Chicago Conference: 1979

Table of Contents

1. Where it Falls, It Shall Be
2. A Faithful Servant
3. The Word of God in Our Life
4. A Turning Point
5. John 1:29-34
6. John 1:35-40
7. John 1:41-42
8. John 1:43
9. The Wages of Sin
10. A Living Sacrifice
11. I Beseech You
12. A Model of the Believers
13. A Proper Testimony
14. Thine we Are
15. Behold Your God

Where it Falls, It Shall Be

A Faithful Servant

Address—M.W. Smith
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.
Could we look at the scripture in Deuteronomy chapter 6, you might say before we read it?
That what had been before us both in the address this afternoon.
Where we were warned.
Of deviating from the path that God has marked out for us.
As I've just been hearing of the pattern that has been set before us, that we might not turn aside from it into a bad pattern, but that we may follow the word of God, Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse four, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is 1 Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.
And with all thy might.
And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart.
And thou shall teach them diligently under thy children, and to talk to them when thou citizen thine house.
When thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Now shall bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontless between thine eyes, and I shall write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates. I'm sure there is others here who, like the speaker, have been raised in the atmosphere of a Christian home.
Where the word have gone was written.
Where the Word of God was taught.
And how we thank God for it.
But you know, there's always a danger.
That, as some of us were remarking here yesterday.
That those things which we receive.
And here, perhaps most of our lives, it hasn't cost us.
Very much.
We know there are others here.
Who enjoy the word of God? They enjoy the one of whom the word of God speaks.
And has cost them a great deal.
The very fact that it cost them makes it valuable to them.
But oh, I wonder what it is to have the privilege of being raised where the Word of God is present and taught day by day.
We are reading the history of the children of Israel.
And we find that this which was given to them through Moses, but from the Lord himself, was given in order to preserve them as a people separated to God, and to be a testimony here in this world to the fact that there is a gun.
Who is overall into whom we are responsible?
Maybe never forget that.
That you and I have a responsibility.
To God.
We have the word of God.
And.
How much the Word of God gives us the instruction for our power.
We were reminded this afternoon.
Of the need for prayer for every step that we take.
If we leave God out, oh, how easy it is to deviate from the path of faith, the children of Israel.
We find that they had the word of God-given to them by Moses.
For 40 years through the wilderness and after they entered into the land which God had given to them.
We find that they had Joshua for a leader, one who was faithful to God.
Might we turn to Joshua?
Chapter 11 or Judges Chapter 11 I believe it is.
Oh, no. Excuse me?
The Judges, Chapter 2.
And we might start reading from verse one.
It's a rather solemn, sordid picture.
And an Angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to book him, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you under the land which I swear unto your Father's. And I said, I will never break my covenant with you.
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And Eve shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land. You shall throw down their altars. But ye have not obeyed my voice. Why have you done this?
I also said, I will not drive out them from before you, but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their guns will be a smear unto you.
They came to pass when the Angel, the Lord, spake these words unto the children of Israel, that people lifted up their voice and wept.
And they call the name of that place Book him, and they sacrificed unto the Lord.
And when Joshua had let the people go, the children of Israel went every man unto his inheritance to possess the land. God had to speak, and speak solemnly.
To those.
Who knew the Word of God as it had been given up to that time?
They had been witnesses, many of them at least been witnesses.
Of the wonders of God throughout the wilderness journey.
How God had fed them.
He had clothed them, he had sustained them in a land where they grew no crops.
And where God fed them with manna from heaven.
They gave them water to drink out of the rock.
And everything that happened to the children of Israel in that day was a result of the hand of God and blessing to them.
And yet they obeyed not the voice of God.
Oh, how solemn it is.
How many of us here in this room?
Found the blessing of God resting upon us and the households where we are, and may we ask the question each one to answer for himself. How much?
Have we valued?
What God has done for us, the speaker, as well as others I'm sure, can answer with hung hens.
That there have been many, many times.
When we have not.
Thank God for what He had done for us, nor have we taken God into account.
But turn to our own ways and what we thought was our own wisdom.
Only to find that that wisdom.
But not of God.
God said an Angel to speak to them.
Well, we find.
Repentance.
And how many times when we're reminded of our having turned aside from the path of faith?
We're reminded of the Word of God.
And there is, perhaps a measure of repentance.
And we seek to get back into such a path that it may be pleasing to the Lord. Now I put it that way intentionally.
We seek a path which will lead us back to the Lord, and so we find.
After they have had their inheritance now given to them, they go to their inheritance to possess the land.
Seventh verse.
And the people serve the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua.
Who has seen all the great works of the Lord that He did for Israel?
We have had in heritage bestowed upon us.
Through the gifts that God has given to the church in years past.
Some of us have known such men as we're real gifts of God.
Others who lived in a day earlier than that, we have their written ministry, which we value very much.
And which is for profit to us?
God has given those to the church to be for ministry.
For the people of God.
Though we're edifying to build up.
His people, the church too.
Oh, I wonder what it is that we have the truth of God which has been lost for so many centuries. It has been recovered to us.
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And we have.
And in some measure, we possess it.
But how much do we value it?
Is it that we are following leaders?
We've been warned of that too.
There were those in the days of the apostle Paul.
Who when he preached the word to them?
They went back home.
And they took out their scriptures.
And they searched them to see if those things were true.
Of which they had been told by the apostle to see if those things were true.
The word of God says in that they were more noble than those who hadn't done so.
God desires that we ourselves search.
The word of God, that we may know his mind.
That we may follow in the path that is marked out for us in the scripture.
And we've been reminded of the pattern that has been set before us. We've been reminded that there is a bad pattern.
Reminds one of the story of the man.
Who had a little son?
And the father went out one day he was going down to the corner bar.
It have been snowing outside.
And so he went on, leaving his tracks in the snow.
They look behind him and saw his son following him.
And his son was putting his foot, his feet where the father had stepped. What are you doing, son? Oh, I'm following you.
Or Solomon.
The father was setting an example of path for his son which would lead him into the same course of life.
But oh, there is a path, and the verses read to us this afternoon.
To follow.
And the footsteps are in the path of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I believe that's a correct rending, rendering of the passage, not to follow His steps, but to follow in his steps.
Are we doing it?
There were those who lived in a generation of Joshua.
Who served the Lord?
And we find another generation coming up.
The elders that outlived Joshua.
That they followed the Lord too.
But oh how much of a difference there can be amongst those that follow, because they are seeking to follow the God who brought them out of the land of Egypt and through the wilderness into their possession.
Now here comes up another generation which were born in the land and they see the blessings that God have done and they're they're settling down to enjoy those blessings.
Without seeking the one who bestows the blessings.
Joshua in verse 8, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died.
The 110 years old.
And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath Harris, in the Mount of Ephraim on the north side of the Hill Gash.
And also all that generation were gathered under their fathers.
And there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord.
Our other worshippers we had done for Israel.
And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.
Conserve Balaam, I might tell a story.
Many years ago there was a godly Father.
And he had two sons.
Both of them were those who were.
In the habit of standing up like this and preaching the gospel of the grace of God and ministering to the Lord's people.
One of them.
Found a way.
Who was not at the Lord's Table?
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And to my knowledge was not even saved.
I've met that man many times.
He got farther and farther away from the Lord.
Stop coming to meetings.
And got into the things of this world.
And he had one son.
I've met that son many times.
And talked with him.
Absolutely.
No thought of God whatsoever. He doesn't know the Lord.
Oh, what danger we are in if our hearts are not in company with the Lord.
If we're not in communion with the Lord in our past, day by day, the danger of the next generation coming up to know nothing.
Of what we can enjoy in the presence of the Lord in the meetings.
In our homes.
How is it with our children?
How is it with a younger generation that is coming up now?
Are they following the Lord?
Or do they seek, like we were reminded to have diversion somewhere else?
May I say.
The other brother.
He lived.
And he died happy in the Lord.
Oh, what a wonderful thing.
It is.
To have the joy of the Lord day by day in our lives.
And then to go home.
To be with the Lord.
But may we be warned, dear fellow Christian, I am speaking to those of this middle generation, those who had the wonderful heritage of having God fearing parents.
And you have gone on with it as a matter of form and perhaps some knowledge, some head knowledge, but they have not passed on to the younger generation that which has been taught them and taught of God.
Let us turn.
To Second Timothy, Second Timothy, chapter 2.
There we have the Apostle Paul speaking to Timothy again, a young man.
But one who feared the Lord.
The Apostle Paul says to him in verse one of chapter 2, Thou therefore, my son.
Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And the things that thou hast heard of Maine among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
One believes that we have that heritage to you and to me have been has been committed the word of God.
Now with Timothy.
At the time when this was written, there wasn't the New Testament as we have it today.
That which he heard was from the lips of the apostle Paul, who spoke the word of God.
And so he says to Timothy.
And I believe that we can take home to ourselves here.
That way, like Timothy, have a responsibility.
To hid those things which we have heard, and which we have in the word of God.
And teach them to others as well, like those in the Old Testament were to teach their children of things. These things they were to have them daily in their daily lives, in their walk, in their path outside the house. These things were to be written upon their gates.
The fingers. I was heard of me among many witnesses. Let us remember that.
That if Timothy were to make a mistake.
There were those who could check him and let it be known that that was not.
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What have been given to him by the Apostle Paul?
Now we don't have the Apostle Paul here, except we have the writings of the Scriptures here in us, in our hands.
And what we hear being ministered to us from others, we have the word of God to fall back on and to judge whether what has been given to us, minister to us, is that.
Which has the truth of scripture in it.
To be given to faithful men who should be able to teach others also.
Now, you and I, dear fellow brother.
Ancestors too, for that matter, in private have that responsibility to pass on to others that which has been taught to us, to be faithful in passing on to others that which has been given to us.
Or wonderful it will be in that day when the Lord Jesus comes.
Now, when there is the evaluation of what we have done here in this scene.
To have the approval.
Of the Lord and Jesus.
And to hear his words, well done, faithful servant.
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The Word of God in Our Life

A Turning Point

John 1:29-34

Reading
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.
Starting with the 29th verse.
Verse 29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming up to him and said.
Behold the Lamb of so often, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he and whom I said.
After me cometh the man which is preferred before me, for he was before me.
I knew it not.
That he should be made manifest to Israel.
Therefore am I come baptizing with water.
And John Bear record say I saw the third descending from heaven like a dove, and it's a cold upon you.
And I knew it not.
But he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit extending and remaining on him, The same is he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost.
And I saw a fair record that this is the Son of God.
I guess the next day after John stood his disciples.
And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he said, Behold the left car.
And the two disciples heard next week, and they followed Jesus.
Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and sailed under them. What seek ye?
And they said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, he interpreted massacre where as well as thou.
He said unto them, Come and see.
They came and saw where he drives and the boat with him that day where it was about the 10th hour.
One of the two which heard John speak.
The followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
He first tried with his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We found the Messiahs, which is being interpreted to Christ.
And he brought him to Jesus, and when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Java. Thou shall be called Cephas, which is by interpretation of stone.
The day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee and find his Philippine said that the camp quality.
After the front office there in the city of Venezuelan leader.
We found him in the law of the prophets did write to Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
And there any good things about a ******* Phillips? And then there come and see.
Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him and say about him beholden, and her life indeed, in whom is no guy.
Nathaniel says unto him, Which knows thou me? Jesus answered them, set up to him before the Philip Crowley. When thou was under the big tree, I saw thee. Nathaniel answered and said unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God. Thou art the King of Israel.
Jesus answered and said it again, Because I said after thee, I saw the end of the victory. Believe us, thou shall see greater things than these.
He said unto him, Verily, verily, I said to you, Hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the ages of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.
We have 3 days mentioned in this chapter, including the first verse of the second chapter first in Matthew, the Law and the Prophets.
For until John. After that the Kingdom of God is preached.
John, the last of the prophets in that sense.
And he represents the prophets as preceding the coming of the Lord Jesus into this world.
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This chapter that we've read in the 29th of gives us the ministry of Jesus.
From the beginning of it until this present day.
That is, it's a picture of something for our souls until the time when the little remnants brought in and Nathaniel, and then we get the third day of the millennial day or really the wedding feast. And whether it be the wedding feast for Israel, which it will be the earthly pride or what does the Church.
They're both seeing as the wedding feast.
But what I have before me in these verses was the present day, that is, after John the Baptist ministry.
Now we noticed in the first chapter of Mark's Gospel, it was when John was put in prison that the Lord Jesus began his ministry.
And so the first part of this chapter gives us really John's ministry as the one who was the forerunner of Jesus.
And now we have the Lord Jesus before us, and I trust He'll be before us in these meetings and at the close. Why we have the wedding feast.
But precious thoughts we have here.
But we also have the Father, we have the Son, we have the Holy Spirit.
But how precious to our hearts.
Subject of the Lamb of God that we find here.
As well as the other topic, also the ministry or Jesus.
Seems to be connected, or at least the beginning of it was.
Being passed into prison.
But here in in the Gospel of John, we see that the heart again is ministry while John is still around. And John calls attention to the greatness of the Lord Jesus here and then I was thinking in the third chapter.
Where he cleans out, you might say entirely.
When he says he must increase verse 30, but.
I must love and above all he that is the security is first place.
Thinking that in John's Gospel we do not have a continuation, as it were, of God's testimony among men here on earth that we have in this optics.
In the state that stands, Ortiz is continues on when jobs and industry seasons. But in John's gospel, it seems that.
Way John the Baptist means God. It's to emphasize the superiority that which is brought in.
And the person of 14 because what is brought in in him is heavenly and inspirable, that we should come from above. And God in this sense represent what was currently they don't say worldly in the sense of being enough of God, but He represents the old art of things.
That is currently and that I had to do with man down here in the Lord Jesus.
Now is that one which comes down from heaven, and what He is brought in. Now is, is a heavenly and spiritual, and what it is besides His, the greatest, and the superiority of that which is brought in as this person of this one who is.
Declared to be the Son of God by the testimony of John himself. And so I think fittingly we find that in John's gospel we don't have his ministry terminating with his imprisonment and then the Lord beginning his, but he just sort of fades out as the one who decreases while that which is heavenly.
Brought down from above is brought into prominence and the person of the Lord Jesus.
Find it around us today that there are many.
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Doctrines abounding where men will say that Jesus is the son of God, then they add that they are sons of God too. Now this is your first chapter.
Part we didn't read, it makes it very clear who the person is.
And all that we have in this on the 29th verse on depends upon who this person is.
So in the first verse of the chapter, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Now connect that with the 14th, 1St.
And the Word was made or became flesh, and dwelled among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Now this should silence all of these notions of man after the Person.
It's clearly states who he is. He clearly states is the same one who is God, who is the Word, is the one who became flesh and dwelt among men.
Now that should be very clear, the minds.
Of all, or there will never be any enjoyment of what we have in the following parts of the book.
The person himself very lovely too, is it not? To see the way this expression comes from John's heart and from his lips?
Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. There's something so lovely about such expressions as this. I think we see something of the same in all and in theater when?
The truth and trusted to them is not simply being passed on to us as something that we ought to learn, but rather to hear them say from time to time. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again. Peter says, Paul says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings?
There's something that you can just sense is coming from the heart and being passed on to us. And so when John makes this very wonderful introduction of the Lord Jesus.
Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. It's more than simply a statement, is it not? It's with a feeling of real delight and enjoyment that John utters these words.
I believe they came right from his heart and I believe if you and I read them today and don't find them touching our hearts, there is something wrong. And if I I believe to if there is not this kind of testimony in your life and mine, there certainly ought to be.
It's not just a select few that are responsible to proclaim.
They hold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. I believe every one of us ought to be so occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ, particularly in these last days, when everything is so dark, and when the discouragements are so many, to trust that the testimony of our life.
Both silent and spoken may be something of this very language. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.
I'm wondering to what extent did John Abraham did what he said?
The other deciduous when he spoke of his death and so forth, they did not comprehend. I'm wondering just about what there was in John that saw the death of Christ.
The Lamb of God.
John had not seen the Lord Jesus prior to this.
That's the 31St verse and I knew him not.
Isn't it nice to know that John, no doubt by inspiration, but.
John was so taken up, the one who was coming, but the moment he sees him, he recognizes him.
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The moment he sees it.
I believe that's what we have the next day John see if Jesus coming unto him.
Behold the Lamb of God that's taken away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh the man which is preferred before me, for he was before me, and I knew him not that he should be made manifest of Israel. Therefore him I come baptizing with water. So this must have been the first time that John met the Lord Jesus.
Now they they had lived in an area.
Close to one another.
You read that in the verdict part of loop but.
Apparently he did not see him because John was in the wilderness.
And after the wilderness?
And we just say this, but.
John lived in separation from all the evil that was around him.
And this could carry his heart, not only for the ministry he gave, but for the enjoyment of the person when he did need it. He was empty, as it were, as to this world he requested a religious world so that when he met Jesus, his heart was filled and ready for the enjoyment that he found ill. The person becomes collapse and it's only a person.
That can feel and satisfy these hearts of ours. It would seem that John speaks beyond that which we would expect him to understand. But I wonder if in a very wonderful grace of God.
This is the result of His gladly taking a place of being absolutely nothing. In the verses that precede, it has been remarked that His answers get smaller and smaller as they question Him, looking, if you wish, at verse 19. This is the record of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask Him.
Who are thou?
Well, today we hear a great deal when it comes to that question. Oh, so much can be said about this, that and the other religious personality of today. But how did John answer that question? I am not the Christ. What else matters? I am not the Christ.
Well, they questioned him further. What then art thou, Elias? And he said, I am not.
Art thou that prophet? And he answered no.
Would it be that because this dear man of God was willing to be absolutely nothing in order that Christ might be everything that there is made known to him that which was beyond what otherwise?
He would be able to give expression to in the words, Behold the Lamb of God.
I suppose we have brought before us.
In a particular way that which would.
Take us in our thoughts to the cross.
To see the Lord Jesus as the one who was the answer to what was said in the 22nd chapter of Genesis when it said God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.
And so we see the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God here. And this wonderful expression has been said of John the Baptist.
But when the verse goes on to say which taketh away the sin of the world.
I believe that really looks to can I say more than the cross? The cross is that which and the Lord Jesus has the sacrifice. There is the one who has put our sins away and we rejoice today to know that our sins are gone.
That they are forgiven, that they are cast behind God's back, that they are in the depths of the sea. That God has said your sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
But this verse speaks of bearing or taketh away, literally the sin of the world. And that, I believe, gives us to see how the Lord Jesus is the one who will one day remove every trace of sin from the sight of God.
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That is, that those who die without Christ will be in the lake of fire.
That a world that has been spoiled by sin will, and that while that sin will actually remain in some measure in the Millennium, that in the eternal state there will be a new heaven and a new earth from which every trace of sin is gone, gone entirely, forever, never to be come back, never to have an opportunity to arise again.
So it's by one man that sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and it's by one man that sin will eventually be removed forever from the sight of God. It just rejoices our hearts, I'm sure, brethren today to think that there's a day coming.
Throughout all that God looks upon, there will never be anything in his sight, nothing that God sees but that is a delight to his heart. And that will be the result of the work of Christ at Calvary, the work of the Lord Jesus as the one who judges the world in righteousness, the one who by whom all things are made, and who will be the one who makes a new heaven and a new earth.
Or indwells righteousness.
Can't emphasize too much the expression Behold the Lamb of God.
We have another expression in Matthew 25. I think it is.
We hold the bridegroom.
It's wonderful what the Spirit of God gives us to behold.
And it's a person. It's not simply something that is for the president, but it's a person. And this has to do with not only about this glorifies God that brings man into his presence.
In a in a condition Fitzgerys presence.
Because when it speaks of the Lord Jesus and the Spirit is sending upon him, it gives us a picture of Pentecost at the same time, because all those who are identified with the Lord Jesus.
I'm referring now to the.
Well, first many received him, then gave him power to become the sons of God. Both personally chapter.
To them that leave in His name, I believe everyone will have the Holy Spirit.
Who has to brought into that place and so we're identified with the Lord Jesus whatever place he takes this man, he associates us with him in it. And so how wonderful it is then to have the highest fixed of funds to the person here as the Lamb of God because.
He is the one who made the face all blessing, it supposes all the perfection of the offering. In the 1St place a lamb, and in Samuel 7th chapter First Samuel, you see him in type as a sucking land.
That speaks of complete dependence.
And we're to behold the Lamb, and he's the Lamb of God.
And our brother said that the sacrifice that God has provided man has nothing to do with the provision of this sacrifice.
And the result is that the work is all of God through His Son, the Lord Jesus can. Whatever He did, He did it in complete dependence upon the Father's murder to develop Father.
Think there may be some significance to in the little expression coming unto him?
There was with John that willingness, we might even say that desire to be nothing in order, that the Lord Jesus might be everything. And then the next thing is he sees the Lord Jesus coming unto him, and that was delightfully.
Personal here is the Lord Jesus, and John says, oh, he's coming to me, and the result is this delightful expression which you and I have enjoyed so much. Well, I wonder, dear brethren, could we allow this to search our hearts? Is there with us that willingness to be nothing and to be nobody in order that Christ might be exalted?
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As unknown and yet well known.
And is there something of that sense in our hearts too, that He who left that glory came into this world for who?
Am I really privileged to say that he came for me, that he came to seek me? I don't know how I could.
Enjoy that for a moment without there being something of this expression in the heart, and I hope perhaps on the lips too. John saw the Lord Jesus coming unto him, and immediately he proclaimed, Behold the Lamb of God.
Well, dear brothers and sisters, if you and I are privileged by the grace of God to take this personally, and I believe we are, there should be something of this.
Confession in our life.
All says the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for lovely make sure my brother is said to realize that one day.
I, I, I, I thought, I imagine others have too. But a brother, a brother was here with us today, made a comment at these meetings last year and I went home and the thought has been going through my mind for a year over and over again. Our brother Lundy made the comment last year when he said, remember brethren, we may walk the streets of glory yet today.
You know, when we go through each day with the conscious sense that we are going to see the Lamb of God. So our brother has said, there is this lovely thought for our souls to enjoy now.
Behold the Lamb of God to have by faith the joy now of the enjoyment of His presence, of beholding Him by faith. But Revelation, chapter 5.
Tells me that I'm going to see the Lamb of God. There we are in the glory and brethren, we're just about to step into the 5th chapter Revelation and a marvelous thing, we're just about to step into that scene and there are the redeemed, the four and 20 elders. And who is it that's in the midst? It's the Lamb, the very one that John the Baptist saw coming unto him. He's coming for us and.
Going to for all eternity we're going to be hold the Lamb of God. I thought too in connection with this 30th verse and the expression that used at the end of it, how the John says this is he of whom I said after me cometh a man which is preferred before me, that is that the Lord Jesus was the one who is the one whom God has marked out as entitled.
Place of preeminence. But then he adds the words, for he was before me. Now if we turn back to Luke's gospel chapter one.
We find that as to the actual date of his birth, the Lord Jesus was born probably six months after John the Baptist. But it seems that here John the Baptist, at least I believe the thought is that John the Baptist is given.
By the Spirit of God. How much he entered into these things fully we don't know, but he's given here by the Spirit of God to be able to bear testimony to the eternal existence of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was before John, even though John had appeared in this world.
Before the Lord Jesus.
And more than that, in the 18 first, continue that line of things.
No matter seeing God at any time, the only begotten sandwich is in the bosom of the Father. He has declared in now. It isn't simply a declaration as we speak of it.
But if we should be ushered into the glory today.
The whole Church of God.
We would have a complete display of God Himself in the first of Jesus.
She's a full display what God is.
And.
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Only begotten Sons, which is in the bosom of the Father, He had declared His.
That's what the gospel is about. That's the subject.
It's a question now.
God sending his Son, and his Son is revealing the Father, and he's revealing to us what's in the bosom of the Father.
Now I know man knows the Son, but the Father.
But we find that the Sun is revealing the Father to us.
So we might know the Father.
And think of the person of Jesus.
All through eternity and we're with Him, we will see the thought in that sense because He's the full expression of all God is. I think this is very precious and it gives us the theme.
This last another thing I have enjoyed in connection with this 29th verse.
Behold, the Lamb of God. This actually took place in point of time. The Lord Jesus was actually here in this world.
John saw him, he pointed him out to others, and as we read in the 14th verse.
We'd be tell him glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And perhaps as we read it, we think, oh what a wonderful experience that must have been. Just think they were here on earth. They actually saw the Lord Jesus and saw displayed in him that wonder of grace and truth.
Then perhaps we feel, well, I wasn't here so I could read about it, but I wasn't here to behold him. I guess I missed something that John and the others of that day experienced.
When we come to the 17th chapter and we read Father I will that they also who now has given me, be with me where I am, that they may be behold my glory. All I say isn't that wonderful? As we have just been reminded this very day. We may hear His voice. We may be at home in that glory. This may be realized that faith give place to sight.
And so we look forward to that day when we shall be both that glory of Yonder. But those two thoughts would perhaps leave us looking back to something that we might feel we've missed, looking at it to something that we have not yet arrived at.
But then we find these glorious words, we all.
With unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit, so that there is today.
Right now that wonderful and happy privilege for everyone of us to be full the glory of the Lord our brother refers to Dom 17 verse what these words speak Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven said Father, the hour is come glorify thy son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.
It's wonderfully true that in reading of it, in meditation and in occupation with the Lord Jesus, we can from day-to-day, right here and now.
Enjoy the wonder of all, the glory that is rightly his, and I believe that if we do so, there will be the evidence in our life and testimony that such is the case. Not that we would look for that.
I remember years ago at the Montreal conference when it was held in Victoria Hall, a couple of sisters passed an older brother in the hall and he paused and said to them, are you enjoying the meetings?
Oh, they said, yes, brother, can't you see our faces shining? He looked at them and said. Moses wished not that his face shot. But I do believe that occupation with the Lord Jesus.
Which by the grace of God we can see in our brothers and sisters cannot be hidden, and it's a refreshment and joy to the heart to see it. That first of the 17th of John connects to the fifth verse. It's a question, is it not, of the Lord Jesus asking the Father to glorify Him? He should read along with thyself.
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That is.
As God, He was always there in the glory.
And now he's going at that point, I'm referring to John 17. He's going there as a man.
But to be glorified alongside the.
Father is a man.
Why? You know why?
Because that's where we're going, and that's why He came down here, so that He could take us home, bring us into that glory in the Father's house.
It's a precious thought, brother, that you brought before us. Get more of that in the on the 35th verse of our chapter on if we have the time, these meetings another system get right into the the thoughts there of of the believer entering in.
Typically, of course, to the enjoyment of that position.
Familiar. We have baptism mentioned here now in this chapter.
In two ways.
And it's important that we distinguish because.
There's a teach, there are teachings abroad that baptism brings salvation.
That's not true.
Baptism is a picture of changing from one place to another.
Is collected with the subject of regeneration, that is.
The soul is taken from that old position. It needs to be washed.
Plans placed in a new position. A baptism is a figure of that.
Figure out. It also identifies us with that person in the new position. That's Jesus.
But then we have baptism again here. What is it? Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Now John's baptism is different again because this is the baptism of repentance that looks looking onward to Christ. But in the same sense that we spoke up first, there is to be a change or the person never seek the Lord Jesus.
There has to be a complete change and those who went down that were baptized in the baptism of repentance.
Spirit of God had brought in their soul they never would have done every flavor is baptized Spirit of God into one body that's on the day of Pentecost work was done once and for all and as each are gathered in there for brought into that position. But the work is the work of God by the Spirit and it began on the day of Pentecost but water baptism.
Does not give life, but it does bring us out of the old positions positionally.
Into a new position.
And that is identified with the Lord Jesus, but.
Can we say glancing away the old picture form and bring this into an entirely new place? Is there any record that the dove providing on anyone before this? The breed of the dove seeking rest for the soul is pushed and finding none.
Here at glasses of five, rest for the sole of its foot on the sun God. Believe there's much in this chapter for meditation and enjoyment.
I had quite a lengthy conversation once with the minister.
A large church.
I mentioned to him.
Something about the Gospel of John.
Always that you don't need to tell me that I spent a year studying nothing but the Gospel of John.
But I'm sure the man didn't have peace. I doubt if he knew who Jesus was. And it's been a year on nothing but the gospel truth.
So you see, brother, it's only the Spirit of God that can open the truth of the Gospel of John to our soul. But if we're in the attitude of John the Baptist.
He got a measure of the lightness to the person with all of the Spirit of God they produce. Now regarding the Lord Jesus.
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How precious if we took that attitude of John, brother Johnson Rocky Forest and there would be.
A response in our hearts, because response really would be praised with nice skin. You speak of this man spending a year studying the Gospel of John.
Something of this came up at the meetings in Regina using the word study in connection with this most precious book, God's revelation. Has it been put into our hands and something to be studied, or has it been footed to our hands as a revelation from God, inspired from cover to cover?
To be read as that we should see and nourish our souls.
Quicken our affections, give light for our pathways, but.
The use of the word study when it comes to the word of God seems to me to be a bit out of place.
I trust that when we pick up this precious book to read it, we read it recognizing in some measure that we have in our hands a holy book inspired God for our edification, for our guidance, for our correction and instructions. But to use the word study seems to relate it with other matters and other topics.
Which we study regardless, shall I say, of a state of soul. A man in any state of soul can study mathematics or science. And when we pick up the Word of God, it addresses itself to us. It speaks to our consciences and to our hearts.
I don't want to be too critical in the matter, but I feel that to think of the Word of God as a book to be studied can involve danger to our souls. How about verse 36? Is that your thought, brother Albert? Yes, it is brother, but even the Chloe you might stay out of place.
To restrict one false study of one particular book.
I feel that.
The invention is that made of one who spent a whole year studying the Donald, John and.
I believe God's thought is that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and we wouldn't want to confine ourselves to certain portions of the word to make a special study of.
Because it's all the word of God from Genesis to Revelation. And really we find that if we confine ourselves to certain.
Special or we might say a favorite portions we find that even our understanding of those portions will be warped by not having a general understanding of the whole word of God, Genesis to Revelation, because it's all one whole and we find that the more we.
Read of even portions that one might feel are not the special portions for the people of God. Even in the Old Testament how that it gives us light and helps us to understand all of the word of God. So we do not want to to be selective in the sense that we we have special portions that we enjoy reading and.
Reading over and over again.
To the neglect of the rest of the Word of God. It's all the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation. And I think it's important. Only recently in our own home reading, we've been going through Chronicles that, and even though it's been read many times, the Lord has.
Brought to our attention things in the books of Chronicles that we have perhaps never noticed before.
And we find this, that is, we read the word of God continuously and consecutively right through by how that the more we read, the more we're able to understand even the familiar portions that we've known and enjoyed for years. So I'm sure that the call of our brother in the in studying was not intended to convey to anyone the thought that we shouldn't be diligent in reading the word of God.
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But I care what he had reference to is what was brought out in Regina that that to take up the word of God.
As to studying in the way in which one would study some science or some particular field of endeavor of human fault and intellect, but to take it up as it is the word of God to be received as the word of God. And when we do that, then we get light from God for our souls and for our pathways.
Over those verses again.
100 and 69173 Of course, that entire song has quite a bit about the word of God and the every detail, the value of it and what it affords in the way of food and light and direction and so forth.
And in our chapter, I was thinking of the the way, as it's been pointed out in the very beginning that these days.
Our brother wanted to impress upon us not so much the.
The dispensational aspects of things, but the presence, enjoyment of the person of the Lord Jesus.
And we find here that John is speaking about his baptizing with the Holy Ghost in verse 33. Does not add as he said if the I think it's the third chapter of Luke's gospel when he mentions there was one among them.
Who would baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire? But here it's only the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
Because I suppose the baptism of the fire would go on to look onto that day of judgment, which is yet future. But the baptism with the Holy Spirit is the day in which we live, as have been pointed out. The Spirit of God coming down, sit down really from the Lord Himself.
Sit down on the Day of Pentecost and adequate characterizes the present day.
Is the fact that the baptism of the Holy Spirit has taken place and his farm that one body here on earth, but the baptism with fire is injured where we when we read that he will judge the world in righteousness by that man in Acts 17, that is the Lord Jesus baptism with fire and loose speaks of his still future. Do I understand right that?
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Has taken place on a day of Pentecost so that if someone would refer to him.
Him receiving the Holy Spirit today as the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it wouldn't be quite correct.
If this is understood, it would remove some of the pretensions we have in Christendom, in Pentecostal circles and the Charismatic movement because.
The coming of the Holy Spirit is spoken of or.
Be receiving him. The Spirit as an individual is spoken of as the ceiling. Isn't it in Ephesians? Could someone elaborate on that little?
But I think you find that in various the baptism of the voting Spirit refers to what the place of the day of Pentecost and has reference to the Spirit of God coming down from heaven.
And indwelling the believers at that time is forming the body of Christ here on earth. And when you speak about individuals or the Scriptures speak about individuals.
Of receiving the Holy Spirit it is used. The expression is used that as they're being sealed, but not they're not spoken of as individuals being baptized.
In First Corinthians chapter 12.
Says that we all have been baptized in one body there it's a collective fault it's not individual that each one individually has been baptized but they had all been brought into that body of Christ by the baptism of the Spirit and of course the the body of Christ was formed on the day of Pentecost. I've heard the illustration used and I think it might be appropriate the.
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Throwing of a stone if you wish in the middle of a tranquil pond.
This being perhaps pictured as the Day of Pentecost and the waves from that original activity broaden out.
And to take in a wider and wider circle. But it is the original activity that is being referred to. Isn't that so? So that by the grace of God we are part of that which was formed by the baptism of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. We have been brought into that very wonderful position.
But it is not a repetition of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Scripture is careful to mention that there are 120 present there on the day of medical.
If there have been only one individual there, there would have been no baptism of the Holy Spirit. I think we sometimes place too much emphasis on time in connection with eternal things, and if we think more of the facts rather than the timing, I think we would enjoy it more.
Especially of this chapter and I saw in their record that this is the Son of God I saw.
A Bear record.
Now this was connected with the Spirit coming down as a dove, as a knot, and I saw.
Their record that this is the Son of God. Why this has never happened before?
It couldn't happen until Jesus became a man and coming as a man and now introduced by John.
I suppose this was the time of the baptism of the Lord. We have more details in other gospels in regard to it.
But still this never happened before.
And now what a wonderful thing it is.
We here today look back on that scene and John says I saw.
And bear record. And so we too by faith see in their records, this is the Son of God, not many sons of God, the Son of God.
There's only one in the sense we have it here now. It's true that.
Because you are sons, He sent forth spirit into your hearts. That's true, but not in the sense we have here.
We are creatures, He is the Son of God, He is the Word, He is God. What a vast difference person of Jesus.
And is connected to this name here coming down to this world Jesus.
The truth of his personal He is the taker away of the sin of the world. And verse 29, the emphasis there is not really so much upon the work as it is that this is the person who does it. He is to take her away. He's the baptizer with the Holy Ghost.
And yet we know later on at this same Gospel that is the Holy Spirit is spoken of as being coming from the Father. But here is the Lord Jesus is the one who baptizes with the Holy Ghost, and now our emphasis is placed upon the truth of His person.
This is the Son of God. I'm thinking with contrast you'll turn back to Luke chapter one.
And I don't want to be misunderstood here, so I'm going to have to explain a little of what.
I had before me.
I'm not indicating that in loop.
He is not the Son of God personally, but it seems to me at verse 35 of the Gospel of Blue, the way it's presented, the wording is such that it's emphasizing more of the moral character of the one who is coming into this world to be displayed. It says the Angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee.
And the power of the High shall over shadow thee.
Therefore also that holy thing.
Shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Now of course he is the Son of God, but emphasis here is placed upon the humanity, that holy thing which shall be born of the We know that he's an eternal divine person, but here we have the beginning of himself in manhood as a man here in this world and it said that that that man that.
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That would be born of the virgin would be called the son of God and I believe here is to emphasize the fact that in that man there would be seen all of the characteristics not so much of the power of God is the creator sustainer, but the moral features and characteristics of God, righteousness, love, holiness.
And all of the moral features of God.
Would be, would come out in that man, that one that was born of the virgin. So Luke emphasizes the moral side of things, the moral character of that man. But in the Gospel of John, attention is drawn to his person. It's not so much of what will be seen in him, but who he is. He is the Son of God. That's his first one.
And in connection with that, as our brother has mentioned that as believers we're called sons of God is truth because you're sons, but in a not in the same sense that the Lord Jesus is the Son of God, but there is a sense in which we are associated with him as sons before the Father. But I thinking of John's epistle chapter 3. Behold what manner of love.
The Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of the children of God.
And there it is. We have the expression again that we should be called. I believe the thought is that God has so blessed us and has worked in our souls and bringing in divine life, giving us that eternal life, that there should be seen in us all of the family traits that belong to God, so that we would be called the children of God.
I think it has reference to what comes out in a person that people can see.
You remember, just as an example, in Romans 7 of this expression to be called something, it says that a woman that if she becomes to another man while she is married, will be called an adulteress. That is, she gave that that reputation. That's what comes out. And I think that's the thought of being called the children of God and the Lord Jesus being called the Son of God. Now He is the Son of God.
In John's gospel and it's his person, but it seems to me in Luke.
It's what is to come out in that wonderful man born into this world that will that would give everyone to see. It would be a public, you might say, display an example so that everyone would say as that centurion did. Truly this was the son of God.
S just by looking at that be a sample open. That's right.
I think that would be connected with it. That's what came out and so this one, but in John's cost.
It doesn't say he shall be called the Son of God.
But this is the Son of God. It emphasizes the truth of his person on the next two verses are not.
What John is teaching.
But what John is observing and enjoying?
This is what he is enjoying.
So again the next day after John Stewart and two of his disciples and looking upon Jesus that.
He walked, he said. She pulled the Lamb of God. Now I believe that this gives us sort of the character.
Of John in the sense in which we should look at.
The way we should read it.
John sets the example. I'll tell you what It's been said that any service from for Christ flows from communion. That's right. What happens? Let's decide.
Because they saw what John was occupied with and they saw it was good. And so they leave John and apologies. Now, this is a wonderful thing to observe here, that John was simply standing, and whether he was conscious of what he said or not, I mean, in the sense that others were hearing it, that makes no difference. He was enjoying it. Yes. It's a very, very beautiful privilege.
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I should say for every one of us.
His occupation with the person of the Lord Jesus was such that two disciples turned to follow the Lord. And I wonder if it's right to say that every life here has either that effect or the opposite.
You get in the opening of the Song of Solomon, Draw me, we will run after thee. There is an individual heart drawn by the Lord, and it has that effect. We will run after these, but then you find the other side effect in the case of four Peter.
I go fishing. We also go with the.
I believe it's right to say, dear brethren, and it's searching to say it, that your life, and my life is summed up in one or the other of those two pictures. Draw me. And that's what we have here. We will run after thee.
Or granted, it may be so, or else I go fishing. We also go with thee again in the Song of Solomon when they come to the pride of ask her, what is thy beloved more than another beloved? There's no hesitation. There's no stumbling for words. Immediately she begins to describe him, and she doesn't finish until she can say, yeah, he is.
Lovely, And the very next verse is Whither is thy beloved Dawn, that we may seek him with feet?
Well, I believe that this is very, very beautiful at searching. John stood, as we have been reminded. Not a picture of bustling activity, but John stood.
And simply uttered those words of personal occupation with the Lord and it had this effect. They followed him. Could you refer this to the 16 song Serve me, Oh God, for you need to, I trust. Well, we certainly need that language continually. My father, you great on that. He said he read that every day.
Would there be any?
Significant we noticed in verse 29 when he says, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
But there's no mention of anyone following or that.
But in verse 36, looking upon Jesus as evolved, he said behold the Lamb of God. And then we read of the two disciples who heard him follow Jesus. Would there be some significance in that that fact that it seems that when he when John is occupied with this one as he walked and called attention to that.
I I've been thinking of this that the.
We've been speaking about the greatness of the person of the Lord Jesus and take away of the sin of the world, the Baptizer of the Holy Ghost, Son of God, one who's come down from the glory. But when we really follow him in his wall and his pathway, we don't see one.
Who, you might say, sets forth his glory and set forth his greatness. But in John's gospel he takes the place of utter and complete defendants. He says even the very words that he spoke with what the Father had given. He couldn't do anything of himself. He's the most, he's in the most dependent position, and he's here to do nothing but the will of the Father.
And it seems to me that.
As we as we have in John's Gospel, the Lamb of God as he walked, how this draws out the heart to see one walking here. And though the the the greatest, the Son of God, the one who came down from the glory, and yet he takes such a place of attendance upon the Father and he takes the place of doing nothing but the will of the Father doing nothing.
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You might see from himself at all. I kind of my own self do nothing.
And it's it's really that that bulk that draws out the heart, is it not? It's the going down, you see, It's the the fact that it's just the opposite of the first man. The 1St man was was a creature created to be independence, to be dependent upon God and to be obedient to God. But he got out of that place. And here is one who passed to his own person thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He was in the very form of.
Now he's down here in this scene as a man, independence and doing the will of the Father. It's the end of the line of the prophets, and the prophets had two messages. John sums it up in his ministry. The first message was to call attention.
To the people of Israel.
The tremendous failure and responsibility committed to them. And the second point was how God was going to come in, in grace first really, and bring blessing to His people in spite of their faith. Now they refer, do they not through the sacrifices to the coming of Christ who was to be the true Lamb of God?
I'm sure there wasn't as much light as we have today on it.
But still it was there from Adam on down the land. Now John has come to that point. He's the last of the prophets.
And there he stands, love it, and he's looking at the very one that the prophets had spoken of, how his heart must have been filled. As he explains, regardless of whether anyone listened or not, his heart was full.
Behold the Lamb of God. I believe that salvation, redemption here works in beauty because the subject of John is life. We have it here in the person of Jesus.
What's my?
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John 1:35-40

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John's Gospel chapter one and verse 35 again the next day after John stood and took his disciples and looking upon Jesus, I could walk, he said. He told the Lamb of God. The two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus, then Jesus.
Turned and the son of the following, and said of sin.
They said unto him, Rabbi, which is the saving and temperature master where?
He said from them, come and see.
They came and saw when he drove and the boat was in the day.
What was about to his own? One of the two which heard John speak and followed him with Andrew, signed me to his brother.
He first started his own brother Simon on the state of the anthem was found on his eyes, which is being interpreted with Christ.
And they brought him to Jesus.
When Jesus renewed, he said Lord Simon, the son of Joseline.
That will be called secrets, which is by interpretation of stone.
The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee and Congress. Philippine, follow me.
The city of.
Philip, Prime Minister signed me one shares on hand. We found him on motion and law, and the prophets did write Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph.
The messenger said I'm doing good. Things come out of measure.
Phillips 7 and come and see.
Jesus saw the thighs were coming to him. If all the natural light and date until there's no God.
I thought you said that I am, which don't sell me.
Jesus answered and said unto him, before the truth called me, when thou, son of the victory, I saw.
Nathaniel, I answered and said, Anthony 7:00 AM Rabbi, thou is not God, Lord the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said to me, And because I said to thee, I saw the end of the victory. Believe us down. Russia secreted things in these.
Very, very nicely under you.
You're after, you shall see Pendleton over and the angels of God last ending and descending upon the Son of Man.
Expression I knew him not really belongs to the.
Time of the baptism of the Lord Jesus, which is not spoken up here, but at that time we have the.
Expression of what the Father had said, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, same as he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.
Now it's a little difficult to.
To determine the exact timing in John, In fact, perhaps purposely so, because the Spirit of God is not occupying us here with time, He's leading us into that which has to do with eternal life. And it's the the deep precious principles involved that should engage us, not time, although it is important to see the setting.
And.
We find that at the 29th verse.
It begins a period where it's really the ministry of the Lord Jesus in contrast with John's ministry. That is the John who was the forerunner before that.
But really, the Spirit of God would engage us with the person.
And that which has to do with the person, his glories.
And what He has come to bring us, that he has himself enjoyed in the bosom of the Father.
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And so John's Gospel gives us.
The sun revealing the Father, it's the subject of life, of course, and leads on into that full subject of eternal life which we value so much and they're looking forward to.
I like to think of this expression, Behold the Lamb of God as being an expression of worship.
Occupation with the person who is here identified as the Lamb of God. No reference to what he has done or is doing, but just a heart. Occupation with the person.
I don't know how it would be in the original, but here in the English it happens to have 5 words and when I read it I like to think of Pauls expressions. I'd rather speak 5 words that with my understanding how I teach others also that that false words and songs. And here it does a little expression of five words.
A heart occupation with the Lord Jesus.
And the happy result of it, brethren, it doesn't take any gift to give expression to a spot like this. It doesn't make any gift. It's just heart occupation with a person that is seen here in the practice words.
The whole Alaska. I don't like to speak as though everything must be categorized by.
Perhaps we might suggest that the difference between praise and worship would be with some flexibility.
Praise is that which extends to our Lord Jesus because of that which He has done, that which He is doing for us. Worship is that which ascends because of who He is.
Perhaps an illustration might be used. Suppose that how White is very, very kind and able in her administration toward her husband, toward her husband.
And if things are in order, he will praise her for her housekeeping, her cooking, and the kind and thoughtful things that she does for him. But we will suppose that that same dear wife is temporarily laid aside with illness. She hasn't been able to do this housekeeping. She hasn't been able to put those favorite specialties before him on the table.
And he stands by her bedside.
Does he have anything to say to her? Is there any feeling in his heart toward her which he wants to express? You know there is. There's something in his heart toward her because of who she is.
Having nothing to do with what she is doing or hands up. Simply a feeling of love expressed because of who she is.
I asked you, which do you think she appreciates the more, the expression of love because of who she is or the expression of Thanksgiving because of what she's doing? So I just love this expression.
The toll, the lack of God, I said here, just require any gift to utter an expression such as this. I wonder, dear brethren, do we lack in this? Do we lack in those expressions?
Worship of which he is so worthless. The difference we get in this expression and that's a pilot about it. When he said, behold the man. This is the difference, is it not to the to the Saint of God as he looks upon the Lord Jesus, he sees him as the Lamb of God, but the man of the world looks at him. He says beholder man, that's all he sees.
Word here as he walked away.
It wasn't only that John saw him come taking steps toward me, but it was the Lord's Portland, his demeanor, the attraction to his person as he came towards John.
Meat offering and being the fine flower that speaks to our hearts of his walk, always delighting the Father's heart. Here it was given to one in the Spirit to see Him as He walked. It's not a wonderful view to get of the Lord Jesus all his pathway as he walked. So in contrast with our.
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Walk hit her and hit her and yawn. Our inconsistencies and all. There was one.
They could gaze on John, could gaze on him and.
Just be all lost in view.
The offering was deep enough to death with the all the way to death.
In fact, it's at the close of that walk which was the most beautiful before God of the pathway of the Lord Jesus. When they know perfect obedience without showing any will of His own, He goes to the cross. I do think, brother too, that you mentioned it.
That they they pattern. The picture we have here is what characterizes Christianity, no matter who it is.
And the walk.
Gives evidence as to what we are now we should walk as he walked, it says in the Epistle of John. And when you come to the latter Epistles, or the latter part of the epistles, where the of the false teachers and imposters have made their inroads, the apostles immediately speak of how they walked.
Because they didn't walk according to the truth. There is a walk that characterizes Christianity and we see it in Jesus.
And to take our pattern from another brother or sister, it may, it might be false. Paul spoke of to follow Christ even as he followed, follow him even as he followed Christ. So he still directed the heart to Christ, even if he was to be a pattern in his life. And he was a pattern.
But still he directs them to Christ, to walk as he walked. How important that is.
Now the Speaking of the affections. I think this is a very important point that was brought out by our brother the the love.
And the motives of it, because love is the spring of every activity of God.
And this is the, this is what should characterize the believer.
Not to act according to something another person has done.
But to act?
Because this is the nature we have, love. Now let me turn to one verse.
1St Corinthians 13.
We have here the subject of love.
And I just want to call attention to the 7th verse.
Beareth all things. Now if you'll read in another translation carefully, you'll see it says covers all things.
Love.
Covers all things.
There is such a thing, you know, as certain things having to be settled.
And once they're settled by Paul says in Second Corinthians, why don't you show your love to them?
Our hearts are so hard that we carry grudges, and we should not, brethren, we should not carry grudges.
We have love there and it covers all things.
After the matter has been settled, then love covers all things.
And so this is the way God has acted towards us and is acting towards us continually. He doesn't cover evil, but once there's been the exercise and repentance, love covers all things.
And this is what brings the quiet in the land, as we have in the Old Testament then had the the quiet in the land.
And this is what we need, brethren, to quiet in the land. I like this portion. The next day does he? Yes, and again the next day after John stood and two of his disciples looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God.
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And then again, in the 11Th chapter of John's Gospel, there's a verse regarding Mary.
Which strikes me very similarly. Verse 45. Then many of the Jews which came to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him. Mary was characterized by quietly sitting.
At the feet of the Lord Jesus and learning of him. And when Lazarus died, her brother, she quietly waited, and there was no anxiety or hurry about her activity.
And here John stood.
And declared to the two that were with him, behold the Lamb of God, and result was these two followed the Lord Jesus.
If one is exercised to be very, very active, that's between them and the Lord. Not everyone is.
If so, those who quietly go on.
With their hearts attached to Christ.
There is going to be results.
And the Lord will be glorified in it in the end.
As our brother said yesterday afternoon, draw me and we will follow thee. How good it is to just.
Be quiet, go on in faithfulness and allow the Spirit of God to do the work with your heart attacks to Christ believe. We see a lovely example of that in the 5th chapter of the Song of Solomon in the Solomon Song chapter 5 and verse 9.
It says, What is thy beloved more than another beloved? Oh, thou fairest among women.
What is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?
And then we see how.
Bride. Here she gives expression to what the bridegroom means to her heart.
He, my beloved, is white and Ruddy, the chiefest among 10,000. And then she goes on to describe him. His head is his most fine goal. And so on down to the 16th verse. His mouth is most sweet. Yeah, he is altogether lovely.
This is my beloved and this is my friend or daughters of Jerusalem.
And then the very next verse says, Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women?
Whither is thy beloved turned aside, that we may seek him with thee?
Well, we see something of that here in the first chapter of John's Gospel, don't we? We see the all that comes out that the John the Baptist was given to see in the person of the Lord Jesus. Behold, the Lamb of God. All that that simple, precious expression contains reveals that the John the Baptist was able to see and enjoy in the person of Christ.
And the effect of it is that these.
Two disciples seek to follow him. I think that's so very, very sweet bread. And some of us were talking about this yesterday and about some of the very unusual circumstances in which some of the Saints find themselves in. Perhaps they may find themselves in a situation where they they they have come to know the Lord as their Savior, but their husband is not saved or their wife is not saved.
And there is nothing that is going to have more of an effect.
In more of a testimony in drawing the unconverted 1 to Christ, then the personal enjoyment of Christ, the seeing in the life that Christ fills and satisfies the heart like it's been doing in the past minutes. The Lamb of God. And we always think of the Lamb of God.
As the one who is perfectly subject to God, and yet the evenness of Him, as has been mentioned.
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It seems almost a paradox to me, and I'm asking in Revelations 11 at the Revelation 6 at the end, why do they want to hide from the faith and the expression of the Lamb of God and from the wrath of the Lamb? It doesn't seem right that it should be the Lamb.
Who is the one with the wrath rather than the sun? And I'm just asking. Well, that's their thought. It isn't the time of the lambs coming, but the judgments already are so great at the beginning of the tribulation that they suppose that the lamb was coming. But the thing, brethren, that touches the heart so much.
Which is that this might be the voices of some of the Saints children.
Have heard the gospel over and over again and rejected it.
They know that the Lamb is coming. Who else knows but those who have had the testimony we have here? It's a day of judgment and it's the very beginnings of the day of judgment.
They have a conscience. It's not so at the end of the book the conscience is gone, practically. But here the conscience is still an exercise, and it's only those who know these truths that are crying out, as they have in the last of this 6th chapter.
Said to the mountains and rocks fauna.
It's an Old Testament scripture fulfilled and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. Oh, how solemn that scripture is. Because there are so many who come and sit in a gospel meeting and they know all about it.
And yet there's absolutely no concern or exercise of soul as to their sin and guilt before a holy God. And just because we're surrounded by those things that give us ease and pleasure and quietness, remember, everyone has to do with God about their sins.
And May God exercise the consciences of each one of us here, and especially those who are still in their sins without Christ, because this may be the last day.
We recognize too, that the expression, even though in the English it's the same Lamb and Revelation as we have in John's Gospel, it's really two different words and in the Book of Revelation.
When he's presented as the Lamb, I think it's a little different thought from what we have here as behold the Lamb of God.
It I have likened it to the two psalms 22 and 69.
In Psalm 22, we have the Lord Jesus in his sufferings and atonement, and the result is there's blessing. And so here in John's Gospel, the Lamb of God is that one, the Lamb of God's providing, the one who is the sacrificial lamb that satisfies all of God's holy and righteous claims, that one who.
Answers to all of the offerings of the Old Testament that ascended up to God as a sweet smelling savour.
But in the Book of Revelation, it's the Lamb from the standpoint of the one who suffered here from the hands of men, the suffering one. And he's the one that's going to judge the one who suffered. They said away with this man. We will not have him to reign over us, but that's the man who's going to reign. So in the Book of Revelation, it's more like in the 69th Psalm, where we have his suffering from the hands of men and the result.
Let their table become a snare. In other words, on Psalm 22, the suffering there as the Lamb of God, of God, God's providing, and as our substitute in accomplishing atonement, the result is blessing. But in Psalm 69, where he suffers from the hands of men, why judgment is the result. And that's why in the Book of Revelation, the Lamb is seen there as the one who's going to bring in judgment, the very one that they.
Rejected and cast out here, the one who suffered as lead is a lamb to the slaughter, a sheep to the slaughter. In other words, the one who patiently endured all that man brought upon him. He's the one who's going to reign and bring in judgment. But that isn't the view here, is it? Here it's the Lamb of God as that one who.
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Satisfied everything that God looked for, everything that would bring satisfaction to the heart and mind of God and to.
To satisfy all of His attributes, love, holiness and everything finds its its satisfaction in this blessed One that is the Lamb of God.
In connection with the fact that in Revelation 1.
We have the Son of man and his eyes in verse 14 were as a flame of fire. Well we know the Son of man presented revelation one is the same person who stood before them in John chapter one the very same person who it says in our chapter. Then Jesus turned and saw them following and sent on to them. What seeking if you.
Particularly thinking of those that are younger, if we could but think of the way in which the blessed Savior would have looked at these following, and the eyes, and the expression and the care, and the way in which He would have said to them, What seek ye?
We could think of the way in which those eyes of the very same blessed Son of God looked at Peter. What kind of eyes were they? What kind of expression was it that love, that glorious provision, beloved brethren, that has occupied our souls?
Right, and all the glory of His person before them. But when we turn to Revelation chapter one. When therefore judgmentary aspect is introduced, then we have some of them with eyes as a flame of fire. We do have that in John's gospel, because we have in chapter 5 that all judgment has been committed under the sun.
But isn't it a glorious thing this morning?
That you and I right now have that opportunity, as it were, to recognize that as the blessed Son of God, the Son of man, the Lamb of God would look upon us and we prove grace. Have thy privilege to gaze upon Him.
How different it is now, beloved brethren, from what we would have. And that judgmentary aspect, oh, it should be thrilling to our hearts to think of that question asked. What Seek ye? And beloved young brethren.
How would we honestly answer that question?
I was in a Center City area some time ago and needed to go by taxi just a few blocks. And the young man was there as a taxi driver and said, I'm sorry Sir, I can't take you a few blocks because you see, I have to get back in line again at the hotel, I wouldn't earn any money. Another young man overheard and said where did you want to go? I said, well, I have to go only two blocks.
Fine, he said. Get into my taxi and I'll take you. And as I got into the taxi, he said.
You see, as a taxi driver, I've agreed to take anyone anywhere, and as one who loves the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior, Sir, I am happy to take you there. And if it only costs $1.10, I will leave that with the Lord. Practical application, you can be sure that the Lord will never be our better brethren because it would be my answer to.
My beloved brother in Christ, I am thankful to go two blocks, and you can understand that I have the privilege before a holy God to provide much more than a dollar and a few cents as unto the Lord. Beloved young brother, what seek ye are we seeking after the things that have been set to forest? Is Christ precious? Are the truths ours to accumulate? Simply to be clear, brethren.
Are they ours to accumulate through matchless grace, to occupy our souls with the person with whom we will spend all eternity? Where, whilst thou and all, how much we long to be where he dwells?
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And we're going to be there through our own eternity.
Brother bomb on it. Specifically as to your question, would you consider that in the 5th chapter, verse five goes with verse six and verse five comes first. Revelation 5, verse 5.
And the character of the one who is the Judge is the one described here. Weep Now behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David hath prevailed to open the book. Then we have him in the sixth verse, as the Lamb had been slain. But all think of him, He has the right.
Tribe of Judah now there, as I believe reflected the fact that David came to the throne, but first was a rejected man, horrible for years and entities before he came to the throne, and now he's taking his power when he came to that throne. Here we see the Lord Jesus in that capacity.
So what is said in the sixth verse? The Lamb that had been slain, which is precious to us. It is preceded by His kingly position and power, by which He appears in this book. I believe the Lord has allowed this 6th of revelation to come before us. We might remember that the very One of whom we are speaking is in the coming day, as we have been reminded.
Going to have to act as.
Just and these last verses of Revelation Six came much before me.
In visiting a week or two ago in Saint Vincent, when those dear folks described to me their error when that volcano erupted and the sound of it, the sight of it and the darkness of it, and the hail of stones and ashes that began to fall.
And their abject terror as they tried to flee from that thing. And I thought of that verse in the end of Revelation 6. And I said, just think the day is coming when instead of fleeing from such a thing, men are actually going to call upon the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them from the base of the citizen on the throne and from the wrath of the land.
And game opportunity to speak.
Words that we trust may be with awakening and blessing in those areas where that happens, where they fled in terror and when they were reminded that they would come when they would prefer that.
To the wrath of the land I can only trust that it may have had its effect. It was an opportune time that seemed to be to present that message to them, and as our brother-in-law Eight had remarked, that it will be those who have heard these very things that we are speaking about.
And our lefty hunt that have the most awful terror of all when they realize who it is that is coming forth in judgment. Oh wonderful. And what a precious thing it is. Know that He is not only the Savior who loved us and lie to Edema with whom we are going to dwell forever.
But, as our brother has remarked, will not be a vain thing for you or me.
To say that we look forward the dwelling with Him forever and then fail to enjoy the provision of His presence years. Thomas said one thing, have I desired the Lord? That's when I see capture that I may.
Dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life. To behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire of Him and his sanctuary.
There was that desire to dwell, not when our days are all ended, but here, all the days of my life. We do have the privilege of as much of the company of the Lord Jesus as we want. True ministry does not attract.
Souls to the one who is giving that ministry. True ministry attracts the souls to Christ, and this is what we have in this 3630 seventh verses. The two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus. Now John was taken up with one subject and that alone.
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His mission and that was to introduce Jesus.
To point out the Lamb of God, but by baptism of repentance and so.
He did have disciples, but they were in view of what his mission was.
Now this is rather an interesting subject.
Because sometimes we get puzzled when we read those verses. This is John, this is Elias, which was to come. The Lord said that of John the Baptist.
But we read clear clearly in this first chapter that he said I'm not Elias.
Now how are we going to bring these thoughts together?
Because he certainly wasn't Elias in his person.
But I think it'd be good to look at Luke the 1St chapter.
And it might help in the understanding of this problem. The 17th verse of Luke 1 begging of John the Baptist.
Before he was born.
And he shall go before him.
In the spirit and power of Elias.
To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the justice, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Now I'll turn to Malachi, where we have the prophecy in the third chapter. At the beginning you have the messenger. That is, Malachi apparently is known as the messenger, but.
Christ is the messenger, but he has one who goes before he moves, a messenger as well.
And when we come down to the.
The last part of the 4th chapter. Fifth verse. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
Now if you look at Acts the third chapter, I believe it will solve if there is a difficulty with any, it will solve that difficulty. As to this is Elias which was for to come the 19th verse of Acts 3.
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, not when, but that the times of refreshing might come.
From the presence of the Lord, and he shall send Jesus Christ.
Which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the time of restitution of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. And Moses truly said unto the fathers of prophets, Shall the Lord your God.
Raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me him shall ye hear in all things, whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among his people. The people, yeah, and all the prophets from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.
Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our Father, saying of Abraham, And in thy seed and all shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Now notice unto you first, God, having raised up his Son, Jesus sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
Now that's why the earth was not been smitten with a curse.
It's because he sent Jesus.
Prophet like unto me, shall God raise up the Lord Jesus came.
As the last of the prophets, we speak of John as the last, and that's true in a sense. But you see, brethren, all the prophets that ever lived.
Those that followed Samuel are specially mentioned.
We're only little pictures of the one who was to come, who was to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. No one else could do it. And so when John the Baptist comes, he comes in the spirit and power of Elias.
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And so does the Lord Jesus.
See, Jesus is the one and only one who can accomplish.
What the prophets were said to do, He was the only one who could accomplish what Israel was said to do. That's why it says in the 49th of Isaiah, Thou art my servant, O Israel, referring to Jesus.
Our brethren, what we need is to have our eyes on Christ. He's the only one who can complete what man has undertaken and failed in, and he will complete it to the glory of God. Every purpose of God will be completed.
All the promises of God are ye and our men in him and no one else. And that answers the question of this is Elias, which was for to come in the next section. We have something very precious that's condensed in just a few verses, but it opens to us that which has no limits. It's a little picture to us, beloved of communion.
With the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ, as John gives us in the his first epistle and 1St part of it, it's being brought into that place where Jesus dwells. It's no no place in the sense of given street or number.
But is that which the soul is brought into when he is occupied with Jesus?
And you cannot specify any limits here. It's it's what the soul enjoys.
In the presence of the Lord Jesus because he and he alone can give satisfaction to the human heart and the reason we don't have these little sessions, brethren, as we have mentioned here where it says.
Whom seek ye?
Or what? Seek ye.
They sat on a rabbi, which is say, being interpreted, Master, where dwellest thou? He sent them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelled, and abode with him that day, for it was about the 10th hour. And the reason we don't is because we fill our lives so full of present things that we do not have time.
For this little period, spoken up here, not told what went on.
But it was deeply embedded in the hearts of those disciples, what they experienced on that day.
And it's a little picture, beloved, of that moment when we hear the shout. We're caught away to be forever with the Lord. It's that little anticipation of that moment in His presence come. It was about the 10th hour. The margin of my Bible says that is 2 hours before night.
Somehow when I read that I feel that those two powers are dust about ended.
They're just about ended, those two powers. There's still the privilege, by the very wonderful grace of God, of having a taste of this before those two hours are ended. And I do trust and pray we love the brothers and sisters that with the last moments of those two hours quickly ticking away, you and I who have been gathered together here at Wheaton may know something of the company of the Lord Jesus.
He yearns for it, he doesn't force his company upon anyone, but it really must delight his part when anyone would really want his company, as perhaps we noticed the other day in connection with those that he may have.
When they came to that place where they were going to spend the night, the Lord Jesus made as though he would have gone further, but they constrained him saying abide with us against the night was approaching so beloved when he's meeting straw were closed. If we are left here when you and I pack up and return toward our home. If we're left here.
We're going to be able to very great grace of God to have something of this in our hearts toward the Lord Jesus.
To constrain Him and you let. He wants our company and we can trust that as there is only me, there may be a desire in our hearts to enjoy what these two enjoy.
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And the Lord said, come and see.
Is that so much the thought that He would occupy them with what He was doing, even in His disciples? That would not be the thought, would it? But to see the Lord? I'm thinking of John chapter 20, when the Lord in resurrection came into the midst of His own.
Then where the recycles glad when they saw the Lord?
When souls become exercised as to the place where the Lord would have them to be, it's certainly wonderful to see what the Lord is doing in other believers. But it's important that the eye be directed to the person of Christ and that we really in our souls come to believe and to know that we are we're here.
To see him.
And Jesus only in a certain sense. We can always rejoice in what He's doing in others, but the important point is to be where He is to see Him. We will be disappointed in our fellow brethren at one time or another, but we will never be in Him. And if we do not get to that point, there won't be stability in our course. We will waver back and forth.
I think it's even significant, brother, where you go to.
Came Jesus and.
Stood in the midst, then more the disciples flat when they saw the Lord. Very interesting little change there came Jesus.
That wondrous person that stood in the midst then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Oh how wonderful it is. Beloved by the very wonderful grace of God, is out that to be in the presence of that One who bore the name of Jesus.
And to enjoy the sweetness of it brings with it, I believe, the delight and privilege of owning him as Lord. Will that also give a happy stability? He is the Lord and we're happy to see that and about.
Also, perhaps a further thought in this expression, where he dwelt, they came and saw where he dwelt.
At least I have enjoyed in my own soul. In meditating on this, they the thought that the Lord Jesus dwelt every moment of His lifetime here. He dwelt in the sunshine, the enjoyment of His Father's love. He was in the sweetness of communion.
All during his pathway here and so we find that they come as after they hear the expression behold the Lamb of God and they say to him where dwelleth now and he invites them to come and see and brethren, isn't that exactly the thing that the Lord has done for us? He has invited us to come and to be in the enjoyment of the Father's love as he enjoyed the Father's love to enjoy the relationship that.
Enjoy to be brought into that very place of favor that was his. So he says to them, Come and see, and they came and dwelt with him. So in dwelling with him they have the sweet, precious enjoyment of His own person.
But at the same time they have the sweet and most precious enjoyment of the dwelling place that he enjoyed in all the sunshine and sweetness of the Father's love. The parallel word is used, abide, which also strengthens the thought of a continuance of dwelling, doesn't it? It's, it's just as though one were at rest there, and that's where he always was. He never left that place, never.
And so it's a wonderful thing that the Son of God has come down into this world.
To find those that he can take back with him into the very place where he dwells. It's a marvelous thought, but first he has to give a nature.
That is fits that dwelling place, and so we find that.
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John, John's Gospel at the very beginning, takes that subject up, like the third chapter, the subject of new birth. There must be a change, as was told in Jeremiah and also in Ezekiel to the Jews, that their God would the coming day give them a new heart. And there were those at the time when Jesus came who were ready.
To receive this and we're born again. And I suppose they were the ones who had listened to John's ministry. So there was a new heart. And now we find him leading to into the very place where he himself abides, dwells. Place he enjoys, the place he never left. And then this is where ministry begins from.
And it's Andrew who goes to his brother Peter and so on.
The whole thing has its source in the place where he lives the the heart being taken with the person, but not in this world merely, but in the place where he lives. And that's that's true Christianity for the believer and not simply to say, well, yes, I'm saved, but we have our Commonwealth in heaven.
And that's why in the Old Testament the the types which were given for us to learn by.
The children of Israel were to to have a ribbon of blue attached to their garments.
The constant sense in the soul type for us that we are a heavenly people.
We don't really keep our secret unless we do. The way we keep our secret down here is with that ribbon of blue. We're a heavenly people and this should be associated with the fact that we are saved. Maybe we relate that too to the place where the Lord Jesus says there am I in the midst of them when there's an honest, inquiring soul where the Lord would have them be.
Rather than trying to within our within our own intellectual, shall we say?
Bring before them where the Lord would be in the midst. Can we simply say, come and see?
Bring them to the meeting. It does exercise our hearts, does it not, that our state of soul, when gathered through His name, may be such that the presence of the Lord may be manifested too?
There may not be a hindrance to her inquiring soul, but he is in the midst. Is that true?
The Holy Spirit draws to the person of Christ in that sense. Certainly right, isn't it?
Isn't it sad that the only thing that they could show Jesus?
When?
In the 11Th chapter of John.
When they said to him, come and see it was a.
Lazarus dead in the tomb, come and see. But here when he says come and see, he lifts the soul above everything here.
That speaks of death. He takes the soul completely out of this scene. Come and see, because it's in His presence and the Father's presence where he takes them. Now we're not told what.
What they saw, we're not told the experience.
But we know that it was above everything here that had to do with the 1St man.
The obedience of faith would certainly bring us into this position. They came. There was that desire of hearts, and there was that diligence than to simply fall along. And were they disappointed? Would you or would I ever be disappointed, brethren?
In following the Lord, well, it tells us plainly that they came and saw where you saw.
He'd make it real to them. He would display it. The glories of his person, the wonder of that.
Spotlight of the Father's glorious purpose, in which the blessed Savior resides, would clearly be made manifest to our hearts. They saw where He dwelt, and they abode with Him that day. I like to think that the principle, perhaps in picture, is set before us, that the glorious.
Savior is having his own weapon, they will dare abide with Him.
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That day, what day? The current day, the day of grace, that day, until there is that eternal sphere, and then forever with him there. There is, I believe, young brethren, a very important principle seen in Israel in connection with abiding or dwelling they were given.
Glorious privileges. They were given a land. God gave them that land.
For their rightful possession, and they could turn to one another and say the land in power, but they were instructed to possess it. Maybe we should look at it. The end of Deuteronomy Chapter 11 is perhaps as clear as any other portion might be. Deuteronomy Chapter 11 and verse 31.
For ye shall Passover Jordan.
To go in to possess the land which the Lord your God giveth you, and ye shall possess it and dwell therein. There is a difference between title and possessing it in the sense of making it our own and dwelling therein.
How wonderful to have a diligent purpose before God to seek grace.
To be occupied with the person of Christ, not only to be able to come and see, but to abide there for that day. I suppose your thought, brother, in bringing in the two or three, was that we have here a little picture of the assembly down here.
I believe we do.
Was this question made necessary because of his rejection? Everyone knew the location of the temple and the way to it and what was going on there. But to be with the Lord?
Is necessary to follow him. He never went into the temple. Did he accept into the outer court? Then he looked all around the bottom and went out and went into the House of Mary and her sister Martha and Lazarus.
To spend the night. He was never at home in the temple. But marvelous grace it is, brethren, to be given to see the present truth, the present truth where God is gathering to the person of Jesus, to that name alone, outside of all that which man would set up and what man would use to make something of himself.
And all the simplicity.
That scripture says forth just to be gathered to the person of the Lord Jesus alone. And that's enough for us, brethren, just enough. We don't need any more.
The Old Testament we have all of the forms, the rites, the ceremonies, and they didn't bring one soul nearer to God.
But we have been brought to a place where we can just sit in his presence.
And we should bring our baskets of first fruits, and that is, that which has been gathered during the week which we have enjoyed of Christ we bring with us, and then the Spirit may even call forth praise.
From one or another of those who have gathered those baskets, I suppose it's one of the hardest things to start your evangelistic work at home, isn't it? And that's where Andrew started. He started at home.
Everyone knows you're there.
Goes all about you to confess Christ at home. Sometimes it's a very difficult thing, at least for some, but that's the place Spirit of God sets before us here to start and think of Peter. Andrew wasn't really prominent like Peter was, but Andrew was the one who was used to lead Peter to the Lord Jesus. So we find that God is not looking at the amount of work of a believer does he's looking at.
Heart and whether he's in the right place at the right time to do the thing that God wants him to do. And this is a lesson that's very hard for us to learn because we we look at others and we see how productive their lives are, how full they are, how rich they are. But that's not the standard.
Are we in the place that God wants us to be now? What doest thou hear, Elijah?
Is a question that resounds and resounds on the heart. Elijah should have been in another place. Place of rejection, sure, but he should have been in another place. He shouldn't have been discouraged.
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Well, we we shouldn't be discouraged either, but the little work that we feel God wants us to do, it might be going home to our brother.
Telling him about Jesus, whatever it is, that's the work we're to do.
I think that comment about beginning at home is a very, very searching and necessary one. Perhaps could even be applied to the beloved parents who are here to remember in the days of the Passover they were told if the household be too little for the land.
Then let him and his neighbor next to your house make your account for the land.
Needs of that immediate household where the first responsibility and if those needs were met then let him and his neighbor 3 miles down the road doesn't even say that. Next under your house make your account for the land I say that.
Because I feel, dear young fathers and mothers, that if the Lord has given you a family, that verse should really be months upon your heart. If the household be too little for the land, then the needs of the household first met. I was speaking with a brother some time ago.
Who, it seemed to me, was totally neglected the spiritual responsibility of five children that had been entrusted to him and spending his time going thither and thither preaching the gospel. I admired his seals. I admired the hardships that he endured in fulfilling that deal. I felt that he was.
Neglecting if the household be too little for the last.
I pointed out to him, and at first he didn't like it at all. Are you suggesting that I ought to be in the other place that I said? That's what the Scripture says, Brother. I do believe that you are neglecting your spiritual responsibility toward your home.
Household and thankful to say that I believe he and his dear wife together took it to heart and just let me pass that off because like it would be legal is important. It ought to begin at home and then what was next? And your neighbor next to your house.
One thing to go far away, but I do believe again, ourselves, our households, and perhaps those who are around us. If the Lord should call someone to present Christ in other areas, so be it. We can pray for such. I do believe, dear brethren, that what we have just heard is.
A very, very important and final challenge to everyone of us.
The household be too little for the last, In other words, in the needs of the hostels have been met. Then let him and his neighbors next of your house make your cup for the land. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house is what he told that dear man. And I believe there was a thankful claiming of that promise with regard to that principle that I'd like to just refer to Luke 4.
Where we have the Lord as a model in that.
As it were, beginning at home, and the 4th chapter, we have him in verse 16 and he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up.
That's where he starts his ministry here in Nazareth, where he had been brought up and as his custom was. I've enjoyed that expression.
Sometimes.
They're young people grow up, children grow up and they say, well, I just I've been going to the meeting just out of custom. My parents took me there. But we see that the Lord Jesus said here as his custom was I'm sure that referred even to his childhood there in Nazareth. His parents took him to the synagogue and he recognized as it was of course, at this time that was the.
Appointed place for the people of God at this time, so as his custom was. And here he is now in full maturity, a man in the power of the Holy Spirit. And where does he go? He goes back to Nazareth, where he was brought up and into that synagogue where he was, had been trained to go, where he had been accustomed to go. And I've often thought that that.
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A young man or young lady growing up in a Christian home and been.
Having been brought to the meeting as a child and as they grow on and mature, we trust in a spiritual way and like the Lord Jesus here and the power of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes there is a fault then that they have to go out into far away countries.
But they can continue right in that very city, that very assembly where they've been brought up. And just as their custom was as a child and as a young person, now as a mature adult and in the power of the spirit to be in that same area, that same assembly. But as the Lord gives the example here, he he, he has something now to to give and to deliver.
And no doubt, I'm sure that all in that synagogue.
They knew about him from a child and they knew that the the pattern of his life and we it's remarkable how that when the book was delivered there to him and all eyes were fixed on him because it was the place where he had been brought up and he had he had increased in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man. And now he continues in that place. His ministry starts there.
Thought of this as an encouragement to those young persons that as our brother Ahoy brought out, it is true, the Lord may lay his hand upon one to send him out into regions beyond, but he doesn't necessarily have to be. That is, 1 can be in the power of the Spirit of God, and as it were, the Spirit of the Lord upon him, and he remains in that assembly where he was brought up.
But he's there in the power of the Spirit.
I think there is a danger of our slipping into the the custom of things in the systems.
That where there are young persons who show any interest in the things of God and they're they're a spiritual minded and and are interested in the things of God, the thought is they must be a missionary or they must be in some public service, but it's entirely within the.
Range of the will of God for one to be spiritually minded, interested in the things of God, and thoroughly devoted to the things of God.
And in the power of the Spirit, and yet remain in that assembly where you have been raised. And to go on with the Lord there as the Lord here returns to Nazareth where he was brought up and goes into that synagogue as his custom was, but he's there as a man and the power of the Spirit of God.
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John 1:41-42

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John Gospel chapter one and verse 41. The first fight of his own brother Simon and stayed under him.
We found the Messiah which is being interpreted to Christ.
He brought him to Jesus.
But Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou son, son German.
Doctor, because Jesus by interpretation of storm.
Today following, Jesus would go forth into heavenly and find his Philippines said unto him, Follow me.
Well.
Moses of the law and the prophets did right. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
And Nathaniel said unto him, and there they could think about the pleasure.
Philip shares, and unto him come and see.
Jesus told us Daniel coming to him, and said on him the old miserable indeed, in whom is no God.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip, call me, When thou was done with the fig tree, I saw thee. Nathaniel answered and said unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God. Thou art the King of Israel.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw the end of the fig tree, believeth thou thou shall see greater things than these.
They said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter you shall see heaven open.
Of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. See at the beginning of an entirely new family now on the earth. That's what's referred to in the.
Well first as many as received him to then gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. I really do family.
The oldest has to go.
All that belongs to Adam's race has to go.
The end of all pleasures come before me.
And the only way, the blessing and the only way entrance into this family is first there has to be the Spirit of God Himself working in the soul.
Because we find at the start of this gospel that there was absolutely no response from the natural man to God. He came to his own, his own received him not. And that was from the best the choices, the men, those who had the oracles of God and everything. He came to him. There wasn't any response whatsoever until the Spirit of God began to work.
And there has to be the Spirit of God, a divine revelation.
And faith is given of God to receive it.
How dependent? We are absolutely dependent and it's humbling, but it's good for us to realize this, that there's absolutely nothing salvage from the flesh. It's all new. Brother Lundin, at the beginning of these readings you mentioned about these days. Would you elaborate on that, the what's indicated by these?
Days, yes, well, we mentioned three. I know there is a.
I know there is a line of things that brings in seven days. One brother spoke of four well.
I believe the three are sufficient for us because at least at this time our object is not letters or numbers our our object is to have Christ before us. And I like to just mention that up to the 29th 1St we have what might be spoken of as John's day.
Fulfilling scripture because he's the last of the prophets.
Except the Lord Himself. And then we have these 2000 years from the 29th verse on.
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Or really, until Christ comes.
The the period of spoken of as the period of Christianity, or the period when the Spirit of God is here on earth.
Then at the beginning of the following chapter, we have the third day, which is introduced at the end of these verses, where Nathaniel is brought in as the little remnant, and that is Israel's coming back into blessing again. But let's call it the wedding feast, because there will be a wedding feast for Israel and there will be a wedding feast for the Church.
Israel is the earthly bride.
And although what the Spirit of God is doing here in John and leading us into heavenly things, He does not set aside the relationship with Israel as a nation, at the new nation, if you please, that will be brought in on the same ground as the church as far as the basis is concerned. They have to be born again and they have to have.
A savior they have to trust in that precious blood.
But to him, of course, he is the king. So the basis is the same. There will be a people on the earth in the Kingdom, and there'll be Israel, but a new Israel, and they will be trusting in the blood. And there will be a, as it were, a wedding feast. At the same time the church will be called away to heaven just before.
To be with Christ.
So we have the three days, John's day, the present day and the Millennial day.
So that this day began in verse 35 through 42 would especially bring out what we have in the present day when you say seems to indicate some of the features that belongs to this.
Particular day in which our lot has been cast, and I recall that it's already been referred to in prayers that we are living in the most privileged time of all of the Lord's people. This wouldn't puff us up, but it is true, is it not, that we're living in a time that.
God has.
Given such revelation of himself, and such blessing as as never been known by any of the Saints of God.
In previous dispensations, nor even in the future, and I was thinking of that in regard to the dwelling with him that day, the that.
Is a seems to be a special privilege that belongs to the Saints in this present day to to be able to dwell in the place where the Lord Himself dwells in communion and fellowship with the Father.
Were brought into the Kingdom of the Son of his love into a place that Saints of God of old who though they were devoted and faithful, never had such a privilege and then also as you've mentioned now about the bringing to light the family of God you see the in the Old Testament there were those who were born of God, no doubt and in that sense they were morally of.
Of God. But they could never take the place of being the children of God. They were, if they were Israelites, they were children of Israel. But when the Lord comes, He gives them in that first chapter, the power or the right to take the place of being the children of God.
Privilege, and that's a privilege. It belongs to those in this day, is it not that they have the right? We might just refer to that verse. Maybe some are not familiar in verse 12, but as many as received him to get to them gave me power. And that word power literally means authority or the right to become.
And it should not be sons, but children of God because as I say, the even though there were those born of God in the Old Testament times, they never took that place. They didn't have that privilege of being here in this world.
God, and now those of us who have received the Lord Jesus, that family is brought to light, the family of God, the children of God. I think it's well to keep in mind that it's not the one body that's before us in John. That truth is not revealed until later, and it isn't exactly that character anyhow. It's the family character that's developed and it's so it's the Father that is revealed.
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To the children.
It's a family line of things. You get it in the epistle as well. Perhaps a little different way, but the Lord Jesus came down to reveal the Father. Now you know what that means when you start thinking of what it means.
To be associated with your father.
Because.
There's affection connected with it, but it's because of relationship. When you think of God, you think of nature. God has a certain nature and you have a certain nature.
It's true.
Pardon. He has given us of that nature.
Still, He's God and we are creatures, but He's be given us to partake of that nature.
Why? So that we can enter into and understand and appreciate the things of God.
We're still creatures though.
But we've been given a life and a nature that can enter into the things of God. And when we get home to the Father's house, we'll be perfectly at home. And the first moment that we enter will be perfectly at home. My brother was referring to the passage where the apostle Paul says for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. And I, I, I suppose the question is really how do we apply that?
Well, you see, Paul?
Was here on a mission. Woe was me if I preached not the gospel.
And he wanted to remain as long as that was necessary.
As far as his heart was concerned, he'd rather be with Christ. But he had a commitment and a responsibility, which there really was a privilege, but it still was a responsibility. And as long as he could be a help to the Saints, he wanted to remain. And so instead of Nero deciding his destiny, he says, well, I think I'll take care of that myself. I'll stay with you. And he did.
Later on, of course, Nero was allowed to execute him.
But that wasn't until he could say I finished my course. And you know, the apostle finished his course with joy. And that is always so when one is walking into communion. That's the abundant entrance of the first chapter. 11 first of second Peter.
Entered with joy.
The Everlasting Kingdom.
Finished his course with joy. What a wonderful thing that would be if we could finish our course with joy. Wonderful thing that in God's purposes all will be finished according to the glory of his way. I was thinking rather you're referring to God's ways with Israel. And it's a thrill to our souls to recognize that, that restoration.
Be accomplished according to His good purpose. I was thinking of the wording in Ezekiel 37. Very plain for our hearts and very instructive along the lines of what we have before us. Verse 11, Ezekiel 37, plain language for the end of the verse. Our hope is lost. Let's go on verse 13.
And ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your prayers.
My people brought you up out of your graves.
And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live. I shall place you in your own land. Then shall you know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it. Set the Lord his martial grace. Nothing is different. The circumstances different, the scenery is different, the people are slightly different. The furtherance of God's purpose.
But as to the fact that it's his glory is accomplishment and.
Is activities and all is of grace. It's a thrill to even look forward in the sense that as we have the Romans 11, the gifts and calling of God or without perfectness and the wonder of it is that it's all is her percentage. Nothing is going to be wrought out except I enjoy that connection with struggle.
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By thy hands and shall be finished. Oh, it's a wonderful thing the blessed Savior is finished.
That glorious work, and I believe we all hear, no, even I would assume our younger president heard again and again that the work of Christ, that glorious finished work upon the cross, is the ground with all bus, whether past, present or future. In our hearts bow glorious. How true that the hymnators that speak of the center of two eternities, even though we recognize that eternity.
Eternity and time is measured motion. Hard for our minds to grasp, but well said to my own soul as to the glory of that cross being the center to eternities. Our souls might just count on these things, particularly that we might sense, but it's all grace and all of itself and has enjoyed noticing that when.
The two followed the Lord Jesus. They acted upon the statement, Behold the Lamb of God.
But after they had spent the balance of the day in the presence of the Lord Jesus, they came out saying, we have found the messiahs which is being interpreted to Christ. And I believe, brethren, we have just perhaps a suggestion there for our hearts how that as we spend time in the company of the Lord Jesus.
He delights to reveal himself to us now, the apostle Paul.
As he drew near the end of his life, he still spoke about that. I might know him.
And the to spend to find time in the midst of this very busy life that we're leading.
To find time to spend alone with the Lord Jesus, the result cannot help but be that we'll come to know more of Him, to know more of him, and to be able to go out, as it were, being able to speak of that which we have learned of Himself. And then when he goes on to say he brought him to Jesus.
And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah.
Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation.
A stone.
It seems to me, and I trust I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that we have two thoughts suggested to us here.
That the Lord is bringing in this very unusual way, unusual language here, two thoughts before Peter and before ourselves. First of all is the principle that to have to do with the Lord Jesus, it must be on the basis of being new creatures.
Peter Simon needed a new name, and he's given the name of Cephas, an indication of a new creature needing to be a new creature. And then secondly, perhaps there is a suggestion here of that line of things that Peter was one day going to bring out in his epistle of living stones. A little suggestion here that to have part with Christ.
We must be living stones person words in that verse 42.
Are very suggestive to my own soul. Brought him to Jesus. We can speak to other souls about the Lord Jesus.
We may do our best to present Christ to them.
In a way of dissertation, but isn't the question.
Have I brought that so really into the process of the Lord? Perhaps most of us have heard this little story. It's always spoken to my soul. There was a preacher.
We need church who faithfully delivered his sermons on the Lords day and 1 Lords day found a little slip up in the pulpit.
Said, Sir, we would see Jesus.
Took the slip, looked at it, finished off that day, and it brought him into the presence of the Lord, so that he got saved.
The next time he went up with the puppet and he preached Christ.
And the following Hearts Day found a little slip up in his coffin again.
Then you are the disciples, glad when they saw the Lord.
If we do not deal with souls, to bring the Lord, the person of the Lord Jesus to them.
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I think that that's what this is meant to be brought into Jesus. Andrew could have deliberated for a while on that person, on their find on wonderful. It's been to be with him and all this so very simple. He brought him to Jesus.
A new a new name is a new beginning, entirely new beginning. So Peter has a new beginning now when we begin as Christians.
It is a beginning and we have a great deal to learn and they say we have found him.
But they had to learn that he had found them.
That they had found him. But it's a very sweet thought that we have found him just the same. And you'll find in the Song of Solomon that the bride at the very beginning, she says, my beloved is mine.
Well, let's never forget that my beloved is mine.
But then later she learns that I'm my beloved. My beloved is mine.
Because she's grown a little bit and she realizes that his thoughts are towards her as well as hers are thoughts are toward him.
And at the close in the 7th chapter, why I'm my beloved and his desires toward me. That sort of leaves her out entirely, doesn't it? Well, that's maturing in Christianity. So it is with Israel. In the coming day. There is that which will bring Israel to a very similar place.
To the enjoyment of the person, not like the church, but still to the enjoyment of the person.
Brother John, it's interesting to notice that it was the same two men, Phillip and Andrew, who had that happy privilege in bringing these Greeks or speaking. 12Th chapter of John it is.
The 20th verse. And there were certain Greeks among family that came up with worship as a beast. The same came therefore to Phillips, which was the beset of Galilee, and desire to say, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip, Hamilton, Philip, Andrew. Again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus, the same two that are mentioned here in John on their dust, seems to have something about them.
That.
Made these Greeks feel.
If I want to see Jesus, I'll go develop. Philip finds Andrew, and together they have the joy of communicating this to the Lord Jesus. I just wonder, should that speak to us if somebody at the school that we attend, if somebody where we work is somebody in our community?
At a heavy park and a real sorrow.
And they wanted comfort. Perhaps deep down they wanted to know the Lord Jesus do home when they come, when they say I know the one to whom I present this request. I believe there ought to be something about our testimony. Perhaps Lord knows, perhaps even an unspoken testimony that what makes most common say.
Sir, we would see Jesus tell. The scripture says we should be ready to give an answer to every man that asked the reason of the hope that is in US.
Everyone that asked why would they ask must be because they see something in us that would make them inquire. They see that we have a hope and a day of much despair at this apartment. And it really speaks to me when I see them choose Phillip. Phillip gets answering them. Together they come to the Lord Jesus. So it is a privilege in a day like this where we are surrounded by so much that is disappointing and frustrating.
To have a sure and certain hope in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, we might trust sufficient delight in him that would make others recognize that if they want to know the Lord Jesus, perhaps, perhaps they just might have to someone here and say, Sir, we would see Jesus. I remember my brother Kohler saying years ago he he spoke in a meeting room and I think that text was at the front of the meeting room.
Sir, we would see Jesus.
She said. I told them after, I think it would be better if they put that verse around the other side where the speaker standing up and see it every time it's cut up to deliver a message. It's a good thing for us. Always remember. Just let me say this, it's quite personal.
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Years ago.
When our children was very old English script.
Practice on this holding this strip.
I happened to walk in the room and she immediately covered what she was writing. Don't look now, Daddy, I'm writing something for you.
After a while she brought it into me.
And that was the verse.
Sir, we would see Jesus.
And something from father to receive from his own child, dear fathers and mothers.
Let's not look at it merely as a little account in the Word of God. Let's take it as a present application. We are our children seeing something of this fulfilled in a whole. And if your son or daughter came to you and said, Father, Father, we would see Jesus.
What a challenge. And yet I believe, though it may be unspoken, they're entitled to this.
Would it not also indicate that?
They recognize that they were unable to do anything for the ones that they brought brought to the Lord and how good that even is for us as parents to realize that if there is to be real blessing in their souls and has to be accomplished by the Lord Himself. I'm not trying to.
A little our responsibility of living Christ before them, but who would not be ready to admit how we fail in this?
But as parents that we can already, even before the children are born, and when we know that the Lord is about to give us another child, already bring it as it were to him. And realizing it is to be blessing in that child's soul and life that is to be accomplished by the Lord himself. And to really realize this and how sometimes the Lord allows us to come to.
Just like the father that had his son in all that he had others had tried to help. Well he had only one recourse and that was regular one to the Lord. He is able to change and think about that which we ourselves, but never and how often we fumble around and try to accomplish something which we should actually know a lot alone can do it.
Can't expect the Sunday school to bring our children up spiritually for us. There may be a help, but.
It's a responsibility of the parent.
In the case that you referred to.
Of the of the Drakes. It was an act of faith on their part to go to Philip and so on because.
It was through Israel that the heathen got light. They it was a real act of faith. They're doing it. Remember, the centurion went to the elders of the Jews and besought them about the servant.
Well, that was an act of faith, and the Lord makes notice of it.
They didn't go directly to the Lord Jesus in the case of Luke, but they went to the elders of the Jews. And so it wasn't these. They went to certain ones. And Sir, we would see Jesus. Well, it does put a responsibility in the hands of the one for whom they went to, surely, but bring it closer home.
Those who have been had the privilege of being gathered.
To the precious name of the Lord Jesus and those who have had the privilege of knowing the gospel.
They certainly would have not only the privilege, but a very, very great responsibility to see that their children saw Jesus.
That is, you can't transfer faith, but you can instruct the children and you can bring your children up as Christians because in a Christian home, the child should be brought up as a Christian regardless of how much light they have. That's the responsibility of the parent. It's a Christian home and that's the character of the home.
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And the light of that character should flow through the hole.
Their parent cannot say, well, the child doesn't see it so I won't bother him with it. Well, that's a terrible attitude to take and we find that God is going to hold the parents responsible. But why look at it that way? What a privilege it is. What a privilege to bring Christ before the children. And there really isn't a happy Christian home.
If Christ isn't the center of the home, and if Christ is the center of the home, that children will know.
About Christ.
And if there's real exercise with the parent, God says thou in thy house. It may come later, but or it may come earlier, but God never disappoints faith never that responsibility is heavy, brother, isn't it? I was thinking of versus we had read to us and Deuteronomy 6.
And there's a verse there exactly answering to what you've been saying before us.
Perhaps we could read it together, so many of us parents here and humbled by these things rather than because we're not able to point to one another as perfect examples of working in the good of the truth. There's surely no reason to ever say anything. Deuteronomy 6 and verse 7.
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children.
Shall talk of them when thou citizen thine house, as we have before us before lunch barring house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, when thou lies the supper concept of redeeming the kind of what before ones heart, and how difficult to speak of these things as we have.
Of our own.
Teenage.
Young folks in the room and they enforce to look back on.
The life and all that would be before God as in your home stone mine, but the responsibility rested years ago and rest right now in my home and in yours. Teach them diligently on site children, the other ones own heart.
Would recognize, not right now, but some years ago, that teaching implies several things. Teaching implies knowing the subject.
Teaching implies a measure of diligence in connection with preparation. Teaching implies and organize presentation.
With sufficient time allocated in a manner that's conducive to learning and then Speaking of these things, one could only have ones own my humble today.
Because is that the way it is with each of us? Rather, has there been, and I can only speak to my own heart, and you can listen, Has there been in my heart a real sincere purpose to sufficiently enjoy the truth concerning the glories there in Christ, in all that God would set before us, and have an exercise to present it?
And with all the other elements inherent in Teaching village, it's a very humbling thing, a very severe responsibility. I presume that we can only but hang our heads as to this.
But certainly it's important to us.
I hope it's not a digression to pursue this a little bit.
But I think we see in place put before us here what we see quite often in Scripture, a sort of free fold cord.
We find the way back in the book of Genesis that Joseph addresses his presence with words something like these not felt well in the land of Goshen. And thou shalt be, thou shalt be here unto me, thou and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy thoughts. And I heard that all of thou hast.
Threefold court, myself, my family, and my possessions, Joseph said. I want all to be near unto me.
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Now in the days of Pharaoh, he trying to break this up, he said to the parents you that our parents can go and worship the Lord, but they're going to have to leave your children and your possessions back here in the land of Egypt. Thank God for the courage of Moses who said no such thing. We're not leaving our little ones and we're not leaving our cat. So eventually under pressure, Pharaoh says, all right, you can take your little one, but you'll have to leave your cattle.
Your business, if you wish, back there in the world.
Also said they're telling be left behind and so the three fold cord is found out there in the wilderness and here in the scripture before us and also in the 11Th of Deuteronomy. I think we see it greatly emphasized now. So playoff these my words in your heart and in your soul comes I'll find them upon my hands that they may be as frontlets between thine eyes.
A4 Full effect of the word of God upon me. And then comes the child, and each of these of your children.
Now I hope it's all right for me to say he shall teach them your children. I feel that there might be those here who would say, well, I just don't have the ability to organize the material to study the subject. Excuse me, but teach their teach the word of God to our children. That doesn't mean having a dry session of Bible study, but.
I'll just prevent me to recall the memory of my boyhood.
The Word of God was woven into the very fabric of holding family life, I write Charles. It was woven into the fabric of hope and family life. At the table, as we go for a walk, see a little wildflower or whatever, there be something about the Scripture that would be woven into it.
That doesn't take great.
Ability, shall I say.
It does take personal meditation upon the Word of God, and it's a privilege but a happy delight to the family to have the Word of God woes into it. And let me pause here to say how much of the word of God can they have when this was written? How much? It's not very much.
Some of the instructions given today parents bypassed because they say, oh, we don't want to read that in the presence of our children. God intends you to God gave you that kind of instruction in a holy book in order that your children.
Might be instructed in these necessary things from the pages of a holy book, from an inspired source. Now you and I don't read these things to our children. They'll learn in a tragic way not to push the wisdom of God's heart would otherwise teach them from a holy source. Mr. Hale, may I ask a question about both the problem?
Children, that gives a finest definition you can have. Yes, my brother recommended a little bit of proverbs for our children. Then I was going to say the third link is and that shall find them upon the door, most of my house, and upon my game.
Now, if the word of God were bound upon the doorpost of our house, what would come through that door?
What would you, what would I carry to the door of that house as the word of God were bound upon the doorpost? What an effect it would have upon our home by case. That's public testimony, but that comes last. It begins in the heart and soul through the fact our possession, our whole, our business, and the last thing is public testimony. I don't want to pursue it further, but it does continue. This was a word of God, that threefold court.
It's an exceedingly searching.
Beautiful because in the 11Th of Deuteronomy it ends with the promise and the days of heaven upon the earth. God is not exaggerating, but He uses those words, the days of heaven upon the earth. Happy is the whole where the Word of God launches in the heart and soul of the Father, bound upon their hands, frontlets between their eyes.
Put into the fabric and hold the family life upon the doorposts of that home and upon the gates.
Oh, may the Lord grasp this precious book, with all its wisdom and with all its warnings, and with all its plain speaking, may never, never be neglected in our home. And ever there is a day when we needed this book for ourselves, and when we needed to read it with power too.
It is that very day. May I ask another question about Joe, where he got?
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Sorry, what's that just?
He was blessed at the end of the household.
Last chapter, Joe.
He asked the Lord, delighted to bless Job abundantly.
When he took the place that he ought to take before God, and when he prayed for those who have been so unjust in their accusation.
Even though it's somewhat of a digression, said brother, I believe it is profitable. I said I want to continue the digression accepted. I believe the Lord is bringing before us some very timely things. And I was thinking of the in regard to what you've been saying in Ephesians 6, the responsibility.
For these things in regard to the household and the children is placed upon the fathers. And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, verse four of Ephesians 6. But bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And as our brother Lundeen said, we cannot turn this responsibility over to others.
And we know, at least.
This has come to my attention because in our gathering at home, we have more than one who is.
Employed in the school system and I've been told by those who are employed in it that.
The philosophy of education today is that the home has so broken down that now the schools have to take over to.
To teach moral values or and behavioral ways and so forth because of the breakdown of the home.
And a thing like that can creep in among the gathered Saints, and we can, some can feel that they have to turn to seminars and things like that to be taught as to how to rear their children. But God places the responsibility upon the Father. And as our brother was bringing before us, it's the word of God.
And the Word of God brought not only out in a far away in reading.
But the word of God put into, you might say, living practice in the home so that the children are impressed with the fact that these things are real and genuine. I I think of teaching children, it's not a matter of sitting down and expounding the dispensations, you know, and, and prophetic things and all of these so that they are real Bible scholars.
But the Word of God can be taught in a very practical way.
When they see it carried out, for instance, coming out from among them and be the separate and they see in their parents they they, they do live a separated life. They are not going on in a social way with with ungodly neighbors and associates. And that's teaching the word of God. They're teaching their children in a practical way what separation is and we could go through many things like that and we we don't have to go to seminars and.
Have special sessions like that to learn these things. We have it in the Word of God.
And we can't turn it over to certain brothers in the fellowship to become counselors and guides for our children either. We have to take this responsibility ourselves as fathers and I. I'd also like to refer to First Timothy in connection with the sisters. I think it's in First Timothy chapter 4.
Where we have some of the.
Qualifications.
In regard chapter 5, it is in regard to widows taken into the care of the assembly and verse 10. It speaks of them as being well reported up for good works. If she have brought up children. So it's not only the fathers who have that responsibility to to.
Bring up the children to the nurture and admonition of the Lord. But it's a it's one of the commendations of these.
Older widows could be taken into the number and cared for in the assembly if they have brought up children. What a wonderful work, and sometimes the young persons are exercised about a work for the Lord.
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Well, I would say to the young sisters who are married young mothers, what greater work for the Lord than to bring up children for the Lord. And that's what we have here. If she have brought up children, that's a commendation. In fact, when you read through this verse 10, if you do not read anything that would be striking as far as the eye of man is concerned, that someone would say what a great woman of faith and of God she is.
But there are things that God takes account of and He approves.
And I think that we need to emphasize more and more the their responsibility and the privilege of parents, mothers and fathers themselves rearing their children for the Lord and independence upon the Lord and not looking to, to some, as I say, some outside sources, you know, to give you that wisdom.
Because the word of God says if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God would give us liberty to all and afraid of not so we have it in the word of God.
To guides for speaking about the degrees and the children at home. Our government through the League, through the League of Nations, wants to take that power away from her parents right now.
Right up here in our verse 42.
We have a very personal meeting between the Lord and Simon.
And.
When Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah.
Now that's his old character. Thou shalt be called Cephas.
Which is by interpretation a stone or a little stone. So he gets a new name and this is a new beginning. But the point here is.
Have you and I?
Ever had the Lord speak to us directly? Now we we know that.
We've never seen him visibly, nor heard his voice visibly, but he speaks through His word by the Spirit, and there is such a thing as having him speak to us directly so that we know it.
Now I mentioned this because there are so many who make the profession of Christianity.
And still we wonder sometimes if they have had this exact.
Personal contact with the Lord Jesus, because when one is in the presence of the Lord, he discovers he's a Sinner. And we find a little later Peter has to admit more than that.
In the 5th chapter of Luke, not that he was a Sinner.
Depart from me. I am a sinful man, oh Lord.
Now that's, that's learning more. It's learning that the whole thing is bad. There's nothing left that's good. I am a sinful man.
But I'm sure there had to be some sense here in his soul of what he was in the presence of Jesus.
As he realizes who this person is, the one they've been looking for, the Messiahs, which is the Christ or the Anointed one of God, there must have been some sense in his soul who in whose presence he was.
Now I have you and I had this sense in our souls that we've been in the presence of Jesus? Or have we simply assented to a line of doctrines that our fathers or mothers have brought us up with?
I mentioned this because today there seems to be such an indifference.
As to the truth of God.
You remember the Queen of Sheba when she came over those desert sands?
That long journey, what for?
Just to hear the words from a king who knew the true God. But we learned in Luke in that instance where it's referred to a greater than Jesus, greater than Solomon is the one I was going to say thanks. A greater than Solomon is here. It was Jesus.
Now that woman had a burning desire for the truth.
This is what marks reality in a believer, a burning desire for the truth.
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It must be so.
And you'll find in the 12Th chapter of Matthew, we won't turn to it, but there are two things that stand out that the Lord Jesus refers to. One is Jonas and the other is the Queen of Sheba.
Now they ask signs of the Lord, and he said, I can't give you any signs but the prophet Jonas. That's judgment.
Jonas was a prophet of judgment.
But then he says as the Charles was three days and three nights and the whales belly social the son of man be 3 days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
In other words, it's judgment all right, but I'll take it for you if you'll believe on me.
And then the next was the Queen of Sheba.
She gives us the picture of one who was in earnest. She had to see. She had to see Solomon. The Greeks had to see Jesus. The same spirit of earnestness. They had to see Jesus. There was no other way out. Now I say, is this the way it is with you and me? Have we ever come to the place where we have to see Jesus? Or is it simply a doctrine that we've accepted?
You're thinking too, in regard to the name that's given to Simon here.
It says which is by interpretation of stone.
He says Thou shalt be called Cephas, but we know Cephas is the.
Aramaic equivalent of Peter, is it not? And which means a stone?
And it seems that the the Lord would be bringing out.
What he is going to to make of Peter, Peter as to what he was by nature he was Simon, the son of Jonah. That was that was what he was as born into this world, Simon.
As we have him elsewhere, Simon bar Jonah, Simon, this son of Jonah, that's what he was by nature. But there was going to be a work of God in the man, and that work was going to produce an effect so that he would be of the character of a stone. And it's only in that character of a stone that he would be suitable material.
And that which Christ said I will build in Matthew 16 when he says I will build my church.
Who speaks of Peter there as he calls his name? Peter, no longer Simon, but Peter. And upon this rock I will build my church. So I think it speaks of the of the work of God in the individual, the work of God that produces.
Material for his assembly for his building. Now I know that in John's Gospel we don't have the assembly.
As such in view the Church, but we do have the material that belongs to it, the material that that.
Is used in that building and so he's going to make him as a stone. Well I suppose that would would be indicative of the fact that he would be one that that would be as I say suitable. It's the work of God and this is one of the features of the Gospel of John is that.
The man and his works are entirely set aside.
And from the very beginning, those who took the place of the children of God, it says they were born not of the will of man, but of God. It's God's work. And so we see that in the third chapter. It's the work of God. He must be born again, everything of man set aside. And it's the, it's only what is of God that is.
Trustworthy in the Gospel of John.
We read at the end of the second chapter that though there were those that believed on him when they saw the miracles that he did, he did not commit himself under them because he knew what was in man. It was merely a human.
Effort and endeavor, but the work of God is that which endures, and here I think it's an indication that God.
Was going to work in this man so that they would come out in him, in his.
Character that would come out, that which would be an evidence of the work of God. And we see a contrast between Peter and Judas in this regard. There was never a work of God in the soul and heart of Judas.
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And the result was that that man ended up in tragedy. And Peter, there was a work of God in Peter. And even though he denied the Lord, he failed. He denied the Lord with oaths and curses. There was a real work of God in him and that work was maintained. And I have no doubt. But what was he even enhanced after he was restored and recovered? So we see that when there.
Real work of God in the soul that we have in Philippians. He that had begun a good work in you will perform it or perfect until the day of Christ God continues at work. It's the work of God that really counts and if it's not a work of God it will come to know they following Jesus would go forth into Galilee and findeth Philip and Seth unto him.
Follow me. It's a wonderful thing to be saved, isn't it?
But discipleship is another thing. You should always be discipleship, but it is not always so.
I was thinking of Luke 5 where they were all followed the board. That sounds so wonderful.
It sounds like discipleship from what you're speaking about. It sounds so glorious and we love it like.
Forsaking all the following the Lord. But what about what it says in Mark 14?
And verse 50 and they all were stuck in reflect how rapid is that change from list 5 to verse 11, which tells us and they first of all and follow him.
Differences. However, I believe they still were two disciples at heart.
Encourage you. But there is such a thing as losing your life here, and there's such a thing as gaining your life here. Now, one who is willing to lose his life here, we're not Speaking of his life in the sense that he would die, but his life in the sense of the 4050 sixty years he may live here.
Losing it for Christ sake, that's true discipleship following Christ. But there is another path where one may even be a Christian and live for self. He gains his life here, but he loses it in the in the end.
And we find that Lot was just such a person.
Now Abraham, we know that he made mistakes. He went down into Egypt, but he never lost his life in that sense. He lost everything here that people might speak of as what you would want to get like Lot would, but we find he ends up with everything. Abraham was old and well stricken in years, and Lord had blessed him in all things.
That's the way he ended up.
But lot who wanted to gain everything here he ends up a pauper just saved so as by fire.
And so we find that.
Discipleship is what pays.
And if you look at the 18th of Luke, even a disciple gets discouraged perhaps sometimes 28 birds. Then Peter said low, We have left all, and followed thee. And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that has left house.
Or parents, or brethren, or wife or children, for the Kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time and in the world to come.
Life everlasting. I'll turn to first Peter.
Just for a verse, verse, chapter and six verse, here we have manifold temptations. Peter speaking about he hasn't forgotten that word manifold. But when you come to the 4th chapter, in the 10th verse, you have manifold grace. Oh yes, Peter never forgot that word manifold. Manifold more in this present world.
The one who gives up everything.
And if there is a manifold temptations, there's manifold graves. Even the believer can't lose. You just can't lose. I think it's lovely to notice if we can take the time to look at Matthew 9 for a moment. In Matthew 9 and verse nine, it says as Jesus passed forth from thence he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom.
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And he said unto him, Follow me.
And he arose and followed him. Then if we look at Luke chapter 5, I believe it is, yes, Luke chapter 5 and verse 27, this is talking about the same man, Matthew or Levi. And after these things, that's Luke 5 and 27. And after these things, he went forth and saw a publican named Levi sitting at the receipt of custom.
And he said unto him, Follow me. And he left all.
Rose up and followed him. Now some of you may have heard me tell the story before, but.
Some years ago, several years ago at the Gospel tent in the Maritimes.
We were having some young people's meetings in the afternoon and we were looking at the various apostles and what was written about each one of them.
And I asked the children, they were about 12 or 13 years of age. I asked them if any of them could explain to me why it was that when Matthew wrote about himself and the Lord saying follow me, Matthew wrote and said he arose and followed him.
But when Luke tells us about the Lord speaking to Matthew or Levi as he's called there and says follow me, Luke records that he left all arose and followed him. Now I said to the child, I said, can any of you suggest any reason why Matthew would not make any mention at all about what he left?
And one of those little children said, I guess he found the Lord Jesus so precious that what he left wasn't worth mentioning.
But you know here in our chapter we see it come out so beautifully. Here's Phillip. And it says the Lord said to Phillip, follow me. And the 45th verse says, Philip fineth Nathaniel and saith unto him, We have found him. No mention at all about what Philip lacked, about what was left behind. They had found him.
And that made anything that was left behind.
Not worth mentioning. I wonder if we find perhaps a similar little suggestion, but turning to it in the eighth of Matthew, a certain scribe says, Lord, I will follow thee Withers, whoever thou goest. And we don't read them as having done so at all. He just makes this most I will follow me. And just a few verses down, the Lord enters into a ship, and his disciples followed him.
They don't talk about it, they just follow him. The scribe says what he's going to do, but there's no mention that he ever did it.
Sometimes we get just a little uneasy when we hear some of these hymns that boast about what we're going to do for the Lord. I think we do well, and we have been cautious about what we never say that we're going to do for the Lord. They follow him into that ship.
And immediately there was a great storm. That seems rather unusual. Does it not suspect that how sooner did they begin to follow him? And the first thing they encountered was a frightful storm. And the Lord allowed it. He controls the elements. But the result of that storm was real Thanksgiving of confidence in the Lord. So if anyone here feels that as a result of having been together here over the precious word of God.
Company and fellowship of the lost people of God. And there might perhaps be in your heart or mind, no stirring a desire to call the Lord Jesus.
Let it be between our own soul and the Lord. And it may be that if from this day forward He puts that purpose of heart there, and you step out to follow Him, He's not going to promise to remove every obstacle. Next thing you face may be a storm, a difficulty, a real problem, but I assure you of this, according to the Word of God, that you look back at 1940.
In the 11Th of April.
The account of men of faith who, because of those far off promises, embrace them and.
Enjoy the wonder of their portion of my faith. It sounds very wonderful, but then you come to the expression and.
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Others and others, when we have just read of those of two face, of two kingdoms from righteousness, quench the vials of fires, not the edge of the sword, and so on. But then you suddenly read and others of what happened to them. They were not asunder. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, then to the caves of the earth, and saw these all having the same good report through faith. So let us be very careful.
The impression that following the Lord is going to result in what the world would consider wonderful victories and trials. I'm sure that although Daniel came out from the deadline unscape, they dragged me back. Who came out of the burning fiery furnace, living in the smell of smoke them from their clothes.
That there are many others.
Who were their own to the lions and the skin, Many others who were thrown in the flames and into the state, not because they lacked in faith, but because this was the way in which God chose that they should glorify him. So we'll have a brother and particularly he'll have a young people.
To feel from what we have seen here in Don chapter one that we have been introduced one who is worthy to be followed. Let us not close to what we're going to do about it. Let us not say I will follow Jesus live by the grace of God. There stirred in any heart this day and desire to follow him. Let it be between your own soul of the Lord and let us not expect.
That it means he's going to remove every power from The Dirty.
I'll be with you sometime back for the job. I visited with some brethren and one brother related to the price he had paid for coming into the truth and the brother that was relating this walked away and then the other brother who knew him well, he said, Brother Heinz, what would you think?
Of someone who.
Is given a gift of $10,000 and then talks about the money he has to spend to go to the bank and pick it up. I love that because if you occupy with the price we have to pay and obviously isn't much in our hearts, but we have been brought into. That's what the Lord wants us to be occupied.
With and be thankful for, but forsaking all is something we didn't say too much about.
In the case of Elijah and Elijah.
Elijah found Elijah plowing with 12 yoke of oxen and he called him or threw his mantle on him, but he said let me first go and kiss my father and my mother.
He said go back again. What have I done to thee?
So he went back. He didn't go back to his father and mother.
But he went back, and he slew the oxen with which he had been plowing.
And he took the instruments of the oxen, and he made a fire, and he boiled the flesh and distributed it to the people of God.
Feed them. Then he went and followed Elijah.
He left all, he burnt the old expression, he burnt the bridges behind him.
Couldn't go back.
And I believe that's what's meant in Luke the 9th chapter where that's referred to.
One who goes back again is not fit for the Kingdom of God. It isn't a question of service exactly. It's a question of following Christ and showing the reality of it by what you do.
So he just completely severed himself from his old position.
And that's really a picture of the work of regeneration and the soul taking one out of the old place and putting them into the new place. That's Peter. Here it was Simon. Now it's Peter. He follows Jesus. And we see in his history, even though Peter did make mistakes, even after he was used in act, in the book of Acts, he did make mistakes there too. And there is no man on earth that doesn't make mistakes.
But his heart was right.
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And brethren, when you read that word blameless, remember.
God is thinking about your heart.
You may. You may make mistakes. There may be weakness.
But whether it's not will. It's a question of blameless.
The purpose was right, the heart was right, so you're blameless in the sense.
A group of us were discussing with much Thanksgiving, the wonderful place of blessing in which we were found by the very great grace of God and all of us but one in that company, and received this heritage as our brother Luke Smith was Speaking of, without having to pay any great price for it. I mean, when it's handed down to us. And I guess I'm not alone in thanking the Lord for that, but as we were.
Of it, someone said, you know, we have come into all this blessing not really having paid any great price for it except for other so and so. He really had to pay a price. I saw how he looked come over his face when they said this. And Luenom Speaking of how wonders of it was to have his spiritual heritage to be gathered in the name of the Lord Jesus and how easily most of us had complied except for their so and so.
Had to make quite a price and he put up his hand and he said stop it President, don't ever say that again. I want you to know that the Lord pushed me across each bridge and burned it behind me. And if I stand where I do, it's because of the grace of God, not because of some Christ I faith. I thought it was a remarkable state of the Lord pushed me across each frame that burned it behind me.
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John 1:43

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May be that the Spirit of God is laid it on the heart of someone to have a special portion this morning do not have to continue with that chapter necessarily.
Unless the brethren feel we should.
But I suggest that we continue with the chapter and include the first part of the second chapter the third day together with it.
Just what portion?
Verse 11 and chapter 2 together with.
Perhaps beginning of first quarter three, chapter one.
John's Gospel chapter one.
1St, 1:00 and 3:00.
Today, following Jesus, we go forth into gallery and find this Phillip and stand up here. Follow me.
I feel the first Slayer that is the city advancement figure.
Come on to him, come and see.
Change your soul, and then you're coming to him and say about him, Behold the natural light indeed, and whom is no God?
The thank you stands unto having much. Most are made. Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, When thou was out of the victory, I saw thee.
Nathaniel answered and said unto him, Rabbi Thor, the Son of God, thou are the individual.
Jesus answered and said unto him.
Because I said the thing I saw the end of the fig tree. Believe as thou shall see greater things than these.
And he says unto him, Verily, verily, I said to you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven over the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.
And the third day there was a marriage at Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
And both Jesus was thrown and his disciples to the marriage.
And when they wanted one, the mother of Jesus said of them that no wife.
Jesus says unto her, woman, for their heart to be with me are now is not yet come. His mother said unto the servants, Whatsoever he says unto you, do it.
And there were set there six waterfalls stores, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews attending two or three Perkins of beasts.
Jesus said under them from the water, cross the water and they still live up to the bridge.
Says unto them, Grow up now and there under the governor of the feast, and they buried.
The rumor of the fish that tasted the water that was made blind and knew how much it was but the sun.
Service was through the water. You, the governor of the speech, recalled the bright state of hands. Every man at the beginning just set forth with wine. When miserable drop, and then leverage is worse. But thou has kept a good one for now.
This beginning of miracles in Jesus and Gino's Galilee manifested forth its glory and his disciples from the.
Yesterday in this portion there was a.
Pointed out.
The comp that is brought out of following in verse 43.
And I don't think it was pointed out the position the Lord takes. It says the day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee.
And I wondered if that wouldn't bring before us the fact.
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Of his being in rejection.
As we have in the end of the Gospel of Matthew, that's where he met his disciples.
He, he met them in Galilee and speaks of, of a place of rejection, not in Jerusalem, the accepted place, but he was outside in Galilee. And then again the statement of of Nathaniel.
In verse 46, can any good thing come out of Nazareth?
That would speak of reproach. So the Lord is presented here, you might say, in a way of of rejection and reproach, and that's the one we follow. We follow one who is in rejection, rejection here and in reproach.
But I think I like to think of the the way that those who accepted that.
The Lord could say in verse 50, the end of the verse, thou shalt see greater things than these. What a prospect those who followed him as.
In rejection, and though I followed him as connected with reproach have the prospect of seeing greater things, that's the hope for the prospect is before them. So I thought of this little day which I I'm sure that in a dispensational sense with would refer to the.
Perhaps that remnant it will be.
Called out after we're taken to be with the Lord, that remnant who will have the testimony of Jesus as we find in the Book of Revelation. But in a sense, those of us today who seek to follow the Lord. I like that little remnant. And we're in a day of of the Lord's rejection and reproach and relieve, even living in a day, not the day when the Antichrist is here.
But John says there's already many antichrists, that is, there's an anti Christian spirit all about. And so it's in that sense, or you might say in those circumstances that we follow the Lord if we follow the Lord as in rejection and reproach.
But with the prospect of the greater things that are going to be revealed when He comes to be manifested in all of His glory.
Behold, he goeth before you into Galilee, is the language of the 28th of Matthew.
Would you say that when he was with them in Galilee and left them instructions to tarry in Jerusalem until he be immune with power from a high, that he was giving them? Perhaps a foreshadowing on the other side place a rejection and a reproach, but at the same time perhaps telling them that their responsibility was still associated with Jerusalem until He?
Moved the doors. That's like the exact song.
We find it loose that that's where they were to begin with the testimony, isn't it, that forgiveness of sin was to be preached in His name, but beginning in Jerusalem, I suppose, showing that as, as Luke emphasizes, the grace of God, it would be the grace of God to begin the testimony of the declaration of the work of Christ in that guilty city of Jerusalem. But in Matthew.
He is seen to be outside of Jerusalem entirely as rejected.
And as you say would be giving them the the sense of following him as one rejected here and yet to be in the sense of the grace of God that would go out to that guilty city first with the gospel.
I raised that question because someone acquired up me after the young people's meeting on Lords Day as to the fact that the two who left Jerusalem and went to the mayors. Actually the Lord himself was indicating that He was going to meet His disciples outside Jerusalem, which He did at Galilee, but it was in Galilee.
That he told them to carry into Jerusalem.
So I suppose that really, in obedience to Him, their place was in Jerusalem, until such time as He made it very clear that that was.
So there are two two things in connection with just leaving.
After the 40 days were nearly over.
We find that.
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He leaves them out as far as Bethany.
Now he had instructed them as to their testimony in connection with Jerusalem.
But as to their position?
As associated with him, he led them out as far as Bethany.
Now that would suggest to us the place.
Of separation, where he gathers the two or three around himself because it was at Bethany he met so often with the little company.
Who surrounded him in his rejection?
And when he went to the temple, as was mentioned yesterday, and looked around about upon all things.
His heart found no rest there.
And he turns, and he goes out to the House of Mary and her sister Martha, and Lazarus to Bethany.
And the very last words almost before he leaves this world says he led them out as far.
As Bethany.
And that's where he separates from them.
And if you will read in first of Acts, you'll find that that's where he comes back on the Mount of Olives, the very same place. And there's a there will go, there will be a little company there.
That we have here in our chapter.
Nathaniel.
And Israelite indeed, and whom is no guile? A little company who are waiting for him in that coming day on the earth.
They were. They are Jews. They're from Judah and Benjamin.
And he's going to appear to that little company on the Mount, right, just over against Bethany outside of Jerusalem. That's where he's going to appear. And his feet are going to stand on the Mount of Olives and that day and he'll make himself known to that little company. That's before he comes in judgment upon the last enemy, Russia that comes down.
But he makes himself known to that little company, and he sets up his Kingdom with that little company before he brings back the 12 to the 10 tribes to join the two. And it's that little company that are waiting for him. Ye men of Galilee, the same Jesus that she's seen going to heaven shall come in like manners. You've seen him go.
When he went, he didn't have a sword in his side. His hands were held up in blessing.
When he left and when he comes back, his hands will be held up in blessing. Victorious blessing. And here we have his glories mentioned in this chapter by Nathaniel.
What a discovery did Nathaniel makes?
When he finally realizes who this person is.
Why he's the son of David.
What a what a thing for the Jews to discover.
David, the one who had been prophesied all way back from the Book of Kings, the one who was to come to be their Messiah, the one in whom would be found all the promises for his people, Israel.
But what's more, the Son of God?
Is that all? No, that's not all.
God is going to open up to Nathaniel. Something more here.
And that is as you go down the chapter.
In the end here after you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.
Now what is this?
These are greater things.
These are greater things.
This is connected with his greater glories. The Son of man, He's God.
All to think in those councils in the 40th Psalm, what were they about?
In the volume of the book it is written to me.
What is the volume of the book? Well, I'm sure this is included in the thought of it.
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But the volume of the book are God's counsels in eternity.
And what were they?
They had to do with one person and his work as a man. Think of it.
The counsels of God and eternity had to do with the Son of man.
The one who's coming down to fully glorify God in everything.
But at the same time.
To fulfill the deep, deep desires of the Father's heart.
To have children in his presence forever.
And children that would be just like his own son.
Children who would be his because they would be given a nature that could enter in and understand the things of God.
Could feel as he feels and understand too.
So that there would be those who would feel as children at home in the father's house.
Besides that, Christ his Son would have a bride, and a bride that's just fitted for him in every way.
That's Ephesians 5, and that's the work that's going on. Now. All these are part of those councils. Now. I don't think we have it all here, but we have the hint of it here. We have the King of David. That's Israel.
And all promises to be fulfilled in regard to him for Israel.
And we have the Son of God, the one who alone could glorify God, fulfill all his counsels, but he does so as the Son of man and as man. Think of what that means.
That when we get home to glory, it will not be as simply as men, a different race looking up to God as Creator.
Marvelous as that is.
But we have a nature.
That enjoys God, that enters into His counsels and purposes.
We have that nature now, and we will enjoy those counsels and purposes for all eternity. But one more thing.
He's given us in that divine nature a nature of love.
And that's the secret of it all.
And brethren, that's the secret of what holds the Saints together today. If it weren't for that, we'd be in 1000 places.
We have a nature that loves every child of God.
Not because of conduct, but because we belong to one family.
And in that long eternity.
God is going to pour out His love on His children and we will enjoy that which is beyond knowledge.
Because we will revel in that marvelous love.
Own character manifested in His fullness to His children. All this is suggested right here in this chapter in John chapter 5 and verse 39.
It says search the scripture for example, you think he had eternal life and they are they would testify of me.
I suppose to have margins in their Bible tell us the market reading it really reads. He searched the scriptures.
This isn't really an exhortation to search the scriptures.
Believe the Lord here was acknowledging that they were searching the scriptures, but they failed to see that all those scriptures centered around his own person. And so they did search the scriptures and he said in them you think you have eternal life and they are they which testify of me and he will not come to me that he might have life.
They were reading the Word of God and missing the whole central theme character theme characters that put.
When we look at the chapter we're reading this morning, we see how Phelps says in the 45th verse of the first chapter we have found him of Moses in the law and the prophets did right Jesus of as the son of Joseph to think of Israelite like Philip who knew the Scriptures something of the scriptures having but to whatever extent he didn't.
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Structures and then to meet the person that those scriptures were all about to realize that Moses talked about a prophet making the Deuteronomy that God would raise up, and there Philip had passed. That's one that God will try to raise up to read the Psalms he came to understand and think about some of those fresh songs and to realize that he had now met the man.
Were all written about what a wireless thing and yet we see in the two, it seems to me how that in the case of Phillip there was a limit to his understanding Of course there was a.
Until he received the Holy Spirit, but he refers to the Lord Jesus in the 45th verse after talking about him being the fulfillment of those scriptures. What is the word of God testified now?
He refers to him as the son of Joseph.
Now the word of God very carefully, even though in the first chapter of Matthew we see a meaning of genial geniality, I believe that would associate the Lord Jesus with that royal line that descended from David and Abraham. Yet the word of God is very careful to guard, to have us to see that Joseph was not really the Father, of course, Jesus.
And when we come, I think at least for my own soul is so beautiful to see. And when we come to the 14th chapter of John, how Philip has learned that Now when the Lord Jesus says in the 14th of John and the seventh verse, if he had known me, he should have known my Father also, And from henceforth we know him and have seen him.
Phillip set up to him. Lord show us the Father, and it suffice us.
Our Phillips still have to learn that everything that there was to know about the Father was revealed in the Son. But he had now learned that the Father was not Joseph, that the Father was the one that we come come to know about and to enjoy a sweet and precious relationship with. We're going to see the Lord Jesus.
And we're going to be in his presence, and everything that was together won't know about the father will be displayed in him.
I remember hearing rather I just had lots of comments. I thought it was so sweet. I was told years ago that.
Brother Darby was in Montreal, if I understand it correctly. And in Montreal somebody asked him the question, when we get home to heaven, are we going to see the Father? And I'm controlled by some of those older President Montreal that the answer she gave so many years ago was.
He said I know of no scripture that says that he will actually see the Father. Now, as I see everything we should want to know is displayed in the sun. But he said, I know no scripture that says that we will actually see the Father. But he said I cannot conceive.
Of being in the Father's house without the deepest sense of His presence.
While we know of course, this primarily.
Looks forward to the the remnant of Israel. I'm sure that Nathaniel was there being before us that that remnant. I have been impressed with the fact that the the Saints at the present time and especially, you might say those of us living in the last times the closing.
Our the closing days of this present age are in circumstances quite a bit similar to what that remnant will be in and one of the things that helps maybe you turn to Revelation chapter one. We have an expression there in connection with John as he presents himself as a as a model brother in the.
Closing days of the dispensation.
He says in verse nine at the end of the verse.
That he was in the aisle that is called Patmos.
For the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus. You'll find that the word Christ is not found in the new translation. It's the testimony of Jesus. And this is.
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The In connection with those of us at the present time, John, as I say, is not presenting himself here as an apostle or an elder, but as a brother and as a brother who.
Is in a place of reproach and in a place of restriction and rejection on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. And I connect that with what we have in John one there when they say Nathaniel says, can any good thing come out of Nazareth, Jesus of Nazareth, It's the it's the reproach connected with that one.
Who is here in, you might say?
Smallness, littlest rejection. He was not here as one who was acclaimed by this world. He was not one here to to set things in order in this world. He didn't come as a great benefactor to relieve the world of its poverty and its injustice and all of these things that he was here in reproach and rejection.
And the testimony of Jesus will bring before us that man in his humility and loneliness.
And acceptance of things as he passed through this scene, not seeking to set everything right and being rejected of men. But now later on in the Book of Revelation, in chapter 12, we have that remnant of Israel.
Because when it comes to Chapter 12, of course, we're taken out of this scene.
Well, you know, at the end of chapter 3, the Church of the assembly is taken out. We're no longer here. So the testimony of Jesus is not associated with the Saints of the heavenly calling. But we read here about others and The Who are the remnant of this woman that represents Israel in chapter 12. And the dragon would represent or bring before us safety.
And verse 17 it says the dragon was wroth with a woman.
And went to make war with the remnant of her seed which keeps the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus. And again, it's the word Christ should be dropped. It's the testimony of Jesus. Well, here are those who have the testimony of Jesus.
That remnant of Israel, that remnant of the Jews that Nathaniel would represent, but those of us at the present time.
Who seek to follow a rejected Christ and one in reproach. We have the testimony of Jesus and I have been more and more impressed with the fact that the circumstances through which the Saints of God will be called to pass through before the Lord comes.
Are very similar to what that remnant will be called to pass through when we're taken out and they have the testimony of Jesus. In fact, it might be more.
Similar than what we have been accustomed to think of in the past. As I mentioned a few moments ago, when this remnant of Israel bear the testimony of Jesus and suffer for his namesake, there will be one who is called the Antichrist.
On the scene, well, John says you've heard that Antichrist comes. Well, even now there are many antichrists. And so the spirit of Antichrist is all about us. And I think we can view this circumstance in John, one of Nathaniel, as being a little picture of those in the closing days of the present age who seek to follow the Lord Jesus.
And they're going to find increasingly the.
Reproach that is connected with following one who is in rejection, one who is not here to set things right in this world. The one who suffered in meekness and humility and who accepted all of the reproach and the shame that was heaped upon him in lowliness. The testimony of Jesus. It's not a testimony of power. It's not a testimony of greatness.
It's a testimony that's connected with humiliation and suffering and littleness and reproach. And sometimes this might be difficult for us to accept. But then on the other hand, I like to think that when Nathaniel came to the Lord, the Lord took account of where he had been. He was under the fig tree, and that, I suppose, would indicate that he was.
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He was.
In the consciousness of what the fig tree would speak of the nation.
Has seen according to the purposes and counsels of God and so today, even though we are associated with that lonely name of Jesus and a testimony of reproach and rejection. Yet we we know what the purpose is and counsels of God are for his people and that would give us to be in dignity that would give us to to realize that while as far as the world is concerned it's recruit and rejection and.
Yet on the other hand, there's a great destiny that God has for his people and we we know something of his purposes and counselors. And then Nathaniel, the Lord said an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile. Well, an Israelite, I think that we know the name Israel was the name given to Jacob that connected him with God.
And God's purposes for him, Prince of God.
An Israelite indeed, I believe, would speak of the moral character of that man, and I thought of that in connection with Second Timothy 2, when he says not only that we are to purge ourselves from vessels under dishonor, but to flee youthful lusts and follow righteousness, faith, peace, love with them that call them the Lord out of a pure heart.
Even in days.
Of closing days of the testimony of ruin and failure, and the days of reproach, and weakness, and humiliation. God looks for those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. And Nathaniel, I believe, would represent that that class of persons who would follow a rejected Christ and reproach, and would be in the consciousness of the purposes and councils of God for his people.
And would be an exercise that there might be calling on the Lord out of a pure heart, not only separation outwardly, but inwardly as well, following righteousness, faith, love, and peace.
Nathaniel has also helped me to can't like, say, understand but get some glimpse of.
The Lord Jesus presenting himself to the remnant.
And shall I say where that remnant might come from?
You would I understand from the word of God that if the shout came today, those of us who know the Lord Jesus as our saviors would in a moment in the 22nd of eye be called up to be with it, to be like Him forever. Then we believe that God will begin to work through a reference of His people. Israel here.
In the proclamation of the Gospel.
But it always puzzled me as to where that remnant might come from. It would seem that all those whom we know as Jews are either already believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who will be come together with us, or else projectors of the Lord Jesus who will share the faith of every other rejector. Where does the God be remnant come from?
Houston puzzle me, I thought the only solution I can think of is.
That God will have to wait until a generation of Jews beneath the age of responsibility grows up and has the opportunity to become part of that Clemence and the love of that message. But that didn't seem right to me. It left a gap there. But it seems to me that the account of Nathaniel is perhaps a hint.
That God has even mouthed where I am not.
But he does have, I would believe.
Those of His own beloved people who are not guilty of having heard and rejected the gospel of the grace of God, the will as the final does.
Identify themselves with the Lord as the one whom He calls. Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel. And I believe that I would like to accept correction if this is not a proper thought. I believe that undoubtedly when we are gone, He will bring forth those who are the Nathaniel.
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Those who are not guilty of having heard and rejected the gospel of the grace of God.
Remember some years ago when I was over at your husband standing by the Wailing Wall?
There was on the one end of that wailing wall a wrought iron fence. I fence with a large gate in it and.
So I hope it was all right to do this. I put on a Jewish cat.
And I went in through that gate to see what was to be seen, and it really impressed me. There where a goodly number of bearded Jews. They were reading the Old Testament Scriptures concerning Jehovah and concerning the peace of Jerusalem. And the tears were screaming down their teeth, and they would step forward and.
To that wall, and then read the Scriptures, and then they just weep. They would join together in tears of leaping, and then they stepped forward again and kissed those stones that suddenly it occurred to me, could it be that among these there are the Nathaniel's?
Whom our Lord may use in the coming days to go out with that message.
It impressed me so much. I remember that when I came back out and.
Went to be curious, she said, whatever happened to you, And I could hardly speak for some time, until at last I said, my dear, I think I met. She knew what I meant because she had talked this over. I think we would agree that what we are gone there will be a godly remnant.
Where will they come from? At the moment I believe they're under the victory.
The eye of God can see and He will bring them forth. I rightly think that there is that possibility. I think it the remark that you just made at the end is significant. They would be under the fig tree, but they're not. They wouldn't be among that company, as you say, who are Christ rejected then they would, they would not be.
But under the fig tree would indicate, as you say, those who still have the thoughts of God in regard to that nation.
Before them in faith and.
The God has not just brought that light to them, and I'm sure that as we approach the end, we know that the.
The conditions that are going to be prevalent on the earth and even those, as you say, who are going to be brought forth by God to bear the testimony of Jesus in that day.
They're going to be already here. We're going to be I, I feel we're getting very close to that even now. The same circumstances and surely those persons are under the eye of God and God is going to bring them out when the the only when the, when those who are now identified with the testimony of Jesus are taken out.
They will also be the ones that will be part of the wedding all day the the portion of chapter 2 The remnant will be part of the wedding. But I've been meditating just before on woman. What have I to do with the.
His mother, who did not show us that they will not come in by the natural way, so to speak.
Will be on a new basis, not by natural descent, but by that with the Spirit will bring about in their lives that they will be born again.
In Ezekiel 37 this may have more to do with the 10 tribes, but the principle is the same. And the 25th verse.
24th Verse For I will bring I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out all the countries. Ezekiel 36 and 24.
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And we'll bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your idols. And I will cleanse you in a new, new heart. Also will I give you, And the new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away the Stony heart out of your flesh.
Give you an heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments and do them, and you shall dwell in the land, and so on.
Now an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile is not to be found today.
But when the Spirit of God goes to work according to Daniel 12.
There will be a little company raised up as our brothers suggested.
Coming from where? We don't know.
But they will be Jews, they will be of the two tribes, and they will.
They're called teachers. They'll be the ones who will give the testimony of the gospel of Kingdom for the 1St 3 1/2 years of the seven years of prophecy yet to be fulfilled. But their testimony will be in Jerusalem.
And the persecutions will be there.
At the same time that they're giving their testimony in Jerusalem, the enemy will have to counter it. And so he in the remnant who are not believers of the Jews, the apostates, they'll restore the sacrifices so that the nation will observe something religious to counter the truth.
And it'll get so strong in opposition that in the middle of the week, the little remnant of faith will be driven out.
And the testimony will not be any longer allowed in Jerusalem.
But they will go to the Gentiles.
And for the last 3 1/2 years.
There will be the forming of that great company that you have in the 7th chapter of Revelation.
People from every tongue and language.
These scattered Jews, the two tribes, will go out among them, but they will have a new heart.
There will be Israelites indeed, in his home as no guile. They will be born again.
And they'll bear that testimony to the Gentiles.
And when the Lord finally comes.
All these Gentiles who are in the nations immediately surrounding Israel, their neighbors.
Who have heard the Gospel of the Kingdom?
They will either be the sheep or the ghost, who will have to stand in judgment and give an account as to how they treated the messengers who came to them.
You know how that reads. I was poor and sick and in prison. You came not under me and so on. It's a question of how they treated the servants who came with that message.
But at the beginning we said in Daniel 12, there is a little remnant that God raises up of teachers, and he says of them, they shall sign as the stars forever and ever. That is, they're going to have a place in the Kingdom of prominence, a blessing in that coming day. But they're the ones who bear the testimony and they go out to all these nations surrounding. And so there will be a testimony again in Jerusalem.
And there will be a testimony to the nations around them. And that testimony will be not the gospel of the grace of God as we know it today, but it will be the testimony of the Kingdom.
I believe Psalm 96.
The testimony of the Kingdom.
And what's that? The King is coming back? The Messiah?
It will be the blessing on the basis.
Of the precious blood of Christ being shed.
Because there's no blessing for any creature outside of the shedding of the precious blood of Christ. And that finished work.
Now later on, of course.
God is going to bring the 10 tribes to the border.
That's the 11Th chapter, Ezekiel.
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The 20th chapter as well. He's going to bring them to the border just like at the time when the angels came to Sodom and dragged Lot out of the city.
Took a morning to the border and lot had to go into the city of refuge by faith. And so it will be in the coming day. Those 10 tribes will be taken off from all the lands where they're scattered and they'll be brought back to the border of Israel. And then the message will go out. There is deliverance in Zion.
And all those of faith will come in, and ye shall be gathered 1 by 1 or you children of Israel. That's the 27th of Isaiah, and each one will have to come.
On their own exercise of faith as to their Messiah, trusting in that precious blood.
Be gathered 1 by 1 until the land will be filled again, but only by those who have faith. We do not know exactly what Nathaniel may have been thinking when he was under the fig tree. And for our young hearts here this morning, may it not be simply stated in this way?
Let no doubt when the Lord spoke of seeing Nathaniel on the victory.
It was not simply to identify a type of tree, it was certainly, as has been suggested, and the matter.
That is, as to Israel being either a wine vineyard or the olive tree or a thick tree, we can think of it that way. The ones all hard. I wondered if Nathaniel, in sitting under that which was emblematic of Israel, that is, the fig tree, might not have recognized that all around him there was Roman oppression.
Everything seemed to be anything other than peace and tranquility.
And maybe Nathaniel might have thought something about two scriptures that maybe are very plain for our hearts and breathing together in First Kings chapter 4.
We would have that which is historic.
First Kings chapter 4 at.
Verse 25.
And Judith. And Israel.
Safely, every man under his mind and under his victory, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.
And maybe he might as well have thought of that which is prophetic but rather clear in Micah chapter 4, Micah chapter 4, and verse one. But they shall sit every man under his mind and under his fig tree.
None shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord opposed.
Have spoken for all people will walk everyone in the name of this God.
And we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever. Maybe Nathaniel had glimpsed his own soul of that which God purposed for Israel in connection with that friend felony and that peacefulness and that provision. And I think of it, dear brother, because.
If there was any sense in Nathaniel's soul.
Of what a godly Jew should yearn for.
Was it not seen by the Blessed Saviors?
The Lord tells Nathaniel that before Philip called him, he saw the thing. And if there is any sense in your soul and mind as to that which is a real, proper, present godly exercise.
Does he not see that as well? We remember with the light that there were those in Israel of whom it could be said that they had understanding of the times what Israel ought to do.
Do you and I have understanding from the Word of God of the character of the time for which we passed, and out of the occupation in the first of Christ that ought to be characteristic of us, And maybe we can all, beloved brother, nod our heads and say.
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That yes, in measure we have understanding of the times.
And I suppose then we could say that Nathaniel had a little understanding of it. And when the Lord saw him, he was in the manifestation of what understanding he did have. He was sitting under the fig tree. And if you and I this last this morning have any sense in our souls of what really ought to characterize us as we as dear Saints of God.
Loves of the blessed Satan found waiting for his soon coming.
That our souls and we say, yes, we have a little place of what it means. Have an understanding of the time and what we ought to do. Then perhaps that little word is instructed. If you know these things, happy are you if you do.
There will have to be the appreciation.
Of what?
Joseph is.
Because before Israel can have their Benjamin. Now I just mentioned it in that way because here we have greater things presented to Nathaniel. It's the Son of Man.
It's a wonderful thing for Israel to look forward to their king.
That's marvelous.
But they're going to have to recognize the Son of Man first.
And what does that mean?
Joseph went down into death.
And before the.
The brothers of Joseph could get.
Corn before they could be relieved of their famine, before everything could be settled.
They had to acknowledge Joseph Benjamin could be put in prison. In the meantime, Benjamin means the son of my right hand.
Joseph is the one who went down into death.
Israel would like to have the Son of my right hand. They would like to have the king reigning in his proper place without the feeling of their guilt before a holy God. But the day is coming when Israel will have to come to the feast of Atonement.
They'll have to discover the son of man, Joseph, the one who went down into death for them and went before to preserve life.
This will be true for every soul. There has to be the recognition of the work of Christ.
Before they can have their Benjamin, the son of my right hand, and as soon as they do recognize Joseph, he makes himself known to them. And all would have seen that was. And it makes us think of the day when the Lord Jesus will make himself known to his people.
But a day that will be.
What?
What the deep, deep feelings flow through that nation of Israel when they finally.
Come to realize who there Joseph is, the one that they had hung on Calvary Cross.
And they'll realize their guilt.
So in the book of Hosea, the first of the minor prophets, which gives us the real outline of of that sort of thing that prophets.
We find that I will depart and go to my place until they be guilty.
The Lord Jesus had to go away the Son of man, coming down here and dying and then going away until they be guilty. That is, until the nation recognizes their guilt, until they recognize their Joseph, until they recognize the Son of Man. Then everything will be cleared up.
And the nation will be blessed. And so it is. The same principle follows.
We have to recognize our guilt before a holy God.
I don't care who you are in this room this morning, there will be never any blessing for your soul until you recognize that you are a guilty, lost Sinner before a holy God. Israel have to do that, not merely as a nation, but individually.
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And there will never be one out of the courts of glory in the Church except.
They've had their sins put away in the precious blood of Christ.
In the second Psalm it reads.
In the sixth verse of Reading All the Song, Psalm 2 and verse 6. Yet have I sent my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son. This day have I because of thee.
Then in the 80s.
And the Board 1St. What is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the Son of Man that thou visited him? Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and has crowned him with glory and honor, the latest hymns who have dominion over the works of thy hand.
It would seem that what we have here is in a sense of progression from the 2nd Psalm to the 8th song.
You find the dentist, Nathaniel says. Thou art son of God. Thou art the king of Israel.
Corresponds to the second song, acknowledgement of what is given there. But then when the Lord says henceforth or hereafter, henceforth he shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and deceiving upon the summer time, that really takes us on to the 8th song, and we see Him as the one who has man. Son of Man is entitled.
For that man, the one who has the place of universal dominion.
And yet at the same time, it's so very precious our brother Bundy was bringing before us to realize that God very carefully points out to us, even in that Psalm that brings before us his exaltation as the one who as man, is given dominion over all things. He's the one who was made a little lower than me. He was the one who became a man.
In order that he might be capable.
Of suffering death. For the suffering of death. He's the one who is crowned with glory and honor. And so the greater things that that.
Nathaniel in principle here looks forward to is given to look forward to is that day of universal dominion.
The Lord Jesus as the Son of Man is going to have his rightful place as head over all things. When you love someone very much, you look forward to everything that would reflect upon their their honor, their worthiness. It would be a very, very selfish attitude for you or me or anyone else to say, well I know that I am going to be back at home to be with the Lord.
As for what may be his future, As for what he intends to do in connection with this world and cast him out, it's too complicated. It's too difficult for me. So as long as I know what my course will be, that's all that really matters.
That would seem to me to be rather selfish, would it not? I've used sometimes a very homely illustration.
Suppose I got home from work, I stopped by as my wife requested at the grocery store, and I sent the bag of groceries on the kitchen table. And then I sit down and began to begin to talk with her about my activity, that at the office and possibility of making a little change, maybe getting a little new equipment or whatever. And she looks very bored.
After a while she says, look, I'm really not interested in.
Your activities and your plans. Did you bring home the groceries? Yes, they're on the kitchen table. Well, that's all that matters to me. If you pay the rent and buy the groceries, I'm not concerned about your plans and that kind of thing. That would be a great disappointment to a husband.
He would hope, he would expect that his life would be greatly concerned in everything that concerns him. The goal has not only told us of our future and so wonderful future, but I say, Paul Reverend, why has God taken the trouble to tell us?
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That would concern the future honor and vindication of his beloved Son, only in heaven, but upon earth. Because I think he's saying I know you love him so much that you will be interested in everything that concerns him and the future honor and glory and fiddity. That will be it. The love is appearing, I think.
Has, at least in part, something of that bumpkin. We will just love to see the day when he will have that place in which he is so worthless.
Perhaps we can probably have 2000 second.
And you can start by.
Telling us if there's any significance in the fact.
That while before this we've had the next day, the next day, but this is said the third day.
Is there any significance in that? In other words, it doesn't say the next day, but it calls it a third day.
Well, three speaks of completeness.
As to what God is undertaking for the earth and this would be the millennial day.
We know that the eternal state follows it.
But you'll notice in this chapter that.
We don't have the vessels of skin that you have in the 5th chapter of Luke, for instance, or in Matthew and other places.
These vessels, these containers mentioned here, are permanent.
They're permanent. They have a permanent character.
And something interesting to notice with it in connection with it.
And I believe that.
It was after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, it says.
In the sixth verse 6 water pots of stone.
After the manner of the purifying of the Jews.
It seems to me this is connected with the work of the prophets.
God always prepares ahead. And why were there those?
Who responded to John the Baptist preaching?
Because the Spirit of God was at work, that's why.
One would say, well, surely there would be a great work with miracles, but John did no miracles.
It's a very outstanding picture of the power of God.
Working through an empty vessel. You know what a lesson for us The power of God. Working through an empty vessel.
And so purifying of the Jews, it seems to me, has to do with the testimony of the Spirit of God that preceded this time gathering souls out.
Work working it within.
Because in the third chapter we have new birth.
But in Ecclesiastes we have quickening.
And so there's a work of God going on ahead of time.
And I believe that we have the work of God suggested by these permanent vessels.
And there are two or three firkins apiece.
They're exactly the size that the Potter on the wheel decides to make them.
As he forms this clay, because it no doubt was clay.
Vicks later fixed state, but as he forms them, he forms them intelligently.
According to the purpose he has in view for them, two or three firkins apiece, they're not all the same.
These are permanent fixed vessels. Now, what are they for? Water. That's what they're for.
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And so the servants are told.
To fill them with water.
Ah, but they fill them to the brim.
Fill them to the brim.
The energy, the spirit at work.
Acting on the instructions given by the Lord.
Now what happens?
Do do they turn this water into wine?
No, indeed.
It says when men have well drunk and then.
They bring forth other, but this is they brought the best at the last.
What is it?
Ah, it's the joy of the Kingdom.
When the Lord Jesus himself is.
Master of the Feast and all, What a day that will be for Israel.
But a picture tube, beloved, of that day when you and I will be sitting down to eat and drink in the Kingdom of God.
Oh, today that will be permanent. Vessels filled to the brim, turned into joy.
Wine.
For all eternity.
Vessels that he himself has formed permanent vessels.
No change now.
And filled with the very thing that that heaven will be filled with joy, God himself provides.
I thought also in connection with the third day that there is special attention being directed to this, not just simply again the next day. Or the moral perhaps whose thoughts might be considered one is.
Always future blessing is based upon the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thursday sees the main to suggest the wonder of resurrection. It's all based upon that and then to perhaps the third day would emphasize that we seek again and again in the Word of God.
And God's timetable is no vague, indefinite thing.
But well known before the foundation of the world. And I healed, dear brethren, that when we read of this marriage on the third day that we have.
Definite indication that.
False timetable.
Is well established and I do believe perhaps I should be pretty careful, but I do believe that when we look back on God's timetable.
We will see the precision of it, and I believe that two days of waiting before that marriage takes place has very nearly expired. We're just about to see the wonder of this. It seems to me to appear rather frequently in John Gospel. It's after four he turned aside from his service to his beloved people, and for two days he laborers among those despised Americans.
And then after those two days, he returns again to Galaxy. He turns to the 11Th chapter and he receives the news that his dear Jewish friend Lazarus instead. And when he hears that news, he abides 2 days in the same place where he was before he chose to raise up Lazarus from the dead.
So the emphasis here on the third day sees perhaps to indicate that all blessing rests upon the death and resurrection of our precious state in the Lord Jesus, and also the fact that the waiting period for this wedding is well known to the Lord and it's just about us.
It seems there's a word of.
Of exercise for our hearts as parents here.
We.
May take advantage of this a little bit, but it seems to me that those little vessels that are entrusted into our hands, we have a responsibility to fill with water.
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But just say something.
And so that the parents have the privilege today.
Of filling the minds and hearts of the little ones with the word of God.
Now some may think, well, they learn the verses and that's it, and they forget and they go away, but that is so.
Every verse that child learns will be in that child's mind for all eternity.
But a solemn thing, that is.
And so, filling the water pots with water, the diligent ones filled them to the brim.
And the time will come.
When the Spirit of God will change it into wine, that's joy.
Know there are many things that are necessary, perhaps before the joy comes. Oftentimes when a soul is converted, there's no joy at all, oftentimes because he's occupied with his sins and guilt before a holy God. And it's rightly it's so.
And then the deep exercise ends in real joy as a result.
But what is it that does it? The water of the word flight to the Spirit. So there is a responsibility with parents.
Teachers, if you please, to fill those little water pots.
With water.
And it's lovely to see, to hear little children, little tiny children, saying their verses clearly.
And having them fixed in their minds, in their hearts at an early age. And some of them have them turned to wine early too.
The joys that accompany the precious truth of the Gospel of Christ.
My father used to say, fill up the six days of the week with the Word of God and it will pour out like new wine on horsepower. May not be the primary thought in it, but in addition to that wonderful privilege and solemn responsibility of the water of the Word for a little while, we surely need it for ourselves, don't we?
With every other influence around us, with the Midianites busy trying to rob us of our very sustenance.
I only eat to fill up those six days of the week. 6 Waterfalls don't build up to the brim with the word of God. It will pour out like you wine. And perhaps perhaps we sometimes say, Oh well, we have no one in our assembly to teach us, to instruct us, to exhort, to encourage us.
From time to time, and it troubles me a bit to hear it, because the word of God gives us this wonderful privilege.
The water is available. It might be reading the very last epistle, building up yourselves on your most holy faith. I'm sitting back waiting for someone else to do it for us. Building up yourselves. When our children were little, we fed them, and we're pleased to be able to do so. But it would be a great disappointment if we still had to do that.
We'd like to see them reach the point where their appetite and their ability.
Develops where they can.
Feed themselves here we have the word of God and an appetite for it is not a gift from God. They're ought to be my beloved present by they might have to put my heart and appetite for the water of the word of God and when that water body fills the bridge in there.
Need to have this practice Word of God continually apply. Remember years ago brother Barry Speaking of those in the days of Elijah, who for that quarter from the sacrifice on the carpet and having done so, he said do it again. Having done it the second time, he said do it again. And they poured that water so it was running all over the place. But I'd like to see.
A hole in which the word God is just continually, sort of.
Texts on the wall, the word of God abundantly in evidence.
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Fountain wherein there's plenty of water is clean.
Just one thought on this.
4th and 5th verses.
Jesus said unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hours not yet come.
Now turn to John 19.
I.
26 verse.
When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciples standing by whom he loved, he said unto his mother, Woman, Behold thy Son. Then said he to the disciple, Behold thy mother. From that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.
We find that the Lord Jesus was the true Nazarite.
And as the true Nazarite, he was not to know his father or mother.
And as he begins his ministry in the second chapter of John.
He, as it were, does not know his mother.
Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come.
But in the 19th chapter, his hour has come.
He has completed the work that the father has given him to do, and now he resumes that relationship again with his mother.
And so when he says woman.
Behold, thy son is referring to himself.
And then he turns to John.
Then said he to the disciple, Behold thy mother.
He assumes that responsibility on that dark hour as he was.
About to be crucified or being crucified?
He identifies himself with his mother.
So that she can be cared for by John.
John was the disciple that lay on his bosom.
He put his mother in the trust of John. Son, behold thy mother.
Sentence in parenthesis here where it says but the servants which drew the water you.
Oh, and a source of enjoyment. This may be for anywhere occupied much in the Word of God, they have a secret.
The service knew what the master of the feast did not know. That's better.
Love it. Isn't it wonderful to be here, occupied in the Word of God?
And consciously doing what the monster desired of us to do. We have a secret.
And we can enjoy what?
Any others do not enjoy, but we do receive it from the Master to His words.
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The Wages of Sin

A Living Sacrifice

I Beseech You

Address—C.E. Lunden
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.
When you turn with me to Romans, the 12Th chapter, please. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies or compassions of God.
She presents your bodies a living sacrifice, holy.
Acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove.
What is that good?
And acceptable and perfect.
Will of God.
Just a comment or two, beloved.
About the compassions of God.
If you'll turn back to the 8th chapter.
We will have mentioned here.
That which has to do with the compassions of God.
In our first hymn, we were singing about the Father's house.
About all that lies ahead for faith.
The tendency of our hearts, beloved, is to settle down in this world. But the prophet said it's polluted. Arise. This is not your arrest.
And so we have the Apostle Paul here, after setting before us these very precious truths.
Of all that's been provided through the work of our blessed Savior.
Deep heart of God.
I beseech thee, by the compassions of God.
Is this something beloved that you and I should pay attention to? Surely?
What are they?
29th verse of the 8th chapter.
For whom he did foreknow. Oh, how precious that truth is.
Whom he did foreknow. Everyone of you who are saved come under this classification.
He also did predestinate.
That is, He elected beforehand you for a particular destiny.
That's a part of the compassions of God.
Now this was even before Christ came and took that place. Savior.
Long ago, before this world was made.
Predestinate.
To be conformed, Think of it to be conformed.
We've had patterns before us this afternoon.
Her brother mentioned the last, the one great pattern, the Lord Jesus. But here we have to be conformed.
To the image of his son.
God's Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren.
Now that word first born suggests to us title.
Not generation, but title.
He has the 1St place and isn't that wonderful that the Lord has the 1St place?
But the question we have here in this exhortation is, does He have the 1St place daily in our lives?
Man is made-up of spirit, soul and body. Spirit is the highest part that contacts God. Soul is the seed of the desires and the body gives expression.
To that which is, which is learned.
The result of our spirit contacting God.
And deciding from the Word of God what the mind of God is for my pathway.
And so we have the body mentioned in this chapter.
And there we give expression to what?
To our own natural wills, God forbid.
The Apostle Paul has to say, and I'm thinking of this expression here, Holy, holy.
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In this 6th chapter, First Corinthians, the body is not for fornication.
But for the Lord.
Oh, you're saying? Why would you bring that into a lovely meeting like this? I'll tell you why, beloved, Because the.
Verse that says Is it true that the enemy would reach even into Jerusalem?
He does.
That enemy has reached right in among the people of God.
And we're to be warned, but not only warned. The Spirit of God is beseeching.
On a basis here that should call our attention.
To these marvelous things, the compassions of God is it in keeping for a Son of God that is, I'm speaking now those who've been made sons through grace.
To allow ourselves to drop to the level of this world.
To allow our bodies to be used the way the world uses their bodies.
I beseech you, by the mercies or compassions of God.
Now the next point is.
Whom he did predestinate them he also called, and whom he called them he also justified.
We stand before God in a position beloved.
Without one sin attaching to us because we are in Christ.
No one can lay anything to our charge. We learn in this chapter we are in Christ.
Oh what a place to be in the compassions of God.
Those that he justified, them he also glorified.
He's taking us up, isn't he, to our full portion?
And I know our time is up and I'm not going to keep you.
But what is our full portion?
Is it so that we're going to have a lots of knowledge?
Well, we will know, as we are known.
But what is our portion for eternity? What is the spring of God's activity? Love.
That's the spring of it.
All the activity that's been manifested that is recorded here in the word.
The spring of it.
Is love.
And when faith and hope shall cease, love will abide alone.
And also eternity.
We will be taken up with that.
Which surpasses knowledge.
Surpasses knowledge. Can you think of something that would surpass knowledge? Yes.
Love now beloved, what is the response from my heart?
Do I need someone to hammer in my conscience?
I beseech you, by the compassions of God.
The compassions of God.
Where were you a few years ago before you were saved? You're on their way to a lost eternity. Hell, blackness of darkness, forever eternal torment. Where are you now?
You belong to Christ, you're on your way to glory, and we may be there tonight. I trust so.
But in the meantime, present your bodies a living sacrifice.
A reasonable service. An intelligent service.
And don't be conformed to this world.
The words are playing here, beloved.
Very plain. No need for me to try to open them up, they're just as plain as can be.
The compassions of God.
Our lives a living sacrifice.
Or you say, well, that may be a little harder than dying for Christ. It might be.
A living sacrifice.
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Glorified. What shall we say then say to these things? If God before us, who can be against us, and he that spared not his own Son?
I shall be not with him also freely.
Give us all things.
All beloved, in the face of love like that, are you going on and am I going on?
In a wayward path.
Some of us may be this afternoon here.
Are we going on in a wayward path?
I beseech you, by the compassion of God.
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A Model of the Believers

A Proper Testimony

Address—P.L. Johnson
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.
So we turn first to a passage in the First Epistle to Peter, chapter five, first Peter 5 and verse one. The elders which are among you, I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a particular of the glory that shall be revealed, feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof.
Not by constraint, but willingly.
Not for a filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Neither is being Lords over God's heritage.
But being in samples to the flock.
And a verse in First Timothy chapter 4.
First Timothy, 412.
Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in Word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
And again now in the back in first Peter.
This time in chapter 2 and verse 21 for even hereunto were you were you called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps.
And then in Matthew Chapter 11.
Verse 28.
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Our brother in the address to the young persons this afternoon.
Made reference to the fact that.
Each and everyone of us.
In some way or another, where therefore good are far bad.
Affect those with whom we come in contact, and we affect those with whom we walk in fellowship. The Lords Table and he mentioned again the same thing yesterday in the Reading, and it struck me that the Lord would impress this upon our hearts here this afternoon, that none of us can escape the fact that we are an example.
Either an example of that which is good and will provoke our brethren unto love and good works, or we can be a bad example and lead some astray. Reference was made to Peter.
And we know of course that Peter on occasions was a good example. And we know that Peter was a man of faith and exhibited that faith on many occasions. But we do have recorded how that Peter was an example in a wrong way and he gave a wrong lead as was referred to in John chapter 21 when he says I go a fishing.
And other says we go with you, we go with you. There we see that Peter gives a wrong lead and we might feel sometimes that this matter of an example are giving a lead would apply only to those who are older in years and older.
In experience as Christians.
That's why I read in First Timothy 4 as well as First Peter 5, because in First Peter Five we do have reference to elders, that is elder brethren. I don't think he's referring there to any official class, but he's speaking about those who are older ones in the faith and they have a special responsibility.
To be in samples, our models are to set a pattern for the flock.
But also in first Timothy, word is given there to a young man. Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example or example in a pattern. So there is a responsibility there too, in connection with even even with those who are younger in years and younger, in the faith that they too might recognize that God would have us to.
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Be aware of the fact.
That we do affect.
Others about us in the gathering, and as I say, everyone with whom we come in contact, we affect them one way or the other. And I had it upon my heart to say a few words in regard to the thought of a model or a pattern.
But we know that.
Something that is set forth in the way of a pattern or a model is more easily and readily understood than something that is merely presented by way of explanation. How many times we have understood something more perfectly when we saw a model of it and we saw the pattern of it?
Well, we know that as in everything, the Lord Jesus Himself would take the lead. That is, if He would enjoy and upon His people, that we should in some way be a pattern and an example. He Himself would take the lead.
In being an example and so I read in Peter that he has left us an example and here in Matthew 11.
I would have called a special attention to the 29th verse when he says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me.
Now my impression of this expression learn of me.
Does not mean primarily to learn something about him. I think the thought primarily is to learn from him as the model and as the guide, as the one who sets the example. One might say, well, he's a divine person, how can he be a model for us?
Well, the Lord Jesus is true.
It is true He is a divine person, an eternal divine person, but is coming into this scene in manhood, you might say He has come within our range because as.
Coming here in manhood, in this world, He came in a way in which you and I can follow as an example. And so he says, learn from me. And I would like to present first of all, the fact that the Lord Jesus.
Is the perfect pattern. He's the perfect example, and it's wonderful to read in the Word of God, the four gospels especially, and I have no doubt but what the four gospels were needed in order to give or to set forth the Lord Jesus fully as the pattern, the pattern that he would have.
You and I to follow as we seek to follow himself.
And then that it might have an exercise in our heart and conscience that we might in turn be those who would seek to set a pattern and to be an example or a guide to others, even as we find the Lord Jesus himself is this.
Now you can see that the remarks that I've already made that what I have before me is not so much to present the Lord Jesus as the Savior. Oh, it's the most one of the most wonderful things about the word of God is the various ways in which the Lord Jesus is presented, the various glories of the Lord Jesus and we would not want to be.
Restricted to anyone particular aspect.
Wonderful as it is to think of the Lord Jesus as our Savior, and of course we know that this is of primary importance, but there is no need to speak about the Lord Jesus as the pattern, as an example to anyone who does not know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, but as ministry for the Lord's people.
We're going to speak of the Lord Jesus, not as the Savior.
Speaking to those who already have.
Accepted that offer of grace and mercy and we know our relationship with God. We know that we belong to the Lord Jesus and now we are set here in this world to be for Himself.
Well, I'd like to just briefly touch upon the four ways in which and the Lord Jesus is an example or a pattern in the four Gospels. He says learn from me.
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In the Gospel of Matthew, I believe we have the Lord Jesus set forth, as you might say, the pattern or model administrator of the things of God. Right in this very portion we read in verse 27. All things are delivered unto me of my Father. Everything was put into his hands.
In the Gospel of Matthew, the beginning of the Gospel, we read the beginning of the of the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Now you know, we know, of course, that Abraham preceded historically David.
And yet, when we take up the genealogy there, or at least when the Lord Jesus genealogy is introduced, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, David is mentioned first, the son of David, because preeminently in the Gospel of Matthew, he is presented as the son of David. David was the great administrator. David was the one who ordered everything.
In regard to the House of God, the temple.
Read about in the first book of Chronicles. While David did not build a house, he said everything in order. He set the priests in their order, the Levites, the singers, the porters, and the pattern of the house. Everything was under the administration of David.
It was that which God had given to him and I believe in the Gospel of Matthew, we see how that the Lord Jesus.
Is the great example of one who has, you might say, the affairs of God, the things of God committed unto him, and he faithfully discharges them. He administers them in a faithful way. And you know there is a sense in which each and every believer has something committed to him.
Every believer we read in Ephesians 4 that unto everyone of us is given grace according to the gift of Christ, every one of us. It may not be the affair of each and everyone to publicly preach the Word or minister the Word, but every believer has something committed to him that he is to faithfully discharge and administer, you might say.
Here in this scene and we see that the Lord Jesus.
Is the great pattern and example in the Gospel of Matthew as the one who administered everything faithfully according to the mind of God. That which had been committed into his hands, he dispensed faithfully. And so we want to see him as the pattern administrator now when we come to the Gospel of Mark.
We know that the Gospel of Mark presents the Lord Jesus.
As the model servant there he is a model for service and I want to read a verse there in the 7th chapter of Marks Gospel.
That is sort of the key you might say to.
Service according to God.
And it's a little, you might say, the key to the gospel of Mark in this respect.
37 And says the people were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well.
He hath done all things well as the model servant. He not only served, but what he did, he did well. This would emphasize the manner in which things were done, and I would give this little hint to one. In reading the Gospel of Mark, you will find that Mark often.
When some miracle is performed of the Lord, some healing or something of that nature, Mark often gives more detail as to how the Lord accomplished it than the other writers. Because Mark is emphasizing the fact that not only is the Lord Jesus the Servant serving Jehovah, but he does all things well because God is concerned, not only.
That his people.
Would serve him, but that the manner in which things are done.
Would be done according to his mind and his will. He hath done all things well. Well, now you know, there are those who are very service minded or oriented in Christendom today, but sometimes we find that those who are very energetic in regard to service have very little concern as to how that service is carried out.
00:15:23
But when the Lord Jesus was here, it was not only that he was.
A ready servant that he was always serving, but he served. His service was according to the mind and will of God. He not only did things, but we read here that He hath done all things well. And so He is the model for us in our service and we want to keep that in mind.
If there is any little exercise that we have in service for the Lord, we want to keep in mind that it is done, that it be done well, that is, that it be done according to the mind, and will of God is revealed in His precious word. Now when we come to Luke's gospel, if you'll turn over to the 4th chapter of Luke.
I believe Luke would bring before us the Lord Jesus.
As a pattern or example of a model man.
Luke dwells much upon the humanity of the Lord Jesus.
Being here as a man, being found in fashion as a man, and we read in the first verse of chapter 4 of Luke and Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost.
I think of that. We know, of course, that He was unique in that He was begotten of the Holy Spirit, as we have in the first chapter. But in this regard, you might say He is not unique because it is the privilege of the Lord's people, those who have the Holy Spirit also, to be full of the Holy Ghost. Here we have the Lord Jesus viewed as a man.
Being about 30 years of age.
And having been baptized by John and Jordan, the Spirit of God coming down from above like a dove.
As a dove and abiding upon him, and those words from heaven, thou art my beloved Son. In thee I am well pleased. And we see that immediately he is in the desert or in the wilderness, and.
That's what we have here in chapter 4. Being full of the Holy Ghost, He was led by the Spirit.
I believe that would be the model man.
That God would have his people to be led by the Spirit. Then in verse 14 notice.
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit. I think it's significant that three times right here, and then again a fourth time in verse 18, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me.
Well again, this is not the same as Speaking of Him as a divine person. This is the Lord Jesus brought before us in manhood. Is a man as one who was full of the Holy Ghost, LED of the Holy Spirit in the power of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of God resting upon him. What a model, What a model.
Well, as believers on the Lord Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit.
You know, in John's epistle.
The first epistle of John chapter 2, where we have the family of God in their.
You might say graded, we have the fathers, we have the young men, and we have the little children or babes. We read there that it's the babes who are referred to as having received an unction of the Holy One. That is the Holy Spirit, the anointing, the babes. Well, of course, the fathers have the Spirit as well, the young men, but I mentioned that.
To bring out the fact that every believer, the youngest believer who has.
Trusted the Lord Jesus Christ for his or her salvation, believing the gospel of your salvation. You're sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise and you have the Holy Spirit. You have the same Holy Spirit that came upon this man Jesus. It says he was full of the Holy Ghost. He was led of the Spirit. He returned in the power of the Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord was upon him. What a model for you and me.
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Believers.
To have the Spirit of God as that power and that one who guides and leads as we have here in the model man, the Lord Jesus, we learn from him. We learn of him as the administrator and as the servant, the one who does all things well, and as the model man in the power of the Holy Spirit. When I turn over to John's Gospel.
Chapter 5.
And I think we have here a statement by the Lord that would indicate that in John's gospel he is also a model in a pattern.
A model or a pattern in Sonship?
A model son, because notice the words in verse 19 of John 5. Then answered Jesus, and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do.
For what things so ever he doeth, these also doeth the son likewise. What a model, the son taking everything every direction from the father. He did nothing of himself. It's almost as if you might say that he is like one who is entirely helpless, and every impression that he has he gets from the father.
He received no impressions from the world round about. He did not, as it were.
Bring them forth even from himself, he said. He received them all from the Father.
The Son can do nothing of himself, you say, Well, isn't he a divine person? That's true.
That's the wonderful thing about the Gospel of John is that we have presented an eternal divine person, the Son himself come down here into this world. As we read, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and when he was here he would be in perfection in sonship. He would, as it were, be a model Son.
Completely and totally dependent upon his father.
Receiving everything from the Father, every impression he got from the father, the very words that he spoke, where did he get them? The father, The works that he did, where did he get them from the father? And that's where we're to derive, you might say, our impressions.
Our thoughts, our motives, our desires, and all of the things that go to make up our pattern of life in this world. Do we receive them from the Father through this precious Word, or do we receive them from?
Persons roundabout and what goes to make up this world. You see, the Lord Jesus wasn't influenced by anything here. He received everything from the Father.
So that the very words he spoke and the deeds that he did, what a model you might say, because you see, we are sons too. In Galatians we read that because your sons God hath sent forth the spirit of His Son into our hearts, whereby we cry ABBA Father. And as sons before God, we are those who are to receive every impression from the Father.
Every impression from the Father we're not to have faults of our own.
We are not.
To to come up with philosophies and ideas of our own. But we receive everything from the Father. Oh, how wonderful it would be if we could follow this pattern of the Lord Jesus. To be as it were, from the human standpoint, a blank, just like a blank piece of paper. So that the Father could, as it were, imprint upon our hearts and minds and our conscience.
Everything that is of himself.
Well, I believe that's the way the Lord presents Himself here. He was one who did nothing from Himself. It all came from the Father. And so we learn from Him what it is to be as a son before the Father, an independent upon the Father, and obedient to the Father, and, as I say, receiving everything from the hands of the Father. What a model. Well now.
In this regard, of course, we know the Lord Jesus was perfect.
And the Lord Jesus is the only perfect pattern.
But there is a sense in which you and I, by the grace of God, can be a pattern and be an example. And I would like to turn just for a moment to one that perhaps we might feel that He is even more within our range. Sometimes I have the feeling that when we speak about the Lord Jesus and even as I have here this afternoon, as a model and an example.
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That we are apartment to feel that he is.
Beyond our range. That after all, we're speaking about the Lord Jesus, the one who was absolutely perfect, the one in whom there was no sin.
Though he was a man, though he was possessed of human nature, that is, he was a man in all points, as we are apart from.
That sinful nature.
Sometimes we have the feeling that he is outside of our range, but he sets himself before us as an example and we're to learn from him. But I'd like to turn back to the Old Testament in First Chronicles chapter 28, where we have one, you might say, of like passions with us, David.
For we know that David was one, while a man of faith, was not perfect in all of his ways, and yet we see that he takes up this thought of setting a pattern.
We read in the 13th chapter of Acts.
Paul preaching there in Antioch. He speaks of David as having served his own generation by the will of God.
But not only did David serve his own generation.
But we see here in First Chronicles 28 that he thought of, you might say, the generation that is coming on, and he left a pattern. He gave a pattern.
For Solomon, the generation following.
First Chronicles 28 and verse 11.
Then David gave to Solomon, his son, the pattern of the porch. That's the thought of an example, a pattern.
And of the houses thereof, and of the treasures thereof. And of the upper chambers thereof, And of the inner parlors thereof. And of the place of the mercy seat. And the pattern of all that he had by the spirit of the courts of the House of the Lord, and of all the chambers roundabout. Of the treasures of the House of God, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things.
And he goes on to speak about all of the things that he gave as a pattern.
But I want to point out in verse 12 That expression, the pattern of all that he had by the Spirit.
Because you see, this wasn't a pattern that that David devised himself.
This pattern that he passed on to Solomon was that which he had received himself by the Spirit.
And this is the pattern that we would desire to to set and to pass on to others, is that which God Himself has made known to us and brought to us by His Spirit through this precious Word.
David passed on a pattern of all that he had received by the Spirit. He passed it on in order that Solomon might have that which would guide him.
When it came his time to build the House of God. Now turn to the second book of Chronicles and chapter.
3.
Because the time arrives now when he, when Solomon, that is, who had the pattern, begins to build. Then Solomon began to build the House of the Lord at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. In other words, he followed that pattern.
It was the place that David had prepared. David had received this from the Lord.
It was the pattern that he had learned from God. And now he passes on this pattern to his son Solomon. And in turn Solomon begins to build according to that pattern. And if we were to read these chapters of the building of the house, we would see that he followed the pattern. Turn over to Chapter 7.
And verse 6.
And the priest waited on their offices, the Levites also with instruments of music of the Lord, which David the king had made to praise the Lord. In other words, it was David who had set the pattern as to the course of the priest, the Levites, the singers. And he gave this pattern, He passed it on to Solomon, and now Solomon builds according to that pattern.
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I'd like to say a word in connection with the.
And this to the young believers especially.
One would encourage the young people to take up, like Solomon here, a pattern.
That you have observed in those who have sought to go on for the Lord, and you know that what they have received and what they have walked in is that which they have learned from the Lord Himself, from this precious book.
Solomon took up that pattern that David left behind. And I would encourage the young people that we're not talking about just following men, We're not talking about just idolizing perhaps someone that you feel has honored the Lord and walked with the Lord for many years, but to realize this, that the pattern and the example that they have set.
Is the result of what they have learned from the Lord.
What they have been taught have gone.
It's what they have received by the Spirit and they have have walked in it and they have sought to carry it out. And then one can take that up with confidence that it is the mind and will of God. Just as Solomon here takes up this pattern and he builds. We want to be sure though, we want to prove all things and we want to be sure of this, that the pattern that is, that is set, the pattern that we would observe.
That it is a pattern that was received by the Spirit of God and we can test that by the Word. We can test that by the Word.
And so we don't want to just follow men. I remember one time years ago.
Not having been raised among those gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.
I had to go through exercises in regard to finding the place where the Lord has placed His name. And I found that there were those, you might say, while I felt I was going in the right direction to the place, I felt that I came across those who were coming away from that place as if they were to say, well, I tried it and.
It wasn't what he was supposed to be.
And so you might say they were setting a pattern too. They were older, older men, older Christians. They were those who had once been identified with those gathered to the Lord's name, but they gave it up. And so they were, they were setting a pattern. And as a young man, one might say, well, which pattern am I to follow?
Well, remember, the pattern that David passed on to Solomon was that which he had received by the Spirit. It was that which he had received from God, according to God's Word.
And so we don't want to be confused young persons when we come across perhaps some.
Saint of God, some perhaps even a devoted servant of the Lord, who is not God of the Lord's name. And perhaps even at some time, one time he may have been, and he seems to be a very energetic and a very well taught person. But the point is, the pattern that he is setting, the lead that he is getting now, is it according to the Spirit of God.
Is it a pattern received by the Spirit? And the way we test it is by His precious word? Because it's possible, you know, for someone to set a wrong pattern.
And to give a wrong pattern and it's possible for one to take up with a wrong pattern. Turn to 2nd Kings chapter 16. I'd just like to refer to to King A has there who took up with a wrong pattern and you can readily see why it's a wrong pattern because of where he got it. Second King 16, we read in verse 10 that King Ahaz went to Damascus. Now you notice the city there.
Now Ahaz, of course, was the king of Judah.
And where would his residence be as the King of Judah, Jerusalem?
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And what is Jerusalem? That's the divine center. But he went to Damascus.
And he went there to meet Tiglath Pileser, king of Assyria, and while he was there, notice he saw an altar.
Well, now this altar that he saw, there was not something given by the Spirit of God. It was an altar that had been erected by the Assyrians. It wasn't anything that had to do with God. But notice what King Ahaz did, and King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest, the fashion of the altar and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof.
And we read that this man made that altar according to that pattern.
Well, now here's a pattern, and it's a pattern that was given by a man who was in a high place, king of Judah, but he was a man who got out of his place. He went down to Damascus. He got away from the from the divine center, he got out of his place. And so he picked up some thoughts, he picked up a pattern of things that they had no place in Jerusalem.
He picked up a pattern of things that belonged to Damascus.
But what did he do? He introduced that in Jerusalem. Now this is a pattern we don't want to follow.
This is a pattern that is not received by the Spirit of God. This is not a pattern like David gave to Solomon. David gave a true pattern that he had received from God which was according to the word of God. And Solomon rightly could take up that pattern and build follow that pattern.
Because it was a pattern received by a given by the Spirit of God and passed on by a faithful man. But here is a pattern that is taken up from a place that had nothing to do with Jerusalem, Damascus. And sad to say that he has introduced that pattern. Well, God would have us to recognize the fact, as we said in the beginning, that we can have either a good pattern or a bad pattern.
According to the word of God.
The Lord Jesus, the great example, the great pattern himself. We know that He never took up with anything that was not of God, either administratively or in his service or as a man or as a son. Everything was according to God.
And we can say that David was faithful too, to receive a pattern from God by the Spirit and pass it on to Solomon.
But Ahaz was one who gave a wrong pattern and a wrong lead. So we want to be aware of bringing things in, as it were, from Damascus, picking up a pattern of things outside. And that's what happens, you know, when we when we get occupied with all that's going on in Christendom, we're apartment to see all hers out there. We're apartment to see a pattern of things that we might say that looks pretty good. Let's bring that into Jerusalem.
But it can be a wrong pattern if it's not according to the Spirit of God. We want to reject it and we want to build according to the pattern that has been received and passed on by the Spirit of God. The Lord Jesus is the great example, the great model. But now you and I have that privilege and responsibility to be a model too, and to not only follow a pattern that's given of God, but to pass on a pattern that is received by the Spirit.
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Thine we Are

Address—E. Pilkington
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 we turn this afternoon.
To First Chronicles.
The first book of Chronicles, chapter 12.
We will not read at all.
But parts of it.
First Chronicles 12, verse one.
Now these are they that came to David as a glide work, while he kept himself close because of Saul the son of Kiss, And they were among them the mighty men, helpers of the war.
And we might go down to.
Verse 16.
And there came are the children of Benjamin and Judah to the hold on to David.
And they ever went out to meet them, and answered, and said unto them, If you become peacefully unto me to help me, mine heart shall be net unto you.
But if you become to betray me to mine enemies, seeing there is no wrong in mine hands, the God of our fathers looked thereon and rebuked it. Then the Spirit came upon Amasia, who was chief of the captains, and he said, Thine are we David, and on thy side, thou son of Jesse.
Peace, Peace be unto thee, and peace be to thine helpers.
For thy God help us thee. Then David received them, and made them captains of the band.
Now we might go down further in the chapter.
And.
We'll read from verse 32.
And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times.
To know what Israel ought to do.
The heads of them were 200.
And all their brethren were at their commandments.
Of Zebulun such as went forth to battle export in war with all instruments of war 50,000 which could keep ranked, they were not of double heart.
And of Natalie 1000 captains, and with them with shield and spear 30 and 7000. Another day Knights expert in war 20 and 8600. Innovations such as went forth to battle expert in war 40,000. And on the other side of Jordan, of the Rubinites and Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, with all manner of instruments of war for the battle 120,000.
All these men of war.
That could keep rank came with a perfect heart to Hebron to make David king over all Israel and all the rest also of Israel where of one heart to make David king. And there they were with David three days eating and drinking for their brother, and had prepared for them.
Moreover, they that were nigh them even unto Isakar and Zebulun and Natalie.
Brought bread on ***** and on camels, on mules and on oxen, and meals and meat meal, cakes of eggs and bunches of raisins and wine and oil and oxen and sheep abundantly. For there was joy in Israel.
What a happy ending to this chapter and how it was surely.
Remind us of the past three days.
How our brethren has indeed supplied abundantly for our needs, and how our our blessed Lord has indeed supplied our spiritual needs through these meetings.
But you know, they love young people.
This was the last meeting and we're about to go home.
To our various assemblies.
Isn't it lovely to have the word of God to have a spirit in our hearts?
To guide us in the days that lies ahead of us.
We don't know what lies ahead of us.
But we do know this, that the Lord Jesus Christ.
Is coming again to take us home to glory. And how wonderful the little while we're here to have the Word of God guide our hearts to instruct us in the way in which we should go.
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Oh, how do I so raise to have God's word? And you know, there are young people.
Search as you might in the word of God.
You will not find permission in God's Word, and I will not find permission from the Word of God to do my own will.
And if you and I are going to be happy Christians, if we are going to be a testimony down here, the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom David is a little picture, must be our only captain, our only guide. Well, I read these verses. I've enjoyed them many times. As we think of David, there he was.
In zig flag and you know he shouldn't have been there.
He shouldn't have been there.
He disobeyed the word of God.
And that's why we find him there in a moment of weakness.
Out of communion with the Lord, we find David at Zig Blank.
You can read it at your leisure, but you will find a big lad. David had a lot of sorrow. He had a lot of trouble.
If you read First Samuel chapter 30 you will find there was there and Davis Park he was distressed.
He was discouraged.
And those who followed him.
Also speak of stoning him.
They were blaming David.
For the trouble that had come into their lives.
And I want to say this, dear young people.
If you follow me, if you follow any other St. of God.
Knowing that the word of God forbid you to walk in such a path, I must warn you, you're going to be disappointed.
You're going to have sorrow in your life, abundant sorrow, and so on. First Samuel chapter 30. David has greatly distressed.
But I want to remind you, if you read down in that chapter, you won't go very far before you find David in communion with the Lord. Yes, he encouraged himself and the Lord has gone. And then he inquired of the Lord as to what to do. And you know, dear young people, the Lord gave David victory over his enemies. And here's our chapter begins. We find David in a hole.
And we find men and women, those whose heart God had touched, we find them going to David.
There in the hole and it I'd like to notice those who went in verse 16.
They're the children of Benjamin and Judah, yes.
David went out to meet them, and answered, and said, If you become peaceably unto me, to help me.
My heart shall be knit unto you.
But if you become to betray me to my enemies, seeing there is no wrong in my hands.
The God of our fathers looked thereon and rebuked it.
You know, I find comfort in this very young people.
You know the Lord will never disappoint any of His children.
But you know, we might be disappointed in our brethren.
And we might be falsely accused.
We might be misunderstood.
And if we're not in commune with the Lord, there will arise in our hearts.
Spirit of resentment.
And perhaps there will be in our hearts that desire for revenge.
He said this against me. It is not true. And then we may find ourselves thinking and saying a lot of other things that just arouses the flesh, you know. And then what do we have? We have strife. Strife. Oh, I like the spirit of David here as he went out to meet these men, he could say.
If you become to betray me to mine enemies, seeing there is no wrong of mine hands.
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The God of our fathers looked thereon and rebuked us. Oh, isn't it lovely? David is just willing to commit the whole matter to the Lord.
All we just learned to do this.
Perhaps we might be betrayed of our confidence.
We might confide in someone and we might be betrayed.
And you know, we might have feelings within us if we don't judge is going to bring strife.
And you know, the end of strike. What do we have?
If it is not judged, there is division, there is a separation, there is a break in communion, one with another, there is a break in fellowship. Oh, David, all he could say, the Lord look upon it. Oh, young people and older ones.
May we know more the Spirit through the Spirit of Christ that could just lead everything with the Lord. Well, now these men were true men, but you know, David didn't know it. And he can remind them of the solemn reality that if they had come to betray him, the Lord would deal with them.
And I just like to pass this on to my dear brethren. There are matters that come into our lives, into our templates, and we like to take matters in our hands. Yay, we might feel like taking revenge.
But let's just leave it with the Lord. Oh, if I think of some.
Today.
Because of misunderstanding.
Because there hasn't been that submission to the Lord's will.
Let's remember that whatever the Lord allows to come into your life and my life, whatever the Lord allows to come into our assemblies.
Let's look to the Lord about the problem, the difficulty.
And let's leave the difficulty with him. Let's not take a step or a step that is going to cause us.
Take on a path of disobedience. And so if I think tonight of some dear to my heart and I'm sure each one of us have those that we know and love because of misunderstanding, because of of wrong judgment, shall we say.
They had their eyes on their brethren and not on the Lord.
They're gone.
They're gone.
All they love young people.
If there comes a time in your heart.
That you feel discouraged with your brethren, if you feel.
Constrained to leave the place where the Lord is in the mess. May I encourage you to leave that matter with the Lord. Just trust the Lord leave everything in his hands. Oh, how many mistakes we make because we don't wait on the Lord. Oh, David knew what it was to wait on the Lord. And may you and I wait on the Lord. Well, you know I like the answer The.
You know, they could say to him.
Then the spirit came upon a Messiah who was teeth of the captions, and he said, Thine, are we David? And on thy side, thou son of David. Oh, how lovely these men. You know, they didn't get their feelings hurt because they.
Their friendship was doubted.
And you know, we shouldn't get our feelings hurt.
If our brethren don't have confidence in US, oh, let's prove ourselves. Let's prove ourselves. And so these men, they could say to David, thine are we David? And on thy side, Oh, isn't that lovely, thou son of Jesse? They confess who he was. They confess that they were on his side. All young people, may I address myself to you? Whose side are you on?
On this afternoon, are you on the Lord's side?
You know, it might cost you something to be on the Lord's side, but I can tell you it's worthwhile. Oh, I can tell you to be on the Lord's side is the only place of true peace and happiness.
And may I say something else?
I don't like to say it, but I must say it.
00:15:02
If you or I.
Leave the place where the Lord is in the mess.
If we leave the Lord's table, we do not take the table with us.
We do not.
And tonight, how many have left the Lord's Table?
As I look around this audience.
Sometimes I look in vain for the sight of some faith.
At home.
I've got them. No one to love. Where are they? They're gone.
They're on a different path. They're no longer on the path of obedience to the Word of God.
And I want to stress this afternoon.
That if the Lord Jesus doesn't come, your faith and mine is going to be tested. It's going to be manifest and tested. Whose side are we on?
Oh, David, there he was in a hole.
He wasn't living at a palace, No, he was living in a cave.
And you know, there's not too many covers in a cave.
You know, in that cave with David, those men had something that they never had in the city with Saul.
They had David's company, they had fellowship with David. Oh, just to to gaze into his face. They could say thine are we David? All young people? Any older here not safe. May I ask you in love for your soul? Do you belong to the Lord Jesus? Can you say I'm his?
Or if you can, this afternoon you get right with the Lord. You, my dear friends, receive the Lord Jesus into your heart, and I want to tell you that He will never leave you nor forsake you. Know His Spirit will come to dwell in your hearts and the midst of sorrow. Older minded Romans 8.
Oh, how? Who are we to have the Spirit of Christ in? Well, in the believer. Yes, they're in that lovely chapter.
We have the Spirit of Christ and every believer, and may I say this to any here.
Who have not the fear of Christ?
You are not a Christian.
The Apostle says that any man hath not the Spirit of Christ. He's not his, not a his.
And when the Lord comes, you'll be left behind.
Really, in that lovely chapter, we have the Spirit and the believer and we have the work of the Spirit. And what is the work of the Spirit? Oh, beloved, the Spirit bears witness with our Spears that were children of God. There were we belong to Him. You have that testimony in your heart. You're one of His. And you know the Spirit leads us into all truth.
Yes, the Spirit maketh intercession for us. There isn't a trial. There isn't a problem.
That the Lord may allow to come into your life and mine. But there the Spirit makes intercession for us according to the will of God. Are we willing to leave all with him? And then in that chapter we have God for us. Yes, we have God for us. Well, in our chapter first Chronicles, how lovely to have this testimony thine. Are we David? And on my side, thou son of David.
And so David received them and made them campers. I think of that verse that we had before us in John.
1St chapter.
Where the Lord Jesus came unto his own, His own received him not, but to as many as received him.
To them he gave the power to become the sons of God. Oh, how lovely. And so they will receive these men.
Yes, and he gives them responsibility.
To them he makes them captain of the bat. Now let's go down, please.
We find that towards the end of the chapter.
There is a time that is elapsed from the beginning of the chapter. Yes, the story begins there and then the beginning of the chapter. But there is a time elapsed and now towards the end of the chapter, the time has come. There the Lord is gathering.
People to David and the numbers increase. We didn't read for lack of time all those mentioned here, but is it nice that the Lord records their names?
Isn't it wonderful to know our names are recorded in God's Book of life and so we have them here?
00:20:03
They're preparing, yes, for David to receive his Kingdom.
And we find here.
In verse 32.
Of the tune of Issachar, which were men that had understandings of the times to know what Israel ought to do. The heads of them were 200 and all their brothers were at their commandment.
Well, this is very nice. These men of Issachar, they had an understanding of the time.
And they knew what Israel ought to do.
And as I look into the faces of many, you dear young people.
Am I right in saying that you do have an understanding of what you ought to do?
But perhaps this afternoon, here comes in the cops.
Fallen the Lord and the path of rejection down here.
Perhaps you're kinda calm?
All these men, they had an understanding to know what is ought to do.
And it is lovely to have an understanding of the truth of the one body. It's wonderful to have an understanding of the truth of the church.
It's wonderful to have an understanding, to know that you and I are members of the body of Christ.
Wonderful to know where heirs of God and joint heirs with Him.
It wonderful to have an understanding of knowing that the Lord comes, should he come tonight.
As you and I would go home to be with him. Oh, this is wonderful to have an understanding of the Scriptures. And as I look into the face of the dear young one, you have been taught from your youth the word of God. You have sat under the sound of the word of God. I said, look around, you know, I see young men and young women and some of the young men, you know, the young woman, I can remember when they were just little boys and girls.
But now they stand beside me. I have to look up to some of them. Yes, they're big men.
All I want to say this.
You and I have a wonderful heritage, brought up in a Christian home, brought up under the sound of the truth. But this makes us more responsible.
If we have an understanding of what we ought to do, we are responsible to do it. That little word do has 2 letters. But it's very important. Dude. All these men, they've recognized that David was a true king of Israel. They recognized that David was God's anointed 1 and so they came to him. Isn't it love?
Well, now we finally had an understanding of the times. I wonder if we have an understanding of the times too. You and I realize that today we're living in the last day.
Do you realize that, young people, we're living in the last days that come in the Lord is drawn I.
Are we walking in the truth that we know?
Are we holding fast?
The truth of God or are we compromising the truth?
And laying aside that which we don't like, that which doesn't appeal to the flesh, are we laying that truth aside because it might cost us the friendship of someone?
All let's be faithful. The Lord's coming, and if you don't for a moment that the Lord's coming is not near, you just have to look around you as you walk down the street. You just have to pick up a newspaper. Yes, the other day we were advised at the beginning of these meetings that we wanted to go downtown.
That we were to get information from local brethren that we wouldn't get off at the wrong exit.
Because if we did, it might cost us our lives. Oh yes, all around us we find the tide of evil is rising higher and higher, so that it is not safe to go out on the street at night, and in some places not safe in the daytime either.
Oh, we're living in the last days. When you turn, just hold this place and turn to first Peter and I think we have another proof of it.
In first Peter.
00:25:00
A second Peter. Sorry, second Peter, Chapter 3.
And verse 3.
Knowing this verse that there shall come in the last days offers.
Walking after their own lusts and saying where is the promise of his coming?
For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the world.
Yes, we're living the last days.
We are living in perilous times.
Were there the days when scoffers are walking after their own lusts?
Johnny here that are walking after their own life.
I want to warn you with you are you're on a pass.
That will bring you sorrow.
Shame, dishonor, unhappiness.
And if you belong to Christ?
I want to say you're going to come under his governmental hand, but if you don't belong to Christ.
The end is going to be as we had brought before us in the gospel meeting, to be cast into the lake of fire. Judgment, judgment. Why hasn't the Lord come?
You know, I believe here we have the effect that come and the Lord has on the unbelievers because they say where? Where is the promise of His coming? I've heard that all my life. Where is it?
Well, I'll tell you why the Lord hasn't come.
Dear young people, do you want to know why he hasn't come in this chapter in first Peter, second Peter 3 and verse 9? The Lord has not slack concerned His promise as some man counts blackness, but as long-suffering to us, we're not willing any surprise, but all should come to repentance. Oh, this is part of love. We ought to go back to David. How lovely to have these men come to him.
Yes, and they knew what it was to share reproach, to suffer with him.
They knew what it was.
Now let's go down a little further, verse 33.
Assembly such as went forth to battle expert in war with all instruments of war 50,000 which could keep rank. They were not of double heart. I like this. These men, you know, they were expert in war. I wonder are we expert? Are we experts in the truth of God, so that when there comes a battle with the enemy we have a word?
That will give us the victory over him.
Do we? These men here, they were expert in war and they could keep rank. They were not a double heart.
If there is anything that God hates, beloved, I'm sure it is.
To see and anyone of his a double heart.
Could it be possible that the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't have his full place in your life and mine? Is it possible? Could it be that there might be some other one?
Whom we are willing to compromise the truth in order to have their company and friendship.
God forbid, God forbid. I trust not all these men here. They were expert in war and they knew how to keep rank. They weren't a double heart.
I remember years ago.
And watching a parade.
And you know, it was pleasing to the eye to see these.
Young man a young woman marks in.
Unison down the street. There they were walking down the street they were marching and they had a leader. And you know, they kept their eyes straight ahead on their leader. And it was just nice to see everyone keeping in step one with another. Yes, they knew how to keep rank.
But you know, as I watch along the side on the curb, there are hundreds and hundreds of people.
And many.
Of those who were parading had friends on the sidelines and I remember seeing one just quickly turned to look at a friend and in turn to look. They got out of step and it just caused confusion in the whole parade. Yes, they were bumping at each other.
00:30:01
01 look away.
Was it enough to put them out of step?
Oh, they knew how to keep rank, but you know, there was a double heart. There was some on the sideline that had their attention of whom they were thinking about, and they just wanted to give one look.
They put them out of step. They couldn't keep Frank. All beloved Saints of God.
This afternoon, may you and I keep our heart upon our blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. May we not allow the things of this world to attract our eyes.
May we not allow close friends, May we not allow dear children of God.
To distract us to the point where we get our eyes off of Christ if we do.
It is going to cause confusion.
Oh, how much?
Confusion could be avoided, they love, if we kept our eye upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Well may we know more what it is to keep rank. Yes, to March onward to meet the Lord.
Now verse 38 we find the men a tribe of Anasa mansion.
And it says all these men of war that could keep rank came with a perfect heart to Hebron to make David king over all Israel, and all the rest also of Israel one heart to make David king. There they were.
All these that could keep ranked, they came with a perfect heart. All you and I have a perfect heart.
You know, it doesn't take very much.
To cause it to be otherwise. And I believe, dear young people, that's why we have the warning. Proverbs 4/23.
A special warning.
Keep thy heart with all diligence. For all of it are the issues of life. Yes, if we don't keep our hearts with all diligence.
I want to tell you the enemy is going to have something that will attract our hearts and if we don't judge it, it will cause us.
To dishonor the Lord Jesus, the one whom we love. Well, these men, they were all of 1 accord. Isn't that lovely to be of 1 accord? I like that 133rd song which says, oh, how pleasant it is. Yes, how pleasant it is. How beautiful for bread and to dwell together in unity. But remember, the enemy of our souls is so busy, and he wants to introduce those things, you know.
That will cause us to have friction one with another. That will indeed spoil the unity that exists.
Amongst us.
Oh, it's nice for brands as well. Together in unity and they love. If you and I are going to dwell together in unity, we must have a perfect heart. The Lord Jesus must control our hearts. His precious word must direct our footsteps. And I want to say as another dear brother whom I love is often said.
If the word of God.
Controls my heart. If it controls your heart, it will control your feet.
Oh, then we will be able to keep rank, we'll be able to March to go on together to meet the Lord.
These men, they came with a perfect heart. And then we find the other chapter. They were together and there they were. The last verse it says there was great joy in Israel. Yes, there was abundance of everything to meet their temporal needs. And surely we proved that during these three days. And what a happy 3 days it has been.
And we're about to go home.
Let's remember.
And you and I need the Word of God, not just during the conference time. We need it more than ever after our conference, as we go our homes to our homes. We need the Word of God. We need to feed upon it. Yes, we're happy to be here together.
But the enemy wants to rob us of our happiness. He wants to rob us of our joy. That all we have a perfect heart, if the Lord controls our hearts.
00:35:04
Oh beloved, there's going to be that peace and that joy.
Well, these men, they had an understanding of the times to know it is ought to do. How did they know what to do? How did they know they had the five books of Moses?
And, you know, they were familiar with the law of Moses.
And the law, Moses made it very clear how the Israelites were to act. And they had the prophets that brought to them the word of God. They had Samuel that anointed David to be king over Israel. Yes.
And so they had an understanding to know what they ought to do.
Now, beloved, I want to stress this.
Do you and I have an understanding what we should do tomorrow, what we should do in the days that lie ahead of us?
What should we do?
Oh, I believe we should obey the word of God. I believe we should live to please the Lord. But remember this, there's going to come a test in your life and in mine.
Whether I am willing to do what the Lord wants me to do.
Oh, it's quite a happy thing to do what the Lord wants us to do when we want to do it. But sometimes there comes a test. We're put to the test. Are we willing to really do what the Lord wants us to do?
Are we willing?
Oh, as we see the dear young children here, how nice it is to see obedience to a mother and father when they call to see them come. But sometimes they're a sad hearts because little children go the other way when mother or father calls.
What makes them go the other way?
Something in here?
At once they want to have their own way.
They're not willing to be obedient always. And so we have disobedient children and they love Saints of God. God has disobedient children, but remember.
As every dear father, mother here.
Chastens their children and corrects them. God will correct us.
But you know he doesn't like to do it. And if you and I are obedient to the word of God, oh, there's going to be happiness in our souls. I like the words of the Lord Jesus when he says to his own. He says in John 13, if you know these things.
Happy a year if you do them. That little word deal again. Happier if you do them. As I remember my boyhood days. As I remember how often I was disobedient.
And I'll tell you.
I was corrected many times.
And you know, the first time the punishment may not be so severe that the older we get.
You know, the punishment gets more severe.
All yes.
I want to tell you God doesn't like to chasten his children.
He doesn't like to punish us, but I want to tell you this, He loves you and I too much to let us go our own way. He loves us too much.
Well, here they had an understanding to know what they would do and all. They're all together and they have a happy time.
But let's just notice briefly Chapter 13. It says David consulted with the captains of thousands and with every leader.
You know at this time there is something lacking here.
Something lacking.
The ark of God had been.
In Kyrgyzstan for 20 years.
We find that from reading in the Word of God and.
The first time, No 7, after the Philistines sent the ark up on to Israel, they came to finally a resting place in Kerr Goodyear where it was for 20 years. And so here they consult to bring the ark of God to Hebron to where David is going to reign. And you know, he consulted with every leader.
Doesn't say he consulted with the priests.
He shut up.
And then say he comes out with the word of Moses, the word of God. He can sell with every leader.
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And you know he made a mistake.
David as King.
And a responsibility.
According to the word of God as King.
To read the word of God every day.
And you can look for that and find it for yourself. You'll find it.
The kings of Israel were responsible to read the word of God.
I want to say you and I are responsible to read it too.
And it is going to be manifest whether we do read it and whether we obey it. Now David knew these men knew what to do.
But you know the Philistines, the enemies of God's people, when they sent the ark up to the land of Israel, they made a new car. They imitated the Philistines.
And they made a new car.
All I want to say.
God didn't judge the Philistines.
Where Megan had a new car.
He didn't hold him responsible. He took away the punishment when they sent the ark back to Israel.
They didn't know any better. They didn't have the word of God to guide them. But you know, the Israelites had God's word.
And the God's Word plainly tells us in the book of Moses that it was the Levites.
That were to carry the ark.
And so David, in consultation with his leaders, he he made a new car.
All flesh would say how, oh how easy just to put the ark on a new cart and not have these men, these Levites, have this burden to carry.
Sometimes we try to avoid carrying burdens.
All the love.
Let's not try to avoid a burden if it is a burden that the Lord has placed upon us.
If it is our responsibility to carry a burden, let's carry it to please the Lord.
Well, there they put it in the new cart. Things seem to be going pretty good there. There you have their musical instruments and oh, it sounded pleasing to the year, yes. And oh, as I think of some, oh that I love that have left the Lords Table for that, which is pleading to the ear and pleading to the eye. Oh, it sounds nice, you know, at first.
But dear young people, let me warn you, there can be only one result, and that is.
Sorrow, and that is sorrow. As a result of this act of disobedience there was a man that died, yes, as they often stumbled. Why under put forth his hand, and the judgment of God fell upon him as he touched that holy earth. Well, our time was just about up.
What we find that David was afraid of God that day there came an end to his communion with the Lord. There came an end to that joy and that happiness that existed at that time. It came to an end. Why had God changed? No, what had happened? They had disobeyed, gone. And disobedience brings sorrow.
And so David is afraid, and he says, how shall I bring the ark of God home to me?
All they love.
Do you have a question like that? You turn to the Word of God. The Word of God had the answer for David's question. And we find in chapter 15 briefly in the second verse that David said none ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites for them at the Lord chosen to carry the ark of God. And verse 26 of chapter 15, and it came to pass when God helped the Levites to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord that.
Bullocks. Yes, God helped them to carry that ark and all they loved.
I like what David said, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble.
Yes, he delights to help. I love that person. Deuteronomy 33.
There, beloved, on the Lord of thou, and safety by him, and the Lord shall cover him all day long, The eternal God is erected Am. Underneath are the loving, everlasting arms. Beloved, He won't allow you and I to carry an unnecessary burden. All those loving arms are underneath His own. May we enjoy a sense of that in our souls.
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And so we find here at the Ark is brought safely.
And so there is joy.
Can I turn now to just one verse in Colossians 3?
And we're close.
Colossians 3.
And.
Verse 16.
Let the Word of Christ dwell on you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Please notice this next verse and whatsoever ye do.
In Word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. May the Lord grant that you and I might be found here doing what He has asked us to do. You know, the apostle says in Romans 13.
He could say there that none of the times.
Oh, he says a night is force them and the days ahead. Oh, it's not lovely. The day is ahead. We know the time in which we're living and it all points to the soon return of our Lord Jesus. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. May you and I then be faithful and seeking to serve the Lord wherever He might put us.
For His glory.
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Behold Your God

Address—R.L. Reeves
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.
Will you please turn with me to the 40th chapter of the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 40, Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 9 Ozion, that bring us good tidings. Get the up into the high mountain. Oh, Jerusalem, that bring us good tidings. Lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up. Be not afraid.
Say unto the cities of Judah.
Behold.
Your God What an interesting place in the Bible to find the key to the Gospel of John. But here it is. Behold your God. Now we need not be surprised that we can find a key.
To something in the New Testament, in the Old.
In fact, the Old Testament is God's hearing, furnishing us many keys which opened for us the blessed truth of the New Testament revelation.
And so this afternoon, in the next few moments, I would like to present to you.
The key to the Gospel of John.
Behold your God. You may wonder why and how I ever came across this verse, and so I'll share with you just how it came to pass.
I had the joy of sitting in the reading meeting here in Wheaton on Saturday afternoon and enjoying the ministry of John's Gospel Chapter one. I was so impressed about the things that John the Baptist said about the Lord Jesus.
That my heart was taken up with that line of things.
And so I noticed in that chapter that there was an expression frequently used going like this, it said the next day.
For the day following.
Well, now, that was Saturday.
And so I thought, well.
The next day.
Rising somewhat before breakfast.
I'll just go to the lounge in Fisher dormitory and I'll open that chapter.
The next day and I'll just ask the Lord to show me from that chapter more about what John was pointing out.
And so I read about it.
In those early hours of the morning and I noticed that John the Baptist when asked who he was.
Why? He said. I'm just a voice of one crying in the wilderness.
Well, I noticed in my Bible that there was a little reference and so I thought, well I better just look that up and I found that reference took me to Isaiah chapter 40.
And there I found those words quoted by John the Baptist when he said, I'm a voice crying in the wilderness. And then it dawned on me that John the Baptist was really fulfilling the word of God. And I discovered again what I have noticed before, that the servants of the Lord.
Don't get their revelations from the air or the ocean, they get them from the Word of God.
And so I was impressed by it. And so I thought, well, if John the Baptist was giving us what he received from God.
Maybe there's some more in that chapter and I read on. And so I came down the chapter until I got to verse nine and the end of verse nine. I saw the key to John's gospel.
Behold your God. And then I read the next verse and it says behold the Lord God will come. And here I found way back in Isaiah chapter 40.
That John the Baptist received from the Lord, those two beholds that he gives us in John One. And I was impressed by that. So this afternoon it is on my heart.
To seek by the grace of God to take this key.
And seek to use it.
To open up a few thoughts on that majestic book.
The Gospel of John, so dear Christian friend.
Will you please take a walk with me this afternoon along the pages of the Gospel of John and let's carry with us this key. Behold your God. Let's go to John's gospel, chapter one. Let's begin at the beginning. Behold your God.
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Now it will be impossible for us to read all the chapters.
That we're going to walk past this afternoon, but I intend to point out in the chapters as we pass by them, a few of the points.
It's utterly impossible to think that we'll all we'll be able to see the mall. And what thrills my heart is this.
As we go together along the pages of this blessed book of John, what thrills my heart is to think that you're going to see things that I may miss. And this makes me thankful because we're going to have before us such a bright display of the glory of God that no one person can see it all. So with this confidence as we walk together.
I really believe that there will be a blessing in your heart that may even exceed mine, and for this I give God thanks.
In chapter one, we begin. In the beginning was the word.
And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Here we have the Lord Jesus presented to us as the Word.
Equal with God. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. Yes, dear Christian friend, there is a Trinity, there is a Father, there is a Son, and there is a Holy Spirit. And Jesus Christ the Son is a member of the Trinity. He is God the Son, and so he's presented to us in this.
Verse God with God. He is the Word, the expression of God.
And we find in verse.
Three, all things were made by him.
And without him was not anything made that was made. He is the creator of all things.
As we go on down this chapter.
We find that he's the light, we find that he's the life, and we find all those words of one syllable which are easily understood and in a sense completely beyond our ability to understand them. The light, the life, the word.
We have before us this afternoon this glorious person, Jesus, the Son of God.
And that key that we found in Isaiah so well applies. Behold.
Your God.
Jesus is God. He is God the Son.
Oh, what a blessed proof. And this is the rock foundation upon which our faith rests.
It's a foundation that can never, never be moved.
We've had quite a bit before us in the remainder of chapter one. That's been very interesting.
And we've noticed how that John the Baptist opens the door to the Lord Jesus in chapter one.
We find later in chapter 10 that to him the Porter opens, and so the Lord Jesus enters into the testimony by means of the door, and John by the Spirit of God opens it to him.
And so we find these words in John chapter one, verse 29. Behold the Lamb of God.
I was wondering why?
In John the Baptist's ministry.
Why He spoke of Jesus the Lord as the Lamb of God.
And this thought came to my heart.
The Jewish people, and of course the world in general, was in such a terrible condition.
That what they needed to know about Jesus at that point was that he was the Lamb.
A nation loaded with sins and rebellion and decay, and they needed to hear about God's Lamb. And so John presents him. John the Baptist presents him as the Lamb of God.
But all that key that we spoke about before so well applies.
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Behold, your God. Ah, this is who he is.
Well, later on in chapter one we discover that the Lord Jesus is able to meet the individual and personal needs of souls. And we enjoyed it so much this morning in our reading when he said to his disciples, what seek ye?
I'll tell you what I was thinking about.
It's, you know, it's quite interesting what people think about in the Bible readings and it's amazing, but sometimes you have some very good thoughts.
I doubt not that the Spirit of God brings some interesting thoughts to our hearts. I wish I had all those thoughts in all the minds of my dear brethren here. God honoring Christ, honoring thoughts that were produced in your souls this morning when Jesus was presented to you. Oh, it would make a tremendous collection. But when I read this verse, it said, what seek you? I thought about.
The common experience that we all have.
Of going into a store.
Perhaps we'll just say for an example, we go into a hardware store.
And what does the clerk say?
May I help you?
What would you like?
And the insinuation is, whatever you want, I've got. In fact, there's a hardware store in Des Moines where I live. It says if we don't have it, you don't need it.
What would you like? What can I do for you?
Anything you suggest, I'll take you right to the shelf because we certainly have it. And you know, I thought about that this morning. It's it's that way here. The Lord Jesus says, what are you looking for? If it's worthwhile, I've got it all our friends, he does.
Behold your God. You and I have been given a heart that can only be satisfied with God.
And Jesus has what you need. Well, as we go on down the chapter, we see he meets the individual needs of souls. But we're going to walk past chapter one. Now I know we're going to leave a few things that we didn't speak of. And let's go into chapter 2 and we find the Lord Jesus Christ at a wedding.
And you know, if there's anything that's needed at a wedding, it's joy. And if there's anything that's needed in a home, it's joy. And we see the blessed Savior turning water into wine, bringing joy.
Behold your God.
Yes, he can do it. He has done it in my soul and he has done it in yours.
He can bring joy into the everyday form of life.
Well, we go on down Chapter 2. I'm just supposing this afternoon as I ramble along and make a few comments. It will be, I'm sure, just sketchy. I'm just supposing that you'll turn the pages with me as we walk together along these blessed pages. But down in Chapter 2, we find that he goes into the temple, the place that belonged to him, and he cleaned it out.
It was his.
Behold your God, He had a right to that place.
Now let's go on down to Chapter 3.
Well, let's not go that far yet. Let's go back to chapter 2 and see.
Lord Jesus speaks of his death and resurrection.
It was not a surprise to him.
That the road that he traveled would lead to a cross.
I love that song that we sometimes sing in the gospel. He came to die.
And so it is. Yes, he said. Destroy in verse.
19 He says, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it again.
The Ordeal of the Cross, His suffering, and His glorious resurrection did not come upon this Blessed One by surprise. Because you see, that was His mission. He came to die. He came to die for you and me.
Behold your God.
Well, now let's go down to chapter 3, where we're brought face to face with our good friend Nicodemus. And we like Nicodemus, don't we? The kids love to sing about him, you know, and.
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I love to sing about him, but I love the story that we find in the Word of God about Nicodemus. Well, the first thing we discover about Nicodemus is that he had not found any satisfaction in human religion. All of Judaism had not filled his heart. And so he comes to Jesus, but he comes at night, so he would not be detected. He comes at night.
Oh, but the joy that we see here is He came. He came.
And he had a few questions.
And the Lord Jesus answered his questions.
And then we find that wonderful verse in verse 14 of chapter 3, where the blessed Savior says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Nicodemus was told the way whereby he could have everlasting life, and Nicodemus was called the means whereby that life would be brought to him.
It would be by the means of the cross, it would be necessary for a sacrifice to be lifted up that life may be brought to needy souls. And then we find the basis of all of that, the spring behind it all, for God so loved the world. And you know, we miss a lot in John 316.
If we don't use the word for because it is the word because.
And it means this is the spring of it all because.
God so loved the world. Ah, this is the spring. This is the source from which blessing flows to every man, woman, and child, because God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Dear Christian friend.
Behold your God, this is Jesus. He is the answer to the needs of our souls.
Well, in the remainder of chapter 3 we see John fading out.
And any real servant of Christ is glad to fade out, and he says, he must increase, but I must decrease. These are real words from a man that knows his proper place before God. How could he stand in the way of this one about whom we have said, Behold your God?
Well, let's leave chapter 3.
But let's go to Chapter 4.
Where we find the blessed Savior on a mission of mercy and He.
Goes to a place.
To meet the needs of a soul.
And we find him in.
Verse six of chapter 4, sitting as a tired band on a well.
And we find a poor, needy woman brought to him.
Loaded down with sins.
And we find the Lord Jesus.
Able to meet every need of her heart.
But first he exposes to her that she had a need.
He opens her heart up and she acts as though he knew all about her and she later on says come see a man that told me all things that ever I did.
She was brought into the presence of the light and he met the needs of her soul. And he uses questions, you know, to bring out of her heart her real condition that she might see it. And one of them was go call your husband. And she says.
I don't have any lace as I know that you've you've already had five and the one you've got now is not your husband. She had six men that could not satisfy her soul, but then came this 7th man Jesus and all their friends, their Christian brother and sister. Jesus came and met the needs of her heart.
And so it is Behold.
Your God God can meet the needs of the most depraved heart, and he did so in chapter 4.
Well, the blessings spread to others through this woman's testimony, and at the end of the chapter we find that he's brought face to face with human sickness, and he takes care of that too. The thing that impresses me is that we find this blessed person.
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God manifest in the flesh.
We find him in relation to all the needs of man.
We find him at a wedding, we find him at a well, we find him in the presence of sickness.
And as we go on through John's gospel, we're going to find him in various other situations.
But in all of these things we're going to see, behold your God. Oh, he's the answer to every situation wherein he's found. Now in chapter 5, find him healing the weakness of an impotent man. If we read the Old Testament about David, we discover that David had no love for the lame and the blind. But you see their friends, we're not talking about David now.
We're talking about Great David's greater son, who did not despise the lame and the blind.
But he loved them all. He loved them. And so in chapter five, he makes a lame man walk.
Well, as we go down through that chapter, we find some blessed verses. We find that he's the judge.
I turned 2 pages. I'll have to go back one verse 27 of chapter five. He have given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of man. God has committed all judgment into the hands of the Son of God. And when man appears before God in that coming day of judgment, he is not going to appear before a throne occupied by a brilliant.
Mysterious being.
That he does not understand, but man is going to encounter a man.
Upon the throne as a man, he judges. God has given him authority. And So what is so blessed of chapter 5 is in verse 22. The Father judgeth no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honours not the Son on earth, not the Father which has sent him. Now listen to the words of the Judge himself.
What does the judge say? Oh.
Verily, verily, I say unto you.
He that heareth My word, and believeth on him that sent Me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Friends, this is the word of the Judge himself, and if the Judge himself pronounces that you and I believers in him, shall never come into condemnation.
The case is closed.
This is the word of the judge himself. Oh, we can rest there.
Let's go down to Chapter 6.
Now we find some hungry people.
Behold your God.
What would God do in the presence of hungry people?
Ah, he would feed them. And so we see the Lord Jesus in chapter 6 saying in verse 10 make the men sit down.
Now there was much grass in the place. Isn't it interesting He doesn't choose a rough place and say, put him on the rocks. Oh no, that's not the kind of a Lord we know.
Behold your call. This is a God of love, he says. There was in the place much grass.
So the men sat down in number about 5000, and Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and that the disciples to them, that were set down as and likewise the fishes, as much as they would. When they were failed. He said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remained, that nothing be lost.
Behold, your God. Ah, this is the one who meets the needs.
Of our souls, and this is the one that meets the needs of our bodies and meets the needs of the vicissitudes of this life.
Do you think the Lord Jesus knows, dear Christian friend, that you need a job? Oh, he knows that you need a job. Do you think the Lord Jesus knows that you need a gallon of milk? Yes, He knows that you need some milk. Do you think that He knows that your child needs a pair of shoes? Yes, He knows that. Behold, your God, He is sufficient for all of the needs of our souls and our lives from the very beginning until the end.
I would like to share with you a thought about verse.
Well, gather up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost.
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I have been privileged to sit in the meetings of this kind for a long time.
And I have heard.
Unspeakably blessed things.
And I appreciated so very much what our brother Wilbur Smith told us yesterday.
We have a heritage that's most valuable.
In receiving the truth of God.
And I feel that.
And dear Christian friend, I have often asked the Lord something like this, as the truth of God was presented to my soul. I have said to the Lord, Lord Jesus, gather up the fragments that remain, that not one truth shall be lost to the enjoyment of my soul. And that remains my desire today, all that you and I, dear young Christians and older ones, to who might heed the exhortation of the word of God.
Truth and sell it, not gather up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost.
Well in chapter 6 we find in verse 19 that he can still the storm.
Is there a storm raging in your life?
Behold your God, He can stop the storm.
Later on in chapter 6, we find the Lord Jesus offering Himself as the food of his people.
Notice what it says in verse 48 of chapter 6.
I am that bread of life your father did eat, man in the wilderness and are dead.
I am the living bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die.
The Lord Jesus is the manna that came down from heaven and He can meet the daily needs.
Of our souls. Ah yes, behold your God.
Well, as we go to Chapter 7, we find the Lord Jesus greater than the Feast of Tabernacles. Why? He's greater than anything.
Against which He is compared, and He supplies the needs of his people. In Chapter 7 and the notice in verse 37. In that last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. They tell me that the gathering of water was very significant in the Feast of Tabernacles, and I'll just have to let that remain for you to investigate.
But the Lord Jesus said, if any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Behold your God. Ah yes, he can meet the thirsty soul.
Let's go on together.
To the 50th verse of that chapter where we see our friend Nicodemus once more, and I don't want to get so occupied that I forget about Nicodemus because he's very helpful and we see in verses 50 down through verse.
51.
That Nicodemus speaks up for the Lord. Now when he first appears on the scene, he came at night and it was night time in his soul. But now when we see Nicodemus, it's just at twilight and the light is beginning to dawn. You see, Nicodemus is a lot like you and me. He doesn't learn everything the same day. First he came to Jesus by night.
And now we see the light beginning to break upon his soul.
Wait till we hear him from him at the last point.
You see, the Lord is gently drawing Nicodemus to himself.
Well, chapter 8 brings before us the Lord Jesus in the presence of a sinful woman who has every reason to be stoned, and the blessed Savior is in her presence, and he Stoops down and writes upon the ground in such a way that those who supposedly had the right to throw the first stones at her because of her sins, they all disappear.
And they don't have the power to throw a stone. They can't even lift up a rock.
Because their consciences are not enabling them to do so. And so he said to the woman, Now he says, where are thine accusers? Does no man condemn thee as she says, no manlord? And he says neither do I condemn thee. He dismissed her case and he had scripture to do so. Because if we turn back to Deuteronomy chapter 17, we would discover that those who found somebody in sin.
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And were witnesses of the fact they had to cast the first stones. And after that the other people were to help with the stoning. And so the Lord Jesus said, well, you don't have any witnesses, they've all gone away and they're not condemning you. Well, since nobody has cast the first stone, I don't condemn you either. Dear friends, this is God.
Manifest in the flesh. Oh, how he loves the Sinner, or how he loves us. He does not love our sins.
But he loved us.
Well, in chapter 8 we find he's the light of the world.
And in Chapter 8, the end of the chapter, I would like to point out a very significant.
Consideration.
Verse 56 of chapter 8. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it when it was glad.
Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet 50 years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was.
I am.
This, dear friends, is Jehovah.
Jesus. He has every right and title to that name. Jehovah, because he's God, before Abraham was I am. That's the name of Jehovah. He who was, he who is, he who always shall be, This is Jehovah.
This is Jehovah Jesus.
Behold your God.
Now in Chapter 9 we find a blind man.
And we find the Lord Jesus gives him sight, and he tells him to go and wash in a pool which has a very significant name.
And you'll notice that in verse 7, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sent, sent. Oh, what a word. Oh, how I love that word. The Lord Jesus came into this world, scent of a father who loved your soul and mine sent. And it was in that pool of Siloam, that pool of scent that this man received blessing and all. What joy and peace comes to our hearts.
When we find that Jesus was sent of God, the sent one of God.
Well, he received his sight.
And now I'd like to take you to the end of that chapter.
And we'll see something very interesting.
The 35th verse.
Heard that they had cast him out, and when he had found him he said, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? Now notice.
And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him.
And it is he that talketh with thee, ah.
That man got his sight that he might see Jesus.
And dear Christian friend, you have been given spiritual sight that you might see Jesus.
That from your heart and mind may come.
Like it did from John the Baptist looking upon Jesus looking upon Jesus.
You see, before we were saved, before we knew the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we couldn't see him. We were blind. But he's given us sight, as in the case of this blind man. He said, I opened your eyes that you might see me. Oh, that's the purpose. Thou hast both seen him and he it is that talketh with thee. And So what happens? Why, the only logical thing that could ever happen when your eyes get open to see Jesus.
He said Lord, I believe.
And he worshipped him all. Behold your God.
Now in chapter 10, we find him presented as the Shepherd.
He comes in through the door and we've already talked about that the Spirit of God opened the door for him to enter into the.
Fold by the ministry of John the Baptist, and he was declared with every right and title to be there.
By the presence of the Spirit of God dwelling upon him, he came in through the door.
But now he says, I'm the shepherd.
And we love that verse 11, don't we? I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep all it was necessary for Jesus.
To come into this world and give his life, to save your soul and mine.
If Jesus Christ had not come into this world, you and I would have been lost forever and remain in our sins and go to hell. But Jesus came. He came and gave his life. Christ died for our sins. According to the scriptures. He was buried and he rose again the third day. According to the scriptures. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
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And in that chapter.
In verse 28 we find the security of the believer. I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
Ah, once you're saved, you're saved forever. You can never, never, never be lost, because if you're lost, the Shepherd would have to lose you, and he's never lost one yet.
Behold your God, what a person He has brought before us.
Now, I don't want to leave chapter 10 before I call your attention to one of my favorite verses in the Bible.
Chapter 10, verse 41. And I might just say that John the Baptist is one of my favorite characters.
He was a man who was willing to serve the Lord for a very short period of time. I asked a brother the other day how long he thought the ministry of John the Baptist lasted, and he said about three years or so. And I said I thought it was shorter than that. I frankly don't know, but I would like to ask you to investigate and see what you think. But at any rate, the ministry and service of John the Baptist was very short, and he was willing to serve the Lord Jesus.
Willing to serve God a very short time according to His will. Now in verse 41 it says something very wonderful.
And many resorted unto him, That's to Jesus, and said John did no miracle.
But all things that John spake of this man were true.
Summary. What a summary to be given for the life of a servant of God.
Dear Christian friend, would you like to have a summary like that given for your service for God in this world? John did no miracle.
All things that John spake of this man were true. I say that I would love to have somebody say that about me. If God would take my life away, well, this would be desirable. Now let's go to Chapter 11 where we find the Lord Jesus in the presence of death.
And in verse 35, which we all know so well because it's in the English Bible.
The shortest verse.
Jesus wept. Ah, he was affected by death.
Because of the sorrow that death had brought.
And yet, in the presence of death, he brings life.
And we notice in that chapter, verse 43, that he finds himself by the grave.
And when in verse 43, when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. Ah, who can raise the dead? Only God. But have we not said before? And will you permit me to say it again?
Behold your God. This is a God who loves. This is a God who sympathizes and who has a big heart. And this is God who raises the dead.
Now in chapter 12, we find him at the supper.
And there's nothing more congenial than sitting down to eat. And we find the Lord Jesus as a congenial and sociable person.
But there as the object of admiration of his loved ones. And later on in that chapter we discover that He tells his disciples.
That it would be necessary for him to die. Notice in verse 31. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the Prince of this world be cast out, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die. Yes, Calvary was no surprise to him. He came for that purpose.
This is God manifest in the flesh. Behold your God.
Now in chapter 13 we find him washing the disciples feet. Oh.
How he loved his own willing to stoop down and Washington their feet.
Well, you know enough about that chapter that I don't have to elaborate on it for you, but it brings before us the grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus.
Willing to wash the feet of His disciples, willing to cleanse them from all the things that would hinder them from being able to enter into the ministry that He's going to give them in the succeeding chapters. And all how He loves to cleanse us by the washing of His precious word from anything that would hinder us from entering into the fullness of the ministry of His precious truth. And so in chapter.
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13 He washes the disciples feet and makes them comfortable.
So that they might listen to his message in chapter 14, which we all notice just now. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. And my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself.
But where I am, there you may be also. Or how he loves his own. And he says I'm going to take you to my father's house.
Why does he want to do that? Because he loves us.
You know there's nothing.
That is so cold as a house without your loved ones. There have been times in my life when I've been I've been home alone and my children were gone and my wife was gone and I did not enjoy the place. It made no difference how nice the home was if my loved ones were not there. It was no home for me and I heard every squeak.
I heard the furnace when it came on.
And I heard squeaks that I could not identify, and sometimes they scared me. But at any rate, I did not enjoy that house without those that I loved. Oh, I want my loved ones in my home. And so we have the Lord Jesus telling us of his heart. And he says I've got a home, but it won't be home for me.
Until you come and I'm going to come and get you to take you to be with myself. Well, in chapter 15, we find He's the vine. He's the source of all joy and fruitfulness for his people in this world. And to abide in Him is to bring forth fruit. In chapter 16. We're going rapidly now, but we notice in chapter 16 he tells about the coming of the Holy Spirit.
And let's not forget that the Holy Spirit is a member of the Godhead too.
And how great the Holy Spirit is. The Holy Spirit is so great that it was necessary for the Lord Jesus to go up to heaven first before He could come down. But then he tells us in chapter 16 that the mission of the Holy Spirit would be to make Christ precious to your heart and mind. Verse 13 Howbeit, when He, the Holy Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth. He shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever.
Shall hear that shall he speak, and shall show you things to come. He shall glorify me.
For he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. Ah, he said, I'm not going to leave you by yourself. I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit to comfort you during my absence.
That's just like God, isn't it? Behold your God Now in chapter 17, we are taken into a very wonderful sphere. We're allowed to listen to the prayer of our blessed Savior. Have you ever listened in your young Christian to the prayers of your mother or your father? When your dad and mom pray, what do they pray about?
Or whom do they pray about? Have you ever listened to their prayers?
If you'll just listen to the prayer of the Lord Jesus in chapter 17, you'll find out who he is praying about. He's praying about you, He's praying about me. Oh, how he loves us and he desires our blessing. One dear Christian young person told me once. He says I don't have any worries about my security. I don't have any worries now about being lost.
Because he says in verse 11 of chapter 17.
The Lord Jesus was praying for me, and He committed my care to His Father. Why? He says if he was praying for me and committed my care to His Father, I can't be lost. All is well. In chapter 18, we find the Lord Jesus in the presence of those who hated Him, those who came to take Him away. We find Him mistreated, and we find Him willing to take a place of rejection.
Behold your God.
Oh, why did he do it? He was willing to be replaced in this world by Barabbas.
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Are young Christians willing to be replaced at their jobs by those who don't know the Lord? Has your faithfulness for Christ put you in a place of rejection and the world would rather have Barabbas than you? Don't be surprised. It won't be the first time this happened. It happened in the case of the Blessed Lord Jesus Christ. In chapter 19, we find Him.
Taken to a cross.
We find him hanging there as a sacrifice for sin. Behold your God.
This is God manifest in flesh, the one that came to die, the one that came on this preparation day and all how little they understood what was being prepared that day, but all on that day He was preparing all that was necessary to save your soul and mind from hell. Hanging on that cross notice verse.
26 When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciples standing by whom he loved, he said unto his mother, Woman, Behold thy son.
You know what that makes me think about? It takes me back to the to the book of Genesis.
Where I find that first gospel message preached, the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpents head, but thou shalt bruise his heel. And it's just as though the Lord Jesus says, here I am fulfilling Genesis 315. He says, woman, behold thy son, I'm the answer to Genesis 315.
And we find that blessed Savior.
In verse 30 says when Jesus therefore had received the vinegary said it is finished, he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. He died for you, he died for me. Oh dear Christian friend, behold your God. But one of the soldiers, verse 34 with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came throughout blood and water. The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. Or let us always make much of the blood of Christ. It's the foundation.
Of our blessing both now and forever in chapter 20.
All let's not leave chapter 19 till we notice Nicodemus at the foot of the cross, like the Israelite of old at the foot of the pole. Looking up, we see Nicodemus, and he finds now the answer to Genesis, to John 314. There he is, and all is in bright daylight, and it's daylight in his soul.
The Lord Jesus is put in a grave, and in chapter 20 he is raised again.
And I would just like to take you quickly to what we find in the words of Thomas.
In verse 26, after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.
Then said he to Thomas, Reach, hit her thy finger, and behold my hands, reach, hit her thy hand, and thrust it into my side, And be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God, Oh dear Christian friends.
Do we have the key to John's Gospel when we say?
Behold, your God Thomas discovered it. In chapter 21 we find that the Lord Jesus is glad to have the help of his servants, but he doesn't need them. And here they had gone out and gone fishing, and they thought we're doing a great thing. But after they'd finished their fishing trip, they came to shore and found he had fish already. Oh, don't think the Lord Jesus doesn't know how.
To fish don't think he doesn't know how to get his work done, and he has a special way to do so. And you and I are wise if we do it according to his will. All that work. And here they come, and he find we find.
In verse nine and as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there and fish laid on and bred. Oh, he's got a way of getting his work done that does not need the schemes that you and I may imagine.
Well, in the end of that chapter we find the Lord Jesus restoring publicly a servant that had missed the path or how he loved him. And let us be willing as Christians to forgive and to seek the restoration of our fellow Christians who may in some way have missed the path. May we follow the example of the Lord Jesus as He publicly was willing to restore Peter to a place.
Of blessing and service. And then in closing our little message this afternoon.
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Let us read verse 25. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, but which, if they should be written everyone. I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written ah.
We have approached a marvelous subject.
We have seen on the pages of John's Gospel God manifest in the flesh.
And the key.
Behold your God. But we have discovered this as an ocean that we cannot Passover.
This is a mountain that we cannot scale and we have only scratched the surface.
But I want to tell you, my dear Christian friend, it has been the deepest longing of my soul this afternoon.
As we have taken this brisk walk together along the pages of John's Gospel, it has been my desire.
Not to show you everything that is here, I cannot do so.
But it would be and is the desire of my soul, that you may say.
I would like to go back and take another look and if there is created in your heart that desire.
To go back over these pages and take another look, it will make me very happy.
May we ask God bless you.
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