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God leave all.
In my father's house there are many mansions who 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 you may be also. And whether I go, you know the way you know. Thomas says unto him, Lord, we know not whether thou goeth. And how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father.
But by me.
If you saw me, you should have known my father also from henceforth you know him and have seen him.
Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it's the fight of us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you? And yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He could have seen me, have seen the Father, And how saith thou? Then show us 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 worst. Believe me, that I am in the Father.
Or else believe me for the very work sake.
Verily, verily, I said to you, He did believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also?
And greater works than these shall he do, because I go to my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father.
And he shall give me you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more.
But you see me because I live, ye shall live also.
At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father.
And ye and me, and I, and you, he that 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.
Judith saith unto him, not ascariot. Lord, how is it?
That thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world. Jesus answered and said unto him.
If a man loved me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come in unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings, but the world. The word which he ye hear is not mine, but the fathers which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name.
He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said.
Unto you peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.
Not of the world give us, give I unto you, Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard how I said unto you, I will go away and come again unto you. If you love me, you would rejoice, because I said I go unto the Father, for my Father is greater than I. And now I've told you before it come to pass, that when it has come to pass you might believe hereafter I will not talk much with you.
For the Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as a Father give me commandment, Even so I do arise. Let us go hence.
There seems to be two things that prompted this.
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Chapter given the last verse.
Previous chapter.
Peter is concerned of following the Lord.
To where he's going, so much so that he would lay down his life for him.
But also.
They knew he was going away.
And the Lord tells Peter that the clock would not crawl three times before he would have denied him.
So you see, they have sorrow and they wondered what was going to take place.
As to their destiny.
We find that in Scripture.
Those passages have been written.
For us, especially for our exercise of soul.
Came at a certain time when they were needed.
The Saints in this and Nica were concerned about their loved ones who had died, and so the apostle was sent to give them the truth of the resurrection, the rapture. And so we have here Scripture finding this place exactly where it belongs in the particular history of these apostles.
And so, he says, let not your heart be troubled. It wasn't that they they were troubled outwardly, but they didn't need to be troubled inwardly.
Let not your heart be troubled, and I'm sure as we go along in this world we will find a great deal to trouble us outwardly.
But the one who goes on in communion will go on in peace and not troubled inwardly. And that is the difficulty with many of us. Sometimes we are so taken up with things around us that we missed. This precious thing is mentioned here. Hearts, not troubled inwardly.
That can only be enjoyed in communion with the Lord. And so he seeks to lead their hearts. And this chapter does the enthusiastic communion and says that when he went away, the Comforter would come and he would lead them too, and saw how blessed it is that he has come. The Holy Spirit of God has come to lead us into all truth.
In a chapter before he washes the disciples speech, because there might be a hindrance to communion, there often is in our lives something that is allowed that has come between US and the Lord so that we can enjoy communion with Him. So He washes their feet, warns Peter of his weakness.
Because we can be very self confident like Peter and think we wouldn't do certain things.
And he warns him. But then, as their brother has just been saying by he tells them, they need not be troubled because he was the one who was going to the Father, He was going to send the Holy Spirit, and they would be able to enjoy that peace and that communion with him. And we can do it in a more blessed and full way since the coming of the Holy Spirit.
We can say then that chapter 13 is.
Preparing them for the place and chapter 14 is.
Preparing the place for them. As yet they didn't know about that place.
So he tells them about it.
And he calls it my father's house.
We find father I think 23 times in this chapter.
More than 100 times in the book of John.
That's what this book is about. The Father made known how Through the sun. That's the way we know the Father and the message given right after resurrection. The Lord's resurrection was to marry. Go tell my brethren I ascended to my father. And then he says, your father says my father's house here. But then he says.
My father and your father.
So how important for us to know God as our Father, to learn of Him as Father, and have that peace in the 17th John of John in the prayer?
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Jesus commits his own and says.
Holy Father, keep those thou hast given me. He commits them to the Father. Entrust them while he is away.
And he also sends the Comforter, as you mentioned. And now he's telling the disciples about the place. And the place was not prepared until a man went there, and no man could go there. But Jesus, there's a man in the glory.
Men today make much of getting out into space and reaching the moon and walking on the moon, and we don't belittle that.
But it's not their natural element. It's not our natural element with lives of flesh and blood.
So the Lord in bringing us when He does bring us there, He will give us.
Bodies of Glory suited to the place too, but he's already there, and that is really what has prepared the Father's house, the place for us.
In a sense, the Lord was preparing his disciple in the 13th chapter.
For the Father's house in the very practical way, here it was in view of the Father's house to come, that's true. But this very chapter is the communion of the Father's house itself.
Where he brings them into the good of what is on his heart for them, and where they're able to understand, to enter into his mind now this peculiar to Christianity. The world doesn't know this.
Only those who know the Lord Jesus can enter into His mind and hear about heavenly things, and not only heavenly things, but things to come as well that will occur in heaven. And so there will be a Father's house.
God has always desired to have children.
He's going to have his house full of children.
Remember when Abraham stood in?
Before the Lord on that starry night. And the Lord told him to look up into the heavens.
Abraham said, What will you give me?
I have no son, Lord says. Look up the heavens.
That's why does your blessing will be, and that blessing of Abraham reaches out to the furthest parts of the earth.
In the coming day.
And connects with the blessing. And so here we have the father's house. It's going to be filled with children.
I believe that God is thinking of the very same thoughts that Abraham was thinking.
About having his house filled. And so we have in this chapter.
The. The house, the father's house.
That supposed his children.
I was thinking how there were three things that probably could have troubled them. First, that the Lord Jesus said he was going away, and secondly that Judas, one of the number, was going to be the betrayer. And then last of all, Peter learning the weakness of his own heart. And I think those are the things that often trouble us too. We think, well, we don't have the feeling that the Lord is really near, but he's telling them in this chapter he's going to send the comforter.
And I think most of us know that in the second verse he says, in my father's house are many mansions or abodes. And then, after Speaking of the coming of the Holy Spirit, he says, in the 23rd verse, Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our mansion with him. The word abode and mansion are the same. So isn't that lovely? The Lord has gone away, but walking in communion.
We can be in the enjoyment of his presence by the Spirit and then we have disappointments. Here's someone that they.
Didn't suspect was unreal at all. Judas turned out to be a terrible disappointment. Sometimes disappointments come like this, even in people that we've had confidence in, and this can be a source of trouble to us, upsetting us. And then last of all, we have to discover our own weakness too.
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Had to realize that he wasn't what he thought he was. He said that his heart wouldn't reproach him as long as he lived, But when he got into the presence of the Lord, he said, I repent and abhor myself in dust and ashes. And so these things trouble us too. But isn't it beautiful what the Lord is saying here, that he's going to take them to be with himself, where everything will be fullness of joy, but in the meantime he is going to be with them by the Spirit?
And comfort their hearts, give them peace, and give them joy. And so as we go through a world like this, the Lord has gone away.
But we can say, Lord, I am with you always. We can say that in Him we have peace, and this is encouraging for us, brethren. We all face these disappointments that we feel. The Lord is not near us at times, but He's always near. He'll never leave us nor forsake us. Things disappoint us and we find out ourselves. But he's the same and he's sufficient for every situation. So I think it's beautiful the way he's comforting them in this chapter and the chapters that follow. And then in the 17th chapter he's praying for them.
He's our great High priest and we need that help along the way and he ever lives to make intercession for us.
Necessary to Christianity to realize there was number place in heaven for man until a man went there.
We get in the 12Th of John that except the corner we fall into the ground and die to bite us alone. But if it die, it brings forth much fruit as the sun. As man in this world the Lord Jesus Christ could have ascended without death, but he would have been there as the only man in heaven. Having chosen the to go into death, he bears much fruit.
And we as the fruit now can look up and see the men in the glory.
And know that there is a place there for us. And the Holy Spirit, having been sent according to His promise in this chapter, confirms that to our souls, and gives us the enjoyment of our place in the glory united to the glorified man. And that is the essential, one of the essential.
Doctrines that distinguishes Christianity from everything else in the world.
He couldn't go. He couldn't receive the people to himself until he went to the cross. I think where it says I go to prepare a place for you. He was going to the cross. They were looking for something immediately where he was going to leave and that's where he was going to the cross. Prepare our sins in his own body. He might be able to have fellowship with us.
You might be able to commune with us, but he couldn't commune with us. In 15th chapter he called his disciples friends, but after the cross he could cause sun for in the family of God.
There's a misconception in Christendom today that the Lord is building many mansions and glory, and I thank two brothers have brought it out and they might tie it together. Is that the Lord Jesus as a man, We're going into glory as a man having gone through the cross.
And death is a man in the glory. And we are in Colossians. We see that we're seated there, there with him as well as in Hebrews, and that's making the preparing the plate for us. That man entered into the glory for us.
I think there's a little contrast here. We read in the end of Ezekiel of the building of the millennial temple. And the disciples looked for the Lord Jesus as the Messiah to set everything right. Remember how they said to him after his resurrection, Wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel? And so they were thinking, no doubt of that time when the millennial temple would be built and they would be associated with him. For if you read in Ezekiel, you'll see that there were abodes in that temple, abodes for the priests.
But now they're called upon to follow him in a path of rejection.
He's going away to leave them. He's not setting up the Kingdom at this time, but he introduces them into something more wonderful in the millennial temple. My father's house, he says. There are abodes there, too, and I like to think of it in this way, as though he were saying to them, I wouldn't have called you to walk in a path of rejection, and I wouldn't have called upon you to be identified with me in that path if I didn't have something better for you than what you had anticipated.
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And brethren, that's always true. We're going to be like the Queen of Sheba and Burgett there, we're going to say.
The half was not told me, and so if they did seem at this time disappointed that the Lord was going away.
And that the millennial temple was not to be built. The Kingdom was not to be ushered in at this time.
This is what I believe was in their mind. What's going to happen always says there's something far better. You're going to have a place in the Father's house, a nearness that Israel will never enjoy. And while I'm away, the Holy Spirit will come down to comfort you, to lead you into the enjoyment of these things. And so I believe that's why he says he believed in God. That was Jewish faith, to know God as one God and distinction from idolatry.
But now to know him revealed no God revealed in Christ, as Peter says.
Who by him do believe in God, who raised him up from the dead and gave him glory?
That your faith and hope might be in God. I think it's lovely to see how He's preparing the disciples. And in a practical sense we have a lot of disappointments and things that don't work out the way we had expected. But the Lord would have us to enjoy this communion, to commit all into His hands, and to know that He has something far better ahead for us, and also a present enjoyment even in the midst of it all, as Father and Son come and make their abode with us.
We're going to take a phone knowing how his own home, where he's always lived at the father's house.
So that we will enjoy the very same things that he enjoys.
We'd be surrounded by the very things that he has always been surrounded with.
Because there's no change in heaven, you know?
And I believe this introduces Christianity here. Not that we get Christianity yet in John, but we have the introduction of it in these pictures we have before now. The Father's house, then, is our eternal abode.
This is peculiar to the Church. The Church has this place, and not only is he preparing the place for us, but he's preparing us for the place.
And even though we may be saved, still there's a work going on.
In preparing us for the place. Now I know that salvation is the preparation in a sense for that place. But I believe these preparing us through the washing of water by the word. We get that in Ephesians so that we will be able to.
Fit right in as no strangers, just feel at home.
Be able to enter into those things that belong to heaven.
Now, brethren, why aren't we now seeking these things?
Why is Christianity to us sort of a formal thing when the Lord himself is going to have a dwelling in his own home and he he wants us to enjoy it? We learned the principles of it here in the Word of God as the washing of water by the Word. What a wonderful thing it is to know that we have a home forever and nothing can never interrupt it.
And it's because I live, You shall live also, you said.
Is because a man is in the heavens, a man Christ Jesus, and he's preparing a place for us.
It's the father's house.
But he is going there as a man to prepare it for us who has already been brought out. But still I believe there's a preparation with us for that whole.
That's important.
So we get exhortation, admiration, for instance, that verse.
One in chapter 5 of Ephesians that was read be followers of God.
As dear children and walk in love, reminding us of Enoch as a type of the church, I believe.
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Those who are alive and remain to his coming at least says he walked with God.
And was not, for God took him. That is, he walked with God down here, and where he walked right into the glory that is practically the way we should be.
Fitting ourselves practically to go right into that abode that's prepared for us.
Why has it been such a long time to get that next?
Current if I go.
And prepare a place for you. I will come again.
That's the next thing he says there. He says I'm going and he says I'm coming.
Seems to us like a long time. Is there some reason about that?
Long-suffering patients, little hymn says for our for which impatience thou has waded through the night.
While we, Thy Saints, were gathered and brought into the light, then, then the Church completed. God makes no more delay. Oh God. With shouts of triumph we pass into the day. So we're glad He waited for us. Here we are over 1900 years later, and we're rejoicing that He has waited for us and brought us into this. And we still are waiting. This blessed moment. I believe this is the first.
Real clear statement in the whole scripture.
About the Rapture, there are little innovations of it types and shadows of it, but here the Lord stating very clearly, I will come again and receive you unto myself. There were many prophecies as to His coming connection with the Kingdom, and in connection with judgment and setting things right in this world. But this the Rapture catching up of the Church and of all the Old Testament Saints who died in faith.
This is what we're waiting for. This is what the Lord speaks of. Here I will come again and receive you unto myself. Beautiful expression of affection. Not just the place, wonderful as it is, but the person, or it's the person who makes the place.
First and second Peter Jeffrey. I think the question verse 9. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, and some men count slackness, but his long-suffering to us worth not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. I don't think we really understand the long-suffering of the Lord. We underestimate how long-suffering He really is.
When we get saved and we think, well now I want the Lord to come now and Take Me Home. But we don't realize the love of the Lord to those who are on their way to the lost eternity.
I'd like to ask a question.
I understood, Brother Lundeen, that your comment was that the father's house was only for the church.
Could we have a little more explanation of that?
The father's house is what?
I think, well, it might. Maybe I misunderstood your remark, but it seemed to me that you said that the father's house was only for the church. Now did you mean that?
Hearing is well enough.
Now it talks here about the father's house, yes.
Now is the Father's house for the Old Testament Saints as well As for the Church? No.
I've never heard anything like that before, and so I wanted to get that out in the open and see if it's true.
The heavenly city is the bride.
The Old Testament Saints Abraham will be in that city, but he will not be the city.
The father's house, of course, is a distinct thing.
But there are differences in.
Places that different ones have in the glory will be those who live on the earth too.
But I believe the Father's house has to do with what we have here. The Lord is going to take His church home to be with himself.
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So take it out of the world. The bride of Christ, the Old Testament Saints I I think will be there.
Be a friend to the right room with John the Baptist, who was a friend of the bridegroom, but.
That the body of Christ is a peculiar people. You need nothing like it and the whole universe.
We're one, bud. We're we're one.
We might look at.
Revelation 21.
To get language.
That apparently expresses truth as far farther than we can understand it, perhaps.
But I think it helps us in getting into God's thoughts about.
His abode and our abode. And it says in the third verse of Revelation 21 I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men.
And he will drill with them. They shall be his people.
God himself shall be with them, be their God.
There is some thought that the Tabernacle here is the church. I'll leave that for someone else to say.
But if we go back to Psalm 89 or 90, I guess it is.
And.
Yet coming thoughts. This is prophecy.
In the Psalms.
But it goes back and expresses.
A marvelous thought in Psalm 90, verse one.
And Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Evidently the suffering remnant, feeling their refuge, has always been.
The Lord Now you go to the next Psalm.
91 And verse one it says he that dwelleth in the secret.
He might read that secret of who the Most High is, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
That's a wonderful.
A lot of truth in that verse.
To give peace to any suffering remnant at any age, to know the secret.
Who the Most High is? Who is Jesus in his Millennial?
High place.
Now abide under the shadow of the Almighty, Any suffering remnant us David.
The captives in battling or the suffering Jewish remnant in the coming seven years?
Now go down to verse nine of Psalm 91 and we get future here.
Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge.
Even the most high thy habitation or thy dwelling place, What's going to be the?
Comfort.
Of that suffering remnant in the seven years.
They're looking to the Lord. They're looking to the Most High, who is Jesus?
And they might say, dwelling in him to know him.
There, verse 10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling well. The language is tremendous in Psalm 90, Psalm 91 and Revelation 21 and I think they relate to these words, mansions, and abode inhabitation. Here in John it links a people up with God in the nearest of relationships, and it links him up with us.
If anybody want to comment on.
Revelation 21. I'd like to hear expression about that verse.
The Tabernacle of God is with men, if there are any thoughts.
Well, could we not look at it something like this? If you were to walk down the street where I live, you might say that's where Gordon and Pearl Hayhoe live. We're married to one another, but that doesn't mean there's no one else in that house with us. We have children. And so I believe that the.
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Heavenly Jerusalem, as is, our brother said, looked at as the home of the bride. But also there will be those who will bless the friends of the bridegroom. Would you not say so?
And so that there is that special place, and we speak of it in that way, Well, that's the home of Gordon and Pearl, but that doesn't mean there's no one else there. And I believe that all those who have the heavenly portion will occupy the place of friends, of bridegroom if they are not part of the bride. But I had thought of that next verse. The Tabernacle of God is with men as including both heaven and earth. And that is a thought because he saw a new heavens and a new earth.
He saw the whole scene where God is All in all and God came down when sin entered the world, and he came and walked in the garden in the cool of the day. But Adam and his wife hid themselves, and then they had to be expelled. But through redemption God has way found a way that he can bless man, that he can be brought into a place where God can dwell with him. To me that's the glorious answer of what was broken down.
In Genesis, when sin entered, and now through redemption is filled not only in heaven but also in earth. But the home of the bride is in the glory above, as we know, because our home is eternal in the heavens. But that's the way I had looked at it. That heavenly city has looked at as being the place where the bride dwells. But there will be those who have a heavenly portion in association with us, will they not?
And then, of course, God will dwell with men, whether in heaven or in earth. Remember when the temple was built, Solomon prayed. Will God in very deed dwell with man upon the earth? Well through redemption that has been made a possibility, and it's going to be accomplished through redemption. So I had looked at it in that way as God's answer to what had come in, because the Lord Jesus came to.
Undo the works of the devil.
A true expression within 1/3 Ephesians that bear on the entire subject of the Father's house and the heavenly portion.
One I'm reading from the new translation is the all various wisdom of God, so that the Assembly.
Demonstrate the whole various wisdom of God. And the other expression that deals with somewhat of the same line is that every family in heaven of whom of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named.
So that we have the assembly. This blade is as heavenly as heavenly city, showing in that time and that age what the assembly is the administration of God's grace and government in this world, coming from Christ through the assembly to Israel and out to the nation. So that the all various wisdom of God is there in the assembly and it applies to every family in heaven that is named in heaven and alert.
That you have the tube and the 12 foundations of the city with the names of the 12 tribes of Israel, show the communion of heaven and earth and the unity of God's counsels connected with heaven and earth being brought into communion with each other in that in that millennial scene.
Promised in verse three, I will come and receive you unto myself.
That is really what makes heaven to be where he is in that day.
There where he is but the little words where I am.
Speak to us today as well as we think of the promise in Matthew 1820.
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But going back to the 12Th chapter here.
John.
In the time that we are in now.
Just to connect these three words where I am, we read in verse 26. If any man serve me, let him follow me. And here's the words Where I am, there shall also my servant be any man serve me him will my father honor So there's provision today to take up these words.
Where I am while we're waiting for the absolute moment when we're caught into the place.
To be with the person who makes heaven to be where he is.
I think the and John's ministry too. It's particularly the family. And so their brother mentioned the number of times the Father is brought in. And we brought in as children. And so here we find that the Lord Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me that was a new revelation, wasn't it? God was not known to Israel his Father.
Thought the Lord Jesus came, He that has seen me has seen the Father and so he is the way to the Father. The truth about the Father, the life from the Father, and it's the Father's house. It's all very beautifully brought before us because the Lord wanted the disciples truth of the church hadn't yet been revealed. But he's opening up to them this blessed fact of a relationship of knowing God, His Father and now since the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Because ye our sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying, have a father. Something very blessedly new has been brought in in Christianity, that every believer is entitled to be in that relationship of being able to cry, have a father, and know God. His father never saw in the Old Testament was it?
It's interesting here in John.
That we get the sayings of the apostles who never wrote anything.
Notice here Thomas.
Thomas verse 5 saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest? And how can we know the way?
Now Jesus answered him, and he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
This is rather interesting.
Because.
These answers are questions that Thomas and others raised to the Lord were intelligent questions.
And we should remember that that we are in our own hearts and the good of the things that we're asking. And it seems to me that he was in the good of it as far as he knew, but he wanted to know more.
I'll turn the page you come to the 22nd verse.
Judah saith unto him, And not Iscariot the Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to unto us, and not unto the world?
She's answered and said him, If I'm unto him, if a man love me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him. We will come unto him and make our abode with him. To see how a question can bring out tremendous truth. That's a good question. And that's what these different apostles are seen to do in John. They do not write anything, but they do ask questions.
And I sometimes think if if some of our younger brothers.
Had a something on their heart, and they didn't feel free to try to explain it. They could ask a question. It might bring out a tremendous volume of truth to the rest of us.
I believe that is something that's important in the assembly and that's how the younger ones lay hold the truth so they can minister later.
To their brethren. Very important. Now, I don't mean that these other apostles were younger necessarily, but they had not written anything. But still they were apostles, and their character of their questions showed that they were intelligent in a measure. They wanted to know more.
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No, it is in connection with that.
24th verse.
23rd verse Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man loved me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him.
And we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
Ye are my friends.
If you do whatsoever I command you.
The Lord said he wouldn't call them anymore servants, but he'd call them friends because the servant doesn't know what his master do it.
I believe if we kept the spirit of that in John's ministry, we'll realize that we're friends.
Not just a matter of doctrine, but it's the person of Christ. And if a man loves me.
He will keep my words. He won't be the effort.
Life seems to be the sum and effort to be a Christian.
But if you love me, you'll keep my word.
Might encourage others by saying that, by doing, by keeping his words, by being known as his friend. Then he's ready to reveal prophecy to us, and not until then. And prophecy is so interesting we can't get it. If we're not obedient to the word, then he he makes it known to us.
Just think of the same thing in connection with what the Lord is saying. Here no man cometh unto the Father, but by me they wanted to know where to go to worship. In the Old Testament there were direct geographical directions, and it had to be to Jerusalem a certain place, but now it's a person Here no man cometh under the Father but by me. And I believe that's important for all of us. We may know the address of the meeting room.
But I believe it's very important to have a person before us, person first as to salvation. Christ himself is salvation. When?
When in the book of the second chapter of Luke, he took up that babe in his arms, he said, Lord, now let us thou thy servant, depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. He looked down, and he saw that babe, and he says, mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
And solace to gathering, it's a person that we're gathered to. And Speaking of prophecy, it's not an event, but it's a person that we are looking for That as he is saying, the understanding of prophecy is to have a person before us. I believe that's very important. And this the Lord was teaching them because they were occupied with geographical things and situations like that. And actually the whole temple of worship was something that they could see.
But now in Christianity, we offer spiritual sacrifices. It's a person. It's a spiritual building. Living stones build up a spiritual house. So whether it's salvation or whether it's gathering or whatever, that's always remember that Christ is everything in Christianity.
Him #127.