God's People — Frank Knox

David Encouraging Himself in the Lord

Chapter 30, there's a verse on my mind, and if I don't get rid of it, I'll probably lose a night's sleep. And I don't want to do that. 1 Samuel 30 please, and one verse only, and that is verse 6. 1 Samuel 30 and 6.

And David was greatly distressed, for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was green. Every man for his sons and for his daughters, and David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.

A little something that I'm impressed with, and that I'm going to get rid of just now, is the end of the verse, and David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. You remember that, and David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.

The first speaker tonight, Nederama, that I taught. The second people's person, Nederama, that I taught. I put them both together, and both of them put together, led me to the verse I read with you in 1 Samuel 30.

Giving Children the Bible

What the first brother said was, give them plenty of the book of God, I say amen to that. There's no substitute for it. Sunday school teacher. And I tried the job for twenty years, and the first class I took, I had to get the children to find the place for me.

I'm not going to give you a place or not. I want you to encourage yourself in the Lord your God. And you'll come to the place where nobody else can encourage you, only the Lord. But they'll have to keep in good friends with them.

Our first brother said quite a lot of good things, and the one I taught was, give them plenty of the Bible. There's no substitute for that, brethren. You say we know that? Yes. The people that Peter wrote to knew quite a lot of things, but he didn't write to tell them anything new.

He wrote but a script of pure minds by way of remembrance. Let me do the same with you tonight. Give them plenty of the Bible. It's settled in heaven, it will never pass away. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my word shall not pass away.

And the word of the Lord endures forever. Give them plenty of the Bible. But don't you think, please, for a moment that you can run the country on Saturday night and make a sign of a fool yourself and get help from God.

You can't do it. You may lose illustrations, we don't find fault with that everywhere. A good illustration of good faith. But you can't live what way you like during the week. Run the country on Sunday, or spend a couple of hours at the TV and get God to help you on Sunday.

Visiting the Homes of Students

You can't do it. The other remark the second speaker made was, visit the houses. I'm a firm believer in that. Always was, and I hope always will be. A little word of advice, if you please, about visiting houses.

If you were too proud to visit joshy little houses in Bath Street, you were too proud to be a teacher. And if I were the superintendent, I wouldn't do you a class. God can get nowhere with proud people, only take the pride out of them, visit the houses.

Whether they're sick or not, whether they're absent or not, don't wait for the lack of that. Put in your class, you were their teacher, and God will hold you responsible. It's just as strong to teach a thunderstorm class as it takes to stand and preach the gospel.

Teaching for the Salvation of Children

And I hope with all of you it's obnoxious to listen to a lot of jokes and things on the platform. In the gospel meeting this I have a handful of heckles. I know you can use simpler language, I know that all right.

I know you can use illustration, good and simple, but always keep this one thing before you, it's that child, that soul that I'm after. And if you get this in your mind, that it's a child's soul I'm after, and if it's not that, you shouldn't be a teacher.

If you haven't got the salvation of the children before you, you shouldn't be a teacher. It's the first qualification to make an unsuccessful teacher. You want to see the children fail for eternity. Now that our last guru made a remark before he sat down, I want to repeat it in different language.

In these days, when there's so much damning, ridiculous infidelity taught in the day schools, and the elementary schools, and the high schools of Australia put plenty of the Bible into the word Jesus said.

I hope you think I'm not erotic, I'm talking about what I know. And I'm prepared to say that any place, any time, to anybody. And the only thing that will counteract the heresy that the heel on Sunday, and the rubbish that the heel drew in the weekday such as evolution, which is a fraud and a farce, and an insult to the monkey.

I made that brother, I made that. The only thing that counteracted the good old God, give them plenty of it. Look at the holes. Did you do that? I sure did, I'm going to guess. And when you get to a little hole in a little box street, don't put your head in the air like as if you fell down from Jupiter.

Get into the hole. Don't come out without praying. I'm speaking to sisters as well as brothers, and I'm as fond of assembly principle as any man on the platform, and a bit more than some of them. Even if there are men present, it's not assembly meeting.

Sit down on your knees. And go to won't listen to your preaching. And go to won't listen to your preaching. They'll be bound to listen to you. And dig it down to pray alongside of them. Come every day.

Oh, it's a dirty house. You're stuck full of pride. That's you trouble. And there's no remedy for it. There's nothing to do with that. But I tell you what, if you get this to be told you, which I hope you do, that I'm speaking to children now, that will soon be men and women of God.

And I'll go out into the world to be an influence for good or evil. To win them for Christ and to damn them. And I'll keep the soul salvation before me. I'll be a victim and I'll pray with them when they get there.

Never mind the circumstances. Never mind the few jobs you're talking about. Never mind the few cuts you're talking about. Leave your pride at home if you have any. Never mind the dust on the floor you're down.

I'm asking you to take pride in heaven or hell. For the people in the home and for the children you speak to. I've built a house for an old woman. Don't want anybody to smile at me please. I've built a house for an old woman.

Prayer and Practical Love in Home Visitation

It's a little country house. I got this old woman to come to the meeting every night on a contract. She never missed a night for six weeks. I called to pray with her before I left the country. And I got down to pray.

So when you laugh please. If I'm preaching what I don't practice, I'm a hypocrite. Don't listen to me. But I challenge you now. I go down to pray the first thing I felt was my trousers sticking to the floor.

Well obviously. I felt God was going to help me to preach, to pray. And the next thing I felt was a shot on the back of my neck. And the third thing I felt was a little chicken on the heel of my boot.

Ah good brethren in spite of all that, the blessed God send me a little help to pray. And I can pray when I can't preach. Make your children the subject of your prayer. Not only a little while on Sunday, but do the apostasy.

Or do a little bit of baptism. Down to the job. I pray for your children every day you live at least once. And ask God to give you real help and a real love to see these children saved. Look at their houses specially.

We're not very far from where we're sitting. There was a sister visited a scholar yes in a little back street. The mother was a Roman Catholic. The father was a Roman Protestant. One's worse than the other.

And this teacher insisted on the little girl coming to school. She did come. She prayed. You can't pray there's something between your soul and God. Don't tell me we're backward because you don't believe that.

So you've got a soul, a love for the soul. You're not me, you're backwardness. That's not the name for it. And some special meeting had come along. And this girl teacher went back to get this woman who used to be a Roman Catholic.

And she said no. And she went back to get her. And she prayed with her. And she got her. And she got saved. And she got her pride and she had salvation. You see, visiting the homes of the children opens the door for you to get into the home to invite them to the gospel meetings and to come along.

Sunday Schools Must Teach the Gospel, Not Novelty

Are you doing anything on it? Are you doing anything on it? Is your Sunday school teaching only a pledge and a superintendent? Are you doing anything on it? Listen. Mark this to Mark Ware. Take a note of it.

Tell whoever you like. The north of Ireland will never know what's been accomplished by the Sunday schools as I've met in every country I've been to. Overseers, preachers, missionaries that used to be in the Sunday schools in Belfast and elsewhere.

You go in for the soul salvation. You preach with them about that. You speak to them about that. You be honest with them. Be kind to them to be sure. Don't give them a lot of stuff that will do them no good.

No inventions. No new things. No new things. A glorious gospel of the blessed God, 1st of every 11. The lever of God and the salvation, Romans 1, 16. It's all we needed in the north of Ireland this last 90 years, 40 years that I've been on it.

And it's all we need still. I'm going to give you time to think that over. Do new things please in your Sunday schools. No matter who suggests them. And it's the superintendent's business. For to see that the classes are getting taught the blessed good of God and that the teachers not do nothing, we could have the teacher removed either to another class or out of the school altogether.

Somebody's teaching us short, I'll grant you that. But let us face up to practice. You have to double the classes to be sure. You have to give one teacher two, sometimes three classes. Never mind that.

Frank Knox's First Sunday School Class

But to have that and one real teacher, then somebody's only playing at the job. The rest of the business is done for eternity. I don't suppose anybody ever made a worse shit for teaching a Sunday school than I did in the year 1906.

I was forced to it, more or less, because the July holidays came round and the superintendent said to me, Frank, I don't get off to take a class. And I said, I can't take no class. I'm not long saved.

And I couldn't find a place. He said, Frank, I want you to take a class. I said, I can't do it. He said, I've doubled up five classes already. I've taken two classes myself, and there's one left. He said, I want you to take a class.

There it is. Over there are a lot of little boys from eight to ten, all Christian children. I see one of them in the meeting tonight in front of me. It's a good thing to be able to stand over what you say, especially on a platform, and especially with brothers.

Now, I said to him, Frank, the younger must obey the older. And I went and sat down. And these little boys, they wanted to hear my twang, because I was just over from England after twelve years in there.

I went there and I was eight and I left when I was twenty. And I couldn't do anything else. I only spoke English. Well, in the Lord's name, will you use your own language and not try to be somebody else?

Man, it's obnoxious. So I sat down among these little boys. They knew that I spoke English, because they heard me tell an hour's tale. And ten of them got their heads right round me, and I got my head round them and I said, Lord, help me, what will I say?

I didn't know. And they were all wishing to hear what I would say. And I was wishing for them to get something to say. And I think maybe English would help me, I don't know. And I said, and I began to speak, I said, we've just sang wonderful things in the Bible, I see.

And I said, no, we have been singing wonderful things in the Bible, I see. Although I say we have been singing wonderful things in the Bible, I see. I know God will forgive me, but I couldn't help it.

I couldn't speak any other way. Now that got their attention. And I said, if we've been singing the hymn of truth, every one of you will tell me some wonderful thing you've seen in the Bible. So this little boy started off.

He took two or three minutes of the woman at the well and said, aye, that's a good number, I'll tell her with my life. Now they wouldn't have to give it up, but I'm just telling you what happened. And I'm doing this to encourage young teachers, count these into the English dictionary.

That's such an offensive way to talk. Anybody can say a charm. And I said, now it's your turn, and this little boy, he started to tell me about a woman and the Lord Jesus at the well. Yes, I said, that's quite good, my boy, though I never heard tell of it before.

And then I said, it's your turn now. And he told me, two or three minutes, about a blind man that was called Jesus. Hey, I won't go over it all, but the whole ten of them took two or three minutes each.

And I give them all credit for doing well, and they didn't know whether they were doing well or not. But you know, whenever they got round and all told me the little story, the bell rang, it's five minutes to four.

And like the apostle Paul, I thank God and took courage and I'm going on to say, love your scholars, visit your scholars, pray with your scholars, pray with them in the home, pray with the father, pray with the mother, pray with the father, pray with the mother, pray with the father, pray with the mother.

The Bible as the Foundation of Sunday School Ministry

What is that? That's the blessed book of God. There's no substitute for it. Truth, honor, dignity, brotherhood, and sisterhood in Christ, it's the only thing God has promised to bless. He was always blessed, and he will bless it in the future, and avoid new things, no matter who introduces them in the Sunday school.

There's no substitute for the blessed book of God. Psalm 30, I first Psalm 30, and I finish. David encouraged himself in the law of his God. You get plenty of discouragement, so did I. You get discouraged by the teachers, I was a teacher, and you get discouraged maybe by the superintendent who doesn't understand you.

You get discouraged by the scholars, and a whole lot of other things you maybe get discouraged in the home. And when you get there, remember it's the Lord his God. And when they were going to stone David, after all his kindness to them, was going to stone David, David encouraged himself in the law of his God.

Many a time I've done the same. When I was teaching class for 20 years, I loved that I would have stayed there, only I had to quit out of the Sunday school, and go to preach the gospel, because I wouldn't join the union, and I had to leave my job, and consequently I had to go to preach.

God bless you brethren and sisters in Christ. God bless you teachers. But listen, it's not a play job. Get down to the praise, and whatever difficulty may arise, take it to your God and Father, and encourage yourself in the Lord his God.

The Joy of Seeing Students Saved

Especially give them the Bible, as the first preacher said. Especially visit them as the second preacher said. And certainly keep the soul of salvation before you. I saw, don't forget that big top of the line.

I saw five of my scholars saved, and one spare meeting in the assembly which I belong to. And the whole five of them belong to the same family. One of them is a missionary in India. The other is the wife of a preacher.

And I think the other three have gone home to heaven. David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. You do the same, and God bless you. And may you have the impassionable joy of seeing your children getting saved for eternity, and growing up to be men and women for God.