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Perhaps I could mention a few thoughts.
That I had concerning this chapter, and then others will of course be able to expand on them, but.
In the first Epistle to the Corinthians, we know that there were a good many problems in the Corinthian assembly that Paul had to address.
And he goes through them one by one, correcting their wrong thoughts and most of all their wrong attitude.
But then.
At the end of the epistle he uses one more error, the denial of the resurrection, to bring out, I believe, what was really on his heart, and that is the precious results of the work of Christ and the resurrection of Christ.
And he does not merely establish the absolute necessity of.
Christ's resurrection and our resurrection.
But He takes us right on to the eternal state and to all the full results of the work of Christ.
But if I could put it this way and this is the way it comes through to me.
It's wonderful to see all that and to see a glimpse into coming glory. And you get that in the previous chapter to this one, Chapter 3.
Where the last verse reads verse 18 of chapter 3.
And I'm going to leave out the words as in a glass. They're not there in a better translation.
But we all with open or unveiled face.
Beholding the glory of the Lord.
Are changed into the same image from glory to glory.
Even is by the Lord the Spirit.
But it seems that in Second Corinthians.
After we have been taken right up into all of the wonderful results of God's purposes.
We come down to earth, if I could say it this way again with a thump.
Realizing that all the problems and difficulties of life are still here.
And I don't like to talk about myself, but I can remember some time ago after I had had a meeting.
A sister from an assembly from that assembly came up and she said to me, Bill, thank you for being real, she said. You didn't gloss over the problems of life with a lot of high sounding platitudes that didn't give us any help.
Well, I was thankful for that remark, because sometimes a little feedback is good, and if it's negative, sometimes that's good too. But the point is, Paul doesn't gloss over the problems of life in Second Corinthians.
He's real about them.
But he brings all the power of a risen Christ in glory.
And all that he is and all his glory to bear on the problems and difficulties of life down here.
And I've really enjoyed that, especially in the last 2 1/2 years when we've had COVID on top of us.
More recently, disruptions in the world from other causes the war in the Ukraine and economic difficulties, supply chain problems and many other things. And people are now even wondering where it's going to end. Is Russia going to lob a few small nuclear weapons into the Ukraine to turn the tide of the war? Where are things going?
I believe this chapter would give us real encouragement and real help, and not only in major problems in the world, but in things that be set us as individuals and families and perhaps local assemblies too.
I find it helpful to see and go back to Chapter 3.
The Apostle Paul is contrasting.
The Old Administration or Old Covenant?
In verse seven of chapter 3, it says it's the ministration of death.
Verse nine, it says it's the administration of condemnation.
And it was glorious in the measure that when Moses went up the second time into the mount.
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While he came down and his face was shining because he had seen something of the glory of God.
But the ministration that we have now in this present time is called in verse.
Eight Chapter 3. The Administration of the Spirit and at the end of verse 9.
Administration of righteousness. And that's a ministry that exceeds in glory. So this is where the Apostle Paul starts in verse one of chapter 4. Seeing we have this ministry as we have received mercy, we faint not.
And so it helps to get that focus.
Oh, brethren, we have no idea of the glory.
That we're going to step into at any moment.
I just marvel, I I sometimes think rather than when we step across into the presence of the Lord, we're going to look back and we say.
Why was I so occupied with those toys down there?
Why wasn't I more enraptured with this? This is what we were called to.
First, Peter chapter 5 says we are called to eternal glory.
Is there something else that compares with that down here to take our attention? So it's a real challenge, isn't it? As we take up these things in verse two, it speaks of some pretty negative things, but over evidence, remember what we've been called to.
We get the word faint twice in this chapter, once in the first verse.
And once in the 16th verse.
And I am no Greek scholar. Anyone can look this up, but the word has the sense of losing heart.
Becoming discouraged, deciding that the pathway is too rough.
And it is easy to get that way.
We have been used to things being pretty, pretty nice for us here in North America ever since the Second World War. There has been an unprecedented error of peace.
Prosperity and relatively good times. Oh yes, there have been the odd ups and downs, but in the main.
Things have been pretty good.
But God is starting to allow the whole world to feel the effect of His hand on it.
And then to sometimes even in the Christian pathway there are things that can be sent us and as you say, Brother Bob, if we get our eyes on those things and get taken up with them.
It is easy to faint, isn't it? Easy to think of giving up? It's it's it's not worth it.
But all directs our eyes to the glory, as you say, that is ours. And I love the way you put that that what a difference it makes.
One moment we can be dealing with everything that concerns life down here and one moment later.
We could be in the presence of the Lord and.
See that glory, you know, even fuller way than we see it now by faith.
We have this morning's address.
Repeated in this chapter.
Really a lot of left Bruce comment on it, but just to make the comment, this chapter begins with the gospel.
In the context of our present circumstances, but nonetheless, if our gospel behead the majority of the chapters, the practical effect of having to live in the Kingdom of God in its present state.
And the end of the chapter we have some of the eternal purposes and councils of God.
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Not all of them, but we have some of what's ahead of us when more of it's fulfilled to us. And so I make that suggestion as we go through the chapter that we can see another.
Expression of the same.
Line of thought and help that was given to us this morning.
And all that Bruce elaborate if he chooses.
I don't know about the elaboration, but I will make this comment on verse one.
That Paul.
As specially fitted and gifted as he was, and with such a stewardship.
He seems to have never lost track of the fact that he received mercy.
When he writes to Timothy in the first in his first epistle, he says the same thing.
We find that.
Verse 12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord.
Who hath enabled me?
With that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemy and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy.
And so on.
So.
That I will say this, that nowadays.
When the subject of election comes up amongst believers.
The Saints seem to get uncomfortable.
That doctrine seems to make people uncomfortable.
She puzzles me because in my personal experience, the brethren took me under their wing a couple weeks after I was saved, one of the first things they taught me.
I know you felt they said that you did it and that you and God looks upon you as having accepted Christ about the knee.
But they taught me that I was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
And my response was.
Why me? And it makes us worshippers when we lay hold of that.
Paul wrote in his perhaps first epistle to the Thessalonians. He said, knowing brethren.
Beloved, your election of God. So he taught it to them in the first couple weeks. It's foundational.
And it's good for us not to lose sight of that, even such a as we would say, a great one is the Apostle Paul. What a servant of the Lord.
I obtained mercy. I was a glass fever, curious, an insolent and overbearing man. But I obtained mercy.
And didn't lose sight of that in his soul's experience, and it motivated him as having been put into the Ministry to not faint.
And as individuals, I'm sure you would agree, Bruce, we need that mercy throughout our Christian lives, don't we?
It's an individual thing and that's why epistles written to individuals.
Generally include mercy and pulse salutation.
Or the you might say Paul includes it in his salutation, But he writes to assemblies. He says grace and peace. Why? Because assembly stand before God in that particular relationship with Christ.
And in that sense, he doesn't mention mercy toward an assembly, but toward individuals. We need mercy throughout our lives, don't we? It's the mercy of the Lord that we're not.
Consumed. It's the mercy of the Lord in our everyday lives with the mercies we received.
I remember a brother in the Toronto Assembly in whose home I was many times.
And he believed in giving thanks for the food in a very brief way.
He never elaborated. And every time it was Father. For these mercies we give thee thanks. Amen.
But he called the Mercies the good food we enjoy, the good things that God gives us in our everyday lives, the way we're dealt with as individuals before Him. What a blessing thing it is, and we need the mercy of God all through our Christian pathway.
I'd like to reread the last verse.
Of the first time we sang this morning.
And it's an Amen to what's just been said.
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Unchangeable, thy gracious love, our earthly path has ceaseless views. Air New our beating heart to move thy tender mercies still pursued.
Here with us, may they abide, and close us in on every side.
Well, there was a danger in Corinth. We don't need to dwell on it. But it was a danger which Paul brings out in verse two of dishonesty and handling the word of God in a wrong way.
Using deceit in order to gain influence and position and authority. And sadly, without going into a lot of detail, it seems that there were those in court who wanted to.
As it were, shoved the Apostle Paul out of the way so that they could take over and have an influence over the Saints there and.
Paul addresses that.
That in more than one place in the Epistles to corn.
But he mentions it here and how that on his part they as it says in the last half of verse 2.
By manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God, and how necessary that is. We do not need to use human energy. We don't need to use. Human means. We don't need to use.
Anything other than the Word of God.
And if I may be permitted, I will say this there are a number of young people here.
I remember what it was like to be in university and face opposition to the truth of God. And we know from Scripture that there is a place according to Proverbs. I think it's Proverbs 26 to answer a fool according to his folly. There is occasionally a place for what is called Christian apologetics and to point out to those who oppose why their objections will not.
Bear scrutiny or stand up even to SOLID logic. But.
While that may exercise someone's mind, and maybe rightly so.
It doesn't save anyone what saves the word of God. And we know that when Paul came to Corinth, he could say, I determined not to know anything among you, but Christ did him crucified. Now some have taken that the wrong way, that Paul never went beyond that. That's not the point. The point is that he preached A rejected Christ without worldly wisdom, without trying to use high-powered words.
In human education.
Or any other means because he knew that it was the word of God used by the power of the Spirit of God that imparted new life.
And that's what your older brethren were teaching you, weren't they, Bruce, when you learned that you had been?
An object of God's choosing before the foundation of the world, and when the time came, it was a work of God in each one of our souls.
The Word applied by the Spirit of God.
To a part of your life now. Then there was our acceptance of Christ.
A subsequent indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the realization that we were truly safe.
But God began the work, and so Paul realized all that, and he didn't seek to meet the Corinthians on the ground of their education, and they were educated people.
On the ground of their wealth, they were a wealthy people. On the ground of their human pride, they were a proud people.
Put all that aside, Yes, if he had to be stacked up against them, he was educated too. If it came to a matter of ability to be a good orator, he could speak several languages. He could probably hold his own.
But you didn't use any of that.
He preached the word of God without any craftiness, without any deceit, without anything else except the power of God. And what happened? God had much people in that city, as you mentioned, Brother Bruce.
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It's commanding ourselves to every man's conscience, isn't it? I think that's a real key when we're speaking the word. Sometimes there's a tendency to want to appeal to the mind and reasoning.
And I don't think reasoning is wrong because Paul reasoned in the synagogues, the scriptures, but it's appeal to the conscience, and I think that's important. Conscience is that which man got when he ate of that forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and that's what conscience really is.
Take a sale, CON off the conscience and you've got science that's left.
It's with knowledge. And so a person, whether they admit God in their life or don't they have that inside them, The conscience that bears testimony to the truth. Like you say, when the truth is presented then there's something in there that.
They responds to that, and I think that's important to see that we appeal to man's conscience in the sight of God.
Often think of the Lord Jesus when he was brought, that woman that was taken in adultery and they said, Moses said to stone this women woman, what do you say? Well it was pretty evident their hypocrisy.
For adultery, there had to be a man in the picture, and they didn't bring the man. So what was he going to say? Well, he finally stood up and said, he that is without sin among you, cast the first stone at her.
That wasn't an answer to their question. That was an answer to their conscience. And they all got effed one by one, from the the oldest to the youngest. And they walked out.
Their conscience could not stand before the light that was being presented to them. So that's a real lesson, isn't it, to appeal to man's conscience.
Man was brought into a hospital.
His body had been crushed and the physician examined him, said, well, we're going to have to work on you and get some help for you and the man said to him.
I want to know the truth.
And So what is the situation? I know the Lord Jesus Christ is my savior and I'm going to be OK. So the physician said you only have a few hours to live.
The man that said to him.
I have a request. Would you go to the lodging, send somebody to the lodging and he gave the address where I live and ask the landlady to?
Have you bring the book?
And.
Physicians told a nurse, an orderly, OK, go ahead and do it.
So he went on his rounds and he came back a couple of hours later.
And he said to the nurse.
While he could see when he went in the room, the man had died.
And so he asked the nurse if the book.
Had been brought. What book was it? And she said it's under his pillow.
So he reached under the pillow that the dead man was lying on. He pulled out the book. He opened it up, and he knew immediately.
It was the Bible that his mother had given to him when he had gone into medical school.
When he wanted some money for some liquor, he'd sold it and hadn't seen it since. But it's an example that the man's.
Not acknowledged the gospel than what he said to the physician, but more than that the testimony of his own.
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Peace in the face of death was a message to the conscience and then God.
Use that message as the man saw as the Bible. Very quickly the Lord worked in his soul and he was saved.
And became a preacher of the gospel. And so it's extremely important that when we present the message of the gospel to another person, they should see the reality of that message displayed in our own life. And that's what speaks to their conscience.
Just as an interesting note for those that are interested, the Doctor involved was William Mackay, who wrote #34 in Our Little Flock in book.
If you want the full track, that's in the hallway.
Well, we know that Satan is going to oppose all of that, isn't he?
And according to verse four, he's the God of this world.
It's interesting that the spirit of God in Scripture does not call Satan either the God or the Prince of this world until this world rejected Christ. No. Doubtless Satan was very active ever since.
The fall of man, and before the fall too.
He caused the fall of that in that sense, but.
God's word doesn't call him either the God or Prince of this world.
World rejected Christ, and here he's called the God of this world, no doubt religiously. And he's the Prince of this world, if we could say it, perhaps politically.
But he blinds the minds, and maybe I should let Bruce expand on this. But what does he blind them to? Does he blind them? Does it say blind to the minds of them which believe not, lest they should realize that they're lost, guilty sinners?
And need a savior. That's not what it says. He blinds them.
To And it perhaps could read more accurately to the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.
And that's what our brother was bringing before us this morning.
Yes, it is the gospel of the grace of God, unquestionably. And we need that.
But a more blessed truth in one sense, and a higher truth, is that it is the gospel of the glory of Christ.
And that went back into a past eternity when God determined to honor and glorify his beloved Son.
And to give him the highest place.
Apart from Revelation.
The mind of a man becomes the plaything of the devil.
Often being said that way by older brethren, where I come from.
The brighter the mind, the more twisted it can become.
Just look around at some of the things that.
Intelligent people.
Believe as fact in the western world.
And all you can do is shake your head.
So the mind becomes twisted, reducing everything down and down and down of the great.
Testimony of creation, the testimony of conscience, let alone the Word of God.
Reduce it down and down and down to that little mind can take it in, and then it puffs out its chest and walks around in its ignorance.
The story of of our Western world.
But God in verse 6 shines in the heart and bypasses it, so it's wonderful.
Friend of mine I grew up with.
Very prestigious college degree he had from an Ivy League college.
Heard the gospel from Woodsman chicken farmers.
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Man with no teeth.
He wrestled. I went off to work. He wrestled with it and wrestled with it. I got home. I could see on his face something happened. He got insane. I said what happened? He had been trained in a master's degree in biology or something and was all twisted up with evolution and all of this stuff.
Like the Lord spoke to me, he said. John, what you need is faith in me. He got down on his knees in my kitchen and accepted Christ as a savior. He bypassed that brilliantly educated mind and worked in his heart to give the radiancy.
Of the glory of Christ.
In his heart.
So the mind can be blinded, but the conscience never.
I sometimes say the mind could become atheist, but the conscience is never atheist.
Some time ago, there was that.
Debate between a Christian and one of the I forget the name of the famous atheist.
And they asked him what is the full title of Darwin's?
Species What is the called the origin of the species? Origin of the Species?
And he said yes.
Oh my God, I forgot.
You mentioned God in his answer.
Richard talk. OK, that was the guy.
So the conscience never becomes atheist. And so the thing that is important is to let the light shine. And I I think this is what's so interesting in this How do you make a blind person see this is where God comes into the picture in his sovereignty and makes the light penetrate the darkness.
And that's what we have in verse 6, isn't it? It's a quote from Genesis chapter.
One when there was darkness over the face of the deep, God said.
Let there be light and there was light.
Whatever changed in your friend that that all of a sudden he got so uncomfortable. It was not alike from the presence of God that penetrated the darkness. I I seen that happen a number of times rather than Timmy has saw. Amazingly wonderful when you see a person that has struggled against the light.
And all of a sudden.
They can't do it any longer.
It's wonderful to see it. Wonderful the witness.
So the important thing is to let the light shine, isn't it?
To speak the word I said, I say When you're preaching the gospel, it's not your explanation that's gonna make it get through to people. It's the living word of God.
So read it.
Slowly and clearly.
Your explanation might help, or it might not help.
But it's not your explanation. It's the word of God that penetrates. It's living in an operative, penetrating, wonderful, wonderful.
What power we have?
In having that privilege to preach the gospel and know that by the Spirit of God it can Pierce through whatever things put in the way, it can come right through and dramatically.
Transform lives. We have that triplet. What a wonderful privilege it is to be able to do that, whether it's one-on-one or before a group. We know what's going on out there is a work by the Spirit of God piercing through not only to preach it, but to live it.
Somebody has said.
Lights here in this room are not making any noise. They're not saying anything.
But because of their being here, you can see everything clearly.
And that's what the word of God is.
Living in Opera?
In the Word of God.
Seeing and faith go together.
And blindness and unbelief go together.
The reason a person cannot see spiritual things? They may be the brightest intellectual person in the world.
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It's less the light, as it says, blinded the minds of them, which believe not.
Unbelief is what makes a person blind.
In moral and spiritual and matters.
So what gives light that they see?
Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
And so it's the Word of God working by the Spirit of God, that overcomes unbelief. And when there's then faith.
Given through the word of God, the person sees.
And that's not true only of what we call unbelievers.
The principle is equally true in the life of everyone of us here, if there's an area of our life in which we are not believing God.
If there's unbelief in us, there'll be blindness in that matter as well.
Light and darkness and not the opposite of each other. God is light. We have light in this room. If someone would have great darkness into this room, it's not going to affect this room at all. However, if there's a dark room and we bring a little bit of light, the room is going to be illuminated. That's the big contrast, isn't it? I was thinking of Bruce mentioned earlier with the Sorcerer in the book of Acts. He he was the evidence and action of Satan.
Things and it was me blind. He saw darkness. That was really his natural condition because man love darkness, so he would just put back into his condition. There what we have is light, and in fact.
We spoke about light. Light and light goes together too, isn't it? That's what we have light, then it leads to light and we are given eternal life because that light was upon us.
Thinking of Gideon when he went out with his 300 men against the Midianites, he had two things. His men had two things.
One was a.
Picture an earthen vessel with a lighted torch inside. The other one was a trumpet. It's figurative of the two means of testimony.
What is heard and what is seen? And that's what we have in the verse 2. There's things that are not connected with the Christian testimony, things of dishonesty, craftiness, handling the word of God deceitfully. When there's anything of that, it tends to.
Negate the truth of What's your? What's that obscure exactly.
Exactly. Go ahead.
Well that bit in in verse 2, dishonesty, hidden things of dishonouring not walking and craftiness handling the word of God deceitfully. We are plagued by that in amongst Evangelicals in the Word of Faith movement.
The say it claimant movement, the the prosperity gospel movement and all that, That's what they do. They play these games.
They've put on a show. They use techniques that magicians use and so forth and claim to be men of God, and then people who are affected by that. We run into them from time to time. They may be many of them are real believers, and boy do they get messed up by this stuff. They don't have peace. They're troubled by the things that they're told that we have these kind of people that are all over the place.
Several of them recently have told on TV and their congregations that God has told them they need new jets and.
Millions and millions of dollars worth of money.
And this kind of nonsense that they go on, they they put on a great show. One of the ones that's got to be very famous as a man by the name of Benny Hinn. And I was in a Bible study with a group of people in Florida number of years ago and a couple went to this meeting and they described it to me. There are 4 hours of music and show before he came on stage to work them up. What do you need to do that for? Why if if these people are really.
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Men of God who have signed gifts and can do what they claim. Why do you need to play these games?
These and handle the word of God deceitfully, so these guys could make a fortune making pretzels the way they twist the word of God.
It's it's all around us and we we run into people all the time that are damaged and affected by this and thankfully we have something we can do to help them.
Verse 6. The light shines where.
As it says in our hearts.
Lodging place at truth.
Is the heart and the greatest danger for the hearts of I speak to us as believers in this room. Is that the allowance of unbelief?
And what's in the heart of God?
That's our greatest danger.
Unbelief in the goodness that's in the heart of God.
And when we go through this chapter and the circumstances through which people we pass.
That are difficult to go through and accept and so on. There's a natural tendency in us to say, well, I could be happy if you Lord, if you change my circumstances.
And do something that I think would make me happier by doing this or that in my present need.
That's not the truth of God.
Happiness is not the consequence of favorable circumstances, but it's living in the enjoyment of the fellowship that we can have with God our Father and the Lord Jesus in their heart.
They want to bring us into the common daily enjoyment of the fellowship that they enjoy together.
They want us to enjoy that fellowship with them as well, and if we have that without unbelief, then we can go through the difficulties of life in everyday life with peace and calmness that the Lord Jesus, who never doubted his Father's heart, experienced in his life as a man.
Just wanted to comment on verse three. Our gospel be hid. It is hid to them that are lost.
What a tragedy.
Important to let the light shine.
Remember what those leprous men on the outside of Samaria said when they found the camp of the Assyrians abandoned. They said this is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace.
Oh, how important it is to let the light shine. And so it's not only like we were saying what we say, it's the way we live. And so it's so important that there be conformity in our lives to the truth of God that we speak. If that's the case, it will get through.
Still remember our sister?
In the Lord who is quite timid in her personality and.
And she worked in a office.
It was after some time one of the other secretaries in the office approached her and said, what is it you have you have something that I wish I had? Will you just tell me what it is?
And then she was able to open.
Her heart and tell her the gospel and that person got saved. That other secretary got saved. It wasn't what she said that attracted her, was what she was.
That's the light, isn't it? It shows, it manifests.
Does a good verse to be reminded of, especially.
When we're younger, because sometimes you're concerned about what do we preach, how do we preach, what do we say so that people can be convicted. Those are burdening question, isn't it? But yet here I believe it tells us not to worry. So let's go back to verse five. I'm going to read it from the New translation. For we do not preach ourselves. Well, that's rule #1.
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Isn't it? It's not about you and I. We don't preach about ourselves, but Christ Jesus Lord.
That's what the preaching is. So the Word of God can say. Now, another place he says do the work of an evangelist. So you and I may say, I'm not an evangelist. I can't preach because that's due to work. Are you an evangelist? Does it matter? No, you do the work. I mean evangelist. In this case, you preach Christ being.
Lord. And then it echoed and ourselves. What about ourselves? Is that? But?
And ourselves your servant for Christ, For Jesus we are just an instrument for him. All we have to do is preach Christ.
And I love what it says at the end of verse.
Christ Who is.
The image of God.
Incredible to think about what is image?
It's the visible representation of what is invisible.
How can you know God if God is invisible?
The Lord Jesus is the image of the invisible God. You look at the Lord Jesus and the Gospels.
There you can see first hand of who God is in that glorious person and it's kind of repeated in the end of verse 6 to give the light.
Of the knowledge.
Of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Not wonderful that we can know the eternal God.
In the person of the Lord Jesus. That just blows my mind, brother.
That you and IA, God who is eternal, who never began to exist, He always was. That just blows my mind. And I know that God, yes I can, because he became a man.
And as such.
Walked amongst humankind and now we can know God in the most wonderful way possible.
The person of his Son, the Lord Jesus.
Can you go on a little bit, Bob, to explain something to us?
We know from First Timothy chapter 6.
That there is a light in which God dwells, and the Lord Jesus Christ, which no man hath seen nor can see, no man can approach unto. So what? What is this glory that is now seen in the face of Jesus Christ? What can we go any further in saying what glory that is?
I'm asking a question.
Now answer your question.
I'm glad to ask a question. You were enlarging on it.
I have a thought and I'll say it and then maybe others can comment. And I don't mean to spend a lot of time on it, but I'll read that verse in First Timothy 6 just so we know what we're.
Talking about It's particularly talking about the Lord Jesus.
And it reminds us of who he is as God.
And it says there.
Verse 14 The last part of the verse.
The appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Which it should read, which in its times, that is the times of the appearing it shall show Who is the blessed, and only potentate the king of Kings, and Lord of Lords, who only have immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach, unto whom no man hath seen, nor can see, to whom be honor and power ever last.
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And yet here in the face of Jesus Christ.
We see the glory of God.
I don't want to limit it, but to me the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Perhaps is in contrast to the glory that was seen in the Old Testament. Was there a glory seen there? Yes, there was. And you brought it out, Bob, That look. When Moses came down from the mount, his face shone, because there was a glory even in the giving of that love.
A glory of God and all that he was, as a God of holiness, a God of judgment.
But it required of man that which he could never live up to. And man failed, and God knew he would fail.
But now what do you and I see in the face of Jesus Christ?
Again, I don't limit it to this, but what I have enjoyed is we see the glory of God in redemption. We see the whole character of God displayed not merely as light but as love. And we see grace and truth that came by Jesus Christ. All of that, I like to think, is now seen in the glory that shines in the face of Jesus Christ.
Would brethren agree with that, or is there more to it than that?
Yes, I agree with that. I say there is that which we can know.
But I think that verse in First Timothy 6 shows that there are things that are unapproachable that we will never know. Because God is God, and I'm only a creature. I will never be a God. I'm a child of God called into fellowship with God. But I was thinking of that verse in Matthew 11 where the Lord Jesus.
Speaks here Matthew 11 verse 25.
Says at that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed them unto babes, Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in my sight. Now notice verse 27.
All things are delivered to me of my Father.
And no man knoweth the sun.
But the Father?
Neither knows any man, the Father.
Save the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal you.
So the mystery of the Lord Jesus being God and man at the same time as a mystery that just goes beyond our ability to comprehend and I think we need to realize that.
We need to.
Tread with unshot feet carefully.
But there are things that we know wonderful, wonderful wonder.
Things that we do not know, they're unapproachable.
If you know the sun reveals the father.
Perhaps the people illustration.
Thinking of this part there on Wednesday.
Two days from now, our brother Sagar build or well in India will be coming to visit Toronto area and I'll be picking them up.
Staying with us for a few days. I have never met him. I don't know what he looks like. I have not seen pictures of him or maybe I have. Don't remember.
Yet I know it's not David, so in many ways I feel like I already know him. So perhaps it's that's a people way to illustrate that. When you know the sun, you know that I'm anticipating the mannerism, perhaps the similarity and appearance and things.
No man hath seen God at any time. We read in John chapter one the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father He hath declared him. I love that passage in First Timothy 6 that you mentioned, Bill, because it's just so majestic and exalted to point to the inaccessible light that God dwells in this God, and yet he was pleased to come out from that.
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Habitation. That eternal habitation.
Person in the sun and reveal him to you within me.
And the wonder of it too.
As we read Colossians.
In him dwell of all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
If you wanted to communicate everything in your heart.
And you were a sculptor. You could spend your entire life and you wouldn't be able to communicate just in a human heart.
In one piece of art or a letter to communicate your innermost and complete, you would not be able to.
You might say God has been able to put all the fullness of the Godhead bodily in that man, Christ Jesus, to present him to us. Nothing left out, It's all there.
Little wonder that they could say.
We have the knowledge of this.
I think sometimes we're a little bit shy because of what we know about the first man and about how Satan can play with the mind.
But.
Knowledge is not a bad thing.
Spiritual things. It's it's wonderful. It's the way God communicates across space and time, with, with, with knowledge, with information. It's all packed in your son. And so it is that, as we were saying this morning, our moral condition effects our ability to take in that ongoing and increasing knowledge of itself.
Acknowledge the knowledge of the Sun, its eternal life, this.
Wonderful.
God is inhabits eternity.
Ever existing.
Has no beginning, has no end.
In contrast.
Exists outside of time. Exists outside of space.
By contrast, there's you and.
We are finite.
We can't even think. We can talk about it, but we really can't think outside of time or space.
We can talk about eternity, but our capacity to really?
Understand it is very, very limited in the truth of it.
And.
God is God, and we as finite creatures, what God is is beyond.
US. It's infinite.
And it will never be different than that, because God will always be God.
And we will always be creatures.
And so God in the greatness of his own being and heart.
Has chosen to make himself known to us.
And the person.
Of his son.
And so he has come.
In unity with his deity.
I am as he could say he has become a man and remains a man, and in doing so he has revealed.
God to us.
And in the most wonderful way is this.
I believe the greatest.
Aspect of the glory of God that has been made known to us.
Is his heart.
Glory is the display of excellence.
And the greatest excellence of God is not his infinite power.
As great as that is and it beyond us that is.
But when we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and we go, as Bill said some while ago, to the matter of redemption.
It's the greatest display of the Excellency of God is at the cross.
Because it is the fullness to the capacity of our hearts to see his heart.
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There's no greater display of the heart of God than what we see He will did through his Son displaying his heart at the cross.
There's all kinds of wonderful blessings for us connected with that.
But the Lord could and did.
Display the glory of God in the magnificent, wonderful way we view it when we see the Lord Jesus, who was willing to pay the price of redemption to satisfy the heart of God.
And the glory of God maintained in it, And as a consequence for us God says now I'm going to give to you to see for all eternity that my son who lowered himself in the sense of becoming an obedient man, I'm giving him as man. He already had the rights as creator and so on.
But as man, as Redeemer, God has invested and shown in him all the displayable glory of God.
In terms of heaven and earth.
And we have the joy of being with him and as man like him.
Again, going back to the heart, God says the greatest glory has to do with my heart. So I'm going to give you the life of my son so that you can share that same heart and enjoy my glory through it.