Peter Brandon preaches on 'The Cleansing of the Leper,' emphasizing that true transformation comes from being in Christ, who makes us new creations through the Holy Spirit. He illustrates how people often cling to worldly things, much like a child with a beloved teddy bear, unaware of the greater joy found in Christ. Brandon explains that God reconciles us to Himself through Jesus, who bore our sins, and calls us to respond by opening our hearts to Him for communion. He warns against spiritual lukewarmness and encourages believers to seek a deeper relationship with Christ, who desires to share in our lives. The sermon concludes with a call to repentance and trust in Jesus for salvation and transformation.

Well, just a few scriptures and then I get down to my story. Could we turn please to the second of Corinthians chapter 5. We read from verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. That's what the word creature means, a new creation. So a Christian is someone who is in Christ and he is a new creation. Now please note this, a Christian is not someone who tries to please God by good works. You will never become a new creature like that. A Christian is someone who has received the Holy Spirit into his life. And the Holy Spirit coming into a person's life makes him a completely new creature. So that he belongs to Christ, he has been born of Christ and he is completely new in the sight of God. Therefore old things pass away, behold all things become new. That means when we become a Christian and we are made new creatures we have new pleasures and new joys. And therefore we love the Lord Jesus, we love to please him, his Holy Spirit is within us and therefore we go an entirely different way to the world. And therefore old things pass away, behold all things become new. It doesn't mean that when we become a Christian we have to give up this, give up that, give up the other. But when we take Christ as our Saviour the other things pass away. When I was young and the family was all young and my dear wife was young, we had one little boy that had a teddy bear complex. And you know what teddy bear when he was one, two, three, four, five and somehow we couldn't seem to wean him from his teddy bear. And every time he went to bed he used to hug this teddy bear and he would say by his eyes at least if you take this teddy bear from me I'll scream the caravan or the house down and he could do it. Well my dear mother-in-law came and like all mother-in-laws they do spoil the children. I do it now with my grandchildren I spoil them and then give them back. And mother came with her new toy it was a lovely telephone, automatic. I said now my dear don't give it to the child now let's try an experiment. There little Andrew was holding his teddy bear and if I could speak he was saying something like this you're not taking this from me I love it so much. And it was a teddy bear it was more bear than bear. He had sucked all the hair off it and one eye was hanging down its cheek and the other eye was in you know. And there he was holding on to this thing no one in the world will take this lovely thing from me and he didn't know how ugly it was. And there are hundreds of people like that. They're holding on to the things of the world and they won't trust Christ and if they only looked at the thing they were holding on to how bare it was. And then I held up the telephone and he wouldn't look you're not going to deceive me. He looked at the bear then I held it up again and rang its bell oh and he looked and looked but then went back to the bear. Then I spoke through it and rang again oh can speak through it got wires and a battery lovely and then he went back to the bear. And then I did something that I can't tell the boys and girls now but that really startled him and he looked and then he started to let go of the bear slowly and then one hand went up and the other hand went up and he stretched out for it and his mother took the bear away and he didn't know it was gone. And from that moment he lost his teddy bear because he took something that was better. That's it. Christ in all his glory and loveliness stands before you as the saviour that died on the cross for your sins who was raised again who wants to pardon your sin and make you a new creature and as you look at him you take Christ and the old things they pass away. Let's go on. And all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. That means the ministry of telling people that they can be made right with God. To wit that means to know that God was in Christ and that means that Jesus Christ was the full and absolute manifestation of God. God was in Christ. What was he doing? Not condemning the world, not judging the world, but notice this, reconciling the world unto himself. Isn't that lovely? He did not come to judge the world. He did not come to blame. What does the chorus say? He came to save. And isn't that beautiful? We see him here reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. That means not imparting their sins to them and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead be you reconciled to God. Someone in London said to me the other day, well Peter how is God going to speak to me? He said I would like to hear him speak to me. How is he going to speak to me? Well if God was to speak to us orally like I'm speaking to you all of us would have a horrid shock. And therefore when I'm away from my beloved wife there are two ways in which I can communicate with her. I can pick up a telephone and phone her but sometimes a phone message can be misunderstood. Or I can take a letter and I can write a letter to her and I think I can say this for the glory of God. When I'm away I write to her every day and I've done that for nearly 40 years. No burden at all. You know isn't it lovely after 40 years to still be in love with your partner and the love growing and I write her a letter and she writes to me and when the letter comes what a joy it is. We haven't heard from our family for a week but when we get that first letter the joy will be to read it. Now God speaks to us through preaching what we're going to hear tonight and then he speaks to us through the word and therefore tonight God is going to speak to us through preaching and through the word of God and I do trust dear friends that we shall not just hear it but believe it and so become Christians. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God and that's our message no matter where we go we cry out as lovingly and as loud as we can get right with God. Now how can we get right with God for he has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now what does that mean let me explain. Professor Rendell Short was actually going through the Belgium conga that is Zaire today and what he was doing he was looking at scores of coloured boys and girls black boys and girls because he wanted to diagnose a particular disease. In his travels this was just before the last war he came across an African prince who retorted a story to him that he had never forgotten and he spoke about his father who was the great machete of the Belgian conga and probably he was the greatest African prince that ever reigned in that part of the world. All his wealth was not in money but in jewels and ivory and he was fabulously wealthy and one day his primitive accountant came to him and said that one of his best diamonds was missing and so he called his old town criers and told them to go through the various villages and compounds telling that the culprit when caught would be beaten with 30 rods that was to the point of death and these old-fashioned town criers would run through the woods to the various villages and compounds and they would ring their bell and call all the people together and then he would say that the great prince has lost one of his diamonds believed stolen and the culprit would be beaten with 30 rods but they couldn't find the culprit. Three days later his primitive accountant came to him and said two more diamonds were stolen and now he was cross and more of these primitive town criers went out to the people pronouncing the prince's judgment upon the thief but they couldn't find him and then to his horror his accountant came to him and said five diamonds are now missing and the fact was in the file and so he decided to disguise one of his own servants or detectives as a servant and this man was actually waiting upon his own table and around that table there was just his wife and his mother and four days passed and still there was no sign of the culprit being caught and then one day this detective who was disguised as a servant hid in the throne room and the door opened and in came the chief's mother and she went to the safe took a large diamond and just as she was going out of the door she was caught and apprehended and unfortunately the news leaked out it was the chief's mother. What would he do? Crowds of the people under his reign said if we had been caught we would have been punished with 30 rods to the point of death. Will he be just? Others argued and said how could a son punish his own mother and therefore there was this battle between love and justice. Some were saying he must be just, others saying he can only be loving. How could love and justice be reconciled? When we read the bible God has pronounced upon the whole of the human family because we have sinned the wages of sin is death. Now may I use my old-fashioned cockney when God says that he's not kidding. Neither does it mean every time you sin he puts the gun to your head if that were the case who would be alive? But it simply means this because we had all sinned and we have the preacher sinned every single one of us have sinned we have broken his commandments we are separated from God. Death in scripture never means annihilation always separation and we in the human family we are separated from God. Now that's just and that's right. Could you expect a holy God to have sin in his presence? Would you like to be in heaven and see an act of love or a case of bad temper? Of course you wouldn't. Therefore God separates sin from himself but this is the flashpoint. If you die without being made right with God that means reconciled. You are lost forever and that's why the only one thing in life that matters and that is that you get right with God. The court was set and what excitement thousands came to see it. Right in the small township there was a high bench there were her legal advisors primitive at men there was the opposing council admittedly primitive men but the court was set and they were all arguing would he be just would he be loving if he's loving he's not just if he's just he's not loving and what a battle there was and then they saw their prince with all his legal regalia climbing the steps of the judicial pulpit the bench and then they saw his mother being brought in and then immediately the case started the mother stood up and this must have been a terrible embarrassment for the son she confessed her guilt immediately stating that she had stolen the eight diamonds and he stood perfectly still until they saw the whole of his frame shake and thousands of eyes were upon him and they were saying this are you going to be just you're going to be loving answer the surprise of the whole court he heaped upon his mother the heaviest penalty of the law and sent her to the post of beating and they all whispered he's just he's just but how can he do it when we read the scriptures and please listen to this it says the soul that sins it shall die the wages of sin is death admittedly it sounds hard it's just it's right that you say where's the love of god when he had pronounced upon his mother the heaviest penalty of the law he started to strip himself of his own regalia and for the first time in the history of that kingship they saw their own prince bearing his back and when his back was bare he stepped from the court the court that was judicial the court that was like a throne room and slowly moved in direction of his mother and just when the man was going to tie the mother's body to the post he pushed aside his mother and said to the man who was going to administer the punishment tie me he refused to do it and the prince said this i have given this law i am above the law i cannot break my own law i must fulfill it i demand to be tied and he could do nothing but tie his leader and thousands of eyes did not see a judge but they saw a substitute and they couldn't believe it there was their leader tied to the post ready for the beating they couldn't believe it that is exactly what god has done he found us guilty came down in this world with a body the body of christ and he took that body listen to a cross of wood that he might bear us in that's love and then it started 60 men were called forth massive men with these cruel rods that would break our bones if they were placed on us and after 28 rods had fallen upon his back the spine was broken and he was dead but they administered the 30 every rod that fell upon the back of the son the mother was heard to say for me for me for me i want to quote this scripture quietly the lord jesus said the scripture says of him he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquity the chastisement of our peace is upon him and with his stripes we are healed the scripture says he was made sin for us ladies and gentlemen boys and girls would you mind if i point it would you allow me he died for your sin for your sin for your sins boys and girls so much that he died and at that cross as the from that moment that son was almost immortalized but the story ends and here is the contrast note this he died and was buried and his sepulchre is worshiped christ died and was buried and hallelujah he rose again the third day and is here in this room and he's calling us to repent and trust him wouldn't it be lovely if someone said for the first time he was wounded dead for my transgressions bruised for my iniquity let us pray blessed lord we thank thee for this wonderful scripture we thank thee from our hearts for thy dying love for us and we think that there are tonight people in this room who need thy forgiveness who need to be made right with thee whose lives are in terrible danger lest they should die in their sins and oh god we thank thee for bringing them to this place so that they might hear the word of the lord calling them to get right with god thank you for the cross lord we thank you for bearing our sins in your own body on the tree and we pray tonight that someone for the first time might trust the savior oh god grant this we pray in the name of the lord jesus amen now can we sing just another hymn 292 i wonder if someone could give me a hint 292 just as i am without one plea but that thy blood was shed for me and that thou bidst me come to thee oh lamb of god i come now we are seeing just the first three verses of this lovely hymn and perhaps we could make it a real prayer tonight as we sing this um and unto the angel of the church of the lairdycians right okay these things say of the amen the faithful and true witness the beginning of the creation of god now these are three unique titles given to the lord jesus he is here called the amen and this refers of course to all his promises and even in a lairdycian condition where the church is more materialistic than spiritual the lord jesus will still fulfill his promises and in him are all the promises of god yay and amen and that simply means he will fulfill every promise because they're in christ and even in lairdycian he is still the amen you will notice that he's called the faithful and true witness and this does not refer to his promises this refers to his person and in spite of the unfaithfulness of the church in lairdycia the one who bought the church with his own precious blood will remain faithful to the end and that should cheer all our hearts he is the faithful and true witness the beginning or the head of the creation of god and this refers to his purposes in spite of the unfaithfulness of this particular local church the purposes of god were still to be fulfilled nothing would deter nothing would alter them and god will carry out his program and he will fulfill it the word beginning does not only mean initiation it also has the idea of being the head that means the completion of all his promises i know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot i would that thou were cold or hot so then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot i will spew thee out of my mouth now of course we find this very difficult to understand in england but you will find this quite easy to understand in australia i think this basically means quite frankly that the lord was lightening their spiritual condition to their water supply geographically lairdycia was situated between colosse and hierapolis and in one of these cities the water supply was hot in the other city it was beautifully and cold there was only one thing that spoiled the water supply in lairdycia and that was the fact that it was siphoned in from two miles outside of the city and when it came from the original spring it was hot when it came into the city it was lukewarm and invariably when travelers tasted it they immediately rejected it spat it out that basically is the meaning of the word now what the lord is basically saying is this that all their meetings were marked by lukewarmness they were not hot and boiling fervent with love they were not cold and refreshing giving refreshment to the lord through their love but they were lethargic apathetic couldn't care less you will notice in the church dear christian brother and sister that there is nothing wrong with their doctrine we do not read of the deeds of the nicolaitans we do not read of the ugly doctrine of balaam we do not read of the seduction of jezebel we do not read of the synagogue of satan doctrinally they appear to be correct but they went through it mechanically they went through all their meetings with a mechanical position and yet their hearts were neither hot nor cold they were lukewarm and that was the sin that the lord hated now why they were actually taking his bread and wine that spoke of his fervent love and they were doing it mechanically now i do not want to major on that but i think in these days when it's so easy for us to be lairdesian shall we ask ourselves a question when we took the bread and the wine did we shed a tear was our heart moved did we say within us thank you lord for saving my soul or let it be to god for his unspeakable gift or did we do it mechanically now can you see the point all of us must check up on our spiritual condition because the moment we move into lethargy even as christians we are basically as a testimony not as individuals rejected by the lord now why were they in this condition verse 17 because thou sayest i am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked and all that means is this although they said that they loved the lord although probably they said that he was totally preeminent although they said that they would rather have jesus than silver and gold by actual fact they loved the material more than the spiritual in other words they were saying i'm rich increased with goods and of need of nothing and perhaps they were basically saying see how the lord has blessed me with all these riches but then the lord looks upon them and he says thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked now this perhaps needs an illustration a friend of mine was doing business in west germany and then he was doing business in east germany and in poland and one day he was in east part of germany and he went into assembly and there he broke bread and if i have my facts correct there would be about 150 sitting around the lord's table and the saints were not in poverty but they just had the bare necessities of life they had learned to say give us this day our daily bread and the worship meeting went on for three hours now he said he wasn't too fluent in german but the spirit of that service warmed his heart the following week he broke bread in the western part of germany i won't mention the name of the city but you all know it because i do not want to gossip about that beloved land but he said when he went to the particular service he had never seen in his life so many mercedes cars outside and the pipe racks were full the clothing that the saints wore was beautiful but he said the worship was impoverished it was mechanical they said the right thing they said it beautifully but there was no heart in it now my brothers and sisters it's very difficult for us to have the material and then to remain spiritual and if the lord gives us a full cup materially we have to ask him to give us a very steady hand it's a very difficult thing to handle lightly the material things of this life now i want to major now upon the counsel of christ look at verse 18 i counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich on white raiment that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with thy soul that thou mayest see as many as i love i rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and repent behold i stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door i will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me to him that overcometh will i grant to sit with me in my throne even as i also overcame and am set down with my father in his throne he that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit sayeth unto the churches therefore the counsel of the lord to individuals in that church was as follows buy of me number two be clothed with me number three have a new vision of me anoint thine eyes with thy soul number four sup with me and then lastly sit with me let's think of it buy of me gold tried in the fire what did he mean laodicea was famous for its gold in fact the gold that came from laodicea and the refining of its gold was sent all over the roman world and therefore he was using the materialization of the particular city in which the church found itself to propound a spiritual lesson and this is what he says buy of me real gold pure gold everlasting gold going for that gold that's going to last forever and going for that gold that's really refined with fire you say what is that gold it's the gold of knowing christ and paul put it in a nutshell when he said that i might know him and the power of his resurrection the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death in other words the savior was saying to this particular local church going for that gold and going for refining that means the purification of your life so that you might have a new appreciation of the loveliness of christ what a challenge and may i say this to the young people and it's lovely to see you here this morning in your youth going for that gold that's tried by fire and once you get a grasp of christ and an experimental knowledge of christ you'll be able to say the things of this world become strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace and secondly you will notice white raiment that thou mayest be clothed now what does this mean they were famous for their white raiment again this was sold all over the roman world and laodicea had become fabulously rich because of its white raiment it was like very similar to our linen the irish linen only it was whiter and finer and i suppose when they sat in the local church the ladies and the men looked absolutely beautiful they were well turned out as we say now says the master as you're gathered together in my name i am not basely concerned with the white garment that you're wearing what i want you to really look nice in is in the clothing of christ and what does that mean it means the putting off once and for all the old man with all his evil characteristics such as lust bad temper irritation a love for the material all those things that make us ugly people put them off and then he says put on the new man so that your mind and your heart may be totally renewed so that you look lovely in christ that's the white raiment the gold as you know you can put a nugget of gold in your old-fashioned waistcoat pocket and no one would see it and therefore your inward knowledge of christ is private but when you wear your raiment everybody can see it and when people begin to see the loveliness of christ in you then they will see the manifestations of the subjective christ i wonder if i could illustrate this on one occasion i was asked to go into cambridge and to give a talk on the subject of faith in downing college and i shall never forget the experience we had a bread and cheese lunch and the cheese was so strong it literally stripped the roof of my mouth and made it very difficult for me to speak now that's strong tree cheese not very palatable i'm afraid anyhow when we sat down for the ministry of the word i began to minister and i looked at these young men and they were radiant with the loveliness of christ and halfway through my address i stopped and i said do you realize this that you're ministering far more to me than what i am to you now what was happening they were receiving the message and they were assimilating it and appropriating it to such a measure that they were radiating back to me what i was saying and as i looked upon those young men i could all see that they had been with jesus but this was the thing that struck me most of them had only been saved a year and there they were radiant with christ now what was happening the holy spirit was forming the lord jesus in them to such an extent that you could see the culture and the refinement and the loveliness of christ in them instead of being squeezed into the mold of this world they were being transformed into the beauty of the lord now i know this sounds rather sentimental language but i'm going to say it because it's scripture the lord doesn't want to spoil your life he wants to make you beautiful people can i say that again he wants to make you beautiful people with the loveliness of christ that's the white raiment then he says anoint thine eyes with eyes sold that thou mayest see now what does this mean it refers to the eye ointment that they sold and that also went all over the roman world now what the composition was we do not know nor do the historians but they suggest it was something that they put in the eye that cleared out first of all the dust as you know in very hot countries and this was in asia minor one of the hottest parts of the earth dust would be flying everywhere and it was so easy to get dust in the eye our dear brother des he got something in his eye first of all i thought it was the fist and the elbow of his dear wife but it wasn't it was some dust that came and then of course a piece of grit and he was in a terrible state of pain and he had to go to the hospital now they would anoint their eyes and it would clear out all the foreign bodies and then it would give to their eyes a clarity a clarity a vision and therefore what the lord is saying is simply this anoint your eyes that you might see now we all know the experience when we get something in our eye we can't see it's bothering us that's why the lord says that if you see the beam in your brother's eye and you don't take out the mode in your own eye you are a hypocrite now i've said that wrong purposely it's the little note in your brother's eye and it's a beam and actually it's the same idea of one of the roof beams and that's why sometimes the lord used a bit of humor in order to get his point home just imagine someone coming with an enormous splinter in his eye and he's trying to get a speck out of your eye what would you say physician kill thyself now if we are constantly seeing in our brethren inconsistency we're wrong the last thing we must do is to criticize our brethren and sisters we must build them up but what this text basically says is this if you want to see my glory if you want to get a vision of my loveliness if you want to see the scope of my kingdom if you want to enter right into the position of being a son of god experimentally you must anoint your eyes with thyself if we have the dust of this world in our eyes we shall never see the loveliness of grass now this is interesting beauty as far as the greek world was concerned was seen in the profile of the face the fineness of features but not so in the hebrew world it was said of david that he was rugged and of a good countenance the word good countenance basically means beautiful eyes and therefore in the hebrew world beauty was not seen in the fineness of the features but in the fixity of the vision clear unshifting eyes that was beauty that's what the lord meant when he said if your eye is single your whole body is full of light and that doesn't mean to say that god loves one-eyed people and when we get to heaven we shall just have one eye but it simply means this that the eye is fixed on one object and paul put it seek those things which are above where christ sit is on the right hand of god now i want you to come with me if you can into acts chapter 7 and you'll see the drama of this stephen the man of god was actually being stoned rejected by the world and as the stones were falling upon him you'll remember that the scripture says he looked up steadfastly that means he looked up with the fixity of vision in other words he did not look upon the men that were stoning him he looked right into heaven he looked with a single eye or to use the expression here he looked with anointed eyes and what did he see he saw the glory of god he saw the heavens open and he saw jesus standing at the right hand of god no wonder the lord took him into heaven it would have been agony for him to continue living upon the earth when he saw that glory anoint thine eyes with thy souls that thou mayest see gather vision of the glory of god you see the point so can we see now the counsel of god beginning to develop first of all buy of me be close with me have a vision of me and then he says as many as i love i rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and repent the idea of the word chasten doesn't always mean he has a whip in his hand the word chasten there means i will show you your faults and that means it's like the schoolmaster putting his arm around a pupil and saying you've done very well but there are one or two mistakes and he points out the mistakes and a good pupil will submit to it and that basically is the meaning of the word the moment you are the object of god's love why because you're going in for the gold you're wearing now the garments your eyes are anointed then in his love he's going to show you your faults why so that you might become filled with his beauty and then he makes this promise behold i stand at the door and knock what is he knocking for if he knocking for salvation there might be someone here i do not know and you have never received christ as your savior never received him into your heart he's knocking to come in it could be but more than that is he knocking for consecration what does that mean so that instead of being a mediocre christian and remember this if you are a mediocre christian it may be that you've never been saved because as you know when you accept christ you accept him as savior and lord and there is no such thing in the new testament as an uncommitted christian no such thing but he may be knocking for consecration but more you will notice he is not knocking so much for conversion though that can be applied here he's not knocking just for consecration that too can be applied but he is knocking come in and sup with us and that's communion now we need a new artist we need now not an artist that paints the lord jesus with a crown the thorns on his head in regal garments knocking at the heart of the sinner we need another artist who will give it its true interpretation the lord jesus the son of glory knocking at the heart of the saint and what's he knocking for he's knocking for communion now would you mind beloved if i ask a question how long do you spend every day with the lord in private communion do you rise if you're a sister cook the breakfast go through the chores of the day cook the evening meal without communion if so you're sinning against your lord the main reason why he saved you was to have communion with you and here is the lord desperately hungry desperately knocking desperately waiting for communion dear brother can i speak to you in love how long do you spend alone with god each day with the little room now how long here's the savior standing knocking knocking and we hear need to hear the knock and he makes his promise if any man hear my voice and open the door you say why does he say that brother peter surely his people can hear his voice no you see there comes a time when god says to his people today if you will hear his voice harden not your heart and that word harden in the greek is most profound it has three connotations number one it means to bring about a state in your heart where you lose all sensitivity so that you have no inward feeling number two it means to bring about a state in your heart where you become totally blind and number three it means this a state in your heart where you become totally deaf and the lord knocks but you don't hear the lord speaks but you don't feel the lord cries but you don't hear you're dead you see the hardness of heart has come now could i share something with you that's serious brethren and sisters i have never seen in all my experience such hardness of heart as i've seen in australia there's an uncanny hardness coming over god's people now could i say this to you and it's going to move me to say i am not prepared to stay here now for another four months ministering to people who do not obey the word of god the lord has made it clear to me this morning that if i find that god's people are just going to hear the word of god and not obey i must go back to my own country where god is beginning to move beloved it's absolutely essential that we hear and do something about it because the more we hear and harden our hearts the harder we become and instead of the word becoming a blessing it can become the means of judgment and that's why he says if any man hear my voice now can i speak to you can you hear can you feel can you see are you saying that's the word of the lord for me then he says if any man hear my voice and open the door i will come into him and sup with him and he with me and the supper was the best meal in the east and what the savior is saying is this look i'll come in and enjoy your bread and cheese that's it that's all we can give the lord he says and your come with me and sup with me in my paradise and i'll share with you all the goodies and dangers of heaven and it's the idea of size and then having given that wonderful illustration of that he says to him that overcoming i will grant to sit with me in my throne even as i also overcame and then sat down with my father in his throne