You Must Be Born Again — G.W. North

The Glory of the New Covenant

We were praying a little earlier, someone was leading us in our hearts, we were all going out together, about how God brought in the glory of the new covenant. And I hope that you all know that with the coming in of the great new covenant which was in the blood of the Lord, when he had gathered them together, you remember, in the upper room, his apostles, in the guest chamber, and they got through the Passover and he left that behind, and then he instituted the new great feast of the new covenant, and he said this is my body and this is my blood, remember he went on to say that he gave them a new commandment.

And the new commandment was that you love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. You see, the old commandment and the old covenant was absolutely too frail, didn't go far enough.

If you go back, say, to the old ten commandments, you remember that they were divided up, thus thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and so on, and then it said and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, but it never said thou shalt love thy brother as thyself, would you note that?

Because there was no brotherhood in the old testament, except the brotherhood that came just because you happened to be born in the same family and of the same seed, or at least partly of the same seed, for instance you could have a different mother perhaps, even though you came from the same father, and you shared the same kind of blood as someone else that was born in the flesh in the same family, and then alone, you could call them your brother, and that was far too limiting, you see, so God said, now love your neighbour, in a far bigger thing than just saying, I love my little family, brother John, sister Sarah, uncle Bill and auntie Jane, and mummy and daddy, or something like that, you see, or grandfather Abraham, or something like that, yes I mean that, too limiting, so God gave them a wider sphere of neighbours, but when he introduced the new testament, because he was going to do something entirely different, he said thou shalt love thy brother, he didn't really say it like that, but it was interpreted as that, as you may remember, by the new testament writers, the apostles and so on.

The New Birth and the Family of God

And I want to talk to you about that then, beloved, tonight, and that all that our hearts may open up to see the glory of this, as God intends us to do it. I do want you to see, and oh may God open all our hearts, more than just a mental grasp, which I fear is the thing that is eating the vitals out of churches all over the world, beyond then a mental grasp, open our hearts to see this vital distinction.

It's so easy to be in a state of saying, I love God, and I love my neighbour, and not be in the brotherhood at all, that's the tragedy. To be in the brotherhood you've got to be born again, you didn't have to be to love God and your neighbour, that was the tragedy, that's the tragedy, people don't see this thing.

That isn't to say that if you're born again into the brotherhood, you don't love God and love your neighbour, of course you do, but the brotherhood is a tremendous thing. The Lord brought it back into what he originally wanted.

Amen. You must see this, beloved, it's absolutely vital for you to see it. I spend my life, and I want to spend the rest of it, what little I have, trying to make people see this. You got it quite distinctly when the Lord Jesus was born on the earth.

You remember that they got this love your God and love your neighbour, they'd all got that, John Baptist was the prophet of this dispensation, and that he preached, now come out here and get your sins forgiven, so all those that loved God and loved their neighbour went out to Jordan and got their sins forgiven.

But when Jesus went there, listen, this is my beloved son, none of you are. That's the distinction. That was the difference. I hope you see the difference. This, he said, when Jesus came up out of Jordan, is my beloved son.

None of the others were. Yet they were all loving their neighbour as best they could. You see, they weren't in the brotherly covenant. They weren't in the covenant of sonship. And there are thousands are in this kind of relationship today.

Thousands and thousands of it. They are not born, not yet. And here then is our tragedy. Seeking to superimpose spiritual things on the people that are not yet in the family and able to take this spiritual approach.

Oh God, open the eyes of everyone here, for if the heart should be blinded to this, the whole it seems should be lost. Now then, I turn with you, I want you to turn with me anyway, into the Hebrews letter.

Hebrews and the Contrast Between the Covenants

And you will know that this is a letter that contrasts these two great things. The covenant that said, love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

And said that the second part of it was like the first, that thou should love thy neighbour as thyself. Because you quite fear about this, aren't you? It said, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's ox, thou shalt not covet this and thou shalt not covet that, you see.

But it was all on a neighbourly level. God was far too honest to say that it was on a brotherly level. And yet, there is a kind of a brotherhood in which men live. You understand that, I mean, I suppose these miners, I don't want to comment on sort of political issues or economic status, they would talk about being brothers, especially a man named McCarthy, I suppose, who is a communist and they would talk about the brotherhood of communism and so on and so on and so on.

You see, this word brotherhood is used so loosely by men. That we're all brothers. I wonder if that's the reason why they're always fighting. I wonder. Because they are. You know that. There's a fight going on just where you live.

If you haven't recognised it, God open your eyes. Everybody's fighting. In fact, the whole basis of life is fighting. That's right, isn't it? Struggling, fighting and so on. It's when it gets to killing that it's terrible.

But may the Lord open all our eyes to see this. That when he uses this word brother and brotherhood, he uses it exclusively of those who have been born again. Not just those who've been forgiven a lot of sins, though everybody that's born again has been forgiven all their sins.

And once we begin to see this, God shows us the way into his kingdom and into his glory. And in this Hebrews letter at the end of chapter 12, we read, our God is a consuming fire. Let brotherly love continue.

Amen. That's the next line. You know there shouldn't be any chapter divisions as we've remarked before. They're really put in for convenience. Sometimes I say it's for lazy people who won't read the thing properly through.

They want to chip in and get their little bit instead of reading what God wants them to read. Our God's a consuming fire. Let brotherly love continue. Where? In the fire. How? By burning like a consuming fire.

Brotherly love. Amen. Brotherly love is not a weak, pale thing. Brotherly love is a mighty thing. Amen. What a wonderful thing then it is, beloved, to be in the family of God. Are you in that family? Now I'm not asking you whether God loves you.

Of course he does. If I traveled around the world, I hope this will be the basis of all that I have to say. God loves you. Amen. God loves you. There's no doubt about that. God loves you. But oh, to be able to say these glorious things that are written in this epistle, if we confine ourselves largely to this epistle.

What a wonderful thing it would be to be able to bring everybody into this glorious and holy covenant with God. All right. In chapter 2, verse 6, what is man? Right in the middle of the verse. Verse 6, what is man?

That thou art mindful of him. For the son of man, that thou visitest him. What a tremendous thing. And at the opening of the verse it says, one in a certain place said this. No small wonder. He said this.

I suppose, beloved, there comes a time in everybody's life when they say, well, what's man? That God should visit him. And not only just visit him, but visit him like this. As we read down the chapter, Jesus is speaking saying, verse 12 or verse 11, both he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one.

For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. Now, immediately we are shown who are the brethren. Those who are of one. Bless God. You can't be a brother unless you're of one. That's all. Mind you, and this brotherhood is not just so that I can come around and say, hello brother.

Somebody called me brother dear a little earlier on this evening. Wonderful to be called brother dear. It's true. But it's not true unless, first of all, we are brothers to Jesus. It's him that has to say that we're brothers.

He's not ashamed to call us brethren if we're all of one. Glory be to the Lord. Supposing he should walk in that door tonight, beloved, you'd better face it. Would he come to you and say, hello brother.

If you're a woman, he wouldn't call you sister. You'll have to allow that. You're being honored by being called a brother. And so am I. It's a new birth. It's out of this sexes of man. Hello brother. Would he?

Go on. Would you imagine him sitting down beside you now and saying, hello brother dear. Putting his arm round you. Saying, brother. Do you think he would? Do you think he would? Now we're on the ground of reality.

We're not on the ground of sentiment. We're not on the ground of just mere hopes. But on the ground of reality. Not ashamed to call you a brother. If you, as he, are of the same father as he. What a marvelous thing this is.

You see, we're reading about this a little later in the chapter. Actually, it's the same chapter 12. Verse 9. Every one of us can say this. We had or have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us. Immediately you see God is making a distinction.

And we gave them reverence. I hope we did. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits? And until a man comes to the recognition that God is the father of spirits, he can never live.

And he cannot continue to live as God wants him to live unless he's in subjection to the father of spirits. Praise the name of the Lord. It's a marvelous thing for us to realize. And this may be the great blockage in your life.

Are you listening now? It's most important I'm talking the things of eternity to you tonight. This may be the reason for your blockage. Why you never seem to get on. Why you never seem to make any progress.

And why you're not in these things. It's because as yet you've never been fathered into eternal life by God. Your spirit is still quite dead. That's why it doesn't mean anything to you. And that's why you vainly struggle to get into this great realm of spiritual life.

You can't do it. For all your consecrations and all your dedications and all your good intentions and all your prayings and all your hopings, you can't get in. That's it. Until you've been born spiritually by God.

He's got to be your father. We've got to come out of all this grey miasma, this world of where we've been brought up since kids to say our father which art in heaven. We've got to come all out of there.

That's our religious upbringing. Better that than toed into devil by black magic like so many of our youngsters have been deluded into today. Better that. But beloved, it's God's great intention and it's his desire that you, recognizing what he has to say in verse 1 of chapter 1 and verse 2.

God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time passed down to the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. Praise God. And none of the prophets could say the thing that Jesus had to say.

The prophets could say, come and worship. The prophets could say, come and be holy. The prophets could say, come and get forgiven. The prophets could say, come and live in the kingdom. The prophets could say all sorts of things.

But none of them could say, you must be born again because none of them had a clue and they hadn't, they didn't know anything about it. And so it was Jesus who said, you must be born again. You see, it was reserved for Jesus to say that.

Because only those who've been born again can tell others to be born again. That's right. Only the born can speak to the dead. How can that which hath not life speak to the dead? Hallelujah. Shall a dead stick say to a living tree, have life?

The whole glorious thing, beloved, is that we've got to be born. The blessed one, he's got to father our spirits. Hallelujah. Right out of everything else and bring us into this vital, glorious life. God, what a marvellous thing it is.

And then when we're in, let brotherly love continue. Oh, praise the name of the Lord. What a marvellous thing it is then. That Jesus, it says here, it says, he's not ashamed to call us brethren. What a tremendous truth this is.

Holiness and the New Birth

You know, there are other glorious truths in this epistle that we need to see, beloved. God wants to open up these great things to us. And in chapter three, verse one, we read, wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.

Amen. Holy brethren. Every one of these brothers is holy. They've had a holy birth. Do you remember when Jesus was born? This is what the angels said to Mary. That holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the son of God.

Unless it had been a holy thing, it couldn't be the son of God. And unless you're born again, holy, you are not the child of God. It's the holy thing that's called the son of God. Do you remember? The holy thing.

Glory be to God. Oh, what a precious thing that is then. Nothing profane, nothing ordinary about this marvelous thing that takes place inside a man or a woman. For God is coming in to reach that glorious spirit of ours.

And he comes there into that sacred place there. To reach us there, dead, quite unable to do anything ourselves. The spirit of God poured forth upon all flesh that it might take place. Oh, beloved, you know, don't you?

Birth is such a marvelous thing when it takes place. Such a marvelous thing. It's holy. It's glorious. It's wonderful. Especially if it's the firstborn. It's said about Jesus, or about Mary, when he was born, and she brought forth her firstborn son.

Wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger. He was her firstborn. And you know what happens about the firstborn, don't you? Oh, I tell you. Have you ever been a firstborn? I'm afraid I was the lastborn.

I'm glad God gave me the privilege of being a firstborn in his family. Amen. A firstborn. You know what happens when everybody's a first baby? Oh dear, everybody's in. They get all the presents. That gets the new pram.

That gets the new concert. They get the new clothes. They get all the presents. Everybody buys them books about every little thing. If they sneeze, it has to be recorded. You see, it's the firstborn. By the time they've had two or three, that's generally forgotten about.

And they get a thirdhand pram. That's right. Or they get a thirdhand cot that's been pushed around. Especially if you belong to a fellowship, you're liable to get it 20 a pound. And this is the way it happens.

But the firstborn, beloved, the firstborn. Why? When Eve bought forth her firstborn, do you know what she said? I've gotten a man-child from God. Fancy the first of the baby that had ever been born on the earth.

Think of it. I've gotten the man-child from the Lord, she said. Oh, it was tremendous. She never said that when the next one was born, when Abel was born. But when Cain was born, and tragedy of tragedies, he was a murderer.

Think of it. Tragedy brought death into the world. No wonder God says thou shalt not kill. It's in the Ten Commandments. God, you see, beloved, he moves in this great and marvellous realm. And we are to be the firstborn.

Everything was for the firstborn. Jesus was brought forth as a firstborn. And when we are born again, we are brought forth as a firstborn. This miracle of miracles. Only God could do this. We can only produce one firstborn, if I had 30 children, which I haven't.

29 would have to be second or third rate or whatever you want. Fourth rate, fifth rate, I better be careful, I've got a daughter in the room, two daughters, one daughter in the room. But the whole tremendous truth is this, beloved, you can only ever have one firstborn.

But when God, everyone's a firstborn. Everyone's a firstborn. Everything's for the firstborn. Everything's for the firstborn. Do you believe that? Yeah, that's what this book says. That's what this book says.

Oh firstborn, everything's for you. Why this is what made Paul the Apostle say, all things are yours and you're Christ's and Christ is God's. Everything's yours, he said. Think of that to which you've been being born.

Think of it. Everything's yours. Everything's yours. Well, why don't you have it then? Why don't we move into this realm, if all things are ours? Why hold back? Because some things are ours, so that we can leave them alone.

Some things are ours, so that we can say, and this is discipline. I don't want it. I won't have it. That's training. That's growing up. I won't touch it. And so the Lord wants us to grow and grow and grow.

Esau and the Danger of Despising the Birthright

But you see, in this book, in chapter 12 for instance, we're told of one man, his name Esau. He despised his birthright. Have you ever read about him? And it says like this in verse 16, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright, as Esau.

He was the firstborn. He said, I don't want it. I don't want it. Trusting in his own strength, trusting in his own might, trusting in his own ability, he despised the birthright. That was the double portion, as you know.

Despised that. Didn't want the double portion. I'll go and get what I want. I'm quite able to get it with the strength of my arm, you see. What a terrible thing, beloved, to let your birthright go. The things for which you were really born.

This great ministry of God to your heart. This supply of that which is beyond the natural. The Lord wants to take us on into this realm. Wants to fill our hearts with it. Wants to fill our lives with it.

Praise God. Are you ready for this then? To know that you really are the born one of God. That you are a brother to Jesus Christ by his own choice and by his own statement. Think of it. Think of it. He was always seeking to introduce his father to those disciples.

He was always seeking to get them to know his father. He never succeeded while he was on the earth. Never. He couldn't do it. You know that, don't you? I've been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me?

Philip, if you've seen me, you've seen the father. How sayest thou? Hast not seen? You don't know him. And the Lord wants to bring us into this glory of the knowledge of being a true child of God by birth.

So many people, they allow all sorts of things to hold them back. They'll allow the devil to do it. They'll allow the world to do it. They'll allow their own flesh to do it. They'll allow worldly things that are just going to pass away.

They can't last long. They'll allow them to get in the way so that they can't have all that God wants them to have. This is the great tragedy. Worldly ambitions. But there's one that's calling you, beloved, to be a holy brother with him.

You want to be there? You see, you look, if we go back to chapter 13 again, you remember we read in verse 1, let brotherly love continue. Do you think that Jacob loved Esau? Eh? Do you think Jacob loved Esau?

Well, he didn't. He didn't love Esau. He didn't even treat Esau as though he was a decent neighbor. No, he didn't. He stole from Esau. Jacob did. And he was his brother. He didn't love his brother. He reached out after what belonged to his brother.

He had his eyes on what was Esau's and he got it. He deceived, he cheated, he twisted, he schemed, he got in and he got hold of all that should have been his brother's by deceit. Or Cain. Do you think he was a dear brother to Abel?

Slew him. Slew him in jealousy and envy and a terrible rage. These are the things that the scripture brings up before our eyes to see. The great incentives, the deep things of our inward nature. What is it that works deep down in you?

Hmm? What is this great aggressiveness that's inside you? Hmm? Wants to deal with that. Discipline it. Get right hold of it. Slay things there. They've got to be slain. He will. That's what he's got to do.

And moreover, you've never been born of him properly unless you're disposed for him to do it. I'll tell you that. As soon as you get born again, you want everything of God. That's the mark, one of the marks of the new birth.

As soon as you get there, you don't care what happens. Everything has to go. You may fall, you may fail again afterwards, but never mind. In the midst of your failure, you have this groaning inside you.

You still want it all to go. Hallelujah. That's one of the marks of the new birth. You've never been born. You'd better believe it, beloved, and take it to your heart. You've never been born again unless this great change has taken place in you.

God’s Commands and the New Nature

The Bible is not a book of good advices. It has got good advices in it, but everything that God says to his people is based upon a principle of working in the new nature. That's right. If he says love one another, it's because he's already put love in the heart.

You see, he never advises you or commands you to do anything but what he has already put the substance and principle and power of it in your heart before he tells you to do it. If not, he's a monster, telling me to do things I can't do.

Amen. He puts it there. If you can't do it, it's because he hasn't put it there. Yes. Do you see God's principle of working? It's right, isn't it? May need a bit of training. I mean, when a father or a mother says to his son, their son or daughter, now sit up and eat your dinner properly, they know the child has every ability to do it.

Don't they? But if they sat a cat up in the chair, sit up and eat your meal properly, and if you don't, I'll strangle you. Who'd be, well, who'd be the monster then? The person that was talking because the cat can't do it.

It's right, beloved. It's right. It may sound funny, but it's absolutely right. And this is the ridiculousness of it. We can't see that God is not moving in ridiculous things. God is not moving in monstrous things.

God is moving on a perfectly rational basis where it's all attainable. Praise God. It's not only attainable, but the principle of it is already given to you. It's all there. And God is only seeking to draw out the nature that he's put in you.

If the nature in you is quarrelsome, aggressive, always wants to be fighting, always wants to be, or the other end of the scale, sort of collapsing so that everybody gathers around you and you want them to weep over you all the time because of poor you, then, beloved, it's just the same.

It's only the same aggression gone in the wrong direction. The tremendous thing about it, beloved, is that God comes to deal with these hearts of ours. He comes to change them. Half the panaceas that are being held out for people need never be preached if the true birth from heaven was preached.

Birth from Above and the Work of the Holy Spirit

This is what I've discovered. Amen. This is God. It's clear. It's from above. It's nothing to do with this earth. When God says you've got to be born from above, it is from above. It's a revelation from above.

It's power from above. It's the Holy Ghost from above. The work comes from above. Everything is from above. Amen. It's so glorious. It just fills the heart. It fills the life. So much so that a person becomes absolutely possessed of it in the beginning.

Absolutely possessed. I was talking with a man not so long ago that it was lovely to see him. I suppose 25 years ago, it must have been, when this man got born again. I can remember him as clear as anything.

And he was a builder. He was a master builder. And he was going to get, oh, he was going to get all his staff converted. Praise God. Something wonderful had happened to him. So he goes back and he's, in about a week or two, he hasn't got anybody working for him.

He's so full of it. He's going to get them all in this. They all left him. So he's got his shell standing up and no workers, you see. But he couldn't see. He couldn't understand. He'd had such a glorious, oh, it was wonderful.

It turned him upside down, inside out. Quite sure everybody couldn't see while they couldn't see it. He couldn't understand. He's still living in line with that after 25 years. I think that's great, don't you?

Now, the Lord is wanting to bring us into this glorious realm, beloved. Has it ever got you like that? Have you ever had this experience? Have you known this mighty thing? Are you dragging your feet? Are you constantly struggling?

Are you arguing with this? I don't mean that you want to put up arguments with people, but you're really arguing with a mountain that's there, or a cloud that's over you, or something. Beloved, well, when you're born from above, you're born from above the clouds, please, aren't you?

You're born from above. You're born from above the clouds. Yeah. Hallelujah. You'd almost think you were born from beneath, the way some people talk. This is a marvellous thing that God does in the life.

Oh, the slog has gone. The bitterness has departed. This, he says, is my beloved son. How different the revelation then that God is making to men and women. They see this thing. He's the father of my spirit.

Blessed be the name of the Lord. I obey the father of my flesh. I obey the father of my spirit. And, of course, I live. Live. I subject myself to him. And that's what God wants us to do. I've got to be a holy brother of Jesus.

Just thought of it. A holy brother. Whether or not I belong to some society or group that calls me brother this, or brother that, or brother the other, doesn't make any difference. It's whether or not my blessed Lord should walk in this room tonight and say to me, brother, think I'd give all the world to hear it.

What would you give? What would you give? Now, there's one thing other that I want to say to you. I did have a hint a little earlier that perhaps I needn't preach as long tonight. I won't tell you who gave me the hint.

Boldness to Enter God’s Presence

Someone who's able to do it. In this same glorious book, in chapter 10, there's another thing that marks these brethren. There are lots of things that mark them, but if some of you who know, you best know that I like to sort of take a book and just see what this book says instead of rambling all over the Bible about it.

Because I believe that God put in a book the thing that he wanted those particular people to know. He wouldn't have written a letter to the Hebrews and expected them to know what Genesis said, for instance, if it was in the book.

He had to say what he had to say. Hallelujah. And so in this 10th chapter of Hebrews, this is what I read. Having therefore, verse 19, brethren boldness. That's one of the things that the brethren have.

Boldness. Boldness. Glory to God, isn't it? Oneness, holiness, boldness. We're all of one, so it's not a shame to call us brethren. Holy brethren, hallelujah. And all the holy brethren do one thing always.

They just consider him. The apostle and high priest. They're taken up with him. They just consider him. The apostle that came forth to found the church, being the word of God. The high priest that went back in to present the glorious offering.

Establish the fact in heaven and send forth the Holy Ghost. And that's all. We're taken up. His earthly life, his heavenly life. His earthly ministry, his heavenly ministry. Jesus, Jesus. Jesus being born.

Jesus, as it were, being born again, coming up from the grave. Hallelujah. The firstborn from the dead. That's what the Bible says. Is that right? He was not only the firstborn through Mary's womb, but he was the firstborn from the dead.

Hallelujah. So if you like, Jesus had a second birth. Got the truth? Yes. He was born once in the flesh and then he was born from the dead. Hallelujah. The Bible says so. The Bible says so. Glory. See, so we're concerned with him.

Just him. He's out there. There he is. Lord, that's all. He is. What do you want? What do you want to do? Oh, Jesus, I just want to consider you. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Some just, have you read this book about soldier?

Have you read this book about brother soldier? I'm ashamed of this sometimes. I say, no, I haven't. You see, you see, not that it's wrong, but to consider him, consider him. That's right. You see, that's what they do.

They all do. All the holy brethren consider Jesus and they, in considering him, they don't just consider his ministry. They consider his feelings. They consider his desires. They consider his wants. They consider his likes.

They don't consider themselves. Oh, have a little consideration for me, brother. No, no. They don't consider themselves. Their eyes have gone off themselves. Their meditation is not upon self. See, that's all part of his deliverance.

The majority of people need deliverance from themselves. The majority, I mean that. I've probably got as far as 95 need deliverance from self. They're considering themselves all the time. Watch it. You'll see.

Consider him. Now, this is the most blessed thing. Because Jesus considers you. We're all brothers here. And then you see, another mark of us, as I say, is we're holy brethren. And now we've got boldness.

We're bold. Are you a bold brother? Really bold. Right in. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into. Every man that's born of God, he's a man that's always going in. He's penetrating. He's going in.

In. In. In. That's where he's going all the time. That's the family. They're going in. Always. They're not going out. So where's he? Oh, he's gone out. I want to know, often I want to know whether he was born again, personally.

Go in. In and in and in and in and in. You know why they want to go in, don't you? Because you see, it says this, that Christ isn't entered into the holy places made with the hands, which are the figures of the true.

So they're always leaving that which is figurative behind. They don't get lost in the types and shadows and figures of the Old Testament, for lots of people do that. They're going into absolute reality.

Christ hasn't entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, there to appear in the presence of God. Well, I'm going in there. That's why. He's appearing there.

Hallelujah. Glory be to the name of the Lord. Why? You're not going to let some of these Old Testament saints outstrip you, are you? Hey? You're not going to let that happen, are you? In that covenant that was only a covenant of neighborliness and not brotherhood, you're not going to let these outstrip you?

How about this man, Ezekiel? He said he saw the appearance, the likeness, and then it's sort of obscure. Have you read it? Ezekiel chapter one. Have you? Above, upon the throne, the appearance. I hope I've whetted your appetite when you read that chapter.

Hallelujah. Chapter one in Ezekiel. But there he is. He's appearing in the presence of God for us. He's appearing in the presence of God. Everybody's wanting to appear in their desperate situation when they feel they're in a lion's den, or whether the boat's going to sink, or this is going to happen.

They want the Lord to appear. But listen. Paul, he said, he talked about those who loved his appearing, loved his appearing. Look at him. There he is. Just see Jesus. Your Jesus. My Jesus. Just see him.