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9573.
5.
No, no, no, no, no.
Uh.
OK, how's your one with another and the fellowship around the Lord Jesus? We think of the words that we've heard.
1000 blessed my word to it, whatever wonderful thought it is of being home would be in the Father's house and so we would just ask by undertaking a my blessing in the name of the Lord Jesus and.
And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest. And how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If he had known me, he should have known my Father also. And from henceforth you know Him, and have seen him.
Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hast seen me, hast seen the Father. And how sayest thou then show us the Father? Believeth thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me. He doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very works sake.
Fairly, fairly I say unto you, He that 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 he shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, keep my commandments.
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And I will pray the Father, and He shall give 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 in the world, see if we know more. But ye see me, because I live, ye shall live also.
At that day you 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. Judas saith unto him not Ascarius. 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 love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him.
And we will come unto Him, and make our abode with Him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings. And the word which He here is not mine, but the Father 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 as the world giveth, give I unto you.
Let not your heart be troubled either, let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If you loved me, you would rejoice because I said, I go unto the Father, for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, you might believe thereafter I will not talk much with you, for the Prince of this world cometh, and ask nothing in me but that the world may know that I love the Father. And as the Father gave me commandment, Even so I do.
Arise, let us go hence.
At the end of the last meeting, Hebrews 11 was mentioned, and I just want to make a comment or two in that connection because we find there that, as he said this morning, the face always needs an object. Faith always has an eye to the future. We mentioned that God always has done two things for His people. He's always given a present portion and resources for the pathway, but He does give an eye to the future. We're made in that way that there needs to be.
A gold. And of course, as we said, the goal and the prize in the Christian life that Paul was pressing toward in Philippians is always Christ and glory. And that chapter opens by saying that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We sometimes think of that as a definition of faith. I would suggest that the best definition of faith is in John chapter 3, where it says he that hath believed his word has set to his seal that God is true.
But what he's really saying at the opening of that eleven chapter of Hebrews is that it was faith that gave substance to the lives of those that are listed there, because that is what gives substance to our lives. A person who has no faith really has an empty, pointless life where they wander from pillar to post, as the old expression is. But what I've enjoyed in those ones that are mentioned there, we find that they all had an object. I just mentioned two or three examples in passing.
We find that Abraham, he looked for a city which hath foundation, whose builder and maker is God. He had a vision, a goal of something far greater than the city of Ur, the Chaldees from which he had been called.
How could he live by faith all those years, intense wandering about why he had something, an eye to the future?
We read of the patriarchs, they didn't receive the promises, but they saw them afar off and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. We read later on of Moses. He endured us seeing him who is invisible. I've been to Egypt 9 times. It was not a base nation in those days. It was one of the glorious nations of its time and the treasures and wealth of Egypt in the days of Moses.
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Are really something remarkable, but he forsook it all. He left it all. Why? Because he had something far better in view. And so as we were speaking this morning of the hope of the Lord's coming. The Father's house, the blessedness of being with the Lord Jesus and like him. And then in other passages of sharing in that future day of glory when a king shall reign in righteousness and Princess shall rule in judgment rather than if we don't have those things before us. If we don't have the future before us and something beyond the horizons of this world. We are not going to live by faith. Our hearts are going to be troubled. We're going to be afraid as we said this morning.
If the if our vision is only as high as this world, what a sad thing that is. People today who are looking for better things down here, even believers who are looking for better things down here, are they really happy? Do they really have focus and direction in their lives? Many times you talk to them and you find they're really dri, they're really drifting. And if they're really honest with themselves, they have to admit things are not getting better down here. And they won't till the man of glory comes. The Sun of Righteousness rises with healing in his wings.
So perhaps this is what Eric had in mind and suggesting that that we need to have that focus and that faith and we need, as we've been saying in these meetings, to have the hope of the Lord's coming before us, that hope at any moment, and then also the glorious appearing that is going to take place after.
If we were to go through the article of death, would we be with the Lord where he is?
The absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
Yeah, yeah.
No, no.
And Paul said to be with Christ was far better. You know, that's a remarkable statement coming from Paul. Who else better to write that than someone who had been caught up temporarily to the 3rd heaven, the very dwelling place of God? You know, we talk about being with the Lord and we talk about heaven and so on, but we've never seen it with the physical eye. By faith, we grasp it to some degree.
If John had written to be with Christ as far better or James or Peter or any of the New Testament writers, we say yes, wonderful. But Paul could write that from experience. He knew no wonder he struggled with whether to stay or not. And the and finally settled in his own soul that it was for the blessing of the people of God and the furtherance of the ministry. But Paul said far better, but it's to be with Christ. So they are with Christ, as you've been saying.
In John's gospel and here you have, uh, this, uh, statement that he makes in verse four, whether I go, you know, and the way he know.
Then Thomas has this question for him, but they weren't brought into the full revelation of Christianity at the time. So they had a lot of questions and the Lord is very gracious and it's been said the apostle Paul was used of God to fill up, uh, fill out the.
Word of God and he says in Romans chapter 8, he says as we've been Speaking of it says in verse 23.
Not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruit of the Spirit. Even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption to quit, the redemption of our body. And so we're going to have the redemption of our body. We have the redemption of our spirit, the redemption of our soul, and we're all going to see the Lord Jesus face to face all at the same time. What a wonderful to think of our blind brethren and the very first thing that they see those who have been blind all their lives.
They won't have seen the corruption of this wicked scene. They may have heard some of the words that they were hoped they wouldn't have heard and all those things, but they're going to see the blessed man Christ Jesus be the first sight that they they have. And so the Lord brings that before us in Paul's ministry.
00:15:07
This question, this question that that Thomas asked here, these Lords bring in a little more truth with regard to knowing the Father and enjoying his presence and love. And so he that makes yet another thing that they would gain as a result of him going away and sending the Holy Spirit. So it's beautiful to see how that from verses four or five down through 10, the Lord uses this question that he gives.
Uh, that Thomas gives to springboard into more truth with regard to the Father and it's beautiful to see his answer. I am the way the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the father, but by me. Now evangelicals will tell us that this is talking about knowing the way that to heaven, but he's really talking about going away into deeper, more intimate fellowship and knowledge.
And enjoyment of the Father and his love and it's a result of the Lord going away and sending the Spirit, which is what would mark this present Christian day. So he says I am the way, that is the way into a present enjoyment of of the Father, the truth, the truth about the Father and the life that would give us to enjoy fellowship with the Father.
And so this is so beautiful. We can't come to the Father until the Lord in this more intimate way, until the Lord really would go away and send the Holy Spirit, because it is the power by which eternal life is enjoyed.
They were He revealed the Father to them in His earthly ministry, but they didn't get a hold of it. They couldn't understand it. But when He would go away and come and send the Spirit, then they would come into the full enjoyment and the benefit of the revelation of the Father, which is the characteristic feature of eternal life.
To know the Father and the Son and enjoy a relationship with them.
This statement in verse four has two parts. She says whether I go, you know and the way you know. And then notice Thomas's question also has the same two parts. We know not whither thou goest.
How can we know the way? To me, it's interesting, rather than perhaps this is something that we can refer to in connection with Hebrews 11, that was referred to as well, that there is a way, there is a place, and it's in the way that we get to the place. And I think it is beautiful because this is where we.
Exercise.
Faith and faith is something that grows. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
How does my faith grow?
By reading the word of God, by letting it penetrate and then I got such an important process for us down here. How can we know the way and the Lord Jesus then gives this beautiful.
Answer in verse 6.
I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me. Like I said, it is about the Father, He is the way.
Oh, brethren, what a wonderful thing it is to know the Father. But there's a way to know the Father how? The Lord Jesus is the way, and so the more we know of him.
And no more we will know the Father.
So we mentioned this morning that in Christianity we have a far more intimate and deeper relationship with the Lord Jesus than they had in even with the disciples walking with him during his public ministry. But as we've been saying, we also have a relationship with the Father that was not known previously. There is an aspect in the Old Testament where they did know God as their father. And it says in Malachi, is there not one God and Father, one father of us all hath not one God created us.
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Uh, we're all, as it says in the 17th of Acts where all the offspring of God, Jeremiah said, wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, my father, Thou art the guide of my youth. So they knew God as their father coming from the hand, his hand in creation. And really all human beings are that come from God in that way. But the, what we're Speaking of here, what the Lord was introducing here and what we have now as to relationship in Christianity with God is a.
Is a relationship of intimacy to know God as our Father in a way that was not nor could be previously known until the Lord Jesus accomplished the work of redemption and returned to the Father and sat down at the Father's right right hand. And that's why we can now not just call God our Father, but twice in the epistles we call, we can address Him as ABBA Father.
That's an intimacy of relationship and the that was never known previously. And it is the same intimacy of relationship that the Lord Jesus enjoyed. You know that little expression, not to get off our subject, but that little expression. ABBA Father appears three times in the New Testament. In Mark's Gospel. The Lord Jesus as the perfect servant in his pathway and service up until the Garden of Gethsemane never addressed God as his Father.
It would have been very out of keeping in Mark's gospel for him to do so.
But when it's mini earthly ministry is done and the hour of his greatest trial and need is approaching as Calvary is approaching, he vows in the Garden of Gethsemane and he doesn't just in Mark pray Father, he says ABBA Father, he comes before the Father and all the intimacy and closeness of relationship that is possible. But now in Christianity we in Romans 8 and repeated in Galatians, we can come in that same intimacy now, brethren.
The Lord Jesus is the only begotten of the Father and will always remain such. He will always remain distinct, and in the Father's house He will remain distinct as the only begotten of the Father. But nevertheless, you and I who are on our way to the Father's house, we can enjoy this now because as the Lord said, He's the the way, the truth and the life. And we can enjoy the intimacy of relationship as the children of God, as John's ministry brings before us the children of God born into the family of God with the very nature.
Of God himself we can come and say, not just Father, but ABBA Father.
The New Testament, uh, and the main have different burdens, don't they? The apostle John, as was mentioned, brother Steve, I think you mentioned, has to do with the family of God, an eternal life and relationships within that family. The apostle Paul, uh, has primarily before him the whole council of God, what we might call dispensationalism and the mystery of the distinction between Jew, Gentile and Church of God. So with him, the word of God was completed in that sense, even though John wrote later.
And Peter, as we know, had had before him more the thought of the Kingdom of God. So it's good to understand those distinctions. And when it comes to relationships, all of our relationships are based on our relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. He must have the 1St place. And so that's what's being established in our chapter, isn't it? Our relationship now with the three distinct persons of the Godhead. God is one, and yet He's in three.
And so as we mentioned this morning again, the 1St 3 verses have particularly to do with our relationship with the Lord Jesus the Son. And these verses 4 through 14 have to do particularly with the new relationship in Christianity with the Father. And then the remaining verses have to do with our relationship with the Spirit of God. I think it's helpful to see that. And all relationships, again, are based on that relationship we have with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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He must have the 1St place and then other relationships fall into their proper place. If other relationships are put first, things are out of order, aren't they?
Different things that he had told them about the father.
And we know that here in this verse, in this chapter that we're reading, he's Speaking of the Father. Again, if they had remembered some of these things, it would have been a little clearer for them. But they're written for our blessing, for our instruction. Chapter 5, verse 17. Jesus answered them, My father worketh hitherto and I work. So there was that seemed like a seamlessness in the the work, both the Father and the Son that were working in blessing.
For the race of men and men you have in verse 18 at the end God was umm. They said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. Well, He was equal with God. And so he that hath the Son hath life, and he hath not the Son of God hath not life. They needed to have the Son, and so He was equal with the Father. Then in verse 20, the Father loveth the Son. They ought to have remembered that. And so He was the object of the Father's affection. Then you have in verse 21, the Father raises up the dead and quickeneth them. Even so the Son quickeneth whom He will.
So the Father could give life too. The Father is the source of life. And then you have umm, in verse 22, the Father judges no man, but hath committed all judgment under the Son. So here he's delivered judgment to the Son and imperfection. The Son will, uh, execute that judgment. And then verse 23, all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father, which has sent him. He had told them all kinds of things about the Father.
And how the Father honored the Son, and how they ought to honor him as well. So he was the object of honor, not only the object of God's affection, but of the Father's affections, but also of His honor. And here the Lord Jesus was, as he was about to go, was desiring that they would have the Father before them in the recognition of the blessedness of that relationship.
These cycles struggled with that which was natural to the site and the natural sense is so Thomas couldn't seem to get beyond the physical place, the material place. But then you have Phillip and he couldn't seem to get beyond the physical person. Show us the father and it suffice with us. Well, if he's the if he's the if you're the way to the father, the truth about the father, the life that enjoys the father show us.
Well, he said, have I been so long time with you and hast thou not known me, Philip, He that has seen me hast seen the Father. And isn't it wonderful that we have the full revelation of the Father in the Lord Jesus. We find in Hebrews where he, the Son is presented to us. It's he's spoken in Son. He was the express image of his person. You know there's no other sun on earth that's been ever been the express image of their father. They have a little expression in English. We look at a.
Young man or a boy, and we say, oh, he's the spitting image of his father. Oh, I know whose son that is. No trouble to tell who he belongs to.
Well, that may be true, and we see those family characteristics, but there's no earthly sun that's ever been the express image of His Father. But the Lord Jesus here was the express image of his Father and everything he did.
Everything he said, every breath he took, so to speak, fully showed forth the Father. Just go back to the first chapter for a moment for a verse.
Verse 14 of the first chapter. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. This is a beautiful verse to to expression, to consider. You know, to be glorified is to have every quality and attribute that makes up a person's character brought into full display.
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And the Lord Jesus could say at the end of it all, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do. Every attribute of God the Father, every quality, so to speak, was brought in to full display, both in the pathway of the Lord Jesus and of course, then in him offering Himself without spot to God. So show us the Father, and it suffice of us. Philip, you've seen the Father. Have you seen me? You've seen the Father.
And so we know the Father through the son, really, don't we? He has revealed him fully to us. There's nothing more concerning the father to be revealed. Is that right, Bruce?
Chapter One.
No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. And so in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus He fully displayed in character and in essence what the Father was. And so He re. He rebuffed his disciple Philip here by saying, Have you been with me this long? I have not seen the Father.
You had seen him in character and in essence, not, of course, with the naked eye in which no man will see.
It's a wonderful thing to see the glory of the Lord Jesus. There's moral glory in this way. He never, ever refused any of these questions. You might say as you read chapter 5, they should have known. You might read chapter one, and they should have known that about the glory of the Father. They should have known the relationship. But he answered those questions.
And that's why we have these answers given. But he never ridiculed the disciples for asking a question. And so I just want to say this is an encouragement. All of us have questions, Doesn't matter how old we are. We all have questions. And the right thing to do is to ask the Lord for an answer to those questions. And we can go to our older brother and often times and we can get an answer. We can get something that is commends itself from the scriptures, but it's good thing to ask the Lord those questions.
There's three apostles that ask questions in this chapter and then I think it is helpful. A good question helps to open up the Scriptures many times. Lord help us younger brethren. Lord help you to ask good, uh, profitable questions. They're very helpful.
It appears that the three apostles that answer these questions.
Related to the three things that the Lord mentions in verse six. You've probably heard that before.
I am the way, the truth and the life, Thomas, he didn't know the way, Philip, he didn't know the truth about the Father and Judas didn't know the life. And so he uses those things to, as you say, bring out some further truth with regard to the question that they ask and fills out the chapter, fills out a better understanding of who the Father is.
Ask the teacher, because he has an honest, inquiring mind, that he wants to know the answer. And I believe that's the sort of question God would have us ask. They're also the questions that the teacher asked the student. He doesn't ask because he wants to know the answer. And so we can also ask questions because we want to set our brethren straight.
And those.
Questions, uh, cultivate contention. So I think we need to have the right spirit in asking questions because sometimes I hear, well, you didn't answer my question and I'm afraid it's because there wasn't a question asked.
00:35:04
How do we understand verses 10 and 11 when He speaks about Him being in the Father and the Father?
May sound a little mystical or difficult to grasp with our minds. What does it mean? I am in the Father and the Father in me.
I hope that was the right kind of question.
Is it not in character and in essence that he was? The Father was in him?
But doesn't mean that they were one person, 'cause there's bad doctrine that has come up in church history where they try to bring the Father and the Son and it is one person. I can't remember the name of that. I think it's called dualism or something. But that's not what is being mentioned here. He's Speaking of essence and character, is he not?
Chapter 16 and verse 32 I am not alone because the Father is with me. And so you have the expression in the Old Testament they went, both of them together.
Another verse uh, the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ that the law told what man ought to be, and the truth tells what man really is. But grace came to meet that need and there was.
Person could really represent or manifest the divine Person. That's what happened. One came from the very glory of the Father and revealed Him to us.
Is that what you're saying?
Five verse 18. It might be helpful, 518.
It says umm.
1St 17 and 18 And Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he had not not only broken the Sabbath, but he also said that God was his Father, making him equal with God. So when they spoke of himself as being the Son and the in relation to the Father, they rightly understood what he was met Speaking of and what he was claiming. And I hated that, because He was the expression of the Father and and every essence.
Essential way.
Do we get that thought in in Colossians one and verse 15 where it says who is the image?
He's the presentation and the representation of God. That's the thought of the image there. I'm just asking as a question.
It's not just that he's spoken by his son, but he's spoken his son. God has been revealed to us in in the Sun.
I I think when we take up the persons of the Godhead, it's good just to stick to the language of Scripture because there's been a great deal of misconstruing things and if I can put it this way, trying to dissect the persons of the Godhead By our own reasoning, if we could understand everything about the Godhead, it wouldn't be the Godhead. It it's far above our thought. And so God has given us in his Word.
Scripture and the Spirit of God to make it good to our souls.
But I think when you go back and trace false teaching that's been propagated as to the Father and the Son and different and the Spirit of God and so on. But a lot of times what it is, is trying to take Scripture and reason it out and fit it into a nice, neat little formula. We're never going to be able to do that, brethren. And you know, even when we get to the Father's house, we're gonna be within like Christ, but we're never gonna reach deity. We're gonna have bodies of glory like under His body of glory. We're gonna have capabilities with that bot change that changed body that we don't have now.
00:40:03
But we are never going to be omnipotent on all knowing or omnipresent. Those things are reserved for deity. So the Spirit of God or God has taken and given us statements in his word and as I say, the Spirit of God to make it good to us. And I think it's helpful to read these scriptures go through and we've had some connections made and then just to leave it. This is the deity where this is deity we're Speaking of. What do you think, Bruce?
Uh.
In verse 12 he brings up another. They would gain by him going away to the Father and sending the Holy Spirit. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father. What was he Speaking of? But they would they would have as a result of the Lord going away to the Father and sending the Holy Spirit.
Uh, greater works in service and even the Lord Jesus did in his life and ministry. Now that's quite a statement. Let me say that again that they would actually accomplish greater works and service and ministry than the Lord himself did in his life and ministry. You say give us an example. Well, on the day of Pentecost, Peter stood up and preached in 3000 souls got saved. You'll not read about that in the fore gospel.
The Lord Jesus preached and many turned away, but we do not have any record that there was such a mass, uh, conversion as that. Another example would be, uh, when Peter was walking through the streets of Jerusalem, just his shadow coming across somebody would heal people. You don't read of that in the Life and Times of the Lord Jesus ministry, Paul. And, uh, let's see down in the end of the Acts where they take a handkerchief from Paul and they go and carry it to a person and lay on him and he's healed.
Again, we do not read of that in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus. And So what an incredible gain this would be for them to have the Lord go away to the Father and send the Spirit. And I think they would give them to release the grasp of him and emotionally to be able to let go, knowing that there was going to be something better that they would have as a result. And it all worked for the the comforting of their troubled hearts.
Well, let's say we should be able to do those things today. Why?
Is it because we're at the end of the dispensation instead of the beginning one when things were not in?
The vision The Lord would be putting his, uh, stamp of approval.
God is not limited even now though, is he? And he can do things, amazing things. And if you hear about it being done in different parts of the world where there's severe persecution, where there's not a lot of the word of God around God, God is not limited. But I think it's like this portion is really the point of it is that there was going to be a man in the glory of God.
And that He by the Holy Spirit would work through his people here. That was something that was not the truth while the Lord Jesus was down here.
In this world, and that is one of the things that is characteristic of Christianity, presence of a real man, flesh and bones in the in the glory of God and through him by the Holy Spirit, he's working here in this world. I agree with you though what you say about because of the ruin of the Christian testimony, it is hindered the work of the Spirit of God. But God is just the same. He hasn't changed, has he?
So they are. I'm not saying that they couldn't. God couldn't do that. You know, that's, you know.
He could do anything. So that's not, I'm not trying to say that, but I'm saying this is not happening today. He doesn't have healers in the business. We see these things all the time, you know, and these we need answers for them, don't we? Why not? Uh, why not? Are these things being done today?
00:45:25
Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not. And so there was a time when God used those signs, those sign gifts, as a testimony that this was a genuine work of God. And there's going to be in the future works of power or a display of power and miracles and so on. But it's really satanic.
There is no blessing connection with it, but just some sort of miraculous power. If you look at Second Thessalonians chapter 2 uses the same terminology, the same words in verse nine is Speaking of, uh, a future day. Even him who's coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved.
And so it's a mercy of God that we don't have signs, uh, today in the sense that, uh, the enemy isn't deceiving us, Umm, with these signs and powers, there is a day when the church is going to be removed from this scene. And then there are going to be signs, power signs and wonders. But it's going to be the enemy. It's not going to be the, for the blessing of man. He's going to deceive and there's going to be judgment as a result of it. But the Spirit of God is still working.
By the world standards or Christendom standards, and you don't see 3000 saved and 5000 saved like we're later on and so on and great signs and wonders, brethren, it has been a thrill to my soul to realize that as long as we're here and the Spirit of God is here, there is a work for us to for the Spirit of God to do through the instrumentality of God's people here on earth. And as I say, it may not be great things in the eyes of the world.
Do you know, for the last few years my wife and I have had the wonderful privilege of traveling in Western Europe twice a year, and we have seen the work of the Spirit of God. It's not, as I say, in man's eyes, great things. But in the 20 years we've had the privilege of traveling in Europe, there's some places now where they break bread as gathered to the Lord's name where they didn't back then. We've been at baptisms. We've seen the work of the Lord in many, many ways.
Yes, it's just a family here. It's one or two here. But brethren, it says not to despise the day of small things, not to look back and say the former days were better. They do seem better and the most mighty work, but rather to realize that there's something for you and I to do today because the Spirit of God is still here and that there are still miracles going on in this world. You know, every time a soul gets saved might not be 5001 preaching, maybe it's 5000 preachings to save one soul.
But if, if that's the truth of the matter, isn't that a miracle, not wonderful, not reach that rejoices all of heaven. It ought to rejoice our hearts. A couple come in contact with the truth of being gathered to the Lord's name, and they're directed to a little assembly that's nearby and they request to be gathered to the Lord's name. You know, I, I think of Paris. I've visited Paris many times. It's a dark, apostate city.
But last summer a couple took their place at the Lord's table. To me, that's tremendous. Brother, that's great works. Let's rejoice in what there is not. Look for what is former, but look for what the Spirit of God is doing today and be exercised, Brethren, everyone of us be exercised. We're instruments. Yes, we don't have the apostles and the early brethren, but you're one of the brother. I'm one of the brothers. And the Spirit of God can still use us in a tremendous way for the blessing of souls.
I think to be precise, we have to say that there will be some miracle workers in the tribulation that are good. The two witnesses do miracles. Umm, they, uh, they call down fire and, uh, and they, they, they seal up the heavens like, like Eli should do, like Elijah did many years before. But the reason for that, and the reason that even in the Old Testament in the days of the kings, why some of the prophets in the last days of the Kingdom did miracles, was because the word of God was rejected.
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The Word of God is stronger than miracles, isn't it? It has greater authority. And so I believe these verses here to get back to our passage, it's so important. The reason why they would do greater works is because there's two great characteristics of Christianity. That is, there's a man in heaven who's both God and man, the Lord Jesus Christ, that's greater than when he was here on earth. And there's a divine person on earth, the Spirit of God. And so in Christianity, as Mr. Hale, you stop and remind us, God has reached a mountain peak beyond which he himself cannot go.
Speaking reverently. And so these are days which are very important, aren't they? They're, I've often felt that these are the greatest blessings that God has bestowed on any of his creatures at any time is what we have in Christianity. Would we rather be an Angel? Well, they don't know anything about the redemption blood of Christ for themselves. Uh, they don't sing the song of redemption. They, they sing the song of creation, but not of redemption.
Would we rather have been here when the Lord Jesus was here with his disciples? He's telling us in this very verse that greater things are going to characterize Christianity. Why exactly what he's telling us in this chapter. He's going back to heaven. Spirit of God is coming on earth and it's a higher order of things than it was when he was on earth. Would we rather have lived in the days of David? How dark things were then how about Moses, what we think that was a wonderful time. Or Joshua, like you were speaking about, Brother Rob.
But think how dark things were back in those days, to see all those forms and not know the true meaning. We have the whole counsel of God revealed to us now. There's never going to be a time when there's such a mountain peak of blessing as there is in Christianity Today.
Partial revealing of the truth through the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus, which He calls these things which I have spoken unto you. But then he says that when the Comforter, that which is the Holy Ghost, will come from the Father, that He will teach you all things which goes beyond just the ministry with regard to.
Christ the Messiah, but Christian truth, the whole council of God, as you just mentioned. So there is a greater volume of truth that has been revealed as a result of the man in the glory and the Spirit sat down. There's another game that we'll touch on next time we're together on this chapter, Lord willing.
Recommend ourselves.
Our loving God and our Father, we thank Thee for the gracious words of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, as He spoke with his disciples in this way.
How instructive these words and how gracious, blessed Lord Jesus, what love to speak to thine own in such a way, and to bring them into the knowledge of the nearness of that relationship with the Father. And so we thank Thee that we can address Thee. Our God is our Father without fear, and to know Thy love and to know that Thou art the source of all of our blessing. So we thank Thee for this time together. We ask that there might be blessed to our souls, that we might rejoice with one another and encourage one another so much the more as we see the day approaching. We ask Thy blessing now and give thanks in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.