38 [SPEAKER_03]: I cannot imagine the sermon being preached at my, at a funeral.
01:14:38 --> 01:14:39 [SPEAKER_03]: Like I can't imagine getting out there and giving this.
01:14:39 --> 01:14:43 [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, this, and I, we cut away the part where you specifically talked about the gentleman.
01:14:43 --> 01:14:45 [SPEAKER_03]: It was a pastor who had died.
01:14:45 --> 01:14:46 [SPEAKER_03]: He had great things to say about him.
01:14:47 --> 01:14:57 [SPEAKER_03]: But he gave this entire sermon before the, you know, if it was something like a 60 page sermon, the last 10 pages are about the guy who died and how much they loved him and thought he was a great man.
01:14:57 --> 01:15:04 [SPEAKER_03]: The first 50 pages of the sermon are the sermon you just heard and it is fiery, you know?
01:15:04 --> 01:15:25 [SPEAKER_03]: uh... recently had an experience where somebody where i had to get up and preach after so many past away was not a funeral sermon all it was just uh... a very sad situation it's not an easy thing to do and i was not even directly preaching about the death of the person i cannot imagine a friend of mine passing away or somebody i cared about passing away and giving such an eloquent
01:15:25 --> 01:15:46 [SPEAKER_03]: strong fiery passionate description of the gospel as John Ripon was able to do in this sermon he's an incredible man and I'm there's actually only three sermons of his that I was able to discover on the entire that had been preserved to us all three of them are funeral sermons and at the other two funeral sermons or anything like this one I can see
01:15:46 --> 01:15:47 [SPEAKER_03]: I can see why.
01:15:47 --> 01:15:58 [SPEAKER_03]: I guess that I can't imagine having the ability to preach the gospel that clearly and that directly at a funeral powerful stuff at the same time I think I would want him to preach it at my funeral.
01:15:58 --> 01:16:04 [SPEAKER_03]: I would want my loved ones to hear the gospel that clearly and to be given another opportunity to come the faith
01:16:04 --> 01:16:15 [SPEAKER_03]: So, great, great pastor, great sermon, and yeah, very encouraging is it, I'm grateful, it was the person who actually read this sermon for us.
01:16:15 --> 01:16:26 [SPEAKER_03]: I believe it was one of the people who recommended we read a John Griffin sermon and I'm glad they did.
01:16:27 --> 01:16:35 [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for listening to today's episode of Revive.
01:16:35 --> 01:16:35 [SPEAKER_02]: 5.
01:16:35 --> 01:16:42 [SPEAKER_02]: Today's sermon was narrated by Daniel Heightbrink, Daniel is a pastor at First Baptist Church of Weston, Missouri.
01:16:42 --> 01:16:48 [SPEAKER_02]: He lives there with his much loved family, his wife Katie, and his two children, Cohen, and Ellie.
01:16:48 --> 01:16:55 [SPEAKER_02]: He is grateful for the opportunity to contribute to Revive thoughts, having found it to be a tremendously joyful resource.
01:16:55 --> 01:16:58 [SPEAKER_02]: for both himself and the church at large.
01:16:58 --> 01:16:58 [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
01:16:59 --> 01:17:00 [SPEAKER_02]: What kind of words, there Daniel?
01:17:01 --> 01:17:04 [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, Daniel has been really encouraging some of this a few messages.
01:17:04 --> 01:17:07 [SPEAKER_03]: I think you believe he left us an audio message which do not get many of those.
01:17:07 --> 01:17:12 [SPEAKER_03]: We have an ability to do that on our website, but there's only been a handful of people who have tried it.
01:17:12 --> 01:17:15 [SPEAKER_03]: And I, I've been really encouraged by Daniel Sots.
01:17:15 --> 01:17:18 [SPEAKER_03]: And again, it was him who recommended we do this episode on John Rippin.
01:17:19 --> 01:17:19 [SPEAKER_03]: He wasn't the only one.
01:17:20 --> 01:17:23 [SPEAKER_03]: And John Rippin has been just kind of, I have a long list of names to tackle.
01:17:23 --> 01:17:25 [SPEAKER_03]: He was a name that was sitting on that list for a long time.
01:17:25 --> 01:17:29 [SPEAKER_03]: I never had the, you know, it was just not a priority a person to get to.
01:17:29 --> 01:17:35 [SPEAKER_03]: But when two people in the same week say do it, do and I, I was really grateful to do this episode.
01:17:35 --> 01:17:38 [SPEAKER_03]: Um, I love every sermon we get to put out on revire thoughts.
01:17:38 --> 01:17:39 [SPEAKER_03]: But this one was like,
01:17:39 --> 01:17:41 [SPEAKER_03]: It was a good fight.
01:17:41 --> 01:17:42 [SPEAKER_03]: The year was getting started.
01:17:42 --> 01:17:54 [SPEAKER_03]: I needed to jump back into a school year, and it was a good line of fire under your sermon to kind of get you back in the right mindset for sharing the love of Jesus, and I was really grateful for getting the sermon placed into my hands.
01:17:54 --> 01:17:57 [SPEAKER_03]: So thank you for recommending this one and making sure I got it.
01:17:57 --> 01:18:01 [SPEAKER_03]: I came to me at the moment, I needed it, and so I'm grateful for that, Daniel.
01:18:01 --> 01:18:03 [SPEAKER_03]: This is Troy and Joel, and this is Revive Thoughts.