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And we spent 300 and one 301.
All right at the same time.
The rest is calculated.
That is why should we try the flow and cry over here?
And building our hopes in the return like that.
We look forward to it. We're trying to not fall. We had four of our country by 1095.
We were not lying down in non Rosen below.
Dangerous progress, of course.
They'll only make heaven more sweetheart, but close.
Sorrow, whatever may be.
I'm home with her God. You make up for it.
Miranda script on the back and the stand in the hand we March on.
It's an enemy's land, the road may be rougher, it cannot be long, and will smooth it with hope, and will cheer us with some.
But in 1/4 we just got up to date or 9 correct.
While we continue in John 21 or another 5.
Well, it might be nice to begin at verse 15. In that chapter, we really didn't speak of, uh, the, uh, last few verses. I believe there's, uh, profitable. It's a profitable passage.
John 21, verse 15.
So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter. Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yeah, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time. Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Ye Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.
You sayeth unto him, Feed my sheep.
He saith unto him, the third time, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved, because he said unto him, the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love thee.
Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
Verily, verily I unto thee. When thou is young, a gerdes thyself walketh whither thou wittest. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldst not this fake ye signifying, but by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.
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Then Peter turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved, following, which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee?
Peter, seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, And what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, What is that to thee? Follow thou me.
Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that this disciple should not die. Yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die. But if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things. And we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written everyone, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.
Amen.
When we read the verse of 15 to 16 and 17 and the Darby translation is slightly different. When the Lord Jesus, uh, asked us, uh, Peter loves him. Uh, Peter responds by saying he, he's attached to the Lord and that happens twice with the third time instead of saying umm.
Uh, I've got a son. If you want to slow, tell me.
In the Derby says, uh, some of those joints are attached to me. There's a difference there. Umm, I thought I'd just mention that.
Been said, hasn't it, that.
When it comes to that third time.
You're no longer, uh, responds in that way. He relies on the Lord's omniscience.
For knowing simply that he's attached to him. And as much as to say, I know there's nothing that I've demonstrated that would show it, but you know all things. And so as such he could rely and rest on that.
There is a beautiful history, though, isn't there, with Simon Peter in this restoration. It might be worthwhile just to notice a couple of those passages that we turn back to Luke's Gospel, chapter 22.
We recall how Peter. Simon Peter.
How he had assured the Lord of his devotedness, his love for him, and he surely did love the Lord, but he didn't know his own heart and the weakness of it. He could say, Lord, though all will offend thee, yet will not I. There will be one that's true to thee to the end, Lord, and that would be me. But it was affection on his part that caused him to say it. But like ourselves, he had to learn something of the distrustfulness of his own heart. But in Luke's Gospel, chapter 22.
And not to read the whole account, but just in verse 60, as we come to the end of Peter's denial. And Peter said, man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake the cock crew. And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said in him before the **** crow, Thou shalt deny me thrice. Peter went out and wept bitterly.
Instead, the cocktail was for his conscience. It was that which would awaken him. But the Lord's look was for his heart. And so when the Lord looks upon Peter, he went out and wept bitterly.
We're talking between the brakes about numbers. Chapter 19. It's the great chapter of restoration from defilement. And there's two prominent days. There's the third day and the 7th day. And it's been said helpfully that the third day is the recognition of sin in the presence of grace. And that's the history with David. And so with Simon Peter, he came to this point where as the crew and the Lord looked upon him, he was convicted of his sin.
And he wept bitterly. There was no joy at that moment. It was an awful moment for Simon Peter. He wept bitterly how he had denied his blessed Lord. The Lord had warned him. The Lord said I prayed for you. And then Peter didn't listen. And he seized the Lord's look and he weeps bitterly.
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But the Lord wasn't done with him to turn over to the 24th chapter.
So we said the third day is the recognition of.
Of a sin in the presence of grace. And that's what really brings the sorrow home to us when we realize we've sinned not only against light, but we've sinned against love, and we sinned against the Lord's tender grace. But the Lord isn't content to leave us there at the third day. Luke 24 And this is the account, of course, of the two, two returning to Emmaus. And then they turned around and went back to Jerusalem. Verse 30, uh, 33 And they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the 11 gathered together and with them.
That were with them saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared.
To Simon.
This is a tremendous passage, I believe, full of encouragement for us. What did the Lord say?
He appeared in assignment. What did Peter say? We don't know and it's one of those secrets in the word of God that's kept and preserved for that and believe it's an encouragement to anyone or everyone of us when failure has come in. The Lord had a private meeting with Peter that brother knew that he had appeared to Simon, but were not giving any given any details of that in the Lord's very personal work of restoration to Peter.
And so we find also in Numbers chapter 19, If a man did not.
Cleanse himself on the third day, he'd be unclean on the 7th day. You remember when David had sinned? Uh, and Nathan the prophet comes to him with that parable and David acknowledges his sin. You find it in Psalm 51. He, uh, begins with his confession and he ends that Psalm in worship. And that's where the Lord wants to get us on the 7th day. Where as again has been said, it's when we recognize, uh, we recognize grace in the presence of sin.
That God's grace, as we sometimes sing, greater than all my sin. For God's grace comes in and restores, and he becomes a worshipper. And so there was that private work to restore Simon Peter's, uh, uh, to himself. But when we come to this chapter here, John 21, it's his public restoration. There must be both. And so the Lord had restored Peter to himself. But now if Peter was gonna be raised up and serve the Lord so adequately as he did.
The Lord would confirm to the other disciples that Peter not only was restored, but the Lord had sent him forth on a very important ministry. What grace of the Lord. And yet there, while there were those personal things, no doubt that the Lord had to go over with Simon Peter in His presence, there was also that which Peter had said publicly. That had to be addressed publicly, and Peter had to acknowledge it in the presence of his brethren. His failure. But yet we find the Lord that in commissioning him.
With the greatest, the greatest service to care and to feed for his feed his sheep.
There are two kinds of falls, aren't there? There is a fall like Peter had. He failed and there was restoration. And you and I live in a scene that's, uh, filled with all kinds of temptation. And we may fail the Lord in one way or another, but there is restoration. And the work of God is to restore his own for his own namesake. But we have to the fact that, uh, Judith went out and, uh.
He went and betrayed the Lord and there was no recovery for him. He really is a picture of an apostate who once professed to have faith in Christ as the Messiah. He once professed to be a believer.
And perhaps it's very solemn to think that he perhaps did miracles and so on, were not told specifically, but he went right along with the whole program of, uh, what it was to be a disciple. But it really, when it came out into the end, he was filled with remorse. I think that's Mr. Darby's translation in connection with his, uh, betrayal of the Lord. But there was no repentance, Godward. And so he went out and hanged himself.
An apostate, he gave up the knowledge of the the profession of faith as in Christ as the Messiah. And so Peter didn't do that. He knew that the Lord Jesus was the Christ. He had divine life. And so there is restoration for one that fails, and there's a work of restoration. It's the work of Christ himself to restore us, no one less than Christ himself.
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To restore the one that is an A failing believer. It's a marvelous thing to think of one who is our great high priest who intercedes for us because of our days of weakness.
But then if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and it's Him because of His advocacy that we ever come to repentance and restoration. So this is a wonderful passage of Scripture that gives us detail as to the personal interest of the Lord Jesus in the recovery, the restoration of a soul who is really his but has failed.
The efficacy of Christ comes into UH operation as soon as we fail.
Uh, not our fax, the greens reward that we see to, uh.
The operation.
Worse in the soul and the conscience first, and that leads to your family.
We cannot save ourselves, we cannot keep ourselves, and we cannot restore ourselves. It's all a work of God.
Thing about on the clock, set a faucet like Judas was.
Never be applied to a believer. A believer can never afford some time.
Uh, we may backslide as Peter did in his history, uh, store he learned the flesh by a fall. Uh, you should learn what the flesh is in communion with God. But, uh, an apostate, one who has turned from, has made a profession of the truth.
Made a perfection in Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrew chapter 10 that there was no reality.
Turning of the back upon what truth they had had acknowledged. And, uh, there's no repentance.
Possible for an apostate?
Might be good just to look at Siebert's copper pen, just quote that verse. I don't mean to take up a lot of time with that because Peter was not an apostate, but it is possible to apostatize from the faith. And so in, uh, there are five different warnings given. I believe it is in Hebrews. Umm, he was, it was the last warning to the nation of Israel, those that had come out of Judaism and had professed Christianity.
Professed faith in Christ and they were going on in the Christian testimony, but they had leanings towards the, uh, Judaism. They still hadn't uh, really, uh, judged the fact that, uh, what had taken place at the cross was a final judgment of God upon that whole religious system. And so in the epistle to the Hebrews, he's calling them out of it and so he says in verse 24 of uh, chapter 10 of Hebrews, let us.
Consider one another to provoke unto love, and to good works. Oh, I'm sorry, Verse 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful but promise. And, uh. Verse 26. For if we sin wilfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful, looking for a judgment, and firing indignation which shall devour the adversaries.
And so it's possible for those who have, uh, it's possible for one even in this room to go on in the blessings of Christianity, to enjoy all of the privileges and the evidence of the power of the Spirit of God among his people. And yet to give up that profession of faith and say, I tried Christianity and it doesn't work for me. I'll just go and do something else and I'll try some other religion. There's no recovery for one who's an apostate. Now just say this that you and I cannot say. And look at the person and say, now there's an apostate.
God can and he knows and so isn't it wonderful just to be able to read this and.
It tells us in, uh, Timothy, the epistles that Paul writes, he says the Lord knoweth them that are his. And so we may not be able to detect that, but it's the work of restoration, repentance and restoration. The process is the work of God, the work of the Lord Jesus individually with the soul. And so this is what we have displayed here.
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The apostles and of course is not with us now, but, uh, we see, uh, things moving in that direction. But when the search is taken, uh, there will still be a profession increasing them until the middle of the week and then it will be all gone overboard. So we are complete, umm, denial of, uh, any.
Of any Christian perfection, it will go. It'll be open atheism the last half of the week.
That is the apostles. He's broken up in the second. That's all in two.
What verse is it that you two are connecting these verses with? I'm kind of lost. There are two different types of a fall. One fall is a believer, a true believer. He falls into sin and he can be restored, an apostate. That speaks of a fall different times in the epistle of Hebrews, particularly in the fall, and in Paul's epistles, he mentions it. A fall of an apostate. There is no recovery.
And so we need to make that distinction doctrinally, that there are some that teach that you can be saved and lost again. And those are the passages of Scripture that they misapply. There is recovery every time for a believer. It doesn't matter what he has fallen into. It says if we confess our sin is faithful and just to forgive us governmentally, to restore us, He will restore us. He will restore leaders. When it's an apostate, there is no recovery.
And so that those are the two failures among in the Christian profession. One who is real will be recovered. One who is not real is one who is given up the knowledge of God. And as a brother John says publicly, what we have today is a gathering momentum of apostasy in the Western Christian world, a gathering public giving up of the knowledge of God, a public umm.
Defacing of the Christian testimony.
A public removing of the Bibles from hotel rooms and wherever you want to apply it so publicly, the Western Christian world is giving up the knowledge of God.
It's in 2nd Thessalonians 2IN which uh three, that let no man deceive you by any means. 2nd Thessalonians 2 and three four, that day shall not come. That is the apostles that he's referring to. Except there comma falling away. Falling away there is not applied to a true believer. Falling away there is the giving up of a position.
That was taken.
Uh, a knowledge of the truth being, uh, given up and, uh, forsaken. And, uh, then he says, uh, and that the man of sin, who is the enterprise of that, uh, we revealed the sound of tradition and so on describing the doctor. Yet it's been noted there's two types of apostasy. There's what we have in the book of Hebrews is falling back.
Specifically in Hebrews, there was those that embraced, uh, outwardly Christianity where were baptized and then turned back to the old order of sacrifices and, and as such, they tried under foot the Son of God and counted the blood of the covenant or what they were sanctified and the holy thing and have done despicable the spirit of grace. That is, they turned away from the all sufficient work of Christ. There is no more salvation. There's no more sacrifice for sins that one refuses that especially after having embraces, there is no hope.
That's apostasy, that's falling back, and that's the great bird in Hebrews in first John, I think we had this earlier, the epistle of John that apostasy is going forward, moving forward. He that goes forward and abides not in the doctrine of Christ hath not, hath not the Father and the Son. And there are those that have apostasy and going beyond the revelation of the Father and the Son and umm, denying his, his person. And so both when we when we tamper with the work of Christ.
Or the person of Christ there is deny the truth of it. There is no hope. But again, that would be only an unbeliever that would do that.
Let me backslide. We don't know how far God would allow it. But again, if one turns away from the person or work of Christ, there is no other hope for them. But I think in Second Corinthians Chapter 7, we have a very pertinent passage as it relates to restoration and the distinction between the sorrow of a believer and the sorrow.
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I'm an unbeliever in Second Corinthians Chapter 7 and verse eight. We have here perhaps more of the restoration of the assembly accord. We know there was a man that was was living in simple conditions and the assembly ultimately dealt with him, but the assembly had declared themselves as to the evil that had come in among them. So Paul writes in Second Corinthians 7-8 says, oh, I made you sorry with a letter. I do not repent for I do not regret it.
Though I did regret it for for I received that the same epistle I've made you sorry though it were were but for a season. So Paul had written very sternly, very firmly and faithfully in the First Corinthians, even to the point where we find here he regretted it. It made them sorry. And he said I did regret it, but I don't regret it because it bore fruit. And then he just lines out these two distinctions of sorrow. Verse nine. Now I rejoice not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrow to repentance.
For you remain sorry after a godly manner or a man. Notice the margin according to God, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow work with repentance to salvation, not to be repentant of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. We might read verse 11 as well, because again, this is the assembly clarity in itself of evil and its midst. For behold this self same thing that you sorrowed after a godly sort. What carefulness it wrought in you. Yeah, what clearing of yourselves.
Yeah. What indignation? Yeah. What's fear? Yeah, what vehement desire. Yeah, with zeal ye with revenge in all things ye ever proved yourselves to be clear in the matter. Not the man that sinned, but themselves. But we do have that great distinction about the godly sorrow that works. Repentance not to be repented of. That's what the Lord had worked in Peter. He sorrowed to repentance, but it was a repentance not to be repented of. It was a repentance to be rejoiced in. Because.
And that is ultimate restoration, not only personally to the Lord, but publicly in the service. But consider you This is scary at the sorrow of the world worketh death. There was guilt, there was remorse, but there was no hope and he went out and hung himself such as the end of one that has rejected the blessedly.
Its remarkable to see the ways of the Lord with Peter after that failure. There are certain activities that are performed where it's vital to have something that's reliable and consistent. For example, if you were to be doing tree work and you had a rope and you were working with loads overhead, if there is a nick in that rope, if the rope is sprayed, you throw it out or you use it for another purpose, it is unsuited for the use for the job at hand.
And there are certain tasks that require absolute reliability. And so if if there's failure, once it's done, you're out. And yet the ways of the ways of the Lord, he entrusts those that are most precious to his heart, the one who has just failed and being restored.
As as has been mentioned that that phrase in in Psalm 23 and I'll I'll neglect the phrase in the middle. Both both phrases are correct when put together. He restoreth my soul for his name's sake. And so we see Peter restored and the sheep and the lambs are entrusted to his care. Feed my feed my lambs, feed my sheep says to shepherd the flock and the resource that he's given. And it's repeated to him twice the end of verse 19.
It's told follow me the end of verse 21 follow thou me. So even if there's been failure.
Even if there's been that which is dishonored the Lord, where there's a work of repentance, where there's that work of restoration in the soul and where the heart is is focused on the Lord, there can be fruitfulness, there can be usefulness for the Lord. And these these portions it's it's good to look at them in in their broad sense and their broad application. But this was an individual who had failed and failed deeply. Each one of us were individuals that truly walked as members of the body of Christ is through the collective aspect to all of our walk.
And yet we walk as individuals as well. And it's it's touching to see the the way the Lord dealt with Peter here. He restoreth my soul for his namesake.
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The Apostle Paul mentions gives instructions to the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20 and verse 28 says Take heed therefore unto yourselves.
There's I believe exercise required on the part of those that are feeding those people and that is the fear of self judgment and taking care of ourselves, our own testimony, being careful of our own state of soul and community with the Lord and then to all the flock over the width where we're in the Holy Ghost have made you overseers feed the Church of God which he hath purchased.
With his own blood, so the price was steep.
Everyone is a lamb, young in the face perhaps with the the picture there and a cheap one that perhaps is a little bit more mature in the things of God. Peter was given the responsibility to feed those that particularly had come out of Judaism made professional faith in Christ and he was the apostle that had seen the Lord Jesus and had walked with the Lord during his public testimony here in the scene and he had seen how the blessed Savior treated.
Those that were his, and the Lord entrusted those that were of faith to Peter. And so we have still 2 epistles, don't we? That Peter wrote. And there he is, shepherding the sheep, shepherding, shepherding the lambs, making sure that they would have in writing the instruction from him that would permit them to live a fruitful life for Christ as they saw the demise of Judaism and then went forth unto him.
Without can't bearing his reproach. So we need to remember the price that God has paid that Christ has paid for those people. They don't belong to us, they belong to him. And so This is why the Lord shows how tenderly he deals with one who is one of his sheep, one who is in responsibility, but he feels very tenderly with them corrects him. And uh, there was a public failure that needed to be public restoration, but it was done in the kindest possible way.
And then Peter himself in his second epistle, uh.
Uh, the end of, I know, I'm sorry, the last chapter, the first epistle, chapter 5, the first year and the address of the elders, which are among you, uh.
I absorbed them also another witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the floss of God, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by a constraint, but lonely, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, either as the Lord's over God's heritage, or the margin says, over ruling, but being in samples to the block.
So you're with Peter, who had.
Had the experience of failing very sadly.
Uh, failing the word very sadly and, and then being restored by the Lord and the word, giving him the instructions that we have in the chapter that we're considering to, uh, to feed my lab. Now here's Peter, uh, able to, to give the same, similar instructions as what uh, Paul gave to the elders, Ephesus.
Umm, to, to be aware of their own, as Robert was referring to, to be aware of their own walk and their own, uh, possible failures, uh, and to feed the clock of God.
I have a question, uh.
Concerning what we were Speaking of before.
Umm, uh.
That, uh, the Lord will always restore.
A true believer to himself.
Umm, as he did with Peter, Could it be that?
Sometimes.
The the way that the word does that might be to take.
A true believer who has gone far off the path to take him home, to be with him, to be with him and have him.
That is the same on your desk. That's definitely the case. Uh, Robert, first key, uh, first John Chapter 5 brings that out very clearly. But there is a sin unto Jack. I should not pray for that. Umm. A person, after repeated warnings, falls again and again into the same simple course. Umm.
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And does not show repentance or, uh, heed the warnings the Lord has given to him. He may be taking in, in, in. Apparently that was the case in form. But this caused many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. They were at the Lord's table and going on with the careless simple ways at the Lord's table and the Lord removed them. I would take from that scripture in a minute. Listen 11 umm.
There's no way through, uh, so we may not see repentance in a case like that here in this seat. And it may look to us, uh, difficult to, to know whether that person really was a Tuvalu, but the word was.
Word nose, ananias and sapphire.
Another example.
Quite a good to read those verses that John referred to in first John chapter 5 because it gives us a little picture of one who is recalled. Umm, some of our older brethren have taught us that there is such a thing as recalling an ambassador. And you and I are here as ambassadors for Christ and we represent him. We ought to represent Him and we represent him 24 hours a day. We speak for him.
We had in our last meeting.
Dressed in our deportment is to reflect his glory. Uh, everything that we do is uh, for ought to be for himself. But it says in the first, uh, John chapter 5 and verse uh, sixteen, that if any man see his brother's sin as sin, which is not unto death, he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is, you know, a course. I might go in a course and I might sin and I might, uh, fall into a certain thing, but it's not a determined purpose. And I'm not setting my course in self will and going into that course, maybe, perhaps.
A sense of weakness because of weakness of the phlegm. There is recovery, but it says that there is. He shall give him life. There is a sin unto death. I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is not a sin not unto death. So there is a course. Sometimes when someone goes in a court of willfulness and will not give up a sin, then it may be that the Lord will recall that. And ambassador, he might say, because the testimony is marred, and whether there's restoration or not, there may not be a public restoration, but.
I believe that the Lord would work, that there would be at the final there's a restoration between the Lord and the soul. I I can't speak to the umm specifics. The Lord is the one that restores the soul.
Refer to Isaiah. I've got your, uh, 38th, I think it is. You see the respiration? About the respiration.
Uh, marvelous.
We have another example and the guy I had failed seriously and, uh, the more the spoke to him where he plainly and, uh, we see his, uh, square of repentance here, remarkable 38th of Isaiah, I was from verse 14 like a brain or a wall like shattered.
I did more than he does, and then he was 15. What shall I say?
He had both spoken unto me and.
Himself after done it, I shall go softly all my day, all my years.
In the bitterness of my soul, O Lord, by each thing men live, and in all these things is the light of my spirit. So will thou recover me and make me clear. Well, there's the upright infection of Hezekiah and.
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Thanksgiving to the Lord for respiration, but it humbles him.
That are failures you shouldn't get under our failures that that can be possible.
That's what, taking months to get under our families, but uh, to be right above them, confess them, not exonerate ourselves, uh, have a, a clean break with whatever it is that is hindering my communion or my testimony, whatever. Walk softly, uh, the rest of my days, Uh, we're humbled and we have to walk, be more watchful, more careful.
You know I walk from bend off, all right?
Peter tells us we're past the time of our sojourning here and here.
We're under the.
And then, uh, John 15.
And verse 2 every branch in need that beareth not through you taketh away. Let the true branch out of line, but not bearing fruit. You might even have to take it away. But you know Philippians says he that has to be done.
Well, completed after the day of Jesus Christ. So the day is going to manifest that every work that he has begun will be complete. Let's not ever, uh, get discouraged if we don't feel we see evidence that it won't be that way.
But that they will manifest that everywhere is complete. And it really won't. Won't that work? Be complete in that moment when we gaze into the face of the Lord Jesus. And we have scripture for that.
I think so.
I think so. First John 3.
First John three and verse two. Beloved now are we the sons of God, and doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is, or it will be complete, will be like him turn through.
So you have a gang in your neck first, uh.
You referred to in John's Gospel chapter 15, those that abide in me are those that are real. But then it says in verse six, if a man abides not in me, he has cast forces the branch and his Withers and men gathered them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. And so those are those that are not real, not in me. And so while you and I cannot often tell, always tell which is a real branch, which is a false branch, the Lord knows.
And so he's going to be able to deserve what is it wonderful that he here gives us this little picture of how he dealt with Peter publicly. He had there was a private restoration, but there was that public dishonor that had come in. Peter had dishonored his Savior publicly. And it's often times necessary. There's a public training of the name of Christ and the testimony that there needs to be the public restoration. So we have that taught in First Corinthians.
And in Second Corinthians, and we know that, uh, we just read those verses. And so the Lord speaks and he, he gives a little bit more light in connection with, uh, Peter and, uh, a little bit of encouragement perhaps in the sense of telling him that in the future that he would do what he thought he was, had the power to do in his own strength in the flesh. God didn't give up his life as a martyr. He didn't have that strength, but the Lord was going to give him the strength in a future day and he would glorify God.
And he would have the martyrs crown.
He would have a crown because he loved the Lord and the Lord knew his heart and he was going to give him that murderous crown. It's all you know, You think oftentimes with little passage of Scripture when Peter was sleeping so soundly between those sixteen soldiers, I think it's in Acts chapter 12. He's sleeping soundly. He knew that his life was in the hands of the Lord and he could just rest in the goodness of the heart of God. And if he was to be delivered, that's fine. If not, he knew that he was going to glorify God as a martyr.
00:45:02
Until.
He says the.
He speaks of this. He should glorify God.
The test that he should glorify God.
You ever think maybe that when he was between those soldiers, he looked back and remember the Lord's words? And the Lord says, when thou art old, he wasn't old yet.
I don't know if he thought of that or not, but I wondered.
Well, Peter got occupied with, uh, his brethren.
With us as well, you know, the Lord is given each one of us.
A little service to do for him and you can do that to that work, uh, better than anyone else. But sometimes we're dissatisfied with what, uh, our lot is and we want to do someone else's work. Uh, perhaps we want to have a more public recognition.
But if you do that little service which the warden has given you.
Uh, to do as a member of the body twice you have a function that no one else has this hand in mind. That's a function directly from the head. Uh, and uh, it performs a certain service, doesn't do what my teeth do. There are members in my body, as you well know, that are not seen, but very important. So the Lord says, follow me Christmas, the one that was the object and to be the object of either, not his presence.
Not seeking a place that reward had not given him, but having Christ as the controlling.
Wrecking umm head in his life.
Like I mentioned yesterday that, uh, the Lord uses these three word little expressions all the way through John's Gospel and in the Gospels. And then he also uses little three word expressions in the Book of Revelation. And, uh, this is the last instruction that he gives to those disciples in the Gospel in verse 22. Follow thou me.
The last words that the Lord Jesus started recording that he gives to his disciples in instruction in the.
Gospel individually, he would delight to have us to follow him and uh, then we have any, uh, Book of Revelation is really 4 words that, uh, he gives us this, the last words in that testimony, the whole word of God, John is given the apostle of the affections had so much affection for the Lord, devotedness to him and he says in verse 20, Revelation 22, verse 20, he would testify these things, say it surely.
I come quickly. I think Mr. Darby's translation, better translation says yeah, I come quickly.
Over the last word that, uh, the Lord Jesus speaks, as it were, to the church.
Yeah, I come quickly, but in the present day that we live.
His desires that we should be through disciples follow me individually. And so you and I have a cause. It's a cause of Christ before us, the person of Christ, His glory, His honor, everything that we do.
Ought to reflect something of the dignity of Christ and how we conduct ourselves in this world. Ought to be for His own, for his honor, for his dignity, and we ought to be seen as those that follow Him.
It's been noted that was the 1St and the last thing that the Lord said to Peter, Matthew 4, when he and his brother were casting Ned into the sea. The Lord said follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. And here at the end he says follow me, John 12. The Lord said, if any man, uh, serve me, let him follow me in where I am there also show my servant be. And so perhaps sometimes the great Oz put on service, but.
But the great thing is about following the Lord.
00:50:06
The Lord works in our lives and sometimes we, uh, the, uh, things that he brings along Cal are calculated, really reach our conscience of being a subtle way. And he wants us to, to see his hand in it. And, uh, earlier in the chapter when the Lord was on the shore and he asked that question, children, have you any meat? You know, he's trying to reach their conscience.
And it's not until they cast the net in response to his direction and drawing the fishes. Then John says it's the Lord. It's the Lord, you know, the ones who lay on his bosom was the first one to say, well, that's the Lord. And I think of it this way. He looks at that whole circumstance and says this is just like the Lord. Everything I'm saying reminds me of the way the Lord works and all that I have known about him. And it's a.
I think it's a wonderful thing in our lives to be sensitive enough to see in the circumstances that he allows in our life to say, oh, that's the Lord. Remember a brother saying he got in an argument with his wife and things weren't going so well and he went out and had a pop up camper. We had to get taken care of, put away from season one out there clothes live Wham his thumb with right in between the top and the bottom. He said well just had said.
That that's right, Lord, I was wrong.
You know, sometimes he speaks pretty loudly, but it's so good to be sensitive to what the Lord allows and the circumstances of our life to see. It's His hand. Well, then, will they come to the shore, and there's that cold of fire. Well, where had Peter seen that last time he warmed himself there. But it would reproach his conscience, wouldn't it?
Now here's a fire he can warm himself by. There's no reproach to his conscience.
But it would reach his conscience in reminding him that he had partaken of another fire that he had no place at. And so each step is something just as the Lord is going to work in that restoration with Peter publicly ways that the Lord didn't say anything to him about. Hey, do you see this coal-fired? Looks like that one you're at before.
A theatre workout, right? There's little things in our lives that the Lord allows that he wants us to be sensitive to say, yeah, that's the Lord. That's just like him to work that way, isn't it? And the closer we are to him, even if there's a fall.
The more we'll be sensitive to those little things that he may bring in to respond. And so is these steps. Feeder through and ask them these three times. What does that mean? How many times have Peter denied the Lord?
Right. And he starts out in the first one. He says love is not even more than these. That was Peter both. I love you more than the rest. So he settled that one first.
Do you really love me more than all the rest love me?
And then he drops the comparison.
Do you love me?
Any sign Peter says don't know if I'm attached to thee or I dearly love thee. It was like Peter's little uh pet expression of affection for the Lord and he doesn't right so much dare to use the term the Lord Jesus, but it breathes him a third time when the Lord used his own expression. That old Peter. Is it even just that you know, and our brother already brought out. We have to home that uh, it took omniscience to see if there's anything there and when he's finally brought and humbled.
And that way the Lord commits in front of all the rest.
That which was dearest to his soul, the Father's gift of love to him were his own, that which He gave himself for.
She had his own blood point that was dearest to his heart. He said, now, fever, I'm committing that to your care. I'm going, but I'm committing that to your care. It's been said that when a bone is broken and then it's splintered up and it heals, there's no stronger part of that bone in the place where it broke. And so it's not true that one who's had a fault can't be used again in the Lord.
The Lord trusted the very dearest man He had.
Computer's care.
00:55:01
There's a couple passages and no testament just to call it on what they say. Brother Steve, uh, Hosea Chapter 7.
We know that Hosea is the really the ministry of the restoration of the the 10 tribes written to the two tribes about the 10 but in Chapter 7 verse one it says when I would have healed Israel then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered and.
The wickedness of Samaria there is Israel as a nation, I presume here it's more of the 10 tribes taking that place and they're need of healing and the Lord begins to move and what happens is we use the expression to peel back the layers of the onion. What do you find?
All the iniquity of Ephraim is discovered. There's something deeper here.
And then further and the wickedness of Samaria, now the capital. Now I just look at nationally, as we peel back the layers of the onions, we see there's more there. And the Lord has to oftentimes do that with this peel back one layer after another, because sometimes the issue is much deeper and the language of the lever than the surface of the skin. But in also in Genesis chapter 45, it's such a remarkable story. We love the restoration of Joseph's brethren.
To himself, how he restores them as to their sin against him, and also their sin against their father. But in chapter chapter 45, when his brethren report back to their father about Joseph, Genesis 4526, verse 25 And they went out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father, and told him, saying, Jacob is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart painted.
For he believed them not.
And they told him all the words of Joseph which he had said unto them. And when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revised. And Israel said, It is enough. Joseph, my son is yet alive. I will go and see him before I die.
Joseph's brother had proved to their father they were really not worthy of his trust, and they came back with this marvelous news that Jacob Joseph was still alive. But he believed them not.
And they told him the words of Joseph, there must have been something that resonated with him and yet he didn't trust them. But in Speaking of recognizing the Lord's hand, whether it's in chastening and so enjoy the thought of another. He expressed it this way when he saw the way he said chosen for July. That was just like Joseph. It had the the all the marks of Joseph on it, his largesse, his kindness, his generosity. And it wasn't their words is what he saw. And he said that's Joseph.
The goodness of God that leads us to repentance.
So you can cut on that. You refer to that verse, the goodness of God leadeth us to repentance that maybe others have thought the same thing. I always have thought of that versus God is good. Therefore he leads us to repentance. But you know, it's his goodness. It's a display of his goodness that breaks the heart now and leads to repentance. It's when the prodigal remembered all the good that we're going to call this house.
Let me turn back. And so the, the display of equipment and it's kindness for the, in spite of what we've done and all that we have perhaps dishonored it, uh, him in, he's the same towards us unchanged and, and his love for this and affection, that's what Peter found. He found a Lord that loved him all the same. No change with the Lord.
We see something in the ways of the Lord's working with Peter. He had instructed Peter, as was mentioned after his restoration here, as to what would happen. It was indicated how that could have given him. He had every right to have confidence when he was in prison there, bound between the soldiers.
The word of the Lord was given to him for faith to lay hold of. The word of the Lord is not given to us to satisfy our curiosity. And that's really the question that Peter then would have about John.
Verse 22 If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?
Fall without me.
The Lord is not in the business to satisfy your curiosity. And if we approach the Scriptures in that way of wondering, you know, what this particular dinosaur bone is doing here or there or anywhere, and whatever the case may be, that's that's not why the Scriptures are given to us. That's not why the Word of God is given to us.
01:00:14
And so it's just to see the Lord as he, he has restored Peter and now he's, he's focusing his direction for the rest of his life. He's giving that which faith would lay hold of. And so for each one of our, our lives, if we are seeking the Lord's will and we're seeking his direction, he's not, he's not just going to tell us what we're going to be doing five years from now to tickle our fancy and just make our lives easy. It's that faith would have something to lay hold of the trial of your faith being more precious than of gold.
That perishes. That would be trying to fire and that's.
That's something that the Lord so values, and so it's beautiful to see this in the life of Peter and I. I believe each one of this, each one of us experienced this in different ways in our life as well.
Is another uh.
Aspect of this more coming back to the.
Dispensational lines of things or whatever other cuts on the other day in the various books of the Bible and God's purpose in picking up each instrument. The Lord says to Peter, follow thou me. Peter was going to have a particular ministry and it was especially following in the Lord's ministry. John the Baptist was raised up he what did he do? Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
He's put in prison from that time Jesus began to preach repent for the Kingdom of God is hand at hand. The Lord goes up to glory and on the day of Pentecost Peter comes out and he says repent to who? It's really a repentance to Israel, a national plea, a plea for their national repentance as well as individual and so in Romans.
Chapter.
I don't know if I can find it here, I think it's chapter 15.
Verse 8IN connection with the reception of the Jews, because it's a matter of of, uh, receiving one another that's making up your first aid. Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. Peter was going to be a minister in circumcision.
And he was going to bring before those Jewish Christian believers that they had not lost.
No blessing because they had come out and received price, though they had lost every earthly thing. They had the best promises that God had to give you. They had something even better than the promises made to Israel. They had something high and something better. And that's the exceeding great, precious promises. I think might be better translated the greatest and best promises at the conference to what Israel has. And so he was going to follow in the Lord's steps as a minister of the circumcision. What about John?
It says you leave that to me. John was going to have a special place too. Where do we find John? Well, at the end of the Apostolic age. Mandy Lynette, so to speak. As we touched on before Paul, Peter's gone. That time came when the Lord's word was fulfilled and his ministry was close.
Paul had finished his course and his life was poured out of the libation, as he mentioned to.
The 14 he was gone and John is there in prisoner in the Isle of Pat Austin and the Lord and the Spirit on the Lord's day and the Lord turns him around and he looks out over the Spear Falls ministry. Lord says I've got a word for you for where Paul later and in a certain sense John coming at the end of the Apostolic age, being a netmender where the enemy had made inroads is overlooking that Spear Falls ministry.
With his special ministry that he had been given.
And then the next, where the enemy is made holes and to walk over, uh, Paul's laborers, one is said. And Paul gives us as a wise master builder, the construction of the house.
He lays out the foundation that none of it could land, and he gives the House of God an all twerkings. He gives us the Church of God and all's particular.
01:05:05
But you know, we have flood in 2011 in our area and it was so interesting to drive through those streets at night and see all those houses with no light in the windows. It was really eerie.
John's ministry gives us the light that shines out over the windows of that house that fall down. He gives us the light that is to be manifest and evident and shines up the warmth and the light that shines out at that point. Paul gives us that structure. But if we didn't have what we have in John.
There would be nothing. It's the life of Christ's manifest in his own, in this world.
And so he had a special place that came at the end of the apostle gauge to give us the truth of that life which is in Christ Jesus and which is ours and should be manifest in our lives.
In that sense, uh, let's see, uh, the, uh.
He went on to the end, if I will, the entirety till I come. What is actually, it's a little difficult to know the meaning here, but I need Doctor Olson that he said that John in his ministry takes us right through the act and that's the Book of Revelation, which is a marvelous, umm, presentation of the end of.
Christendom.
The, uh, portion of the, the church in this administrative character and so on, it's all laid out for us so clearly in John's ministry, leaning us right through to the end, uh, in, in his final treatise there in level we're taking also better, but repentance is an ongoing process.
And, uh, it should characterize our lives if he ceased to repent about some sin that we have done, uh, and we change our mind about it. That's what we're trying to do, the change of mind. But if we seem to be repent, then we regard that skin as acceptable. You know what I mean? So I was looking for the verse in, uh, Jeremiah and I can't seem to find it. Umm, after I was turned, I repent it.
Showing that there was.
Her refills were sentence in the life of the believers. I just can't put my finger on that.
3119 Well, thank you very much. 31.
Give me one.
19.
Read it, buddy. Surely after that I was turned, I repented, and after that I was instructed. I smote upon my thigh. I was ashamed, Gabe confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Well, that's the, uh, the, the, the teeth came there.
You see in the life of Abraham that, uh.
He failed in, uh, deceiving, uh, the Egyptians about his wife.
Umm, the Lord brought him back to the land of pain, but later in his life he failed in that same thing again with Abimelech, you'll remember.
Seems that there was not really a judgment of the root of the problem. That and uh, judging the root is is is a difficult thing for us. Sometimes we don't do it.
I think that's a little term until I come is really a little instruction perhaps to continue on. And so we have the term used and I believe the expression used throughout the New Testament several times, I think maybe six or seven times. But in chapter first Corinthians, Chapter 11, verse 26, right at the end, he uses the same term, the apostle Paul by divine inspiration and we know that it was revealed to him. I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you and he says.
For as often as eat his bread and drink this coffee to show or announce the Lord's death till he comes. And so we have continuation. There's God has placed us in this scene that we might continue to announce the coming of the Lord and announce to him to this world and to one another that he died and why he died. And we know that we glorify the Lord in connection with the.
01:10:16
How he was trained and we recognized him as a resurrected one and we can do it till He comes. But here it's really continuing on the path of steadfastness and the path that allows us to walk in community with the Lord right till the end, didn't it? Marvelous. The Lord says you're going to be able to walk in John's ministry right to the end. And I think that was good really. Perhaps specifically what he was saying. If I will they carry until I come. What is that to be?
Another set if there's anything real.
In this world of empty profession and pretension.
We live in and the day of the room of the church. It's the manifestation of the life of his beloved Son in his own, in this world. And so the last epistle of the apostle Paul and its opening words dovetails from John's ministry. Just read that verse.
Second Timothy in chapter one.
All the apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promised of life, which is in Christ Jesus.
Is that Paul's closing is course and as as much as dovetailing in with with, uh, John's oversight that's going to fall.
You sing 182.
182.
Our tongue shall spread.
Last day. First day.
Let's say.
Our.
Our shadows and Dark Souls and dawn again.
Sheraton Clinic, South Carolina. Uh-huh. I'll send you a lot of.
I love you.
About 10.
Oh.
Mm-hmm.
Umm, hair and rare hair. And it's pretty, uh.
We've gone by, you grow.
A dream of all the parents. Very, very, very well, yeah.
And the trouble?
Of.
01:15:22
No.
And why did she come out of the world happening?
It's OK.
I'm in Tennessee to make themselves pain.
All the.
We converse with Injustice chapter 50.
Chopper 50, verse 15.
And when Joseph, brethren saw that their father was dead, and said, Joseph will first venture hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did.
And they sent some messengers to Joseph, saying that Father did command before he died, saying so. So shall you say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now the trespass of thy brethren and their sin. For they did evil on the uh, they did unto the evil, and now he's crazy. Forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they faith unto him. And his brethren also went and fell down before his face. And they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
And Joseph said to them, Fear not, for am I in the place of God, but As for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring the past as it is this day, to save much people alive now. Therefore fear ye not, I will nourish you and your little one, and you comforted them, and speak kindly unto them.
Our godfather's been our privilege to.
Open thy word and learn the and we just pray that, umm, as we go our separate places after the conference is over, that we would try and encourage each other and comfort each other and speak kindly. And that if there are those that are backsliding or falling away, and if they do come back, then we would comfort them. We kind of into them. So we thank you, Lord, for the, umm, encouragement that this time has been. We thank, uh, the for the.
The brother here in Hammer Bay to put this on and we just asked for, uh, continued blessing here.
Is our time of fellowship in the Gospel this evening. My name is.