That Which Was From the Beginning

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Address—C. Hendricks
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And all our rest and pleasure find in learning.
Lord of the Sing the whole hymn, someone raised the tomb.
We love and refrain.
With all right.
Swollen your face.
On Earth to fall.
Before I get to the main subject I have before me, I have 3 scriptures I want to read. First is in John chapter one, John's Gospel.
Chapter One.
And verse one in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shineth in darkness.
And the darkness comprehended it not.
And then Genesis chapter one.
And verse one.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light. And there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good.
And then the third portion is in first John, the first epistle of John.
Chapter One.
First John, chapter one and verse one.
That which was from the beginning which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes.
Which we have looked upon in our hands, have handled of the word of life, For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you.
That eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And these things right we unto you, that your joy may be full.
You've probably noticed that going back to John One. Now you've probably noticed that the same word occurred in all three passages, and that's the word beginning.
John One, we're going to talk about the Blessed Lord himself, and it's good to start this way because then we we start by knowing who he is. I know most of you know, but maybe there's someone that doesn't or doesn't have a full understanding of who he is.
In John one we have.
The eternal being of this person called the Word.
Of the Persons of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This person we often refer to him as the Second Person, is the only one that's called the word. Father isn't called the word, neither is the Spirit. But he's the Word, the Lord Jesus. He is the one who gives expression to who God is. He's the one whose words are the words of very of God. His name is called the Word of God.
Get that in the last book in the Bible, written by the same author that wrote this gospel.
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And the epistle that we read in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That's one of the most profound verses in all of Scripture. In the beginning was the Word states, a truth that he never had a beginning. In a in the beginning was the Word. He was there in the beginning of anything that had a beginning. That's Genesis One. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
But here was one who existed before anything started. It was only God.
And the Word was that's his eternal being in the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God his distinct personality, with God the Father and God the Spirit. He was one in the Trinity. He was with God his distinct personality. And the Word was God his proper deity. So you have his eternal being, his distinct personality, and his.
Proper deity that's brought before us in this tremendous verse of scripture.
So this beginning here, it's it's the fullest way of expressing that he never began. He never had a beginning, because he always was, even when something did begin.
And if you go to Genesis 1.
We have the beginning of creation in the beginning God, and that word for God is in the plural in the Hebrew. You don't see that in our English translation.
A plural subject and a singular verb. Created is in the singular. In the beginning, Godfather, Son, and Holy Spirit, the very first verse of Scripture, there's testimony to the fact that God is a plurality. And in the Hebrew tongue they have the singular that's one, the dual, that's two two hands, two arms, 2 legs, 2 feet, two ears, two eyes. The singular is used. The dual case is used for.
Two, only, not one, not more, but the plural has to be at least three.
And this is that word, the plural. And we know it is 3. When the Seraphim declared God's glory, they said, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. All three persons involved in the beginning, God in plural created the heavens and the earth.
The 33rd Psalm I believe it is. It says he commanded. He spake, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. He said, let there be, And there was this being, this infinite being, this inscrutable being, one that is for impossible for us to really grasp and understand. He spoke the world's into existence by faith. We understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that that which is seen was not made of that which appears.
Sometimes it's stated, and it's not quite right, that he created the universe and the world's out of nothing. Well, there was never nothing. There was always God. There was always God, and he spoke the worlds into existence. That's what we have in Genesis 1. And when he did that, John, one tells us that the Word was there. In fact, he was one of those that was active in the creation.
The New Testament.
Usually attributes the creation to the son to the person called the word.
But I believe that all three persons of the Godhead were involved in the creation, as they are involved in everything that God does. Who is God? He is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So everything that God does. Like take Luke 15 where you have the salvation of of a soul, you have the shepherd going out after the strange sheep. You have the woman searching for the lost coin shepherd, a picture of Christ, the woman searching for the lost coin, a picture of the Holy Spirit.
And then you have the Father receiving back the returning prodigal beautiful. You have the Trinity in that passage.
And we could go on and on, but that's not my purpose this afternoon.
So we have the beginning of creation in Genesis, one we have in John one the when anything that had a beginning began, the word was he never had a beginning. Now that brings us to 1St Epistle of John, which really brings before us more what I want to speak on this afternoon.
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We have a different expression.
In the first epistle of John, that which was from the beginning.
Which we have heard, John says.
Which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon.
And our hands have handled if they saw him, if they heard him, if they contemplated him, if their hands handled him. He had to be in this world. And so here this starts with the Incarnation.
It's John 114, which says the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
The first part of John One is his eternal being. And then the 14th verse brings before us that he became flesh. And that's where we start in the first epistle of John, that which was from the beginning, that expression from the beginning. It's a nice study. Read the the epistle of John, you'll see it. It occurs over and over and over again. It refers to Christ down here.
Christ down here, Christ in the flesh. Down here the Word became flesh, that which was from the beginning, the beginning of a new order of man down in this world.
Which we've heard.
It wasn't just a voice from some distance. No, they were in his presence.
They heard everything, he said.
They listened to him.
Which we've seen with our eyes.
He who was in the form of God, emptied himself of that, and took upon him the form of a servant.
And was found in likeness of men.
Tremendous truth.
They saw him, they heard him, They saw him with their eyes more than just song. Wasn't just a flash of light or something like that.
No, we've looked upon him now that the other translations is we contemplated him, we studied him there. He was one of us, but so different than we are.
And he came so close.
That their hands handled him.
It's beautiful that the only one that speaks of the Lord Jesus in the first chapter of John, now again that he was in the bosom of the Father.
He's the one that lay on Jesus puzzle.
He was that close to him.
Peter had to nudge John when the Lord said, one of you will betray me because Peter wasn't that close. Every one of us can be that close. It's open to all of us to get that close to the Blessed Lord.
There wasn't anything special about John, but he took what was available to all. He took that place and he lay on his bosom.
You heard his very heartbeat.
And he entered, probably, you might say, into his thoughts.
More than any of the others.
Our hands have handled him.
Hands have handled him. The great monarchs of the world are unapproachable. Remember the Book of Esther?
It had been stated that the Jews were to be put to death.
And Esther was a Jewish, Mordecai said to her. You have to go in and plead for your people.
And she says, you know, I can't enter the presence of the king unless he holds out to me the Golden Scepter. Otherwise it's death. She was the queen. She couldn't approach him without being bitten. That's how inaccessible man's great ones are. But here was the creator of the universe.
God overall blessed forever, came right to where we were so that they could touch him and handle him.
He was accessible, the most accessible of all men.
He never repelled anyone, except he was extremely severe with the Pharisees. Those proud, arrogant, self-righteous, disgusting Pharisees.
But he deals a lot with them.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee came to Jesus by night. You know he didn't want to be seen in the daytime, coming to the Lord Jesus.
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He learns the lesson, he says, Teacher, we know that where the teacher come from God, For no man can do the miracles that thou doest except God be with him.
So he came to him as a teacher to a teacher.
And he got taught.
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Can't see it, Can't enter it. You need an altogether new beginning. All your Pharisees and all your applause and the people around saying rabbi, rabbi and all this. That won't count for a straw with God. You need to have a new beginning.
So there was a man who came by night. He read of them a little bit later. I think it's in the 7th chapter and he speaks up to our law. Judge a man until you hear him and so on. And then later on he was there at the resurrection.
Deal with his body. He came out brightly for the Lord.
So he was a Pharisee. He didn't reject the Pharisees, but he spoke very seriously to them because they were hypocrites.
Did you know that you were born a hypocrite?
I was born a hypocrite. I think we're all born hypocrites. We're all born with high thoughts of ourselves.
Yes, you will have. You have that. Everyone of us has that.
The only one who who was the highest, He took the very lowest place.
And he's got to work with everyone of us to bring us down to the realization that was the trouble with Job. Hast thou considered my servant Job? The Lord said that to Satan a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and his chew with evil.
You'd say there's nothing wrong with Joe and you trace his life and the things that he did and that he was a remarkable man. He had in one chapter, I think it's in the 30th or so, he says. If I only had an audience, if I only had an audience with God, I could plead my cause and he would listen to me and he would justify me. Well, he got that. He got that wish later in the book. He had an audience with God. He was in the presence of God.
He says.
Now might I see a thee, Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent, and dust and ashes. You cannot be proud in the presence of God.
Let me say that again. You cannot be proud in the presence of God. The only time you're proud is when you're not in His presence and you start thinking highly of yourself when you get in His presence. You don't. You can't think highly of yourself.
His presence forbids that.
And that's what we all need. We need to get better acquainted with him.
Well, this.
The first chapter, first John brings brings before us.
But I have before me.
Where should we start?
Let's.
Let's look at Psalm 40.
Psalm 40.
Verse 6.
Sacrifice and offering.
It's not desire.
Nine ears hast thou opened, my margin reads.
The Hebrew means digged.
Prepared.
My ears hast thou digged?
Burnt offering and sin offering. Hast thou not required? Now that very verse is quoted in Hebrews 10. Please hold your place there in Psalm 40 and we're going to look at.
Where it occurs?
In.
Hebrews 10.
You won't recognize it when I read it.
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Verse 5.
Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, When he cometh into the world, this is his incarnation.
He saith, sacrifice and offering the wood is not.
But a body hast thou prepared me? Now that's the very verse we read in Psalm 40, verse 6. Sacrifice and offering. Thou didst not desire my nearing his ears. Hast thou opened or digged? Why so different?
In I think it was around 290 years before Christ.
There were 70, approximately 70 Hebrew scholars.
That translated the Old Testament into Greek.
That's called the Septuagint.
I was referring to at one time.
And reading a note of Miss Darby's translation and it it had LX, which is the Roman numeral number L is 50 and the X's are 10, so that's 506070. And I read it the Septuagint and they said how did you get the Septuagint out of LX? Well because seventy were involved in that translation from the Hebrew to the Greek.
And so that's called the Septuagint. I happen to have a copy of the Septuagint in my library, and they came across this as they were translating from the Hebrew into the Greek. I think they did it at Alexandria, Egypt.
Very learned men. They wanted to get their scriptures into the language of other people. That Greek was quite popular at that time. And they came to the sixth verse of Psalm 40, Sacrifice and offering. Thou didst not desire my ears, hast thou?
Opened or digged? Literally digged.
What does that mean? What does that mean? My ears hast thou did?
And they translated it. A body hast thou prepared me?
The only way I can explain why they translated it that way is that God the Spirit LED them to it.
And in Hebrews 10 when the writer of Hebrews, the Apostle Paul, I believe gives us that verse quoted from the Old Testament, where it says, Pioneers, hast thou digged?
It says in verse 5, Sacrifice and offering, thou wouldest not, but a body is, thou prepared me. So I looked that up in the in the Greek in Hebrews 10, and I looked it up in the Septuagint in Psalm 40, and they are identical. A body has thou prepared me that means that.
Those men were led of God to give the sense of my nearest Hessel dig.
Why is the ears so important?
We hit that in the seven churches. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
The hearing ear.
To hear the word of God, so important that you hear what God says, so a body hast Thou prepared me.
So when he became a man.
He entered his own creation, He became now a servant, and he had ears to hear what God was saying to him, everything that he did.
Was from God his Father.
Everything that he did and heard was from his father.
He's the word very expression of God.
And the body was prepared. His ears were digged.
To hear God's voice to Him. That's the incarnation.
When he became a man, he became a servant. He laid aside his glory, Philippians 2 Says. He, being in the form of God, thought it not something to be clasped and been held on to tenaciously, but he.
Emptied himself of that form of God.
And took upon him the form of his servant.
He was the greatest and he took the lowest place. And then it goes. On being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself still further.
That passage in Philippians 2 Says the mind was in Jesus. What was that mind? He was in the greatest place. He was in the form of God, He who was deity itself. He Who was that eternal word.
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He decided willingly. His mind was, I'll go.
I'll go into my own creation in order to save those that were created in the image and likeness of God.
Man is unique. Man is a special creation. That's never said of angels. They weren't created in the image and likeness of God. It's only said of man.
And so he became one.
He became the Word, became flesh. A body was prepared him.
That word prepared there is the same as in Hebrews 11, where it says.
By faith we understand that the world's were framed by the word of God.
In the room I'm in in this hotel has some pictures with A-frame around it. The frame is far more valuable than what's in between.
You don't even understand what it is. It's nonsense, modern art.
They had to put some nice picture in there. The frame would have enhanced it.
The world's were framed by the word of God. Well, that tells us right away that the world didn't come about as a result of an explosion. That's nonsense. That would be helter skelter everywhere.
That sounds like modern art, right?
No. Everything was in perfect order. Everything was in perfect order, framed by the word of God. That body was prepared, Him that was unique, that body, that precious body in which He bore our sins, it goes on to say.
It goes on to say verse 10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, Once for all He offered that body, that precious body, that holy body which had no taint of sin to it.
The very idea that the Lord could have sinned.
Is awful.
It's a denial of who he is. The one that would say such a thing doesn't really know him, know who he is. It was a special body prepared him of God, in which he did everything for the glory of God, and ultimately in his body he bore our sins on the tree.
My body hast thou prepared me, His ears were digged, and as soon as he entered that human body.
His ears were digged.
To it would they were tuned to the voice of God.
He never was intimidated. He was never flattered, I mean to any effect on him. He only heard the voice of his Father. You read the Gospel of John. Gospel of John is everything, he said. The Father had not left me long, for I do always those things that please him.
Is there anyone in this room that would dare to say that?
That you do always the things that please your father.
Children.
Would you dare to say you always do those things that please your parents? None of us do that because we have a sin nature. How could he who had no sin nature, who was the infinitely holy one? And yet who became a servant, emptying himself of that outward form of God, and took upon him the form of a servant? And when he did that, his ears were digged to hear the voice of God.
Remember what Philip said. Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Hast thou been so long time with me, Philip? And yet hast thou not knowing me?
He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father, I have been asked so many times, Will we ever see the Father? We'll be in the presence of that blessed man.
He became one of us so that we might be able to see God in human form.
When we see him, when we hear his words and see what he did, we are seeing the Father.
Like father, like son. The living expression of the Father, the Word.
The one who tells us what the Father is like and who he is, and he had those dig deers to hear the voice of God. Now turn to the Isaiah 50.
Isaiah 50.
Verse three It says, I clothed the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth. They're covering the Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, the instructed 1 The learner that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary awakeneth morning, by morning he awakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned the learner, the Lord God hath opened ears correct.
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The dig gear is more what you have in in that Psalm 40, but here we have the open deer. I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
He wakeneth morning. By morning he went out and rose up before the rest. And he was with his father in prayer, prayed all night in prayer to God before he chose the 12 apostles.
He was in constant fellowship with the Father. Constant fellowship.
Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please him.
None of us can keep and come close to that, even after we're saved.
That's the that's the the model that's set before us, but only he.
Did it perfectly.
The Lord God hath opened mine here.
He had an open deer. It's interesting in the Greek language.
The word disobedience and the word obedience are identical in one sense. They both have the word to hear.
But a disobedient one is one who hears alongside of that is if you're a child in the family and your father tells you to do something and you said you, you just take the attitude. But I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to do what you're telling me to do. So he's hearing alongside of what you're saying and he's rejecting what you're saying. That's disobedience in the Greek.
Obedience is to hear under in subjection to. Yes, Sir, I'll do it. I'll do it. That's the way the Lord heard. He always heard. And as a man he always heard in subjection to his father always.
Never, never could be anything else could he have sinned. The idea is monstrous, Absolutely monstrous. He always did the will of the Father. He always heard the direction from the Father. His ear was opened every morning to gather fresh instruction from his father. Those Dig Deers, that's the Incarnation. And now the Open deers is his life, his whole life down here.
To do the will of God.
What a person he was the one that clothed the heavens, as it says here, with blackness, and made sackcloth there covering the Lord. God hath given me the tongue of the instructed one, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary awakeneth morning by morning, awakeneth my ear to hear as to learn it. So obedience in scripture is to hear in subjection to what you're hearing. Disobedience is to hear and put yourself well. That's your idea. I have my idea. And mine's as good as yours. That's the that's disobedient.
That's disobedience.
He never heard that way.
He said in John 14, my father is greater than I. That's used by the Jehovah's Witnesses to show that he was not equal with God. No, it's all it shows is that he became a true man.
He became one that took the place of submission, he heard.
Under.
Not alongside of though he was in his deity. Now we're coming into the mystery of his person.
God and man in one person, you can't fathom that. I can't fathom that. But as man my Father's greater than I, as God, I and my Father are one.
They seem contradictory because.
There's a mystery. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
Justified in the spirit scene of angels preached under the Gentiles, believed down in the world and received up into glory. It starts with God becoming man. God was manifest in the flesh. It ends with man going up into the glory of God. There's a man in that glory now because the one who was in the form of God came down to where we are.
A special body prepared him.
His ears were digged to always hear and act upon the voice of God.
And here's their ears are opened. Every morning. He gathered fresh instruction from his father.
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Precious.
Precious Lord Jesus.
The Lord God hath given me, he says. The tongue of the learned.
In John in Luke 2.
About Loop 2, Loop 12.
He was. They took him.
I'm not giving you the right chapter, but he they took him to.
They went from Jerusalem and he stayed back and they finally found him in the midst of the doctors hearing them and asking them questions. And it says they were amazed at his understanding and answers.
He knew more than all his teachers there.
He learned from God.
He learned from the father.
He had more knowledge than all his teachers combined.
You always think, well yes, because he was God, but he learned in subjection to his Father's voice.
That's the way we're to learn.
That's a principle of obedience. Learn in subjection to what you're hearing, and I'm talking about what you're hearing from the word of God. Don't reason on the word of God.
When God speaks, we submit to it. When his Father spoke, it was his delight. I delight to do Thy will though I come, I delight to do Thy will.
Never delighted in anything else. Any suggestion to him by the enemy of his soul, which was Satan, of course, caused him grief and sorrow, and he rejected it immediately. Not only did he not sin, but he could not. It was an awful thing to him, even the very suggestion of it.
Do you know him so well that to to suggest that someone have done that he could have sinned that that is a direct attack upon the integrity of his person?
Do we really know? Not really.
If we think he could have.
And the Lord God hath opened mine ear. I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. Remember in the one instance in John he he he says, Father save me from this hour. He was looking at the the awfulness of what it would cost him to be made. Sin put our sins away in the garden, he says father, if it be possible, the only time that he expresses directly his will.
Somewhat independently of his father, he says if it be possible that this cup pass for me.
Then he says nevertheless, the perfect submission that was always is not my will.
But thine be done.
The cup which my father hath given me, shall I not drink it? Yes.
Yes, he drank it to the very dregs, but it was the most horrible thing to his soul, to an infinitely holy being. Think of it. Think of it. Here was this man in this prepared body, always hearing the voice of God every day.
Every morning. And his ears were digged to do that. And he went through this world such as you and I go through. He went through a world that's full of pride and hatred and deceit and trickery and all kinds of evil things. And he went through this. Remember, he said to his disciples on the way he was on the way to the cross. And he said, what? What were you talking among yourselves about? Well, they were arguing. Who's to be the greatest pride right away?
That's the last thing to die in, man, and everyone of us has it. Not a person in this room that isn't proud.
Everyone of us has it. He didn't have it at all.
And he had something to be proud about.
But once he took the place of a servant, once he entered his own creation and became one of us. Without sin, of course.
He always did.
The will of his father. My meat is to do the will of him that sacked me, to finish his work, that which sustained him here in this world, was to do the will of God.
That was the delight of his soul. Any suggestion that would be contrary to that was rejected with divine energy.
Do you know that person?
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That person. There's a man in this world that never did his own will. He always did the will of his father.
Not even close for any of us.
And we're to walk as he walked.
We're to be subject to this precious book as he was.
When Satan came up and tempted him, how did he answer? He didn't reason with him. He quoted Scripture to him. The very thing you and I can do. Fill your mind so with the word of God, that when the enemy comes, you can, you can refute it by the word of God. That's what he did.
Blessed men.
So he had to dig ears, the body prepared.
To do the will of God, he went out in prayer every day, every morning.
His ears were open to hear the.
Voice of his father.
And let's turn to Exodus 21.
Exodus 21.
Verse two says if thou buy in Hebrew servant.
Six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
We've often read this at the Lord's table and it's so precious and beautiful. Beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus.
If he came in by himself, he should go out by himself. If he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.
If his master have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out by himself.
And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master with the Lord, that would be his father, my wife, that would be his assembly, church, and my children, that would be all his children, all those that believe in him. I will not go out free.
Then his master shall bring him unto the judges.
He shall also bring him to the door or under the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an all.
And he shall serve him forever.
So he had the.
The dig dear his incarnation.
He had the opened ear. His life characterized his whole pathway.
And now he has the Pierce, dear.
To be a servant forever.
He didn't just do the work on the cross that we were celebrating this morning at his table, remembering him and his death and then go back.
Without.
Never would he do that.
His ear was pierced.
Bored his ear through with an awe.
And he shall serve him forever.
Serve him forever.
Always be a servant.
Not tremendous.
After he finished the work on the cross where he cried out, it is finished.
Now He's become our Advocate and our High Priest. High Priest with God and our Advocate with the Father to bring us through this wilderness. He doesn't just say now you're saved, now make your way through on your own. No, no.
No, he's there in a new way. As soon as he entered heaven he was saluted of God as an high priest after the order of Melchizedek. He's doing a new work now, but he's serving us to keep us in the path. And if one of us strays, have you ever noticed in first John 2 where it speaks of if any man's sin? We not he has an advocate with the Father, but we have an advocate. We always have an advocate with the Father. John 13 presents him to us. Is that remember? He watched their feet and he came to Peter.
Peter said thou shalt never wash my feet. And he said, if I wash thee not Peter, thou has no part with me.
Not in me, but with me. And then Peter says not my feet but my hands in my head. And he said no. He that is washed all over, that's the new birth, a new life, needs only to wash his feet. He's clean every wet. As we go through this scene, we pick up the habits of the world, we pick up the defilements of the world and we have to have him wash our feet.
So that he can have fellowship with us.
And we with him, that's what he wants.
That's what he wants.
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Is that what we want?
Is that what we want? Do we really want fellowship with him?
That's why He's given us his life and nature, and also his Holy Spirit indwells us so that we can have fellowship with him.
And he's serving us, serving us as our High Priest with God and as our advocate with the Father. The function of the high priest is to keep us going in the way. And if one of us fails in that, we have an advocate with the Father and he restores us.
Restores us so that he can have fellowship with us. We had that before us in our conference, and it's so important that the restoring grace, I think is just as wonderful as saving grace.
Saving grace, restoring grace of God.
David Livingstone was had come back from his one of his trips to Africa and he was being questioned at the in England. What was tell us your greatest experience when you were in Africa, wanted to hear something like an experience with a lion or some wild beast or something, he said. The greatest experience I had in Africa was he restoreth my soul.
Who restoreth my soul?
How many of us have needed that restoration of our soul?
We've all failed.
Is the only man that never did.
He's the only man upon whom the heavens were opened. This is my beloved Son, and whom I am well pleased. I found all my delight in him.
And then he's the one that when he took our place as the sin bearer.
Had to experience the unmitigated judgment of a holy God against sin.
The beginning of the Cross it was Father. Forgive them, for they know not what they do at the end of the cross. His Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit, but in between.
12 Noon The sun, the central witness in our creation of the Light Bearer, ceased to give its light, and it was dark.
And he was shut in alone with God.
He was denied the privilege during those three hours of saying father.
Instead, the only time he does see it, say it this way was my God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? It was God and all that. He is as God the judge, judging sin.
Wasn't the expression of communion or fellowship which his father.
But it was God, the judge, that he had to deal with. That's what caused him to sweat. Great drops of blood in the garden.
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass. But no, it wasn't possible.
He had to do that in order to save the likes of us.
The likes of us.
Turn to Luke 12.
Verse 34 where your treasure is.
There will your heart be also. Where's your treasure, young person? Where's my treasure?
What is it that I really value?
That's where your heart is.
What was the Lord's treasure?
To please him, please the father.
Always do his will.
Get his instructions.
And he did them, Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your lines be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord. When when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you Now notice this.
That he shall gird himself. Remember, in John 13 he girded himself and took the water in the in the towel, and he washed their feet. Now in the glory, now in the glory, he girds himself again, and he says, make them to sit down to meet.
And come forth and serve them, he came. He's going to serve us again.
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In that coming day, what's he going to service more of himself?
More of himself.
A servant forever.
Never cease to be a servant.
You get that in First Corinthians 15. We had that before us, the chapter. But I don't know if we spoke too much on this. I'll go over it again because it's so precious. 1St Corinthians 15.
Verse 24 says, then cometh the end.
The end of verse 23 is they that are Christ at his coming. That's the rapture. Then come at the end. This is now the end of the tribulation, the end of the millennial reign, when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed, his death, That's at the Great White Throne.
For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, All things are put under him, it is manifest that he is accepted. That's the Father which did put all things under him, and then all things shall be subdued unto him.
Then shall the Son, as man here also himself, be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, may be All in all.
But that second person I mentioned, the son, he's All in all with God, but he's still a servant as man in that body that was prepared him.
And he's come to come forth and serve us.
Can you fathom that?
Can we find a map?
I could speak on these things, but how feebly?
Do I understand them?
Oh, the love of God.
The love of that one that became one of us sin apart.
He was a perfect servant here.
The greatest work that he did as a servant was on the cross when he cried out. My God, my God, why is thou forsaken me? He's speaking. There is a man.
When he was in deity in the form of God, he never called the Father God because he was God.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, he wasn't his God until he became a man, 22nd Psalm says Thou art my God, even from my mother's belly. That's when he became his God.
But always the Father and the Son and the Spirit from all eternity they had no beginning. But His incarnation was a beginning of something new when He entered His own creation, that He might have you and Me.
In his presence forever, and he's going to serve us there.
These things are too wonderful.
For any of us, let's close by singing 124.
Jesus, the one who left the throne to save a ruined race. Thy love and loneliness still shine upon that glorious face. Jesus, the one who tried the earth.
The lowly subject 1. Obedience unto death was Thine God's well beloved Son Jesus. What memories?
Thrill our hearts of Thy blessed footprints here, while now to heaven our eyes we turn.
Gates upon the of our sing to hold him 124.
Before we pray.
The Lord chose 12 to be apostles.
And Peter?
They all heard everything he said and saw everything he did witnessed him.
And.
Were in his blessed presence.
Peter.
Was different, though, than Judas, you might say. Well, what's the difference? Peter denied him three times with oaths and curses. I never knew the man. Don't know the man.
And Judas betrayed him.
What's the difference? It was infinite. The difference was infinite.
They all knew all about him. They heard his words, saw what he did.
But Peter knew him.
Judith did not.
Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, AM?
Some say they are John the Baptist of Jeremiah, one of the prophets, Elijah one of the prophets, whom say ye that I am. And Peter said, Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.
He knew who he was.
And the Lord said, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my father.
Which is in heaven. He knew him.
He had some pride, like we all do, and he had to have. He had to be humbled, so he was allowed. The Lord told him he would do it. He would deny him three times.
That Judas.
Didn't know him.
He knew about him.