Sunday Night Meditations 36 Message and Song - 1950's

Greetings to our radio friends. We appreciate this opportunity of proclaiming the gospel of God's grace, and since we have come to know the wonderful Savior, we feel that everyone else in this world should know how wonderful it is to know the Lord Jesus Christ in the knowledge of sins forgiven and being sure that we're on the way to heaven. We trust you will be blessed as you listen to this gospel program.

Is my life on a profitable basis? The Lord Jesus asked, what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? It seems that the Lord puts a scale in front of our eyes, and on the one side, the whole world, which is so great and so vast that it's hard for the finite mind to grasp. On the other side, he puts our soul. Not a million souls, but your own soul.

The only logical deduction that any thinking person can make is that your soul is worth more than the whole world, and because of that, it's tremendously important to know whether your life is on a profitable basis. To get your life on a profitable basis, the first thing you must acknowledge is your need and true condition before a holy God. The remarkable thing is that when you get to that place, you realize that God loves you.

It's true that he hates your sin, but he loves you. He has proven that by giving the best gift of heaven. God gave his only begotten son, and he allowed him to die on that shameful cross of Calvary in order that he might atone for your sins.

After three days, he rose again from the dead, and he's seated at God's right hand, a prince and a savior. He is offering everlasting life to all who want to be saved, to all who want the forgiveness of their sins. Then, after we realize that we can't save ourselves and see that the Lord Jesus is the savior that God has provided, then we have a responsibility of trusting him as savior.

There must be a definite moment when we will come into his presence and confess, I need the Lord Jesus as my savior, and right here and now, as best I understand it, I will receive him as my lord and savior. When we do that, God says we have passed from death unto life. Christianity is not in ordinances.

It's not in rules. It's not in religion. It's not in the church.

It's in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Your life will never really be on a profitable basis until you know him as your personal savior. Then, your desire will be to live for him and to tell others about his saving grace and his keeping power.

If there are those listening to our program tonight who have never at any definite moment received the Lord Jesus Christ as savior, then we have to say to you, your life is not on a profitable basis. You should expect to be rather unhappy, because the only life that is worthwhile, that brings peace and joy, is the person who can say, I know my sins are forgiven. I know the Lord Jesus as my savior, and I have a wonderful object in life that gives me a desire to live for God's son who loved me and gave himself for me.

I'll be true, Lord Jesus. I'll be true, I'll be true. Reading two verses from Matthew's Gospel, chapter 6, verses 24 and 25.

No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. He cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.

Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Your big job and mine is to manage aright this business of living. If we are to succeed, we must learn now to put first things first. Some people are constantly changing.

They pass from failure to success, and from success to failure. It is true that we live in a changing world, and some changes we will not be able to escape. But there are certain principles which never change.

They are the first principles of the oracles of God, and we have that expression Hebrews 5 and verse 12. From these we dare never turn away. Someone has said we may often break rules, but woe to him who flings himself against the principle.

He will not wreck the principle, the principle will wreck him. If we allow anything to come between us and the principles of God's word, we may look for failure in our lives. The Apostle Paul could say, this one thing I do.

Paul made a success of the Christian life because he gave his time and attention to the simple task of pressing forward toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. He was putting first things first. Some young Christians make the mistake of clinging to worldly things and selfish ambitions.

This is not putting first things first. When we become new creatures in Christ, old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.

These new things are the first principles of God. When we put them first in our lives, we are sure of successful Christian living. It is true that we cannot travel through life and escape carrying the luggage of life, but too many Christians are weighted down with excess baggage, the weights and sins which so easily beset us.

When we give more time and attention to things less essential and less important than living for our Lord, we are being hindered in Christian growth and development. Are you being slowed down with excess baggage? Most of us are selfish. We put self first in place of God.

Sometimes we covet the unnecessary things and neglect those things without which we cannot live. When we covet those things we do not need, we become fretful and restless. The Bible says we are anxious.

When we are anxious, we fail to put first things first. If we would be saved from the anxiety of earthly things, we must fix our hearts on heavenly things, seek those things which are above, set your affection on things above, not on things in the earth. Again, Paul is speaking to the Colossian Christians when he repeats these words.

The great principle of successful living is to seek to please God. To be in right relation to God is the guiding principle. It is putting first things first.

Our Heavenly Father knows the things that we have need of, and when we give him his right to rule our lives, he will provide for us. We all desire contentment and happiness. Certainly God does not intend that we should be miserable, but sometimes we miss true happiness by seeking it in ways which God condemns.

Do not attempt to cross bridges before you come to them. We are not to fret about tomorrow. Tomorrow will have its own problems.

Much of our defeat is the result of anxious care that has not yet come. We can live only a day at a time. Do not waste a whole lifetime in learning this truth.

Today is all we need if we claim the presence and trust the promise of the Lord today. If we put him first in our lives today, he will take care of tomorrow. If we shut Christ out of our lives today, we will both waste today and lose tomorrow.

Begin each day with prayer and look into God's word, for you cannot live one day successfully without him. This is putting first things first, and I trust that our brief meditation on these few verses will help those of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior to get the very most, the very best out of life by making Christ the Lord, the guide of our daily living. Greetings to our radio friends.

Once more we have the privilege of presenting the gospel of God's grace. It's the best news that any man can hear, and I trust you are in circumstances so you will be able to listen to this gospel program. In one of the verses in the Psalms, Psalm 100 and verse 4, Be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

It pleases God when we cherish a thankful spirit, and when we express our gratitude on bended knee before him. How much we have to thank him for! There are the benefits which he daily loads us. There are all the spiritual blessings that he has made ours in Christ, and above all there is the fact that those of us who are saved can say he is our God and Father, and that Jesus Christ is our Savior.

Problems have to be faced and decisions made. We have perhaps too readily depended upon our own wisdom. It pleases the Lord that we should consult him about these things and seek definite guidance from him.

The outer life is not of much account unless it is the reflex of an inner life that is lived with God in secret. Service is of little value in his sight unless it be the outcome of communion with him behind the scenes. God grants that the future may witness a larger measure of intensity in regards to all of these things.

We shall never pass this way again, nor if we lose the months of this year can we ever regain them. Every day spent in communion with God doing his will means reward at the judgment seat of Christ. Every day spent in spiritual distance from God doing our own pleasures means loss.

Tremendous issues hang on the question of how we spend our time. Let us thank God then for fresh opportunities and seek grace to use them for his honor and for his glory. Just recently my attention was attracted to an article in newspaper under this heading, man's chief talent seems to be making self-miserable.

It was written by Hal Boyle and the dateline is New York. Man has one talent that separates him from animals, the art of making himself miserable. He is the only animal that will turn his back on joy and make himself deliberately unhappy.

He is the only animal that invents his own troubles, manufactures unnecessary woes and makes an industry out of feeling sorry for himself. He is the only animal for whom too much is never enough. Man survives the earthquakes and the tornadoes then lets himself be gnawed to death by mental gnats.

One of the things he yearns for most is prosperity and it's the very thing that he seems least able to stand. Certainly prosperity more than conscience makes cowards of us all today. No nation in history has known a greater, deeper, more widespread prosperity than the American nation has now.

But prosperity has made us petulant rather than content, uneasy rather than confident. The curse of prosperity isn't that we can't take it with us when we go, it is that prosperity doesn't seem to make us happy while we have it. As a people we feel a bit betrayed and cheated because of an amazing discovery and it's this, money isn't everything.

We always said aloud we knew this but in our hearts we secretly felt that if we had enough money we would have just about everything we wanted. We can pull a handle and see an icebox full of more food than we can eat. We can push a button and change the indoor climate from cold to warm.

We can turn a knob and hear the world's finest and the worst music and we can watch the highest paid entertainers but it is not enough. Something is missing. What do we miss? What is the meaning we have lost? And the writer of this article goes on to suggest the remedy and here it is.

Perhaps it would help if we all went out one by one into a hillside orchard, sat for a whole day under an apple tree in bloom, and thought the problem of life all through again. Now will you permit me to make a brief comment on this article? I think the facts stated regarding the restlessness of the human heart is simply terrific. It's certainly true to life.

The remedy the writer suggests is to sit for a whole day under an apple tree in bloom. I must not discourage you from doing it but just in case you can't find an apple tree on a hillside orchard let me suggest an alternate remedy. Perhaps it would help if you sat quietly under the shadows of the cross of Christ and thought the problem of life all through again.

Ask yourself the question, why did he die in such a shameful manner? You are wrong when you conclude that he was unable to defend himself and that a mob of murderers overpowered him. The bible says he died for our sins. Our sins deserve punishment before the throne of an all righteous God.

The greatest of all your problems will be settled when you see the important truth that Christ died for your sins and that on the basis of his finished work he offers pardon and forgiveness to everyone who will claim or receive him as Lord and Savior. This will keep you from feeling sorry for yourself and it will change your whole outlook. Something very important is definitely missing as long as you cannot say I know that I am saved and heaven-bound.

When a person is miserable it is definitely a normal condition for an unsaved person but on the other hand to be miserable is just as definitely an abnormal condition for a saved person. God has given to us a perfect pattern in his word that enables any person regardless of background or circumstances to possess eternal permanent satisfaction and contentment. If you don't have it you are not living.

You are merely existing. Life is too wonderful and it's too short to spend in an unhappy state. If you are not happy it's your own fault.

That's a pretty big statement but I insist that it's true. Let me repeat it. If you are not happy it's your own fault.

God has made provision whereby every person on this earth can be happy if he wants to. Now the question is do you want to be to the extent that you will heed God's word? The problem that most people are facing is they want to ignore God and then they want to say I don't understand why I'm so miserable. If looking at apple blossoms for a day will change your outlook and divorce you from misery by all means do it.

In case it does not do what God tells you to do. Receive Christ as your Lord and Savior. When you do that you are not taking a chance for millions have already found that Christ and Christ alone is the secret of a happy life.

I trust that some of you who have been miserable unhappy for quite some time you will come to the end of that kind of living. You will turn your eyes to a wonderful God who made you and who is able to make you happy. He wants to.

He's ready to do it and he will do it the moment you will give him a chance. There is nothing more wonderful than to be delivered from self-pity, from misery, to find joy that is real that comes from the heart in days of darkness as well as in days of sunshine. It doesn't make any difference what circumstances may be.

The person who has Christ has found lasting peace and satisfaction. I trust you will be changed. Your outlook will be changed this very day as you turn to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and find in him all that your heart desires.

May God help you as you consider this important problem of bringing an end to your misery.