Address—John Kaiser
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Yeah, yeah, I'm glad I'm out of my way home.
2000 Nine Eyes.
Turn to Isaiah.
Chapter.
45.
Isaiah 45.
Verse.
Umm, I'll start verse 9/18. For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth and made it. He hath established it. He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord.
I am Jehovah.
And there is none else.
I have not spoken in secret.
In the dark place of the earth.
I said not.
Unto the seat of Jacob, seek ye me.
In vain. In other words, God didn't tell them to seek Him and make himself inaccessible.
I, the Lord, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right.
Assemble yourselves and come near, draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations.
They have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image and pray into a God that cannot save.
Tell you and bring them there. Yeah, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from the time? From that time? Have not I the Lord? And there is no God else?
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Beside me adjust God and a savior. There is none beside me.
Look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and.
There is none else.
Over and over in this passage, God.
Asserts his.
Singularity.
And his uniqueness.
Over and over he says I am God and there is none else.
And.
It's a truth that I hope is impressed on each of our hearts this afternoon. Because that's the the umm.
Theme before me is God's singularity, his uniqueness.
And it's a subject that's too big for me.
But then it's too big for anybody here. We're going to touch on a few scriptures that.
Umm, give us a fringe of the idea.
But here it's announced that the nations have no knowledge.
It's true, the world does not recognize the God who made it.
And he says.
They have no knowledge and it's a sad fact.
That the world around us, there are so many around us going on into eternity with no knowledge of God.
But there is a sadder fact in some respects. Turn to the first chapter of Isaiah.
In verse.
Two hero Heavens.
And give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have nourished and brought up children. They have rebelled against me. The ox knows his owner, and the *** his master's crib. But Israel does not know my people, does does not consider another translation says my people don't understand.
And over and over in the prophets, particularly in the Old Testament.
We find this lament on the part of God that his own people don't know him.
His own people don't know him.
By the time.
The book of Isaiah was written. Israel had been in the land for about 500 years.
They had had plenty of opportunity to get to know Him and they didn't. And we'll find later, I'm going to look at one more verse in Isaiah before we leave Isaiah permanently. That is so to speak. We'll find that there were some that did know Him, but speaking as a whole, His people did not know Him, and they should have. They had the Scriptures. They had a history of God's intervention.
In their course.
And they didn't know him. We say, well, that's, that's sad. That's, you know, the Jews really failed. Let's turn to 1St Corinthians 15.
1St Corinthians 15.
In verse 34.
Awake to righteousness.
And sin not for some have not the knowledge of God.
I speak this to your shame.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians, who by and large were an educated, cultured group.
And he said to them.
Awake to righteousness and sin not for some have not.
The knowledge of God.
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Some among them.
Didn't have the knowledge of God, of God's ways, his character.
He said. I speak this to your shame because they should have known it. They had the Old Testament.
They probably had Isaiah as well, including in the Old Testament.
And brother, I want to take my place.
This afternoon.
With Corinthians.
I feel the shame.
I feel it.
Because I observe among us.
So many.
Who should know God better than they do?
Why did Paul say this to the Corinthians? Because there were those.
Younger who had the opportunity to know and didn't, And there were those older who had the opportunity.
To teach.
And didn't.
I remember years ago.
I was invited into a Christian home.
After the breaking of bread.
Went home Sunday, Lord's Day afternoon, looking forward to a time of Christian fellowship with that family.
And the wife served a wonderful lunch.
I didn't enjoy it.
Because soon as I got they got home, they turned on the TV.
I had hoped there might be a scripture reading. There was nothing for the Lord the rest of the day as far as I knew, and I left I.
I couldn't stay there.
I I ate the lunch, I thanked the Hostess and I I left.
And there's a lot of homes.
In which the TV and entertainment has displaced.
The regular family Bible reading.
And maybe there's a young person here who says, well, I was, I was raised in that kind of home, you know, don't make that an excuse. You have the word of God.
Scripture says the diligent soul shall be made fat.
I look back at my life and I see lots of opportunities I've missed.
I'm not alone in that.
I read recently where chapter Spurgeon said the same thing about his life.
Most here in this room could say that too, that they've wasted time, wasted opportunities to learn.
The God to learn to know, the God with whom they are going to spend eternity.
This is a preamble to my subject to give us an appetite for knowing God because.
Well, I hope to bring out here in the brief time we have some basic principles, basic thing and and just a few of them, of the God with whom we are associated and with whom we shall be associated forever.
Now there may be somebody in this room.
It says, well, it doesn't apply to me Then in that case, if you're not going to be associated with this God, you need might as well know something about the God that you're standing against. You're either with him or against him. And so we're gonna look at some characters. And the first thing we saw here in Isaiah is that God reveals himself as the one, number one, the only one, the only source of salvation.
The only one to whom man every man has to answer. He says I am God, and there is none else. And remember.
Remember that in every situation it applies in every situation, he declares himself in that passage we read as a just God and a savior.
I'm so thankful for that.
Two full revelation yes he's a just God and he's also a deliverer. He's adequate for every situation but let's go back to Isaiah before we start looking at these principles Isaiah chapter 51 and verse 19 of just a verse that I.
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It was drawn to my attention just as just minutes before this meeting, and I want to share it with you because there were some in Israel who loved God, who knew Him.
You find them described in Isaiah chapter 51.
And verse 7 Excuse me, Isaiah 51 verse 7 Hearken unto me, ye that no righteousness, the people in whose heart is my love.
The Corinthians had failed to discern righteousness because God's law, in a general sense, was not in their heart.
Had the had the Corinthians had that law in their heart as they should have, Paul would not have had to write as he did. I'm not saying we wouldn't have an epistle to the Corinthians. It would not. I had not would not have had the character it had if they had had the character they should have had if they had known. Was it say here?
The law.
Now we think of the law as something harsh. It's not. Scripture declares that the law was an expression of the love of God.
I'll leave you to find that, but it's in the Bible. It's in the book of Deuteronomy.
The law was the expression of God's love and it says my people, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. We want, we need, we need discernment in this life. We're not going to have that discernment if we don't have his law in our hearts.
This world is more confusing by the day. Not only are the thing as technology confusing, but morals are confusing. Standards can see. Everybody's promoting their own idea. There's confusion abounding around us. We're gonna get discernment. We're only gonna get it here.
Yeah, that know righteousness. You know, there's a dearth of people in this world who know what righteousness is. Uh, Don rule and I go into a, a detention center once or twice a week.
And for for some time, for years, as a matter of fact, I was using the term righteousness and, and speak to the young people and all of a sudden I realized, I mean, I noticed these blank looks on their faces. They did not know what the term righteous or righteousness meant.
This world doesn't know what righteousness is.
Pol politicians use the word. They can talk about it. They don't know what it is either, obviously, but.
Neither do the constituents.
This world has got a.
The only thing kind of righteousness this this world knows about is self righteousness. They don't know anything about the righteousness of God.
Well, we are not getting very far on our subject. Let's turn to Genesis chapter one.
You know, I, I don't, I don't, I'm not a great expositor. I, I last time I was up here afterward, her brother said to me, John, I was spent a lot of time trying to figure out why you're up there and.
And I sympathize with him.
But what I my desire is to take us through the garden of God's Word and to look at certain scriptures.
And glean what we can from them and get through it with a greater appreciation.
For his wisdom.
Genesis 11 Says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now that's a profound statement.
Most of us have learned that verse by heart, but it is a profound statement.
In the beginning, God created. I'm going to tell you something if you don't know, some here know it already.
But here you have a violation of the English language.
Because the word God is plural. Not in English it isn't, but in the Hebrew it's plural and the verb is singular. Now we don't do that in English. Matter of fact, I don't know how many languages they do do that in on a regular basis. But God isn't bound by language. In the Hebrew, God is plural and the verb is Singlish 3 The group it's, it's, it's not just a dual, but it's a plural, three or more form of God.
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And its unity in action. Unity. The very first character of God revealed in Scripture is unity.
Now maybe it's an order if you're in Hebrew, maybe the bird comes before the noun and you would say, well then his power is created first. But the two things we find in Scripture there are they're first revealed about God is.
Power and unity. Unity and power, and it's about these unity.
The unity and uniqueness go together. We're going to find that this God is there is unity.
Connect with God because He is unique.
He is singular and yet he is plural in the sense of unity. He says hi, there is he says I am God and there is none else. And this theme of unity goes through Scripture. You only find the word unity in two passages in Scripture. You find it once the Old Testament in in Psalm 133. We may look at that later. You find it in Ephesians chapter 4 in the New Testament where it's mentioned twice. But unity is a theme in Scripture even though it's.
The word itself is not used much. Well we find here in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and that corresponds to a verse that was brought out in the gospel the other evening, Romans chapter one and verse 20 where it says that in creation is revealed God's eternal power.
And Godhead, Godhead. Two things.
Well.
Let's look at something else here. It says God created the heavens and the earth.
And you know, people, uh, we have astronomers who spend their lives studying the heavens and the more they study, the more they find. And they have, just recently they announced that they discovered planets around lots of stars. And recently they were happy to announce to the world for whatever value it has, that they found a planet or a planet on some star five times the size of Jupiter.
All that does is tell me that the earth is not a major planet, because if you put the earth beside Jupiter itself, it looks like a marble, you know? But it's an interesting statement here. It says God created the heavens. That includes the whole universe, this whole universe that man is still exploring and discovering. God created it all says he said, created the heavens and the earth.
Why don't say the heavens and the earth or the heavens and the planets? Because God chose one place 1 insignificant place as far insignificant as far as size or condition.
One place called Earth in which to reveal himself.
Before I go any further, I want to read to you, umm, some points I hope to cover because if I don't mention now I might forget and and I'm not gonna cover them also this afternoon but last night knowing my memory.
And how easily I'm discombobulated by being up on the podium as well. I sat down and wrote out a few statements. I'd like to read them to you.
Our God is unique.
He is original.
He is exclusive.
He is jealous. He is a God of wonderful variety, and we see that in creation around us. We're discovering more and more all the time. And I might mention that I read recently that they think there may be more species in the ocean that have not yet been discovered than have been discovered.
Wouldn't surprise me a bit. He's a God of wonderful variety, but he is not, and this is under. This is important to understand. He is not a God of alternatives. He is not a God of alternatives.
He is a God of opportunities, but he is not a God of options. The world likes to think, well, it doesn't matter what I do, you know, there's lots of options. No, there isn't. God is not a God of options.
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He has many ways.
In revelation, but only one way. In responsibility.
For any given individual or group of individuals in a given circumstance at a given time, he has only one authorized course of action.
There are patterns in God's ways, but no clones.
He may repeat an idea, but never a deed.
He is holy.
Absolute and unchanging. Consequently, he is never neutral.
This is a very important thing to understand about God. We will see some scripture, Lord willing, about that. God is never neutral. People like to say, oh, God doesn't care about little things. That's not true. God cares about everything. The Lord Jesus said to his disciples when he was here on earth. The hairs of your head are all numbered. Is that because?
God is bored. I'm speak reverently.
We don't bother counting our hairs, but the fact is God is engaged in every detail of the universe. He's engaged, He's interested, He's concerned, He sustains the whole universe. He made it. He cares. He's a faithful creator. As a faithful creator, He is concerned with everything he made and so.
He is never neutral. There's no Gray areas with God, and Him is no darkness at all. Scripture tells us there's no Gray areas with God. He's not neutral. He's never neutral. We'll see some scripture about that. Lord willing. He is, and he never compromises. We may think God compromises. No, he doesn't. God never compromises.
But he does show mercy. He does show grace because he is love.
Now.
So God has chosen to umm, just like he chose one man, Noah, just like he chose another man, Abraham. So he chose this world in which to reveal his purposes. And he says Christ as once suffered the just for the unjust, that I might bring us to God, and God could reveal himself perfectly.
And his son and fulfill all his purposes.
Perfectly.
Through that work that the Lord Jesus did and which is completed in US is yet to be completed in US. There's no need for another creation on any other planet.
So that's why it says here God created the heavens and the earth because he's gonna focus on this planet. Let's turn to chapter 5.
Chapter 5 and verse one. This is the book of the generation of Adam and the day that God created man.
In the likeness of God made he him male and female, created he them and blessed them, and called their name Adam.
We say I thought Adam was a man. Well, Adam was a man, but Adam was also a union of a man and a woman.
Because God wanted to display unity on this earth.
We know how long that lasted.
Satan came along and tempted Eve, and Adam followed Eve's lead, and then he blamed her.
And you had the first quarrel, the first controversy in a marriage.
Division. This unity came in. Adam blamed his wife.
You know, she didn't feel good about that.
And that was the beginning of disunity.
In in this thing that God had created, but he called their name Adam, because God desires unity and his people. He desires unity in marriage, He desires unity in the assembly. And the same things that break up a marriage break up the assembly. Adam said my wife, the wife that you gave me did this.
And you hear people say, well, that brother that or that sister did this or that.
That the Lord join us with turn to let us turn to Matthew. We see the corresponding passage in Matthew chapter 19.
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Matthew 19 and verse 3 The Pharisees also came to him, tempting him, and saying unto them, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause, and the answer to send it to them? Have you not read that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female, male and female, which first, male, 1St and female? And that order is carried out through scripture of order.
Do you ever think there is order in unity? Yes, there's order in unity. Order is one of the features of unity in God's patterns.
There's order in the Godhead, and there's order in marriage. And so it made them male and female at the beginning, and said, for this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, And they twain shall be one flesh. Therefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, Let not man put asunder. And when God and God joins Saints together, in the beginning God joined.
The Saints into one body. It was one body in principle. It was one body in practice.
And division came in, but it was something God had joined together.
And God hates division in the body. Division and the testimony, shall we say, rather the body. The body can't be divided, but the testimony can.
And so it says here, what careful God has joined together, let no man put asunder. And there are those who who have.
Shall we say divided?
Gone off, they think. Nothing dividing the Saints. But they wouldn't. They don't know they they married, divorced. Oh no, they wouldn't do that. But they're the same in principle.
It's undoing something God did.
In a practical sense.
What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder.
And, and in this connection, I'll imagine something else. You know, it's interesting that when the Pharisees came to the Lord Jesus and asked him about divorce, he said from the beginning it was not. So he went back to the beginning. You asked somebody today, I haven't done it. I won't do it, but I, I was tempted to ask my perspective sons, my prospective son-in-law or my one of my sons, have you ever considered polygamy?
And I know what their answer would be.
No.
I said, why not? Well, we, we have the pattern in Scripture, brother. We have the pattern for the assembly in Scripture. In the beginning it was one in fellowship in in expression and it's going to be that way. In the end, the pattern is there, it's just messed up down here.
I believe that there is one.
Proper.
Representation of the body of Christ on Earth.
One authorized, shall I say.
Because that is the way God works is according to the pattern.
Umm, let's look at.
Exodus Chapter 30, yet another aspect of of.
God's uniqueness.
Verse 13.
This shall they give everyone that passes among them that are numbered half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary, a shekel of 20 guerras. 1/2 shekel shall be the offering of the Lord. Just this phrase, the shekel of the sanctuary, it brings before us the fact that God has a standard. God is absolute, and this is another thing we could trace through Scripture. God is absolute. He doesn't change. He says He doesn't change.
He is the standard of everything and he provides the standard for everything.
And so they had to shackle the sanctuary. If you look through Scripture, you'll find that shekel the word, shekel the sanctuary. That phrase is mentioned in a number of books of the Bible, and other other references to other shekels are mentioned as well.
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But there was the shekel of the sanctuary and this, you know, we're so prone to make judgments of things ourselves and forget the standard isn't the sanctuary.
There was a shekel associated with the sanctuary.
And there's a standard for each of us, and it's not down here, it's up there.
And we need to consult that standard.
Frequently you don't. If people who have scales of it, particularly with mechanical scales, they need they, we have a Bureau standards in the United States where these scales have to be checked. People who are engaged in selling things by weight, they have to have their their scales checked periodically because everything in this world deteriorates. And so that we have a Bureau of standards here in the United States. They have one in Canada too and.
Umm, the world tries to maintain some order, but the world has its own standards and everything is falling apart these days.
God's standard doesn't change. It's interesting that you can find the shekel of sanctuary mentioned in Ezekiel 600 years later, isn't it still still 20 guerras?
In connection with that, let's turn to 1St Corinthians chapter 2.
First Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 15.
But he that is spiritual judges or discerns.
All things simple statement, Paul had to inform the Corinthians about it because they didn't know about it.
He the spiritual discerns all things.
This is just to reinforce what I said earlier about the fact that.
God is never neutral, discerns all things. In the Hebrews 4 it says the word of God is quick and powerful, and divides between this soul and spirit and the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
God is never neutral about any situation that comes up. We say, well, there's been, you know, there's a fault on both sides. Yes, there's always fault on both sides. But there's also the Scripture says that they which are approved may be made manifest doesn't say they're better, it says they're approved. You know, God has his standards, he has his principles, and you may have two, two people that appear equally nice, present themselves.
At customs to enter a country.
But if one doesn't comply with the standard and the other, say, has the passport and one doesn't, or is one's passport is not in order and the other is, it's not a matter of the niceness of the person. It's a matter of meeting the government's standard and one is approved, a stamped approved and the other isn't.
And so just a thought to to help us. God is never neutral. He that is spiritual, God is spiritual. He that is spiritual discerns all things. He's never neutral.
These are things that help us. I have found such help in in my own life and as I just discovered some of these things and some of these things I I discovered simply from the word of God and others little some of these statements that I read to you earlier are statements that I came across in a book somewhere and I guess it fits. We can be thankful for the help we get from our brethren encourage you to read the ministry. I wish I'd read more of it.
Especially the Word of God. Let's turn to umm, Deuteronomy chapter 6.
Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 3 here therefore O Israel.
And observe to do it, that it may be well with thee.
That's that, that you may increase mightily, as the Lord God thy Father says, promised thee in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is 1 Lord. He keeps coming back to this because he needs to be the focus. And it's interesting here, in this case, here, the Lord our God is plural. The verb is singular. There's no ver. Actually, probably not in the Hebrew, it's not there, but notice.
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God plural 1 Lord, the unity again brought before us, because unity.
Is a an attribute of deity and it's something that hates. Satan hates and the children of those who are going into a land of idolatry.
And God knew what they were going to meet.
And so he sets before them the fact that he is unique.
That he is 1 Lord, and he says, And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart.
With all thy soul, with all thy might, God can never set before man.
At less than perfect standard, of course they couldn't achieve that.
But that's the standard he set before them.
And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them.
Diligently unto thy children, and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou lieest down.
And when thou risest up, and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be as friendless between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house, and on thy gates.
The children of God were supposed to have the word, the word of God, continually before them. Why? Because they were going into a land that had been filled with idolatry, and they needed the reference to God continually before them. It's.
I'm distressing to me that so many households beginning these days, you go into them. Christians, supposedly Christian households, Christian young couples, you go into them and not a single, at least not that I some houses I've been I could not see a single scripture. Text on the wall doesn't line with the scripture. We need to give the word of God priority and prominence in our homes.
Let's turn to.
Umm, first John 5. Just very quickly find a corresponding New Testament passage. First John chapter 5.
And I I I'm right now I'm feeling like I'm so just to mention here I got.
3 pages of notes to kind of help me and it's obviously we're, our time is going so fast. I'm not gonna get through them at all, even a fraction of them. Uh, first John chapter 5.
Inverse.
20 We know the Son of God has given The Son of God is coming has given us an understanding that we may know him that is true.
And we are in him. That is true, even as in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the.
True God.
And eternal life, thee true God and eternal life. And then in direct contrast to that, we have the following exhortation. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. We need that. We need that. It's idolatry that draws the soul from the true God.
Uh, let's turn to First Samuel chapter 12.
Stop.
Verse 23.
Moreover, As for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you, but I will teach you the good.
And the right way, the good and the right way, you know, again, I want to stress, God is not a God of alternatives. People say, well, you know, there's, you know, God doesn't care. You can do this and do that. And you know, I remember.
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Remember years ago, a young couple told me they were leaving the leaving the Lord's Table, leaving the assembly. They didn't say they were leaving the Lord's Table, but they said to me, we're going to find a place where we can have fellowship. They were making themselves the standard. We are not the criteria of anything. There is a right way. You say, well, this is Judaism. This is narrowness. Let's turn to.
First Peter. Second Peter. Excuse me, Second Peter.
Second Peter.
Chapter.
Second Peter chapter 2 and verse 15 Peter says of certain ones which have forsaken the right way. It doesn't change. There is always only one right way for any purpose at any given time. There's only one God is not a God of alternatives.
It's all the way through Scripture. It's a pattern through Scripture.
Job understood this, by the way. It's amazing, but Job did understand. He didn't understand a trial he was going through. But it's interesting to see what he did did say in Job 28.
This is a verse that I often heard, read, at least I see, I remember, I seen remember hearing Brother Hayhoe read this. I shouldn't say often, but it impressed my impressed me early in life.
Verse 7.
June 28, verse seven. There is a path which no foul knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen. The lion's whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.
Just.
Job acknowledging the uniqueness of God's ways. In connection with that, let's look at another passage in the New Testament.
Umm First Corinthians chapter 10.
There's a wonderful passage.
I sometimes wish Joe could have had this this verse to encourage him.
First Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13.
There hath no temptation taken you, but such is is common to man, but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you're able, but will with the temptation make also also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. Well, that sounds nice. God's gonna make a way. No, it's it's if you look in Darby's translation or better translation is better than that.
God will make thee way.
God will make their way. God, if you're in a situation right now that you don't understand.
God already has the way through it.
God already has the way, the way. And you know, sometimes we get impatient. We try to work our work our own way and we make things a worse mess. We don't wait to find God's way. I'd like to share with you a statement I ran across years ago that has impressed me.
The willing heart will seek.
God's way.
The willing heart will seek God's way.
The obedient heart will find God's way. God doesn't make himself hard to find. He doesn't make his ways hard to find. But there has to be the willing and obedient heart, the Lord Jesus said, if he.
He that wills to do His will shall know, so the willing heart will seek God's way.
Are you willing to seek God's way? It isn't something it's, you know, God doesn't play games. He's not casual. God is not casual. We often are. We're casual with the things of God.
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The willing heart will seek seek God's way. The obedient heart will find God's way.
And every other heart will find.
An excuse.
And there's plenty of people this day, these days, Christians included, who are living with excuses. And they make excuses. They know they made mistakes and they, they and they, instead of repenting, they still make excuses.
The willing heart will seek God's way. The obedient heart will find God's way in every other heart.
We'll find.
An excuse. Now what are you looking for this evening? Are we looking for God's way or are we looking for an excuse?
Good question to ask ourselves.
So it says here in second, in First Corinthians 10, there is no temptation taking you, but such is common to man. But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make thee way.
To escape that ye may be able to bear it.
And we haven't. We're running out of time. I want to refer to Psalm 133, where it says how blessed it is when brethren dwell together in unity. And I wonder if that psalmist.
I how how he had, how he'd even know about that. Wha, wha. Where had he ever seen Unity? Your brother dwelling together? You he'd seen. He'd seen what looked like Unity to him, I presume. And there are lots of things that look like Unity, and I'd hoped to cover that.
I read somewhere, you know, you, you, we just, we, we don't understand the nature of unity. We need God not only to understand the nature of unity, but unity as a divine attribute.
Only comes from God. That's why we have the unity of the spirit in the New Testament. And umm, I may run over a minute to speak about that, but we don't. Unity is not something man made. Uh, I think was, maybe it's Mark Twain said you can tie 2 cats together by the tail and they're united, but there's no unity. Maybe it wasn't Mark Twain that sounds like him.
But just because things are tied together doesn't mean there's unity. And I remember a brother out in California once who had gotten away from the Lord and gotten away from the Lord's table, and he got into this fellowship and he was there for a long time.
And then he came back and I said, why you come back? He says. There was no unity.
He said. I went out thinking I was getting something better, but there was no unity there.
Let's just very quickly we're we're abridging a lot that I hope to cover, but let's look at Ephesians chapter 4 and say just a few brief words about the unity of the Spirit. It's not man's unity. It's not something we create.
Let's look at this Ephesians chapter 4.
Verse One. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called, with all loneliness and meekness and long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Now, what does it mean to keep the unity of the Spirit? The unity of the Spirit is the Spirit's unity.
But what does it mean to keep it?
Doesn't mean we work at it.
Not exactly. The word keep here is also found in one other passage that I think is quite enlightening. Turn to June 6th. That is the original group, umm, the original Greek word. Darby's translation uses the word maintain. Other translations due to I presume. But Even so, the idea of maintaining the unity, the spirit doesn't really give us a clear thought. But it's interesting we haven't Jude verse 6 here and the angels which kept not their first estate.
But lest their own habitation He hath reserved an everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. The angels which kept not their first estate, that word kept is the same word.
They didn't stay where they were put.
They kept not their first estate and the Ephesians, you can read how they were built together. They were brought into an estate, the unity of the Spirit, and they were to keep that estate to not to maintain it as something to which which belonged to them, but to maintain it as something to which they belonged.
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How wonderful. That's what grace did. It brought them into the unity of the Spirit. And and like everything else that grace brings us into in a practical sense, we can lose. They were in the practical part of the epistle here, and so there was responsibility here to see that they kept.
In that state to maintain the unity of the Spirit says in the uniting bond of peace. And I'll, I'm, I'm gonna comment on peace, I'm gonna have to stop because our time is out.
But for years I ponder why.
Peace. How does peace? I mean, peace is nice.
But how does peace says the endeavor to keep this, the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace? And I thought, how well, how does peace keep anything? Because we think in terms of peace is something dormant, something Placid, something static, uh, something inoffensive.
It's interesting in scripture.
That when we're talking about spiritual things, this peace is one of the fruits of the Spirit. This is dynamic. The piece that we have is dynamic. The Lord Jesus said my peace I give unto you not as the world gives. The world has something they call peace and it's a piece of it's, it's dormancy, it's it's a status quo. It's.
Dead, frankly.
The peace we have is dynamic. Ephesians chapter 2 it says He is our peace.
In UMM Philippians chapter 4 is referred to earlier in one of the meetings. It says the peace of God shall Garrison your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. This is a powerful piece, something we need to experience.
And then in the Colossians, it's let's turn to one in Colossians just present.
A final scripture.
Colossians Chapter.
Umm 3.
Verse 15.
And let the peace of Christ.
The peace of the Christ.
Rule in your heart's rule.
That means it's effective. It controls our hearts. We need to know more of that dynamic piece that we've been given. Well, how do we get to know it?
Turn of me to Psalm 119. We'll stop here. Psalm 119.
We get back where we started.
So I'm 119. Here's a averse to help us.
You know, the piece that we know I'm sure far exceeds anything.
The psalmist had in mind when he wrote this Psalm.
Some 119 verse 165 great peace have they which love thy law.
And nothing.
Shall offend them nothing shall stumble them great peace have they that love thy love over and over in these meetings this week and we've come back to the necessity of the word of God. This in the same Psalm you find this verse. Oh, how I love thy law. It is my meditation.
All the day.
That which governs our lives.
And keeps our hearts.