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For me, for God, I say God and love.
Lord and.
You have made your world.
And I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world. But these are in the world, and I come today. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are.
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those thou gave us me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the Son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And now I come to they and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them my word, and the world had hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest 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 I also have sent them into the world, and for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which thou shalt, which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one, as thou Father art in me.
And I and they that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me, and 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 thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.
Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father, the world has not known thee, but I have known they, and these have known that thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto them thy name.
And will declare it that the laws were with thou hast loved me, may be in them, and I in them.
I wonder if something more might be said about verse 5 before we go on Whether the.
This glory that he had before the world was And now ask, Glorify thou me? What if I know himself with that glory?
There's the wrong doctrine that is going around in.
You need to be so jealous for the glory of the Lord Jesus.
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That when the Lord Jesus became a man, he ceased to be equal with God.
And.
I know that is not a right doctrine, that I think we need to understand the scripture well. If maybe something more could be said to explain it, I think it would be helpful.
Did he leave his glory, or was it veiled, nearly veiled, when he became a man?
Well, I believe it was only veiled. I believe he always dwells in the bosom of the Father. The Lord Jesus does say in John 10 my father is greater than I, but that is just the position that he took as man here and so as man, as he says in the. I think it's the end of the 12Th chapter that he didn't say a word without a commandment from his father. Perhaps he could read that.
He proved that he was the eternal Son of God.
Right. That's the proof that he was.
Well, certainly I hope I didn't say any question about that, but I just speak of the place the Lord took in obedience and humiliation here in this world. And He took a place in obedience. He never left the bosom of the Father. He was always and is always the Son from all eternity. But he took a place in humiliation in this world in the end of the 12Th chapter.
Of John.
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. I know therefore, that his commandment is life everlasting. Whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak so in that place of obedience. He was the one who, as we read in Hebrews, learned obedience.
He learned what obedience cost, because as God there ever with the Father, there was no call for obedience. But having taken that place in humiliation by he learned the cost of obedience. When he tells you to do something, that costs you something. For instance, when the Lord refused to turn stones into the into bread, he was still hungry and he felt that and it says he was afterward hungered and he was weary and he was thirsty and so.
As God shall I speak reverently. He didn't feel those things, but as man he did. But he never left his place in Godhead. But he returns, I believe, to that place which he had. And so he's not the one, so to speak. Now who has taken the place of obedience? He's back there in the full glory of all that he was. Not that he ever left it, but he veiled it. He laid it aside when he came into this world. I believe that's the thought.
I hope I didn't make any suggestion that he ever left that.
We had read to us this morning that 18th verse of John, one who is in the bosom of the problem. We could have read in the third chapter of John, where he is in heaven. So though he veiled his God, had glory in humanity, and took upon himself our nature in order to redeem us, in order to be able to die for us, he never lost anything.
Communion with heaven or his place in heaven? Who is in heaven? Says in the third chapter of God. And so when we come to Philippians chapter 2, it is that which he took in addition to what he always wants. So I thought as our brother was speaking this morning, of the various glories, and I certainly have no quarrel with the expression of the last one, except I have enjoyed an added glory, a glory of perfect manhood and perfect submission, and obedience, and obedience to the Father, and as such.
Yes, the glory now of a glorified man at the right-handed door. So it's the thought of addition to and not subtraction from his godhead glory veiled in human God brought up morally to see all the wonderful works they did as a God man, and then to be given the highest place in heaven because of his perfect submission and perfect obedience to the Father. There's one more verse in addition to John 114 we had this morning.
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And that's in John chapter 2 and verse 11.
John 211 This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory, and his disciples believed on him. It was because of who He is, not because of what He did there. Because in the 12Th chapter we have though He did so many miracles before them, yet they believe not on him.
So it's because he had revealed in a way of who He is, His person, and his disciples believed on him. So that glory, though veiled, was revealed to those that had faith or that received faith in him.
I don't like to use illustrations, but if the king had a son, and his son put on working clothes and went out and worked and sold, someone said, well, he can't be the King's son because he is out there in working clothes, he would never have left his place as the King's son. And I would grieve the king very much and he'd say I demand honors to that person. And when he puts on his royal clothes again, he's no less the King's son than he was when he was in the working clothes.
And so the Lord Jesus came into this world, laid his glory by, took the place of perfect obedience, went through experiences apart from sin, but he never left his place. But now he is returning here, and I believe that's brought out in this 17th chapter. He's returning to that place which he had before he ever came down in humiliation and took that place. No change as to the glory of his person, but his position in this world was one of obedience. And now he's up there.
And the Father says, Every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord for the glory of God the Father.
This amount of Transfiguration.
17 We often refer to that as a Shekinah glory picture. Is that a picture of the glory of the Lord Jesus had failed in his humanity of humility here on earth, but we get to see a picture of it sort of like unveiled.
Well, I really believe it's the Kingdom glory that the Lord Jesus is going to take another day. The one who walked in this world despised and rejected by they saw him. And so if you turn the second Peter, I think you see that thought brought out.
Second Peter chapter one and verse 16.
That we have not followed coming. We devised fables when we made known unto the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His Majesty where he received from the Father God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven, we heard.
When we were with him in the Holy Mount we have also a more sure word of prophecy, or I believe Mr. Darby translates that the prophetic word made sure where under ye do well that he take place is unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn, and the day star or the morning star arise in your hearts. So he's seen a little preview of the Kingdom glory there on the mount of Transfiguration.
And that makes it more real. Here were these Jewish believers. They knew all those promises as to the Kingdom, and they said, what about all those promises to the Kingdom? Well, Peter says we had a preview of that. We saw a little display of it on the Mount of Transfiguration. That's made all the prophecies more clear and sure to us because we've seen it. But for us, we don't look for the Kingdom. We look for the morning star.
The Lord Jesus comes for us as the morning star and as we see events coming close to the time when the Lord will take His Kingdom glory. It causes the morning star to rise in our hearts and we say, oh, he's coming for us before as the bright and morning star.
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Every time the Lord Jesus formed a miracle here, he left his glory up enough. He was at the root of the right ground, and they could say that when we see him there's no beauty in heaven. We should desire him so. He was veiled in human flesh as he walked down here in this world, and so much so that they did not see in him who he really was until he wasn't worried out, he could say.
When he stayed to the.
And he said, I am. And he fell backwards to the ground, such was his glory that was veiled in human flesh. And the woman in the 4th chapter of John, she could say, Is not this the price? Why didn't you say that? It was because she saw in this a man who could tell her all things, whichever I did. And so she could say it's not just Christ, the testimony as to who he really was. And so he thought he was very man yet.
Veiled in human flesh, he was still God, and he let that Gloria every time he performed a miracle. It's wonderful. It's wonderful to see that.
And it was to the eye of faith. To those who did not have faith, they could not see this but.
His His glory was there, and he let it out every time he performed a miracle.
It's really beloved, the glory of the sun.
Even though he veiled his Godhead, glory, human nature, he never ceased to be God. And it was a Son that he was owned in that place, and it was as the Son of God that they conceived him in that place and confessed him to be.
Mary. Yes, Martha, When And at the grave or before the grave? Believe us now this. Yes, we believe that thou art the Son of God. They believe that this voice that came out of heaven bore witness that this man, Jesus, was God's Son. Here throughout the gospel he was revealed. The brother spoke of the miracles that made him known it was as the sun.
When he still the waters in the storm, they said never a man speak like this. Truly this man is the Son of God. So it is the glory of a Qantas man in this sea. And it's that capacity he's been glorified at the right hand of the Father as the Son of God.
Can I speak of these things though? I think we need to have unshard feet. Shall I say it? I just like to read him. Matthew, Chapter 11 and verse 27.
All thing verse 27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father. And no man knoweth the Son, but the Father either knoweth any man. The Father saved the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son shall reveal him. We see in this verse that the Father has been revealed in the Son, but the mystery of the person of Christ, it says.
No man knoweth the Son but the Father, so we have to be careful that we don't go beyond what God tells us.
In his word, when we speak of him, there is that about his glorious person that is beyond our minds, always was and always will be, even in eternity. There's a mystery about his person that. So we turn. If you turn to the 15th, the First Corinthians.
And verse 24.
Then come at the end, when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
40th Put all things under his feet. But when he said all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is accepted, which did put all things under him.
And not all things shall be subdued unto him, Then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him.
Put all things under him, that God may be All in all when it says God may be All in all.
That's the whole tragedy. That's the three persons. So God had an eternal purpose.
And that eternal purpose was to bring blessing to man through his beloved Son. And so we see in the work of the cross it says, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God. The whole Trinity involved in that work that he was doing there at Calvary in glorifying God and bringing blessing to us. And in the end it will be displayed that.
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All God's purposes.
Been fully accomplished in and through that one do not only became a man, but remains a man for all eternity. And as we have in the Gospel of Luke, he becomes the servant, the servant who says I'll serve forever and so forever as the Son he will, he will reveal to us this wonderful love and things that are in the heart of God that are the ages to come he might.
Show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
He does that as man. He remains a man forever, and the Spirit is the power for the accomplishment of it all. And those three persons make God All in all, Well, brethren, it's beyond our minds. But this is, I believe, the, what shall I say, the mystery of God, that which is far beyond us, but revealed as far as our little minds can take it in, in the scriptures.
When the Lord Jesus spoke of being the Son of God in John chapter 5, the Pharisees had no problem putting that together.
It says in verse 18 of John chapter 5. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him because not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his father, making himself equal with God.
Is that passage in First Corinthians 15 more the thought of the son of man delivering up the Kingdom as the son of man?
Yes, but he remains a man forever. Then shall the son also be subject. So having taken that place, it's like the Hebrew servant who said, I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free and in order to have the company of his redeemed ones. He remains a man forever. But he never leaves that place in Godhead. He never relinquishes any of the glory that belongs to that place in Godhead, but he remains a man.
But brethren is beyond our minds. Let's not try to bring it within the limits of our human mind. We can, but we bow to the revelation that God has given. There's another passage that I think some have had a problem with, and that's in Philippians 2. And perhaps we might have a little more clarity on it. And that is in verse 5, where it says Christ Jesus, verse six, who being in the form.
Of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Now that thought of being in the form of God.
Is that not simply in contrast to his taking upon the form of a servant? How would you express that?
Well, I believe so.
God was never a man until the Incarnation. That God became a man in the incarnation, and saw this very person who appeared before a man walking in this world, hungry, thirsty, weary, He He was not in the form of God. He was there in the form of man, But he was God. He was God all the time, but he he appeared to man in that place. If I could use my feeble illustration again.
The man in working clothes didn't look like the King's son, but he was just as much the King's son then as he was before. But he appeared in the form that was different than what you would expect when he wears royal clothes.
Adrian Broach used to float something of J&D's, and I'm not sure where he got it, but it went something like this. He never ceased to be what he was because of what he became, but he was perfect in what he became. And I think that sums it up beautifully, that he never ceased to be what he was because of what he became. But he was perfect and what he became, that is, he became a perfect man. And of course carrying that on.
When the Lord.
In the 15th of First Corinthians delivers that up.
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He doesn't deliver up anything of his, of what he is, does he? But he simply makes that decision to remain a man, and in doing so, God is All in all and he shares in that. Doesn't he has the Son?
And in remaining a man for all eternity, he's able to devote himself to his bride so that he can enjoy her company and so that the bride can enjoy his company. And I enjoyed the way one of the writers put it concerning that verse in First Corinthians 15 when he delivers up the Kingdom to the Father. The writer said it's as if he says, I want to default now, my full time for all eternity to my bride. Well, what a wonderful portion is ahead for us. And I was just thinking too, is our brother Hayhoe was Speaking of the purposes of God.
How that those purposes are never going to be frustrated. God's heart is going to be never satisfied until his Son has his rightful place and his full exaltation, not just in heaven, but on earth, because he's going to gather together all things in one, even in Christ. That's the ultimate of God's purposes. That's the fruition of everything, when everything gives glory and honor to the Son, the one who was the brightness of his glory and the express image.
Of his person, the one who fully glorified God in his pathway and in the work of eternal redemption. God is going to see to it that he has his full exaltation and his glory. But I was just thinking in connection with the purposes of God, of something that ought to encourage our hearts now, because while we look on, there's always a present enjoyment and something to exercise and encourage us at the present. And as the people of God go through the wilderness, and there are the tests and trials.
And the enemy is busy. I think it's good to realize that there's one who's still on the throne this afternoon, one who's still head over all things to the church, which is his body. And sometimes things seem out of control. But I often said at one time that we were going through some real difficulties at home. And I went to see an older brother and we sat down in his living room and he made one statement. He said, Jim, sometimes things seem out of hand, but they're never out of the Lord's hand. And that statement brought comfort, and we didn't need to discuss the problem or the situation.
But just to realize that there was one in control and sometimes brethren things seem out of control.
I think of the book of Esther. God is not mentioned by name there, but as you read the book of Esther and it seems like the people of God are going to be annihilated.
Find that God had a purpose. Not just a purpose, but a purpose of blessing. And that's what God's purpose is. Always are in view of, always in view of blessing. And by the end of the book, so God is not mentioned by name. I don't believe you have any difficulty in recognizing that God was in control of everything, and he had a far greater blessing for his people than could ever be anticipated. It was unthinkable to think that a Jew Mordecai could sit on the throne next to Antioch Xerxes, but that was God's purpose.
Esther brought into a place of prominence and blessing, and he has a purpose of blessing. But I would just say this too, that we may not always see it this side of the glory, but we can leave it in His hand. And I found great comfort from the scripture that says the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places playing and all flesh shall see it together, For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. In that day we're going to see everything in the light of His presence and how everything was working out for a purpose of blessing.
Bob, can we move on to the sixth verse now?
Get up and up a nice line of things, but perhaps we ought to go on to the sixth verse, so.
Amen.
Seemed in the six words that brings in these eternal purposes thy neighbor, and thou gave us them me. We learned from Ephesians one that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world had little hymns, as and when was come the moment thou calling by thy grace to gently, firmly drive us, or call us each from our hiding place, so God had those eternal purposes, and here were these disciples.
They were chosen before, but now the Lord speaks of those nine they were and thou gave us them me. So He now takes them as his own. He tells them that he's going up in glory, and there he's going to intercede for them, take care of them all along the journey. And there's a day coming when they'll be brought into the fullness of the blessing, as we have in the end of the chapter That they also now has given me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory.
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And so it's lovely to think of this, that God had those thoughts about us before we were ever brought to himself.
Now we have been brought, we have been given to the sudden he's the captain of our salvation. He's going to bring us home to glory.
The spirit of God in Christianity is very careful to detach us in every way from this world. I've enjoyed a little contrast in connection with the verse our brother mentioned in Ephesians, one in connection with our being chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world in Matthew. I think it's the 24th chapter when he speaks of the blessing for Israel.
He says that their blessings were from the foundation of the world and they will be blessed in that way in the coming day.
Because they're an earthly people. But for the Christian in this dispensation, I say the Spirit of God is very careful to detach us in every way from this world. We have been Speaking of the one who has glorified God in this world and now is glorified at God's right hand. And now he brings us into a relationship with himself. In fact, in Ephesians we're already seen as seated there in Christ Jesus in heavenly places.
And the Lord Jesus spoke to Mary in the 20th chapter of John. I believe it is. And he said, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father to my God and your God. He had come from God. He was returning to God. But he says you're going to be brought into a place of association with me now in resurrection. And so careful is the Spirit of God in the New Testament to detach us from this world in every way that in Revelation 5 when it speaks of that time when we reign with Christ.
I believe the thought is there. We reign over the earth. And so we're not connected with the world in any way. And we need to realize this brethren, that we're not associated with the world. We're still in the world. We're not immune to the things that people in the world pass through. We're not immune to the that which sin has brought in, but to see that we're brought into this new association. And when he writes to the Saints in different assemblies, the apostle Paul particularly, he never writes to the Saints of chorus or the Saints of colossi, he writes to the Saints.
Corinth or in philosophy? Because we're in this world and we're at Bridgeport this afternoon. But I trust there's some realization with us that we're not of this world, but we're fellow citizens with the Saints and of the household of God.
It's very significant that in verse six he says that he has given them to him out of the world.
In John 13, he says to his own as the Father has sent me into the world, Even so I have sent you Our citizenship is in heaven from which we look, from whence we look for the Savior.
These bodies of humiliation and change them into bodies of glory like unto his own, So we are delivered. He gave himself nation 145 for us, that he might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God. So it's very important what our brother has just said, that we are disassociated entirely from this scene, that rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and associated with him, joined to him by the Spirit, and returned to the world in the same character.
Which the Lord Jesus Christ will send of the Father here to reconcile men unto himself, your ambassadors for Christ beseeching men in Christ, that be ye reconciled into God. So it's very important for us to realize and enter into a little by faith of our disassociation from this world completely, so that we don't follow the pattern of the professing church at large and settle down and become earth waters and miss the entire purpose of God.
In calling us out of the world, unto himself in glory.
Something else very characteristic of Christianity in this verse six it is I've manifested Thy name. The name of the Father, isn't it? It was something that was not known in any previous dispensation. He was known.
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In Jehovah, which is.
The name generally used in the Old Testament, although there are others, the Almighty, and others as well that it was.
This name the Father no closer relationship to God can we enjoy rather than this that we have been brought into. And it was the Lord Jesus and his being down here in all His life manifested that.
New name. That name of the father. I think This is so beautiful. It's tremendous to get ahold of.
I think that's specially brought out here and in the Lord's Prayer because he came to reveal the Father. He doesn't want us just to know that he loved us and gave himself for us, but he wants us to know that he was the expression of the Father's heart. The Father himself loveth you as we have in the 16th chapter. This is brought out of these chapters. It isn't really the Church that is looked at as such, but it is those. It's the family rather that He's brought before us.
In John's gospel there are three different ways in which oneness is spoken of oneness in the family. We get that in John's gospel. Then there's oneness in the body of Christ baptized by 1 Spirit into one body, and then when it speaks in Hebrews too, he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one, for which 'cause he is not ashamed to call him brethren. Is oneness in kind. Now that is, there's a real man in the glory, and we're going to be men there too.
And so there's one that's spoken of in those three ways. I think it's helpful to see not that each one isn't blessed, but helpful to see that what you've been saying that in John, it's particularly the father that's revealed and we're brought into that family and there's a family relationship that we can enjoy.
A bride is brought in, a husband and wife are very happy together, but there's a different relationship and a very real relationship in the family.
And that's brought out in John Spirit of God would have us to enter into both, and I think it's blessed for us not only that the Son of God loved me, but the Father himself loveth. He was not blessed.
Hello, hymns. This beautifully dwells in his bosom, knoweth all that in that bosom lies and came to her to make it known that we might share his jewels. That's what he's bringing his brethren, his home to the father's house. He doesn't say in my house are many mansions in my father's house or many mansions?
Another characteristic of Christianity brought out in this sixth verse is that they have kept.
Thy word. It is the nature of the family of God to be obedient to God. So we have that brought out here. Peter tells us that we have been separated, sanctified by the Spirit under the sprinkling of blood and the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's characteristic of family and God's family that they keep his word. He obeyed. God has ordered this universe.
To be controlled by obedience and submission to himself. And that's what we see in the exhortation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Until his enemies He made the footstool of his feet. So it's one of our characteristics. And so when we are disobedient, we're acting out of character and so we need to be aware.
That it is belongs to us as believers, not of this world, and obedient to the Fall.
Just before we move off the thought of the father.
In the early part of the verse, I'd like to.
Remind us that it is not in this chapter at all the thought of our Heavenly Father. Is it?
We used to have a little tract. I don't know, Brother Don can tell me if it's still available. Why Christians should not say Heavenly Father. I'm afraid of the Holy Ghost. I don't know if it's incredible. Anyway, I remember reading that when I was first gathered and just before that maybe, but.
It's an important line of things that christened them really has let go and that is that we stand in relationship to the Father, not as a heavenly Father often.
The distance. But we stand in in the same relationship that the Lord Jesus stood here and we see that he uses it Father in verse one.
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And verse five, Father and.
In verse 11 Holy Father.
There's a reason for that too. In verse 21 it's father and then in verse 24 it's Father and then finally in verse 25 righteous father but.
I not once did we find the Lord using in this chapter that expression your Heavenly Father or the Heavenly Father. It's just Father, isn't it? And it's an unknown and enjoyed relationship.
And I believe that we lose much if we get away from that.
We see too, that there is a special enmity between the Father and the world because of the rejection of his beloved Son, that is, God sending his only Son into this world, and the world's reaction to him and so.
We see how first John brings that out so strongly and we tend to.
Not consider these verses but in first John chapter 2 and verse 15 it says love not the world neither the things that are in the world.
If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father that is of the world, and the world passeth away, and the lust thereof But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.
Very serious thing to consider, isn't it? We see that in a general sort of way that enmity between Christ and Satan, that enmity between the spirit and the flesh, and this enmity in a special way between the Father and the world. His heart of love going out to the world and rejecting his beloved Son. And now the world stands in condemnation. God is calling out of the world.
That's why it's so important, isn't it? To emphasize especially for?
Are young, although it really applies to us all, rather than the enjoyment of the love of the Father.
Why is it, brethren, that we love the world? Why is it? It's because we're not in the enjoyment of the love of the Father, and the Lord. Jesus came to bring us into that. In a very special and a very real way. He manifested the name of his Father so that we could enjoy those same divine affection. And if I'm in the enjoyment of that in a real way, this world can present itself and all the fancy forms that it does, It's not going to have any attraction.
To my heart, because I have something far, supremely better.
Someone has spoken about that being the most solemn condemnation of the world. If you turn to the 15th chapter of John.
And the 22nd verse.
If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, 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.
I believe that's really the world saying if they when they saw the Lord Jesus walking in this world.
Healing the sick, cleansing the leper, opening the blind eyes, showing out love, feeding the hungry, and so on. And the world said, as it were, if that's what God the Father's like, we don't want him and we don't want His son, because He has revealed to us what the Father is like. And that's why it doesn't say they have not had sins, but they have not had sin because the rejection of Christ brought out in great relief that man's heart did not want God.
Revealed imperfection.
In the beloved Son whom he sent the Lord Jesus. And so this is the world. This is that's why the world tried and world's trials ended when they saw God perfectly revealed in the sun, even the tone of his voice. Everything was a revelation of the Father. And they said we don't want him. They had rejected God revealed in Christ, and that's what brought down that awful judgment. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the Prince of this world be cast out.
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And so as our hearts go out to him and as we realize His love for us, then there is a keeping up His word. Because as has often been said, and I think Brother Bob has pointed it out to us many times, that the truth speaks to our hearts. It's as these things touch our hearts and affect us that way. But then we're true disciples. And then there's a following of him. I was thinking of a verse in John 14. He says here in verse 21, he that hath my commandments.
And keepeth them, He it is that loveth me, And he that loveth me shall be loved of my father, and I will. I will, and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him. And I really believe that we're going to keep his word and have an understanding of the truth. It's contained in that verse where the Lord Jesus said, if any man desire to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine. As there's a desire for to know his mind and to walk in these things, then he will reveal it.
Reveal it to us.
And so it's a timely word in the day in which we live. And I really feel that sometimes perhaps you talk to those and they say, well, I'm confused in the path of faith and service. So I really believe that confusion stems from not being willing to bow to the divine principles of Scripture. If I'm really willing to bow to the word of God, His commandments are not grievous. If it's spoken to my heart, if the love of the Father has touched my heart, if the love of the Lord Jesus has touched my heart, then I want to be a true disciple.
Really willing to follow and to bow to the path and to the principles that he has laid out.
In his word.
Relative to our speaking to God as Father, and the intimacy into which we as children have been introduced into the family of God, we hear the Lord Jesus and the garden in deep suffering of his soul, and the death address God as Adam, Father, and when we come to the Epistle to the Galatians.
God has set forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, whereby we cry ABBA Father. It is our blessed privilege as God's children to address our Father in the same intimate terms by which the Lord Jesus Christ addressed Him as Father. ABBA Father showing to us beloved, how completely He has given us His place because He took our place.
Abbott father is our precious privilege to address our God.
But in the revelation that he gave to Mary, he said, I have sent unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God and your God, showing that in all things he must have the preeminence. It's very beautiful. Could it just said our Father, and included them. But instead my Father and your Father, there's always that place as we were talking about at the beginning, where the Lord Jesus, that in all things he must have the preeminence.
So beautifully accuracy of scripture to maintain the glory and honor of the person of Christ and how in all eternity he's going to stand out as that one that is the center of the whole scene of glory. And we receive all in and through him. We'll never have a place in Deity. We'll be, we'll be associated with the one who is deity himself, but we'll never have a place. He'll always be God, and we'll be always those who are blessed in association as children.
He's done everything he can for us, short of essential deity, made partakers of the divine nature and so forth. What grace and even the selection of these men that God had given him out of the world?
Well, I just thought of this verse in Acts chapter 4 where it says in verse 13. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled.
And they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. He didn't select.
The elite of the world or the intellectual giants? No, he just selected ordinary fishermen, men that were not well educated. And the people could tell that, I suppose, by their speech. They said to Peter, thy speech be ray of thee. And so they were marked out as not being intelligent and learned men. Now certainly the Lord in his own purpose could raise up a Saul of Tarsus, a very well taught.
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Man and one who was number doubt intellectually above most. But he began with these men of a humble rank, and I think that's marvelous. That all demonstrates his grace and his power, his purposes.
Grace here when he says, and they have kept my word just before Peter was going to deny him, just before when he went across.
And yet he can say to the Father, they have kept my word. We go to the to the 11Th chapter of Hebrews, and there we we get God's mind about his people. In the Old Testament. There's not one measure of the failures but all that was in place. And so when He presents us to Him, to his father will be without a Father blemish. And he said things.
And that brings in the relationship of the Father again, because in verse eight he said, For I have given unto them the words which thou gave us me, and they have received them. And you know, that really identifies those that belong, and know the Father, and those that do not.
In John eight he mentioned it that way to those that did not believe, and he said in verse 42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father.
He would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God. Neither came of myself.
But he sent me. Why do you not understand my speech? Because you cannot.
Hear my word. And then he mentioned in verse 47.
He that is of God heareth God's word. He therefore hear them not.
Because ye are not of God. So it makes it plain that these words were from the Father, and you had to realize he was the eternal Son, and that these words were from the Father through the Son. He was sent to manifest and reveal the Father's thoughts and mind. It's good to view the people of God through the way God sees them. And when we view the people of God the way God sees them, then we have nothing bad to say about the people of God because.
He views them in all the perfection and loveliness of Christ, and that's how he could say here they have kept Thy words. When we look at the failure and that which was yet to come, we say, how can He do that? Well, this is God's perspective and he can do that. But in connection with keeping His word, there is a commendation given in the third of Revelation. And I trust, brethren, there's no thought even in the corners of our hearts as to being Philadelphia, but you do see it Philadelphia, that which met with the Lord's approval.
He says that they have kept my word and not denied my name. And isn't that what we really covet the Lord's approval?
Paul said it was the great labor of his life that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
The 138 saw the first two, Father says. I established A sanctified Thy word of all my neighbors.
If you keep his word, you will not deny his name. That's the most important, isn't it? To to to do his will and keep his word. And according to the truth that name will become more and more precious. I've often wondered, Brother Bob, in that connection, why in those two verses, the one our brother quoted in the 138 Psalm, and then in connection with the commendation to Philadelphia, why it's the word before the name? God doesn't I speak reverently. Just give a list.
Haphazardly there's an always in order to a list he gives, and in both those cases he places the word above the name. But I've just thought of it this way. We're never justified in doing anything in the name without the authority of the word for what we do. If I go out and preach the gospel in some way contrary to the word of God, then I'm not justified in doing it. Not that God isn't sovereign and can't come in and bless it, Paul said, Whether in truth or pretense, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, and ye will rejoice.
We are never justified in meeting to have some some activity, perhaps even to remember the Lord, except it be in the way that he has instituted. It must be according to the word. We're never justified. I speak reverently in putting the name above the word. He says that He's magnified his word above his name. And it's a good exercise for us, brethren, in a day when many things are done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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That we be sure they're done with the sanction and authority of the Word of God.
Everything has to be that way. Like Paul says, thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life. The doctrine has to come before the manner of life. There can be an imitation of Christianity to such an extent that it might shame real Christians on some occasions. But still, if the doctrine isn't right, neither is the manner of life.
I think too you find in Acts 242 That the first thing they persevered steadfastly in was the apostles doctrine, and it was the basis for everything else. It was the basis for fellowship, for breaking of bread, and for prayers. And we said if we set aside doctrine as not being relevant or as important as was once considered, then we've taken away the foundation again when he speaks of all scripture being given by inspiration of God.
The first thing that it is profitable for, it's profitable for doctrine. And I know I've said this before, but it burdens my heart rather than the day in which we live to find that there's an OFT repeated statement made. While we're not gathered to a doctrine, we're gathered to a person rather than that's true, we are. And if we lose sight of the person of Christ, we're not going to be preserved. But if we throw out doctrine, because I fear that some that use that expression use it to justify setting aside the fundamental principles of the word of God. And if we do that.
Then we have no basis on which to meet. The foundation has been swept away. Thank God. If I give up the truth, it doesn't change the truth itself. The foundation of God standeth, sure, but let's be careful that we don't throw out doctrine as not being relevant. I say it's the basis for everything.
Drawn out here in these readings a number of years ago, when we were in the first chapter, Ephesians, that if the doctrine of God does not form the affections of the heart, those practical portions imposed by extraneous or outward power only becomes a system of rules and destroy the truth. So it is the word of God, the teachings, that we must adorn.
And let form the affections of our heart, so that the manner of life is that which is acceptable to God.
We have in our 7th and 8th verses other characteristics of the family of faith. Verse seven shows us they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. Beloved, there is divine intelligence in the flight of Christ that we possess. The apostle says we have the mind of Christ, that is, the intelligent faculty of our blessed Savior has been given us so that we have.
Instinctive understanding.
Of certain things that are that pertain to the life of the child of God. Look at the thief on the cross. How did that man who had not been a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ know? This man has done nothing amiss. He had been a criminal and was receiving the just recompense of his deeds. But in decline understanding he saw in the man he owned to be Lord, a man who had done nothing wrong.
So there is divine intelligence given us by the life that we receive in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a characteristic of our family relationship.
Very important that we realize too, that God and his part is willing to make his mind known. I think that's a very important thing. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine. Or again in Philippians it says, if it anything you be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. If I find myself differing from a brother, the Spirit of God didn't teach us those differences. There's something wrong, because if we were taught by the Spirit of God.
We'd be led to see the same view because on God's party's willing. So that's why we need to search our own hearts if we have a difficulty. Am I? Is my will at work in this matter? If my will is at work, then it's going to be a hindrance because our own wills are the hindrance to blessing. But God's will is always that we should be brought into the fullest blessing. Father, I will that they also now has given me be with me where I am.
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That they may behold my glory. And so the will of God will be fully accomplished. When we see eye to eye, when Christ is All in all, when everything is suited to the mind and character of God. And down here in this world, rather than the measure in which we submit our wills to the word of God, He teaches us.
And so when we find those differences, we need to search our own hearts. Is my will at work? Have I some preconceived thing that I'm allowing in my life?
We often don't realize it. Peter, when he would have kept the Lord from going to the cross, didn't realize that there was something in his will that was at work because he couldn't have been blessed if the Lord hadn't gone to that cross, satisfied the holy claims of God, and glorified him.
So I say again, because I've heard people say, well, if 2 great brothers like Mr. Darby and Mr. Kelly didn't agree on certain things, who are we? Well, who am I? I'm nothing. But is God willing to make his mind known? Yes, he is. Any man will do his will, he shall know the doctrine.
Is that a similar thought in Proverbs 3IN all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Than I be single. Thy whole body shall be full of light. But sometimes our eye isn't single. You want to please the Lord, But perhaps we want to please ourselves or someone else. And that hinders the the inflow of light and wisdom for our pathway. We've got something else in view than just the Lord.
It's important to see that there are.
If we can move on to verse nine, that there are two words used for to ask for or to pray for.
And the one that the Lord uses in this verse.
Which he characteristically uses in speaking to the father is one of one speaking to an equal.
And so Mr. Darby translates that I demand.
Perhaps using the French sense of that word, but it it really is the statement of what the Lord wants and said with the confidence that one would speak to one who was equal that he was equal to and.
There's a good note on it if anyone wants to look into those two words.
In Mr. Darby's translation in chapter 14 where the two were.
Developed was sometimes it can be used interchangeably, but invariably the Lord uses with regard to the Father, He uses the one that is translated.
Like J&D here as demand. And that's another wonderful internal testimony to who he was.
I thought of this ninth verse as in contrast with what is commonly called the Lord's Prayer, because the Lord taught that disciples there and the what is known as the Lord's Prayer to pray thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. But when the King was rejected, then the Kingdom is postponed and the Lord is not asking for the kingdoms of this world. Now what is he asking for? He's asking, brethren, that you and I would be kept.
But in this time.
And so I I like to think of what is known as the Lord's Prayer, commonly called that in Christendom. It's really the disciples prayer. We never read that the Lord prayed those words, but he taught the disciples those words. So it was really that disciples prayer was given for a certain time but the King was rejected. So the Kingdom is postponed. The beautiful moral order in the prayer I say, but as far as asking for the Kingdom now, that isn't what we look for.
So the Lord is saying, I'm not asking for the kingdoms of this world, but in the second Psalm, the Father says to the Son, ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. And so we read in Revelation, I think it's the 11Th chapter. The kingdoms of this world are becoming the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. But he's not asking for that. Now, brethren, isn't this wonderful? He's asking for you and I. He's asking for for us, that we would be kept walking through this world.
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And that we would walk at the enjoyment of this life that we possessed, that we walk in the light of His word, that he walked with the glory shining before us, and that as we go through this world we would have that light and wisdom through His Word. So He says, I I pray for them. I pray not. I don't ask for the kingdoms of the world now, but for them which thou hast given me.
For they are thine. What a beautiful thought that he's up there, inner city, and asking for us. He knows what it's like to go through this world. He trod the path before us. Now he's asking the Father to keep us here during his absence.
When her brother brought before us those verses in John Epistle pointing up the enmity between the world and the Father, that is the reason for his remark that he does not pray for the world when the Spirit of God is given in the 16th of this chapter, the previous chapter of this book.
He shall convict the world of judgment. The world is in the lap of the wicked one and is waiting the sentence of judgment to be executed. There is no recovery for the world, and so he prays for those, as our brother has just said, who are in the world to be kept on that evil that's going to come under judgment. This judgment is going to fall on the world, and so there's no need to pray for that. It's sealed.
But we need our we need the prayers of the Blessed Lord to keep us in this wicked world, to test them out.
That's why that little expression in the 25th verse or righteous Father world likes to say, well, we all have one father, that's God. But as far as the world is concerned, it's a righteous Father. As though God the Father said, what can you do with my son? He crucified him. That demands judgment so that his regards this world, O righteous spot of the world, hath not known me. But he says I have known me and these have known me. And so his prayer is that we walk in the enjoyment of this.
In a world that doesn't know, God likes to talk about God as our Father, but they don't know Him. And if they call him Father, they must remember that he's a righteous father. And as someone has said, but unsaved people pray thy Kingdom come. They're really asking for judgment because it tells us in the 13th of Matthew that when the Kingdom has come, he's going to gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend them, that do iniquity and cast them into a furnace of fire.
So for us, we can say Father in the blessed nearness of relationship and we should never forget that our Father is a Holy Father, but it's regards the world. He's righteous. He's going to have to deal with them for what they did to his son.
That's why it is addressed in that 11Th verse of Holy Father, because it's for sanctification, practical sanctification. And it's through His Word. And it's nice to see that the Lord is looking to His Father and Our Father through the Word in verse 17. Sanctify them. That's a practical thing. Through Thy Word, thy Word is true. So it's Holy Father there when it's in respect to our being kept in this world.
Does that connect brother Bob with first Peter chapter one and verse?
16 and 17 and 18.
The the 16th verse says or 15th verse rather as he was called you as holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation because it is written be holy and I believe it should be for I am holy.
That is, if we're in connection with that one who is holy.
We are called to the same path of holiness, and then it goes on to say and.
I'd like to appeal to Mr. Darby's translation for that 17th verse. If ye invoke as Father, if this is the one you call father, the one who, without regard of persons, judges, according to the work of each pass, the time of your sojourning here in fear, knowing that you've been redeemed. So it puts it on the basis that if we are in connection and claim a connection by calling him Father, the one who is holy.
And the one who without respective persons judges according to every man's work, then we ought to pass the time over. So journeying here in fear, I don't believe that means in terror of him does. It really is in a sense of who it is that we stand in connection to and to remember that we're calling one whole father who is only. And we need to be careful about that. It's a very precious and intimate relationship.
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But it isn't one to be indulged carelessly and to forget who it is that we call father.
It's one who stands who, as we're reminded in our chapter, is the Holy Father.
I can say my child is all dirty and clothes dirty and I'm going down the street And she says, Daddy, can I go with you? I say, well, I love you, but I don't like those dirty clothes. I'd like you to get cleaned up. You're going to walk down the street with me. And so if we're going to walk in the company of God, our Father, we must remember that he is a Holy Father. And that's what you're bringing out in in Peter. That's what he's really telling them, that if they're in that relationship.
Why he would have us walk in the becoming way because be holy, for I am holy so she gets cleaned up. I loved her with her dirty clothes, but I want her company and clean clothes.
I might just say what an awful blasphemy it is for a man to arrogate that title to himself to be called Holy Father.
Is coming from Italy kind of painfully aware of how many people use that expression, the Holy Father. But there's one who is the Holy Father, and that's God, Our Father, isn't it? What an awful thing it is for Amanda. Irrigate that expression, that name for himself, and by the same token, reverent.
You know, it says in the Psalm, Psalm, holy and reverent is his name. And you know that's true of the Son, too. I was thinking in connection with Philadelphia. The Lord addresses himself to Philadelphia as He that is holy, He that is true, that has to be true. That has to be the characteristic of that testimony, holiness and truth.
Miss Gerson seems to be the what he asks is in.
Especially in view that they may be one. I'd like to hear some comments on that. In view of the fact that he is the Holy Father still, the purpose he is asking is that they may be one as we are. Nick Cannon mentioned this morning that it was in.
One in Communion.
But I think it's in tremendously important to see the Lord's desire for oneness in his people.
Well, I believe we have the free one that was brought before us in the in the chapter we hear we have this oneness and communion, and then we have oneness in testimony in the 21St verse, that they all may be one, as thou Father, art in me, and I and thee, that they also may be one in us. That the world may believe that thou hast sent me, I believe that was partially fulfilled, we might say, on the day of Pentecost.
The disciples were of one heart and one soul, and there was a tremendous testimony. 3000 got saved in one day, And the world testified and saw in a practical way that the display of that oneness. And so I believe that's oneness in testimony. And then in the 22nd and 23rd verse its future. And that the world and the glory which thou gavest 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. It doesn't say. The world may believe, but the world may know.
That thou has sent me, and has loved them as thou hast loved me.
So as we walk in communion with God our Father.
Remembering His Holiness.
Then there is oneness and communion. There is not a hindrance to the enjoyment of that oneness of mind when we remember that God, our Father, is a Holy Father. Alas, as you were saying, our failure in the testimony has caused that the world looks on and says look at the broken state of things. But how it was displayed so beautifully there at Pentecost when they were one heart and one soul, and that it says the people magnified them, that is, they saw a tremendous testimony and there was great blessing.
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But thank God there is a day coming and it's near when all the redeemed and as our little Him expresses that thou shalt to wandering worlds display that we with the are one. And so the Lord is going to come with us. He's going to say now they're one with me, everyone.
Be exactly like Christ. Morally and physically. They'll see eye to eye on that day of glory. What a wonderful prospect. So that'll be oneness in display.
But in a practical sense, brethren, I believe it can only be so as we remember that God our Father, is holy, and as we walk in the light of that, then it says as we have in John's epistle.
Your fellowship with him, and that we might have fellowship with one another as we have that enjoyment in our souls in a practical way. Then there's that fellowship with the Father and with the Son and with one another.
But even there is connected with holiness, because if we walk in the light, if he is in the light.
Fellowship.
Yes.
327.
Lord Jesus.
When we want to live.
Oh my God.
To say why.
Our sins are you.
Started each day without him.
Betray gracious, loving God our Father.
What we have had before us.
From thy precious word this hour and what we have just expressed in him and my presence.
We could never believe were it not revealed my life, Spirit from heaven, in thy precious word we thank the Thy word is true, and we believe. Thou hast indeed exalted thy name above thy word above all thy name, Because my beloved Son, is indeed the Word in the beginning was the word, the Word was.
With thee and the Word was called, and the same He was in the beginning with the your God. We thank thee for the place that He had, and God had glorious We thank thee that he laid it aside, and took upon himself. Our nature became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, in order that he might have thy pride know of how he thinks thee that he's had before our souls that day.
When all shall be subjected to thee, that thou mightest be God All in all, in order that he might devote all eternity to that spotless bride, that he plans with his own precious blood. So we praise the our God that these things have been before us, help us to know how to translate them into an expression in our own life, in order that there might be a little of the life of Jesus manifested in these mortal bodies.
So he committed to thee, give thanks for all the ties brought in the precious and worthy name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.