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Our blessed God and Father, we thank thee for that blessed place of sonship that thou hast brought us into.
Lord Jesus Christ giving us the very spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA, Father. Indeed, Thou hast not given us the Spirit of fear, but of love and of power, and of a sound mind, sound judgment in this poor ruined world that is hastening on to destruction. And all Blessed God our Father, but a pure object we have in my beloved Son, the Lord Jesus.
And when we see him, we shall be like him, or we shall see him as he is. We thank thee for the Christ exalting ministry we have had these two days together, and now as we're once more together over Thy.
Word We pray that thou would pour us out a blessing and bring that before us most needful for our spiritual edification, exhortation, and comfort. We pray for those that must be on their journey, that thou would keep them safely. We once again look up to thee for our beloved brother Eric Pilkington, and we pray Lord Jesus to be with Him, be with dear Helen.
In this hard time.
Comfort them. And if it please thee to raise our brother up for little measure for their service if we're yet left here in this scene.
God and Father, we count upon thee for thy help now within this hour, and we ask all with Thanksgiving and that most worthy and precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.
1St.
John Chapter 17, verse 12.
Well, I was listening in the world. I kept him in thy name. Those that thou gave me I have kept, and none of them is lost. But the Son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, and not combined to be. If these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Thy word, and the world has painted them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou should have taken out of the world, but that thou should keep them from the evil.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is true. As thou hast sent me into the world, Even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Neither pray, I believe alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I indeed that they also may be one Enough, that the world they believe, that thou has sent me, and the glory which thou gave us. We I have given them as they may be one, even as 01 I and them endowed 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.
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Father, I will that they also, whom God has given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory Thou has given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world has not known me, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou has sent them. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare that the love where was not his love needed, may be in them, and I and them.
S.
I.
Several years ago I was in England and I had a young believer.
Plymouth.
And he was talking about the Oneness in verse 21. And there was a group of leaders, I don't ever know who they were, and they were trying to establish this.
As a enthusiastical thing, a thing that could be established as a body on Earth. And I wondered about this, and I found a little note of Brethren's writing, and I couldn't quote it. Very good. So I I thought I might read it.
Oneness is not ecclesiastical. It is a oneness and personal knowledge of the fellowship with the Father and the Son, Oneness in the Spirit, each of them having the spirit of adoption. Has this failed? That could not be. We are accepted in the blood, having the Spirit of adoption brought together in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. That helped me very much to see that this oneness is what all believers in Christ have together as children of God and sons of adoption brought up.
This oneness would have been kept on going that we see in the primitive church if man hadn't failed.
The man failed very early.
To be seen. To be seen. Details to be seen.
This expression that is repeated the number of times when we get it in 12Th verse those that thou gave us me.
Like to ask the question when were those given to the Senate?
You tell us.
Ephesians One would give you the answer, would it not?
In addition to what we had about proverbs 8, yes.
It was before anything was.
Marvelous, isn't it? But then when you think of the.
Security and the confidence we have with this verse, the verse before 11. At the end he says only Father, keep to thy own name. Those whom thou hast given me. He's he's asking him to keep us. Then he said while I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those without hath given me. I have lost. I have kept.
I have kept and none of them is lost. I was thinking. It's the same thought of John 10, where he says in 28 and 29.
Speaking of his sheep.
28 And I give unto them eternal life. They shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all. No man is able to pluck them out of my father's hands.
Now here is where we are in our portion. I and the Father are what? Well, it's wonderful to think about that. And now to hear this prayer where he asked the Father to keep us now.
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I believe Judas is brought in to show that the person being in the very finest of company perfection, it didn't change his heart one bit. People often say well that person got in bad company.
But there was number such excuse for Judas. He was with the one whom he saw nothing but perfection at all of his voice, Every action he saw that but it didn't change his heart. A man is tested through the scripture in every possible way, in innocence, under under law, without law, tested too. And the Lord Jesus was here. And of course the Lord knew all beforehand, because it says in the 6th chapter of John.
Have not I chosen you? 12 And one of you is the devil. Not will be, but is. He was never, even when he took his own life. It says that he might go to his own place, but his identification with the Lord didn't change his heart. And so it's a very solemn lesson. A person might sit in these meetings, might profess Christ and everything, but unless there's been real work of God in the soul, finest of company, the best ministry, everything.
Nothing will accomplish the work, only the work of God in the soul and those in whom he does that work for them. They'll never perish, they'll never be plucked out of his hand. But it's very solemn. Through the Scripture we see those who identify themselves with the profession of Christianity, like Simon the sorcerer, and so on. Nothing changes the heart but new birth.
And the Lord Jesus felt that he really felt it when Judas betrayed him in the Psalms, it says, My known familiar friend hath lifted up his heel against me that no doubt was in connection with a hippopotamus. And David, how that intimate counselor of David's turned on him and betrayed him. There may have been some circumstances involved in that. I I believe that a hippopotamus could have been.
The grandfather of Bathsheba, I'm not sure, but there was, with a hippopotamus a desire no doubt to have that first place in Israel. It was his scheme to lead the armies against David instead of Absalom. And we see that God really defeated the council of the hippopotamus, and the result was that when he recognized that, his counsel was rejected, just like Judas.
He went out and he hung himself, but the Lord Jesus really felt the betrayal of Judas.
It's very significant not only that he felt betrayal, but at the time when it became necessary to reveal him, the Lord Jesus did so in terms that exercised every conscience in the company.
One of you is a devil, he said in the 13th of John. And they said, is it I, is it I?
When we have to deal with evil, beloved, it should be as having to be gotten out of us in order to exercise the heart and conscience of every soul that has evidence in a matter. So when Judith took his place among the disciples as an imposter, he exposed himself to being chosen as this one who should be with him, and betray him with the Lord very wisely.
Pointed out in terms of an exercise, every context, that one would be at least betrayed.
It's remarkable that as Judas passed amongst the disciples as they walked with the Lord in his during his public ministry, it seems that the other disciples didn't seem to really detect that there was a difference with Judah, with Judas. And it's again a solemn warning to those who would seek to pass amongst the Lord's people and only make a profession. You can fool mother, you can fool father, you can fool the brethren. I remember a time when I.
Was asked if I was saved as a very young child.
And I said yes, and hastily went out of the door after a gospel meeting. We can fool somebody like that. But God knew what was in Judas fire. The Lord. Jesus knew the heart of Judas. And so I say it's a solemn warning to those who pass amongst us in that way. But I've enjoyed with Judas a little contrast with Peter, because on this same occasion that Judas betrays the Lord, a little later on Peter denies his blessed Lord, and it is possible for a Christian to follow a fire off like Peter and to get into that condition of things.
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But you see a difference. Because Peter was one of the Lords, there was reality in his heart, but there was no restoration for Judas, because there never was any reality in his heart. But with Peter, though he denied his Lord three times with oaths and curses, yet there was restoration for Peter. And the Lord not only restored Peter, but he used him in a wonderful way and said to Peter before he went back to the glory. Feed my lambs, feed my sheep.
And we know that Peter was used to shepherd the people of God and to write by divine inspiration, part of the.
Inspired word of God. And so it's nice to see that on the one hand, Judas betrays the Lord. No reality in his heart. He goes out and he hangs himself. But for Peter there was restoration, and if we fail, there is restoration. And the restoring grace of God is as limitless as the saving and preserving grace of God. And if we are a true believer, we can never get to a point where we say I fail too badly, that there isn't restoration, and that I can't go on from here.
I would like somebody to explain.
Romans 9 and 22.
There are some that use that and say that that say it is impossible or that God rather has ordained that there are some should be lost and I would like to get some help on that first.
You you explained.
That verse is very has to be read very carefully because.
There is a distinct difference that the Spirit of God makes between the 22nd and 23rd and the 23rd. To go there, we see vessels of mercy, which he prepared for His glory. Every one of us who is a vessel of mercy is prepared by God for His glory.
That's that's very clear in scripture. But what about those who are the vessels of grass? It says not that he prepared them but they're fitted for destruction. Who fitted them? They fitted themselves for destruction. And it's very interesting that God's word is clear in making a difference and and there's there can be no confusion if we keep in mind that verse 23 says the vessels of mercy He prepared for His glory.
Whereas the vessels of wrath fit themselves really for destruction, And that is clearly brought out in the case of Pharaoh, who hardened his heart numerous occasions. And then we read that the Lord hearted his heart, but that was only after he had pardoned his own heart and and had chosen that path of resistance to God, but every one of us who is a vessel of mercy.
Are prepared by him for his glory, and without that, where would we be?
Thank you that the expression the son of perdition indicates that it was a persistent course that characterized him. And we do have these areas that might be difficult, but I believe that the spirit of God would help us to see where the distinction are is like Peter says. As it is written, the dog got turned to its vomit. Again in the South to the swallowing in the mire Well, a dog is a dog and a sow is a sow. You see, there's.
No change there. It's evident of their nature, and even in Hebrew 6, which has been a difficult portion for many folks.
Whole qualifies it by saying we are persuaded better things of you brethren, beloved, and things which accompany salvation. Though we thus speak so we have to consider these passages carefully and see how God makes a distinction, but even with Judas.
The Lord did not reveal it till the very last, and even then.
There was an opportunity for Judith. It did not have to be that Judith. There had to be Judith. But the Lord knew. But He didn't reveal it till the very last moment.
So along with this state we we get all that the father have given me shell and then him to come to me. I will know why it's cast up. So it wasn't that Judas was was prepared by God for destruction as you say he hurt himself.
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The destination has nothing to do with unbelievers. It's never applied to unbelievers. It's only for Christians. And so as far as responsibility is concerned, everyone is responsible. But left to responsibility, no one would accept God's salvation, and so unless God steps in, there wouldn't be any blessing at all. So he steps in. And so the first time you read about it in the Bible is when they had sinned. And as far as they were concerned, there was no hope. And so God says I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy.
In other words, as far as responsibility was concerned, by everyone was doomed to judgment. So God steps in, just like it's ten men broke into your house. They're all responsible. You offer to pardon them, they all refuse it. They're all going to be judged now unless you step in and you say, well, I'm going to pick out some for mercy. Now that's a sovereign act, but that doesn't in any way affect the responsibility of the others. The others can't say, well, we're not responsible because you picked a couple.
The others are responsible for what they did. So were the ones that broke in. But the two that you showed goodness to, that was just the goodness of your heart. And so God makes everybody responsible. They're all responsible. And he never applies in the scripture responsibility to, I mean foreknowledge and predestination to unbelievers. They're treated as responsible people, judged as responsible people. If God is pleased to act in sovereignty, that's just his grace.
And that makes us so indebted, because why did he choose me? We'll never understand. We'll have to say well or soften grace. I don't know why. It was just His grace.
So there's the highways and heads.
That Mr. Brown used to say All may come, but none will come to some government.
The Bible is exceedingly accurate. There are two stories. When the servants go out, they only invite.
But when the servant, just one goes out, then he compels and so going into the highway and hedges and compel them to come in. It was only the servant. So the Spirit of God is the servant and he can compel. I can't compel, but I can invite all the gospel preacher can proclaim the good news to whosoever will, and that's all I can do as a servant. But the Spirit of God can work in that very audience and compel and so.
The scripture is so accurate.
Servants, it's inviting. Where it's the servants. It's compelling.
Isn't it true that only two people are marked out in Scripture as the Son of perdition?
Perhaps also in a tight too, but specifically it's Judas and the Antichrist, and I believe they're the only two that are called in Scripture, sons of perdition. I think we have to be careful in using that expression.
To limit it to what Scripture limits it to. There is a distinct connection between the word perished here and Son of perdition There come from the same root and it's the same thought. And he had perished as the Son of perdition. It's a very solemn position. I believe it's one of the few that the scripture says that we're better for him, that he had never been born. And that's a very solemn position, most of us you wouldn't say that about.
In the course of our life. But in the course of that man's life, it was said it were better for him.
That you were never born, the expression guarded, you were kept in verse.
12 is a very strong verse. The Lord says that he has kept them. The ones that have been given to him or Mr. Garvey's translation has guarded, and it's the same word that Peter uses where he says who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.
It's the same word. It's guarded by the power of God. To me, that's a very sweet expression to think of the Lord Jesus.
Taking those dear ones that had been given to him, and guarding them while he was down here and now he commends them to the Father's care. And so Peter can say, who are kept guarded by the power of God. That is, he recognized that what the Lord had asked the Father to do, the Father was going to do, and was doing and was keeping them by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Faith is the agency, isn't it?
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That's the means I should say by which God?
Preserves us, but it's his keeping.
No flesh and glory in His presence. And that's why if the Lord saved me and I have to keep myself, then if I keep myself, there would be something in which I could glory. I could say, well, the Lord saved me, but after that I kept myself so I would have something glory about. But God shows us that He did the choosing, He did the work through his beloved Son that fitted us for the glory, and he kept us or we would never get there.
So it's all to his praise and glory that no flesh should glory in his presence.
So it's very blessed to see the ways of God so consistent and so perfect. But as far as responsibility is concerned, God will have all men to be saved. He wants all men to be saved. But since man's will refuses it, then unless he acts it in sovereignty, there wouldn't be any blessing at all. So he chooses to act in that way because of what our hearts are and this gives all the glory to him.
I believe when we reach the glory and we're in the presence of the Lord Jesus, we're going to realize fully that if there was any response, whether it was in our coming to the Savior and receiving salvation, or whether it was in any measure following in the path of faith and service, that it was God that worked in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And I've enjoyed that in connection with those in the 4th of Revelation who having received those rewards, those crowns.
For faithfulness of the judgment seat of Christ, they just take them and they cast them back at His feet. Because we're going to realize that if we gave a cup of cold water in His name, he gave us the desire. He provided the cup of cold water. And then he turned around and said, I'm going to reward you for faithfulness. Well, no wonder we're going to cast our crowns back at His feet. Because as you say, I believe we're going to realize fully that if there was any response in our Christian lives in any aspect, it was all a work of His grace in our souls.
Excuse me for repeating what I often say that we find in the scripture that you can test any doctrine that's presented by Does this line of teaching exalt manners, as exalt Christ? And you'll find that you can detect every false line of teaching that in some insidious way it gives a possession or glory or something that man can do so he can have the credit for himself.
But the truth of God always brings us in. And so whenever you come to a difficult passage, I say that because in John chapter 16 it says perhaps we should read it because it says 16 and verse 13.
Albeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself. But whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak. And he will show you things to come, He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. So as he leads us into all truth, he shows us that the truth of God always gives glory to Christ. So when you come to a difficult passage.
And you find it hard to interpret that passage. Are you interpreting it in such a way that you're giving some glory to man? Take baptism. Baptism is very important. But if that has part in the salvation of our soul, then there's something in which man good glory. Because baptizing is an act that a man has to do, and you can't do it yourself. So somebody does an act, and without that act you couldn't be in glory. That would give glory to man. You could say I was saved through the work of Christ.
But it was necessary for that work to be done, baptizing me in order that I should be fitted for eternal glory. Now, baptism is a great privilege. I'm not lessening its importance, but it has nothing to do with the salvation of the soul any more than putting on a uniform as anything to do with a man being a soldier. He's a soldier, even if he's not wearing the uniform its property should, but he's a soldier. And so the scripture shows us very clearly that nothing that man can do.
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Has anything to do with fitting us for eternal glory. It's all and only through the work of Christ.
Remember many years ago I?
Was up at the tent. I guess it was 1959 and Brother Barry asked me to, along with Bob Macy and Tom Roach, to write some of the chapter day things that year. And I never realized how little I knew about the word of God until you sit down and write it in a simple way. And I was struggling through the passage in in Peter, which says if.
The righteous is scarcely saved. Where shall the ungodly and Sinner appear? And I went over it, and over and over. And finally I read a little comment of Mr. Darby's that just opened up that verse. In a beautiful way. He said, this is going to take all the power of God to get his own. And I thought, isn't that lovely? You know that God is willing to put that at our disposal and to get us home. And it gives us a sense of what a fragile.
Pathway we have and if it weren't for that power of God, if it wasn't for that keeping that the Lord is speaking about here, where would we be? Where would we be? So it says if the righteous is Mr. Darby's translation is is with difficulty saved and I wondered what was that difficulty and it's just that that it takes all the power of God to get its own.
If that's true of the righteous, where shall the ungodly and Sinner appear? It's very solemn, isn't it, to consider.
To end this life without Christ.
Think it's so important that we enjoy this brethren and our souls the power of God that keeps them.
All the way home to glory.
In verse 11 he prays keep to thine own name those that thou hast given.
Verse 12 I have kept them.
It is God who has failed, keeping us all the way home, rather.
To ask the question is to answer.
Oh, brethren, to know his powerful hands are honest. He's bringing us home to glory through ways that perhaps we do not understand.
It's still all the power of God is engaged in bringing us home.
Realize that to be convinced of that in our souls brings what we have in the next verse of our chapter.
Now he says, come I to thee and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy building themselves. He speaks these things rather than that we might have joy. We're going to go through adversity. We may not be taken out of problems. We cannot escape many situations that the Lord allows in our lives, but to realize that through them.
All the power of God is engaged to bring us home to glory. I really enjoy.
In Hebrews chapter 2.
In verse 18, Speaking of the Lord Jesus is our great High Priest and this is in connection.
With our infirmities, our weaknesses, not so much here as a question of our failure, is our advocate in question of our failure. But here it is, our great High Priest, and I just love it the way it's dead here in verse 18 and in that he himself.
Have suffered being tempted.
He is able.
To sucker them that are tempted. I love the way the Spanish translation reads.
Rosso.
Very strong and he is powerful to help those that are tempted. Brethren is is there a problem? Is there a difficulty that is great in your life? It seems to loom great for you. Just listen to these words.
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He is able to 2nd.
To realize president.
That all the power of God is engaged in all the way home, and He won't fail.
Peter used that expression, the power of God in respect to the goodness of God that was brought out in that last meeting and it's first Peter chapter one and.
He speaks well. I'll start at verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us again unto a living.
Hope, a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled. That fate is not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith under salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. And that joy then comes in, of course, but kept by the power of God to enjoy all the riches of Christ.
In glory as joint heirs, joy comes in our Christian lives as their submission to two things. Submission to the word of God, that that is in the path that He's marked out for us. And we were Speaking of that the other day. But then not only that, but submission to the circumstances that He allows in our lives. As long as I fight the circumstances, as long as I don't realize that God has allowed them, not just for a purpose, but for a purpose of blessing.
There's no real joy and peace in my soul. Sometimes we look at the tangled web of things in the family life or in our personal lives or even in the assembly, and we say, how can this be working out for a purpose of blessing? But again, I'll repeat an illustration that many have heard me use. Sometimes when my wife is with me, she keeps a little handiwork to do while we're traveling and visiting, and I know nothing about that type of thing. But I have noticed that sometimes, depending on what type of work she's doing.
The back of the canvas seems like just a tangle of threads. You look at that and you say, can all these threads mean something? What about the other side? Are they going to really make up a picture like they're supposed to? Well, when she finished the work, you turn the canvas over and those seemingly tangled threads you see all had a purpose. They all had a plan, and they went to make up that beautiful picture and its completion now. I believe we view things now from the backside of the canvas.
There are, as our brother said, things that he does allow us to see and to understand in his ways and his dealings with us. But I believe there's many things that we're going to have to wait until we view them from the other side of the canvas. And I've enjoyed a little expression in the end of Revelation. You have it only twice in the word of God. It's once in connection with the river of life that flows from the throne of God, and it's again in connection with the heavenly city itself. It says it's clear as crystals.
Now we see through a glass dimly. There's shadows, there's things we don't understand, you say, How can this be working out, brethren? There's a day coming when everything is going to be clear as crystal, and we're going to see it in the light of His presence. And it says in the Fourth of First Corinthians judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the secrets of the heart. And then shall every man have praise of God.
And I wonder, brethren, when we view things in that day, if there will be any question in our minds as to whether that was right and proper, whether it was something that was allowed for a purpose of blessing. I don't believe we will. I believe we'll see it fully manifest in the light of His presence, and we'll just praise Him for all eternity, for His goodness and His ways with us. But it takes faith to leave it with the Lord.
Significant that the Lord Jesus says that my joy should be fulfilled in them.
It was always the delight of the sun to do the Father's will. So the fulfilling of his joy in US is the delight of being obedient to the will of God as revealed in the word of God. His joy is a joy of obedience, and that is made good to us because he has been so kind to speak these things while he was here, so that when he gets away we can have the joy that He had of obeying the Father's will.
That's brought out nicely in John 15 where he.
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Mentions in verse 10 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, that your joy might be full, and that's merely the joy of doing the Father's will.
What a blessed thing that is. And so we have in Hebrews 12, who for the joy set before him endured the cross.
That's astounding statement, isn't it? But when we realized what he said and how he felt, and in the garden anticipating it, yet the joy set before him.
There's only one instance in the Lords life when we read of him rejoicing and that's in Luke chapter 10 and verse 21.
In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank the old Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight, that is the Lord taking their rejection even of the nation as from the hand of his Father. And so we rejoice when pleasant things happen in our lives.
And that's right, too, that we should. But the recorded instance of the Lord is how he rejoiced. And and he must have felt that the rejection of those whom he had come to bless those cities he had to pronounce in the verses before, curses upon them, judgment upon them, Woe unto you.
Because they had rejected, but he said I accept it all from my father that test each one of us.
We all rejoice when there are pleasant circumstances in life, but when we take something adverse, something difficult and say.
Well, I'm happy because I know the Lord has allowed this and I accept His will. There is a peace. There is a joy.
That only the Lord can give, and this is brought out here in this instance with the Lord himself. I believe this is a unique instance that we have recorded in the Gospels of the Lord rejoicing. I don't know that we have another place, and perhaps the Lord was anticipating A heavenly people in those.
Those babes that he was referring to, and certainly he will have a vast company around himself for his eternal praise and glory. He will rejoice in that coming day. Did you have something?
We might say, well that was the Lord Jesus as the perfect man in his pathway, but I like to go over to the book of the Acts in the 16th chapter, and there you find it exhibited with Paul and Silas. It was the darkest hour, midnight. They were in a a prison there in Philippi things hadn't worked out the way they had planned or the way they thought God was going to work when they had come to that city, but there they were, and they could rejoice as they just submitted to what God had allowed.
Wasn't a very nice situation, I suppose. Their backs were sore and sore and bleeding, but there they again there was submission to the will of God, and so they rejoiced and they sung and prayed at midnight. And I like to think there too, that God turned that into a wonderful blessing, because not only did they receive joy in their own souls as they submitted, but then there was blessing went out to others because there that the jail keeper was saved, and perhaps others we don't know. Perhaps it was the beginning of that little testimony there at Philippi, and it's easy to live for the Lord when things are going very well.
But the test comes in our Christian lives as we go through the trials. That's when we prove whether we really are in the enjoyment of His love and the enjoyment of himself. And I just say that as I've seen many dear people of God go through real difficulties in trial and exhibit in a practical way, the joy of the Lord in their lives. It's been a tremendous blessing and encouragement to my own soul.
In respect to the remark our brother made of it being the Lord and his being the perfect example of that, and our being discouraged because we are not exactly like him, I would like to read in first John chapter 2 and verse 8. And this is a wonderful thing to show how this unity of life that the Lord Jesus Christ brings out in our chapter.
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Again, a new commandment I write into you.
Which thing is proved in him and in you? So the life that we have is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit has been given as power to bring that light into display, so that just as he had this life in himself, now it's true in US. Which thing is true in Him and in you.
So it is a possibility for us, beloved, and we should not be discouraged because it's a perfect, perfect example of the Lord Jesus Christ is true of us as well.
There's an expression.
Or should say there are two expressions in scripture.
That are commonly translated. Word one is the usual word that we use.
For the Word of God, which is divine communications. The other one is Logos, which is that which expresses or communicates what is in the mind. And the Lord in this 14 is it not the mind of Christ? And for that reason we can enter into those divine revelations. That's in First Corinthians 2, isn't it? And it can only be. We can only enter into those things by the Spirit of God.
And the reason is that we have the mind of Christ.
So it brings in the deep things of God.
Rather precious as the food.
And isn't that the reason then, that the world hates us because the world does not appreciate?
The mind of God.
And we, having had that communicated to us.
And in whatever measure we seek to walk in that, the world has no use for that. They don't want it. They don't want the mind of God. We need not think that that all the world is just waiting for us, for us to communicate the mind of God to them. The natural man cannot receive that. He does not want it. It's foreign to him and what he doesn't.
Appreciate it. He then takes out in hatred. Now that hatred may not be manifested in the in the bite of the lion, and it may not be manifested in inactive persecution. But we let not kid ourselves that that the world has any thought toward the believer other than hatred. The world has hated the believer. And why? Because the believer has the mind of God in the world doesn't want the mind of God.
There are really two kinds of persecution that a Christian can suffer.
Their physical persecution, which we do not suffer in a land like this. Many of in past generations and centuries have suffered in that way, and perhaps even in some parts of the world today they suffer physical persecution because of their testimony. But there's another kind of persecution we we can suffer, and that is reproach. And I believe, as our brother **** said, that in the measure in which we seek to walk in the truth and follow a rejected savior.
In that measure we will suffer A reproach all they that will live godly in Christ Jesus. It doesn't say might suffer persecution, but shall suffer persecution. Let us go for it. Therefore unto him without the camp, and we might have reproach no bearing his reproach, and the truth has never been popular in any dispensation. Our brother was speaking in the address of those three Hebrew children, and how when they sought to be faithful for the truth as they knew it in their day, they weren't.
Appreciated.
They had to suffer in that way. And you see that all through the Old Testament those who walked in the light that they had in their day were misunderstood. And the heart of this world hasn't changed since the Lord Jesus was here. A brother was telling me of a man he worked with, and on occasion he would give him the gospel. And finally one day it was just the last straw. And the man said, don't ever speak to me of the name of Christ again, he said, if the Lord Jesus came back.
He said I'd be the first one to nail him to the cross that's the heart of this world, even in 1993.
And if we're faithful to Christ, if they hated me, they will hate you also because he said the servant is not greater than his Lord.
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There's a new thing that controls our life, and that is the word of God. That's direction. The world will accept some of the ideas that are in the scripture because they say those are good ideas, those are good principles. But you say I do them because the Bible says it, and that's the word of God and I do it because of that. They won't, they won't go along with that. The world is not appreciate you quoting a verse of scripture as the reason for what you're doing, but for us as Christians.
Why, that's the very guide of our pathway. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto thy craft. So the Lord isn't taking us out of this world. He's giving us a path through this world is a beautiful verse in the 17th Psalm that says by the word of thy lips have I kept me from the paths of the Destroyer. So God has a path through this world that we can trace safely trot, a path that Satan is not able to trip us up when we walk in that path.
If we resort to human wisdom by the enemy may come in, and Satan is wiser than we are, but he's not wiser than God and how blessed it is. And so the Lord has left us here, and we walk in that path, or should walk in that path in which the Lord Jesus walked path of obedience to the Word and brethren. We're going to get into trouble, every one of us individually, when we get out of that path. I guess some remember the story and Pilgrim progress, how he came along to a point where the lions roared.
If he walked on his path that went through there, the path, the lions couldn't touch him. They were chained, and he could walk through there. They could roar, but they couldn't touch him. There was a safe path through that place where the lions were. If he got off that path, he was in danger. And we're in danger once we depart from the path of obedience to the word of God. And so the Lord is praying this that he's given us His word. The world doesn't like us using the Word as the guidance for our path.
But the Lord prays that we would be kept from all the evil that's in this world. We'd like. Just like the man in the Gospel of Luke, when the Lord cast the devils out of him. He wanted to be with the Lord, and who of us wouldn't like it if we that they were saved? The Lord took us just home, wouldn't have any problems like we have to face.
Have to meet the enmity of the world. But he said to the man, return to life friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee. Well, that wasn't quite so easy, but it was a privilege. And this is what the Lord I believe is saying here. He's saying to us, I want to leave them in the world. I want to leave them here to be witnesses for me. So there's no temptation taking you. But such as is common to man. We meet that situations that the world has to meet. But we have divine direction. We have a safe path through this world.
What a great thing. What a privilege this is.
Most interesting that you should mention that incident in Luke of the casting out of the devils. Because I was thinking of the attitude of the Gadarenes in respect to the world. Hating the Lord's own, they implored him to depart out of their coasts. More comfortable were they with the power of Satan that bound the poor man, than they were the power of Christ and did liberty. So it's interesting that you mentioned that in connection with what the Lord.
Enjoined upon him.
When the very principle of our verse is illustrated by them asking that he should depart from their coast, they don't want the believers that's walking in in obedience for the word of God.
It's interesting too, though, that they received the Lord when he returned because the testimony was believed. And that's the wonderful thing, isn't it? So there was real purpose of the Lord in not letting that man go with him. The real purpose of the Lord in sending us here. And I like to mention it that way, not so much where left. I know there's nothing wrong with saying that, But we're sent our home, is there, and we're sent into this world by the Lord.
It's a wonderful privilege to be ambassadors representing the sovereign in the homeland.
There are two things that set us apart from the world around us. One is that as to our.
Position we're not of the world.
That's verse 16.
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Just as the Lord is not of the world, we're not of the world, and that sets us apart from the world around us. But there's a second thing.
That the Lord asks the Father to do. In verse 17 you might say, Is it more?
Active thing, and that is the setting apart or sanctifying of the believer by the truth.
The truth. And then he goes on to say just we have somebody question what the truth is, thy word. And again, it's that same word, logos. Thy logos is the truth. It's a communication of the mind of God. That is the truth. I was mentioning that Gordon, just before the meeting that some years ago in Woodbridge, I asked Paul Johnson what the word, what the expression means that they might come to the knowledge of the truth.
And I asked what is the truth? And he gave me a wonderful answer that I've treasured. He says it's God's viewpoint of things, and that's what will set us apart, is to have God's viewpoint, the communication of the mind of God. And to know that, and to have it for ourselves in a very real way, will set us apart. And so the Lord says, sanctify them by the truth. Thy word is truth.
It's important to read a Psalm like the 119th Psalm and to see how important the word of God is. I believe that whole Psalm sets before us the importance of the Word of God. It's like the word hidden in the heart, and those things mentioned there are so important.
Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heat unto thy word?
Have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee? So it gives us the absolute importance of the Word of God, making it, as it were, a part of us, and that has to be through a daily enjoyment and meditation of it. We can't be careless about it, can we?
There is sanctification in the Bible in two different senses, also in the sense of possession and in the sense of it being practical. So we read in Hebrews 10 and verse 10 by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, that is, through the work that the Lord Jesus did every believer, whether walking in godliness or not. If he's a real believer, he set apart. He's not going to be judged with this world.
We belong to heaven and when the Lord comes it says not just devoted Christians, but they that are Christ that is coming. It's going to take up everyone, worldly Christians and faithful ones. We're sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. But then there's the practical, practical side of it. It says here, sanctify them through thy truth or as Paul mentions in First Corinthians 5I pray God, your whole spirit.
And soul and body.
May be sanctified unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the practical side.
If I really belong to heaven, am I walking apart from this world, seeing I don't belong here?
If an ambassador is sent to another country and he mingles freely with the people as though he belonged to that nation, it's true he was sent by his country, if they recall him. He doesn't lose his citizenship, but he is no longer a true representative in that country when he mixes really with the people. And so the Christian is sanctified as to his position, but exhorted to be a practically sanctified person in his walking ways. And that's why we're left here, to display that we are not of this world, but ambassadors for Christ in it.
We must not leave the idea that sanctification is merely in the practical ways of setting apart. It's a setting apart in holiness, connected with the obedience to the word of God. That's what really makes the difference.
The Jews were set apart by the law, weren't they? But the believer is set apart in holiness to God.
That's why this whole portion began with addressing the Father as only Father, His Holiness that is demanded here in our walk and ways. And I was wondering about that 19th verse where he says for their sake I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
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Hebrews one, verse 3.
Who being the brightness of his glory and the expressed image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, When he had by himself purged our sins, but we might reset himself down at the right hand of God, he took that place at the right hand of God, setting himself down there as having finished the work, in order that he might take up the work of priestly ministry to his own that are left behind.
I'd like to say in connection with sanctification and and it's really important, like at first she brought out in Hebrews 10.
Positional sanctification that we were brought into the position we were brought into through the work of the Lord Jesus and the cross. It's a, it's a fact. It's a complete thing and.
It is only when we have the enjoyment of that fact and the soul that there's power to walk in sanctification of life. And I think it's so important that you see a lot of believers struggling to be holy. No, brethren, we don't struggle to be holy. We ought to walk in sanctification of life because we occupy a place of complete holiness before God in Christ. And in the measure that I enjoy the fact that God has set me in a position of such complete sanctification.
Then I'm going to be careful in my life that I do not cause any blood on that precious name by which we are from.
That's the power of sanctification practice.
So it's important rather than to read the scriptures daily. It's already been mentioned, but I'd just like to make an emphasis.
It doesn't seem that important. Maybe to pick up the Bible, read a portion daily, but it is important.
Daily Sometimes you say I just don't remember what I read. I have to confess. Sometimes, rather than I pick up the Bible and I read a chapter. I get done through the end of the chapter. What should I read? Doesn't seem like there's anything to go back and read over again.
It's like somebody brother said one time. It's just like my mind is a sieve. Somebody else said, well, pour water through Sid and it cleans it. They're sanctifying power in reading the word of God. How important to do it, even though we may not feel like doing it, but to read the scriptures daily.
I might just say, particularly for those of us who are younger, that it's good to read the word of God both in the morning and the evening in between times too, because we need all we can get.
But I believe particularly on those two occasions, because when the children of Israel were in the wilderness and God gave them the manna.
Speaks of Christ. They were to go out and gather it in the morning. Because as we go out into the world, we go out into a world where there's nothing to sustain the new man, that new life that we have been given have been given by God. There's plenty to feed our lusts. And if we go out without satisfying our souls with the manna, with Christ, with the bread of heaven, then we're going to be more vulnerable to those things that are offered to feed our loss. I've often said that if I.
Make sure my daughter eats a good, healthy breakfast.
Before she goes off to school, she's not so apartment to want a candy bar at recess time because she's been satisfied with good wholesome food. And so we need to satisfy our souls with the word of God before we go out into the world. But there was an elderly brother in my home assembly. He's now with the Lord, and he used to speak of the washing of water by the word, and he said that when he was working when he got home, he liked to have a good wash And he wasn't talking about soap and water, he was talking about the purifying effect that comes from the reading of God's words. And he used to use a similar illustration to what Bob has just mentioned.
He said, You know, if you take a basket and pour water through it, the basket won't retain the water, but the water will keep the basket clean. And so we need the the sustenance that comes in the morning from reading the word of God and then having walked through a world where there's all sorts of things to defile and to feed our loss.
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Then we need to come home, and we need to have the cleansing effect. And so the priest. It's true they were washed all over at their consecration, but there were many times during the day as they performed the service of the Tabernacle when they had to wash their hands and their feet. And the Lord brought that out at the beginning of the upper room ministry in John Chapter 13. The refreshment that comes through the practical application of the Word of God as to the truth of foot washing.
And if you go back to the first time foot washing is mentioned in Scripture, it's in connection with Abraham and those three men that came to him in the plane. And as they had come on their journey, then he refreshes them by washing their feet. That's why we need times like this when we're together and over the word of God, its refreshment and its encouragement in the path of faith. But it's not enough just to be together on an occasion like this, wonderful as it is. But we need it on a daily basis.
Just like with regards to reading, the word of God is an attitude that I know I have to have leaving the word of God. It's not to get knowledge. It's that this book will judge me, that each time I read this holy book that it would judge me and it would speak to me, God speaking to me to His word that it would judge me. That's the attitude I have to have in reading His words.
I just like to mention too. In Colossians chapter 3, seeing the brother has been mentioning the morning and the evening. 16th verse of Colossians 3 says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another. So as we store our minds by the Word of God, situations arise continually during the day and the Word of God dwelling in US. Why we need that situation up in our own wisdom? Well, what does the Word of God have to say about this?
There's many young people here. You're constantly meeting situations at school and business and everywhere. If the word of Christ is dwelling in you richly, then when these circumstances arise, you think of, well, there's a scripture that gives me some instruction in this. So it's very beautiful that I just come and add a little comment about this vessel, keeping the vessel clean. Mr. Darby added another little comment. Even a leaky vessel is always full when it's in the fountain.
And so if it's dwelling in US, why it isn't just that we had our portion in the morning and in the evening?
Becomes habitual to our lives. We dwell in this blessed book. It dwells in us. We meet circumstances in the light and wisdom of the Word, and how God would have us to act in that particular situation. So that's what we have in Colossians, where we're seeing us seated in the heavenlies in Christ.
Number of comments have been made for the benefit of the younger ones.
I'm going to repeat what has given me some time ago as to reading the word of God or studying the word of God, the brother said. I am going to give you the most effective way for studying the Bible, and it has proven itself to be effective from generation to generation, and that is a daily reading of the word of God. Read it prayerfully and meditatively with the attitude.
What is God saying to me from His word today? And that which may appear to a beginner to be a vast knowledge of Scripture and those who are older, is nothing but the day by day accumulation of a regular reading of the word of God. Now that my beloved young people is a success story to understanding the mind of God and having ammunition for your soul as you're engaging in the battle of faith in this world that hates you and is contrary to you.
Perhaps before we pass on, I little we're getting away from our chapter. Perhaps.
But since the importance of God's Word in our lives as individuals has been impressed upon us, and I don't want to take away from that thought.
Perhaps I could just echo something that has burdened my heart, because we not only need the word of God as individuals, but we need it in a collective sense as well. And I feel that often today the collective aspect of things is being set aside and given up. And we need brethren to sit under the sound of ministry in the assembly, because I believe it's in the assembly. And on occasions like this where we receive a balance, there are so many who perhaps put a man at the front.
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And they get one side of the truth. They get one aspect of the truth. But nobody questions what he says. And God knows that we're extremists by nature. And I believe that's why he has given us in the New Testament instruction for having ministry in the in the assembly, I often think of the verse that says, Ephraim, is a cake not turned. And you know, if you put a cake on the griddle and you don't turn it, that it gets too well done on one side and not enough on the other. And I've noticed that sometimes those of us who do not avail ourselves.
The privilege of sitting under the sound of ministry in the assembly, we're often like that. We we take up one side of the truth, we get off on a tangent, and maybe that side of the truth is very good. But in the assembly, when ministry is presented, if I say something that's wrong, then if the spirit of God has liberty, another can bring out something to correct it. If a brother brings out one aspect of the truth, another can bring out another aspect to balance that.
Some can bring out the doctrinal side of things, some can make a nice application from the same scripture.
Some can bring out the gospel, perhaps from the very same scripture. And so that's why we need to have that balance. And I say we get that as we sit under the sound of ministry in the assembly. And perhaps you say when I go home, there's no real gift in our assembly. You say we come together and there doesn't seem to be much brought out of the portion. But the word of God hasn't changed. He's there. The spirit of God is still the same. And I really believe and I say it to my own heart.
There is a danger of despising the simple manner that is given in the local assembly. Maybe it is given in a feeble way, maybe it's only a few simple thoughts. But the Lord can use that for our blessing. And I would say again to my fellow young person, let's be at any assembly meeting where ministry is taken up, because as a brother told me quite a few years ago, he said. Jim, if you missed an assembly meeting.
Where the word of God is taken up, you may miss hearing something that you'll never hear again.
Melvin gathered the manna too. It says some gathered more, some gathered less. But he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. When did he find that out? When they measured it into the Omer. And the Omar was the needs of the day. Every man was to have an Omar, what was required for the day. And I feel that's important. We could read, say, a chapter in the morning and a chapter in the evening, but if we don't measure it into our Omer, if we don't really.
Take it as that which we need from the Lord. Why? It just becomes something that we may seem. We think we've accumulated it, but it hasn't become practical. It hasn't done the good that God intends to our souls. Yeah. I believe it's important what you said too, that we need what is brought before us in the assembly. We also need what is before us in the home. But it isn't just to get knowledge. That is what I've eaten.
Let's learn when we read the scripture, to apply it to ourselves.
So as we apply it to ourselves, it's good for our souls because there's a danger of getting a lot of head knowledge to not making it practical in our lives.
This passage in First Thessalonians chapter 4, I believe is relative to our chapter here it says.
For ye know what commandments we gave you, but the Lord Jesus? Well, we have to read the word of God now to know what that divine instruction is.
Verse 3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that she should abstain from fornication, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel and sanctification and honor and so forth. But we need the word of God to identify what sin is and to recognize what is really hateful to God, And it has been referred to as the Enoch chapter, this 4th chapter of First Thessalonians it gives us.
This question of how we can walk pleasing to God, as it says in verse one, and then it brings before us our departure. The Rapture and Enoch found himself in very difficult times, you know, a world that was filled with violence and corruption. And yet we see that that dear man of God.
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He He preached that the Lord would come with 10 thousands of his things.
To execute judgment on the ungodly, and so forth. So the Lord enabled him to.
Go on faithfully and walk with God in the face of all that horrible developing condition in the world.
Might be nice if the last verses of the chapter could be summarized. I don't think we have as much time to go over it in detail, but I'd like to hear some comments on these oneness in verse 21 and 22 and 23 and.
Just before we do, Bob, I would like to call attention to verse 20, because I think that it is that which links us with this prayer. And I think that's so very important, at least for me, it is. Up until now, you could think that the Lord was simply praying for the 12 or the 11.
And you might make a good case for that, that the Lord didn't want us to thank God and so He gives us verse 20. He says, I don't pray for these only. Again, it's that same word demand that we mentioned the other day. I do not demand for these only, but also for those who believe on me through.
Their word? And that brings us in, doesn't it? Into all the good of this chapter.
Because that's where we are. We're not perhaps them in the strict sense of it, but we are those that have believed through their word, and that brings us into all the benefit of it. I agree with what you wanted to have brought before us, but I just didn't want to miss that one little point that this is the length it brings us in for blessing.
Enthusiasts for the different Who is us? Those of us here who have believed everyone here who has believed on the Lord Jesus Christ through the word of the Apostles.
It started with 3000 on the day of Pentecost and there it went on. Bob, can't you go ahead and give us that summary?
Well, I think we mentioned before that in the 21St verse, I believe it was the Lorde desire that there should be oneness in testimony that they all might be one. We find in Philippians where there was a normal state of things that says striving together for the faith of the gospel and his His desire was that they might go on together. That was what God's plan was, that disciples should be going on together.
Presenting a united testimony to the world We know the enemy has come in, has spoiled that. But that should be our desire. And even as gathered to the Lord's name, that there should be a oneness of desire in connection with the testimony to the world, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
But then.
That has failed, sad to say, but the last one is sure to be brought about in the glory which thou gave us me. I have given them that they may be one, even as we are one, I and them and thou and me, that they may be made perfect in one. And that the world may know that the world may believe in the 21St verse, But hear that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and has loved them as thou hast loved me.
The Lord is not going to display His own to this world in all the groups that have come about through the failure of ourselves and the man in His testimony. But when he comes again, he's going to present us to this world as the Church. It says you'll come to be glorified. It is Saints and to be admired in all them that believe because our testimony among you is believed. The world will know now that in spite of all that we were that here are people.
Who have been united in one by the Lord Jesus and who are displayed as one.
To this world as we have, that little hymn of shelter, wandering worlds displayed, that we with thee are one. And so it's a beautiful thought. And then that it's the Lord don't desire that. It says here in the 24th verse, Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given, may be with me where I am. This is his desire to have us with himself. He's left us here in this world. He hasn't, He says, I pray not. Thou should take them out of the world.
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But he is waiting for that day now, like that thought in Thessalonians. Thessalonians, yes. The Lord directs your hearts into the love of God. If you notice the margin in the new translation, the patience of the Christ, that is the Lord. Jesus is waiting for that day more than we are the patience of the Christ. And he says, as long as I'm patient, you be patient. There's more to be saved. There's more to be brought in. There's more work to be done. I'm leaving you here. You can have part in that.
But I want you to have the same desire that I have, and so is the patience of the Christ. I like that in connection with the thought because every one of us would say, well, I'd like the Lord to come today. But the Lord said I I'm patiently waiting. Aren't you glad I waited for you while I'm still waiting. And so he's exhorting us to the patients of the Christ. But as we wait that by that the love for with ours love me may be in them and I in them, That's the last verse that we'd walk here in the enjoyment of that love.
The world doesn't know it. The world righteous Father. As regards the world, the world doesn't know it. But are we walking in the enjoyment of that love? That's what he desires. That's what his high priestly prayer, if we can call it that, is that we might be maintained in the enjoyment.
Of this, and I believe. I believe the thought for their sakes, I sanctify myself is simply the thought of set apart.
They wondered why the Lord was going away. He was leaving them. Oh, he says. I'm going up there to serve you and I'm going to serve you. It's going to be difficult going through there, but I'm setting myself apart for your service and I'm serving you there while you're going through this trouble, where below is our and that you would be sanctified, separated people down here for me.
We sing the 2nd and 4th verses of #100 and 41140.
The 2nd and 4th verses, O hour, for which impatience thou is, awaited through the night, whilst we thy Saints were gathered and brought into the light. Then. Then the Church completed. God makes no more delay, oh Lord, with shouts of triumph.
They pass into the day.
2nd and 4th verses.
For which impatience?
I'll see you like Saint Claire, Death and brought into.
The light.
And let's try the strength of the strict complaint.
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Pray.
Gracious Lord Jesus.
We thank thee for thy presence at the right hand of the Father.
For it not only speaks to us.
Of a finished work.
And of a loving high priest.
But it speaks to us of the end of the path of faithfulness to thy God.
And so it encourages us in this scene where thou hast left thine own until that coming day of which we have just sung.
And it gives us courage, blessed Savior, to tread the pathway that thou hast broadened, thanking thee that thy footsteps marked away all the way into the glory. Now to say thine own that whether thou wettest our, we could not follow now, but we should follow after. Having gone through death to pay our debt, we now can be certain of that glory above, For thou art clear as the anchor, pure and steadfast, and the.
Pledge of our entry into that place, for thou art therefore us.
We thank Thee again, blessed God our Father, for the generosity and hospitality of our beloved brethren that have invited us here. And we thank Thee for directing us into such a portion that would bring the Lord Jesus Christ before our souls for our benefit. And we look to Thee now and for the gospel of Thy grace going forth. Yet this evening pray for the Messenger and those who hear that Thy precious word may find root in some good soil tonight.
The precious soul be turned to from darkness unto light.
So we give thanks to thee for the benefit to Thy precious word is to us. Help each one of us translate it into our life in order that a little of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ might be manifested in this mortal body. We give thanks, blessed Savior, commit all to the unite, owned, fearless and precious and worthy name. Amen.