Open—B. Warr, C. Hendricks, D. Imbeau
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Oh.
No.
May all day down South side of the sun.
He was a little coming forward because I want to add a thought or two that connect with the last meeting.
And then I will give way to others I'm sure can.
John, 10 again, please.
Verse umm.
13 the hireling fleet.
Because he isn't hireling and carrieth not for the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd, know my sheep, and am known of mine.
As the Father knoweth me, Even so know I the Father, I lay down my life with the sheep.
Another sheep I have, which none of this fold them also must bring. They shall hear my voice. There shall be one fold and one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down on myself. I have power to lay it down, and power take it again. This commandment have I received. My father was thinking of what brother said when he says for child is Christ.
And when they go to school, they get out. There's Christ.
And then later on they go out in the work world, there's Christ. What does that mean?
What are we saying when we say that?
When we say, oh, there's Christ for you or for us older, there's Christ, what are we saying? What do we mean?
00:05:01
So I'd like to follow a few thoughts.
About the the about Christianity.
As it is linked to Christ.
Here we have the word sheep in verse 13. Then we get the wondrous statement of intimacy in 14 and 15. I am known of my sheep as the Father knoweth me.
Now, that's not the measure of knowledge.
That's the manner of knowledge.
That is, we will never know the Son as the Father knows the Son in the measure of the knowledge, but it's the man, or it's an intimacy that belongs to us.
An intimacy that resides within the Godhead.
And one of the members of the Godhead, the Son, left his place in inaccessible light and came as scent, and is here in the same intimacy that he always had eternally. This man Jesus, who is God the Son, now in the same manner of intimacy, he's bringing the sheep in.
That is.
There is no restriction to our enjoyment of Christ.
And then he is as it were, he talks about other sheep.
That I must bring.
Bring where?
O into the enjoyment of this intimacy.
And other sheep I have which are not of this fold them also I must bring.
And entering into this intimacy that he has made for us, entering into his place there and our acceptance, He says they will hear my voice.
As verse 16.
And there shall be one flock.
It is the hearing of the voice of the Son of God and the intimacy that we enjoy.
That results in one block.
That is.
I have heard his voice, you have heard his voice. There's nothing else.
For us, it's just himself.
Now I'd like to look at a couple of scriptures that talk about knowledge. The brother mentioned one in the meeting, one in well say Romans one which puts A level of knowledge.
And verse 19 well known verse that which may be known of God.
Because that which may be known of God is manifest to them is better, I believe.
Are among them, for God hath showed it unto them, and as creation, and we live in the middle of, and all around us is evidence of.
God and power.
God and power, and that is known by his creation.
I'd like to look at another verse.
1St Corinthians 13.
At the end of verse 12.
Now I know in part.
But then shall I know even as also I am known? No.
Knowledge passes away, knowledge puffeth up another verse. Then I shall know as I'm known again. It's not.
The measure of the knowledge I will have. God will have sovereign knowledge. I'm omniscient. We will never be that, but there is a knowledge that we will have after the manner of that knowledge. It's not the measure of the knowledge, it's the manner of the knowledge, the manner of knowing.
That we will have.
Verse that was referred to in the prior meeting as Ephesians chapter 3.
00:10:15
Verse 19 To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.
Love of Christ which passeth.
Knowledge. I want to point out this.
That there is something in Christianity, true Christianity, in Christ that belongs to us and in an area in which we live and know and we move about. He has something beyond that.
And in the intimacy we've referred to in John chapter 10, he says there are other sheep I must bring also.
And He wants to bring us as His sheep into this intimacy of knowledge and relationship, after the manner of that very intimacy that He has in the Godhead as the Father knoweth me, and so forth. And it is knowing Him as the Good Shepherd on earth, but in the intimacy that He has after the manner of that He wants you and me.
To enter into that, he wants to bring us into that.
And that's what I gathered when when the brother was speaking about there's Christ for the children, Christ for the teenagers, Christ for the young ones, Christ for the old one. It's himself.
As he is set forth.
Now I want to use just to refer because one of the principal characters as I read my Bible and enjoy is Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus.
She tells you and me by a life.
Where we'll find everything we ever thought we wanted.
Sitting at the feet of Jesus.
And they awaited his. She's found him.
Now in John chapter 10, he says that the Father knoweth me, I know him.
And he says.
I have other sheep I want to bring into this intimacy and they'll hear my voice.
And what do they hear? Therefore doth the Father love me?
Oh, I can see the Lord Jesus, and there's Mary sitting at his feet.
And he would just go down and say, she would say, well, what would you tell me?
You know the Father loves me because I'm going to give my life that I can take it again.
Now in the Father loving him, that's an eternal statement.
He always loved the Son, but here this one, the Son of God.
Eternally came into the world and he's going to talk about this, the love of the father of him. Not a different love, just a different of fresh motive for it's the same love that was always there. But he's going to talk about that love in a way that he can tell her about it. He's going to talk about it in time.
Related to an act in time.
And going to share with her what fills his heart.
You see, to talk about Christ, we're talking about a person, a person that Mary found one day, and she found him, and she saw in that person everything she wanted, and she didn't have any other life to worry about living. She was just drawing from Him, and there at his feet she could return to him in what little measure which would delight his soul.
Illustration the.
The Sarah Venetian woman who wanted a blessing from that man.
And he hadn't really preached to her.
She just looked at him.
And should I know who you are? And if you're here, I'm going to get a blessing.
He tried to hide himself. You know, righteousness will do that whenever. He's just flooded with all sides with evil because the world is nothing more than an ocean filled with what flows in the heart of man. He had just said that, and so he tried to hide him. Couldn't be hid. Did he make a mistake? No. He did what a righteous man should do.
00:15:11
But he couldn't be hid. God had a woman over there and she saw him and she says I know who you are.
And I'm going to get that blessing. And he ignored her. The disciples were saying get rid of her, give her the blessing. You know, he wouldn't do it. She saw in the personal she wanted. She knew if he was here, everything was well.
She got the blessing, the other one, the one that anointed Him in the House of Simon, the Pharisees. She loved much. She was forgiven, loved much, because she saw Him, knew he was here.
The Simeon holds a baby.
Gives thanks for the salvation of God.
It's in person.
It's all in a person.
I want to talk about.
2nd Corinthians 12.
Now we've talked about having Christ.
What does that mean? What does that mean for my soul? I'm going to go out in this world and I'm going to be tossed in with people and I'm swamped under with sounds and words that are nothing more than man's idea.
And you know it's nothing but a lie.
What am I going? What does it mean? I need Christ for my soul.
2nd 12.
We get a kind of an illustration of the apostle Paul caught up out of the knowledge that will pass away.
And his soul lifted up into that knowledge, which is after another manner.
That doesn't suit.
Down here.
Segments 12, verse one. It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above 14 years ago.
Within the body I cannot tell, how the body I cannot tell. God knoweth such an one caught up to the 3rd heaven.
And I knew such a man within the body of the body I cannot tell. God knoweth how he was caught up in the paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such an one will like glory. Yet of myself I will not glory but in my infirmities, for though I would desire.
To glory I shall not be a fool, for I will say the truth now I for bear, lest any man should think of Maine above that which he seeth me to be.
But here is of me, unless I should be exalted above measure.
Through the abundance of the revelation it was given to me to thorn the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice who might depart from me. And he said, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure.
And infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions, distresses for Christ's sake.
When I'm weak and I'm strong.
Just to point out an example of one who was walking in the path of faithfulness.
And he was stoned. I believe this took place in acts maybe 14 or so when he was stoned.
And God used that occasion to lift him up into.
A sphere? A place?
That when he came back, it didn't suit. He had his heart full of it and he couldn't tell about it.
Now I want to be mystical.
I don't want to talk about things that are smoke or anything. I'm talking about a reality of life.
When I go out to meet this world, for instance.
And I am presented with a whole atmosphere of man, as we heard yesterday, and his thoughts.
Brought across my mind a temptation, an attraction, an opportunity, something that they would persuade me that oh, this is great, you can do it.
00:20:11
And I say no.
No, I have heard the Bible says.
That I should not do that?
Now what do I expect?
All I want to tell you.
Expect Christ to come in and make it good to your soul as a power to do it and keep it, and Christ to be the reward at the end of it.
Obedience.
Has an end and a beginning.
Obedience has a motive. It's the person of Christ. If you had talked to Mary, she would say, let's go down the street and and we'll go down and find a lunch somewhere else. And she say, well, no.
Well, we can go down and we can do some good works among the poor people and we can, she would say. Well, no.
Because in him she drew from him.
And he went back to him.
That's what I wanted. Just simply to add that is saying we're talking about Christ.
We're talking about something that's a treasure that God has hidden in resurrection glory, that man Christ Jesus.
And he's worthy of all the glory we spoke this morning, of his glories will fill all the earth that won't hold it.
Will say, Well, his glories will fill all the heavens that won't hold it.
And yet that man.
In manhood he had his full part and he came down to sit down.
And have Mary sit at his feet so he can bring her in. Other sheep I buy that I need to bring in.
And when she got there, he started talking to Mary about, you know, my father loves me because I lay down my life, but at the end of my life that I can take it again. The father wanted all of his own and his own embrace.
And he was talking about that to Mary, bringing that wondrous truth out of eternity down to her at his feet.
And that's where she found her life. Everything.
He was bringing her in, too.
That so I would just finish off the thought of.
Christ, He's the reason why I would want to obey.
He's the motive and the object.
Of Christian obedience and my place is in an intimacy in Christ to enjoy what has gone on in the heart of God, what is going on in eternity. He has brought it down to you and me to make it our portion in the world that exists as we heard, simply as a test to see if that's what I want or not.
That's what God wants.
That's what God wants.
And so there may be a test to come up in life to say, well, look at this wondrous opportunity, but.
You'll have to devote your life to it in this schooling. You have to go to school. You don't have to study day and night. And it'll be a profession and take up your time and you know, the rest of life. There's there's an opportunity in this profession.
And you just stop and say, well, I wonder if that's what the Lord wants.
That's what it means, Christ.
I want to draw from him, he said. You should live because I live and draw from him and in drawing from him to.
Expect. Expect.
To enter in with him as he explains the things of eternity in the love of God to my poor heart.
As He did to Mary, to expect that to be my portion as I walked through this scene. Not only when I'm home in glory, I know it'll be there as I'm walking here now. That's our safety. Christ before me, Christ in front of me, and one other verse.
In Colossians 3.
Just to point out something about this pathway and may it drive us to Christ.
Made these statements cause us to run to him?
00:25:04
Verse 5.
Mortify.
Therefore, your members, which upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, and Norman affection and evil, so forth.
Want to emphasize simply the word mortify.
Doesn't say resist temptation.
Doesn't say start out our battle the rest of your life where you're going to fight this enemy. These these these things that are temptations as they come on.
It calls on an act to mortify, to put to death as an active thing.
Just to die is passive.
But I have died with Christ.
And it says put to death.
You know.
You can't do that and I can't do that.
Only he can do that.
And therefore, when it comes to a temptation that would be there to attempt to tempt me, to attract me off to one side.
To put that to death is far more than just resisting it and starting a battle of resistance to these things. The rest of the path home to glory.
How do I do that?
Oh, I refer you to him who knows how to do it.
And him who is willing, him who is ready to do it, and who wants to set us free, mortify those things have done with them how?
At his feet, at his feet when Mary found her place, at his feet and God writes about her. Oh, what a joy it should be for you and me. Just to say, you know, I think I'd like to go sit by Mary. I'd like to hear what the Lord is saying to her because she's like the three sons of Israel in the fiery furnace. We don't know what they talked about in there. I'd like to know someday.
Like Peter walking on the water with the Lord, I'll know someday what they talked about as they strolled back to the boat.
And not talking about something that is some grand mysterious thing that you can.
Convince yourself, as psychology would do, to think on better things and expect better things and look for a better roses. Now I'm talking about the living God who has presented His Son as everything for you and me. And then he's told us how to just go sit at his feet and in Him.
There will be everything, just like he says. I want to bring them in.
Hear my voice and he talks to her. I'd like to tie that with John 10 when he says, well, my father loves me because of this, he wants to bring us in there.
Another thought in.
We've had before us.
The thought of eternity as it touches time.
That is the eternal things of God as they are seen in the man Christ Jesus in time.
They science and so forth, physics, they measure nanoseconds, or I forget the other one, but billions of seconds, one billionth of a second, I can't even figure. I can't contemplate that.
They measure distance in light years. That's not far light travels in a year and multiples. I don't even. That's beyond my way of thinking.
But however much man ever gets in.
In his measures into time.
In either direction, either dimension or whatever. Or into space anyway. You'll never be eternity.
Because eternity can't be measured. You have to get beyond anything that's measurable to get to eternity.
The Cross of Calvary. There were three hours of time as it appeared.
Here.
But in that darkness.
Of three hours of darkness.
Work without measure.
And when the Lord Jesus sits there and he says, therefore does my Father love me because I lay down my life for the sheet, might take it again, That's what he can tell her.
There, when he went into those three hours of darkness, the work that was done was a work that had no measure.
00:30:00
How do we grasp that? We don't. God does.
We used an illustration somewhat like this. If you threw, if God threw every Sinner, every Angel, the sin, every, every creature in the lake of fire forever, he'd never have the opportunity to tell you how much you hate sin. If I would never go out, he'd never get through saying how much you hate sin.
Calvary was his only opportunity to tell you how much he hates sin.
He poured it all out on his beloved son.
Tell how much he loves you.
You know he says he then the age is to come. He shall show forth the exceeding riches of his grace and kindness for you and me forever and ever and ever. He'll never finish. He'll never use it all up. He'll never finish telling us how much He loves us there. Calvary was his only opportunity. How much he loved.
Oh, that's why, as the brother mentioned in one of the meetings, I forget the cross.
And sit there, the cross of Christ.
We can't see that he closed it in.
For himself.
When the Lord Jesus sat there be and was talking about to these Pharisees, I guess about the sheep and I apply it to him and Mary, my my father loves me because I lay down my life that I might take it again all the the the wonders of the the victory that he won of Calgary.
God being able to invite us in the Father's house, access to the Father, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The wonders of all these things and what they mean to him.
Because that's where he was talking. Therefore doth my Father love me? It's what they mean to him. And he would bring us into these things to sit and wonder. Can we analyze them out and codify them and put them out in formulas? And so it'll never be because it belongs to a knowledge that's above that which we have is natural knowledge. And He must bring us there. He must reach down, as it were, in the power of the Spirit of God and lift us up into these things.
And that's what I should expect when I am obedient.
Not just to obey, to obey, to obey, to enjoy the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not just to obey because my mother read me that from the Bible or my fault and that.
My mom and dad did and that I'm thankful for but it's because it's what he wanted from me and he will make sure that I have everything I need to do it with. The only thing my part is to just say yes and no.
Yes to the Lord and note everything else and he'll take care of everything else. Don't worry about anything else.
But it lifts everything of Christianity up into a place where.
He is a place where nothing can be a competitor. There's no rivals there.
It's up where only He is, and yet there He sits with you and me to be the object of our hearts and to be everything for us. Not only in eternity which He will be will be caught away, but in time also He'll be everything to my soul anyways. I believe that's what is meant when we say have Christ.
It's a reason for the life.
And the end of the life is have Christ for our souls.
Turn again to John 10, please.
In verse 3.
To him the Porter openeth.
And the sheep hear his voice.
And this last part of the verse.
And he calleth his own sheep by name.
And leadeth them out.
They have a beautiful illustration of that in the 20th chapter which we look at.
John 20 The Lord is risen.
And we'll start with verse 11.
Well in verse one, the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early.
When it was yet dark under the sepulchre, and see if the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
00:35:03
And then she runneth.
And cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved. And saith unto them.
They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.
She did not understand at this time the resurrection.
She thought someone had come and taken his body away.
And then to continue with Mary, in verse 11, Mary stood without it, the sepulchre weeping.
The others had come and witnessed and gone back.
Says in verse 10. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. There was not in their souls the same attraction.
To him that there was in Mary's soul.
Mary, this is Mary Magdalene. Our brother was talking about another Mary.
Who would speak more of entering into the mind of God, the intelligence of His mind? But here we have the heart of the disciple, not so much intelligence with this Mary, out of whom he had cast 7 demons. She was completely under the power of the enemy, and He had set her free, and she had found an attraction in His person.
That compelled her to stay there where she had last seen him placed.
They all went back to their own homes, the apostles.
But she didn't have a home without Christ.
He was her home.
He was such an attraction to her heart.
That to have lost him was to have lost everything.
To her, this world was nothing but a graveyard.
They have taken away my Lord. We know not where they've laid him.
She had but one object before her.
So in verse 11, Mary stood at the sepulchre, weeping. She didn't go home.
Whereas she had last seen him placed dead.
She knew nowhere else to go.
She wanted to be near him.
We see that in a natural sense sometimes where those who have lost a loved one.
Christians, they know they're not there. They know we've gone to be with the Lord, and yet they will, they will go there to the grave and just stand there. Just they want to be there.
Where that body is.
It wasn't intelligence with Mary, but it was affection for Christ. So she stood at the sepulchre, weeping.
She had lost the one that.
Was everything to her.
And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre. Now she saw something that the others didn't see.
Her affection kept her there. She sees 2 angels in white sitting, the one at the head, the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain.
And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou?
She saith unto them, Because they, whoever they is, they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.
My Lord.
And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing, and she knew not that it was Jesus.
The tears were flowing freely. It was maybe still still dark. It says it was dark in the first verse. She went back, got the apostles. They came and she followed.
And she stayed. They went home.
So often the sisters.
Put us to shame us brothers, in their affection for Christ.
And so they say, Woman, why weep The star?
She says, Because they've taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. Still no thought that he was risen. No thought.
Just the attraction of a heart that was so taken up with one that she had lost.
And that meant everything. He meant everything to her.
And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Same question that the angels put.
Whom seekest thou?
Another question. He knew the answer. He knew her heart and he valued that. He knows your heart. He knows the love that you have in your heart for him. None of us knows that He knows it, and it's precious to him. There isn't anything more precious to him than that.
00:40:13
Whom seekest thou?
She's supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me what thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. That would have been some chore for a woman to take that precious body, but the intensity of her love was such that she would have done it.
She would have taken him away. She wanted to be with that one.
Jesus saith unto her, He calleth his own shape by name Mary.
He calls her by name and immediately this arrests her attention in a way that.
Hadn't been there before.
And she turned herself, and saith unto him, Raboni.
Which is to say, Master, now she's about to have unfolded to her soul a truth so wonderful, exceeding anything that had ever been told to the disciples up to this time. It wasn't to Peter, it wasn't to John, it wasn't to an apostle that this truth was revealed. It was to one who stayed there where he was.
As far as she knew.
Wanted to be where he was. Tell me where thou hast placed him and I will take him away.
He says to her, touch me not immediately. She wanted to apprehend him, to lay hold upon him, I've lost you once, I'll not lose you again. And he says.
Touch me not.
He's about to bring her now out of the sheepfold, this Jewish sheep. She wanted him back as her Messiah.
Now he's going to bring her out of that and into the blessings of Christian position.
Touch me not, we read. In Matthew's Gospel, the women held him by the feet.
A beautiful picture of the Jewish remnant, who when they see him come back, will believe. He said to Thomas, Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. That's our portion.
And so he's going to bring her, this Jewish sheep out of the sheepfold of Judaism into our portion Christianity.
Don't.
Cling to me, Mary, you can't have me in the old way. Paul says it in doctrine. He says, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer. You can't have me as the Messiah after the flesh any longer. Mary, I'm risen. I died, and now I'm risen into a new life, the head of a new creation.
If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation. All things are passed away. All things have become new.
And she's now going to be brought into that.