Los Angeles Conference: 1981
Table of Contents
Seven My's
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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I'd like to turn to the 15th chapter of John's Gospel, John chapter 15.
I'd like to look at the a few verses in this chapter which bring before us 7 things where the Lord speaks of my love, my commandments, my joy. There are 7 different ones here and I believe that they can be a real blessing to our souls if we get hold of these things.
Shall we begin in the ninth verse, John 15, verse 9?
As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye 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.
This is my commandment.
That she loved one another. Greater love hath no man than this. That a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if he do whatsoever I command you henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. 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 ordains you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, and that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
Well, perhaps you noticed as I read in the ninth verse, it's my love, in the 10th verse, it's my commandments, in the 11TH verse it's my joy. And then in the.
In the.
The 14th verse it's my friends. Then in the end of the 15th verse it's my father. And the 16th verse we don't have the word my, but it says I have chosen you. I think of that as my choice. And then last in the end of this 16th verse, my name. How beautiful these are.
You know there's a desire in every one of our hearts to have satisfied affection.
I think that's perhaps the highest desire in the heart of man. Perhaps there are two important things. First of all, that we feel that we are understood to be understood and to be loved. Well, isn't it blessed to know that we are fully understood? The Lord has searched us and known us. He knows our down sitting and our uprising. He understands our thought afar off. He's acquainted with all our ways. This is.
That we read in the 139th Psalm. So he has a perfect acquaintance with us, not only in the things that we do, but our very thoughts. And then he has a perfect love toward us, a love that is unchanged by anything that we do. And the sense of this, brethren, is what will really sustain us. You can't have a better friend naturally than someone who understands you and loves you perfectly.
And that we have in fullness in the Lord Jesus. And I like that little word my because it seems to bring to me the idea that we belong. Every one of us likes to feel that we belong to someone. There's a book written called A Search to belong. Well, we don't have to search to know to whom we belong. He sought us and we can say we belong to thee. We are thine bought by thy blood. And so as we go through.
Life, even if earthly friends may fail, relationships may break, loved ones may be taken away, and we have one to whom we belong, and we not only belong for time, but for all eternity.
Little Hymn says And I am his and he is mine, forever and forever. And I am persuaded if this thought gets hold of our souls, it is going to have an effect upon our lives. As I say, the world is so full of uncertainty.
People are frustrated because they don't know what's going to happen and nobody seems to understand the forces that are at work in the world. People are seeing the breakdown of even natural affection and they say what is life all about? Isn't it blessed to know the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him? He has brought us into His secrets brethren, and He wants to us to enjoy communion.
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And with him, that little word, communion is a very simple word. Perhaps sometimes we might think it's difficult. I can remember as a young person when people spoke of being in communion and out of communion. I didn't really know what was meant, but someone just casually made a remark why communion means common thoughts, why they just opened up some things to me. And I thought what a privilege that I can have.
Thoughts with God that he tells me his thoughts and gives me a life and a nature and the Holy Spirit so that I could enter into and enjoy his thoughts. Well, there's a progression in these well known chapters. In the 13th chapter we have feet washing. In the 14th chapter we have communion. In this 15th chapter we have fruit bearing and in the 16th chapter intelligence and then in.
17th The Lord prays for his own. Isn't it very precious that He sees just what is hindering communion with Him? And so he took the disciples feet into his hands. He wanted to wash them so they could have part with Him. We love to have fellowship with those that we love, and He wants to have fellowship with us. Brethren, are we willing to put our feet into His hands?
Remember how Peter said, Lord thou shalt, thou shalt never wash?
My feet. And sometimes we can take that attitude too, unwilling to let the Lord wash our feet. And what a loss it would be if Peter hadn't allowed the Lord to do that. Because it says, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. And so he was washing their feet so that he could introduce them into all those things that he was about to unfold to them.
And that's why when we come to the 14th chapter, there we have him Speaking of the.
Father's house and of communion with him, that He could come, Father and Son and make their abode with us. What a wonderful thing I say, to have communion. And then too, it's His desire that there should be fruit bearing in our lives. And this we have, as we'll notice as we go on in this chapter and then in the 16th chapter, He gave us the Holy Spirit so that He might, that we might.
Have intelligence, he says. He shall lead you into all truth.
Truth and I am to know that in spite of all that we are, He's there at the right hand of God, interceding for us. He is there and at 17th of John brings before us his prayer for us just what He's doing right now for us interceding so that we might be maintained in the enjoyment of these things that we speak of.
Well, in this 15th chapter I say is quite well known to us, the Lord.
Speaking about fruit bearing here, in the beginning Israel were placed in a position of privilege. They were the vine, but they brought forth wild grapes. And we would bring forth wild grapes, and will bring forth wild grapes too, unless we abide in Him, that is, unless we walk day by day in communion with Him. Why? Instead of bearing fruit for Him, sad to say, the flesh will be manifest.
In our lives we will lose the joy of communion with Him. And so He says that He would have us to abide in Him. And then He tells us too. Without me He can do nothing. We can't do anything apart from Him, any more than the branch could bear fruit of itself. It must abide in the vine. And now the Lord Jesus opens up some of these secrets in these, if I could suggest again.
Seven times that we have my brought before us. Isn't it very precious that the first one is my love? Oh, I think this is so wonderful. You know, it tells us even about the Sinner, that the goodness of God leads man to repentance. And that is when man realizes what he is as a Sinner before God, and then he finds that God loves him in spite of all that he is.
That's what breaks him down, that's what breaks the center down and bread, and that's what breaks us down.
Are sometimes said like this to illustrate it. If you happen to do something wrong to a person whom you didn't care very much about, you might be sorry that you offended them, but you'd say, Oh well, they're no special friend of mine anyway. But if you knew it at that person had a deep love for you.
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Had given everything for you. Wouldn't you feel much more deeply if you did something to offend such a person as that one who had shown kindness to you all your life, who had loved you in spite of your failures? Wouldn't you be ashamed that you had done something to grieve the heart of one like that? Brethren, that's what it means. The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.
The Sinner sins not only against God's holiness, but against God's love.
And when you and I fail, we not only offend against God's holiness, which is serious indeed, but we offend against one who loved us so much that he went to Calvary to die for us, One who has never ceased to love us and never will, in spite of all that we are. And so this verse is so beautiful, as the Father hath loved me.
So have I loved you, continue ye in my love is it.
Possible for us to measure the love that the Father has to the Son. We all know that that's an absolute impossibility for us to even think of measuring the love the Father has to the Son. Brethren, that's the same measure, if I can speak of it as such, because it's immeasurable. The same kind of love that He has toward us.
So it says, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.
That we should be called the sons of God. And so here we find as the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. And he gives us the privilege of walking in the enjoyment of that love. And even when we have failed again, I say it's the sense of that that draws us back. That's why it says in the 23rd Psalm he.
Restoreth my soul. It isn't just.
We get restored, although we must come and confess failure to him to be restored. But I think that's very beautiful. He restoreth my soul. He sees something that has come into our lives that has not only robbed us, but has robbed him because it's our our fellowship. It's our company brethren that he wants. And so he sees that has come in.
If there's someone you love and you feel that something.
Come in so that they don't have the same feelings towards you. Aren't you anxious to see that cleared up so that there wouldn't be anything between you, so that you could enjoy that kind of love? Well, how much more so the Lord is grieved. He feels it, and the sense of this touches our hearts and makes us want to get back and make things right with Him.
And so it says, Continue ye in my love.
That is, let us cultivate the habit, brethren, of walking in the sunshine of his love, so much so that if anything has come between, were immediately conscious that something has come in, in a relationship where there is happiness. Why? If something comes in between the two people, why? The sensitive partner will say, What is it? What is it? Maybe nothing has been said. Maybe.
Person hasn't said a word that could perhaps be detected, but the one who's sensitive of that return of affection feels it at once and says what has happened? Why do you feel that way? Well, maybe you say I didn't say anything, but you felt something and immediately the person who loved you became conscious of it. Oh, brethren, the Lord is conscious when we lose the simplicity of the enjoyment of His love. And that's why the next verse comes.
Comes in.
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. Now we see that the Lord is speaking about what it is that could hinder our enjoyment of His love, Because there may be someone here who is saying, well, I don't know what's the matter with me, but I don't seem to enjoy His love toward me, and I don't, I don't.
What it is? I know other Christians who seem to walk in the enjoyment of His love, but I don't. Well, the Lord here brings before us the simplicity of how we can remain in the enjoyment of His love. He always walked in the enjoyment of His Father's love at all times He was conscious of it, as it might be said, His communion with God. His Father was absolute. It was always perfect at the grave of Lazarus.
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He said to his father, I knew that Thou hearest me always, but for the sake of those that were by, I said it. There was never anything that interrupted that communion with his father, except perhaps when he was bearing our sins in his own body on the tree in those hours of darkness. But as to his pathway, he walked in that perfect communion and even in the hours of darkness.
He was doing his Father's will. He was a sweet savor to God in the blessed fact that He was settling the question of our sins to the glory of God and for our blessing. And so it says here, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love, the Lord Jesus, I say walk in the enjoyment of that love. And that's why in the Garden of Gethsemane.
When he was in conflict there before his Father as to the question of what it was going to take place at Calvary, why, it says he sweat as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground. The Lord Jesus, who from all eternity had been in the perfect enjoyment of communion with His Father. I was now facing that solemn issue when he would be made an offering for.
Sin when He, as the true one who had come to do his Father's will, would be forsaken of God because he was bearing sin and satisfying the claims of God's holiness so that blessing might flow out to you and me.
Well, He was always, as I say, the one who walked in obedience, and you and I desire them to have this enjoyment of His love. Well, there needs to be that obedience in our lives, brethren. There needs to be care lest any little thing comes in. It says in the Song of Solomon, take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, and it doesn't take very much, little fox.
Little things that creep into our life, things that we have questioned about, but still there's enough self will about us that we still go on with them and a rob communion with the Lord. That's why it tells us in Hebrews chapter 12. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us. There are some things that are not positively sinful in themselves. They're not wrong.
But they're like weights. They're a hindrance to the enjoyment of fellowship with God. Well, he says that if ye keep my commandments. Now, of course, I think all of us are aware that this is not Speaking of the 10 commandments. We are not under law. We are under grace. Why then are these things called commandments? Perhaps if we turn to the last verse in the 12TH of John.
It might help to understand just what this refers to John 12 and verse 50.
And I know that His commandment is life everlasting whatsoever I speak. Therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak. Brethren, this is a very wonderful verse, because it tells us about the 10 commandments. If there had been a law given which could have given life, then verily righteousness had been by the law. But the law did not communicate life in fact when it was.
Given the Lord said, oh, that there was such a heart in them that they might walk in my ways. The law made known, the 10 commandments made known, God's requirements for man in the flesh, but it did not impart a new life. But you know what God does in Christianity? He first of all communicates to us a life that wants to please Him, and then in His Word He tells us how we can please Him to be asked.
To do something for a friend that you want to do is a pleasure, isn't it? Perhaps a friend has a birthday or some occasion where you want to give the friend a gift and you, you want to give them a gift. You're thinking, well, what can I get that would please my friend? And then the friend says, well, you know, there's something I would really like. And you say, oh, I've got it now.
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I didn't know what to get.
But now I know what will please them. Well, the person may be made known their mind. Maybe they said they would love to have it and in a sense ask for it. But the desire was in your heart. It was a pleasure to get that thing. It was a pleasure to give the person that thing because you loved them. And you know. This is a lovely verse, brethren.
His commandment is life. Every last day. I've often said God will never ask you to do anything as a Christian. I say anything as a Christian as that the life he has imparted to you does not want to do, does not find its pleasure in doing. And that is why it says His commandment is life everlasting.
John says in his epistle his commandments are not.
Grieve us. The 10 commandments were grievous to the nation of Israel. Peter spoke to them as a yoke that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear. It's just like when your father asked you to do something you don't want to do. It's a yoke that you don't want to bear. But when he says, now here is a few dollars, go down to the store and get something that you've been asking for.
Why? It's a command, but oh, it's a pleasure. You're just going to do what you wanted to do.
And isn't it blessed, that is, that God has imparted to us that life that wants to please Him? And that's the force of that expression. I know that His commandment is life everlasting, we say. Why does the believer sin then? Well, because we let the old man act, don't we? And that old man has no desire to please God.
They that are in the flesh cannot please God the old.
Man is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and so he tells us here, brethren, the secret of walking in the enjoyment of his love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love. May it be the habit of our lives to just look up to the Lord in the morning and ask Him to show us the way wherein we should walk, and when things come up unexpected to be unexpectedly just to be like.
Jeremiah. So when he was confronted with a difficult situation by the king in whose employ he was, why, he just knew enough to make a swift little prayer to the God of heaven, and the God of heaven undertook for him. And I wish to say that if you and I only desire to walk in His love, then He has a path for us where we can walk in communion with Him.
It tells us in Psalm, I believe it's 17th Psalm, it says by the word of thy lips have I kept me from the paths of the destroyer. Mr. Darby once said God has a path through this world where Satan cannot touch us. That is the path where Jesus walked. That path the Lord Jesus walked in. He's given it to us. And so first of all, there's my love and.
My commandments.
I just mentioned again, you might say, well, why are they called commandments? Well, I just say that where love is operative, everything he wants us to do has the power of a command. For someone that loves you, asks you to do something you don't say, is that a request or a command? It has the power of a command to your heart.
You're glad to do it because love is operative. Well, what a place.
We have been brought into My love, My commandments, and the 11TH verse. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
Now characteristically, we think of the Lord Jesus as the man of sorrows, and rightly so. It says in 53rd of Isaiah, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His pathway through this world was one of rejection. It was one of feeling fully all the results of sin here in this world, and as he passed through and saw all the sickness and all the misery that had been brought into this world as the result.
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Sin in the perfection of His blessed heart, He felt it, and in that sense He was the Man of sorrows. He never healed a person merely as an act of power. He always healed them, entering into in the compassions of His heart all that sin had brought in and what they were passing through. And in that sense, I say again, He was the Man of sorrows. And secondly, He was the Man of sorrows because He had come in grace as we have.
In 2nd Corinthians 5, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. If I could put that verse very simply, that represents to us the pathway of the Lord Jesus here. And that is, God was in Christ. He was telling out what He was like in the pathway of the Lord Jesus. He was a full manifestation of all at the heart of God.
God is, and it's as though He were saying to the world, well, you haven't yet ever seen perfectly what's in the heart of God. And as he walked through this world, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. Man was at enmity. But the Lord Jesus, as he saw all the sorrows and misery and hunger there, he was to meet the need.
There was a woman brought to him, taken in sin, and he said neither do I condemn thee, that's why.
Says not imputing their trespasses unto them. He was seeking to show to man what God is like, that God is a God of love, that God is a God who wants to bless man. Did he not condemn her guilt? That's not the point. He didn't condemn her because he was going to Calvary to bear her condemnation. He was going to bear the result of her sin at the cross.
And so you and I can say he doesn't condemn me. Why? Because he was.
Condemned in your place and mine. And so he didn't come to impute trespass to man. But what did the world say? Oh, it's very solemn. In the end of this very 15th chapter it says, if I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin. But now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father. To me it's as if the world said, if that's what God is like, we don't.
Don't want him, we don't want him. What a what a sad commentary upon the heart of man that he rejected the one who had come in perfect grace. Well, brethren, that's why he was the Man of sorrows. But he was also, he also walked in a joy. He walked in the joy as we have in the 12TH of Hebrews, who for the joy that was set before him.
Endured the cross despising the shame.
Paul the apostle, his servant expresses something of this in Second Corinthians Chapter 7, when he says as sorrowful he had alway rejoicing. You and I who are believers can't help but be sad as we see around us all the results of sin and man rejecting a little hymn says God beseeching man refusing to be made forever glad. I think it was Mr. Bellad who said I have.
Sorrows in life, He said one is that sinners will not receive Christ, and the other is that those who have received Him don't follow him. Those were the 2 great sorrows that he felt in life. Well I say again, He was the man of joy. And why brethren, well He was on the way to Calvary's cross to accomplish a work that would bring fullest blessing to you and I.
And the joy.
Of doing his Father's will and bringing in that blessing that was in the heart of God, filled his heart in his pathway through this world. And so there was a joy in which he walked, the joy of perfect communion with his Father and the joy of doing his Father's will before he says he speaks these things.
That my joy might remain in you.
So the Christian is the only person who really has a right to be happy. He has a right to be happy because he knows that the question of his sin has been settled. He knows that he has a home above. He knows that he has the best news that this world ever heard to bring to it. We ought to be happy, brethren. If we're not, it must be one of those first two things.
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We're not enjoying his love and we're not walking.
In the path of obedience to Him, we ought to be happy, brethren. If we're not, it must be one of those first two things. We're not enjoying His love, and we're not walking in the path of obedience to Him. In that path there is a joy. Oh, you say, don't we feel things? Oh yes, perhaps we feel things even more keenly than others. Paul said that he served the Lord night and day with tears. He felt things, but all.
He also had an inward joy that sustained him, And when he stood before King Agrippa, he held up his chain hand and said, I think myself happy, King Agrippa. Why did he say that? Was he very pleased to be in chains? No, but he had a privilege of presenting to that great king the way of blessing. And when the king said to him, Almost Thou persuadest me to be a Christian, he said.
I went to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds. He said. I wouldn't wish this chain on you, but I wish you the joy that's in my heart. He could sing in the prison of Philippi, and so that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. Oh, what a lovely thing.
The Lord is about to go away. He's about to leave his own. And like orphans, although they were not.
Orphans really, but in that way he was to leave them, and now he says that they might have my joy.
That my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. Well, He wants our joy to be full. We often have nice times and we say, well, I had a good day today. But what is really fullness of joy? Well, it's his presence, isn't it, in the.
Every presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. There are two hindrances to our joy down here, and that is, we still have bodies of humiliation, and we still have the old nature within us. Those are going to be finally removed, but the knowledge of it fills us with a present joy.
We sang in the little hymn in the opening If here on earth, the thoughts of Jesus love.
Have left our poor hearts this weary world above. If even hear the taste of heavenly springs. So cheers the spirit that the Pilgrim sings. What will the sunshine of his glory prove? That they might have my joy, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy.
Might be full then the 12TH verse. This is my commandment that she loves.
One another as I have loved you. Well, it's very beautiful how this is brought in here, brethren, because love to one another is always in Scripture. The thought of an overflow, the heart is full and so others share. If you're really enjoying something and there's more than you need, why then there's an overflow that reaches out to others and you and I could not be enjoying His love.
Without that love flowing out to others. And So what is the measure of it? Well, it says, as I have loved you, that's the measure of it. It's not a question, as we were saying the other day, of looking for some characteristic in the other, but it's rather what love is in itself. I remember reading our remark very many years ago.
But it has helped me as I have tried to serve the Lord.
And I've enjoyed it in my soul. Christianity is known by what it brings, not by what it finds. We're always looking for something, and we think if we find that something, we're going to be happy. But Christianity is known by what it brings. The Lord Jesus came into this world not looking for something from man, because man in himself did not respond.
But he came bringing something. He came bringing what was in the heart of.
Of God. And then he came, bringing new life. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. He came. When he had told Peter that he was going to deny him, he immediately follows by the message that he was going away. But I'll come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am.
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There ye may be also, and what impresses you as you read the life of the Lord Jesus?
Is how he was always bringing something. When the people took up stones to cast at him, he went through the midst of them and he went on and if someone like a blind man was in his way, he stopped and healed a blind man. He didn't allow outward pressures and circumstances to hinder in the display of that love. He had come to bring something and he brought it perfectly. It says the grace of God that bring us salvation.
And I say this to each one of us as brethren.
In the assemblies to which we are in which we are part, may the Lord grant that we will be exercised about this. Too often, I think we come to meeting looking for something and we get disappointed sometimes. But if we come bringing something, that's what the Lord Jesus did. He came bringing something. When Paul went to Antioch, there was a lot of opposition, but he said, we declare unto you glad tidings. He came bringing something, the good news.
Well, may we be exercised, brethren, to bring something. And so this is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you. That's the measure of it. Nothing less is divine love.
And then he says, Greater loveth no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. That's the limit of natural love. He loves his friends. But the Lord Jesus laid down his life for his enemies. He went to Calvary's cross. And as it tells us in Romans chapter 5, if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled.
We shall be saved by his life. God commandeth His love toward us in this way.
Well, then there's another one as it goes on here in this.
14th verse Ye are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knows not what his Lord doeth. But I have called you fans, for all things that I have heard of my Father I have not made known unto you. This is a marvelous expression.
Friends.
We often sing in our little song what a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. And it is indeed one really enjoys that, Him. It's very precious that the Lord Jesus is our dearest friend. But this is more thrilling still, isn't it? He calls me his friend.
Abraham was called the friend of God.
What an expression, the friend of God, and he tells us why he calls us his friends. He says that we are his friends if we do what he commands us. That is, if we're going to enjoy this relationship we have been brought into, we must walk in the path of obedience. It says in Amos. How can two walk together?
Except they be agreed. We often apply this to marriage, and rightly so.
You can't really walk through life with someone who is in constant disagreement with you. It will not be a happy marriage. And if the person is not saved, how much more so because there's really nothing in common of the most important things of life. But I think there's a deeper meaning in that verse. Brethren, the Lord is speaking to Israel. He had called Abraham his friend, and now he wanted his people.
To be his friends, he didn't only want Abraham, just the one person out of the nation.
But He wanted his people to be agreed to walk in His ways. And so when it says, how can two walk together except they be agreed? If I can put it very simply, the Lord is saying I'm not going to change my mind. And if you want to walk in my company, if you want to be my friend, you must walk in obedience to me.
You know when in life it's a matter of give and take? Because none of us.
Perfect. We all have to learn to give in to one another. But let's remember this, brethren, God is never, never, never going to change His thoughts or standards to please us. He is never going to do it. And so if we're going to walk in company with Him, if we are going to be counted, His friends, it is in the path of obedience because I say He will not change His mind.
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And so the Holy Spirit of God has been sent down to shed abroad the love of God in our hearts. He has been sent down so that we might walk in fellowship with God, but if we're careless, then he is grieved. I've often said a Christian can be the happiest person in the world, or he can be the most miserable.
If he is really walking in communion with the Lord, he's going to be the happiest person in the world because there's nothing sweeter and happier than to walk in communion with your Lord and Savior. But you know, after you're saved, you're spoiled for this world. And maybe you're unsaved friends. They can enjoy the world, but you can't enjoy it in the same way.
An older brother once said to a young person who had shortly been saved. He said, Young fellow, he said, you are spoiled for this world. You might as well make the best of what you have in Christ, because you will never be able to enjoy the world in the same way again. It's true, a Christian can sidestep and perhaps get a little bit of pleasure in the world, but he'll not be the same as the unbeliever. And why?
Well, I'll tell you why. He has a divine guest with him that will not let him be happy in the path of self will. I have sometimes illustrated it like this. It's like going for a vacation with somebody and what you're doing on your vacation is displeasing your friend all the time. And your friend is always saying, oh, I don't like this. I don't find any fun in this at all.
This is no pleasure to me. And you spend 2 weeks like that and you come home and you.
Well, that was a miserable vacation. There was no agreement at all. But the next time you go on a vacation with a friend and you're in perfect harmony and the things you want to do, everything that's suggested, you're in harmony. And you come back and you say, oh, that was a wonderful vacation. We just thought the same and we enjoyed the same things. It was just a wonderful time. And now.
Dear fellow Christian, you have a friend within you. You have a divine.
Guest within you, the Holy Spirit of God, you can't grieve them away. He has come to abide with you forever. If you want to have a happy Christian life, it depends upon the way you treat the divine guest within. And so if you and I would enjoy this relationship of being friends, it is in the path of obedience. But then more it says.
All things that I have received of my father, I have made known.
Unto you we're beginning 1981. The world is full of uncertainty. There are places where the world says, well, that's an explosive situation. The economy is bad, home life is breaking down. The people of the world are quite distressed as they see what is coming in.
But God has made known everything to us. We don't need to face the future with uncertainty. I have often said the Christian is the only one who has an intelligent outlook on what's going on in the world. Men of the world don't know what it's all about. But he has called us his friends and he says all things that I have received of my father I've made known unto you, and what's going to happen in this?
World is not going to be a surprise to us. It's interesting to me to read books written by brethren over 100 years ago and if they were living today, they wouldn't be surprised that these events at all because they knew from the word of God they were going to take place. They described them in their books. The only surprise that they would have is that God has been so patient to wait and these things are happening before he calls his own home. But.
Those things would happen. They wouldn't be surprised at all. You can find them in books over 100 years old. Why? God has made known these things to us. It's in His Word. And so He says, All things that I have received of my Father, I have made known unto you. Brethren, let's lift up our heads. The future for us is not full of uncertainty, it's full of certainty.
Christianity rests upon divine certainties. We know is the characteristic message of Christianity. We know. And so the Lord says all things that I have heard of my Father, I've made known unto you. He hasn't called us servants.
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Now it doesn't mean that a friend can serve you, but you don't call him a servant, you call him a friend. Many of us have the joy, in fact, all of us in some measure have the joy of serving the Lord, each in our capacity. But that doesn't mean that he calls us servants, He calls us friends. What a lovely thing, friends, the friend of God. And there's another expression that comes by way of warning. It says whosoever, therefore.
Be the friend of the world is the enemy of God, the very opposite, to try and be a friend of the world. I always have enjoyed that verse in the 119th Psalm, in the 63rd verse. I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts. That's a good, shall I say that's a good motto in connection with our friends. When you choose someone as a friend, think of those.
Two things Do they fear the Lord?
All things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. This is a relationship that those in the Old Testament didn't know. They didn't know that wonderful relationship. You can read through the Psalms and you never find the expression of Father. But as soon as the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, he said to his disciples. He sent the message to his disciples, I should say.
Go tell my brethren I ascend.
My father and your father, and to my God and your God. Oh, what a marvelous thing. God is my father. I stand in a relationship to the one who is in control of everything, and I'm in a relationship to him. If you were in touch with a person who is in the highest place in your company and you know that he has favor towards you, why you'd.
Well, the head of the company is my best friend. I don't feel I have much to fear. Well, dear friends, isn't it marvelous that the Lord calls us his friends? And then he says, all I've heard of my father I've made known unto you. And now in resurrection he says, you can call him your father too. Your father.
What a blessed thing that we can lift up our hearts and address God.
In a known and enjoyed relationship, Paul said for this, 'cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now I just comment here that.
When it speaks about Heavenly Father, as it does in Matthew, it has to do more, particularly with an earthly people. That is, if I was in here in Glendale and my father is living back in here in Los Angeles and my father is back in Ottawa, well, I might say my father in Ottawa. But when I'm in Ottawa, I don't say my father in Ottawa, I just say my father. I'm there. And Janelle, that is the thought to Israel and earthly people.
God is their heavenly Father, but for us who belong to heaven, we are in the nearest relationship because we're seated in the heavenlies in Christ. We're there. We can look into his face by faith and say Father, oh how wonderful a relationship. So here we have another one, my Father.
And then the 16th verse, Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.
Well, this is very lovely too. His choice.
And we read in First Epistle to Ephesians, he said his predestinated us unto the adoption of children. When a child is adopted, there are choices made. And so the Lord said, You didn't choose me, but I did choose you. That thrills my heart, brethren, because I can't understand why.
I don't really know what he saw in me to make me his choice.
One of the greatest wonders of all eternity is going to be why He ever wanted me there. He wants he. He made me his choice. It wasn't. People talk about free will and their choice, but the Lord said you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. And isn't it wonderful to walk down the street of a city like Los Angeles?
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With hundreds of people around you.
And to think that the God of the universe said, I chose you out of that crowd because I wanted you to be my companion in glory. Oh brethren, when we have thoughts like this, what an elevation, what a way it is to face the future, to know that we go through life in that way. I heard of a man who was standing on the side of a ship and looking over at the sunset, and he said to the man beside him.
I don't know of anything more beautiful than a sunset at sea. And this man was a Christian and he said, oh, I, I know something more wonderful. I know the person who made the sun, and I know him as my father. Oh, what a relationship to be in. That's why even in creation we look out and we enjoy the flowers and the sunshine.
Why? Well, we know the person who made it. Some things we have in our homes.
We bought in the store. It doesn't have any particular.
Touch to our hearts, so to speak. But maybe we have some things in our homes that somebody we loved gave to us and every time we look at it, it does something to our hearts. It was something beautiful that was made by someone we loved. Well, brethren, isn't it wonderful to know that God is our Father and that all that we enjoy down here comes from a father's hand? And to know is a little hymn says.
Because our Father's hand will never 'cause his child a needless tear. And so we stand in a relationship and we have been chosen. We have been brought into the family of God. We are the ones whom He has selected and chosen. And as I say, through all eternity, that'll be the marvel it says He shall.
See of the travel of his soul, and shall be satisfied.
We think of how we failed and grieved him, but there's not going to be 1 believer in that glory in the coming day. Not one believer. I say that the Lord will say I'm sorry I brought that person here. No, not one. Isn't it wonderful to know that he is going to see of the trival of his soul and he's going to be satisfied? He shall joy over thee with singing. He shall rest.
In his love. And then we come to the last one.
That whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you, particularly the expression My name God has honored and exalted. That name tells us, Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. God delights to honor that name.
That through that name salvation is proclaimed.
To whosoever will, if there's anyone who's unsaved here this afternoon, there's salvation for you, but in one name only, and that's in the name of the Lord Jesus. Well, isn't it very blessed too, that we have the privilege in this world of bearing His name? It says that worthy name by which ye are called. And so we have the privilege as we go through this world of bearing that name.
Have others know?
We are ones who confess Jesus as our Lord, and until we have another wonderful privilege, and that is to be gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, do we value this brethren too? We know that all about us there are very many groups and all bearing different names. But what a lovely thing it is to be gathered in simplicity to the name of the.
Lord Jesus Christ, and then too, to know that if we are gathered in that name, that it must be to be owned of Him, it must be according to His Word.
As another has said, putting out a sign isn't enough, we must be gathered according to his word. Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. One brother illustrated it like this, that if a man hung a sign out in front of his place and put this was his name, and put MD after it, why he might say that he was in the practice of medicine.
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But if you came in and asked to see his diploma and he said, well, I don't need a diploma.
That sign is all that's necessary. Didn't you see that sign? That sign gives my name and it says MD. Well, some people say, well, as long as you gather in the name of the Lord Jesus, that's all that's necessary. But I say no, you have to have the authority of the word of God, the authority to hang out. That sign is that diploma that he has. And that diploma has been given by those who are competent to say whether he has the right to that name. And so.
Whenever you find those who profess to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, we have a scriptural right to seek to look into the Word of God and see if they are gathered according to His Word. Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. Well, what a worthy name. Oh, when we get there to glory, brethren, how it will be our joy, as we have in the 5th of Revelation, to join in that song.
Thou art worthy, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people and nation. And to the overcomer in Philadelphia. For it says they had a little strength, and kept his word, and didn't deny his name. I'm just going to read it to you, because I have really enjoyed what the Lord says to them there.
Revelation chapter 3 and verse 12.
I want you to notice all the mice in this verse. Revelation 3, verse 12. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out. And I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my new name. I think that's precious, because if you seek to walk in the truth today.
You may not be accounted very much. Certainly Christendom will not consider you much of A pillar if you are identified with those who are gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. But the Lord is saying to those who kept His word and didn't deny His name, they were identified with Him, with His name, with his city. And so isn't it an encouragement to us? Well, brethren, I say, we belong to Him, we are His.
He's purchased us, and I just desire, and I trust each one of us will desire to walk in the enjoyment of these seven different minds that we have in this chapter. If so, we can be sure now that it will be a happy path and that we can face 1981 no matter what is ahead, with confidence, with peace, and with joy, because we have everything in Him, but we have nothing without Him. May we cleave.
Him with purpose of heart.