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Jesus Christ.
The Savior we only love.
In my love and favor.
Our soul? Fine. Liberty.
Wednesday.
Yes.
Her father was.
Verse 41.
The Jews then murmured at him, because he said I am the bread which came down from heaven.
And they said, is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?
How is it then that he saith I came down from heaven?
Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.
No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me. Draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life, I am that bread of life.
Your Father's did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven.
If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
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The Jews therefore strove among themselves saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except.
He eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood. You have no life in you.
Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him as the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
This is that bread which came down from heaven, not as your Father's did, eat manna and are dead.
He that eateth of this bread shall live forever.
These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.
Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this said, this is an hard saying. Who can hear it?
When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?
What And if he shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before?
It is the Spirit that quicken us. The flesh profiteth nothing.
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.
But there are some of you that believe not, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him.
And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me except that were given unto him of my Father.
It kept her repeatedly the expression eternal life, or in the King James that says everlasting life. But Mr. Darby always transplants that life eternal it it might be helpful to explain.
This truth because there seems to be confusion.
In the mind of many Christians not understanding the difference between new births and eternal life and.
New birth is not the same as eternal life. New birth was already the portion of Old Testament believers. But eternal life is connected as we see in verse 40 with faith in the Lord Jesus.
And.
In John 17, the Lord Jesus himself says this is life.
Eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sinned.
The possession of eternal life is connected with the revelation that we have in the person of the Lord Jesus coming into this world and revealing the Father that was not known in the Old Testament by any Old Testament saying they did not know God as Father. The Lord Jesus has revealed Him and so life eternal is to be in a relationship.
To God as Father, revealed by the Lord Jesus and made known to us by the Spirit of God. And that does not mean that in new birth we get one kind of a life. And when we receive eternal life, we get a second kind of a life. That life which we receive in new birth takes on a new character when we come to know the Lord Jesus.
And his finished work of Calvary's Cross and it is demonstrated very clearly in Acts chapter 10, where.
There was obviously new life in Cornelius.
But he needed to hear words by which he was to be saved.
He had been made clean.
That was clearly shown to Peter.
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In that vision what I have made clean Do not thou make unclean and common?
So he had new life, but he needed to hear about the person and work of the Lord Jesus.
And when you read the verses that give the message that Peter gives to the House of Cornelius, that is clearly what is presented the person and work of the Lord Jesus. And Mr. Kelly is very helpful on that passage, pointing out that that is what made the difference, that is, the words that he had to hear in order to be saved. To be saved in the New Testament sense, means more than having new birth.
To be in the relationship to God as Father and to be entwled by the Spirit of God, that gives us the conscious enjoyment of that relationship that we now have to God as our Father.
16 says Paul said. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
For it is the power of God under salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew person, also the Greek.
The word gospel has to do with the death, burial, resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That that is something the Old Testament Saints did not appreciate.
The death bell and resurrection of Christ until it was accomplished. And so they were born again. As Brother Heinz said, they had divine life, the life, very life of God itself, and they enjoyed God, but.
They did not.
They could not say my sins, all my sins. So grateful men here in his blood are washed away that we can say now. Then when a person is born again, they have divine life and they have divine desires.
Their heart is.
Toward God. Whereas we read in Romans 3 that by nature there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. So the natural man, natural man doesn't seek.
It's only when.
They are resting in the finished work, the death of Christ.
I got a tip from a brother recently who said when he finds out a person is a Roman Catholic or we can say others as well, he says then you do believe that Christ died for your sins, don't you?
Well, this is.
Taught in a sense, although they do not believe that the finished work of Christ settles the whole issue for eternity. That's got they've got to go through Purgatory and al in order to get to heaven. But we can. You can.
You can deal with a Roman Catholic in a beautiful manner.
In the gospel by insisting that they do know.
They are taught that Christ died for their sins and that finished the work of salvation.
For their souls.
On this subject, I wonder if we could get some help in the preceding verse, verse 40.
We have the expression and I will raise him up at the last day. We have it four times just to point it out in verse 39.
In verse 40, verse 44 and also verse.
54 In connection with the eternal life, if there is a connection in that expression, it must be important coming four times.
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Is it not that God's purpose is to have us in the glory?
Not just that they were, but they would be raised up at the last time and displayed in glory with the Lord Jesus. That's that's why I've taken it.
It is a question when when eternal life is imparted to us upon putting our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus that we have a life that needs to be nourished and.
Fed and developed. But in the Day of Glory, as you mentioned, eternal life will have its full fruition and blessedness.
And to me, that's what makes it important that it comes four times, the Lord bringing us before the heart of him that has an ear to hear.
It has been used to, or the picture has been used to, illustrate, the present possession of eternal life and the future possession of eternal life. The Scripture presents it in both ways. In Paul's writings it is usually a future possession, in John's writing a present possession, and it has been illustrated in the deep sea diver who Goes Down into the Ocean and.
That lifeline from above sustains him.
While he is in this foreign element below, but then when he comes out, he comes into the fullness of it, You know, I think that's a nice picture to illustrate the difference between the present possession of eternal life and the future possession of eternal life. We'll enter into the fullness of it when we will be with the Lord Jesus.
Is this not in that 40th verse? It says, And this is the will of him that sent me, and so we had yesterday. That man does not have a free will, so he doesn't. He doesn't come to salvation.
Through his own will Well. And whose will does he come? He comes on the Father's will, doesn't he? The Father wills that we be there. And so the Father also wills that we be displayed with the Lord Jesus in glory. And that's the fullness of eternal life. Although we have it as a present possession, we shall have it when everything caters to it.
More about what eternal life is, I've enjoyed.
John 10 and verse 10 as to something of what the expression means. We always think it's a life that never ends, and of course it is that, but it is a lot more. The thought I understand is not so much the duration of the life as the.
Quality of the life it is life in the full revelation of all that God is.
Revealed to us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ it's life. And here in John 10 and verse 10 it says the thief cometh not, but for us who steal, and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly, or Mr. Darby leaves out, the more they might have it abundantly.
The thought of eternal life is life in abundance. It's another place that helps to understand it, perhaps in First Timothy chapter 6.
And.
Verse 19 speaking to the rich in this world.
And he says in verse 19, laying up in store for themselves.
A good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on the eternal life, it says in the King James and Mr. Darby's translation. It says they might lay hold on that which is really light.
And I don't know if we can just get ahold of that, especially our young people. What we're talking about South, often the enemy of our souls, portrays the things of God is something that you have to deny yourself in connection with it. And it is true, there is denial and connection with following the Lord Jesus, but it opens up into something that is life in abundance. It is that which is really light. People think that when they have their own way.
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As to what they do in their lives, that they're tasting life, people that have their own way don't know what living is really, yet.
You really want to know what really living is, what eternal life is. It is from the revelation of God that we have in the Lord Jesus. It leads out into fullness, amplitude, abundance. That's eternal life. And I think it's so important for young people to get it into their hearts. This is really living young people, not to enjoy the paltry things, this world.
Offers us that only robs you of the enjoyment of what is really living really like.
A nice look at Galatians 4 as an illustration of the difference between.
The life that the Old Testament Saints had, and what we have the character of it, Galatians. 4 Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all. Think of the Prince of a king.
He's just a child. He can't enter into the thoughts of his father or the administration of the Kingdom. He's just a child. So he doesn't differ. He just differs nothing from a servant, though he'd be Lord of all. One day he's going to mature, but he's under tutors and governors until the time appointed to the father. Now he applies that, He says Even so we Jews when we were children.
In ******* under the elements of the world, that's what characterized the Jew who believed in the Old Testament.
He was under law. He was under *******. He was a child. But.
When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. That's the Jew that we might receive the adoption of sons. And that's what you're talking about. Of the abundant life placed in the position of sonship, where one is mature and grown and able to understand all the things of that God is one for us and provided for us in his beloved Son. We have now the Spirit.
Of his son, and we cry as a father, and he goes on in the next verse the he takes up the Gentiles. The we of verse five is the Jew that's now been promoted from the baby state to the adult state, which is Christianity.
I think of this verse every time I hear a Jew giving his testimony now that he's a Christian and then he says but I'm still a Jew. What would you think of a of a son in the in the family that's grown up?
And the father has taken him into a partnership in his business, father and son. And he says to his father, I'm still a child, that's nonsense. He's not a child anymore. He's a mature adult and able to run the business just like his father does. But then he goes on to verse 6 where the Gentiles are spoken out. They were, they were never in ******* under the law. So he says, because ye are sons. How did they get to that position? By sovereign grace.
God hath set forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying ABBA father, and then he switches back to the Jew again. Wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son. Now eternal life attaches to full sonship, and the thought of new birth to to the to the servants state. And I think that's a nice passage to illustrate the difference between life and the abundant life.
Someone has put it this way for as young people that want to study the subject and it with the crossing of the Red Sea.
They were. They partook of the Passover and that made them safe, but they were still subject to the enemy. They were still in the enemy's land until they passed through the Red Sea and all our enemies were drowned in the sea. And then they were free. You get it there. Typically you get it parabolically in.
The prodigal son, he came to himself that's new birth, but he still wasn't delivered. He said I'll go home and justice tell him, well, I'll just be a servant or I'll be like a slave. But when he got to the father's house, you know the father he had other plans for him and he brings him in and and he brings puts him in a condition where he he can enjoy him and the prodigal son can enjoy the father And then you get a heights rotted out historically.
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You get it in the Acts 10 where with Cornelius, and then you get a doctrine Lee in the Epistles. That's just a way to learn to remember it. And the father does not allow the son to say make me as one of thy hired servants. He received him as his son.
That would be, again, like the Jews saying, I'm a Christian but I'm still a Jew. Well, in the in the servants position, you know, God will not have that. Put us into the place of sonship, place of privilege, place of blessing and the understanding of it. That's full Christian liberty and full Christian position, isn't it? Isn't it verified in what he said to the older brother? He was dead and now he's alive. That's the new position, isn't it?
In connection with that so-called prodigal son story, I'd just like to read parts of two verses which bring out a remarkable thought.
Not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, And then in the 20th verse he arose and came to his father, but when he was yet a great way off. And in the original the words are the same. And it appears to me that any concept in our minds or any picture where the sun is being received by the father adjacent to the house.
Is contrary to this passage. I've envisioned it this way that the son made a turn and before he took one step the father was there because it says he went into a far country, but when he was yet a great way off, same word. The father had his eye on that son the whole time that he was gone, and he met him there when he was yet a great way off.
We remember the story Mr. Willis tells of of asking A.
An artist to draw this picture and when he got the picture back, the prodigal son was on the ground and the father was beating it. And Mr. Willis said that's not the story. He said yes, but that's what he deserved.
The Christian profession.
Many sincere children of God.
Really believe that new birth is the ultimate of Christian blessing. That is not true. It's the beginning.
Christian blessing. We couldn't be Christians without being born again.
But it is only the beginning, and I remember very much for joy remembering Brother Clarence Lundin's statement that new birth gives us capacity for divine things. You have to be born again before you can see or enter what God has for us, whether it is the Kingdom or anything else that he is offering in Christ. So it gives us capacity for divine things.
But to make you and me a Christian, we have to have more than new birth. What makes you and me a Christian is that the Spirit of God has taken His abode in our body. That is what makes us Christians. He could not come and indwell us unless we have first of all new life, and then we are sealed by the Spirit of God being given to us. God puts His stamp upon us.
That one belongs to me.
But in that new relationship, that no St. of God.
Ever enjoyed in the past and that is being in the position of a son.
And what a wonderful truth that is to be a son of God.
Not in the same way as the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, but nevertheless.
We have been brought into the family of God and being not only children.
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But being sons, little Kim presses so beautifully for him. The first of his son. I am here I was thinking, as you were Speaking of those blessings, certainly the new birth. And then I was thinking of Ephesians One verse three we read, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. How many of those blessings does every believer in this room have?
All of them. But we're not all in the good of it. And that's what God would have us to learn, isn't it? To enjoy these blessings that are already ours in Christ.
In the third chapter of John, when the Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus by night.
The Lord Jesus speaks to him about new birth.
Well Nicodemus, it was a new thought to him and he says, how can these things be?
And.
Then the Lord Jesus says to him not he doesn't explain new birth, but rather he says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so much the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believes on him should not should have eternal life.
So he goes in the gospel.
Of what it means to be to have eternal life more than justice, divine life.
12 men mentioned in Africa.
Is this the case with these in that chapter from verses one through 7?
4 Disciples.
For finding these individuals, asking them, have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? Is this what we're talking about in this chapter in this portion?
Being, having new birth, but not being, not having yet received the Spirit of God, and being sealed.
I asked that as a question. I think that's correct.
They didn't. They'd only known the baptism of John. They were Jewish disciples. And then now they have to come into the full blessing of Christianity.
Receiving the Spirit of God.
Thing to realize that God has brought us into relationships with himself as sons rather than he has millions of angels to serve him. He really doesn't need any more servants. What he seeks his sons to sit in his presence, to enjoy him, to share his thoughts, to understand his counsels, his purposes. It's a privilege to serve the Lord.
But brethren, true service flows out of the enjoyment of that position that we've been brought into as sons. And I think it's so important for us to understand that. Traveling around Latin America a lot, it's interesting. I meet up with a lot of sincere brethren in the Lord, believers who have, I'm sure, a heart that is right with the Lord. But so often I find that each one has their own program.
This is what I want to do for the Lord.
And it seems to me that.
Is lacking so often with us is getting into the Lord's presence and understanding in a fuller measure his thoughts, his purposes, his counsels, because that will be fulfilled. As much as man may try to stand in the way of God's purposes, that is what is going to be fulfilled. And so if we can sit in the Lord's presence in the enjoyment of that position of sons that we've been brought into.
To understand his counsels, his purposes. Then when we go out in service, it will be an intelligence of what God is doing. It's not so much what I'm doing rather than I I often have to be. I'm made to feel that I'm a privileged witness of what the Lord is doing. It's not what I'm doing, it's what the Lord is doing in this world. And He may use me, He may not use me. And it's a joy to see God using others in the fulfilling of His purposes.
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But that's so important. If we are going to be intelligent in our service, is to first of all sit in his presence, to enjoy him. Oh what a God we have. And it's not so much a display of what we are in this world, it's a display of what our God is. That's the revelation of this present dispensation. Very important.
Royal priesthood of one Peter Two is preceded by the holy priesthood, and in that ninth verse it says Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation, peculiar people, that ye should show forth the virtues of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous life.
Verse 42 We see what spiritual blindness is when it says and they said. Is not this Jesus the Son of Joseph whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith I came down from heaven?
Find in the first chapter of John that Philip was introduced.
That Jesus was the son of Joseph. And so in John 14 it's Philip that speaks up and says show us the Father and it sufficeth us.
He had had a wrong introduction, and we know that Mary when they had left the feast, and they found the Lord in the temple, He said, She said, Thy father and I sought thee soaring. Well, the Lord didn't abruptly correct his mother, but he could say, wished he not that I must be about my father's business. And so it gives the Lord here another opportunity to bring in the Father. In verse 44. No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me.
Draw him. I don't know. Maybe somebody has an accurate figure, but I believe in John's Gospel that the Lord speaks of his father 75 times.
75 times It's wonderful to have the veil lifted in spiritual blindness, to know who this one is, that he came from heaven, sent by His Father to seek our eternal blessing.
That's what John's Gospel is. It's the revelation of the Father by the Son.
That's the summation of the Gospel of John.
And is that why Philip said? Was that Philip said, show us the Father, and the Lord could say in that 14th chapter of John he that hath seen me has seen the Father?
Or what a home the son who knows he only all his love. I'm not giving this out as a hymn to sing and brings us as his well beloved. To that bright rest above dwells in his bosom knoweth all that in that bosom lies and came to earth to make it known that we might share his joy. That's the gospel of John is missing.
Christmas, too, was correct. He was the greatest deceiver that this world had.
It said that, and it's worth repeating, that God had one son and he loved him so much. And he says I'm going to fill heaven with many just like him in the wonderful. The grace of God brings us into that position, and it was in the heart of God before the world was made to have you and me with him as his sons.
About an extent. To what an extent did he go to make that possible, sending his only son?
To die for us, To make it possible that we could be in that position. What love?
Could we measure it?
Whom he did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed.
To the image of his son, that he might be the first born among many brethren.
As the first born, he has many brethren. As the eternal Son of God, he has no brethren. He is alone.
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Unique, but he became a man that we might be brought into the closest relationship possible for the creature.
Will never enter into Godhead. Impossible. It's blasphemy. But the closest the creature can be We are in the sun. The sun become a man. The sun Incarnate.
OK.
Is the reason in the 42nd verse that they didn't see any more than that he was just a natural man? They said he is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph whose father and mother we know. How is it then that he saith I have come down from heaven? It was because the Father hadn't given them so they their eyes weren't open and the Lord never never argued with them or tried to explain that Joseph wasn't his real father, did he? Because that would have only been casting his Pearl before swine.
But here?
It's an illustration of the blindness that would be in all of us had not the Father given us as a gift to the Son. We sit here this morning as absolute trophies of the grace of God, no matter what we might think.
Cerence isn't it that depended on me even 1% I'm lost?
All. His brother asked. The Church of Christ, minister.
Are you sure you have eternal life or eternal security? He said. I'm 90% sure.
That means he's not sure.
Who Jesus is, it means they have to be taught of God as we have in verse 45.
It really is that which shows us who Jesus is, and so those who are often.
Wise in their own conceits, or wise in this world?
Missed the thing completely and think what the Lord Jesus says in Matthew 11.
About these things at that time, as Matthew 1125, Jesus answered and said, I thank the old Father, Lord of.
Heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise.
And prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. It's receiving it in the simplicity that God gives it to us, that's receiving it as a babe. And they're the ones that understand Even so Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. And then he goes on to say, all things are delivered to me unto me of my father. And no man knoweth the Son the mystery of the person of the sun being God and man at the same time as a mystery.
That we simply bow before him and accept not something you can understand in your minds.
But it is in the simplicity of babes accepting the revelation of God.
That we understand who Jesus is.
And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted. That's the new birth.
And become as little children ye shall not enter.
Into the Kingdom of heaven.
We have to begin as a little child, don't we, in the family of God.
The father was going to learn how to play the violin. His child knew how to play it. So he went to the instructor and said, I want to learn how to play the violin. Like my son knows how to play it. And he said, all right, you'll have to start at the beginning. And he said, what? I'm his father. I have to start where he started. That's right. That's where you have to start. And no matter how grown we are, we have to start right there, don't we?
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Be converted and become as a little child.
I would like to say just briefly, that these truths regarding new birth.
Magnify the grace of God.
I believe.
More than any truth in Scripture, now I stand to be corrected. But God begins with that which is dead and trespasses and sins, and does not seek God, and gives him his own life, divine life, and if that doesn't magnify the grace of God, taking an enemy of God and making him his son.
Then I'm a little confused, but I believe that this magnifies the grace of God.
More than any other doctrine of scripture.
For the day, new birth is not your and my responsibility as it is presented, sometimes even in hymns. That is a sovereign act of God, of his own will be getting us. It is an act of the will of God. Just like when we were brought into natural birth. You and I had no part in that decision. Our parents wanted another child and so.
The result is you and I, but so it is in the spiritual way. It is not the sinner's responsibility to be born again. It's a sovereign act of God now, the gospel creature. Knowing this and knowing that the Spirit of God uses the word of God to quicken his soul to bring him into life, presents the Scriptures to the Sinner and trust that the Spirit of God will use the Scripture to bring them into life.
It's a sovereign act of God, so we magnify his grace.
Acknowledging this, that it is his will that has brought us into.
Spiritual life.
Reverently, God was obligated to quicken me.
By the Spirit of God, because he chose me in Christ before the foundation of the world.
And that's the only way he could get me, is to give me his life.
Notice where John draws this scripture from Isaiah, and they shall all be taught of God in Isaiah 54. Just to read that in respect to Christian households that are represented here this this morning, verse 11, oh thou afflicted and tossed with Tempest and not comforted. Sometimes there are conditions that rise in our family that.
Really presses his parents to know what we should do and how we should act and what we should, how we should guide.
But it goes on to say, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires, and I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. And I believe that we could apply it this way, that.
The Lord delights not only to give us eternal life and to bless us, but to give us.
Glimpses of the heavenly glory. As we turn to revelation, we find these same stones involved in the heavenly Jerusalem. And so when we have these times when we don't know how to guide our children, oh, that there would be a glimpse of the heavenly glory that would be brought before our own souls, that we can direct them in the same way. And the result is it's like a promise to me and all thy children shall be taught of the Lord.
And great shall be the feast of thy children.
I believe we only have it twice in scripture about great peace. In Psalm 119 we have great peace. Have they that love thy law and nothing shall offend them. That's quite a challenge, isn't it? To our hearts there are things that may offend us, but great peace have they that love thy law and nothing shall offend them. And then we have here taught of the Lords, and great shall be the peace of thy children.
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Oh, it's wonderful when we see that peace that passeth all understanding.
Begin to form in the arts of our children, and as life goes on and they anticipate marriage and what the Lord is going to bring into their lives, to temper them and to make them like Himself. This is a wonderful promise to the parents here in this room to count upon the Lord to give that peace that gives us to go on to live for Him in view of the heavenly glory.
45th verse, middle of the verse. Every man therefore.
That hath heard.
Faith cometh by hearing, and hath learned of the Father, cometh to me.
And that wonderful to think that we've heard the life giving message.
And we've heard his voice.
And we've come, He's drawn us, and we've come, we've learned of the Father.
We know who Jesus is.
And he has given us to know who God is, our Father.
Eternal life connects with all that.
How wonderful to be among the company. Think of the teeming millions in this world. And here were a few, but we've heard.
And have learned of the Father. They shall be all taught of God. We've learned of the Father.
About the sun, Isn't that precious?
Doing gospel preaching of presenting the Word of God. It is living. It is powerful. It is penetrating.
We can explain things and I find my own self the tendency when speaking to people.
Especially, perhaps, that are more educated to try to explain it, to make it rational. That is not necessary. The Word of God is penetrating just like it is. It is life giving the Word of God, living, abiding Word of God. Oh, to give it more place, dear brethren, it's not our preaching, not our explaining, but it is the Word that will have its effect, insoles.
A present day, quite popular translation was basically started as a result of a Christian testifying to a man that wasn't saved in a hotel room, and it was the 10th chapter of John's Gospel. And as this man that wasn't the Lord started to read it, he started to laugh.
Because he didn't understand it. And so the Christians, this is the embryo of the start of a certain translation, which I don't care to delineate. But he said we as Christians must have a translation that the man of the world that's not saved is not going to laugh at. He's going to be able to understand it. And that's the embryo. That's the start of that translation which is taken over. In fact, it's absolutely contrary.
Not the translation will leave that alone, but the concept is entirely contrary to the work of the Spirit of God through the word of God. Let's take the the the revivals of of 2-3 hundred years ago with the Welsh miners. What translation did they have?
Well, they had. Did they have a translation Was so suited that they could understand it with their understanding. And maybe some of them didn't get going through 6th grade, but they had a translation that has been honored of God and it's the spirit of God that takes the word of God and makes it good to Sinner and faith and I might say period.
They have received not the spirit of the world.
But the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
Which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, communicating spiritual things by spiritual words. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are Foolishness unto him makes them laugh, foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
This book answers all those questions, doesn't it?
00:55:03
What a reference Brother 1St gradients 2.
Things that we don't apprehend and fully enter into intellectually, but can enjoy them by faith. Already the truth of the person of Christ was presented God and man in one person. Can you really understand that? Intellectually? No. The Trinity? Can you understand that three persons, one God. You don't have to understand it in order to enjoy it.
Faith. We just accept what Scripture presents and enjoy it, and the faith is that which gives us the enjoyment of that which might not be intellectually apprehended.
Understand. Isn't it by faith we understand, not by our intellect.
How profound the words of the Lord Jesus in the 14th chapter of John. He could say those lovely words I am.
The Old Testament title. He takes it and he presents it, and he says, I am the Way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me I know of a man that got saved by that verse. And the Spirit of God worked it in his soul. And he was a means of speaking to hundreds, perhaps thousands of others. But the simplicity of it How old you have to be to understand a simple statement like that. Do I need another translation to hear the voice of God?
You know, somebody has said that the Bible is written, that a 6th grader could understand the writing. But I love to think of the little children. You know, a little child of seven or even three or four could enter into heaven through how Christ the open door. But it's a matter of the heart believing, isn't it?
Fairness. I believe some help can be.
Received through some of the translations that have been given. For instance, there are some archaic expressions in our King James Version that are not being used in our language today. But I'm not suggesting that we switch to another translation, but some help can be.
Received by renderings that perhaps use a more contemporary term, but the danger is that these translators.
Take liberties with the word of God which.
Rendering things which are not.
Passing on accurately what the word of God really gives. And that's the danger. And I came from Europe.
45 years ago and didn't know any English. And it didn't take me very long to know the difference between the Bible language and everyday language. And kids that grow up here in this country shouldn't have any trouble getting to understand the correct meaning of some of these archaic terms in the King James Version. And we have help from Mr. Darby's translation that will help us many times.
If we have translation in another language, sometimes if I read the German translation, it makes things a little clearer than the way I have it in the English. But we would give credit, at least for scholars who have at times giving a rendering in a more contemporary term that will help us, especially those not familiar with Scripture generally, to understand the correct meaning.
But those who grow up in the assembly hear the scriptures from little children on to try to justify bringing in different translations so that they understand the scriptures. I don't think that argument holds any water that is not justified.
Word of God, may we ever remember that I was thinking of a little.
Letter to someone with some very important information in it, and I give it to you to carry to this person and you read the letter and you decide that I can make it a little clearer for this person. So you change this and you change that in it and you make it so it would be more acceptable, you think.
01:00:08
To the person you're giving it to, Well, how would I feel about your doing that to my letter?
All may we recognize when we come to the word of God that it is the Word of God. We want to know what God is saying to us. We want every detail to be right as much as we possibly can as we read the precious Word of God. Maybe not think carelessly about the truth of the Word of God.
Secret is believing it, and I think that's where we stumble sometimes. We live in a society that tries to, that trains us not to accept anything until we understand it, until we see it ourselves, and then we accept it. But in the things of God, we may have to use that in connection with our lives down here in this world. I don't say that's entirely wrong, but when it's in connection with the things of God, it's important to realize that it is believing first.
The Lord Jesus said to Martha, If thou shouldst believe, thou should see the glory of God.
The Pharisees, when they were speaking to the Lord Jesus on the cross, said come down that we may see and believe. They inverted the order they wanted to see first to believe. That's not faith. Faith is believing first. And so that's what we have now in these verses that follow simplicity of it. Oh, the beautiful simplicity of it. If this is the word of God, I can believe it. How many of us can say we understand very much of this book, brethren?
I think we all have to admit that we're learners and we're just beginners many times. But brethren, the secret is believing it. When God speaks, it's true, and it's in believing it that we are brought to see the truth of God.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. Get your eyes focused on the person of the Lord Jesus. This book is about him from Genesis to Revelation. God had in mind his beloved Son when he wrote it.
And so if we get our eyes focused on him, believing on him, we're going to understand the main theme of this book.
Nice to to think how the young ones sometimes we don't give them credit for what they know. I remember I asked a young boy once what James 121 meant. It says, Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, I said. What does that mean? He said. That's being a very bad boy.
He understood it.
Some of you have heard the testimony of Brother Grenadi. I think it was mentioned yesterday. It was you Brother Bob. Anyhow, Brother Pierpada, Brother Granite was in our meeting when he was here last year and he told it again through the translation of **** Gorgas and.
They said he was in with a bunch of boys. I think he was only 19 or 20 if I remember right, playing pool and smoking and they heard a knock at the door and because he was scared of the police, why they looked out and they see this little man in a black suit and they figured out it wasn't the police. They let him in and Brother Pierpotta came in and he quoted this verse 47 twice. He didn't explain it, he only quoted it twice.
He that believeth on me hath everlasting life went out. That was it.
But he couldn't get it out of his mind. God used that word, verse, that life giving verse, to impart life.
To that brother.
He woke up in the middle of the night. He couldn't sleep and his wife says, what's the matter? What's the matter? Why can't you sleep? You keep tossing, he said. I can't get that verse out of my mind that that little man told me he that believes on me has everlasting life. Truly, truly I sent you. He that believes on me has everlasting life, his wife says I want it. Set it right there in the bed, he says. Me too, she says go find a man, let's find out more about it. And he found the man. And that's how they got saved, brother. Led him to the Lord.
01:05:05
The servant find Rebecca in Genesis 24. It was at the well, and the well speaks of the Spirit of God or the word of God, and that's good for us to remember. Use the word quoted.
That is what God in his wisdom has chosen to bring man into blessing with the word of God. Parents, quote the scriptures to your children, but stand out in my mind about my mother is that she would always try to bring the scriptures in any situation that would arise, and she would quote the scriptures to us boys. And I realized more and more the effect that that had in our lives.
How important it is for young people and children that are here to when you read the word of God, is to open your heart, to let it get in. I sometimes see people sitting in a gospel meeting and it's evident that they're politely being quiet, but you can tell by the way they're listening that the doors of their heart are shut.
And it's important, I sometimes say to people, when you hear me talk, you have reason for perhaps to shut your ears. But when you hear the word of God for your own good, for your own blessing, let it penetrate right down into the depths of your heart. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Let it in. Don't qualify the word of God as it penetrates.
Don't set limits to it. Let it penetrate right to the depths of your heart. It's so important.
Do you want to get the blessing from it?
Just tell children.
God says thus and so when they're wanting to compromise principles that they've been taught from child from early childhood, God says thus. And so let's go and honor him. Let's walk with God, as in of did.
The results of this in verse 49 do we not in the great contrast in verse 50?
Your father's did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. The solemn part of that verse is that they were dead both spiritually and physically.
They heard the word, but it was not mixed with faith and with many. God was not well pleased, and that can carry through today. But the wonderful contrast is this is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. Oh, to have life and to realize spiritually we will never die. Isn't that a comfort? And we're here in this room. And we may not physically meet death either. Isn't that a wonderful thought?
Of the Lord coming and calling us away while we're yet alive. So there's a great contrast, is there not? And how we receive the word of God?
In the 11Th chapter, the Lord says, Do he die yet? Shall he live? You know your mother went home to be with the Lord. Is she dead? No, she's alive in the presence of the Lord. What a comfort.
Paul made it so distinct when he said I have a desire to depart and be with Christ. Far better. Far better than what? Wow. He was a man that went through a lot of trouble in this world, a lot of trials and like you say, the loss of loved ones. Which of us can't speak along that parallel and say, well, there's many things that we can be grieved about, but the loss of the loved ones with Christ. If I was to go to heaven and ask my wife to come back, what would she say?
You know what she'd say far better. And my desire would be to be there too. But the Lord says not yet. So we we wait at that time. So shall the night soon end. In what, brethren, blissful day glory. That's the wonderful thing that the Saint has before the soul. And the Lord would enlarge our hearts, may enlarge it more that we'd have the desire to be there.
01:10:22
Verse 50 doesn't mean not die physically. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. We know many there are many of the Saints that have died and we will too if the Lord doesn't come. But he's not talking about physical death, He's talking about spiritual death, isn't he?
You can say although they go through the physical death, they're still alive.
So the difference between the water and John four and the Lord says you'll never thirst again and the bread that will never hungry again. Can someone repeat that please?
Explain the difference between the water in John Four that the person that drinks shall never thirst, and the bread of life here that speaks of that the one that eats shall never hunger.
Alright, I don't know.
The expression the living water and the 4th of John is a figure of the Spirit of God.
As you get there in that 4th chapter.
And verse 14 The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well.
Of water springing up into eternal life or everlasting life. But in our chapter we have the Living Bread. So you have Living water in the 4th chapter, the figure of the Spirit of God. But in verse 51 we have the Living Bread, which of course is a figure of Christ himself.
These two things are necessary to be received for a person to enter into and know the blessedness of eternal life.
Go together, don't they? Because the Spirit of God is one that really brings us into the enjoyment of all that Christ is.
It's wonderful to think of it, the well of water springing up, that spirit of God. It's not only that we never thirst forever.
But it is a fountain of continual refreshment in the soul springing up.
And I'd just like to say because of what we have in the Old Testament.
Record of the Children of Israel.
That the water that flowed from the rock in the wilderness.
In the book of Numbers you find that the water had quit flowing because of murmuring of the children of Israel and sometimes believers.
Find that they are not satisfied because of things they have allowed in the light the spirit is quenched, and in that case Moses was told not to go strike the rock again, but to take the rod that was not his rod, but Aaron's rod, the high priestly rod.
And speak to the rock and it would give its water. Again, Moses didn't obey, but that was what he was told to do. And when we find ourselves that there's not that flow of refreshment in our lives, it's because of things we've allowed in our lives.
To reflect, to get into the Lord's presence, to judge it, and to speak to the rock. Go tell the Lord Jesus about it. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And then the water will flow again.
Is there some kind of continuity as to how these chapters?
One after another, we've spoken of John Three and there is getting life and then of the water and the bread. Or is that something that might be over our head?
01:15:06
OK.
You seem to get light, and then you seem to get the Spirit of God. Life in three you get this, and then eternal life that you you express there Son of man, must be lifted up. Whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Then the next chapter you get, you get the Spirit of God welling up in her as a source of of enjoyment.
That's I know the 7th chapter you get it flowing out to others, so I was just wondering if that would be help to have somebody give us the other continuity. I couldn't do it.
Power of worship in chapter 4 and the power of service in Chapter 7. But how can you really?
Have the Spirit manifest His power in you in service, unless you're really feeding on Christ.
You know what you have in the 6th chapter.
So in chapter 3 we're born of the Spirit. Chapter four in dwelt of the Spirit as a springing well springing fountain producing worship in the soul. And then Chapter 7, the energy of the Spirit in witnessing to the to others flowing out of the belly, the refreshment to others. We don't have it just for ourselves, but for others.
So we sing #127. How blessed a home, the Father's house, their love divine doth rest. What else could satisfy the hearts of those in Jesus? Bless His homemade hours, his Father's love, our hearts full portion given the portion of the first born Son, the full delight of heaven.
I'll blast a hold the father.
Behind the breath.
Why don't you satisfy?
Your honor.
Of the.
Jesus.
Oh.
Be all free, all in love and bring us strength as well.
We are to have a bright grass of a.
01:20:04
The sun came out.
I have tried to fall dream forever created.
By the day.
Do you feel bad?
And he our joy.
In heaven and.