Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
This is a conversational podcast that brings powerful moments from the Inspirational Media sermon library into fresh, engaging dialogue. Hosted by voices who care deeply about sharing timeless biblical truth, each episode unpacks key ideas from sermons, devotionals, and real-life stories — helping listeners reflect, relate, and rediscover hope in today’s world.
Whether you're exploring faith, seeking encouragement, or simply curious about spiritual truth, this podcast is designed to stir the heart and spark interest in the deeper resources available in our library.
🎧 Dive into the conversation and discover what’s waiting for you at inspirational.org.nz.
2544--AWTozer--Christ In You_128k
00:00:00 Speaker: I want to read again a few verses that were already have already been read in your hearing. Paul said he was made a minister according to God's dispensation, given to him to fulfill the Word of God. And to preach the mystery which had been hid from ages and generations. It's not even Abraham knew, or David or Isaiah. But is now made manifest to his saints. To whom? To the saints. God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. Now the building is up to something. What was it? What is it? It is simply this Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ, whom we preach, warning every man. In teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. And he said, he labors and works at it according to the working of God in him mightily. Now I have been attempting. Over the last weeks I've been attempting to show what happens to the man who is converted to Christ. That's all I'm interested in. Anybody else can preach on birth control and capital punishment and nuclear physics. They want to. They can have it. I won't stand in their way. I'll just stand out of their way. But I've been trying to tell what happens to a man when he is converted to Christ. That is what he has. Not that he used to have before he was converted. And what he has that he didn't used to have before he was converted. And what now that he's converted, he may be he may expect that he could not expect before he was converted. Now these are chiefly three what he has not that he used to have is the sin and the record of his past offenses. He doesn't have them anymore. And I want all you young new Christians to hear this. What you don't have that you used to have is a record. The police say about him, and he has no record. Not a thing they can pin him on or pin on him. And the truly converted Christian has no record. He's been justified, being justified freely by his grace. And we have access into this grace wherein we now stand. And then what he has that he didn't used to have is eternal life. And the a perfect standing before God. He has eternal life now, if he's been truly converted and a perfect standing before God. And what is it that he may expect? That he didn't used to have as an expectation? Validly he couldn't. Now he can. He may expect heaven and the presence of God at last. But you know that this a man could preach on for twenty years. But these things that I have mentioned tonight in your hearing are not the most precious treasures that God gives to a converted man, nor are they the most valuable gift that he gives to a converted man. Without them, the other wouldn't be. But what is this supreme benefaction? That which is a gift and treasure above all other treasures and gifts which even God could give. A little child gives you a gift. Maybe it's a homemade potholder or pen wiper or some little thing. It's not worth much, but it's worth a lot to you. That's all a child can give. You get a present from a relative. That present is according to two things. According to the love which that person feels for you and according to their ability. The average one of us, if our relatives give us a present, it wouldn't be a Cadillac. It'd be something simple, but it would be from their heart. And we take it as such. We give according to our ability. Well, now, when the great God Almighty, who owns heaven and earth, and who is fabulously rich beyond the power of the human mind to conceive, wants to bestow a supreme benefactor upon one of his creatures, and to give him that which is above all other gifts, a gift worthy of its source, a gift worthy of the one who gives it. He gives us Christ to be in our natures forever. Now this is the one final test before God, though not before man. Christ in me. I can't show that to the world. I can't do that. But before God, this is the test. Second Corinthians thirteen five. Know you not your own selves. How that Christ is in you except you be reprobates. If your false Christians and not truly Christians, then Christ is not in you. But don't you know your own selves that if you're truly Christian, Christ is in you? This is God's supreme and final gift, not the pearly gates, not the golden streets, not heaven, not even the forgiveness of sin. These are God's gifts to, as a king might give to his queen a dozen gifts, and then give his supreme final gift worthy of royalty. So God gives us not a dozen or two dozen or a thousand or ten thousand, but countless hundreds of thousands of gifts he lays before his happy people. And then he bestows upon us this supreme gift. He makes us the repository of the nature and person of the Lord Jesus. Now, who is this? Who is this that he gives to his people as the best God can do? God cannot rise higher than this. Nothing in heaven is higher than this. All the earth scraped together and all of its riches would not be as high as this. All the celestial heavens and the astronomic heavens rolled together would not be as much as this. Not all those strange and mysterious beauties we see told we read about in heaven and see by the eye of faith. Not all of these, taken together would be as much as this. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Well, who is this? That he gives us? Well, the answer, of course, is fine, and I can only say that it is he of whom Moses and all the prophets did write. It is he of whom God Almighty spoke in the third chapter of Genesis, When he said to the serpent that the seed of the woman should bruise his head. And he said, there will be somebody coming to the world to redeem these that you've dragged down, and that one you will bruise his heel. That is, it will be a relatively, relatively light thing, inasmuch as he'll get over it again. I'll raise him from the dead the third day, but he will bruise your head in such a way that you'll never get over it. He's talking about somebody now, and it began there, and it came all down the years and through all the scriptures. When we go a little further into the Scripture, we find him coming forth and looking forth through the lattice, at it, at us. Addison. This time it is as the Passover lamb. In Exodus twelve one to fifteen, the Jews were told there in the darkness of Egypt, and under the frightful bondage of the slave drivers. They were told that there was deliverance coming, that the terrible wrath of God was to be poured out upon Egypt, but that there was to be a little group that was to be saved. And they were Israel, of course. That little group. And he said, now you take a lamb and keep it for days, and be sure that it's a good lamb and nothing wrong with it. And in the fourteenth day, kill it and sprinkle it blood on your door. Then when the avenging angel goes through and kills the firstborn in every home, you will be as safe as if you were in heaven. Not a thing can touch you. The Passover lamb. Lamb will keep you safe. And that Passover lamb is this one we're talking about. Another facet of this one. And then we go still further, and we find that this one of whom we speak is to the is the, the prophet of destiny in Deuteronomy eighteen, Moses the man of God, the prophet said to Israel, now he said, I'll be going one of these times. And there's another one coming, and he's coming. And he will have the ultimate plenary authority of the great God Almighty, Jehovah. And you can kick me around and refuse to obey me. But when this one comes, it shall come to pass that whoever resists him or Seymour refused to obey him shall perish from among his people. He is the prophet of destiny. He is the Passover lamb. He is the seed of the woman. And further on in Isaiah nine, he is the golden child which the prophet saw. He said unto us, A child is born, and unto us a son is given. And his name shall be called wonderful Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. And the government shall be upon his shoulders, that he may order it from this time forth, even forevermore. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. He is the golden child, the wonderful child that the prophets saw, not only Isaiah, but the other prophets. He is the shepherd of Israel, of whom Ezekiel wrote in his thirty fourth chapter and elsewhere. He said Israel would be scattered like sheep throughout all the world. But he said, there should be a shepherd come, a shepherd whose voice they would recognize, and that shepherd would speak his word of invitation. And Israel should come from the north and the south, and the east and the west, from where they had been scattered in all corners of the earth. And they should come to the Holy Land unto the shepherd of Israel. And he is Earth's King of Righteousness. As we read in the Psalm seventy two, that beautiful, beautiful seventy second Psalm, so beautiful that I won't paraphrase it. Give the King thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son. He shall judge thy people with righteousness and the poor with judgment. The mountains shall bring peace to the people and little hills. By righteousness he shall judge the poor of the people. He shall save the children of the needy. He shall break in pieces the oppressor. He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass. In his days shall the righteous flourish and abundance of peace, as long as the moon endureth. And he shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. And they that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him, and his enemies shall lick the dust. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him, and all nations shall serve him. And he shall deliver the needy when he cries, and the poor also in him that has no helper. And he shall spare the poor and the needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. And he shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence, and precious shall their blood be in his sight. Now there is this Psalm from which I. Isaac Watts wrote, Jesus shall reign Where'er the sun doth his successive journeys run. There is earth's King of righteousness. But he is more than all this. This one is the one who exhausted all the metaphors. Go to the Old Testament and you will find every metaphor, every figure of speech, Every image and every type and every symbol. Everything the human mind could understand. Everything that God could say and make the mind understand was exhausted. To set forth the glories of this one that we are considering, the one that we call by the simple five letter name Christ. Christ. All right, this is who he is, and he is the one that the prophets of the Old Testament and the seers and the psalmists and the sages tried to show forth and were frustrated because they couldn't. And the Scripture says in first Peter that the the prophets who prophesied of old times sought to look into these things and were not able but they these inspired profits soared as high as as. Their human minds could go. And beyond they dived to the depths of the sea. They climb the mountains and they journeyed across the plains. And everywhere they went, everything they saw, the Holy Ghost turned into expectation and promise. They looked at the sun and said, he is the Son of righteousness, with healing in his wings. They looked at the stars, and they said, he will be the star of the morning to tell of the coming day. They looked at the mountains and said, he will be the great mountain in Israel, and unto him shall all the nations come. They looked at the rock, and they said, he is the rock in the midst of a weary land. They saw the bold and raging lion, and they said, he is the Lion of Judah. And they saw the lamb yielding himself. And they said, he is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. Now this is who he is. He is that one that was promised. But that isn't enough yet. No, that isn't enough yet. What is he? What is this one? Who was promised? What is this one not? Who is this one only? But what is this one who was prophesied? This seed of the woman, this Passover lamb, this prophet of destiny, this wonder child, this shepherd of Israel, this Lord of the new heaven and the new earth. What is he? Why should any man be made so glorious as all this? What is this one above all others? And why should God place him as he did above Abraham. Why should he placing him above Moses, who was faithful in all his household? Above. Above Melchizedek, priest of the Most High God, or above Aaron, the High priest of Israel, or above angels, for he was placed above angels and principalities. And why is he the central one in the midst of the beasts, and the elders, and the living creatures? Before the see of God? Why? And why does he hold the fate of all men in his hand? And why must the universe finally kneel before him and not some other? Now the answer. The explanation is so simple you can tell it to a child, and so profound that no human mind can understand it. So simple that you can teach it to two year olds and to Prof. So profound. And Paul said it was the mystery of godliness and gave up trying to understand. Answer to the question, what is this? Who is this and why does he have the place he has? I say it's an obscure sea of sacred mystery. And yet it can be grasped by any humble heart. Now, let me try to break it down and show it to you. And may the dear God Almighty that gave us this truth make it understandable to our hearts, and honor us with hearts worthy to understand it. What is the answer? Well, you go back to God as everything goes back to God. God, the one true God, exists in three persons. God, the one true God, subsists in three persons. This is what the Bible reveals. It reveals that God is one. Hear, O Israel, God thy God is one. Lord. God is one, but is one in nature, one in substance, one God in his unitary being. But he exists in three persons, as if I might use the word all rooted in this one being. So there are not three gods, but one God. There are not three substances, but one, not three divine natures, but one divine nature. Only one God. The God who was before any creature was the God who existed in himself. and trusts to nobody and leans on nobody. The one to whom nothing can be added, and from which nothing can be taken away. The fountain of all created streams. The origin of all created things. This one God is in three persons. The father, the Eternal Father, out of whose heart eternal son was begotten, not created. For God did not create the son out of any thing external to himself. He was born out of the heart of God. Equal with God. Equal to God himself. God never having an beginning. Now there's also the Holy Spirit And these three persons are father, Son, and Holy Spirit. First. Second, third, first person of the Trinity. The second person of the Trinity, and the third person of the Trinity. And I believe that the great God about whom I speak tonight is giving to us a sense of his presence that will shut up forever. The mouth and seal over forever the mouth of the man who dares knock at your door and call himself Jehovah's Witness and laugh at you because you believe in the Trinity. Say one, two, three. It's three, not one. All right. I believe that the Bible declares it. And then I believe that the Holy Spirit confirms it as it's preached. Now, a step further, that this second person of the Trinity, the second person of the Trinity, not the father and not the spirit, but the second person of the Trinity himself. God never created never the time that he was not, but he was before time and holds time in his heart. This second person of the Trinity, who has all the attributes of the Godhead dwelling in him fully, this second person of the Trinity assumed human nature, assumed human nature in the incarnation, assumed human nature. I repeat now how could this be? How could the uncreated God assume to himself nature that was created for the nature Jesus assumed to himself one time wasn't then it was by the fear of God When God said, let be, it was, and man was created and man's nature was created. Now how could it be that this, this eternal God who had no creation, no beginning, no origin, this mighty God? How could it be that he could assume to himself the nature which he had himself created? Well, again I say, the explanation is so simple you can tell it to a child and so profound. Nobody in the University of Toronto can understand it. It is simply this that human nature was originally made in the image of God, and because human nature was made in the image of God, therefore it's appropriate and consistent that the divine nature could assume the human nature, because the human nature was made like the divine nature. Though a creature. Now when God decides to do it, the second person of the Trinity can take to himself human nature once made in his image, and he can be born of a woman, a human being, a man, and lose nothing of his deity. He loses nothing of his deity and his deity gains nothing. For deity can't gain anything. But what deity did in Jesus, in the Eternal Son was to take our human nature into itself. And he retained all of his uncreated attributes, and yet he was a normal and true man. Now this is the man of glory of whom the prophets wrote. That's why one man can be the one to bruise forever the devil's head. That is why he can be the Passover lamb to redeem men. That is why he can be the prophet of destiny that brings all nations to his feet. That is why he can be the child the prophet saw whose name was wonderful and Prince of Peace. That's why he can be the Shepherd of Israel, to call God's ancient people home. That's why he can be Earth's King of righteousness, to rule from the river to the ends of the earth. And that's why he can be and will be, and is the Lord of the new heaven and the new earth. Now Christ can enter a regenerated man's nature, because man's nature entered God and was taken up to God and united to God in the incarnation. Do you see this, my brethren and sisters in Christ? Do you see what this means? Do you see what we celebrate Christmas time? And do you see why some of us are heartsick at the carnality and sin and ignorance and stupidity and hype around Christmas? For what is God trying to say to the world at Christmas time? He's trying to say that I honored you above all angels and cherubims and seraphims and principalities and powers, for I did for you what I never did for them. I took your nature up into myself. I took your nature up into the second person of the Trinity. And united it there forever and ever, world without end unto perpetuity, so that the nature of man. That's where man's honored. The nature of man has been joined to the nature of God in the second person of the Trinity. And so, because human nature entered the divine nature, now the divine nature can enter human nature, and because human nature dwells in the divine nature. Now the divine nature can dwell in human nature. And when the Scripture says Christ in you, it doesn't mean Christ in your head. It doesn't mean Christ in your rib cage. It doesn't mean Christ in your bloodstream. It means Christ in your nature. The nature is human nature. That he came to save a man with all the man is the human nature that makes a man. A man makes a human being, a human being. And it's this, it's this that enters us. It's the nature of God. Because God took the nature of man unto himself, he can now give the nature of God unto man. This is the supreme gift of God to mankind. Now, do you know that this is what the Alliance grew up on? This is what Doctor Simpson, that great Canadian Presbyterian preacher for. He was a Presbyterian and he was a Canadian. This great man of God taught this to the world. And all denominations heard it. And they didn't all join the alliance, God knows. But you can go everywhere throughout the United States, throughout Canada, throughout England, throughout Australia, New Zealand, and wherever men speak English. And here and there you'll find the writings of A.B. Simpson. Why? Because he taught this. This is what he taught. When Doctor Simpson was an old man and about to give up his pulpit in in New York, an old gentleman who had been an usher twenty years walked up and down the aisles for twenty years in Doctor Simpson's church, he said. And he meant it to be a compliment. He said, well, Brother Simpson has only had one sermon in twenty years. Now, wherever Brother Simpson began, he always ended up with this Christ Jesus in you, the hope of glory. This is it. This is it that Christ can dwell in your nature so that divinity can dwell in humanity. That's what it means to be a Christian, ladies and gentlemen. It doesn't mean to be saved from cigarettes, although that will drop off. It doesn't mean to be saved from beating your wife and playing cards. But no Christian does either. But it means infinitely more than that. And that's why I get sick to my stomach when I find whole groups of Christians that never get beyond simple matter of. I used to be a bad boy and I quit it. Well, of course, of course, of course. But that isn't what's important about you, brother. What's important about you is that God made you a Christian. And when he made you a Christian, he honored you above angels and seraphim and cherubim and archangels. He honored you above Abraham and David and Isaiah and Melchizedek and Aaron. He honored you by giving you of his own nature. Peter said it in simple language, said, by these promises we become partaker of the divine nature. He said it, or I would never have dared to say it. He said it. So this is the greatest benefaction. This is the greatest thing. Why is the Holy Ghost given to men? Why is the Holy Ghost? Come on men. Well, he gives gifts to men. I believe in all the gifts of the spirit. I believe they ought to be all in the church. Not one only, but all. But that's not the main reason he gives the Holy Spirit to to to his church. He gives the Holy Spirit to His church in order that he might take the things of Christ and show them unto us, so that the work of the Holy Ghost is to reveal to you the the supreme benefaction, the, the, the, the gift which is above all gifts, the gifts which God Himself can't do better than. The greatest gifts that salvation bestows is the nature of God in the nature of a man, Christ in you, the hope of glory. This is the Christian's hope of glory, that you are united with him. But you say, I don't feel it. He didn't say it. You'd feel it. He said it was so. It was so. If you were to go to a doctor and he said, you have cancer. And you'd say, I don't feel like it. You still have cancer. If you were to get a letter from Jones, Johnson, Robertson, Johnson and Jones, the law firm downtown, saying your uncle in Australia has just died and left you three quarters of a million dollars, and you'd say, I don't feel it. You'd have it. Nevertheless, as fast as you could get here, be in the Royal Bank of Canada in your name as soon as it could be flown over. You don't. It isn't what you feel. It's what you have. So. Oh, you'll feel it all right after a while. Because the same Peter that said we had the nature of God also said there was joy unspeakable and full of glory. Far be it from me to shush any of the people of God that want to shout Amen. Some of you People ought to learn to say amen and say it out loud. You say somebody would faint. We'd lug him out and throw water on him. He'd be all right. He wouldn't hurt him a bit. You know he wouldn't. If I'm going to faint, I'd like to faint under the right auspices anyhow, wouldn't you? So the faint, if they want to, will. The nature of God enters and dwells in the nature of man. I say we united to him. Now we're united to Jesus Christ, not as a husband, united to the wife, because it says, the two shall be one flesh. And if one of them dies, the other one's free to marry again. For the union was physical. But we're united to him with our natures. He in us, and we in him, I in them, and thou in me. All those wonderful words of of John seventeen so that we're joined to him forever, and he is ours and all that he has is ours. And I think it's a shame that we Christians sit around in poverty the way we do. Why should the children of a king go mourning all the day? Why should the princes and princesses of the royal palace sit in a corner and suck their thumb? Why should we? Because the devil looks in the window and frowns. Why should we hide under the bed and say I'm afraid? I'm scared. I'm afraid of the devil. I'm not afraid of the devil. I would be afraid of the devil because the devil could handle me easily. He's got judo that I never heard of. And the devil could handle me. But he can't handle the one to whom I'm joined. And he can't handle the one to whom I'm united. And he can't handle the one whose nature dwells in my nature. And if he hears me, said I remind him and you, that when that one walked about, the devil saw him and fled. And when he said, come out of him, they got out, and they didn't argue about it. And he went up to the right hand of God. And he made captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. And from his high throne of God he's ours. And all that he has is ours. Some of you people here tonight are in the depths of gloom. Things have happened to you and you wonder if you can ever get out. Jesus Christ is God, and God took humanity into his heart. And then he gave that man back to us as ours forever. And he's given his nature to us. And if all he has is ours, he made him to be heir of all things. And if he's heir of all, your heir of all things. Everything the father has, the household has, and everything that Jesus Christ our head has, we have. So don't you let anything get you down. Some of you have trouble in your business, and you're worried. And you haven't half heard my sermon tonight. And the good singing, this wonderful singing we had here tonight from the choir and from the congregation you didn't have here that you're bothered, you're bothered, you're bothered. You got your family and you're bothered. Didn't he say seek the kingdom of God first, and these other things shall be added unto you? I remember, dear brother Jarrod, the first pastor I ever knew. This dates back to the First World War. I'm sorry to tell you, but when in the States, everything was going sky high, you know, sky high. He got up with that great roaring lion voice of his and told the congregation, he said, I'm in the hands of God. And if beefsteak goes to sixteen dollars a pound, I'll promise you I'll eat. And I know he did, because he was a heavyweight. I know he ate well. Everything we have. Some of your business is bothering you. Why do you let their business get you down? God Almighty can take care of your business. There are thousand Christian businessmen alone in Ontario that could stand up here, one after the other, and say, when I turn my business over to the Lord Jesus Christ and stop worrying about it, began to prosper. Well, he let your word, your business worry. Some of you have trouble in your homes. And cause Christianity to some of you is that peculiar, hybrid, degenerate kind of Christianity that never knows a thing about what I'm talking about here. You wonder if you can get along. Sure, you can get along. There isn't anybody in the world. But what can live for Christ anywhere? And as Doctor Leon Tucker said, if you can't live for Christ anywhere, you can't live for him anywhere. So there's nothing in your home but what can bless you? You say, Mr. Tozer, I live with a grindstone. I literally live with a grindstone. I've got no one person in mind. I'm drawing a bow at a venture. You say, Mr. Tozer, I live with a grindstone. That wife of mine, she's a grindstone. She's. She's a great rough grindstone. And she's just grinds me raw. Okay, brother. Jesus Christ endured the cross and the shame and the spitting and the plucked out his beard. And for the joy set before him, he endured it. Jesus Christ is able. You're. If you're united to him and he to you. He that was Victor in Joseph's new tomb can be Victor in your home. Remember that. Don't come to me crying about your bad wife or your wife that's wearing you out. Who are you, anyhow? God never made you to be a posy under glass. He made you to be a soldier and sent you out there and said. Now I'm enjoying myself to your nature. He. I'll join myself to your nature. Suppose, I suppose, that I wanted that I came up against a man who weighed two hundred pounds two hundred and ten, and every inch of them was muscle. What wasn't bone and ligament was muscle, and he'd just come out of training three weeks and he threatened me on the sidewalk. Now, would I run? Yes, I would run unless. I would run. Unless the nature of Sonny Liston could come into me. And as I stood there on the sidewalk, I suddenly took on the attributes of the big black boy they call Sonny Liston. And I'd say to him, you and who else? He. You bother me and I'll dust you off. See, because you could do it. You could do it. Because if I had in me the nature of Sonny Liston, I'd be another Sonny Liston. But not having it, I'm not. Now let's get that silly illustration down and turn it over and dust it off. What do I mean? I mean that in that home of yours, you've got an adversary. All right. The devil says to you, now listen, that adversary will get you. You can't be a Christian and live there. You can't if you have to do it. But suppose that the nature of God should enter into you by the Holy Ghost. You could do it then, couldn't you? Exactly, sir. So he's ours, and all that we have is ours. All that he has is ours. And there isn't anything that you can have. Some of you have personal bad habits, and you've fought those bad habits for years. I'm not mad at you for it. We're all in this mess together. All in this mess together. You shake hands with a smiling, friendly person above their head and say courteous things, and they're not telling you that they're victims of habits. They wouldn't tell their own closest friends. You don't have to have them. The nature of God enters your nature, and you don't have to have them Sin can be broken instantly and forever. Because Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now, do we know this in experience? That's all I'm asking in closing. Do we know this in experience? Christ in you, the hope of glory. If I didn't want to be filled with the Holy Spirit for any other reason, I'd want to be for this reason that I might know more of what this means to be converted, to have the nature of God in Christ Jesus in my heart, joined to my nature forever and ever and ever. He said, The Son abideth ever. See not he doesn't visit you. He abideth ever. Now how about it? What about you? Do you believe that Jesus Christ can break every fetter and set you free and turn you loose? I hope you do. I want to talk on this theme that God's best gift is himself. And I have two texts here. They say almost the same thing numbers eighteen twenty and the Lord spake unto Aaron, thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them. I am thy part, and thine inheritance among the children of Israel. And then in the tenth chapter of Deuteronomy, verse nine, it explains therefore that Levi has no part nor inheritance with his brethren. The Lord is his inheritance, according as the Lord thy God promised him. And then the importance of this is indicated in that over further at this time in the book of Ezekiel forty four twenty eight, it says, God is speaking and says, I am their inheritance, I am their possession. Now that was many hundreds of years later showing that this was not a stray thought, but it was a positive truth taught here by the Holy Spirit for the enrichment and blessing of his people. Now, the historical background is that God is dividing the Promised Land to the twelve tribes, and to each one of the twelve he gives by surveying it and laying out the land, he gives a portion, an equal portion of the land. But there is a strange tribe in Israel. It is the priestly tribe. And that priestly tribe was to have no land in the in Israel. God was to be their possession. They weren't to have any other. I am their inheritance. I am their possession. I am their part. Those three expressions show that God was trying to say to the world that would listen to all believing faith everywhere that give property and land all right, but that he wanted to teach that there's something better than earthly possessions, and particularly to the priestly people that can understand it. That is, he gives himself to such people, and in giving himself, he gives everything else. Now that's the background. And this is applicable to us because we are a royal priesthood, a peculiar people and holy nation. I believe in the priesthood of the believer. I believe that every born again Christian is a priest, and is as capable of entering the presence of God through the blood of the everlasting covenant as any. B. And b priest ever, anywhere in the world. The humblest, simplest, most unlearned child of God, by virtue of his being a priest of the Most High God, can enter the very presence of God and talk to God and receive instruction from God and fellowship with God. As certainly, I say, as any priest anywhere on the earth. So that this instruction is for us. Now, this is the wonderful truth that there is on earth a dispossessed people. They have very little and mostly what they have. They give away. My dear father, now long in heaven wasn't converted yet when he said this, but he was terribly distressed and couldn't understand it. He referred to me and to my older brother, who is still living a doctor in Florida, and he said, I have two boys. He said, I don't know. He said, one of them makes all he can get and keeps it, and the other won't take anything. And what he gets, he gives away. Well, I rather enjoyed that. I thought that was very delightful. It was a little compliment that came, that burst out of my father's heart. Worried about a boy? He was. I was a boy. And I was much younger, you know, forty years makes a lot of difference. But, um, it was he said, I have these two boys. One is making money and keeping it, and the other is not making any. And what he gets, he gives away. Well, now that's characterizes the Lord's people. You ever stop to think how much money some of you people could have laid up if you weren't giving anything to the church or anything to the Lord's work? Do you ever think of that? Do you ever think what vast churches they could build? And some do build who don't give to the Lord's work? Well, these are a dispossessed people, but God has given them that which is better than anything else. God has given them himself. Now, this is taught throughout the Old Testament, and it is taught more clearly in the New Testament. For in the New Testament it says, he that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, And he that loveth me shall be loved of my father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. The man love me, he will keep my words, and my father will love him. And we will come unto him and make our abode with him. The true believer actually has God. Then Jesus, in his prayer here, says that they may all be one as thou, father, art in me, and I in thee. They also may be one in us, and I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. That the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Now this is. This only is two two passages from the. New Testament teaching on the fact that God belongs to his people. When we say, My God, my God, or when we say My father, we are not simply victims of an idiomatic expression. It is an actual truth. God belongs to his people. Now God wants to give himself to us in experience. God seeks to dispossess us of everything less than himself, either actually or in spirit. He actually dispossessed job of everything. Job had been a rich man and God dispossessed him, took everything away from him, including his family. So job stood or sat or crouched alone on the ash heap, covered with sores, a man totally wrong and stripped and spoiled. He had nothing, but he had God, and soon he had God and everything that he had lost. But God had to strip him and dispossessing that his actually take it away from him. And we well know that our Lord Jesus had not where to lay his head. We also know that Paul had nothing. Actually, they were dispossessed. But not always does God dispossess people by taking everything from them. Sometimes he only takes it away from them in spirit so that they have no sense of possessing anything. That is Abraham. Abraham was a man who was very, very rich. And yet God summed up everything in God's Son. Everything. Listen, you who have children, and you who remember the children that are now grown, that once toddled around your house. Am I right in saying to you that if you had before you a choice. You had either to give up your child in death, or you had to give up everything you possess down to the clothes on your back. There isn't one person listening to me that wouldn't say instantly. I would rather give up everything and stand alone with nothing except close enough to be decent in rather than give up my child. Now God said to Abraham, thine only son, whom thou lovest. That was Isaac. And in Isaac all summed up was everything that Abraham had. And Abraham loved Isaac more than he loved all of his herds of camels and cattle and sheep, and all of his gold and silver and rich possessions and servants, and all that they held the forms of wealth they had in that day. He would have given all of them instantly, with a stroke of his pen, to sign it all the way to Isaac. And God said to him, take thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and slay him on the mountain as a sacrifice. He took him up there and raised the knife, so that in doing this he was saying to God, Oh, God, everything is summed up in Isaac, and Isaac's going to die. Thus I'm giving you everything but my blood, and you can have that. And God held his, grabbed his wrist and said, don't you touch the boy. I didn't mean for you to kill him. I only wanted to know whether you would. In other words, Abraham, I am more to thee than my possessions. I am more to thee than thine only son whom thou lovest. That's all God wanted, and that's all God wants us. He doesn't care about the amount of the property. He wants to know where it is. Is it his or is it yours? Is it between you and God, or is God first and everything else marginal? So he let Abraham have plenty, but because he knew that God was everything to Abraham, he let David have plenty. David was a king, wore his crown, had his robes and his scepter and his throne, and ruled over men, and was rich as kings were in those days. And yet David didn't have anything. Read David's prayers and see how he stripped himself when he prayed. Clear down to his simple garment. He had nothing. God was everything to him. He said, I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness. What have I on earth beside thee? He said, or whom in heaven but thee? God was everything to David, and yet David had everything. So I say, these strange people, these Levites, these priests of the Most High God. God dispossessed them of everything, either actually or in spirit, so that they have nothing but God. And in all redemptive acts, God gives himself. God's attributes are nothing but God. We can distinguish, but we cannot divide God from his attributes, and we cannot divide God from himself. We cannot distinguish. We cannot divide though we can think apart. Thus distinguish, but we cannot think apart any of the attributes of God, God's love, and p and, and, and, and, and his holiness and his power and all the rest. We call them attributes, but they are simply facets of the unitary one God, our father, which art in heaven. So that God gives himself to his people. And these attributes, as we call them, are simply God pushed out into the field of our awareness. He simply God becoming consciously present to us in Canada. Here you use a verb. Make it out of a noun that I have never heard before coming here. I don't know whether it's British or whether it's Canadian or where it comes from, but the pastor used it this morning in his prayer. And I've heard others, they we say, Ask God, oh God, presence thyself. Now presence is a noun, but we turn it into a verb and our prayer is, Oh God, presence thyself. Make thyself consciously present. Thou art present, oh God. But oh God, we don't ask thee to come, for thou art here, says the prayer. But we want thee to make us conscious that thou art here. That's what we mean. It's what the pastor meant, and that's what we mean when we use the verb presence instead of as a noun, a verb. We want God to make his presence consciously realized. Now I tell you this, I've said this before. It may be put down as just old fashioned stuff, but I tell you more. I tell you this once more that the presence of God consciously felt in a congregation is more wonderful, more satisfying, more elevating, more glorious than anything that man can bring together. I don't care who the preacher is. I don't care how famous. I don't care how great. I don't care how how bad the singer. I don't care what it may be, nor how high an authority the speaker might be in his church or in politics, nor how famous he may be in the literary or art world. The most inexplicably wonderful thing is for God to presence himself now. I mean that for God to be consciously present in a congregation. It was the fact that the Lord Jesus was there that gave the law and enthusiasm and fire to those early Christians, and it is the fact that he is not consciously with, as nowadays, that causes us not to have the fire. The ashes of a lost hope are poor substitutes for the fire of a living presence. Now God gives himself, I repeat, and it's impossible for God ever to answer your prayer without giving himself you may, you may in your in your imperfection immaturity. You may ask God for a gift of some kind, and God may give it to you, and thus you may lose the primary wonder of that answered prayer. You may lose the first. If you ask God for a job you're not. You don't have a job as you satisfied with. You want a better position and you go to God honestly and ask God and say, now, father, you know that my money is thine and my family's thine. I am thine, O Lord. Lead me to a position that will be good and satisfying and and lucrative, that I can have to supply my needs and the needs of my family, and give to thy work around the world. Lord, give me a good position. The Lord may have somebody call you before the sun sets. You get a letter the next day. God will answer prayer if it's his will to do so. And these things are his will. But if you spend your time thinking about that and forget something else, that in giving you that answer to prayer, God gave you himself, which is infinitely more than the highest position in Canada. He gave you himself. Those who have been healed dramatically of of of sicknesses, all of them will testify to the same thing. Back in the early days of the Alliance, when they talked a great deal more about healing than do now. They always said, and all the teachers who taught said it isn't the healing of the body. That's the wonderful thing. It is the experience with God. That's a wonderful thing. He said, this is what's wonderful, that God comes and does this. We have God when we're healed. That was the thing that moved the people in those early days. So God answering prayer is God giving himself and the love of God is simply God moving in love. And the kindness of God. Is God moving as our needs require. And the mercy of God is simply God moving as our sins require. And the peace of God is the God of peace, imparting himself to us and eternal life itself. I preached at a seminary last week, and I told them there that eternal life is not a thing. Eternal life is God, the eternal, imparting himself. This is eternal life that we might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent. This is life eternal. So the knowledge of God, that is the experience of God. That's what knowledge means. There. Now it's not theology he's talking about, though theology is necessary before the knowledge of God can come, some amount of it is necessary. Anyhow. We must know the basic truth concerning God. He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and he's a rewarder of them that seek him. So he we must have that much knowledge of God through Christ. But it's not necessary to have a profound knowledge of theology. The knowledge of God is not an intellectual thing, only it is an experiential thing. It is of the soul that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent. So eternal life is a knowledge of God, an experience of the eternal God. What is holiness? Now holiness is God living in the personality that is to us. That's what it is. The idea that you can go to an altar and kneel down and pray and say, Lord God, make me holy, and God makes us holy. And we go up, we go our way, having been made holy and cleansed and made holy. Very much as you drive a dirty car to a minute, wash and turn it over to the man, and he drives it through and charges you dollar and a half, and your car is clean and you get in, thank him and don't even know his name. You just pay him and drive it away. Now that's some people's idea of holiness. To go to a camp meeting or a church or somewhere and go to the altar and kneel down and ask the Lord to make them holy. And they say, he does it. Praise the Lord. And they get up and go their way. That's not holiness, my brethren. Holiness is God living in the personality, living there. If you could imagine cleanness, if you could imagine that you could take your car to a place called the Fountain of Cleanness, and you could dip it in that fountain of cleanness, and that fountain of cleanness would enter every part of the car so it couldn't get dirty. That would be a little closer to the idea of what holiness is. It is the God, the fountain of life, and the fountain of holiness living in the personality of his people. I in them, and thou in me said, Jesus Christ, in you the hope of glory. Know ye not that Christ dwelleth in you? Indeed, except ye be reprobate. So God gives himself in holiness, and God gives himself in power. I preached some weeks ago in a place where. There was a strong element of what we would call the Pentecostal or tongues. And while the leaders were not, and most of the people were not. Some were. And one old lady was out, she got very mad at me. I didn't even know she was existed and don't know her yet and never saw her. And except I heard she was there. I said something and she didn't like it and. But I didn't mind that. Batting average isn't bad if you've got several hundred people and only one of them gets mad at you. But, uh, I say and say to you that she was putting her hands on people's heads, you know, and just just giving out power and healing. Just all directions just come over and mama lay her hand on you and you'd go. Doesn't work that way, brethren. It just doesn't work that way. Once said, David, have I heard twice? Have I heard it? Power belongeth unto God, and God is called Almighty God, God the Almighty one. And so all power belongs to God, and any power that God gives us is simply himself. He lends himself to us. Do you find that the song himself please for me there? I want to read a stanza or two of it. Uh, show you that Doctor Simpson also believed this. Now closing. Uh, God is our only legitimate quest. Doesn't that sound mystical? And that I ought to be have on a long robe and be barefooted and go to a monastery? No, I don't think so. This society to which you belong used to teach that God is our only legitimate quest. Men have searched for other things. They've searched for visions. But I think I have an understanding with God. Oh, God, I don't want any vision if I can't have thee in it. Others want voices. Others want tongues. Others want gifts. Others want evidences. I ask for no evidence except God, because any evidence must be mediated to me through my intellect. I suppose if. Suppose the Lord said, thank you, the Lord said, Now I'm going to make the the the tips of your fingers glow bright orange, and you'll know I've blessed you when your tips of your fingers grow, glow bright orange. I'd pray and pray and pray and then open my eyes and look good. They're glowing bright orange. Now I have the blessing. Well, now I have been reasoned into that, you see. I have been told as soon as your fingertips are bright orange, you're blessed. Now, as soon as I see them bright orange, I'm blessed. You see, that's a logical conclusion. And any body that can read be reasoned into. Such a conclusion can be reasoned out of it by a better thinker. If somebody else was a better thinker, comes along and says, now wait a minute. The fact that your fingertips glow bright orange does not mean that you're blessed. Pretty soon the fellow would say, well, they're still glowing, but I'm not blessed. I have had myself reasoned out of it, so any evidence of any kind that God is blessing me is necessarily mediated through my intellect, through my sense of logic. And therefore I've got to always be reminding myself, I know I'm blessed because I know God loves me. Because I know because always I've got that. Because there. But my brother and sister, there's such a thing as holy intuition. There is such a thing as God making himself known to you in spiritual experience, above all visions and gifts and evidences and all the rest. So you know you have God in you. The hope of glory and Christ becomes living real to your spirit. It is not a question now of logic and reason and evidence and testimony. It is a living, intuitive reality. So remember. God is never to be sought for secondary reasons, only for himself. Whoever seeks God for something else It's all wrong. God, the man who seeks God alone will find God in Christ and through Christ. And then finding God to his utter wonder, he'll find he has everything else too. The businessman who seeks God for himself is very likely to find that he's not only found God, but that God's blessing his business way beyond his hopes. And so, with everything else, God gives himself first, and that's his first and best gift. And all these other things shall be added unto you. Now, I suppose you know this, but I'm not going to sing it now. We'll stay by our program, for we have a better song selected for the occasion. But to close this, he wrote. Simpson wrote once. It was the blessing. Now it is the Lord. Once it was the feeling. Now it is his word. Once his gift I wanted now to give her on. Once I sought for healing, now himself alone. Once I hoped in Jesus. Now I know he's mine. Once my lamps were dying. Now they brightly shine. Once for death I waited. Now his coming. Hail. And my hopes are anchored safe within the veil. He published an article not long ago in the Alliance, witness to the effect that we have shifted our emphasis in the latter days. In this hour, we've shifted our emphasis in the Second coming from Christ's coming to the program of Christ's coming. And we got some pretty bitter letters over that. Some people really were angry all over. Not many, but a few. I stand by it, my brother Paul and his friends, and the Peter and his people and all the rest of them had not as much to say about the details of his coming as they had to say about the fact of his coming. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. He was coming. And so they said, he's coming. He got he got the wrong ideas. And Paul had to write and straighten them out and try to straighten them out the best he could and get the details straightened out, because people run to details like a duck runs to a water pond. But, uh, he said he's coming, he's coming, he's coming. And that's what matters. Dear friends, communion service means that Jesus is coming. We look back to his death and forward to his coming. And when he comes, you will find, after all. And I hope it won't be a disappointment that what he has given you is himself forever and ever and ever. Book of acts. Second chapter. Peter's testimony to the resurrection of Christ, beginning with verse twenty two. Ye men of Israel, hear these words Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know him, being delivered by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be Holden of it. Therefore, being by the right hand of God, exalted, and having received of the father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith himself, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts, and said unto Peter, and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins. And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Peter, here in his sermon. Preaches truth. It concerns Christ altogether. Christ. Other people are mentioned only casually, but it all centers around our Lord Jesus Christ himself, Christ crucified and risen. It was never in the mind of Peter to teach the noble doctrines of Christ or to refer to them. It never was in the mind of Peter to talk about the heroic example of our Lord. His teachings were noble and are noble, and his example is heroic. But the New Testament centers its emphasis around Christ crucified and risen, and the New Testament presents Christ as the last and ultimate object of faith. The whole question now is what think ye of Christ? The question what do you think of the Bible is out of date and has no meaning, since the Christ and the Bible were confirmed by the resurrection of the dead, and Christ endorsed the Bible in toto, and the what do you think of the church has no meaning now either. Nobody can ask that and be truly sincere. Because Christ said, on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now we have this question before us what are we going to do with Christ? And what do we think of Christ? And we have it whether we like it or not. We have it all year round. We have it all the time. We have it Easter, and we have it the next day after Easter, and we have it the third of July, and we have it the ninth of November, and we have it the first of December, and we have it the third of January. We have it every day of the year. What are we going to do about this man whom God has raised from the dead? Christ is the last word to men. In God Almighty's last word to man. It's written that God, at sundry times and in divers manners, Spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. But now, in the last end of the world, he has spoken unto us by his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. And it is written again that the word became flesh when the word became flesh. God spoke. He spoke his word in flesh. He spoke his incarnated Enfleshed word. And Jesus Christ is that word. And that sums up all that God would say to men. Now our religious question then is about Christ himself, and all religious questions are reduced to this one major one what do I think of Christ, and what am I going to do about Christ? Now there are those who pretend to have doubts and problems concerning this, for they that do are in love with themselves. They are blinded by egotism and self-love, and I respectfully claim the right to doubt the sincerity of those who now are saying, I have problems about the Bible. I have problems about the church. I have problems about morality. All problems are reduced to one. God spake his eternal word in Christ Jesus the Lord. And so Christ is a settled question and a question. Settler. The sincere question of the honest seeker is not what proof has Christianity? Because when God raised his son from the dead, he gave the only proof there was, and the only proof there is. But he gave a proof infinitely capable of settling the minds of anyone who is concerned and who is sincere. So the question is not what proof does Christianity give? Because we are not dealing with Christianity, we are dealing with Christ. We're dealing with the man who became flesh. We're dealing with God who walked among men. We're dealing with the God who gave his life for men. And so the question is not what do I think of Christianity? But the question is, what do I think of Christ? And what am I going to do about Christ? And the question of this sincere man is not is Christ what he claimed to be? Some claim there have doubts and wonders about whether Christ is what he claimed to be, but there should be no question here at all, because the Scripture says that Jesus was approved of God among you. He was approved of God with great stacks of books have been written books that would fill this building from the cellar to the roof, and books that would fill all the buildings up and down Avenue Road. Books have been written trying to show that Jesus is what he claimed to be, but the worshiping heart knows he's what he's claimed to be. Because God sent the Holy Spirit to carry the confirmation to the conscience of man. It does not lie with the evidence. History can offer no evidence, then, that God raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand. And the question of the sincere man is not how do Jesus teaching compare with the teachings of the moral philosophers, or the teachings of Buddha, or of the Hindus? The the question is settled for us forever, because the moral teachings of Jesus stand or fall with him. I heard on the radio the other night in a debate put on in the city here, uh, between a number of men have some intelligence I would gather from their their questions and answers, and they were willing to question the teachings of Christ and, uh, to take issue with Christ on certain issues. Let any man take issue with Christ. And he's done. As far as a Christian, being a Christian is concerned, no one can take issue with the Lord. No one can question the truth of the truthful one. No one dares bring up the matter of whether or not Jesus is the Lord, and whether his teachings are sound. He is approved of God and His moral teachings stand or fall with him. Jesus Christ our Lord himself is the object of our attention, not the teachings of Jesus. Though the teachings of Jesus are dear to us, and though the teachings of Jesus are there, that we might keep his commandments and prove that we love him. It's the person of Jesus that gives his teachings validity. God put the proof down upon a spiritual level. It rests not upon reason, but upon conscientious. See. If the resurrection of Christ were to rest upon reason, then only the highly reasonable people could be converted. If the resurrection of Christ were to rest upon man's ability to gather and weigh evidence, then the trained man trained in the gathering and and evaluating of evidence might believe. But the simple hearted man who guides the plow, or who labors and with his hands, and doesn't do much thinking he would remain unconverted. But it was just the opposite. The appeal of Christ was always to the simple hearted man whose conscience gave him trouble. He brought a he brought a troubled, lacerated conscience to Christ. And when the conscience knew that Christ had risen, and that he had appeared unto Peter, and unto five hundred brethren at once, and that God had approved him, and confirmed him, and validated him, and marked him, and sealed him, and proved him to be his Christ, sent to save mankind. Then the human conscience immediately responded, and that's how people are converted. The simple people are converted. All kinds of people are converted not because they have the ability to weigh evidence. If salvation depended on my ability to know when a thing was true and not true, if it depended upon my ability to know, as in a court of law, whether a witness is telling the truth or not, then of course, only lawyers and persons trained in this would have any possibility of salvation. But this truth of Christ rising from the dead leaps past all human reason, leaps over it, rises above it, and goes straight to the conscience of a man, so that as soon as the message is preached, everybody will can know immediately. They don't have to ask. They don't need to ask. In fact, it's an affront to ask. Jesus Christ is risen and has appeared to his disciples and God confirm his resurrection, sent down the Holy Ghost. And now the verdict has already been rendered by the Most High God Himself, maker of heaven and earth. The verdict on the resurrection of Christ. And he has sent his spirit to carry the verdict to the conscience. So the result is they were pricked in their hearts. You might be interested to know that that word pricked here. Now, in our present English, the word pricked simply means lightly, pricked lightly. But there the word was so deep that it was it it had a, it had a, a qualifying and intensifying prefix on it. Listen, when it said that the pierce they pierced the the side of Jesus with a spear. When they found that he was already dead, they pierced his side with a spear. And the word pierced. There is one word, but the word that they use here about they were pricked in their hearts, has a qualifying and intensifying prefix to it in the original, showing that the words of Peter went further into the hearts of the hearers, and the spear of the soldier went into the breast, so that the Holy Ghost carried the spear point of truth into the hearts of the people. And they cried, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter had the answer for them. Immediately he said, you are to believe on Jesus Christ, And you then are the proof. Prove that you believe by identifying yourself with him in baptism. You are to identify yourself with him in baptism and proven. Show to the world that you believe in this one that's been raised from the dead, so that facts and reasons cannot have such an effect. I can argue with the man, I can reason with him. I can preach to him. If I were capable of so doing, I could preach to him with the oratory of Cicero, Demosthenes. And when it was all over I could only convince his mind. But the spirit of the living God convinces the conscience. And so every last one of us listening now our conscience caught. If we have any conscience left, we must be conscience caught by the presence of Jesus Christ as having come out of the grave. Let us not let us not be be fooled into believing that it was the life of Jesus that saved us and oh no, he had to die. Nor that it was the death of Jesus that saved us. No, no, he had to rise from the dead. All three had to be present. Before we can say, truly, that we have a Savior that we can trust. He had to live among men, holy and harmless and spotless and undefiled. He had to die for men. And then he had to rise the third day, according to the Scripture. And he did all three of those things. And when the Spirit of God carries that fact home to the heart, then we're caught on our conscience. I say, we're impaled there by the spear of the Holy Ghost, and we can't escape until we've done something about Jesus. What then shall we do? Peter wasn't afraid of the word do in some of our evangelical circles. They're afraid of the word do. Do They say that's that's a that's a legal word. That's a Jewish word. That's not a word for Christians. I tell you, Peter wasn't afraid of it at all because it's not the due of merit, it's the due of condition. What shall I do that I may receive the benefits of this Lord Jesus Christ into my own life? Well, Peter said, believe on Jesus Christ and identify yourself with him by baptism. Now that's what we're to do. We're to do this. That's what Easter means. That's what this means. And you can't escape it. You can go home and not return for a year, but you can't escape it. It'll haunt you all year. And if in the providence of God, you should die this year, it will haunt you to the grave and haunt you to eternity. For God has given His Son Jesus Christ to the world. And he said, believe on my son, and whosoever believeth on him shall not perish. And whosoever believeth not is is condemned already, because he is not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. So this is the do I say of condition. You can add no merit. I can add no merit. No, no, you have none and I have none. We're not good men. We're not good women. We are sinners. And the sinless one came and took our sins on himself and went to an ugly cross, and died there amid blood and and swarming flies and sweat and tears and grief. And then God raised him the third day, for it was not possible for death to hold him. God had declared concerning him I saw the Lord always before me, because he is before my face, I shall not be condemned. And God raised him from the dead, and the Holy Spirit seals it. And while I've given you this brief message this morning.