I'd just like to say a few words
from my heart regarding this conference.
Every year when I come to this conference
I feel like I'm just like Ruth discovering
the field of Boaz.
Gleaming upon the reaches of our Lord Jesus,
the unsearchable reaches as in him.
The amazing thing is the Lord told Ruth,
Boaz told Ruth, don't go to another field,
but remain here and gleam.
And not only that, he told his workers,
he said, don't bother her, let her gather
as much as she can, but occasionally throw
some ears of corn on the ground and
make it easier for her to gather.
Now brothers and sisters, I've been to this
conference for many years.
I have confessed I'm a very lazy gleamer,
not diligent, but thank God for his servants.
From time to time they throw down some
of those ears of corn, so easy for
me just to pick them up.
So what I have to share this out
is not really of myself, it's what I
have received from the Lord himself and from
many brothers and sisters right here in this
room.
I owe a great deal to and thank
God for those servants of the Lord faithfully
ministering God's word to us from time to
time, year after year through this conference here
in Richmond.
I recall a series of messages given by
Joseph Spark some years ago called the Arctic
of Redemption.
The first message began with his first coming
and he ends his last message with his
second coming and all the events in between.
Now to me, anything that touches the Lord
Jesus, that we touch him, we touch fullness.
We cannot measure God's fullness in terms of
quality or quantity, it's a person.
God's fullness dwells in his hand of the
Lord Jesus bodily, it's in him.
Apart from him, outside of him, there is
nothing.
Well, Brother Spark says, discovering the richest pride
is just playing a musical scale.
You begin with Do, first note, and you
go up the scale.
When you come to a certain note, you
thought that is the end of the scale,
but it's not quite the end.
The scale is not complete until you hit
that octave note.
You know, Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La,
Ti.
Well, that's not complete until you hit the
next note, Do.
Well, when you touch that note, when you
play that last note, you thought you have
a complete scale.
Well, you're wrong, because the end is just
the beginning of another set of scales, and
you go on and go on forever, there's
no end.
Now, Brother and Sister, what we can hear
is very limited.
The scale of God is infinity, there's no
way we can really take it in.
All we can hear is only a small
fragment, a fraction of that huge musical scale
that God has for us in the creation,
in the Lord Jesus.
So the exciting thing about discovering the fullest
price is that when we thought we have
arrived at something, that we know, we think
we know something, and the Holy Spirit whispers
to us, that is just the beginning, and
we start all over again.
That is the beauty of our Christian adventure,
there's no end, God has no end.
And we have this exciting life to live,
it's about continuing discovering the riches of Christ,
together as his people.
Well, this afternoon the Lord has laid a
few things in my heart, and I hope
it will be profitable to all of us.
Shall we turn to a portion in the
Bible?
Let's turn to Psalm 25.
I'm reading from the NIV version, Psalm 25
verse 14.
The Lord confides in those who fear him,
he makes his covenant known to them.
Now if you do have the, some of
you do have the Derby Bible, it goes
this way, the secret of Jehovah is with
them that fear him, that he make known
his covenant to them.
I look into the strong concordance and I
discover that this original Hebrew word has many
shares of meaning.
It can be translated as counsel, c-o
-u-n-c-i-l, as in Psalm
111 verse 1, in the NIV it's translated
as counsel, c-o-u-n-c-i
-l, c-i-l.
It can also be translated into counsel, c
-o-u-n-s-e-l, all came
from that same root.
It can also be translated as sweet counsel
or confidence.
It can also be translated as something that's
covered, secret that's covered, and can only be
uncovered when the one who poses a secret,
when he finds a trustworthy person, he will
uncover a little bit and he will cover
it again.
In other words, he will take in those
who he considers as trustworthy, faithful, and he
will allow them to have a peek of
the secret that's in his heart.
The fullness of God lies in his heart.
There is a saying, where his secret is,
that's where his heart is.
Where his heart is, that's where he himself
is.
So, God is a God who has something
in him that he wants to convey, to
share, and to make known to us.
While this, I will consider some aspects of
some of these precious things that God wants
to convey and to share with us.
If I may divert just a little bit,
actually God has no obligation really.
He is not obligated to share anything with
us.
He does not owe us anything.
The reason why he wants to share is
because it is his delight, his good pleasure.
So, I will just quote a few things
from a book I read recently.
It's by Arthur Pink and the book is
entitled The Attributes of God.
And chapter one of this book is entitled
The Solitariness of God.
And I think it's very significant.
I will just share a little bit of
that and maybe I will paraphrase a little
bit.
When there was nothing, no one was there
but only God.
God alone was there.
God was self-contained, self-sufficient, self-satisfied,
and in need of nothing.
Had a universe, had angels, had human beings
been necessary to him in any way, they
also had been called into existence before all
eternity, before all eternity.
The creating of him, when they did, added
nothing to God essentially.
He changes now, that's Malachi 3.6. Therefore,
his essential glory can neither be augmented or
diminished.
So, in creating us, we add nothing to
him because he is already quite so complete
in himself.
Let me just go on a little further.
He was under no constraint, no obligation, no
necessity to create.
That he chose to do so was purely
a sovereign act on his part, caused by
nothing outside himself, determined by nothing but his
own mere good pleasure.
For he worked this whole thing out of
the counsel of his will.
That's Ephesians 1.
Brothers and sisters, it's just his delight.
He owes nothing.
It's just his delight to create us human
beings.
And somehow in creating us, he deposits something
in us.
This capacity to fellowship with him.
That is God's very nature, his fellowship.
He put this in us so that we
have this potential to grow in him, and
this capacity for fellowship may increase.
Now, even on a human level, this instinct
is in all of us.
Paul said, no one lives unto himself.
You need someone to share.
Loneliness is a deadliest disease.
The way they torture a person, beat you
up, it's not really that agonizing.
But when they isolate you into a solitary
confinement, that is most unbearable.
Loneliness.
Well, even on this human level, we need
someone to share.
We all have dreams, hopes, aspirations, and we
like to share those with someone.
We have joys, happy times, we want to
share with people.
And also human beings, as you know, life
is not all a bed of roses.
We encounter many disappointments in life.
Life is a series of disappointments.
Conflict, problems, sorrow, and the threat of death
is always there.
And we need to confine our problems with
people, to seek their sympathy.
To seek someone that can bear and share
our burdens.
Therefore, we pour our hearts to some of
our friends and some of our intimates.
Now, this matter of sharing, there are two
ways.
One is very general, something very superficial, but
there's something sharing that's in-depth.
There's something you can share with most people,
but there are things in your life you
can only share with a select group of
people, not everyone.
Because that is very deep down here.
You're looking for someone who understands down here,
not for someone who understands up here.
And there are very few people that can
share heart to heart.
And today, God is looking for his people
that will share with him, not just the
superficial things, but the deep things that concern
his son, the Lord Jesus.
Things that are dear to God's heart.
And therefore, if we go back to the
history, you know when Adam sinned, and the
fellowship between Adam, Eve, and God was completely
cut off.
And Adam, Eve, you recall, they hid themselves
among the trees.
God was the God who moved first.
God came and asked Adam, where are you?
So when Adam sinned, of course it was
Adam's loss.
But compared to God's loss, Adam's loss is
a very small one.
God's loss is a real loss.
And God wants to restore that.
So, brothers and sisters, God lost something when
man failed.
And the Lord Jesus came back to recover
that.
And that's why, of course, we are called
back into the fellowship now in his son,
the Lord Jesus.
Now, let's come back on a human level
again.
When you fellowship something that is down deep
in your heart, you are very selective.
If someone can confide some of the secret
in his heart to you, you are an
honored person.
If someone in authority, in power, and calls
you up and says, I have something I
want to share with you, you are not
an ordinary person anymore.
You are marked out for a secret.
Now, imagine the Creator, God himself, that in
his heart he has something he wants to
share.
But I believe he is looking, always looking,
in all of us, the right condition by
which he can share what is in his
heart.
The problem with many of us is that
our condition is not right.
Therefore, we cannot receive anything from him.
We hinder him from revealing what is in
his heart to all of us.
So, God is forever looking for that condition
in all of us.
Therefore, the operation of the Holy Spirit is
for that purpose.
Bring us to the right condition where God
can unveil the secret of his heart to
us.
That is the work of the cross.
To remove all the obstacles that are in
the way so that God can reveal what
he wants to reveal in our hearts.
Well, where the secret of God is, there
is his heart and there is himself.
In the Old Testament, we do have a
few examples of the Old Testament saints that
God did allow them to have a glimpse
of some of his secrets.
But remember, whatever they saw in the Old
Testament, they come in fragments.
That is what Hebrews 1 we are told.
Everything we find in the Old Testament, all
in fragments.
But the writer of the Hebrews said, now
is complete because everything now is in the
Son.
God speaks now not in fragments anymore, but
in the Son.
So, when it comes to the Son, we
come to the full revelation of all that
is in God's heart.
Well, in the Old Testament, there are a
few who already walked with the Lord and
knew something of the secrets of God.
So, we all know that walking with God
is the best way to know God.
Just like friends, when they walk together, naturally
they share their intimate things.
The longer they walk together, thick and thin
they are together, the more they become intimate
and they can share heart to heart.
Well, maybe just a few examples in the
Old Testament.
The first one is Abel.
When Adam fell, the way back to God
was out.
There is no way for mankind to approach
God anymore because of sin.
And Abel, by God's grace, was allowed to
discover the way back to God.
You know the way back to God is
a secret.
We know, but half of the people of
the world, do they know?
They don't know.
It is a mystery to them.
But now we know.
After we accept the Lord Jesus, after our
sins forgiven, now we know the way, we
discover the way.
But before that, it is a mystery.
It is only through faith this mystery was
solved.
Well, Abel was given this opportunity by God
to discover that the way back to Him
is through a sacrifice.
A light lay down and blood shed.
Now, just an example.
And then we move on to Noah.
Noah was given the secret, I think it
is safe for me to use it, top
secret, you know, about the judgment to come.
The secret of what is to come, the
judgment, at the same time God also revealed
to Noah the way of escape.
It is a revelation, God revealing His secret
to Noah.
And not only that, God gave Noah the
blueprint how to build that ark.
And it took him 120 years.
And while he was doing that, people mystified.
As though he was secretly doing something.
He was unknown to them.
You remember, in those days there was no
such thing as rain, no flood.
So what he was doing mystified that generation.
They could not figure out what he was
doing.
But Noah, down deep, he had a secret
from God.
Brothers and sisters, those who know something of
the Lord, we are mystified persons.
They could never figure us out.
Well, it took him 120 years.
And he faithfully did.
And he preached during those 120 years.
Well, I move on to a couple more
persons in the Old Testament.
It is Enoch.
I love that story, even though it is
very brief, only a few verses.
But it is just so beautiful.
He walked with God, and that is all
it says.
We have to take it by faith.
It is a fact that he did walk
with God.
What amazes me is that it says, God
took him, for he was not God to
him.
And I try to imagine, what does it
mean, what does it mean?
Well, because their walk was so intimate, the
fellowship was so sweet, the communion was so
wonderful, at least my thinking, if I am
wrong I am willing to be corrected, that
God himself found it impossible to part with
him.
His fellowship was so precious to him that
God would not part with him, and God
took him.
Brothers and sisters, that is some walk.
That is the walk that God is looking
for among his people.
Not occasional walk with the Lord, but for
300 years.
Together, day and night, constantly.
And the Lord was so moved, so touched.
He valued that friendship, that companion, so much.
The Lord cannot part it, and he took
it.
Our brothers and sisters, sometimes it is easy
for us to part with the Lord, but
not easy for the Lord to part with
us.
When he commits to us, he commits to
us utterly, eternally.
That is all God.
Well, the next person is Abraham.
This phrase, to me, is just unbelievable.
You know the story.
And God said to himself, shall I hide
from this man, Abraham, the thing I am
about to do?
God saying it.
God was going to do something.
He can do it without telling Abraham.
He is God.
He does not need anyone to assist him.
He does not need anyone to approve what
he is going to do.
And yet, God said to him, shall I
hide anything from this man that I was
about to do?
You see the friendship there.
How intimate.
How real.
And no wonder this friend of Abraham was
mentioned three times in the Bible.
In Jehoshaphat's prayer, when he was in desperate
need, he said, God, O Jehovah, you are
for Abraham.
They knew that Abraham was God's friend.
And Isaiah, we are told that God said,
call him my friend.
And James, the record says there, he was
God's friend.
You know, in John 15, we are told,
but the Lord Jesus said, I don't call
you slaves anymore.
I call you friend.
And he clarified that.
He said, because everything I learned, I want,
I tell you now.
I don't hide anything.
Everything I learned from the Father, I'll tell
you.
And that's friendship.
And God is looking for a friend that
will walk with him intimately.
That can share heart to heart.
You know, as I read from other things,
God is not obligated to do anything, but
he is delighted.
Somehow he is pleased to do it.
God is just beyond us.
It is grace and grace.
Alright, now let us dwell a few moments
on what this word secret means.
The secret, the first one of the translations
is council, c-o-u-n-c-i
-l.
Now if you look into Young's literal translation,
it means a secret meeting.
You know, if there is a secret meeting,
that means there is what?
There is an opening.
There is a meeting that is for everybody.
And there is a meeting for a select
few.
So in Young's literal translation, that is a
secret meeting.
This council in Hebrew, it means a company
of people sitting together.
That's all.
Where there is no controversy, where there is
one accord, where there is one purpose, where
there is real agreement one with another.
So the secret meeting of the Lord is
for those here.
No words are spoken.
Words are not necessary.
They are silent.
Because there is mutual trust, there is mutual.
Silent is a real test of friendship.
Words are not needed, because there is what?
There is an inward understanding.
You know, Robert Schumann wrote a serious piano
piece called Music Without Words.
Is such thing as understanding and friendship without
words?
Yes.
A good example is between husband and wife.
Of course they are husband and wife, they
are also good friends.
They can be together in the house and
yet not saying one word to another, just
because she is there and he is there.
They feel very good about each other.
Perfect.
No words need to be spoken and yet
there is such sweetness in the family atmosphere.
Doubt is gone.
Questions are gone.
Controversy is gone.
It is a love relationship.
It is an understanding, not mental, but it
is down deep here.
And there is a trust.
Deep trust.
There is a difference between friends and acquaintance.
So G.
Cameron Morgan said, we have many acquaintances, but
we all have very, very few.
He said, when new acquaintances come to visit,
you have to entertain them.
You keep them occupied all the time.
Talk to them, show them this and show
them that, entertain them, take them out here.
He said, but with a friend, you don't
need to do all that.
Because your home is what?
And brother and sister, that is true.
Are we God's friends or are we His
acquaintances?
If we are just His acquaintances, we will
never get to know the deep things of
God.
In other words, we missed out on His
fullness.
So God is looking for a friend.
Now the second meaning of this word secret
is counsel.
C-O-U-N-S-E-L.
In some translations, it is a sweet fellowship,
in Darby's it is sweet intercourse.
It is a heart to heart communion.
And now here, silence is broken.
Words now spoken.
We have words now.
Words are not just ordinary words.
Words that are from the heart, they are
not ordinary words.
They are words with substance.
Words coming out of here are chaff.
The words coming down here are grain, solid
with substance.
Speech becomes when friends understand each other well
enough to be silent.
That is a beautiful statement.
Speech becomes when friends understand each other well
enough to be silent.
When friendship can afford to be silent, the
speech is the speech of friendship.
Of course there has to be an openness.
You cannot hide anything.
The heart has to be transparent.
So even when friends do fellowship, sometimes we
are more likely to be careless because we
know each other so well.
And if you don't know a person so
well, you will be very careful what you
say.
But if you know that person very well,
sometimes we tend to be a little bit
on the careless side.
So the beautiful thing in our fellowship with
Lord Jesus is that he knows all about
us.
He knows what we say to him mostly
are chaff and not much substance into it.
But because he loves us so much, he
is seeking fellowship with us.
One person said he blows away the chaff
and he will retain the grain.
That is our Lord Jesus.
That requires honesty of heart.
I am reminded of the home in Bethany.
Before the Lord Jesus came to Bethany, there
is no record in the scripture that they
had any family problems.
But once the Lord came into the picture,
they seemed to have a lot of problems.
But because it is a home where the
Lord loves to be, where he is at
home, and they are free to open their
heart to one another.
And so Martha, being the vocal one, she
complained.
Remember she complained?
What was the Lord's reaction to her complaint?
The Lord did not recommend her, did he?
No.
In a sense, when Martha complained to the
Lord, she honoured him as Lord.
You have to know the person well enough
to complain to that person and to get
resolved.
If you do not know that person well,
you do not want to complain too much.
That is when you know that person very
well, you dare to say something from your
heart.
And Martha did.
And the Lord did not say what she
did was wrong.
But the Lord brought something very precious.
You remember she told Martha, you say, you
are busy, busy about many things, but there
is only one thing that you need, and
Mary has chosen that first part, that best
part, and no one can take it away.
So in our careless speaking, in our complaint,
the Lord comes through with words that has
real substance to teach us, to adjust us,
to correct us, and to help us.
So I learnt some few lessons these past
years, because to live among saints is not
the most pleasant thing.
You know?
I mean, we think how pleasant and how
good it is for the saints to dwell
together in unity.
Well, it is true and sometimes it is
not quite true.
And we all have complaints.
But I discovered one thing in recent years,
no use to complain to anyone.
The best way to complain is to go
to the Lord.
And he understands.
So there has to be that heart to
heart fellowship.
So you are talking and he is listening
and he is listening and you are talking.
That is the kind of fellowship the Lord
is looking for.
And that is the way we can touch
something of the person of the Lord Jesus.
You can never know a person until you
come intimately, until you can fellowship intimately with
that person.
And many of our fellowship, for instance, may
be more or less on the superficial ground.
You do not know that person too well.
And often we fellowship with the Lord the
same way, at a distance, never together, close
together.
That when he talks, we are there to
listen.
And when we talk, he is there to
listen.
If I have secret from him, then he
cannot have secret with me.
This is one of the key that we
need to learn to use when we fellowship.
Nothing we can have from him so that
he can fellowship and speak to us freely.
Friendship with God is so that we are
able to pour everything from our heart to
him.
At the same time, allow him to speak
all that is in his heart to us.
Many of us, we have the problem that
we want to pour everything to him, but
we are not ready to listen from him.
So, a real friendship, a real fellowship, a
real intimate friendship with the Lord is that
we can pour everything before him, but at
the same time be prepared for him to
speak to us freely.
The next meaning of this word sacred has
to do with advice, to receive guidance from
the Lord.
It is when we fellowship with him, communion
with him, knowing him, then we discover we
are so unlike him.
And that is what the next thing comes
in.
We need correction, we need adjustment, we need
instruction.
And the next has to do with this
advice, this instruction that he will give to
us.
And it often comes in a small voice.
Why?
Because the fellowship, the friendship is so intimate.
There is no need to shout.
A whisper is enough.
A look upon his face.
So, the only way we can be transformed,
we can be corrected, we can be adjusted
into his likeness is through our fellowship, close
fellowship.
Because when we fellowship with his father, we
are so unlike him.
And then there is a longing created in
us to be like him.
Then he can begin to do the adjustment.
If that is the case, the transformation or
the confirmation will be unto his likeness, not
into anything else but Christ.
Well, at last, this is the most precious
one.
As we move step from sitting together, and
now we can speak, and now we can
receive advice from him, and this next is
to take us into his competence.
The secret of secrets.
Friend among friends.
Now, we all have many friends, but we
all have some very special friends.
They are not just ordinary friends, they are
very special friends.
We have secrets we can share, but there
are some secrets we can only share to
certain friends.
God can tell his secret to Abraham that
Lot knew nothing about it.
And I believe there are still men and
women today that God can still confide what
is inside to them.
Just to give an example, in the New
Testament, Paul was one of those persons.
God confided to him something.
He said, it is not even lawful to
tell.
He was called into the third heaven.
So, John's first translation, he said, it is
a covered and concealed thing.
And when that incident comes, this person simply
uncovers it, and then says, look into it,
and uncovers it again.
And says, now, have a good look now,
but don't tell anybody.
That is what he means.
And so, Abraham was given the secret to
look, to peek, but Lot was completely out
of it.
Another person in the New Testament is Mary,
the home, that home in Bethlehem.
You remember the scripture said that he sat
at the Lord's feet and listened to him.
As I read the Gospels, I do not
find any record in the Bible of what
the Lord really actually spoke to Mary.
Was there anything there?
I don't recall there was anything.
It simply said that he sat at his
feet, she sat at his feet and listened.
And what the Lord communicated to him was
not even recorded.
Something that is not here for us to
find out.
Must be something very precious.
Maybe one day we will know Him in
glory.
He said, Mary, just what did he say
to you?
We don't even know.
But it was in the scripture that she
sat at his feet and listened to him.
But we do know one thing.
Mary was the person who anointed the Lord
before his burial.
And the Lord said, if we have the
Gospel preached, this story will be told as
memorial.
Now that is something.
Mary did something which no one else can
do.
And he did it to the Lord before
his burial.
So there are people that God is looking
for that he can confide in.
Well, to experience some of the fullness of
the Lord Jesus, is really to learn to
sit quietly in his presence.
When you sit in his presence, you are
full.
You know why you are full?
Because you don't need to say any word.
When you are full, you don't need to
say any word.
You are speechless.
You are full.
No words are necessary.
You can forget about yourself.
You can forget about your past.
You just be holding his face.
Sitting in a secret meeting with the Lord.
And then the second thing I share is
this matter of Sweet Fellowship Communion.
There is a telling, there is listening both
ways.
He wants to listen to us just as
much as he wants to talk to us.
He wants us to talk to him just
as he wants to listen to us.
And thank God for such privilege.
And of course we need his advice, his
help, his direction to take in all the
ones to give to him.
Now this word Jehovah is a very personal
name of God.
It is not the almighty power.
It is very personal.
It is the same word that we read
all the time that he is the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and he
wants to be your God.
He wants to be your blessing.
He wants to be your fullness.
But there is one condition.
The fear of the Lord that must come
in.
To be brought into this blessed condition, brothers
and sisters, the one condition is the fear
of the Lord.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom.
Now we can put it this way.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of entering into his fullness.
Because God is our fullness.
In Isaiah 33, verse 6, there is such
a thing as, let me read it to
you.
The fear of the Lord is the key
to your treasure.
If you want to look at it.
It is Isaiah 33, verse 6.
Just the last phrase of that verse.
The fear of the Lord is the key
to this treasure and some translation it says
to his treasure or to your treasure.
And for the purpose this week we can
probably put it this way.
The fear of the Lord shall be your
fullness, treasure, fullness.
Something of great value God wants to give
to us.
The fear of the Lord is to unlock
God's treasure.
Of course there are two kinds of fear.
The fear that is the wrong kind.
The thing, always think that God is cruel.
You are afraid of him.
He is always looking at you and finds
fault with you, condemns you, makes you miserable.
Well that is the wrong kind of fear.
But there is the right kind of fear.
It is out of faith.
It is out of relationship.
Out of a love relationship.
That you dare not to hurt his feelings.
That you dare not to make him uncomfortable
and uneasy about it.
And that is a good kind of fear.
And that is the kind of fear the
Lord is looking for.
In Proverbs we have some very practical instruction
here.
In Proverbs 8 we read there, the fear
of the Lord is to hate evil.
And in Proverbs 16 we have that phrase
there, the fear of the Lord is to
depart from evil.
We cannot share God's secret and yet we
have a secret love with him.
It just will not work.
To think with him in the heavenlies means
we are delivered from the earth.
To think the things that are above, where
he is at the right hand of the
Father, means we don't think about the things
down here.
So not just hating.
In principle we know we should hate.
But there is an action that always we
depart.
But with many of us we know how
to hate.
But we are very hesitant to make that
move and to depart from evil.
Because there is a secret love for the
things we deserve.
And the Lord said that we won't have
to.
Those who sit in the counsel of the
wicked, someone, they cannot sit in the counsel
of the righteous.
That is one condition.
Because he is holy.
He is true.
So there is no pretense when we come
to his presence.
Silence can be a sign of his approval.
We know that.
When heaven is at rest, God will not
talk to his people.
Then they are done.
But saying God in his presence, there is
a silence of his approval.
God looks at his sign to satisfy.
That's it.
Sometimes words are necessary.
Even though heaven is open three times, that
doesn't mean God only satisfies him three times.
He satisfies him all the time.
Words were not spoken from heaven.
Approval was not made known to us, but
he was always approved of the Father.
Words were not spoken.
The most comforting thing for our sister is
the end of that verse.
That he will make his covenant known to
her.
To me that is the best part of
that verse.
God said, if you fear me and all
that I want to do in you, I
am obligated to do it.
That's it.
How can we do it?
How?
We cannot do it.
But the Lord said, the how you leave
it to me.
I am covenanted to do it.
I have faith in myself and what I
have promised, I will do it.
You cannot sit in my presence, but if
you have the desire, I will make you
sit in my presence.
You cannot fellowship with me intimately, but if
you want to, I will make it possible.
You will not listen to my correction, but
if you want to, I will make it
possible.
How can I receive anything from you?
Intimate things, deep things, but if you want
to, I will make it possible.
That's what I mean.
He covenanted himself.
And it's all grace.
And brothers and sisters, our God is full.
He is full.
He has so much to share, but he
is looking and looking for the right condition
in all of us.
And brothers and sisters, the right condition is
to fear him.
Fear him is to believe in him and
say yes to him.
And the Lord said, I will do the
rest.
And thank God for such grace, such mercy.
I always appreciate those few phrases I repeat
all the time.
That God has faith in himself.
That's why he called you and called me.
Because he has faith in himself.
Because we are impossible people.
Not because we have faith in him.
No, he has faith in himself.
Therefore he can do what he wants to
do.
And that's grace.
And he has the power to do it.
And he is doing it.
So brothers and sisters, take heart.
All we need to do is fix our
eyes on the Lord Jesus.
Just look at him.
And God says, I am obligated to see
to it that my son is fully formed
in you.
It's my work.
All you have to do is say, you
are willing, and I will do the rest.
And all God needs is a willing heart.
A fear of the Lord.
The secret of the Lord is for those
who fear him.
And he will make known his covenant to
them.
He will make it possible.
So may the Lord help all of us.
Words are very big, very feeble.
May the Lord continue to speak to all
of us.
And I appreciate this conference year after year.
Because every time I come here, I am
not, I dare not say I experience the
four things, I say the fourth.
The Lord took me into his confidence.
I dare not say that.
But just sitting here, it's just so wonderful.
You don't need to say anything.
Just sitting here.
It's so full.
Don't you experience that sometimes?
Just being here, brothers, just sitting here.
Oh, it's full.
It's just full.
And then sometimes, silence broken, and you have
a little fellowship with the Lord.
Oh my, what a sweet fellowship.
It's full.
And thank God for this time that we
can be together.
And oftentimes, I say, Lord, thank you.
Every time I come back here, just let
Ruth go back, discover the field for us.
And just glean and glean.
And the Lord said to his wife, he
said, throw some down there, throw some down
there, throw some down there.
And we just pick it up.
Just pick it up.
That's always good.
Lord, our words are so inadequate, but you
are the living word.
We pray that you will continue to speak
to us.
And do draw us ever closer to yourself.
Lord, do make us willing to be a
friend to you.
Real friend.
Intimate friend.
That we can have secret meetings together.
That you can speak to us the deep
things that are in your heart.
The things you long to speak to us.
Lord, do bring us to such condition.
Lord, that you can unveil all that is
in your heart to your people.
Thank you, Lord, for grace.
Thank you, Lord.
We just pray that you will make us
willing.
And when we are willing, you will do
all the rest.
Because you are faithful.
And you have the power to do it.
And to you, we give all the praise.
We ask it in the Lord Jesus.