Burbank Conference: 2009
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John 17:1-5
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Chapter 5.
Verse 16.
Rejoice evermore.
Gray without ceasing.
In everything, give thanks.
For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Quench not the Spirit.
Despise, not prophesying.
Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.
Verse 23.
The very God of peace sanctify you holy, and I pray God your whole spirit.
Soul and body be preserved, blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. Let's pray.
Our God and Father.
We've just been thinking about that. Found a very blessing.
We thank thee that thou is not spare thy son, that thou send him down to this world.
Of lost sinners.
Like ourselves.
To save us.
For himself.
For all eternity.
We are thankful that we are saved by Thy grace.
Through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus that was shed for us on Calvary's cross.
We do thank the Our Father that with Him also Thou has promised to give us all things.
There is no hindrance on my part to bless us this morning.
If there's any hindrance at all that we'll be on our flight.
We pray that thou is.
Granted grace to humble ourselves in My presence, realizing that we don't deserve the least of Thy mercies.
But that thou dost delight to bless us.
And so we just asked the Tupar of the blessing upon us.
That thou was directest to the portion of thy precious word.
Southwest, have us take up that would be for our eternal prophet and blessing.
And that we might be.
In the Spirit to receive myself and those that would minister thy word, that they would wait upon thee for the ministry of thy word, we do thank Thee for thy precious word that Thou hast given us. We thank thee for thy Holy Spirit, which thou hast sent down from heaven to make it good unto our souls. So this morning we are so thankful to be here.
Around thyself and just ask thee for a blessing as we wait upon thee. In the name of the Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.
The prayers this morning.
Had in them the thought of our being sanctified.
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The verses that our brother just read ended with the very God of peace sanctify you wholly.
That is completely.
I would suggest, brethren, that in light of that, that we take up the Lord's Prayer in John 17.
Which is a prayer that has in its character the desire of our Lord Jesus.
That we be a sanctified people to Himself, and He takes it up in several things that He asked the Father for to the end that we might be sanctified. So I suggest we take up that prayer in John 17.
John 17.
These words speak Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come.
Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee, as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast said. I have glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished the work which Thou gave us me to do. And now will Father, glorify Thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.
I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and Thou gavest them me, and they have kept Thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever Thou hast given me, are of Thee. For I have given unto them the words which Thou gavest me, and they have received them. And I've known surely that I came out from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send me. I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given me, for they are Thine.
And all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee.
Holy Father, keep through thy own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one.
As we are, while I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thy name. Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of Perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And Thou come I to Thee. And these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world. Even as I am not of the world. I pray not that Thou should take them out of the world.
But thou shouldst keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy word is truth. As Thou hast sent me into the world, Even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one as Thou Father art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in US, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me.
And the glory which thou gave us, me.
I have given them that they may be one, even as we are one. I am them, and Thou in me, that they may be perfect, made perfect in one, and that the world may know that Thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.
Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which Thou hast given me. For Thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee. And these have known that Thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it, that the love for with Thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
The Lord Jesus came into the world as we have in John one as the Word.
And through himself, disciples were drawn after him.
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And became his followers.
And because He was the truth, they were set apart from what was not true by being with him and companying with him.
As He was in his public ministry down here on earth. But now, as we know, at this point, he's leaving the world. He's going back to the Father. He is not going to be personally present as he had been, which had that sanctifying, which means setting apart effects upon them. And when it's the setting apart to Himself, it's setting apart to truth and righteousness and holiness.
And divine love. And so now the Lord Jesus prays in this prayer that we.
We'll meditate together on this morning. And as he mentions in his prayer more than once that some of the things that he was going to do were for their to the end result, they might be kept, that is, they might be kept in a sanctified way, even though they were still as we are this morning in the world. And so we live in a defiled world.
We live in a world of sin. We don't leave it. Everyone of us has to deal with it most every day of our lives. But God has made provision. Our Lord Jesus has made provision for us to go through it in what perhaps we could call a sanctified way, that is a way that is separate from its evil and that draws us to our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the chapters that precede, we have what we often refer to as the Upper Room ministry. It's the Lord's final words to the disciples before he leaves them to go to the cross, and then, as our brother Dawn said, to return to the Father. And there were really two things that prompted the Upper Room ministry. I realized that all of it wasn't given in the Upper Room because in the end of chapter 15, they arrived from the Upper room to begin to walk to the garden. But we refer to it in that way.
But there were two things that sparked the Lord Jesus giving this ministry.
One Dawn has already brought before us. In the beginning of the 13th chapter, it says.
That the hour was come, that he should depart out of the world unto the Father. That was the need. But there was a motive too. Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end in that beautiful forest. To consider as we embark on a chapter like this, what we sometimes refer to as the Lord's high priestly prayer. To consider, brethren, that the Lord Jesus has taken up an office, That this was a.
Foreshadow of he's taken up an office where he's praying for you and for me.
At the right hand of power, at the right hand of God, every hour of every day.
And it's interesting that in the preceding chapters from 13 to this point.
He just covers everything, Brother Dawn said. He was going to leave them in a world where.
They weren't going to see the removal of the difficulties or the work of the enemy. They were going to see him physically removed from them. But he says I'm making full and abundant provision for you in my absence. In fact, the things that they were going to have in his absence and being connected with him in glory now were far greater resources than they had had even with having the company.
Of the Lord Jesus with them physically. And then it has been said, he concludes with this prayer.
For the disciples, but not just for them. But we are going to notice as we go down these verses.
He doesn't just embrace the little company that was around him on that occasion, but all those that would believe.
And so we can apply this to ourselves and realize, brethren, that this prayer of the Lord Jesus was not only applicable to the little company of disciples gathered around him at the time, but it embraced he in anticipation. It embraced every one of us. And the truth that is brought out here is for our benefit and our blessing so that we can go on even in the absence of the Lord Jesus physically in this world.
But knowing we're connected with him and we have full resources to glorify him here in this world.
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He says here.
Father, the hour has come, and it's interesting that through this gospel we have a number of hours mentioned. In chapter 2 we have the hour of His public manifestation before the world. In chapter four we have the hour of Christian worship. In chapter 5 we have the hour of His grace towards sinners. And then a little further on in chapter 5 we have his hour, the hour of his supremacy over death in the grave.
Then in chapter seven and eight we have the hour of his suffering at the hand of man. Then in chapter 12 we have the hour of his suffering at the hand of God.
And now 7th, last but not least, the hour of his return to the glory. And as you mentioned, uh, this is a little picture foreshadow of the high priestly intercession that he would carry on throughout the whole time of his absence while we're here in this world. And these chapters most certainly go together. Chapter 13, we have a little picture of his advocacy that he would carry on.
In the time of his absence and now at the close of the Upper Room ministry in chapter 17, we have a high priestly, uh, intercession. So they kind of act as bookends to the, these wonderful chapters. And it really brings before us just how much the Lord cares for us. Sometimes we get going on through life and there's so many trials and troubles and problems that we lose sight of the fact that he's up above praying and he cares for us. And I think this chapter really brings that before us because as it breaks down, there's at least seven different specific requests that he makes.
And it's beautiful to see that He has us on his heart and his glory and the glory of the Father, but our blessing in a practical sense. So it's a good chapter to take up for encouragement.
This morning.
Just another little outline before we get into the specifics of this chapter, but I think it's helpful to see that it's divided really, or it can be divided into three different sections. In the 1St 5 verses we might have, we have what we might say is the Father glorified in the Son. That was the purpose the Lord Jesus came into this world for. And He could say at the end of it all, I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gave us to me to do.
In verses 6 through 21, we have Christ glorified in the Saints.
We're here in this world. The Lord Jesus is not here in this world the way he was.
When he walked with the, when the disciples walked with him during his public ministry, He's gone from this world.
But he's left us here to be a reflection of Himself, and in the measure in which we seek to walk a sanctified people according to the truth, we're going to reflect something of the glories of Christ in our lives so that Christ is glorified in the Saints.
Then from verse 22 to verse 26 to the end, we have what we might say are the Saints glorified with Christ. That's the day we're waiting for, brethren. There's a day coming when He's going to display us as His own.
And He's coming to be glorified in His Saints and admired in all them that are about Him in that day. What a day that's going to be. So these little outlines are just helpful in filling in the specifics of a portion. And I believe we have these three things in connection with Glory.
Something very important for our hearts as we take up this chapter.
And it is the recognition.
That some of what the Lord Jesus says here for us and it's recorded for our benefit.
Depends upon the assumption.
That we care about him.
And that we love him in the middle of the chapter when he says I sanctify myself.
It's based on the assumption that if he sanctifies himself, if he sets himself apart in heaven.
Then it will have the effect of setting us apart too, because our heart and the object of our heart is himself.
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As it's been said, your home is where your heart is, and if we have truly found the Lord Jesus to be the home of our hearts, then what concerns Him and the place and position that He takes will have its corresponding effect upon us. But if we sit here in our seats and we really don't have Him as an object before our souls, we can sit through an hour and hear about Him and hear about all that connects Him with heaven and how He's going there and.
He's going to be a high priestly prayer for us and so on, and it may have no effect upon our souls.
Unless there is active within us that which He counts upon when he speaks to the Father, as it were, without even having to say it. Father, they love me, they love me, they care. And so we see His love for us expressed in what He says in the chapter. But it also has an underlying sense that He counts upon a response in us to that love.
That will motivate us.
To be sanctified with himself, just a.
Expand on it in the 1St 5 verses that are mentioned. It talks about glory and we know that the end, the object of all God's ways, is to glorify Himself, and He has chosen to do it in the person of the Son. And so all that God does, He does ultimately to His own glory. He brought us into His existence for His own pleasure, for His own glory.
And he has.
Hon. So honored himself in the sun, and consequently do we care? Is it really have a meaning to us? Well, the Lord prays here. He knows it matters. And so when He speaks of that glory to God and glorifying of Himself in that purpose of God, then what effect does it have on us? It has upon us that effect of drawing out.
Our souls to be identified with it, and in that way we're sanctified by it.
We are separated from everything that is inconsistent with His own glory.
It's the sun speaking to the Father, and it's so beautiful that He allows us to listen to it. It's two eternal persons speaking together, or one speaking to another.
And in spirit is beyond the cross, the work is done.
Even though it was really the cross was still before, but it is so beautiful to see that these eternal councils.
That are going to be worked out and yet in that eternal sphere He speaks as if it was all accomplished yet already. What a beautiful thing to see the Lord Jesus in this fellowship that was always through his whole life unbroken. Now he comes to the end and to hear these words spoken, what a beautiful thing.
Oh, we need to stop and revel in it, brethren.
As we said, these first five verses speak to us of the glory, really the glory of God the Father. And to be glorified is to have every attribute that makes up a person's character brought into full display. And the Lord Jesus, when he was here in His life and in His work, He brought into full display every attribute that makes up the character of God. He could say at the end, Have I been so long time with you, and hast thou not known me? He that hast seen me, hast seen the Father.
In the first chapter, John could declare, we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And we find in these first five verses that He not only completed and satisfied God as to the work that He was sent to accomplish here in this world, but He glorified God on the earth. And that's really more than just finishing a work or satisfying a person.
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As to a work, perhaps I can repeat an illustration I've sometimes used but.
Suppose I put one of my children to a task and I asked them to do a certain job.
And I come back after the task is completed. Maybe they did that job completely to my satisfaction.
But the job in itself may be no reflection of Maine. I may be satisfied with it. They may take that task and show what they did to someone else. But unless they said that it was their Father that asked them to do it, the job itself may be no reflection on myself. But the Lord Jesus, as I say, He not only completed the work that God had sent, the Father had sent him to do in His pathway here and in the work of eternal redemption, the work of atonement.
But every quality and attribute of God was brought into full display. And so can we doubt this morning who God the Father is? Can we doubt what His heart is? No, it's been completely manifested to us in the person and work of the Lord Jesus.
My comment on this expression. He lifted up his eyes to heaven.
The brother indicated that.
Where the heart is, that's where the eyes will follow. And we think of the Lord Jesus, the eternal Son, that's where his heart ever was in heaven. And John, he's the heavenly 1.
He was the Son of Man, which is in heaven, and that's where his heart is, and that's where he was going. And He came from that glory that far transcended any glory of this earth.
But I'm thinking of a practical word back in Genesis chapter 13 of two men that lifted up their eyes.
Because it has great bearing where our eyes are lifted up.
Genesis 13 we have the instance of Abram and Lot.
But in verse 10, it says in Lot lifted up his eyes. He certainly didn't lift them up to heaven.
Kneeled all the plain of Jordan that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord like the land of Egypt as alchemist and the Zohar so lot lifted up his eyes not to heaven, but indeed he looked upon the well watered plains and he said that's the Garden of Eden.
That's just what I want. That's what I want from myself. That's what I want from my family.
That's what he chose in verse 11. Then Lord chose him. All the plain of Jordan.
But it says in verse 13, But the men of Sodom were wicked in sinners before the Lord exceedingly.
The lost eyes. It looked like the garden of the Lord, the morally.
It was wickedness.
And so we find from that point that Abram is separated from Lot. And what does the Lord say to Abram in verse 14?
Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land which thou seest to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. What a fateful decision lot made where he lifted up his eyes, because it says in lamentation, I believe that might not affecteth my heart, and his eye affecteth his heart. And he took his family down the well watered plains of Jordan, and left them there in judgment. So with the blessed Lord he lifted up his eyes to heaven. Thus for his heart was.
That's where he'd come from, and so as he's gone back to heaven, so he would take our hearts with him there.
The contrast there is beautiful has been presented and I was just enjoying this. Uh, we find such precious communion between the Father and the Son, uh, as we see the Lord's Prayer here, and it was struck especially with the words of the third ver the third verse here, the Lord Jesus praying to the Father. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee.
The only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast set.
It reminds me perhaps in a little different way, but the words of the Apostle Paul when he said that I might know him.
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And beloved brethren, if there's anything that we need, each one of us today and every day, is that we might know Him and know him better.
That there might be that communion between US and the Father and the Son.
That we might know him. It'll make the things of Earth grow strangely dim. It'll give us eternities values. It'll make us homesick for the glory which is so near at hand.
In the previous chapters he brought before them as one of the resources for their pathway in his absence, the resource of prayer and the privilege that they were going to have now in Christianity of being able to come and directly address the Father. Not just to come to him as they had done in his pathway. But he says you're going to have some a greater resource than even that, and that is you're going to be able to come directly to the Father.
And then he gives them this beautiful example, as you say, He himself lifts up his eyes to heaven and says, Father.
And brethren, to think that you and I can come in the same intimacy that the Lord Jesus came.
We can address the Lord Jesus as ABBA Father. We can come to Him in prayer. When the Lord came to the Father in prayer, he had the assurance that the Father heard him. We get that, I think earlier on in John, I know that thou hearest me, and so on. And we can come with that same assurance.
It's true that the Lord Jesus is and will remain the only begotten of the Father for eternity.
And heaven's going to be filled with the sons of God, but the Lord Jesus will remain the only begotten. He'll be distinct in that way.
But, brethren, we can come in all the assurance of sonship, all the.
Privilege of sonship and relationship that we can, we have, and we can address the Lord Jesus the Father in the same way that the Lord Jesus did.
So we know what it's like to have a family, or at least some of us do.
Or be part of a family. All of us are.
And within a family, there is.
A shared fellowship of those things that are common to the family.
And there's a capacity in a family to enjoy that.
If you're not part of the family, in some ways you don't have that necessary capacity to enjoy it.
And so, brethren, it's a tremendous thing that our God has, by his own glory and purposes, determined to have a family.
And in order to have us as part of his family, we have to have a life.
That can enter in to what's in the family. We were not born with the kind of life that is suited to the relationship that God has chosen to bring us into with Himself and with His Son. And consequently, as a gift, He has given us the life that we need to have, that we may have fellowship with Him, that we may know Him.
As he is, and So what we know God is light and God is love.
And in order to have fellowship with him, we have to have the capacity to enter into the enjoyment of what truly is light. And John's epistle develops the thought wonderfully for us. And he says, why do I do this? Well, if I'm going to have fellowship with God, it has to be on the basis of absolute light.
There can be nothing less. There cannot be one tiny bit of darkness, or I can't know God in that darkness. And so he says, Father, I've given to them that eternal life that they might know thee.
The only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. And so we have a life now given to us that allows us to enter into the enjoyment of our God, that we can say we know Him, and this fellowship with Him perfectly in the light. For in Him there is no darkness at all. And a man that walks in darkness can't say, knows God. And the world walks in darkness in that way and does not know God.
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But we do.
But at the same time, it's connected with His love and His love is pure in its character. And so if we could, if I could use this expression as it's developed in this particular prayer, it's a sanctified life. It is a life that is set apart to be consistent with the family of our God and what He is.
And our Lord Jesus begins with that, you might say, as a foundation of the request that He's going to make for those who are part of the family. It doesn't apply to the world. The world has no fellowship with the Father. In fact, the world and the Father are two things in Scripture that are diametrically opposed, completely opposed to each other, and are shown to be so. And so there's no fellowship with God in the world.
There's fellowship with God apart from that world that wants to have nothing to do with His Son, and consequently nothing to do with the Father, because he has everything to do with his Son. But any in in here and where we start, when the Lord says that they might know thee, the only true God, What a tremendous thing, brethren, that we might know the only true God and have fellowship with Him as his children.
Like to connect that Don with verses verse two as well says as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Seems to be in contrast with what we have in the first creation where Adam was set in dominion over that creation and he led the whole creation into death.
But the Lord Jesus now in resurrection is head of a new creation, and what characterizes that new creation is eternal life, and it's the knowledge of God. It is so tremendously wonderful, brethren, that we can say we do know God in the fullest sense of the word. He has been revealed.
In the person of his son often mentioned that the Muslim religion they actually say God is unknown and unknowable.
That you and I can say we know God. What a tremendous blessing we have been brought to know Him. Notice in.
First or Second Corinthians chapter 4 verse that relates to this.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 4.
Verse six for God.
Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness?
Referring to Genesis 1, evidently.
Half shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of the Jesus Christ.
The blaze of glory shines in that face.
Isn't a wonderful brother. We know God, He is not someone as people think sometimes as some being way out in the universe just waiting to strike us down. No, God has shown himself.
Unquestionably to be a God, not only of light, as you say, Don, but have.
Infinite and divine love, O to God we have.
We've been brought into the full knowledge of God and we sit here in this room.
In view of the fact that God has been completely revealed and He has shown himself to be our Father, the Lord Jesus in resurrection could say to Mary, I ascend into my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God. This is what is characteristic of Christianity, of this present dispensation. Abraham was a friend of God.
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They don't believe you ever called God his father. Many of the Old Testament were faithful men of God. That you and I today can look up and say to God of the universe is my father. And the intimacy of that relationship. We can say ABBA Father. That is what the Spirit gives us to say. What a beautiful thing. So Adam brought in death as the head of the first creation.
The Lord Jesus now as head of new creation, brings eternal life because he's been given the power over all flesh.
I'd like to hear something said before we go from verse one about that last expression. Glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify Thee. They have glory mentioned in a number of aspects in this chapter. In verse five, it's talking about the glory that He had with the Father before the world was.
That is evidently his Godhead glory.
And I do believe that what we have in verse one is not the same. Could some develop a little bit what it's referring to at the end of verse one?
Seems to be connected with his work, doesn't it? The hour is come.
We might think that the glory of God is sullied in creation because everything has gone amiss.
And His purposes in it all are going to be frustrated, and they would be but that the sun has come to restore. And God raised him from the dead in that great act of restoration at the cross, when he died there. And they put him in a grave, And God raised him from the dead, and seated him at his own right hand, elevated him to a place of authority.
And there is no hope for this world apart from that God has glorified him, and He will glorify God on this earth, representing Him as to who He actually is. Love and light that have been mentioned.
So God will glorify Him in resurrection because He has done a complete, finished work.
He will glorify God in creation, setting it straight.
As King of Kings and Lord of Lords, it's his title as Christ the Anointed or appointed 1 to restore that which he took not away.
The Lord Jesus in taking up the work here in this world with looking beyond the work itself to the results that that the result of it. And so he was looking forward to the time when his brother Steve said he would not only be raised from the dead, but he would ascend as a glorified man and be seated by God's command at God's right hand. And then as he seated there, brethren, what is he thinking about?
Hebrews tells us what he's thinking about henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool, and God and the Lord Jesus are looking forward to that day when the Lord Jesus will come forth and will be vindicated here in this world. God will be glorified in His Son, taking up a future work that yet future when he puts down his enemies and he reigns in righteousness and his Saints are glorified with Him, and so on.
And so the Lord Jesus, he knew the import of that verse that says weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
And he always had that before him. And I really believe that when it says in Hebrews, who for the joy that was set before him?
Endured the cross, despising the shame that that joy was really the joy of returning to the Father.
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As a glorified man, knowing that he had glorified God on the earth.
Finish the work that was given him to do and to sit down as a glorified man at the right hand of God.
And then, as we've said, to anticipate that day when he will have his full place in this world.
And God will be glorified in his Son as his Son comes forth to take up that work.
And so the Lord Jesus had this before his soul, and that's how he could rise from the garden and go calmly forward.
That's how he could rise from his high priestly prayer and go calmly forward, because he looked beyond the long dark night and he hailed that future day of glory.
We get that in verse four, don't we? I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And I would take that, that that is includes redemption's work, doesn't it? Like, uh, we mentioned, uh, he in spirit is beyond the cross here. He's thinking of the results of it all. But it is a beautiful thing. Look at chapter 4 of John's gospel.
Uh, averse to put in contrast to that John chapter 4 and verse 34 when he's in Samaria.
Jesus saith unto them, He says his disciples, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. How often we perhaps have been given the work to do.
Will we ever be able to say we've finished it? Like the Lord Jesus says here in our chapter, I have finished the work which thou hast given me to do. Brethren, we don't value properly the full value of what redemption really means, how God has been so fully satisfied and glorified in that work.
Uh, the apostle Paul could say I have finished the course, but he didn't say I finished the work thou gavest me to do. I think only the Lord Jesus could properly say this.
But it is something to exercise our hearts. I think, brethren, the Lord has given each one of us something to do for him.
He is given gifts to each one.
And when we get home to glory, we're going to stand at the judgment seat to give an account.
We're going to say to him then about what was given us to do. Has there been diligence on our part to do it to the Lord Jesus? There was nothing that measured up to this joy of being able to go back into the Father's presence and say, Father, I finished the work which thou gave us me to do. Oh, a joy that must have been for him.
That moment when he went back into the glory, brethren.
And we, dear brethren, may the Lord give us a sense in our souls that Lord too has given each one of us something to do.
And to be diligent in doing it for him.
Our hearts are thrilled. I would think of the third chapter of Matthew, the last couple verses there, just to read that and to see if there is something there in connection with what we're saying. Uh, started with verse 16. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him.
Now this verse.
And lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, and whom I found my delight. But just that expression, This is my beloved Son. And then the commendation in whom He has found His delight, and how fully here in our chapter, and has been brought before us His perfect work in everything he.
Finished the work which God gave him to do and brethren, are not these the things that truly.
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Sanctify us the enjoyment of knowing the Father, of knowing the Son that sanctifies us and sets us free from this, from this world. And it's, uh, its course in its ways and fellowship with it. But I'd like to look at one other thing, just for a moment here. I'm thinking of, uh, how in the 51St Psalm, if we could just turn to that for a moment.
Perhaps diverting just a little from our subject, but.
Perhaps an application here in connection with David and and we have read this, this Psalm and been solemnized and yet it's so deep and so precious to see his exercise and his turning to the Lord and what he says in verse 6.
Connection with the truth. Behold, thou desirous truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part, that thou shalt make me to know. Wisdom, No wisdom, no Him who is wisdom. But there's something there of acknowledging the need of truth, not just truth spoken of here. We can say a lot of things and thank God they're being said and we're hearing them this morning.
But all, may they be in the inward parts. May it be a reality with each one of us.
May that be that humbling of ourselves in His holy, blessed Presence.
That would have a true effect upon our lives and make us really in heart, not just in action, in the heart, separate from this world who still crying away with him.
The Old Testament Saints knew God and had a relationship with Him.
But the knowing of God here that we have in verse three is to know him in a special character as father. This is something the Old Testament Saints did not, uh, have. And so it's a special relationship that we have with God as father that he's Speaking of here. And if we're found in the enjoyment of that relationship with the father and the son, it is going to be the motivating factor to.
Act on the things that the Lord Jesus is praying about with regard to our practical sanctification in this world.
It begins with the heart being taken up with the persons of the Father and the Son, and that's why he brings in here eternal life in this way. And so it's a wonderful privilege as we sit here to think that as Christians in this Christian era, when the Spirit of God has come, the redemption has been accomplished, that we have a a privilege to know God in a way that Old Testament Saints like Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and so on did not know.
And to enter into and enjoy that relationship with Him is what is going to give us the, the desire and the power to, to live for his glory in a way that would bring, uh, honor to Him. As we've said here, that Christ may be glorified in us. It begins with that communion that is so necessary. And I believe that's the reason why this Upper Room ministry begins.
With the washing of the feet, that's what brings us into communion with divine persons.
And everything that flows from it as the chapters unfold from chapter 13 on to 17.
Are based on and take for granted that communion is.
Is enjoyed.
Brings us to almost general Let's make it a comment this way. Generally, when the Father and the Son are brought before us in Scripture, there is the thought not only of relationship.
But love is connected in it.
The Father and the Son bring before us a relationship.
Of perfect love, and consequently the most well known of all verses. John 316.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. That expression only begotten has multiple thoughts connected with it, but one of it is His dearly beloved Son, His one and only.
Begotten Son of special relationship to Himself, and consequently here in the chapter when He says Father.
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Concerning us, that we have been given to him, those whom thou hast given me.
It's a gift of love.
It's a gift between father and son and the son receives from the Father those that the Father gives him with the sense of love that is I am I sit here this morning as a gift of the Father to the Son of love. And consequently, as we know God in that special way, as the Old Testament Saints did not we enter into the enjoyment.
Of the father and the son in that relationship, in which they are to one another.
And to which they have brought us to be in that relationship of love.
That as the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you again. The Father hath loved me, the Son, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. And so, brethren, is a tremendous thing to recognize. The Father sent the Son in love to us, and at the same time the Father gave us to the Son.
As a gift of his love and both of them share together in that.
Thought I want them to be here with me, that we together may enter in fully and perfectly and forever into that commonness of our relationship as father, Son and children of the Father. Just to notice that brought out in a in Ephesians chapter one. It's the same thought that's before the apostle.
In the beginning of Ephesians where he says in chapter one verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That's an important expression, God and Father, because it brings before us in adding that expression, Father, it immediately is intended to bring to our hearts and our thoughts that relationship that involves love. And so he says, who has blessed us, verse four, according as he hath chosen us before the foundation of the worldwide.
That we should be holy and without blame. I'll put it this way, perfectly sanctified in connection with the thought of sanctification. That we should be wholly and without blame. How? Just before him, no more than that before Him, in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children.
He's adopted us. He's chosen us. He has given us life that we might.
Be bound together with him in that same bundle of life. And so it says.
The adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. It's a title. It's a title of affection for the sun. It should be capitalized as it is in the new translation. It's made us accepted in the Beloved.
What a tremendous.
Relationship. We have that as we enjoy it. It draws our hearts into the fellowship with our Father and with his Son and draws our hearts away from everything that would hinder or keep us from that enjoyment of our family relationship. There are three things that are necessary for the Saints.
In order that the Saints may have this wonderful privilege of eternal life, in chapter one and verse 18 it mentions there I'm talking now John one verse 18. No man has seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.
This was necessary, that the Lord Jesus would come into this world and reveal the Father to Him.
To us. But then in chapter 3 we have another thing, Chapter 3 and verse 14 and 15. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
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That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. So not only was there the need for the coming of the sun into this world to reveal the Father, there is also the length, the need for the laying of the groundwork of redemption. This is the cross that He's referring to, as He would be the one that would be lifted up. But more than that, in chapter four, chapter 4, and verse 14. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.
Forever new translation. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well or a fountain of water, springing up into everlasting or eternal life.
And so this brings before us yet another thing, and that is the coming of the Spirit of God.
That would dwell in the believer and give the believer the present enjoyment of eternal life, which is to have fellowship with divine persons, the Father and the Son. And so we, as we stand here after the work of redemption, after Christ is coming to this world, redemption has been accomplished. The Spirit of God has come, and we have been brought into this special privilege of being in the family of God and have the privilege of enjoying the Father and the Son in this most blessed way that the Lord was praying about.
In our chapter.
So this expression glorify thou me has reference to the Son's present exultation by the Father consequent upon redemption. But if we could go back to chapter 13, just like to notice a few distinctions because we sometimes use the word glory or glorified and perhaps in our mind we're thinking of the same thing and and it's used a little bit differently. John 1331. Therefore, when he was gone out. That is due to this Iscariot, Jesus said.
Now is the Son of man glorified and God is glorified in him? If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself and shall straightway glorify him. Well, here's the first expression is now is the is the Son of Man glorified? And how is it here that the Son of man is glorified? An exaltation? No, this is the cross. We sometimes sing that hymn Love that on death's dark veil. It's sweet as odor spread.
Where sin or all seem to prevail, redemption's glory shed. Never was a man seen here to be entirely what God desired at the cross. The Lord Jesus at the end of his ministry and perfection, and all that He displayed at the heart of God, and love and tenderness and kindness. That love, that glory, the moral glory was displayed in all of its excellence and all of its sweetness at the cross. And there we see the Son of Man glorified in all of his moral beauty.
And as a result of that, God is glorified in him. The life and indeed the death of the Lord Jesus brought the supreme glory to God. He was glorified in Him.
And in his work. And what's the answer to that if God be glorified in him?
Through his life and indeed his death, God shall also glorify him in Himself. This is the answer to the cross. This is the answer to the work and path of the Lord Jesus. God glorifies him in himself and shall straightway glorify him. He raised him from among the dead and set him at the highest place in heaven straightway.
We sometimes refer to those words in Peter of the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow.
Those glories haven't arrived yet. Those are His millennial glories when he will reign as a king and we look forward to that day, but that hasn't arrived yet, those future millennial Kingdom glories. But here it says He shall straightway glorify him in consequence of the Lord's atoning work, the sons atoning work. God straightly glorifies him immediately He puts Him at the highest place in heaven. And so this is what we have in John 17. This is God's answer, that present place.
Does the Lord Jesus now occupies caring for us? And so we have his glories, if we can think of it in this way, the glories that he displayed one here, those moral glories, His perfection, His tenderness, His love, His kindness, His forgiveness.
And to see it in all of its beauty and fullness at the cross. But now we see Him glorified, exalted by God to the highest place in heaven. And from that place He glorifies God. He has power over all flesh, and He gives eternal life to all that God has given him. That's the Son's present work. That's where He is now in this chapter. And then we look on to that day when we will be associated with Him in glory in His Kingdom reign. Those are the glories that should follow. He is not yet entered into those glories. And when He does.
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He will associate us with himself.
Maybe before we pray, Umm versus Exodus.
Exodus 3418.
Exodus 3418.
And he said this is Moses.
Saying it, I beseech thee.
Show me Thy glory.
33 eight I'm sorry, 3318.
I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And he and he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee. I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and show mercy, on whom I will show mercy.
Spray.
John 17:6-10
Reading
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Father, we ask this afternoon that we might continue to be guided in our thoughts.
Of thy beloved Son, as we talk about his glories, we ask in his most blessed and worthy name, Amen.
John 17.
Perhaps start with verse 6.
Verse 5.
And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with unknown self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given me.
For they are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them.
Now I am no more in the world that these are in the world, and I come to Thee, Holy Father, keep through Thy own name those whom Thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name.
Those that thou gave us, me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of Perdition.
That the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee. And these things I speak in the world that they.
Might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them.
Because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy word is truth. As Thou hast sent me into the world, Even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word.
That they all may be one says, Thou, Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in US.
That the world may believe that thou hast sent me, and the glory which thou gaveest me, I have given them.
That they may be one even as we are one, I am them, and Thou and Me, that they may be made perfect in one. And that the world may know that Thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which Thou hast given me. For Thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee.
And these have known that thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it.
That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
God had made himself known to man.
To some extent, from the time of creation, he would come down and visit with Adam in the garden, and they would have fellowship together. He made himself known to Abraham in a special way and to the children of Israel.
But the Lord Jesus coming into the world was the perfect, full, complete.
Revelation.
Of God to man he made himself known.
To man in the person of the Son. And so in verse six I have manifested thy name.
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And he manifests who he is, the Lord Jesus.
Constantly insisted that if a person received him, he received the Father that it was one and the same, because he could say I and my Father are one, and for one to reject him was to reject the one that had sent him. The one that he was a perfect revelation of. He was the word become flesh, and so it is insisted upon in the Word of God that.
If we are to have God, we have the Son. If we don't have the Son, we don't have the Father. If we don't have the Son, we don't have life. If we don't have the Son, we have no relationship with God. But if we have the Son, then we have the Father also. And the Lord Jesus is speaking to His Father now in preparation for leaving and going to ask Him for certain things concerning those that He has made Him known to.
That are the fathers, and that are his.
I ask that we read verse 5 before. I know it's not part of that second section, brethren, because I don't know that we touched very much on it, but it is an interesting thing when we deal with the truth of the glories of the person of Christ. We are treading on holy ground and we need to be careful and with our expressions. And here he says, Glorify thou me with thine.
Own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
Evidently his God had glory, His essential glory that he had.
With the Father. And He never ceased to be God in every sense of the word, even when he was a man, but in an outward way he took, as it says in Philippians chapter 2.
The form of a servant.
Being in the form of God, he was in the position of command.
God commanded and it was done.
The angels are at the command of God, but when he became a man, he.
And in a way, veiled his glory. There's different expressions that we use.
And hymn 27 it says.
Oh, what love, wondrous love and mercy Thou didst lay thy glory by. I suppose that's the way we express it. I like the term that the the glory was veiled because there was times when his glory shone out of that human vessel, that human form that he took it. He was when he was in the garden and they came to take him.
He said I am and they fell backward to the ground.
It was his title as Jehovah, the Old Testament. Think of the majesty of that person that was standing there. They had come to take him, to bind and to crucify. O brethren, we don't grasp the glory of his person. He never ceased to be God over all things, blessed forever, but he took the form of a servant.
And as a servant, he learned obedience. In other words, he was never in that position before.
But as a man, he was perfectly obedient. His ears were opened and he walked in obedience to God his Father. So in a certain sense, while he was down here in this world, he.
Veiled His glory, or as the hymn puts it, He laid aside His glory. Now he says, since the work is finished, He says, now Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. I still enjoyed that, and I would appreciate if anyone can correct if I not expressed it properly.
Perhaps just for simplicity sake, it's helpful to recognize that the word glory.
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When Jim gave up a more full definition of it earlier this morning. But one sense of what the word glory means is the display of excellence.
And God at different times has displayed the Excellency of His own nature and being in different ways.
And so the Lord Jesus, when He was a man here on earth, did not display all of the excellencies that belong to His person.
And in that way that you get the expression they were veiled or they were hidden. Some excellencies of his person could never be hidden.
He couldn't be less than he was, and so when he was here on Earth.
His moral character had to always be what it was, regardless of the circumstances.
In which he found himself as a man, and so that glory displayed itself as necessary.
Because of who he was, but His glory, for example, in an what we sometimes say an official way.
As the coming king and as the king that was being rejected.
Was not seen the display of that Excellency was not seen among men. And so it is that we look forward to seeing Glorious mentioned later in this chapter that have not even yet been made known to us. When he says, Father, I will, that they may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory later in this in this prayer, we look forward, brethren, to seeing.
Further expressions of the Excellency of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Father's house that have not yet been made known to us, that are perhaps not appropriate for us or we wouldn't be able to enjoy them in our present state of being. But when we are called into the Lord's presence in the Father's house, and that's part of why he says he wants us there, because the Father has given him glory, that.
He will display to us and that we will see.
Those are acquired glories, aren't they? Whereas this in verse five is is essential glory, that glory he always, that always was his.
There are glories that you and I can be occupied with by faith this afternoon that the disciples didn't have the privilege even of being occupied with as long as the Lord Jesus was here in this world with them. As was already alluded to, there were times when there were flashes of those glories, and not only so, but the three of the disciples had the privilege of having a little millennial preview of those glories when they saw the Lord Jesus.
On the mount of Transfiguration and Peter says we were eyewitnesses of His Majesty and so on.
But brethren, we can look up by faith this afternoon, and we can be occupied with the Lord Jesus, not as he was.
Not as the man, the lowly man of grace, walking in this world. Not at the end of his pathway, crowned with a crown of thorns hanging on a cross of shame.
Good to always go back to those things in our souls. But we look up by faith and we behold the Lord Jesus where he is now as a glorified man. And so it tells us in the end of Second Corinthians chapter 3.
We all with open face, beholding us in a glass, the glory of the Lord.
Are changed into the same image from glory to glory and isn't a wonderful thing that we can look up. We don't see him physically the way the disciples saw him John said our eyes have seen and our hands have handle of the word of life. Wonderful privilege. You think oh tremendous to see the Lord Jesus walking here and to observe first hand those moral glories that radiated from everything he said and did and.
His perfect spirit and attitude, and those little flashes of glory that were even beyond that, and so on. But brethren, we have something even far greater. We can look up and be occupied with a glorified man at the right hand of God.
We don't see yet all things put under him, but we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor and where he is now. God's Amen to the work of Calvary. God has honored His Son and glorified the one who glorified him on the earth.
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Now the question is, in a practical sense, how much are we occupied with the person of Christ and those glories? And then to think that when we see Him another day, we're going to see Him not as He was, brethren.
But first, John Three tells us we're going to see him as he is. And when he comes back and heaven opens up, He's coming back and all heaven and all earth is going to see him. But we're going to see him and be like him because we're going to see him as he is again, not as the lowly man here, but we're going to see him as the glorified man and there unhindered, be occupied with those glories. But he wants us to be occupied with those glories now and in this next section.
As we mentioned this morning, in the measure in which we are occupied with Christ as to where He is now, and those glories that are his and the glorified man at the right hand of God, in that measure there will be something of the glories of Christ reflected in your life and mind, that others might see Christ in US.
Absolutely.
Bruce, do you have a thought on that?
It's our, uh, our acceptance in in Christ, is it not as he is now before God?
And and that position of acceptance and enjoying the favor of God upon him. So are we down here in this world because we're accepted in the beloved and that's.
Beyond judgment, yes. Beyond judgment as much as Jesus is beyond judgment, yes. And the fact that he has been accepted back there as the glorified man is the proof of our acceptance before God.
And the assurance that we're going to be there in the glory. I sometimes said the the resurrection, the ascension and glorification of Christ are God's. Amen to the work of Calvary. And if you and I ever doubt that we're accepted before God, just look at what He has done in glory, raising his Son and glorifying him at his own right hand. If he could not accept us now, he would have to reject his own beloved Son.
That is impossible. Just like to read that verse that Brother Clem refers to. 1St John 417 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment like you say it. We're beyond judgment because as He is, so are we in this world.
As we go on to this next section and as we said this morning, it's really the, uh, Christ, uh, glorified in the, uh, glorified in the Saints. It's a very searching thing, isn't it? To realize that all that this world is going to see of Christ today is what manifested in the believers life is what's manifest in your life and mine. When the Lord Jesus walked here in this world, as we said, those moral glories shone out, emanated from him.
With every step and every breath and every word.
But the Lord Jesus isn't here in this world the way he was, as we mentioned this morning.
The hour has come that He has departed out of the world unto the Father. It was in anticipation here.
But a moment did come when his feet left the Mount of Olives. The cloud received him out of their sight, and they saw him no more.
But, brethren, you and I have been left here to represent Christ in this world.
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And has the world seen something of Christ in your life and mine today?
I know it's a little different but just turn to a verse or two in Philippians chapter 2.
Philippians chapter 2 and verse 15.
That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life.
Where if you, I believe the real thrust of this word like is illuminators. And an illuminator is something that has no light of itself. It reflects the light of another. The word the moon is an illuminator. It reflects the light of the sun. And just by the way, it only reflects the light of the sun in the measure in which the earth, the world does not come between it and the sun. And that's a good practical lesson in another subject, but.
I just want to point out that you and I are called on to shine in that way in this world.
That is to reflect something of the glories of Christ in your life and mine.
And what is it that's going to cause us to reflect those glories? It's to walk through this world as a sanctified people.
In obedience to the truth of God, occupied with Christ and His glory.
And Christ and where he is now. Yes, we need to go back to the Gospels.
He's left us an example that we should follow in his footsteps and so on. But we also need to look up, brethren, and we need to see where he is now, not the man walking in this world in lowliness and grace, but to see Him as a glorified man. And if you and I do that in the measure in which we do, there will be the unconscious reflection of Christ in your life and mind. And the so others look on and they see Christ.
When the early disciples were in the presence of the Lord, they came out and it says they took knowledge of them.
That they had been with Jesus. It's searching, isn't it, as we embark on this section.
To search our own hearts and say, in what measure have you and I?
Reflected something of the glories of Christ. This section, I say again, is Christ.
Glorified in the Saints were still in this world and were here to be a reflection of the glories of Christ.
And so he wants us to know that. And the Lord Jesus prays if we're going to have such a responsibility in this world, we need to be prepared for it. And we can't really prepare ourselves by something we within ourselves can generate. I can't generate light. I can't generate love within myself. But if I am to manifest as a child of God what God is to my fellow man.
I am to express what he is light and love.
That's why, for example, in Revelation chapter 2 when it speaks of Ephesus it and he tells them he said you've left your first love. Why does he say that to them? Because they were a Candlestick with the responsibility to display what God was in the world.
And if they themselves did not have within them.
That love of the Father and of God, they couldn't display it to somebody else.
And as a consequence, he warns them to repent, because if they did not, then they could not fulfill their responsibility as a light bearer, and he would put them aside. And in fact, that will be the end of the Christian testimony on earth, because it has not been a responsible witness to God of his light and of His love, but.
John's first epistle.
Teaches us that when we are occupied with the Lord Jesus and with the Father.
Then the love and the light of which God is the source flows into us and can be displayed from us. And so when it says, for example, in first John, herein is the love of God perfected in US, we're not the source of divine.
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Love, but we are a channel of it, we are a recipient of it, and as it flows into us, so it can be displayed from our lives. And the Lord Jesus here was speaking to the Father.
In preparation for his own to receive, they had received from himself that which they would have to make known to others. I can't make something known to you that I haven't received already myself.
We have to receive it from God and then it may be displayed to another.
Was the Lord Jesus walking in the.
Consciousness of his Father's love that made this world completely unattractive to him. There's nothing that appealed in this world to him. Why not? Because he had been in the Father's bosom from all eternity. He knew that love which you mentioned this morning, Don, about the love of the Father and the love of the world. Let's read that in second John or second chapter first John.
Because I think that's such a practical point for us all in connection with the world we're passing through. You know that there are things in this world that attract your attention.
Young people, older people too let's not exempt ourselves in it we all there are things in this world that are attractive to us why do they attract us notice in first John two and.
Verse.
16.
All that is in the world, the lust.
Excuse me, it's verse 15. Love. Not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
Any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
Either you enjoy the love of the world or you enjoy the love of the Father in the Lord Jesus. We see one who walked down here in this world completely in the enjoyment of His Father's love and how he passed through this world. It's just as amazing to me, brethren, how little things materially he had.
Only thing I can come up with when I think of what the Lord possessed materially as his clothes.
Which they took away when they cruised, when they crucified him. But why didn't he have a house? Maybe he did have a house to live in a certain time of his life when he was a Carpenter. But he doesn't say he had his own house. He didn't have any animal to to ride when it came to fulfilling the scriptures to come into the, uh, city of Jerusalem on a Asus coal to fulfill the scriptures, he had to borrow 1.
Why didn't we have anything?
There was a man who was a perfect stranger down here. What made him a stranger down here? It was his father's love, the enjoyment of his father's love. He'd been up there in his father's bosom and he was down here now, and he displayed, like you said, on the Father's love. And oh, if we would enjoy that more. Brethren, we are loved with an everlasting love. Nothing can ever change that love towards you and me.
Our enjoyment of that love varies.
But that love never varies. Just like the sunshine, it always shines. Sometimes the clouds get in between and we don't enjoy the sunshine. The sun is always shining. And so it is with the love of the Father. He and we need to learn to walk in the enjoyment of that love. I fail so often. Does He still love me? Yes, He always loves us. Sometimes He cannot manifest His love towards us.
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But he still loves us just the same. Oh, brethren, that's the kind of God we have been brought to know.
Through the Lord Jesus.
Like to say this too. It's very important I believe, and that is in scripture the Father and the world are set in opposition to each other. Why it's over the sun?
The world says we will not have this man. The Father says he is mine, I will have nothing else. And consequently the Father and the world are set in opposition. And you and I make choices in our lives concerning that matter. Do I take the side with the Father and say I want the Son? Or do I take the side with the world that says we will not have this man who doesn't even recognize him as the Son?
Just this man, and consequently it teaches us like in Two Corinthians.
If you want to have the Father says, come out from among them, and be ye separate, sayeth the Lord, and I will be a father unto you. Why the separation? Why the sanctification between the two? Because I'm either going to choose to have my fellowship with the Father in my life here and with his son, or I'm going to choose to have my fellowship with a world that will not have him.
And we make that choice in a practical way. Young people, middle age-old people, all of us are making the choice practically. Do I want the father's fellowship or do I want the world's fellowship?
And it's a matter, it's an issue that is well though I go with the Father and have the Son, or will I go with the world and not have the Son in my practical life? So positionally we couldn't belong to the world and the sun both. And that's what he's going to take up here, this positional sanctification. There are several things that characterize those that the Lord Jesus prays for here.
One is that they know the Father. We took that up at some length this morning.
The other one is that they've been drawn out of the world. And so he takes that up in this sixth verse where he says, I have manifest thy name unto the men which thou gave us, me out of the world. And so we were part of this world, brethren. We followed the course of this world at one time as we get in another portion. But brethren, we don't belong to this world anymore. They are not of this world even as I am not of this world, he says later on.
We have been completely detached from this world in every way other than the fact that we are still physically here on this planet.
But in every other way, as now having been belonging to the Father and having been given by the Father to the Son, you and I have been sanctified or set apart, detached from this world in every way. And it's important to understand that positionally, if we're going to act on it practically, why is it so often our hopes and our goals and our aspirations are centered in this world?
Why is it so often we become worldly minded Christians? Perhaps it's because we don't really realize that in belonging to the Father and having been given to the Son we are, our goals are aspirations.
Are not connected with this world. We do not belong to this world. We are a heavenly people set aside ultimately for His pleasure and glory.
And I think sometimes we forfeit the enjoyment of the Father's love because of a desire to enjoy in some little measure perhaps that we don't think too evil the love of the world. You, you cannot do that. It doesn't work. You will not enjoy the love of the Father and the measure that you are enjoying in some little facet, the love of the world.
Those two things are mutually exclusive.
If we find that quite clearly represented, don't we in verses 13 to 19?
00:35:43
It's wonderful and we're going to pray for somebody to be able to pray for them in their connection with.
The Father with our God.
Speaking to a brother this morning and.
Uh, the question of children came up and teenage children, which the brother has at the present time and uh, recognition as a father and certainly those of us that have had teenage children recognize love very completely.
In imperfection as a as a parent, but it's wonderful when we are going to bring our children before the Lord, that we bring them before him.
According to the greatness of his love and care for them.
Not on the basis of the amount that we have for them, but on the basis of their relationship and his love for them. Do I depend on my love for my children or do I depend on God's love as the basis for the blessing of my children? And so the Lord Jesus here, when he is going to speak about the disciples and then about us, who would believe what laid her down? In the chapter, he says they're dying.
And their mind. And so he brings before the father the common relationship.
That they have with respect to the ones that He prays for. And so, brethren, how precious that is for our sake. But it's also a pattern for us as well to recognize that when we care about something and someone and some need, that when we are going to bring it before our God as our Father, we can bring it as a common interest and having a common relationship.
Concerning that need and that person, and we can do so with confidence.
So to the parent, just in the same sense, and he speaks to the Lord, he says, umm, verse 9 for them which thou hast given me.
In our chapter losing that well for a parent.
Lord, you have given me this child to raise for yourself. Can we not approach them the throne of grace on that foundation and say, Lord, this is one that you have given me. They came from you and so in that way they're from you and you might say draw upon the we share together in this matter and have confidence in the love his love.
For those that we love and their blessing and their good.
What a beautiful example.
A prayer for us as we see the Savior's prayer to the Father. And to go back just for a moment, I was thinking of first John chapter 2 and, uh, maybe 3 verses there just a, as a little appeal to our hearts. And we mentioned there's about 50% of us here that are young people too. And I think this will, uh, touch the hearts of so many of the dear young people.
As we look at these verses just in this light, verse 15 of.
First John chapter, chapter 2.
00:40:00
But to read this a little slowly, and perhaps seek to take it in a little bit. The plea here? Love not the world.
That's one thing neither the things that are in the world.
And then notice the next sentence here. If any man love the world, the love of the Father.
Is not in him all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes.
And then notice 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 well of God abideth forever.
Need there be any comment beyond the perfection of scripture as we read these profound words?
But Brother Larry, could you break down just a little bit more as to the difference between what it is to love not the world and the things that are in the world? What is the difference here?
Perhaps someone can help us on that a little bit. Uh, I guess I'm thinking of, uh, loving the world as a whole. And, uh, it was the world that cast him forth as a little poem and saw him.
Crucified, put away, will not have this man to reign over us. But then if it's not the world as a whole that way, what about those things that may be innocent in themselves that can so take our time. We can make idols, for example, out of the our possessions, materialism that can so easily get a hold of us. And how sad it is when the things of this life have such a grip on our on us that.
We have little time to do that which is so necessary with each one of us, and that is the daily reading of His Word and prayer. These are very basic, simple, but precious important things with us.
Uh, I think of that verse, if any if except thou speak unto us, we be as those that go down to the pit and just in that simple way to see that we need that daily adjustment of the word of God to keep us from the uh.
From the things that are in the world as well as the world itself. Perhaps someone can help us with some more on that. Uh, I don't know if that answers part of it only.
World is that system that has been developed so that man can be comfortable and at ease outside of the presence of God. And it started with Cain when he went out of the presence of the Lord and built the city and equipped it so that he would not supposedly need God. The things that are in the world, they have often been suggested, and I think it is.
Something to consider that those 3 categories that are mentioned, the lust of the flash is sometimes what uh the enemy of our souls uses more in youth and the lust of the eyes more in mid age and the pride of life and and those who are older.
Although they all affect all of us, I'm sure we can say that there are things that are used to draw away, like you say, Larry, and to attract our hearts in a different direction than what attracts the heart of God. And it will not satisfy like it says, the world passes away and it's lust view, short ears. It'll all be gone, all be gone. But he that does the will of God.
Abides forever. I'm struck with the remark that and in the day in which we live, where we have.
Uh, recession and the, the problems with things as far as money is concerned. But there were three men that came to mind. One of them was, uh, Ernie Madoff and we probably know who that is. And then we think of, uh, Howard Hughes and I think another one was, uh, Getty, uh.
These men were all very wealthy men, but one day, uh, each one of them had a have a sad ending, very sad ending. And someone at a very rich man was, had passed away and the relatives were waiting.
00:45:02
With the lawyer to see how much was he worth. And they asked the lawyer that question, well, how much is he actually worth? What are we going to get? How much did he leave us?
And the lawyer wisely said he left everything. He left every. He left it all. And so it is with those things down here. We're gonna leave it off. And what a loss. What a grand larceny to our soul it is when the things of this world have a place in our hearts.
It might be helpful just to say without digressing, that the world in Scripture and in this chapter is taken up in three different ways, three different contexts. And it's helpful when you go through a chapter like this to notice the different ways it's taken up. Sometimes the world is referred to as the physical planet on which we live. And so the Lord Jesus was in the world. He came to this world. We read in another place. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
He came to this globe, this planet on which we live in incarnation.
But when it says in John three, God so loved the world, if I can speak reverently, he didn't love a planet.
No, it's the people in the world. And so sometimes when you read the word world, it has to do with the people that inhabit this planet. And sometimes has been said it has to do with a system of things that has been set up by by man in independence of God, of which Satan is the God and Prince. He's the God of this world religiously and he's the Prince of this world politically.
Just for sake of remembering it, if you can remember it this way, there is the planet, the people, and the program, and the world is taken up in those three different ways, and you get all three in this chapter.
To prepare the disciples.
For the time of his absence, that they may be kept.
And be witnesses for him of his glory. It's interesting to see through the chapter, uh, a threat of things. First of all, in verse two, he gives them eternal life. And to quote James Harvey, he said that the eternal life is an out of this world condition of things.
And what he meant by that, as I understand it, is that eternal life gives us the capacity to enjoy things that the Father and the Son who are out of this world have enjoyed for all eternity.
And to have communion with those persons with regard to those things.
And so that is one of the things that is going to keep us a sanctified people in this world to enjoy the things that are in heaven that the Father and the Son enjoy.
Then secondly, we find that He gave them in verse four a perfect example. I have glorified thee on the earth. They walked with Him through those years when He was out in His ministry, and they saw a perfect example of how they should be.
As witnesses in this world. As strangers.
And then in verse six we find that He manifested the Father's name to them. The idea of the name is usually the thought of the character, the very character of the Father himself.
Was made known to them and his life and ministry.
And then in verse eight we find that he says He gave unto them the words which the Father gave to him, and they received those words and have known.
That he came out from the Father, and so he gave them.
The words, the truth, the various teachings that, uh, they heard from his lips. And then in verse nine, we find that he begins to pray for them now.
In, a number of requests are made with regard to them being kept.
But I just think it's beautiful to think of that, that the Lord has done the same for us. We have eternal life. We have the perfect example for us. We can read the scriptures and there His life is recorded for us.
We too have known the Father, and we also have his words.
And so he has fully prepared us for this scene. I think it's wonderful that we can, uh, have these things and then to realize that the, the elements that he we find here in the prayer for the disciples, of course, have every application to ourselves as we pass through this world as well.
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Because we add 2, the one we have the world, especially in John's gospel. The great thought of it is it has to do with the rejection of the sun. Go back to chapter 16 for that.
In verse 8.
When he that is the spirit of God is come, he will reprove the world of sin. Verse nine of sin because they believe.
Not on me. That is the presence of the Spirit of God.
Brings the demonstration, brings to light three things that he's here in the world and the fact that the Spirit of God is here.
Bring his demonstration to this world of sin, because the Son is here no longer.
And the sun has been rejected. And so sometimes we take up this idea of the world as well. That's, uh, uh, drinking and carousing and all the rest. But we find has been mentioned the world system. What is so awful about it is the sun has been rejected. Be it lowlife for the highlight, it's the world and it's rejected the sun. And that's what the great sin of this present evil world is. We see in Cain's world a very wicked city that developed and built up that God brought down in judgment, but.
Today the world is seeing the rejection of the sun. I'd just like to read another verse.
I'd like to try to balance out my brethren, but one that might be a question in our minds in First Corinthians Chapter 7.
We're told not to love the world and we see that world system of things that has rejected the sun. But what about the things of the world? First Corinthians Chapter 7 and verse 33 But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world. How he may please his wife. It would be a sorry husband that never sought to please his wife and things that are in the world.
Because he cares for them. A husband that did not show his wife his kindness and consideration was is not a uh, and there's not a spiritual man.
He is a man that is not showing proper kindness and care. So there are things in the world and that we are to care for them. But here we have the displacement of the sun, whether it's the world or things that are in the world, irrespective, are they good? Are they bad? It's of the world that's rejected Christ. And so that's the, I believe the great point, especially in John's ministry, they rejected the Son and the Father.
On verse 11 he says I am no more in the world, but these are in the world. That is the Lord Jesus as Bob mentioned this morning.
Can speak of and does speak from the point of view that the work of the cross I have finished the work which now gave us to me to do, he says before. Means that he's looking at this point as the work of the cross is done and now he's returning to the Father.
And in this prayer. And so he says, I'm no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee.
Then it's to me, it's helpful for us to notice it says Holy Father.
He introduces that character of the Father. Holy Father, keep through thy own name. That is, he's going to make a request of a Holy Father to keep the children in that same position of separation and holiness from what they are going to face. And so again, we draw upon our God in our prayers.
On the basis of that which He has promised or provided for his people, and that's their position before Him. And so we may address him as a Holy Father and ask of him on that basis to do that which would preserve His people in that character that is consistent with Himself.
Like to mention, uh, thought that, uh, I enjoyed a number of years ago, this chapter was taken up and uh, in verse 9 when he says, I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me for they are thine.
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It's in contrast with what will happen in the future day in the book of the Psalms, Psalm 2, he says.
The Father says to the son, Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. So that was what was due to him, since he came as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Was a claim to be the king of the Jews, but here he recognizes.
That the time had not come when he would ask for the world. He was asking for those that were given to him out of the world, his own people. And I think that is beautiful if we can.
See that? What is it that interests God in this world? It's His people and brethren. There's nothing that gives quite so much joy in traveling from 1 Country to another to meet up with the Lord's people to see how the Lord is caring for them and working with them and allowing trials in their lives. This is recently in South America and I went across the Andes range between Argentina and Chile.
You go by the highest point in the Western Hemisphere, Mountain Gaga. Very interesting to see it.
That's interesting, yes, but what really interests you, what really I enjoy, brother, is being with the Lord's people. There is nothing that compares with that.
Sometimes, you know, you take pictures and I have noticed.
That the pictures of scenery are pretty well passed over. Come to pictures of the Lord's people. There's where you find something interesting.
God's interests are in his people in this world.
And that's what it was with the Lord Jesus. He didn't pray for the world. He will get the world in a future day.
You will ask and it will be given to him, but here was not the time. He prays for his own.
The Lord Jesus never solicited the prayers of his own, did he? He prayed for them. And the other thing that's striking and noticing the times the Lord prays in the Gospels is he never prays with the disciples. He teaches them to pray, He prays for them, He prays alone. He went up the mountain alone to pray and so on. But he remains distinct and apart in that way. But here it's beautiful, isn't it, to see?
Something that seems overwhelming. There's no perhaps greater comfort than to hear someone say, I'm praying for you, I'm really praying for you. And you know, the hearts of the disciples on this occasion were troubled. You get that? In the 14th chapter, they thought of the Lord going away and leaving them in a wicked world and to face the situations of life as they thought alone and so on. And to hear him say, I pray for them, what a comfort that must have been. But brethren.
Far greater comfort than our brethren saying I'm praying for you.
Is to look up this afternoon and realize there's one praying for us. He's praying for us every hour of every day.
As we mentioned this morning, as our high priest, he's praying for us that we might be preserved in the path of faith and service. Is that a comfort and a consolation to us? Does that give us courage to face?
What may seem overwhelming on the horizon, I have no doubt there are brethren here, and your hearts are overwhelmed to think of what you're gonna have to face if the Lord leaves us here and we go home the first of the week, you say. Wonderful to have this little time and this little Oasis away from the world and all of it. But I've got to go home and face it. If the Lord doesn't come, remember, he's praying for you just as he was praying for the disciples whose hearts were very troubled.
01:00:07
So he's praying for you. Is your heart troubled? Is my heart troubled? Sometimes it is, But just look up and realize he's praying for us and he's there at the right hand of God. He's there at the place of power, and he has a continual priesthood.
And he's praying for us as our advocate, too. When we make mistakes, when we fall, he's there. He prays for us. Sometimes people get discouraged. They say I messed up some things so badly. Don't ever think that he's praying for you and he can lift you up again.
We see here too in the blessed Lord, the heart of the shepherd, thinking of the 23rd Psalm. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not walk and so on. But also we we read in Ephesians four of the uh.
Some, uh, profits, some pastors and teachers and so on there. I'm not quoting that quite correctly, but I was struck with something there that when it came to there's a semi colon in the King James Version between.
These different ones until you come to the pastors and teachers and I thought about a pastor's heart, a connection with a teacher to be an effective teacher, it seems that we must have a set have a a shepherd's heart, a pastor's heart. And we see that here with the blessed Lord. And so the apostle could say, Umm, ye there are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
And so the exercise might be there for the dear Galatians who perhaps, uh, boasted of spirituality. Uh, he could say to them either their spiritual restore, such a one is their restoration is there considering ourselves unless we also be tempted and often think of a little hymn, Uh, tell me the old, old story when you have cause to fear that this world's empty glory is costing.
Me too, dear. And so it is, beloved brethren, as we look at one another and know, as we sang that little hymn, prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. Do we tell the old, old story? Do we .1 another to Christ? Do we seek to restore a soul of one who is getting away from the Lord? And how precious it is with the we see the ministry of Christ and the effect that it has on us to separate us from this world, to sanctify us.
From a world that is trying away with them.
264.
264.
Gospel 4
Gospel—D. Whitaker
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Old lady, her name was Olga Berkland, she was from Norway and of course she had the accent. The family gathered around their 95 year old grandmother.
Olga Olga Berkland, a dear St. of God from Norway. I met the grandson. He was old.
How will she respond when she hears that her beloved husband has just passed on?
Well, she said one of these days and it won't be long, the Hornville Toot and we'll all be gone.
That's the way she pictured it. Let us pray.
God and our loving Father, we thank Thee for these few moments we have here.
To speak well the Lord Jesus Christ, our precious Savior.
Help us direct us to portions of Scripture that will meet the need here tonight. And, uh, there may be soles saved as a result of thy Spirit's work in this room. We pray for the gospel as it goes forth in other places. May it go forth in power. And, uh.
And direct to the need of the heart, Lord Jesus.
Especially here tonight, we ask and for help for the speaker too. We ask all this in Jesus precious name, Amen. Now that was a 95 year old lady, 3 1/2 year old girl with leukemia. Back and forth to the hospital, her father would take her. Back and forth to the hospital, her father would take her.
Temperatures fevers, that is, and.
Few days in the hospital, transfusions on and on and on.
Well, she knew she was getting weaker. A little 3 1/2 year old baby girl.
And.
Her daddy realized she had a fever, so you have to go back.
She got in the car well knowing she was at her home.
She said to her as they drove out the driveway to go to the hospital for the last time.
Daddy, I wanna go home.
Daddy, I want to go. I want to go home.
Comfort for a 95 year old lady. Comfort for a 3 1/2 year old baby girl.
It's a gospel meeting. We have a tomorrow morning, we have a children's meeting presenting Christ to the children.
And then there's going to be a breaking of bread meeting, presenting Christ in all of his beauty and excellencies.
To God the Father.
Then there'll be an address presenting Christ and all of his beauties to the company here. Then perhaps a reading meeting presenting Christ and all of his beauties and all of his excellencies to one another.
Then there's going to be a meal. We'll be able to sit there and present Christ to one another.
And then there's a gospel meeting tomorrow night as if we're left here as well as tonight.
We want to present Christ to you.
Sinner.
And all of his beauty.
All those excellencies and perfections, May God give us help.
I felt quite oppressed before this meeting.
I felt so impressed I had to leave the previous meeting.
Satan doesn't want this God. Satan doesn't want this gospel preached tonight. He knows. He knows it's the end time.
He knows that it's winding down.
There's a little girl 13 years of age. This was four years ago. She was 13 years of age.
She saw beauty in the Lord Jesus Christ, and she took Christ as her Savior.
She acknowledged him. I don't know her name.
She loved him straight, a student, happy girl.
Told her father and mother, who over a different religious persuasion.
And he felt she should be killed.
So she fled.
She is today 17 1/2 years of age. She's staying with.
00:05:05
A pastor and his wife in Florida.
This father is trying to the United States legal system to get his daughter back and it's quite a tussle.
We are privileged here tonight.
To a privilege here tonight, I expect in the near future to have a visit with a man that spent years in a Russian.
Prison.
There was a dozen men standing there, all officers of the Russian army, KGB or whatever they call it.
Can they all question this believer?
They questioned him and questioned him. Then all of them got up except the head honcho and he looked at this believer in the eye and he said.
He said. Do you believe in God this much or this much?
What a strange question.
He said.
This much? He said. That's ten years in prison for you.
I'm looking, I'm looking forward to meeting that man.
I he doesn't know any English, but the man I work with, Vladimir, known to some here, he's gonna take me up there.
And I'll sit in his presence.
After that man said that's 10 years, that man that said it's 10 years, he started to cry.
The believer said why are you crying?
He says because you don't deserve it, you've done nothing wrong.
Young people, I speak to you tonight.
Because you've been raised on a pillow.
Yeah, and carried on a pillow.
And the day we're living in.
No longer a pillow.
Those remarks, We'll look at a hymn in the Little Flock Hymn book. You don't need to turn to it.
The brother gave it out the first prayer meeting.
And certainly matched up with exercises that I had.
141 In deep eternal council, before the world began, before the world was made, before its deep foundations on nothingness were laid, God purposed us for blessing.
And chose us in his son.
To him to be conformed, for here our course was run.
Read another one.
From the palace of his glory, number 93.
From the palace of His glory, from the home of joy and love.
Came the Lord Himself to seek us.
He would. He would have us there above.
There from that eternal brightness have His thoughts flowed forth in love. He and His great love would have us ever there with Him above trembling, we that hope for mercy some lone place within the door.
But the crown, the throne, the mansion, all were ready long before.
And in past and distant ages in those courts so bright and fair.
There we were.
Was he rejoicing all he want with us to share?
With those thoughts mind I would like to look at some scriptures.
Several in Isaiah, one in Zechariah.
And I think we'll turn to.
Well, let's just turn to Zechariah Chapter 6.
MMM, that's toward the end of the Old Testament.
Now in the Old Testament you have little pictures, little types that kind of appear. They appear.
00:10:06
And they speak of the Lord Jesus, and these types are used to encourage the Saints.
Of Old and the Old Testament there.
And I believe this is one of them. I'm going to read to you.
Verse 13 of Zechariah, Chapter 6.
Even he shall build the temple of the Lord.
He shall bear the glory.
And shall sit upon sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne.
And the Council of Peace shall be between them both.
The Council of Peace shall be between them both, and he shall bear the glory.
Here we have.
Godhead, who am I to know what took place there other than what I read here? How could I explain that?
God Consulting.
One another.
Speaking of this piece that needs to be made.
It's a council of peace. It's a peace that's gonna pass all of our understanding. It's a peace that's gonna bring poor, lost, helpless, hell deserving sinners.
Into blessing. It's a peace that the Lord could speak to a woman who had an issue of blood and came behind him and touched that border of that garment, perhaps a ribbon of blue.
Tremblingly he could say who touched me.
They said the multitudes said a multitude throng the and press upon the end. You say who touched me? Don't be silly.
No, Somebody's touched me.
Is there someone in this room tonight?
That has no peace with him.
They need to reach out by faith and touch.
The border of his garment.
It just takes a touch.
And he's gonna bear the glory.
It's going to bring glory to God in the highest that a Sinner is brought into blessing.
Turn with me, please, to Isaiah chapter 6.
Would God tell us what went on in a past eternity?
Here we have another little picture.
Coming into relief and it's beautiful.
Chapter 6 and verse 8.
Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who shall? Who will go for us?
Could it be that whom shall I send was the father?
Who shall go for us is the Trinity.
Then said I, is that the son?
Hear my send me here am I send me and he said, go. The Father sent the Son to be the savior of the world.
It's a magnificent statement. It's a wonderful statement.
Had he not done that?
We would be forever lost.
Job Chapter 38.
Verse 4.
Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Declare if thou hast understanding.
Who have laid the measures thereof it thou knowest, or who hath stretched the line upon it?
Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? And who hath, who laid the cornerstone thereof?
This next verse.
When the morning stars sang together.
And all the sons of God shouted for joy.
Why did they get in on this?
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Council do they know what's making them sing?
What's making them shout for joy?
Do they know that God has a God has a love that is so strong?
And so fervent.
The waters can't quench it, and the floods can't drown it. If a man would give all his substance for his house, of his house for love, it would utterly be considered a thing of not contempt. Utterly.
So we have this situation. We have God able to show his marvelous glory, and he creates. In Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God. Did that show his love? No.
You having you have him show his skill where he can.
Dump all these rivers into the ocean, and yet the ocean is not full.
That's some skill of his. Does that show his love? No.
He needed a way to show his love.
A love that was intense.
No love like thine Lord Jesus.
He allowed a black backdrop to come down over this scene that he's created.
Black as it could be.
And he allowed sin to come in. I can't think of it any other way. Why? So he could show you.
The intensity.
Of that love.
And I'm going to quote John 316, no.
John, 317.
God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him.
Might be saved. Are you saved? Are you under the shelter of the precious blood of Christ tonight?
Are you floating? Floating along with the crowd, Young people, Children.
Drifting.
Like the man said after being in the break in a bread meeting, he said rather be efficient.
His wife's a believer, wants him to be saved. Don't remember his name?
Whom shall I send? Send me?
Send me.
Love.
That no suffering stayed, no love like his.
And is it so I shall be like thy son? Is this the grace that he for me has won?
My counsel shall stand. I'll do all my pleasure. It's his pleasure that his counsel will stand. And the gates of hell have nothing to say to it. It's going to stand.
He's going to have a family in heaven like his son.
The gates of heaven. You know, there was a man in the Old Testament that said the unbeliever, he said if God should open the windows of heaven, might such a thing be?
He saw it with his eyes, but he never partook of it. He was trampled in the gate.
Yes, he was.
Have the gates of death been open unto you? He asked That the job Job would have to say.
No.
He says have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? Joe would have had to say no.
Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? Job would have had to say no.
But the Lord Jesus said, For God so loved the world that he gave.
His only begotten Son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world.
But that the world through him, might be saved.
The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
Where is the way where light dwelleth? Oh, there's light in this room tonight. There's bright lights there. But I'm talking about the word of God. It's open here. We're speaking the gospel of the grace of God. It's a glorious gospel.
00:20:03
It can meet you in your need, but there's something that has to take place before all this goodness can come your way.
You have to bow those, those, those, those knees if you please, and your back if you please, in your head. If you please. Get down in the presence of God and save your soul, you will.
Yes, he will.
And when he does, when he saves your soul, he's gonna, he's gonna bear the glory.
What path did he take?
The father sent the son we've been thinking about in the reading meeting about that humble.
Gentle path that he took.
Let's think of it this way.
He was sent by the father.
Tender loving hands of Mary.
Wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a Manger.
Doesn't even say he was born there. He was laid there, had nothing.
The Spirit released him for service.
He went about doing good, relieving those people that were bound.
With infirmities many years.
What did they do with those blessed hands, those hands of service? They bound them like this. They bound them.
Did they have to bind him? All these soldiers standing around hear this, this.
Humble man that never took a swipe at anybody.
They bound him.
What did they do? They clothed him. He was clothed in.
Swadlincote.
Now they clothed him in scarlet, they grabbed him and they clothed him in scarlet, Scarlet mocking him.
They undressed him again.
And he put his own clothes back on him. He united his hands so they could.
Stretch them out.
Stretch them out.
And nail them across the wood.
He bartered for his garments.
And they sat down and they watched him there.
Think of that. Here's the man extremity of suffering.
And they could sit down and take their.
It says.
Lamentations, is it nothing to you?
All ye that pass by.
Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
It also says, All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
Deep.
Call authentic.
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.
Have you come under the canopy of that love? It's over you.
But if you said, let it down upon me, dear Lord Jesus.
So those hours of suffering, the sky becomes dark, wrapped in night.
Righteous holy anger against sin.
That's what took place there in those last three hours. The first three he suffered as a martyr. The last three hours he suffered there to put away the sins of this man standing here this evening.
To make an atonement for the soul.
Loving hands.
Before that.
He said, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The psalmist said, Why art thou so far from helping me? In the words of my roaring I cry.
He looked for some to take pity. He found none.
00:25:02
Comforters weren't any.
This acquaintance looked on afar off. His disciples fled.
He was alone in the God who he had sweet fellowship with the Father.
Silence.
Silence. He suffered there, those hours of darkness for me and for you.
Making atonement with shedding his precious blood.
Some time you might ask the question to a fellow believer.
Could Jesus sin? We know he didn't sin, but Hallelujah agreed that. But could he have sinned? Well, yes, of course. And you see, the reason is because they're at the temptation. He wouldn't have had the temptation and so on and so on if he he couldn't have sinned. Here it says.
Uncorruptible blood. That blood could have been there for 60 years or 60 millenniums, never corrupt.
Precious.
Precious.
Blood of Jesus shed on Calvary, shed for rebels and for sinners, shed for me.
Loving hands took him down.
Took those nails and pulled them out.
Got some clean white linen, wrapped him up in it.
Laid him in that tomb that had never experienced corruption.
Uncorruptible savior laid in that new tomb.
Hewn out of a rock.
What a cold.
Think about that.
Great stone rolled to the door. A great stone rolled to the door.
Those dear disciples they must have, they must have suffered under that.
They must have considered, could not this man who did all these miracles?
Been preserved from such a horrible ending.
Well, a great stone was rolled to the door.
Angel came and rolled back the stone. He was clothed in that rock.
Angel came and rolled back the door because its resurrection time grave could not hold him.
Righteousness and holiness had all been met.
And now he comes forth the power of resurrection. He raised himself from the dead. He was raised by the Spirit from the dead. He was raised by the Father from the dead.
And when the disciples, oh, he said, oh, hail, Schofield gives that. Oh joy, oh joy.
Resurrection. Resurrection is a strange thing if I hated my neighbor.
I looked across the way and I saw him ploughing in the field and hoeing in his garden and I looked this way and that way and I went over it and I took his life.
I went home and I got away with that one.
No problem there. Not a soul saw me. Nobody would ever guess I'd have done that.
The funerals had.
I look out the field a few few days later hears the same neighbor hoeing.
In his garden I would know one thing. God was on his side, not mine.
The resurrection from the dead. You know this world, they never saw the Lord Jesus.
What they see of the Lord Jesus is in the walk of you and I as believers.
They will see him again and we're going to read about that later on.
He ascended up to heaven, clothed with majesty and honor.
He started.
Swaddling clothes laid in a Manger.
And now those.
Smoking robes are off of him.
And that linen where the tender hand wrap is off of him, and he is ascended on high in the glory.
Him 134 this little.
Little block him book says this.
00:30:04
We all know it, the last verse.
Some may not know it.
134 says royal robes.
Royal robes.
Will soon invest the royal splendor's crown eyebrow.
Christ of God.
Our souls confess thee.
King and Sovereign even now King of Glory set on high girt with strength and majesty.
Thee we reverence, thee obey.
Only Lord Christ hallway.
So we have now a man in the glory waiting to come and take us up there.
He ascended up.
He was taken up.
He was received up, he went up and he was carried up.
What you do when a king wins a battle? You carry. You carry the king or you carry the uh.
The head of the army, you carry him in victory, if I could use that expression.
Carried up to heaven.
Lori.
Turn with me, please, to Revelation 19.
And verse 11.
What's he clothed with here?
Revelation, 1911.
And I saw heaven open. This is the only book that will open up heaven to you. And by the way, there's no good news coming out of heaven tonight except the gospel of the grace of God. There's not one of good news coming out of heaven for you tonight.
Without the grace of God, the gospel of the grace of God, that is.
And so I haven't opened.
And behold, a White Horse, that he that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness.
He does judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns.
Prophetically, it says of him the weeds were wrapped about his head and he went down to the bottom of the oceans.
Book of Jo uh Jonah.
They crowned him with a crown of thorns. Yes, they did represents the curse.
No more.
His eyes were 12, His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that no man knew but he himself, and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood not his own.
And his name is called the word of God.
And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses clothed in fine linen, white and clean, and out of his mouth go with a sharp sword. With it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness.
And wrath of Almighty God, and he hath on his vesture, and on his thigh a name written.
King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Where will you be when this takes place?
Where?
Chapter 20 and verse 11.
And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away.
And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things that were written in the books according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and nothing held delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of fire. Where will you be then?
Revelation 6.
00:35:03
Verse 14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
I'll give you a little illustration here. There's a little pond down where I live. They call it Totem Lake. It's about the size of this room, maybe a little bigger.
And in that lake is the trees. There's a, uh, a little island with trees coming out of it.
Brush trees aren't very tall, maybe this tall and uh.
I get the canoe with the child in it. We go paddling over here around this little island.
And the island, it sits right there.
And it's not too far from the land right there. The other whatever.
And I had a position in my mind. Went back a few weeks later, the canoe in that lake and that island was over there. It shook me.
Actually, with a floating island, all the debris had gathered and the tree grew out of it. It shook me a little. Tiny little island the size of.
Maybe a couple, three or four cars, six or eight cars about that parked together, nothing.
It scared me. I thought I understood that that island was fixed and it was right there.
But it ended up right there. It stunned me. What about this?
Every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, in every bondsman and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains. And said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of his wrath is come.
Who shall be able to stand? Where will you be then?
He's going to bear the glory.
He's going to get glory like he did in Pharaoh's day. He got glory out of that man being destroyed.
A strange statement.
If you're going to have love, you're going to have hatred. You're going to have hate rather.
You can't have love if you have intense love. There has to be intense hate, you say? What are you saying, man?
You're going to hate everything and anything that wants to destroy that love.
Now it says in the book of Job that the wicked. Let's look at it. It's quite an expression.
Uh, I believe it's chapter 18.
What is he going to do with the wicked?
It says in job chapter 18.
The first line of the fifth verse is the wicked.
Verse 18. He shall be driven from light Into Darkness, and chased out of the world.
Chase out of the world.
And there are other expressions cast out Into Darkness.
Many expressions of what is going to happen to the wicked.
Where will you be then?
Then we go over to.
The Book of Luke, chapter 12, please.
And this is one I don't understand.
We find this one.
Gert with majesty.
An honor.
Those royal robes.
We'll invest in.
Luke chapter 12 and verse 37.
Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I send you that He shall gird himself.
00:40:04
He'll gird himself.
And make them sit down.
To meet and will come forth and serve them of the joys of heaven forever.
Is that right, brother?
I didn't write that.
He will bear the glory.
His counsel will stand.
And he will do all his pleasure.
Where would you be there?
Tonight, the blood of Jesus Christ is what can cleanse you from your sins. I talked to an Indian man and his wife two weeks ago.
Middle age Microsoft people.
Bright.
I gave him the gospel and in the gospel I said, you know, it's not going to that river.
Is it the Ganges in the Brahmaputra or something like that where they confluence and all that?
Dead bodies and all that. Sewerage is sweeping down through there and they go down to bathe to get their sins washed away. I wasn't quite that emphatic because I spoke to these people. They might have had a great respect for that river.
I said that water is not what puts your sins away.
It is the precious blood of Christ, given the cross of Calvary, that puts your sins away. Have you ever heard that before? He said No, I never have. They had never heard it once. How many times tonight have you heard it?
Does it mean anything to you what's been said tonight or would you rather have been fishing?
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
1/2 Everlasting life. What more could God do for you? What more could he do? Had nothing else to give against the darling of heaven, the past.
And he's going to get glory through it all as he is.
Where will you be 5 minutes after you die? There was a man in this room right now that was asked that question. I asked him Where will you be 5 minutes after you die?
He got upset, he left. He called me up a month later and he said.
This man didn't know the Lord, he said. Brother Dave.
And I said brother, and I said his name is that you?
Yeah, he said. It's me.
Save.
Under the precious blood of Christ. And he's sitting in this room tonight. You're sitting here tonight. Are you under the shelter of the precious blood, or are you not?
Love so intense that the waters could not quench it, the floods could not drown it. Shall we pray?
I, God and a living Father, we marvel what we read tonight.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
Or Jesus started coming again.
We rejoice.
Will sing thy praises forever. Will see thee in all thy glory, and thy majesty and thy beauty, Lord Jesus.
Our prayer is that there not be one soul left behind here.
Lord Jesus, speak to these hearts.
Be so nice to have someone lean over and say to their mom or their dad I'm saved.
So we leave this time these words, these verses.
Thy hands for thy Spirit to do the work, Lord Jesus. Amen.
Goliath's Shield and the Believer's Shield
YP Sing Address—P. House
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
And well, I want to read a couple of stories in the Word of God.
That many of us have heard from when we were little children.
And I want to focus on just a couple of points in those stories that.
We can maybe spend a moment with tonight First Samuel 17.
We all hope all of us know this story.
And we've all heard the story, I guess when we were little children from our parents, most of us who are believers and were raised in Christian homes, we've heard the story of how David killed Goliath.
First Samuel chapter 17 and we'll start reading from.
Verse 40.
This is David and David. Or he took his staff in his hand.
And chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag, which he had.
Even in a script and his sling was in his hand and he drew near to the Philistine.
And the Philistine came on and drew near on to David, and the man that bare the shield went before him.
And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth.
And ready, and of a fair countenance. And the Philistines said unto David, Am IA dog.
That thou comest to me was staves, and the gods, and the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
And the Philistines sent to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air.
And to the beasts of the field. And said David, to the Philistine.
Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear and with a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts.
The God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied this day, will the Lord deliver thee.
Into my hand, and I will smite thee and take thine head from thee, and I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day.
On to the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know.
That there is a God in Israel, and all this assembly shall know.
That the Lord save us not with sword and spear for the battle is the Lord's.
And he will give you into our hands.
And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted.
And ran toward the army to meet the Philistine and David put his hand in his bag.
And took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the philistine in his forehead.
That the stone sunk into his forehead, and he fell upon his face.
To the earth. So David prevailed.
I don't know how many times I've told this story to my kids.
I used to love when my dad and mom would tell me this story. I tried to picture it in my mind many times.
I don't know what the picture is in your mind, but this is one of the most fascinating stories in the Bible to me.
I don't know how many times I told the story and how many times I read it, but you know, there's something about this story.
That is very important if.
If we go back to.
Verse 41.
It says the Philistine came on and drew near on to David. Now notice this next part. And the man that bare the shield went before him.
Now I've thought about this, you know, it was really two against one, wasn't it?
You know, it wasn't David against Goliath, it was David.
Against Goliath and another man.
And what was the other man doing?
The other man was carrying the shield for Goliath.
Now what did David have for ammo? He had stones.
Now let's picture this for a minute. Here we have the Philistine. He says hey, this guy is easy, find him, go kill him. So he takes a run at David. But you know what? He wasn't carrying his own shield.
And so David takes the stone. God directed it.
00:05:01
It got him.
But what's the lesson?
And that's what we're going to talk about tonight.
The lesson is the shield of face.
We have to carry it ourselves. It wasn't good enough that this other man was carrying the shield for Goliath.
It cost him his life.
'Cause he wasn't prepared.
For that stone.
Now let's turn back a couple of chapters to the 11Th chapter I think it is.
First Samuel 11.
My wife and I were reading this the other night together in our reading.
I have often puzzled over this account.
But a brother gave me a thought and I'm going to share it with you tonight, the 11Th chapter of First Samuel.
Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabash Gilead. And all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee. And they hatch. The Ammonite answered them, On this condition will I make a covenant with you, that I might thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel. And the elders of Jabesh said unto him, Give us seven days respite, that we may send messengers on to all the coasts.
Of Israel, And then if there be no man to save us, we will come out to thee.
So this was the time that.
King Saul was coming to the forefront.
And Saul went on to deliver these men.
But let's think about what this man was asking these men of Jbash skilled he had to do.
He was asking them to, basically.
Be defenseless in battle.
And this other man told me that.
Most people.
Are right-handed.
So if they were gonna lose their right eye.
Then they were going to have to hold their shield to protect themselves in battle in such a way that they wouldn't be able to fight very well.
Now think about somebody taking out your right eye.
I wouldn't be pretty.
Would also limit your ability to judge distance.
And so it would be hard not only to fight, but to work.
Would weaken you, wouldn't it?
Again, another use of the shield.
And, you know, these stories in the Old Testament, we think, well, you know, they're just stories. Yeah. But there's a lot in them. And I'm sure there's things in these stories that I read tonight that people could share with me that I've never thought about before.
But I want to turn to a couple of verses in the New Testament.
And let's turn to.
The book of Ephesians.
Ephesians chapter 6.
And verse 11.
Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities.
Against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day.
And having done all to stand, stand therefore having your loins gird about with truth.
And having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation.
Of the gospel of peace, above all, taking the shield of faith.
Wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts.
Of the wicked.
Now we'll think for a minute. Back to that story of Goliath. Goliath was not carrying his own shield.
And so he was vulnerable to that stone.
He had no protection.
00:10:00
A shield of faith. It's something that as believers, it says.
Above all, taking the shield of faith.
We need to carry it ourselves.
And it says.
Wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
And before that we read about that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.
In the 13th verse.
Has there ever been a day in this world worse than today for evil? Don't think so. This world is ripe.
And the judgment of God is going to come any moment.
It's a marvel to me that we're still here.
The shield of faith.
You know, I want to make sure that each one of us understands that we need to have our own seal to faith.
We need to have our personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We need Him as our Savior. We need to have faith in Him.
But you know.
This is the point of my talk tonight.
I want to speak to each one of our hearts about faith and where it comes from. And let's turn to the book of Romans.
Somebody's gonna have to help me. I just got a new Bible. I know where it is in my old Bible on the page.
Says so. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
10/17 thank you. 10 and 17. So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing.
By the word of God.
Though our little talk tonight.
I want to encourage each one of us to read our Bibles.
To read our Bibles, you say? Well, what do you mean read my Bible? That's what I mean. I want you to read your Bible and I need to read mine.
You know, it's very easy to get your mouse and give it a bump and hit the little round thing that takes you to the Internet.
That's easy, and it's hard not to do it.
You know, we need food, we need nourishment, and we need faith. And where does it come from? It comes from reading the word of God. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. You say, well, this is such a simple thing that you're telling me. Yeah, but you know what? I bet a lot of us aren't reading as much as we should.
And I think if we're honest with ourselves, before God.
Each one of us would say yeah.
I do spend a lot of time on the Internet and yeah, I do need to read more.
You know, we want to be happy we had that today. Let's turn to Deuteronomy, where Jim started you this afternoon, Deuteronomy 33.
Deuteronomy chapter 33.
Verse 29.
Happy art thou, O Israel.
Who is like unto thee, O people, saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help?
And who is the sword of thy Excellency? So we read about the shield.
In Ephesians and we read about the sword.
I want to end by talking a little bit about the sword, but before we do, let's make sure that we realize that our relationship with our God and the faith that He gives us is from reading His Word.
We need to do it, we need to have an exercise to do it, and it needs to be regular.
00:15:01
You know, we don't have just one meal every Monday and Thursday and maybe a little bit on Sunday, no.
We three at least meals a day. The boys, young men that live in my house, eat more than that. Even my daughter eats more than three meals a day because she needs to. She's growing, right? Well, how do we grow? We read the word of God.
Now we talked a little bit about the shield of faith.
What about the Sword of the Spirit?
Which is the word of God.
You know, you young people have tremendous opportunity.
You say, well, what do you mean? Well, you do. You have health and strength.
You don't have the same afflictions that older people have.
But you also have a lot of contacts.
Friends, people that you know, acquaintances at school, teachers that you may have.
Family.
Perhaps people that you work with?
You know if we read the word of God and our faith is strong.
Then God can use us to go on the offensive.
You see, the shield is for defense.
It's what you hide behind, that you poke your eye around when you're in battle. And if you don't have your right eye, it makes it tough, right? We saw that.
But now we're gonna talk about offense.
Offense is telling people about the Lord Jesus Christ and being a witness.
For the Lord Jesus here in this world, you know, we don't have much time. The Lord is going to come.
And we're gonna get to go to heaven. You know, I look forward to going to heaven.
I wanna go now.
But you know how many people that I bumped shoulders with that don't know how to get there?
You know, there's people that are very well educated in this world that haven't got a clue how to get to heaven.
There's customers that I've spoken to that don't have a clue how to get saved and they've lived in North America their whole life.
And you know, some of your friends at school, university, people you work with, they don't have a clue either.
Let's go to.
Our swords.
With God's help and humility and thankfulness for what we have.
And tell others about the Lord Jesus. But you know what? It starts by us reading the word of God and praying and having faith.
And a good conscience before the Lord Jesus, so that we'll have the courage, with his help, to tell others.
So just these few words, I hope you've enjoyed it like I have. Let's pray and thank the Lord for the food.
God Wants to Be Part His Family
Children—J. Bilisoly
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
You know, boys and girls, I want to start out with a verse, a very well known verse, a very, a very good verse in the gospel because I have a concern this morning that everyone of you boys and girls have put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and know him as your own personal Savior. You know, we've been speaking a little bit about how we've been brought into the family of God and that's kind of what I have on my heart is to talk about families.
And in particular, I want to talk a little bit about service serving, you know, umm, each of us here were born into a family. And I don't know about your family, but when I was born into the family that I was born into, as I grew up, we would have little jobs to do. And I wonder if that's true in your family too. And maybe we can find out a little bit about that as we talk together. But I'm going to ask before we get started, I'm going to ask if any of you boys and girls have.
Committed a verse of Scripture to memory that you would like to share with us. I know some of you work hard on that and I don't want to disappoint you if you have been diligently working the last few days or maybe even weeks to share something with us. Did you raise your hand? OK, would you like to stand up and I'll hold this up to you and you can tell us what verse you'd like to share with us.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
ACT 1631. Thank you very much. Very nice. OK.
Believe on Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house at 1631.
Very good. All right. Who else would you like to OK.
Any of you kids like to say the verse? OK, how about down this row? All right.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house. Acts 1631.
Thank you. Would you like to see it? OK.
300.
I'll be safe at.
1.
All right, Thank you. How about you? Would you like to say it? OK. You want to stand up and.
Please on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved at 1631. Thank you. Very good. All right, we'll come on down.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thine house. Acts 1631. Thank you.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house.
1631, Thank you.
Believe in Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved. Acts 1631. Alright, anybody else but you too down here?
Live on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house at 1631.
Leave on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Acts 1631.
OK. Thank you.
And 67th and Jesus Christ.
OK. Thank you.
OK.
And thou shall be safe.
Umm.
Thank you very much.
All right, did we miss anyone over here? See, we went down there. Did did I miss anyone? Any of you kids like to say verse? OK, I'm going to ask someone else that didn't say this first, umm, if they would say John 316 for me.
Because I think that's a wonderful good verse for the gospel. OK, You want to stand up and say that?
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
Tom 362, very good. Thank you.
Well, you know, boys and girls, if we were listening to those verses that were recited this morning, those two verses, John 316 and that one in Acts, the gospel message is so simple and clear, isn't it? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And then for God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. You know, I like that little poem that someone wrote about John 316. It goes like this.
00:05:22
In our King James translation, if you count the number of words in that verse, there's 25 and it says it goes like this 25 words in John 316. No greater words have ever been seen. 12 about ye a God and 12 about you. No 12 about God and 12 about me, Son in the middle who died on the tree. So if you look at that, there's 12 verses. There's the little poem says about God and then 12 about me. And then the middle word in that verse is Son. And I think that's nice because.
That's who it's all about. It's about the Lord Jesus. Well, you know, umm, there's another verse too that that verse, John 316, we might say brings before us the heart of God, His love towards us. He loved you so much that he gave his Son to die on the cross. And you know, there's a verse that we could read in, in John 13. We'll just look at it real quick, John 13 and verse one that gives us the other side of it, the love of the Lord Jesus for us.
So in John 13 and verse one it says now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come, that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. And then if you want a verse that's even more personal than that, you can go to the book of Galatians. And in chapter 2 and verse 20 towards the end of that, the last part of that verse, it starts out like this, the Son of God.
Who can finish it? The Son of God who loved.
OK.
The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, very good. How much more personal can we get than that? Boys and girls? Can you say that honestly in your hearts? Can you say for yourself the Son of God loved me and gave himself for me? Can you make it that personal? Well, I hope that you can. Now, what I had on my heart this morning was to talk a little bit about.
Well, first of all, before we talk about serving.
I want to talk. I want to ask you a question. Why would God save you? And I, you know, we heard a little bit about this yesterday. We heard some of the reasons that that we might say that God would save us. Why would God save a boy and a girl here this morning? Why? Why would he do that? OK, let's get some ideas here.
Because God love us.
He loves us. That's a very good answer. God loves us and he wants to save us. What does he want to save us from?
From a lost eternity in hell without the Lord Jesus.
Now we heard another reason. I I jotted down a few of them. We heard one yesterday that I I enjoyed.
One of the reasons that God would save us is.
Because.
He's providing a gift to his Son, the Lord Jesus. I thought that was a nice thought that God is saving boys and girls this morning and men and women in this world because he wants to give a gift to his Son, the Lord Jesus. And you know, on a coming day, we can read in Hebrews. I'm just going to read it because I want to quote it, right?
Right in Hebrews chapter 2.
The Lord Jesus is going to, as it were.
Take that gift that God has given him, his Father has given him, and he's going to say in Hebrews chapter 2.
Umm, he says here if I can find it.
OK, thank you, Bob. It's, it's amazing how versus just disappear when you're looking for them. Uh, in Hebrews chapter, uh, two and verse 13, Behold, I and the children which God hath given me. Isn't that sweet? The Lord Jesus is going to take his church on display there and put us on display before the father and he's going to say, behold, I and the children that thou has given me. And in that chapter that we're reading in John, it's so sweet to me to, to just hear that.
00:10:05
The language that's used as the Father and the Son are communicating and they're talking about us. Now I want to ask you a very, very important question. How do we get into this family of God? We've been talking about this family, these children, children of God that we are when we are saved, how do we get into God's family? Can someone help us? We need to be clear on this. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And thou shalt be saved and that by doing that act, we're because we become a part of God's family. That's the only way, boys and girls, that you can become a part of God's family. And he longs to have you a part of it. He loves you. Another reason that that God saves us is for his pleasure. You know, we talked a little bit about that and you can go to the Book of Revelation and we won't take the time and in chapter 4.
It tells us that for His pleasure all things were created, and including us, His creature for His glory. He saves us for His own glory and for the glory of His Son.
Now there's another reason that God saves you and I, and I want to talk a little bit more about this because that's what I have on my heart. He saves us.
So that we can have the opportunity to serve him. Isn't that nice? Now I'm going to ask you a question.
I want to know how old you have to be to be a servant of the Lord.
I see a lot of servants of the Lord in this room.
We're going to talk a little about that. How old do you have to be to be a servant?
Whoops, sorry, do you think? What's your name?
What? What's her name? Helena. Is Helena old enough to be a servant of the Lord at 3:00, or is she too young? Let's get some help.
Is she old enough? Yes. Oh, I'm so glad you said yes. OK, you're old enough. You're old enough to be a servant of the Lord. That's wonderful. So let's ask that question again. How old do we have to be to be a servant of the Lord?
You don't have to be, you just have, you don't have to be a certain age. Good, Kevin said. We don't have to be a certain age. You know, it's interesting, but there's a verse in the Bible. We, we maybe we don't think about this a lot, but I think it's in Galatians.
Umm, it it was a statement made by the apostle Paul in Galatians chapter one and verse 15. This is what Paul says he says. But when it please God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace to reveal his Son and me, that I might preach him among the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. I just wanted to point it out. Boys and girls, this statement of Paul's Paul said that it pleased God.
Who separated me from my mother's womb?
Now that was before he was even born. And I think what that is saying to us is that God had his eye on the apostle Paul even before he was born. And he said, I'm going to separate that man. I'm going to call him, I'm going to bring him into my family, and I'm going to use him as a servant.
Isn't that that nice? And if you know anything about the Apostle Paul, he wasn't always called the Apostle Paul.
He was called Saul of Tarsus, and you know what he did? He did awful things. He persecuted Christians. He blasphemed the name of of Christ. He persecuted Christians so much that he had to say of himself later.
He took the place as being the worst Sinner. He said I'm the chief of sinners, or he said of whom I am chief, referring to himself as an awful Sinner because he says I persecuted the Church of God. He felt that, and that was always a reminder to him of what he was by nature. But God, he could say God called him from the womb. What a wonderful thing. And boys and girls, I believe this morning that God has his eye on each one of you.
He not only wants you to be saved if you're not already saved. And I hope you have come to the Lord Jesus.
But he wants you to be of service to him now. We talked about families.
And things that we little jobs we have to do. Who would like to share us? Who? Who has a job to do in their family? It's your job, and you're expected to do it with a happy, cheerful smile.
00:15:11
OK.
What's your job?
OK, make your bed. All right. That's a good one. How many have to make their beds?
OK, I don't want to embarrass the parents. All right? Umm, let's see who else has jobs to do, OK?
I know.
Do you have a job that you have to do in your house?
What is it?
OK.
All right, I'm not sure what that job was. All right, who else?
You have a job.
OK, I I know you're a little shy, boys and girls, and that's OK, all right? You have a job you have to do.
Chores. What kind of chores?
Like sweeping floor. Sweeping the floor. OK, All right. Good. That's a good job. What job is yours? OK. She brushes her own teeth. That's nice. All right.
Mark Fours. Oh, OK, that's a good job. And one that's not so fun. Do you like to do that?
Good, good, good.
All right, Kevin.
Clean up. OK Umm, I think OK, we'll get get one more here. Take out the trash. OK, Take out the trash. Good. I have. I do that still. I was going to say the same thing. OK, well, you know what boys and girls, what's what's interesting to me is, is that most of you gave us some different job that you have. We didn't hear a lot of the same jobs. That's good because there's a lot of jobs to do in a household. Well, you know.
I was struck as we got to this conference here, that how many servants of the Lord there were that I have been.
Noticing and I'm going to just give you a little account here, We walked into this hotel, uh, let's see, this would have been Friday afternoon and there was a servant of the Lord there that met us. He was sitting at a table and he gave us some helpful information. And uh, I'm not going to say who these servants names are because I don't think they would want me to. Umm, but anyway, I asked this servant how long he had been there and he said he had been there since, I believe, if I remember right, he said he had been there since 8:30 in the morning.
So I thought wow, here it was. It was like 3 something in the afternoon and the servant had been there since 8:30. I thought wow isn't that nice? Umm OK so then we went to the the meeting room here in Shadow Hills for supper and there was a servant. This servant was a lady and she was very helpful and she told us where we might sit. Umm everything was done orderly and nicely and I thought wow.
That is nice. There was another servant there. He was an older servant of the Lord, and he was carrying chairs and setting them up and helping direct the removal of the tables to get ready for the meeting. There was a lot of service going on. There was a lot of servants that were back in the kitchen area working busily back there, preparing good food for us to eat after a long journey. It was wonderful to have.
All these servants helping us and then, umm, you know, we, we came to meeting yesterday and there was a servant that was making announcements very nicely. You know, they each had their job. There's another servant that was making this equipment work and, uh, work. Well, it's just wonderful. There were, the meetings began and there were servants that spoke up and, uh, shared with us something the Lord had laid on their heart.
You know, it was beautiful. You know, I thought of that. It's like we're a big family here and everything is, is working smoothly. Uh, each servant is doing their part. And I thought we could illustrate this very simply, children with a few tools that I bring along when we take a trip, I always throw a few tools in the car and uh, you know, they're all a little different. They all do different things and, uh, so I just brought them here.
I'll just, uh, lay them out a minute.
00:20:09
OK, I have an assortment of tools here. Now let me ask you this. What do you think would happen if I went up to this servant that is operating all this equipment? I said, you know, I think I could do a little better job. Just just let me do this.
Umm, and I'll tell you a little secret. I don't know anything about this equipment. So what do you think might happen if he's was a little bit shocked, but you know, he's, he's nice. So he kind of moved over and, and, uh, let me do that. What do you think might happen?
You might ruin the equipment. Probably. I probably would ruin the equipment and our ears too.
My support is making mess up what he's done. Yes, it would be a disaster It it would be like like this boys and girls. I have an old pair of glasses here and there's some little screws and Brock, I was wondering if maybe you could help me here. I'm going to just give these to you to hold and one of these screws is a little loose right there. You see them little tiny screws. So I'm going to give you a tool to fix that for me.
All right.
You think you could fix that with that tool I gave you?
Gonna have a hard time, aren't you? He's not gonna be able to fix tighten that little screw with this. So let me give him something else. Maybe he needs something smaller.
Is that going to work for you to tighten up for me? That little screw right there, can you tighten that up?
You're not gonna be able to do it with that tool, are you? Alright.
Maybe these will do it.
I think that'll work.
No, he still looks a little skeptical.
I think I could just keep handing him tools and it's not going to help. I need to give him the right tool. And I'm not going to really make you do this, but this is a little tiny screwdriver with a very, very small head on it. And it actually fits because I've used it before. And with this tool I can tighten that little screw in these glasses.
Something else right here, We'll get a girl to help us. Would you like to help us? I've got some wire here and let's say I need a little piece of that wire, so I'll give you a tool to.
To do that, we'll use this one again. Can you cut me off a little piece of wire with this? No, not going to work. OK.
How about these little vice grips?
I think you could do that with these.
Maybe after a long enough time if you twisted it back and forth, but you know, there's a tool here, boys and girls, that it's beautiful for that. It's got a little cutting knife in it and a little cutting area. So I'm going to let you, umm, I'll hold this. You just slip in, slip in there and just cut a little piece off clear in.
But just light it clear and OK, now do it. See, see how easy that was? She had the right tool and that little piece of wire just snipped right off. Well, my point is, boys and girls, is that we heard yesterday that God has given each one of us something to do. He's given us, each one of us something to do. And maybe it's a little hard to to understand what that is, but we found out from some of your answers that we don't have to be any age to be a servant of the Lord.
We can start right away. And I, I'm sure that that brother that said that he's given us each a job to do or each a work to do. I'm sure he was including you children too. Did you realize that you boys and girls, you know, not like I said, most of us here are being served at this conference by many servants. You know, we're sitting where my wife and I are sitting. There's a whole row of servants. And you know how I know that they're servants? Well, a little before the meeting ends.
They all get up and they leave.
And they file out and, you know, I know why they're going out. They're going out because they're getting ready to service. Isn't that nice? And you know, there's so many things that you boys and girls can do. We're going to just talk real briefly here. We're going to, I'm going to ask you to give me some examples in Scripture of those boys and girls that were servants. OK, I'm going to start out with one and I'll give you an idea.
OK, I'm thinking of a little girl that was a maid to a Great War captains wife and his name was Naaman. And this little girl, it says she waited on Naaman's wife so she was a servant. We don't know how old she was, it doesn't tell us what was her name.
00:25:18
Oh, oh, what was her name?
I see some puzzled looks. This is kind of a tricky question.
What was her name?
Well, OK.
Kevin.
Did we know the name?
Do we know the name? Good question. We did not. We're not told. OK, who can think of some others? And, and there's a reason I want to mention that we're not told what that little girl's name was. OK, Who else can think of somebody in Scripture? I'm I'm thinking primarily of, of young servants because we're talking to children. This is children's meeting and we're talking to children. And I want to get from Scripture a few other examples of servants. We have this little girl.
Now we need another one.
Samuel. Oh good. OK, he he mentioned one that I'm going to mention Samuel. We're going to talk a little bit about him in a minute, but I'm thinking of few others. Let's see if we can get some more. Think hard. The little boy who gave Jesus lunch. Very good. And what was his name? The little boy that gave his lunch.
5 loaves and two fishes.
What was his name?
Aha, OK, very good. I'm glad that your kids know these answers. Again, another one little servant, but it's we're not told his name.
He was, he was just a little lad that one of the disciples named Andrew had found. He had a little lunch and apparently he was willing to share it because the Lord took that little lunch and he multiplied that food to feed about probably about seven times the number in this room.
5000 people, Just imagine. OK, who can think of another example in scripture of a servant? We're talking about serving the Lord, God's family.
Baby Moses, OK, that's a good one. Baby Moses. He served in the courts of Pharaoh, didn't he, for a good part of his life. I'm thinking of another one, and I'll give you a hint.
This boy had an uncle who we know as the Apostle Paul.
Who can tell me just a little something about the story so I know you know what I'm thinking about?
He overheard the 40 men making the plot to kill Paul.
That's right. OK, let me ask, what was his name?
What was that little boy's name?
That heard that plot to kill the apostle Paul I don't know if it says his name you're right we don't know OK that was 3 examples of a girl and two boys young boys he's called a lad so he was pretty young they were servants of the Lord but we don't know what their names are now I just want to make this point boys and girls that when we're given these accounts in scripture about.
People like this, these little boys, these little girls that serve the Lord and we're not given their names. I think the Spirit of God has a reason for doing that.
And I would just like to suggest this very simple thought that.
I think the Spirit of God would like it if you and I would put our names in there. OK, now maybe we're not going to be called to do the exact same thing, but what I mean is we too can be a servant and we too have a job that we can do. But remember, remember, we need to be content with what the Lord gives us to do. I'm going to tell you a story.
About that a little later. But just like, you know, these tools, these tools are very useful, but they're only useful for certain things, OK. And you and I, the Lord has fitted us for a purpose. He fitted the Apostle Paul for a purpose. He fitted that little boy with his lunch for a specific time in that little boy's life when he was going to need that lunch. He fitted that little girl that was captive. She was captured, kidnapped, you might say, and taken to the land of Syria, a foreign country.
And the Lord was watching over her, and he used that little girl for blessing in the land of Syria. Well, he wants to use you and I. The question is, are we willing? Are we willing to be used for the Lord? You know, there's a verse in Second Timothy, chapter 2 That talks about being a vessel. And a vessel is something that can be very useful.
00:30:18
And Paul says to Timothy that if he would purge himself from those things that were dishonouring to the Lord.
He says in verse 21, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified a need for the master's use and prepared unto every good work. Boys and girls, the Lord has something for you to do He's he's going to fit you for that. And he wants us to be content. And when we're all working together in this family, you know, this is a big family here in this conference and we have lots of needs and I've seen many servants here working Hardy.
Heartily and and diligently. And that is so wonderful to see that they want us to be comfortable, they want us to be happy and they want us to be cared for. And I think it's beautiful when we see that blending together. That's how it should be. It should be that way in our homes. It should be that way in the assembly. It should be that way in our lives, shouldn't it? These little vessels. Now let's look real briefly because we're running out of time.
At Samuel. So if you do have a Bible and you want to follow along, I'm just going to touch on a couple of things very briefly.
We're told in First Samuel chapter one.
That Umm Hannah is speaking to Eli and she says in verse 27 for this child I prayed and the Lord hath given me my petition which I have asked of him. Therefore have I also lent him to the Lord. As long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord. And he worshipped the Lord there. Well, I I think of Samuel here. It says he worship the Lord. He was just a young boy, but still you know he worshiped and I think that's a beautiful.
Umm, little touch that we learn of him is the beginning, you might say, of his career that he worshipped the Lord, the beginning of his service, service for the Lord. And then it says in verse 11 of the next chapter, umm, the middle part of the verse. And the child Speaking of Samuel did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest. And so now we see him ministering to the Lord. He's progressing. See, that's what happens, boys and girls.
If we're faithful in what the Lord gives us to do, it might be a very menial thing. The Lord might entrust more to us, not that we seek that, but that's what happens often is the Lord entrusts more to us. And then we have, umm, a little later in the same chapter in verse 18 that it says Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child girded with a linen ephod there. It doesn't say that he ministered before Eli, but before the Lord.
So he's progressing, isn't he in his soul? And the Lord is using him, preparing him to be used as a vessel. And then, umm, a little bit later in that chapter, in verse, uh, 21, at the end of the chapter, I mean at the end of the verse, it says in this child, Samuel grew before the Lord. He grew before the Lord. And then we have that beautiful verse that I passed over in verse 19. His mother made him a little coat and brought it to him from year to year.
Doesn't that touch our hearts? Hear this little child not only grew in a spiritual way, but he was also growing naturally. We like to see our children grow, don't we? And so he would outgrow his coat, and his mother would bring him a new coat from year to year. And then in verse 26 it says the child Samuel grew on and was in favor both with the Lord and also with men. And we could read further if we were good to go on.
Umm to like the the 19th verse of the third chapter, it says again that and Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and did let none of his words fall to the ground. Umm then the word of the Lord in chapter 4 verse one of Samuel and the word of Samuel came to all Israel or should uh read and what Samuel said happened to Israel. So the Lord used this man and then we know as he got older and older, he became a mighty prophet.
But he started out worshipping the Lord and ministering to the Lord, and you know, boys and girls.
When you do something for your parents or you just do a kind little act, maybe even at this conference, you can do a kind little act. You can do it for the Lord, and the Lord appreciates that. It's service to him. Well, I told you, I was going to tell you a story real quickly about a man that wasn't so faithful and it cost him a job that he really wanted. There was a president by the name of William McKinley, one of our presidents of the United States.
00:35:19
And he was seeking to put somebody in a very high up position as being an ambassador in a foreign country. To represent him and to represent the United States was a very important job. And President McKinley knew that it would take somebody with a very, very gifted ability to fulfill this ambassadorship. So he had all these people that wanted that job, and he kind of narrowed it all down to two men.
And he could not decide which one of those two men to choose. They both were well qualified. And he just didn't know. So then as he was pondering this dilemma, he remembered something that had happened a number of years before, when he was riding on a Street car. And he was still he was a congressman. He wasn't the president at that time. And the bus had gotten very full. And he took the last seat. And at the next stop, an elderly lady got on and she had a heavy basket full of clothes.
And she was jostling around, trying to keep her balance as the streetcar moved on. And she walked up and down, and no one offered her a seat. And he noticed, he remembered in particular, that she stopped at this one spot in the aisle right next to a man that was a fellow congressman that he worked with. And he said he knew that the man had seen her with her heavy basket. And he had a newspaper in his hand. And he kind of pulled it up so it looked like.
He didn't see the woman. Well, Mr. McKinley himself got up and offered, took her basket of clothes and gave her his seat. And he remembered that story. And one of those men that he was deciding to choose was the man that did not get up and give his seat to that woman. And so he chose the other man. So that man wasn't faithful and that which is least. And so he lost that opportunity to serve his president. Well, that's a feeble story, but.
Anyway, boys and girls, my point is, may we each have some little thing, Just do what we do heartily as unto the Lord and the Lord.
Appreciates that and values that. Well, let's just close with I just borrowed a book from the BTP stand. It's a pretty well known little song to us and it goes along with what we're saying here. We'll just sing.
The first 2 verses. The first verse goes like this.
Umm, in the house and out of doors, scrubbing pots and sweeping floors.
Washing, ironing, mending to, these are things that I can do. And then the next verse in the house and out of doors, chopping wood and doing chores, pounding nails or driving screws. These are things that I can do. I'll do it all for Jesus as the course. So let's just sing those first two stanzas of that little hymn.
Open Mtg. 8
Open—S. Hallowell, J. Hyland, S. Bambauer
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I'm not very used to being up here and I won't take very long because there's a lot of brothers here that are a lot more gifted than I am.
But what I had on my heart is I look around at this.
There's a lot of people here.
And uh.
Been a happy time and I've been thankful for it.
But I can't help but as I look around I.
I still see that there's sometimes lonely people even in the middle of a crowd.
In fact, there's probably nothing more. Uh.
Difficult than to be lonely in the middle of a crowd of people that you've known.
And yet it happens.
And I don't. I trust it's not happening to too many people.
But I'd like to just say just a few words to give you God's encouragement that he.
No, this is and he cares.
The first verse I'd like to read is one we all know and uh.
It's in Hebrews chapter 13.
Maybe my mind is OK. Here we are, Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 5.
Just the last part of the verse.
Be content of such things as you have, for he hath said.
I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
You know.
That is just the most awesome promise that I have ever seen.
Think of how many.
Friendships.
Come and go.
Sometimes our circumstances are good and sometimes not, but here is a promise from.
Uh, the Lord Himself.
Says I'll never leave you or forsake you.
I'd just like to look at just a couple of passages to in the the Old Testament, umm, just so that we can see what kind of a God we really have.
I'm thinking of the book of Ezra.
Just a passage that we don't usually read too much. Sometimes we even skip over it as we read through our bibles.
I'd just like to read just a few verses in Ezra chapter 2.
I could read another section of this chapter, it wouldn't be any different.
Maybe we could start from verse 26.
The Children of Rhema and GABA, 620, and one the Men of McMaster, 122.
The men of Bethel and AI 220 and three.
The children of Nebo, 50 and two, and I could go on. There's a lot of people here.
Why did God put that in the Bible?
I like to think it's because he wanted to for us to notice.
You know he could have put.
You know, there was about about 120 or about 50.
But he didn't do that.
He counted. I'm sure the children of Israel did too, but but he made sure that each and every person.
00:05:05
Was listed and numbered. They all mattered to him. Every single one of them.
And he has these passages throughout his word. In fact, you'll find that most of the names in the Bible there, you find them in lists that, once again, we often skip over them.
We don't notice them. They aren't important to us because we don't know anything about the people that we read their names. But God thought they were important enough to put them down in His Word and record them for us to read because He cared about those people, just like He cared about the ones who did great things.
Yeah, one more passage.
Numbers, Chapter 7.
And you have in this chapter.
The offerings of the the Princess of Israel.
And uh.
They brought a lot of different things.
I'll just read one of them, but they were all identical and they're all listed too.
Uh, we might get a little tired of reading them.
Umm.
Chapters #7 Verse 12. And he that offered his offering the first day was Nashon the son of Amitabh of the tribe of Judah. And his offering was 1. Silver charger. The weight thereof was 100.
And 30 she goes 1 silver bowl of 70 shekels after the shekel of the sanctuary. Both of them were full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat offering. One spoon of 10 shekels of gold full of incense. One young Bullock, 1 ram, 1 lamb of the first year for a burnt offering. One kit of the goats for a sin offering and for a sacrifice of peace offerings to oxen. 5 Rams, five he goats.
Five lambs of the first year. This was the offering of the son of well, you know, if you were to read down over the next 12 Princess, they're all exactly the same.
There wasn't anything special.
Or different about their offering than the one that anybody else brought. And yet God took notice of each and everyone. And I think as we.
As we sing hymns together, as we pray together, as we meditate together of the Lord Jesus Christ and His glory.
Why? You know, you might not be offering anything different than anybody else is.
Fact, the Spirit of God tends to focus our thoughts together, but you know, God values each and every individual's contribution to the glory of the Lord Jesus. Well, I won't take any more time but.
But I would like to look at a portion of Scripture this afternoon that I had hoped to cap our remarks with yesterday on the subject of happiness. And we ran out of time. So perhaps with the Lord's help, we'll just turn to a few for a few moments, to a portion in John's Gospel, chapter 17.
I'm sorry, John's Gospel, Chapter 13.
And verse 17.
John's Gospel chapter 13 and verse 17.
If ye know these things, happier ye, if ye do them well. We have taken up in these meetings at some length the subject of happiness, and we applied it in the Scriptures we looked at yesterday afternoon particularly in connection with individual happiness and those things that go into the equation as to constituting our happiness, our joy in the Lord.
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But I believe here we have something that is not so much individual.
Although it does begin with the individual, but this is more the collective side of things.
Sometimes when we quote this verse, if you know these things, happier ye if ye do them, we quote it in a broad sense in connection with obedience to the Word of God, and certainly it has its application. But if we notice the context here, we find that this exhortation is really in connection with something very definite and specific. If we were to back up in this chapter to the beginning of what we have referred to in these meetings as the upper Room ministry.
We would find that the Lord Jesus has just given the disciples the illustration of feet washing. He has himself gird himself with a towel, taking a basin of water and washed the disciples feet.
But you know, I believe that the Lord Jesus was bringing before them, and for our learning too.
A far greater truth than the fact that we need to wash one another's feet, literally.
I say that because he tells them what I do now, What I do you know not now, but ye shall know hereafter.
That is, they knew that he was literally washing their feet. But what he's saying is.
You won't understand the real spiritual meaning of what I am doing.
Until later on after the Spirit of God is come and I suggest that what we have in the illustration of feet washing.
Is the refreshment that comes from the practical application.
Of God's word in our lives and I just want to encourage our hearts.
Have we opened this book today, individually first of all, and let it have its cleansing effect?
It's the washing of water by the word that we speak so often about, and we need that. We operate in a world of defilement. We operate in a world where there are so many things to dull our chill, our affections, and to dull our sense of what is really holy and what is acceptable to Him. And as an elderly brother who is now with the Lord used to tell us at home many times when I was growing up.
He said when he came home from the office, he always felt like he needed a good wash and he wasn't talking about soap and water. He was talking about the washing of water by the word. And so we need to open this book and hear the Lord Jesus speak to us and to let it have I say it's cleansing effect. But after the Lord Jesus gave them this illustration, he then told them that they were to wash one another's feet.
He said I've washed your feet, now you need to wash one another's feet.
And this is what is particularly on my heart. We need, brethren, to seek to first of all, let the Lord Jesus wash our feet through the cleansing effect of the Word of God in our lives personally. And then we need to wash one another's feet. We need to seek to encourage one another in the Lord. It isn't always admonishment or correction. It might be admonishment. It might be correction that's needed.
But I say again, it's the refreshment that comes from the practical application.
Of sharing God's Word with one another. And that's what we need, don't we?
There's so much to discourage today. There's so many burdens. No doubt there are brethren here whose hearts are burdened.
You're concerned as you think of going back to your assembly and personal problems, problems in the workplace, difficulties in the family circle, maybe situations in the local assembly. And I'm not saying there aren't times when those things need to be taken up and discussed for the Lord's glory and warnings given and so on. But brethren, it's so easy to simply feed on those things what we really need to do.
Is to share the precious things of Christ together, to seek to refresh and encourage one another.
There's so much to discourage. We don't have to look for things to discourage today. There's plenty to discourage on every hand.
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What we need to do is first of all, let the Word of God have its effect in our lives. Be encouraged and refreshed in our own souls so that we can encourage and refresh one another. Why is it so often we get together? And brethren, I can only speak to my own heart. If I have to point the finger this afternoon, I have to point it at myself and leave it pointed there. I'm guilty of these things in my own life and in my interaction with my fellow believer.
But, brethren, why is it so often we get together and we might have a nice time?
There might be some activity. I'm not saying a nice time and activity isn't good. I appreciate activity and a nice time with the people of God. But we come away and we say, you know, we really didn't share much of Christ. It wasn't really much to refresh or encourage. Why is that? Well, I suggest that at least part of the reason is we haven't had the washing of water in our own lives. We haven't taken the time to let Him wash our feet.
I can only wash another's feet. I can only share Christ. I can only refresh my brother or my sister in the measure in which I have been refreshed in my own soul. If I haven't opened this book and enjoyed something of the person and work of Christ, I cannot share something of the person and work of Christ in a way that's going to refresh and have the desired effect and encourage.
If I haven't had it in my own soul. And that's really what the Lord Jesus was telling the disciples here.
I've washed your feet, Now you wash one another's feet. Have you shared something of Christ today with your brother or sister?
As we fellowship between meetings and let me just say this too, brethren, sometimes we speak about fellowship, but you know sometimes we confuse fellowship and activity. Again, activity is good, but fellowship is really our personal enjoyment of Christ in our souls. And then to share that with one another. You know in first John, we have the fact that we have been brought into a wonderful circle of fellowship.
It's absolute there we have been brought into fellowship with the Father, with the Son, and as a result with one another. But in John 13, in the truth of feet washing, we have the way that that fellowship can be practically maintained personally in our own souls and with one another. And as we felt we inter interrupted today and yesterday. Did we share something of Christ? Was there more than just chit chat? Oh, it's nice to share chit chat and family things and circumstances and those things, The natural things are good in their place. I'm not.
Here to condemn that at all. But interspersed amongst that, was there something of Christ As we sat and ate together, did we share something that we've enjoyed from the Scriptures, something perhaps that we enjoyed in these meetings that refreshed our own soul and washed our feet for the path of faith and service? That's what he's saying here. And he concludes this all.
By saying, If ye know these things, happier ye if ye do them. If ye know these things, not just if you know these things, you'll be happy, but if you do them. In other words, he says to the disciples, I've given you away now so that fellowship can be maintained with myself in my absence, and so that you can share and refresh one another in the path of faith. Do you want to be a happy group of believers in my absence?
If ye know these things, happier ye if ye do them. Brethren, why is it so often we're together?
We come together for assembly meetings and for other activities. We don't always seem happy, do we? Sometimes there's a lot of things that burden us and get us down and we just, there just isn't that happiness, that joy radiating that there should be. I don't mean that we're frivolous and foolish, but it just doesn't seem to be that happiness. Brethren, it's because we haven't followed the pattern, the formula that the Lord Jesus lay down here. I say again.
What he's really saying is, do you want to be a happy group of Christians?
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Do you want, when you get together, to be a group that is characterized by joy?
If ye know these things, if ye know these things, happier ye.
But he doesn't stop there either. If ye do them.
Brethren, my burden is that we would seek by the grace of God.
To open this book every day and have our feet washed and that then we would be exercised to take what we have enjoyed and what has refreshed our spirits and share it as we have opportunity with one another.
That we might indeed be a happy group of Christians.
Until the Lord Jesus comes.
Lots that have been energized from the last few that have spoken on the condition or situation of happiness. And maybe we could read from the 144th Psalm. Just a few verses there. 144th Psalm. I'll start at verse 4.
Man is like to vanity. His days are as a shadow that passeth away. I think Macbeth borrowed that phrase right there. Uh, Shakespeare borrowed that phrase for Macbeth. He often did borrow from scripture, you know, And, uh, his writings are very poignant. Though he was not a, what you'd call a godly man. Uh, his uses of script, of scripture still were poignant. Thou thy heavens, O Lord, and come down touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. Cast forth lightning.
And scatter them, shoot out thine arrows and destroy them. This is our condition. Born into this world, lost and on our way to hell. Independence in submission to God. And then in this matchless grace, he picks us up and takes us to himself.
Then we have instruction.
On read verse 8, Whose mouth speaketh? Vanity in the right hand is the right hand of falsehood. That's what characterizes the opinions and philosophies of this world today. We know.
Every time we pick up a book or read or hear a commentary, it's all based upon man's own thoughts about things and his interpretation of these things. Now we have in our hand here something far higher than that. And this gives us the perspective of what life is about and its purpose and its destiny. And this is our manual and this is what we go by. And we have no other hope or instruction than this. So it behooves us then. And the rest of this, these thoughts are to the younger folks.
To take up this this word and read it for our instruction and make it our own.
I remember a comment by AC Brown, I believe it wasn't. It was well over 30 years ago, he said.
There's only one thing worse than declension, and that's not knowing about it.
As being ignorant of it.
That kind of stuck and I brought it back up a few years later in conversation with another brother. I don't remember who it was, and I passed it on to him and he mused a bit and he said, yeah, I think there's something worse than that.
One thing worse than declension and not knowing about it, he says. The thing worse than that is declension and knowing about it.
And not caring. Not caring.
Well, we had a a list of things this morning. I jotted them down, John drew them out of the children, and some of the things that we get from the mouth of a child is worth remembering.
Some tasks.
That, uh, they had around home and I think that we can apply some of these tests to our own lives personally. Brush your teeth to brush my teeth, How often do I need to brush my teeth? Once a week. How would that do? I might ask my wife, how would that do? She'd probably say not very well. Might ask those people I sit next to, not very well.
It it's it's known in science that.
A a situation that is a closed system.
Tends to entropy a few big words.
Our solar system is a open system because it gets its energy from the sun.
The individual without Christ is kind of a closed system, and it tends to entropy. That means a breakdown.
A disintegration, a ruination, a declension, a decline.
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And we need the Lord, each one of us.
To, uh, be maintained.
And the 144th song is sort of like that. He starts with the hand of strange children, and David isn't interested in that kind of companionship. He finds it tedious. It wears him out.
I will sing a new song unto thee, O God.
Sweep the floor.
How often do you have to sweep the floor and mop the floor? That was another one.
Our surroundings around us and sometimes we have to pick up things that we drop there. And we learn these habits as children and we apply them in spirituals as we grow older, I hope. And perhaps the young people here can do the same and make these applications as we think about some of those things that were chores that the parents obligated the children to do. And in the same sense we are obligated from the Lord Himself as He exercises our conscience.
To maintain good spiritual health. To brush our teeth. That our breath is not obnoxious to our neighbors. Be careful of what we say and how we say it. Little children, five years old, six years old, they trot off to school and they perhaps well, very well hear words they never heard at home.
And sometimes we have to brush our teeth and not take up that kind of language and adopt it as a habit. Habits are easily formed, and we can adapt to good habits or bad habits. And we need to walk circumspectly. And so I thought that these little tasks that were mentioned this morning have an application. Take out the trash. Well, Nehemiah, you know, came back.
And he found, uh, the city in uh.
In declension it was in ruin and he was exercised about that and went about to repair. One of the gates that he repaired was the down gate.
Some things have to be taken out, you know, we'll take out the trash. Paul applied it in in Philippians. I think it's chapter two or three. There were certain things that.
Were part of his life that he had to judge in the presence of the Lord.
And count them as done and get rid of them. So sometimes there's trash that has to be taken out.
But rather than list certain things and be legal about it, these are the things that should sink down into our hearts and conscience and exercise each one of us that love the Lord and are loved of the Lord, that we don't displease Him. The end of this chapter is about happiness, and it reminded me of the chapter again when Jim just spoke.
Nobody likes to be grieved. Everybody likes to be happy. It's certainly a lot better feeling happiness is than grief. And uh, circumstances of course may come in, but there is a certain amount of control we have over our own lives. And it is certainly related to some of these little chores that were mentioned and are so practical. Take out the trash. There is needs to be for a dungate in our life to judge in the presence of the Lord.
What doesn't belong?
And if I leave it at that, that will reach the conscience for each one, rather than name a few things and then the rest of us escape.
Make the bed. That's another daily occupation.
Because we would like to use it again that evening and it is a matter of discipline again to do these things.
I said sweep the floor and mop the floor and that is our surroundings that as best we can control.
The last one is wash the dishes.
I, uh, remember when I was probably about nine or ten years old, I went to a camp that my mother was a cook at.
And, uh, the most of the kids were older and.
We sat down at the mess hall and the food was served.
And they had this tin plate with compartments and.
After we ate lunch, all of these young folks, I think it was a 4H campus, I don't remember, they were obligated to take up their utensils and their plates and go over to the wash basin and wash their own plates and then bring it back and set it in the place where they normally sit. And they would turn the plate upside down to keep the dust and critters from getting up there. Crawling around on the plate would keep it clean.
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I was about eight or nine. These kids were fifteen teenagers or something. I, I despised watching that plate over there. Didn't want to do that. So all I did one day, I said I've got it. I know what I'll do. I'll just take my plate after eight. I'll tip it upside down. Nobody will notice. Nobody noticed either until the next meal. And so I sat down. I knew exactly what my plate looked like underneath. Everybody was flipping their plate. So over older kids.
I really didn't want to flip that plate over. I did, and a kid next to me looked at it right away and there I was, exposed.
And I took a certain amount of ribbing for that. It was embarrassing. And I did have to get up and wash that plate. Nevertheless, it would have been better to do it right away. Things don't stick as hard. Takes a little less scrubbing, a little soap. It's easier to judge something at the outset than if we let it set for a day or so, or several hours and let it set up. It's good to keep short accounts, isn't it? Wash the plates. I will sing a new song unto thee. Now, all of these other things were for maintenance that are.
Our Christian lives don't entropy. They don't decay. They don't they don't deteriorate. We need these things and he gives us precepts. That's why he gives us precepts. It's for our own good things that we need to do. And we're singers. We're creatures of wonder. That's why we sang.
With sons hymns here, different ones, they have different words, they have different meanings.
They have different tunes. We have become acquainted with them, we enjoy them.
One may be called out.
Because it is in the bosom and it has been enjoyed and it fits the situation. We are singing creatures. That's because God has created us as creatures of wonder. And this new song, I don't think that it's new because it's novel.
I can't think of him that we have sung in these last two days that I haven't sung before at one time or another.
That doesn't mean it's not new. It may mean that it's not novel, but new and that it is fresh.
These things are fresh when we have them before us in the presence of the Lord.
Splinter salt three in an instrument of 10 strings, I will sing praises unto thee.
We're kind of like an instrument of 10 strings, different parts to our lives aspects.
A piano tuner, he sits down, he's got all these strings and he has to deal with them, and he has an absolute objective standard outside of himself and outside of the piano. And he hits that thing and it goes Ding. And then he plays that note and it's supposed to correspond. And if it doesn't, then he gets out his little wrench and he twists things around until he gets that just exactly the way it should be. An instrument of 10 strings sounds melodious when it's in tune, and otherwise no. So if we're reading the scriptures.
And we're up to these tasks that even the children begin to learn in their youth and that we should apply to ourselves as we continue to grow.
Our very lives themselves will be that melodious tune is unto the Lord and a testimony to others around us. It won't be discordant.
It is he that giveth salvation unto kings, who delivereth David as servant from the hurtful sword.
He watches over us, rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, and whose mouth speak at vanity. And the right hand is the right hand of falsehood. Apparently some of these were even close to David, among the Israelites perhaps.
And they were a.
And we see those that don't seem to have too much interest in the things of the Lord, but they come sometimes, but they're in a hurry.
To be feeding on something else.
And we say, well, what can we do?
Oh, that our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth. That our daughters may be as cornerstones polished after the similitude of a palace.
This is what we want.
For our children, this is what we want. For the young people, when they're at the crossroads and they're trying to decide which way they're gonna go and the direction they take at that point may lead them to a lifetime of departure in declension. Sometimes it's hard to get back. We're always thankful for a recovery, but if we don't depart, there won't be need for a recovery. And if we apply these little chores?
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Hygiene and so on and spirituals will be kept. The Lord will keep us, and we do this so that we will maintain that fellowship, that nearness with the Lord.
And we're always interested in.
Purpose why we're here.
And there are reasons why we're here.
And we may not start out that way. When we come out of the womb, we're born with that old nature and we need to be saved. Better to do that when you're young and cultivate self-discipline.
That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth start with the youth. That our daughters may be as cornerstones, polished after the similitude of a palace.
People go down a road and they spit on the sidewalk.
But ah, Palace, San Simeon. I've been there. It's been a long time ago. Beautiful polished stones, The castle down there in Southern California.
That Hurst built guides there to guide through. Stay on the path, not Trump on things that would destroy things.
Discipline.
I didn't notice anybody spitting on things there.
A daughter.
Polished after the similitude of a palace. Well, I know that we live in a world where very little anymore is sacred.
But that same.
Feature character of the young sisters will preserve them from an awful lot of things.
Just to put it in kind of a.
Base way I remember one of my daughters saying of such and such a one at her high school. She says she dresses to fetch. And the young fellows know that they know what that means. And the young sisters, they know what that means. Not polished after the similitude of a palace.
That our garners may be full, full soul, affording all manner of store for others to share these things one with another. That our sheep may bring forth thousands and 10 thousands in our streets. It's it's this is, this is productive. This is growth.
Federal oxen may be strong to labor that there be no breaking in nor going out.
And there are two things we have to watch for. Things that break in and people that break in. Used to have a little grocery store out in the country. Every once in a while I go back to work in the morning and the window would be broken. I'd walk in and things are missing. And it kind of gives you a sinking feeling.
It may have happened to you at your house, something like that.
And we're always sorry when that happens.
And that when things uninvited break into our lives because of lack of watchfulness, we need to be kept. We need to be careful that there be no complaining in our streets. Sometimes we hear people complain about this or that. This brother, that brother needs to be more activity. I think I'll go look for something else. No complaining in our streets if the Lord is not enough for us in being gathered to His precious name. And I didn't grow up in that environment.
I've been very thankful.
To be able to.
Get these things.
In the presence of the Lord and the ministry.
From my mid 20s on.
No complaining. Happy as that, people. Hmm.
Happy as that people, that is in such a case, and the psalmist is overwhelmed with this. He wants to say it twice.
Gospel 9
Gospel—R. Thonney
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First Peter chapter one.
And.
Verse 18.
For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things.
As silver and gold from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your Father's, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish.
And without spot.
Redemption. It's what I'd like to speak about tonight. God's provision.
For man in his need.
You know, we live in a world where.
There are serious realities that man likes to avoid facing.
Sin, death, and judgment are things that you cannot avoid.
Sin is in this world, and you and I have been born into sin.
We have a sin nature. It's a disease that runs in our veins.
And you and I are guilty of sin against God. You may try to say, well, I don't sin that much. I'm not that bad of a person. It may be that that is so. But still, every single sin that you have committed must be accounted for according to God's holy character.
And you will give an account to him. You must face the question of your sins.
There's another verse in Scripture that says.
The wages of sin is death, yes.
You sin, there's wages that you're going to get for your sin. There is no way to avoid those wages. With few exceptions, every single person that has ever been born into this world has ended up dying. Doesn't matter how long they may have lived, and some lived a long time before the flood. They lived up to 969 years.
And they died. That's another.
Thing that you must face the question of death. It's a reality.
In the world we live in, nobody knows when that time will come, when death will tap you on the shoulder and say, let's go, and there's no way to stop it. When he comes, that's it, You're going, you know?
Last month I was down to the South of Santiago, Chile.
And to the South of that city there is an.
Lady who is quite distinguished in her accomplishments.
Is the.
X uh, mother-in-law of Sister Paulina Cataldo, who was at the conference in Tijuana. Some of you met her there.
She wanted to take me to see this woman. She is 95 years old. She is an atheist.
She used to be.
Uh, in the United Nations working with Kofi Annan and worked quite extensively in the country of Mozambique.
She is married to a man who was a minister of government in that country.
But she is getting down to the end of her life and she told our sister Paulina.
I don't want to die and I know it may happen at any time and I'm scared.
So she wanted to take take me so we could give her the gospel. We didn't get an opportunity to, but I have given her the gospel before and Paulina has left books there for her to read. Don't know if she's read them, but I would ask you who are believers to pray for this woman.
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Senora Teguada is her name and.
The fact that the Lord has put into the heart of dear sister.
Paulina.
To give her the gospel so that she can be saved even though she was badly treated by this woman's son. That I really believe the Lord wants to bring her to himself, but she does not want to face the reality of death. You know, it is a reality in this world.
And nobody knows when that moment will come.
So you need to be ready. Another reality that you must face. There is no way of avoiding it. Scripture says after death, the judgment. In other words, there is an accounting that you will have to do for your sins.
We speak quite often in a youth village, kids that are.
Detained by the law from anywhere from 12 to 17 years old.
Many of them have considered suicide.
And I say, please think about it before you do something so extreme, because the moment you die, the moment you kill yourself, you're going to go straight to God to give an account. Just think about that before you do it.
Oh, how solemn these things are. Sin, death, and judgment. There is no way to avoid those things. But God has a remedy, and the remedy is in His own beloved Son. Last night we heard that verse.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
But have everlasting life. Oh, God is a God of love.
But at the same time, he is a God of light, and a God of love is not going to allow sin to go on forever.
He's going to put a stop to it. It would not be a God of love if he led sin take its course without any control. No, He's going to step in. And this world is getting so bad on so many fronts that the time is getting close. We really believe that God is going to directly interfere in the affairs of men, and the Lord Jesus is going to come back to set this world.
In order, but the Lord Jesus came already once and I want to talk.
About this redemption that is in Christ Jesus, you know it tells us in Ephesians chapter.
One in verse 7. Let's read that verse just so you can see it in Scripture.
Want you to listen carefully as we read it. Ephesians chapter one and verse 7.
It says in whom? Speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. Look at one more verse in Romans chapter 3.
And verse 24 where we have that word.
Used again Romans 324 being.
Justified freely by His grace through.
The redemption that is in Christ Jesus. There it is.
In Ephesians 17 it says we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.
According to the riches of his grace here it says.
We are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Redemption is the basis of all blessing, and if you're going to have blessing, if you're going to be delivered from the judgment of God, that will fall on this world.
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Then it has to have a righteous basis, and that righteous basis that God has provided is.
Redemption, it does say in another scripture, without the shedding of blood is no remission. That word remission means forgiveness of sins. If you're going to be forgiven your sins, you're going to have any hope of heaven. Necessarily that has to be on the grounds of blood that is shed by a sacrifice that God accepts. It cannot be just.
Any type of blood, but this is where we want to speak of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God's beloved Son who came into this world. God gave him.
And it is a tremendous marvel to think that God has come into this creation in the person of His own beloved Son. He was born into this world just like you and I are born with one difference. He was completely sinless when the Angel announced to the Virgin Mary that she was to be the mother of the one that is called the Son of God.
The Angel said, That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called.
The Son of God, he was holy at his birth. You and I are sinners at our birth. That's the difference between him and us, the only difference. Otherwise He was in all points like we are tempted, but without sin. So the Lord Jesus lived in this world. He grew up. He spent most of his years, we take it, in a carpenter's shop.
What was that Carpenter doing in that shop for those years? I suppose making useful things.
Was that the purpose of his coming into this world? No.
But that's what he occupied until he was approximately 30 years of old.
30 years old and then he went one day to the Jordan River.
Where John the Baptist was preaching the baptism of repentance.
Because there can be no salvation, there can be no blessing in your life without repentance.
And this is something I think is so important for us to understand. You know, I was raised in the meeting like most of you young people were raised.
And I kinda have the idea.
In myself that, you know, I wasn't quite as bad as those people out there, those people down on Skid Row, those people in the prison, no, I wasn't quite as bad. You know what, I had to repent. God says there is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
You can take the worst criminal out of the prison system here in Southern California and set them right beside me and I have to say.
On the grounds of the word of God, there is no difference. Oh yes, all those bad things came out of that person.
Maybe they didn't come out of Maine, but they're in there. There is no difference.
And I think it is so important that you know that you must.
Repent.
Repentance. So the Lord Jesus went to the baptism of John. Did the Lord Jesus have to repent of anything?
No, he was the sinless. Spotless.
Holy Son of God.
And John didn't want to.
Baptize him, John said. I have need to be baptized of thee.
And cometh thou to me. But Jesus said, suffer it to be so.
For so it becomes us to fulfill our righteousness.
And John baptized him, and in that way Jesus identified.
With those people that were repentant, he did not identify with those religious people.
That were unrepentant, but as he did, as he came out of the water, the O heavens opened.
And a voice out of heaven said, This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.
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And the Spirit of God descended on him as a dove, and he began.
His public ministry. He was anointed with power by the Spirit of God, and he went out into his public ministry in this world, healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, raising the dead and feeding the hungry, preaching the word of God.
Oh, everywhere he went, he was a blessing to souls, but he had come to redeem.
And it was going to take more than a life of doing good.
To redeem your soul and mind. It was going to take blood.
And so the Lord Jesus at the end of those 3 1/2 years.
The public ministry.
Was arrested by those religious Jewish leaders and taken to Pilate, the Roman governor of that day. And even though Pilate recognized there was no fault in this man, he had him tied up and he had him scourged with the Roman scourge, and then he delivered him to the soldiers.
And they gathered the whole band of soldiers, and those soldiers were noted for their cruelty.
And they put a crown of thorns on his head.
When I lived in Bolivia, I got acquainted with thorns.
They were a problem for me when I was traveling around of my Jeep.
One time somebody who didn't like me put thorns in the road where they knew I was coming along. The next morning, all four of my tires were flat on the ground.
That's the kind of thorns. They're long, 3 inch thorns and they are tough as nails. They put those on the head of my Savior and they took sticks and they whacked him over the head.
They hit him in the face, they spit on him, and then, after all the mockery they did to him, they led him out of the city of Jerusalem.
To the hill of Golgotha, the place where man's head is empty.
What were they thinking? This is the Christ of God. This is the Son of God. This is the creator of the universe.
That they're taking out there. What were they thinking? Man's head was empty. That's the place where they planted.
The foot of the cross and they nailed those hands that had brought such blessing.
To a cross, and they hung him between heaven and earth.
And there he hung from 9:00 in the morning.
Till 12 noon, they passed in front of him to mock him. Not only did he suffer terribly.
From those nails through his hands and feet, I can't imagine what that must have meant.
But.
The reproach broke his heart.
They said he said he was the Son of God. Let God deliver him if you will have him.
For he said, I am the Son of God.
Did God deliver him?
No.
Didn't God love him?
Yes. Why didn't he do anything? You know why?
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
So there he hung.
And that 12 noon everything got dark.
And if it weren't for scriptures like Isaiah 53.
Perhaps we wouldn't understand what took place there. Do you know God is a holy God? He's going to forgive your sins. There's got to be a righteous basis for forgiving sins. Somebody had to pay the price for my sins and yours if you were going to be forgiven. And in those three hours when it was all dark, when nobody could see what was taking place.
God laid on him the iniquity of us all.
And then God poured out the fury of His wrath upon his own beloved.
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What it must have meant to God, what it must have meant to the Lord Jesus. And for three solid hours there is no complaint from that center cross. Silence as the waves and billows of God's wrath roll over.
Him.
And at the end.
In one awful moment he cries, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, the God who is his strength, and stay at that moment of the most terrible need forsook him? Why did he do that? Because he loved you. Because he loved me, and there was no other way for you and me to be saved.
God had to have a righteous basis upon which he could forgive sins. Then he cries. It is finished.
All the judgment that was against this guilty Sinner standing here was finished.
You know, I like to say it this way sometimes in the Old Testament, there were hundreds of thousands of animals that died in the Jewish sacrifices.
And the flames consumed those sacrifices, but in the case of the Lord Jesus.
The sacrifice consumed the flames.
There is therefore now no condemnation, no judgment to them who are in Christ Jesus.
Oh, the blessedness of knowing that redemption in Christ Jesus to be able to say we have redemption through his blood.
Jesus bowed his head and died.
Hanging dead.
On that cross.
And then a soldier came up the hill. John's Gospel tells us about it. You know, the Lord Jesus suffered many wounds in his body.
But it never speaks. Scripture, never speaks of the blood that came from those other wounds in his body, only speaks of the blood that came out of one wound. And John's Gospel talks about it.
A soldier came up that hill, and when he saw that Jesus was dead already.
Took his spear and put it into his side.
An outflow of blood and water. The awful price of our redemption was not paid with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.
Oh, how we should stand there and meditate on the awfulness.
The cost?
That's how much it costs God, how much it costs Jesus.
There was no more life left in that body, and that's why it's important to understand why the blood was mentioned in connection with that wound. It was to show that there was no life left in that body.
He died. He gave the ultimate price.
He died for our sins according to the scriptures.
He was taken down from that cross. He was buried.
And the third day.
He rose from the dead.
The Angel came down to push away the stone that was across the mouth of that.
Cave like grave.
Not to let him out, but only to let people see that he was not long, not any longer there. He was risen. Jesus came back from the dead. He rose by the glory of the of the Father. God was so satisfied with the payment that Jesus made for our sins.
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That he raised him from the dead, and he didn't quit raising Jesus until Jesus.
As a man was far above all principality and power and might and dominion in every name that is named in this.
World and the world to come as well.
Jesus is a living man of flesh and bones.
At God's right hand right now and he's looking at you and he wonders what's your response is to that redemption, you know, in the Old Testament.
In the land of Egypt, there was a plague that fell on Egypt. It was the plague.
Of the death of the first born in the land of Egypt. And since the children of Israel were sinners just like the Egyptians, God could not exempt them from the plague. It had to affect the children of Israel as well. There had to be death in every single house in Egypt that night.
But God did make a provision that instead of the first born dying.
There could be a substitute. It was a lamb that had to be without blemish and without spot. And that lamb was to be killed on the 14th day of that month, and its blood was to be applied to the outside of the door of those houses where the Israelites were. And as the destroying Angel went from house to house that night in Egypt, there was one only one question raised.
Is there blood on the door? He didn't say as this kind of a nice family or is this a bad family? Didn't say that.
That wasn't the consideration. The only consideration was, was their blood on the door.
And if there was blood on the door, he passed over that house.
That's why it's called the Passover and the next house is their blood on the door.
There was not blood on the door. He went in and killed the first born.
There were no exceptions from Pharaoh on the throne to the prisoner in the prison.
There were no exceptions.
You know, we're getting down to the time when God is going to intervene and judge this world, and it's bound to be, as Scripture has told us, the most awful judgment this world has ever seen. You know, we've seen some pretty dramatic happenings in recent times in our world.
The tsunami that took place over in Indonesia.
I think it was 290,000 people died.
And the tragedy was perhaps not so much them as the millions of people who were left without homes. Children without parents, didn't know where they were.
God gives warning and it's going to be awful. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew's Gospel chapter 24 that the time that is just ahead for this world.
Is so awful. There was number time like it before. Nor will there be a time.
Like it afterwards. And that time is just ahead. Are you facing the reality of what we face in this world? You know, people like to try to ignore problems. They don't want to think about it.
And they go off.
That is not the way to face it. God has a provision in the Lord Jesus. There is safety under the shelter of the blood of Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin, the Scripture tells us.
God didn't leave the children of Israel in Egypt, He took them.
Plumb out of Egypt.
So after they were.
Delivered from the judgment of God by the blood of the Passover Lamb.
Then he delivered them. There's redemption by price, and there's redemption by power.
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And he took them outside the city, outside of the land of Egypt, towards the Red Sea. And there, on the edge of the Red Sea, they turned around and looked. And here comes Pharaoh with all his army.
And let me tell you, they were scared. You want to ask him right then, are you saved? I don't think they would have said yes. They would have said no. Look there, He's coming to get us again, to take us back. Yes, they had been saved from the judgment of God by the blood of the Lamb, but that wasn't the full extent of God's deliverance. There was.
Redemption by power, and so there.
On the shores of the Red Sea Moses stretched out his rod, that rod of judgment, and the sea divided, and the children went over the Red Sea on dry land through the midst of the sea.
The sea, the water, was a wall to them on one side and on another.
And they got over to the other side, and Pharaoh came in after them with all his hosts.
But God took off the chariot wheels and you can imagine the Pandonium that must have resulted as they started realizing things were not going well. And then Moses was told to stretch out his rod again on the wilderness side of the Red Sea. And he did, and the waters closed over and buried all those enemies. You know what? Not only has God delivered you.
From the judgment to come. But He has delivered you from every enemy that could possibly be against you. That's the deliverance of God. So the children of Israel.
Looked in there on the seashore where all their enemies dead.
You know that God has provided for your deliverance, your complete deliverance.
Every enemy that is against you, he has gained the victory over that enemy.
You know, I think of young people sometimes. I see them Even so, some that are supposedly believers.
They struggle, struggle with themselves. Do you know that God has delivered us from ourselves even?
Yes, he has.
Christ is now our life. Brother Don mention that verse in Galatians 2 today where Paul says I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live.
Notice this part.
Yet not I.
But Christ liveth in me. Do you know what your life?
Your Christian life is not what you see in yourself. Your Christian life is what you see in the Lord Jesus Christ, because He is now our life, and you are delivered from that if you will understand the place that you've been brought.
There's one other point in which deliverance is still future. This body I have has its aches and pains. Sometimes it gets sick. We don't have yet the redemption of our body. When the Lord Jesus comes, our redemption will be complete. Let me quote you those words. I thrill at them when that redemption will be complete.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God.
And the dead in Christ shall be raised first, then we which are alive and remain.
Shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever.
Be with the Lord O how those verses thrill my soul.
You know, some time ago I was in.
Vincennes IN.
You know, walking down the aisle of the store and I hear those words being quoted.
And I stopped. I said, where in the world am I?
I thought it was in Walmart.
And you know how they have those monitors around the store? And I stopped and looked at the monitor and it was after 911.
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And there was a United States Air Force chaplain reading those words out of scripture. I just thrilled. Oh, the thrill it's going to be when we hear that trumpet sound and that shout given. And we're not going to be here any longer. We're going to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air for this corruptible must put on incorruption.
And this mortal must put on immortality. So in this corruptible shall put on incorruption, And this mortal shall put on immortality. Then shall be brought to pass the saying Death is swallowed up in victory.
What a victory, what a victory.
You know what concerns me here tonight?
Is that there is a very real possibility that there are some here that take the place of being a Christian. Maybe you're baptized, maybe even break bread that you haven't got it straight with God yet. That concerns me. Amongst the Lord's own disciples, 12 disciples, there was one that was false.
You know what? The other 11 didn't have a clue that Judas was false. Maybe nobody has a clue that you're false, that you haven't got it straight. You know right where you're sitting in your heart of hearts, you know you're not straight. I'm asking you in the bottom of my heart, and I'm sure there are those that join with me in that plea. Get it straight tonight.
If you haven't done it yet.
There's any questions?
We'll be here after the meeting. We'd be glad to talk to you to answer your questions. But how important to get it straight. God is going to intervene according to the very words of Scripture. He's going to shake terribly this earth.
Now, have you been in earthquakes? Some of you out here in Southern California know what earthquakes are.
But they're not pleasant experiences. I've been in a number in El Salvador and Central America, amongst other places. But God, the major earthquake is still ahead. What they say out here in Southern California, the big one is still ahead. Are you ready? There is redemption tonight in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is forgiveness of sins.
Because of that redemption, there is justification.
You can be justified from all things by which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
And we ask with all our heart that if you haven't got it straight.
Do so tonight.
Let's just pray, Father.
What Is the Purpose of the Local Assembly?
YP Sing Address—N. Simon
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Well, I thank you for, uh, praying for us. I really do need it. So you can continue to pray for me in your seats. Now, I have a subject that is could be very lengthy. It could take a whole hour if we had the time. I don't and I don't intend to take an hour of your time. So we're going to move very swiftly through it. It's a question that was sent my way recently. It originated with a young person, but I didn't get it from a young person.
And the question is, what is the purpose of the local assembly?
Well, I suppose that that question could be interpreted in a number of different ways, but I meditated upon it and I put some notes together and I actually spoke to our local young people in Denver, uh, one evening about it. And, uh, that was helpful because I could revise my thoughts a little more. So what you're about to hear tonight is a product of.
A month or two of thinking on the subject, but I I'm not saying that I have the sole answer to that question, but first of all, before we begin, we have to ask ourselves what is the local assembly?
You know, it's critical, young people, that you understand what the church is from God's perspective, not from the perspective of what you see around you, what you feel. Suppose you would ask me, could you describe what a castle is? And I was to stop by saying, well, it's a building of large blocks of stone, and some are tumbled down on the ground, and there's no roof. And surrounding it, there's sometimes a dip that's nicely grassed over. And as you approach it, there's a place that you pay to enter. You go. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute.
What are you describing? You're not describing what a castle is, you're describing what a ruin of a castle is.
And if you look at round U today and Christendom, what you're going to see is a ruin.
And so it's absolutely vital that if you want to understand what the church is, that you see it from the Word of God, from God's perspective.
From God's perspective. So as I said, we're going to move very swiftly.
So first of all, what is the local assembly? First Corinthians chapter 12.
First Corinthians chapter 12, verse 27.
Now ye that is you Corinthians Saints. Paul is writing a letter.
He says to them, Ye are Christ's body.
And members in particular.
He doesn't say what you read in the King James. You are the body.
Of Christ, because clearly the Corinthian Saints were not the body of Christ, because that would have taken into account the Saints in Ephesus.
In Colossi and Thessalonica would have taken into account Christians everywhere.
But the assembly in current were those believers in that location, and that was God's original plan.
Originally, the local assembly was simply the believers at a location.
And we have no other authority to establish assembly at any location other than that principle. Now we do not say today that the assembly at Shadow Hills is the body or is Christ's body at Shadow Hills, because there are believers that are elsewhere, meet elsewhere for various reasons. But we still meet on that principle, the principle that there is indeed one body and that we should give practical expression to that. And there is no other principle.
On which we can come together to meet as a local assembly.
But keep that in mind as we talk. The local assembly originally, as God would have had it, was simply the believers at a location.
OK, So what? That's what is the local assembly. But now what is the purpose of the local assembly? Well, let's look at some verses in Deuteronomy 12.
Deuteronomy 12 begins talking to the children of Israel, and this is instruction by Moses to the children of Israel who are about to enter the land of Canaan. These are the statutes and judgments which ye shall observe.
Verse two. You shall utterly destroy all the places wherein the nations which ye shall possess serve their gods.
Upon the high mountains, upon the hills, everything is plural. You shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn down their graves, and so on. Verse four. Ye shall not do so unto Jehovah your God, but under the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name, there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come. Verse 11. Then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.
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Thither that shall ye bring all that I command you, your burnt offerings, and so forth, if we turn over.
To the 16th chapter in the 16th verse it says three times in a year.
So all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose in the feast of Unleavened bread, and so forth. So in.
Uh, Israel? There was one place where the Lord had placed his name.
And three times a year, every male was to go up to that one location that was not a plurality of locations.
There was one place where he had placed his name.
Now that would be awfully inconvenient for us today, wouldn't it? Because that place was Jerusalem. We couldn't suddenly decide, well, Los Angeles is as good as Jerusalem, let's just meet in Los Angeles and decide that the Lord has placed his name there.
So when Christianity came, what's the principle on which we meet? The principle is not different. Uh, Matthew 18.
Matthew 18.
Verse 20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, or unto my name.
There am I in the midst of them. So we have this promise that the Lord has given us, that if we are gathered and we are gathered, by the power of the Spirit of God, birds gather, eggs are gathered. And so it's not something that we form and decide that the Lord is there in the midst, but by the Spirit of God we are gathered unto His name. And if we are so gathered, we have the promise of the Lord in the midst. We don't have to go to Jerusalem.
Jehovah was seen as dwelling in the temple. That was where it was seen. When the Tabernacle went through the wilderness, he was seen as dwelling there.
In the Tabernacle, in the midst of that congregation. And so the first purpose, if I could put it that way, as a local assembly is that is where the Lord has promised to be in the midst. And unless, dear young people, you grasp that, why go to the local assembly? Why not go anywhere? It doesn't matter. And the Lord's presence is promised. His personal presence is promised. And the end of Luke when the two on the way to Emmaus that says the Lord drew near and went with them.
And Christians everywhere, myself individually, and you can say that we have a personal presence of the Lord going with us in that sense.
Individually, but this is a collective thing. Paul, we would look at this chapter if we don't run out of time in first Corinthians five, he wasn't in currents, but he could cite of the Corinthians. I will be there in spirit. The Lord doesn't say that he would be there in spirit. He says where two or three had gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them.
What is the another purpose of the local assembly?
Well, let's look at John, the chapter we have taken up in Reading John Chapter 17.
So the first purpose.
Is the is the place where the Lord is in the midst and John 17 verse 21.
The Lord is praying as we've had. He's speaking to the Father and we are permitted to hear what He says. It says in verse 21 That they all may be one.
As thou Father hought in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in US.
That the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The life and nature of the believer drives so truly from the Son and the Father, that God says we out.
One in us, God speaking both Jew and Gentile.
Brought together in one family, we don't really have the body of Christ in John 17, but brought together into one family, it was a powerful testimony to the world at that time.
Of the work of Christ.
We look around us in Christ, and today we see everything divided.
What a what a testimony that is to the world. That doesn't mean to say that. We just say, oh, well, it's all in ruins, so it doesn't matter.
Paul goes further. Ephesians 3.
John speaks to the family of God. Paul brings in the body.
Ephesians 3.
Verse six, that the Gentiles, that is the Gentiles together with the Jews, should be Co heirs, a Co body and Co partakers. In the Greek they're the same form of the word, just as I said it, like coheirs, Co body, Co partakers, Mr. Davis's joint heirs, joint body, joint partakers. Back to First Corinthians 12.
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1St Corinthians 12, verse 12. Now here in the beginning of verse 12, he's speaking about the human body.
Whereas the human body is one has many members, and all the members of that one body being many, are one body. So also is.
The Christ, Christ's body, No. For by 1 Spirit we all baptized into one body.
Whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit, so the Church of God should have been seen in this world as a manifestation of the Christ. And so the local assembly, even if it's a day of ruin, can still in a limited way give practical expression to the one body, the body of Christ, another purpose of the local assembly.
Go back a chapter and first, well you put your finger back one chapter. First Corinthians 11 but I want to read a verse in Acts chapter 20.
Acts Chapter 20.
Verse seven upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break.
Bread OK First Corinthians 11.
Verse 23 For I have received the Lord, that which I also delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he'd break it.
And said take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of Maine after the same manner also he took the cup when he had stopped saying this cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye as often as he drink it in remembrance of me. And you don't have to turn back. And I read you a verse in John chapter 4.
In John chapter 4, the Lord speaking to the woman at the well, he says.
But the hour cometh, and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeketh such.
To worship him, the breaking of bread, the remembrance of the Lord is a worship meeting. It says to do this in remembrance of me. It doesn't say do this to Remember Me. What's the difference? Well, a memorial is held to commemorate some person, usually when in this world who has died, is to commemorate the person who has died. And the remembrance of the Lord is not to remind us as if we've forgotten.
But it's.
Too worship bring to worship the Father, to bring before the Father the Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done, and it should flow from our hearts in response to what He has done for us. But it's not a meeting where we go to remember what He has done for us. Worship flows because out of us, because of what He's done for us.
That's an important distinction to make.
But as you look through our hymns, you'll find that there's always a blend. The hymns that we enjoyed this morning together, there is that which touches what He has done for us. And then you have the response. Our hearts going out in praise and worship to the Father, exalting the Son.
So worship.
Is the third purpose of the local assembly.
Uh, another one. Acts chapter 4.
Uh, sorry, Chapter 2.
Chapter 2, verse 42. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, which we just had, and in prayers. Let's look at a little further in Acts, the 12Th chapter.
Peter was in prison and what did we find? Verse 12 of chapter 12 of Acts. And when he had considered the thing, he came to the House of Mary.
The mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying.
00:15:04
And then, uh, you don't have to turn to Philippians chapter one. Paul was in prison now and he could write in this letter in verse 19 of chapter one. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, collective prayer. So there's a place for collective prayer. You know, the brothers stood up and prayed just before this meeting. It's not easy to pray before others.
But collective prayer is an important function purpose of the local assembly, and yet it's probably the most poorly attended meeting of the local assembly.
God would certainly have us to pray individually and there are prayers that are more suited.
In the privacy of our homes. But there is also most definitely a needed place for collective prayer. The prayer of the local assembly. Another purpose of the local assembly.
So another.
Purpose of the Local Assembly, Ephesians, chapter 4.
This one I'll preface by saying that I believe it's the sphere for the manifestation of the Spirit of God.
And So what do we find in Ephesians 4 beginning with verse 8? Wherefore he says, when he ascended up on high.
He led captivity captive. We were formerly captives of Satan.
And gave gifts unto men. And he and jumping into verse 11, he gave some apostles.
Some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the Saints.
For the work of the ministry. For the edifying of the body of Christ.
And so God in, in this chapter, the gifts that God has given through his Spirit are seen as individuals, the apostle, the apostle, the teacher, the evangelist, the prophet. We don't have apostles now.
Turn back to First Corinthians 12 because that chapter is really about manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the assembly.
And so the verse 28 of that chapter, God has set some in the church. First apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers. After that miracle and gifts of healing, helps governments, diversity of tongues are all apostles are all prophets, they're all teachers, are all workers of miracles, have all gifts of healing and so forth. And so we find out the local assembly was the sphere for the exercise of these gifts that God has given to us through the Holy Spirit. And if you turn to the next chapter.
Of First Corinthians, the 13th chapter, we find that love is what should motivate the exercise of those gifts.
And then we get to the 14th chapter and we find the actual mechanics, how to carry out the exercise.
Of those gifts. Now you say that the evangelist, he doesn't necessarily exercise his gift within the local assembly, and that's perfectly true.
The evangelist has a unique way of edifying that is to build up the local assembly, because he goes out and he preaches the gospel. But as others have said, he should be like a compass, one foot in the assembly, the other one going out. And his goal should not be just to save souls and leave them where they're at, but to bring them into the place where the Lord is in the midst. And so he builds up literally the Assembly of God by adding to it.
So another purpose of the local assembly. Let's look at Hebrews chapter 10.
Hebrews, chapter 10.
Verse 24 Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see who they approaching. Now I'm not suggesting here in this verse that he's defining some different assembly meeting, but I'll take it a little more generally.
The another purpose of the local Assembly is for the encouragement of one another, for the exhorting, for the building up, and it also can be done in a very practical way.
Acts Chapter 5.
And end of X.
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Uh, sorry. Chapter four, Hand of Acts chapter 4.
It says in verse 34, Neither was there any among them that lacked, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and bought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles feet, and distribution was made unto every man according.
As he had need. Now we're never given injunction of scripture that we are asked to do this.
As it is say, with the remembrance of the Lord, where we ask to do that.
But it was an example of some of the mutual encouragement and support that was in that early assembly if we returned to the 16th chapter of First Corinthians, which is the last chapter.
We find there that an instruction was given upon the first day of the week. Let everyone of you lay up by him in store, as God hath prospered him.
That there be no gatherings when I come. So there's instruction for collection on the first day of the week. So there is a very practical purpose of the local assembly for the support of those that maybe have needs. And then, and this can be done in other ways as well, not just money or giving of things.
Another and my final purpose of the local assembly. Back to Matthew 18. Sorry for jumping back and forth.
But at the beginning, what precedes that list which I read earlier? What two or three are gathered together in my name?
Is what we read and I won't read all of it by just beginning verse 18. Verily I send you, whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.
And whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.
1St Corinthians 5.
So what is the purpose I'm Speaking of here with the Local Assembly has a administrative responsibility not to be overlooked?
In first Corinthians 5, there is a very specific case of an immoral deed that was done at Corinth, and it begins, it is reported commonly. It's common knowledge that there is fornication among you, and such fornication is not so much named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned that he has done. The seed might be put away from among you. For I verily as absent in body, but President's spirit. See, that's what I was saying before. The Lord doesn't say He's going to be present with us in spirit.
Like Paul has to hear because Paul couldn't be there physically, so he can only say I'll be there.
In spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him that has so done this deed in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When ye are gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh.
Because the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. And then verse 12.
For what have I to do to judge them also that or without do ye not judge them that are within?
Put but them that are without God judges. Therefore put away from among you that wicked person, so the assembly.
Local assembly has a responsibility towards those that are within you. Notice in that portion it never says go and speak to this man, find out what he really did.
It was a matter that was commonly reported and it brought brought dishonor to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The authority of the assembly derives from his personal presence in the assembly.
There's an expression given in Hebrews. Let's just turn there.
And be the last person portion I turn to before I just offer some concluding comments. But in Hebrews chapter.
Four, verse 5, Moses was very faithful in all his house, the house is talking about as a Tabernacle, as a servant. He served in that Tabernacle for a testimony of those things which are about to be spoken of. But Christ as a son over his own house, whose house? So we, so the assembly doesn't act in matters of responsibility, in matters of authority, because it's somehow better than everyone else, but it has to act. It's compelled to act because Christ is son over his own house. It's not our house.
I've used this illustration many times. I grew up on a farm in Australia and my parents, when we were in our late teens, went away on vacation.
Left myself and my two older brothers in care of the farm now if something had come up and one of us had messed up.
I would have hoped that the other two of us, let's say it was me, I would have hoped that my other two brothers would have come to me and said.
You're messing up. We need to do something about it. Why do they, my brothers have authority over me? No, they have no authority over me. But they would act because it's not our house. It was my parents house. So in matters of assembly, discipline and so forth, the assembly is compelled to act because it's his house. It's his house. He has sung over his house. Whose house are we?
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So that was the seven things when I thought on this matter and I wrote them out, it just happened to come out to seven. I'm not saying there's a 7 only purposes of the local assembly, but they happen to be 7. The Lord is in the midst.
Expression of the Oneness of the body for worship, for prayer.
The sphere for the exercise of the Spirit of God. The manifestations of the Spirit of God.
For mutual comfort and encouragement, and there's an administrative responsibility the local assembly has.
So I lost 5 minutes up front so I have 3 minutes to finish.
Umm, So what practical purpose is this? Well, one thing I meant to say when I talked about the it's a sphere for the exercise of the local of the gift of the Spirit of God is it's a common misperception that the assembly teaches. The assembly does not teach. It's a common misperception that the assembly evangelizes. The assembly does not evangelize. It's a common misconception that the assembly passes. The assembly does not pasta. These are gifts given to individuals within the local assembly.
So you go home and you say my local assembly has nothing. I don't know why I go there. First thing I'd say is you're not recognizing the presence of the Lord in the midst because if you look at your brethren, you're going to be bitterly disappointed. Another thing, as soon as you start saying they, they, they, they don't do this. They don't do that. You have separated yourself from the local assembly. You're standing apart and judging them. You my friend, are a part of the local assembly. Remember back in the days occurrence.
All the believers in Current made-up that local assembly, and Corinth was a terrible assembly. It has numerous problems. But those brothers in Current didn't get to pick their fellow believers, and Paul has to write to them and he has to tell them you've got to work through this. You've got to work this out.
You might say there's no vitality, there's no life, nothing happens in my local assembly. Well, what are you expecting of your local assembly? What purpose do you see the local assembly have?
Uh, you exercised about worship.
Are you exercised about prayer? Are you exercised about the gift that God has given you?
These are the building blocks of the local assembly. All the other activities that you may enjoy as young people are not.
Principal Potts purposes of the local assembly. Maybe they fall under mutual encouragement, but like Jim Highland said today.
All the activity, I have nothing against it. They are not the principal purpose of the local assembly. And what happens is that you can introduce all sorts of activity in your local assembly and give the appearance of what all sorts of vitality in life.
But it's all a facade unless these fundamental things.
Are taken care of. Do you go on Lord's Day morning ready to remember the Lord? You listen to a meeting like Bob Tony had tonight. And I trust that everyone of you that's saved could have felt the power of that message.
When you go to remember the Lord, is He as fresh to you as the day you were saved?
We are like what PO uh, John writes to Ephesus in Revelation. We've left our first love.
That's admitted. But let's not just say, well, it doesn't matter. You know, it happens in marriage.
You have a get married the feeling and love feeling they have told us last about a year.
What do you do then? Well, if you're in the world, you pack up and you leave. Someone told me the other day they knew of a wedding. He's a photographer.
He he photographed the wedding and wedding photographs are very expensive. Six months later they were divorced.
So even you might say, well, yeah, well, we've lost our first love. What are you going to do about it? Do you just pack up and leave? No, It begins here, begins with each one of us. The exercise has to begin with me. I am a part of the local assembly. So let's just close with prayer.
I remember I'm supposed to pray for the meal.
And umm, I'm wondering if I could ask for another young person.
John 17:11-14
Reading
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In John 17 I was thinking of verse 11 unless someone has another thought.
John 17.
Verse 11.
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee.
Holy Father, keep thru Thy own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are.
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I have kept.
And none of them is lost but the son of Perdition.
That the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world.
Even as I am not of the world, I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.
As thou hast sent me into the world, Even so have I also sent them into the world.
And for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word.
That they all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in US.
That the world may believe that Thou hast sent me, and the glory which Thou gave us, me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one, I and them, and Thou and me, that they may be made perfect in one.
And that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.
Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which Thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them.
And I in them.
Just a very brief comment on an expression in the 10th verse before we go on. He says in the 10th verse, and all mine are thine and thine are mine. And we spoke in previous reading meetings of the fact that we have been given by the Father to the Son. But you know, if I were to give you something this morning, I would relinquish ownership of that. It would, you wouldn't be able to say, I wouldn't be able to say that it's still mine now it's yours and you have possession.
Isn't it wonderful, brethren, that while we have indeed been given, as we have said, as a love gift by the Father to the Son, yet he hasn't relinquished us either? He belongs to both. God is still our Father, He's our Father. The Lord Jesus Christ is ours as well. We belong to both.
Those we've had before. The Lord Jesus was about to return home.
The Father's house.
And could speak of it as a fact already.
When he says I am not of the world and no more in the world.
His time here in the world had come to an end. He had finished the work that he had been given to do. And so his burden, his prayer was for those who would still be in the world, his disciples and later on ourselves, that would believe through their word. And so he's making requests of the Father now in connection with that fact that he was returning. So he says.
Holy Father, keep.
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And it's important to see why he introduces it. It's not just Father Keith, but Holy Father Keith, because that tells us the character in which he wants them to be kept.
In holiness we have the exhortation be holy, for I am holy. And so he says here, keep through thine own name. It was. The name is what a person is. It represents or identifies what they are. And he was speaking to one who was Holy Father.
He says that they may be one, as we are one He here on this earth.
Walked in perfect consistency.
With the God what God is as light and as love. And so they having been brought into the family and having the life of the family, he wants them to walk in that family character of holiness and love that they may have fellowship with him as we have in first John one. And so he tells them he asks the father keep them.
In that way that they might be one with them, the Father and the Son.
I think we understand that in natural families. I'm sure it's been your case as it's mine. Sometimes I've seen a younger person and I look at them and just by their physical characteristics, I say I don't know what that person's name is, but I know what family they come from and you can see the family character in them. I'm speaking in a physical way, but sometimes the very manner of speech.
The very way that person speaks or presents themselves immediately reminds you of a specific family. And uh, so it is for us in this world. The Lord Jesus desires that the moment we speak, the moment we act, we it, it should become clear what family we belong to, who our Father is.
And, uh, it's a challenge that it be so, but there should be that oneness of kind and character that is seen in the family to which we belong.
When he speaks in verse 25, he says righteous Father because there is in connection with the world.
World has not known thee, but here like you say, it's Holy Father because it's in connection with.
Us, whom he has set apart for himself.
And we don't understand that sometimes. And so we do not walk in holiness of life practically.
But that is the position that every believer is in before God is in a position of complete holiness. So here he says keep them.
Uh, so we need to be kept in that sense of that we have been set apart for God. I don't know how we can make it more understandable, but I enjoyed a an illustration that Gordon Hagel gave a number of years ago. He says, I go to a grocery store and I get a cart and as I go down the aisles of the store, I pull off a box of cereal.
And a can of beans and different things. And you say, what are you doing? Says I am separating this, I have a purpose for it. And then when you get up to the front, you pay for it. And you take those things and you take them home for the purposes that you had in mind. When God saved us, he had a specific purpose and he separated us.
From this world for that purpose, and it really helps to understand that that's what holiness means. He set us apart for him for his own purposes. One of the purposes that is mentioned here in this verse is so beautiful is that they may be one as we are. You know, between the Father and the Son there was always.
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Oneness of purpose, and now we are brought into God's purposes.
And how important it is for us to understand that we live in a day when it's sometimes called man's world.
Man's day and people do what they like to do and they don't appreciate anybody else. Then you're wrong. That's not the right way to go. I have my rights. I'll do my own thing. Oh how we need to get into the Lord's presence and realize that when He saved us.
He saved us with a specific purpose in mind. He has set us apart for Himself. We are sanctified and in a positional sanctification our sanctification is complete. It is, It is completely holy. But there is that practical side of things where it says in Second Corinthians Chapter 7.
Perfecting holiness in the sight of God. And so in the measure that you and I understand that.
We would walk in that holiness of life.
We need to be kept with that sense in our souls, what He has chosen us for every one of us. Not just the certain ones, every one of us. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, doesn't matter how new you may be, He has a specific purpose in mind for each one of us.
And so his desire here in this prayer was that these things would be manifested in his own, in a practical way, in his absence. Because it is as far as our standing. That doesn't change. We are a sanctified people. We're seen in all the perfection of Christ as he is, so are we in this world. But here he's praying then that this would be practically manifested in the life of the disciples.
And that's why we mentioned in another meeting that he has made full provision for this to be carried out in the chapters before. He's given them the resources, the coming of the Spirit of God, His word and all these things, and then himself praying for his own every hour of every day so that there might be that practical holiness and sanctification. Because what really makes us fit for service here in this world?
Is to walk in holiness and practical sanctification. In Second Timothy, when he takes up the need for practical sanctification and separation from evil, What is the result of separating from evil and walking in practical holiness? He'll be a vessel sanctified. But he doesn't stop there. And meet for the master's use. And prepared unto every good work.
And that's what the Lord's desire really was for his own, as he anticipated leaving them.
He was going to leave them here so that they might glorify him in this world.
How are they going to be able to do it? They must, there must be practical holiness and sanctification if they were going to be useful vessels, if they were going to reflect something of himself in their lives. And so I, I believe as he goes down this list of things that he prays specifically for them. Now, it's intensely practical, brethren, and we need to take these things to heart.
How beautiful this is and to realize that in our own strength, we'll quickly say we can do none of this, can we? But I was thinking about the the blessed truth of being with Christ and specifically for those of us who were here, we're looking for the rapture. We're looking for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I would just like to read the 1St 3 verses of first John chapter 3 familiar to us and perhaps good for us to be reminded again here.
Verse One. There first John 3. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God, Therefore the world knoweth us not.
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Because it knew him not beloved. And now are we the sons of God? And it does not yet appear.
What we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see him as he is, and everyone that has this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. And so we're looking for that blessed hope, and I believe that our enjoyment of the eminent return of Christ for those of us who are here.
Is the thing that will separate us from this world our enjoyment of his love and I think we see that uh brought out here as the Lord says and just to go ahead for a minute I look at that 24th verse of our chapter where the the Lord Jesus. This is truly the Lord's prayer. The 17th chapter of John Father, I well that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may.
That they may be holding My glory, which Thou give has given me, for Thou loves me before the foundation of the world.
Well, I just enjoy those applications of these.
Presses versus.
Beginning with this 11Th verse, we have specific.
Specific request that the Lord makes to the Father. And I think it's significant that the first of these various things with regard to the disciples is that they may be kept in oneness.
This is the very thing that we have failed in.
Look what it says there in that 11Th verse. Holy Father, keep in.
Thine own name, those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are.
So it's the the thought of oneness of of.
Purpose and aim and thought that he would have his people to be together on the earth in the time of his absence.
And it's in relation to the Father as a Holy Father.
Because all unity must have as its source or foundation holiness.
But this is what we have failed in, haven't we?
As the world looks at the church.
The children of God today, what is the what is the church? What do they see in a divided state and so we have to be humbled by this, but nevertheless, the Lord doesn't take up that side of things in the prayer you probably noticed that he does not bring in.
Failure on the part of his disciples. He's praying as a priest that we might not fail and so that's tide of things is not here before US1 more thing too. Let's not Passover those little words that you find in the chapter as notice the oneness that he would have us to be found in is as we are the as the father and the son are that we have divine standard, the divine standard for unity.
16 They are not of the world, even as there it is, as I am not of the world. And so here we have a divine standard again with regard to separation, as the Lord Jesus was not part of this world, yet He walked in it. He would have us to be in the same standard as He had, and walked and lived by and passed on to verse 18 As there's that word again, as thou hast sent me into the world.
Even so, I have also sent them into the world, and so we have the divine standard for service.
Same way in which he was sent into this world, he would send us.
To his will, the will of his Father. One more I think you pass on to verse 23.
That the world may know that thou hast sent me.
And has loved me.
As there's a divine standard again, as thou hast loved me, Isn't that beautiful?
You'd have the world to know.
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That the Father loves us just as much as he loves his own son.
So it's beautiful to see that, I think. But what heads the list of all these specific requests is that he would have his people walking together in practical unity and oneness of thought and aim and purpose. And this oneness that we're Speaking of now is not the oneness of the body. John's writings don't bring up the the body of Christ. That's specifically Paul's line of things here. It's the oneness of life in the family.
But nevertheless, we should be one.
This is what we feel then, brethren.
Just like to add a comment on the.
The fact that it is a priestly prayer and certain sight of it isn't exactly brought out, although it's true.
How many prayers in the Bible?
Have you in them?
Specifically.
This one does.
Where we are so far in the chapter is the disciples specifically. But in verse 20 he says neither pray I for these alone, but for them which shall believe on me. You and I are among that number.
And so, brethren, it's a it's a wonderful thing here to read in our God's Word a prayer.
The effect of which the purpose of which is taking place today in this room. This isn't simply a prayer that was spoken as it was nearly 2000 years ago. God has never forgotten it.
The requests that are made here that concern you and I in this room.
Are on the heart of God today and there is fresh to his heart as they were when they were spoken on this earth at that time and so it's an encouragement to our hearts as we read it to recognize that as we say God answers prayer. Here's a prayer concerning us that the Lord Jesus.
The sun made and God is answering it.
Still and into this room this day.
It's good to see you in that side, not only in that which would exercise us and that which would make us realize our responsibilities and so on, but to see God's side of it and the Lord Jesus side of it as well.
And so his desires for his own on this occasion are the same desires that he still has for his own.
And as you brought out, he still, and we've brought out many times in these meetings, he's still praying for us that we might be preserved. Now it is true, brethren, that we are all going to be kept to the end in the sense that we're all going to make it safe to glory. And Peter talks in his epistle about those who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
There's no doubt, I trust in any of our minds here who know the Lord Jesus, that He's going to bring us safely through and keep us and preserve us to the end. But brethren, His desire in the meantime is that we would be kept for His glory and as a testimony here in this world until that time when we're taken safely home. And that's really what His high priestly work, His office as a high priest is for, isn't it?
It's that you and I might be preserved the resources there. And if you and I are willing to to avail ourselves of that resource that we have in Christ as our high priest, we will be preserved. In fact, in the measure in which we avail ourselves of the one who's praying for us at the right hand of God this morning, in that measure, we will be preserved. So we are going to be kept to the end. But he desires in a practical way that we would be kept day by day.
Step by step along the road. I I just want to notice before we pass on to he speaks of the son of perdition here of verse 12, the middle of the verse I have He speaks of having kept his own and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition that the Scripture might be fulfilled. You know, so often we read about Judas and it's given to us as a solemn warning, isn't it?
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And justice before we pass on, if there's someone here sitting in these meetings and you don't know the Lord Jesus as your savior, it's a very serious thing. You know, Judas, he walked with the Lord Jesus and the other disciples during the Lords public ministry. He heard all the same things. He saw the miracles. He was part of that circle that was closest to the Lord Jesus as he walked in this world and it never affected his heart.
In the end he betrayed the Lord Jesus and he went out and hanged himself, and he went to his own place.
And the Lord Jesus never treated Judas in a way that would was any different than the other disciples. He treated him the same way. In fact, when they came to the table at the supper, the disciples even doubted who the betrayer was. You'd think, well, some of them would have thought maybe the Lord had said something that would give him away. Judas had made a slip. Judas was so careful in his cover up that he never made a slip. The Lord Jesus was so solicitous toward Judas and never treated him any different.
To give him away until he exposed him at the table. What a solemn thing for Judas, but it is a solemn thing for any here. If you don't know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, and you've been brought up in a Christian home, brought up under the influences of coming to the meetings, what a serious thing here was this one. And he was going to be lost, and he is lost for all eternity.
Just add one word to that, dear brother, uh, that I think is so solemn. The words of the Lord Jesus himself.
Speaking of Judas, it would be better for that man that he had never been born.
Never been born, but we do have fellowship one with another as we read in first John one, and I think of a little hymn. We go to meet the Savior, his glorious face, to see what manner of behavior does with this hope agree. And So what joy it is as we together enjoy the thought of hearing that shout.
And that that has its purified effect, I say again in our lives.
The last act of the Lord Jesus that signaled who He was speaking about was an act of favor. He gave him the thought it was a special act of favor and it did not move that man's heart. That's our hearts by nature, brother, No different.
There are two people in the scriptures that are called the son of Perdition.
Judas Iscariot and the other one is a man who may be alive in the world today, the Antichrist solemn to think about it.
It's wonderful.
To see in the next verse 13 that little expression of desire of the Lord Jesus, that they may have my joy.
Fulfilled in themselves. We've had joy or happiness before us in these meetings later on, there's something else that was his own that he had enjoyed in his own life that he wanted us to have as well.
In resurrection he speaks of my peace, but here it's my joy. What a wonderful desire of the heart of our Lord, that that same character of joy.
Through which in which he lived.
Would be in US as well.
I'd like to refer to a couple of verses in the Old Testament that from my own heart, bring something of what made that joy in Him.
And if we were to have it with him or share it in our lives would be true of us as well.
And some think it's Psalm 16.
Or 17 just I'll see it in a minute.
Psalm 16.
And verse 11, I'm going to read it, Mr. Darby's translation that will make known to me the path of life.
Thy countenance.
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His fullness of joy. Thy countenance is fullness of joy. Now over in Psalm 40.
Psalm 40.
And verse 8.
Read verse 7 to just show that it's prophetic of the Lord Jesus. Then said, I lo, I come in the volume of the book, it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God, Yeah, Thy law is within my heart.
I don't know how you got up this morning and what were the 1St.
Thoughts and activities of your day but I.
Believe you can at least visualize with me going back when the Lord Jesus got up in the morning.
I believe the first attention of his soul.
Was to see and wait before the Father, to have before him the countenance of the Father. It's an expression of fellowship that existed uninterrupted between the Father and the Son and brethren. It's a place of joy to the soul to behold the countenance for us. We behold our Lord Jesus by faith.
And as we look upon him by faith.
We see a countenance that produces joy in the soul, and then connected with it is.
I delight to do thy will, Oh my God.
His life was a perfect life of dependence and obedience.
And he found the joy of his life in the obedience of the Father's will. That was his joy.
To have and to do the will of His Father. We have a nature within us which is self willed. It's the very opposite liberty.
To man means to do his own thing without restraint by anyone else but God, by His grace is given to us a life.
Which delights in doing the Father's will.
That life of Christ that is within us finds its joy.
In obedience.
Not in self will and.
Consequently, if we are going to have that joy, His joy will be found in that path, in that way of life in which the Father's will is the delight of our hearts, and it's lived out in the fellowship with Himself, in that character of life and love.
And He finds his joy in his people too, doesn't he? And when there is that faithfulness and desire in His people, his joy then is fulfilled in that. In that sense, we often think of our joy in the Lord, and certainly there's that aspect. But do we always think of His joy in US? In fact, I suggest that that's really the thought in Nehemiah, that the 8th chapter where it says the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Not so much the joy of the people, of their joy in the Lord, but the joy of the Lord.
What was it that was going to give them strength to go on in a difficult day? It was to realize that He had a joy in looking down and seeing His people and their desire, albeit in much weakness and against all kinds of odds and difficulties. But His joy in seeing His people pressing on for His glory and according to His word at a difficult time, that brought joy to the heart of God. And Nehemiah says, if you can just get a sense of that joy that he has.
In seeing you and delighting in you and what you're seeking by grace to do, that's going to give you strength to go on. Just back up in our portion here in John here to the 15th chapter. You get the expression, my joy again in chapter 15 and verse 11. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you.
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And that your joy might be full. And so here we have the two things.
He said if you go on in the truth of what I am giving, I'm speaking to you of and there's that love amongst.
The people, my own in my absence, if there's a seeking to go on in unity and displaying those characteristics of the Father and the Son and glorifying me on the earth in a happy Christian or a happy group of believers in my absence and so on, he said. I'm going to find great joy in that. That's my joy.
Now he says, as a result, your joy will be full. And so, as I say, there is our portion too. But I believe what, brethren, what's really going to give us the courage and the strength to go on? And what is going to establish our joy is, first of all, to move beyond ourselves, which is so difficult for us, but to move beyond ourselves, our own joy, and to see His joy, His delight in US, His joy, His delight in any faithfulness He sees on the part of His people.
That then is going to fill our joy as well.
And we should remember that that's the character of the life that we have now, like Don was bringing out. It is not to think so much of our thought is to think of his thoughts about us. And that will bring knowing that his countenance is towards this. And I really have pondered over that expression. In John 114 it says the word was made flesh.
And we beheld His glory, the glory as of an only begotten with the Father. It was the sense that here was a man that lived in the constant countenance of his Father's love that was his joy. And now you and I have that life, dear young people, but we're living in a world that tells you just the opposite.
Do your own thing. Don't let anybody tell you what to do. Why is that voice there? Because there's an enemy that wants to rob you of true joy. Don't let it happen. You, if you are a real believer in the Lord Jesus, have a life that and a nature that is.
Delights in the will of God and wants to know his countenance towards us.
Uh, brethren out at the prison camp.
The men like to sing It's not an easy Rd. It's not an easy road and I I find objection to it because if the Lord Jesus is my shepherd, if I'm walking with him, if he's my shepherd, what a blessed Rd. we're on. We're on the road that leads to happiness. But the dear men that can sing that song is not an easy Rd. The devil hasn't has gotten still a hold of them and they're walking in that path that.
They would like to be free of it, but they haven't committed themselves to the Lord.
The Lord Jesus is our shepherd and will take care of us and lead us all the way in happiness, but we can't have the world and have the Savior too.
Well, another characteristic of those that are His own is that He's given them His Word. So we have that in verse 14. I have given them Thy word. Isn't it a wonderful thing? He didn't leave the disciples without instruction. He had spoken much to them as to the resources that they were going to have in His absence as to how they could utilize those resources.
And how they could live for His glory after He had left them and gone back to heaven.
And brethren, we have His word as well, but are we really taking heed to it? Do we read it? You know, I wanna just make a practical comment in this regard because sometimes I have talked to young people and sometimes those who are not so young, and they say, well, I want to know how I can please the Lord. I want to know how I can live for God's glory. I want to know what the Lord has for me in this world. But you talk to them after a while, you realize.
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They're not reading the Word, you know. The disciples were exhorted to listen to the words that the Lord was speaking to them.
Earlier in these chapters, they weren't going to understand it all at the time.
The day was coming when the Spirit of God would be given, and it would be made good to them, but they were to.
Listen to it because it was his instructions for them.
In what was ahead. And brethren, we've been given everything we need right here in this book. We have His word as well now, are we? Have we taken heed to it? Are we reading it? Are we seeking to walk in the good of it that we might walk in practical holiness and sanctification?
We have a little word on the distinction. In verse 14 I have given them thy word, and back in verse 8, for I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me. Perhaps we can have some help on that important distinction.
You raised the question. We're going to listen to your answer. I don't learn anything. If you hear the little I have, you tell us what you've gotten first, brother, and then we won't add to it or correct it as the case may be. We, uh, understand words are those specific perhaps commandments and directions that we receive from the Lord? And we do have those specific details often given to us, but doesn't the word, I think the note is it's divine communications, but the word isn't that.
Bring us to a larger thought. It's the Word of God in testimony, the word of Philadelphia. Zealous kept my word.
And has not denied my name. I haven't thought of it this way. Sometimes we want a specific command, if you will, a specific.
Response to a specific question. But the larger thought is here. He's given us His Word that would bring us into fellowship with His mind and His thoughts, and that for one that is walking in communion with the Lord and embracing His, uh, His Word.
As a whole, there'll be much guidance for us. And so under the law, of course, there was very specific commandments given thou shalt XY and Z, and those things were very direct. And we do have those expectations in the New Testament as well. But the larger thought of the word is to bring us in fellowship with His mind and His heart. And as we're in fellowship with Him as it relates to His Word, that there's many things that we don't have a specific verse of Scripture for a specific commandment.
But it's nice that we do have His word in a larger scale and scope to give us fellowship with His mind, and that not every decision in life, not every matter that comes before us, is there a direct word of Scripture that tells us what to do.
But when we do have his word, and in fellowship and communion with his mind, we have that gentle understanding of what is honoring to him.
Connection with the way you express that there's a verse specifically to that thought in umm John chapter 8.
And verse 43.
John chapter 8 and verse 43 says why do you not understand my speech?
Even because you cannot hear my word.
That is, He was talking to some people who had no commonness with God. There was no fellowship in them, there was no life in them. So when the Lord Jesus spoke His words to them, His speech to them, they didn't understand it at all. His mind, His thoughts were not being received by them because they had a will in opposition to Himself and consequently.
They heard the words that he spoke. They had ears that entered into their ears. The vocabulary was not a vocabulary that they were unused to or that they couldn't, uh, take in. As far as individual words are concerned, that was his speech. But he says you don't understand my word. They did not get the message of what he was saying to them. They did not enter into his thought or into his mind.
And it's been commented by some that we enter into the word and then the meaning of the words becomes evident. That is, we learn the thoughts of God communicated to us by the Spirit in such a way that the actual letters, the words.
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Take on their meaning for us. And so in spiritual things, it's the opposite.
If it's in natural things, you don't know what a word is. You go to a dictionary and you look up the word and you say, oh, now I know what it means. But in spiritual things you can't do that. It's not that you might not use a dictionary to understand the speech, but the true communication of the mind of God to us, even though words are used for it, it has to come by the power of the Spirit of God that acts upon us.
So that we can in our souls say this is of God to me.
You see that illustrated in Daniel chapter 5, don't you, Don? When those words were written by God over against the Candlestick, that ungodly king, King Belshazzar, it wasn't that he didn't understand what the words were. They were in his own language, but he didn't get the message. But when Daniel, a man of God, came in, he could put those words together in a spiritual sense, and he got the message of what God was communicating.
And so I was thinking too of an illustration that perhaps helps what's been said. Heard about problem in a locality some years ago. And after a rather lengthy brothers meeting, a younger brother turned to an older brother. And he said, and brother, what step will you be taking in this matter? And the older brother looked at him and he very wisely said, he said, brother, I hope that when the time comes.
To take a step in this matter, I am walking in close enough communion to the Lord that I know what step to take. And so there are many things that's been said that perhaps we don't have a specific command. They are only discerned in nearness to the Lord. They are only discerned in the measure in which we walk in communion with the Lord. And if we are, then maybe we can't say this is a specific scripture. This is a specific command.
But we take that step because we take it hand in hand, in the conscious sense of fellowship with himself.
A little bit concerned that some of what's being said might be too complicated or over the heads of some of us that are younger, so I'd like to go in a different direction for a moment and specifically address younger ones here.
Umm, I have the privilege a couple of times a week of visiting with juveniles in the detention center and I often ask them, I said, what do you do when you talk to God?
What do you call it? And they immediately say and they can understand quickly. They oh, that's called prayer.
The next question is, well, how does God talk to you?
How does God talk to you? I said there are different ways in which God can speak, but how is he talking to you? They have on the desk in front of them the New Testament at that moment in time. And I say that is the very important way that God is presently choosing to talk to us young people, all of us, don't simply open what's on your lap at this moment and say this is a Bible.
And this has words in it.
Try to open it and say God is now going to speak to me and I want to listen to what he has to say. We need to recognize that this is not just a book as men speak of books, but it is the word of the living God. It is that word which in Genesis one he said, let there be light and there was light. That's the power of God speaking.
When you open this book, it's not just a book, it's God speaking to us with the same power that he was using when he said let there be light and there was light. And we want to respond to it as God has spoken. And it's a tremendous thing whether all that was said the last few minutes.
Seem too technical or whatever.
That's not open it up and let God speak and listen. It's God speaking to you. Personally, I love the way, uh, we read and umm, the 17th chapter of Acts and there we read starting with the 11Th verse. The one thing that was so significant there was to see the word readiness of mind. Let's just read that for a minute and, uh.
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That's Acts 17, verse 11, and I love the practical way it's brought before us here, that it might be that which is real, that which we might make our own, that's which we might be very part of us. But these were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they receive the word with all readiness of mind and search the Scriptures, whether those things were sold and the thought here of that readiness of mind. What is my.
Attitude when I come to the Word of God. The power of the Word of God.
The word by which he made the world's his powerful word.
There is no exception to that. It's the unerring word of God that we.
Hold in our hand, beloved brethren, and may it have.
That effect upon us as we read it, that here we find the truth, we don't have anything such a thing as opinions, man's opinion, and I may add this, this is not God's opinion. Someone once said to me, you know, the real definition of the word opinion is it's a judgment or belief based upon insufficient evidence to give certainty, but there is nothing about the word of God.
That is such as that. It is the final word, It is the only word God hath spoken, and how good it is, if my attitude is to melt before His word, to bow to His Word, and there I'll learn the secret, even in this life of a happy life, you cannot neglect the word of God and prosper. It cannot be, and it it needs to be taken not so much as a duty.
But as the delight of the heart, that's what we need to cultivate. So I don't have much desire to read the word. Read it anyhow, even though it's just 5 minutes a day. But pick up the book. You know, I travel around and ask people if they're reading the scriptures. Oh, sometimes.
You just sometimes eat a meal.
Or do you eat on a regular basis? You know, we take care of our bodies better than we take care of our souls. How much time does it take to read a chapter? I've calculated the number of times 5 or 6 minutes you can read through a chapter.
Take time, it takes decision. I really believe that there is an effort of the enemy to keep us away from the book. I notice it in the morning when I get up so often, one thing and another, a phone call, and I always forget about this and I've got to do it.
One thing at another end, the Word of God gets put to one side. Don't let that happen. Make it a habit of your life, the joyful habit of giving the book open before you and reading it, and not in a hurry.
Let God speak to you in the reading of His precious Word. Sometimes I have to read it over several times until I get what the Lord may be saying to me. Oh, how important that is.
Those on the way to Damascus in Acts Chapter 9, Speaking of the Word and the life for us.
Paul, of course, or Saul, of course. It really wasn't with the attitude that.
He would read the scriptures to get.
Something from the Lord, as he was going there to persecute the Lord on the way to Damascus.
And in verse five the Lord appears to him.
Well in verse four he says Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou may. And then in verse five, who are you, so to speak? Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus.
I am Jesus.
Now go down to verse seven. There were some with him, and the men which journeyed with him stood speechless. They heard a voice.
Saying no, ma'am, Well, we can read the scriptures like that and hear a voice and not see the man and it won't make much sense to us. It just doesn't come alive. But this is the word of God that tells us about a person and that's what brings it alive to our souls.
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Verse in Isaiah.
Just to go along with the the expectations that we've heard with regard to reading the word Isaiah.
342016 Seek ye out the book of the Lord, and read. Seek ye out the book of the Lord, and read.
Christian who does not read the scriptures daily.
Will be a Christian that will not grow. It's as simple as that. So we need to seek out the book of the Lord and read. Read it with attention. Read it carefully and prayerfully. Read it with the Spirit of Mary sitting at Jesus feet and receiving his word. If you take it up as a task, it'll be like a task. We need to read it as if we're living with a friend.
Read it as a message from the Lord to you. Then it becomes real.
And a delight to your soul. You know, Don was speaking earlier about some of the things that made the Lord Jesus.
A happy and blessed man I could add to that one. That is in Psalm 1.
He's there, the blessed man. And what does blessed mean? It means to be happy. And what is it that delights the heart of the man in Psalm One? He delights in the word of the Lord. And so I believe from that Scripture that the Lord Jesus, uh, drank in and delighted in the Scriptures, the word of God, and that was a source of his joy. And we need that too. It's going to give us the power and purpose in our life to, to live the Christian life. And so seek ye out the book of the Lord.
Ann Reed.
I'd like to add one more thought on it from Deuteronomy chapter 8.
There's the children of Israel and they're just about to enter the land, and the Lord is reviewing with them the 40 years they spent in the wilderness.
And explaining to them some of the reasons why he did what he did.
And uh, one of the reasons is quite connected with the Word of God. He says to them in chapter 8 and verse 2.
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God LED thee these 40 years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, and to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or no. And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with the Manna which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know that He might make thee know that. And now here's the point, that I want that He might make thee know that man does not live by bread alone.
But by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.
The new life that we have in Christ feeds on the Word. We're going to have physical food at lunch time for our physical bodies, but right now God is giving us spiritual food to feed the life that He has given to us. And when we get home to glory, we are going to continue to feed upon Himself.
By his word, and it's as it says here, man shall not live by bread alone. The children of Israel, why did the Lord allow hunger in their lives in cases? Because they thought they could live by bread alone. And they thought, you know, we don't really like the manna type. We'd rather have something like we had in Egypt. And they wanted to feed on that kind of food. And the Lord said, you know, you did, you tried.
And I made you hungry. I allowed you to have a hunger. And if you are in this room this morning and you have a hunger, it may be from God because you're seeking your food from some other source than from Himself. And He purposefully has allowed you to have the hunger that is in your soul, that no physical food will satisfy, no pleasure of man will satisfy.
But only himself by his word can bring about the satisfaction that the soul needs. And so he presents that you see it in the temptation of the Lord Jesus. He had been purposefully of God allowed to be without food for 40 days. He's taken into the wilderness and the first temptation presented to him is here's food.
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Won't you? Or I should say here, you're God. You're the Son of God. Give yourself some food.
The temptation of Satan. The intent of the temptation was to take the Lord Jesus out of the dependent place of a man and exercise his Godhead power, and then he would have no longer been in the place that man should be in as a as before God.
But the point that the Lord Jesus answers him from these words is, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And so he would not act even in necessary food without the word. And brethren, it's God's pattern for us as well. We need the food, I almost want to say.
To add to what Bruce said and take it one more step.
You not only won't grow, but you'll starve.
You'll starve. You'll go into a condition of starvation if you do not feed on the word of God.
So if we could summarize now the difference between word and words and make it simple. Perhaps overly simple, but sometimes it's helpful to just get it in its kernel. Uh, His word is the general import of the mind of God.
Words are the specific details of the mind of God. And as Jim was saying, we may not always have a specific scripture, uh, as according to the words for something, but we always have the word, the general import of God's mind. An example of that would be in James chapter 4 and verse 65. It says, do you think that the Scripture saith in vain the spirit that dwelleth in US lusteth to envy?
He's not quoting a specific scripture here, but he's saying the scripture as a general import.
Where would you ever find in the Bible, somewhere where the Spirit of God would encourage someone to lust, to envy? That's what he's saying. It's not a specific quote from the Old Testament somewhere or in the New Testament that James is referring. He's using. He's Speaking of the Word and it's general import.
So that might be an example of that.
We sing 22 in the appendix.
Hymn #22 in the appendix.
The Holy.
One and.
From our hearts in the confines.
John 17:14-
Reading
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John 17.
Well, let's start from verse 14 again.
I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world.
Even as I am not of the world, I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word.
Is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, Even so have I also sent them into the world.
And for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also. It shall believe on me through their word.
That they all may be one, as thou Father art in me and I am thee, That they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I am them, and Thou and me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that Thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.
Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me, for I am.
But they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me.
For thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee. And these have known that thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto them thy name.
And we'll declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
Having the opportunity to listen in on a prayer for one who loves us, Praying for us to the Father on our behalf.
Just reminded of the verse in James 516. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
When the Lord Jesus was here in this world, in his pathway, he was hated, wasn't he?
In fact, he was hated without a 'cause it says they hated me without a cause. He was one and the only one who went about in a perfect pathway. Did the will of God His Father dispense blessing on every hand?
And they hated him. And we can't expect any better treatment than the Lord Jesus got.
If we're going to live for his glory here in this world, so often there's this thought amongst believers that we need to try to fit in and be accepted. And we want that acceptance. Sometimes said to young people, it's not wrong to be to desire to be accepted, but who's acceptance do we really want? And so the Lord Jesus says to the disciples, they'll they'll hate you, they've hated me, they'll hate you, said another place. The servant is not greater than his Lord.
And brethren, in the measure in which you and I live for God's glory here, reflecting something of the glories of Christ in our lives, in the measure in which where we walk as a heavenly sanctified people they are the world is going to hate us. They're not going to understand. We can't expect better treatment than the Lord Jesus got here. And so he in the end of the first or the middle of the 14th verse, and the world hath hated them.
They hated the Lord Jesus. Now, are you and I looking for any better treatment? Not that we go out and look for opportunities to be hated, or we look for opportunities to be persecuted or reproached, but in the measure I say, in which you and I are faithful and reflect something of our Savior in our lives, the world is going to reject us.
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John and his epistle explains this a little bit more.
Let's turn to it. It's in first John chapter 4.
First John chapter 4 and verse 9, Whoso is born of God does not commit sin.
For his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin.
I'm sorry first, thank you first John chapter 3. I'll start over first John three and verse 9. Whosoever is born of God does not commit Sid for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
And this is the message that ye have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother, and wherefore slew he him, because his own works were evil, and his brothers righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world.
Hates you.
That is, while it's not so apparent on the surface.
There's two systems in this world today, and only two really. There's that which has Satan behind it, and there's that which has God the Father behind it, that which has Satan behind it. As it says the whole world in the chapter 5, the whole world lieth in the wicked one.
The Lord said to some to whom he spoke, who hated him, Ye are of your Father, the devil. That is the source of that hatred within them which was in them, but it was instigated by Satan. And that system of things that we keep calling the world is that system which has Satan behind it, which stands in all that opposes what is of the Father, whose delight and glory is to magnify and honor His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And consequently Cain as the picture who was really the 1St man that belonged to the world. The world began with Cain. He was one who saw his brother righteous and he wicked and it caused him to hate him. Sad isn't it? But I mean the world has a saying misery loves company and consequently.
Saint Cain looking at a righteous brother.
Knowing what he was in himself, he couldn't stand it. He said I hate him and it caused him to rise up in murder against him. And in reality the world has said to God, we will not have your Son away with him, and consequently that which he represents and that which speaks of righteousness.
Condemns what's wicked to live a righteous life in an unrighteous world speaks to the conscience of people, and they don't like it in reality. And so they want to get rid of or have a hatred, whether it's seen or not, outwardly it's there. I don't really like they might use that word. I don't really like that person. Why not? Because that person's life.
Stands in a condemnation of their own.
But if you, as it's been also said, the world likes the fruit, but it doesn't like the root. That is if people do nice things to other people and from a Christian that fruit of is OK, but if it connects itself with its root, which is the Lord Jesus, then it's no, we don't want it.
Chapter 15 it says in verse 19 if you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world that I have chosen you out of the world.
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On account of this, the world hates you.
They want what, 4 words, their agenda, and it's directly contrary to God and His Word. So it is characteristic of the believer in the Lord Jesus that He is.
Heavenly.
We are not of this world, and that's something that we need to live in the enjoyment of. Brethren. We are in this world, but we're not of it.
Just seems like there's been a real push on the part of Christians at large to get involved in political process.
And so often you say you don't get involved in that. They really look down on you. It's really looked on as your Christian duty to get involved into political affairs.
But we if we understand our position, we are ambassadors. An ambassador is never to take part in the politics of the country where he lives. He is only there to represent the country from where he comes. We are men of heavenly birth and we are to represent heaven and represent Christ. And like has been said, if they rejected the Lord Jesus.
They're going to reject and hate us as well.
We need to be careful not to make ourselves hated, but like Jim said that to live.
Uh, as representatives of the Lord Jesus, just think how he passed through this world dispensing, blessing everywhere he went, dispensing, blessing, and yet he was hated. That's what we need to do too. You need to be occupied with good works.
Good work, Sir, very much a part of the Christian life.
But that doesn't mean that they will like us.
Paul spoke of himself as an ambassador in bonds. Interesting expression, isn't it? Because usually an ambassador has diplomatic immunity, and if it, if he does something he shouldn't, usually there's a reprimand or whatever, but he has diplomatic immunity. But Paul didn't have diplomatic immunity, did he? He was hated for his testimony and the truth that he presented, and he ended up in prison as a result.
Maybe I could just say this too about an ambassador. It's often been pointed out that there are three things that characterize an ambassador.
If we send an ambassador from Ottawa to Washington, like Bob said, he is to represent, to portray to the American people the image that we as Canadians desire to portray to the American people. And if he doesn't do that, we reserve the right to recall him after remonstrating with him. That's really what the sin unto death is that John speaks of in his epistle. It's really the recalling of the ambassador.
A Christian may act in such a way to sow disgrace, Christ in heaven that he may be recalled, he may be taken home to heaven. But the other thing, two things that an ambassador does is, one, he takes up the interests of his own people in that country that he's representing. If I go to a country where there's political and civil unrest, I'm encouraged to register at the Canadian consulate or embassy. And if there's a problem while I'm in that country.
I can go to the embassy or they will try to ferret me out wherever I'm in trouble, and they take up my interest because I'm a fellow citizen. Brethren, we're here not to just to represent Christ, but to take up the interests of our fellow citizens, other members of the family of God. We ought to have a care one for another. And the other thing an ambassador does is he tells the requirements of becoming a citizen of his country.
If I want to become an American citizen, I can go to the American Embassy in Ottawa and they will give me the instructions, the paperwork, maybe help walk me through the detailed of applying for American citizenship. We're here to tell others how they can be citizens of heaven, but that's all we're here to do. We're not of this world. Suppose our ambassador showed up at a polling station in Washington on Election Day. Why they laugh at him.
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They say, they say you're not a citizen of this country. You're here, but you're a citizen of another country. And to take up interests of other of your own citizens, they wouldn't let them vote for one moment. Brethren, why do we become so entangled with the things of this world? It's because we forget that we are citizens of heaven. They are not of this world, even as I am not of this world.
Now notice the Lord doesn't pray that we'll be taken out of the world, but that will be kept in it. I want to just in that regard, notice a well known portion in the book of Titus.
Because we talk about, we've talked about not being of the world and that which we ought to be involved in. And maybe I hear someone say, well, how do we get through then? What is our responsibility left here? And I've got to go to work, I've got to go to school, I've got operate in the community where God has placed me and so on. But there's some good instruction for us in Titus chapter 2. I'll start reading at verse 11. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation has appeared to all men.
Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts. Now notice this, We should live soberly, righteously and godly. When brethren in this present world or this present age, you know, we might say, well, it's pretty bad. The world system is so bad today and things are true, are darkening morally and spiritually over the Western world every day. And it is a difficult day.
But brethren, we can left here in this world with the resources we have in Christ, we can on the one hand deny that which is unholy. We grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts.
And then grace teaches us to live soberly, righteously, godly. When right now, in this present age, right at the end of 2009 and of 2010 dawns in a few days, there will be the resources to live in this present age, in this present system of things, no matter how bad or how dark it has become. We don't have to compromise. You say it's a different day from our fathers and grandfathers.
It's a different day from the early brethren. It's a different day from Paul and John. Yes, it is. But the resources are the same. And wherever we find ourselves in our history, we can live in this way. And then he adds something. Looking, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing, looking beyond the present evil world, the the present world, the present age. We have to work. Someone, I think it was Nick quoted that verse earlier. Where there is no vision, the people perish or cast off restraint.
Why is it we get so entangled in the world? Why is it we settle down here?
Because we don't have the future in view. There's another world, brethren.
And we can live for God's glory now with that other world in view.
With the looking for the Lord's coming and looking for the glorious appearing in the Kingdom and all that is ahead.
When Christ has his full exaltation, if we have that before our souls and a sense of grace, we're gonna live in this way now. Not because he takes us out of the world, but because we have the resources to live in this present world.
And so we have the Son's place before the Father, but we now have the Son's place here in the world. Tell me, well, that's what defines our place here. If we could just turn to a couple of verses. Romans 15 is to elaborate the character of the world's hatred of the believer.
Romans 15 and verse 3 quoting the 69th Psalm.
For even Christ pleased not himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproach thee.
Fell on me.
We know there was enmity in the heart of man toward God, but if we can say respectfully, man couldn't get at God, the enmity that lay within his heart. But when the Lord Jesus came into this world as that dependent and perfect man, all the enmity of man's heart vented itself against the Son of God. They now had one in whom they could heap every insult and every indignity against, and he felt it perfectly. All the hatred of man's heart against God, indeed against the Father, was felt.
00:20:00
By the sun, and now with the sun going on high as we have in our chapter, we are left here.
In his place here in this world, and Paul takes up this place that reproaches now that would fall on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who's now gone on high are directed towards his own that are left here in this world. If we could also turn to a verse in Proverbs chapter 16, a well known scripture, but we might say, well, how do we reconcile this verse with everything that we've heard with respect to the world's enmity?
Proverbs 16 and verse 7.
When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Perhaps the keyword here in this verse is His enemies. That is, there's things that you and I can do.
They can bring the wrath of man upon us. Perhaps it's our unkindness, our rudeness, our lack of consideration, whatever it might be, that will heat to ourselves. Enemies. I can create enemies on my own.
And if my ways were in fact pleasing to the Lord, there are many things that I would not feel the ire and disdain of man about because my ways are pleasing to the Lord. And so in that case, we can ask ourselves when there's opposition, whether it's from a fellow believer or some in the world, maybe there is something in my life that is not honoring to the Lord. And the way I know that is because of this opposition that I'm getting. But that's quite a different thing from being here in the sun's place and having that enmity of the world against me.
Because I'm not of the world, because I'm not part and parcel of the agenda of this world. So I just mentioned those things to distinguish. This has already been alluded to, those that might be opposed to us or to me with respect to our ways. But here it has to do with us being in the son's place in his absence here in the world.
Verse 15 That thou shouldst keep them from the evil. Here we have the Son as a man praying to the Father that we might be kept from the evil. How does the Father do that? How are we kept from the evil that is in the world? I'd like to comment on that in the last few verses of John's first epistle and 1St John chapter 5.
It says at the very end of the Epistle, verse 18.
We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and the wicked one touches them Not. Just gonna comment as we go along in these verses.
What he's saying is God has given to us a perfect life in nature, and just as the Lord Jesus as a man in this world could not be touched by the evil because there was nothing in his life that responded to it, the evil one could not touch him. So in us there is a life that cannot be touched by the evil because it does not respond to it. And so that provision.
Has been given to us. Then he goes on to say, and we know that we are of God.
And the whole world lieth in wickedness. It's important. We've had it before us. We might suspect that the world is not so bad. It's uh, yeah, it's got its problems, but it's. But God, if we're listening to what he's saying to us today, he's telling us the world is bad. In fact, it's controlled by the wicked one. And so we need that knowledge to be kept, uh, there keeping.
And God keeping us involves understanding and attachment to the Lord.
So then in verse 20 he says, And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding.
That we may know him. That is true. Satan is the father of lies.
We have to have the truth to be kept from the evil of what is presented to us. That's really a lie. And the world is just one big lie. It's just one big lie. It promises what it can't deliver, and it promises in a way that appeals to the fallen nature that is within man. And so it appeals. Satan uses the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.
To keep his goods in peace and in *******. And so the world is really a place of ******* that man is in. And yet it says of us, we know him that is true. We are in him, is true even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. And then I particularly want to notice the last verse. Little children or just children, keep yourselves from idols. What draws this into the world?
00:25:28
We have a fallen nature still within us that is attracted.
By its character, what's in us to something or other that this world has to offer us, and behind it is evil. And so we are given this final exhortation. Keep yourselves from idols. A brother at home likes to make this statement.
Christ will keep you from the world, or the world will keep you from Christ.
That is, if I allow something to be more important to me that the world has to offer.
In effect, Satan uses it to make an idol out of it and draws my heart away from the Father and the Son. On the other hand, the Father draws my heart to the Son and to Himself.
In a way that will spoil the world for me. And so the Lord Jesus was that perfect man who was always drawn by the Father. Nothing that the world had to offer was an attraction to his heart, and there was no idolatry there.
When he speaks of sanctification here, this is practical sanctification.
To read Scripture, God would have us to, to distinguish the difference between, uh, what is positional sanctification? What is practical sanctification? Talking to somebody before the meeting and of these two things, I said, actually a scripture does have three different aspects of sanctification. There is first of all absolute and a positional sanctification and we've already spoken about that. That's.
What God does when we are saved, we are set apart for Him. But then practical sanctification, which is what our chapter has before us, is a perfecting of holiness in our lives, and God uses various means to accomplish that. There's about seven different places that I found in the New Testament that emphasize practical sanctification. It's also called progressive. So if you've read the various books and wonder what these different words are.
Sometimes.
Will use different words to designate the same thing and it can be confusing, but just remember that positional or absolute sanctification is one and the same. Then progressive or practical is the working of setting ourselves apart from evil in this world through having an object before our souls. But then as as I said, there is also in the New Testament the mention of a couple times where there is what we might call relative.
Or external sanctification. And what I'm talking about now is when a person is set apart, but not by a work of God, but he set apart because he's in a clean place, he is looked at as being sanctified in an external way. And the example that I could point to would be in First Corinthians Chapter 7, when there is a mixed marriage, husband or wife is saved and the other is not the unbelieving husband, it tells us there is sanctified.
And then in Hebrews 10 we have it again with regard to the nation of Israel, that is, those who had taken Christian position by profession, but there was not reality if they were to go back against it. He warns them there that they could, that they were sanctified by the blood of the covenant, but not by any inward real work of faith.
Only because of the position that they took in meeting with the Christian company if they were to return to the.
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To the temple and all of its order, they would be apostasy, apostatizing. So I just mentioned that because when you read Scripture, you kind of need to know the context that you're looking at and and understand.
Which aspect of sanctification is before you here? As I say, is is the is practical sanctification.
Would that be the case in verse 19 as well?
Yes.
I believe so.
It's interesting in verse 19 when he says, for their sakes, I sanctify myself.
What he was referring to is that he was going to return to his father. He would no longer be with them. He was going to set himself apart from them.
And go on high to carry on his intercessory work as a high priest. But it is interesting if you go back to chapter 10, that you'll find that, uh, he sanctified himself to come into the world.
Let's read that now, chapter 10 and verse 36, say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world.
And so on. So the Lord Jesus was set apart to come into this world for a purpose, to to act and to live for to display the heart of God the Father and to accomplish redemption. But now having looked at least taking the position that he is in this chapter, as if the work has all been done, He now speaks about sanctifying himself and going back to His Father and leaving the disciples here. And the purpose for it was to give them an object for their hearts.
To be occupied with that would draw them away from this world. So He uses His Word and Himself as the two great means to affect practical sanctification in the life of the believer. His Word would exercise us with regard to things that may be in our lives. And as we read it it, it lays bare the heart and the conscience and the motives are laid bare, and we see things in ourselves that we never realized before. And God, of course, manifest these things as we handle the Word.
To bring us to a judgment above that, but also outside of ourselves, the Lord Jesus.
Is now on high in the glory as an object for our hearts, and the more we are drawn after Him.
And taken up with his beauty, the more the world will grow strangely dim. So these two things are used to accomplish practical sanctification in our, our lives. Bruce, would that explain, uh, Romans 5 verse 10 for it when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son that set the cross. Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
That's his life and.
As our intercessor in the presence of God, his life on high, isn't it?
What would you do without that?
I was just going to say, what would we do without that? We're saved by his life. We can't do without that. Intercessing one in the presence of the Father on high.
But we're not isolationist to be sanctified or set apart doesn't mean that we go up and live in some on some mountain as an isolationist or in some monastery or something like that. Because it's interesting that the Lord Jesus is the sanctified one was sent into the world and who was more accessible than the Lord Jesus in his pathway here? They could come, parents could bring their children and he took them up and blessed them. He could sit at meet with different ones. He touched the leper and healed them and cleanse them and.
The years of the death, and he sat in the House of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and so on.
He wasn't. He didn't walk a path of isolation, he walked a path of separation.
But they're two very different things. And it's interesting in this prayer that on the one hand he speaks of them, of them being sanctified, and he speaks of practical sanctification, but he says he's sending them into the world.
As the Father sent me into the world, he's sending them into the world. And so, brethren, we're here to walk a path of separation.
From evil, But we are also here as sent into the world to be a testimony to represent Christ, to take up His interest all the things that we have been Speaking of.
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So there is a path of separation for us. We need to walk in practical holiness and sanctification.
But it's not isolation. He doesn't speak of being sent into the world.
On his behalf, in the way of testimony, until he has spoken first of practical sanctification through the truth. I think that order is significant.
Will be no testimony for the Lord at all if we're going on with some evil.
There needs to be the working of practical sanctification, and then the the testimony that we will render, of course, will be bright and powerful and strong as a bright and shining light.
That word in the end of verse 17 I find helpful. Thy word is truth.
There you have truth.
Absolutely.
Uh, the Lord Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life there it is in his absolute quality as well in first John chapter 5.
It is interesting that you have it there.
And then, uh, Mr. Darby's translation at the end of the verse, it says for the spirit capital S is.
The truth there it is absolute as well.
And it's interesting in UMM.
Jeremiah 1010 in the Old Testament.
I'm gonna read it in the Darby translation as well. It says but Jehovah Elohim is truth.
God is truth. It's the true God. He's known as the true God.
It's interesting all those places you have the truth used in its absoluteness.
That, but beyond which there is no appeal. It is the Absolute, It is the final word. There is such a thing as truth in US, brethren, but we cannot.
Say that that's absolute in umm John chapter or third John, the apostle speaks to gas and he says, uh, in verse 3. For I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee. Thank God if the truth is in us, that's what should be the case.
But I think it is important when we speak, sometimes we use that word, the truth.
And sometimes I fear we make ourselves a reference point in connection with it, and people look at us and they say the truth. What is that I see?
And there are things that don't relate to the truth in US, brethren.
So it's important when we speak of the truth and it's absoluteness to.
Now we're referring to the Word of God, to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our God is the true God.
I thought that the definition of truth is just simply God's viewpoint.
But he has expressed it, he has spoken, so we know his viewpoint and that's what we have in front of us here, says what we're doing.
Looking at the truth of the Word of God.
And then you can't get it anywhere else.
That's an interesting verse in 2nd Corinthians 13, isn't it? Uh.
Maybe we can read it because it's an important verse.
2nd Corinthians 13 verse eight. For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.
If a man lives as a transgressor, he's going to prove the truth that the way of the transgressor is hard. He will just prove the truth of God. You live according to the truth of God. You're going to prove the blessedness of it too. So whatever way you go, you only prove the truth of God.
00:40:05
Why are we told?
Alright, valuable Freddie, Gold or silver?
Why the truth of teleconference? Valuable thing we've got down here.
Rich and truth came by Jesus Christ.
Still have grease, you still have truth. The Lord Himself is up there and He abides the truth, and he words the truth, and the Spirit is truth. You can't lose the truth if we want it.
I remember in high school one time my UH math teacher said that the Lord Jesus stood before Pilate and he asked him what is truth?
And the Lord didn't give him an answer, so we don't know what truth is.
It just, I was young and I, I sure wish you'd ask that question now. He had truth standing before him because truth is the exact representation of what is.
We don't say God is truth, but we say that the Lord Jesus could say I am the way, the truth and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father, but by me it wasn't. It wasn't really the Lord Jesus on trial, was it? It was pilot on trial. He condemned the truth, and in doing so He condemned Himself. To receive the truth takes a state of soul, which Pilate didn't have.
So why answer him? And sometimes we'll get in a position like that in dialogue that there's no use carrying on the conversation.
Sometimes people will leave the Lord's table and they think that they've taken the truth with them. What can you say? They they go out ridiculing the very essence of truth.
That there is no truth. It's up to my choice.
I mean, somebody could read John one verse 14 of the Long Blessings said.
Go ahead.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.
The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
And it's singular too, isn't it? We speak about truth and we understand what we mean, various aspects of the truth, but we find that the truth is singular because it rises and falls together. If a person rejects one statement of the word of God, they really bring into question the whole truth of God. If you question one thing that I tell you, you have every right to question another thing. And so we need to take the truth as as a as a whole. That's why it's such a serious thing to add or take away from the word of God.
If you add to what has been what God has said, well, you're questioning the truth. Has God really presented it all?
In its fullness, if you take away from it, as I say, you're really undermining the very foundation.
It's like a man came to a reading meeting one time and umm, he was.
Asking some questions in that connection. And he was saying, I think they were reading in First Corinthians and they were talking about the head covering. And he said, oh, that was just Paul's opinion and that was just what Paul thought. And so an older brother who was at the reading meeting very wisely said to this man, what do you base your salvation on? And the man said, I base it on Acts 16. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
And this older brother said to him, if that if it was just Paul's opinion as to a head covering in First Corinthians, how do you know it wasn't just Paul's opinion there in Acts 16?
And he made the point, I believe, that if you bring into question one statement or one word.
00:45:00
You brought it all in. You brought everything into question. And when we talk about the truth, we need to realize that it is the truth in its entirety. And that's why it's important to earnestly contend for the faith again. It's the truth of God that was once delivered to the Saints, and we need to tenaciously hold on to the whole truth of God that He has revealed to us.
That would be the truth as it is in Jesus.
John One verse 17 had it before, but I'm going to read it again. And Mr. Darby's translation for the law was given by Moses. Grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ. When we're talking about the truth this afternoon, we're really not talking about what?
People call facts on things that man discovers.
Water is composed of two elements, hydrogen and oxygen, and so on. Those are facts, those are knowledge. But man is not able in himself ever to discover by himself truth. Man learns, he discovers more, he knows more.
And but he's ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. He's not. It's not in man to be able to discover truth by himself. And so this verse tells us that in the history of man, truth had never been fully known or made known to mankind until Jesus Christ the sun comes into the world.
It's the word subsist, that is, in its reality, for the first time ever, truth from God as a revelation had been brought into the world and made known to us and maintained in His Person, as was already said it. Truth is the perfect expression of what is, and the Lord Jesus Christ is for us the perfect.
Revelation and expression and maintainer of that which will be and is for all eternity.
And without him, we would never know it. We would never have that knowledge of what is.
It is as God reveals it to us. Was saying to somebody earlier. There's really only two ways to know anything.
Either by your own experience or by the testimony of someone else, those are the only two ways that we know things. And so every one of us has learned certain things that we have experienced. And so it's within us to say, well, I know that. Do we know it as a universal? No, We only really know it with respect to ourselves and somebody else or some other people around us, and we may share it.
But when it comes to other facts as we call them, or truth as we use that expression.
Who in this room knows that Abraham Lincoln ever existed?
Not one of us can say we know he existed by personal experience. The only way we know that such a person ever existed is if we choose to accept what others have said to us, and thereby we know well what we know as truth that is before us is what God has chosen to tell us.
And to reveal to us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And man in unbelief chooses not to accept what God says, and therefore he accepts the lie of Satan. And he never knows truth, but we know it absolutely in our from God, and we can rest in that which is say I know what truth is, I know the truth.
I know the Lord Jesus Christ and it will never change. And that Do I know God? Yes, I know God. How do I know him?
I have him fully expressed to me in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that way we have a, a foundation, a bedrock of certainty. Uh, make one other comment that God also uses concerning his truth to us. Suppose a brother says something in this room this afternoon and a moment or two later another brother says something else. And if they don't quite align with each other.
00:50:19
And it's happened this weekend. Whether we all noticed it or not, things have been said that aren't perfectly the same or consistent with each other.
What does the Spirit of God do? The Spirit of God will confirm in the soul that which is from God as truth, and will not confirm it.
If it is not the truth, and so if we are subject to the the Spirit within us, then we don't have to contend for truth. The Spirit of God is that which makes it good in our souls and gives us the certainty or the inward conscious knowledge that what it is is true.
And so, brethren, God has made a wonderful provision for us to know Him.
And to know Him with certainty, not hoping that maybe we have a right idea of God or all the things that this world never knows anything with certainty. Science never discovers anything with absolute certainty. Never. It is always subject to re examination and evaluation and new viewpoints and so on. And the world has come to believe that everything is relative and nothing is absolute. And so they say, the truth is what you make of it or what you perceive it to be.
That's all the lie of Satan. It is not. Truth is, and truth is revealed, and truth is that which sets us apart from all that is a lie.
And so you have to start with God, don't you? Otherwise you are lost.
So it says even connected with truth knowledge in proverbs it says the fear of the Lord.
Is the beginning of knowledge. It also says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. No one puts knowledge in its right or has wisdom unless it begins with giving God his right place.
And respect.
You'll never have anything as you should have it. You'll never understand anything. You'll never walk in anything I say you. I'm of course including myself. None of us will walk in anything rightly or even understand anything rightly, if it does not begin with putting the Lord in His right place of respect before our souls as well as recognizing our relationship to Him.
The Lord is that which puts us into a relationship one with another, and that is the beginning of knowledge.
We have 15 minutes, brother, and, uh, let's see if we can get down to the last portion of the chapter 2. Uh, so precious, these things, so important, so necessary.
I don't mean to curtail you, Brother Don.
We don't want to miss, as Bob said, the last section of this prayer which is really from verse 22 to the end. Maybe we can just reiterate what was said as to this prayer in three different sections. In the first section, the 1St 5 verses we had, we said the Father glorified in the Son. I have glorified thee on the earth and finished the work which thou gave us to me to do.
In verses 6 through 21 we have Christ glorified in the Saints and we spent a great deal of time talking about that and how the Lord Jesus is not here in this world the way He was when he walked to the glory of God the Father.
But He's left us behind, so that they, those glories might be, might shine out in our lives now. But in this last section we have the the Saints glorified with Christ. Not to skip over, but just let me read the 24th verse. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou gavest me. For thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.
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Isn't it wonderful, brethren, to think that just as the Father is perfectly set forth in the Son?
So there's a day when Christ will be perfectly set forth in his people.
He's coming to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that are about Him in that day.
We don't always reflect now the glories of Christ like we ought to. There are things that come in to hinder the outshining of Christ in our lives. But the day is coming, brethren, when we're going to fully reflect unhinderedly.
The glories of Christ and that ought to encourage and thrill our hearts because the glory given to Christ as a man.
He has secured and will share with His own for all eternity. And we need to dwell on this a little bit. At the end of this meeting, we're going to go back home from these wonderful meetings. Going to be a lot of difficulties, a lot of things to discourage, to distract us, to cause shadows and shades to come into our lives. But to think, brethren, that there's a day coming when we're going to be there with that glorified man, and we're gonna be have bodies of glory like unto his body of glory.
And then the day's gonna come when we're gonna appear in glory with him, and when he appears, we're gonna be with him and we're gonna be like him and we're gonna see him as he is, and so on. I think it's a tremendous encouragement at the end of these meetings.
Before we leave verse 21, just like to.
Share a thought that I have enjoyed very much. Talks here again about the oneness of the Lord's people, that they all may be one, as Thou Father art in me, and I in Thee communion. But it's for testimony that they also may be one in US, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me.
I really enjoyed thought that Brother Chuck Hendricks used to give in the book of the Acts at the beginning of the church's history. There was a fulfillment of the Lord's Prayer this way, and I think it's in the 4th chapter of the book of Acts.
And, umm.
Verse 32 it says and the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul. So there was a fulfillment for that moment of the Lord's Prayer and of course it's going to be fulfilled in glory again, wonderful brethren, to see that that's His desire for us and we should act in consistency with.
That desire, we live in a day when there's a lot of religious confusion amongst those that, uh, are called by the name of the Lord Jesus. And we need to, even though there is that confusion to go on in view of the truth of God, that's his desire for us and the time is going to come when we will all be one.
You have to look at her either in her beginning.
In the Axe, as you pointed out, or at the end of John's ministry in Revelation, he presents her there.
In a future day in the her millennial glory as the city reigning with Christ, and coming down over the earth, and there every gate with several was every gate was a Pearl, and every Pearl several Pearl was one Pearl.
And so you see her in her unity and her beauty again. But what's in between what you read to us in Acts and what John presents to us at the end, isn't always a oneness. It isn't always, as we would say, a pretty picture.
Lot of failure has come in, and brethren, we have to hang our heads and admit that we are part of that failure and ruin that has come in and the outward disunity that we see in Christians in different pockets and fellowships of Christendom. But again, brethren, to look on to that day, we're going to be there with the glorified man and we're going to be in a glorified state. And when the church is presented to this world in a future day, she's presented in all her beautiness.
And all her oneness and unity.
We have both sides of that in verses 21, two and three.
Verse 21 The oneness is that the world may believe In verse 23 the oneness is that the world may know.
01:00:09
In verse 21, the world may believe that he was sent of the Father when it sees those that are his in oneness of testimony and expression. And so does the world believe or does it not Well, when it's a matter of failure, we might say no, the world doesn't believe. It looks at the people of God as a whole and it says I don't know that I want that stuff. I don't there there's is it where it's not a clear statement.
That the Son was sent of the Father into the world, and as to result. But in verse 22 he then says, the glory which thou hast given me, I have given them that they may be one ease. And as we are, one looks onward to the millennial day. And when we are taken home to heaven, then we shall be brought into that safe place of glory with him and association. And then it results in verse 23.
Uh, that the world may know and the world will know. That is when the world sees the Church or the heavenly family, when the world sees that heavenly family in glory and association with himself, there won't be any matter of believing then it will be such a perfect and complete and proper testimony of the truth of the oneness of themselves with himself that the world will simply say we know.
We know. And the world. The coming day, the world is gonna know, and it's going to know when it sees us in that associated glory with himself.
We're not there yet. The prayer, this part of the prayer hasn't come to its answer. It's still future answer to the prayer that was is recorded here for us. But God isn't going to stop short of giving the full answer to what the Lord has asked for absolutely everything that he asks for.
Is according to the will of God and it will have its perfect end result as these verse 23 will be.
We were speaking earlier in the chapter about the different glories of the Lord Jesus. Here in verse 22 it speaks about the glory which thou gavest me. I have given them. Here is an acquired glory which He shares with us.
And then in verse 24 is.
A glory, he says, that they may behold my glory, which thou given me.
For thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. Here is the glory that is given to Him.
An acquired glory, but that W uh, it doesn't say that He will share it with us, but that we will see that glory. I'd like to hear some thoughts about the difference between those two verses. I'm not sure that I understand.
Verse 24 is to tell us about something that is in our future.
That the Lord Jesus gives us one reason why He wants us to be with Himself.
Rather than the scriptures. Doesn't always when it talks about the Lord and his desire, it's always that we might be with Him. He doesn't express it. Oh, I want them to be in heaven.
Heaven wouldn't be heaven if he wasn't there, and his own desire is very personal. It isn't that we live in the same place where he lives.
His desire for us is very intensely individual and collective in this glory sense of it, but it's always to be with Christ. Father. I will that they may be with me.
Is always the primary focus of his own heart, but since he is there where he is, he's saying Father. I want them to be with me where I am.
That they may see that glory which you have given to me. We don't see it now. It has not been made known to us. We're not. It's a family.
Special treasure that is still future for our hearts to look forward to and say, oh the Lord when we're in his presence, then we're going to see something that right now we can't. It's not known to us in its detail, but it is an expression of his own heart as one of the reasons given why.
01:05:12
He wants us to be with himself.
It's precious to our hearts to think that God has given him a glory that is we haven't seen yet. We've seen some of them. We see some of them by faith. But this one is still future and still special. And we will get it when we are with Him.
Get it? It's not the right word. We will get to see you and enjoy it. As Bob said, it's not for it's not our glory, it's his personal.
Acquired glory.
They are like him. We shall know as we are known.
Three things at the end of this chapter that he shares with us. That is very sweet.
In verse 22, he shares redemption glory that his Father gave him with us.
Then in verse 23, he shares the Father's love. Then in verse 24, he shares the place that he has in the Father's presence. That's going to be ours for all eternity.
What a wonderful destiny we have to look forward to.
#18 is the appendix.
And it is so I shall be like thy son #18 is the attendant.
Chapter 3.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 3.
Glass verse.
But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
And then just over in Deuteronomy.
The last chapter.
Moses and uh.
Verse 10.
And there arose not a prophet since in Israel, like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.
And then up in verse seven, and Moses wasn't 120 years old when he died. His eye was not dimmed, nor his natural force abated. This prey, our loving God and our Father.
Gospel 14
Gospel—S. Bambauer
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So the reason I picked that him is in verse three, and you will see the reason for that as we go along. And I want to start with just a verse in Luke's Gospel Chapter 11 and then go to John's Gospel chapter 4 and Luke's Gospel Chapter 11. We see the condition of things in this world.
Verse 21 When a strongman armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace.
Satan is the Prince in power of the air and the God of this world. He has it under lock and key. That's the way he had it, and nobody escaped. But when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor, wherein he trusted and divideth his spoils, so that there is hope.
When I got back from the service.
In about the mid 70s I was working at a little grocery store up in Northern California out in the country, 1975 I believe in a customer came in. I got to talking to now and then. His name was Dean Dickey. He was an 18 year old in 1945 and was in the Army.
And Germany had fallen.
And he has just a boot. Private was one of the first ones into defeated Germany.
And his lot was to come upon a concentration camp. He told me which one, and I don't remember which one it is because there were a number of them.
And certainly Satan occupies his hostages with many entrapments.
So the gates were opened.
And he went in there. He was 18 when he was telling me this. He was in his 50s and said he could not possibly endure.
Such a scene at that age, 55 or so, it affected him, as it were, even when he was 18.
To see the horrors of that the gates were opened.
The gates had been closed.
And they couldn't open them from the inside. There was no there was no escape from there.
But a stronger one came in and overthrew.
And open the gates.
He took some pictures. He brought him down to the store and showed them to me. You could just about put your hands around their waist. Their eyes were vacant and forlorn. They were desperate.
What do you suppose?
As the Allied forces came in there and liberated them and opened the gate.
What do you suppose if in opening those gates and seeing these people in there and giving them the opportunity to come out and to be restored and to gain their health and to have something to eat and to be recovered, they said to those that came to liberate them? Well, it's kind of nice in here. I get a meal now and then my friend is in the bunk next to me.
Along that line.
I think you are getting the similitude pretty well.
We would say that would be the stupidest thing we ever heard, and I can assure you that none of them made that option. They were glad to be freed.
Now we'll go over to John chapter 4.
And we're going to take a look.
Had a woman in a little different situation, but pretty much in the same case.
I'll start at verse.
Three, Jesus left Judea and departed again into Galilee, and he must needs to go through Samaria. Then cometh thee to a city of Samaria, which is called Sikar.
From Judea to Galilee I think is about 40 miles. In Cycar is just about halfway.
And that's a Mediterranean climate. It's hot and dry in the summer.
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There are only a few Mediterranean climates, and that's one of them. And the great Central Valley here in California is another one. It's hot and dry in the summer.
But he went nevertheless.
This was not an accidental trip. He purposed to do this.
This is not an accidental meeting. There's a purpose in this. God wants the good news of the gospel to reach those that are in captivity or that are wandering to and fro, thirsty, not satisfied.
Lost and wandering in their sins.
He came to this city called Saikar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
This had happened.
Probably 1700 years or so before this occasion here. What history over there? I've never been there, but what history?
And what tradition?
Jacob gave to his son Joseph this parcel of ground. Now Jacob's well was there, and Jacob probably drank of that well.
And he was probably refreshed.
But it won't do this woman much good.
We each have to come to Christ on our own, and Jacob having come doesn't help her.
She could get all tingly about the traditions and the history and the background and all of these things.
And although Jacob's well was there, Jesus therefore being wearied.
With his journey 20 miles. Remember, if it's the summertime, it's hot and dry.
Sat thus on the well. How far out of the way did he go in determining this trip to make a rendezvous with the woman that we're about to read of here?
It was about the 6th hour. I guess that's noon.
And that would be a hot time of the day, and perhaps most weren't coming out at that time. This woman was a little embarrassed. There cometh a woman of some area to draw water. She's coming at noon.
The traffic would be light at that time. I don't think she wanted to meet too many people.
Jesus says to her, give me to drink.
His disciples were gone away under the city to buy meat, so he was alone here with this person, an individual private.
Meeting rendezvous. Not an accident, a rendezvous. He knew what he was doing. She is surprised, and so are we. When the Lord is announcing, announcing His presence to us. Sometimes it takes us by surprise.
And there will be a reaction here.
It's just Jesus and the woman, and in this transaction that's to follow, it is Jesus and each one individually.
Not on the coattails of a brother or sister or a relative or a mother or father.
The woman responds.
Says unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, asketh, drink of me, which a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans?
Well, how did they get there?
In 722 BC, the Assyrians overran Israel, the northern Kingdom.
And it was their foreign policy to remove the inhabitants of a land that they had conquered, and they had conquered everything.
From just about the caucuses all the way to Egypt.
They were what you would call the hegemonous nation of the day. All powerful, biggest army. Nobody could stand in their way.
That's the same time that Hezekiah was king and Isaiah was prophet down in Judah, and they also overran most of Judah.
With the exception of a few island cities, one of them being Jerusalem.
And you've read that story before, but our case is up in Samaria, the.
Assyrians then, as I said, would take out the people of the land they conquered and bring bake them to another land that they had conquered, take the inhabitants of the other land and bring them in.
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To northern Kingdom there of Israel. Because if you were you can understand this if you were a cat taken captive by a foreign power.
And you were in your own land. You have a lot more sentiment there to try to rise up in rebellion and get your land back. But if you're taken off and can't even get back to your land, there isn't very much motivation to do that. So it was a tactical genius that worked for the Assyrians in that day.
Go down the road 722 years and here is this descendant.
You know, the Jews and the Sumerians didn't get along very well. If you remember the story, the Samaritans say they brought in the Assyrians, brought in a couple of priests from Israel to teach the Samaritans how to be good Jews.
And that's always hard to do. You might get somebody to teach you how to be a good Christian and put on the garment, but somewhere along the line there's going to be have to be a work in the heart and the conscience for this to be a legitimate transaction. So Jesus answered and said to her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and she didn't. And who it is that saith to thee? And she didn't give me to drink.
Thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living water. He's the only one with that. If you want living water, you'll have to go to the one that has the living water, and that's the Lord Jesus. We try different wells, we try different things. I've done it. I remember being a teenager in my early and in my early 20s, chasing down these different wells and dipping my cup in there.
And going away, always thirsty, never satisfied.
The woman's response to this Oh, if you'd have just asked of me, I would have given the living water. I would give you water, she says. He would give me water. Her answer the woman said unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with.
Do you think of the Lord Jesus that way? That He is insufficient and incapable to meet your thirsty needs? So what are you going to do? Take your little cup and go to the next mud puddle and dip something up there and hope that will suffice?
She says you have nothing to draw with.
And then she says the well is deep.
You know how deep the human soul is. This is indeed a deep well.
Now none can satisfy but the Lord Jesus Himself. She didn't know who he was, and most haven't taken the time to find out either, even today.
And they waddle along from sorrow to sorrow.
From whence then hast thou that living water? How are you going to do this?
How are you going to provide?
For the needs of the depth of my soul, can this be done? She says.
Art thou greater than our father, Jacob? She's going to do some comparisons. She's going to go back. She calls Jacob her father. She takes that place.
Is it hers? She takes it anyway. He gave us the well, she's going to depend upon this traditional.
Provision.
He gave us the well, and drank thereof himself.
And his children and his cattle.
Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.
Well, the Jews and the Samaritans too, by imitation.
We're certainly infatuated with tradition and still are.
So she brings in Jacob and all these accoutrements of history.
But she's going to thirst again. This isn't her first trip.
To that place where she could draw a bucket of water. How many times do we go back to the same place, to the same place, to the same place, only to go home and find out that it does not satisfy? Because nothing in this world can fully satisfy the longing soul and fill this deep well of our bosom. Whosoever drinketh of this water that I shall give him shall never thirst.
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He has the living water. He has the water that satisfies.
But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. You know how Water Works. It seeks its own level.
This water comes from God and springs up, springs up.
Into everlasting life and brings us right into the very presence of God.
In Christ.
To avail ourselves of the provision that God at great expense has made.
For us in our need.
Christ comes down to where we are. He was here, the woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come, hit her to draw. We're making progress.
Psalms 87 verse seven says all my spring.
Are in the Jesus saith unto her, Go call thy husband, and come hit her. The Lord has something else.
He's going to get to the issues, you know, and he's going to do it sooner or later, and it's less painful to do it sooner than later.
We don't hold any secrets from the Lord. He knows this woman and He knows all about her, just as he knows each one of us and all about us. He knows what we've done in secret. He knows what we would like to cover up. He knows what we hope he didn't see. He comes to her, He comes to us. He comes to you nevertheless.
In compassion, and that again at great cost, because this offer cannot be made of eternal.
Water springing up into lasting life unless.
He goes to Calvary's cross.
Jesus, as a man here on earth, could not save us from our sins.
He had to go to Calvary's tree.
It would be.
Cruel to make these offers to her and not be able to deliver. And yet he knew.
What lay ahead and what price had to be paid Because of her sins? Because of my sins? Because of your sins?
There are several facts of life. One as God is, 2 as God has spoken.
Three, as we're responsible.
For us, we have been irresponsible. There's no use talking to me about my responsibility. I've already been irresponsible. God has provided and He has provided that which suits himself.
Jesus, the Son of God, made that journey.
Steadfastly to Jerusalem, knowing what would be before him there.
And they took him.
And all of this has nothing to do with the atoning work. But they took him nevertheless.
And it was mentioned last night how they treated him and put him on that cross. Was that necessary for our salvation, our putting him there, our treatment of him?
Now the noonday sun is darkened.
And stroke upon stroke land upon him as my substitute.
And as that provision for whosoever will.
God has made a provision that suits himself in improving it.
After the Lord Jesus was buried, he raised him from the dead and called him up to see them at his right hand.
To exalt him.
That is the proof of God's acceptance of the sacrifice.
And as we sing, if God is satisfied, we can be satisfied as well.
He knew all of this.
But now.
Just as he would do this evening.
Almost 2000 years later.
He wants to get to the root of the thing.
And we're not going to ask any of you to stand up and confess all of these things publicly that you've done, that you had just soon not confess. But we will ask you to get in the very presence of God and have it out with Him in honesty.
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In an honest man.
Is the noblest work of God.
But we must be honest.
Go call thy husband and come hit her, the woman answered and said, I have no husband.
Jesus said that's true, that's right, so far so good. Thou hast well said, I have no husband.
For thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. In that setst thou truly?
This woman had five husbands.
You're going to have to suffer a few words from a guy that likes history. Go back to 2nd King 17 and we'll take a look.
At the five husbands.
Chapter 17.
Verse 24.
And this goes back to the time that I was telling you of the foreign policy of the Assyrians, and now they're bringing in the other nations whom they've conquered to replace the Jews that live there.
And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon and from.
Coutha and from Ava, that's three. And from Hamath and from Sephirvayum. My, what a coincidence. Five of them. Back to our chapter.
5 husbands.
Five nations.
She descends from.
The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
Our fathers worshipped in this mountain. It's getting hot.
Time to change the subject a little bit. Veer to the left, veer to the right.
Escape. Evade.
See, here's this woman with five husbands going back and forth, back and forth aimlessly. This same fellow, Dean Dickey. Back to Dean Dickey for for a moment.
After the occupation of Germany, he was assigned to motor pool.
18 year old kid.
Germany is in.
It's devastated.
Everything is bombed out. People have lost their homes. They didn't have anywhere to go. Dean is driving this truck from point A to Point BI. Don't know why, it doesn't matter, but he was going down a road. He looks down the road and here is a line of people going this way and they have everything they own in a little sack on their shoulder and they're going this way. As he's driving that way, he looks on the other side of the road and here is a line of people and they're going this way. These are going that way, and these are going this way and it looks at them and they have everything that they own in a little bag on their shoulder.
And the line is about as far as he can see as he's going down this road.
So he stops. He opens the door. Mr.
Where are you going? Where are you going? Guy looks up at him with just blank stare and says. I don't know, but it's got to be better than where I'm coming from.
And so we run to and fro, back and forth from husband to husband, from this thing that tickles to that thing that tickles, never finding a resting place. We live in a sin torn world and that is just a picture of it.
But it's true even in the affluence.
Of Western civilization.
North America. South America, Europe.
And Australia, Christendom, blessed with affluence.
If I may say so.
Running back and forth.
Trying this spouse. Trying that spouse.
That, I'm sure, is a painful process.
You don't want to have to do this.
Mary in the Lord.
And avail yourselves of the grace of God in relationships, whatever they be, marriage, brother and sister.
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Parents and children.
This is vital to the enjoyment of relationships, and relationships is pretty much what life is about.
And the ultimate relationship is our relationship with God. And here is the Lord tenderly.
Having this private interview with this destitute woman with five husbands and the one she's living with is not her husband. And we'd look at that and say maybe I'll go to the next house.
Not assembly material. Oh, this is the candidate for salvation.
Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me.
What can we do with that statement?
Sir, woman, man, child, boy, girl, believe God. I said he is, I said he has spoken and here it is. Do you even take the trouble to read this with intensity and purpose of heart?
Surely it's more than just a philosophy for you.
Surely it is a reality.
Surely it is.
What would we do without grace? We are responsible.
But God has made such a provision.
And he suits us for the walk, He gives us the full armor, He gives us the instruction for the pathway, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, all of these things, the sword of the Spirit.
And he goes with us all the way home.
Let's keep short accounts with the Lord and not take these things for granted. Take advantage of grace.
Grace is perceptive.
And it exposes and it accepts. And there is confession.
Their consequences. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and justice to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from these things. But if we hide them.
Then we will contaminate ourselves in this one little life's journey that we have. And this is our hour.
This is our time.
Women, believe me, the hour cometh.
When ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father, you worship you know not what.
We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. And so it was.
But in John's Gospel, you know the 11Th verse of the book tells us that right away.
His own received him not.
And so he is trafficking then with one outside of the promised people.
Of Israel. And so is he today. And the hour is coming, and still is.
That is speaking to each one of us this evening.
And I, if I be lifted up, shall draw all men unto me. That's all men.
Without distinction.
Two Gentile Samaritan, wherever you're from.
It is for whosoever will.
And remember, the will is engaged.
Whosoever will.
The hour cometh and now is and this hour is continuing to this very day. I don't know how much longer it will continue.
But this is still the day of grace.
And here we have this good news, this call of God.
Going out in this world today.
The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such. That's a qualifying word. When we worship Him, it must be in spirit and in truth.
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And were responsible for that.
Such is a qualifying word, those who will worship Him.
Not in an emotional spasm or anything like that.
You know I like Dixieland music as well as the rest.
I'm not going to bring it in and call it worship.
I like classical music.
But Spirit?
And in truth, Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and the Spirit of God.
Brings Christ before us as our focus and object of worship. Is this better?
Than that daily journey to this world's well isn't it better to have fullness of life that's only found in Christ? God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
The woman says unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ.
When he has come, he will tell us all things.
Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee.
And He is the one. He reveals himself to her after this conversation. She's ready for it. She's had it out with him. She's been honest. She's been brought that way. God made her honest.
Jesus is God manifest in flesh.
Had this dialogue with her brought her to himself?
And she's delivered.
Did it have any effect?
It did on the Lord, verse 34. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
He said to them in verse 32, I have meat to eat that you know not of.
This is not the Lord's perfunctory duty to save souls. It is His great delight to bring you to Himself.
That he may enjoy you and that you may enjoy him.
And this is eternal life.
And there is no other.
Our God and Father, bless the Word. Pray for the young here.
Pray for any better hesitating.
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