We're coming to John chapter fifteen again this
evening, John fifteen, and we're at the latter
part of the chapter.
Trying to get right through this evening, from
verse nine, right through to the end of
verse twenty-seven, right to the end of
the chapter, from nine to twenty-seven.
And in these verses, I want to underline
four things for you.
The first one, I want to talk about
the believer's prospect as he walks in fellowship
with the true vine.
And the prospect is this, that your joy
might be full.
You see, if we can really walk this
walk of faith in full fellowship with him
who is our all-sufficiency, then the production
can be fullness of joy at times.
We can get right on to the heights.
The Lord Jesus is saying in this wonderful
discourse that your joy might be full.
And that's the believer's prospect as he walks
in fellowship with him who is his all
-sufficiency.
And then I want to touch on the
believer's position as he works.
You see, not only are we the servants
of the Lord, but the Lord desires that
we should come much closer.
Ye are my friends.
This is really the position as we walk
in that corner of the vineyard where the
Lord has placed us.
And then there's a wonderful part at the
end of this chapter, the believer's place in
the world.
Why, we've been chosen out of the world,
we're in it, all right, but we're not
off it.
And there's tremendous teaching here about the believer
and his place in the world.
And then the chapter finishes with the believer's
power as he witnesses.
Now, these are so much linked together that
one couldn't dare to separate them, and we
must take them all this evening.
The believer's prospect as he walks, the believer's
position as he works, the believer's place in
the world, and the believer's power as he
witnesses.
A very precious portion this evening.
Now, we're starting right back there at verse
9.
I think that you'll remember this, that in
chapter 14, our Lord Jesus Christ said to
his disciples in verse 27, A peace I
leave with you.
And then you remember how he emphasized, My
peace I give unto you.
You see, that's something that belongs to the
believer.
His mind ought to be filled with peace.
Yes, peace that partakes all understanding.
You remember how I differentiated between these two?
It has peace.
That was the subject of peace, of course,
the truth about peace.
That was peace with God.
That's peace that came by the blood of
the cross.
But then the other, My peace, is the
peace of God.
And this belongs to every blood-bought believer.
This is good if you go in for
it.
You ought to have your mind filled with
peace.
And now he's saying in this chapter, you
ought to have your soul filled with joy.
And the pathway to the mind filled with
peace and the soul filled with joy is
to have your heart filled with love.
Because the three are very intimately connected right
through the scriptures.
Love, joy, peace.
But the believer ought to have his mind
filled with peace, and he ought to have
his soul filled with joy, and the way
to it is to get your heart filled
with love.
Now you watch the Lord leading you into
this.
He's talking about his love here in verse
9.
I think you're bound to get this in
a glance, that the Father's love for Christ
was unchanging love.
You'd like to come around afterwards and tell
me that it changed at any time.
Well, that's the kind of love that Christ
has for you.
Unchanging love.
And the Father's love for Christ was unending
love.
I'm loved this evening with the very same
kind of love of the Father loves the
Son, whom the Son loves me.
And that's unending.
It will never end.
It's true to think I'm loved with everlasting
love, yet it's unending and it's unchanging.
And I want to say this, it's unparalleled.
There is no love like the love of
Jesus.
And I could go on like that forever
so long, but I'm only starting you thinking.
You're looking now at the measurement of Christ's
love, and it's so great.
Ah, yes, it's part of knowledge.
It will never be able to plumb the
depth, or scale the height, or length, or
breadth of the love of Christ.
But he's just telling you, as the Father
hath loved me, so have I loved you.
That's the measurement of his love, and it's
so great.
Then he quickly said behind that, continue ye
in my love.
And that's the encouragement, and it was so
sincere.
You know, I think that this is what
was happening.
You have these disciples standing around him.
They were marching, remember, to Gethsemane at this
time.
And I feel that as they strolled along
in the shadows that evening to Gethsemane, that
he might have stopped and said, as the
Father hath loved me, so have I loved
you, spite of what you are.
And then he makes a plea to them,
continue ye in my love.
Or the word that's used there, that word
continue, is the word that we have been
studying right down the chapter.
It's the word abide.
And it's the very same Greek word too.
It's the word abide.
Because he's been teaching them what abiding meant,
and he's just showing them the full-on
vision of the wonderful ocean of his love.
And he says, look, abide in it.
No matter how dark the day may get,
never mind about the problems and the loss
and the disappointment.
Just get the hold of this, that he
really loves you, and get into it.
And he who loves you won't cause you
a needless fear.
He wants you now.
You want to abide there.
That's what he said to them.
And he's saying that now to you.
And when your dark days come, and the
storm is battering upon you, and the boat
is almost filled with water, and you feel
the whole things at an end, and you
stand at which end corner, will you remember
this, that he pleaded with you, he pleaded
with you, abide in my love.
Remember that.
That's the encouragement that's here.
And then he went on further, verse 9
again, As the Father hath loved me, so
have I loved you.
Continue ye in my love.
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide
in my love.
And that was an announcement that was perfectly
clear.
You know, if you're really going to know
something of the wonder and the thrill of
the might and depth and length and breadth
of this love, let me tell you this,
you'll have to be an obedient believer.
My dear friends, there's no getting out of
this.
This is the Lord walking down the road
and he's talking to them.
As the Father hath loved me, so have
I loved you.
Now abide in this love.
If ye keep my commandments, you'll be found
in the very center of this love, abiding.
And if you don't, you won't.
My, you'll miss something.
You'll never get the thrill of it.
Don't tell me that the people who can
throw the book below their feet and wipe
their feet on it and disobey his commandments,
and one of them is believer's baptism.
I mean, you don't like that.
You love to shout about potpourri, don't you?
Well, you'll need to learn to obey the
book too, because there's no use for you
shouting about potpourri when you're stuck in it.
So there's not.
You would need to get away from it,
because, mind you, sprinkling was never found in
this book.
It came from pagan Rome, and you would
need to get away from it.
There's no use for shouting, you know.
You need to obey God's words.
If ye keep my commandments, said Christ.
You hear that?
That announcement is absolutely clear.
The Lord Jesus is talking.
Now go on again.
First line of, the Father hath loved me,
so have I loved you.
That's the measurement.
Continue ye in my love.
That's the encouragement.
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide
in my love, even as I have kept
my Father's commandments and abide in his love.
That's the announcement.
And then he comes to the point, you
see.
These things have I spoken unto you, that
my joy might remain in you, and that
your joy might be full.
That's the enrichment, you know.
You know, I think this is a lovely
teaching.
Oh, how wonderful our Lord was.
He's walking down this dark road to Gethsemane,
and the gates are looming far ahead there,
and he knows everything that's going to happen,
and how very tender he was with all
these disciples.
He's trying to let them see how much
he loves them, and he's trying to encourage
them to enter into the very depths of
that love and let it protect them in
the days to come.
And he's showing them how they can enter
in, only obey my commandments.
And then he says, if ye do, you
know, your joy.
You wouldn't tell me that you could know
the fullness of joy while you're tearing up
God's Word, would you?
You couldn't bluff me like that.
You men and women in this meeting who
are disobeying God's Word every day you live,
you have never really tested the fullness of
joy.
And you won't, you know.
You can fiddle around with closing your eyes
in the back room and giving yourself to
God a thousand times every day and calling
it holiness and second blessing and sanctification, but
until you come to obey God's Word, that's
what Christ's teaching you.
My, I'd be amused at all the talk
sometimes when the Lord Jesus said, sanctify them
through thy truth.
If you learn to obey, you'll very soon
find that your heart will be bubbling over,
and like the psalmist you'll be able to
say, my God, runneth over by when you
obey.
Obedience, you know, is better than sacrifice.
This is good teaching, this here.
Now, watch it go still further.
This is my commandment, that ye love one
another, and I have loved you.
Now, you saw the measurement, didn't you?
And you saw the encouragement, and you saw
the announcement, and you saw the enrichment.
Now, this is the commandment.
Now, this is very humbling.
You know, this really struck me as I
got down to think about it, that the
Lord Jesus coming down this road with an
arm round this woman, walking slowly and expounding
these wonderful things to them, he said, this
is my commandment.
I think that he had to command us
to obey.
How humbling that is.
You know, he must have really known what
we were made of, why we talk behind
each other's back, and we criticize, and we
pull apart, and we do so many things
we should never do to another brother, that
the Lord has to command us.
He's got the same cross, washed in the
same blood, going to the same glory, in
the same body.
We have to be commanded, love one another.
How humbling this is.
See that wee finger there, when it gets
hurt, that one there ups it up, because
it's in the same body.
But it doesn't happen with a believer, you
know.
My, when a wee finger gets hurt, the
other boys all trample on it.
How humbling this is.
And there's none of us escaping this, you
know.
You have to command me.
Let's go on.
You can hardly face the truth, can you?
Now, you're getting this, aren't you?
As the Father hath loved me, so have
I loved you.
That's the measurement.
Oh, what wonderful love that is.
You should meditate on that sometime.
Then here's the encouragement, continue ye in my
love, abide there.
And then here is the announcement, if ye
keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my
love.
Then here is the enrichment, these things have
I spoken unto you, that your joy might
be fulfilled.
And then here is the commandment, that ye
love one another as I have loved you.
And then here's the fulfillment, greater love hath
no man amiss, that a man lay down
his life for his friends.
We're a long way from that, aren't we?
I often wonder, would we really lay down
our life for one another?
You see, I believe that he was looking
at these disciples here, and he can see
them, the finished article.
His friends, not so much sinners, you know,
this time.
His friends, it's like giving himself with a
catch.
Oh, I know he died for sinners, I
know that.
I know he died for the ungodly, of
course I do.
But I know he looked at us as
friends.
He gave his life for us.
Don't forget that.
He gave himself for
us.
They need life from the death of Christ
first.
You begin at the cross, dear.
Not an example from the life of Christ
that you need.
If life from the death of Christ you
need, you need to get life first.
Then you can follow after the footsteps, but
not until you get life.
And then there are great examples.
So you can trace this, can't you?
The prospect before every believer walking with the
Lord and abiding in his love is this,
that you might be filled with joy.
What a lovely one.
Now, the moment that he touched friends, he
took up the subject again.
That's where it changes, you see.
And that's why I said they're all connected.
He looked at them and he said, ye
are my friends.
That's very lovely, you know.
You know, when a man reaches, shall we
say, the highest peak in the nation, supposing
he comes right up to be the prime
minister, and he looks down at some common
workman that he went to school with, and
he acknowledges, this is my friend.
You know, it's a wonderful thing.
Of course, if the common workman looked round
the other way and said, he's my friend,
that's not what is meant here.
That may even be indigence, or conceit.
But when it comes from the up-down,
it's the proper way.
I preached at a very large conference once,
in Scotland, with about four thousand people there,
and about ten great dignitaries on the platform.
And just before I went forward to preach,
the minister of labour here in the north
of Ireland was on the platform, Major Neill.
And he just got up and went forward
to the rostrum and he said, ladies and
gentlemen, I'm the minister of labour in Northern
Ireland's parliament, and this man is my friend.
I thought I was very nice of him,
he didn't need to do it.
And when he sat down, the minister of
health now, who's W.
Morgan, he just got up behind him and
said, ladies and gentlemen, I'm the minister of
health in Northern Ireland, and this man is
my friend.
I could hardly open my mouth for tears.
I'm just a wee fella from the back
street, but he is two of the heads
of our government.
And how very humble of them to acknowledge
this.
But when the Lord Jesus looks at me
and says, you're my friend, oh, how wonderful
it is.
Can you see it now?
But you aren't, dear, you're just a woman
from the back street, aren't you?
Well, the blessed Lord Jesus Christ, the King
of kings and Lord of lords, is looking
into your face now and saying, you are
my
friend.
He will always be your friend.
He will stand by you through thick and
thin.
And you know, your friends are privileged people,
because they get to know all the secrets
and all the burdens and everything that goes
on in the inner life.
You know, you don't keep secrets back from
your friends.
Abraham was called the friend of God.
And remember, he's the only Old Testament character
who was called the friend of God.
And when God determined to blot out Sodom
and Gomorrah, you know, it seemed that God
had to stop on the brow of the
hill and say, shall I keep this from
Abraham, my friend?
And he couldn't keep it from him.
He had to tell him.
And he told him the night before.
He told him what he was going to
do.
You see, if you're really a friend, you
get the secret of the Lord.
But wait a minute, don't run away too
quick.
There's something more here.
Read the whole text.
I wouldn't like to break it like that.
Verse 14, Ye are my friends, if ye
do whatsoever I command you.
Remember, that friendship is definitely linked with lordship.
Oh, you just can't be called a friend
if you're not prepared to own them with
your life.
You must see that.
You know, so many people think they can
just do as they like and link their
arm in the arm of the Lord.
Well, you just can't.
You won't be walking with them at all.
You'll be walking afar off.
Yes, ye are my friends, and that's worth
going in for, if ye do listen to
it whatsoever.
And don't start arguing with me.
It'll leave you standing at the corner where
you're arguing.
Don't start arguing.
Friendship is definitely linked with lordship.
Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever
I command you.
Then he gets into the depth, henceforth I
call you not servants, for the servant knoweth
not what his lord doeth, but I have
called you friends.
You see, for all things that I have
heard of my Father I have made known
unto you.
You know, it's wonderful what he really says,
this friend.
And you know, if you really want to
know the secret of the Lord, you know,
you'll have to bow down low in the
dust, and crown him definitely Lord of all,
and be prepared to promptly obey his word
when he speaks.
And he'll test you out, you know.
You just don't come talking and saying, Lord,
Lord.
Because you know, so many draw an eye
unto him with their lips, but their hearts
are far from him.
And he'll test you.
And you know, if you're really prepared to
crown him as Lord of your life, and
do whatsoever he says unto you, whatsoever he
says unto you, doeth, then I'll tell you
this, you'll get to know a whole lot
of things that this poor old world never
knows.
You know, those saints are special nature.
They were only a week or two saved
when Paul penned the letter back.
And here's what he penned in it, Thou
knowest perfectly, the babes in Christ, what did
they know perfectly, Thou knowest perfectly that the
day of the Lord shall come as a
thief in the night.
For when the worldlings say, Peace and safety,
then sudden destruction cometh upon them, and they
shall not escape.
And the babes in Christ knew it.
You'll get to know a whole lot of
wee things.
Yes?
You'll need to live with the Lord.
Friendship is linked with lordship.
And then lordship is linked with fellowship.
You see, you get in close by being
obedient to his words.
And in that close place he calls you
friends, and he treats you as friends.
And he begins to tell you things that
are in the heart of all power.
Now that's fellowship.
And I want you to notice here that
there's something more attached to this.
See verse fourteen again, Ye are my friends,
if ye do whatsoever I command you.
Henceforth I call you not serpents, for the
serpent knoweth not what his Lord doeth.
But I have called you friends for all
things that I have heard of my Father
I have made known unto you.
Ye have not chosen me.
I think that the real teaching here is
this, you know.
Ye have not chosen me as a friend.
But I have chosen you.
And that goes on down through every department.
You know, they were not only chosen as
friends, not only chosen as serpents, not only
chosen as vessels, as apostles.
How they were the chosen, few, eleven apostles
walking down the road.
He gave them the niche.
Yes, you see this.
Friendship and lordship and fellowship and apostleship are
all wonderfully connected here.
Wonderfully connected are the ideas that you are
very pleased in the body and you are
very powerful for the throne.
All comes because I'm your friend and you're
mine.
You see, friends, here is how he ended
this.
You can hardly see the connection unless you
look out of sight.
Verse sixteen, Ye have not chosen me but
I have chosen you and ordained you that
ye should go and bring forth fruit and
that your fruit should remain that whatsoever ye
shall ask of the Father in my name
he may give it you.
Did you get the whole of this?
Look, their portion and their position and their
power before the throne of God is all
connected with this friendship that comes because of
lordship.
Do you want to know how to pray
to get answers?
Well, I'll very soon tell you.
Here it says in the words of God,
If our heart condemns us not, then every
confidence before God and whatsoever we ask of
him we receive because we keep his commandments
and do those things which are pleasing in
the sight.
Well, that's it.
You see, confidence is linked with conduct and
dual conduct is when you keep his commandments
and do those things which are pleasing in
his sight and when you do it, that's
lordship.
That brings you into the place of friendship
and that brings you into the place of
fellowship where you can go right through and
your power to ask to his holy name
and you'll say, I'm lovely, you know, to
be a friend of the king.
All right, now we come to something that's
still more difficult.
Then that little paragraph with the very same
phrase, These things I command you.
This love, this love for each other and
this love for him is the foundation that
takes us into the fullness of joy and
by when we are confessed as friends of
the king.
Now look at how he begins verse 18,
If the world hate you, ye know that
it hated me before it hated you.
If ye were of the world, the world
would love his own, but because ye are
not of the world, but I have chosen
you out of the world, therefore the world
hates you.
Remember the word that I said unto you,
The serpent is not greater than his logs.
If they have persecuted me, they will also
persecute you.
If they have kept my saying, they will
keep yours also.
But all these things will they do unto
you for my name's sake, because they know
not him that sent me.
If I had not come and spoken unto
them, they had not had sin, but now
they have no cloak for the sin.
He that hates me hates my father also.
If I had not done among them the
works which none other man did, they had
not had sin, but now have they both
seen and hated both me and my father.
Now, this cometh to pass that the word
might be fulfilled that is written in the
law.
They hated me without a cause.
And this is a tremendous teaching.
It's touching the believer's place in the world.
You see, believers are chosen people, and on
this occasion, watch, I have chosen you out
of the world.
Verse 19, you see, it is quite true
that we are in the world tonight, but
we are not offered.
It is quite true that many of you
have to mix every day with worldlings, but
you don't need to do as the worldlings
do, you know.
You see, you are a peculiar people.
You are in it, but not off it.
But let me tell you this, if you
live in this peculiar place, you'll be persecuted.
That's why you'll be persecuted, because you just
live in this peculiar place.
You're a persecution.
That's what the Master was telling me.
Yes, but I want you to notice more.
You see, this people that's chosen out of
the world, he said in verse 21, but
all these things will they do unto you
for my name's sake.
You see, this is the professing people.
You know what they did to the Lord?
Watch the two things.
Did you notice it?
Verse 22, had I not come unspoken unto
them.
See, verse 24, had I not done among
them the works.
You see, you must be a professing peculiar
person.
Yes, your works and your works must magnify
Him.
And if they do, you'll get persecuted.
You just go and talk about Christ tomorrow.
You just live for Christ tomorrow.
You just bring a message and you just
do for the works.
You'll find you're in the very same nexus
He was in.
You see, we're a peculiar people and we're
a professing people.
My, when you start to talk about the
Lord leading you, you know, to some people,
they just think you're mad.
And when you go on in this, they
would persecute you for it.
But you know, we want to be more
than just a peculiar professing.
There must be a production from our lives.
And the only thing that will glorify God
is the production of the fruit of the
vine, which is Christ.
And you know, when you begin to let
this world see something of the peculiar person
you are, and the profession you make, and
the production you bring forth, you're going to
be persecuted.
All that will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution with the plain teaching of
God's Word.
Oh, you see, this was bound to bear
a mark on these boys.
I want you to see them.
It was all right while he put his
arms round them and talked about being filled
with peace, and being filled with love, and
being filled with joy, and you're my friends,
but here's a new bit.
Minor hatred and persecution waiting for you round
the corner that you have in this world.
And now he comes to the real teaching.
That's why I couldn't break it.
You see, there's a but there, isn't there?
Verse twenty-six.
But, but, when the comforter is come, you
see, I want you to get a hold
of that.
This is very rich.
You see, here they're standing, just eleven, common,
ordinary, five-eighths, following the Master, and he's
about to leave them, and he told them
that he was the all-sufficiency at the
beginning of this chapter, and he told them
that they could get fullness of peace for
their minds, and fullness of joy for their
souls, and fullness of love for their hearts.
How is this to be got by the
power of the comforter?
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace.
Do not ask to stir it up yet.
How are we going to enter into the
depths of fellowship and lordship until we get
the secret of the Lord by the Holy
Ghost?
I think they might have turned around and
said, Lord, Lord, how are we going to
face the world?
How are we going to face this persecution?
How are we going to face the hatred
of men by the power of the Holy
Ghost?
You see the importance now of being filled
with the Spirit, because it will produce love,
joy, peace.
It will bring you into the near peace
and fellowship, where you can get answers to
prayer, and it will make you more than
conqueror even in the evil day.
But watch, there's something more here.
First of all, you see the comforter here,
don't you?
There's a lovely little phrase, verse twenty-six,
But when the comforter is come, whom I
will send unto you from the Father.
No, the comforter is he.
I want you to get the hold of
this, this is very wonderful.
He's walking down the slope through Gethsemane, isn't
he?
And horrible, dreadful Gethsemane lies ahead there.
And just a little bit from that is
Golgotha, where they stripped the Lord from his
back and ripped his back into furrows, where
they pulled the hairs from his cheeks and
crushed the thorns upon his brow.
And a little bit further on is Golgotha.
Gethsemane, Golgotha, Golgotha.
He's not worried.
He says, I'll do right through it, you
know, and back home, and send the comforter.
And the old modernists who write in this
city of Belfast of ours and say that
when he was in Gethsemane he didn't know
where he was and was confused, you just
take them back a step or two and
let them know.
But he talks about sending the Holy Ghost
from the Father before he ever enters Gethsemane.
Of course they run past these places.
This is the conqueror talking.
He's not worried, you know.
He's not trembling.
He's almost at the gate of Gethsemane.
But he says, I'll conquer this thing.
I'll send the comforter.
My, this is the victory.
What you don't only see is victory in
this phrase.
I think you see more.
Have a look back at chapter fourteen and
twenty-six.
Chapter fourteen, twenty-six, speaking of the same
event, but the comforter, which is the Holy
Ghost, whom the Father will send.
In my name.
Ah, did you see that?
You see, way back there in fourteen, it
was the Father who was sending the comforter.
But that's so late for me to understand
really who he was.
At the end of fifteen he said, I
will send.
So that you don't only see the victory,
you see the equality of the blessed Lord
with the Father and the whole Trinity is
appearing on the stage, the Son and Holy
Ghost.
He said, I'll send.
So that here you see the victory and
the unity and the equality and the deity
of our Lord Jesus.
How much is in that wonderful phrase?
But there's a little bit more here.
Yes, the comforter is here and the conqueror
is here.
When the comforter has come, whom I will
send unto you from the Father, even the
Spirit of truth.
You see, he changes that.
Yes, the comforter is one title, because that's
how he comes to us, to walk with
us down through this horrible, dreadful pathway of
persecution and hatred that will come to you
from the world if you really live as
a peculiar, professing, producing person.
Yes, he'll come to you as a comforter.
But you know, there's a little bit more
than that.
He'll come to you as the Spirit of
truth.
Oh, how I approve this.
Why, here I am tonight and here you
are.
My, what a crowd sitting round the Word
of God, listening to a common five-eighth
from a back street.
Oh, yes.
No scholar, of course not.
No, but one who sat at the feet
of Jesus and was taught by the Spirit
of truth.
Who knows all truth?
Oh, I'd just lay on the hills and
let them fill my soul with truth.
It's been lovely to do it, too.
And I shall do it for all eternity.
You know, when I get up there, I'm
only practicing now.
Ah, here's the certifier.
He can tell you what's what and what's
not what.
Yes, he's here.
Then I want you to notice this.
He shall amaze.
Oh, what a phrase that is.
You know, he's the champion of the Lord.
You see that little phrase, just five words?
It begins with he, doesn't it?
Well, it ends with me.
And I'll tell you this, young people, if
you want to know when the Holy Ghost
is really working in your life, whatever begins
with he, it will end with Christ.
Because he is come to certify of Christ.
When the Holy Ghost is working in the
beginning, Christ is exalted.
Whatever begins with he, it will end with
Christ.
See that book?
That book began with he.
The Holy Ghost, he thought of, is seen
in the book.
To him gave all the prophets witness.
Every type and shadow and parallel and picture
and promise and prophecy of the Old Testament
exalts the Lord.
Now, see my Christian life.
Who began this work in me?
If the Holy Ghost came and convicted of
my deep dire death with me, what will
the finished article be like?
I'll be like Christ.
See this big world of ours.
Yes, who brought it into being?
The Spirit of God brewed it.
Listen to this.
Who will be glorified on every weave of
the sea and on every inch of the
land?
The whole world will be full of the
glory of the Lord.
Whatever begins with the Holy Ghost will end
with the glorifying of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I don't know where you are.
That's the champion.
But look at this.
The children are here.
Yes, the comforter is here.
Yes, the conqueror is here.
Yes, the certifier is here.
Yes, the champion is here.
And ye also shall bear witness.
All the children are here.
You know, isn't it lovely that the great
eternal God has so planned that we who
have come as repentant sinners to the cross
and accepted his Son as our own and
personal Saviour, that we should be indwelt by
the Holy Ghost, that we too should be
witnesses of Christ.
Now, ye also.
Ye also.
For the Holy Ghost didn't come to do
it without you.
He came to do it through you.
Yes, watch this wee bit.
Ye also shall be witnesses.
That's what you are, you know, that you're
a witness, witness for Christ.
I think I said to this meeting once
that I saw a great cartoon in an
American paper once, of about a hundred trying
to get onto the bus at the same
time.
No queue.
And in the midst of the bus, holding
up his Bible and sticking his umbrella down
somebody's butt was an old minister.
And it said onto the cartoon, even getting
onto a bus, thou art a witness for
Christ.
And you know, once when one of the
greatest translators this world ever had was working
on the translation of the Scriptures in China,
in a part of China that he didn't
thoroughly understand the language, and he had to
get a great linguist from the Chinese to
help him.
And he said, I felt that I could
never speak to this man about Christ.
But as we went through the Gospels and
he told me words to put in, I
felt that he must be seeing something of
the beauty of the Lord.
And when we had the work completed, well,
I could let him go.
I thought I should say something to him.
He said, would you not like to be
a Christian?
He said, yes, as I went through this
wonderful life of your wonderful Lord, I feel
every day that I would love to be
a Christian, if I could only see one.
He said, but I'm not.
Oh no, sir.
He said, in between when we took our
lunch, you were butt-biting other believers away
on the hill.
And you were saying things about others who
profess to know this Lord.
And you've done so much that I feel
that you're not a Christian.
And the poor translator was broken down, and
got down on his knees before the man
and begged God to forgive him for the
way he had acted, and the poor miserable
light he'd been shining, that he hadn't been
witnessing for the Lord at all.
And he did it so humbly and so
completely that the man beside him had laughed,
saying, you're acting like a Christian.
Never mind about the Baptist just now.
You're not a witness for the Baptist.
You're a witness for Christ.
My two sons are here.
I live with them.
I need to be a witness for Christ
in them.
Your children here.
Your employer here.
Your master here.
You act in the business like Christ.
You're a witness.
Let me tell you this.
You're only brethren from the early dawn of
the day to the last ray of light
at night.
You're controlled by the Holy Ghost.
The home of Israel.
Let's just be still now for a moment
or two.
Not saying any more tonight.
Dear Lord, we have walked that road to
get heavenly with thee this evening, and we
have heard thee saying that these things thou
hast said unto us that our joy might
be fulfilled.
And we know that you long to fill
our minds with peace and long to fill
our souls with joy.
But, O Lord, you must fill our hearts
with love.
This love is shed abroad in our hearts
by the Holy Ghost.
And, O Lord, if we love thee, we
will keep thy commandments.
And, Lord, when we keep thy commandments, thou
wilt say to us very tenderly, ye are
my friend.
And thou wilt take us into the secret
place, and thou wilt assure things to come,
and the secret of the Lord will be
with them that fear him.
And thou wilt allow us to come to
the throne, and we'll get answers to our
prayers.
But, O Lord, all this will only make
us stand out as peculiar, professing, producing people
of the world that hate thee will hit
us.
O Lord, we'll be persecuted, despised.
But the Counselor will be with us.
Yea, he shall lead us into all truth,
and we bless thee that he'll produce thee
in us.
Lord, every day we live, and everywhere we
go, and everything we do, we'll be witnesses
for days.
O Lord, plant this portion in our hearts
this evening, and then work it out in
our lives to the everlasting glory of thy
name.
Part us in thy fear, and with thy
touch, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.