Toledo Conference: 1987
Table of Contents
The Digged, Opened, Pierced Ear
Address—Chuck Hendricks
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.
To introduce my subject this afternoon by reading 3 scriptures starting with John one John's Gospel chapter one.
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 light, and the life was the light of men, and the light shineth in darkness.
And the darkness comprehended it not.
And then in Genesis 1.
Genesis chapter one.
Verse one.
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void in 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 then the First Epistle of John chapter one.
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 rightly unto you, that your joy may be full.
You've noticed in the reading of these three passages of Scripture there are three beginnings mentioned.
And I just want to make a brief comment upon each before going into my subject.
In John's Gospel, we have in the beginning was the Word.
And the Word was with God. And the Word was God in that one sublime sentence.
We have most profound truth brought before us in the beginning was the word brings before us.
The eternal being of our Lord Jesus Christ here called the Word.
The word being that which gives expression to the very mind of God.
God the Father and God the Spirit are not called in Scripture the Word, but here the Son, the eternal Son of the Father. He's given that title, the Word, the one who expresses who and what God is.
In the beginning was the Word, His eternal Being.
And the Word was with God his distinct personality. He was with God the Father distinct from him, and yet he himself a divine person, the next expression and the Word was God, his proper deity. So in that one sentence we have the eternal being and the distinct personality and the proper deity.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ, the person called the Word.
His name is Paul, the word of God.
If we want to know anything about God, it can only be known.
In its blessed fulness, in the person of Him who is the Word, he came to reveal the Father.
He came to tell us what God is. Like the 18th verse of our chapter one of John. No man has seen God at anytime. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, the hiding place of love, the source of ineffable joy and delights.
He was there in the bosom of the Father, From all eternity he hath declared him.
00:05:05
The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
Oh, do you want to know who God is? Do you want to know something about God? Who is he? What is he like? The one here called the Word is the one that tells us who God is. He came from the very heart of God to make known to us what in that bosom lies.
The very heart of God the Father. In Genesis one we have the creation. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. That was a point in time when He brought into being that which had no existence prior to that time. It says in the 100 and it says in the 33rd Psalm He commanded and it was done. He spake and it was done He commanded and it stood fast.
He spoke the world's into existence by faith. We understand that the world's were framed by the word of God.
So that that which has its being should not take its form from that which appears.
God spoke and it was done, he said. Let there be, and there was.
And then we have the epistle of John.
And there we read another expression in John's Gospel. We have the eternal past.
In the beginning was the word.
One asked what does that mean in the beginning? Well be when there was the first beginning of anything that had a beginning, the word was He did not begin, He did not begin to exist. He always was, from all eternity. It's an expression that refers to the eternal being of Christ. But then there was the beginning of creation, when God spake the world into existence.
That's Genesis One. But there's another beginning, and this is what I have before me this afternoon.
And that's what we have in John's epistle, and it's a different expression that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, and which we've looked upon and our hands have handled, of the word of life for the life was manifested.
And we have seen it, and declare unto you that eternal life that was with the Father, and was manifested to us.
I believe John's epistle begins with the 14th verse of the first chapter of John's Gospel.
And I'll read it. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.
The glories of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
That which was from the beginning refers to the point in time when the eternal person of the Word became a man.
When he took flesh. When He became flesh. When He became something that he was not before.
And all beloved Saints of God.
The most stupendous truth is that God the Son.
The eternal word became a man came down into this world.
Went to a cross of ignominy and shame, and now he's risen and glorified and seated at the right hand of the throne of God in heaven.
Interceding for us, bringing his redeemed people through this scene to the glory.
Well, I was thinking of that expression in John's epistle, that which was from the beginning we were saying in our meetings.
And I'm in full agreement with it that Christianity properly begins.
On the other side of the cloud.
But there's a sense in which Christianity began with the coming into this world.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ, that which was from the beginning, that which you and I partake of now by infinite grace.
Because we have eternal life and we are brought into fellowship with the Father and the Son.
This is the desire of the heart of God, the habits in fellowship with Himself. He's communicated to us his very life and nature, that He might have us near to Himself, not walking off in our own wills and ways.
00:10:19
And self will and independency of himself, he himself, the son the Word came.
Came down to where I was and where you were, that he might have us.
In fellowship with himself.
Well, we were reading in Hebrews 10 and I'd like to turn you to that chapter now.
An expression I'd like to read in Hebrews 10.
In verse 5.
Wherefore when he cometh.
Into the world, he said. Sacrifice and offering.
Thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. Now please hold your place here in Hebrews.
And turn back to Psalm 40. Turn back to Psalm 40.
Because the apostle the writer of Hebrews, I believe the apostle Paul.
Though he hides himself because Christ in this epistle of Hebrews is the Apostle and high priest of our profession. So it wouldn't have been fitting for Paul to set himself before us as an apostle. In this epistle Christ is the Apostle. He's the sent one of the Father.
In Psalm 40, verse 6 this is what he's quoting. In Hebrews 10, Sacrifice and offering, thou didst not desire.
Oh, it wasn't the desire of God to see all the sacrifices and the offerings of the Old Testament repeated over and over again. He was looking for truth in the inward parts. He was looking for reality. He was looking for something that could satisfy the hearts longing of his own heart.
Sacrifice and offering, thou didst not desire, mine ears hast thou opened, and in the margin of my Bible I believe that word is more correctly given literally in the Hebrew it, and I don't know Hebrew, but I take it from those that do know mine Ears hast thou digged?
Or hollowed out or prepared.
Now there is a translation that was made about 290 years before Christ, approximately. It's called the Septuagint translation. It was done at Alexandria, Egypt, I believe.
As was supposed by about 70 Jewish Hebrew Greek scholars and they translated the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek.
It's questioned whether there were that many.
But that's not the point. I was reading a note, Mr. Darby's translation allowed once, and someone was looking over my shoulder at the house and I came across the letters LXX, which is the Roman numerals for Al, means 50 and X is 10 and X is 10, so that would be 70. And as I read the note, I didn't read 70, I read the Septuagint, the person said. What was that?
How did you get Step 2? It is out of LX. While I said that's what it refers to, it's referring to the translation of the 70, approximately.
Jewish dollars that translated the Hebrew into Greek a couple 100 years before Christ. The Septuagint translation. And when they came to this verse six of Psalm 40, they puzzled over it. Mine ears hast thou did it says in Hebrews.
In the Hebrew tongue my nearest hast thou hollowed out? And they said among themselves, they must have pondered it.
Quite a bit. What does that mean? How are we going to render that in the Greek language? How is that going to be rendered? Well, they rendered it a body. Hast thou prepared me? That's the way they rendered it in the Greek.
And the Spirit of God in Hebrews 10 again, verse five of Hebrews 10. When he quoted, When the writer of Hebrews quoted that Psalm, he didn't quote it literally from the Hebrew, but he quoted it from the Greek translation of the Hebrew, the Septuagint translation. In other words, the Spirit of God put his stamp of approval upon.
00:15:12
The thought.
That what the Spirit of God really meant when he said, mine ears hast thou digged or hollowed out? When the Son of God became a man, he had his ears digged. That's the incarnation. That's what that is, that which is from the beginning. And what for? He had his ears digged, and that was the body that was prepared for the Lord Jesus, and so they rendered it.
In Hebrews, the very way that the translators translated into the Greek, some 200 and some years before Christ. Wherefore, when He cometh into the world, He saith, sacrifice and offering, Thou wouldest not but a body hast thou prepared me? I want you to remember that whenever we're talking here about the body of the Lord Jesus, it's connected with the thought as it's quoted here in Hebrews 10, with the fact that He had his ears digged.
Here was a man Stupendous thought. Oh, I've enjoyed it as I've pondered it recently. Here was a man that had only ears, only ears to hear the voice of his father. Only ears for the voice of God. His ears were digged to get instructions from only one. No one else but only to hear the voice of his father. What a man. Oh, he was down here in this world.
Not to do his own will, but the will of the Father that sent him so. His very coming, the very body that was prepared him, was a body that was specially formed by God, a body in which it was a vessel, a vessel of testimony, walking through this world, who had ears for only one, and that was the Father, ears for only one. His ears were digged. They were hollowed out to hear the voice of God, and only the voice of God.
I come to do thy will. Oh my God, oh beloved, we profess to be followers of him, and how often I confess it with shame, I have done my own will.
How often we have done what pleases us. If you read the four gospels, you see a man that never pleased himself.
He always was doing the will of his Father. His ears were digged and the Spirit of God says that means when his body was prepared for him. There was a man in this world that was all for God. All for God. What an object. No wonder the heavens were opened upon him at the River Jordan. No wonder that voice was heard. This is my beloved Son.
In whom I am well pleased, what an object for heaven to behold.
The spirit is sending, and it's a dove upon him.
The first time in Luke's Gospel the Lord Jesus is mentioned in as a as a man of prayer.
Was at the River Jordan.
I'll turn you to it. We won't look at them all but in Luke.
Chapter 3.
Verse 21.
Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized and praying, the heaven was opened.
First time that's mentioned in Luke's Gospel. Mentioned seven times. The last time, The last time, beloved Saints of God is on the cross and he looks down upon those that nailed him there, and we hear His last prayer. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. The prayer of the man that came into this world, who had his ears digged so that he could only hear the voice of God.
So that only he could only respond to the word of his father.
What a man.
What a man. Now let's turn to the 50th of Isaiah.
Isaiah 50.
Verse 2.
Isaiah 50, verse 2.
00:20:01
Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there none to answer?
Is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem or have I no power to deliver?
Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea. I make the rivers of wilderness. Their fish stinketh, because there is no water and diet for thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth. They're covering, covering what a person we have here, one who is God, that can do all these marvelous things. But then we have him as a man in verse 4, the Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned or the learner.
Be instructed. Think of it. Think of it.
God over all blessed forever the eternal Son of God.
That eternal life that was with the Father has been manifested to us.
John said. We've seen him, we've heard him, we've looked upon him, we've handled him. He came so near.
He was a learner. He was one that gathered fresh instruction from his father every day. Read it here verse 4. The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learner that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. He wakeneth morning by morning. Isn't that sweet? It says in the Psalms he giveth his beloved sleep. Just think of the Lord Jesus going to sleep at night.
The father giving his beloved sleep, and in the morning he wakens him.
There was one time on the sea when the disciples awakened him out of unbelief.
Master cares thou not that we perish, And he arose.
That sleeping man he arose, and he rebuked the wind and the seas.
Peace be still, He is the one that closed the heavens with blackness and makes sackcloth their covering. He's the one that came down so low that every morning as he awoke from the hand of his father, he received fresh instruction.
The Lord God has opened my ear. Now here's where the word opened I believe is appropriate. In Psalm 40, the the digged ear refers to the incarnation. The open deer refers to his life. Oh, what a man, young brother, young sister. Here is the person that was down here in this world.
Whose very meat and drink it was to do the will of his father.
He said in John Four. I have meat to eat that ye know not of. My meat, is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
The very words that characterized his coming into this world as, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.
Came, and in the 40th Psalm it says, I delight to do thy will.
The joy of his heart was to please his father.
In the Romans 15 Christ pleased not Himself.
All beloved Saints of God, how often we please ourselves, how little we know of the selflessness, the devotedness, the total giving over of Himself to the will of His Father.
When he came into the position of dependence. When he assumed humanity.
When he took that body which was prepared, him when his ears were digged, he came into a position where obedience was proper to him. He who had been the commander in chief, he who had spoken, and it was done who commanded, and it stood fast. He now learns obedience by the things which he suffers, says in Hebrews 5. Though he were son, yet learned he obedience, he learned the cost of obedience.
Now everyone of us who is a Christian is a follower of that blessed man.
A new order of humanity has come into this world a true and proper man, every bit as much man as we are.
00:25:04
Sin apart, but a true man, spirit, soul, and body. Blameless, he had a human spirit, and a human soul, and a human body, but without the taint of sin he came into this world.
To show in one way to show what true man.
Is.
Life of perfection lived with the thought.
Of only pleasing his Father. And when we think of it, is not this what ought to characterize every creature? The Lord Jesus was no creature, but he came into the creature place. He was God over all, blessed forever. But he became a man. He became a man. I would not say I would not go to the point. I believe it would be wrong to say he became a creature.
He was God, the Creator, but He did come into that place, the place where obedience, independence, was proper to Him.
Came down, down, down He was in the form of God. He thought it not something to be tenaciously held on to.
But he emptied himself for this Godhead glory and came down.
Into this world, and took upon him the form of the servant. What a servant.
That was a servant that never did his own will.
Always the will of his father. Oh, here we find him in Isaiah 50 being wakened every morning by his father's hand, as it were. And you know, it's good for us that we don't know the future.
It's good for us oftentimes, if a calamity is right ahead of us that we don't know it's coming.
We only have to trust him daily, but the Lord Jesus knew the end from the beginning.
He knew the end of this pathway was the cross and we read of him and Luke.
Nine that he set his face as a Flint to go to Jerusalem.
The most awful judgment that he had to endure and bear in order to put away our sins. And yet it was the will of God. He had come to do the will of God, And here daily, as a dependent man, he has the opened ear to hear as the learner.
What a person we have says the Lord God hath opened my ear. Verse 5 and I was not rebellious.
He received instruction from his father, and some of the things that lay before him were terrible, absolutely terrible.
Indescribably horrible, the Cross. We see how horrible it was through his holy soul in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he prayed with tears, and his sweat become, as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground.
And he cried, Old Father, If it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. The Father was leading him onto the cross. He had the cross before him, but it was it was an expression in the garden of his perfect humanity to shrink with horror at being made sin.
Of being made sin. He knew what that would cost him. He knew what that would cost him. He was going to be forsaken of God.
We use the words. We use the words He who never knew, a moment out of communion with his God and Father.
He who was always in the perfect intimate communion with his Father, he now faces the awfulness of being made sin, being made sin at the cross. And he says, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. I believe that's the only time.
The only time in the gospel narratives that.
He refers to his will.
00:30:02
In any way, independently of his Father, he was expressing the horror of his holy soul at being made sin. He could not find his meat in the wrath of God.
Can you imagine what it would mean to one who was always in perfect communion with the Father?
Who was always in the intimacy and the joy and the delight of his heart, Who never knew an inch of reserve.
Sin has so hardened our hearts. Sin has made me and you so insensitive to things that we ought to be sensitive to. Can you imagine how a being such as He whose ears were digged to hear the voice of the Father, what it was like for him to pass through a world the likes of which we're passing through, where everyone is doing his own will and everyone is doing what is pleasing to himself?
Everyone is.
Satisfying the cravings and the desires of his own sinful, lustful nature for that holy being who had only one object before his soul, the glory of the Father, and to do the will of the Father, to do thy will of God. And every morning he awoke, gathering fresh instruction from his Father, the dependent, obedient man, going through this world with the opened ear to hear the voice of his Father.
What was it like for that Blessed One, that infinitely holy one, to go through a world consisting of sinners like we are, like we were?
And then we only have to look at our own hearts. I only have to look at my own heart. I only have to see how much self seeking and wanting my own way and things which are just nothing but selfishness coming out over and over again.
O beloved, here was a man whose ears were opened every morning to receive instruction from his father.
And his father's instruction where go to the you're going to the cross. And he knew it. He told his disciples where he was going.
He knew he was going to the cross, and he knew what it would mean to be forsaken of God.
Brother Darby says only one thing remained unto him.
Up to the cross, and that was communion with his father, all the rest had forsaken him.
He says at the cross that was lost, that the obedience.
Might rise to new heights.
At the cross he accomplished the will of God, not now in the joy of communion.
But in the unmitigated, in the face of the unmitigated wrath of God, my God, my God, why, as thou forsaken me?
Turn with me to the 21St of Exodus.
So in Psalm 40 he has his ears digged, referring to the body that was prepared him by the Spirit of God to hear and do the will of God, to do the will of God, to have ears only for God.
In Isaiah 50 every day, every day, in the place of dependence and obedience, he received instruction from God, his Father.
To go on to the cross, and that involved the suffering of death at the cross in Exodus 21, where we have the Hebrew servant.
I'll read it. Verse two. If thou buy in Hebrew servant 6 years, he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall 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 had borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters, and he should go out by himself. Now we've read these verses many times at the breaking of bread and how precious they are as we apply them to the Lord Jesus.
And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master.
That would be God, whose father? My wife, the assembly, the church.
And my children, his own, that were in this world. I will not go out free.
00:35:07
Then his master shall bring him unto the judges, He shall also bring him to the door or unto the door post, And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever. I believe that boring through with the all refers to the cross. So we have in these three passages.
Psalm 40. His ears were digged, hollowed out. A body was prepared. Him that he might, that that vessel, that man, the 2nd man, the last out of that he might do the will of God. Isn't it wonderful? There has been an object here below. One has said it this way. There was an object here below that would commend the place, but now it is gone.
Jesus is with the Father. Yes, there was an object down here. Just think of that object, an object going through this world, gathering fresh instruction from his Father every day. His ears were opened first, His ears were digged, the body was prepared. Him and he went through this world.
As an obedient man, though he were son, he learned obedience. He had never obeyed before. He had commanded, and it was done. As God, he didn't have to obey anyone. He gave the orders. But now he becomes a man. Now he comes into the place of dependence and obedience, and he has ears digged, and he gathers fresh instruction every day from his Father. How often are we on our knees?
Oh, I have to reproach myself, and I'm sure each one of us. How often are we gathering that instruction from the Father?
How many motives characterize us? He says. I was not rebellious, neither turned I away back. How rebellious my own heart has been. How rebellious we are. Oftentimes we want our way, we want our will. Isn't it a delight to behold the object that heaven had to open upon and said, this is my beloved Son.
He never had a will of his own. He expressed it one time and that was in the garden, but then he said not my will.
Time we die.
And that meant draining that cup filled with the wrath of God.
To the very dregs while I'm on this point.
I've meditated on this recently. The thought has been exceedingly precious to me.
John's Gospel starts out with 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, his eternal person.
Is distinct personality his proper deity? But the last verse that brother pointed this out just recently at all, I enjoyed it so much. The last verse of the gospel, the first verse is his eternal person and the glory of it. But I'm going to read it. John 21 got to read it because I don't want to misquote it.
Verse 25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did the which if they should be written. Everyone. I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. Why is that said? Because here you have the works of such vastness, so infinite because it's done. It's that which this eternal infinite person did. The first verse of the gospel starts out with his infinite person.
And the last verse with the infiniteness of the works, which he did, but in the middle somewhere.
John 19 We read it twice. Lord's Day Morning, He said. It is finished. Oh, beloved, how do you know your sins are gone? How do I know my sins are gone? How do I know that the work that was done on the cross?
Has completely satisfied God.
Because he said he who is God and man in one inscrutable person.
He said it is finished.
He knows what he knew perfectly, what was required, and he offered what was required. I rest, and each of us can rest upon the word that came from the lips of the eternal Son of God, become a man, And hanging on that cross, he said, it is finished.
00:40:17
Nothing more to do. There's not one more drop of wrath remaining. He exhausted it. In the Old Testament, we see the fire on the altar consuming the sacrifice. At the cross, we see the sacrifice consuming the fire and exhausting it, and he who knew the requirements of God.
As only God can know, he cried out.
Finished all beloved, when we enter into that and the realization that the one that hung on that cross was God and man in one person, he knew what our sins deserved, and he bore the judgment in all its fullness. And then he had his ear bored through with an awe. He could have just come down.
To do the work.
But now he's going to be a servant forever.
He's serving us now. We've had some of that before us in our readings and know how precious he's serving us now. Is our great High Priest in heaven and is our advocate with the Father. And I'd like to just turn to John 13 for a couple thoughts before we close.
In John 13.
Here we find him serving us.
In it all together new way.
Says in verse one, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father.
That is in the consciousness that he was leading this scene, and going to the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. Verse 3 Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God and went to God, He rises from supper, and he lays aside his garments. He takes the towel and girds himself, and he pours water into a basin and he washes the disciples feet.
Well, we're well acquainted with this chapter. I won't go into the details. Peter says to him, Dost thou wash my feet? The Lord has to tell him in verse seven what I do. Thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. What the Lord was doing. Was something that Peter did not understand.
The significance of the feet washing was something he did not then enter into. The Lord was about to go to the Father. He's now in the Father's presence, having accomplished redemption by the sacrifice of himself. He enters the glory as the risen glorified man and he begins a new work as our great High Priest and as our advocate with the Father. And here he is washing the disciples feet. Why? Why?
Peter says Thou shalt never wash my feet.
And the Lord says in verse 8, if I wash thee not, thou is no part with me. He doesn't say no part in me, but no part with me. Oh, he wants our fellowship. That's why he saved us. That's why he went to the cross for us. He couldn't have done more. And if God hasn't won your heart, what more could He do to win it? Young man, young woman, you who may have thoughts of going out after the things of this world, that tinsel of this world.
The rubbish of this world. Oh, I tell you, he wants your fellowship. And every day you go on without the fellowship of the Lord Jesus. You're breaking his heart. He died that he might have you with him. He wants your fellowship. He wants my fellowship. He wants us to walk with him, the little while that remains.
But all in order to that. We need the basin. We need to have our feet in his hands. We need to have our feet washed from all the defilements that we contract as we walk through a defiling world. And he's serving us. He's a servant forever. At the cross, he had his ear bored through with an all.
He didn't just do a work on the cross, infinite as that work was, and then leave us to make our way through this world on our own. No. As soon as he enters the glory, he's saluted of God as High priest after the order of Melchizedek, and he undertakes a new work on behalf of his redeemed people to bring them through the wilderness all the way home to glory. And here he washes our feet. He removes the defilements of this world that we might have fellowship with himself.
00:45:18
He wants our fellowship. He wants it so intently that he's at our feet. That blessed servant be the one who had his ear dig to hear the voice of God, the one who was awakened every morning by the voice of the Father. His ear was opened the obedient dependent man. And at the cross he said, I love my master, my wife and my children. I will not go free. And so he was taken to the door post and his ear was bored through them all. And he's become his servant forever.
That he's serving us now as a man in the glory that we might go through this world undefiled, uncontaminated. And if we become defiled, he removes that defilement that we might have part with him. Have you ever heard of such love as this? Well, down farther in the chapter, verse 23.
Verse 21 When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and he testified, and said, verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall be training. There were 12 That accompanied him. A brother has said, there had to be a Judas, but it didn't have to be Judas.
There hadn't to be a Judas. There had to be a betrayer. But it didn't have to be the man who bore that name. He didn't have to betray his Lord, but there had to be a Judas.
Now there was leaning on Jesus bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake. He then lying on Jesus breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it? Ah, there was an intimacy. There was an intimacy with intimacy here with John. He doesn't name himself. He's the disciple whom Jesus loved. He's the one that lay on Jesus bosom. Peter wasn't near enough.
No, he said. John, you ask him, you ask him. Peter wasn't.
He just there was something there. We don't know what it was, but John said, who is it? Who is it? But you know?
The bosom.
That's the place we can all occupy. We can all lie on Jesus bosom, but not unless we've used the basin. The basin comes first, but he hasn't washed our feet. There'll be no lying on the bosom. The basin, then. The bosom. All how needed, beloved. Oh, how needed to have our feet in his hands.
What love? What eternal love?
There's one more, one more chapter I want to just refer you to before we close Luke 12.
Luke 12.
Verse 34.
Where your treasure is.
Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Let your lights, let your loins be girded, and your lights burning, and you yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding. And 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, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meet.
And we'll come forth and serve them. There's the perfect servant. There's the man that never did his own will. There's the man that had his ears digged to do the will of his father. There's the man whose ears were opened to hear the voice of his father and receive fresh instruction every day. There's the man that had his ears bored through with an awe that he might be a servant forever. The man who is on high is our High priest and advocate.
To bring us through all the difficulties of the way to remove the defilements of this world.
And when we reach home, beloved Saints of God, he's going to gird himself once again as the perfect servant and sit down and service. We're going to sit down and he's going to service. You're a Christian. I'm a Christian. That means Christ is everything. Christ is all, and I am nothing.
00:50:19
And following him, the selfless man, the man who wouldn't take a step, but that he had a word from his father for it. The perfect servant, the dependent man, the obedient man, the man who is my savior and yours, the man who is now serving us and will serve us in the glory when we reach home.
What a privilege. What a privilege to serve him now.
He's he's going to serve us.
Then.
John 1:1-3
Reading
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.
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. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light and all men, that all men through him might believe He was not that light.
But was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not, but as many as received Him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
Which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh.
Nor the will of man, but God, but of God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bear witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I speak. He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for He was before me, and of his fullness.
Have all we received, and grace for grace for the law was given by Moses.
But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared him. And this is the record of John, which the Jews sent, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not, but confessed I am not the Christ.
And they asked him, What then art thou, Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered no. Then said they unto him, Who art thou?
That we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou thyself? He saith, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord. And said the prophet Isaias, and they and they which were sent.
Were of the Pharisees.
They asked him, and said unto him, Why baptize us thou then, if thou be not that Christ nor Elias? Neither that prophet John answered them, saying, I baptize with water, but there is one among standing among you whom ye know not. He it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoes latch it I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done in Bethabara.
Beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing, the next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me, and I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel.
Therefore am I come baptizing with water and John bare records saying.
I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it sat upon him, and a boat upon him, and I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same as he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw a bear record that this is the Son of God.
Again the next day after John stood.
And two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and Seth unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted, Master, where dwellest thou? He said unto them, Come and see. They came, and saw where he dwelt and abode with him that day, where it was about the 10th hour, one of the two which heard John speak, and followed him.
00:05:29
Was Andrew Simon Peter's brother? He first findeth his own brother Simon.
And saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted, the Christ.
And he brought him to Jesus, and when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah. Thou shall be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone.
I was just thinking how this lovely chapter begins with eternity, takes us back into a past eternity in the beginning was then in the coming into this world of that blessed One who came to make His Father known and to impart to us a life that we might have fellowship with him. Because it says this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent.
To know Him as our Savior, to know Him as the object, to know Him as the One with whom we dwell, and to be able to be a witness in this world for Him. I just thought how beautifully these thoughts are brought together in this chapter. But first of all, introducing us to this blessed One, the One who dwells in the bosom of the Father and came into this world that we might make known, that He might make known to us what is there.
And to give us a life so that we could share in those joys that are his.
John's gospel, we have Jesus as the Son of God. It's deity, isn't it? And we have beginnings for us because with our minds, we, we can't think of anything apart from distance and time. We, we, we, we have no ability for that at all. So we have a beginning here, but it's the eternity.
The IM is the way He is, and in in Genesis you have a beginning too, but that's creation.
And in first John you have a beginning that that's the son of man became man became flesh and dwelt among us. But here it's before anything was it's the eternal stage. And so he brings it down to what we may understand as far as we're able. In the beginning was the word. It really brings you to Proverbs 8, does it not just one verse might help their Proverbs 8.
Verse 22.
The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting from the beginning, or ever the earth was. This goes back into the recesses of eternity.
He always was. He's the I am. He was, He is, He ever shall be, He ever existent one. That's who we're being introduced to here, isn't it?
I'd like to connect the first verse of this gospel with the last verse of this gospel. We'll read it the very last verse.
Says And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written everyone. I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.
And notice how they link together in this way.
In the first verse, the eternal, ever existing great I am, we could say the infiniteness of his person, and the last verse the infiniteness of his works, but they're brought in in contrast to another work.
There are many other works. Oh, it's pointing at 1:00 work. And everyone of the Gospels, all four of them, have the cross before us and develop the cross in its fullness. The greatest work that has ever been done was done on Calvary's cross. All other works come in the shade in comparison to that. So we've had the details in all four of the Gospels. You get down to the last verse of John.
00:10:15
And he says, oh, there are many other works, and if they would all be written, the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.
Take it literally. Take it literally. The Expanse goes beyond all of the research of mankind and always will. God has no limits. He is the creator and sustainer of all this person we're looking at. Oh, to think of him coming down and being here, below God, manifest in the flesh. That's what he became. He always was.
The Word and the Word was with God, and the Word God was God, but he became a man, The great mystery, inscrutable mystery, God and mine in one person. But this is what we're getting in the beginning of this book. Someone has said that we have the eternity of his person, the glory of His person, and the distinctness of His person. That is, He is from all eternity.
Since our minds cannot conceive eternity, we think of anything that we like that has a beginning. At that time He was in the beginning was He is the ever existing one, but He's a separate person. The Word was with God so that we have the Father and the Son, and later in this chapter the Holy Spirit. So we have the distinctness of His person, but we also have the glory of His person. The Word was God.
Because this is the one who is brought before us. And I say again, how precious that He's brought before us as the object for our hearts. This isn't just to give us knowledge, although this is important too, but to give an object for our hearts, an object that we can never contain because our little finite minds and our small hearts can never take in the glory of His person, Neither can we take in the fullness.
It tells us in Ephesians that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace.
In His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. And so, brethren, for all eternity, we will never be able to measure the extent of what is in His heart toward us. And he came into this world to make the Father known. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. If our hearts are taken up with Him, then it's not hard to part with what the world has to offer, because this is all for time.
But oh, how important in these days when the glory of his person is being attacked. And also there's two particular attacks in these days. First as to the glory of his person, the eternity of his person, and then as to his sinless humanity. These things are coming in even among those who profess to be children of God, denying the denying the eternity of his place as.
The Son of God, and denying the glory of His person that he was sinless, He did know sin, but in Him is no sin, because in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead. Bodily enter in by faith. Do we not do the truth that is presented to us in these verses, the Word?
Was God.
Only by accepting this in simple childlike faith do we have some realization of what is before us. The Word was God, this great truth that.
So.
Presented to us is beyond us, apart from faith, then coming down to what we have.
Later on, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
On a moralist thing, do you think that we can realize that there is one whoever existed?
Very God come down and has taken a body.
00:15:00
And has walked among us is a man walked in this world, and as we have heard, accomplish the greatest work that could ever be accomplished. And that was at Calvary, because there he glorified God. There we see a work that was so perfect that he could say it is finished, a work never to be repeated. How marvelous it is to think of that.
I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do. And we look at one, we see Him by faith, and we rejoice before Him. But it's really accepting what God says in His Word, and realizing that it's true, and enjoying this wondrous truth that here is one. The Word was God.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
But we have.
Some help on this precious title?
That is given to us three times in the first verse.
God speaks once, it's important. If he speaks twice, it's more important, but when he says something three times, it's of utmost importance. So in the first verse, we have this title, the Word, and I'd like to have some help for all of us on what are these deep things that we should learn from this title. He's the word. Now if I speak to you.
You know what I'm thinking because I give you a word. A word is an expression of myself.
Now I'd like to hear what my brethren have to say.
What is meant by this title that's given three times over in the first verse is the word. Would you like to know more about God the Father? Well.
Know more about the Sun because He fully expresses Him in all He says and does His way. He is the manifestation and perfection of the Father. That's the word, a full expression. You express something by the Word. And so we have here.
And the word was with God. They're separate identities of the of the Godhead.
But the Word was God. And so you have in John 10 verse 30, I am the Father are one.
Hast thou been so long with me? And saith showeth the Father. He that has seen me has seen the Father. He's the full expression, the word of what the Father is, but he's also truth. The truth, the word is truth.
Yes.
The fullness of the Godhead bodily.
God is fully expressed.
In the person of the Lord Jesus. And we do not need to know anything beyond what is revealed in the person of the Lord Jesus, because God is revealed. It's not only the sun that is revealed, it's God manifested in the flesh, beautiful. You do not ever need to see or understand or hear more than what we see and have heard.
In this blessed book about the person of the Lord Jesus, he expresses fully what God is, or what God is is fully expressed in him. I would like to add a little bit more to my question, which we still have not fully answered, I don't think.
We realized that the Father has been revealed when the Lord Jesus became a man. But brethren, what interests me is this.
That the Lord Jesus Christ, our precious Savior, the eternal Son of God.
Is called the word.
Even before he was manifest in the flesh to show us the Father. So basically my question is this, in what way?
Is he the word before he became a man? Please tell him God appears to death.
00:20:06
Various ways, various forms.
That came there, and one of one of them was the Lord Jehovah.
One was the Lord himself. I believe that everyone of those revelations, man was this person of the Godhead called the Word is the one who expresses God. And I believe that we can conclude from your great question, Ron, and this verse here and the very basic thought that the Word reveals what is in the mind of God, that whenever God was going to express that mind or communicate to man, He did it.
By the word the person called the word which is often referred to as the second person of the Trinity, we don't mean that that he is inferior to the first person, but we just due to infirmity of language we refer to the Father as the first person and the Son is the 2nd and the Spirit is the third. They're all Co equal and none is superior to the other. But I believe that when God manifested himself.
Even in the Old Testament times, it was this person, the word that was the one that was doing the the speaking to man. Would you not take it that way?
The scripture in John's Gospel where the Lord himself refers to the Old Testament and says they testify of me.
Backs that up well before the world began is what Ron asked. And I would say whatever title he has, and there's 700 of them, they all were his before the world began. He is. Whatever we have, he is. And he just took that form and that name for that purpose, to express some aspect of God or some aspect of what God is doing as Jehovah.
As Jesus, but he always was and always is. And when he was the Son of man in John three, as he told Nicodemus, he was in heaven. He's eternal. He never ceased being the eternal Son of God, but now Son of Man. And so I don't think he used that name before anything was. I'm not sure, but he was the expression of God.
Always.
Scripture says Jesus Christ the same yesterday.
And today and forever, and perhaps to answer the question, if there was someone you had never met, and someone writes a letter describing that person to you, then you look forward to seeing them. And when you see them, you find that they're exactly according to the description. Only with this difference that in the Old Testament God was not fully revealed. As our brother said, he came and was at Abram's temp door.
He spoke to Moses face to face, but there was a veil. God was not fully revealed, but that it is. It isn't that He changed when He became a man. That same blessed One from all eternity is the same. Let me quote the verse again. Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever. And so when he came into this world, He was all that God the Father could speak and say about Him.
Because he could say himself, He that hath seen me has seen the Father. So there were many prophecies about Him coming. The 53rd of Isaiah speaks of His manhood, what He would do, that work of redemption that He would accomplish. All this was recorded in the Word. But finally He came. And as John says in this very chapter, I saw and bear a record that this is the Son of God.
Now someone might describe another person to you and you're full of expectation to see them, but when you see them, they're not just exactly like the description and you might feel a little disappointed. But not so with this Blessed 1, the eternal Word, everything.
That was written of him, was fulfilled in him when He came and as He walked through this world. And John in his epistle insists upon this. We have handled and we've seen and we've handled the word of life. So that one is the expression in fullness. Down here in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead. That was always true, but bodily when He became a man.
00:25:11
And what went through this world? And so I believe it's just that thought. I just like to add to it a scripture in the Old Testament, in the Psalms, it says thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. Now there are many people that take the name of Christ. They talk about the Lord, they talk about Jesus, they talk about Christ. But when we measure their thoughts about Him, they're not according to the word.
So God has written down in His Word both those prophecies about Him, how He perfectly fulfilled them, and that those who were here saw Him and saw the manifestation of it. But the Word is the divine record that we have in our hands, but the Person and.
When you and I get the glory, brethren, we're going to see the word and we're not going to be disappointed and say, Oh well, it wasn't just exactly the way the Scripture said. It'll be just more glorious, just as when he came it was more glorious than the revelation in the Old Testament. But the same person, when we see him, I think we'll be like the Queen of Sheba and say the half was not told me thou exceedest the fame that I heard.
Hebrews chapter one. He should probably read a couple verses there. God verse one, who at sundry times and in diverse manners speak in time had unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things. By Him also He made the world.
Who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and are calling all things by the word of His power, when he had by Himself perched our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. This is the Scripture that shows the tremendous difference between what we have in the Old Testament God spoke, but He spoke through the prophets, but in the Lord Jesus.
We have God himself, the Son here speaking, and it is no longer partial.
Revelations of himself as we have it in verse one.
In diverse manners, at sundry times, different times, in partial revelations, but we have now in the fact that the Son himself is here, He speaks personally, it is God speaking in the person of His Son, and we have the full revelation of God. What a tremendous difference that is, and what a blessing that we are privileged to live at a time.
When we have these words in our hands.
Perhaps I could just add this that we have in Hebrews. Shall we just turn to it in Hebrews 12 because I believe it is important? Hebrew is chapter 12.
And the 25th verse see that she refused not him that speaketh, or if they escape not, who refused him that spake on earth much more Shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven? So there was that revelation in His blessed pathway here. But he said to the disciples, I have yet many things to say unto you.
But she cannot bear them now. And He, the Spirit of truth is come. He will guide you into all truth. I still remember what our brother Ch Brown said. He said when he was a young man attended. They followed the birth of the Lord Jesus, the pathway of the Lord Jesus, the work of the Lord Jesus, until the cloud received him out of their sight at His ascension. But he said Christianity begins the other side of the cloud.
So this one is now as Paul brings out in Second Corinthians chapter 4, the glory of God shines in the face of Jesus Christ, christened them to a large extent, does not go beyond his pathway here, and does not lay hold of the glorious revelation.
00:30:00
Of the truth of the Church, which was not revealed until He had taken his place at the right hand of God and sent down the Holy Spirit of God to lead us into all truth, and that we might know this full revelation, this secret that was hidden in the heart of God. To go back again, though, to Ron's question, that secret was in the heart of God from all eternity. The Lamb was for ordained before the foundation of the world.
There was nothing new in the councils and purposes of God, but there was a person who came and revealed them. And now He is a glorified man at the right hand of God, and we're to hear him speaking from heaven, and that we have through what God has given us in His Word to be enjoyed by the Spirit the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. One other thing that we could add to this verse, first verse. I don't mean there isn't many.
But the Word was God, and there is a divine glory attached to deity. And so we had it brought out in the 14th verse, His glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father. It's an intrinsic, inherent, eternal glory that the Word has Jesus and He has an acquired glory that as you go through John's gospel, you'll find it.
In John 17 we read about it very clearly and acquired glory as Son Amaya and in the work of the cross, and all fulfilling God's purposes, but He has His own glory which is Deity, and that comes out also the Word was God.
It's beautiful to have that thought as well.
There is one verse that supplies a good teaching on this point that's before us and that's in the 8th chapter of John. The 25th verse The Jews came to Jesus and they plainly said to him, Who art thou?
And his answer corresponds with the first verse of John. I believe he says to them even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. That is, he was exactly.
What He said, His Word and himself were the same, the same, even the same. He. He never changes but in the heart of God.
The title comes before us in John because the father was seeking sons like his own son, and so he sent his own son. And here's where the revelation comes in and we have praise down here.
Himself saying I am the way, the truth and the life and then saying in the 17th chapter.
Thy word is truth. Now truth is a declaration of what is.
Jesus is that the word? Is that the written word? So God in his purposes to have children.
Sent the light and the light comes in this chapter, and then the love comes later to accomplish what the light showed was needed and so the love took him to the cross to make a way whereby he could bring.
Sons to glory, like our verse here in our first chapter.
12 Says, But as many as received him to them gave thee power, or the right to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Here we have a grand result of the Word coming out, communicating God's purposes and thoughts to bring children to the Father. I just mentioned that in this gospel the name Father occurs, I believe, 118 times. You might count it if you want to.
But He is the manifestation of the Father.
This might be an over simplification and answers to Ron's question.
But it appears to me, in light of Hebrews, one that has been called to our attention.
That the word given us as a title.
Is the Lord Jesus Christ as the expression of the essential being of deity?
That's what Hebrews one actually says if you look at it in the new translation.
00:35:04
In our in the King James, it says he's express image of his person, but in the new translation it says he's the expression of his substance. That means essential being. But our brother just said, and the word is always coupled with God in the Scriptures and the son is coupled with the father. You don't have that that mixed in in the word of God. I just like to add.
It says in Hebrews 11 verse two, through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. And just to bring that out to read the 33rd Psalm.
Psalm 33.
Verse 6 By the word of the Lord, where the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth to gather at the waters of the sea together as and heap, He layeth up the depth in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him, for he spake, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast.
I think it's the person that we're looking at. This glorious person, the eternal Son of the Father, called the Word. He spent and it was done before this world ever existed. He spoke the universe into existence. He said let us make man after our image according to our likeness. He said let there be light and there was light.
God had a thought, I think of Brother Wigram's hymn. What raised the wondrous thought? Or who did it suggest that we the Church to glory brought, Should with the sun be blessed? Oh God, the thought was dying. Thine only it could be. Fruit of the wisdom, love, divine, peculiar unto thee for sure. No other mind for thought so bold, so free greatness or strength, could ever find thine, only it could be.
Now who was the one that expressed that mind? Who was the one that told it out? The person here called the Word. He was the expression of the mind of God. He was the one when God had the thought to create a universe, to be the vast display of all His glory.
It was that person called the word that spoke it into existence.
It was that person that called.
Order and light out of chaos and darkness. It was that person, a created man. It was that person that came here and became flesh to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
And knowing that person we know God the Father. We know all there is to be known of God.
For He is the full, complete revelation of God. It is precious to realize that the Word was with God already in the past eternity, ever being the expression of what God was. But how wonderful to see that as He comes into this world, that light shines out in all his brightness. And we had a full and ultimate revelation that God has given of Himself to man as it was also born out in Hebrews in the opening verses. And so in that respect is precious to see the beginning that is spoken of in the first epistle of John. This is now beginning in time. It's not the beginning.
As Albert Alabama pointed out, that we have there in the first chapter the Gospel of John, but here now we have this precious revelation. Now God is speaking to man through Him who is the eternal Son, the eternal Word. And here now we had that revelation that has been given unto us in an ultimate way, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen without, without eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, or the word of life.
For the life was manifested. This is now an incarnation as it comes into this world. For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was with a Father. Here we have what was true in a past eternity, but now what was true in time and was manifested unto us.
An incarnation 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 a Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. So here we have a purpose too.
Shall we say one of the purposes for which the largest came into this world, delete us into fellowship with God as our Father to introduce us into a relationship with Him? Of course, we know it was only through redemption.
00:40:15
Throw his wagon across. But here now we see that there was that full declaration of what God is in order that we may have fellowship.
Fellowship with the Father and fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. That's why it was necessary to have a life by which we could do this. And that is our, our natural hearts were at enmity with God. We know that this is the character of the natural man. He's at enmity. He's far from God. But now God has given to us as believers a life, and that's what he eternal life is. Brethren, it's not merely the eternal existence of that life.
But it's the thought that it's the very life of Christ, and this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God.
And Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent, that is naturally there was number communication between God and man. When God came down after sin had entered, Adam hid himself among the trees of the garden. Nicodemus thought that teaching was needed now it was a new life that was needed.
And so this one, who made all things as we have him brought before us in Colossians 1.
Comes into the very creation that he made just as he came into the Garden of Eden and Adam hid. Now it tells us in Corinthians, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. He came down here, brethren, to tell us what God is like and to let us know that God wanted to have us to share that scene of glory. Man spoil the first creation through his sin, and now God is inviting us to a place that can't be spoiled, but we couldn't enjoy it unless he imparted a new life.
And this is brought before us, and as our brother was just saying, God has given us this life so that we can enter into His thoughts, that we can have fellowship with the Father and the Son. He made all things. He upholds the very natural life that we possess, but He also has imparted us that life in Him was life, and the life was the light of man. Now He gives that life to us so that we can enter into these things.
And by the Spirit, this is true, I believe perhaps we could say that in the Scripture we have the Father in counsel, and we have the Lord Jesus, the one who carries out the Father's counsels, and the Holy Spirit, the power by which they are carried out. And we have that consistently.
So if it's creation, it speaks of God as Creator, it speaks of the Lord Jesus as Creator in Hebrews One and in Colossians. And then it speaks of the Spirit too. In Job it says by his Spirit He garnished the happiness, so that we have the Godhead in creation. We have the Godhead made known in the person of the Son as he went through this world, sent by the Father. Every action in his blessed life was by the power of the Spirit of God.
And the gospel of John brings him before us. Brethren, I say again, not just so that we would have knowledge in our head, but isn't it the most marvelous thing to think that God wants to have fellowship with his creature? And the only way was possible was the question of sin to be settled so that God would be glorified. A new life imparted to us, the Spirit sent down as the power of that new life.
To lead us even here into the enjoyment of our portion. And I believe this is set before us.
And we often speak of the Gospel of John as anticipating Christ. So we find in the in the 14th chapter, the Lord says, I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do. And then in the 17th chapter, he says I am no more in the world. Well, when he spoke to the disciples, he was here, but it's anticipated redemption being accomplished. He's gone up there and he would have us to know that we can have this fellowship that he's up there interceding for us.
And now, of course, in Paul's ministry, the precious revelation of the church, but not in John.
The John's ministry particularly gives us that life by which we can enter into and enjoy these things.
He says family truth and brings out the wonderful fact that we have been introduced into the very family of God. But how important it is to perhaps add to what you just have said to your brother as to life you have in this first epistle is he that has to son his life, and he that has not the Son of God has not life in order to have this life which alone enables us to enjoy.
00:45:30
These things and makes us competent, if I may use that expression, to have fellowship with the Father can be had only by having that person. He is our life. And one of our brothers is presently laboring with a man who was brought up Muslim but who is not practicing that religion. But he seems to be interested in what he has to say.
But he doesn't believe that the Lord Jesus is God the Son.
Well, if that man's eyes are not open to this wonderful truth, he can never have that life, which alone will enable him to have fellowship with the Father, with the Lord Jesus, and also is the basis for fellowship with one another. Isn't it wonderful that we have that life? That why we do not understand the mystery of His person, we nevertheless can have fellowship with Him.
We can to be very simple and practical, and sometimes these things might.
Go over the head of the younger ones among us. How can I have fellowship with the Father? How can I have fellowship with the Lord Jesus?
Well, that new life manifests itself in the desire to please and to glorify God. That was manifested perfectly in the Lord Jesus.
We would never claim that it could be manifested there perfectly in us. We know it isn't. But in whatever measure it is manifested in us, we have fellowship with the Lord Jesus. And in whatever measure we can enjoy that person, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has been the joy of the Father's heart from all eternity, in whatever measure we can enjoy that person, we have fellowship with the Father.
What a privilege it is to be in that position. And this, beloved, is the basis for our fellowship with one another.
I believe we have to be reminded that much passes under the name of Christian fellowship, which is really social activities and do not qualify in the light of Christian Scripture as Christian fellowship. Let us remember that Christian fellowship is having things in common concerning that which we have in Christ, and we can even consider ourselves so honored.
That God chairs that which always was his joy with us and wants us to enjoy that, and that's the basis for our strength in our Christian life. When we're in the enjoyment of these things, then we have strength to go on for Him and live for His glory. In a certain sense that create social fellowship, but the social fellowship should be because of that relationship.
And that we can enjoy those things together. So we read in Acts when everything was in its freshness, it says breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. If you had been at the meal table with those early believers, they would be rejoicing in the Lord as they enjoyed the food that He had provided and those sort of things. So it's nice when the social fellowship is founded upon the enjoyment of Christ.
Who gives all these things? So that He has given us these things richly to enjoy, but not to enjoy apart from Him. If I came to your home and the meal was served to me in a different room than yourself, well, it's from your table, but I'm not enjoying it with you. But isn't it lovely that we can enjoy the things of the Lord and we can enjoy that which He provides, even in a natural way? But to separate the two spoils it, doesn't it?
There's one other attribute to the Jesus Christ is the word it might be nice to bring in, and that's the word has both authority and power divide. And so when we had in 33 that he spanked and it was as to creation, it's true that's what happened. But if you take Psalm 148, you have the authority and the power he commanded and all things were created.
00:50:20
His word is really authority, and so when he commanded the seas and he commanded the mountains, he commanded everything, the elements. We have him now as Jesus. And isn't it true in Mark, I think chapter four, he commanded the seas.
He still it was command of power in the word and authority and so you have it even in judgment. I think you get that revelations just some place here in 20th 20 nineteenth chapter.
It says here in execution of it, his eyes were as a flame of fire.
On his head, many crowns, he had a name written.
It says in 13 he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood. His name is called the Word of God.
There's both authority there and there's power, and brethren, it's only from him that we have any power at all to act for him or in a way that's with him, and it's all according to the Word.
Where the authority is that we vow to.
I'd like to say for the encouragement of our young believers.
That it might be by this time quite obvious to all of us.
That we're in deep water.
And.
I would like to say this, Don't feel badly that you're not able to hear your brethren explain everything so clearly that it makes it appear as though they know everything about the subject. I would like to say to all young believers, when we come to the glorious, unspeakably precious person of the Lord Jesus Christ, we're considering a person who bankrupts all of our thoughts.
And the very fact that we have not been able even to explain properly, verse one, to the full understanding of all of us. Don't take that as a lack of faith on your part or the part of others. But we're dealing with a subject that's too glorious for man. It's the unspeakable person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we all feel like we want to take off our shoes. We want to bow our heads.
We're considering a person who's too big for us. Now, that's normal. We should feel that. And I hope we don't lose that sense in our souls as we progress through this chapter, that we're considering the most precious person that we could ever talk about and the most precious subject we could ever talk about. And if we find ourselves in deep water, don't be surprised, because we're just ordinary folks and the subject will always be too big for us.
And we want to just speak of that, but I would like to say this too, that we thank God that we have His Word. And so in view of this subject, which is so wonderful and so far beyond our grasp, let's stick close to what God has said about him. Let's listen to what God has said. Let's take it in and let's not allow our thoughts to go beyond.
The revelation about him, and I'd like to add this too that.
This subject may come up.
In your home, someday your kids may say a dad. Are we going to see the Father when we get to heaven? Are we going to see the spirit? Are we going to see the sun?
Daddy, who are we going to see when we get to heaven? Now you're going to need to give an answer to that question.
And the answer to that question has already been given, in other words.
And I'd like to just repeat it. Everything about God is found in Christ.
And when we get home to heaven, we're going to see God manifest in the flesh. We will not see with our natural eyes the Father as a distinct person. We will not see with our natural eyes the spirit, because we have no capacity to see spirits. But we have the capacity to see a man. And this is the unspeakably precious truth that in the Lord Jesus Christ.
00:55:19
We shall see the full revelation of God and will never have the thought that we've missed anything. We'll be conscious of the Father's presence. We'll be conscious of the spirits presence, though we will not see them with our natural eyes, because we cannot. But we shall see God totally and fully revealed in this precious Person who's called the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the.
In Colossians that said he is the image of the invisible God now he was that in eternity. He is that in time he will be that forever. And it's no surprise that we can't fully understand all of this, but one of the things that we can do we can come to the word of God with.
Humbleness of heart and say this is a subject to bid for me.
But I'm going to just believe what God has written about it. Let me give a warning.
In closing.
That there are many voices out there.
And competent eloquent creatures.
And if they are not sound on the person of Christ.
Don't listen to them. My son Tim not too long ago listened to a radio program of a man in California, and I understand some of the Saints have actually left the assembly and gone to join his church. And that man boldly attacked the eternal sonship of Christ.
My son Tim wrote to him pleading with him, and he wrote back and he said, I know that this is what is believed, but I do not agree with this. Well, a man who boldly attacks and that over the radio, the eternal sonship of Christ ought not to be listened to, doesn't deserve to be listened to, cannot be trusted because Christianity is not a religion.
Christianity is a person, and everything hinges on the truth of his person, and if one is wrong on that, he cannot be trusted as to anything. Let us beware. And the first epistle is written, our brother Hardy.
Read these verses because there was such an attack on the person of the Lord Jesus and John does not occupy.
The Saints with the error and go into details of the error. He reaffirms the truth that was held and known from the beginning amongst the Saints. And so we ought to be seeking help from those whom we know are sound and the person of Christ. Another error that sprang up amongst brethren was that he was not the Word from incarnation.
Before incarnation, he became the Word, an incarnation. That's a vicious attack. Again on the eternal sonship of Christ. Well, we have to refuse people and do not consider Him worth listening to if they are not sound. On these points of doctrine. I could just say I agree with Ron 100%. I want to add one thing though. He said the subject of the person of Christ is too big for us.
What I'd like to add, it's not too big for the Spirit of God. And brethren, the Spirit of God has liberty. We can learn of the person of Christ.
The Sanctity of Marriage, 1 Corinthians 7:1
Open—Chuck Hendricks
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.
Now concerning the things whereof he wrote unto me, Evidently the the Saints at Corinth had written to the apostle questions regarding married life. It is good for a man not to touch a woman. And verse 7 For I would that all men were even as I myself.
Verse 8. The end of the verse. It is good for them if they abide.
Even as IA verse 26. I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress.
I say that it is good for a man so to be he's talking about.
Virgins, verse 37. Nevertheless he that standeth steadfast in his heart, having no necessity.
No need for married life, but hath power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart, that he will keep his virginity. Thought doeth well.
So then he that I have to read this in a better translation to get the thought he that.
Marius doeth well, but he that maryth not doeth better.
He's clearly setting before us in this chapter.
That.
There is something superior to the married life.
And that is to remain unmarried. And he gives the reason that one might attend upon the Lord without distraction. Marriage brings problems.
It brings difficulties. It brings that which causes us to go out after the things of the world. He says that in verse.
32 I would have you without carefulness. I would have you without all the cares that come upon us when we have children and we go through married life. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord. How he may please the Lord. But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please not himself but his wife. And you'll notice that all the way through this chapter. And that's what I have before me.
It's not self love, it's not the gratification of fleshly lust, but it's the ministry in love to your partner to another. So he that is married it says careth for the things of the world, how he may please his wife. Verse 34. There is a difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit.
But she that is married careth for the things of the world. How she may please her husband. And when we enter into marriage, we don't enter into it with the thought of pleasing ourselves. That would be a very worldly motive. But the marriage tie brings complications and it brings associations which cause us to go out after the things of the world that we might please our mate, our wife or our husband.
That's perfectly legitimate. It's allowed. It's it's not.
He says in verse 28, If thou Mary, thou hast not sinned, and if a Virgin Mary she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh, and I would spare you So there is a path that is higher even than the normal marriage path, and he clearly talks about that. But when he does talk about the married life, he talks about.
He views it from the Christian perspective, just exactly the opposite that it's viewed by the world.
In fact, the the whole viewpoint of the world in connection with this kind of thing is carnal and bestial and not of God at all. Now let's just look at those first verses we we can't refer you if you're a young married couple or contemplated contemplating marriage to a more beautiful formula for happiness in the married life.
Then we have in First Corinthians 7 and I would recommend to all of us who are married and young, contemplating marriage to read and to reread and to reread First Corinthians 7 over and over again and put it into practice.
00:05:17
It's so simple and it's the formula for happiness in marriage.
There are spiritual needs, there are Solish needs and there are bodily needs, and this is what he talks about in the first part of the chapter. There's nothing wrong with those needs, there's nothing wrong with those desires, but they have to be channeled in the right channel.
And fulfilled in the marriage relationship. They're of God, They're God-given and therefore they are proper. He starts out in verse one. It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife and every woman have her own husband. He recognizes that there are these natural drives in man, that if they are not fulfilled.
In marriage they will result in.
Being fulfilled in the relation in a relationship outside of marriage, and that's called fornication, which is sin. And so he says let every man have his own life and every woman have her own husband. Now here we come to the instruction.
The marriage relationship Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence, and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The whole Christian viewpoint, the viewpoint of love is love serves, love always seeks the good of its object.
If I'm a husband, I'm to love my wife. I'm to consider her. I'm to meet her needs, whether they're spiritual or soulish or physical, and to meet her needs and she's to meet my needs. And we're not to be out there to gratify our own needs, but we are to be in the attitude of love, seeking the good and the blessing and the fulfillment of the one we love. That's the way of love.
And if we had this before us, if every married couple, if the wife would always be looking to please her husband in every way and hear their hear. The apostle who was unmarried, but writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives the most wonderful counsel for happiness in the marriage relationship. Let the husband render to the wife do benevolence.
And likewise the wife to the husband. Verse 4. The wife hath not power of her own body and not talking about the spirit here the soul. He's talking about the body now and he says the wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband.
She belongs to him, and likewise the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. And if we put that into practice, there is so much that begins, so much trouble in families, so much trouble in Christian marriages, that it begins where this isn't practiced.
This is not carried out. We're not looking to see the need in in the other, the one that we are attached to for life and to fulfill that need to meet that need, whether it's a physical need or whether it's a spiritual need. Here he's talking about the physical need and he says I don't have power of my own body as a husband, but it's to be for my dear wife and vice versa.
And he says defrauding not one the other. Don't deprive one, don't deprive the other of that proper marital relationship if there's a need there. The the and the attitude of love. The whole world system about us is self love, self seeking, self gratification, doing it to please myself. The whole scene of lust out there is just for that.
What's in it for me? But the Christian perspective is what's in it for her or what's in it for him. The one that I love, the one that I'm united to. I want to please him. I want to please her.
What a change, What a difference that makes. I'm not in it for I'm not in the marriage relationship for what I can get out of it, but what I can give to the one that I have taken to be my wife or the one I've taken to be my husband. It's the way of love.
00:10:07
And if you if you just carry that thought all the way through the 7th of First Corinthians, all the way through the Bible, the New Testament, it's the way of Christ. The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, not to be served, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom. For many, love seeketh not her own love, is always going out, always serving, always giving of itself to others.
And if you practice that dear wife and you practice that dear husband, there's going to be a happy relationship and the enemy will be defeated at the very point where he gets his thin edge of the wedge in to many of our families and split them in two.
Defraud ye not one the other, except it. Be with consent for a time that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency, your inability to contain yourself. There are these natural drives, and when two people are married, it means that they don't have the gift of celibacy. They're not able to live apart from that.
And so the Lord has brought them to seek a mate that's perfectly proper and owned of God. But that relationship is not entered into with the thought of now I can fulfill and gratify.
My desires it's entered into with the thought of satisfying and gratifying the needs and the desires of the one I love. So he says, I speak this in the way of permission, not of commandment, And he goes on.
And he talks about we'll just read the next few verses I would that all men were even as I myself he was without. He was unmarried. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner and another after that.
I say therefore to the unmarried and widows. It is good for them if they abide, even as I. To remain unmarried, he points out in this chapter, is to free one the South of the difficulties that.
Are brought upon us when we we get into marriage, have families, sickness comes in, trials, come in all kinds of problems that we are all acquainted with.
And he says I would have you without distraction, but only some are given that gift. And if you don't have that gift, it's perfectly proper to marry.
So he says in verse 9, If they cannot contain, they're not given the gift of celibacy. Let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with lust. Better to marry than to burn. And unto the married I command, yet not I but the Lord, let not the wife depart from her husband.
In Malachi 2, the Lord has many complaints against the remnant that had returned in the days of Ezra Nehemiah, and one of the things that He says to them, He says that you've dealt treacherously with the wife of your youth and with the wife of your covenant.
They had dealt treacherously with Jehovah, they had dealt treacherously, They had broken faith with their brother, and they had dealt treacherously with their wives.
They put some of them away. And so he says, The Lord hateth putting away, the Lord hateth putting away. And here he says unto the married I command not I, but the Lord, let not the wife depart from her husband. But if she depart, or if she have departed, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband, and let not the husband put away his wife. Clear instruction, Marriage is for.
A lifetime until death do us part. And God says I hate putting away, I hate divorce. There's only one condition that he allows it and that is fornication in the gospels. And then he goes on in this chapter to treat of another special case. It says in verse 11 if she depart here, we're talking about two married 2 Christians married to one another. Let her remain unmarried.
Or be reconciled to her husband, and let not the husband put away his wife. So if if there is a separation that has come into those who are Christians, he says in that separated position they are to remain unmarried or be reconciled. Those are the two options that they have, but not to obtain a divorce. And then he says in verse 12 to the rest speak I not the Lord, if any brother hath a wife, that believeth not.
00:15:20
And she'd be pleased to dwell with him. Let him not put her away. That's just the opposite of what you get in Ezra.
Where they they found that they and Nehemiah, where they had married strange wives, and they had to put the strange wives away under the law, and they had to put the children away as being unclean. But here in Christianity if two people are married, and then they hear the gospel, and one of them embraces it and gets saved, and the other one is not saved, now the unsaved says to the saved partner, you've changed.
You're not the man I married. You don't love the things of the world like you used to, and you're the one that's changed. I haven't changed. And the unsaved wife says I'm not going to continue with you. If she says she will continue with him, then the instruction to him is.
Let him remain with her. He doesn't have to put her away, as was the case under the law, but any under grace. He didn't have to put her away, he was to remain with her. But what if she says I won't stay with you? Well, it says in verse 12, If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not he be pleased to dwell with her. Let her not leave him.
For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife.
And the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. Else were your children unclean?
In Ezra's day the children were unclean. The the the heathen wife was unclean, had to be put away. And they did it. They carried out that instruction. And then in Malachi day they were putting away their Jewish wives and marrying heathen wives. The very thing that they had acted faithfully in in in the days of Nehemiah, they now had reversed that they had fallen into such a low state Well.
He says now they're holy, your children are holy. In Christianity it's different if just one of the partners of the marriage relationship is saved, that children are holy, and the the the saved one doesn't have to put the unsaved one away. But what if the unsaved 1 The unbeliever departs verse 15. If the unbelieving depart, let him depart, let him or her depart. A brother or a sister is not under ******* in such cases.
But God hath called us to peace. So in that case.
For the gospel reaches a couple that were married in both of them unsaved, and one of them gets saved and the other one, the unsaved partner leaves and says, I can't live with you any longer. You're not the man, you're not the woman I married and they leave. The word is to the believer, let it. Let them depart. You can't retain them.
You're not under ******* in such cases if they had to remain with them.
They had to continue considering themselves married to that person. What a ******* that would be. It would be a constant life.
Of conflict of the saved one, the one who is light in the Lord, married to the unsaved one, the one who is darkness. The one who has the mind of the Spirit, And going after the things of the Spirit yoke to the one that has nothing but the mind of the flesh, and desiring the things of the flesh.
So the Spirit of God says you're not in *******. In such cases, let them go. You're not in ******* you're free. And that's an exceptional case, not taken up in the Gospels. But here the Apostle Paul takes it up under the direction of the Holy Spirit to give guidance in that special case where the gospel has been received by one of the partners and they have become a child of God.
And the other one refuses to continue with them. He doesn't lay upon the believer.
An insuperable burden of *******. But the word is let them depart. You're not in ******* in such cases. Well, at the end of the chapter, verse 39, the apostle says the wife is bound by the law as long as her husband live it. But if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be to be married to whom she will.
00:20:03
Only in the Lord. So death breaks the bond, and when the bond is broken, she's at liberty to be married to whom she will only in the Lord. Now I take that in the same way with.
Verse 15 A brother or sister.
Is not in ******* in such cases. Not in *******. Not bound as it reads in the new translation, is the, is the.
Bond is broken, and there's liberty then to be married to another. But God's thought in marriage is the giving of oneself to his partner, as there is a need.
In the partner and to meet that need, it's the way of love. It's just the opposite of the way of self gratification, the way of the flesh, the way of self. It's always looking out, whether it's in a bodily way or a soulless way or a spiritual way, always looking out for the blessing of your wife or your husband. That's basically.
What I wanted to bring before us and I would strongly encourage all young married couples to read and to put into practice 1St Corinthians 7 and you will have.
I believe a happy life, a life of giving, a life of giving, of yourself for the good and blessing of your partner.
For the enduring.
Of that union which is to set forth Christ.
And the church.
Worship
Open—Clem Buchanan
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.
A few thoughts to connect with.
The closing thoughts of the reading meeting this morning.
In John 9 to begin with.
About connecting.
One thought was what our brother has just said.
And that is the verse.
In the words of the Lord Jesus quoted.
By poll.
In DAX 20, it is more blessed to give.
Than to receive.
As we have heard the practical instruction about the marriage state.
That applies there in a very wonderful way.
More blessed to give than to receive.
There are two words in the last chapter in the Bible.
That, I think are very impressive.
They are these.
Worship God, there is nothing.
Higher for you and I that I know at least than that.
Worship God now in the 9th chapter of Acts or 9th chapter of John. This morning our brother got down at the close of the meeting to the time when.
Jesus revealed himself to this man who had been blamed from birth.
And he came and met Jesus.
And in verse 36, he said.
And to he answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I may believe on him?
And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.
Oh, what a wonderful encounter this was for that man who had been.
Born blind.
Native blindness, which is inherent in all of us that needs to be broken up to learn.
What the light is and who the light is that brings.
Life to.
Us, and that is God manifest in the flesh.
The scent 1 Scent of the Father when we learn Him who He is. The glories of His person when we learn just a little of it and think that God's love was so great that he sent down that One who is light to make known His love, to be offered up on the cross, to put away our sins by the sacrifice.
Of himself to give us sight. And then here it was, this man.
Who had Jesus standing before him?
The one who had given him sight.
And then he.
Learns who he is. The question he had asked in verse 35 No, the Lord let's read verse 35. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and when he had found him, he said unto him, dust thou believe on the Son of God. This question the Lord asked the man who had been born blind, to whom he had given sight, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? And then he says in verse 36, Who is he? A very straightforward question, Who is this?
One who is the Son of God, who is the Lord, and he calls Jesus Lord, that I might believe on him. Then Jesus said, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with he. Think of this wonderful encounter. Now this man with his eyes open, standing there face to face with the one who had opened his eyes. What does it produce? Verse.
38.
He said Lord I believe and he worshipped him now back in the 4th chapter.
In the fourth chapter of John.
Some well known verses.
00:05:00
In.
Verse 19, the woman learns.
And says, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet, because he had revealed her life.
He knew, and then she changes the subject. She doesn't like that subject, she changes it. And our fathers worship in this mountain. Now that was Samaria. And you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when you shall neither in this mountain, in Samaria, nor yet at Jerusalem.
Worship the Father.
Ye worship, ye know not what we know what we worship.
For salvation is of the Jews, but the hour cometh.
Now notice this. And now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit.
And.
In truth.
Marvelous, that the son of mine, the Son of God.
Would take up this.
Wonderful truth to pronounce.
To this woman.
But it came at the time in the in the Gospel order here, and all is proper.
For the father.
Has been revealed in the Sun as we had in our readings.
And the father is seeking children.
And he gets them through those that receive the Lord Jesus.
That believe on him and are brought into the family.
Because our faith in Christ a result.
Of the purposes and counsels of God being fulfilled in His.
Sovereignty as we had so beautifully before us in our last reading. Oh, it was just wonderful to think that it's the sovereignty of God that would choose you and me.
And come and get us at such a cost and bring us into his family as children.
And to have now, now in this age, the Christian period, a people on the earth that are worshippers, that is set in the more blessed place of giving because that's what we're doing in worship.
It's almost too wonderful to.
Understand, and I guess we don't fully, that God puts us in the more blessed place of giving to Him.
But we give what we have gotten from him, and here is an exercise for every one of us.
In the same chapter 4 back in the 14th.
Verse It reads this way, whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him.
Shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting light. This is a springing will in this chapter, where worship is brought before us.
The picture is a fountain, and it's a true one of what worship is if I had here a clear plastic tube.
And held it in AU shape and water were poured in this side.
It would come down and rise up to the same level on the other side.
00:10:01
This is the simile that Jesus uses here when he talks about worship. It is the water of life concerning Christ and all his loveliness, who he is that comes down into our ears, sinks down into our hearts, and arises back up in praise, in worship, in adoration. And you and I are the worshippers.
That God is seeking today to worship the Father in that relationship. Worship is to the Father in that known relationship. True worship. God is absolute and true, but it's in the known relationship as Father.
And I believe worship then turns out to be a collective thing.
Individual but collective, because there are others brought into the same fellowship, so that the Lord says.
In answer to the woman's statement about our Father's worship in this mountain.
In Samaria and you, you, you say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. He gives her some light.
And, says a woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, not in some area, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Now I believe in type that Samaria.
Corresponds to the state of confusion around us because the Samaritans were a mixed people.
Who brought the Lord into their?
Worship in connection with their idols.
Back in the 17th chapter of one of the Kings, you can look it up where the Samaritans originated and come from, which I think to me speaks of the confusion around us in Christendom that that is not the place to worship. But.
Hold this place and turn to Galatians.
Just for a comment which may bear a little on that.
In the fourth chapter of Galatians a verse 25 for this Hager or Hagar is.
Galatians 425.
Typically she is Mount Sinai where the law was given in Arabia and answer to Jerusalem, which now is that is when the Lord was here.
Jerusalem was still under that legal system, and that is what answers to Jerusalem, which now is and is in ******* with their children. That's the old yoke of the law then, he says. But Jerusalem, which is above, is free. Who is the mother of us now. Our worship then is above.
This Jerusalem which is above in this day and age, worship is not offered in the city of Jerusalem. There's a Mosque of Omar upon that old hilltop there now.
And there's no temple. God took that away too. But that's by the way.
But what the Lord was teaching, it's not what you Samaritans say, which is a mixed up thing and it's not even going to be the old legal system of the test of the place of the law for that was the ended at the cross. But then he points on neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father back in our chapter 4 of John.
So.
Ye worship, you know, not want. It's a confused thing in most of Christendom.
Worship in the Church of your choice. Where do you find that in scripture? You worship. You know not what we know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. Salvation came in by the way of the Lord Jesus Christ. So when we receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, you and I are set at liberty, but a liberty which learns of Christ and wants to give and wants to open up our voices and.
00:15:09
Our heart in praise, in worship, in adoration.
To where the Lord has gone for us as our faithful and merciful High Priest. The veil of the temple opened up, and Christ now gone into the holy places not made with hands to appear in the presence of God, for us to take the.
Expressions of our lips.
In praise, thou art worthy in song.
Thinking and contemplating of Christ and all He has done for us.
That by the Spirit we have entrance there into the holiest of all, and that Christ is there, as it were, to lead in that singing. And so this is where we worship. But I do believe that in connection with that place in heaven, there is a literal place on earth.
Where this flows forth and I'm going to have to say.
Only one locally that is connected with that spot.
One place on earth has connected with that place in heaven where the Lord is given His place in the midst. If we are left here for the meeting tomorrow, it will be represented here where the Lord is owned and a company is met together in His name.
And there's one little on the table.
To announce.
That Jesus lives.
And he lives in his Saints, and we are livingly.
Linked up with him. I'll go back in closing to a verse in Exodus if I can find it. Some brother can help me. Maybe it's the verse that says.
None shall appear before me. Empty. Thought I could turn right to it, but I don't. Thank you. That's that's another place that will serve.
Yes, thank you. And here we have 3 feasts in this chapter which the Jews were to keep, and they are typical.
And here we come with the Jewish or the list of the piece in the 16th verse, Deuteronomy 1616. Then reading it three times in a year, shalt thou.
Shall all thy mails appear before the Lord?
Thy God in the place which he shall choose in the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
And in the Feast of Weeks and in the Feast of Tabernacles, and they shall not appear before me empty, we are keeping these first two feasts, that is the Feast of the Passover, which is the unleavened bread, and the Feast of Weeks, which is Pentecost, as a memorial looking back to what the Lord did for us on the cross. The third one is Jewish, but the instruction fits.
And not just three times in the year, which brings in an occasion to suggest that.
The Lord's Table is just mentioned once in Scripture.
And the Lord's Supper just mentioned once in Scripture and the Lord's Day is just mentioned once in Scripture sufficient to exercise our hearts and we're not under a legal system to say thou shalt worship the Lord or remember the Lord Jesus every seven days or another number if you want to set it there early. They did it from day-to-day and but it seems that the Lord.
Realizing our need both as to weakness and as to forgetfulness has settled it down to each Lords day, because it became a custom to in the days of the disciples to come together to break bread upon the first day of the week. But this speaks to my heart. They shall not appear before the Lord empty now. We have had our hearts filled with Christ in these.
00:20:03
Meetings, and may it be so, not just when we come to a conference.
But to fill our hearts, our souls with Christ, all his wonders, every day in our homes, in our local assemblies, so that when we come to give, we have something to offer, our highest, our most blessed privilege.
Three For Us Three Against, 1 John 2:15
Open—Gordon Hayhoe
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.
I'd like to speak this afternoon, particularly about three who are for us, and the three that are against us. That is, when I say 3 for us. I speak of the Godhead, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, for it says, if God before us, who can be against us?
But we have three enemies to the world and the flesh and the devil. And I'd like to speak with the Lord's help, about how we have grace and power to meet these situations. Because the Bible says greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. And I appeal to you dear young people starting out in life, that the Lord might give you grace to make those decisions in your life that would be for his honor and glory.
I'd like to start by looking at a verse in Joel, the book of Joel, two books after Daniel, Daniel Hosea, Joel Joel chapter 3, Joel chapter 3 and verse 14. Multitudes, Multitudes in the valley of decision for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. Well, I trust that each one of you dear young people have made that once for all decision that you have received the Lord Jesus as your personal savior.
That is a thing you only have to do once to receive him. And that very moment you become a child of God, that very moment you receive a new life, and you have the power by the Spirit to go on and live to please the Lord Jesus. That is a shall I say it once for all decision, because when the Lord saves you, it is an eternal salvation, tells us I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. But then there is the decisions that we have to make every day of our lives, those decisions that affect our life down here. And I was thinking in connection with this verse, multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. There are indeed a large group of young people here today, and those of us who are older too, we also are making decisions. And although it says here the day of the Lord, referring to the time of judgment.
For us, there is a manifestation of our lives, and you can have a saved soul, but a lost life. You can be assured that you'll be in heaven, but you could also have a lost life, a life that you could have lived for the Lord Jesus who loved you enough and me enough to die for us. And you could have decided day by day to live for him. But oh, how sad it is to think that there should be such a lack of gratitude in our hearts for such a wonderful Savior.
That we would not desire to live each day to please him. So this is a decision that we have to make day by day. Indeed, I might say moment by moment. It's a constant thing in our lives, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our bodies. And so as we see the world getting farther and farther away from God.
How important it is that there should be that decision in our lives and we need help from the Lord for this and He can give us the help that we need. He can give us the strength that we need to make those right decisions so that we would go on and live for him.
Well, as I say, we have the Father, and in the Scripture we find that when it speaks of the Father, then we see in contrast with the Father of the world. If you turn to 1St Epistle of John and the second chapter First Epistle of John and the second chapter the 15th verse, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world.
Of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father.
Bodies of the world and the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Here we see, the Father said, in contrast, so to speak, with this vast world system that we have about us. That's why it says in John's epistle, who is he that that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? There was the most marvelous expression of God's love.
When he gave the dearest object of his heart, his own Son, and this world said, I don't want the Son of God, they said they made a decision. They didn't want him. And the world has a system of things that is set up to try and keep you from knowing the love of God. It has all kinds of pleasures and everything to offer to you that would hinder you from enjoying that love that is in the heart of God. And you know very well how very strong it is.
00:05:28
I have been young once. I'm a bit older now, but I understand that. I'm sure that you understand that there is a strong pull from the world, the things that are seen, all those things that glitter in this world, that seems so attractive, that seems so worthwhile, that seem worth living for. These all are set before us day by day. Advertising is increasing. All these kind of things are brought into homes by television and people can see.
The kingdoms of the world and the glory of them as Satan showed them to the Lord Jesus. And they seem very attractive, worthwhile, but oh how much time they take and how they tend to draw our hearts away from knowing the love that is in the heart of God our Father. But this world is indeed strong, but there's one that is stronger and that is the Father. We were reading this morning about the Father's love that drew us all that the Father have given me shall come to me.
And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. When you and I came to the Lord, it came to the God our Father in all our need. Like the prodigal returning and saying, Father, I've sinned against heaven. And before thee, what kind of a welcome did he receive? All his Father threw his arms around him and kissed him, and clothed him with the best robe, the ring, the feast, all were his. That's the way God responds to a little response.
From your heart and mind. And so we see here then that there is this system love, not the world.
It's making a strong pull for each one of us, and especially in this day and age where there is a larger measure of prosperity than many have known in the past. And so you have to make a choice in this Whether you're going to go on through life in the enjoyment and appreciation of what the father has done in sending his son for you, or whether you're going to allow the world to mold your life, It wants to mold your life. When you go to school, they want to mold your life. They want to plan it for you how you should live.
How you should dress, how you should choose your profession and all this sort of thing. The whole world system is presented to you and you have a decision to make. Multitudes. Multitudes in the valley of decision. And it will thrills our hearts to see young people going to school, hearing all this offer that the world has young people of ability, perhaps first in their class, but who say all. But my ability doesn't belong to myself. I've received it and I owe it to the one who loved me enough.
To send the dearest object of his heart to save me. And so we have the world.
And the father said in opposition, we see them as it were opposed. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. And we see those three things, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Our brother Erosman used to tell us that these specially appeal at different periods of life in youth, the lust of the flesh. And a lot of young people I'm speaking specially to you. I know you feel that when you're young.
And there's the lust of the flesh. There seems to be so much that appeals that makes you want to do this or that without reference to whether it's pleasing to God or whether it's not. And then there's the lust of the eyes, all that's put out before your eyes to make you go after the things that glitter in this world. And that's the lust of the eyes. And then position to gain a position, to be perhaps president of some company, to be in a high position in this world. It's all held out to us.
Lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. It's the world system. But then we think of the Father's love, this world with all its glitter, with all its good said We will not have this man to reign over us. And so we see the two sat in opposition. And then we have next we have the flesh within us. That's in Galatians chapter 5.
I'd like you to look at Galatians chapter 5, verse 16. This I say Then walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that she cannot do the things that she would.
00:10:21
I know if you're a real child of God, you do want to please the Lord Jesus. There is within you that desire.
I have that confidence as I speak. It's always a joy to me when I look at young people.
No matter how worldly to me, they may seem to know that underneath it all.
They possess a new life that responds to the claims of Christ, and I address myself in that way to that new life. I'm trying to pour some water into the well because if the pump's not working, you have to prime the prime, the pump, and then you get lots out, far more than you poured in. And so that's just what I want to do. If you're a real child of God, underneath all the rubbish and all those things that have perhaps gripped your life, there is that Newman there, that Newman that responds to the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And there is a conflict within because the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. But which is the stronger is that flesh in you and I stronger than that divine guest that God has given to indwell your body and mine? Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which you have of God. That is the Spirit of God dwells inside your body. And so that chapter closes 1St Corinthians 6 by saying.
Therefore, glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are gods. And so the flesh is pretty strong, isn't it? It is especially strong when we're young. In middle life, as I said, there is the lust of the eyes. We 10 when we come to middle life to like we feel we've sort of got somewhere. We've got a nice home, a nice car. We've sort of climbed to a position of semi security as we feel.
And we, we strive for that in middle life. But you know, as we get older, why we begin to relax our grasp. I say to my wife sometimes, that's probably the last time we'll paint this house. You know, as you get older, you realize that those kind of things don't have the same appeal. Does that mean that Satans not working? Oh, no. The pride of life, The pride of life. When we get older, we're liable to think we've got somewhere. We're pretty important people because.
We plan somewhere in the Christian life, but all brethren, we can't keep ourselves. The world is that vast system and the flesh inside never improves. God himself does not attempt to improve that old nature. Did you think after you were saved that somehow that flesh was going to improve? That you wouldn't want those wrong things any longer? Oh, it's not true. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and the Bible says the flesh profiteth nothing.
Don't ever hope that if you live a little longer, those desires will fade out.
They'll just be replaced by other things, that's all. They'll just be other things that come in. As we get older, other things come in to take the place that we once craved when we were young. So it is dear young people, but is there a stronger one? Which is a stronger? Oh, you say you don't know how strong that pull is. That old nature in me, just constantly popping up and want to do something wrong. But you have someone who's stronger. You have the Holy Spirit of God.
Power is unlimited. I could stall on a hill with my car. I think I have a fairly good motor in my car.
But I could stall on a small hill if I didn't step on the gas. I have to use the power that's there, and you have that power within you by the Spirit of God and the Beloved. Apostle Paul could say I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. There is power for you by the Spirit of God to live to please him. And so we have the Father in the world in opposition that flesh within, but on the other side, the Holy Spirit of God.
One of the Persons of the Holy Trinity indwelling your body.
And abiding with you forever. The difference is that in heaven you'll there will be two things that we have here we won't have there. That is, we have that flesh within us and that flesh lusts after evil things and it won't change. And then we also have bodies of humiliation. Maybe there's a young person sitting here and say, I have a splitting headache today. I can hardly listen. Well, you won't have those hindrances in heaven, but you still have, even now.
00:15:09
The same new life and the same power that you're going to have in heaven. What triumph there can be.
In the Christian life, when we draw upon the resources that God has provided for us.
So we have within us then the Holy Spirit of God and the power so that we can live to please him. Then if you turn over to 2nd Corinthians.
Chapter 6.
And verse 15 in Second Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 15.
Verse 14 I'll read Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believe us with an infidel? Was particularly the first part of that fifteenth verse I wanted you to notice. There we see Christ and Belial Satan.
Set in opposition?
Oh, the devil is so strong. When I was a young person, there was.
Great effort made to deny that there was a reality, a person in the Bible spoken of as the devil, Satan. See, I was taught when I was young, not by my parents but by other people. That devil was just a bad inside of you. It's not true. The devil is a real person. There are two powers that are superior to man, the power of God and the power of Satan.
2 Powers. People talk about being free moral agents. But you're not free when there are two powers above you stronger than yourself, and you're not set free, as the Lord Jesus said, until the sun sets you free. If the sun therefore shall make you free, he shall be free indeed. And if you're not saved, you're still under the power of Satan, who's blinding your eyes. The God of this world had blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ.
Who is the image of God should shine unto them and dear young people even as believers.
Satan can get power over our lives. He asked. The Lord tells us about Peter. We look at it shortly. It says about Peter. Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat. Thank God Peter was a real believer, but there was a power that was greater than Peter and that was Satan. A victory. And then when you find all the power of Satan, I think sometimes of when the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt.
Satan didn't want to let them go. It was Pharaoh, of course, but it was Pharaoh representing Satan. And he said, why did we let these people go from serving us? And he gathered together all the Chariots of Egypt and came out against them. Sometimes you feel like that, don't you? As if all the Chariots of Egypt has come against you. But all how wonderful. There is one who's greater, the Lord Jesus, the one with the nail pierced hands, the one who died for me. And he says.
Do you need help, Gordon? I'm up there for you. I understand all about you. I know about your emotions. I know about your body, everything about you. I saw your body before you were ever born into this world. Thine eyes did behold my substance yet being unperfect. And in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned before there were any of them. God knew about all those things that you possess.
Physical weaknesses, emotional weaknesses. He knows all about them. Isn't it wonderful? You have a savior like that, and he says I'm going to live for you up there. And if you need any help, don't despair. Just look up. I'm there for you. And he ever liveth to make intercession for us all, you say, but I failed, He said, All right, I'm your advocate. I'll plead your case. I'll give you restoration. He restoreth my soul.
He lead us me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. All the young people don't get discouraged. You have as it tells us a story about Elisha. When he woke up one morning, all the armies of the enemy were surrounding the city where he lived. And there his young man, who was his helper, got up in the morning, and he said, what should we do? And Elisha said, Lord, open the young man's eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and it says the mountain was full of horses and Chariots.
00:20:02
Round about the city. And he said to this young man who was so afraid, He said, he said those that are with us are more than that, those that are against us. So it is dear young people, oh, how wonderful that you and I can, in spite of it all, you say you're not in the same setting as I am. Your home is different. Yes, we're all different. Different makeups, different homes, different assemblies, different situations.
I can't enter into yours fully, but the Lord Jesus can. He knows everything, and that prophet could sleep that night even although the city was being surrounded. And that's where God gives that peace. That cat passes all understanding but in everything by prayer and supplication. With Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Dear Young people were talking about realities. Some of us in some measure have proved this. We look back on our lives. We think, oh, how many times we would have slipped if it wasn't for His grace that kept us when we called for help. Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. And then he restores to Who of us could say we have never needed to be restored? We need it over and over again. Oh, how to bless it thing.
So we have the world.
And the flesh, The devil. We have the Father, we have the Holy Spirit, we have the Son who died for us, who has made us free, who lives for us, who's our great high Priest and our advocate. And I just like to look briefly to look at two or three little instances, first of all, in connection with the world. If you turn to Second Timothy, chapter 4 and verse 10, just the first part of this tenth verse.
Or deem us hath forsaken me.
Having loved this present world now this was a dear young man. Paul speaks of him as a co-worker. He labored with the apostle Paul. Perhaps you've done that. Maybe you've joined in quite a few things to help in the assembly you've gathered the children in. You've helped. Brad taught a Sunday school class. But you got discouraged. You got discouraged. People didn't appreciate it.
The children didn't behave you you just sort of said it's it's no use it's it's too difficult.
And I expect that what's happened to Demas too. And out there was the world glittering out. There were young people laughing and smiling, and he was hurt and wounded and he said I'm going to try the world. He turned aside. He fades out of the picture. A saved soul, but a lost life. Oh dear young people, don't be discouraged when these things happen and they do happen. Things come in, People say things that hurt. People misjudge.
People do a great many things. They did them to our Savior. They do them to us. But I say don't turn aside, don't be like dear Demas. He left the Apostle Paul, and in that day of manifestation, the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
In that day when?
Dimas life is manifested, I believe there will be that which is till the praise and honor and glory of the Lord. But there will be a blank. There'll be a lost period. He forsook Paul. He loved his present world. He lost sight of the Father's love which could have sustained him. Oh, I want to encourage you. And those things happen. Just go. And as it were when those bitter waters are there.
Throw in the tree and you will find that the bitter waters can be made sweet. Oh, may the Lord encourage you not to be like Demas. There's another man. Perhaps we have time to turn to it. In Hebrews 11, this is the opposite.
Verse 24 Hebrews 11/24 By faith Moses, when he was come to ears, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. For he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Here's another young man. Tragedy came in his young life. He was taken from that ark of bulrushes, taken away from his home, and taken into the court of Farrell.
00:25:11
And another way people could have looked at it and say, oh, but it was a marvelous opportunity this young man had, he could have become very great in this world and he could have been in a very effectual help for the people of God, because he could have been one of the Pharaohs of Egypt and influenced things so that things would be made easier for the people of God. He could have looked at all those things and said, I'm going to climb, I'm going to be one of the great of Egypt. But the time came when he came to years.
The hour of decision came in his life. He had a choice to make. He either had to choose to suffer affliction for the people of God. I often say it doesn't say he chose to have a good time with the people of God. Sometimes you do you have a real good time with the people of God, but sometimes you have a rough time with the people of God too. Sometimes it's not always that way. He chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
He wasn't like Demas when the crush came, When the decision had to be made, he gave up everything this world had to offer its glory, its glitter. The pyramids stand there to be a monument to the glory of Egypt In the past. There's no monument to Moses. He was buried by God himself, a far greater honor. No one knows where his sepulchre is because the Lord buried him. But oh, what a useful life. What a what a moment it will be when his life passes into review.
You think you'll be sorry that he gave up the glory of Egypt? Oh, I say 1000 Times Now. As our brother said, no, it's worthwhile. Someone said the path of faith is worthwhile. We're at 1000 times harder than it is. He had a decision to make, chose to suffer affliction with the people of God. They pushed him away. They didn't appreciate him, they said, who made the ruler to the judge? But he didn't give up. He didn't give up. He had a little time of set back.
Like was mentioned about John the Baptist, Moses spent 40 years in the backside of the desert, but God used him. Was a good decision, wasn't it? You'll never be sorry that you make a decision when the world offers you a great deal and you say, but I belong to the Lord Jesus, I want to live to please him. Moses made a right decision. Demas made a very sad decision because he chose the things of this world.
And now we find.
In Samuel two Samuel chapter 1111 and tells us the last verse, just the last phrase, this last verse, but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. He was a man in a great position, honored of God, chosen to be God's king. But there came a time when there was a tremendous appeal to the flesh. His eyes caught somebody.
Who made a great appeal to him? Beautiful, worth going after as he thought. So he went out and went in violent disobedience to the word of God, and took Uriah's wife. All dear young people, you can spoil your life this way too. Daniel was David was restored afterwards, but the sword didn't depart from his house. While I beseech you, dear young people, when those temptations come, and they do come in your life.
And they come pretty strong sometimes. Remember, it displeases the Lord. You say they just overcome me. But who is strongest greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world? Can you give the Lord strength? I mean, can the Lord give you strength? I meant to say for the occasion, yes, He can. We find a similar situation. I won't turn to it in connection with Joseph. Joseph had a situation similar that was presented to him.
So I'm on the opposite sex, pressing on him, trying to get him to defile his body. And this pressure became great from day-to-day. But what was the decision that Moses made? Moses said that, pardon me, that Joseph made. He said, God forbid that I should do this great wickedness and sin against God. Was it worthwhile?
Just think of the life of Joseph after this. Just think of how God used him. It wasn't all smooth. He really had a hard time for a while. But all I'm sure if you said to Joseph at the end of his life, are you sorry you said no on that occasion. Always said God had a plan my whole life and that was just part of the way he was fitting me for a place that I could be used for him. Your young people owes temptations are allowed of God, but he's the Lord Jesus.
00:30:27
Is stronger. And so this was the temptation to the flesh. And so in one case we find a man giving in King David wonderful man, gave. In another case we see one, and he didn't give in. Is it worthwhile? Oh, how often when we give way we bring sorrow into our lives. It says his reproach shall not be wiped away. Through the Lord restores bless his name that he does. But all I plead with you, dear young people.
Remember, Satan is seeking to.
Lead you astray, and the flesh is pretty strong. The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.
And the Spirit of God can give you the strength to be the overcoming one. May you rely upon him.
And then last of all we have the Lord Jesus and Satan, and we see the Lord Jesus down here in this world. How beautifully it's brought before him. But first of all, let us look at Peter in Luke 23. No Luke 22, I should say Luke 22 And verse 31 And the Lord said Simon Simon, Behold, Satan hath desired.
That he might have you to have you. That he may sift you as we.
Satan wanted to get Peter, and Peter didn't realize his weakness. He didn't realize how very weak he was. You've said that That's one thing I'll never do, Brother said to me one time. There was one thing I said I'd never do, but he said I did it. I did it. And dear young people never say I wouldn't do that. Just say I need the Lord's help. Peter said he would never deny his Lord, and he meant every word of it, but he did. He didn't draw upon that source of power.
I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me, but he trusted himself.
Which was the stronger? Christ was stronger, but without Christ, Peter was pretty weak, and so am I, and so are you. But all then we think of the Lord Jesus. I won't turn to it. In the 16th chapter of John it says the Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me. Oh, just think of that blessed one here in this world, surrounded by everything, all kinds of things that would distress you and I.
Rejected by the nation, misunderstood by his people, crowned with thorns, everything that he went through in his blessed pathway of obedience, but the Lord Jesus met every temptation.
By that new life and by the power of the Spirit, because the Lord Jesus is that life himself. And he said he had nothing in him, nothing in him, so that when Satan came there was no response. The Lord Jesus desire was to please his Father.
So I say you have the life of Christ to us. It's a new life. He is that eternal life which was with the Father from all eternity. But you and I have been given that new life. Is Christ stronger? Is he able? Yes, he's able. And he can give you and I the strength when Satan comes and all his forces against us. And perhaps you feel that, as I said about Pharaoh, you feel he just coming sometimes.
Full force against you. You feel so weak. Oh, isn't it wonderful? You have the very life of Christ within you, and Satan has nothing to draw upon in that new life. That's the holy life of the Lord Jesus that is imparted to us, that eternal life. It says whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, and his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. That new life that you and I have is the very life of Christ.
Well, how blessed them so? We have them, these three that are against us, the world and the flesh and the devil. We have the whole Godhead for us. If God before us, who can be against us? The Father said. In opposition to the world, the Holy Spirit, and opposition to the flesh, and Christ as against Satan, I don't need to ask you which is a stronger, but which one are you and I going to allow? Are we going to allow our lives to be governed?
00:35:10
By the world and the flesh and the devil, are we going to see grace day by day to look up?
And seek to the Father his rightful place in our lives, to give thee, Holy Spirit, His place to lead us and guide us to give the Lord Jesus that blessed one His place of kingship, so to speak, that is the one who occupies the throne in our lives, so that we honor him and seek to please him. Older, young people, you can decide once for all for Christ, but in these things it's constantly.
Feeling our own utter weakness and looking up and asking the Lord for strength, some of you have heard the little poem about the life of Roland Hill and how there was a lady that was going to some great event and she came along. There was an open air meeting going on and Roland Hill was preaching and the driver of the coach hollered out. Make way, make way. He had a woman who was going to a royal.
A royal entertainment of some kind in the carriage. And Roland Hill said there's going to be a public sale here today, he said, Tis the King's highway. And I hold it today in the name of the king of Kings. And he said, I'm going to offer this woman on sale today and I see bidders for her. We have bidders too, for our souls, the world and the flesh and the devil. And then in his little talk, he said, But there's another bitter the Lord Jesus Christ, who's bidding for this woman.
He said. And what hast thou to offer, thou, man of sorrows unknown? He said. I'll offer my cross of suffering. I'll offer her trial in this world, salvation. But he said, with endless love in my home, above all should be righted there. Her answer was Lord Jesus, she said as she bowed her head. The highest bidder art thou? He's the highest bidder. He's made a bid for your soul. He's paid the price. At Calvary. We belong to him.
I just tell one little story too at the end interested me when I was a young person perhaps some here. I know remember Brother Mcleve who used to live in Montreal and he told about a picture that was in an art gallery of a young man and he was at a game of chess and on the other side of the drawing was Satan and the young man was sitting opposite to Satan and they were playing chess and.
Things were said on the tables so that.
On this chess table, And he was what they call checkmated. It seemed that any move that he was going to make, he was going to be defeated. It was a very, very famous chess player that came along and he sat there and he sat there and he sat there and at last he figured a move where he could escape that power that was against him. And he said bring me a chess board. He arranged it just as it was in the picture.
And he showed how there was a move that could be made, that Satan would be defeated. And dear young people, you can make that move. The Lord Jesus will help you. You say that's where I am. I'm checkmated. I'm just in a spot where there seems no release. You're not. There's one who's stronger. There's one who's greater. And I beg of you to allow him to take control in your life, given the place of lordship and honor that he deserved, that he died to win.
You're going to give him all the honors and all the glory up in that Father's house above. Isn't it worthwhile to do it down here, and not to have a lost life, but to have a life that through wondrous grace could be in little measure preserved for His glory and praise? He'll help you, dear young people. Maybe this very gathering together for these three days will be the time when the Lord will help you to seek to give the Lord Jesus his rightful place.
To change the whole order of your life and not allow the world in the flesh and the devil, but to allow that blessed Holy Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, to come in with power and help you to live a life that is for the glory and praise of the Lord Jesus and for eternal blessing. May He help you in this decision today and tomorrow and every day until He comes.
John 1:4-18
Reading
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.
Gospel of John.
Chapter one, verse four in him was life.
And the life was the light of men. The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made by Him. The world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not, but as many as received Him. To them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bear witness of Him, and cried, saying, This is He of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for He was before me, and of His fullness have all we received, And grace for grace for the law was given by Moses.
Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared him. And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not, but confessed I am not that the Christ. And they asked him, what then?
Art thou Elias? He saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, no. Then said they unto him, Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? What sayest thou thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaias. And they which were sent were of the Pharisees.
And they asked him and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias? Neither That prophet John answered them, saying, I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom ye know not. He it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoes latch it I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done.
In Bethavara.
Beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing, the next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and Seth, behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me, and I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing with water.
And John bear record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him, and I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, The same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bear record that this is the Son of God.
Again the next day after John stood and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he said, Behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, which is by to say, by being interpreted, Master.
Where dwellest thou, He saith unto them.
Come and see, they came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day, for it was about the 10th hour. One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah which is being interpreted the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus, and when Jesus beheld him, he said.
00:05:25
Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah. Thou shall be called Cephas.
Which is by interpretation a stone well, such as their condition and darkness, in which man is that even when the light came, the light comprehended or apprehended. If not, we know if a place is, say, covered with smoke or something, you can bring in the brightest light possible and it won't penetrate that smoke. And so it was with man. And that's why there had to be a new life imparted, and the life was the light of man.
There needed to be a new life imparted just like the one that our brother was speaking about. He was blind from his birth. His the Lord putting clay on his eyes only made him blind or still if that were possible. And he had to go to the pool of Siloam. And that is as it tells us by interpretation, sent. And when anyone saw in that blessed One, the sent one of God, then his eyes were open. Then the light shone in. But the light has come into this world.
And coming into the world, it gave light, it shone upon man in his condition, but man didn't comprehend, He didn't receive that light. How awful our condition. But it's important what is brought out, I believe in this chapter that it was necessary for God to impart a new life. Otherwise we couldn't appreciate that One who was the full revelation, the eternal Word, the eternal Son, the full revelation of all that God is.
I might say also that one of the titles of God is the same. And so he came down into this world and made the Father known. He revealed the heart of God to man. What a wonderful grace that was.
Less than.
Comes to know God by revelation. He can never really know God, can he? He, the world by wisdom knew not God. So for man to come to know God.
God must reveal Himself, and we see in this chapter that there is One who is in the bosom of the Father, and He came to declare, to reveal God to man, but man too couldn't receive that revelation apart from having divine life. So God must impart divine life, and so He's given to us eternal life, and this is life eternal, that they might know Thee.
True God. And then God came down.
The Holy Spirit to take the word of God, to make it known to man so that man would have the power to walk in obedience to the light that shines upon him. So we need that power that we might walk in the light that we're brought into so that we might enter into more.
Of the truth of God. These things are very important, aren't they? It's not a challenge to the old nature to come into these things, but it's really because we have a new life that delights in doing that which is pleasing to God. We have that life from God and we have an object for our hearts who has revealed God to us.
Her father Jordan, I believe, used to say to us that God is sufficient in himself.
For everything except objects upon which to display His love. Something like that as you remember it and God being.
Loved He is also light, and light makes manifest so that when in the purpose of God He was going to get those objects.
Upon which to display His love he must come out in length and light 1St. And so in this Gospel, as well as in the first epistle of John, in the first chapters of each we have God is light, and then just a little space, and God is love.
The Light must come in and break into our souls and give that life.
00:10:06
To know that we have received this glorious gospel by which we are brought into that relationship with God as children as well. So in in the revelation, in the New Testament.
And God comes in with the gospel. The gospel is Christ. No matter what gospel you're preaching, it's always crazy, whether it's the everlasting gospel or the gospel of the grace of God. And the gospel of the grace is the gospel of the glory because it is Christ, and it's the gospel of the Kingdom because he is the king now here in the New Testament.
The time for the law.
Was over with when Christ hung on the cross. That was the end of that test. So John begins with that.
As already rejected in the first chapter, He came under his own, His own received him not, but as many as received him. To them gave thee power, the right to become the sons of God, the children of God. So life comes in.
But it comes in through faith. There are characteristic words in this gospel. Life comes in 35 times. Yesterday remarked that Father comes in 118 times. Been remarked about sin. He is the sent one.
Of God in this gospel, and when you and I see that he was sent of the Father, it breaks up that needy blindness that was inherent to us, and we see the light and life comes so.
The word one believe comes in 100 times, so here is God revealing himself.
In his word and he revealed himself.
Personally in Jesus.
What the apostles got directly.
In being with Christ they have communicated to us, so now we must take up the written word to learn the mind of God and His love to save sinners and make them like His Son and bring them up to glory.
Meanwhile, making worshippers out of us, the expression in Him was life is a beautiful expression. We can say we have life but we could never say in US was life because this is really all life issues from this Blessed one, we received it from Him and it's the source of all life. And so in Him was life.
And the very life is life.
And of course we have no light apart from him either. We can say we're children of light, but there's no light in us apart from him. And so it's it's, it's essentially him when we read these two expressions. And the light is beautiful because it says in first epistle of John first chapter, God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Beautiful expression, isn't it?
So we're beginning to get expressions what he is.
Essence of Christ here the Word.
A beautiful verse in first John one and seven. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. I believe that's the thought that all that the light makes manifest, the blood cleanses from.
So we have God revealed and I was thinking as we go on in the chapter, brethren, it's very beautiful to have John introduced here.
What is the true position if anyone would be a servant, if anyone would seek to be a messenger and a representative here in this world for Christ, it's that he makes nothing of himself and everything of Christ. How much we see in Christendom of the exaltation of man, and because a man becomes a servant of God, why he's put on a platform and given great honors and titles and everything. Well, here's the one whom God says is the greatest among those born of women. What does he have to say about himself?
00:15:06
Later on in the chapter we find this man comes and they ask him, was he the Christ? Was he Elias? Was he that prophet? All he has to answer is no. And as someone has said, he makes his answer shorter every time. I am not till he finally says no. Well, who are you? He said, I'm just a voice. And let us remember this rather than any little service that we undertake for the Lord Jesus, whether young or old, how important it is that we hide ourselves.
That we don't set ourselves forward, that we see that the one whom the Lord called the greatest among those born of women.
Was the person who said he is only a voice, and his name is introduced in this wonderful chapter that brings before us the highest glory of the person of the Lord Jesus. And this man is introduced as a servant, the person who makes nothing of himself, but delighted to be a testimony to that one who, as he says, He is preferred before me, for he was before me. Well, I believe we have then the glory of this person.
Who has brought before us here in these verses the life, the Light, the eternal Word, the Son made manifest here in this world? And then our position in relation to Him as service. And then too, as we go on in the chapter, we see brought to know Him as the one who takes away our sins.
The object for our hearts, the one with whom we can dwell and the one of whom we can testify. It's also beautiful how it all centers around the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a lovely expression there, isn't it? The one that speaks about that in the.
Verse 15 John bear witness and cried, saying, This is he of whom I spake, he that cometh after me is preferred before me, and you get it again in verse.
27 He mentions this and also in verse 33 times over he brings out in this chapter the one who was preferred before him. What a what a lovely thing that as you spoke about, the servant that can put himself in the place of say a secondary place, put the Lord first, the Lord Jesus first, the true servant of God speaks of him as preferred before him.
Chapter Carry on with those thoughts John in the third chapter says about Jesus he must increase.
I must decrease reminding me of an illustration Eric Smith used to use with us about service, pointing us to the ox, the oxen in those Latin countries. Beautiful.
Teams of oxen in El Salvador yet being used, and you watch the drivers pushing them with the gold and guiding them. They can just put a hole into their side or into their horns or anywhere and guide those oxen. And the oxen are obedient, and they plot along in obedient service to their master. Well, Eric said we ought to be like the ox.
Willing to serve between the plow and the.
Altar decrease, go right down and he would say God has his servants, He raises them up and then he buries them. Well, this is a challenge for us and we might go on with a remark to encourage young brethren amongst us to be a help in the meetings, to take part in the prayer meetings. The comment that.
Tom McMillan made and I heard years ago about young brethren that don't seem to open their voice in the prayer meeting or maybe the reading meeting. He said. Some of them aren't near as young as they think they are. They aren't as young as John the Baptist was when he completed his ministry. It was a little goat to me and I hope it'll serve because we want to encourage. We need the help of younger brethren.
To carry on and to take part as led by the Spirit. Not quenching the Spirit, but also not grieving the Spirit.
Cousin John the Baptist also bring to mind the faithfulness of God because we have him in a type mentioned in the in the last book of the Old Testament, the 4th chapter. He was coming preceding that Blessed One. And how did he come?
00:20:17
It said the same was came for witness, to bear witness to the light that all men might believe. You know, the grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men has appeared and the faithfulness of God is almost as though one was sent out in the morning on a clear day and to point to the sun and say there's the sun that gives the light. God is so faithful.
And he brought this forerunner to make it very clear that his son has arrived. Isn't that beautiful? The light and the life of man taking of John the Baptist. He had to spend many years in the wilderness. Moses had to spend 40 years on the backside of the desert when God saved Paul. He leaves blank a couple of years in his life when he was in Arabia and saw there needs to be that going through something in the school of God.
And if so, what is God teaching us? What were the two great lessons of the wilderness, brethren?
Well, they're told in Deuteronomy to humbly to prove thee, to show thee what was in thy heart. That was one side of it, to see our own nothingness, but on the other side the all sufficiency of God. He clothed them, He fed them, He took not away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night. There is that school of God, and all of us have to go through that in one way or another where God is seeking to teach us.
I've often said he doesn't give any diplomas because we never fully learn, but he is seeking to teach us this and it's good for us all, not us not think either that somehow we've got out of the wilderness. We don't need these lessons. We have to be continually learning them. But we see them very especially with Moses and with John the Baptist and with Paul, the ones who we might say were much used of the Lord. So if there are those, perhaps even young people going through.
Deep trials and difficulties. This is all part of God's preparation.
He is teaching us these two lessons and let us not say we learned them because.
We're never going to graduate till we get to glory, but may we be learning those things in our pathway here that if we are learning those things in that measure, the Lord can use us. And as our brother was saying, open our mouths and help us to speak well of our of, of the Lord Jesus and to take our true place as being nothing. John the Baptist is the forerunner of the Lord Jesus. But there's a beautiful verse at the end of Malachi.
That might be enjoyed by many of us here who have an exercise about the family.
And it is in verse six of Malachi chapter four. He shall turn. This is about a prophecy about John the Baptist. He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers. Now, is it correct to say, beloved, that if we succeed in our efforts.
To bring the Lord close to people or the people close to the Lord and will also result in a normalization of human relationships.
If I am right with the Lord, I also am right in my attitude towards my wife and towards my children. And if I am right with the Lord as a child, I'm right in my attitude and relationship towards my parents. So how wonderful that is, even in connection with the problems that exist amongst many of God's people.
And it be all in a smaller or greater extent have come to feel and it is important too to see.
That it begins with the hearts of the fathers towards the children.
Not the hearts of the children towards the fathers. So I think these are some practical things that might help us in view of the exercise of family relationships. And it's all part of the service of John the Baptist, who made everything of Christ and nothing of himself.
00:25:15
You know what we have presented to us a little further on in this chapter about the Lord Jesus. Now in verse 10 it tells us that He was in the world.
And a marvelous thing to think about, that here is one who is the very creator as presented to us in this verse. He was in the world, and the world was made by him. The creator of the world was here.
But then the sad thing is the world knew him not. Surely that's a very sad note that the Creator could be in the world and the world wouldn't know Him. Then he came unto his own. You know that was the Jews, but it doesn't say there that they didn't know Him because they had the Scriptures, but it says that they received him not. But then.
How beautiful for those that he presents himself to. As we learn from the verses, as many as received him to them gave he power to become the children of God. Well, it's not that we're born through some experience.
There by some natural means, but it's by God, isn't it?
Born of God how important that is for us and as we look into one another's face. Are we all sure that we have been born of God and can we say that we have God's life that set here in this room today while we can have by receiving him the Lord Jesus Christ and John gospel to get the eternal life is in the sun, isn't it it's.
Displayed in the sun and brought out.
And then I was thinking of John's epistle. You were speaking about how can we know this?
John's epistle Eternal life is seen in the family of God. In the family of God. How does the how does the family get this? By believing it. I was just thinking of a verse in first John chapter 5.
And verse chapter 5, verses 11 and 12. And this is the record that God hath given us eternal life.
And this life is in his son.
He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God.
That's not light.
He that believeth on the Son, verse 10 hath the witness in himself. There's the eternal life there for us, but how do we get it? By believing it, taking God at his word. And I think this is very, it's very elementary, but this is the fact of the truth, isn't it the family of God? I was thinking of the verse you mentioned in the first chapter, John, where he says as many as received him to them gave he the power or the right to become the children of God.
Well, if every child of God here recognizes the fact that he can have that eternal life.
Only by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ because he is the source, he is that eternal life. And I think of John 2 John in the epistle when he in the first chapter where he speaks so lovingly of the Lord Jesus when he could say there in those opening verses of John's first epistle.
Just thinking of it here, he said that the eternal life, the life was manifested in verse two and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you, and our hands have handled of the word of life, that eternal life.
I thought of it in this way, eternal life, walking through this world and this creatures being able to touch him, to lay their hands upon him. This eternal life was the Lord Jesus Christ. What a blessed truth that is. And every child of God, if we're children of God, that eternal life is ours by believing it, by accepting it.
00:30:02
I would like to.
Call attention to something that.
Is very interesting to me.
Before we get too far away from our first five verses.
But some of us who have been reading our Bibles for a few years.
Have noticed something that often occurs in the scriptures.
We notice that when God wants to tell us something that he often gives us a summary right at the very first of what He's going to elaborate on later. And I believe that we have such a thing in the 1St 5 verses of our chapter. And I would just like to shine the spotlight once more on those first five verses because I believe that in these first five verses of John's gospel chapter one.
We have a summary of the entire book and we see it elaborated on and the details and the blanks are filled in later throughout the remaining 21 Chapters. But it seems to me, brethren, that verse 4 assumes the incarnation because it says in Him was life, and then it goes on to say the life was the light of man. That assumes the incarnation.
That the life had been manifested and became the light of men. And goes on to say in verse five that the light shone in darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not. And that really is a summary of the entire book of John that we read later. But I just would like to put the spotlight on verses four and five and make this comment where it says the life was the light of men, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Is the source of all moral light for mankind.
He's the source of all moral light for mankind, and we're not for the revelation that we find in the Lord Jesus. Mankind would be in utter darkness. And so that's so eloquently put in verse four. The life was the light of men. He's the source of all moral light that has shone down upon dark mankind. So I just wanted to say that much about verses 4:00 and 5:00 to put the spotlight on those verses and call attention to the fact.
Or at least what appears to me to be the fact.
That in those first five verses we have a summary of the entire book and now we pro ceed.
To see how God fills in the details of that summary, but it all goes back to the Lord Jesus and He is the reference point of everything. The life was the light of men. And then just to make a comment again about some things that have been said already about John.
It says in verse 7 the same came for a witness to bear witness of the light. How can you bear witness to a light?
To ever have anybody say to you in your home, please get out of the way. You're in my light. Well, that's how you bear witness to a light. You'll step out of the way. That's what John did. He stepped out of the way and he let the light shine. It's like to say a word of encouragement to the younger ones in connection with the apostle John, or at least the John the Baptist. Everything exalts.
And we see shining throughout the Word, the perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But we have been hearing John say, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, and then farther on 35 Behold the Lamb of God, And we might think, my, what a a wonderful man this was John the the Baptist. But turn over to Luke's gospel for a minute and see what happens to John.
When he like us.
Is tested, and the 7th chapter of Luke here is the same John now he's in prison. And verse 19 and John calling unto him, two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come? Or look we for another, When the men were come unto him, they said, John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come?
Or look we for another. And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits. And unto many that had that were blind he gave sight. Then Jesus answering, said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard, how that the blind see the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed.
00:35:27
Death here the dead are raised to the poor, the gospel is preached, and blessed is he. Whosoever shall not be offended in me here was the same man now being tested himself. And every one of us here, as we enjoy the blessed Lord Jesus, these glorious thoughts that have been brought before us about him, and his exaltation that he should have the preeminence.
Well, we might just say it might just be discouraged a bit and say well really I'm not much and I fail so often. So here we see the tables reversed as it were. The blessed Lord Jesus sending doesn't come to poor John. He sends a messenger and he says, blessed is he that is not offended in me. May we beloved ones not be offended. We're following a rejected Savior.
He's being like Jonah, cast out of this world, and we're going to be tested on this.
Very same person of the Lord Jesus. Are we willing?
To be nothing out of sight and to give glory to Him. The testing is only going to strengthen our faith, and we're going to have that intimate.
Promise from Him. Blessed is he that is not offended in me. Speaking of these 12Th and 13th verses, it's quite interesting how two things are brought out. The question of responsibility in the 12Th verse and the sovereignty of God in the 13th verse.
These things are often brought together in the Scripture. That is, there was the responsibility upon man, upon ourselves to receive him, and in this way to receive, as it says, the power, the right to become the sons of God. That was the responsibility when we heard the gospel, but we would never have done it if God hadn't worked in our hearts in grace. And so we have the next verse telling us that God had to do a miracle.
And impart new life, just as when a child is born, it's a new life brought into this world.
And so we hear the gospel, but there is the side that God has to do that work or we would never receive it. And so we find here which were born not of blood, that is, we might be in a specially privileged position like.
From our parents, the will of the flesh. It wasn't of our own wills that we did it, or the will of man. It's all of God. Here we have, brethren, the sovereignty of God coming in and working. As it's often been said, there had to be a work of God for us that was accomplished at the cross. The Lord Jesus did that work. We didn't have any part in it but our sins, and He did the whole work that was necessary to meet our need as sinners.
And the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. But there also had to be a work of God in US.
And that is this imparting of life by the power of the Holy Spirit. This doesn't destroy man's responsibility. That is, a pardon is offered to a man and he refuses to receive it. Someone else is forced into the situation of receiving the invitation. That doesn't take away the guilt of the man who was guilty. And so man is dealt with as a responsible being. And I think it's very important for us to remember.
As that sovereignty has nothing to do with unbelievers, that is, unbelievers are going to be judged on the position of responsibility. They were responsible beings. The gospel is made known to them. They're guilty before God. They refused it. But since the fact that if all left to themselves, and it is true that all left to ourselves, we would refuse the pardon, there wouldn't be any blessing at all if it were not for sovereignty.
And so God acts in that way. He deals with those as responsible beings who?
00:40:00
Have sinned against Him and refused His offer of pardon, but He acted toward us in grace. And it's not for us to comprehend, but to believe. Just as we have been talking about the person of the sun, none of us can fully comprehend the glory of that person who was on earth and in heaven at the same time, who was the upholder of all things by the word of His power, and yet was asleep in a bullet. Can your mind or mind take that in? No, but we believe it because we're not talking about a human.
We're talking about God manifest in the flesh here in this world. A great many, especially young people and perhaps many others too, have difficulty over this question of sovereignty. But let us remember, brethren, there are things stated in God's Word that are just beyond our minds. But if we rebel against God's sovereignty, where there would be no blessing for us at all, because if it were not for that, there wouldn't be any salvation.
Any more than if it were not for the work of Christ, no one could be in heaven. Let us then bow to it, and thank God for it. But the gospel is to be preached because God wants men to know His heart is full of love, and that He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And if we leave these things as God has put them in, his Word fills our hearts with Thanksgiving and praise. But we have to remember, I say again, there are things that are beyond our minds to take in.
But therefore our faith to receive and justice as our brother was saying, how do I know I have eternal life? I just take God at His word. I believe what he says. I don't look for feelings. God says in His word, these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that she may know that she have eternal life. I rest in simplicity on that. Why he chose me I'll never understand, but I can thank Him for it.
If there were left to us, heaven would be empty, wouldn't it?
God commands all there and everywhere, and that's God. That's God's really order and command to all sinners. The Lord said, except you repent, ye shall all likewise perish. The words clear the responsibility that God is there so He can show love. But in Second Thessalonians chapter 2, it tells why they go to hell. It's because they will not believe and receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. That's the only reason.
Because all sins can be forgiven. Now that's wonderful grace when we see that His sovereignty comes in, and He would never have repented but for the grace of God. As with Mephibosheth, He sent and fetched Him. I just like to say too, that this is a very important about election, because that is even true of the angels. There are those among the angels who fell, as we know, and there are some who by election are preserved.
Spoken of in the Bible as the elect angels, they're going to praise God for the.
Wonderful power that preserved them. When that fall came with Satan and all his fallen angels with him, it was only the power of God that preserved the elect angels. So they'll be around the throne, not singing, but praising God for His greatness and for His power. Because it's His greatness and power that came out in electing them into that wonderful place of being there to praise God. So there will be also another circle, as we say.
Of the redeemed from among the fallen race of mankind, those who have learned to know the heart of God.
But heaven, as our brother said, would be empty if it were not for election. Let's not get fighting against God about election. You have a right to choose who's going to be in your home, and God has a right to choose who's going to be in His home. But He offers the opening to all. But He must choose, or there would be none. There is not part of man's responsibility. That is part of the sovereignty of God.
Let us get a hold of that, beloved, because that is not understood in many fundamental Christian circles of his own will beget he us by the word of truth. And here it is not by the will of man that we were born into the family. Just like I had no part in deciding that I was going to be born, or that you, your father and your mother.
Wanted to have a child and that's why you are there. That's why you're here.
00:45:02
And so it is in the family of God. New birth is not man's responsibility.
It's part of the sovereignty of God. He brings us into life and it is an act of His will. It's not an act of your or my will. Could we look at in on those line of things, the 6th chapter of John? And I think these things are brought out in John's Gospel very clearly.
Chapter 6. I'm sorry. Chapter 5, John 5.
And verses 39 and 40.
He's speaking the Lord Jesus speaking to these Pharisees here, and he says search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life and they are they which testify of me. Oh, that's the point, isn't it? But then notice what he says, and ye will not come to me that you might have life. There's man setting up his will. I can only speak of myself many years setting my will again.
The will of God, but then just going over.
That is, that's the natural thought, isn't it? The natural man, the heart of man, sets his will against God. There's no other answer to it But then going over to the 44th verse of chapter.
Six of John No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him.
Ah, there's the constraining grace of God that comes in the drawing and the drawing us. So if I set my will against God and when I do come, I have to acknowledge that it was his constraining love that has drawn me to him. But I'd I'd like to to read another verse that has been a very much of an encouragement to me. And as to the thought of of the principles of election is verse 30.
Seven of Chapter 6.
Here he says, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. What a blessed truth. I set my will against God. I can't come unless he's I'm drawn. And now I bow to this, and I come. And he says all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. He turns back and says, I'm glad you came.
You came, but I drew you. And then I believe that the comment has been made that this, this is the this verse 37 is the one of the one of the principles of, of, of election, because the the rule of action is the word of God really and also the the power of it is the Holy Spirit and also the the motive is the will of God.
I believe it's all so blessedly put together here, at least that I have enjoyed. People talk about free will, but man is in slavery through his fallen nature. And Mr. Darby put it this way. That is free to will, but his will is not free. And so God has to work. So God hasn't withdrawn from man the right of choice, but he doesn't have the power. And it's been illustrated like this.
If you set before a person an apple and an orange and he hates apples and he loves oranges and you say, well, you can choose, but what is he going to choose? He hates apples. He's never going to choose the apple because he hates it. You didn't take away from him the right to choose, but you've got to do something to inside to make him choose that apple. And that's what God had to do. And if God hadn't done that in US, and that's what our brother was saying, he imparted a new life. What is the character of the new life?
Why? It's the very life of Christ. It delights in God. We love Him because He first loved us. Our heart goes out to those who are in the family. Why? Because He imparted a new life. So let us remember that we preached the gospel to man as a responsible being.
And God delights to have it proclaimed. And two Corinthians says, we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. If you offer to pardon a guilty man and he refused it, and it's brought up in court that the man is guilty, but it's also announced in the court that you offered to pardon him and he refused it. That honors you that you are willing to do that. So let's not cease giving out the gospel.
00:50:10
God wants every Sinner in the world to know that He loves them and that He wants to pardon them. If by their own responsible will they reject Him, then let's not blame God. But if God decides when everybody refuses to act in sovereignty, all you and I can do is bow our heads and thank Him that He acted in that way, or none of us would be saved. So let's continue to tell out the gospel and all its preciousness and tell it out with love and affection, because God wants it to be told out according to His heart.
He wants the message to be, as it were, his representative. We pray you in Christ, then be you reconciled to God. I think it's very wonderful to think of this in the light of children.
You know, except he be converted and become as little children and their little children here today. And isn't it wonderful that most that are in heaven perhaps would have come to Jesus?
When they were very young and so that little child.
Makes that simple childlike.
Look at Jesus and believes that he is the Savior. He believes that Jesus loves him and he sings or she sings that little song so popular. Jesus loves me well to me this is very beautiful. Here I can come to know the greatest.
Jesus, the eternal God, come down in sovereign grace. That little child, through one look of faith, might have his life. And that's so. And if you haven't looked, may you look today. May you just think that Jesus loves you. And may it be that each of us will think of those words. Jesus loves me, and that love doesn't change.
And so that one simple look of faith saves the soul for eternity. And it's been said that every after look is really after look of faith is the power of living. We have a life. And as already mentioned, that life is seen in Christ. He came into this world to do the will of God and he delighted in the will of God. And when we receive that light, then we too want to please God.
Yes, it's the same as in the second verse of that chapter. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him, and this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Adam was the head of a fallen creation, and as the head of a fallen creation, he brought death into this world.
Because by his disobedience, as by one man's, sin entered into the world, and death by sin.
So death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned now the Lord Jesus, the 2nd man and last Adam.
He comes as the importer of life. Adam brought in death, this blessed One brings in life. And so the Lord Jesus, surrounded by those of his own, delighted to speak of them. As our brother has said, here's the one whom the Father had chosen and given to him. And he brings before them the Father's mind, the Father's heart. And the new life in US responds to that, because the life that we have, brethren, is the very life of Christ imparted to us.
And it delights, as we have in that sixth verse in keeping his word. The reason we sin is because the old nature's act of thought, the new man always delights in pleasing God, brother. But our brother Ron was saying connected with your comment. Now it certainly is true that in the absolute sense, it's true of the Lord in him was life, and the life was the light of man.
But that life is now imparted to us.
And as it is displayed and manifested in us, it is light for men. I don't think we go too far, would we? And that's our privilege to display the life that has been imparted to us and others can be brought into blessing. Paul puts it in a different way, but it's really amounting to the same thing when he says that we are the epistles of Christ in the Lord Jesus day. He are the light of the world.
00:55:06
So that is the place Grace has brought us into, isn't it, in his, in the absence of the true light. When the astronauts were up on the moon in the early years, I read that they brought back samples of the, the dust on the moon. And when they examined them, the particles, they found that they were all dust, mirrors, mirrors. And so that when we look at the moon.
If it had just been one big mirror, we'd only see one little spot on the moon as the light would shine onto that one spot. But the whole moon is just reflective particles, and when the sun shines on that moon, it reflects the light from the sun onto the earth and gives light in the darkness. How wonderful it is for us to be in this privileged position now the light has gone back to heaven.
And the Word of God tells us now we are the light of the world. May our light shine in a Dark World.
You read in the Psalms that the moon has been placed in the heavens as a witness. It's a wonderful expression. As a witness to what to let. The sun is still shining, and we're a witness here as the bride, as the sun. We're almost out of time and I'd like to ask a question.
On two of the verses in the chapter one connection with John the Baptist, verse 29. The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, after me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me, and I knew him not. It's that expression.
What is the sense?
John says I knew him not, we read in verse 10. The world knew him not.
And now John says I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing with water.
And John bear records, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him, and I knew him not. He repeats that, But he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same as he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bear record that this is the Son of God.
He knew who he was. He was given.
Evidence and he testified to who he was he pointed him out this is the.
Behold the Lamb of God. How are we to understand those two expressions? I knew him not.
I've enjoyed this thought, brother, that we only know him by the work of the Spirit. And this, I believe, is what John is bringing out. John was certainly born into a home of faith. His parents were wonderful people of faith. He was brought up. The remarkable expression is used about him. He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb, but we find that he had to be brought to know the Lord Jesus by the action of the Spirit of God.
And so there may be many in this room who wouldn't doubt at all that the Lord Jesus is the Christ, the Savior, that he died for sin. But there has to be a personal dealing in the soul, the Spirit of God. It is the Spirit that quicken us. The flesh profiteth nothing, and the Spirit of God has to do that work. Many of us who are perhaps a little bit older can look back to the time where all those things that our parents had taught us and that we had heard from our childhood.
We didn't even question, but they came real to us and that was an action of the Spirit of God.
And I believe that's a very important thing because it's not only so about salvation, but it's so about the whole truth of God. Brethren, there isn't any part of the truth of God that you and I can really lay hold of for the good of our own souls and for the glory of God, apart from the work of the Spirit of God. We may have heard about Christ as the center. We may have heard about a great many things, but the time comes when we're passed through a time of testing and those things that we have said we believe before.
God, by the operation of His Spirit, makes real in our souls, and we know them in the way that we never knew them before.
01:00:01
Because the Spirit of God has made them good in our souls. So that little word but comes in. I knew him not but.
And then he tells how that he was told that he would see the Spirit of God come upon that one and mark him out, and all those things he knew and heard before he came blessedly sure to his soul by the operation of the Spirit of God. Would you? Would you?
Allow the thought that in Matthew 16, when the Lord asked the question, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, AM? And some said, Thou art John the Baptist, Jeremias, or one of the prophets, whom say ye that I am? And Peter said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And then 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.
That we do not know him outside of a revelation.
From the Father and by the Spirit we do not know Him, and man does not know Him. In that person is centered all the glory of God, and all the knowledge that there is to be had of God is in him, and we only know him by God Himself, revealing Him to the soul. Paul says When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, to reveal his son's.
In me.
Would you connect those scriptures with the expression? Is that involved in it?
That we only know him by revelation from God Himself.
And John 9 That was healed such a marvellous way for some time, until I realized that dear man never saw the Lord, and all that discourse which he had with the Pharisees, he soon found out too that they were against the One.
That had healed him, and then it ended up they cast him out. Now there's a couple of verses I like to read what follows now. I wonder if that's an answer to what we're talking about too.
John 9, the end of verse 34 says and they cast him out.
Then it says in verse 35, Jesus heard that they had cast him out and when he had found him, and I'd like to notice that, especially when he had found him. When we say the sovereign Son of God, did he have to find people? Oh, it's just a picture to my heart. There was a time.
I knew all about Christianity, and I knew the Scriptures perhaps as well.
As any of their age and I when the Lord Jesus found me.
There was a revelation that this man had here Dost thou believe on the name of the Son of Dost? I believe on the Son of God. And he answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. What a wonderful revelation the man got. Now there was light, because his eyes were open. He saw.
But.
The revelation had to be just our belief in the soul of God.
And then he was still looking at the same man, but not until the Lord says it. Is he that toughest?
Then he knew and he believed.
Doing speak of that as now we know the Lord is our Savior because our spiritual eyes have seen him.
Joy of the Father, Luke 15:22
Open—John Curry
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.
I ask you to turn to Luke's gospel once again, the Gospel of Luke and chapter 15. Perhaps this chapter is one of those portions in the Word of God that really is so well known and so often used in the gospel.
And perhaps it's outstanding in the light of the Gospel. But what I would like to consider.
For a few moments.
Is what takes place.
In the father's heart, when the son returns.
We often think of the Son, and we know that when he was away and he was enjoying all that the father had provided for him of that inheritance, he was finding pleasure in the things perhaps he was doing, and only when it was all spent and gone did he have any desire to think of the Father.
But I believe that we can see that the Father.
Heart was so overcome.
That the loss of his son, that he was so overcome by such a loss, that to have him back was such a great toy to the father. That's what I'd like to focus on, is the joy of the father.
And we trusted everyone has come back.
As the prodigal came back in repentance, but as he came, we know that every provision.
Was the provision of the father.
But there was one thing.
That had to come from the sun.
And that was that he would appreciate, he would accept.
And he would enjoy what the father had for him.
And I'm afraid sometimes we miss this in the reading of the Word of God.
We missed this side of things that God is looking for that.
That will give him joy, and that is a response that perhaps could come from each of us here just to look at this very simply.
Jaw. That's Luke's Gospel, chapter 15.
And we'll read.
From verse 22 But the Father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe.
And put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. And I'm sure it gave the Father's heart real joy and pleasure in providing these things for this returning boy.
And these were the provisions that the father had for the son, the part I want to look at.
Has to do more with what follows.
And bring hit her the fatted calf and kill it and let us.
Eat and be merry. Let us eat and be merry.
Wasn't a feast just for the sun, but it was a feast for the Father and the Son together.
And how sweet it is to our souls when we rise to the place, when we gather God starts.
From the Scriptures by the Spirit of God concerning His blessed and beloved Son.
Perhaps it's in the night season when we wake up. Perhaps it's sometime when we're alone. Perhaps it's sometime in the assembly.
But I don't think that we'll have a greater joy in our life here.
Nor will God our Father find greater joy in our lives.
And when we come, as it is here, to enjoy in communion with God, that blessed, glorious person that we've had before us all, the Father made every provision that He might be accepted in the home. But I have to say to my own heart, and I say to each of us, it was necessary.
00:05:11
That the son be willing to accept.
The feast that the Father was providing so that they could eat it together, so that they could share it together.
Perhaps it's not coming over very clearly.
But I think if we meditate a little, we'll see that the grave joy in this home at this time.
Was this feast that they had together the Father?
And the returning son.
And we could say, I believe that the fatted calf speaks to us of the Lord Jesus.
And you think that God, who finds its great delight in his beloved Son, who wants to share?
With each of us the redeemed His joy that He has in His beloved Son.
And this is really heaven on earth in this home. I believe this is a foretaste. And so each time, whether we're by ourselves or whether with some other Christian or we're together in a meeting.
This is so important because it gives him such joy to share.
With his redeemed.
What the Lord Jesus is to him to have fellowship. Now I'd like to turn to the scriptures I read at the breaking of bread in the 22nd chapter. And again they seem lost. Sweet occasion.
We have in Luke 22 is that night before the Lord Jesus went to the cross.
What a very important time it was.
Because the great work of Calvary was before him to bring glory to God.
Up here again.
And these are such human experiences, it seems, such real experiences as we drawn aside here. Think of it this very night he had directed his disciples to go to a certain place.
To an upper room, a place separated, but a place of his choosing.
And there in that upper room.
He was going to communicate to them.
Many things which we have in John's Gospel from chapter 13.
Through 17 and that beautiful prayer in the 17th of John that was all going to be part of that upper room that night.
But what I want to speak about?
Is that there were those?
And there were very few.
Of all that the Lord Jesus had come in contact, all that he had healed, all the blessing that had flowed forth in that blessed man, Christ Jesus.
And here are but eleven people.
Perhaps in that upper room. What a very small company.
But they were going to give joy to the Lord Jesus.
And so it is before us.
Us in verse 13 and day when.
They had to decide that they would go.
Like the prodigal, he returned and here they go, directed by the Lord Jesus.
And found they weren't disappointed, as we often hear. And He as he had said unto them. And they may dreary the Passover when the hour was come.
The hour was come. He sat down.
And the 12 apostles with him. And he said unto them, He has a message.
And He has the message for each of us when we come together, when we come to the place, and there we take our place at that table. And there is the precious Savior and these wonderful words that have rung out in the hearts of the redeemed over the years.
00:10:15
The first time I heard a brother take up this verse, it was a good many years ago.
I couldn't believe that there could be such a message.
As was given by the Lord Jesus. Such a message. Think of it, the Lord of glory desiring the company.
Of.
A few.
There was Peter. He denied that he knew the Lord.
Eats one of them that very night forsook him in fled.
And yet, as we come back to this place.
We find these beautiful words with desire.
I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
With desire I have desired. That was what was in his heart. That's what was in the heart of the one who was going to the cross to redeem them. This is the heart of Jesus.
This is the heart of my savior. This is the language.
Of one who has made himself real and dear to each believer, because he's precious to the believer and these precious words.
Reaching out to us Even to this day in 1987, these same blessed words are reaching out to each heart here in this room.
And as we give him joy in response.
You think of Ruth who said I will go, I will go. How important for those disciples to have been there to hear these words. Do we hear them this morning?
Did they feel our heart this morning with desire I have desired or greatly desired?
I suppose language can't express what was in his heart.
But it was there, and he reaches out with those words and he shows them what he would have them to do.
A very.
Feeble response, perhaps from them, but oh, the heart of Jesus, the love of Jesus, the love of this one for their company. He wanted their company and he wants our company.
And so he places that loaf in that cup, and he gives thanks.
And he eat of it, and he says, this dear, in remembrance of me, Is it beyond us?
We still have the privilege, thank God.
Will you still hear his voice saying, but desire I have desired.
To eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
And I believe we've lost a great deal.
If we haven't heard those words each time we come to that remembrance feast, and perhaps he has lost a great deal if we haven't heard because it's his desire that is spoken about here that is expressed.
I just want to turn to John 14, John 14.
Verse 3.
These are some of the words they heard in that upper room.
That night.
If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am.
There you may be also that where I am.
We long to go.
We long for the coming of the Lord Jesus.
We know he has a purpose in waiting.
And that is, he set out to do something.
And he must finish that work before he can come. He told his disciples, he told Peter and others, I will build my church in the gates of hell, shall not prevail against it. So we know he won't come until that work is finished, That church is complete, that last stone is put in the building. But can we say that as soon as at last stone has put in that building?
00:15:23
He will hasten to fulfill the desire in his heart by taking us up there, that we might be with Him.
Can we think of it? His home, the Father's house, His people, the great joy you have in receiving us into the Father's house?
We've experienced the welcome. When we came to the Father, we experienced the welcome.
In coming into the Lords presence in the Remembrance feast.
But when we experience this welcome, when we see the joy in his expression.
In his face as he looks upon.
That which gives him joy.
That redeemed company, O beloved, He paid an infinite price to have your bride.
It hurts and when he takes that bride to himself, that where I am.
There you may be also where I am.
He wants us there, He would have us there, His longing to have us there.
Are we anxious to see him?
Is that the Great Expectations we have?
Or are we disappointing him?
Are we getting a little too occupied to spend much time with the father?
Are we getting too occupied to come into the presence of the Lord Jesus to answer to His desire? Are we getting a little too occupied that we don't have much thought?
Of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
These are just questions we might ask ourselves. I'd just like to turn finally to Revelation.
Chapter 21.
Revelation chapter 21.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the 1St heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea than I. John saw the holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold.
Behold.
The Tabernacle of God is with men.
I used to hear quite often a brother say that Jesus Christ had become a man.
And would remain a man for all eternity that he might have us.
As his companions there God tabernacling with men.
Is this what God had before him in that past eternity? Is that what God has before him now?
Is that what is before him when he has?
Those redeemed ones, those who are there where everything is suited to God and He is dwelling with man.
He housed the company that he longed to have.
We know this is the eternal day.
This is the day of God.
This is when everything suited to God. This is when everything is in perfect harmony with God and God's heart desire is fulfilled in a tabernacles with men.
I don't grasp it.
I try to enjoy it.
And I believe that's what God would have us to do to really.
Absorb the reality that God is going to be pleased. Tabernacle having our company is going to give him the satisfaction and joy He's anticipated from a past eternity.
00:20:05
For the beautiful, glorious eternity, and He will dwell with them.
And they shall be his people.
And God himself shall be with him, and be their God.
Eternity. Eternity.
God All in all.
And then?
For those who have deep sorrows and trials in the journey.
Here it is as we close in God.
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. What a wonderful moment if you've passed through a trial, if you shed tears, if you felt the sorrows of life.
God.
The wipe away all tears from their eyes.
May we give Him joy. May He have the right place in our hearts.
As our Father.
And as our Savior.
Our friend.
As we walk through the hours that are left to us, how precious to know.
That God is for us.
That God is with us, that God loves us, that God cares for us.
That Jesus died for us. That Jesus lives for us. He carries us on his shoulders.
He carries us in his bosom, and that Jesus is coming for us.
And that we are coming back with Him in His glory as we look on into the future.
We're looking for the blessed hope.
And the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
Steadfast in Heart and Mind
Address—Norman Berry
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.
A notice on the card that the schedule of the meetings on Friday, it said that there would be an address to the young people and then another one wasn't addressed to the family. And again on Saturday I saw.
An address to the young people and address to the family. But this meeting, it just says an address. So I just want to say this, that I want to point us all to one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's all I have to say today, to exalt that blessed man and to relate it.
To you who are young here, young people.
To those who are fathers and mothers.
And then, most important to the to the assembly. I'd like what is before me with the Lord. I trust us. Laid on my heart is to speak of the steadfast mind, the steadfast heart, and the surrendered will.
I'm going to look at a number of scriptures with the spirits help.
And I'm not going to be speaking about types and shadows. I'm going to try to bring before you this afternoon.
The Facts from the New Testament.
I'm not going to try to elaborate on them. I'm going to let the spirit apply these words.
These scriptures to your own heart and conscience for your own blessing.
I'd like to trace from the very beginning just one reference to the Old Testament.
And we might turn now to Genesis chapter one. And there we will see the beginnings.
Chapter one verse 27 So God created man in his own image, and the image of God created he him. These three parts.
The mind God gave.
Capable of understanding his thoughts, the heart.
He gave to man to be able to respond to his love.
The will to be surrendered to God's.
Will these three parks, they're basic. They are that which applies to everyone of us here this afternoon. And we're going to see the sad story, how that though man was able to a limited degree in innocence, to walk with God. He had those three parts, his mind, his heart, his will.
God walked with him in the cool of the day, it tells us.
And yet there was lurking.
An enemy, an enemy that is present today.
That would be working on those three parts of you and me.
And in that garden.
The woman was deceived.
She used that mind.
To listen to what Satan said.
Instead of having her heart's affections centered and her husband and God.
She listened to the enemy.
That will that should have been surrendered to God.
He exercised it and she was deceived.
She gave to her husband. He ate.
The whole of that beautiful creation.
Ruined.
The mind was changed.
And it became.
Blinded.
The heart became cold.
And fearful.
And the will became stubborn and rebellious.
The story of the world.
God allowed that to go on for 40 centuries. 40 is a picture of testing. God looked to see if there would be 1.
00:05:01
In that whole creation that would turn to him, he didn't find one at 14000 years rolled by. We know the story, the sordid story of sorrow and rebellion and fear and corruption and death.
But in the glory blessed to say it, the Son of God, God's eternal Son, in the bosom of the Father.
As to where he would lay aside that glory, and he would be He would come down to this earth.
We know the story well.
The only perfect man that ever walked the face of this earth.
I'd like to speak a little bit briefly about that blessed man in the connection with these three things.
His steadfast mind.
His steadfast heart.
And his surrendered will to his father. Let's turn over now to John's Gospel chapter 10, verse 30.
I and my father.
R1.
The mind of the man Christ Jesus in perfect unity and oneness with the mind of God.
Always.
As he walked here on the face of this earth, the mind of the Father, we sometimes sing The mind of heaven is 1.
This man, blessed be his name, he walked with that perfect.
Communion with his Father, his mind and the Father won.
The heart of the Lord Jesus. Let's go back over to the 14th chapter.
When I use the word heart, I'm referring also to.
Love last verse but that the word verse 31 John's Gospel 1431. But that the world may know that I love the Father. Isn't that beautiful?
The mind and tune, the heart in tune. I love the Father.
Perfect love. The world knows nothing of it.
In harmony.
Let's go over to the fifth chapter to see the will.
Verse 30 verse 30, yes.
John's Gospel chapter 5, verse 30.
Because I seek not mine own will.
But the will of the Father which hath sent me there is that surrendered will.
Always doing the will of the Father, Beloved ones, I am taking these verses now to show you what that man was in those three parts. Speaking reverently his mind, his heart and his will surrendered. Steadfast minds steadfast in heart and love to the Father.
And then that will always doing the Father's will. Now it's through God's grace that that work of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not only who of his life, of course, but that perfect life was laid on the altar first, for God's glory, could say in the 14th chapter. I have finished the work, 17th chapter, which thou gave us me to do. I have glorified thy name on the earth, Blessed Lord Jesus. He has finished that work with which the Father gave him to do. He has lived and died for the Father's glory and for the blessing.
Of everyone of the redeemed creatures, the gift of the Father to the Son.
And if you and I have put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, now through grace there has been restored, now I shouldn't possibly say restored. There has been given to you that there has been a trust. I use the right words.
00:10:08
Implanted in you and me, those three same things.
Steadfast.
Mind.
A steadfast heart of love.
And a will that is surrendered to God.
Let's go over to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and see what the scripture says about this.
Verse 17.
I want to explain a few things as we go on. Let's read it first. Therefore, if any man be in Christ.
He is a new creature or there is a new creation. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.
As I look into your faces, beloved ones, young and old alike, if you have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, God has given you and me. Now there is a new creation. We're not of this world that's passing away. We are heavenly citizens now. We have been, as it tells us in the first chapter of Second Peter. We have received those blessed promises that by these we have been made partakers of the divine nature.
Do you realize that your dear young people here this afternoon? I trust that these scriptures will will grip your souls to realize that we are a different people.
We have been redeemed by that precious blood. Now there is a new creation. We don't belong now to this fallen creation. We have a new life. The life of Christ could not sin. The person of the Lord Jesus could not sin. Neither can you and I in this new life that we have. It's a new creation. It's a life now like the it's eternal life, just like the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in our position.
Fruit of the travail of his soul. And so now we're going to look at the physician that you and I are in, in connection with these three things, the dead of the steadfast mind.
And the steadfast heart and the surrendered will, these three verses, now that I'm going to look at, are in connection with the position, not a responsibility. We'll look at that later. The position that every believer now is in every one of us, you dear young ones, that are here this afternoon, this verse, next verse that I'm going to look at. The last verse of the second chapter of First Corinthians is the first one having to do with the mind.
First Corinthians chapter two, last verse, last sentence of the verse.
But we have the mind of Christ.
Startling, isn't it? Years ago, and as a young person, and that was brought tonight before to my attention seems so overwhelming. We have the mind of Christ. Do you have the mind of Christ? God says so. Are you using that mind? We're going to come to that in a minute. But first of all, I want to establish this fact that this is your position by God's grace. This is what God has equipped you with and me with now.
Hear the very mind of Christ.
Contrary to everything that you dear young ones here in school and in university and what we hear in the so-called vaunted minds of of the present age.
We have the mind of Christ.
Now what about the heart?
What about the heart? Let's go over to the Second Corinthians chapter 4.
These are well known verses but.
Want to?
Show them to you.
Chapter 4.
Verse 6.
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness.
Hath shined in our hearts.
To give the light of the knowledge of God.
00:15:05
Of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Oh, what a statement.
How profound this is. Do you have that? Yes, you have. This is the position of every believer. Now that light of God first that shone into that dark heart of mine, and revealed the filth and the corruption of sin, and blessed be his blessed name, through the shedding of his precious blood, that those sins have been erased and the record is clear.
And through his precious blood, now you and I have had that light of God shine into your heart to give the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Oh, how precious that you and I have this.
Mind and heart. Now what about the will that is to be surrendered? Let's go over to Colossians.
Chapter 4.
Middle of verse 12.
That.
Ye may stand perfect.
And complete.
In all.
The will.
Of God.
Do I need to have that?
Do I need to ask God for it? He has told us now through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we can stand now in all the perfect will of God.
This is our position. I want to emphasize it, not responsibility. Yet now we're going to look at the responsibility side in connection with these three things. First, Now the responsibility that you and I have to use that mind to bring that divine mind, that mind of Christ that has been imparted to you and me.
Now we have a responsibility. Let's go over to Philippians chapter 2, beginning of verse 5.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Now, beloved ones here is responsibility. Have the mind of Christ.
Now it is responsibility. Let this mind be in you.
Now we come to the serious side.
God is saying this. He's beseeching you and me to use that mind. Let me just say, well before I do that, I want to read another verse. There verse.
Verse one, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, there's the heart, if any fellowship of the Spirit.
There's the mind. If any bowels and mercies fulfill ye my joy that ye be like minded, like minded, having the same love. There's the mind and the heart being off 1 accord of one mind. Is that possible? The world is trying through the ecumenical movement and things of that kind, to bring about a consensus, as they call it.
Impossible. There's only one way that you and I can be like minded one with the other. And as I said, our individual life, so important to realize this in our family life, you dear fathers and mothers, to be in harmony one with the others. Is it possible? Yes, it is. Yes it is. It is possible because you have been and I have been equipped with this.
But now the responsibility is for you and for me.
Let this mind work. Let me explain this that the divine mind is the mind that Christ has, that we have set.
And when I'm going on in communion with the Lord, I can use that divine mind that is in me. I have the mind of Christ, But let me get my eye off Christ, and I'm going to revert back to my old mind, and I won't even know it. And I'm going to start to reason and use that mind not subjected to the word of God, not to to the mind of God. I'm going to miss the mind of God.
00:20:15
And our families, our family life. I'm speaking about the family now. Oh, what sorrows are coming in amongst us? It's just heartbreaking. Why? Oh, because of the falling down on this one point. Let this mind be in you then. The assembly life. I'll come to that in a few moments. But we must realize that this is where responsibility is.
To let that mind be formed by the mind of Christ. Now then.
We go over to Hebrews chapter 3 and we will see the next.
Point.
14 verse 14.
Sweet verse, beautiful.
Verse 14 Hebrews 314.
For we are made partakers.
Of Christ. Let me read it from the new translation, the Darby translation.
For we are.
Become companions of the Christ.
Isn't that profound? Does that touch the heartstrings of your heart?
Companions of Christ. He's the head. We're the body here on this earth. Companions of the Christ. Is there a chord struck in your heart and mine when we realize that this is the privilege that we have? Let me finish that verse.
If not there, whenever you get an if in the scriptures, it's always responsibility. The Ifs are the wilderness of the Old Testament. If we hold the beginning of our confidence Steadfast, there's that word again, steadfast.
To the end.
Do I need to ask the Lord for this? No, He's given it to me.
Nothing is going to weaken me but the sin that I allow in my life. Nothing.
We have this.
Full equipment. Now to be companions of Christ. Who are your companions? When we get out of school or university, who do we drift to in our social life? What about the and also in the assembly life, our family life? What do we do on the prayer meeting night? Are we there at the prayer meeting or are we having social?
Intercourse with other, with others.
That possibly.
Are the Lords but or we companions of Christ? In this corrupt world there is the beautiful verse, for we are become companions of the Christ. That's the heart.
Now the will.
Well known verse again. Second Corinthians chapter 10.
Verse 5.
2nd Corinthians 10 verse 5.
There's the will now, the responsibility that you and I have.
Individually.
Our family life, Our assembly life.
Casting down imaginations, Margin says Reasonings.
And every high thing that exalteth itself.
There is the work of the enemy that will come in.
Against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought.
To the obedience of Christ.
Are we surrendering that will?
I ask you that. I asked myself. I trust this is touching my own conscience as well as I want to reach into your conscience.
Are we doing this?
00:25:01
Or are we using that old, mind you, dear young children?
Are we obedient? Obedience is the expression of a mind that is in tune with God. Obedience is going to produce in your heart and mind a response to the heart of Christ, our companion.
And obedience is God is just means what it says, the surrender of our wills.
Then what about our family life?
What about our As fathers and mothers, are we insisting on obedience with our children?
I brought up my children. I trust on these verses.
I've told them over and over again, I'm not running a popularity contest.
But I am teaching you, and I'm going to insist on obedience.
Because I want to train you to learn that you and I have a Father in heaven, and I must obey my Father too. And I want to train you to instant obedience, not delayed obedience. Instant. Because that is going to be the blessing in your life. No substitute for this beloved once. None.
None.
Everything that we're hearing in the world.
Self-expression, don't punish children.
As we heard the other day, it's.
Just producing.
Life of We don't know what if the Lord doesn't come soon? Beloved ones, we just can't know what's ahead. But I believe that the storm clouds are gathering so fast.
That we are in desperate need to let this truth get ahold of us.
The mind it must be obedient to the mind of God to.
Know his thoughts?
To have communion, sweet communion, as companion with Christ, and to surrender that will.
Let's go over to.
1St Corinthians 15. I think it's the last verse 58. First Corinthians 15.
Therefore, my beloved brethren.
Be ye?
Unmovable, immovable.
This is what the Lord is saying to you and to me.
Everything today is changing. Everything is getting a new name.
It seems so.
Resisting to be.
Read to be resisting the pressures that are around us, you dear young people. I know nothing of the pressures that you are receiving.
From your peers.
You young couples that are here.
The pressures to compromise, to give things new names.
To allow things in your home and mine that are just bringing the world into our into our homes and and teaching our children all the corruption and the filth of the world. I hear people saying well, we control what they see on the.
Are we immovable?
In the assembly.
How sad a sight we're seeing it.
Developing.
Trials difficulties.
Break up.
What lies behind it these three things?
Having our own mind instead of going by the word of God in the assembly.
This is our final authority, Beloved ones. This is the mind of God. This is truth. This is truth.
Are you and I willing to? In the assembly where we are, are we willing to bow that mind to what the Word of God says? Here we are haggling over the translations.
Missing, missing the fundamental facts that the Lord is saying my word. Psalm 119. I think it's verse 128 says I consider all thy precepts concerning all things to be right, to be right.
00:30:16
Is this the mind of God? It certainly is.
Are we bowing that mind or are we? I should say, are we using that mind that you and I have received in the assembly?
I'm sure you know what centrifugal force is.
Everything flying off in all directions, going in. That's the work of the enemy, beloved ones.
What's the work of the Spirit of God?
Ephesians 4 and Three, endeavoring to maintain, not to establish a unity, maintain the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.
I noticed that when there are difficulties in the assembly.
That there is the tendency to fly off an independent thoughts, just the opposite of what the Word of God says. The blessed Lord Jesus speaking reverently, Let me say it with a heart that is in a little bit conscious of what is happening.
The Blessed Lord Jesus in the glory.
That precious Blood that he shed, powerful enough to save every person, 4 billion people or so in this world. That precious Blood of Christ is able to save everyone. Many saved. No indeed.
Of those who are redeemed by the precious Blood of Christ, are we willing to go on in happy harmony, all gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? One testimony on this earth, Anything but.
And those of us, sad to say, who have the unspeakable privilege of.
Gathered to the blessed name of the Lord Jesus Christ to his name, that means the authority of his name. And if you and I are by the Spirit of God gathered to that blessed name he brings, he vouchsafes his presence. He says, There am I in the midst.
Does this touch your heart? Do you want to say, Blessed Lord Jesus, we know that that is not have very much glory left on this earth. I want to live for thy glory.
Is that the desire of your heart?
Or are we?
Using our mind.
To think our own thoughts.
Is our heart cold toward Christ individually in the family life?
In the assembly life.
The air, beloved ones around us, it's polluted.
With the smoke of the pit, It's getting worse every day. Beloved, once I want to stir my own heart to the realization of the desperateness of the hour. Let's beloved ones close our ranks, close our ranks. Let's not be like Aiken, a disturber, a troubler of the Saints. Let's be like Caleb. He was a Stiller of the people. May your heart and mind.
Beloved mind at once may our mind first of all be subject to the word of God to that blessed one, as I said, doesn't have much glory left here on this earth. For what He has done are we wanting to use the last strength that we have to live for His glory now to have to have that, let this mind of Christ be in US.
To have that sweet.
Companionship of Christ and that you and I might be surrendering that will of ours. That is the root, I believe, of all our problems. If we are honest. It's the attacks of the enemy that is making inroads into the personal lives of young ones and older ones. It's the work of the enemy that is breaking up marriages as we've never seen it before.
And in the assemblies.
00:35:02
I don't want to be dwelling on this, but I just believe that we're going to come to know, if the Lord doesn't come soon, what that expression two and three really means. I believe that our assemblies are being tested and sifted as never before. Oh beloved ones, may our eye be single and upon Christ it's our only, our only resource, but it is our all sufficiency.
I quote this old saying.
Is nothing less an object.
Can fill the heart of Christ of God.
That object being Christ, it necessarily follows.
That it overflows our heart.
And if our heart.
Is filled with Christ. It overflows.
And the overflow of the heart.
Is called praise.
Everything comes from God, all blessings. It's not a democracy that's not.
God's method. You're president of the United States, Mr. Lincoln, he said. Government off the people, by the people, for the people. That's not what God says.
Its authority that comes down.
But are we allowing this democratic spirit to come in amongst the end of the assembly?
Are we asking? I know participation is a wonderful thing. I hope I'm not stepping on people's toes, but I do believe that teaching comes down from God.
All blessing comes down if you and I, beloved ones, walk in those blessings. If we walk in them in our life, they're going to go back up to God in praise and adoration and worship. May it be so.
And Lord Jesus.
Come soon.
Joy of the Father
Address—J. Curry
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.
I ask you to turn to Luke's gospel once again, the Gospel of Luke and chapter 15. Perhaps this chapter is one of those portions in the Word of God that really is so well known and so often used in the gospel.
And perhaps it's outstanding in the light of the Gospel. But what I would like to consider.
For a few moments.
Is what takes place.
In the father's heart, when the son returns.
They often think of the sun, and we know that when he was away and he was enjoying all that the Father had provided for him of that inheritance, he was finding pleasure in the things perhaps he was doing, and only when it was all spent and gone did he have any desire to think of the Father.
But I believe that we can see that the Father.
Heart was so overcome that the loss of his son, that he was so overcome by such a loss, that to have him back was such a great toy to the father. That's what I'd like to focus on is the joy of the father.
And we trusted everyone has come back.
As the prodigal came back in repentance, but as he came, we know that every provision.
Was the provision of the father.
But there was one thing.
That had to come from the sun and that was that. He would appreciate, he would accept and he would enjoy what the father had for him.
And I'm afraid sometimes we miss this in the reading of the Word of God. Oh, you missed this side of things.
That God is looking for that, that will give him joy. And that is a response that perhaps could come from each of us here just to look at this very simply.
John, That's Luke's Gospel, chapter 15.
And we'll read from verse 22.
But the father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and I'm sure it gave the father's.
Heart, real joy and pleasure in providing these things for this returning boy.
And these were the provisions that the father had for the son. The part I want to look at has to do.
More with what follows.
And bring hit her the fatted calf and kill it.
And let us eat and be merry. Let us eat and be merry.
Wasn't a feast just for the sun, but it was a feast for the Father and the Son together.
And how sweet it is to our souls when we rise to the place, when we gather God's thoughts.
From the Scriptures by the Spirit of God concerning His blessed and beloved Son.
Perhaps it's in the night season when we wake up. Perhaps it's sometime when we're alone. Perhaps it's sometime in the assembly.
But I don't think that we'll have a greater joy in our life here.
Nor will God our Father find greater joy in our life.
And when we come as it is here to enjoy.
In communion with God, that blessed, glorious person that we've had before us all, the Father made every provision that He might be accepted in the home. But I have to say to my own heart, and I say to each of us, it was necessary that the Son be willing to accept.
00:05:15
The feast that the Father was providing so that they could eat it together, so that they could share together. Perhaps it's not coming over very clearly, but I think if we meditate a little, we'll see that the grave joy in this home at this time.
Was this feast that they had together?
The father and the returning son.
And we could say I believe that the fatted calf.
Speaks to us of the Lord Jesus.
And you think that God, who finds its great delight in his beloved Son, who wants to share?
With each of us the redeemed His joy that He has in His beloved Son.
And this is really heaven on earth in this home. I believe this is a foretaste. And so each time, whether we're by ourselves or whether with some other Christian or we're together in a meeting.
This is so important because it gives him such joy to share.
With his redeemed.
What the Lord Jesus is to him to have fellowship. Now I'd like to turn to the scriptures I read at the breaking of bread in the 22nd chapter. And again they seem lost. Sweet occasion.
We have in Luke 22 is that night before the Lord Jesus went to the cross.
What a very important time it was.
Because the great work of Calvary was before him to bring glory to God.
Up here again.
And these are such human experiences, it seems, such real experiences as we drawn aside here. Think of it this very night he had directed his disciples to go to a certain place.
To an upper room, a place separated, but a place of his choosing.
And there in that upper room.
He was going to communicate to them.
Many things which we have in John's Gospel from chapter 13.
Through 17 and that beautiful prayer in the 17th of John that was all going to be part of that upper room that night.
But what I want to speak about?
Is that there were those?
And there were very few.
Of all that the Lord Jesus had come in contact, all that he had healed, all the blessing that had flowed forth in that blessed man, Christ Jesus.
And here are but eleven people.
Perhaps in that upper room. What a very small company.
But they were going to give joy to the Lord Jesus.
And so it is before us.
Us in verse 13 and day when.
They had to decide that they would go.
Like the prodigal, he returned and here they go, directed by the Lord Jesus.
And found they weren't disappointed, as we often hear. And He as he had said unto them. And they may dreary the Passover when the hour was come.
The hour was come. He sat down.
And the 12 apostles with him. And he said unto them, He has a message.
And He has the message for each of us when we come together, when we come to the place, and there we take our place at that table. And there is the precious Savior and these wonderful words that have rung out in the hearts of the redeemed over the years.
00:10:15
The first time I heard a brother take up this verse, it was a good many years ago.
I couldn't believe that there could be such a message.
As was given by the Lord Jesus. Such a message. Think of it, the Lord of glory desiring the company.
Of.
A few.
There was Peter. He denied that he knew the Lord.
Eats one of them that very night forsook him in fled.
And yet, as we come back to this place.
We find these beautiful words with desire.
I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
With desire I have desired. That was what was in his heart. That's what was in the heart of the one who was going to the cross to redeem them. This is the heart of Jesus.
This is the heart of my savior. This is the language.
Of one who has made himself real and dear to each believer, because he's precious to the believer and these precious words.
Reaching out to us Even to this day in 1987, these same blessed words are reaching out to each heart here in this room.
And as we give him joy in response.
You think of Ruth who said I will go, I will go. How important for those disciples to have been there to hear these words. Do we hear them this morning?
Did they feel our heart this morning with desire I have desired or greatly desired?
I suppose language can't express what was in his heart.
But it was there, and he reaches out with those words and he shows them what he would have them to do.
A very.
Feeble response, perhaps from them, but oh, the heart of Jesus, the love of Jesus, the love of this one for their company. He wanted their company and he wants our company.
And so he places that loaf in that cup, and he gives thanks.
And he eat of it, and he says, this dear, in remembrance of me, Is it beyond us?
We still have the privilege, thank God.
Will you still hear his voice saying, but desire I have desired.
To eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
And I believe we've lost a great deal.
If we haven't heard those words each time we come to that remembrance feast, and perhaps he has lost a great deal if we haven't heard because it's his desire that is spoken about here that is expressed.
I just want to turn to John 14, John 14.
Verse 3.
These are some of the words they heard in that upper room.
That night.
If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am.
There you may be also that where I am.
We long to go.
We long for the coming of the Lord Jesus.
We know he has a purpose in waiting.
And that is, he set out to do something.
And he must finish that work before he can come. He told his disciples, he told Peter and others, I will build my church in the gates of hell, shall not prevail against it. So we know he won't come until that work is finished, that church is complete, that last stone is put in the building. But can we say that as soon as at last stone?
00:15:20
Has put in that building.
He will hasten to fulfill the desire in his heart by taking us up there, that we might be with Him.
Can we think of it? His home, the Father's house, His people, the great joy you have in receiving us into the Father's house?
We've experienced the welcome. When we came to the Father, we experienced the welcome.
In coming into the Lords presence in the Remembrance feast.
But when we experience this welcome, when we see the joy in his expression.
In his face as he looks upon.
That which gives him joy.
That redeemed company, O beloved, He paid an infinite price to have your bride.
It hurts and when he takes that bride to himself, that where I am.
There you may be also where I am.
He wants us there, He would have us there, His longing to have us there.
Are we anxious to see him?
Is that the Great Expectations we have?
Or are we disappointing him?
Are we getting a little too occupied to spend much time with the father?
Are we getting too occupied to come into the presence of the Lord Jesus to answer to His desire? Are we getting a little too occupied that we don't have much thought?
Of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
These are just questions we might ask ourselves. I'd just like to turn finally to Revelation.
Chapter 21.
Revelation chapter 21.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the 1St heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea than I. John saw the holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold.
Behold.
The Tabernacle of God is with men.
I used to hear quite often a brother say that Jesus Christ had become a man.
And would remain a man for all eternity that he might have us.
As his companions there God tabernacling with men.
Is this what God had before him in that past eternity? Is that what God has before him now? Is that what is before him when he has?
Those redeemed ones, those who are there where everything is suited to God and He is dwelling with man.
He housed the company that he longed to have.
But you know, this is the eternal day.
This is the day of God.
This is when everything suited to God. This is when everything is in perfect harmony with God and God's heart desire is fulfilled in a tabernacles with men.
I don't grasp it.
I try to enjoy it.
And I believe that's what God would have us to do to really.
Absorb the reality that God is going to be pleased. Tabernacle having our company is going to give him the satisfaction and joy He's anticipated from a past eternity.
00:20:05
For the beautiful, glorious eternity, and He will dwell with them.
And they shall be his people.
And God himself shall be with him, and be their God.
Eternity, eternity, God, All in all.
And then?
For those who have deep sorrows and trials in the journey.
Here it is as we close in God.
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. What a wonderful moment if you've passed through a trial, if you shed tears, if you felt the sorrows of life.
God.
The wipe away all tears from their eyes.
May we give Him joy. May He have the right place in our hearts.
As our Father.
And as our Savior.
Our friend.
As we walk through the hours that are left to us, how precious to know.
That God is for us.
That God is with us, that God loves us, that God cares for us.
That Jesus died for us. That Jesus lives for us. He carries us on his shoulders.
He carries us in his bosom, and that Jesus is coming for us.
And that we are coming back with Him in His glory as we look on into the future.
We're looking for the blessed hope.
And the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
Returning
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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.
I'd like to just call attention in this chapter to a few instances where we have the thought of returning. There are many that have already started to return to their homes. And all of us, if the Lord leaves us here a little longer, we're going to have to return. And I think there's some very interesting little occasions here where this thought is brought before us. And I just like to read a few verses.
Luke 24 and verse 9.
And return from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the 11, and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with him, which told these things.
The apostles then going down to the 13th verse, and behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem, about 3 score furlongs.
And they talked together of all these things which had happened, and it came to pass that while they communed together and reasoned that Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were holding Holden that they should not know him.
Then going down to the 32nd verse. And they said one to another, did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures? And he rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the 11 gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon.
And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in the breaking of bread.
And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them.
Peace be unto you. Then going down a little farther in the chapter in the.
Last verse of the chapter.
The pardon me, the second last verse. And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.
Well, I was just thinking, brethren, how these instances in this chapter where they return?
And as I say, the Lord will, each of us are going to return, but we see different conditions in connection with their return and different lessons. I believe that we can see, and I trust the Lord will speak to each one of our hearts that there may be something that will be a blessing to us as we return.
The first part of the chapter, we see that there were those women who came out and were the first witnesses of the Lord Jesus resurrection. How beautiful this is to see a sister's part. You know, there's going to be a lot of conversation as we return from these meetings. Sisters have a big part in this conversation and isn't it very lovely to see these women? Spirit of God particularly mentions their names and that they had the privilege of coming.
And it tells us here in this ninth verse, and return from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the 11 and to all the rest. There were those that didn't have the same energy and affection as these dear women had. And so they talked about what they had learned about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Isn't it blessed for us too to speak about him?
We have a risen, living Savior, one who's up there at the right hand of God.
And they had witnessed this, the Lord Jesus himself, as we learned from another gospel.
Had spoken to Mary he'd made himself known to her and said to her, go tell my disciples I ascend unto my father and your father and to my God and your God. What a message these dear women had to carry. What an influence sisters have in the home and in the assembly. And I believe it's beautifully brought out here and so as we return we can carry back something that will be a blessing to.
Who are not here. These women certainly did, must have stirred the hearts of the disciples who perhaps didn't have as much spiritual energy as they did, that they carried this wonderful message back to them. We were speaking a little bit just among ourselves about this. And I've often said a remark that I read some years ago that's been a blessing to me in my life, and that is.
This brother, Brother Darby said Christianity is known by what it brings, not by what it finds.
00:05:05
And that's always been a help to me, because we can get occupied about the things we find. Maybe things are in a bit of disorder in the home, in the assembly, a lot of things that could burden us and cast us down. The Lord Jesus came into this world. What kind of reception did he have? Well, he was born and placed in a Manger. As he grew up, they led him to the brow of the hill and were going to cast him down headlong. He didn't have.
Very welcome reception here in this world. But oh, what He brought, just think. And the blessing, the healing, the wounded hearts that He healed as well as the physical. And then above all, He brought salvation, and at what a cost. Well, brethren, as we go home, and I can say this to the Sisters too, and we're going to bring something, we can find things to point at. None of us are perfect and we can speak of those things, but they will never.
Edify anyone? But isn't it lovely? Here are these women went back and told the disciples about what they had seen and heard. Well, in a second instance that we have, we have a couple here. We only have the name of one, but we have every reason to believe it was husband and wife because we know that Cleophus did have a wife and we know that they shared the same home. Because of what?
So I believe we could say in this instance it was probably husband and wife. They weren't going back so happy and glad as those women.
They were going back with very sad, discouraged hearts, a lot of things they didn't understand.
They had expected that the Lord Jesus would at that time deliver Israel. They said we trusted that there had been he that would have delivered Israel. That's the that was their expectation. Maybe you came to these meetings and you were expecting something to happen. Especially I think of dear young people, you come, you expect something to happen.
And you go home, a kind of a heavy heart. It didn't happen. The Lord didn't seem to come in the way you had hoped and expected. And you feel just like these two, they were reasoning among themselves and talking over things. Things were pretty disappointing and frustrating to them. I think of a lot of our frustration. Frustration is because we wanted something to happen. We expected it to happen and it didn't happen. And we get kind of downcast as it was mentioned.
To us in the reading, even the dear brother, dear John the Baptist, we think of him, how he was discouraged because the Lord didn't take him out of prison and he had hoped that he would, I am sure. And so maybe the Lord hasn't taken you out of circumstances that you thought you wished he would. Well, they were going along discouraged. Were they going alone? No, it says Jesus himself.
Drew near and went with them. Were they conscious that he was there? No.
They were talking among themselves as though he were not present. But he is, brethren, a silent listener to every conversation.
He hears all and He's there in love. Do you think he came down to condemn them? Not one word of condemnation did he give. He asked them a few questions. Questions that searched their hearts, I'm sure. What things? And so they pour out their hearts and He invites us to do that.
Tells us in the 62nd Psalm, Pour out your hearts before Him. Trust in Him at all times. He is our rock. Yes, we can come to Him with confidence when no one understands but the Lord.
But he does, he fully understood just exactly how these disciples felt as they went down there toward their home in Emmaus, so discouraged that they actually, perhaps I could say we're going to miss a meeting. Yes, there was something going to go on at Jerusalem. And if it hadn't been with the Lord, met them and talked to them along the way, they wouldn't have been there. They were too discouraged. They didn't feel like going. Perhaps you feel like that sometimes I just don't feel like going out tonight.
Down. And so this is the way they felt. But wasn't it wonderful? The Lord Jesus came and he stirred their hearts, what with telling them that everything was going to be set righteous then, now, but he brought before them the things concerning himself.
He showed them that they would have to wait God's time. God's time was a long time. It hasn't taken place yet. The Lord hasn't yet redeemed Israel, but the time is going to come. And so the Lord encouraged their hearts and so much so that when they finally did reach their home, they said to the Lord, abide with us. Oh, how beautiful this is.
00:10:17
As the little poem says, be not to me like a passing stranger who comes in to tarry for the night, abide with me.
Isn't that lovely? Not just to know him when we're at a three days meetings, not just to know him when we're together with the Lorde people, but when we return to our homes to have him. I believe this is a cure for many situations. We often talk about company manners.
We don't say and do things sometimes when we have company in our homes because we know they're watching, but we might act differently if the company were not there. But there is company in our home all the time, far more important than any company that we could think of inviting to our home. The Lord of glory, He's there, and He was in this home. And there, as they met and the meal was provided, He made himself known to them.
Oh, how precious that was. What a moment for their souls.
And I say again, we've heard quite a bit about the home. Wouldn't it be nice too, if we, when we went home, just did what these disciples did, said to the Lord Jesus, abide with us. I'm sure that would correct a lot of situations. Things that might be said wouldn't be sad if we were conscious that He was right there and that He cared and that He knew the whole situation and entered into it with us and for us. I believe it would be the cure for many things.
Abide with us. But the Lord didn't want them to be so discouraged that they wouldn't go back and be identified with their brethren. Maybe they weren't very faithful because they hadn't been there at the sepulchre like the women had been. And they might have said, oh, there's not much use going. There's not much spiritual energy in that little gathering. They didn't even come out to the sepulchre, and just a short time before they'd all forsook him in, fled.
But they knew that God did have a place where He wanted His people to be.
And they rose up the same hour of the night and went there. They went there not because they could look at the people and say it's a wonderful group of people, but I believe they would went they went there because they believed that that was where the Lord wanted his people to be, place where he had put his name. And they weren't disappointed.
They went there, and the Lord stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. What a lovely return this was. First we have those who return from the sepulchre with good news. Then we have those who are returning to their homes discouraged. Then we have these who return from their homes back to Jerusalem, to be where the Lord was in the midst, to see his blessed hands, and his feet and his side.
To know he was there, to know that redemption was accomplished, to know that blessing was now secured for them. Oh, how wonderful. How true for us brethren. How may we value the privilege? Not because of the people. In that 27 Psalm the psalmist said, one thing of I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to be with my brethren. No, to behold the beauty.
Lord, and to inquire in His temple. Yes, that's what we have to have before us, to behold the beauty of the Lord. We do like to be with our brethren. They can be, and they often are a real cheer and a help. Perhaps I hear somebody save it when I get with them. I don't know what to say, and I don't never seem to be able to say something to encourage them. Well, I'll just say this to you, that I got a lot of comfort out of that little passage in the last chapter of Acts.
Where Paul after that?
Tempestuous journey when they were wrecked at Melita, and when they finally got to Rome, it says that the brethren came out from Rome to meet him. And what did they say to Paul? I don't know. All it says is when he saw the brethren, he thanked God and took courage. Do you say I don't know what to say but a smile, just some little smile, Your presence, your happy presence to greet someone.
May mean an awful lot, might be a turning point in their lives. So here we find they went back, they weren't disappointed. And we find the Lord then commissioning these disciples that they could go out. Notice the 47th verse. And that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem and ye.
00:15:12
Are witnesses of these things, and behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tear ye in the city of Jerusalem until he be endued.
With power from on high. Well, we find here that the Lord was now commissioning that disciples, giving them a service that they could carry on during his absence. This is so lovely, isn't it? And then he led them out to Bethany. I believe it means the House of bread. So he is the one who feeds our souls, but he's gone up on high.
And he leads us out, as it were, and reminds us that our rest is not here. It's no longer a physical center.
It's a person. He's gone up on high. And so it tells us here. He brought them out now to Bethany. He had encouraged their hearts. And it says he lifted up his hands and blessed them. Oh, how blessed this is. How are we blessed? Well, with Israel there were material things blessed in their storehouse and in their barn.
Promises of health, promises of many things that God would bestow if they would walk in obedience.
And that he will bestow upon them in a millennial day and sovereign grace these promises. But for us, we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. Have sometimes thought about how Mary mistook the Lord and supposed him to be the gardener. I think I've done the same thing. I've mistaken the Lord for a gardener to make everything sort of nice and pretty and beautiful in my life. But.
He wasn't the gardener, he said to Mary. Now he said, I'm going back. The garden is up there. Down here, everything has been spoiled. Shall I say there's a sepulchre in the garden? Our precious Savior was crucified in the place where Jesus was laid was in a garden, a new sepulchre in Neverman yet laid. That's where the Lord Jesus was placed. That's what the world gave to him. But he's not in that sepulchre.
He's up there in glory. So he lifted up his hands and he blessed them, and as he blessed him, blessed them. He was parted from them. And what happened? Here's the last return. It says here the 52nd verse. And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God.
Amen. Yes, their hearts now were filled with worship.
And surely we after all the precious things that have been brought before us about our Lord and Savior.
And all these things that we see in this chapter and so many of the meetings occupying us with himself and the one that's gone up on high, the one whose last act was to lift up his hands and bless his people. And always say again, brethren, how richly were blessed the unsearchable riches of Christ. And he's up there on high. We see him. The cloud has received him, so to speak, out of our sight for the time being. And what are we doing?
Are we going to be like the two on the road to Emmaus, go back to our homes discouraged, things didn't happen the way we expected. There was a lot of frustration and disappointment. Or are we going to look up and say, oh, but all my hopes, everything that I expect and look for is in him and he's up there. And it says they returned with great joy. Oh, may we carry something of this joy with us. We all know that.
Prostate for joy.
JOY, Jesus first, others next, yourself last. That's the acrostic for joy. That's what the letters stand for. That's really what true joy is, to give the Lord his rightful place to seek to be a blessing to others. I say again, Christianity is known by what it brings, not by what it finds. And they were continually in the temple.
A brother is brought before us about that continuance, that going on.
May he enable us to continue on because there's a last return. It's not in this chapter.
But He's coming again. We find that in the first chapter of Acts, all these have to do with the returns of different ones of His own. The ones who returned from the sepulchre, the ones who are returning to their homes discouraged. The ones who encouraged went back to Jerusalem where the Lord was in the midst. Then when He commissioned them going away, and He has gone back to heaven, and they returned to Jerusalem with great joy. But we're waiting for the last return.
00:20:15
The return of the Lord Jesus, He's coming back, and we find that in Acts one. I won't turn to it. There He says these men were looking up to heaven, and the Angel came and said, this same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven shall so come again in light manner as ye have seen him going to heaven. That's our blessed hope. May He give us grace, brethren, to live each day in the expectancy. May we be exercised by these.
Little thoughts in this chapter which the Spirit of God has brought before us in such a way about returning. And I just would like to close with a verse in Isaiah chapter 30. Isaiah chapter 30. I think that's the chapter, yes, Isaiah chapter 30.
Verse 15 For thus saith the Lord God the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest shall ye be saved in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. I don't like to add this to what I'm saying, but it's a little warning, isn't it? It says and you would not. I hope none of us will say no. I hope we will return in quietness and in confidence and.
That we need for life's difficult pathway till he returns for us.
Order in Home and Assembly
Address—C. Little
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.
Could we turn to 1St Epistle of Peter first Peter chapter 3?
Beginning at verse one, likewise.
You wives.
Being subject subjection to your own husbands, that if any, obey not the word.
They may also may, without the word, be won by the conversation of the wives.
While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.
Whose adorning? Let it not be the outward adorning of plating, the hair, wearing of gold, putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and a quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price.
For after this manner in all, in the old time, the holy women also.
Who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands, even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord.
Whose daughters ye are, as long as you do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. Likewise ye husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered.
Finally, be all of one mind, having compassion one of another.
Love is brethren, be pitiful, be courteous, not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but contrary wise blessing, knowing that as ye therefore are called, that you should inherit a blessing.
For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile venomous, chew evil and do good.
Let him seek peace and ensure it, for the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open.
Unto their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against them.
That do evil. What I have on my heart is the thoughts that that our brother.
Has brought before us concerning the relationship of husband and wife and also a brother Clem has just brought before us.
The attitude of worship on Lord's Day morning, Beloved Saints of God, is it not true that if there is a happy relationship at home?
When we come into the assembly as gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus.
We're bringing into the assembly.
A happiness and a joy.
And a communion.
That begins in the family life.
To begin, that with the husband and wife in the home, the children and I believe in Peter, we have this blessed truth brought out concerning the relationship of the husband and wife and that there should be in that home that compatibility and that love expressed. And I've said this before and I'll, I'll say it again.
I ask each husband here, each wife here.
Have you this very day said to their your partner, your loved one?
I really love you expressing it in love, not only so, but making it known. And that communion, communion in a family.
As gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a responsibility we have. How can we as we have?
Have disunion in the family? A disunion between husband and wife? How can we truly worship the Lord?
In spirit and truth.
I speak very plainly because I believe that this is one of the things that is causing the silences. We are coming with empty baskets.
00:05:02
Because of a condition in the home.
Where the husband does not assume his right place and the wife doesn't, there's not that compatibility, that love that should be expressed there. And I believe that here in Peter.
In Peter's epistle, you know, we have the the thought brought before us. I'm not going into all these verses, there wouldn't even be time for it, but just a thought of the place of the husband and the place of the wife.
And isn't it a beautiful thing when you think of it? It expresses the one body of Christ. It expresses Christ and the church, the husband and wife relationship.
Oh, I ask my own soul. You ask. You can ask yourself.
Am I expressing that in my home?
Oh, if you are when you come into the assembly.
And you bring your peace into that assembly, your compatibility with your loved one, and you're together in this, in union before the Lord. What a happy time there is. We remember, we can remember the Lord in his death, in communion as husband and wife. But I would say this also too.
That we don't remember the Lord as husband and wife. We don't. It's not each one remember the Lord individually. But husbands, if you're not treating your wife as the Lord would have your her to be treated, you're not in communion with the Lord. And wives, if you're not treating your husband, if you're not giving him the place that's his, you're not in communion with the Lord either. And so isn't it, isn't it?
Doesn't it touch our hearts and consciences to realize that we have won the Lord Jesus Christ?
Who gave his life. He did everything for you. He's made provision for you as our brother has been bringing before us that provision that has been made for that inward thing that we're with, that drive of human nature that we have, and God has made provision for that.
Oh, how do we treat it? How do we relate to it? And I think that these two things.
Are bring before us the fact of of a worship that could please God because it begins in the home. It begins in the home. I noticed in your verses here. Just notice where it says.
The begins by the wives, it says, and be subjection to your own husbands.
And of course, again, it brings in if they obey not the word. This puts it a very extreme case, doesn't it, that if they obey not the word, even it says that they may without the word, be won by the conversation of the wives. I knew of a case of a dear sister.
Who had a husband? She got saved and her husband was not saved and for 20 years.
She prayed for her husband, 20 long years she was in fellowship. Her husband was not saved, was not in fellowship. And I remember her coming and asking what can I do? I said Sister, live Christ.
With your husband.
You don't have to say anything it says here can be won by the conversation of the wives even without without a word. Live Christ.
Show your husband love and compassion.
Well, the end of that story was 20 some years later he got saved and he too is gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Can God be? Can you?
Can you overstepped God's grace and bonds? You can't do that.
If we bow to the word of God, and so I think of it here with a wife who had a husband that wasn't saved.
A very trying thing, but then we go down here and it says.
Concerning the husbands verse.
Verse 7 Likewise your husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered. While I believe this too is a more a very, very important thing in the marriage life. Marriage time.
00:10:10
Being heirs together.
Of the grace of life. It's the grace of God that saved you and your wife. If you're both the Lords and this marvelous thing, the grace of life, you can go on together through this world in the grace of life, God's matchless grace. And when we come, and when you come into the assembly to remember the Lord in his death, there is.
Fruit. There is something that can be offered. There's communion.
In our personal life and that bring is brought into as our brother has been bringing before us.
The fact of not being empty before the Lord.
So I believe that there are many things here. I, I don't take up all time. I won't take many more time. But I just to remind you of this, how that Peter tells us about our pathway through this world, through this world, the grace of life. We won't need that in heaven. We won't need it in glory, but we need it now.
And I again again feel that if.
That relationship if the husband reminds his wife each day that he loves her, not just assume it. Speaking to a young man here the other day about this same matter is this comes up quite often lately because of the breakups of families and and marriages and so on. And I just mentioned to him, I said, you know.
Why does it say husbands love your wives?
Well, he said, because God said so. That's true, I said, but I'm going to tell you why.
Because you don't have love in your heart. You're not made that way.
I said the dear woman, the female has this innate love in her heart.
And your kindness to her will draw it out.
But, I said we're reminded.
The husband love your wives because you don't.
You don't and I believe it's a searching thought. It's a searching thought, but I think it's good for each one of us to remember that and tell your loving wife you love her. Make it known to her. Don't just assume it because when the when the wife.
Who has this innate love in her heart? And she has a husband who says to her, I love you.
It's going to come out as she's going to respond to this. Oh, I believe it's true with both, but I really believe that the greater responsibility belongs to the man. He's the responsible one. He's the aggressor and he is very responsible in this to treat her as as unto the weaker vessel.
The heirs of the of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered.
Prayers. Intercessions.
Remembering the Lord, all these things are hindered if we're not compatible, if we're going in different directions. But then it goes on and it also says finally in verse 8.
Finally, be all of one mind, one mind, one mind.
This is God's desire, that oneness of mind because.
We too are in the oneness of Christ and I believe that there's, there's, there's much here and speaking about loving life and seeing good days. This really is what we need. We need to get down to the practical everyday living of the truth of God. Not just doctrines and truths that we say we know, but put them into practice.
And this love life and secret days.
Let him refrain his tongue from evil in his lips they speak no guile, and seek peace, or follow, follow.
Avoid evil and do good and seek peace and insult or follow it. So I believe that these things to me fit together in connection with what our brothers have said.
Concerning the the relationship of the husband and wife and then coming into the assembly in a commune, a communicable way in communion with the Lord, and then praise and rise up and honor the precious Savior who died for us.
Things
Open Mtg.