Ah, then when I got to Stratford, that's the whole place. I'm my sister Doris with whom I stay. My other sisters moved away and I didn't get to know them like I did with Doris. They moved to Windsor. So Doris and I have been a little closer and that's the whole place. And Doris is just the exact duplicate of my father. So we're very happy there in Stratford and that was the highlight to be with her and of course my other brother up in Kitchener. He's not a Christian, nor his wife. So that's a heartache. So there were some of the highlights, of course, meeting my relatives, our nephews and nieces up there that I spent time with. But that wasn't the highlight. I went to see the great Niagara Falls, and that's one of the wonders of the world. And it's something to stand there and look at that mighty cataract. the majestic picture of the Niagara Falls and some of the surrounding attractions. A lot of people come from all over the world, he then, but that wasn't the highlight of my trip. The highlight of my trip was two weeks ago tonight. I was in Burlington, North Carolina, preaching there, and after I came home from the church, I was with the Smiths, Mrs. Smith, lost her husband, preacher, For many years, we were at ninety-three. We died a couple of years ago, so Mrs. Smith is blind almost, and then daughter Jane. We came home from the meeting, and I said, well, I've got to get upstairs and pack up and get ready to leave in the morning. Just then there was a knock on the door, and Mrs. Smith, Jane, I was with Jane, who opened the door. The young fellow came in about the age of nineteen, with his girlfriend about seventeen, and I recognized his mother. I didn't recognize him so well until I found out who his mother was. Then I could see the likeness. I remember his mother from years ago and he was a little chap. So they sat down there and began talking. He began talking about his education and what his plans were and what he'd like to do in the way of the rotation. And I was sitting there kind of holding a little bit with him. I thought, now, these young folks don't care about time, whether it's one o'clock in the morning or what. And he was taking his time, talking about what his plans were. So I could cook it about all I could. I didn't want to be, in any way, impolite. But I sat there for about an hour. While I stood up critically, I said, well, I've got to get upstairs and pack up. He said, Mr. Wilson, Perry here doesn't know whether she stayed or not. I wish you had said that verse. So when she said that, he said that, he had got a strange name, Terry Vanshoff, the name I think of a quarterback. Well, when he said that, Mrs. Smith and James had told us to go and pray. And I sat down and I said, Perry, you're not a Christian. You're not sure you're a Christian. He said, no. I am not sure. I said, would you like to be sure? Yes, she said, I would like to be sure. Lovely girl. So I spoke from the Bible, told us in verses, how she could know she was saved and go to heaven. After about fifteen minutes, she said, I will accept Jesus tight with my Savior, and her faith just lit up. I said, what does that mean, apparently? She said, I'm safe. I think, can you have had your friend hear your save? She looked at him and she said, I'm safe. By this time, Mrs. Smith, although she can hardly see, she had stumbled over me trying to get to the young lady to tell her how happy she was. And some of the time of rejoicing when Jane came in and they all went and rejoiced together. That was the highlight. of my faith. Why, heaven didn't celebrate when I saw my loved ones, nor did an angel dip its wings. When I looked up at Niagara Falls, the majestic people see me. But when that growth of Jesus Christ as a savior, the Bible says, heaven resorts. Joy in the presence of the angels of God over once on earth have repented. So if heaven took more attention and paid more attention and celebrated over that incident, and didn't celebrate my king, my folks, or even I recall, that was the highlight. Something that drew the attention of heaven. God is interested not in the singing of earth, but that which is natural. He's interested in that which is spiritual. For that which is natural, pass the wave of that which is spiritual, abides forever. So that night the new, a new name was written down in glory, Jerry Branson. That was the highlight of my church. Now I want to read my text. Over in First John chapter two and six, John two and six, to read these words, He that says he abided in him ought himself also to walk, even as he walked, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Also in First Peter, verse twenty-one is another lovely text. For even hear unto where ye call, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps. John said, looking upon Jesus as he walked, behold the Lamb of God. I want to speak upon his walk, and what a glorious subject that is. You'll notice how Peter words this. He doesn't say walk in his steps. He doesn't say it. He said that he may follow His steps. There's a big difference about walking in a person's footprints and following it. I often remember when I was a boy walking through deep snow up in Canada. My father sometimes went hunting, and of course I like to go along with my dad, and he has strived for a lot longer than mine. I couldn't begin to put my footprints in my father's footprints. I wasn't that big, I wasn't that strong, I didn't have that kind of a stride. But I did follow the footprints he made. And the Lord Jesus Christ never intends that any man in this world can put his foot right in the footprints of Jesus Christ, but are not that big. We do not take those kinds of strides. We can see the way he went. And we can follow. But no man can put his footsteps in the exact midst of Jesus' fact. And people remind us of that. We'd have to be sinless. We'd have to be perfect to do that. But thank God we can be saved and follow his steps. And that's what I want to speak on this morning. the steps of the Lord Jesus that are ten characteristics of his walk. The first one is his aim. His purpose in life. What was his aim, his purpose in life? I think you'll find that over in Luke, too, if you want to read it sometime. He and his prayers went up to Jerusalem to the Passover, and while they were there, course they engaged in the ritual of the Jewish Passover and then they decided to return and they had gone a day's journey and strained such a one that their son the Lord he should have escaped their gaze but they began looking for him and they couldn't find him among their kin's folk and the grave and they were disturbed They couldn't find the Lord Jesus. So they went back to Jerusalem, and it took three days before they found them. And when they found them, the mother said, Christ be not, that we, the Father, I have been sinning for thee, trying to find it for these three days, and sorrowing. And he made a remarkable statement. He looked at his mother and thought Joseph was not his true father. The Holy Spirit had got trites in the garden. But he looked at his parents and he said, wish she not, I must be about my father's business. In other words, it wasn't a case of a son looking for his parents. He hardly missed them. What was his business? He was sitting with the doctors, the scribes and the Pharisees, listening to and answering their questions. And he said to his mother, wished ye not, I must be about my father's business. I came into this world of one purpose. I came into this world with one aim, and that to do my father's business. He said, I am ready to tie with for my youth up, strange language for a lad of twelve. And a boy of twelve, by what dreams they have of the youth, what they are like to be in this life. But here is the Lord Jesus. He had one object, one aim in life, and that was his father's name. Not to later. He said, I'm ready to die for my death. That was his aim. That was his object, his purpose in life. We remarkable language over in John chapter ten and sixteen, he says that thee cometh not but for the steel. the kill and the straw. That's the devil. But he says, I am told that you might have life, that you might have it more abundantly. That's why I came into this world, that you might have life, that you might have it more abundantly. I'm not like the devil who comes to kill, to destroy, and to steal. No. And he also said in the word of God that I came not to be ministered unto you, but to minister and give my life the lands and for people. I didn't come into this world for people to minister unto my needs. I came into this world to minister unto the needs of men and women and boys and girls. In Hebrews it says, in the volume of the book, the eternal lectures, in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God. This was his purpose, his objective aim and life, his father's will. The Lord Jesus, over in John, he came and was manifested to manifest the love of God. He was manifested to destroy the works of the devil. He was manifested to put away our sin. That's why he came into this world. This was his father's business. Abraham looked for a city which hath foundation to build an anointed God. Abraham had one object in life, one aim in life. He wanted to steal that city. whose builder and maker is God. There were Jesus. He had one object, one aim in life, and that was to lay the foundation for that city, and to save the occupants of that town and city, whose builder and maker is God. While up at the Nizer Falls, I've seen it many times, But there was a French title brought to the name of Blondin, and you could put a quarter in the machine, and see it reenacted. When Blondin walked across the ball many years ago, and that cable was stretched right from the Canadian side of a ball folded to the American side, and it walked across. A fantastic achievement. That story I've heard of Paul many times, but there's something I've never heard a lot of folks tell, the secret of his success. Blondin had a star foot on the opposite bank, high up. And Blondin started out with that balancing rod, slipping one foot ahead of the other, as he went across that tip. He didn't look down to the swirling waters beneath. He looked at him. But as he went across, he kept his eye fixed upon a stationary object. And that's how he went over. And then the Lord Jesus tight had his eye fixed on a stationary object. He wasn't looking at the changing scenes of life. The Bible said he set his faith as a threat to go to Jerusalem, knowing the things that should befall him there. That was his aim. That was his purpose. That was his object in life. Then a year ago, a couple of years after I was saved up in Canaanite, I tried to witness the people till I was back. not far from my home, a little place called St. Paul's. They were going to have an international plowing match. They came from the United States. They came from all over. And there were going to be, there was going to be a prize, a considerable prize, given to them a farmer, who could plow the stream of squirrels. And when I went out, I saw fields and fields of cars and trucks, not so many cars then, fifty-some years ago, a lot of horses, buns, a wagon. And I sent away a view of it, and got a number of tracks, I think about five thousand or something like that. And I went around, he went out these tracks, put them in the cars and the trucks and so on. When I got through, I thought, well, man going over now. Look at the context. It wasn't long until the women were chosen. And I looked down the furrow that that man had plows for five hundred feet, and it was straight. I didn't see how a man with a team of horses could have plowed such a straight furrow. But I got close enough to hear him answer a question that was put to him by another... propeditor. How did you plow such a straight pearl? He says, do you see that hat on that fence post? Yes. He said, I put my hat on that fence post so I could see it. And he said, I kept my eye on it. And that's how I plowed that pearl as straight as I did. He had an object, and he didn't take his eye on it. The Lord Jesus Christ plowed a straight bird. He did not deviate. There were no curbs in his life. And on that night by a straight bird, at the end there was the cross. He set his face as a blip, the gold, the gold, the gold, knowing the things that should be called there. What was the true aim and object of the Lord Jesus coming into this world? Man's redemption. That's why he came. He didn't come to see the wonders of the world. He saw them before sin entered. He saw them and all that created beauty. He didn't come down to learn something in the schools and universities of men. He knew the end from the big day. He didn't come to see man's achievements. He came for one purpose and that was the same man to redeem. That was his object. That was his aim in coming. And then again you'll find something else in this principle of life. Who was the principle that controlled the Lord Jesus in life? It was the principle of faith. He is the offering and finishing of faith. He is the strengthener of faith. He said, Tom, it's because you've seen me. You believe. But blessed are they who have not seen me. Yet they have believed. Christ wasn't governed by what a lot of people are governed by today. Healing. Healing didn't control his life. and not sight, he was governed by the principle of faith. Faith that is God. Yes, he made that very plain over in John six fifty-seven. He says, I live by the power. Every day from the morning until the evening, I have my Father before me. His daily dependence upon God is a remarkable text in the Old Testament. He says in Isaiah and verse four, morning by morning he wakened at me and opened up my understanding to the good. Isn't that remarkable? The Lord Jesus in the morning he heard his father speaking. and he got the advice of the day. He lived by faith. He walked by faith. That was his principle in life, as a man, the Son of Man. Also has something else, his power in life. What was his power in life? His power in life was the Holy Spirit of God. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He was anointed by the Holy Spirit. He was led by the Holy Spirit. He was driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. He cast out demons by the Holy Spirit. He offered himself for those who sought the God. His sacrifice on the cross was in the energy and power of the Holy Spirit. Also his resurrection, yes, he was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from among the dead. All his life, his activities were in the energy of the Holy Spirit of God. He was charged with that power. What about his authority in life? Does he have an authority in it? What was the authority in his life? Simply this, the Word of God. What sayeth the Scriptures? When someone approached him about some Old Testament passage or some problem, he says, What sayeth the Scriptures? Imagine him saying that. What say of the scriptures? I won't deviate from the scriptures. Whatever the Bible says, that's my guided life, that's my authority. It is written. That's what he said on three occasions to the devil. It is written. It is written. He is the blessed man of Psalm one. His delight is in the law of the Lord and in that word and in that law that he meditates day and that The Lord Jesus Christ had this guiding light, this authority. He spake as one having authority and not as the scribes. The scribes, they learned, knew. They spake, but there was no authority. There was no power behind what they said. But when Jesus spake, his word was with power, the Bible says. He spake as one having authority. That was his authority to guide in life. And that's our authority too. That's our guide in life. Couldn't think of his practice in life. What was his practice in life? Prayer. You know the Lord Jesus loved to pray. Christians go to prayer oftentimes when he wants them. They had something they'd like to talk to the Lord about. They'd like to have it. They're all with beggars, asking for this, asking for that, asking for the other. The Lord Jesus prayed because he loved to talk to his Father. He loved his Father's presence. He loved to pray. You know it's amazing, you don't have anything in the Bible talking about his prayer until he was baptized. And that's the first time you read about Jesus' prayer. But I don't think that's when he started to pray. What about those thirty silent years? We know we have reference to when he was trialed in the temple, but he doesn't say he was prayed. He was answered. But I don't think for a minute he didn't start to pray until his public ministry began with about thirty years of age. Undoubtedly he spent many days and every many nights during those silent years in fellowship with his father because he loved his father. He said, I love the heart. In other words, Jesus quite loved the faith. This is quite a challenge, isn't it, Christian? Do you love to pray? Or do you pray to God, I need something? Well, I've got something to complain about. I don't think the Lord's doing me fair. Or do you believe God's presence may get on your knees and say, Marvin, I haven't got anything to ask for, but I just want to be in your presence. I'd just like to soak up a little of that peace and that heavenly tranquility. I'd like some of it in my heart. That was Jesus Christ. That was his practice in life. You know, when you think of some of the experiences he had in prayer, and I just want to hurry and read them, over in Luke three, and verses five, or read Luke five, and verses... though it is for the chapter three twenty one now and all the people were baptized and came to pass that jesus being baptized and prayed the heavens opened and the holy spirit descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son, and be I well be, that the first mention in the New Testament of Jesus Christ praying, and it was at his baptism. And it's amazing in this passage that the Trinity is mentioned. Here is the Lord Jesus standing in the river Jordan, and here the Holy Spirit comes down in the form of a dove, and lights upon its head. And then the voice of the Father is speaking. There you have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The triune God. How wonderful. And what are they doing? Now Jesus Christ was confessing his sin in baptism. He had no sin. We read in the Bible about a baptism onto repentance. That was to the Jews. But Jesus Christ did not get baptized onto repentance. He had no sin to do the fed off. He was being baptized to show his identification of the Jewish nation and to carry out the Father's will. Yes, the Spirit, the Father, and he himself. Here you have heaven's recognition, for the heavens were open, and the Spirit came down, the voice was heard. God is saying, this is the Messiah. This is my Son, in whom I will be. Heaven's recognition of Jesus Christ as the coming Messiah. Then you have also in Luke five his second prayer. unless strange to say, but to avoid popularity. But it said, But so much the more went there of pain abroad about him, and great mortgages came together to heal, and to be healed by him of their infirmities. And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed. Why, you say, didn't he want crowds? Didn't he want to be known? Didn't he revel in popularity? A lot of pictures like that. That's not why he came. It's a strange that he prayed on this occasion. We saw the crowds and pondering over this for the last week. I thought, why? I believe he saw this. There's a possibility he saw a lot of excitement. Alarqa said, they wanted to see this miracle worker. They wanted to see him open the eyes of some blindness. They were interested in the material, the body. That's not why he came into the world. He came into the world the same as the soul. And I don't put my stock in a lot of this business where the body gets the impetus. God wants to save the soul. Then far better to have a triple body, a diseased body, for ninety years and know Christ and go to heaven. The panoptic body for ninety years and try and go to heaven. God will give you a new body on the resurrection morning, if you know His Son. The Lord Jesus came into this world, not to be known as the miracle of the Father. And I'm telling you on this occasion, he saw the lost sight of the true object of his coming. They were flocking to see this man. It was wonderful. Why wouldn't you like to see somebody? Open the eyes of a blind man. Wouldn't you like to see somebody? Raise up a dead man. you can see all that would go to hell. The Lord Jesus wants to put the emphasis where it belongs. He believes in priorities. And the priority when he came into this world was the same soul. He did heal somebody in order to prove that he came from heaven. They were his credentials. They were not the first object of his coming. He changed the seat in the same that which was lost. Then his third prayer in Mark one, thirty-five, and in the morning, rising a great fire before the day, he went out into a solitary place. And there prayed. He prayed for the day before. who is reluctant to be reflecting on the day that has passed. O Father, I don't want people to come flock into me and get fed with loaves and fishes. I don't want people to come to me as if I am some magician of some kind. I want people to come to me with a spirit of hunger, with a desire to know me as a seed, Yes, he prayed a great while before day, that that day might be a fruitful day, that precious soul might come to recognize and accept him. Then you have another prayer. In Mark six, after a time day it was, and when he had sent them, that is the five thousand away, he departed into a mountain to pray. He could get tired. He reared with his journey, he stepped us on the way. Where did he find somebody from the pressure of the crowd only in the presence of God? He slipped away into the mouth of their praise. And then he praised another time over in Luke five, and it changed the path. Luke nine eighteen and it came to pass as he was alone praying his disciples were with him and he asked them to say who do men say that I am and so he puts the question and he after praying he asked the question why do you pray as he asked his father father I hope they know who I am There's all kinds of rumors flying around after who I am. Some say he lied there, a Jeremiah. Some say he the lieth the prophets. Some say he's John the Baptist. Lots of rumors were flying around. Was he praying? Well, then I hope daily you know who I am. And after he heard the various answers, he says, but whom saved you from that answer? That's it. Never mind then what others say about the word Jesus Christ. What do you say about it? What think you of Jesus Christ? Simon Peter speaks up. He said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. That's true after the Lord Jesus when Simon speaks out. Thou art to Christ, the Son of the living God, Christ said, Blessed art thou, Simon by Jonah, flesh and blood hath not revealed the Son to thee, but my power which is at hand. It was God who revealed the Peter, this is my Son, Peter. So Christ's prayer was answered. Peter identified. And Peter trusted. Yes. These were some of the prayers of the Lord Jesus. Now look, these are the Mount of Transfiguration. And hearing is on the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses and Elias. And he prayed. And as he prayed, the countenance, his countenance changed. The passion of this countenance changed. that it was white and blistering, so in all his body as gold, as no polar on earth could see it as a Bible verse. Yes, he became changed. Peter, James, and John, they couldn't understand. And here they're looking at one who has changed, transfigured behold on the top of that mountain. You know, Moses was chained when he went into the Mount Sinai to receive the law. And Moses was in the Mount with God forty days and forty nights. And when he came down, his face was so brilliant. And so kept up the presence of God that the people of Israel down at the Mount, they said, put something over your face. He can't stand that. They couldn't stand. Just a glimpse. of the radiance of God in the face of Moses. The world doesn't have much room for reflections of deity in the faces and lives of individuals. It rebukes them. And when they saw the Lord Jesus, he was changed. Why did he was praying? Christians do want to have a change Sometimes Christians can have ugly dispositions, mean dispositions. They need a change. Many a time I don't need a change. When you get it, you get it in the presence of God, with this book. That's where you get a change. You so often want God to change on the people. Change our circumstances. But I think the biggest change is what we need in here. We need to be changed. And so the Lord Jesus was changed as he prayed. Then after success, the disciples came to him. Why? They said, you know, we had a wonderful time. Why even the demons were subject to us. We were at Crosby. Oh, demons by your power. Lord said, don't rejoice because of your success. He said, rejoice because your names are written in her. And he prayed. He prayed to him. Don't get taken up with success. Don't get taken up with popularity. Don't get taken up with the praise of men. dejoice that your names are written in heaven. But then thus the main thing to rejoice about your mislife. I don't want my name carved on any plaque anywhere. Or written in the halls of learning. Or in some great cathedral. or in who you are, whose who? No, I rejoice. My name is written in heaven. And I know one thing, if it's written there, it'll never be erased. Once your name is written in the Lamb's book, it'll never be erased. And for that I give thanks and in that I rejoice. And that's what the Lord Jesus said after praying. He says, Rejoice, not in your successful service. Rejoice that your name is written in heaven, in the joyless world. Wherever you go, it's the same thing. Canada or anywhere, anywhere. You'll see sin in all its ugly. You'll see sadness. You'll see sorrow. You'll see suffering. Whatever you go, you see it. You see, very little madness, but a whole lot of sadness. If there's anything to make a person rejoice, in the toilet world is to know my neighbors as if they have. Well, Mac told the doctor that. He said, Doctor, there's a greater power than you. And he told me, told the doctor this. Arne says, if I'm going to get well, he's going to do it. And if I'm not, that's his will, and I'll commit myself to him. It's a grand thing to know where your name is. For where your name is, there shall you be also. rejoice that your name is written in heaven another time he prayed at the grave of Lazarus when tears flow down through sister's sheets as brother Lazarus had died and even the Lord Jesus graced with stuttering hearts and he prayed And after he prayed, he says, Lazarus, come forth. And he did. The word Jesus prayed in whatever. He says, I left you an example that you followed the steps. Prayer is the answer. Prayer is the answer. But that's not yesterday. He said, there's nothing like prayer. Hear the readings. And there needs to be some prayer in your life and mind. More than we should give prayer. And with this fragment of those are not through. May it finish the next Sunday morning. Here it is, our glorious Lord. And he wants us to soak up just the lip of what he is manifested as in his walk in his life here alone. If you're not a Christian, there's only one prayer you can pray. There's only one prayer God will listen to or hear from you if you're not a Christian. And that is God being merciful for being the sinner. And normally you as a sinner come and into God's presence say, Lord, I want this, I want that, I want the other thing, I want the other. He's not listening to you at all. You once say, you're praying for your sick loved ones, he's not listening to you. How could he listen to you when you're rejecting his son? But if you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, you become God's child. Then God will hear his children. And there's only one prayer God will hear in the citizens of God. And that is God's been merciful to be the sinner. If you're not a Christian, will you pray that prayer this morning? Oh God. Something lacking in my life. There's a vacancy here that the world can't fail. I'd like to be saved, Lord. I'd like to have all my sins forgiven. Be merciful to me, the sinner. And that's a prayer God loves to hear. And that's a prayer he loves to answer. Try. Pray that prayer. And he'll answer. And save your soul. I pray. Our Father in heaven, in the name of the Lord Jesus, we commend for thy presence. We ask thy blessing on thy holy word. We thank thee for the scriptures. We thank thee for the Savior, thy word for trade. We thank thee for the promises thy word contains. And what the heart promised, thou art able also to perform. Bless thy word. at this time war our hearts and accept our thanks for such a wonderful Savior. Thou hast provided for light, for death and for eternity. We ask within His precious name.