Two Witnesses: The Best Man and the Bridegroom

The title of my message this morning is "Two Witnesses: The Best Man and the Bridegroom."

After these things, Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judah, and there he remained with them and baptized. Now, John also was baptizing in Enon near Salem because there was much water there, and they came and were baptized. For John had not yet been thrown into prison. Then there arose a dispute between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purification. They came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, he is baptizing, and all are coming to him."

And John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.' And he who has the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled.

He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all. He who is on the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. And what he has seen and heard and that he testifies, and no one receives his testimony. He who has received his testimony has certified that God is true. For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God. For God does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

Okay, the first set of verses here, verses 22 through 26, sort of sets the scene for this event. There is a dispute, I think we could almost say, here between some of John's disciples and some people who are referred simply to as Jews. But it seems as though it says it's about purification. It's a question about purification. And the idea of baptism and purification are all tied in to each other. And among the Jews, I mean, one of the things we have to keep in mind is that John didn't just invent baptism.

It has its roots in the Old Testament law with the cleansings and the purifications. And one of the things that was practiced among the Jews is when a person, a Gentile, wanted to become a Jew, actually become part of the covenant people of God. One of the things they went through was a baptism. It was a ritual cleansing, a ritual purification. It was all part of that process. And of course, we know that John is preaching a baptism of repentance. And the unique thing about John, even though he is pulling from that more generic practice among the Jews, is that he is saying to the Jews, "You need to repent, and you need to be baptized.

You need to repent, and you need to be cleansed." And the baptism of water, the washing of water, which Paul tells us, or is it Peter? No, I think it's Peter, tells us that it's not the washing of water that purifies us from our sins, but it's the answer of a good conscience. Okay? And the water signifies.

It stands for that inward purification and cleansing that's happening that happens once we repent. And so John went out preaching repentance. And one of the things that's really interesting is that when the people came out to hear him and he preached to them, they asked him, "What must we do?" And he told them what they have to do.

And the thing that's so amazing about John's message is how particular it is. And it all has to do with how they are treating other people. It has to do with unrighteous behavior toward other persons. It has to do with them oppressing people and being dishonest. And John says, "You have to stop, and you need to do the works of repentance."

That's what he's preaching. Okay? And he gathers a following. He gathers disciples, people who are following and taking direction from him. And you'll notice here that they call him Rabbi, teacher, master. They acknowledge him as the person who has an insight or an understanding or a body of knowledge that will help them to come in closer relationship with God.

But they're a little perplexed. I think they're a little annoyed, actually, because they've had this discussion with some Jews. Actually, there's some questions of whether this is a singular or a plural. They may have had a discussion with one Jewish person, one Jew. They may have had a discussion with a number. But it's about purification, about cleansing.

And we aren't told specifically what all that was about. But what it generated was this, when they came to John, what did they focus on? They focused on this guy, Jesus. This man who you witnessed to, he's baptizing. More people are coming to him than are coming to you, and he's baptizing them.

And you get the feeling that they don't actually like that. They don't actually like it. Now, we're told at the beginning of this passage that Jesus and his disciples were in Judah after they left Jerusalem there. They were in Judea. And there he remained with them and baptized. And at the beginning of chapter 4, it tells us that actually Jesus himself personally didn't baptize anybody, but his disciples were baptizing.

Okay? He delegated that job to them. And I think there was a reason for that. I think there was a reason for that. I think the reason is that Jesus didn't want anybody to claim any special merit because he was the one who did the baptizing, the physical water baptism. Okay? We pick up a little bit of that in Paul's letter where he really downplays the idea of who the baptizer is as far as water baptism goes.

All right? But most important, what is it that John promised? John the Baptist promised about this one, how he would baptize. He said, "I baptize you with water for repentance. But there comes one after me whose shoe latchet I am not even worthy to untie. And his windling fan is in his hand. He is separating the chaff from the wheat, and the chaff will be burnt up. And he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."

I had to think about that this morning when we were singing that song, "Gentle Holy Spirit." You know, the Holy Spirit isn't always gentle.

In fact, I'm not actually sure if you go through the Bible, is the Holy Spirit ever called gentle? I don't have any problem with this song. I understand what you're saying in this song. But it seems to me that often the Holy Spirit is pretty powerful, is pretty almost ferocious in its intensity.

We certainly see that in Acts.

And John describes it as a fire that burns, that consumes the chaff, the waste stuff, the evil, the wickedness. Okay? That's not always a gentle experience. We'll talk about that when we get down to talking about wrath at the end of the chapter here.

Okay?

This guy is baptizing, and all the people are going to him instead of you. All right? Now, I don't know what they were expecting from him because they said, "Yes, we know. This is the one you testified about." And they heard him give this testimony. "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world."

Okay? And some of John's disciples picked up, left John, and went and followed Jesus. Some of the early disciples of Jesus were John's disciples, had originally been John's disciples. What is John's response to that? What is his testimony?

And this is the friend of the bridegroom's testimony. You'll see he uses this little illustration, this little image or metaphor. He compares Jesus to a bridegroom who's coming to get his bride. He's anticipating the marriage and so on. And he has a friend, his best friend. We would call him the best man.

All right? Now, in our culture, in our tradition, who brings the bride down to the groom? Normally, her father or her parents. Right? My understanding in the Jewish culture of that day, maybe it's still that way, I'm not sure, but the person who brings the bride down to the bridegroom is the bridegroom's friend, the best man. He's the one that escorts her down.

Okay?

And the whole point of the event, of the wedding, is to get these two people married. All right? That's a nice thing about even this coronavirus thing where we had to have small weddings. You know, the point of the whole thing was to get you folks married.

And it happened, didn't it? It happened. And it was great. All right? It happened. We would have all liked to have been there, but it still happened. And that was the important thing. And that's what Paul is looking at here. I mean, John is looking at here. The important thing is the focus on the bridegroom.

Okay? "I'm rejoicing." John said, "I'm rejoicing at seeing Jesus increase. I'm actually glad that more people are following Jesus than they are following me because the purpose I came into the world was to point people to Jesus." And if people are picking up that he's the one they really ought to listen to, that's okay. Now, what's interesting, John still has work to do. His work hasn't ceased. He is still calling people to repentance.

All right? He's still calling them to it. And so there's this overlap between Jesus's ministry. Jesus is beginning his ministry here. And John, we see, is kind of moving out. And of course, we're told here that this is right before he was put in prison. So his ministry is coming to an end. One of the things I've always found interesting in the synoptic gospels, you know, there's just this account. John's in prison.

And he continues to hear what Jesus is doing. Jesus is healing. And he's preaching the gospel. And John is in prison. He's asked, "Is this him? Is this him?" And I wonder, why is he asking that? Well, I have this feeling that John is like many of us. And as you see in the gospels themselves, even though they are given a task, even though they are given some information, they don't have the whole story. And sometimes they fill in their own understanding or their own thoughts about how this is all going to work. I don't think John the Baptist thought that the coming of the Messiah would mean that that coming would coincide with him being put in prison.

I think he thought, "Oh, the Messiah is coming, and things are going to be put to rights right away. What I've been preparing for is all going to come to pass however he thought was coming to pass." Here he's in jail.

And he's saying, "Is this the guy? I thought he was. I knew he was. God told me he was. But there he's in jail, and he's wandering. He's wandering."

You know, we sang this song this morning, "One Transient Gleam." Now, I kind of like that song. But you know what transient is? I think I understand the word transient. It means kind of a passing gleam, doesn't it? One passing gleam of Jesus' face.

Well, I just think a transient gleam isn't going to cut it. A passing gleam is not going to cut it. All right? And John didn't feel the need to change that one. I don't know why. Maybe likes a little transient is kind of a nice word.

Okay?

But John needed something more. John the Baptist needed something more than a transient gleam. And we do too. We do too.

Anthony talked about our conscience. And Harvey brought in about the light. That light shines in our conscience. And it's the light of Christ. That Holy Spirit has to shine in our conscience not a long time ago, but now and ongoing.

Okay?

Even John the Baptist, who spoke God's Word, had things revealed to him, recognized Jesus for who he was. When he's in a situation where things don't seem to be working out the way he thinks they should, he begins to wonder.

And what does Jesus say to him? He says to them, "Go back and tell John that the sick are healed, the lame are made to walk, the blind are made to see, the devils are cast out, and the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached.

I'm doing what I'm supposed to do, and what's happening to you is all part of it. Fear not. Fear not, little flock, for it pleases your Father to give you the kingdom of God."

But here in this passage, John's vision is clear. There are no doubts. There's surety. And he can, with that surety, tell his disciples, "He must increase. I must decrease. This is the purpose for which I came into the world."

Okay? The bridegroom is here, and I'm rejoicing.

Then we have this second part, verses 31 to 36. One of the things that's difficult in can I have a glass of water? One of these things that is difficult in John's gospel is to figure out when a speaker is finishing speaking and when John the author is picking up and explaining what has just been said.

Okay? And, you know, in chapter 3, the earlier part of chapter 3 where we have that encounter with Nicodemus and Jesus, it's very obvious in the first part that there's this conversation with Nicodemus and Jesus. You know, you have this back-and-forth conversation. And then about verse 13, you can wonder, is this Jesus still talking, or is this John explaining, further elaborating what Jesus has said? Thank you, Harvey. I appreciate that.

Now, in some sense, it doesn't matter because it's all God's Word. It's all Scripture, and it's all true. Okay? So my point here is that verses 31 to 36 could be John the Baptist continuing to talk about Jesus, or it could be John the writer, the Apostle John, explaining, further elaborating what John the Baptist has said.

All right? Verse 31, "He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all." One of the things I think we have to keep in mind, and as Anabaptists, we can sometimes lose sight of this because of another emphasis that we have, which is very important to have. And that is the fact that Jesus is an example for us.

And one of the things that he did do when he came into this world was to obey his Father and thus give us an example of what we're supposed to do. He shows us that this is actually possible to do.

All right? And I think that's a very important thing to keep in mind. All right?

But we also have to keep in mind that Jesus has something we don't have. He has a power and a position and a status that we will never have. Okay? And earlier in John, it describes him, and this chapter describes him as the only begotten Son of God.

Monogenes is the Greek word. Only begotten. There are something some of the modern translations render it as unique, a term that I think is a little thin, but does kind of get to the idea, though it doesn't pick up on the idea of only begotten. It does pick up on the idea that there's something different about Jesus from us.

Okay? And John picks up here again on this by saying, "He is from heaven. He is from heaven. He has his origin." I mean, he's from heaven, and he's coming down. He brings with him heavenly knowledge, heavenly understanding, heavenly power. And he not only brings it, but he is actually the originator of all that.

Okay? So in our emphasis on Jesus's incarnation and his humanity and him being the pattern that we are to follow, we must not forget that he is the second person of the Godhead and that he is God's unique Son, our only begotten Son, and he carries with him power, strength, ability, and knowledge that we will never have.

We'll never have it. And he picks up on this here a little bit later on in verse 34, "For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure." And then verse 38, "And the Father loves the Son and has given him all things in his hand.

There is no other human being on the earth that that is said about. There is no other human being that that is said about." Okay? Ephesians tells us, or should say, yeah, Ephesians 4:7 says, "But to each one of us was grace given according to the measure of Christ's gift." And then in Romans 12:18, it says, "God has dealt to each a measure of faith."

And a measure is an amount. It's a container. And there's so much that you can put into it. Okay? And here we see the Spirit is given without measure. There's no containment. There's no limitation. Jesus has all of the Holy Spirit, all its power, all its strength, all its understanding, all of its abilities, and all of its fire.

We're given a measure of that Spirit. Okay? Jesus has all things from the Father. Okay? We don't have all things from the Father. In fact, Paul, when he talks about the perfection that is in Christ, does not talk about it in relationship to the individual, but talks about it in relationship to the church, the gathered body who fitly joined together where all the gifts of the Holy Spirit are being used and are operational.

And that means of Christ's body in that way that can express more fully, more perfectly God's presence here on earth. Each one of us individually don't have that ability, but Jesus did. Jesus individually had that ability because he had the Spirit without measure, and he had all things. The Father gave him all things. Now, notice this thing, this word here, give. John says, "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him." And then it talks about the fact that God has given the Spirit, has not given the Spirit to the Son by measure, and that he has given all things unto him. So the point that John the Baptist is making is that I've gotten my job, my strength, my abilities, my power to do the somewhat limited task that is given to me here on this earth.

All right? But the Son has been given all things and the Spirit without measure, without any limitation. Okay? And so John is saying, "I can only do what I've been given to do." And that's all of our task, to do that which we have been given to do, knowing that if we've been given this, whatever task we've been given to do, that the strength, the power, and the ability will be given.

It'll be a gift from God. All right?

Now, John's looking then at Jesus's testimony, which we've looked at a little bit already.

Again, he says he's from above, and he is above all. Okay? And he was of the earth, is earthly, and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. And notice what it says. "What he has seen and what he has heard, he gives witness to."

What he has seen and what he has heard, he gives witness to. Elsewhere, it tells us, "No one has seen the Father except the Son, and he and those whom the Son has revealed unto him." If we want more than one transient gleam, it's only through the Holy Spirit, it's only through Jesus that we are going to get it because he has it all.

Okay? He has it all. And whatever he wants, whatever he's chosen to reveal to us is going to be sufficient for us. Well, we should know that whatever bit has been revealed to us, it's just a small slice of everything God knows and everything Jesus knows and all the power that God has and all the power that Jesus has.

It's just a slice. And, you know, I think about that in the situation we find ourselves today. It seems to, I think, for many of us, this is a time of uncertainty. It's a time of shaking. It's a time of change, much of it not seemingly all that good.

Now, as a historian, when I hear people say that, I think, "Well, yeah, but, you know, back in the 1850s, as things were heating up for the Civil War, it was actually a lot worse."

And just the other day, I was reading that back in the 14th century, 30 to 50 percent of the people died of the Black Death.

That sounds like a greater shaking than what we're experiencing today. So it does. Okay?

Is it a greater shaking, or has our lives been so comfortable, so insulated that, and the technological and medical advances have pushed away some of these things, that when something happens, we begin to think, "This is awful." You know what?

If you don't die of COVID-19, you're going to die of something.

That's the fact of the matter. Now, I'm not discounting the seriousness, and as Harvey talked about this morning, the need to be careful. You know, I'm personally not fearful for myself, but I want to be considerate of other people and the whole situation, of their feelings and their concerns and of their circumstances.

At the same time, Jesus tells us, and Paul tells us, what is going to be the characteristic of the latter days? It's going to get worse.

Things are going to wax evil, to use a nice King James English term, wax evil. Okay? My wife and I were driving down the road the other day, and there was this, I can't even reproduce it. There was one of these gospel signs out, and it was in this really wonderful and unintelligible King James English.

And I just thought, "What does that mean to the average person?"

Okay? That's extra.

It's getting worse. It is getting worse. And I think particularly in Western society, it's getting worse. We are living in a "post-Christian age," though I have always wondered how Christian our Western society was. There certainly was a mixture of some Christian ideas and some simply worldly wickedness and so on. It's always been that way.

All right? And if you were a Black slave in 1850, you would not have believed that 1876 was a worse time after you got freedom. Some people's circumstances get better. Some people's circumstances get best. One thing that's really interesting to me is where is Christianity the strongest in our world today? It's not in the West. It's in the South.

It's in Africa. It's in South America. It's even in Asia. That's where it's growing. Why? Because those areas, the gospel is new, and it has that power, and it's better than what they have.

The West doesn't think it needs the gospel. Okay? Though as ennui and uncertainty and just all the aspects of our technological age hits people, and it doesn't actually satisfy that deep inward thing that needs to be satisfied, there are people here and there who want something more.

And it's our job to be this witness to the one who has the Spirit without measure, who knows all things, and to whom all things have been given. And as it says here in John 3, okay? "He who has received his testimony has certified that God is true. For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things in his hand." And this is for us. "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." Now, did any of you notice something what I just read that you probably didn't see in some of your Bibles?

Let me read it to you again. Just follow along. "He who believes," verse 36, "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

The King James often translates the word believe in the first believe is a different is the common word for belief, believe, faith, pietist. The second one is a different word. Okay? And one of the things I noticed is that if you look at the New American Standard Bible, it always translates that word as obey.

It always translates as obey. The King James, even on occasion, translates it as obey. In Romans 2:8, he talks about those who do not obey the truth. Okay? Who do not obey the truth. Now, there is another term that is used for obey that is different, that is often more commonly used for obey that is different than this. Okay?

But the point that I want to make here is, all right?

Jesus has all things. The Spirit has been given to him without measure. How do we appropriate or how do we participate, and perhaps participate is a better word than appropriate, how do we participate in the all things that Jesus has?

We have to put our trust, that's what believe means. We have to put our trust in him, and we have to obey him. Those are the two things we have to do. And they're not two separate things. In a sense, they're two sides of a coin. Put our trust in and followed by faith, by obedience.

Okay? And you'll notice here it has two contrasting ideas here. One is, "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not obey the Son, okay, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides in him." Okay? It's saying something first in a positive way, and then it's saying the same thing in a negative way. It's a contrast, but saying the same thing. All right? And so to believe and to obey is the same thing here.

Now, everlasting life, okay? You'll notice in my New King James version here, in this chapter, it talks about eternal life, and it talks about everlasting life. Guess what? Same word. I guess they just, you know, they just wanted a little bit of variety. Everlasting and eternal sort of mean the same thing anyhow in English too.

But in the Greek, it's the same term. All right? What is everlasting life?

Is it just simply continuing to exist forever? I mean, many people have a concept of everlasting life. And, you know, many people believe that after we die, in some way or another, something of us continues to exist. All right?

And they have something many people have this idea about heaven or something beyond. A lot of it's very romanticized, very sentimentalized, and everybody is going to experience it except for maybe Hitler, Stalin, and Attila the Hun, or somebody who has really done you dirty, who you think might deserve, might not deserve everlasting life.

But we're not talking here just simply about duration, existence. We're talking about a quality of life that goes on and on and on. And that eternal life starts right now. It starts with the new birth, which Jesus talked about in the first part of this chapter.

We begin to experience this quality of life right now, and we are looking forward to. And what is death? Okay? Death is if we are experiencing eternal life right now because of the new birth that we've experienced. And one of the things I would notice here, it says, "He who has received his testimony has certified that God is true." That idea of receive is, I mean, the tense there from what I was, and I get this all from commentaries. You know I don't read a word of Greek. Okay? And that's why I actually like commentaries. They tell you some things you don't always know or you wouldn't have just picked up out of the air.

But my understanding is that this term actually refers, does refer to a one-time event in the past, a decision that you made. Okay? A decision that you made at some point. Now, I don't think that that means that you have to have a particular kind of decision-making experience.

I don't think that means that you can necessarily point to the time in the day when you made that decision. I can. I can. I remember when I was 15 years old, I actually can't tell you the day anymore, but I do remember the event. I sat up in my bed in the middle of the night and made my decision.

Okay? I made my decision. We all need to make a decision. And it says, "Those who have received his testimony, who have made this decision, who have accepted it," as sometimes we use that language, all right? "Has certified, has placed his seal." Okay? His seal.

And that's a thing, it's a mark that says, "Yes." That seal. All right?

"Has certified that God is true." What is the seal?

Well, a seal is something you can see. It's something very distinct. I would like to suggest to us that perhaps the seal that they're talking about here is the commitment, the public commitment that we make in baptism. When we announce to the world that we have put it behind us, all the works of the flesh, all the works of the devil, all the works of darkness, and we are publicly committing our lives to Christ and uniting with his people.

All right? And we, at that particular point, announce to everybody, "God is true." Okay? Now, elsewhere, it does talk about a seal that God places on us. And what is that? It's the Holy Spirit. Talks about the earnest, to use the King James language, but it's a seal. It's the earnest or the seal. And it's God's mark of approval, God's mark of that you belong to me. It's that down payment that we get.

All right? That shows us, yes, not only are we committing ourselves to God, but he is committing himself to us and giving us that power that we need. All right? Now, what about those who don't believe, who don't obey? Okay? It says, "They shall not see life." All right? "But the wrath of God abides on him."

All right? That word abide is the same word that is used in John 15 when it says, "Abide in the vine." Okay?

Here, and, you know, there we had the idea of resting, of remaining connected to it. It's something that's kind of an ongoing thing. All right? Here we have this idea of the wrath of God resting, remaining as an ongoing thing.

And it's not just happenstance. I like this, I want to read you something that Leon Morris wrote. "Wrath stands for the settled and active opposition of God's holy nature to everything that is evil." Let me read that again. "It stands for the settled and active opposition of God's holy nature to everything that is evil."

You know, I used to think that God, you know, he set things up, and if you disobey, obey how he sets things up, you know, it's not going to go well with you, and you'll experience some bad things. And I thought, "That's the wrath of God." Well, that is. That's one way it works. But that's a little bit like seeing God as kind of a clockmaker. That's a nice deitistic God who sets things up and just lets it run of its own accord, and the natural consequences of what you do happen to you.

God is active in our world.

We're told that he not only created the world, but it continues to exist by his sustaining power, and he is involved in it. And so I think the wrath of God has that element of it too. It's something God actively does.

Okay? So we are not up against a God who just has set some things in motion and lets it work itself out. We are up against a God who is watching, who is intervening and bringing judgment, and his, and the word wrath is actually anger.

It's the same word that is used in Matthew when it talks about us not getting angry. Okay? Now, why does God tell us not to get angry? Well, it's because we can't handle anger. Okay? It's best for us just to tamp that thing down. But God's anger is right and just and good. Paul says, "For the wrath of God is a reveal from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness."

Okay? Does that sound like something that just kind of happens on its own? No. We have a God here who is actively engaged in fighting and defeating and pouring out his wrath against what is wicked.

And I think, I think, though one wants to be careful because who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his advisor.

But I think we can say, with some humility, perhaps, but I think we can say that some of what we are seeing in our world today is because of God's wrath being poured out on us. We look at the government we have today.

Do we, does, I'm not saying about us personally, hopefully not, but does our nation deserve a good government? Does it? No, I think it actually deserves a worse one than what we have for all the wickedness and immorality and unjustice that has continued to go on.

Could it be, could it be that some of these things we see are God's wrath? We do know as we read the Old Testament that God used forces, used rulers, used armies to punish when people were wicked. We do know that.

Okay? But we also know that he has made a way of escape. And that escape is by putting our trust and our confidence in Jesus, who has the Spirit without measure, who has been given all things, and if we believe and we obey him, we may experience the wrath of man, which is of short duration.

And as Jesus says, "Fear not him who can kill the body, but fear him who can kill body and soul."

All right? We may experience the wrath of man, but if we trust in Jesus and we put our, we obey the Son who brings life to us, we do not have to fear the wrath of God. And we do know that in the end, that our judgment day is coming in which all things will be made right. There will be a final coming up. And the task that we have individually and that we have corporately is to live our lives in such a way that we are ready for that great day, and we will not be objects of God's wrath as that day will be.

And in thinking about that, I just want to make some comments. The world tempts us to desert our Lord and to join in its ways. And when we do that, we skirt ourselves awfully close to the place of being an object of his wrath.

And it plays itself out in many small ways in the decisions we make, who we identify with, the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the houses we build, the activities we pursue.

It plays it out there. And as Harvey said this morning, whatever success, whatever faith has been passed down through the generations to us today, and you are a beneficiary of that, I am a beneficiary of that, even though I didn't have the benefit of being raised in it, but simply because there was faithfulness in the past, there is a light that is displayed. There's a witness that is given. And it's our object. It's our task to continue that witness. And I'm very grateful. And how was it continued? It was continued by being careful to that light and that truth and to understanding that we did not invent the gospel.

We did not invent how to live it out. But in many cases, we had it handed to us. And, you know, the thing was talked about this morning, Harvey mentioned it about there is enough light for everyone. But Jesus also says, "To whom much has been given, much will be expected." I worry more about those who have grown up in our midst and have heard the teaching and have seen it demonstrated, who have walked away from it. I worry more for them than I do for those who may not have had the light so clearly demonstrated to them in lived reality.

Let's not live close to the world. The closer we live to the world, the closer we get to the wrath of God. And we do not want to slip into the world by unattentiveness and carelessness and a nothing matters attitude and be taken unawares and find ourselves in a place which will not be good.

Especially when we have he who has the Spirit without measure and has all things given to him, and if we put our trust in him and if we obey him, we will hear those welcome words, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter into the joys of the Lord that were prepared for you."

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