upper room ministry of the Lord Jesus in John's Gospel. And then each morning, I thought I would like to take a different name for God that throws some illumination on the wonderful teaching we get in John's Gospel. Now, the term I want to speak about this morning, or the name for God is Your Heavenly Father. I want to speak about the Father this morning, and particularly this lovely term, Your Heavenly Father. It occurs seventeen times on the first pages of the New Testament. So shall we read Matthew chapter six. And verse one. Take heed that you do not your hands before men to the scene of them. Otherwise ye have no reward of your father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine hands do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets. that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you they have their reward. But when thou doest am'st let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, but thy lands may be in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. When thou prayst, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets. that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you they have dared a war. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy father, which is in secret, and thy father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them. For your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom of the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Moreover, when ye fast, be not of the hypocrites of a sad continent. For they disfigure their faces, but they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you they have their reward. But thou will now fastest anoint thine head and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy father which is in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where it is, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Verse twenty-five. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment, Behold the fowls of the air, for they stole not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they, which of you by taking thought can add one cubit onto his stature? And why take ye thought for Raymond? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin. Yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore if God so clothed the grass of the field which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith. Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink? For wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek? For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no anxious thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Last night, in connection with the upper room ministry of the Lord Jesus, we were pointing out that one of the great terms that's used in that wonderful discourse of the Lord Jesus is the term Father. It's one of the key words of the discourse. In the upper room discourse of the Lord Jesus we get it fifty times and in the passage that we read last night the term actually occurred twenty-two times in chapter fourteen. So it's perfectly evident that what the Lord is teaching his disciples is the fact that God is our Father. Now this is something that we don't find in the Old Testament at all. I know that there are one or two references where God regards his people as a son in the Old Testament. But Old Testament believers were not given this magnificent revelation. It is something that is confined to the New Testament. An Old Testament believer, when he prayed to God, he had some lovely terms. that he used in praying to God. The first great name for God in the Old Testament is the Creator God, Elohim. In the beginning, God. Elohim. A plural word. I believe involving the Holy Trinity. Elohim. And then read of the Lord God. That is Jehovah. Jehovah is God in relationship with his people. And when God created man, the term that's used there is Jehovah. I suppose most of us here this morning have heard the different titles of Jehovah expounded. There are at least seven of them. And a lovely line of teaching there concerning God in relationship with His people and the links with that lovely term Jehovah. Another beautiful term that occurs for the first time in the book of Genesis is El Shadiai. It's used... of four people in the Old Testament particularly. It's used, it's given to Abraham, first of all, in Genesis chapter seventeen. And then Jacob uses it six times. Do you remember Naomi, when she came back to Bethlehem Judah, she uses the term too, El Shadiah. And then in the book of Job, it occurs over thirty times. It occurs there most frequently in the Book of Job. But this is a beautiful, beautiful title of God, El Shaddai. Now there are many others. But an Old Testament saint in lifting his head and praying to God, he generally used one of these terms and he said, Almighty God, El Shaddai. But the term Father is not used in the Old Testament at all. It's only when we turn over to the New Testament scriptures that this beautiful title... is given to God. We have been brought into relationship with Him. We have been brought into His family. And therefore, when we pray, we say, Our Heavenly Father. Now, this is what I want to speak about this morning for a little while, particularly from these first few pages of the New Testament scriptures, where seventeen times we get the term used. Your Heavenly Father. Now, I want you to notice that in the passage that we have read, there are five verbs. attached to our Heavenly Father. There are five things predicated of our Heavenly Father. The first one is He sees. The second one is He knows. The third one is He sees. The fourth one is He forgives. And the fifth one is He rewards. These are five terms that are used in connection with our Heavenly Father. He sees. He knows. He feeds, He forgives, and He rewards. Now, in reading the passage down, you would notice, too, that there are other individuals that are used in contrast to our Heavenly Father. There are three little paragraphs at the beginning of the chapter, and one is in connection with our giving. And the Lord, in speaking about giving, he speaks about the hypocrite and his giving. This individual, the hypocrite, the man with the double face and the double tongue, the hypocrite, We are told that our giving should not be like him. And then there's a little paragraph about praying. And the Lord in giving his initial teaching connected with prayer, he uses the term the heathen. We're told that we shouldn't pray like the heathen. We shouldn't use vain repetitions as the heathen do. And the Lord gives his first teaching here concerning prayer in connection with the believer. And he uses the term, again, your heavenly Father. And he gives us a beautiful little patron prayer. It covers every phase of a Christian life. And it commences with the words, Our Father, which art in heaven. How lovely this is. Now the third paragraph is in connection with our fasting. This is a subject that's not very often spoken about today in the United States. But there's a tremendous body of teaching in the Word of God concerning fasting. And the Lord Jesus here, he contrasts her fasting how the Christian should fast. And he tells us it should go on not like the word is not used, but certainly the person that's here, the humbug. The person who goes around weeping on people's shoulders and telling them about their last operation and all about their troubles and sorrows. Instead of doing that, he said, now when you fast, he said, wash your face and anoint your head. But you appear not on the mend the fast. and your Heavenly Father. The season secret shall reward you openly. So there are three individuals here in contrast to our Heavenly Father and these activities of the Christian life. First of all, our giving, and then secondly, our praying, and then thirdly, our fasting. Now before we look at the five verbs dealing with our Heavenly Father and the very practical teaching that the Lord gives here connected with these five verbs, I would just like to look at the three little paragraphs just for a moment. This is the background to the picture. Now, first of all, the Lord Jesus, he speaks about giving. You know, a preacher or a missionary, we generally avoid the subject of giving. We feel a little bit embarrassed in speaking about it. But do let me say, beloved friend, this morning, that I have no embarrassment whatever in speaking about this lovely subject. And I'll tell you why. I've been in the Lord's work now for forty-six years. I left home in nineteen twenty-three with a little handbag in my hand and a letter of commendation in my pocket. And without a promise of a penny from anybody, I went over to Africa absolutely trusting in God and His precious word. I have never made no need to any human being. I have never written a form letter in my life. I have never talked about finances to anybody. And yet during these forty-six years, I can say that your heavenly Father feeds. We have absolutely been provided for in every single way. I could easily occupy a lot of time talking about this this morning. But just by way of testimony, let me say this, that the God of Elijah still lives. We don't need to go around with our cap and our hand to anybody. And as we used to say in the old country, we don't need to make a poor mouth to anybody. Thank God the God of Elijah, the God of the Bible. He still lives. And as a matter of fact, during my life in the Lord's service, I have nothing but good to say about God and about His beloved people. It would be so easy to occupy all our time this morning speaking about giving. But I have been on the receiving end, and I have been awfully grateful of many, many of God's dear people, God's stewards around the world who have been exercised about the work of God. And during my life, I've had the joy of passing on funds to other people that I didn't need myself. You know, among missionaries, and among the Lord's servants, there is a good deal of what you might call sanctified communism. And don't misunderstand me when I use that term. What I mean by that is many, many of God's dear servants that are completely dependent upon God for their sustenance, have had the joy of passing on funds to others that don't need it. You know, just to divert, just for a moment, forty-six years ago I left home in that way, absolutely trusting in God. and the Lord has supplied every need. Last year I went down to South America and I made up my mind I would go down there in exactly the same way. Just trusting God. It's quite an expensive trip. I left New York and I visited some of the capitals in South America and I went by plane and it was quite an expensive trip. But before I left, I had some anonymous gifts that completely covered my fare going down there and back again. And one object I had in going to South America was to try to find out where the need was. And trying to find out the men that were doing the work. And keeping my eyes open and keeping my ears open, I wanted to dispense funds that I didn't need myself. I went on there to give and not to get. But what was my surprise? In Brazil and in Colombia and in Bolivia And in Peru, everywhere I went, these dear national believers, every time that I was in an assembly and leaving, they gave me a handsome fellowship gift to help me on my way. No, I didn't need it. I had the money in my pocket to pay my way. But it was so nice to see these dear believers down there. I was well dressed. And I don't think I looked as if I needed anything. I certainly wasn't starved or looked that way either. But these believers, looking at me, I suppose they thought I was a rich American. But it was so nice to see that these national believers in the South American countries, they passed on these funds. And the result was that each country, when I was leaving, I had a pocket full of money that I didn't need, and I certainly didn't want. And just let me make it plain that before I left, every one of these countries I emptied my pockets. And I left it there. I made up my mind I wouldn't take a penny. out of any one of these countries. Oh, this great fact of trusting God, it's so contrary to what we see in the religious world today, begging for funds on that kind of thing, I don't think we need to do that. All that we need to do is to be in the line of God's will. If we're in the line of God's will, God will take care of everything connected with the sustenance of His work. Now, the first little paragraph here, it has to do with giving. And just let me repeat, I don't feel one little bit embarrassed in speaking about it, because here we get the principles of giving to God. The Lord said now, he said, when you give, when you give to God, don't be like the hypocrite. He blows a trumpet in front of him so that men might see what he's doing. Now this idea of blowing a trumpet, it was a metaphorical expression that was used in the days of our Lord in connection with giving. It seems that in the court of the Gentiles at the temple, there were thirteen large chests for the reception of the gifts of the sacrificial giving of God's people. On the top of these chests there was a brazen article, a brazen receptacle just like a trumpet on the top of the box. And these Pharisees and these hypocrites, when they were giving to God, they would go to the money changer and they would take whatever they had. corresponding, I suppose, to what we would call a five-dollar bill or a dollar bill. And they would go to the money changer, and they would change it into the small coin, the smallest denomination of coin. And with a handful of these small coins, they would go up to the temple and looking over their shoulder to see if people were watching what they were doing, they would drop it into the box with a rattle and a clatter. And it would go down into the receptacle, down into the box, the receptacle for it. And the term was... blowing a trumpet. They were blowing a trumpet and they were looking over their shoulders to see who was watching them while they were doing it. Now the Lord said, when you give to God, don't be like them. That's what the Pharisees, that's what the Hipparchate does. But it says, when you give to God, let not thy right hand know what thy left hand doeth. And your heavenly Father, your heavenly Father that sees in secret will reward thee openly. Here's the simple basic principles in connection with giving to God. And oh, we could tell a lot of stories this morning connected with this. The sanctificial devoted giving of many of God's dear people that are in obscurity. The ordinary person, they don't know what's going on. But a servant of the Lord who's on the receiving end, he knows a lot of what goes on along this line. But beloved friends, one day when the books are open, in the morning when the books are open, And the one who still sits over the treasury is taking account of it a day, and on that day, there will be abundantly rewarded for the devotional sacrificial giving of God's beloved people. So this is the first little paragraph, and it's in contrast to the hypocrite. Don't be like the hypocrite in your giving, but let not thy right hand know what thy left hand doeth, and thy heavenly Father, that sees in secret himself, shall reward thee openly. Now the second little paragraph has to do with praying and again there are some basic principles here connected with prayer. Now the first one is privacy. Again he uses the term don't be like the hypocrite but he said when you pray don't do it standing at the corners of the streets to be seen of men. But he said go into your closet shut to thy door. and pray to thy Father which sees in secret, and thy Father which sees in secret shall reward the opening. Here we get privacy in connection with prayer. You know, I've been very, very much impressed, and pleased by the way that the brethren pray here at Park of the Ponds. And moving around among the assemblies, particularly on the Lord's day morning, there seems to be a reluctance to pray. You know, it's so easy to give out a hymn. And it's so easy to get up and read a passage of Scripture. And anyone who is a well-informed mind and a glib tongue can get up and talk. That doesn't take very much exercise to do that kind of thing. But I tell you, when a man gets up to pray, anyone who has any spiritual discernment at all, they can tell whether the man's in touch with God or not. And it's only when one is in touch with God and in communion with the Lord, that you're able to get up to pray and worship at the Lord's table. And one of the great needs around the country today is men that are able to worship and to do it publicly. But the only way to do it or to learn to do it is to do it privately. And when a man is in the habit of getting into the presence of the Lord and praying privately, shutting the door and doing it privately, well, when he gets up to pray on a Lord's day morning, you can tell that man knows something of the presence of God. Here's the principles connected. The first principle connected with prayer is privacy. Shutting the door and praying to your Father in secret. Now the second one is brevity. And he says, when you pray, don't pray like the heathen. Don't use vain repetitions as the heathen do. You know, nearly all my life I've lived among the heathen. And many, many times outside of a little native village in Africa, along with a man, built her camp, and lying beside a fire outside the village, I've heard the heathen pray. It would be an interesting subject to talk about this morning, but I have to be very careful that I don't start and tell stories and get the verdict. But the way they pray, they have a little idol. They call it a caponia, and it's outside the door, and there's a little altar there. And the heathen, when they pray, they get down upon their knees and they clap their hands and they say, Ivo kaka, Ivoa. So listen to me, my grandfather, listen to me. And then they have a little prayer. And they start very softly. And then they get louder and louder and louder and louder. And sometimes they'll pray the whole night long. And at the end, they're shouting at the top of their voice. and the perspiration is running down their face. That's praying like the heathen. Using vain repetitions, the little prayer, the same vocabulary, the same words all the time, and starting very softly and getting louder and louder all the time. I was in a prayer meeting some time ago and a brother got up to pray. And when they did it, I noticed the young people looked at their watch and I said to myself, what's going on here? while the brother started to pray and he did that he started to pray very softly but he caught fire as he went along and he got louder and louder and louder and actually after a little while he was shouting at god then he felt very uncomfortable i said to myself does that man know who he's talking to but louder and louder and shouting at god and using terms that well it made me cringe and he went on and on and on. He seemed to be very well informed. He knew all about the mission field and a lot about the trouble and difficulties in the local assembly and he started with the Sunday school and the various activities in the assembly and then he had to jump off and he went around the world. All the different mission fields and the different problems there and he went on and on and on. And when he finished, I opened my eyes and the young people were looking at their watch. You know that man had prayed for twenty minutes and he had prayed for everything and there was nothing more to pray for. Well, they might as well just close the meeting and go home because it was what you might call a locust prayer. He had prayed for everything under the sun and nobody had anything else to pray for. He absolutely squelched any desire of anybody else to pray. Now the Lord says when you pray, don't reuse vain repetitions as the heathen do. And all these long prayers that go on and on and on and pray for everything and then anybody else that wants to pray. Well, of course, when he prays for that well now, he said, there's that item gone. He prays for something else. And, of course, there's that item gone too. But the Lord here, he gives us a beautiful little patterned prayer. Now, I know that some of my dear brethren that are what you might call hyper-dispensationalists, they say that this doesn't belong to us at all, this little prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, and so on. I believe it does refer to us. I believe that what we get here is a beautiful little patron prayer. And I believe it should be a model of what prayer should be. It covers every phase of our life and every desire that we could possibly have. It's all covered in these seven little sentences in the Lord's Prayer. There are three items here connected with prayer. The first one is privacy, and the second one is brevity, and the third one is reality. And we get reality in this beautiful little prayer. The Lord teaches us how to pray in this beautiful patron prayer in his ministry here. So the third paragraph we find here is in connection with fasting. Do you think it's a legitimate thing to fast? You know, the Lord had to rebuke the Pharisees. They fasted twice a week, and they too, they made long prayers. Do you think that a Christian should fast today? I have a son that was born in Africa. He went away from home when he was seven years of age. He's thirty-five today, and he has five children. And during his life, that boy, he had to go away from home and went to school, and we have never had him living with us again. But he's very much interested in the study of the Bible. And he used to write to me in Angola and he said, Dad, what about this and what about that and what about the other thing? And one time he wrote to me, He said, Dad, do you think it's a legitimate thing for a believer to fast today? I had never thought about it. But I took a concordance and I traced the word fasting right through the Bible. And this is tremendous body of teaching connected with fasting in the Bible. But it's not. It's not a ritual. As the Pharisees did, or in the religious world today, there are religious fasts and Lent and so on. But I believe that the teaching of the Bible is this, that there are experiences that we go through in life. And when you go through these experiences of trial and difficulty, it would be absolutely impossible to sit down at the table and eat a good solid meal. You know anything about that? Go into your room, and all you can say is, Oh God. You're not able to pray. You've been hit with a tremendous blow. And as you go into your room and get down upon your knees and you just throw yourself before the Lord and say, Oh God. And to sit down at a table and eat a good solid meal would be utterly impossible. Now every one of God's dear people will know something about this. It doesn't take one to live very long, but sooner or later we have experiences of this kind. I believe this is real fasting. genuine fasting, refraining from food, because we just simply couldn't eat a good solid meal. It's these experiences of life, job-like experiences that we pass through. Now the Lord said, when you do that, when you're going through experiences of that kind, don't be like the hypocrite. Going around, weeping on people's shoulders, and showing men that they're fasting. But He said, you wash your face. And anoint your head, that you appear not on the men to fast, on your heavenly Father, that seeeth in secret, shelter worthy openly. Now these are the three paragraphs here, the background to this lovely term, Your Heavenly Father. And I want to take these five verbs and very briefly look at them and the context where we find them and what the teaching is connected with them. Now the first one is, Your Heavenly Father sees. Then he knows. Then he feeds. Then he forgives, and finally he rewards. When I was a little boy, in her home over in Ireland, we had a big delft plate in the kitchen. It was a blue plate, and it was a decoration hanging on the wall. And on this plate there was a great big human eye right in the middle of it. And over the eye there were these words, Thou, God sees me. And to tell the truth, I was frightened of my life every time I looked at that. And every time I went into the kitchen and I did something that was wrong or maybe was tempted to put my hand into a cookie jar or someplace where it shouldn't be, I looked at that great big eye on that plate hanging on the wall. Thou God seeest me. And to tell the truth, it just frightened the life out of me. And it kept me out of many things. And for many, many years, I had the idea that that's what the verse meant. Thou God saith me. Now it is perfectly true that God is able to look into every nook and cranny of our hearts and lives. But you know, some years afterwards, in reading the passage in the book of Genesis connected with Hagar, I found that that's not what it means at all. There was a dear woman. She had been put out of Abraham's home and with her child Ishmael. She went out into the desert. And the boy was dying of thirst. And so that the mother wouldn't see the death of her child, she put him under a bush, and she left him there. But God opened her eyes, and he showed her a well of water. And she took that refreshing water and brought it to the child and revived him. And she called the name of that place, Thou God sees me. Oh, I think that's beautiful. You know, God sees us with the object of helping us. It's not with the object of taking the sword and smiting us to the ground or anything like that. He does see, he does know he's omniscient. But when he sees it, he sees it with the object of helping and encouraging his dear people. Now the second term is he knows. This again is a term that's used in the upper room ministry. You remember in John chapter thirteen it's used five times there in connection with the Lord Jesus. He's omniscient. He knows. Now, I don't think I need to tell anybody here this morning that there are two words in the New Testament for knowledge. One is used of God, and the word is full knowledge. And there's another one that's used of men. And that knowledge is partial. You know, I believe that the reason why we make mistakes, and the reason why we criticize each other and sometimes say unkind things about each other, is that our knowledge is partial. Many years ago, in Portugal, I went there in nineteen twenty-three to study the Portuguese language. I spent a year in Portugal at that time. And just as a raw youth from home, I had rather a difficult time. But one day I walked into the meeting at Santa Catarina in Lisbon, and there was a brother standing at the door, a Portuguese brother, a man who later became a very, very dear, warm friend. His name was Albo Kirk. And he was standing at the door. And he was shaking hands with me as I was walking. And he said, You know, I saw something today that surprised me. I said, Brother, what did you see? Well, I said, I was downtown on the streetcar. And he said, I saw you walking along the sidewalk. He said, And you had a cigarette in your mouth. You were smoking a cigarette. And I said to myself, Are my eyes deceiving me? And I said, There you were walking along the sidewalk, smoking a cigarette. It was rather a shock than me. And when I got over my surprise, I said, Brother Albuquerque, now let me say this, I have nothing to brag about, God knows. But as far as smoking is concerned, I have never had a cigarette in my mouth and my life. I've never learned to smoke. I said, there are other things about my life that I can't brag about, but as far as smoking is concerned, I have never had a cigarette in my mouth and my life. And I could see the look of surprise in his eyes. He said, I could have sworn it was you. He said, in the court of law, he said, I could have gotten up and sworn that it was you. He said, it was the same color of hair, the same suit, and the same walk. And I said to myself, well, here's this man, Wilson, going out to Africa to evangelize the heathen, and here he's smoking cigarettes. And what kind of a testimony is that here in Lisbon? Well, I said, Brother Albuquerque, let me say sincerely that it was a case of mistaken identity. I said, it certainly was not me. And when he got over a surprise, he said, you know, I said, I'm awfully glad I didn't tell anybody else. I said, so am I. I'm very glad you didn't either. Because if you had, you were perfectly sincere. You thought it was me. But it must have been somebody else that looked like me. And I said, you would have been perfectly sincere in going and telling people what was in your mind and heart. But I said, you would have been mistaken. You would have been completely mistaken. You know, I could tell stories this morning of some of God's dear servants that have suffered severely by the cruel tongues of people that have repeated stories that were completely untrue, maybe only partially true. And any time that I'm ever tempted to repeat a story about one of God's dear children, I always try to put it through the three steps. The first one is a truth. And the second one is a kind. And the third thing, is it necessary? And I think if we put it through those three steps and test it and investigated it, possibly we would have found that it was based on knowledge that was partial. But, oh, I'm awfully thankful our Heavenly Father knows. Our brethren, as far as they're concerned, their knowledge is partial. And sometimes they make mistakes and they criticize because of it. But I'm awfully thankful that my Heavenly Father knows. and not knowledge is complete and entire. And in any case where one is suffering through something of this kind, they can always commit their cause to him because he knows. Your Heavenly Father see, your Heavenly Father knows. Now the third one, it may be a little bit ridiculous to speak about it here at part of the ponds. Your Heavenly Father feeds. But you know, there are some parts of the world today where they're not as well off as we are here. You know, there's some things that upset me. And while I don't want to be critical at all, and certainly I haven't seen this kind of thing here, but in other parts I have seen it. Here in the United States, good food left on the side of a plate and sent out into the garbage. Now I have lived practically all my life in Central Africa, and I have seen people die of starvation. There's one period for three years. All around us there were people, little children, dying of starvation. There were reasons for that. We tried to save as many as we could and every penny we could get our hands on. We spent far food and imported food. But it's an awful thing to see a child or see a person dying of starvation. While we're sitting in this comfortable room here in Park of the Palms in the United States in this lovely country, don't forget. that over in Biafra, and in some areas in India today there are people dying of starvation. And I think that every time we should sit down at the table and look at the food, I think we should be devoutly grateful to God for all that He has done for us. Your Heavenly Father feeds. And even those that are passing through problems and difficulties of this kind, they can count on God. The God that feeds the birds and takes care of them. is able to provide for his dear children. Now the fourth thing is, your Heavenly Father forgives. And I want you to notice here that this is the only term where there's a condition attached to it. If we forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will forgive you your trespasses. Now the others are unconditional. But as far as this one is concerned, there's a condition attached to it. If I forgive men, Their trespasses, when they trespass against me, then my Heavenly Father will forgive my trespasses. I wonder if there's anybody here this morning, and does anyone at all, any Christian brother, that if you met him, you'd put your two hands behind your back and refuse to shake hands with him. You know, there's one thing that life has taught me over in Africa, a life of isolation, and it's this, the pure joy and delight of Christian fellowship. You know, many a time I would have given an awful lot for anyone who would speak my own language, but would be able to sit down beside him and discuss the things of God. Sometimes years would pass, and we hadn't fellowship with anyone that spoke our own language. And it's a delightful thing, a delightful thing to be in a place like this this morning and see God's dear children. Oh, I can't understand anybody at all with an unforgiving spirit. and yet it crops up again and again. It's something that we find in the human heart. And sometimes people say, I'll forgive, but. I'll forgive, but. And there's that but at the end. My dear friends, the Lord Jesus, he brought this matter up, this matter was brought up again in chapter eighteen. He mentions it here in chapter six, but there's a difference in expression in chapter eighteen. You remember the Lord speaks about forgiving a person seven times. And then he mentioned seventy times seven. The other disciples, they came and they asked him about it because apparently it was a very real difficulty on that day. And they asked him about it. Now the Lord, after telling the little parable of the two debtors, the way he ends up, the parable is this. Neither will my heavenly Father forgive you. My heavenly Father. You notice the change in the pronoun? Here in chapter six, Your Heavenly Father. But in chapter eighteen, he said, if from your heart you do not forgive your brother, neither will my Heavenly Father forgive you. What is the inference? The inference is that the person that goes around with an unforgiving spirit and refuses to forgive his brother for what has happened, the inference is that he's not his Heavenly Father at all. But he hasn't life. The Lord said he's my Heavenly Father, but the inference is that possibly he's not yours at all. The man that knows anything at all about the love of God or the teaching of Holy Scripture to go around with a hard face. I want to shake hands with you. I'll have absolutely nothing to do with you. I think he should look into his heart and find out whether he is the root of the matter in him at all. Because the Holy Spirit that sheds abroad the love of Christ in our hearts for God's dear children. We may not agree with everything that they do or everything that they say. And we may not have fellowship in some things that they're connected with or some things that they do. But at the same time, there should be a forgiving spirit. And if there is, then the Lord said, if you forgive from your hurt, your brother, his trespasses, then my Heavenly Father will forgive you. Now, the final one is your Heavenly Father award. God doesn't this point forward to the coming day, the judgment seat of Christ? And when Aaronthus passed, The next item on the program is that final revelation, the manifestation of the judgment seat. And our little lives here below, our life as a believer will be revealed in the white light of the presence of the Lord. Some years ago, in Durban and South Africa, I was speaking on the judgment seat of Christ, and I looked at the four different passages in the New Testament that dealt with it. I think it must have been rather severe. Because after the meeting was over, there was a dear brother, Scotchman. He came to me and he said this. He said, the way you put it, it looks almost like a court-martial. I was shocked. Oh, I said, brother, it's the very last thing I want to think of. The judgment seat of Christ is a court-martial. There's a little word in the scriptures that I have held onto with both hands all my life. And the final little word, then shall every man. have his own praise of God. But on the other hand, it's not a Sunday school picnic. And I think that we have to recognize that. And if we only realize that at the judgment seat of Christ, our little lives are going to be revealed in the presence of the Lord Himself, I think we'll be very, very careful how we behave down here. Very careful of our conduct and our speech and our behavior. But on the other hand, there's that delightful little word that the Apostle Paul uses. then shall every man have his own praise of God. Your Heavenly Father rewards. May God bless his word at each one of our hearts for his name's sake. Shall we pray it? Our God and Father, we thank thee again for my word and for this quiet time of fellowship around it. We thank thee for these wonderful revelations of our blessed Lord. And our Father, as we think of them, On the one hand they're searching, on the other hand we do thank you they're comforting, and we do pray that our Heavenly Father, that one in heaven to whom we pray, for our Father we do pray, that thou will help us to conform our lives to the teaching of our blessed Lord. Now we commend us to thee for the other activities of the day, praying thy presence and thy blessing in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.