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Meditation for this morning. Not necessarily further than that. We might look at the latter half of the second chapter, First John beginning with the 12Th verse, the rest of the chapter first John 2:12,12After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days. (John 2:12) First Epistle of John, the 2nd chapter, verse 12.
I write unto you, little children.
Because your sins are forgiven you.
For his namesake I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him, that is, from the beginning.
I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because you have known the Father.
I have written unto you, Fathers, because you have known him, that is from the beginning.
I have written unto you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. Love not the world means the things that are in the world. Any man love the world. The love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh.
The lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Little children, it is the last time. And as you have heard, that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time.
They would now promise, but they were not of us, or if they had been harvest, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. Let she have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things I have not written unto you, because you know not to prove.
But because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ. He is Antichrist that deny a Father and the Son. Whosoever denies the Son the same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledges the Son hath the Father also.
That that therefore abide in you which you have heard from the beginning, if that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye shall ye also shall continue in the sun.
And in the Father, and this is the promise that He had promised us even eternal life. These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which you have received of Him abideth in you. And you need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you of all things.
And is truth and is no lie, and even as it has touched you.
Ye shall abide in him, and now little children are abiding in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If he know that he is blanket, we know that everyone that doeth like this is born of him.
Before entering into the details, one would just call attention to the fact here that the apostle is evidently addressing the whole family of God.
And then he proceeds to divide them into the fathers and the young men and the children. Now, in our King James Version, there's a little confusion here because the.
Differentiation.
In terms are not properly indicated, for instance in the 12Th verse.
It's not exactly little children, but children it's the family.
I write unto you addressing the family, the whole family.
Then in the 13th verse, he divides the family into the three classes.
And then you get in that, in that 13th verse I write unto you little children. Well, that's right. That's the little children. That is, that's the the younger class.
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But you get that same younger class.
In the 18th verse. But now in the 28th verse we go back to the whole family.
And as the words are different.
The family is the whole family is addressed in the 12Th verse and then it's divided into the three classes and then we go back to the whole family in the 28th verse. One just called attention to that general division of the chapter.
It's a whole family and the 1St person.
From the 13th verse.
Through the 27th verse is a parenthesis, isn't it? Yes, yes.
Well, how beautiful, beloved, to think that John can address the family. I write unto you, children, because your sins are forgiven you for his namesake.
How wonderful.
And that's the final thing, isn't it?
That's once and for all.
It's something we can lose tomorrow.
No, it isn't common goal with that kind of forgiveness.
Our sins forgiven and forgotten.
Forever.
I remember Willis had given us some good ministry on this term, little children some years ago.
And.
Used the Scotch expression that the parent uses.
Or their their little children, but instead of it referring to their size.
Or their youth, that it really refers to their dearness to the parent.
And the word he used was barony. Barony.
I think it's safe to say what I'm going to our dear brother Anise in our local meeting.
Would often speak of his children and I remember how he would often speak of American. I suppose the Germans allow that to be a term of affection by adding that kin to the end of it. Marie can he would use to say, well here is a term of affection.
That is not limited to any age, but it is good for every Christian on earth.
Their sins are forgiven.
What the term dearness, though would apply to all the classes in that 13th, 1St we have the fathers, the young babes, what our brother Brown was speaking about that.
The little children was really babes.
I think what our brother AC Brown is referring to is.
I write unto you, little children. It's merely a term of affection where he addresses the whole family.
And.
It's just children, but it. But in English, when you say just the word children, you lose something, you lose a little, you lose the affection.
Mr. Kelly renders it, dear children.
I'd express it nicely.
Well, that's a wonderful thing. Your sins are forgiven.
That dear, dear woman in the 7th of Luke.
Oh how sweet, those words that fell on her ears.
Thy sins are forgiven.
What did she deserve?
I just thought all the rest of us deserve judgment.
But from those lips that could never lie.
She heard that marvelous word. Thy sins are forgiven.
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Probably the most remarkable.
Sense of acceptance in the Gospels, that woman.
No, Brother Wilson, I think it's, at least for me, it's easier to give the gospel on that story than anything in the Scripture. That's sweet, precious experience of that needy, needy center.
She had, she had nothing to recommend her. Nothing. And yet she got everything.
And hers was not a case of being healed of some bodily ailment.
They were just the feeling of the enormity of her guilt.
And then she feels accepted enough with him to come to him, and brave the scorn of the Pharisees house.
To do it.
And then she's so overcome with what has been forgiven. The answer to the word is she loved much.
The love was in measure as she appreciated the forgiveness.
There's there's no evidence in the passage itself that she uttered one word, is it? From the time she went in till she went out, not a word dropped from her lips, according to the account as we have it there, But she heard some precious words from his lips.
And she came in with her tears, but she went out with her heart filled, overflowing.
She received three things, didn't she?
She received the forgiveness of her sins.
She received peace with God. She received.
Have to check the passage.
Yes, that's right. Thank you, brother.
Yes.
Yes, here are the three things thy faith has saved thee.
That salvation.
Go in peace. That's peace.
Her sins, thy sins are forgiven. That's forgiveness, forgiveness, salvation, and peace.
They have precious did the grace appears the hour I first believed.
Some of us have heard of an engraving on a tombstone. I think it's in the Trinity Churchyard, New York.
And that stone has on it just one word.
Forgiven.
Good to remember.
Acts, 1338. As to the one through whom we have this forgiveness.
Acts 1338. Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sin, and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. And then the precious results in Romans 4.
And verses 7 and eight as to those who received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, Romans 47 saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, happy are they, and whose sins are covered. Blessed are happy as a man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
When the Lord speaks to her, he speaks of her faith.
When he speaks to Simon, he talks about her love.
Now her salvation and all that she got was.
Came to her through faith.
But the Lord could turn to the other man and speak about her love.
Well, he valued that.
Are very silent and enjoyment of Christ was a sermon to others. I was thinking of what we have in connection with Lazarus when he sat at the table at the feast in Bethany. It's not recorded and he said one word. And yet we read that many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus because of Lazarus.
Yet he hadn't said a thing.
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All he had to do was live and breathe to be a testimony to the power of that one.
And is it not a testimony in the soul that gets saved if he just goes on living Christ?
Much better to live Christ than to preach Christ than not live it.
All right, brother Cladding.
Yes.
I remember talking to a young man one day and he was all broken up here. Christian boy.
Because he wasn't able to testify, speak for Christ, he was reticent.
And he just felt all upset.
Well, I assured him that he didn't need to be upset.
All he had to do was live Christ, not talk.
It's more powerful.
Mr. Darby says that my own enjoyment of Christ.
Will be my testimony to my brethren.
We were reading about.
The church at Smyrna.
Revelation chapter 2 and we noticed that in Mr. Darby's translation that it really doesn't say anything about their works.
They were.
They were occupied with Christ.
In spite of the opposition.
And that's what he commended. Their lives were firm.
And it cost them dearly. Well, that was fruit. That was much fruit.
But yet the Lord says nothing about their works. So there is a one case where you can see the fruits and yet their works. They couldn't brag of going out and doing this, that and the other thing.
There's no criticism of Smyrna, is there brother? No criticism.
It is nice to notice that the Pharisee was given testimonies to what she has done.
I am back to Luke 7, but the Lord gave testimony of what she was doing.
In his presence.
Would you say that the fathers or those that have gone on in the path and reached some measure of maturity?
Perhaps.
The 14th verse where he names the three classes again.
I have written unto you, Fathers, because you have known him, that is from the beginning.
Will express a little better what is meant by fathers.
Him that is from the beginning. That's characteristic of this epistle, isn't it's Christ. And Christ's soul satisfies their hearts and minds that every other object is displaced.
There's no progress there. You can't go farther than that. It's it's the very same wording in the 13th verse that it is in the 14th. I've written unto you, Fathers, because you have known him, that is from the beginning. And then in the 14th verse he just repeats the statement.
That is you. You can't go farther than being absorbed with the person of Christ.
That was.
The very Acme of.
Of Christian maturity. They had learned the worthlessness of everything else but Christ.
Knowing him that is from the beginning that characterized everything they didn't said in their whole life. Well, John presents us the truth in the abstract and I don't suppose there's anyone could ever say well now I've arrived at that point.
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I've never met anyone, at least among us, that did Brother Harrison make that profession, No.
This is different really from an alloy.
But this is truth in the abstract.
So if one had known Christ, him, that is, from the beginning.
Oh everything they did and said would be in perfect accordance to his mind. All that never missed the path. They never stumble anyone from making a folks move or comment in any way at all.
But there is that distinction in maturity that's recognized.
And a distinction too, in the nature of the conflict which each class would face.
There are various stages in our Christian experience.
And various conflicts that accompany these different stages.
So that in the fathers we have that maturity which is found a complete resting place in Christ. But when we come to the young men, we're right on the battlefield. Now we're we're in conflict.
It's a real, it's a real struggle.
The term father, it would be better for someone else than the person to apply it to someone that would be better for someone else that he's a father and for him to say I'm the father.
I was thinking of having nobody could apply it to themselves, but I have heard it applied to others.
That as others say it of another brother, and we have seen some.
Who went on to that maturity?
My previous pause for a moment to see an illustration of this in the Apostle Paul.
Who writes?
To Timothy, and especially in his second and last letter.
For these difficult times.
When seducers waxing worse and worse.
But difficult for Christians instead of writing to to Timothy.
In that epistle he writes to the Saints at Philippi.
And in chapter 2 about verse 20, he says.
I have no one that is like minded who naturally cares for your state.
A lovely commendation of young Timothy, a truth that would well fit into his last epistle, but he does not address it to Timothy.
Or how lovely as we're in Second Timothy and in these last days, to see there was one.
That had a care of the Saints.
Well, the the second class the.
Young men in the conflict would give us to see that we're passing.
Through a world where we can expect opposition.
They and John and his epistle in the last chapter. He views the whole world, this whole scene, as lying in the lap of Satan.
Just notice that verse.
5th chapter and the 19th verse.
And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in wickedness. I believe the other translation, the wicked one, isn't it?
And the force of that word lie is the way a mother has a child in her lap. The whole world lies in the lap of of the wicked land of Satan.
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Well, that's the world through which we.
Wage our Christian warfare.
And the young men are viewed here as in that world.
And are successful by the grace of God in overcoming the wicked one. That is, they're not viewed here as being defeated by Him, but is overcoming Him.
The world views men according to the way they rise in it.
The station they acquire in the world.
But the Christian is viewed as one who has combat with it.
Everything down here in this organized system that men have, which Satan is the God and Prince, tends to draw the soul away from Christ and make it worldly mind.
In the little cottage or the rather little apartment my wife and I are occupying the present time.
We get an amazing amount of free advertising newspapers thrown at our door. We gather them up every morning. Sometimes there'll be four different ones.
And the thing that is characteristic of them is the advertising of personalities.
This one has achieved this degree of success.
And the the that part of the paper is full of of pictures such as one received this acclaim, such as one received this decoration. And it's all the celebrating of the achievement of different ones.
Well, is that what the Christian is looking for? Is he around seeking to get some badges and decorations and acknowledgements from the world where those papers are? All of the world?
No.
As their old brother AH Rule used to put it.
I believe the Christians should slip through this world as quietly as possible.
Oh, that's.
That's good wholesome advice.
Also say that the higher you get in it, the closer you get to the Prince of it.
Heard Mr. Heaney say that Brother Wilson, but perhaps he got it from Mr. Rule, I don't know.
But I did hear Mr. Heaney say that.
Pretty sure I saw it in some writing.
Have someone would give us a difference or the differentiation between Galatians 1/4?
Second Timothy, 410.
Galatians 1/4.
Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father. Then concerning Demas in second Timothy 410 For Demus hath forsaken me.
Having loved the present world.
And is departed unto Thessalonica Crescent circulation. Titus and the Dalmatians over.
Galatians, it's as it is in the sight of God. It'll always be this present evil world. But in Second Timothy, in regard to Demas, it's as he viewed it. He didn't look upon it as this present evil world. It was this present world, the way he viewed it, that carried him away.
The word there in both passages is the same word. It's this present evil age.
It gives a little different angle.
Is there such a thing as walking on the clean side of the Broad Rd. Still? Still a Broad Rd. isn't it?
Well, the child of God in passing through this world, I believe if he's walking in communion with the Lord, he would have the Lord viewpoint of it. He'd realized that it's an evil age that he's living in, but if he gets him imbued with success and things of that kind, why he won't look at it that way?
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Oil look at as a place of opportunity.
Apostle Paul said God forbid.
That I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Now crucifixion was a formal death, That is, it was a decreed death. It wasn't mob violence.
It wasn't stoning. Crucifixion was an enactment of the state.
He was condemned to be crucified.
And when Paul looked at this world, he judged it as a condemned thing and that which had rejected his, his Savior. He says, I, I have formed a definite judgment of it. It's crucified to me. And when it looks at me, they see one that's opposed to it and outside of it. And they say we don't want you either. They looked at him as one rejected.
Now that's it.
Is in the last chapter.
One of the last verses, Galatians 6/14.
But that epistle opens up with that other verse we had in chapter one, verse 4.
Now that Christ.
Gave himself for us, that He might deliver us from this present world.
So that the apostle in addressing those Saints at Galatia, where corrupters and troublers, legal teachers, had come in to bring them back under the yoke of ******* of the law.
Paul starts right out by a clear breast declaration, the very purpose for which Christ died.
That He might deliver us from this present evil world. So that verse in the end shows His absolute, His conclusion about the whole matter crucified in the world. The world is crucified in the end.
As we were saying before, it's this present evil age.
The the particular character of this time in which we live.
In particular, the character of this particular time in which we live. Well, in Galatians 614 it's another word, and it's the whole organized system.
Of of this world here away from God. That is the emphasis isn't on this particular age of it, but it's the whole organized system of prostate from God, so.
In the fourth verse he's delivered from this present evil age, and in the 14th verse is crucified to this.
The world is crucified unto him.
The whole organized scene is crucified unto him, and he to it.
Dear young people.
May you always remember.
That this whole organized system around us is the same system that rejected your Lord and mine.
And it would do the same if he came back. They do not want him, they do not want the things of God. And you cannot go on hand in hand with the world and be faithful to Christ.
Will you tell us what one of your bosses said to you at your work there on that point?
While we were reading, at least I was reading in my own office, the scriptures, a man came in, he saw me. He says what are you doing? I said Mr. White by reading my Bible. It was during the month hour, unless my boss was mine, that is. I was not getting paid or using his sign for my own use. I think we need to be careful on that too.
You want to say he's reading his My Bible, but I've gone that lunch hour and this man came in, man who was a brilliant man. He had a, a German background. In other words, he was an intellectual genius. Oh, he said, you don't see that stuff, do you? That's why I do the bottom of my heart.
I have to be reading.
This of Romans.
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The ungodly.
Sinner and the enemy. I read those 3 versions doing all he said. After he said that Christ, he came back. I'd be the first one out there to help do it again. And he meant every word of it before a man died a very recognizable death.
Of all things, and desperately. Yes, brother Isaiah 53.
And I think it's verse three says he gives despise.
Present tense.
I've always been impressed by that experience of our brother because it's it's so to the point just to unprovoked to make a statement like that. He just simply told, he told it out, maybe in the heart of it, but he told it out.
I was thinking of what the apostle says in First Corinthians four and eight. A few verses right there. Now ye are full, now ye are rich.
You have reigned as kings without us. I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you. For I think that God has set forth us, the apostles last, as it were, appointed to death. For we are made a spectacle under the world, the Angel and the man. We are fools for Christ sake, but ye are wise in Christ.
We are weak, but ye are strong.
Your Honorable But we are despised even unto this present hour. We both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place.
And labor, working with our own hands, being reviled with blessed being persecuted, we suffer it, being defamed, we entreat, we are made as the felt of the world, and are the off scouring of all things under this day. I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons, I warn you well, that was the place.
World gave him.
Paul told them they were reigning too soon.
The reigning time would come, but they were trying to reign ahead of time.
Are we not living in days when the Corinthian state characterizes?
Most of us in this United States.
Is it not good to remember that God has had a controversy with this wicked, sinful scene ever since Calvary and we have in John 333?
336 The wrath of God abideth on those that go on.
Rejecting Christ and then second Peter 3.
And reading from verse 5.
For this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water in the water whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished, but the heavens and the earth which are now.
By the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and the perdition of ungodly men. How good not to be caught in the vortex of this wicked sea.
And we will get hold of it into our inner being that this world cast my Lord out.
He was rejected here and I needn't expect any better if I'm faithful.
It will cover all our thinking.
When things come up that look big in the world.
We'll think less of them.
We'll judge them according to what we know of Scripture.
We will judge them as a judge thing, the thing that God has judged, the thing that crucified Christ, the thing that doesn't want him, the thing that doesn't want us if we're faithful.
I like to rehearse.
A little incident that Brother Heaney told me about being in some city, I think he was not accustomed to be there.
Visiting there and a brother took him around and showed him a number of the.
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Of the things that the city might boast in great buildings and monuments and this kind of thing. And so when they got through, they asked Brother He Well, Brother Heaney, what do you think of it? Well, he said, I would think wonderful with one exception. Well, what was that? Well, he said, on everything you showed me, I saw something written that spoiled it.
I said I didn't. What did you see?
Reserved under fire.
Probably. Isn't that the truth?
All that man boasts in reserved unto fire.
And that goes for.
The fancy buildings of religion, as well as all the rest of.
Everything's coming down, we're going out.
Knows nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of fancy religious buildings, physical buildings. Nothing of it in Christianity.
The Lord said there isn't a sacred stone or brick or board anywhere on the face of the earth today.
And then they were. If they were trying to compete with Solomons temple, they come far short.
That belonged to another age.
The most beautiful, elaborate, expensive building ever built in the history of the world.
The cost of it was, well, it was fabulous beyond reckoning. A brother showing Brother Heaney all these sights from a high building, I take it, reminds me what we have in Luke 4.
And the first five, and the devil in connection with temptation, the Lord's temptation, and the devil taking him up into the high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
But when we turned the 2nd chapter of Ephesians and verse seven, we find that it's going to take the ages to come to show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness to water. But that will unroll before the eyes of the Lord. The kingdoms of the world in the moment of time is going to thank the whole of eternity for that blessed One to show us the exceeding riches of His grace. That's very precious, brother. I never noticed that before.
That contrast?
What would you say as to the latter part of that 13th verse?
Right unto you, little children, because you have known the father. You tell us, Brother Ericsson. Well, I know that.
The whether the babe, why there's a sense of the relationship.
May not be anything else.
But there is that sense of relationship.
His son into our hearts, crying ABBA, father. And I like to think of that word ABBA as being those infant syllables, you know.
Ah, bar infant syllables.
Sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts. Crying Father. Infant syllables. But it's the sense of relationship.
The spirit of his son crying ABBA. Father, the Lord did use out that very expression, did he not?
Private marks cost lizards.
Where he said have a father.
Connection with that maybe? Maybe read Romans 8.
1516 and 17.
Romans 815.
Might begin at the 14th verse. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of ******* again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA. Father, the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit.
That we are the children of God and the children then heirs, heirs of God.
And joint heirs with Christ, if so be, that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
May we call attention Brother Whitaker in that 16th verse to a point that is sometimes missed.
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit. Now it doesn't say that He bears witness to our spirit, but He bears witness with our spirit.
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In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. Now here we have two witnesses.
The Spirit itself beareth witness, and our own spirit bears witness.
To whom do they bear witness? To me as an individual.
Both bear witness to me that we are children of God. That's very important, yes.
Met a sister one time.
How is elderly sister and after speaking about being indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, she said after the Sunday school hour and she said I I've been I've been saved 30 years before I realized that precious truth that I have was indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God.
We miss a great deal when we miss that realization.
Every Christian is.
That's important, Brother Wilson.
The Bible knows nothing.
Of two classes of Christians, some that have the Spirit and some that don't.
They have not. The Spirit of Christ is none of his.
You know, having believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. I'm quoting from Mr. Darby's translation. Having believed he received, That's when it took place.
And we have nothing to do with it whatsoever.
Our responsibility is to believe.
And it's God that assumes the responsibility. I say that reverently, I trust.
Of sealing that faith, how long are we sealed unto day of redemption?
You can't get out of it if you wanted to. 1St chapter.
6th Verse Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it, or read the margin.
If you have a margin Bible, we'll finish it.
Until the day of Jesus Christ.
Now if there's any possibility of.
Of failing halfway to heaven, then that verse ought to be stricken out of the Bible.
Because the Spirit of God says here, he that has begun a good work, and you will finish it until the day of Jesus Christ.
There will be no half saved people.
Among the regions in the regions of the lost, no half saved people. He that has begun a good work and you will finish it until the day of Jesus Christ.
May I read John 1027?
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man suck them out of my hands.
My father, which gave them me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my hand. My father's hands. I and my father are one. I remember the illustration of the preciousness of that portion. An elderly sister was conversing with an atheist, and she was assuring him.
Or giving him a testimony concerning her assurance that she was a child of God. And she said, and I'm in his hand, he said. But listen, he said.
You might slip between your fingers. Ah, she says. That's impossible. I'm one of these fingers.
Members of the body of Christ.
In that verse, the sixth verse there and the first of Philippians, they responsibility there is on the part of God, is it not? One is like to connect that with the 9th and 10th verses in the same chapter.
Unless I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in all knowledge.
In knowledge and in all judgment which may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ.
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There is my responsibility to walk in accordance with what is given to us in that sixth verse.
In the fourth chapter of Ephesians and the 31St, whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption, the 1St chapter, we are told in whom we have redemption through His blood.
Even the forgiveness of sins. It's not a contradiction, is it? And we are saved, our souls are already saved, we've been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. But then I suppose this refers to the redemption of the body, doesn't it? When the Lord comes in the 4th chapter?
It's mentioned that way in Romans, isn't it?
We feel until the day when we're home and whipping like right.
They what they work, the basis of redemption is completed.
But the benefits are not all realized yet.
Is it Romans 8?
Where we get we're waiting for the body.
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit.
Even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to with the redemption of the body.
Well, of course the price has all been paid, no question about that.
But the moment hasn't arrived for making it good to us. But it's it's in the list of what God has for us.
Words are very precious. When the Lord said to his disciples, Will ye also go away? Peter said, To whom shall we go? Lord, thou hast the word of eternal life.
You are his word.
Finish that first, brother, you finished it for me.
That was that. It was our blessed Lord and I'll have to work. We believe and they're sure thou art to Christ say well, I don't feel safe. Brother Brown. We were together in the Veterans hospital in Des Moines. We met a man like that and you gave a very timely, helpful illustration on the thermometer. Would you repeat that for us?
Well, I've given that illustration so many times. Perhaps some are weary of hearing it, but I don't know a better way.
There are two things that compose a thermometer, the scale and the tube of mercury.
Well, they scale never changes. I can look at that scale 365 days in the year and it's always the same.
But when I look at that mercury, why it's up and down, especially in some parts of the country. I knew one place where the record was that the mercury changed 100° in 24 hours.
It's constantly changing.
Well, now my standing in Christ is as unchanging as the person of Christ himself, my standing in Christ.
But my spiritual state is as unstable as the mercury in the thermometer. It's up and down, up and down. But oh, thank God, our getting to heaven is not dependent on our state, but on our standing in Christ. Is that all right? Thank you very much.
There is now therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
John the 6th chapter. The 39th and 40th verse.
I miss the Father's will which I sent me, That of all which you have given me, I should lose nothing, and should raise it up again at the last day, unless of the will of Him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the sun, and believeth on Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up to the last day. Then in the pistol. John the third chapter, the first verse or two.
Behold what manner of love the Father hath restored upon us, that we should be called as sons of God, or children of God. Therefore the world N us not because it knew him not. Beloved now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear we shall be.
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But we know that when He shall appear, we should be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And every man or one that has this hope, and He purifies himself, He was His purity. So this verses are looking on beyond the ones that we have in six of John. Lord has promised to raise Him up, because He came to the Father's will. But here, now, these were supplies to each one of us.
To give us a look on for the future. We're going to be like Christ.
We look at ourselves now and there's many things connected with this is not like Christ, but we're going to be like Him and we're going to see him as He is. And we have that blessed hope now is soon coming with the purifying hope.
Notice in the middle of that verse you read.
You read, you read it as though it read. But we know that when he shall appear.
I've seen some who would read it more like this, but we hope that when he show up here we should be like him.
Language of faith is KNOW.
That it might be of help to some to call attention.
The English here is a bit confusing. Every man that hath this hope, that's the hope of his return.
That that half this hope not in himself.
But in him point up every man that hath this hope in him.
The one above, If he does, what effect does it have on his life?
He purifies himself even as he is pure. That is, there is a constant self judgment goes on in view of that pure one that may appear anytime.
So that's why it's important to have the word before us, the washing of the water. By the way, I believe Brother Whitaker.
That we do well to remember in the Old Testament economy.
They would offer a lamb in the morning and a lamb in the evening. I believe it's a wholesome thing for the Christian family to have the reading of the word in the morning and the reading of the word in the evening.
If you'll pardon a personal reference.
My wife and I, when we were first married, were of one mind.
That that should be a part of the routine of our household. And through the wondrous grace of God, we've been able to keep it up through these many years, and I believe it's been one of the most blessed and wholesome things in our lives together.
That reading the word together in the morning and having prayer and again at night.
I don't think we can overemphasize the importance of it, but nowadays?
Where the hectic life that many people are living and the high pressures.
Sad to say, the family readings are disappearing.
It's sad, but it's true, isn't it, in many homes of family readings?
Is disappearing.
I remember going visiting with Mr. Potter.
Taking him about visiting, which I did on many occasions.
And I've heard the old gentleman.
On more than one occasion, say, to the one whom we were visiting.
Say, in his kindly, genial way. Well, sister, and what did you read this morning?
Well, sometimes it was a bit embarrassing.
Well, Brother Potter, we just we just didn't have time or take time this morning to read. We usually do, but we didn't read this morning. And there might be various kinds of excuses.
Well.
Supposing that it was a sister or a brother, whichever it happened to be. And he said, well, we had the first John, the 2nd chapter this morning.
Well, he'd say that's a lovely portion. Should should we turn to it, look at it a little bit and then he very few could. Well, I thought the gracious way in which it did, it was very nice, and yet it searched the conscience.
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Don't we have the same tactics of the enemy today as the Israelites experience? We're not ignorant of Satan's devices, but we find in Exodus I believe it is that.
The enemy was seeking to drive out of the hearts the minds of God's chosen people all thought of God. Get out the tail of bricks or else, and take away the straw. Beat them. Give them no time for meditation. Well, you're present. One night Brother Brown and dear brother in Des Moines mentioned that precious.
Necessity of reading, prayer and meditation. And he said we have to have RPM in the engineering world.
He said we need it in our daily Christian walk in life, reading, prayer and meditation. RPM.
Psalm 92.3 It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name almost high, to show forth thy loving kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night.
In second Peter one we have there in connection with faith.
Have in your faith virtue and virtue knowledge the first two things that are mentioned.
Well, often in the mention I have spoken of, the virtue was moral courage.
Well, do we not get that through prayer?
Where we're able to meet face the world.
In the knowledge is in the reading of the word. The two must go together.
If we have the one without the other, we might become.
Mystical, fanatical. If we had the knowledge without the prayer.
It might be more of a intellectual approach.
So we need the two together, do we not?
Good to take transmitted without keep it going on in communion. I believe so.
Connection with the lamb just mentioned. I've enjoyed this thought in connection with the Lamb draft scripture in Genesis 2822 verse 8 by Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering, not for sin offering. So the lamb there, I take it was for God himself. The death of Christ was first of all the glory of God.
And then in the 12Th chapter of Exodus, we have there a Lamb born house. And then on the 29th just read to us, we have a Lamb for a nation. In one John 29 we have a Lamb for the whole world. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And in the 5th chapter of the Revelation we have the whole creation joins, inscribing glory to the Lamb that was slain.
Speaking of the Lamb, the heaven Leviticus, that the priest had the wonderful privilege.
After speaking the blood and so forth and offering the offering they were to feed on the wave breast and the shoulder breast infections of Christ and the shoulder is strength. If we're meditating and feeding upon affections of Christ's love for us and abandoned strengthen his shoulders will be living in his presence will be kept in fellowship and is the only thing that will keep us.
Because we all have the fallen nature, we're to reckon the dead. God sees it bearing the death of Christ. We're directing it there. So the only remedy for us is to be feeding on the proper kind of food, the lamb.
Police officer beating on the affections of Christ and the strength of Christ. Does that matter?
I've heard this saying and I think it's helpful. It's not original with me at all.
We were speaking a moment ago about the Christian and said he doesn't feel saved.
If.
You want to be disappointed?
Look inside. If you want to be disappointed, look inside.
If you want to be distracted, look around.
If you want peace and joy, look above.
I believe that's very timely.
Comparison.
Very tiny.
We will never get any peace in our souls as long as we look on the inside.
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Because the more we discover of that old evil nature.
The more abhorrent it is, and we'll get under the under the discouragement, the weight, the burden of it. But why don't we believe what God has said about it, that it's so bad it's hopeless and he's done with it and the death of Christ. Let's leave it where he puts it and then enjoy what we have in Christ.
It has been said that the.
Christian, when he fails, is subject to two ministries. One is of the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ points us to Christ. He's also subject to the ministry of Satan, and Satan would point him to himself into his failures.
Would Lipton's tree help in that feather harassment or does this have some other applications? Philippians 3.
12.
13 and 14 Philippians 312.
Not as though had already attained either already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I'm apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself of apprehended, but this one thing I do, or getting those things which are behind and reaching forth, and those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high column of God in Christ Jesus.
Is the thought there going forward-looking off unto him?
Rather than looking back on our blunders.
Well, yes, Lord may include more than the blunders. It might include what we thought was our success, maybe that we shouldn't be occupied with that. But it is looking off onto the Lord as the one who has completed the path of faith. And we'd follow after.
Made me a motto, painted it and sent it to me. I don't know what translation it is where he got it, but he translates that 14 first. First part Down to the goal I pressed. Down to the goal I pressed.