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The gospel according to Matthew chapter six. Matthew chapter six, verse three. The words of the Lord Jesus, but when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly or publicly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to stand praying, they love to stand, to pray standing, pardon me, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.
Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet or thine inner chamber, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly or publicly. Chapter twenty three, chapter twenty three of the same gospel, please. And verse twenty five. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Even so, ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Now, I, uh, I don't have a special missionary message prepared for this morning, but, uh, there's no use me giving you something that hasn't spoken to my own soul first.
And so I want to give you something that has, that God has spoken to me about, and then we'll pass on to tell you something of the Lord's work in Costa Rica. Now, you will notice that in these portions that we've been reading together, that the Lord con- makes a contrast between the life in secret and that which is public. In between that which appears unto men and that which is inward. And he points out to it to us that the most important thing is that which is in private before God.
That's what I want to speak on this morning for a little, a little while, the importance of our private life, that we might learn to live it in the light of God's holy presence. In Matthew chapter twenty three, we have the importance of holiness in the private life. And we would have to say that we, of course, that there is great importance on our public life place, because, of course, that is what constitutes our testimony.
And so we would, uh, realize the importance of having a public life that is clean and dedicated. But the Lord says, first cleanse that which is within. And, uh, he speaks here in Matthew chapter twenty three of the life of the individual under the symbolism, the figure of a cup and a platter. Now, those are vessels for use, aren't they? Now, when God reaches in and saves an individual, he has a purpose for that life, whether it be the morning of the life, the noonday of the life, or later on, God has a purpose in saving, a present purpose, in saving each individual.
You remember that the dying thief was only reached a few hours before he was in the presence of his Lord in paradise, and yet God has used the testimony of his conversion to many millions. God can prosper a life even saved so late. But we're as cups or platters. Just to give it a simple application, as a cup, we could be used as a vessel of bringing a drink of life-giving water from the wells of salvation to thirsty souls.
We should be doing that here as well as on the mission field. And then it may be the life as a platter. That is to say that there are saints and young believers that need to be fed and nourished in the good word of God, and we can be as a platter, as a vessel, used in the master's hand to bring something of spiritual nourishment and refreshment to others. But of course, there is a necessity in that. The necessity is that the vessel be purged, sanctified, cleansed, made fit for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.
I wonder sometimes if that is why, when I stand up and preach, and I have my little platter, that it seems so empty, nothing but a few bones on it, because the Lord hasn't seen fit to place something on the platter, because of lack of holiness in the private life. But you see, we have to take these things to ourselves. Now, there's a verse here in Matthew chapter six. I'm going to take it out of context for a moment, we'll put it back in later, but in Matthew six, the Father seeth in secret.
And that would be a good verse for some of us to have in our rooms, in our inner chambers, wouldn't it? Not only for encouragement, but for searching. The Father seeth in secret. And you remember how that one of the choicest men of the Old Testament fell into tragedy in his life through lack of carefulness, through lack of realize- of realizing the eye of God upon him in his private life. Oh yes, Bathsheba shouldn't have been having her bath, uh, in an exposed way, but he didn't have to stay and contemplate it neither. He should have been like Joseph, who fled away from those things.
And so you see the contemplation of those, of those things in the private life led to tragedy in that choice man of God's life. We need to be very careful about we, what we read and what we contemplate and what we listen to and what we're occupied with, eh, and our conversations. All these things need to be remembered that the Father seeth in secret. Well, I'm going to pass on quickly then, and uh, but to remember that the Lord has set our iniquities in, uh, before him, our secret sins and our secret lives in the light of his countenance, and remember that if we are going to j- enjoy the blessing of the Lord and the presence of the Lord in our public lives.
We must be prepared to live our pres- our private lives in the light of his holy presence. Then when we come to Matthew chapter six, we have the importance of prayer in the private life. We were lamenting yesterday the deterioration. We were lamenting that there doesn't seem to be the power of God that there used to be. I wonder if this is the reason. I wonder if we're too busy to have time to get into the presence of God.
Eh? Is that where the breakdown is? And many of us that even that are full-time serving the Lord get so busy for God that we're not taking time to be alone with God. You remember the Lord Jesus in Acts chapter ten, He went about. That was the public life of the Lord Jesus. He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil. Why? For God was with him.
And what was behind that? The Lord went out as he was want to the Mount of Olives. The Lord rose early every day and had that time before the, the sun had ever rose. The Lord was out in the Father's presence. He was out seeking the secret place to be alone with God. And so you see, if we are going to know God with us, then we know need to know what it is in private to be with.
Well, the Lord bless these simple meditations, and now I want to tell you a little of the work in Costa Rica. Now, uh, Costa Rica is the second smallest of the Central American republics, and I'm sure most of you know where Panama is, connecting the North America and South America, so we're just one country to the north of that. And it is a country of about two hundred two and a quarter million people, approximately three hundred and fifty five people per square mile on the central plateau, where most of the work is, where all of the work really is carried on.
Now it is the second most Catholic country in all of the Western Hemisphere, the Vatican claiming ninety five point eight faithful Roman Catholics in Costa Rica. Now that makes it a very difficult and a hard field, but we're thankful that nothing is too hard for the law. It's very difficult, especially in children's work, simply because Catholicism is an obligatory subject in the schools, and of course, as soon as children come along to the Sunday schools, they all give the wrong answers, according- of course, they're the right answers, but the wrong answers according to the priests in the catechism classes in the school, and so the priest is immediately on top of them, and there's very, very difficult to carry on, uh, work for the children and get the gospel to them in Costa Rica.
And those that do come, oftentimes if we come and we go around and pick them up, while they'll, they'll hide, they'll duck down under the window level so that nobody will see them as they're coming along to the Sunday school. Well, uh, we have another famous first in Costa Rica. Not only is it the second most Roman Catholic country, it is a, a very immoral country, and we have the highest illegitimate birth rate in the whole world. And this means that, uh, especially that work amongst young people is very, very difficult. Nevertheless, we thank God that there, uh, that God has worked amongst young people in Costa Rica, and we have some very choice jewels amongst the, amongst the young people.
I'm going to mention one that I mentioned on a previous occasion, but I'll mention her now for a per- special purpose. One of the very first ones that, uh, trusted the Lord Jesus Christ in, in Ciudad Colón. And I should mention that we were the first assembly missionaries in, uh, Costa Rica, arriving nine and a half years ago. And she was, we started the work there in Ciudad Colón, or rather the Lord did, and uh, and this little girl, uh, not so little, it's a teenager, Julia, she trusted the Lord Jesus as her savior. She was very severely burnt as an infant.
She crawled into a burning garbage heap and was very, very severely burned, and her body is completely covered with scars. She has been subject to no end of skin grafting, and because she was deformed, her feet are completely, uh, almost completely burned off. She has from, from just from other parts of her body, she just has pads, uh, attached onto her bones for feet. And so she was very despised by her father. And if she was despised and her father was merciless in her beatings before she got saved, he was worse after. And she has, she has ba- scars on her body, likewise, when after she trusted Christ as her Savior, her father used to beat her mercilessly and break chairs over her and such like.
She bears scars from her own father as well. But you know, she was faithful in her testimony. And, uh, the result was there was one of her brothers who was a JW, if you know what that is, and, uh, very, uh, very, uh, persecuted her very much, but her faithfulness in testimony amid suffering was something that spoke to his soul, and in due time he came to the Lord Jesus as well, and he, along with his sister, are now in the Assembly Fellowship in Ciudad Colom. And, uh, when Bob and I went down about, uh, that's my boy, he went down to about two years ago.
Louis Angil, that's the third brother, was coming out to the, started coming out to the gospel meetings, and he too had been spoken to by the faithfulness of his sister amid the sufferings and persecutions to which they had subjected her continuously. And the result is that one day, when he was coming home from work, he was riding down one of the steep hills with lots of curves on it on his bicycle, and my, the words that the uh, minist- the word that he of the gospel that he heard in the gospel meeting came home to his soul, and he says, and he wa- he wondered to himself, well, if my bicycle goes out of control, it was a ten speed, and it was coming down at a tremendous rate, if my bicycle goes out of control and I have an accident now, where will my soul be?
He says, I knew that I would be in hell, and right there as I was coming down the hill at about forty miles an hour, he says, I acknowledged my sin before God, and I trusted the Lord Jesus as my savior. Now Luis Angel is baptized, and he's in the assembly, and uh, and when uh Bob left about uh, and came north about eight months ago, since that time, Luis Angel has, has really almost, shall I say, he's been our right hand man. He's been com- he has completely dedicated himself to only saved a year and a half now, but I think he's he preaches one or or two times per week, and uh, it doesn't matter what there is.
If there's a floor to wax, he's there to wax it, and uh, if there's the garden to be arranged around the hall, he's there to arrange it, and he has uh, he's progressed mar- very remarkably for a young man that's only a year and a half saved, and um, and he manifests a great sense of responsibility, which is completely lacking amongst so many of the Costa Rican men. And so I'm mentioning him because I would like you to pray for him, because he has a definite potential of usefulness for God, and if he keeps on the way he's going, I wouldn't be surprised if he may be our first native worker down there in Costa Rica.
And, uh, as I say, uh, you don't expect a man of the, of that's only been saved that long to have a tremendous gift, but he does have a gift, and he's put himself, complete himself completely out for the things of God. So I want you to especially pray for this young man, Luis Ángel. Now, the work amongst young people is difficult, but the most promising work has has been, at least in where we make our home, in, uh, amongst the married couples. And, uh, this has provided a greater measure of stability to the work.
A number, a lot, uh, quite a number of married couples have, have one after another come to the Lord Jesus as their savior. And in the assembly in Ciudad Colón at the present time, uh, apart from ourselves and from the Presleys who are carrying on, are, are, that meet with us there as well, there are at least, uh, ten married couples in the assembly in Ciudad Colón, and we're very, very thankful for that, and it has have, uh, supplied, supplied a stability to the work in that area. Now, because of the, uh, work in, in the area expanding, and, and, uh, we recently have found it necessary to double the size of the hall in Ciudad Colom.
We had a little gospel hall previous to that, and we have just finished, I spent the last four months in the working on the construction of of the hall, along with about five other men. In fact, I was working on it just about ten hours before I stepped on the plane to come north here, uh, at the present time, a week and a half ago. But, uh, the Lord has been kind to us in giving us a large hall. It's about, uh, uh six meters wide and about thirteen meters long. I suppose it would almost be about the size, say, of the South Main Gospel Hall, something like that, or Hastings East Gospel Hall. And so the saints are thrilled with this, and of course the only problem is our hall was full before, now it's half empty, and so we might pray that the Lord would continue the work, and we'll have, we don't mind at all if we have to expand the hall again.
Well, now I should mention our fellow workers, and that is the David Booths from Arnstein, Ontario, who make their home in Gracia, and the Edwin Prestleys from Dawson Creek, who make their home in the city of Atenas. Now our two brethren, of course, have not been that long on the field, a few years, and uh, and they have had to spend a good time in, in uh, learning the language, but they have had special meetings in the city of Carthago with blessing, and they have labored together in the city of Gracia with blessing. And the result was on August the second, uh, nineteen eighty one, the most recent assembly was formed in the city of Grecia.
Now they need our prayers as well, for the work in Grecia definitely needs men brethren. There are a large, there are quite a number of sisters, but there are very few men brethren, or there are very few men brethren that are capable in any way. So we need to pray for the, uh, salvation of men in that area, and likewise for the gifting of men, brethren, in that area to, that there might be a greater measure of stability in the assembly there. And, uh, likewise, there, as I say, there are only three couples in Costa Rica, a very definite need, and we would value your prayers along with us that the Lord of the harvest would send forth laborers into this needy field.
And we would value your prayers along with us that the Lord of the harvest would send forth laborers into this needy field. Now, I would mention a little concerning the, uh, the recent work in Cartago. Now, the Cartago, uh, work has suffered a great deal with contention, with, uh, division, or essentially, well, the elements of division, shall I put it that way, and especially with charismatic tendencies. And the result is that the, the disorder that has come in there has caused many of the brethren to have to withdraw from their association with the work, and we found ourselves, tragically, we had to separate ourselves from certain brethren because of the disorder, because of division, uh, and because of the tendencies toward the charismatic movement.
And so a new work has been commenced in Cartago, and the Lord has come in and blessed that, and the saints are much contur- encouraged after five years of much difficulty. Now, I mentioned that because I want to mention a little concerning the charismatic movement for any who may be inclined in that direction. Now, and uh, to me, this was something, it was an important testimony. In Ciudad Colom, uh, there was a Salvadorian lady began to attend the meeting. Now, she moved right next door to the, to the young sister that we were mentioning, and she was a witch.
And I don't mean that figuratively. I mean that literally, she was born and raised in witchcraft. Her mother was a witch, and she was a witch, and she had spent almost her whole lifetime in witchcraft. She has spoken in tongues in witchcraft, and that borne testimony to, of course, under satanic power. She has healed people miraculously, including her own mother, who is a witch, with miraculous power, satanic, of course.
And through coming out to the gospel meetings in Ciudad Colón, she beget- she told us that she now realized that the power that was operative in her life was not of God, that it was of Satan, and her desire was that she might be saved. Well, now she had been feeling the demonic impression, oppression rather, and she'd been seeking relief. She'd gone into the Rosicrucians, another mystic system, and I wouldn't tell you from the public platform the immoralities that she was brought into in that Rosic- resurrecution system. She went to many other places, and of course, one of the places both in San- in San Salvador and in likewise in Costa Rica that she came in contact with is the churches, or so-called anyway, where the charismatic movement is very prominent.
And of course, they prayed over her, and they sought to cast out these demons. Well, she came along to the gospel meetings, and, uh, we had a baptism, she was telling us one day. We had a baptism, a young brother and a, and his wife were being baptized in the river, and as she came along, she told me afterwards, she says, of course, you'll understand her language, she wasn't acquainted with, uh, all the, the scriptures in any detail at all, but she says, the power of the good spirits were so strong in that meeting when we had the baptism there at the river. She says I was, she says it was all I could do when you were in the river baptizing those people to take a rock and just throw it into the water and try to break the spell.
Well, it's nice to know that the power of God is felt, even though we were unconscious of that. But this is what I want to get at. She told me that in seeking freedom from the oppression of spirit, she'd gone amongst the charismatic movement, and this is what she told me. She says, those people and those pastors are deceiving themselves. She says, I have known the presence of demons all my life. And she says the same demonic presence that is present in witchcraft is present in those churches.
I thought that was quite a testimony, quite something to bear in mind. And, uh, she's gone back to El Salvador now, and we were spent half an hour on the phone to Brother George too, putting him in contact with her. She said she was saved. I'm not quite too sure. She has an awful lot of... I spent hours with her trying to get rid of some of those, uh, false doctrines that had pe- penetrated into her mind, and, uh, we trust that we will have more positive news that she has been reached and saved. She is certainly seeking God's salvation. Now, in Carthago, the, uh, there has been some nice souls reached and saved recently to the encouragement of believers.
I would mention one, uh, one young woman married now. Her name is Anna. I trust those that are, uh, young and have been brought up in Christian homes that you'll value and appreciate Christian parents. This girl, Anna, she was brought up the oldest of three children, and uh, fortunately they lived near the Panama border where it was hot. She hardly knew what it was to have a roof over her head. Her mother was of very doubtful character. She used to take go off for three or four days at a time and leave three little children out almost in the jungle with nothing to eat but a sack of half-rotten mangoes.
At thirteen years of age, she was sold to an Amer- a North American for five hundred dollars. And after he got tired of her a couple of years later, she was sold to a woman who ran a house of ill fame in San Jose, in the capital. And for that time on, for years, she was a slave in that awful place. She never knew what it was to be outside the building. She was locked in it. And the only time the door ever opened, it was to give her food or that she might be abused. Terrible, sad thing.
Well, uh, she, in due time, she was having a child, and she came into the, into the hospital, and while she was still recuperating, she escaped from the hospital with her baby. That was how she got free of that awful place. And she came to Carthago, and she came in contact with one of the young men there whose brother was in the assembly, and she came to hear the gospel. Came to hear the gospel. And, you know, one day when we're in the home, she says, Doug, she says, I was getting ready to go, and Brother Booth was with me too, and, uh, we were get- packing up our things and ready to go, and she says, oh, she says, don't leave me.
She says, don't leave me, I'm going to hell. And my, even though it was late and we were wanting to get away, well, we couldn't leave a situation like that, and so we sat then down again and carefully explained the gospel. She ran away into the bedroom, and she got alone with God, and she confessed her sin before God, cried out unto the Lord to save her, and the Lord has graciously come in and saved this dear girl who's had such a tragic background, but you know, God is able to bring purpose out of that life, and he already has. She has been used in seeing others of her companions brought to the Lord Jesus Christ, a young man by the name of Ronald, very bright in the city of Carthago.
Now I have about three or four minutes, and I'm going to tell you about a case of restoration in the city of Ciudad Colom. Uh, a girl who, uh, came to live with us in our early times in Costa Rica, and it was a, a trial for m- for my wife and family, I'm sure, because she had a, a temper like red hot iron. But anyway, for the sake of her soul, we tried to support the things, and finally Dilse professed to be saved. Now the result was that her, her former boyfriend was interested and saw the change in her life, and he likewise came to the gospel meetings and trusted the Lord Jesus as his savior.
Now he was the first, that was the first marriage, Christian marriage that we had seen there in Ciudad Colom, which was quite an event. But you know, this young man, he, uh, he earned his living by buying whole harvests, for example, a whole field of oranges, and as they ripened, he would take them in a- and sell them. But he had, uh, unfortunately, a, a, a cart for selling ice cones. And the result was that he, uh, shall we say there was covetousness there. That's what it really was, after all. And so, uh, he was a great, he was a help to the assembly, preaching the gospel and rising with, uh, to give praise to God as we remember the Lord Jesus Christ.
But, you know, this thing began to get a little better of him. And the time can we, when he started absenting himself when the gathering of the, from the gathering together to remember the Lord Jesus Christ. And what he was doing, he was down at the Central Plaza with his ice cones cart, and of course the Mass got out about a half hour before the breaking of bread in the hall was over, and so there were multitudes that were coming out, hundreds and hundreds coming out of the church, and of course he could gain a little more money in that way by having his cart there, and of course the football field being right next to it didn't help neither with the football going go- game going on. Well, it's a sad thing when we come to despise and think little of the cost of what it was to the Lord Jesus, and we come to remember him and to show forth his death until he come.
And so the Lord began to speak to this young man, and, uh, we were glad that he did. One day he fell out of an orange tree and was very badly battered, and his wife spoke to him. She says, Raul, this is because you haven't been coming out to the breaking of bread. Well, he didn't take it very kindly. So the Lord continued to speak to him, and, uh, down there to announce the, the, uh, festival occasions, the priest's assistant, he has sort of a mortar that he rams in the ground and puts like a cannon shell in it, and they blow it up in the air, and there's a couple of them, then they explode, and he goes over to the other one, does the same, and he goes back and forth, and these cannon balls are exploding up in the air, and they're heard all over the place, and of course they call in the people.
Well, the priest's helper this particular day, it was, it was a Sunday, and, and, uh, Raul was down there in the central market under the roof because it happened to be raining, and he was s- he was rasping the the ice there and selling his ice cone. Well, the priest's helper was was uh, was drunk, and and so he he didn't wasn't watching the way he put the tube in the ground, and it was on a forty five degree angle instead of straight up in the air, and the shell went arcing over, and it landed right on the the the tin roof right above Raul's head. It ca- it exploded and came right down through the roof. It parted his hair and blew the block of ice that was in front of him in his cart all to smithereens.
He didn't get hurt, but they had to take him to the hospital completely in shock. Well, you think this would be enough to speak to him? Maybe it did, but he didn't respond. So anyway, a little while later, he was coming up from the flats with his, his horse loaded, and he was mounted on the horse, and he was coming up a treacherous part, and the horse and himself went over the edge of a steep canyon. And you know, on the side of that steep, if he had have fallen down, both he and the horse would have been killed. And there was one tree growing out of the side of the canyon. And the horse and himself fell down, and they were wedged between the tree and the canyon, and he managed to clamber up to safety.
He managed to cut off the load from the horse and let it fall down to the bottom. He clambered up to safety, where his brother was at the top and helped him up, and they got the horse up later. You think God, well, God is really speaking to, well, God was speaking to this young man, but apparently his eyes were, were closed to it. A little while later, when he was down in the flats, he was bitten in his boots by a deadly poisonous snake. No help within miles and miles. If he had have, if the snake had have bitten just a little bit harder, he would have been dead today. But God was speaking, but God was just, uh, preserving him at the same time. Then a, a, a little while later, he was out on the main highway with his bicycle, and, uh, the truck backed over the top of him, and the truck backed over the top of him and the bicycle and, uh, pinned him under the differential, but he wasn't harmed.
Well, we wondered, what is it going to take to speak to him? And you know, we had spoken to him from First Corinthians eleven, for this cause many are weak and seek- sickly among you, and many sleep. And we warned him, Raul, if you continue on in this way, you're in the path of death, or in the path of sickness, or in death, despising what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for you upon the, upon the tree. Well, it took the hand of God in a very serious way, and he became sick. He began to fade. He began sicker and sicker, and he was nigh unto death. One day his wife came home, and she found him crying. She said, what's wrong?
He says, I don't want to die. And he says, I know that the hand of God is upon me. And James chapter five, called for the elders of the church. Acknowledged his sin and, and he says, you know, he says, really, he says, I've just been a stubborn mule, that's all. Well, I know God was speaking to me, but I've just been a stubborn mule. I'm going to sell my cart. I want to get back to the remembrance of the Lord Jesus. And he says, you no idea how it reproached me as I saw the other saints coming to remember the Lord, and here I was selling the Lord for thirty pieces of silver. He says, I want to get back. And we, and he says, what, you know, one of the things that spoke to him was the fact that there were others that were passing through sickness, and when he came out to the prayer meeting, for he did come out to the prayer meeting, but he says one of the things that spoke to him is that I never prayed for him.
Well, I believed he was, he was sinning unto death, and I believe that's where he would have gone. Of course, we prayed for him in private for his restoration, but we didn't pray for his healing. But you know, that spoke to him, and when he confessed his sin and he sold the cart and he came back to the assembly and, and we saw him restored in soul, we all, the whole assembly, we all began to pray for him. And in a- and he was a man, if any man was near death, he was, it was him. And in three or four weeks time, the Lord raised him up. We I laid our hands on it, where we identified ourselves anew with him as a repentant and a restored soul, and we applied the medical means that were at our disposal at the moment.
The o- the anointing with oil, and that's a medi- medicinal anointing there in James chapter five. and we prayed for him, and the Lord, good to his word, he raised our brother up, and he's happy in the Lord today, restored in soul and restored in health and of value to the assembly of God. So if there's any in like manner and away from the Lord, the Lord help you to respond to, to the dealings of God in your soul, and that he might restore unto you, as he did to this young brother, the joy of God's salvation. The Lord bless you, simple.