In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the importance of understanding and embracing the truth that once we belong to God, our minds are no longer tormented or controlled by the devil. The preacher emphasizes that we should not waste our mental energy on trivial matters, but instead concentrate on the love of God. The sermon highlights the significance of truly loving with the love of God, as it is essential for fulfilling our calling and purpose. The preacher also emphasizes the importance of listening to the voice of God and following Him, as His sheep, in order to experience eternal life and avoid being led astray.

Oh, there's a lot betrayed in your walk. Bless the Lord. So when the Lord Jesus opened this man's eyes, that was a tremendous thing. But you see, can a devil open the eyes of the blind? You should study the words that are used in the opening of the Bible. Be very careful when you're reading the Bible. Isn't it the wonder of that? Of course, that's why they had to excommunicate the blind man. He was the living testament that Jesus Christ was the creator. Had to be. See, if he'd mended a broken arm, well doctors could mend broken arms. You know what I mean? But when it comes down to giving a sight, that's marvellous. It's a wonderful thing. Well, here we go then. Jesus walked in the temple. It was the feast of the dedication 22. The dedication was not the dedication of Solomon's temple. It didn't exist. Herod's temple. Keep that in your mind when you're reading. The mind usually flies to Solomon's temple. The dedication. And he's there. He said the Jews came round about him. They said to him, how long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you. Now, the thing, because we shan't get there this session, going right ahead in your thinking. I hope you're au fait with this gospel. I hope you read it more than any other book in the world. I hope you do. It's not concerned with the spectacular. People love to read about miracles, miracles, you know. You would know. I trust that you wouldn't, Gail, I mean. But if there was a big campaign being held in Liverpool now, and people were turning out miracles, you know, what they call healing by faith or something, you'd all be there, because it's spectacular. Much more spectacular than just listening to me. But here's the thing. I go ahead then. We shall read, if we're together, which I suppose we won't be. If I come back next year, I'll take the rest of John's gospel by the Lord's grace. You will find that he said, that in a little while, I will show you plainly, now he told them, just make the distinction in the words, I will show you plainly of my Father. It's better than telling them. And he showed them what his Father was like. He showed them things that you would have been astounded. Was it his Father that ordered him to a cross? I'm going to show you what my Father's like, he said. He'd rather slay me than have you spend time in hell. Think of that. His old son. Just bear it in mind. And know the kind of God we're dealing with. Such is his love for you and me, that he was prepared to kill his old son to get us. How about that? Did you think the Father was like that? Hmm. Solemnises you, doesn't it? We say he had to, he didn't have to, nobody told him what to do. He chose to do it. Now that shows you the kind of Father you're talking about when you love this word Abba Father, Abba Father, Abba Father, which is ridiculous, keep saying Abba Father. You don't want me to comment on that, do you? I don't want to blow your ideas on it. But people say Abba Father, Abba Father, Abba Father. Well, it's the same thing. Abba is the Hebrew. Did you know that tongues, speaking in tongues is incipient? If you say Abba Father, you've used two languages. Father is the word on which the French get Peter, and that's the grown-up. And Abba is what the Hebrew child calls his daddy. So you've got two languages in that expression Abba Father. It's implicit in the New Testament. It's a big, big thing. If you say Abba, you're saying daddy. That's when you're not grown up. Abba Father, that's when you're grown up. Now don't assume the language of grown-ups, if you're only a baby, but know the difference in your mind and understand what you're doing, because it's so easy to catch the disease of language if you're not very careful. It's tremendous. If you're going to say Abba, well get down on your knees and stay there for a while, and then when you'll be able to get up and say Abba, you're grown. It's so tremendous. These little things count so much. It doesn't destroy your Christian standing, but it does show that you have very little spiritual understanding. That's the thing. You haven't got to fall into the habit of a congregation or a church or a denomination. Read this. No denominationalism in this. It's a tremendous truth for us to get hold of. Well, it says so in Romans 8. You know, that's one of your favorite chapters, isn't it? I'm sure. Romans chapter 8. Whereby we cry Abba Father. Two stages of spiritual life, but we'll talk about that some other time, perhaps. Here, then, is the thing to get into this great truth. As you're walking in Solomon's temple, in Solomon's porch, then came the Jews round about him. They said, How long does Solomon make us to die? Tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you. And you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. This is the other work spoken of in chapter 9 now. Because they said, How can the devil open the eyes of the blind? Verse 21. That's the big thing that got them. But you believe not. Verse 26. Because you are not of my sheep. As I said unto you, My sheep hear my voice. And I know them. And they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life. And they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them. The word man isn't in the original. Leave it. It's open. And neither shall any person, if you want, pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all. And no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I am my Father's one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. You're sure he's nearly at the end of his life. Earthly life. Three times we've read it. They wanted to stone him. Kill him. Kill him. Alright. And so, we go on. Now, Beloved, to understand this, you've got to see, follow the reading very closely, and you will see this. I give eternal life unto those that are in my hand. Alright? And then when he says, I and Father are one. One in heart. Not one in person. Keep that clear. One in spirit. Not one in name. It's so great for us to get this into us, Beloved. To be healed. You know why you don't believe me? Do you know why you aren't believing me? It's because you're not of my sheep. That's why. Hmm. My sheep hear my voice. Now, just take the ordinary sheep, you know. They don't understand a thing that the shepherd says. They understand his voice. That's the thing. When you want to think of understanding, don't think in terms of sheep. Because, as you know, sheep are famous for being silly. They say, the silly sheep. That's right. I mean, excuse me, little dogs are without, they have more intelligence and sleep than sheep. If you want us to talk in animal terms. He's just talking of the timbre. There's something in the voice. And that's how you've got to tell everybody instinctively. Basically, it doesn't matter if they can preach like Lyle's golden silk. Or not. It doesn't matter about that. It's whether you should listen to the voice. I've said this before and I want to say it to you. Because I've only got one more day to stop with you. You must never bother to listen to anybody whose voice your spirit does not respond to. Understand that. They may be called preacher, pastor, evangelist, apostle, all that. No matter what they are, you've got to listen to their voice. It's in the voice. Ever. Please do keep that clear. I'm giving you a safeguard for your soul. Don't say, well, he said this, but this isn't that he said it. It's let me hear him. It's something instinctive. Something that's there. You say, oh, I had a good voice. Did they have a good voice? You see, if you don't understand what I'm talking about, it's no good me trying to tell you. That's the end of it. Here, then, is the big thing. You've got to know your soul has got to feel safe. You've got to, whoever your preacher is, if you don't feel safe with him, her, that's no place for you. Do you understand that? You do. Please say no or yes. Because there is your safety. It lies there. It was once said, in fact, to St. John Chrysostom. Have you heard of him? One of the early people. John of the Golden Voice. Something wonderful. I don't mean he had a voice like, who's this guy that sings in Nessun Dorma or whatever it is. Big fat man that runs away from his wife and family and gets sporty with another woman. But he's got a golden voice so you all buy his discs. You all listen to him. Just because he can sing with a nice tenor voice. That's all. It's an amazing thing how people say they're born again, filled with the spirit and they run after things like that. No common sense at all. But it's a good voice. Here is the thing, beloved, you are supposed to stay away from the world. Much as ever you care. Not get into it. Selecting what you want and what you don't want. You think of what God says. I hope I'm talking to you with something like the voice of a shepherd and a good one. You've got to understand that you might never have a chance to hear any man or woman of God speak again. The Lord might take you home today. Then what? Here is so tremendous for us to get this into our hearts. All right, my sheep hear my voice. And I know them. And they follow me. Just keep that in your heart. Just don't use it as a sort of a background for preaching to the outsider, you know, an evangelical servant. Understand what it's about. Let's go right on, shall we? And then remember this. The Jews answered the Lord Jesus when they were going to stone him. For a good work we don't stone him. But for blasphemy. Because you being a man make his face of God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, written in your law, written by their favourite author, Moses. Okay? Ye are gods. If he called them gods, under whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken, say ye of him whose the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, thou blasphemest. Because I said, I am the Son of God. But what a statement. God's intention in speaking to you, beloved, is to make you God-like. That's it. That's why he's spoken. That's why this book is written. To turn you into the place where somebody could write to you like Paul writes to Timothy. Oh man of God. You ever get letters like that? Nobody writes to me like that. But what I mean is, do you think you, your life, your state justifies it? That's what it's about, beloved. It's all about that. Isn't it amazing really? You are aware that originally God made us in his own image. You're aware of that, aren't you? Only sin stopped and ruined that God-like image. But the basic imagery of it all is still there. Spoiled. Ruined. Let God reconstruct your soul, your mind, your everything about you. Your flesh will remain the same. Your shape, hopefully, will remain the same. You're nice and slim and not big and fat. Is there anybody fat here? I'm sorry. I'm not... But basically you're the same. This is the understanding of it all. You've got to get it into your very thinking. Let it be basic. And don't let it swell your head. He doesn't want a balloon on your shoulders. But that's it. And it's this restoration into the image of God. Into the image of his Son, which who is God. His Son because it was the Son that became a man for us. But he did say, Don't you understand this again? I'm trespassing on ground you will never reach. We work together this time. Don't you understand, Thomas? If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. And this is why you do need to read John. None of the other Gospels touch this. They're not in the same. That's why I would love to have that. Been my day there to have sat in that upper room and just listened to him. The resurrection happened like that. Miracles happen like that. They happen, they're gone. Everything he did like that, they're gone. But this is forever. Amen. Well I know we're not there yet. That's in the 14th chapter. But beloved, I'm hopeless as a lecturer as you see. You all bear with me and sympathise with me. Peer then is the thing. I know there have to be lecturers of course. They can be very cold fish. You've learned that in university surely. Dead cold fish. I'm not talking about the lecturers here. Oh no, no. That's not what I'm talking about. But you have to understand, beloved, that there's this warm, loving, wonderful enwrapment and unfolding in God. That's what you should be looking for. Go to bed in it. Get up in it. This is what it's all about. This is God stretching himself to the utmost to incorporate you in it. Not that he's not big enough to incorporate the whole world. But I mean to engage your heart, your love. You have possibility of loving. And all this in you, embrace it into himself once it came originally. It's so big. It's so wonderful. It has to pass our comprehension of our mind. But unless you're in it, whether you can explain it or not, perhaps like I can and have lived longer, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Get into it. You know, I look at... Derek and I walked over here this morning. I looked back at the facade of his house. Got lovely white roses, one in red roses, and they ought to be out in the country. But we only saw the outside. You should be inside. Do you live inside? Do you ever go in there? Oh, it could be mad. Yeah. Don't you understand? It's a banal, stupid, human, childishly human thing too. But it's right. It's so good for us to get this thing. And remember this verse 35. He called them gods. You should have a reference if you've got a reference Bible and read back. I'm not going to be your reference. And see what it says. And that is, beloved, if I may put it this way, God's ambition. That he should send his word to you and it should change you and you should be like him. Oh. Thank you, Father, for having such wonderful hopes about me. Yeah. Yes. Oh. His magnanimity is so wonderful. It's immeasurable. Oh, one day we have to talk about grace. But that's his heart. For all of us. We must come out of this 10th chapter. You see, I'm enjoying myself. I'm very selfish. Let's go on, shall we? Into chapter 11. But I can't pass over the last verse because it's very vital. The last verse is these. They stoned him, wanted to stone him. Verse 39. They sought again to take him, but he escaped out of their hand. You can't escape out of God's hand, John. Oh, nobody takes you out of my hand. He'd been saying that in the 10th chapter, if you're one of his sheep. And went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized. And there he abode. And many resorted unto him and said, John did no miracle. But all things that John spake of this man were true. And many believed on him there. And it was from there, beloved, that he emerged. It was as though he was making a new start. He went back to the place where John originally baptized him in Jordan. When he first went, he came back saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent. That's the beginning of his great ministry among men. This time, he's going to come back as it was, right through. And he's coming to show what he was one of the things he really came for. And to make this announcement. I am the resurrection and the life. It was as though he put his years of ministry to one side now. And he's going to start on what it was all really about. He did not come into this world to heal people. You say, he did heal people. But that was that was as a bagatelle. That was as nothing. You got it? Clear? He'd come in to be the resurrection and the life. And that involved his death. Had to. He gets right out of the limelight. Goes right away. And he comes afresh. Many believed him there. But now he's going to make this announcement. Listen. If a man believe on me even though he was dead. He's talking about that. But I mustn't, that'll be tomorrow. Oh no, we've got half now. We can go into it a little. Here's the thing. He's coming afresh. He's walking in the new day. He's walking in another day. He's walking in a different day from all these believing disciples that were following him. Believing isn't good enough. You understand that? If it was good enough, he could say, Father take me home. These all believe now. I've healed millions of people. They are. He didn't. He went back as it were to make a fresh start. And this time he's coming out to deal with it in a real big way. Well, he'd raised people from the dead before. Yes, there are three stages of resurrection in scripture. In the gospels. Leaving out his own. One. The healing of the son of that widow woman at Nain. He died but he hadn't yet been put in the grave. There's the girlie. You know her? Jairus' daughter. He'd gone in and healed her. She wasn't yet in transit to the grave. She still lay in her own bed in her daddy's house. Okay. Little pet lamb I say unto thee arise. And she did. Mildness. Then there's the man, as I said, that was healed on his way to the grave. Now he goes further. A man that's been dead four days and well and truly fall into pieces in the grave. Three stages of death. I'd like to stop and preach to you about just those three at the moment. But you sort it out yourself. I've given you the sort of outline. Here it is. This time he's come to announce that he's the resurrection and alive. And he said, if a man believe on me though he were dead. Can you believe on Jesus Christ when you're dead? Oh yeah. You believe on him more when you're dead. When your body's dead. Do you understand that? Lazarus was still believing in Jesus and his body was in the grave. Death does not end consciousness. So it doesn't matter what scientist you may have been listening to. He's talking drivel. If he talks different from Jesus Christ. Here's the great truth. And we're coming on to this chapter. Many believed on him there. Way back there. And he moves from there now. He's got a background of miracles behind him. Now he's going to show the miracle. A certain man was sick named Lazarus. Let me draw things together for you. If I may. The word Lazarus is connected with the word meaning leper. That's right. And you remember there was the home of one Simon the leper in Bethany too where these people lived. And that's where they made the great supper for Jesus. There. So the connections were, and sometimes I've wondered this, whether in that not quite a parable, though used for a parabolic sense, the question of the rich man and the poor man, the bigger man at his gate, who was called Lazarus. Now nowhere in parables, anywhere else in the scriptures, does a name occur. Lazarus. A certain man did this or he had a certain... Never named. So I'm just wondering whether it was this same Lazarus. But that's only a wonder. You could tell how uneducated I am. I'm only just guessing this. Here is the thing. It goes that this man was sick. Was Bethany a place where leprosy had raged at one time? I don't know. I'm only learning. Here is the truth. And Bethany you will see, and you will know that Bethany there really means House of Ripe Figs. That's the meaning of the name. The House of Ripe Figs. There was another house there too. They were all called, or both these houses were called, by the word Beth, like Bethany or Bethlehem. You've got it all. It always means house, alright? The tremendous truth is this, that they lived at Bethany, House of Ripe Figs. And notice what he says. He says it was the town of Mary and her sister Martha. That's why the town was important, because they lived there. I wonder if they would say Birmingham, or they would say that's the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, he's there, all the councillors, blah blah blah blah, that's how all this marvellous centre, what is it, centre, you've got it, is it the business centre, demonstration centre, I don't know, where all kinds of nonsense goes on. Here is the truth for you to understand. That's what it would be famous for, but it was famous in the Bible and in Jesus, because Mary and Martha lived there. How about yourself, where you live? Just think. Just famous, because they lived there. Wonderful. Oh dear, oh dear, I tell you. I tell you. See, Birmingham, oh yes, Brampton Road, yes, in heaven. Where is it? Ever thought of yourself being under the eye and in the heart of God, even in earthly things? It would be wonderful. I guess the world would be revolutionised if we could get something like that going. It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Isn't that wonderful? That's the place. And you know, she hadn't done it yet. So John is explaining to you that when you read the next chapter and then the next, because it's all in the same day, which is happening, you think of that. She was going to anoint him. She was going to do it. Not yet done. Isn't that wonderful? We'll all see it in the future about it too. Glorious, isn't it? What's he got for you? Now does he look at this man or this woman, whoever you are, and I want to point at you all, she's going to do that in the future? To me. For me. Oh, if you have any ambitions, be ambitious along this line. Means something. Tremendousness. The sisters said to him, saying, Behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, he heard it said, this is it, Behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, he knew what that meant. He knew it because he loved Martha and Mary and Martha, that they thought he would immediately go. Or, would say like he had said earlier in his life, he got great faith, three times healed, and when he got back home he found the servant whom he loved was healed. Jesus could have healed him without going. Jesus did not quite deliberately. He did not heal Lazarus. He did not respond to the cry of love, to the need of love. Oh, you say, whatever are you saying? Yeah, I'm saying it. It's in the scripture. Now let me ask you a question. Does he know that you love him so much that you're not going to demand he does this, that or the other? No. You're not going to say, don't understand it. That's what they all thought. The answers that the words that both Martha and Mary gave to him when he did arrive, shouted out to him, if thou had been here, he wouldn't have died. A statement of faith, but in it almost a statement of reproof, or at least anguish. Why didn't you come, Lord? We all love one another. You love us. We love you. Why didn't you do that? You could have come. You could have, but you wouldn't. You didn't. Have you ever thought like that? Have you? If not, you might be tested one day, seeing that he loves you so much, and you've loved him. He'll do things for you, because that's what all your training will teach you to believe. But he only ever did everything because his father told him to do it. Remember the word commandment? He only ever did anything because father showed him. He said that I can't do anything if father doesn't show me. John 5, we've come through that. Are you a person that Jesus can trust to love him, in your deepest disappointment of your mistaken mind of what you thought he should have done according to his character? You love me. I don't understand it. I'm all mixed up. Yes, you are. That's the trouble. He's got something better for you, as it turned out. But you see, you get things taught you that God would give you anything, almost if you have faith. Didn't they have faith? They sent for him. He didn't come. It's a precious chapter that I'm almost tempted to relax now and say I won't preach anymore. I'll save it up for tomorrow. But let's just break into a little further, shall we? His sisters sent unto him, said, Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick. They thought he would either speak or let us be healed or something like that. You know, I'm not mocking. Or he would have dropped everything immediately because of the great love that he had. But he didn't. He foxed them, if you like. It's not the right word to use. He was a lamb, not a fox. But if you know what I mean mentally, they didn't know what to think You can imagine them. Can't you? He waited till he'd been in the grave for four days. This is the furthest reach of his stories of resurrection. In a story. Thank God. I'll ask you a question. You needn't answer me tomorrow morning if I come. But just think about it. Give your answer to God. Could he trust you like this? Could he let his reputation rest safely in your heart? For his reputation is in the unspoken thoughts of your mind about him. See, this is the thing. Are you trustworthy as Marta and Mary who failed in everything? You can imagine sitting there hoping against hope that Jesus would turn up before their brother breathed the last breath he was fighting for. And what would you have done? Would you have failed in your church attendance because there was something there and it wasn't right and, you know, everything. Would you have dropped quietly because Jesus did not live up to your expectations? Would you have had a right to believe about him? So you thought. Listen. He's not afraid to test his work in you and that's why you go through things sometimes. To test him. His work. He tests it. I love him. It's so lovely when Jesus is here. People wonder whether I ought to say it. But I will. Because we're friends here. People have said to me when you walk into our home, love's come. That's what they've said. You see, how about what Jesus did then? When he used to walk in. Oh, wonderful. And he let them down. Because, here's the answer, he knew he could trust them in the end. That they would come through with flying colours. And that's possibly why he doesn't trust you or I with so much because he knows he can't. That we'd let him down. As much as us thinking he'd let us down. We asked him for this or we sent him for that one. He didn't do it. Oh, now I'm tempted to tell you stories, but I won't. About it, this tremendous thing. Love. I'll tell you one. Shall I tell you one? Just one. I don't mind. If Derek ticks me off, I'll tick him off back and say, I'm your, what are you doing talking to your elder like that? But here's the thing. I said, I was over in Germany. Conference in Germany. If I told you this before, you'd like to hear it again. But I don't think I have. Years ago when I went out there, this precious girl was in as much of a mess as I've ever known anybody. Got psychiatric trouble. She got every trouble there was. Okay. This year, when I went, she stood in front of me with a baby in her arms now, my married woman. And she said, we stood there in silence, and she said, you know why I'm here? I said, no. She said, because you loved me. Didn't talk about miraculous healing. Because you loved me. Will you live so that I'll say that to you? Someone. And her husband was there to hear. That's right. That's the secret. Great preaching, counted great in heaven, comes from great love. You understand that? The rest may be completely man-taught or assumed. Let somebody say that about you, will you? And when you love like that, you don't know you're loving like that. You just love. And you don't even know you're loving. You're just you. That's what it's about. We use comparative language. A loving person or an old cat or something like that. Do you know what I mean? We use these comparative phrases. You... I want you to get to the place, beloved, where you will be all love, from the crown of your head to the sole of your foot. And that's what God wants. I'm only copying God or trying to. Do you see what it's about, beloved? It isn't about mastering this or that in the mind. The mind, I want to tell you, once you belong to God, that I have not been, if you're tormented and torn by the devil, is the property of God. You've got to understand this. And you're not to engage your mind in banal things that don't matter so much. Amen. You're not in the place of God. Never. Never. You can't love with all you have and then run at the solar system as well, like God does. You can't do that. You concentrate on this God so loved. That's right. That's what you've got to concentrate on. A call without love, if you say you've got a call from God, is as useless as an organ without wind in it. You must understand this. We used to sing a chorus. You may still do. Yes, I love you with the love of the Lord. I don't know whether to still sing it, but you have to abandon them to learn a new one, perhaps. But here's the great truth, beloved. If you can honestly say, Yes, I love you with the love of the Lord. Meaning I'm loving you with a merely animal love or something like that. Like my mother used to say, I loved her with cupboard love. That is, I used to ask for something she'd got in the cupboard. You see, stop this business. You can't treat God like that. I'm obviously not teaching now, or perhaps I am, but not at the mental level particularly. You've got to see, beloved, these things. I often think of it. I often think of it. John is my companion. He really is. Don't you think anywhere else in the Bible, are you? You see, you'll fail in everything. Although you'll get top marks in everything if you don't love with the love of God. That stops thinking about yourself or your brother's need in the flesh. Though you do think of your brother in that sense. Every man's your neighbour, sort of thing. You can think in all those terms. You'll get all that in the synoptic cosmos. Torture. And that's why John, to me, is the greatest of all. He goes back to God. And he's going to push you, if you'll allow him to, or shall I say draw you, is the better word, into the things of God himself. That's what it's going to be. And you'll be beautiful, like that beautiful shepherd, if you'll let him have you. That's marvellous. And it's time I stopped, because it's nearly eleven, and I'm sorry and goodbye.