I want to begin this morning by calling to your attention
some verses of scripture that have meant a lot to me. These days I've been meditating
upon, thinking a great deal about My experiences through the years
with the Lord and in the Word and the Spirit of God has enabled
me and helped me to remember a lot of things that maybe that
I had kind of overlooked. But there's some verses that
I think about here this morning
that I'd like to mention to you. The first one is out of Hebrews
chapter 4 and verse 12. It says that, For the word of
God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder the soul and the marrow,
and is a critic of the thoughts and the intents of the heart.
The Word of God is alive and operative. It's a living Word.
And it's a Word that works in the people of God. And it's a
Word, when blessed by the Holy Spirit, brings forth fruit to
the glory of God. Hebrews 4.12. But in 1 Peter
1, verse 23 through 25, Peter said, being born again, not a
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth
and abideth forever. For all flesh is grass, and all
the glory of man is the flower of the grass. And the grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord
endureth forever, and this is the word which by the gospel
is preached unto you. But this Word is a living Word,
and it abides forever. Thanks be unto God for His Word. It's a living Word. And then
the psalmist in Psalm 119, verse 105, he said that thy Word is
a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. And as I thought
upon these verses, I thought, oh, how true they have been in
my own experience. And I think that once in a while
it's okay, as the Apostle Paul set an example for us to talk
about, maybe our own experience a little bit in the things of
God. And the Apostle Paul, you remember
he gave his testimony on one or two occasions in the book
of Acts. And you can read it clearly. It starts out with how
it was with him when the Lord found him and what the Lord did
in his life and so on. When we're talking about the
Word of God being living and operative, about it being alive
and about it working in men's lives and souls, I remember well
that back in late 1948, early 1949, how that the Spirit of God began
to move upon my soul by the Word and through the Word. And there
was a couple of verses of Scripture that the Spirit of the Lord used
that was very much alive in those days in my soul. One of them
was John 3 and 36. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall
not see life, but the wrath of God abideth upon him. And then
John 5 and 24, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth
my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting
life, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation,
but is passed from death unto life. Those two verses the Spirit
of God used mightily in my heart to bring me to the saving knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I remember then as I began
in the way, walking in the way of faith, attempting to believe
God and walk in that way which the Lord would have me to walk,
I began to encounter a great deal of difficulty and trial
as I would read the word. One of the lessons the Lord taught
me very early in my Christian experience was that when he revealed
to me the truth that he expected me to act like that he had revealed
it to me. When he showed me something out
of the Word, then it was my business to stand on that, and to stand
for that, and not be talked out of it, but to believe exactly
what the Word of God taught, and to go forth believing that. And I remember several occasions
when I was faced with some dilemma because of the fact that God
had spoken to my heart. And one of the verses that he
brought home heavily to my heart is 2 Corinthians 5.17, Therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are
passed away, and all things are become new. And in the group
that I was meeting with at that time, there were several young
people, young men who had made a profession of faith. And they
had made a profession of faith long before I had come unto the
sound of the Word of God. And yet their lives were not
lives that would speak to the beauty and glory of the Gospel. And they were profane swears,
and they were dirty and filthy in speech. And I remember how
the Lord layered up on my heart to say something to them about
it. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things
are passed away. Behold, all things have become
new. And when I brought them up to
them and pointed out to them their situation immediately,
They started a rumor about me that I wasn't saved, and that
if I was saved, then I wouldn't be talking to them about their
lives. And so we ran into considerable
difficulty there. And they were, as I look back
upon that now, it was that which drove me to prayer and to the
examination of the Word of God. But that lesson has remained
with me through the years. That is, when God shows you something
out of His Word, then He expects you to stand on it and to believe
it. Not only when He shows it out
of the Word, but whenever He fulfills the Word of God in your
heart and makes you to feel truth. then he expects you to stand
on that truth. And the scripture in Philippians
chapter 4 talks about remembering everything by prayer and supplication. After a little while, I went
to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois. And in just a short
time, I was asked to leave there because of what I believe, my
convictions on certain issues of the scriptures. And I got
home, and then the country was in war with the Koreans at the
time, the North Koreans. And so I was facing going into
the draft. My draft status changed when
I left college, and so I was faced with going into the military. I had felt like that the Lord
had called me to preach, and that it was His will that I preach
the gospel. And so I waited on the Lord and
waited before the Lord, and everyone told me that I knew, including
the preacher of the little group where we went at the time. that I would most surely wind
up in the military, that I was bound to go. And my own father,
he was persuaded that there was no way out of it, that I was
going into the military. Well, I prayed earnestly about
this for a couple of weeks. earnestly laid it before the
Lord, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding kept
my heart and mind in the midst of all of these predictions going
on around me, and that I had the peace of God that was not
going to happen, that somewhere or another that I was going to
preach the gospel and that I wasn't going into the military. And
so when the day came for me to go in for my physical, One of
the first doctors that checked me was a marine doctor, checked
me out and he asked me this question, have you ever had a heart murmur?
And I told him, I said yes, I had, what do they call that, rheumatic
fever when I was a child. And so possibly that's where
he came from. And he said, well, I want you
to go over here to this Navy doctor, and I want him to check
you out. He checked me out, and he said,
you go dress. He said, you've got a heart murmur.
And so from that day on, never been a doctor yet that's been
able to find a heart murmur. with me. And so the Lord undertook
for me that day. And shortly after that, in early
1952, the Lord opened the door for me to go to the Boston Baptist
Church in Boston, Indiana to pastor in 1952 in February. And I preached there for a year.
But I want just to say this, just back up a little bit. I
want to say that the people around me that predicted what would
happen when I went to the draft board, I had told every one of
them, I'm not going. The Lord's got it worked out,
the situation, and they just laughed. at what I had to say. But the Lord showed me that when
He gave me peace about something, and showed me that something
was going to be a certain way, He expected me to stand on that,
and to believe the Word of God. The Word of God is living, and
it's operative, and when the Scriptures come forth with power
in your life, then you're to stand on those things, and believe
those things. That's what God expects you to
do. And so then I went on to the Boylston Baptist Church,
preached there about a year. And the First Baptist Church
at Brownsburg, they wanted me to come preach for a month. So
I went there and preached for a month. And then they wanted
me to preach another month. So I preached another month.
And then it was getting along toward time there for Verdi and
I to be married. And so about two weeks before
we were to be married, The church came at Brownsburg and said,
I want you to be our pastor. And I want you to become our
pastor on the, I think it was on the 5th of October, no, on
the 4th of October. So I got married on Friday night
and became the pastor there on Sunday morning. Then I had two
days of honeymoon and back for Wednesday night service. and
went on and on there for years. But the Lord knows, and when
He reveals something to your heart, He expects you to walk
in it. The Word is living, and the Word
is operative. Now there are so many scriptures
in the Bible that have meant so much to me through the years,
but one of them, I've tried to select those verses that have
set forth the reality that actually turned our situation in the way
it turned out in order that things be as they are today. Things
had to be the way they were in order for them to be the way
they are. And there are verses of Scripture that the Lord used.
I remember back in 1968, when the Lord would bring us out of
Indiana to Montana, how that one night I was going out the
driveway, And this scripture out of John 12 came to me. He
said, except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die,
it abides alone. But if it die, it brings forth
much fruit. And I knew exactly what that
verse of scripture meant. as the Lord gave it to my heart.
And that was, you've got to die to self. You've got to leave
this plush home and these grounds, and you've got to leave this
church, you've got to leave your business, and you've got to go
where I would have you to go. A grain of wheat must fall into
the ground and die. And unless it dies, it won't
bring forth any fruit. And so that scripture there is
what brought me out of Indiana to Montana. And on many occasions,
we've come to the place where faith greatly was tried in this
place. That's common for God's people,
to be tested and tried. And I remember on one occasion,
I was shut up the one way, but I didn't want to go that way,
and I didn't feel that was the way to go. But as I look back
upon the history of this church, I see this one time, this experience,
as being one that had an awful lot to do with things continuing
and us staying in this place. And that verse is found in the
20th chapter of the Gospel of John, when the Lord Jesus had
been raised from the dead. And he met with the disciples,
and stood in their midst, and said, Peace be unto you. And
verse 27, Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and
behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into
my side. And he made this statement, And
be not faithless, but believing. And be not faithless, but believing.
And I remember how the Lord woke me up in the middle of the night.
And immediately in my heart, these words, be not faithless
but believing. And I knew exactly what it meant.
It meant to get up the next morning and go in the only direction
I could go, and trust God in it. And it has proven to be,
even to this very day, fruitful. That experience has proven to
be fruitful to this very day, to maintain and sustain me in
this place. Be not faithless, but believing.
Now what I'm trying to show you this morning here is for you
believers, I'm talking to believers, those of you that know the Lord,
believe that the Word of God is alive, and that it's operative,
and that God uses that Word in the hearts of His people. Now,
the Lord Jesus said, be not faithless. He said that to Thomas, but He
said it to my heart. Be not faithless, but believing. Now along the way as we've journeyed
in the Lord's way here, there was one time when we felt surely
that the Lord would be in us going back to the church in Indiana. They waited for a year on me
to make a decision on coming back to the New Testament church
in Indiana. And it was a verse of Scripture
over in the book of Isaiah, chapter 42 and 16, that the Lord used,
mightily used in my heart, to turn me away from that. And I
finally had to just say, I can't do it. I cannot come. I'm not
able to do it. And so I went out and preached
for them, and stood before them on a Sunday night, right in the
middle of the sermon. This verse of Scripture came
with power to my heart, and I had to stop and tell them, there's
no way I can come here, back here to pastor. And that verse
in Isaiah 42, 16, is that I will bring the blind by a way in which
they know not, in paths which they have not known. I'll make
the darkness light and the crooked way straight. This will I do,
and not forsake them. The Lord said that to my heart.
You're not going back here. You can't go back. I don't bring
the blind. And I was blind. I didn't know the way. All God's
people are blind. You don't know the way. It's
not in man that walketh to direct his steps. No man is able to
figure out the way to go on his own. He needs to wait upon the
Lord until the living Word comes to his heart and directs him
as to what he should do, how he should walk, which way he
should go. And so, but the Lord said, I'm
going to bring the blind. I'll bring them by a way which
they know not. And amazingly how that the Lord
opened up things in Montana after that. And opened up things for
this church after that. Because the Lord had a way. And
He was going to make the darkness light and the crooked way straight.
And He did that. and revealed Himself. The Word
is living and it's operative. Believe that and go forward believing
the Word. You know, we often hear people
say and preachers say, just believe God. Just believe God. Well, it's a sad commentary on
human nature that no man can believe God unless he has a Word
from God. Unless he has a Word from the
Lord. It's believing God through the
Word, and through the Word being made flesh in our hearts, enabling
us to get a hold of it, so that we know that Word, and know what
the Lord would have us to do. Now there are other scriptures,
many of them, that I want to call to your attention. But I
wondered if you think your own self, those of you who have traveled
with the Lord to any degree, if you have any scripture of
your own self in your heart that at certain points in your life
that have been absolutely given to you by God has informed you
of the way you ought to go. Has the Word been living and
operative in your life so that you know what God wants you to
do and the way that He would have you to go? Now, many of
the scriptures that, for example, Brother Randy read Romans 5.
Romans 5.1. has always been a tremendous
challenge to my heart. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And then in Romans 4, verse 5, the apostle said, To him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. I tell you folks, I've never
got over that verse of Scripture. That verse of scripture is precious
to my soul. To him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. How do you become righteous?
How does a man like me, a sinner like me, become righteous? I
become righteous through believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, God's
Son, God's only begotten Son. I become righteous through faith
in the Lord Jesus. And then, of course, the eighth
chapter of the book of Romans has been precious to me. The
first chapter, or the first verse of Romans 8 says, There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, to them
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. No judgment
awaiting those that are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because we
were cursed in Him, and when He was cursed, we were. And our
judgment fell on Him, and we were judged in Him. And so there
is no judgment awaiting us. because we were crucified with
Christ. And if you've been crucified
with Christ, then you shall never go into the judgment to suffer
eternal damnation. And then in verses 31 through
34, and of course the prior verses there that talk about predestination
and calling and justification, all of those verses are precious.
But certainly 31 through 34 talks about, if God be for us, who
can be against us? How many times have you ever
felt like that everybody and everything was against you? But
if God be for you, who can be against you? And talks about,
who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather that is risen again. who is even at the right hand
of God, making intercession for us. And that reminds me of another
verse of Scripture that I've never been able to get over,
and that's Hebrews 7 and 25. It's worked in my soul mightily. The Word says that He is able
to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him, seeing
that He ever liveth to make intercession for them. able to save to the
uttermost. Now, I don't know how you feel
about your case, but I felt all of my Christian experience that
I wasn't worth saving. I never believed that I was worth
God spending His Son to die in my place. And I always felt like
that it would take more grace to save this sinner, maybe than
it would any other sinner on earth. But I read that verse
of Scripture, it got a hold in my heart, that said He is able
to save to the uttermost. He can save to the uttermost.
He can save however far He has to go. To save the sinner, He
can do it. He can do it. Whatever grace
it takes, He's got it. Whatever power is needed, He's
got the power. All power, He said, is mine in
heaven and earth. And He's able to save and raise
the dead because He ever lives. Now that verse of Scripture's
got a little word in it. He said He is able to save to
the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. Have you come to
God by the Lord Jesus Christ? And that's always with my plea.
Lord, You know I come by Your Son. I don't have any money in
the bank and I don't have any merit, I mean any righteousness
in the bank. I don't have anything to say
that I've got this or I've got that. I come as a poor sinner. Nothing in my hand I bring. I
just come as a poor sinner. But the Lord Jesus Christ, I've
come to Him, I've come to Him, and I've come to God through
Him. You know, the Lord Jesus said
in John 14, 6, that I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man comes to the Father except by Me. You come by Me. And that's the way I came to
the Father. I've come through Him. But then
that next word, seeing, seeing that He ever lives. Seeing. Have you ever seen it? He's alive. The Lord Jesus Christ is alive.
You will know how that helped me the other day when I read
that, when I thought about that, meditated on that, seeing that
He ever lives. And I thought to myself, if He
lives, then what difference does it make who's dead? What difference
does it make? Whether I'm dead or whatever
happens, what difference does it make? He lives. And I live
in Him. I live in Him. You know, the
Lord Jesus said to Martha, and this is another one of those
verses that staggered me. He said to her, He said, I'm
the resurrection and the life. He that liveth and believeth
in Me, Though he were dead, yet shall he live. And he that liveth
and believeth in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" That's
what he asked her. Do you believe this? Ah, my friend,
I wonder how much do we believe of this? How much do we believe
of this? The Lord Jesus Christ is alive
to make intercession for me and for my children. after me and
for my grandchildren, after them, and for my great-grandchildren,
that they will trust in Christ, will still be alive as He is
today, and He will still be making intercession for His people.
Believe it, believe it, my friend. He will make intercession because
seeing. But do you see that He's alive?
Do you see it? In Revelation 1.18, I could just
go on and on with this, but we will quit here in just a little
bit. You remember the Lord said, I am he that was alive and was
dead, and now I am alive, how long? Forevermore. Evermore. He said, I'm alive
forevermore. So the Lord Jesus, my friend,
is alive forevermore. And He's going to make intercession
for us. He's pleading with the Father.
John said, if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ, and His merit, His righteousness is what enables
him to be an effectual intercessor. He's got righteousness to plead. He's saying not himself, but
he's pleading for those that are his. And he says, I'm Jesus
Christ the righteous, and Father, I died in their room and stood
in place. I suffered judgment for them,
and Father, deliver them. Father, come to them. Father,
help them. Oh my, He ever lives. Seeing
that He ever lives, seeing that is a great blessing, my friend.
But this is the living Word we're talking about. And you see, that
every day that you live, when you walk in life's way, these
words come home to your heart. And they strengthen your soul,
and they give you a Word upon which to hope. You remember David
cried out and said, Lord, remember your Word, upon which thou hast
called thy servant to hope. Remember the Word to thy servant.
And beloved, we have hope because we've got a Word that gives us
that hope that we build upon. It's the foundation. And then,
I remember also, you know, just to help you a little bit, I want
to say this. I remember an old fellow that
told me one time, we were talking about verses that the Lord used
in our lives to bring us to Christ. And this old sinner, he was telling
me, and it's a strange verse that the Lord used to bring him,
bring him home, bring him out of sin. But it's Revelation 22.20.
that says that if, let me just turn over, but I want you to
see how that the word is a living word. And in Revelation chapter
22 and verse 20, or verse 11 it is, verse 11. And he says,
he that is unjust, he said this is what the Lord used. The preacher
got up and read this verse one Sunday. And said, He that is
unjust, let him be unjust still. And he which is filthy, let him
be filthy still. And he that is righteous, let
him be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him
be holy still. And he said just like that, the
Spirit of God took that verse of Scripture and melted his soul. And Christ was revealed to his
heart. Let him that is filthy, be filthy
still. There's coming a day Whenever
everything is going to stand still, just like it is. And that's the way, when death
finds you, that's the way it is. That's the way it is with
you. Let him be filthy still. Let
him be unjust still. And he that is righteous, praise
God, let him be righteous still. We're righteous in Christ. Righteous
only through his merit. Only through him. Only through
him. Now, I wondered if God has brought
to your memory anything while we were talking. I have several
other verses that I would like to use, but if there is somebody
here that the Lord has given a living word to, somewhere along
the line the Lord has spoken to you. And said, this is the
way, walk you in it. Or said, this, you do this, and
you do that. Out of the Word itself. I'm not
talking about you having hallucinations. Or eating too many beans for
supper. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a man,
a woman, a boy, a girl that's had a real experience with a
living God. And you know that God has undertaken
for you. Just one more, and you be thinking,
you be thinking. This is not ordinary, I know,
it's a little different, but I just wanted to remind you of
this one verse of scripture. It's in the 15th chapter of 1
Corinthians, verse 58. I remember one time being ill
back in the early 80s, and very discouraged, cast down, very,
very depressed. And I went in on a Saturday afternoon,
laid down just for a moment, and this verse of scripture came
home to my heart and enabled me to get up the next morning
and come into Great Falls and preach the gospel. And that verse
of scripture was so blessed to my heart. And it says, Be ye
steadfast, unmovable, all were surrounding in the work of the
Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in
the Lord." You think this old man didn't need to hear that
that day? I'll tell you that living Word,
that cut through, and I'll tell you what, I was able to get up,
I was able to get myself around, I was able to come in and preach
on that verse of Scripture. I preached on that verse of Scripture
back in the early 80's. I tell you, there's so many of
them. But I wanted to share this with you. I just felt like it
was something that I should share with you to challenge your heart,
to pray and to seek the Lord that He would speak to you and
to believe that this book, this Bible, that it's not an ordinary
book and that you just read it, it don't mean anything. You read
it until it does mean something. And God begins to speak to your
heart and challenge your soul, then you can rejoice in the Lord.
Our time is about gone. The Holy Spirit coming into a
man makes him cry, Abba, Father, my Father. That's what gives
us sonship. They that are led by the Spirit are the
sons of God. Paul said in Romans, I think, chapter 8. Okay, well,
I thank you for participating, and like I say, I make no apologies
for the meeting. This is what was on my heart,
and the way the Lord led me and directed me this morning, and
this is the way that I felt like the service should be conducted,
and may God receive the glory and the praise. Anyone will announce, well the
Lord bless you all, and you are dismissed.