Latest / Philosophy and Faith / 11 - Christ Brining Us to God - The Spiritual Life - Andrew Murray

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11 - Christ Brining Us to God - The Spiritual Life - Andrew Murray · Philosophy and Faith

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  Speaker 1: Christ bringing us to God. The words I wish to
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  Speaker 1: speak on you find in First Peter, Chapter three, verse eighteen.
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  Speaker 1: Christ also hath suffered for sins, the just, for the unjust,
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  Speaker 1: that he might bring us to God. They went into
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  Speaker 1: the great object of Christ's work. What was it for
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  Speaker 1: that he came? That he might bring us to God?
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  Speaker 1: You know, there is a great difference in a way
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  Speaker 1: to a house and the house itself. I may be
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  Speaker 1: traveling through the most beautiful scenery on a lovely pleasant day,
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  Speaker 1: with delightful company, and enjoying every step of the way,
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  Speaker 1: and yet I am not content to stay there always.
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  Speaker 1: I have gone into that way to bring me to
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  Speaker 1: the end. The object of my journey, Christ is the way.
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  Speaker 1: What is the end of the way. The end is God.
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  Speaker 1: Christ wants to bring us to God. You often find
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  Speaker 1: Christians so occupied with Christ that they never get time
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  Speaker 1: for God. You ask me, is there any difference between
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  Speaker 1: going to Christ and going to God? A very great difference.
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  Speaker 1: In Christ, I have the gracious and merciful side of
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  Speaker 1: God's character, But that is not the only side of
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  Speaker 1: the divine character I need to know. In Christ, I
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  Speaker 1: have the condescension of God coming near to me, But
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  Speaker 1: the object of that condescension is to bring me back
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  Speaker 1: to righteousness and holiness. You can never have true strength
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  Speaker 1: and an all round Christian experience unless you learn the
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  Speaker 1: lesson that Christ is going to win your heart, that
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  Speaker 1: he may bring you back to God. Just think, Christ
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  Speaker 1: was not in himself self sufficient when he was on earth.
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  Speaker 1: He lived every day with the thought within him there
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  Speaker 1: is one greater than I. And my blessedness is to
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  Speaker 1: live in dependence upon Him, with a will given up
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  Speaker 1: to his will, and in a trust that counts upon
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  Speaker 1: his working. And if I am to be in Christ
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  Speaker 1: and Christ in me, what was his life must become
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  Speaker 1: my life. Fellowship with God and dependence upon God. There
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  Speaker 1: are aspects of the divine character that are more fully
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  Speaker 1: revealed in God the Father than in God the Son.
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  Speaker 1: Take for instance, the fear of God. I never in
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  Speaker 1: the New Testament read of the fear of Christ. He
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  Speaker 1: came to reveal the other side, the love and the
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  Speaker 1: attractiveness and the trustworthiness of God. The element of fear
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  Speaker 1: and holy reverence was an element in Christ's own character.
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  Speaker 1: Do I not read in Hebrew's fifth chapter that when
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  Speaker 1: Christ prayed, he was heard in that he feared, He
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  Speaker 1: had godly fear towards the Father. And if my Christian
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  Speaker 1: character is to be perfect and all round, I must
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  Speaker 1: have the fear of God as it is revealed in
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  Speaker 1: the Old Testament, working into the very foundations of my life.
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  Speaker 1: With this most childlike confidence. There must ever be a deep,
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  Speaker 1: deep fear of God before the throne. I read that
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  Speaker 1: the four living creatures and twenty four elders cast their
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  Speaker 1: crowns before the throne. I read that angels and seraphim
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  Speaker 1: veil their faces with their wings. If my Christian character
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  Speaker 1: is to be perfect, there must be in it that
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  Speaker 1: deep consciousness of the inconceivable greatness of God above me
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  Speaker 1: that makes me bow in the very dust before Him.
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  Speaker 1: And it is just because so many Christians have never
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  Speaker 1: given the truth a right place in their hearts, that
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  Speaker 1: Christ came to bring them to God, that there is
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  Speaker 1: so wanting in them that blessed element of fear and reverence,
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  Speaker 1: worship and adoration. Come, let us think what this means.
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  Speaker 1: Christ came to bring us to God. I am not
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  Speaker 1: going to try and give you a thing theological essay
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  Speaker 1: upon the atonement. You know all about that. But I
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  Speaker 1: want to look at the practical side. My object is
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  Speaker 1: to help the beloved workers who were being trained in
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  Speaker 1: this institute, not so much as to right comprehension and
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  Speaker 1: clear thought, but to the downright practical life such as
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  Speaker 1: God would have. If we could get a step nearer
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  Speaker 1: that life, all our study and work will be brighter
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  Speaker 1: and more entirely in the power of the Holy Spirit.
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  Speaker 1: How can I make it clear that Christ brings men
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  Speaker 1: to God? I think I can answer it in this way.
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  Speaker 1: We need in our practical, every day life to be
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  Speaker 1: brought nigh to God and to be living in that nearness.
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  Speaker 1: Let me take the morning hour of prayer. A man
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  Speaker 1: wakes up in the morning with the thought Christ is
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  Speaker 1: come to bring me nearer to God. How am I
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  Speaker 1: to begin the day? If I am to live near
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  Speaker 1: to God? That is what the heart longs for. Well, come,
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  Speaker 1: just let us think how Christ brings us near to God.
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  Speaker 1: A man's desire to walk before God is strong. He
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  Speaker 1: wants to be as full of God as he can be.
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  Speaker 1: How is he to attain it? I want to give
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  Speaker 1: a few practical thoughts. I think, first of all, he
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  Speaker 1: must set himself to give God the place that belongs
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  Speaker 1: to him. If I want to be brought nigh to
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  Speaker 1: a person, I want to know who that person is.
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  Speaker 1: If he is a king or emperor, I approach him
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  Speaker 1: with a different feeling from what I approach a slave.
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  Speaker 1: If I approach a friend, thoughts of joy fill me.
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  Speaker 1: But if I am brought to God, I must know
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  Speaker 1: who God is, And as I bow before him, I
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  Speaker 1: must say. He is the almighty One, the all holy One.
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  Speaker 1: He cannot bear sin or the shadow of sin. He
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  Speaker 1: wants to take it away. He is the all loving One.
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  Speaker 1: He wants to communicate himself to me the every way,
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  Speaker 1: a present one who is with me and able to
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  Speaker 1: make himself known to my soul. If I want to
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  Speaker 1: be brought nigh to God, I must first say he
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  Speaker 1: is God, and my soul must bow in lowly stillness
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  Speaker 1: and in an attitude of faith, and just exercise the
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  Speaker 1: belief God is here. He the creator of all things
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  Speaker 1: on the earth, the incomprehensible One. He is a consuming fire.
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  Speaker 1: He is love and wants to impart himself holy to me.
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  Speaker 1: That God is near, But I do not know him.
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  Speaker 1: I know so little of him. How can I come
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  Speaker 1: nigh to him? Then next I begin to think who
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  Speaker 1: am I? And I say, if I give God his place,
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  Speaker 1: I must take the right place for myself. I am
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  Speaker 1: a creature, and I have nothing holy. I have nothing
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  Speaker 1: good except what God gives me. I am nothing except
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  Speaker 1: a vessel in which God can show forth his glory.
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  Speaker 1: And therefore I want to take my place before God
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  Speaker 1: as nothing. If Christ is to bring me to God,
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  Speaker 1: I must sink down into my nothingness. I am not
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  Speaker 1: only a creature, but I am a sinner that ought
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  Speaker 1: to make me take a still lower place. Paul could
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  Speaker 1: never forget that he was the chief of sinners. He
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  Speaker 1: was always thinking of that time before his conversion when
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  Speaker 1: he persecuted Christ and the disciples. So he bowed low
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  Speaker 1: in his old age and said, I am the chief
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  Speaker 1: of sinners. He was not talking about his daily sins.
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  Speaker 1: He was talking about the more than twenty years before
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  Speaker 1: when he was a blasphema. You know, if you were
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  Speaker 1: to meet the Emperor of China, there are certain rules
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  Speaker 1: about bowing before him, and there are certain rules if
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  Speaker 1: I am to meet God, I must come in deep
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  Speaker 1: self abnegation, and then then I am a redeemed sinner.
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  Speaker 1: This humbles me still more. I take the lowest place,
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  Speaker 1: there is God waiting for me to hear my cry?
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  Speaker 1: How can I have intercourse with this God? Jesus? Christ
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  Speaker 1: brings me to God. Take the third step. The first
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  Speaker 1: was give God his place and let him be seated
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  Speaker 1: on his throne of glory. The second, take your place
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  Speaker 1: before God. The third take your place in Christ Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: I am speaking to believers. You understand what the atonement is.
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  Speaker 1: That we have been brought nigh by the blood. You
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  Speaker 1: have believed that for yourself personally, that your sins are pardoned,
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  Speaker 1: and you have had access to God's favor. You want
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  Speaker 1: this morning to be brought into a life always near
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  Speaker 1: to God. You need Christ to do it. How can
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  Speaker 1: he do it? Take your place in Christ, Jesus, and
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  Speaker 1: an act of faith, and by the light of the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, see and believe that you are one with Christ.
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  Speaker 1: Christ is before the Father, and you are in Him,
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  Speaker 1: and He is in you. No branch was ever so
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  Speaker 1: really in the vine, No finger of my hand was
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  Speaker 1: ever so truly in my body as I am in
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  Speaker 1: Christ by a vital union, and as Christ is in me.
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  Speaker 1: And when I want to come to God, I am
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  Speaker 1: told that the place I am to occupy is the
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  Speaker 1: place of the most intimate nearness. The writer of the
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  Speaker 1: Hebrews teaches it. The efficacy of the blood is our boldness.
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  Speaker 1: The living High Priest waits to bring us in. It
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  Speaker 1: is not that I am down here while he does
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  Speaker 1: a little work in and for me. No, As the
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  Speaker 1: High Priest who says, ye in me and I in you,
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  Speaker 1: he brings me to God in the power of my
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  Speaker 1: union with Him, in living fellowship with himself. He presents
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  Speaker 1: me and I by faith have a real abiding access
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  Speaker 1: within the veil, into the very life, into the very
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  Speaker 1: heart and love of God. There I bow in holy
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  Speaker 1: adoration and speak the words so near, so very near
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  Speaker 1: to God. More near I cannot be. For in the
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  Speaker 1: person of his son, I am as near as he
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  Speaker 1: Christ came to bring us unto God. I am not
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  Speaker 1: only in him, but Christ is in me as a
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  Speaker 1: living person. Christ takes charge of me. Christ introduces me
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  Speaker 1: to the Father. And as I am before the Father,
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  Speaker 1: Christ gives the working of the Holy Spirit, and he
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  Speaker 1: teaches me what my work is. When I am brought
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  Speaker 1: nigh to God, it was that God might get his
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  Speaker 1: children in a life of fellowship, to understand and realize
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  Speaker 1: who He is. Some, when they get within the veil,
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  Speaker 1: when they are brought nigh into the holiest of all,
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  Speaker 1: look upon it as a grand attainment. It is only
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  Speaker 1: the beginning of the blessed life. For when I am there,
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  Speaker 1: then God is able to let his light shine into
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  Speaker 1: my whole being. Then God is able to let his
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  Speaker 1: holiness come upon me. When I am there, God is
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  Speaker 1: able to make me bow and sink down into a
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  Speaker 1: nothingness and into humility that I never thought possible to
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  Speaker 1: attain to. That I may be there, receiving the inflowing
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  Speaker 1: of God's Holy Spirit in a freshness and a fullness inconceivable. Oh, beloved,
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  Speaker 1: Christ came to bring us very nigh to God. It
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  Speaker 1: is not only nearness of acceptance, but nearness of love,
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  Speaker 1: the consciousness that He loves me and I love him.
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  Speaker 1: It is the nearness of that union of love which
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  Speaker 1: consists in the closest possible fellowship. Give up all in
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  Speaker 1: emptiness for him to fill, and God waits to come
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  Speaker 1: down and pour his fullness into me. Christ died that
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  Speaker 1: he might bring us unto God. And in that place,
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  Speaker 1: in God's presence, Oh there, it is that not only
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  Speaker 1: God's work in me is to be done. But there
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  Speaker 1: it is I am to learn how to do my
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  Speaker 1: work for God. In that nearness to God is the
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  Speaker 1: place of intercession. Throughout the Church of Christ, there is
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  Speaker 1: a universal complaint that we pray too little. Some work much,
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  Speaker 1: but pray little. We pay far more attention to what
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  Speaker 1: we have to do with men than to what we
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  Speaker 1: have to do with God Beloved. The fountains of the
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  Speaker 1: Christian life, the fountains of the outflow of the Holy Ghost,
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  Speaker 1: the fountains of love and power to be broken up
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  Speaker 1: in our hearts and to be poured out to men.
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  Speaker 1: These fountains rise from the throne of God. And it
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  Speaker 1: is only as man tarries before God in fellowship with
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  Speaker 1: them most high, that God's love can flow through us.
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  Speaker 1: Ask any worker of experience, Ask any man who has
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  Speaker 1: preached the Gospel long and he tells you that he
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  Speaker 1: has to mourn for the fact that he has not
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  Speaker 1: had that deep love for sinners which comes from dwelling
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  Speaker 1: in the love of God. And where am I to
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  Speaker 1: receive this inflowing love. It is when I am brought
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  Speaker 1: nigh to God. There it is I learn what intercession is.
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  Speaker 1: There I become strong to bear the burden of the
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  Speaker 1: Church and of the world in quiet pleading with God.
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  Speaker 1: I have such access to Him, I am so really
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  Speaker 1: his friend. He gives me such power with him that
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  Speaker 1: I know I have only to plead and an answer
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  Speaker 1: will come. Dear friends, is there not a great deal
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  Speaker 1: of our living, of which we might confess it bears
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  Speaker 1: but little mark of Christ Having brought us nigh to God?
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  Speaker 1: There is another step, I say, Christ brings us thus
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  Speaker 1: nigh to God in himself, that we may act out
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  Speaker 1: and live our lives in the world in that nearness
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  Speaker 1: to God. You occasionally find men, when they speak in public,
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  Speaker 1: they have a sense of God upon them. I have
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  Speaker 1: been told that at the Great International Convention in London,
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  Speaker 1: there was more than one speaker of great eloquence, but
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  Speaker 1: there was one man whose very presence, when he rose
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  Speaker 1: to speak, hushed the audience. The very presence of God
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  Speaker 1: was with him. So with a man like George Mueller,
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  Speaker 1: who has spent his whole life in prayer, the presence
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  Speaker 1: of God is on him. But how seldom one finds this.
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  Speaker 1: Of George Bowen of India. It is told that he
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  Speaker 1: had said that the nearness of God was nearer unto
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  Speaker 1: him than any man upon earth. A friend asked him
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  Speaker 1: about it, and his answer was, yes, God is nearer
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  Speaker 1: to me consciously than any one in this room. Is
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  Speaker 1: it not that presence? We want that presence of God
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  Speaker 1: to go out and meet men, to go out and
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  Speaker 1: do work, to go out and engage in business, to
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  Speaker 1: go out and be tempted and tried the presence of
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  Speaker 1: the everlasting God to be with us from morning to night.
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  Speaker 1: Moment by moment you asked me, can it be? I
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  Speaker 1: ask you, I have asked it before I ask again?
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  Speaker 1: Does it cost you any trouble to enjoy the sunlight
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  Speaker 1: from moment to moment, whether you pick up a book
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  Speaker 1: to read, or whether you look into the face of
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  Speaker 1: a friend to recognize him, or whether you do business
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  Speaker 1: or domestic work. The sun takes care to shine all along.
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  Speaker 1: God has given it to you. It does its work.
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  Speaker 1: You spend every moment of the day in the enjoyment
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  Speaker 1: of that light. And what think you would your God
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  Speaker 1: care more to have such provision made for your body
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  Speaker 1: than for your spirit. We need not be in the
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  Speaker 1: dark without the light of the sun twelve hours of
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  Speaker 1: the day. And would God not be able and make
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  Speaker 1: provision that you should every moment abide in the light
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  Speaker 1: of His presence and the joy of His immediate nearness.
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  Speaker 1: Christ came and died to bring us unto God. Listen
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  Speaker 1: to what we read in the Hebrews about the better
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  Speaker 1: hope of the New Testament by which we draw nigh
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  Speaker 1: unto God. Listen to what we read in the same chapter.
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  Speaker 1: He is able to save completely them that come to
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  Speaker 1: God by Him. If you will learn not only to
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  Speaker 1: ask this blessing among other blessings, but if you will
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  Speaker 1: indeed believe that Christ will fulfill this work in you
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  Speaker 1: and bring you nigh unto God, so that every moment
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  Speaker 1: of your life is spent in His presence. Christ will
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  Speaker 1: work it out in your life. Christ suffered that he
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  Speaker 1: might bring us to God, dear friends, as surely as
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  Speaker 1: we are God's children, life can be full of God.
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  Speaker 1: In Ephesians, Paul tells us that God is willing to
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  Speaker 1: strengthen us with might by his spirit in the inner man,
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  Speaker 1: until we are filled with the fullness of God, or
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  Speaker 1: unto the fullness of God. I long thought that meant
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  Speaker 1: some high experience, but it means simply that God wants
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  Speaker 1: to be present with us with such consciousness that our
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  Speaker 1: heart is all the time full of His blessed presence,
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  Speaker 1: his holy will, and his divine in working. Christ wants
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  Speaker 1: to bring us nigh to God. One more thought. When
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  Speaker 1: Christ brings us nigh to God, he brings our will
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  Speaker 1: in perfect harmony to the will of God. I cannot
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  Speaker 1: have my will at variance with God's will, or mourning
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  Speaker 1: its inability to do God's will, and all the time
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  Speaker 1: have the enjoyment of the blessing of God's light and
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  Speaker 1: God's presence. Christ came to bring me to God. I
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  Speaker 1: not only need faith to realize that He is in
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  Speaker 1: me and I in him, But by faith I need
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  Speaker 1: to give myself up to his working, that as a
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  Speaker 1: living person, he shall reveal the will of God perfectly
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  Speaker 1: in me, and so breathe into me his own disposition
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  Speaker 1: and his own life. Christ is to dwell and live
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  Speaker 1: in me. I am not to count Christ as a
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  Speaker 1: separate being dwelling in my heart as a locality. But
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  Speaker 1: Christ is to be in my heart, in my life,
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  Speaker 1: in my thinking, living and willing, as the very life
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  Speaker 1: of all I do, so that He lives himself out
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  Speaker 1: through me. So Christ is formed in me, and God
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  Speaker 1: sees the very figure, the very form of Christ within me.
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  Speaker 1: And as Christ is thus manifested within me in his
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  Speaker 1: disposition and spirit, the nearness of God becomes more intimate,
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  Speaker 1: and the fellowship with God becomes more close. O beloved
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  Speaker 1: God wants us to come nigh to Him in Christ.
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  Speaker 1: Are there not many Christians who live far from God?
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  Speaker 1: When you press this thought, they are satisfied with having
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  Speaker 1: been pardoned and brought nigh. You have reason to doubt
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  Speaker 1: your position unless you have yielded to God to work
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  Speaker 1: out the practical, spiritual, experimental nearness to God. We talked
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  Speaker 1: last week about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and
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  Speaker 1: the baptism of power and the life of the Spirit.
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  Speaker 1: But I do pray you young men and women who
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  Speaker 1: are going to devote yourselves to service, and you believers
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  Speaker 1: who are longing to live holy lives, remember one thing.
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  Speaker 1: You want more of God in your life. A man
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  Speaker 1: has just as much religion as he has of God.
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  Speaker 1: And if a man wants more religion, he must have
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  Speaker 1: more of God. We have a great deal of seeking
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  Speaker 1: of more religion, more power, and yet we do not
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  Speaker 1: think of having more of God. God created you for
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  Speaker 1: himself to fill you with himself. Christ redeemed you to
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  Speaker 1: be filled with your God. Oh, come and let Christ
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  Speaker 1: do his work. And before we go on to speak
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  Speaker 1: this evening about that life, let us realize this one
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  Speaker 1: supreme thought. Christ wants to bring me to God. I want,
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  Speaker 1: by the help of God, to be very practical. And
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  Speaker 1: I want to ask believers, is this what you are
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  Speaker 1: seeking for? Have you come here for the acquiring of
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: new truths or thoughts? Or are you here that Jesus
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: may bring you near to God When you pray, two
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: minutes spent in quietly giving yourself to be brought near
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: to God by Christ would be better than twenty minutes
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: in prayer in the ordinary way we often pour out
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: our petitions, praise and confessions to a distant God. If
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: you want your life changed, if you want God to
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: come into your life, if you want God to take
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: possession of your life. In prayer, always make your first desire,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Son of the Father, bring me near to God. Boo
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: in the very deepest adoration and reverence, and wait, wait
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: before him. It is God's own work to reveal himself
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  Speaker 1: bow in an act of faith. The Everlasting God is here.
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  Speaker 1: Longing to take possession of me, willing to make himself known.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: I wait upon God, bow in deep lowliness and beseech
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: God for his great mercy's sake, to come near and
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: make himself known to you. I often see young Christians,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: how they try to grasp every truth and rejoice over
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: every beautiful conception. They resolve to live entirely for God,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: and they know not how much self confidence there is
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: in all. I pray that God may bring them to
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: the place of feebleness and emptiness. You know Peter's consecration.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: It was such a defective consecration. He said, I am
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: ready to go to prison and death. He truly meant it,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: but it was in self confidence. Christ led him to
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: see it. When he allowed him to fall, then he
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: was humbled and wept bitterly. I beseech you, pray to
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: God with your whole heart. O God, make me humble,
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  Speaker 1: make me meek, make me gentle, and let the glory
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: of God fill my soul with fear and reverence all
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: the day. Do not be afraid that it will take
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: away your joy. It will strike deeper root into the
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: very depth of your being. Christ suffered that he might
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: bring us to God. What did he suffer? Nothing was
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: too great. He endured all that he might bring us
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: to God. Are you willing to take time and trouble
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: that you may be brought nigh to God? If that
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: has become the object of our desires, we will understand
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: the work of Christ far better, and our understanding and
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: knowledge of that work will bring far more abundant fruit.