Fitting In

Transcript

Alright. Thank you very much and hello again, radio friends, how in the world are you? Yes, this is your friend Bob Cook and I’m glad to be back with you. Believe me, I look forward to these times when I can open up the Word of God and share some things with you, and I always pray that the Holy Spirit may take some of these truths and fit them especially to your need, that’s what it’s all about. We try to put a handle on the Word of God so you can get hold of it for yourself. You and I were talking about the verily, verily verses in John 13. “Verily, verily the servant is not greater than his Lord.” Jesus served like a slave would. He said, “You are not any better than I am and you should serve the same way, the mandate for the believer.” Then He spoke about authority, “He that receives whomsoever I send receiveth me and he that receiveth me, receiveth Him that sent me.” You, my friend, are a representative of Almighty God.

And then He announced the fact that Judas was going to betray Him and I stopped long enough to remind you that it hurt Him. Jesus was troubled in spirit. It hurt Him to realize that one of the people who had traveled with Him for three years was now going to sell Him and betray Him for those 30 pieces of silver. And then He said to Peter who was saying, “I’m willing to die for you. I will lay down my life for thy sake, I’m willing to die for you, I’m your buddy.” “No,” Jesus said. “The rooster won’t have a chance to crow before you’ve three times denied that you even know me. But let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me.” Peter, you can’t count on yourself but you can count on me, that’s what He was saying. You can’t count on yourself but you can count on me.

One of the bitter lessons that you and I have to learn is that you cannot depend upon your own good intentions to see you through. How many times we’ve had, you and I, have had to come back to our Savior and say, “Lord, I tried but I failed, please forgive me.” Isn’t it true? Jesus knows that. That’s no surprise to Him when you come back and say, “Lord, I blew it but I’m sorry.” If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He knew that Peter was going to collapse under pressure and He knows, my friend, exactly the point at which you, if you trust your own strength, are going either to give up, blow up or whatever. He knows, but He says, “Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me.” You can count on God, you can count on your Savior. Somebody needs that just now, you’re so discouraged and you think, “Oh, well, it’s all over, no more chance for me.” Yes, there is. God is still on the throne, He hasn’t forgotten you. Jesus said, “You can’t count on yourself, you found that out, didn’t you?” You can’t count on yourself but you can depend on your Savior. Jesus never fails.

Years ago, it would have been in 1935, I was on the radio live every morning in Philadelphia at 7:00. And I had little theme song I sang, can you believe it that I sang on the radio? Well, I did. [laughter] I used to sing, “God is still on the throne and He never forsaketh His own. Though burdens oppress us and trials distress us, He never will leave us alone. God is still on the throne and He will remember His own. His promise is true, He will not forget you. God is still on the throne.” I used to sing that before I started my little Bible meditation. Aren’t you glad I don’t sing now? [laughter] It would clear the air and clear your sinuses and probably clear the audience. So I remember back in 1962, John Camp was after me to have some kind of music as a theme and I said one day, on the radio I said, “Do you people think I should have some kind of music, maybe I should sing or something?” Back came a flood of letters right away, “Don’t sing, don’t sing.” [laughter] I think they were trying to tell me something.

Anyhow, God is still on the throne, He hasn’t forgotten you. It’s not the end of the world because you made a mistake of some sort. “The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord, he delighteth in his way though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast out for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand.” It’s the picture of you taking a little three-year-old across a busy street, you take hold of that little patty and you hang on to it and you say, “Come on now, take my hand,” you take his but you don’t let him fall. He may stumble, those little feet may go every which way, but you keep him going because you’re responsible.

And so David, the Psalmist, uses that figure of speech. “Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast out for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand.” Jude in the New Testament says, “Now unto Him that is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy unto the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power forever.” Able to keep you from stumbling, yes, He is. So today, Jesus is saying to somebody listening to me right now, Jesus is saying to you, beloved, “You can’t count on yourself, you’ve found that out, but you can depend on me. I got you and nobody’s gonna take you out of my hand.”

John 10:28, “No man is able to take you out of my hand.” Turn again in faith, and surrender to your Savior this minute. Right now, yield yourself to Him afresh. Say, “Lord Jesus, you take control of my life. You keep your hand on me.” He’ll do it, and you’ll see the difference. In this connection, He said, “You can depend on me.” Now, what can you depend on? You can depend on the fact that I’ve got plans for you. There’s a place for you, many mansions. A place for you that the preparation is in progress, go and prepare a place for you. The return of myself to take you to my heavenly home is certain. I will come again, and receive you unto myself.

See, God has plans for you, and it involves not only this life, but the next. A small thought here. Learn to transform daily routines by fitting them into a heavenly framework. Learn to transform daily routines by fitting them into a heavenly framework. God’s plans for you extend beyond this life. They do involve this life, but they extend beyond this life. You are part of an eternal plan. That in the ages to come, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. Well, God wants to show you off in the eternal ages, and say, “See there, what my grace can do.” He has a plan for you that extends on into eternity.

So, take the routines of today. Most days are pretty routine, aren’t they? Get up, get dressed, get breakfast, if you’re the homemaker, or eat breakfast, and fuss about where’s my shirt, and where’s my socks, if you’re the other half of the house. See the family off to work, and school, and do all the things that you have to do during the day. If you’re going to business, you have your office work, or you have sales calls, or you have production in the factory, or whatever it may be. School teachers, and doctors, and nurses, and lawyers, and engineers, surgeons, all different kinds of work that has to be done, much of it routine when you face it.

And, finally, the day’s at an end, and you say, “Well, another day.” Have you ever tried to fit the routines of the day into an eternal framework? So that everything you do, from the moment you wake up, until the moment you pillow your head in sleep, is done for your Blessed Lord, and with the fact in mind that He has plans for you. So, that you pray your way, as I often say, you pray your way through the day. You pray before you make decisions, and before you answer the phone, and before you open a letter, certainly before you answer it. You pray before you hire somebody, or fire, or transfer somebody. You pray before you start to take a trip in your car, and while you’re driving.

Many a testimony is given in church, and lost on the highway, by the way people drive. Isn’t it true? Pray before you make a sales call. God knows exactly what He wants you to say to that client. Pray before you entertain a person with a complaint, so that you’ll be perfectly poised, and open, and have a genuine empathy for the person who is hurting, and you’ll hear his complaint not defensively, but helpfully. Pray your way through the day. Fit routine into an eternal framework, by inviting the Holy Spirit of God to take control of all of those routines. Whatever you do, he says, “Do it heartily as for the Lord, and not just for people. Knowing that of the Lord, you shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ.” That’s Colossians 3:23. Do it, don’t live another day without taking life’s routines and fitting them into God’s plans for eternity.

Well, I wanted just to share all of that with you. We have to go back into 13 now, to get some of these other verses that we skipped over while we were talking about the verily verilies. But I wanted to put them together, so you got that package of truth. Well, the disciples doubted, looked one at another, doubting of whom He spake, when He said, “One of you shall betray me.” John was seated, or they reclined, actually, at supper there, on separate couches. So, John was on the couch next to the Lord Jesus, and Peter said, just beckoned to him, as if to say, “Ask Him who it is.” And so, John said, “Lord, who is it?” And Jesus answered, “He it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have… ” You know what a sop is? Well, it was the custom, they tell me, that if you were at dinner, and you had an honored guest, you would take a piece of bread, and dip it in the gravy, and give it to your guest, as an indication that that person was honored. Can you take in the magnificent grace of God that the Lord Jesus would so treat the one who was going to provide for humanly speaking for His murder? But, yet He did. He gave the gesture of honor and hospitality to the one who was about to arrange for His murder.

Here, again, you have that phrase “the son of Simon.” That always breaks my heart, when I see it over there in verse 2 of 13, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son. Here you have it again, Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. How that father must have felt to realize what his boy had done. Young people remember, you say, “It’s my life. It only hurts me. Whatever I do only hurts me.” Oh, no, it doesn’t. Mother and Dad have hearts as well, and what you do and how you live has a tremendous effect on them. Before you go out into sin and wild behavior, or drugs, or alcohol, or sex, or all of the above, just remember you’re part of a family. Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son. Tom Jones, Harry Jones’ son, see? Remember, what you’re doing has an effect, not only on you, but on your folks. Yes, it does. Well, time has run out. We’ll get at some more of this the next time we get together.

Father God, today, oh, I pray that we might be those who honor Thee, and in so doing, avoid the heartbreak that others who love us might feel were we to betray Thee. Keep us true, Jesus, to Thee, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!