Address—Eric James
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Good to be together again, isn't it?
And spend all eternity together.
Good to be together while we're on Earth.
Let's start with number 13 in the back of the book.
Child of God by Christ, salvation, rise or sin, and fear and care. Joy to find in every station something still to do or bear. Think what Spirit dwells within thee. Think what Father smiles are thine. Think that Jesus died to win thee. Child of God, wilt thou repine #13 in the back of the book?
Child of God by grace.
Shall change the.
Life.
They can start a prayer to praise.
You know, when we first start reading the Bible, I suppose that a lot of times, if you're like a lot of us anyway, we just kind of get little text here and there. God so loved the world and so on, and we get little text. A lot of people when they read the Old Testament, it's a pretty dark book, but they enjoy certain texts taken out of context usually. But nonetheless, that's often how we start on our Christian journey, learning about the.
Truth of God, but as we go on, I know one thing we had an exercise about with our children and I hope you parents do with your children too, and that is to teach them the stories of the Bible. And so we went over and over and over. We actually used Egger Myers Bible story book and you still have it. It's pretty well worn, thankfully, but we still have it and that way they got the stories in their mind so that sometime in the future.
They could start to make the connection between what the stories are, not simply historically, but also typically. That would take a little longer, of course, but that's one thing I'd like to talk about today. Let's look at a verse in the second Timothy, chapter one, first of all.
So as we get a little further along in our Christian pathway, we start to see the outlines in Scripture.
And that's how we learn.
More about God, more about his counsels, more about our standing and our state and our pathway through this world. I want to read just a couple verses here, second Timothy chapter one and verse 12 for this, for which 'cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed. This is Paul, his last epistle that he wrote, his last words, if you will.
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For I know whom I have believed.
It's a person, as we are speaking about this morning and am persuaded.
That He is able to keep read the new translation, keep the good deposit, or that deposit which I have committed unto him against that day.
Paul had deposited all of his life, committed it to Christ, and he knew that he would not be ashamed of that when he stood before Christ. And now verse 13, hold fast the form again. We're going to look at the new translation. Hold fast the outline of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love.
Which is in Christ Jesus. Want to look at an outline today?
Let me read a couple a little bit. The introduction to the Schofield Bible. We don't go along with everything that the Scofield Bible says, but there's many helpful hints there. But here's a part of the introduction I think is very helpful. It says this, the Bible.
Incomparably the most widely circulated of books that once provokes and baffles study, even the non believer in its authority rightly feels that it is unintelligent to remain in almost total ignorance.
The most famous and ancient of books, and yet most even of sincere believers, soon retire from any serious effort to master the content of the sacred writings. The reason is not far to seek.
It is found in the fact that no particular portion of Scripture is to be intelligently comprehended.
Apart from some conception of its place in the whole, that's, I think, what we mean by an outline.
Where the Bible story and message is like a picture wrought out in mosaics. Each book, chapter, verse.
And even word forms a necessary part, and has its own appointed place. It is therefore indispensable to any interesting and fruitful study of the Bible that a general knowledge of it be gained. Well, he goes on to speak mainly of dispensational outlines. And that's a little different subject, but from what I wanted to take up today.
But there's also typical outlines that we can turn over to Acts 20. It was referred to this morning.
And we get a very helpful outline there, what I call the four stages.
Of our Christian journey.
I put a little chart together. I'll kind of use it as a CHEAT SHEET and some people want copies of it later on. I'll I have some copies. But first of all, I want to, I want to speak about that without you having the sheet. There's basically 4 stages. I believe the two great typical types in the Old Testament of the Christian journey are found in the Tabernacle and found in the journey from Egypt to Canaan. Now, like Steve said.
You know, what does that have to do with us today? Well, it has everything to do with us today because it speaks to us of the outline of our Christian journey. In fact, it actually says that regarding the Tabernacle in Hebrews Chapter 9. It says it's a shadow of things to come. It's a picture of heaven, just a shadow. It doesn't give all the detail, but it's a shadow of Christianity. And this is no surprise. Is it Because we know.
That the Scriptures have one author, and that one author is the Spirit of God, and it's knit together, like Mr. Schofield says, like in Mosaic, I sometimes think of a quilt. You look at a beautiful quilt, you see there's a common pattern, but it has distinctive differences throughout it. But there is a common pattern throughout the whole. That's the way the Scriptures are. So I want to go over briefly.
The four stages of our Christian journey, referencing the Tabernacle and referencing the journey from Egypt to Canaan.
And what I want to particularly speak of not only those types, but how they correlate with the New Testament epistles. You know, the New Testament epistles are given to us in the Bible, but there's nothing divinely inspired about the order, what we're going to speak about.
The four stages of a Christian journey and I know in our Bible study at home and also in our little meeting, we try to follow the pattern of that gives us.
The stages of our Christian journey. So rather than just going rotely from 1 epistle to the next, as they are chronologically in the Bible, which is not inspired, rather we follow an order that I might call a moral or spiritual order that shows a true progression. And what's the secret to that progression? Well, it's found in the Old Testament, both in the Tabernacle and also in the.
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In the journey from Egypt to Canaan.
So I promised David, some of the others that I was going to get some help from him today. So.
The first stage of the Christian journey.
Is found when the Israelites had to leave Egypt. I call that salvation that's pretty straightforward, isn't it we're not a Christian until we're saved and so.
They also in the Tabernacle. What is it that correlates to our salvation?
One of your young people. Help me remember the Tabernacle. Got this from Robert. Remember, there's a Tabernacle Picture here. If you haven't studied the Tabernacle, I hope you will because it's one of the great outlines in Scripture. Here we have the Tabernacle, and when you first walk through this gate, there's something very large there. What do we call that?
Young person and young person help me.
An altar? What kind of altar?
Getting a little hint there.
Raisin altar, right? Brazen altar. It's a brass, really. It's a copper altar, but it's often called the brazen altar. This is a picture of salvation. Where in the New Testament are we taught how to be saved?
What's the book in the New Testament that corresponds with our deliverance from Egypt and the grazing altar?
You know, people, help me out. OK, we'll be right next to me here. Where would you look in the New Testament to find the doctrine of salvation that were lost in guilty sinners? There's no difference. We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We need a Savior and we have the remedy.
Well, the Gospels are a help, but what? Where do we learn the teaching of salvation in the New Testament? What epistle teaches us how to be saved?
George, you with us?
Well, I would go to Ephesians yet.
David Roman. Yeah, Romans. I went. We go to Romans. You know Romans, actually the 1St 8 chapters of Romans, you have salvation in three tenses. Did you know salvation is in three tenses in the Bible?
Their salvation from the penalty of sins, salvation from the power of sins, and salvation from the presence of sins, Right? You get all three of those things in the first eight chapters of Romans. That's salvation. The one is future still, isn't it? We're not saved from the presence of sin yet. We're still here. But we're saved from the penalty of sins and saved from the power of sin by the work of the Lord Jesus did on the cross.
And so romance is sometimes called the great epistle of justification. There's a verse that's quoted from the Old Testament, and in each each in that Old Testament, there's a different emphasis on the word. And in Romans it says the just shall live by faith. The emphasis is on the word just because justification has to do with having all charges against us removed before God.
And to be brought into a wonderful position.
A blessing which is called in Christ. That's salvation, OK.
That's the first stage of our Christian journey. There's no Christianity apart from that, is there? The second stage of Christianity is when they left Egypt, they crossed the Red Sea and there's a lot of symbolism there. We won't go into it now, but now we go into the wilderness and there's another vessel in the Tabernacle and you see what that next vessel is.
You young people.
Who could help me?
Not yet.
The second vessel here.
Pardon.
Oh, and yeah, no, we'll get to that. But for right now, study the Tabernacle. What is that?
Vessels.
The Labor, right? What did they do at the Labor?
They wash their hands.
Wash their hands and their feet, right? And who wash their hands in their feet? You remember who it was.
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Was a special class of people in Israel, the priest? Exactly. They had to be clean before they could go into the sanctuary here, that little tent building behind it, they had to be clean. First of all, they had to be washed all over. That's true. They had to be what we call consecrated. But then they had to wash their hands and their feet every time they went into the sanctuary. That's a picture of what we call.
Sanctification. Kind of a big word, isn't it? But sanctification is the second stage.
Of our Christian journey, it's how we become more Christ like, more like the Lord Jesus. That's the wilderness journey. You know, there's four stages in the wilderness. Let's talk about that a little bit. The first stage is the stage of grace. They came out of the land of Egypt and when they were hungry or when they were thirsty, what happened?
The Lord provided it to him, Yeah, when they were hungry and they were thirsty, He provided to him. Later on, that's not what happened, was it? But initially, this is the stage of grace. And what that means is the Lord wanted us to know and wanted them to know that He's sufficient to meet all of our needs.
So there's a epistle in the New Testament.
You know in the book of Romans is justification before God.
It's how I can stand before God and know my sins are forgiven and that I have a new standing before God where God will accept me as a son. That's a wonderful thing. But when we get to.
Get into the wilderness. There's something else that's required.
There's a book in the New Testament, an epistle called. We sometimes call it the Show Me Book.
And this writer who wrote it is actually 1/2 brother of the Lord. Maybe that'll give you a little hint about it. And he said, can faith save you? And he said, you've got to be saved by works. That's kind of strange. Martin Luther looked at that. And so I didn't even think that's inspired. I don't think God wrote that, but he did.
What book are we talking about?
It's not good enough to be only to be saved. What's the next step we have to David James, we have to act like Christians, right? So if Romans is justification before God, James's justification before men, what are our neighbors and our friends say about us is that, you know, that guy says he's a Christian. He goes to church, he maybe reads his Bible. Somebody doesn't act like a Christian.
So James's justification before men.
That's the explanation of James. Now there's another book. Now there are two books really in the New Testament. And this is, again, we're looking at a moral progression. And these people were newly saved. And so the apostle Paul, it's the first epistle he wrote, and he's saying, I want to lay out the foundations of Christianity, how you can be, how you were saved. First of all, how you turn to God from idols to worship.
The the true God.
And wait for his Son from heaven.
And he talks about how we can be sanctified as Christians. In fact, it says there that we would walk worthy of God. These people used to be heathen men. They worshipped idols, and they were immoral people. And now he says, I want you to walk worthy of God. You're saved. I want you to act like Christians. What books are we talking about? They're brand new Christians.
They hadn't been saved very long. This is the Apostle Paul's first two books that he wrote. Brand new Christians. What book are we talking about?
George, are you raising your hand?
Pardon.
Not, not, not yet, I don't think.
What book is the first book that Paul wrote?
Thessalonians. First and 2nd Thessalonians. Yep, he it's amazing how much he taught them in the few weeks he was with them. It had only been saved a very short time.
And it gives them a brief outline, doesn't speak of the assembly truths, yet gives a little bit of prophetic truth. It's an introduction to prophetic truth, which is quite interesting. And it gives some foundations as to how we can walk before the Lord. So I think that's the next book in progression. It's still the grace of God. He's teaching them how to walk worthy of God. That's actually a quotation from First Thessalonians.
OK, now they get from the Red Sea to Mount Sinai and they had to learn something else.
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What happened at Mount Sinai?
What happened in Mount Sinai?
Is it Samuel or no? What's your name? Sam.
God.
Yeah, that was what the law was given to Moses, right?
Was that a happy thing?
Well, not entirely, is it? But you know, it's one thing to know that we're Christians, to have it laid out how we should walk as Christians. But I often use the illustration.
You know, when a little children, we have some little children here when they're one years old and probably a lot of you've done this, you have a birthday for the little child. Our grandson had a birthday not too long ago and we said, you know, he waited his whole life for this day. Well, he's only one that was his one number one birthday. But you know, a lot of times when it's there one, one year birthday, we let the children play in the cake, right?
We think it's funny and everybody laughs and they take pictures and we think it's it's fine.
But what about the child that's 10 years old? How old are you?
Would you, would you think your mom would like it if you played in your cake on your birthday? No, I don't think so. So there's responsibility, isn't there? It's one thing to know how to act as a Christian, but now we're responsible to act as Christians. And that's what we call stage two of the wilderness. It's the government of God. And so there are certain epistles that deal primarily with the government of God.
There's an epistle that says who shall molest you if you.
Do that, which is right?
You know what epistle I'm talking about? We're supposed to act as Christians now, and we reap what we sow. That's not an exact quotation from that book, but there's two epistles that were written by a man who heard today was a doer.
And he knew that that he was responsible to act like God. He couldn't act like that one year old anymore. He had to act more.
More responsible. Some people think when you're Christian, now that you're Christian, you can live any way you want. I had somebody say that to me not too long ago. Well, if you have your sins forgiven, then you'll act in an awful way. But that's not what we learned from God, is it? When we realize how much God loves us and cares for us, we want to act in a way that honors Him, and we know that we are responsible to God.
To act in a way that's responsible to him. And that's the second stage of the wilderness. We call it government.
A little harder to figure out that those two epistles.
Corinthians. Not quite. We'll get to that pretty quick.
Pardon. Can we give a hint? His name means a little stole, a little stone. He was a doer. He liked to do things with his hands.
First and second Peter. First and second Peter. First Peter. If you read it some, you'll see that it's the government of God in regard to Christians. If we do what's right, then people won't normally molest us. I know there's exceptions or suffering. Why would we want to live like a Christian? What's the keyword that's used seven times in the first and second Peter starts with AP.
Starts with AP.
Why would somebody suffer? What Peter talks about suffering? He says now you're strangers and pilgrims. You used to belong to this world, used to go along with people and do the things they did. Now you're different. Why would you suffer in this world and be different? What is it that's so special about Christianity? There's a word that used seven times in first and second Peter.
Dirt to the P.
Who could help us?
Unto you therefore, which believes pardon.
Not quite. What was it? Precious, right? 7 * 7 times. You can search it out. It's used in first and second, Peter. That's why we go out in this world as Christians. We're talking about that this morning, weren't we? What's the secret to Christianity? It's walking in the Lord's presence and realizing how wonderful He is and what a plan He has for us and what blessings He has for us both now.
And for all eternity. And so unto you, therefore which believe He is precious. But what if we turn our back on the Lord?
Well, that second Peter, second Peter, the second two chapters talk about the awful future that awaits those who do not bow to God. We heard that today, that Revelation four and five speaks of God's two claims on man. One is that he's the Creator. Second is that he's the Redeemer, but he's not the Redeemer of all men. The better translation is purchased a purchaser. He bought all men.
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By with his precious blood, men have a responsibility to God, but not only is he the Creator, he's also the one who paid for them with his own blood. That doesn't save him though. We still have to be redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, but we have those two responsibilities towards man. And if we reject that.
There's an awful future ahead. And we read about the people in Second Peter who reject the gospel of the grace of God, and they know better. They professed it at one time, said they were Christians at one time, but they've turned their back on it and there's an awful future ahead for them. That's Second Peter. So the government of God.
Now what happened after the Children of Israel went from Sinai to the border of Israel? They came to a place called Kadesh.
Anybody know what Kadesh means? Young people?
What Kadesh mean? Important. Important meaning?
How about Steven or Samuel over there?
I said no, but I can't. Always talking about the Stevens behind you there.
You're supposed to pretend you know.
Anybody know what Kadesh means?
It means consecration.
It means consecration. They got to Kadesh and what happened?
What happened when the children of Israel went from Sinai to Kadesh? Did they enter the land of Canaan?
You remember.
What did they do?
What other young people can help us?
No, they could have gone, they could have crossed. Remember the 12 spies that went into the land? Remember there was 10 spies, 2 good spies, Joshua and Caleb. And they went into the land and Joshua and Caleb said the 10 spies said, you know, it's, there's giants in this land and they have tall walls in this. It's going to be hard to, to, to conquer this land. But what did Joshua and Caleb say?
We can do it.
With the Lord's help, right? Yeah, we can't do it by themselves, but with their Lord's help. But what did all the people do that? Did they then go into the land of His Canaan?
What did they do?
Yeah, another 38 years, didn't they? They wandered, and that's the third stage. They wandered for 38 years. Why? It tells us in Psalms that they despise the pleasant land.
They didn't value their true portion. Why did the Lord bring him out of Egypt to leave him in the desert?
He brought him out of Egypt to bring him into Canaan, right? That was the that was the land of blessing. And you know, many Christians are like that. They say, well, I get certain things. You know, I'm happy with certain things and Christianity, but that's all I want. I don't want to learn all the riches and blessings that God has in store for me. I'm not willing to be consecrated.
And so these people had to wander for 38 years. And what happened during those 38 years?
Remember what happened?
Why did the Lord have him wander for 38 years? There was a particular reason for it.
David, by the end of 38 years, everybody who had turned back and then would be dead except Joshua and Caleb and Moses.
OK, exactly right. They wandered, They died in the wilderness because they refused to enter into the promised land. As a result, they lost the blessing. Now that's the third stage, wandering. There's some books in the New Testament, we call them corrective epistles.
Who can think of some corrective epistles? There's one epistle in the New Testament that has 10 corrections, 10 questions that had to be answered, that they were writing to the apostle Paul and they said we need answers for these 10 things. We don't know what's going on. And they had some problems there. There was a lot of disorder there in their assembly. What what epistle was that?
They thought they were advanced, but they were really children. And Paul says, you know, you're just acting like children. You're not growing spiritually. What's the problem? There was a problem there. What was it, David?
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Well, Galatians is also one. It's not the one I had in mind, it's not the 10 issues. But Galatians is also the 2nd corrective epistle. They were also like children. You know, there's three epistles in the New Testament where their their spiritual growth was stunted.
The other is Galatians and actually in Hebrews and there was different reasons. The main reason it was stunted in First Corinthians was because they were worldly. They were acting like worldly people and.
Paul says, you know, you think you're mature Christians, but you're really just like babes. They weren't. They weren't very happy to hear that, were they? So First Corinthians has 10 issues that had to be addressed. You can look it up. And the other one is Galatians.
Those are the corrective epistles that are kind of like.
Kind of like those 38 years of wandering, they didn't make any progress. They were satisfied with what they were doing and they needed correction.
In the book of Galatians we have the second time in the New Testament that quotation the just shall live by faith and the book of Galatians, what was the hindrance? It wasn't worldliness, So what so much, but what was the problem in the book of Galatians? What was the hindrance to their growth in the book of Galatians?
You know, the Galatians were not Greeks. They were not Jews. They were what we call Barbarians. They were kind of like, what would we say, hill people or mountain people? They came from from the central part of Europe, and they were looked down upon by the Greeks and by the Jews. They thought they weren't very cultured at all. And they got saved, some of them through the apostle Paul and others, and then some people from Israel.
Christian Jews came up and said, you know, we're going to Polish up your Christianity.
We're going to make you a little more cultured. How did they how did they suggest doing it?
By following legal things, what we call spiritual pride, sometimes we do things to limit us look spiritual. And that was the problem with Galatians and that hindered their spiritual growth. And Paul says again, you're acting like children again, you're not growing like you should. Okay, that's the wandering stage. So there we have First Corinthians and there we have Galatians, 2 Corrective epistles, the third.
Stage of the wilderness, the wandering stage, The fourth stage I call preparation.
Because those 38 years, that first generation that died off and now the new generation is going to be prepared to go into the land of Canaan.
So I call it preparation.
There's a.
We have First Corinthians.
And that was a corrective epistle. Did they accept the correction?
Which is the young people could tell me how about Steven? Did they accept the correction?
In One Corinthians.
Well, the 2nd Epistle was written. Was that a happy occasion or not a happy occasion? The 2nd Epistle of Corinthians.
How about your brother? Help him.
You know, it actually was. They listened to what the Apostle Paul said. They judged themselves. We heard Mr. Kemp today talk about the necessity of self judgment when we're doing something wrong, let's admit it, confess it, get over it and get right before the Lord. And they did. Some people say that all the 2nd epistles in, in the in the New Testament.
Are have to do with ruin? That's not quite correct.
There's one epistle that's not that way, and that's Second Corinthians. It's restorative. They were restored, and now the apostle Paul could talk to them in a more kindly and intimate way because they had bowed to the discipline and they were restored. And so in Second Corinthians then, it's a restorative epistle, another epistle that's prepared. It shows that even when things are very dark.
We can be joyful.
There's Apostle Paul wrote this epistle when he was in a dungeon in a Roman prison.
And you would never hardly know it from reading the epistle, because some people have actually called that epistle. There's a man named Mr. Willis who wrote a book on this epistle. He called it Sacrifices of Joy. A Christian can be joyful even in awful circumstances.
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What epistle is that? This is an epistle that was suited for the new generation so that they could enter with joy into the land of Canaan. What's that little epistle without getting too much coaching here?
You can tell me what that epistle is.
You girls can speak up too is more of a Sunday school lesson here.
What epistle is the Epistle of Joy?
The assembly was formed when the two brothers were in prison. Yeah, good one. Paul and Silas were in prison. We read about it in Act 16. There was an earthquake in the middle of the night.
Philippians, right? We don't know who it was at Philippi that asked the Apostle Paul to come. Maybe it was a jailer. We don't know, do we? We're not told. But somebody asked him to come to Philippi and teach him the gospel. And there was a happy little assembly there. They were getting along pretty well. They were learning that happiness is one. Older brother used to tell us it's not a question of circumstances, it's a question of a state of our soul. The 1St.
Didn't know that, did they? But this new generation is preparing to go into the land of Canaan now, and they're learning that happiness is a question of state of soul. Are you walking with the Lord? That's what brings happiness. It's not a question of circumstances. Philippians. There's one other epistle, I think, that goes along here. It's a wilderness epistle. We often read that in the writings.
It's the great book of what I call typology.
It's the third book where there was some hindrances to their growth and these people were being hindered in their spiritual growth because of certain ordinances and a culture they wanted to follow. And the apostle, we believe it's the apostle Paul, shows one after another that the Lord Jesus is superior to angels, to prophets.
To Moses, to Joshua, to Aaron, to the Old Testament sacrifices. What epistle is that?
Better who? Yep. Hebrews, the great book of typology. Again, this shows how the Bible is integrated together. Tied together. Yeah, tied together. There's a If we talked about these things I'm talking about some people might say, you know, you're crazy. Where are you making up all this stuff? We were going over the Tabernacle in our meeting not too long ago, and there's a young person that's been gathered recently and I kind of thought we were seeing kind of a jaundice eye from you coming up with all.
Stuff reading in Exodus 25 and 26 and 22nd. You make it this stuff up. No, the book of Hebrews tells us that these are pictures of New Testament teaching. They illustrate the New Testament of brother Norman Berry that those of us with Gray hair remember was a man who used to say that the Bible is like a like a textbook. The New Testament is like the text in the book and the Old Testament like.
Pictures that illustrate the text. And so we're looking at some of those pictures. So Hebrews is the great book of typology. It's also the third time that that verse is quoted from the Old Testament. But in this case, it's the just shall live by faith because it's the great epistle of what we call sanctification, how these Christian Jews could live a life.
According to God's present truth.
Which they, they remember Christianity was only about 30 years old at the time. Judy was about 1000 years old. And there was a tug. They thought, why would I leave some something that's 1000 years old culture to go to something that's brand new? Well, because it was the fulfillment of those ancient types and shadows that the Old Testament people did not understand. They went through the motions, but they didn't understand them. One of the key.
In the book of Hebrews is better eternal. Those are some of the keywords in the book of Hebrews. OK, now we're leaving the wilderness going into the land of Canaan. Let's turn in our Bibles to well, I should have read an Acts. Let's turn to Acts 21St because that's where you get the outline that I'm talking about here, the four stages of our Christian journey and then we'll go.
00:40:00
And look at some verses here.
Acts chapter 20. I think it was referred to this morning. There's four stages in our Christian journey. The first one is found in the end of verse 24. Acts 20, verse 24.
I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God. That's the first stage, isn't it? Salvation. The second stage we said is sanctification. Verse 25 And now behold, I know that I I know that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God shall see my face no more. What's the Kingdom of God now? Well.
The main emphasis of the Kingdom of God today is it's not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. It's a moral Kingdom, we say.
It's that which is spiritual and that which is moral. It's not an outward Kingdom. It's acting as a Christian. That's sanctification we've been speaking about in the wilderness, and that's the great lesson of the wilderness is how we can be sanctified. What am I sanctified? I think I said it before. It's to become more like the Lord Jesus. That's true spirituality is to become more Christ like.
That's a wonderful, wonderful thing, isn't it? Are we really growing and becoming more like the Lord? That's the standard of spiritual growth.
OK, third stage. Now we're going to go into what I call satisfaction. It's really discipleship. Now you'll see here in X20 again, we get that in verse 27.
For I have not in Acts 20 verse 27 for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. This is all the treasures we spoke about this morning in Colossians verse 2, the mystery of God, it says there in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Those are the great blessings God has for Christianity. It's not just to live a good life here in this world. As important as a Christian character is absolutely.
But God has special blessings for the Christians the people of the world know nothing about. And that's the secrets of Canaan, typically speaking, if I can put it that way. Well, where do we get that?
And let's look at the fourth stage, and we'll get to that in just a second. But in verse 29 of Acts 20, I think we have the fourth stage, and we'll talk about that. It was read this morning where I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock also of your own selves. So men arrive speaking perverse things that draw away disciples after them. And then he gives them the two things, God and the word of his grace. That's the fourth stage. But right now let's turn.
To Luke.
Chapter 14.
What does it mean to enter into the land of Canaan?
Well, it's discipleship.
Luke chapter 14 tells us a little bit about discipleship.
The Lord never intended that we would just use Him as a fire escape from hell. He intended that we would be people that are sanctified, people that are living for His honor and glory. And that requires discipleship, what we really sometimes call consecration. Let's read about it a little bit. The Lord was very plain about this. Luke 14 and verse 26. If any man come to me and hate, not his father and mother.
And wife and children and brother and sisters. Yeah. In his own life also. He cannot be my disciple.
Doesn't mean actual hate, but it means that the Lord must have the 1St place. That's what the Lord Jesus is saying. And whosoever does not hear, bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
So, first of all, the master must be supreme. Secondly, we must bear His cross, willing to accept some reproach. We're not going to be popular in the world. We have to count the cost. Verse 28 For which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down? First counteth the cost, whether you have sufficient to build it less happily after you have laid the foundation. He's not able to finish it all that behold, it began to mock him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish.
Or what king going to make war against another king sitteth not down 1St and consult us whether he'd be able.
With 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000 or else while the others yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassador desirous conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
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Salt is good, but at the salt have lost his savour. Wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill. But men cast it out. He that has ears to hear, let him hear. Turn over to chapter 17 of Luke. You remember the story here. Remember when the Lord Jesus was near Jericho, there were ten men that had a sickness. Remember what that sickness was.
George, Blanche.
Well, not, not this time. That was another time. They're lepers. Remember they had leprosy. We skipped over some chapters, but in chapter 17, it's that they were lepers.
Ten men that were lepers. What happened?
The Lord heal them.
And then what happened?
They went away to show themselves to the spot. One came back.
One came back. Was he? Was he a nobleman or some sort? What was he?
Was he a rich man?
General David.
Samaritan. They were despised people. People looked down on them.
And what does it say? Let me just read you something I read from somebody else that says this is the key to entering into Canaan.
Only the grateful 10% inherit Christ's true riches.
William MacDonald said that and I read it recently and I jotted it down on my margin. I thought that's pretty good. How many Christians? I don't know. If it's only 10%, maybe it is only the only the grateful 10% inherit Christ's true riches. That's what Canaan is. It takes consecration.
That's it takes discipleship to become a true disciple of the Lord Jesus. That's what Christianity is. But there's blessings, tremendous blessings that come as a result. Let's look at some of those the epistles, Romans 12 talks about that. I beseech you. Therefore, after he gave the gospel, he says now the next step is to is to offer up your bodies as living sacrifices.
And be not transformed to this world. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed.
That's what the Lord asked us to do. You know, when I was teaching biology, I taught biology for some 10 years at junior college level. And I love that word because that word transformed, they say, is metamorphosis when you have an insect. I've had a little girl here where we were in Mosinee a few days ago. She had a little Willy worm. And that Willy worm is going to turn into a beautiful butterfly someday.
That's metamorphosis. That word is used.
In the insect world, it's a complete transformation. There's no direct relationship between the two in Physiology and in in any any way at all. They don't have a similar appearance, don't have the same Physiology or the biochemistry. All they have is the same genes, but in time they metamorphosize into something entirely different. That's what the Lord wants for us. That's our reasonable or intelligent service.
Once we become Christians.
OK, that's Romans 12.
That's crossing the Jordan River.
That's the way we get the real blessings of Christianity. What are some of the real blessings of Christianity? Well, in the book of Colossians, it talks about the mystery.
It speaks about the fact that Christ is in us, the hope of glory that was hid in the Old Testament, But the Lord Jesus dwells in us by the Spirit of God to transform us into His own image. It speaks about the one body. We're also members of His body. That's something we would never dare to dream of, except that the Word of God tells us it's true, that we're members of the body of Christ.
It speaks about the House of God. You know, the Spirit of God dwells in this sphere here, and we need to behave ourselves appropriately to His presence.
That's the House of God. Now where are we going to learn some of these things? What book do I read about here about the mystery of Christ?
The Christ in me, and then also that we're in Christ. Which books do I read in the New Testament speak about the mystery of Christ? That there's one body. This was a mystery that was hidden in the Old Testament.
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Two books particularly, it's actually mentioned in Romans, just briefly but not explained, but the two main books that speak about privileges, the Christian privileges we have the book of.
Two shirt books that Paul wrote.
The highest truths of Christianity are found here.
No, Paul wrote them OK.
We'll get to John a little later, but Paul wrote these two books.
We read the 2nd epistle this morning.
OK.
No, that's a little later too, but we're.
Who can help us Ephesians and Colossians, right? Colossians has to do with what Christ is to the church. Ephesians has to do with what the church is to Christ. You know the keyword. I, I found this, I think it was a Mr. Gable line's writing recently and I so appreciate I'd heard it before, but he says, you know, there's a keyword. Many epistles have keywords that describe that they characterize what the epistle is about. The keyword in the book of Ephesians.
Is it says ye are his workmanship. That word in Greek is poema. It's where we get our word for poetry. God has or it's also been translated masterpiece the Christian and all the Christian blessings were brought into our God's masterpiece and a wonderful thing he's brought us into.
Mr. old Mr. Hale used to say that, and Christianity. We have a mountain peak of blessing beyond which even God Himself could not go. We just touch on that, don't we? We get that in Ephesians and Colossians.
We also get the House of God. It's mentioned briefly in Ephesians, but.
Where did we learn how to behave ourselves in the House of God? How do we learn how young men are supposed to behave? And young young sisters and older sisters? What book is it that teaches us how to behave ourselves in the House of God?
David, Titus. Well, Titus does too. Yep, Titus is a good one. There's also another book. Pardon, First Timothy. Good, very good. First Timothy and Titus teach us how to behave ourselves in the House of God when it's orderly, what's appropriate? What again? When we say the House of God, we're talking about God's presence, because the Spirit of God dwells in the assembly.
And Christendom, how are we going to behave ourselves in God's presence?
And then there's another little epistle I think goes along with that. This is all Canaan, I believe, how to Act in God's Presence talks about. I call it Christian courtesy. How are we to treat one another when there's some wrong been done? How are we to treat one another? We have a little epistle that speaks about that.
What epistle is that?
A little pistol of.
Somebody had been wronged. He had a slave that ran away. The slave had been saved.
Pardon, Philemon. Exactly. Beautiful little epistle, isn't it? Also could been used as a picture of the gospel, because we're all unprofitable servants, aren't we? Okay, there we get to I we don't have time to get to the I'll just mention this about the Tabernacle. I think we have these things in the Tabernacle. Inside the Tabernacle itself, there was three pieces of furniture.
There was the.
Golden Candlestick really a lamp stand. It had lamps that had bowls of oil and that's a picture of the Spirit of God. It was pure gold. So it's divine. I like to think of the those three pieces of furniture, the golden Candlestick, the table of showbread where there was bread on top of it with the priest ate and then the golden altar were only incense was offered.
As what we have in Acts 242, they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine.
That's the Candlestick. The apostles doctrine hasn't changed. We've got it in our hands. And in the apostles fellowship we talk about breaking bread together and that's the divine way to break together. Acting keeps acting towards one another as Christians and in breaking of bread and prayers, the golden altar, that's where the incense is offered up, where intercession and supplication and prayer and praise.
Made in worship, well, we don't have time to go into detail on that, but I believe we get that as a real blessing. We have the family of God. What epistles tell us about the family of God?
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We talked about the House of God. We talked about the body of Christ.
I didn't mention the bride of Christ. We also get that in Ephesians, don't we?
What about the family of God? We're members of God's. We're children. This apostle never uses the word sons where it appears in the King James. It's incorrect. It should be children because we're born into God's family.
What? What?
Pistols. Are those the family of God?
How about first, second, third job?
The family of God.
And more here. I want to skip on very briefly to the last stage. I don't know exactly what to call this last stage. We're still missing some epistles.
What I call it, it speaks about the 4th, the 4th.
Stage I spoke about in Acts 20 was where people were coming in and corrupting things. It's prophetic in a sense.
And we have that in Scripture. We know that everything entrusted demands responsibility, ends in failure, although there are overcomers. And that's what the Lord asks us to be. I call it in what we have in Second Timothy chapter 2, which is one of the epistles actually, where we have.
Speaks about the latter times, the last time, the last days of Christianity. It speaks about three things. It says in the great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, some to honor and some to dishonor. Well, a vessel to earth and wood cannot be. To honor could be to dishonor. It no doubt is the plowing of the wicked is sin, but even a true believer can be a.
To dishonor if we dishonor the Lord can it but he also can be a vessel to honor But then if we read on there I think there's a further secret. It says if a man therefore purge himself from these, that mixture, the filing mixture, he shall be a vessel unto honor sanctified. That's the third class. That's what the Lord calls us to do. It's a difficult thing to do in a day of weakness and corruption. And yet that's.
The Lord asked us to do. That's the fourth stage. So many people we know appreciate a lot of the things we talked about. They're saved. They walk as a Christian in this world. They enter into a certain extent, into special Christian blessings, but they stumble when it comes to.
Being a vessel to honor Sanctified.
Meet for the Master's use, and that's what the Lord had prepared unto every good work.
That's a special privilege and we got that in in Luke in verse in Luke 18. Just in closing here we have in verse verse eight of Luke 18. It says the Lord Jesus speaking, I tell you speedily.
He will that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? What's that mean? I have a note here in my Bible. The reference is not to personal faith, but to belief in the whole body of revealed truth. The Lord Jesus wants us to be a vessel to honor sanctified, not only going on in the right way morally, but also in the right position and the.
We have there, we're out of time, so I'll just briefly mention them. Second Thessalonians speaks of that time. Second Timothy speaks of the last days, the last time. Second Peter speaks of a time of corruption, and Jude speaks of apostasy, people that profess to be a Christians. It's often looked at as the preview to Revelation and even first, second, and Third John speaks of the last hour.
We can go on in those last days. Well, time is gone. I believe we have that vessels to honor sanctified or salt. You know, in Matthew chapter 5, the Lord Jesus was speaking and he spoke of both the light of the world that's evangelization to the whole world, but then he also speaks of.
The salt of the earth and Mr. Kelly points out in his.
His commentary on Matthew, he says the earth is profession. The salt of the earth is the preserving principle within Christian, in this case Christian profession. The Lord asked us to be the salt of the earth, vessel to honor, sanctified.