Stephen Palmer - Living on Appreciation for the Scriptures - Class 1 - The Word made Flesh - The Unique Example of Christ

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   John chapter 1 verses one through 17. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him was not. Anything made that was made. In Him was light, and the light was the light of men, and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness compreted it not.

2. 0:26

   There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not the Light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

3. 0:46

   He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and He its own received Him not, but as many as received Him to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

4. 1:08

   And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bear witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for He was before me, and of his fullness have all we received.

5. 1:34

   And grace for grace for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Thank you, Brother Tom. We will have four classes, God willing, this afternoon. There will be a break in between each one and during the break you may go up to the room to your right, out the doors and there will be refreshments there.

6. 2:01

   There’ll be soft drinks, coffee and tea and snacks so that you can enjoy those in between the classes. Some of the rules of the Arboretum is that no children under 18 are allowed to roam around without supervision. Well, if your work, they’ve just gone out well supervised, so we don’t have to worry about that. Be sure if you have a child that’s young that they can’t roam around the grounds on their own. We’re thankful to be able to rent such a nice place, and we’re glad for the beauty of of this spot to enjoy God’s handiwork in nature as we enjoy His. Word.

7. 2:39

   Which is able to make us wise to salvation. And so class #1 the subtitle is The Word Made Flesh, the unique example of Christ, Brother Palmer.

8. 2:58

   Thank you, Brother Bob, and thank you to the committee for the invitation and thank you all for being here. From my perspective, I’m very pleased to be here. It’s a beautiful day. It’s a beautiful hall, but if I was you, I would be most suspicious of the sanity of anybody who agrees to come from Wales to Los Angeles for just two days. You can put that down to two things. One is the persuasive power of Uncle Bob, who it is impossible to say no to.

9. 3:32

   And secondly, we have a postal strike back home and I had to deliver a letter from my young brother in South Wales to a young sister in California. But our subject to brethren, sisters and young people is to look at the Word of God in our lives. It’s about living and appreciation of the truth. We know California back home as the place where trends start in the world in general.

10. 4:13

    And we’re grateful in fact to the experience of the ecclesias in California for the example of the seminar series. It was learning about the seminar series and it’s success in California that led to its take up in the United Kingdom last year. And in fact, in Cardiff, we’ve started on the second round of of seminars having heard Brother Tom Graham’s account of the success in in the Los Angeles area. So a good trend has started and wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could start another trend of living and appreciation of the truth because we need the same things Brans sisters the world over.

11. 4:58

    By chance, the day before yesterday I was listening to the tapes of the class brother Harry gave last year. Matthew came home and he had them in the car and so I listened to them coming up to the airport. And everything that Brother Harry said last year is absolutely applicable to my own ecclesia and to my own ecclesial area. And we all need the same strength and encouragement to live our lives in the right way so that when the Lord Jesus Christ comes, and he will come soon, we assure there will be a people prepared to enter into the Kingdom. But there is a problem, and that’s the gap between what we know we ought to do and what we do. There’s a a difference between our intellectual understanding and the way we live our lives.

12. 5:55

    We are sometimes, too often, two people. And in a way, it doesn’t matter how many times I’m told what I ought to be like, it doesn’t make me like I ought to be. In fact, human perversity is such that there is a danger that the more you tell me not to do something, the more I want to do it. So somehow we have to get some power to change. And the change that’s required is not an external change so much.

13. 6:27

    It’s not like we have to become good actors that we canmore often put on the right front, the right face, especially when we’re with our Bren sisters. That’s not what it’s about. We have to be changed from within. That’s the point. We have to become what we ought to be like. It’s not a matter of practising to conform externally, but we have to change those feelings and those thoughts which lead us to live in certain ways.

14. 7:08

    And what we want to do in our studies today is to try to tap some of the power that has been given to us to change our lives. It’s not a mystical power, it’s a very fundamental understanding we have. That faith, which is what we need comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

15. 7:29

    So what we need, brethren, sisters, is faith, and we’re only going to get it in one place, and that’s the Word of God. And if we neglect the Word of God, we will not have the power that we need to change our lives. But if we apply ourselves to the Word of God, there will be power and we will be changed because it is the work of the Father that changed us into the image of His Son. In the Lord Jesus Christ.

16. 8:01

    We have the only one in whose life there was no gap between the Word and the way He lived. The two things were identical. He was the Word made flesh. It was the mind of God living in a human frame. He is the perfect example. And it is through that example that we will get our inspiration. Now, in each of the sessions, we’d like to do some study together, not just exultational points, but actually some expositional study so that we can understand some of the ways in which the scriptures change the way we think. And I hope we’ll all be prepared to have a go at following some of these points.

17. 8:56

    I’m standing in the way of some people I know, and I’m sorry. You can move if you want. I can’t. We want to look in John chapter 1 and compare John chapter one with the passage in Exodus chapters 33 and 34, which speaks to us of the divine name that was declared to Moses on Mount Sinai. And what we find so often is that the New Testament Scriptures, in giving us an understanding of the truth, call upon the revealed word in the Old Testament Scriptures. And we really need to pay attention to these echoes because they are the basis of changing our thought patterns. It is by addressing these issues, concentrating the mind on the very words of Scripture and listening to what they say and following the path they lead that our own thinking is going to be shaped by God rather than by the the media and society around us.

18. 10:11

    Oh, what we want to notice in John chapter one, verse 14. But John says, And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

19. 10:36

    Just look at that expression at the end of verse 14, full of grace and truth. What we find is that that is a quotation from Exodus chapter 34 and verse 6.

20. 10:52

    Exodus chapter 34 and verse 6. And this is the passage where Moses is on the mounties in the cleft of a rock, and the glory of Yahweh has passed before him. And he’s been allowed to see the the glory of the hinder part of the Angel. As the Angel moves away and he hears the voice proclaiming the name of Yahweh. And verse 6 says of chapter 34 and the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed this is what the name proclaimed was Yahweh, Yahweh ail in other words, he who will be the power here’s the power of God revealed, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth.

21. 11:47

    At the end of verse 6 you see abundant in goodness, in truth. And if you just compare these two expressions in John, one full of grace and truth, and in Exodus 34 verse 6, abundant in goodness and truth, you can see there’s a parallel in the the form of the phrase. And if you check the understanding of the words that are used, you can see there is an equivalence. Yahweh hail was abundant in goodness and truth, and it’s in the context of the glory of God.

22. 12:25

    Just go back to Exodus chapter 33 and this is a beautiful section of scripture where Moses in verse 11 is having a conversation with the Angel of God who bore the Yahweh name. He’s called the Lord. And verse 11 it says, And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. That was a staggering thought, that Moses could speak to God as a man speaks to his friend.

23. 13:00

    As friends we get to know each other. That’s the beauty of friendship. We become closer as time goes by, and the more we know about each other, the closer we get. It’s the basis of friendship in sharing our ultimately with a close friend, our inner thoughts and feelings in such a way as not to be judgmental. We can confess our faults to our real friends, knowing that it will remain confidential with them, that they will want to understand us so that they can help and give us advice and take advice.

24. 13:45

    And there’s a a freedom between friends and a bond in the thoughts and feelings. And Moses was being spoken to by God face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend. And here we find an intimate conversation. Moses now is taking hold of this and says, well God is speaking to me as a friend, but I don’t know much about him.

25. 14:17

    I want to know more about him. I want a fellowship with him. And he wants God to go with him through the wilderness, and he doesn’t want to go through the wilderness unless God is going to be with him. And in verse 12, Moses said to the Lord, See thou sayest unto me, bring up this people, and thou hast not let me know whom thou will send with me.

26. 14:43

    Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now therefore I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight. That was Moses’s desire to know God.

27. 15:06

    He realised he needed grace. This wasn’t something he had a right to know, but since God had shown this friendship towards him, he wanted to grow in grace and learn to know God.

28. 15:22

    And in answer to that, God says that his presence would go with him. But then in verse 18, Moses asks, I beseech thee, show me like glory. That’s how Moses thought he would come to know God if he could just see the glory of God, not hidden in a cloud, but clear. Just as God spoke face to face, couldn’t Moses possibly speak and see face to face with Yahweh? And the answer comes, Thou canst not see my face and live. It wasn’t possible for a mortal man to see the glory of God face to face, that splendor and glory that was there upon the mount. But what God did for Moses was something even more than Moses had asked for.

29. 16:24

    He did show him His glory. And that’s what verses 6 and seven of chapter 34 are. It is the glory of God not revealed physically in shining splendour, but the glory of God revealed morally in the character of God. That’s the lesson that Moses is being taught. You want to see the glory of God?

30. 16:55

    Well first understand this, that it is the glory of character before the splendor and glory of immortality that God wants us to develop. Now just look at these passages then and you can see that what we have here in John chapter 1 verses 14 and 16 are the echoes of Moses experience on the mount. Exodus 33, verse 18 Show me thy glory, show me thy glory, Moses says and John says, and the word was made flesh, and we beheld his glory.

31. 17:50

    Now whose glory is he speaking about? Is this the glory of Jesus? No, it’s the glory of the Father revealed in the only begotten Son. What they saw when they beheld His glory was the glory of the Father. Instead of seeing Yahweh ail,

32. 18:18

    they saw the Son Yahshua, and He was full of grace and truth. Just using that phrase, John captures the essence of that which was revealed to Moses in Exodus 34. They saw a man who not only spoke about the things of God, He manifested them in the character and the life which He lived. And you can see perhaps when we put this parallel up, the explanation of what might otherwise be a a difficult phrase to understand in verse 16, it says and all his fullness have all we received and grace for grace and grace for grace. Now, what does that mean?

33. 19:18

    You know, it’s good for us to ask questions. That’s how we should do Bible study because we’re listening to the voice. If you’re like me and I’m, I don’t know what’s wrong with my hearing, but it’s not as good as it used to be. And I’m forever asking, excuse me, pardon. Especially when I’m in a place where they speak with such strange accents and not normally like we do in Cardiff. And I’m always, you know, straining to hear. And it’s like that with a word of God, you see, because there’s so much background noise, I can hear the train in the background perfectly.

34. 19:54

    But I can’t you, is what you’re saying to me. I can pick up all the background noise and the vibrations and the hums and so on in the air conditioning, but I can’t hear what you’re saying. Therefore, we have to listen that much more carefully and not be afraid to ask questions. Now, when you read and Grace for Grace, did you give it a thought? Did you think it was?

35. 20:21

    Well, I wonder what that means. What does it mean? Perhaps it comes from Exodus chapter 33 and verse 13. You see, notice what it says. Moses is repeating what God has just said to him. Now, therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace, show me thy way, that I may know Thee, that I may find grace. You see, he had, he had already experienced the measure of the grace of God.

36. 21:01

    He had already found grace. He was there on the mountain. He wasn’t dead, was he? He was speaking to God face to face. He was a recipient of the grace of God, but he needed to grow in grace and he sought more grace that he might know God. So he started in a position of grace, but he wanted a full of measure of that grace in order that he might know God. And that’s what John is explaining. He say, he says in verse 16 and all his fullness have all we received.

37. 21:45

    What’s he speaking about? He’s speaking about verse 14, that they beheld the glory full of grace and truth, full of grace and truth and all His fullness have we all received. We have received of the grace and truth that has been revealed by the Father through the Son and grace for grace. We have received grace, but there is yet more grace to be manifest to those who are growing in grace before God.

38. 22:29

    The glory of God is a transforming power. It doesn’t transform us in an instant. It is a slow process of change. And that is what we’re engaged in as we study together from the Scriptures, that process of change of character where we move from grace to grace, and it is the grace of God revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ.

39. 23:00

    So we need to address this point now about spiritual growth through the Word. I’d like to ask a difficult question because, well, it may be painful for us to answer it.

40. 23:22

    It came to me, really, as I was listening to the tapes from Brother Harry last year, and there were a number of very practical points and suggestions that were made.

41. 23:37

    You may remember some of them. How about starting to do our Bible readings with our children? Do you remember that point that when he asked the young people how many did their readings with the family at home, Far less than 20%. I think the figure was that said they did, but when he asked them how many would like to, most of them did. So the suggestion was, well, why don’t we say to our children on the way home we’re going to start doing the readings together?

42. 24:14

    Isn’t that a good idea? But my question is, have we? What have we done, brother and sister, since last time? What have we put into practice what we learned? How many of those good suggestions have we acknowledged in our minds are good suggestions? And they’ve done nothing about them at all now. I’m the same. So we have a problem to face up to that we don’t put into practice.

43. 24:56

    So we don’t. Brethren, sisters, grow in grace but can’t do so here. God has given us one other opportunity. Another year has gone by. The Lord hasn’t come. Look at Second Peter chapter 3. You know we’re told why the Lord hasn’t come. It’s called his long-suffering. God is not willing that any should perish. The Lord hasn’t come because the Lord doesn’t want us to perish. He wants us to be in the Kingdom. He’s not willing that any should perish. So He’s given us another year,

44. 25:40

    but for how much longer will we be given this extension of grace? The Lord will come and will not tarry. So it is even more urgent now that we face up to the truth of what the Word of God is saying. And should we not be as Moses was, we have found grace, otherwise we wouldn’t be here. Let’s get to know God a little bit more. Let’s see the glory that’s been revealed. Moses faced Shawn after that experience, and I was can too. The qualities of character revealed in Exodus 34 are something we need to focus on.

45. 26:34

    In verses 6 and seven we have this list of of qualities and verse 6. Merciful is sometimes translated full of compassion, gracious, long-suffering. long-suffering is sometimes translated slow to anger, abundant in goodness and truth. The word goodness is the same as the word mercy in verse 7, keeping mercy for thousands, and it’s the word chess head, the loving kindness of God.

46. 27:21

    The loving kindness of God extended to thousands of people, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin. All wonderful positive qualities. And then at the end, a serious warning, and that will by no means clear, says in the AB the guilty. And what that’s telling us is that God is extending these qualities of character. That is what God is like.

47. 27:57

    But there comes a time when God says, well, my justice, my righteousness requires the removal of sin from the earth. There comes a time when all will give account of how they have responded to the extension of grace that has been revealed to us. It’s not a limitation on the love of God, it is a manifestation of His character, the goodness and the severity of God.

48. 28:31

    This is the character we wish to honour and come to know, and in that character, rightly understood, there is power to change us. Want to show this in Psalm 103, Psalm 103, and verses 7 and 8. All we’re going to do is look in the Psalms at one or two passages where the characteristics of God’s name are revealed to us.

49. 29:13

    Psalm 103, verse seven. He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. Have you seen in verse 8? We have some of the characteristics that are listed here. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.

50. 29:49

    See, that’s what God is like. And this Psalm is really a reflection upon how Israel had been made beneficiaries of knowing the qualities of God. Verse three. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities? Who healeth all thy diseases? Who redeemeth thy life from destruction? Who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies. Israel were overwhelmed, or should have been overwhelmed by the blessings of the mercy of God that was shown to them. He had forgiven all their iniquities. He had healed all their diseases. And so should we, brethren, sisters, look at verse 13 like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.

51. 30:50

    For he knoweth our frame, He remembereth that we are dust. That’s the God we come to know, a God who understands the frailty of our nature, who is compassionate, full of compassion to those who come before him and confess their faults. He is long-suffering. We can come again and again and again to the throne of grace.

52. 31:26

    It’s not too late this year to change those things we know need to be changed. He is slow to anger. He is keeping mercy, keeping it not away from us, keeping it for us to show to us in the forgiveness which is provided to His Son. And that love of God which has been revealed to us ought to be a power in our lives.

53. 31:59

    Let’s look at 2 New Testament passages which tell us this first John chapter 4, the first Epistle of John and chapter 4 verse 9 and 10. In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him here in His love. Not that we loved God whether He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

54. 32:51

    Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. What John is saying, if we have an appreciation of the love of God, if we really feel that our sins have been forgiven us, if we really feel that we are now in fellowship with the Father through the Son, we will show that same quality of love to one another. If we are living in the presence of Christ, then we will behave in a way which shows forth his glory. You know, when we get involved in quarrels in ecclesial life, or we are upset with somebody or we, you know, we’re, we’ve got a grudge.

55. 33:39

    Don’t like to admit it, but you know that happens. There might be a two sisters in an ecclesia 2 brethren who can never speak civilly to one another. They can never really be wholehearted in their handshake. There’s always something in their mind. But when that sort of situation happens, the love of God is nowhere near. We couldn’t possibly feel like that with a full awareness of what the Lord Jesus Christ did when He washed Judas’s feet. We couldn’t hold a grudge, We couldn’t be spiteful, We couldn’t say unkind things if our mind was full of the forgiveness which God has shown to us. And when we deal with the faults and failings of others, we will be sympathetic and understanding, not to condoning because we don’t want God to condone our sin and He hasn’t, but understanding that we might recover that one as we have been recovered ourselves.

56. 34:49

    What we need to do then is to concentrate on the work of God through the Lord Jesus Christ and come to know Him and appreciate Him so that it has an effect in our lives. And it’s not once a week we do that, but it may be maybe less than once a week, and even then it only takes half an hour.

57. 35:13

    But everyday, brethren, system, of course, simply doing our Bible readings each day will make us live in the atmosphere of the love of God. Have a look how the Apostle Paul expresses it in Second Corinthians chapter 5.

58. 35:40

    He speaks about the love of Christ. The love of God manifests through the Lord Jesus Christ and how it has an effect upon his own way of life. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5, verse 14 For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we’re all dead, and that he died for all.

59. 36:20

    That they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them. And rose again. Verse 17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, Behold, all things are become new.

60. 36:44

    Verse 14. The love of Christ constraineth us. That word, so the lexicon tells us, means to press in on and hold together. Have you ever felt that your life is falling apart, Grand Sisters? Have we ever felt that we ourselves are falling apart? That the pressure that has been placed upon us by whatever difficulties we’re in, whether it’s work or home life, financial difficulties, personal problems, there’s such a pressure upon us that we feel we’re cracking under the strain and the way we live is falling apart. Our language is deteriorating, our thoughts are contaminated, our decisions are in error, and we are all under such pressure today.

61. 37:52

    We make that pressure worse very often by the things that we allow into our homes. But here the apostle says the love of Christ is holding him together. The love of Christ is pressing in and holding him from falling apart. It’s a beautiful picture of the pressure of the love of God counteracting the pressures of the world. What he says is that the love of Christ is holding him together so that he is not living unto himself, but unto him which died for them and rose again, is living the new life through the pressure which Christ is bringing to bear on his own life.

62. 38:43

    He’s not living for himself, which is what the world is trying to teach us every day, to please ourselves, to indulge ourselves, to think for ourselves. Of course, it means to think like they want us to think, and not to think for ourselves. To mould our children, to press them into a mould that will make money for big business throughout their life so that they will always purchase that which men want them to purchase, whether it’s in music or clothes or whatever. Until we have another pressure to mould us into a form which is the character building form of God. So there’s the power of the love of God, and that’s what we must concentrate on in our studies of Scripture to understand God more clearly.

63. 39:41

    Let’s just do that for a minute by looking at the example of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s just take each of these phrases and just quickly go to a New Testament gospel record passage which shows the Lord Jesus manifesting those qualities full of compassion and gracious. How about Mark chapter 1? Mark chapter one, verse 41, we’ll just take one example where the Lord was full of compassion in a very special and unique way.

64. 40:19

    It’s the incident of the leper in the Luke record. He was a man full of leprosy and he comes to Jesus believing that Jesus can make him clean. And in verse 41 it says, and Jesus moved with compassion, put forth his hand and touched him, and saith unto him, I will be thou clean.

65. 40:45

    Unless we know a little bit about leprosy, we won’t really understand the power of verse 41. I will tell you a little about an incident. I’ve mentioned it on numerous occasions whenever leprosy is mentioned, but it’s struck me so forcefully that I, it’s indelibly impressed on my mind. That’s when I went to Africa and outside the Ministry of Health building in Addis Ababa and Ethiopia, there was a man begging.

66. 41:11

    I had a pocketful of money. The exchange rate was such that you know, to change £10 or $15.00, you know, my pockets were bulging with local currency. So it was nothing to me to give him some money, you know. And the poor chap was, was begging, not like the beggars we get in London now, which are Social Security problems.

67. 41:33

    This man was destitute like the others, living on the street. I’d walk past a woman with a baby to stand over her to walk down the road. That was a hoe.

68. 41:45

    But here was a leper. Well, I realised he was a leper when he put his hand out to me because he didn’t have any fingers on it. And I had some money in my hand. And I froze because the thought dawned on me that to give him the money, I’d have to touch him ever so slightly.

69. 42:07

    But I’d have to touch him now. I knew, brothers and sisters, that he wouldn’t be on the street. If his leprosy was active, he would have been under treatment, he would have been registered and he would have been on treatment. That would have rendered him non infectious. And anyway, even if he had been infectious, for me to touch him like that wouldn’t have contributed at all to any risk to me.

70. 42:33

    And even though intellectually I knew that the very thought of touching a leper is the first leper I’d ever seen in my life, I was very reluctant. I did in the end give him the money, but the Lord saw a man who was full of leprosy, and this was the plague which put a man outside the camp.

71. 42:56

    He had to walk around unproved, unclean. He wasn’t allowed in the camp. He was a man who represented sin in all its ugliness, disfiguring the glory of God, the image and likeness in which Adam had been made.

72. 43:16

    And the Lord didn’t need to touch him. Do you remember? He could have said a word, as the centurion understood, and his servant would have been healed. But he put forth his hand and touched him. Why? Because he was moved with compassion. There was one thing that would have thrilled, that leper more than anything else, and that would have been to be touched.

73. 43:45

    There would have been like an electric shock going through his body. No one would have touched him. But here was a man whose compassion overcame any prejudice to stretch out and take in his hands the very sin of the world. Now that’s the character of God manifest through the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you remember how long-suffering the Lord was?

74. 44:15

    Remember what he said when he looked at Jerusalem, about to be overthrown by the Roman armies, in the prophecy that he was about to speak? O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, a city that had killed the prophets, what would we have said? How often would I thought of destroying you? But no, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings? And he would not.

75. 44:56

    Here was a man slow to anger. What would we be of said brothers and sisters to Judas Iscariot when he came up to us and gave us a kiss on the cheek? Slow to anger, full of goodness and truth. The loving kindness of the Lord is revealed in so many placed it. How about Mark chapter 1? Mark chapter one, verse 41.

76. 45:36

    We’ll just take one example where the Lord was full of compassion in a very special and unique way. It’s the incident of the leper in the Luke record. He was a man full of leprosy and he comes to Jesus believing that Jesus can make him clean. And in verse 41 it says, And Jesus moved with compassion, put forth his hand and touched him, and saith unto him, I will be thou clean.

77. 46:12

    Now, unless we know a little bit about leprosy, we won’t really understand the power of verse 41. I will tell you a little about an incident. I’ve mentioned it on numerous occasions whenever leprosy’s mentioned, but it’s struck me so forcefully that I it’s indelibly impressed on my mind. It’s when I went to Africa and outside the Ministry of Health building in Addis Ababa and Ethiopia, there was a man begging.

78. 46:38

    I had a pocketful of money. The exchange rate was such that you know, to change 10 lbs of $15.00, You know, my pockets were bulging with local currency. So it was nothing to me to give him some money, you know, and the poor chap was, was begging, not like the beggars we get in London now, which are Social Security problems.

79. 47:00

    This man was destitute like the others, living on the street. I’d walk past a woman with a baby to stand over her, to walk down the road that was a home. But here was a leper. But I realized he was a leper when he put his hand out to me because he didn’t have any fingers on it.

80. 47:21

    And I had some money in my hand. And I froze because the thought dawned on me that to give him the money, I’d have to touch him

81. 47:32

    ever so slightly, but I’d have to touch him. Now I knew, brothers and sisters, that he wouldn’t be on the street if his leprosy was active. He would have been under treatment, he would have been registered and he would have been on treatment. That would have rendered him non infectious. And anyway, even if he had been infectious, for me to touch him like that wouldn’t have contributed at all to any risk to me. And even though intellectually I knew that the very thought of touching a leper is the first leper I’d ever seen in my life, I was very reluctant.

82. 48:12

    I did in the end, give him the money. But the Lord saw a man who was full of leprosy, and this was the plague which put a man outside the camp. He had to walk around unclean, unclean. He wasn’t allowed in the camp. He was a man who represented sin in all its ugliness, disfiguring the glory of God, the image and likeness in which Adam had been made.

83. 48:42

    And the Lord didn’t need to touch him. Do you remember? He could have said a word, as the centurion understood, and his servant would have been healed. But he put forth his hand and touched him. Why? Because he was moved with compassion. There was one thing that would have thrilled that leper more than anything else, and that would have been to be touched.

84. 49:08

    It would have been like an electric shock going through his body. No one would have touched him. But here was a man whose compassion overcame any prejudice to stretch out and take in his hands the very sin of the world. Now that’s the character of God manifest through the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you remember how long-suffering the Lord was?

85. 49:40

    Do you remember what he said when he looked at Jerusalem, about to be overthrown by the Roman armies, in the prophecy that he was about to speak? O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, a city that had killed the prophets, what would we have said? How often would I thought of destroying you? But no.

86. 50:11

    How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings? And he would not. Here was a man slow to anger. What would we have said, brothers and sisters, to Judas Iscariot when he came up to us and gave us a kiss on the cheek?

87. 50:38

    Slow to anger, full of goodness and truth. The loving kindness of the Lord is revealed in so many places. He was the one who act with publicans and sinners, who went into their homes, who sat down with them, the despised class.

88. 51:06

    Yet His mercy extended out toward them, full of truth. We read in our readings this last week of an example in Luke Chapter 11, a remarkable example of how the Lord was full of truth. A Pharisee had invited him home to dine and he went in and sat down to meet, it says at verse 37 of Luke 11. And the Lord said unto him, but what would you have said, grand sisters, if you’ve been invited to somebody’s home? Of course we try to be polite, courteous. We try to be on our best behaviour. I’ve already been invited into this man’s house, but the Pharisee marvel that he had not first washed his hand. And the Lord said unto him, Now do we Pharisees may clean the outside of the cup on the platter, but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.

89. 52:10

    What do you think to say to your host? But the Lord put truth the head of everything. You see, He knew exactly what He was saying. That was the only way to get through to a Pharisee. He had such a polished exterior that you couldn’t penetrate it with the words that the publicans and sinners accepted.

90. 52:31

    But He had to cut through it with a power that cut them to the quick. He was indeed full of truth. Master, we know that Thou speakest the truth. They had to say of Him keeping mercy in the prayer. In John 17, the Lord Jesus speaks of that which He had kept. He says while I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name.

91. 53:06

    That is the name. That was what was revealed. That is the Yahweh name. That’s what He will be. And the Lord says, I have kept them in thy name, in the mercy and grace of the name of God, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin. Whether it is easier to say thy sins be forgiven, or to say rise up, take up thy bed and walk, here was the man who could forgive sins.

92. 53:45

    You remember, brethren and sisters, in John chapter 21, when Peter is called to task for his threefold denial of his Lord. Do you remember the withering words of the Lord Jesus Christ when he tore Peter apart?

93. 54:07

    When he said to Peter, Lovest thou me more than these? Lovest thou me, Peter? And the third time it was savage. Peter was distraught because the Master said to him, Peter, are you my friend?

94. 54:45

    There will come a time, we believe it to be soon, when this final attribute of the name of Yahweh Ale will be manifest in the Lord Jesus Christ, and there may be only one question the Master will need to ask us to reveal the truth.

95. 55:16

    Love us down me are you my friend?