And Father, we give thee thanks that the
impossibilities that we see are possible with thee.
We are a thankful people for Jesus Christ
and for his love, and for the privilege
of being here this morning.
And we pray that you would bless this
service, bless Dr. Smith as he delivers the
message, and Father, most of all, may thy
spirit show forth the glory of Jesus Christ,
for it's in his name we pray, amen.
You take your hymn books, please, to A
Thankful People, singing number 126, number 126.
It's our prayer time when we bring the
needs of our church to the Lord, and
when we particularly remember our sick ones.
Now, you will know that on our notice
board we post the names of those who
are sick in hospital, and we urge you
to go and look at that list, and
take some of them to your heart and
remember them in prayer.
We'd like you to especially pray for Mr.
Jack Vince in Wellesley Hospital and Mrs. Kunze
in the Toronto General Hospital.
And then we need to remember Mr. Blake
Allen, whose wife went to be with her
Lord last week.
And now shall we just unite our hearts
in prayer.
Our loving Father, we just thank thee that
we come so boldly into thy presence, into
the presence of a living, eternal God, creator
of heaven and earth, and yet, who at
the same time is our Father.
And we ask thee, Lord, for these who
are sick, that thou be very near to
them and pour thy healing virtues into their
bodies.
We pray, our Father, for the one who
is bereaved, that thou be very near to
him and especially dear to him at this
time, and may he rejoice in the wonderful
salvation into whose fullness his wife has just
come.
And then, our Father, we bring to thee
the ministry of our church.
We think of this time of Dr. Paul.
We ask thee that thou would enable him
and endure him with power from on high.
We ask thee, Lord, for our own service
here, that thou would bless our founders as
he brings the word from thee, that our
own hearts will be prepared to receive it.
Then we bring to thee our ranch, our
Sunday school, our day school, our missionary effort.
Lord, all these things we commit to thee.
Most of all, we pray, Lord, that in
our own hearts the Lord Jesus will become
increasingly precious and that he might have the
preeminence in all things.
We pray for our country.
We ask thee, Lord, if it please thee
to preserve its unity and to give great
grace and wisdom to those who deal with
these affairs.
For we ask it in the name of
the Lord Jesus.
Amen.
...
opportunity to
welcome you to the Thanksgiving Sunday service of
the People's Church.
We have a lot to be thankful for
today.
First of all, I guess we can thank
the Lord for being dry in a dry
auditorium.
No one has drowned, I trust, this past
week.
But we praise the Lord for what he's
done for us.
And I think we ought to be, there
are those this morning, I'm sure, that we're
all aware that are suffering from the moisture.
And we ought to pray for those that
God will undertake for them at this time.
Now we want to draw your attention this
morning to the bulletin that's put in your
hands for your convenience so that you will
know what's going on in the church day
after day throughout the days of this week.
There are a couple of things that I
want to draw your attention to.
Of course, we do not have time to
go into detail this morning.
But in the bulletin was a talent survey
that we would like all of you, if
you were not here last Sunday and did
not fill one out, if you'd take just
a moment now and to take it and
to fill it out and then to put
it on the offering plate as it will
be coming around just in a few moments.
But if you can help us in one
of these areas, in music, in Sunday school,
in the bus ministry, in the upkeep of
the building and the premises here, or if
you are of a profession that you feel
from time to time that you could volunteer
some of your work, we'd appreciate knowing about
it.
But please make sure that you fill in
the bottom quite completely, your name, phone number
and address, so that we can get in
touch with you whenever the need arises.
This will help us so much here in
the People's Church as more and more we're
depending upon our own people to help keep
the work going.
Now the big announcement, of course, this morning
is tonight's service.
At 7 p.m., Dr. John D.
DeBrine will be beginning the October Sunday evening
evangelistic crusade Throughout all the Sunday evenings of
October, Dr. DeBrine will be here speaking and
then showing a film each night as well
in connection with his message.
Now tonight, Dr. DeBrine will be speaking on
the subject, tragedies that are guaranteed.
Now I'm not sure just exactly how you
could take that, with the exception if you
did read in the bulletin, you would understand
exactly what he means by that.
Tragedies that are guaranteed.
Everyone, Dr. DeBrine tells us, faces six tragedies
in life.
I for one will be interested in finding
out what those tragedies are so that I
can overcome them or stay away from them,
if possible.
It doesn't sound like I can stay away
from them.
Did you hear about the man one time
who said, you know, I would give $10
,000 just to find a place where I
was going to die?
The fellow said, thought that was rather strange
and he said, well, why on earth would
you give so much just to find the
place?
I would think you'd be more interested as
to when the date would be.
And the fellow said, well, if I knew
the place, I'd never go near it.
Well tonight, in order to help you with
these tragedies, you must know what they are,
first of all, and then secondly, Dr. DeBrine
will be telling us how we can handle
them to the glory of God.
And that's tonight's service, along with the message,
of course, we'll be showing a film entitled
Disaster.
And the film tells about a young man
who was born blind.
But in spite of all this, how he
was able to deal with the problem of
blindness and today, along with that tragedy, they
tell us he water skis, rides a bicycle,
and plays basketball.
But more important, he's in full-time Christian
service.
That should be an exciting film tonight.
And all of this is at 7 p
.m. right here in the auditorium of the
People's Church.
And connection with that message, and I'm not
sure just exactly what the connection is, but
we're having a film entitled We Saw the
Ark.
Now, in my strongest imaginations, I can't make
a connection there.
But we all have been blessed, I'm sure,
right here in the auditorium of the People's
Church in months gone by, of the Search
for Noah's Ark.
And this is along this line, and I'm
sure it'll be a real help and blessing
to you.
If you know someone who is a little
bit skeptical about the Bible, the miracles of
the Bible, and what have you, then this
would be a great time for you to
bring them next Sunday night at 7 p
.m. That's all the announcements we want to
remind you with this morning.
We're going to ask the men, if they
will, to come forward at this time as
we wait upon you for your Sunday morning
offering and gifts unto the ministry of God
here at the People's Church.
How thankful we are for what God is
doing in the ministry of this church.
By His mercy and His grace, we don't
often understand why or how, but God does
it.
And if you want to have a part
in the blessing during these days in particular,
you have some of God's money, then get
in on the action.
Have a part at least in this much
of it, and I know God will bless
you for it.
But shall we look to the Lord in
prayer?
Our loving and most gracious Heavenly Father, we
thank Thee for the manifold blessings on this
Thanksgiving Sunday that Thou hast poured out upon
us this past twelve months.
Lord, we realize that it's all been of
Thy mercy and of Thy grace.
We do not deserve all the blessings that
Thou hast given to us, but we praise
Thee and we thank Thee for it.
And Father, on this day, we pray that
Thou wilt help us to lift our hearts
and our voices in adoration and praise and
thanksgiving to You, for not only what Thou
hast done, but who Thou art, and the
fact that Thou art still the Savior of
all those who come to trust Thee as
their own personal Savior.
Father, speak to hearts today, we pray, in
Jesus' name and for His sake, Amen.
Can you
relate to the message of that song?
I hope you can this morning.
I've been thinking of here of what all
we have to thank God today for, and
not the least of which, and probably the
greatest thing of all, is to thank God
for saving our souls.
And I wonder this morning, just before Dr.
Smith comes to bring us the message that
God has laid upon his heart, that you'll
take your hymn books and turn to number
50.
Number 50, and with hearts full of joy
this morning, and thanksgiving and praise unto our
God.
Let's sing this gospel song, redeemed how I
love to proclaim it, redeemed by the blood
of the Lamb.
Shall we stand together and sing verses 1
and 2, please?
First epistle, and the first chapter.
Now I know this is Thanksgiving.
I realize that perhaps we ought to have
an entire sermon on the thankfulness, the gratitude
of our hearts for all that God has
done.
But I think the greatest thing for which
we can thank God is his salvation provided
by the Lord Jesus Christ.
And therefore I'm going to speak along that
line this morning, thanks be to God for
his unspeakable gift.
The first chapter of John, of 1 John,
1 John, and the fifth verse we'll commence
to read at verse 5.
This then is the message which we have
heard of him.
Now here is God's message.
And declare unto you that God is light,
and in him is no darkness at all.
We are told by other passages of scripture
that there will be no darkness in heaven.
There will be no night there.
It will be daylight 24 hours of the
day.
No darkness, no night.
Light, the light of God.
That light will shine not from the sun,
nor from the moon, nor from the stars,
but that light will shine from God, because
God is light, and in him is no
darkness at all.
Verse 6, if we say.
Have you noticed the number of times that
the word if is used in this passage
in 1 John?
Sixth verse, if we say.
Seventh verse, if we walk.
The eighth verse, if we say.
The ninth verse, if we confess.
The tenth verse, if we say.
The second verse of the second chapter, if
any man sin.
Six times the word if is used in
this passage with which we're dealing this morning.
If, if, if.
And then also the word we.
It's very striking to note the number of
times that the word we is used in
this passage.
Verse 6, if we.
Verse 7, if we.
Verse 8, if we.
Verse 9, if we.
Verse 10, if we.
And verse 2, verse 1 in the second
chapter, we.
Again and again that pronoun we is used.
What does that mean?
That means that John is writing this epistle
to the people of God.
He is not writing it to the world.
He is not writing it to the unsaved.
He is writing it to God's own people.
And so he includes himself and he uses
the pronoun we again and again and again.
If we say that we have fellowship with
him and walk in darkness, we lie and
do not the truth.
God is light.
Therefore, if we walk in darkness, if we
walk in sin, then we lie.
Two things follow.
We lie and in the second place, we
do not the truth.
If we say that we have fellowship with
him and yet walk in darkness, are we
walking in the center of the will of
God or are we walking in darkness?
God is light.
And if we are not walking in the
light, we are walking in darkness.
And if we walk in darkness, then we
do not have the truth and we are
not walking in God's light.
The seventh verse, but if we walk in
the light, if we live in the light
as he is in the light, there again
we have the statement that God is in
the light, that God is light.
If we walk in the light as he
is in the light, then there are two
things that follow.
First, we have fellowship with one another.
And second, the blood of Jesus Christ, his
Son, tendseth us from all sin.
Now if we want to have fellowship as
Christians, if we want to have fellowship with
one another, then we've got to walk in
the light as God is in the light.
And if we do that, we have fellowship
one with another.
And in the second place, the blood of
Jesus Christ, his Son, tendseth us from all
sin.
I used to have an idea when I
was a boy that if I should be
suddenly killed, if I had not had time
to confess the last sin I had committed,
that I would be lost.
And therefore I made up my mind that
if I should suddenly be killed just a
moment before death, I would cry to God
to forgive me for the last sin I
had committed, that I might not be lost.
That was a real experience with me as
a boy.
I'll never forget it.
But that is not what God says.
He says here, the blood of Jesus Christ,
his Son, tendseth us.
And that tendseth is in the present progressive
tense, and it means that he continues to
cleanse.
He keeps on cleansing, tendseth us from all
sin, so that if we know Jesus Christ
as our own personal Savior, and if we're
walking in the light, then even though we
happen to fail God, and even though we
happen to sin, God says we're cleansed, because
the blood is continually cleansing from all sin,
cleanseth us from all sin.
And this verse states distinctly that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God, the one and
only begotten Son of the living God.
But look at verse 8.
If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not
in us.
I hold in my hand a Schofield reference
Bible, the Bible that I have used nearly
all my life in connection with my own
private devotions and my ministry.
And there's a footnote at the bottom of
this page, page 1342, having to do with
verse 7.
Verse 7 reads, but if we walk in
the light as he is in the light,
we have fellowship one with another, and the
blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, tendseth us
from all sin.
Dr. Schofield puts in this note, sin interrupts
fellowship, but cannot change relationship.
The more you read that, the more amazing
it becomes.
Sin interrupts fellowship.
Your fellowship with God is interrupted when you
sin.
You're not in fellowship with God any longer,
but it does not change relationship.
You are still God's child, even though you
have sinned.
If you have been saved, if you have
been born again, you are still the child
of God, even though you may have failed
and sinned.
Sin does not change relationship, but it interrupts
fellowship, and that's something you and I need
to keep in mind.
I remember when I was a boy, I
did something displeasing to my father, and he
thrashed me for it.
And I received two thrashings when I was
a boy that I'll never forget as long
as I live.
I want to tell you, they were powerful,
they were effective, they did the job, and
I'll never forget them.
Two things I did that I ought not
to have done.
One was disobedience.
I sinned against my father by disobeying him.
I displeased him on two different occasions, and
he thrashed me for it.
Now, I didn't enjoy it at the time,
but I've been grateful ever since, and I
thank God that he took me in hand
and punished me when I needed to be
punished.
But listen, even though my fellowship with my
father was broken, and even though he had
to punish me, and even though he did
punish me severely, my relationship with my father
remained unchanged.
I was still my father's son.
My relationship had not been broken, even though
my fellowship had been interrupted.
And so it is with a child of
God.
Your relationship with God will never be changed.
Your fellowship with God will be changed when
you sin against him.
Therein lies the difference.
And Dr. Schofield points that out as he
deals with this verse.
He says, sin interrupts fellowship but cannot change
relationship.
Confession restores.
Fellowship and immediate confession keeps the fellowship unbroken.
And that's a wonderful thing to realize, that
even though you fail God, even though you
do something that displeases your Lord, your relationship
has not been changed.
But your fellowship has been interrupted, and you're
no longer in fellowship with the Lord Jesus
Christ, but you are still in the same
relationship you were before.
If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us.
Two things happen when we declare that we
have no sin, no sinful nature.
Every man has a sinful nature.
Every man born into this world, even after
he is saved, he still has a sinful
nature as well as a God nature.
And this verse says that two things happen.
If we say that we have no sin,
first we deceive ourselves.
We don't deceive anyone else.
We do not deceive God.
But we deceive ourselves, and the truth is
not in us.
Now we come to that great ninth verse
that has been such a blessing to so
many tens of thousands of people, all down
through the years, that I've turned to again
and again for comfort when I fail God.
The ninth verse.
If we confess our sins, what happens?
He is faithful.
Why?
Because he promised.
God has promised to forgive sin, therefore he's
faithful.
He keeps his promise.
He is faithful and just.
How can he be just?
Because he atoned.
And when Jesus Christ atoned for your sin
and my sin on Calvary's cross, he was
able to forgive us our sins because our
sins had been atoned for on Calvary's cross.
Our business is to confess our sins.
And the moment a Christian commits sin, he
ought to go directly to God without a
moment's hesitation, and he ought to confess that
sin to God.
And if he does, the fellowship will remain
unbroken.
It will be maintained, and he'll be forgiven.
Now, they're one of two places that confession
must take place, either here or before the
judgment seat of Christ.
If you commit sin as a Christian and
you do not confess it here, then you
will stand before the judgment seat of Christ,
and you will have to confess it publicly
before his judgment seat.
You'll be forgiven, but you'll be punished, and
you'll have to bear the consequences, and you'll
lose your reward.
The reward that should have been yours will
be lost because you have sinned, and you
failed to confess your sin while you were
upon earth.
Now you have to face it before the
judgment seat of Christ and confess it publicly
before everyone and lose your reward.
If we confess our sins, listen to what
it says.
He is faithful, as it says, because he
promised and just because he atoned to forgive
us our sins.
And every Christian can be forgiven his sin
right here and now if he will confess
it.
But if he refuses to confess it, he'll
have to face it at the judgment seat
of Christ, not at the great white throne
judgment.
No Christian will ever stand before the judgment
of the great white throne 1,000 years
later, after the millennium.
But he'll have to face the judgment seat
of Christ before the millennium and confess his
sin then and lose the reward that might
have been his.
He'll cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
He'll cleanse us.
Those of us who are Christians will be
cleansed from all unrighteousness.
Thus you can live a righteous life by
confessing your sin immediately at once and being
forgiven.
Verse 10, if we say that we have
not sinned, we make him a liar and
his truth is not in us if we
say we have not sinned.
If there is anyone who declares that he
does not sin ever and that he never
has sinned since he was saved, if any
Christian makes that kind of a claim, then
God says very distinctly we make him a
liar because he says we have.
He declares that we have sinned even though
we're Christians and his word is not in
us.
My little children, the Scotch word there is
barrens.
My little barrens.
It's a very affectionate word.
It's a relationship between God and his children.
God and those who have been saved.
My little children, these things I write unto
you that ye sin not.
Now God's highest ideal for us is that
we live without sinning.
Now he's talking about deliberate sin.
He's talking about conscious sin.
He's not talking about sins of which we're
unconscious.
He's talking about sins that we know are
sins, conscious sins.
And he says here, my little children, these
things write I unto you that ye sin
not.
And I want to say very frankly and
very definitely this morning that there is no
reason why any Christian should commit deliberate sin,
known sin.
He is not without sin.
There are sins of which he's unconscious.
When it comes to conscious sin, deliberate sin,
then he's held guilty.
And so he says here, my little children,
these things write I unto you that ye
sin not.
No reason why you and I should commit
deliberate sin, why we should commit conscious sin.
We can live in Jesus Christ in a
place where we do not yield to conscious,
known sin.
Even though we may be guilty of unconscious
sins, we need not be guilty of conscious
sins.
And if any man sin, if we do
commit a conscious sin, if we do commit
a known sin, and I wonder if there
are any here this morning who can honestly
say, I've never committed a conscious sin since
I've been saved.
I've never committed a known sin since I've
been saved.
I'm sure there is no one here this
morning who could make such a claim.
Sometime or other since we were saved, we
have committed known sin, conscious sin.
And what happens to us?
What is the result?
What is the outcome?
He says here, and if any man sin,
and he knows that he has sinned, we
have an advocate.
There is the provision for the Christian who
commits a conscious known sin or any other
sin.
We have an advocate.
We have a lawyer.
We have someone to plead our cause.
We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous.
So Jesus Christ takes our cause, and he
pleads it before his Father God if we
commit a conscious known sin.
We have a lawyer, and he'll plead on
our behalf with God the Father.
And he is the propitiation.
He is the mercy seat.
Propitiation simply means mercy seat.
Mercy seat means a place where God and
man meet.
There where man and God meet each other,
there is forgiveness.
There is pardon.
And God says here very plainly, and he
is the propitiation, the meeting place for our
sins.
And God will meet us at the mercy
seat and forgive us our sins if we
confess them to him.
And not for ours only, but also for
the sins of the whole world.
That doesn't mean that the sins of the
whole world are going to be forgiven.
Because before a man can be forgiven, he
has to confess that he's a sinner.
He has to confess that he has sinned
against God.
And he has to receive Jesus Christ as
his own personal Savior.
The vast majority of people in this world
of ours may not be conscious of their
sins.
But whether they're conscious or not, they have
to confess that they are sinners.
And they have to get right with God.
And the vast majority will not.
Because those who are out of Christ are
greater in number than those who are in
Christ.
The vast majority of people throughout the entire
world do not belong to God.
And this verse does not mean that the
entire world is going to be saved and
everybody in it.
But it does mean that there is salvation
for the entire world.
And all that the man of the world
has to do is to accept the Lord
Jesus Christ as his own personal Savior.
And if he'll do that, he'll be forgiven
by God, his sins will be pardoned, he'll
become God's child, and he'll be saved for
time and for eternity.
Where do you stand this morning?
You claim to be a Christian.
Have you committed a sin that you haven't
confessed?
If so, then if I were you, I
would confess that sin this morning.
Before partaking of the communion, if I were
in your place and I knew I had
committed a sin against God, I would confess
it this morning.
And I would ask him to forgive me.
And I would get right with God.
Because you have no right to partake of
the communion if there is conscious, known sin
in your life that you have never confessed
and of which you have never been forgiven.
But if you have confessed your sin, that
conscious sin, that known sin, if you have
confessed it to God and God has forgiven
you, then you have every right to sit
this morning at the Lord's table and partake
of the communion.
Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift.
Where are you this morning?
Are you right with God?
Have you confessed every known conscious sin?
Or is there some sin about which you
have not dealt?
A sin that must be dealt with before
God and forgiven if you are going to
be right with God.
You can be right.
You can remain right with God.
But if there ever is a sin in
your life, that sin must be immediately confessed
and put away.
And thus you will be kept right with
God and sin will be forgiven.
Shall we bow together in prayer?
With every head bowed and every eye closed
this morning that this message has spoken to
our hearts, Dr. Smith has hit us just
where we live today.
And just as before we take our communion
service, I want to give this opportunity to
those today who feel that they have a
need, they have an unconfessed sin in their
life, they have a problem that they want
God to deal with, they want God to
forgive, and they want to be cleansed from
all unrighteousness.
And I wonder just before we close this
service in prayer just now, with every head
bowed and every eye closed and no one
looking around, I wonder if you have that
type of need right now in your heart
right now.
The Word of God says, let a man
examine himself.
I hope you'll make an altar out of
that seat that you're sitting on just now
and examine your life.
And you find something there that you believe
God needs to cleanse you from.
I wonder with this closing part of the
service that you might slip up your hand
right where you are.
Yes, God bless you.
Yes, yes, yes.
Who else this morning?
Yes, God bless you.
Downstairs?
Yes, God bless you.
My left?
Quickly, quietly.
Many of us, in fact most of us,
could probably slip up our hands this morning.
God looks down and sees you and sees
your heart this morning.
Yes, God bless you.
Let's take these and all others who needed
to raise their hands or for some reason
did not.
Let's pray before the throne of grace.
Our loving Heavenly Father, we thank Thee that
through the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son,
all of our sins can be forgiven.
We can thank Thee this morning that we
can walk from this place.
Lord, we don't understand it all.
But we thank Thee, Lord, that through the
cleansing power of Jesus Christ that we can
walk from here with lives as white as
snow.
Father, how we praise Thee for this fact.
And Father, we pray for these who raised
their hands this morning and for those, Lord,
who did not raise their hands but in
perhaps some other way have indicated that they
have a need, that there is something there,
that they need forgiveness, that they need cleansing.
And Father, as we examine our lives and
our hearts today and are about to partake
in remembrance of You, the Lord's Supper, God,
we pray that Thou would help us just
now in the quietness right there in our
seat that we may confess to You that
sin and then believe You and thank You
for cleansing us from all unrighteousness.
Father, how grateful, how thankful we are for
that we have this wonderful process, the forgiveness
of our sins to be completed right here
and now through the name of Jesus Christ.
And in His name we do pray.
Amen.
Let us take our songbooks, if you will,
please, and sing in closing Dr. Edwin Orr's
hymn, Cleanse Me.
Search me, O God, and know my heart
today.
Try me, O Savior, and know my thoughts,
I pray.
We're going to stand and sing and after
singing, we're going to go right into our
communion time this morning.
Let's make this a prayer unto God.
While we're singing, the ushers will be coming
in and making the arrangements, but dear friend,
continue your communion with God this morning as
we stand together and sing, please.