We're grateful because of all that you've done.
We have confidence to draw near unto you
so that you can draw near unto us.
We are entirely dependent upon you to make
your words living and active, sharper than any
two-edged sword, and able to do the
piercing deep, where those inner hidden attitudes of
the thoughts will be exposed for good, for
cleansing.
We are completely dependent upon you, the Father
of mercies and the God of all comfort,
to be able to comfort those in any
affliction.
We bless you that you have chosen that
the sufferings of Christ would abound into our
lives and that equal to those sufferings, the
comfort of Christ abounds into our lives.
We believe, Father, in the ministry of wholesome
teaching, of exhortation, of admonition, of instruction, but
apart from you we can do nothing.
We cannot make your words living.
You speak the living words to the heart
of every man.
That doesn't occur from a teacher.
That occurs by the ministry of your spirit
in every man's heart.
We're dependent upon you to purify our ears,
to purify me, that together, collectively, by faith,
we can benefit from the ministry, the gift
of teaching.
We acknowledge one teacher, our Lord, your Son,
the Teacher.
And we acknowledge that there are several here
that may have that gift, but we acknowledge
whichever of us may have the gift, that
you are the same God working all and
in all.
And it's not of men.
It's not by study.
I acknowledge it's not possible with all the
effort I could put into it to draw
life from your word.
I can draw information.
I can assemble facts and I can manipulate
it.
But I acknowledge only you can make it
life, living, edifying and encouraging.
Well, because you're able to do so and
you have intended to do so for the
joining together, for the perfecting of your saints,
to come to the greater stature of the
fullness of our Lord and your son, according
to your will, make your word alive in
our hearts and let it do what only
it can do.
Let it effectually work in the believers today.
Let us get a glimpse of your son
and your glory through our time together in
your word.
We ask in Jesus name, Amen.
You know, it says then where there is
no vision, but what happens?
The people perish.
And the word there in the Hebrew can
mean to wander around aimlessly without a sense
of purpose.
To wander around aimlessly without a sense of
purpose, who perished in the wilderness, the children
of Israel, the same children delivered out of
Egypt, who drank from the spiritual rock that
accompanied them.
And that rock was Christ, who ate of
the spiritual bread, who was who was led
by God's presence in the pillar of cloud
by day and in the pillar of fire
by night.
And yet it says with them, nevertheless, God
was not pleased and their bodies were scattered
over the desert.
But that didn't stop them from wandering around
aimlessly for 40 years.
What was aimless about it is wandering around
only to fall short of the land of
promise.
Well, there's only one way to really enter
the land of promise and to live an
abundant life.
And that's what's on my heart today, because
we need a vision and it's something that
I can't give you by teaching.
Neither is it something that you can get
from reading words on a page.
You and I need a personal, spiritual, mystical
vision of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you hear me, you and I need
a personal, spiritual, mystical vision of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
If you don't think so, what how can
the scripture say, beholding as in a mirror
the what the glory of the Lord, we
are transformed into the same image from glory
to glory.
How can you see something you can't see,
didn't Peter say, whom not having not seen,
he believe and even not seeing that you
love.
But are we not told, turn there with
me, Hebrews chapter 12.
Are we not told that since there is
all encompassing around us, such a great cloud
of witnesses to run with endurance the race
marked out for us?
And what are we told to do in
that same passage?
Fix our eyes upon you.
Now, how are we to do that if
it's not possible?
Why didn't he just say, read your Bible?
Is that fixing your eyes upon Jesus?
No, you're going to have to do that
personally, spiritually.
It is a spiritual, mystical, personal experience.
Looking unto Jesus, actually looking away and let's
read the whole passage together so we get
the ramifications of it all.
Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by
so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
lay aside every encumbrance, every weight and the
sin which so easily encompasses us.
In the Greek word, there is is you
peristason.
It means it does well to surround us.
It completely surrounds us.
There is a sin that just completely surrounds
us like a long robe.
What is a long robe do if you're
running?
And it trips you, it hinders you, it
does not let you get your full stride.
And we need to learn to lay aside
the things that hinder our full stride.
And with perseverance run, looking away unto Jesus.
And so that we can get a personal,
personal vision of him without a personal vision
of the Lord Jesus Christ, you will perish.
You cannot make it to heaven on the
sense of right and wrong.
You cannot make it to heaven on the
sense of having had a vision of Christ.
Remember the song we sang several weeks back,
Do You Know Him?
Today, how is your vision of Christ today?
Is it hindered?
Or are there weights that need to be
laid aside?
Now, we're told to lay aside something.
Paul says it to almost all the churches
in one way or another.
What are we told to lay aside?
The sinful nature, anything that belongs to our
flesh, we're to lay it aside.
You know why?
You can't run with it.
You can't run in the spirit with it.
You can't see a vision of Christ in
the flesh.
It's nothing but a hindrance.
You're not only to lay it aside.
Once you lay it aside, you're to put
it to death.
You're to cut your ties to it.
But what are the things that really hinder,
that encompass around about, that keep us from
seeing a vision of Christ?
Because it's clear you and I need to
see it personally.
And I'm emphasizing the word mystical because it's
non-natural.
Didn't Paul say in Colossians, I want you
to know the mystery of God, namely Christ
Jesus, in whom are hidden all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge.
I want you to have the full understanding
of this glorious mystery.
We need to learn to be able to
experience personally, personally experience Jesus Christ, the living
person, so that we can literally say he
walks with me so that his words are
fulfilled.
He and us and we in him brought
to a complete unity.
When that happens, then the world believes he
was sent by the father.
But what hinders us, what can hinder you
and I from seeing a clear vision of
Jesus?
And it's just to look and to try
to understand some of these things so that
we can lay them aside.
These all encompassing things that hinder us.
Let's look at some examples in the word
so we can learn from things they went
through.
Turn to Luke chapter 10.
Luke chapter 10.
Find verse 38.
We're all familiar with this story.
Who are the players in the story?
Mary and Martha, I was Martha this last
week.
I know I had lots to do.
I did it under the Lord, though someone
has to be Martha.
You know to me, someone someone has to
be Martha so others can be Mary.
You know, Martha's sweet servant.
But in this particular place, she was used
of the Lord to bring about something.
So in verse 38, now it happened as
they went out that he entered a certain
village and a certain woman named Martha welcomed
him into her house.
She also had a sister, Mary, who sat
at Jesus feet and heard his word.
But Martha was what was Martha distracted?
What was she distracted about?
OK, much service.
The word here is it is the deaconing
deacons.
She was deaconing, ministering, serving.
Do you realize it can be a distraction?
If you're what are you mothers doing, you
know what it's easy for you young mothers
to do, get totally wrapped up in your
serving.
It's a good thing.
Loving your husband, loving your children, it's a
good thing.
It won't keep you alive spiritually.
Serving others will not keep you alive spiritually.
You had better be beholding the face of
Christ on a regular basis.
If you're going to live the effort, the
Ephesian church there in Revelation, they were testing
false apostles.
They were enduring hardship.
They had not grown weary.
They were doing more than they had done
at first.
But Jesus said, but I have this against
you.
You have left your chief love first, chief
love.
Those are good things, but they are not
the chief thing.
The chief thing is an adoration of Christ.
It is a beholding him personally, spiritually, mystically
seeing him, spending time with him in intimate
fellowship.
He said, remember the height from which you
have fallen.
If you and I are not experiencing a
wonderful, renewing, being able to see Christ personally
and intimately, even if you are still busy,
even if you're deaconing, even if you're serving,
even if you're enduring, you have fallen from
a great height.
And what will happen is you will begin
to wonder about aimlessly without a vision of
Christ, without being renewed on a daily basis.
And here's what the situation here was, Martha.
She was distracted.
The Greek word here is perispho, here's what
it means.
It means to be drawn around.
What to draw, what is what is to
draw?
Not not not like this draw, not with
crayons to draw.
Oh, what's got you?
What draws you around?
What draws you?
Are you drawn to intimate communion with Christ
or you or you is your attention, your
vision constantly being drawn here, drawn there, drawn
to your husband, drawn to your wife, drawn
to your son, drawn to men.
You know what happens when you really get
a good glimpse of men?
It's called discouragement.
All you need to be discouraged is get
is have your attention drawn to men.
But you want to live.
Let your attention be focused upon the Lord
Jesus Christ and what is there to discourage
you, how can you be discouraged if you
have a clear vision?
But Martha was distracted about much service and
coming up, she said, Lord.
Do you not care?
Is it not your concern that my sister
has left me to serve alone?
Therefore, tell her to help me.
And Jesus answered and said to Martha, Martha.
You are worried is what the New King
James says.
What what is some of the other versions
say here?
Anxious, careful.
Well, that's the next word.
Mine says you are worried and bothered.
Well, the word here in the Greek language
is marine.
Thus, the root of it is Maris, meaning
divided.
You're divided.
What are you divided between?
Here's another place where the word is used.
Turn real quick just to see the usage
of it.
First Corinthians chapter seven.
Paul uses this word in his teaching about
marriage in this life.
Verse thirty five of chapter seven.
Someone read that, would you?
First Corinthians seven thirty five.
Distraction is what it is here.
Same word, though she's distracted.
What was distracting her?
Good things.
You're going to hear that now.
Listen to this.
Paul says in Philippians chapter three, for many,
I say, even now in tears live as
enemies of the cross.
It didn't say they were, but they're just
living almost like they were.
Why?
Their God is their belly, whose glory is
their shame, and their mind is on earthly
things.
Didn't say evil things, just earthly things.
To have your mind on earthly things alone,
when you lose the vision of the glory
of the Lord, Jesus will make you end
up living like an enemy of the cross,
though you don't want to be.
If you're not careful, you'll be drawn around
busy about this and that and shriveling up
spiritually and dying.
If you're not seeing a vision of the
Lord, Jesus Christ, what else is what else
is a an excellent thing for dividing the
mind in relation to hindering your vision of
the Lord, Jesus Christ?
There's something that we are all every one
of us here are in danger of being
divided from Christ by what originally divided us
from God.
Sin, yes, but unless something, sin is not
taken into account when there's no law.
What's the barrier?
What is the dividing wall of hostility?
The law is.
You know what's a much clearer way to
be divided from the Lord Jesus?
Jesus is to no longer see him personally,
intimately communing with him and living only by
the principles of right and wrong.
Because what does the law do to the
heart of those that are not in a
sweet communion with Christ?
Well, it doesn't get it, but it does
something else.
And I'm talking about it prevents them, Christ,
from being seen.
What's it called?
What keeps something from being seen avail to
this day?
Whenever the law is read, a veil covers.
And if we're not careful and we're not
spending an intimate time in personal communion with
the living real person of the Lord, Jesus,
who speaks, who shares his heart, who reveals
himself personally to us.
If we begin to only live by the
law, what the law is going to do
is you're going to look at the law
and it's going to obscure your vision of
Christ.
Read with me there.
Look in 2 Corinthians.
I'll share this passage.
2 Corinthians 3, verse
14 and on.
Would someone read just 14, 15, and 16?
2 Corinthians 3, 14, 15, and 16.
Okay.
So what's happening if you're not turning to
the Lord personally?
Only in the Lord is the veil taken
away.
They never saw the glory of God in
the first covenant directly.
Where did the glory of God abode in
the Old Testament?
In the Holy of Holies.
And you know what?
None of us were permitted entrance there.
The whole point of the New Covenant, when
Jesus cried on the cross and said, It
is finished, the veil was rented to from
top to bottom, signifying this.
Entrance to the holy place to behold the
glory of God.
Now that's mystical, isn't it?
Is it?
That's the problem with us.
We are not mystics.
We're carnal.
We would be careful that we don't just
live by a sense of right and wrong
with Christ being veiled behind the curtain of
the law.
The law doesn't do you any good.
The law can't make anything perfect.
The law cannot make alive.
But looking into the face of the Lord
Jesus Christ, you are transformed into what?
The same image from glory to glory.
And righteousness will happen.
You get a glimpse of the Lord Jesus
Christ and you see Him clearly.
You want to be like Him.
You get a glimpse of the law and
you know what you feel?
Guilt.
You get a glimpse of Christ and you
know what you feel?
Liberty.
He is a life-giving Spirit.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there
is liberty.
It says the same sacrifice is repeated annually.
We're never able to purge the conscience of
the worshipper.
But when you see a vision of Christ
and you realize that's what God wants you
to be, God has given His Son to
share the very divine nature of Christ with
you, by partaking of the nature you're seeing
in Christ, you escape the corruption that is
in the world by lust.
A corruption that you can never escape by
thou shalt not.
Touch not, taste not, handle not.
It's useless.
But when you seek Christ, the things of
this world become strangely dim.
The problem I had in much of my
former Christian life was this.
I tried to make men see that they
were wretched so they would see their need
for Christ.
You know what I've discovered?
Hold up Christ to them and guess what
they're going to see?
They're wretched.
You get a vision of Jesus Christ and
you won't be satisfied with how you live.
If you've lost the vision of Jesus Christ,
you can become easily satisfied in thinking you're
doing well.
But you see perfect oneness with the Father.
You see a man never discouraged.
It says, he shall not falter or be
discouraged.
When you see a man full of wisdom,
full of grace, full of truth, the law
will never touch that.
What the law actually does is stands in
our way from seeing Him clearly.
And it says, what are we told in
the law to do with the law?
Ye who want to be justified by the
law, do ye not hear the law?
For doesn't the law say Abraham had two
wives, two sons?
One by the bondwoman and one by the
free woman.
So what did the law say to do
with the bondwoman?
Get rid of her!
Put her away!
And it's time for us to put away
this idea that righteousness could ever come by
living by the law.
Righteousness comes from God through faith and beholding
the Person of Christ.
When we actually receive of His Spirit, walking
in Him, righteousness happens.
Godliness happens.
Power and meekness and lowliness happen.
They become reality.
In Him we are made, what?
The righteousness of God.
But that's beholding Him personally, mystically, spiritually in
an intimate daily communion.
You know what?
I can tell when someone has lost that
vision.
Because you know how you can tell?
They no longer pray.
Because they're not comfortable in God's presence.
In thy presence there is...
Okay, so we don't really have any fullness
of joy here, do we?
That's really talking about getting to heaven, isn't
it?
Now come on now, I'm being honest here.
What do you really think?
Do you have fullness of joy?
No, of course not.
You can't really have that down here because
you can't really be in God's presence until
you get there.
Is that what the Scripture was saying?
David said, in thy presence I have, there
is, fullness of joy.
What has happened to you?
Isn't that what Paul asked the Galatians?
That having begun in the Spirit, had really
fallen away and trying to perfect their own
life by a sense of right and wrong?
Here's what he asked them in the King
James.
He says, wherein is that sense of blessedness?
The NIV says, what's happened to all your
joy?
If you're not spending time being renewed personally
in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ,
your joy will shrivel up.
Not your sense of right and wrong.
You'll take that to the grave with you.
Having a sense of what's right and wrong
is far different than having a clear vision
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know when the things of the earth
became...
You know what made Paul able to say,
the things that were gained to me, I
now count loss?
When?
Compared to what?
You have to have had a glimpse of
the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ.
You know why the things of this vain
world, this vanity seems so special?
It's because you've not caught a glimpse of
the glory, the far surpassing glory of knowing
Christ.
And someone who's caught a glimpse of Him
is like Paul, straining towards what lies ahead
saying, I want to know Christ.
I want to experience Christ in this life.
Becoming like Him in His death.
And so somehow to obtain to the resurrection
out of the dead.
When you see it that way, what do
you count the things of this world?
Rubbish.
I don't mourn when I flush my commode.
Therefore, there's nothing I'm giving up of anything
value compared to knowing Christ.
Knowing Christ is everything.
It's not just part.
It's everything.
But if you've lost the vision of Him.
And you sink back down into religion.
You'll never live.
You will never experience the freedom and liberty
God intended for you to have.
In becoming one with His Son.
If ye abide in me.
Not just His word.
And my words abide in you.
You hear that?
A lot of us are just content for
His words to abide in us.
That's not what He said.
I am the vine, ye are the branches.
If ye abide in me and my word
abide in you.
We are abiding is not well if we're
not bearing fruit.
The person who's abiding is bearing fruit.
For in this is my Father glorified in
that ye bear much fruit.
But that's only done through abiding in Christ.
Through having a clear vision of Christ who
is the author and the finisher.
Isn't that why you're looking to Him?
Aren't you looking to Him knowing that every
time you get another glimpse of Him.
You see something else in your life?
In a way that you can become like
Him.
Back to Martha and Mary.
After not only did she say that her
mind was divided.
She was not fully seeing Christ.
The next word is said in verse 41.
You are worried in what?
In Luke 10 verse 41.
Troubled.
The Greek word is turbidze.
Turbidze.
We get an English word from this Greek
word.
Turbid.
What's turbidity?
What is turbidity?
Who can tell me what turbidity is?
We must not be very much mariners here.
Turbidity is a term with water.
Turbidity is the amount of visibility to water.
They have what they call a turbidity meter.
I've seen it.
We were shown this in physical science.
It was a white disc with varying white
and black marks.
And it was attached to a rope.
That's the way they used to do it
before they had their computers and lasers.
Things now measure turbidity.
And you set this thing in the water.
And the turbidity reading was determined by how
far it could go down.
And you could still...
Mary had turbidity.
Stirred up in her natural man.
And she couldn't see Christ.
See, there's a property in still water.
When water's not carrying a lot of sediment,
light does what?
Passes through.
But what if it's got a lot of
particles stirred up?
What you're actually seeing is the light reflecting
off of the dirt.
And the sediment.
You're not seeing it pass all the way
through.
Water and Spirit are both clear.
And they reveal Jesus beautifully.
The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures.
He leads me beside the still water.
What is it about still waters?
You can walk right up to it and
if you look at it just right, what
do you see?
You see clearly.
And if you're sitting across from it, like
we were last weekend, in the early morning
waters, in the water still, what do you
see?
You see the glory of the heavens reflected.
But it takes being still.
David said, My soul was disturbed within me.
What was the solution?
His soul being disturbed within me.
Be still my soul.
I have stilled and quieted my soul.
And this is where many of us are
not prospering.
Because we have not persevered to be still
and know He's God.
In Jesus Himself, the living personification of God
on the earth, full of grace and truth,
what did He do on a daily basis?
He withdrew to the lonely place.
And what did He do?
He prayed.
He withdrew to the lonely place where He
could spend time with just He and the
Father.
And you know why He did what He
did?
He says the Son only does what He
sees the Father doing.
And the Father shows Him all He does.
You know when you and I are going
to start doing what Jesus does?
When we get away, out of our religion,
and we get still.
And we come to the place where we
want to know Christ personally.
And we see what He's doing.
And we're beholding Him as in a mirror.
And when you behold Him, that's a strange
thing.
Now, this is quite a mystery here.
When you behold Christ in a mirror, whose
reflection are you seeing?
Now, think with me.
Whose reflection do you see in a mirror?
When I look in a mirror, I see
my own reflection.
What's He saying?
When you look, when you look into the
face of Jesus Christ, you'll see what you're
supposed to look like.
You'll see what God intended man to be.
You'll see a man full of virtue.
And you know what you can see about
yourself?
You can say, Jesus will do this in
me.
You'll see meekness.
You'll see lowliness.
You'll see longsuffering.
And you'll see what God intended for you
to be.
You won't get that from the law.
But when you look into Jesus Christ, when
you behold Him, you see what your reflection
should be.
And you're changed into that image.
Because now you know what to look like.
But if all you're living by is the
law, what do you see?
Christ is no longer visible to you.
Only in Christ is the veil removed and
the glory of God revealed.
That doesn't happen from...
It could happen while reading your Bibles.
It can happen while you are in a
corporate assembly with others.
But where did God intend for it to
happen?
God intended for it to happen in the
holy place of your heart where you and
He alone intimately commune together.
Where He is your Father and you are
His Son.
And that's how this life was meant to
be.
And if we don't learn to lay aside
those things that are dividing our mind, drawing
our attention away from, and troubling us in
the natural man, and learn to be still
and spend an intimate communion with Christ, we're
not going to be transformed in the image
of God.
We need this.
I wish I could produce this in a
person.
I cannot.
This is the fullness of the New Covenant
where the Lord says, no longer shall a
man say to his neighbor, know the Lord,
for they shall all know Me.
What's the danger of this?
You had better know the Lord this way.
You don't want to stand before Him in
the last day and hear Him say to
you, I never knew you.
Not this way.
We better know the Lord.
We had better experience the Lord in this
way.
This is why Christ came.
Christ came, He came, that we might have
access to the Father.
Therefore, having confidence to enter the most holy
place through the blood of Jesus Christ, let
us approach the throne of grace with confidence
that we might receive mercy and find grace
to help in time of need.
And right now, what we need as a
people is to draw near God.
We need to draw near God.
And when we draw near God, what happens?
God draws near us.
That's life.
And if that's not what you're experiencing, what
is between you and our Lord?
Something is.
Whether it's your natural man all stirred up,
whether it's your busy being about serving and
all kind of good things, or whether you've
really kind of lost connection with the Head,
and you've begun to live by your principles
of right and wrong.
Whatever it is, let's just be still a
little bit and let the Lord search our
hearts.
I want
to say something just for the benefit.
Please just be quiet and still before the
Lord.
I want to tell you the truth of
every person here.
I can confidently say this of every person
here.
The mercies of God are new for you.
There's not a single person here even close
to exhausting God's abundant grace and compassion.
God longs to be gracious to every person
here.
God longs to renew every heart.
All of us together.
We put all of our shortcomings together wouldn't
make a dent in God's mercy.
He did not send His Son to die
on the cross to lose us.
We are the glory He's after.
He wants to bring many sons to glory.
He's patient.
He's at work.
He's not about to cease to work.
He is so willing to forgive.
He is so willing to cleanse.
He knows what to do with a hard
heart.
He knows how to bring renewal.
He knows how to make you brand new.
Completely clean.
Faultless before Him.
And He can even use how you've lived
as a testimony of His mercy.
I sought the Lord and He answered me.
He delivered me from all my fears.
He lifted me out of the miry pit
and set my feet upon a rock.
He put a new song in my mouth,
even a hymn of praise to my God.
And many shall see the mercy He's had
on me and turn in fear to God.
Let His mercy and His grace and His
compassion renew you.
But be renewed.
I don't want you to sing.
If you have your eyes fixed on Christ,
ignore me.
Open my eyes, Lord.
I want to see Jesus, to
reach out and touch Him and say
that I love Him.
Open my ears, Lord, and
help me to listen.
Open my eyes, see
Jesus.