Heavenly minded

… John's Epistle, John's First Epistle, Chapter Two, Verse Fourteen, I written unto your fathers that ye have known him that is from the beginning. I written unto you young men because ye are strong and the Word of God abideth in you and ye have overcome the wicked one. Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. He that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Shall we turn to the Philippians, Chapter Three, Verse Seventeen. Brethren, be brothers together with me, and mark them that walk so as ye have us for an example. For many of whom I have told you oft to know it, till even weeping, that the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, whose glory is in their shame, who mine earthly things. For our conversation, our citizenships in heaven, whencefore we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, to change our vile bodies, our bodies of humiliation, that ye may be fashioned into his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. Just a verse in the second chapter of Revelation. Revelation, Chapter Three, Verse Ten. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, to come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Beloved brethren, we have been engaged in very precious things this week. Things concerning the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the greatness of the Godhead. When we think of these things, think what we are, tiny creatures, that God has made these things known to us, how wonderful it is. All the mercy and the grace of God, that he would reveal precious thoughts to us concerning himself, concerning the Father and Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit. How we have enjoyed these precious things together, how they have come home to us in power. All of us, I trust, have been very much struck with the greatness of these things, which we were able to, tiny creatures. Just think of it, tiny creatures in this world, able to, through the grace of God, through the revelation, precious word, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to go back in the past eternity, and see God's thoughts towards us. Look forward to the coming of eternity, and see what God's purpose for us are. Here we are in the midst of it all, as far as God is concerned. And, his thoughts are wondrous for long as they have been made known to us. He has made every provision for us, the same as he provided for the children of Israel, through a wilderness. So he has provided for us everything. There is not one good thing, which he has promised, he has not given us. Everything for our Christian pathway, here in this world. As far as we are concerned, we realize our weakness, our failure. And the word has come home to us very much. The word spoken by the blessed Lord Jesus in John chapter 13. If you know these things, happy are you if you do them. So, we have been occupied with these precious things, things of God. On the other hand, we have been occupied with the awfulness of the counterfeit, the trinity of evil. Beloved brethren, these things are put before us. We will set our affections upon. Therefore we read these verses here. It is the young men, to those that are strong. We know very well in that wonderful chapter, the fathers have known him. Our blessed Lord, known him, found the beginning of this pathway here. There is no exaltation to them. How many of us reach that? How many of us can say we are strong and the word of God dwells in us? But there is exaltation to such. It says, love not the world, nor the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. We have been speaking about the love of God, haven't we? Here is the love of the Father. There are the two things, this world, the love of the Father. The intimate term, the Father, we heard about this afternoon, speaks about intimacy, relationship. We are brought into relationship with sons, truly with God. We heard about the term. We should live in the dignity and the power and the bless of these things. But why are these things in the precious world of God? Why? Because there is a danger. Because there is a danger. Love, not the world. Oh, how dangerous these things are, this world. You say, what's wrong with the world? Well, what's wrong with it? We see it go on. Nor the things that are in the world. That comes rather close still, doesn't it? And it says, because if any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. That's what's wrong with the world. It's opposed to the Father. For all that is in the world, this is the, all that is in the world, it carries the whole range, doesn't it? The lust of the flesh. The lust of the eyes. And the pride of life. Aren't these things, don't they characterize us in many ways, in all ways, I suppose, really? These things are the product of the flesh, of course, and the world. The lust of the flesh. The lust of the flesh. It's the lust of having. The lust of the eyes. The lust of seeing. The pride of life. The lust of being. You like to be something. You like to have something. And you like to see things. Eyes not satisfied with seeing it, no ear of hearing. All these things are the world. It's not the Father. It's not the Father. It's not the world. No, the flesh is set against the spirit. The spirit against the flesh. And the Father and the world are opposite, one to another. The love of the Father. Oh, beloved brethren. All we think of it. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. In wondrous love to such as us. To bring us unto the blessed. We might not perish. We might have eternal life, as our dear brother Frank's been talking about. Eternal life. Might have these things. Have a pleasant possession. Have all eternity. Life in all its fullness. Life as reality. Life. May it say it's very plainly here. And the world passeth away. Oh, beloved. Everything is passing away. It's passing. It's not permanent. It's only temporary. What is set not affection upon? In the dearth of will of God. Abiding forever. Oh, that's eternal. We're brought into an eternal sphere. We're tiny creatures. We're mortal bodies. We're heard in our region. We have a treasure. Treasure in our mortal bodies. And what a treasure we have. Oh, how great a treasure. In the earth of vessels. Excellency of Parliament with God. And none of us. We have this treasure. And we've got that which is eternal. Abiding forever. We spoke about our three fingers, didn't we? In mind, our three fingers. Shall we just turn back for a moment? That very challenging verse. I don't want to keep the alarm broken. In Philippians. The apostle. He was speaking how he was pressing forth the mark for calling on high Christ Jesus. He got the wonderful object before him. And then he said, Brandy follows together with me. As you have us, for example, when it speaks about in this parenthetical, two verses. And these, of course, we would say wouldn't apply to any here. None that are Christians. I don't think it applies to them at all, these two verses. It says, and it's destruction. God is their belly. Mine are the things. No, I don't think it applies to any of that. But, why doesn't it apply to us? Things, things about it can characterize us. And that we can, we can set our affections on these things. We can have these things very much to the fore very often. We aren't very careful. So, we speak of earthly things. We speak of the world. Things in the world. They're earthly things. And we spoke about those in Revelation who dwell upon the earth. Yes, God's judgment is coming upon them. Earth dwellers. This is where they are. This is where our home is. We're pilgrims, beloved, passing through it. It's something far more, far brighter. We sing those words, don't we? Oh world, you palm of glory. Your child is spread in vain. I've heard the sweetest story. I've found it true again. Well, we've got this wonderful game before us. Why do we trouble ourselves with these things down here? We know we have to do our business. We have to live in this world. We're in all this world. Where are our affections set? Set like your affections on things above, the scripture says. Not upon things on this earth. For you're dead. Your life is here with Christ in God. So we set our affections in our heart. We can set these things upon the things above. Not down here. We're only passing through. Some of us will have much longer anyway to live upon this earth. You'll soon be with the Lord. Action from the body, you'll catch up with the Lord. If not, before long he might come and take us up there himself. The days we're living, we're coming, the Lord is very near. We see him moving around us. So, Michael was telling us the other day how near we are to coming of our blessed Lord. How we should be on the tip of expectancy for him. Just think that tomorrow, even before we leave this meeting, shall we say, we could be caught up to be with him. How his bright hope should be with us. Continually, what does it say? For our citizenship is in heaven. Yes, we don't belong here. Why? We look to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ to change our bodies and humiliation. These earthen vessels can be changed, fashioned into his glorious body. Oh, how wonderful. Like Christ, like him, all grace supreme. Like him before his face. Like him to see the glory beam unhinged, face to face. According to the work of God, he is able to do all things unto himself. According to the work of God, he's going to do everything. He's put it all at will and authority. He's going to reign. The same power is going to change these glorious bodies. You know, I was thinking, there's five musts to make it significant which has come to my mind. You know the three in John chapter 3, don't we? He must be born again. We trust that everyone here has been born again. Everyone trusts the Savior. The other one is, of course, the Son of Man must be lifted up. It's essential. Then, of course, quite wrongly said, John Baptist said, I must decrease and he must increase. Now, of course, there's another very significant must. This mortal must put on immortality. This corruptible must put on incorruptible. It must change this glorious body. There's one more, of course, in Revelation to the last chapter. I'll read the last chapter, verse 6 and 7. May these sayings of faith and truth, the Lord God and the Holy Prophets sent His angels to show on this side of the thing which must shortly be done. Yes, these things that we read about when this earth is going to pass through this terrible time of tribulation after the saints have gone to be with Him and then the Lord is going to reign and His kingdom will be set up and then, of course, there's going to be a new eternal state. These things must shortly be done. They're essential. These bodies of corruption must be raised like His glorious body. Oh, beloved brethren, what is that affects upon us? The world here. The world. The world has nothing new to give. We sometimes think it has no fresh, no pure delight. What has this world got for us? We know there's a hankering after these things around us. We know we've got that in us which appear to the world. But we've got also the one that belongs to Him. We've got the Holy Spirit. We've got a new nature. It's the precious things of God and what we've had this week can appear to us. Let us go into that which is lasting, that which is abiding, that which is real, that which is everlasting and precious, that which comes from the heart of God Himself in wondrous love through the precious, blessed, precious Saviour, through what He has done and the power of the Holy Spirit made good in our souls. May God bless us all. …