In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of trusting in God and following His will. He highlights the example of Jesus, who revealed God's commands to His disciples and brought them into a close relationship with Him. The speaker also mentions the tragedy of knowing about the Bible and seeking to do God's will without truly understanding and experiencing His love. Ultimately, the sermon emphasizes that Jesus is the fulfillment of all the prophecies and teachings in the Bible.

One of the things we were thinking about last evening, and proceed on a parallel line, if you like, that the Lord may show us something more of his deep love and grace and his great provisions for us. Alas, too often we are content to rest in fringe benefits. God is so good, and he blesses us, if he gives us a handout of bread and fish, we're satisfied. We've had a miracle performed, and that's that. But that's nothing, really, nothing at all. It means nothing to eat bread and fish. The wonderful part about it is it came from five loaves and two fishes. There's nothing wonderful in eating bread and fish. No miracle in that. The miracle was in its creation. That's the trouble with us, that we are quite content to have the lesser things and make a big old noise about it, and that's that, when God has got so much more for us. And God intends, by being so good to us, to work up such an appetite in us, that we shall go on and on and on and on, until there's no further to go. So then, beloved, this is precisely what the Lord wants to do. If, then, we turn into Matthew's Gospel, to pick up a truth that we were looking at in Mark's Gospel, and that is, in the twelfth chapter, the same incident that you may recall we saw in Mark. At the end of the chapter, 12, verse 46, while Jesus yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. Because that's the wrong thing to do if you want to speak to Jesus, stand outside. Lots of people do that, they stand outside and they think that they're so important, that Jesus should drop everything else. But they show by their attitude, that they are the bosses. So the Lord just put this thing quite right. He said, who is my mother and who are my brethren? He stretched forth his hand toward his disciples and said, Behold, my mother and my brethren, for whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother. Now, you have, I want to take up the thought of brethren, really, and get the whole thing set in its biblical, and therefore, I trust, spiritual context. And we may understand what the Lord has for us. Obviously, in the use of the word brethren, in these two verses, gives us quite two ideas of the same truth. There were those who were his brethren, as we were saying last night, they were sons of Mary, though by Joseph. And there they were half brothers, if you like, whatever you want to say. There they were outside with Mary, and they were actually of the same flesh that he was. But you see, they weren't in the same place that he was. Now, I know, of course, that he was the unique son of God. It's not this angle I'm talking about. But in the context of the other brethren, where he turns round, and there are men sitting there round him, and he says now, those that will do the will of God, my Father which is in heaven, now they are my brother and my sister, of course, as we read in Mark last night, and my mother. And this doesn't mean, now let's get this quite clear, this was only a beginning of brotherhood on another level. It was not the brotherhood of the new birth. Anybody that would do the will of God, and those men did want to do the will of God, when he'd gone and called them, Matthew, the tax collector, and Peter, the fisherman, John and James, the fisherman, and Andrew, or Philip, or any of these, when he called them, these people had a real desire in their heart to do the will of God. And they came up, man with man, with Jesus. He was a man, they were the man. This time they didn't know he was the Christ of God. They didn't know he was the son of God. They saw someone who wanted to do the will of God on the earth. And so they went and joined up with him. And they became disciples. And there is a brother, there was a brotherhood on the earth of wanting to do the will of God. But they were not yet born again. It's essential that we see this. It's very essential to see it. You will notice the difference in the phraseology. Now, when it comes to the point and the place of new birth and the real new family, and it's in the list we're going to look at in a moment, he doesn't say anybody that's born again is my brother and my sister and my mother. It's brother exclusively. He was merely talking as they were in the flesh. And here many of us need to take this in. It does not mean that because a man or a woman sees Jesus, that is on the pages of the scripture, knows about Jesus and deeply desires to do the will of God, there are millions of them on the earth. They go into monasteries. They go into convents. They go into religious orders. They join churches. They really are sincere people who believe Jesus Christ to be the greatest man that's ever been born, and his ideals are the best of all, and his livings and his teachings and his works and his sayings are the greatest. And they know all about Calvary and they wear crosses on their necks perhaps. And I don't know. They may not do that. And they probably go into ministries and they take holy orders and they do this and they are wonderful people on that level. The same as Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip, Thaddeus, Nebius, Thomas, Judas, not Iscariot and Judas Iscariot. They are wonderful people. And beside these men, there was a whole multitude of disciples all wanting to do the will of God. He never just pointed to these twelve exclusive apostles. He said, just wave to these disciples. Anybody, man or a woman, wanting, anybody he says that wants to do the will of God, I do. Come on. Come with me. Amen. The same is my mother, sister and brother, and I don't want any of you people to think that my mother or Mary or my brothers or my sisters had any precedence or preference before or over you. Glory be to God. Think of that. But they weren't born again. Now, every one of us in this conference needs to know our own heart here. There is a point of union in all getting together to do the same thing. There's a point of union. You know, they come together. If you run a butcher's shop where you get four or five men, all come together to sell meat. Of course, you have to pay them for it. But here's the point. You can get unions. They're a natural union. I don't particularly want to get off of that line. But you can link up on anything. And the highest thing that the human mind knows to link up on is doing the will of God. Do you know, one of the saddest things I ever heard about a person, a person very well known to me, was this. That there came a time when this person realized, and this person is older than I, it's very recent. This person said, realized, I've spent my life seeking to do the will of God and I know nothing about the love of God. That's tragic. To look at that person, to thought that person was one of the most wonderful people you've ever met. Delightful. Do you see this? Do you see? Just let me touch on one thing here before I leave it. It's not enough for you to come and say I want to do the will of God. You know you've got, you must know that you've been born of the will of God. That's right. You've got to know you've been born of God's will that a great, forceful, all-powerful thing came to you. A thing we will call it, because anyway, the will of God is neuter and abstract. It came to your heart. You know not how, you may know where. It's something suddenly, all-powerful, for that's God's will, took control in you and you were made a wonderful and a new and a glorious person. It dealt with your sin and broke your stubbornness and made you a new creature. That's what you've got to know. An entirely new creature, if I believe my Bible, and not the testimonies of men, it says that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. If I put entirely there, you know that's perfectly consistent with what the Bible teaches. Although I mustn't add the word entirely, apparently, but obviously it's completely true. This is the wonder of it. And it's so glorious. So let's get this point noted and let's leave it. I hope there is no one here who has only sort of linked up with Jesus or Christianity because they want to do the will of God. I've met so many in personal dealing with them that this has really been what they're on. Instead of knowing that they've come into that wonderful, wonderful position that we all know about. I think probably the Hebrews later is as good as any for us to look into. But before we go there, I want us to note the progression of relationship. This time we will find it in John's Gospel. And you may remember that it's in the 15th chapter that you begin to get, he's nearly at the end of his life now, you begin to get this unfolding. It's in the last few days in this instance in the 15th chapter, just but a few hours now, of Calvary. He's not developed the theme. He gave these people, these men to understand that they were brethren with him in wanting the will of God. That is all. Now in the 15th chapter, the great chapter of the vine, he speaks like this. This is my commandment, verse 12, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends. If you do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not slaves, servants. For the slave knoweth not what his lord doeth. But I have called you friends. For all things that I have heard of my father, I have made known unto you. You haven't chosen me. You haven't chosen me for your friends. I chose you. I chose you. Because, like, you know, we preach from the new birth aspect. We always impute new birth to this. But this isn't what he was talking about. It's friendship. You didn't choose me for your friend. I chose you for my friend. Hallelujah. It's so tremendous this. He puts all the responsibility on himself. And when a loving heart comes to the place where it rests in his responsibility and doesn't abuse his love and can abide in all that he has. Oh, what a tremendous future that person gets. Now, here you see there is a progression from slavery to friendship. You see? And it's a tremendous thing. Look in verse 14. You are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you. Well, that's surely what slaves have to do. Servants have to do as they're commanded. Now, what's the difference? What's the difference? He's bringing them via friendship in this brotherhood of which we've been speaking. He's bringing them by revealing to them what father has told him to do. He's started to take them into his confidence. It was a bit of a job for a start. When he started to take them into his confidence old Peter said, Oh, don't do that. Far from it. You've read all about it. You can't do that, you see? So, you see, he had to wait a while and wait till it all died down and then he came again. This is how the laws had to do with you. You're sure you're a real born again one because he could deal with his friends like this. Keep this very clear. Not that he doesn't have to deal with some thickheads when they're born again after this same manner. He has to come and keep on teaching them and coming back, you see. He let it die down and then he gets them and you know that it's exclusively in this upper room now where he's gathered them together and they've all had the bread and they've all had the wine and there's been an anticipation of the great substantial feast of Christ that's going that was instituted from Pentecost onwards, really in spirit. And he's given them the bread and he's given them the wine and he loved them. It says he loved them to the end. My, if ever there were some testimonials to that truth, it was the men gathered round. And he's unfolding this to them now. I'm the vine, you're the branches and he shows them this. Now look, you're my friends because I'm not just giving you a command but without giving any explanations. You see, he tells them, he begins to tell them, I've chosen you. That's blessed. It's really developing. You can be a slavish adherent to the will of God. You just do it blindly. You haven't got a clue or an understanding but you still want to be and you're one of these devoted souls and if they said you were to flagellate yourself every morning and fast 25 weeks out of the year, you'd say yes, that's right. Take an oath and an order and you're one of these people that you go through and talk about a fixation to the will of God even and discomfort of your flesh and leaving them everything else and whilst true born again people won't even leave their mums and dads, you will and go and set yourself up in a monastery. That's what you do. Not even a Christian. Just not born again. There are lots of people who do this. Lots of communists leave their mums and their dads in good jobs and all that to go and serve the devil but you can't get born again. People that do it I don't know what's wrong with them. I wonder why. They sort of get a topsy-turvy idea of what it is to be respectable to your mum and your dad or society or something. Queer, isn't it? How they've twisted true Christian doctrine upside down. It's absolutely it's almost unbelievable. But that's the way the devil's got it. And here to do the will of God these people have done everything and some people are like that and these people now he's really beginning to tell them something now you're my friends I'm not calling you slaves now. I'm calling you friends. That's right. He washed their feet. He'd been slain, you see. He washed their feet in chapter 13. Elevated them to real importance above him. He'd washed their feet. Now he's telling them he's showing them and it's so glorious. You really ought to soak in these chapters of John. You really ought to saturate in and keep on reading and reread them till your eyes are too tired to read them at night. Then read them again and soak in them and then keep on doing it. This is the only way. Saturation point where you've got to come till you know what's really transpiring and what God is moving to. And you will remember that he moves on them through this glorious relationship of friends and after elevating them to the place of friendship, what do you think the next thing they do? They all forsake him and run away from him. What do you think of that? One sells him. No, no. Well, one before he got elevated to friendship a slave went out and sold him. The others all forsook him. One denied him. All of them. Yeah, that's what they did. And you would have thought he would have disowned them, wouldn't you? Well, in resurrection as you come to the 20th chapter, when Mary finds him, that's Mary Magdalene, he finds her at the tomb. She thinks he's in the tomb. He's not in the tomb. She thinks he's dead and that somebody's carried him away. He's not dead and nobody's carried him away. He comes and speaks to her and he says to her, Woman, verse 15, why weepest thou? Think a minute, Mary. What is it you're really looking for? Whom seekest thou? Have you really thought whom you're seeking? And what are you weeping for? She said, because she thought he was a god. Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou'st laid him and I will take him away. Jesus said unto her, Mary. She turned herself and said unto him, Rabboni, which is to say it's more than master, it's great master. Rabbi is great master, teacher. Rabboni is great master. Amen. You see the relationship? Don't you? It's in the terminology, the relationship. Mary, great master. She was still a slave. Elevated to friendship. Great master. You see, it was in her thinking. It was in her approach. She never knew anything other. She was an honest woman. Some people never really get where God wants them to be because they're dishonest in their approaches to Jesus Christ. They borrow the words that other people use. Instead of speaking on their correct relationship with Jesus. You can get in a set. You can use all the phraseology that's used in Serban Road or the conferences in which we may all move. But she, beloved, was an honest woman. Rabboni. Glory to God. Jesus said unto her, touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my father but go to my brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my father and your father to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she'd seen the Lord and that he had spoken these things unto her. Amen. That's what she told them. She said Jesus told me to come to you and tell you that he's ascended to his father and your father to his God and your God. I wonder what they thought about that. He hadn't deserved them. Bless him. But oh, the great moments of the true revelation had yet to come. It was all stored just in the picture. And we can find it, as I've already said, in the Hebrews letter. Amen. I'm so thrilled that God puts these things in the book. May I just stop here as an aside to you Bible readers and Bible students. I hope that you all want to be Bible students. You must when you read your Bible, especially the New Testament, for the whole of the Old Testament period at least from Moses, and Moses even wrote the first five books, onward to the coming of the Lord, there was no change in relationship between God and men. But once you come to your New Testament you're on the premises, as soon as you start in Matthew, there's a little book called The Generation of Jesus Christ that touches on this. As soon as you come onto the threshold of the New Testament, you've got to be prepared to find progressive revelation. Progressive revelation. I want tonight, unless God changes what's in my heart, and He often does this, to talk to you about the blood and its relationship in the New Testament. And see the progression of the truth. And it will set us free from a lot of silly and superstitious notions that are held about the blood. Especially in Pentecostal circles. I never knew such a superstitious crowd about the blood of Jesus Christ as the Pentecostal people, generally speaking. I mean, you can take, say, the noxious Catholic notion, they're superstitious about the blood, but then it's all on the one line, it's all on the dead flat level. But once you get amongst people that are supposed to be aware of the blood in all its vital reality, you find the most mixed up and crazy practices and ideas where the blood of Jesus Christ is concerned. And this is why you get such a lot of carnality and shocking babyhood and childishness and people acting as though they're a lot of superstitious converts from black magic or something. And hardly converted in their ideas about the blood and its uses. Alright, so much, if we get round to it tonight. There it is that Sam has asked if I'll speak about the gifts before we're through. We've only got one more day after this. And I want to keep listening to God. If I keep listening to men, I don't always get on the track. The truth of this beloved is that you must find that the progressive revelation we are following it this morning on this great line. And in the New Testament from Acts of the Apostles chapter 2 onwards a completely new era of the true new covenant begins when the Holy Ghost is coming. And immediately everything is changed. Things did not change when Jesus was born amongst men. Neither did they change amongst men when Jesus died. Changed in the spirit world tremendously. Glory be to God. Changed in eternal reality absolutely wonderful of the moment when Jesus died. God had split things wide open and he was going to begin something gloriously new which began on the day of Pentecost and not until. But beloved, here then we'll see the real truth of this meaning of brethren. Hebrews has it. You will know it is the book of the difference between the two covenants. In the book of the Hebrews it starts like this. God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son. Amen. There you are. He says prophets were they've had a place. Don't look at them now. You see he tells you in 11th chapter look off from all these prophets and patriarchs and the things they did. No one with his faith and all that. Look off. You get to the 12th chapter. We're on it. Look to Jesus son. That's right. Come off all these others. People are running. Well I won't say this again and again. You'll get tired of me saying it. But this is the major tragedy of our day. The major tragedy. You can be a bible believer and a bible lover and a bible worshipper and a bible everything and not really be preaching Christ. Keep that well in your heart. You come here and God has finished speaking to us partially. That's what it all means. He spoke a little bit by this prophet a little bit by that prophet. He said the lot. It's all said now. The son. Glory be to God. He showed you what it was all about. What it was leading to. What he wanted to say. The sum total of all that Isaiah said is Jesus. That's right. The sum total of all that Moses said is Jesus. That's right. They hadn't got a clue. They didn't know. The sum total of all that any prophet or psalmist or anything said is Jesus. So people keep digging back into the little bits in the Psalms. You go to some place where they break bread every Sunday morning. Somebody always stands up and reads a psalm. Dear oh dear oh dear. And yet if they went to the Church of England and they sang something. Oh we don't want this. We don't want this liturgical. Well why not sing them. You might as well sing them as well as say them. I don't see any difference. What's all this pride business? I don't want liturgical sermons. It's all right. You should know me well enough for that. The only liturgy I like is the spontaneous one that springs up through hearts. But the tremendous thing about it beloved is that God has spoken to us in a son. It's England in the Greek. It's not even by his son. It's in a son. How about that? Spoken to us in a son. Amen. Now I'm a son. So I'm right in this. Bless God. You see. I'm getting it. I'm a son. He said it. He said everything. A son. A son. A son. He's crying this out in heaven now if you could hear him. A son. He's a father. He wants a son. He wants another son. He wants another son. He doesn't want slaves. He doesn't merely want friends. He wants sons. You got it. That's right. He said everything when he begot that son. Everything. He couldn't say anymore. It was dumb expression. It was glorious reality. It was the emergence of his spirit into flesh. It was the demonstration of God. He said it all. Glory be to God. No wonder John calls him the Word. Of course he's the Word. It's all said. Everybody wants lovely religions and long sermons. They organize conferences and they get a chap to come and speak to them about hour and a half at a time and it's all been said. That's right. People get together with big books. The bigger the better. Black books on their arms looking very serious. They've gone in and they compare the Greek with the Hebrew and the little dot over that letter there this jot and this tittle there. And they discuss it you see and they get up and go home put their bowler hats on and that's that. And it's all been said beloved. It's all been said. Can I plead with you? It's all been said. The utterance of God's heart is a son. The yearning of his bowels was a son. The express image of his being that's why I'm really quoting Hebrews now was the son. He speaks in a son. He said everything once he's forgotten the child. That's love brought to perfection. Amen. Now it's going to be developed in his perfection. That's your birth. Now once you're here you're really one of the brethren. You come out of the other class. This link up in purpose and idea and ideal. This union in a friendly association. Even an understanding of the mind where somebody's explained something to you so you can go and preach. See? One could listen to him. He understands. Do you realise that Jesus opened their understanding that they should understand the scripture before they were born again? Plenty of men have understanding of scripture that aren't born again. That's a tragedy. See? It's amazing Patrick. Never realised that before. So they all go to a big convention or conference. They love it. There are very few people who don't understand the scriptures. And so we find that there are sons who don't understand the scripture and slaves who do. Friends who do. That seems a tragedy. You can't tie this up. See? It's thought because a man understands scripture he understands God. That's a deception. But a son can come to understand his father without understanding much of the scripture yet. He may not have looked through the family album if he's only nine months old but he knows his mummy. That's right. His daddy might not sit him on his knee and say yeah that's your mum when she twenty years ago when she was really beautiful. You see when I married her. But he wouldn't do it to his six months old child. He'll do it when his son's old enough. And he'll begin to explain the family affairs. But the boy's begun to understand his father a lot more. He knows whether he really can sit on his daddy's knee. Whether his father does really love him. He's moving in the things that matter. He's alive. Alright. Come on. Let's go back to Hebrews now. Or let's go on in the Hebrews. Let's put it that way. And now when you come to the second chapter you're told in verse nine that you see Jesus. Don't you? You do see him. You see him made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. Crowned with glory and honour that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. He tasted death for every man. All the link up brethren who only follow in the will of God and all those who didn't. He tasted death for everybody. But now we're moving to a new position. It became him says in verse ten for whom are all things. You know if somebody had told you before you knew about these things supposing for instance you'd have been something living about a hundred years before Jesus Christ came and you read the prophecies you know that everything was made for Jesus and death was made for him. No, never. Never. Never. He's the eternal life by whom are all things for whom are all things. He just got everything. He got death. He got all the death. Bless God. Everything. Everything. Bless God. Wasn't a marvelous thing. I want you to think. I want you to let your heart run in the disciplined ways of the spirit. He tasted death for us. Bless the Lord. It became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through son. For both he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all one. Now comes the new call. For which cause? He's not ashamed to call them brethren. Now we're on a new road. Bless the name of the Lord. Isn't this a marvelous thing? All of one father. All of one life. All of one sea. All of one nature. We're not just bound now in a purpose of do-goodism on the earth. Doing God's will and all this business. We're bound together in one. Absolutely one. We're one. Do you know, I don't think I really get a greater thrill ever. And I don't mean by that sort of crawling figurines or hair standing up. I mean a real greater sublime inward rapturing of my whole inward self than to realize I'm actually born of the same Father as Jesus. By the same Holy Ghost. I don't get a greater thrill than that. Glory. To think think of it. Let's see. He's not ashamed to call me a brother. Perhaps perhaps if you could really have got hold of the Lord Jesus. If it wasn't for his marvelous love and his absolutely refusal to gossip or say anything nasty or wrong about anybody who got hold of him and said look at all these disciples of yours. Look. Look at them running away. Aren't you ashamed of them? I'm glad nobody asked him. He might have had to say in all honesty yes. Yes. Yes. Wouldn't you be ashamed of yourself if you'd been one of them? Because we're all one. He's not ashamed to call us brothers. Now I want you to notice something. It's the things you don't find in the Bible are as important as the things you do find in these great realms. The things that Bible is silent about. Let me give you an illustration about this. It's only 12 o'clock so we're all right. I can give you the illustrations if I do drop seed thoughts and let people think they're wrong sometimes. You will remember that in those days when Abraham was on the earth and Lot was in Sodom and God comes to Abraham and he says shall I hide from Abraham this thing I've learned? I won't hide it because I know he'll bring his children up right and it's marvelous to you. You read that and see. I'll tell him. Apparently Sodomy sprang from fathers not bringing their boys up properly. Anyway, he he told Abraham because the relationship between sons and fathers is going to be right. Amazing thing the Bible, when you really read the Bible it's an astounding book. Absolutely astounding. And he tells the Lord Abraham says Lord, Lord he knew Lot was in Sodom he knew Lot was down there. He says Lord, will you slay the righteous? He said Lord, look I've surely found 50 righteous people. He says Lord, I want to slay them. He keeps coming down you know and he gets down 20 peradventure this and peradventure this and peradventure praying on the peradventure line with God gifts and lights and you might hit the bull's eye if you keep trying. That's the wrong way to pray. Don't you take Abraham's prayers as a pattern of prayer. He hasn't got a clue. That's no way to pray. That's a talking about God like that. Talking to God like that he didn't know anything about prayer. Not really. God got to Abraham and he called him his friend you see. He was a friend. He didn't call him his son. Abraham was a friend of God. Mind you, to talk along friendship like that, it's a very wonderful thing. There are lots of sons who aren't really on friendly terms with God. That's a tragedy. That's why you can get friends and slaves doing more than sons often. And that explains an enigma if you think it out. You see, that's the tragedy. But anyway, he comes right down and he says, he gets to five. Lord! Five! He thinks, he thinks a lot and his wife and his two sons and their wives are more like that. That's one two three, four five, six five's covered it. I've saved the family. This is the way his mind's working. You see. And God says alright then, for five. If I dare ask him for lower than that. And then God stops him. No more. He goes. It's God that decides it. Here's the principle. Not Abraham. Abraham didn't stop the intercession. God did. He saved a lot. He knew what was in Abraham's heart. That he destroyed Sodom. Old Abraham would have pleaded that God didn't kill any, didn't slay any of these Sodomites. God was determined to destroy Sodom. He still is. And lesbianism. Yeah. And you wouldn't have Abraham in the family. That's the wrong way to pray. See. God is the one that moves. Here's the great principle. In all these things. You see. He comes in and he's not ashamed to call you a brother. Not if you're born of the same father. Ashamed of this. Ashamed of that. Ashamed of the other. But all beloved. How about Jesus? That's why, beloved, in Jesus' life you don't find a record of his allowance. He wasn't asked whether he was ashamed of his brother. Listen. In the very very moment when Jesus was on trial there he was before Pilate. And Pilate is asking him about his disciples, you see. Jesus says nothing. Nothing. He's asking him about his disciples. You read the accounts of the trial. Jesus is done. He may be feeling terrible in his heart about them. And he knew what was taking place at that very moment the crash was coming. At that moment way back there at that fire, a little girl, he was saying to Peter thou one of his disciples is cursed. No. I'm so glad nobody asked Jesus whether he was ashamed of his disciples. Ashamed of his brethren. You read the accounts, you'll find so. At that very moment Jesus says they're done. He won't say he's ashamed of you, but he wants to tell you he's not ashamed of you. He won't say he's ashamed of you if there's cause to be ashamed of you. He wants to get down right to it and say I'm ashamed of you brother. You know I I love Jesus. I love him. I love him. I love everything I know about him. Everything. He's marvelous. Beyond words. In description. He is eternal life. I know he is. He is just that perfect life that I yearn to live. I despise all others. Amen. So wonderful. You know he is. Are you of the same seed I am? You're not ashamed of calling your brother. He says listen. Oh hallelujah. You're not ashamed of calling your brother and he puts it into a glorious biblical phrase. It was written in the book. So that as you see in chapter 10 where he comes out with that marvelous phrase coming of the world. He says sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not but a body hast thou prepared me. You know what we're thinking about the body and it's relationship to the head yesterday. He said in the volume of the book it's written of me. Lo I come to do thy will. And in the volume of the book it's written about you. There it is saying in the midst of my brethren I will declare thy name unto my brethren. It was written in the book about you brother that you were going to be a brother to Jesus. How about that? That's the preparation of the true body of the brethren. It's there in the volume of the book it's written of you. Praise God. Aren't you glad you've been written in the book. Amen. Prophesied about you in the midst of the church I'll praise you. I'll praise you. I shall think he what a nasty he's got our people. Not this sort of coterie of good deeds and wanting to do the good will of God. Not that you are let off the hook. You've got it in the will of God if you're born of it. If you're born of that will. You know you're destined to do it when you're born of that will. When I was born of my father's seed I was destined to be a north. I may not look all that handsome. I was destined to live a human life all things being equal. Wasn't I? I wasn't destined to grow horns and have four feet. I was destined to be a human being. A son of my father in the natural and physical realm. Live the life that the norths live. At least I did for many years until I sort of started the new north life. But there it is. This is the way with God. It's a simple thing. I like God's sanity. I like the reality of this wonderful salvation. I love his wisdom. And again it's written of you you see. In verse 13 you'd be surprised how many times you've been written into the book. I will put my trust in him. That's the example to the present. You see. In the first place the father's name is declared to the present. In the second place he sings praise in the midst of the present. Hallelujah. In the third place he sets an example to all the present. I will put my trust in him. And the fourth place it's behold I. Have a look at this father. Come on all you other people. The I. Our old I and the children that God has given me. Do you know how many children God has given him? All of them. To make a body for him. To be a body for him. And then marry him. Be a bride to him. I'll stop on that now. Given them to him. Hallelujah. And who more should have them? Are you one of his present? When he starts to praise father does your heart start singing? Eh? This is what praise. It's not going to be a worked up thing. This is another sort of stupid idea that carries in certain circles. I won't name them. I think you've got to get together and keep saying praise the Lord. Work yourself up to feel like it. But you know. Wait till he starts singing in the midst of the church. You'll praise then. There's nothing worked up from the flesh. This is the vivid, live, glorious experience and revelation and manifestation and eternal life and thrill and power of the living Christ in you. In the midst of us. Hallelujah. You should all be up jumping about like like on Heinz feet on pinnacles of mountains. You should all be praising God to be conscious of it. I know we say what's going on. We're conscious of other things. But when somebody starts to tell you your heart should leap. Not because somebody's told you but because you're in the disposition and nature and will that is disposed to it. And open to it. And it becomes life in you. And reality. The brethren. A brotherhood of song. A brotherhood of life. A brotherhood of being like Jesus. Putting your trust in him. Amen. And reposing there in the glory of this wonderful life. You're right there. Are you? Are you in this family? Now you're not in this first one that we talked about. Are you? A sort of a slavish adherence to the will of God. I've called you slaves. Now I'm going to call you friends. See? That's right. Jesus was a slave. Yeah I know. But you see he was a slave on a higher level. It's quite right. I mean there's a man. He's got a wonderful name. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. If you've ever seen anybody born with a silver spoon or one silver spoon that was born in that. He's got real blue blood in him. He moves in the high circles. You know who he is. The queen slave. He's comptroller of the household. He's just a slave. How about that? Because you think of slaves like somebody with some rich potentate that's got about a thousand people running around him just with gnawing cloths on and this sort of thing. And doing all the muck and the filth and the comptroller of her majesty's house that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He's still a slave. Don't you see? There's a slavery which comes from utter devotion to the will of someone with an understanding and a love of it. And knowing that it's everything. And life. There's the other thing. Gotta do this to get to heaven. Gotta do this or else you won't. That's only different. That's only different. How wonderful it is. It's so glorious. Now these brethren are quite different from everybody else. It says this in chapter three. It says wherefore holy brethren. Now you see why you're holy don't you? You're not a holy brother of Jesus or of anybody else unless you've been born of the one seed. We are all of one. All the holy brethren are all of one. One life. They're there. Wherefore holy brethren partakers of thy heavenly calling consider the apostle and high priest of our profession. Consider it. Right in the midst there the great author, the originator of one comforting sons to glory. Consider him. And so the writer unfolds the glorious truth of the holy brethren. We are brethren in this holiness. This select company if ever there was one gathered in unto the Lord living his life revolving round him. He's in the midst of the church and considering him listening to him considerate to him I put considerate instead of consider considerate of him of his wants, of his desires of his will of his tastes considering him. What do you want, Lord? What is it you want? For I love you. Because he came on the earth and he said, what is it you want? What is it you need? For I love you. What is it you want? Your little daughter not well? It's all right. Just bring her here. What do you want? Lord, if I could only receive my sight. What do you want? Just receive your sight. And then these who had not a clue of what they needed, he didn't even ask them. If he started to deal with their need, they said, oh no, Lord, don't do that. Not that. Not that. Surely you can't. No, not you. Your life needs preserving. Let's protect you. Let's pad you up. Keep on healing. Keep preaching. Keep talking to us. But don't do that. You see. What do you need? I love you. You need a saviour. You need your filth cleansing away from you. You need something that can purge you. All your works haven't purged you. All your prayers haven't purged you. All your casting out demons in my name hasn't purged you. All your feeding five thousand from me, being the intermediaries, hasn't purged you. You need something to purge you. Or else you'll ever both be only in this slavery forever for the business. You can only ever be that. I want you to abide in the house forever. The slaves are going in the house. They go in the house. They go into the bedroom. They go into the pantry. They go into the kitchen. They go into the drawing room. They go into the coffee parlour. They clean all the silver and the gold. They look into the mistress' jewellery box. They go all over the house. They're thoroughly trustworthy. But they don't live in the house. They sleep outside in the barn. In those days, in that context, they don't live... He said, I want you to be sons. I want you to live in the house forever. That's the explanation of John chapter 2. See, lots of people go in the house. They can handle the jewellery. They can talk about the gods. They can describe them. They say, my master is marvellous. My mistress, she's wonderful. They sleep on a golden bed. And they... Their cups, they drink out of. Well, when the Queen of Sheba saw the cups that Solomon's sons handed to him... It was marvellous. She could explain it. She was a mighty preacher. She promoted Solomon and I don't know what. But she didn't live in the house. Neither did the servants. Here is the secret you've got to learn. This is why some servants could... They can preach marvellously. They can handle the master's goods. They can even give you the golden sovereigns. They're so trusted, you see. That's the gift, you see. But they're not the sons. Understand, and it'll lead you out of much perplexity. You've got to be one of the brethren. Small B, not capital B. You've got to be one of the brethren. You've got to consider Him. Because it says that you see, every house in verse 4 is built by some man. But he that built all things is God. And Christ, in verse 6, is the Son of God. You've got to consider Him. You've still got to know what He wants. Where He wants it, how He wants it. That's why the other night I said, when the singing started, I said, sing softly. I don't know whether you thought I said don't sing at dawn. I didn't say that. Let God deal with these people. There's a time for everything. It was out of its place. That was what drove me. Do you understand that? I'm giving you directions from the Son over His own house. Be obedient to Him. There's a time to sing. There's a time to be quiet. Do you understand? You see, you've got to consider the Son, and the Son's will. Not how lovely you felt to be carried off into the Spirit. That's not the important thing. The important thing is that the will of God was done at that particular moment on the word that He spoke. That's the important thing. Got that? Let's go on then. The Son over His own house. Directing it right. Doing it properly. Right thing in the right place at the right time. Then it's all beautiful. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And you're to be a holy brother to Jesus. A holy son to the Father. Now let's move on because we haven't finished yet. We're really only getting going now. We're really, right, getting clear for all that which lies ahead. This time we go into the 10th chapter. And in chapter 10 we read this thing that in verse 12 this man, Jesus, all blessing. This is wonderful truth. Come on. Open up. You ever seen little birds in the nest, have you? They keep on singing. I can't try and copy them. They keep making noises. Come out with their mouths wide open. And they wait till mummy or daddy comes and drops a worm in. And they open again. Now just open your mouths. Let this drop right in. Get close together up in the nest now. Now listen. Here it is. This should be food for your, it's pre-digested worm, vanilla virginia. But this is what I want to say is this. This is pre-digested. It's come through from the Holy Ghost through a man. It's been pre-digested. Understand. This man's digested it and lived on it himself. Now he's telling you. Alright. Here it is. This man, Jesus, after he offered one sacrifice for sins forever sat down on the right hand of God. From henceforth expecting till his enemies being made his footstool for. This is why he sat down. By one offering he has perfected forever then the sacrifice. You may not believe me but I'm telling you this. I am perfected forever. Forever perfected. And forever being perfected in this great life. Glory. How wonderful this is. Let it drop in because this is you. Open your mouth wide. Don't try and chew it. Just let it drop in. You believe it. Receive it. Amen. And here we go then. Whereof if you've received the Holy Ghost, he's a witness to that. That you're perfectly forever. That's right. The Holy Ghost is a witness to us. For after he had said before this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days I will put my law into their hearts and in their minds when I write them and their sins and iniquities I will not remember anymore. Amen. Now where remission exists there's no longer any offering for sin. Having therefore brethren, here we are you see boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil then and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience our bodies washed with pure water and let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful to promise and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. Amen. Let's all go in. Let's all go in, shall we? Right into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus. And having considered him now I'm going to consider you. What can I do to you? What can I do for you? I hope I'm doing it. I hope I'm provoking you to love. And if you don't love, stop your good works. They're a mockery. Love and good works. The goodness of a work is the love of it. Amen. If not, it's a bad one. Amen. So then, beloved, I am in the holiest of all. Right into the holiest. I'm in. I hope you're in. This is where the brethren have to go. You can sort of consider yourself objectively as part of the family out there. I'm settled with you. One in the family of the Father and rejoice in it. But you've got to see, beloved, that the place you live, and you've got to live here, is in the holiest of all. That's where the family lives. In the holiest of all. Praise His name. Is that where you live? Do you live in the holiest of all? Right there. In the holiest of all. Now you see why you can't do some things that would seem perfectly right. I mean, this argument that there's no harm in it, it's not quite the point. It's inconsistent. You've got to live in the holiest of all. Now, I'm afraid that the best that some people do is have a momentary visit and go out. They're still under the old covenant. That's, Aaron used to go in once and then go out again. Twelve months afterwards he'd come back again. Well, thirteen months after they had the lunar months. Thirteen months after he'd come in again and go out again. And some people's life is like that. They have a momentary you know, and then they're out again. And when they're in there, there's sprinkling of the blood and there's all sorts of things go on. You listen to the incense rises. You see, this isn't the true priesthood. Then they're out again. In there, where we all live. Right there with him. Glory be to God. Hallelujah. This is where you've got to live. Make no mistake about it, you've got to live here. There can't be any shadiness about you. You see, if you live only in the holy place, there'll be shade about you. Shadow. Because in the holy place there was a seven branch candlestick and it stood on one side. So if you walked up the middle, there was your dark shadow following you everywhere you went. If you stood up right close to the candlestick, there was your shadow. See, everything was that there was shadow. Everything was shadows in the Old Testament. But when Aaron went into that holy place, it was filled with glory. There weren't any shadows anywhere. He looked for a shadow. Where is it? Under your feet there. Under your feet. So the new man was living in the glory. God. The light wasn't there. But it was. It was everywhere. Do you know, over the shadow, over the mercy seat itself, there were caribou of glory overshadowing. The only shadow there was, was the shadow of glory. Overshadowing the mercy seat. When you looked up underneath, the glory was there too. In fact, that was the most concentrated place, I imagine, where the blood had been sprinkled. On the mercy seat. Under the overshadowing wings of the caribou. Looked up above those, and there were overshadowing wings there too, in the temple. Everything was lined with the glory of God. The holiest of all. That's the place for the brethren. That's the place where they live in the innermost sanctuary with the Lord. There's more I wanted to say, but I don't think I ought to. I'm going to leave it there. At least there's more that could be said about this great truth of the brethren. Of Jesus Christ. And now this is our calling, beloved. You see, partakers of the heavenly calling. We're here. And if this isn't calling you, I'll tell you what's the matter with you, you're dead. You're on your first death. Oh, if this isn't manure to your heart. This is it. Right here. Glory to God. Glory to God. Right there. You're at your first hell. You're at your first hell. Jesus Christ singing in the midst of the brethren. This is marvelous. The only thing you can hear is the blood speaking. It's all the blood speaking. The blood speaking. Talk to you a little bit about the blood tonight, I hope. The whole glorious reality of it, beloved. Ah, me, I am afraid there are too many people who are living outside of this altar ever. And their conjectures about everything are as far away as the east is from the west. To live in there without the Lord. The Lord is everywhere. Are you there? Come on then. You talk to the Lord tonight.