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Oh.
My.
Favor.
May holy way.
We worship.
And be.
Lord.
Ephesians chapter 4.
Verse 13.
Until.
We all come in the unity of the faith.
And to the knowledge of the Son of God.
Unto a perfect man.
Unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro.
And carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplier according to the effectual working and the measure of every part make it increase of the body.
Under the edifying of itself in love.
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, have given themselves over until lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if so be that you have heard him.
00:05:10
And have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus.
That you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the Newman.
Which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands, the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needed.
Let no corrupt communication pro ceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed under the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
I'd like to read that 13th verse in the new translation. It's very helpful.
These gifts were given by the Ascended Head.
For the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, until verse 13 we all arrive at.
The unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God at the full grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ.
It's I think very helpful to see the.
That it's that we it's not come in, but that we arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
The purpose one of the purposes of this these gifts.
Is that we come to the to the full knowledge of the Son of God. He is the foundation. Peter confessed it. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And we know from Matthew 11 no man knoweth the Son, but the Father. There is that in the person of the Son, God and man in one person, he is inscrutable. Only God the Father understands the union of the divine and the human in his person we don't there's that which is beyond this, but in so far as the creature can come, can arrive at this, this unity of the faith.
And of the knowledge of the Son of God I think this.
The thought here is.
The purpose of gift of these gifts is to bring us to that.
And it's also they'll be given and available to us until we arrive at that point, which is when we get home.
And until we arrive at the measure at the full grown man.
Mature, fully grown, and understanding all that he would have us to understand, and until we arrive at the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ.
Which seems to be the an expression that that embraces the truth of the mystery, Christ and the Church.
Christ in the Church, the fullness of the Christ.
That's what he talked about in the first chapter.
Where in verse?
Verse 10.
For the administration of reading the new translation again. For the administration of the fullness of times to head up all things in the Christ.
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Things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, in him in whom we've obtained an inheritance. When he heads up, that's the mystery of his will. He's going to head up all things in the Christ, and that's Christ in His church, Christ in His church. We will reign with him. And when he reigns and everything will be placed under his headship, we will be seated beside him as it were, reigning with him. And I believe that this that is mentioned here in Ephesians 4.
Till we all arrive at the.
Measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ. It seems as though these words are just beyond our ability to explain them.
They're so full and rich and deep, but.
These are some thoughts that we can consider.
As long as you have that open, it might be well just to read the 14th verse in the other translation.
In order that we may be no longer babes tossed and carried about by every wind of that teaching which is in the sleight of men, in unprincipled cunning, with a view to systematize error.
Would it be correct to say that the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ would be an entering into that which was revealed when Paul said it was given unto him to complete the word of God?
The purpose of all ministry is the full growth of the those who are members of the body of Christ. They wouldn't remain children. We know how that Paul was grieved, because when he wrote in the Hebrews he said when for the time he ought to have been teachers. You have neither one teach you again what be the first principles of the oracles of God. God's assembly is to be the pillar and ground of the truth. It's the place where the truth of God is held and maintained.
And through the gifts it's taught, it isn't. As if Brother has mentioned before, the church doesn't teach.
Brethren as such, don't teach. The word of God is what teaches. But the ascended Christ has given gifts in order that the truth might be ministered and given out. And God is not satisfied any more than a parent is satisfied to see your child's growth stunted and he doesn't fully develop. It's their desire that their children should come to full maturity, and God's desire is that every Christian.
Should come to a full maturity, not just knowing his sins are forgiven.
Not just knowing that he's going to heaven, but that he might know and enjoy.
All the full revelation of truth that God has given to us in Christianity.
And the Ascended head has made full provision for this through the gifts that have been given. But there's also in this portion that which shows an individual responsibility now that is the joints and bands. So the truth might be ministered, but we need to watch that there isn't any hindrance. We could start talking among ourselves and hinder the growth of some child of God. We make a reflection on a person that.
Maybe hinders that?
So a lot of gifts are from the ascended praise for the Ministry of the Word, that there might be full growth, that those who are perhaps not in the position of evangelists, pastors and teachers, nevertheless have a great influence, just as in our human body.
You might have the development of some wonderful things in the human body, have the strength of your arm and the strength of your mind and so on. But if you're sick, there's a hindrance to the use of those things. A very strong arm, good muscle and everything. The person gets sick, then he's weak again. And so, brethren, each one of us have a contribution as the joints and bands. And so it goes on to tell us that the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body under the edifying of itself in love.
Oh wonderfully, God has set things up to function for the good and blessing of the church that Christ loved and gave himself for.
The Eagles were dull of hearing, and it was because of what they had in their own minds or their thoughts from the past system that they were in. And that can really cause many of us to cease or not to grow as we should if we keep any of those things. And as we are brought out, Paul just considered all things as done, religious or not. And of course the Corinthians were carnal.
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And that hindered their growth too. And Paul had to say, I have to speak to you as unto babes carnal. And so either way flesh coming in, and it it hinders the growth. And of course the system of ties there, or concession can do it as well. That's why the verses follow in this chapter the whole exhortation as to our conduct, because even though we may have laid hold of the truth and been established in it.
If our own conduct is not as it should, it hinders the enjoyment of the truth, and it hinders the testimony to to others. And so this chapter is very practical, showing us the full provision has been made by the ascended Christ, the gifts have been given, everything has been set up to function in a way for the blessing and good of the members of the body. But he has to carry on these exhortations, and so we can sit in these meetings and lay hold of these things.
But if I walk out and I have an unforgiving spirit toward a brother, I'm not going to function as I should in the.
As a member of the body of Christ, if I'm allowing something in my life that's not pleasing to the Lord.
It's going to hinder my enjoyment. All has been given to us in the word. The full provision has been made through the head, but each one of us are responsible that we don't allow those things, just as in our human body that would hinder the proper function of the body, so that all might be for the good of the body and with of course Christ is the head and it It's important too that we see that love is the lubricant, isn't it?
Not in the New translation. It's not speaking the truth in love, but holding the truth in love. I believe, brethren, if we hold it in love, we'll speak it in love. We're really conscious of the wondrous love that has been shown to us. The grace that has been met has met us in all our guilt, that love that is constantly toward us. Then when we speak of it, it'll be for blessing because we're walking in the enjoyment of it ourselves.
And I think that 15th verse really means the way it reads. It seems like it's saying that speaking the truth and love that we should be speak it very graciously and kindly and so on. Which is true. But I think the real force of the verse is in your love. Be truthful, the thought is truthing holding it in love, but in your love, in your expressions of love.
Maintain the truth, and the truth should characterize.
You at all times. And that's what he's really saying, that we don't. We're not carried about by every wind of doctrine. But as we walk in love, we walk according to the truth. Truthing in love is what it literally reads may grow up unto him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. I think the in our love, to be truthful, there's a system, there's a false pseudo love that's out there.
In Christendom today, which casts truth to the winds and doctrine to the winds and and it's it's a it's a big movement to just throw your arms around everyone that's another that's a Christian and and forget truth. This is saying just the opposite to that. So then your love, be truthful.
Hold the truth.
Hello, Jeff.
The body won't function properly if the head is not functioning as it should, and the head always should, because the head is Christ. But there may be the hindrance in the members of the body, so that instead of the truth flowing out as it should, there's a hindrance because we're not following the directions of the head. But the head is Christ, and there's always perfection there.
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Bob was referring to Hebrews.
And that that was clinging to the old.
Order of things hindered their growth. They were stunted in their growth. Now someone might say, well that's not a problem for us, We were not Jews, we were saved from Gentiles. But that is really not discerning the conditions in Christendom because.
What you have in Christendom is really that they have pattern themselves after the Old Testament order. And whenever you go along with that kind of system, it has an effect on stunting the growth. Take for instance the clergy system. Where have they gotten that from? They have gotten that from the Old Testament.
You know, and even when there are Christians that speak of the universal priesthood of all believers, the system where most of them find themselves in doesn't allow them to function as priests, you know so.
You have the choir singing the musical instruments and which is all making an appeal to the flesh, and that is not to be any part of the worship of Christians.
Even the lack of understanding that we do not have an earthly sanctuary.
That we have a heavenly sanctuary. They speak of a certain corner in the church as the sanctuary, but that's all Jewish in their thinking. Wearing special robes when they minister or when they perform in the choir. That all comes from Judaism. And so if we go along with that kind of a thing, don't be surprised if the spirit of God cannot teach you and help you in your growth. And there are even things that are worse than that, and that is.
Idolatry. You know, they're in Christendom. Things have been introduced which to very, very plainly put, it is idolatry. Christmas, Easter. The very word Easter comes from Ashtaroth, you know, And these practices that Christians fall in line with. Well, if you want to be remaining a babe and stunted in your ghost, you go along with all of this. That's a sure way of not growing so.
These things have to be removed from our hearts and from our minds in order that we're ready for the truth.
You know, so it is not a pleasant thing to expose these things, but they need to be exposed so that hopefully we learn to churn these things and stay away from them and not to play along with that. And so that there be the possibility that the Spirit of God can use these gifts to teach us so that we grow. And then the carnality, the worldliness that we have in Corinth.
You know, looking to man and following a man instead of following the Lord. You know this is not what is to be characteristic of a servant of the Lord to draw people after himself, and many times it isn't that person that is as false, that is the people making something out of that individual that should not be according to the teachings of the word of God.
We ought to follow the Lord and ought to be attracted to Him. And so we grow to Him, you know, become more like the Lord Jesus and entering into the things that He has for us, so that we become full grown, mature Christians that do not have to be led by the hand all the rest of their lives that they can, as it were, spiritually speaking, stand on their own feet, you know, and.
Can design.
The things that are of God and that are not of God.
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All these things have a way of feeding the flesh, but it also has a way of supplanting Christ. And that's the terrible part about it. It brings it out in Philippians 3.
Verse 2.
Beware of the concession. That's just a partly cutting off of flesh. But we are of the circumcision, a complete cutting off.
Of the flesh which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. And that's really everything of religion is really exalting flesh. It makes much of man and we need to exalt Christ and make much of Christ. And I just mentioned in Acts 27 when.
The Counted.
You know, Chrysostom counts. They like numbers. But the simple thing is, the more the truth, the less the number. And the less the truth, the greater the number. They like numbers. Well, they're in that ship. When they counted themselves, then it said they cast out the wheat. That's Christ. And when you are occupied with numbers and just felt and people, Christ is set aside.
And passed out May even. And the next thing is they knew not. And so those are three verses that really speak to me. And we don't need to be occupied with numbers. We can rejoice that there's this many here, but that's not the important thing. A small conference. We have as much of Christ as the large conference, too. It's Christ.
Then we can say that Christ is the truth. He said so himself.
And he also added in the 17th of John's eye word is true.
And he came to bear witness to the the truth he told Pilate.
Peter makes a nice remark at the end of his.
The very last word to be last epistle, but grow in grace and in the knowledge.
Of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is the truth, we add then he adds. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen. So how wonderful that you and I have in our hands the blessed word of God, which is the truth.
And we're reading about Jesus in verse 21 as the truth.
Is in Jesus. It couldn't be otherwise. I like the way that Luke begins his gospel. It's rather tremendous, for as much as many have set.
Have taken in hand to set in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, that that word declaration really tells us a little of what truth is.
As a definition, we've heard it said that.
God. Truth is not what he is, God is what is, and truth is a declaration of what is. So John's Gospel begins.
In the beginning was the word.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Further down, the Word was with God. And was God well, that's Christ, the divine Person.
So Christ comes. He is a manifestation of God.
And that way he is the truth. He is a direct declaration of what is.
Now, another remark that we've heard from our youth is that as they're holding these things.
We've had that nothing but the truth can hold the truth. If I take one step out of it, I no longer have the truth as such. And John and 1St Johnny says no lie is of the truth.
But it doesn't set aside the truth.
In the end of Second Corinthians it says we can do nothing against the truth that is.
The truth.
Abides a lie, doesn't change it.
How wonderful it is. We have this positive thing now. Don't we want it? If we want it, we have to hold it. If we step out of it, we no longer have the truth as such. It's the whole deposit that's given to us. It's what has come in the New Testament that we've talked about is coming with the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
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Remember that our adversary uses the word of God, but never the truth. He denies the truth. He's a liar, but he's he's working now through religion, I believe, more than any other way, and through the word of God, but without the truth. And he can use it in sinister ways, and he can change it too. And it's an awful thing that's happening today.
But we have to have the truth and you know, a little simple. I don't want to get into all this on the translations, but a simple change of of Matthew 1820, where two or three come together.
In my name I shall be with them, or I will be with them. Now that's true, but it's not the truth, brethren. And this is the deceit of Satan. We have to be careful of the the many modern so-called translations. We have to be very careful.
Very often half truth in the kings in the Old Testament it says some turn to the right hand, some turn to the left and saw in trying to escape one ditch he might fall into another. So we need to have the whole truth of God. And the whole truth of God will keep us walking in the middle of the road wanted. It will keep us from going extreme and taking one thing to set aside another. Even people who have fallen into error might confess that the Lord Jesus lived a perfect life.
But they don't believe that he's God. Well, it's true that he lived a perfect life, but that is only half the truth. If they deny that he is God himself in manhood, by then they only have half the truth. And I believe we see also two things here. The truth brought before us, the truth as it is in Jesus, but also the conduct that accompanies the truth. And so he shows the danger of being carried away by the sleight of men and cunning craft. He does.
Wrong doctrine. But then in the close of the chapter he shows that our conduct effects these things too, and we can be ever so clear about the truth of God, and not watchful as we should be as to our conduct. But in the Lord Jesus it speaks about what he began to do and to teach always in perfect harmony. Everything He did and everything he said was perfect. And the two were one complete testimony of God, Two men He that have seen me have seen the Father, the Lord Jesus could say.
And he's the perfect pattern for us. And provision has been made as we have in this chapter.
To establish us in the full truth of God, but also to exercise us that our conduct would correspond to the truth we know.
Dentists walked into vanity of their mind. Now these Ephesians.
Came from among the Gentiles, and we have the danger of.
Christendom. And we might be in danger of that ourselves, that we only take half a truth, but the Gentiles walking in the vanity of their mind, they had no scriptural truth.
You know, and yet they had religion, but it was all the imagination of their minds and we have to be on our guard that we do not allow that in our lives Here They were Christians now and had come from their background and they had to be on their guard that they do not allow their mind to imagine things. And so on and so forth.
The word of God wants against that you know the mind is a placing of the devil.
We couldn't apprehend any truth if we wouldn't have a mind. And yet that mind has to be a tool that the Spirit of God uses, and to help us to apprehend divine truth. But the Gentiles had no truth. The Jews did, you know. And so we have to be on our guard that we do not.
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Follow the things that are presented, or let our own minds go wild. You know we have to be.
Directed by the Spirit of God. And he has to use the mind as a tool to apprehend divine truth.
Deuteronomy 13, chapter 12 Rather Deuteronomy chapter 12. Now from from 12 to 16 you get 21 Times, but at the place the Lord thy God has chosen, the place his name at there you offer. And that's not the thought. The thought I had is in verse 30. Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them. Notice that thou inquire not.
After their God saying how do these nations serve their gods? Even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so. We don't have to even inquire. We don't have to even know what they're doing out there. That's a dangerous thing to even inquire. I think probably the worst subject in college is comparative religions. We don't need to know all the false things that are going on.
It's good to be aware of what may be affecting some of our group on the outer fringes, or the young people or yourself. It could happen, but we don't need to get and say, how do they do that? We know how we do it, and that's going the word of God. And it's a dangerous thing to go into a Christian bookstore and just grab off the shelf. You'll get things that will tickle your ears, which itch at times, but it'll lead you astray in your thoughts.
We have excellent ministry that I doubt if I've been. I've been on all of it some. I may have read 12 Times and I'm still getting wonderful things out of it, but I haven't read all of it yet and that we need to feed on.
Thinking of the way that.
The scriptures graphically present to us.
The Gentiles and their minds, they the dog turns to his vomit. They vomit up and then eat it. That's all they have. They don't have anything from God.
But thinking about Ephesians 3.
And the prayer.
As underlying our entering into these things.
Beginning, I guess, with verse 14 For this 'cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven earth is named, that he would grant you.
According to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in the heart by faith.
See, it's the he's provided for us in the gifts he's provided for us. The Ascended Victor the Conqueror there wanted to share all his victory with us. He's he's he's provided everything for us as to that which is external, coming to me and ministering the truth, but in my heart.
He's also provided for that.
That Christ may dwell or be at home.
In your heart, you enjoyed the illustration and used it, I think. I don't see it right. Somebody else was telling me the better way that it really was I I heard it repeated. So it was a man who recently saved and a knock comes on the door.
And in this allegory he he goes and opens the door, and there's the Lord Jesus.
I always says you've come to visit with me, said yes, I'd like to visit with you. I'd like to have some time with you. And he says, well, may I come in? And the man stops him in it. He says, just a minute, just a minute. He closes the door and goes into his living room and starts hiding some things that he knows the Lord was not going to be pleased with. And then he comes back. He goes, oh, yes, come in, come in, come.
And this goes on through the whole house, that is that the Lord Jesus would be at home.
That there would be nothing there that would be offensive to him.
Is the word I believe in this, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, and then it goes on out into the vastness.
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All that he has for us, high grit, length, depth as he loves us and puts his arm around us and surveys all the wonders of glory with us as we enter into the love of Christ that passes knowledge. So you see it's not that which is external to me and God may provide the best of ministry in the assembly.
And if he doesn't, I should covet earnestly the best gift for the assembly. I should not just go away complaining and and be satisfied. I should be exercised before God about it, that the assembly have what it needs to feed and instruct and encourage. But if I don't have this from within Christ, dwelling at home, in my heart, the center of my affection, the source of my affections for the things of God.
They won't be available to me, the Corinthians.
Had the best teacher in the Apostle Paul, but he said he couldn't tell it to him.
And So what we have is Christ in the heart, Christ and glory before us. It's all centered in him to the fullness of the Christ is entering into the song that we sang at the beginning of the meeting. I had that before us, all that God has for us in Christ.
What may it be Our heart's desire. May our affections be touched, and we lay hold of these things so that we no longer children. You. You come up to a man who knows he's saved, and you start talking to him about, you know he needs to do this or that to be saved, but he's not going to pay one bit of attention to you. He's not going to be blown about by any wind of doctrine. He knows where he stands. Well, may we know.
Our affections have linked up with the man in glory, and we know where we stand with him and be not children.
All these things are ours, but do we want them? May we have that parrot takes the power of God, But grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened. It is not a cheap thing, and you cannot get it, unless Christ be the motive and the object that takes all the riches of the glory of God for that strength to be given to a poor Sinner.
That Christ can dwell there and be the object before the soul. It's not the truth in Jesus though, the truth as to the new man. And so it says the truth that is in Jesus is something that's new.
And so he was the example on this earth, and we come into it after he rose from the dead. And so this is a Christian position that the 22nd verse says that you have put off.
The old man, that's a fact. That's my standing in Adam, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. That refers to the daily life of the Newman. Now the new man is in the next is next verse and that you have put off it should be or have put on the Newman which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
And so the truth as it is in Jesus is this position that we've been brought into in Christ, so that we have a new light. We have the Spirit of God which gives us to walk according to.
What the Lord would have us walk. Someone has outlined it, and I think this is helpful to the young.
The first we talked about the three circles. We talked about the circle in the fourth verse, which was real, spoke of the assembly, and then we got instruction from the seventh verse to through the 16th verse as to that position and what is provided for us in that position. Now the next circle takes up the Lord, so those who own him as Lord.
These things are brought out from the 17th verse.
To the fifth chapter and through the 21St verse.
And then in the next circle where God those who earn him as God you get these natural relationships and that carries you down to through the 6th chapter and the ninth verse. And then of course there you get on the armor that that we have. But Ephesians is sort of taken up with going into the land and so we had this morning the 2 foot rule.
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It's all ours. It's all ours. But we only get that to enjoy that we put our foot on. Now the enemies in the land were different than they were in the wilderness. The enemies in the land here are says line up one to another. But brother remember that when they were at Gilgal in self judgment, cutting off the flesh, they were not taking the land.
And so it really assumes that everything is cut off in our lives, that we're keeping short account, that these things are judged, and then we're enjoying these truths. And this is a provision for it. I think the truth that is in Jesus is the truth of this, that we have the new man. We've been brought into a new position, given a new life, the spirit of God controlling that life.
There's a verse in First John Two that corroborates and supports what our brothers just been saying.
Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you. We are brought into Christianity in connection with Christ. You you have not so learned Christ.
Sets him before us as a man glorified at his right hand, and here we have the new commandment which is true in him.
And in.
With so many young families here, especially with children and all, Brother War brought up a very wonderful point.
It's not so much the question does Christ dwell in your home? It's a question, is he comfortable in your home? Would that be a setting that he'd enjoy? And I was thinking of Proverbs 23.
Christ being wisdom.
Verse three, though wisdom is in a house builded, through wisdom is a house builded, and by understanding it is established, and by knowledge shall the chambers, every room, be filled with all precious and pleasant riches. Now that's the thought, and you know it's it's what?
What is your home like? I'm not not searching your hearts, but I have the privilege and so many others of being into Christ like homes. And it's a real pleasure to be in Christ like homes. You know, there was a little congregation that was sort of falling apart and backsliding and all that. And they, they got a new preacher pastor, and he started out by that week visiting every home personally.
And when a man came home and his wife said the new pastor, the new pastor was here.
He said. What did he say?
Well, he said. Does Christ live here?
Well, what you didn't you tell him he said that we're members of the church here and have been for these many years, and he didn't ask me that. He's, he said, does Christ live here? Well, didn't you tell him that we pledge and never fail and I'm on the committee, you know, for this and that? He didn't ask me that. He has just asked does Christ live here? Well, you know, let's search both of them because he wouldn't have been comfortable in that home. And that's the thought.
Is he comfortable in your home now? I'm. When you point the finger, there's some pointing back. I know. We all need to be exercised, don't we? But it's it's not that he won't or it doesn't. It's Does he enjoy living in your home? He didn't enjoy being in Bethany, the home of Martha, the first time. The second time he took care of it the third time.
Enjoyed it because that sweet incense filled the house. The odor of that incense, they were all thinking of him. So that's the question. And it's good for young parents to ask themselves that is this every room such that he would enjoy and feel comfortable.
To add to what Brother Bill said, the affections for Christ is certainly the first important point, but I would say that that in itself is not enough.
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The example of that is in Jonathan.
In the Old Testament, would anyone question the love and affection that Jonathan had for David?
No one would question it. Maybe there was nobody in that cave of Dalam that joined David in his rejection that had as deep and genuine affection as Jonathan. But Jonathan was not with David.
So our love and affection is certainly the most important part, but it would make us to be where he is, to share in his rejection. There is a life that proves.
That we love him. Jonathan could have proved that, you know, when it was evident that there was no room for David in the King's palace, and that the king was bent on killing him, His place should have been with David. And so beloved, this is what I'm trying to exercise my own heart within yours is there is to be dead in our lives. That demonstrates practically that we do love him.
Obedience to the word of God, how do I dress? You know, and all of these kinds of things. You know, a husband is to please his wife. The wife is to please the husband. If she knows that the husband doesn't like a certain type of dress on her, she wouldn't wear it, would she? My husband doesn't like that. She proves by that, that she loves her husband. And so these are practical things and better. And that's where we break down.
In our lives.
The stress affections. But we do not stress sufficiently the result that should be coming from that affection and how we act, how we live and what we do, what we even aspire to, you know, do we want to have the biggest and fanciest home in town, you know, and devote all our energies and times to get it.
And we don't have time for the things of the Lord that would be useful for him, his interest in the scene. All of this would be a practical proof that we love the Lord and that is what he's looking for. You know, talk is cheap. The world says you know, talk is cheap. Prove it.
Of the abode. That's the problem, is it? I mean, I stayed in some nice large abodes and I told my brother, isn't it lovely? The Lord let you enjoy these things and he lets me enjoy them too. You know, it's one man built a mansion in France and he put that word above in French. I must leave it.
Let's don't let that abode. If the Lord gives you a larger or for your family be the problem. It's Christ you want there in that abode and he's letting you use it. That's a lovely thing. I I just don't feel the large houses condemn anybody for a large house. He didn't mean that to say that. But the danger is that we reach out for these things and use all our energies to gain these things, and the Lord loses our faith much. There's very little in our lives.
That really counts for eternity.
Our brother Clark was ringing before us the basis of it all, and that is that we have put off the old man and that we have put on the Newman. And what encourages me is I meet a Christian, is that he has within him the very life of Christ. And as I said before him, that line of truth that is developed here and how Christians should walk there is within him a life that responds to that.
Because we have learned what our position is.
And it's not put forth by effort. Well, I have to do this to please the Lord, the Newman says. The good pleasure of thy will, O God, is my delight. And that, I think, is so lovely that always has encouraged me. When you talk to a worldly Christian, you know that no matter what worldliness or those things that you see in his life that you know are displeasing to the Lord, he knows too. But you know that also within him.
There is the Newman, and that's what the apostle is developing here. The Ascended Christ has given gifts so that we might know the revealed mind of God. We might know the position that grace has placed us in, that Christ is the head of the body, the church, and that we are heavenly people. But he's done more, if I might speak in that way. He's given to every true believer in this room a life that wants to please the Lord.
00:55:25
And if that life is stirred up by occupation with what God has done for us.
And his boundless love that has been manifested in Christ. The affections are awakened, and the desire is there to please the Lord. So we're not talking to people who have no response. If we were talking to unsaved people, we would be talking to people who had no response. They'd say, Oh well, you're putting me under law. You're trying to get me to do things I have no desire to do. But when you talk to a true believer, you should always be conscious.
That that believer has within him the very life of Christ, that responds to all the desires that God has for him and the truth that he has revealed in his word. And I believe that's the point, brethren, the truth as it is in Jesus. And so as he brings in these exhortations, he is talking to those who possess that new man who have within him, within them the very life of the Lord Jesus.
Christ himself is the believer's life.
I've enjoyed the thought that the illustration of.
The new man and I personally see it as different from the nature.
The new man One day the Lord Jesus was talking to Simon Barjona, son of Jonah.
And he says to him, Thou art Peter.
And I think of that as maybe 5 minutes later someone walking up. Let's say I'm looking for Simon.
He says, well, I'm not Simon, I'm Peter.
Well, you look like Simon to me. Yeah, I know. And I feel like Simon, but I'm not. I'm Peter. Well, how do you? What do you mean, you Peters it? He said. I'm Peter.
It's what God says about me.
A new man?
That's what I go by. What God said about me and my feelings and my failures and all within do not cancel that. God said I am a new man. I have a new man put off and put on.
It's interesting to see that.
Thinking of it in the sense that.
Peter begins his first epistle by.
The word Peter.
That's the first word in his first epistle, and Simon is the first word in his second epistle.
So we are walking as a Newman Peter, but we have that old nature, Simon still there that we do have a new life.
But again, I say that position is mine because God said that is true and I believe it.
And he, the old man was crucified with Christ, but I'm afraid he left some of his his feelings and desires around. But the old man was crucified with Christ.
If I lay hold of that because God said it, and live it by faith, then I am living before God in a new position, a new man.
To enjoy what is in that new life as it lives its way out in a Newman. And when I fail that the the I don't link the two together. When I see when something is going on inside of me that I have to call sin, it has not taken me out of that position of Peter or Newman.
Before God.
That is there from that platform of a Newman.
That we make our steps godward.
I like to think of it this way. The old man is the aggregate of all the evils that have been committed from Adam onwards, all summed up in one man. And that's the old man.
And the Newman are all the moral virtues and excellencies of the life of Christ.
Of Christ himself. That's the Newman.
Two men, the old man and the new man, Adam and Christ. The whole Bible is about these two men. You're either in the one or you're in the other. And we've put off the old and we've put on the new. So that's that's where we are. That's the way God sees us, and that's what he's looking for from us is all those moral qualities that flow from the life that we have of Christ.
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That Newman has now taken the place of the old man.
And to death 24th verse, please. And that we put on and that ye put on, or having put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
In righteousness and true holiness. So this is what is to be characteristic of this new man, and it will manifest itself in the believer.
To emphasize again in righteousness and true.
Holiness. Holiness is delighting in good and abhorring evil.
That is what is characterizing the Newman.
To find that that's not just a theoretical position that we're in, but we have gotten something through that. We've gotten the very life of Christ, and we've got the Holy Spirit to give us the power to work in that life. So it's not just a matter of a position. I didn't mean to say that.
Yeah.
Verse 21 Again, if so be that ye have heard him.
And have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. The truth is in Jesus. And then he explains what he's talking about, that you have put off the old man and have put on the new man. The old is done with and the new man is put on. That's the truth as it is in Jesus. We saw that. We see that lived out in Jesus as a man down here, that new man, and we've put him on.
And God wants to see now in you and me those same moral qualities that were exemplified in him.
You ought to burst.
To tie onto that says that we have it in first John 2.
Verse six he that saith the abideth in him bought himself also to walk even as he walked, that is putting on the new man beloved.
Walking as he walked. In the practical sense we have, we have put it on. But in the practical sense it is manifested as we walk in the, shall I say, the character of that new man. And we have the power by the Spirit. But I think it's well for us to see that every believer possesses that new man. That's always been an encouragement to me. You talk, I say again. You talk to a very worldly Christian.
You know that if he is really saved, the new man is there. And if you minister Christ to him, the new man will respond to the claims of Christ. And I guess we've all had the experience. We come to a meeting like this. Perhaps the world has got quite a place in our lives and there's something that stirs up that Newman within us and that Newman has responds and we return home. Say, I want to please the Lord in this. There's something that's in my life that isn't just right. And so we have learned that we didn't.
Shall I say get the Newman at the conference. We already have the Newman, but he now is responding to the claims of Christ.
And the Spirit of God is doing that work within us, and I think that's very.
Important for us to see much of the effort in Christendom is to try and stir up something in man as though he didn't already have it. But the Christian has it, and there's no use trying to stir it up at an unsaved person. He needs to be born again, he needs to have a new life or he won't respond to those things at all. He'd say. Well, I don't want any of those things. They don't interest me until God does the work and imparts a new life, and then he'll go away.
Even the very day he saved, like the Apostle Paul, immediately he wanted to please the Lord. He owned him as Lord.
To Can we say that all the commandments of the New Testament are addressed to the Newman? You're not addressed to the Old man. If I rebel against something that someone brings to me or something that Christ would have me do, it's because it's meeting the flesh in me. The new man delights to do those things. It's like telling me it's telling my child to go out and get an ice cream cone and saw the commandments of a New Testament. They're all addressed to the new man. And if a new man is an operation, practically.
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I don't like to do this and met his death at the cross. Our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin should be annulled that henceforth we should not serve sin. Romans 6 The old man was crucified where? With Christ on the cross. So that's the end of it. So how could any of those injunctions be addressed to that man? He's ended, he's finished.
We have to reckon that because he's actually in these bodies and will be as long as the body is here.
The old nature is within, but I don't call that the old man. I think there's a difference between the old nature and the old man and the new nature and the new man. But if you want to call it this that way, yes. But I make a difference between the old nature, the flesh that's still there, and the old man.
Which is really representative of what we were in Adam, all the ugly things that you see in the first man.
We could look at that verse you referred to in Romans 6.
Romans chapter 6 talks to us about.
Verse six has to do as we've just heard knowing this.
That's important, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him.
That the body of sin might be a null is the first word. I believe that henceforth we should not serve sin. The old man here, I think.
Is seen as a channel for the expression of the body of sin. The body of sin, as we've been taught, is like a solar system within each one of us has all of its working parts.
And his sin.
And it finds its way out into expression by an old man.
Now the old man was crucified with Christ. The body of sin is annulled. It has no way to express itself now.
Unless I give it there away.
And it's there and it's working. This body of sin, it's the law of sin that's working there.
But it's like an automobile. And it's running, but it's an automobile has got the most powerful motor in the world just running away. But it's out of gear.
Now responsibly, my responsibility comes in what I do with the gear shift.
God starts me off, as it were, out of gear, and he gives me another.
Nature, The very life of Christ and the power to go with that, the Spirit of God.
And that's where I that's the gear I should shift into in a practical way is to enjoy the liberty of the power of God in obedience.
Stand fast. In the liberty in which we were made free, we stand fast and that which he's given us. So it's like whenever I see something that I want, and it's not in the mind of God, but there's something in me that wants it.
If I just count myself as dead, reckon that I died. There's my liberty in death. Not only that I died. It even says that I have died to sin.
You know how many do not understand that second verse of Romans 6?
For we.
For far be the thought we who have died to sin, how shall we still live in it? You know I don't have to kill sin within.
I have to reckon that I have died to sin in the death of Christ, and that truth is a tremendous truth to get ahold of. And therefore I can live this new life. I am not only when I come to the Lord Jesus.
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Delivered from the penalty that my sin should bring me, the judgement I'm also delivered from the power of death. Sin. I've died to sin.
Wonderful truth to lay hold of by faith.
When God said I'm I am now Peter and I believe that and I walk as Peter because God said that's true. The same thing as our brother is telling us that I believe what God said about my being dead to sin.
And over and above how I feel from within. Sometimes I believe what God said about it. And I believe he said I died to sin and now I'm alive to God because he said so. That links my daily life. Every step I take to faith in what God says, not in what I want or how I feel. It doesn't fluctuate. It's what God said. And I lay hold of that.
And there is where we.
Can we say our responsibility meets what God says? My side of it meets entrusting what he says, not only about my position, I am now Peter because he said so, but also I am dead to sin and alive to God because he said so. And I reckon that to be true, But when you leave it, he gives you the proof by the indwelling of the Spirit, you know?
And there is the flesh wars against the Spirit. I mean, we know that we have a new life and we know the old nature is still there. It's not just that he said it, we experience it.
So you could say after that change Bill, don't act like Simon anymore, act like Peter from now on.
Do any more good though, than to tell no, it's like brother says.
The verse that was read in second in one John two says the true the darkness is passing that is in US and the true light now shineth the spirit of God is power within on the basis of my believing what God said.
Because it's by faith my salvation by faith. My walk is by faith. I believe what God said. Immediately the Spirit of God comes to make it real to me on the principle of faith.
And that is where we have our liberty and the grace of God to walk today. I enjoyed it, the difference between standing and state, because we know that there are people who think that the old mine is actually gone, and we wouldn't be told to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God if it was actually gone. As to our standing before God, it doesn't exist. It came to its end in the death of Christ.
But as to our practice, we have to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God.
For sin, that's the old man shall not have dominion over you.
And so we take God at His word, as you say. We see that it came to its end in the death of Christ. But as to our state, we have that experience. And it's mentioned also in Galatians. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary, the one to the other. I'm just saying that because I don't want anyone to think that we believe that that old man is positively gone. We have the conflict.
Of constantly having to reckon ourselves dead, indeed unto sin, but alive unto God.
That when we get our glorified bodies then we won't have that old man to reckon with at all.
Because it's connected with these bodies that are down here. And when we get our glorified bodies, there won't be any old man to hinder our progress, and they won't be a desire to do a single wrong thing. We won't have that reckoning process in heaven. We'll only have a desire to live to please the Lord without any hindrance whatsoever. I I just feel that for those who are younger that we need to understand the difference between our standing before God.
Which is perfect and in Christ and our state, which is a thing that we have constantly to deal with in our everyday life.
01:15:09
Just one word to add to for old and young, at least for my own experience, the flesh lusts against the spirit.
I better leave it that way. The spirit against the flesh. I better not get involved.
Obey.
The flesh is not me, it's in me. The spirit of God is not me. It's God himself who dwells within. If I get in and try to correct the matter, I won't lose the battle.
Doesn't say the flex listening is me.
I don't disobey and let the spirit of God handle it. He dwells within to take care of these things and that's why I think sometimes, brethren, we set a set of rules that we going to follow. That's really not what he's doing.
And we just walk with Christ before us. Christ is motive. Christ is object and understand where we stand with God and walk in the good and believe what he said as we just heard. Take God at His word. There is our Christian liberty. And we can walk in liberty as Christians and be happy and just go through this world and just singing a song. And as the apostle, Paul could sing in jail or we can go through it as those who are just the most miserable because we know there's something better and we can't find it.
Give for the benefit of the young, especially a demonstration in the life of a believer in Brazil or fracking ourselves dead. Osby was an astrologer, well known astrologer and.
He got saved, you know, it didn't take long. And he knew that that long hair that he had, that had to come off. He could hardly distribute tracks with that kind of a hairdo. So off the hair came and then not long after, somebody came.
And wanted to make use of his services as an astrologer. You know what he said? That astrologer died.
That astrologer died. There was number more. Any of this going to be in his life, you know, he reckoned himself dead.
But.
211 was given out I believe.
Jesus Christ.
The Savior.
We only.
Love.
Thailand thy loving.
Our soul, God, Liberty.