Prefatory Note. Here are three different Sermons I preached among the Care Facilities I visit. The first Sermon is entitled Where Should We Go To Learn About God? Which answers an important question. For all of us down to a man pick our sources as to how we learn about GOD. In the second Sermon, I largely consider the character of Job. In the third Sermon, I preach about "Another." May THE LORD be pleased to spiritually bless those precious souls who take the time to hear these Sermons in printed form. It is good to take time with GOD. Before we know it, we will be giving an account of ourselves to Him. At Glen Ullin, North Dakota. May 31st; 2026; LORD'S Day Morning.

Sermon I.

THE Spiritual Subject I propose to your minds today is where should you go to learn about GOD? Psalm 19 says that the Knowledge of GOD goes out to the world from day to day; yet from day to day, the same Psalm further says, that the world does not learn about GOD from the same source. The experience of life itself agrees and demonstrates that this is so. There are some who learn about GOD from the television. Anytime a show comes out about GOD, these take in these ideas; and after years, their thoughts are shaped. There are others who learn about GOD from the world. If public opinion says something is right, they believe it is right. If public opinion says something is wrong, they believe it is wrong. Their guide is what the majority is said to think. There are still others who learn about GOD from the Church. They go to Church. They hear Sermons. Through their weekly visits to Church, their beliefs are formed. There are others still who learn about GOD from spiritual experiences. They are impressed by the odd and singular. If they hear of the appearances of forms, if they hear of dreams, if they hear of sounds out of the air, if they hear of people who have come near death; then they are moved! They think that what is felt and spoken in such purported circumstances cannot be wrong.

O, my new Friends, do you see the situation we are in? It is good to consider it. What are we to do? Where are we to go? Who are we to believe? Here we all are sailing out on there across the high seas of this life. We have only one voyage. To which voice should we turn to to learn about GOD? I would say to every dear soul here before me this day that we all should be very careful where and from whom we learn about GOD. I think we all know that you cannot believe everything you hear.

I would kindly say to you this day that the four sources I formerly spoke of are not sufficient by themselves to teach the Knowledge of GOD. Can it always be believed what is seen on television? Most of what is on television is meant to entertain. And are the stars of the screen fit persons to teach us about GOD? As for the world and the majority, these things have not always been good scholars in the things of GOD. For it was the public opinion of the times that put THE SAVIOUR on the Cross. In regard to Churches, History itself speaks that Churches can sometimes go astray. Can you believe what every Church believes? Have not most Churches dramatically changed and contradicted their own creeds and confessions within the last ten, twenty, or thirty years? There are so many contradictions! There are so many opinions! With respect to spiritual experiences, there is just as much a Devil as there is a GOD. How can you know which spiritual experiences are from the Devil and which from GOD? How can you avoid being tricked?

I would propose to you this day that the best, the surest, the safest way to learn about GOD is the Scripture. This is the Book our Fathers trusted. It still speaks right today. II Timothy 3.16 says: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” II Peter 1.21 says: “For the prophecy” or the Scripture “came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” II Peter 1.21.

Question. How do you know the Scripture is the Word of GOD? Let me say first: there is no possible way the Scripture could have come by man. I grant, the Scripture came through men. But the origin of the Scripture was not man. It is the common rule that whenever you read any book of any description, as a rule, you are always told good things about the person who wrote the book. You might read where he went to school, how long it took him to write the book, or the great accomplishments he has made. But, say, what does the Scripture say about man? If man wrote the Scripture, then you would be sure to read some high sayings about the spiritual character of man. But what does the Scripture say about man? The Scripture pays man no compliments. Romans 3.23 says: “All have sinned.” Psalm 14.3 says: “There is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Genesis 6.5 says: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” These Words did not come from here man. Instead, here is the perspective of GOD concerning the human race.

I would next have you to consider the great Truths that are in the Scripture. Whenever man writes a book, he frequently seeks to explain a particular thought. He proposes a certain subject for investigation. He then proceeds to in some way clarify that subject. But is this the way the Scripture does with its Truths? There are some things in the Scripture that are hard to understand. One Scriptural Truth that is hard to understand relates to the Person of GOD. The Scripture declares that there is One GOD; but that this One GOD exists in Three Persons. In Matthew 28.19, JESUS said: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Look carefully at what THE SAVIOUR here says. He does not say “names” but He says “name.” "In the name of." Which distinctly speaks there is but ONE GOD. Yet when THE SAVIOUR identifies this ONE GOD, He says that THE ONE GOD exists in THREE. He says: “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." Now how can this Truth be explained? It is hard for the human mind to grasp. But the Truth is it cannot be explained. It must be believed. You must accept the Fact that you are but a creature—you are made of the dust of the ground; and you must rise up and believe in GOD Whose Person cannot be fully comprehended by the human mind. For this cause, the Truths of Scripture (such as in I Corinthians 15.51 & Ephesians 5.32) are sometimes called “mysteries.” The Scripture is not a Book of neat and finely-tuned statements about GOD. There is not a Book in the world that makes greater demands upon the reader. What the Scripture does is it declares to you the unwavering realities of the spiritual world; and it demands that its Truths be believed by faith.

In the third place, I would have you to consider the way GOD gave the Scripture. There are sixty-six Books in the Scripture. These sixty-six Books were written by between forty or fifty people through the course of two to three thousand years; and yet everything in the Scripture—every Book, every Chapter, every Verse—perfectly agrees. Now how can this be explained except by the Divine Inspiration of GOD? If you took forty or fifty people off the streets, gave each a pencil and paper, and if you told them to secretly write down their conceptions of GOD, do you think all their ideas would agree? I dare say, there would hardly be three people to agree! And yet here stands the Scripture. The Scripture was written by between forty or fifty people, across the space of thousands of years, from different places of the world, and yet every little piece of the Scripture sweetly agrees with the other. The only way you can explain this is by the Fact that the Scripture is the Word of GOD.

But the only way you can be fully persuaded that the Scripture is the Word of GOD is when you read the Book for yourself or hear a Sermon from the Book and inwardly feel the Power of the Book in your own heart. One day there was an infidel giving a speech in a city. His subject was: "The Scripture Is Not The Word Of God." Just before the infidel gave his speech, a local farmer came up to him and said: "Excuse me, sir, but I hear you are to prove this night that the Scripture is not the Word of GOD. Is that true?" The infidel responded: "Indeed it is! And you will find that I have much to say!" The farmer then asked the infidel: "But, sir, have you ever read the Scripture?" The infidel said: "No; I have not." The farmer then said: "Then I would suggest to you, sir, that until you read the Scripture, you do not condemn it." The infidel that night laid the farmer's simple saying to heart. Throughout the following months, the infidel sincerely read the Scripture. He did not get half way through but what his heart struck him and he believed the Scripture.

One thing I enjoy to do is to read. I have read through Shakespeare three times. And how I esteem that princely poet! Shakespeare seems to me to have had an uncommon gift. There have been many times I have been quite charmed and pleased with the words he wrote. But of all the books I have ever read, I have found none to compare with the Scripture. Sometimes when I have pulled aside from the activity of life to read the Scripture, I have felt the Presence of an Unseen Person. His Word has showed me my sins. His Word has showed me what I ought to do. His Word has showed me that I have much to be thankful for. His Word has showed me Himself and that He so loved this world that He gave HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON. O, then, if you would to learn about GOD, go learn about GOD from GOD Himself speaking in the Scripture. No one can teach like Him. Amen.

Sermon II.

IN James 5.11, it pleased THE LORD to allow the Apostle James to speak the last Word in Scripture concerning Job. The Apostle says: "Ye have heard of the patience of Job." In the Words, the Apostle spoke to a well informed Assembly. He hearers knew well what he said. Yet I suppose in the world today that not too many have “heard of the patience of Job". They might have heard of Job himself. They might know that there is a Book in the Scripture named after Job. But many have never heard of "the patience of Job". Which is the Divine Account of his Story. To spell out something of this “patience” before you today, I have three things. I. The troubles Job went through in regard to his estate. II. The trouble Job went through in regard to his children. III. How Job behaved in all his troubles.

I. The troubles Job went through in regard to his estate. With respect to these troubles, it is fair to say that in every aspect of his estate, Job went through the hardest troubles. In this sphere, Job lost all that he had. Job 1.3 shows that Job owned the finest farm of the age. It was expansive. The Words read: "His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east." But such was Job before his trials. For Job 1.13 says: "There was a day." Well do the Words read. In Job's life, there was no day like this day. This was the dark day of Job's trials. It was a day of days. What happened in this one day affected Job for the rest of his life. See what happened on this day. Job 1.13-15 says: "There was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking" that "there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them: and the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee." This was a painful stroke. For at the time of joy and feasting, trouble came. First: Job lost his oxen. Not some of his oxen, but all of his oxen. If Job had lost some of his oxen, it would have been a loss; but what a grief of mind it must have been when he lost all his oxen in one day! I told you before that Job had five hundred yoke of oxen. Yet in this one day, Job lost them all. Besides this, all the servants who kept the oxen (except one) died at the scene. For there was a skirmish. Job's servants were defeated. They were slain with "the edge of the sword” while they sought to preserve Job's oxen. What a burden this brought on poor Job!

The Words go on. "While he was yet speaking." While who was yet speaking? While Job's messenger was still telling Job about the oxen. Job 1.16 says: "While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee." Was this not a hard blow to bear? This day brought trouble on top of trouble. And what troubles these two were! Here, you see Job's loss of his sheep. Not some of his sheep, mind you, but all of his sheep. And how many sheep did Job have? I read to you before that he had no less than seven thousand sheep. Still, all this Job lost in a day. Job's loss, besides, touched his servants. For it is not only written: "The fire of God hath burned up the sheep;" it is also written: "The fire of God hath burned up the servants, and consumed them." All that was out in the field was removed from this world. And when these stormy things took place, what a thick clouds remained with dear Job! Nor is this all. Job 1.17 says: "While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee." Can it even be believed that three troubles came on Job in this one day? I had thought that the first two was so weighty that they would have concluded the Story. But like some flood of waters, a third trouble moved in. What deep waters Job walked through! This third loss concerned Job's camels. Not some of his camels, but all of his camels. How many camels did Job have? I read to you before that he had three thousand camels. Still, these beasts did not escape. Cruel men crept in and stole them. In the conflict, more of Job's servants were killed. The Verse says that when "the Chaldeans made out three bands" and "fell upon" the camels, only one servant was spared.

II. The trouble Job went through in regard to his children. After all this, on the same day, came Job's worst trouble of all. Job 1.18,19 says: "While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking: and, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead: and I only am escaped alone to tell thee." If these four mighty troubles would have been spread out across Job's life and many years passed between them, still, they would have been hard to bear. They would have involved intense pain. Yet when they came all at once, deep and wide, how must they have crushed the spirit! Consider this fourth trouble by itself. Job's fourth trouble brought the deaths of Job's children. Not some of his children. But all of his children. How many children did Job have? Job 1.2 says he had seven sons and three daughters. All of these children died at once in the storm. In the Morning, they were all well. They enjoyed the prospect of a good day. Before Evening, they were all gone.

III. How Job behaved in all his troubles. Now, Friends, when these mountains of trouble sat on Job's shoulders, how did he behaved? I showed what happened to Job's estate. I showed what happened to Job's children. When these troubles crashed in, what effect did this have on Job himself? When you read of Job's behavior in his troubles, you read the brightest part of the Story. Here is where the man shines. To a large degree, here is seen “the patience of Job” that the Apostle James spoke about. For look how Job behaved. Job 1.20,21 says: "Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, and said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither; the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." Job 1.22 adds: "In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly." All which speaks of a man who was a king. Not a king of a country. But a king of himself. Furthermore, here comes to light an unshakable faith in THE LORD. In the darkest hour of his life, Job trusted in GOD.

From today's Sermon, in conclusion, there are Two Instructions. 1. The First Instruction is how few troubles we have had! This world is full of trouble. This world is so full of trouble that there is no place where trouble is not. Trouble invades every country. Trouble weighs down every Family. If you have lived, you have tasted trouble. Nor are these troubles merely objective circumstances. They very much affect us subjectively. We frequently feel our troubles troubles deeply. Yet I speak the Truth when I say, that here before the Story of Job, who does not see how few troubles we have had! Compared to Job, we have hardly suffered. I cringe when the statement is thoughtlessly thrown about: “I have suffered more than Job.” Have the Facts been considered? I cannot but think that one reason THE LORD put the Story of Job in Scripture is to put on display one of the most peculiar and singular cases of suffering in the world; and yet here, in the midst of this piercing trouble, was a stellar patience that nobly bore up under it. O, then, how patiently ought we to bear up under our troubles! With a troublous mountain on his back, Job blessed GOD and cursed not.

2. The Second instruction is what an infinite weight of sorrow THE SAVIOUR endured at the Cross. Years ago, three men sat around a campfire. The oldest said: "Come, men, the night is young. We have eaten our food. Let us now have some serious conversation. I propose that we each tell our sorrows this evening." With that word, the oldest man started and spoke of the sorrows he had experienced. This oldest man then turned to his fellow and said: "Come, sir, speak of the sorrows you have gone through." So the second man opened up the sorrows he had gone through. Afterward, the oldest man turned to the third and youngest man of the group and said: "Young man, your turn. Speak of your sorrows." The young man spoke not a word. He simply kept his eyes on the campfire. Then the two men who had already expressed their sorrows became disrespectful. They scoffed at the young man. They said: "Ah! This man has nothing to say. Look at him! He is but a youth! He has not seen any sorrow!” Then as the night went on, the young man spoke and rehearsed his sorrows. And before he finished that Evening, the other two men wept and hid their faces. The young man's story of sorrow out did all the rest. Friends, you may consider the saddest story of woe. You may consider the Story of Job, as we did today. I still know Another Who has gone through much more; and yet He is but a young man. O who knows, and who can tell, what THE DEAR SAVIOUR endured at the Cross when He suffered for our sins! As for THE SAVIOUR, THE SAVIOUR, at the Cross, in paying the price for our sins, tasted the Wrath of GOD. He felt in Himself what we deserved. And behold how He loved us! He went forward. He laid down His Life. The sweet result was the Forgiveness of Sins. Job's sorrows surpass all of ours, but THE SAVIOUR'S Sorrows surpass all of Job's. Job's sorrows are instructive. Yet Job's sorrows are instructive in the highest way in that they are a window through which you may reflect on JESUS. Lamentations 3.1 says: "He is the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of God's wrath." There was no sorrow like JESUS' sorrow! He was nailed to the Cross. He shed His Precious Blood. “It pleased the Lord to bruise Him.” And yet all this JESUS patiently bore for our sakes! There is none Who ever suffered like Him. And none, you may be sure, Who ever did more for us. Amen.

Sermon III.

“Another.” Romans 7.4.

“That ye should be married to Another, even to Him Who is raised from the dead.” Romans 7.4.

WHENEVER THE SAVIOUR preached, He often used the commonest experiences in life to lead to the spiritual. Once He spoke about a farmer's field (Matthew 13.3-9) and then He proceeded to show how different types of soils excellently serve to illustrate different types of hearts. On one other occasion, THE SAVIOUR spoke about wheat and tares (Matthew 13.24-30) and then He went on to show how wheat are like good men and tares are like bad men. At another time, THE SAVIOUR spoke about the mustard seed (Matthew 13.31,32) and then He said that just as the mustard seed is the smallest of seeds and yet grows up into the largest of herbs, just so is the Kingdom of GOD. In this world, GOD'S Kingdom often begins small, but it ends up in eternity to be very large. O how often THE SAVIOUR taught after this manner! It was His style. He was Himself when He was telling some simple story and thereby holding forth a solemn Truth.

And is there not a grand lesson that may be learned from THE SAVIOUR'S method of preaching? One lesson is there are important Truths found in the most common instances of life. One thing in Creation that I admire are trees. They are tall. They are stately. They provide shade. Sometimes they are fruitful. And do we not learn much from trees? Trees have been remarkably serviceable to the human race. When I have looked upon a tree, I have often thought about the Cross. Both the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter said that JESUS died on “a tree.” See Galatians 3.13 & I Peter 2.24. They nailed His hands. They nailed His feet. He groaned, He bled, and He expired for our sins. O, then, how well might we prize our trees! On some tree somewhere, THE DEAR SAVIOUR paid the price of Redemption. If trees were in no other way serviceable to man, they were certainly serviceable to man in this regard: it was on a tree where Atonement was made.

But now that I have showed you that there are important Truths found in the most common instances of life, I would like now to mention a common instance of life and show a lesson that may be learned from it. The matter I would like for you to consider today is, that the way we come into the world, and the way we go out of the world, is very similar. In Job 1.21, Job said: "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither." In Ecclesiastes 3.2, King Solomon said: "There is a time to be born, and a time to die." In I Timothy 6.7, the Apostle Paul said: "We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out." These Scriptures go far in speaking that we come into the world and go out of the world very similarly. Joined together, these Scriptures speak that we come in without clothes; we leave without clothes. As there is a very Divine and Sovereign time when every person is born, just so it is when someone dies. Psalm 31.15 says: “My times are in Thy hands.” Then says the Apostle Paul: “We brought nothing into the world.” In this world, we frequently crowd around ourselves things we are fond of. But the Apostle says that we did not bring those things into the world. Nor at death will we take them when we go.

Yet consider this further resemblance between birth and death. Very often, we come into this world in complete dependence upon another. If another were not around when we were born, we surely would have died! When we first come into this world, we must be clothed by another, fed by another, and cleaned by another. Our lives then thoroughly hang upon another. This is why on our yearly tax forms that children are called “dependents.” I remember my Wife telling me how that in her Christian high school, during a course respecting the family, for an assignment, she was obliged to take around with her for a week a dozen eggs in a basket. If she went on the bus, she had to bring her eggs. If she went shopping, she had to bring her eggs. Everywhere she went, her eggs went. The instruction the teacher sought to instill into the minds of the students was that when you have a newborn, there is much care. Is it not true that if you drop an egg the shell will break? In a similar sense, you must be careful when you have a newborn.

And I now ask you, Friends, how do you go out of this world? It sometimes happens that the world is left behind in the same manner in which it was entered. At that time, you often depend on another. It is sad but very true—it is something that is not always pleasant to think about—and some of you here might know well what it means—but right before you go out of the world, when old age comes and makes itself known, your strength fails, your health fails, and now you need another to do for you what you once did yourself. Years ago, I remember once speaking with a dear soul who for the first time was come into a Personal Care Home. I have often observed that when people first come to a Personal Care Home, things are hard for them. And who can blame them? It was no less true of this soul. At the time, she asked me: "Reverend, do you know what the hardest thing is about getting old and going into a Personal Care Home?" I said: “Please tell me.” She went on to say: "The hardest thing about getting old and going into a Personal Care Home is you are dependent upon another." O don't you think it is substantial that right before you leave this world, THE LORD has often planned it that although you are advanced in years, you are your smartest, and you sit there in the accomplishments of your life, that just when you are about to go, you go through much of the same experience as when you first came into it. For many, I have heard that it feels like you come back to “square one.” I am firmly convinced that THE LORD is trying to graciously teach something through this. Nor should this thing be looked on as a dark discouragement, although it sometimes is.

In regard to the soul, it is the very same as when you come into the world and when you go out of the world. For when it comes to the soul, the soul is guilty of sin. This sin is widespread and includes all of us. Romans 3.23 says: “For all have sinned.” Ephesians 2.1 says there is nothing we can do on our own to correct this. It says: "We all are dead in trespasses and sins." Ephesians 2.1. And what can a dead man do? Romans 3.20 adds: "By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight." Therefore what does GOD in the Scripture say about the human race? He is very clear. He speaks that we all have sinned. Since we are in a spiritual state of death from these sins, we cannot by ourselves do such things as obey GOD'S Law and recover from this state of sin. We do not have that that indwelling strength on our own. These things are very true. GOD could not have spoken them plainer. And although some do not like these things and are offended by them, it still does not change the Fact that they are true. I am persuaded that people these days, more than our Fathers past, tend to think too highly of themselves and their own abilities. They fancy that they are their own saviors and that they can take away their sins by themselves.

But the Truth is we are poor sinners and we cannot save our own souls. When the Apostle Paul spoke this Word “Another,” he was trying to show that in regard to the Salvation of the soul, you cannot do anything for yourself, that you must go outside of yourself, and you must look to Another to save you. And is there Another to save us? There is. Song of Solomon 5.16 says: “He is altogether lovely.” Song of Solomon 5.10 says: “He is the chiefest of ten thousand.” Very many of us here, I'm sure, thank THE LORD He has kindly given us others to care for our bodies in the time of old age. But let me say in your ears that GOD has considered us. He has sent THE SAVIOUR. John 3.16 begins with: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." O what a perfect SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST is! He can help us. He can save us. First: JESUS has a Life of Righteousness to hide in. Which of us here have not shivered on a cold day for lack of a coat? And we may well shiver before the presence of Heaven because of a lack of real righteousness. Romans 3.23 further says: “We all have come short of the Glory of God.” But when sin is confessed to THE LORD in Prayer—when JESUS is believed in as SAVIOUR—GOD puts to the account the Righteousness of THE SAVIOUR. The soul then becomes hid in Him. The soul is made righteous by Another. But, secondly, THE SAVIOUR died for our sins. This gets down to the root of the problem. This Truth is written across the Scripture in various ways. Sometimes, in symbols. At other times, in the plainest language. I Corinthians 15.3 says: “He died for our sins according to the Scripture.” And what does this mean? This means Romans 8.1. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” That is, those who have fled to JESUS as THE DEAR SAVIOUR Who paid the price. Therefore JESUS may be looked to. He may be trusted in. He is well able to save the soul. Romans 9.33 says that those who trust in Him “shall not be ashamed.” Amen.