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In John 17 I was thinking of verse 11 unless someone has another thought.
John 17.
Verse 11.
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee.
Holy Father, keep thru Thy own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are.
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I have kept.
And none of them is lost but the son of Perdition.
That the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world.
Even as I am not of the world, I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.
As thou hast sent me into the world, Even so have I also sent them into the world.
And for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word.
That they all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in US.
That the world may believe that Thou hast sent me, and the glory which Thou gave us, me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one, I and them, and Thou and me, that they may be made perfect in one.
And that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.
Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which Thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them.
And I in them.
Just a very brief comment on an expression in the 10th verse before we go on. He says in the 10th verse, and all mine are thine and thine are mine. And we spoke in previous reading meetings of the fact that we have been given by the Father to the Son. But you know, if I were to give you something this morning, I would relinquish ownership of that. It would, you wouldn't be able to say, I wouldn't be able to say that it's still mine now it's yours and you have possession.
Isn't it wonderful, brethren, that while we have indeed been given, as we have said, as a love gift by the Father to the Son, yet he hasn't relinquished us either? He belongs to both. God is still our Father, He's our Father. The Lord Jesus Christ is ours as well. We belong to both.
Those we've had before. The Lord Jesus was about to return home.
The Father's house.
And could speak of it as a fact already.
When he says I am not of the world and no more in the world.
His time here in the world had come to an end. He had finished the work that he had been given to do. And so his burden, his prayer was for those who would still be in the world, his disciples and later on ourselves, that would believe through their word. And so he's making requests of the Father now in connection with that fact that he was returning. So he says.
Holy Father, keep.
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And it's important to see why he introduces it. It's not just Father Keith, but Holy Father Keith, because that tells us the character in which he wants them to be kept.
In holiness we have the exhortation be holy, for I am holy. And so he says here, keep through thine own name. It was. The name is what a person is. It represents or identifies what they are. And he was speaking to one who was Holy Father.
He says that they may be one, as we are one He here on this earth.
Walked in perfect consistency.
With the God what God is as light and as love. And so they having been brought into the family and having the life of the family, he wants them to walk in that family character of holiness and love that they may have fellowship with him as we have in first John one. And so he tells them he asks the father keep them.
In that way that they might be one with them, the Father and the Son.
I think we understand that in natural families. I'm sure it's been your case as it's mine. Sometimes I've seen a younger person and I look at them and just by their physical characteristics, I say I don't know what that person's name is, but I know what family they come from and you can see the family character in them. I'm speaking in a physical way, but sometimes the very manner of speech.
The very way that person speaks or presents themselves immediately reminds you of a specific family. And uh, so it is for us in this world. The Lord Jesus desires that the moment we speak, the moment we act, we it, it should become clear what family we belong to, who our Father is.
And, uh, it's a challenge that it be so, but there should be that oneness of kind and character that is seen in the family to which we belong.
When he speaks in verse 25, he says righteous Father because there is in connection with the world.
World has not known thee, but here like you say, it's Holy Father because it's in connection with.
Us, whom he has set apart for himself.
And we don't understand that sometimes. And so we do not walk in holiness of life practically.
But that is the position that every believer is in before God is in a position of complete holiness. So here he says keep them.
Uh, so we need to be kept in that sense of that we have been set apart for God. I don't know how we can make it more understandable, but I enjoyed a an illustration that Gordon Hagel gave a number of years ago. He says, I go to a grocery store and I get a cart and as I go down the aisles of the store, I pull off a box of cereal.
And a can of beans and different things. And you say, what are you doing? Says I am separating this, I have a purpose for it. And then when you get up to the front, you pay for it. And you take those things and you take them home for the purposes that you had in mind. When God saved us, he had a specific purpose and he separated us.
From this world for that purpose, and it really helps to understand that that's what holiness means. He set us apart for him for his own purposes. One of the purposes that is mentioned here in this verse is so beautiful is that they may be one as we are. You know, between the Father and the Son there was always.
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Oneness of purpose, and now we are brought into God's purposes.
And how important it is for us to understand that we live in a day when it's sometimes called man's world.
Man's day and people do what they like to do and they don't appreciate anybody else. Then you're wrong. That's not the right way to go. I have my rights. I'll do my own thing. Oh how we need to get into the Lord's presence and realize that when He saved us.
He saved us with a specific purpose in mind. He has set us apart for Himself. We are sanctified and in a positional sanctification our sanctification is complete. It is, It is completely holy. But there is that practical side of things where it says in Second Corinthians Chapter 7.
Perfecting holiness in the sight of God. And so in the measure that you and I understand that.
We would walk in that holiness of life.
We need to be kept with that sense in our souls, what He has chosen us for every one of us. Not just the certain ones, every one of us. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, doesn't matter how new you may be, He has a specific purpose in mind for each one of us.
And so his desire here in this prayer was that these things would be manifested in his own, in a practical way, in his absence. Because it is as far as our standing. That doesn't change. We are a sanctified people. We're seen in all the perfection of Christ as he is, so are we in this world. But here he's praying then that this would be practically manifested in the life of the disciples.
And that's why we mentioned in another meeting that he has made full provision for this to be carried out in the chapters before. He's given them the resources, the coming of the Spirit of God, His word and all these things, and then himself praying for his own every hour of every day so that there might be that practical holiness and sanctification. Because what really makes us fit for service here in this world?
Is to walk in holiness and practical sanctification. In Second Timothy, when he takes up the need for practical sanctification and separation from evil, What is the result of separating from evil and walking in practical holiness? He'll be a vessel sanctified. But he doesn't stop there. And meet for the master's use. And prepared unto every good work.
And that's what the Lord's desire really was for his own, as he anticipated leaving them.
He was going to leave them here so that they might glorify him in this world.
How are they going to be able to do it? They must, there must be practical holiness and sanctification if they were going to be useful vessels, if they were going to reflect something of himself in their lives. And so I, I believe as he goes down this list of things that he prays specifically for them. Now, it's intensely practical, brethren, and we need to take these things to heart.
How beautiful this is and to realize that in our own strength, we'll quickly say we can do none of this, can we? But I was thinking about the the blessed truth of being with Christ and specifically for those of us who were here, we're looking for the rapture. We're looking for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I would just like to read the 1St 3 verses of first John chapter 3 familiar to us and perhaps good for us to be reminded again here.
Verse One. There first John 3. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God, Therefore the world knoweth us not.
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Because it knew him not beloved. And now are we the sons of God? And it does not yet appear.
What we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see him as he is, and everyone that has this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. And so we're looking for that blessed hope, and I believe that our enjoyment of the eminent return of Christ for those of us who are here.
Is the thing that will separate us from this world our enjoyment of his love and I think we see that uh brought out here as the Lord says and just to go ahead for a minute I look at that 24th verse of our chapter where the the Lord Jesus. This is truly the Lord's prayer. The 17th chapter of John Father, I well that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may.
That they may be holding My glory, which Thou give has given me, for Thou loves me before the foundation of the world.
Well, I just enjoy those applications of these.
Presses versus.
Beginning with this 11Th verse, we have specific.
Specific request that the Lord makes to the Father. And I think it's significant that the first of these various things with regard to the disciples is that they may be kept in oneness.
This is the very thing that we have failed in.
Look what it says there in that 11Th verse. Holy Father, keep in.
Thine own name, those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are.
So it's the the thought of oneness of of.
Purpose and aim and thought that he would have his people to be together on the earth in the time of his absence.
And it's in relation to the Father as a Holy Father.
Because all unity must have as its source or foundation holiness.
But this is what we have failed in, haven't we?
As the world looks at the church.
The children of God today, what is the what is the church? What do they see in a divided state and so we have to be humbled by this, but nevertheless, the Lord doesn't take up that side of things in the prayer you probably noticed that he does not bring in.
Failure on the part of his disciples. He's praying as a priest that we might not fail and so that's tide of things is not here before US1 more thing too. Let's not Passover those little words that you find in the chapter as notice the oneness that he would have us to be found in is as we are the as the father and the son are that we have divine standard, the divine standard for unity.
16 They are not of the world, even as there it is, as I am not of the world. And so here we have a divine standard again with regard to separation, as the Lord Jesus was not part of this world, yet He walked in it. He would have us to be in the same standard as He had, and walked and lived by and passed on to verse 18 As there's that word again, as thou hast sent me into the world.
Even so, I have also sent them into the world, and so we have the divine standard for service.
Same way in which he was sent into this world, he would send us.
To his will, the will of his Father. One more I think you pass on to verse 23.
That the world may know that thou hast sent me.
And has loved me.
As there's a divine standard again, as thou hast loved me, Isn't that beautiful?
You'd have the world to know.
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That the Father loves us just as much as he loves his own son.
So it's beautiful to see that, I think. But what heads the list of all these specific requests is that he would have his people walking together in practical unity and oneness of thought and aim and purpose. And this oneness that we're Speaking of now is not the oneness of the body. John's writings don't bring up the the body of Christ. That's specifically Paul's line of things here. It's the oneness of life in the family.
But nevertheless, we should be one.
This is what we feel then, brethren.
Just like to add a comment on the.
The fact that it is a priestly prayer and certain sight of it isn't exactly brought out, although it's true.
How many prayers in the Bible?
Have you in them?
Specifically.
This one does.
Where we are so far in the chapter is the disciples specifically. But in verse 20 he says neither pray I for these alone, but for them which shall believe on me. You and I are among that number.
And so, brethren, it's a it's a wonderful thing here to read in our God's Word a prayer.
The effect of which the purpose of which is taking place today in this room. This isn't simply a prayer that was spoken as it was nearly 2000 years ago. God has never forgotten it.
The requests that are made here that concern you and I in this room.
Are on the heart of God today and there is fresh to his heart as they were when they were spoken on this earth at that time and so it's an encouragement to our hearts as we read it to recognize that as we say God answers prayer. Here's a prayer concerning us that the Lord Jesus.
The sun made and God is answering it.
Still and into this room this day.
It's good to see you in that side, not only in that which would exercise us and that which would make us realize our responsibilities and so on, but to see God's side of it and the Lord Jesus side of it as well.
And so his desires for his own on this occasion are the same desires that he still has for his own.
And as you brought out, he still, and we've brought out many times in these meetings, he's still praying for us that we might be preserved. Now it is true, brethren, that we are all going to be kept to the end in the sense that we're all going to make it safe to glory. And Peter talks in his epistle about those who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
There's no doubt, I trust in any of our minds here who know the Lord Jesus, that He's going to bring us safely through and keep us and preserve us to the end. But brethren, His desire in the meantime is that we would be kept for His glory and as a testimony here in this world until that time when we're taken safely home. And that's really what His high priestly work, His office as a high priest is for, isn't it?
It's that you and I might be preserved the resources there. And if you and I are willing to to avail ourselves of that resource that we have in Christ as our high priest, we will be preserved. In fact, in the measure in which we avail ourselves of the one who's praying for us at the right hand of God this morning, in that measure, we will be preserved. So we are going to be kept to the end. But he desires in a practical way that we would be kept day by day.
Step by step along the road. I I just want to notice before we pass on to he speaks of the son of perdition here of verse 12, the middle of the verse I have He speaks of having kept his own and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition that the Scripture might be fulfilled. You know, so often we read about Judas and it's given to us as a solemn warning, isn't it?
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And justice before we pass on, if there's someone here sitting in these meetings and you don't know the Lord Jesus as your savior, it's a very serious thing. You know, Judas, he walked with the Lord Jesus and the other disciples during the Lords public ministry. He heard all the same things. He saw the miracles. He was part of that circle that was closest to the Lord Jesus as he walked in this world and it never affected his heart.
In the end he betrayed the Lord Jesus and he went out and hanged himself, and he went to his own place.
And the Lord Jesus never treated Judas in a way that would was any different than the other disciples. He treated him the same way. In fact, when they came to the table at the supper, the disciples even doubted who the betrayer was. You'd think, well, some of them would have thought maybe the Lord had said something that would give him away. Judas had made a slip. Judas was so careful in his cover up that he never made a slip. The Lord Jesus was so solicitous toward Judas and never treated him any different.
To give him away until he exposed him at the table. What a solemn thing for Judas, but it is a solemn thing for any here. If you don't know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, and you've been brought up in a Christian home, brought up under the influences of coming to the meetings, what a serious thing here was this one. And he was going to be lost, and he is lost for all eternity.
Just add one word to that, dear brother, uh, that I think is so solemn. The words of the Lord Jesus himself.
Speaking of Judas, it would be better for that man that he had never been born.
Never been born, but we do have fellowship one with another as we read in first John one, and I think of a little hymn. We go to meet the Savior, his glorious face, to see what manner of behavior does with this hope agree. And So what joy it is as we together enjoy the thought of hearing that shout.
And that that has its purified effect, I say again in our lives.
The last act of the Lord Jesus that signaled who He was speaking about was an act of favor. He gave him the thought it was a special act of favor and it did not move that man's heart. That's our hearts by nature, brother, No different.
There are two people in the scriptures that are called the son of Perdition.
Judas Iscariot and the other one is a man who may be alive in the world today, the Antichrist solemn to think about it.
It's wonderful.
To see in the next verse 13 that little expression of desire of the Lord Jesus, that they may have my joy.
Fulfilled in themselves. We've had joy or happiness before us in these meetings later on, there's something else that was his own that he had enjoyed in his own life that he wanted us to have as well.
In resurrection he speaks of my peace, but here it's my joy. What a wonderful desire of the heart of our Lord, that that same character of joy.
Through which in which he lived.
Would be in US as well.
I'd like to refer to a couple of verses in the Old Testament that from my own heart, bring something of what made that joy in Him.
And if we were to have it with him or share it in our lives would be true of us as well.
And some think it's Psalm 16.
Or 17 just I'll see it in a minute.
Psalm 16.
And verse 11, I'm going to read it, Mr. Darby's translation that will make known to me the path of life.
Thy countenance.
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His fullness of joy. Thy countenance is fullness of joy. Now over in Psalm 40.
Psalm 40.
And verse 8.
Read verse 7 to just show that it's prophetic of the Lord Jesus. Then said, I lo, I come in the volume of the book, it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God, Yeah, Thy law is within my heart.
I don't know how you got up this morning and what were the 1St.
Thoughts and activities of your day but I.
Believe you can at least visualize with me going back when the Lord Jesus got up in the morning.
I believe the first attention of his soul.
Was to see and wait before the Father, to have before him the countenance of the Father. It's an expression of fellowship that existed uninterrupted between the Father and the Son and brethren. It's a place of joy to the soul to behold the countenance for us. We behold our Lord Jesus by faith.
And as we look upon him by faith.
We see a countenance that produces joy in the soul, and then connected with it is.
I delight to do thy will, Oh my God.
His life was a perfect life of dependence and obedience.
And he found the joy of his life in the obedience of the Father's will. That was his joy.
To have and to do the will of His Father. We have a nature within us which is self willed. It's the very opposite liberty.
To man means to do his own thing without restraint by anyone else but God, by His grace is given to us a life.
Which delights in doing the Father's will.
That life of Christ that is within us finds its joy.
In obedience.
Not in self will and.
Consequently, if we are going to have that joy, His joy will be found in that path, in that way of life in which the Father's will is the delight of our hearts, and it's lived out in the fellowship with Himself, in that character of life and love.
And He finds his joy in his people too, doesn't he? And when there is that faithfulness and desire in His people, his joy then is fulfilled in that. In that sense, we often think of our joy in the Lord, and certainly there's that aspect. But do we always think of His joy in US? In fact, I suggest that that's really the thought in Nehemiah, that the 8th chapter where it says the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Not so much the joy of the people, of their joy in the Lord, but the joy of the Lord.
What was it that was going to give them strength to go on in a difficult day? It was to realize that He had a joy in looking down and seeing His people and their desire, albeit in much weakness and against all kinds of odds and difficulties. But His joy in seeing His people pressing on for His glory and according to His word at a difficult time, that brought joy to the heart of God. And Nehemiah says, if you can just get a sense of that joy that he has.
In seeing you and delighting in you and what you're seeking by grace to do, that's going to give you strength to go on. Just back up in our portion here in John here to the 15th chapter. You get the expression, my joy again in chapter 15 and verse 11. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you.
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And that your joy might be full. And so here we have the two things.
He said if you go on in the truth of what I am giving, I'm speaking to you of and there's that love amongst.
The people, my own in my absence, if there's a seeking to go on in unity and displaying those characteristics of the Father and the Son and glorifying me on the earth in a happy Christian or a happy group of believers in my absence and so on, he said. I'm going to find great joy in that. That's my joy.
Now he says, as a result, your joy will be full. And so, as I say, there is our portion too. But I believe what, brethren, what's really going to give us the courage and the strength to go on? And what is going to establish our joy is, first of all, to move beyond ourselves, which is so difficult for us, but to move beyond ourselves, our own joy, and to see His joy, His delight in US, His joy, His delight in any faithfulness He sees on the part of His people.
That then is going to fill our joy as well.
And we should remember that that's the character of the life that we have now, like Don was bringing out. It is not to think so much of our thought is to think of his thoughts about us. And that will bring knowing that his countenance is towards this. And I really have pondered over that expression. In John 114 it says the word was made flesh.
And we beheld His glory, the glory as of an only begotten with the Father. It was the sense that here was a man that lived in the constant countenance of his Father's love that was his joy. And now you and I have that life, dear young people, but we're living in a world that tells you just the opposite.
Do your own thing. Don't let anybody tell you what to do. Why is that voice there? Because there's an enemy that wants to rob you of true joy. Don't let it happen. You, if you are a real believer in the Lord Jesus, have a life that and a nature that is.
Delights in the will of God and wants to know his countenance towards us.
Uh, brethren out at the prison camp.
The men like to sing It's not an easy Rd. It's not an easy road and I I find objection to it because if the Lord Jesus is my shepherd, if I'm walking with him, if he's my shepherd, what a blessed Rd. we're on. We're on the road that leads to happiness. But the dear men that can sing that song is not an easy Rd. The devil hasn't has gotten still a hold of them and they're walking in that path that.
They would like to be free of it, but they haven't committed themselves to the Lord.
The Lord Jesus is our shepherd and will take care of us and lead us all the way in happiness, but we can't have the world and have the Savior too.
Well, another characteristic of those that are His own is that He's given them His Word. So we have that in verse 14. I have given them Thy word. Isn't it a wonderful thing? He didn't leave the disciples without instruction. He had spoken much to them as to the resources that they were going to have in His absence as to how they could utilize those resources.
And how they could live for His glory after He had left them and gone back to heaven.
And brethren, we have His word as well, but are we really taking heed to it? Do we read it? You know, I wanna just make a practical comment in this regard because sometimes I have talked to young people and sometimes those who are not so young, and they say, well, I want to know how I can please the Lord. I want to know how I can live for God's glory. I want to know what the Lord has for me in this world. But you talk to them after a while, you realize.
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They're not reading the Word, you know. The disciples were exhorted to listen to the words that the Lord was speaking to them.
Earlier in these chapters, they weren't going to understand it all at the time.
The day was coming when the Spirit of God would be given, and it would be made good to them, but they were to.
Listen to it because it was his instructions for them.
In what was ahead. And brethren, we've been given everything we need right here in this book. We have His word as well now, are we? Have we taken heed to it? Are we reading it? Are we seeking to walk in the good of it that we might walk in practical holiness and sanctification?
We have a little word on the distinction. In verse 14 I have given them thy word, and back in verse 8, for I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me. Perhaps we can have some help on that important distinction.
You raised the question. We're going to listen to your answer. I don't learn anything. If you hear the little I have, you tell us what you've gotten first, brother, and then we won't add to it or correct it as the case may be. We, uh, understand words are those specific perhaps commandments and directions that we receive from the Lord? And we do have those specific details often given to us, but doesn't the word, I think the note is it's divine communications, but the word isn't that.
Bring us to a larger thought. It's the Word of God in testimony, the word of Philadelphia. Zealous kept my word.
And has not denied my name. I haven't thought of it this way. Sometimes we want a specific command, if you will, a specific.
Response to a specific question. But the larger thought is here. He's given us His Word that would bring us into fellowship with His mind and His thoughts, and that for one that is walking in communion with the Lord and embracing His, uh, His Word.
As a whole, there'll be much guidance for us. And so under the law, of course, there was very specific commandments given thou shalt XY and Z, and those things were very direct. And we do have those expectations in the New Testament as well. But the larger thought of the word is to bring us in fellowship with His mind and His heart. And as we're in fellowship with Him as it relates to His Word, that there's many things that we don't have a specific verse of Scripture for a specific commandment.
But it's nice that we do have His word in a larger scale and scope to give us fellowship with His mind, and that not every decision in life, not every matter that comes before us, is there a direct word of Scripture that tells us what to do.
But when we do have his word, and in fellowship and communion with his mind, we have that gentle understanding of what is honoring to him.
Connection with the way you express that there's a verse specifically to that thought in umm John chapter 8.
And verse 43.
John chapter 8 and verse 43 says why do you not understand my speech?
Even because you cannot hear my word.
That is, He was talking to some people who had no commonness with God. There was no fellowship in them, there was no life in them. So when the Lord Jesus spoke His words to them, His speech to them, they didn't understand it at all. His mind, His thoughts were not being received by them because they had a will in opposition to Himself and consequently.
They heard the words that he spoke. They had ears that entered into their ears. The vocabulary was not a vocabulary that they were unused to or that they couldn't, uh, take in. As far as individual words are concerned, that was his speech. But he says you don't understand my word. They did not get the message of what he was saying to them. They did not enter into his thought or into his mind.
And it's been commented by some that we enter into the word and then the meaning of the words becomes evident. That is, we learn the thoughts of God communicated to us by the Spirit in such a way that the actual letters, the words.
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Take on their meaning for us. And so in spiritual things, it's the opposite.
If it's in natural things, you don't know what a word is. You go to a dictionary and you look up the word and you say, oh, now I know what it means. But in spiritual things you can't do that. It's not that you might not use a dictionary to understand the speech, but the true communication of the mind of God to us, even though words are used for it, it has to come by the power of the Spirit of God that acts upon us.
So that we can in our souls say this is of God to me.
You see that illustrated in Daniel chapter 5, don't you, Don? When those words were written by God over against the Candlestick, that ungodly king, King Belshazzar, it wasn't that he didn't understand what the words were. They were in his own language, but he didn't get the message. But when Daniel, a man of God, came in, he could put those words together in a spiritual sense, and he got the message of what God was communicating.
And so I was thinking too of an illustration that perhaps helps what's been said. Heard about problem in a locality some years ago. And after a rather lengthy brothers meeting, a younger brother turned to an older brother. And he said, and brother, what step will you be taking in this matter? And the older brother looked at him and he very wisely said, he said, brother, I hope that when the time comes.
To take a step in this matter, I am walking in close enough communion to the Lord that I know what step to take. And so there are many things that's been said that perhaps we don't have a specific command. They are only discerned in nearness to the Lord. They are only discerned in the measure in which we walk in communion with the Lord. And if we are, then maybe we can't say this is a specific scripture. This is a specific command.
But we take that step because we take it hand in hand, in the conscious sense of fellowship with himself.
A little bit concerned that some of what's being said might be too complicated or over the heads of some of us that are younger, so I'd like to go in a different direction for a moment and specifically address younger ones here.
Umm, I have the privilege a couple of times a week of visiting with juveniles in the detention center and I often ask them, I said, what do you do when you talk to God?
What do you call it? And they immediately say and they can understand quickly. They oh, that's called prayer.
The next question is, well, how does God talk to you?
How does God talk to you? I said there are different ways in which God can speak, but how is he talking to you? They have on the desk in front of them the New Testament at that moment in time. And I say that is the very important way that God is presently choosing to talk to us young people, all of us, don't simply open what's on your lap at this moment and say this is a Bible.
And this has words in it.
Try to open it and say God is now going to speak to me and I want to listen to what he has to say. We need to recognize that this is not just a book as men speak of books, but it is the word of the living God. It is that word which in Genesis one he said, let there be light and there was light. That's the power of God speaking.
When you open this book, it's not just a book, it's God speaking to us with the same power that he was using when he said let there be light and there was light. And we want to respond to it as God has spoken. And it's a tremendous thing whether all that was said the last few minutes.
Seem too technical or whatever.
That's not open it up and let God speak and listen. It's God speaking to you. Personally, I love the way, uh, we read and umm, the 17th chapter of Acts and there we read starting with the 11Th verse. The one thing that was so significant there was to see the word readiness of mind. Let's just read that for a minute and, uh.
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That's Acts 17, verse 11, and I love the practical way it's brought before us here, that it might be that which is real, that which we might make our own, that's which we might be very part of us. But these were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they receive the word with all readiness of mind and search the Scriptures, whether those things were sold and the thought here of that readiness of mind. What is my.
Attitude when I come to the Word of God. The power of the Word of God.
The word by which he made the world's his powerful word.
There is no exception to that. It's the unerring word of God that we.
Hold in our hand, beloved brethren, and may it have.
That effect upon us as we read it, that here we find the truth, we don't have anything such a thing as opinions, man's opinion, and I may add this, this is not God's opinion. Someone once said to me, you know, the real definition of the word opinion is it's a judgment or belief based upon insufficient evidence to give certainty, but there is nothing about the word of God.
That is such as that. It is the final word, It is the only word God hath spoken, and how good it is, if my attitude is to melt before His word, to bow to His Word, and there I'll learn the secret, even in this life of a happy life, you cannot neglect the word of God and prosper. It cannot be, and it it needs to be taken not so much as a duty.
But as the delight of the heart, that's what we need to cultivate. So I don't have much desire to read the word. Read it anyhow, even though it's just 5 minutes a day. But pick up the book. You know, I travel around and ask people if they're reading the scriptures. Oh, sometimes.
You just sometimes eat a meal.
Or do you eat on a regular basis? You know, we take care of our bodies better than we take care of our souls. How much time does it take to read a chapter? I've calculated the number of times 5 or 6 minutes you can read through a chapter.
Take time, it takes decision. I really believe that there is an effort of the enemy to keep us away from the book. I notice it in the morning when I get up so often, one thing and another, a phone call, and I always forget about this and I've got to do it.
One thing at another end, the Word of God gets put to one side. Don't let that happen. Make it a habit of your life, the joyful habit of giving the book open before you and reading it, and not in a hurry.
Let God speak to you in the reading of His precious Word. Sometimes I have to read it over several times until I get what the Lord may be saying to me. Oh, how important that is.
Those on the way to Damascus in Acts Chapter 9, Speaking of the Word and the life for us.
Paul, of course, or Saul, of course. It really wasn't with the attitude that.
He would read the scriptures to get.
Something from the Lord, as he was going there to persecute the Lord on the way to Damascus.
And in verse five the Lord appears to him.
Well in verse four he says Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou may. And then in verse five, who are you, so to speak? Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus.
I am Jesus.
Now go down to verse seven. There were some with him, and the men which journeyed with him stood speechless. They heard a voice.
Saying no, ma'am, Well, we can read the scriptures like that and hear a voice and not see the man and it won't make much sense to us. It just doesn't come alive. But this is the word of God that tells us about a person and that's what brings it alive to our souls.
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Verse in Isaiah.
Just to go along with the the expectations that we've heard with regard to reading the word Isaiah.
342016 Seek ye out the book of the Lord, and read. Seek ye out the book of the Lord, and read.
Christian who does not read the scriptures daily.
Will be a Christian that will not grow. It's as simple as that. So we need to seek out the book of the Lord and read. Read it with attention. Read it carefully and prayerfully. Read it with the Spirit of Mary sitting at Jesus feet and receiving his word. If you take it up as a task, it'll be like a task. We need to read it as if we're living with a friend.
Read it as a message from the Lord to you. Then it becomes real.
And a delight to your soul. You know, Don was speaking earlier about some of the things that made the Lord Jesus.
A happy and blessed man I could add to that one. That is in Psalm 1.
He's there, the blessed man. And what does blessed mean? It means to be happy. And what is it that delights the heart of the man in Psalm One? He delights in the word of the Lord. And so I believe from that Scripture that the Lord Jesus, uh, drank in and delighted in the Scriptures, the word of God, and that was a source of his joy. And we need that too. It's going to give us the power and purpose in our life to, to live the Christian life. And so seek ye out the book of the Lord.
Ann Reed.
I'd like to add one more thought on it from Deuteronomy chapter 8.
There's the children of Israel and they're just about to enter the land, and the Lord is reviewing with them the 40 years they spent in the wilderness.
And explaining to them some of the reasons why he did what he did.
And uh, one of the reasons is quite connected with the Word of God. He says to them in chapter 8 and verse 2.
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God LED thee these 40 years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, and to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or no. And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with the Manna which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know that He might make thee know that. And now here's the point, that I want that He might make thee know that man does not live by bread alone.
But by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.
The new life that we have in Christ feeds on the Word. We're going to have physical food at lunch time for our physical bodies, but right now God is giving us spiritual food to feed the life that He has given to us. And when we get home to glory, we are going to continue to feed upon Himself.
By his word, and it's as it says here, man shall not live by bread alone. The children of Israel, why did the Lord allow hunger in their lives in cases? Because they thought they could live by bread alone. And they thought, you know, we don't really like the manna type. We'd rather have something like we had in Egypt. And they wanted to feed on that kind of food. And the Lord said, you know, you did, you tried.
And I made you hungry. I allowed you to have a hunger. And if you are in this room this morning and you have a hunger, it may be from God because you're seeking your food from some other source than from Himself. And He purposefully has allowed you to have the hunger that is in your soul, that no physical food will satisfy, no pleasure of man will satisfy.
But only himself by his word can bring about the satisfaction that the soul needs. And so he presents that you see it in the temptation of the Lord Jesus. He had been purposefully of God allowed to be without food for 40 days. He's taken into the wilderness and the first temptation presented to him is here's food.
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Won't you? Or I should say here, you're God. You're the Son of God. Give yourself some food.
The temptation of Satan. The intent of the temptation was to take the Lord Jesus out of the dependent place of a man and exercise his Godhead power, and then he would have no longer been in the place that man should be in as a as before God.
But the point that the Lord Jesus answers him from these words is, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And so he would not act even in necessary food without the word. And brethren, it's God's pattern for us as well. We need the food, I almost want to say.
To add to what Bruce said and take it one more step.
You not only won't grow, but you'll starve.
You'll starve. You'll go into a condition of starvation if you do not feed on the word of God.
So if we could summarize now the difference between word and words and make it simple. Perhaps overly simple, but sometimes it's helpful to just get it in its kernel. Uh, His word is the general import of the mind of God.
Words are the specific details of the mind of God. And as Jim was saying, we may not always have a specific scripture, uh, as according to the words for something, but we always have the word, the general import of God's mind. An example of that would be in James chapter 4 and verse 65. It says, do you think that the Scripture saith in vain the spirit that dwelleth in US lusteth to envy?
He's not quoting a specific scripture here, but he's saying the scripture as a general import.
Where would you ever find in the Bible, somewhere where the Spirit of God would encourage someone to lust, to envy? That's what he's saying. It's not a specific quote from the Old Testament somewhere or in the New Testament that James is referring. He's using. He's Speaking of the Word and it's general import.
So that might be an example of that.
We sing 22 in the appendix.
Hymn #22 in the appendix.
The Holy.
One and.
From our hearts in the confines.