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General meetings, Ottawa, April 1973, Second reading meeting.
Why did the person?
And 225.
Oh.
My God.
I.
Still sorry.
What first Brother Barry did we leave off?
I think we were just talking on the third very frankly when we chose the meeting.
Chapter 15.
And verse 3.
Now you're cleaning.
Through the words that I have spoken unto you.
Provided me than I and you.
As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself, accepted, abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that invited in me, and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit.
For without me you can do nothing.
If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered.
And then gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
If he abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you.
Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciple.
Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love.
Even as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in His love.
These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Greater loveth no man than this, that a man laid down his life for his friends.
Ye are my friends, if you do whatsoever, I commend you.
Henceforth I call you not servants.
For the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I've called you friends. For all things that I've heard of my father I have made known unto you.
You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
These things I command you, that you love one another. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you're not of the world, but I've chosen you out of the world. Therefore the world hateth you remember the words that I sent it to you. The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.
If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sinned, but now they have no cloak for their sin.
He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin. But now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. But this chemistry passed, that the word might be fulfilled. It is written in their law. They hated me without a cause. But when the Comforter has come, whom I will send unto you from the Father.
00:10:19
Even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me, and ye also shall bear witness, because you have seen, because you've been with me from the beginning.
You'll notice the order of in that fourth verse abide in me and I in you.
Are abiding in Christ comes before his abiding in US, and that shows it's conditional.
That is, if we're living near the Lord.
Judging those things that hinder our communion.
By then we have the enjoyment of his presence.
In that way.
Not that the Lord isn't always for his children.
And he is always seeking to bless him and help them on in the pathway. But there are certain blessings that are conditional in connection with.
Our walk and our ways.
Would you say that the posting chapter and verse 20?
Brother Barry, we have the same thought. The 14 chapter of a John verse 23 say. 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 unto him and make our abode with him.
And again, that's conditional, isn't it, brother?
So there's the there's a difference in love. There is a love of relationship, and there's the love of complacency. And the first you're reading has to do with the love of complacency. Now the Lord loves all His children in the same way they're dear to Him. They're the purchase of his blood that he shed at Calvary.
And his heart goes out in an infinite love. And even if his children are going on in the path of disobedience, his love hasn't grown cold towards him. And he's ever seeking to exercise them and to bring them to judge, fought his, hindering their, their enjoyment of his presence. But there is a love of complacency, and that's just what you have in that verse.
If a man loved me, he will keep my words.
And my father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. Well, it's very precious to know something of that love of complacency, where the Lord can look down and just find his satisfaction, and those that are going on in communion of heart with himself.
I say what Theobercola used to say on the 14th chapter of John that we have 3 comforts.
The Holy Spirit that comes into our heart when we believe, and then the comfort of the Father and of the Son when we live in communion with them. That was mystical, you know?
And that is.
The way we bear fruit.
And we're abiding in Him. He abides in us. And as the rest of the verse says.
As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself except to abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. So there's no fruit as set before us here without that nearness to the person of Christ, that communion that's enjoyed.
With himself.
00:15:01
There's a brother that was asking this morning about just what fruit is, and in the meeting that there are those that think that if they're doing a gospel work and seeing sinners confess the Lord, that that is what we should look at as fruit. But I believe that if we get the mind of the Lord that.
The blessing to souls that.
That he can reward and which delights his heart.
As a result of the soul being in communion with himself.
And I call attention to two examples of that in the Gospel of John.
They all have often heard about Mary and Martha, Martha, Martha being covered with much service, and Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus and hearing His word. And when we come to the 11Th chapter of John, we find Mary again at the feet of Jesus in her sorrow, and at the end of that chapter, the 45th verse.
It says many of the Jewish.
Came to Mary, not many of the Jews which came to Martha, but many of the Jews which came to Mary.
And have seen the things which Jesus did believed on him. So we'd rather expect that Martha being the active one, would be the sole winner. But not so Mary was the sole winner that many that came to Mary believe and then you find in the 12Th chapter.
Where they they made him a supper. He says that Lazarus was one of them that sat at table with him.
Now there is communion. We find Martha serving and the very acceptable to the Lord. He didn't have to reprove her there. Her service was in keeping with his mind.
Mary breaks the box of ointments and anoints his feet. But what I wanted to call attention to that in connection with Lazarus.
We are not told that he said anything to anybody about the Lord who was seeking to serve the Lord as an active worker, but look down in the chapter.
And the ninth verse.
The much of the people of the Jews, therefore knew that he was there, and they came not for Jesus sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he'd raised from the dead.
But the chief priest consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death. Now here's the verse I had in mind, because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away and believed.
Went away and believed on Jesus.
Well, again, there we have a soul winner, although we're not told of anything that he said or did, but just sitting at the table with the Lord, enjoying his company and being in communion with him.
Resulted in many believing in Jesus.
I like to think of that too, in connection with the lame man who was healed at the gate of the temple. It says, as the first thing that happened to him, that he stood up leaping and walking and praising God. But then the last thing said about him is all the people saw him walking and praising God. That seems to have been the last reference to him and the testimony that he left.
Walking and praising God.
No direct testimony, perhaps to the people, although certainly we don't discredit that privilege. But they saw this man who before had been blamed, walking. They heard him praising God, and that was his testimony before others. Would be a happy thing if that were our testimony to that we walked and praised God in a way that would be a testimony to others. You think it might be like this?
The in Zechariah 2 The Angel says one speak to that young man well. I believe if one is in communion, that the Lord gives the opportunity to have a word in season just when it's needed.
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It's really.
Humbles me to think that I must not be in communion very much.
For I don't have those opportunities one would long to have in his life, as it were, of being directly.
Told as it were, to go and speak to someone, to be so in communion with the mind of Christ, that we be ready and just have the word and the illness of Him and connection with.
A word to a needy soul.
I was thinking about how the fruit of the Spirit manifested itself perfectly in the Lord Jesus in his whole pathway here.
Been a help to me, a remark that Mister Darby made. Christianity is known by what it brings, not by what it finds. And I think this we see this so lovely in the life of the Lord Jesus, as there were all the difficulties and trials that we meet along the pathway.
As we often sing all the path the Saints were treading trodden by the Son of God. Was it the rejection of the nation? Was it the misunderstanding of the disciples?
Was it the trials of the way he was hungry and thirsty and weary? What did it bring out in every situation? It brought out the blessed fact that he was always in communion with his Father, and saw those things that are spoken out in Galatians 5 as the fruit of the Spirit.
Are all moral. As our brother remarked this morning, they could be produced by one on a sick bed. They could be produced by a person in the most adverse circumstances, whether from physical things or trials of other kinds that he is passing through. Because all this is like a well of water springing up into everlasting life, and this is what really exercises us, brethren in our pathway. We can look at the difficulties and often do get down under them.
But the one who brought the fruit of the Spirit so perfectly he manifested the mind of God his Father in every situation. He always displayed that love and that joy and that peace and that gentleness, and then too that self-control when they came to take him in the garden, when it almost seemed overwhelming that Judas should be the one who came and betrayed him with a kiss.
How? He was perfectly calm. Everything was under perfect control. He had it all out with his father in the Garden of Gethsemane. But in the situations that he met, he always was in perfect calmness and displayed of that blessed perfection, while we possess that life, brethren.
We're indwelled by the same spirit, and it tells us in John Three God giveth not his spirit by measure, in our translation that adds unto him, but it's God giveth not His spirit by measure. Let us not say, well, I don't have that grace. The grace is available, and all the power is within us, and it's just a draw upon that power. But as we have been noticing in the chapter, it's only so.
As we abide in him, the branch separated from the vine can't bring forth fruit. And if you and I, with all the blessed knowledge that the Spirit of God dwells in US, are not walking in communion with the Lord, we'll be just like Samson. When the difficulty arose, he didn't realize that he had got out of communion, he said. I'll shake myself as at other times, but he wished not that the Lord had departed from him.
The power wasn't there because he wasn't walking in communion. We see in his restoration he displayed it again. It's all these things are very instructive. But I I believe it's precious to think of the Lord Jesus as the perfect example of all that precious fruit of the Spirit.
A singer. One case in the Lord's life. The Lord didn't reason with sinners that came to him. You remember on one occasion the man came and say Lord are they many that are there kill that be saved? Well, the Lord didn't enter into an argument as to whether there were many or few. His answer was try to enter in at the straight, keep as straight as the gate and narrows the way that leadeth unto light.
00:25:13
Just as though the Lord said you needn't be concerned about the many or the few. Be very sure that you get in yourself.
There is no age limitations are there to abiding in Him and bearing fruit. Down at the gospel tent, one little girl about 9 asked for always asked for extra copies of messages of love we give them after each children's meeting, we give them each one. She always wanted more so I asked her why and she said, well I like to give them to those.
That don't come to the tent that live nearby and our brother, Mr. Harry Hale, told us of visiting a sister in Los Angeles.
And she said, I wrote down his remarks and calling on this sister, she remarked to our brother Hale that she did not know why God had left her here, for she was now useless, unable to do anything for the Lord or visit.
Or attend meetings, Mr. Hale replied. Dear sister, there are four things you can do.
That will please the Lord much, and you do not need any strength, any money, or any gift. Surprised, she asked what these four things were. First, you can be a great help to all your brethren by simply praying, as a pacifist did in Colossians 4 and 12. He prayed that the Saints might stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
Second, you can be a large giver and have no money.
You can give the fruit of your lips, even give even thanks to his name, Hebrews 13 and 15. Third, you can wear the finest ornaments and never visit a jewelry store. You can wear the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit.
Which in the sight of God.
Which in the sight of God is of great price.
First Peter three and four. Four. The word of God would teach us that we can always live Christ when we cannot preach Christ. Paul wasn't prison when he wrote for me to live his Christ.
That verse was read to us bearing fruit in old age.
Many of these Saints have wondered why the Lord has left them here.
But I like to think of Elijah and Elijah.
Elijah was taken to heaven by a whirlwind, wasn't he? And Elijah left behind.
Why? To represent here on earth the man who had just gone to heaven. And I believe that's why the Lord leaves us here, to represent here on earth a man who's gone to heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ.
No one needs to be simply marking time, shall I say, while we're waiting for the Lord to come, because it seems to me, in addition to what has been said, there is also the opportunity for everyone, no matter what the circumstances are, no matter what the age.
To learn yet a little more of the loving and comforting and patient part of God before we're taken home.
I remember visiting a dear Sister Smith Balls. Folks will know who I mean. He was in a wheelchair and had been there for quite a good many years that I had just returned from the funeral of Mrs. Anderson, who was 95 years of age, stopped in to see this dear sister.
She said. Have you just come from Mrs. Anderson's funeral? I said yes. And why didn't the Lord stop on the way by and Take Me Home too? Now she's up there and I'm still here.
I said. In other words, she'll be with the Lord longer than you will. Well, of course she's there now, and I'm here. Well, I said. You mean you could add a few weeks on to one end of eternity and make it a little longer? No, no, she said. I'll be with the Lord just as long as Missus Anderson.
00:30:03
But in the meantime, it was suggested that each and every day were left. Here is an added opportunity, among the other things that have been mentioned, for us to learn something of the patience and encouragement and comfort of the heart of God toward us. Which lessons we really won't learn, will we, after we reach home?
We think of a fruit bearing as something that the Lord none of us, and we ought to do it. But that's the wrong way to look. I'll invest in this.
The Lord wants fruit of the might remain for our eternal glory. Yes, you.
Remain, and for our good and blessing all those things were.
Reported upstairs. And that is for us the Apostle Paul writing through the.
Philippines, when he says that I don't ride the cars of my one with a fruit may have bound to you.
Is coming just and stop with it. Fruit. And that's fruit. And that fruit was going to be recorded in the house. It wasn't.
We read a fruit, and then we read a more fruit, and then we read of much fruit, showing that there's no limit to the fruits that a child of God can produce. And the Lord indeed expects that it should be on the increase instead of on the decrease.
At first, our brother just referred to from the sounds bearing fruit in the old age.
What a wonderful encouragement that is for those who are getting on this light. We saw a solemn example of the opposite of that in ASA disease in his in his feet, in his old age, failed to produce that fruit that might have been produced, which was produced in his early Kingdom.
Well, let us never forget the last words of this fifth verse. Without me, he can do nothing. It's not strength of character. It's not because some might say, well, that brother is a naturally loving brother, that brother is naturally gracious. That's not what it's talking about here, because it's talking about the fruit of the Spirit. And that isn't what we are, naturally.
All it is of nature.
We can be thankful if a person is kind and thoughtful, even if he's unsaved. But brethren, that's not fruit for God, and even a Christian may have certain natural traits that are very pleasant. We're very thankful for them, but unless they spring from the true source, they're not proof for God.
And so instead of saying, well, I just don't have those characteristics, we have them because we possess the life of Christ. And when we get to glory, as it tells us in Ephesians 4, it says that we all come to the perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. You think there will be anyone in heaven who will not be fully, morally and like Christ? Oh, we are sure that this is so when we possess that same life right now.
We possess the same Spirit of God that we will have in heaven, and we possess it right now. So let us not look as to what we are naturally, but rather independence upon the Lord. Remember these words, they'll strengthen us. Without me He can do nothing. And Philippians 4 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. We have that really sparsely illustrated in the.
Talk to the young people.
He said one time winning such a marvelous victory over the.
So were The Ethiopians. And then later while he goes and hires the Syrian king to help him, seemingly to have been a success. But oh what a sad downfall it really was. We follow the history where those became enemies that just.
Troubled him through the years that followed.
Well, it's just this story without me. You can do nothing when in those three cases.
When they relied on the Lord trusted the Lord alone. The Lord gave the victory when they didn't trust him, the Lord.
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Why it in a it ended in defeat, maybe not appearing at the time, but later on the sad truth and consequences of that brought nothing but trouble and sorrow.
We need to remember, of course, that in our Christian life defeat, our victory is not always something that seems to be apparent when the Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross of Calvary, rejected by the nation that he had come to blast, forsaken by his disciples. And then in those hours of darkness forsaken of God, it was not defeated was victory because the Lord Jesus was doing His Father's will.
And brethren, let us ever remember this, that victory is doing his will. It may seem at times like defeat. It may seem as if the enemy triumphs for a while, and this is the encouragement given to the godly. 1 during the tribulation, the ungodly will have power to oppress them, and they will have to suffer some even to death. But still they will be the victors, and we find them in revelation on the sea of glass, and they have got the victory over the beast and over his image.
But on earth it looked like defeat. They've been put to death. So how important for us he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Let us not judge of things as they appear in man's day, Paul said with me, It is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's day. He I judge not mine own self, that is, he didn't look at things as they appeared in man's day. He waited the manifestation when everything would be brought into its true light.
In the presence of the Lord, and we need to bear this in mind. It's true that God gave a great victory.
To to ASA, and to his father too, but with us victory is to walk in the path of obedience and leave all the results for the Lord.
I love that him the 4th him the appendix to weakness and defeat. What a word. Defeat. He won the median crown, brought all our holes beneath his feet by being trodden down. You could have been there and seen the Lord carrying that cross.
Wearing the crown of thorns, hearing the mob hooting and shouting and insulting him, seeing him let out there on the nails of that cross, even the disciples had fled from him, you might say, what could that poor man do? But all beloved, when we look into the glory in the Revelation, and see that great multitude that no man can number there, and see the lamb that was slain in the midst, then we learned something.
Of a mighty victory.
That he won by being trodden down in that.
Time when he was rejected and and crucified, given the Manufacturer's death.
I wonder if we could just turn to Second Timothy Two. I think that's something that is brought before us here, which is helpful. Second Timothy Chapter 2.
The seventh verse consider what I say, and the new translation adds, The word shall consider what I say, and the Lord shall give the understanding in all things. Remember Jesus Christ of the seed of David raised from the dead. According to my gospel forin I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even on the bonds, but the word of God is not bound. Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus.
With eternal glory.
Well, the husbandman laborers. He doesn't see the fruit at once.
He laborers on now and then he partakes of the fruit later. And now he says the only way for us to understand how we should walk here as Christians is to remember Jesus Christ.
Who live so perfectly as him, who was such a perfect servant as him, who always did his father's will like him. And at the end of his life, what did it look like? Why, it looked like complete defeat, as our brother said.
Here where the nation that he had come to bless rejected him, the scribes and Pharisees led, leading them on, the disciples forsaking him, Judas betraying him with a kiss. Where were the results of all that perfect work in the Lord Jesus pathway? Well, as our brother said, it's manifested in resurrection. There we look up and we see that one crown with glory and honor. We see in the 5th of Revelation the fruit of that great work.
00:40:30
And now he is saying to Timothy. Timothy, you're living in a day of ruin. You're living in a day of breakdown. If you try to be faithful, you'll be misunderstood, you'll be despised. But he said the only way you can have understanding is to remember Jesus Christ. Just think of him, think of his pathway. And so this could be an encouragement too, to the dear young people, because sometimes when you make some request of the Lord and you seek to please Him.
And the Lord doesn't come in and grant you your desire, you might think. Well, I I don't know why he allows it looks like defeat instead of victory. But remember, dear young people, if you did the will of God, it was victory. It was true success, even though the manifestation may have to wait till the judgment seat of Christ. And the encouragement in this portion I think is so beautiful. Remember, remember Jesus Christ. And this will give us understanding how to go on in a day of breakdown and ruins.
They should think of that verse in the epistle of John, and the second chapter he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.
That goes right on into eternity. And that's in contrast with being deceived by the world. World with all its attraction.
In view of what's been said, I wonder if we have perhaps made a one side of application of the scripture then that honor me.
I will honor I have often heard that verse quoted, and it always, to my memory, has been in connection with someone who has taken a faithful stand for the Lord and a few weeks later ended up with a situation that was far more wonderful than the one they perhaps suffered under. Someone will stay in a position where for the Lord's glory had to act faithfully, and maybe they were demoted or lost their job.
And a month later they got a better job with a higher salary, and the quotation is always brought forward. Them that honor me, I will honor. I guess we've all heard it applied in that way. But I'm afraid it might be a little discouraging if we thought that's what it must mean, that the Lord promises that if we are true and faithful to Him here, we'll end up with a far more acceptable situation than the one that caused us a trial before.
We can well wait for the honor until that day that's coming. We may find ourselves at the bottom of the ladder as long as we're here, but there will be honor in that day. We're not promised it here, that's all. God doesn't always vindicate His people or His servants in this life.
He arrived at the Uriah. The Hittite was a man of faith, and he went out in faithfulness, and we know how he suffered even from the unkind act of David toward him, and he never lived to see himself vindicated for what he had done.
But the time that it comes before us is that later on David speaks of his mighty men when he came to the throne. And here we find a mention of this man who has never vindicated in his life. And I think, brethren, it should be an encouragement. We always think all if the persons right God will vindicate them in this life. No, there's no proof that he will, but he will vindicate them someday. And that's what we read about the Lord Jesus.
He wasn't vindicated in this life, but there he is now. And the Father demands that every knee will bow. He has honored that one at his own right hand. And so we must go on in faith and leave the results till that day. He will honor faithfulness to him, but there's no promise it will be in this life. I was thinking of the faithful witness to AM and.
Jehoshaphat, when they were going out to fight the Syrians and the false prophets, is all said to go out and the Lord is going to give you a great victory. And so Jehoshaphat asked if there wasn't just one.
00:45:10
Prophet of the Lord of Jehovah. And so they brought. His name was Ammon, wasn't it? And he witnessed faithfully. Well, it cost him prison term. We don't know how long.
He was taken off to prison. And Ahab said to take this man and put him in prison and feed him on bread and water till I come back in triumph. Their victory, Well, we never heard that he got out of prison. But all the triumph and victory he'll have in that day when everything is manifest in the glory. And Reverend, we too get the benefit of this ourselves. Now God has vindicated.
Such in one in His Word. And we see the importance of being faithful amid unfaithfulness, and to stand for the Lord even though it may cost us.
A term in prison. We're not going to be any losers. And God honors his servant. Even if they're not given a position or anything, his word will honor them even now.
Remark that there are four different kinds of workers.
Christendom, church workers, Christian workers. Well, that's better certainly then the workers for Christ. That's a step further up, isn't it? But there's something better yet than Christ in the worker and that's what that's what the covenant.
And I guess we did speak about this sixth verse as being a professor. And then in the seventh verse it says, if he abide in me, and my words abide in you, he shall ask what she will, and it shall be done unto you. How important this if you abide in me, and my words abide in you, there needs to be that using the feeding upon the word of God, and using it as direction for our whole pathway.
It says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. How often we have seen some child of God who has a real heart for Christ, but he hasn't made the word of God his guide. And the result is instead of growing in his soul, why he falls into something that is not according to the word of God. His desire was right, but we need to have His Word abiding in US.
Just like you might desire to do something for your employer, but if you didn't do something that's pleasing to him, it's he. He doesn't appreciate it. And so when we're seeking to go on for the Lord, let us acquaint ourselves with His precious word, And then it gives us direction and instruction for our pathway, and we ask for those things that are pleasing to Him, and then He can come in and grant them.
It's possible for us to be asking for things that are not according to his word.
In connection with our seventh verse, if you abide in me and my words abide in you.
As we look around the world, we see the great alarm, almost panic, you might say, when man starts to think of his resources, the resources in nature and other resources that are being contaminated, ruined and spoiled. But all that, we have a spring here that's deep and pure, that nothing can ever spoil, that nothing can ever rob us of.
If only this the exhortation that we have in this verse.
Is brought to bear on our heart and conscience. What a wonderful spring, deep and pure, is ours in the seventh verse.
And then the highest memorial possible is brought before us, not to get some importance or some glory for self. But he says here is my Father glorified that he bear much fruit. So it shows that there is a development here. I believe in this subject abiding in Christ.
00:50:22
And then His word, abiding in US, And now it comes to glorifying the Father, and bearing much fruit.
Well, isn't that a wonderful thing for a poor sinful creature in this world to glorify God where he is so dishonored, His name blasphemed and everything said against him and every effort made.
To turn away from what he has established and a poor thing like you and me.
Can glorify God our Father, and it's possible, and here is the way. He gives us a prescription for it. We just need to follow it.
Some Christians are puzzled in connection with a seventh verse. He shall ask what she will, and it shall be done unto you. But notice here that there are these two things. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, and I believe, rather than this connection, we should remember that verse Hast thou faith have it to thyself before God? And that is, if we are really walking in communion with the Lord, and guided by his word, we will ask for those things that are pleasing to Him.
But if we don't have a definite scripture, it's better for us to be humble. Because to say that, well, I'm sure the Lord is going to grant this request is practically saying that I'm sure I'm so near to him that I couldn't have missed his mind. And even the dear apostle Paul, if you notice in First Corinthians chapter 4.
First Corinthians chapter 4.
And the fourth verse.
He said, For I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby justified. But he that judgeth me is the Lord that is, Paul was saying, I don't know of anything unjudged in my own life.
But that doesn't say that there isn't something there that I don't see, that God sees. And so that ought to keep us humble, brethren, because we don't see certain things in ourselves that the Lord sees, just as we remarked about Job, and we have to confess this.
And I say this then, so that when we ask for something, the Lord may see something in US.
That were really not abiding in him fully and the result is that he cannot grant that request because it wouldn't be for his glory if he did. I remember hearing of a great preacher and he made an announcement before his congregation and said that his little girl was sick, but he said we're going to pray for her tonight and the next time I'm able to make an announcement, I'm going to be able to tell you the Lord has heard our prayer and that she's well.
Well, it didn't turn out that way. The next time he had to make an announcement, the little child had been taken home. The Lord had taken it away, and that was a great test to that man's fate. Well, now, brethren, he could have had a personal faith in the presence of the Lord.
That the Lord would come in the Lord often gives us confidence about matters that we turn to Him about.
But to make an announcement like that was to practically say in front of other people. I'm so sure that I'm near the Lord that I couldn't make a mistake in this request. And the Lord searched his heart, and he searches your heart and mind, brethren. So let us be very humble. If we have the word of God for some decision, well then we can say thus saith the Lord. But if it's something else in our lives, we may have that confidence which the Lord gives by walking near to him.
But it's all spoiled when we start to boast. And Paul himself by Roman again he could say I know nothing by myself, But he said this doesn't justify me. May the Lord give us grace, and to walk humbly before him, and to know that in presenting our request to him we should say if it's thy will, because he knows what is best for us.
00:55:08
As opposed to we need to be in the right state of soul before we can expect an answer to our prayer. Because David says in Psalm 66, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. So I take it from that I must be in the right state of soul before the Lord, having been before Him in self judgment, before I can expect the answer to my prayers. Wouldn't you think so?
Yes, but I was just saying there, sometimes we don't realize that there are unjudged things, but the Lord sees it.
That's 139th Psalm, isn't it? Certainly oh Lord and know me and see if they be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. He starts out without hassle, searched me and known me. He finds he can't get away from the Lord, and then at the end why he has found such blessing in the fact the Lord has put him through this searching that he wants him to continue in it.
But I remember your father saying, That isn't a prayer for for the public. That's.
Private prayer. I think there was a brother that used to pray that in the meeting, as though he was carrying that out himself. But that wasn't an evidence of his really wanting the Lord to search him. He wanted his brother to think that he was going on that way. It's one to be.
To utter that prayer alone in the closet.
And we should we should be willing that the Lord.
Might searches through and through and not try to defend ourselves in any way.
One would think that some might think that the Apostle Paul could be sure of having the Lord's mind, but didn't he say that he trusted and had the Lorde mind?
Just we have a good conscience. And when he went up to Jerusalem, as we know he felt that he had, but he was warned by the Spirit not to go. And I believe God records that to show us that we shouldn't have our eye upon any man, no matter how wonderful he may be.
Says in the Psalms I have seen an end of all perfection, but thy commandment is exceeding broad. We can be sure when we have the word of God.
But when we have our eyes on some godly man, he may disappoint us. No matter who he is. There's only one who's perfect. That's the Lord Jesus.
When we come to the ninth verse of our chapter, as a Father loveth me, so have I loved you. Continue, ye and my love I judge. The word continue there expresses the same thought as abiding, so we have. Abiding in Christ we have.
Keeping his word, biting in His word. And now we have abiding in His love.
And how important that is to be more occupied with the love of Christ to ourselves.
Do we think about his love to us during the day? How much he loves us?
When we close our eyes, before we drop off to sleep, till we think about how much the Lord has loved us, what He's done for us, well, it's it's something we should cultivate to be more and more occupied.
With his precious love to us, we can never measure it. You can go into heights and depths and length and breadth. You can never fathom it. But all how precious to know where the objects all that love, that eternal love. And he's fully shown forth that love is what He has done for us. And then we have in the 13th chapter, he said, having loved his own, which are in the world.
He loved them unto the end. Therefore he washes their feet. And it says thereto that he began to wash the disciples feet. He's never ceased from that day to this to wash our defiled feet as we go through this seed.
One likes to suggest that we have a tree encouragement and this very wonderful 15 chapter of John in connection with pruning and with discipline and the pruning. And I see it here and I'll pass it on to you. Your bread. And one is that it's the father.
01:00:07
That those two pruning are wonderful to know, that is not one that is stranger to us, is our Father. What a wonderful relationship he has brought us to himself, to the Lord Jesus. And the other encouragement is on verse three, as we had this morning, that we are already cleaned, we belong to them.
Those so that they have been clean, cleansed by His precious voice, we belong to him. And then the Lord Jesus. This gives us this wonderful verse 9 Here in connection with our failure to abide and hear him and then the prune in that God is doing with us. He say, I know all about this thing and in this thing he is unconscious with us. The Lord Jesus, our precious Savior, never needed to be pruned in himself because he was perfect.
And all his way.
Never need no prune in the Lord Jesus, our precious Saber in this life, because he always did that which was pleasant to the Father. But he knew that we would fail. While he gives us this void of encouragement. As the Father had loved me, so have I loved you. And the quality of that love, the love of brethren, oh, the wonderful love of the Lord Jesus, say don't you worry. In spite of your failure not abiding in me, oftentimes I love you.
The same way that my father loves you. What an encouragement that is to abide in him. Drugs. And then you get in the way. We will continue in His love in the next verse. If you keep my commandments, He shall abide in my love even as I've kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. Well, what an example we have. The Lord's whole life was the life.
Of.
Doing what was pleasing to the Father, he says this I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him. That sentence, what a wonderful statement that is. A man came down from heaven for that purpose, that sole purpose, to do the will of the Father here below. And when he took that weary journey to Samaria and found that poor woman there at the well.
And he sent her away, or she went to her way without the pictures.
Help to save man of the city to come see a man which told me all that ever I did by the Lords heart was so overflowing with joy that he couldn't eat. Just think of the Lord so happy in his soul that bird wasn't even thought of or drink. He lost his even thirst as it were And the disciples marvel. He said this, he said my meat.
Is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work and then.
In the 17th of John he could say, I've glorified thee on the earth. I've finished the work which thou gave us me to do.
In connection with fruit bearing, there is a very lovely bird that I like to read in the book of Song of Solomon chapter 2 and verse three. I was very much impressed myself. I enjoy it this word. This morning connection with preparing at Song of Solomon or Solomon Song chapter 2 and verse 3. And we see something that is very precious here in connection with preparing.
It says here as the apple tree among the trees of the world. So is my beloved among the sons, Oh, the precious savior here. But notice what it says. After this I sat down under the Shah, under the shadow with great.
Delight. And his fruit was straight to my death. And I was impressed with the word. There was no activity but sitting down with great delight. Sitting down, that's the way you enjoy the fruit of the things. Well, that's very pleasure, isn't it? And Mary did that.
Sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus, oh what a wonderful praise to be.
Seated at the feet of the Lord Jesus and the Lord Jesus said, Why she choose that power?
That will never be taken away from home.
I think it's nice, as our brother remarked too to read this 9th and 10th verse, these two verses together, because the ninth verse is always the same. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love.
01:05:15
Nothing that we ever have done or ever could do is going to change His love as we have in the 8th chapter of Romans. Nothing shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. But we may not be in the enjoyment of that, and so the tenth verse has the enjoyment of it. That's what's brought before us. If we keep My commandments, she shall abide in My love. It isn't that He loves us any less, but we're not abiding in His love.
We might illustrate it like this.
Here is a child in the family and he's very willful and his father loves him greatly, but nevertheless his father.
Can't display the law as he would wish to and perhaps the boy says, well, I think my father likes the other ones in the family better than me. It's not true, but it's because he has been willful and disobedient that he's not enjoying that love.
And how thankful his father would be to have him come and again enjoy that love. It was always there in his father's heart. But when he comes back, then he discovers it like the boy who returned from the far country. It almost seemed as if his father loved the boy that had gone astray better.
Bring forth the best robe and put it on him. And so if there any of us that have got away from the Lord, it hasn't hasn't changed his heart. But perhaps the enemy has whispered, well, the Lord can't love you because of the way you've gone or the way you've acted. It hasn't changed his heart at all. But we cannot enjoy that love in our souls as long as there is something that is between US and the Lord. It was never so with the precious Savior. So He always locked, locked in the sunshine of His Father's love.
And then when it says here commandments, we get a great deal about commandments in John. I expect we're all aware that commandments in the Gospel of John are not the 10 commandments. If you turn back to the end of the 12Th chapter, I think it helps to understand what is brought before us.
49th verse.
For I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me. He gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting. Whatsoever I speak. Therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
That is, the Lord Jesus always said his Father's will, everything that his Father desired him to do, they it was a commandment to his blessed heart, because he said not my will but thine be done. Now, brethren, we have the same new life, and it's not the 10 commandments that was God's rule for man in the flesh, but everything that the Lord wants us to do. The new nature that He has given to us delights in doing.
That's why it says his commandment is life everlasting? I can say to every Christian in this room this afternoon, young Mr. Oldest, the most worldly, or the one who's walking most with the Lord, that you have a life that delights in pleasing the Lord. If you don't have that life, you're not a true child of God at all.
And so if you and I allow the spirit of God to speak to that Newman, there will be a response, and there will be again the enjoyment of that law, and it's known and enjoyed in the path in which the Lord Jesus walked. So I say again, it's not keeping a certain number of rules, it's not keeping the 10 commandments. It's just simply making the revealed mind of God the light and wisdom for our pathway and finding through the new life.
Our joy and peace in that path.
I remember asking Brother Potter the question years ago in Montreal after a meeting. This question that we're discussing what are the commandments of Christ? He said to me. In just these few words, he said the commandments of Christ.
Are doing those things we know are pleasing to the Lord, Has learned from His Word independence and obedience.
01:10:07
Does this indicate the matter of the love toward us in the ninth verse? As the Father have loved me, so have I loved you.
That is that really true? Is that what that indicates? Well, say the measure or the immeasurable Ness of it?
That's pretty wonderful when you think that as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. It almost seems to me, when I read it and and think that that could possibly be the meaning of it, that the last comment in the verse is, is almost sad to have to read.
Continually in my love.
To think that someone would love us that much, and then having made known that love to us, to have to suggest to us please continue in this love. If someone that you love very dearly wrote to and fully made no less love in the letter, and then ended the letter by saying please continue in my love, you almost feel a little bit sad to have to hear that comment. And yet I suppose, in fact I know our heart needed to think that this law could be presented to us in such language as this, as a father that loved me.
We can't measure. So have I love you. And then to have to read those little words Continue ye in my love, and those are poor hearts are in danger of.
Failing to enjoy the continual wonder of that love when Brother our brother was speaking to us of the second chapter of the Song of Solomon, sitting down under his shadow with great delight, I must admit I pictured to myself a visit I made to our dear brother Suzuki in Tokyo about 10 years ago. He could speak a little bit of English, not very much, And so Brother Yamanaka insisted that I make this visit alone.
And I found that dear old man sitting on a mat in the middle of the floor, all alone.
And I didn't know what the state to whom I said my name is hateful. From Canada. Sodom only did Canada Sackville, NB.
Well, you can imagine my astonishment and hearing him say that. I said, brother, where did you hear that place? He said 60 years ago, Brother Hammond came to visit me from Sackville. He read to me Don 15, verse nine. Oh, we had a wonderful visit and he was sitting there. I could almost picture that verse being fulfilled. There he was sitting all alone in that room. He was over 90 years of age. He's with the Lord now and he was enjoying.
That which had been brought to him 60 years before.
Now the dear old man, by what he said, was still proving the wonder of that love. As a father that loved me, so have I loved you. If you can take that, if I can take that personally. We've got a treasure to take home from these meetings.
If they have the same thought expressed from the helmet in the 17th chapter, have we not in connection with the Father's Love verse 23?
I might read the whole verse I and them and thou and me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and has loved them as thou hast loved me. So we have the perfect extent of the sons love Ross, and the perfect extent of the Father's love to us too.
Nice to notice, then, in the 11Th version these things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. You notice everything is.
What the Lord himself possesses.
Speaks of peace. I leave with you my peace I give unto you. So he speaks of my word and my love, and now my joy. So we remember that that him the 18th and the appendix that love that gives not as the world, but shares all it possesses with its love. Coheirs. Doesn't it wonderful the Lord delights to share with his own.
01:15:00
Party is the enjoyment and delight of his heart, and that's the joy that he would have us in the good of as we go on our way. He doesn't want us depressed and discouraged and and unhappy class of people. We can get in that state if we're not watchful, but what the Lord wants is the people that are full of joy.
And happiness in their soul, in their souls.
And then he doesn't want any stupid measure of that joy either that your joy might be full. And you get that in the epistle of John and the after bringing before us the.
The communion with the Father and the Son which he brings all God's family into. Or then he says these things right eye unto you, that your joy might be full.
Now that's way fullness of joy is realized, as when we're in that communion with the Father and the Son, enjoying what the apostles enjoyed when they were here with the Blessed Lord.
In a certain sense, the Christian is a paradox. So we have in 2nd Corinthians 6 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. And so we read of the Lord Jesus that he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and yet we find him when rejected by the nation. It says that our Jesus rejoiced in spirit. So the Christian is the same today, and so that there is that mixture in our souls.
We can't help but feel in this world the results of sin. We see all the misery that Satan has brought in through sin and through Adam's fall. And then we see too, how little our own hearts respond to the Lorde claims. And this brings us sorrow. And it's right that we should feel it. We should be real as we look on what is going on, whether in the world or in the Church of God. It ought to cause us real sorrow apart.
By the Lord, Jesus looked around upon the people who didn't want his the display of his grace. It broke his heart. He wept over Jerusalem. He was righteously angry when they didn't want him to heal that man. And yet he was also perfect in that display of affection.
He was above every circumstance. So there were the two things together. I say this because in our pathway we need to know how to mingle those two things. I believe we could also say that that's why the Lord Jesus in His perfect man who had spoken of is the fine flowers. Now that is, the fine flower means that there were no lumps. Well, with us there perhaps is something that is outstanding, but also something in which we lack.
So you might speak of a man and say that's a very kind person. That's a very thoughtful person. That's a very generous person. You speak of some outstanding virtue, but with the Lord, every virtue was equally outstanding. There was nothing that excelled the other. Everything was in perfection.
But as this verse brings before us, brethren, in the midst of all these feelings that we have and rightly, there is a quiet peace and joy that the believer is entitled to have. And the Lord Jesus walked in that path. And as we commented, and I think it's very noticeable, the only time that we read of the Lord rejoicing in spirit was at a time when we would perhaps least have expected it. It was when the nation rejected him.
He had to pronounce dwell on certain cities. And then he looked up, and he rejoiced in spirit. And he said, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hid these things from the wise and prudent, and asked, revealed them unto babes, Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.
There was the secret of his peace and of his joy, but he felt it fully may the Lord enable us to mix those things together in our lives, that there might be that entering into the trials and sorrows and difficulties of the people of God, the misery that sin has brought, and yet to be in the enjoyment of the Lord in our soul.
In the latter part of this 11Th verse that your joy.
01:20:03
Might be full.
There may I know it has been with me, and perhaps it is today. Some have come to these special meetings much discouraged.
What have we received this afternoon and the and this morning from the Word of God? We've received comfort, encouragement, and exercise, and we read in Deuteronomy 114. Fear not. Neither be discouraged.
So discouragement comes from the enemy of our souls, Exercise. And what we have had in the exhortations in this word comes from the ministry of Christ. So if you and I are discouraged, we can turn away and say this is not the one.
Who as we have in the ninth verse, who?
Loves me with this.
Unchangeable.
Wondrous love.
You say #230.
Faithful amidst unfaithfulness amid darkness, only light, Thou didst thy Father's name confessed and in his worldly life.
2:30.
Oh Lord.