Spiritual Putting Off

John Seventy-one, please. Eight, seven, one. I've found a friend, oh, such a friend.

He loved me ere I knew him. He drew me with the cords of love, and thus he bound me to him, and round my heart still closely twine those ties which naught can sever, for I am his, and he is mine, for ever and for ever. Eight hundred and seventy-one, please.

Turning to our portion this evening, we're at fifth Peter, and at the second chapter, please. And you'll notice this evening that we're doing three short, simple verses. First Peter, chapter two, verses one to three.

And I have it numbered seven on the notes, but it should be number eight, and it wasn't the typist's mistake, it was mine. Days go by so quickly, we've already had seven messages on the first chapter. And these are three very special verses, I think, because there is a spiritual laying aside here, a spiritual putting off, I've put it on your notes.

Yes, certain things for the true believer must be laid aside. All malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speaking. Yes, there's a spiritual putting off here, in the first verse.

And then there is a spiritual kicking in here, in the second one. You see, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby. And you can see quite clearly that there is a spiritual putting off, and a spiritual kicking in.

And it's all because of a spiritual experience. If so be, and that's a translation of a Greek word, and it is translated in some of the manuscripts, and some of the translations, it's translated by the word faith. If so be is equal to faith.

Faith ye have faith. You see, he's basing everything upon our experience. Since we have faith that the Lord is gracious, then you should desire His gracious words.

And, of course, the gracious Lord asks you to be as gracious as Himself. Take away all malice, and so on. You'll notice that he begins this literal paragraph with the word wherefore.

And that word is turning us back through the past chapter. Making us think about the things that He has taught us. And he says, wherefore, just because of obesity.

And he's back to our spiritual experience, so that the little paragraph has a reference up to beginning, to our spiritual experience. And it has a reference up to end, since we have faith that the Lord is gracious, again through our spiritual experience. You know, it's very interesting, you just take the word wherefore and think back quickly.

Remember what we were at last, Tuesday, verse 23, being born again. You know, just because you're born again, you should lay aside all malice and all guile. You know, this would teach us at the glance that just because you're saved, and just because you're born again, and just because you have had so many blessings from God, you cannot live as your life, you know.

Some people who talk to me about election and the grace of God seem to think that because they are the elect, and because they were chosen of God and saved by grace, that you can live as your life. Well, this is absolutely different. This is the very opposite.

Just because you're born again, you should lay aside all malice and all guile. You know, it's great to go right back through the blessings. You remember what Peter said last week in the first chapter, in verse 22? Saying, ye have purified your souls.

Well, if you have purified your soul at all, then there ought to be this laying aside all malice and all guile. Do you remember when he talked about redemption? That we're redeemed not with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ. Because you're born again, because you have purified your souls, because you're redeemed, then you ought to lay aside.

This is exactly what he's saying. And you can take this up through the sweep of the chapter. And there are so many things.

Do you remember he talked about whom having not seen ye love? Yes, well, just because you're in love with Christ, you should lay aside. Do you remember he went on up and talked about having a lively hope and being under the blood and sanctified by the Spirit and elect according to the full knowledge of God the Father? Well, just because you're elect and just because you're sanctified and just because you're under the blood, friend, you should lay aside. Now, there's a danger in this, you see.

An old saint said to me once, Willie, I want you to get the hold of this, that when he says you shall lay aside all malice, it has the same weight as every commandment of the Ten Commandments. It's just like saying thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not. It's just the same weight.

I said it is, but it's not the same thing, you know. I said, you know, if any young Christian picks this up and takes it and makes it a commandment for his old man to keep, he's on the wrong track. Friend, this is not one of the Ten Commandments.

They are the teachings of the law. This is the teachings of grace. That's different.

And you must always have the difference. If you make this a commandment to put against your old man and ask him to keep it, he'd break it every day he lived. You see, the difference between the teachings of the law and the teachings of grace lies here.

Of course, it has the same divine weight. It's God's Word. Ah, but when God gave the law, he gave them no health to keep it.

Ah, but when the teachings of grace come to those who are born again, they have the Holy Spirit within to help them. And you don't look to the old man to obey this. He won't obey.

But your new man looks to the Holy Ghost to give you strength. When malice would dare to arise in your heart, that he will give you power to lay it aside. Hope you've got that clear now.

And don't be starting to make this book a law for your old man. Because you'll be going back into the old economy and you'll find yourself in a muddle. These are the teachings of grace.

And the Holy Ghost is within you to help you to keep them, that is, if you look to him by faith. You know, I think that this is tremendous. I want you to see exactly what he's saying here.

He's saying, wherefore? Just because you're born again and redeemed and all the rest of it in the past chapter. Wherefore, laying aside all malice. You know, malice is a terrible thing.

Don't you know what it is? Well, it's the spirit of spite. And it's ill will. And you don't want that spirit to be about you at all.

Not if you're born again. You know, this is the very spirit that lifted the javelin in Saul, the first king of Israel's house, and smashed it into the wall narrowly missing David. It was malice.

And you know, you've got an old nature inside you. And there are times when the old nature will begin to think like this and immediately you will need to ask the Holy Ghost to help you to lay it aside. And this is the only way it can be done.

Yes. It's malice. And this guile, this guile, of course, is just deceit, isn't it? That's all it is.

It's just double talk. And you know, the believer shouldn't be in this thing at all. Oh, if you're troubled with this sort of thing, of trying to make a fuss, and being double-pronged all the time, ask the Holy Ghost to deliver you.

Because you're supposed to get away from all this guile. Can't you see the preacher was a great preacher, wasn't he? He went down through the other chapter, you know, and he dealt with great doctrines like election, faith-predication, and revention, and inspiration, and regeneration. And yet here he's gone through the practical things.

Down through the practical things for believers. He says, we're for laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies. Somebody said to me once, should this word be in here? Surely a Christian is not a hypocrite.

Oh, I said, I'm afraid sometimes he is. You think he is. He said, I thought it was just somebody who was pretending to be a Christian was a hypocrite.

Oh no, I'm afraid it goes a little bit further than that. Let me show you this, in case you have any queries in your mind. We're at the letter to the Galatians.

And we're at the second chapter. And Paul is writing this wonderful letter. And in the second chapter, at verse 11 he says, But when Peter was come to Antioch, I think we want to get that squared out in our mind, the geographical location.

If you know the map of Palestine, and some of the teachers here be amused with me drawing it with my hand on this thing behind me here, I just draw the Jordan going down like that. And right down here we have Judea, and then we have Samaria, and then we have Galilee. And you know, right the way beyond Galilee you will come to Damascus, and Damascus is in Syria tonight.

And if you go a little bit further into the Syrian desert, you will come to Antioch in Philip. And you know when Paul got gloriously saved, he went away up to the little assembly in Antioch, and he was one of the ministers there. There were quite a number of them that were able to minister.

And it was while he was there, you know, Peter came to Antioch, came from Jerusalem. And I'm sure it was a great day for them at the little assembly, when Peter came. I'm sure he was welcomed.

And it says, verse 11, But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. Now I can assure anybody in this meeting, if Peter was the first pope, certainly Paul did no thing about it. Paul took no nonsense with him.

He came up to Antioch, and I'm going to show you some of the things he was doing, and Paul wasn't going to let him do it. It says, But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, that simply means before certain Jews came from James, who was down in Jerusalem, before that crowd came up, he did eat with the Gentiles.

Peter had the jolly good time. He went to eat with the Gentiles. But when they were come, he withdrew and separated themselves, fearing them which were of the circumcision.

You know, it's the terrible shocking state of the cells when a man who is the leader in the assembly gets afraid of men. It's a shocking affair. He cannot be a true shepherd at all.

Here's Peter, he got scared of Jews. I heard a trick once, and it said this, Peter before Pentecost, he was afraid of the little man. After Pentecost, he was never afraid again.

It's a lie from hell. It's a lot of nonsense, and that keeps up right round the country, you know, when they want to make a lot of Pentecost. Oh, Pentecost, all right, but don't be making blabbers out of it.

Oh, this is a long time after Pentecost, and he is to be blamed now, and he is afraid now. He's afraid of the Jews. Yes.

But it goes a bit further than that. It says, verse 13, and the other Jews dissembled likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. Right, let's take that big word home and have a look at it in the dictionary tomorrow.

Dissimulation. Well, when you look at the dictionary, you'll find it's hypocrisy. That's what it is.

It's the same word. Just hypocrisy. This was a lot of hypocrisy.

Peter was an old hypocrite here. That's what he was, and playing the hypocrite. Now, you're not to do that.

If you can go and enjoy telling it to somebody when nobody else is there, if they come and you run away, you're a hypocrite. I trust you've got the hold of that. Because that's what our country's being riddled with, old hypocrites.

Yes, some of them can take the tapes that come from this church and sit all night and the next night looking at them. But if I'd turned up at the assembly, they wouldn't let me in. And I just think that's hypocrisy.

That's all I think about that. Yes. This is what Peter's trying to get over to them.

Peter is saying, laicized, all malice and all guise and hypocrisy and envies. Oh, I think we could spend almost all night on this envy. You know, I think this is the most diabolical thing that can enter a human breath, is envy.

So many things about it. Let's have a look at the book of Proverbs for the moment. This great old writer in the book of Proverbs, he has some things to say.

Proverbs chapter 14. Chapter 14. And it's the way down the chapter there.

It's at verse 30. Proverbs 14, verse 30. A found heart is the life of the flesh.

I'm sure you would agree with that. You know, if you've ever had a cardiograph done, and you can see the old ticker ticking away there, and the little strokes going up and down, and you're watching the professor, when he has a look along it and says, you're okay, it's not a great relief. Because a found heart is the life of the flesh.

I want you to get this bit balanced against it. But envy is worse than heart trouble, you know. Envy is the roughness of the bones.

Man with envy. I tell you, if you don't watch it, and don't ask the Spirit of God to take it away from you, it will get into your very bones. It's not something that just gets into your mind, you know.

And it's spongy for a minute. It goes right into your bones. I want to get that away from you.

Don't let that get in on your thoughts. See that it's laid aside. Yes, it's a horrible thing.

You know this, that it was envy that almost left the assembly of courage. All that to say, I can't speak on to you as I'm the Spirit, you're yet carnal. Whereof there is strife and envy.

Mine got into the assembly there. You know, it was envy that put Joseph in the pit, wasn't it? He is this brethren from envy. Sold and done indeed.

And remember when Pilate looked at Christ's face all the time he knew that for envy the Jews are deliberative. It's a horrible thing. It will get into your bones.

It causes confusion and carnality in every assembly that it gets into. And I'll tell you it can hurt the servants of God. I'll tell you this, that God seems to stand beside those who are envied.

I've seen it through life, you know. I don't base too much on what I see in life. I know that God stood by Joseph anyway.

And although they envied him, and though they meant it for evil, God just turned the wheel round another way and he meant it for good. And although it was for envy that the Jews delivered Christ, remember that it was then that the great atonement was accomplished. Yes, don't let this thing get into you.

If you feel it in your soul, then as you're a human you'll feel all these things. Malice, and guile, and hypocrisy, and envy. And I'll shut your eyes and cling to heaven until it leaves you and ask the Holy Ghost to deliver you.

You've dropped a layer beside you now. And I want you to notice this. Peter says, wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisy, and envy, and all evil speaking.

Oh, this is so easy, isn't it? You just get into a bunch somewhere and somebody's tore apart in two seconds. You know, evil speaking is a horrible thing because it's a sort of device of the devils that has a three-way prong on it. You know, it hurts the person that you're speaking about.

And it hurts the person that you're speaking to. Because you have no right to inoculate that fellow with that other fellow. And it doesn't only hurt the person that you're speaking about and hurt this person that you're speaking to, but it hurts the person that's speaking.

All wrong with greed for the spirit, you know. Horrible thing, isn't it? Yes, you know, if you go through this book, I'll tell you this. This book teaches you that there's so much that needs to be put off.

So much that needs to be laid aside. Why in Hebrews we're taught to lay aside every wit. And then he differentiates between wits and sins.

Every wit and a sin that doth so easily beset us. You know, some things are weak. You remember the woman coming to the well, sitting on the well, and the Lord made himself known.

Oh, how her heart rejoiced. And she went away, you know, to bring others. Ah, but she left the waterpot on the well.

She just left it. It's a way, isn't it? You know, if you've ever been to the Far East and stopped at a well and saw these waterpots. You know, they hold about five gallons of water.

And a wee little ballast, you know, she could just lift it like that and put it on her head and just walk away. There were two or three of us around the well once. I think Mr. Thorns was there.

Not all of us could shift it. No, you can't do it, but she could do it. But it's a weakness the same.

But the woman was laying the hindrances away. Lay aside the witch. There are a whole lot of things you can do without, you know.

Lay them aside. Sometimes I wonder, if the sin that dogs so easily beset us, if it's not unbelief coming behind Hebrews 11, when it's all safe. Sometimes I think this cursed unbelief gets into the whole lot of us at times.

You want to lay it aside? There's a putting off of the old man, you know. And all this malice and envy and jealousy and evil speaking and all the rest of it. Yes, just because you were born again, just because you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, you should ask the Holy Ghost to help you to live like a Christian.

You know. Fascinatingly, that's crazy for every day. It's a great little bit that he put in there.

And then he noticed taking in is a tremendous bit. He says, our newborn babes, if I believe that these that he was writing to, these Jews who were scattered throughout Pontus and Galatia and Cappadocia, maybe they were not so long saved. But then it doesn't go like that because some people who are quite a long time saved have still thought of babies in the spiritual family.

And you know newborn babies, you know when a newborn baby comes into the home, it's a tremendous affair. And as it grows day by day, it's still tremendous. You know, there's so many things that this little thing has to be taught.

Has to be taught to talk. Do you think it needs to be taught? Man, I've had some from this last while back, I can tell you. You might think grand we're a spectrum.

Look an idiot's face, say, don't! Don't! I've got a letter for you. I'm sure the wee thing wonders what it's all about. And then when Danny is dead, you know, you see Uncle coming along and saying, look, look! Oh dear me, you should watch it.

And then, you know, it not only has to be taught to talk, but to walk. You should see them fiddling about with it at the walk-in. Oh, I must imitate that.

Then they teach it to count. You can say, run! Run! Run! I'm sure the wee thing says to herself, what is she up now? Oh, yes. But I'll tell you one thing that you don't need to teach it to do.

You don't need to teach it to talk. Ah, nobody ever talked with a sock. Oh, whether it's dressed or bottled, it can do it right away.

It's not here. It's not here. Five minutes.

So it knows all about it. Nobody ever taught a baby to suck. I wouldn't like that they had to teach it to suck.

What a bit of fun you would have then. Oh, don't even think about it now. Yes.

But you know, there's something in this newborn babe that just makes it desire the milk. You see, it just desires it. You just put the bottle in beside it and away it goes.

Yes. Now, this is something that would typify the newborn believers. Then we had some newborn ones in this very meeting this evening.

Jim, the way back there, wasn't saved at this time last week. But he's saved now and he's out tonight. And he's getting food, you see.

He's turning up for the food. Yes. You know, this tells me something about life.

You know, there are so many things that happen when a fellow gets saved. You know, he loves the Lord. He doesn't know very much, you know.

He doesn't know anything about doctrine. When I start talking about annexion and sanctification and justification and constitution, he isn't that foggy as I give it at all about. He's just a newborn babe.

Oh, don't you see, he loves the Lord. You know, your personal life is wonderful. I can remember getting saved, you know.

Oh yes, no shoes in my feet, no shoes in my back. Old bits of tin in the coat. And the next day it was a wet day.

It was pouring rain. And I can remember walking, no old shoes on, you know. Oh, but I was saved.

I can remember walking through the rain and saying, Lord, I'm with you. Blessed God, this is a new day. I'm with you.

It was just him and I then. He didn't know anything about doctrines or brethren or doctrines. He just knew about the Lord.

He saved me. And I was really in love with the Lord. And I would never like to lose it, either.

You know, there's a thing about the little newborn spiritual babe, and it's as if he loved it. And when the Lord was telling Ananias about Paul, he says, God save me, I found him on the Damascus road. Behold, he prayed.

Somehow, when you're saved, you don't know much about it, but you can pray. You know, I have a great bunch of praying warriors, you see. Man, I'm so proud of them.

But I can remember when they stood up first in this meeting, you know, and prayed, and couldn't do it, you know. A whole crowd of them came. Yes, just a word or two, you know, and they were stuck.

Couldn't get on. No, you couldn't stop them. Yes, it's wonderful, you know.

I'll tell you this, friend. He prayeth, and I'll tell you this, he desireth. You get it? Newborn babe.

He loveth the Lord. He prayeth. He desireth the Lord.

Yes, I'll tell you this. You know, the day that Andrew was at the sound of Christ, man, he made a big line for Peter, and handing his own dollar to the prophet of the Lord. You know, he's teaching.

It tells me about young believers, you know. My, when you can see them in love with the Lord, when you see them up to prayer meeting, behold, he prayeth. When you see him desiring the sincere, merciful works, friend, this is the blessing of every babe.

This is it. He desireth the works. It's great to see a class like this tonight in this land at this time.

My, they desire the works. We're here because we're saved. And I want you to get this, you know.

There is not only the blessing of babies in this, but there's the wonder of the words. You know, this word is wonderful. You know, when you go back to the baby in the gut again, milk is wonderful.

Every single bit of nutriment that a baby can need, it's found in the milk, just in the milk. No need to make anything else. Just needs the milk.

And God has seen to it that everything is in the milk. And it is absolutely looking for it at all times. Yes, and it's the theme of the words.

You know, this word's powerful. You see, I've taught this class that there's only one true interpretation of every phrase. Obviously, we must have only one true interpretation.

It's up to me to get down on my knees and find it. You know, I know this, that after I've found the true interpretation, I know that the same phrase can be applied. There can be a thousand applications.

Sometimes I preach the word here. And you know, God just takes it and applies it to us in a thousand different ways that I never dreamed of. And that's the wonder of the words.

You know, the blessing of a baby is that it just desires the milk. The wonder of the word is that there's everything in the word to meet every single need. And I'll tell you this, this is how they grow.

You know, believers need to grow. When Peter finishes these two letters, he finishes the second letter like this. But grow in grace.

Oh, how we should be growing in grace day after day. I wonder how we've grown in the last years. Have we grown in grace? Are we getting more mature and more pleasant, more easy to get on with? Are we finding the victory notes are flying aside, malice, envy and so on? We're not easily disturbed now.

Are we growing in grace? I wonder, are we growing in the knowledge of the Lord? Do we know better tonight than last year? You know, it's all in knowing Him. My, this is Christianity. If I were asked tonight, what is Christianity? I would say it's knowing Christ.

Now, I don't mean knowing about Christ. Oh, there are so many people who know about Christ. They're not there at all.

No, it's not knowing about Him, it's knowing Him. Did you talk to Him today? Do you know Him these days as your steps are from the floor? Do you feel that you're in Christ? That like as the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so is the Lord round about His people. Do you feel you're in Christ? Do you feel that your life is hid with Christ in God? Do you feel that nothing can touch you except the Lord allows it for His glory? Do you know Him? Know Him as your shepherd? Are you sure He's leading you down the pathway? Are you coming up out of the wilderness, waiting on your beloved? Do you know Him as the supplier of all your needs? Do you? Friend, have you got to know Him? If you should grow in grace and in the knowledge, and you should grow in the understanding of the times.

Oh, there was a tribe in Israel once you know who had understanding of the times. I wonder have we grown for that? Has God carried us deep down into the prophecies and do we know some of the things that are happening around us? Have you grown since you believed? Well, if you desire this and see a look of the word, there is no doubt at all that you'll grow thereby. Now, I want you to get the hold of this.

You see there is not only a spiritual putting off in these verses and a spiritual taking in. But you know there's a spiritual experience here. I want you to get the hold of that, you know.

If so be ye have tasted, and I'd rather have it like this. Things ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. You know I don't think that there was ever a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ who knew more about the grace of the Lord Jesus than Peter.

I know it's a big statement, but that's what I believe. You know he had really tasted that the Lord was gracious. I think the Lord was very gracious when he saved him at Beth Ababa.

Here's the moment that Andrew got to know the Lord. You know Andrew went right up country, right away to Galilee, brought Peter, brought him right to the Lord, down at Beth Ababa where John was baptizing. And that day the Lord revealed himself to Peter.

He was saved down there. That's where he met the Lord. You know the Lord was very gracious to him.

Yes. Wasn't it a wonderful day, the day he met the Lord? Wouldn't it be gracious lifting a thing like me? Oh, there were thousands better looking in Ulster than certainly there were tens of thousands with more brains. Then although I was down and out and had nobody and nothing, yet in his grace he lifted me.

Yes. He was gracious to Peter on the day that he saved him. And then you know there came a day about six months later when the Lord left Judea and went up to Galilee and came wandering along the shore and there's two fish of men there.

And he said to them, follow me. I will make you fish of the men. And stick where they left the nets and followed them.

You know there was a day he called Peter into the works and he was very gracious you know. Because this fellow didn't know anything. Some of the folks tell me you have to have a certain academic standard.

It annoys me. Peter had none. He was an unlearned, unlearned and ignorant man, the Holy Ghost said that.

I wouldn't dare to say it. That's what the Holy Ghost said, he's unlearned and ignorant. Good enough for the Lord you know.

The Lord took him up and made a great man out of him. And that was the day you know that the Lord in his grace called them. Oh when you think of what the Lord has done down through the years.

How he's called one from here and one from there. And this one and that one. And you can see the size and shape of them when he calls them.

Why there's no use to ever put anything. Oh but he has beckoned them. Bless God he made man and woman out of them.

Yes he was very gracious to Peter the day he called them. You know I think that day at Caesarea Philippi when he looked round the whole bunch of them and he said, whom say ye that I am? It wasn't a man's book you know. And Peter just stepped forward and said go up to Christ the son of the living God.

The Lord looked at them and I think he smiled. He said flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you. He didn't get that in the truth.

He had been talking to my father which is in heaven. You know I think it was very gracious of the Lord to commend them of this. I think it was very gracious.

I think it was gracious of the Lord to save them. I think it was gracious of the Lord to call them. I think it was gracious of the Lord to commend them.

Then you remember that night when he denied the Lord with all his incursions. The Lord looked at them and he went out and wept bitterly. He got away from the cause and he got stuck in some hedge somewhere and sat down and wept.

And then he spent a day or two there. I think he did. And on resurrection morning and nobody knows where it is or how it happened.

It just says, listen to the book, the Lord has risen in pain and I have appeared to save them. You can't get the conversation. The Lord didn't recourse it.

I think Peter was sitting quiet. He didn't even laugh at it. He broke in the car and there comes an arm around him, squeezing him.

The Lord, the risen Lord. I think it was very gracious of the Lord to go and find them. Very gracious of the Lord to save them, wasn't it? Very gracious of the Lord to call them.

It was very gracious of the Lord to commend them. Very gracious of the Lord to appear to him on that morning. I'm sure for all eternity he'll never forget.

Then you remember him sitting at the fire with the Lord. And the Lord restored them. Put them back into the work.

Go on, get back to the job. From then soon they got there with the books. Go and feed my lambs and feed my sheep.

It was gracious of the Lord to restore them. He's done that for a whole lot of us. Yes.

Did you say the Lord is gracious? Wasn't it gracious of the Lord to use them for the day of Pentecost? Oh yes, there'd be some of the boys knocking around, they said, oh, oh, oh, don't use him. They made a mess of it. Won't touch him anymore.

But it was their sin, Peter, that the Lord took up in the day of Pentecost. And it was gracious of the Lord to rebuke them through Paul. My, he would have got going around making a fool out of himself.

Only the Lord took him to task and that's great to me. Yes. And wasn't it gracious of the Lord to take this big fish in hand with these rough hands, hands that didn't know much about writing, and write these two letters in the New Testament? Wasn't it gracious? Oh, what the Lord can do.

Friend, you've tasted all that, haven't you? Let's get it like this tonight now. And you, you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. And because, because, because you're born again, because you're redeemed, because you're one of the elect, then there are two things that you must do every day you live.

You must take that sincere look at the Word. I wonder how many times you read this book every day. All right, really make it practical tonight.

You look at every word in the telegraph. You watch all the times of the news and the TV. Tell me how many times you've looked at that book today, and how much you've read of it, and what you've found in it.

Maybe this is your problem. Maybe you've not seen it at all. Now, just because you've tasted the grace of the Lord, and just because you're born again, it's just because you're redeemed.

Friend, there is one thing that you've got to do every day you live. You've got to take your bottle. Let me put it bluntly like that.

Now, if you haven't been doing and you're feeling a wee bit guilty now, look, go home and put it out tonight. Everyone is. Say, Lord, I'll find a space tomorrow.

If it's only for five minutes, I'll find a space. And I'll open that book tomorrow, and I'll read and I'll listen to you. Friend, if I work that out in this class, that will be a big night for us.

You're making a place. Now, you've got to do something else just because you've tasted that the Lord is gracious. And just because you're going to feed on His gracious word day after day, the gracious words that fall from His lips, then you must ask the Spirit of grace.

Oh, yes. You must ask Him to make you a gracious follower of Christ. Oh, my.

Oh, yes, I was telling somebody the other day, somebody phoned me on the phone to say, Mr. Bond, you're a sort of well-known ambassador. Can you call all the believers together that we'll have prayer meetings for our land? I said, you know what, I think we need to begin praying. We need to get down on the cross beside Christ as He was being nailed.

He was being nailed to the cross, and He was being nailed through His hands. God was moving out, and the pain was going right through His toes. And He said, Father, Father, forgive them.

They know not what they do. I wonder, could we pray that for the IRA tonight? Let me just tell you about what we've got to do. Maybe you need to get a bit of a mouse taken out of you.

Well, this is how we begin to pray, you know. Friend, you know, we would need to demonstrate the grace of God in us. And we would need to do it in every possible way.

Do you say, Sister, the Lord is gracious? Has He been gracious to you? Are you bound again? Are you going to desire His gracious word every day from now on? Are you going to ask the Spirit of grace to reflect the grace of God in you? You know, a man said something to me once, and he was a Roman Catholic. He was a big man that I used to drink with. And many times he and I got full together.

And after about six months, you know, I'd walked very closely with the Lord Jesus. And I'd talk to Him every day, and I'd held His hand, and I'd gone very quietly along that way. You know, this big fellow stopped me one day, and he wasn't drunk.

He said, Woman, I don't know about this thing called the grace of God, but it's in you. That was a great thing for him to say. I don't know that I deserved it or anything like that, but that's what he said.

He said, I don't know anything about this grace of God, but it's in you. And we need to let the people all around us see the grace of God in us. Come, let's sing.

Let's bow together for a moment this evening. Blessed Lord, this has been a very valuable little paragraph this evening. And all of us can say that Thou art gracious.

My gracious Redeemer, my Saviour our Lord. If ever I loved Thee, Lord Jesus did not. And Lord, we would need to desire Thy gracious grace day after day.

Oh, give us an appetite for Thy Holy Word. And Lord, we pray that the Spirit of grace may so work in us that all malice and guile and hypocrisy and envy and evil speaking might be taken away from us. That men and women around us might see the amazing grace of God.

Hear these our breathings for the Saviour's sake. Amen. We're going to sing this old-fashioned hymn to that amazing grace.

894. How sweet to the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found.

Was blind, now I see. 894, please. Dear Lord, part us in Thy fear and with Thy blessing for Thy Holy Name's sake.

Amen.