Now shall we turn to the word of God? John chapter twenty one. I want to read merely the first verse and then turn over to Romans chapter twelve. After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias and on this wise showed he himself. Romans chapter twelve. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that she presents your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that she may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. May the Lord bless to us those very brief readings from his precious words. In John chapter twenty one we are brought to a wonderful joining together of events. Those disciples to whom we are introduced in the beginning of that chapter were men who had literally left there all to follow the Lord Jesus. He had come to one upon the seashore, indeed he had come to more than one, and said, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of man. He had turned again to the man who sat at the receipt of custom and said, Follow me. And we are taught that in John chapter one that he came one day to Philip, and without any preamble just gave him the plain command, Follow me. We see therefore that these disciples had commenced to follow him in obedience to his commanding voice. There was something about the voice of the Lord Jesus that carried the note of authority. Something about him when he made an utterance so brief as to be condensed into two words that literally laid upon the soul of the hearer the conclusion that this man, Jesus, must be obeyed. And they had followed him. And as they had started to follow him, the differing ideas concerning his greatness had developed within them. It was given to Simon Peter to make the masterly confession, thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God. It was given to the others upon occasion to speak to him and of him in such a way that we see that there were varying degrees of apprehension of the blessed person of Christ. And some of them had desired a great position in his kingdom. And there had been a contest among those disciples as to who should be the greatest. And that was at the institution of the Lord's Supper. Will you please imagine the hearts of men who could do such a thing? The hand of the Lord Jesus was upon the table, and even while that hand was there, ready to minister the symbols of his death, At that moment there was a movement in the hearts of the disciples as they desired one to be greater than another. And as we start to examine our own hearts we come to the conclusion the scripture is correct. We are told that the human heart is deceitful, that its content is nothing less than desperate wickedness. And we are brought to the conclusion that our own hearts today are no better than the hearts of the disciples in the day of the Lord Jesus. And then they had followed him from that upper room. Those who desired a great place in the kingdom. Those who desired that he should be elevated to an official position from which his command could be issued. And those who followed him because he was the miracle worker. These men had thereafter followed him from the upper room into the garden of Gethsemane. Three disciples only had been permitted to come close. And I began to see the movement in John's Gospel as the three disciples, and this record is contained both in Mark and in Luke, had come to the very entrance of that garden and had promptly proceeded to go to sleep. They were so desperately tired. Dear these days of conference, some of us have been very tired indeed. And I remember that Luke in his record concerning the condition of the disciples upon the Mount of Transfiguration has said this, and when they were awake, they saw his glory. Could anything more pointed ever have been written? Anything more challenging to the human heart and to the human spirit that lives in the present day? Can we, dare we say that we are better than these disciples, that spiritually we are more awake than they were? Or shall we not come to the conclusion that so often, with the desperate need upon our very doorstep, with the consciousness of men and women hastening onto hell, they promptly proceed to go to sleep spiritually. And after these days of holy convocation it is essential that we should come to the point of challenge concerning our own hearts. Observe these disciples, if you please, with me. They had stood by the cross and seen Jesus die. They had followed him into the valley of the shadow of death. The city had been left behind the center of commercialism. Even the center of man's religion had been forsaken. And out there in the valley of the shadow of death There had been erected that cross of shame. The pagan symbol was a curse upon it. And upon that cross Jesus, my Lord, was crucified. And these men had been there and had seen him. After these things. And these are the things which they had gazed upon. During these last days we have been gazing upon the very things of God. What are we going to do after these things? I would have you hesitate with me, therefore, at that cross for a moment. They have come face to face with the fact of crucifixion. What does the fact of crucifixion mean to me? What does it mean to you tonight as we face up once more to the fact that the cross is the very dynamic of our Christian faith? What does the cross mean to me? What does the cross mean to you? Our beloved brother John Smart the other evening brought us face to face with it when he said, I have been crucified with Christ. Will you please remember that that is the Divine Council. I have been crucified. And as we spread ourselves out in the holy presence of God, we come to the conclusion so often that that crucifixion has almost been pointless as far as we are concerned. and we come face to face again with the cross and God brings us to see the anguish and the suffering of His Son and tonight if I could stand you there by faith and excite your imagination so that again you might see the picture I would love to do it and we might stand there at the cross tonight and see Jesus die that is God's answer to my failure That is God's method of dealing with me as I am. This is the glorious action of God in dealing with me as I am and the failure of my personality is represented in the very body of Jesus. God brings me face to face with this tonight. God forbid that I should glory. There is nothing in me of which I can glory. There is but this cross which crucifies me and teaches me that I am seen in company with my blessed Lord. And that was where the disciples stood when the Lord Jesus was being crucified. And they had watched the gathering of the clouds of darkness. They had probably seen a shaft of light coming from God's eternal glory directed upon his blessed Son. and they had stood and observed the crown of thorns, the indescribable bodily anguish into which the Lord Jesus entered as he presented his body a living sacrifice. We put two terms together which are entirely contradictory. The word sacrifice demands death and the word living indicates continuity. And I want you to see with me tonight that the cross of Calvary and the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all is continuous in its everlasting effect. I want you to see that the very word living can be applied therefore to the work of the cross and the offering of the body of Jesus. And tonight as I would have you stand there, I would have you to consider those disciples who have stood by that cross and had become onlookers of the anguish and suffering of Jesus Christ. And tonight I think he would take us back there too, that we might see the darkening clouds, the gathering of the wrath of God upon him, and the understanding that this is my portion, not only as an unsaved sinner, this is my portion as a saved child of God. And I need to understand my association with the person of Jesus Christ the Lord. It isn't only that I can look back upon that cross and say, well, praise the Lord, I'm being crucified. For in the sight of God, God's eternal reckoning, it is as though my body was upon that cross and God is calling me to enter into a reckoning that shall be in perfect line with the anguish and the suffering of his Son. And I want you to observe that with me tonight and remember that this was one of the things of which John twenty-one says, after these things. And then I would have you to observe the wonderful way in which the death of the Lord Jesus was concluded. The mighty sacrifice had been presented. The great sin question in me had forever been answered before the face of the eternal God, and God was delighted with the offering of his Son. And I remember that that was another one of the things which are recorded in John twenty one. God's delight with the offering of his Son, my perfect association with my blessed Redeemer, and the glorious truth that he has come into a death for me, which is now attributed to me in the very councils of eternity. That's why I can say tonight I have been crucified with Christ. For this is God's viewpoint upon every believer. Every child of God who is born again has come into this glorious place where the cross of Christ is attributed to them. And the offering of the body of Jesus Christ has become entirely substitutionary to the end of the God that looks upon me as though my body had been offered and as though I had come to that point when I said, here am I, oh God, do as you will with me. And then I see Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus as they come to their body. They come out to the cross and they see the action of the Roman soldier has had its effect. They come to the first two upon those crosses which are on either side of the Lord Jesus and they see that these men are not dead. But when they came to Jesus they saw that he was dead already and this is one of the things that we must take into consideration. He was dead already. And there are people tonight outside of Christ, and they're not dead. But for the Christian, as God takes the work of the cross and applies it to your heart and to mine, in the sight of God it is as though we, ourselves, the natural man and woman is dead already. It's as though we had come into that position with Jesus Christ the Lord, because God has attributed the cross work to us. And we have been seen in the sight and the counsels of the eternal God as those who have died to sin and to self, and dead indeed we are in the sight of God. And I love that psalm that says, Precious in the sight of the Lord, is the death of his saints. I think that can be applied to present experience. I think that is the application of the cross to the child of God and its pressures in the sight of God that his children should come to death, the death of the natural man. And I see Nicodemus and I see Joseph of Arimathea as they take that body down from the cross. Will you stay for a moment and consider this with me? I am taught in Second Corinthians chapter four that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holes. And then a beautiful expression is used, which needs to be examined in order that we may discover its wonderful application. For then the Spirit of God says, casting down imaginations and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. And will you please remember that this expression casting down is the technical term for the removal of a body from the cross? Will you please observe that with me? I am come face to face tonight with that cross. I am come to the place where God declares that I have been crucified. I have come to the place when God encourages me, when he says, precious in his sight is the death of his saints. And then he says, please have fellowship with the Lord Jesus in this. When his precious body was taken down from that cross, it was just as though you would come into a kind of living in which there should be a casting down of imagination. It belongs to that action. And when I come to this glorious truth and its beauty, I see that not merely has the death of Jesus provided for my escape from sin, But it has brought me into this relationship with God when the cross is applied to my very thinking, to my imaginative powers, in order that I might stand with Jesus as his body is removed from the cross. And that my... ...have been seen in the sight and the counsels of the eternal God as those who have died to sin and to self, and dead indeed we are in the sight of God. You know, I love that Psalm that says, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. I think that can be applied to present experience. I think that is the application of the cross to the child of God, and it's precious in the sight of God that his children should come to death, the death of the natural man. And I see Nicodemus and I see Joseph of Arimathea as they take that body down from the cross. say for a moment and consider this with me. I am taught in Second Corinthians chapter four that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. And then a beautiful expression is used which needs to be examined in order that we may discover its wonderful application. For then the Spirit of God says casting down imaginations. and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. And will you please remember that this expression casting down is the technical term for the removal of a body from the cross? Will you please observe that with me? I am come face to face tonight with that cross. I am come to the place where God declares that I have been crucified. I have come to the place when God encourages me when he says precious in his sight is the death of his saints and then he says please have fellowship with the Lord Jesus in this when his precious body was taken down from that cross it was just as though you would come into a kind of living in which there should be a casting down of imaginations it belongs to that action and when I come to this glorious truth and its beauty I see that not merely has the death of Jesus provided for my escape from sin, but it has brought me into this relationship with God when the cross is applied to my very thinking, to my imaginative powers, in order that I might stand with Jesus as his body is removed from the cross and that my mind might endure the casting down of imagination so that every thought might be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. And then I remember the disciples too went to the tomb. I remember the unbelief upon their hearts. It was incredible that Jesus should have risen from the dead. The plain word of God had been delivered to them, and they had failed again and again to take in the word of God concerning the resurrection. I would have you to remember that they did not even anticipate the rolling away of the stone. I would have you to remember that they provided themselves with those expensive spices as though his body were in the tomb permanently. And I would like you to remember that when Jesus had risen from the dead, he upgraded them with their hardness of heart and with their unbelief. I would have you to remember with me that these men of ambition who had visualised the establishment of a kingdom, These men who had sought a place in that kingdom and desired to be elevated by reasonable ambition, these men had at last to admit that their hopes had failed. The death of Jesus looked like complete defeat to them. The fact of his resurrection had left them unaffected. And these men had gone around with despondent faces and heavy hearts because they had thought that the death of Jesus was the death of their hopes. the miracle worker was dead. And the fact of the resurrection left them without a hope that this present life could yield them entire satisfaction. The death of Jesus had left them robbed of their ambition. And that was why their hearts were sad, their eyes were sad, And they spoke one to another and said, We trusted, our confidence is shaken, it has been misplaced. We trusted it should have been he which redeemed Israel. And they looked at one another and said, What are we going to do? There had been evidence of his resurrection. The fact of that resurrection life was undeniable. The appearance to Mary, to Peter and to John, The appearance to the ten disciples in closed doors, all these things had emphasized the truth of his resurrection. He was indeed risen from the dead. But the trouble was they couldn't go back to their old relationships. This was something entirely spiritual, something which had to be learned in a spiritual way, and they were not ready yet for the lesson. You will observe with me then, if you please, that when John writes down these things, He says, after these things. What are they going to do? Are they going to live their lives exactly as they were before Jesus came into them? Or shall these men attempt to struggle along somehow with some kind of dim consciousness that Jesus have appeared? But they cannot see the application to their daily living. It appears to be nothing practical about his resurrection. And they have come to that point, and upon that seashore they've come to that point, when John says, after these things. You know, we've been through these days of holy convocation. Our method on Thursday night brought us face to face with the cross, after these things. And tonight we come to the final meeting of this conference. and presently it's going to be recorded in heaven after these things after this conference and then will you please notice the exact words of John John says after these things Jesus showed himself you know we've had some distressing problems once or twice to consider we have considered the outworking of problems which are the result of the cross of Calvary We have considered things that touch the hearts of the Lord's people. We have considered intricacies that present themselves to the human mind as the result of the death and the resurrection of Jesus. Now we come to the point when we too are going to say, after these things. I wonder if it's going to be true that we shall say, after these things Jesus showed himself. I want the vision of Jesus Christ in my life. I want the consciousness of his presence. My assembly problems will be relegated into the background of forgotten oblivion if only I can get this vision of Jesus Christ my Lord. And the one thing that's upon my own heart tonight is whether these problems and all the pressure that is exerted upon us spiritually and materially shall not at last bring us to the acknowledgement before God that the one thing that we need is a vision of the Lord Jesus. After these things Jesus showed himself. And I believe we should come face to face to that tonight. We were reminded last night, where there is no vision, the people perish. If there be no vision of the Lord Jesus, the people will perish. Without Christ my lot is nothing but perishing. And tonight I want to say that God is presenting his blessed Son. He presents him in terms of the cross because we understand the cross. He presents him in terms of the resurrection. And he brings us tonight face to face with his Son, who is now manifested in glory, crowned with honor, and has become the Father's delight exalted to the Father's throne. He presents him. The great question is this. What are we seeking for in a conference? we decide certain lines of action and you will notice with me if you please that in John twenty one after the conclusion of the cross after the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead then came practical problems as to what they should do what will they do and the disciples look at one another and Peter said well I know what I'm going to do I came back to my business And the problems that have been considered during the past three days and three nights, I'm going to try and forget them. I really have to do something. I can't sit down and dream spiritually forever. I cannot sit down and turn over and over the spiritual effect of the cross and of the resurrection. I have to do something practical. And Peter turned to his fellow disciples and said, I'm going fishing. and the sad story is told in John chapter twenty one as to what happened they had turned their back upon the events of the past days all that spiritual movement that had been expressed in the cross all that had been expressed in the empty tomb was forgotten and now they turn back to their business life and we read that their efforts were entirely fruitless some of us have gone back again and again to our assembly problems We have reviewed them and turned them over and over. We have come to the conclusion that something must be done. But who's going to do it? And at last perhaps a leader arises who says, well, don't bother too much about those things, they'll iron themselves out. We have our business life to attend to. The call of employment for daily bread is insistent. I'd like to remind you tonight that the Lord Jesus once said man shall not live by bread alone. I'd like to remind you that God has said that man is something better than that. That man not only has a spiritual need but a spiritual capacity that is capable of development and the development of that spiritual capacity will bring a life which is full and abundant in the vision of Jesus Christ. These men go out fishing all night and one can visualize them with the labour that they were put into this task of fishing. And there upon the water, laboring and toiling, they come towards the shore in the dim light of the morning. And there standing upon the shore is no less a person than Jesus. After these things, Jesus showed himself. And there upon the resurrection shore was the person of Jesus. And his first word was one of wonderful inquiry. It betokened a depth of understanding. It betokened a movement of compassion upon him that was incomparable. And it taught them that not only did he still care for them, but that he had a definite initial interest in everything that they did. It taught them that he was the Lord of the insignificant as well as of the mighty. and he told them that he had a care for all their toil and labour in rowing. And right here tonight I want to say this, that we're going away from this conference and by the time Monday morning arrives we should be back at our employment and probably we should be toiling and laboring in the rowing in which we engage whatever that employment may be and we shall feel that the conference has faded into insignificance after these things. And it's right there in the midst of daily occupation that I need the manifestation of the Lord Jesus after these things. If I would pray for anything tonight, it would be that the Lord Jesus would reveal himself with special manifestation to every heart in this company. It is that I would earnestly desire that we might gaze by faith upon his lovely face. that we might behold the ravishing character of the fragrance of his moral glory as we look upon him. If there be one thing that I would desire for you tonight, it is that you would come to the resurrection shore, perhaps even after the rowing and the toiling of the night, and in the dim, obscure light of the morning, you would see the appearance of the person of Jesus. You know, we can't do without him, can we? And how often we try. We remind ourselves that we gather to the person of the Lord Jesus that he has said, where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst. And these are constantly repeated, these words, amongst us, because they are the reminder that these are the words of Jesus. Do we believe them? Do we really believe that when we come in assembly, that the Lord Jesus is in the very midst? Or is it still for many of us the obscure light of a dim morning, and we can only just visualize this person upon the distant shore? You're going to notice his interest in them. He takes command of their occupation and says, launch now into the right place, let down the net, upon the right side of the ship for a draft. And this is a picture of the conclusion of this age. In the end of this age God will let down the net and the mighty number of fishes that shall be caught will represent the finality of purpose. And upon the seashore of his coming again the Lord Jesus is going to appear. And right now we are toiling and we are laboring in the service of the Lord. And sometimes we've even forgotten the cross and we said after these things and we've gone fishing and we've caught nothing. But I believe the Spirit of God will tell us tonight, one of the basic reasons for catching nothing is the fact that we've lost the vision of Jesus Christ. We are so more occupied in what we are doing for him than we are with the Master himself. And I believe tonight, if God would have me say anything, it would be that I should seek to urge you to sole occupation with the Blessed Person of the Lord Jesus. Will he come to that tonight? It's going to mean a tremendous experience. For it not merely means that we come to a life of obedience. It does not merely mean that we envisage the cross and the empty tomb. Wonderful though that may be. But it means that we're going a step farther in the yielding of ourselves to God for his purpose. That's the rub. That's where we stopped. Every one of us is ready to go all the way with the previous picture but there is a further application. Will you be pleased to come over this ground with me and to come face to face with the challenge of the word of God concerning that further movement of application? And the Apostle Paul wrote these wonderful words. He said, I beseech you brethren. You know this word beseech in the original language indicates a call made alongside And one day Jesus had called those disciples and said, Follow me. And one day he called you, at least I trust he did. And one day you responded. And Paul said, I'm going to put another call right alongside that one. It isn't only that you should respond to Jesus Christ the Lord and receive him as Saviour. It isn't only that you should see that the cross has been applied to you in the councils of God, but the fact is that now God calls you to make a dynamic response in your own person. I beseech you. Though Paul would say this call is not only of God, but I place it alongside the previous call. It shall be so effective it shall be as though God has called again. And right here tonight as I come to these words, I'm going to tell you they challenge me. I beseech you, therefore, brethren and sisters, by the mercies of God. After these things, the mercies of God, the cross of Calvary, the empty tomb, the glorious person of the risen Christ, the mercies of God. I see him in Gethsemane. I see him again upon the cross. I discern the rising again from the dead to the glory of the power of the Lord. And I come to this challenge. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, because you have looked at that cross and you have seen the love and mercy of God expressed in the gift of his Son. I beseech you by the mercy of God because you come to the vision of death and have seen that resurrection has conquered death. Therefore, says the apostle, I am going to give you this beseeching. I place before you the mercies of God as the basic reason for my appeal. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice." In Romans chapter six we are asked to yield our members as instruments of righteousness. And the word yield is here translated, present, it's the same word. In one sense Jesus had yielded himself to the death of the cross. In one sense he had presented his body to God. Now says the Spirit of God, if you're going to have fellowship with the Lord Jesus, you'll have to come into a similar experience. It's as though God has descended to this earth, has knelt before the sinner. And with a broken heart and with tears streaming down his face, has presented this call to the sinner and said, I beseech you. I most earnestly beseech you. I beseech you by this wonderful display of the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. That's the hardest thing of all. My body a living sacrifice. It means that this vehicle that contains my personality has to be presented to God. It means that I step right up to the altar of Calvary and that when God has accounted the fact that the death of Christ is attributed to me, I have taken my body and accepted that fact and said, Lord, this is my response to what you say is perfectly true. I remember Paul again in this epistle. has called himself the minister of Jesus Christ. He speaks of that ministry as being effective so that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. And I begin to say it isn't enough to talk about the offering of Calvary's cross. It is not enough to talk of the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. And God says to every one of his children, please come into line with that offering, please offer yourself. And that is why God takes me back to that cross. That is why he says, after these things, what? I go fishing. After these things, if you please, present your bodies a living sacrifice. holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service? Why is it reasonable? It is reasonable because in the counsels of God the wonderful gift of his Son has been so very costly, so very wonderful, so very precious. With any insignificant offering that I make of myself to God, can never compare with the wonderful offering of his blessed son. And God tonight is presenting the offering of his wonderful son as the reason for this call. And the call is insistent. It comes again and again and it possesses peculiar spiritual tone, particularly at the end of a conference such as that through which we've been in these past days. And please remember the Lord Jesus was taken down from the cross And he remained three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. I very much dislike drawing imaginative references and parallels, but I'm going to say this. We've been in conference for three days and tomorrow is the first day of another week. And God is challenging me tonight and he's challenging you. Will you present your body to him tonight? The Apostle Paul says, I have become the minister of the gospel to this end, that I may place the Gentiles upon the altar and offer them up to God as an act of priestly service. Tomorrow we shall remember the Lord Jesus in his death, and we shall take the bread, and as we take the bread, we shall be telling the angels and the demons that we are associated with the Lord Jesus in all that concerns him. We've come tonight to this last day of the conference, the last meeting of the conference, and I believe tonight God is challenging us when he says, after these things. And tonight, right at the end of this meeting, I'd like to stand with you, and I'd like to sing in the very presence of God, take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. Take my moments and my days. Let them slow in ceaseless praise. Now remember that this is the call of God to every one of us tonight. I beseech you, therefore, brethren. I beseech you, therefore, sisters, that your bodies may be kept morally pure, that you may live in a line with the holy calling of God, that your body shall be presented to God holy. And when God called his ancient people out of Egypt, he insisted upon his own holiness being reproduced in people. For God said, Be ye holy, for I am holy. But if God be your God, then his characteristics must be reproduced in you. It is to this that God is calling us, when he says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. And I turn my Bible and read in the first chapter of the Ephesian epistle that God in one place has accepted me in the Beloved. That means that my standing in Christ has been eternally secured before the very countenance of the Divine Father. It means that God has given a signal mark that I am receiving His presence And I'm received because of his love for Christ. And you're received too. And for this reason, seeing that God has elevated us to this position, accepted us in the beloved, he says, please make this intensely practical, make it true in the bodily life that you're now living on earth, that you are accepted in the beloved. It's good to know that God looks upon us as a holy people. that places upon us a tremendous responsibility. If in the sight of God the spiritual factor has been eternally established that we are a holy people chosen before God, then that lays upon us the responsibility to live it out in daily living. And that's what God wants with every one of us. That's one of the reasons for the conference. And right here tonight I'm going to repeat those wonderful words, be not conformed to this world. What is this world, if you please? My brother rang me up a few weeks ago and said, Where is that verse that says the love of money is the root of all evil? I said it's in First Timothy. Oh, he said, I thought you'd know. I thought it was in Romans. I said it isn't. It's in First Timothy. Will you please observe what God has said about the love of money? and the course of this present world is the love of money. And please contradict me if I'm wrong. The course of this present evil world is the love of money for its, not only for its own sake, but for that which it will purchase. Please follow the life of the Lord Jesus, who had not where to lay his head. There were no soft carpets for him to walk upon. There were no wonderful damon ports for him to sink his body into. There were none of the modern tokens of luxury in living. And I do not believe he ever indulged in any kind of luxury by way of eating. I believe that my Lord lived the life of self-denial upon this earth. And I believe that the cross was the absolute end of his life of self-denial. I think it might be good sometimes if we did have a week of self-denial, but much better if we can have a life of self-denial. I remember the incident when the Lord Jesus had come down from the Mount of Transfiguration and there was the poor boy with the dumb spirit and the whole crowd convulsed. And the Lord Jesus comes upon the scene and here is this boy in need of deliverance. And the Father said, I brought him to thy disciples and they were powerless. They couldn't do anything. What was the matter? The Lord Jesus said, Bring him to me. And then and there he cast out the demon. And afterward his disciples came to him privately and said, Why could we not cast him out? The Lord Jesus said, You didn't go the right way about it. There are two things essential for the casting out of this kind of demon. This kind goes not full, saved by prayer and fasting. And modern luxury today is occupying so much of our time. And the movement that we make so often to set out the hands of possession is taking so much of our time that again we are faced with that cloth. And God says, I beseech you therefore. Examine the cloth in the light of this. Be not conformed to this world. Well, this world is called in Scripture Sodom and Egypt. Please remember that Sodom was the place of intense, unspeakable immorality. And please remember that Egypt was the place where the people of God were brought into slavery. God said, don't we conform to this world? Let us not be shaped that way. Let us not mould our lives in this direction, that we are stretching out our hands for the riches of this world, in order that we may buy things that our heart is craving, and thus that we may make our life luxurious. Let us come again to the cross. You see, this is in a good many places in the Word of God. And wherever I turn in God's Word, God challenges me And the word of God is living and energetic and sharper than a two-edged sword. And when the word of God is challenging me, it's as though somebody has won a sword through my being, and that's exactly what I feel like tonight. And God took me up to that cross and said, Look, this is the evidence that I love you. This is the display of the mercy of God. in terms which are incomparable and are eternally recorded so that you may respond. And I beseech you to respond, says God. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And tonight I believe he would take us by the way of Dolorosa once again to Golgotha. and stand us there to behold the crucifixion of the blessed Son of the Lord, the Lord God. And as he brings us face to face with that death, he says, I beseech you. But you will reckon yourself dead to this world, dead to the conformity of the movement of this world, the great master scheme of things, which has for its one object the possession of wealth, I beseech you therefore, brethren, if you present your body as a living sacrifice, holy, untouched by this world, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And I believe tonight God would present this to us with sweet reasonableness. The reasonableness of it is that I now present my body to Jesus Christ the Lord. I present my body to God, and I tell him that henceforth he is my Lord. There is nothing that he cannot claim from me, whether by life or by death. Christ shall be magnified in my body. Can you say that? It's interesting that that is New Testament teaching, and this is the requirement of the Lord Jesus for every one of us. And I pray tonight that we shall face up to this challenge. It's the word of God. It's the delivery of the very voice of the Lord to our hearts. And tonight he's asking us whether we won't at last yield ourselves to him as those that are alive from the dead after these things Jesus showed himself. The Lord bless his word to our hearts and bring us to the point of absolute surrender for his name's sake.