Something to fear, forget, follow

Hebrews chapter 12, please. Hebrews chapter 12, reading in verse 14. I was thinking this morning that conferences should be for at least one reason, and that is that if we're going to live in this world at conference time, we should receive from every speaker two things that will help me be a better Christian.

I think that that would be something for a goal for the speaker to have to give the audience at least two things to be a better Christian. In the world in which we live, quite the world. I had coffee this morning in a very unique coffee cup.

It said on one side, when I was 20, I could change the world. When I turned 30, I felt like I could conquer the world. You turn the cup around and now I'm wondering what in the world is going on.

So in this crazy world in which we live, perhaps we could get a couple of things from each speaker, and that's what I want to be a help again this morning to the Lord's people to be better Christians in this world. Hebrews 12, reading in verse 14, follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, thereby many be defiled.

The Philippians now for my second reading, Philippians chapter 3, Philippians chapter 3, reading at verse 12. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I got not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do for getting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before.

Now my final pleas in 1st Timothy chapter 6. 1st Timothy 6, reading at verse 10. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and meekness.

Fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life. Now the Lord will bless to us what we have read and trust that the Spirit of God will give help to say a few things about it. We read this morning about something to fear in Hebrews chapter 12.

Philippians chapter 3, there was something to forget. And in the book of Timothy, it is something to follow. I believe that there's every one of us here would have some fear that we have hidden underneath our skin and fears that possibly of that would be mutual was several.

As face answers to face and water, so the heart of man to man. I'm thinking of the fear that they must have had in Luke chapter two when they took that journey and they were on their way home and they assumed that the Lord was with them. As a result of assuming that the Lord was with them, they found out the Lord wasn't with them.

And it was a fearful thing for them to all of a sudden realize the Savior is not here. The blessed Lord, where is he? He's not here. And with fear they turn around and they search for him.

Of course, they remind him when they found him that there was a great fear in their own heart. Wish you not that I must be about my father's business was his reply. And a good one.

So there's fears that we might have. Dear Samson, he went out at other times, thinking that the spirit of God was with him. And he went out not knowing that he wasn't.

The fatal end of dear Samson. What a horrible ending. I'm thinking today of something to the fear, and that is a root of bitterness.

Be careful, dear brethren. Something that you think about to make give yourself a very much of a relief when you can nip it in the bud. A root of bitterness.

I watched a dear woman suffer for two years plus. Every day she went a little down, a little further. She lost a little bit more that week.

The next month there was a little bit more. I watched cancer take her down to where I could count the ribs in her rib cage. It was something I could do do nothing but watch.

It was something I don't want to ever go through again. I believe, dear brethren, there's something even worse. Because for Gloria, it came to an end.

And she was taken to a land of no tears, no pain. To a land of freedom of aches and pains. But I wonder, I have seen over the years a couple that had a root of something coming in to that home, to their hearts.

They let it lodge. They just couldn't get rid of it. And it developed and developed and developed into something greater.

To the point where they contaminated others. That's what Hebrews 12 I think is saying. Many be defiled.

I'm thinking today, dear Christian, my dear younger Christian, do everything possible that you can that when there's a difficulty in your own soul and something comes in and mars that fellowship, mars that communion with God. Mars that communion and fellowship with other believers. Do whatever you have to do to nip it, nip it in the bud.

Get rid of it. Lest it be almost worse than the physical cancer that could eat a body. I am so thankful.

I am so thankful, brethren, that the Bible study that we've been having in Ankeny and 1 Samuel, that there was a man in 1 Samuel. I learned a great deal from King Saul. Saul, who was one big hunk of flesh.

I don't recall very much positive about Saul. And just about the time that you could get no lower than what Saul did, you come to chapter 22 and you discover that he gives the orders to slay 85 priests who wore the linen ephod. And then over to Nob, he gives orders to go to Nob and to kill and to slay the innocent.

Why am I so thankful for that? Because it wasn't that long ago I said to a brother in oversight, I said in a neighboring assembly, I said someday I'd like to come and work in the gospel, pass out tracts, knock on doors. He said, we would like that. He said, let's wait until next year.

I said, okay. Next year came. And about the time that I was thinking that maybe I'd receive a phone call to come for those meetings.

I had the announcement given to me. Two men are going to that very place. They never contacted me.

They never said boo, but two men was announced to go to that particular assembly. I thank God. I thank God for it because there might be a man at that particular assembly that maybe those two men could reach that I could not.

Maybe those two men had the inside slant with sinners that I didn't have. And I thank God because in first Samuel chapter 16, I learned of a man who didn't nip it in the bud, who refused to let it go, who did not, did not turn the cheek. And when Saul heard of the ladies dancing and laughing and rejoicing, Saul had slain his thousands, but David is tens thousands and Saul come out ready to fight.

You know, brethren, there's some battles aren't worth winning and who cares? Who cares who goes there to preach? Thank God that there was a couple of souls reached, maybe more than that. Come to think about it. A couple of souls reached and more at that particular place.

Nip it in the bud, brethren. There is something very, very sad. When you see a couple and they have a root of bitterness, it takes them down.

It takes them a little lower. They get a little more depressed. They get a little more sick of the assembly.

And soon they leave the assembly before they leave. And the thoughts no longer with the assembly. Where did it all start? It all started something to fear, brethren.

It all started with a root of bitterness. May we nip it in the bud. May we kill it.

May we suffocate it. Get rid of it. Whatever it is.

Life's too short. Don't go around with a bad attitude. Life is way too short to be able to not enjoy the things of God.

So I learned, I learned that from Hebrews chapter 12, there is something very, very much to fear. And that is that root of bitterness. That too, or those that trip on the way home from Jerusalem, that the Lord was not with them.

They were unconcerned. But the unconcerned mind turned into unexpected fears. And in lifetime, I've lived just long enough to know that the unconcerned mind oftentimes can experience experience the wrong turn in life, the unexpected event in life to bring unexpected fears.

I can remember years ago thinking, everyone that gets God's salvation, every person that is saved, it's an automatic baptism. It's an automatic into the assembly. It's an automatic entrance into Christianity.

I wish it was so. I wish that everyone who professed God's salvation, who was baptized, and now it's sad when you see some of those dear people who prayed for, the saints prayed for day and night, the preacher worked on them, prayed, preached, and to see them go elsewhere. Something to fear in Hebrews chapter 12.

We read in Philippians chapter 3 that there is something to forget. I believe that if we don't forget, dear brethren, then we are also in dangerous, dangerous ground. Something to forget.

I just want to leave three things with you that perhaps we could forget. Number one, there is the unable to enter through open doors. What I mean by that is we have opportunities to speak.

You have experienced this. I have experienced this. Opportunities to speak for the blessed Lord, and it's right there, but we don't take that opportunity.

We let it slip. I was with my uncle, Roy Weber, one day. We sat in a restaurant, and the waitress says, well, Mr. Weber, what do you do for a living? And he says, well, I used to farm.

He was laboring in the gospel, but there was something that just couldn't say it. And we had a little conversation after that at that table. Why was it that we just couldn't say it? Something to forget.

You have the opportunity. What do you say, dear Christian, when somebody says to you in jest and passing, well, what do you know for sure today, Al? What do you know for sure? It's an easy one, isn't it? You step right into it, don't you? No, sometimes we don't, and it brings a bad conscience. You go home and you think I passed a perfect opportunity.

Right there, it was the Lord opened up a door and I didn't step through it. Type of that type of thing will get you depressed if you don't forget it. Something to forget.

You have to let it go. You have to forget those opportunities that you messed up, for lack of a better phrase, that you didn't take advantage of, that you lost your joy, and because you didn't take advantage of, you went home with a bad conscience. I had the privilege of speaking to a few neighbors just the other day.

Bought some sweet corn in the middle of September and rang the doorbell. Sweet corn in September? Sweet corn in September. They were shocked.

Would you like a half a dozen? I'd love it. Then give them a little invite to some meetings that we were having downtown. My, the joy that was there, dear brethren.

No, they didn't come to meetings, but they enjoyed the sweet corn and I enjoyed a good conscience. So, if you could just take advantage of those opportunities, I'd encourage you, dear Christian, take advantage of them. Step into it.

Let them know that you have something that really makes you happy. Let them know that there is a joy that comes from being yoked with Christ, unable to enter. The second thing that I think we need to forget is unexpected disappointments.

That hurts, doesn't it? It really hurts when you have something that you really were hoping and looking for. You were totally convinced that this was the way it was going to go. It had everything on the horizon shaped that way.

Then the carpet was pulled out from underneath you. Then there was something that happened. The disappointments.

Some of the saddest words in the English language is found in Luke chapter 24. We had hoped. Three words.

We had hoped. There was a young man that was doing a little preaching in Iowa, probably 40 years ago. He had an outstanding gift, from what I'm told.

He knew his Bible. He was just getting started. Something came in.

I don't think he was, he wasn't, he wasn't rebuked by anybody else, but there was something in his personal life that came in. Stopped his mouth. He quit giving out tracts.

He quit telling people how to get saved. The unexpected. That dear mother, I sat with her a few times before she passed into the Lord's presence.

Oh, she says, we had hoped. We had so hoped something happened. How do I forget that? I don't know, brethren.

I can't give you any help on that. Well, all I know is somehow, someway, we have to rise above that. We have to get closer to God, knowing what it is to get into his presence, somehow to rise.

Above that difficulty. Unexpected disappointments. But the third one, I'm also thinking that we have to learn to forget, and that is unsolicited advice.

Never gotten advice that you didn't ask for. David and Ruby Yoder have just been commended. To the Lord's work.

They likely will receive unsolicited advice. I know I did. How do you handle that? How do you handle advice that a man is going to give that doesn't do any speaking himself? Well, dear brethren, I don't know whether this is the right way, but this is the way I handle that.

I listen. Number one, David, listen. I listen to what he says.

Number two, I sort out what he has given me. Number three, I take what I can put into my system. I receive that which it'll help me.

And number four, I throw the rest out the window. But always thank him. Number one, listen.

And number two, thank him. There is at times, dear brethren, when we have to remember something. Every single Christian cares.

They care. The person that comes with unsolicited advice has a love for you. Had a love for me.

They care. They maybe lay awake at night wondering how to say what they want to say. So they really care.

They have a burden. But once in a while, one, maybe one time out of 10 or one time out of 100, it comes out a little bit wrong and it might hurt. But remember, they care.

They really care. We read in our third passage, there is something not to fear, not to forget, but there is something to follow. Now, every Christian should have help at a conference and they should receive something to help them follow and to be more devoted and to be more committed again to what we have as far as assembly life is concerned.

There are six things in 1 Timothy chapter six, O man of God, there is a practical spiritual order that I see in 1 Timothy chapter six and verse 11. And those six items, dear Christian, if you could follow, if I could follow those six items, if this six items could help me in the rest of the year of 2025, righteousness and godliness. This tells those two righteousness and godliness.

Righteousness is what you've been doing. You say, what have I been doing? You've been living the Christian life. Righteousness is doing that which is right.

Enjoying what you have. Spending time with your book. Spending time with God.

Getting to know your God. Getting to know the blessed savior as he walked here as a man. Righteousness.

I have put a little title on that. The practical living. Practical living before the eyes of men.

The next one is godliness. I've always been wanting to speak on godliness. I believe it's five times or says it six times in the book of Timothy that Paul speaks about godliness.

So why haven't I spoken on godliness? Because I feel so, so short, so far short when it comes to a godly life. Many, many more that are more godly. I'll let them speak on it.

But nevertheless, godliness would tell me of something that would give me a proper attitude. That starts with a attitude as far as my practical living is concerned. So there's a godliness about you, about me, that others will hope and pray that they will see.

A godliness that would attract them to the Lord Jesus. A likeness to Christ. Isn't that why Paul was actually saved to reveal his son in me? And Galatians chapter one would tell us that there was a purpose in Paul's salvation that he might reveal Christ to him.

So there's a righteousness that I want to encourage you to keep at living a proper spiritual Christian life and a godliness with a proper attitude. The third list, the third one on that list of six is faith. And when I come to faith, I don't only see a proper attitude or not a proper attitude, but the promises of God.

So he gives me promises in his word and faith laid hold of those promises. One of the reasons why the Israelites just didn't get into the land just when they should have, is they didn't lay hold of God by faith. The promises were there, but they didn't go forward.

Couldn't step out on faith. The promises of God. Promises of God, dear brethren, you know this.

I don't have to come from Iowa to tell you, but they never fail. There is the same yesterday, today. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

And those promises that are written in his word are, they're wonderful brethren. They're encouraging. They're benefiting for your own soul's welfare.

It is something that is needed that we can possess and enjoy in our own public and private life. When I come to the next one, is love. Not the promises of God now, but as far as love is concerned, I possess it at conversion.

The moment I trusted Christ, the moment you trusted Christ, you possessed, you received a love that could not be given in any other way. You can love now people that you couldn't love before. You can love now things that you couldn't love before.

And now you can hate things that you didn't hate before. I never enjoyed carrying a Bible. I always felt embarrassing.

Fifteen years of age, a young six foot fellow carrying a Bible. My, kind of, that just didn't sit with me. But God saved me at the age of 18.

My whole attitude changed. The whole lifestyle changed. Everything changed.

Why? Because I got a love. I got a love for something. The day the teacher says, we're going to have book reports, and you're going to stand up in front of the class of 40.

I know that isn't 400, like some of you are going to, but stand up before a class of 40, and you have to read a book and then give a report of that book. And I said to my dad one day, I said, dad, don't you have something for me to do? On the farm. I had to somehow get out of that class that I had to stand up and read, tell people how, what I got out of that silly book.

What changed the attitude? Changed the attitude was a moment of touching the hem of his garment. I got a love. I got a love for the brethren that probably I might walk across the street before.

I got a love for the Christian. I got a love for the assembly. Those people that I watched, those people that I watched gather at Heightsville for 15 years, well, 10 years from the age of teenage years, I watched them.

They had a commitment. They had a loyalty. They were, they were in fact, if they weren't at the hall 15 minutes or 20 minutes before starting time, they were late.

They were committed to God's assembly. And I saw that they weren't necessarily platform men, but they were devoted and they were loyal and committed. This row of 12 right up here makes my mouth water.

Maybe someday brethren, you're going to be listening to one of these 12 at conferences. Wouldn't that be tremendous? Young men would be raised up loving their book, reading their book and seeking to be a help. So I love something.

I love something this is something definitely to follow. When I think of patience is the next one on the list. I think of patience.

Patience is produced by trial. And I go through the deep waters. I go through the, the, the furnace and the furnace is turned up high and hot.

And I go through that and you go through it and you come out a better person than when you went in. So there is patience and it is produced by trial. Meekness.

Meekness is a product of worship. When I come and I spend time with God in worship, there's a man here today by the name of Jim Fraser. He has taught me something.

He has taught me that worship is something far more important than the other service. Worship is first. So younger brethren, before you go think about going preaching, before this outward, you do the inward, you having the proper attitude as far as worship is concerned.

We're told to follow something that I can follow. These six things and first Timothy chapter six, be able to help you, dear Christian, he'll be able to make you spiritually fat, help you to go on, to be able to be lifted above the beggarly scenes of this crazy, crazy world. The Lord Jesus said to the disciples, I sent you into the world.

He sent us into the world. I thank God every day. And yes, brethren, that's not a stretch.

Every day. I thank God. I'm not of this world.

I'm in it, but I'm not of it. And because I'm not of it, that there is something I can enjoy in a very, very practical way, something to fear, something to forget, something to follow. May God help us to be stepping stones for the good and blessing of others and a shining light until we hear the shout.

We're going home, brethren. In my father's house, as we noticed a blue river in my father's house are many mansions. We're going home.

We're going home to the father's side. We're going home to heaven and home. We're going home to where no sin or sorrow does exist.

We're going home where we'll be welcomed. There's people here today and you're not welcomed as a Christian. You're not welcome.

And you're perhaps some of your relatives home, but we're going to a place where we'll all be welcomed. We're going home to the savior and we're going to see him in all his beauty. May we know what it is like the man who said is a John 20.

What shall this man do? The Lord Jesus said, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. May the Lord give us help to do so.