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Start him, we just, sang said with respect to the journey.
Guide us, hold us, feed us, keep us calm.
This chapter, in a wonderful way, brings everyone of those items before us.
And.
Are in the remarks before the prayer.
Immediately made me think.
Of the comment that I've many here have heard many times.
It's the treasure we found in his love that has made us now pilgrims.
And to emphasize that in this chapter, the three prominent ones that are identified for us besides ourselves is the Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus and what he was saying.
Was counting upon the love that had been produced in them for himself as a treasure to their souls that was going to be with them for the journey and make them want to have it.
And so that is connected with it, but at the same time, the three that take us along the path to the end and it would encourage our hearts.
Are the Son, the Father and the work of the Spirit so that we might make that journey in fellowship with those that are waiting for us at the end of the journey. One more comment about it.
We anticipate the joy that is to be seen and ours when we get to the end. The Lord Jesus made the journey before us and as it says of His own.
In Hebrews chapter 12, who for the joy that was set before him, endured. It's not His atonement there, but He endured the path of faith.
The journey of faith as a just like we will and need to to the home. But what did he look for at the end? The joy that was set before him at the end of his journey. And one final illustration.
Everybody knows. At least that's old enough to know.
What it's like to anticipate somebody coming to your house.
And if it's really looked for and anticipated?
Often they're watching out the window.
And sometimes they can't even wait until you get to the front door, but they got to get off out of the house, down the steps to the car, and as soon as you get out, embrace you because of the joy that is their heart for your coming.
The Lord Jesus has the same character. When the end of the journey is near, he won't even be able to sit in the Father's house and wait. He will come.
And he, if you will, to use the illustration, they'll come right out and welcome us and take us in.
Perhaps it's helpful to see what was troubling their hearts in the first verse. You go back to the last verses of chapter 13 and.
Simon Peter said unto verse 36 Unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go?
Thou canst not follow me now that thou shalt follow me afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thee. And then he gives them the reminder that he was going to deny him. And so there the fact that he was going to leave them troubled their hearts. And I love this.
00:05:00
Troubled hearts, brethren.
We do not have reason to have troubled hearts, and yet there is much in this world, if you're occupied with it, that troubles the heart. I'd like to go back and compare it with in John chapter 12, where the Lord Jesus in contemplating what was before Him.
Says in verse 27.
Now.
Is my soul troubled?
And what shall I say, Father, save me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour. We don't have Gethsemane and John's Gospel.
But if there's anything that relates to it, it's these verses, brethren.
Because it's the.
Dilemma if I can use that word, the Lord Jesus looking ahead to the time when he would be made sin for us that sinless.
Holy, spotless Son of God, everything within him shrunk from that.
And that's why, he says now is my soul troubled?
But then, brethren, to think that he says to these disciples, let not your heart be troubled. I I think that's so extremely beautiful, brethren, given what has been done for us.
In Redemption's work.
There is nothing really that should trouble us, trouble our hearts.
It's a challenge, isn't it? Because I have to confess there are things that trouble me.
Naturally speaking.
The first word in the chapter is let, and when you come across the word let in scripture, it introduces responsibility.
So we are responsible to keep our hearts to not be troubled.
We all fail in it, but it's there.
It doesn't really define what in this world that would trouble our hearts. Simply say that let let not your heart be troubled. And I'm sure many of us can fill in the blankets if it were that there are many things in our lives that trouble us. But that's not really the issue of what would let our heart be troubled. As if He gives us the immediate answer rather than.
And focus on our problems. He said ye believe in God, believe also in need. That's the answer, isn't it that whatever trouble you we we can reach to even the word of God. We find many of his sayings of old were troubled by many ways he can read through the book of Daniel. Do you think Daniel was trouble? We can read through Joseph Moses we can name almost.
Warning that they have different type of circumstances that the Lord put them through, but as if it doesn't matter what it is. You believe in God, believe also in me. You know they have stories of how people were prisoner of wars and what kept them going was the hope of being home with the loved ones. So here the Lord define what we need to look.
Or two, not the difficulties at hand. I don't know. How many of you been camping? I'm not much of A camper. You know, often you go to a campsite. If you're picky, you're going to find a lot of things wrong with a campsite. And I remember we rented a cottage one time and with a deck and my daughter noticed. I reached out my hand trying to fix the rain gutter and she had to remind me that that's not your house.
We have a tendency to think this world is ours.
What do we have is ours. Rather than look forward to what is to come in my father's house, how often do we dwell on that in my father's house? So I'm just going to stop there.
00:10:01
The Jew was.
Prepared their whole lives to.
Believe in God. No man hath seen God at any time.
They believed in one who they couldn't physically see or touch.
The Lord Jesus was there as one that they saw and touched and handled, as John writes in his epistle. But he was preparing them, as we all know, for that coming short time from then that he would be going away.
And just as they had believed in God, who they couldn't see by faith, he was going on high back to his Father as he told them over and over again in the John's Gospel. And they were to believe in him in that character in a new way. And he seeks to prepare them for that separation. But it wasn't going to be for forever.
He says in verse 2, I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again.
Receive you unto myself.
In Paul's ministry we read in First Thessalonians 4, the Lord himself shall descend from heaven. He sends angels for the elect on the earth to gather them together, but He comes personally for His own and will usher us into the Father's house.
I think it was brother London made a comment once that stuck with me. He said he's going to introduce that home.
Into that place where he has dwelt for all eternity. That's quite a thought.
People pay money to go into castles and famous people's houses, where they lived, where they were born.
And they walk around and they look, this is where he slept, this is where he read at his desk in there and all that. We're going to be taken to the very place where that eternal love, reciprocal love between the Father and the Son, which now includes us, we're going to be taken into that place.
It's.
Astonishing.
Any promises in the Old Testament that all only were dealt with the world and the earth and blessing here on earth and the Kingdom set up here on earth? The Lord here is introducing us into real Christian position, heavenly position. The Lord is going back to heaven He was going to.
Come back and receive a people for himself there.
This is heavenly truth and it's new. It's distinct from Israel blessing and promises. And so now we as Christians, it's nice to be intelligent about what our blessings are.
Often times and I think I I get together with some local Christians, ministers and all and they we sing to him often times together. Count your blessings and and there there are many blessings.
That people think of as earthly things, as blessings. But really, this really opens up Christian blessing here, doesn't it?
That he said there are many mentions. I'd like to know the new translation, say a bolt. I think of mentioned to be a cold place. You know, sometimes we get these tourist places where you can visit a mansion and you go there, you picture this great huge place and I don't feel that's my home.
It's kind of nice to see a living room.
That is huge enough that he can have 1000 people in there. That's not home. But here the word the Lord in the in the new translation is the word abode. A dwelling place is to me sounds a lot more personal because the Lord saying there's a place for you to dwell what you and I will be together.
It's not about all of us together, but each one of us as if it were. There's a place and where he is.
You this is very personal me have a place to be forever with the Lord.
Life to care First one with 27.
00:15:03
Let not your heart be troubled.
And then he goes from that verse, if I could put it this way.
To give them reasons why their heart doesn't have to be troubled. And when we get to verse 27.
He summarizes some of it and he says, peace I live with, leave with you, my peace I give unto you. And if we learn.
To enjoy that peace in our daily life and in our soul that He gives to us. He then says the same thing He started with. Let not your heart be troubled.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. If we really enter into the preparation that's given in the chapter, after he's presented it to us, He goes right back to where he started and says to them the second time, Let not your heart be troubled. And he has made provision if I have peace in my heart.
That he gives to me the character of the piece that he had in his heart when he went through the journey.
I'm not going to be afraid and I'm not going to be troubled.
And yet there are reasons. If we're afraid and we're troubled, we at that point don't have the.
The enjoyment of the provision made for us and it can be connected with Matthew Chapter 11.
Well, I won't turn to it, but a comment.
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I'll put it this way. Come to me all you that are troubled and burdened.
And I will give you rest.
We come to Himself to find the peace. We come to him which he gives. We come to Himself. He tells us why he had rest. I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. And one of the reasons why we are troubled and is because we haven't learned.
To come down into that place that he took.
And.
I am meek and lowly in heart and that's where we find rest for our souls and that's where we enjoy the provision of Himself for the journey.
I find it interesting in verse 2 That he says in my father's house. Why doesn't he say in my house? Wasn't that where he always dwelt? Yes, but it was his father's house. It was in him. 127 dwells in his bosom, knoweth all that in that bosom lies and came to earth to make it known.
That we might share his joys.
The father's house is the place of the enjoyment of the father's love, and that's what he wants us to come into. That's where he's bringing us. But I, I love the context of this because.
President, I don't know if you've had the same thought. When we get to the glory, there's going to be, I would guess we should say, billions of the redeemed. Aren't you going to be kind of lost in the crowd up there?
No, no sense of being lost in the crowd.
Everyone will have a specific place of identification with the Lord Jesus, of nearness to Him, of enjoyment of the Father's love. And so I probably mentioned this to some, but when I was in the Dominican Republic last year, we visited a brother that has eighteen children.
And so when I was there in his house, I said, which of the 18 is your favorite child?
He looks at me and he doesn't answer anything, he just shakes his head.
No, there's no favorites, but you know, you have multiple children. There's certain ones you appreciate in a different way. Everyone is different, and I think that's the way it'll be. There will be an individual appreciation of the enjoyment of the father's love for everyone. You're not going to be lost in the crowd up there.
00:20:14
I think that is so amazingly wonderful.
But let me take you back to.
First Kings chapter 6, brother. And I find this is very interesting because we have something I think that relates to this scripture, and I'm not going to read it, but it's verses 5 through 10 in First Kings 6.
And justice. Read a verse or two here And against this, talking about the temple that was built in Solomon's time.
Against the wall of the house he built chambers round about. Against the walls of the house round about both of the temple and of the Oracle, and he made chambers round about. The northernmost chamber was 5 cubits broad, and the middle was 6 cubits broad, and the third was 7 cubits broad. For without in the wall of the house he made narrowed rests round about.
That the beam should not be fastened in the walls of the house. So there around the temple were those chambers. That's where the priests would stay when they were doing their course of service in the temple. And so it's a picture. In my father's house are many abodes.
There's a place for you that I cannot feel, Brother David.
But there's a place for me that you cannot fill, an individual place. And I think even though it's amazingly wonderful truth, the truth of the one body, how we are baptized by 1 Spirit into one body. But here we have in John's ministry more the thought of the family of God and in the Father's house.
There is a place for everyone.
I go to prepare a place for you. Some people say he's been preparing the place for 2000 years. I don't think that's the thought so much. I think the thought is more and remember older brethren speaking about this, that when the Lord Jesus went into the glory as a man in resurrection glory.
The place was prepared because he went in.
Now there's a place for you and me in the Father's house to occupy as well. I thoroughly enjoy that.
We find that same thought in the future temple in the in the book of of Ezekiel. You can look into that in your own spare time. That's the diverse and the thought here the 4040 chapter on more so in the 41St chapters and is very interesting to think of those chambers and just one more out of thought to that too is today.
We think about our brethren. We have lots of people here. What about you? What about him? And I believe in that day when we're with the Lord, the focus is the Lord, not our brethren.
.2 is why does Mr. Darby in his translation use the word abode? It's we don't talk about abode so I don't think he talked about abodes in his day either. Well the word abode is related to the word abide.
The sense is a permanent place of staying, of abiding, and that would abide is one of John's favorites. John, I've said this many times, There are certain words he uses over and over again. They're like a hammock pounding a nail. As you go through John's writings, he repeats these words over and over again so that we get it, and abide is one of them. His translator remained.
I forget the various other ways that it.
It's translated, but it's the sense of an abiding place rather than everything that we are familiar with right now, which is temporal. And the other thing to that I would emphasize is it's less about the place and more about the person. And I think you brought that out just now, but that where I am, there ye may be also. And then Thomas asked the question, Lord, we know not whether thou goest, and how can we know the way he?
00:25:01
Sort of human question, well, where are you going? And his answer is not, we've talked about this at lunch sometime. When the Lord answers questions, it doesn't appear as if he's actually answering the question. And so he says, and not to skip over these verses because we need to get back to them.
Verse 6 I am the way, the truth and life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If he had known me, you should have known my father also. Well wait a minute, how does that relate to Thomas question? He said where are you going?
And he says, well, if you had known me would have known the Father. He is introducing the disciples into to the Father before we are present in the Father's house. Again, it relates to a person, not so much a place. We all want to know what heaven is like. It's human nature. But there is no place in Scripture that I'm aware of that actually describes heaven.
So we don't have to move.
After 1000 years, Nick.
We we get a sense of that in the earlier chapter of John because John's disciple came and asked the Lord Jesus the question, Master, where dwellest thou? I think that's a good question. They wanted to see, where do you live, Lord? Now what do we know about his dwelling place? We don't. He says birds in the air have nests and foxes have holes and birds in the air have nest.
The Son of Man does not even have a place to lay his head. So the Lord, what did the Lord say to them? Come check my mansion out? No, it didn't say that. He said come and see. They came, they saw, and I believe it said. And they dwell with him until the 10th hour, as if they stay with him all day. What did they see?
I don't think they saw anything physical that was attractive to them. They saw the person of the Lord Jesus and I think that would give us a sense, isn't it? They dwell with them. I like to think, Brother David, that's in the 1St chapter, isn't it, that they said, Lord, where dwellest thou? If you go back to the 18th verse of that chapter, I think you see his.
Dwelling Place.
No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son.
Which is in the bosom of the Father. He hath declared him. There was his dwelling place, wasn't it?
Not to go back, but I think it's helpful for not just the young people, but us old ones, older ones too, that he says, let not your heart be troubled. It doesn't mean that we're not going to have trouble. There's a difference between the two. The next chapter in verse 20, the 15th chapter, he says, remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord.
If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. In other words, he's telling them you are going to have trouble.
So it's very good that we keep those two thoughts in our minds straight. Someone asked me recently concerning an incident and I won't explain who because it's a little close to home, but I prayed for this. Why did the Lord let this happen?
And.
At the end of the day, after all everything had transpired and everything had worked out.
That same person could go back.
Sorry and say OK I understand now the Lord brought me through it and everything worked out in the end, but in the middle of it, it didn't seem like anything was going to work out that the individual had prayed for and so this is so practical own hearts. The disciples had known the Lord as the Messiah. The Lord asked the disciples who say that ye that I am and Peter responds thou art the Christ. They recognized who he was, but they.
Recognize the suffering Christ and Peter speaks of this and the glories that would follow. They had only seen the glories. They only had looked for the glories and their lives are about to be toned absolutely upside down. I can't say what's going to happen this next week. You look at this country and everything that's going on, how lives could absolutely be turned upside down, but the Lord is still saying to us, let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me, in my father's house, a many mansions. We have a father. He has brought us into a relationship.
That the Jews never had with God as Father.
00:30:03
We actually have given them *******. Thank you for reminding me of that the Lord's earthly dwelling was nothing but his true home. We have a sense of that, but not in the description that we like to see as a physical place. We're told in first John from a very let's turn with the first first John chapter 1 John witness of what the place is without seeing the place John chapter one. I'm just going to read the first few verses that.
From the beginning. Now this I believe, is the beginning of John's witness of what has happened, which we have seen as John and his peers with our eyes, which we have looked upon with our hands and have handle. Now here's what he saw, the word of life. Is it a place? No. How do you describe that word of life?
And then verse 2 for the life was manifested.
And we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that, oh, it's different thought now. Eternal life of life. That's where the Father's house is. If there is such a place, it's not a place. It's from eternity, the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you.
That you also may have fellowship with us and so on. That's his house, isn't it? That we can't fully comprehend that.
A lot of people spend a lot of money to get a nice house.
Millions and millions of dollars are spent and.
The richer a person is, the nicer it's assumed that they can have the ultimate house.
But if that person does not know the Lord Jesus Christ and they have the nicest house in the world, and you took them to the Father's house, they spend all that money to get out.
They would spend every dime they had to leave the Father's house. Why?
Because the one that whose house it is and his Son means nothing to their heart's desires and does not satisfy them. And in a practical sense, again, the the Lord Jesus here makes an assumption.
That the whole chapter depends on it really, and that is where I am.
It's himself, It's the Father that make heaven what they will be.
The physical characteristics are incidental and not even described, but the point of the journey and the desire for heaven is as he says and repeats over and over in principle. Here. I know you love me even though you don't realize it very well. And more than that, I love you.
To drive the nail home, John's Gospel talks about love more than any other book of the Bible.
And it emphasizes, first of all, the love of the Father and the love of the Son for us.
And it's a little bit like worship. You can't force yourself to love the Father and the Son more than you do.
A brother used to say, never try to love the Lord more than you do. Be occupied with His love for you and then God will work in you to produce that responsiveness.
That will give you what I can't wait.
To get home.
To be with the Lord Jesus, and it is the measure in which your heart is attached to Him, is the measure in which you're really looking forward to heaven.
I went to a funeral of a sister once and way out in the country in Maine, and the man who was speaking at the graveside quoted verse 3.
I if I go I and prepare a place for you, I will come again.
And receive you unto myself and so on. And he was applying it to what had happened to this sister while I was young in the Lord. But I scratch my head figuratively saying, wow, I never knew you could apply that. Look at that verse that way. Because though I was young in the Lord, I was sitting under good teaching at the assembly in Detroit, ME.
00:35:18
But this first does not apply to someone who dies necessarily when we die.
We who we are, leave our body behind and we go to be with the Lord. But this is talking about the Lord coming to take us. It's the Lord's coming and one of the first references to it directly that we have in the Word of God. He's going to come for us and take us to be with Himself.
That where and and it's not just take us up from point A and take us to point B, as the brothers have already mentioned.
Receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. I'm bringing you to me and you're going to and you're going to stay there and me too. You're going to be with me. So there's a lot packed into these verses.
As we as we know.
I just say that 'cause some may, you may.
Hear this interpreted that way, and I don't think that's the force of the passage.
When I was a child and my dad decided we were going somewhere.
When the time came, he said, get in the car.
And you got in the car.
I had no idea how to go where you were going. In fact, you didn't even think about it necessarily. You just played with your toys or whatever you did, looked out the window until you arrived. There was a effortless, painless travel and all you had to do was get in the car when you were told. And in contrast to that a little bit and the journey that we so often think about.
The wilderness journey was in the Old Testament when Israel was leaving Egypt to go to the land of promise.
Did they go alone?
How did they know when to move to the next camp?
Who provided the food?
And everything else that was necessary. It's a picture to us of what these verses say when the when Thomas asked the question, I don't know the way what is the way Lord wasn't providing him with a road map and.
A car with gas and say OK, here's the route. That's what we think about when someone says where do you live or where are you going?
We get our Google out and we do our thing. Not here in a far more wonderful and direct way the Lord is saying to us. I know.
And I'm going to go with you.
And the Spirit of God that's later introduced to us will be with you every step of the way. And just like the wilderness journey.
The When the directing was coming from heaven, when the time came it would direct them to their next campsite. The Lord's presence was with them by the Tabernacle among them, and He went with them all the way.
And I am with you always, the Lord would say to us and for us. Some of the Israelites realized that and some didn't from the history.
And it's important for us to believe in faith that the Lord says, I'm with you because we don't physically see Him. And it's a journey of faith because what sustains us and what the object of the end of it is.
Only seen by faith, but the provision is very real on a daily basis.
Just a practical.
Lesson to be learned in this chapter brethren. I find it interesting there's three disciples that ask questions. Here is Thomas in verse 5.
00:40:12
In verse 8 is Phillip and in verse 22 is Judas, not Iscariot.
And to me it shows.
Whether those questions were, you might say, well, there's not really very intelligent questions. Still, they led to opening up truth that is so very helpful. And so it's an encouragement younger brethren sometimes don't feel very.
Ready to ask questions but I think this shows how much good questions.
Can open up subjects, and it certainly did in this chapter.
Lord encourage that in our reading meetings. I think it'd be helpful.
What a wonderful answer to Thomas's question we have in verse 6.
I am the way.
The truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. What a wonderful verse to use in the gospel and even for us as believers. Wonderful. He is the way. It's not a matter I sometimes say to people that I'm giving the gospel to. It's not a matter of religion here.
Not Catholic, not Protestant, not anything else.
It's a matter of a person, a person that's going to penetrate death and come out victorious. He is the way. And to me, it's such a wonderful thing to get a hold of the simplicity, the wonder of that statement. I am the way.
If you're young and in school and you quote verses like this to your classmates, then the following question will most likely happen. They'll say, and I remember this when I was young too.
Are you meaning to tell me that unless a person reads this Bible and knows the Christian scriptures that they will not get to heaven and that there's nobody in heaven except you guys?
And I can remember in my ignorance, just I felt backed into a corner and I said, yeah, I guess that's what it says, but I wasn't really correct.
And I'm, and I'm happy now to have a better understanding because before the Lord Jesus came and was manifested, the the truth that of God as Father was not manifested. As you mentioned, Doug, 1/2 hour ago, this is heavenly Christian truth. No man can go unto the Father but by him.
And the Lord Jesus is the one that declared the Father.
As the Son, those 2GO together, the Father, the Son, God the Son of God. And but we read in Hebrews 11 and of course in the beginnings of our Bible there were men and women of faith for centuries that did not know God is Father. And in the way that you and I do, they never shall, though God is now come out and has manifested himself as Father.
And he's not going to unmanifest himself.
To be in relationship with God as Father, as we are Lord Jesus is the only way and the truth and the life. And so if I were a young person now today, I would be able to go back into maybe Romans chapter 2 or Hebrews 11 or other passages like that and be able to say just the judge of all the earth does, does right.
God is good.
And he was worked in the souls of men and women throughout the ages and he works in their hearts and he will reward them with heavenly blessing. But this is I like the way Doug put it. This is new and heavenly Christian truth from the lips of the Son of God himself. And so I think it I find it helpful to see that context of things.
00:45:11
His commandment is exceeding broad, and we're looking at a part of it here.
That pertains to our eternal blessing as as the as the sons of God.
You agree with that, Bob? Yes, Jesus is the only way, isn't that right?
Sometimes it's helpful to see things by contrast. So take those three things by contrast. Take me to a person of this world.
With all their human wisdom.
Who doesn't have the Son? Who doesn't have the Lord Jesus?
Involved in it and say can you tell me the way?
There's not a man living that has the capacity to identify the way. No matter if he's the smartest man on the world, he does not know in himself the way.
Give me a person on earth that can absolutely tell me with every statement that will be made on the Internet today, whether it's true or false.
And I submit to you, there's not a single person living that has the capacity to evaluate every statement that is made as to whether it's a true statement.
Or even if it's true, what the significance of it is with respect to truth?
Sometimes people were saying true things in the Bible in their process of lying.
There's a difference between just a fact and what here is identified as truth. And further than that, who can give me the life?
Give me somebody on earth today that can give me a life that is suited to heaven and that I'll get to go to heaven with.
It's by contrast the Lord Jesus is these three essential things that no single other person is in any one of them, much less this all of them that are all necessary in their place.
And when He came, man finally had in His person the Word that was the perfect revelation of the Father. In truth. He came and He brought life in resurrection. What man lacked, He brings that to Him, and He is in Himself the only way to it.
You need the Spirit of God to help us understand this because as man.
We try to understand it, understand things our way. Well, what's the way? Well, as if what's the way to get DP get get here to BTP. Well, you can argue with it where there's more than one way. You could come down this way or that way and eventually you'll get there. Well, that's a physical way, but this is the way to the Father's house.
There is only one way. There is no other way.
Well, is that the whole truth? And this world today often question what is sad? What is only is it the truth? Is it part true? And it's only true if you cannot prove me wrong. And how often someone said, well, do you have evidence of that? No, the Scripture is very plain. Thy word is truth. We need to go back to the basic.
That the very basis of redemption.
Is to be leaving in the word of God. Thy word is truth. This is truth from the word of God that there is only one way. But what is life? Well, our earthly thought would say, well I'm living, breathing, I have life and even scripture said life is in the blood. What we're thinking of this natural life.
We're Speaking of eternal life.
What if she turned on life, A life that goes on, that you will live on and on and on and on without dying? No, I don't think that's the thought. Neither is it. It's a life that is like God from the very beginning, before time was the life that God and Jesus, as we read in first John, get to enjoy that life.
Before things that we understand were made.
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This is eternal life, so the only way to have eternal life is through the Word of God, more so the Word of God telling us that by the blood of Jesus Christ.
This is like eternal that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ do thou ascent. That is life, isn't it? That is eternal life.
So, Bob, I think that.
You've said this also. Not sure who came up with it. Doesn't matter but.
I think these things, that is called these three things. I'm the way, the truth and life. Without the way, there's no going. Without the truth, there's no knowing and without the life, there's no living. He's showing us this truth so our hearts won't be troubled. We don't understand this concept is truth. Our hearts could be troubled.
Look what's around us. We're going to be trouble.
These are reassurances, just not for unsaved people. These are reassurances for us.
And this is the way to know the Father, isn't it? Through him we come to the Father. So.
Isn't that wonderful, brethren? We have the four gospels and we have the record that the apostles have given us, like it says in first John.
What there? I better just read it to not get it wrong, but I think it's so beautiful the way it puts it. The life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us.
And so we can know the Father now, because.
Of the Lord Jesus.
We have to understand how far in this relationship.
An individual, the disciples, with God as Father was to them.
There's a very interesting.
Expression in the 16th chapter where the Lord says to the disciples in verse 23.
In that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you.
As I said, it's it's a, it's an interesting thing that the Lord is saying to these disciples. You ask me nothing. They had been used to going to him physically there in person and asking things off him. But he's telling his disciple that in that day and that day being the day when the Holy Spirit would come and indwell them, they could go freely to the Father and make requests of him. This was a thought that was completely.
To them, and yet for us as Christians, we have verses such as we have in Romans 8 where it says.
In verse 15 you have not received the spirit of ******* into fear, but you have received the spirit of should be sonship whereby we cry ABBA father. So every child of God from the littlest to the oldest in this room.
Has that within him that lets us say address God as ABBA Father. As I said, this was a thought that was completely foreign to the Jew and the disciples had to be brought into the knowledge of that relationship. So back in Matthew chapter 6 I think.
They asked.
They asked the Lord.
Actually, I think maybe it's in Luke. The corresponding portion Luke would actually ask the Lord.
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How to pray?
Someone knows where to find it?
Luke 11.
I think.
Yeah, in Luke 11 verse one, it came to pass this He was praying in a certain place when he ceased one of his disciples. Son of Lord, teach us to pray. That should strike us as very strange.
Why did they need to be taught how to pray? But as I said, as I go back to what I said, they did not have that relationship with God as Father that gave them that familiarity to go to Him as Father to make their request known. This was all new to them. And this has already been said. It was the Son that revealed the Father to them that made known the Father.
But it was a relationship which they had to be brought into the good of in Matthew, where it was back in Matthew 6, you'll notice.
In those that portion how frequently refers to God as Heavenly Father.
He is beginning that introduction into that relationship that was otherwise foreign to them. We don't no longer address, we should no longer address God as Heavenly Father. We have the fullness of that relationship that we now know that we can say ABBA Father. But you know, we as believers, and I'm not faulting anyone for this, it's really a wonderful thing that we're so familiar with these terms and this relationship into which we've been brought that we sometimes lose the wonder of it.
The marvel of it.
The familiarity that the youngest child here that his parents or her parents have taught to pray.
Kneels by their bed at night and speaks to God.
Yes, you can do that. You can talk directly to God as your Father and he listens to every word. But these disciples were like little children in that sense. They were being brought into the practical knowledge of this relationship that was so new to them. Of course, at this point they aren't indwelt by the Spirit of God and so, so much changes between the gospels and the book of Acts that you almost wonder if you're reading about the same.
For example.
That was the first thing the Lord said in resurrection to Mary, wasn't it? I ascended to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God, so He can. Now we can address God as Father because of that work of redemption.