Introduction to 1.John 2

… As was mentioned before, the subject of the conference is the second chapter of the first epistle of John. On tonight we have the first opportunity of reading that chapter together. I would like to read from the first epistle of John, chapter 2. John chapter 2, verse 1. My children, these things I write to you in order that ye may not sin. And if anyone sin, we have a patron with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins, but not for ours alone, but also for the whole world. And hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that says, I know him, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him verily, the love of God is perfected. Hereby we know that we are in him. He that says he abides in him ought even as he walked himself also so to walk. Beloved, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which ye have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye heard. Again I write a new commandment to you, which thing is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light already shines. He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness until now. He that loves his brother abides in light, and there is no occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and knows not where he goes, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. I write to you, children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. I write to you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, because ye have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. Love not the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world is passing, and its lust. But he that does the will of God abides for eternity. Little children, it is the last hour. And according as ye have heard that Antichrist comes, even now there have come many Antichrists, whence we know that it is the last hour. They went out from among us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have surely remained with us, but that they might be made manifest, that none are of us. And he hath the unction from the Holy One, and he know all things. I have not written to you because ye do not know the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is the Antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son has not the Father either. He who confesses the Son has the Father also. As for you, let that which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you. If what ye have heard from the beginning abides in you, ye also shall abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise which he has promised us, life eternal. These things have I written to you concerning those who lead you astray. And yourselves, the unction which ye have received from him abides in you, and ye have not need that anyone should teach you. But as the same unction teaches you as to all things, and is true and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, ye shall abide in him. And now, children, abide in him, that if he be manifested, we may have boldness and not be put to shame from before him at his coming. If ye know that he is righteous, know that everyone who practices righteousness is begotten of him." Last year when we started the first epistle of John, we had some general thoughts on the writer of this epistle and of the general subject of John's gospel. And so tonight I would like to give a short outline of this second chapter that will be before us in this conference. We have already seen or mentioned one of the differences between John's gospel and John's epistle. In John's gospel we see what our brother expressed in his prayer at the beginning, that the Lord Jesus was here on earth and he manifested the characteristics of eternal life. But in the epistle of John we see that these characteristics of eternal life are also seen in the believers. One key verse to this epistle is in our chapter in verse 8, which thing is true in him and in you, that which was true in him when he was here on earth is today true in him and in us, the believers. If I would give a headline to this short outline I'm going to give, I would call it Three Claims, Three Tests, and Three Stages of Growth. John the writer of the epistle is very often expressing his ideas in threes. And so we will find in this chapter, in the first eleven verses, that there are three claims that somebody professes and John gives us three tests to prove if this claim is true. And later on in the second part of the chapter, which will be, as I understand, our main subject of the conference, he tells us that there are in this family among the children of God, there are three different stages of spiritual growth. The first two verses of this chapter, we have dealt with that already, show us the Lord Jesus and his wonderful work as an advocate. In chapter 1, John had pointed out that we could not say we have no sin and we could not say we have not sinned, but that does not mean that the believer has to sin. And John says, I have written you these things in order that you may not sin. But if anyone sin, there is this advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ the righteous, who restores the believer into fellowship with the Father and the Son. And from verse 3 to verse 11, we find that John gives us these three claims. He always starts with a general statement in verse 3, and hereby we know that we know him. He does not say, and hereby we know him, but hereby we know that we know him. John is trying to emphasize the security the believer has in knowing the truth. And he says, we know that we know him if we keep his commandment. And then comes this first claim. It always starts with these words, he that says. In the first chapter, we all have read, if we say, but here in chapter 2, it's a general statement in the third person, a profession somebody made, he that says, I know him. So there comes somebody who says, well, I know him, or to put it simply, who says, I'm a Christian, I know the Lord Jesus. And John says, well, we can prove, we can test such a confession. If somebody says, I know him, and does not keep his commandment, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Obedience is the first test of this profession. If somebody does not obey the word of God, does not keep his commandments, and these are not the commandments of the Old Testament, but the commandments of the New Testament of the Christian faith, and somebody does not keep his commandments, he says, he is a liar. The truth is not in him. He is not a believer. He is simply making a confession, saying he knows him, but that is not true, because there's no obedience in him. You may remember what we had last year, that John is always writing in black and white. He is giving the principles. He says, if there is obedience to the commandments of God, then the profession is true. If there's no obedience, then such a person is a liar. We all know that in our practical lives we fail, and we may find out that we haven't obeyed in a certain case a single commandment, but he's speaking about the principle. Somebody who principally keeps the commandments, such a one knows that he knows him. He can be sure that he is a Christian, but if somebody does not keep the commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him, verily the love of God is perfected. I leave it to the Bible readings to find out if there's a difference between commandments and the word in obeying them, but obedience in general is the proof of the confession here. Then he goes on to a second statement, hereby we know that we are in him. And again, there is a confession. He that says he abides in him. Somebody says, I abide in him. I am a Christian, I'm living in fellowship with the Lord. Well, John says there again, we have a test to prove if that is true. He that says he abides in him ought even as he walked himself also so to walk. So the second test is that in the life of such a person who says I abide in him, something of the character of the walk and life of the Lord Jesus should be seen. A reproduction of the life of the Lord Jesus should be seen in the Christian. It is a walk of the same order, we may say. The difference between us and the Lord is not in the kind of walk, but in the degree. In him, of course, everything was in perfection, but with us it is weakness. But that is not the subject of John. He is just saying he should be walking as the Lord walked. I once read in a book an illustration of this, and the writer used Peter, when he was walking on the water. And Peter walking on the water was walking as the Lord walked. He was walking on water, and Peter as well. Well, Peter failed, we know, he began to sink. But nevertheless, in principle, he was walking as the Lord walked. And that should be the characteristic of the Christian, to walk even as he walked. So if somebody says he abides in him, but in his life nothing could be seen that corresponds to the walk of the Lord, that is a reproduction of the life of Christ, then it is simply a statement with no truth behind it. Then we find in verses 7 and 8 that he speaks again, we already mentioned it, about a commandment, and he says, in one sense it is an old commandment, nothing new, which he had from the beginning, and this old commandment is the word which he heard, and if we compare this with the beginning of this epistle, where John speaks about the Lord Jesus, that which was from the beginning, concerning the word of life, this has to do again with the Lord Jesus here on earth as the manifestation of the truth of God, of eternal life. But then he says, in another sense, this commandment is a new one, which thing is true in him and in you. Now also in the believer, this eternal life, the characteristics of that life are seen in the believer as well as it was in the Lord. And therefore darkness is passing and the true light already shines. Darkness has not passed yet, this is future, but it's already passing because the light shines because there are those here that manifest new life, eternal life, the characteristics of it. And now, for a third time, somebody who may have heard this, he comes and says, well, I am in the light. He who says he is in the light. The third time, again, this confession, he who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness until now. So John says the third proof, the third test you have is the love for the brethren. If somebody says he is in the light but he hates his brother, this is only the proof that he is in darkness, which means that he is not a believer at all because he that loves his brother abides in light. We mentioned last year that one of John's, three of John's favorite words in the English language and in a number of other languages starts with L. It's love and light and life. And these three terms are connected very often in John's Gospel. Here in our verse, in verse 10, it says, he that loves his brother abides in light. Here love is connected with light. If we turn, for example, to chapter 3, verse 14, it says, we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. The love for the brethren is also connected with life here and in our verse with light. So these three terms, they all go together and the love for the brethren, for those that have the same nature than we have, is the proof that this confession is right if somebody says he is in the light. With verse 12, he now comes to this subject about these different stages of growth. The apostles view believers differently in their epistles. Paul mainly sees the believer as a member of the assembly of God, while Peter sees the believers primarily as members of the flock of God. He is the shepherd, so to say. And John, he sees the believers, as some call it, as a family of God or the children of God. And that's what he is talking about now. And in verse 12, he addresses all of them, all the children, I write to your children because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. So that's the first point which is true of every believer, to say, well, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. So maybe I could ask this question tonight, if everybody here in this room could say, well, that's true of me. I know that my sins are forgiven for his name's sake. Because that's a family matter we are talking about now. What the next verses are talking about is not about you if you do not know that your sins are forgiven. That is the basis of this relationship of the children of God, their sins are forgiven for your name's sake. And then the apostle speaks of three groups, the fathers, the young men, and the children, or little children, the babes, in Christ. And first of all, on all three of them together, I would like to point out first of all that this is a spiritual growth and not a natural one. It does not speak about people that are young in the age, or middle-aged, or old people, but it speaks about a spiritual condition in which they are. So this means there could be the case, maybe an exceptional case, but there could be the case that even a younger person through many things he has experienced in his life with the Lord has matured and is a father in Christ. And it may also be, and we have to confess this may be not so seldom, there may be the case that somebody has grown old here on earth but still is a child because he has not grown in the things of the Lord. But how happy it is if there is this natural growth that John puts here before us. And maybe we should mention that there is a difference in our natural way of growing up and this spiritual way. When a child becomes a young man or young woman, then he normally loses some of the things that characterized him as a children. He didn't do things he did as a child when he becomes a young man. And when he gets older and becomes old, he may lose some of the energy he had as a young man. But this is not true in the spiritual sense. You do not lose what characterized the stage before. So the young men, to say it in the words of John, the young men still know the Father and the Fathers still overcome the wicked one. They just have matured a stage further. And he writes to both groups twice. And in my short outline here, I would take these two addresses to the different groups together. What he said about the Fathers in the first case, in verse 13, is, I write to you, Fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. But here's the Lord Jesus Christ. The verses he writes to the different groups gets longer when we come to go down from Fathers to Children. The Fathers, it's the shortest. It's only this one sentence, I write to you, Children, because sins are forgiven. I write to you, Fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. And when he writes to them the second time in verse 14, it's just the same. He does not add anything, because what they have is really a state of maturity where Christ is all for them. They have realized the all-sufficiency of Christ. How wonderful that is if we see a person that really, for whom we could say, well, Christ is all for him. But we find later, the world, false teachings, always Christ is brought in, and that settles all. Christ is all for them. I'm sure most of us would really desire such a thing, and I think it would be a good thing if this conference would rekindle this desire in our hearts to be more like that, that Christ might really be everything for us. Ye have known him that is from the beginning, Lord Jesus Christ, fills all of these Fathers. They are occupied with Christ, and nothing else but Christ. That is a wonderful thing, to have such a state of maturity where Christ is everything for you. Then he goes to speak about the young men. I write to you, young men, because he has overcome the wicked one. The young men are characterized by strength in conflict. They have overcome the wicked one. They have dealt with the adversary, with the devil, and they have overcome him. They have overcome the wicked one. And if we want to know why did they overcome the wicked one, what was the source of their strength, we have to look at the second time when John writes to them. He says, I have written to you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. He says, you are strong, but this strength is not something in us. He says, the word of God abides in you. When we are dealing with Satan, the wicked one, it is important that the word of God abides in us. It means that the word of God forms their thoughts, governs their affections, and rules their actions. So we may wonder if that is true of us, that all our thoughts are formed by the word of God, that our affections are governed by the word of God, and also our actions, that what we do is controlled by the word of God. It abides in them. There is this picture in the Old Testament, which we might use perhaps as illustrating this here, in the time of the judges, where this man was fighting with his sword, a picture of the word of God, and until his hand cleaved to the sword, he was one with the sword, the word of God. It abides in him. It was really the thing that characterized and governed all his life. The word of God abides in you. What a wonderful state that is, if you have the word of God in you, and it governs everything in you. You've overcome the wicked one, but different from the fathers, now he also has an exhortation for them. There is a danger for the young man when he says, love not the world, nor the things in the world. There is the danger for this young man that the world, again, may become an attraction for them. We have in the New Testament this companion of the apostle Paul, Demas, who was one, fighting with Paul together against the devil. But sometime later Paul is to say, well, Demas has left me because he loved the course of this world. Love not the world, nor the things of the world. The world is not only an abstract concept. It is something real. There are things in this world which we should not love. And he says, if anyone loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. He contrasts the love of the world with the love of the Father. And then he says, while talking about the world, when we talk about the world, we may be able to talk about 130 things that characterize the world, but the apostle John just puts it down to three principles that drive everything in the world. He says, all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Everything in the world, John says, has to do with one of these three things. The lust of the flesh, you may call it the desire of having. The lust of the eyes, the desire of seeing. And the pride of life, the desire of being something, somebody. That characterizes all the things in this world. And it is not astonishing, because the wicked one, Satan, is mentioned in connection with the world, that we have the same three things when we find him approaching Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. In the book of Genesis, in chapter 3, when Satan came towards them, in Genesis chapter 3, verse 6, it says, and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, the lust of the flesh, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, the lust of the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, the pride of life. And if we compare it with the temptation of the Lord Jesus in the wilderness, in the way Luke tells it, we find again the three things. First he comes and says, well, take these stones and make bread out of them. The lust of the flesh to have something to eat. And then it says that Satan showed him all the kingdoms of the earth and their wealth, the lust of the eyes to see these things. And the third thing he said, well, throw yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple and God will send his angels to carry you. What a wonderful, exciting miracle that would be, the pride of life. Well, of course, in the Lord Jesus he didn't find anything, the devil, but in us it may be different. The lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. All three things are a problem for us, no matter how old we are. But I once heard from Mr. Patterson that he said, and I think it's also something of a truth in that, that the emphasis may be to different age groups. The lust of the flesh is a special problem for the younger ones. On the lust of the eyes, when you are middle-aged, when you have a bit of wealth, you can do what you see. You see something and say, well, I would like to have that, like to do that, and you can do it because you are in the position of that. And then you get older and you look back on your life and there's so many things you're proud of, what you have achieved, the pride of life. But we all know that everything, all the three things, is a problem for the believer. And this is not of the Father, but it is of the world. And the world is passing and it's lost, but either does the will of God abide for eternity. Well, dear brothers and sisters, young brothers and sisters, that does settle everything, doesn't it? The world is passing. Do you really want to put all your energy and all your time into a thing or things that are passing? Well, there's something that abides. He that does the will of God abides for eternity. So we find with the young men, it is a moral seduction that is their danger and the devil, the world and the flesh are the problems mentioned. But when we come to the children, there is a spiritual seduction for them. He says, first of all, in verse 13 at the end, I write to you, little children, because ye have known the Father. Somebody who is born again, newly converted, one of the first things he realizes is that he can say, Abba, Father, that God is his Father. Something he realizes, that's what characterizes the little children, they've known the Father. They know God is their Father. And now the Apostle John, when he, in verse 18 following, speaks again to the little children, he speaks about the danger of false teachers coming to seduce them. He says, you have heard that there will be a time when the Antichrist comes in person, but there have come many Antichrists. There's still many who are, as he says, not from us. They've been with us. They've gone out. They were not from us, and they bring wrong teachings. They deny that Jesus is the Christ, which we may call the Jewish apostasy. They deny that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. And they also deny the Father and the Son, the Christian apostasy, what is the truth of Christianity, the Father and the Son. So we may say, well, these young little children, these new believers, are they not helpless when they are attacked by these Antichristian teachers that deny these things? How can they argue with all these false teachers? Well, they should not argue with them, but they have something that helps them in this situation. And he speaks about it when he says in verse 20, and ye have the unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. Or in verse 27, he says, and ye have not need that any one should teach you, but as the same unction teaches you as to all things, and is to, and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, ye shall abide in him. Probably we may wonder about such a statement. We have little children. We have persons that are newly born again, not very long, not very mature in their faith. And the Apostle John says, ye know all things. You have no need that anyone teach you. They would say, well, when I got saved, I had to learn a lot of things, and I needed teachers that teach me the truth of God. Certainly you have, but that's not what John is talking about. When he says, ye know all things, because they had the unction from the Holy One, that is the Holy Spirit, he says, because you have, even as little children, you have the Holy Spirit in you, you have the capacity to understand everything. I think it was Mr. Hole who said, they knew all things potentially, even if not in detail, but they had this potential to know everything, because they had the Spirit of God. And they don't need these wrong teachers to teach them, but they had the Spirit of God to teach them. And so, if these little children really put their trust into the Lord and independence on the Spirit, they will realize that what comes towards them is wrong. It's not the truth of God. It doesn't mean that they were able to expound all the wrong teachings, but the Spirit of God points out to them the truth of God. They have really the capacity to know all things, to know the truth of God. So we've seen these two things. I would like to summarize it shortly. We have seen, first of all, that if, in this Christian circle, people come and have a profession and say something, they may say, I know him. Then John says, well, there's a test. Are you obedient to the commandments, to the Word of God? And if somebody says, well, I abide in him, and John says, there is a test if that is true, are you walking as he walked? The same kind of walk down here. And if somebody was there who says, well, I'm in the light, but he doesn't love his brother, he hates his brother, and John says, well, then such a person is in the darkness. He's not really a believer. That's not true. But those that really, truly are saved, those that are children, they know their sins are forgiven for his name's sake. And now they start growing in their spiritual stage. If we take the natural way, they start as little children. John begins with the fathers, but let me summarize it from the other way around. They start as little children that know the Father, that know that God is their Father. And even if there are those anti-Christian teachers who bring things towards them, they have the unction from the Holy One. They have the Holy Spirit that is teaching them, and so they have the capacity to know the truth. Then there are the young men, those that overcome the wicked one, those that really have the Word of God abiding in them. How wonderful that is. But there is the danger of being seduced by the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. These things belong to the world, not to the Father, these things that are passing and not abiding. And then there are the fathers that have known Him that is from the beginning. Christ is everything to them. And I am going to close with what I said at the beginning. There's nothing greater than that, to come to such a position where we say, well, Christ is everything for us. May the Lord use these days of conference together in going over this chapter that Christ becomes greater for us. We have started with some hymns, what the name of Jesus means to believers here. And may we leave this conference different than what we came, with a greater appreciation of the person of the Lord Jesus. Amen. …

… Let's turn to the first epistle of Peter in chapter 1. First Peter, chapter 1, verse 22. Having purified your souls by obedience to the truth, to unfeigned brotherly love, love one another out of the pure heart fervently. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the living and abiding Word of God. Because all flesh is as grass, and all its glory as the flower of grass. The grass has withered, and its flower has fallen. But the Word of the Lord abides for eternity. But this is the Word which in the glad tidings is preached to you. Laying aside, therefore, all malice, and all guile, and all hypocrisies, and envyings, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire earnestly the pure mental milk of the Word, that by it ye may grow up to salvation, if indeed ye have tasted that the Lord is good. Thus far, the Word of God. I would like to dwell a little on the subject of the importance of the Word of God for the Christian life. We have spoken of growth in this afternoon, this morning, spiritual growth in the life of a Christian, and we have mentioned this verse, chapter 2, verse 2, in relation to that growth from a babe to a young man, to a father in Christ. But what we find here is that before we can grow, can start to grow, we have to be born anew. And that is a fundamental truth in the whole Bible, not so very much entered into in detail in the Old Testament, although it is mentioned there, but very clearly explained in the New Testament. And that is this fact of being born again, as Peter says, is the fundamental thing for every Christian. If you are not born anew, not born from above, not born again, you cannot enter into the presence of God. This new birth is explained by the Lord Jesus himself in the Gospel of John to Nicodemus when he came to him at night. He says he uses the same things we find here, or the same ideas, the same thoughts. He must be born again, and then he explains, you must be born by water and spirit. And what we must keep in mind, and I hope that everybody who is here with us tonight can say and knows about his new birth. Because without that, how can a man, a woman, how can a human being enter the presence of God with a nature which is sinful? This would be impossible, impossible for a sinful human being with a sinful nature to be in the presence of God, now and eternally. You cannot enter heaven with your old nature. It must be left behind. But instead of that, you need a new nature. You need new life. And this is what is given and received by new birth, by being born again. God could never accept somebody in his presence in whom there is the slightest trace of sin. He is so holy, Habakkuk says it in his first chapter, verse 13, he is too pure of eyes to see evil. How could he accept and tolerate in his presence of holiness the slightest trace of sin? Impossible. So there had to be a change. And on the other hand, how could a human being with a sinful nature stand the holiness of the presence of God? It would be the horrible thing for him because darkness shies the light. He could never have a moment of joy in heaven with his sinful nature. So this shows from both sides, from God's side and from the human side, that it is impossible for a human being in his sinful nature to enter into the presence of God. And that is why the Lord Jesus says he must be born again. This change cannot be brought about by ourselves. We cannot bear ourselves again. Being born is always a passive thing. Somebody else is the cause and the bringer forth of that new being, living being that is being born. So we see that from this point of view, there is the divine action, the divine activity, and still the human side is also there. And that is why the gospel is being preached. You have both sides. You have the human responsibility. And if anybody should be here tonight who could not say, I have been born again, then let me tell you that you have to convert yourself to God. You have to turn to him and repent about your sins. And then God will accept you. You cannot bring this change about. He will bring it about if you obey his word. And that is where Peter starts here in his passage, in his epistle which he addresses to Jewish believers, that means believers which came out of the people of Israel. He addresses them in verse 22, after having spoken about the precious lamb of God before. Having purified your souls by obedience to the truth, that is the first thing. And this is, in a way, a part of the new birth. When the Lord speaks of, you must be born by water and by spirit, the water is clearly an image of the word of God. And the word of God exercises an influence, here it is said, on our souls. Peter, the same man, the same apostle, speaks about a purification of the hearts in Acts 15. Acts 15, where there was this big meeting at Jerusalem, and the strife between the Jewish believers and those from the Gentiles, whether the last should keep the law. Peter says in Acts 15 verse 8, And the heart-knowing God bore them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit as to us also, and put no difference between us, the ex-Jews, and them, the ex-Gentiles, having purified their hearts by faith. Here it is God who has purified the heart, but it is through faith in his word. That means our heart, naturally it's not the pump we have here, it is the heart in the scripture, in this context, is always the designation for the seat of our will and desires, the heart. And this will and these desires in the natural man are evil. The thoughts of man are evil from his youth. And here he says that the heart, in Acts 15, and in 1 Peter 1 verse 22, the souls are being purified. And it is shown here by what means, in what way, it is the obedience to the truth, the obedience to the word of God, which is the word of truth and the word of God. The word of God is the only means in this world which shows man his state as a mirror, but that does not purify him. If you look, if you're dirty, have worked in the garden or somewhere else, and look in the mirror, you see that you are dirty. But looking at the mirror will not purify you, will not cleanse you. But this is the first thing that you understand, that you have a sullied and a soiled conscience and a soiled heart and a soiled soul. You have to, you are in need of purification. But then the same word shows you also the way, the only way to be purified, namely by confessing your sins to God and to the Lord Jesus. And to believe that he died for you on the cross. So, and then this word, this faith and obedience to the word of God purifies your heart, your soul, your conscience also. But this is a different thing. The conscience is also purified. And this we read in Hebrews chapter 9. In Hebrews chapter 9, we read of the purification. Yes, in chapter 9, verse 14. How much rather shall the blood of the Christ, who by the eternal spirit offered himself spotless to God, purify your conscience from dead works to worship the living God. This purification of the conscience is something related but still different. The heart and the soul are morally purified by the water of the word. That means that our thoughts and our feelings are being brought into the light of the word of God. And the evil things are judged by the word. We abhor them, we confess them, so we get a moral purification by the reading and obeying to the word of God at our start. And this continues. The Lord Jesus says to his disciples in John 15, I think verse 3 or 4. And in chapter 13, when he washes the feet of the disciples, he says, And this purification by the word of God is a moral purification of the soul and the heart. The conscience, however, is being purified judicially by the blood of Christ. That's quite a different thing, not to be separated but well to be distinguished. Because only the blood of Christ could purify our conscience, our bad consciences, when we look to the cross and see that there the Lord Jesus bore our sins in his suffering unto the death of the cross. There his shed blood was the means to purify our consciences. It was also the means to satisfy all God's desires and demands with a view to man, the sinful man. But it also purified our conscience. But that is another thing. Here we find the purification of the heart and the soul of the believer in the beginning, at the beginning of his spiritual life. And he says here, this is something which you have done. You have purified your souls by obedience to the word, to the truth. This does not say that we can convert, that we can save ourselves. But it shows us that it is not a thing which only touches God where we are absolutely inactive. This is done by faith. And I think we have here the same thing which the Lord mentions when he says you have to be born by water. Water is in scripture very often the image of the holy and sanctifying word of God. He says it with a view to the assembly which does not have to be purified or born again because it did not exist before. It consists of believers but still the assembly in her present life in this world is being purified by the washing, sanctified and purified by the washing of by water, by, through the word. And that is the word of God. And if we see in Titus this often discussed passage where he says, where Paul says that we were not saved by our own works of justice. Titus 3 it is. Verse 4, when the kindness and love to man of our Savior God appeared, not on the principles of works which we have done in righteousness, which we have done, but according to his own mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration. That's the same thing I think. The washing of regeneration is not the new birth in itself but it is part of it because our hearts are being washed and being brought and we are being brought into a new state. The old state of sinful life is gone and now in our hearts and souls we have new desires which are caused by the word of God which has shown us the abominable state of our souls before the abomination of our sins and has put in us desires which are according to God. But this has not changed ourselves fundamentally. Purification, I do not like to use the word external, but purification brings us into a new state but not in a new position. And this is what we find secondly in Peter where he says that we are being, in verse 23, that we are being born again. He distinguishes, as we see, the purification of the soul by the water of the word from the being born again not of corruptible seed but of the incorruptible of the living word of God. And this is what the Lord Jesus calls being born by the spirit. Being born by water, purification, cleansing, being born by the spirit is a work which is solely coming from God's side. He is working in us and every believer can say that if he understands it or not. It's a quite different thing or has understood it at the moment and I would say that hardly anybody was really aware of what was going on in his heart and soul when he was born again. And that is why we cannot scientifically explain new birth. But the word speaks about it and that's what we try to bring to light. What the word says about it, the Lord Jesus says himself, the wind blows where it wills. And you hear its noise but you don't see it and you don't know whence it comes and where it goes. Thus is everyone who is being born again. It is like the action of a wind which you don't see. You realize its presence, you realize its force more or less but you cannot explain it. And that is the comparison which the Lord uses for the act of being born again in a soul. But how important it is to know this. Peter speaks here of being born again. It is not exactly the same expression as John uses in John 3 for the words of the Lord. But Peter uses it twice in his epistle. The first time in chapter 1 verse 3 where he says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has begotten us again to a living hope. It's the same word, differently translated also in German, but it is the same word in Greek which shows that there is an activity, a divine activity in our inward paths. Which creates something new. And that is the new nature of which we have been speaking, not mentioned exactly in the word. The new life, something entirely new. When we were naturally born we received an earthly life, a natural life. But by being born again we have received and we receive if we believe a new life, the divine life, eternal life. Whether we understand it or not. But we realize it because the moment we have been born again we have new desires, new feelings, a new love for God, for the Savior and for all those who have been saved by him and for all those in the last place who are still lost and do not know this wonderful privilege of new birth, of being saved by the gospel of Christ. I insist on these facts because it is of the utmost importance to see that Christianity, the Christian faith is not a religion into which you can slowly grow, into which you can slowly grow. Of growth we have been speaking and will be speaking. But you cannot enter yourself by your own, by acts or feats or whatever, works of justice or good deeds or reading the Bible or visiting meetings, assisting at conferences. By all these things you can never, never, never be saved except ye be born again. And beloved, once I repeat that question, can we all say, this is my part and parcel. I have been born again. I know that I have a new life. I know I am a child of God. If you cannot say that, you are eternally lost. You may be as pious as can be. You may do things Christian, may live as an example Christian. But if you do not know this, that you have purified your heart by the obedience to the word and that you have been born again by this uncorruptible seed of the word of God, by the Holy Spirit himself, you are eternally lost. And I insist on this because it is not only a doctrine, a teaching, an ideology, but it is living faith in the Lord Jesus who is presented here, not in person, but by his word. Believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved. And this being born again in verse 23 is compared here or is connected here with a seed. Everything on our earth which comes up, which receives its existence, comes out of seed. That is the normal way to be born, to receive an existence. And this same new existence, the Christian existence, is caused by the incorruptible seed of the word of God. Again we find the word of God here. He does not go as far as John does. He does not go as far as Paul does when he speaks in Titus 3. John speaks of being born of water and of spirit, or rather the Lord himself does so, which is very important. And Paul in Titus 3 speaks of being washed by the water, by the washing of regeneration, that is the moral purification of the heart and soul. But then he says, and the renewal of the Holy Spirit. That is what we find in John, being born of the Spirit. There's two paths everywhere. And here being born again by the incorruptible seed of the word of God because the Spirit can only work by the word of God. The role of the word of God cannot be too highly estimated. And so there is a new life, a new nature. And I would venture to say that everybody who is being born again, who is born again, realizes that from that moment on he's got new desires which he never had before. So this new life, this new nature, makes itself felt, it manifests itself. But this is something which we do not find directly in this passage, but indirectly when we find in verse 22, unfamed brotherly love, love one another out of a pure heart fervently. And then in chapter two, verse one, laying aside therefore all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and all evil beings and all evil speakings, this shows that there is from that moment on, that from the moment of our new birth on, we have in distinction to every other human being in this world, two different natures. We do not lose our old nature, the flesh. We carry it along as long as our life will last, or as long until the Lord will come and take us home. The flesh, the old nature, will not enter heaven, but it is with us as long as this body accompanies us. And it is for the true believer a very nasty companion, a very bad companion. Because as we said during the conference, the flesh is part of this world and it will never change. And on the other hand, you have a new nature now, a new life by the new birth, which has only spiritual and heavenly desires, desires which are identical with the desires of the Lord Jesus who was in this world. And that is the point, or that is the reason why we are called to follow the Lord Jesus. Because the flesh in us will always detract us from him. And the new nature wants to follow him. And that is why he says in chapter 2, verse 1, lay aside. What we have to lay aside here are the expressions of the old nature. I would not say the old man. The old man is dead. The old man is not identical with the flesh. It is very similar to the flesh, very similar. And in the unbeliever, the flesh and the old man are identical. But the moment you believe in the Lord Jesus, read Romans 6, you know that not only was he crucified, and he died, and he was buried, but that our old man was crucified with him. In Galatians 2, the Apostle says, I was crucified with him. He identifies himself at that point with the old man. But he says in Romans 6, verse 6, clearly our old man was crucified with him. That means when God judged the Lord Jesus, he judged me as a natural man and said, I see you united with my son in the judgment of sin. Your old standing has come to an end. And Paul says, rightly, I have died with Christ. That is not my old nature. It is still there. But my old standing as a sinful man who could do nothing else but sin has found its end. And we have, as many as have been baptized, have testified this in their baptism. Buried with Christ. Crucified, judged, died. Died, the end, buried, the testimony of the end of our old standing. But the flesh clearly is still there. So it is not identical with the old man. And you cannot say my old man is still there. He's gone. It's a doctrinal thing. But the flesh is still there. And often when people, Christians, use the word, the expression the old man, they mean the flesh. And this flesh is there. And if the flesh were not there, all the exhortations in the New Testament would not be necessary. Because in heaven there won't be any exhortations as to our walk. Because there is nothing which hinders the spiritual development of the Christian. We will be there in glorified bodies without the flesh. Equal in form to the body of glory of our Lord Jesus. But he will be forever the firstborn among many brethren. But here in this world we have these two natures. And we as persons are responsible. We have a responsibility to live in newness of life. And not according to the flesh. And that is why we have these exhortations. Not because, on the other hand, we could also say that the new man also needs exhortations. Or rather, instructions. When the Lord speaks of the commandments of his Father, of his commandments, these are not commandments for the flesh. That is the difference between the law of the Old Testament. Those were commandments for the flesh, for the natural man. But the commandments of the New Testament are the expression of the will of God for his children. Who have received new life and who are responsive to these expressions of his will. We love, the new nature loves to do the will of God. But it needs it. It needs instruction. But the exhortations, when we are called here to put off, laying aside. Or as Paul says, put off like old garments which we detest because they are not fitting to our new standing. Dirty garments. He says, laying aside therefore all malice. Very general, all guile, all hypocrisies and envying and all evil speaking. These are results of our old nature. These are like sprouts of the old nature which are always coming up. And we need these exhortations and their realization daily. It would not be necessary if we had no old nature. If we only had a new nature. But we are exhorted on the one hand to put off these things. And this is not possible without self-judgment. It is necessary for me every day to judge myself, my acts, my words, my thoughts in the presence of God and in the light of his word. Another reason why we must read the word of God. Because there are things which we cannot know without the word of God. A brother once came to me and said, I left the meeting 20, 30 years ago. I said, for what reason? There is evil in the assembly and it is not judged. I said, can you tell me some more details? And the thing was that there was a brother who in his eyes had behaved in an evil way. As he explained it, I could agree with him that it was evil. But I said, is this evil known to the whole assembly? He said, no. I said, how can you say there is tolerated evil in the assembly? A young believer. He was an upright man. And I said, I can tell you that you have acted wrongly. Oh, how can you say that? The Lord showed me that I had to leave the meeting. I said, the Lord cannot have shown you that. Oh, he was very angry about that. And then he said, how can you say something like this? You are not my conscience. No, I said, but you don't know the scripture. Scripture says, and then I read what is said in Matthew 18, verse 15. If a brother sins, go and speak to him alone. And if he listens to you, you have won your brother. I said to him, have you done this? I said, no. And then I said, that is why I said, the Lord cannot have shown you to do something which is not in accordance with his word. And he understood it, and he did it, and he did not leave the meeting. So you see, we need instruction. Our conscience or our hearts, even as believers, are not the only guidance. They can guide us in the wrong way. If we do not listen, do not heed the instructions of the word of God. So that shows us that even if you have the desire to follow the Lord, you cannot, I don't say that this is generally the case, but you cannot say that for every case you have the mind of God without knowing his word. That's the important thing. And that is why we now find what we have already touched upon this afternoon, that Peter says, addresses the believers, these Jewish believers in the diaspora, in the dispersion, as babes, as newborn babes desire earnestly the pure mental milk of the word. We see that on the one hand, we have the old nature which has to be kept under. But on the other hand, our new life, our new nature needs instruction. We have to be instructed as to our personal walk. We have to be instructed as to our walk together with our brothers and sisters. We have to be and we need instruction as to the assembly. And all this we only find in the word of God and nowhere else. And that is why he says, as newborn babes. As newborn babes. And here he addresses all believers of whom he says he has been born again in verse 22 of the chapter 1. He says, you are all in a way newborn, as newborn babes. He does not distinguish between young little children and young men and fathers, but he says as he compares them all to young, just newly born babes. And in a newly born babe, it is quite natural that if it is hungry or thirsty, it cries. It would be a catastrophe, one brother said, if this would not be the case. So the beautiful thing is that in these comparisons, these spiritual comparisons, a thing which is natural and inevitable, so to speak, is transposed into the spiritual realm where, sad to say, it is not always self-evident. A baby does not need an exhortation, be desirous for milk. It wouldn't understand and it doesn't even need it because it is in the nature of a little baby, as in the nature of a full-grown normal human being, that it desires food. But spiritually, it is normal, but not the rule. I think we all know regrettable instances in our lives where we have not been desirous for the milk of the word. And that is why we need even this, our new nature needs this exhortation, that we desire the food for our souls. And the food for the soul is the word of God, which is compared here to milk. A little baby, I was told once, can live on milk alone. An adult, difficultly, things change, the whole metabolism changes, but a little baby can live on milk alone. The milk which comes from its mother, the food which comes from somebody who loves him, the baby. The food which is exactly right for this young newborn child. And the apostle compares the food which we need, which our souls need, with this milk, and he says, the milk of the word. It is not in the original, the milk of the word, it is the mental milk of the word. It says actually, the logical milk, and in this word logical, as in English, in Greek also, the word logos, which means the word, is comprehended. And that is why in the Dari translation it is well done that it is said, the milk of the word. The Christian needs the milk of the word to be fed in order to grow here towards salvation. Now somebody might ask the question, have we not spoken about salvation all the time? We haven't. We have spoken about new birth, but not about salvation. And this shows again how necessary it is that we feed on the word of God. Because, I don't know how it is in the English speaking world, but I suppose it is more or less the same. In German, if we speak about the German equivalent of salvation, Erettung, 99% of believers think of the salvation of their soul. And if a believer does not possess the security, the certainty of the salvation of his soul, one might doubt whether he is a believer. But scripture, the New Testament, speaks of salvation in three different ways. The salvation of the soul is mentioned by Peter in chapter 1, verse 9. Where he says, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. That means, in verse 8, we have to read verse 8 perhaps. Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, ye love, on whom though not now looking but believing, ye exult with joy and speakable and filled with the glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Now here it is clearly the salvation of our souls, and the apostle says, you receive it, you have it. You have it already. And if Paul speaks about salvation to the Ephesians, and also once in Timothy, he says, ye have been saved. He doesn't say, your souls have been saved, ye have been saved. But he means the salvation of souls. The salvation of souls is another point of view of what we have been looking at tonight. The salvation is the conscious knowledge, not the reception of a new nature, of a new life. The salvation of the soul is the conscious knowledge that the Lord Jesus died for me and saved me eternally. We can say that it is another point of view of the renewing work of God in the soul of man. And we could, there is a little booklet by F.B. Hole, I think, The Salvation, The Great Salvation, which shows us all the different points of view, like the facets of a gem, a precious gem, how many things have been accomplished when we came to be believers from being sinners into the light of God. It is a marvelous thing. Salvation of our souls is a present position. But there is another salvation, and of this the New Testament speaks not so very often, three or four passages. But the rest of the passages is either, as here, salvation at the end of our pathway, when the Lord Jesus as our Savior shall come to change our vile body into the likeness of his body of glory. That is the normal point of time when salvation will be accomplished. Because salvation means securing from every evil influence, from every danger. And we are still in danger, not of being lost, but of being attacked by Satan, as we have seen this afternoon, and by the world. So normally, salvation in the New Testament is the salvation of not only of the soul, but also of our body, which shall be changed into the likeness of his body of glory at the coming of the Lord Jesus. And of this salvation, Peter is speaking here. He speaks of the complete, the full accomplishment of the work of the Lord Jesus in his coming to take us home into the presence of God, into the Father's house, where the flesh and sin shall eternally be behind us. Where weakness and temptations will never occur again. Where we are in full security, in full salvation, fully saved. And there's a third point of view, which is mentioned especially in Hebrews, where we see the Lord Jesus as our High Priest, who is saving us daily in our difficulties on the pathway of faith. This is quite, these things have nothing to do with eternal salvation. They have nothing to do with the salvation of our soul. But they have to do with the viewpoint God takes when he looks at us. He says, you are in danger, not in danger of being lost, but you are in all kinds of spiritual dangers, and you shall be saved from them by the High Priestly service of the Lord Jesus. But here, again, we have the salvation, the completion of salvation at the moment of the coming of the Lord. And how can we grow to that salvation? Well, I explained just a moment ago that this salvation means that we will be separated from this world for all eternity. That our flesh shall be left behind, never to turn up again. That we shall see the Lord Jesus as he is. That we shall be and rejoice in the eternal glory of the Father's house in his presence. You understand that you can grow spiritually to that aim? Or would it be, and that is what Peter wants to avoid, that the Christian life is more or less the life of an Old Testament saint. Blessing is only looked for on this earth or even in this world. I believe in the Lord Jesus, but for the rest, I have my own interests. He says that's not growing to the salvation. He says that's not growing to the salvation. That's not growing spiritually to the point where we await the Lord Jesus and wait for his coming. And say, Lord Jesus, come. That we rejoice in the thought of being delivered from all these encumberments by which we are surrounded in this earthly life. And he says that is growth. Growth again towards him who will be the one who affects that salvation as we read it in Philippians, even if the word is not used. But he is called the Savior there. Jesus, our Savior. And it is not the Savior who has saved us, but who will save us. Philippians 3. And that is the aim, the goal towards which Peter wants the believers to grow by the word of God. This pure milk. Philippians 3, verse 20. For our commonwealth, as its existence in the heavens, from which also we await the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. As Savior, not the one who saved us on the cross of Calvary. That's true. But here we await him as Savior. And how shall he show this character of Savior? In transforming our body of humiliation into conformity to his body of glory according to the working of the power which he has even to subdue all things to himself. Peter wants us to grow towards that point of time, not only point of time, but to that moment where we will see our Lord and Savior face to face. We have seen that spiritual growth does not consist in much and high knowledge, but it is the knowledge of the person of the Lord Jesus. The knowledge of his grace. The knowledge that he will come and bring us, take us into the presence of the Father. May this desire of the Apostle Peter for the Jewish believers to which he addressed his letter. That they, after having been born again, for their new life, their new nature, they need food. And that this food is the word of God which presents to us the Lord Jesus as the one in whom we believe now, but who is soon coming to take us home in that place which he has prepared for all those who belong to him. The Father's house. Many dwellings, many mansions, many, many mansions in that Father's house. And the main thing is that all those millions and billions of believers who will be there, we will all be with him. Where I am, ye also shall be. It is incomprehensible for us how this can be brought about. That billions and maybe more than billions of believers, of people, shall be all together with him. This shows us this is quite outside our creation and quite outside our imagination. But the Lord will bring it about. And what shall it be? To be with him. May he be before our eyes and hearts daily. And that we may grow by him, by looking at him, to be not only little children, not only young men. But to be fathers who have known and rejoice in him who is from the beginning. …

… I would like to read this evening in the Epistle to the Romans, chapter 7. Romans, chapter 7, from verse 1. Are ye ignorant, brethren, for I speak to those knowing law, that law rules over a man as long as he lives? For the married woman is bound by law to her husband so long as he is alive, but if the husband should die, she is clear from the law of the husband. So then the husband being alive, she shall be called an adulteress if she be to another man. But if the husband should die, she is free from the law, so as not to be an adulteress though she be to another man. So that, my brethren, ye also have been made dead to the law by the body of the Christ to be to another, who has been raised up from among the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were by the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit to death. But now we are clear from the law, having died in that in which we were held, so that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter. What shall we say then? Is law sin? Far be the thought. But I had not known sin unless by law, for I had not had conscience also of lust unless the law had said, Thou shalt not lust. But sin, getting a point of attack by the commandment, wrought in me every lust, for without law, sin was dead. But I was alive without law once, but the commandment having come, sin revived, but I died. And the commandment, which was for life, was found as to me itself to be unto death. For sin, getting a point of attack by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. So that the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good, did then that which is good become death to me, far be the thought. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death to me by that which is good, in order that sin, by the commandment, might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin. For that which I do, I do not own. For not what I will, this I do, but what I hate, this I practice. But if what I not will, this I practice, I consent to the law, that it is right. Now then, it is no longer I that do it, but the sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, good does not dwell. For to will is there with me, but to do right I find not. For I do not practice the good that I will, but the evil I do not will, that I do. But if that I do not will, this I practice, it is no longer I that do it, but the sin that dwells in me. I find even the law upon me, who will to practice what is right, that with me evil is there. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring in opposition to the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which exists in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, I myself with the mind serve God's law, but with the flesh sin's law. There is then no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. It has been a long portion and I realize it's not the time to get into many details about it, but maybe just an overview of this magnificent chapter, and realizing that it's very difficult because it speaks about things that are contrary to our normal understanding. As human beings, when we are children, we tend to think that we are kind of good, but sometimes we do some wrong things, and we should just improve. That's the idea in all the religions. They all say the same. You are good, essentially, but sometimes you do bad things, and maybe you can improve, and maybe the good things you do will be more than the bad things you have done, and so maybe God, some God, will receive you somehow, somewhere, once. And that's it. Just a vapory idea. Nothing more. Nobody can be happy with that. But the Bible tells us the contrary. I am bad. In Adam, I am essentially bad. That's the problem. So, Paul is starting to speak to these brothers in Rome who were knowing the law. Which law? That's the civil law. They were people acquainted with what the human law was saying. You know this, that the law rules over a man as long as he lives. And now he's telling the situation, he's picking the example of a married woman. What is the solution for a married woman no longer to be under the law of her husband? But is that necessary? Well, if we understand that he wants to make a parallel to our situation, and that we are the woman, and the law is the husband, then we find ourselves in a terrible marriage. We cannot withstand here. Something has to be done. What would be the solution? And Paul is telling us, there is one solution. If the husband dies, then the woman will be free. Yeah, but the law cannot die. The husband never dies. That's the problem. We didn't realize it. So what's the solution? And it's exactly what Paul is saying in verse 4. So that, my brethren, ye also have been made dead to the law by the body of the Christ, to be to another who has been raised up from among the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. Yeah, indeed. There are two solutions for this marriage to be broken between me and the law. Either the law will die. That will never happen. Or I die. But if I die, it's the end. Or there is something after death. Yes, it is. Resurrection. I don't die actually. I die effectively in the death of the Lord Jesus. I die effectively in the death of the Lord Jesus. It's very interesting to note, and it is a very great thing for a believer when he understands this. And I'm speaking about the situation of many believers who were born in Christian families. When the Lord was crucified, there were three graves near the cross. That's what Isaiah is telling us. His grave was with the wicked, but his tomb was with the rich. Each of the two thieves was put in his own grave. But the grave of the Lord remained empty. He was put in another tomb, as we know well. Well, that is my place. And it is the only way in which I can be delivered by this marriage, where the law is the husband and I'm the wife. We died by the body of Christ to be to another who has been raised up from among the dead in order that we might bring fruit to God. The reason why this happened is that we may be made able to bring fruit to God. That's again what we said in the beginning. Man and Adam cannot bring fruit to God. The law never provides the possibility for such a thing to happen. The things that happened with us in the death of the Lord Jesus, they are in order that we might bring fruit to God. And this is very important to understand and to note. Because as young believers, we think that doing some things, following some rules, will help us to bring fruit to God. Now, it's very important to understand that this is impossible. There is also impossible to mix Christ and the law. This is spiritual adultery. That's what Paul is saying here. It's impossible. You either are with the law or with Christ. Of course, the law applies to man and Adam. The law applies to man and Adam. But Paul will show here another completely different position. And this is the position of a man in Christ. I would like to stop a little bit here and ponder a little bit this expression made dead to the law by the body of the Christ who has been raised up from among the dead in order that we might bear fruit to God. There is a very serious thing here. Collateral, I would put it in brackets. If a colleague would ask you to give him a proof of the inspiration of the Bible, what would you say? Maybe you would tell him about prophecies. Maybe you would tell him about scientific affirmations in the Bible that have been proven to be true. Maybe you would tell him that no lie has ever been found in the Bible, although there are many things that we don't understand, that we cannot yet understand. But in 3,500 years, it has not been re-edited, although it has been many times reprinted. And there was no mistake in it. Maybe you would tell him that. I did that. I hope we all did that to some extent. I hope our colleagues and our neighbors ask us about the Bible and about our Christian belief. Do they? Do we talk to them? Do they know that we are believers? But if this is the case, and it should be so, then what would we tell them? All the religions of the world speak in this way. Do something, and you will please God, because you are essentially good. While the Scripture says something that no human mind could have ever invented. And if there is a doubt, look in 6,000 years of history of religion. No human mind could have ever imagined to say, you are essentially bad, and there is only one solution for you, that God will come, take the body of a man, and die for you. That's the highest proof, and that will surely touch the consciences. And then Paul goes on and says, For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were by law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit to death. But now we are clear from the law, having died, in that which we were held, so that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of letter. When we were in the flesh. Aren't we in the flesh now? Why does he put this in the past tense? Because this is the truth of Scriptures. But I may object here and say, it is not my experience. I have the same problems now. Yes, maybe. But our experience should never go before, or lead our lives. But the lead in our lives has to be taken by the word of God. And the experience will come later. This is the normal way in which Christian life goes on. When we were in the flesh, we were in Adam. Now that Christ has died, and we died with him, and it is a clear indication of a believer here, it means that we are no longer in the flesh. We are no longer in Adam. God does not see us like this anymore. But we are in Christ, and as such, we do not serve in oldness of letter, but in newness of spirit. What shall we say then? Verse 7. Is the law sin? Far be the thought. But I had not known sin, unless by law. For I had not had conscience also of lust, unless the law had said, Thou shalt not lust. This is another very interesting thing that Paul is saying. What is actually sin? What is this that he describes here as sin? It's not the singular for sins, but it's the root that produces sins. It's the tree, it's called sin, and the fruits are the sins. Everybody will be, who is honest, will allow the fact that he has sinned, and that he has sins. His conscience is telling him about this. Even the most moral people in this world, unbelievers, if you talk to them, and if they are honest, they will allow that they have sinned, that they have sins. But there is something more. It's precisely what we said before. I am essentially bad. It's not only that I do sins, and I have done sins, and this problem has to be solved, and it has been solved, because the Lord Jesus died for our sins on the cross of Calvary. But it's the problem that I have a bad nature. I have sin in me. Now, how do I know this? Well, in different ways. But one is this. Look to the commandments of the law. They all say, don't do. So that means that I have the tendency to do exactly what God dislikes. Why? Why am I so much opposed to God that morality had to be described, even by the ancient philosophers, as one would try to push a big stone in the top of a mountain? Why? Okay, I can understand that there is a big stone. Why isn't it all flat? Or better value? Because there's something wrong with me. Why am I in this position? Why do I have to describe things like that? Because naturally, I don't do what my conscience tells me I should do. That means there's something wrong with me. Again, I say, no religion has ever told this clearly. That's only the revelation of scriptures. Now, I look to the commandments of the law. And there are several. But there is one at the end. You shall not lust. I may have not lied. That's impossible. We all know this. But suppose it would be possible. Just suppose. I may have never steal. I'm not an adulterer. But I know what lust is. And if you tell me do not lust, it's equal as if you would tell me be not a man. So now, it's like when you play chess. There is no more movement to make. It's over. The game is over. The right commandment of the law gives me no chance anymore. Either I'm not a man, or I break the law. And now I know with this last commandment that there is something terribly wrong with man and Adam. Do I speak about me? Does Paul speak about himself? Does Paul speak about us? No. This is in principle. This is the relationship between man and Adam and the law and the deliverance that the position of man in Christ brings to the believer. It's not about a certain person. Although, no doubt, we can draw very many good conclusions and we can be very much helped if we understand what Paul is saying here. I had not had conscience also of lust unless the law had said, Thou shalt not lust. How is that? As simple as it is. Is lust sin? If you don't follow it, if you don't do what it tells you to do, do you consider it sin? Or you have to be happy because you did not do what your lust told you to do? It's very good if we don't do according to our lusts. But still, the fact that we have them shows that we are sinners having this wrong nature. But sin, getting a point of attack by the commandment, wrought in me every lust. For without law, sin was dead. But I was alive without law once. But the commandment having come, sin revived, but I died. And the commandment, which was for life, was found as to me itself to be unto death. That's another interesting thing that Paul is telling us here. Without law, sin was dead. But getting a point of attack by the commandment, sin wrought in me every lust. If you're telling a man who loves money, don't love money, what will be the result? He will do exactly that. He will love money even more. Now you may think that this is about an adult. Tell a child, don't do this, and it's precisely what he's doing. Parents even take great care when they defend something to their children because they know that that could be the very trigger for the child to do that thing. So they have to put it in a very diplomatic way, so to say, not to trigger this to their own child. There's something wrong with this from the very beginning. And we read here also that I was alive without law once because I didn't realize my situation. I thought everything was okay, but when the law came, the condemnation of death fell upon my conscience. And in this marriage, clouds come in. I thought it was okay if I had a law, and I had it in my conscience. I thought it is even better if God would give me His righteous law. I said, it's not about me, it's about us men in Adam. We said we will do all that Jehovah has said, hoping to the better. But the result was tragic. Condemnation of death deep into our conscience. Oh, our conscience has to be purified. That's what Paul is telling us in the epistle to the Hebrews, but there's no time to get to this point now. And the commandment, which was for life, was found as to me itself to be unto death. For sin getting a point of attack by the commandment deceived me, and by it slew me. Yes? How was the commandment for life? What commandment was for life? The commandment of God. Do this, and you shall live. That was the reason of the commandment, that men should do it and live then. But this is absolutely impossible. Not because the commandment is wrong, but because I am wrong. The problem is with me, not with the law. How did sin deceive me? Very simple. By telling me that it would be possible to live if I obey the law. That's a terrible delusion. And it's very bad if Christians and young believers still think that those things are possible. I remember the period of time when I was thinking in the same way. And I was asking all the brothers what I should do and what I should not do. It's not wrong to have clear principles in mind, but it's wrong to think that I can fulfill the will of God. That means simply that I don't know myself enough. That means simply that I did not read the word of God with enough attention. So that law indeed is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. Did then that which is good become death to me? Who is saying that? Who says that indeed the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good? Who agrees with that? The natural men? Go and ask people on the streets. Do you agree that the law of God is right and holy and they will start laughing? Have you lived 200 years ago and you were revived somehow? There's something wrong with you. Our grand-grandfather was speaking like that. Who believes that today? Come on, get modernized. That's what we would be told. But the truth of the scripture remains the same. So this person who speaks here understands that the commandment is good. And this is the first, maybe the first or one of the first glimpse that shows us that something happened in the case of this person who is an imaginary person. He starts being against himself on the side of God. Now that's a wonderful change. Often we do not appreciate it enough. But I think we should pay attention to that in the case of those whom God has put in our hearts and with whom we started an evangelistic work. There is something that happens. At the beginning, they were on their own side against God. And then, slowly or all of a sudden, they are against themselves on the side of God. Maybe they don't know many things. Maybe there are still many things that they should understand. Maybe we will keep talking with them. Of course, we will. And we don't evangelize mainly to deliver people from hell, to make them escape hell. But the scope of an evangelistic work is for the Lord, for God the Father to have worshippers. That's the aim of evangelizing a person. But this movement is something very important. When the man stands on the side of God against himself. Did then that which is good become death to me? Far be the thought, but sin, that it might appear sin, working death to me by that which is good, in order that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. So, do I understand well? Does Paul say that sin is not so very bad, but with the help of the law it becomes far worse? No. Sin is bad, as bad as it gets, as bad as possible, and that's it. The point is that I did not know that. I did not see sin as such a big tragedy before I realized what it can do, having as base a good thing, this commandment which is holy. How terrible sin is, if it is able to do this. I remember a situation in which Britain was shocked, the whole world was shocked, when a German warship, Bismarck, destroyed another warship, Hood, just with one shot. And they said, if Bismarck can do that with one shot in 15 minutes, then what else can Bismarck do? And all the world became so terrified. It's something similar here. I did not realize that sin is able to do these things. And the problem is that this sin that does that and is exceeding sinful is in me. And then Paul goes on and says, for we know that the law is spiritual. Really. We know. Who knows that? That the law is spiritual. That God is right in his claims. Who knows that? We. And please note what the translator, Mr. Darby, puts here. Know is the Greek word Ida, that means inner instinctive knowledge. We know. That refers to the knowledge which is common to all believers. We know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin. Now I'm asking a question. Can the tragedy be greater for this man here? Again, imaginary. Maybe not. But what he realized up till now is that he is completely bad. And this is an excellent evolution in his understanding. Although he cannot rejoice now because of this. He does not realize yet what a great fact is that he realizes that he is altogether bad. But that's the best start possible. And then Paul says, for that which I do, I do not own. For not what I will, this I do. But what I hate, this I practice. And now I would ask this question. Isn't this the experience? Do not those words describe the experience of many young believers who go to school or are with their colleagues and they realize that they want to do good, they want to serve the Lord, but they do exactly the opposite. And he goes on and says, but if what I do not will, this I practice, I consent to the law that it is right. Now then, it is no longer I that do it, but the sin that dwells in me. That's another excellent development. Before, there was not me and the sin. Because the sin was in me and was myself. Now something changed. How can I say that it is not me, but the sin that is in me? That is because this person already has two natures. One is me and the other one is sin. Ah, that's too simple. Come on, you are a deserter now. Put it clearly. You are a sinner. Sin is in you. You are the sin. You are equal with the sin. Isn't it so? It's too easy to say. It's not me. It's someone else which dwells in me. Or is it so? Who's right? Is Paul tricking us? Is the word of God telling us wrong? No. It's the very truth. It is no longer me. Why? Because God does not see me in Adam, but in Christ. In Christ, me in Christ, it's not the sin. I have the right to see myself like that. And that is another wonderful development, although, I say again, this man did not yet utter the shout of deliverance. But the development is wonderful. Does that mean that if we are in Christ, we are no more responsible for our sins? No. But that simply means that when I realize that I am responsible before God, I should ask this question. I am responsible in Adam or in Christ? That's fundamental. That could bring much peace to our consciences. And then he goes on and says, for I know that in me, that is in my flesh, good does not dwell. It is very much what we have heard last night about the new birth, about conversion, about living according to the will of God, and that our old man is annulled, has died. But the flesh remains in us. That's why he is saying here in a very exact way, for I know that in me, that is in my flesh, good does not dwell. For to will is there with me, but to do right I find not. That's another excellent development. Because if I try to fulfill the law of God, then I suppose that there is something good in me. But I have to get to this point to understand that nothing good can be expected from me. And more than that, that God does not expect from me anything good. I have no problem with that. Nothing good dwells in me. God knows it. He knew it. Now I got to understand it. Happy man I am, because I understand this. And when I understand that, probably I will never forget it. In verse 22, he says, For I delight in the law of God, according to the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring in opposition to the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which exists in my members. What law is this? Well, we could put it in a different way and say that this is a rule. A rule. It's not the law of the Ten Commandments. It's not the civilian law, the civil law, that we have seen in the beginning with husband and wife. This is a rule. I see a rule. I want to do good. Really. Do I want to do good? Yes. Honestly, yes. Someone from the world will not steal because he's afraid of the police. I do not do that because I'm afraid of God. He will not lie because sooner or later the others will find out and he will be very much ashamed. So he is moral because he is afraid of the consequences. But for me, things are different. Who is Paul talking about here? About someone who has the new nature. That would be impossible otherwise. That's another wonderful thing to understand. Because the man who speaks here says, I'm in a tragic situation. I want to do good and I cannot. But actually, if he would pay attention, he would say that in a happy way. I want to do good. I have the new nature. I'm born again. I never heard this accent in this verse when believers are attacked by Satan. They never put it this way. They say, if I'm born again, how can I be born again if I cannot do what I want? What I honestly want in order to please the Lord. But they don't realize that this very fact is the proof that they are born again. Wonderful thing. But you see, deliverance comes a little bit later. But the development is there and is wonderful. What is this law? What is this rule? It's very simple. If I take a pen and I drop it, it falls. I can repeat that no matter how many times. Mr. Newton has put it very clear. It will always happen like this. And we are all sure of it. Now this man is all absolutely completely sure that this is what will happen when there will be the conflict between the wish of the inward man and the manifestation of the old nature which is sin. It will always happen like that. He will sin. Another wonderful development. Do we realize this? The confrontation between the good wishes of the new nature and the mechanisms of taking hold of our bodies of sin, in this confrontation, there will always be defeat. If I understand this, I never try to oppose sin in flesh, in Adam, according to the responsibility, for example, as an Israelite had to the law. I will never try to do this because I know the rule. I experienced that so many times. Or maybe not so many times, but I believe the Bible. That would be better. I know that's impossible. There is this law, this rule. Where is this rule? In my members. It's not only sin there, but it's also a rule that is called the law of sin and death. And then verse 24, he says, O wretched man, I am. Well, in the original, as we see here, am is not there. It is in the sense and is very rightly put there. But the sense can be deeper if we put it like that. Wretched man is me. Oh, oh, oh, how bad can I be? This is the climax of this conclusions. It's not only that I'm bad, but I'm terribly bad. What can be done? You see, we have an example of this, this impossibility to do according to the right law of God or to the right claims of the law of God. We have this example in John chapter 5. This illustrates very well the situation of this man here in Romans. It's a very similar case. There was there in John chapter 5, I suppose we all know the story, a man who was paralyzed. He has been like this for 38 years. And he was next to a pool. And something happened there that the water was moved and from all those who were there and they were sick, the first to get into the water was healed. Among those, there was one man there who could not walk. The only thing he had to do was to get into the pool. But it was precisely what he was not able to do. Tell him, for example, when you see the water moving, just smile a little bit. That would be okay. He could do that and get healed. Tell him, move your hand or say some words, some magic words maybe. No, but things were not like that. He was supposed to do precisely what he would never have been able to accomplish. That's the situation here. Without possibility of escape. Final move. Tragic. And then the Lord Jesus comes in. Exactly as here. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the only answer. The only deliverance from this state comes from the Lord Jesus. Now what does the Lord say to him? Do you want to be healed? Yes. Then I will help you. And listen what we do. When the water is moved, I can move it because I'm God. I will move the water properly and then I will help you to get into the pool. Is this what you said? I have nobody to help me to get there. That's what he said. I will help you. Wonderful. And when it happens, you get into the pool and get healed. That's the same stupid idea as if I would think that the Lord Jesus has come to help me to fulfill the law. Some Christians think like this. They think that the Lord Jesus is just a help so that the believer may fulfill the right demands of the law. And this is impossible. Take the tenth commandment. That's impossible. The Lord did not tell him this. The Lord said now that I'm here, get your bed and walk. That's how it goes. That's how it went with that man. Well, the same happened with me. Well, many here can testify and say yes. That's true. It happens. That's how it goes. But please notice another thing. Before, this man could have thought like this. Maybe if I could just crawl on my hands and get nearer to the pool. Maybe I could do this or that. No, that was wrong. Maybe something else. Tomorrow, I'll figure out another idea. But at the end, he is answering to the Lord Jesus in the right way. Lord, I have no one. That means I am unable, completely unable to do that. The help has to come from outside. That's already wonderful. This is the blink of deliverance. This is the moment when I realize that the solution in this situation in which I find myself is not in me. I tried so many ways. I said tomorrow, I will wake up at six o'clock and pray for two hours instead for one hour. And that will do. And it was not true. And I tried so many ways until I realized the solution is not in me. The deliverance has to come from another. And then this man says, yes, I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then, in myself, with the mind, I serve God's law, but with the flesh, sin's law. So it depends how am I living. But already, I know the secret of deliverance. The secret of deliverance is to live in Christ, not in Adam. The conflict will always be there, but it is one thing when the enemy keeps his knee on your head or if you keep your knee on the enemy's head. The conflict is there and will remain. But there's a completely different situation when deliverance is experienced. And then he says, there is then no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. Period. Nothing more added. Other translations, and we have that in the old Romanian translation, add something more here. There is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus if they do well, if they... No, no, no, no. The Word of God is clear. There is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. That's where God is seeing me. That's my proper place because the Lord Jesus has died and I died with Him. This is where I have to consider myself and this is where I have to live. And he says, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. What law? Another one. Where is this? In myself? He does not say this. That's the point. It's not in myself. But there is another rule. What does that say? It says that if led by the spirit, I can live as to bring fruit to God. It's the same rule as the other one. If I live in Adam and in the flesh, I will sin. There is another rule. If I obey, if I am led by the spirit, if I am obedient, I will bring fruit to God. First law, we all agree about. Second law, do we all agree about? Do we know that it is like that? The secret here, in order to experience this, is obedience again. What was the first movement that led to sin? That was self-will. What is the only solution in order to bring fruit to God? Obedience. Being led by the spirit. I wake up in the morning and I don't want to do anything. I say, Lord, whatever you want me to do. I think I should go that way. But I am free if the Lord tells me, no, go just the other way. They wanted to preach the gospel in Bithynia. But the spirit of Christ did not allow them. And then they were led slowly, slowly, according to the will of the Lord. It is a wonderful thing when we experience this deliverance once. Probably, we will never forget that moment. You could, you feel you would like to kiss everybody and say, hey, I am delivered. Maybe you cannot say this word. Maybe you have a different word in your language. But it is something you will never forget. The deliverance is much more than that. It is to be led by the spirit to that an extent that the flesh does not manifest itself anymore. I remember when speaking that to the brothers back in my country, that I did not get that from the very beginning. But they made a wonderful job and they explained that to me. Deliverance is not aimed, I mean, it does not mean only that I know how I can be delivered and that I am delivered from time to time. But otherwise, my natural life is sinning and then confessing. But I know how I can be delivered and I tasted that and I am happy because of that. And I know to make the difference between me and Christ and sin. But nevertheless, my life is dominated by sin. Deliverance does not mean that. Although, having known it once is a great thing. But deliverance means to be led by the spirit all the time. That's what we should wish and that's what we should turn our eyes to. Only the Lord can help us with that. Thanks be to Him. And only if we obey what the spirit is telling us, we can do that. To what extent? I am happy that I can say it here because it has been said here for the first time. One dear brother, it doesn't matter the name, probably you all know who he was. He spent his last period of his life in the house of another brother who agreed to take him in his house. And this dear servant of the Lord, as he used to say, this being the highest title possible, this dear servant of the Lord and faithful, said to this other brother, Brother, please, if you see in me something which is not like Christ, let me know. Who of us can say that? To his friend? To his wife? To our children? We don't dare to speak like that. But deliverance means precisely this. …

… Dearly beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ. As we approach the end of this conference, we've surely been impressed by the truths that have been brought out before us. What a blessing it is that we know the Father. How wonderful it is that we have been given by the Lord strength to overcome the wicked one. And isn't it a wonderful thing to be able to have fellowship with him who is from the beginning. We shall have to leave this place very shortly, but surely we will be echoing the words of David. We have already quoted this afternoon from Psalm 133. We all know verse one very well, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. And the part of the last verse, there the Lord hath commanded the blessing. Of course the blessing there was that life forevermore. But what a privilege it was that we were able to come to this conference with that everlasting life. We shall have to leave shortly for our home assemblies and I trust that we shall take this blessing with us. Some of us will be going to large assemblies, some perhaps to very small assemblies. We have been singing too about being in the presence of the Lord and how gracious he is. Where two or three are gathered together to my name, there am I in the midst of them. And I trust that the blessing of this conference will be filling our hearts too. You know we are so often occupied with other matters concerning our assembly life. It's a sad fact, but it's something that we can only expect. We have also read the words that the Apostle Paul spoke to the Ephesians, how in these days even out of their own midst the Ephesians would realise there were people arising who were not teaching the truth. These are things that we have experienced too, and it may have made us despondent. But beloved, there is a remedy for despondence. We find the prescription in Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 to 3, let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who endured such contradiction from sinners against himself, lest ye be faint and weary in your minds. You know when you get a prescription from your doctor, you take it to the chemist shop, you get the medicine and take the medicine home, but it will do you no good if you don't take the medicine. These words in the epistle to the Hebrews tell us three important things. The first, let us run with patience the race that is set before us. The Christian pathway is a long race, not a sprint. So we need a lot of patience. We need a lot of patience perhaps too with our fellow brethren. Didn't the Lord Jesus exercise immense patience with his disciples? Doesn't he exercise immense patience with us? We have a wonderful Lord who sets us a wonderful example. Then we are told to look upon him, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, and to consider him. That is just what I should like to do with you here this evening. We should like to consider what was occupying the Lord Jesus Christ shortly before he set out to go to the cross. Can we turn to John 17? These words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come. Glorify thy son that thy son also may glorify thee. 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. I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest them thee, and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee. And they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now I come to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but thou that thou shouldst keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world, and for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. So far, the word of God. What a concern the Lord Jesus had for those he was about to leave behind. They had been with him for three years. He had told them what was to befall him three times in the course of their journeys through the land. They hadn't understood what he had said. The Lord Jesus gathered them together in that upper room, and once Judas Iscariot had left, he gave them much wonderful instruction to encourage them for the time when he would no longer be with them. And he said in chapter 14, Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. This is a wonderful promise, and it was not just for those disciples, it's for each one of us who has eternal life. It seems to me that the prayer that the Lord Jesus expressed is the sequel to these opening words in John 14. He was going to prepare a place for them. What was that preparation? It was first the cross of Calvary, it was his resurrection and ascension, for the firstborn of every creature had to enter heaven before any one of us could ever dare set foot in that holy place. In that holy place. We've been singing about our joyful future when we shall be together with him in the Father's house, but what did it cost the Lord Jesus to have to take this step so that we can be there? During his life on this earth, he experienced amply that he was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We only have to read John's Gospel from chapter 5 to chapter 11, and we see how he was affected by these things. How he was affected by these things. And yet the Lord Jesus began this prayer with these words, Father, the hour is come. What an hour that was. A little earlier he had said how troubled his soul was. He asked, should he say, Father, save me from this hour? But immediately he responded himself, but for this hour came I unto this world. Father, glorify thy name. Don't we see what was in the heart of the Lord Jesus? And how often does the Apostle John record this in his Gospel? That it was his meat to do the will of the Father and to complete his work. He would never have been satisfied if one iota of that work had been left out. And the Lord Jesus, after uttering this prayer, set out on that pathway which was to bring him a much worse ordeal than he had ever suffered in those three years previously. It began with the betrayal by Judas Iscariot, it began with the betrayal by Judas Iscariot, one of whom it is said prophetically that his own friend, one who was very intimate with him, lifted up his heel against him. He was a man who had walked alongside the Lord Jesus Christ for three years. He had seen the grace and mercy that had been shown to all those in need. He had himself experienced the love and provision of the Lord. What did he do? He went to the chief priests and bargained with them on the worth of the Lord Jesus. There are some young boys and young men here. When you next read in the newspapers that a famous footballer has been sold for millions of pounds, then remember this, that they could only value the Lord Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver. The only one who ever did good, and good that lasts into eternity. Judas obtained a troop of men, they came and took the Lord Jesus captive. They bound him, the one who had said, if the Son shall make you free, you will be free indeed. And here was this one who could give true freedom, himself being led away captive. They took him to the high priest's house, there he was reviled, there they asked him if he were the Christ, and his answer was, if I told you, you would not believe me. There he was struck on the face. The high priests sought false witnesses, it didn't matter to them that the law that they so respected said, thou shalt not bear false witness. It didn't matter to them that the law that they so respected said, thou shalt not bear false witness. Of course, they themselves were not bearing false witness, it was others who were doing that. And yet those high priests, what did the law really mean to them? They were quite well prepared to quote before Pilate that it was unlawful for them to put a man to death, and yet when Pilate said, what shall I do with Jesus, after he had thought he might escape his own responsibility by setting him free after he had scourged him, they said, we have a law, and by our law he ought to die. Notice the way they formulated it, we have a law, and by our law he ought to die. Nothing about God's law, and there before them was one who was God himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who fulfilled that law so that it could have nothing against him. Pilate gave the Lord Jesus into the hands of brutal Romans, he was scourged, he was beaten with a rod on his head, he was beaten otherwise too, and a crown of thorns was pressed on his head. They put a robe on him and mocked him, and then he was taken back to Pilate, who eventually gave him over back to them to put him to death. What pain the Lord Jesus must have suffered when they drove those nails into his hands and his feet, when they drove those nails into his hands and his feet, when the cross was erected and the whole weight of his body hung from those four nails, and yet in all that he uttered hardly a word. There was no word of reproach. That innocent one condemned to death. I don't know whether any of you have ever been punished for something that you have not done. As a 15-year-old schoolboy I had this experience, it wasn't very serious, that I was punished with a very light punishment for something that the boy sitting next to me did. In Hebrews we read, despising the shame. You know the last thing I did was to despise the shame of being punished. I protested that Lord Jesus said not a word about the accusations that were brought against him. No, I did not despise the shame. What I did was despise the Master who had given me the punishment for some time afterwards. Then when we think, all that happened on the cross, the way he was scorned by those who passed by. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by, behold and see if there be any sorrow, like unto my sorrow? The lamentations of Jeremiah. And yet, when we think of all these sufferings that came from men, the worst was still to come. Three hours of darkness in which God forsook the Lord Jesus Christ because he was bearing our sin, your sin and my sin. What must that have been to him? All that suffering and yet, let's come back to our prayer. Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee. Not a word about all this suffering, all that was to come upon him that he already had known. His interest was that the Father should be glorified by this work which he had set out to do and was now accomplishing. It is often said, when the Lord Jesus prayed this prayer, he was looking beyond the cross. He was looking at that which was future, both for himself and for the disciples he was leaving behind. Glorify thy son. You know, glory is the manifestation of perfection. And the Father could acknowledge the perfection in the way the Lord Jesus had carried out his work here on earth, had fulfilled the mission given him, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And so the Father could glorify the Son. He brought out all that perfection. He brought out all that perfection. Then in verse 2, it says, as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Notice the first word, as. It brings in a comparison. The Lord Jesus was given power or authority over everyone, not just the Jews, Jews and Gentiles over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. In this prayer, the Lord Jesus speaks seven times that the Father had given him the disciples or the disciples and ourselves. The Father had a gift for his beloved son, but he held that gift in abeyance but he held that gift in abeyance until the work was done. The Father gave him all power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. We have no doubt, perhaps had the impression in our gathering together in these three days, that we have had perhaps a very small foretaste of what things will be like in heaven. We have felt the sense of unity. We have had wonderful fellowship together. We have had the person of the Lord Jesus Christ before us. And how wonderful it has been. There is another thing that has impressed me. During the day, I looked at the list of nations that have been represented at this conference. 23 nations in 300 people. What is it going to be like when we are in heaven? When we are in heaven, when out of every kindred and town and nation and people and nation, those who have been blood-bought by the Lord Jesus Christ will be there in heaven with him, beholding his wonderful face. Or isn't it an encouragement for us now to do what the hymn writer said, turn thine eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will turn strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. But let us never forget what it cost him. Something that we can hardly comment on, but we have some wonderful hymns that do comment on that time when he was the sin-bearer. Oh, what a load was thine to bear, alone in that dark hour, our sins in all their terror there, God's wrath and Satan's power. And in that hour of woe supreme, did Jesus bear our sin, the patient, holy, suffering lamb of God forsaken then. When we consider things in this light, how our hearts must go out to him in gratitude that he left the glory on high, that glory which he had known throughout eternity with the Father. And there is the point in this prayer where he asks for the glory to be given back to him that he had had in eternity. But he says, this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. This is an extremely important verse. We have been talking this afternoon about other religions. We have been talking about the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ by one certain religion and also by many, unfortunately, in Christendom. But what a sentence that is, or what a phrase, the only true God and Jesus Christ. Here are the two who worked together for our salvation so that we might receive eternal life. Then the Lord Jesus sees that the work is done beforehand, before he has gone to the cross. He says, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. I wonder if there is anyone here present who could truly say that he is absolutely satisfied with an item of work that he has done. Was it absolutely perfect? Probably not. But the Father was satisfied with the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. With him was quoted today, thou art satisfied with Jesus. We are satisfied as well. How could it be otherwise when we think of what he did for us? Then he requests the Father to glorify him again with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. And then we have a section which deals primarily then with the disciples. The Lord realised that he had been looking after the disciples and caring for them in every way possible while he was with them. And now he would be away from them. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were and thou gavest them me and they have kept thy word. We have here the word word in the singular. Two verses later we have the words in the plural. They were different words in Greek. When we have the word in the singular it normally means the entire word of God. All God's mind as it has been revealed unto us set down in this book which we have the privilege of possessing. We heard yesterday of the need of the word of God in parts of Africa. And this is true of so many places. Probably this country or our countries included. They have kept thy word. Dear brothers and sisters, can we truly say that of ourselves? I remember dear brother Wiltz giving an address when he was speaking on Romans 5 and was talking about sins. And he suddenly said, how many lies do you have to tell to become a liar? How many murders do you have to commit to become a liar? How many murders do you have to How many lies do you have to tell to become a liar? How many murders do you have to commit to become a murderer? How many sins do you have to commit to become a sinner? Let me take that one step further. How many of the sayings of the Lord Jesus do we have to ignore to become disobedient to the word of God? Isn't that an indictment? Isn't that something too that makes us ashamed when we realise what he was prepared to do for us? The Lord Jesus revealed the name of the Father to his disciples. Here again we have, which thou gavest me out of the world. He had been sent into this world. Six times in this prayer we have the fact that the Lord Jesus was sent. Thirty-nine times in this gospel do we see that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Isn't that emphasis enough to show the importance of the gospel message? I find it a little ironical, this number 39. Down the road there is an establishment here. They have 39 articles of faith. In John's gospel we have one very important article of faith. Thirty-nine times. Then in verse 8 the Lord Jesus says, I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them. Isn't it a privilege that we have been granted the Holy Spirit to indwell us so that when we hear the words that the Father has given the Son, that the Son has given to us, that we receive them? Do they truly take root in our hearts? Do we give thanks that we have the privilege of hearing words of eternal life? Eternal life, as Simon Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast words of eternal life. We can turn to none other. Even brothers who are so gifted at expounding the word will themselves say there is nothing more precious, nothing more instructive, nothing more that we should attend to than the word itself. We have been emphasising the need for studying the word in depth, for making it a part of our own life so that it fills our hearts and that it also directs our conduct. I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me. And then the Lord Jesus prays for them. He says, I pray not for the world. How could he pray for those who were his enemies? He says in verse 11, and now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. We have been speaking too of difficulty in finding a demarcation line, demarcation line between worldly and earthy. Now, if the Lord was speaking here of his disciples and this unity mentioned here had more to do with the disciples being one in their, presumably, in their testimony as they went forth without the Lord Jesus in this world, I myself find it very difficult to make a distinction a distinction between unity among those who form the family of God and those who form the assembly of the living God. Unity is unity. As we are one, said the Lord Jesus, the Father and the Son were always of one mind. They had one purpose and they were united in the way that one purpose was to be achieved. They had one affection, or wouldn't it be wonderful if that were always the case with us in our own assemblies, in our circle of believers. That is what will warm the heart of the Lord Jesus. Twice more he comes to this point. In verse 21 he says again that they all may be one as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. How shameful it is what has happened in the history of Christianity. All these divisions. We might well ask ourselves, how can the world possibly believe when they see the disagreement between this church and that church, this chapel and that chapel, this assembly assembly and that gathering? The Lord Jesus sought unity. How grateful we can be that when he looks down from heaven he sees all those who are his own, all his blood-bought children, and he sees them as one body. And that is the privilege that we who seek to follow the word of God in the manner in which we gather, that is this wonderful ground on which we can gather and on no other. That we recognise that there is one body. And the last occasion is of course 22 and 23. The glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one. I think the Lord Jesus here was looking even further into the future. I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. This time will come. We shall be seen in glory, with glory given unto us by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And this unity, which is not just a unity of believers among themselves, verse 23 says, I in them and thou, the Father, in me. That makes us perfect in one. When the Lord appears and is seen by the world, then they will have to admit that the Father they will have to admit that the Father indeed sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world and did so. They will have to acknowledge the love that the Father showed, not only to his own beloved Son but to all those who were redeemed by him. Let us go back a little to verse 17. The Lord asks that the Father would sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Sanctification, we heard this afternoon, is setting apart. But I believe it is always setting apart with the intention of preserving the holiness of God. Why did Nehemiah repair the wall and the gates? It cannot have been to stop the Jews from getting out of Jerusalem because many of them lived outside. They had to go outside. It was to keep the enemy out of this place where God had promised to dwell among his people. Or when we think of sanctification in that light, that the Lord Jesus desires that we should be set apart so that the holiness of his Father and his holiness himself and even the place where he promises to be is kept holy. Do we seek to adhere to that or not? That is the wish of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then we come to verse 24. This wonderful wish that the Lord Jesus expresses, Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. I go to prepare a place for you. Now I want to have them with me where I am. Why? That they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. You know, our appreciation of the glory of the Lord cannot be separated from his sufferings. The Apostle Peter writes of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that was to follow. And didn't the Lord Jesus himself, when he joined those two on the road to Emmaus, say, ought not the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? And God gave him glory that our faith and hope might be in God, or what a privileged position we have been brought into. But now the Lord Jesus says a very solemn thing at the end of this prayer. At the end of this prayer, O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee. When the Lord Jesus has the unbelieving world in mind, he can only consider his Father with this attribute of righteousness. Because God has appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath appointed. And then he says, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. Or this is another item of knowledge that we have been brought into and can enjoy. And I have declared unto them thy name. In verse 6 he had said, I have manifested thy name. He had revealed the name of the Father. That was something that had not been done in that way before. But here, when he declares the Father's name, he brings with it all the blessings that we enjoy in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have declared it, and I will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them. When the Lord Jesus came into this world, when he started his public ministry, the heavens opened, and the Father said, this is my beloved son. He made it known how he loved that son, and that is the love, too, that he bestows on us. Poor, worthless creatures that we were, and yet we have come into this privilege of knowing him as our Father, and knowing, too, and knowing, too, that there is a place awaiting us where we shall be together with his beloved son, our dear Lord and Saviour. Not only that, we shall be in a condition then in which we can appreciate it. Our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we await the Lord Jesus Christ, who is going to change our, the authorised version says, vile body, the body of this humiliation, that it may be like unto his body of glory, Philippians chapter 3, verse 20. Or, are you looking forward to that time when you are going to see him face to face, the one who died for you? I close with a verse from a beautiful gospel hymn. He loved the souls for which he died, not ours to question why, but ours to fall before his feet who came to die. That is what we shall be able to do with gratitude in the glory. …