Let's turn together please to Exodus and chapter
25.
Commencing in the book of Exodus chapter 25,
we find the construction of different articles for
the tabernacle.
While my dear brother has been bringing the
temple before us, I'm going to back up
a bit and we'll look a little at
the lamp stand in the tabernacle and I
hope it will be a help to us.
For the sake of the younger folk that
are here in particular, we do want to
emphasize the exercise that you should have to
appreciate that when you come together in an
assembly meeting, the presence of the Lord Jesus
is there.
That's very humbling.
It is very precious and that's what helps
us to come with reverence.
It helps us to come with a right
spirit.
It will help us to be very careful
how we act and what we're thinking.
He is there as we've been hearing.
For where two or three are gathered together
in my name, there am I.
Oh to value and to appreciate and to
realize in our gatherings beloved, God has trusted
us with his holy word and he associates
his own presence with us and with his
word as we gather.
So I do trust that our coming together
and what we have been listening to and
what we shall consider now will help to
make that reality very precious and make us
sensitive to it as we move from one
meeting to another.
So we're going to read concerning the lampstand
as it's found built in chapter 25.
We'll commence our reading at verse 31.
And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure
gold.
Of beaten work shall the candlestick be made.
His shaft and his branches, his bowls, his
knops, and his flowers shall be of the
same, all of the same piece.
And six branches shall come out of the
sides of it.
Three branches of the candlestick out of the
one side and three branches of the candlestick
out of the other side.
Three bowls made like unto almonds with a
knop, that is a bud, and a flower
in one branch.
And three bowls made like almonds in the
other branch with a knop and a flower.
So in the six branches that come out
of the candlestick.
And in the candlestick, and the better word
of course is lampstand, there's no wax candles
in this.
This is a lampstand made from gold.
So I'm going to use the word lampstand.
In the lampstand shall be four bowls made
like unto almonds with their buds and their
flowers.
And there should be a bud under two
branches of the same.
And a bud under two branches of the
same.
And a bud under two branches of the
same.
Three different places on each branch.
According to the six branches that proceed out
of the candlestick lampstand.
Their knops and their branches shall be of
the same.
All it shall be one beaten work of
pure gold.
And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof.
And they shall light the lamps thereof, that
they may give light over against itself.
That's an interesting statement.
And the tongs thereof, and the snuff dishes
thereof, shall be of pure gold.
Of a talent of pure gold shall he
make it with all these vessels.
And look that they'll make them after their
pattern which was showed thee in the mount.
May the Lord most graciously bless our reading
and help us to get a little glimpse
of the person of the Lord Jesus.
As we look at the tabernacle, you will
remember as my brother has been bringing before
us, there's a place for the ark.
And that beautiful piece of furniture called the
ark in the tabernacle and in the temple
speaks of the person of the Lord Jesus
in the midst of his people.
But in the second little section there are
three pieces of furniture.
And each of them likewise represent the Lord
Jesus in three distinct characteristics as he is
in our midst.
One of them is a table with 12
loaves of bread upon that table.
And that table is the person of the
Lord Jesus who is the bond of the
unity and fellowship of being in an assembly
of God.
He's the bond of that.
It's not me and it's not what I
teach.
It's himself.
His presence is the bond.
In other words, I'm gathered unto his person.
And so the person of the Lord Jesus
is the reason that I am a part
of the fellowship of the assembly of God
wherever you may live and where I live.
And then we have another little piece of
furniture called a golden altar.
And that's the person of the Lord Jesus
in our midst as the receiver of our
worship.
Because from that little altar, it filled that
place with perfume.
And every priest and the high priest who
functioned there was touched by that perfume.
That's the Lord Jesus receiving the service and
the worship, the thanksgiving, the praise of each
one of our meetings.
And he presents it with a sweet savor
unto God.
Then there is the lampstand that I want
to notice with you a little here.
And I trust with the gracious help of
God to notice with you the Lord Jesus
as he is the authority for all activity.
That's the lampstand.
Its purpose is to give light so that
all activity and even the position of the
function of those little pieces of furniture, the
presence of the Lord in the people, all
of it will be enlightened and given authority
by this lampstand.
So that is the Lord Jesus, dear younger
believer and older saint, when you come to
your prayer meeting.
He is there and that's why we come.
Never forget that.
You're coming as a priest into the presence
of these four pieces of furniture, the presence
of the Lord Jesus himself.
And he is the authority for what will
happen there and therefore he's the administrator of
it.
And he is the reason that you have
come.
There's the bread on the table, one piece,
one loaf for each one of the tribes,
and that kept them together in that bond
of unity.
And a very interesting thing about that table
too, it says concerning them, their faces were
all towards the Lord.
You know what that's saying?
They were committed.
Every one of those tribes were committed to
perpetual testimony for the Lord Jesus.
And the bond of the person of Christ
is the one that kept them together in
that commitment.
And so be at the prayer meeting.
Take your place.
Be at the remembrance of the Lord Jesus
because the person of the Lord Jesus is
the reason that we come together.
He is the bond of that unity and
that fellowship and we are giving expression of
our commitment unto him.
Now let me note with you the construction
of the lampstand that we have.
And just in passing, it is a very
interesting study to notice lampstands in your Bible.
They have very different occupations.
This one is in the temple or in
the tabernacle, pardon me, in keeping with the
presence of the Lord in our midst as
the authority of all activity in the holy
place.
I'm just going to mention two or three
others just for the sake of your study.
Some of you dear young folk are taking
notes and I would like you to look
these up and consider them yourself as you
will prayerfully meditate upon them because they are
going to represent the person of the Lord
Jesus and his association with different situations relative
to his word.
It's used again, of course, one thing that
is very interesting in the temple where my
beloved brother has been taking us, there were
10 lampstands, not just one, five silver ones
and five gold ones.
That's a very interesting study and that's a
lot of homework right there.
Do you consider God's word in the person
of the Lord Jesus?
But when you turn to the book of
Daniel, you'll find the lampstand was in the
wrong place and it was a condemnation.
You remember how you read of Beldeshazzar when
he took all the pieces of furniture out
of the temple and took it away to
Babylon and then he had a party and
the lampstand was in the room of that
party and right over top of the lampstand
the finger of God began to write on
the plaster of the wall.
A lampstand in the wrong place is going
to be condemning, not blessing.
Don't forget that.
Make sure that we recognize the authority of
the person of the Lord Jesus and his
word in relation to the place where you
should gather.
And in Zechariah chapter 4, we find that
the lampstand is related to the work of
the Spirit of God when he's going to
deal with the nation of Israel and restore
them, reconcile them unto himself in the future.
But one that I really love to look
at, and I'll just mention this other one,
is found in Revelation in chapter 21 and
it says about the Lord Jesus in heaven.
It says, the lamb is the lampstand thereof.
I love that.
The lamb is the light, but the word
light means lampstand.
And in throughout all eternity we are going
to dwell in the blaze of the light
of the lamb forever and ever.
He is the lampstand of heaven.
And that helps us to see that the
lampstand of the Old Testament tabernacle is linked
with the Lord Jesus.
So we must see him in this lampstand
and his precious word.
So first of all let me notice with
you the composition of the lampstand.
It was made of pure gold, no wood.
When you come to the little golden altar
it was made out of wood covered with
gold.
The same with the table, made out of
wood covered with gold, not so the lampstand,
pure gold.
So what we are looking at first of
all is to consider the eternal nature of
the Lord Jesus and his word.
That's its immutability.
It cannot change.
It is the word which is eternal.
And so the person of the Lord Jesus
in our midst, we can see that it's
sovereign authority, pure gold.
And that lampstand was made all of one
piece, so there's not something that's added now
and again.
It is him.
That center shaft is the lampstand and the
six branches that come out of the lampstand,
that's what God is going to show to
us.
So we need to see first of all
that the Lord in the midst of his
people, beloved, we are in the presence of
him who is eternal.
That will help us with our reverence.
It's going to help us to be careful.
Think of those priests, only one priest at
a time, always in company with his high
priest.
He would be in that holy place and
twice a day he had to go over
to that lampstand.
He's dealing with an article of exquisite beauty,
remarkable value as we've been hearing, pure gold.
And thus as we come to his word
in every gathering, we are handling, we are
touching that which is pure gold.
The presence of our Lord and his word
are one.
How I treat his word is equal to
how I treat his person.
You be slack with his word, dear believer,
and it shows a slackness of appreciation for
his person.
John chapter 1 and verse 1, we read
these words.
In the beginning was the word.
That's oneness with his spoken word or the
word personified, the word of God.
He is his expression.
He is its channel of revelation.
He is its authority.
That's the lampstand.
Therefore, we handle the word of God with
reverence.
We are touching upon the glory of his
eternal person.
That's why there are some words that are
used about the Lord Jesus in the scriptures.
For example, the lampstand is called the light
and it's the emphatic article, the light.
In other words, the source of all light
is this lampstand.
And so it was in that holy place.
There were no windows.
There were no windows in the door.
The only possible light was the lampstand.
And in keeping with that, that lampstand had
to be attended so that it would never
fade and nothing could be done in the
shadows of the dark.
The lampstand, the presence of our blessed Lord
in the midst, to be honored and his
word to be honored because it is made
of pure gold.
Again, it's called the brightness.
Now, the idea of brightness is the everlasting
character of it.
Brightness had no beginning and brightness can never
be overcome with darkness.
Light always overcomes the dark.
And that is true of the word of
God in our midst and the presence of
our blessed Lord.
And the other word that's used for him
as the light is majesty.
That's an interesting characterization of light, majesty.
And what it is speaking of, of course,
is the position of its authority.
It is majesty and all the brightness and
all the glory that attends unto majesty.
So is the person and the presence of
our Lord Jesus in our midst.
I have to say to you, beloved saints,
I feel so inadequate and so small when
I think that even here this afternoon, we
are gathered in the presence of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
The golden lampstand, the marvel of handling his
holy word should be with fear and with
prayer and humility and a desire only that
he should receive his rightful glory.
He is the lampstand, pure gold.
The second thing I want you to notice
that God mentions, he says, you have to
beat it out.
You're not going to melt it and pour
it into a mold.
There is no mold for him.
No mold, brother.
No, the Lord Jesus never took shape in
character or nature from any other form.
It's beaten out.
But there's another reason for it being beaten
out, because God is going to tell his
people to beat out different things.
He tells them to beat out the manna.
And of course, the reason for beating out
the manna is to make it into different
cakes.
And he tells them to beat out the
olive oil out of the olives, which, of
course, is dealing with the person of the
Holy Spirit.
It's learning submission and subjection to that divine
person.
As you're beating it out, you're learning of
his claims.
You're getting to see his qualities.
You're beating it out.
And when you're beating out gold, one of
the great results of it is beaten gold
will never tarnish.
And I love that.
Poured gold, yes, it could tarnish.
But beaten gold does not tarnish.
It's never affected by time.
It's never affected by environment.
That's my blessed Lord.
That's the one brother in who is in
our midst.
And we glory in him.
There's no possibility he could ever be tarnished.
No possibility that time or environment could ever
cause a default or any type of a
lessening of the value of the pure gold
that is beaten out.
But we must take a few moments and
note with you the center shaft.
You noticed when we were reading how it
says his shaft, and the branches came out
of his shaft?
That's a beautiful thing.
You see, the Lord Jesus is the center
here of his word.
He is the word personified.
And then there are six branches that are
attached to this lampstand, but they're all beaten
out of the one piece.
They're not made separate and then welded.
They're all beaten out of the one, but
they're called branches from his shaft.
This is the point that's being emphasized for
us, I believe.
The Lord Jesus is in preeminence here in
his word.
And all the branches, as we read at
the end of the chapter, are throwing light
on the middle branch.
That's amazing, brethren.
That's going to be a help to you,
dear younger brother and younger sister, when you're
reading his word.
Because we're going to have to notice with
you that there are six branches, and that's
very instructive relative to your Bible, because there
are six character of books in your Bible.
And those six character of books make a
complete revelation.
And what is it doing?
Every one of those character of books are
taking a different avenue to throw light on
the Lord Jesus, to reveal him, to show
the need for him, to show in typology,
even as we're looking at a little now,
of his character and he in our midst.
So I'm going to mention that to you,
but first of all we're going to look
at the ornamentation of that center shaft.
This is important, dear brethren, and I love
it.
I see in this center shaft the picture
of resurrection.
And furthermore, we see the picture of fullness.
The first thing he mentions is a bowl.
Now that bowl was not the lamp.
That bowl was hollow, and in that branch
there was a hollow bowl.
Was it for a reservoir of oil?
I don't know that because the lamp is
separate and it's set on top.
But what we see is the lamp stand
has a bowl, and it reminds me that
the one who is in our midst, the
one who is giving authority to our activities,
the one who is there to receive our
worship, to keep us in the beauty of
that fellowship, in him all fullness dwells.
He's the reservoir of every doctrine and every
truth that can ever be revealed of the
eternal and of the spiritual.
It's all in him.
Marvelous, brethren, all that is beaten out.
That's what God wants you to do, dear
younger believer, with your Bible and those of
us who are not young anymore.
He wants us to get a hold of
the fullness that's in our blessed Lord and
in his holy word.
Oh, brethren, God deliver us from just being
children by the seashore, wetting our feet in
a wave.
God help us to get into the water
like Ezekiel, right up into his waist until
he said, I could swim in this.
Help us, Lord.
The bowl is full.
The fullness of our Lord Jesus, three times
his fullness is mentioned in the epistles.
What does it mean his fullness?
One avenue of fullness is in him dwelleth
all the fullness of Godhead.
If you want to know what God is
like, you watch the Lord Jesus, you listen
to him, you quietly study him, and that
you will get to see the features of
the nature of deity.
And that's the one that's in our midst.
That is the one who gives light upon
our activities.
The fullness of Godhead is in him, all
fullness, the fullness of wisdom and knowledge.
The word tells us and the fullness of
light.
The Bible tells us is all in him.
But when I look at the little buds
and we look at the flowers and then
we see the nuts, isn't that a beautiful
picture of resurrection?
That's our Lord Jesus.
He could say, I died, but I am
alive forevermore.
He lives in the power of an endless
life.
You see, the bud has life in it.
That's the Lord Jesus in resurrection.
He has life, resurrection life, eternal life.
And the flower is the display of that.
That's what he is in his activity.
That's what you see in him as you
read the epistles.
Read Colossians chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3,
and you have three flowers, displays of a
resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.
He's not Jesus of Nazareth, dear younger believer.
Don't treat him that way.
Sometimes people will say that, well, you know,
Jesus is just a humble little man amongst
us after all.
And so it doesn't really matter whether we're
dressed to suit his presence or not.
He's just a nonsense, brethren.
He is this golden lampstand in all the
majesty of his glory.
He is in our midst.
He is Lord.
He is the majesty of the heavens.
He is in the power of resurrection life.
In him is the bud.
Life is in him.
In him is the flower, the display of
how he acts and moves and responds from
heaven to God and to his people.
And then he is the almond.
Now the almond is communicative because you take
the almond and you plant it and you'll
get another one just like him.
That's what the promise is.
That's what we have in our blessed Lord.
Now that's the background of the authority of
his word.
A resurrected Lord Jesus Christ is the background
and foundation for the authority of his presence
and his word in the midst of his
people, because Israel was gathered always around that
tent, right in their midst, and there settled
that cloud over the ark and those three
pieces of furniture representing the presence of Jehovah
in the midst of his people.
Let me notice with you the six branches.
As I mentioned to you, there are different
characters of books that are found in your
Bible.
And as we look at the character of
them, the first one we're going to see,
of course, is there are prophetic books.
And then there are poetic books, such as
Psalms and Proverbs and actually even Isaiah is
all written in prose.
Very beautiful piece of work.
But there are poetic books, and there are
historical books, and there are doctrinal books as
well.
And then there are synoptic books.
And as we look into each character of
these books, each one of them is going
to give to us a reason for the
Lord Jesus, going to display him even in
the poetic books.
Beautiful.
As we read through the Psalms, Psalm 1
is the Lord Jesus.
Psalm 150, the last one, says, praise him.
Hallelujah.
Let heaven and earth praise him.
So from one to the end, it's the
Lord Jesus.
Look in the book of Job, which is
a poetic book, and again we hear from
the lips of that man what he received
in Revelation.
I know that my Redeemer liveth.
Amazing.
I shall stand with him in the latter
day in the flesh.
I shall see him.
Marvelous revelation.
Each of those characteristics of books.
So when you are studying your Bible, whatever
character of book that you are reading, remember
that book is given primarily to show the
glory of the Lord Jesus.
Even the book of Chronicles, as we're hearing,
and the book of Kings, and the book
of Samuel, you say, well what is there
about the Lord Jesus and all those kings
forever fighting each other?
It all depends on the relationship to two
kings, David and Solomon.
That's the whole thing.
Did they walk according to David?
Did they follow the wisdom of Solomon?
Some did, some didn't.
That's the whole secret.
That's what's being shown to you.
The results of recognizing the Lord Jesus and
submission to him and his word.
The results of pro or con in the
life of those followers.
So we have those beautiful branches and we
see, yes, I'm sorry, I thought I had
to sit down but not quite.
Put up with me just a few more
minutes.
I want to notice with you now not
only those beautiful branches relative to their the
character of them being a part of the
lampstand, but they are adorned the same way
as the lampstand.
There's the evidence of life here, and that
is another thing that you must keep together
when you're studying your Bible, dear younger believer.
Remember it's the Lord Jesus and the life
he communicates to you and to me.
That's the whole purpose of it.
That's testimony.
The only thing the world is going to
see of the Lord Jesus today is in
you and in me.
Oh may God help us to walk humbly
in his presence, to see the glory of
his beauty, to honor him as we come
into his presence.
But let me note with you as well
that we have here the seven lamps that
are on the top of them.
Each one of these branches on top of
the bowl there was a lamp, and each
of those lamps had oil in it and
a wick.
And twice a day the high priest and
a priest came into that holy place with
a little reservoir of oil.
The priest carried the oil and the snuffers,
but the high priest did the work.
The high priest refilled the oil and he
snuffed the wicks.
That's very, very helpful brethren.
It's good to see that when we're handling
divine truth.
Let me notice it with you.
The oil is a type of the person
of the Holy Spirit, and the seven lamps
are what you read of in Revelation chapter
1.
It speaks about the seven spirits of God
before the throne.
Now there are not seven spirits, there are
only one.
But it's speaking of the perfection of the
fullness of his work.
The Holy Spirit of God is all sufficient
as the interpreter of his own word, and
that's what these lamps are.
But what the priest had to do was
two things.
What the people had to do in relation
to this lampstand brethren, this is our responsibility
now.
We know the Lord's presence is in our
midst.
We come and we sit before him.
We wish to act in keeping with the
glory of his presence and handle his word,
even as others are reading it.
And as you are reading it, it's giving
honor unto him.
It's complimenting him by your looking at it,
reading it, embracing it, letting it embrace you.
And notice, that's the work of the Spirit
of God that we have to cultivate at
home and bring it with us.
That's what the priest does.
The people beat out the oil.
You see, that's your work and mine at
home beloved, being in submission to the person
who indwells us, the Holy Spirit of God.
He's going to make us conscious of things
that are not pleasing to him, and we
must set them right with our Father.
He's going to remind us of things we
forgot to do and meant to do and
get busy and do it.
See, that's the Holy Spirit, that's beating out
the oil, submissiveness to that divine person.
And God's going to say to us, don't
grieve the Holy Spirit and don't quench that
Holy Spirit.
See, quenching him is procrastination, stopping it and
putting it off.
And grieving him is disobeying him.
So we have to set that right at
home.
And the priest then brings it and gives
it to the high priest, the person of
the Lord Jesus.
And he takes your spirit and he brings
that spirit of submission which you have cultivated,
set things right at home, and you're bringing
it to the meeting.
You come with the right spirit.
That's what helps to keep the light burning,
submission to the Holy Spirit.
It keeps the light bright, brethren.
But there's one other thing and that's the
wick.
Now, that's the person that's going to handle
the work.
You see, without the wick, there'd be no
light.
We all know that.
Just the oil would be there, but the
light would go down.
It would quit.
It requires a wick.
That wick is the dispensable part.
The only dispensable part of the whole lampstand
is the wick.
But it's the high priest who snuffs that
wick.
Sisters or brethren, we come on the Lord's
Day morning to remember him.
I'd like to come with a spirit that
has been set right first so that there
will be the light of his word honored
as we come with worshiping spirits.
We come to repeat his word silently or
audibly, sisters or brethren, and the Spirit of
God, he gives to us that privilege, giving
us his word, but it is the Lord
Jesus that snuffs the wick.
And could I say this kindly too, brethren,
keeping with what my beloved brethren have been
bringing before us, always remember, you don't snuff
the wick.
The Lord does that.
You just supply the snuffers.
See, that's the idea of giving the teaching.
It's not you applying it.
It's the Spirit applying it.
Don't force it.
Just give it.
That's the snuffers.
And the high priest, he applies it.
Marvelous ministry of the Lord Jesus and the
lampstand.
But let me note with you in closing,
as we have come time almost for our
break, that I want you to notice how
the Lord Jesus and his word are one
in the Gospels.
Because he is in our midst, beloved, that
beautiful piece of furniture is the person of
our Lord Jesus in all the wonder of
his glory and of his authority.
And the light is burning 24 hours a
day.
There is no meeting that should not come
under the direction of the wisdom and the
light of that blessed lampstand, this precious book,
giving the Lord Jesus his rightful honor.
That's the work of the six branches, where
I wish to close and notice with you.
Six branches throwing light on him.
When I turn to the to the the
Gospels, which are one of the sets of
the branches that throw light on the Lord
Jesus, let me point out to you, dear
younger brother and dear younger sister, in each
gospel there is the subject of worship.
And I'm just taking up that one subject
briefly because the lampstand is there when the
priest takes those little spoons of incense off
of the table.
There's a border around the table and it
has six spoons or 12 spoons, and he
takes those 12 spoons over to the little
altar and he empties them out on that
little piece of fire that's there on that
altar and it fills that place.
You know, beloved brethren, that's why I am
thankful when my beloved brethren rise on the
Lord's Day morning to give praise to the
Lord Jesus.
I'm glad to be able to say amen,
amen.
That's acknowledging the perfume.
That's not plain politics.
Whatever you do, never bring politics into the
assembly.
I heard just the other day, it kind
of made me chuckle, one of the believers
was telling me about their little grandchild and
he's talking about his salvation.
He said he got touched by that word
in Luke 18, you know, where the publican
came up to the temple and he said,
God be merciful to me, a publican, and
he just had it turned a little bit.
He said, the Lord said to the republicans,
you're just a sinner.
Anyway, I don't know what he'd say to
the democrats, but that's what he said to
the republicans anyway, you're just a sinner.
But dear brethren, we want to be careful,
of course, but we want to be able
to see the value of that precious word
and its application towards us as we notice
in Matthew's gospel.
When you come from the beginning of Matthew,
you find God worshiping his son and he
sends men, Gentiles with gold and frankincense and
myrrh, to give to his son as a
little babe.
He's worshiping.
When I come to the last chapter of
Matthew, the Lord Jesus is standing before his
disciples as King, as Lord, and it says,
and they worshiped him.
So you see, Matthew is going to unfold
for you characteristics of the Lord Jesus that
should make you burst out with praise.
Beautiful.
God help you to find them, underline them,
take your highlighter, underline the beauties of that
blessed one that make the disciples worship him.
When I turn to Mark's gospel, I find
in chapter one, the Lord Jesus is a
servant, Jehovah's servant.
Is anyone worshiping him?
No, not in chapter one.
It's not until you come to the last
two chapters of Mark, you're going to find
worshipers, and it's those same men, and they're
gathered around the Lord Jesus, and such is
their character of praise and worship.
He is now going to commission them.
That's the result of worship.
Go ye into all the world and preach
the gospel.
He's commissioning them, and I can say this
from my heart, beloved, Iowa needs some young
men who don't have an itch to preach,
but are commissioned by the Lord, and the
oversight are the men who will guide you.
Look to them.
Don't tell them.
Look to them for guidance.
Be submissive.
That's the work of Mark.
When I come to Luke's gospel, again, I
find not only worship, and not only commission,
but I find the Lord Jesus, right from
the beginning, says, Dear Luke, I want to
tell you the things which are surely believed
amongst us, and as I go through John's
gospel, you know what he's going to underline?
He's going to underline the nature, and as
well, the character of ministry of the Lord
Jesus as a man.
This is the kind of man you should
be, Theophilus.
This is the kind of man I want
to be, says Luke the physician.
This is the kind of man that you're
going to find in the last chapter.
Our hearts burned within us while he talked
with us, by the way.
God make my heart burn just to talk
with him.
That's what you'll find in this beautiful lampstand,
in that branch, and when you come to
John's gospel, oh, how beautiful.
Throughout the whole gospel of John, there's only
two chapters in which the Lord Jesus does
not talk about his Father.
He's always talking to heaven.
He's always showing to us an intimacy, and
a loveliness, and a manifestation of the results
of communing with your Father.
Oh, dear brother, dear sister, not only do
we say keep short accounts with God, that
means very simply, every time you're made sensitive
of sin, confess it, call it what it
is, and get rid of it, but keep
looking into the face of your Father.
He loves you.
He will support you in times of trial
of deep tears, or times of testing youth
or older ones, and in times of testimony,
and that's how John ends.
How does John end?
A man that was weeping because he failed
his Lord, and the Lord restores him, and
he says, feed my sheep.
That's the lampstand, brother.
He is in our midst.
May we honor him.
May we walk in the light of the
glory of that blessed presence for his name's
sake.