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71A. II Corinthians 3 (Are you a living epistle?)

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  speaker icon   1. Beloved, Now Are We   (3:11)
  speaker icon   2. Proverbs 4:18   (1:54)
  speaker icon   3. The Wise and Foolish Builders, Matthew 7:24-27   (2:17)
  speaker icon   4. II Corinthians 3   (34:05)
  speaker icon   5. I Shall See the King in His Beauty   (2:32)

Selected Verses:

Psalm 17:15.  As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

II Timothy 2:21.  If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.

Opening:

Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also hath made us able ministers of the new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?

Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Now, I came into the meeting tonight, and saw the heaven rolling away and the glory of God descending, and was reminded of the words of Jesus where He said, “Where two of you, or three, are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst.”  I thought, “Well the Lord Jesus really has a plan with every meeting, or He wouldn’t bother to come around, would He?” Do you think so?

But you know, it’s been a source of unceasing wonderment to me how that He always manages to come.  Praise the Lord!  Sometimes people don’t pay very much attention to Him, but He always manages to come, and He always manages to manifest Himself.  He must have a real purpose in it; He must have a real plan.  And wouldn’t it be interesting to find out just what God’s plan is?

Selected Quotes:

speaker icon Beloved, we need Holy Ghost meetings.  We need meetings where Jesus Christ walks in the midst, and where He speaks His word, and where He says, “I know your worksI counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fireYou’re wretched and miserable, poor, and blind, and naked.”  I don’t mind someone to come and tell me that.

A missionary told us how one day a man came to his door—it was in Arabia—and the fellow had never had a bath in all his life.  And so the missionary wanted to take him into his house for a few days, but he offered him a bath first of all.  This man was so indignant; he was so insulted.  He said, “Well, who do you think I am!  Do you think I’m so dirty that I need a bath?”  Beloved, that’s the way saints are.

speaker icon Oh, beloved, we’re not called to waste our time in the works of the flesh and to waste our time after a while in remorse—in eternal remorse.  God has “called us with an holy calling,” and He that has called us and appointed us is God who also hath filled us the Holy Ghost.

speaker icon Beloved, how is it tonight?  Has God Almighty taken over in my life?  If He has, it must have been because I’ve made Him Lord.  If I make Him Lord, I’m not going to be a hypocrite and say, “Lord, Lord,” and then do what my flesh wants me to do, or my evil nature—my pride, my conceit.  The works of the flesh are eliminated.  Christ has come in.  Jesus is on the throne, hallelujah!  Oh, how glad we ought to be for this ministration of the Spirit!  Praise the Lord!  “Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of Christ dwell in you.”

speaker icon Can Jesus Christ put you anyplace and depend upon you to live for Him—to shine for Him?  Can He put you into a difficult place where it’s awfully hard to get along with people, and depend upon you to still live a life of love and joy and peace?  It will not be, beloved, unless the Spirit is Lord.  Oh, how many times God puts us into very difficult places in order to show us that we’re not rich in God— that we have not become “vessels unto honor,” that Jesus Christ is not Lord.  There’s somebody else lord, and you can see it on your face.

speaker icon Love, joy, peace—do you find it difficult?  He gives us two methods here—or two wonderful, holy things.  First of all, to meditate in the word until we become “a living epistle,” and then, “beholding the glory of God.”

Illustrations:

An illustration of a potter doing violence to the clay.  This story is also told in recording 69B around 5:14.    (from 3:06)

The story of Pegasus.  This story is also told in recording 29A around 9:41.    (from 13:56)

The dilapidated house of the chimneysweep.  “Somebody else bought his house… They made it so pretty it looked like a doll house…  When Jesus comes in, something happens.”    (from 21:39)

A failed minister.  “He’s an eloquent man; he’s a man that can really preach.  But he can’t live.  He can’t get along with his wife.  His children are a disgrace.  He does things that you wouldn’t expect from a man of the world.”    (from 25:03)

German at 12:45:

Genesis 9:1.  “Füllet die Erde, dass euer viel warden.” — Fill the earth so that there will be many of your kind.

Audio Quality: Mixed

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