Bob Lloyd - Class 2: What Must I Do To Be Saved

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   This is Idyllwild, 1982. Third period, class two. Our teacher is Brother Robert Lloyd. His general subject, the letter to the Philippians. His title for today, What Must I Do to Be Saved? Good morning, brothers and sisters. You've all done your homework, I trust? Good. Well, then we're ready to recite. And, of course, as you know, in Jewish schools, everybody recites together. So we'll all begin.

2. 0:41

   Trust in the Lord, all of my heart, and be not in our own understanding. For all our praise and knowledge, and he shall correct my paths. Father, we're speaking of the time of the choice. You can all go to the head of the class. Thank you very much. My whole table at breakfast recited that this morning.

3. 1:08

   And some of them are teaching this period. They weren't even in the class, but their husbands taught them. So, that's right. Yesterday, we left Paul busy preaching by the riverside, living, no doubt, in the luxurious home of his newfound sister in Christ, Lydia. Things are going very well indeed here in Philippi. God sent us to Philippi, and everything is working out just great.

4. 1:47

   Well, there is one little problem. Always in life, there are little problems, aren't there? You see, there's this crazy girl, and she keeps following Paul and his company, and she keeps crying out, These men are servants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation. She just keeps on doing that.

5. 2:12

   We know that Paul must have gently tried to shut her up. But you can't shut up, crazy people. If you look in the margin of Acts chapter 16 and verse 16, you'll see that this young girl, a certain damsel, was possessed with a spirit of python. In Greek mythology, the word python refers to a serpent, or a dragon that dwelt in the region of Pytho, north of the Gulf of Corinth.

6. 2:48

   It was believed that this dragon used to guard the oracle of Delphi. He was, however, slain by the god Apollo. Now, this is all Greek mythology. But by an easy transition, this word python began to be applied to divination or fortune-telling, so that a spirit of python indicated a spirit of divination, a spirit of fortune-telling.

7. 3:16

   This poor demon-possessed girl was regarded by the superstitious people of Philippi as being able to predict the future, and they were willing to pay her for her predictions. She was a Philippian Jean Dixon.

8. 3:33

   Now, it's understandable that Paul did not cherish the idea of this demon-possessed girl calling out to him, even though she was telling the truth. What she said was absolutely right. These men are servants of the Most High God. They were. And they show unto us the way of salvation. And they were. But you see, Paul didn't want to be associated with this person who was a fortune-teller.

9. 4:04

   I mean, sometimes even people who don't have the truth do sometimes say the truth. But we don't want to be connected with them in any way, any more than light can be connected with darkness, or the servant of the Most High God with Beelzebub. And we're told that she did this day after day after day after day.

10. 4:28

    It says in your Bible, Authorized Version, that Paul was grieved. Verse 18. Rotherham says that Paul was worn out. And the New English Bible says Paul could bear it no longer. Paul tried to be patient with her. Obviously, the only way he could truly help this girl was by curing her. And so finally, in desperation, he turns around and he says, I command thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, come out of her.

11. 4:59

    And she was healed that same hour. How wonderful! Isn't this great news? This poor girl is no longer crazy. Of course, the people in Philippi didn't regard her as crazy. And you would think her owners, who probably knew the truth about her, would be so happy that this poor, deranged girl is now a normal, healthy, regular girl again.

12. 5:23

    But no, it's not like that at all. The tenderest place you can hit a person is in their pocketbook. These men had made a fortune off of this poor girl. They cared nothing for her personally. All they wanted to do was make profit from her. And so, how dare Paul take away their good business?

13. 5:51

    How dare Paul heal somebody which they were exploiting to their own ends? But now they couldn't complain. They couldn't go to the authorities and say, This poor girl who was sick, Paul's made her well. Do something to him. You can't do that. Oh, the cunningness of human nature. You ever notice when you want to do something, you have the reason you want to do it, and then you have the excuse.

14. 6:15

    And the excuse is almost never the reason. And so, they go to the authorities in verses 20 and 21, and they trump up a false charge against Paul. Let's compare what is recorded here concerning Paul with what is recorded concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 20 and 21. These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city.

15. 6:52

    And it's a Roman colony. And these Jews, they teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, because we're Romans. Now you see, that was a complete lie. Paul had not said a thing that would cause them to disobey the laws of Rome. But you see, this was a very inflammatory statement to make to people in Philippi.

16. 7:25

    Now, just compare that to what is said about Jesus in Luke 23 and 2. We found this man perverting our nation, forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar and saying that he himself is Christ, a king. And that was a lie. Jesus had specifically said, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar and unto God the things that are God's.

17. 7:55

    But they said, he said, not to give to Caesar. It was a flat-out lie. But people do lie about us when they're trying to get us in trouble. Now, the real reason for their animosity, you see, as long as Paul wasn't bothering their business, they were quite content to him to come into Philippi and go to the riverside and preach on, you know, leave him alone.

18. 8:15

    He's a poor, harmless Jew that's just mixed up probably. That's what they would think. But now, they've hid his pocketbook. Now, we've got to get rid of it. Because, boy, that hurts. That really tender spot. her master saw that the hope of their gains was gone. Of Jesus, out of envy, they had delivered him up.

19. 8:41

    So there's quite a comparison. Paul also is a type, as are so many of the faithful of Christ. He following Christ and most of them who preceded him. Now, these Roman colonists were very jealous of their rights and their customs as Romans. It's interesting how they take pride in their rights and yet they gave no rights to poor Paul.

20. 9:08

    All the things they took pride in, they didn't do. Hadn't Emperor Claudius recently ordered all Jews out of Rome and here are two Jews coming into our city and troubling it and telling us that we're supposed to disobey the laws of Rome? We've got to get them! And so look at verse 22.

21. 9:27

    The multitude rose up together against them and the magistrates ran off their clothes and commanded to beat them. It appears that the magistrates, the magistrates themselves went to the hall and then they took their whip. You can see how excited they were. So excited that the magistrates did this. They themselves ripped their clothes off.

22. 10:26

    Of course, they were above doing the actual beating. They then commanded the soldiers to beat them and they beat them with many stripes. Says verse 23. Flogging was an exceedingly He got all flatter than Paul did.

23. 10:53

    He's a good sport. Thank you, Dennis. Flogging was an exceedingly painful ordeal. Moreover, the Romans did not have a fixed number of stripes like the Jews who said forty stripes save one and that was because of God's mercy. To make matters worse, after they had been beaten until their backs were bloody and raw, they were thrust, not put in prison, they were thrust thrust into the prison and their feet were locked wide apart in gruesome stocks.

24. 11:38

    Just picture if this had happened to us. Down in this dark, damp prison, it's impossible to get comfortable. Your back is bleeding. It hurts. You're in constant pain. They didn't give you any aspirin. You can't get comfortable because your feet are stretched out like this. You can't turn over. Your back aches from the beating but it also aches from the position you're in and you're left like that.

25. 12:11

    And you don't know how long you're going to be like that because they had no trial. They had no sentence. The magistrates rule pretty much supreme they didn't know if they were going to be in there a day or a week or a month or a year or forgotten. Some people were put in prison in those days for quite minor things and they forgot.

26. 12:35

    They just stayed there until they rotted and died. And they can't get comfortable and they can't go to sleep. Now, if I was Paul, I'd say, God, what did I ever do to deserve this? I mean, didn't you tell me to go to Macedonia? I'm trying to do what you want me to do.

27. 13:01

    Why are you doing this to me, God? Oh, poor little old me! And I'd feel so sorry for myself that I probably would cry.

28. 13:13

    But Paul and Silas, although they cannot sleep, although they're in terrible pain, they're singing. And what are they singing? They're singing praise to God. They're praising God in this deplorable position they're in. And if we don't learn a lesson from that, we're not going to ever learn any lessons. That, this is recorded for us.

29. 13:41

    Brother Manfield this morning quoted for us, whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. You're supposed to learn from this. I'm supposed to learn from this, that when you have a trouble, you're supposed to sing and praise God. How can you praise God when my big toe hurts?

30. 13:58

    Well, it doesn't hurt as much as their backs hurt and you're not in jail. I mean, we feel so sorry for ourselves. A man wrapped up in himself makes a small package.

31. 14:11

    And we're pretty well wrapped up in ourselves at times. And so they're singing. But you know, we know the whole story, don't we? Well, we say, well, sure, they're going to get out in a couple of minutes and wait until that earthquake comes. They didn't know there was going to be an earthquake.

32. 14:28

    They didn't know what was going to happen. All they knew was they were in an awful predicament and they didn't deserve it. And so they were just praising God and singing. And then, of course, you know what happened. You know that at midnight there was this great earthquake. And when the earthquake quaked, all the doors opened up and everybody's chains fell off and they were free.

33. 14:56

    Well, how wonderful. The best thing to do is get out of there right now before the jailer comes out. Sneak out and run for your life, right? No, Paul didn't do that, did he? He doesn't do what's natural. It isn't natural to sing and praise God when you're hurting. It isn't natural to stay in prison when the doors open.

34. 15:14

    And God opened the doors, they could have said, well, after all, God opened the doors, it would be stupid to sit in here with the doors open. God wants us to run out. I mean, we can always talk ourselves into doing what we want to do, can't we? So the jailer asleep in the house, he wakes up too.

35. 15:31

    Earthquakes wake us up, don't they? We live in California, no. Now, he can't see much, but as he comes into the courtyard of the jail, he can see in the semi-darkness that all the doors are open. And so, he knows what happens when doors of prison open and people run out, normally. But Paul and Silas are not normal prisoners.

36. 15:55

    So he says, well, the only thing to do is to kill myself. If you turn to Acts chapter 12 and verse 19, you'll see why. This is an instance when Peter is in jail. And he's hopelessly incarcerated. He's no way he's going to be able to get out. He's bound between two soldiers, bound with two chains.

37. 16:20

    There's keepers at the door of the prison. I mean, even Houdini probably couldn't get out of a predicament like that. But he's asleep. Now, that's interesting. He hadn't been beaten at this point. I mean, if you were going to be killed in the morning, could you sleep the night before? Peter did. Well, I mean, that's faith, isn't it?

38. 16:39

    He had more faith than all the people praying for him. All the people praying for him, praying for Peter to come out. When he gets there, they say, you can't be Peter, you're in jail. I mean, I remember Brother Harry Tennant once saying, he says, if you're going to pray for rain, carry an umbrella.

39. 16:58

    I mean, we should believe in our prayers. And here's all these people praying for Peter, and when God answers their prayer and releases them, they don't believe it. They say, it can't be you. Rhoda won't even let him in. But at any rate, he gets out of prison, as you know. Well, in the morning, when they go to get Peter, he's not there.

40. 17:16

    Verse 18 of chapter 12. Now, as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers. What became of Peter? You could tell why there was no small stir. They were in the same predicament that the Philippian jailers in.

41. 17:30

    And so Herod says, okay, bring me Peter. Oh, he can't, he's gone. Well, you're fired. No, no, you're not fired, you're dead. And when Herod had sought for him and found him not, he examined the keepers. Now, that doesn't mean that he gave him an examination. He says, now I'm going to ask you some questions.

42. 17:50

    I'm going to cross-examine them. Just what happened last night? No, they beat him. And so it's better just to die at your own hands quickly than to be beaten and then end up dead anyway. You can see how fast Dennis ran.

43. 18:05

    So these fellas, he examined the keepers and then he killed them. That's what happened in jails in those days if the prisoners got away. So the Philippian jailer knew this. So the only thing to do is to kill himself because he was going to be dead anyway and at least he saved the beatings he was going to get beforehand.

44. 18:28

    Now just pretend again that we're Paul and we're Silas. First of all, we've been beaten and whether the jailer did any of the beating we don't know, but the could have been the same one that administered the beating or it could have been some of his employees, it's not said, but he was the one who thrust them into the prison and he's the one to lock their feet in the stock.

45. 18:49

    He wasn't gentle, he said, well now Paul, I know you're an old man. It's any brother Mansfield when we were discussing this yesterday at our coffee clutch has figured out that Paul was between 45 and 48 and I think he's right on, give, take 20 years one way or the

46. 19:08

    I'm sure that's about right somewhere in, but so you young people think anybody that age is really over the hill. Of course, I don't think so because I'm going down the other side of that hill. But you think this jailer would have said, no, you poor old man, Paul, I'm sorry that they beat you, so later let me help you into nothing doing.

47. 19:25

    He thrust them in. So he wasn't very nice to them either. Now he's outside and the light's out there and Paul and Silas are inside and it's dark in there. He can't see in, but they can see out. And he sees, they watch the jailer and the jailer says, oh, they got it, what am I going to do?

48. 19:43

    Well, kill myself. Well, you know, with guns and things it's easier to do, but with swords it's a little harder. I mean, to get that thing it's hard to, you know, how to push it in. So the way you do it, you dig a little hole in the ground and you bury the handle in the ground and then you have the sword sword up like that.

49. 20:02

    Then you just get over here and you go, and it goes right, you know, so he's busy doing that. That's what it says, you see, he was preparing to kill himself. It takes a little preparation, you don't just, so there's Paul and Silas watching. Now, the normal reaction was, well, you know, vengeance is mine, I'll repay Seth the Lord.

50. 20:23

    We mustn't put our hand on him, but if stupid enough to kill himself, let him go ahead. I mean, well, just be quiet and wait a few minutes and he'll go. I mean, that's the natural reaction. You could say, I didn't touch him, God, you were my witness, never saw it, didn't do a thing.

51. 20:42

    Oh, yes, sometimes silence is a sin. Sometimes you can sin by being quiet when you could speak and save somebody. It's true then, it's true in life. If you're silent about the word of God to a person that's perishing and you don't tell them that you can save them and you can help them, it's your sin.

52. 21:07

    And they'll die and their blood will be on your head. And if this Philippian jailer had died at his own hands, his blood would have been on Paul's head. And Paul said, do thyself no harm, we're here, we're all here. what a wonderful thing. That's really returning good for evil. That's really loving our enemies.

53. 21:31

    That's really blessing those that curse us. Remarkable thing happened. The jailer is now bowing down to the prisoner and saying, sirs, what must I do to be saved? the jailer must have known about the healing of the little girl. He must have known that Paul had been preaching. Paul hadn't preached one word to the Philippian jailer at this time.

54. 22:00

    You see, the way you live is a way of preaching. What you are is hollering so loud, I can't hear what you're saying. So if you don't live the truth, there isn't any use of you going out preaching the truth. And so we are to be living exhortations to everyone that knows us.

55. 22:24

    And so the Philippian jailer asks for help. He asks to be saved. Does everyone, have you ever had anyone ask you, what do you have to do to be saved? Not that I really want it, but what do you have to do? Well, it's a nice day today, isn't it? Think the Rams are going to win or the Dodgers or something?

56. 22:51

    And you change the subject because you're embarrassed. I mean, sometimes, well, you wouldn't, him, oh, well, he has no interest in religion. Well, at that moment, maybe his heart was touched. I mean, we ought to seize every opportunity as well as making opportunities to preach the truth. Paul was ready with an answer right now.

57. 23:14

    Not only was he an opportunist to answer the question for the Philippian jailer, but he knew that the Philippian jailer had family, and he said, I want them included. In other words, again, he was seeking more than just the jailer. He wanted as many as he could get into Christ. And so, he gives him the answer, doesn't he?

58. 23:35

    Believe, verse 31, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And not only you, your house as well. Now, he's not talking about saving a house. Houses don't get in the kingdom. He means those that lived in the house, his household, his wife, his teenage children, perhaps, perhaps his servants.

59. 23:54

    At any rate, they were all awake. Nobody could sleep with an earthquake going on like that. So, he was ready with his answer, and he gave them the answer.

60. 24:06

    Now, it's interesting to notice, in verse 32, and he spake unto him, and that's Paul and Silas, spake unto the jailer, the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. Now, again, I think I would have said, well, look, jailer, my back really hurt. Some of you, some of the tooth corers got their back sunburned last week, and they've been moaning around, and you can't dare touch him or anything, and they don't hurt anything like Paul hurt.

61. 24:39

    And so, so if I've been Paul, and the jailer says, what must I do to be saved? Well, I'll tell you what, jailer, get me some first aid here, after I feel a little better, I'll tell you. that's not what he did at all, is he? He first preached, he first offered them salvation, and then later, they took him and washed their stripes.

62. 25:05

    And probably all the time he's working on their stripes, he's working on their brains, because they were ready to be baptized, by the time the stripe washing was over. So the jailer washed the stripes of Paul, and Paul washed away the sins of the jailer in the waters of baptism. And it appears that perhaps they had a breaking of bread service immediately, because he took them into the house and they had meat.

63. 25:34

    We're not positive, but it could very well have been the jailer's first breaking of bread service, remembering his new Lord, new to him, his Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, that was quite an exciting night, and nobody got very much sleep that night.

64. 25:53

    Evidently, Paul and Silas didn't go back and get in jail again, because in the morning they come, and we may have spent the night in the jailer's home, it doesn't say, and it's not important, but they certainly didn't try to get away, they stayed, and the next morning the magistrates sent the sergeant, and said, let him go.

65. 26:14

    Now, why did they do that? Well, that earthquake wasn't just on the side of the jail, that earthquake was all over Philippi. Everybody in Philippi had been shaking that night, and most everybody in Philippi knew about what had happened the day before, because this was big talk. What happened to the town square of Philippi yesterday?

66. 26:34

    Wowee! You know, they would tell the whole story. I mean, the gossip would go through the town, even though they didn't have telephones in those days. I mean, they still had fast means of communications like telling each other, which is the way most communications spread anyway. So, by the next morning, the magistrates wondered, I wonder if that earthquake was connected to those troublemakers we dealt with yesterday.

67. 26:58

    The best thing to do is just sit down, get rid of them, tell them that they can go. Well, the jailer, he's overjoyed with this. He goes to them and he says, well, I've got good news for you. You're free. You're no longer my prisoners. You can go.

68. 27:13

    I might have done what the jailer thought that Paul would do. I'd say, good, I'm getting out of here. But Paul didn't do that. Well, why didn't Paul do that?

69. 27:28

    Always thinking of others. Always considerate of his brethren and sisters. Always putting them ahead of himself. So he says, they've beaten us, verse 37, openly and uncondemned. And we're Romans. And they have cast us into prison. And now are they going to trust us out privately? No, sir. You let them come and fetch them themselves.

70. 27:53

    And so that's exactly what happened. The sergeants take this word back. If you look at verse 38, in verse 38, the sergeants take these words back to the magistrates. And they tell the magistrates, you know what you've done? Those were Romans that you beat. And, oh boy, that really filled the magistrates with great terror.

71. 28:17

    What's been quite a scene, these purple robed magistrates descending down into the prison, in the dungeon, and as we would say today, eating crow to offer their humble apologies to these two men and say, would you just please come out? Different attitude altogether than the day before, did you notice? They desired them to leave the city.

72. 28:47

    They besought them, and they brought them out. There was a certain degree of tender, loving care, which was a little bit too late, wasn't it? But they were certainly humbled by their experience. Now, if Paul and Silas, if their desire had been to get revenge, they wouldn't have done this. They would have reported them to the higher authorities over the magistrates.

73. 29:17

    Because the magistrates had really committed a grievous sin. When you beat a Roman citizen uncondemned, you know that Paul was later on going to have a beating, and he got out of it by saying, is it lawful you beat a Roman and uncondemned? And he said, take heed, what you do to this man?

74. 29:35

    He's a Roman. Oh, are you a Roman? Yes, I was freeborn. Well, I bought this with a great price. So you just don't beat Romans. And they had. Now, Paul could have gotten them fired. He could perhaps have had them executed. That's what he could have done if he had been of that nature and had not followed the commandments of Christ and he was just out to get them because they got him.

75. 30:00

    nothing like that was in the back of Paul's mind. He wasn't having them come into the prison and bring them out themselves because he wanted to get vengeance on them. He was leaving a little ecclesia in Philippi. And they were going to have problems with the magistrates in the future. And if he set the scene and he let the magistrates know that you couldn't toy with these Christadelphians in Philippi, the Christadelphian ecclesia in Philippi would be much better treated in the future as a result of Paul doing this than they would have that he had not done it.

76. 30:31

    So Paul's complete thoughts here were not of himself but for others. So Paul and Silas then go back to Lydia's house. Why did they go back to Lydia's house? So that they could have all the brothers and sisters feel sorry for him and commiserate with him and say, oh you poor Paul, poor Silas, what you've been through, oh you poor dear souls.

77. 30:54

    Is that why they did it? Just let's see what it says. Verse 40, and they went out of the prison and entered into the house of Lydia. And when they'd seen the brethren, they comforted them. That's Paul and Silas comforted the brethren. Not the brethren comforting Paul and Silas. We have to make sure we know who the they's and them's are.

78. 31:15

    And then Paul and Silas left. But Paul and Silas were in this beaten condition. The stripes were still there. They'd been washed but you know after you've cut yourself, you put alcohol on it, you put some mercuricomb on it, but it's still there. And it's going to be there until nature heals it.

79. 31:34

    And it took a long time for the stripes to heal on Paul's back. And no doubt the scars he bore to his death. And so they comforted the brethren. But did you catch the word brethren? The first word, time we have the word brethren in this chapter regarding of Philippi. We thought there were only sisters here.

80. 31:58

    It only mentions Lydia and other women who went to the riverside to pray. There are brethren in the city of Philippi. So Paul had made a great impact in this area. But what was their names? Well, they're not even mentioned here either. We don't know at this point any of the names of the brethren in Philippi.

81. 32:16

    We will later on when we get to the book. But in every ecclesia, in every part of the world, there are brethren that are, so far as we are concerned, nameless. You and I don't know them. Now, we know the brethren here. And most of us who come from Southern California know the brethren in the ecclesias around here.

82. 32:43

    But you don't know the brethren in Brother Wilford Ely's ecclesia, no Brother Pers Mansfield ecclesia, and there are brethren in those ecclesias whose names are completely foreign to you. You have never heard the name pronounced. They are not exhorters, they are not speakers, they are lecturers, they don't travel as these brethren have come over to help us, but they are brethren.

83. 33:06

    And many of them, their names are written in the book of life. And that's true of us because you see, God's not called many mighty, mighty noble, mighty famous, many bright people. He's called simple folk. As we heard this morning about lambs, and the lamb is the most stupid animal almost there is, isn't it?

84. 33:30

    And the goat can run circles around a lamb, mentally. If you have sheep and goats, you know that goats are ten times smarter than sheep. And yet, when Christ is going to separate the sheep from the goats, which side do you want to be on? Do you want to be a bright goat or a dumb sheep?

85. 33:50

    Do you want to be a follower of Christ or somebody so puffed up with your own intelligence and your own way and your own bullheadedness? I guess it's not bullheadedness when it's a goat, it's goat headedness.

86. 34:02

    That you won't do what God wants. But you see, there's lots of brethren like those that he comforted here. If you just turn over to chapter 21, you'll find that when Paul gets to Jerusalem, he stays with an old brother, Nason. Brother Nason was from Cyprus. But we don't think about him except that one spot.

87. 34:33

    Dear old brother Nason, what a lovely brother he was. He took Paul in and kept him in his home. He had a spare, but what did he do? We talked about it yesterday. He was hospitable. Every example you have of people on the right side at the judgment seat are people who weren't those that knew everything.

88. 34:57

    They weren't the great speakers, the mighty orators. It's how did you treat one another? I was sick. And you came to see me. I was in prison. I was naked. I was hungry. You took care of me. That's the way you serve Jesus. That's what lambs do. Oh, goats are much more clever.

89. 35:17

    Watch a goat scamper up to the top of a mountain. Sit on a little and look at you. Look how clever I am. And the little sheep down there says, you sure are smart. I can't do that. But the sheep's going to be in the kingdom. And the goat isn't. We need to not ever let what we know puff us up so that we get goatish instead of lamish.

90. 35:42

    In other words, knowledge, Paul says, puff us up. Love. Edify. Love makes us humble. And I don't care how much you know, says Paul. I don't care if you have the gift of prophecy and you understand all things. If you don't have love, it doesn't matter. Paul was a mighty expositor of the scriptures.

91. 36:05

    But he was still a sheep. He still cared. We've had two classes this morning about shepherds. And every one of us are shepherds and we're going to get to in just a minute if I don't get ahead of my notes.

92. 36:21

    But you go to any ecclesia, almost any place in the world, we have brethren here from New Zealand, Australia, England, you're going to find in their home ecclesiaries and other ecclesiaries in their country, lovely brethren nations. We have a multitude of brethren nations at this Bible school. Some of you have supported this school since its foundation.

93. 36:46

    You have never been a teacher, but you are the kind of people for whom Christ died. You're the ones that he loves. And you are constantly doing kind things for one another. There's a brother over in Australia that I met the first time when we went to New Zealand. And he's a very kind brother.

94. 37:11

    And he's always thinking of other people. And on this bus trip, he would get up in the morning and make sure he carried all the sisters' suitcases out to the bus. And at night he would carry them all in because he didn't want them to struggle. His name is Jeff Martin. And he's a dearest brother.

95. 37:29

    Purse knows him well. And he just oozes love. I don't know if he's a speaker or not. I've never heard him speak. But he's an outstanding in my mind Christian Elphian.

96. 37:41

    He's had a bad heart attack. We were here the last time. We couldn't see him. We're all set to go and he had a heart attack while we were there. This time we got to go out and visit him. He comes to a meeting in a home. They had a big gathering. And all the brethren are in the living room visiting and talking and I go out in the kitchen and there's Jeff Martin out with his sisters helping with the dishes.

97. 38:02

    He always does kind things. No matter where he goes, whatever he does, there's no task that he thinks is too important for him. He would sit down and scrub the floor, clean the toilet, whatever you ask him to do. Here am I, send me. Those are the kind of brethren that God is looking for.

98. 38:21

    It's the kind of Philippians. We're studying the book of Philippians. Not so that we'll know more about Philippians than everybody else and we go home and say, boy, am I an expert on Philippians. Let me set you straight. That's not why we're studying it. We're studying it so that we can find how they live so that we can live that way.

99. 38:44

    We can find out what they did wrong so we won't do it. If what they did right so we will do it. But we must learn from these examples. And so Paul comforted these brethren who are now nameless and off he goes. Now, let's contrast the experiences of Paul with that of Jesus again.

100. 39:08

     We go to Philippians. We're studying the book of Philippians, you know. Chapter 3, we're just building up to it. We're hoping that our background of what happened in Philippi will help us appreciate it more when we get to Philippi. And so in chapter 3 of Philippians in verse 10, Paul says, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death.

101. 39:40

     If by any means I might attain of the resurrection of the dead, he was willing of Christ. He was willing to suffer for Christ and praise God while he was doing it. Are you? Chapter 1, verse 29, For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him.

102. 40:13

     Yes, we want all of you to believe on Jesus. Right? Wonderful. Just get baptized and from then on you are going to be on a big wide road going downhill with the wind at your back and the sun shining from then on. Right?

103. 40:26

     Wrong. For unto you it is given in behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake. Are you willing to suffer for Christ? What do you do simply because you belong to Jesus that you don't really like to do and if you weren't a Christian you sure wouldn't be doing it?

104. 40:56

     Just think over the last week the week before you came out what did you do because you belong to Jesus and you didn't want to do it and you did it because you loved Jesus and it wasn't too pleasant what did you do think of one thing two three four five six none you can't think of anything that's telling you something isn't it but the good news is that next week can be different this week the rest of this week this week is still young this week let's make sure we each do something we have a wonderful family of Christodophians to do things for let's do something for each other that we do only because we love Jesus if you just go up and pal around with your friends and you talk to the people that have the same interest as you do if you like race cars they like race cars

105. 41:52

     would Jesus be pleased I mean this week let's make ourselves here we are being catered to in every way by the brethren who have come from afar to teach us by the kitchen staff that are feeding us food by the committees that have worked so hard to have everything ready for us but what are we doing to show our love for Jesus let's put ourselves out !

106. 42:14

     a little bit question so we must suffer for Christ's sake and of course you know that Christ suffered now we had a lot of talks today about lambs and shepherds and of course what a lamb does a lamb follows a shepherd and Jesus said he was a good shepherd and his lambs followed him but the thing is we are to be lambs and shepherds at the same time we have both roles you and I we think we're lambs we'll do the following yes but there's somebody following you Paul says be followers of me even as I also am of Christ could you say that could you say you follow me because I'm following Jesus I don't think any of us would be quite so bold to say you just follow me because I'm following Jesus but you know whether you like it or not somebody is following you you can say well nobody would follow me yes every person in this room somebody is following we have some of our sweet little grandchildren up here this week and two little of my grandchildren had a tea party with Tammy Bearden yesterday well Tammy Bearden is a big girl she's five years old they're only two and three they follow Tammy look at that big girl we look at Tammy we think Tammy is a little girl but she looks at the seven year old looks at the nine the nine the !

107. 43:50

     the ! the ! the ! the ! Look at the old folks I mean everybody's following somebody I mean every one of us are followers but it was Brother Wilfred Alley said all of us are somebody's shepherd he said that in his first period class this morning you're all somebody's shepherd now I want you to ask yourself this question and I want you to answer it but only to yourself it's none !

108. 44:20

     my business what your answer is if somebody right now is following you are you leading them toward Christ or away somebody is following you which way are you leading them that's a sobering question the problem is that most people are interested in what they want to do when they want to do it it it ever been thus he said to the Philippians all seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christ just think of those people in Philippi and what they thought was important it wasn't important they thought it was important but it wasn't important they were seeking their own and what you and I are doing that we think is so important it takes !

109. 45:13

     so ! much of our time it isn't important in the final retening of things most of the things we do are not important only what we do for Christ is important somebody is following you where are you taking them I am so glad you didn't follow me this morning I locked myself out of my trailer and Felix Paggie helped push me through the window but he didn't follow me through it but I mean I was quite a sight and I was just glad you weren't following me at that moment anyway !

110. 45:49

     But people are following us and when somebody follows you where are you taking them that's a question we each must ask ourselves every day now the people in Philippi the magistrates were scared stiff as a result of what they had done to Paul and were told concerning Jesus that they shall look on him whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn what is going to be your reaction when Jesus comes we talk about the return of Christ we pray that it will be soon !

111. 46:50

     we say with words the coming of Christ is going to be the greatest thing in the world it's true it is it's going to be the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to this earth but the question what is it going to do for you and being selfish we each need to ask that question and answer it for ourselves because you see the coming of Christ may be the most awful thing that has ever happened to you since you been born or the best thing that has ever happened to you and you're deciding and I'm deciding right now which is going to be he's not deciding he's already called you you can't come here there's not a person in this room that hasn't been called you may not all be baptized you may not have accepted the call but everyone in this room has been called just like when a mother calls her children sometimes they obey and they come and sometimes they don't he died for you god has called you no man can come to me except the father which hath sent me call him most of you have responded to the call but not everybody that's been baptized is going to be in the !

112. 48:09

     and yet ! everybody that's been baptized could be in the kingdom and those that aren't it's not going to be God's fault it's not going to be Jesus' fault it's not going to be Paul's fault it's going to be our own because we didn't follow Jesus we didn't follow Paul we can blame Well I followed him Paul says that we shouldn't compare ourselves to one another he says if you wise and the reason is you can always find somebody worse than you and you say well I know I'm not a very good Christian but I'm not so bad compared to him you can always find somebody worse than you and you can always find somebody better than you and the one can give you comfort and the other can can make you feel well I can never speak like him or I can

113. 49:11

     a D and four B's can you you know you have a brain and I'm trying to get thoughts to stay but sometimes when we talk you know it comes in here and it doesn't catch on anything and it goes right out the other side so if you can just have a hook in the middle so some of the thoughts stop on the way through can you remember a D and four B's can you just remember the letter D and four B's this is what it means doing your best is better than being the best you do your best you don't worry about anybody else and how else they can do !

114. 49:54

     you do better than being the best no matter who you are where you go you are going to find somebody that does what you do better than you can do it it's in sports in music whatever you do there's always somebody well let him do it let her do it I mean Isaiah could have said who shall go for us here am I send him!

115. 50:16

     so you do ! your best ! don't worry about what the other person is doing don't compare yourself to one another you do your best God never asks you to do more than your own best and we're not created equal at all in no way are we created equal only in that we all have 24 hours a day to serve the Lord nobody has more nobody has less but in no other way are equal but God doesn't ask you to be equal to somebody else he asks you to do your best for him so doing your best is far better than being the best so don't ever turn down God's request for you to serve him the brothers sisters up here ask you to do something don't refuse it because somebody else can do it do it do your best do it with your !

116. 51:04

     we looked at yesterday that's why everyone in this room because your own goodness won't get you there anyway the only reason we're going to be kept out of the kingdom is because we didn't try and if you just do your best and try your best God will forgive you for what you fail he will overlook your inadequacies because he knows our frame he knows what you're like all we have to do each one of us is do our best and that's good enough don't worry about the other person who's way down the road way ahead if we were not jogging and I jogged the best I could and all the rest of you left me behind as long as I'm doing my best that's good enough because it's one race where everybody can win in races in the world the winner makes everybody else a loser in the race for eternal life we can all be winners there doesn't have to be a single loser in the whole life so let's don't seek our own things let's seek the things of Jesus Christ let's follow Paul because Paul followed Jesus and just remember brothers and sisters somebody somebody this week at this school somebody is following you make sure that whoever is behind you following you that you're leading them to Christ your verse this week has to do with following if someone is following you are you leading them to Christ is the question can you say be followers of me even as I also am of Christ and so your homework for tomorrow night is Philippians 4 verse 9 which is the last

117. 53:11

     quote in this little pill that you'll be given those things which ye have learned and received and heard and seen in me do and the God of peace shall be with you