With you, junior citizens of glory, at the
Park of the Palms has been a tremendous
benediction to my wife and me.
The Lord bless you all and lead you
on to greater things in this wonderful portrait
of Emmanuel's Lamb.
I hope that some parks and palms and
people like you are in Emmanuel's Lamb.
Well, of course there will be, because we'll
all be there by his sovereign grace.
Now, don't you get the idea that you're
getting old?
You know, Caleb was getting a little bit
that way.
But he was really moving on when he
was getting older and older, flagging not in
any way.
Sir Winston Churchill once was invited back to
his old school, Harrow in Middlesex, a public
school, which in Britain is a private school.
And the headmaster said, now boys, the great
Sir Winston is coming.
One of our old boys, the greatest of
all our old boys, is coming back today.
Get your pads ready, your pencils ready, he's
going to make a speech today in this
old school.
And when he was formally introduced with a
lot of ballyhoo, as they call it, Sir
Winston stood up and he said, Boy, never
give in, never give in, never give in,
never, never, never.
Now, of course, the scripture says, let us
go on.
It means, never give in.
Great things ahead, better days ahead, the glory
shining before us.
Let us go on to perfection, let us
go on to glory and Emmanuel's Lamb.
And Caleb was going on and on and
on, and they got to Canaan.
He is the outstanding Old Testament example of
an overcomer, you know.
He overcame when he was a young man,
at the age of 40.
Please note the year.
At the age of 40, a young man,
he went into Canaan and brought back a
good report and lots of grapes and things.
And he said, we are well able to
go in because we believe God.
However, he was still overcoming when he was
a middle-aged man, between the age of
40 and 80.
Please note the year.
Middle-aged man between the years of 40
and 80, when he was wandering in the
wilderness, through no fault of his own, because
they all disbelieved God.
And from Cadex Sarnia, they went back into
the wilderness for 40 years.
He thought he better go with them, save
the defectives in their suffering.
But now he was over 80, he was
beginning to be a little older man now.
And he was 85, and they said, Caleb
was riding up the land of Canaan.
I think we ought to give you a
nice little bit in the ballad here, where
there's some nice palm trees and a beautiful
park, and a little river, and it's easy
to cross if you don't care.
You're getting on now, you know, Caleb.
He said, me?
He said, give me this mountain.
But they said, Caleb, you're 85.
He said, give me this mountain.
But they said, Caleb, that's a mountain.
He said, give me this mountain.
But they said, he said, the giants are
there, the other kings are there.
He said, that doesn't matter to me, the
Lord is with me, and I wholly follow
the Lord.
Give me this mountain, and let us go
on to greater things.
There's far more in store for you in
Christ than you'll ever conceive, up to this
present moment in time.
Let us go on, and on and on,
until we think it's worth it, on the
course of eternity, in Emmanuel's land.
And then, well, I think it would be
time we had Jesse as a part of
this.
Well, that was just a little informal introduction.
We've got the formal understanding.
We must read the scripture from Mark chapter
14.
Now, we have a lot more in Mark,
of course, to meditate on, but this will
be our last chapter that we're looking at
on this occasion.
Because, and I have to go up to
Greenwood Hill later on in the year, for
a week, and talk on Mark there for
a week.
So, we'll have to read these chapters from
14 onwards.
Up there, you say you're going to be
up there, and I wouldn't dream of repeating
myself.
It might be plain repetition from your point
of view.
Let us read the scripture together from the
14th chapter of Mark, and verse 12.
The first day of unleavened bread, when they
killed the Passover, his disciples said unto Jesus,
Where wilt thou that we go and prepare
that thou mayest eat the Passover?
And he sent forth two of his disciples,
and said unto them, Go ye into the
city, and there shall a man bearing a
pitcher of water follow him.
And wheresoever he shall go in, ye shall
say to the good man of the house,
The master saith, Where is the guest room,
the guest chamber, where I shall eat the
Passover with my disciples?
And he shall show you a large upper
room furnished, and prepare there made ready for
us.
And his disciples went forth, and came into
the city, and found, as he had said
unto them, They made ready the Passover.
Now, verse 26.
When they had sung a hymn, they went
out into the Mount of Olives.
Jesus saith unto them, All ye shall be
offended because of me this night.
For it is written, I will smite the
shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.
But after that I am risen, I will
go before you into Galilee.
Peter said unto him, Although all shall be
offended, yet will not I.
Jesus saith unto him, Verily I say unto
thee, That this day, even this night, before
the cock crows twice, thou shalt deny me
thrice.
But he spake, the more vehemently, If I
should die with thee, I will not deny
thee in any way.
Likewise also is the law.
The Lord blessed for us the reading from
his precious word.
There is the good man here, and the
principle of preeminence for the savior.
And there is Peter here, and the principle
of the cross.
There are other people here, and other principles
underlying their stories too.
We'll just see how far we go.
Maybe we'll only just talk about the first
one.
If possible we'll mention the second one, but
that will be all for this morning.
May God bless for us our meditation in
his holy word.
And may we again this morning see the
savior.
This preacher's prayer I have in the front
of my Bible.
I ask thee not for supplications, for pictures
exquisitely wrought, For speech of grand and gracious
terms, For tones that thrill and words that
burn, But let me touch thy garment's hem,
and bear the faith unto thee.
The house was filled with the odor of
the ointment, And may the atmosphere of the
presence of the Lord be with us today,
As we again seek to exalt him, So
that they saw no man save Jesus only,
And say that he is good for the
year.
Now they said, Lord where shall we prepare
this Passover that's coming up?
And he said, go into the city and
follow a man.
He will be your guide.
You cannot mistake the man because he's doing
a woman's job.
He is carrying a pitcher of water.
You'll meet him at the gate of the
city.
If you follow him he will go into
a certain house, and in that house there
is another man who is the good man
of the house.
And you shall say to this second man,
the good man of the house, The master
saith unto thee, where is the guest room
for me and my disciples where we can
eat the Passover?
So they went and they found exactly as
the Lord Jesus said unto them, the first
men carrying a pitcher of water.
And they followed him and he unconsciously became
their guide.
They probably didn't know that these were following
him.
That's often the case of course with you
and me.
And our lives, especially as we have little
ones and children in our homes, our lives
are always an example to others, whether for
good or evil.
We are unconsciously guiding others.
Let hope and trust and pray beguiled by
our lives and witness and guiding others to
the saviour himself.
For no man liveth to himself and no
man dieth to himself.
And so it was that they came to
this house and he entered in and they
met the tenant of the place.
Now this is really all that this means.
In actual exegetic and interpretation of the word,
he was either the owner or the tenant
living in the place at the moment.
The master said, you shall say to the
good man, where is that guest room for
me?
But of course, although this man was only
the tenant, he was a good man in
a very scriptural sense.
Because he had done something which makes a
man in the scriptural sense a good man.
And it's the only thing which does make
a man a good man.
This man had got a place prepared for
the Lord.
The point is, you see, the Lord is
good.
And none is good save one that is
God.
And Jesus is God.
And you never become good through your own
goodness or faith.
You become good in his goodness by finding
a place for the good Lord, as this
man did in his home, so that you
and I, in our hearts, are room for
him.
Like David said, I will not be sleek
to mine eyes tonight, or slumber to mine
eyelids tonight, until I find out a place
for the Lord.
And be patient for the mighty God of
Jacob.
The Lord wants to come and dwell with
you.
It is for you to swing the heart
door widely open and find a place for
the Lord.
And then by the good Lord within, you
will be a good man.
Now you see, some people try to make
themselves good through trying and their own good
works.
It doesn't happen that way.
It's unscriptural.
It's the wrong way.
Flesh is flesh.
We must invite the faith in him and
do what this good man did.
We must find a place for the Lord.
We read of Barnabas.
He was a good man, it says.
A good man.
And it goes on to say he was
full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.
Well of course Barnabas was a good man.
He had found a place for the Lord.
He was full of the Spirit of Jesus.
The Lord Jesus by his Spirit was not
only living in him but controlling every avenue
and department of him.
It is no wonder he was a good
man.
Now Luther's maxim was this.
We don't become good by doing what is
good.
Having become good in his goodness, we begin
to do good things.
I use the word good.
He used the word righteous.
We don't become righteous by doing what is
righteous, but having become righteous in his righteousness,
we begin to do what is righteous.
Now we must learn this.
This is the only way of blessing, of
goodness, of salvation.
He died that we might be forgiven, and
he lives to make us good by his
own indwelling presence.
That's the secret of the normal Christian life.
Now you never work yourself into goodness.
You'll never work your way to the good
heaven.
Nothing that's divine will ever enter there.
You must find a place for the Lord.
One of my friends, Edwin Lewis, who's now
gone home to Gloria, a great evangelist from
Britain, decided on one occasion that most of
the people in his meetings who came unconverted
were not converted, were not Christians because they
felt that they could make themselves good and
so acceptable to God.
That God would look upon them because they're
trying to be good.
Now that's the biggest hindrance that I know
in my evangelist sickness.
I know what I'm going to do.
He said to himself, Edwin, next time you
have a mission you've got to speak every
night for the two or three weeks on
one text.
By grace, by his faith, through faith, not
of work, not of good work lest any
man should die.
By grace, through faith, and not of work.
And this is what he did.
Very clever evangelist.
A different sermon every night for three weeks,
but all on the same topic and from
the same text.
He was saying you have paid by the
grace of God alone.
You put your faith in what God has
done in his grace through his son on
the cross of Calvary and give up your
work, lay your deadly doing down at Jesus'
feet.
And he speaks like this for three weeks
every night.
There was a lady there who'd been listening
and along regularly, he didn't know her, so
he thought he would introduce himself on the
last note.
So he said, I'm Edwin Lewis.
He said, glad to see you coming along
for the meeting.
He said, I haven't missed one.
Well, he said, I'm delighted.
Thank you very much for coming.
Had you received a blessing?
Oh yes, he said.
I wouldn't have missed one of them for
work.
Well, he said, now that's fine lady.
He said, tell me what are you depending
upon for your soul's salvation?
Well, he said, listen Mr. Lewis, I'm doing
the best I can.
And he'd been preaching against that for three
weeks every night.
It just goes to show you that men
cannot see that their goodness is not good
enough for God.
That their good works and deeds and labelliness
is no use in the sight of God
to try to cover their sins.
They cannot see that salvation is by the
grace of God in his goodness and through
the work of Christ on the cross without
anything for Christ to do.
They cannot see this unless the Holy Spirit
illumines the mind and takes the veil away.
That's why we not only have gospel meetings
but prayer meetings as well asking the Holy
Spirit to remove the veil that men may
see their goodness, their righteousness and their eternal
purity within the Lord Jesus and as a
result of inviting him into their life.
Behold, he said, I stand at your house
door and knock and if you will open
the door and let me in I will
come in and I bring all my goodies
and all my goodnesses and all my provisions
with me.
I will come in and suck with you,
share your life but, more important, you will
suck with me.
I'm bringing in a lot with me.
My righteousness, my victory, my peace, my rest,
my salvation my goodness is all procured for
you at the cross of Calvary.
If you let me in, then the blessing
is yours to ignore.
So, this man was a goodness in the
spiritual sense of the word because he had
a place prepared for the Lord.
Now, when this good man was speaking of
the Savior coming his way because he heard
the usual rumor that he'd gone about to
chop his head back Jesus of Nazareth said,
I don't believe it.
They said, oh well, it's Elijah then.
He's preaching and he's mighty and he's river
-possessed it must be Elijah to come back
from the dead.
He said, I don't believe it.
So, they said, well, it may be that
Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah, the
Savior of the world.
He said, I believe that and before he
comes my way I must find Jesus of
Nazareth, the son of God a place in
my heart and in my home.
And I'll find him a place in my
home to show that I've found him a
place in my heart that I believe in
Jesus.
Now, you see, I know what I'll do
when he comes this way.
I'll get a room ready for him.
I know that that's a shed down the
yard which we used to keep lumber in.
We'll get that cleaned out and whitewashed and
we'll put a little table and a chair
in that and that will do for the
night.
Did he?
Not on your life, sir.
No, sir.
He said, up there is my best room
and my biggest room and when the Savior
comes that's what he's getting from me my
biggest room, my best room.
Now, that reminds me, if you know your
Bible, of Colossians chapter 1.
I know you know your Bible.
Colossians chapter 1 and verse 18c which means
the third part of the 18th verse where
it says that in all things he might
have the preeminence, the first place.
And the apostle goes on to say these
Christians at Colossians and you and me this
morning at the heart of the farm that
God has given Christ the first place in
everything.
He's made him number one in creation.
Not that he's the firstborn of creation.
Doesn't mean he's the first to be born
in creation.
This next verse says that he's creation.
No, it means he's the kid number one
of all creation.
In other words, he is the preeminent one.
Firstborn in the church.
Firstborn in the resurrection.
The head of the church and the first
in the resurrection, number one.
And first in conservance.
He is the preeminent one upholding all things
by the word of his father.
Let me go on.
In Colossians chapter one.
And the apostle of course was refuting an
error in Colossians that one man reported in
chapter two and four times over you can
prove that one in chapter two that one
man was bringing this error into the church
that Christ was not sufficient for our salvation.
We need a lot more.
We need a lot more intermediaries between men
and God because we are so sinful and
God is so hateful.
We are not an angel.
This is one of a number of intermediaries
from God.
It's not right.
And the apostle goes on to show that
it isn't right.
Christ is the one.
He's the first in every sense in the
estimation of God.
And so he said to us that he
should be number one in you as well.
In your heart and all.
You make a place for the Lord and
make your place the first place.
Give him the preeminent place.
Like the good man of the house said
I'll give to the master my best little
master which is my biggest dream as well.
And then when he was thinking of the
master coming this way maybe he sat down
and looked into the fireplace.
Oh they don't have fireplaces there do they?
He was looking through the window and saying
to himself and thinking and so on.
Now if the master comes this way I
must of necessity give him the best place
in my house to show him I've given
him the biggest place in my life.
But I must leave some of the furniture
there for him.
I don't want to leave it all because
some of it's rather good.
Some of it's antiquity now, valuable.
It wouldn't do for the disciples to come
in with the master and use that nice
piece just there as for it.
And it wouldn't do for the master to
open that drawer in that set of drawers
there and knock that sitting drawer down he
wouldn't be able to look in there.
Now I'll either have to get the whole
piece taken out or else lock that drawer
up and that nice piece I'll take outside
and put it in my own down below.
Did he say like that?
Nothing in there.
He said no, he said when the master
comes I think he's going to have the
first place in you.
What you're saying this morning I'm doing now.
I know you are.
You respond very well to God.
You're not responding to me.
It's the Lord who's saying in everything Christ
will have the pre-eminence the first place.
And when you do something tomorrow morning say
no, it's Jesus first in this.
It's for his Lord.
I'm saying don't do that.
It's for his pleasure.
It's for charity.
For me.
For Jesus.
For the Lord Jesus in the first place.
You never think you do.
I know you are responding this morning.
And this man says not only am I
going to give the Lord Jesus the throne
of God my only saviour the biggest roof
but I'm going to leave all the furniture
there in its place and all at the
master's disposal.
I'm going to ask you is all your
furniture at the master's disposal?
I'm not talking about your chairs and your
tables and your pieces of furniture in the
home and I know that's quite true with
many of you you sit in your homes
and you furnish it to the Lord and
you invite some of these workers from Britain
and other places and you treat them as
though they're Americans and you show real presence
in your homes and you give them the
best chair to sit on and I remember
I had some fellowship once two or three
years ago in a certain home and they
gave me a chair to sit on and
I broke the chair.
What do you do in a case like
that?
And lo and behold when we came back
to do a year's ministry in that same
assembly and other assemblies around as well I
have to say that was a good year
and other assemblies around as well lo and
behold the assembly had given to us a
nice little house and they bought a set
of furniture from one of the saints and
there was a chair to sit on and
he was very proud of it and he
came back to me and said look at
this after all that time.
Well now this man he found a place
for the Lord he found a big place
for the Lord and he put all the
furniture at the Lord's disposal and I like
that and I wonder if all your gifts
in power, in talent and energy are at
the Lord's disposal.
I learned a great lesson myself one day
through a brother some of you may know
his name Richard Dennis and in one morning
he put himself at the Lord's disposal in
his chair and the Lord said here I
am what do you want me to do?
and the Lord said to him ring up
David's sister so he rang me up and
the result of that you know was a
tremendous blessing for me and for the work
of the Moreland Bible College that I represented
at the time it's a long story and
I've done a dream a series of details
this morning but to see what happened when
you put yourself and your furniture all your
spiritual power at the Lord's disposal there was
a woman once who wasn't very good looking
in her own opinion and she said to
a young man that was looking over the
hedge into her garden she said oh don't
look at me he said I am black
the sun has looked upon me and she
said don't look at night it's fruitless I
can't give you anything it's a thing to
do you see when you go into the
instances of a friend to give them some
fruit like when I visit you you give
me chocolate you come to England and you're
all welcome don't all come at once I
give you a cup of English tea and
she hadn't got any fruit to give but
in spite of her fruitlessness and her own
crumbliness he loved her just the same and
then she started to respond to his love
she said tell me oh how whom my
soul loveth the way you are going I'm
from your way I've been eternified by the
thoughts of my companions now you are for
me your love is wonderful it's great it
is love and action to the unlovely and
undeserving and so she followed and she started
now to do something in her dream for
him in a new way she was compelled
by love for him to show such grace
to her to serve very well in Ding
Dong in King Lee and the result was
at the end of chapter 7 quite a
contrast from chapter 1 in chapter 1 she
said there's no fruit in this cup but
in chapter 7 she said to my beloved
she took him by the hand and she
said let's go for a walk together and
he agreed and she said let's go into
the vineyard and see what does the tender
grain do and she said let's see if
there's any fruit there if the vine is
flourishing she knew very well there was lots
of it she wanted him to see what
she'd done out of love for him and
then she said in the last verse that
our dates are all manner of pleasant fruits
new and old which I have laid up
for thee O my beloved and she said
to him don't only look at the fruit
but take it with all your love for
me all all for Jesus and all my
feelings for Antony with all your concern for
me and the Lord's discretion talking about finding
a place for the Lord and giving him
the preeminence I was thinking of Stanley Mould
the beloved man of God the Bishop of
Durham now forced onto his reward which I'm
sure must have been a great one he
really knew his stuff and his writings are
most powerful from the Scriptures and he on
one occasion was very very perturbed and restless
in his study and he was sitting in
his study trying to prepare a sermon just
wouldn't go and he looked around his study
and there was a terrible mess papers and
books and rubbish everywhere and he said to
himself I hope my wife doesn't come in
and he said what a terrible thing it
would have been for the Lord to come
and find this place and then he fell
asleep and he slept over his desk you
know had a good nap for a few
minutes and he dreamed that he was in
his study well he was and he dreamed
that he'd heard words that the Lord was
coming to visit him and he started rushing
about in his study putting the book up
in the shed and then putting the library
right and then picking up the waste paper
here and taking it outside and he was
rushing around and he'd only got a little
way when there was a knock at the
door and he didn't know whether to let
him in or not it was a knock
and there was still quite a lot of
distress he opened the door he said come
in and he woke up and then he
sat and started to write alas ill-ordered
so this is nearly noon the household stuff
lies heaped amidst the gloom the table empty
stands the couch undressed oh what a welcome
for the eternal guest welcome now and yet
this doleful scene is in itself my cause
to hail the in this dark confusion seen
at once demand by those like present lord
and orderly hand I speak no more to
hope change amend before the coming of so
great a change or were set on scenery
and for ill above all else to speak
these ancient words come in oh come the
book stands open now I knew would I
be nothing it was now to find but
to make this troubled heart a worthy dwelling
place for thee as thou art to take
the gloom the terror and the pain come
all my friends they come lord Jesus please
I do hope you will let me don't
try to make yourself good just let the
good lord be good I do hope this
morning you will give him the first place
the preeminent place making number one in your
life like Peter stuck in the heart of
Africa dying for the sake of Christ in
his ministry worn himself out in missionary work
and his wife sending such a lovely letter
a nice endearing letter you know her eyes
can sometimes and he wrote back and he
said to her lovely letter thank you very
much Mary said I would describe for you
the following three times a day before meal
say this lord Jesus my saviour thou art
to me dearer than ever I do hope
that in all things he might have the
preeminent and then of course place your all
that you have what is in your hands
your present gifts and talents at the lord's
disposal you'll be mind you you're not older
than Caleb years are nothing regardless he didn't
say if you're twelve years of age you
may be baptized he didn't say if you're
over eighty five years of age you can't
ask for a mountain and do anything else
for God you don't come near to it
with the everlasting almighty God and when we
point to ourselves and all that we have
at his disposal you'll be surprised how God
is going to bless you by the indwelling
presence of his power and use your gifts
and powers in his holy service now there's
not a lot of time left to mention
this on a very important principle but I
think we ought to in the five or
six minutes that are at my disposal now
I'll just give you a rough idea of
what I had in my mind and I
hope you won't forget what I've already said
you think you're inclined to forget well don't
listen to this next three minutes okay because
I think that's the message for somebody here
this morning because I think there's somebody here
who needs to open the heart and let
the Lord see it I do and I
think there's somebody else who needs to open
the heart as wide as I can be
and let it in in all its fullness
and take it for what it is I
think that's the main message for this evening
you can see what my problem is now
because I'm afraid to have lots of problems
you know they're not dangerous they're elephants yes
my problem is whether to close now or
give you this last idea I'll give you
the idea because you see Peter in the
second portion was accepting the principle of the
cross in his life but he was accepting
it in the flesh now earlier on in
Matthew 16 he was blankly refusing the principle
of the cross and he said to the
Lord Jesus do it far from you Lord
you're not going to suffer and die and
the Lord Jesus said now you get behind
me Peter and I'm quite sure that Peter
would not take up the promise at that
time and just as Christ was tempted to
give up his life for in the hour
of temptation by Satan so again by Satan
through Peter was a similar temptation now this
principle of the cross was the principle of
life for the saviour leading to death he
was born that he might die and give
his life a ransom for others and he
saved others they said when he hung on
the cross and himself he cannot say and
this principle for the saviour and his cross
were the Christ and his suffering are inseparable
and they are inseparable for the believer as
well this is the binding principle of all
through service as we give a place for
the Lord and give him all our gifts
and powers for his service we must appreciate
that Christ will lead us on to the
end of ourselves so that we can find
him in his glorious fullness whosoever will lose
his life for my sake that is the
one who's really going to find him except
that we fall into the ground and die
to bodies alone but if it dies it
will bring forth much truth that which counts
is always that which costs we must believe
someone has said it we must if we
would believe
believe someone has