That true and good success in life is founded upon a firm grounding in God's Word, drawing parallels between the nation of England's decline when it moved away from biblical principles and the potential for individual prosperity through adherence to scripture. It highlights Joshua's success as a model, achieved by meditating on and obeying God's law, and encourages listeners, particularly graduates, to make God's Word the central focus of their lives for guidance and success in their future endeavors. The message concludes with a prayer for these young lives, asking for God's guidance and blessing upon them as they face the world.
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Individual, I don't know personally, but if you do, we could clap for you. Not just after the meeting. Civil Baxter, elected student council member of large, nineteen-seventy graduate of Albany High School, major, undecided, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred O. Baxter, member of Albany Gospel Chapel, sacrifice Albany, Georgia. Is there anyone here who knows these young ladies? have to find us somewhere, somehow. Thank you. Now this is the year when some of our young folks are graduating, and we certainly have a little message for them at this time of the year.
And I want also to read a scripture to you from Joshua chapter one and verse seven. Only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded thee. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper with us so ever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, and that thou mayest observed to do according to all that is written therein.
For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. I want you to notice those two words. Have not I commanded thee? Be strong of a good courage. Be not afraid. Neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whither so ever. Thou goest. I think we'll ask these two young men to sit down because I want the young folks to come up to the front. Matt graduated a little while ago. I was working with my kids. In this passage, we have those two words, Be strong.
Be strong, be strong. But I want you to know there's two other words. And the words are, good success. I'm sure every one of us want to make success out of our lives, not only for our own sake, but for the sake of others who are dependent upon us. How challenging are those words, good success? That means there's going to be responsibilities. It'll require responsibility. in order that you might prove yourself to be a success, also it will require faithfulness, honesty, and endurance.
Good success. I wonder if you have that thought in your mind. What is your ambition in life? It all depends upon the foundation that you're building upon. And here is a young man by the name of Joshua, and he is going to be successful. He was successful because he had a firm and solid grounding in the Bible. It was Queen Victoria who made the presentation of a lovely Bible to an African prince many years ago.
And when she did... She added these words, Here is the secret of England's greatness. How true that was. England at that time, last succeeding years, was a great nation, the time when Britannia ruled the waves, but not today. About fifty years ago, England began to slip as to her great in France and as to her desire to do the will of God as a nation. And because of that, England's greatness has waned, and no longer can it be said, but Tanya moves away.
As England has gotten away from the Bible and the God of the Bible, so England has declined in her greatness in the Word. She's anything but... a real first-place power today, others have taken birthplace. And I firmly believe it's all because of England's departure from the Bible. If that's true of a nation, it's true of an individual. And to those who are here this morning or are graduating, if you make God's word, the foundation in your life It is the pivot around which you revolve and seek God's mind as to your future pathway.
If you pursue, peruse through this blessed book and ponder its context and practice what it has to say, I'm sure you, like Joshua, will have good success in whatever vocation it pleases you to take up. And pray about that. pray for God's guidance as to what you're going in for. Pray for God's guidance as to your partnership in life. And if you do, and you study God's word, I believe that all seven who are to graduate here from the chapel will make of their lives a good success.
I'm going to ask that Dolly Willis, Beverly Sutton, Sheila Butler, J. Junie Oakes, and David Tyson, and Jimmy Taylor, and Rodney Burleson will come up and stand in front of us this morning. We have something for you. And if you ever happen to get another one like this, you can take it back and get a smudged money's worth. in an exchange. Right about there. Lord bless you.
Right. Lord bless you. David. Excuse me. Lord bless you. There's one missing. I wonder if that's, I guess that's Sybil. Does anyone could take this to Sybil Butler? Which electors? All year ago. Amen. My staff, I'm going to have prayer for these young men, shall we, young women, shall we all pray? O God, we present these young lives to thee, what potential they possess if they are all young men and women of this Bible.
May their lives be guided by it. Their strength drawn from it. Their battles fought with it. May each one bring pride and joy to his or her parents and glory to thee. And not grief and shame. We sincerely ask thy blessing upon them. Go before them, and may they in all their ways acknowledge thee, and thou will direct. their paths. What a future is before them. What a world that hath to face. O Father, the problems, the perplexities that confront young people today.
Thou alone dost hold the answer. Thou hast the solvent for every problem. O God, we ask thee to bless them. We would lift them up to thee in the arms of faith. vastly to guide each one, may they know something of seeking first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness and all other things shall be added unto them. And so bless them we receive today, as we commend them to thee, in the precious and worthy name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Well, those who are going to their classes may do so this night. As the teenagers, the younger folks are way at the back in the other building. Those who are at the ring in the upper auditorium, the adults will return, please, to Luke chapter five. Luke chapter five. and verse sixty. Luke five and sixty.
And he that is the Lord Jesus withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed. And it came to pass on a certain day as he was teaching. that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. Behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy, and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before him, when they could not... find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop and led him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus.
And when he saw their fate, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone? But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts? Whether it is easier to say thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Rise up and walk. But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power upon earth, to forgive sins.
He said under the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, Arise and take up thy couch and go into thine house. And immediately he rose up before them and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house glorifying God. And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strangely today. A number of years ago we spoke on this same incident, although we looked at it from Mark's viewpoint as given us in Mark chapter two.
But this warning, I want to take it up as it applies to the unsaved or in the gospel. When we spoke on it the last time, If I say several years ago, we applied it to the Christian, the lessons that are in it for the Christian, but this morning for those who are not Christian. Of course, there are many things in this incident that will be beneficial, profitable to God's people. Let us notice the helpless patient, the ambulance that is used on this occasion, the obstacles that were in the way, in getting this man to the presence of the Lord Jesus.
And then the great physician to whom they brought this man, sick of the false. Also, we notice the great trouble that they passed through in order for the real trouble in connection with this man. And finally, we notice the wonderful cure that he experienced. Going back to the first, the helpless patient. I don't suppose anyone could be more helpless than this man. Here is a paralytic. Exactly everything that needs to be done, others had to do it for him.
Here is a helpless man. I believe in your Bible you find several cases where the body can be looked upon as an index of the state and condition of the soul. For instance, you have this man, this paralytic, and his physical condition is certainly descriptive of many spiritually, a paralytic, undoubtedly without any healing. And you know, the Bible speaks of people who are without healing, spiritually, We read about them in Ephesians, and all speak of those who are past feeling, simply meaning this, they reach that point where the word of God does not seem to reach their conscience, and they seem almost unmoved, regardless of the facts they're confronted with and the things they listen to, without feeling.
I trust this is not true. of any here this morning, your past being. The doctor comes in to a patient. He knows where the trouble is, his mortality. He presses lightly and asks the patient, do you feel that? No. He presses a little harder, do you feel that? No. He presses a little firmly, more firmly, do you feel that? No. The doctor shakes his head, that by noon. Mortification has likely set in, and that man's in a critical condition.
He's fast-feeling. I don't know anything, friend, more critical than for a man or woman to be fast-feeling, spiritually, and that's given us any reason I'd be fast-feeling. a person who cannot be touched, who cannot be moved, who cannot be stirred, spiritually, they reach the point of path he is. Nothing seems to trouble. Nothing seems to disturb. They make no move toward Christ. They are made.
Give a moment's thought thus to where they will spend eternity. I believe in such cases there was a time in their life when they had some consciousness of their condition, when the Spirit of God strove with them, trying to convict them of their sin and of their need of Christ. But they fought off the conviction, and now they are packed together, possibly beyond redemption for them. only God knows. Dr. Pearson, a great preacher, one day, he picked up a young man, and finally the young man recognized.
Oh, he said, you're Dr. Pearson. Yes, he said, I heard you preach a few months ago. Dr. Pearson, I hope you won't think that harder me for saying what I'm going to say. I hope you've accepted it the way I saw it. But he said, I heard you many years ago preach. And he said, when I heard you preach many years ago, he said, you shook me from head to foot. He said, I present and the poor sinner as I was faced the face of the living God and the life of Satan and God.
You know, he says, when I heard you a couple of months ago, he said, it didn't bother you. I just sat right through your sermon, and I wasn't affected. Dr. Pearson didn't reply. The moment, too, of mixed here, low down, low man's cheek. The young fellow said, oh, excuse me, well, young, well, middle-aged, excuse me, Dr. Pearson, I'm sorry I hurt your kid. No, Dr. Pearson said, you haven't hurt my ears. I'm not shedding these tears because I've been hurt.
I'm shedding these tears because of you. I preach the same message with the same help of God. It's your heart that's why. The message hasn't changed. The power of the Spirit, Spirit of God, public is, you're so hard not. The word doesn't reach you. It has to be. That's why I... I mean it. How sad it is that a person reaches that stage paralyzed. With the things of life, this world and sin has a paralyzing effect upon men and women.
sometimes are creeping forever. They reach the point that no creature seems to be that they are conscious and stir at heart. I hope that's not so with anyone in our audience. Then you read in your Bible about a man who is blind. Blind physically, but a sadder ailment spiritually. Blind. Oh, how many today are blind spiritists? We look with pity upon the man who sits outside the store on the main street with his hat in his hand, or others playing an instrument looking for contributions from the sympathetic public.
Yes, it's sad to look at the blind person. I miss it at a home in North Carolina. I looked at a blind mother, a blind father, and a sightless child in her arms. And I thought, what a pitiful son. And as I came out, I said to Jimmy Chapel, I said, Jimmy, that's pitiful. But I said, I can think of something more simple. Let's see a mother and see a father, blind as the spiritual reality. bringing up their children, their children are under the influence of their indifference, blind to the teachings of God, blind to the fact that someday they must be caught with all their sins.
Yes, people today go around as blind people, spiritually. They don't want their eyes open to the fact God says that his spirit shall have always tried with man, and the soul that sin and it shall die, and that God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world his righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, and that he hath given assurance unto all men, for he hath raised his people there. People both want to hear this day. They don't want to see them. They close their eyes. They put their hands over the face. Don't disturb me. Don't trouble me.
I love you, not you. Why? Satan and the God of this age have blinded the minds of them that believe not. And that's the life of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them, and they should see. The devil has no complaints about a congregation listening to a lecture on evolution. or on something along social lines. Or it may be some poor stories told with a moral impact, and there's plenty of sermons the devil has no objection to a preacher preaching or the audience listening to it.
When you get down to preaching the old-fashioned gospel of the grace of God, the devil hates you. The devil objects and he'll try and keep the audience from listening. And they can know this is the answer to the man's problems. This is the only answer to domestic problems. This is the only answer to city problems. This is the only answer to world problems. And I don't want you to hear me. I tell you, the devil's just about getting his way. people from hearing the old-fashioned gospel of the grace of God.
Yes, and in your Bible you read about people who were diseased, not only paralyzed and blind, but diseased like the devil. Friend, there's a dangerous disease working in your body right now. And it's not the disease that the doctors can detect in the laboratory. They can see the results of this disease is sick. You can't weigh this on scales. Yet the human heart feels it because it's heavy when a heart is convicted of it.
This is a disease, and it's the worst disease. It's the root cause of all physical disease. Sick. sin. Sin. Adam and Eve received this when they disobeyed God in the garden of these days. And this sin is contained in its past from there as a child, from there as a child, and today we have the sad, sad truth of that sin that entered the blood stream of the human race back in the garden of the Today we see the awful result.
Someday we'll see the fearful harvest of this disease, sin. Yes, science has come up with wonderful jurors, wonderful remedies, and we're thankful for the test tubes. We're thankful for all the research that these noble men these scientists, these deceptive men, these dedicated men, yes, in trying to heal the diseases of the human body, and to lengthen man's life and to relieve his pain. The trend is only one cure for sin, but the cause of all this that cure is the precious flood of then you find in your Bible about a crooked woman, her form was bent over, she was crooked.
I tell you there are a lot of crooked souls around you. Many of them who are crooked, this is Jesus. There is another index of the human soul seen in some who are dead. are lost a day in their death spiritually. They have no ear for the gospel or the word of God. That's what God wants. He wants your ear. He that heareth my word and believeth on him that set me. Half everlasting life shall not come to condemnation is past his death and life.
He that hath an ear let him hear God wants your ears. Oh, it's easy to listen to what the world has to offer. You can be entertained by the eye with what the world has to offer in the way of entertainment, pleasant music, and some of the very unpleasant. To me at least, though there's so much the day that seems to tickle the ears of none of you, Even some sermons don't even reach the heart. They don't seem to get into the ear.
If they do, they don't penetrate very deep. Men and women get the message of the gospel to follow. That again you find in your Bible a man who's done, who's done. This is another index of the scripture. far as God has said in certain things, you might as well be done. You can't carry on a consultation with them. You can't pray for them if you're not a Christian. They have no fellowship between you. And the first and only word, from out of your lips, God will respond to you, or will affect and influence God favorably toward you, The only words are, God be merciful to the sinner.
Other than that, you are dumb. Your prayers do not reach the ear of God. You're just like a dumb person. No communication, no fellowship with the Almighty. Sin has caused you to be done. There you have a dead person in the Bible, three in the New Testament, and Christ raised them from the dead. The little girl of trial, Jarish was daughter, the young man, the son of the widow of Mary, and last. And remember, the body is an index of the soul in this respect, because the Bible says, dead in trespasses and in sin.
If you do not have Christ, you are dead. It cuts back and down in sins. Life in Christ, but death in sin. Death means separation. When a person dies, it means that separation has taken place. You can look at that clocks in that cup. There's no communities. There's separation. Death rudely comes into a home of things about separation. Separation. And sin will enter this world. It separated man from God.
God says your sins and your iniquities have separated you between you and your God. Yes, man is dead. There's just that as Adam said. And so you have seven pieces. in the New Testament where the body gives us a picture or an index of the state and condition of the soul. Who is the ambulance that's used here? We don't know whether it was a mat or a mattress. We know the first ambulance, if you look it up, was invented by a Frenchman to carry soldiers from the battlefield in the days of Napoleon. But that's a far cry from what we have today.
Everything's up to date today. But just what kind of an ambulance these men had on this occasion, we're not told. We know at least it was able to carry a body, a man, and it had four corners to it. Whether it had handles on the corners, we do not know. But here is this palsy man being carried on this stretcher, or whatever they had carried on this stretcher, said the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the work and responsibility of the Christians. You'll see the four, the two going forward, the others following.
In the Lord's work, everyone can go first. And the one on the back carrying this man didn't say, well, I couldn't be up at the front, I'm given up, and he dropped his corner. And the other one says, well, I want to be a fun too, but I'm going to drop my fun. What's going to happen to the poor man? He has a thought of unity. Journey. When God's people are united, they're going to get some sinners there. Christ, and Christ the sinners. For when this Christian gives us, when this Christian shone, when this Christian becomes worldly and indifferent, the poor sinner is most suffering.
But here you have these four men, Mark will tell you more about it in chapter two. And they're bringing this man to the Lord Jesus. They're all united. And I want to say this, there's no jealousy among the angels. When Christ's body was in the tomb, there sat an angel, one at the head, the other at the foot where the body of Jesus would live, for one at the foot was just as happy as the one at the front. They knew that this body they were watching over was only a temporary host that they would hold, for they knew this body was going to rise again for them.
And it takes more grace than tongues and hell to play the second fiddle well. someone's got to do it if we're going to give people to the Lord Jesus Christ. So they reunited then. They must have been determined, and it was quite a labor. We don't know how far they carried this man. Could have been a mile. Could have been a half a mile. But nevertheless, here are these four men, and they're carrying this man. They're determined they're going to give this man a piece of the grace of the And so here was a multitude. Here are your obstacles. A multitude was gathered around that house.
They were fortunate to get where they did. They worked their way to the staircase from those days. The staircase went up the outside of the house, and the roof was flat on the homes at that time. Trial was generally the type of roof they had. Here are these men, and they get through the clouds, The staircases, stairways, on up they went. And they got on top of the roof. I don't know how they knew where the Lord Jesus was standing. For all those big homes, Jeremy had one big room. Some had divisions or traditions.
But they, at least, judged just about where Christ could be standing. And they started the work. They started lifting out those tiles, or if necessary, break them up. And you can think of the dust of the mortgaged pieces of tile that began falling down. And you can almost see the look of annoyance on the part of those down there. Who in the world is doing that? Why are they disturbing the church? Yes. These men were determined they were going to get this man down to the feet of the Lord Jesus. We don't find the Lord Jesus from faith.
If anybody would have complained, it would have been the scribes and the Pharisees, those religious leaders of that day, finally they got a hole big enough that it must have been a good size one to let a man on a stretcher down at the feet of the Lord Jesus. And finally they got the man down, and that wasn't an easy chore or an easy task. They had to carry him, They had to get through the crowd. They had to get them out of that stairway and finally break up the roof and let the man down into the presence of the Lord Jesus.
That's as far as they could do. They found their job. Now they've got to be practiced. They've got to be the Lord Jesus. You know, friend, there's a limitation to what you, the obedience can do. A limitation. All I can do is treat Christ. All I can do is present the great position to you. There's something you've got. My preaching has a limitation. I can't force you to take Christ. I wish I could.
But I can. The Lord Jesus must be the one to take over where the sinner is brought to his people. That's my object, that's my aim, has been for forty years, is to bring people to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just from there, and from there the Lord takes over. Salvation is of the Lord. That's why we are glad to be able to bring Christ to you or bring you to Christ here in the chapel. Someone had to pay for that roof, that roof being broken out and replaced.
Some say the bell, you don't know who it is. And it cost the bridge to cross. Friend, let me say this. Our objective is to bring men and women to Christ. to bring Christ to men and women. And as far as the material costs are concerned, the Christians of the chapel are delighted to pay for that in order that you might get to know the true riches which are found in Jesus Christ. The gospel is free without money and without price. And so we find this man let down of the feet.
of the Lord Jesus Christ. For the very one thing, these men didn't get any help from the devil. They likely would have opposed him. And likely companions of this lame man, nor this falsely man, would likely oppose the idea if they became familiar with what these men are going to do. They could have opposed it, but nothing wrong with these men. And pray the day the devil will do its best to keep us bringing Christ to the people and bringing people to the night. There are closer with even men in heaven who would oppose it.
They oppose the preaching of the gospel. Nevertheless, we are happy to do what we can to try and get you to the Lord Jesus. It costs, it means prayer, peace. Oh, what a thrill. Then, now, in death, God's precious soul brought to Christ, till he comes into a position, what a wonderful position, how busy he was. You'll notice in Mark's gospel, and there's quite a difference in the gospel. Mark's gospel is the gospel of the church. Matthew is the gospel of the Son, the King.
Mark's gospel is the gospel of the servant. Luke's gospel is the gospel of the son of man. John's gospel is the gospel of the son of God. He is. And here you find the Lord Jesus, and you read Luke's account, straightway, forthwith, on mediumness. How the word of Christ, or Mark uses in connection to the Lord Jesus Christ, showing how busy, how active, how energetic he was. He was a busy doctor. You go to the waiting rooms today in the offices of our local doctors. I'll tell you, you can see there, just about every waiting room in town is packed.
Yes, doctors of the body are very busy. But he's a doctor, the great physician, and he's busy too. He's busy this morning in Africa. He's busy this morning in China. He's busy this morning in Russia. He's busy behind the iron curtain. He's busy. And he wants to do business here in all of us. He'd like to have such patience here in all the light of the chapter. He's busy wherever you find the gospel being. He will always identify himself with county the preaching of his word with demonstrations of his power.
You'll notice that at the close of verse seventeen, and the Lord was present to heal them. The power of the Lord was present to heal them wherever the Lord went. He took for him the power that healed every day. That's how busy all is. Yes, he's busy, but he's not too busy to concentrate on you this morning. He's not too busy to stop and listen to your cry and listen to your complaints. He's not too busy to give you all his attention and to save your soul this, as it is in this great position.
He's busy all the world today. whatever the gospel is being preached is it saving souls and he's so famous you'll notice that in verse nineteen you read about Galilee Judea and Jerusalem yes here they come from all places how famous how popular this position is the Lord Jesus Christ I'm so kind to be You find some doctors that are very kind, very sympathetic. They go about their business with a sense of feeling.
But some doctors are a little rough. They've likely got some, had some spray, some that will be. And they're a little rough. But sometimes even a doctor has to be cruel to be kind. Sometimes the Lord Jesus has to be kind. He may take a lump in from your family. He may take health from your body. He sometimes has to be proved to show you his kindness, to bring you to your senses and to himself. But when you get to know him, you'll find out how tender are he is.
How kind, how sympathetic, how understanding this great physician is. can't help thinking of our old family doctor up in check. Whenever he came to the house and sometimes he didn't leave for a call. He just stopped in to make a call to see how things were getting along. If any of us happen to be sick, you sit on the side of bed and tickle our feet or pinch our toes and also pinch our chin, you'll found a doctor. Seeing so much a part of the family. just like the great physician. He's loving.
He's tender. He's kind. He wants to be part of your family. And so we find this physician so kind. And he's able. Some doctors today are not able. With all their learning, with all their experience, there's a limitation to a doctor. but the doctor I'm speaking of this morning is the one who designed the human body. He knows every nerve, every muscle, every muscle. He knows everything about this body, but he didn't know something more than your body.
So he's told, yep, that's what he does, and he has the ability to heal your soul listener. We don't have much encouragement in the Bible to tell you that the Lord will heal your body. The Lord seems to use means today. He did with Timothy take a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often in permanent. And if the Apostle Paul had been in the healing business, he would have healed young Timothy. Even the apostle himself had the physician, Luke, to travel with him because of Paul's health.
It wasn't too good. And also, he says, Malikman, the proponents have I left have Malikman's sick. Why did Paul leave him there sick, one of his fellow workers? Why didn't he heal them? Ah, yes, the human body is subject to the laws of nature. and must yield to the lost nation. Those who put the emphasis on healing the body, into saving the soul, are certainly of the mind of God. The strange thing is they'll heal every disease of blasphemy, eventually.