Open—Robert Boulard
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Just like to read a passage very briefly in Acts Chapter 9.
Won't read the whole passage because we know it.
Acts Chapter 9.
And let's read from verse 15 in connection with Saul's salvation.
But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me.
To bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.
And Ananias went his way and entered into the house and putting his hands on him, said brother Saul.
The Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou Camus hath sent me.
That thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes, as it had been scales. And he received sight forthwith, and arose and was baptized. And when he had received meat he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus, And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues that He is the Son of.
God.
Well, our brethren have reminded us of the joy of the Lord.
And how heaven is, you know, is going to be filled. It's going to be a place of joy, and it's going to be Christ's joy. You and I often think in our terms, and we're going to be happy. Yes, we'll have a joy. But the Epistle to the Ephesians is written to us in such a way to present to us the fact.
The facts as to what God has done for His own pleasure.
According to his own will, for his own pleasure.
And so we oftentimes don't think of it in that term in those terms, we think of how.
You know, the Lord has done all kinds of things for us. He's blessed us richly, given us these blessings that we're blessed with, all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. But really, why did He do that? Why did He choose you?
You might say, well brother.
Krupa said it was because of the sovereignty of God, and this is true. He chose us because He was made a sovereign choice. None of us would have come, but He chose us individually, but He did it for his own pleasure.
He forgave us our sins.
Why did he do it? He did it for his own pleasure.
We needed it, but he did it for his own pleasure.
He's going to rejoice over each one that is in that scene above. You'll have his hearts satisfaction says in Isaiah 53. He shall see of the fruit of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. Well, I just wanted to read this little passage because there are four things that are really.
Practically visible, perhaps, you might say, in connection with Christianity, in which we can please the Lord and we can give him joy now.
And I'll just mention what they are. One of them is that it's the ordinance of baptism. It speaks of it here in verse 18. We can be baptized and then we have the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. We remember that Lord Jesus and His death this morning.
And then we have the word of God physically, and we can be found reading the word of God ourselves.
In.
The scriptures and.
We also have the sister in display before this world.
With her head covered as she.
Is in the presence of the Lord exercising her priesthood, you might say, or where the priesthood is being exercised, covering her head, covering the natural glory of the natural man.
And allowing the glory of Christ to shine forth.
00:05:04
And all four of those things give joy to the heart of God. Why do we, why are we baptized? Let's just, I'm not going to take these things up in detail, but I just wanted to point out the fact is this.
We have very limited time in this world.
To give joy to the heart of the Lord Jesus.
We can please him with our lives and brother. Last night the hymn Singh brought out some aspects of failure and how we perhaps fail to give joy to the Lord in certain circumstances that we put ourselves into, but you and I.
Are born into this world, We're associated with a fallen creation and we're born into this world, Brother Chapter Brown used to say. We're born into this world with our backs towards God.
And what baptism does is associate us with Christ. And let's just read it in Romans chapter 6 and verse 3.
Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized should say unto Jesus Christ, were baptized unto his death?
Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death unto death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, Even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Well, there are various passages of Scripture that are given to us in the New Testament. You'll notice that it's Paul's doctrine.
And Paul tells us how we can please the Lord in this way.
And you might say, well, I'm not baptized.
Well, you know, it's normal thing, if I could put it that way, for a Christian to be baptized.
And suppose you don't baptize, you'd like to be baptized. Well, how do I do this? Well, you know, if you're a little bit older, you could just ask the older brother and one of your older brethren. You could ask your father if he's in fellowship, ask one of your older brother and say, listen, I'm a Christian. I know the Lord Jesus is my Savior.
And I want to be identified with him.
And so you know what it does is baptism. It says in Galatians chapter 3, it puts the name of Christ upon us where we go down under the water. And it says in Matthew chapter 28 that we ought to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
And now?
Before I was baptized there was associated with the heathen world, with all that went on that was opposed to Christ.
But when I was baptized, I was put under the water, and in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and brought out on the other side, and the name of Christ was placed upon me, as it were.
And I was identified with Christ publicly.
Now that's really how we are brought into the Kingdom, practically.
But you might say, well, I'm a little afraid of being baptized. I'm a little bit older, and I don't like this idea of a big ceremony and so on and so forth. Let me just read. Let's read in Acts chapter 8.
It says here.
In Acts chapter 8.
Verse 35.
Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water, And the eunuch said, See, here is water. What does hinder me to be baptized? Verse 38.
Verse 37 really isn't in the text.
He commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went down, both of them, into the water, and Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. Well, I think that's so nice. Here is a man, he was an Ethiopian. He was a part of the heathen world, and he didn't want to be associated with that heathen world anymore. And he went under the water and came up on the other side.
You know, it says there's rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one Sinner that repents.
But I believe there's rejoicing in heaven, there's joy in heaven when this.
Ordinance of baptism.
Is gone through Indiana connection with one that has faith and there's association now with the Lord Jesus, but you'll notice in Acts chapter 8 that it was just Philip and the eunuch and you'll notice too and other passages scripture.
00:10:13
Like Saul or Paul the apostle Paul and Barnabas or Silas the Philippian jailer in his house. It was midnight and there wasn't a big ceremony or anything. It's not a ceremony.
It's not a big public event and it can be done in a quiet way, but it should be done. It's normal for someone who is a believer to have.
To be baptized now we have the remembrance of the Lord, and we'll just read in First Corinthians Chapter 11.
Verse.
23 I have received of the Lord that which I also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. When He had given thanks, he break it and said, Take, eat. This is my body, which is, it should say, given for you. This do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also He took the cup, when he had stopped, saying that this cup is the New Testament in my blood.
This do ye is OFT as ye drink it in remembrance of me.
For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death until he come or announce it till he come. Well, this is the another thing that's physically that we can go through and that we can do in a public way. It says that when we do this on the Lord's Day morning, we're announcing to this world that Christ died and they don't want to remember this what took place at Calvary. They want to forget about it, don't want to think of it as.
Significant event in this world's history.
But what a joy it must give to the heart of the Lord Jesus.
To have his own.
Set everything aside and to come.
With honor, with respect.
With reverence into His holy presence.
To sing hymns to him to read.
Verses some passages of Scripture that tell of the great price that was paid at the cross of Calvary.
The love behind that work?
To have us in his presence.
In a sober, orderly way.
To sing and to.
Give him that reverence and that respect that this world does not treat him with.
Men in this world will rise and give honor to a judge in a courtroom.
Men will give all kinds of honor to dignities in this world, but they still use the name of the Lord Jesus as a.
Swear word.
But you and I can give joy to the Lord Jesus as we come into the presence of the Lord and give him that honor, that reverence that is due to him, that glory.
And so you say, well, I don't remember the Lord in his death. I've never remembered the Lord in his death. Well, how do I do this? I just want to encourage you if you haven't ever done it.
Just to go to one of your older brethren, perhaps?
If your, your father, you could, if you really don't have the courage to go see an older brother and just say, listen, I know the Lord Jesus is my savior. I would love to remember the Lord Jesus in his death. I want to give him this pleasure in this world that crucified him. I want to give him this pleasure while I'm here. And I want to say something, you know, I came up here in Hammer Bay 42 years ago or so.
And a couple of weeks later, the brethren asked me to take the gospel. And I said, oh, boy, I was a young brother. And I said, you know, that's you're asking a lot here. And brother put his hand on me, on my shoulder. He would be my father-in-law. Later on, he said, listen, I want to tell you something. The brethren are on your side.
And he said you just go and preach the gospel of the grace of God. They're on your side.
And they'll be praying with you that they'll be blessing. Just read the word of God and speak. And so you know the brethren are on your side. Those if you want to remember the Lord Jesus and his death.
Oh, don't be afraid to do it. Now we have the word of God-given to us. We've more or less run out of time here, but you know, it's necessary for us to read the word. And I'm not a very good example at all. But let's just look at Romans chapter or Acts chapter 8 again.
00:15:19
This man was physically reading the word of God.
Acts Chapter 7.
Or it's at chapter 8. I'm sorry.
Went back one chapter two man.
Verse 30. Philip ran thither.
To him, and heard him read the prophet Isaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I accept some man should guide me? And he desired Philip, that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the Scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb dumb before a shear, so opened he not his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away.
And who shall declare his generation, for his life is taken?
From the Earth.
Well, you know this man was reading the word of God.
And perhaps the first book that he'd ever acquired that was of the word of God was the prophet Isaiah.
And there was fruit for the Lord. We could read other passages, but if you read the word of God, I want to tell you this.
It'll give you joy to the heart of God Himself as He communicates by His Spirit to you. And His longing is to bring you into blessing and to have you understand the magnitude of the work of Christ and the magnitude of the blessing that He has bestowed, made available to you. And He has desired to write those things that He's written in Ephesians and in Colossians, those things.
Primarily that he has done for his own pleasure, but you know, he has written in the book of Romans and he has told us what he has done for our blessing, the fundamental principles of Christianity. He's written a whole book, Romans, to tell us what he has done for our blessing.
And for his glory as well. So that's one of the things that we can do to give joy to the heart of God, to it'll give joy to us. But I want to say this, it'll change your life if you read the word of God.
I know more than one person brought up in heathen circumstances, sometimes religious circumstances, but I can tell you I've seen people that have taken the Bible and read it from cover to cover in a matter of weeks.
That changed their life forever. Change the way they think, change the way that they dress, change the way that they speak.
It changed them for the good.
Then the last thing, this head coverings and I just maybe we could just read the passage very briefly, First Corinthians Chapter 11. Well, let's read.
Yeah, let's read Chapter 11.
In.
It says there that verse 5, verse four, every man praying or prophesying having his head covered, dishonour his head, but every woman that prayeth her prophecy with her head uncovered dishonest her head, for that is even all, as if she were shaved. For if a woman be not covered, let her be shorn also be shorn for.
This If it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered.
For indeed, a man indeed ought not to cover his head, for as much as he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. You know, dear sisters, you have a privilege that I don't have, and that is that.
We don't have time to read another passage, but you represent the church in submission to Christ. You can read Ephesians chapter 5 verse 24.
And you as brother, I have my wife beside me, her head is covered. The angels are looking and they see a picture of Christ in the church in submission. And the Lord is going to have a church in glory. She'll be in perfect submission for all eternity. She'll never raise.
His ire at all, she'll always submit to Him and always reflect His glory. And so those four things are things that we can give pleasure to the Lord.
00:20:08
Even in this scene, we can be baptized. If we're not baptized, we can remember the Lord Jesus in his death while we're waiting for him to come. And we can read His word, have a sense of his presence while we read it. And we can have that public testimony of being in submission to the will and Word of God and present that picture of Christ in the church.