Lord is it I

I want you to turn to the book
of Jonah, chapter 1, and let me read the first chapter to
you. Now the word of the Lord came
unto Jonah, for the son of Amithus, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh,
that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come
up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee, and
was harshest from the presence of the Lord, and went down to
Joppa, And he found a ship going to Tarshish, so he paid the fare
thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish
from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord sent out a great
wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea,
so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners
were afraid, and cried every man unto his God, and cast forth
the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of
them. But Jonah was gone down into
the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep. So the shipmaster came to him
and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper, of rise, called
upon by God? If so be that God will thank
upon us that we perish not. And they said, Every one to his
fellow, Come and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose
cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot
fell upon Jonah. Then said they unto him, Tell
us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us. What is
thine occupation, and whence comest thou? What is thy country,
and of what people art thou? And he said unto them, I am an
Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath
made the sea and the dry land. Then were the men exceedingly
afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the
men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because
he had told them. Then said they unto him, What
shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? For
the sea wrought, and was contemptuous. And he said unto them, Take me
up, and cast me forth into the sea. So shall the sea be calm
unto you, for I know that for my sake this great tempest is
upon you. Nevertheless, the men rode hard
to bring it to the land, but they could not, for the sea rocked
and was tempestuous against them. Wherefore they cried unto the
Lord, and said, We beseech Thee, O Lord, we beseech Thee, Let
us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent
blood, for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee.' So
they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea, and the
sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the Lord
exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows.
Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and
Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Now what I would like to do first
of all is just give a brief exposition of what we have here in this
first chapter, not going into any great details. And then I
want to, if we can, to get out of this a principle which we
can follow through the Word of God and I believe will be a real
blessing to us tonight. It will help every one of us
if we'll hear it. Now, we take note here of the
fact that the word of the Lord had, as we read in verse 1, came
unto Jonah, and he was instructed by God, by the word of the Lord,
he was instructed to go to Nineveh to preach the gospel to that
great city, to preach to them and warn them of the impending
doom and the judgment. of God that was coming upon that
city. But Jonah, for reasons which
we expressed in a sermon a few months back, he rose up to flee
Tarsus from the presence of the Lord. Now, this is a significant
statement. We find it about three times,
I think, in this chapter that he had fled from the presence
of the Lord. Now I believe that what this
means is that there was a place where the people of God at different
times, and it was in different places at different times in
the Old Testament, where God met with these people, where
the people of God would come. And I think that it implies that
for primitive worship, which immediately succeeded the fall,
some spatial locality was consecrated as the place where Jehovah's
name was placed. For his worshippers assembled,
to which they brought their offerings, that they might call upon his
name, through sacrifice and receive tokens of their acceptance and
fresh intimations it may be of the Lord's will." Now, we read
also, and what I wanted to mention is that in Genesis 4-16 we find
that when Cain, when he was driven out, the Bible says he went out
from the presence of the Lord. And so what it means is that
there was a place. where the people of God came
to worship, where they made sacrifice, and where God put his name, and
they worshiped there, and they heard from God there. It was
a place where God manifested himself unto them, and where
they heard the voice of God speaking to them. And so that's what that
is referring to when it's talking about Jonah, when Jonah rose
up to flee into Tarsus from the presence of the Lord. That he
left that place of worship and he left that place where God
visited his people and where God would speak and instruct
and lead and guide his people. Now I believe that a New Testament
church certainly takes that place in our day. In that the Holy
Spirit in a very special way dwells in His church. And there
He abides to direct His people in their worship and enables
them to understand the sayings of Christ and enters in as they
worship, the Spirit of God takes the things of Christ and shows
them unto them. And I believe that there is a
blessing in the New Testament church under the power and authority
of the Spirit of God there that you can find nowhere else in
all the world. And this was especially so in
the Old Testament time when the church met or when the people
met in different places to worship. The place that God chose to put
his name. And I believe that that's what
that signifies there. Okay, so Jonah then has rose
up. He's heard from God and he rose
up and he's fled from that place where God speaks to men, and
he no longer is in that place. And so he would get away from
the obligation that God has placed upon him. And so he would flee
from the presence of the Lord. And so he got on this ship. There
was a ship there, and he got on it and took it there, and
he was prepared to go to Joppa. But the Lord sent out, in verse
4, a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest
in the sea, So that the ship was likely broken. Now we see
here that the Lord sent out this great wind. This was no accident.
This was no ordinary, just something that come up. A wind, you know,
and a little storm that came up. But the Lord on purpose sent
out this wind. And this wind came This storm,
this mighty tempest came from the hand of the Lord. And I believe
that that is important for us to see that, because we take
note that even the mariners themselves in verse 14, they ascribed all
this to God, for they said, For thou, O Lord, hast done as it
please thee. You've done what pleased you
here. This situation, this is your situation. You've handled
it as it pleased thee, and you set this storm. Now, beloved,
this storm is significant, and we'll play a part in the message
as we go along. But now, let us look a little
bit further here at what happened. How this affected the Mariners.
Now the ship was, as we see in verse 4 here, was like to be
broken. Then the mariners were afraid.
Now these were no unskilled sailors. They were hardened seamen and
they had seen storms before. They had witnessed many tempestuous
storms. and they knew what storms were
on the sea, and they were not easily scared. They were not
easily made afraid. But every man cried unto his
God. That means that every one of
them got so fearful of his life that they really believed that
the judgment of God was about to fall upon them because this
was such a terrible, terrible storm. And so they feared for
their life, and they cast forth the wares that were in the ship.
You see how insignificant the things of life become in a time
when you feel that your very life is going to be taken from
you. I mean, whatever it is, throw it away. It doesn't make
any difference because it amounts to nothing if we don't have our
lives. And that's what they said, so they cast forth the wares
that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them, but
Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship and he lay
and was fast asleep. And so you get the picture here.
These mariners were affected by the storm and they were very
much afraid. So the shipmaster, in verse 6,
came to him and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper?
Arise, call upon thy God. One fellow said that this was
the world rebuking the church for its sleepiness and for its
being ill at ease at a time when the storm of life is raging all
around it. Well, maybe that's so. But anyway,
the shipmaster, he said, Arise! And call upon thy God, if so
be that God will think upon us that we perish not. Now we take
note of the fact of course that every man had already cried unto
his God, little G. And now this man Jonah is told
to rise and call upon his God. His God, Jehovah God. And so,
we discover that even the heathen, in the time of chastisement,
in the time of judgment, they will call upon their God. And they want that their God
will be appeased. That in some way or another,
God will be appeased or satisfied in some way And that the judgment
of the wrath will be turned away. And that they won't be slain
or that they won't be brought down to the pit by the judgment
or by the wrath. But there's one thing different
here between the prayer of a heathen and the prayer of a saint of
God. Now the prayer of a saint of God is this. We know that
God is already appeased. We know that he's already satisfied. We're not trying to propitiate
God now. We are not. God is already propitiated
on the behalf of everyone of his children. So when we come
to prayer to God, we cry unto our Father who is already satisfied
and anything we need to bring, nothing of our hands, no promises,
no vows, nothing do we need to bring unto God to satisfy him
so that he'll change anything in our lives. Now brethren, you
can't deal with God on that basis. God is already propitiated. Don't
come and promise anything to God. It's not necessary for you
to make a vow unto God. You ought to avoid it if at all
possible. Don't never vow to God if you
can keep from it. Because I don't believe it's
necessary for you to do that in that God is already propitiated
God is already satisfied and you can't satisfy Him any more
than what He's already satisfied. And so go to Him in prayer and
plead with Him on the basis of the shed blood and the merits
of Jesus Christ and I'm sure that God's going to hear you.
I'm sure He's going to hear you and I'm sure His will's going
to be done. I'm sure He's going to bless you according to His
planned purpose. I'm sure He's going to bless you according
as you're able to receive it. According as it's good to your
life, the Lord's going to do that. Through the goodness of
His Son and through the merits of His own Son. And we need to
keep that in mind. That's the difference, in my
way of thinking, between the prayer of heathen and the prayer
of the saints of God. But now listen to this. And they
said, everyone to his fellow, come, and let us cast lots, in
verse 7, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon
us. So they cast lots, and the lot
fell upon Jonah. The lot fell upon Jonah. He was
the man that God was chastening. He was the man that God was after. But now, Reverend, the point
that I want to make tonight is this, and the proposition of
this message, and what I'm headed toward is this. I want us to
see how that when God deals with one man, or when God deals with
one man, whether it be me, whether it be you, whether it be a prophet,
whether it be an ordinary Christian, when God is out to chasten one
man. That there are many, many people that are affected by that
chastisement. Many are affected by it. And
I believe that I can show you that in the word of God. And
I believe that when we're finished here tonight, every one of us
will have a better understanding of the operation of God in our
own life and the operation of God in the church. And we'll
have a better understanding of what our lives mean to every
other member of the Lord's body. I think we'll have a better understanding
of it. Now brethren, we can't dismiss ourselves. from the church,
if we be members of the Lord's body, we're in the body, and
no man liveth unto himself, and no man dies unto himself. And here's Jonah, and his situation
has affected these marriages. And they're all in a ship, and
they've passed a lot, Jonah is the man, the storm is raging,
and what are we going to do? Well, and so they begin to question
old Jonah. They say unto him, tell us, we
pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us. What is your
occupation? Of which comest thou? What is
thy country? And of what people art thou?
And then as he unfolded and revealed this unto them, then they were
in verse 10 exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou
done this? For the men knew that he fled
from the presence of the Lord, because he told them. He told
them what the situation was. He told them he was honest with
them. And he told them what the situation was. And so this was
exactly what had taken place. Now, I want, if I can, for you
to look, if you will, at some scriptures. But before we do,
I want to say that God must. God must. Now, I want you to
hear that M-U-S-T. Must! chastise his people. He must. He said that. Whom I
love, I chaste them. I'm going to do it. His enemies,
he can let them alone until the judgment. But his children, he
must chaste them. And we must keep that in mind.
Now brethren, I think that every one of us, I know every one of
us that are sons and daughters of God Almighty have been chastened
by the hand of the Lord. I know we have because God says
I chasten every son that I receive. I want to read a comment at this
time. Now, I said that the Mariners
were affected by what happened to Jonah. Before I read the comment,
let me make this statement. You might ask this question.
Jonah was the one who was at fault. The lot proved that Jonah
was the man here that was at fault in this situation. The
Mariners were afraid their lives were going to be lost. Now how
could God be just and involved in his chastisement of one man
such as Jonah, the lives of all these men that were on board
that ship? How can he be just? How can he
be vindicated and involve all these people? How can he? Now
brethren, let me explain to you something that I believe will
help us all. Now God, the Bible says, that he always does right. The Bible teaches that shall
not the judge of the earth, all the earth do right. God will
do right. God is vindicated. True and righteous
are his judgments. God always does right. He does
not do wrong. And when a person like Jonah,
when he does something, when a father or a husband does something
in a home, when a member of a church does something that brings the
chastisement of God upon them, upon the Father, upon the member
of the Church, upon an individual, and other people are affected
by it, God is absolutely just in the affecting of the other
people by the chastisement. Why? Well, the cause number one
is that any trouble, any trouble that you have, any trouble that
I have, makes no difference from what direction it comes, It doesn't
make any difference who is the, what we might say, if we pass
locks, who it is that caused the trouble. God is always just
in anything He allows to come into the lives of any man or
woman. He's just. Because no man can plead innocence. No man can say, well I, I mean,
there's no reason why this should be upon me. I'd rather listen
to me. Any trouble that I have, Any
trouble that I have, I need look no further from the cause of
the trouble that's right here with me. I don't need to look
any further. These Mariners, they absolutely
had no right, really and truthfully, before Sovereign God, who knows
all men and sees all things alike, and all things are naked and
open unto Him. They were sinners. and they were
going to die, they were worthy of death, they were sinners,
and they had no reason really to blame anybody else for this
tragedy or this situation here, this impetuous storm that threatened
their lives, and no reason to blame anybody but themselves.
No reason. Because they deserved anything
that came to them. Now brethren listen. Did you
get what I said? You don't need to look past yourself
for any trouble that you've got in your life. You've got any
trouble in your life? Don't look past yourself. Blame
yourself. Accuse yourself. Deal with yourself
about it before the Lord. Because you can't say, well I've
got the problems I've got because of so and so. This is why I've
got my problem. This is why my heart is wrong.
This is why I'm distressed. This is why I'm in jeopardy.
This is why my Christian life is in an upheaval because of
somebody else. Brethren, it may be so. It may
be so. It may be because of somebody
else. But you certainly cannot sit
here tonight and say, I have prayed all I ought to pray. I
have sought the Lord. I've been faithful. I've been
diligent. There's no reason why I should feel cast down. There's no reason why I should
have my fellowship in any way affected by what's going on.
Listen, brethren, we cannot go past ourselves. We must vindicate
God and admit before God that whatever problems we got are
our own. First of all, we must do that. Now, I want to read
a comment made by a preacher by the name of Martin, and he
has some good things to say that I believe are really helpful
in this, and I want you to look at it with me, if you will. Let
me read it to you. Speaking of these mariners, they
indeed have no right to lay the blame on Jonah. as if they were
innocent. They got all right. But Jonah
himself must take all the blame because he is guilty. They are
not innocent. God in thus dealing with them
is righteous. God is righteous in visiting
upon them their transgressions, or the transgressions of their
own, and in punishing them in this particular way, namely,
by sending among them a man whose very presence and company involve
a storm and exposure to death by the means of it. But Jonah
is not innocent of the distress entailed on the Mariners, because
he carries about with him a disobedience which God is righteously avenging
upon him in a way that must inevitably involve multitudes besides himself. Thus may a calamity fall righteously
upon a whole family for the sake of one guilty member. And in
the grief of none of them is God a righteous. While yet, in
a sense, the whole guilt lies on one. one member of the family. The father of a household may
so offend the Lord as that the adequate punishment of his provocations
shall not lie solely on his person, but may involve all his house. Is God unrighteous in chastening
them? God forbid. How then shall God
judge the world? But this does not exempt the
guilty man from the blame. The compunction, the remorse
sprang from his being the responsible agent in breaking down on those
around him the complicated distress in which he and therealike are
assuredly not. He is guilty and this must be
understood. Now, I want you to turn your
Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 24 and verse 17. 2 Samuel. 24 and verse 17. Well, first of
all, I want us to look at that chapter. I believe that we should
because it's a chapter that has many weighty things in it and
you can't just break in any one place in the chapter. To get
the whole drift of the truth there, you've got to look at
the whole chapter. And so let's begin here with
verse 1. And again, now this is 2 Samuel chapter 24. And again,
the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved
David against them to say, go number Israel and Judah. Now,
we read in the book of 1 Chronicles chapter 21 and verse 1, you don't
have to turn there, but I want to read this first, as a way
of explanation. And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked
David to number Israel. And so when it says here in the
24th chapter of 2 Samuel verse 1, that he moved David against
them to say, go number Israel and Judah, that if you take the
two scriptures together and compare them together, that Satan is
the one that moved David against Israel and said, you go number
Israel and Judah. For the king said to Joab, the
captain of the host which was with him, go now, to all the
tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number ye the
people, that I may know the number of the people. And Joab said
unto the king, Now the Lord thy God add unto the people how many
soever they be, and hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord
the king may see it. But why doth my Lord the King
delight in this thing? Notwithstanding, the King's word
prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the host, and
Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence
of the King to number the people of Israel. And then in verse
9, And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto
the king, and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant
men that drew the sword. The men of Judah were five hundred
thousand men. And David's heart, verse 10,
smote him, After that he had numbered the people, and David
said unto the Lord, I have sinned gravely in that that I have done,
and now I beseech thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy
servant, for I have done very foolishness. For when David was
up in the morning, the word of the Lord came unto the prophet
Gad, David's seer, saying, Go and say unto David, Thus saith
the Lord, I offer thee three things, choose thee one of them,
that I may do it unto thee. So Gad came to David and told
him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto
thee in thy land? Or wilt thou flee three months
before thine enemies while they pursue thee? Or that there be
three days' pestilence in thy land? Now advise, and see what
answer I shall return to him that sent me. And David said
unto Gad, I am in a great strait. Let us fall now into the hand
of the Lord, for his mercies are great, and let me not fall
into the hand of man. So the Lord sent a pestilence
upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed, and
there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy
thousand men. And when the angel stretched
out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord repented
him of the evil and said to the angel that destroyed the people,
it is enough, stay now thy hand. And the angel of the Lord was
by the threshing place of Aronaw the Jebusite. And David spake
unto the Lord, verse 17, now you look at this. When he saw
the angel that smoked the people and said, Lo, I have sinned,
and I have done wickedness, but these sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand out praise thee,
and be against me, and against my father's house. What have
these sheep done? Now you can see, man, the principle
that I've been talking about right here in this chapter. David
has been moved and he has numbered Israel. And God slew 70,000 on
account of the sin that David had committed. And yet it affected
these 70,000. They died, David didn't die. And so we see that how that his
sin affected other people. Now then, I want you to turn
to the book of Joshua, chapter 7. The Book of Joshua chapter
7 and we have here the same principle involved again. But now the children
of Israel, those that died, although David said these sheep, what
have they done? We know that Israel had provoked
the Lord. They had done sufficient to deserve
this chastisement and deserve the hand of God coming upon them.
So they could not plead even though David was pleading as
the king He was pleading as the agitated king as he saw these
many die on account of his sin. He pleaded with God. What have
these sheep done? But beloved, they had sinned
against God and they deserve what came upon them. Now, after the city of Jericho
had been destroyed, we believe, according to what the Word of
God teaches, that that was a dedicated city. unto God. That everything
that was in that city was that it was the Lord's. It was to
be the Lord's. It was to be all of the spoil
was to go into the treasure of God. It was to be given to God.
It was His. It belonged to Him. It was a
dedicated city unto God. Now I don't mean that that heathen
city was dedicated to God, but I mean that God met and He told
the children of Israel that this, everything, the spoil there and
all, it's Mine. And don't anyone take any of
it. All right, but now where's that effect? But now in chapter
7, the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed bank. For Achan, the son of Carmii,
the son of Zebedee, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah,
took of the accursed bank, and the angel of the Lord was kindled
against the children of Israel. And Joshua sent men from Jericho
to Ai, which is beside Bethlehem, on the east side of Bethlehem,
and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And
the men went up and viewed AI. And they returned to Joshua and
said unto him, Let not all the people go up, but let about two
or three thousand men go up and smite AI, and make not all the
people to labor thither, for they are but few. So there went
up hither of the people about three thousand men, and they
fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai smoked them
about thirty and six men, for they chased them from before
the gate, even unto Shebron, and smoked them in the going
down. Wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became
as water. And Joshua ran his clothes and fell to the earth,
upon his face before the ark of the Lord, until the evening
time, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads.
And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all
brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hands
of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would that God we had been content
and dwelt on the other side of Jordan. O LORD, what shall I
say when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies? For
the Canaanites and the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it,
and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth.
And what wilt thou do unto thy great name? And the LORD said
to Joshua, Get thee up. Wherefore liest thou on thy face?
Israel hath sinned. And they have also transgressed
my covenant which I commanded them, for they have taken of
the accursed thing, and have also stolen and deceived also,
and they have put it even among their own study. Therefore, the
children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but
turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed.
Neither will I be with you anymore, except you destroy the accursed
from among you. Up, sanctify the people, and
say, sanctify yourselves against tomorrow. Well, thus saith the
Lord God of Israel, there is an accursed thing in the midst
of thee, O Israel. Thou canst not stand before thine
enemies until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.
And so as the story goes on, there was a trial in the morning.
And little by little, the tribes first came before, and the tribe
of Judah was chosen. And then the different houses
came before Joshua, and finally, as it says here in verse 17,
he brought the family of Judah, and he took the family of the
Zarhites, and he brought the family of the Zarhites man by
man, and Zebdiah was taken, and the lots just keep falling on
the right man, and the right tribe, the right family, and
the right man here, and he brought his household man by man, And
Achan, the son of Carmiah, the son of Zabdiah, the son of Zerah,
of the tribe of Judah, was taken. And Joshua said unto Achan, My
son, give I pray thee glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make
confession unto him, and tell me Now, what thou hast done,
hide it not from me." In other words, you see how the lock just
keeps coming down until the right man is chosen and he's before
Joshua and Joshua tells him to give glory to the Lord God of
Israel and make confession unto Him. Achan answered Joshua and
said indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel and thus
and thus have I done. And so they went on and discovered
all. But you see the principle is here in this portion of scripture
how the sin of this one man affected the whole camp. And the whole
army of Israel was affected by this. And that principle is one
which I think can be very clearly brought out in the New Testament.
Now before I turn to the New Testament and begin to bring
here some verses out of the New Testament, I want us to look
again at a comment made by Hugh Martin, the Scotch preacher,
because he had some good things to say here that I believe is
very important. In our different families, we
may, without taking heed to it, be the guilty instruments of
deeply injuring those we are bound and may be anxious to benefit. For our individual provocations
may be provoking the Lord to limit the temporal prosperity,
and still more the spiritual blessing which otherwise he might
bestow upon them. His righteousness in so dealing
with them he can easily demonstrate." But our guilt in leaving Him
so to deal with them, He can demonstrate as easily. He can
prove that He, God, that He is just. But how can we avoid the
blame of temporarily and spiritually injuring those to whom we ought
rather to be the instruments and channels of good? The benefit
of God's vindication of His own procedure can never be at all. irrigated by us, can never pass
over to us for our vindication. In other words, we can't always
explain why God does the things he does in our families. But
now, let me read on. He vindicates himself on the
ground that the pains and penalties from his hand brought through
us on others are the righteous punishment of their own offenses
against him, or are the beneficial chastisement through means of
which he designs ultimately to crown them with benefits which
in no other way could he have conferred or in no other way
so well. In other words, God does things
when he chastens one man that affects many and though it works
out to their benefit in the wisdom of God. This is the only way
he could confer upon some His blessing is through chastening
them to the sins of others. Oh, the depth of His wisdom.
How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways as finding out. Who can explain the ways of the
Lord? But now, let it never be forgotten,
He goes on to say, that in this way a single individual may be
a source of calamity to multitudes and that this may result the
more surely and extensively as that individual is more closely
connected with the cause and the kingdom of the Lord. Jonah. Because of a single private member
of a congregation, God in visiting his provocations with the punishment
deserved, chastening his sensuality or pride or covetousness or passion
may involve in much spiritual leanness and unprofitableness
all his fellow worshipers. Did you get that? All right,
now let's read on. Lord is it I? That tonight is
the proposition which I preach. Lord is it I? I hope that every
one of us will be able tonight when we're finished to ask ourselves
solemnly before Almighty God, Lord is it I? Now, to be instruments
of good or evil to each other is what in the present state
of God's government over us We cannot possibly avoid it. We
cannot avoid it. Why? Because none of us liveth
to himself, and no man dieth to himself. Romans chapter 14
verse 7. Now I want you to turn in your
Bibles, now to two portions of Scripture. The first was in 1
Corinthians chapter 12. And I'd like you to turn there,
if you will. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and
I want us to read verse 25 through 27. Verse 25 through 27. That there should be no chisms
in the body. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Now,
look at the scripture. That there should be no divisions
in the body, but that the members should have the same care one
for another. Why? And whether one member suffer,
all the members suffer with it. One of the members be honored
in it. All the members rejoice with
it. Now ye are the body of Christ. and members in particular. Ye
are Christ's body and members in particular. This is the Lord's
body. This is the expression, the visible
expression of Christ's body. This is his church. And when
one member suffers, all the members When one is honored, all the
members rejoice with it. You cannot get away from this
principle that we affect one another. There is no way that
an individual can isolate himself from other people. The church
is one body. No member can isolate himself
from affecting the other members of the church. Turn back, if
you will, to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. And
let us look here. Beginning with verse 6 and we'll
work our way down to the end of the chapter. The church at
Corinth, if you're familiar with this chapter, they had a man
in that church that was living in sin. He was living with his
father's wife. And he was living in sin. And
verse 6 says, Your glory is not good. Now speaking of the church
at Corinth, they gloried in their gifts. the gifts of the church,
the glory in their power, the glory in their ministers, their
preachers. And he says, your glory is not
good. Why is it, Paul, that their glory
is not good? Know ye not that a little leaveneth,
a little leaveneth, a little leaveneth the whole lump? Now,
let me explain this by illustrating it like this. One time, I received
a call back a number of years ago when I was in my late twenties
to go over to Willow Hill, Illinois and preach a revival. And I went
over to Willow Hill, Illinois, which was 150 or 160 miles from
my home there in Indiana, to preach. And I was not familiar
with anything that was going on over there in the church.
I didn't know too much about the pastor and what was going on.
But anyway, I was invited over there, so I went over. And I
started to preach there, and I was to be there a week. And
so I preached for a day or two there and I could tell that there
was something bad wrong. There was a lot of static and
a lot of feedback and there was problems there that you could
just tell that you were just Just preaching as it were into
the air that nothing was happening. Nobody was hearing what was being
said. So I began to wonder a great
deal about it and began to pray about it. And I began to talk
to the pastor a little bit. And so he began to tell me some
of the problems that they had there. And so he explained to
me that in the church, they had several members that were not
attending the services. And one of the members, they
called him a new lighter. And he didn't believe what the
church believed. He was still a member of the church. And right
down the street from the church, I don't know, maybe five or six
houses down, this man on Sunday morning, when the church was
meeting here in their building, He was holding services there,
and he was preaching doctrine that was heresy, contrary to
the truth that they were supposedly preaching in the church. Now,
he told me this, and I said, well, I believe this is your
problem. I believe this is your problem, and I took him to this
scripture here, and I want you to see this. Now, Paul says,
know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth old up, and what he's
saying here is this. Do you not know that when you
have this man that's committing fornication here, do you not
know that you are as guilty of this as he is? Do you not know
that? For an example, let me illustrate
it this way. In other words, this leaven in
the church, this sin in the church, it is affecting the whole church
the whole church is affected by this and it's just like if
I was to go into a hardware store and on the counter of the hardware
store there was pocket knives lying there and I was to reach
up with my hand which is a member of my body and I was to pick
up one of those pocket knives and put it in my pocket that
my whole body would be guilty of the sin of I would have committed a great
sin because I had stolen that pocket knife. Now, somebody,
I could say, well, hey, my hand done that, that hand, that hand.
I just want to cut that hand off. Well, you can say what you
want to, but the whole body is guilty of that sin. My whole
body's guilty of it. Now, brethren, whatever be the
case, the principle is this. The principle is that no man
liveth unto himself. And that no man can isolate himself
in the Lord's Church. And that anything that happens,
anything that's wrong in my life, and if I fall into deep sin,
and if I fall into a situation Now, where the chastisement of
God comes upon me, it may very well affect everyone in this
church. It may very well cause, and you
may wonder, you may say, well, hey, you know, I just don't seem
to have any burden anymore to pray. You may say, well, I just
don't seem to have any desire to sit down and read the Bible
anymore. You may say, well, I just don't. Now listen, you should
blame yourself. You should blame yourself and you say, well now,
hey, you know, I know I'm not right because I'm not praying
habitually like I ought to. I'm not being constant in prayer.
I'm not doing as I ought to do. But there may be a hindrance
here, brethren. There may be a hindrance in your heart and
your life. Now the reason I'm saying these
things is, brethren, first of all is that we look at ourselves.
Every one of us look at ourselves, and then secondly, we'll be conscious
of the fact so that we will not allow anything to go on in our
lives, in our families, that is going to just completely destroy
the power of the Spirit of God and the fellowship of the saints.
The local church of the Lord Jesus Christ is affected by everything
that goes on in the lives of the members of the church. Now
don't forget that, because it's true. No man liveth unto himself. You say, well, what I do, I'll
just do it and it's my affair. If I don't want to pray, I won't
pray. If I don't want to read my Bible, if I don't want to
study, if I don't keep my heart right, it ain't going to affect
anybody but me. Wrong. Wrong. That's wrong. You
say, if I want to sin, If I want to do this, I got this thing
I want to do, and if I want to do it, it's nobody's affair but
my own. Wrong! Wrong! I say you're wrong! If you're a member of the Lord's
Church, you say, well, I just don't want to get involved. Man,
you must get out of the Lord's Church. You've got to understand
that no man liveth unto himself. This church here was affected
by what was going on, and he says this, that little leaven
leaveneth the whole lot. It affects the whole church,
and the whole church is guilty of this very sin. They're guilty.
And so therefore you got to own it. So your glory, don't go around
talking about your gifts of the ministry. Don't go around talking
about, you know, that you folks over there, that you're just
one of the best churches and you got all this spiritual power
that there is and so on and so forth. Paul said your glory is
not good. You've got something there, and you're all guilty
of it. Now, so he says, purge out, therefore, the old leaven.
Purge it out. Gotta get it out. Now brethren,
a man, it's like I told you a few minutes ago, like the Scotch
preacher said, Lord, is it I? Is it I? Every one of us must
examine our hearts before the Lord. And if there be something
in our hearts before Almighty God, That is wrong in our hearts,
wrong in our lives, and we know there is. And brethren, we must. Glorify God and confess to Him. You don't have to confess it
to me. You don't have to tell me nothing. I don't have to tell
you anything. But there's a place to pray. There's a place to get
right with God. There's a place to go to seek
the face of God. And that's what's necessary.
You don't have to say anything to anybody else. But you confess
it unto God. And I'll tell you what. It'll
make a tremendous difference in our meetings. It'll make a
tremendous difference in our services. Now listen to the rest
of this verse here. Purge out therefore the old leaven
that you may be anew, as you are unleavened positionally. Positionally, those that are
in the Lord's church are forgiven of sin. Positionally, their sins
are blotted out. They're unleavened. God does not charge them with
sin because they're justified in Christ. They're not going
to be condemned. There's no sin being charged
to their account. They're unleavened before God
positionally. But purge out the old leaven
that's in our lives that affects us and that causes the whole
of us to be affected by the Spirit of God. Beware lest any root
of bitterness sprang up in you, thereby many be defiled, because
the root of bitterness sprung up in you. Be careful, he said.
And that's the principle that I'm talking about, alright? Verse
8. Therefore let us keep the feasts.
I believe that's the Lord's Supper, not with old leaven, not with
old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. That's the reason why we're not
taking the Lord's Supper here tonight, because I believe that there is a need
for every one of us. to save ourselves. Lord, is it
I? Is it I? And we need to examine
ourselves and we need to get out the old leaven. We need to
purge it out. We need to purge it out. So that we might take
the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. He says, I wrote unto you an
epistle not to accompany with fornicators. Yet not altogether
with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous,
or extortioners, or with the idolaters, for then must ye needs
go out of the world." He said, I wrote to you and told you that
you shouldn't accompany with these kind of people that you
got in your church, that you shouldn't do that. And he said,
now I'm not talking about people in the world. You got to rub
shoulders with people in the world. I'm not talking about
people you work with. I'm not talking about the people
that you buy groceries from. I'm not talking about the people
out here that's outside the church. I'm talking about, as he says
in verse 11, but now I've written unto you not to keep company
of any man that is called a brother. A man who says, I'm a Christian,
I'm a child of God, and I know the Lord. If he be a fornicator,
if he be covetous, if he be idolater, if he be a railer, if he be a
drunkard, if he be an extortioner, there's such a one. Know not
to eat. Why? Because this fellow here
is in the church, and all of you are just exactly what every
one of you are. That's what it means. We're all
what the others are. So anything you are, I am. Anything
I am, you are. If we're in the same local body,
the same church. Now don't you forget that, brethren.
You don't forget that. And you say, well, well, but
now wait a minute. Now brethren, did you hear what I said? I said
anything you are, I am. Anything you are, we are. Anything I am, you are. Is that
clear? Now that's what these verses
here teach. You say, well, I don't know that I like that. I don't
know that I agree with that. I don't know that I want to get
involved in a situation like that. Well, maybe you don't.
Maybe you don't, but this is the Lord's house. This is the
Lord's church. This is His world. This is what
God, this is what God owns. This is His world. And this creates
in a man some fear. This creates in an individual
some real, down-to-earth fear in the heart, is what it does.
And it makes one tremble. And I want to tell you, before
I could preach this sermon tonight, I had to go to the bar and pray
because my heart trembled before the Lord. Because I realized,
brethren, that this is a serious matter that we're talking about.
When we're talking about the Lord's Church, when we're talking
about our lives affecting other people, and when we talk about
other people's spirituality being affected by our spirituality,
and when we talk about other people's temporal lives being
affected by what we're doing, and so on and so forth. My soul
made me wonder, old David, the agitated king cried out and said,
these sheep, these sheep, Lord, what have they done? What have
they done? I'm the one that sinned, what have they done? You see.
Now brethren listen, I believe that any man who is God conscious,
who desires to be right in his heart, will take the same attitude
David did, and he'll take the same attitude that Jonah did. Now what did Jonah say? When
it all came out, it was all brought out and it was all brought right
out into the situation. What did old Jones say? He said,
you just take me up and throw me over. There ain't anything
else going to do it, brethren. There's nothing else going to
do it. You're going to have to deal with me. That's all. Because
I'm the one that's involved in this thing. You just throw me
over. Now why would he say that? And you know, the mariners were
affected by this because they said to God, they said, well
now we don't want to do this thing because we, you know, we
want you to, we just don't want to do this thing. Well, now I
really think, you know, that that is the kind of attitude
that everybody ought to have. Listen to what they said. Then
the men feared the Lord exceedingly, off the sacrifice unto the Lord,
and they fell. They took up Jonah, and they
cast him into the sea, and the sea ceased from a raging. Meaning
the sea stood still, and there was a calm, and they began to
fear the Lord, and they began to offer vows unto the Lord.
I mean, they were bothered about this thing, but old Jonah said,
you just take me up, and you just throw me overboard. Anything
else gonna work? Now you see, that was the attitude
of David. Or the attitude of Jonah, and it was the attitude
of David. In other words, they admitted their situation, And
said, Lord, these others, I mean, you just have to. And I believe
that every one of us, if we are the Lord's people, sincerely
for the Lord's people, we would feel as bad about affecting any
other person spiritually as we would feel bad about afflicting
them spiritually. physically. We would. I think
we would. I think we'd feel bad about it.
And I believe tonight, brethren, I believe that every one of us
here that know the Lord Jesus Christ, if we felt in any way
that our situation, in our personal lives, were affecting the church,
and affecting the spirituality of the church, the power of the
church, the effectiveness of the gospel as it goes forth.
I believe every one of us would say, well, Lord, just deal with
me. Just deal with me. And I want
to tell you something tonight. I just believe that if every
one of us will accept the principle of this message and that every
one of us will this week just cry out to God And ask the Lord. Lord, is it I? Put your finger
on my heart. Put your finger on my heart.
Show me. Reveal it to me. I want to tell
you something right now. God is a whole lot more, He'd
be a whole lot more pleased to show it to you than what you're
pleased that He showed it to you. that you desire that he
show it to you. God will show his people the
way. He'll show them the way. He'll
open up the way to them. He will. You can find the right
way, brethren. You can find the right way. We
can find the right way. God can and will bless these
people. We can purge out the old leather. We can. It can be
done. And we must not, we must not
fail to see this principle. Now I believe, brethren, that
this is a truth that no one can deny. I believe it's a clear
truth brought out in the Word of God. And I have tried denying
it by the grace of God, by the Spirit of God I trust, to make
as clear a presentation of this as I am able to make. And I have
tried tonight to show you how, I'm not going to get up here
and try in any way shape or form to transfer any sort of blame
on anyone or to say or accuse anybody of anything. And anybody
that goes out of here and says that, You've not listened to
a thing I've said in this message tonight. You have not. You've
not listened to it. If you've listened to it, then
you will go out of here, and I believe that what you'll do
is you'll say, well, before the Lord, if this is the case, then
I just will ask God to show me if there's any problem, and I
before God, by the grace of God, will attempt to so live my life
so that it will not be of any hindrance to my own family, to
my own family, and also so it won't in any way affect my fellow
church members and worshippers of the Lord's body. I just won't
do it. By the grace of God, I'll attempt
to live right so that my life won't affect them. Now brethren,
I just leave it with you. I leave it with you. If I have
not, in the spirit of God and in the spirit of love, presented
this message, you be the judge. And I believe I have. And I believe
before God that it will bear fruit in our lives in this church.
Because I believe it's of God. I believe the message came to
me. The Lord gave it to me. And I believe it's of God. And
I delivered it to you. And I did so trembling. And I
did so with a great deal of fear. Lest I be misunderstood and somebody
would go out and say, now that preacher is accusing me. of something. No, sir, I have not accused anybody
of anything. I have just simply set a Bible principle for you
and I plead with you to hear it. I plead with you to hear
it, every one of you. And I plead with God that my
own heart would also feel it as much as anyone else here and
more so in that position that I'm in as the pastor of this
church. Let us pray. Blessed, merciful, gracious,
kind, loving Heavenly Father, we commit to you the message
And we commit to you our hearts. Be pleased, O God, to give us
the answer. Be pleased, Lord, to fanger our
hearts and to show us our fathers, our sin. And help us, Lord, that
we may be able, we may be able in faith, O God, to do whatever
you ask us to do. And as you ask us, O God, give
us the grace that we may do the things that you call upon us
to do. This is your work, and we know
you own it. You've been among us many times,
and you have this day, our Father, in spite of our hearts, you have
met with us, and you've been in our midst. And we praise thee
and thank thee. We do not take it lightly. We
do not take it for granted. And we hope, our Father, that
we shall not grieve thy spirit. We hope that we shall keep the
unity of the spirit of the bond of peace, and we trust that thou
will give us all sufficient grace to do so. God help us, in Jesus'
name, amen.

Lord is it I

Sermon Transcript

Comments

Joshua

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

Lord is it I

Sermon Transcript

Comments

More from John R. Mitchell

Same Scripture

Joshua

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book