Address—Don Rule
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#212.
212.
Called from above.
And heavenly men by birth.
Who were once but the citizens of Earth?
Lands 2 verses of the hymn. The cross has suffered severed ties which bound us here.
Thyself our treasure in a brighter sphere #212.
Nsnoise.
Turn with me to Exodus chapter one.
Exodus chapter one and verse one. Now these are the names.
Of the children of Israel.
Which came into Egypt.
Numbers Chapter one.
Exodus chapter one and verse one. And the Lord God spoke unto Moses and the wilderness of Sinai into the verse after they came out of the land of Egypt.
Deuteronomy chapter one.
Verse one.
These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel, on this side Jordan.
In the wilderness.
In the plane over against the Red Sea.
Joshua, chapter one.
Joshua chapter one and verse one. Now after the death of Moses the serpent of the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of Nun Moses minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead.
Now therefore arise and go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the soul of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you.
As I said unto Moses.
Now over to Revelation Chapter 4.
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Revelation chapter 4 and verse one. After this I lucked and behold, a door was opened in heaven.
And the first voice which I heard was, as it were, of a trumpet speaking with me, which said, come up, hit her.
And I will show thee.
I had occasion on Thursday.
To have dinner with Bill Prost and family.
And, uh, after the dinner.
We had a little time together, as we typically do, and we have Thanksgiving together and each go around the circle of people that are present so that each one can publicly express something they have to give God thanks for.
And, uh, I listened to what Bill had to say.
And I can say in my soul I knew what he was going to talk about yesterday.
And I had already known, I believe from the Lord, that I was going to talk about the same thing.
I want to say this because I want to reinforce to my soul and yours what I believe is the importance when God wants us to hear the same message twice.
In the same weekend, it's not going to be with the same words, but essentially I believe it's the same.
There are some things that we only understand. Many things we only understand if we look at them from the right perspective.
That's why we read Revelation chapter 4 and verse one, because what we're going to consider.
Has to be seen.
As it were, from the heavenly perspective.
If we just see it.
From where we sat on earth, we won't get it, I don't think. We have to see it, if you will, from the perspective from which God sees it.
Those of you, including myself, who sang to him.
Now we just finished.
Called yourself.
A heavenly man.
I look into a room of heavenly men.
That includes sisters and children who belong to the Lord Jesus in that word.
You are a heavenly man.
It's not you hope to be, you want to be someday. You would like to be. You are.
You are.
Because that's what God has chosen you to be this day, this hour, in this room.
You are a heavenly man.
You're a heavenly man by birth.
You were born into this world as a citizen of Earth.
And I speak to you who belong to the Lord Jesus, of course.
You were born a citizen of Earth.
You aren't a citizen of Earth anymore.
You are a heavenly man.
You'll notice in the verses that we read.
In the Old Testament in Exodus.
Exodus tells us about a people who lived in a place called Egypt.
We all, or I assume most of us, understand that in picture, Egypt is a picture of the world in which we live.
But God's purpose wasn't to leave them there.
God's purpose for you.
Before you were born was not to leave you in Egypt.
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And so before Exodus is finished, they're out of Egypt.
And so are you.
They went out of Egypt into a wilderness.
They spent quite a while in a wilderness, 40 years.
They got so far.
And their leader?
Dies.
Because he couldn't take them all the way.
What he represents could not take them where God wanted them to be.
Moses couldn't take you where you are today.
Wonderful man is Moses.
Tremendous leader is Moses.
But Moses couldn't bring you where you are this afternoon.
And so Joshua begins. Moses is dead.
And for you, Moses is dead.
Joshua.
Was the only one and what he represents.
That could take them where God wanted them. Your Joshua, Jesus Christ has taken you where you are this afternoon, and only He could do it.
And the only way he could do it partly why Moses couldn't do it, because only he could take them through death.
Jordan.
So Joshua to take them in to be heavenly men. Canaan is a picture of heavenly place.
To enter into the land of Canaan, they had to go through death just as you do and have.
But having done so, they were in the land of their inheritance. They were.
People of heaven.
That is their heaven, Canaan on earth.
We're gonna look in the time we have of how God has made us to be heavenly men.
And some of the characteristics.
Some of those things that should.
Be seen in us as heavenly men.
It's true and I'll just not try to explain it. It's true that Israel.
Had to go through each place one after another. They couldn't be in two places at once. There is a certain way in which every one of us is still in Egypt, every one of us is still in the wilderness, and every one of us is in Canaan as well. But we're not going to look at that aspect of it. We just want to focus on the Canaan.
Aspect of what we are and I characterize it here as this hymn writer JG deck heavenly men by birth. Let's go to John chapter 3.
John Chapter 3 we have a conversation that's taking place between a citizen of Earth.
And a heavenly man.
And the citizen of earth has trouble understanding what the heavenly man says.
I thank God he learns. Maybe you have trouble understanding, maybe it's not expressed very well to you this afternoon. But if I can say with assurance, if there's a desire that was found in this man, this citizen of our whose name was Nicodemus, he did by the Lord's work with him, come to understand. And so will you, because God wants you to understand what you are.
I want to say this about it because it's really important to get the right perspective really.
If you were one of the royal family of England, one of the children of Queen Elizabeth.
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You don't aspire to be that.
That's what you are by birth.
You may be given instructions as to a manner in which you are to behave that is appropriate to what you are, but you don't aspire to it.
You don't aspire this afternoon to be a heavenly man.
You don't say I wanna be. You are. You're born into it.
Yes, there are things that should be seen in you because of what you are, but not in order to be that. And it's important to see that because very often we look at ourselves and we don't think we see what we want to see and we want to be different, and we aspire to be different in some way or the other, as if we weren't the thing we wanted to be.
God doesn't work that way. He makes us what he wants us to be, and then he works in us that we live it out in a practical way according to what he has made us to be. So here's this citizen of Earth named Nicodemus.
And in verse 3, the heavenly man Jesus says unto him, Truly or verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man, be born again.
He cannot see the Kingdom of God.
And as I'm going to use it this afternoon, he can't see heavenly things.
If there happens to be somebody in this room.
That is still a citizen of Earth.
And not a child of God, a child of heaven.
Then you won't see either as long as you remain as you are.
The natural man, the citizen of Earth.
Can't see it?
Can't see it, can't enjoy it, can't appreciate it, can't understand it.
He just can't.
No more than an Ant can understand you.
It's a creature, it's got certain capacities, but it doesn't have the capacity to understand you.
Unless you couldn't give the aunt your life, and then it could.
You must be born again.
The Kingdom of God you must be born again to become a heavenly man.
Verse 5 Jesus answered, Verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water.
And of the Spirit you cannot enter.
Into the Kingdom of God.
God has to make the heavenly man heavenly.
He has to be clean.
He has to be holy.
He has to be washed morally from anything and everything that is unsuited to what God has made him to be.
He can't do it by himself.
Use the little poor illustration of the Ant. The aunt can say, I guess I'll be a man, so I'll be a man. I'll transform myself into a man.
Neither can you transform yourself into a heavenly man.
You have no more capacity to do it than an Ant.
Does to become like you?
You must be born.
By the power of God. By heavenly power.
To enter in.
To the Kingdom of God.
Verse 10. Verse 9. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things?
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It's pretty important, I think, to what we're talking about this afternoon to recognize a difference here.
Nicodemus, a citizen of Earth. But more than that, he was.
Perhaps what we would call an honorable Jew.
A teacher among the Jews.
And the Lord, he says I don't understand.
And the Lord responds and says you're a master, you're a teacher in Israel.
He could have.
Said more explicitly.
Nicodemus, you ought to know what Ezekiel 36 says. You're a teacher. You know that, Ezekiel 36 says. I'll bring you into the land.
I will cleanse you.
I will put a new heart in you.
I will put my spirit in you.
Doesn't that sound like salvation?
Cleansed a new heart.
The Spirit of God in you.
But it won't make the people who have it heavenly men.
It will not make the people who have it heavenly men.
He says I'm going to do it for my name's sake and I'm holy.
And I want you to be holy too.
Doesn't that sound like?
But what it was going to do or will do in the future, it's not yet taken place, is it will form earthly men for the reign of Christ on earth.
You have a higher calling, and you've been called higher than they will ever experience.
As Nicodemus was supposed to know as a teacher of Israel, we.
Got to keep the right perspective or we won't enter in to what God wants us to enjoy and live out in our lives.
So then he says to him.
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak what we do know, and testify what we have seen, and you receive not our witness.
If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?
We speak what we do now.
This heavenly man came from heaven.
And he wanted to speak of heaven.
He spoke of what he knew.
For he came from there.
Could he not speak about it? I don't know where you live, many of you, but I doubt not that you could speak of where you live and explain where you live.
And give some understanding of it to someone else.
So could this man.
He was a heavenly man. He came from heaven.
He wanted to present heavenly things.
But he said, Nicodemus, I tell you earthly things and you don't take them in. You're not accepting those. How can I truly?
Tell you about heavenly things.
How could I say to you as we sang?
Wind to our raptured hearts, we hear thee tell the heavenly glories which thou knowest so well.
That's what He wants to tell you and me this afternoon. He wants you and I every day of our life to listen to Him tell us of the heavenly glories which He knows.
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So well it suited to the heavenly man.
To have fellowship with him, to receive from him.
That which speaks of home.
But he couldn't do it to Nicodemus.
He says in verse 13, No man hath ascended up to heaven.
But he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven.
We can't say. I think I'll take a look at heaven tomorrow.
I think I'll just take a trip.
Get a little look.
Little idea, plan to live there someday, so I think I'll just go and see what it's all about.
No.
You can't.
But the man that descended from heaven can and did.
The man who began.
The journey from heaven.
To Earth.
Is the man.
It came down.
But it also sent something very, very important.
About him, the heavenly man.
It says of him even the Son of Man, which is.
In heaven.
Yes, he physically came to Earth.
But his heart, his interests.
His way of thinking.
Never left heaven. Never left heaven.
God has made us.
Heavenly Men.
And he wants us to live the same day, same way every day.
He wants us to live with our heart in heaven, our interests in heaven.
Our affections in heaven.
Even while on Earth.
That is proper and normal.
For us as heavenly men.
We'll see hopefully a little later, how to do that a little more practically.
Verse 14 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Know, if you stop to think about it, lifting up a serpent.
And talking about it as Jesus Christ don't seem very compatible.
You know what Scripture talks about the serpent that entered the Garden of Eden and spoiled life for man on earth? You know what it's like for that poisonous snake to bite the people of Israel?
So that many of them died.
You have some understanding because you've been bitten.
By that serpent.
So why is it a serpent?
That's used as a figure.
Because that man that was lifted up.
Not only for what you've done, but for what you are.
Was made sin for you?
So that you could be.
Spared from perishing?
But also so that you could receive a heavenly life.
Eternal life.
A life that comes from heaven.
Without the serpent lifted up.
Without the Son of man being made sin for us, God could not accomplish His purpose of making us heavenly men.
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He had to be lifted up, he had to take our place for what we are.
And in that place, he had to die.
Not only had to bear it, but the end of it was death.
Put it this way, nobody becomes a heavenly man.
Except through death.
There's no way.
To be brought into the place of being a heavenly man.
Except by death.
So it says.
Have eternal life.
That's a holy life that characterizes heaven.
That's a life that expresses itself with the very nature of God.
As love.
And this light?
You don't find a life like that originate from the earth.
But that's the life.
Of the heavenly man.
Verse 19.
Light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.
Heaven is characterized by light.
The Earth is characterized by darkness. The citizen of Earth is a man that wanders around in the dark all his life.
Never finds the light of life as a citizen of Earth. He is full of people that are blind.
Just walking darkness.
Morally, their darkness itself.
But you're not.
You're not. You're a child of the light.
Your child of life.
You live in a dark place physically.
But you have the light of life.
You have the light of heaven.
And you have the privilege.
Of living.
In the light.
OK, down to.
Verse 27 John answered and said, A man can receive nothing except to be given him from heaven.
Yourselves bear me witness that I said I'm not the Christ, but that I'm sent before Him.
Verse 31 He that cometh from above is above, and he that is of the earth is earthy and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is above all.
And what he has seen and heard he testifieth, and no man receiveth his testimony.
He that is of the earth is earthy and speaks of the earth.
It should be true that if someone engaged you in conversation, they would discover that you were a heavenly man.
The earthly man speaks of the earth. That's all he's got. That's his citizenship, that's his interest.
That's the world in which he lives.
Not the heavenly man.
He has other interests.
He has other things.
That in Occupy is hard. His thoughts, his activities.
John the Baptist was a man of earth. He's not a heavenly man. He's saved, but he's not. He didn't have a heavenly calling.
His calling as to his natural life was the earth.
And he lived out his life as an earthly man, a godly earthly man, but the scope and character of his life had to do with this earth.
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You're not an Abraham. You have a better calling than Abraham did, a higher calling to live out your life than Abraham did. You're not Moses. You have a higher calling to live out your life than Moses did.
They were not heavenly.
Even though they had hopes as to such things.
But the character of the life they were to live in obedience to God didn't have its reference to heaven.
That had its reference to the Earth, but not you.
You're a heavenly man.
As it was said of John the Baptist.
There's not a greater among women.
John the Baptist.
But the least in the Kingdom of heaven.
Is greater than he.
The least person in this room is greater than John the Baptist.
In position.
Calling.
In character.
Turn over to Colossians.
Colossians.
Chapter One.
Colossians chapter one and verse 27 to whom God would make known whether the riches of the glory of his mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you?
The hope?
Glory.
If God makes us a heavenly man, he gives us a heavenly life.
He gives us a life that's suited to what we are.
Where's your life from? Where is it today?
From heaven.
It shared with the source of it, Jesus Christ. Christ, who is not, will be, but is our life. Where is He?
Here on Earth.
No, it didn't happen.
He crossed, figuratively speaking, which probably won't have time to talk about it, but he crossed the Jordan River.
We have Joshua. He crossed the Jordan River.
But as far as Scripture records, he never crossed it the other direction again.
He lived from that point on. Joshua lived in the land.
Christ died, was buried, He rose again.
And he will never again live as he had lived in his natural life on earth. And that character?
He crossed, if you will, the Jordan.
In his own person, and he remains there.
So then it says in chapter 2.
And verse 20.
Wherefore if he be dead with Christ?
Chapter 3 verse one. If he be risen with Christ.
That's crossing the Jordan.
Oh, are you dead with Christ? Yes, you are.
Are you risen with Christ?
Yes, you are.
Were you once before God on the wilderness side of the Jordan? Yes, you were.
Are you with Christ on the Canaan side of the Jordan? Yes, you are.
You're dead.
Christ.
Make a comment about it.
Leave it to your soul to.
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Chew on it.
If you're dead with Christ, think about this.
Just one minute.
Feeding.
A dead man is 60 seconds too long.
Did you hear that?
You who have access to the Internet.
Just one minute.
Feeding a dead man.
Is 60 seconds too long?
If he be risen with Christ, seek those things.
Which are above where Christ sitteth.
Verse two set your affection.
On those things above, not on the things on the earth.
Connect that with turn back a few pages to Philippians Chapter 3.
Philippians, Chapter 3.
Verse 20 for our conversation is in heaven.
From whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Word conversation here is our interests of life.
We're Commonwealth is used in translation, it's the affairs of our life are connected with heaven.
Is that the case?
We're heavenly men. We're not taught to want to be. And in fact in Colossians 3 after it says if you be dead with Christ and if you be risen with Christ, in chapter 3 it says put to death and it names some things that characterize the man of earth.
Put them off and then it says put on. Because as we had when we read in the beginning of Joshua, these things that we're talking about, we only enter into in the enjoyment of them. We only enter into them in a practical way when we put our foot out and walk in them, when we take possession of them.
In practice.
In our lives and so there are things that are necessary for us to be able to.
Enjoy them and experience them, but it's no use talking about that if we don't recognize what we are. That's the point of burden of emphasis this afternoon. But if we recognize what we are?
It's not what we want to be.
Someday, but what God wants us to be today.
That we're talking about.
He wants us to be what he's made us to be.
And it affects every aspect of our life. I'm gonna go back and add a little bit another application, if you will, to the ax head that many of us were here yesterday afternoon during the address.
And Bill talked about the man who was using the axe.
And it where did it go? It fell into the Jordan.
And he said.
Alas, master, it was borrowed.
I wanna make an application of that to what we're talking about this afternoon.
Everything that you and I have connected with this earth.
That we still, yes, physically live in.
We should treat as borrowed.
Do you have time tomorrow time?
You have an energy.
It's borrowed energy.
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Do you have youth?
Do you have mental and physical capacity?
In a very real sense, is borrowed for your use, but in truth it belongs to another.
The heavenly man came down to earth.
And what did he begin with?
A body hast thou prepared me?
And he never he referred to it in responsibility as my body.
But in the use of it.
It was always seen as under another.
We remember the Lord Jesus in his death, and very often we quote.
This is my body.
I'm gonna misquote it.
Which I gave for you.
Is that what it says?
Doesn't this is my body which was given for you?
In the sense of my application, it was like it was borrowed.
For the use of another.
And if.
You try to use it for yourself as a heavenly man, you're going to lose it.
And the use of it, the value of it.
The iron in the Jordan didn't do the man any good, did it? It was useless. The tool was useless.
It had to have the application of death, which the Jordan speaks of.
Before it was really useful.
You and I have to recognize that everything that we have for this earth's use is temporary, is borrowed, and is only of use to the master if we recognize the sentence of death connected with it.
The Mammon of unrighteousness won't last.
Even the temporary youth won't last.
They're gonna pass.
Have no future.
Accept the body through death.
Another point connected with it.
The heavenly man must learn to live above nature.
And the power of nature.
He's called from above.
Timothy was brought before him power to live, and the power to live was the power of heaven to live on earth properly as a heavenly man.
The power of earth is not sufficient to live the heavenly life properly on earth.
Put it this way for you to think about.
We all have to learn sooner or later to walk on water.
We do.
What do I mean?
Peter got out of the boat.
To go to the Lord Jesus.
And when his eye was on the Lord Jesus, and the power for what he was doing was sustained by the Lord, he was OK.
But the moment.
He got occupied with the power of nature. He couldn't do it.
He started to sink because humans in nature sink in water. Nature can't sustain man on water.
The axe head had to be raised out of death by their power. No, the power of God was that which raised the axe head, gave it back to the man to use in a new way. Same acts, same head, but with a different power connected with it. It was that which had been raised out of the place of death.
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I think we have time just to finish, to show that a little bit in Second Corinthians chapter 4.
2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verse. I will read the last verse of chapter 3, chapter 3 verse 18. We all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord chapter 4 verse seven. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.
We are troubled on every side, but not distressed. We're perplexed but not in despair. Persecuted but not forsaken. Cast down but not destroyed. These are people walking on water.
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
The life of the man of heaven was that in them by the power of heaven, the Spirit of God that was sustaining a weak vessel.
That otherwise couldn't have taken it. Even the Lord Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane angels came and strengthened Him in that hour of need. There is that in which the natural man in his perfect condition needs.
Heaven and the the.
You're a heavenly man and and.
God has chosen to put something of heaven in you to carry.
Through life.
Treasure.
Of himself.
Does he want to preserve the life of Christ, the life of heaven in you? Yes, he does, and He will.
He will sustain you, but not by anything in yourself, not by any.
Force of nature not by any strength of character.
By his own power.
He maintains the vessel.
One last thought.
Verse 18 we said we started with perspective, while we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
The heavenly man by faith.
Can see from the perspective of eternity.
Not good.
The heavenly man, your heavenly man.
God has given you the capacity to go through life with an eternal perspective.
To value things. To see things, to give weight to things.
The citizen of Earth can't do it.
There's no such perspective. You can't see it.
Can enter into it. He has no interest for it, he says. Give me Egypt's food.
The things which are not seen are temporary.
Things which are not seen are eternal.
Our treasure.