Come, take, learn (Matt. 11)
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jsb016
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EN
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00:43:51
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1
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Matthew 11
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…
Our reading this evening is in Matthew's Gospel again, this time chapter 11, and beginning at verse 25.
At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.
Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father,
and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son,
and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,
and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
And I have to make another confession that this little section has been tremendously important
and effective with me all my life. I remember very early indeed, taking up my own heart and life,
as well as for others, the three commands. Come, take, learn. Come unto me,
come unto me, take my yoke upon you, and learn of me. And it was of tremendous value to me,
and my mind was upon this little part. Long afterwards, I came to see that I was really only
taking account of half the passage. And I would like you to note that in these little verses I
read, verse 25 to verse 30, we have two small paragraphs of a few verses, put close to each
other, and definitely leading the one into the other. One of them, the letter, is always thought
of as being gospel, straightforward and simple. Come to the Saviour, and you'll receive rest.
It's thought of as being a very simple thing. Come unto me, and I will give you rest. And it is
indeed a straightforward invitation by the Lord Jesus. The other one is perhaps the most profound
passage in all scripture. A tremendous contrast between the words, come unto me, and I will give
you rest, and the words, no man knoweth the Son, but the Father. Words of the greatest depth
are meaning, but they are put together. And as we reflect upon them this evening, I pray that we may
be led to see the close connection between them, and that it will do us good. When I said this
about the most profound, perhaps the most profound part of all holy scripture,
we might very much be inclined to think, you know, at the present time, this isn't for me, you see,
I'm not one for profound scriptures. I like things to be fairly simple and straightforward.
Well, this scripture is for you. And how sad it would be if by merely deciding that you're
not going to think specially about it, that you might lose the blessing. In an evangelical
publication not very long ago, which came into my hands, there was a story which purported to be true
about an American in his own land had sent an order to a musical firm, an order for a violin.
And he sent what he thought was a fairly decent sum of money, and he expected to get back a fairly
decent violin. But when it came, he said to himself, this is a mouldy old thing, this isn't
worth the money I've paid for it. And so he wrote a letter to them and said, the money I paid for
you, I thought I'd get a fairly decent violin. Well, when they looked up the records, they found
that they had sent him by mistake a stradivarius.
And the fact is that he had had in his hands a practically priceless treasure,
and he hadn't recognized it, he had despised it, and he had rejected it. Now, how foolish it would
be, and how sad it would be for us, and how much it would grieve the Lord if we could read his word,
which he himself spoke in a passage like this, and we could not recognize how precious it is,
and how good it is for us to seek to hear the words for ourselves. Well, I want to begin,
therefore, with the first of these two paragraphs, and it is from verse 25 down to verse 27.
In the first of these verses, the Lord is addressing the Father,
O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, and so on. Verse 26, even so, Father, for so it seemed good
in thy sight. Now, that's a sufficiently remarkable thing. You see, there are very few passages in the
Scriptures when we hear divine persons addressing each other, and these two verses in the Gospel
of Matthew, of all places, it's a very striking thing indeed. It's the Son addressing the Father,
and then he presumably addresses the disciples in verse 27, and first of all speaks about
my Father, all things are delivered unto me of my Father, and then he speaks about the Father,
and no man knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son,
and he whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Therefore, the theme of these few verses
in the first paragraph, the theme is the Father, and the revelation of the Father,
and knowing the Father. Now, that is unique in the Gospel of Matthew. There's practically nothing
elsewhere in the Gospel of Matthew that enables us to cast any light upon this matter. We would
have to turn to the Gospel of John, where we find that the revelation of the Father is a principal
theme of that book, if not the principal theme, and the first thing I would like to note about
the Father trying to seek help from the Lord to illuminate this particular passage by passages
from the Gospel of John, the first thing I want you to see about this word Father is this. The Lord
says in that other much longer address by the Son to the Father in the 17th chapter of John, he says
this is eternal life. You might think to live forever, and you'd be right. Eternal life is to
live forever, but that's not what the Lord says here in that passage. He says this is eternal life
that they might know thee, the only true God. Now, there's the first thing that this person
with whom the Son is in fellowship, and there is an interchange of communications between them,
and of whom he speaks to his disciples in this wonderful way, this person is the only true God.
Now, there's a terrific meaning in that statement, the true God. It may be that you would find it
difficult to find the matter explained to you, but because you might find it difficult to have
the matter explained to you, that's no reason why you shouldn't bring every effort, looking to the
Lord for his help, that you might understand what it means to say that the Father is the only true
God. Now, what do we understand by the word true? Well, it means in this particular case, it means
the final, as in contrast to the temporary. It means the substance, by contrast with the shadow.
It means the fulfillment, by contrast with the promise. And you can see that very plainly in
John's use of this word true. In the first chapter, he says, talks about the true light.
Now, he said John the Baptist was a light, but he was not the true light. Now, there's a plain
distinction between the person who was partially the light from God, and a person who in totality,
and in finality, is the light. The Son of God is the true light. There's nothing to come after him,
there's never to be a fulfillment greater than he was the fulfillment. He's absolute finality
about light. He is the true light. And the fact that you and I know the one who is the true light,
means that nobody in all history, not anybody in any land, whatever he may claim will get
better than you have, because you have the true light. If you trust in Jesus, you have the one
who said, I am the true light. And so we could come say to chapter six, and the Lord Jesus Christ
said, I am the true bread. Well, he explains there very clearly, that when he says the true bread,
he's contrasting himself with the manna. The manna was bread. The manna was bread from God.
The manna came down from heaven, but the manna wasn't the true bread. The manna was a picture
beforehand, a kind of promise beforehand of the one who really would satisfy the heart of God and
man, and be the bread of God come down from heaven. The manna was a promise. The manna was a partial
fulfillment of God's thought, but only when the Son of God said, I am the true bread, did we reach
finality in this. And so far as the food your souls need, nobody will ever bring anything that's
better for you than to feed your soul on the true bread in the pages of scripture, the true bread
come down from heaven. And I could just mention also the true vine, which perhaps not just quite
so plain there, but certainly if you were to look back at certain of the Psalms and certain of the
prophets, you would find that Israel was the vine. In fact, there are very few passages more moving
in the scripture and the description in Isaiah chapter 6, chapter 5, of what God did for them.
Everything that he could, he built a wall, he kept the wild beasts of the forest out, he gave them
everything that was necessary to make them a fruitful vine, and they simply brought forth wild
sour grapes. But when Jesus came, he said, I am the true vine, and my father is the husband. It's only
in cleaving to him and living in him, abiding in him, that we will ever bring forth fruit to God,
and nothing can ever do it better. There'll never be an improvement on it because he is the true
vine, able to produce through us the true fruit, and his father is the husband. So when we read
that the father is the only true God, it means that God was partially known.
And what was said of Jehovah, the God of Israel, was very, very, very wonderful. It moves our
hearts most deeply to hear the wonderful provision of God for his earthly people, Israel. We were
speaking this afternoon about Israel, the Jews, that is, are part of it, being the Lord's treasure,
the treasure that he had found. Well, that's a very wonderful thought, and it warms our hearts
to hear the words in which God, the Lord, speaks about his people. I have loved thee with an
everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. I remember thee, he says to
his earthly people, I remember thee, the love of thine espousals when thou wentest after me in the
wilderness, and then my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of
living waters, and they have hewn out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
Now that's a pleading which we can take to ourselves. What wonderful pleading it is.
But it was not Jehovah, I say this very carefully, and great reverence, Jehovah was not the only true
God. Why? Because he was only partially revealed. And when Moses received for the first time, when
the nation of Israel was first of all coming to birth, he received the revelation of that name.
It says in picture language, so vivid as to be incapable of misunderstanding, he said you cannot
see my face, you can only see my back. Now if that wasn't a plain indication that this revelation
was a real revelation, and it meant immense things to Moses and all those who would live by it,
but it was not the final precious truth that was available in God to reveal himself,
what would it be when the last secrets of God's being were expressed? It would be when Jesus said
that I have manifested thy name unto my brethren, and what was that name? The Father.
The Father is the only true God because the last secrets of the nature and being of God
are in that name, a relationship of love, a vital relationship, and in that relationship
eternal life is involved. Now then, let us try to pause and to accept the wonder of this, that the
Father is the only true God, and we might say that one of the greatest, if not the greatest thing
for which the Son of God came into the world, it was to reveal the Father. Moses could be the vehicle
to Israel of the revelation of Jehovah, but no other being than the Son of God from the Father's
bosom was adequate to come, that by his life and death he might make known the Father, the only
true God. You're at the very heart of God's revelation of himself. Everything that's wonderful,
everything that's precious, everything that's good for us, everything that fits in with his purpose
in creating the world and the nations and men and women, it's all there if we know him, and this is
eternal life, to know God the Father, the only true God. So that the first thing that I want you to
notice about this little paragraph, its theme is the Father, and the Father is the only true God.
The passage is unique, therefore. Only, you see, only in the person whom Jesus revealed, made known,
only is the God fully known, fully revealed, and fully known to those who live in the light of that
revelation. Now, there's one other thing that I might say about this. I've quoted this verse in
John chapter 17. The Lord says, thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.
There's a very wonderful passage in the 16th chapter of John. I'm quoting it to you. There,
it speaks about the coming of the Holy Spirit, and one of the things that the Lord says about
the Holy Spirit who would come, he will guide you into all the truth. You see, this is a very
wonderful thing. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who makes the revelation, and I'll speak a little
later about that revelation and what the words mean that are employed for it, but it's the Holy
Ghost, using the Word of God, that makes it good to us. Are we to be guided into the full realization
of all the truth, and the truth couldn't be anything else that embodied in the one who is
the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. Well, the Holy Spirit is here for the purpose.
Let's never make any mistake about the reason why the Holy Ghost was given. Many a question,
many a problem about what people say about the Holy Ghost will be solved if we went back to
the plain statements as to why he came. He came to lead us into all the truth. He didn't come in order
to manifest himself by miraculous works. That's not the purpose of his coming, but when the purpose
of his coming, apart from the means employed, is out, it is to lead us into all the truth, to take
of the things of Christ and show them to us, and to glorify him. Now, this is the theme
of this first paragraph. Now, let us notice in that paragraph that it says, let us pour over the words
again, no man knoweth the Son but the Father. Now, I simply note the fact it says nothing about
the revelation of the Son, a great deal might be said, but that's not what anything that's said
about that here. It says, and neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever
the Son will reveal him. Now, there are three expressions used in scripture about the revelation
that the Lord Jesus Christ made. I would put first a verse a little later in John chapter 17,
when the Lord Jesus said in the prayer, I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest
me out of the world. In other words, you have in the earthly life of the Lord Jesus, the manifestation
of the Father, and that's exactly what the Lord Jesus, when he said to Philip,
he said to him, as you remember, hast thou been so long with me and not known me, Philip? He that
hath seen me, hath seen the Father. And so loving was Jesus, when he appeared in the world, so loving
is God the Father. So powerful was Jesus when he was here in the world, so powerful is God the Father.
He manifested the Father in his earthly life, and it is a most most wonderful thing to think that
the final revelation of God leaves it, that he is represented by the image of his well-beloved Son.
One might see an image of a Hindu God, a great beast with lolling tongues and a tremendous belly
and out of all proportion in every way. It's absolutely horrible sight. Some folks think of
their God like that. He's an image. It's what they think their God is. What a wonderful thing for you
and me. How stupid are the people who turn aside to these incoming religions, when we've got one
who said, he that has seen me has seen the Father. One of perfect love, one of perfect wisdom, one of
manifested power to bless and to deliver, one who could put down evil. Yes, he is the image of God,
and he that has seen me, he said, hath seen the Father. And then in this passage that we have,
it uses another word. It says, I read it a few seconds ago,
neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
Now, although the he is in italics, the pronoun is nevertheless in the singular,
and it tells us here that the Lord Jesus Christ reveals the Father to the individual. Now that
can only be, you see, as we are willing to sit down day by day in the presence of the Lord Jesus
and learn of him, as we're going to read a little later, that is the way that the Lord Jesus Christ
to us as individuals, the Lord Jesus Christ by his living power to represent the Father, he will
reveal him to us. It was the same kind of individuality concerning which in another
connection the Lord said to Peter, flesh and blood have not revealed it to thee, but my Father
which is in heaven. Well, that's the opposite way, but we are speaking here about the revelation
to the individual by the Son of the Father. If we walk with him, if we take his yoke upon us,
if we learn of him, he will reveal the Father to us, and there's no other way,
there's no other revealer of the Father than the Son working in the power of the Holy Spirit.
There's another word that's used to speak about the revelation of the Father, making known the
Father, and that is the remarkable passage in Hebrews chapter 2 which quotes Psalm 22 when
it says there, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church while I sing
praise to thee. That's a quotation I say from Psalm 22 and the Lord Jesus Christ in a certain
sense fulfilled that on the resurrection day when he said go tell my brothers that I send to my
Father and your Father. It is on the resurrection day and in resurrection power that the Lord
declares his Father's name in the assembly. Now I charge you to give full account, to give
full importance to that statement. It's a vital part of what the Lord Jesus Christ has said. If
we have no knowledge of what is in the assembly, we are missing something vital about the revelation
of the declaration of the Father. It is in the assembly that he declares the Father in the very
special way that it accords with his resurrection message. So that would impel us, that would impel
us not only to think of our private devotions when we seek to walk with the Lord and to hear his
voice, but it would speak to us that the fact that there's a link, a very important link between the
assembly and the Father. The name of the God of Israel is Jehovah. The name of the God who connects
himself with assembly on the resurrection day is the Father. And these are mysteries, revealed
mysteries, which we would do well to meditate on and meditate on until we make them our own.
Well if you look back at the first part of that little paragraph, it's very striking to me.
He says in verse 25, going back to the beginning, at that time Jesus answered and said,
but where was there a question? At that time Jesus answered and said. You're impelled to think where
there was a question. And the answer is that there's been no question spoken about. In other
words, it seems very plain to me that we are being let in to that quality of interchange and fellowship,
unbroken between the Father and the Son during his earthly life. We are letting us hear
a little bit of it. At that time Jesus answered and said. He was speaking. It was an
interchange. It was fellowship. It was communion between the Father and the Son. And he lets us
into this when he says, at that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, that thou hast, passing over a word or two, revealed these things unto babes.
Well, I would like to leave this paragraph with the very deep impression in your minds.
What will Jesus do for us? He will, in his earthly life, as recorded in the scriptures,
he will manifest his Father's name. What will the Lord Jesus do for us? He will reveal the Father
to us as day by day we walk with him and hear him speaking to us. What will the Lord Jesus do for us
in the assembly? He will declare the Father's name to us so we might be led to worship him.
Now that's a very striking paragraph, but there's no break, you see. When the Lord Jesus Christ said,
all things are delivered to me of my Father, this is the person who says, come unto me and I will
give you rest. This is the person who says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. He's the one into
whose hands the Father has delivered all things. He's the one who knows the Father and can reveal
him. He is the being at the very center of the universe because he is the delight of the heart
of the Father and he's the one and we can easily see how much we miss if we take that second
paragraph all by itself. It's a very wonderful thing indeed and it is a simple thing to act upon
it and it's true when we act upon it, but it's a far far more wonderful thing to reflect upon
the manner of person it is who says, come unto me and I will give you rest.
Now, I want to pause a second on the familiar words, ye that labour and are heavy laden.
Now, if you've been about preachings and ministries long, you'll have heard that
explained as persons who are burdened under the yoke of sin
under the yoke of sin and they're weary because of the yoke of sin and it would be foolish for
me to deny that there might be a very important element of that kind in it. But what he's really
saying is that those who have loads too heavy to bear in the normal turmoil of life. I feel myself
and you feel yourself many, many times weary and heavy laden. It might be to do with sin, but it
might only be with life, weary and heavy laden. Now, Jesus says to the one who's weary and heavy
laden, come unto me and I will give you rest. And when day by day we do come to him, you see,
I don't think it's primarily come to him once for all for salvation, but as day by day we come to
him, then we have his promise. He will give us rest and he also tells us what we can do to find
rest. And the second of the words that come to us in this second paragraph are, take my yoke upon you.
Now, there are hymns and there are expositions of scripture that make it mean that the believer
shares the yoke of Christ, you see, that we are side by side with him. He accepts the yoke of
obedience to God and we, alongside of him, are accepting the yoke of obedience to God. And when
it says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, they say this is what it means. Now, I feel that
this is wildly and wildly astray. In the Old Testament, we read about some sacrifice concerning
which it said that the animal had never to have borne a yoke and the Lord Jesus Christ never bore
any yoke except that uniquely he bore the yoke of doing his father's will. None of us could possibly
share that. No, it is that we take ourselves to be the struggling beast down there needing direction
and guidance every minute and the one whose hand is upon the reins. And what does it mean to take
his yoke? The person who takes the yoke of another, if that beast could speak, it would say
regarding the fact that yoke upon it, by bearing this yoke, by the very fact of bearing this yoke
and be willing to accept it, I renounce my will in the conduct of this job that I am doing.
The fact of that yoke says I renounce the determination to do my own will. And it
secondly says I hereby accept the will of him whose hand is upon the reins. And
the equivalent of taking his yoke is saying to him, saying to him in our hearts that we do
renounce the guidance of our lives and we do accept his will for our lives. The more you
were to find out in scripture and in practice about that, the more wonderful it is. And the
prophet Jeremiah, it says the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
And in another place in Jeremiah it says it is not in man that walketh to guide his footsteps
aright. Now we admit that if we're true Christians and we're obeying the Lord Jesus Christ in this
matter, we do admit that it is not in our power to guide our lives aright. We must decide things
but they must be decided in submission and in the light of the expressed will of the Lord given to
us through holy scripture. And that's a principle of life that we would do all so well to adopt at
the earliest possible age. It is not in man to guide his footsteps aright. You can see people
and how tremendous are the mistakes they make in life. And although some of them appear to be
so successful, you could never tell that they aren't going in for the snares that we were
reading about this afternoon. No, we Christians, if we are rightly obeying the Lord in this matter,
we do, we abrogate, we confess that we are not aiming to do our own will. But we do say
that we are here to do his will. That beast has the will conveyed to him by a touch,
a voice, perhaps a correction from time to time, but the instructions are conveyed to it
and therefore it is accepting the will of another. Well, you say, surely I've got to have my individual
path to make in life. You will have an individual to pass in life, but the only truly prosperous
path in life is that lived in the will of God. If, and I'll speak especially to the younger people,
of all the things that it would be desirable day to get across to the young believer, it is this.
The phrase in Romans chapter 12 verse 2 where it says, that good and acceptable and perfect will
of God. It's good. That means, I don't suppose it means there particularly it's morally good,
but it means it's the most effective way that the human creature can have his life handled. It's
good in the same sense a man is a good footballer or a good swimmer or whatever you like. It means
good and effective at what he's supposed to be doing. Now the will of God is the best thing
for effective and true and just life that we can have. Secondly, according to Romans 12, it is
acceptable. Once the struggles of self-will are laid down, we do find in practice that that will
of the Lord is acceptable to us and it is perfect. Now that's got a very, very wonderful word. You
look round upon the people of all ages and you say, look what they've got and I'm missing.
Look at the frenzy of a happy life that they're living, keeping all hours and letting themselves
go absolutely to enjoy themselves. Look what they've got and I'm missing. Look, what that
verse says is there is no element of a complete life which is absent from the life that's lived
under the yoke of Christ and of the obedience of Christ. Take my yoke upon you. I've done my best
to explain and then it says, learn of me. Now the question might arise whether it means learn
about me or learn from me.
To learn from the Lord Jesus is to be a disciple. The word disciple means a learner and the word
doctor means a teacher. It might be therefore that it means we learn from him. He is the master
and we are the disciples, the learners. Or it could mean learn about him. Well, I've wrestled
with the grammar of this passage to some tune and I'm quite convinced it means both and it's very
easy to see how it can mean both because they are mutually exclusive. If we learn of him,
we will learn from him and it says therefore that the second thing to do is, the third thing to do
after coming and after taking his yoke, is to learn of him. And if we learn of him, he will
indeed teach us of the Father. Well, just you think, you wonder what use your life is going to be.
You realize that there's no conceivable betterment of the answer to that question than taking the
yoke of Christ. Your life couldn't possibly be nearly as effective as it will be if you take
the yoke of Christ and learn of him. He is the one who will work his miracles of transformation
upon you, not to please the world but to please himself and to be effective in the toil of his
service as we have it here. That's what the beast is for. He's toiling in the service but in that
service he finds rest and to find rest in service is a lesson that we all deeply desire to learn.
But what a wonderful thing it is to be of our lives, to be the handiwork of the Lord Jesus.
He is acting through us. His will is being done by us. His teaching is being received by us.
I have read that Felix Mendelssohn once went into a famous European cathedral
and he spoke to the officer, supposing I call him a beadle, you might swell up your sleeve,
that's not the right word, but he spoke to the officer who was in charge of the cathedral
and asked if he could play the organ, a very famous organ. No sir, he said, no sir, no way,
it's locked and I've got the key and no one is permitted to play there.
Well Mendelssohn went away and he was rather hurt and disappointed at this so he had another go
at the man. He said sure you could let me play just a little bit and I'll keep close,
you can keep close by me and so the man was persuaded and he gave Mendelssohn the key.
Well after a few minutes such sounds began to whisper through the arches and thunder through
the vault, such sounds he'd never imagined possible in his life. And when the musician
came down he said to him, what's your name sir? Well he said my name is Mendelssohn. Well he said
what a fool I was not to give you a key earlier. Now you see the music was in the man, the instrument
was nothing at all, just ivory and bits of electrical connections I suppose, perhaps not
that in those days, mechanical connections. The music was in the man and what was in the man
came out when the key was given into his hand and that's a lesson that we're trying to help
each other to learn. It's only when the key of life is in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ
that we can find rest and we can be what we desire to be, effective in his service
and pleasing to him. Well my time is almost gone but I would like to come to for a few seconds to
a theme. We had a meeting in London quite recently to consider certain practical matters
about the assemblies and so far as I'm concerned, without talking very much about it at all, I came
away with one terrific impression and that is the need for being wholehearted.
Somebody said why, you see, does the minister over the wall when he preaches get conversions
and we don't, one person said. Well the answer was given. I can't tell you what the answer to
that question is really but I can tell you what sometimes are things that are sometimes true.
You may very well find that although that person ought to be, if he was pleasing to the Lord,
more deeply instructed in the things of God, you might very well find that he has three things
that you don't have. One is he's absolutely dedicated to the winning of souls. He's
absolutely all out for the winning of souls. Nothing else can take advance over it for him.
Secondly, he uses the word of God and he's diligent in prayer and I thought you see this
is a very very very serious matter because when we think of the privileges that we have
in the meetings, I sometimes think of David and what it says about David, it says about David
certain kinds of things that of all the kings that came after him, there was hardly anybody who
wholly followed the Lord like David did. There were hardly any who followed the Lord with a whole
heart like David did. It says that when the ark was brought back, David danced before the Lord
with all his might and it says when he was coming to the end of his life, with all his might, he
made preparation for the temple for the praise of the Lord. Now are you, am I, enthusiastically
wholehearted about the worship of the Father? If we have the truth that is available to us,
we would realise what a privilege it is to be able on the Lord's Supper occasion to do these two
things, to address the Lord remembering him and to worship the Father. We would be enthusiastic
about it, we would make sure that our baskets were filled, we'd make sure that we understood
this was the greatest possible pair of privileges to enjoy the presence of the Lord and to be led
by him to worship the Father. But alas, alas, we're so often half-hearted about it. It would be a very
very very wonderful thing if we realised that it's only a tenth of the battle to know what's
needed. It's only a tenth of the battle to understand a scripture like this, but a great deal
of the battle according to the Old Testament and the New is to be wholehearted about it, to be
devoted, to be I would almost exclusively devoted to doing the will of God. And when it comes to
worship, responding to him. It's a very very wonderful thing to see the saints gathered in
assembly in the right way. There are several ways of seeing everything. When that young man
who was the servant of Elisha was in the beleaguered city and he said, Master, the chariots
around the city, that was true, that was one way to see it. But the prophet said, Lord, open the
young man's eyes. If you're a young man, I wonder how many people have prayed for you, Lord, open
the young man's eyes to see things a different way, more true, if that's a possible thing to
understand. And he saw that the hills and mountains were filled with the horses and chariots of the
Lord. It was another way of seeing. And I remember, you've probably heard me say it before, but I
remember somebody saying about the Lord's supper occasion. Well, you come together to sing a few
hymns and a few prayers, so what? Well, if there's anything happening there at all in spirit that you
can't see, in spirit there's the worship of the Father. In spirit there's a response to the personal
presence and love of the Lord Jesus Christ there. It's a most tremendous thing and a tremendous
enthusiasm is warranted about such a privilege. Well, in these things that, such as scriptures we
have brought before us, the one paragraph which is extremely profound, it presents to us, so to speak,
the last secret of the universe, that is, the Father. And the other is so simple. Well, if we
understand that the same one who, into whose hands the Father has given everything, if we understand
it's the same one who was in momentary communion with the Father, and it's the same one who can
and does and will reveal the Father to us. And starting from that point, a new point perhaps,
that we haven't thought of before, to hear again the old, old words that he spoke, come, take, learn. …