The Teaching Savior

Good morning. Well, thank you for sharing, Brother Ben and Brother Myron. How many of us are somewhat tired? How many of us are full of energy? Some of the children.

Lily, did you say you're full of energy? Alright. Somehow I have this feeling when I feel a little, and I don't even know why I shouldn't today, when I feel somewhat tired or sleepy, I feel like maybe everyone else does. Alright.

Well, may the Lord bless us this morning as we look into his word. I find the service this morning very interesting, where Brother Ben was asked very last minute, and thank you for taking that, Ben, and him sharing on the gospel, and Myron on the demon-possessed man, and God using him. What I'd like to share with us this morning, the title of my message is going to be The Teaching Savior.

A few thoughts before we go into the message there. We live in a world today where information is pumped out very heavily. We live in a world where worldly wisdom is like a treasure to the world.

I was reminded of a bit of a picture of being in a city like New York, or being in a city like Chicago or Toronto. Often in those large cities, there's a bit of a different world view, and city life has a world view of its own. And so many times when we refer to two different world views, we could say city life and the country life or farm life.

Farmers, they have an attitude, they have a way of life that's different than those in cities very often. So we live in a world where information is everywhere, and for many years, a lot of information was written into books, and you could buy books. I mean, books and books.

Just lots of bookstores. And there's a very common teaching. If you want to do well in life, read books.

And I agree with how that works. Lots of information, lots of reading can give us a lot of insight. And I would encourage two types of information.

One, there might be information that we need regarding everyday life. A farmer can read books on farming and grow in wisdom and know how to farm better. The one I would promote the most is that we would read and learn from God and read and learn from God's word.

But the world today is very, very strongly pushing worldly wisdom. There are so many people today, whether it's in books, but now it's moved on, to maybe it's Facebook, maybe it's YouTube videos. Who knows how they do it, where they all do it.

Lots of seminars get put together. People pay money to go to these seminars to learn wisdom. They want to learn more.

A lot of people, they are able to make money by making videos of so-called giving out wisdom. And the videos they make, a lot of them, they have a certain trend. They appeal to man, and man pays attention.

Man pays money for this information. So if I wanted to know how to get rich, I could look up people that teach on how to get rich. There's lots of them.

Mind you, most of them seem to get rich by telling others how to get rich. Few of them got rich and then figured out how to tell others. They just get rich by telling people how to get rich.

It's a scam to the flesh. A lot of them today are being found out to be scammers. And so there's a lot of fraud in this wisdom that they want to pump out.

Now we have where you, there's a heavy push against religion. Christianity, where used to, you would see a lot of bookstores that would be selling Bibles and Christian books and so on. Most of those seem to be closed.

And you can get a lot more of just, maybe they're entertaining books called Christian books, or you get a lot of books that are of other religions. You can learn of yoga and all those other things. You can do a lot of focus, but little focus is on God.

So this world is pumping out information. Lots of it. And you can have whatever taste of information you want.

Whatever your heart desires, whether it be a good thing or an evil thing, you can find. Well, have you ever, have you ever wished to sit with an old man? Have you ever wished to sit with any man for that matter, maybe any woman, and wondered if they would be willing to teach you wisdom? Young girls might say, wow, I wish mom or maybe grandma or my aunt would teach me how to sew. Maybe it's teach me how to bake.

Maybe it's teach me how to work with flowers, knowing all their names and so on. So, again, a common teaching would be if you want to learn and do well, find someone that is doing well and learn from him. Learn from her.

So I was thinking about the aspect of desiring wisdom. What area would you find, what's an area that you wish someone would give you wisdom? And I had to think of a few thoughts. Who would I ask? What would I ask them? And this does relate.

There is good wisdom we can ask for. There is curiosity we could have. And by that, ask about what they did.

And then there's also bad wisdom, selfish wisdom we could be looking for. But in light of thinking of asking someone some insight, maybe it might be Ashton who would be interested. I thought of asking, who would like to ask Neil Armstrong what it was like to go to the moon? Would you like to ask him, Ashton? What it was like to walk on the moon, if he did, where there's very little gravity.

That'd be interesting. Yeah. Or what about asking Victor Vescovo? He was a man who dove 36,000 feet into the ocean.

That is the deepest point of the ocean, I believe, that there is. In a floatable device. But he dove down 36,000 feet.

I'd like to know what that was like. What did he experience as he went down? It's got to be a tremendous amount of pressure that's on that device as he went down. How could he trust it? The common one that's very desired among young people is what we'll call business.

Someone would ask, there's a man by the name of Warren Buffett. I just chose any random person. Warren Buffett is, for a little while, he's the one that bought Heinz in Leamington.

He owned Heinz for, I think, for a few months anyway. And he might still, I don't know, but I just know that for a time, that he owns Burger King. Warren Buffett is 94 years old.

He's worth $165 billion. Who'd be interested in sitting down with him and trying to figure out, what can I do? How could I run a business and make money? What about King Solomon? I don't know any specific details about King Solomon other than he was the richest man to ever live. And the kingdom that he had built and all the gold he had everywhere, the wisdom he had in how he built it and all.

When the queen went to see Solomon, she said not even half has been told of what's really here. I cannot picture what that all means, but would we like to ask Solomon any questions? I do believe Solomon is a man who could teach us a lot, for a lot of wisdom for our day today. Brother Myron, how old are you? 24.

James, how old are you? 31. Okay, maybe you'll be the good example to us here then. I was kind of surprised, and it's my own ignorance, but I was thinking about the aspect of wanting to know wisdom.

And very often we think of a person, old man, hopefully still white hair, maybe a long white beard, sitting on a rocking chair, who knows? But when you think of wisdom, it's normal for us to think of an older man, an older gentleman, maybe an older lady, and they would have a lot of life's wisdom to share, which they do. I was surprised when I thought about, just specifically thinking about age, and I thought of our Lord Jesus. Jesus started His ministry at 30, and I have to wonder, those around Him, those around Him, it's like us looking to James, and James is telling us, and he can, he has lots of wisdom.

But when I think about the message that was coming from Jesus, in an unsaved world state, to the people He was talking to, maybe there would have been quite a few old men with canes and beards saying, why do you pretend you know everything? Can you imagine an old man going to James and saying, James, stop pretending that you know everything. We've been here a lot longer than you have, and there's a lot you have to learn yet. So Jesus was 30 when He started His ministry, and as we know today, and it's a little unfair for us to even discuss, without going into the detail, or at least trying to look up details on this, but Jesus was 30, and He ministered for three years, so He would have been 33 when He died, which would make Him two years younger than me.

And we would say that Jesus was the greatest teacher that ever lived. And it's a very shallow statement, because there's so much that would be so nice to expound on. Jesus was the greatest teacher that ever lived.

So He was wiser than all the scientists. He was smarter, or He understood more than all the theologians. He had knowledge that is amazing of how He came by all this knowledge.

Today, if I want to know something, you go Google, or whatever else you can go into to try to find out what's what. And we know from the teachings that Jesus gave that He was a very wise man at the age of 30. Now Jesus is a bit unique in that we cannot replace Him.

Jesus was the Son of God, and we are just man. And that was a blessing Jesus had to learning a lot of wisdom. At the time of Jesus, when He was ministering, there was a lot of new teachings that were coming about.

I don't know if some of you students, as you've read and you do your schoolwork, you've probably read of teachings, of interesting teachings that would come about. Often they would refer to them as the Greeks, or the Egyptians, or someone. But there was this hunger for new teachings.

So even in the time of Jesus, it was a very normal thing to have a lot of new ideas come out. And if someone could bring up something new, he was considered a very wise man. A lot of people that were wise teachers of that day, they would have been considered wise among everyone.

They would have had a label. They would have been known to be that wise man. I don't know of any today that specifically stand out where I would feel that man stands out as this very wise man.

We know with science, we look at science, and we feel like, well, half of science today or more is probably fraud, and so on. So we are at a disadvantage when we think about wisdom and who would be a wise man today. So the teachings of Christ, the teachings of Jesus, they are today over 2,000 years old.

And again, he has a lot of teachings, but they are over 2,000 years old, and they are very practical and good for us today. Maybe we can think about that as we would think of a farmer, if it would be so, that a farmer could have planted, harvested, how he planted and harvested 2,000 years ago, that it would work the same way today. I believe in 2,000 years, much of the seed has probably changed in some way.

But the teachings that Jesus taught, they are very practical for us today. Maybe it would be better to relate to this in a way of medicine. Jesus taught things, as was mentioned in one of Brother Ben's points.

The message that Jesus brought, it was a medicine for a disease that was very, very real in that time, which is still very real in today's time. And that will be the disease of sin. Maybe another point would be the teachings of Jesus, when he was walking in this world, they were very practical in helping us, helping the people of that time to look to God and to see who God is, which again, it does for us today.

There's three things that we want to note about the teachings of Jesus. First, his teachings led people to God. Second, his teaching was taught with power.

And third, his teaching endures through time. I want to start here, and we're going to read a few verses out of Matthew chapter 7. So if you can turn with me to Matthew chapter 7, we're going to start at verse 24 to verse 29. So Matthew chapter 7, starting at verse 24, we'll read to verse 29.

But before I actually read this, I'm just going to point out or pick out a few parts in these verses. So again, we'll want to think about James. James goes to... Where's a lot of people? James goes to Toronto.

And James is going to go and witness in Toronto, and he's going to preach the gospel maybe at a corner light in Toronto. And I suspect as James goes out there and he's getting ready to preach, James' mindset will very likely be, I hope I don't get in trouble as I'm preaching here. He'll start to preach, and maybe someone will turn around and be upset with him.

And maybe it's going through James' mind. He's wondering, man, should I be here? Maybe James will feel like, well, maybe I should have taken a more public place, not something that irritates the people that walk by. As a police officer comes by and wants to talk to James, James is thinking, uh-oh, here's the authorities.

Now they're going to make me move or take me out. In a lot of countries today, being that they would not accept the Christian teaching, they'd probably take James and want to put him in jail. And I highlight that because I want to show something here of what we'll be reading.

James can preach the gospel in a street corner of Toronto, but James does not have a personal authority with that word. James can take this and he can believe it to be true, and he can take the word of what it teaches and give it to the hearers on the street, and yet, yet there's not this personal, there's not this high level of ownership that Jesus has. And this is what we want to look at a little bit here as we start.

I appreciate this. So when we think of Christ teaching, Jesus is walking through the streets and he's going to, dealing with this demon-possessed man. Jesus is teaching and he really owns what he teaches.

Now, I do believe we can own it a lot more than we do today. It's a common thing that I would be on the street, or some Christian would be on the street, and as he starts to feel this pressure and a bit of awkwardness, ah, you know what, I'll just not do it here. James takes his Bible, goes out on the street, wants to preach, sees a police officer walk by, nah, maybe next time.

I'm not going to witness today. I do believe we can exercise a lot more where our savior, Jesus, is in charge. Today, in this world, the prince of darkness is the one that rules.

Society, as a whole, is ruled by him. And society hates what God loves and society loves what God hates. So for James to preach the gospel there, society would be angry, very quickly.

I think Toronto, even now, is probably a very difficult place to witness, in many ways. There is a growing hatred for God's word because it pricks the heart. Rather, they would like to be tickled in the ears.

Telling foolish jokes and whatnot would be acceptable, but to preach Christ would not be acceptable. So we can grow much in owning what we preach. That is true.

But Jesus here, he has a special authority. Let's look at him and let's see, would you think him to be arrogant? Verse 24 in chapter 7. He starts like this. Maybe a scribe is listening, maybe a Pharisee is listening, all the educated people around him.

Here's a 30-year-old man who is not under the authority of the priesthood, who is not subject to the law there as far as that the law would have sent him. He is sent by God and not really accountable to any man. And Jesus says, Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, that's where I'm going to stop.

Again, we want to picture James. If he were to preach the gospel, and it is true, he could do this. James would preach the gospel on that street corner and James would say, Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and then he could continue, as it is said here, to build on this firm foundation.

Or the idea of receiving eternal life. James could preach, if you hear the words that I preach and you repent and believe and serve Christ, you'll have eternal life. There we have a promise and there we too can have an authority.

Today, our authority, we have shied away, become more afraid, and have given the world the authority. For us, at this time, it seems like the atheist man or the atheist scientist would stand at the corner there and say, Therefore, if you hear what I say, then you're wise. The world refuses to acknowledge that Christ should have that authority.

But Jesus does. Jesus starts what he wants to say. Therefore, whosoever heareth.

Can you imagine those words? They would have been a prick to the ears. Again, just to be practical, he is talking to people that are living day to day. They're in this path of life where should someone want to give some new theological teaching, they should have went to the priest, not to Jesus, and so on.

There's so many things that were common to everyday life. And then there's this abruption. There's this person that just stands out among others.

And he says, Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them. And then he says, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. Now I want to read verse 29.

Maybe 28 and 29. Let's look at those two verses. And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine.

For he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. Now the scribe, one to another, he would have needed to look to another scribe for confirmation. Hey, am I saying the truth? Is this correct? The scribe probably would balance a lot of his views on if others would accept his views.

So he never had any ownership to what he was preaching because he needed someone else to verify what he taught. Now Jesus did not need someone to verify what he said. He said what was true.

And from here, let's turn to John. I want to show us one more thing here. So we'll go to John chapter 3. John chapter 3 verses 13 and 14.

So why can Jesus say to the crowd, therefore if you hear these words of mine, and then he gives them a promise. He gives them a promise that you will prosper. And the question is prosper in what way? So how come Jesus can say that? And we're going to look at a little situation here.

This is the story of Nicodemus. And let's go to verses 12 and 13. Yeah, 12 and 13.

That is correct. If I have told you, Jesus talking to one of the teachers, Nicodemus. Nicodemus has studied.

He's educated. He is the one teaching others. And that man comes to Jesus by night and asks questions.

And Jesus says to him, if I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. This is a secret that Jesus allows Nicodemus to see. So Jesus has something we don't.

Jesus came from God. And what Jesus says is backed by all of creation, all God's wisdom, and all of God's purpose. Jesus knows.

He's 30 years old. Jesus knows. Here I'd like to ask the question, would you like to take the time and have coffee with Jesus and see what he has to say? You see, our flesh is tickled by Warren Buffett and Jeff Bezos and whoever else is up there.

We look at these people when we were out in Florida. You see these mansions on the water. I don't remember what the price was.

$298 million for a property. You look at them, yeah, just the majestic looking buildings. And yes, our flesh does give some sort of honor and respect to that person.

And so it might. But much more, my heart, I want my heart to give place to Jesus Christ. Physical things, it's easy to be in awe of.

In this reading we have here of Matthew chapter 7, building on the rock. I looked up, there is a building seven, eight hours north of here. It's the largest building built in Canada.

It's also abandoned. I think somebody's trying to restore it now, but it was abandoned for years. And prior to 2008, this man, he owned a lumber company.

And I think four or five of them, two in Ontario, one in Alberta, one in BC. And he would sell wood. And a very wealthy man.

He spent $70 million into that property, 43 acre lot. And he paid $110,000 for the 43 acres and spent another $70 million into this property. And when the economy crashed in 2008, he lost everything.

He had a debt load of $600 million and lost everything. So here, all the pride of life is gone. Nothing left.

We can be in awe of men, but it will perish. There's no certainty there. There's no certainty.

But Jesus, coming from God, he has a certainty. Again, would you like to sit with Jesus and ask him some advice? If you had the opportunity to ask him some advice, what would that be? Would it be like the world is doing today, where they take prayers, they're trying to make prayer illegal in many places, the sin that they're trying to justify. There's so much wickedness that the world promotes.

But if we were to discuss whether it's just local cities or large countries, the richest men of our time and the biggest business owners have made it their global goal that they want to end hunger. That was one. They have regular yearly meetings where they try to figure out how they can end poverty.

They want to end poverty. They have all these wise, very wise discussions on how all this should work. And it doesn't work.

So if I was to sit with Jesus, what would I ask him? Would I ask him, Lord, what do we do to change the economy? Lord, how could I run a good business? Lord, how could I help the poor? Now, helping the poor is needful. And it's God's will that we do that. But it's used often to numb the conscience.

And it's an emotional draw. So the world thinks they're doing a great thing by helping the poor when really they're not helping the poor. And one thing stood out to me.

Or would I go to Jesus and say, Lord, how can I preach Christ? Of all the things the world needs, of all the wisdom that it needs, what would I desire? Maybe like Solomon, Lord, teach me, help me, help me to know how to lead your people. Would I ask the Lord, Lord, what is the greatest need of humanity? It is that they would know their Savior, Jesus Christ. May I learn to share him with others.

We're going to look at a little... Actually, I'm going to skip that. I have a little note here of Nicodemus. Maybe I'll just paraphrase it for you.

There's a unique situation that happens with Nicodemus. Nicodemus comes to Jesus. And again, just building a little more on Jesus has an authority that no other man has.

Nicodemus comes to Jesus and says... And I'm going to paraphrase. It's like saying, Hey, Jesus, who are you? It's a carnal man-to-man. It's like me meeting another framer and saying, Hey, framer, who are you? Nicodemus was familiar with teaching doctrines.

And he comes to Jesus as a colleague. Hey, I hear you teach doctrine too. And he has this general idea, who are you? Or as it seems.

He has a general idea of who are you. And Jesus gives him... And we don't see it in the few verses that we read. But as we meditate on the verses there, Jesus gives him a very strong challenge.

Jesus separates the carnal physical with the spiritual. Nicodemus could say, Well, Jesus, show me more of your doctrine. I'd like to understand it.

And Jesus says to him, You're a flesh. You cannot understand what I'm going to say to you. You need to be born again so that you can understand what I am teaching.

Jesus separates there the spiritual and the physical. And then puts Nicodemus, somewhat we would say, puts Nicodemus in his place where Nicodemus needs to come to Jesus and accept Christ and not be a co-colleague teacher. So, this much I'd like to say about us having a meeting with Jesus and what kind of wisdom would we ask.

Now, the rest of my message here, I want to lift up five points of what Jesus taught. You see, and I know we know these and it's a blessing. We'll just go over them.

But as I said about the world having a lot of information and if you want to learn something, there's eager people wanting to tell you. And I was surprised and blessed by Jesus Christ. The man who has all the authority to teach.

The man who can look at another man and put him in his place gently, rightly and just letting him know, you are a fallen man. You're a created man. You're not from God.

You don't have an authority from God. But if we were to again picture Jesus walking down the street and as he is teaching and if we would have the foreknowledge as he approaches us and he's teaching, what would go through our hearts and minds as we would have the foreknowledge and we would look to him and we could look at him and maybe as well think of all the other men we would like to talk to. Whether it was Neil Armstrong or whether it's Warren Buffet or it's Jesus.

And as we understand that what this man, what Jesus will say is the very word of God. Would that create a burning within us that would say, you know what? I actually, I have no value for Warren Buffet and I couldn't care less about the guy that was on the moon and you know, a lot of these other things. All of a sudden, everything else would have very little meaning.

The guy with all the money and how big his house looks doesn't matter to us. What can I hear? What can I learn from Jesus? The people of his time did not receive it that way. And I will confess, I honestly believe that my flesh would struggle with it too.

There's something about the heavenly realm, the spiritual realm does not have a natural appeal to our flesh. It is very easy that we would look at the carnal things and get excited. It's very challenging to discipline our minds and as Jesus comes and as I'm at this, maybe I'm at this crossroads where somebody is saying, you know, if you want to run a million dollar business, hey, I'll show you, come here.

You want to have a billion dollar inheritance? Hey, come here, come here. As all these distractions come and Jesus humbly, not classy, not with gold, not with a parade, Jesus comes and says, if you want to know what God says, come here. Which one would I choose? And I will again say that I believe my flesh would struggle.

It seems to be natural. Our flesh will struggle to look to Jesus and say, you know what? I get it. You want to give me a billion dollars, but I only got 40 years left to live.

So 40 years and a billion dollars don't matter. I've got eternity to look after. And this man here who doesn't have the classy clothes, who's just a humble man, he wants to show me something.

He wants to teach me of what will give me eternal life. That's where my heart should get excited. What did Jesus teach? Maybe in preparation for the next few thoughts, we, again, I realize some of this is, we'll call it, it's the basics.

We know these things. What a blessing it is. But how powerful.

What a change from the glory of this world to the truth of God. So, Jesus comes and he wants to share wisdom. What wisdom would you like him to give? I have to share a few more thoughts.

I believe the wisdom that he would give would really compete with, and it would struggle to overcome the sound of the wisdom of this world. You know, it'd be easier for a strong wrestling man to want to give advice of, I'm reminded of Pilgrim's Progress. When you listen to Pilgrim's Progress, it gives you that, it gives you that real feel of you're battling the giant, right? So when you battle this giant, it gives a feeling, a rush.

It gives you that feeling of, I can take him. I can take him. Somebody would say, would you go and fight a bear? Maybe King David would say, oh yeah, I can take him.

That physical feeling of pomp and strength and all these things would very likely distract us from these simple truths that Jesus would give. So again, would we be ready as this bombardment comes to us of what this world wants to entice us with and distract us with, would we be ready? What's Jesus going to say? There is a roadblock here now and the roadblock is this. We have to cross from the physical, the natural into the spiritual.

Just like Nicodemus, we could, we could sit down with Jesus and say, Lord, Jesus, you're a good teacher. You teach strong words. You're very strong on God.

We should obey God. And in order for us to find value in what Jesus will say, Jesus would have to do for us the same as he did to Nicodemus. He'd have to say, wait, hold on.

If you've come to me out of your flesh, I'm sorry, but you won't understand. If you come because you want to prosper physically in this world, I'm sorry, you won't understand. If you come because you have heartaches and you would like to, you know, have an easy solution for the problems in this world, I'm sorry, you won't understand.

But if you've come because you know of God and of judgment and your need, and you know that there's eternal life that you're battling for, you know that the switch is if you live for God for the few years here, you get eternity with him. If you've come to see God so that you can live for God, then I can help you. If you've come to submit to God, then I can help you.

A strong message I believe that Nicodemus would have seen here is a message of Nicodemus, you have to lay down your life. You have to deny yourself. And so that will be that barrier crossing from self and all self is important moving over to submission to God and God's will is important and not mine.

Maybe we're at this place and we're ready to hear what Jesus has to say. And the five points, and I'll give them to us here now, the five points, they work together and they are a real blessing. So what wisdom should we ask for? And then further with that, what wisdom should we live for? What wisdom should we pass on to others? The first one is Jesus taught salvation.

Jesus taught salvation. To see the burden of Jesus as he is going about in the street having come from God and seeing the need of man. See the Pharisee would have said to Jesus, well look Jesus, we need strong men, we need warriors, we're going to conquer Rome.

That's what the world thought in that time, that's what they thought they needed. When Jesus comes, he says this is who God created and they're bound in their sin and they're going to perish. Unless they get born again.

Unless they deny themselves and accept salvation's plan that God gives. So Jesus taught salvation and within salvation we have many points. Jesus taught the new birth.

And I like to picture this, I was blessed by picturing this as this 30 year old gentle teacher sitting there teaching the needs and meeting, giving the wisdom for the very core need of humanity. So Jesus taught them the new birth. He taught them there's only two ways.

The broad and the narrow. Teaching them how if they chose self and sin it would be in the broad way, it would be the prompt of this life. But if it was narrow, if they were to choose the narrow way they would separate themselves from the sin and live for the Lord.

Jesus taught repentance. Jesus taught believing. Believing in Jesus Christ.

Jesus taught acceptance. So here we will have a few headings. The first heading is he taught salvation.

Under those, under that heading is five subheadings. All of these are in relation to salvation. The new birth, there's only two ways.

Repentance, believing and acceptance. All very important parts of the salvation message. And then the second one is he taught separation.

Not separation like we would teach, that we've often heard in our background. We often hear, and again I've said it before, but maybe we grew up with this teaching that anyone that doesn't speak low German, they are lost. If you're not a Mennonite, you're not going to heaven.

You're not God's people. No, but Jesus taught separation. But he taught the separation that happens in the heart.

So again, we picture maybe sitting with Jesus, asking him, Lord, and this is practical for us today, Lord, what's your advice for us today? And Jesus taught separation. He taught purity. The purity that he taught was a purity that looked at the very innermost being of a man.

The heart is not the place where we naturally expect purity. But Jesus demands purity right there. To be pure in heart is to be pure throughout.

And the consequence of this kind of purity is that they will see God. I want to now here just give a little example of this. A lot of people marvel at a lot of our Mennonite men.

I've worked for some. They would take a big combine. They would take it all apart.

They'd put it in a container. And all their nuts and washers, if I did it, I would label them all. Combine headers, this little bag.

Wheels and lugs, this little bag. And I see these men put all the nuts and washers and bolts and put them in a bucket. And they haul this thing over to Bolivia.

And then they take the machine out and put it all back together. And people marvel. The engineers that work at John Deere can't do it.

But a lot of our Mennonite men, or maybe any man that tries, I don't know, I can't do it. But a lot of our men, they can. And what gives me a bit of a joy is just the satisfaction of knowing piece by piece.

And being able to put it together and it works. I love this about our New Testament, Scripture as a whole, the whole Bible. But I love this from the teaching of Jesus.

That's what he does. Jesus can take life and take it apart completely. And put it back together.

Or maybe better said, Jesus can look at our broken life. The difficulty of humanity. And he starts doing this teaching.

And he puts every little piece in the right place. This aspect of purity. Jesus is walking among men who teach the doctrines and theology.

And Jesus doesn't question them. Do you know the first commandment, the seventh or the tenth? No. Jesus addresses exactly the heart.

Right there. And it takes them completely apart. But Jesus has this way of doing a perfect job.

He has a way of teaching and he knows the heart of man. He speaks to us today the same way. His wonderful word speaks to us the same way.

He knows the heart and he says right there. That's where it hurts. That's where you have to take care of something.

And that's what he was doing with the people around him. He was teaching them to the full depth. Reaching right to the core of the heart.

So he taught purity. This is a sub header under he taught separation. He taught righteousness.

And he does the same thing with the righteousness. He says unless your righteousness passes more than the Pharisees and the scribes. Sorry.

I'm just going to quickly look here. But he does the same thing with righteousness. He tests the motive.

He tests the heart. And then he allows them to see exactly where they are. For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven.

So he has an authority with what he says and he gives a judgment with what he said. He said if your righteousness is not more than you will not see heaven. And here is a connection that we want to make.

He is not saying to Nicodemus or the Pharisees. He is not saying to them you better do more good deeds. You better do the right deeds.

Your righteousness is not enough. You didn't give enough to the poor. You didn't go to church often enough.

You didn't read your bible enough. No. He is directing them back to himself.

And this is inclusive of the gospel where they had to accept him. The righteousness that he was going to give them. So their righteousness is a given righteousness.

Nowhere do we get the idea that the servant of God achieves in his own strength the kind of living that gives standing before God. Gives him standing before God. But when he is given that standing that Jesus gives to him, Jesus looks to him to live in accordance with that standing.

So Jesus taught righteousness. But this righteousness is again as we said earlier, Jesus teaches them, directs them to God, teaches them that payment for sin and that they should believe in Jesus Christ and as they receive that is the righteousness. Jesus also taught clean living.

Jesus taught clean living. I won't go through all of these because we don't have time. Jesus taught that we should have a clean mind.

We can look up verses for that. And again really he's just opening up the heart and just going through the whole thing. He taught that we should have a clean mind.

And here's another one. He taught that we should use clean words. And I find that a lot of these is just him expounding on, if you have a pure heart, your words will be clean.

If you have a pure heart, your living will be clean. If you have a pure heart, your mind will be clean. So but first he teaches on purity and then he dissects it and goes through all the areas of where we need to be clean.

That's all I'm going to say for that. He taught separation. He teaches this beautiful mechanical message.

What do you need? Well, in your state you need salvation. After you have salvation you need to realize what brought you into this great need and destruction. It was sin.

Then he teaches separation. Separate yourself from those wicked things that brought you into this bondage. And then he moves on.

And so the order that I have him in, it builds together. So he taught separation and he teaches steadfastness. And we could read through Matthew 7, 24 to 29, this teaching of building on the rock and not on sand.

He teaches steadfastness. A rock is sure. Christians need to be likewise.

It is one thing to hear what he said and even approve of it. It is quite another to obey it. But it is only obedience that results in solid achievement.

We can go through that story of what circumstances hit life and caused that house that was built on sand to fall and then if the house is built on a rock, no matter what the storm, the house will stay. I found a neat saying here in this as we think about these verses and that is we should not focus on not building on the sand. We should focus on building on the rock.

And it was just a neat thought. I know we can easily cast judgment and say, oh, someone built on the sand. Someone built on the sand.

But the focus isn't, and the people that build on sand, they didn't go looking for sand to build on. The people that are careless and distracted and live life in such a way where they're not careful, they did not carefully build on the rock which puts them on the sand. He taught steadfastness.

Another one, he taught suffering. Again, for me, these would go in order and I find this to be a beautiful path as they go in order. He teaches us our need for salvation.

He teaches us to separate ourselves from sin. He teaches us to be steadfast because we're going to need to learn to be steadfast as we are trying to separate ourselves from sin. And then he teaches us to suffer.

I know that so much of life, we could look at the ease of life. He teaches us that we should be, we should welcome being hated. Even killed for our faith.

Most of us would say, again thinking of James and him going to witness out in Toronto, James would probably say, well, I've seen last time they stacked piles of rock and they were ready to stone me. I don't know. I'm not going to go.

And there's wisdom in that. Just as an example, just to say that we are more careful and concerned that we are liked, we are comfortable. We don't want to be in uncomfortable, hurtful, harmful places.

But there is a time and in our day there is a time where we are called to stand. Now, our suffering might not be being whipped, stoned, persecuted in that way. But one thing I'd highlight here, I do believe we are in a time, this is a challenge for me, we are in a time as I said earlier, that we should be aware of owning what we believe.

I've been surprised to see how much of a hatred there is in general society. I go to work and situations arise and something stands out and it's a unique opportunity for me to witness and the turn of expression on their face, the vomit that seems to want to come to them just where, what? I don't want to hear that. I don't want to... and so on.

So just this reproach on... they didn't want to consider God's Word or His teaching. So as a whole God's Word is becoming more and more disliked. God's Word is a real threat when the flesh is after pleasing itself.

Then God's Word is a real threat. We're also told in Matthew 11 to 12 that we should rejoice when persecuted. So he taught suffering.

Something that he taught as well is Luke chapter 9 verse 23 there's three steps to denying... or there's three steps in suffering and the three steps are deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. Lastly here he taught surrender. So I'm going to just put this back together this way.

I'm going to say here we have this global meeting and hopefully, maybe it's ministers, many many ministers coming together and Jesus is the main speaker there and he is going to share with us his wisdom. And I hope for you as it should be for me that our heart would desire that he would teach the different headings that I just mentioned here. We think of the need of humanity and we wouldn't focus on the lack of food, we wouldn't focus on the lack of money, the economy and different things.

But as Jesus comes and wants to share with us, he will share with us the most practical common need for humanity. So before I read the last one here you're sitting in this meeting and all the Christians maybe are listening in to this meeting and Jesus teaches. And what will he teach? And I believe though the world can push out all kinds of excitement I believe Jesus will give us his classic perfect message.

The gospel message. Including the way of life and how we live for Christ. He will teach that we should receive salvation that we should teach salvation.

He will teach us that we should teach, we should not only live this teaching of separation, but teach the lesson of separation. We should also be steadfast. He would ask us to be steadfast.

And again in a practical way as we strive to be separate, we strive to be steadfast. And as we suffer while we're trying to be steadfast our good Lord would would tell us, lastly he would teach us to surrender. This is probably the Christians greatest struggle.

It is also the unbelievers biggest struggle. The Lord would have us surrender. He would have us surrender our time that it would be within his will.

He would have us surrender our life, our goals, who we want to be what we're working towards all these things. He would have us surrender our money what we want to buy, the next goal that we make with that, that it would be for him. He would have us surrender ourselves, our body that we would be able to live for him and not have our own selves as an obstacle so that we can't live for him.

The uniqueness in the teachings of Christ, like he did to Nicodemus. Nicodemus wants this, from a carnal perspective, he's like enlighten me, show me what doctrine should I learn? What theology should I learn that would make me wiser? It would make me right. It would make me above all others.

What do I need? Nicodemus didn't ask to be wiser than anyone else, but he came and asked Jesus for a teaching. And for Jesus to put away the physical and to highlight the spiritual and say, you need God. In this meeting, as they're having this discussion and as Jesus finishes his teaching of what we, of what I just read here, he would conclude in saying, if you are able to surrender yourself and all the surrendering that we just read here, if you are able to surrender your life, then you will prosper.

It's a unique thought to think the Lord Jesus is saying to me as I lay myself down to die, as I lay myself on the cross or give myself up for burned offering, as I say no to myself, then and only then am I exactly where God had created me to be. I believe Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. One of the reasons they fell into sin was that surrender wasn't there.

Do you know that if they had had full surrender to God, they could not have sinned? Why I say could not might not be the right wording. But if there was a full surrender to God and an awareness, which they had, but they denied, an awareness to God's will, they would not have sinned. And so God has created us to be for us to be at our peak, at our best place.

God would have us to be fully surrendered. So bringing those things together, what would Jesus teach? So what I've shared here, and I will confess this myself, what I have shared, it blessed me as I read and as I studied, but I will say this. I did not just share in what Jesus taught the teaching Savior.

What he taught was not that message that where you would rent a big stadium, and you have all the lights, you have all the sound, and you would get everyone all pumped up and say, yes, yes, let's do it. Let's go. That's exactly what we need.

What I just shared did not give us that effect. But what I shared here, and what is the need for the world, it will give us eternal life. So I'm going to leave it at that.

My mind does continue to roll. I guess lastly maybe I'll just in closing thought just say I know that you, we know this. I know this is valuable to you.

It's valuable to me. But maybe in some way this can just be an inspiration to us to think of the practical wonderful and powerful gift and teaching of God versus what the world offers today. Again, I realize that it's not the excitement that you would get on a roller coaster and yet it's what will give us life.

I guess the day that we really receive this excitement is the day that we stand before Jesus and he says well done servant. I think at that point once the trade off, once the flesh isn't in the way and you know again it's like once the flesh isn't enticed with whatever it calls fun and whatever else but what will that experience be to stand before Jesus and Jesus us having gone through all the striving to live for him and for us to stand before him and Jesus says well done you good and faithful servant and maybe at that point our eyes will open and to see what eternal life will be about because I don't believe eternal life is going to be about the best golf course and you know a walk on the park. I think eternal life will be a wonderful life of worshiping God and being perfectly fulfilled.

So maybe in this world we don't get the high five and all the pomp and show but then when we come face to face with Jesus and he gives us eternal life then we will see the comparison difference then we'll look at the people that had pomp and show and see how it was vanity and how we have the greatest reward. Not that I feel any of us are looking to the world for a reward but I do find myself guilty of not being excited enough for the eternal reward. Secondly, I find myself guilty of not appreciating enough the true teachings of God and his teachings to us are those that mechanically help us to live for him outside of whatever excitement there could be.

Alright, I'll leave it there. I'd like to pray with us together and then I'll close. Heavenly Father, thank you Lord for today.

Thank you Lord for each brother and sister that is here. Lord, thank you for allowing me to go through this study and I pray Lord that if there is one thing that we could take with us. Lord, I pray that you would lay on our hearts and our minds just a greater clarity of the beauty and power of your teachings.

Lord, your words were not just to prove us that we were sinners. Your word and the Bible doesn't just teach us that we're sinners. Your word gives us what we need to attain life.

And Lord, as we often can be tempted to look to the world for wisdom and though it does what it does and yes they prosper and they can make money. They can create great things and make great things. Lord, help us that our hearts and our eyes will be turned to you.

Lord, you are greater. Far greater. And Lord, your reward is far greater.

Far more valuable than anything this world can offer to us. So Lord, as I've shared this message with my brothers and sisters. Lord, I pray that you would just bless it to them and bless their heart that they would be strengthened in seeing how we don't need the wisdom from this world but your wisdom is so practical.

Lord, we hear your preaching again and again and Lord, from week to week, we again come to a point where we realize, yes Lord, I'm still weak in this area. Still in the flesh. I still need to take courage.

I still need to continue to look to you. So Lord, bless your word of each of us brothers sharing this morning. Bless your word.

Bless us. Bless our fellowship and Lord help us that the greatest value that we would carry in our hearts that it would be you and your word for us. I pray that you would bless us.

In Jesus name I pray. Amen.