I invite your attention back
to Mark chapter 10. This entire chapter of Mark is
the Lord taking His disciples to school. And I've entitled this message,
The Master's Classroom. If you were reading along with
me in this passage of Scripture, the sons of Zebedee, James and
John, you saw them acting just like us in the thing they requested
of the Lord. It's sad to remember, necessary
perhaps, but sad to remember that we're just like that and
we have need of teaching. It's a sad story, but it's not
an unusual one in Scripture. Now, our Lord Jesus has just
taught His disciples once again that He was going to Jerusalem
to die and to be mishandled. Verse 32, it says, And they were
in the way going to Jerusalem, and Jesus went before them, and
they were amazed. They're still amazed from the
fact that our Lord said that a rich man cannot enter heaven,
which is in the first part. They're still amazed that the
Lord when they tried to throw the children out and said, Suffer
these little ones to come to me for such is the kingdom of
heaven. They've been amazed all day long at the things the Lord
has said. And they're still amazed. And
as they followed, they were afraid. What they were doing was looking
at themselves and thinking, Man, if all these things are so, what
about it? The Lord keeps rebuking us for things we think are normal. And he took them again and began
to tell them what things should happen unto him, saying, Behold,
we go to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered unto
the chief priests, and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn
him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles. They shall
mock Him, they shall scourge Him, they shall spit upon Him
and shall kill Him, and the third day He shall rise again." Now
this, He's telling them of what to expect. He did this in the
Gospel according to John in chapters 13 through 16. Four chapters
He dealt with. The things that they can expect
because He's going to be crucified. And you'd think the disciples
would have been overwhelmed by these blessed words that such
things would completely occupy their thoughts. And what we see
is something else altogether. Instead of the cross, instead
of the empty tomb, instead of the glory that awaits Christ,
the minds of James and John do what sinners do. And this is
often the case. They just changed the subject.
They changed the subject. They were amazed, they were afraid,
maybe they were a little uncomfortable. Nobody seemed to like Christ
talking about his death very much. You remember what Peter
said to him when he said he was going up to Jerusalem to die.
Peter took him aside and said, Oh, you don't have to do that.
You're the Lord. You have all power. And he said, Get thee
behind me, Satan. Get thee behind me, Satan. For
you decide the things of the world, not the things of heaven. But almost all of us, I won't
say almost all of us, at one time or another have thought,
What's in it for me? what's in it for me. These two
brothers asked the Master to promote them to a place of highest
honor and dignity in His kingdom, the left hand and the right hand
of His throne. This passage plainly teaches
that the best and noblest and most highly honored of God's
people in this world are yet sinners, James and John. Two writers of epistle. One of
them who leaned upon Christ's breast. One who called the beloved
disciple. And he asked this question of the Lord. It's important to
remember that the best of men are but men. The very best of
men are but men. And they are in constant need
of grace and forgiveness because of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Several lessons were taught this day. We'll look at them. The
first lesson is this. Saints of God have a common problem. A common problem. And this problem
is our problem. Verses 35 through 41, James and
John asked to be put in a place of
high position. What's the problem? The problem
is pride. And when I'm talking about pride,
I'm not talking about being proud of yourself if you've done something
and it worked out. I used to try to take pride in
my rock work and when people, when they do things, artwork
and such, it's all right to take pride in that because it's something
you've accomplished. This is talking about pride spiritually
in the face of God. Because there is no ground for
it. And most of the stuff that people
are proud of is groundless also. It's groundless also. You know,
we'd be proud of all... One fellow says you're proud
of race, face, grace, and place. And none of those are groundless.
You're proud of your race? Fine, but what did you have to
do with it? I didn't have anything to do
with mine. Pride of place. I've accomplished
a whole lot in this life. Well, promotion comes neither
from the East nor the West. It comes from the Lord, Scripture
says. Pride of face. I remember old Colonel North
talking about Fawn Hall. Some of you might remember that.
Most of you don't. You aren't old enough to remember that.
He said God had blessed her with beauty. Well, what about me,
I said. What about me? Pride of face. Henry Mahan told a story one
time that he asked this question to people that got the same look
that I got when I asked the question also. Do you know your pictures
in a newspaper, the one feather? What's the first page you turn
to? see your picture. Pride of face,
pride of place. Some people even have pride of
grace. Legalists have pride of grace. They have pride of grace. That's the saddest thing of all.
James and John are true believers. They're born of God. They loved
the Lord, and yet they were ignorant of some very important things. They were ignorant about a rich
man and him doing the law. They were ignorant about little
children coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. They were ignorant about
a lot of things as proved in this very chapter. And the root
word of ignorant is always ignore. They ignored some basic tenets
of the gospel. Their willful ignorance was a
byproduct of pride. They, of all things, asked the
Lord to give them a place of preeminence in His kingdom, which
smacks in the face of grace. If salvation is by grace, there
is no preeminent place in the kingdom. All people are saved
exactly the same way, and all because they have no merit whatsoever. They presume that they could
personally suffer and endure all that the Lord would suffer.
He says, well, if you're going to be there, you're going to
have to be baptized with the baptism I'm baptized with and
drink the cup that I drink." And they said, well, we can do
that. We can do that. Reminds me of those after Moses
read the law to them. And they said, we'll do that.
And immediately he slay a beast and sprinkled blood and put it
on his head and sprinkled the book and them and himself and
everybody else. He knew this ain't going to work.
We can do that. That's what they said. Our Lord
said, you must be baptized in verse 38. Jesus said, you know
what? Yes, not. Can you drink the cup
that I drink of and be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized
with? And they said unto Him, we can.
Not a problem. Not a problem. No problemo. They
thought they deserved a position of superiority over the brethren.
It sounds a whole lot like nature, like carnality to me, and it
is. Their pride pictures our own plague and is recorded to
disclose our carnal malady that's with us all. Genuine believers
are often ignorant of things that, upon minor consideration,
seem rudimentary and elementary in education matters. Though
our Lord plainly instructed them, though they were themselves chosen
by Jesus Christ, James and John did not grasp the spiritual nature
of Christ's kingdom. and were thus cloudy about his
substitutionary sacrifice and accomplishment. They didn't quite
get what he was saying about that going Jerusalem business.
Mary Magdalene, she understood, didn't she? She anointed Christ
for her, his burial. And it's the only account in
all of Scripture where Christ looked at something someone did
and said, this is a good work. The only one. Individually pointed
out in all of scripture was a harlot who had been saved by grace,
who took an expensive jar of ointment, which probably was
a year's salary, in which Judas and the disciples said, boy,
what a waste of money. And she poured it on his head, anointed
him for his burial, because she knew that he was going to die
in her room instead. And he said, she's done a good
work. And I'll tell you what I know about good works. I don't
know a whole lot about them, but I know they have to do with
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Or they're not good at all. Mary
Magdalene got those things, but they didn't. At least not yet.
They trusted Christ. Christ had forgiven their sin.
He had given them the kingdom of heaven, the keys to the kingdom.
And they still had some learning to do. And so do we. God's saints in this world are
not only sinners, they are only sinners, saved by grace. We were at the hospital last
night. We were talking about a fellow who used to come to
church here. He was up at the hospital last
night. He said, I preach, I've been meaning to come back. And
I said, well, you know, you're welcome to. And the lady said to me,
well, you just got to sort of take his wayward cheek back.
You wouldn't have nobody in your congregation. I said, well, we
don't have anything but sinners there anyway. I said, we don't
allow good people in our church. I said, they just intimidate
and ruin everybody. Make them mad. We don't want
no good people in our church. We want sinners in our church.
Rio died in the war of sinners. God's saints are sinners. They're
whore saints. Like Rahab the harlot. We are vile by nature, ungodly
people, possessed of an old man called flesh, and that which
is born of the flesh is flesh. Whatever comes out of our flesh
will never be spiritual. Never will be. If you can see
it ain't spiritual, I can guarantee you that. We are wretched sinners
that are constantly afflicted with pride, self-esteem, self-worth,
self-confidence, self-righteousness, all that. These are things that
are so deeply ingrained in us that we rarely even are aware
of their intractable grip on our souls. They are as the air
we breathe, sad to say. The rest of the disciples were
just as guilty as James and John. They were displeased with James
and John, not because they asked for this high place, but because
they did not come up with the idea first. They were upset because
James and John wanted to be exalted above them. Don't be amazed.
It's not at all unusual for those who have truly been snatched
out of this world as a firebrand from the burning, who have taken
up the cross and followed the Lord Jesus Christ and forsaken
all His policy, as Peter said in this very chapter, to become
envious and jealous and offended if a brother or sister is promoted
above them. I've seen it happen. It ought not be. But it ain't
unusual, is it? Not unusual. The truth is the
greatest problem we face, our greatest afflictor and our greatest
affliction, the most dangerous enemy we have is ourself. Pride is universal and universally
destructive and it's empty. We are from birth We from birth
naturally crave power, preeminence, and prestige, recognition and
position because of our sinful arrogance. Our sinful arrogance
demands it. It is pride that causes us to
lust for attention and to be envious of those who get it instead
of us. Pride inspired Lucifer's fall.
I will be like the Most High God. I will sit on the throne
of heaven, he said. I will be. Pride brought one-third
of the heavenly angels down to hell according to Jude. Pride
seduced Eve. You mean I can be like God if
I take of this fruit? Pride destroyed Adam. Pride divides
men. It always divides men. Pride
is the thing that divides and separates and causes men and
women to distinguish themselves one from another according to
race or rank or station. What is it that divides brethren?
Really, pride. Even among the redeemed, our
greatest problems and difficulties and injuries and troubles are
the result of pride. Thomas Hooker wrote this, Pride
is a vice that cleaveth so fast unto the hearts of men that if
we were to strip ourselves of all faults one by one, we would
undoubtedly find it the very last and hardest to put off. Pride keeps sinners from seeking
the Lord. Of all those things named in
the Bible, in Proverbs chapter 6, the seven things that God
hates, pride is at the top of the list. A proud look. A proud
look. It is our pride that tears down
our guard and makes us weak and vulnerable to temptations. It's
pride that does that. When our Lord asked James and
John if they could endure the baptism he was to endure and
drink the cup that he drank, they didn't hesitate. They didn't
take up a council and say, you reckon we can handle this? They
didn't get together and have a vote. They said, no problem,
we can do that. We can do that. God's saints
usually fall at the very place where they, because of pride,
believe they're strong. That's where you'll fall. Let
him that thinketh he stand, take heed lest he fall. When we know that we are weak,
then we're strong in the Lord. We're strong in the Lord. You
look at Job. What man was ever so patient
as Job? Yet if you read the whole book,
he proved impatient toward the end. Moses was the meekest man
on earth. God inspired him to write that
about himself. Yet his rash anger kept him out
of the promised land, for he smoked that rock twice. Samson
was the strongest man who ever lived, yet he was conquered by
his girlfriend's words about how pretty he was. David was devoted to Saul. Yet
David killed his own devoted servant Uriah. Solomon was the
wisest man who ever lived, but he's also proved to be the most
foolish man who ever lived. This is the account of the saints
of God throughout Scripture. We look at Paul the Apostle,
really the man responsible for spreading the church throughout
the world. Our Lord never went more than 50 miles from his hometown.
Paul made three missionary journeys and established church after
church after church and preached the gospel. Yet when he came to his Jewish
friends of how to teach them the gospel, he decided to go
in and have a Jewish legal ceremony. It cost him a great deal. Peter, whom the Lord loved, when he rose from the dead, he
says, go tell the disciples. And Peter, tell him too. Peter, bold, bold man, left the tables of the Gentiles
to sit back with the legalist Jews out of fear. God said, you
despise the grace of God. You despise the grace of God. I have to tell myself this, and
it should be a model on my wall probably. We must never trust
in our own strength. God's strength is made perfect
in our weakness, Scripture says, not our strength. And I'm a strong
Christian. Were you in trouble? But only the weakest Christians
survive. Paul said, when I'm weak, then
I'm strong. Found that out. When we foolishly imagine the
pride of our hearts that we are strong, we are most weak and
susceptible to the fall. First lesson is this, a common
problem with all of us, pride. Lesson number two that day, it's
found in verses 39 through 40, and they said unto him, we can.
Jesus said unto him, you shall indeed drink of that cup which
I drink, and of the baptism that I am baptized with, all shall
you be baptized, but to sit on my right hand and on my left
hand is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for
whom it is prepared. In spite of their ignorant pride
and sin, our Lord's response was very gracious to them. Verse 39, He says, You shall
drink that cup and be baptized with the baptism I am with. Most
commentators render verse 39 to mean that This is a verse
pertaining to the future sufferings of the disciples for the gospel
sake and it may have something to do with that, but that's not
what he says. Our Lord said, ye shall indeed drink of the
cup that I drink of and be baptized with all the baptism I'm baptized
of. And he assures us that all the
horror of God's indescribable wrath He volunteered for. Because He compares it to a cup
and to baptism. He compares His sufferings and
death to a baptism, a total immersion in this. He was totally immersed
in the fiery wrath of the infinite justice of God in our place as
our substitute. That happened there. But by referring
to His suffering as a baptism, He is telling us that these were
not forced upon Him. He volunteered for them. Baptism
is a cogent, reasonable, logical decision
that a believer makes. I want to confess the Lord in
baptism. Not something that the church
does to you when you are a baby, because you can't make a cogent,
reasonable, logical decision at that time. It's for believers,
those who know the Lord Jesus Christ, but it's a voluntary
thing. Some of you have volunteered to put yourself in my hands out
there in that cold creek and be taken under the water, brought
back up. You volunteered for that. I know
I couldn't have made you do it. I couldn't talk anybody into
doing that. That's cold water. And plus you're giving yourself
to a man who's just a man. And he's putting you in an element
where you could die because you don't have gills. You can't breathe.
If I hold you down, you're not going to come up at all. That has to be a voluntary thing.
So he's assuring us what he called his sufferings, baptism. He said,
there's something I volunteered for. There's something I've chosen
to do. It's not forced upon him, yet
it is done by the hands of another. It's voluntary, yet it's something
done by another. The Son of God was voluntarily
baptized in the wrath of God by His Father's own hand. It
is written in Isaiah 53, it pleased the Lord. That is, it satisfied
the Lord. Our Lord also refers to His propitiatory
sacrifice and the wrath He would undergo as a cup. As a cup. A cup is something taken voluntarily. It's a drink. It's a drink. The
Lord of glory willingly took the cup of God's wrath when He
was made to be sin for us, and voluntarily He drank damnation
dry for us. Volunteered for that. He so loved
us that He took the cup of God's wrath as our substitute as willingly
as a thirsty man takes a cup of water. After I wrote that
down I thought, what did He say on the cross? Right before He said it's finished?
I thirst. I thirst. Also, our Master promised
these sinful, pride-poisoned disciples that they would indeed
be baptized with His baptism and drink His cup. You shall
do that. He didn't say the stuff you're
going to suffer is going to be like that. He said you're going
to do that. You're going to do that. He said in verse 39, you
shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of. And with the
baptism that I am baptized with all shall ye be baptized. There
is only one way that this can happen by representation. There is only
one way. Only one way on this earth that
I can be baptized with his baptism and drink his cup is representatively,
that is in him as our surety and substitute by imitation.
and by faith. Remember what our Lord said when
He was baptized and His coronation as such in Matthew chapter 3
and verses 14 and 15? John the Baptist says, it ain't
right for me to baptize you. I'm not worthy to baptize you.
Our Lord said, suffer it to be so, because it becomes us. And He was not, our Lord was
not One of these theologians are talking that Theological
we like he's got a mouse in his pocket all the time and our Lord
said us he meant us Because it suffered to be so
because it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness As he talked
about himself and those he represented Those he represented Look at Psalm 116 Psalm 116, verses 12 and 13. What shall I render unto the
Lord for all His benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation. I will take the cup of salvation
and call upon the name of the Lord. People get all kinds of ideas
about what pleases God and how they can somehow repay this kindness
that God has given them. You can't. Well, what shall render
unto it? For all He's done for you, for
all His benefit, trust Him and call upon Him. I'll take the
cup of salvation and I'll call upon His name. This was what is pictured in
the ordinances of our gospel. When we are baptized, our baptism
confesses that we were crucified with Christ, we were buried with
Christ, and raised with Christ in resurrection. That's what
baptism confesses. When we take the bread and wine
of the Lord's Supper, we symbolically take the bread of life and the
cup of salvation, symbolically eating and drinking the body
and blood of Christ. And in verse 40, our Lord teaches
us of a kingdom of glory, a kingdom of heaven already prepared by
the Father. When these two asked, can I sit
on your right hand and your left? He said, well, could be. I don't know. But whoever is supposed to sit
there has already been taken care of before the world began.
That's the preparation. They were prepared. before the
world began. But to sit on my right hand,
he said in verse 40, and on my left hand is not mine to give,
but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared. There's somebody going to sit
there, I reckon. Wonder who it is. I'll bet you this, it'll
be the lowliest of all. It'll be the lowliest of all.
Not the highest. Not the greatest. Not the visible
part of the church. The comely part of the church.
But the invisible part of the church, the liver, the lungs,
the heart, the blood that you can't see, that we can't live
without. We can live without our faces. We can live without
our arms and legs. We can't live without our liver.
That's what liver means. You live by your liver. Who's going to sit at his right
hand? I don't know, but it's already taken care of. Their
names are already on the seats if such a thing exists. Their
names are already on the seats. How are they there? They are
there by the gift of grace. The Lord Jesus teaches us of
this kingdom. Eternal life, the heavenly glory
is a kingdom prepared by God from the foundation of the world
for specific people, those to whom God has been revealed
by the Son For it pleased the Father to hide His gospel from
some and reveal it to others. Those for whom it is prepared
possess it in all its fullness and glory. They already have
it. Their name is already on the
seats. It's already there. All you have, you already have.
You're not going to get anything new when you get to glory. You're
going to have what you have without sin. Which would be so, I can't
even imagine. But I imagine it's going to be
pretty sweet. It presents it entirely as a
gift of God's grace. Third lesson is this. This is a fact that our Lord taught
over and over again. That is taught in line with what
God calls works throughout Scripture. A life of self-denying kindness
and service to others is the highest and noblest of human
aspirations. There's no higher or noble aspiration
than to do something for somebody else. The standards of the world and
the standards of our Lord are diametrically opposed to each
other. And the King of God, that person is truly great who lives,
foresees, and promotes the temporal, spiritual, and eternal welfare
of somebody else. That's the great person. J.C. Ryle said, true greatness
consists not in receiving, but in giving. Not in the selfish
absorption of good things, but in imparting good things to others.
Not in being served, but in serving. Not in sitting still and being
ministered to, but in going about and ministering to others. Would
I be great in the kingdom of God? Then I must seek every opportunity
in God's kingdom to minister to the people of God. The word
translated minister is the same word translated commonly as deacon. Deacon in Scripture. It refers
to a person who does menial labor, who takes care of stuff for other
people while other things can be done. House cleaning, serving
tables, gardening, etc. Those things. It is the least
recognized, but often the most needed of all services, and certainly
the most basic, essential, and elemental service, to minister.
To minister. And I found this to be true.
If I can get my mind on somebody else's problems, I don't have
any problems. I just don't have any of my own. You know that's
the case. But if we sit and wallow in our
own, that's all we're going to have is our own. The minute we
can start helping somebody else, doing something for somebody
else, we don't think about our stuff. That's what our Lord is
teaching. Would I be admired in the kingdom
of heaven? I must make myself the servant of all, a slave to
the people of God. The word servant means slave.
A servant may not have much, but a slave has nothing to call
his own. The slavery here spoken of is
a totally voluntary, bored-in-the-ear type of slavery, a bond slave
with others as family. Those who are truly great and
admirable in the family of God are those men and women who devote
themselves in humble, self-denying, self-abasing, self-sacrificing
service to God's elect. Look it up. Find what God says
about what He calls doing His will here on earth. He said, inasmuch as you've done
it to the least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto
me. What's he talking about? Build
them houses? No. Do I give them a lot of money? No. Give them a glass of water
when they're thirsty? Visit them when they're sick? Clothe them when they're naked?
Feed them when they're hungry? My grandmother was notorious.
On my mother's side, not notorious, I guess famous would be the word.
During the Depression, she had a little farm, had some pigs,
chickens, and cattle. There was always a lot of men
that outworked her, without work during that time, would come
by. My mother said she'd talk to
them, said, well, we want a job. I don't have anything to pay
you. She said, but I'll tell you what. Go out and clean up
this or straighten out that pile, and I'll feed you. I'll feed
you good." She didn't have no money. She didn't have two dimes
to rub together, but she had food there that she grew and
processed herself just to feed somebody. That's
not a big thing, is it? Take somebody to the hospital.
Take somebody to get them some groceries. These things are not
big things. Our Lord doesn't require you
to do big things, because you ain't big, you're little. But inasmuch as you've done it
the least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me. If you
have the wherewithal to help a brethren, do not help him.
The Lord says the love of God dwells not in you. You see one
in need, Pat him on the shoulder, pat him on the back, say, we'll
pray for you, but you don't have your wallet to help him, then the
love of God's not in you. These are simple principles.
This is what God taught throughout Scripture. This is the best life. God's people are people who have
learned that it is really more blessed to give than to receive.
Those are great who enrich the lives of others. Maybe you think,
well, that's just too much to expect from me anymore, and it's
unreasonable to expect anyone to stoop so low. Well, you are
right, unless you are interested in striving to emulate Christ.
How low did He stoop? And Paul calls that your reasonable
service. In Romans chapter 12 verse 1,
lesson number 4, look at verse 45. For even so the Son of Man came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give His life
a ransom for many. Here the Lord Jesus Christ who
loved us and gave Himself for us uses Himself as a pattern
and example for us to follow. And this is not hard to understand.
Our Lord said, this is what I'm talking about. Our Lord is saying
that what He requires of us is what He did for us in relation to all His people.
in relation to all His people. Did the Lord Jesus live in this
world as a servant of God? Yeah. Did He live to do the will of
God? And is it written in thy book to do thy will, O God? Yeah,
He did that. Would you like to be like Him?
I know people like to think that they'd like to be like Him, and
they say, well, but I don't know. Would you like to be like Him? Well, if I would, I must seek
to live in this world as a servant of the Most High God, doing the
will of God for the people of God. Did Son of Man live in this
world as a servant of men? Absolutely did. If we were to walk in His steps,
I must endeavor to spend my life and energy serving the needs,
and those are temporal, spiritual, emotional, and eternal needs
of others. It is said of the Lord, He does,
He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased in heaven and earth and
all the deep places. We do rejoice in that sovereignty.
But the sweetest sovereignty is the sovereignty that is used
for the benefit of His people. Like Mordecai. Remember Mordecai
was raised up? And he did what he did for the
good of Israel. That's what it says right here.
But our Lord Jesus Christ hath done what he hath pleased, and
yet it says of him in the Scriptures concerning the brethren, he pleased
not himself. That's what it says. Lesson number
five. We see here the purchase that
Christ made to give His life A ransom for
many. Here's the greatest thing of
all. Not only has the Son of God given us a noble example
of self-denying love and service by His obedience to God the Father
for us, He has by His great sin-expiating sacrifice and substitution to
death purchased and ransomed us to God. He's ransomed us from the curse
of God's holy law, being made a curse for us. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them that are in Christ. None whatsoever. No charge can be laid against
them. And we are delivered from the curse of the law because
He was made a curse for us, Galatians 3.13. We've been ransomed from slavery
of sin by His blood applied in saving grace. Ransomed, set free. We've been ransomed into the
glorious liberty of the sons of God. We're free men because
we've been ransomed. We've been ransomed. The price
of ransom? His blood. His life. His death. Who were ransomed? The many were ransomed. Who are they? They're described
throughout Scripture. Those whom the Lord Jesus Christ
paid this great ransom price for are clearly identified as
the many in Scripture. In Acts 13.48, they are the many
who are ordained to eternal life and believed. They are the many
who were given to him in the covenant of grace. All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this
is my Father's will, which he sent me of all he has given me.
I should lose nothing, but raise it up again in the last day.
They are the many for whom he makes intercession. I pray not
for the world, he said. I pray for them that thou hast
given me. The many called by his Spirit.
saved by His grace, to whom He gives the gift of faith, the
many, for whom His Father has prepared and to whom He has given
the kingdom of His glory. He has given it to those He has
prepared for. If you study the life of the
disciples in relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ, A great
deal of his teaching was pulling them out of themselves and pulling
them into himself. We're not going to get rid of
self as long as we live here. But these are sound instructions
from our Lord. Pride is our problem. Seek the
lowest seat. Seek to be of service to the
brethren. and rejoice in Christ, preparing heaven for you and
ransoming you to glory. Father, bless us for understanding.
We pray in Christ's name. Amen.