Chicago Conference: 2024
Table of Contents
Apostle's Doctrine, Fellowship, Breaking of Bread, Prayers
Address—N. Simon
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And begin and it will tell you what my subject is in Acts chapter 2.
I will warn you that without apology that I will turn to many verses.
Those that have heard me before probably are familiar with that if you.
Can't keep up? There's always the recording.
I suspect, and you could just write the verses down. I'm don't have that gift of being able to learn by rote and quote. But to me too, it's very important that you be able to lay your finger on a verse to support a particular position. Because if someone ever asks you, why do you do that? Why do you believe that you need to be able to fall back upon the word of God?
You need to have at least a verse to turn to.
So the verse in Acts chapter 2 is verse 42, a very well known verse. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and then breaking of bread and in prayers. That's my subject. I want to talk about those four things and what has been on my heart of late has been the local assembly. So I will try to keep it in the context.
Of the local assembly. How these things?
Are implemented in the local assembly. Now you'll recognize, of course that this is in Acts chapter 2. This is very early in the church's history. It's barely been formed and certainly before we have the Apostle Paul. Peter's ministry is what characterized the book of Acts at this point. But I would suggest the principle of this verse is.
As true today as it was when it was written in Acts Chapter 2.
But the work the verse begins with a continued steadfastly.
That what steadfastly is perhaps not a word we use in modern vernacular, but it simply means perseverance to adhere to something.
It suggests that perseverance is not man's strong point.
It's not in man's nature to persevere with something for very long.
It says in Acts 17 that when Paul spoke on Mars Hill that the Greeks were always wanting to hear some new thing.
And that's what characterizes our hearts, our natures, and the world in which we live. But what we have here in the church in her infancy, in those bright days of first love, that she continued on steadfastly with perseverance. And so you and I are called to continue on in perseverance.
The first thing it mentions here is the Apostles doctrine.
This meeting is probably going to be to use an expression, didactic. In other words, teaching.
And teaching is often. I would suggest look down on.
And doctrine certainly doesn't have a good reputation. People will say doctrine divides.
And that's absolutely true. Doctrine most certainly divides doctrine. Sound teaching is that which separates truth from falsehood. It is what heads the list here, the apostles doctrine. It forms that bedrock, that basis, that foundation upon which the Church is built. So.
First verse Ephesians 2 verse 20 it says.
There built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.
And the character of the church is given in First Timothy chapter 3, where it says that in verse 15, if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou ordest behave thyself from the House of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of truth. So the church should have been.
A testimony, a witness, and a stay for the truth of God. And of course, that begins with the local assembly. It begins with us personally.
But it also begins with the local assembly. We have a responsibility to be upholders of the truth. Now the Church does not teach.
That's an important thing to lay hold of because in the Roman Catholic system.
The church teaches, but in one Corinthians 14 there's a verse I want to mention. It's verse 36.
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What came the word of God out from you, or came it unto you? Only the Word of God comes unto the church and not out from the church. It is our responsibility to uphold that which we have been given. Otherwise our fancies can just fly wherever they choose and we can come up with whatever we want.
And so to mention that system again, and not to pick on it unnecessarily, but the Roman Catholic Church has invented various doctrines.
Because the Church in their system teaches. We do not teach, we uphold.
So in the local assembly, how do we practice what we have in Acts 2, verse 20?
Well, there's another verse I want to turn to in first Timothy 4, The Importance of reading the Word of God in the assembly and First Timothy chapter 4 and verse 14.
Sorry, verse 13, till I come give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Now, this is not personal reading that's spoken of here, but that's certainly a good thing to remember that we need to be reading for ourselves. You can listen as well, and there's lots of ministry recorded for us that's available. That's valuable and that's helpful.
Not everyone is a reader.
But God has chosen to express himself to us through words.
And the written word I was just speaking, or brother was speaking rather, to me before the meeting. The value of the book that we hold in our hands and how God has providentially preserved it for thousands of years.
It was long thought that the Word of God had been corrupted and modified. It couldn't be depended on.
And then?
Back in the time of the 1940s.
4567 somewhere in there, I don't remember someone here has better memory those things than me. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. The most complete scroll was the Great Scroll of Isaiah and when they compared the text of Isaiah with what we have and have known for for centuries, it was discovered that there wasn't corrupted at all. In fact the IT was discovered around the time of the one of the.
Standard RSV Bible.
One of that family revised standard version and they incorporated.
And I don't remember the number. I'm very good at getting numbers and things confused. I think it was just 4 modifications.
I have it written down, but I don't hold those facts well in my head. But it's something like that. Very small number of Corrections they applied. And then one of the writers, one of the translators, wrote a book about the Dead Sea Scrolls. And in that book he says, I'm not sure that we should have made any of those corrections.
So, but so in First Timothy, the reading being spoken of is public reading of the Scriptures. At the end of Colossians there's a verse and it says there in verse 16, Colossians 4, verse 16. When this Epistle, that is the Epistle to the Colossians read among you, 'cause that also be read in the Church of the Laodiceans, and that you likewise read the Epistle from Laodicea.
We still, I trust, do that in the local assembly. Read the epistles.
As I said, God has chosen to communicate to us by the written word, and we have that preserved in our hands. And so the Epistle to the Colossians has been given to us and it should be read in the assembly. What was the Epistle to the Laodicea from the Laodiceans? Many believe that this was some loss to pistol. It doesn't say the Epistle to the later scenes. As I almost just said, it's the Epistle from Laodicea. So there was another pistol making the circulation around and it was at Laodicea and.
Was to come along to the church in Colossi and they were to read it there in the assembly. Also, some have suggested it might have been the Epistle to the Ephesians. That is pure speculation. But it was simply they didn't have printers like we are at BTP Publishing House. They didn't have apprentice in those days. These all had to be written by hand and circulated. So again, value what you have in your hands.
But there's another side to just reading the scriptures, and for this I will turn to the Old Testament.
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In Nehemiah 8 again these are well known voices, but Nehemiah 8 verse 8.
And so they write in the book, in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense and caused them to understand their reading.
So there are those that we rely on in the local assembly to to give an understanding to what is being read. First Corinthians chapter 14.
I want to read a verse there First Corinthians chapter 14.
In verse three, he that prophesied speaketh unto, unto men, to edification and exhortation and comfort. And so we read the word of God. But there also needs to be that which edifies, builds up the Saints of God. There also needs to be that which is for exhortation, that is to encourage, to press on as I've been speaking, the Saints of God, and then for comfort.
And I trust that one is self-evident exhortation is a brother in a recent meeting asked what's the difference in.
Edifying literally means to build up. That's why we talk of buildings as being edifices. That word just means to build up. But excitation. Think of a marathon runner, you know, and my boss is a long distance runner. I don't think he does it so much anymore, but he's done 50 miles, 100 miles. And you know, you can imagine at some point in the race that you're beginning to feel the effects of the race and someone comes alongside of you and says, come on, keep going, don't give up. That's exhortation.
So there's a place for that in ministry, but edifying comes first. I think there's an order that is presented here.
Without these things, let's look at the negative side of them. What happens when there is?
Not resting in the Apostles doctrine going back to Acts chapter 2.
While Paul's desire for the Saints and Ephesus of Ephesians, chapter 4.
And verse 13 was that so we all come in the unity of the faith. If we look up a little further in that chapter, in verse 5, it says 1 Lord, 1 faith, 1 baptism.
There is one faith.
This is the body of Christian truth that we possess 1 faith.
The church cannot stand and ultimately did not stand when there is division in connection with teaching and doctrine. We need to stand on that firm foundation that the apostles gave us. The first great division within the church was a division over the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It resulted it was a division by caused by bad doctrine, bad teaching.
So it's so important that we have sound teaching upon which we rest.
And Paul's desire for the Ephesians was that they would come in the unity of the faith.
So doctrine far from dividing, except that it divides error from truth, it is what brings us into that unity. We're all here because we have believed and accepted the Word of God as being true, and He doesn't want us, like in verse 14, to be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness.
Wherein they lie and wait to deceive. This hints at what Paul knew was coming.
In the Church of God, there are so many doctrines out of there, and we can so easily lay hold of them.
Why are so many, what they call conspiracy theories just filling people's minds these days? Is because anyone, anyone can create a YouTube video and post it online and catch someone's attention and then they share it with two people and then four people, and then eight people, then 16 people and then 32 People. And if that number by the time it gets to 20.
20 people down.
Two to the 20 is equivalent of if I now I. So I'm supposed to be a software engineer.
I think we're talking to a TB of people, so it very quickly multiplies. Any light can be propagated this way. As Christians, you know, I heard something years and years ago that.
Mormons, the Church, Christ, the Latter Day Saints. One had done a survey, don't know how they measured it, whether amongst the most gullible people in the world.
And I was like, yes, well, if you can believe that someone translated some gold plates by wearing special glasses, yes, you must be gullible.
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As Christians, we should not be gullible.
We need to shut our ears to all that that's going on in this world and not let it influences us and take us away from the truth of the word of God. But more seriously than conspiracy theories is things have come coming in to that.
Are not not the truths that we have long taught?
You know, our brother was once arguing with me about something and I said to him, well, that's.
Knew Why am I defending my position? This is not what we have ever held or taught. Why am I having to defend my position? You defend your position, your new teaching.
But you know, if we don't know what the word of God says, we're going to be like children tossed to and fro.
And then I just want to turn one more verse in connection with doctrine. That's Second Timothy chapter 3.
And there's 2 verses there in verse 15 from a child that was known, the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. So we have children here. That's wonderful. That really is wonderful because your teaching begins right now as a little child. And maybe you only understand every 20th sentence that I say.
Perhaps you've only heard that it's important to be able to read and to read the Word of God. That's.
Good thing to lay hold of, but these things, they, they, they need to begin as a child. But then the next verse is what I wanted to touch on All scriptures given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. The first thing that begins with here is guess what, that unfortunate word doctrine. Yes, doctrine is what lays the foundation for the rest I.
I said to Brother Don before this meeting that I had on my heart to speak on a different subject.
And I just wasn't at peace about it. And the Lord lay on my heart to speak on what I'm now talking on. I trust it's his mind that I do so. But it's a subject that I've been writing a pamphlet on, on and off for more than a year now. But.
The other subject I wanted to I had thought to talk on was the book of Philemon. Now Philemon is not a teaching book.
But it rests upon sound teaching. I just want to.
It's a bit of a digression, but let me just read one verse. To me, it's sort of key to the Book of Philemon, and it's a verse. It's very difficult to translate. It's verse 6. I'm going to read it from the J&D, it says.
I read that verse five first. I thank my God always making mention of the at my prayers, hearing of thy love and the faith which thou has towards the Lord Jesus and towards all the Saints in such sort that they participation in the faith should become operative.
In the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in US towards Christ.
Do you know what every good thing in you is?
Do you know what you your position is in Christ? This is very much Pauline doctrine.
What Paul desired for Philemon was the outflow.
Of that fruit towards Christ, of every good thing that was in him in Christ. That's doctrine, that's teaching. That's the result of that in Philemon now flowing out in the practical. OK, moving on to the apostles fellowship. Apostles doctrine is that foundation, the Apostles fellowship, you know, it is a very dangerous thing.
To neglect.
The fellowship of your brethren and think that you're going to be able to in isolation.
Learn the scriptures for yourselves. Now some people will find themselves in that position and if God puts you in that position, that's a different story, but to deliberately.
Isolate yourself from your brethren and think that you're going to be self-taught.
Only puffs up the mind and the heart.
I read a verse that speaks to this.
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In in Colossians chapter 2, the Colossians were affected by two things. They were affected by the philosophies on men on one hand, and the ritualism of Judaism on the other. You know, I said this before.
And no doubt with every speaker there's words and phrases that become identified with them. And as I get older, no doubt that's the case with me because you get very repetitious, but.
Satan has a cafeteria of every flavored dish that appeals to the heart.
And so if you have a natural tendency towards superstition or towards ritualism or the intellectual philosophy, Satan has something just for you.
And so the Colossians were affected by, on the one hand, ritualism, on the other hand, what we say is rationalism. And so Colossians 2, verse 17, I'll just read. It's out of context, but you can look it up. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.
That is the danger we fall into if we neglect.
The Fellowship of our brethren and particular in connection with the Assembly meetings.
Another verse, A well known verse. Hebrews 10.
Umm, in Turn 25.
Or verse 24, Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of our souls together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another.
And so much the more as you see the day approaching.
Again, perseverance. Perseverance we need, you know it. It's the nice thing with the reading meeting. I'm giving a talk now and it's very much.
My type of talk I would say, and in a reading meeting you have different brothers with different perspectives, different life experiences, different ways that they have come into the truth.
And they provide a balance.
It's very good that we have each other to provide balance, so we cannot.
Study and think that we're going to establish ourselves in the apostles doctrine in our own. Unless of course, God sets us in that position for his reasons.
But the other side of it is that our fellowship itself rests upon sound doctrine. I already read those verses from Ephesians 413 where Paul's desire that we would all come into the unity of the faith, of the knowledge of the Son of God, and so on.
The Apostles doctrine is what brings us into fellowship with them, and then also the Father and the Son.
Just read a verse in first John chapter 1.
First John, chapter 1.
It says in.
Verse three. That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
You know the apostles, John could say in his gospel in chapter 1.
He could say.
No man has seen God at anytime. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.
And those 12, they traveled with the Lord Jesus those three years.
And they saw that revelation of the Father. And so John says in his first epistle, the things which we have seen, keep in mind there were eyewitnesses.
Peter speaks of being an eyewitness to what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration. We have eyewitness testimony here in the Word of God. This is not fanciful mythology. This is eyewitness testimony of things that really happened. But they Peter also and John and the apostles heard things. I discovered something recently which is probably.
Been enjoyed by my.
Peers and older brethren for many years, but I just.
Hit me recently in something. It was probably from synopsis but first Peter.
Really is rooted in Peta's experiences in Matthew chapter 16.
When Peter confessed that thou the Christ, the Son of the living God, and the Lord responded by saying that upon this rock that he would build his church, that's first Peter.
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Second, Peter corresponds to Matthew 17, that which Peter witnessed.
On the Mount of Transfiguration, the manifestation of the Son of Man in His glory.
That's second Peter. So these were things that the apostles soar and hood, which they carried with them through the rest of their lives.
And as I said, our fellowship, our fellowship rests upon it. First Corinthians one. Now First Corinthians chapter one, verse 9.
We cannot create fellowships. I don't want to sound critical, it's not my point.
But these things have long been forgotten in Christendom.
But many quite a few years ago now. It's amazing how years just go by. Can you believe that we're middle of October of 2024? I don't know where the year went but there was a church down our Rd. they started and.
They were called Storyline Fellowship.
We don't create fellowships.
In one Corinthians one verse 9, there is one fellowship. God is faithful, by whom ye are called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Notice too, it doesn't even say fellowship with his son and I would suggest that many.
Of the systems of men know something of fellowship with his son.
But we're not talking about fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We're about talking about the fellowship of.
His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord now.
Just a point to note in passing. In First Corinthians, the Lordship of Christ is emphasized, and it's emphasized because I would suggest that many of the difficulties they had fallen into was because they had practically they wouldn't have, would never have admitted to it.
They intellectually they hadn't rejected the lordship of Christ, but practically.
They had rejected the lordship of Christ. Instead they were following men. So we have the Lord's Supper, we have the Lord's Table. So let's move on because actually we'll get to the Lord's Supper here pretty quick. And just in connection with fellowship and, and you know, it says the apostles doctrine and fellowship in Acts 2. Let's just go back to that verse so I don't misrepresent what it says.
But.
It says apostles, doctrine and fellowship. The two are very closely linked.
So there are things that break that fellowship, and I'll just read one verse for the sake of, well, we're not doing too bad.
3 portions in connection with things we cannot have fellowship with. Yes, there's a responsibility that the local assembly bears in connection with that fellowship. And that is the first one I'm going to read is in John second epistle.
In Saint John the second epistle.
In verse 7 it says many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an Antichrist. In verse 9, whosoever transgresses and abideth not in the doctrine that we have that word. Again, the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ. He hath both the Father and the Son, if they come any unto you, and bring knock this doctrine.
Him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed. So you went. We are not. This is not just past tense. We are not even to give the common courtesy of a greeting to someone that comes preaching a different Christ. We aren't to countenance them for even a minute, to give them the time of day. So we aren't to accept one that preaches a different Christ.
In Galatians chapter 1.
You can.
Guess where I'm going with this one?
Galatians chapter 1 and verse 9. As we said before, so I say unto now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you that ye have received, let him be a curse.
So we're not to receive those that preach a different gospel.
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And then Two Corinthians 11 actually puts three things together, including the two that I've already mentioned.
2nd Corinthians 11, verse 4.
If he that cometh preaches another Jesus, that's what we had in second John, whom you haven't, we have not preached. Or if you receive another spirit which you have not received. So that's the one that's new here, one that is preaching or coming with a different spirit and then or another gospel which you have not accepted.
He was afraid for the Corinthians that they might bear with them.
OK, the third thing mentioned in Acts chapter 2 That we are to persevere in is the breaking of bread. So turning back to Acts chapter 2 again we have some verses that come after verse 42 That are relevant. So the first mention we have I think of the disciples breaking bread is in the 2nd chapter of Acts and it was in Jerusalem.
And verse 46 it says they continued daily with one accord in the temple.
And breaking bread. And we should read it as the margin has it.
At home.
Is what the margin has.
Because it says in King James from house to house, but the sense of it is at home. The same expression goes in Acts 20 as well, where it should also be at home. There. I won't spend time turning to it.
So let's just read the whole verse again without commentary, as it should be when they continue daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread.
At home did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.
Now this verse is often.
Been taken.
That they broke bread daily. I I I never realized this myself until I came across the incidental comment, probably, probably by J&D, that the form of the Greek does not require this sentence to be interpreted that way. It doesn't say they broke bread daily. They were in the temple daily and they broke bread at home. Now maybe that they did, I don't want to suggest.
That, but I mean, I don't want to suggest that that was an impossibility.
But I'm just saying the form of the sentence doesn't actually require it. The important thing to bring out from this verse is that it did not break bread at the temple.
Christian worship is a not a public spectacle. And I I mentioned the word worship there. I want to clarify that shortly, but our worship is not a public spectacle.
And two, it has no connection or no fellowship whatsoever with that Jewish system of worship. So in Hebrews 13.
We have a verse that makes that very clear. In Hebrews 13 it says.
In verse 10 we have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle.
I'll bring out some more things in connection with shortly in One Corinthians 10. I just want to touch on another thing.
They broke bread at home. Now. There were many in those days.
In.
The end of Acts chapter.
You know, I think it's at the end of.
Someone can help me with this?
It mentions their number.
I think there's two numbers given.
5000 comes to mind with 3000 also comes to mind.
If anyone sees the verse, they can call it out. But anyway, the point being there was no building probably big enough to accommodate that many people. So it was very characteristic of the early church that they met in homes and we instances of that in the word of God. So for example.
Thank you. Acts 4. Four says. Howbeit, many of them which heard the word believed in the number of the men were about 5000, number of the men 5000.
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So it was customary in those days to meet in home. Philemon, he had there was an assembly in his home. So even though they met at home.
In Jerusalem, in various homes.
When we get to Acts 15.
It says in verse 4 when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church. There was about one assembly in Jerusalem, one assembly, not individual independent assemblies. There was one assembly in Jerusalem even though they had to meet in their homes for practical reasons.
In Rome it was probably that situation too. It's there's a reference to.
In in, I won't turn to it, of an assembly in a home in Rome. Rome is a big city. There was probably many believers there and they met in homes, but there was still one assembly in Rome.
Back to the breaking of bread. 1St Corinthians 10 You know we've had the apostles doctrine.
We've had the apostles fellowship. The apostles doctrine is the basis of that fellowship. In the breaking of bread, we give expression to that fellowship. So 1St Corinthians 10 speaks of that subject.
The very act of eating is an expression of fellowship, and there are three examples of eating given at the end of 1St Corinthians 10.
The first one was is the Jewish altar and that is in verse 18.
And I only tend to touch on these very lightly. Behold Israel after the flesh. Are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?
And then the.
The first example, if I didn't say it, of eating, was the Lord's at the Lord's Table, the second was at a Jewish altar, and then the third was at an idolatrous feast.
And the point with each of these that the apostle is bringing out is we express fellowship, identification, where we partake in eating. So if you go and you were Jew and you still went and offered offerings, you were identifying with that Jewish altar. And that is why the end of Hebrews, Paul makes it so clear that they have no part with us, those that still serve the Tabernacle.
But the other side is as those that were taken up in Corinthians with Pagan altars. They were, whether they liked it or not, identifying.
With that altar, and same to with us in this present day where we partake of that loaf and cup, we express identification with what it represents, whether we like it or not. There are other things expressed too in the remembrance, and I probably should have started with that first. It says the cup of blessing which we bless. Is it not the communion? That word communion is that word fellowship?
Fellowship of the blood of Christ. We express fellowship with the blood of Christ.
And the bread which we break, is it not the communion of fellowship with the body of Christ? We express fellowship with the body of Christ, but that's not all. We express fellowship with verse 17 For we being many A1 bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread in partaking that word just means sharing.
Their of that loaf we express fellowship, or we give expression to that fellowship that is AL's in Christ Jesus.
So how very important it is that far from some casual breaking bread from home to home as we might.
Be led by the human spirit. Smallest to practice. We realize that the remembrance of the Lord is not an insignificant thing. There's an expression in the next chapter I want to bring out in the 11Th chapter where we have the Lord's Supper. So we have the Lord's Table in first Corinthians 10, the Lord's Supper in verse, Corinthians 11.
With the Lord's Table we have the thought of fellowship, What we're identifying with. That's the key take away.
In the 11Th chapter we have the Lord's Supper.
But there's a very interesting expression.
In.
00:40:00
Why is it that I can never?
Find out when.
I need it.
Yeah, 1St 18.
When ye come together and it says in the King James in the church.
If you look at Chinese translation, you will find it says when you come together in assembly.
We remember the Lord in his death when we come together in assembly.
Now there are other times mentioned in the word of God, when Saints came together, where it could not be said that they were.
In assembly. So we have examples in the books of Acts where brethren came together to pray, which will be our final point. Prayer in connection with the assembly.
But not every time, brethren come together. It might be for a volleyball game. That could hardly be said that that was.
In assembly, so the Word of God makes a distinction with brethren just merely coming together from some 'cause that they might be interested in, whether it be playing a volleyball game or perhaps even for prayer in my home for some matter that concerned me.
Makes a distinction between that and coming together in assembly, but we come together in assembly to remember the Lord Jesus Christ in his death. Now the actual act of remembering the Lord, what he has asked us to do, I do not believe in itself is an act of worship. And why do I say that? Because I don't think we worship as it speaks of in Acts 17 with our hands. We don't worship by doing.
Worship is that adoration that flows out from our hearts.
To God for all that he is and who he is to us, and for his Son that he gave. I think the thought of worship is expressed very nicely by Joseph. When he sent his brethren back to their Father, He said to them, Tell my father of all my glory in Egypt. That's the true character of worship. And when you come together on the Lord's Day morning.
You know, sometimes the churches will do this. And again, not to be excessively critical, but we say it ourselves.
They'll have worship. Well, worship can't be prescribed. I can't show up to a place and say I'm going to worship.
Maybe I will, but maybe I'll fall short of that. But nevertheless.
And this is a quote from someone.
Actually, I didn't write it down.
Maybe I did.
No, I didn't. I didn't write it down this morning. I'm not. As I said, I'm not very good with quotes, but.
What the Lord, what that supper represents there on Thursday morning, It represents, first of all, let us never forget a dead Christ. That is what He has asked us to have, a memorial of Him in His death. It is first of all a memorial, not a reminder. It is a memorial. What is a memorial? Well, we have memorials for.
Fallen soldiers, for example. It is a day to honor them.
It is so that we might not forget, but it's to honor them in their sacrifice that they have made.
And that's exactly what the remembrance of the Lord is. It's a memorial is to honor Him in his death, the blood.
Is separate the wine from the body, the loaf separate That figure on the table represents Christ in his death. But what that?
Supper represents to us is that which should produce worship in every child of God. Heart of every child of God.
It is that we should produce worship. Sometimes I think we overemphasis and a reminder too often that the actual breaking of bread in itself, in the physical thing that we do is not worship because.
We can't divorce it from the thought of worship. And if we don't come on the Lord's Day morning with a desire in our hearts, again, worship cannot be prescribed. But if we don't come with that desire in our heart to worship, why should we ever expect worship God?
What were the disciples thinking about when the Lord instituted the Lord's Supper?
We don't have to guess because we were told.
I read this. I'll tell a little story. We've got time yet.
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They were thinking about who was the greatest.
A couple of weeks ago I was looking for a book on my bookshelf and my bookshelves are not tidy and neat and not organised, except they are organised in my head, but no one else would be able to identify the organization scheme. I never did find that book and I don't even remember what that book was I was looking for, but there was a thin volume which I pulled out and it was called The Lord's Supper by Hawking.
I had my wife's uncle's name written on the top and I thought this book has been my bookshelf ever since.
Amy's aunt died, her uncle passed away 1St and then her aunt Roy and Viola Garrett. Some of you will know them.
So that's 30 something years ago, 30 years ago roughly.
I never taken that book off and read it. And so I took it off and I read it and it's an easy read. It wasn't difficult. It wasn't a heavy subject, but he brought this out in the book and that's why I'm bringing it up this morning because it's the one thing that was like an arrow to my heart. What were the disciples thinking about when the Lord instituted his supper? Who would be the greatest? And then the author turns around and says to me, the reader, what?
Are we thinking about?
During the breaking of bread and the remembrance of the Lord.
Is it any wonder that very often Lord's Day mornings are quiet?
And there is praise. Precious little, if ever, if any. Not if ever, but if any.
Worship Incidentally, in that book he also says that we ashamed of the.
Are we, are we just going to give out of him? Because there's a long silence and we think it should be filled.
Know those precious moments if we use them to exercise our hearts.
I mentioned in the beginning that they broke bread, not necessarily every day. As I said, the Greek text doesn't actually require that interpretation, but perhaps they did. In Acts chapter 20, we find that they settled down on a pattern and they came together on the Lord's day.
To break bread.
And so Acts chapter 20 in verse 7, upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread, that was their reason for coming together.
It wasn't for fellowship though. They had fellowship.
There wasn't for ministry though. They got ministry.
It was for that which was God would first. It was to break bread to have that memorial for the Lord Jesus Christ in a world that says away with this man think of that the world denies he ever existed in in many instances, some will acknowledge his historic figure of minor importance.
The world wanted him to leave and to forget him, and we have that privilege.
On the Lord's day of this memorial, as I said, it's not merely a reminder, though it does that to our rather dull hearts, but it's a memorial to honor him in a world that does not want him. What a privilege.
You know, I someone said to me, well, number one, I'll touch on prayer.
In the last five minutes, probably. But someone asked my daughter at her previous employment about her church that she went to and they said, oh, that sounds liturgical, My daughter said. What does that mean?
And I had to look it up. It means a prescribed ceremony. And so there are those going to be, say, every Lord's Day, you come and break bread. Doesn't that become liturgical? Doesn't that become just an empty ritual that you repeat over and over again?
And the answer is yes, it absolutely can.
But that's not a reason not to come on Lord's Day to remember the Lord in his death.
That is a reflection upon the state of our own huts.
We read in these addresses to the seven churches, the first one to Ephesus. They had left, not lost, but left their first love.
We need that which warms our hearts again.
That one that that supper represents and speaks of. And then it won't be.
Called Lethargy Liturgy.
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Prayer, So the apostles doctrine defines the fellowship, the breaking of bread expresses it, but it's prayer that maintains it. You know, it's not a gift to be able to pray. You know, a brother, a younger brother recently, now assembly, he got up to pray at the breaking of bread.
And incidentally, in connection with the remembrance of the Lord, 1.
Says, and I think I did write this quote down, We cannot worship without prayer.
Because desire goes even beyond our present ability to worship, restricting it to mere praise is impossible. It's never unmixed with prayer. Because I said it doesn't take a gift to pray. Obviously, many of us are timid about praying. It really bears our soul to use an expression the world uses. But it really does bear our soul. But his younger brother stood up in our assembly some weeks ago and he simply said thank you.
I I don't remember his exact words, but maybe thank you, Lord Jesus, or thank you. And and then he ended his prayer and sat down.
Do we have nothing in our hearts that can respond to what God has done for us and just simply say thank you back to Him?
Yes, there are very elegant prayers, but I can give you an example of a prayer that's not very eloquent.
And it's Luke 18.
Verse 13 The public and standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes into heaven, but smote upon his breasts. And God be merciful to me.
A Sinner.
Incidentally, when we come together to remember the Lord in His death, the subject is not our sins, is not what we were. That should not be our occupation. We come into His presence of those that have been made meat, made perfect to be in the presence. A A Sinner cannot worship God because he cannot approach God. He may think he will be fearless in the presence of God, but put a Sinner in the presence of God and he's anything but fearless.
No, there is no liberty to worship with a Sinner, but we can come now in the full liberty in that position that Christ brings us to worship. And so occupation is not what we were and what our sins were, but our occupation is with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. But you know, you might say, I don't know what I don't know my hymn book very well. I.
There are many excuses that we can have. On the one hand, the the hymns that we have expressed thoughts so beautifully that it's sometimes much easier just to give out a hymn to express the thoughts I feel in my heart than try to put them in words. Conversely, perhaps there is no hymn that the Lord brings before me, but I can still stand up and express what's in my heart through prayer.
You know, there are individual prayer that's very important.
But there's collective prayer, so I we don't have time to turn to them. But Acts chapter 12 is an example when Peter was taken captive of collective prayer. I will turn to this one. Philippians 1. Paul valued the prayers of the Saints. So Philippians chapter 1, Paul says in verse 19, I know that this shall turn to myself.
Through your prayers and the supply of the Spirit of God, my salvation. What salvation was that? That he would be said at liberty.
No, I don't think that was the salvation Paul was specifically looking for, but I think here.
Umm, it's actually.
Well, I won't, I won't get bogged down into this verse, but Paul look for two salvations. There was 2 possibilities, 1 he'd either be set free or the other that he would be.
Delivered from the scene to be with Christ, which is far better.
And then Second Thessalonians.
Chapter 3 and verse one Paul says, brethren speaking to the Thessalonian Saints, pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified even it is with you. And then in First Thessalonians 517 there's a familiar verse. Pray without ceasing. And as I said, we I had thought of taking up the book of Philemon and I just noticed the other day that.
In verse 22 of Philemon, it says, I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you know, Paul speaks of praying for the Saints, but he also valued the prayers of the Saints for himself. Prayer is not, you know, it's such cliche in the world in which we live every time there's a natural disaster.
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Political leaders will say something like our thoughts and prayers are with you and it rings hollow and the world knows it rings hollow, but prayer is.
Real and the apostle Paul valued the prayers of the Saints and he prayed for them. So I I think I already read the verse Philemon verse 4I thank my God making mention of the oyes in my prayers. So he prays for them.
There's in First Timothy chapter 2, verse one. There's a verse in connection with prayer, which we won't turn to for lack of time now, but I just want to.
Something a meditation that I enjoyed many, many years ago, and I've shared it many times, but in connection with the subjects that we've had before us, at least when it comes to the individual, not so much. Not, of course, so much the assembly.
An example for our encouragement is Mary, and we read of Mary at the Lord's feet three times.
And so, without turning to them, in Luke 1039, we read of Mary at the Lord's feet, hearing His word.
That is.
In, let's say, the reading meeting that is listening to his words speak to our hearts.
We of course see Mary at the Lord's feet in John Chapter 11, at the grave of Lazarus where she's weeping.
That is prayer. The one thing I was going to mention from First Timothy 2 is it gives 4 aspects of prayer, Supplication. That's asking God for things, prayer, which I think it speaks there of communion with God. Not all prayer is for asking, or the other two which I'm about to mention. The third one is intercession. That is when we ask God for things on the behalf of others. And it's not always asking them because they're in difficulty. It might be asking them to help.
Them in their work for the Lord, for example. And then the 4th aspect of prayer is Thanksgiving, which we often forget to thank the Lord when He has indeed answered our prayers. But Mary, of course, at the Lord's feet, that would be an aspect of supplication.
Or maybe intercession in this case, but.
The last time we see Mary is in John at the Lord's feet is in John chapter 3, and there it's in the attitude of worship. And I see I went over, which I didn't intend to do.
Let's just close in prayer.
God's Light Shining Through Us
Sing—Bernie Brecht
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My brother's gonna have a sober question. One of the things that I've heard this weekend about.
Our righteousness and about the place. God has brought us into the darkness, the sunshine and the light.
And I notice on the back wall there, first John 15 got his light. That's one of the things that I was thinking about.
And in Genesis.
In chapter 1 That was mentioned many times.
That is.
In the beginning, God.
Created to heaven and earth.
Verse 3 says and God said, let there be light and there was light and God saw the light.
And that was good. That is our source.
Everything starts with God. Everything.
And Psalm 27/1.
The Lord is my light, my salvation. Whom shall I fear?
There's our protection. Who shall I fear? And then for John 1.
Gospel of John, chapter 1.
Verse 5.
And the light shines in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light.
That all men through him might believe he was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.
That was a true light which lighted every man that cometh into the world.
And.
John 8, verse 12.
Then faith Jesus again to them, saying I am the light of the world.
He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.
That is the Lord Jesus bringing us in.
He's bringing us in to that light that he has for us.
He brought us into that life.
And James 1/7.
Not as fast as you, Nick.
Well, it helps to have a podium.
James 17, it says 4.
Right, Yeah, every good gift 1/17/17 forgot the one. Every good gift, every perfect gift is from above.
And cometh down from the father of lights.
With whom is no variableness, neither a shadow of turning.
In second Peter, 119.
We have also a more sure word of prophecy. Whereunto, where do you do well, that you take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the daystar arrives in your heart?
Matthew 5.
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Verse 13.
It says Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the soul had lost its savour, wherewith shall it be sold. It is that's worth good for nothing but to be cast out, be trodden down under the foot of men. Ye are the light of the world.
A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid, neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel.
Put on a Candlestick it giveth.
Light unto all that are in the house.
Let your light shine. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. That's the return back to the source, a return back, and that is being sent out by that light, that light.
Shines through us.
It comes from God.
And we are a vessel, we are a lamb that God has lived for us to shine, as it says.
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which in heaven back to our Father.
And in Psalm 119105, thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
1/19, 1:30.
The entrance of thy words giveth light.
It giveth understanding to the simple.
And the thought that I had.
Well, I'll be like, I'll be honest with you. I had several thoughts since John called me and asked me to give this little talk and he said 5 minutes. I said that's good.
But the thought that I had that came to me and I heard it many times this weekend about the light, the lungs rod. God is love and God is light.
And how much that that light should shine through us.
And I thought about this weekend.
This group together this weekend. How much we enjoy the things of our Savior, how much we enjoy the things of our Father, the place He's brought us into.
And I think about that when we leave here, when we go, when we depart and go our own separate ways all across this nation.
Have our light shine and it doesn't have to be standing on a mountaintop screaming at the top of our lungs. It can be just living a good Christian life, having someone come up and say.
What's with you? Why are you so happy? What do you have that I don't and that's curiosity will spark a light enough and help them come to find the savior.
That's one of the things that I was thinking about and that's the end of it. It was short and I hope that you enjoyed it because it was just, that's what I was thinking about, how much we enjoy the Lord here, that we should take it with us because God's asked us to go out and let our light shine among Him.
His father has, in fact.
Gospel
Gospel—R. Thonney
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Well, I want to start with those verses again that I quoted before.
In First Corinthians 15.
And I'll just read verses 3 and 4, for there we have those major facts of the gospel.
Paul says to the Corinthian believers, he's talking to believers, and I'm talking majorly to believers here, but he was a little bit doubtful about some of them, whether they were real or not, and that's why we're preaching.
The gospel he says, I delivered unto you, first of all that which I also received.
How that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures?
Especially when a focus tonight on that third item, His resurrection, to me it is amazingly wonderful fact. It's something that only God can do.
Resurrect the dead. You know, there's amazing doctors in the world today, and when you get sick you can go to a bunch of them and spend a lot of money and they can do some pretty amazing things.
But when it comes time that you die, you know what the doctors are going to say.
Take him away to the morgue.
He's dead. We can't do anything more.
That's as far as men can do.
When we lived in Bolivia and South America.
I have to say we helped to bury a lot more children than we did adults.
Because kids get sick.
And sometimes if they don't get.
Right treatment at the right time.
They're gone.
And so many times we took a little boy or a little girl in a box out to the cemetery and sometimes we had to dig down to bury them. Sometimes when we were digging down, we hit another box. We had to adjust our hole so that we could bury them properly.
But it's sad, isn't it?
But you know what?
Death does not end it for anybody.
Death is not the last thing on the agenda.
For anybody that is ever born into this world.
I remember when.
Quite a few years ago now.
My mother.
Got to the end of her life.
And I'm thankful I got to be there because I wasn't around when my dad died.
And I only learned that he had died the day they buried him and I was in on the high Alta Plano of Bolivia and South America. There's no way I could get back but when my mother was going.
Down the last Rd. towards that moment she was going to depart. She died about a month short of being 101 years old. Pretty good ain't?
We came home from the prayer meeting in Walla Walla to where she was staying at my my sister's house, and there she was on the bed, breathing, and her breathing got.
Less and less and less.
Until she didn't breathe anymore.
She was dead.
Is that all for her?
No, we took her and we buried her. But that's not all.
Jesus died and rose again. To me that is the most wonderful thing to realize. Death does not end. End it all for anybody. Lots of people say that's that's it for a person that dies. Take him barium and that's it.
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No, that's not it.
You know, in the Old Testament, when Jesus had not come yet, people there.
Didn't know God as we know him today, because the Lord Jesus, when he came, he came to reveal to us who God is.
Interesting.
Now we know because Jesus was God.
Incarnate it means that he was a man at the same time as he was God It must have been a wonderful thing to know the Lord Jesus in this world. People thought he was just another man, but he wasn't just another man So in the Old Testament, before he came, they still.
Had an idea about God and they knew. Lots of them knew something about resurrection.
Resurrection is when a person is dead.
That they're brought back to life.
I'm going to quote what? Well, maybe I better read it in Job. What? Job said he lived way back.
Shove in chapter 19, this is what he said, and I think you'll understand that he realized that there was resurrection. Just listen to what he said. I think it's so interesting.
Job chapter 19 and verse 25.
I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.
And though after my skin worms destroy this body.
Yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see, for myself and mine I shall behold, and not another, though my reigns be consumed within me.
So he said. I know I'm going to see my Redeemer.
And he knew that even though his body died, he was going to see God. And then incredible. I don't know how in the world he knew that. I don't know if we know, but in the Old Testament there were some occasions of people who were raised from the dead. Elijah, you remember, the Lord told him to go to a widow woman.
In Sidon and that she would feed him.
All the days of the famine in Israel, for 3 1/2 years they didn't have any rain.
And when she was staying with that poor widow woman.
She had a little boy that died.
And she felt so terrible. Here she was taking care of Elijah, and so she brought her little boy to him. Little dead boy.
And Elijah prayed, and the Lord gave back his life. I can imagine how happy she was to get her little boy back.
A little later when Elisha was a prophet.
Something similar happened. There was a lady that was very hospitable to Elisha and prepared a bed for him.
And a place for him to stay when he came by her house.
And.
Elisha said. What can we do for you, for all these nice things you're doing?
And she said no, I have everything I need.
And the servant of Elijah said she didn't have any children. OK, then about this time next year, you'll have a little boy. And so it happened because God gives children to parents. Did you know that God gave you children to your parents? I think it's so amazing, isn't it? And.
But it time time a little later.
He went out into the field and they were working and it was hot and I don't know if he had a stroke or a heat stroke or what it was, but he got sick and the father said take him to his mother and he took him to his mother and there he died. And ** *** went to tell Elisha because Elisha said.
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That you're going to have a little son. And so she told him. He said I didn't ask for this son. You said I would get it. And now he died. And so Elijah went back.
And close the door. In that little chamber that she had made for him, there was that little dead boy laying on the bed.
And he do you know what he did? He went and stretched himself on that little boy, put his eyes on his eyes, his mouth on his mouth, his hands on his hands.
And all of a sudden, the little boy sneezed. Do dead people sneeze? You know they don't. And so he said OK, God gave him his life again.
So those are instances where there was resurrection and in the New Testament I want to go to three places where.
The Lord Jesus before he died.
Resurrected people that had died. The first one I want to talk about is a girl that just died. It's in Luke chapter 8.
Luke chapter 8.
And verse 41.
And behold, there came a man named Gyrus.
And he was a ruler of the synagogue. He fell down at Jesus feet and besought him that he would come.
Into his house, for he had one only daughter.
About 12 years of age and she lay a dying.
But as he went, the people thronged him. Now go down to verse 49.
While he was, yet he yet spake. There cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying to him.
Thy daughter is dead. Trouble, not the master.
But when Jesus heard it, he said to him, answered him, and said, Fear not, believe only, and she shall be made whole. And when he came into the house, he suffered no man to go in, say, Peter and James, and John, and the father and mother of the maiden, and all wept and bewailed her, but he said.
Weep not she is not dead, but sleepeth.
And they laughed him to scorn.
Do you laugh at us at a funeral?
Not really. It's not really the way should act at a funeral. Do you? Where's?
A dead person lying out there.
He put the mall out and took the little maid by the hand.
And called, saying, Maid arise. And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway. And he commanded to give her food. And her parents were astonished, but he charged them that they should tell no man what was done. And you imagine how happy.
Her parents were was their only child.
A little girl and they were so glad to get their little girl back again.
So the Lord Jesus had power to raise the dead. Now let's go back to Chapter 7.
To see another person that died.
And it's in verse 11, Chapter 11 came to pass.
The day after that, he went into a city called Nain.
And many of his disciples went with him, and much people now when he came nigh to the gate of the city.
Behold, there was a dead man.
Carried out the only son of his mother.
She was a widow, and much people of the city was with her, and when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.
And he came and touched the beer. That's the casket. And they that bear him stood still.
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And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.
And he that was dead sat up and began to speak.
And he delivered him to his mother.
And there came a fear on all, and a glorified God, saying that a great prophet is risen among us.
And that God has visited his people. Now here we have a man who.
Had died and they had put him in his casket or his box, whatever they used then, and they were on the road to go to the cemetery to bear him.
2 great companies. Here is one with a dead man carrying them to the graveyard, and here comes another group of people where Jesus was.
And they met that other group of people. Which group of people are you with? The one who's with the dead people on the way to the grave.
Or are you with the Lord Jesus who has the power over death?
Anyhow, Jesus stopped them and he went over to that casket and said, young man.
I say unto thee, Arise now, I could talk to dead people. I'm sorry they're not going to listen to me. But the Lord Jesus is different because he has the power of death in his hands. And it says that young man set up and began to speak. I wonder what he said.
I remember somebody talking about that. I don't know where it was, but it was where there were a lot of black people. And one of the men says, well, I know what he said. What was it? Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.
Well, we don't really know because Scripture doesn't say, but Can you imagine how thankful that young man was he didn't have to go to the cemetery to be buried at that time?
So there's one more that I want to talk about. It's in John Chapter 11. And here's a man that had died and he was buried. And when finally Jesus gets there.
It's four days he was buried.
You know, in our country we.
Delay burial, sometimes quite a bit.
But in Latin America, if you die one day, you're buried by the next day because they don't embalm people there and so they have to bury him right away.
But here's a man that was dead and buried four days. Let's just read a little bit of this chapter because it's such a beautiful illustration of the Lord's power over death. Verse one. Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus of Bethany.
The town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his.
Feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sisters sent unto him.
Saying, Lord, Behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, he said unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When he heard therefore that he was sick, he abode 2 days still in the same place where he was.
Why didn't he hurry up? He could save him from dying.
Why didn't he hurry up?
You know, sometimes the Lord does things different than what we would think to do.
And sometimes we think, doesn't he care? Do you think he cares?
Yes, he cares and we're going to see that.
And so he stayed there, and then he finally says, let's go.
And they come to where Jesus is.
And verse 17 it says then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain.
In the grave four days already.
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Now men and Bethany was 9 to Jerusalem, about 15 furlongs off, and many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. And Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him, but Mary sat still in the house a little bit further down.
Verse.
32 Then when Mary was come where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which came with her.
He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.
And said, Where have ye laid him?
They said unto him, Lord, come and see.
Verse 35 is the shortest verse in the Bible. 2 words.
Jesus wept.
Why do you think he wept?
He knew he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead.
But he knew what it meant to those dear sisters that they'd lost their brother.
Do you think he cares?
Yes, he cares. When there's something that happens like that that really affects us, he cares. He feels it, and he wept. I mean, that's so amazingly wonderful.
Think you all know the other verse in the Bible? That's only two verse 2 words long.
Who can tell me?
Rejoice evermore.
Almost seems like a contradiction.
But it isn't.
Jesus wept. Rejoice evermore.
Well, it didn't stay there. Let's read on here what happened. Verse 36 then said the Jews. Behold how he loved them.
Some of them said, could not this man which opened the eyes of the blind have caused at this?
Even this man should have not have died. Jesus, therefore, again groaning in himself, cometh to the grave. It was a cave.
And a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, Take ye away The stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, said unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he had been dead 4 days.
Jesus said unto her, Shed said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldst believe, thou should see the glory of God.
Do you believe God?
It seems like an almost impossible thing. Do you believe God?
That's what everyone has to ask themselves when God says something in His Word. Can you believe it?
Yes, you can, because there's one thing that's impossible for God to do.
To lie so when he says something you can't believe. It said I not unto thee, that if thou shouldst believe, thou should see the glory of God. Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee.
That thou hast heard me, and I knew that thou.
Hearest me always, but because of the people which stand by.
I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me when he had.
Thus had spoken. He cried with a loud voice.
Lazarus, come forth.
You know, I could stand in a cemetery and shout at people and sorry, nothing would happen.
But this was a different person. This was the Son of God.
And when he said something, it happened. He created all the universe by the word of his power. Now he says Lazarus come forth.
00:25:14
Lazarus didn't say in there, I can't, I'm all tied up. No, you know, even though he was all tied up, he got up and he came out of that tomb. It was like a little cave there where they buried him.
And he came right out, and then Jesus said loose him and let him go.
So this is a wonderful thing that the Lord Jesus did, but all this that we're talking about took place before the Lord Jesus died. And now I want to talk about the Lord Jesus's death and his resurrection because it's different than all the ones before, as far as we know.
All the ones that were resurrected from the dead before at a certain time died again.
But the Lord Jesus, when he was resurrected, he was resurrected in the power of a life that cannot ever die again, and that's the life he gave to those who believe in him. This is such a wonderful thing. Let's go on in chapter in John's Gospel to chapter 19 where we have the Lord Jesus going to the cross where he gave his life.
For us.
Let's read about it starting with verse 1, chapter 19. And Pilate therefore took Jesus.
And scourged him.
You know what scourging is?
Is getting a weapon.
And it was terrible what the Romans did. They used a big whip with big straps on it, and the points of those straps had pieces of metal in them. Every time they were whack, it would swipe and cut a gash into his back.
Sometimes it was so bad that people just died even there before they even got to the cross.
But they scourged Jesus, and the soldiers platted a crown of thorns and put it upon his head.
You know, the thorns we have around here are not very big sometimes.
But in Bolivia we have long thorns, probably about four inches long, some of them thorn trees.
And they took some of those thorns, and they made a crown, and they put it on Jesus head.
And they took sticks and they whacked him over the head. Imagine how that scraped his scalp. Can't imagine.
Those were strong horns.
One time in Bolivia and Cochabamba we were going to visit somebody down this little back Rd. Somebody must have seen this going. We had verses painted on our Jeep.
And they must not like to us because we had to come out that same way. What we didn't realize that when we came out, they had put a whole bunch of those thorns on the road so we would walk, go right over him.
Next morning, all four of my tires were flat on the ground.
That's how strong those thorns were. They were right into the tires, just strong with nails.
And they said.
Hail King of the Jews. And they smote him with their hands. Pilot therefore went forth again, and said unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to Uten, that you may know that I find no fault in him. And came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns in the purple robe. Pilot saith unto them, Behold the man.
When the chief priests therefore an officer saw him, they cried out, saying crucify him.
Crucify him, Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him, for I find no fault in him.
The Jews answered and said, We have a law. By our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
Was that true?
Did he make himself the Son of God? No, he was the Son of God.
And he became a man, but it wasn't true what they were accusing him of.
00:30:03
Pilate therefore heard that saying, He was the more afraid, and went again into the judgment hall, and said unto Jesus, Whence art thou? Jesus gave him no answer. Then said Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? Norest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Jesus answered, Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except who were given thee from above.
Therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.
From thenceforth Pilate sought to release him. The Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend. Whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. Pilate therefore heard that saying. He brought Jesus forth and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the pavement. And in the Hebrew, Gabbatha was the preparation of the Passover in about the 6th hour.
He saith unto the Jews, Behold your king.
They cried away, cried out away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your king? Chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar then delivered he, him therefore unto them to be crucified. They took Jesus and led him away.
He, bearing his cross, went forth into a place called the place of a skull.
You know what a skull has inside of it?
When a person has been dead a long time, there's nothing inside that skull.
It's empty. That's where they took Jesus and they crucified them.
Where they crucified him and two other, with him on either side, one and Jesus in the midst.
Pilot wrote a title and put it on the cross. The writing was Jesus of Nazareth.
The King of the Jews. This title then read many of the Jews for the place where Jesus was crucified.
Was nigh to the city and it was written.
In Hebrew and Greek and Latin.
In this gospel, we don't have some of the other details that are mentioned in another gospel, but.
In other gospels, we know what happened. Jesus was crucified approximately about 9:00 in the morning.
That Friday.
And.
He died at 3:00 in the afternoon. For six hours he hung there by his hands and the feet nailed to that cross. For the first 3 hours, people passed in front of him, mocking him and jeering him and spitting on him.
Then at 12 noon, everything got dark until 3:00 in the afternoon.
Nobody could see what was happening in those three hours of darkness.
What happened?
You know God is so holy he can't have one sin in his presence.
Is everybody up here in the front row send at some time?
You have sinned. How about you?
How about you?
OK, they all nod their head.
So how many of those sins are you going to be able to go into heaven with?
What do you think?
0 exactly, not one.
How can you be cleansed from your sins? Somebody had to pay for that.
And it was in those three hours of darkness that God said, I'm going to talk about myself.
Bob Tony has a whole bunch of sins. I can't let him into heaven that way.
Jesus said Father, I will pay for him.
And it was in those three hours of darkness that God took those sins of mine and laid them on Jesus.
And then punished him.
I can't tell you how grateful I am to Him for bearing my sins on that cross. He died for me, and that's why now I belong to Him. I can't live for myself. I don't live for Him.
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At the end of those three hours of darkness, he said, it is finished. The payment was made in full. He had paid the price of redemption.
And then?
Let's read what he says. Here it is.
Verse 30. Then Jesus therefore had received the vinegar.
He said it is finished and he bowed his head and gave up. The ghost means he gave up his spirit. He died.
Jesus died. That's the first thing in that gospel message we read in First Corinthians 15. Christ died for our sins, according to the gospel according to the Scriptures.
The Jews, therefore, verse 31, because it was the preparation that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, for that Sabbath day was in high day.
Besought Pilate, that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.
People that were crucified in those times would last sometimes as long as two or three days. Hanging there before they would actually die was awful. Awful.
But since Jesus could give up his life, he gave it up after he had paid the price for our sins in full. And so.
The other two that were crucified with him, they were still alive and the soldiers came and what? His legs and their legs broke and they couldn't press up to breathe anymore.
So he died here, coming whack his legs, and he died too. They came to Jesus. Oh, he's dead already. We don't have to break his legs.
Verse 32 They came and then they came to the soldiers and break the legs of the 1St and the other which was crucified with him, but when they came to Jesus.
Saw that he was dead already.
They break not his legs. One of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith came there out blood and water. Soldiers used to fight with a spear. It's a long steel pull iron pole that had a point on the end. So one of those soldiers took that point and right into Jesus side.
And forthwith came there out.
Blood and water, the only thing that can cleanse your sins.
Is the blood of Jesus the blood of Jesus Christ? His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Says in one John 1/7.
So there that blood came out of his sight, says he that saw it bear a record, and his record is true, and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were done, that the Scripture should be fulfilled. A bone of him shall not be broken. And again another Scripture saith, They shall look upon him.
Whom they pierced. So this is the record of the Lord Jesus's death.
Now his burial.
Verse.
38 And after this Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take him.
Take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore and took the body of Jesus.
And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought.
A mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 100 LB weight. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wounded in a living in linen clothes with the spices. It's the manner of the Jews is to bury now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.
There lay they Jesus. Therefore, because of the Jews preparations, day for the sepulchre was nigh.
At hand. So there he is buried. That's the first two things in the Gospel message.
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and he was buried.
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Now the third thing chapter, 21St day of the week.
He was buried on Friday afternoon.
And then?
Saturday passed. It's interesting. Today is the Jews Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.
I think it ends tonight and it probably is ended by now, but.
Jews Day of Atonement. But now the day, the next day is after Saturday is Sunday.
And the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, until the sepulchre.
Is there any ladies here that would like to go to the cemetery when it's still dark? Well, but you know by yourself.
I think most of you would not like to do such a thing, but here is Mary Magdalene. She feels such a debt of gratitude to the Lord Jesus that she comes when it was still dark all by herself, and she finds the stone taken away from the sepulchre. And she runs and cometh to Simon Peter and to the other disciple, Miss John.
Whom Jesus loved and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.
They thought that they had stolen his body from the tomb. She thought that Peter therefore went forth and that other disciple and came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together, and the other disciple did outrun. Peter came first to the sepulchre, and he stooping down, looking in, saw the linen clothes line, yet went not in.
And cometh Simon Peter, and following him, and went into the sepulchre, and see at the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about his head.
Not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
This shows that couldn't the cloak of Tureen that they talk about is not the answer.
Because the napkin around his head was lying separately. It was a separate piece.
What had happened is that the Lord Jesus, when he was resurrected, just vacated those clothes, grave clothes, and since there was a lot of weight of the spices, it just settled right down. That's what they found. He wasn't there.
And so they didn't know what had happened. The Lord Jesus had told them.
But they didn't listen. Sometimes, you know, we don't listen.
Does that ever happened to your kids? Your mom and dad talked to you and you don't listen very well. That happens, doesn't it? When God speaks to us, we need to learn to listen.
And when she looks down, there's 2 angels. Have you ever seen an Angel?
Probably have without realizing it, but she sees 2 angels. Do you think she's interested in angels?
No, she wants the Lord. One was sitting at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. They say unto her, Woman, Why weepest thou? She said unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. When she had said thus, she thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing.
And knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She's supposing him to be The Gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary.
She turned herself immediately she recognized who it was, and saith unto him, Rap all night, which is to say, Master Jesus, Seth unto her, Touch me not, for I'm not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren and send to them. I send them my Father and your father, and to my God and to your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had said these things.
Things under her. That's beautiful. Here's Mary and she sees the Lord.
He says to her, Mary, and it was the shepherd, the Good Shepherd, calling his sheep by name.
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And she knew immediately who it was, I guess so beautiful. But she says don't touch me.
People are puzzled why he said. Don't touch me.
Let me give you a verse that tells why he said this in Two Corinthians chapter 5.
And verse 16 Listen.
Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh?
Yeah, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
That's why he said don't touch me. She wanted to have him back like she had known him in life.
And he says no, Mary.
You're gonna have me in a far better way now.
And so in resurrection, it's not flesh and blood.
He said in Luke's gospel, he said.
A spirit has not flesh and bones as you see me have.
And brought in resurrection doesn't have blood. It has.
Flesh and bones. This life of the body in resurrection is spirit, not blood.
And that's a life that never can die again and that amazingly wonderful. But one other thing he said to the Lord, to Mary, Tell my brethren, I ascend into my father, and your father into my God and your God, so that now we can know God as Father. You look through the Old Testament and you can't find any place where people knew God.
As Father.
They knew him as God Almighty, as Jehovah, and he had a number of names that he was known by.
But now we can call God our Father and that amazing, wonderful you know, I learned to talk to the Lord Jesus when I was first saved.
But later on it was I recognized, now I can talk to God the Father too, because the Lord Jesus has revealed to us that God is a Father and that he loves us. Just like you have an earthly father, now we have a Father.
In glory, the Lord Jesus's Father is our Father. I think this is so amazingly wonderful.
So I want to go before we get to the end of our meeting now to First Corinthians chapter 15 to read about resurrection a little bit because it's such a wonderful subject. 1St Corinthians 15 and we'll read from verse 50.
Says a lot in this chapter that we could go over, but there's not time to do it all. But let's read from verse 50 now I say, brethren.
That flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. Neither does corruption inherit incorruption.
Behold, I show you a mystery. Here is something that was never revealed before till it was revealed to the Apostle Paul.
We shall not all sleep. That means die physically. We shall not all die physically.
But we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
So when the Lord comes, one of the things that happens is that there's going to be a trumpet that sounds and the trumpet will sound. It says the dead shall be raised incorruptible. Those that have died in faith in the Lord Jesus are going to be raised from the dead.
In new bodies.
Incorruptible bodies and we shall be changed. We can't go to heaven with these bodies. Here. You see, on my head I got a bunch of Gray hairs, right?
You think I'm going to have Gray hairs in heaven?
Nope, I've got to be changed. I've got a knee that kind of hurts me at times, especially when I stand up here for a length of time. But that's all right. I can bear it for a little while. But that's not going to be that way in heaven. We're going to get bodies that are completely impossible that we'll ever get sick again. I see you broke your arm, Did you?
00:50:12
Well, you'll have a body there that will never be able to have a broken arm again.
And so we're going to have incorruptible immortal. Incorruptible means you never get sick again. Immortal means that you never die. Absolutely impossible. It's hard for us to believe that, but that's what it's telling us. This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal shall be put on immortality. So then this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality. Then shall be brought to pass the same it's written.
Death is swallowed up in victory.
Now let's go back to John chapter 5, and I want to show you that there are two resurrections. The one we read about here in First Corinthians 15 is the resurrection of life.
John 5 and we're going to read from verse 28.
Marvel not at this for the hour is coming in which those that are in the graves.
Shall hear his voice, and shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life. That's what we've been talking about.
And they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. So there is 2.
Distinct resurrections, Everybody that has put their faith in the Lord Jesus.
And has died, is going to be resurrected again from their tombs at any moment. That's going to happen when the Lord Jesus comes. And then there's a resurrection of damnation.
Those that have rejected the Lord Jesus have not received Him and died in unbelief.
Are going to be resurrected tomb but not at the same time that's going to be quite a bit later and so let's just read.
Those two resurrections, First Thessalonians chapter 4 is the resurrection of life.
Just read a few verses there.
In verse First Thessalonians 4.
And verse 15 For this we say unto you, by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent its means to go before.
Them which are asleep, those that have fallen asleep in the Lord Jesus, for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout.
With the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
So shall we ever be with the Lord? That's the resurrection of life. Now go over for the last part, the resurrection of damnation, which is so awful, terrible to think about, but it wasn't going to happen. Revelation chapter 20 and verse 11. And I saw a great white throne, Him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.
The books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in them, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works. Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast.
Into the lake of fire. How awful. This is people who died without faith in the Lord Jesus.
They're going to be raised. Not one single person that has ever lived on this earth will be left when this heaven and earth pass away. Every single 1 is going to be raised to stand before that great white throne.
And the books were opened. God has a record of your life and of my life. And you can't get away, you can't escape, you can't hide anything from him. He knows it all. The dead were judged according to the things that were written in the books. And then it it ends with.
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And there was another book opened and it was the book of life. And I can imagine there stands.
Adolf Hitler, who killed so many people.
Their sons Joseph Stalin.
And so many others that did awful crimes against humanity, they're going to stand there and have to hear the charges read out against him because God is clear that He is a just God. He wants to be your savior tonight. And if you don't accept him, this is what you have to face.
You will have to stand before God in judgment. That's what we preach the gospel for, because we don't want anyone going to that awful end. And it says whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. I often think of it. There stands that person. There's no place to stand except in space.
And now it's guilty he refused to accept the Lord Jesus.
And he shrinks from that awful end and he's taken and cast.
Into the Lake of Fire.
A contained place of eternal torment.
Please stop and think. Please make sure.
Your trust is in the Lord Jesus because that's the only way of escape. Let's pray.
Gospel
Gospel—Ted Sester
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So I was really thinking about, you know, what the gospel means. We know it means good news.
But.
You might look around the room and you say, well.
Why should we give the gospel tonight?
Look around the room and I can almost would almost guarantee you that everybody's heard the gospel in this room.
But you don't. There might be three things. There might be more. There might be 3 reasons why the Gospel needs to go for us tonight.
The first one.
Is it's good for the speaker?
Because.
Can't get up here and just fake it.
You know, I think of a verse.
That says in Romans 1 and 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
Where it's the power of God unto salvation.
You know, have I ever been ashamed? This is the easiest place for me to get the gospel.
This is the easiest place for me to give the gospel.
Hard to give the gospel at work, it's hard to give the gospel at school, it's hard to give the gospel to your neighbors. It's hard to give the gospel to people you're doing business with. It's not hard to give it the gospel here. So there's a lot of things have to go on with me and the Lord when I was asked to give the gospel here.
So there might be a lot of believers there and we have to think about what is this that we have here tonight? Is this something that we have that we would hide from someone because we would be ashamed of it?
What does this really mean to us? And maybe there's someone in this room tonight.
That hasn't come to the Lord Jesus.
I've been shocked by people who I thought were saved who aren't saved.
And maybe there's someone in the room that for the very first time.
You're younger and you just never taken the gospel seriously, So maybe three groups.
Ones that need to be encouraged to give the gospel the speaker who needs to have things right with his Lord and Savior. And maybe there's people here that aren't saved. So with that.
I'd like to look at.
Our condition before God and we've had a lot of things in these meetings and.
You know, I just want to turn to Genesis chapter one, just very briefly.
Very briefly. Very briefly.
And it says in the beginning, God.
Everything starts with God and everything will end with God.
And that is something that you need to understand that there is no beginning without him.
And it says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and then if we were to keep reading, God created man.
And he created you in his own image, and there's something in you that only responds.
You know to him and there's a void in you that can only be filled by a creator.
You know, sometimes when I'm in a room like this, I get a little stimulated and I, you know, I get.
Talk and say things I'm not supposed to say. And sometimes I gotta kind of walk somewhere.
So it's after, No, I just drove over to Starbucks at the Target and I just sat there and watch people.
I just started. I just sat there and I drank my coffee and I just watched people. I'm thinking, man, I wonder how many of these people are saved shopping in this Target. That's really the reality of the gospel. The gospel is is that everybody needs to be saved.
And, you know, I look at people and not really many happy people walking in those doors. There was some that people have problems, you know, and there's this void, you know, it's not the problem that you have tonight.
I'm not here to preach that your problems are going to go away, but I'm here to tell you that your creator.
Loves you and that you have a soul, a never dying soul, and you have a sin problem that he sent his Son to die for and that he wants to have this relationship with you. But your sins keep you from having that relationship with him. And so he sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ to pay for your sins because all you do is you're good at sinning.
And He is the Savior. You have nothing to bring what your sins tonight.
If you're not saved, there's not anything you have to bring other than your sins. And he's the great physician tonight.
00:05:03
Your sins have made you sick. He's the great physician and he wants to heal you tonight of your sins.
And there's no other way that you can be saved. The world has a lot of different ways, and they're not working.
They keep trying a different way and they're not working and there's no true happiness. There's no true joy.
And there's no happy deathbeds without the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you say, well, that's an oxymoron. You can't have a happy deathbed. Yes, you can. I watched my grandma pass away, and that's how I want to pass away.
This gospel is the only way you can leave this world with No Fear. It's the only way.
There's No Fear. He wants to take all that fear away. There's a lot of fear in this world. And if we forget what we're saved from, we'll have a lot of fears too. We can't forget the fears and that are there. But He is greater than all of those fears that we have. Greater is He that is in you than is he that is in the world. And tonight.
Satan would like to paralyze you if you like to put different ideas in you in your head. He wants to get your mind to think about other things.
And not even listen to the word of God being preached tonight. So it says in the beginning, God.
That I want to read a verse in Hebrews 11.
In Hebrews 11.
There's another thing that I want to.
Point out that God is good.
If you don't believe that God is good tonight, you can't come to Him.
He's not an angry God like most the world thinks. He doesn't. Waiting there, so to speak, with a steel pipe over his head or your head waiting for you to do something wrong. He's not a judging God, he's a loving God.
He loves the Sinner and hates the sin. He doesn't hate you, he loves you. But you have to believe that he's good. And in Hebrews Chapter 11.
I didn't look this up, so I'm going to find it. Yeah. Verse 6. But without faith, it's impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is and is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. You have to believe that God is good. God is for you. If God be for you, who can be against you? That's the promise written to believers. If God is for me, who can be against me? God is good. He wants your best.
You know Satan.
First lie was that God's really not as good as he says he is.
I'm here to tell you tonight God is as good as he says he is.
He he whispered in Eve's ear, half God said.
Is God really as good as he says? Yes, he is.
So tonight, you have to believe that he is, and you also have to believe that he's good.
And you know, we're not going to have a science conversation because it wouldn't work because I'm not a scientist anyway.
And I can't tell you all these proofs of everything.
But I can tell you that all of the other ways don't work. And then we read the verse. We'll turn it to it again, John 14 and verse 6.
Remember the last house we lived at?
The driveway flooded out about two weeks after we bought the new house.
Was.
Interesting timing and it was huge.
Huge pipe had to go across that culvert. We put a 40 foot culvert in about 8 foot diameter and.
I remember thinking there's only one way in this place. There was a stream in front of the whole property and there's only one way you can come up there.
There's only one way to the Father's house tonight. There's only one way to get to heaven.
And John 14 six we read this verse, Jesus saith unto him, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
I am the way.
You know, I've told this story before, but I was sitting there in the plane and this guy.
You know, my first class ticket was a points upgrade. This guy was sitting there first class. I just want to know why he was there, what he what kind of business he did. He handed me his business card. He was a.
00:10:00
Presbyterian.
Minister or knows that escapades Kapalian How you pronounce it minister?
So I thought this could be interesting.
Hands means business card.
I asked him.
How you get to heaven and he talked about 3 different.
Ways. Is that amazing? That's amazing darkness.
That the minister of that church told me there was three different ways. That's right in the face of this verse. So you have to believe that the word of God is true, the word of God is true.
What says?
In Hebrews 4 and verse 12.
It says the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any 2 edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and the joints and marrow, and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Tonight you have to believe that the word of God is true.
Then I want to read another verse.
I believe that is in Peter.
Talks about how fast our life goes.
Says in first Peter one and verse.
24 For all flesh that's us, that's our bodies, is as grass.
All the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, the flower thereof falleth away.
But the word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you tonight. You have to believe that the word of God.
Is God's spoken word. You can't get to heaven.
If you don't believe that God is good and you don't believe that the word of God is true, this is a story from God about you, about your condition, about my condition. We also see something about our life.
There in that verse.
It says all fleshes is grass.
You know, one of my responsibilities is making sure some grass gets mowed and.
You know, a lot of times it cut the grass.
And you cut it.
And you know what happens is, you know what that's like? Everybody cuts grass and you'll cut the grass and the clippings right there. What happens? Pretty soon it looks like it's a lot of clippings right there. You wait just a little bit on a hot day, it's just all gone.
It's all gone. That's where your life is. You know most people in this room with Gray hair.
They can remember like they were just sitting in chairs like this 20304050 years ago. It's like nothing. My life, just like nothing.
Seemed like I've been married five years. Seems like 30 years just went like that.
Time goes like that, but Satan also takes advantage of that. And so he whispers in your ear just to wait and wait and wait and wait, and he'll just wait you right into hell. That's what he'll do because he wants to destroy you. That's what he wants to do.
And he wants to destroy. If you're a Christian, he wants to numb you. He can't take your salvation away from you. But you know what he can do.
When Brother Nathan called me.
He can try to put every temptation and from my face from the very minute that he called because he does not like the gospel being preached from this pulpit right here. And he can try to put every distraction and everyone in this room's mind where you think you're not good enough. I don't have the gift of speaking. I'm not going to share it with my neighbor. He'll give you 100 excuses why you should not share the gospel.
Give you 100 excuses, he'll say. It's embarrassing.
It's a great way to embarrass yourself. Let me tell you something.
We're not all the same, but takes your neighbor to coffee, do something, but just to sit there and think that somebody else is going to share the gospel with somebody is a lie of Satan. He wants you to believe that. He wants you to believe a lie. He wants you to believe that. Time is not important.
Well, we know. Why is this so important? Because we're made with spirit, soul and body. We don't die like a dog. We don't die like a dog.
00:15:06
You know, I talked to men and women.
And.
I do something a little unconventional, but I give a lot of job interviews and I ask people what their priorities are and I give they look at me.
And they don't know where to start. So I give them an example. I said, well, my priorities are God, family, work, and they're sandwiched really close together. I just try to get the conversation going.
You would think.
That would start a conversation.
I have interviewed Christians that will not say anything about anything.
It's really bad out there.
We are embarrassed for Christians.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I know I have been.
But I find that most people.
That I'm interviewing have no have no thought of God in their eyes.
There's no thought of God. There's absolutely no thought of God. There's no thought of God. It's not important.
So I want to look at a little story here and keep it. We're going to keep it fairly short tonight, but I won't look at a story here that in the Old Testament, just a few verses in Numbers 21.
And it ties in with John chapter 3 and verse 16.
Want to keep this very simple? There could be young children here. I want you to listen for just a few minutes. I promise you, if you listen, I'll keep it shorter.
I have been known to punish my salespeople if they don't listen. I make the sales meetings longer.
If you guys listen, I will keep it shorter. Promise. That's my deal. Numbers 21.
In verse.
7 This is a very short story.
And this story says so much about what we're like without the Lord Jesus Christ.
And verse, let's start in verse 6. And the Lord sent fiery serpents. This means snakes among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord.
Not against thee. Pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when you look at the pawn, it shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a hole. And it came to pass that if a serpent had been any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
There was a hospital in Portland that has a.
Brass.
Like snake or serpent there?
Symbolizing probably this. If they knew what it meant, they probably would take it down in Portland. OK, but they probably don't know what it means anymore. What is going on here?
Well, we see right here.
That they had.
These snakes were biting them, right?
There was biting the people of Israel and they were dying.
These are poisonous snakes. I've never been bit by a poisonous snake.
But that's a very sad verse right there, it says. And much people of Israel died.
You know, tonight there's a lot of people, they're dying in their sins and they don't need to die in their sins. There's nobody needs to die in their sins. There's not one person right now alive that needs to die in their sins. No one needs to die in their sins. But there was people dying because they were getting these poisonous snake bites. And so the people came to Moses.
And Moses prayed for the people, and they took this.
Brass.
To say it's brass, yes, a brass snake and they put it on top of a pole and all you had to do is what?
Look, all you had to do is look, it says. And Moses made a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that of a serpent had been any man when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. You know, the story is so quick, but it's so powerful. Do you see what's going on here, that there's absolutely nothing you have to do to be saved?
00:20:18
There was nothing they could do as their bit with this poisonous snake and all they have to do is just take their eyes.
And just look at that snake on that pole and they would live.
Now it's turned John Chapter 3.
Tonight, there's nothing you need to do. You acknowledge your sin before the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you accept him.
You believe the Lord Jesus died for you.
And John chapter 3 and verse 14. This is the story we just read.
It says in John chapter 3 and 14, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. The Lord Jesus Christ had to be lifted up on that cross, just like that snake had he put in that bowl. And all you have to do tonight is look at the cross. You just look at the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing you can do. All of your righteousness are filthy rags. There's nothing you can do. You have.
Nothing to bring but your sins. There's nothing you have. All of your righteousness are as filthy rags. That means they're worthless now. You can't clean yourself up. I've had people tell me that they want to.
They'll work on this. They'll work on this. They're they're, they're trying to clean themselves up. That is men and women and boys and girls. That's a lie from Satan that you can clean yourself up. There's nothing you can do every step.
Further is a deeper in sin. No one can clean themselves out of their sins. No one.
In fact, the only one Was this the only perfect one?
Was the one on that cross, and we're going to read about that, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. If you believe in him, you will not die, just like the children of Israel tonight. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will not perish.
That doesn't mean you will. You won't die on this earth, but this is just temporary. This is just temporary.
You know there's two resurrections.
And I really would be scared if there would be anyone in this room that's going to die in their sins and you'll be resurrected to go to that white, great white throne.
That had the Lord Jesus as your judge. It says he's committed all judgment unto the Son. God has committed all judgment of the Son. If you don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, He will be your judge. I will never see the Lord Jesus as my judge.
Not like that. I will never go across the great white throne because the Lord Jesus, when he hung on the cross, he bore all the judgment for me. He took all the wrath of God against sin for me. So I will never have to bear that judgment. I will never see that side of the Lord Jesus because He took all the heat of the wrath of God.
For me on the cross.
If you don't accept the gift as we had this morning, it's not for you. If you don't take the gift, you can't have the gift. He's can't force his love upon you. He will not force his love on you tonight, and that's why he wants you to look.
He's the sinner's friend. He wants to look at the cross and see him there on the cross. He wants you to see that He loves you. He wants you to see that he died for you. He wants you to see that He gave himself for you.
Paul, the apostle who wrote a lot of the Bible here in the New Testament, he says the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, he never got over that.
The Son of God who loved me, He didn't say love the world there.
And I've heard it said, and I believe it, that he would have went just for me to the cross of Calvary God.
Was sufficient in everything, but he needed objects to love. He wants to pour his love on you. He wants to be with you forever. He wants to have communion. But sin is in between you and a holy God and the Lord Jesus.
Has taken that sin and he's put it upon himself, and he's bore it on his own body on the tree.
00:25:05
Verse 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And here we see. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but the world through him might be saved. You know, men think that's what he wants to do is just He's condemning them, no.
No, He wants to show and bless you. He wants to show love towards you and bless you.
God.
Can righteously forgive you because the.
Sin question has been paid. We read that in Second Corinthians chapter 5.
And verse 21.
It says 2nd Corinthians 5 and 21.
It says for he God hath made him the Lord Jesus to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That's a very deep verse. I don't expect you to understand that verse if you're very young, but God put all my sins on the Lord Jesus.
And made him to be sin for me.
And that's why God could not look on his Son.
And the words on the cross. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? God? It was dark. No man saw the Lord Jesus. God had turned his back.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? No one could look on that holy one. It says we sing sometimes. The Holy One who knew no sin. God made him sin for us.
The Lord Jesus took all of those sins, all my sins, and he put them on the Lord Jesus and punished Jesus for my sins. Can you say that He paid for my sins, that he bore my sins in his own body on the tree? Can you say that tonight or you say it's nothing? So we read in Lamentations, it's nothing. Is it nothing to all you that pass by?
Is it nothing?
Just nothing. Another 5 minutes. The gospel is always nothing.
You're numb, get gospel hardened. You've heard the gospel so many times out of man. I took the dinner one time. I wanted to share the gospel with him, he said. You know I go to those kind of things, I find them entertaining and thanked me for dangling them over hell. Can you imagine that man is on the way to hell and he fools make mock of sin.
You know, there's a lot of men in business. I work with intelligent men, but they're fools for this fools. They're fools unless they accept the Lord Jesus Christ. They can be the smartest man, the smartest woman, they can make the most amount of money. They can be any, they can be famous and they're on the way to hell. They're fools. God says they're fool.
Tonight, be wise, listen to God, don't listen to the God of this world, the devil who whispers.
Like to close with two more verses in Romans.
Romans chapter 5 and verse one.
The Lord Jesus would like to give you peace tonight. There's not a lot of peace in this world right now. Peace is at a rare.
It says, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God. There's no one that can take you that peace away from you if you know the Lord Jesus Christ your Savior.
Turn your TV off, turn your in and off, turn your phone off and you'll have peace with God opening the Word of God.
You can't take this piece away from a believer that's walking with the Lord Jesus and communion. This is something that you can have right now. You can have peace and you have a peace right here. What's really talking about is that peace you have in your soul that you know you're His, and once you're His, you're His forever.
You know, don't even remember who I was talking to the other night. Get kind of old, you can't remember.
00:30:02
But I was talking about a friend of mine. Yeah, I think it was talking to Bruce here. I got a friend.
And he thinks you can be saved and lost. He's a nice Christian guy, but he never has peace.
If you don't have, if you think you can be saved and lost, you won't have peace. But you can have peace tonight because you know that you are now the sons and daughters of God. OK, now are we the sons of God? It is not. Appear what we shall be.
And you know, there's all kinds of verses we could go on for a long time that show you that you are once saved. You're always saved. The blood is either on the door or it's not on the door. You know, when that and the children of Israel, when the blood was on the door, you couldn't see it from the inside. It was on the outside. Who saw the blood? When I see the blood, I will Passover. God sees the blood of his Son.
It's not important what you feel tonight.
The blood is either on the door or it's not on the door. He says when I see the blood you can look it up for yourself in Exodus 12. When I see the blood I will pass over God sees the blood of God values the blood of his dear Son and you are safe and you can have peace in the last verse, Romans chapter 8 and verse one. Just sharing some of my Nuggets that I have a simple guy.
Romans, chapter 8.
There is therefore now no condemnation.
To them which are in Christ.
No condemnation.
Tonight.
Don't you want to have your sins washed away? Don't you want to have your sins clean? Don't you want to have to know the price has already been paid? There's nothing more you can do.
And if you're not saved, how do you sleep at night?
If you don't think you're saved, how do you sleep at night? Maybe you are saved and you don't. You don't know because you know what.
I remember my dad telling me there's not one verse in scripture to ever give a Christian.
Any.
Comfort when they're walking in sin. Not one verse in here. If you're walking in sin, you're never gonna feel good, never gonna feel saved.
You know something?
If you are walking in communion, you are saved and you will feel saved.
To know and feel that you are his.
Can my girls had to remind me growing up? Dad feelings are real.
There's a gospel tract.
And I understand, says Factor feeling. You can have both tonight.
You The facts are that you are saved and you can feel saved because you will be walking in the sunshine.
Of the love of your Savior, let's give thanks.
John 14:1-8
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Start him, we just, sang said with respect to the journey.
Guide us, hold us, feed us, keep us calm.
This chapter, in a wonderful way, brings everyone of those items before us.
And.
Are in the remarks before the prayer.
Immediately made me think.
Of the comment that I've many here have heard many times.
It's the treasure we found in his love that has made us now pilgrims.
And to emphasize that in this chapter, the three prominent ones that are identified for us besides ourselves is the Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus and what he was saying.
Was counting upon the love that had been produced in them for himself as a treasure to their souls that was going to be with them for the journey and make them want to have it.
And so that is connected with it, but at the same time, the three that take us along the path to the end and it would encourage our hearts.
Are the Son, the Father and the work of the Spirit so that we might make that journey in fellowship with those that are waiting for us at the end of the journey. One more comment about it.
We anticipate the joy that is to be seen and ours when we get to the end. The Lord Jesus made the journey before us and as it says of His own.
In Hebrews chapter 12, who for the joy that was set before him, endured. It's not His atonement there, but He endured the path of faith.
The journey of faith as a just like we will and need to to the home. But what did he look for at the end? The joy that was set before him at the end of his journey. And one final illustration.
Everybody knows. At least that's old enough to know.
What it's like to anticipate somebody coming to your house.
And if it's really looked for and anticipated?
Often they're watching out the window.
And sometimes they can't even wait until you get to the front door, but they got to get off out of the house, down the steps to the car, and as soon as you get out, embrace you because of the joy that is their heart for your coming.
The Lord Jesus has the same character. When the end of the journey is near, he won't even be able to sit in the Father's house and wait. He will come.
And he, if you will, to use the illustration, they'll come right out and welcome us and take us in.
Perhaps it's helpful to see what was troubling their hearts in the first verse. You go back to the last verses of chapter 13 and.
Simon Peter said unto verse 36 Unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go?
Thou canst not follow me now that thou shalt follow me afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thee. And then he gives them the reminder that he was going to deny him. And so there the fact that he was going to leave them troubled their hearts. And I love this.
00:05:00
Troubled hearts, brethren.
We do not have reason to have troubled hearts, and yet there is much in this world, if you're occupied with it, that troubles the heart. I'd like to go back and compare it with in John chapter 12, where the Lord Jesus in contemplating what was before Him.
Says in verse 27.
Now.
Is my soul troubled?
And what shall I say, Father, save me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour. We don't have Gethsemane and John's Gospel.
But if there's anything that relates to it, it's these verses, brethren.
Because it's the.
Dilemma if I can use that word, the Lord Jesus looking ahead to the time when he would be made sin for us that sinless.
Holy, spotless Son of God, everything within him shrunk from that.
And that's why, he says now is my soul troubled?
But then, brethren, to think that he says to these disciples, let not your heart be troubled. I I think that's so extremely beautiful, brethren, given what has been done for us.
In Redemption's work.
There is nothing really that should trouble us, trouble our hearts.
It's a challenge, isn't it? Because I have to confess there are things that trouble me.
Naturally speaking.
The first word in the chapter is let, and when you come across the word let in scripture, it introduces responsibility.
So we are responsible to keep our hearts to not be troubled.
We all fail in it, but it's there.
It doesn't really define what in this world that would trouble our hearts. Simply say that let let not your heart be troubled. And I'm sure many of us can fill in the blankets if it were that there are many things in our lives that trouble us. But that's not really the issue of what would let our heart be troubled. As if He gives us the immediate answer rather than.
And focus on our problems. He said ye believe in God, believe also in need. That's the answer, isn't it that whatever trouble you we we can reach to even the word of God. We find many of his sayings of old were troubled by many ways he can read through the book of Daniel. Do you think Daniel was trouble? We can read through Joseph Moses we can name almost.
Warning that they have different type of circumstances that the Lord put them through, but as if it doesn't matter what it is. You believe in God, believe also in me. You know they have stories of how people were prisoner of wars and what kept them going was the hope of being home with the loved ones. So here the Lord define what we need to look.
Or two, not the difficulties at hand. I don't know. How many of you been camping? I'm not much of A camper. You know, often you go to a campsite. If you're picky, you're going to find a lot of things wrong with a campsite. And I remember we rented a cottage one time and with a deck and my daughter noticed. I reached out my hand trying to fix the rain gutter and she had to remind me that that's not your house.
We have a tendency to think this world is ours.
What do we have is ours. Rather than look forward to what is to come in my father's house, how often do we dwell on that in my father's house? So I'm just going to stop there.
00:10:01
The Jew was.
Prepared their whole lives to.
Believe in God. No man hath seen God at any time.
They believed in one who they couldn't physically see or touch.
The Lord Jesus was there as one that they saw and touched and handled, as John writes in his epistle. But he was preparing them, as we all know, for that coming short time from then that he would be going away.
And just as they had believed in God, who they couldn't see by faith, he was going on high back to his Father as he told them over and over again in the John's Gospel. And they were to believe in him in that character in a new way. And he seeks to prepare them for that separation. But it wasn't going to be for forever.
He says in verse 2, I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again.
Receive you unto myself.
In Paul's ministry we read in First Thessalonians 4, the Lord himself shall descend from heaven. He sends angels for the elect on the earth to gather them together, but He comes personally for His own and will usher us into the Father's house.
I think it was brother London made a comment once that stuck with me. He said he's going to introduce that home.
Into that place where he has dwelt for all eternity. That's quite a thought.
People pay money to go into castles and famous people's houses, where they lived, where they were born.
And they walk around and they look, this is where he slept, this is where he read at his desk in there and all that. We're going to be taken to the very place where that eternal love, reciprocal love between the Father and the Son, which now includes us, we're going to be taken into that place.
It's.
Astonishing.
Any promises in the Old Testament that all only were dealt with the world and the earth and blessing here on earth and the Kingdom set up here on earth? The Lord here is introducing us into real Christian position, heavenly position. The Lord is going back to heaven He was going to.
Come back and receive a people for himself there.
This is heavenly truth and it's new. It's distinct from Israel blessing and promises. And so now we as Christians, it's nice to be intelligent about what our blessings are.
Often times and I think I I get together with some local Christians, ministers and all and they we sing to him often times together. Count your blessings and and there there are many blessings.
That people think of as earthly things, as blessings. But really, this really opens up Christian blessing here, doesn't it?
That he said there are many mentions. I'd like to know the new translation, say a bolt. I think of mentioned to be a cold place. You know, sometimes we get these tourist places where you can visit a mansion and you go there, you picture this great huge place and I don't feel that's my home.
It's kind of nice to see a living room.
That is huge enough that he can have 1000 people in there. That's not home. But here the word the Lord in the in the new translation is the word abode. A dwelling place is to me sounds a lot more personal because the Lord saying there's a place for you to dwell what you and I will be together.
It's not about all of us together, but each one of us as if it were. There's a place and where he is.
You this is very personal me have a place to be forever with the Lord.
Life to care First one with 27.
00:15:03
Let not your heart be troubled.
And then he goes from that verse, if I could put it this way.
To give them reasons why their heart doesn't have to be troubled. And when we get to verse 27.
He summarizes some of it and he says, peace I live with, leave with you, my peace I give unto you. And if we learn.
To enjoy that peace in our daily life and in our soul that He gives to us. He then says the same thing He started with. Let not your heart be troubled.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. If we really enter into the preparation that's given in the chapter, after he's presented it to us, He goes right back to where he started and says to them the second time, Let not your heart be troubled. And he has made provision if I have peace in my heart.
That he gives to me the character of the piece that he had in his heart when he went through the journey.
I'm not going to be afraid and I'm not going to be troubled.
And yet there are reasons. If we're afraid and we're troubled, we at that point don't have the.
The enjoyment of the provision made for us and it can be connected with Matthew Chapter 11.
Well, I won't turn to it, but a comment.
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I'll put it this way. Come to me all you that are troubled and burdened.
And I will give you rest.
We come to Himself to find the peace. We come to him which he gives. We come to Himself. He tells us why he had rest. I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. And one of the reasons why we are troubled and is because we haven't learned.
To come down into that place that he took.
And.
I am meek and lowly in heart and that's where we find rest for our souls and that's where we enjoy the provision of Himself for the journey.
I find it interesting in verse 2 That he says in my father's house. Why doesn't he say in my house? Wasn't that where he always dwelt? Yes, but it was his father's house. It was in him. 127 dwells in his bosom, knoweth all that in that bosom lies and came to earth to make it known.
That we might share his joys.
The father's house is the place of the enjoyment of the father's love, and that's what he wants us to come into. That's where he's bringing us. But I, I love the context of this because.
President, I don't know if you've had the same thought. When we get to the glory, there's going to be, I would guess we should say, billions of the redeemed. Aren't you going to be kind of lost in the crowd up there?
No, no sense of being lost in the crowd.
Everyone will have a specific place of identification with the Lord Jesus, of nearness to Him, of enjoyment of the Father's love. And so I probably mentioned this to some, but when I was in the Dominican Republic last year, we visited a brother that has eighteen children.
And so when I was there in his house, I said, which of the 18 is your favorite child?
He looks at me and he doesn't answer anything, he just shakes his head.
No, there's no favorites, but you know, you have multiple children. There's certain ones you appreciate in a different way. Everyone is different, and I think that's the way it'll be. There will be an individual appreciation of the enjoyment of the father's love for everyone. You're not going to be lost in the crowd up there.
00:20:14
I think that is so amazingly wonderful.
But let me take you back to.
First Kings chapter 6, brother. And I find this is very interesting because we have something I think that relates to this scripture, and I'm not going to read it, but it's verses 5 through 10 in First Kings 6.
And justice. Read a verse or two here And against this, talking about the temple that was built in Solomon's time.
Against the wall of the house he built chambers round about. Against the walls of the house round about both of the temple and of the Oracle, and he made chambers round about. The northernmost chamber was 5 cubits broad, and the middle was 6 cubits broad, and the third was 7 cubits broad. For without in the wall of the house he made narrowed rests round about.
That the beam should not be fastened in the walls of the house. So there around the temple were those chambers. That's where the priests would stay when they were doing their course of service in the temple. And so it's a picture. In my father's house are many abodes.
There's a place for you that I cannot feel, Brother David.
But there's a place for me that you cannot fill, an individual place. And I think even though it's amazingly wonderful truth, the truth of the one body, how we are baptized by 1 Spirit into one body. But here we have in John's ministry more the thought of the family of God and in the Father's house.
There is a place for everyone.
I go to prepare a place for you. Some people say he's been preparing the place for 2000 years. I don't think that's the thought so much. I think the thought is more and remember older brethren speaking about this, that when the Lord Jesus went into the glory as a man in resurrection glory.
The place was prepared because he went in.
Now there's a place for you and me in the Father's house to occupy as well. I thoroughly enjoy that.
We find that same thought in the future temple in the in the book of of Ezekiel. You can look into that in your own spare time. That's the diverse and the thought here the 4040 chapter on more so in the 41St chapters and is very interesting to think of those chambers and just one more out of thought to that too is today.
We think about our brethren. We have lots of people here. What about you? What about him? And I believe in that day when we're with the Lord, the focus is the Lord, not our brethren.
.2 is why does Mr. Darby in his translation use the word abode? It's we don't talk about abode so I don't think he talked about abodes in his day either. Well the word abode is related to the word abide.
The sense is a permanent place of staying, of abiding, and that would abide is one of John's favorites. John, I've said this many times, There are certain words he uses over and over again. They're like a hammock pounding a nail. As you go through John's writings, he repeats these words over and over again so that we get it, and abide is one of them. His translator remained.
I forget the various other ways that it.
It's translated, but it's the sense of an abiding place rather than everything that we are familiar with right now, which is temporal. And the other thing to that I would emphasize is it's less about the place and more about the person. And I think you brought that out just now, but that where I am, there ye may be also. And then Thomas asked the question, Lord, we know not whether thou goest, and how can we know the way he?
00:25:01
Sort of human question, well, where are you going? And his answer is not, we've talked about this at lunch sometime. When the Lord answers questions, it doesn't appear as if he's actually answering the question. And so he says, and not to skip over these verses because we need to get back to them.
Verse 6 I am the way, the truth and life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If he had known me, you should have known my father also. Well wait a minute, how does that relate to Thomas question? He said where are you going?
And he says, well, if you had known me would have known the Father. He is introducing the disciples into to the Father before we are present in the Father's house. Again, it relates to a person, not so much a place. We all want to know what heaven is like. It's human nature. But there is no place in Scripture that I'm aware of that actually describes heaven.
So we don't have to move.
After 1000 years, Nick.
We we get a sense of that in the earlier chapter of John because John's disciple came and asked the Lord Jesus the question, Master, where dwellest thou? I think that's a good question. They wanted to see, where do you live, Lord? Now what do we know about his dwelling place? We don't. He says birds in the air have nests and foxes have holes and birds in the air have nest.
The Son of Man does not even have a place to lay his head. So the Lord, what did the Lord say to them? Come check my mansion out? No, it didn't say that. He said come and see. They came, they saw, and I believe it said. And they dwell with him until the 10th hour, as if they stay with him all day. What did they see?
I don't think they saw anything physical that was attractive to them. They saw the person of the Lord Jesus and I think that would give us a sense, isn't it? They dwell with them. I like to think, Brother David, that's in the 1St chapter, isn't it, that they said, Lord, where dwellest thou? If you go back to the 18th verse of that chapter, I think you see his.
Dwelling Place.
No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son.
Which is in the bosom of the Father. He hath declared him. There was his dwelling place, wasn't it?
Not to go back, but I think it's helpful for not just the young people, but us old ones, older ones too, that he says, let not your heart be troubled. It doesn't mean that we're not going to have trouble. There's a difference between the two. The next chapter in verse 20, the 15th chapter, he says, remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord.
If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. In other words, he's telling them you are going to have trouble.
So it's very good that we keep those two thoughts in our minds straight. Someone asked me recently concerning an incident and I won't explain who because it's a little close to home, but I prayed for this. Why did the Lord let this happen?
And.
At the end of the day, after all everything had transpired and everything had worked out.
That same person could go back.
Sorry and say OK I understand now the Lord brought me through it and everything worked out in the end, but in the middle of it, it didn't seem like anything was going to work out that the individual had prayed for and so this is so practical own hearts. The disciples had known the Lord as the Messiah. The Lord asked the disciples who say that ye that I am and Peter responds thou art the Christ. They recognized who he was, but they.
Recognize the suffering Christ and Peter speaks of this and the glories that would follow. They had only seen the glories. They only had looked for the glories and their lives are about to be toned absolutely upside down. I can't say what's going to happen this next week. You look at this country and everything that's going on, how lives could absolutely be turned upside down, but the Lord is still saying to us, let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me, in my father's house, a many mansions. We have a father. He has brought us into a relationship.
That the Jews never had with God as Father.
00:30:03
We actually have given them *******. Thank you for reminding me of that the Lord's earthly dwelling was nothing but his true home. We have a sense of that, but not in the description that we like to see as a physical place. We're told in first John from a very let's turn with the first first John chapter 1 John witness of what the place is without seeing the place John chapter one. I'm just going to read the first few verses that.
From the beginning. Now this I believe, is the beginning of John's witness of what has happened, which we have seen as John and his peers with our eyes, which we have looked upon with our hands and have handle. Now here's what he saw, the word of life. Is it a place? No. How do you describe that word of life?
And then verse 2 for the life was manifested.
And we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that, oh, it's different thought now. Eternal life of life. That's where the Father's house is. If there is such a place, it's not a place. It's from eternity, the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you.
That you also may have fellowship with us and so on. That's his house, isn't it? That we can't fully comprehend that.
A lot of people spend a lot of money to get a nice house.
Millions and millions of dollars are spent and.
The richer a person is, the nicer it's assumed that they can have the ultimate house.
But if that person does not know the Lord Jesus Christ and they have the nicest house in the world, and you took them to the Father's house, they spend all that money to get out.
They would spend every dime they had to leave the Father's house. Why?
Because the one that whose house it is and his Son means nothing to their heart's desires and does not satisfy them. And in a practical sense, again, the the Lord Jesus here makes an assumption.
That the whole chapter depends on it really, and that is where I am.
It's himself, It's the Father that make heaven what they will be.
The physical characteristics are incidental and not even described, but the point of the journey and the desire for heaven is as he says and repeats over and over in principle. Here. I know you love me even though you don't realize it very well. And more than that, I love you.
To drive the nail home, John's Gospel talks about love more than any other book of the Bible.
And it emphasizes, first of all, the love of the Father and the love of the Son for us.
And it's a little bit like worship. You can't force yourself to love the Father and the Son more than you do.
A brother used to say, never try to love the Lord more than you do. Be occupied with His love for you and then God will work in you to produce that responsiveness.
That will give you what I can't wait.
To get home.
To be with the Lord Jesus, and it is the measure in which your heart is attached to Him, is the measure in which you're really looking forward to heaven.
I went to a funeral of a sister once and way out in the country in Maine, and the man who was speaking at the graveside quoted verse 3.
I if I go I and prepare a place for you, I will come again.
And receive you unto myself and so on. And he was applying it to what had happened to this sister while I was young in the Lord. But I scratch my head figuratively saying, wow, I never knew you could apply that. Look at that verse that way. Because though I was young in the Lord, I was sitting under good teaching at the assembly in Detroit, ME.
00:35:18
But this first does not apply to someone who dies necessarily when we die.
We who we are, leave our body behind and we go to be with the Lord. But this is talking about the Lord coming to take us. It's the Lord's coming and one of the first references to it directly that we have in the Word of God. He's going to come for us and take us to be with Himself.
That where and and it's not just take us up from point A and take us to point B, as the brothers have already mentioned.
Receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. I'm bringing you to me and you're going to and you're going to stay there and me too. You're going to be with me. So there's a lot packed into these verses.
As we as we know.
I just say that 'cause some may, you may.
Hear this interpreted that way, and I don't think that's the force of the passage.
When I was a child and my dad decided we were going somewhere.
When the time came, he said, get in the car.
And you got in the car.
I had no idea how to go where you were going. In fact, you didn't even think about it necessarily. You just played with your toys or whatever you did, looked out the window until you arrived. There was a effortless, painless travel and all you had to do was get in the car when you were told. And in contrast to that a little bit and the journey that we so often think about.
The wilderness journey was in the Old Testament when Israel was leaving Egypt to go to the land of promise.
Did they go alone?
How did they know when to move to the next camp?
Who provided the food?
And everything else that was necessary. It's a picture to us of what these verses say when the when Thomas asked the question, I don't know the way what is the way Lord wasn't providing him with a road map and.
A car with gas and say OK, here's the route. That's what we think about when someone says where do you live or where are you going?
We get our Google out and we do our thing. Not here in a far more wonderful and direct way the Lord is saying to us. I know.
And I'm going to go with you.
And the Spirit of God that's later introduced to us will be with you every step of the way. And just like the wilderness journey.
The When the directing was coming from heaven, when the time came it would direct them to their next campsite. The Lord's presence was with them by the Tabernacle among them, and He went with them all the way.
And I am with you always, the Lord would say to us and for us. Some of the Israelites realized that and some didn't from the history.
And it's important for us to believe in faith that the Lord says, I'm with you because we don't physically see Him. And it's a journey of faith because what sustains us and what the object of the end of it is.
Only seen by faith, but the provision is very real on a daily basis.
Just a practical.
Lesson to be learned in this chapter brethren. I find it interesting there's three disciples that ask questions. Here is Thomas in verse 5.
00:40:12
In verse 8 is Phillip and in verse 22 is Judas, not Iscariot.
And to me it shows.
Whether those questions were, you might say, well, there's not really very intelligent questions. Still, they led to opening up truth that is so very helpful. And so it's an encouragement younger brethren sometimes don't feel very.
Ready to ask questions but I think this shows how much good questions.
Can open up subjects, and it certainly did in this chapter.
Lord encourage that in our reading meetings. I think it'd be helpful.
What a wonderful answer to Thomas's question we have in verse 6.
I am the way.
The truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. What a wonderful verse to use in the gospel and even for us as believers. Wonderful. He is the way. It's not a matter I sometimes say to people that I'm giving the gospel to. It's not a matter of religion here.
Not Catholic, not Protestant, not anything else.
It's a matter of a person, a person that's going to penetrate death and come out victorious. He is the way. And to me, it's such a wonderful thing to get a hold of the simplicity, the wonder of that statement. I am the way.
If you're young and in school and you quote verses like this to your classmates, then the following question will most likely happen. They'll say, and I remember this when I was young too.
Are you meaning to tell me that unless a person reads this Bible and knows the Christian scriptures that they will not get to heaven and that there's nobody in heaven except you guys?
And I can remember in my ignorance, just I felt backed into a corner and I said, yeah, I guess that's what it says, but I wasn't really correct.
And I'm, and I'm happy now to have a better understanding because before the Lord Jesus came and was manifested, the the truth that of God as Father was not manifested. As you mentioned, Doug, 1/2 hour ago, this is heavenly Christian truth. No man can go unto the Father but by him.
And the Lord Jesus is the one that declared the Father.
As the Son, those 2GO together, the Father, the Son, God the Son of God. And but we read in Hebrews 11 and of course in the beginnings of our Bible there were men and women of faith for centuries that did not know God is Father. And in the way that you and I do, they never shall, though God is now come out and has manifested himself as Father.
And he's not going to unmanifest himself.
To be in relationship with God as Father, as we are Lord Jesus is the only way and the truth and the life. And so if I were a young person now today, I would be able to go back into maybe Romans chapter 2 or Hebrews 11 or other passages like that and be able to say just the judge of all the earth does, does right.
God is good.
And he was worked in the souls of men and women throughout the ages and he works in their hearts and he will reward them with heavenly blessing. But this is I like the way Doug put it. This is new and heavenly Christian truth from the lips of the Son of God himself. And so I think it I find it helpful to see that context of things.
00:45:11
His commandment is exceeding broad, and we're looking at a part of it here.
That pertains to our eternal blessing as as the as the sons of God.
You agree with that, Bob? Yes, Jesus is the only way, isn't that right?
Sometimes it's helpful to see things by contrast. So take those three things by contrast. Take me to a person of this world.
With all their human wisdom.
Who doesn't have the Son? Who doesn't have the Lord Jesus?
Involved in it and say can you tell me the way?
There's not a man living that has the capacity to identify the way. No matter if he's the smartest man on the world, he does not know in himself the way.
Give me a person on earth that can absolutely tell me with every statement that will be made on the Internet today, whether it's true or false.
And I submit to you, there's not a single person living that has the capacity to evaluate every statement that is made as to whether it's a true statement.
Or even if it's true, what the significance of it is with respect to truth?
Sometimes people were saying true things in the Bible in their process of lying.
There's a difference between just a fact and what here is identified as truth. And further than that, who can give me the life?
Give me somebody on earth today that can give me a life that is suited to heaven and that I'll get to go to heaven with.
It's by contrast the Lord Jesus is these three essential things that no single other person is in any one of them, much less this all of them that are all necessary in their place.
And when He came, man finally had in His person the Word that was the perfect revelation of the Father. In truth. He came and He brought life in resurrection. What man lacked, He brings that to Him, and He is in Himself the only way to it.
You need the Spirit of God to help us understand this because as man.
We try to understand it, understand things our way. Well, what's the way? Well, as if what's the way to get DP get get here to BTP. Well, you can argue with it where there's more than one way. You could come down this way or that way and eventually you'll get there. Well, that's a physical way, but this is the way to the Father's house.
There is only one way. There is no other way.
Well, is that the whole truth? And this world today often question what is sad? What is only is it the truth? Is it part true? And it's only true if you cannot prove me wrong. And how often someone said, well, do you have evidence of that? No, the Scripture is very plain. Thy word is truth. We need to go back to the basic.
That the very basis of redemption.
Is to be leaving in the word of God. Thy word is truth. This is truth from the word of God that there is only one way. But what is life? Well, our earthly thought would say, well I'm living, breathing, I have life and even scripture said life is in the blood. What we're thinking of this natural life.
We're Speaking of eternal life.
What if she turned on life, A life that goes on, that you will live on and on and on and on without dying? No, I don't think that's the thought. Neither is it. It's a life that is like God from the very beginning, before time was the life that God and Jesus, as we read in first John, get to enjoy that life.
Before things that we understand were made.
00:50:02
This is eternal life, so the only way to have eternal life is through the Word of God, more so the Word of God telling us that by the blood of Jesus Christ.
This is like eternal that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ do thou ascent. That is life, isn't it? That is eternal life.
So, Bob, I think that.
You've said this also. Not sure who came up with it. Doesn't matter but.
I think these things, that is called these three things. I'm the way, the truth and life. Without the way, there's no going. Without the truth, there's no knowing and without the life, there's no living. He's showing us this truth so our hearts won't be troubled. We don't understand this concept is truth. Our hearts could be troubled.
Look what's around us. We're going to be trouble.
These are reassurances, just not for unsaved people. These are reassurances for us.
And this is the way to know the Father, isn't it? Through him we come to the Father. So.
Isn't that wonderful, brethren? We have the four gospels and we have the record that the apostles have given us, like it says in first John.
What there? I better just read it to not get it wrong, but I think it's so beautiful the way it puts it. The life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us.
And so we can know the Father now, because.
Of the Lord Jesus.
We have to understand how far in this relationship.
An individual, the disciples, with God as Father was to them.
There's a very interesting.
Expression in the 16th chapter where the Lord says to the disciples in verse 23.
In that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you.
As I said, it's it's a, it's an interesting thing that the Lord is saying to these disciples. You ask me nothing. They had been used to going to him physically there in person and asking things off him. But he's telling his disciple that in that day and that day being the day when the Holy Spirit would come and indwell them, they could go freely to the Father and make requests of him. This was a thought that was completely.
To them, and yet for us as Christians, we have verses such as we have in Romans 8 where it says.
In verse 15 you have not received the spirit of ******* into fear, but you have received the spirit of should be sonship whereby we cry ABBA father. So every child of God from the littlest to the oldest in this room.
Has that within him that lets us say address God as ABBA Father. As I said, this was a thought that was completely foreign to the Jew and the disciples had to be brought into the knowledge of that relationship. So back in Matthew chapter 6 I think.
They asked.
They asked the Lord.
Actually, I think maybe it's in Luke. The corresponding portion Luke would actually ask the Lord.
00:55:06
How to pray?
Someone knows where to find it?
Luke 11.
I think.
Yeah, in Luke 11 verse one, it came to pass this He was praying in a certain place when he ceased one of his disciples. Son of Lord, teach us to pray. That should strike us as very strange.
Why did they need to be taught how to pray? But as I said, as I go back to what I said, they did not have that relationship with God as Father that gave them that familiarity to go to Him as Father to make their request known. This was all new to them. And this has already been said. It was the Son that revealed the Father to them that made known the Father.
But it was a relationship which they had to be brought into the good of in Matthew, where it was back in Matthew 6, you'll notice.
In those that portion how frequently refers to God as Heavenly Father.
He is beginning that introduction into that relationship that was otherwise foreign to them. We don't no longer address, we should no longer address God as Heavenly Father. We have the fullness of that relationship that we now know that we can say ABBA Father. But you know, we as believers, and I'm not faulting anyone for this, it's really a wonderful thing that we're so familiar with these terms and this relationship into which we've been brought that we sometimes lose the wonder of it.
The marvel of it.
The familiarity that the youngest child here that his parents or her parents have taught to pray.
Kneels by their bed at night and speaks to God.
Yes, you can do that. You can talk directly to God as your Father and he listens to every word. But these disciples were like little children in that sense. They were being brought into the practical knowledge of this relationship that was so new to them. Of course, at this point they aren't indwelt by the Spirit of God and so, so much changes between the gospels and the book of Acts that you almost wonder if you're reading about the same.
For example.
That was the first thing the Lord said in resurrection to Mary, wasn't it? I ascended to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God, so He can. Now we can address God as Father because of that work of redemption.
John 14:9-31
Reading
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On my heart, brethren, to connect our chapter.
With the afternoon address.
And I want to spend a few minutes to do so. I believe they are perhaps.
Far more connected than without thinking about it, we might realize.
In our chapter we have, as we had before, a journey to a destination, and the Lord Jesus was preparing his disciples for that time when he would no longer be physically with them.
And he would be going to the father's house, and they would be separated from him in that way. And so he prepares them, and he brings before them.
The importance of recognizing that there were certain things that they didn't have.
Unless he went away.
That's very significant, that for their blessing, for their good, He was going to be separated from them and they were going to receive as a result. And I'll just bring out one connected with the sun, one connected with the Father, and one connected with the Holy Spirit.
If you'll turn back a couple of pages to chapter 10.
And this has to do with the sun.
John, Chapter 10.
He says in verse 11.
I am the Good Shepherd.
The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the shape.
Here's the Lord Jesus.
As the Good Shepherd giving his life for the shape.
And he says I don't know if I can find the verse instantly.
I am.
Come that they might have life more abundantly.
10 verse 10. Thank you verse 10.
I am come that they might have life more abundantly.
That more abundantly is directly connected with what we had in the last address.
It was necessary for him to be separated from them, to go to the cross, to die, to be raised from the dead, in order to bring to them life more abundant.
And that life more abundant.
Was.
Characterized by life and resurrection.
And to go one step behind beyond resurrection life in John's way of presented it, yet I think it hasn't even better expression than resurrection life, and that's eternal life.
He had to die and in that way be separated from them in order to bring them into life more abundantly. Which was.
Described as resurrection life, yes, but also eternal life.
Because man was created initially in the first creation, directly connected with time.
In fact, to him We just Sang was expressing things of eternity. But we're so used to it we don't have words to express it. So it said endless ages roll.
In other words, when time shall be no more. But we don't know what that means in reality.
But God, in the infinite nature of his love toward us, is going to take us into being into a place and condition with Himself that's no longer connected with time.
It's connected with what himself he is as eternal, and consequently he says this to them because if you John's gospel gives us a mixture of time and eternity and many of the truths of the gospel, you can't pin down the time. They bridge time and eternity.
00:05:20
And their nature and their character. And he says to.
In chapter 3 to John the Baptist, I mean Nicodemus, she must be born again.
And introduces to him eternal life. Did John go home that day and say I've got eternal life?
You had no understanding. He went home and perhaps that day he was born again.
But being born again, he had no sense of the blessing that's connected with what's eternal. The next chapter, in chapter 4, the Lord beats the woman at the well and the Lord blesses her soul and clearly she gets life. She goes to tell everyone, oh, I've got eternal life.
Know if she had no clue, she had no understanding in that way. She just knew that this person, he said I'm going to you need a well of water in you and so on. And she needed something and she got it. But in truth, she didn't really know what she'd gotten in in in its true sense of the word. And so as you trace it through John's Gospel.
Did the disciples the very end of the gospel right to the time of the Lord's death?
If you'd asked John, John, even the one that wrote it, John, do you have eternal life? Your master's been talking about it for 3 1/2 years. You know what, John? I believe what I had to say, no.
I don't really know.
And.
The same was true of Peter and the rest.
They were being brought into a place of having life more abundant.
What they really didn't have the understanding of it until after the Lord's death and resurrection, because it wasn't until after death and resurrection that they were brought into the knowledge of what they had and the abundance of it in his character. And so in our chapter, it's necessary that I go away and it connects with.
Lord Jesus and He after his resurrection, brings them teaching wise into the knowledge and joy and understanding of that character of life. Because when the Lord gives eternal life, it's a life which is outside the realm of time as to its nature and as to its existence.
And yes, when they were born again, they got life of that because he's the giver of that life.
But the abundance of it could not be made known until He Himself had died and rose again. And then it's in that character that they entered into that life, a life in resurrection which in His very nature was eternal, and then the second one with respect to the Father.
In our chapter 14.
It begins with the word.
You believe in God.
You believe in God. They did.
I made a quick count this morning. I may have missed one or two if you go through the rest of the chapter.
I believe at least 23 times he refers to my God.
Or.
To to God himself or the five students Him. I'm gone 23 times. He refers to my father.
Or the father.
But not once does he say your father.
23 times or so he refers to my father or the father but.
And so it's the way it was until his death. Now turn over to Chapter 20.
In resurrection, the very first morning of resurrection.
And what is the very first message of Christ in resurrection?
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Communicating that's connected with if I go away.
We, John 20.
And verse.
16.
Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Robot eye, which is to say, Master.
Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not, for I'm not yet ascended to my Father, to who my Father pick up from our chapter.
As he repeats, is his father.
I ascend unto my father, and your father.
First time, first person in the history of man.
It was said that to whom that was said. It would never said to Abraham. It was never said to Isaac. It was never said to any person in the history of man until this woman. On what day?
The resurrection day and in resurrection.
They were, as He says, touch me, not because they were being introduced to new creation that would take them outside of time and into a relationship with God that had never been known or realized by any human being in the history of man until this morning.
If you will, the Lord Jesus, I think, couldn't wait almost He had to immediately.
Communicate the blessing that I'm going to not be with you.
I'm going to my father's house. We enjoyed the hymns. The father's house. You and I know it.
As our Father's house.
There wasn't a single person in the history of man up to this point that would ever have said Abraham never said my father's house. He didn't know God his father.
Neither did anybody else, because it wasn't until the death and resurrection of Christ that a work was done that enabled God to bring us into that character relationship.
It had to be into a character that was consistent with his own being as light and love, and until the work of Christ. We couldn't be brought into such a relationship of light and love where sin could not enter, and as such eternal life had no place until it was.
Well, in order not to go on, I'll just briefly.
In back in chapter 14.
With respect to the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of God, as it said in chapter 14.
He told them that that spirit was going to dwell in them and dwell in them forever.
What was necessary that the Spirit be able to do that?
They had to have a life over which sin had no claim.
The Holy, Holy Spirit of God could not dwell in one. He could work on one. He could animate one, as he did for thousands of years, but he couldn't dwell. He couldn't come to live in one who was in the earth, creation as their connection with God.
And so thou the Spirit could.
Receive ye the Holy Spirit as we had in the in the afternoon meeting. He could do that.
Finally, and to his satisfaction and bring them into again, I say I'll just thought I don't want to spend any more time the thought of taking us from what's of time and to what's eternal and giving us a life and a nature which is suited to the Father's house.
00:15:30
We can be a little bit incredulous or impatient with the disciples, including John.
When we just read from chapter 1 of John, read our way through because we tend to give the disciples credit for reading along with us and being exposed to what we've read. But I think it's helpful.
To realize that John wrote this gospel apparently very late in life. Historians tell us it was 90 AD, which would be.
Approximately 55 or 60 years after the Lord Jesus ascended upon high in the day of Pentecost and so on. And so as an old and aged man LED of the Spirit of God, because the Spirit of God, the Lord Jesus told us that the Spirit of God would would come and would empower them, enable them.
Bring things to their remembrance.
Because as you read through, you say to yourself, naturally, how did they remember all these conversations?
It's the Spirit of God brought to their remembrance, and it's an aged apostle with all the light and spiritual growth.
That he had experienced looking back to what he had gone through walking up and down with the Lord Jesus.
Sleeping where he slept, eating where he ate, going from town to town, from place to place, and all of these words that he heard in the Spirit of God gives him to express that. So I I feel we need to be a little generous to them. I say that in light of verse.
8.
Philip saith And him Lord, show us the Father, and it suffice with us, And we say, Well, that was an unintelligent question.
We're thankful though that he asked that question because of the profound answer that the Lord gave and John is might say, looking back and rehearsing these things which give a give testimony to their own, as dawn is said to their own lack of understanding or capacity at that time. And you and I also have the lens of looking back from all of the scriptures that we have in our lap here and.
To have.
Known that there is such a one as the Father and such a one as the Son, these divine persons, distinct divine persons, but one in the Godhead. We've learned that they at this time it was it was new.
And I would add to that his epistles.
Go beyond his gospel.
In teaching us what we have.
Particularly.
Brought into an eternal family.
The family of God.
And he doesn't develop. It's my father. The relationship we have in the gospel. We can say at the end of John's gospel, my father, God is my father. And I can say I have a father. But in his epistle we learn more. It's a really to me, a revelation. Beyond that, John was given to understand the nature of the family of God that we've been brought into as a result.
What John's Gospel emphasizes of his person and his work.
And so he addresses them in that way as being in the family of God. And so we have.
John was used of God, but the depth of this, the wonder of it, is such that I think that's why it's the last one, perhaps the last inspired scriptures that are written.
And so is bringing us into that which we so we just gradually get a little inkling for.
But we won't really comprehend in it and much fullness until we're there.
Question.
00:20:01
The Lord is not upbraiding. Philip or the others for lack of intelligence are not paying attention.
There's something else here.
What exactly is it? I mean, yeah, we, we will give the benefit of the doubt that they haven't been reading this along with us, you know? And it's only when the age of 1 puts these things back down, we can see it all in retrospect.
But what is the Lord really saying to them? What was the problem?
They were used to looking at things naturally as they walked with the Lord Jesus. And these are.
Developments or something that is far beyond what they were used to. And I think that's why. And I must say, brother and I find that's the case with us too, that our thoughts are so elementary.
They are so formed by our earthly way of thinking that when these things are expressed, we just kind of barely touch them and.
This this discussion made me think of a time.
Brother Chuck Hendricks was asked by somebody says when we get to heaven, will we see the Father?
And his answer was yes.
How well here it is he that hath seen me.
Hath seen the Father. He was the perfect revelation of who the Father was. And I think that's so tremendously beautiful. So when we look at the Lord Jesus, we see who the Father is. Yes, we will see the Father, and we can see him right now too.
When the Lord Jesus was preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, repent and so on, there are expressions where he says your heavenly Father or refers to.
Uses the name Father, but I believe it was to a Jewish mind and there is a passenger too in the Old Testament where the.
The prophet speaks of God, the God that they knew as Father.
But that is distinct from the revelation of the person, the divine person of Father that awaited the revelation of the New Testament. And this as dawn has been outlining out for us the the the sonship that we have by the Holy Spirit and dwelling whereby we cry ABBA Father and the knowledge of a believer that there is.
A father.
Let alone my father.
And also the sun that that revelation of the distinction.
Divine persons along with the Holy Spirit, that's new and new, what we call New Testament.
Truth I believe and so I think that is is is why Philip is asking this question, which it's kind of an honest question and and the Lord's revelation. I remember the first time I read this, it made my hair stand up. He that had seen me has seen the father. We don't want to explain John by using Paul necessarily.
But Paul.
In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
And so as John says here.
The Sun. It was the United thought of the Godhead.
That the sun would you might say, be that go go on point. He would be the one that would manifest declare God and throughout the scriptures the Holy Spirit takes a supportive place to to honor and exalt the Son and the Father is.
Content. I hope I'm not overstating to be manifested through the sun. And so here we are as John's epistle.
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We're brought into this fellowship. It's a triangle and we we have the Father and the the exalted Son and the Holy Spirit indwelling. This is the fellowship we're brought into and this is completely new ground that is being spoken about or or alluded to here in this chapter. It seems to me, I hope I haven't overstated any of that, but I think that's.
Excuse. Go ahead.
If the word problem is used with respect to it, the problem I think, is the universal one of faith.
That's the question, He says, and it's right here and in this passage, verse 1, you believe God and then he says tells them you believe God, believe also in me. And so he says some things and there is honesty. Thank God there was honesty in Him and what he said.
But then he says, show us.
I've got to see it for myself. And on the resurrection morning, Thomas says if I don't see, I'm not going to believe. And that's if I don't see with my eyes, I'm not going to have faith. And so he says to them, emphasizing it right here, he says.
Verse 10 He asked him the question, Believe us thou not.
Verse 11.
Believe me.
That is a you in verse 3012. He don't believe it. The the universal difficulty we have is not intelligence.
That is, it's not what we know, and we don't know that comes along. The one of the least intelligent believers on the resurrection morning was Mary, and she's the first one to get the wonderful blessing of knowing it's my Father and your father.
She addresses Him as Messiah. That's how she knew Him on the resurrection morning. There was faith and there was belief in her, but not intelligence. And the Lord was showing that a lack of intelligence is not a real problem to us learning.
What is the difficulty in John and every other? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
And from John 3 and so on the the question of each person that interacted with the Lord is do I really believe on this person or do I not? And.
It's still true today. Yeah, that was true with everybody. It's still true today. You meet, you go out that door, and the first person you meet, you ask them, and the root of the response is going to have to do with their faith, not their intelligence.
Yeah. I was wondering where the previous communication was. That should make him say, you know.
You know, do you believe? And it's in the first verse.
And in the 1St chapter, when they start to know him, the questions raised, well, we'll come and see. In other words, find out. You'll find out for yourself. And from chapter 1 of John, they're being encouraged in that.
When you get to his epistle, Paul, John, if I could put it this way, he assumes you believe.
And then Reveal makes shares with you what he has seen and heard and now understood.
That was what they had and their blessing as part of the family of God.
You forget what we have today. We have the Holy Spirit indwelling in us because the natural man cannot discern things of God. That is the biggest reason why we understand a lot we did here in this juncture. They were told, let not your heart be troubled. They look at it from the human standpoint. They had trouble knowing that oh, he's going to leave.
But at that point, they are told to believe, to trust in him.
Now I'm going to jump ahead a bit. It's interesting because we talked about God, we talked about the sun, we talked about the Holy Ghost. Well, here is using the word comforter. So he said, I'm not going to leave you comfortless. He's going to send a comforter indirectly. He's answering the question in the beginning. Let not your heart be troubled. Oh, because I'm going to send you a comforter so your heart won't be troubled, but.
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Time, as if you're not gonna understand this as yet, but it will come, that time is gonna come when they will be indwelled by the Spirit, like we have the privilege today of having the Spirit in US teaching us. And that's one of the function, isn't it? Where perhaps on to another subject altogether, like the Spirit of God teaches us about the things of God and leading us to Christ through the Word of God.
So it goes as if it's a complete circle. They don't know it as yet, but they shall and they will.
But the other truth too is the Father and the Son. He emphasized that too, that I'm in the Father and the Father is in me. The Trinity is being explained to them, yet they still don't understand that neither they have seen God because they have seen the Son.
Think of that relationship that we can call God our Father that like has been said is not known In the Old Testament times. Abraham was called the friend of God and wonderful Moses spoke to God, to God face to face, but none of them called Godfather. I must say within a in Psalm 22 That we read often.
On Lord's Day morning.
If you look at it and down through verse.
21 It's all the complaints of the Lord Jesus prophetically, as he contemplated the awfulness of the cross, what it would mean to them.
But notice in verse 21 he says save me from the lion's mouth, and that's the last.
Petition in his complaints, and he says, the second part of verse 21. For thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. How was he heard?
He was heard in Resurrection.
And what does he say immediately?
I will declare thy name unto my brethren. And that's exactly what he did when he started. When he comes in contact with Mary Magdalene, that's been read in this meeting already, that he says to Mary Magdalene, I ascend unto my Father, and your father He declared unto him the name of the Father, and so.
This is something we need to learn to enjoy, brethren.
We speak to the Lord Jesus and that is very proper, but we need to learn to address the Father to enjoy the intimacy of that relationship. We are his sons and daughters and his family. We can address him as Father. I think that's so wonderfully beautiful. It seems like, like I think Don mentioned.
God could not or the Lord could not wait.
But that was the first thing he communicated. I send unto my Father, and your Father. He declared unto the his brethren the name of the Father.
I'd like to just point it out. If it didn't actually say it in the Bible, it would have been blasphemy.
You know they picked up stones to stone him at one point. Was it Johnny?
For making God.
His father.
Declaring deity. Now my my orthodox brother-in-law didn't like it very much. I said, So do you refer to God as ABBA? Oh, you know, he gave me a really sour look and he said Ave. national father, you know, but not ABBA.
Wondering, and I hope this is not out of place, but we read in John 20 of my Father and your father, my God and your God. I think of the precious promise in Revelation 21, seven. It doesn't use the word Father, but it's definitely implied. He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he will be.
00:35:14
My son, the word father is not there, but that definitely is.
Implied in the thought of fatherhood there and.
Hope that is not irrelevant.
That will be our enjoyment through eternity. You will not only be God, but that we will be His Son.
No way going to be able to go verse by verse in the chapter so I'm going to pick a verse, make a comment or two on and not try to follow.
Any chronology, if you will?
It's connected with.
Verse.
21.
Be that half my commandments, and keepeth them. He it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
Verse 23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If any man loved me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings.
Going to make a practical comment about it without trying to get into the what we might call the doctrinal side of it, and it's this.
The measure in which we are going to enjoy the truth that we've had in this reading meetings, in this conference with respect to.
Subject matter that is before us here is directly connected with.
Walking in obedience.
And our happiness and our enjoyment of these things, and our peace.
These things do, and the God of peace shall be with you.
Our enjoyment of our relationship with God as our Father, with the Lord Jesus is directly connected with walking in obedience. And if I walk, say yes, I'm going to heaven, but I want this. I want. We may not say it, but we live it.
Something else is the focus of our attention and our hearts.
We are not going to enter in much into the enjoyment of this the truth that we have. God has to occupy us with ourselves when we're not walking to please Him and when we are walking in obedience.
I delight as he said, I delight to do thy will.
Oh my God, that was a perfect expression of what the Lord Jesus delighted in in his life was to do the will of the Father and when we are submissive and obedient in that way.
The practical result is the enjoyment of these things. Because he's free. The liberty of the Spirit is free to bring us into the enjoyment of them. But if.
We're walking our own way. The energy of the Spirit is the Lord abandoned us? No, He's just as much with us as whether we are or not walking obediently. But in the ways of God He does. He has to occupy us or occupy His own energy with bringing us into conformity rather than bringing us into enjoyment.
If you go back to the Old Testament example of Jacob, there was faith in Jacob. There was an appreciation.
Of the promises of God.
Boy, he didn't enjoy a whole lot of his life in fellowship with the Lord.
He was the Lord had was to constantly having to work with him because.
00:40:05
He he wanted to get the blessing his own way and he was, if you want to characterize his life, he was a schemer.
I think we had otherwise and it was could we say?
Our times are in thy hands regardless. Yes they are.
Make one quick comment about that him I enjoyed as it was some the first 3 verses of that hymn. Our times are in thy hand are with respect to whom?
Who were they first 3 verses? Who were they in respect to when we say our times are in my hand?
We set it to somebody who we say it to or sing it to.
Father, we wish them there. The first 3 arts of the Father, the last three are to the Son.
And so the first three our times are in my hand, Father. We wish them there.
The first four.
Jesus the Advocate or Jesus crucified one and then chapter verse 5, Jesus our advocate.
And so we're we're in the Father's hands and we're in the Son's hands regardless, but the enjoyment of it is directly connected with fellowship with God.
Just to add to that, him was the thought to that not only the first 3 addressed to the father, but the first family. If you look at it, you can summarize what one word called dependent upon the father. The second stanza he can use that word for submission, which we don't often practice that. And the third stanza, if you can use one word to sum it up is confident. So we have to have dependent.
Submissions then we have confident and there's more. I don't want to prolong that with the Lord himself.
Speaking about the Holy Spirit, when he uses the word comforter, it's the same word as advocate that's used in first John 2IN relation to the Lord Jesus, it's one who represents us completely, but just want to draw attention to something that's helpful in verse 17 says even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not.
Neither noreth him.
But ye know him, and this part is what I'd like to comment on, for he dwelleth with you.
The Spirit of God was in the Lord Jesus. Of course, he came on the Lord Jesus at his baptism, and so he was with them. He was an indwelling them. Yet that couldn't happen until redemption's price had been paid. But then it says and shall be in you. That's future.
So it was only after the Lord's resurrection that he actually.
Could come upon them and that happened at the day of Pentecost. Although it's interesting what brother Bruce was bringing out that.
He breathed on them and said, Receive ye Holy Spirit. In other words, he was communicating through the Spirit of God that life in resurrection, just as he had breathed into man's breast, the nostrils, the breath of life. That was natural life.
Now in resurrection, he breathes on his disciples and communicates to them that resurrection life that we now enjoy.
You know, it's interesting we live in, as you've been talking about a most magnificent time, right? Because we are sealed.
With the Holy Spirit, we have the Holy Spirit inside of us and as we've been talking about that He will teach you all things. And so we are so abundantly blessed more than anytime ever in history because of the Lord's work at the cross. But then also just like on when the Lord came upon the two on the road to Mayus, He made as if he would go further. And so in our lives too, He we know that you can quench the Spirit or grieve the Spirit.
00:45:03
So as Don was talking about, for us to appreciate these things, we really need to, as John the Baptist said, he must increase, but I must decrease. So if we can get to that.
State in our hearts, so to speak, and we know all the other scriptures where they can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, I can. Without Him I can do nothing and everything else. But we don't always apply that in our lives and the Lord does not force it in our lives because we can quench a spirit, but we have an opportunity.
To really put ourselves in the background and bask in the sunshine of His love. And the most magnificent thing that's ever happened that when we were dead in trespasses and sins, the Lord came here to redeem us. And now we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. He's given us this wonderful book that contains all things that pertain to life and godliness. But then in our lives, you know, the enemy can come in and whisper things and we have to think about where.
Coming from and I don't mean the enemy is very subtle and so you have to examine yourself and say is is this really a thought of the Lord or is this the enemy trying to discourage me distract me, put me on a wrong path. And I've been visiting with others and people have heard me talk about it in this room too often that the the one of the greatest tools of the enemy is discouragement because.
If if you keep hope, and we have every reason to be hopeful both in this life and the life to come because.
As another said, hope when it comes to God is a deferred certainty. It's not hope as we think about it. And so someone was talking about it that we measure things. I think Bob was saying we measure things kind of horizontally. But we have a new life. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. So all of us have this opportunity.
And as we walk in it, and I think, you know, I'm sure at different times in our lives, we've all experienced.
That you have had these periods where you really enjoyed the Lord deeply in your heart, maybe you know, and hopefully maybe very privately, but sometimes publicly. And it gives you a peace and a joy that passes understanding, right? But then all of a sudden the cares of this life come along. The enemy whispers some things. We get a little discouraged, we get a little distracted, but the secret is then to turn our eyes upon Jesus.
And and avail ourselves of all that we have and like, Jude says.
Keep yourselves in the love of God.
You know right it says now by the faith, hope and love these three, but the greatest of these is love. And so God is like God is holy, but his love is so awesome, so infinite, and it is available for all of us to bask in as we journey on here waiting for his return. And so we can take courage, be hopeful, be a blessing to one another, speak words of life and and have our lives transformed because we are in Christ and is a new.
And we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. So we are so abundantly blessed. And that should fill our hearts with joy as we carry on. But of course, if you're like me, you know, maybe a few days from now might not be as enthusiastic, but hopefully I come back to that and you too.
Just want to go back a little bit perhaps for some of us who are a little bit slow in understanding.
I think someone mentioned those three questions in there and I thought that was a good framework to help us summarize the chapter. I thought that was a good way to put it. The first question was in verse 6. Thomas raised that question. Lord, we know not whether thou goers and how can we know the way. And I think we spend a bit of time on knowing where he has gone and.
Perhaps if you are not clear on that, there'll be some reading to do afterwards.
And then the second question was in verse 8, Philip that we just spend a lot of time in the last few minutes speaking on the question Phillips has was show us the father and it suffice of us, and I trust that that was answer to understand the father, we have to understand a father and a son working together that they manifest each other and to know too that we mentioned about.
For turn the Holy Ghost, that too is sent down from the Father by the Father. And then one more question in verse 22. That will be Judas, and specifically tell us not Iscariot. Is it Lord? How is it that thou will manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
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And I trust that over the next few minutes, if we don't have to answer, that will be answer shortly.
It's interesting because.
He speaks in verse 21, My commandments.
In verse 23, my words.
And.
It's interesting because if you go to John's epistle, you have that same.
Distinction, My commandments, my words. And so he says in verse 23, If a man loved me, he will keep my words, and my father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. That word abode is the same word that is used in verse 20, verse two of our chapter.
The word mansions is really a boat. It's the same word. In other words, an abode that is being that is he said would be prepared for us, but in verse 23 is a place of an abode. The Father and the Lord Jesus will come and make our their abode with us.
And it's through keeping.
Not only his commandments, but his word. And I'd like to just say that his commandments, there's things that he specifically tells us to do or not to do. And there's many commandments in the New Testament. It's not just 10 commandments, it's many commandments.
Rejoice evermore. That's a command, isn't it? Do you rejoice always, Brother David?
But that's a commandment, isn't it? And I like to think of it that way. But what's the difference between his commandments and his word?
And I like to think of his word as the expression of his mind, of his thoughts. And he wants us to share that, not merely the commandments, but his thoughts. And I sometimes put the illustration, if there's two boys in a family, one of them always obeys his father when he gives them a command, but he's not that close to his father.
But there's enough. The other boy is obedient too, but he's close to his father, and he's talking with his father about all his father's thoughts and desires. And which of those two boys has more confidence to come and to make a request of his father. It's going to be the second one because.
He's one who has cultivated his father's confidence.
And knows his thoughts about things. That's his word is the communication.
Of his thoughts and so it's not only keeping his commandments, but it is keeping his word. And in that there is a special.
Blessing in that the Father and the Son will make their abode with him. Just let me point it out in first John chapter 2, that same distinction. I find it interesting. Perhaps others have something to say about it too. But notice in verse.
Four of first John 2 and verse four. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar.
And the truth is not in him and verse.
Let's see here.
Good, thank you. But whoso keepeth his word, in him, verily is the love of God perfected. So there seems to be a further step of enjoyment if we not only keep His commandments, but keep His word. It's acquaintance with God's thoughts.
In his word.
That's the direct.
00:55:00
Answer to the question in verse 22, How is it that that will manifest thyself unto us and not under the world?
Does the Father and the Son come to abide in a person of the world?
Of course not.
And if they don't, then they're not manifest in the heart.
So God manifests in our hearts, He makes himself known in our hearts in a way that a person of the world has no idea, no sense. There's not manifested to them what we have in our own hearts.
If you talk to a person of the world that doesn't know the Lord Jesus.
That Scripture teaches many things that's in there incapable of knowing, understanding, appreciating, caring about the things that might be the most precious of your life. And you can speak to an unbeliever and all the intellect in the world can't understand it. It's not a matter only of the intellect, it's of the heart.
And if we don't have hard knowledge, then our head knowledge of the Father and the Son is.
Useless. It's incomplete in that way, and so the Father and the Son are not manifest in the relationship here unless there is.
The relationship itself has to be there. Another thought in verse 22, and this is showing where they were coming off of Israelite ground, is that to the Israelites with their earthly promises. If God was making manifest, it would be obvious in the world. Worldly prosperity, worldly blessings.
And that's what the world is looking for today too, in the Christian life. How does this do me any good? How do I find? How does this benefit me? And the answer is that for us today, there may not be a worldly benefit, a visible benefit of God manifesting himself to us. There's something much greater when he's abiding in our hearts.
One question, one question I'd like to.
Press here in the verse 31, he says that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, Even so I do. Is this the only place where the Lord Jesus says I love the Father?
I can't remember of another flood, but maybe somebody can.
Since our time is up, homework.
Our Times Are in Thine Hands
Open—David So
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Turn with me to Genesis chapter 47.
It's not a common verse we're about to read.
Genesis chapter 47, verse 29.
And the time June I that Israel must.
Die.
I'm going to stop there with that verse.
It is the word, in that I caught my attention for the last many weeks. Is the word must. It's interesting, isn't it? By this juncture, Israel or Jacob was getting pretty old, but yet the word of God said it was time that Israel must die. If you look at the Darby translation, he would say that he he.
Should die Now I know we can use today's phrase it is appointed into man wants to die, but I.
Perhaps I stand corrected and some I thought, but I just want to share with how I enjoyed this part.
That what is it really saying is that he is being punished to die. I'm not sure if that is the right thought. You know, one thing interesting about Israel or Jacob in the name of Jacob was that I relate to him. He's a schemer and I think many of us can relate to that. Maybe I'm just offering that as a suggestion. I don't have any.
Definitive thought on it.
Is the Lord saying?
Jacob.
Don't try any harder, you're going to die.
You're not going to get out of this one.
I don't know.
That Israel must die.
Now it's not my thought to go through the life of Jacob. There are many things we can speak on about Jacob, but it's just the thought that there is a time appointed for us too. We sang in this hymn 209. We do we really believe that the Lord has set aside a time for you, for me?
It wasn't, it was a few years ago. I remember a brother said something about he was reaching his three score and 10. That was an interesting turning point. And I suppose I can echo that. And now I'm starting to feel that it doesn't mean that we're going to pass away at 3 score and 10. But it's sort of like a interesting turning point, isn't it? As I look around the room, there are many well past three score and 10, and some are perhaps halfway there. But here we sang this hymn. Do we believe what?
Our times are in thy hand.
And what we truly say, Father, we wish them there. What do we wish in His hand? Our life, our soul, our all. We live entirely to thy care, but during our lifespan.
Whether it's long or short, the Lord allowed that to happen, doesn't he? That we are all left here for reason?
I was thinking of Moses. You know, Moses, he said when he died, his eyes weren't even damn I, I can tell now that my, I need glasses to see. I need hearing aid to hear. I need a lot of other things. I take medications to be able to stay alive. You know, I use a respirator at night to be able to breathe. What we can say or Caleb could say, I can still go to war at 80.
And Lord set the Moses.
That was the time. It's interesting isn't it? Wasn't because he was no longer physically able, but that was the Lords time. His work was completed. You think of Eli, Elijah, Elijah there he said, Lord, take my life now. Jezebel is all over me. Take my life now.
What did the Lord say? No, I'm not done yet, not with you. It's a little bit more work to be done.
How was your life in a sense? Now I know we don't have a lot of time. I'd like to leave room for others to.
I like to go to the book of Daniel. I've been really enjoying it and is perhaps some of us on the Sunday afternoon California Zoom call being on it. But either way, it's good to turn to scriptures and the reason I use Daniel. There are many we can use example of. We could pick Joseph if we want to. We could have gone through the life of Jacob.
00:05:06
Like I said, Joseph, you know, Joseph is a good example.
From SF it went from bad to worse to almost better, and then to terrible before he received his glorious portion. But Daniel, we don't often look at that. Daniel, we associate it with the lion's den. With Daniel, we associate it with faith. I like to look at it just perhaps from the application side, not from the prophetic side. And I may not even read.
The first is there but in chapter 1 of Daniel just re couple verses here. In the 3rd chapter 1 beginning of verse one, in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar.
King of Babylon and to Jerusalem, and besieged it, verse 2. I think this is very important in the beginning of the verse, and the Lord gave.
Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand.
You know, we read this and we go, wow, this terrible king Nebuchadnezzar came and took over Judah, which is true, but what does it tell us in Scripture? The Lord gave Jehoiakim to the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was simply a rod of correction.
For the children of Israel, In fact, the Lord said, don't worry about Nebuchadnezzar. I think we learned that in Jeremiah. The Lord will punish Nebuchadnezzar for his deed.
But this is in regard to the sin of the people of Judah. But what's interesting is we we talk about trials while we said let not your heart be troubled. And the comment was made, we all have different trials and difficulties.
What about Daniel?
Daniel was the Prince.
Taking captive.
Is that bad? When you are used to a royal life now you become a captive, a slave?
I see young men, many young men here and I got to be careful how you use these words. Not only was she taking captive.
He was made a eunuch.
Man made him a eunuch. He's no longer a boy or man.
How do you feel?
Do you think that situation was bad?
I think it's any young man, any man for that matter. That's a terrible punishment, isn't it?
And if that's not enough, if you go into the book of Deuteronomy, it said for Moabite.
They're not to come into the presence of the Lord for generation, but you read to it, it says for a eunuch, even man made them a eunuch.
They are considered to be unclean. They can't come to the presence of the Lord.
I think that's a work of Satan, that trying to put enough circumstances into your life that you will say I'm not fit for the Lord's work. Have we ever felt that?
Difficult, isn't it? And it wasn't just him, his friends.
Project he'll remain faithful. Now my thought here to go through the faithfulness but to emphasize the circumstances they were put through. Now often when we read the first chapter of the book of Daniel. We are reminded them as young people and I believe they were maybe teenagers. I don't think they were that old and we used it to encourage young people to have a purpose of heart to serve the Lord they did.
Despite of all those difficulties.
Through the Lord's health, they have that purpose of heart. I'm watching my time here now. I like to go forward to chapter.
Five, we know this story, so we are just going to mention it briefly. Chapter 5 is the end of the Babylonian Kingdom. So we read in chapter 5 the writing on the wall, and I'm sure many of you remember that story.
That there were fingers started writing under war saying in verse 25, this is the writing that was written meaning we know the story right? And if you don't read it or talk to some of us here and then we find that Bell Shasha died that night. That was the end of that Kingdom.
00:10:18
Now I want to share with you something.
Some of you in your Bible, if you ever look at it carefully, some not or would have the time and would have the date written next to the chapter. So chapter 5, if you look at it, some of what would tell you it was the year, it would say 538 BC you know that's when it happens. Now keep keep that in mind chapter 6.
If you look at it, that was the same year right after when Doria's came. He was the new ruler on behalf of Cyrus.
538 BC.
Now here's what's interesting When I'm going to have to do some mathematics here. When Daniel was taken captive, it was 606 BC. So how many years have transpired since?
That's hard, isn't it? 606 -, 538? Well, let's cheat. If it's 540 it would be 66 years plus 268 years later.
Why is that important? Later on we read, I think in Chapter 9, Daniel, he said. Daniel read the book of Jeremiah and he realized that the 70 years of captivity is almost over.
Isn't it interesting to know that when we read the word of God we understand more things? This is getting close, so.
This is when he was put into the lion's den. Again, I'm not going into the story. Let's go into Chapter 7.
When we read, I shouldn't say we, I know what I read often. I don't read carefully. There are many things that I don't even notice. We think we know, so we go ahead and read it the way we think we know. This chapter is interesting. It begins to set in the first year of Belshazzar. We just talk about him, right? The king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream.
The first year of Belshazzar. Wait a minute, we just read Belshazzar in chapter 5.
Now let's make it clear he died. So that was the last year. Belshasha is not the first and you can cheat a little bit. You look at your reference, they will say it should say 555 BC. No I should clarify that the closer to us the number go backwards because it go from 600 to to to 5:50 to 400 and so on towards 0. So we have to remember to move your numbers backwards. So 555.
Is the time, but wait a minute.
When was he put into the lion's den?
That was Chapter 6. What year was that?
Five, 3818 years. Am I right on that number before that? Why is that important? 18 years before he was put into the lion's den, he had a vision of the kingdoms of the beasts.
Why so when he was?
When his faith was being tested 1 he was an old man 'cause that was 6068 years later he came as a teenager he would have been well over 80. Lesson #1 is the Lord does not test us only as a young person. We get tested as an older one too, don't we brethren? In fact, I I skipped his three friends. If you look at it, they were middle age man.
Tested them at the Fiery furnace, but here.
I don't know if I'm suggesting it right, but here's Daniel about to be put into the lion's den. But 18 years before that, he was assured with his prophecy of what's to come. What did he do with it?
Just hold your thought.
Chapter 8.
It gave us another little hint. Chapter 7 was the first year Belshazzar's reign. Chapter 8.
In the third year of Belshazzar's reign. More of that.
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Dream. Oh, I should say the vision in this case was interpreted.
Daniel was given these visions 18 years, then three years later more as if it were expanded to him.
We we have don't read up that now I'm trying to draw an application for us.
Have we learned prophecy?
Have we learned a word of God and learned that we don't really understand what it all means? And then a few years later we learn more of that? And if you're like me, I would say I still don't know what it really means. But isn't it good to learn that instead of from nowhere? And someone started talking. I have no idea what you're talking about.
Because we need a basis of something.
Now I am going to go ahead to the next chapter chapter.
9.
Now if you remember I said chapter 5 was the year 583818 years back.
It's interesting to see the chronological. Actually, it's not. It's referring to what Daniel have known as like some of us getting older sitting here, we say, you remember 20 years ago we met in Florida. OK, not that we've gone about 20 years, just a way. Sometimes we talk, right? So here in Chapter 9.
He said in the first year of Darius.
When is that the first year of the riots is the last year of El Shasha now as if he was back to that same time of 538. And just for time sake, I want to jump down here is what's interesting. We know about Daniel. Whether he understood what was said or not, we're not told, but it troubled him right through. And you know, brethren, is is interesting sometimes.
The more we know you think we should be happier, but yet.
The consequences of knowing what's to happen to this world bear weights on our hearts too, doesn't it? So here in the 9th chapter, Daniel, what was he doing? We don't know what he did before, but here we learned something interesting of what he did. What is knowledge? Chapter 9, he was praying. And I'm just going to jump down to verse 19 as if we get a chance now to ear drop into Daniel's prayer.
How was he praying? What was he saying to the Lord? Verse 19. Oh Lord.
Here oh Lord, forgive, oh Lord hearken, and do defer, not for thine own sake, Oh my God, for thy city and thy people are called by thy name. And whilst I was speaking and praying.
And confessing my sin.
And the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God.
For the holy mountain of my God. Yeah, I was.
Speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, and so on. We stopped there.
What was Daniel doing?
Praying.
I have to confess.
My prayers, Lord, you got to help me. I'm in trouble. Lord, you got to teach me this and.
How many times have we?
Say to our brethren.
Jerry, I'll pray for you.
And you know what the real truth is when I get home?
I forget.
What was Daniel doing with the prayers? Not only did he pray for the nation, for the people, Look, look at the wordings. Oh, Lord, forgive, oh Lord Hearten. Now let's go back a little bit.
Is there any recorded words of how Daniel has failed?
Do we know of how many times he screwed up? Now if I say that was Jacob will go Oh yeah, I can turn to quite a few places where Jacob missed his path. What do we know about Daniels pathway?
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I don't know of any. Maybe someone can correct me on that, but here he prayed to God for the city and for thy people. He didn't even see my people. They are God's people there. He can pray. He said he was praying. A brother mentioned the four components of prayer, so I'm not going to repeat that, but we'll see it here.
At confessing my sin and the sin of my people.
I think that's a wonderful, wonderful thing that he did. What sin did Daniel commit that we know of?
But He made the sin of his people as if his own. Do we own our brethren's problem?
And say we.
I know what I would do Lord, you should see you should see this guy here. I'm not like him. We were just reminded by the prayer of the publican and the other fellow, right? So here he pray for his people, he intercede for his people and he may supplications to God. And here's what's interesting. This is what 18 years later?
Then he find while he was speaking, not while he was doing something or nothing.
The ain't you OK? No, while he was still speaking in his prayer, that Angel Gabriel came and verse 20 And a lot of part of that is that he touched me about the time of evening oblation. That's the time where the burnt offering should be offered up. And he informed me and talked with me and said, Oh Daniel, I now I am now come forth to give the skill.
And understanding.
I think that's precious, isn't it? It takes prayers, it takes intercession for our people. It takes the acknowledgement, the humble place before God, for the people, before God would entrust his people's burden to him. So I'm just going to jump down there. Verse 24, not my desire to go through the 70 weeks, but notice the wording.
70 weeks are determined upon thy people.
Is there 70 weeks upon the whole world? No. In this juncture is telling us is God's punishment to Daniel's people, to the Jewish nation to to the nation of Judah and that tribe of Benjamin, he was revealed all this.
As an encouragement, I made a comment earlier. Sometimes we feel that we learned this. We learned that we have no idea what it means. Young people and I see some older one is smiling at me. Well, for all of us is the word of God. We have to learn.
Precept upon precept is interesting. You look, look on that first day in Isaiah, it's as if it's stuttering. It says precept upon precept, precept upon precept, and.
Here a little, very little when we have the desire to learn the word of God, God reveals things to us and here we learned. Now again for times sake, Daniel really have to learn that our all these kingdoms. He was told these 4 kingdoms 1 after the other, but all that doesn't matter. Those are the Gentiles power that God have entrusted for simplicity's sake. But at the end, what's important for.
Us too to learn is there is going to be an everlasting Kingdom.
We know that despite of all those terrible beasts, a picture of beasts, you know, it's funny, when Nebuchadnezzar saw the image, it was the golden image. When God told Daniel about the four kingdoms, they were reduced and it just beasts. They're wild beasts in God's sight. And God will overcome that because there will be a Kingdom.
That's going to overcome all that. Do we believe that? Do you believe that?
God has given us as if it were the ending. We know how it's going to end. Now. Again, I see a young man here. I will presume some of you like football games.
Can you imagine?
How exciting it would be if I someone said it, you can't go to the game. But I'll tell you what, I'm going to record this big game tonight and I'll let you watch it on the video next week. Would that be very exciting? But yet it's not exciting. But it's nice because you know who won already. He just didn't get to see the play by play and scripture. I'd like to view it as that We know how it is going to end that the Lord.
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US is going to reign supreme, there is no question about that. We're just not given the play by play. We're given some events to follow, but that more so we're to walk by faith and not by sight.
Overcoming
Open—R. Thonney
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.
Like to read a verse in first John 5?
First John, chapter 5.
Verse 4.
Really the.
End of the verse.
This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
Overcoming.
What does it mean?
I'm sure we all have difficulties in our lives.
And everyone's place is different.
What does it mean to overcome?
And when you look at scripture it says quite a bit about overcoming.
I'm thinking especially about.
The seven churches, and in everyone of them.
There is a word to the overcomer.
So what does it mean to overcome? It means the difficulty.
That you have.
You find the way to come out victorious.
And it's by faith, it's not by natural strength.
It's not by good intelligence.
It's by taking God into the picture.
And I like to think of David as a special.
Illustration.
When he comes because his father sent him to take food to his brothers.
And when he gets there, he sees the dilemma that is happening to Israel. Of course he had been anointed king.
In the chapter before chapter 16 I think it is and chapter 17 is when David comes.
And there he is, looking for his brethren to give him what his father had sent.
And they tell him, look at this giant.
And everybody was afraid of him, of course, his size.
And everything about him was so tremendously formidable.
But David said, why isn't there someone to go out and take care of this giant?
David did not look at the conflict as David versus Goliath. He looked at it as God versus Goliath. David had been in the wilderness with the sheep where nobody else was looking, and here comes a lion, here comes a bear, and they take one of the lambs out of the flock.
And David just doesn't say, well, it's just one lamb, let him go. No, he goes after it. That was something that God had given them and.
Says the lion rose up against him.
And it's interesting. It must have been an African lion because it says he caught him by the beard. What other lion has a beard? I don't know.
But he says he caught him by the beard and smote him and killed him. That's pretty amazing to me.
For a shepherd to do that.
But then he comes and he sees this giant.
And there's no one that will go to see to fight with him. And so he gets talking. Then he comes up to Saul, the king. And Saul's is impressed with his valor. And he says, because he says I will fight that giant and, and.
He says no, you can't, you're just a youth and he's a man of war from his youth.
But again, I say David looked at the problem as God versus Goliath.
No problem, no problem.
Everybody else was looking at it as me versus Goliath. You know, that's why we did. That's what happens. And we look at circumstances that we're facing in connection with our own ability and capability to take care of that. That's not faith. Faith brings God into the picture.
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And so David goes out to meet Goliath, and I'm just amazed at his courage.
When Goliath sees him, he says, Who am I that you send this youth out here? Come here, I will give your body to the birds of the field, and the appearance of the air and the beasts of the field.
David says confidently. You come to me with a sword and a spear. I come to you in the name of the Lord God of Israel, whose armies you have defied this day. I will take your head off your shoulders and give the hosts of the Philistines. He's talking like he's already king. Even though he wasn't king yet, he was anointed king.
But David runs to the giant. I've often thought it was me, brother, and I would stand back aways and take my shots from there. But not David. He runs. That's the confidence of faith, I think. That's so extremely beautiful, brother.
You got problems in your life. I think everybody does.
It's not a matter of your capabilities, it's a matter of bringing God.
Into the picture. Oh how important this is. I just like to go to Revelation chapter one or chapter 2 in connection with the seven churches just to take up the first church and brief the Church of Ephesus. It was a mentioned.
Earlier in the meetings that.
Here's a church the only complaint that the Lord has toward them.
Is in verse 4 Ephesus. I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love as mentioned this morning. Doesn't say thou hast lost thy first love, thou hast left it.
Brethren, to me, there's something that really searches my heart. What does it mean to leave your first love? It's not to give the Lord the first place in your life.
And that is so important. It seems like we have lost the sense of making the Lord.
1St in our lives when it comes to the meetings. I got something else. I'm sorry, I'm not going to be able to make it tonight.
Yeah, maybe some other time.
Brethren, is there something that's more important?
Than what the Lord has asked us to do. Is there something that we can say is valid excuse?
When the Lord has asked us to remember Him.
Each time until he comes, it doesn't say until I have a problem. That's too big, brethren. Or is there priorities in your life?
Is he the one that fills that? To me, it's so important to reevaluate, to think of the King of glory who came into this world.
And the one who made it all, really. And he went to that cross and paid the ultimate price. He gave everything to save my soul. And now I'm going to say there's other things that are more important.
Than doing what he's asked for me to do.
Oh brethren, this is so important for us to think about and to evaluate in the Lord's presence. Have we left our first love? Have we left making Him first in our lives? I think this is so challenging to my own soul and I say I want to present it to you. Do you have time to read His Word daily?
Do you have time to pray? You know you have to make time.
It just doesn't fall into its place automatically. No, you have to make time.
So when it comes to reading his word, I must say I find it a challenge.
I have the in my own life, a time when I after I get up in the morning to take and I on my computer I have a program that reads it to me while I follow in the scripture myself, and even then I find.
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Oh, I gotta remember this today. I forgot. I don't want to forget this and my mind's wandering off.
Not really listening.
Is he first in my life? Brethren, this is so important. Priorities.
To overcome. So it is overcoming and each one of the seven churches that are in chapters 2 and three, at the end, there's a word to encourage the overcomer. You know, the churches are directed to the Angel of the church. Then it's been explained to me as those that are responsible.
But when it's the word to the overcomer, it's if any man have ears to hear.
Let him hear. It's not to the merely to the Angel of the church. It's to anyone who has ears to hear.
You have ears to hear. You can be an overcomer.
Because you can have faith. How does faith come? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
But it doesn't come in a natural way. Brethren, God brings us through circumstances and it's to me is amazing to see. David, you mentioned Jacob, and I want to go back to the book of Genesis a bit to speak about Jacob.
In the 32nd chapter.
The.
When he's coming back from where he had, He'd left Israel and gone to his uncle's house and had married four women and had eleven children by then. And here he is coming back and he hears.
Your brother Esau is coming with 400 men and you can imagine.
What? He thought he had left Esau, and Esau was so mad at Jacob. He says, I'm going to kill him. As soon as our father is gone, I'll kill him. And now he hears it. Esau's coming with 400 men. You can imagine how he felt. He's out of a crisis time. And so it says here in chapter 32.
Verse 24 and Jacob was left.
Alone.
Sometimes God has to bring us to that point. We're alone. It's just between US and God.
There wrestle the man with him until the breaking of day.
And when he, that is the man, I guess, saw that he prevailed not against him he touched the hollow.
Of his thigh, that's Jacob's thigh, and the hall of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with them.
And he, that's the man or the Angel, really, it was.
Said let me go for the day breaketh.
And he that's Jacob said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? He said Jacob. He said, Thy name shall be called no more, Jacob, but Israel. For as a Prince hast thou power.
With God and with men, and hast prevailed.
I love that.
Jacob.
Prevailing with God.
You said Jacob was a Would you call him David?
Brother David, you call him a scoundrel, a schemer, OK.
He have power with God, this schemer.
How in the world does this schemer have power with God?
By faith.
He couldn't struggle anymore because his thigh was out of joint.
Couldn't do it.
But it was still there and he was wrestling. I like to just read in Hosea chapter 12. I found this so interesting brother, how it talks about it here. Hosea chapter 12 and verse three and four talking about Jacob. Here he took his brother by the heel.
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In the womb.
And by his strength.
He had power with God. Who's it talking about?
Jacob this schemer.
He had, yeah, he had power over the Angel and prevailed. He wept and made supplication unto him. He found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us to me this so beautiful brother, and so encouraging. We're living in days of the ruin of the Christian testimony.
Is that a reason to give up? Is that a reason to say it's all over?
No, it's not.
Jacob had to be brought to the point where he couldn't struggle any longer. But how did he prevail then? He just simply said, I will not let you go until you bless me. And to me, that's where Jacob prevailed, and that's what he did by faith.
To me, it's amazingly wonderful. He wrestled with the Angel and prevailed.
Brethren, God wants to make us overcomers. He wants to make us prevailers. We have difficulties, all of us, in different ways.
This is the faith that overcomes even our faith. This is the victory that overcomes.
Even our faith.
Reading of John 14
Reading of John 14:9-31
Resurrection Life
Address—B. Conrad
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.
In my mind to take up.
The subject of resurrection.
Not so much rehearsing last night. We had a very comprehensive.
Coverage of the subject of resurrection. And I'd like to pick up, Lord willing, with that subject in a, in a different way with the Lord's help. And so let's look to the Lord and ask for his help. Well, let's turn back to First Corinthians 15.
Just for a verse or two.
Verse three of First Corinthians 15I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
Last night our brother read, as I recall, from John 11.
In the passage where the Lord Jesus.
Presented himself to the grieving family.
And said I am the resurrection and the life.
You might think, well we have this life and then when we die.
Due to the thanks to the grace of God, will be raised, will be resurrected, but it's the opposite there.
It's the resurrection and the life, and that's what I would like to take up with the Lord's help this afternoon. Our brother very comprehensively as I, as I felt listening, I took up.
Several occasions when the Lord was here in his life of raising people who had died.
When the Lord Jesus did that here as man, certainly it was for a number of reasons.
In one sense, it was his calling card as Messiah. I am one, as the Scripture said, who has power over all flesh. I raised the dead.
It's a display of God's goodness because the miracles that the Lord carried out, including raising people from the rest of the dead, were always good. With one exception. With a fig tree, I think, if I'm correct in that.
There were also powers of the age to come when death and disease and sorrow and sickness are going to be rolled back.
So you have these multiple reasons why the Lord Jesus did that. But as the brother said.
Those ones that were raised from the dead are one who had even been dead for four days, as Lazarus was. He didn't take on a character like the Lord Jesus has now. He was resumed his natural life, and we assume that after a period of time he went the way of all flesh, gathered up his feet and died.
But the Lord Jesus, the resurrection of Christ, I see it more and more as I get older and as I spend more time in the in the things of God.
I can, I just feel we cannot overstate.
The importance of the resurrection of the man Christ Jesus.
It is pivotal.
The blessing of God's earthly people.
Depends upon it.
Because the prophet spoke about the shore mercies of David, Old Testament Saints blessings were ahead of them, and by faith they embraced embrace what was ahead of them that they didn't presently possess. And those blessings were going to be secured by one who was David's seed, also David's Lord. And so when Paul preaches in the book of Acts about the sure mercies of David, it's the risen Christ ascended positioning himself.
There to bring in the blessing for His beloved earthly people.
He's positioned himself there as well because it's the evidence.
That God is showing to man that he's going to judge the world. He's going to judge that world by that man whom he hath ordained.
He has given him power over all flesh, and he's given him not only the authority to execute judgment.
To to carry out judgment.
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And God's raising them from the dead is the assurance of that to all men. Acts 17. He's positioned him there for you and me. He's positioned him there to live for us on high. He's our great high priest, our advocate. He's the captain of our salvation. He's the head of the church, which is his body still to this present hour, as weak as we are.
As scattered as we are, which we should not have been, that's on us in our responsibility. But He's still the head of the church as arisen man, and it is God's seal with his own assessment of the work of the man Christ Jesus on Calvary's cross. What did God think of it? God showed what He thought of it because on the third day He raised him up from amongst all the rest of the dead.
The Lord Jesus had proclaimed.
I have glorified thee on the earth. And he pronounced that he was about to give his life to glorify God. And it's as if God looked down at the man Christ Jesus and said, what is my proper response? What is my he? He saw this life, displayed a life that came from heaven.
A life that went all through this world in perfection, showing every possible glory and virtue.
Man in addition to displaying all that God is in a man.
And so God, yes, he sent him in love for God so loved the world.
But he raised him in righteousness. Anything else other than raising that man up from among the rest of the dead.
And giving him a high and exalted place would not have been appropriate, would not have been righteous.
Because righteousness has to do with doing that which is right God. It wasn't righteousness that He sent him.
He didn't owe anybody anything. God, that is.
There was nothing incumbent upon him.
I think one of the participants in the book of Job says of God that if he gathered together his spirit and his breath all together together.
Then man would perish, go back into the dust.
One man went off in rebellion, God, as we all know, God could have closed the whole thing down and said, I did all that I could. I stretched out my hand all the day and no man regarded and he could have closed up shop and he would still have been righteous. But it's as we know God is love, and it was the love of God that sent the sun, for God so loved the world.
That he sent his only begotten Son.
The Sun in love to his father, in love to you and me.
Laid down his life on Calvary's cross.
And it's as if God looks down and says What is my proper response to this?
And anything other, you know, even giving him the headship of rewarding him with the headship of Israel as the true son of David, even rewarding him as son of man over all the nations, even being a head of angels is not enough. He says there's, there's only one and he seats in this man the right hand of the majesty on high. That's righteous. He raised him.
Business, that's a whole subject in itself, but I love to think of that. Gave him in love. Raise them. Yes, it was love, but He raised them in righteousness. It was the right thing to do and God has done it. And there is position there, like the nail fastened in a shore place we read about in Isaiah. And God hangs all the glory upon him. He's a nail fastened in a sure place.
An earthly wisdom says while you you don't put all your eggs in one basket.
If some of you are working in finance or business, you're investing people's money. Well, we've got to diversify. God does not diversify. He has all of his assets, if I could put it that way. Everything vital, it's in the man Christ Jesus, whom he has raised from the dead. And so it's not only Christ, but Christ risen.
Before we get and I want to take up, I would really like to speak about.
Life that you and I have. Massive subject.
I'm only halfway qualified to speak about it.
I'm halfway qualified because I have it just like you do. We share this life that has been communicated to us. But it's like Jonathan Lebend when I go out to Wyoming and see him there and he's in love with the Grand Teton Mountains. I think if I if I know properly, the Colorado mountains are even higher than the Grand Tetons. But what's majestic about these mountains is they just, you're in a plane with Buffalo and up they come.
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Majesty from the plane in those high mountain gorgeous beautiful peaks.
And when I take up the subject like life from God or even the subject of the resurrection, I feel like I feel like a little boy standing in front of the Grand Teton Mountains. So I really feel, I really feel I'm talking about things that are way above my pay grade, as we say. But there are things that we enjoy and there are things that we possess and God would have us enter in and learn and enjoy more and more of what we possess before.
Full liberty of glory.
Let me read a verse in Ephesians chapter 1.
To introduce this subject.
Of what we often call resurrection life.
The raising of the dead that our brother spoke about last night.
Was, as I mentioned, a token, a picture and evidence of all of those things.
That's all in the past.
And as he described the resurrection of the just the resurrection of life.
Is partly passed and partly future.
The resurrection of the just has, if I could put it this way. I don't want to sound mundane.
But it's got three steps to it, or three installments. The first one has already happened. It was a group of one.
Resurrection, we have to always remember, has to do with the body.
I heard a brother say that.
Years ago and it just helped me so much. It just clarifies so much to me. It has to do with the body.
Because if the Lord takes your life right now, your body is here, but you yourself, the you that lives in that body, immediately absent from the body present with the Lord, will always try to explain this again at funerals, especially if there's children there. And it's good for the children to be there.
And so the first installment has already taken place, there is one resurrected.
Human one, resurrected man. It's the man Christ Jesus, and he's in heavenly glory and God has awarded him, rewarded him with the highest place in heaven. Even seated on the right hand of the majesty on high, he's worthy of that place and no less.
That has already taken place. He's been there. He's there as a man, spirit, soul and glorified body. And the next installment of that resurrection could happen today.
When the Lord descends, as we read in First Thessalonians 4, into the clouds of heaven and gives an assembly shout, and those that have died in faith from Adam on shall be raised and be with the Lord Jesus in the air. And oh, by the way, you and I that are still here, we're not going to be left behind. And 1St Corinthians 15 teaches us that in the twinkling of an eye we shall be changed.
Not a morphine like like Caterpillar into butterfly or or or some kind of evolution.
Like that, it's going to end the twinkling of an eye. We shall be changed and we shall be caught up with them. That could happen today.
And then there will be those who are part of God's earthly people who are testifying for him, who are faithful to him with the testimony that they have to, to to spread upon the earth. Very similar to the ministry of John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus himself when he was here, what has been called the Gospel of the Kingdom. Many of them will lose their lives. They will earn the martyrs crown.
And we read in Revelation, I think it's chapter 14, that they will be caught up.
And when they are caught up into heavenly glory, the Spirit of God says.
Blessed it is he that has part in the first resurrection.
And all the rest of the dead that are left in that condition of being separated from, from, from their soul and their body, all the rest of the dead are going to be kept in that unseen place, in the place of torment until the end of the 1000 years. And they will be raised the resurrection of judgment, the resurrection of the unjust.
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That will.
Also take place at the end, and so we're in the kind of in the middle, aren't we?
111 raising of the debt has taken place. The first part of the resurrection of the just has taken place, and the rest of it is future. But I want to speak to you about the present aspect of resurrection. And as we all know that in the New Testament Scriptures, the figure of resurrection, the spiritual application of resurrection, is put before us.
As part of the teaching of God, as part of our present condition and state, our brother did not touch upon that last night in the Gospel of the grace of God, and I would like to take a few minutes to speak about that.
Ephesians chapter 1 and verse.
Verse 17. The God of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Father of Glory, what a title.
May give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints. And this is the verse I'm thinking of, verse 19 and 20. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us? Word who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ.
When he raised him from the dead or from among the dead, and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might to dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world or this age, but also in that which is to come. From verse 19 we learn that the power that God used in raising Christ from the dead.
Is the power that he is exercising in your life and mine?
In the new life that we have as believers.
The exceeding greatness of his power. To me, it seems that every New Testament writer is very sparse in the use of adjectives.
Most of us, we like to pile on lots of adjectives to describe things and we use the word glorious or we we just like to add those kind of words ahead of what we're talking, the noun we're talking about.
To kind of add, the Spirit of God is very, very judicious in his use of adjectives.
It's very direct, if you've ever noticed that, but here it's exceeding greatness of his power to Usward who believe.
We had referenced this morning to the glory of God in Christ as Creator. What power was displayed when He made the world's out of nothing? Nothing material. He spoke and it was so tremendous, majestic power not only to create.
The every every aspect of the universe.
But to sustain it moment by moment, second by second.
He sustains it, He's sustaining it right now all that if we could look microscopically at the life we biological life, we have all these atoms and all these things zooming around incredible. The more science opens up what small and inward or opens up the knowledge of the starry heavens. It's exalts in our understanding the glory of God. He created all things, but as I think of it, he created.
The world's out of nothing. He spoke and it was so. It was by his word and his spirit. There was no headwind then, as I like to think of it, when we were flying recently, they sometimes put the, the, the speed, the speed of the aircraft against the land, and then they put the actual airplane speed. And sometimes there's a horrific tailwind and sometimes a horrific headwind going.
Against you. So the speed the plane is going is very different from the progress you're making on the ground. There was no head when it seems to me when God spoke worlds into existence, He spoke and it was so. But when sin came into the world.
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When when the man that was placed. When when the man that was created and placed in a position of dominion and headship over all created things on the earth? When that man fell.
Sin came into the world, and death by sin.
And the world.
Sometimes have thought if Adam were just allowed a glimpse of the sorrow.
The sorrow and the pain.
And the suffering, think of it on this world, this earth, this beautiful earth.
God created it as a platform.
Or the display of His own ways, and of that which is glorious and beautiful to Him.
In the world, he made it so beautiful.
And yet man placed in it, at the head of it, His goodness was like the morning dew, like the sparks fly upward. Man is born into trouble, and trouble we've had. You could interview every family in here and you would just weep.
With the sorrows that are known, the sorrows that have been experienced.
Brother Lundeen used to say that if you knew the sorrow in one city block, it would take away your sanity.
The sorrow in one city block.
If Adam had just the slightest glimpse of that, it would have. It would have destroyed his mind.
Think of it the sorrow. And so it's against the headwind of a world that has been now stained.
With with sin and death, and I just call that a headwind against which God, as our brother put it after the breaking of bread. I so enjoy that.
God's purpose is There's nothing that is ever going to get in the way of God's purpose. It's called an eternal purpose. An eternal purpose.
God awaited for over 4000 years to unfold it to the children of men who could receive it by faith.
But it's in you as an eternal purpose. It was not a reaction, not a mitigation. If you worked in construction business, things happen that you don't plan on. You've got to like react. You've got to mitigate a problem or a damage. The the way of salvation is not mitigation. It's not a reaction to something that was not anticipated. It was according to God's eternal purpose. Before the worlds were made, He had that purpose.
That he was going to bring into that circle.
That small intimate, I shouldn't say small, that divine relationship of a father and a son subsisting together in, in perfect light and love. They said to themselves, let's bring in, let's bring in, let's bring in somebody else. Let's share this.
And so the children of men, God had his delight in them before there were any.
And according to his eternal purpose.
He's going to fill heaven with children.
He's going to introduce into his father's house those that have a special place of the assembly of the first born ones. And if you're a believer in Christ, that's your part. You're part of the assembly of the first born ones. Hebrews 12. He's going to fill heaven with those who not only have the capacity to understand him, but who love him.
Because power. Power displays glory.
Excellence in display, but a man that's all powerful.
That feels that nobody understands him and he has no relationship or no love.
Is an empty man.
It's an empty man.
But that's why I think when we read the 110th Psalm, I think it is.
Let me just quote that first.
Verse or two.
Much quoted Psalm Psalm 110 in the New Testament.
The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
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That's the present status of the man Christ Jesus.
He's sitting at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Until his enemies are made his footstool.
The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.
Wonderful. We all look forward, the hymn writer put it. We love to look beyond the long dark night and hail the coming day. And this upside down world will be turned right side up.
Children playing in the streets.
Love that aspect of the gospel in Isaiah. Children playing in the streets. When I was little we played in the street.
People don't play in the streets necessarily anymore. It just speaks of the absence of enemies, the absence of of, of the darkness of this world when the hair can be let down, so to speak. And even the children don't have to be watched, children playing in the streets. So it's wonderful that he'll have that authority. But beyond that, in verse 3.
Thy people shall be willing.
In the day of high power.
What do you think will be more precious to Christ?
Being the head over all the nations.
Crushing Edom needs to be done. Edom will be crushed.
Memory be no more.
Bringing the nations down to acknowledge His Lordship needs to be done.
And he will reign as Son of man over all the nations.
And Israel, the head of the nations.
For God's glory that it be. So we look forward to it. But I believe what's even more precious to Him is what's in the next first.
Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power to have a willing people.
To have those that finally respond to who he is and what he has done.
Because his heart wants to be. He wants to be understood.
And of course, he wants to be loved.
And in that day, those people who originally.
And we Gentiles.
Fall in the same moral category.
He could say I stretch forth my hands all the day. No man regarded. He wept over Jerusalem.
I don't know anybody in here ever weep over a city.
I've lamented things. I've never wept over a city. He wept over Jerusalem.
He wept because of the hardness of their hearts. He wept because of the degradation and the corruption that came into the world through sin. He knew He was going to lays Lazarus in a few minutes. He knew he was going to do that. But He wept nonetheless. Just the whole sad, pathetic plight of what man was experiencing in the world.
Because he said yes to a greater rebel than him.
Satan.
Man was was created to have headship to reign.
And he was given a will.
And with that will he made a dreadful, dreadful error.
And mistake indicating, as we say, he he submitted to the.
Of the devil he submitted to a desire to be something that he was not.
And he became something he never wanted to be.
He was put in that position of responsibility and authority. He listened to the lie of the enemy, and then he became a servant to sin.
And angels were designed to be servants, and one of the head angels or the head Angel decided that he wanted to reign.
And so you have the recipe for the darkness that this has enveloped this world.
For thousands of years.
Against that headwind, as I see it, the Lord Jesus has initiated.
First of all, the resurrection of his son and position him there in a place that is beyond death. It's God's trump card, if you could put it that way. I don't know where that expression comes from if it's I'm not a card player, but it's, it's checkmate for a chess player.
And I don't play chess either. It's checkmate. It's God's way of of going beyond everything that has fallen down through man's failure and through Satan's animosity. And God, who is greater than all, brings out of the chaos of death and corruption through death, He destroyed him that had the power of death.
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Even the devil delivered him through, through fear of death, all their lifetime subjects.
*******. And so the Lord Jesus now is positioned as a risen man in a brand new place that never existed before except in the counsel of God.
There's a Newman in a new place in a new condition.
And wonder of wonders, he has decided spiritually and presently.
To unite you and me in that place right now.
Right now.
There's different ways we can understand the life that the spiritual life that we have, but this is 1 aspect of it. It's what is called resurrection life. How do we get it? How did you get it?
We know in John's Gospel chapter one that it's not by the will of the flesh. Your parents couldn't will you into it, nor mine. You can't just decide. I'll read the verses. John 1.
Will stay for a minute or two, God willing, on the subject of how we get this life.
I think we see, we see them. We see the the one man.
Entered into that life risen.
But speaking about the spiritual life that God gives.
In John chapter 1.
It says verse 12 as many as received him to them gave he power or the right to become the children of God. I believe that should be even to them that believe on his name which were born.
Which have been born.
Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
God is the only one who can who can create life.
God is the only one who is capable of creating natural biological life. It is fascinating.
And, and doubly so, I suppose, for those who are trained in science, which I'm not.
But the men and women in studying the deeper parts of biology, the life of a cell, they have brought to light things in in my lifetime that are just beyond imagination in how a single, single cell operates, how complex it is. I've been around.
Some some sophisticated buildings.
Make stuff like computer chips and, and it's all beyond me and it's complicated. A human cell far beyond that, far beyond that. But the thing that I found interesting from a brother in the Lord that's a leading scientist in the world, he said, you know what's interesting? They can look and they can see a living cell and they know it's alive and they can see a dead cell and they know it's dead, but they don't know what left the cell.
You know you can take A. It's a living cell. B is a dead cell.
A -. B. What left what is no longer there? They have no idea. These are brilliant men. They have no idea. It's a mystery. It's a mystery of life. Even natural life is a mystery to man. He can put a man on the moon. We can talk on these little things and see people around the world.
But he doesn't know what life his natural life is yet. Maybe he will.
And so it is with spiritual life. We're told that it's not by the will of mind, it's by the will of God in John chapter. In John chapter 2.
Going to budget our time here.
In John chapter 2, I believe the Lord gave a picture of coming time of blessing in the wedding feast of Cana. They ran out of wine. He brought a wine that was beyond beyond good so that the governor of the feast has to acknowledge. Most people put out the good and when men have well drunk then they bring in the the more mundane wine.
You've kept the good wine until now. A picture and also of the of the of the.
The Lord scourging the temple, I think is also in chapter 2. These are pictures, I believe of this, this third day as the chapter begins, the marriage in Cana, a picture of the millennial, that which is characteristic of the Millennium. But in chapter 3, it seems like the Lord says, OK, I've I've given you a picture of this wonderful time, a blessing. How do you get to be part of it? How do you get?
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Be part of it. And so in John three we have a man named Nicodemus who comes to the Lord by night.
And he gets maybe he was coming to recruit the Lord, maybe he was saying.
This man is a teacher beyond We need this man on our on our team.
I don't know if Nicodem what Nicodemus was going on in his mind, but he got quite an education, didn't he?
Quite an education and we don't know really what the result was at that time in Nicodemus soul, because as we learn in that very chapter.
The work of the Spirit of God to produce life in a soul is something that is unknowable to us. It's like the wind in the trees. We see the leaves shaking, but we don't.
It's not a knowable process to us in that sense.
And so in chapter 3 we read that except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, it's God communicating life to one who has none. And lo and behold, as it says there as we go down in verse six, that which is born of flesh is flesh, that which is born of spirit is spirit. And so God in his spirit communicates life.
And later on in the chapter we read.
That these are just earthly things he put before Nicodemus. And then he goes on to say, I'm going to talk to you about heavenly things and you're not really grasping the earthly things. If you were in school and you didn't grasp the first semester of calculus, they're not going to let you go to the second semester. But Nicodemus really didn't pass the first semester, but the Lord took him anyway.
Probably for our benefit into the next semester. And he told him about heavenly things.
And so we have.
As it says in verse 14, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Lamb, son of Man, be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. John doesn't really take up sins and the forgiveness of sins until it's way out in chapter 20, I think it is.
He operates in a different the Spirit of God has a different approach in using.
The apostle John is a vessel for what he communicated in this wonderful book. But I would just just before we move away from this chapter, I would just say it's sobering to think about this. And I think that I'm correct that if God didn't have a view forward to the to the man, the Son of man being lifted up on Calvary's cross, if he didn't have a view ahead to the precious blood of Christ being shed.
And an expiation for sin. He would never have given you and me new life.
Your new life is wonderful. It is is That you're born again doesn't inherently make you righteous.
You still have the flesh.
I'm born again, have been for a long time. I still have the flesh.
And what about my sins? God requires that which has passed, So just your new life.
Doesn't make you righteous before God. Stop and think about that and I think you will agree.
And so he doesn't even close the chapters. We think of it in chapters to bring out the fact that there's going to be the Son of Man lifted up just like the serpent in the wilderness. And whosoever look at the pond, you receive life. The sting is gone. And so the blood God looked forward to the blood of Christ. And as some of us were saying at lunch, there will be.
No soul blessed on earth or in heaven but.
By the precious blood of Christ, not all have known it. The baby that dies in the womb, the baby that dies as a as a one week old, does not know anything about the blood of Christ, But it's the blood of Christ that secures their heavenly blessing.
In John chapter 5.
We read.
Of the sun. I want to move on here.
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And and as we've continued in John chapter 3, we would have seen that towards the end of the chapter we have as we used to tell our children at the at the table, the B word in English, the B word to believe. That's what we press on on souls believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and that thou shalt be saved. We don't tell him you need to be born again because they can't control that, but the gospel is presented to man his respons.
And God now commands all men to repent, because he's appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man. And so we implore souls believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out is the language of God. But here in chapter 5 we see in verse.
21 The father, As the father raises up the dead and quickens them, Even so the son quickeneth whom he will.
The Son of God has quickening has life giving power because of who he is. And if we turn to if we were to remember, well, let's turn to 1St Corinthians 515. I'm sorry, 1St Corinthians 15.
And we read there.
In verse 45, and so it is written, the first man.
Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam.
That was made should be left out. God. Christ was not made anything except sin in 2nd Corinthians 5. We had that recently before us.
The last atom of life giving a life giving spirit.
And so let's turn now to John 20.
A passage that has puzzled me for decades.
I admit.
Our brother read last night verse the wonderful verse 17.
To marry? Who was the first one that he communicated this to?
The woman through whom? Who was deceived, and through whom?
Sin came.
Under Adam's responsibility, it's touching, isn't it, that the Lord has not a disciple, not Peter or James or John has a woman out of whom he cast 7 demons to be the message bearer. It's just like the Lord to be gracious like that, isn't it? I don't know anybody out of whom 7 demons have been cast.
Do you?
You know, anybody that's 17 has been cast out of maybe I've met somebody and I didn't know that they hadn't that happened 7 Demons one would be a thing 7.
What a thing.
How this woman was.
Plowed.
Gouged that horrible demon possession out of her and made room for what? For that wonderful affection she had for Christ. And people say, well, she was ignorant, OK, she was ignorant. And Mary of Bethany wasn't, OK, I'll give you that. But there was such affection there. And she becomes the messenger of this wonderful message. And Mark's gospel tells us that she was the first one because it's complicated to tell.
Everything that was going on through the four gospels at the Gray, at the gravesite on that first day of the week.
But our brother read that I ascend unto my father, and to your father, and to my God, and your God. Subject for another day, but in verse.
Verse 21 The same day and evening first day of the week.
Verse 21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you, as my Father hath sent me, Even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them.
Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Somebody here has the new translation open. How's that read in the new translation, Nick?
Receive the Holy Spirit. Who's that? The bed. Yeah. First some verse 22, verse 22. And having said this, he breathed into them and says to them, receive the Holy Spirit. OK so in my youth I was pestering an older brother about this and.
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I said, what does that mean? Because we've all been taught that the Holy Spirit, the Lord, when He ascended up on high as man, received the Spirit.
A second time in a sense, and sent him down, and that divine person took up his habitation on the earth.
A man in glory and a divine person on the earth is what we still have today, because the church is the habitation of God by the Spirit. And additionally he indwelt every believer, uniting them together into one body. And so I said, but what is this? He says, well, that's just a picture of the other. I said he would go to that trouble just to make a picture like that. He got a little mad at me.
We had an interesting relationship, but anyway, I have come to see that, I think why the Lord made this communication because it comes from a risen Christ, not an ascended Christ, the ascended Christ. We're we're pretty well schooled in this.
In Paul's doctrine of the one body and of the fact that the Holy Spirit.
Is.
The one who created union between us scattered.
Children of God, and He has united us together in one by the Holy Spirit.
Because the men and women of faith in the Old Testament were not one. The children of God were scattered abroad.
And they had no union that way.
You and I, all of us have a union. We're united together because of the Holy Spirit.
But that came from the ascended Christ, and we.
Read about it that in Acts chapter 2, so dramatic the beginning of the Church of God on the earth. But John 20. This seems to have I always thought there has to be some significance to why this is put before us. And I really think it has to do with this subject of resurrection life because it's Christ risen, not yet ascended as if God says I'm going to I'm going to separate this over here and you already have you're going to have this over here in Acts.
And here I'm going to, I'm going to communicate to you from the risen man Christ Jesus, the 1St man rose out from among the rest of the dead. And he's a life. He's a life giving spirit and he communicates life. You say but they were already had life. I know they did. They were already born again, but they didn't have this kind of life. I don't like. I say, I'm looking up at the Grand Teton Mountains here.
But I believe.
That he was communicating to him a life that he possessed himself, and he was empowered to communicate it to them.
And consequently, to you and me, it's a life, it's a, it's a risen life, a life on the other side of death. And you and I now possess it too.
And I believe that's why it's segregated out here in John chapter 20. We're in John, we're not in Paul, as we know, beautiful passage and beautiful to think of it that way. And so if we go now, the time is going, let's go to.
Let's go to.
Ephesians.
Let's go to Ephesians chapter, chapter 2.
And we see in Ephesians chapter 2.
In verse 10, we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus.
Unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.
And then over in Ephesians chapter 4.
In verse 21.
If so, be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus.
When it says in Jesus, I believe it's bringing before us the practical side of this life that was displayed in perfection here by himself as he walked up and down here.
That ye and I'm going to correct the verb tense in nickel. Call me out if I get it wrong, but I because I think it's important.
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Having the Gee having put off concerning the former conversation, the old man which corrupts, is corrupt, or corrupts itself according to the deceitful lusts, and being renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that she having put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness.
And holiness Truth.
And then let's go to Colossians.
For the Sake of time, chapter 3, well known verse, Colossians 2, first Colossians 2. And here we see again this character of the use of the truth of resurrection, not as it's applied to Christ personally having been raised, or to the future Saints, including us being raised.
But it's applied to you and me in a spiritual way now and I, and I think it's safe to call that resurrection life.
And so in Colossians 2. It's in verse 12. Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead, and so on. And then in Colossians 3.
If ye then, or since ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.
Where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection or your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. We are dead.
And your life is hid with Christ in God, and so on.
You can see that it's not a stretch.
The Spirit of God does it in the Word of God to apply the concept, if I could put it that way, of resurrection to you and me now, because it describes the character of our present spiritual life that we've been given from God. You have a risen life. You have a life, the life of Christ. You have the mind of Christ.
You are not only have been blessed by him.
Or through him, but with him.
And he now is pleased, as we read in Hebrews 2, because of this, he that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified are all of one.
For which policy is not ashamed to call them brethren.
We were picked up from from the dunghill. We were like filthy lepers, but so effective was the work of Christ to pay for our sins through his precious blood, to cleanse us through the washing of the water, and to anoint us with the Holy Spirit, just like the leper, the king and the priest.
There's blood, there's water and there's oil, and that's our status now. Little wonder he has done this work in you now. This is your present condition.
In mind.
And little wonder that he's able to say he's not ashamed to call us brethren. We are all of one.
We read in Genesis that when God created the plants that their seed was in them and they were to reproduce after their kind.
In spiritual life, the last Adam is a quickening spirit. He reproduces after his kind. What's his kind? His kind is Christ. He's the model.
He's he's it.
And so we read this.
We are because we are risen. We have a risen life.
We're to seek.
We are to set our minds in certain ways. We are more to mortify or discipline the members of our body and so on. And then it goes on in verse 9 lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. And so we have now.
A risen life.
And it's.
Communicated to us so that our minds in a spiritual way can grasp the present reality of the resurrection of Christ. Yes, it's true, we are literally going to be either changed or raised up. But in the meantime, we have a life that is patterned after Him. We have His life.
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If the scripture didn't teach these things, it would be blasphemy for a man to stand up here and say them.
But this is what the Word of God teaches Christ our life, and it's a risen life.
And it's on the other side of the river. It's on the other side of death, so the other side of judgment.
And it is empowered by the Holy Spirit.
I used to think that here's me and I have the flesh.
And I've been giving the Holy Spirit to entwell me.
And that's, that's my nature and it never dawned on me for many years.
That aside from the presence of a divine person in me, I have a new life.
I am a new creature in Christ.
There's one human in this room that I am 1 flesh with. We're married.
And that's not eternal, but it's good for now.
There's another human in here that if you tested everybody's DNA, our DNA would be like, I don't know how did that work, but when your brother and sister it were like same mother, same father. I'm scientists can tell that, but it's just for now. But I'm looking out over a room full of people now that I share a life with.
That I'm going to have, and you're going to have forever. We are brethren in that sense and have an eternal connection.
And even now.
It's, I don't mean to be irreverent, but it's belt and suspenders.
We used to joke with guys in the construction business because all the gear they have to wear.
Belts and suspenders there's you're not only indwelt by the Holy Spirit of you have a divine person indwelling you and he empowers you, but you have a new life.
That's God says that's you and you're going to be that and have that for all eternity. It's a wonderful thought. That's John and that's Paul in general. And they meet together and our time is gone. I would just say that.
In Philippians chapter 3.
The very, very challenging chapter because.
There the apostle Paul who was a model believer.
He is one that the Spirit of God empowered to say in this chapter be followers of me.
He doesn't say as I also am of Christ in that chapter He says be followers of me. Period. And why is that? It's because the Lord Jesus never ran or strove to be something that He wasn't. In him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He was always complete and completely perfect. At the age of 12? At the age of 16.
At all his life, he was who he was, the majesty.
And glory of the man Christ Jesus, so he never.
He had no flesh, but the Apostle Paul is a man of light passions as ourselves had the flesh.
And he aspired, if I could put it this way.
This inverse I'll just read verses.
8.
98 through 11 Yeah, doubtless I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. And do count them but dumb or worthless, that I may win Christ, that I may be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him.
In the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death, if by any means.
I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Fascinating passage, Challenging passage. Yes, we could ask the question. Well, Paul, you already know, you taught that we believers have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. You already know that you have a righteousness that is beyond the law, separate from the law, the righteousness which is by faith. So what is it you're really saying here? I believe what Paul is saying is.
My standing is supreme and I love it. My state is not there.
I want it to be.
I want to live my life. I want to spend the rest of my time.
01:00:04
Counting, disregarding everything that's not essential, that I may win Christ and be found in Him and know something of the power of His resurrection in His life. That He wanted His state to be as close as possible to the standing He knew He already had. I have. I have pondered this passage for decades.
I wish I understood it better. I wish I could understand it in my in my practical life.
But we have an example of one here who resurrection life to him.
Was a thing was it was a centralizing part of his personal spiritual life.
And how we need that on our day.
We see around us things are are weaker than they were decades ago. It is essential for each one of us to cultivate a personal spiritual life. It's essential, essential. Let's just call some prayer.
Sing for All
Sing
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I think I'm crazy.
1 November.
What is the option for?
Jesus may be there.
Holy country, you don't care.
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be disturbed.
They get to the Lord in prayer.
We find us and something.
Who will sorrow shame?
Jesus knows our every.
Witness.
Stay here to the Lord in prayer.
Oh, I believe we can have in life.
Let's just say you're still alive.
Francis, vice for saying.
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
It is until taken.
Shielding God will find the soul herself.
Who has another one 122 #122?
#122.
Someone else start that please.
I see.
Thou, Lord.
Here I am only lost.
To him.
My Lord.
Stirred in my heart, warning.
Jesus, my Lord and glory.
Lovely.
33 #33.
#33.
00:05:13
Yeah, and it's like.
Forcing and over and all my gains now let me go away.
Praise the Lord, raise the Lord.
Let me raise his voice, raise the Lord, and raise the Lord.
Someone to bring believer.
From it so.
Vendor who truly is a woman from Jesus. Woman from Jesus.
Rejoice.
On to the Father through Jesus the Son and give him the glory. Great things he has done.
Great things. And that's all the strange things he had done. I pray Lord, rejoicing.
And greater will be our wonder, our transformed, when Jesus.
We see.
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord.
Let the earth in this voice.
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord.
Let his people rejoice.
Unto the Father through Jesus awesome and give him my glory. Great things in God. None of $20.
100 and 29129.
Yield not attempting.
At you, some others away.
Find gracefully.
On where dark flashes of you.
Carry you through I consider to help you.
Here's what I'm doing.
You will carry you through.
God's name holding.
Rest nor take anything big on the windmills and truth.
00:10:02
It will carry you through.
As the savior to help you.
Cover strengthening you.
Is willing to make you. It will carry you through.
Carry you through.
To help you.
Is willing to hate you.
It will carry you through.
1:34 One 34134.
Let's talk about.
Jesus.
Lord our Lord Supreme, we're all eternity.
Jesus, my Lord, wonderful.
It's recorded in Cosworth. Isn't Jesus, my Lord, wonderful?
Wonderful, wonderful, Jesus says to me.
Counselor recipe.
Is he saving me? Keeping me from observation?
Wonderful, inspiring.
In a sword.
It is risen from the.
Shah, every tongue and clergy.
His name is wonderful.
His name is wonderful.
Jesus.
My Lord.
In this almighty king.
Master on everything.
His name is wonderful.
Jesus.
My Lord God is a great shall grace.
Yes, name is wonderful. Jesus my Lord.
It is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
Instant Jesus, my Lord, Wonderful.
00:15:02
We shall see, we shall hear for his company God near Evermore, we shall say wonderful.
How about 146 one 46146?
Rage is thy faithfulness.
Great.
Morning, morning, morning.
Summer.
Bring my heart.
Away the rest of the world.
To the straightforward.
Tomorrow.
Let us sing for my breath and 1000.
Beside.
Prayers like waiting for her.
Two more songs, 80, number 88, zero.
Christian Walker.
Dangerous tear.
On in my journey went through.
00:20:07
Stay somewhere with all contemplations with him.
Seeking to entice me once more.
Christian, walk carefully.
Dangerous near.
Christian Walker coming on till thou fall.
If thou forget.
My savior to fall.
Singles of water being trial and.
Thou art climbed in the corner of prayer.
Christian.
Will make Christian what? Prayerfully.
Christian.
Sorrow and pain cease when.
Life will rest on shocking.
From love as some of the Josh sirens.
Enter the wind, to my joy of my Lord.
Christian.
Christian one holy. Christian one holy.
Rest of shopping.
139 #139 will be the last 1139.
Oh my God.
Where are someone?
Concerns.
My hands are made, I see the sun, I give Almighty.
Almighty.
I grew up the universe is way.
Less things like.
Oh my savour of the Savior of.
My Savior, God to me.
00:25:03
All great God.
I.
'M on his own heart.
To take away my sin.
And sings my soul, my God with me.
Oh great God.
Our great heart.
Let's sing my soul.
When I shall come?
We shall, all my glory, sun, and Take Me Home.
Like always, shall kill my heart.
Then I go out and you humble by the race song.
And they broadly, my God.
Let's sing my soul, I say, your God.
Treasures
Children—E. Soare
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.
All right, welcome to Sunday school. Let's start with a word of prayer. We need help.
Who has a song we can start with Yes.
#40.
All right #40.
Thank you.
Jesus loves me.
For the Bible tells me so let's do him belong. They are replied. He is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, she says. Loves me.
Yes, it has lost me. The Bible tells me so.
Verse 3 Jesus loves me though I'm bad, and they went to make me quiet, wait to hold me in the sun, keep me safe from every heart.
Yes, it's a slow speed.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
The Bible tells me so.
Thank you. That is.
A Tune it down.
That is a verse.
In John 17.
That first verse we saying little ones to Him belong. They are weak, but he is strong. I thought of the verse says Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me beware. I am. I want to talk about gifts and treasures.
In these boxes, there's one here to John Kaiser.
But the contents were empty. What was sent to him wasn't there. I put something in there.
For you.
And you and you, each and every child.
I'm very thankful for the Gospels. It talks about the Lord Jesus wanting children to come to him.
And he wants you to come to him now, while you are young.
He has a special love for you children.
This box.
Also came to John Kaiser.
But.
It doesn't have any names in it.
A gift.
What has to happen with a gift? Who's had a birthday recently?
Yeah.
And what? What happens on birthdays?
You get presents.
Do you usually get one present? How many presents do you get?
Three or 466? How many do you get? Did you get a little train present a book with trains? Yeah, yes. Usually I get around 14 presents. Oh, wow. So who gives you presents? Is it people you don't know?
There's some.
Oh, grandpa and grandma.
Family.
The president usually doesn't give you a present.
Or other people you don't know, right? You don't get presents from them.
Now you take a present and you have to do what? Usually it's wrapped up.
What you have to open it, unwrap it, and then being a child, you usually is something you can play with right and you can enjoy.
You know the presence that you get.
From people that know you.
It's usually.
00:05:01
Use a word.
Tailored to you.
That means bear, right? That means bear. OK, your daddy and mommy know you and they know what you like. And they're like they say, oh, that present. I think bear will like that present.
And so they go and get it, put it in a box, and then they give you the present. And you have to what? You open it and you play with it, right? You play with the present.
Hopefully you think the one that gave you the present, right? Oh, thank you grandpa and Grandma. Thank you daddy and mommy.
Give thanks.
You know.
Let's read some scriptures.
No is exhorted should stick close to scriptures and that's a good exhortation. I want to read about gifts, and there's some gifts that are good and some that are not good.
Mark 10/18.
And.
I guess probably as a speaker I should know what time I should end. Let's see 1015, OK?
Very good.
And the type of gift?
Can't be different than its source.
Kind of a hard concept, but let's say there's a stream of water.
And it's coming from a glacier where there aren't any pollutants. There's just minerals in that glacier and it's just coming down the mountain. Is that usually Clearwater?
What we would call pure water. It's coming from a good source, right?
Well, what if?
That pure water is good to hear. And then it gets down into the city and you have some factories and it happens in other countries. Now you used to in the US and these factories would just dump all sorts of bad things into there. They they were like waste, whether it's chemicals or things that are yucky.
Or green things and red things.
That that wouldn't be good water to drink, right? It's from a bad source, so you wouldn't drink that. So a good gift comes from above.
And it has to have a good source, a bad gift. Well, we'll talk about that maybe, but we want to talk about the good. So Mark chapter 1018.
And Jesus said unto him.
Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one that is God.
So we learn from the Lord Jesus Christ that there is one good, and that is God. God is good.
James, 117.
We read there.
Every good gift.
And every perfect gift is from above.
And cometh down from the father of lights.
With whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning.
Who knows?
The verse.
That talks about giving has the word gave in.
Yes.
Forget to let the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everything. John 316.
That is right.
God so loved the world. It started with God.
The one that is good and he loved.
00:10:01
The people of the world, each and everyone of you.
And then he gave.
Do you know how good and perfect that gift is?
He gave his son.
2nd Corinthians 915.
Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.
Does that mean we don't talk about this gift?
Who is the unspeakable gift?
Anybody down there?
So you know what, on our shed we have this verse.
Which one?
Thanks again to God present, because that's wonderful.
So it's not that we don't talk about him.
We had a gospel meeting, right?
But the gift is so.
The best, the greatest, most wonderful.
Awesomest.
Tremendous.
Gracious, merciful, blessed gift.
We can't even describe how great.
The gift of the Lord Jesus is. That's what the apostle means. I believe with that unspeakable gift, there's not words powerful enough, wonderful enough to express how great that gift was.
So we see that the Father gave.
His son.
Did he stop there? Do you only get one present in your whole life?
You've answered so many questions. Thank you. Do you only get one one president in your life? No. Have you gotten multiple presents?
You've had multiple birthdays. Maybe it's it's not even your birthday and you get a present from your parents or your grandparents. Maybe you get a care package.
No.
The gift of the Lord Jesus Christ is not the end.
Because God loves you.
Much he continues to seek to bless you and give you gifts.
What's the next gift that we get?
Well.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's a wonderful verse.
When you're saved, you get another gift.
Let's read about that.
John 14 We had that in the Reading meeting, didn't we?
John 14.
In verse 16.
And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter.
That he may abide with you forever.
Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive.
Who here still has a gift from two years ago?
Yeah. What do you have?
Yes.
I have a stuffed animal who like very long time ago when I was born though. OK, stuffed animal from when you were born? Me too.
You do, all right. Who else had a raised hand? Did you have one? No.
Yes.
Ten years ago because I'm 10 right now. All right.
Stuffed animal Frog Stuffed animals are the way to go for longevity, yes.
You have a stuffed animal all right.
You know, sometimes it's good to keep the older ones engaged in Sunday school. I'll just take something here, Bill.
00:15:04
You have a stuffed animal.
So you you that you've kept that for a while? What kind of?
I don't know. When you look at your stuffed animal from when you were born, what makes it? What do you think about?
Do you think about?
For me, it kind of makes me think about who gave it to me, right?
Maybe it was a family friend or your dad and mom and they were so happy and.
You have a little gift and it reminds you of the giver.
This comforter.
Is going to be with you forever.
And he's going to help you.
All through this life.
If you're saved.
And He will be forever with you in heaven.
Now that's quite the gift.
Never grows old.
Can always help.
You in the pathway of faith.
We have that also in First Thessalonians 48. The latter end says God, who has also given unto us his soul, Holy Spirit.
So these sometimes take that stuffed animal and play with it, like kind of enjoy the gift once again.
I think the a huge thing about gifts is that they can become treasures.
How do they become treasures? Well, we appreciate not only the gift, but the giver.
Now.
Did You Know?
That not only did the father give the son.
To be the Savior of the world, your Savior and Lord. He gave you the Spirit.
That indwells you.
But you.
Each and everyone. Who's the Lords?
Is actually a gift.
To the Lord Jesus.
Now.
This is where.
The top kits.
Do you know you're a gift to the Lord Jesus and.
What does he do with you as a gift?
I think he thinks about you.
Every day.
He prays for you.
He loves you.
He appreciates you. He wants to help you. Let's say you get an owie on your knee.
Do you think he cares about that? I think he does.
He cares about each and everyone of you and what's happening in your life and what's happening in your mind.
What you think about?
What you desire.
How you act towards your brothers and sister?
Or sisters.
Let's read the verse that.
We get that we are a gift to the Lord.
John, 1724.
Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which Thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.
They also whom thou hast given me. And he wants us.
You've been given to the Lord. He wants us to be where he's at.
Right.
Who has another song?
00:20:02
Yes.
#14.
We'll sing the verses 2 and three with the refrain.
Are you walking daily by the Savior side? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?
Are you all in the blood, In the soul planting blood?
Are your garments butness? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood?
John's bright and be washed in the blood of land.
Are you lost in the blood? In the soul planting blood?
Are your guardians of the star they wire as No. Are you watching the blood of the land?
That's the.
Perfect hymn.
Are you walking daily by the Savior's side? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? When the Bridegroom cometh, will your robes be white, pure and white, and the blood of the Lamb?
For all the stuffed animals.
People that have a gift for of a stuffed animal.
What would you, the giver, say?
If you took that stuffed animal.
And it's hard to even say it.
What if you dragged it through the mud?
What if you kicked it?
Tore it up.
Caught it dirty?
Never looked at it.
Never thought.
About the one who gave you that gift.
That would be pretty sad, wouldn't it?
Makes me sad to think about it.
What about the Lord Jesus?
He's been given to you as a gift.
Do you think upon him?
Do you think? Do you talk to him like a friend?
Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.
Did I read Second Peter 13? OK, thank you. Second Peter 13. Now here's another gift that comes from above, and it's going to help us.
To not get dirty.
Sometimes you hear in meeting a word called defiled.
That's really dirty.
Two Peter, 1/3.
According as his divine power.
Hath given unto us.
All things that pertain unto life.
And godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.
00:25:07
I tried to.
Take the easy route and find something about what are all these things.
And perhaps it's something for us to meditate on and think about.
Given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.
Godliness as being like God.
And God is light.
God is love in him. There's no variableness, there's nothing that would. There's no shadows. It's just pure light. The Lord is.
And.
He's given us gifts, those all things that pertain unto life and godliness.
And I think of it as a box, like a present.
Open the present.
You know, if you just leave a present on a box, what's inside won't won't do you any good, right? So we have to take these presents out-of-the-box.
So if we've been given something that pertains to life and godliness, we need to take it out-of-the-box. We need to look at these things, say, what's this for?
What does reading of the Word of God give me?
Well, that's part of the all things I believe. Well, reading of the word of God, it's it washes away defilement just walking through this world.
Maybe I have a struggle with some of my siblings, get angry a little. Well.
The word can say.
Be.
Ye angry and sin not. That's kind of.
Difficult to understand.
The washing of water by the word so we can be washed. So that's a gift.
There's prayer.
We read in the Word of God about following in the steps of the Lord. Well, that's a gift.
Reading the Gospels and seeing how the Lord acted, reacted, showed forth his love and his care for children.
That's something in the in the box.
There's the Spirit of God.
That's something.
But he's given us these all things and sometimes, you know, growing up in a Christian family.
We don't take these gifts out and lay them out in order.
And say, well, this right here is for when I'm tempted.
To lie.
Sometimes we think it's easier to lie than to tell the truth.
Is that easier?
In the moment, maybe.
But what happens? What's maybe you guys know? A little poem?
It starts with Ohio. What a tangled.
Web.
Nobody.
Do you have it? Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.
And we get caught in our own web of lies.
Our Lord Jesus said.
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.
If you tell the truth all the time, you'll have freedom.
There's no need to hide.
There's no need to lie.
You know, even when we've done bad things.
We need to confess it to the Lord.
And maybe even to our parents too, if we've sinned against them. I think of the David was it against thee? And the only have I sinned. He knew that a sin against a person was a sin against God.
00:30:12
Getting off track here.
Back rows.
Do you know that you are also a gift to your parents?
Isn't that wonderful?
I think somebody mentioned it during the meetings.
And for us parents?
How do we take care of our gifts, right? That's the exhortation for us.
And the love and nurture in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Seeking to bring them up for His honor and glory most of all.
That you're saved and.
Have a pathway, A successful pathway.
So let's equip our children with what they need.
And remember.
Parents.
If they have confessed the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, they're not only your children.
But they are actually brothers and sisters in Christ.
They are part of the body of Christ.
And so seeking to raise them up in the nurture and admonition, it helps the body.
As well, low children are inherited of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
I saw a hand raised up.
Yes.
Did you have one?
OK.
#45.
Maybe we'll read sing numbers 46.
Gladi.
Ations.
The J let's do that starts Come to us.
Saving me and he calls and he calls and he calls all the DI or LS and he wants all the.
Who memorized the verse for this week? OK.
I'm going to pick.
Some that haven't talked.
What was the reference?
Isaiah 53 Five right.
You got it all memorized.
But he was winning.
For our transgression and He was British. For our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with His stripes we are here. Isaiah 53, five.
But he was. He was wounded. He was birthed for iniquities.
The chastisement.
Another piece.
What's up?
Thank you.
You ready? Go ahead and stand up.
Dora does it.
Isaiah 53.
00:35:02
55 Thank you.
He was wounded for transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. That chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53, five.
He was wounded for our transgressions, his bridge.
Her and I used to dress ties. My wife piece was upon him, and with his stripes we were healed. Isaiah 53, five. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and of his stripes we are healed.
You ready, Bear?
But he was wounded.
But he was wounded.
He was wounded. There are transgressions. What transgressions? He was bruised. He was bruised for our iniquities.
I see a 53535. You want to see your first? Yeah, go ahead.
He was Bruce.
He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. To chastisement of our peace witness upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53, five.
He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his Shakespeare healed. Isaiah 53, five.
He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with His stripes for your healed. Isaiah 53, five.
He was wounded for transgressions, he was brutal inequalities, the chastised mild for peace was upon him, and by his stripes were healed.
Isaiah 53. Five.
He's wounded.
Bruised.
Fire stripes.
All right.
He was wounded for transgressions, He was bruised for iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon.
Him and with his stripes fair heel Isaiah 53 five very good.
He was wounded for a transgression, he was bruised for iniquity, The chest by high spend of all peace put it upon him, and with his stripes were healed as a 53 five.
Everybody good? Anybody else want to say it?
I thought I saw you looking over at me.
OK.
Very good.
The first verse we started out with John 316.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. I think of the It's written to all.
And.
It's it's.
Have you accepted that gift? Each and everybody could if they wanted to accept that gift. Have you accepted that gift? So Jackson, hey ho, where's he at?
No.
You're right there. Come up here, please.
00:40:03
I have a gift for you.
Has your name on it. Are you going to accept it? OK, go ahead.
Allison, you can.
Will you accept this gift?
All right.
Lucas Buchanan.
Here we go, we'll accept it.
I don't expect to see this in a couple years, OK.
Let's see.
Lillian Buchanan.
Here's a gift.
You're welcome.
Elijah Hejo.
No.
Verilay Halliwell.
Oh, thank you. I printed the last initial. Elijah Hapanowitz.
Not here.
Verily, verily, she's sleeping. Oh, OK, I'll let Grandpa. He'll probably get it, I guess.
Don't know the babies very well. OK, a warning. Where's the warning? Do you want a gift?
Here you go.
Well, our time is up.
Isn't it sad?
You guys will have your your candy.
But there will come a time when that offer of salvation, the gift, will not be offered anymore.
And.
No one can receive Jesus Christ as their Savior anymore like we can now. The day of grace will be shut.
Truly, it's most important to accept that gift and then enjoy the gifts that God has given us. Let's pray.
We Walk By Faith Not By Sight
Open—Jim Ruga
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.
Just have a.
Few things that I'd like to perhaps tie together, some things that have been said.
Think some of us can relate?
Rather than stand up.
They expound to us, they teach to us and things go right over our head. But we we get a little something.
And that's good. That's important.
You got something that's good.
So.
The first thing I want to read is a verse in 2nd Corinthians 5.
2nd Corinthians 5.
Verse 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. I really have three things that kind of.
Tied together something from her brother Bob, something from her brother David, and something from her brother Nick.
We're being encouraged in a vein of things.
And from the from the life of Goliath.
It doesn't tell us in Scripture that he viewed Goliath as a giant.
It doesn't tell us that.
Let's go to First Samuel, chapter 17.
Just a few little tidbits or thoughts that I've enjoyed.
I just want to bring out one little thing here.
Yes, First Samuel 17 and verse 26 towards the end of the verse.
This is how David viewed Goliath.
For who is this uncircumcised philistine?
That he should defer the defy the armies of God.
Is that what it says?
No, it doesn't. The living God. That's faith. That's faith.
We need to remember that we walk by faith, not by sight. Faith is a critical.
In an important aspect of our Christian life.
We were talking about.
Mentioned about reading the word of God just to recount a little story of a pastor.
Who met a girl on a plane they were traveling. Took up a conversation.
And.
She professed to be a Christian.
So the pastor said it's nice, it's wonderful.
And he asked her, he says.
You read your Bible, you pray, you go to church and maybe something else.
She said, Oh no, I'm not that kind of Christian.
Talking about relationship with the Lord, the reading of His Word, to be able to overcome, to be sustained, these things are vital. Talked about them, reading, prayer, meditating and so forth.
In connection with what some of the beginning comments, what our brother Nick brought before us like to go to Hebrews chapter 10.
Is opening remark had to talk about with perseverance and I really enjoyed that.
We need perseverance.
And here in Hebrews chapter 10 we have.
Inverse.
OK, let's see here.
23.
No, you have need of patience.
Yeah, I'm sorry. Here it is. Verse 36 for ye have need of patience. That's a good verse, Brother Nick.
In need of patience.
That is better translated. You need how you need endurance. We need endurance in our pathway down here. Patience is a nice thought, but it's a pathway where we're in a race and if you're going to get to the end, there's got to be a preparation, a goal set before you, and it's going to take endurance to get to the end.
00:05:20
Just the other last little thing was.
Let's go to.
We had the thought of our times, and in the Lord's hand to be sustained and to be kept.
Let's go to Isaiah chapter 33.
Isaiah chapter 33.
And just verse 6 and wisdom.
And knowledge shall be the stability of thy times in a new translation is better translated. He shall be the stability of that times. Who's that referring to the Lord Jesus. He shall be the stability of thy times. Psalm 31.
Psalm 31.
I think perhaps some of why I'm presenting is because it's been mentioned how we all have these different trials and circumstances and situations were in life.
So Psalm 31, verse 14, but I trusted in Thee. Psalm 31, verse 14 but I trusted in Thee.
Oh Lord, I said, thou art my God.
My Times.
In thy hand.
Verse 24 Be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart.
All ye that hope.
In the Lord.
Like I said before, and I think as David put it, do you really believe, do we really believe that the Lord's in control of everything? Do we understand that our times are in His hand? Well, we can be assured from this precious Word, and we're encouraged to endure, to have patience.
To persevere, to overcome these different things, and it's not left up to ourselves.
What we need to do is to have confidence. We need to walk by faith, not by sight.
And simply turn to His precious word, we can have reassurance and comfort of every particular situation we may find ourselves in.