In this sermon, the speaker begins by describing a scene in a backyard with two yellow peach trees. He mentions putting a clip on one of the trees and being by a stove. The speaker then transitions to talking about teaching his son how to play the piano and the joy he felt when his son played his first little tune. He emphasizes the importance of growth and increasing one's capacity for God, using the analogy of his son's musical abilities expanding over time. The speaker concludes by emphasizing the need for all believers to grow in maturity and Christlikeness, highlighting that we are all part of the body of Christ and should support one another in our spiritual growth.

Ephesians chapter 5. Friends, we are very thankful that we could be here. And we are very thankful to the council that asked us to come. We are thankful to meet all those people again that we knew and knew. Also, it is wonderful to meet people that you prayed with and worked with. Mrs. Ferreira said yesterday, or rather, to come to these people is like a shadow of a big tree that is standing beneath you. Beautiful. Yes, and it is wonderful that we could be here like this. And we are very, very thankful. May the Lord help you to go from strength to strength. I read from 25, verse 25, Ephesians 5, just a few verses, and we will pick up others as we begin the message. Men, you must have your own pure love, as Christ also loved the community and gave himself for it, to sanctify it after he had cleansed it with the water of the Word. So that the community may stand before him in holiness, without without stain or stain, or anything like that, but that it may be holy and without deficiency. Come, let us bow our heads in prayer. Lord, we thank you that we can stand before you here this morning. You know our hearts, each one. The Word came this day. And gentlemen, if there are still people in this room who have not yet responded, be merciful. Be merciful today. Let them come to Jesus. Let them open their hearts. Oh Father, save them even here. And if there are people who have not yet responded to you, work in their hearts, we pray. Come, oh Holy Spirit. We have this love because you have had our first love. Come to us. Even now, in these last moments of this conference. Make our hearts soft. Break down in a spiritual way. Teach us from your Word, in the name of Jesus. Amen. This morning I want to talk to you about holiness and humanity. The second service we had, you will remember, we talked about Romans 6. How that we must count our death, and count our life, so that we can receive the victory, and can walk in it. This is a big, big lesson. And I trust, friends, that many of you have received light from this message, so that you can go into life to count your death. Count on what you know happened, where you died together with Christ. And now comes the search, and you count your death, because you died together with Christ. You count on what you know. And now you are here. And here, the cross makes me free now. What He did 2000 years ago, is now applied in these moments. And because I stand in the faith, and count myself dead, then I have victory in this moment. So this is one big part of victory, the victorious life that must be lived. But now I want to talk about the humanity, weaknesses in the people. There is a difference, there is a difference between weaknesses and sins. And I just want to say, weaknesses are innocent. Weaknesses are innocent. That is not a sin. There is a difference between weaknesses and sins. Listen to what the word says. Punish the one who sins in the presence of all, so that the other can also fear. Punish the one who sins. But He says, and on the one who is strong, rest the obligation to bear the weaknesses of the one who is not strong. So we punish the sin, and we bear the weaknesses. Think a little bit about what Christ did. We read that He forgives and He cleanses sins. We know that in 1 John 1 verse 9. If we forgive our sins, He is faithful to forgive our sins and to cleanse us of all iniquity. He forgives and cleanses sins. But, because we do not have a high priest who does not have compassion for our weaknesses, so He has compassion for our weaknesses, but He cleanses our sins. And then we speak of the Holy Spirit. If He comes, we read in Daniel 1 verse 16, if He comes, He will cleanse the world of sins. And we read of the Spirit, and just as the Spirit comes to heal our weaknesses. This is Romans 8 verse 26. So here we have two things. We have weaknesses, which are innocent, and we have sins, which are the judgment of God over us. We think of Galatians 5, where He says, The works of the flesh, but the fruit of the Spirit. If I compare two things, as I said, the works of the Spirit, but it is the works of the flesh. See, here is a pen. This pen works, if it is in the hand of someone who writes. The works of the flesh, there is sin behind it, and it works. But the fruit of the Spirit, is the ultimate anointing. The flesh must work, because the sin is behind it, and in that passage, the sin that has always been there, now continues. But now, there is the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit, comes naturally. Paul says, I died with Christ, and Christ lives in me. But he says, on the sin that lives in me. So he speaks of two things, Christ, and he speaks of the sin. Christ has condemned the sin in the flesh, we read in Romans 8 verse 3. He condemned the sin in the flesh. He came before it. And we read in Philippians 2 verse 15. Crucified and twisted flesh. Now here he is, out of the hand of God, uninfected, completely right, 100% perfect. But then comes the sin, and he twists that nature. And the sin goes in all those passages, where the nature is twisted. The crooked and twisted flesh. Now the Lord can do wonderful things, to forgive the sins, and to cleanse us of sins, but there I am, twisted and crooked. That's me, and that's you. And we are all sitting next to each other, like corrugated iron sheets, you know, where my crookedness, and your crookedness is, is not where your sin is. And then, we are not so nice to each other, and in peace. Because my crookedness, is not like your crookedness. And when we come together, and work together a little, bang, that's me. There, comes the light. Not by sin, but by my nature, which is twisted. And we have to be careful, on this path, which we are about to take, to, to realize, and to understand, that there is, a twistedness in my nature, which is still there, the Lord has forgiven, and He has released, and He makes free, and He cleanses, that's good, but I am still there, and my crookedness is still there. And there are things that happen, that happen with me, and with you, that are completely, innocent, but that need forgiveness. And you will never get to that point, where you don't have to say, I am sorry. No. That will happen until the end. Just think, in the first place, crookedness is innocent, but crookedness is opposite, so that He can make the community before Him, He can make the community before Him, as we glorify Him, without stain, or wrinkle, or something like that, but that it would be holy, and without defect. If we stand there one day, before the Lord, then we will be without defect. Listen to what Judas said, to Him who is mighty, to keep your corruption, and without defect, to stand before His glory, with joy. There we will be without defect, but not here. We are twisted, in a crooked generation. Now, here is the word, that the Lord said, that you, without stain, or wrinkle, should be holy, and without defect. So, He makes me, that I am without stain, He takes away the sin, but there, one day I will be without wrinkle. Here I have many wrinkles. And that we will be holy, and that day, without defect. Now, many people, are well washed, but not well ironed. That is many wrinkles. They became holy, through the power of the blood, but the defects, the defects, so many defects. There are mental mistakes. I sum up somebody, and I say, he does that because of that, therefore I put him in that category, and he is unaccountable. And I judge him wrongly, because I am not, I am not omniscient, because I am not omniscient. I cannot see him in his life. And because of that, I see him as I see him, and that is wrong. And then I make a judgment on that, and I handle him, and I talk to him, as I see him. And that is a wrong approach. I have a brighter mind. If I say to this brother, Brother, I will see you in the village, at three o'clock in the afternoon. Yes, I will be there. Just at that place. And I am busy here at the house, and I go on and on and on, and I work and I work and I work, and it is three o'clock, it is four o'clock, it is five o'clock, I wake up. Three o'clock I had to be there. And I call. Oh, was he there? Yes, I was in the sun. You talk about holiness, and you talk about the fullness of the Spirit. Do you hear me? Now, so relieved. But, my poor brother, I am sorry, I am terribly sorry. Yes, never, never, never, it will never have to be. They will have to say that all their lives. I am sorry. That was not my heart, no. That was my mind. Weakling. And I will repeatedly, repeatedly, do different weaknesses, through my life. It will become public. And it will have to be forgiven. The way you speak, you do not feel anything in your heart, but the other person feels it. And then there is a weakling. Weakling. Yes, we read there, in Romans chapter 3, verse 23, all have sinned, and that breaks them from the holiness of God. Speak to me freely. No, no, no, speak to me freely, all have sinned, but that breaks them from the holiness of God. The holiness of God is great and wonderful. It is a perfect person. We will break, and we will always be lower than what God wanted us to be in the first place. But we, because we have come and gone. And, although it is not a sin, but we do not come to his holiness. All have sinned. It does not mean that I have to sin every day. Not all have sinned, but that breaks me from his holiness. He says there in Psalms, Psalm 9, speak to me freely of that which is hidden, that which is unconscious. Speak to me freely of the things that I do not know, I do not know. Do I not also keep back that which must be sinned? There are things that I do not know, but where it must come to his holiness for forgiveness. Here is what the holiness must help us with. It is a kind of, take the example of a piece of metal, steel, which is behind the place, full of rust. And you lift it up, and you shake it off, but it is still full of rust, and above it you take it out, you shake the rust off, it is beautiful, but it is still turned over. It still has a dent here, and a dent there, and it must sit on the spot, and it must be hit. And brother and sister, it is here, here you place it, everything is beautiful, everything is wonderful, all the sins are taken away, and the injustice is taken away, but here I am, and I am in the hands of the Lord, and now I must be like that piece of metal, like it was in the beginning, and now the Lord is hitting me in different places, and he is hitting me, and he is hitting me, and he is hitting me. And do not run away, do not say, oh Lord, I must get out of here, no, but if I am here, help me to understand, help me to learn, help me to get something good out of here, because the Lord is busy with all of us. We must become like Jesus, and therefore it is very, very important to all of us. Weaknesses, I said, weaknesses are innocent, weaknesses are opposite, and weaknesses cause misunderstanding. The origin of infirmities are heredity and environment, nature and nurture. You see, you can, you can have a hesitant person put together with an impulsive person, two different kinds of character, and they clash. You remember what happened to Ezra when he came to the land in 457 BC, when he came to Jerusalem, he saw that they were all mixed among the people. He was heartbroken, he fell on his face and he pulled out his hair before the Lord, oh God, and they say, he is so heartbroken he actually pulled out his hair. Thirteen years later came Nehemiah, fourteen years later Nehemiah came, and Nehemiah, he saw the situation too, the situation where people have clashed with the people, with the people of the Nazis, the Nazis of that place. And he saw it, he felt just as bad, but he didn't pull out his own hair, he went to them and he pulled out their hair. There are two different people, and the Lord used both of them. But he had other ways of working. Timotheus, such a timid soul, take a little wine for thy eye, for thy infirmities, by the way it's a little wine for thy off infirmities. That's what he said. But Titus was a very different person. Timothy had to be carefully handled. Titus could just go and take Crete and other places and be the pastor, he was a strong man. We get the weak and clinging type of person, and you get the strong independent person, and if those two are put together they clash, somewhere along the line. You get people like, who are apparently lazy, and the other one is apparently hard working. For instance, one pastor, one minister, who's organized, and he's an administrator, and say, organisatorische talent is wonderlijk gebruik, he's got everything running, absolutely first class. He is able to do a lot of things, because he's organized, and he's got a big load. Then he looks at the other bloke, the other minister there, who's not organized, and he says, this chap's just a lazy, he's just lazy. He should learn how to work, but he can't, because he's got different makeup. And so then that man gets the judgment from everybody, say, he's lazy, he's lazy. But this is a zwakke, this is an infirmity, this is a weakness. So God is dealing with us all. It's all very well to say, hier reinde ik mijn hart, ah, is wonderlijk, that's the beginning, but you've got a life ahead, and you're going to become like Jesus all the way. There's a moment that you've got to grow, and grow, and grow, and grow, into Christ likeness. There's no stopping that. You can't say, ik kan nu die heren vertrouwen voor een rein hart, of vervulling van die heilige geest, amen, full stop. My dear friend, if you say that, you will lose the lot. What you have obtained by faith, you must maintain by faith. So we have a quick person, and a slow person. Hier is het lazam, ik dank net die heren, dat mijn vrouw kan werken. Want ik werk. Niemand heeft ooit, ooit, voor mij gezegd, jezus lui, ik werk. Het probleem is, dat ons werkt met elkaar, tot in de nacht. Ik is klaar, en ik zei, werk nog, en ik werk een beetje meer, en zij was klaar met mij, en ik zei, ik werk nog, en zei, werk een beetje meer. Jagen ons mekaar in. That's a bad thing. But, you see, you can have all kinds of people, working together, and clashing. And God is, he sleeps with us. So that we can be like Jesus. Years ago, I was in Durban, as a young pilgrim, and another pilgrim came up to me, and said, come, let's go north, we have stayed in Durban North, and we have to go into the city, just to count something. I said, no man, I am very busy here, I can't, it will be two hours, or an hour and a half. I don't want to go in now. I am busy. No man, come man, it won't be long, it's just a moment. Alright, I'm going in. And it's so warm, so warm. And he released me there, in the street. He said, I'll just be a moment. And there the car becomes, like a dog. And I really roll in there. And I sit there. It's been half an hour. He said, it's just a moment. Don't you know that I have work at home? It's been an hour. It's been an hour and a half. And I sit there, oh Lord, help me. Lord, work with this man. Bring him to the witness, wherever he is. Bring him back. And I said, Lord, I am busy with you. With me. He is here, but forget this. That's my job is. And, there I sit, my work. You know, I say, may He bring it, just to teach me some patience, and to develop some area in my life, that it might be a long suffering, with joyfulness. I said, Lord, I'm ready to stay here all day. And I'm happy to do so. Do you know French? We unload the tent. We have to come before midnight. Because we have to unload someone at the army. Before midnight. And that tent falls. And it's rolled up. And it's in the truck. In the truck. In the truck. And everything is gone. And we throw a sail over it. And I say, French, we have to go. And I make my knuckle dead. One, one, two, three. And I come there, on the other side. And there French is busy with the first one, making it so careful and straight. I say, French, do you hear us? We have to go, man. Yes, do talk to me there, Rabbi Lord. Patience, my friend. You see, here we are in places where this capacity can grow. Do you have to complain if he is in that position, no? Because that's the normal thing, right? If we are in a situation that is terrible, then, oh Lord, I just want to get out of here. Out, out, out, out. But the Lord wants to do His work with us there. Now we're running away from God. He'll catch you at the next corner. I mean, we were in Fort William, in Scotland. We had a service there. And we had tea after the service. And there were people that we hadn't seen in a long time. And there, I stepped out of the corridor. I was busy eating. And that woman, she put her hand out. Oh, Mr. Peck. And she said, wait a minute, wait a minute. And she's wiping, wiping all the jam off her, all the confit from her hand. Oh, just wait a minute. It's so wonderful to see you. Just, just wait a moment, just a little bit. I'm so glad. And here I am with my hand. I thought, man, I'm so happy I didn't bring my yogurt. Because I'll wait an hour for a cup of tea. Yeah. All two came out. We were, I almost couldn't get out of the car. Hello, Mr. Peckham, hello. Mr. Peckham, come here. And I followed her straight to the bathroom. And she said, look. How does the, eh, cup look? How does the bath look? Look at the, eh, the towels on the floor. How does it look? Is it holy? And the poor man is standing there like this. Head down. He doesn't know what to say. Then we go into the sitting room. And man, it's so fantastic. You don't even want to sit down. You know, it's so beautiful. So beautiful. I said, Danny, the Lord is busy with the work. See, many times we are what our mothers made us. Not always, no. I know from our children. They say, we grew up well. But that doesn't mean that's what we wanted. But, it means that's what our mothers made us. If he was sluggish, he would have grown so big. Maybe, it means. It doesn't mean. But, and the other one grew up so fine, grew up, grew up, now they're coming together. And now, it's not a shame, no. It's their nature. The crooked, twisted, crooked. And now, here I have a problem. It's too sacred here. It's too sacred. Look, how do you make it. And there, they fight each other. Yes, we have problems with ourselves, right? Yes. And you have a problem with yourself, right? And I have a problem with myself. We were on a ship, South Africa and Africa. And this ship had a children's fair. All around the more clean dinkies there on the deck. And once I went out and I just walked around and put in sixpence here and sixpence there and played a little bit with these things. Very nice, very nice thing. And once come sit with Senderlinga, but also copies as well as Kibas, and they sit on our table. And I say, did you see the children's fair today? Yes, she said, wasn't it a gambling den? A gambling den? I've never known anything about gambling. When she saw it, she suddenly realized immediately this is gambling. If she had seen me there, she would have said, ha, look at him. He talks about the fullness of the Holy Ghost. Look at what he's doing now. She didn't know my background. And so she would have judged me from her background. And I would have been condemned. And she would have said to other people, yeah, that Peckham, you know, he's no good at all. He's a, he says, I was doing it in total innocence. So we have these weaknesses which can cause misunderstanding. I remember being at the Bangor Convention in Northern Ireland. and a few thousand people were there in every phase of the Faith Mission Bangor Convention. And at that conference, we saw people that we knew from before. And there was one person who left the Bible School, and it was, she left under very sorrowful circumstances, and she went down to Ireland. She came up to that convention. I didn't know that. Her sister was there with her husband, and as we came out of the meeting, her sister grabbed me. She said, do you see that, Mr. Peckham? This girl, my sister, has come to this convention, and she walked straight into the matron, and the matron looked the other way. And it was a big feeling, and she felt so bad against me, and against the college, and against everything else. I said, no, I'm sure I know Ann Smith. She would not have done that. Oh, yes, she said, I saw it with my own eyes. So, fortunately, in all these crowds, I got hold of Ann Smith. I said, Ann, do you know that this girl is here? No, she said, I don't know that she's here. I said, her sister says that you looked at her and turned away. She said, no, I didn't see her. As a matter of fact, she had a different hairstyle, you know, and when girls have a different hairstyle, they look quite different sometimes. And so, she said, no, I didn't know. So, fortunately, also, amongst that crowd, I got back to that girl, and her husband, and I said, look, I've spoken to Ann Smith. There's no possibility she didn't know that this girl was there. It was a mistake. You didn't see right. Now, if I hadn't have been able to sort that thing out, they would have gone away and said, you see, that's what they do. Misverstand. And that needs the cleansing blood. That needs God to sort that matter out, and keep us in peace with one another. We need to stay in peace with one another. Alright. Weaknesses cause misunderstanding. And weaknesses need forgiveness. You see, what he says there, the high priest, Hebrews 9, verse 7, the high priest, They didn't know they had sinned. They didn't know this, they didn't know that. The New Testament has a better way. You see, It keeps us clean. I don't have to have a specific entry to God special for this specific thing that I don't know that I have done. Wrong. But as I am walking in the light, the blood keeps me clean. Even though I don't know the different things that I have done wrong, even though I don't know, the wrong views that I have of people, and the different things that are wrong in my life, I don't know about that. But, and it is condemned, it's condemnable, but now the blood, as I am walking in the light, the blood keeps me clean. So the blood shelters me. You see, the blood, I am forgiven, I am cleansed, I am sheltered, by the fact that I am walking in the light, and the blood keeps me clean. We read from the high priest there, in Hebrews, the high priest, we read from him that he is holy, innocent, and uninfected. He is holy, he is innocent, and he is uninfected. That's what God wants us to be. See, but there is no blame in that, what we are doing, sometimes when we are doing wrong, we don't know that we are doing it wrong. Love is the fulfilling of the law. If I, that's the word of God that I quoted, love is the fulfilling of the law. I love him with all my heart, but I make bad mistakes. I step on people, I make a mistake, and they feel against me, and that's cheating, and they talk to other people, and there are bad feelings, just because I do things that I don't know are wrong. I am not talking about sin, I am talking about character. He who has purity of heart, he who speaks with love, he who has a pleasant tongue, the king is his friend. A pleasant tongue. I read the other day, of someone who had a great board, when you walked into the house, his own house, only kind words spoken here. Would you put that on your house? Only kind words spoken here. My particular, it's a stealth work, and it's a cross work, and it's a hard work, and then they take offense, and then there's a great gap, and the gaps appear, and there's not the unity that there should be. Not because of sin, but because of swakir. Love is the fulfilling of the law. May I just say ladies, love of your husband doesn't make you a perfect cook, and you'll put a burnt offering before him, many a time. We love God with all our hearts. You think of the little girl who, her mother came in and her shoes were all wet, and she wanted to help mummy, so when mummy went away upstairs, she took the shoes and put them in the oven, and switched the oven on. Then mummy smelt something, and so mummy ran down the stairs and opened the oven, and there she saw the shoes nearly burning to bits. What are you going to do with a little girl? No, but she wanted to help mummy. She wanted to do the right thing. May I say, the vodka man. We love him with all our hearts, but we make mistakes. We were in the island of Tyree long ago, out there in the western isles of Scotland, and our little Christine, who is waiting for her own baby right now, should have come a few days ago, and we're waiting every time we hear the phone ring, we think, maybe. But anyway, she was just a little thing. And we didn't have these modern nappies, you know, that you just put together and throw away. We had the real thing. And we had two babies in one year, and now this little one. So we had 16 nappies on a line every day. So my wife brings out the basket, after the nappies had all been washed, he took her, and she brings out the basket, and she puts it on the floor, the plastic bag, now she's hanging these things up, hanging these nappies up, see. And little Christine wanders out, she picks up the nappy, and drags it through the mud, and brings it to mummy. See. So Christine's mummy says, no, no, no, Christine, don't do that anymore, thank you for helping me, but you mustn't do that again, because that's going to be washed again, see. She wanted to help, but she made mistakes. I had a car once, once upon a time there in those dim days before I came into the Lord's service. I had a car. It was a blue car, and it was very muddy that time, and the car got, it was brown, yelled my brain. And we parked the car, I parked the car just in front of the house under the trees, and there, my father and I walked up to the other side of the farm, about a mile and a half away, and when we came back, I looked, I said, dad, somebody's washed my car. Isn't that wonderful? Who washed my car? You see, we sold cream. We didn't sell milk. We gave the milk to the Africans. We had about 80 Africans working for us on the farm, living on the farm. So they could send their children, their young people, and they came with buckets of all sizes, and they could get as much milk as they want, and just pour it out into their buckets, and they have milk for the day. So they came, and they're waiting for the milk. They're waiting for the help. We'll fix the car, and we'll clean it. So they washed my car. And do you know how they did it? They took sacking, and they rubbed the dry mud off the car. Yeah. One, two, three, five million scratches. Oh. I had to wash the car again later. Spray paint. But the next day, they came all smiles. What will the boss say? He'll say, we helped a lot. Man, that wasn't a shambok. Too bad. Then I went to them. I said to them, thank you very, very much for what you did. I appreciate it terribly. But you should never, never, never, worry a lot. They wanted to help. You see, and so many times we want to help, and we want to do the will of God, and we want to help, we want to push forward the gospel chariot, and we do wrong. We do the wrong thing, and people are offended. And they stand aside, and they say, no, no, no. And then there's no unity. Why? What happened? It's not sin, it's me. Holy, harmless, and undefiled. That's what the Lord wants. Holy, harmless, and undefiled. We can be holy, and we can be undefiled, but God wants us sometimes to be harmless, not to hurt people. He wants us to be holy, harmless, and undefiled. And Jesus was holy, undefiled, and harmless. I remember being in the Bible school when we had a missionary speaking. Dear man, he's gone to be with the Lord now. Dear, dear, dear man, man of God. But there were a lot of people in the AEB sitting there who had given years of wonderful service, people who were not married, young ladies sitting there amongst the students, and he addressed them. And he talked so glibly, and he said, this person, these people are just old maids. And I glanced at him. And I thought, man, he shouldn't have said that. That was not, and I thought of that text at that very moment. Holy, harmless, and undefiled. You can hurt people. So your words, see, careful. So, may I say this? There may be regret, and sorrow, and heartache, and humiliation, but it doesn't have to be necessary to be condemned. I don't need to be condemned, because I've done these things sometimes without knowing. Sometimes just suddenly it happened, and I've gone wrong. And I need the presence and power of God. I need the blood of Christ to cleanse, and to keep cleansing me. And whenever that thing comes out, and I see it, then Lord, please, I'm coming back to the precious blood of Jesus. Cleanse me. Keep me clean. Keep the blood flowing, Lord. I want to walk in the light. And if I see something, then Lord, please undertake. Weaknesses. We need forgiveness. That pigeon needs forgiveness. That girl who was kidnapped by the murderer needs forgiveness. So we make big mistakes, we need forgiveness from God. And these weaknesses can be removed to an extent. Not everything, always. Because our mind is not going further and further away from us. Your mind loses control as time goes on sometimes. But there are different things that can be done. Cleansing. The blood is in the blood. Do you know that? In the Old Testament, do you know that? The blood is in the blood. So, what Andrew Murray said, When the blood cleanses me, it brings life. That's a fantastic statement. So Lord, please cleanse me and bring life. Don't leave me in a vacuum. Come, fill the gap with thy life. Then it is the life of Jesus that is filling me. Cleanse. And it's through faith. Faith is a firm faith on the things that we don't see. Firm faith on the things that we don't see. We want to be like Jesus. And we're all wanting to be like Jesus. There's a whole lifetime ahead. See? Remember in the words of that first message that I gave right at the very beginning, when they had to enter the land. But to possess the land, they had to put their foot on every place. Remember? So you gain as you grow, as you claim. And you take in more of the land as you continue. And you become more like Jesus, like what you were when you came to Him and took His life. That's why it says, By in your faith add there in Peter. You remember? By your faith add this and add the next one. And add the next thing. It's always adding and growing in grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. He says there in Galatians, The fruit of the spirit is more and more. He says there in Peter, besides this giving all diligence, add by your faith. As a matter of fact, it's by your faith. The Greek doesn't, it's not like a lot of pieces of furniture brought into the room. It's adding to your faith virtue. And through virtue you add knowledge. And through knowledge, temperance. And through temperance, patience. And through patience, godliness. And through godliness, brotherly kindness. And through brotherly kindness, love. So it's an adding and adding and adding. It's a growing. There's no stopping. There's no end. You haven't arrived. And a lot of times in holy shrines they think, they have so much claim on the crisis that they never think of what I'm talking about this morning. And then they just sit now, in a few weeks they don't know how to go about it. Then they have to come out again in the next conference and repeat it again. And the next conference they say the same thing. They never understood this. Never understood it themselves. We are full of bumps and and and and and and and and and and so it's a good and the here I'm with on slant and I'm almost like the mark for daddy that as on spay on us and I'm a nurse here renegade dear Calhoun dear lady you lady sacrifice Samuel Chadwick says deliverance by the discipline of experience perfection by suffering and even Jesus was made perfect through suffering. there is a discipline of suffering and sometimes when we are in the discipline of suffering it hurts oh it hurts and there are so many different kinds of suffering and you want to weep you want to cry you want to your heart breaks and God is busy with you in the suffering God uses all these things and then there's another one renegade later gazing interview on somehow met on the deck together such as a spiel the year look at from here on school what on spunk it down to four under notice of the build funny here look at the year we are being chained from glory to glory by the Lord the Spirit how as we gaze that's what it says there we all with open fear face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord beholding and that's the secret as we behold as we gaze so we are changed from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Corinthians 318 wonderful verse we gaze and my friends may I say this to you are you listening if you take care of the gazing God will take care of the glory what's the purpose the goal his image see that's the purpose and the goal right through life right to the very end the most sincere and the most developed spiritual person is still going to grow so we're growing to his image and what is that well how do we do it is by the Spirit the Spirit teaches us the Spirit teaches us how we can expand in our capacity so that's why the Bible says your love groweth your love let your love abound sister that there's one and he says again let by your faith groweth exceedingly so we were in a growing situation grow in the knowledge of God he weary grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ with it so there's a growth there's a continuance there's an increase of capacity see I'm gonna grow you see some of us are thimbles little thimbles and some are like a cup and some are they're not say it like a mug and then some are like a big tank or a drum some are like a reservoir dam some are like a big reservoir so I like a big dam but the little lady said I'm only a thimble but I can overflow a lot and so as I am only in a small capacity Lord fill me that I might overflow and enlarge my capacity let it grow so I might be filled with love yes but the capacity enlarges your love abound more and more and more and more and more and your faith groweth exceedingly groweth and groweth and groweth see this is a life of living for Jesus and growing into Jesus see if you plant a little apple tree here and we did there in the Cape long ago I don't know whether I've got them still we planted a few oranges and lemons and things around the house we're Bible school and to it on the a couple of years went past and then I said to my wife you know there's one of those trees got a little orange on it and so we went out to see the little orange and they grew and it's so it's got one orange wonderful perfect see but if that was like that the next ten years we just cut it out and throw it away so we've got to expand the fruit of the spirit must be seen I stood in the backyard of David no dear sir please and welcome and I stand to you woman best woman I was never here here here and I tell and it was by a stoop and I get it and I'm going and what a couple that's and the company leave a comb and the fruit when he hears my father they must see the spirit the spiritual spiritual fruit from that which God is placing within me and in which good which I am living and expanding we have a son he has my name and when he was a little boy little curly top white head kid I began to teach him how to play the piano He said, see that's middle C, see that's D, E, you put your thumb up there, that's F, that's G, and that's I. So, that's how he started playing. And that's where the day came when he finally played the first little lick. Tong, ti-tong, ti-tong, ti-tong. I go to my wife and say, Mary, come, come, come. And there she listens to us, listen, listen. We lure her, there I play. Tong, ti-tong, ti-tong, ti-tong. She says, that's wonderful. How's that marvellous. He's learning to play the piano, wonderful. See. But now, now he has great music. Now he says, and I play. Now when he comes into the room, I let go of the keys. Because his fingers are everywhere. Runs and harmonies and all sorts. When we left him in Britain now, our last phone call, I said, what are you doing? He said, I'm just writing music for the orchestra. Okay, bye-bye. Hey, don't wiggle. So, if you can only do a little few things now, but then as you grow, so your abilities increase, so your capacity for God increases, so God becomes more and more wonderful. That's why, when a young man trusts Christ for salvation, and for sanctification and for the cleansing of the heart and the filling of the Holy Ghost, there's a vast difference between that young man and the old man who's been walking with God for 50 years. Why, what is the difference? He's just as clean, because they trusted God to save them from sin. They're just as clean. But here's a man who's been walking. He's been matured along the way. Die leeuw had om geslaan. En hij het groter capaciteit voor God gehad. En daar wordt hij meer en meer zoals Jezus. What are you going to be like next year when you come here? More like Jesus. Hoe gaat hij groeien? Is dat hij groeien in de geest? Groeien in de dingen van God? Groeien in de openbaring van Jezus tot die eigen ziel? Ons is verordeneerd om gelijkvormig te wees aan die beeld van zijn ziel. Romeinen 8, vers 29. En Ephesians vers 4 en hoe is het, 13, zegt het. Totdat ons allemaal komt door die eenheid van die geloof en die kennis van die ziel van God, tot dat volwassen man, tot die mate van die volle grootte van Christus. Dit waartoe ons mag. So when I say to you, you've got to be filled with the Spirit, those three fingers point back to me to say you've got to be filled with the Spirit. When I say to you, you've got to enlarge your capacity, the three fingers point back to me to say I've got to enlarge my capacity too. So we're all growing, you see. Not one here and one there who's just sort of dominating the scene and saying what you must do. No, no, we're all growing, we're all part of the body of Christ. We're one of another. We're bound together in a bundle of life with the Lord our God. And God helps us to grow in capacity, grow in maturity, and grow in wholeness, grow in Christ-likeness. Amen? Amen? Friends, this is not the kind of message I want to give you. But I think it's a very necessary one. And if you can understand these things, listen to it, copy the CD or whatever, and listen to it, listen to it, so that these things can come to your heart, so that you know. If you struggle with yourself, then you have to know, I have to be like Jesus. Help me, Lord. Help me this morning. Help me in this week ahead. The problems on that side are waiting for me. The problems on that side are waiting for me. Lord, give me grace to be like Jesus.