Open—Bill Prost
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There's no friend of sin to win.
That's great.
Blessed God.
Our Father.
Begun to be beginning this meeting.
Going how dependent we are.
On the.
We are so thankful and grateful to thee.
That thou hast blessed us though much in these meetings.
And we do pray that the next hour might be more of the same.
And that thou was delivered from the mind of God.
By Thy spirit, that which would neither meet our needs, We are so thankful that Thou hast met those needs, and we just cried to Thee for Thy help and grace, knowing that it's only of Thee that we can be blessed.
And we cried to thee for thy guidance and direction, for whoever would come, stand up and speak, that they might be aware that we all need to be nourished and fed. And so we thank thee for those verses that.
Alan Redden.
In 2nd Corinthians 14 and just pray that there would be the liberty of thy Spirit to minister to our needs. In the name of the Lord Jesus we pray. Amen.
Reminds me of something I read a little while ago where JN Darby was attending a conference in the United States of America and I read with some gratitude and a bit of a smile on my face that two brothers were helping him along to get to the meetings too.
Not that in any way I can compare to him. I don't mean that.
I have in my heart this afternoon.
More of what?
Alan mentioned when he read that verse in First Corinthians 14.
The side of comfort. And in order to see that, perhaps we could turn for a few moments to John's gospel.
Chapter 14.
This chapter is so full.
That we could spend a whole conference on it and never get to the end of it.
But.
If we want to look at it in a, shall I say, divide it up a little bit, we get the first mention, clear and definite mention of the Lord's coming for us. And what a precious truth that is. Here were the disciples very much concerned and very sad that their Lord and Master was going away from them.
And the Lord Jesus says in verse one.
Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me.
In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.
There is the precious truth of the Lord's coming, and of course more of that is developed in Paul's ministry. But here it is first of All in all its freshness and joy to a group of disciples who were.
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Mourning the loss of the one with whom they accompanied for the past 3 1/2 years.
I'd like to think of all this as primarily being love to remember many years ago.
Good. Many years ago when I and another young brother were privileged to spend a few days with our late brother Eric Smith. This would be well over 50 years ago, and in the course of our time there and in the assembly there in Tampa, FL where he was at that time, we sung the hymn 195.
Worthy of homage and of praise. Worthy by all to be adored.
And one of the verses in that hymn ends up in this way, so full of life and light and love.
And when we got home for dinner, Eric Smith said to.
My friend and I, and ultimately to his wife Francis, at that time, he said there is a summary of John's Gospel beginning with life.
And then light and then love. And I would suggest the section on love perhaps begins with chapter 13. Not that we want to.
Shall I say pigeonhole everything too tightly? And so here we have the Lord's coming brought before us. But then in the next few verses, down to the end of verse 14, we have something most precious. We have the Lord developing a little bit.
Of what it would mean to be in the father's house.
And this is something that is better felt and enjoyed in the soul than explained in human language. Bruce alluded to it a little bit in the address and I appreciated it. Just think.
That God himself.
Who loves his son so much?
With a love that you and I can never measure.
Wants you and me to be.
In that same home, the Father's house, to enjoy what to enjoy? The fullness of the Father's love and his joy in his beloved son and in the exaltation of his beloved son.
We don't have time to go on to the sorry to go into all the scriptures that bring before us the fact that God.
From a past eternity did not only have you and me in mind.
He not only chose you and me before the foundation of the world, but He had before Him something over and above that, if I could say it that way. And that is the exaltation, the honor and glory of His beloved Son.
And so the necessary step toward all that was, of course, the cross.
Because if his son were going to be heir of all things, as we read in Hebrews chapter one.
We read that he was appointed heir of all things before he made the worlds. It's mentioned first whom he hath appointed heir of all things before, by whom also he made the world's. God had appointed him to that place even before these worlds were made. Man can go back as far as he wants.
Pardon me, man can go back as far as he wants and say well.
This world is so old and so on.
But ultimately.
Long before this world was made, however old it is, God had purposed.
The honor and glory of His beloved Son.
And so we have some of those things mentioned here in the verses down to verse 14.
And we don't have time to refer to all of them except to point out here.
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That Thomas says in verse 5, Lord, we know not whither thou ghost, and how can we know the way?
Oh, what was the problem with Thomas's thinking?
The problem that I must confess I have had in my thinking from time to time.
Thomas was thinking of a place.
And.
If you and I are going to go from A to B in North America here, we do have to know the way.
And if we don't know the way, we need to travel with someone who does know the way.
Or we need to have a map, or in these latter days a GPS and so on.
We need somehow to know the way, but here the Lord reveals to them and is so precious, His thinking is so far above ours, that it's not a physical map that we need or the way that we need to know. In natural things He says I am the way, the truth and the life.
How precious that is. Well then, Philip says. But.
How can we know the Father? Show us the Father and that'll be enough for us.
O the Lord Jesus says.
Hast thou been so? I'll read it there in verse nine. Verse verse 9 of.
John 14 Have I been so long time with you? And yet as thou not knowing me felt he that hath seen me hath seen the Father? Oh, how beautiful that is, that when you and I come to know the Lord Jesus, what do we see?
Absolutely, perfectly reflected in Him. God the Father.
Now we're into a realm here that you and I cannot fully understand. I may have said this once before, but it really warmed my heart. Many, many years ago, perhaps 150 years ago, someone pitched this question at a well taught brother in a reading meeting. Well, when we get up there to heaven, will we actually see the Father?
And the brother's comment I thought was very wise, he said. I know of no scripture that actually says.
In clear and definite words we shall see the Father. But he said, if we are in the Father's house, I cannot imagine being there without being very much aware of His presence. How beautiful that is. And so you and I are looking forward to that, and it ought to comfort our hearts in the difficulties of these last days. And they are.
A sister in my home assembly now in Rio Ferry, Ontario, Canada, commented to me some months ago, she said. Bill, be glad you're the age you are.
I knew what she meant and I don't envy those that are young enough to be my sons or daughters, or even worse still, to be my grandchildren. And I actually have one grandchild now, a great grandchild, I meant to say. And I don't envy you because the world is going to get worse and worse.
Excuse me?
But in passing, before we go down for a few moments to the last part of the chapter, with Bruce's permission, I'd like to make a little comment on that event in Genesis 15 that I think he would have commented a little more on that, on that subject had he not run out of time.
You'll remember how that he commented on how Abram went and took a Bullock of three years old, and a goat of three years old and so on, and a turtle dove and young pigeons.
And he divided them in the midst, not the turtledove and the pigeons.
They signify perhaps a somewhat lesser understanding.
Of the things of God. But the Bullock and the other larger animals he divided in the midst, and he had to drive the fowls away. And Bruce already explained what that meant. But then what happened between those pieces? There went a burning lamp and a smoking furnace, after the horror of the great darkness came down.
And that is Bruce already commented on his Calvary's cross.
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The horror of the great darkness. You and I can never Plumb the depths of that. When the Lord Jesus in those three hours of darkness took upon him.
The suffering for our sins.
But there those pieces are divided and it's dark. But then.
A smoking lamp and a burning furnace passed between those pieces.
Suggests that the burning lamp speaks of guidance. Guidance.
In the midst of that darkness, but the smoking lamp speaks of the trials in our lives that the Lord allows in order to make us more like Christ. And if I can say so, sometimes that furnace can get very hot. A refiners furnace has to be very hot so that it causes the.
Metal to become molten.
And then the impurities I understand rise to the top and they can be skimmed off.
But I want to say that that lamp and that furnace in your life and mine, the lamp will get brighter as the Lord's coming draws near. The smoking furnace will get hotter, perhaps.
But what does that picture give us?
Both the lamp and the furnace are flanked by the cross.
They are flanked by the cross.
He that despaired not his own Son, but delivered him up first all, shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? And there will always be a path for faith. The lamp will always be there. Yes, the furnace will certainly be there too, but the lamp will always be there, and it will be flanked by the cross of Christ.
Let's go on though, for just a few moments.
To the last part of the chapter, because there are a couple of precious things.
I'd like to comment on here.
I suggest in a simple way that the last part of John 14.
And it bears it's really, I don't want to keep referring to Bruce's address, but the whole thing just seemed to solidify what I had been going through my mind the last few days. And that is on the one hand, there is the glory before us.
That's Ephesians chapter one. That's the prayer, the first prayer in Ephesians, one that ye may know.
But then you come to Ephesians 3, and it's that ye may be, and the last half of John 14 is the present enjoyment of everything that is in the first half.
And so notice what it says there.
Verse 16 I will pray the Father, and he will shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever.
And what is the specific, shall we say, object of that comforter? Notice verse 18. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. How does that happen? He comes through the Holy Spirit, and you and I can know the Lord Jesus in a fuller and more wonderful way than we could ever have known even if we had been here on earth.
And accompanied with him.
You and I say, well, how could that be? Wouldn't it be the most wonderful thing to have accompanied with the Lord and to have known Him then? In one sense, yes. But without the Holy Spirit, the disciples often couldn't enter into what the Lord was saying. They couldn't understand when He brought things before them.
Hast thou been so long time with me, Philip? And hast thou not knowing me?
Yes, there were many things the Lord communicated to them that just didn't seem to.
Fit their understanding. But what happened? And we had it in our readings.
When the Spirit of God came down, oh, suddenly there was an intelligence that had never been there before.
And so it is with you and me. And it is not merely intelligence in the matter of head knowledge. It is the intelligence of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ, not merely knowing Him as Savior, not merely knowing that we are saved once and for all, not merely knowing that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ.
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But rather knowing him and if you read the first few verses of two Peter chapter one.
It tells us there that we get all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Through what?
Through the knowledge of the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not merely, and I don't want to be misunderstood.
The knowledge of all that is in this precious word, but rather it is allowing the Spirit of God to use the Word of God.
So that we actually do not merely know about the Lord Jesus and about the Father, but we come to know them.
Well then we go on here and we find that in verse 27 it says.
Peace I leave with you.
My peace I give unto you.
Two different kinds of peace.
And they are most beautiful, most wonderful. The first one, I suggest, is a piece of knowing that you and I are saved once and for all, and that all our sins are sheltered through the precious blood of Christ. That is real peace as to our sins. But then the second piece goes beyond that, because obviously, and I speak with all reverence. Excuse me?
The Lord Jesus never needed to have peace relative to the matter of sin.
But there was a piece in which he walked through this world a perfect peace.
That accepted every circumstance from God and took all his circumstances and difficulties.
To God. And so we read of how the Lord would daily be in the temple there, teaching and preaching.
But then what happened? At night? He was in the Mount of Olives, alone with the father.
Alone.
Why? Because he was the perfect dependent man. And in that way he gives you and me an example.
And so he says that in finishing the verse, not, as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
I say that to each one of you to day, as I say it to my own heart. The world is getting more difficult and more complicated, and it's going to be harder and harder to live a life to God's glory. But allow me to quote our late brother, Clifford Brown, and I'm old enough to remember him quite well.
And he used to tell us, he said, God will always give you and me.
The opportunity and ability to walk a clean path through this world.
God will never show you and me something in his word and we have to say I can't carry it out because circumstances make it impossible, he said. God will not be God or would not be God if he did them. That is true and so we can depend on him.
But then there's something even more precious in this chapter, if I could say it.
Notice something and going back a bit for the moment to verse 21.
Either hath 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. And then notice verse 23, a very similar line of things. Jesus answered and said unto him, That is to Judas, not Judas Iscariot. 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.
What does it mean when it says in the middle of verse 21 And he that loveth me shall be loved of my father?
That is not the same love as John 316.
Because never in the New Testament does it ever say, nor in the Old Testament either.
That the Father loved the world? That's not an accurate expression, for God so loved the world.
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But here's the Father, loving those that are already his.
And then the Lord says in verse 23, If a man love me, he will keep my words.
And my father will love him. What does that mean? That is the kind of love.
That comes from a father's heart toward one of his children.
Who is obedient to His words? And if you and I want to enter into the joy.
Of the Lord's coming, and all that will be ours in the Father's house. May I suggest to you that this.
Is the way to go about it.
Obedience and happiness.
Go together.
Sometimes you shrink back from full obedience. I speak to my own heart. And sometimes that world about which our brother spoke in the young people's meeting yesterday can have quite a tug on our hearts. And as he pointed out, we're like that frog. I remember using or hearing that same illustration when I was in medical school to illustrate the anatomy and all that of the frog. Yeah, we learned human anatomy, too. Don't worry. But the point is.
He, one of our professors, explained it that way and I immediately thought that's a good illustration of a believer in this world.
We need to remember that worldliness is insidious. And a brother 150 years ago said I fear worldliness more among the Saints of God than I fear bad doctrine. Not that bad doctrine isn't serious. It is, but but it can be more easily identified.
And dealt with. But worldliness creeps in its insidious.
And before we know it, the world has got a hold on us. What is the answer?
Have this book before you. As Bruce said, get up early if you have to to read it.
I'm a morning person by nature, but I don't think my son would mind my saying this. We had a son who was a night owl and he did his best work after 11:00 at night. If you're that kind of a Christian, maybe late at night is your time to read. That's not the point. The point is read the word of God and then walk in the good of it.
But one more last point I want to make.
And to me this.
It caps it all off.
And it says there in verse 28, I don't know anything more precious.
And maybe this is an exaggerated statement, but very, very important. I don't know anything more precious in these last few chapters of John, with the exception perhaps of the 17th chapter. But notice verse 28.
Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you.
And notice this, if ye loved me, ye would rejoice.
Because I said, I go unto the Father for my father.
Is greater than I.
What is the Lord saying there?
Reminds me of two prisoners.
Who can't simply have to tell one another they're both saved. They're both in prison, but one keeps reminding the other one. Now they were in prison for crimes they committed long before they were saved, but they keep reminding one another in prison. It's not about us.
And at the end of this chapter brings before us in full circle to what we had at the beginning, and that is that God has before him the honor and glory of His beloved Son.
And if God has that before him, the Lord Jesus counts on the fact that you.
And I have that before us too.
Here are the disciples, all sad.
And upset and worried, perhaps because their Lord and Master was going to be taken from them.
And this isn't the only reverse in the New Testament that brings this out. But we won't go to any other verse.
The Lord turns things right around and says, if you really love me.
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You would rejoice for what reason?
For my sake, for my sake, can you rise above your own grief, your own sadness that I'm going away and look at it from my point of view?
Oh.
That's something, isn't it? We're used to being, shall I say it, even in our Christianity, we're used to being self-centered.
And without wanting to be critical of any hymns that we sing, sometimes, there are those hymns that we sometimes sing.
That sometimes focuses on ourselves and without being critical of other hymn books.
Our Little Flock Hymn book is one of the few hymn books with a lot of good hymns in it that take us outside of ourselves and focus on the Lord and hymns to the Father and so on.
But many hymns focus on ourselves and all that the Lord does for us, and how that He is there in every grief and every sorrow and so on.
All very, very true and very good, and I would not diminish it in any way.
But isn't it a wonderful thing to be able to get out of my own grief and say, Lord, I know you're going to look after me and to get out of that and be able to rejoice in his joy and all that he is?
Remember a brother who ministered after the breaking of bread once on the welcome that the Lord must have gotten.
One the other side of that cloud when he was received out of their sight.
Can you and I get beyond that? I trust we can. He would rejoice. And that, I suggest, if I can say it this way, is the key to supreme happiness. To be able to get outside of ourselves, to be able to have His joy in our soul. Because what will it be like in all eternity? Will you and I be thinking of ourselves?
There will be fullness of joy in every heart, no question about it but our object.
Will be his joy, and that's why, as a brother brought out in the reading meeting, that I will cast our crowns before him. Because heaven in essence, I suggest, and words fail, but it will be the eternal.
Blessed joy of the unfolding of what?
The glory that you and I share, yes, we will share it, but it will be the eternal unfolding.
Of the glories of Christ and he wants us to enjoy all that now and what it will be like in in that bright glory. Yes, we have to deal with responsibilities in this world. There are the cares of this life and they are real. They are difficult.
But the Lord says that lamp is there to guide, and that furnace is there too.
Take the impurities out of you to try you, but it's all there buttress. If I could use that term on both sides by the cross, and the Lord is going to bring you and me through. He said he would.
And He wants us to enjoy all of it now. But that great glory will be.