Lawrenceville Conference: 1981, Keep Thyself Pure (20:39)
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
Turn to a few verses in connection with keeping as to our responsibility as well as to the fact that the Lord alone can really keep us. First of all, I'd like to look at First Kings chapter 21St Kings chapter 20 and verse 39. And as the king passed by, he cried unto the king. And he said, thy servant went out into the midst of the battle, and behold, a man turned aside and brought. Unto me and said, Keep this man, and if by any means he be missing, then shall my life be for his life. Or else thou shalt pay a talent of silver. And as thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone. And the King of Israel said unto him, So shall I judgment be thyself hast decided it. Well we could read this whole chapter, but it brings before us the responsibility. That had been given to this person to keep a certain man, and if he should let him go, then it says his life would be for the man's life or he should pay a talent of silver. Well, I'd like to apply this in a practical way to ourselves because we need, as it says, keep yourselves in the love of God. And so we need that keeping grace for our own pathway. And so if I could apply this. Practically, how much we need to be kept, and if we are not diligent and make use of those provisions that God has made, there can be a great personal loss to ourselves. And so it mentions here that if this man was let go, then it says his life should be for the life of the man who was let go, or he should pay a talent of silver. Well, it tells us here that the man was busy here and there and he was gone. And dear young people, it is a busy world. We're so busy here and there that we don't realize the necessity of the provision that God has made and the necessity, too, of His keeping grace in our pathway. And I'd like to bring before you this afternoon those two things. Our own responsibility, as well as God's goodness and his ability to. Keep us. He has made provision, as it says, by the word of thy lips have I kept me from the paths of the destroyer. God has made a way in His word that we may be preserved. And just a little comment about this, where it says thy life shall be for His life. You know, perhaps there are two different kinds of people described here. One who is not saved and one who is saved. And you know, it's quite possible that if there's someone who is not saved here and you're totally indifferent to your responsibility, you've come to these meetings, but you have decided that you're too busy here and there to be concerned about eternal and important things. Oh, how solemn. If it should be as the world's as the word of God says, what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose? His own soul. And are you so busily engaged with all those things that occupy us in youth and that you're not concerned about that which is most important of all, your precious soul and where you will spend eternity? Will I plead with anyone here this afternoon who's not saved? I plead with you to realize that you shouldn't allow the things of time and all those things that will occupy your mind to hinder you from that most important thing. And that is, Are you ready? Have you received the Lord Jesus as your Savior? For only in knowing him as your Savior can you be kept from judgment to come. And so the second thing is it says or pay a talent of silver. You know, I have a special interest and love for young people and I've seen a lot of young people. Pay that talent of silver and that is they're really the Lords. They really. Put their trust in Him. But because they have allowed themselves to become so involved in everything else that occupies their minds, the Lord has been put in second place. And as one is often said, and as the Lord Jesus said in his word, it says. He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. And what is often said, you can have a sailor.
Saw but a lost life. You can pay dearly for going on in your own way. And as I have watched many dear young people and seen them grow up and think of what promising young people they would be, what a blessing they would be if they would go on with the Lord. But they were busy here and there and they got involved in things that resulted in a lost life. I expect to meet many of them in glory because they knew the. As their Savior. But it's a sad thing, dear young people, to have a saved soul and a lost life, a life that has been lived for interests that pass away. We just this morning read in the 22nd Psalm or in the 69th Psalm that we spoke of the 22nd Psalm. It says your heart shall live forever. What does it mean your heart shall live forever? Oh, you say my heart will stop beating. Perhaps some. Day and I'll die. What does it mean? Your heart shall live forever. Well, if we set our heart on things down here, everything that we are living for down here is going to pass away. Have you and I set our heart upon things above? If so, what we have enjoyed in these meetings and what we can enjoy in our lives when we give the Lord His rightful place. Why? Those things are going to live forever. They're going to continue. If you have learned something of Christ in these meetings, if a desire has been produced in your heart to live for the Lord Jesus, then the results of that are eternal. Your heart shall live forever. And so this seems a little warning here in this passage. Keep this man and if by any means he be missing. Then thy life shall be for his life, or else thou shalt pay a talent of silver. And then he makes this apology. He said I was just busy, I wasn't watching. He was, I was busy here and there. And the man was gone. And the prophet said, well, according to what you said, so shall your sentence be. And I plead with you, dear young people, to consider what we have had before us in these meetings, the true values. That which really counts? Are we going to live for what passes away? Or are we going to live in view of eternity? Now, there were different scriptures that I'd like to turn to that have to do with keeping ourselves first of all, in Proverbs chapter 4, Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. The new translation reads Keep thy life above all that is guarded. Now, when we have something that we really value, we take good care of it. We say, I wouldn't lose that thing for anything in the world. It's very precious to me. And we have things that we guard. I've heard people say, well, I guard that, like my life, there are things that we really count worthwhile, but what are we? What should we? Guard above anything else that we guard. Is it some amount of money that's been committed to us? Is it our health that we're guarding? Is it our automobile? Well, it's it's nice to have good health. We can be thankful if the Lord has provided a way of transportation and provided the means for our livelihood. But there's something that's most important of all. Keep thy heart above everything. Is guarded. You know, there are many claims upon your heart, things that will take up your heart's affections. Some people live for money, some people live for fame, some people live for entertainment and prominence and position in this world. There are all kinds of things. Oh dear young people, I ask you, what is your heart seeking after? What is the thing if the Lord were to come to you like? Said to those two disciples in the 1St chapter of John. He turned and he saw them following him and he said, What seek ye? And if the Lord Jesus came in person down into this room and walked around and spoke to each one of us and said, What are you seeking in life? What is your answer? What is mine? Well their answer was very beautiful when the Lord said, What seek ye, they said.
Master, where dwellest thou? Their answer was, Lord Jesus, we want to be in thy company. All dear young people, that's the grandest desire that you could possibly have. If the Lord Jesus hasn't done everything that's necessary to win your heart and mine, I ask, what more could he do? He's proved his love at Calvary. He's up there interceding for us. He's interested in everything in our lives. There isn't a single detail that he's not concerned about, and he invites us to pour out our hearts before him. He's the best friend you can possibly have. And so isn't this a little word for yourself? Isn't it a little word for me to keep our hearts above everything that is guarded? The enemy is seeking to steal your heart. There may be some girlfriend or boyfriend that's trying to steal your heart, that's trying to take it away. From the Lord. If it's a true helpmate, they're going to help you to follow the Lord. It can be very thankful if the Lord provides you with a helpmeet who helps you to follow the Lord, but if not, they are stealing your heart away from Him. And so isn't this a word for us? Keep thy life, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. In a few years our lives are going to shell what we have sought after. Our brother told us yesterday of people in the business where he was and they strove to rise up in this world and all. What a sad end they came to. And I don't need to repeat instances. You've seen them yourself. You've seen young people who have set out to get things in this world, to get money, to climb to the top and. Oh, what frustration, what disappointment has so often come. But you will never meet a Christian who has set out to follow the Lord Jesus, who has made him the object of his heart's affection and his desires. Who will ever say to you, Oh, I wish I had sought after money and fame, I would have been much happier. Oh no, dear friends, No, dear young people, it's not so. Our brother chapter Brown used to. Say the devil has no happy old people, you can visit in old folks homes and see men that were once prominent women that were once very very clever, active people at all the frustration and disappointment. As we get a little older ourselves, my wife and I, we get papers sent to us to try and console us about what pleasure we can find in old age. And you know, it just makes my heart sad. Them, because it's quite evident that people don't know Christ and so they're suggesting all kinds of things and that you can seek after as you get toward the end of your life, telling you to seek after this and seek after that so you can find something that'll make you happy in old age. All your friends, dear young people, they have, they don't know Christ. They don't know the one who can fill and satisfy the heart. And so it says here, keep thy. Heart above all diligence. Oh, I just want to say to you again, keep that heart of yours. Don't allow things to come in as a little. There's a little hymn that puts it nicely. Take thou our hearts and let them be forever closed to all but they thy willing servants, let us wear the seal of love forever there. So this first scripture that I bring before you is about your heart. Keep it with all diligence above everything that is guarded, because that is going to influence your life. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Now I'd like to turn to another one in Psalm 34. Psalm 34. Verse 13. Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. Well, the first verse that we noticed there in Proverbs 4 is about keeping our hearts. Here it says, keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile. Oh, how much trouble we've got into by saying things out of turn, saying things that we shouldn't, getting angry and saying something that we regretted for the rest of our lives that we let.
Our tongues gull well might the psalmist say in a 30. 9th chapter The 39th Psalm. In the first verse I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me. And it tells us in James that the tongue is an unruly member full of deadly poison. Oh dear, young people, how many, many times? Sometimes we've said things when we were young, said things that we're sorry for because we didn't set a bridle on our tongues, we didn't watch what we said. And I just say to you as dear young people, be careful. The devil will try to get you trapped first with your heart, and then he'll get you into saying things. Things that you shouldn't say, things that you hear and you repeat and. You know, assurance that they're true, but you just hear them and you repeat them. Oh, how many things we are spared if we keep the door of our lips. Another verse in the Psalm says to set a watch to my lips. Oh, we we need that so continually to watch our lips. And then it says from seeking evil, speaking evil. Well, that's another thing. You know any of you who go to school? And who work in offices, You know how you're constantly surrounded by people who curse and swear, who repeat nasty stories, who say all kinds of questionable things. And, you know, it's very easy to get influenced by this kind of thing. Pick up some of those words, pick up some of those stories and repeat them. And I've heard people say, well, you might as well say it as think it. Well, I'll just tell you this, that when you think it, you defile yourself. When you say it, you defile other people. There are a lot of things that I wish that I'd never heard. People have said them and they thought it didn't matter about them saying them. But when they said it, that defiled me. And very often things that I heard, things that I wish I hadn't heard, will come before my mind, even when I sit at the Lord's table. Oh, I wish that they had never got into my mind. And that's why it tells you in Proverbs when you find those kind of people, as much as possible it says avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it and pass away. When you hear that kind of conversation going on, don't stay there and listen, because if you stay there and listen, it's going to get lodged into your mind. A dear old brother that I went to see over in New Jersey. Many years ago he was 84 years old and he said to me, Gordon, I was saved when I was in my 30s. I I said a lot of things and did a lot of things when I was young. And he said, here I am an old man. But he said they keep coming back to me. I wish I hadn't heard them. And so I'll say this to you. This is a very, very important verse, said a watch on your lips. Ask the Lord to keep. Your lips, and not only from evil, but from speaking guile. How often we can say mean unkind things. We were just hearing the other day about a young girl and somebody had said something very mean and unkind about her to somebody else. And you know, it affected this girl's whole life and that person. I'm sure they're sorry they said it today, but it's like that little story. That was in one of the publications. It's like taking that the brother told about someone who had said something he shouldn't. And then he came back and said, I'm sorry. Well, he said, I'd like you to do something for me. And he gave him a pillowcase full of feathers. And he said, now just go out and let those feathers go in the wind. And so he did. And he said, now will you please pick up all those feathers for me? Well, you can't do it. You can't pick up the feathers and somebody let some of the feathers go at Outer Lake about 3 or 4 years ago and there's still lodged around in the doors. We just can't hardly get them all out. They let them go and there they are. Dear friends. You say things and you can't take them back. Keep your lips and keep your heart and keep your lips.
The Lord can help you to do that. The Lord Jesus never spoke one. One word out of turn. He never said anything that wasn't pleasing to his father. Not only what he said, but the very tone of his voice. Because sometimes it's not always what we say, it's the way we say it. So isn't this a little word for us? Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile. Now there's another verse in First Timothy. Chapter 5, First Timothy chapter 5 and verse 22 lay hand suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins. Keep thyself pure. Well, it's particularly the last part I was thinking of, Dear young people. The verse in its original intent no doubt has to do with choosing elders. And Timothy was to choose those who were to be leaders in the assembly. Today we don't have anyone to choose those, but it was so in the early church. But I only speak of this as a principle, and I believe it's a very important principle. Lei Han suddenly unknown. Man, That is, someone might come along and maybe they could talk very nicely, and Timothy might think, oh, that's a lovely person. I can be identified with that person. And then after a little while he finds out that this person could talk nicely and put on a good outward pretense. But those persons sometimes prove to be a big disappointment. The person that makes the big impression at first after you get to know. Them a little better. They may not be what you expected at all. And Timothy was warned here to be careful laying hands on them was the thought of becoming identified with them and you know dear young people, we need to be careful about the friends that we choose. I've always thought there was an excellent verse in the 119th Psalm, the 63rd verse and it says. I am a companion of all them that fears. Thee and of them that keep thy precepts. We should be careful about those with whom we become identified. You know you can get into bad company. How often a man has even been brought up to court because he was in company with those who were doing what was wrong. He got charged with a responsibility in connection with what he had done because he was identified with the wrong kind of companion. Ends and I say to you, dear young people, be careful about the companions that you choose, it says here. Lehigh suddenly on no man neither be partakers of other men's sins by becoming identified with boys and girls that are doing wrong things. Sometimes you may be blamed because you were in company with them, you were sharing with them in what they were doing. And that's the importance of choosing the kind of companions that the Lord speaks about. Companions. That fear the Lord. What does it mean to fear the Lord? Fear the Lord. Well, Joseph was a man that feared the Lord. A temptation was brought before him. He was working in a certain place and there was a very bad woman there, and she put a temptation in his way. And he said, God forbid that I should do this great wickedness and sin against God, And he ran. For his life, he ran for his life. He didn't want to become identified with something that was wrong. He wanted to keep his body pure and he did. And dear young people, there's going to be all kinds of temptations that present themselves in your life. And I want to say this to you, it's not only with those that you meet at school. There might even be some children who were brought up in. Who don't keep themselves pure. There's another verse in Proverbs that says. I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. Sometimes you might say, Oh well, they're meeting young people. Well, thank God if they have been brought up in the meeting. Thank God if they have been taught his fear. But the verse doesn't say I am a companion of all those that count themselves.
Among the people of God, it says, I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts. You may find some who have been brought up in Christian homes, but they don't fear the Lord. But Joseph did. He was afraid of sinning against God. He was afraid to do something that was pleasing to God. And you know, when I was a boy and I went to school, one of the things that I remember. That had a great deal to do with influencing my life was a prayer that my father used to pray. I can still remember it to this day when we started off to school. I can hear him pray and ask the Lord that we would be afraid to do anything that was a sin against God, that we be afraid to do anything that was a sin against God. And so you might say, well. Everybody's doing it, but it says here. Keep thyself pure. Remember the verse that we started with. You pay dearly if you don't, that you choose. Did they fear the Lord? Did they keep His word? For His word sets before us His mind, His will for our pathway. So here this has to do. Perhaps we could say this verse has to do with our bodies keeping ourselves pure. Now let's turn to. John the 14th chapter. John chapter 14 and verse 15. If ye love me, keep my commandments. Well, when it speaks about commandments here, it's not talking about the 10 commandments. It's talking about God's revealed mind. Perhaps someone might say, well, why are they called commandments? Well, you know, where love is operative in the heart, Anything that someone asks you to do, whom you love has the power of a command. What would you think of me if my wife asked me to do something and I said, is that? Request or a command, he would say, well, that's a funny way to talk. If you really love somebody, you want to do something that's pleasing to them. And so when I think of who the Lord Jesus is, and I think of what he did for me in going to Calvary's cross and dying in my place and bearing the judgment that I deserve, and then I think that he's asked me to do certain things. I say I want those things to have the power of a command. Over my heart I don't want to find myself saying, Do I have to do that? It isn't a question of that where love is operative in the heart when we think as Jesus said here, if he loved me and we do love him, the little hymn says, and we love thee, blessed Lord, ye now, though feeble here, that thy sorrow and thy cross record, what makes us know thee near, and when we. Think of how much he loved us. Don't we want to please him when the law was given at Mount Sinai, there were thunderings and there were lightnings in the mountains shook and Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake and God made known his his desires for man and a curse upon all those who disobeyed. Oh how different in Christianity. Why does it say if he loved me keep my commandments. Well, I believe it's just this dear young people that when. The Lord saved you. He gave you a life that wants to please Him. Perhaps you've heard me say before as a Christian, the Lord will never ask you to do anything that the new life He has given you does not want to do, because what is characteristic of the new life that He has given to us is obedience. Our brother brought before us the obedience of the Lord Jesus and God has now given us. The very life of Christ, Christ Himself is our life. And so, just as with the Lord Jesus, it was his good pleasure and delight to do His Father's will. I want to tell you that as a believer you possess the life of Christ. You have a nature that wants to please Him. The reason we sin as believers is because we let that old nature that was condemned at the cross, we let it act. But if he loved me, keep my. Commandments. And so as you read His word and you discover His word in your mind, I just want to say to you, dear young people, do what's pleasing to the Lord. Now in Second Timothy, there's another verse.
Second Timothy, chapter 1. And verse 14. That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in US. Well, here it has more particularly to do with the truth of God that has been given to us. And I wish to say that it's a very, very great privilege to be brought up under the sound of God's word. It's a great privilege to be in the assembly gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. But dear young people, there is a deposit committed to us. There's something that has been committed to us we've been talking about. Keeping our hearts and keeping our bodies and keeping our tongues. But here it has to do with something that God has committed to us to keep. I've seen a lot of young people who have been brought up. They know the truth of God because they have sat in the meetings. They've heard it ministered. They know the truth as to the person and work of Christ. They know the truth of the one body. They know the truth of being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. They know all these. Precious things, but they let them slip away. They're just, they just let them slip away. And here there's a warning given to Timothy, that good thing which was committed unto thee. Timothy was living in a day when Paul had to say, all those in Asia have departed from me. There's thousands of real Christians who are not content to walk in the truth. They want a wider path they choose. That certain doctrines are important, but others are not, and so they set standards of their own. A young man said to me, it's just about a couple of months ago. I was talking to him. He'd been brought up in the meeting just as I was, and now he's gone off and he's let a lot of the truth that he once knew slip away. And he said, oh, I don't like it the way they insist upon the truth of being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. And I said. Art, don't you stand for certain things yourself? And he said, yes, but I said, what do you stand for? You have set a certain code of things that you stand for. But God has nothing less than all his truth, not part of it. That young man, he wouldn't deny that deity of Christ, He wouldn't deny the blood of Christ. He wouldn't deny eternal security, not for anything. But he said certain things that he thought were worth holding and other things that he could let slip. But here was something committed to Timothy and dear young people, especially those of us who have been brought up in the meeting. A deposit of truth has been committed to us. We have no right to trifle with it and say, I can let this go and accept that, and I can hold on to some things, but I can let others go. No, he was to keep what was committed to him. And may the Lord give us to value the privilege of being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. And of walking in the truth that has been committed to us as gathered to His precious name. What a responsibility. In these last days, just before the Lord comes, will we be sorry that we sought to walk in the truth? Oh, no, I don't mean to boast, dear young people. And I'm sure that you see failures in the assembly and you see failures in me. But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the truth. God, I know that I failed and I trust I hang my head and say I know I'm part of the failure. And I'm sure most of us and I trust all of us gathered to the Lord's name would hang our heads and say, yes, we're part of the failure. But I'll just tell you one little thing that I heard about Mr. Chapter McIntosh. He was going to have a a meeting one time and they assembly hall and he met another Christian man whom he knew very well. But this man. Was very much opposed to the position of being gathered to the Lord's name. And he said to Mr. McIntosh, he said, Mr. McIntosh, I'm going to preach against the brethren tonight. And Mr. McIntosh said, I'm going to do the same thing. Oh, he said, Mr. McIntosh, have you left the assembly? No, he said, but you're going to preach against the doctrines that they they hold. I'm going to preach against their practice. And now you know it's one thing to.
Hang our heads and acknowledge that we. Have failed in maintaining and walking in the truth. It's another thing to give it up. May the Lord keep us. We are to hold a deposit of truth that has been committed to us. May he give us grace because if some of us get a bit older, if the Lord leaves us here, there's a responsibility going to fall upon each one of us and we need grace from the Lord to do this. There's just a couple more verses before we close I'd like to look at. One is in John. Chapter 23. Joshua chapter 23 and verse 6. Be ye therefore be therefore very courageous to keep and to do all. It is written in the book of the Law of Moses that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left. And then another verse in Jude, the Epistle of Jude and the 24th verse. And now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory, with exceeding joy. Well, I just read that passage in Joshua to show that we realize it takes courage. It's not easy to go against the current, but the Lord can supply the courage that we need. Joshua says to the people, be strong and of a good courage. And you know what? We need to have that courage to go on. But do we do it in our own strength? Perhaps some of us might say. All I can hear a young person say, but you don't know the pressures. You don't know what school life is like today. You don't know what it is to work in the office where I work and in the shop where I work. No, dear young people, I don't. But the Lord does. But the Lord does. He knows every bit of pressure that you're under. He knows how much courage it takes to stand alone. Sometimes for the Lord. Is he able to keep you? How isn't this beautiful? And to him that is able to keep you from falling, or the margin says, or the new translation rather says, from stumbling, He's able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. If the Lord has in any measure preserves some of us, I don't think any of us would take any credit to ourselves. We would just bow our heads and say. I just thank the Lord that He's kept me and that He's preserved me. And here, young people, he can keep you. He can preserve you. It's a wicked day. But one of the things that astounds me is to find that there's more young people at our conferences now than they used to be in days gone by. To me, it's a proof that the Lord's able to keep our young people and He's able to keep you. Count upon him, lean upon him. Those everlasting arms will never fail. Trust Him, He's worthy of all your trust unto him that is able to keep you from falling. And to present you fault us before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, Who's going to have the joy in that day? But the Lord is going to have the joy. And that you in some measure valued his truth, valued the position that He brought you into and sought to walk for his glory. He's going to have the joy and he's able to keep.