I'd like for us this evening to look
into John's Gospel, Chapter 16, and
we'll read the first 13 verses.
That's the first 15 verses.
These things have I spoken unto you, that
ye should not be offended.
They shall put you out of the synagogue.
Here the time cometh that whosoever killeth you
will think that he doeth God's service.
And these things will they do unto you,
because they have not known the Father, nor
me.
But these things have I told you, that
when the time shall come ye may remember
that I told you of them.
And these things I said not unto you
at the beginning, because I was with you.
But now I go my way to him
that sent me.
And none of you asketh me where goeth
thou.
But because I have said these things unto
you, sorrow hath filled your heart.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.
It is expedient for you that I go
away.
For if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you.
But if I depart, I will send him
unto you.
And when he is come, he will reprove
the world of sin, of righteousness, and of
judgment.
Of sin, because they believe not on me.
Of righteousness, because I go to my Father,
and ye see me no more.
Of judgment, because the prince of this world
is done.
I have yet many things to say unto
you that ye cannot bear them last.
Nevertheless, when he, the Spirit of truth, is
come, he will guide you into all truth.
For he shall not speak of himself, but
whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak,
and he will show you things to come.
He shall glorify me, for he shall receive
of mine, and shall show it unto you.
All things that the Father hath of mine,
therefore said I, that he shall take of
mine, and shall show it unto you.
So, we bow again in the word of
prayer.
Our Father in Heaven, we bow before Thee,
grateful to Thee for the very pleasant day
that has been ours, as believers in the
Lord Jesus Christ.
The freedom of worship and praise of such
a wonderful Savior, for the fellowship of Thy
dear people, and for, again, the precourse of
Thy word, the spread of the gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ around the world.
Grant, we pray Thee, that many today have
blinded eyes open, and stony hearts melted in
Thy presence, and embrace the person of Your
wonderful Son, and today stand accepted in the
Beloved.
This evening, as we look to the word
of God, and again we pray Thee, give
to us that consciousness of Thy presence with
us in instruction, that instruction that will enrich
our lives and make the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ richer and more precious to
our souls.
For the view that we might serve better,
that each one of us might know him
better.
For this we ask, giving thanks in his
precious name.
Amen.
John 16 is one of those chapters that
devotes itself to the account of the very
private talks that the Lord Jesus had with
his own.
And there are some things here that I
think serve to enlighten us to what a
privileged day we live in.
I've heard people say very often, I would
have liked to have lived in those days
and been there with the Lord.
Well, I don't know about that.
I'm just thankful God has put me right
where I am in this day.
I believe this personally, that at Pentecost the
believers were given a new capability, a spiritual
discernment that they never possessed before, and certainly
powerful witness that they had never possessed before.
We have today that capability.
The last words that our Lord Jesus Christ
wrote, recorded in the Word of God for
us, is found in Acts chapter 1, verse
8, that you shall receive power after that
the Holy Ghost be come upon you.
You shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem,
in Judea, even in Samaria to the most
parts of the world.
Yes, living in this day of God's grace,
there is a privilege to be a witness
for the Lord Jesus Christ, empowered by the
Spirit of God, and to witness effectively for
the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we cast ourselves upon him and say,
Lord, I'm your servant, you just furnish the
power, you just give the enlightenment, I'll do
your bidding.
Indeed, that's a wonderful experience, to know that
you're in God's hands and he's using you
at his direction and at his will.
Indeed, that is an exciting experience.
But, when you look at these believers that
were right around the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ, there was an intimacy there and
social contact.
They lived together.
They ate the same food.
They were subjected to the same ridicule.
They were eyewitnesses of all of those experiences,
yet they really lacked an understanding and an
appreciation for all that would happen in that
wonderful divine life, enlightenment that you and I
have this evening.
I recall the account of John the Baptist,
and none greater than John the Baptist, according
to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Among the prophets that were mentioned, none greater
than John the Baptist.
And yet, from his prison cell, he sent
word by one of his disciples, a priest,
"'Lord, tell me, are you the one that
has been sent, or will there be another?'
Now, there seems to be just moments there
in which doubt filled the mind of John
the Baptist.
You see, he lacked that clear discernment and
understanding of the purposes and plans of God
for this wonderful divine life of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
And our Lord rewarded him by sending back
his answer, in that there was ample witness
that, indeed, he was the Son of God,
the Messiah, the promised one of Israel.
But, in a sense, in the hearts of
those disciples that bred confusion, after all, the
coming king was the threat of his kingdom.
And they were to be liberated and set
free.
The yoke of bondage was to be broken,
but that didn't happen.
In fact, because of this dullness of heart
and understanding, even though he shared with them
that, ultimately, the Son of God must be
delivered up, must suffer many things, and they
couldn't come to grips with it.
They weren't looking for a cross across his
pathway.
They were looking for the day in which
he would be crowned, which was yet to
come.
And so, with these thoughts in their hearts
and minds that, in a sense, limited them
in their comprehension of the real mission of
God, as found in this person, Jesus Christ,
we have this very personal talk by the
Lord Jesus to his coming.
These things that I've spoken unto you in
this first chapter relate, I think, to the
latter part of the fifteenth chapter that deal
with the coming of that blessed, holy Comforter,
the Spirit of God, the one that would
furnish enlightenment and determination to them in their
understanding of him.
It's little wonder that the word of God,
in Peter's words, we need to grow in
grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
They had a very limited concept of the
person of Christ, and indeed they could not
see these events that you and I look
upon and review in our own hearts and
in our own minds.
Just a few moments ago, we retraced the
steps that led up to Calvary, and we
remembered the Son of God in his death
for us.
They didn't anticipate anything like this, as again
they were looking for him to be crowned.
They were looking for something different.
But I think these words come as a
warning to them that it would be so
easy for them to be tripped up, and
for each one of them to have a
sorrowful reaction in his soul at the very
thought of not seeing the kingdom set up.
And all of the things that they had
experienced in the way of hostility, this fanatical
spirit of the Jews, the ring was being
tightened a little bit every day, and each
day that hostility and that opposition to the
person of Christ was gaining in intensity until
ultimately total rejection and crucify him.
We will not have this man to rule
over us.
I think you could sum it up in
these words when they would later reflect and
look back and say, now I remember he
told us that.
He told us about these things, and our
ears were dull, and we just didn't comprehend
what he was talking about.
So, when you think about it in that
light, would you prefer to live in that
sort of atmosphere, or live today with, here,
here's the word of God, here's the divine
record, it's clear.
We can read it, and by the Spirit
of God we can understand these things.
It's like looking at a textbook, and you
know the full account is not here.
We look and we say, we understand, but
we look in retrospect, we look back, we
understand these things.
We ourselves are a part of history, because
the book of the Acts is still being
written.
This is the history of the church, and
you and I are part of that history.
So, there are yet many things that we
do not see clearly, many things that we
do not understand perfectly, but we press on,
and we look for that divine helper, the
Spirit of God, to indeed make these things
clear to us.
Our knowledge is sometimes imperfect.
We grow in grace, and we grow in
knowledge of the person of Christ, the unseekable
gift of God, and indeed you can go
on in your search and your quest for
knowledge about him, never let it be satisfied,
because indeed the person of Jesus Christ is
indescribable, and little wonder that the word of
God uses that expression, the unseekable gift of
God.
There's something that's always associated with being disillusioned,
though.
I think all of us know something about
this.
We anticipate something, and it doesn't happen, and
then we get a letdown, and that's kind
of unpleasant, sometimes disillusioned.
So, I think these words come from the
Lord Jesus as a warning that they should
not allow the difficulties that they're faced with,
the experiences that would be there, all of
the distress that was yet in the future,
to so possess their minds and their beings
that they would lose their enjoyment of his
person, his love, and his power.
That's a constant threat even today.
The experiences of loss, the difficulties, the distressing
things that happen, so often it can take
away our enjoyment of the Lord.
Now, you've heard the old expression, someone, how
are you getting along?
Well, pretty good under the circumstances.
You know, someone says, you're not supposed to
be under your circumstances, brother.
You're supposed to be living above your circumstances,
and in Christ, you see, once we have
that victory in Christ, once we realize that
everything can be realized in him, and I
purposely did not read the 33rd verse of
this chapter, but it's a summation, I think,
of what we're talking about.
In this world you will have tribulation, the
Lord says, but you be of good courage.
You cheer up your heart, because I have
overcome the world.
So, we have identified ourselves with one that
is victorious.
We've aligned ourselves with one that is a
winner, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of
God.
And I'm reminded of something that I have
read in the word of God, given by
the Apostle Paul, found in 2nd Timothy 1
chapter.
God has not given to us a spirit
of fear.
Now, God, if you have a spirit of
fear in your soul, and if you are
anxious about many things, you didn't get it
from God.
He didn't get it to you, but God
hasn't given to us a spirit of fear.
He's given to us his Holy Spirit.
He indwells us, he empowers us for certain,
but he's given to us a power.
He's given to us a spirit of power
and a spirit of love.
He's given to us a sound mind.
He's given to us that spirit of discernment
that will help us to see these things,
and to be liberated from the ignorance that
sometimes prevails even among those that claim to
know the Lord Jesus Christ.
No question about it, the expediency of the
going away of our Lord Jesus Christ, even
Caiaphas, the high priest, is mentioned later there
in the book of the Acts.
It is expedient for us, says that man,
one that represented the people of God, that
one man should die for the people and
that the whole nation should not perish.
That's the testimony and the account of how
one man felt about the person of Jesus
Christ, and yet there's darkness in the hearts
of these men that surround him.
Now, as we survey what we've just read,
we have to say part of it is
the work of the Holy Spirit in the
world.
What does he do in the world?
He convicts the world of sin and of
righteousness and of justice, and then we're given
the answer to this.
He convicts the world of sin because they
believe not on me.
He convicts the world of righteousness because I
go to my Father and he's seen me
no more.
They've rejected righteousness.
They wouldn't reach out and embrace righteousness when
it was rightly for them.
All that he stood for, everything that he
represented was rejected, and the Spirit of God
has convicted them of this.
Still happens in the world today.
An objection, judgment that is real and sure,
and will come because the world is just.
Well, this is the work of the Spirit
of God, and he deals with this world
in which we live.
He goes to the hearts of those that
are living in spiritual darkness, and this is
his work.
So often we may try to play the
role as a soul winner in going beyond
the point where God ever intended us to
go.
Now, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the
Word of God.
Faith comes by hearing a report, an account,
and that report that comes from God, if
it is believed, if it is embraced and
accepted, you know, faith comes into the fold.
And all we have to do is be
a witness.
We need to carry that message of the
gospel to the world, and in a sense,
once I've done that in love and under
the power of the Spirit of God, what
else can I do?
Brother, you can't do any of that.
The Spirit of God does His work, and
no man can do that work.
So, in a sense, we see this wonderful
work that our Lord says the Spirit of
God will do in the world.
But then, the last part of this passage
deals with the work that the Spirit of
God would do in the hearts and the
lives of believers.
And there again, that takes us back to
a new capability, the work of the Spirit
of God in the believer's life.
I don't know if you took note of
that little phrase that's found in the twelfth
verse, but these are the words that were
spoken by our Lord.
He says, I have yet many things to
say unto you, but ye cannot bear them
now.
We've already reviewed that there were many things
that they couldn't bear, so many things that
they couldn't understand.
You say, why?
Because these things were yet future, and what
our Lord is doing is speaking prophetically of
the course of his own life, and they
couldn't come to grips with it.
And so, in the life of the believer
of that time, the one that even walked
right beside the Lord Jesus Christ, there are
many things that I can tell you you're
not able to bear.
You don't have the capability, you don't have
the capacity for these things, because spiritual things
are discerned by the help of the Spirit
of God.
You read in the Corinthian epistle that the
spiritual man discerns all things, but the natural
man, he has no comprehension of these things.
There's foolishness unto him, he can't understand.
Well, in that sense, that does not apply
here.
There is a willingness in the hearts of
these men to understand, but they can't understand.
And our Lord sympathizes with this, and he
says, there will be yet a day when
you will understand.
Just at the present time, you can't understand
these things, you can't take this in, you're
not able to bear it.
That's what he says.
How do you think they would respond to
the concept of Jesus Christ will die?
He will be buried.
The resurrection, how would they respond to this?
That he would ascend back into the heavens,
and that he would promise, or they would
receive a promise, just as you see in
ghosts, he will come back again.
Do you think all of this was a
part of their thinking?
Not likely, no.
So, you see, you can understand, you can
sympathize with them, they're not able to bear
this.
They can't take it.
It's their future, and they lack that true
understanding of what our Lord was teaching.
I believe, of course, that when it comes
to divine proof, our comprehension of it is
perhaps progressive.
Here's a young man or young woman that's
just been saved by the grace of God.
Now, his understanding of the word of God
is very limited.
He's got to grow, he's got to progress
in his understanding, his apprehension of divine proof.
And God doesn't, in a sense, just pour
into his heart and soul things that he's
not able to bear.
Those of us that know any little bit
about the word of God, and our knowledge
is sometimes so limited, and sometimes when we
think we really have come to grips and
understand something, then new light will be shed
upon that passage, and we, in a sense,
say, Thank you, Lord.
But we know that there's a learning process
going on.
We know that this matter of divine proof
coming into the soul is indeed a divine
process.
It's progressive.
The day we got saved, I could say
it this way, we were enrolled in God's
school.
And I'll tell you this, I believe personally
you'll never get your diploma down here if
you don't graduate from God's school.
Your coronation day will be when you stand
around the throne of God.
As long as we're in this life, we
are disciples, we are learners, we are followers
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The very tragic thing that comes to my
mind is that very often we have people
that drop out.
We have Christians that say, I'm satisfied with
what I know.
I know I'm saved.
I know I'm on my way to heaven.
Thank God for it.
As far as any of these other things
that you get so excited about in the
Word of God, well, you're just more spiritual
than I am.
Something like that.
You know, such a poor excuse.
I shall never forget what I heard my
brother Fred McKenzie say one time regarding a
young man that he knew that told him
when he had asked him some questions.
He said, Brother McKenzie, I'm going to be
very honest with you.
I just feel like that I've gone just
as far as I want to go in
my spiritual life in understanding all of these
things that you've talked so glowingly about.
This is just as far as I want
to go.
I thought when he was saying this, how
could that be?
It comes as a shock, you know.
But, you know, then the punchline was really
this.
My brother McKenzie said, you know, that young
man had the nerve to say that.
He said that.
He admitted that.
The tragic thing about it is, so many
of God's people are doing it.
They're doing the very same thing that this
young man admitted that he was doing.
I don't want to know anything else.
I'm satisfied.
Too many other things in this life that
take up my time, my interest, and I'm
not going to just zero in on this
and say that this means more to me
than anything in this life.
That's just being honest about it.
Many Christians today, they wouldn't say that, but
they're doing their dropout, their spiritual dropout.
They don't make any progress beyond the progress
that they had made from, say, six months
or a year after they were saved.
For a while, zeal and enthusiasm about these
things, the things of God, today's enthusiasm is
gone.
It's lost its appeal.
And now spiritual things are relegated to a
place in their life.
I'll do it if it's convenient, but there
are other things that occupy my time and
my interest.
You can only write over that.
Indeed, that is a sad commentary on the
life of a Christian.
To say the least.
If any one of us are able to
say in this room tonight, I've learned everything
I want to learn about the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ, all of that divine
truth around that person that is labeled in
the word of God as being the unspeakable
gift of God.
I've learned all that I want to know
about him.
We're saying that we should hang our heads
in shame.
We should, indeed, hang our heads in shame,
because, indeed, the divine truth is found in
the word of God.
And you know, as you study your Bible,
the word of the living God, everything revolves
around that person, Jesus Christ our Lord.
He is the center of this book.
And you can find him in Genesis, you
can find him in Revelation, indeed you will
find him in eternity.
And he will be the one that we
occupy our heart's affection with throughout this time.
And every little bit of understanding, every little
bit of knowledge that becomes mine by studying
to rightly divide the word of truth, let
me go after it and go after it
with zeal and enthusiasm and joy in my
soul that the Lord has given to me
that holy comforter, the one that will teach
you, the one that will instruct you, the
one that will bring to your remembrance all
things concerning me.
And that's exactly what our Lord has told
those who call upon him.
No question about it, we're in the family
of God, but we are at different stages
of development in our spiritual growth, and some
grow faster than others.
Some just go oh, ever so fast.
They have minds that are able to drink
in the word of God, but each one
at his own pace is making some progress,
and we're learning these things, and they're thrilling
ourselves.
And, you know, the worshiper is one that
has his soul full.
You gather around the table to remember the
Lord, and our worship is just a product
of the soul, the heart that is just
running over filled with adoration and worship and
praise for the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what happens in the soul of a
man that is just filled with the Spirit
of God.
You just can't contain yourself.
My cup indeed runneth over.
My cup runneth over.
How such a beautiful thought.
I think there are a few questions that
we could ask at this point.
How much truth that's found in the word
of God concerning the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ are you able to bear at
this point in your Christian experience?
In other words, someone opens the word of
God to a passage, and he begins to
expound the passage.
He reads it, and he takes it, and
he parts it ever so minutely for you
so that you can partake of it.
He takes the food, and he breaks it
in little pieces, and you say, I don't
understand that.
Well, you know, this has already happened.
The Corinthian church, which is a very carnal
church, the apostle Paul said, I brought meat
to you, but you couldn't take meat.
You know, you were still on that milk
diet, and there are some Christians today, they
never get beyond the milk diet.
Oh, they can lap up the milk.
They can listen to sermons from the platform,
but as far as any church in the
word of God for divine truth and the
feeding of one's soul, they never have that
experience.
And, indeed, that's regrettable.
We've got too many babies in the family
of God.
Their stage of development as Christians, they're standing
still.
No, you don't stand still.
You retrogress.
There's no such thing as standing still.
You either press on, or you fall back.
Your life becomes like a stage of poo,
no refreshment for anyone, including yourself.
Therefore, it behooves each one of us to
say, listen, I'm going after these things.
I'm going to read my Bible.
I'm going to study the word of God.
I'm going to let the spirit of God
speak to my own soul about the person
of Christ, enrich my life, and let me
with enthusiasm go out and tell someone else
about the Lord Jesus.
Now, you can't do that enthusiastically unless he
is first cousin to you.
That's what it takes.
A divine encounter with the person of Christ.
How much divine truth are you able to
bear to know?
I heard years ago, one of the, I
think, the first Bible conference that I attended,
the old Blue Ridge Bible conference up at
Black Mountain, and there were some very able
men there who found in the word of
God.
And this expression was heard, you know, all
this is over my head.
And I think it was our brother Van
Ryn, August Van Ryn.
He made the comment as he rocked in
one of those old rockers out there on
the front porch.
He said, I don't think it was over
his head, more likely it was under his
feet.
We have trampled underfoot these divine things.
Because of our laziness, because of our unwillingness
to come to grip with these things, so
often we think it's over my head.
It means that we have neglected to acquaint
ourselves with that truth.
When we open the word of God as
the family of God, as we assemble together
in our prayer meetings, in our Bible study,
we're helping each other, that's true.
But after I've been saved in a length
of time, I should be able to understand
the things that we're handling on this book
of the Bible.
That doesn't mean I understand everything about it,
no wild boast like that, but the Spirit
of God is able to help me discern
what the word of God is saying to
my own soul.
This is the word of God.
It was meant for me.
It's not something that God is trying to
hide from me.
He wants me to know.
He wants me to know these things.
So often we give the impression, God won't
let me know these things.
He's hiding things from me.
God's not hiding anything from you.
But you've got to have the capability to
handle divine truth, and a baby can't handle
me.
That's not his job, and as long as
you're a baby, period, milk's the only thing
you can handle.
You'll have to apply yourself to the study
of the word of God, and are rightly
deciding the word of truth.
Then these things will become meaningful to you.
Then you'll be able to thank these things.
That's how it works.
Well, the next question that would follow that
would be on the heels of what your
presence states, how much truth do you want
God to entrust to you as a believer
in the Lord Jesus?
By the Spirit of truth, how much do
you want to know?
How much do you want to know?
I hear people that they read the book
of Revelation.
Oh, I would like to know all of
the things that are so mysterious in the
book of the Revelation.
Well, you can.
You can know all of those things, in
effect.
You can come to grips with those things,
and all those mysterious symbols, all of those
things that were imparted to the divine apostle
John.
Well, you can know those things.
They can be real to you.
You'll have to read it and study.
That's what you'll have to do.
You'll just have to sit down with a
book and say, Lord, here I am.
I want to know what this book of
the Revelation of Jesus Christ is saying to
me.
I want to know that.
And you have said that the Spirit of
God, that divine teacher, will make these things
real to me.
Lord, open now my eyes, and I might
see.
And what he'll do is he'll open your
eyes, and you'll read those things, and you'll
understand them because you've got divine help.
But do you want to know that?
Or are you just fascinated in the moment
of time when someone stands and preaches the
Word of God, and you say, for the
moment, I'm going home to get my Bible,
and I'm going to study.
I want to know those things.
You see, and suddenly you've been impressed with
this idea that I can study and know
these things.
It just doesn't last long enough.
Too often, coldness and, you know, losing touch.
Enthusiasm, perhaps, with which the speaker spoke of
these things, we forget.
And then we have to say, I'm satisfied.
I know a little.
That will suffice, and we're willing to press
on.
But this passage tells us that the Spirit
of God will guide into the truth, divine
truth, surrounding the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
And God wants us to know more and
more about his Son every day that we
live.
In fact, he wants us to display the
glory of God in our lives.
The splendor and glory of the person of
Christ, the only way that this world can
possibly know the person of Christ is through
you and me.
We are his witnesses to this world.
Now, Jesus Christ is at the right hand
of God in the heavens, and today he
is speaking to this world through you and
me as believers in him.
We are members of his body.
We are an extension of the life of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
He hasn't given this miniature to angels.
He's given it to poor sinners, saved by
the grace of God, that have a deep
sense of appreciation in their souls.
The grace of God wonderfully reached my heart
one day, revealed to me the person of
Jesus Christ, and I've never gotten over it,
and I want to tell everyone about that
person, Jesus Christ.
And the Spirit of God is empowering men
and women today to go out and to
bear testimony, give your witness concerning what Christ
has done for you.
You speak of him in growing terms, and
in so doing by supporting all this with
a life that bespeaks of the holiness of
God.
Indeed, just giving lip service is not sufficient.
There must be the life that is fruitful
and productive.
There must be that Christ-likeness enshrined upon
each one of us as a witness for
him.
All that God desired in that each one
of us would be conformed to the image
and likeness of his son.
Now, you can't do that by your own
self-effort, bro.
The Spirit of God that indwells us, that
would make us productive in Christ's life, that
would produce spiritual fruitfulness in our lives, the
fruit of the Spirit, it comes from its
divine source, the Spirit.
And as we walk in the Spirit, we
do not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
You see, these things are spiritual, and to
understand them we need God's help, divine help.
We never operate independent of God's help.
God is our helper.
We don't do any freelance operating independent from
God in our service for God.
There's no such thing.
Anything that brings glory to God, God gives
us the strength to do it.
I can do all things through Christ and
his name.
That's the apostle Paul.
So, indeed, I feel privileged to live in
this day rather than in the day in
which these disciples lived.
Their knowledge was limited, there was always a
threat that they might become discouraged, distressed.
Our Lord warned against that.
He reminds us, the Holy Comforter will come.
Though you can't bear that divine truth now,
there's a day in which you will.
There's absolutely no excuse for you nor for
me tonight in this room if we've been
saved in a length of time.
We should not be able to come to
grips with these things that are found in
the word of God that will enrich our
lives, give us all of the joy and
the happiness that God intended for his people,
the deep satisfaction in our souls of knowing,
unknowing, unknowing in the experience of living within
every day, and being empowered by God's spirit
to serve him, the Lord Jesus Christ.
May we take these things to heart.
Grant, we pray thee, that what the Spirit
of God has impressed upon our hearts tonight
will be responsive, will be very responsive, and
that we'll act upon that which he directs
us to do for the glory and honor
of the Lord Jesus we ask this.
Shall we pray?
Our Father in Heaven, we do thank thee
for the word of God.
We do thank thee for these words that,
as we read them, they are just filled
with meaning for our souls.
They become special words to us because this
is your message to us, and that wonderful
divine comfort of the Spirit of God that
makes these things real to us.
Lord, we could never discern these things apart
from your help.
We're shut up to thee to know these
things that are so precious and dear about
the person of Christ.
Lord, as I dear blood-bought soul, grant,
we pray thee, that we shall be determined
in our own souls that we'll let the
Spirit of God teach us all that he
wants to teach us about the Lord Jesus
Christ, for we ask this in his precious
name.
Amen.