Address—Caleb James
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Our God and our Father, we thank Thee for inviting us to look unto thy Son.
And we know, Father, that the Lord Jesus is far greater than anything that we could ever say here on this earth. But we do give thanks for the holy written word of God that would tell us of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in this time ahead of us, Lord, we pray that that would be well spoken of. And so we just would ask for the help and liberty of the Spirit to take of those things of Christ, show them to us, make them precious to our souls.
Pray this in the precious worthy name of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, Amen.
Turn, if you would please, to Psalm 36.
Psalm 36.
Psalm 36 and verse 7.
How excellent is thy loving kindness, oh God. Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. These verses would tell us about the God that we have. He's a God who is full of goodness, as the Brother shared with us last night. And that's a precious, precious thing. But you know, there's so many.
On this earth, who view God very differently, they see God as an unhappy God, as an angry God. He's a tyrant who's eager to condemn and eager to judge. But that is not the God of the Bible. That's not the true God. And these verses that we just read would tell us that he's a God of love. He's a God of kindness. He's a God of generosity. He's a God of pleasure. Thou shalt make them drink.
Of the river of thy pleasures, the God we have as a God of joy. And we were enjoying this morning and the reading meeting, how that a believer can have genuine joy in their souls regardless of what circumstances they might be going through. And ultimately, why is that? Is it not because the God we have as a God of joy, He is the source of all, and he is not an unhappy God, but he has pleasures.
And the apostle Paul would call him the blessed God because blessed implies joy, implies peace. In fact, he has a whole river of pleasures, and he invites us to drink from that river as well and share those same things that he enjoys.
Now some of the young people might ask, well, just what is it in particular that God finds his pleasure in? And we can look to Scripture for some answers. We read in the early part of our Bibles that God created the heavens and the earth, and after he assembled that beautiful creation, He saw that it was good.
All things were created by him for His pleasure. They are and were created, and we've certainly been finding pleasure in this beautiful creation as well, especially while we're here at camp. It declares the glory of God. But there's more. He finds pleasure in people. His delights were with the sons of men. What is man that thou art mindful of him? He also would find pleasure in His church, the Bride of Christ, through which he's going to display.
The exceeding riches of his grace, His manifold wisdom, so forth. But there's another source of pleasure that God has, and that's perhaps the highest of all, that's his Son, Jesus Christ. Let's turn to Matthew chapter 3 to get that. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 3.
Very well known verses here at the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew 3 and verse 16.
And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have found my delight. God would publicly declare the Lord Jesus to be the Son of his delight. That's precious, isn't it? You know, the Lord Jesus is the man whom the King delights to honor, and God has honored him with a name that's above every name.
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He's the nail in the short place a Scripture tells us, and it's around him that God's purpose would revolve totally and completely. And so for you and I, we've been translated into the Kingdom of his dear Son, the Son of his love. And it's in that sphere that we can enjoy the Lord Jesus and find the light in him as well. What is He to us? Well, Peter tells us that he's precious.
He's altogether lovely. He's our our savior, he's our shepherd. He's our friend, our priest, our advocate.
And we're to have them as our object, as we were discussing in these meetings, we're to have him as our object, not just because he's food for our souls, not just because he's he's the.
The one who started and finished well, who were to have him as the object of our souls, because God himself is occupied, Lord Jesus Christ.
And so in this message, I'd like to consider some of the thoughts that God has of his Son, God's thoughts of his Son. And I know we have young people here, and I want to be sensitive to that.
And as young people, you might ask the question and ask it, well, what does that have to do with the daily round of life? What is the practical purpose in considering God's thoughts of his Son? Well, I believe it would be this to expand our thoughts on the Lord Jesus Christ, to enlarge our thoughts on him. You know, there's a hymn that we sing sometimes in Little Flock hymn book. It says Our Lord and large.
Our scanty thought.
To know the wonders thou hast wrought.
I have to confess for myself that oftentimes my thoughts on the Lord Jesus are very small and they're very few. And as a result of that, I have little to give to Him and worship. I have little energy to do His work and to be quite pointed. It's a drag to make it out to Wednesday night meeting.
Fixating on the thoughts that God has of His Son would enlarge our thoughts, and I very much feel the need for that. And I might say that it's our thoughts of the Lord Jesus that are really going to direct the course of our lives. I believe it's correct in saying that. So we need to have greater thoughts of the Lord Jesus, and the thoughts of God are higher than our thoughts.
So let's take a few moments here to consider the thoughts that God has of his beloved Son. And with the Lord's help, I'd like to consider that kind of in three different ways. First of all, in eternity, and then in time and then in resurrection, God's thoughts of his Son. Let's turn to Proverbs chapter 8. There's some well known verses.
Proverbs 8.
Proverbs 8 and verse 22. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting from the beginning. Wherever the earth was, when there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains abounding with water, before the mountains were settled before the hills, was I brought forth. Well as yet He had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.
When he prepared the heavens, I was there when he set a compass upon the face of the depth.
When He established the clouds above, when He strengthened the fountains of the deep, when He gave to the sea His decree that the water should not pass his commandment, when He appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by Him as one brought up with him, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth. And mighty lights were with the sons of men. This would bring us all the way back to the beginning.
The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way. That is the beginning. Before anything that ever had a beginning. In the beginning was the Word.
You know the Lord Jesus is not a created person.
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The Lord Jesus is an eternal person, and the Word of God says that he has neither beginning of days nor end of life. No beginning, no end. He's the great I am. In other words, He just is. And as finite creatures with limited minds, we have a hard time understanding eternity.
We measure everything on this earth according to time and space and so forth, but eternity is a another dimension altogether outside of anything that we know on this earth. And it's an eternity that God dwells, that God thinks, and here in eternity before the world was created.
We have the father delighting in his son, the father and son relationship before it was formally revealed.
And these verses give various features of the creation, and I didn't have it in mind to fixate on any of those in particular. But notice one thing in verse 30. That's precious. Verse 30, Then I was by Him as one brought up with Him. There's another translation. It goes like this. Then I was by Him as His master Workman.
Think about that. The Lord Jesus, the Son of God, was a master Workman in the creation. And we could look at other verses in the Word of God that show us that all three persons of the Godhead had a role in creating this creation. But it's been said that the Lord Jesus was the active agent in the creation, and I believe the New Testament Scriptures would agree with that as well. By him the world's were made, the universe was made, John says without him.
Was not anything made that was made. He was the active agent in the creation. Then I was by Him as His master Workman, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing. All was before Him. The Lord Jesus the Son, was the eternal object of the Father's heart. And here is a setting of just perfect joy. Perfect.
Love, that's what the Father had with his Son in eternity. And you know, it's been said that God is, is self existing and he's self-sufficient. In other words, he doesn't need anything outside of himself. He doesn't depend on anything outside of himself like you and I do know God has everything he needs in himself, but it's his grace that would choose to include us in his plan to glorify his Son, the Lord Jesus. And so it says.
In verse 31, mighty lights were with the sons of men we read in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. But the Lord Jesus was rich. He was rich in this eternity with his Father. He had honor, glory, and abundance. For your sakes, He became poor.
And the Lord Jesus by his grace, would include us in that plan. And just by considering the setting makes it so much more magnificent to think that he would leave that place with his Father and that the Father would send him into this earth. And think for a minute, maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves. But think for a minute about all the glories that the Lord Jesus would not have acquired if he would have stayed there with his Father.
Lamb of God, Redeemer, Priest, Savior, Captain of our salvation, head of the Church, The Lord Jesus would not have acquired those glories had he stayed in heaven and not come to this earth and died. Well, we read in the Word of God that when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. And so let's read about that in Luke chapter one.
Consider the Son of God coming into time now.
Luke, chapter one.
And verse 30.
And the Angel said unto her.
Luke 1 verse 30 Fear not Mary, for thou hast found favor with God, and behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give him the throne of his Father. David verse 35 And the Angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall over shadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing.
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Which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God, Son of God. Here is the entrance of the Son of God into time, into creation. This is the incarnation when God would take on a body of flesh. You know, it's quite an incredible thought that God would come in the form of a human being, but is it an even more incredible to think that he would come as a little infant?
A little infant. Think about about that for a moment. God manifest in the flesh, you know, we read, I think it's Colossians, that in him all the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell bodily. What is a little infant in size? Maybe seven, 8 lbs. But the God who inhabits eternity, as Isaiah tells us, would condense himself.
To the body of an infant? Isn't that mind boggling?
We're told in Isaiah that unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and his name shall be called the everlasting God. This was no.
Ordinary baby This little baby in Bethlehem's Manger had the attributes of God.
God and man and one person. That's a mystery we don't understand. But everything depends on that mystery. A holy person, that holy thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. Think of what a shocking thing it was for the Lord Jesus.
The Son of God to come into a world of sin. It didn't shock you and I because we have sin in us. We're born in sin and shape and in iniquity. But this one, the Son of God was holy. In him was no sin. He did no sin. He knew no sin, perfectly holy. And his very presence in this swamp of sin was an occasion for his suffering. He was a holy man.
You know, it's been said that the more holy the person, the more exquisite their sufferings are in the presence of sin.
And think about that the Lord Jesus lived a life of suffering. But think about how exquisite, how rare, how special those sufferings were, God his Father.
Let's move on to Luke chapter 2.
We know that the Sacred Scriptures are largely silent on the life of the Lord Jesus from the time he was an infant till the time he was about 30 years old and began his public ministry. But there is one exception here in Luke chapter 2.
So this is when the Lord Jesus was 12 years old and he would go to Jerusalem with his parents. He would get separated from them.
And and let's pick up with verse 48, Luke 2, verse 48.
And when they saw him, they were amazed. And his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father, and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How was it that you sought me? Wist ye not knew ye not that I must be about my father's business?
And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them. But his mother kept all these sayings in her heart, And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. Here in this little glimpse of the Lord Jesus's life, we see what His purpose was on this earth, and that was to do his Father's will.
Wisty, not that I must be about my father's business, you know, in the gospel meaning sometimes we'll say.
That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and that's right, it's scripture. Say the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. And that's right, it's Scripture, it's the word of God. What could we say? There was even a higher motive that the Lord Jesus had the Son of God had in coming into this world. That was to do his Father's will. He said, lo, I come to do thy will, O God.
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And we read through the Gospels, especially John's Gospel, where he's presented as the Son of God, and we see many, many references that he makes to doing his Father's will.
He said I came not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And when the disciples expressed concern that he had not eaten in a while, what did he say? My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
When he overthrew the tables of the money changers there in the temple.
The disciples remembered that it was said of him, The zeal thine house hath beaten me up. He was totally consumed with zeal for his Father's will, and, you know, for the Lord Jesus.
Obedience was not an occasional act for him like it might be for you and I. It was the story of his life.
We still not that I must be about my Father's business and he would prefer the will of God over his own comfort. Christ please, not himself. He would prefer the will of God over his own safety, and so he would become obedient unto death even.
The death of the Cross.
The Lord Jesus was not only devoted to his Father's will, but he was. He was perfectly intelligent as to that will. He could say my doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.
Though he were son yet learned he obedience through the things which he suffered. He didn't have to learn how to be obedient. He was a perfect person, but he did learn the cost of being obedient.
Let's go to John's Gospel.
Chapter One.
To read a little more about this person, what a person this is that we're talking about. This is the Son of God. This is the very one that God would find his delight in. John chapter one. Excuse me.
John one verse 14 very well known, and for good reason. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bear witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for He was before me, and of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
No man has seen God at anytime. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.
The Son of God was a person of glory, and that's a beautiful subject to consider in and of itself. The glory of the Son of God, the glory of Christ is a man and.
Glory for the purpose of these verses would mean excellence and display display of excellence for the Lord Jesus Christ. And I heard a distinction made once that was very helpful to me and I'll share it. Hopefully someone else will find it helpful.
And that is the difference between the Lord Jesus positional glory and His personal glory, the positional and the personal glory of the Son of God. In Proverbs 8 we read about his His positional glory. There with the Father, He had indescribable honor, the object of angelic worship.
He had glory there. That was His positional glory, and He left behind the display of that when He came to this earth. But did anything change as far as His person goes? No. He was the Son of God. Whether he was in heaven or whether he was on this earth. He was and is the eternal Son of God, and nothing changed about that. Nothing changed about that.
That glory that he had, that original personal glory as the Son of God.
Was mostly veiled when he was on this earth. He was a humble man, wasn't he? But every once in a while the might say the veil was pulled back a little bit and there would be a little gleam of that glory that would reach the eye of faith. And so John could say we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
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What a perfect, perfect man.
And this was the man in whom God was delighting. From eternity into time. God was finding the light. And he says here, John says, he hath declared him the Father, every step, every word, every work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Harmony and agreement with His Father. He that has seen me has seen the Father, and it would be nice to go through the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because there's so many treasures that can be gleaned of his moral beauties and moral glories where he's he's, he's displaying that full truth and grace that was in him.
But let's move on to the end of the Lord's pathway and turn to Luke chapter 22.
As perfect as his life was, and it was perfect.
It did nothing to answer the question of sin, but it did give character to his death. His perfect life gave character to his death. And let's move along to look at that.
Luke 22 and verse 39.
And he came out and went as he was want to the Mount of Olives, And his disciples also followed him. And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them about a stones cast, and kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me, nevertheless not my will but thine be done. And there appeared an Angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him, and being in an agony.
Prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
Nevertheless, not my will a thine be done. The will of God would include the Manger. The will of God would include His rejection by a whole nation of people. Think of what that meant. He came into his own, and His own received him. Not yet, he says. Even so, Father, or so it seemeth good, a nice sight. The will of God would include ridicule, reproach, horrible accusations.
The will of God would include being forsaken by his closest friends.
And here the will of God would include Gethsemane, the will of God would include the cross, and here that cross was before the Lord Jesus.
And it's horror. The Lord Jesus always had the shadow, the cross looming over him, and he would make references to the cross of Calvary that was before him. He saw the place afar off, as it says in the Old Testament. But now it was not the shadow of the cross, it was the reality that had come.
Luke, chapter 23.
Luke, chapter 23.
In verse 33.
And when they were come?
To the place which is called Calvary, There they crucified him and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, father forgive them, for they know not what they do.
Hear the Lord Jesus is offering himself without spot to God. You know, in Genesis 22, Isaac would ask a question to his father. He would say, Father, where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And that question was kind of echoed throughout the Old Testament. Many, many lambs were offered up, but there was never the lamb until we turned to John's gospel and he says, behold the lamb.
Of God.
Abraham would say, My son, God will provide for himself, the lamb for the burnt offering, and here it is, the lamb for the burnt offering. Perfect sacrifice offered without spot to God. Someone has said that the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, was the only person in the universe who met the qualifications of Savior. The only person in the universe who met the qualifications of Savior.
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I scratch my head when I heard that.
But it was explained like this. The Savior would have to be a man so that he could die for other men. There had to be that that equal exchange, man for man.
An Angel couldn't die for man. The Savior would have to be sinless. How could he die for the sins of the people if he had sins himself that needed to be dealt with? The Savior would have to be infinite in order to bear an infinite number of well, pay the price for an infinite number of sins at the cross of Calvary. But the Savior would also have to be willing. Willing. Was the Lord Jesus willing?
Here am I.
Send me.
He was willing.
Verse 44.
Excuse me, Verse 44 Luke 2344 and it was about the 6th hour.
And there was a darkness over all the earth until the 9th hour.
And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.
We sing sometimes about the closing scene of anguish.
In all God's waves and billows for him. And here it is. You know, it says that they went, both of them together, the Father and the Son. There was perfect communion between the Son and his Father as they went up that hill.
But here, in these hours of darkness, we know that those accumulated sins were placed on the Lord.
Please.
And that perfect communion that he had a sever.
And so he wouldn't say my Father, he would say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken since there that the Lord Jesus had never known.
As he was on the cross in these three hours, wounded, bruised for sins. Am I missing something?
Wounded and bruised for sin.
Is that better?
Sin is an offense to God. It's an outrage to Him, and he would take his rage out on the sinless one, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he would take the punishment. Those sins were placed on the Lord Jesus. He was made chargeable as though they were His own. He took the punishment for it.
Deep calleth in the deep. The noise of thy water spouts all thy waves, and thy billows are gone over me. God would do this to His Son. God would do this to his Son. What a thought you know in these three hours of darkness.
We really don't know exactly what happened.
God would, you might say, honor his Son by covering that scene in darkness.
Protect him, you might say, but we really don't know what happened. We know that a sinless man was suffering for sins that were not his own. But we can rest in this thought that God knows what he did at the cross of Calvary. God knows what he did at the cross of Calvary, and he can say it is finished. It is finished.
Verse 46.
And when Jesus had cried, with a loud voice he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.
And having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
Here in this verse is the wonder of eternity, the biggest irony in the history of this earth, that the immortal God would die.
The Lord of life and glory would lay down his life on that cross.
Can't take it in very well, can we? You know, when we come together and remember the Lord Jesus and his death on Lord's Day morning privilege, that is special privilege. But we sit there around the Lord Jesus Christ, him in the midst, and we consider him. We consider his love, we consider his sufferings perhaps, but it seems like what in a way we're really trying to do in that hour is face the fact that we have been died for by God.
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The Son.
We sing about it, don't we?
Forbid it, Lord, that we should both save in the death of Christ our God, when the Incarnate Maker died for man.
His creature Sin.
The Lord Jesus the Son could commend his life to God his Father.
And that's totally in keeping with the tenor of his life.
He could say, therefore, doth my Father love me because I lay down my life? Let's turn over to Isaiah 53.
To get God's estimation of this.
Thrice holy work.
Isaiah 53.
And verse 10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed, He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travel of his soul, and shall be satisfied by his knowledge. Shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. God was pleased with what the Lord Jesus did on that cross.
There was now a sacrifice that brought ultimate pleasure to the heart of God, unlike all those animal sacrifices in which God had no ultimate pleasure.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. We read in the word of God that the Lord Jesus the Son offered himself.
As a sacrifice and a sweet smelling savored to God in those three hours of darkness in the cross of Calvary, there was a fragrance that went up from Calvary to heaven and it pleased God, did it not? It pleased God. He was that burnt offering. We read about that burnt offering in the beginning of Leviticus. It was the offering that was all for God. And so the Lord Jesus Christ, he died for us. That's true.
He died for us first and foremost. He died for God.
He died for God on that cross.
God is pleased known as something in verse nine of Isaiah 53.
Verse 9, the beginning of the verse, and we'll read it in the new translation to get the wording.
And men appointed his grave with the wicked, but he was with the rich in his death. That's a special thought. God would put a limit on what man could do to his Son. He would allow man to take him with wicked hands and crucify him, beat him.
Put a crown of thorns on him. He would allow man to give the Lord Jesus a criminal's death, but he would not allow man to give him a criminal's burial.
Men appointed his grave with the wicked. They wanted to bury the Lord Jesus in that field of blood with the other criminals. But God would not let that happen. He would honor that life of moral beauty, moral perfection, and see to it that His Son got a proper burial, the tomb of a rich man, in which no man had ever laid.
So the Lord Jesus died and he was raised by the glory of the Father, and later he was received up in the glory we read. He was saluted by God and now in resurrection, what does God think of him? Let's turn over to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3.
Romans 3 and verse 24.
Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at this time his righteousness, that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. In resurrection, God would set His Son forth to be a propitiation.
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You know, I've kind of struggled with that thought of propitiation.
But I've heard someone say that propitiation basically means satisfaction. Maybe that's a bit of an oversimplification, but it gets the point across. God is satisfied with what his Son the Lord Jesus did at that cross of Calvary because a full payment has been made for sin.
I heard an illustration of propitiation, and again, I'm sure it's incomplete, but it gets the thought across. And that is of a city. Suppose there's a large city and there's a food shortage there, a famine, but there's a food bank in that city that has enough food to feed every single person in that city. Just because there's enough food doesn't mean that everyone's fed, but it means that the resources are there. The provision has been made to feed every single person in that city.
Much the same with propitiation. We're told that the Lord Jesus made propitiation not just for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world. That is the strength of His sacrifice. That is what God sees in His sacrifice, enough to declare Him to be the propitiation for sins. Now, just because provision has been made doesn't mean that everyone sins are forgiven. No man has a responsibility to come to come to him.
In.
Repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
So it's the blood that saves, but it's also the blood that makes a savable, because the blood is that which has made a righteous foundation on which God can forgive sins and be perfectly just in doing so. So mercy and truth have met together beautifully there at the cross of Calvary. God's love, God's holiness, both been satisfied.
Through what the Lord Jesus did, God knows what he did at that cross, and God is so satisfied with the Lord Jesus that he's raised him from the dead, exalted him, giving him a name above every name. And in the meantime he's blessing a few sinners. But it's all about him. It's not about us. We're out of the picture when it comes to propitiation, except for, I suppose, the contribution of our sins. That was a work between Christ, between the Son.
And his God.
I'll just closing here. Let's go over to 1St John.
First John, chapter one.
We've considered the Lord Jesus and God's thoughts towards him, his Son, on an incomplete way, but in a partial way. And just to kind of bring this home, tie it together a little bit, let's read in first John chapter one.
First John chapter one. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon in our hands, have handled of the word of life. For the life was manifested, and we have seen it. And bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us, that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us.
And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things rightly unto you, that your joy may be full.
Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. In other words, we have fellowship with God the Father concerning his Son, Jesus Christ. That's where we meet God the Father. That's the common ground. That's the common delight and joy, his Son Jesus Christ. And when we do this, it's communion. We commune with divine persons, and that's a special, special privilege that's been given to us as believers with the help of the Holy Ghost.
Enjoying Communion?
Fellowship with the Father and the Son and I.
I trust that the young people here will discover the treasure that it is to have this communion. It is special and it is a privilege. You know, there's something captivating about the Lord Jesus, isn't there? Something almost, you might say, charming about him and as a relatively younger person, it.
Amazes me that a young person can come to the Lord Jesus and simple trusting faith and proceed to follow him for the rest of their lives. Fifty, 60-70 years following the Savior. That's a proof of the beauty of Christ. The reality of one's faith communion is so fundamental, isn't it in our lives? We've been discussing that a little bit in the meetings and it's good. We need to hear it so fundamental and we oftentimes hear it said that there are no.
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Substitutes for communion, and I wonder if we could take it a step farther and say there are no shortcuts to communion. It takes time.
You know, we live in a day when we're always trying to find better and faster and more efficient ways to do things. But if we could say it this way with communion, we need to do it the old fashioned way and spend time with the Lord Jesus Christ. Young people, I hope you're cultivating.
That relationship with him and the enjoyment of it. Our fellowship was with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ, and this enjoyment of the Lord Jesus Communion.
Is the food for worship in our lives? And worship is so important. It's been said that the Lord Jesus is not hiring a servant, He's wooing a bride. He wants our affections. He wants our worship. And that's what sounds so sweetly to the ear of the Father.
You know, Joseph said to his brethren, Tell my father of all my glory in Egypt. And that's a privilege that we can do and worship when we take the excellencies of Christ, the beauties of Christ, and we just present them to God the Father. Beautiful, isn't it?
Just in closing, there's a poem that I'd like to read.
I've enjoyed it's, it's a hymn. We don't have it in our little flock hymn book, but it is a beautiful hymn. Goes like this. Gather to thy name, Lord Jesus, losing sight of all but Thee. Oh what joy Thy presence gives us. Calling up our hearts to Thee, loved with love which knows no measure save the Father's love to Thee. Blessed Lord, our hearts would treasure all the Father's thoughts.
Of thee all his joy, His rest, His pleasure, all his deep delight in thee, Lord, Thy heart alone can measure what thy Father found in thee. How he said is love upon thee called thee His beloved Son. Yet for us He did not spare thee. By Thy death our life was 10. The joy, the wondrous singing, when we see Thee as our art, Thy blessed name, Lord Jesus, bringing sweetest music.
To God's heart, notes of gladness, songs unceasing, hymns of everlasting praise, psalms of glory, joy increasing through God's endless day of days. Let's pray.
Gracious Father, we give thee thanks for sharing.
My thoughts of thy Son, the Lord Jesus. We give thanks that we could enjoy a few of these together. And we just pray, gracious Father, that our thoughts on the Lord Jesus Christ would be increased, would be expanded and be enlarged so that there would be more for Him in our lives. May He be the object of our hearts. We know He's the object of thy heart, blessed God, and so we just would ask for Thy help. We give thanks again for this time we have to come together.
And speak about that one, the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks for the safety we've enjoyed, As for continued blessing and the precious praiseworthy name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.