Open Mtg. 6

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Open—R. Thonney, J. Hyland
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Loud to God, our strength He has brought us hitherto, 242.
Nsnoise.
Turn to 1St Corinthians 11.
Reference was made to this portion this morning, I think, and yesterday as well.
Where we have instruction from the Apostle Paul about the Lord's Supper.
Just read from verse 23. For I have received the Lord, that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, he break it and said, take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you, this.
Do in remembrance of me after the same manner also he took the cup when he had stopped saying this cup.
Is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye as OFT as ye drink it in remembrance of me.
For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come.
00:05:01
It's interesting to me, brother, that we show the Lord's death. So what we celebrated this morning in the Lord's Supper, we show the Lord's death. That's why we call it a testimony. We show something. But going back to the end of verse 24 and 25, there's something I would like to focus on there.
Notice when he's instituting these two emblems, the loaf and the cup. He says at the end this do in remembrance of me. He doesn't say in remembrance of my death, but in remembrance of me.
And somebody mentioned it in this morning in the meeting. I think that we worship God for who he is. We praise him for what he has done. And it seems so to me. Perhaps others can relate to this, that so often when we come together.
In this breaking of bread meeting that we focus mostly on what he's done.
And sometimes we don't focus very much on who he is. And I would like to, this afternoon, just focus something on the glories of his person. My desire is that it would awaken the affections of our heart. Who is this person that hung on that cross and died such a terrible death? Who is he?
And I know we know who he is, but oh brother, the more.
We meditate on the glories of His person, of who He is, the more our hearts are attracted, and that's the power of gathering to His precious name. It's not endorsing a certain set of doctrines. Doctrine is important and you can't ignore it, but it is attraction to His.
Glorious person. It's often been mentioned in the New Testament. We have three places where.
The glories of the person of Christ are brought out. John one which was read this morning at least verse one.
And Hebrews one, which was also read, and Colossians chapter one, those three places. Let's go to those. First of all, John chapter one. I just for as much as we've gone over John's Gospel, perhaps the most read of the four Gospels and how it begins.
No record as in Luke's gospel.
Of his genealogy, or as in Matthew's Gospel, because here he's presented as the eternal Son of God. He has no genealogy. He always was.
In the beginning was the word not a majestic statement?
So any beginning you want to think of, he already was. He never had a beginning.
He is eternal and that's just something that blows my mind. Try to think of someone who always, always was. Everything we know of in creation has a beginning. We've had our beginning and our end will have.
Even if the Lord comes, it will be the end of our stay in this world. But here, as a person who never ever had a beginning, he always was.
This is the person we're talking about. In the beginning was the Word His eternality, and the Word was with God, his distinct personality in the Godhead.
God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus. The Word of God is the expression. Word is an expression. If I stand up here and don't say anything, you can look at me and you can guess what I'm thinking, but you really don't know until I open my mouth and express myself with words. Then you understand.
Who could understand God? Absolutely impossible.
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Until the Lord Jesus came, and he is the word of God. He is the expression.
In its fullness of who God is, you know in the Old Testament before.
The Lord Jesus came, they could get an idea of who God was from creation. It says in Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showed his handiwork. So you look at the creation and it does give you an idea in some measure of the vastness and the power.
And the wisdom of God, but you really don't get.
A full revelation of who God is until the Lord Jesus came.
He is the word of God. He is the full expression of all that God is, and yet he was with God in the sense that he was one of the members of the Trinity. You want to put it that way or human language is lacking off times and expressing it properly and then it says the word was God. He is.
Divine. He is God in every sense of the word.
The same was in the beginning with God. In other words, there wasn't a change when it came down to a time when you could talk about a beginning. Beginning is time, and time is measured by the creation we live in.
And in the beginning, he already was there.
All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In other words, he's the creator of all. He is not a creature.
Because all things that were made were made by him, so he necessarily is not a creature, he is the creator.
Oh, brethren.
We get, uh, start thinking about it and I've spoken about this sometimes and I hope I don't weary people going back to it because to me it didn't. It just thrills my soul when I think of the grandeur of the creation we live in. And I'm sure some of you have studied the stars and the universe that we live in.
We live in the.
Milky Way Galaxy. Interesting when I go up to the High Plains of Bolivia.
Uh, this last, uh, April, I was up there in the town of Cebarujo and you're up 12,000 feet above the pollution of this world. And at night when the sky is clear and there's no moon.
The array of stars is impressionable. It is incredible.
You can actually see other galaxies with the naked eye. It is so clear the skies.
And when you stop to think that we are part of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Which is a group of approximately 200 billion stars. I was talking to the young people out in California one time and I said 100 billion stars because I'd seen that somewhere. And the young man came up to me afterward and said, uh, did you realize that it's really closer to to 200 billion?
Stars. You know how many people are in the world? About 7 billion.
We're talking about 200 billion stars, many of them far larger than our sun. There we are, whirling around in a circular fashion.
In the Milky Way Galaxy.
But stop.
See if you can assimilate the next point. They say that there are probably at least 250 billion more galaxies in the universe.
We're talking about the person who spoke it into existence. It says in Psalm 33, he spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. Can you imagine, can you get any grasp of the power of this person who spoke it into existence? This was the one who came into the world to seek and to save the last. This is the one that the chief priests went up.
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To him and spit square in his face. This is the one that they took outside the city of Jerusalem and nailed to a cross, this is the one.
That went under the storm of judgment, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Rather, I have to confess, not very able to speak about it. It's too grand, too great. But we need to let the grandeur, the glory, the perfection of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Sink into our souls. This is the person within meditating on the body of Christ in First Corinthians 12. Perhaps we'll continue with that, but to think, this is the one.
We are intimately united to in the body of Christ.
Oh, may our hearts be attracted to Him.
And then Brother Jim read down in verse 14, I think that is so beautiful. This is the only reference in John's gospel to his birth. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. That's the only reference to his coming into this world.
And we beheld. Notice this is a parenthesis. This part we beheld.
His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, and parenthesis.
Full of grace and truth.
We beheld His glory.
Oh, dear brethren.
I don't pretend to be able to explain what that means completely, but it's something that is extremely precious.
Verse 18. No man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
No, this doesn't say the only begotten Son which was in the bosom of the Father, which is because in a certain sense he never left that place. He always was there. He always will be there in the bosom of the Father. You know, at the end of this chapter one, we have some disciples following Jesus and.
They uh, the Lord sees them following and said, what are you seeking?
And they say.
Master, where dwellest thou? And he says, come and see.
And they came and dwelt with him that day.
I like to think that His dwelling place is what we have in verse 18, the bosom of the Father and the Lord Jesus is wanting to share.
The affections of the bosom of the Father with us too.
That little hymn we sing 127 dwells in His bosom, knoweth all that in that bosom lies, and came to earth to make it known that we might share His choice. That was His dwelling place. You know I, I really have come to.
Think about it and I look at the Lord Jesus and his life down here. What a life of simplicity.
We never read that he had a home.
Said the foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests and Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Is it wrong to have a house? No, I don't think so.
Why didn't he have a house?
The only thing I can come up with, brethren, is that he came from the Father's house and there was nothing down here that compared with that. So he basically wasn't really interested in anything other than that.
So this is something of his glory.
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Let's go over to Hebrews chapter one now. It was read this morning because that is such a precious portion to those first three verses. Notice God.
Comma.
Verse 2.
Spoken in these last days.
Has spoken unto us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the world's, Who, being the brightness of His glory in the express image of His Person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.
OK, so we have 7 little phrases that deal with this person, the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom God has spoken to us.
The first one is appointed heir of all things. Not interesting. He speaks about that before he speaks about the creation of the world. Why is that?
Because in those eternal purposes.
Before the world ever existed, God had his thoughts to make the Lord Jesus as heir of all things that were going to be made. And so then comes the creation of this world, the world it says, the universe.
We've already spoken a little bit about that, but notice verse three. Who being the brightness of his glory, the full outshining of the glory of God.
It's interesting you.
Cannot look directly at the sun, it will impair your vision.
But what the person we're talking about is the one who made the sun. He is the one who is the full outshining of the glory of God. You wanna know God?
Get to know the Lord Jesus because He is the full outshining the brightness of His glory.
And the express image of his person images representation.
The Lord Jesus in Colossians one, if we get over there, is called the image of the invisible God. In other words, how do we know God? By looking at the Lord Jesus who is the image of the invisible God. That's why God prohibits making other images.
Because the Lord Jesus is the image of the invisible God.
When God created man, He made him in his image and likeness.
The Lord Jesus is the image of the invisible God, but never does it say he's the likeness of God. That would be to deny his deity.
It says in Philippians chapter two, he is made in the likeness of men.
Oh, the mystery of it all, the wonder of it all, the glory of this person, O brother. And I trust that our hearts are attracted to him. Seems like we get attracted to certain things in this world so easily.
Brethren, we're gonna be raptured into that eternal glory at any moment, and these things that occupy so much of our attention are gonna stay behind. We're gonna leave them all behind at a moment's notice.
Does this.
The glories of the Person of the Lord Jesus attract our hearts.
So here's the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of His power, not only as the creator of all things, but He is the sustainer of all things.
He keeps it in clock like order. Fascinating to to think about.
The Earth rotates on its axis once every 24 hours.
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And once a year it makes a complete circle around the sun.
Does that vary?
I don't think it varies very much. Who keeps that in that order?
You know, in this world, you make an engine or you make something, you have to have repair people to come and fix it when it doesn't work right. And generally speaking, things don't last very long. How long has this earth been circling around the sun?
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We're not talking about only creating, we're talking about the sustaining of the universe by the word of his power. And then the sixth thing it says here when he had by himself.
Purged our sins. He made the purgation of sin by the sacrifice of himself.
By himself.
There he hung on that cross.
Alone. Completely alone.
His disciples had abandoned him. One of his disciples betrayed him.
Another one.
Who said he would never deny him, denied him three times and the rest took off.
And he was laden as a criminal outside of Jerusalem.
And nailed to a cross with two other thieves.
Oh, what a story.
This person.
There he hung.
And you know, it wasn't only the physical sufferings, it was the sufferings.
Of his soul he says, Reproach has broken my heart. I am full of heaviness, and I look for some to take pity, and there is none. And for comforters, but I found none.
Isn't that awful to think this is the treatment he got from this creature man?
You know, they said.
He said he was the Son of God. If God is his father, let him deliver him now, because he said I'm the Son of God.
God didn't deliver him.
And that reproach broke his heart.
But the worst of all, rather than in an area we cannot get into very much.
Is those three hours of darkness.
It is amazing to try to think about it and the measure that we can, but it was in those three hours of darkness that he made what it says here the purgation for sin.
In those three hours God laid on him the iniquity of us all in the storm of divine judgment broken all its fury.
For three hours the waves and billows of God's judgment poured across him you. If you look carefully at the record, there was no complaint during those three hours.
Until right at the end of those three hours, close to the 9th hour, which is 3:00 in the afternoon where we calculate time, there's a cry. My God, my God, why hast thou forsake?
Why? Because there is no other way.
For us to not be forsaken in him to be forsaken.
And he was forsaken, but before he died.
He said father.
Into thy hands I commend my spirit.
You know, and all his life down here, he always spoke to God as his father.
But in that time, I think it's the only time.
Except in the book of Psalms, he says Thou art my God from my mother's belly.
You know, before he became Incarnate, he could not say my God because he was God.
County became Incarnate in the womb of his mother. He could say my God, but in his life down here you never have any record of him saying my God.
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But he on that cross says My God, my God.
Why? It was because God was dealing with him as to the question of sin, and God's holy character had to be vindicated. There was no other way for her to be blessing for you and me than that God be vindicated in his holy character. And so he says, my God, thank God.
But then before he dies, he says.
Father, which means that again that question had evidently been settled, and he could address God his Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.
But notice the last of these phrases it says.
He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.
And I understand it's reflexive. He sat himself down.
What would happen if any of us would go to Washington, DC and try to walk into the Oval Office and sit down at the right end of the president of the country?
We would be arrested before we got very far.
But here is one because of the worthiness of his person.
The worthiness of his work.
Walked right into the presence of God and sat himself down on the right hand of the majesty.
What a glorious person.
Go back to Colossians chapter one briefly for him because I want to leave some time here for somebody else that may have something.
And here we have the glories of the person of the Lord Jesus given to us from verse 15 down through verse 19.
I'd like to say that there are two areas in which the Lord Jesus is supreme here. Presented in this way. The first part, verse 15/16/17 are the first creation of which we all form a part. But in verse 18 and 19 he's talking about.
New creation? Just read those verses. Who is the image?
Of the invisible God, the first born of every creature.
For by Him we are all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be Thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist or subsist.
So he's the creator and it uses this.
Term The first born. You know, in our lives down here we use the term first born.
My father's family, I was the first born, the first one to be born into the family.
That's the way it's used. But in Scripture we find in the book of Psalms that David is called first born of the kings of the earth. It's a term that really means preeminence because David was the 8th son in his father's family. How could he be the first born because of his preeminent position amongst the kings of the earth.
So in the creation, the first creation.
Which we form part. Naturally speaking. He is the first born. He is the one that has the preeminence. He made all things not only visible but invisible. Thrones, dominions, powers, principalities and powers. And I say young people, God made a creation that is orderly.
And there is authority in his creation, and it's proper that it be so.
And sometimes in the world we live, people don't want to recognize authority.
There's authority in government circles, there's authority in family circles, there's authority in the assembly too, in the person of the Lord Jesus.
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God had said it that way, He's created things that way, and if you're going to have an orderly life and a meaningful life, you're going to recognize the order that God has said in His creation. It's important. It's He that made it, and it doesn't work very well if you ignore it.
So he is the first born of that first creation.
Now verse 18, it says he is the head of the church, the body of the church. We've talking about that yesterday. Who is the beginning, the first born from the death? OK, there's a different first born. I often say, was he the first one that rose from the dead in the Bible? There were others that rose from the dead before he.
In fact, the Lord Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. What does it mean?
He is the first that rose from the dead in the power of a life that death can no longer have any.
Power over He rose in the power of an endless life, and so He is the first born in new creation. Scripture doesn't say the second creation. It's new creation because it will always be characteristically new. If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation.
Old things are passed away, Behold, all things are become new. And in that new creation He is the first born. He is the one who has the preeminence.
That in for it please the Father and notice the Father is in italics. It's really the thought is please the Godhead, that in Him should all fullness dwell. Connect that with chapter 2 and verse nine. In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
That amazing to think about. Oh brethren, the glory of his person when he said remember.
Me, let's remember to focus, not nearly, and I'm not saying it's wrong on what He has done for us, that's proper, but to focus on the glories of this glorious person, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's go back to John One and read again.
The verse that's been read to us and connected with two further scriptures.
To read these verses is so precious and fresh. I trust to our souls, though we've read them and meditated on them so many times. John one, verse 14.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.
The Glorious of the only Begotten of the Father, full of grace.
And truth. And then in the 17th chapter.
Chapter 17 and verse 24.
Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.
That they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation.
Of the world and one more portion in Second Corinthians chapter 3.
2nd Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 18.
But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord.
Or another rendering looking on the glory of the Lord with unveiled faith, or changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. It's not my thought to comment further on what has been said in connection with the portion read in John one, except to say that you know, it's so beautiful to me to realize that God in presenting the truth.
Concerning the person and work of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He presents it so often in the three tenses in which you and I.
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Operate in the realm of time here in this world that is the past, the future, and the present. And I've enjoyed these three portions that we have just read together in that regard because when John wrote here, John was one who had the privilege of beholding the Lord Jesus as he walked here in this world.
What a tremendous thing he could say later on.
Our eyes have seen and our hands have handled. Of the word of life, you say. What a privilege it must have been, what a wonderful thing it must have been to walk with the Lord Jesus and to see those glory shine out, particularly those moral glories. In everything He said, everything He did, every breath He took, every movement He made those.
Moral glories were there on every hand.
And sometimes even a little beyond that. Peter and James and John.
Had the privilege of being on the Mount of Transfiguration with the Lord Jesus and a little preview of coming glories, the Kingdom glories. What a privilege that must have been when they came to take the Lord Jesus in the garden. There was a flash of glory that knocked those who were there back to the ground. What a wonderful thing I've often thought. Must have been tremendous to walk with the Lord Jesus.
And to behold his glories while he walked here on earth as a man.
But then we find something that's yet future we find the Lord Jesus in what we often refer to as his high priestly prayer and John's Gospel chapter 17. He speaks of the his desire to have his own with him where he is why to behold his glory and all brethren to think of that day coming when we're going to be with the Lord Jesus there in the.
House and what is going to captivate our gaze and our souls for all eternity.
Or I suggest that when we get one look at his lovely face another day, it's going to eclipse everything else.
You know, we often think of heaven and how wonderful it's going to be. And we, I will join heartily in the singing of those hymns that give some idea, least as the author of the hymn, the composer the hymn thinks heaven will be and we sing. And what will it be to be there? And there are many things that we are no doubt going to be aware of in that day, wonderful things.
I believe, too, we're going to have interaction and conversation with one another.
We're going to know even as we are known. We're going to know one another. Just as on the Mount of Transfiguration there were no need for introductions. You know, there were men on the Mount of Transfiguration from three different eras of time. There was Moses and Elijah who didn't know, had never met each other on earth. Besides that, there were the three disciples who had never met personally, Moses or Elijah, But there was no.
For introduction, it seems that they knew one another immediately and that's the way I believe it's going to be in the coming day. But I say again, brethren, what is going to really captivate our our gaze and our hearts for all eternity? It's going to be to look into his blessed face and I suggest that any other.
Interaction we have with one another, anything else that we are occupied with is going to be in relationship to the glories.
Of the Person of Christ.
Does that do something to our souls? Now, why do we so often want something of this world, a little glory in this world when we think of what is ahead? And to think, to hear of the Lord Jesus expressing his desire, because here it's not the disciples expressing their desire to be with the Lord, to behold his glories in a coming day.
No, it's the Lord Jesus expressing.
His desire, as he prayed to the Father, one of the things he expressly desired and asked for was that his own would be not in heaven, not in the Father's house. That's true. It will be heaven, it will be the Father's house. But to be with himself.
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To enjoy all the things that heaven is going to offer, to enjoy peace and rest. And beyond the circumstances of life, brethren, that's true too.
We are going to be beyond the circumstances, the trials and difficulties of life. We're going to sit down and rest in His presence for eternity. But His desire was that they would be with Him to behold His glory.
Oh brethren, it throws my soul, and I trust it thrills yours to think of that future day when we're going to behold the glories of the Lord Jesus unhindered. And so we think of that which took place when the Lord was here. John and others beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father. We are going to have a a far greater privilege in the coming day than even that.
Of beholding his glories there, when we see him as the glorified man.
They're at the right hand of God at the Father's house, in the Father's house, and when he himself takes his throne. But what about the present? You know, there's always something for our present portion and encouragement. And that's why I read at the end of 2nd Corinthians 3, because this is something for us now we think of how wonderful it's going to be in a future day to behold unhindered the glories of the person of Christ.
But brethren, you and I have the privilege today of my faith, looking up into the open heavens where the Lord Jesus is now, and to behold His glories with the eye of faith.
The disciples and others saw the Lord Jesus with the natural eye.
As I said, John could say our eyes have seen, but is he any less real to the eye of faith this afternoon? No, if you and I will just look up with the eye of faith, all those glories will fill our souls and captivate our hearts even now. This is no doubt an illusion to what took place back in the Old Testament when Moses, a picture of the Lord Jesus, came out from the presence of God on the mount.
You know his face, so, Sean, that the children of Israel couldn't look on him. He had to veil his face when he came out from the presence of God. But what this verse is really telling us in its simplest language is this.
That the veil for us has been removed, and we can look up into the face of the Lord Jesus. We can behold Him now seated there at the right hand of God. And brother, this is what is going to wean us.
From anything that this world has to offer, any little flash of glory that this world might have.
And put before you and me, if our hearts are captivated with the glories of Christ where he is now.
It's going to mean nothing. I don't mean that we're not going to work hard at school. We're not going to do our job to the best of our ability whatsoever Thy hand findeth to do, do with all my might and where to do all to the glory of God.
But it will put everything in the proper perspective, it will place the proper value on the things, the mercies, and thank God there are many of them, but the mercies and the temporal things that we have now.
To look up into the face of the Lord Jesus. How much?
Has it been true of in your life and mine perhaps in the last week when we think back over the past week, has there been occupation with the person of Christ where he is now? It's wonderful to read the Gospels and to see His life as that example for you and for me. He's left us an example that we follow in his footsteps, but all to look up and to behold Him. What was it that gave Stephen the strength?
To be a martyr for Christ. He looked up and he saw the glory of the Lord Jesus standing on the right hand of God. We may never be called on to be martyrs for Christ, but what's going to give us the strength to go on in the difficult circumstances? And there are difficult circumstances. I have no doubt there's brethren here whose hearts are burdened as we think of going back to the daily grind of life.
What we're going to face if the Lord doesn't come before these meetings are over. But what's gonna give us the courage and the strength? What's gonna give us the stamina to go through whatever God allows in His wisdom in our lives? Oh, I say it's like Steven to behold the glory of the Lord. When I was growing up, we sometimes sang that hymn, Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus.
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Look full in his wonderful face.
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. We sometimes sing that little prayer all fix our earnest gaze.
So, holy Lord, on thee.
That with thy beauty occupied, we elsewhere none may see.
Brethren, I trust that that's the sincere and earnest prayer of your soul and mind. We're gonna see him another day. He's gonna captivate our gaze for all eternity, but he wants us to look up.
He wants to captivate our gaze now. He wants us, as we've been exhorted in this meeting, to be occupied and thrilled with those glories that are his now. I say, this is what is going to preserve us and give us the courage and the joy to go on until that moment we see him face to face.
174.
174.