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241.
In verse 7.
How far should we read verse 17? Or should we go beyond?
I think our brother said verse seven, wasn't it? I was wondering how far we should read. We read the verse 17 or we should read further this time, perhaps because there's more in connection with the subject in the latter part of the chapter. Oh, it might read the whole chapter from verse 7 then.
John 10, verse 7.
Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers. But the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door by me. If any man enter in, you shall be saved, and to go in and out and find pastures.
The deep cometh not, but for this deal and to kill and to destroy.
I am come that they might have light, and that they might have it more abundantly.
I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep, but he that is in hireling, and not the shepherd who is only sheep or not. See if the wolf cometh coming and leaveth the sheep and pleaeth, and the wolf catches them and scatters the sheep.
The hireling fleeth because he isn't hireling and careth not for the sheep.
I am the Good Shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine.
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As a father knoweth me, Even so know either Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. Another sheep I have which are not of this full. Them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Therefore does my Father love me because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
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. This commandment have I received of my father.
There was a division, therefore, again among the Jews with these sayings, and many of them said He had the devil, and is mad. Why hear ye him?
Others said, These are not the words of him that hath the devil.
Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?
And I was at Jerusalem, the feast of the dedication, and it was winter, And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon Park. Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.
Jesus answered them, I told you, and you believe not.
The work that I do in my father's name, they bear witness of Maine. But she believed not. Because you're not of my sheep, as I said unto you, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand, My Father, which gave them me as greater than all. And no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
I and my father are one.
Then the Jews took a stone began to stone him.
Feel as unto them many good works have I showed you from my father. For which of those works do you stone me?
Answered him, saying, For a good work we stole thee not, but for blasphemy, and because of thou being a man maketh thyself God.
Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law? I said, Your gods, if you call them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken, say ye of him whom a Father has sanctified and sent into the world?
Famous because I said I am the Son of God.
If I do not the works of my father, believe me not.
But if I do, though you believe not me, believe the words that you may know, and believe that the Father is in me, and I in him. Therefore they sought again to take him, but he escaped out of their hand and went away again beyond Jordan, into the place where Jonah first baptized, and there he abode.
And many resorted unto him, and said, John did no miracle, but all things that John speak of this man were true.
And many believed on him there.
It has been remarked that there are two doors in this chapter, and we have spoken of the first door in which the corner opened.
That the Lord here speaks of himself as the Lord does he not on this verse.
He went through the door into the sheepfold, which was Judaism, to lead out the sheep and gather them around himself, and he's making known to them now that he is the door.
It might be allowed.
That He is the door for his sheep, that he has contacted in that sheep hole who have now responded to his voice. They are attracted to Him. They follow him who goes before them out. Some have thought that this is their authority to go out of that system of religion, Judaism.
When the Lord Jesus says I am the door in verse 7 some of thought.
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That I am your authority, you follow me, you've heard my voice. Now you are warranted in leaving that thing, and I am the door out, as he says in verse 7. Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
Now verse 8. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers.
That was shown in the earlier verse.
But the sheep did not hear them, they heard me, and now they go out. Now verse 9 introduces a new truth of I am the door. If any man will enter in now it is Christianity.
We should be very thankful for those words, should we not? I am the door. Verse 9. The law doesn't say I was the door yesterday, but I'm no longer the door. He doesn't say I will be the door to Morrow.
But he's the door today. How important to realize that it's here in the present tense. I am the door. He's the door now. And so it beholds those who have not entered in that they should do so at once. Because he does not say I will be the door tomorrow.
And only one comes in here. I am a big dog.
On our radar and only one door.
Their volume can be saved.
And that Christ itself. They say this figure is taken from a little practice of the shepherds in the east. They would build a Pharrell for their sheep to be protected at night. Now the shepherd stands in the interest to that corral, and only admits the sheep.
Within that shoulder, because there is the danger of a sly wolf coming in and making habit of the sheep, so he sees to it that only the sheep finds their way into this enclosure.
And how full the subject is by me.
If any man enter in showing that everyone who is among the sheep of Christ must have personally pursued with a Savior by me, can't find any other way, must be personally acquainted with the precious behavior you must have had to do with him, you must accept Him as your Lord.
Then you are.
On the sheep and in that place of shelter.
Is that the same body first fear one who by him do believe in God? There are so many who profess released in God, but the person of Christ is not highly esteemed among them. In conversation with some of the young men who came in last night.
There seems to be considerable interest in the Gospel, but they were a little afraid that.
The defense of the Person of Christ and the deity of Christ bordered on narrowness and perhaps even bigotry.
And we ought to be rather broad minded and consider as Christians those who did not accept the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. But how wondrous it is that we have a person of the Lord Jesus Christ presented to us as the door.
And that statement, who by him do believe in God, is, I feel, very, very important.
There is no reality, there is no certainty with the soul that does not accept the Lord Jesus Christ for all He claimed to be. Even the Jews recognize it here. They recognize that He claimed to be gone and that stirred their anger.
8000 and a week where the Lord said, If you believe not of armed heat, he shall die in your sins. Whether I go, he cannot come.
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I said to a Jew one time, he said Christ was a good man and a great man all, but he wasn't the son of law.
No, I gave you all the words. That was the I am of the Old Testament and rejected.
Is to reject salvation and to dominate your sins.
For them to say that he's a good man shows that they're not intelligent because the Lord Jesus Christ claimed to be the Son of God. He claimed that place that He is God, He is the I am.
And if he's not God?
Then he would be an imposter and you couldn't even say that he was a good man. So they don't realize what they're saying when they say he's a good man.
No, He's gone. He's the Son of God. He's the I am. And if he isn't?
We don't have any hope at all, and there's nothing to Christianity.
All It's all based upon the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, even his work. There's nothing to his work if He's not the Son of God. It's all based upon what He is in Himself.
We have a special line of truth in John, I believe in connection with what you've been saying, Brother Anderson, but also in connection with the fact that he is the Santa one. We get that in our chapter later. Not that I want to take it up exactly now, but just to point it out that there's a special sense in which the Lord Jesus comes to the Jewish nation as the sent one of the Father, not simply the sent one.
But the sent one of the Father, bringing with it that vast ocean of blessing the the largeness of the heart of God, in sending his only beloved Son to be the Savior to die. Now that's connected with the credentials of the Lord Jesus set forth by Moses the prophet. Shall God send unto you like unto me him shall he hear. And then he gives the warnings, and the 4th of Exodus.
Of those who would not hear, and there are certain signs that accompany him. One of them is his works, and the other is the motives of his heart. You get them both in John. He could say in John, If I had not done among you the works that none other man had done, you'd not have sinned. But the other one is, which of you convinced me of sin?
Every action of the Lord Jesus and every purpose of his heart was pure love and blessing and service to the Father and for the good of man. The Lord Jesus came down as the San Juan. He came down to reveal the bosom of the Father to poor wretched man. But he comes to the Jewish nation. He comes to that people. And although he's rejected at the very start in John.
Still.
It doesn't stop that floodgate of blessing. And he goes on, and he presents himself to them.
Here is the door by me. Any man enter in, he shall be saved.
And then go in and out and find faster. But I believe that the Jew especially is responsible for recognizing the one that their prophets had spoken of, the one who was said of God. But now he comes as a shepherd in our chapter to give his life.
As a sacrifice for the sheep, Brother Anderson's remarks are supported by verse 35 of Chapter 9.
To the blind man that he gave sight to, he says, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? That's chapter 935. Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
And he answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. Now in our chapter 10, verse 36.
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Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world.
Thou blasphemous because I said I am the Son of God.
Now another thought. Verse 9 introduces a word.
As to if any man.
Prior to this, we have been occupied with the sheep Judaism into which the Lord entered according to the Scriptures.
Now it is himself, as we mentioned before, that has attracted them. They've recognized his voice and they follow him. They follow him out.
He leads them out, he goes before them, and he's occupied up until this time now with those sheep in the sheep full.
When you get to verse 9, the introduction of that which we might call Christianity, Christ the center, Christ the Savior, Christ the one who if any man enter in by him, he shall be saved. Notice that if any man now that's whiter than the Jewish people.
Said they had a lot of buzzers on Monday.
Like that for the thought, but in John's Gospel I believe that title was brought before some 40 times.
And John prosper to complement their leisure, but at least 40 times the Lord Jesus is referred to as the sent while and and his closing remarks to the nation in chapter 12.
And verse 44 and of course 45. I believe this is the last message to the nation. In John's Gospel, that expression occurs twice.
John Paul verse 44, David described and said he's a believers on me, believeth not on me, but on him. That's that thing. And he that seeth me seeth him, that's at me. So that in itself was a stumbling block to the Jews. They couldn't entertain that thought at all.
And it's important to see that in John's Gospel, the Spirit of God emphasizes that truth. Then coming to the 17th chapter, we find that we are sent well implies that the same truth to us to represent him in this scene of his rejection.
How about chapter 20 also, brother? Several chapters. I mean that we're assemblings, yeah.
In 1St 21 Chapter 20.
Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you, as my Father has sent me, Even so send I you. There's a there's an important connection that has been mentioned already in as to the use of this.
Word sent one in John.
That is, that Moses was the leader.
To bring the children of Israel.
Out and then in. Let's take them out of Egypt and then into the land, the good land. But these things are types. And so it's taken up, I think in the 4th chapter of Exodus, and we find that.
The the Lord Jesus now the one that Moses has been referring to.
The prophet like unto me, that is one that God spoke face to face with.
It was going to be the leader to take his people not into the land of Canaan, but into that new heavenly land. It's Christianity, really. But he first leaves them out as we have in our chapter, the Jewish people. But then he adds also.
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The wider blessing as it goes in the 11Th chapter, all the children of God are going to be brought into blessings.
Through this leader, but he brings his credentials in John, according as Moses has set them before us as a prophet, and the Jew is supposed to recognize that, and especially the leaders they had the oracles of God.
But it is what the Lord says in Luke, where He shows the moral application of the truth to the heart. He said, We fight unto you, and you've not danced. We've mourned unto you, and you've not wept.
There is no response in the natural heart. In the 21St chapter of Matthew, we find that he comes to collect the dues of his vineyard in righteousness, and they not only abuse the servants, but they slay the sun as well. But in the next chapter he presents to them a wedding feast, and they do the same. They slay the servants. They reject it. It shows that man's heart is utterly opposed to God.
Be it religious or what it may be, it's supposed to God. It's only the sovereign grace of God, brethren, that opens our eyes to see beauty and Jesus. And if we're here this morning is saved souls. It's because of sovereign grace, nothing else.
I suppose the Lord is presented as the great leader of his people throughout John's Gospel, isn't he?
In the first chapter we find him as the lead out. There were two disciples following him. In the 10th chapter, he leadeth them out. In the last chapter we find 2 following him there too. So he's the great leader of his people, isn't he? And he's leading us through this world and a scene on our way home to glory.
Speaking of our eight at a time first.
Yes, pretty affairs, he shall be saved. One shall go in and out through and find faster than said to get inspected. You get liberty, and you get.
For safety, you get liberty and you get sustained.
Now there's the one who has come to Christ as the authority on the right to say that he is saved.
And will never perish, as the Lord goes on plainly to say, you see the the Jews who put this blind man in the ninth gesture out of the city dog that was looked upon as putting that man and a lost position.
Is cut off from all the privileges of the Jews. He was an outcast and he was doomed, but the Lord here in what he is bringing before us in this ninth verse show that this very man that they had put out.
There's the one that has with security and the safety of the ones who belong to God that are the the true sheep of Christ.
And then in the in the bowl, as we mentioned Saturday, it was right the place where David found the privacy, a low debar place of no pastor.
You go very barnyard, as all these farmers here know, every spear of grass is, is dropping out by the feet of the animals. So that's the kind of a place the jewels were placed in, a place where there was no pasture, and also where there was a place of no liberty. They were confined by the laws, by the ordinances.
And the regulations of the Jews.
Inside of that enclosure where God had put them.
You know, when David was king, he didn't go out with the gospel and preach to the Ammonites on the Moabites.
To destroy those nations, they were enemies of God, people. There was no privilege such as.
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Weak and so richly enjoy now going out to any poor center and telling that Sinner hears away.
You can be saved. You can have a title to heaven. They were held within those strict boundaries and then, as we said, it was a place of no pasture. But now the one who comes through the shepherd is in the green pastures where he can lie down and enjoy all his blessings.
In the Good Shepherd.
And drink of the still waters and even enjoy the the restoring grace so that he can go on in the blessings which have been brought, he's been brought into by entering that door which is the Shepherd himself.
I suppose almost every illustration we have appealing in John is an outcast.
The Lord is seen as a stranger, and he takes up the strangers.
We see the woman as an outcast in the 4th chapter we see the man lying beside the pool and the 5th that he has no help. He's helpless until Jesus comes. He's an outcast as it were and.
So we have in the 8th chapter of The Woman Who Was an Outcast and the 9th chapter of The Blind Man's an Outcast.
So I believe it's true in the gospels too, that the first miracle of healing.
If I'm right, is the leprosy and the next is the policy now?
A man who had leprosy was an outcast for Israel from Israel he had no privileges.
He was, He had to go outside the walls and he had to put his hand over his lips and cry. Unclean, unclean, unclean. That was his position. But all. It's precious to see the Lord Jesus taking up that poor leper at the beginning of his ministry, and it's a picture of ourselves and all our vileness and uncleanness.
He's going to bless us, but in order to bless us.
He must bless us with himself, and so he has to cleanse us first before he can bless us. And then the next variable of healing is palsy, because we have no strength. And he gives the man strength, and I suppose that's what we have here. He gives us pasture. The blessing follows.
In connection with the miracles in John's Tropical Matter, they seem to be special miracles in in connection with what you're saying.
They're special cases, demonstrating weakness, helplessness, and then finally utter corruption in Lazarus, who was raised from the dead. There are seven of them. 77 mirrors. That must be significant too, because in the Gospel of God we get a full rounding out of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ in a special way.
Not that we don't get it in other gospels, but oh, what would we do without this gospel? The Gospel of God is it's a precious one and it brings before the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Especially precious because they are all individuals in which effort goes at the mind is lost.
They're called signs, I believe in the other translation, and there are seven I believe as you suggest to individuals. But there is one in chapter 6 where he feeds the 5000 and that is also a sign which would really make 8IN the Gospel of John.
That's the only miracle I believe that is found in all four costs.
Large leading the fire power, but it's interesting to his first miracle of turning the water to wine.
I guess this call for Brother Big Brown falling attention to the first miracle moves. He turned the water to blood, death and judgment. The Lord.
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Has the true leader of the people turns the water to wine?
Expressive of the joy and gladness and blessing as a result of the work of salvation.
In the future day for Israel.
The married separate Cana is that not typical of the future joining of Israel as the bride in a future day, and there will be joy in that thousand years.
The third day, Israel, wine or joy had run out of heaven, Yes, but as our brother said, in the third day.
And in.
Oh, it is.
Hosea 6 where it says after two days he would come it. It may carry with it the thought of completing something that's been undertaken down here by God. It may carry that thought with it completing of a work that's been undertaken. I was thinking, brethren.
Our brother there, he has emphasized that word home and his talk yesterday and also we had it the other day.
His own sheep. And then we've been Speaking of these individuals that the Lord has singled out in John.
Now we think of heaven as a place where the courts of heaven will ring with the praises of all the Saints, and it's so. And we think of that vast company that's going to swell those praises in glory. But you know, brethren, there's going to be that individual attention by the Lord Jesus to every one of His sheep all through eternity. There will be those personal things that each one of us will know in His presence.
Just as down here we are his own sheep. And I believe that the Whitestone in Revelation may suggest something along those lines. We mustn't think of heaven as a place where we'll be just one of the large company and not noticed. We may not be noticed here, but in that glory everyone will be noticed in a very special personal way. Just as this word own suggests to us here as a sheep.
I was visiting recently in Bermuda and as a little guest house where I was staying, each morning one of the staff gave us a little talk about their particular responsibilities and the gardener 1 morning brought in a handful of various flowers that he had picked from the gardens and began to tell us about them. And one was the foliage of a page called Match Me If you Can. Every leaf on the heads has a very distinctive pattern.
And he was outlining the curiousness of it and showed us these leaves and told us the name Max me if you can. And the gardener said, you know, it's very interesting that in dog candy works he never never duplicated. And he said, I believe to this God looks down of all mankind. He takes an individual interest in everyone. In fact, I know he loves me. He loves me enough to send the Lord Jesus to die for me and the Lord leadeth is my Savior.
It was such a joy to hear, to say it, and even from the leaf of the tree we could learn that precious lesson that we are individuals in this sight. Here we are gathered together and with a number of us. I don't think there's one of us that could look around and name the name of every other one. But here we said individually beloved of him, how precious it is that his heart and should be. So do ours. You breathe, believe, brother, Hey, hold that if you had been the only one in this world, Jesus would have come to die for you.
And that precious?
Where everyone in that meeting was an exact duplicate of yourself. I don't think I would.
Why?
Personalities, right sometimes. Sometimes they don't just.
God with others, so we have to learn.
Time is unheard of calling holes in all our fuel, but a lot of holes on the wagon and some of them were quite crooked and they didn't fit together very well.
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So it reminded me of the fact that we're all crooked sticks in the bottle of light.
And unless there is something that is morally or seriously wrong and dishonor to the Lord, we have more or less.
Rub someone else the wrong way by they fuel the common expression or we have to learn beloved to go out together as the bonds of peace and communion together.
And all times the bear was one another, I've always insisted on having our own way of as to affairs in the assembly.
And it's a wonderful training that we're getting down here, fitting us SW for a deeper, enjoyable land perfectly where we'll all have the mind of heaven. A young brother made the remark.
That how disgusted we would be with our brethren.
If they were like ourselves, that's something like brother, Hayes thought.
The words in our ninth verse.
Charcoal in and shall go out.
Could they suggest that that is a divine order and that yesterday we went in to the sanctuary, today we're going out. I'm pastor. Isn't this order important for us? We are thinking of seeking to please the Lord as we first go in into His presence. Only then can we be ready for any service for Him. Usefulness.
Amen with the 2nd chapter of first Peter the Holy Priesthood and then the Royal Priesthood So many today and reverse that order and flip the loyal priesthood.
That is, we're going out with a thoughtful or testimony to the unsaved first and then they following it up with the finals.
Lord, I know a dear man. The neighbor of ours got a lot of truth, but he tried to go on in the secretary of position. In fact, he was largely instrumental for organizing the.
Secretary.
And for years they broke bread at the 11Th hour just as we break bread remembrance of the Lord. He told me they not a preacher into their church. They hired mine on Sunday morning. He had the table put in the back of the room and he said, oh, I listened to favor of all the time for the gospel. We're going to have the gospel now at the 11Th hour instead of.
And you can have the breaking of Brad, he said in the evening. Then he told me later on all he said that's too often once a month to remember the Lord. Well, that's the way Christmas is gone, hasn't it? They have made so much over the.
The royal priesthood, as it were, that finally they bought his food of the Lord.
What really brings us into communion with himself is neglected until finally it's it's ruled out almost entirely.
Does this not also suggest the liberty that Christianity brings? The Jew couldn't go into the the inner place and he couldn't go into the sanctuary and nor could he go out in the sense of Christianity does. I know that John perhaps would suggest more of the burnt offering.
But.
There is a peace offering, and David was.
Quite anxious that the peace offering be offered with the bird offering when he after he had sinned and numbered the people and was restored. Now that is.
In time it suggests to us the perfect liberty of the child of God in the Kingdom of God.
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We have been brought into liberties now that never could be known by the Jew in his position as a Jew. It's like the shoes on the feet. We have in 15th of loops the liberty now.
To go about without the hindrances that formerly belonged to that which.
Where the work had not yet been completed. But we have a largeness in John that takes I believe in all this because you know, sometimes if I remember right, the peace offering was offered with the burnt offering and you have a largeness here that.
Just overwhelms us like the sea of blessing.
We have the the Lord Jesus as the door, but we have Him as the Good Shepherd that lays down his life for the sheep. And finally the Spirit of God takes us right in where we see the Father and the Son as one. All this is brought to us in this chapter, our blessings and association with Him in that place.
We.
I was going to say.
What you have in the 4th chapter in the Lord's conversation with the woman in cycling as well was really caring for.
The blessing is which the believers brought now, or the Lord said to the Samaritan woman.
The hour cometh when neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem. There at Jerusalem, as you were imagining, the people could not go into the inner sanctuary, into the immediate presence of the Lord.
All through the Old Testament dispensation they worshipped afar off. Find that Sinai when Jehovah came, and all His Majesty and glory.
People still far off and worship or worship was always at a distance and all that distancing. But you notice the Lord says to the woman of Samaria. We might just turn to the wall chapter of John who gets the subject before us.
And their.
23rd verse. But they are comic. And now, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit, and in truth of the Father, seekers such to worship him.
I only could rightly say that the Old Testament Saints worship in truth. They have the word of Jehovah as the bringing heavenly sacrifice.
Burning the incense on the golden alternate as to their feast and as to the Day of Atonement and all that they have the truth that God had given, but you couldn't say that they worship in spirit, ash in spirit as well as in truth. Worshiping his spirit belongs to Christianity. And if you look at the.
At the third chapter of Philippians.
In the third verse we are the circumcision of the apostles, that is, those that are done with a place. The old man have judged it which worshipped God. Now read that pie in the Spirit, not in spirit, but by the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
The marvelous thing is beloved that we're brought now.
Into the very immediate presence of the blessed Lord. The veil is rent now at once. Shut God's people out from His presence. Rent from top to bottom.
So that we can come into the immediate presence of our blessed Lord and we can worship by the Spirit. I'm sure we all realize that yesterday morning.
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The Spirit of God was guiding and directed as to the hymns, as to the prayers.
As surely the breaking of bread, it was a meeting we could feel where the Spirit of God was guiding and directing.
All those things are belong to Christianity and give us to understand the superiority.
Of our position and our blessings when viewed in connection with Israel's blessings alone. Our brother letting I waited, but she didn't go ahead so well. It'll be subject 1 to another brother then I thought it would be better for you to go on. I was just thinking in connection with what brother reusing brought before us. The importance of that truth. We get the very same truth in the first four books of the Bible in connection with worship and service.
In Genesis we find there man is a Sinner. In Exodus man is redeemed with the blood of a lamb. In Leviticus man is worshipping, but in Numbers he's serving. We get the same order, do we not, in Hebrews 13?
So our brothers just reminded us, the Father is seeking worshippers and the Lord is seeking servants, but we must never reverse the order and put service before worship.
I was amazed a short time ago, a dear brother who was in fellowship with us, he said to me, you know, brother, we we want to get out of this place, so let's go and preach the gospel. And he didn't only say that. He said that he would be free to go out and preach the gospel on Lord's Day morning and stay away from the Lord's Table to do it. But I'm sure he did not have the Lord's mind in that thought.
Are we to put service before worship? The Father seeketh worshippers from the Father seeking today, and the Lord has his servants. But we should never stay awake in the Lord's table to go and preach the gospel anywhere.
Is that correct?
The Lord must have the first place in all things, must have the 1St place. I believe in God's thoughts He ever would put His own glory first before everything else. And in the Word of God. I believe that the members of the body of Christ, Christ the head, the members of the body of Christ.
Which were chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world, according to his eternal purpose.
That the second thing in God's thoughts is the church. Now the third thing I believe in God's thoughts is the service towards the unsaved. That is the gospel going out to the salvation of sinners. And then I believe the next thing might be God's earthly people, Israel, who in due time will be brought in according to prophecy under Christ the head over all things.
Now in Ezekiel chapter 44, we get the Levites that had gone astray and not kept the charge. There's something like Mary, I beg your pardon, Martha. In the end of the 10th of Luke, Martha was busy about much serving. In the 44th of Ezekiel, the Levites are given that place of service towards the house.
Towards the people. But then when you get to I think verse 15, the Lord shows how the priests, the sons of Zadok, they had kept the charge. And he says, they shall come near unto me and serve at my table. They shall minister unto me in the inner. Now surely God's place should be given first.
To worship Him is the first thing. Service has its place. We would never, never want to belittle service to the Lord, nor service in the gospel, but we must not let these things get out of their place like they are in evangelical.
Christendom, today I want to read a remark by Mr. Darby.
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Well, now, this. I'll tell you why I do feel like reading it, brethren.
I believe it's very needful at this time to be reminded of what we're first calling is, as Mr. Darby puts it, this way.
Our Calling characteristically is ecclesiastical rather than evangelical. I do not say we are not to evangelize.
Far from it, but I do say it is not.
Our greatest duty rather what is due to Christ.
By his body is the greatest favor.
Paul's doctrine must.
First and foremost.
Be old and guarded.
As our chief business, let us not give it up lightly and let us not.
Be neglectful of the gospel either. Is that the right order, brother?
I believe I'm very needed.
Ministry for us in this day when you will all and you will always see that those who get so gospel minded that they will neglect they remember to the Lord and the reading meetings, the prayer meetings that sooner or later they end up in the camp.
In the book of Judges, just a verse or two.
1St chapter of Judges to support the remark of our brother Brown that these were God's thoughts always.
We have in this chapter the.
The portioning of the land and who was to go up first and take their possessions. So notice here in the.
Now after the death of Joshua, it came to pass that the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first to fight against them?
And the Lord said, Judah shall go out. Behold, I have delivered the land into his hand. Now Judah means praise.
That's the tribe from which the Lord Jesus.
Came praise, but now notice the next.
And Judah said unto Simeon, his brother, Come up with me into my life. We may fight against the Canaanites.
Simeon, I believe, means Taharka. That's obedience. And so we have the order here, just like we have in the New Testament. It's the Lord gets the 1St place and then the moment we find ourselves in that circle where we gather to His precious name, we find that.
It's his lordship that's before us, so to Hearken comes next.
Chapter 2 Where do we learn and prove what preciousness of Frank?
Where do we learn and prove the preciousness of Christ under you which believe He is precious, or the sum and substance of all that is precious?
While we prove it, we learn it when we come into His blessed presence with our Thanksgiving, our praise, our worship. Well, then, how can we go out as royal priests if we have not been in to show forth the excellencies of Him who have called us out of darkness into His marvelous light? We have to learn inside first.
Go out in his strength, then show the so forth. The excellencies of him were called Olive Darkness, and it was marvelous light.
And Group 17, we have a date there with 10 lepers that were planned.
That was American International to give back to the Lord and to worship at his feet, the Lord says. And I'm sure there must have been sorrow in the heart of the Lord, he said. Where are the 9?
01:00:04
I'm sure those nine must have told others how they were healed.
But they didn't come back to give the Lord his place.
I was thinking how it is you know we find doing so much with those that are evangelically minded. Put that first that the Lord does not have His place with them.
But our precious when we can give him that which is is due.
And then the the going out, as we've been speaking, going out is the royal priest that takes his right place.
They throw through that if our hardware really right with the Lord Jesus, this would be the natural order in our ways, would it not? It's wonderful to see the pattern and the instruction of Scripture, but it's also precious to feel that if our hearts are really right with Him, it will be the desire of our hearts to be in His presence, not simply because we are doing so.
Because of a certain pattern. But we know that in the bonds of natural affection it is a delight to serve. But who would ever think of true natural affection? That would not long for that sweetness of the company and presence and love of the One who is dear to our heart and beloved. If our hearts are right with Him, we will want that place of nearness and affection before Him. That place where?
He is everything to our hearts, and the heart blows out naturally in worship. And then it is interesting, and I believe rather searching, to see that the two are so often brought together, even in the choosing of the apostles. In the third chapter of Marks Gospel he says he ordained 12 That they should be with him, and that He might send them forth.
And in the 29th Second Chronicles, when Hezekiah is stirring up the hearts of the people, he says, My sons, be not, not negligitive, but the Lord hath chosen you to stand before him and to serve him. And so I believe it's the natural outcome of the heart that has been in the presence of the Lord Jesus, that his praises and his testimony does flow out to others.
And the two should be 9.
Natural in our lives in the last part of John.
Four verse 14.
We have that thought to also, brother, where the Lord says that which I give him shall be in him.
A well of water springing up into everlasting life, into eternal life.
Now the Lord was promising that which would be to those.
That would receive that gift and in this hour of worship when we worship the Father in spirit and in truth and according to that Philippians 33 that.
We are the circumcision that worship by the Spirit of God. It is Mr. Darby's translation.
And rejoice in Christ Jesus, where the heart is full, it will overflow.
Very striking to notice, Brother Albert, the first you just quoted. I was just looking at it. We have three things here mentioned in the 14th and 15th verses of Mark Three and seemed to be very important too.
First occasion we have in verse 14 the servant's relationship to Christ. First, they should be with Him. Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there are mine in the midst of them.
And then it goes on to say, and that he might send them forth to preach. Now that's their attitude toward the world. And then the next verse to cast out devils, their attitude towards Satan.
I believe there are three important things mentioned there.
I suppose that these things are very precious, but perhaps in the 10th verse we consider the solemn side of things. Here also the thief cometh not before to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I am come that they might have life, they might have it more abundantly. And so we have the the warnings of that which might be found even in the midst of all this blessedness on earth among the people of God.
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That we have been enjoying this morning that which the enemy may introduce.
But the true.
She his own sheep hear his voice and discern this which may come in among the sheep. The no doubt reference to what has gone before as to the thief, but also I believe it's a present threat constantly that.
In among the people of God there have been introduced.
From inside, from among themselves.
That which would upset the sheep. We have to be on our guard constantly. And as others have expressed this morning, it's the nearness of the heart, the Christ that preserves us. It's not merely knowledge, but it's the warmth of the heart, defection for Christ. It's enjoying his love for us and the responding of that love that preserves us in the case like this, where the thief comes.
You steal and you're kill and destroy.
Doing the sweep and the hiring.
What you thought?
Why I never meditated down. I thought maybe you had. I didn't say. I judge that it refers to the both referred to the Pharisees giving craps.
Little different view of their activities and and.
The Arabs that they were calling.
The character of season one comes with more or less suddenly.
Or Harley would be there permanently. He comes stealthily to a thief as a rule, and he steals. But this expression in the verse 8 and robbers, how many there are even nowadays of the apostate 1 standing in pulpits that are robbers.
It's Thunder too, feet, dust and plunder. He comes and steals and goes quickly. But a robber congressman?
In Acts 20 we have mentioned 2 with different characters. Acts 20 verse 29.
If I could fall, speaking to the elders at Ephesus, says, I know this, that after mighty parting shall breathe a woe entering among you.
Not bearing the flock, these are those coming in to do their their destructive work. But then it says also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
There are those that come in to do their destructive work and there are those on the other side that rise up.
And speak perverse things. And they draw away disciples. Away from who? Away from the Lord Jesus Christ, away from the center. These have no use for the Lord Jesus Christ, and they're doing what we find that the Lord is saying here.
They steal, kill and destroy and then as the hireling have no care.
For the sheep.
The wolves in this plain chapter of Acts, are they not?
As it were wolves in cheap clothing that do come in from without. Whereas the others there shall arise from among your own selves could be believers and teachers. They're infatuated over themselves, and they want to press their own things in order to get followers after themselves. And that would be to draw them away from the, as you say, the true center, as it is the business of the enemy to scatter.
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So it is the business of the Holy Spirit to gather and unite us.
I suppose all the way through John's ministry he warns of that which is.
Opposed to Christ and that which comes in at the end, which is the Antichrist.
And no doubt there is some reference here to that which I wouldn't be able to go into. But in answer to your question, I have no doubt that there is something in connection with the higher link that's referred to in Zechariah that at the end there will be that one comes and, and is a hireling. But he, he flees when, when the danger comes and he leaves the sheep. I have no doubt there must be something to that. But still the application for us here, it seems to me, is the present application for our hearts to be occupied.
And nearness to Christ over his word. Prayer that we might be preserved from these dangers around us.
Quite a contrast.
They have no heart they don't care for they see. They just want to get what they can.
Get out of it. But how different the true shepherd, when he saw the the wolf coming instead of fleeing while he lay down his life. So you find that when Judas was a band from the high priest came out to take the Lord.
So it says the Lord went before them, and he said he seek me, let these go their way. So he faced the enemy with all the dangers and the the terrible suffering that awaited him, rather than to dessert grow sheep in their peril in need.
In connection to the law adjustment in the first in Matthew 7 and 15.
Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly there are ravening wolves. Well, the mode of false prophet opens his mouth, he betrays his real character. For a wolf cannot say bar like a sheep, though he'd be dressed like one. He can only growl. So it's easy to discern surely the difference.
I'd like to just repeat what I remember our brother a or sometimes telling us and I believe it's good for us younger ones to remember that.
This expression more upon me is often held out by.
Some groups that speak of a sort of a second blessing, as though it is some attainment, but the truth here is that the Lord has not only given life, but abundant life to the weakest, to the.
Youngest child of God. It's not an attainment. That is what is given to each one of us. This presupposes no life before, but more abundantly would suppose. Well, there was some of it, but now it's more about it. That's not the thought I believe, but it is. It is the thought of of what we have in Christianity.
We are anticipating the finished work of Christ in almost the entire Gospel of John.
We also anticipate the gift of the Holy Spirit and the knowledge of God as our Father. They had that knot in the Old Testament time, but now it's distinctive of Christianity that we do have eternal life. That in the way that John uses the expression eternal life in this gospel, it is where we first get it in the Word of God.
And it embraces all of that life of a risen Christ.
Is the life of Christ risen, and the Holy Spirit the power?
And also by the Holy Spirit we cry our Father in relationship. So our communion and enjoyment. Now is that life abundant? That's Christianity and it's full development. It's always anticipated in John. I want to say for the benefit of any that might have a skeptical thought of what I've said, that in the Old Testament, do you find the word?
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Life forevermore in 133rd song, the last verse 3.
That is looking at blessing for Israel in the future on the earth.
And one other time.
In Daniel chapter 12 verse two, it speaks about some being.
Raised to light everlasting that is merely that bringing out of the godly Jews from the dust of the Gentile nations, if you please, and bringing them into the earthly blessings of the Kingdom future, future. Now in the first three gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, whenever it chooses the expression eternal life or everlasting life, it's one the same word in the in the Greek they tell us.
But in those three gospels, it's always the Old Testament point of view of blessings ahead.
On the earth? Not until you get to John chapter 3 and verse 15.
Do you get eternal life used in the way it's used now in Christianity and in John's Gospel? And it's based on the 14th verse. John 314 says as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up?
That whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life. The first time you get it in the Bible in that sense, but it's based on verse 14. The finished work of Christ is that solid, brother.
You would say then, that the everlasting or the evermore in the Old Testament is more the everlasting of time.
But eternal life, as we have it in John, takes us on into eternity. We have it now, but we have it all into eternity. Amen.
Would you connect this boss and I am coming. They might have life, and that they might have it abundantly with the 20th of dawn and His breathing on them. You speak of it in view of the completed work of Christ in John 20 verse 22, when he had said this.
He breathed on them and sat under them. Receive ye the Holy Ghost. It would seem to be in contrast with the condition of Adam when God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And we belonged at one time to that atom race.
With the sentence of condemnation and death. But now, by the grace of God, we are possessors of that which is abundant life, and it seems to me to have its connection here. One and two follows right through with your thought. There is now therefore no condemnation. Then they're in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Now that fits in with that breathing upon them. Resurrection life or identification with Christ in resurrection life.
#238.
I've ever been to war.
5.
Our show.
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