Address—C. Hendricks
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First Peter 2, verse 21 For even here unto were ye called.
Because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example.
He should follow his steps.
And then first John chapter 2.
John chapter 2 verse six. He that saith he abideth in him.
Ought himself also so to walk even as he walked.
I'd like to consider him this afternoon.
As he walked down here.
Blessed Lord, in this scene I read these two verses because His pathway.
Is our pathway.
What Christianity is, is the continuation in US of the life of Christ.
He has given us His own life and nature and the spirit that energized him as a dependent, obedient man when He was here below.
And we are given the privilege and the responsibility of walking as he walked, following his steps.
Our rule of life is not the law, it is Christ. And what a difference that makes.
Now turn back with me to Philippians chapter 2 for some verses.
Very well known verses to all of us.
Philippians, Chapter 2.
Verse 5.
Let this mind be in you.
Which was also in Christ Jesus.
Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God?
But made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of the servant.
And was made in the likeness of men.
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
And because of that.
What he has done is perfect obedience. God is highly exalted Him, and so on.
It's not my intention of going into this these verses in great detail, but he he begins this with let this mind.
This attitude.
Being you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And what was his mind? Well, it's often been said we have in Philippians the lowly mind.
He was willing, being God.
Speaks of him being in the form of God. No creature can subsist in God's form.
He had to be God in order to be in God's form, so that's a statement which very clearly indicates his deity.
Subsisting in the form of God. Now this next expression is a paraphrase.
And it's a difficult thing to render really. It says thought it not robbery to be equal with God.
Somewhat ambiguous in our King James, as though it might mean he thought it not wrong to be on equality with God. That's not what it means.
The whole point of this passage is starts out with the mind that was in Christ Jesus.
And what was his mind? What was his thought? He presents him as being in the form of God. He emptied himself and took on him the form of a servant.
So he goes from the form of God to the form of a servant.
Subsisting in the form of God, He served none. He was the Creator. All served Him.
But now he takes the form of a servant.
And it's proper now for him to obey.
It's proper now for him to be subject and dependent and obedient, having taken the form of a servant.
He thought of that robbery to be equal with God.
Mr. Darby's translation renders that.
He esteemed it not an object of rapid to be on equality with God. You might say, Well, that's no more for help.
What it means is picture a an army coming into a city. This army is conquered. The defending army, the soldiers are plundering this this word robbery or in Darby's translation, rapping.
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It's the thought is it's a word we get the word raped from.
Plunder.
And an object of plunder. He didn't esteem his being on equality with God as as something to be prized and held on to and tenaciously retained. But his mind was to.
Give up the form of God to empty himself of the form of God, not of deity. He could never be less than God.
I should say he could never cease to be God.
But his mind was.
To become something less than gone.
A servant.
His attitude was not I am God. I will never consider being anything less than God.
His attitude, his mind, was to take the form of a servant.
That is, He did not grasp and hold tenaciously on to that which was ever His as the eternal Son.
He was in the form of God, but he said, I will come down into my own creation and take the form of a servant. And then it says he didn't. He could have done that if he have become an Angel, but he went below the angels. And it says being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
He was made in the likeness of men.
This is such a tremendous thought.
In consideration and here's the Creator, He who was ever and always in the form of God from all eternity, He now willingly takes the form of a servant.
And it's proper for a servant to obey.
It's proper for a servant to be subject, and that's the place that he took, and once he took that place, he never got out of it.
He was always consistent with that place that he had taken in grace in order to reach the likes of us, came to where we were, the Creator, the Sustainer, the upholder of the universe, and he became a servant. What a servant, perfect servant.
Now turn back with me to Luke chapter 2 for some verses that we know very well.
Verse 41 Says Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover.
And when he was 12 years old they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem, and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey, and they saw him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance.
And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass that after three days.
They found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. It would have been improper for a boy of 12 to be teaching, so he assumed that always he was consistent with the position that he had taken. And here he is, a boy of 12, sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them and asking them questions. And it says all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.
He knew more than all his teachers and yet he did not teach, not at this age.
I never got out of the position of loneliness that he had taken.
And when they saw him, they were amazed. And his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us?
Behold thy father, and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is it that you sought me? Wished ye not that I must be about my Father's business? His first recorded words, And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them. But his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.
And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men, whenever we read of him increasing in wisdom.
It's his manhood that's before us. As God. He never increases in wisdom. He knows everything. 147th Psalm says. His understanding is infinite. He can never know more than he knows. As God. He can never know less because he's unchangeable.
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But as man, he increased in wisdom and stature.
This is something that puzzles those that don't understand the mystery of his person.
That He is God and man in one person.
Well, we'll talk about that more at another time.
Notice at verse 51 he said He went down to Nazareth, and He was subject unto them. Now He has really shown us the blessedness of being in the subject place.
Everyone of us is subject to someone child to the parents, wife to her husband.
We're all subject to Christ as brothers, subject to our employers, subject to the government, subject to assembly action and so on. So we're all in the place of subjection. And he has shown us, we who are to follow in his steps, to walk as he walked, how to walk in this path of subjection.
Now Luke gives us his perfect manhood, but I'm not going to follow this theme out in Luke. We're going to turn to John's Gospel now, and we're going to look at a number of scriptures. And these scriptures are all the more significant because they occur in John's Gospel, which present him to us as the eternal Son.
As God in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him. Without him was not anything made that was made. That's how this gospel begins and and here we're going to read scripture after scripture presenting him to us as being in the dependent place and we'll come across him saying he was the sent one over.
And over again.
Verse 34 of John chapter 4. Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. So now that he's become a servant, taken that form, He's entered His own creation as a man. It was his meat, his delight. What sustained him here in this scene is to do the will of him that sent him.
That was the father and to finish his work.
Chapter 5 We're going to look at a number of scriptures. Chapter 5, verse 17. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Never before had a man spoken so familiarly of God as my Father. And he says, My Father worketh hitherto and I work.
Therefore the Jews sought them more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath.
But said also that God was his Father, or as the new translation renders, that his own father making himself equal with God. Did they understand what the Lord was claiming? Yes they did. They understood His words very well. He was claiming equality with the Father.
Making himself equal with God. And notice how the Lord answers. Then answered Jesus, and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself or from himself. That is, he did not act independently any longer of the Father, because he was now in the place of subjection.
It says the Son can do nothing of himself or from himself but what he seeth.
The Father do for what things so ever he doeth these also do with the Son likewise. That doesn't mean he wasn't able to do anything of himself, didn't have the power for it, but it would have been altogether out of place and inconsistent with the position that he had taken when he took the form of a servant. Now it's proper for him.
To obey when he was in the form of God.
He was the supreme Commander, and all obeyed him. He obeyed no one, but all obeyed him.
He dwelt in the blessedness of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. They all had the same mind, and all were one of one accord, one purpose, one mind, one thought. But now he becomes a man, and now he hears and he's instructed. Notice what it says in verse 30. He says, I can of mine own self do nothing.
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Doesn't mean he didn't have the power for it, but it would have been morally wrong.
For him to have acted independently, as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
We seek our own will often, don't we? And that's what sin is. Sin is acting over from ourselves as a source, doing what we want to do, doing things to please ourselves. Christ never did. He never pleased himself. He always acted in obedience to the Father. After he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights in the in the desert, the enemy tempted him by saying, If thou be the Son of God, prove it by making the stones into bread.
And the Lord's response was, and the Lord and Satan even quoted Scripture to him. And the Lord's response was, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. And he didn't have a word from the Father to do that, so he wouldn't do it.
I can of my own self do nothing as I hear I judge every morning according to Isaiah 50.
He went to be alone with the Father, and he heard instruction from the Father, and as he heard, he judged. And he says, My judgment is just, because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
What a delight it was to the eye of the Father to look down from heaven's glory and to see a man.
Unique and distinct from all other men. A true man, just as much a man as you and I Sin apart though.
The state of his humanity was different. His humanity was humanity, true and proper humanity just like ours. But the state of it was different. It was holy. Yours and mine is sinful.
But he was here to do only what pleased the Father.
Do the will of him that sent me, he says.
Chapter 6.
Verse 38.
For I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. He loves to speak of Himself as being sent, but He also speaks of Himself in that verse as coming. I came down from heaven not to do mine will. Yes, the Father sent him, but He came. He came willingly.
He came to glorify the Father and to come to where we were.
To reach us, bring us into blessing.
Later in chapter six, he says in verse 57, As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, by reason of the Father, on account of the Father.
So he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
His whole purpose in living was the Father's glory.
He did not live for himself.
There was number self in Christ.
There was not only no selfishness in Christ, there was number self in Him.
To think the Father looking down the wonder, he opened the heavens and declared, This is my beloved Son, whom I found my delight.
Perfect delight, always doing his will. Cost would at night. And the cost, by the way, for him was infinite.
Because that will involve the cross is going to the cross.
So it wasn't an easy path.
There's never been a path more difficult than the path of the Lord Jesus.
What lay before him, and he knew what it was, and he set his face as a Flint.
In Chapter 7 he says in verse 16, Jesus answered them and said, my doctrine, my teaching is not mine, but his that sent me. So as we hear his teachings, as we hear His words, these are the words of the Father, we are learning all that the Father gave to him to tell us.
So we know the Father. He says my doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.
Later on in Chapter 7, verse 45, Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said unto them, Why had he not brought him? The officers answered, Never man spake.
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Like this man?
This man was speaking the very words of the Father, doing the very works of the Father, glorifying the Father, never pleasing himself, never doing his own will.
That's what sin is with us.
Doing your own will.
He never did.
In chapter 8.
They asked him a very significant question in verse 25.
They said unto him, Who art thou? They had asked that same question of John, and he answered it three times. He said, I am not the Christ. 5 words. They asked him, I thought this one, This one He says I'm not. 3 words. They asked him further, and he said no.
No, he wasn't the Messiah. Now they asked the one who was the Messiah? Who are you? Who art thou?
And Jesus saith unto them, even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. Now that translation is very close to the to the best rendering that we can give. It's a very difficult verse to translate, but I believe the best rendering is what we have, Mr. Darby's translation, and I'm going to add a little bit to it. His answer was all together.
And absolutely what I say to you, that's who he was.
And what he said were the father's words, and what he did were the father's works. And he was altogether absolutely that he did not say one thing and do another. He was, he spoke the very truth that he was the living embodiment of an expression of in his person as a dependent man.
Verse 26 He goes on to say, I have many things to say and to judge of you, but he that sent me is true, and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him.
Here was a man on earth, speaking to the world all that he had heard of the Father.
They understood not that He spoke to them of the Father. Then said Jesus unto them, When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am He, and that I do nothing of myself, or from myself as a source, as the thought of the expression, but as my Father hath taught me.
I speak these things.
Now verse 29 And he that sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone. For I do always those things that please Him, I do always those things that please Him.
I can't say that, you can't say that, but he was a man in this scene that could say I do always those things that please him. Romans 15 says Christ please not himself. He was always pleasing the Father. What a delight. Mr. Ballot puts it so lovely. He says there was an object here below that would commend the place.
But now it is gone. Jesus is with the Father. He's not here now.
He's with the Father, but He's left you and me here. He's given us His very life and nature. He's given us the Holy Spirit to empower that life and to live as Christ lived. That's why he's left us here. That's the reason He's left us here, that we might live the very life that Christ lived in perfection. We live it so imperfectly. We get our flesh mixed up in so many ways, but here He was the perfect one. I do always.
Those things that please him.
The 9th chapter, verse four. I must work the works of him that sent me. While it is day, the night cometh when no man can work, I must work the works of him that sent me. So everything he said, every word he spoke was given Him of the Father. All his works were given Him of the Father.
So perfectly did he discharge.
That assignment.
That was given to Him from the Father. Now we come to some of the most precious verses. Chapter 10.
Verse 17. Therefore doth my father love me?
Well, the first question that comes to us when he says this is, didn't he always love him? Of course he did. The Father loveth the Son and showed him all things that he himself doeth. He always loved him. He was in the hiding place of love. He dwelt in the bosom of the Father, dwells in the bosom of the Father, never left it.
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Always in the place of affection with the Father, but now he speaks of something new.
He speaks as something that would provide a fresh motive on the part of the father to love his son. He says, Therefore doth my father love me because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
Now here he seems to be speaking, doing something other from himself as a source, but let's read on.
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.
I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. That seems to be a contradiction to what we've been saying, that he never did anything from himself. Read on the end of the verse says this commandment have I received of my father. So the very act of laying his life down, he did it in obedience to the Father's commandment. Everything he did once he took the place of a servant. Once he assumed the form of a servant.
Was in obedience to the one that sent him.
This commandment have I received of my father. He lay his life down, he went into death, and such a death, the death of the cross, as it says in Philippians 2.
Therefore does my Father love me. His obedience during his life was always in the joy of communion, but at the Cross it was in the face of divine wrath against sin.
The unmitigated judgment of a holy and a righteous God poured out against him.
Because He was there, the sin bearer, therefore doth my Father love me. I lay down my life. He went into that place of awful darkness. The waves and billows of divine wrath against sin rolled over him.
Cried out My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Then he answers his own question. Thou art holy, Oh, thou that inhabiteth the praises of Israel. And the holy God could not look upon sin, so he had to turn his face and forsake him, that perfect, dependent, obedient man. Therefore doth my Father love me.
Because I lay down my life.
In obedience cost what it would.
Verse 25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and you believed not. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. Verse 32 Jesus answered them. Many good works have I showed you from my Father. For which of those works do ye stone me?
Verse 37 If I do not the works of my father believe me not. Verse 38 But if I do, though you believe not me, believe the works that ye may know, and believe that the Father is in me, than I in him.
In Chapter 11 we have the account of Lazarus. We know the story Lazarus. I'll pick up the story in verse 38. Jesus therefore, again groaning in himself, cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. And Jesus said, Take you away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh, for ye have been dead for days.
Jesus saith unto her, said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe.
Thou should see the glory of God. Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid, And 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. Notice what he says. But they may believe that.
Thou hast sent me.
And when he had spoken thus.
He cried with a loud voice. Lazarus, come forth.
And he that was dead keen forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin. And Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, let him go. He did not act simply as a divine person. He acted in obedience to the Father, looking to the Father, independence in prayer, doing all consistent with the place that he had taken.
The lowly subject man.
Maybe there's someone here that doesn't like being in the place of subjection. Maybe there's someone here that doesn't like to obey someone else.
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Well, he he obeyed when the cost of obedience was.
So horrible that cannot be described.
It was going to the cross.
You remember in the garden the only time he ever expressed his own will.
He says, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
He looked into that cup filled with the wrath of God against sin. If it be possible, he said, if there's any other way, Father, let this cup pass from me. He expressed his will. He could not find his meat in the wrath of God.
The holy horror of his perfect soul in humanity shrunk from being made sin. Knowing what it would cost, He would be forsaken of God.
But then, in the perfection that was always his, he says nevertheless not my will, but thine be done.
You think his path was easy?
Oh no.
He met with the hatred, the rejection of man.
Finally ended by meeting the wrath of God.
Something you and I will never fathom.
Never understand, never sound the depths of He took the subject place. It was the Father's will that He go to the cross, and He did it in perfect obedience. Therefore doth my Father love me.
And so here, when he raised Lazarus, he says.
Father, I knew that Thou hearest me always.
An account of those that stand by. I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. I'm addressing those this afternoon that know the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. That's the most precious knowledge that we have that He sent Him. He's the sent one.
In John 17, the unity of the Church is to be so expressed, as the Lord says, that they may be one, as our Father are in me, and I and Thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that Thou has sent me.
Someday the world is going to know it when it sees us with Christ in glory, glorified alongside of Him, with the same glory as His, and then they will know that the Father has sent him. Now know something else, that thou hast loved me. Thou hast loved them even as thou hast loved me, he says.
Well, we failed in that.
Pretty badly.
He never did.
He never failed.
Let's go on.
Chapter 12.
Verse 44 Jesus cried and said he that believeth on me believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.
And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. Tremendous statement uttered by a man on earth. He says, He that sees me sees him that sent me.
All that we're ever going to know of God.
We know in the person of the sun, become a man.
We're going to be around that blessed man for all eternity. We're going to see the Father in Him even as we do now by faith.
Now verse 49 and 50 very precious verses. For I have not spoken of myself, or again from myself, but the Father which sent me. He gave me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak. Here He sums up all that the Father gave Him to say and speak as the Father's commandment. He gave me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak. And then He tells us what the moral character of that commandment is, and I know that his.
His life eternal life everlasting.
Life eternal. And as He kept the Father's commandment, as he lived out in perfect obedience all that the Father gave him to do, that was the expression of eternal life. I know that the Father's commandment, His commandment, his life everlasting whatsoever I speak. Therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
Chapter 13 We have the foot washing and we know about that very well.
We begin with verse 14. The Lord says, If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one anothers feet, for I have not. I've given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. He's washing our feet every day through the Word, the washing of water by the Word, washing our feet right now through the Word, forming His thoughts in us by the word of God.
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Removing that from earth, which hinders our enjoyment of heavenly things and of himself in heaven.
He says, I've given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. He got down at their feet and washed them. He's doing that from the glory right now, today. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither is he that he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If you know these things, happy are ye if you do them.
Happiness doesn't come from knowing the truth, happiness comes from obeying it.
If you know these things, happy are ye if you do them.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. If you know these things, happy are ye if you do them. And the reason there's so many unhappy Christians in the world is because they're disobedient Christians.
They are not putting into practice in obedience to the Word of God what God has said. The Word hasn't failed. It's perfect comes from Him. The ones that have failed is us. We have failed.
To carry out.
The truth of God's Word.
Then we go to chapter 14 verse.
Eight well known verses. Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffice it thus.
Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. And how sayest thou? Then show us the Father.
It's so wonderful to think of a man on earth that the God man, he was very God, very man, perfect as man in expressing the Father in every way, so that he could say, he that seeth me seeth him that sent me, and hear he that seeth me seeth the Father.
Believe us, thou not, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me. The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me. He doeth the works there. He goes from the words to the works, all in one sentence.
Perfect expression livingly of the Father.
Chapter 15 some very solemn words in verse 22 he says, If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin. But now they have no cloak for my sin. He that hateth me, hateth my Father also. You see, it's impossible to say I love the Father. I believe in God and I know the Father, but I don't, I don't know Jesus.
Or I don't love him. It's impossible to say that. The word of God says to hate him is to hate the Father, and to love Him is to love the Father. The two are put together in the Word of God. I want to back up for a moment to the last verse of chapter 14 which I passed over. It says in verse 31 The Lord says, but that the world may know.
That I love the Father and as the Father gave me commandment.
Even so, I do arise. Let's go. Hence the proof of true love is obedience. He says that the world may know that I love the Father as the Father gave me commandment. Even so I do. It will not do, young boy or young girl, for you to say to your parents I love you and then disobey them if you really love them.
You will obey them. The Lord Jesus demonstrated and proved His love for the Father.
In obedience.
True love is obedient.
True love to our brethren. His obedient, always obedient to the Word of God.
Always doing the will of God, No better way can you take to express your love for your brethren.
And by obeying the word of God.
Impossible to improve on that.
You don't have a better way. I don't have a better way than God's way. His way is always the best.
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Chapter 16.
Will Passover that chapter and go to chapter 17 verse 4?
The Lord says I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work.
Which thou gave us need to do. We read his first recorded words in Luke chapter 2.
Wished He not that I must be about my Father's business. And his last words were it is finished. Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit, and here He is in spirit beyond the cross. And he says to the Father, I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished the work which Thou gave us me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with thine own self.
With the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
He was with the Father before the world was from all eternity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
Dwelling in that ineffable scene of love and joy.
Now he asks to be reinstated as a man into that very glory.
He says, Glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory that I had with thee before the world was.
And he's been placed in that glory, and that's where he is tonight.
Glorified on high.
God has set him that obedient one in the highest glory in heaven, a man in the glory above the angels, above all created intelligences. He's there, the right hand of God, glorified. God has set him in that highest place. Who is he going to use? Who is he going to give the assignment to, if I can put it that way?
To reign over the millennial Kingdom, that man, that obedient, dependent subject.
Man, he's the one that is qualified now to reign. And so let's turn to 1St Corinthians 15.
1St Corinthians 15.
Verse 23.
This is the resurrection chapter, and this is the only verse that actually speaks of His coming. It says every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits afterward they that are Christ at his coming, I believe referring to the rapture. And then He goes over the tribulation period, the seven years, and he goes over the Millennium, the thousand year reign, and He goes to the very end of that.
And he says in the next verse, then cometh the end.
When he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power, For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
The last enemy that shall be destroyed.
Is death death? And that will be at the Great White Throne. That's even after the Millennium is over. Death is destroyed, death in Hades. The disembodied state of things will be cast into the Lake of Fire. They'll never exist anymore. That's the most horrible thing about hell. I remember the story of a woman that was.
That woke up.
At night and she was screaming, just screaming.
Uncontrollably and one rushed in and said what's wrong, what's wrong? And she said I've been to hell, I've seen it.
What did you see?
I went there and I stood at the gates of hell and I saw the the misery.
I saw the the grimaces on the faces and the distorted looks and the agony, the pain.
And the they, they all look so thirsty. And I said, give them a, give them some water. The answer came back no.
Give them some.
Give them some rest.
Answer came back no.
Then let them die.
There's no death in hell.
Death and Hades are cast into the Lake of Fire. The last enemy that is destroyed is Death.
And what makes hell so excruciatingly awful is there's no.
End to it.
There's no exit from it.
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It's forever.
The person at the gate said go back and tell them.
And she came back to tell the story.
Well, I think of that story whenever I read this verse. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. How many people commit suicide because they cannot tolerate their existence down here? Life is so miserable for them. They think that anything will be better than that, and so they're going to end it, and they plunge themselves into a lost eternity.
After death, the judgment. If they only knew that truth.
They wouldn't take their lives.
The only one that death is not a horror too, is the Christian. It is our servant ushering us into the very presence of the Lord.
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death, for he hath put all things under his feet.
All the more striking that all those verses that we read of him in that place of of the servant as being sent here, are found in the Gospel of John, which presents his deity to us as no other gospel does. But he entered, he entered it became a servant.
Verse 28.
Verse 27 Again, For he hath put all things under his feet, but when he saith All things are put under him, it is manifest that he is accepted.
That refers to the Father, which did put all things under Him, and when all things shall be subdued unto Him.
Then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be All in all, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit All in all. And yet the Son, one of the Persons of that blessed Trinity, had taken the place of manhood. And what we learned from this passage is having completely done the will of the Father perfectly as man.
He does not relinquish his manhood. He remains a man forever in the subject place.
Whenever we have the Son spoken of is in the subject place, it's his humanity. Then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under Him. Don't ever think of the subject place as an undesirable one. It's the one that Blessed One took in order to save the likes of us. He took the subject place and He'll never relinquish it. He'll be a man for all eternity.
And we'll we'll see the father in him.
One more verse in Luke 12.
Luke, chapter 12.
Verse 35 Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.
Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching.
Verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself. He assumes once again the attitude of a servant. He girds himself for service, and he makes them to sit down to meet, and he will come forth and serve them.
When will this be?
In eternity.
And what will he service?
What will He serve us? Well, He was a perfect servant when He was here below. He served everyone. The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. Perfect servant. He's serving us now as our great High priest. He's serving us now as our advocate with the Father. He had a limit to make intercession for us. That's His ServiceNow, His priestly service, His advocacy. And in this coming day, He's going to serve us again.
He's going to make us eternally happy.
He's going to service his own delights.
He will come.
He would cause us to feast.
On his own delights.
Those are the words of another.
He's going to occupy himself with making you and me eternally happy in His blessed presence. Sometimes the question is rather a foolish question. What are, what are we going to do all that time? Well, there won't be any time. Time is gone.
And I can't understand that.
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I can't begin to fathom it.
That which is timeless.
We're going to spend eternity, which can't be spent, by the way.
Being served by him.
And we're going to see God.
In him, and as we look at that man, we're going to remember Colossians 2 verse nine. In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily as we gaze on that man, say, in him dwells all the fullness of God.
We look at him, we're going to see God.
They saw him, John says. We saw.
It says no man had seen God at anytime. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
Only faith could Pierce The Veil of the flesh of Christ and see that eternal glory.
But God in His essence the creature cannot see. He dwells in light unapproachable, which no man hath seen nor can see.
Impossible for any creature to see God in his essence.
But we're going to see him as we gaze upon that blessed man.
The man with the very marks of the cross upon him.
It's going to service.
For all eternity.
Perfect servant, you'll never give that up.
That's the highest moral glory.
That you can think of.
The glory of that one who was willing to become nothing.
And He might bring us into the highest blessing.