Kentucky Conference: 2006
Table of Contents
John 10:1-18
Reading
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They mentioned the scripture out of John 10. I am the way, the Truth and the Life.
Maybe it would be profitable to take up John 10 and if we have the time to.
Go from there to John 15, which is the.
Results of salvation. The burden of truth.
Did you mean John 4? John 10? Do you mean John 14?
On the way the truth of life is in the 14th chapter. You mean John 10 or 14?
Oh yeah, let's let's take a look at the phone just.
John 14 is where I am. The way the truth and life, right? Yeah, and.
But I was thinking of the portion of John 10.
I am the door.
John Chan and the fact that he has a ninth verse Lamb in the door by me if any matter.
I am sure that Chuck and his prayer prayed to John 14 and we certainly could, uh, take up part of that. But I was thinking of the first part of John 10 down to the end of the 18th verse. And then if it be the mind of the president, take a part of John 14. And then possibly, I know we don't have time. 15th chapter is fruit bearing and John 10 is an entrance into the grace and the mercy of God. And that and John 14, of course, is what?
We had in our song, wasn't it the Father's house? I go to the 1St place, whatever is mine, the brother. And I was just thinking of the 1St 18 verses of John 10 primarily. That's right.
John, Chapter 10.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, either interest not by the door into the beautiful, but climb us up some other way, the same as the seas and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sea. To him the Porter open it, and the sheep hear the voice, And he calls his own seat by name, and leadeth them out. And when he put it forth his own seat he goes before them. And as she followed him, so they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sea. All that ever came before me are thieves and rappers. But the sheep did not hear us. Now I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture.
The thief cometh not, but for the steal, and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep, but he that is in hireling, and not the shepherd whose own the sheep are not. See if the wolf coming, and leave it the sheep and clear, and the wolf catches them and scatters the sheep. The heroin cleaves because he is in hireling and cares not for the sheep. I am the good senator, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
As a father knoweth me, Even so know I the Father, And I lay down my life to the sheep, and other sheep I have which are not of this bold them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one cold and one shepherd.
Therefore thus my father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. So man take us it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment if I received of my father.
We often sing, uh, 103, uh, we'll sing of the shepherd that died. Well, that's what we had in the.
First few versions of John Chambers here and verse 17 and 18.
The Lord Jesus Christ sent by the Father. Therefore does my Father love me because I made out the way.
00:05:06
The sheep falls in this chapter first one either or, if not by the door, into the sheepfold that climbeth up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. But he did entertain. By the door is the shepherd of the sheep. Sheepfold is Israel.
The door is the way of entrance. Had to be the true Messiah.
False Messiah may not enter properly.
And, uh, and uh, so the door of the sheep is the scriptural way, according to the Old Testament, for the Messiah to come to that sheepfold, which is Israel and enter in and.
And and those scriptures that refer to His first coming have all been fulfilled, haven't they? He answered by the door into the sheepfold.
And he came back that way, and the Porter, the Spirit of God, opened to him. He was born of the Spirit.
And all the scriptures that referred to His first coming as all the scriptures that referred to His second coming will be fulfilled. They haven't all been yet, but these first ones have all been fulfilled. The door is used in three ways in this chapter.
The door into the sheepfold, that's according to the Scriptures of the Old Testament. And then he's he says I'm the door of the sheep. He comes into the sheepfold where his sheep are. And not everyone that's a sheep, not everyone that was a Jew and that she pulled was one of his own. He call it his own by name and leadeth him out. He calleth I'm the door of the sheep the proper way. So he comes in the proper way into the sheep folds.
And then he finds his sheep there and he calls them out of that sheepfold into something which we call today Christianity. Of course, it hadn't been all revealed yet. And then in verse nine, I am the door. So the door of the shape. He's the way of exit for the sheep to leave the sheepfold, which is which is Judaism, and then enter into something which is.
What we know as Christianity, verse nine, I am the door by me. If any man entered in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. He goes in for worship and out for service. That's just a little outline of the first part of John 10, but you get the door in three ways, The door of entrance into the sheepfold, which is Israel, and the door of exit. The Lord was a feisty sheep there. He calls him by name.
I was just thinking correct this If this thought is wrong, does he ever call in scripture Judas by name? I don't think so.
I don't think he calls him by name because he wasn't one of his. He wasn't one of his sheep. He enters into the sheepfold. I he call it his own by name and leadeth him out. And I want to ask everyone here, has he called you by name? Because if not, you're not one of his sheep.
He speaks in the chapter before of those who were spiritually blind, the leaders in Israel in contrast to the one that he had healed there in the 9th chapter, and they were spiritually blind because they hadn't been with exercise reading the Old Testament scriptures that had prophesied of the Lord Jesus coming to Israel as their shepherd and as their Messiah. He said to them on another occasion, Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures.
And so they were blind in that way. If they had been reading the scriptures with exercise and searching things out the way they ought to have been, they would have recognized that this is the one who had come by the door. This is the one who had come according to the Old Testament prophecies. But they not only were blinded themselves, but they and didn't want to enter in, but they sought to hinder others who would have entered in. They were the ones that should have been standing for rectitude and righteousness.
00:10:03
And pointing the general populace in Israel to this one as the shepherd who had come by the door. And so I believe it just confirms what brother Chuck said, that the door here in the opening statements of our chapter is the Old Testament prophecies in the Lord Jesus came according as it was prophesied. It might be helpful just to look at a couple of those prophecies in connection with, particularly with his being the shepherd. Go to Genesis 49.
Genesis chapter 49 is in connection with Joseph of who is beautiful type of the Lord Jesus In the Old Testament, Genesis 49 and verse 22, Joseph is a fruitful bow, even a fruitful bow by a well whose branches run over the wall. The Archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him, and his bow abode and strengthened the arm of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. Now notice this from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel.
This is one of the Old Testament prophecies. This is the door that we're Speaking of in our chapter. Notice another one in Zechariah chapter.
Chapter 13.
Zechariah, Chapter 13.
And verse 7.
A Waco sword against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts, Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn my hand upon the little ones. Well, I think we see in the light of the New Testament and what we have in John 10 who these prophecies are really about. And so the Lord Jesus came that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. And it's very interesting in his presentation in Matthew where he's particularly presented to the Jews. There are more Old Testament prophecies in the book of Matthew.
Than any of the other of the four Gospels. Again he came. He entered in by the door.
When the Lord Jesus.
First came into this world. There was one John the Baptist who was baptizing.
And the, the low down in the nation of, of, of, of the Jews in that day, the downcast, the, uh, the outsider, the Republicans, the sinners, they came to John to be baptized. They came and, uh, acknowledged, uh, that they were with an unforged generation.
And we're baptized now in this uh, uh, third verse.
And he called us his own sheep by name. There were those that were there that had been baptized by John, who had confessed what they were, and they were ready and ripe for the Messiah.
And so those are the ones that he called by name. They had already confessed what they were. And that's what it takes from me. Romans UH-10 gives us that.
It's beautiful to reflect upon the author of John's Gospel.
Umm, that was the disciple whom Jesus loved. He takes, he takes that expression five times. It applies it to himself, and it really applies it to all of us who are his. He, He loves us all, but he appropriated that for himself. But when he said that one of you shall betray me.
I think the other said, is it I?
Is it I? But John doesn't, he said. Who is it?
Who is it? He knew it wasn't he. He knew him well enough to not say is that I? Because he knew it wasn't him. And that's beautiful to know him so well that we know his, that we're his and belong to him. And John knew that, didn't he?
00:15:12
That's really the, uh, force of the 39th verses. And in the preceding chapter when the Lord said for judgment, I have come into this world that they would see, not might see, and they would see might be made blind. In other words, there was a mix of reality and unreality and the Lord had come to draw that line, didn't we?
And so that's the judgment that he makes. And it's like a 10th chapter comes in and and now he's making a judgment as to who are the sheep and why not?
Very helpful in scripture to see that it is only a true child of God that is ever referred to as a sheep. All we like sheep have gone astray. And the natural man is likened to sheep because sheep are wayward and like their own way. Not that I've raised sheep or had anything to do with them, but from those that have. And so all we like sheep have gone astray. But I think it's important to realize that.
It is only a true believer who is referred to as a sheep in the word of God, and so he'll feed his flock like a shepherd, gather the lambs in his arms, and gently leave those that are with young. And I believe when the shepherd is brought before us in the various aspects in which we have it in Scripture and in the New Testament, it has to do with the individual love and care that the Lord Jesus has as the shepherd for each of his own.
A shepherd might have a vast flock, but she'd need individual care for the one creature that need to be cared for individually. So the shepherd goes through that flock and he has an individual carefully sheep. That's the one who died for us and cares for us.
That's what the expression by name brings out, because in the scripture, whenever it's by name, it's referring to one and only one individual.
You might have a class of many, but when it's by name, it's bringing out a one and only one individual within that class, and a personal and individual. And so it is the Lord Jesus as my shepherd. It is an individual relationship between us that's involved in it. And when the Lord Jesus calls them by name, he's referring to 1 by 1 individually calling. And so it should be with each one of us in the room.
This afternoon there should be that sense that the Lord Jesus knows my name. That is, he knows me as a one and only individual that has a relationship of heart between the two of us. And if we don't respond to that, then he will have to say, I know you're not in the coming day. And if he doesn't know us individually and personally, then someday he'll have to say, I know you're not.
But now is the opportunity for us to recognize and enjoy. He knows me by name.
Isn't that the meaning dawn of the Strait gate?
Only one person at a time goes through that gate.
And so it's an individual thing with everyone.
Salvation is not a mass situation.
And as you said, it's an individual thing and he knows each of us by name.
He says to the Jews that didn't believe.
He says in verse 27, verse 26, But she believed not. Because you are not of my sheep, as I said unto you, They were the they were sheep, they were Jews. He says later, I have other sheep which are not of this fold.
Not of the Jewish fold. And there was a Gentiles that would believe. But then he says, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life. They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. John 17. He tells us what that eternal life is. This is life eternal, that they might know thee.
Talking to his Father, the only true God and Jesus Christ, who now ascend to know Him, to know the Father and to know the Son is proof that you have eternal life. That's what eternal life is all about, isn't it?
00:20:15
It's a very touching scene, isn't it? To see Mary weeping by the sepulchre, grief stricken. They have taken away our Lord. We don't know where they took Him.
And then this gardener, she thought, appeared and he just said one word. He might have said, well, don't you know who I am? I would have spoiled the scene, wouldn't it? But he just says Mary. And then they catch the heart, her heartbeat where she says ribbon, I master of my heart. Well, that's the union. Now we've been brought into that. He can call us by name and we can.
Respond.
To him what she says. I just want to add this one correction you said because they have taken away the Lord. Well, that's not what she said. She said they have taken away my Lord. Makes it very personal, doesn't it? Another very enjoyable in the same respect is that the Lord Jesus goes into a cemetery and he says the one word Lazarus.
Imagine the power of calling by name.
A dead man.
You can't not respond if you're His. And so Lazarus comes forth. Amazing that no matter what, when the Lord Jesus calls at the day of the resurrection to those who are His sheep, every single one, dead or alive, is going to hear the voice and equally respond to it.
So he says in Isaiah 43, Fear not, for I have redeemed the I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mind. And Christianity is intensely individual, isn't it?
There is a collective side that we often speak of, and that's a precious side of things. But I think it's good to get a hold in our souls, brethren, that Christianity, as I say, is intensely personal. Every one of us are precious to the heart of God.
And I've enjoyed in the Millennial City in its description in a coming day, that not only does he speak there of the gates of Pearl and every Pearl was every several Pearl with one Pearl, and so on, Speaking of the church and so on, But we find there too, that the walls of the city are garnished with individual precious stones. And when we go back to the high priest and how he bear those stones with a name, each of the names.
Of the children of Israel on his breast. We can see that those stones speak of what we mean to his heart individually. Every one of us are precious to the heart of the Lord Jesus as individuals. And so he's called us individually has been brought out. Every one of us had to come as individuals. But when we get into the sheep for to the, uh, flock of God as one of his sheep, we don't get lost in the crowd, brethren.
We are individuals, maybe there's some of us here and we come from a large family and we feel like we're sort of lost in the crowd. I've talked in staying in homes to young people and boys and girls and ask them which end of the family do they come on and talk to a young fellow one time and uh, I said, are you the oldest in your family? And he said yes. And I don't appreciate it because the younger ones get all the favors. Well, maybe sometimes we feel like that in a large family. Maybe even a shepherd has difficulty meeting all the needs of his flock individually.
But not so with our Shepherd. He knows us individually, and not only does he know us in an outward way, He knows our at the very thoughts of our hearts. He knows our down sittings and our uprisings. He knows us our family backgrounds. He knows us from a past eternity. He watched our members being formed before we were born. And so I believe this is what we have in the thought of the Shepherd. It's the individuality that each one of us ought to enjoy.
In Christianity.
In verse three it says to him to whom? Because he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep to him.
The Porter openeth.
And the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And then when he put it forth, his own sheep he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
00:25:12
That's wonderful to realize that might have a dog and someone is challenging you. That dog is not yours. That dog is mine. OK, let's test them.
And so call them by name.
And, uh, when he's called my name, our, our dog is Honey bear. As soon as I say Honey bear, he knows who to go to because he knows his own master. And that's, that's so precious. Do you know him? If you don't know him, he doesn't know you.
And if he knows you, you know him as.
Beautiful as you were speaking earlier, Chuck, in regards to the full the Jewish fold. Isn't it interesting? And and the sheep hear his voice. They all hear his voice.
But there are several flocks in that fold that belong to other men. But this shepherd has a specific flock, and it says and he calleth his own. That's beautiful, isn't it? In this world there's many voices. Do we hear the voice of only one?
That's the voice of the Lord Jesus, and that's the only voice we should get. There's many voices as well, but he called us his own.
Sheep by name. That's so wonderful too. If you have a problem in your life and you're one of His sheep, then who's going to give you the guidance that you need to answer your problem? Your own sheep, your your own master, the shepherd, your own shepherd. And he will do so if you get your instruction from him.
We had a little experience.
I, I'm a city boy and I don't know much about farming, but we had a little experience that made us think of this, uh, portion of my wife and girls and I were visiting on a farm not long ago. And, umm, there were some sheep. And there, my girls and I, we went over to the fence and we tried to coax the sheep over. We even had some grass and different things in our hand and we, we tried to call the sheep. We had no idea if any of the sheep were named, but we just tried to coax them over and we had to give up after a while.
But what was interesting, after a while, the daughter of the owner of the, uh, establishment came out and she had some lettuce or some scraps from the kitchen in her hand and she went over to the fence and she called. Come Sally, come Sally. And there was an immediate response and one of those sheep stood up and came over. But what was interesting is all the other sheep followed too. Not just the one that was called by name, but all the other sheep that sheep when she responded to her Master, to the shepherdess, Why?
It had an effect on the others as well, and so I thought of it in connection with this. The Lord doesn't just call us, but as we've been saying, He calls us by name. But isn't it interesting that when we respond to that call, it can often have an effect on others? I'm thankful for those who I've seen respond to the voice of the Lord. Jesus has had a tremendous effect on me, just as those other sheep. It had an effect when the one sheep answered to her name. So no man liveth to himself and dieth to himself.
But again, I believe it shows how that God takes the things of nature and He applies them in a spiritual way so that you and I can understand very clearly what it is to have one who cares for us, what it is to have one who died for us.
I'm sure there are those in this room that have been in circumstances and had the Lord call them by name. I don't like to speak of myself, but I will know what took place. I was in a life and death situation and I was just about resigned to giving up my life. And the voice came. Ron, don't panic.
You know, that was such a, such a strengthening thing to my heart. Don't panic because that's exactly what I was doing to fight for life and to hear that voice above the noise of the water and to be delivered. So that's just an example, but I'm sure if others were to speak up, they've heard their name called.
00:30:09
Be delivered.
Beautiful picture of the fourth purse, isn't it?
He put forth his own sheep, but he goes before him.
So the whole pathway that we have before us has been gone before by 1.
Hebrews 4 in the last couple of verses and, uh, and that high priest, he's been touched by everything that we've been touched by and it ends up yet in the park, but he knows exactly what we've gone through. He knows exactly what we are going through. And so here we have a, he goes before them. So the path is laid out.
And do you think that in this particular portion they let them in a bad way, you know?
And he'll never lead us in a bad way either if we follow him.
It's interesting to say that he calls them by name, because in calling someone by name it implies also in the Word of God that you fully understand.
Exactly who it is that you're calling. It's not just the sound of a word in the word of God, but it's the sense of it. Adam was probably the most intelligent. I think he is the most intelligent man that's ever lived on the earth. And it's implied in the fact that Adam had the responsibility to name the animals only. He, none of us is there with what we know would have known enough to properly name them as to what they are in their characteristics are.
But the Lord Jesus, he knows us individually and he knows everything about us. And how wonderful to no one who knows everything, he'll never discover something in us that will, can I say, say, oh, if I'd known that, I'm sorry, but we wouldn't have a relationship or anything like that. But it's not true in the opposite direction. Many times at first, we don't really know his name.
But we know his voice in the very previous chapter, the man in John 9, when the chapter begins, he's blind. He doesn't see, and he doesn't really know who the Lord Jesus is. But the Lord Jesus speaks to him and his blindness, and he hears his voice and he hears the result of that voice. And then when people talk to him, he doesn't say, oh, I know who he is and so on. But he knew his voice.
From that point on, and in fact, when the Lord Jesus comes individually and speaks to him, and he says, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
His response is, who is he, Lord?
That I may believe he knew the shepherd's voice. He responds to the shepherd's voice. The shepherd had drawn him in such a way that he now calls him Lord, but he didn't really know him yet as the Son of God. As soon as he's presented, then he can say yes. A little example of it. I was with my youngest grandson who's was just last week, was eight weeks old. That child knows his mother and his father's voice.
If you ask the child, well, what's their name, he wouldn't have a clue. He wouldn't have a clue. But he knows the voice and he responds to the voice. He doesn't really know my voice in the same way he doesn't respond to me. How wonderful it is that when we receive the Lord Jesus, when we become one of his sheep, as little as we may know, we know his voice and it draws a response from our hearts and we get to gradually learn. And so we learn to say Lord.
As we should we learn to know him, the Son of God, and of course he has hundreds of names and we'll be learning them all for all eternity because of the Infinity or the greatness of his person. Well, we have all eternity which you might say no his names and will do so, but at least we get to start and enjoy his voice and respond to it, no matter how little we may know in the beginning. It's so beautiful down how.
He says a man that is called Jesus, open mine eyes later, let's say a cell of him. He's a prophet.
00:35:09
And.
They they said some derogatory things about the Lord. He says here's a marvelous thing that he have opened my eyes. Now we know that someone that's born blind has never had his eyes open. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. He's making progress, isn't he? He makes me and then Lord and then.
I believe so wonderful to come to know him.
And a stranger's voice. Will they not follow because they know not?
The voice of strangers, you know, that's true of a Christianism. You hear a strange voice in Christianity or in the systems of men, and a true Christian doesn't follow it because it's a strange voice and he knows not the voice of a stranger. And we can be thankful for that, that we're preserved by the power of the Spirit of God from being deceived by a strange voice.
I think it's the Spirit of God.
I, I believe that's right because often, and I think it's helpful when you read through Scripture to realize that the unnamed man is often a picture of the Spirit of God. For instance, Abraham's servant, who isn't named in that chapter is a picture of the Spirit of God going to fetch a bride, uh, for Christ as he goes and brings Rebecca back, not named in that chapter. And you have several examples in the Gospels too, the man bearing the picture of water.
Who led the deci who the disciples followed to the house again, the water is a picture the word the man's a picture of the spirit. Another example that comes to mind is when the Samaritan picked up the man and took him to the inn. He said to the innkeeper take care of him. The picture of the Spirit of God taking care of his own in the in the assembly that in as a picture the assembly the man a picture of the Spirit of God again, he's not named there and so I believe that the quarter here.
The picture of the Spirit of God and it's beautiful to see that not only did the Lord Jesus come in accordance with the Old Testament prophecies, but he came in the power of the Spirit of God. He was begotten of the Holy Ghost. Umm, as far as his incarnation, we find that the Spirit of God comes upon him in the form of a dove to mark him out before his public ministry. And the voice declare, this is my beloved son.
He could read that portion in the Old Testament prophesying of him that the Spirit of God was upon him, for he had anointed him to preach the gospel to the poor, and so on we find with his death, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God.
As to his resurrection, he says he was put to death in the flesh, quickened in the Spirit. His whole life and work was one in accordance with the Old Testament prophecies and in the power of the Spirit of God.
I'd like to just say this about a name too, before we pass on. And that is that you often find in scripture that those who were brought into a place of blessing often had a name change. And so we've been Speaking of how a name is very individual. But I would suggest too, that a name change is a brings a person into a place of, of personal communion and fellowship that is not enjoyed by any other.
The reason I say that is because the promise to the overcomer, I think it was in Pergamos, was that they would receive a new name that no man knoweth, saving he that hath received it.
It's something that is just shared between the person that gives it and the person that receives it. I know you've heard me use this illustration before, but I'll I'll repeat it as I travel and visit in the homes of many of the Saints. I find that often there is a special little name that is enjoyed often just between a husband and a wife. There's a name perhaps, that the husband uses in referring to his wife.
And it would be very inappropriate for me or anyone else to enter that home.
And to address the wife by that name, no, it's something that is enjoyed just between the one who gave it and the one who has received it. It has to do with personal relationship. And so, brethren, we have been brought into this place of very individual personal communion and relationship. Now the question is, do we speak by the grace of God to enjoy that personal fellowship and relationship? There's no excuse, brethren, for being out on the fringes of the flock, so to speak, if we're not enjoying that personal communion and fellowship.
00:40:32
It's not a lack on his part. He's made full provision for us to enjoy it. The question is, are we seeking to follow closely to the Shepherd? Are we walking by his side, following him?
A sheep who wanders off on its own from the path and from following the shepherd. It's still loved by the shepherd, but it doesn't enjoy the same communion, the same contact with the shepherd as the sheep that are seeking to follow closely.
No, it is.
Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. He was the door of the sheepfold. And to him the Porter opened that door, and he entered in according to the Old Testament prophecies as to His coming. Now he's the door of exit for the sheep. And then he says, All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers. But the sheep did not hear them.
And if you turn to Acts chapter 5, we have that referred to. When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them. Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space. And he said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves.
What she intend to do is touching these men. For before these days rose up through this boasting himself to be somebody, to whom a number of men about 400 joined themselves who was slain, and all as many as obeyed him were scattered and brought to nought. After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him. He also perished, and all, even as many as obeyed Him, were dispersed.
Now I say to you, refrain from these men and let them alone. For if this council or this work to be of men, it will come to naughty, but if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest happily ye be found even to fight against God. Those are good words from Gonalio. Uh, they didn't hearken to them, but uh, here he says, all that ever came before me are thieves and robbers.
And the Gamaliel refers to a couple of them.
But the sheep, his sheep, the true sheep, did not hear them.
And then once he's gone into the sheepfold and entered by the Spirit of God, leading according to the word of God, and then he leaves his own sheep out for what?
Verse nine, I am the door this time it's the door of entrance into the new order of things that He was to introduce by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved. First time that word is used, we use it all the time. We're saved now we're believers to Him.
He shall be saved, and he shall go in and out.
And fine pasture, it's not a sheepfold, it's not a confinement, it's not something that has a wall around it, but it's a pasture that and he's the shepherd and he leads his sheep in in that pasture and they follow him. I'm the door. If by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved. So now we've entered into the fullness of blessing that we have in Christianity.
That's what's referred to in verse nine. He shall be saved, shall go in and out and find pasture. A little bit later he says in verse 16, other sheep I have which are not of this fold. I'm also on the spring and they shall hear my voice and they shall be one. It says in the King James a very serious blunder in the translators. 1 flock. It should read 1 shepherd. They the fold refers to Judaism.
00:45:11
And so to say there shall be one fold and one shepherd, that's that's wrong. One flock, the fold is Judaism in a confined place. A Sunday school teacher who was teaching the children about what does that mean? There should be one fold. And she said, well, that refers to some men that are out in Venus or on Mars or another planet. She had no idea that referred to the Gentiles. That referred to the Gentiles.
But, uh, that was a very ignorant teacher, to say the least. There shall be one flock and one shepherd, and we belong to that one flock. We don't belong to that one fold. He's taken his own out of that and brought them into umm. Now there's no June or Gentile, but one family and one flock actually is that. Could you say it's such a transfer from Lowell to Grace? Yes.
Yes, wonderful thing, liberty of grace. The law is a confinement, so to speak. And grace is freedom, isn't it? But grace is a person. And so it's not just one flock, but one shepherd. Because it's not that the sheep are scattered, the bull denotes that an enclosure and the sheep kept together because of a wall or a fence. But in Christianity it's a person, it's the shepherd. And in the measure in which the sheep are attracted to the per the shepherd.
The measure in which were attracted to the person of Christ. In that measure we'll find ourselves in fellowship with one another again when we think of a flock of sheep, a sheep, sheep that go off and wander on their own, Not only are they not following the shepherd, they're no longer in the company of their fellow sheep. But in the measure in which the heart goes out to the shepherd, not because we're enclosed by the law or some other confinement, but in the measure in which our hearts go out to the person.
The Lord Jesus spoke these words publicly. This is not yet when He went with his disciples apart into the upper rhythm in chapter 13, but these were spoken in a, can I say, a mixed audience of people. And so he tells, He presents himself here in these verses, and then you see the response in verse 19. There was a division, therefore among the Jews for these things. They heard them.
They listen to them and divided them, and they start to talk about it. And many of them said, He hath the devil, he's mad, why hear ye him, And so on.
My point in it is this.
They only knew to talk about him.
And we're divided in what they had to say about him. The contrast is found in the 23rd Psalm, where it starts out, The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want he maketh me to lie down in green pastures, and so on. But in that short little sum, about midway through, it changes from talking about the Lord and what he was. And it gets to a point when it says, Thou art with me.
In other words, he starts to talk directly to the shepherd and have a personal enjoyment of the shepherd. And it's the same way here this afternoon. We can talk for an hour and a half together about the shepherd, but the real intent of the Spirit of God is that as we talk about him, our hearts would become that individual. When we in our hearts we say shepherd Lord, and enjoy a sense even while together.
Of Himself speaking to us and being able in our hearts to give thankfulness of response to himself. But the end of you might say they spent their hour and a half or whatever listening to what the Lord Jesus said, but in the end all they could say was he said there was no personal response to his voice. But always, even when we're together, brother. And the intent of God is that.
We listen, we hear what's being said by somebody saying it, but God wants us to get it down in such a way that it's as if it comes directly from himself to our own heart. That we want to listen this afternoon to the shepherd's voice, not the people speaking, not to the sounds of this brother saying this and that brother saying the other, but we want to listen to the shepherd's voice and respond to his heart for us and care for us this afternoon and so.
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When he says I this and I that, we want to respond. Yes, Lord.
That's something like what he said to Philip Done. Hast I've been so long time with thee, Philip, and that thou not know me?
You know he had been with him for about 3 years at that point.
Good question for each of our heart.
There are three outstanding comments made about the sheep in this chapter, which I think are very precious. We find in verse four, they follow and brethren, it's a lot easier to follow someone than just have them give us the directions, isn't it? I again, I've told this story, but I remember one time we were in a sea and I think it was Saint Louis and we were trying to find the home we were to visit in and was when I wasn't that familiar with Saint Louis years ago and.
Finally I swallowed my pride and stopped and asked for directions and.
The lady that came out to give me directions, she said something like this. She said, well, you go down three blocks and you turn right and you'll go a block or two and then you'll see a light and you'll turn left. And when you get to the Y, take the right Y. And by that time she knew by the look on my face, I wasn't taking all that in. She said that's OK, I'm going that way, just follow me. And it was a lot easier to have her give me direction, have to follow her than just have her give me directions. And the Lord has done both. He's given us infallible guidelines in His Word. His Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. But then He goes before.
He says just follow me. It's about the last words he said to Peter in John's gospel, Follow thou me. But then you have another statement made in the 14th verse. Not only do they follow him, but they know him.
Now, brethren, only in the measure in which we follow and walk closely with Him, are we going to know Him.
You might have a friend and you've known that friend for a short time, but the more you walk with that friend and enjoy communion, the better you get to know that person. You say, I thought I knew that person when I first met them ten years ago, but boy, I really didn't know them relative to what I know now. And so as you walk with somebody, you get to know them. And then the next comment, which we've made some remarks on is in verse 27. Uh, my sheep hear my voice and so.
These things are, are precious, but they're practical too. Are we, uh, seeking to follow him? If we are, we'll get to know him. If we get to know him, we're going to hear, to understand, or we're going to hear his voice. We're going to know the shepherd's voice. If you have a friend and you spend a lot, a lot of time in their company, why when that friend calls on the phone, you don't have to ask who's on the phone. You say, I know that voice because I've spent time in that person's presence.
And only in the measure in which we spend time in His presence are we going to know the shepherd's voice. So these are three outstanding comments made about the sheep. Are they character really practically characteristic in our life?
Like to just point out an example of it, what Tim just said with respect to the Lord Jesus himself in verse 15.
Uh, he says, as the father knoweth me, Even so know I the father and I lay down my life for the sheep. Immediately after saying I know the father, he says I lay down my sheep, I lay down my life for the sheep. Why would he lay down this life for the sheep? In that in this context, I know my father, I know my father's heart for those sheep. I know what he cares for, how he feels about them, because I know my father.
And the Lord Jesus, you might say, he knew the Father perfectly. And so he says, My father wants those shapes. My father loves those sheep. I'll lay down my life for them. Anyway, he heard the Father's voice too. This commandment have I received of my father. Look at verse 14 in the King James. I'm going to read it in Mr. Darby's translation.
And the context, the the real meaning is very deep and rich. Verse 14 I am I'm reading Darby. I am the Good Shepherd.
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And I know those that are mine comma and of and am known of those that are mind comma as the father knows me and I know the father. Now just let that sink in. Do you really understand that? He says I know those that are mine have known of those that are mine as the Father knows me and I know the father.
I pondered that and pondered it and pondered it and I don't know. So I can really fathom it right now. Do you get the point I'm making? It's quite different than the King James.
He says I am the Good Shepherd and I know those that are mine and am known of those that are mine. How does he know them as the Father knows me and I know the Father? Tremendous knowledge, Tremendous knowledge.
Very deep. You remind me, Chuck, of a good verse that John wrote in his first epistle in the last chapter. I've read this at home many a time, but it it talks about knowledge and I'll read it here first, John.
520.
We could read 19 as well.
We know that we are of God and the whole world lies in wickedness. There's some knowledge that we have, as John says it.
And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding that we may know comes from God.
What the one you were talking about while ago?
Giving us an understanding that we may know him that is true. Well, who's the true one?
It's a it's a complex thing to me here and we are in him. That is true even in his Son Jesus Christ. I and my father are one who says this is the true God and eternal life. You're mentioning about that eternal life earlier in this meeting.
Just wanted to go back to that because I think what uh, brother Chuck just brings out in this verse is particularly brought out in the 17th chapter. Any the Lord Jesus prayer is connected with that knowing because it says in the right beginning of his prayer, this is life eternal that they might know the the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent.
God wants us to know Him in such a way that He has given us a life. We call it eternal life. He has given us a life which is capable of entering into what He is in His heart and in His nature.
We weren't born with it. We had a knowledge of God in creation, but we didn't know God as we know Him now until we were born again. And through new birth we received the life of the family of God. We received the life of Christ, and consequently we can know our God. It's life eternal to know Him. We have a life that loves as God loves.
We have a life that is pure as God is pure in His Holiness and in his character. And so we we are brought to enter into that and just one extra comment about it. The lot, the knowing that is being talked about is not in the mind. True knowledge in Scripture gets down into the heart that you might understand in your heart. And if I don't have a heart like God.
I'll never know him. You can read the Bible forever or you're not allowed to because you've got a short life, but your knowledge of facts is not the knowledge of God. And so in Ephesians chapter one where it really brings some of it out, it's hard knowledge. That's where knowledge has to reside in us. It's not in the mind, it's in the heart. And so when you say a man loves his wife, he may know 50 facts 1,000,000 facts about her, but knowing is knowing her heart.
Then you say, well, he knows her heart, He really knows her. And if you don't know somebody's heart, you don't really know you know you know about him, but you really can't say you know them. But with God we've been brought to know him, and this is life eternal. So. So we know the Father as the Son knows the Father, and we know the Son as the Father knows the Son, and we have that same nature and life.
01:00:20
That's what life eternal is that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent and it's not a life that's forever. I mean all everyone that's been created of the human race will live forever, but some in hell, they they don't have eternal life. They don't have that nature, but we do so that that's really what's in that verse, isn't it? And in Ephesians chapter 3 in his prayer. Well, the working of the Spirit of God in US that we might enter into this. It doesn't stay that we can comprehend it in its fullness that is.
Well, you can know something without having the same capacity of perhaps the one who has communicated it to you. And so it says we know the love of God. And then when it says the height, heights and depth and breadth and so on, that really isn't talking about the love aspect of it, but it is the fact that we know our God. We have the same nature and character, even though God is infinite.
And capacity, we'll never know the fullness of that, but we can still know Him. We can still know Him even though mentally we will never comprehend. We know the Lord Jesus will always know him, but we have to stop short of saying that we can comprehend Him and understanding and all that He is. Only God knows that and can know that. But God says we'll know. You'll not know that. You'll never know that.
But you can know it uses the word apprehend in Philippians. Uh, about that kind of a thing I follow after.
If that I may apprehend. He doesn't say comprehend. I I think we can't do that but apprehend.
That for which I have been apprehended or arrested of God. God wants us to know. That's beautiful. Yeah. But I wanted to, I wanted to add what you spoke on in, in, in Pella.
Uh, I didn't, I didn't, I wasn't there when you spoke on it, but I got the tapes and I enjoyed it so much. Umm, the first ten of these 615 which in his own time, the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in its own time the blessed and only ruler shall show. I'm reading Darby again. The king of those that reign and Lord of those that exercise lordship who only.
Has immortality.
Well, don't we have immortality? Not in the sense that spoken of here. This is only true of Deity, who only has immortality dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen nor is able to see, whom the honor and eternal might even. That's what you're talking about, God, that which is beyond the creature.
That's Matthew 1127, isn't it?
No man knows the sun saves the Father. And then I'm curious. Yeah, Yeah. But you can't go beyond that. But then how beautiful the next statement. And no man know if the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son does reveal him. How beautiful that is God.
There's another nice verse to bring into the picture, and that's John 637 where it says all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
We don't know it, but we have to do it the Father first. We thought we had to do with the Lord in accepting Him as our Savior and to be brought into eternal blessing. But here the Father.
Brings us to the sun, and he doesn't reject the one of us.
Now to introduce the thought that there's no such a thing as eternal security, you have to turn a blind eye to.
Chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. What comfort, what rest, what peace we can enjoy today in our relationship. Eternal life is not something we have gained or deserved. It's it's given to us, isn't it? That new nature, that dairy nature of God himself. But there's always.
01:05:08
An aspect of truth that goes beyond any of us and that's only known by God Himself.
That's the portion you just read in the 6th chapter of.
Nor can.
Referred to us, but uh.
I think it's worth just going and looking at it for a moment in Ephesians chapter 3.
Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 18.
May be able to comprehend with all the Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height.
And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
And it's verse 19 sometimes verse 18 is connected with the 19th verse as if it's talking about the love, which I don't believe that it is, but the point here is verse 19 is and in addition to know the love of Christ and then it says which.
But I could know it and I can worship. Read the end of verse 19.
And to know that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.
Can you tell them that? No, never been able to.
The heavens of heavens cannot contain thee, and then it says that ye should be filled with all the fullness of God. It's amazing.
That's amazing.
Just just for maybe the young people God has so made us.
Even without the question of sin, God has so made us that nothing in the visible creation will ever fully satisfy the desires of our heart.
In Ecclesiastes said, he set the world in their hearts. In one sense, that means that the world is too small and all that it contains is too small to satisfy the earnings of the human heart.
There's only one thing that God has made or not. I don't know if I should choose the word made, but there is only one thing that God has presented to us that is sufficiently great to satisfy the human heart, and that's himself in the person of the Son. And that's great enough so that with you can just feel the heart to overflowing forever. And if you put all the fullness of God in, the vessel is too small to contain it.
But oh, it's great to fill it and overflow it and just keep overflowing it for eternity. And so it will be we're just little in one sense, little tiny vessels, although God has given us a nice capacity as a creature, but as it were, he, he just will keep filling that vessel forever to overflow. And that very overflow produces in our hearts of worship for himself that will go on without without stock on large day mornings. Sometimes some of us sometimes are filled to.
Our hearts are overflowing with himself and often times after the hour is over, a little bit beyond, and our thoughts go to lunch in the afternoon and this and that. Well, the worship in a practical sense is kind of put aside for a little while. But any in heaven, it won't be so. It won't be so. We'll enter into a state of worship that will be unending and uninterrupted. Would you?
Please explain the last three verses of John 9.
I asked the question.
The last three verses of John 9.
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Read it aloud, please.
John 9 verse 39 And Jesus said for judgment, I am come into the world that they would see not might see and they would see might be made blind.
And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard those words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If you were blind, ye would you should have no sin. But now you say, we see.
Therefore your sin remaineth.
Umm to explain those verses you have to say what the whole chapter is about, but try to be very brief and what those verses mean. This chapter is about a man that's physically blind and the Lord Jesus gives him his physical eyesight and in the same process it gives him spiritual eyesight so that he can see and know the Lord Jesus at the same time. There are other people in this chapter.
Who have their physical eyesight, but they are spiritually blind. They begin the chapter in spiritual blindness and they end the chapter in blindness. But they said in judgment upon the Lord Jesus, we see this man is a nobody. He claims to be something and he is not. And so the Lord Jesus himself was the test of mankind. He was the light that came into the world.
If man has eyesight, he will see him and respond to him. And so for judgment he came because they saw him. He was perfect light, but they proved and his he was the judgment of them. Because they were blind spiritually, morally, they didn't recognize who he was. And so he says that they would see, not may see. That was the blind man.
In the beginning of the chapter who was also spiritually blind and we've noticed in this reading how gradually his his eyesight was open and so he says that they would see might be blind. The Pharisees said they saw but in truth they were blind. Eyesight in the word of God is always connected with faith and if you if it says a man sees it implies that he has faith and if a man is blind, he's blind because.
He does not have faith. The wisest so-called people living on the planet earth at this hour are the most blind men that live in this world at this time. And they are blind because they do not believe, they do not have faith. And if you do not have faith, it is impossible to see and impossible please God too. It's impossible to please God without faith and it's impossible to see Him, to know Him.
Without faith. And so he says, some of the Pharisees heard him say these words. They heard the words and they said, are we blind? Also? They could send through what he said that he was talking about them in some way. And they they were saying, are you calling us blind? Are you saying we don't see? And he said to them, if you were blind, you should have no sin. That is if you do not, if you truly have a reason to be blind like the man in the beginning of the chapter.
He Washington, it was of no fault of his own. It says who? Who sends this man or his parents? And he says neither the man nor his parents, but that the glory of God and God was going to do a work to his glory. And so he said.
If you had taken the position of blindness, I could have opened your eyes, as it were, But you didn't take that position. You said you see, and because you say you see.
You remain, and they do remain. In the end of the chapter. They're still blind and a man remains. God will work with the blind man.
But the problem is the man that says I see who's really blind.
And that man is the man who says I see who is truly blind is the man who is without faith, who do not does not believe. And the world is full of blind people because they say we see and they will not. But the world by God's grace, God works with blind people and gives them their sight. But they're the ones that say one thing I know that there whereas I was blind that was this man one thing I know that there are size line. Well, he says now I see and so.
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Someone comes up to me and he gives me a whole lot of arguments about believing the Bible and what it says and it's truth and all the rest of it. And I can say to that person one thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see he's not going to convince me with all the arguments in the world that the Bible is not true and Christ isn't true. I see and so do you if you know the Lord Jesus, all the arguments in the world that Satan may use it to try to shake the face of a person, but the reality that simplicity of the situation is.
I see, I see, I know he's my Lord, He's my savior. I see all that you say to me. The man may say, well, I see, but I can say in my heart He's blind.
Whereas I was blind, now I speak.
2:38.
230-823-8238.
The Exodus
Gospel—J.N. Hyland
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Decide for Christ today and God's salvation, see, yields, soul and body, heart and will to Him who died for thee. You know I have given out this hymn many, many times on occasions like this, but I think this is probably the first time I have ever given it out at the beginning of a gospel meeting. Usually I have felt it was appropriate to sing at the end of a gospel meeting when the message had already been presented.
Do you know, I was pressed in my soul tonight as I waited for the hour to approach, to realize that time is of the essence tonight, and that we might not have until 8:00 to decide for Christ. And so I felt pressed to give this him out. And if there's someone here and you do not know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you have not done what this Him exhort us to do.
I would urge you that at the beginning, not at the ending, of this gospel meeting.
But at the beginning of this gospel meeting, you would come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior.
Because this Gospel meeting will probably end around 8:00, but there is no guarantee that this Gospel meeting will ever will can necessarily conclude in the way that Gospel meetings usually conclude. This Gospel meeting may conclude with the preacher and many in this room being raptured to heaven, and when that happens, the door is going to be closed.
There will be no use singing decide for Christ today because the door of mercy.
And grace and opportunity and invitation will be forever closed. And so as we stand and sing this hymn, I want you to think about what we are singing. And I say, if you're not saved, decide for Christ. Not just today, but right now. Let's stand and sing this if someone will start it.
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Let's ask God's help and blessing our blessed God and Father how thankful we are this evening for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank Thee that that Blessed One is indeed the Savior of sinners. We thank Thee that there is salvation being offered to those who are lost and guilty and on the road to hell. And we're thankful for the work of the Spirit that is still going on in this world. And now is this gospel hour is upon us here in this building.
Our We would cry to Thee, our God and Father, for help and blessing. We pray that Christ might be presented in all His loveliness as the Savior of sinners. We pray that there might be a work of Thy Spirit to turn souls from darkness to light, to open the eyes of the blind, to give spiritual sight. Our God, we know that the work is dying tonight, but we thank thee that thy delight is to bless and to bless the Sinner. So we ask, by help and blessing. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and for his glory.
Amen.
Would like to begin this evening by connecting a number of portions of the Word of God. The first one is in Exodus chapter 12.
Exodus chapter 12 and verse one.
And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months, It shall be the first month of the year to you. And then turn over the page to the 14th chapter.
And verse one. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before pie hot broth be between migdal and the sea, over against Thal zefan before it before it shall ye encamp by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, they are entangled in the land in the wilderness, the wilderness have shut them in. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he shall follow after them, and I will be.
Honored upon Pharaoh and upon all his hosts, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord, And they did so. And then in the New Testament, in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews, Chapter 11.
Hebrews Chapter 11 and verse 23.
By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the King's commandment. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.
For he had respect under the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, pre endured us. Seeing him who is invisible through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the first born should touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians are saying to do, were drowned, and then go over to Acts chapter 4.
Acts chapter 4 and verse 12. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. I want to read one more verse back in Hebrews Chapter 7.
Hebrews Chapter 7 and verse 25.
Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him. Well, these might seem like strange verses to connect at the beginning of a gospel meeting. And in fact I would just make this qualification before the meeting begins. And that is that some of these scriptures we're going to take a little bit out of their context, and others will forgive me because we want tonight to present the simplicity.
00:10:22
Of the gospel of Christ. We want to present the Savior of sinners from these verses that we have read together. This has been scheduled as a gospel meeting, and it has been scheduled as a gospel meeting because the hearts of many are stirred tonight to think that there may be those who pass amongst us as being saved and who are not real. And tonight I trust that every one of us will open our ears to hear what God has to say to us.
And so we need to listen, We need to pay attention, We need to take heed to what God has said. And I read these verses because, you know, sometimes God allows circumstances and experiences in our lives that open up to us, the scripture, in a very real way. And I want to speak of the children of Israel coming out of Egypt and crossing the Red Sea.
Because just a few days ago I had the opportunity to stand on the banks of the Red Sea, very close to where the children of Israel probably crossed from Egypt to to Uh, to the Sinai Desert, and it stirred my soul. We went past the place on the banks of the Red Sea called the Wells of Moses, and to stop there is very stirring because there are actually 12 plugged up wells there.
In that area, and you can very quickly grasp that this may well have been the site of ancient Elam.
Where the children of Israel, after they crossed the Red Sea, came to that Oasis that God provided for them.
Where there were three score and 10 palm trees and 12 wells of water. And for a week, every morning and every afternoon during the Bible conference that the brethren from Cairo hosted there on the banks of the Red Sea, I would sit and look back toward Egypt. And I say my soul was stirred. And these verses became very real to me as I thought of that time when God brought his people out of the land of Egypt. And I believe there are great lessons that we learned in connection.
With God's provision, by going back to these scriptures that we have read together. We didn't read much back here in the Old Testament because I suppose that most of us, if not all of us here this evening are very, very familiar with what we refer to, often as the Exodus of the children of Israel. But just to go back in thought to their history, we know that the children of Israel were under the ******* of Pharaoh and Egypt.
They were slaves in Egypt. It's a very graphic picture of what we are by nature. We are born into this world as sinners. We are under the ******* of Pharaoh, a picture of Satan. You know, it's interesting that there were various enemies that the people of God, the children of Israel, encountered at various times in their history, and those enemies all speak to us in some way of the work of the enemy Satan.
Because tonight we have a powerful enemy. And I want to tell you, Satan is not your friend tonight. Don't listen to the enemy. God has a message of love and forgiveness and blessing, but the great work of the enemy is to distract you. Tonight, when the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they had an enemy called Amalek. An Amalek brings before us the work of the enemy, seeking to hinder the walk of the people of God with God in the wilderness.
When they entered the land later on the land of Canaan, there were many enemies that they faced and it pictures to us the work of Satan seeking to keep the believer from enjoying what is rightfully his in Christ. But I believe that Pharaoh, who was the enemy here at this point in their history is a picture to us of the enemy Satan seeking to keep souls from coming under the good.
And blessing of redemption and deliverance. And you know, tonight the enemy Satan is here.
And he does not want you to come under the good of redemption and deliverance. He wants to keep you lulled so that you go on complacently to a lost eternity. But all I want to tell you, as we said in giving out to him at the beginning, don't put off salvation. How shall we escape if we neglect put off so great salvation? And so we find the children of Israel. They were slaves. They were in *******.
00:15:23
The way of the transgressor is hard. Satan is a hard taskmaster.
In fact, it's very interesting if we were to read the account here to find that the time came.
When Pharaoh wouldn't even allow them to have the straw, they had to go out and gather their own straw.
But they had to keep up the tally of bricks, because Satan only wants us for what he can get out of us.
God wants us for what He can give us. The Lord Jesus wants us for what he can shower upon us.
But the enemy, Satan, only wants us for what it can get out of what he can get out of us.
On the 7th of June this summer, I was with Garvin Seymour on the streets of Port of Spain, Trinidad. Port of Spain. Trinidad is just a big third world city, a compression of humanity and heat and crime.
And we were on our way to speak at a school.
And I realized as we were walking up the street at 10:30 in the morning that there was a problem.
And that there was a man following me who was far from friendly. Brother Garvin was talking on a cell phone to the brother we were staying with. The brother knew we were in transit between appointments and called to see if we were all right.
But I realized there was a problem. In fact, I purposely slowed down a couple of times and the man would go ahead of me and then when we would walk normal pace, he would lag behind.
When you travel in 3rd world countries in these cities you develop a sixth sense and even though there may be hundreds of people.
On the street around you, you develop a sense where you keep track of those that are closest to you.
The minute the call was terminated on the cell phone, this man attacked me from behind.
If I hadn't known he was coming and braced myself, he probably would have smashed my head on the pavement.
The problem is in a city. In a country like that, there's no one to help you.
The shop vendors are either in cahoots with the bandits.
Or they're afraid for their own lives.
I won't tell the whole story, but we realized very quickly that there was nobody to help us.
And we realized that our only hope was to try to make it to the school that we were going to. And this school has a probably a 10 foot fence with barbed wire on the top and a guard with a gun at the gate. And we knew if we could get there, we were safe and I could see it about half a city block ahead.
We did make a run for it amid gunfire.
It's only a mercy of the Lord that we ever made it.
The police were called and to make a Long story short, for a few moments they apprehended those that man and his accomplice. I won't go into the details, but I want to make this point.
That when we later on went to the police station to give a report and the police came in and this man got away in the end.
But when the police came in and you can just picture a big room, a big police station and a coming and going and lots of confusion and noise. And these policemen said the man was $0.10.
And you could have felt a ripple go around that room.
$0.10.
And I said to the officer behind the desk, what does this mean?
He said this man is a notorious hug on the street.
His name by the police is California is $0.10.
And he has called $0.10.
I thought that's the enemy. That's the enemy tonight. Tonight there's an enemy that will drag your soul down to hell.
Can I say it for a dime?
Satan is not your friend.
00:20:03
But you know, the wonderful story here is that God heard the groanings of the children of Israel.
And God said he was going to deliver his people, but if he was going to deliver his people, it had to be.
In a way that made them feel two things, their guilt and his provision for them. And I want to impress upon our souls tonight the fact that that we have a great need. If you're without Christ tonight, you are a Sinner.
But Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. But let's be clear, There's not a man on the earth that doeth good and sinneth. Not all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none good. No, not one. Those are the words of God from God's holy word.
And so God said he was going to deliver his people.
But first of all, there had to be a sacrifice, because again, God teaches us all through His word that if there is going to be blessing, there must be the death of an innocent victim. And we didn't read the 12TH chapter, but we find there that the Passover lamb had to die, that the blood had to be shed, and the Passover lamb and the shedding of its blood was just to the heart of God, a pale reflection and a feeble foreshadow.
Of the time when the Lord Jesus would go to Calvary's cross and offer himself there as that sacrifice. We don't have to wonder what the Passover speaks to us of because in First Corinthians chapter 5 it tells us Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. The Lord Jesus is the true Passover and tonight the Lord Jesus has died on Calvary's cross He gave himself.
I'm thankful that I can stand beside the Apostle Paul.
And I can say the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself.
For me, can you say that tonight? And so we find that there were very careful instructions given. And again, it's not my thought to speak on the Passover, but simply to say that when the Passover, the Lamb was slain in the proper way, and the blood put on the door and the family inside that house, they were safe from the judgment that fell. At that time, God pronounced judgment. He said that the first born would die.
If the blood wasn't on the door, was God fooling around? Indeed, God was not fooling around.
It tells us, if we were to read these chapters, that the moment came when the judgment did fall.
And it was only those who were sheltered by the blood of the Passover lamb.
That were spared because God had said, when I see the blood, I will Passover you. And for a moment we just want to stress the importance of the blood of Christ, because it's the blood of Jesus Christ his Son that cleanses from all sin.
We're redeemed. Not with corruptible things of silver and gold, not with things that change in value.
But with the precious blood of Christ, you know, I'm thankful every time I quote or read that verse to realize that my redemption isn't based on something that is going to change in value every time the stock market opens and closes. You know, if we were to go and to check the closing price of gold and silver.
Yesterday when the stock market closed and then we were to go and check it on Tuesday when the stock market reopened.
We would find perhaps it would be very different.
But oh tonight, my redemption is based on the blood of Christ, and the blood of Christ is as precious to the heart of God.
That's when it was shed on Calvary's cross. Are you redeemed with the precious blood of Christ? And so we find that the moment came when the Destroyer went through the land and the first born was killed. And there was a great cry in Egypt.
Not only did I stand on the banks of the Red Sea a few days ago.
But I had the opportunity to go to the museum.
The of the Egyptian Museum in the city of Cairo. It's a huge museum, could never see it in a day. But I if I saw nothing else in that museum, there was one thing I wanted to see and that was the mummy rooms in the museum in Cairo.
00:25:03
And there to look into the faces.
Of men and women whose bodies had been preserved for 4000 years.
It stirred my soul. But what really stirred my soul was two particular mummies which I wanted to see, the mummy of Ramses the 2nd and the mummy of Ramses the third.
History teaches and it's a little bit clouded and the Lord has allowed it to be clouded. I believe it's a little bit clouded, but secular history teaches that it was probably Ramses the 2nd that was the Pharaoh in Egypt.
When Moses and the children of Israel were there.
What's interesting to me to hear from a number.
That it may have been his son.
For this reason.
Ramses the Second had many sons and daughters. I heard the statistic. It was astounding.
Ramses, 3 His son had many daughters but no sons.
And many historians feel that because of that it may have been he that was the Pharaoh at the time of Moses, because of the fact that he had no sons and may have been willing to make Moses.
The heir to the Egyptian throne. I thought that was very interesting.
But you know what stirred my soul was to look into the faces of those two men, and whichever one it may have been.
But to realize that probably one of those men was the man.
Who looked into the face of Moses.
And who defied heaven by saying, Who is the Lord, that I should obey him? I know not the Lord, neither will I obey his voice. And there is his mummy.
Teeth, lips, fingernails, everything.
And those lips?
That lifted up their voice in defiance against God.
I thought those lips are silenced against God for all eternity.
And that body and spirit are going to be reunited to stand the Great White Throne judgment.
No defiance there.
No, raising his first in the face of God then.
And then to be taken that mummified body reunited with the spirit, and to be taken cast.
Into the lake of fire. It was so solemn. I stood there I could hardly.
I could hardly move.
It was stirred my soul.
And yet tonight.
We are looking into the faces of those who are far, far more responsible.
Then Ramses the second or Ramses the third.
We're looking into the faces tonight of those who have heard the gospel many, many times.
Those who hold the completed Word of God in their hand.
And you say, oh, I would never lift up my voice against God and say what Pharaoh did.
But what about the heart?
Are you stealing your heart against God? Are you stealing your heart against the Lord Jesus?
You know, it's solemn to realize that Pharaoh hardened his heart over and over and over again.
And finally, God.
Heart, the heart of Pharaoh.
We used to sing a hymn when we were young people. There's a line that is crossed by rejecting the Lord where the voice of the Spirit.
Woe unto them In that day, when I depart from them, my spirit shall not always.
Strive with man.
It was interesting.
To mount a camel.
And to ride for an hour out into the western Egyptian desert.
And to ride around the three Great Pyramids of Giza.
And the Sphinx.
The biggest of those 3 pyramids has an estimated.
00:30:03
2.2 million stones.
With an average weight of 2 1/2 tons.
If you've seen pictures of them, they don't do them. The pictures don't do them justice. You feel absolutely dwarfed to stand by those pyramids. But again, what stirred my soul was to realize that the three Pharaohs who built those pyramids, and each one trying to outdo the other, spent their whole lifetime building those pyramids.
As their burying place.
And when you look into Egyptian history, you realize, though very misconstrued.
They had a great concern about the afterlife by the greatest of that pyramid. They have found a boat buried the boat that was used by that pharaoh in his lifetime to travel up and down the Nile. And they have raised that boat out of the pit and they have built a room around it and you can go in and view that boat. Why is was that boat built there buried there? Because that pharaoh was concerned about having a boat in his afterlife. And when you enter those pyramids and you see the rooms that once contained the treasures.
Of these kings and the things that they felt they would need in the afterlife, it stirs your soul.
They realized there was something after death. As I say, they had a very misconstrued idea.
About what it was.
But tonight we don't have to rest on uncertainties and we don't have to lookout at something vague.
Beyond this life, no. We have the word of God that tells us exactly.
What happens when we draw that last breath? You know, in Luke's Gospel, the Lord Jesus for a moment pulled aside the curtain and told a story about two men. Two men that lived here in this world. Two men that lived under very, very different circumstances. And when they died, they went to into eternity under two very, very different.
Circumstance.
It's real.
It's very real.
If we were to travel tonight.
To the town in Spain where Christopher Columbus spent his last days. We would find in that town a monument erected to the to that explorer.
And part of that monument in the statue of Christopher Columbus includes a lion.
And a banner written in Spanish.
That has the motto nothing beyond, which was the motto of the Spaniards before.
The exploits of Christopher Columbus. The Spaniards had sailed the length of the Mediterranean and out past the Rock of Gibraltar, and seeing a vast expanse of water, they concluded that there was nothing beyond that the world had been discovered.
But the paw about Lion is tearing away.
The word no in Spanish.
So that the motto reads something beyond.
And all tonight there is something beyond this life.
There is something very real where you will either live with the Lord Jesus in the Father's house for all eternity, or you will exist in the lake of fire in a place where there's weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.
And so we find that first of all, there had to be the death of the sacrifice. There had to be the shedding of blood. It had to be applied. Because it wasn't enough to have the sacrifice killed. It wasn't enough to have the blood in the basin. No, it had to be applied. And tonight I want to challenge your soul and mine. Has the blood been applied? Thank God I'm washed in the blood of Jesus.
What about you? It's not enough to know the Lord Jesus died. It's not enough to know that the blood has been shed. But has it been applied personally in your life?
But then there was something else.
They must be delivered from Pharaoh and Egypt.
00:35:01
From the claims of Pharaoh and Egypt.
They come to the banks of the Red Sea and you can just picture this scene. There they are.
The sea is in front of them, these places on either side, the enemy pursuing. They were in a tight spot.
You know, I don't pay particular attention to names and their meanings as they appear in the word of God, but I was struck with some of the meanings of the names of these places that surrounded the children of Israel as they encamped by the banks of the Red Sea, still on the Egypt side of the Red Sea.
Hi. Hi, Ross means Ross.
You know, that's all we can expect as sinners is the wrath of God.
And if you reject Christ tonight, the wrath of God abideth on you.
Migdal.
Has the sense of a lofty place.
You know, I thought of the pride of man that keeps him from coming under the blessing of salvation.
But there was another place.
Thou Zofan.
It seems to me to have the sense of the master or Lord of the North.
I don't want to go too far with these illustrations and the meaning of names in scripture.
But you know, when we talk about the north or the north wind, we think of something very harsh.
Up north we have some harsh winters sometimes where I come from.
And I thought of it again. Satan is a cruel taskmaster.
Pharaoh was a cruel taskmaster, and you can just picture this. And then there was the sea, which often in Scripture speaks of the confusion of humanity without God and all these things, something on every side, as it were. It looked like a hopeless situation, and it would have been apart from God coming in. And God tells them to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. It was the Lord Jesus. It was it was Jehovah that was going to deliver them.
And oh, tonight it's the Lord Jesus that can deliver you from your sins.
You say maybe, maybe you say. It seems like a hopeless situation in my life.
There are no hopeless situations when it comes to God when the Lord Jesus was here.
He came in contact with what might have seemed naturally, speaking as hopeless situations. A man lying by the pool of Siloam, unable to help himself. Others who just seemed to be at the end of the rope. A woman who'd spent everything going from doctor to doctor to try to get some relief from her malady. But there were no hopeless situations with the Lord Jesus and all. Tonight, there's no hopeless situations.
With the Lord Jesus all you can be saved tonight.
And again, to stand on the banks of the Red Sea and to see how I'm not a very I'm not very good at guesstimating distance, but I suppose it was 3 miles or so across at that point.
And to think of God rolling back the sea, and to think of them going through on dry ground.
And to think of the Egyptians going into the midst of the sea to try to follow them and bring them back, and God pouring that sea over them, and the children of Israel standing on the banks of the Red Sea and looking back.
And lifting up their voice in song in the 15th chapter.
The joy.
That permeated the camp of Israel at that moment, as they realized were redeemed by the blood of the Passover lamb, were delivered by the mighty hand of God from Pharaoh and his hosts, and from Egypt, were no longer slaves, were no longer in ******* and oh, tonight you can have that joy in your soul by coming to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And to be able to feel the release of your burden of sins.
Because you know we are held by the cords of our sins, tells us in Proverbs. But to feel the release of that burden of sins, and to know that now you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.
We drove some hours through the Sinai desert.
00:40:04
The provision of God for his people in the wilderness is more of a miracle than I realized.
Not only is the Sinai desert hours and hours of sand.
But scattered in that sand are rocks. I I, I didn't realize how rocky that place, that corner of the world was. And to think of the children of Israel walking across that sand and rock and to go again to the Cairo Museum and see the sandals that they would have worn in those days. They weren't nice Payless sandals or Hush Puppy sandals.
And to realize that they didn't wear out for 40 years, it was a miracle. And to see that big sun blaring down on that hot sand every day.
And to realize that God brought up that pillar of cloud, and that pillar of cloud went over the camp and sheltered them from the hot sun.
To realize that at night it became a pillar of fire. Do you realize that for 40 years the children of Israel never lived in darkness?
That pillar of fire was light. Because we're children of light, we're brought into the light.
It was God's provision, but you know.
Tonight there are a lot of people trying to get across this war through this life without God.
Without Christ, is it any re wonder that people are wrecking their lives, turning to the vices of humanity? Oh, I wanna tell you tonight that I've known the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior for well over 40 years and I wouldn't trade places with anyone.
That isn't a Christian. Oh, there's been a lot of rocks and sand and up and downs in my life, so to speak.
But oh, to be able to experience the constant care and provision.
Of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
But you know, we read in the book of Hebrews a little bit about Moses, and I had opportunity to take a boat down the Nile and to see those rushes growing along the side, papyrus grass, and to almost visualize a little arc there. You could just about see how it could be.
And I thought of the faith of Moses parents, which we read of Indiana Hebrews Chapter 11.
And how they took Moses, and they put him in that ark.
And they put him there amongst the bull rushes in the River Nile. And it's the river Nile is a mighty river. It's no small stream. In fact, Greater Cairo is 26 million people, and the only water they have is from the Nile. You can imagine how many, how much water 26 million people use in a day. And that's only Greater Cairo. That's not the rest of Egypt. It's a mighty river. And to think of the faith of those parents as they put that little ark, they're amongst the bull rushes.
And as Miriam stayed to watch, what would happen.
And I just want to say a word to those boys and girls and young people in the audience tonight.
Who have Christian parents.
A couple were heard to speak together just before a gospel meeting like this, and I don't know who these people were.
But a mother and a father?
And one saying to the other, we've prayed. I'll call him Johnny. We've prayed for Johnny for a long time. Maybe tonight's the night he'll get saved.
And it shakes me to realize that there might be a young person, or maybe someone who's not so young here in this room.
Who has a praying mother?
A praying father.
And you're not saved tonight.
And I want to say a word to those who are praying for their children and young people don't give up.
Don't give up.
You know, Moses parents waited a long time to see fruit.
Because when Moses was taken up out of the water.
He became the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and, it's true, his own mother.
Was able to take him home and nurse him.
But the day came when he had to go and live in the palace and to be under the influence of everything that Egypt.
Had to offer and Egypt's a base Nation Today, but they were not a base nation in the Pharaonic days.
00:45:05
The learning and the wisdom.
Of that people.
Is something that rarely has been surpassed in the history of man. In fact, a lot of that was lost in the destruction of the library at Alexandria, I think under Napoleon.
They still don't know how they Mama made mummies. Still can't figure it out. Can't figure out how they built those pyramids, how California. Can't figure out how they erected those obliges.
But you know, Moses mother and father waited 40 years.
See. Some fruit the long time, wasn't it? You know, it's an encouragement to my own soul.
Sometimes we like to see fruit right away.
And sometimes we do, by the grace of God.
But you know, it was until Moses was 40 years of age that he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
Long time wasn't it, parents? Long time wasn't it, mothers? One long time wasn't it, fathers?
But God was working.
But I want to make this comment about him refusing to become he called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. We have spoken of Pharaoh as a picture of Satan, and when we speak of Pharaoh, he's a picture of Satan, perhaps in the, shall I say, the raw side of the work of the enemy.
But to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
That was, shall I say, the nice side of the world, you know, when Moses was taken.
To the palace.
He had everything, all the niceties and luxuries.
That a progressive society could offer at that time.
You know, the enemy comes in two ways In a gospel meeting like this. He comes in the form of Pharaoh.
But I wonder if he doesn't more often come, especially in the Western world, in the form of Pharaoh's daughter presenting the nice side of the world. And oh, if you get saved, you'll have to give up this and that.
Do you realize that our brethren in Egypt suffer because they are believers?
They don't get promotions at work, they don't get a raise in pay, they don't get the good jobs.
They feel the reproach of Egypt in a very, very real way because it's an Islamic country.
But here in the Western world?
Things are embraced in a way.
That I believe the enemy uses to lull souls to sleep and to keep them.
From coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. And it was one thing.
For the children of Israel to groan under the ******* of Pharaoh.
That cruel taskmaster.
But I suggest it was quite another thing for Moses to refuse to be called son of Pharaoh's daughter. But what was the result? Eternal blessing. Imagine if Moses had remained in the palace as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Imagine if he had been elevated to the next Pharaoh and we would be able to travel to Egypt and see some monument erected.
In his memory, perhaps in the form of a pyramid.
But what about the eternal consequences? Because tonight you might get a flash of glory in this world. Or you might be able to hang on to something, the pleasures of sin for a season.
But what about the eternal consequences? Are you willing to let go?
Of what is keeping you from coming to Christ, I say it may not be the raw side of the world.
It may not be the base things of the world.
It may be something that you're holding on to that. You say if I get saved, I'm going to have to give that up and I don't want to give that up.
But all I say, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
And what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
00:50:05
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
And so the day came when Moses identified.
With God and his people, are you going to identify with the Lord Jesus and his people tonight? Are you going to come and receive the Lord Jesus as your savior? It's the only thing that's going to stand you good in the next life.
As I said, those Pharaohs, they put together a great many treasures. At the Cairo Museum there are the treasures of King Tut, tremendous, priceless treasures taken from his tomb and brought there to be put on display.
Are those things going to send him any good in the next life or at the great White Throne judgment? Not for one moment.
When the British actor Robert Morley died, he made a very strange request.
He requested that his credit cards.
Be placed in his coffin and buried with him.
That was strange enough, but.
The British press, when they printed that, received dozens of phone calls.
From people in Britain who said that they wanted things buried with them as well.
Money.
I I tremble to say this, but it was printed in the British press that one person, one lady said that in case of a miscarriage of judge of judgment, when she stood before God, and perhaps a number of years before it was rectified. I tremble to tell you what she wanted to take with her into the next class. She wanted to fire extinguisher buried with her. Not solemn. It's not solemn.
Oh, I tell you it's a place. If you enter a lost eternity, it's a place where the worm dieth not in the fire, is not quenched.
These things are real.
And Moses made a choice. We were singing at the beginning of the meeting. Decide for Christ.
Today, the day came when Moses made a conscious decision.
A conscious choice. Thank God he made the right choice. I'm going to see Moses.
They're in the father's house and when I speak, shake his hand and speak to him and ask him if he was disappointed that he made the choice he did.
Is he going to say, Oh yes, I wish you could have traveled to Egypt and seen a pyramid in my honor.
No, not for one moment.
Not for one moment, because the glory of heaven is going to be so much greater.
Than any flash of glory.
That this world has to offer.
And so we read, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven.
Given among men, whereby we must.
Be safe. You know, for the children of Israel on the banks of the Red Sea, there was only one way of escape.
And it had nothing to do with anything they could do. They were to stand still. What would you think of an army bearing down on their enemy? And the enemy doesn't do anything about it? You'd say how foolish, but they were to stand still because the Lord was going to fight for them. If they were going to be completely delivered from Egypt and the ******* of Pharaoh, it had to be, in a way.
That made them realize that they had nothing to do with it, that it was all God's doing.
And all tonight, salvation is offered through the Lord Jesus Christ. But there's only one way.
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father.
But by me.
The children of Israel were to stand still, and when the right moment came and the sea parted, they were to go forward. And when they looked back and saw their enemies dead, there were, it was no credit to themselves, and I take no credit for myself for being saved tonight. It was all the work of grace, all the work of God. But that same work, that same work he wants to do in your soul tonight. Are you willing to just bow your head and own that you're a Sinner and receive the Lord Jesus Christ?
As your savior, there's blessing tonight.
00:55:00
There's salvation.
There's the forgiveness of sins tonight. There's the joy and the peace that comes from knowing God.
And his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the confidence of knowing that hell is not before your soul now, but the Father's house, the coming of the Lord draws nigh At any moment. He's going to give the shout. And it says when once the master of the house is risen up and shut through the door, they're going to come and they're going to want entrance. But there's going to be no entrance in that at that time. But oh, tonight, there is a way of escape. There is a way of salvation. There is a way of blessing, just as there was a path.
Through the Red Sea. For the children of Israel, there is a way of blessing tonight provided through the Lord Jesus Christ.
All tonight come would that the Spirit of God would strive with your soul tonight.
And that you would have no rest of heart until you have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.
As your Savior, I say again, neither is there salvation in any other.
And I read that verse and again, I realize I'm taking it out of context, but he's able to save to the uttermost.
He's able to fully save tonight. He didn't just halfway Save the Children of Israel.
No, When they stood on the wilderness side of the Red Sea and looked back, they had full and complete deliverance.
No, tonight there's full and complete deliverance for the Sinner. Not halfway deliverance, not not some of your sins gone. Not that you belong partly to the world and partly to Christ. No, it's complete deliverance. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. You want deliverance like that? Tonight I'm going to pray now. If you don't know Christ as your Savior, just bow your head and talk to him in your heart.
Confess your sins, confess that you're a Sinner, and receive salvation.
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved the children of Israel called.
They were saved. You can be saved tonight not by some journey through a sea, not by some rigorous toil, but by simply putting your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look and live. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and Thou shalt be saved. Our God and Father, how thankful we are tonight for a full salvation. How thankful we are that thou art still working by thy spirit. And so we pray for blessing tonight on Thy word. We pray that no one will rise up out of these seats.
Without making having made that decision to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, we ask for much blessing.
The name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
He Gave All
Children—S.A. Rule
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Who has this song you'd like to start with? At our house we like to sing, and this morning we'll just sing together for maybe 15 minutes or so. One of us likes to say we all like to sing in the car and we all like to sing with our Bible readings. One of us likes to sing in the grocery store, and sometimes they sing good songs too, like, well, be careful little eyes, what you see? I've heard that one.
#40 he said. Let's sing together #40.
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701-7898, 958-5858 and Strong.
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He will take me on my mind.
You have to be like a long day.
Now I love me.
Yeah, it's a lot of me.
It's hard when you're young and it's hard when you're old. But I watched and I because, you know, I watched. I watched because I realized what was going through my own head. I was thinking ahead to the next few things and I was trying to remember one or two things and I all of a sudden realized we're singing a wonderful song here and I'm forgetting about what I'm singing.
And I looked around and I saw some.
Someone looking around and all kinds of, I think some people were thinking about what they were saying to it. That's pretty hard. It's pretty hard to focus and think hard. So we're going to do one thing since you don't need your song sheets for this part, we're going to sing that chorus over again. And I'm going to ask you to do one thing we usually do when we pray so that we can think about what we're who we're talking to for just a little bit of time. I'm going to ask you to close your eyes with me and we're going to sing the chorus of yes, Jesus loves me. And let's think about what we're seeing.
00:05:28
OK, somebody maybe could start a.
Umm, OK, if you know who was speaking, you weren't focusing. OK, but that was good, isn't it? It's a wonderful message that the Lord Jesus Christ loves us. OK, who has another one that you'd like to sing this morning?
OK.
Let's sing the first and last verses so a few more get chances to give out him this morning.
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Nobody ever has faulted before.
Good. How about some more? Who else has a song you like to sing? OK.
#15 OK.
Let's shorten that one down a little bit too so we can get some more in. How about the 1St?
And the third verse is.
Good.
Maybe time for just one or two more. For now at least. OK.
00:10:01
#5.
OK.
I think the 1St and the last on that one too.
100001.
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To the Lord Jacob and asked for his help. Our dear Lord Jesus, we just give thanks for that opportunity to sing. But the wonderful washing our sins away. Just ask that it would be true for each and everyone in the room this morning that it is already true, but we're afraid it's not. And so we just ask for each person here that perhaps doesn't know thee Lord data as their Savior, the faster they would come to thee today.
And two, we just asked for our hearts to be opened up to enjoy the beauty of Thy person, the fastest Cortes, and thy precious name. Amen.
OK. Who learned the verse for this week that you would like to say? We don't have time, I don't think, for everybody to say it, but who has one that you would like to say you learn maybe the verse from the Sunday school paper or maybe where you go you learn other verses too? I'd like to say it for everybody, OK.
Did you learn the ones from the Sunday school paper?
Jesus, uh.
I'm not sure which one it is. Can I come back to you in a little bit? You think about it for a moment. Maybe you can ask somebody to help you because I'm not sure how to help you on that one so far. Anybody else? I learned that Sunday school verse for today that would like to say it. OK, good.
You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor. That through his poverty he might be rich.
2nd Corinthians 89 OK, very good. Thank you. Who else? OK.
E-mail the Grays of the Lord Jesus Christ, that thou who is rich for your sake, he became poor so that.
Through his parliament.
Good. Thank you. Anyone else would like to say for everybody, OK, one or two more?
00:15:05
You know so Jesus Christ that thou used, yet for my mom's sakes, he became for a.
I'll come back to you in just a little bit, maybe toward the end there. I'll try to make sure that I get to you, uh, first thing I.
I'd like to talk about the Lord Jesus this morning, and I'd like to talk about how he was rich and he became poor. But before we do that, I want to tell you a story because I think that the theme is pretty important to think about right here at the beginning. Mr. Highland, last night he talked about.
He talked about lots of things last night, but he talked about two things that I want to remind you of in the moment. One was about Pharaoh.
Man a way that Satan is like Pharaoh and then the other one was how he was like Pharaoh's daughter.
Do you remember that? Now, just one little part of that. How is Satan like Pharaoh's daughter?
That goes with the story I'm going to tell you in a moment. How is Satan like Pharaoh's daughter? OK, good. You help us out.
Pharaoh's daughter is the pleasures of the world. OK, good. It's a it's a side that looks pretty good on the outside. I want to tell you a little bit about that side. There were two ladies from Southern California and they went down into Mexico. I don't know why they went there, but they went down to Mexico, maybe to visit, maybe to have a nice little vacation, maybe to do some shopping.
And they were on their way back and it was night. They were driving along in the dark and off in the side of the road, I suppose it was the passenger. She noticed something moving around that looked like a little Chihuahua. You know what a Chihuahua is? How many of you have a pet at home?
OK, lots of you have a pet at home. You've got maybe you you have a Chihuahua. OK, How big is your Chihuahua? Can you show me what your hands about how big? Great big dog or a little dog? A little dog whose is a little dog. I think this was a pretty small dog too. And the lady stopped and they got out and went over in the dark and sure enough, there was a little Chihuahua and it looked like it was thick. So they thought, OK, we're going to help. We'd like to help that sick little Chihuahua. And so they went and they picked it up and they got it back in their car and they started to drive toward the border. Have you, any of you across the border to a different country?
Oh, not too many. OK, we'll have to tell you a little bit about what it's like. Some of you have maybe close to half of you. When you come to the border, can you just drive across? When you got came from Missouri to or from Indiana or from Illinois or from somewhere else and you crossed into Kentucky, did you have to stop and show them a passport?
No, no, you didn't have to do that. But when you cross from Mexico into the United States, you have to stop on a person there interviews you and they ask what you're bringing. And they ask us here identification. And sometimes they take you into a little room off to the side and they'll ask you lots of other little questions and they'd like to know about what you're bringing and why you're coming. And they thought, Oh no, I don't know whether they'll let me bring this little Chihuahua across the border, but boy, we'd sure like to help that Chihuahua. So what do you think they did?
They think they drove up and put it on their lap and held it off and said, Sir, can we bring this little dog in with us?
Is that what they did?
How many think that's what they did? Would that be a good thing to do?
That would be an honest thing to do, wouldn't it? But that's not what they did. They thought, you know, we're gonna do, it's a pretty good thing we're gonna do. We like that little Chihuahua. We'd like to help it, and we're going to bring it in with us. So maybe we'll just hide and maybe we won't tell them anything. Is that good?
I'm not going to ask you for a show of hands, but I think every single person in this room has had something. You start to think about it and to think about it inside and oh, I don't think that's right.
But boy, I, I think it's a good thing to do. I'm gonna do it anyway. What does the Bible call that? What does the Bible call that kind of thing? What's the Bible called? Sin. That's right. Bible calls it sin. Well, these ladies, they got across the border. How nice. And they got home and they waited, I think a day or two. I read the story on Thursday and I was putting something away and, oh, I saw something. I just had to pick it up and read it. And I picked it up and read it and right where I opened it had this story and.
I don't think it said, but it was about a day or two and that Chihuahua wasn't getting any better. So they thought, Oh well, take it to the Where do you take a second?
00:20:05
Well, take it to the vet. That's what they did. We'll take it to the vet. So they went into the vet, they brought in their little sick Chihuahua, they gave it to the vet and the vet examined it. And you know what he said? He told them two things.
And he guessed what he told them.
Maybe it's not going to get better. Maybe I can help it out.
Two things.
I am examining it. I think he knows that it was from wild animals. OK, examining it, you noticed it was a wild animal? You're right, he noticed that it was a Mexican water raft.
And the second thing you noticed was that it had rabies.
You know what Rabies said.
No, rabies is. That's a pretty serious disease.
Get rabies. A person can die from rabies, can be very painful. Or the treatment for rabies can be very painful. And I want to tell you something this morning, right before we go on to the beautiful part of what we have to share, there's someone. Oh, they look nice. They look cute and cuddly, like a little Chihuahua. And oh, we want them. But it's God calls it. If it's not what he has for us, God calls it sin. And you know what sin does? It comes back. Yeah.
What does sin do?
You tell us.
It takes you away from Jesus. That's right. It's a very good answer. And it takes if someone doesn't return to the Lord Jesus, it goes all the way to the end and hell, and it ends with its way to let's read the verse. We can all quote it, I think, but let's read the verse together in Romans three. I think it's an important place to start. Oh, we all know this verse.
Sometimes we like to forget about it because what's right in front of us looks so appealing.
But there's a warning. What looks so appealing has this end. Romans chapter 3.
And verse, I'm sorry, you know what? I was going to read that verse in 23, but let's read another verse in Romans 6. Read that one instead. Romans chapter 6.
And verse 23, someone of your children would like to read that for us. I would appreciate it, OK.
The voyeuristic stain is dead, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
That's right. It's an important warning, isn't it? The wages of sin. That's the end. You know, those ladies. I didn't. I was just skimming through the story and, oh, I better get back to work. And I didn't pause. I wasn't thinking about the story any more than that. Well, that was interesting. And I don't know whether they got scratched or bitten. I don't know whether they got rabies or not. But I know that every single person in this room has earned.
Every single one of us has been bitten by sin.
And every single one of us has sinned, and every single one of us has earned these wages. The wages of sin is death.
Because that's pretty important and pretty solemn to start with. We're going to think about it. Let me illustrate something else though, that relates to the verse. It's the happy side of the Gospel. That's the serious and important side. All of us have earned those wages of death. All of us deserve them. Now there's a happy side, and I want to illustrate it this way first so that you'll remember. I have, I think the package says 14 mini boxes. It says right here.
And I'm going to, I kept them in the bag and didn't dump them out. So I didn't want to mix them in with other things so that I knew I would have 14 here. And I need a maybe a volunteer to help me, an older volunteer. I'm going to pick somebody that's twenty or more for this part.
I'm going to give them four boxes.
Thank you. I don't know if you were stretching. I thought you were volunteering. I honestly did.
Unfortunately, you were in my line of sight. There's four boxes. Thank you very much. And would you give them the way that anybody wants them? This isn't a lesson on faith, but I'd like you to give them away to anybody that would like them. He's got four boxes. He gave away one. There's some eager hands over here. There's two. There's three.
And there's there's.
Four. OK, good. Thank you very much. That's all I needed from you. I appreciate it. He gave away four of those, didn't he?
00:25:02
I have 10 left and I'd like to give them away now. I would ask you don't eat them yet and I'll make don't feel left out. I'll make sure you get something here, but I'll give you one. Would you like one? OK, if you like one.
If you like one, that's four I gave out. Would you like one that's five if you don't want. OK. No thank you. Are you sure you don't have to eat them now? OK. No thank you. At six. Anybody else?
No. Yes, 7-8.
Nine, I don't feel bad, guys, but I have one left.
Boy, it looks good now. I asked you not to eat them, didn't I? I pray you'll make a mess, but I'm going to test mine.
There.
Just as good as I remember. They're nice and fresh. The package, on the outside at least, says that the only thing in these are raisins. Nothing but raisins, and they're good.
But here's the point I'd like to make.
Who gave away more?
Hands or did I?
Who gave more?
MMM, lots of people that can count real well. Remember there's fourteen in there.
And I kept 10 and one of them is pretty good. I still have that one. And he gave away 4. Still gave away more.
That's simple math, isn't it?
She says I gave more because I gave 9 the nine and Hannah's only gave 4.
Is that what the Bible says?
For new year bibles, somebody explained this to me and I thought it was a nice thought.
Let's turn in your Bible to Mark chapter 12. Remember, we're thinking about the Lord Jesus. He was rich for your sakes. He became poor.
In your Bible to Mark's Gospel chapter 12, some of you have already flipped to those last verses because you know where we're headed.
And I'll read the whole section so we can catch the context. Mark's Gospel, chapter 12, verse 41.
And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury, and many that were rich cast in much.
And there came a certain poor widow, and she drew through in two mites which make Farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they took cast into the treasury. For all they did cast in of their abundance. But she of her want did cast in. Listen carefully all.
But she had even all her living.
You count in math class and school. How many of you are in school that are sitting up front here? OK, just all of you, maybe all OK, all of you. When you count in math, you counted correctly. So it was a good answer to say that I gave more. I gave 9 and Hans gave 4. But the way that God counts, he doesn't count down from what you start with, At least what this lady explains it. He counts up from what you have left.
MMM, how much does hands have left?
None. How much do I have left?
1.
Who gave more?
And he gave more, didn't he? Because he gave all that he had. And I kept not very much. I gave away 9 out of 10, but I kept one for myself.
I kept one for myself. I didn't give all that I had, but you know, the Lord Jesus gave all.
That he had. What was the verse again?
That was on the Sunday school paper that some of you memorized.
For, you know, how did it go?
We know the grace of God.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ for value is rich for our sakes He became for the E through his poverty might become rich. Second Corinthians 8-9 OK, thank you.
Though he was rich, yet for your sake, is he talking about us? That first was written to the Corinthians, wasn't it? I think he's talking about us too, for your sakes. For my sake, he became poor. You only have 15 minutes to think about that. That's not very much time, is it? There's so much in the Bible. I just wrote down a few this morning. We'll only look at a couple of them because there's not much time left.
00:30:20
But I want you to look at some of the things that the Lord Jesus seemed rich.
Again.
Can you think of something when he was rich, for your sakes, he became poor. Can you tell me? Maybe one thing, maybe it's not something I wrote down.
Can you tell me somebody that seated here, all of you think about it, right? You start to make a big long list in your head, even if I'm not going to call on you because there are many, many, many things. You're rich. He became poor, but.
Who can help me out? What's something that he gave?
OK, you help me. He gave his life. That's right. We're going to come to that in just a little bit. He gave his life a tremendous thing that he gave for you and me.
He gave us love. That's right, the Lord Jesus gave us love and one more.
The Lord Jesus loved everyone. That's very true. He loved everyone and he gave us love.
To us, let's look at just a couple of things. First of all, in that verse it is talking about giving money. In that section, it's talking about giving money. So let's look at part of that. How many of you got here?
Walking from your home, not from the hotel, from your home where you live. How many of you got here walking?
Nobody got here walking.
How many of you came in the car or a truck or a van or a minivan or a nice comfortable something? OK, nobody. Maybe a few of you flew, I don't know. But I saw all the hands up in front here, came in the car. Is that comfortable way to travel?
Some cars are fancy, some cars aren't, but I'm sure it was more comfortable than this. Let's look at a verse in John chapter 4.
John, Chapter 4.
And verse 6.
John chapter 4, verse six for us.
OK, Yeah.
Now Jacob's well was there Jesus therefore being.
Work with his journey.
Set this on the world and it was on the 6th hour. About the 6th hour. Good.
Could the Lord Jesus have gone? This is an easy question. We're gonna start with an easy one. Could he have gone from one place to another in a car?
Is that a silly question? Could you have gone from one place to another in a car? No, of course not. I didn't have cars.
Does that mean you had to walk? Did everybody back then walk?
Is everybody back then walk? No.
No.
OK, some of them rode on a horse, some of them rode on a donkey. Where you read about some of them? Like in the book of Acts with the Ethiopian eunuch? What was he writing in?
You remember what was he riding in? OK, you got a chance to answer a lot and I'll come to you some more, but let's see if some more people would like to answer that note to.
No. OK. And you tell him?
No, you didn't. It's probably the way we would say it today if you were walking along the way and you were just walking along and his chariot, you went to chariot, if it's chariot went rolling right past and maybe blew up some dust on the road. And today the way we say it sometimes casually, it's oh, you flew fast because that chariot probably went a lot faster and was a lot more comfortable than just walking along the road. But you know the Lord Jesus Christ when he came along.
It says being wearied with this journey sets us on the well and we find out later that he was thirsty. Let's look at something else.
00:35:06
Let's look, we have time for it and Luke's Gospel chapter 20.
It's Gospel chapter 20.
And someone reads 4 words verses 23 and 24.
I think I thank both of you. You've helped me a lot. I'd like to have some other people have a chance to help too. OK, Thank you. Luke Gospel chapter 20 and verses 23 and 24.
But he preserved their craftiness and said unto them, why tempt you mean do you need painting in the same? I'm gonna change separate methods. They answered and said cheers.
See hers? Yeah. OK. Now, just to make sure we understand those words real quickly, could I show you a penny?
I can show you an American penny. Not the kind of coin that's talking about in this verse, but it's worth more than an American penny. But I have an American penny here, and I can pull it out, but I have to ask one of you to give me a penny.
No, I have one in my pocket.
Maybe what he had in his pocket was worth a little bit more. Maybe that image in superscription. You know what's on a $20 bill?
Do you know whose face is on that? That's kind of like the superscription on the coin. Whose face is on that one? That's not really the important part. You tell me. Yeah, I believe so. What's that? You're right. See that picture right there? And it's got the name underneath. You're right. No, I'm not offering it. Sorry.
I just wanted to illustrate that when it talks about superscription, there was a face on it, OK, that had the face on. So that's what he said and he reached it. He reached into his own pocket.
He'd reach into his own pocket of the tunic or the robe and pull out a penny to show them.
Did you hear? Did you listen carefully when you read that? That was a hard word because it's spelled SHEW. So that means show.
Yeah.
Where did he get a penny?
If you go to the bank.
Go to where he had it stored. How does the Lord Jesus get a penny that time? Do you remember?
I didn't get a penny that time.
Lord Jesus didn't lack what He needed. He knew where to go and get it and when it needed to be spent. That time He said show me when we read, that time when He needed to spend it. He got it for somewhere where He wasn't taking from any person, taking away to give for himself and His finger, but he took it from a fish's mouth, part of His creation. He could get what He needed, but He didn't have it there in his pocket, did he?
Though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor. But he gave more than that. And I'm going to jump forward because really there's two very, very important ones. There's so many, but there's two very, very important ones that are very, I think, instructive to us. Let's turn to Matthew's gospel. They'll both be there in chapter 26.
I walked over from the Super 8 this morning and on my way I crossed the John M Carol purchased properly and then I passed the 2006 National Championship sign for high school where we are. And then I passed the 2006 state championship sign and on the bottom of that was the 2005 state championship. And then I turned and I came past the beautiful Giant Eagle with its wings spread and its talent coming down.
And it says the Eagles nest next door. And then I walked in here. And when you walk in here, you'll see up and there's valedictorian after valedictorian on the walls. And over here there are distinguished students and more distinguished students. And over there there's a poster for the state and national champions. You know, people like to receive, and it's very common to receive honor and respect.
The Lord Jesus deserve honor and respect.
Sure it is. I wanna tell you about a story that moved me. I'm gonna tell it very briefly because there's two more important things. But very briefly, there was a lady named Sylvia, and she wanted to escape from Romania, and she wanted to get away from Romania because she was being persecuted for her faith and the Lord Jesus Christ. And she crossed the river, an icy river in the middle of the night in a bumpy little boat. And they got to the far side. And on the far side they had to go through a minefield where there were trip wires all the way through. But they went through that minefield all the way to the other side, and they got to a farmhouse where they were safe.
00:40:28
But they weren't safe. The people there told them they were being honest, they were being kind. They said, oh, the Yugoslavian authorities where you now are in Yugoslavia, yes, you're in Yugoslavia, made it across the border. But they don't return people. You just go to the police and you tell them that who you are and you'll have to register with them. And so she went to the police, told them who they were, and they registered with them. And 21 days later, they were back in a Romanian prison because they didn't know.
But important people, people like Christians that they wanted back to persecute.
They pay the fox car load of grain for each of them to get them back. Other people, they didn't care. That was too expensive. They let them go. So they paid a boxcar worth of grain to get her and the seven companions back. And they went back into a prison yard. And this is what struck me. In that prison yard there were soldiers. There was actually not a prison yard. It was a soldiers Barrett's right there near the border. And they went into the soldiers barracks and they lined the eight of them up against the wall and then they took the four men. The three of them were young and one was old. And they each of those young men, they had a group of maybe 10 or 12 soldiers stand around.
And they use that person, like you've seen people standing around with a hacky sack, or maybe they don't call that anymore a little, maybe with a soccer ball or maybe when they're bumping a volleyball back and forth. You've seen that people stand around. Maybe they throw football back and forth. They stood around in a circle and they had one of those young men in front and they would kick them from one person across the circle to another. And then they kicked them back across the circle. And if they fell down, they all descended on them and they kicked them and beat them until they stood up. And the others were forced to watch.
And when they came to the old man, they didn't do that to the old man.
They came to the old man, and they made him stand out in front of everyone else, and they took his face and they slapped it back and forth and back and forth and made everybody else watch. Now let's read these verses together in Matthew 27.
Matthew 26. First, this is the Lord Jesus.
Verse 67 of Matthew 26.
Then did they spit in his face and buffeted a fight Punch Martin and my other Bible says smite with the 5th like that means punch punch in the face. Then they buffeted him another smote him with the palms of their hands. You know that old man, they hit his face back and forth. Those young men, they kicked around and beat up the Lord Jesus. They did both.
Pumps with their hands, saying, Prophecy unto us, thou Christ.
Who is he that's mostly made fun of him, Didn't he in the next chapter in Matthew chapter 27?
Wanted to illustrate that because I think you're just going to have to imagine it in your mind because there's something more important yet. But so Lord Jesus, it says in the margin of my other Bible too, it says that there was gathered there. It says the whole band and that's the important part, the part the Bible gives to us. The whole group of soldiers in the next chapter, they circled around the Lord Jesus. They all wanted to be in on the mockery and the treatment of him, but the margin says that there was.
There was a man of Paul.
Which is the third part of the cohort? And that's about 500 men. What's the third part of 500?
A little bit of math for you. What's the third part of 500? It could vary a little bit over time, maybe very 300 to 500. So let's say it was on the bottom end. What's the third part of 300? That's easier, Matt, what's the third part of 300?
An important part of that was the whole group of them, the whole band. But what's the third part of 300?
101 hundred.
I wanted to have 100 and I don't know if we have 100 men here. I'm sure we don't have 100 men of military age soldiers like these were, but I thought maybe we could get 100 males to stand around one person. You know, the beginning of the other chapter, it says they bound the Lord Jesus and obviously on the cross his hands weren't bound, but it doesn't say when they united them. So we don't know. I don't know whether the Lord takes his hands. Perhaps it says in another gospel and I didn't look, I don't know whether his hands were tied, but 100.
Soldiers.
Rough soldiers surrounded him.
Have you given all at that point?
Do you know if he'd given everything yet? Remember, I gave away ten of these raisins, but I kept one for myself.
00:45:06
Did the Lord Jesus have anything left to give? He became poor. He was rich. He became poor for your sakes and mine. Did he have any more to give?
You know.
The most important part, and I've left it so that we're out of time. I'm sorry, but you know, in this bag there's one more.
There's one more.
You had a little more left to give.
That's a bigger box, isn't it? It's just meant to illustrate. These are golden raisins and it's a big box.
You know the Lord Jesus kept the.
For last, and he gave it away.
And gave it to an enemy. And I thought about this last night and I don't have an enemy to give it to, so I can't even illustrate that much.
So I'm going to give it to somebody whose name I don't know. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to signal you out because I don't know your name. I'll try to find somebody whose face at least I don't recognize. There are very many I don't know. Maybe I won't embarrass anybody by giving it to them. Maybe I can give it to somebody in the kitchen later on and you'll see them with the box he gave it.
For his enemies, let's read it Chapter 27.
I think you know what these verses refer to, so we'll read them and stop.
After 27 verse 45.
Now from the 6th hour there was darkness over all the land and to the 9th hour. In about the 9th hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying Eli Eli llamas are back tonight. That is to say my God.
My God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Hello Jesus, I just wanna get back this morning.
Sharing
Address—D.F. Rule
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00:05:38
His home, his father's love.
His joy.
His glory.
Is love. That's great.
Our God and Father.
We're thankful for this quiet time together before they and in Thy presence, Lord Jesus, that may open Thy word.
And through it.
Enjoy fellowship.
This afternoon with thyself.
Father.
And with thee, Lord Jesus.
We do ask.
That each one of us during this hour together in this way might.
Inner consciously.
Into the enjoyment of fellowship with the Lord Jesus and all that.
Is the delight of thy heart to share with us, we ask Father, in the blessed name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
This afternoon.
Like to speak a little with you about giving.
Receiving and sharing.
Turn with me to.
A verse that was read the other day in Malachi chapter 3.
Malachi chapter 3 and verse 17.
And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts.
In that day when I make up my jewels.
And I will spare them.
As a man's spirit, his own son.
That serveth him.
Turn over to.
Mark's Gospel.
Chapter.
14.
Mark's Gospel, chapter 14.
And verse 35 And he went forth a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.
And he said ABBA father.
All things are possible unto thee.
Take away this cup from me.
Nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt.
Matthew's Gospel.
Chapter 26.
Uh, excuse me, Chapter 27.
Matthew 27.
Verse 41 likewise also the chief priest, mocking him with the scribes and elders, said he saved others.
Himself he cannot save. Let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him. He trusted in God. Let him deliver him now, if he will have him.
Where he said I am the Son of God.
Romans, chapter 8.
00:10:16
Romans, chapter 8, verse 32.
He that spared, not his own son.
But delivered him up for his all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
The Father sent the Son into the world as.
To do work.
As a servant for him.
The work of his son as a servant is different than a hired servant.
You remember in Luke 15 when the, when the young man thought about going back to his father's home, he said he spoke about the hired servants and he wanted to take that, you might say, lower place of service among them because he didn't feel worthy anymore to the son's place. And uh, we just read there in Malachi.
That a man.
Spares his son.
Who serves him?
We come to the Lord Jesus in the garden, and he's speaking to.
ABBA father, the most intimate and personal relationship between the two of them and the son speaks to the father in the nearest terms of intimacy and says ABBA father.
And he says, if it be possible. And then he says, All things are possible unto thee.
We go on to see the Lord Jesus on the cross.
And.
Pharisees are there. The Scribes are there.
They look up at the Lord Jesus as he hangs there.
And they say.
He trusted in the Father.
Or trusted in God, not the Father. He trusted in God.
If he'll have him.
Let him deliver him.
He said I'm son of God.
I pondered.
These things a little bit.
My soul is overwhelmed when I look upon it from the Father's standpoint.
Here's my son.
And he says to me, Father.
Would be possible?
Here is the people that stand around and look at my son and say he said he's the son.
Is the father going to spare the son?
That serves him.
Father had the right to do it.
The father could have said that's it.
That's it for this whole creation.
It's over.
And no one could have said unrighteous, unfaithful or even unloving.
Because here's a choice, as it were. The well beloved, perfect son and servant on the one side.
Unrighteous, evil, ungrateful, unholy man on the other side.
We'll never know.
And we don't have the capacity to really know.
Why God made the choice that He did. We only accept what He says He so loved.
But I like the statement and.
Genesis 22. So they went.
Both of them together.
And his father and his son, they went through the whole together. The forsaking is not in John. The thought of forsaking is not in John. They went both of them together, and they went through the work. And so in Romans 8 it says He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all.
00:15:14
How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Here we have the Father and the Son going through this work together, so that together they might freely share with us all things.
Shalt not he with Him also freely give us all things. All that we have this afternoon comes from the heart of the Father and the Son jointly sharing with us.
The sun gives up all that we might receive all.
And we are the objects of the Father and the Son's love and attention.
To open their heart together. To share with us all that is there for today, but even more wonderfully, you might say, for eternity.
Let's go over to.
Where we have been in our reading meeting and John chapter 10.
John, Chapter 10.
Just one little piece out of this chapter.
Verse 27. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my father are one. These are wonderful words, wonderful message to your heart and mind this afternoon.
The Father has given you to the Son.
The son has received you as a gift from his father.
We talk about giving and receiving, and here's the most wonderful as it relates to us perhaps giving and receiving for our blessing. The Father giving us to the Son, the Son receiving us from the Father, and then the Son saying they're mine forever.
I'll never give them up. And the father saying they'll nobody's going to take them away from you. Oh, if there's anyone here that has any.
Uncertainty or twinge of feeling that maybe, maybe you could be lost. Listen to what God is saying, the Father saying, the Son is saying here.
You're a gift from the Father to the Son. The Son has received you from the Father, and he says that's my sheep.
And it's mine forever. It's sometimes we receive something and maybe we don't appreciate it and we give it away or we've used it and now we're going to give it away. Maybe somebody here. This is the way it is with us is mankind. Sometimes somebody we, we buy or whatever a new car and when we've used it up, then we give it away. But not so with the Father and the Son. It's.
My shape.
Something that is his own.
That he will not give to another.
It's you.
He loves you, you're his own sheep, and no matter what, if you stray, he's going to get you back because he loves you. And he says I and my father are one. And the wonder of some of the thoughts that we can enjoy here this afternoon is the sharing between the father and the son and ourselves.
You ever?
Had a fantastic meal. I've been on, uh, in recent years, but at one time I had to go on business trips and sometimes I was with others, but sometimes I was alone and we had a very generous allowance and what we were allowed to do is by way of meals. And so went out and had a fantastic meal.
00:20:03
But alone.
And there's just something missing. It just doesn't measure up. It just doesn't completely satisfy the yearnings of the human heart.
But in what we have before us, we see if we enjoy it together. This afternoon with our father and with his son, they're saying to us, we want to share everything together with you.
You're ours, and in one sense we're yours, and so it is ours to share together, one with the other.
And that makes a fantastic result.
Go for a minute to uh, John 20 just to get the thought a little further. John chapter 20.
Umm, verse 16 Jesus said unto her, Mary, she turned herself, and said unto him, a robo. And I, which is to say, Master Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father.
If I go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend to my Father, and your father, and to my God and your God.
If I can be permitted on behalf of the Lord Jesus, I want to say he was excited.
He was excited to be able, for the first time, to say that this message, the very first message he had in resurrection for his own.
He had continually throughout his life spoken to his disciples and spoken to them of my Father.
And I have come to present the father to you, and I want you to get to know the father. And now he's risen from the dead. The work is completed, the foundation of having children, the father having children of his own among us.
And the Lord Jesus, the Son, immediately, with joy in his heart, gives the first message. Now it's my Father and your Father. We're going to enjoy one another forever together.
Now you and I are in the same enjoyed relationship that I can say.
Your father.
Along with my father.
Yes.
Heaven is wonderful.
And it's a place of shared communion.
Between the Father and the Son and ourselves.
Let's go back to chapter 12 of John.
John chapter 12 and verse one.
Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus, which had been dead, was, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.
And there made him a supper, and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then he took Mary.
I'm sorry, then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly and anointed the feet of Jesus.
And wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.
Then one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him.
Why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor?
This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the bag and bear what was put there, and then said, Jesus let her alone.
Against the day of my burying, as she kept this or I'm gonna read it in the new translation. Jesus therefore said, Suffer her to have kept this for the day of my preparation for burial.
00:25:13
For the poor always you have with you, but me you have not always.
I don't know a greater act.
Of love or devotion to the Lord Jesus.
And let's record it here.
I think it's a wonderful thing that this woman and what she did.
We'll be honored for eternity.
Here's the man.
It was exceedingly rich.
Would become poor.
Any passes among men as we had in Sunday school? Show me a penny.
Judas didn't look at him as poor.
He said. Why wasn't this ointment?
Converted the money and and given the help the poor.
I don't know how many of the disciples.
If any really entered into his poverty.
It's amazing.
This is Mary.
Just a little while before.
Mary had seen this man go into a cemetery.
And give life.
To her brother.
And now?
She's she's the one that had said to him, Lord, if thou hast been here, he wouldn't have died.
And now she is taking something that was very precious among men.
For what?
Is burial his death?
She had just seen her brother raised from the dead.
But she turns around and with a God-given Holy Spirit directed since that went certainly beyond anything that the mind would have dreamed up.
She could have normally and naturally said, well, nothing can harm the Lord Jesus, He can even raise the dead.
But the Lord Jesus, the man of poverty.
Appreciated what was given to him.
His heart was, I'm sure, stirred.
That here was one.
Who?
Heart was attached to him in such a way that she would give to him.
Something that spoke of his death.
The father could say. Surely they'll reverence the son.
And they despised and cast out, and man says no, we won't have them.
And so in his own poverty.
Here's one.
That gives to him something precious.
And something in connection with his burial.
She deserves.
I believe eternal honor.
For so honoring our Lord Jesus.
In that blessed way.
Turn over to Chapter 14.
Chapter 14 and verse one. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.
00:30:05
In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you.
I go and prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself.
That where I am, there you may be also.
It's often been remarked we know very little about heaven.
When we sang that hymn #127 it struck me forcibly that it's a good thing.
It's a good thing.
God in his wisdom.
Perhaps knowing our hearts that if we had a lot to tell us about the details of heaven.
We would very easily lose.
What makes heaven, heaven?
It's the Father and the Son and their love.
That, if I could put it this way, is all we need to know.
That they want to share it in their home with us.
A home is a place. A house is a place where you tend to go in and if you will, take off your shoes and relax and sit down and enjoy relaxed fellowship and communion.
That's heaven.
The father is going to relax.
He says right now my.
Uh, the the son says my father worketh hitherto and I work.
As long as sin exists in the creation, the Father cannot rest, nor can the Son, so they work together.
Until it's removed completely and the foundation for it has already been done at the cross, but it's still present and so they work. But when it is fully removed, then the Father, if you will, can relax and rest.
In his love.
Is love in the sun?
And is loving you.
And may we will enter into a scene of blessedness to share.
With the father and the Son.
And that's what that him is all about.
The love in the Father's house.
The father's house, the father's heart, all that the son is given, we've been given to the son.
Made ours.
The objects of his love.
And he our joy in heaven.
And so the sun.
What's his is his father's house.
His place of welcome and delight in the as it were says to us.
I've got to take you there.
We've got to share it together.
My heart won't be satisfied.
Until we're together.
At home.
Now there's.
26.
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance. Whatsoever I have said unto you, peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled either, let it be afraid.
There's something of the Lord's that he gives to us.
And it's love for us. It's peace.
This is not the piece that you have in the book of Romans.
We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
That's a piece that comes from the work of the cross.
Concerning our.
Standing before God and being righteous before him. But this is a different kind of piece, and this piece the Lord Jesus.
Gifts to us.
I hope you are enjoying it. I hope I'm enjoying it this afternoon and when I leave here in a day or so. If the Lord leaves us here, then I will continue and you will continue to enjoy this piece.
00:35:10
Every day of his life.
The Lord Jesus lived in peace.
In his relationship with his father.
God in his heaven looks down on the earth, and nothing that happens today disturbs him.
He's at peace.
Nothing surprised him today, nothing's going to surprise him tomorrow.
God lives, if you will, in that tranquility of His own being, knowing all, controlling all, being over all.
And when the Lord Jesus walked through this world as a man, he walked through it in peace with the throne of God.
He was able to face the sorrows and the circumstances and the difficulties and the rejection of life and feel it.
Be burdened by it to save reproach. Have broken my heart but at the same time.
To do so in the fellowship of peace with the Father.
As the two went together.
The Lord Jesus had provided that environment and enjoyment to the disciples while they traveled with Him for the 3 1/2 years, and it's coming at this moment to an end and He's making preparation for them when He won't be there, if you will, to be their peace.
For them. And so he says, I'm going to send the Holy Spirit, the Comforter to dwell in you.
To fulfill that function.
For me, for you, that you may continue to go on and enjoy my peace.
Let not your heart be troubled.
Either let it be afraid. Let us walk in that peace.
Let our hearts not be troubled nor afraid.
It's ours.
He's given it to us, we, if we, He's given it to us to enjoy. May the Lord graciously help us to enjoy it. Let's go to chapter 15.
Umm, verse 9.
As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue, ye and my love.
If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love.
These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
My commandments.
My love and my joy.
The Lord Jesus.
Walked through his life.
And uninterrupted, unhindered.
Communion with the love of his father.
Every moment of every day that he lived, he lived in the enjoyment, in his soul of the love of his father.
How did you do that?
He kept his father's commandments.
He says.
I delight to do thy will every morning as he got up and he went through the day, he went through it and perfect submission.
00:40:01
In Perfect Dependence, and I want to add a comment about dependence. Dependence implies confidence. You don't depend on somebody you don't have any confidence in.
If someone goes to a doctor and they don't think the doctor understands their case, they may have no dependence on the doctor. They may try somebody else, but they feel they can have confidence in independence.
The Lord Jesus.
Had confidence in the father.
And as he walked in obedience to the Father's will.
And the result was the enjoyment of his father's love.
Enjoy my joy.
Now the Lord Jesus speaks to us this afternoon.
He speaks to your heart, and he speaks to my heart as we sit in these chairs or stand this afternoon. And he says to us, just as he said to his disciples, these things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and it's your joy might be full. The Lord Jesus wants you and I to experience the same joy, the same character of joy.
Yeah, he did in his life.
He wants you and I to experience what he experienced and enjoyed throughout his life.
And so he says keep my commandments.
To keep his commandments, there's confidence.
And you might say his will.
There's dependence that's involved in that, and there's obedience to it.
And the word of God, those things go together. You can't be happy and disobedient with the Father or the Son that they don't go. They're not. They can't be Co joined.
You want your own way, you want your own will, then you're going to enjoy.
You're not gonna have the joy of the Lord Jesus in your life.
Going to be missing. But it isn't his will, It isn't his desire for any of us. This afternoon he would say to us, please.
Let's walk together.
I want you to have my joy remain with you.
Let's turn over to Chapter 17.
Yes.
Chapter 17 and verse 20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them which also which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in US, That the world may believe that Thou has sent me, and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are, I and them, and Thou and me that they may be.
Made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them.
As thou hast loved me, there's incredible sharing and oneness expressed in the verses. We don't have time this afternoon to, really.
Elaborate much on them, but.
The Lord Jesus.
As glorious, which belonged to Himself alone, and they cannot be shared.
God has glory that is his own.
As Chuck think it was yesterday was commenting on God being.
Umm. And having alone, having immortality, that's the glory of God that the creature does not have.
Never will.
The Lord Jesus, as the Son of God, has that. He has life in himself.
And he is as immortality in his being.
But there are glories which she receives from the father.
That he can and will share because he loves to share with us. He wants to share everything that can possibly be shared. He gave up everything.
00:45:11
That he might be enabled to share his heart, his love, his time, his energy, his presence with us. And here he says, I want the whole world to know.
That your loved just as I am.
That we together are bound up in this same bundle of love. And I want the whole world to know that you are loved just as I am.
How is that gonna be expressed?
In the coming millennial day.
This whole world is gonna see you and me.
Sharing in the official glories of the Lord Jesus.
As reigning over this earth.
You'll be right there with him and the world will look at you and say, oh, how loved they are.
He said I'm I want to share and I will share those glories with you.
That the world may know.
And it will.
That the Father loves you.
As he loves me.
Turn over to the last book of the Bible, the last chapter, Revelation 22.
Revelation chapter 22 and verse one. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
In the midst of the street event, on either side of the river, there was the tree of life, which bear 12 manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month. And the leaves of the trees were for the healing of the nation. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him, and they shall see His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads. Keep your finger here. We'll come right back here. But let's turn over to John chapter 6.
Pick up a couple of verses connected with this.
John chapter 6 and verse 33. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
Umm.
54 Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up in 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 has sent me. And as I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
Verse 63 It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.
Adam and Eve were the first creation of God and and.
As respect to man. And they were placed in a garden, and in that garden they were given all the trees, the fruit of those trees to eat. And there were two specially named trees in the garden, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And we all know the story. So we won't go into the matter of the fall, but we do know that after sin came in, Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden.
And the gate, the door, the entrance was closed and they could not go back in.
Now we come. That's the beginning of the story, if you will. And now we come to the end of God's story for us in this last chapter of the Bible.
And it gets brings before us the tree of life.
00:50:03
The Lord Jesus, it's a tree of life to us.
And Adam all die.
And that first creation comes to an end when.
The heavens and the earth flee away, and when it's burned up, it's gone.
But you might say in one sense, there's a new Garden of Eden heaven to us.
And there is the tree of life that Adam and Eve never partook of in that first garden.
But we partaken of it.
We have Christ.
The bread of life.
And we have fed upon him in faith, and we have life.
And in our Garden of Eden, if you will, there's 12 manner of fruit.
We are going to, brethren, feed on the Lord Jesus as food for our eternal life forever.
Even eternal life needs food.
And he himself is the food of that life.
He that he of me shall live by me, it says in John 6:00. And we are going to for eternity have something to feed on.
Himself and it will be an ever never dull Never.
Boring man's always worried about being bored. It will be that which is perfectly satisfying. Each might say, even though eternity has no time. But we can't think of outside of time, I don't think. And so it's given to us as each month of the year comes and there's fresh fruit and we are going to see fresh manifestations to our hearts of that one person, the Lord Jesus and.
We're going to feed on it.
As the food of ourselves.
But I want to just make this remark.
Don't wait, don't wait.
Lord wants us to feed upon Himself.
To enjoy in our souls.
The beginning of our eternity.
Here it will be unhindered in the scene that's described in Revelation 22. And we won't have the flesh innocent. We won't have the world to distract us or draw us away. And that Satan will be gone. But we can start and we can enjoy. And the Lord Jesus says, as it were, this is important to know that Christ is our life.
We don't have it independent of him.
This is our life.
He, I, I have the life that you see here independent at this point of my parents, my mother, my father, my father's with the Lord. My mother is quite old. And so the life that I'm now living is in that sense independent of them.
But not eternal life.
It's not that kind of independence. It is life in Christ and we live by Him. He is our life. We participate in His life and we enjoy it and we feed on it and it is our food. May the Lord just so put Him before us that.
Nothing else you might say compares, but we don't yearn after the husks of this world.
Now just two more things.
Umm, verse 12.
Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me.
I give to give to every man according as his work shall be. I am alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Here's another thing. That's the Lord's.
That he wants to share.
My reward?
But it's very humbling.
To have it here.
00:55:02
He's talking about coming.
And he's talking about his rewards.
He's gonna bring his rewards, if you will, with him.
Give you a phone.
But what's humbling about it is there's no response.
And I suppose if to whatever measure we in this room enter into that we don't feel able to respond.
We're not real comfortable to review or have a sense of our own life and faithfulness and work and worth and everything else to receive any reward.
And consequently there is no response by his bride to these remarks of his own to want to give.
Nor does the Spirit of God say anything either, because the Spirit far better than we.
Knows that reward will be a matter of grace.
And love on God's part rather than.
The response there has been on ours.
He then says.
Verse 16 I Jesus have sent mine Angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I'm the root and offspring of David, the bright morning star, and the Spirit and the bride say come.
This is wonderful, encouraging.
Winnetts himself and who he is that is presented without respect to our responsibility and faithfulness to life. Uh, there is a response.
The Spirit and the Bride can say come.
May it be so, brethren. Another comment. We know very little about heaven. People get very preoccupied as to when the Lord is gonna come.
If we knew it would spoil it.
If we knew it would spoil it, if the scripture said this is the event and that's what has to happen and that's going to be God. Knowing our natural hearts and even our tendency to fall back, that's exactly what we focus on and lose sight.
Of icon.
And we would be occupied with the expected, anticipated watch for event because then we say, Oh yeah, it's going to happen. Yes, how shallow it is going to happen rather than icon. And God in perfect wisdom has said, I'll take care of that.
And the spirit and the bride just want us to say, he says on the route and offspring and David, the bright morning star, and our hearts say come.
Or Jesus? Well, just one last comment verse. The last verse of the word of God.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
The Lord Jesus as we conclude this meeting.
I believe could say to each one of us personally and individually so that our hearts respond to him even at this moment. He could say to us as he did as to Paul.
My grace is sufficient.
My grace is sufficient to that.
That's all we need, brethren.
Sufficiency.
Of his grace.
Take us home.
It is sufficient, and it's this last message, if you will, or the last message of the Word of God. My grace is sufficient.
That's great.
John 10:17-18 and John 14
Five Words
Gospel—Ron Klassen
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10-4 oh 10-4 oh 10-4 001 oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh one oh oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
God, why did you?
Wildlife do not.
For a moment I would desire to.
Quote what? I'll name the person later, but he quoted in the word of God.
You might say his life and the impact that the grace of God had upon his life.
One thing he said, This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
Of whom I am chief.
So the chief of sinners was saved many years ago.
And that means that everyone else is eligible to come in. But how many would tell you if you approach them with the grace of God would say, I've gone too far, I'm too bad this is common, You know it. It's painful to think of getting an answer like that.
But this dear man went on to say.
The life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
He went on to say.
For me, to live is Christ, and to die is eternal gain.
At the end of his life he said something like this.
I have finished my course. I have finished the course.
00:05:02
I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith.
You say what was the end of a life like this?
Was to be taken out in martyrdom.
Life closed on Earth.
By contrast, I want to speak of another life. There are those in this room.
That will remember our brother Bill Price getting ready to give out the Gospel Lord's Day evening.
And he announced to us the death of Princess Diana of Wales.
We were shocked.
But not surprised.
For instance, Diana grew up.
And she married Prince Charles.
And she turned in the royal family.
And they were blessed with two sons. I trust they were blessed with two sons. I'm not sure.
And as time went on, she became.
A person in the public eye photographed.
The most in all times.
Posed with different clothes, hats, gloves, circumstances.
Photo after photo.
It was known, probably worldwide.
And was a real idol.
And a role model.
For the populace of this world.
Time came when she divorced her husband.
Very sad time.
And the photographing kept on.
And you could tell by the photographs that things were degenerating and going down.
But still up in the public eye.
And so for those.
That looked on with spiritual understanding, knew that something was going to happen.
And to think of getting into that limousine.
In Paris, France.
And the driver going down the road 95 miles an hour.
Went under an overpass and hit the support.
And she died shortly after.
Passed into eternity.
I'm not going to try to determine her destination.
I believe that was the one who was the judge of all the earth. But I am going to say this.
Now, when she closed her eyes in death.
Her destiny was settled.
And anyone else who closes their eyes in death, their destiny is settled, even either to heaven through the realms of the blessed, or to the dark infernal regions of the damned.
Nothing can be changed afterward.
Well, we have these two lives.
And I just raised this question.
If you had to make a choice.
Of what life you wanted to live? What would your choice be?
Last night our brother gave out that hand. Decide for Christ.
Said he hadn't began a gospel meeting to his memory because.
Last night he didn't know if he was going to get through the hour.
We're looking for the Lord to come and take all the redeemed home to glory, and tonight we're in the same situation.
00:10:01
And again to say, decide for Christ now.
I trust somebody got saved last night. That is such a delightful thing to think.
One being convicted by the words spoken.
And put their hand in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, to know that you have passed from death unto life, that you're not living in peril any longer.
But I wonder.
If there are those in this room.
That passed that hour and went out as you came in, still in your sins.
It was brought before us the power of Satan, and the tremendous battle is going on, light against darkness and darkness against light.
And you know in your heart that perhaps there are some sinful things.
That you wanna do.
Before you decide for Christ.
You're in grave peril tonight.
Do you realize what sin is before God?
Word of God tells us it's lawlessness.
What happens to a person in this country who goes out on a lawless course?
They're up for to be apprehended, tried.
Condemned to die.
Someone else has said that sin is a capital crime against the majesty of God. Who is God Simply your maker and your maker. One day you must meet and it's going to be either.
In grace and in glory, where it's going to be standing before the great white throne, standing on nothing, to be condemned by the words of your own mouth.
For the few moments that we have.
I wanna go back to the first life, the apostle Paul known as Saul of Tarsus, later the chosen vessel to give us the truth of the gospel, the grace of God and the gospel of the glory.
And he said to a company of Christians, he said I would rather speak 5 words with my understanding than 10,000 in an unknown tongue.
Oh, the beauty of simplicity of the word, You enjoy it, I enjoy it. These 5 words, we're going to have the gospel. They'll carry the gospel message and they're in this order.
Peace, love, grace.
Faith and hope.
Have you heard these words?
Since Saturday afternoon in the ministry.
The address Gospels, you say? Yes, we've heard them over and over and over again.
These 5 words are very distinct one from the other.
But they are very harmonious, they work together.
For the salvation of your soul.
There's something else that these words have in common.
And that is that they are personified in the Lord Jesus Christ.
What's personified? That's kind of a a big word, kind of hard to get around. What does it mean personify? Does it mean that the Lord Jesus was a very special example of these five things?
No, it doesn't mean that, although he was that, but it means that.
We looked to him.
His peace personified, his love personified, His grace personified, his faith personified, and he's our hope personified. He is the source and the resource for any bankrupt center here this evening.
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Oh, you say? What a resource?
Those are things that I need in my life. Not going to list the contrast. You know what they are.
So for a few moments, we're going to.
Look at where these words first appear in this precious book, and the last time they appear.
And see if the gospel cannot be found in those five words. Let's turn first to ex uh Genesis chapter 15.
You might wonder, well, what why this particular order?
It was amazing to realize that peace.
In the word of God comes more times than love. I speak of love without a prefix and a suffix, and then they become less and less, and hope. Is that the least?
And so we're looking at peace as something very important. We've heard about peace today, yesterday.
But here's the first time that it's recorded in verse 15.
And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace.
Thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
You know we're talking about death.
Piece and going into death joke could say death is the king of terrors.
It tells us in Hebrews about the Old Testament Saints that because of the fear of death they were held in *******.
Someone put it this way. They didn't know where they were going when they left this world, but they knew where they were when they got there.
Into the presence of the Lord.
And so here's Abraham.
He's got a lot of years ahead of them.
But death was going to come by and by. He learned to know the God of glory. He learned to know God Almighty. That was for him.
And so peace is spoken of to Abraham and respect to death. You know, that's a test as to where you stand tonight. Are you ready to die? The Lord said I'm going to take you. What would your reaction be?
My dear father was on his death bed.
And perhaps many of you enjoy the Christian calendar that are.
Sister Mina has put out for many years.
We have a habit in our home to read that little calendar verse before we pray and eat our breakfast.
Sometimes there's a thought there that causes us to thank the Lord in our prayer.
And her were laborers terminate on December 31St. We have the sister with us here that's taking over.
And if you visit with her and encourage her, she appreciates it because it takes a lot of courage and the leading of the Spirit of God to be able to give the Word in season timely. Well anyway, when my father was on his deathbed.
This little calendar slip appeared and it says.
Oh death, where is thy sting?
Oh great, where is thy victory?
A little poem underneath says, Teach me to live, that I may dread the grave as little as my bad. Are we dreading to go to bed tonight and say that's far from our minds?
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Is the grave any different than that?
Says Teach me to die so that I may rise glorious at the resurrection day.
Well, I enjoyed this with my dear father.
And I could see that his life was heavy in a way. He was very peaceful.
And the last thing he said to me that I could understand him, he said Ron.
I've never been this low in my life.
No Fear in his eyes.
He knew he was going. Just a few hours later, he got his summons to come home.
Oh peace, the gift of God's love.
We read as to.
These words.
He is our piece. Peace appears 404 times in the precious Word of God.
I don't want to notice the last time in the Book of Revelation where peace is mentioned.
Let's consider it Revelation chapter 6.
Revelation chapter 6.
And verse 4.
And there went out another horse that was red, and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, that they should kill one another. And there was given unto him a great sword.
Peace taken from the earth that's coming.
It's been mentioned that we have seen some very strong forerunners to this time.
There are those in this world down through the avenue of time as long as I've been alive, that would say, you know, I think that we're in the seven years of the great tribulation.
Because there were just so many things going on in the world that caused concern.
This world is ripening for judgment. This world is guilty of crucifying the Lord of glory.
And God hasn't vindicated yet.
But man knows that the wrecking day is coming.
And to think of the moment that the Saints are raptured out of this world and the Spirit of God is gone. No restraining power.
Peace is gone.
I wouldn't want to live here 5 minutes after the Lord's dear people leave, no.
Pace is gone.
Let's go to love back to the book of Genesis. Kinda waves from Genesis to Revelation.
We turn to the 27th chapter of Genesis for the first time that love is mentioned.
Genesis 27, verse 3.
Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, and thy quiver, and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison, and make me savory meats such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that I may.
That my soul may bless thee before I die.
You say love here in this verse.
Why it's lost its luster.
It's dropped down to carnality.
You know that marks the love of this world, doesn't it? It's lost its lover. Uh, it's luster.
It's beauty.
And it's called free love. It's worthless.
And sad to say, we have Isaac and Rebecca.
Who we admire as a couple in marriage and the principles that went with that marriage.
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And to think that things came down to this point.
Where on this particular day, the family was gonna turn upside down.
No ballast, no stability and the line and the deceitfulness and the confusion that broke out in this family.
Oh, you say, not interested in love like that.
That's false.
But you know, we read in first John.
Chapter 4 These words the IT says there that he that dwelleth in love. Let me add the word personified. He that dwelleth in love personified dwelleth in God.
Oh, now we have a real love.
An unchanging love before us.
And that's the love that is in the gospel. That's the love that reaches out to your sin sick soul would draw you into this mighty current.
And find your way on the glory in the mighty current of the love of God.
Let's notice the last time love is found in the Book of Revelation again, Chapter 3.
And verse 19.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.
Oh, we might say.
I'm not.
Not too fond of this kind of love.
But you know, if we've been called out of darkness into his marvelous light, we need to be preserved.
You know, if we're without chastisement, it tells us that we are ******** and not sons. But whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. What's the point? The point of discipline, whether it's with our children?
So we carry out discipline with tears and have to discipline them. Our desire is to temper their souls and sweeten their spirits.
Say, well, how can that work? Well, it does work. And when the Lord takes us in the hand and we're beyond the discipline of our parents.
It's still the same. He's working with our spirits.
What a work, the pain that he has to go to, to break me down, that I might show the Spirit of Christ and reflect it back.
Whom I love, I rebuke and chasten if you're in that role tonight.
Realize why you are, what the purpose of it is. God is not against us, He's for us every turn of our life.
Let's go back to the Book of Genesis to consider the first time we find grace.
Wonderful grace.
6th chapter of Genesis.
Genesis chapter 6 and verse 8. But Noah found grace.
In the eyes of the Lord.
You know, if we could go back to the day that Noah lived.
And we looked around the city.
We would find that it was filled with violence and corruption.
And no doubt this was very hard on Noah.
To have to see this and contend with it every day.
And so he did something.
That every one of us need to do, and that's to look up into the eyes of God.
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We expect judgment, we deserve it, but we look up into the eyes of God and he saw that there was grace there.
To think how he must have looked up with such anxious thoughts to know what God was going to do. He knew that that condition of things couldn't keep going on.
And to think of God speaking to Noah and saying Noah build an ark.
For the saving of your house.
What words of grace?
To find a way of deliverance.
And it took a lot of effort.
But you know, I'm afraid if it would have been my task to build that ark, seeing the size of it, to think of the size of being able to put 500 box cars into that ark.
To get the idea of how big it was.
And to spend 120 years building, keeping it going, getting the material.
All in view of saving yourself and your family.
Now this is wonderful. There's an arc tonight. It's available to the parents with their children to get into that art that ark is Christ and to be safe evermore.
No, it didn't perish in the judgment, but it certainly came.
It came in a way that covered the whole earth with water 20 cubits above the highest point. No survivors except those in the ark.
And God set the bow in the sky to say it wasn't going to destroy the earth with water, but it's in line for fire.
Think of the building of man that is going on here in the United States.
I think it's all given over, going to be given over to fire melt with fervent heat.
So that there won't be any souvenirs, if I can put it that way.
For the Saints in the eternal state that will dwell on the earth.
It's gone. All of man is gone.
Probably most of us know in this room were the last Grace is found. We had it before us already this afternoon.
The last verse of the Bible.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
We're looking for the Rapture was brought out.
And until it comes, grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Do you feel a need for God's grace?
Wanna tell you these 5 words? Grace's first and its last in the Bible. And that's what our lives are going to be. A testimony to the grace of God from the first day of our conversion to the last.
Wonderful grace.
Let's look at faith in the book of Deuteronomy.
Under faith.
Deuteronomy 32.
May surprise some to make the statement that faith is the word. Faith is only found twice in the Old Testament.
That doesn't mean that there wasn't faith all through the Old Testament, for there was. But the word is only mentioned twice, once in a very negative way. We have it here in verse 20 of the 32nd chapter. And he said, I will hide my face from them. I will seek what their end shall be, for they are a very froward generation, children, and whom is no faith.
Is there anyone here tonight?
That is without faith.
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You know what the opposite of faith is?
It's pride.
How many souls in this world are kept out?
Of the circle of blessing because of pride in their hearts.
There's an acrostic to pride. PRIDE. It is pursuing riches.
I decide everything.
Isn't doesn't that describe the man of the world, the person of the world?
May not get rich, but that's what you're driving for.
And that'll keep you out of heaven.
But think of faith. The acrostic is.
Forsaking. Oh, I take him. What a contrast.
Sad to say.
I believe that this characterizes.
The young in this world.
To try to awaken them to the reality of the gospel.
They're dead. They're tattooed.
Their bodies are disfigured.
Everything imaginable.
That shows that man is going back to heathen them in the United States of America.
No faith.
I wanted to tell you.
A conversion of a man.
This took place about two months ago.
Was a man that was a Jew the age of 59? Was a terminal case cancer?
And he was in a ward where they take nothing but terminal cases.
There was a woman.
Christian woman.
That are life's work is to play the heart, to sing the hymns of the faith.
She goes in this ward, I don't know how large it is, but everybody's a terminal case in there and their five year old children and.
Old folks in between.
And she walked into the room of this Jew.
And she has no doubt a very nice way about her. And she engaged in conversation with him. And finally she said, would you like for me to play the harp and sing to you?
Well, he says, what kind of songs do you sing? Says, well, I sang the songs of the faith.
He says I'm an atheist, please just get out of the room, don't bother to come back.
And his wife was there, and some of the family.
A little later the chaplain came in. He didn't know about the woman with the harp, and he walked up to the man and.
Gage in conversation with him and.
He said the Jews said to him, who are you? Oh, he says, I'm just the chaplain. He said I just circulate around here to try to comfort folks. He said we don't need you either. You get out of here and don't bother to come back. I'm an atheist. And the family all said Amen to it.
The chaplain looked at the man and he said to him.
I'm gonna pray for you.
I'm going to pray for you, he said. Don't bother. Get out.
The next morning, the regular nurse came in.
And she did whatever she needed to do.
And in the well she was attending to him. He said that could you get the chaplain for me?
Well, I I think I can. She didn't know anything about what happened the day before.
So she said I'll try to get him so.
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She contacted the chaplain and she said and the man and such and such, your own wants to see you.
And he just stiffened, he said. What room number? Such and such 0.
He said to her, How did he seem to to you?
Well, he seemed peaceful to me.
So it was a great trepidation. He went back in the room and his wife and some of the family were there and.
Walked up to the man laying there in bed and said how are you doing?
The chaplain, I wanna tell you something, he said. Last night I had a dream.
He said. I dreamt that I was in a very beautiful place and there was a stream that was flowing by.
He said. As I was standing there, I saw a man on the other side of the stream.
And the man said to me, would you like me to help you across the stream?
He said. I said to him, who are you? He said, I'm Jesus, give me your hand.
So he said. I gave him my hand and I looked up into his face and I realized.
Jesus is alive.
He wasn't a corpse that was carried away and put somewhere else where nobody could find him. He was alive.
By this time, his wife, the rest of the family were up on their feet and they said, get out of here, Chaplain, he's had a bad night. We're atheists and.
When things subsided, this dear man said to the chaplain, He still has a hold of my hand.
And they stormed out of that room. They never came back. They didn't attend the funeral and they didn't pay a cent for the cost of the funeral.
The chaplain came back in the next day to see how he was doing. He was a little weaker.
And the Jewish man said to him, Chaplain, I'd like to make a request of you.
He said. What can I do for you?
He says I want you to baptize me.
Well, the chat on just it took him so by surprise that he would make that request of him.
So he says well.
OK.
But why do you wanna be baptized? He says. Because I wanna be identified with Jesus.
I don't know what he did to baptize him, but he helped him back into bed.
The next morning he walked into his room again to see how he was doing.
It was very weak and just at the close of leaving.
And the chaplain bent down.
And he heard this dear man say, He still has a hold of my hand.
And a little while later, he was gone.
Faith.
A man in whom was no faith, and yet in a few hours to think of the faith that flooded his soul to.
Have contact with Jesus and know that He was His passport to glory, like a brand plucked from the burning.
Telling another story that happened in this same complex.
The little 5 year old girl.
Victim of cancer.
From a Hindu family.
And they're there in her room.
She's laying there and she goes into a coma.
And so they start their lighting of candles and whatever they do and view of death coming in.
They were moving on to whatever point they wanna get to and all of a sudden.
That little girl's eyes opened. She sat up in bed.
She said I see Jesus.
Fell back on her pillow and was gone.
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That shattered that family.
I asked the question.
Where did that seed come from? Or seeds that dropped into that young heart?
That could identify Jesus.
You know we say God is sovereign.
I have to add another word. God is so sovereign.
And to think of the work of the Spirit of God going out through this Dark World, ******* souls and gathering them in. All these are just recent conversions.
Let's look at the last time we have faith again in the Book of Revelation.
Faith in the Book of Revelation, how it closes. I believe in the 14th chapter.
And verse 12 it says, here is the patience of the Saints, here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
Here is faith that is personified.
Here's the era, the time that's coming, called the great Tribulation. Here, the earthly Saints going through the perils of this time. They don't know when they wake up in the morning will they be alive at the end of the day. And they don't know when they go to bed if they'll be alive by tomorrow morning, still alive by tomorrow morning.
What sustains them?
Their faith and trust in Jesus.
I wouldn't volunteer to live for that time, but to think that the Lord is sufficient for any time.
Anywhere. Any era.
All faith is a very simple thing, though little understood.
We read that it takes this flight to scenes above, beyond the sphere of sin.
Oh, how wonderful, the gospel.
Brings faith.
Now we have hope, the last one. Let's turn to the book of Ruth for the first time that we have.
The word hope.
The Book of Ruth, chapter one.
And verse 12.
Turn again, my daughters, go your way.
For I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope if I should have an husband also tonight.
And should also their sons, would he tarry for them till they be grown?
What a negative.
Side of hope It's no hope here.
Here's Naomi that's been in Moab for 10 years.
So you went there with her husband and two sons, the two sons got married and in short order her husband died and the two sons and left her with two Moabitish daughter-in-laws.
After 10 years, she heard that God had visited his people with bread.
And she wanted to return to the land.
Where the famine had ceased. And yet when she went out in the famine, she said, I went out full, and the Lord has brought me back empty.
She's walking down the road and gets to the border of Israel.
Moab and she looks at those two mobile.
Probably was acquainted with the scriptures that said that a Moabite shall gonna paraphrase it shall never come into the congregation of Jehovah for all eternity.
You can imagine how she must have felt.
Trying to persuade them to go back, one did.
But there was one named Ruth.
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She didn't say to her mother-in-law. Well, you know, just let me go with you and and I'll kind of test things out. Oh no. She drove her steak down deep.
She ended up by saying, And where thou die, thy people shall be my people, and where thou die us there will I die and be buried.
Enjoyed what? Our brother Londine, once speaking on the book of Ruth, he said, you know.
The Lord gave Ruth a straight line right into the Congregation of Israel.
Gave her a husband by the name of Boaz.
And of all things, to be in the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ through that marriage.
I have her name appear in Matthew chapter one.
Hope.
You know what I think of the Apostle Paul.
Maybe reading this, I don't know, but he says these words at that time.
Ye were without Christ being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise.
Having no hope and without God in the world.
I really answered to Ruth, didn't it? That answers to you and I.
We may not be Moabites by nationality, but we are by.
By character.
And to think that there's hope for us.
All the gate of heaven is open tonight.
God is calling from heaven and bidding you come.
You might enter in.
The password tonight is Christ.
A living, glorified man.
That's all it takes to pass through the Gate of Heaven.
To eternal hope and blessing.
Let's look at the last time we have hope. That was covered very nicely in the reading the first John chapter 3.
And verse 2.
Beloved now, are we the sons or children of God, and it does 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.
And every man that have this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
Mentioned earlier.
About being in the valley of decision.
Thinking about wanting to do a few more sinful things before you have to stop.
Wanna tell you something? If you decide for Christ now, you will be. You'll have to receive in nature.
That loves to please God.
All the transformation of souls that.
They looked so hopeless.
They turned to Christ.
Nobody had to tell them.
You know, to drop this off and don't do this and don't go there. I didn't need that kind of instruction. Were they losers? Were they sorry? Not a one. What a testimony.
Well, this blessed hope.
Of the Lord's imminent return.
To think of the change that we're going to experience, we're going to be like Christ, morally and physically.
Here it is morally, we have a physically the third chapter of Philippians.
This is hope.
May the Spirit of God.
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Make these words precious to your heart.
And to have these words on your lips as you speak to one another.
Oh, this is the heart of Christianity. Peace, love, grace, faith, and hope. Shall we close by singing #38 We have three of these words in this hand. We might mark them as we sing them, and the other two that are not here. The tenor of it is still in this hymn. We can sing it with that in mind.
I know.
Oh our God and Father, we are so thankful for the gospel, Thy grace that it can still be proclaimed, and we pray that there would be that exercise and energy to proclaim the gospel through the week.
That is before us. Maybe we will be gone before the sun rises to meet thee there in the air and to experience the wonderful change that we will experience. And to think that we won't need faith and hope any longer. But faith, love will abide. Oh bless the Lord and our peace under score, and we will not need grace, but.
We know that grace will be the greatest feature of Thy glory and soul. Blessed Lord, we just ask Thee to work and by Thy Spirit with any that are in the valley of decision here tonight that they may realize that we're at the end and they must make a decision before it's too late. So we pray to take us to our destiny with reflection.
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And that there might be rest for us and restored for the morning, if we're still here to gather together in this room.
John 15
Reading
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As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except the divide in the vine, no more can give ye abide in me. I am the vine, dear. The branches either divide us in me, and I am him. The same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me you can do nothing. If Amanda bites not in me, he is can't force of the branch. And his wizard and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you.
You shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciple. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Continue thee in my love. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in My love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments. And if I am his love, these things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Dear my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you, henceforth I call you as servants, for the servant knows not what is Lord to us. But I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my father, I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.
And ordained you that you should go forth, go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever you shall ask for the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
I think it would be helpful just to back up a little bit and reiterate some comments we made in connection with the context of this chapter. We refer to these chapters as a whole as the Upper Room ministry, but all of it was not given in the Upper Room, as we mentioned the other day.
The break comes at the end of the 14th chapter where He says, Arise, let us go. Hence the ministry that He gives them in the upper room in the 13th and 14th chapter sets them in relationship with Himself, but not in relationship with Himself. In the way that He had been with them as they had walked with Him during His public ministry, He was now setting them in relationship with Himself as the man in glory.
Anticipating the work of Calvary and then his return to the Father, someone said one time that Christianity could be summed up in one word, Christ. But that needs explanation because the disciples knew Christ here in this world. But it tells us henceforth know we know man after the flesh. Though we knew Christ after the flesh, henceforth know we him no more. We've been brought into relationship now with Christ in glory.
We linked to him our head by the Spirit of God, which was given on the day of Pentecost.
But now in these chapters that follow the 15th and 16th chapter, he's going to set them in relationship to the with the fact that they are still here in this world. Because as we have been reminded, brethren, we are still here and we've enjoyed these meetings together. But I often think of this little expression at the end of a conference in the end of the 14th chapter. Arise, let us go, hands. We're going to have to leave this place. We've enjoyed the presence of the Lord collectively.
We've enjoyed a little forecast of heaven. We've had the word before us and Christ before us, but we're going to have to arise and go. Hence now, if the Lord leaves us here, we're going to have to go back to the everyday operation of life. Some are going to go to school, some are going to go to work, Some are going to go back to their homes and neighborhoods in which they operate. And So what he wants now is not just the fact, the realization that there's a day coming when we're going to reflect fully the glories of Christ.
But he wants something of that reflection in our lives now. And so as they leave the upper room and go back out into the world, the first thing he brings before them is fruit bearing. Fruit bearing is not preaching. It's not what we say. It might be what we say does bear fruit. I create the fruit of the lips, and the sacrifice of praise is fruit, and so on. But this fruit is really the expression of price in our lives.
And as we leave this place, brethren, may there be an exercise with us that we would be continuing the enjoyment of the Person of Christ and occupied with himself, that there might be that expression of Christ in our lives to those around us in the world in which we operate.
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So in chapter 14, it's the Father South. It's heaven.
In chapter 15, it's the vine and the Earth.
And so it brings us back, as Jim just said, and the context of it is on earth and life on earth. And the disciples were going to continue to go on when the Lord Jesus himself had gone back to the Father's house, but he wanted them to be fruit bearers. And just also notice, it's interesting, he doesn't say you're the fruit, but you're the branch, and the branch is what bears the fruit. And so the life is that which needs to be a branch in the vine.
In order to be able to for the vine to produce its fruit. And so it's well for us to be nourished by the vine by the Lord in our lives so that God may produce fruit through that for himself. As Jim just said, it's, it's the manner, it's the character of life that's particularly he's bringing before them and he's saying you have to abide in me, the vine in order for.
That branch and those leaves to end up bearing fruit for myself.
The the person that said that, uh.
Christianity is Christ is right, uh, because as he says here, I'm the true vine. Israel was the vine, not the true vine. He failed. Israel failed. So who is the vine? What is the vine? The vine is Christ and we're branches in that vine to, to reproduce the fruit which he produced when he was here to reproduce that now in the vine.
In him.
But Christianity and Judaism are far apart. Far apart indeed. And the Judaism has failed completely. And anything, of course, entrusted to man has failed.
But, uh, divine is Christ. The fruit is the reproduction of Christ in each of our lives. That's what he wants to see.
And he says fruit and more fruit.
In the second verse further down, it says much fruit in the fifth verse, so there's increase of production.
If we can abide in the virus.
Think of what it meant to the Father as he looked down and saw that Blessed One producing.
That which was pleasing to the father and everything he said and everything he did, everything was perfection. Now he says I I want to see that repeated over and over again in each one of us.
It's a solemn thing, isn't it, to realize that really all that this world is going to see of Christ is what is reflected in your life and mine, in the life of the believer and especially brethren in a day when they've closed the pages of God's Word, they've turned their back on the light of the Word, what is the world going to see of Christ? I say it's what's reproduced in your life and mind where epistles known and read of all men. And so as we leave here, it's easy to be a Christian in circumstances like this, easy to enjoy the Lord.
And these are wonderful times to strengthen us and build us up, very necessary times. But to be exercised as we leave this place and to go back. They're going to be something that the world is going to see of Christ when they see us at work or at school tomorrow, when they see us in the neighborhood, Is there going to be something reflected of Christ in our lives that's fruit for God's glory?
Very interesting thing about fruit.
Fruit does not make a noise.
And so as they people look upon you and me, it's not a matter of how well we speak, but it's how well we live.
00:10:01
Verse two He says, Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh, and away I.
Believe in its context here the Lord was speaking to the disciples and Judas is an example of what she's speaking about here. Judas was one who had the association with the Lord Jesus. He had been identified as the disciple of the Lord, but there was no fruit in Judas because he did not have a living connection with the vine. And so you might say here in the chapter 13, I believe it is he's he's removed.
He goes out and that we see no more of him as as part of the vine. And so it can be in this room there can be a person who.
Is here professing to be a Christian and so on, but you're not in the vine unless you are you're not a branch in the vine unless you are livingly connected through faith in the Lord Jesus you're saved. We use the expression to in order to be a true branch in the vine and if not, God often allows those things to be separated. Maybe not just when the end of life comes and the great white throne judgment comes but.
Very often when there isn't reality, after a while a person says, I'm not interested in that stuff anymore. And as it were, they're separated. They go out just as Judas went out and for Judas he went out and it was night. And souls can go out from the presence of the Lord Jesus and it's night for that soul and it's heading toward an eternal darkness. What a solemn thing if there is somebody here that.
Umm, outwardly you've been brought up among the Lord's people and you have been exposed to the Lord Jesus through his word and through his people, through true branches in the vine. But.
I think in the in verse two it's real, but in verse six it's false. That's Judas Iscariot in verse 6, not verse two. Umm, he's in, in verse six of a man, abide not in Me keeps cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. And that's one that's not saved at all. But in verse 2.
There's one that that that's a very good illustration in first Corinthians 11 That the Lord took some away because they weren't bearing any fruit and they were really profaning the the the Lord's Supper in a way I've connected verse 2 with what it says in first John five. There is a sin unto death. That is the sin unto death is really, if I can put it this way, the removing of the ambassador. I'll use the illustration that sometimes been used. But if we send an ambassador to Washington DC.
To represent Canada and that ambassador acts in a way that is not in keeping with the image that we as Canadians want to portray to the American people. We reserve the right after remonstrating with him to recall him, to recall him back to Canada because he's acting in a way that is not in keeping with what we want to portray in the United States. And the sin unto death is really the recalling of the ambassador, That is if I act in a way as a true believer.
That is dishonouring to the Lord. The Lord may allow circumstances because he wants fruit, and so he may allow circumstances in my life to speak to me. But if I don't listen, if I go on and I continue to dishonor the Lord here in this world, and I don't represent Christ in the way that I ought, then that he may recall me, he may Take Me Home. And so again in Corinth for this cause, many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. So I, I, I would suggest too that in in verse two, it's a real brand.
He takes the branch away, but it's not a branch he burns in the sixth verse. It's uh, every man, umm, if a man abide not in me, not a branch here. And it the, the, the one in the second verse, he takes it away, but the one in the sixth verse he burns it. Would you I agree. Thank you. You know, if if you looked at Peter and you looked at Judas Iscariot.
00:15:24
Would you be able to discern who is real and who was not? I mean, Peter, he cursed. He, he, he did some terrible things. He was real though, and he was used mightily later. But Judas was never real. But Peter, there were some circumstances allowed in Peter's life and Peter took heed to those circumstances. And there was a pruning process that later on brought out fruit. And so that's the difference between one who may be taken away. They don't, they don't, uh, they don't listen to what the Lord says. They're not exercised by the pruning that the Lord allows through circumstances in their life.
Thank God Peter listened and there was restoration and Peter did bring forth much fruit for the Lord's glory. And I would like to just say that sometimes difficult circumstances in our lives, trials and difficulties are allowed for that purpose. I'm not sure who it was, but somebody mentioned earlier in these meetings how in the 9th chapter when they brought the blind man to the Lord, they said, who has sinned, this man or his parents? And isn't that our natural reaction? We see some St. going through trial, somebody going through a difficulty.
So there must be sin in their lives. The Lord is speaking to them. Well, the Lord is speaking to all of us and as individuals and collectively. But I believe there are various reasons, brethren, why the Lord allows trials and difficulties in our lives. Sometimes it might be because there's some sin in our lives. Sometimes it's to prepare us for something. Sometimes it's so we can be a help to others who are going through the same trial. But sometimes I believe it is simply.
To prune away those things that hinder fruit in our lives. The husbandman goes out, the farmer goes out, and he takes those snips or those cutters and he prunes. I remember one time we had some trees in our backyard when I was growing up. The man came in, hired by my father, and he pruned those trees so far back. My mother and I thought those trees would never produce again. But you know, it wasn't very long until those trees came out.
And there were leaves and fruit on those trees like there'd never been before. He knew what he was doing. He knew just how much to cut and how much not to cut and where to cut and how to cut and not to cut. Now our father knows, the husbandman knows how much we need in our lives to prim away that which is hindering fruit. And so that's what we have in this chapter. He takes away those things that are going to hinder fruit in our lives.
And if that doesn't work, he may call us home, take us away out of this life, and call us home.
You mentioned Peter and Judith, uh, the Old Testament, you have the example of King Saul and King David. They both said I have sinned, but one was real and the other wasn't. But.
Just like to amplify a little more of brother Jim said I we had an orchard and it looked very healthy to me. And there was a man that was retired and had a lot of experience pruning. So I called him on the phone and asked him if he could come out and take care of the orchard. He said he could. So I was wasn't there when he came and he was just about done as I drove by. I thought he misunderstood me.
Look on my face to see this orchard just in disaster. And so I very patiently took me there and he did cut one tree down. But he said that when decay starts, he says that has to be stopped. He said that is a real difficulty with the trees. And so to think and in our Christian life that there can be those.
Parts of decay that are not going to bring any fruit. And the husbandman here isn't an idol husband money. He may have to cut pretty deep sometimes. And we feel that deep cut. And the man that had worked on the apple trees, he made a very interesting statement. He said, you know, if he if that tree could talk when I was pruning it and say you're killing me, you're killing me. And sometimes we feel that.
00:20:12
That's sting as the Lord deals with us that.
Oh, the fruit that came shortly afterward. It was just a delight to go out in the orchard after everything been cleared away and picked the fruit. It was delicious. The father's hand will never 'cause his child a needless tear. I don't like it, but we need it. It's interesting that it's a vine here, isn't it? Because other plants have other uses. When we visit in the tropics, we're glad for trees because.
Not only can you get coconuts and figs and bananas or whatever off trees to eat fruit, but they're good for shade. You can cut a tree down and use it for wood if you need heat. There's many uses for a tree, but there's not many uses for a vine beyond bearing fruit. And I wonder if that isn't perhaps one reason why he uses the figure here not of a tree. We we've learned some lessons from trees here, and I don't want to discredit that, but it is a vine here because if a vine doesn't bear fruit, what do you do with it? You get rid of it. It's no good for shade.
Is no good for much else. You get rid of it. And so he likens it to a vine here because brethren, what he really wants from our lives is fruit. He wants the expression of Christ in our lives. But I'd like to ask a question not really quite, but to get some comment on this expression. Abide in me. You know, we we pass over these little expressions, but they're so practical and maybe there's someone here and saying, well, how do we abide in Christ? What does that really mean?
Maybe we could have some expressions on the practicality of leaving these meetings and abiding in Christ.
Communion.
Communion, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, that's intelligence. But.
To abide in Him is to walk in fellowship with Him.
I think it includes to the sense of confidence or dependence. We can enjoy fellowship or communion with someone you might say is an equal 1 with the other, and there's a lot of that in the conference and private conversations. But with the Lord Jesus, that communion is included with a sense of dependence upon himself, and that dependence has confidence in it. He's pruning.
The that is the Father's pruning their needs to retain in us, not a sense of why are you doing this to me, but a sense of dependence and confidence that he knows best. If he's going to do this, it's with the purpose of good umm, for our blessing. I think also there's a sense in it of.
Our life flows from himself. That's also part of the abiding he his life has to be lived out in us in that communion has to include the sense of living by him not being able to live without it. You know, sometimes we think well, I at times we forget and we think well, I in our hearts and at least practically, we live without the Lord Jesus, but to abide in him requires us to.
Live by Him, live by that which He supplies to us in order to go. For me to live is Christ. To live. I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me.
Always abiding in the vine.
So we live by him, but he also lives in US. And that's part of the abiding. It's, it's not only our place in him, but the flowing of his life. He, he lives in us as well. That's what you have in verses 4:00 and 5:00.
Abide in me and I in you.
Has abide in me and I and you abide in me is in in fellowship for themselves, as a branch cannot bear fruit of itself.
Accept and abide in the vine. No more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I am Him the same bringeth forth much fruit for the notices last expression. Without me you can do nothing, but you can do nothing.
00:25:03
You cannot take a step.
We cannot have a thought, we cannot utter a word without him. And that's.
And then then there's the the unbeliever. The verse six is the one that's not real. But without me you can do nothing. That is such a such an important verse. How many times that that's just the opposite of of.
The humanism that is being pumped on our young people in school and so on, you can do anything to set your mind to it and so on. You can do nothing without him, nothing without him. That's just the opposite of humanism, isn't it? Christianity.
But we can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us. I'd like to just say on a practical note too, there are two things that the Lord brings before the disciples over and over again in connection with abiding in him. And they're in this chapter in in the first few verses. And one is the word of God and prayer. I thought of it when Don was Speaking of dependence, because prayer is the expression of dependence and confidence. And so he says, ye are clean through the word. The first thing he brought before them in the upper room was the necessity of feet washing.
Which is the way that communion with Himself in glory was going to be maintained. There are those things that come into our lives that hinder our communion. But he says there's the privilege of coming to the Word and having your feet washed and having those things that dullly affections and chill the soul removed from day-to-day. This is part of abiding in him. Are we going to walk in communion with the Lord? We must open the Word of God every day and let the Word of God have its cleansing effect. Let the Word of God bring Christ before us.
Because as we've often been reminded, wherever we read, the subject is always the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he speaks of reminds them in verse seven of asking, and several times in these chapters he brings before them.
The privilege they're going to have of coming to the Father in prayer in his name, He wasn't going to be with them in the way that they he had been when he was with them. They came directly to Him. If their hearts were burdened, they had a request or a need, why they could come directly and speak to the Lord. He said, you're not going to be able to do that anymore, but you're going to have an even more wonderful privilege and that's coming directly to the Father in my name. And so I believe these things are all part of the practical application of abiding in Him and the other thing He brings before them over and over again.
Is the Spirit of God. This was the power for their walk through this world and their link with their, uh, risen head, their glorified head, the Lord Jesus at the right hand of God. So brethren, we have all the resources that we need.
To abide in him. It's not something that he exhorts us to do and then says try to find out the formula yourself or try to do it on your own strength or with your own devices.
Now we have all things that pertain unto life and godliness.
In first John 5 verse 14, this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything, according to His will heareth us, and if we know that He hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions.
That we desired of him. Well, that's verse seven of our chapter. If you abide in me how you were going on in fellowship with him, and then my words abide in you. We get his mind, his thoughts. We're we're going on with him. We're walking hand in hand with him down the road and we're going over the word of God in our souls. You shall ask what you will, what you will, but you will what he wills you will what he wants.
Now you can ask intelligently, and you'll know that it'll be answered according to his will.
That was exactly the way the Lord himself walked through this world, that not my will of time. And so it was the Father's will that directed him and every every instance. And in the retrospect, it should be our desire that it's his will that directs us in every instance. That's probably what verse seven really is, isn't it? Yes, I want to say this for the young people. There's a verse in the Old Testament in the new as well.
00:30:00
I am a companion of all them that fear thee. Don't ask for a companion because you think you love her or him, because there are things about them that please you and so on. If they don't fear him, don't do it. Don't do it. Don't have anything to do with those that are evil. Companionships corrupt good manners. We were talking about that between meetings.
Make friends with those that love the Lord that want his will. Make them your companions and maybe your wife or your husband later on. But that's that's so important. Nothing can ruin your life more. Young person is evil companionships. It's terrible.
It says in verse 8 here in Is my father glorified? That she very much fears.
Good to notice that.
Fruit comes through the branches.
It isn't just the vine here.
But the actual fruit that is born is born through the branches. In other words, put it another way, the Lord Jesus says I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do. And he personally was used of God for an infinite amount of fruit that results from it. But here when he's talking here God is going to produce fruit and with through the branch.
It's not as if we are not important in that sense, but here where it's people involved, God says I'm going to produce fruit, not without the branch. In other words, it's not as if the branch there would be no fruit if the sense presented here if there were branches.
And so we God says, I will glorify myself through that fruit that's produced through those branches. And so our lives, as the Lord Jesus presents it here, are to be that which brings glory to God. He is to be glorified in our lives.
And it is to his glory that he would take such as ourselves and say, well, I can use that. I can make a branch out of that in my vine and that branch can be a fruit bearer for me and I will bring honor to myself in it. It's a joy to see it, but it's also a a real sense of responsibility to be a a branch pruned and me for the masters use.
I remember when I was a young man, I was.
I went to the airport to pick up an Egyptian brother.
And, uh, when I was.
When I was with him, I thought I was with the Lord.
I thought I was with the Lord that he was so like him. And I have an answering machine at, at home and, uh, burn these a message to me. And, uh, there's one message I haven't erased. I, I, I like to play it back and play it back. I brought her some grapes.
And she said, I have never tasted such grapes as these. They were just delicious. And she went gone and she went on and on and on. Finally cut it off. And but I haven't raised that. I just enjoyed that so much. And isn't it when you get in the presence, like when I got in the presence of this Egyptian brother, I thought I was in the presence of the Lord himself?
Do we?
Convey that kind of thing or not. Fruit is something too, that is produced unconsciously in our lives. It's not that we go out and try to produce fruit. There will be fruit in the measure in which we abide in himself. I often think of Moses when he came out from the presence of the Lord on the mount. He had to veil his face because his face shone. But it says he wished not that his face shone. It was the unconscious reflection.
Of being in the presence of God on the mount. And so I believe there will be the unconscious reflection of Christ in our lives. That is fruit for his glory in the measure in which we are in the presence of the Lord Jesus.
The measure in which we walk in communion with Him, then others are going to see something of Christ in our lives. I I think we quoted it earlier, but let me just read the verse in Second Corinthians chapter 4.
00:35:10
It's helpful in this new translation.
2nd Corinthians chapter 4, The last verse of the chapter, verse 18. But we all with open face, beholding us in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are perhaps better rendered.
Looking on, the glory of the Lord with unveiled face are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. What this verse is simply saying again is that in the measure in which we're occupied with Christ and walking with Him, in that measure the glories of Christ will be reflected in US.
Or can we say produced in us by the Spirit is another way of saying it. In Galatians chapter 5, yes, we can work. License 5 says we can work. And if it's us separated from the vine, it'll be a work of the flesh and it'll have a terrible result. No fruit for God in it at all. But if the vine is, if the branch is connected properly to the vine and receiving, you might say.
The SAP from the vine, then the Spirit of God produces the fruit, which is Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, and so on, which are reflections, as have been used of the person of the Lord Jesus, seen in US, produced in us. So I already said unconsciously, because we don't produce it.
It's the work of the Spirit of God which produces the fruit that is seen by others as Christ in our life. Just a little illustration by the dawn of one in John's Gospel who I believe learned the left that lesson. If we were to go back to Luke, we would find that when the Lord came to the house at Bethany, that is Mary and Martha and Lazarus, we find there that Martha was cumbered about with much serving.
And the Lord told her, Thou art careful and troubled about many things. Because as you say, if we serve the Lord without being in communion or abiding in the vine, it simply becomes activity. It may be good activity, but it simply becomes activity. And not only that, it becomes burdensome and cumbersome. But we find that when the Lord came to that home for the last time before he went to the cross.
In the 12TH chapter of John, it simply says that Martha served because I would suggest that between the 10th of Luke and the 12TH of John, Martha learned the lesson that her sister had already learned.
And that was that joy in service and fruit as a result springs from sitting in the presence of the Lord Jesus. We don't want to give the impression that activity is wrong or that service for Christ is wrong. But if it is, I say simply, without abiding in Him, it's just activity. And so when the Lord came to the home that time in John 12, he didn't rebuke Martha for her service.
It was, I believe, service in in communion with himself. She learned to sit at his feet in the 11TH chapter. She had been at his feet in her sorrow on the in the connection with the death of her brother.
And so I think it's beautiful, brother. And if we can learn that lesson, service is good, what we say and do is good, but it's not, as we said, fruit necessarily fruit, but I believe there will be fruit as a result of it.
If it springs from abiding in his presence, being at his feet. And don't ever substitute time in the presence of the Lord Jesus in prayer and with your Bible. Don't ever substitute those times for service for Christ, as important as that service may seem. I want to read from Galatians 5 that Don referred to.
Galatians 5.
And notice the difference in verse 19. It says now the works of the flesh, the works of the flesh are manifest. Which are these adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, simulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revelings and such like of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past.
00:40:02
That they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. Now notice the contrast. It doesn't say, as we often quote, the fruits of the Spirit. It doesn't say that it says, but the fruit of the Spirit in contrast with the works of the flesh. The fruit of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. I like to think it's a nine flavored fruit.
I like to think of those grapes that Laverne was talking about.
Everything TA made it taste just like she'd never tasted any grapes like that it every one of these traits was there and you get in the presence of like this brother that I picked up at the airport. You get into the presence of one that that just is reproducing that 9 flavored fruit by the Spirit of God. Then you say I've been in the presence of the Lord.
In the case of the disciples, when they were mistreating them, it says they took note that they had been with Jesus.
That's wonderful. They demonstrated exactly where they had spent their time. And you know, every time we open our mouth, every time we take a step, every action that we do probably demonstrates what we've been doing with our time.
There's an interesting thing about, uh, Samsung and Delilah and the seven green widths. And he said to her, if you bind me with those seven green width that have not been dried, and I shall be as another man.
And you know, that made sense to Delilah because it represented the spirit of independence that if if Samsung was going to yield to the spirit of independence. And how is that? I want to explain that if you take 37 green widths, you have to cut them loose from their source of supply and so.
They're cut, but they're not to be dried and so.
The spirit of independence, if we will take on that spirit of independence, what is going to happen? Why those Wiz are going to dry our roots are going to we're not going to be connected to the vine and and launch out in the spirit of independence and the activity that comes from the spirit of independence ends up absolutely unfruitful because there's nothing for the Lord in that.
But Samson being a Nazarite when he's bound with those seven green lists, why he just snapped them?
Most like there was nothing to it, and so the Lord was still with him, and the spirit of independence couldn't find him. But let us shun that spirit of independence, of coming loose from the vine, because eventually it's going to go from green to brown and be nothing.
Would it be correct to say that truth bearing is not necessarily the results that are produced by our lives? I mean, you just think of the life of the Lord.
One of the followers denied him, never betrayed him, and the rest were so heavy blood and it seemed like there was nothing left. When the Lord does, you know?
The Christian may see very little truth in his life, but it's not the results that have produced is depression, it's a result of it's walking with the Lord that will produce fruit. I believe, regardless of whether we see results here in this life or not.
But we leave that with the Lord some they walk and so look what I've done for the Lord. I've LED thousands to Christ and yet they don't walk through they don't strive lawfully. Let's put the claim the word of God, you know, but we can't always judge how fruit bearing by the results that we seek and.
Only God can judge the results.
And we should never try to judge the results of what we do or what anyone else does either. It's before.
00:45:00
He's able to, your brother is able to stand here and God is going to, is able to make him stand. And so it's God that does the judgment and that's what it says here, uh, hearing is my father glorified?
I'd like to have you go back to Galatians 5 and read three more verses and tell us what that means.
The fruit of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law, and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh without the next verse, the 25th verse, OK with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Let us not be desirous of Vainglory provoking one another.
Ending one another. So how do you do that if you live in this spirit? What does that mean to walk in the spirit?
You're under under the control of the Spirit of God, isn't it?
Attacking our chapter, the next verses and verses 9 and 10.
Brings out love. It brings love into the this message, this conversation with the disciples and he said, loved you.
As the father of Smith, what a wonderful don't wanna pass over that. The thought that we have seen and enjoyed how much the father loves the son. And here the son is saying to us, I love you that way.
I have just as much love for you as the Father has his love for me. And then in the next verse he says I abide in my Father's love. There's no interruption in my enjoyment of the Father's love for me. Why? Because I keep his commandments. That's why I can abide in the enjoyment of my Father's love because I keep his commandments. It's practice here. It's the practical thing that's being brought before them.
How can I and you enjoy the love of the Lord Jesus that He has for us?
How can we abide in it? By obedience.
Verses 9 and 10 we're talking about. And so I'm without practical daily obedience. The Lord, does he love me any of the last? No, He doesn't, not one bit less. But can I enjoy that love in my daily life without obedience? No. The Lord Jesus never had an interruption in the enjoyment of His Father's love.
Because He always did those things which pleased the Father.
We lose much in our daily lives, in our souls of the love of the Lord Jesus if we are not obedient.
But it's by obedience, and in the next verse it brings in the results of obedience and the enjoy. And that love that is we abide in is is joy. And so then the joy comes in. That's the result of it.
You find a Christian that's really a happy Christian, well then they're an obedient 1. They're an obedient one. Uh, disobedient believer is an unhappy person.
There's, there's a verse, it's the last verse of chapter 14 and I'll read it now verse 31. But that the world may know that I love the Father and as the Father gave me commandments, Even so I do rise, let us go. Hence the sister said to me once, how many times does it speak in the Scriptures of his love for the Father? How I said many times.
Father's love for him many times.
But it's only one time, and it's this verse that the world may know that I love the Father.
And as the Father gave me commandment, Even so I do rise. Let us go ahead. His love for the Father was proven in His obedience. That's what you're saying. And the same is true of us in verse 10. If you keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. Obedience is the proof of abiding in His love when we walk in obedience.
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Faith and salvation go together, with obedience and happiness go together.
I suppose it's very heavily demonstrated in everyone's family.
An obedient child is much loved by the parents. An obedient child is a happy child. And you just could look around and disobedient one is just the opposite. It's true in God's family too. But he still loved, isn't He? That's right, that's right.
The disobedient child, if it's a true parent, they love that child, but the enjoyment of that love between them is is hindered.
Is lost by the disobedience and only by the restoration of a a relationship in which obedience rules can the love of the parent be enjoyed by the child, and the child can enjoy the love of the parent.
This was to be the new motive in Christianity, wasn't it? In contrast to the Old Testament where who through fear of death where their whole lifetime subject to *******. Why did a man keep the law? Why did the priests and the Levites offer the sacrifices according to the way God had set it out? Because they knew if they didn't, there were very stiff penalties. They knew what happened to Nadab and a Bayou. They knew what happened to one who touched the mount at the giving of the law.
And so the motive was generally fear. I'm not saying there weren't those in the Old Testament whose hearts didn't respond, there certainly were. But generally the motive was not a motive of law, but it was a motive of fear. But what he's telling his own in these chapters, and he brings it up a number of times, is that there's a new commandment in Christianity. And that commandment has to do with the motive of love and brother. And I believe in the measure in which you and I enjoy, first of all, the love of the Father for the Son and the Son for the father.
In that measure, it will produce that love in your soul and mind that will be then the motivation in connection with our relationships one to another, keeping his word, walking and abiding in him. I like to connect 3 verses in this connection. Don quoted 1 so we won't turn back to it. But in the end of John three, it says that the father loves the son. I I think that's tremendous statement just to stop and meditate on the love of the father for the son and we've had many expressions.
Concerning that which we won't repeat, then the verse that our brother Dawn pointed out that the, uh, as the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. And so the love that the Lord Jesus has for his own is the very same love. It's no less love, as has been said, than the love of the Father for the Son. But notice what it says in verse 12 to complete this thought. This is my commandment, that ye love one another. But he doesn't stop there.
As I have loved you.
Rather, think about that the love that is to be displayed amongst the people of God in a practical way, that is to be manifested in a practical way, is no less love than the Father has for the Son and the Son has for his own. What is the standard that that the Lord Jesus sets before his own as to loving one another? I say it's no less standard than that same love of the Father for the Son.
And the son for his own.
The standard is Christ always, This chapter anticipates.
The family of God which is brought out in Christianity, it hasn't yet been revealed to them, so it's not explicitly stated here until after the Lord Jesus rose from the dead. But then it's my Father, and your Father, my God and your God and.
The love that flows between us as.
Is enjoyed in the relationship of being brothers and sisters in the same family.
The father loves the son, the son loves the father. We are brought into the family so that we can enjoy the relationship of love that is appropriate in the character of that family. And so in the family, it's already been mentioned in our individual families, there is that special relationship between us that governs, or can I say brings out what's in our hearts.
00:55:25
Toward one another. Oh, that's my child, that's my grandson, that's my whatever in in a family relationship. It's a special thing. And so God has chosen to have a family and brought us into the family and the desire of the father, if you will, is that in the family love might flow unhinderedly and it will be so when we are in heaven in his presence. It he says it says he shall rest in his love.
In other words, the God our Father is, is that we're just going to sit down to the table with us.
As a family together and kind of just in my thinking kind of just relax no work more need to be done, but just to relax and enjoy his family and allowing the law between every member of it to flow. So as Jim mentioned, particularly in the third one that the large several times brings out in John's ministry brothers if you don't love each other.
There's something wrong. I mean, there, that's evidence. That's an indication. Are you in the same family?
Would you say, brother Don, that that's when love is at its fullest?
Expression resting in his love.
It's the end. It's the end of the end. He brought me into his banqueting house and his banner over me was.
It's interesting, isn't it, that he doesn't tell the disciples to try to maintain their love for himself or the Father. He tells them to continue in his love and to abide in the Father's love. Because I believe that is the way that our affections are deepened. And I say that because maybe there's someone here. And you say, well, we talked about this, but boy, my heart sure doesn't go out to the person of Christ or to the Father the way it ought to be. My love is so feeble.
And how do I awaken that love? How does that love deepen? Well, I've often said that when you read through the book of the Song of Solomon, you find that the bride.
What deepens her affection and appreciation of the bridegroom is is occupation with himself and the more she goes over the qualities and the glories of the bridegroom and the more she understands.
Not so much her love for him, but his love for her. Why, at the end of it, she says he's altogether lovely. He's mine. Nothing about her being his, that's true, but he's mine. And she's just so enamored, and her heart is just so overflowing with himself. Why? Because she tried to generate a response within herself. No, because of occupation with the bridegroom. And So what he's teaching the disciples here and for you and for me today is that.
To abide in His love.
To have our appreciation of that love deepen will then deepen our response so that our hearts go out more to Him. And in the measure in which that happens, then our hearts are going to go out more to one another. And what is it that is to characterize the Christian company on earth in the absence of the Lord Jesus? By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples. How if ye have loved one to another?
And that's not just in our hearts. That has to be practically manifested. If we just say we love one another, but there's no practical manifestation of it, is the world gonna see that? The world doesn't read what's in our hearts. They can only read our actions and our words and our interaction one with another. But as the world looks on, brother, they are to see that we are followers of Christ, that we belong to the Lord Jesus, because there is.
Practical love expressed.
In our interactions, one with another. And brethren, if that is not so, then it ought to humble us and put us in the dust before the Lord. I think, Jim, you just answered the question I asked. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Umm 525 that's walking in the Spirit. What you're saying We live with the Spirit, Let us walk in the Spirit.
01:00:12
Brother Climb I I thought of it when you ask the question, and I appreciated what Chuck said. I thought of an illustration in Deuteronomy.
Maybe since you brought it up again, we can just go back to that for a moment in the end of Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy chapter 33.
Is in connection with the blessing of Asher, but I think there's very something very instructive in connection with fruit and walking in the spirit. I'll read verse 24 and 25 of Deuteronomy chapter 33 and of Asher. He said let Asher be blessed with children.
Let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass, and as thy day, so shall thy strength be. Now we often have this little motto on our wall, as by days so shall thy strength be. And I have that on my wall, and I appreciate it. But I think it's very instructive to see what precedes this statement. First of all, he says of Asher, let him be blessed with children. I believe that would suggest fruit bearing, and I believe that every believer here in this room.
Really down deep has a desire to bear fruit for God's glory. There's really that desire there if you truly are a branch, if you truly belong to the Lord Jesus. And so the first thing he mentions in connection with Asher.
Is fruit bearing? But then there's something else. Let him be acceptable to his brother. Now, I've often said, particularly to those who are younger, if you wanna serve your brethren, you've gotta do it in a way that's acceptable to them. And I believe if we have a desire to bear fruit, that the Lord can give us that grace to do things in a way that we can do it in fellowship with our brethren. You know, I'm just gonna digress here a moment to make a very practical statement. You know, we don't have to step outside.
Of the assembly or the fellowship of our brethren to serve the Lord and bear fruit. Sometimes I think there's been that feeling that things are too narrow and we need to broaden out. And sometimes we have to, to reach out to souls and so on. We have to do things in a way that maybe aren't quite acceptable to our brother. Let of Asher, let him be acceptable to his brethren. Now let's notice this and let him dip his foot in oil. Now oil in Scripture almost invariably is a type of the Spirit of God.
The foot speaks of our walk, and I believe this corresponds with what we've had in Galatians, a walk in the power of the Spirit. Do you want to bear fruit? Do you want to serve the Lord in fellowship with your brethren? You must dip your foot in oil. You must be exercised to walk in the power of the Spirit. The Spirit of God is the power for our lives down here in the absence of Christ who has returned to glory.
And so we have the power to walk for his glory. And then it says, thy shoe shall be as brass. That's endurance. Because the Christian path is a race of endurance. Let us run with endurance, the race that is set before it. And then iron. That's power. You want power for your pathway. You've got to dip your foot in oil. There's only one way to have power in our pathway. There's only one way to endure lap after lap after lap of the race.
To dip your foot in oil, and then as thy day, so shall thy strength be. We talked about we can do nothing without Christ, and we can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us. You want power, you want strength for the day. You talk about strength for the day. And that's true. But again, you must dip your foot in oil. You must walk in the power of the Spirit. So I think this is very instructive. We walk in the Spirit, We have the privilege of walking in the Spirit, bearing fruit in fellowship with our brethren, having endurance and power for our pathway. But it all comes from dipping our foot in oil.
That's just the opposite of being wishy washy.
And you got iron and brass in your walk that it should be firm good, not just wishy washy like there's so many call wishy washyness love. That may not be true love at all. Love is obedience to His word.
I'm just saying Amen to what you said.
We spoke of joy, which he brings out here, and I'd just like to say this, that joy is a little different than happiness.
Hap the The world can be happy. The unregenerate man can be happy when things go well. He gets the promotion at work. He wanted to be happy with that. Gets good grades at the end of the year. They're happy with that. Gets the raise and pay he wanted. Gets the loan for the new house he wanted. Gets the new car he wanted. He's happy. But that happiness is only skin deep. It's only surface deep. It's only on the surface.
01:05:22
But the joy that the Christian has in abiding in the vine and walking in obedience is the joy of which it says your joy. No man taketh from you. And it's a joy, as we've often said, that doesn't depend on our circumstances. We often refer to the Lord Jesus in his pathway as the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And that's certainly true. But when we turn, I think it's to Luke 10, we read of an occasion.
And I think perhaps it's the only occasion that we read of an occasion there where the Lord Jesus, it says he rejoiced in spirit.
And it's interesting when you read the context, because it was at a very difficult time in the life of the Lord Jesus. He looked around at the cities he came to bless. He looked around at the nation that he loved and wanted to draw to himself as a hen gathereth, her brood under her wing, and they wouldn't have him. As a result, he had to pronounce woe and judgment on those cities, but he rejoiced in spirit. You say, how could he do it at such a time?
You say, why is it the only time in the life of the Lord that He rejoiced in spirit? Well, it says there, Even so far, therefore, so it seemed good in my sight. Perfect submission to the Father's will brought a perfect joy and delight even at a difficult time. And so, brethren, the joy of the Lord in our souls is a joy that is can be appreciated and experienced, not because of circumstances, but it does depend on two things.
Our submission to His will and the enjoyment of Himself in our souls. And if we leave here with will submissive forever He allows in our lives. And if we leave here with the enjoyment of the person of Christ in our souls, we can go back even to difficult circumstances with a joy. Paul had lots of difficulties. It wasn't that he was callous to them. He shed many tears, says he served the Lord with many tears.
But he said, sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. There was an inward joy that nothing could touch. I want to read that, that verse that you referred us to. It's Luke 1021 a little. It's a little fuller than what you quoted in that hour. Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank the old Father Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent.
And has revealed them unto babes. Even so, father, for so it seemed. Good in thy sake, how good that is. Who are the babes there, Brother Jack?
Well, you tell us, what do you get out of that? I feel like I classify.
Put in contrast with the wise and prudent, right? Right. Exactly.
The Lord too, it says he committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. I believe that's another thing that's going to give us joy and peace in the circumstances of life, whether it's his pruning in our lives, whether it's his chastening, whether it's his preparation, whatever it might be. And I often think of Paul and Silas when they were in prison and they prayed and sang praises at midnight was a difficult trial, but I often think why were they able to do that? Well, I wonder if they didn't think of the verse in the 119th Psalm that says.
At midnight will I arise and sing praises unto thee because of thy righteous judgments. They realize that what God had allowed in their life was right. And brethren, if we realize that whatever is allowed in our life is right from the hand of a loving Father and a loving Lord, it will help us to rise and sing praises at midnight. It will give us the joy of the Lord in our souls.
Even in difficult problems and even at times where we don't understand what the Lord is doing, I remember standing up to take the funeral of a young man and there was a room full of young people who all had the one question, why?
01:10:06
And I stood up and I I said at the beginning of that funeral, I know that this question is on the minds of many here and I don't have the answer as to why. But I said, even if we knew the answer, why without submission?
To the Father's will, we still wouldn't have joy and peace in this circumstance. What's really going to bring us joy and peace in the circumstances of life is not always to have the answer, but to submit. And no, what He is doing is right in our lives.
The most?
Occasion in the Lord's life, and the apostle Paul says move for the joy.
That was said that before I endured across the.
No other period in his life was like that. That joy that was set before him was to be back with the Father. You're the Father's will.
Events of Earth do not move his throne.
But when he looks at his own, these events move his heart.
How much, how much fruit did Jeremiah see in his life?
The weeping, weeping process and he.
Could wish he'd never been born, but not the Lord Jesus.
He came to die.
I was thinking too, as we're going over some of this, that seems like I recall brother Harry Hayhoe on a tape.
Saying that, this chapter brings out fullness of joy through answered prayer. Am I remembering that correctly?
The the sense between the individual soul.
And the soul's living God.
Communion.
Someone said the.
To take all of our circumstances from God is what gives us peace.
He is our chief circumstance.
Even so, Father, or so it seemed good in my sight.
We see this modern world, the United States has what, 23 or 27 satellites up there? Global positioning, That's nothing.
You and I have an omnipresent, omniscient God as our Father.
And he sees every detail and circumstance of earth.
One brother said God is doing.
Everything he can, all the time, for every man, all things considered.
And he loves and he loves you.
Let's look at a verse I've referred to often in Second Chronicles 16/9.
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in behalf of them, whose heart is perfect towards him.
Stop.
One brother said.
God is just looking for someone he can use.
For a particular thing he once done.
And it's only by communion that we're going to find what that is and be available.
That preparation of the heart.
Really important.
For this spring I said I have pruned it for him and I thought to preserve a couple of lateral this way and that. When I got done I did think I had killed it but.
01:15:06
You know, I went back a few weeks later and here's some sprouts were here and there and.
And then a few weeks later I see this. Beautiful to see.
But the the fruitfulness he wants in your life and mine.
It comes from looking up to him who has everything.
Under control and everything.
We look at our dear brethren and some of these Muslim countries seeking to reach out with the gospel, knowing it could well be their life.
And yet they're reaching out.
We are going to meet in the cloud.
You're kind of talking about the pruning process.
Pruning process doesn't feel very good, but he loves this. He prunes us, doesn't he? And he the fruitfulness that reciprocal.
Thing that goes on between God and the soul.
If something comes before the soul and say, well Lord, should I do this?
Or shouldn't I?
How? How is he to be glorified? Are there things in which he would be dishonored then?
Walk carefully, wait on him.
The things will clear up.
Make it clear and, and, and the Lord will grant assurance in the pathway. Enjoy. You know what a what a wonderful thing if there's that waiting on him. And if you doubt his love, look at the cross. Greater love hath no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friend. And if you doubt his love in some circumstance, be like the children of Israel when they came to merit, they threw the tree into the water. You see, I can't see how the Lord is dealing in his love with me.
But just look at the cross. Can you doubt his love there?
This section we're through now time is up, but this section ends in verse 17. These things I command you that you love one another period that summarizes these first 17 verses.
The 1:32.
The Hatred of the World Against Jesus and Those Who Are His
Open—C. Hendricks
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
The way we're not of the night, but children of day, The change that once bound us by Jesus are riven Were strangers on earth. Our home is in heaven 234.
Dangerous.
To a live track lands waste our journey lies through.
Blood together.
Yeah.
Great winners they please.
The weakest of Saints more than proverb.
Lord chains us to me.
Let's turn to turn again to John 15.
We didn't finish the chapter.
We looked at that part of it.
That presents Christ to us.
Father, he's the vine and we're the branches. Father's the husband men and he wants. He was so delighted in the Lord Jesus when he was here. The only one that never did his own will, always the will of his Father that he wants to produce during this dispensation of his grace the same kind of.
People as the Lord Jesus.
00:05:01
But.
The first part of the chapter we've had before us, and it ends in verse 17. These things I command you, that ye love one another.
And we know we've gone through that so nicely, but then there's a complete break at this point.
And that's what I want to take up shortly right now, verse 18, if the world hates you.
Ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you're not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hated you.
Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not Him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin. But now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my Father also, if I had not done among them the works which none other men did.
They had not had sin.
But now have they both seen and hated both me and my father?
But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law. They hated me without a cause.
But when the Comforter has come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father.
He shall testify of me.
And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me.
From the beginning.
But I just want to call your attention to John 17, which is very similar. The first part of John 15 has us in view, us being his own, and the same is true in John 17 and in John 17.
Verse 15 He ends this section. I pray not that thou shouldest take them, them being us who who believe on him out of the world.
I pray not that Thou should stake them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through Thy truth.
Thy word is truth.
As thou has sent me into the world, Even so have I also sent them into the world.
I should have. I should have begun this section. Pardon me, with verse 13. That's where I wanted to start.
The end of the first section is Now come I to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they, that's us might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. Now here's the new section. I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I'm not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world.
But that thou should keep them from the evil.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. This is so important, especially for young people, that we realize that we've been dwelling upon our blessings and how the Father was delighting in His beloved Son when here and now we're here to represent Him.
We're here to present so that the Father can see more of Jesus, more of Jesus, the one who was the perfect servant, the one who always did his will. But these sections of John 15 and 17 deal with the.
The hatred of this world through which we're passing, wonderful to be occupied with the family of God which we were occupied with and how we have the joy that he had and it's ended. Going back to verse 50, chapter 15 and 17, these things I command you that you love one another. That's what ought to characterize.
00:10:09
Those who are his, those that have his nature and life.
And in dwelt of the same spirit that filled him.
To love one another. But then we're in an enemy's land and we must realize that we're not of this world.
Verse 18.
They should not come by surprise if the world hates you.
Why does it hate us? Because it hates him. And the more we are like he is, the more hatred we will have come our way. Because the world does not want him.
We know what they did to him.
We celebrate the Lord's Supper on Lord's Day, and we dwelt upon.
The treatment that this wicked world through which we're passing gave to him, we should not expect any difference.
If the world hates you.
Ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
If you were of the world, the world would love its own.
But because you're not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world.
Hated you. You see Him, You seen this. You see the same break in the Lord's Prayer to the Father in John 17.
The delight that he has in his own.
And then the hatred that the world bestows upon us, verse 20.
I'm not going to be up here very long.
Just want to bring before us.
The other side of the coin, if you will, the one side is the joy, the peace, the happiness that we have.
The delight that we give to the Father, the love that we share among ourselves and all all the believers who are His own.
That's the one side.
But then the other side is the hatred of this world.
A world that does not.
Love us. It hates us because it does not love him, it hates him.
I've chosen you out of the world, he says. Because, and therefore the world hates you.
If we're really true to him, to the calling that is ours, that he's called us out of this world, if we're really true to him, then all the things that dazzle the the the man of the world and that makes him delight in it and all the entertainment and all that.
We don't go for that.
We belong to another world.
He's called us out of this world to another world. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation, a new creature.
All things were passed away. All things have become new. They belong to a world that hates Christ.
Let's never forget that. And the more we take part in it, the more we get advanced in it, the more we get our names printed in headlines in the newspaper or whatever we've achieved down here in this world that's not our world.
That's not our world. We belong to another world altogether. We belong to to that one that they cast out. We will not have this man to reign over us. That's what they said.
Let's never forget that. Let's keep ourselves separate from those who are of this world. I don't mean so separate that we never witness to them, though. I don't mean that at all. But the the more faithful we are in our witness that we do belong to a world that is different.
A world that has Christ as the head.
And he has called us out of this world to another one, a world that will never pass away.
A world that will be for all eternity. We're looking at that in our readings, where we belong to what is really ours. Shame on us, shame on me. The more I want to be.
Accepted by this world that hated and despised him.
Young people, remember the word that I said to you. This is the Lord speaking.
00:15:03
The servant is not greater than his Lord.
If they've persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
You know the natural tendency of our natural hearts is to be accepted by our fellow classmates.
Fellow workers that we work with and so on.
We want their acceptance.
And he says to us, remember.
The word that I said to you.
Servant is not greater than his Lord. If they've persecuted me, we know what they did to him.
Oh, there were crowds that followed him and so on.
But the religious leaders especially.
Those that are that are looked upon in this world down here and.
Our.
Our admire.
They hated him.
Servant is not greater than his Lord. Remember that if they have persecuted me.
They will also persecute you if that happens to you. I remember when I was in college, I got saved as a freshman and I was in the electrical engineering course and I got a chance to to take a a chosen class and I made the mistake of taking a religious course while I didn't know much, just a babe in Christ.
But I was very zealous for the Lord, and witnessing for the Lord.
And I was in this religious class. The professor was an unbeliever. He would scoff at what I believed and so on. And so the rest of the class laughed me down. Every time I take a stand for the Lord, one said, And I always refer to the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord Jesus Christ. I always gave him that title. Don't give him that title, they said. The more they told me not to, the more I did it.
I was in an enemy's land and I realized it.
They had religion. Religion makes man feel good. It makes him feel that he's made some contribution that exalts himself. And that's the worst thing that we can do to exalt ourselves.
The greatest sin that we have, that we commit.
Starting right here is pride.
Pride.
And that's that's what the humanism of the world's religion is promoting all the time.
Pride. And when they turned their back upon you, young person, if you're faithful to the Lord, and they may laugh at you, and they may make jokes of you and so on.
You don't want their approval.
His approval. You want a witness for him. You want to stand for him. You want to turn your back upon this wicked world through which we're passing.
That they persecuted me. They will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying they will keep the results. So I remember.
I went to A to a.
Bible reading. It wasn't really a Bible reading. It was an opinion meeting is what it was. What do you think this verse means? You know, what do you think it means? What do you think it means? What do you think it means? It finally got around to me and I said, what does it mean?
Not to me, but what does it mean? What is it saying?
And that's the kind of thing they call a Bible study. What does it mean to me?
They couldn't careless what it means to you. What does it mean? What's the teaching from it?
And they didn't like that.
All these things will they do unto you. Remember this young person.
All these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. They don't know Him, they don't know the Father.
And they don't know the Holy Spirit either. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I'd not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin.
But now the one who is the truth, we saw that in the 14th chapter, he said I am the way, the truth and the life, he said to Pilate. I came into this world to bear witness to the truth. And Pilate, who was a politician, he shrugged his shoulders and probably said what's truth? There's no such thing, no such thing as truth. Everything's negotiable.
Absolute truth. There is no such thing. They were talking to him.
00:20:03
And the more you stand for that, for this.
It at your workplace it's school, college, and the higher you go in the universities the worse it gets. Those that in the top seats are the ones that mock and hate the Lord Jesus.
Generally speaking, occasionally there's an exception.
If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin. But now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me hated my Father also. When the Lord came, who was the truth? When He came, That was the ultimate test as to where you stand and where the world stands and so on. That was the ultimate test.
And it manifested.
That they now have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my Father also like Father, like son.
He came to reveal the father and the father was so delighted as the husbandman, as we had before us earlier in Chapter 15. He says I want more and more of my son. He wants to see you and his son in you and me.
He wants to see that.
And to hate him is to hate his father.
If I had not done among them the works which none other man did.
Had not had sin. His works proved who he was.
That blind man in John 9. Why herein is a marvelous thing that you know not from whence he is, and yet he has opened mine eyes since the world began. No one that was born blind was made to see.
His eyes became open. We had that beautifully brought out.
The end of John 9.
If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin. But now have they both seen and hated.
Both me and my father.
Man, essentially good man, is essentially rotten. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the absolute proof of this was when the one who was altogether good and righteous and just and true was hated and despised, cast out. If you belong to him, be true to Him.
Don't seek the applause of this world.
Now they are both hated and seen, both me and my father. That's what they'll do to you. That's what they do, what they'll do to me. I experienced that in that religious course.
But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law. They hated me without a cause.
No 'cause.
Nothing but goodness done by him.
And then he ends up this chapter with when the Comforter has come, Holy Spirit.
Whom I will send unto you from the Father. You now have the comforter of the Holy Spirit, that he has man once he was here and and you have all the power, and you have the new life, and your sins are forgiven. And you know God is your Father and you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior. And you're in dwell of the Holy Spirit who will give you the power.
The faithfulness to witness for him in a world that hates him.
When the Comforter has come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.
He shall testify of me.
That's what your responsibility is.
Not to promote religion.
But to testify of him?
Tellers others.
Of him, not religion.
And ye also shall bear witness.
Because you have been with me.
From the beginning.
Will not have that privilege once we get to heaven. They'll all be the Lord's there. It won't be the enemy there anymore. But we have the the privilege of witnessing for him now, right now, in a world that cashed him out and that hated him, despised him, doesn't want him.
You have a chance to witness for him.
And the Lord give you grace to do so.
Communion Requires Listening - the Lord's Digged Ear
Being Identified With the Lord Jesus
Open Mtg. 8
Open—C. Hendricks, L. Smith, Ruga
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
The way we're out of the night. But children of day, the change that once bound us by Jesus, our rhythm were strangers on earth. Our home is in heaven 234.
Clouds rain with that raining crimes up from.
Killing.
Our gratitude thus far. I have a bright face down drunk Runtime.
Missed my jealous of all the spring, of all the rain.
Yes, around the Blade.
Before our great way in her hands, please.
Lord and our Hammer, the heart of the world.
Let's turn to one again. Turn again to John 15.
We didn't finish the chapter.
We looked at that part of it that presents Christ to us, the Father. He's the vine and we're the branches. Father's the husband then, and he wants. He was so delighted in the Lord Jesus when he was here, the only one that never did His own will, always the will of his Father that He wants to produce during this dispensation of His grace.
Uh, the same kind of people as she, Lord the Lord Jesus.
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But, uh, the first part of the chapter we've had before us and it ends in verse 17, these things I command you that you love one another. And, uh, we know we've gone through that so nicely, but then there's a complete break at this point. And, uh, that's what I want to take up shortly right now, verse 18. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me.
Before it hated you, if you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you're not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hated you.
Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for My name's sake, because they know not Him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin. But now they have no quote for their sin.
He that hateth me, hateth my father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other men did, they had not had sin. But now have they both seen and hated both me and my father. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law. They hated me without a cause.
But when the Comforter has come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me, and He also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
But I just want to call your attention to John 17, which is very similar. The first part of John 15 has us in view, us being his own, and the same is true in John 17 and in John 17.
Verse 15 He ends this section. I pray not that thou shouldest take them, them being us who who believe on him out of the world.
I pray not that Thou should stake them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through Thy truth.
Thy word is truth.
As thou hast sent me into the world, Even so have I also sent them into the world.
I should have I should have begun this section. Pardon me with verse umm 13. That's where I wanted to start. The end of the first section is now come I to thee. And these things I speak in the world that they, that's us might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. Now here's the new section. I have given them by word, and the world hath hated them because they are not of the world.
Even as I'm not of the world, I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. This is so important, especially for young people, that we realize that we've been dwelling upon our blessings and how the Lord the Father was delighting in His beloved Son when here and now we're here to represent Him.
We're here to present, uh, so that the Father can see more of Jesus, more of Jesus, the one who was the perfect servant, the one who always did his will. But these sections of John 15 and 17 deal with the.
The hatred of this world through which we're passing wonderful to be occupied with the family of God which we were occupied with and how we have the joy that he had and it's ended. Going back to verse 50, chapter 15 and 17 these things I command you that you love one another. That's what ought to characterize those who are his those that have his nature and life and.
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In dwelt of the same spirit that filled him.
To love one another. But then we're in an enemy's land and we must realize that we're not of this world.
Verse 18 This should not come by surprise if the world hates you.
Why does it hate us? Because it hates him. And the more we are like he is, the more hatred we will have come our way. Because the world does not want him.
We know what they did to him, We celebrate the Lord's Supper on Lord's Day, and we dwelt upon the treatment that this wicked world through which we're passing gave to him. We should not expect any difference.
If the world hates you.
Ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you're not of the world, I have chosen you out of the world. Therefore the world hated you. You see, and you seem to see the same break in the Lord's Prayer to the Father in John 17.
The delight that he has in his own, and then the hatred that the world bestows upon us. Verse 20.
I'm not gonna be up here very long. I just wanna bring before us.
The other side of the coin, if you will, one side is the joy, the peace, the happiness that we have, the delight that we give to the Father, the love that we share among ourselves and all, all the believers who are his own. That's the one side.
But then the other side is the hatred of this world.
A world that does not love us, it hates us because it does not love him, it hates him.
I've chosen you out of the world, he says. Because, and therefore the world hates you.
If we're really true to him, to the calling that is ours, that he's called us out of this world. If we're really true to him and all the things that dazzle the man of the world and that makes him delight in it and all the entertainment and all that.
We don't go for that.
We, we belong to another world. He's called us out of this world to another world. Any man be in Christ. He's a new creation, a new creature.
All things have passed away. All things have become new. It belongs to a world that hates Christ. Let's never forget that. And the more we take part in it, the more we get advanced in it, the more we get our name is printed in headlines in the newspaper, or whatever we've achieved down here in this world, that's not our world.
That's not our world. We belong to another world altogether. We belong to to that one that they cast out. We will not have this man to reign over us. That's what they said. Let's never forget that. Let's keep ourselves separate from those who are of this world. I don't mean so separate that we never witnessed to them, though. I don't mean that at all.
But the the more faithful we are in our witness that we do belong to a world that is different.
A A world that has Christ as the head and he has called us out of this world to another one. A world that will never pass away. A world that will be for all eternity. We're looking at that in our readings, where we belong to what is really ours. Shame on us, shame on me. The more I want to be.
Accepted by this world that hated the despised him.
Young people, remember the word that I said to you. This is the Lord speaking.
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The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
You know, the natural tendency of our natural hearts is to be accepted by our fellow, our fellow classmates.
Fellow workers that we work with and so on, we want their acceptance.
And he says to us, remember.
The word that I said to you, servant, is not greater than his Lord. If they've persecuted me, we know what they did to him.
Oh, there were crowds that followed him and so on, but the religious leaders, especially those that are that are looked upon in this world down here and.
Our.
Our umm, admirer.
They hated him.
Servant is not greater than his Lord. Remember that if they persecuted me.
They will also persecute you if that happens to you. I remember when I was in college, I got saved as a freshman and I was in the electrical engineering course and I got a chance to to take a, a chosen class and I made the mistake of taking a religious course. While I didn't know much, just a babe in Christ, but I was very jealous for the Lord and witnessing for the Lord.
And I was in this religious class, the, the, the professor was an unbeliever. He would scoff at what I believe and so on. And so the rest of the class laughed me down. The time I take a stand for the Lord, one said, And I, I always refer to the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord Jesus Christ. I always give him that title. Don't give him that title, they said. The more they told me not to, the more I did it.
I was in an enemy's land and I realized it. They had religion. Religion makes man feel good. It makes him feel that he's made some contribution that exalts himself. And that's the worst thing that we can do to exalt ourselves.
The greatest sin that we have, that we commit.
Starting right here is pride. Pride.
And that's that's what the humanism of the world's religion is is promoting all the time.
Right. And when they turn their back upon you, young person, if you're faithful to the Lord, and they may laugh at you, and they may make jokes of you and so on.
You don't want their approval. You want his approval. You want a witness for him. You want to stand for him. You want to turn your back upon this wicked world through which we're passing.
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they've kept my saying, they will keep yours also. I remember I went to A to a.
Bible reading. It wasn't really a Bible reading. It was an opinion meeting is what it was. What do you think this verse means? So what do you think it means? What do you think it means? What do you think it means? If finally it got around to me and I said what does it mean?
Not to me, but what does it mean? What is it saying?
And that's the kind of thing they call a Bible study. What does it mean to me?
Couldn't care less what it means to you. What does it mean? What's the teaching from it?
And they didn't like that.
All these things will they do unto you. Remember this young person.
All these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. They don't know Him, they don't know the Father.
And they don't know the Holy Spirit either. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I'd not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin.
But now the one who is the truth, we saw that in the 14th chapter, he said I am the way, the truth and the life, he said to Pilate. I came into this world of bear witness to the truth. And Pilate, who was a politician, he shrugged his shoulders and probably said what's true? There's nothing, no such thing as truth. Everything is negotiable.
Absolute truth. There is no such thing. They were talking to him.
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And the more you stand for that, for this.
It at your workplace it's school college, and the higher you go in the universities the worse it gets. Those are in the top seats are the ones that mock and hate the Lord Jesus.
Generally speaking, occasionally there is an exception.
If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sinned. But now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. When the Lord came, who was the truth when he came, That was the ultimate test.
As to where you stand and where the world stands and so on, that was the ultimate test.
And it manifested.
That they now have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my father also. Like father, like son. He came to reveal the Father, and the Father was so delighted as the husbandmen, as we had before us earlier in chapter 15. These I want more and more of my son. He wants to see your, His Son, and you and me.
He wants to see that.
And to hate him is to hate his father.
If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they not have sinned. His works proved who he was.
That blind man in John 9, while hearing is a marvelous thing that you didn't, you know not from whence he is, and yet he have opened mine eyes since the world began. No one that was born blind was made to see.
His eyes became open. We had that beautifully brought out.
The end of John 9.
If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they'd not had sinned. But now have they both seen and hated.
Both me and my father.
Man, essentially good man, is essentially rotten. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the absolute proof of this was when the one who was all together good and righteous and just and true was hated and despised, cast out. If you belong to him, be true to him. Don't seek the applause of this world.
Now they were both hated and seen, both me and my father. That's what they'll do to you. That's what they did, what they'll do to me. I experienced that in that religious course.
But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law. They hated me without a cause.
No 'cause.
Nothing but goodness done by him.
And then he he ends up this chapter with when the comforter has come, Holy Spirit, whom I will send unto you from the Father, You now have the Comforter of the Holy Spirit that he has man once he was here and and you have all the power and you have the new light and your sins are forgiven. And you know God is your Father and you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior and you're in dwell of the Holy Spirit who will give you the power.
The faithfulness to witness for him in a world that hates him.
When the Comforter has come whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of Me. He shall testify of me. That's what your responsibility is, not to promote religion, but to testify of Him.
And he also shall bear witness.
Because you have been with me.
From the beginning, we will not have that privilege. Once we get to heaven, they will all be the Lord's there. It won't be the enemy there anymore. But we have the the privilege of witnessing for him now, right now, in a world that cast him out and that hated him, despised him, doesn't want him.
You have a chance to witness for him.
As the Lord give you grace to do so.
00:25:00
To Genesis 49.
Umm.
Verse.
22.
Joseph is a fruitful bow, even a fruitful bow by a well whose branches run over the wall.
The Archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him.
This is the verse I was thinking of, but his bow abode in strength.
And the arms of his hands were made strong.
By the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.
From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel.
I suppose there's some boys here that are fascinated sometimes by bow and arrows. And if you boys shot a bow and arrow.
Well, sometimes those first few times, maybe Dad helps you.
And I think that's the picture we get in this first.
You can imagine a little fellow with Dad behind him.
Dad's hands are helping those arms steady in that hole.
Pulling it back.
And it goes well at least somewhere near the target.
But this says.
The arms of his hands.
Were made strong by the hands of the mighty God.
Then it says from thence is the shepherd.
Stone of Israel.
We've had before us in these meetings about the Shepherd.
About Communion.
And I couldn't help but think of this picture here.
And, uh, I'd like to turn to Psalm 40.
Communion.
Requires.
Listening.
You and I live in a world where.
There has probably never been so much stimuli coming at us, whether it's Internet or TV or radio.
Or.
Home, whatever they are. Or laptops.
There's every kind of stimuli coming at us, and the fact is we have a living God.
Wants to get our ear.
And it's almost hard to speak to people because they're constantly.
Distracted.
In many, many different ways.
But the word of God tells us in the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son.
Born of a woman Well, here in Psalm 40.
Verse six it says sacrifice and offering. Now it's not desire.
My nearest as.
Are opened.
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The margin says Dig.
Burnt offering and sin offering, hast thou not required? Then said I lo, I come.
In the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my God.
This shepherd.
This stone of Israel.
How'd it come about?
In an eternity past, the eternal Son ever dwelling in the bosom of the Father.
What's this, nine years?
Astounding.
Son.
Look forward.
This creation.
Man upon us we learned in Proverbs 8. My delights were with the sons of men.
Oh, the eternal Son. His ears were digged. I'll.
Take the place of a servant.
We've had those verses before us.
A servant to bring Jacob to him again.
Oh, what marvellous dependence.
Then let's look at Isaiah.
Chapter.
50.
Inverse.
4.
This is.
Prophetic of the Lord Jesus.
The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.
He wakened this morning. By morning he wakeneth my ear to hear.
As they're learning.
We read in the gospels and rising up a great while before day.
He went out.
Solitary place parade.
This is the dependent man.
In your world and mine.
We have to kind of conjecture.
Because we can hardly grasp.
What it is for the eternal Son to dwell in the bosom of the Father?
The communion is instantaneous.
If I were to.
Conjecture a little and say here's this dependent man in prayer, son.
Today.
As you approach a certain city and send your disciples.
You're not going to receive you.
This next verse.
Today.
They're going to.
Smite your back.
We were forego to Psalm 129. What'd it say? They ploughed upon my back.
They made long their furrows.
In the Garden of Gethsemane.
All these things were weighed in communion with the father.
Morning. By morning, those ears were opened.
Daily constant communion.
Dependence.
Obedience.
Verse six I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.
00:35:02
I hid not my face from shame.
When they say.
Art thou the Son of God?
Or, you know, when you speak for the chief priests, what need have we any more of witnesses? The servants might, and they spit in his face.
This Blessed One, who is your object and mine.
All of this is measured.
In constant communion.
You never see Jesus.
Any time in his life.
The serenity of the bosom he dwelt in.
This constant portion.
Let's look at Exodus 21.
We are quite familiar with this I think.
About the servant.
The Hebrew Servant.
Verse two. If thou buy Hebrew servant six years, he shall serve, and in the seventh year he shall go out free for nothing.
Think I'll skip ahead, but because we're familiar with the portion.
But well, verse four. And if his master have given him a wife, and she have borne him son or daughters, sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall become be her masters, and shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not go out free. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post, and his master shall bore his ear through within all.
And he shall serve him forever.
Here's another instance.
Of the ear.
In a past eternity, a near day.
Father and son equal.
But he takes the position of servant. We learned it in Philippians 2, made in the likeness of men. He goes down those steps as well and.
How far is it?
In this portion we get a figure of the death of the cross.
The ear bore through his love for you and I So great, he says. I will not go out free. That holy man had every right to go back to heaven. Muhammad thought that's what he did, and Judas died on the cross.
That's apostasy.
Jesus died on the cross.
This figure of the ear bored through with it all.
He's a servant forever because he loves you. He loves me.
Could we make an application? We've looked very briefly at the object of our faith.
You and I.
Have to learn.
What it is to have communion with the father?
And seek to walk by faith. It's all he ever knew.
I so enjoyed hearing the prayer of Brother Eric Smith years ago.
As he broke the bread.
And he mentioned.
If it be possible.
Let this cup pass from me.
He made this expression.
Thy holy soul.
Withdrew from the very thought of being made sin.
Tone contrary to him.
00:40:02
But he had his ear poured through.
For you and I.
You and I need to learn that.
While he's the object.
Here in Isaiah 50.
Will you let him be an example?
Morning by morning.
Waking up my ear to hear is the lure. That's commune.
That's instruction for the day.
Take a look at us as a company gathered.
To the precious name.
Of this blessed object, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are thankful as we look at the work going on in Malawi.
Some other works. I have this question in my own mind.
Who's being raised up?
To fill the ranks.
Who's going?
To a people unreached.
You dear young people.
Let the truth so fill your heart.
That it becomes your joy.
To spread it.
To realize there's precious souls here or there. There's a company over there that don't even have the word of God. Still two or three thousand people groups without a Bible.
Are you devoting yourself to?
Listen every morning.
You know if your only goal is to become prosperous in this world.
I don't know.
Whether that call will be yours?
You read if someone like Hudson Taylor eating oatmeal.
Have a little more to give to the work of the Lord, and he's only like 16 or so.
What do you see in a life like that?
Self denial.
We live in a world of such constant entertainment and fun and partying.
The things of God are serious.
I'm not saying he doesn't want you to.
Have a little fun, play a few sports.
But when this object fills your soul.
The one whose ears were deep, that were awakened every morning.
And at last, bored through with an all.
And say I'm going to see him soon.
You know, every parent in this room, I believe they, they just love to enter heaven and say my children are here with me.
That's victory.
There's going to be people like Eric Smith that never had any children.
And he's going to have children there with him.
There's a wonderful, endless day coming.
Well.
I couldn't help but think of Peter.
Energy and zeal, and that happens when we're young.
And they're coming right up. And is he praying at the Garden of Gethsemane? He's sleeping.
And when we come, they come to take Jesus.
Does he help? Dig in here.
Does he help a year to be open? No, he wax one off.
And the Lord Jesus says suffer thus far.
And he touches that ear, and it's restored.
Well, may our ears be opened.
That our service be acceptable. What a wonderful thing if we have grace as believers.
To be a delight to his heart every day.
00:45:04
We'll fail at it.
But it's the right thing to seek, and it's only possible to waken.
Mourning by morning.
Present to continue on with the subject that our brother Chuck had before us about the hatred of the world. We don't get a passage in the first Samuel.
There are two things that are very real in this world.
One is the love of Christ and the other is the hatred of the world. It's real. You know why did.
They dislike Simon Peter.
Because he was an association with Jesus of Nazareth. I also was with Jesus of Nazareth and they didn't like Peter because of that.
Fathers know that we're in any way identified with the Lord Jesus Christ. They also will not like you. Now. The world will hate you because you're not of the world. And you see this exemplified in First Samuel.
Chapter 16.
And.
Uh.
The end of verse 13.
And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David, verse 14. But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and the evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.
Why did Saul Hey David, What did David ever do cancel He he did him well.
He, he fought the fill was fine, delivered the nation when everyone else was afraid. He played the harpist all, didn't he? And yet so I scarcely knew him and hated him. A little further on, David tells Jonathan, You know, there's only a step between me and death.
He would tell me, wouldn't he? He said no. But yeah, I can hardly believe that his father would hate David without anything.
That's what the Lord Jesus Christ Himself had to say. They hated me without a cause.
At this point in David's life, he could say, what have I done, Jonathan? If I've done anything wrong, you take your sword and slay me yourself.
Later on, David couldn't say that because he had grievously sinned, but at this point of David's life, he was walking with the Lord and he could say words like that. Such was his confidence in Jonathan. But sure enough, it came to pass that when Jonathan sought to defend uh, his friend David White, his own father would cast a javelin at Jonathan to slam against the wall.
Then he knew that was true.
You know.
We see hatred today, don't we, Brevan? Uh.
Those who hate one another, that's our natural estate. Hateful and hating one another according to Romans one. But uh, we even see it directed towards the people who.
Or in any way identified with the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, the Jewish people.
In the 12TH chapter of Revelation, we see that Satan primarily has his animosity towards the manchild, but that manchild is born and caught up to heaven. And at the end of the chapter you see that he directs his hatred then towards the remnant of her seed. I realize that it points forward to another day when there will be a godly remnant raised up. But today these Arab factions which are, uh, honest with one another, they're united in their hatred towards the Jewish people because they're in any way.
Identified with the man child who came into this world, our Savior.
Now the Lord had said, If the world hate me, will hate you.
We should be prepared, brethren, to face the animosity and the hatred of this world.
We can perhaps hide our candle under a bushel or under a bed and, uh, not let our light shine for the Lord.
00:50:03
But is he not worthy?
You know, as the lion of the tribe of Judah, he's the all powerful one. He has all power. He can do anything. But as the lamb, he's the worthy one. He's worthy of our homage breads and look what he's done for us. What have we done for him? Humbles us when we think how little we do for the Lord, you know, yet he's done everything for us.
Uh, I believe that's what caused Peter to go out and we bitterly because he realized I really love the Lord, but I denied him three times. The Lord doesn't reject this. Does he breath in?
He privately restored Peter and then publicly in the 21St chapter of John before his brethren. Don't we thank God for restoring grace? That He didn't give up on us the first time we failed Him? Lord is so gracious with us, He bears with us.
Those of us who are parents, that gives us an example, doesn't it, as to how we ought to bring up our children, and we gracious and kind towards our children.
Remember for a personal illustration, but mostly I probably don't know my parents.
But they were in the meeting. Grandparents were in the meeting.
And.
My dad wasn't a great student of the Word, but one came one thing came through with his life. He loved the Lord.
And parents.
Not so much. What you tell your children is how you live before your children. That's where your children see. They know if you're real or if you're just faking it.
And uh, have you reeled before the Lord? You love the Lord, Your children are going to follow you in the path of the Lord.
This is just going on with the vain show. Our children detect that too. We can perhaps fool our brethren, but we can't fool our children.
Umm, but the Lord is so worthy. The world may hate us, but as I said, the other thing that is true is this. The love of Christ that every remains the same. Let us never doubt the love of Christ for us in anything we do. That's what gives us confidence. The fact that well maybe my brethren don't understand me, but the Lord understands and He loves us.
Uh, we had a scripted this morning in John 15, uh.
You love one another even as I have loved you. Our brother Jim emphasized that even as I have loved you, you know, there's a brother in the meeting and they said, boy, he's a hard 1 to get along with. You ever pray to the Lord? Lord, help me to love that brother as you love me. It's quite a prayer, isn't it, to love our brethren even as the Lord loves us.
It's possible, It's possible.
Uh, we should love one another with that intense love, brethren, because the world certainly does not love us. If you follow with the Lord, you're not going to get any encouragement from the world. But we've had three days of.
Happy fellowship and the Word of God brought before us to remind us that these things are are real, that the world will hate us and we'll display that hatred, and increasingly so as the coming of the Lord draws near. May we be drawn the rather closer to the side of the one from the so early our Lord Jesus Christ.
Two.
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John 10:17-18, John 14