Pella Conference: 2021
Table of Contents
The Value of Being an Intercessor
Ephesians 1:1-3
Ruth
Turn or Burn
Prayer
Abraham and Lot
Ephesians 1:4-9
The Gospel of the Grace of God
Ephesians 1:10-12
Ephesians 1:13-23
Romans Pt1
Address—P. Jennings
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I do want to thank my brother in here for being willing.
To take up this subject.
It, it, it's a subject that just keeps expanding in my own soul. And So what I used to be to be able to do in four or five meetings, it might take a little bit longer. And you know, I'm not in any hurry. If you're not in any hurry, we probably will get just far enough in this in this series this week.
To get a taste of deliverance, and that's a wonderful thing for us to realize that the work of Christ is a complete salvation. It's not just the salvation that's delivered us from the penalty of our sins, but it's a salvation that has completely delivered us.
From the indwelling power of sin within us. And yet.
This is truth that we have to lay hold of. We have to first have an understanding of it and then in our life God teaches us the reality of the power of the work of Christ.
And so I would like to start. The Lord has given me a little bit of an introduction that's outside of the book of Book of Romans. So we're going to go to Exodus chapter 13.
To begin.
These are verses that the Lord gave me recently as I was going through the my, my personal reading as I was going through the Old Testament. These verses just kind of stuck out and, and they have stuck in my enjoyment and brought clarity, more clarity to my own soul as to the the.
Truths that we have in the book of Romans, Exodus chapter 13 and verse 17.
Says And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God let them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt. But God led the people about.
Through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea.
And the children of Israel went up and harnessed out of the land of Egypt. And so God had a specific path for the children of Israel to take as they left the ******* of Egypt. And there was one way that God did not want them to take, and He would not leave them that way.
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And that was he would not take them by way of the Philistines.
And.
I would like to just speak a little bit about that. There is no way we can really grasp what this expression the Philistines means until we get through the whole series.
When we get through the whole series, we're going to have an understanding about the way of the Philistines, but I want to just give a little.
Short description of what the Lord has brought brought it to my own soul. The way of the Philistines is the energy of the flesh.
In divine things.
It's the energy of the flesh in divine things.
And so as we go through the book of Romans, we're going to see that one of the salvations, one of the deliverances that we begin to enjoy as we understand the value of the cross is that we have no connection to the law.
We have no connection to the law because the law energizes man in the flesh.
And so God says, if you go by the way of the Philistines.
All you're going to know is war.
And when you all you know is war, you get weary.
And you decide.
This Christian life is too difficult. I have tried, I have tried, I have tried. I fail. I fail, I fail and I'm just going to give up.
And so God.
Here for the children of Israel.
Says I'm not taking you that way well.
If we know our hearts and we know our tendency, our tendency is to naturally go that way. We'll get into this as we get into farther into the truth of deliverance and as the Lord sets us free from any, any possibility, you might say, of thinking.
That there's there's any benefit in taking up spiritual things in the energy of the 1St man.
We're going to learn as we go through the book of Romans. That's not God's way. What is God's way? Let's look at it.
In verse 18, but God led the people about through the way.
Of the wilderness of the Red Sea. Now, in order to get to the wilderness of the Red Sea, you have to go through the Red Sea. What is a Red Sea speak of? Speaks of death and resurrection. Now we know that if we want a full picture of our death and resurrection with Christ, we have to go through, you might say, the wilderness. We have to go across the Jordan.
But as the children of Israel.
Cross the Red Sea and in the morning they looked down at the Red Sea. They saw their enemies dead on the seashore.
And that's where Satan loses his power, when we begin to understand our death and resurrection with Christ.
When we when we realize the value of the work of Christ and how?
At the cross of Christ, God became completely satisfied with the question of our sins.
We.
Are the tremendous advantage.
By taking in the value of death and resurrection, the wilderness of the Red Sea is how God, through the experiences of our life, applies that truth of having died and risen with Christ. So there's a practical aspect of the of of death and resurrection that we we begin to learn to apply.
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In in very practical ways.
When it comes to temptation. And so let's go on. Let's go on to the second, second First Chronicles Chapter 22.
Another verse the Lord picked up out of my reading, and it's been an encouragement to me because I believe it's true. I'm going to apply it to the truth that God has to open up to us from Romans.
First Chronicles chapter 22 and verse 18 says.
Is not the Lord your God with you? And he hath he not given you rest on every side?
For he hath given the inhabitants of the land in your hand, and the land is subdued before the Lord and before his people.
Now this is a pretty encouraging time in David's life. We know that David did not always experience this rest, did he? But he had come to a point in his life where he could say where God could say that he had rest on every side. Now I shared this.
This scripture at Morningstar camp this year and.
A young person came up to me afterwards and he said, Phil, we didn't quite understand what you meant by David, that he had rest and that we can have rest. I asked the young people when I read this verse, I said, how many of you want rest from all your enemies? Of course, they all raised their hand, and only some of them understood what I was saying. I guess we're kind of like sheep, aren't we? And.
You know this.
Rest would be the constant, you might say harassment, of the power of the enemy in our lives. The enemy knows where our weaknesses are, and he chips away at our peace, and he chips it away at our ability to rise above the difficulties that are around us. We don't always know the value of the work of Christ. We don't always.
Where to find the strength and the power to rise above to temptations and the the power of sin in our lives and and so.
Sometimes as believers, we think, well, this life is nothing but a struggle. It's nothing but a struggle. And I guess I just have to accept the fact that it's always going to be a struggle. Well, for David, it wasn't. It wasn't always a struggle.
David had rest now. Where was where was Anna like? Where was an elect? It was still there. It was still there.
We, we, we, we read the verses that we wore with Amalek all our lives. And that's, that's true.
But the intensity of the battle.
Can be either heavy or because of the truths of deliverance and what is taking place at the cross. We might be able to not be such a target for the enemy all the time if we knew the power of death and resurrection, if we knew how to apply it, if we knew the wilderness of the Red Sea having they already passed through the Red Sea when they.
Into the wilderness.
And so as the more we understand how God has brought deliverance through the gospel.
And the gospel is not just how we got saved from going to hell, but it's a deliverance. It's a salvation that is complete. And so I would like to turn to one more scripture. And I realize we're taking up time, but there's no reason that we should not introduce this subject and already.
Find joy and hope. We may not know what the subject is about, but Scripture has already opened up to us.
And revealed itself as being having the power to deliver.
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Against the power of our enemies. So let's let's go to the last part of Romans. We just went through the last part of Romans in our Wednesday evening viral study.
And I noticed these verses and I want to share them with you because I think it's important.
Verse 29 says, And I am sure that when I am come unto you, the apostle Paul is speaking to the Romans. Here I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.
There's an indication here that the apostle Paul had not in the book of Romans, completely developed all of the good news that God has for the church, for the Roman believers. Let's turn over one more page in my Bible anyway to.
Verse 25 of the 16th chapter.
Now to him that is of power.
To establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began.
The Apostle Paul here seems to be kind of wedding the same thing.
Appetite for more?
And as I develop these truths as we go through this Roman series.
I want the Saints to realize that what we have in Romans is foundational. Truth is truth, which gets the roots established in the value of the work of Christ to bring about in our souls a deliverance.
From and rest from our enemies.
But the Apostle Paul has more than that. But what seems to be so?
Instructive to me is he didn't choose to lay it out.
In the book of Romans.
In other words, there's foundational truth. That's first.
And then there's truth regarding Christ in us, our relationship as the bride.
All spiritual blessings in heavenly places, those truths which we like to enjoy, don't we? We like to get together and speak of these truths, but sometimes I'm afraid we haven't taken up the foundational truth and then established in that first.
And so we get into the secrets and the mysteries, and we're still somehow connected to the first Man in our own souls.
And that doesn't work. We can't take Adam into the heavenly spiritual blessings. We need to have the deliverance in our souls, the enjoyment of having rest before God.
Not being harassed, as it were, by what the enemy was burning is whether it's the power of sin, whether it's whatever it may be in our lives, we need deliverance so that there is liberty and freedom. So I would like to present the fact that the book of Romans is the 1St letter.
Of the letters now, it wasn't written first.
But it is in the Scripture, It's at the very beginning of Paul's communications to the church, It's the 1St letter, and the 1St 8 chapters are the foundational truths of the gospel. Now there's a reason for that.
Placed it there because he wanted us to get a hold of that first.
He wanted us to realize what it was to be free and at liberty. Let's just turn over to John chapter 8 and then I'll go on. In the book of Romans, John chapter 8. This is only using this verse.
To the Lord Jesus may have had more in mind than the book of Romans when he said this to his disciples.
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Verse 32 of Romans of John chapter 8. John chapter 8, verse 32. And he said, And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Well, as I was growing up in my Christian experience, I look back and have to.
Question to some degree, how much of the foundational truths I received by those who were setting the truth before me.
How much were they concerned about me, about laying the foundation of the gospel first?
Because the tremendous struggle that I experienced in my Christian life in the 1St 2025 years of wanting to go on with the Lord seems to indicate that there was a problem with laying the foundation of the gospel and.
The Lord uses everything for His own His own purposes. I'm thankful for the struggles that I went through because in those struggles the Lord brought clarity to my soul.
As regard to the deliverance that has taken place at the cross, and so let's turn to Romans, Romans chapter one.
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle.
Separated unto the gospel of God.
What a wonderful thing it was for.
God to reveal the truth of the gospel. The gospel means good news, and we're going to find exactly what the gospel centers around. Let's go on verse 3 concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that all of God's good news.
Is because of.
And comes through the Lord Jesus Christ. You know God isn't looking for anything from what we are and Adam he tested that for 4000 years just to make sure that we understood that he wasn't going to find anything that would satisfy our delight his heart. I sometimes think about that you think about 4000 years is a long time.
But.
God in his wisdom made a way in which man cannot turn to him and say, you know what? If you just give me a chance, I could have proved to you that you could find fruit for me. But God tested him in every way, and the end of that test, the result of the end of the test, was the cross.
For man fully proved that he could not bear free.
For God and he crucified the Son of God.
That is the ultimate proof that man could not bear fruit for God and that God had to be done with man, and so in His plan and in His purpose, His purpose has always been to bring blessing through His Son Jesus Christ.
Verse four says declared to be the Son of God.
With power according to the spirit of holiness. By the resurrection from the dead well.
God has fully displayed his power. You know, I think of some of the things that we as.
Members of Adam's fallen race.
Have to.
Overcome.
The results of sin in our lives.
Sometimes for some it is a tremendous struggle.
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Some of these struggles, I don't know what they are. I don't know what it is to struggle with certain aspects of fallen creation.
But there are some who would ask the question.
Could I ever be delivered?
From this awful circumstance or condition that I find myself in myself and.
Well, if you want to know the answer, and only faith sometimes can can see from the Word of God that there is deliverance and there is power for every single circumstance of our experience as children of fallen atoms.
God displayed his power.
In.
Defeating the whole question of sin.
God was able to fully.
Vindicate His own glory and completely satisfy His own righteousness when it came to the question of sin. If God can do that for His own glory, then He has the power.
To meet us wherever we are in the circumstances of the struggles that we go through because we are children of fallen Adam.
So God here declared the Lord. Jesus is declared to be the Son of God with power. That power was manifest in the resurrection.
There is no display of greater power than the resurrection from the dead, considering the Lord Jesus was made sin on the cross.
So the circumstances of the Lord's death.
Display the power of God through resurrection.
The Lord Jesus rose from the dead.
With absolutely no connection with sin on his person, he was made sin.
But he had fully met the demands of sin, and God had won a complete victory over sin. And God's power is fully on display by the fact that he rose from the dead. But he didn't just rise from the dead.
Without displaying the spirit of holiness, it says according to the spirit of holiness. So what this in very short, what this speaks to me of is.
God didn't compromise who he was.
In in defeating the power of sin, when you and I stand before him as accepted in Christ, in in the condition of never changing righteousness.
God didn't do anything to compromise who he was in bringing me into that into that place of blessing. We we sometimes hear a song he came down to my level because I couldn't get up come up to his God did come down to our level in the person of the Lord Jesus being made becoming a man, but he did not come down to our level to compromise who he was in his holy.
Righteous character and he didn't compromise when it came to how he dealt with the question of sin, but he did bring us up.
To his his glory, didn't He? Without any compromise. It was according to the spirit of holiness that the resurrection took place. Never was there.
Any lowering of God's character.
And so God has displayed himself as a God of power.
In defeating the foes.
And so Paul goes on here.
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And and begins to.
Begins to do a little introduction by whom we we have received grace and apostleship. Now I just want to speak about the principle of grace because I thought as I was growing up, I thought I understood what grace was.
And yet.
I in in in my mind. Grace had to be connected in some way to what I brought to God. God could be gracious if I was willing to meet.
Some type of standard I had to please God in some way in order for God's grace to flow out.
That was the influence of the law in my life. I didn't know it, but as deliverance began to come more and more into my soul, I began to have more and more a sense of what grace is.
And grace.
Has to do with who God is.
We are in this place of blessing on the principle.
Of God having a heart of love not limited in His power, so that there would be nothing to hinder His mercy and His love flowing to me. Now in those statements that I just made, how much of that had to do with me?
None, nothing, nothing. And the sooner we realize that the blessing that we give in our Christian life has to do with who God is and not who I am, the more growth there will be, the more liberty for the Spirit to work, then just plain the more blessing will flow. And God.
Will be unhindered.
In ministering, you might say.
His love all around, but the less we understand of grace, the more of a hindrance we are to His working out, His blessing. And so we need to grow in grace.
That's a experience that God works as we realize less and less has to do with me, and more and more is what he has already done.
And so I just want to encourage you. The Apostle Paul understood this. He was the man that God met on the road to Damascus and he was going to persecute the Christians. He didn't deserve anything. Yes, he was well known as a man of the law, but the what did the law do? Well, it ended up that he was a persecutor of the church and so.
The Apostle Paul knew that all of this blessing that had come to him and the reason why God was using him as a vessel.
Is because of who God was.
And didn't have anything to do with what he brought to God. And so he said, by whom we have received grace and apostleship for the obedience of the faith among all nations for His name's sake. You know, the word obedience of the faith is mentioned twice in Romans. And it's just come home to my soul recently, what that really means to my soul.
It's at the end of the book, too, So it begins with the obedience of faith, and it ends with the obedience of faith.
And you know, it's necessary for us to obey the gospel, isn't it, if there isn't faith towards the Lord Jesus. And when we put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus, we're taking our faith and trust out of ourselves and putting it in the work which he has done.
So there's deliverance from the penalty of our sins by that, isn't there? Calling on the name of the Lord Jesus, saying he is the only way in which God can forgive my sins, what he has done on the cross. But if we want deliverance from the power of sin, we have to have the obedience of faith as well, because I have to be willing to obey the fact that there's nothing that I can bring in Adam in the first man to God.
For his approval or his blessing, I have to see myself as bankrupt, and I'm going to get everything from death and resurrection. I have to be willing to see the end of Adam in order for the blessings and deliverance of the gospel to come.
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And that is a lifelong experience sometimes.
Seeing what I am in the first manner of no value to God.
And so we begin to look at things different when obedience of faith has more to do with deliverance from the penalty of sin, but it begins to mean something in connection with the deliverance from the powers. And because as we go into Romans chapter 6.
But the end half of chapter 5, we see a definite change of God's blessing not flowing through Adam, but God's blessing flowing through Christ. There's a there's a a definite demarcation there where God says I can't bring any blessing through the 1St man. In fact, I never intended to.
It is only in and through the Lord Jesus and your association, your identification with Him.
That you are going to find deliverance from what the power of sin. And from halfway through five through 8, you get that subject developed about how we're delivered from the power of sin. But he takes us up in a new man in order to bring about that deliverance. And so this this verse here for the obedience to the faith.
You know the only blessing that can come to us in our daily, everyday reality of life.
Can only come as we walk by faith.
As only as these truths are made good in our practical life and.
We just have to be willing to bow to them.
We just have to be willing to say God is right.
I'm nothing.
Christ is everything and it's in His life that I'm going to find this liberty and this freedom. It says if you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Will this truth sets us free from what we are in connection with the 1St man. It just absolutely does. The truth will put such a distance.
Between US and Adam, and it will unite us.
In the blessing of being in Christ.
And this is where.
Our deliveries come straight.
Well, I've gone 45 minutes and that's about all of these parents with children can take. Is that correct?
Would you like 15 more minutes?
OK, because I really want to be conscious. You know, spouting truth doesn't do any good if nobody can pay pay attention to it. But I'd love to go on. And so it says. I love Paul's introduction where he he introduces himself, you might say, to the Romans I love.
I love the spirit of the Apostle Paul because the apostle because the Lord has brought me down somewhat.
Of the same road and I see a reflection of what he's done in my own life with the apostle. It says grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be Saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Now before we go into the doctrine of the Epistle.
We need to, we need to understand that we're in relationship.
OK, you can't have doctrine. You cannot benefit from doctrine if you are not in the enjoyment of your relationship. That is sometimes the problem when we take up ministry.
If by any stretch of the possibility, we are some somewhat under the.
In our growth or somewhere under the law, you know what the law does, The children of Israel, God was up on the mountain when the law was given and the children of Israel were down there and God says don't even touch the mountain.
That's what law does. It puts a distance between God and man. But there's no distance here. Paul understands the truth of what the cross of Christ has done for us, and he brings the Romans into relationship with God as Father. He begins the epistle this way. Now we just might think, well, this was just something he said.
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It was, but to my soul it's not.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. You know if we go through this epistle and the enjoyment of the relationship of knowing God as our Father, there will be blessing.
But if we go through the relationship, if we go through this epistle with any thoughts that I have to live up to some standard in order to please God, then this that to the to the degree in which that is true will be the to the degree in which the blessing is hindered. And so I realize we're all in a different place in our growth before the Lord. Every single one of us is in a different place.
And we are growing at the rate that God is able to take us along. And so some of the things that I that I bring out.
Probably won't sink in.
But.
I just want to share what God has given me so that He can use it whenever He chooses in your development to bring you into a nearer and an unhindered relationship with Himself.
And so it says first, I think my God, through Jesus Christ for you, all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Now the apostle Paul probably knew that they had needed this truth that he was going to develop before them and that in their growth they were maybe just very young in their growth, but the apostle Paul saw their faith.
And that is one of the most beautiful things as I travel about and I meet with people and I spend time with people.
So I see their face, you know, when you when you get delivered from.
These legal tendencies that I have to admit, we're all part of my life.
You know you don't look for flaws anymore. You look for faith. You see the reality of people's life in connection with their Lord and Savior.
And this is beautiful. The Apostle Paul here is setting an example. He could look at these Saints. He knew they needed to be developed in these truths. But he could look at he could look at them and he could say, your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. There had been evidence of their faith, and he wasn't concerned about their flaws. And you know what? It's true.
We're going to get into.
Tomorrow or tomorrow, we'll get into how the moralists take things up and they, they, the moralist puts it consultants, this elevated position and he becomes a judge and he's looking down and yeah, all he sees is flaws. But the apostle Paul, all he self faith. And that's that's a beautiful thing about being a Christian.
Is we have faith and we can recognize it in others. For God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers. That's something I wish I could do. I wish I did more, but prayer is just.
The apostle Paul having fellowship with with God. And who was he having fellowship with God about? He was having fellowship with God about the things, and he was seeking their blessings.
The presence of God's, you know, sometimes when I drive, the Lord just gives me time to just commit different ones. And I don't do it near the way I should because I know that there would be far more fruit and blessing if there was more of this. But it's a time to be in God's presence and just just lift up different ones.
For spiritual blessing.
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Making a request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you, well, I wanted, I want you Saints, to know your brethren here, and tell her to know that I've had the same desire for several years to come to you. But I wanted to come to you not in my time. I wanted to come to you in the Lord's time. And I feel like for some reason it's the Lord's time.
And he allowed me to be able to.
Come to be able to present these truths and to be able to enjoy your fellowship, to be able to see your faith and to be able to to as we're going to see here. It's not just one way for I long to see that I might impart into you some spiritual gift at the end. You might be established. That is that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. And so as the apostle Paul met with.
The Saints of God.
He wasn't just concerned about what he could bring to them. He wanted to be able to enter into what God was bringing them through, what they were enjoying. He wanted to see the developments in their lives and he wanted a blessing from them. And that's one of the wonderful things that that God has given me the privilege of as where I go, where I trust, wherever he leads me. But I'm getting to know the Saints.
I'm seeing Saints that I thought were different than they were, and I'm finding out there's lots of faith there. There's lots of what God is doing in molding them into the end of Christ. And it's a tremendous thing. But you know, the Apostle Paul, he wanted to come to the Romans that he might impart a spiritual gift. So he wanted to take the, the power, you might say, of his apostleship and turn it into.
Spiritual blessing.
For the assembly in Rome. But God had different intentions.
He hindered him from coming to Rome so that he might write the book of Romans. I've said this for those that have heard this before. You're hearing it again, but he had greater purposes even than the Apostle Paul could imagine. That instead of coming and imparting a spiritual gift and maybe being able to sit in their presence and being able to to unfold these truths.
He wrote the book of Armies so that.
Not only would the Romans be established, but you and I would be established. It would be a part of God's plan and bringing us into the value of the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And so aren't we glad sometimes when God changes our plans or when He hinders our plans?
Because he's got greater purposes even the Apostle Paul sometimes couldn't fathom.
The the way in which God was going to use him because he could only see what was in front of him. Now I I would have you would not have you ignorant rather than that often I purpose to come into you, but was hindered that I might have some fruit among you also as among other Gentiles. Well, you know.
This little time in my life where I have the privilege of going and I have the privilege of sharing my journey, that spiritual journey that the Lord has brought me through, and opening up these truths when I desperately needed them and making them good in such a way that possibly I could share them with others. But for what purpose?
So that God might have fruit. You know, fruit is something that is for the enjoyment of God's heart.
Fruit is something that only he can really value anyway. As we look at each other we might think something is one way and and it might look good but.
We don't have the ability to evaluate what is good and what is for blessing, but God is working in our lives for the purpose of producing that which He finds delighted now in the Lord Jesus was here.
Every.
Thing that the Lord Jesus did, he did bearing fruit to God. He God looked down. He had to open the windows of heaven several times and just declare this is my beloved son. I find so much delight in him. I can't believe the heavens closed. I have to open them and and share with the whole world what fruit I'm finding from him.
00:50:01
And so.
As we work together one with another, what should be our desire what the Spirit of God will produce a desire that there would be fruit in the lives of our fellow believers. And there's really no need to worry about what extent we we need to go if it if it takes. When I was in New York the first time I the first night I got up and up to New York and.
And it was the only place for me to sleep was in a restaurant that was going to be turned into a house. It had no heat and there was a real nice couch there. So I got to sleep on the couch in a house with no heat. And it's like, it doesn't matter. The grace of God just comes in and and I had a sleeping bag. I was plenty warm. It was not necessarily what I would want to do all the time, but it just doesn't matter.
There's Grace.
For impossible pulses, I've learned to both both be a base and I've learned to abound. When I go home, I abound. I don't need to be. I don't need to abound when I when I go elsewhere. So I don't care where I sleep. But what I do want, and this is a desire the Lord has worked in my heart as I went through forgot.
That's, that's just, that's the desire that he's placed there. And I just rejoiced to think that that's what he's doing. He's he's working.
For that which he is going to find the light in. And he's doing the work. So as much as I am debtor, both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise.
So it didn't matter to the apostle Paul where he was or who he was speaking to. You know, we don't need to hang around with those that make us look good. We can hang around with the unwise. We can hang around with the Barbarians, whatever that was. We can hang around with the wise. It just doesn't matter because whatever the Lord has given us, we're indebted to those around us. We owe.
You what?
God has given to us. We are debtors. And it's a it's, it's like, wow, what?
It, it, it's, it's, it's, it's amazing to be in debt to you because I've got such.
Wonderful message that I'm indebted to you for. It's what God has revealed, opened up and.
I just want to thank you for.
We'll start at verse 16, but I want to thank you for the opportunity to to pay this debt back.
Romans Pt2
Address—P. Jennings
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We can start our meeting tonight, basically #51 in the appendix.
What a gift the Father gave me. He still just trying to save poor ruined guilty man by sin. He fired. I'm done.
Wool. I was lost. I am lost.
In.
All the way, and we pray.
Till God and mercy.
And turn close.
Well, I only see maybe one individual here that wasn't here.
Earlier on, so we won't do a whole lot of.
Review but we.
We noticed that last meeting that the good news that God has for man is concerning his Son Jesus Christ and so.
We're going to be speaking tonight about the gospel, about salvation and.
We're going to see that there are varying aspects of this salvation and that it is a, it's a complete salvation and so.
God's plan.
Purpose to take us from that condition that we just sung about and which we're going to spend some time reviewing.
We're going to spend a little time looking in the rearview mirror tonight.
God wants us to look through the windshield. Most of the time He wants to see what is before us, but sometimes we need to take a look in the rearview mirror and see where we've been and who we were.
My desire.
For the Lord's people, and this has been an exercise for quite a few years, is that in the ministry that the Lord has given me concerning setting forth the truth of the gospel? It is my desire to show the Saints of God who they are.
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And we learn who we are.
In Romans.
We learn. We learn what we used to be if we've accepted the Lord Jesus as our Savior in the first three chapters of Romans, but then after that, God sets before us how he sees us.
And you and I have the right.
And are at liberty before God to live our lives understanding what we are in Christ and so.
God doesn't spend much time with the rearview mirror in front of us, but He does in the first three chapters of Romans and parts of the first three chapters only part of them. But before we get, you might say to what we were, let's just read a few verses as to this wonderful message.
Of the gospel, so we.
We really left off.
At verse 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew 1St and also to the Greek.
So we're reminded once again of this ministry that has been given to the apostle Paul and he had a very, very clear understanding of what this good news had brought his own soul before God into. He realized that the salvation that came through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ was a complete.
Salvation.
It was total deliverance.
And so.
He entered in at least as much as we can enter in. We know God enters into it so much more because he sees the value of the person and the value of that work far greater than we can. But he says.
What the Spirit of God has brought home to my soul about the gospel of Christ, there's no way I can be ashamed of it. And you know we might.
Be slow before our fellow man to witness about the gospel. We may be slow to tell our fellow neighbors and our work associates.
About their true condition before God and their need of a Savior. Sometimes we may shrink from identification with the name of the Lord Jesus, and that's a sad thing. It shows our weakness, and it also shows that we don't realize just what He had, what means to us. But the more we're brought into the value of this work, the more we taste of its.
Its deliverance, the left were ashamed of it. You know, I find it a joy to spend whatever time and opportunities the Lord gives me to set these truths. You know, there are those who preach the gospel, and I appreciate those who preach the gospel because they have a longing for the salvation of souls. But there are those that God has put in the body of.
To teach the gospel. And ever since I was in my 20s, it's been my desire to teach the gospel. And so thank you for coming tonight.
I realized that you could have had other things to do, but you've given me another opportunity to set the truths of the gospel before the Lord's people, and I trust that the effect of it will be through this series, whenever that is finished or takes place, that there will be.
A greater appreciation of the work of Christ and that there will be a sense of greater liberty and deliverance because of what we have brought out in this, in this these chapters in Romans. And so the apostle Paul, he wasn't ashamed of the gospel of Christ because it was the power of God now.
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You and I were in and we're going to see the condition that we were in. We were in a lost, ruined condition. We have illustrations in the gospel of those who were, they were paralyzed. They were lame. They they were, they were unable to do anything for themselves as far as their healing. And that was our condition in our sense.
We had no we were powerless.
Now some of us that were born and raised in a Christian home, we may not feel just how powerless we were, but we could never have remedied the condition of our fallen.
Position in as a children of that we could never remedy that but.
God had a plan.
And it was through.
A person and the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross where he could display his power in bringing about a salvation that not only would deliver us from the power from the from the penalty of our sins. That is what God required as to the payment.
For the offenses?
That a holy God.
Demands for sin we don't quite have a very good understanding of what it takes for him to be satisfied as to the question of sin. There has to be judgment, and then at the cross that judgment was fully.
Meted out God in all of his fury and all of His wrath. Laid stroke upon stroke of His judgment.
On his son as he demanded a price.
For our sentence, why we we just cannot even fathom what it took for his his his righteous demands to be satisfied. We can't even enter into it, but we know it happened because the Lord Jesus knew exactly what the Holy God would demand as to the question of sin and when it was through.
He was the first to say it is.
Finished. And so this left God with the power.
Of salvation, the ability to bring us into not only deliverance from the penalty of our sins, but salvation goes way, way farther than that. Often times when we preach the gospel, we only preach the aspect of deliverance from the penalty. We want souls to be saved, and we want them to be delivered from the consequences of.
Judgment. And so it is urgent to present that side of the gospel. But that is only, you might say, one aspect of salvation.
And so you have the deliverance from the penalty and you have the deliverance from the power. Deliverance from the power is a subject in in all in itself. Deliverance from the penalty takes us up to Romans 5, verse 12. Deliverance from the power takes us from verse 12 of Romans 5 on in through chapter 8.
And it's a beautiful, beautiful subject which I can't wait.
To be able to open up to you because that's the side of the gospel and the salvation and the deliverance that were so slow to understand. The reason why we're slow to understand is we get mixed up as to who the person is that brings the deliverance. We spend so much time in our own.
Fleshly attempts to try to deliver ourselves from the power of sin.
God never planned that city. And so we're going to see when we get into that portion of the of the deliverance, we're going to see that God immediately presents the person of the Lord Jesus.
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And he he sets Christ as the one who brings deliverance from the power of sin. I can't go into that. We also have deliverance from the law. So you know us by nature, we and you know, I'm when I, when I speak of and, and as we go through the book of Romans, I will be speaking about deliverance from the law, but I'm not pointing.
Anyone. There's a brother in our meeting that used to say if you point your finger at somebody, you have 3 pointing back at you. I know you've all heard it, but it's so very true that we all are going to take up a legal method to try to produce righteousness before God. That's our nature. I won't go into that, but please, I want everyone to understand.
That I'm not pointing any fingers when I present the truth of deliverance from law, because we all need it. You could take the.
Of the children of Israel. And God said, I want to bring you blessing. And the children of Israel said, OK, all that you say unto us, we will do. And they said it of 1 accord. Everybody said, you just tell us what to do, we'll do. So that is an indication that that's my heart, that's my tendency. And I think there's probably no one here that would put themselves in any different category. We are by nature.
Are legal.
So I just present this because I love you all. I have nothing to point at in connection with the truths of deliverance in the book of Romans. Therefore all of us and we all need them. And so I just make that point. So we get delivered from the law, then we get delivered from the flesh.
It's a interesting one, isn't it? So this is salvation. God in his, in his plan.
Has made it possible for us to be able to live out from underneath the.
Power of the flesh. Now, I'm not here to tell you that the flesh is burned out or we're dead to the flesh or any of that. Remember what I spoke of yesterday when I said.
That David had rest from all his enemies.
We too can know, at least in truth. We may not always be walking by faith in the enjoyment of the truth that is set before us, but God has provided a way for for we as Christians to be able to walk free from the demands or the the the the empowerment.
Of the flesh.
Ye are not in the flesh. That's what God says. And so when he says that then we want to learn how to begin our lives living in the enjoyment of the fact that we are not in the flesh. Well, the the the opposite of not being in the flesh you have in Romans 8 is being in the spirit.
And so that goes along with the salvation. We're not going to enjoy deliverance.
In our Christian lives, if we don't understand the working and the power of the Spirit of God.
We're not going to get out from underneath the demand the the desires of the flesh if we don't understand the presence and the power of the Spirit of God. Those things go together because the spirit is the energy for my new life. The flesh is the energy of what I wasn't at and so.
This is the gospel.
Brings me into the enjoyment of the deliverance from the flesh.
I get delivered from death.
Spirit of God. He's the same Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead.
And so there are other deliverances.
I've probably missed some, but we're going to enjoy it when the time comes and so.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ because it's deliverance from all of those things that I would never ever have gotten out from under the ******* of. I was enslaved.
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And as a Christian, in my experience, I spent a lot of time struggling to get out from under the influence of those things. It wasn't because the salvation hadn't already been accomplished.
It was that I didn't know how to use what had been accomplished. And so I'm going to give an illustration that may help with this. When I was in my career, I went to work for the school district and I, I walked into a shop. I come from a cabinet shop and I read a lot of cabinet magazines and saw the all the nice machinery that was out on the market and I walked into a cabinet shop.
At school, the school where I got my job, and it didn't really have much. And so I did the best I could for quite some time. And then I went to my boss and said if you want the product that you're asking for, you're going to need to get me equipment that is capable of producing that product. And so he sent me to a trade show, which is, you know, one of the neatest places for any of us to go to enjoy our craft. And I found the saw that I wanted.
It was a sliding table saw. It had a carriage that you put the some of you made. This may be old news and I'm sorry, but it had a carriage. You put the material on and you slid the carriage through the blade. You didn't, you didn't really mess too much with the material. You were kind of just pushing things a little bit and it had two blades. It had a big main blade and had a little scoring blade. So the material hit the scoring blade 1St and it scored the.
Side of the sheep and then the maiden blade came over and it completely cut the sheet and when you turn the sheet over there was no chips there was you could you could run veneer through it there was no splinters it was beautiful and and so we got this machine cost about $18,000 which is a lot of money for a table saw I thought anyway I didn't have to pay for it and so.
I got the machine, we set it up.
And I started using it and I thought, this thing is so high tech, I don't even know how to use it. And I had to call customer service to ask them how to make certain cuts. How do you use this saw because it was so different from what I was used to.
I use this illustration just to help us to understand that we have something in the gospel that is so wonderful.
Is such a full and complete deliverance that we're ignorant as to how it works.
And so we have to have divine instruction through the Holy Spirit to help us to understand actually what has happened through the death, burial and resurrection. We have to understand how we're associated to it. We have to understand how God sees us in our experience, in our feelings.
If we were left to what we think, we'll never understand the deliverance that comes because we'll always be measuring the truth.
By how we feel about it, or will always be measuring the truth by our experience and our experiences up. And it goes down and you stand up for a while and you fail and you fall down. But that's got nothing to do with the salvation that Paul was not ashamed of. It's got nothing to do with the salvation that is connected with God's power.
And So what we need is we need to have it, yes.
Doesn't help to have someone else come along with the Spirit of God has enlightened and it's become a reality in their lives for them to take up these scriptures and to open them up in such a way that the Spirit of God can then take them up in our lives, in our everyday practical experience, and we can understand this deliverance ourselves.
And so Paul found.
Joy, you know, it says in the Corinthians that, he said.
First Corinthians chapter 4. Let's just turn there real quick.
He said I have.
Verse 15. The end of verse 15. For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you.
Through the gospel in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel. It was almost as though the effort that the apostle Paul put in bringing up the children of God in Corinth was almost an experience of almost giving birth.
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And he had gone over the, I'm sure he had gone over these truths, unfortunately.
There were things that were hindering their growth and so they couldn't enter into the value of these things because they were putting things in the way and that's not what we want to do and so.
So we see the grace of God, don't we? In verse 16 it says to the Jew first.
And also to the Greek. And so God would would accept the fact that this nation had rejected him. And yet because of the value of the work of Christ, He would, as it were, give that nation the opportunity to come under the blessing of the gospel, to come under its fruit, and he would offer it to them first.
That we know that meant them accepting.
The Lord Jesus as their Messiah, falling under his authority, owning him as Lord and as a nation. They refused. And so it was to the Jew 1St, and it's also to the Greek. And tonight we can say by the grace of God, we all sit here in the enjoyment of the fact that there's been a work of God in our souls and we have accepted the Lord Jesus as our Lord.
And we have come unto the benefit of all of the work of Christ, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. And so the cross, the gospel, is the revelation of God's righteousness.
You know there was never a more right display.
On earth and the cross of Christ because God was dealing with sin.
And he dealt with it in the manner which satisfied who he is as a righteous God, and it didn't fall short.
It absolutely satisfied God's need to judge sin, and so you and I can rest.
Absolutely rest in the fact that God is completely satisfied in the question of sin, and how do you and I come into the blessing of it?
By faith on the principle of faith, I use the illustration of.
What was the first sin that took place in the Old Testament? What was the first sin in man's history?
It was.
Man not believing God.
So Adam and Eve, when God gave them instruction, they didn't believe God. They acted contrary to his instruction and God was dishonored. God must be believed. You know, if you and I are going to come into the blessing of the gospel, He has made it first of all for salvation, the salvation of our souls. We have to, we have to believe Him.
You know, it's a wonderful thing. Faith is a gift, isn't it?
Faith is a gift, and we've all received that gift. We've accepted the Lord Jesus as our Savior. We didn't come up with this faith on our own.
We were given a gift and that was what it took. To satisfy God in connection with the principle on which He's going to bring blessing to man is the very principle on which the 1St man rejected him and said, I don't believe you. Now we come into the blessing of this. This really we come into the blessing and the enjoyment of this salvation.
Every day on the principle of faith, so it's on. It's on the principle of faith to all those who exercise faith, so it says, revealed from faith to faith around the principle of faith. So let's understand the principle on which God brings blessing.
It's not my feelings. We've got to get out of measuring things by our feelings.
We have to take God's word for what it is and say.
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I believe it.
Simple faith brings so much blessing. If you and I are going to come into the full extent of the gospel, the deliverance we've been brought into, if the truth is going to set us free, as we brought out in from from John 8.
It says the just shall live by faith.
There's only one principle, taking God's word and believing it.
Even sometimes when we don't, we're having a hard time.
Just believe it because God says it and.
I believe that when we give God the glory of believing Him.
That He causes our faith to grow.
And you know, I don't want to say the Christian life gets easier.
Because it's not something I'm doing that's coming to my credit in some way, but once God proves himself to us and he continues to prove himself to us.
When you have a difficulty or a trial or a test, you just realize, look how faithful he's been in the past.
I can trust him for this one too.
And so although we're we're going from the doctrines to the practical side, I believe they always, they're always they, they always.
Are together we don't ever want to get doctrines at such a point we don't know how to apply it. And so God just wants to be believed, read his word through the guidance of the Spirit of God, come unto the understanding of it and then walk as though it is a reality. Walk as though it affects my life in every aspect and this deliverance, this salvation that Paul wasn't ashamed of will.
To make sense. It will begin to have an effect. It will change our lives. And I can honestly say that through all the struggle and the pain of years of being possibly under teaching, that wasn't very clear.
God, in His own way, has brought the truth of deliverance home to my soul.
And it's by his grace, but it's real. So he to the measure in which faith has been in operation has changed my life. And that's what I want for each of you. If you're struggling in some way, needing deliverance, needing to be set free, you know, one of the most difficult things to be set free from is the law.
Because the law puts demands on us.
And we, it makes obligation upon us and it says there won't be any blessing until you measure up to to that standard. And we by nature, we want to get there, but God says no.
You're in the energy of the first man. I don't work on those principles anymore. I don't bring blessing.
On that, on that basis, you're going to get everything because you're in Christ. And so maybe that was a little diversion. So we as we go into this chapter, what I'm going to do is I'm going to move quickly through the end of the rest of the first chapter. I'm going to move quickly through a trust through the 2nd chapter. I would like to get somewhere.
We only have 25 minutes, but let's talk about this.
God's wrath is revealed from heaven, verse 18, against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth and unrighteousness. Now I think there's different ways to interpret this verse and I only know in part. And so I might give you an interpretation that you don't agree with and that's that's OK.
But I just feel, I believe that God has revealed himself as we see in the rest of this chapter. He's revealed himself.
Through creation, He has shown His eternal power and Godhead.
In the creation that he made, if you want to use an illustration, you can go back to the fact that I spent.
A lot of my time building cabinets and let's say I got a job from one of the principals and I, I, I designed a set of cabinets to meet a certain need and I built it and I went and I installed it. And then I walked away and somebody came along and said, no, that's not evidence that there's a cabinet maker. There's not, that's not evidence that that.
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That there was a designer there's that's not in evidence that there was intelligent.
Involved in this no how that just happened that those those cabinets over millions of years just began to form and all of a sudden they became a complete set of cabinets and we would all laugh wouldn't we? And say that's ridiculous, but that's what man has done to God.
God has built an amazing creation in which all of these, not all of his glory, but an amazing amount of power has been put on display. And man says I know it in his heart, it says.
The for the invisible things in verse 20, because that which may be known of God in verse 19 is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them. So it's not a question of man not having been shown.
He has been shown to some extent in man's heart. He knows he's responsible to a creator. But.
He ends up turning away from that knowledge, and because he turns away from a God who has revealed himself.
In all of this glory, he also knows that that God has a certain character and that he is responsible to him, and the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. And maybe that was the flood.
Some have linked the flood to this. I don't, I don't try to link things that aren't there. But the wrath of God has been revealed because man has the knowledge and decided he doesn't want the knowledge and he lives his life contrary to what the knowledge gives him. And so God says I have nothing but wrath for you because I showed you.
And you wouldn't have made your living, contrary to what I showed you.
And so God's wrath is revealed. Now, if we were to go through the rest of this chapter, we would find that because man turned his back on the knowledge of God, God began to take man's knowledge away. And so man begins to because.
He has chosen to reject the knowledge of God.
Man's ability to discern good and evil begins to depart.
And he becomes reprobate, as we see at the end of this towards the end of this chapter. And I believe that means he doesn't have the ability to discern between good and evil. So the judgment on man for not giving him the place that he has proved himself to deserve is that God takes away his ability to judge between good and evil.
And he finds himself in a very, very.
Degraded state.
That is very present in the day in which we live. We all know what man's course, the way it has taken and the reason why it's taken this course is because man has turned to heathen. So the first chapter, the end of the chapter, deals with man, fallen man in the condition of rejecting the knowledge of God.
And becoming reprobate so that.
His life becomes completely immoral.
The second chapter takes up another class of Fallen.
Human race.
And that is the moralist.
So it begins. Therefore thou art inexcusable a man whomsoever without judges, or were in thou judges than other, thou condemns thyself for that. For thou that judges you do the same thing. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things and things.
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Thinkest thou this, O man that judges?
Them which do such things and do us the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God. And so here we have a class of people that's really different. So man doesn't always take the same form in his fallen condition. You might have a fallen creature, a child of Adam, who rejects the testimony of God.
Then you have.
A An individual in Adam's fallen race that chooses to live on a more elevated plane. And the more elevated a man gets, the more he likes to look down on others, and so he becomes a judge.
And.
There's only one problem. He's not the judge. God is the judge. And as soon as man takes this place of being a moralist elevated, he always, you know, to become a moralist you always have to use a certain standard because you're judging yourself by something, saying I am better than someone else and so.
He has the standard.
And he likes to think that he does pretty good with his standard, but God's looking at him and seeing that there is absolutely no difference in his true behavior between the one who's elevating himself and the one who is completely demoralized himself. In God's eyes, as a perfect judge, he sees no difference.
Now, what makes God angry in the sense in the case of the moralist? Let's go on verse 4.
Or despises thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. What makes God? What made God angry with the heathen? Because the heathen was presented with who God was, and he rejected the knowledge and the testimony of who God was. What makes God angry with the moralists?
The God is waiting patiently.
Lovingly.
To address the needs.
Of the morals.
But the moralist doesn't feel a need for patient, loving, long-suffering God who wants to bring forgiveness. And so God waits. And the moralist, he's too high and mighty to accept the fact that God has the remedy for his need. And so God is.
Filled with wrath because his long-suffering, his kindness.
Is forbearance his goodness? All the beautiful qualities of a God who loves man are being rejected by the morals. You know, that's kind of like.
We as Christians who don't want to really fully enter in to what grace is, if we like our standards and we like to think that we can live up to a little bit higher standard than other Christians, we're really despising the grace of God because God's looking at us saying you can't get, you can't, you can't enhance your relationship.
With me based upon your efforts in your fallen by in your, in your fleshly nature.
And so the believer who wants a higher standard so that he can maybe be a little bit more elevated really is acting in the same flesh as the unsaved moralist. He's acting in the energy of the flesh. He's trying to keep this standard, and he is living.
In a way, that's despising.
The grace of God now you and I have the privilege of living in the enjoyment and the power of not deserving anything but receiving it all because God is who he is. He has provided us everything we need. We he's even given us the power, the Spirit of God to be our power. And yet when we take up the law.
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We are actually saying I don't need that energy. I have my own, even as a believer.
And we're despising the grace of God. Now, if God doesn't take us up on the same ground he takes up, but this morals, we're already saved. We're not going to come under his wrath. But there's not going to be any growth and development in our lives if we're not fully in the enjoyment of the grace of God and we're not going to enjoy.
The fellowship of one another, either because there's all, all the time, there's these little squabbles.
And there's these little possibly there's these little areas in which we don't really have true fellowship with one another because we've we've put up barriers. Why? Because Grace hasn't taken them down.
And so I just want to encourage us that even though this is instruction about looking in the rearview mirror, sometimes we have to realize there's things in the rearview mirror that still exists because we haven't gotten deliverance from them and we're still kind of operating under the same principles that we were in our fallen.
Unsaved condition and so I bring these out because.
You know, we were never given the law, but it says in the end of this chapter or towards, not in the end, but in the middle of the chapter.
It says for when the Gentiles in verse 14, which have not the law due by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves. You know, we don't need the 10 commandments given to us from Mount Sinai for us to get under the principle of law. If we do the things contained in the law and we use that as a standard, then that's become a law to us.
And so we build these these standards and we start measuring and isn't, doesn't that sound familiar? Isn't that the moralist flesh in us that would use those principles for righteousness, even in a practical sense? I only say these things, brethren, because that's what I was guilty of. That's what that's what I will be guilty of if I'm not walking by faith in the enjoyment of the full deliverance that has come in the salvation that Paul isn't.
I know these things because I walked in them. I did not understand that these things were true but.
We don't need.
This type of regulation to.
Produce the fruit of the spirit and so I I share these things not because I want to you know, I always feel like.
It makes people feel bad. Well, just realize if, if, if, if these things are speaking to your heart, it's only because God had to show this to me and this was what was true.
And we just need to put distance as the Spirit brings these things to light, then we begin to leave them behind and they actually end up in the rear view mirror. And it's not part of what's before us as believers.
Living and enjoying walking in the spirit. And so I trust that I've made a little of this clear that we'll go on because we're going to talk about the.
Religious group here. So there was a class of people that God gave.
His. His.
Ordinances too. So he gave.
It says in chapter 3, verse one. What advantage then hath the Jew, or what prophet is there of circumcision? Much every way, chiefly because.
That unto them were committed the oracles of God. So God spelled out what He looked for in this class of.
The fallen. The fallen human race.
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God actually spelled it out and said this is what I'm looking for from you. What did that do to those who did not have life?
That's stirred up the flesh, causing pride. So when man gets the knowledge of God's.
Right and wrong, he begins to consider himself.
A very special class of people.
And.
Puts himself, it says.
Verse 17 Behold, thou art called a Jew, and resteth in the law, and maketh thy boast of God, and knows his will, and improveth his things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that thou thyself are to guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness. Now there's going to come a time when God is going.
To exalt.
This same class of people, he's going to give them the ability.
To be the blessers on the earth. That was really his desire in the beginning. But.
He couldn't do it to man under responsibility. He had to do it. He's going to have to do it on the very same ground that you and I received the blessing of God, and that's on the ground of faith and grace so that in the day to come, God is going to give them a new heart.
And He is going to bring them into that promised blessing because He has chosen that people to be the dispensers of blessing on this earth and yet in this condition.
They were not, they didn't have life. And so this knowledge of God, all it did was it puffed them up. It made them feel like they were special and they didn't give God the credit. They didn't follow the commandments that God had given them. They were not a light and a testimony for her. They did not represent God, which was his desire.
Is that God's desire was that he would impart this this knowledge of him to them and then they would go forth and they would display it in the world. But there was one problem.
They have a sinful nature. They were fallen and they did not have the ability to be obedient to God and obedience was required. Obedience was required. Obedience is still required, but we're under a completely different set of circumstances now. We have a nature that loves to do the will of God, and that's how you and I.
Can answer to the obedience that God requires. We have a desire to do the will of God.
We find joy as the Lord Jesus did when He walked in this world and we because we have been brought into this blessing, we really want to be a light and a testimony for Him. We really want, really want the light of the glory of God to shine in us so that it can be reflected to this world, so the world can see who God is.
And so yet.
Man in his fallen condition, and this is the third class that God sets forward.
This was, you almost might want to say that the privilege gets greater and greater as these these these classes of people are introduced and the Jew was the highest class of privilege and so they were the most responsible.
God's conclusion I know I'm skipping a lot, but what I'm doing is I'm giving an overview.
So we don't need to be concerned about the fact that I've missed quite a few verses. What we want is an understanding of God's ways so that we can.
In meetings to follow, we won't be looking in the rearview mirror, we'll be looking out the windshield, looking at the blessing that is in store for us, that it really, truly is ours as God's children. But.
The conclusion that has come to?
Is in verse 19 of chapter 3. Let's just let's just we'll just skip through we, we, we see that God draws a a conclusion about the condition of our condition as children of Adam and there's not one single thing that God can he can he can commit. It's all bad.
00:55:22
And so it's really important that you and I lay hold of the fact that if.
If we take up any aspect of what we were having.
We're dealing with something that's completely rotten that God has fully tested and has proven to be incapable of bearing any fruit for God. That's you and me by nature. And if we're going to live this Christian life and enjoy the deliverance and the salvation that has been run, it's going to be completely separate from what we were.
And.
But his conclusion is verse 19 Now we know that what things so ever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped in all the world, become guilty before God. It's interesting there were three classes of people.
But God just uses the last class because they were the most privileged class.
And if they failed, there's no hope for the other classes.
So.
God's conclusion is.
Now we know that the things so over the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
All the world may become guilty before God. So we've had 4000 years of the test and God has tested man with.
He's tested man with, with the, the, the evidence of creation. He's tested man with, I guess you could say his conscience with the moralist. He, he, he, he kind of lived according to his conscience.
And.
He's tested man by giving man his oracles. In other words, he told man everything he wanted to know, right? Wrong.
God's standard of righteousness, not the highest standard, but a sufficient standard of righteousness. The law of man failed to to answer to the requirements of the law, so the whole world becomes guilty.
And unfortunately, that's where we have to end our meeting tonight. But if there's any question, if there's any question that you and I want to take up, what's left?
Of what we are in Adam. This should answer it. We need a new identification. We cannot.
Enjoy the deliverance that God has wrought in the gospel if we in our souls are in any way looking for something.
That produces.
Something that God is looking for.
We need to close the book and so we can stop looking in the rearview mirror and we can start looking forward at God's plan of salvation. Sinners.
Than the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it's through him that God is going to find his satisfaction as to the, the, the, the the demands or sin. God is going to become, he has become completely satisfied as to his demands.
And then it only gets better for more because God says I'm going to put you in a position where I don't see you and Adam anymore. I see you in Christ and you have your identity in my eyes is going to change.
You are going to be seen in Christ.
Everything that I have tested in as as to what you are in Adam. I'm done with the test ended at the cross and for us, we just need to understand that from henceforth we're in Christ and we have totally it's it's a total new creation.
Isn't that wonderful to leave Adam at the foot of the cross?
01:00:04
Rise in minutes of life, go there ourselves in death. See, as I brought out the truth in Exodus chapter 13, God is not going to lead us by the way of the Philistines. By the way of the Philistines was religious flesh getting to the promised land and enjoying the privileges of the promised land.
God isn't leading us, by the way of the Philistines.
He's leading us through the wilderness of the Red Sea, death, resurrection and new association.
Peter's Denial
Address—D. Mearns
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Well, as I mentioned earlier, I'm in the book of Luke, my reading, but I want to turn back to the book of Mark.
This morning.
What I would like to do, with the Lord's help, is look.
That's the steps.
That led.
To Peter's denial.
And I'd like to look at that. It's a portion that we're well aware of. It's a, it's a.
I'm not going to bring anything new today, but I I just my hearts been touched by looking at it in marks possible it's different in marks gospel than is the others to work on us stay in mark but what I've really been impressed with is looking at these steps that led to his denial and how.
In his epistle he warns against each one of these steps.
That that's been fascinating to me. So let's look at Marks Gospel, the 14th chapter.
Where we'll pick up.
So.
And that's something we're going to pick up where?
Right after the remembrance back then, which is 26, and when they had sung at him, they went over to the mountain rolls so right after.
The Lord.
Cast those emblems to his own. We got this.
Jesus said unto them, All, Ye shall be offended because of me, solicited Mark 14 and 27. Jesus said unto them all, He shall be offended because of me this night, or is written now, So Micah shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. After that I am risen. I will go before you into Galilee.
And now we.
Pick up here.
Of Peter and I'd like to look at, look at these, these steps, as I said, the steps that led to his denial, his denial, and then to look just for a moment or two on his personal restoration. We usually look at his public restoration. That's usually what we look at in John's gospel, but I'd like to look at his personal restoration.
It's been touching to my own heart. So here we thought, here we take off on our subject now in verse 29. But Peter said on the end.
Although all shall be offended, yet will not die.
That's the first step that led to Peter's denial. What is it?
It's really the the most certain forerunner of any fall is self-confidence.
It's self-confidence and that's what we see here. We see here, although all shall be offended yet now you can just picture being there and Peter, you know, looking over the other to say, you know, Lord, I don't know about these guys. You certainly can't. You can't, you can't count on them. But me, you can count on me. There's no question. And that's the first step. Well, he writes about that. Let's turn to first Peter.
First Peter chapter one.
First year chapter one.
And.
323 being born again, not a corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And then he writes this imagine him writing this looking back in his own life to how he how he was so full of self-confidence and pens these words in verse 24 all flesh.
Is that grass?
All the glory of men as the flower of grass.
The grass withereth, the flower thereof falled away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. He heard the Lord forecast what was going to happen. It happened. He recognized in his own soul the confidence that he had that didn't matter about all the rest of these guys who were total failures, but Mount Peter. And now he writes.
That's why she's this grass. That's something to pick that up.
After what transpires?
00:05:01
That's gone down now in Mark's gospel. Mark's gospel.
Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, that this day, even this night before the **** grow twice. Brother, you're talking about stories. I've talked about chickens. Well, as far as I'm going to go with chickens, today is the cockroach here.
But the Lord says I.
This day, even this night before the cockroach twice that thou shalt deny me thrice.
Maybe I will turn over to Luke here with regards to this because I said I was going to stick in Mark's gospel maternal turnover to to Luke's gospel.
Where?
22.
And it's in relation to the Lord speaking with Peter and Luke 22.
Verse 31 The Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desire to have you, that he may sift you as weak, but I pray for thee not that he wouldn't fail, because the Lord knew he was going to fail. So I prayed for thee that thy faith fail not that when thou are converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Well, the Lord of those are framed. Those are the dust, what matters not.
You're talking about grains of **** This morning, Mark, I was thinking of the Lord Jesus speaking about green. It was of a mustard seed. And you said if you have green, it was a mustard seed. And it goes on there. And I wondered why a mustard seed? Why not a grain of sand or a piece of dust? But the Lord picked something that was alive. Alive, a mustard seed. Well, here he speaks.
Of praying that Peter's faith would not fail. And what's important in our own lives is not so much the amount of faith.
But what it's attached to at the other end, that's really what's critical is what it's attached to at the other end. So here in Marks Gospel, where we have the next.
The next step?
He warns Peter that the cock's going to grow twice, he's going to deny it 3, three times, and now Pure pipes up again.
But he spake the more vehemently verse 31.
If I should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any wise. Likewise also said they all he goes a step further. He has his self-confidence, but now there's proud boasting about it.
I've seen that in my own part. Now let's look over it at first Peter again, chapter one. And what do we see? Peter responds as he's ready to those strangers scattered, but also to our own hearts in that first chapter, first Peter one.
And.
What does he say here?
These early verses.
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God, blessed by God the Father. Inheritance, incorruptible. Verse four. But then he says verse five were kept.
The fire cells don't find anything. We have in ourselves kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time.
Marvelous to realize that that's the only way we're going to be kept. Is it kept by the power of God? I, I look at my own heart and I, I, I look at my own life's experience and having made every mistake that's possible to make in the book and recognize that there's any keeping in supply.
Or keep it. Look at Peter and imagine them writing this, having gone through these steps in his own life, kept by the power of God. Beautiful. Well, let's go on down now. Mark 14.
Keep your finger in there every time we turn back to first Peter, because we're going to come right back. So they come to a place which is named Gethsemane, he saith. His disciples sitting here while I pray.
They take it with him, Peter, James, and John, and began to be sore makes to be very heavy. He said unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death.
00:10:01
Tarry ye here and watch.
And he went forward.
A little unfelt on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might might pass from him. And he said, ABBA, Father, all things are possible unto thee. Take away this cup from me, nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt. And he cometh, and find them sleeping, and saith unto Simon Peter.
Speak us down.
Curse thou not, watch one hour. Watch and pray.
Lest he enter into temptation, the Spirit truly is ready, but the flesh.
Is weak and went away again, and prayed and speak the same words, and when he returned he found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. Neither was they one to answer him.
Well.
I understand that concept. The Spirit truly is.
Is willing, as Mr. Darby puts it, that the flesh is weak. Well, let's look back and see what Peter pens with regards to this. So again, go to first Peter.
And this, this next step towards his denial is unwatchable Ness.
That's what it is. So if we go to First Peter 4 again, imagine him writing these words in First Peter 4.
He speaks about giving an account in verse five to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. And for this cause shall the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God of the Spirit at the end of all things of this hand be therefore sober and.
In this interesting.
Imagine writing these words.
When the Lord Jesus has just said watch and pray. And now here he is years later, writing these very words.
Watch unto prayer.
To me, it's beautiful, and that's when we're speaking about repentance this morning. And when it's worked, it's perfect work.
It brings full restoration and he's able to speak about these very things. If there hadn't been, he wouldn't be able to think of him in the book of the app saying same to the that company. He had denied the Holy One and the jest. I think, are you kidding me? But that's because there was such full restoration of Peter after there had been full repentance.
Beautiful to see here, isn't it? He pens these very words.
Watch on. The prayer is what the Lord says, and now he writes that very thing to us.
Watch unto prayer above all things. Have fervent charity among yourselves. Well, back to Mark's Gospel.
And we'll carry on.
Verse 40 when he returned.
He found them asleep again, for their eyes very heavy, neither wished they what to answer Him. And he cometh the third time, and saith unto them, Sleep on thou, and take away your rest. It is enough. The hour has come. Behold, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hand of sinners. Rise up, let us go. Lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand.
Now we're going to the next time is in the 53rd and 54th verse. But let's let's read on these verses.
At verse 44, verse 43, immediately while he gets big comes Judas, one of the 12 with him a great multitude with swords and staves from the chief priests, the scribes and elders. And he that betrayed him had given them a token saying, Whosoever, I shall kiss that same as he, take him, lead him away safely.
And as soon as he had come, he goes straightway to him and said, master, master kissed him. And when they laid their hands on him and took him, one of them that stood by drew a sword. Well, we know who that was, don't we? And smoke the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear. Isn't that something? The Lord's last miracle was fixing Peter's mistake, his last miracle that we read of in the Gospels.
Typically, I don't think fishermen are good source men. I don't expect he was aiming at this man's ear.
We'll have to wait to get the full story on that one. I think we can guess, though, what he was aiming at. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Are you come out as against a thief with swords and staves to take me? I was dealing with him, the temple teaching King, and he took me. Not that the Scripture must be fulfilled. And they all forsook him and fled. And then you have this account of the young man that fled from the naked well.
00:15:22
Verse 53 They led Jesus away to the high priest.
And with him were assembled all the chief priests, elders and scribes.
And Peter followed him.
Far off.
Even unto the palace of the high Priest.
Following.
Afar off.
There's a.
This afternoon I anticipate taking up a subject.
A number of years ago I took it up, actually at Michigan Camp. I think you were there. You took up the subject of Amalek.
Interesting enough, the brethren in Brazil just a couple days ago says we wonder about Amalek. Could you talk to us about Amalek? Something to do this afternoon? But one of the things that's that's fascinating to me about animal, I guess it turned to Deuteronomy 25.
25th chapter.
It gives us really a picture of what transpired and what's transpiring here is.
In Peter's life, so Deuteronomy 25 and verse.
Verse 17 Remember what Amalek did unto thee, by the way, when you're come forth out of Egypt, how he met thee, by the way, and smote timeless.
Of the even though that were feeble behind me when thou faint and weary heared not God. Here's here's an elect approaching the people of God and those that are lagging behind those that are faint they're weary. We understand that concept just tired and it makes us follow. Yeah, we follow, but more like Peter maybe a far off.
And doesn't that open up the way for the enemy to come in and do his deadly work?
That's what Emily did here. Those that were lagging behind, that's, that's who he attacked. What we find here in in this portion.
Verse 54. Peter followed.
Far off.
And this is even unto the palace of the high priest. And he sat with the servants and warmed himself. You know, it's really a picture of what you can picture what Peters doing here. He falls far off, and when he gets there, here's this fire, and he sits down with those there.
It's an awkward situation for him. He's sitting in the circle.
Of those that hate the Lord Jesus with a passion, they hate him with a passion.
There is right in that company and his his behavior before that has LED into this. Sometimes we get ourselves into a situation and we don't know how we got there, where it's awkward and we we don't know how to get out there. He is warming himself.
At the fires of this world.
To me, one of the, one of the.
Perhaps one of the most vivid examples that we have in the Old Testament of somebody doing that is Lot.
Remember Lot he he chose the well watered flame after he and Abraham separated and we agreed that he pitched his tent towards Sodom. And then of course, there's another step. We find him, He's right in Sodom. And then we find there's another step and we find that he's sitting in the gate of Sodom.
I've appreciated that because who is it that brings up lot in his writings?
It's not James. It's not Matthew.
Peter, he's the one that touches in on law. He says how he was vexed with I think that that that Peter let's turn to that it's in I might need help to find that for a lot of us vexed with the.
00:20:02
The.
The second Peter 2.
Second Peter 2.
He speaks of in verse six turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes and condemning them with an overflow, making them an example into those that should live ungodly and delivered just lot.
We wouldn't pick up on that until we get to this portion that he was a just man.
Vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked, but that righteous man dwelling among men in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day-to-day with their unlawful deeds. I'm sure that was just exactly how Peter felt when he was right there.
Warming himself those fires and not being able to do anything about it. That word vexed remember when the disciples.
Turned with him, but it's in Mark's gospel, the 6th chapter when they're they're rolling across the the the water is when the Lord comes to them in the water and there's a storm and it's it says there they were toiling and roaring, toiling and roaring. That's the same Greek word as vexed.
Very same word as we have here. They were toiling and rowing and that's I'm sure what Peter felt when he was there. Just what am I doing here? But you know, he was there to save his own skin. It's really what he was there for. He just said to the Lord, you know, I'm going to die with you. But you know, this all LED up to, didn't it, what we have in the falling versus here in March 14th.
Verse 55. The chief priest.
And all the Council suffer witness against Jesus to put him to death.
Found none many beer pulse with us against him and witness agreed not to give him there arose certainly bear false witness against him, saying we heard him saying I'll destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands. But neither so did their witness agree together. The high priest stood up in the midst and so on and go on down that portion to verse 66.
Where we read.
Peter was beneath in the palace. There cometh one of the maids of the high priest, when she saw Peter warming himself. So here he is in that condition that we just spoke about.
She looked upon him, he said.
That also was with Jesus of Nazareth.
He denied saying I know not neither understand I without saith whenever it is a porch.
And the cop crew.
Whenever there's failure in our in our Christian pathway.
There are always warnings.
This is the second one the Lord had given in the morning that he shouldn't boast like that because he's going to deny that should have been a morning. That's the first one. Here's another one, the cock crows. He should have picked up on that. We don't believe he did.
It says he denied that 68 verse that we read. I know not neither understanding without say it that he went on a porch and a cock crew. There's that warning side and the maid saw him. The maid saw him again began to say to heaven stood by. This is one of them. He denied again.
A little while after, David stood by and said again to Peter, Surely thou art one of them, Thou art a Galilean. My speech agreeeth thereto. Now he really gets reckless.
He began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not this man of whom he speak.
I don't expect this is the first time he was cursing and swearing in his life. Spent some time down in Florida with the fishermen. That's something that characterizes them well. He really gets reckless here. He begins to curse and to swear.
And what happens here the second time the cock crows? Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said to him before the cockroach. Twice. Thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought there.
He worked.
It's a little more vividism than Luke's gospel flip over there. Luke 22.
Luke 22.
00:25:02
And verse 61.
And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter, And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him before the **** crow, Thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out, and.
Throughout bitterly imagine that look.
That the Lord gave Peter What was in that look, I don't know we'd be.
Be maybe stretching things if we could tell, but oh how it would have been an arrow into Peter's heart just to realize exactly as the Lord had spelled it out is what happened.
Well.
Somewhere in between this.
And the next, for a while, there was Peter's personal restoration.
What did that look like?
What did that look like? We know what is public restoration looks like. It's it's spelled out to us very vividly.
His personal restoration is, I think, camouflaged a bit, but we have it.
And I'd like to look turn it over to Mark's gospel.
You know which is where we are, but the the the last chapter.
We.
This is after the resurrection. Kate in the first chapter, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Slow me come.
Early in the morning.
And entered into the sepulchre in the 5th 1St Thy young man said unto them, You seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified. He is risen, He is not here. Behold the place where they laid him. But go your way, and tell his disciples. It's this phrase, this, this clause, and Peter.
I've so been impressed by how this would have been received for them to get to that room where they were and then have this message for the disciples. But then to isolate Peter and to say and the message Peter, there was a specific message for you and you could picture him.
In this you know what happened after he left.
Where he wept bitterly. Where did he go?
I don't know, there's sometimes I just want to be alone with the Lord. And in his case, he couldn't be. He just had to be alone. You know, he had a wife. Remember when I when I was single and I was.
Remember this last when I was single and I got into a bad state of soul, It was me and the Lord and my bad state of soul. When I got married, it was me and the Lord and my wife and my bad state of the world. After I got Melissa was born. You can go down the road. It was me and the Lord and my wife and my oldest child and my bad state of soul. After there was four of them, same thing, four children, my wife, the Lord and.
So we know he was married. We know that.
Where was he during that period of time? It's withheld for us. We can't.
It's it's conjecture if we try to say what happened, but in a certain sense.
We know where what we feel like when we're in that very similar situation.
The difference is, as far as Peter was concerned, yeah, all those disciples, they were all sad, but they hadn't done what Peter had. It was really upsetting to him. And to have this message, hotel disciples and Peter, oh, how I would have touched him, I don't know. But but turn over.
Turn over to.
Turn over to Corinthians so.
Where we will be find another statement that I think is.
Is really is really good?
In First Corinthians.
1St Corinthians 15.
So the apostles writing here to the Corinthians and he, he, he says in the third verse, the end of his Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried. He rose again according to the Scriptures.
A very day and rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And then it says that he was seen. But if we if we go down now to because he spells out who he was seen by and let's work backwards from the ninth verse he says.
00:30:08
He was seen of in the eighth verse rather he was seen of me also as one that was born in due time and we back up to the 70s. So you've seen it, Paul, but then you see at the end of that seventh verse of all the apostles and then earlier in that seven, first you've seen of James.
In the sixth verse we find there that he was seen of about 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained unto this present day summer fall asleep. The end of the fifth verse he was seen as the 12Th.
But in incredible that when the apostle Paul is right into the Corinthians, the first one that he mentions.
That saw the Lord was Peter.
And have to do that here. But I think it, it's, it's, it's spelled out this way. If we connect that with what we have in Luke's gospel and, and, and in Mark's gospel with the message and Peter, we realize it's really significant.
So again, what does that look like? What did that? What did that interchange look like?
Well, as I said, the details of it would be conjecture for us.
However, we know the way it happens in our own life. We do know that.
And I've really enjoyed, you know, was there.
Was there awkward sciences? Was there tears? Was there confession?
Was there hurt? Look with the Lord Was there?
A really guilty presentation with Peter. We don't know, but we know how we all how we all feel when we're in this situation that Peter's just been in and we really want to be back with the Lord. And communion is not like a tap. You just can't turn it on. There has to be, as we have this morning, that repentance that works in our in our lives, and we know it did.
What I really I think the only way we can we can put it is turn to saw the 23rd sauce.
Pointers on.
We have those wonderful words in chapter in verse three of Psalm 23.
To restore my soul.
You know, I know about that.
It's happened in my life a few times.
A few 100,000.
It's happened a lot. I was impressed by.
David Livingstone, missionary to Africa If you read his biography, there was a number of.
Of miracles that he saw he was spared by from the lions here there was a number of things and it was well known of some of the miracles that transpired his life. And he was on fertile when he went from Africa and he was in England and he was at A at a Bible convention there. And they asked him to speak.
And they said, you know, we'd like to hear from you.
The most wonderful experience that you have, We've heard there's lots of miracles. Can you tell us? Give us your best shot, give us the best thing that happened to you when you were over in in Africa.
To get up on the platform just like this and he said the best.
Thing that happened to me while I was in Africa and read this verse, he said he restoreth my soul. He went established.
It's beautiful, It's beautiful. I just enjoy that in connection with Peter's personal restoration that we don't know the details of how it looks, but we've seen it in our own lives and we know all this, that it happened. We do know that it happened and that it was a full restoration. Beautiful to see that. Well, our time has come to the end. You told me how long to speak so.
Maybe just read. Let's just.
Sing One, verse 46 in the appendix.
Somebody please start that.
#46 in the appendix Eat out of the object right in fear to feel unsatisfied. The heart I hope to meet here nevermore from the depart I may undistracted be to follow, serve, and wait for somebody to raise that for us.
00:35:13
See how they are.
My.
These two are.