God's Ways from Adam to Eternity Part 1

Address—Norman Berry
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Vestal, NY, May 31, 1991 Address to Christians by Brother Norman Berry.
Called from above and heavenly man by bird.
Who wants were born in love?
Earth.
As pilgrims.
Hair wasting God, heavenly home.
Our portion.
Is dangerous.
Yet to come.
Well, it's nice to be back here again after 3 1/2 years.
Happy memories of many visits in the last 35 years ago the assembly.
But the Lord has laid on my heart. I trust his for the blessing of each one of us.
I see some young ones here. I'm going to try to make it as simple as I can.
And.
We're going to look at a vast scope of of Eternity, as you can see on the chart.
God in the past eternity never was non existent. All was was an eternity. All it was is, I should say, God in the eternity of the future all of us will be. And then the little time, the integral of time. So far about 6000 years. Pretty small isn't it? In comparison with eternity, a little brief spell of time. Here we are.
We're in it.
Wonderful to have a link and a word of God that would just show us that you're a great nation is considered one of the superpowers. And we poor hill Christians are way out on the edge there and our voices aren't heard very much in the mighty power of your nation is, uh, all pervasive all over the world. It's not so at all. It's just the reverse. The nations are just the dust in the bucket, as the scripture says.
And you and I are the center of God's purposes and thoughts, centered in each one of us. In order that you and I would the more fully understand what God is saying, we have the ability.
If we're obedient and so I would like to link the first eternity, at least the first creation.
With the second creation, I'd like to link the first part of the Bible, the Old Testament, with the New Testament, to show that the whole thing is 11 great purpose of glory to God, the exaltation of Christ, and the blessing of mankind.
All in in this little period of time.
So first of all I want to give you some links of the Old Testament Psalm 102.
And I just mentioned before I start with the approval of you brethren, I would like to talk uh, tonight about this first part. Uh, it's a big subject. I took four nights, 4 meetings. Uh, when I take this up, normally I'm going to try to put it into three. Tonight we would might get past the 1St and just a little bit into the second creation and we'll stop. And then, Lord willing, on Lord's Day afternoon we'd go ahead.
Uh, with the the balance. So Psalm 102.
Verse 18.
Now here is the Old Testament looking on to the future. They didn't know what they were writing here. David was possibly the writer, but look at what it says in verse.
00:05:05
18 Remarkable Now the book the Bible is the only book that was ever written that was settled in heaven before it was written. And so we know that we're talking about divine, uh, writing. Now here's what it says before the New Testament is written. This shall be written for the generation to come and the people which shall be created. Notice that not made shall praise the Lord.
All of the work of the first creation and the second creation are all going to end in praise to God.
He is going to be glorified. We're going to add another chart on the bottom here, Lord willing. And we will see the the work of the enemy, the frustrated. But God is never going to be frustrated. And I just trust that you people, young ones here, will realize that we're in a wonderful life, joyful life. If we walk in separation from heaven it would hinder. Now there is the Old Testament. Looking forward to the New Testament. Psalm one or two.
Now let's look in First Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 11.
Now here is the backward glance.
The versus prior to this was a sweep of the history of the Old Testament. So now he sums it up in verse 11. Now all these things.
Happen, happen. I'm talking about writing here. It's saying all these things happened, all the Old Testament happening. They are all words we might say actors.
Not in a sense of being pretty pretending as actors are these days, but everybody was living out what God purposed that they would do. Moses, Abraham, all those people didn't know what they were doing, but they were were acting it out, noticed the rest of it. All these things happened on the M4 and samples see the margin says tight or shattered. And they are.
Written there it is looking back to the Old Testament now.
For our admonition. Oh, here comes the word. The word just stir us up. Now wake us up to make us realize that we better pay attention if we are going to be enjoying this great work that God is doing. The Old Testament looking forward, the New Testament looking back and saying, all those things happened and were written for our admonition. Uh, what does it say Upon whom the ends of the ages are Come. What would that mean? The end of the ages?
We're going to see that the first creations that was made, that happened, took place.
It wasn't perfect.
Doesn't hurt. And we're going to see that there was an end to it. And we're going to see that you and I are in the end, or at least are part of the end, or we participate. I should say in the end, to the extent that you and I are going to hear what the Lord is saying to you tonight. You dear young ones, I just trust not to listen to me. Don't think of me, but get the message from the Lord, because he's got a message for you.
He is deeply.
Interested in every minute of your life he wants to to show you and listen. And and if we listen, we have a bunch of fun. Oh, this is a wonderful life. And then the world won't have any attraction for us. So it's telling us that Now, another verse, First Corinthians 1546. You don't need to turn to it. I'll quote it. And it says this. Now, that was not first, which is spiritual, but that which is natural. We're gonna look at the natural first.
Then that which is spiritual.
Wonderful. That links the two of them together. How about how did that was not first, which is spiritual, but that which is natural afterward? That which is spiritual. So beautiful. How it's all linked together.
Now.
Let's go to Psalm 130.
5:00 or 1:39.
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We're smoking now. Here's this is talking exclusively about the first creation, the creation of the first. No, not necessarily. I don't want to be get complicated 1St and 2nd verses of Genesis sometimes, people.
Have explained that there is a vast amount of time between the two. I'm not speaking about that. I'm talking about our first creation now, as we find in the second verse of Genesis. So here's what it says. I will praise the verse 413914. I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works.
And that my soul know right. Well, my substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret, and curiously rocked in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being on purpose. And in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none.
There were none, was none of them and so on. So what do we find now? We find we're going to look at this first creation and we're going to see that God started out in that new creation and he made all the sun and the moon He just spoke and they all exist. Sun, it was formed on the 4th day. But light was formed by just God saying let there be light and there was light.
So lights, we'll try to remember this light was the beginning of the first creation. We're going to see the darkness close. The first creation, we're going to see that life was formed in the first creation. Life is only in blood circulatory system of the human body or animals and of breath.
Not enough trees and so on. I never.
Uh, they never live in the Bible. They grow. So it's only this.
Wonderful human body. The human body is the masterpiece of the hue of the creative power of God. Just think, see a whole crowd of people walking along and there there's not a sound and the whole body is all the the 27 bones alone in one foot.
And all of those bones are, uh, they're not rattling at all, don't you know? They The whole thing just works silently, not perfectly as we're going to see in a minute. Very good. But the human being is a masterpiece of that first creation.
And we're going to come. We're going to try to remember this bit. I'm not going to be jumping back and forth. We're going to remember that God was using this only as a type or a shadow of the earth's body.
That is you and me in the new creation. Now let's go over to Genesis Chapter One, Part 2.
I said that it wasn't perfect. I want to show you from the scriptures.
Verse 31 of chapter one.
And God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good. Doesn't say perfect, very good. Why wasn't it perfect? But a shadow, A shadow?
Of what was to come that was going to be put.
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So that's plain, isn't it? That shows.
We now are going to speak about. Now we're looking our chart. You'll notice that we've marked it wide and then getting narrower. Wide and then getting narrower and then no change here and we're going to explain it. Here's the first man that was born. His name was at least it was made.
At right. Good for you listening. Yeah, I had a first man.
And he had a wife. And what was her name?
He right, Yeah. Was Eve born?
What happened then? How she put them on the for? How did she come here?
Right. Very good for you, the woman.
Came out of the man's sight. It's not amazing that.
You're you're going to remember now that these are just pictures of what was going to happen in the perfect creation, that the new man is going to come out of the 1St, at least out of the side of the first man of the second creation. So you see that everything that was happening was just happening happenstance, as they say, it had a perfect reason. So here we are.
Now it says God surveyed the whole thing and he said very good, very good. Started off well, started with light, started with light, ends in darkness, ends in death.
Effect. And unless you and I get this, your dear younger ones, I hope you get this now. The first creation ends in death, but we're going to look and see how very good the whole thing was. Adam was made out of the dust of the earth, and he had a boy. His son was Cain, the first boy. What did the first boy do to the second boy? Can any of you girls remember?
That's right, children wasn't that terrible. It was so terrible, the first person that is born in this world.
Listen to Satan and kill his brother. Murdered, he Go to the the last book in the Bible and you're going to find that this one Satan who hates the Lord Jesus Christ, he is a murderer from the beginning. It's always seen in the very beginning. First man. See, we put a red line down here because this is God's purpose, God's purpose.
And so the first boy is born, and he murders his brother well.
What about What's God going to do now? Well, he has another boy, and his name is Seth, and Seth was the son of Abraham and Adam and Eve. And so on it went then that the next one, the next one, everyone.
Boy grew up, had a little baby and his wife had a baby and there was a boy and he grew up. And on it went. On it went and on it went. And you know, from here to here for 2000 years, 2000 years. Abraham. It's easy to remember Abraham's date because he lived in 1991.
Easy to remember that, Yeah 1991 Abraham BC What does BC stand for?
That's hard, right? Good for you, B For Rice, whole world kind of dates everything from Christ. I hate that name. But God has made this, this first creation to all hinge around God's beloved son. And so everything went on until Abraham came along here and God said, huh.
Speaking reverently, I'm going to make a special family and I'm going to give them lots of brains and I'm going to give them lots of strength, and I'm going to give them great ability to make music and do wonderful things and invent a wheel and all those things. And that was what Abraham was. He was the father of a whole race of people called the children.
Of Israel we had a son, and his name was Isaac. And one day God said to Abraham, take your boy and what?
00:20:09
Yeah, boy, that would have broken this line.
But he only had one son there, by his wife Sarah.
God was testing him. He's testing every one of us here tonight, just the same way they're all pictures. And Abraham.
Didn't sacrifice his boy, but it was a test. And so Isaac grew up and he had a boy. And by the name of Jacob and so on and on and on and on. And they went down and down and down until a man by the name of David. And David lived around the year 1000 BC or 3000 years from here. I'm gonna show you an amazing thing that in 3000 years.
There was never one break from father to son. Imagine.
Who did that? God.
First creation. Very good.
Even in better than the royal family, there hardly goes maybe five or six or seven generations breaks down have to go to an uncle or somebody. And so the royal line kind of breaks never broken 3000 years right down to David how God said of that family of the Israelites.
To make 1A king, it's going to be the king. What are they doing that for uh, because he had in mind the new creation. It was a secret all locked in the heart of God from that past eternity. Ephesians 3 and three tells us that God had a purpose hidden and so David there.
It's strange, isn't it? Something's going to happen here because we've got two boys here. One boy by the name of Solomon and the other one by the name of Nathan. There's another.
Miracle. Absolute miracle. Because this boy, this man, Solomon, he grows up and he has a son and a son, has a son and a son and a son and a son and a son. And here is another son, Nathan, who is also the son of David, and he has a son and he has a son and a son is a son and a son. And here there are two lines going along now.
Sure. And what's happening? Oh, it's graduating going on for 1000 years.
And then we find that a boy is born and his name is gifts.
But what is Joseph? Is he the king? Yes, he is.
We were in the city of Nazareth and we walked along those streets that this man Jesus, who is God, lived there in that city of Nazareth, and he was in that little village at despised place. Nobody even pays any much attention to it, they just don't recognize it much in Israel. And so Jesus was at least Joseph was born there and he was the descendant.
Of great King Solomon.
And you read that in the first chapter of Matthew, there's the unbroken line down to just and why isn't Joseph the king?
Oh, because God had said that the.
Circumstance. Head.
Would.
With bruise.
I haven't got it right. How's it going, John? There's serpents.
The woman the seed of the woman shall uh.
Bruise.
Yeah, the circumstances. Thank you.
Jesus.
Was God beloved Son? He had to be born of the seed of a woman, not of the seed of the man. That's an impossible natural condition that a person, a baby, could be born.
To a woman without a man. But God said so right in the beginning of the Bible that the seed of the woman. And so here we find a natural line going on in parallel that's in the 4th chapter called Luke's Gospel And here they are going on for 1000 years. Now probably they knew each other, but there were those two lines going on. But what about Mary?
00:25:19
Mary apparently had no brothers.
What's going to happen there? Well, if you look in the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy and in Numbers, I think it is, there was a man by the name of Zelophehad.
And yeah, he has a whole bunch of girls, but no boys in the family. I see one of the boys here, but suppose there was no brother in the Old Testament. All was the the, the, all the owning of the property had to go to the boy. No boy. I read that for many years and I wondered why. What's that whole chapter in that Old Testament book 4?
I take so much time to do. Oh, it's making the provision in God's wisdom for the fact that this.
Mary was going to be married to Joseph and Joseph was going to because it said in Jerome there that the inheritance would pass on to the girls that married a man in her own tribe.
And the inheritance would pass on and that man would raise up the seed for that, that tribe or that family. Just think of that long, long 1500 years before Jesus was born. Mary is a virgin, and she's never married to Joseph until after Jesus is born. Wonderful.
Now I want to just relate this. I'm going to say to you this, that you and I.
Must remember that every detail of your life has a purpose in it.
Just the same as God was guiding those two lines, nobody knew about it. It was all happening. God was never allowing a break in this royal line coming down to Joseph. But because of Solomon's, he was given a conditional promise of blessing that if your family keeps on, you won't lack a man. But he failed. They they say they failed. And so.
Jesus.
Who? Mary doesn't have Solomon's blood?
She does. He does have speaking Reverend with David to Nathan, not to Psalm. That line was was broken.
Miracle. That just shows how wonderfully God's Word is performed. So on it goes and goes until, as I said there, Jesus.
Is born and after Jesus is born.
Joseph and Mary. Mary. And so here are the 2 lines. Miracle again. And Jesus, the promised Messiah has come. At long last, after all those centuries of promise, Jesus arrives. We know the story, don't we? We know it so well that sometimes we lose interest in this part of it. But here is the core of the whole thing. Jesus.
Presented himself Matthew's Gospel as the promised king, and when we come to the 11Th chapter and on, we find that he's rejected. Imagine, after all God had done, and here is Jesus.
The directs of God. Unbroken. Isn't that the point I imagine Unbroken. Right on. He erases his pictures. You see that?
They hang them on a car.
I hang them on a cross.
What happens now?
Let's go to John's Gospel, chapter 12.
John's Gospel Chill 12 and verse 31.
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Now the verses starts with the word now now.
Is the judgment.
Of this world now is the judgment of this world. Do we get that?
Did we get that?
Do you understand that God now is saying I'm finished, I'm finished with the first creation?
Since my son.
To be the Messiah, to establish a Kingdom here on this earth that would go on forever.
And the world has said we don't honor.
This is the final culmination of the rebellion of the human race from Adam right to Christ and God. Speaking reverently now is God his answer, and he says, speaking reverently. I'm finished.
I'm going to destroy the whole thing. I'm going to burn it all up and destroy it all.
It's like the wonder of it. Oh, that would grip your souls, I know Your younger ones, you might say. Well, I heard all that so long ago. If you're thinking that, you're in a bad state of soul. Because nothing is going to occupy our hearts in eternity forever but the death of Jesus Christ.
And unless you and I realize that that there are two things. One is that the first creation ended. And I'm going to tell you this, you ended too, at the death, of course.
Romans 6 tells us that.
Tells us Galatians 220 I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live. I am crucified with Christ. This tells us that the world's judgment has been pronounced. John's Gospel chapter 3 and verse 16 says he's at 17. Or yeah, around that.
He that believeth not is condemned already. What's that mean? Well, it just means that there's no more judgment for the unsaved person. It's already declared. It's announced as he carried it out. No, he hasn't. Why doesn't he carry it out?
Because God has no power to do it. Oh, don't say that.
He has the power. Why doesn't he carry it out? Because in his untallable love, he has turned the cross around, speaking reverently, and he makes that door to a new creation.
Just a second. I through death now.
To the death of the Lord Jesus, God is able to say I'm finished, I'm going to destroy it. But why hasn't he done it? Because he is so kind and merciful. Peter and Peter's epistle. It says that people say, Oh no change since the creation of the world. They don't know that the world was destroyed by a flood. God, as it were, speaking reverently.
Wash the world with water.
Did it do the job? No.
First man that came out of the Ark got drunk.
God had to wash it with blood.
Arms official says not by water only, but by water and blood.
Less precious blood, Christ washed you and me from our sins forever, making us now part of the new creation, the same time sealing the judgment of this world.
Now is the judgment of this work hasn't been carried out yet. It's going to be going to destroy and not burn up the whole world, but burn up the surface of it to cover it. And he's going to make a new world. He is. He is. We're living just at the last moments. We do believe. Now, as I trust I have made it plain, the death of Christ is the end of the first creation.
And if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, that old life ended with Jesus on the cross. Don't take time. You read it in Romans chapter 6.
Do we believe it? I'm going to say this your life shows whether you believe it or not.
Your life as you live here in Vestal Andica shows whether you believe that your old life died with Christ. Let's look at a verse.
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In 2nd Corinthians 5.
The 17th.
Therefore.
Therefore.
Let's put there for because of what has gone before. Therefore, therefore.
If any man or anyone be in Christ.
Is or there is a new creation.
Plan New creation.
Did you know that you were in the new creation girl?
No, not our heads in. It's. I hope it's real.
That's what God is saying now. Started all over again, a whole new one. And this one starts with life. No, it starts with death.
Three hours. I tremble to speak of it. Three hours of darkness on the cross our blessed Savior took the punishment for the sins of everyone of us here in this little group tonight, who has put our trust in the Lord Jesus that would have taken you to hell, brother. Drown forever. And you never could have paid the price of it being a billion years.
Inhale and come to God and say, have I paid enough? Never.
Blessed Lord Jesus, He took the sins of each one of us here, and in three hours he took that punishment.
Does that affect us?
Do we say sin? That's terrible.
Pain that I've done in my life.
If we realize that someone one time said, If I realized like God realizes.
The seriousness of one sin. If I committed a sin, I'd be sick, sick all day. I'd be sick all day.
That's how awful. And try to remember this.
Ya.
2 words don't forget it. Sin separates.
Sin separates you and me from happiness. Sin separates husbands and wives. Sins separates parents from children. Sin is going to separate in hell.
Body, soul and spirit reunited and standing before the Lord Jesus Christ. And that person is going to be separated from God that loved that person and sent his son to die for that person. He's going to separate that person. That's what hell is, you know, rather than.
Fire, burning and so on. This is the separation of spirit, soul and body from God forever and that is what is going to be. And just let me tell you this one time down in Florida I was speaking to a well off family where we rented that place from them and they kind of scoffed at the gospel and the wife when I was talking to her about the magnitude of sin and of the gift of God, she said Mr. Barry must be wonderful to be like you are.
She said, you know you're safe, you're going to heaven and your sins are forgiven. Go out into the town, do all the sinning you want **** it must be nicer. Said it with a smile. Oh it. I never forgot. I said to Missus Carpenter. If I said yes to that, I am not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what happened to that woman? Last time I heard of her she was in an insane asylum, screaming day and night. Don't trifle with God. Don't try. Don't trifle with sin in your life.
It's costly. Even if we are believers, those sins are going to spoil our joy and our understanding of how much God loves you and me and wants to make our life for His glory and for our fulfillment wonderful life if we let Him. But sin separates that.
So, Jesus.
Died. Die. Oh, it's broken after 4000 years. It's broken the royal line from God to Jesus. He's dead in the grave. How many days was he dead?
00:40:14
3-3 days.
Friday night, all day, Saturday and Sunday morning, he rose and back from the day, oh mighty work, no power more than the mighty power of the Lord Jesus Christ. It tells that in the Epistles to raise from the dead.
My savior, My Savior. And he's gone into heaven. How do I know I'm going to be there? Because he's there. He's there. He's my assurance He's the first fruits now and he's been. He's the fruit that has resulted from Jesus planting him, God planting him in the.
3rd as a seed, how did he do that for? Because he wanted to have more fruit like Jesus and you and I are that fruit. Is our life like that?
Are we cares in our life?
Where Jesus God looks down and he can't see one sin on another liver.
That's the way God sees it. Because of what? Because the new creation is perfect. Let's look at the Hebrews chapter 10, verse 14.
Hebrews chapter 10, verse 14.
4 by 1 offering.
He has perfected made perfect forever.
Them that are sanctival, is that a perfect work?
That's hard to understand. That that means this, that by one death from the cross, by one death he died for everybody. This man sinned and he brought sin to the whole of the creation.
This man died speaking reverently, and he has brought light that whosoever will who what a wonderful thing.
Eternal life through his precious blood death.
When did the death? Where are they going to death? He went into death in the heart of the earth. How do we know that? Because it tells us that as Jonah was 3 days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be 3 days and three nights. Where in the heart of the earth Israel is the heart of the earth where Jesus died.
One time I was standing on the Mount of Olives and.
Little art of boy. A young fellow came along, and I, he talked to me and I found he could talk English. And I spoke to him a little bit about Jesus and the city of Jerusalem. And I said to him, did you ever hear about Jesus? And he said, yes. I said, well, there are ways of knowing about Jesus pulled back his white robe and he pointed to his heart and he said, I've got Jesus there, not here, here. I wonder how many of us could say that.
I said to that Arab boy, they say that Jesus is going to come back. When is he going to come back? And he looked at me in sympathy as if I didn't know very much about the Bible. And he said nobody knows. And he looked up into the sky and he said, maybe tonight, oh, that is the blessed and wonderful joy of the Christian that there is resurrection power that says one of your great writers. His name is HL Mencken. And he said one time.
People talk about Christianity, so the only thing about Christianity that makes any sense is the resurrection. But he said those of us who are educated know those no such a thing.
That's what the human mind does. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the beginning of the new creation that is never going to end. Jesus rose on Sunday morning and he walked around for 40 days and he was only seen by the believers and on that day.
Day He went outside to Bethany, right near the Mount of Olives.
And he talked a slope to those disciples and he said to them going to all the world and preach the gospel. All of a sudden his feet starts to lift the earth lazier. And up he went. And they looked there, all those disciples, and they saw him getting smaller and smaller and the cloud opened up and he went through that cloud. These guys, the head we've never seen, the world has never seen.
00:45:25
Except even looked into the clouds.
Cloud opened up for Steven and he saw the glory of God and Jesus and 1St Jesus tonight 25 past eight. He's a man sitting in heaven tonight. Flesh and bones, no blood glorified body.
Marks in his hands a man plus the Lord Jesus, waiting, waiting till the last person is safe.
He's going to come back. But we've never seen that, have we? How do we know this? Just like in the Old Testament days when air in the high Priest he all the sins of the people of the congregation of Israel are all confessed. And Abraham, at least Aaron went into the Tabernacle to confess all those sins.
To God and the people we're all standing inside waiting for him to come in. And until he came out they would wonder oh if he gab is your dad in that? And he waited, waited, waited, and finally appears open and he said our sins are given for one more year. Jesus took my sins.
And he's gone into heaven, but he's never come out of heaven.
We're waiting for 2000 years and it never has come out. How do we know?
Only one way God has sent His Holy Spirit.
And that Holy Spirit says to you, Charles, you're accepted in the beloved. So God has come down, and he has whispered to us now that a man is in the glory, and he's never. At least he's there waiting for us, and we're going to be there because he is there now. So the Holy Spirit has come down.
50 days after Jesus died. In other words, he would die. He was dead all day Saturday, seven weeks after that.
Would make it another Saturday and then one more day after that would make it Sunday. So the Holy Spirit came down on the first day of the week, Sunday. So Sunday, you see, is the day. What's after 7?
What's after seven? What number comes after seven? Right. OK. Hey, now 123456 is the day of the creation of working. Seven day. He rested 6000 years I've almost gone by, haven't they?
And the thousand years is his rest in the Millennium. Oh, I'm not setting dates, and I don't want you to be thinking that I am. But it is always good to remember that seven was the end of the first creation, and the next day was Sunday, the 8th day. And that eighth day is never going to have an end. It's forever. So we're now celebrating. We remember the Lord's day because that was the day that the Lord rose from the dead. And that's the 8th day. And there's no end to that eighth day. You see that even.
In the offerings in Leviticus 23, I think it is where you will see the 8th dimension. It's a little information of this. Now we are here on the eighth day when the Holy Spirit has come down and let's look just for a minute or two attacks and we see now the birthday of.
An amazing body.
And this brings you and me into it now. I kept the one.
And verse 6. When they therefore were come together, these are all the disciples.
They asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel? Still didn't realize that.
00:50:07
The old creations finished.
Verse one of chapter 2.
When the day of Pentecost, that is, 50 days after Jesus had died, all day on Saturday was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and as a sailed all the house where they were sitting, and they have there appeared unto them.
Cloven tongues like as of a fire of fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. That's all we need to read. There comes the Holy Spirit and he baptized all the believers into.
One body. Don't forget that now one body was at the beginning of that first creation.
Had him, and he was alone. And God said it's not good for a man to be alone. I'll make a woman for him. And so it is with the new creation now the Son of God in resurrection life, the Lord Jesus fulfills that same thing. It's not good for him to be alone.
John 12 Says if that seed remained alone it it unless it died, it wouldn't bring forth truth. We are the fruit. What are we?
Yeah, The bride Jeep. The bride of Jesus. Do you act like that? Do I act like that? I just want to say this before we close you, sister.
In your life you have the privilege that men don't have because you are the picture on this earth of the bride of Jesus.
He is our husband to be.
For all the men and the women that are saved here tonight, we are the bride to be of Jesus. We are not married yet, but we are betrothed to him and that marriage can't. That betrothal can't be broken. An engagement can be broken, but in a betrothal. No. Joseph, when he found that Mary was pregnant and she was going to have a baby, he thought that she was unfaithful to him and he was going to ride out a will, a bill of divorcement. And God said, no, don't do that. That holy thing that is born to be born of her is the Son of God.
So you see, this is a wonderful thing for you and for me to realize that we are now the bride of Jesus to be. And then then let's look at it before we close and 2nd Corinthians.
Umm, 12 or 13.
UH Eleven 2nd 20 in July.
Verse 2.
We need to take this verse home with us tonight, each one of us.
But I am jealous. Paul is writing for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I have espoused you.
To 100.
As the Lord Jesus, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ, chaste means not soil, not tarnished. You have gold or silver. It gets tarnished by the air after they polished again, he says. We want to present you as a unsoiled virgin to Christ, but I fear left by any means as the serpent.
Beguiled or fooled, Eve?
Through his subsidy or his trickery. So your minds or thoughts should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Well, let's go home tonight, now to realize that high destiny that every one of us is in now, waiting for the moment when we're going to be presented to our husband to be. They want to be soiled with this world.
Now a girl is engaged to a boy.
And we come and visit and we find that she's gone away for a weekend with that boy. And we say, well, aren't you going to be married to so and so? Yeah, but he's away and he doesn't know, uh. If you and I are acting, uh, friendly with the world, that's the thing. We're not being faithful to the Lord. This world crucified our Savior. And we want to keep ourselves cured, don't we? We don't want to be soiled by this world. And it has.
00:55:16
Facing as we just read there, he's a tricker. He looks tricky and unless we just are occupied with that day, like we all sang in our opening hymn, a day is coming. Glory, the blessed Lord Jesus have that hate now sitting up in heaven, waiting, waiting, waiting for us, one of the hymns says. You hear the footprint footsteps through the wilderness. Oh, he's waiting for the last one.
Manila, I want to save the shout and we go to Rice to meet the blessed savior near. Let's keep ourselves pure for that day. Three things, three positions, really. I just thought about a few minutes before I stood up. Here is the first creation. It's all physical.
It was 4000 years of testing men in his natural condition. And it goes from God, who is the originator of it all, and comes down into this vertical, and it goes back in this horizontal, and it goes into this vertical, back through Christ to God and for eternity. No beginning, no end. But this was the physical side.
This is the natural side. This was God as I said, testing and we saw not the perfection because the first creation wasn't perfect. God saw there was very good but not perfect. It failed. It started with like God said, let there be light, there was light. It ended in the darkness of corruption and sin and self will.
This enemy of the soul of every one of us.
Every one of them, I should say, working right from the very inception, right in the Garden of Eden, the whispered into the woman's ear and they deceived her. We are deceived by Satan or we are frightened by Satan. The two methods that he used, and he did it right by in the beginning, by the exception. And so here was a natural it utterly failed.
God's promise, as we saw, was never broken of that red line that we put there, and it was uninterrupted from God, Adam, Abraham, David, royal line, natural line right down to Joseph and Mary, And here through Mary alone the sea that was promised right in the very garden. The feet of the woman doesn't say the feet of the man, they say the feet of the woman Mary seed Jesus.
Had as we saw the other night, he had to be born speaking reverently to a virgin, because this line had been spoiled by disobedience. And so here in death is the end of the first one, starts with light, ends with death, starts with light, and ends in darkness, the whole thing.
Ruined, ruined. God is finished as we saw in John chapter 10 with the day of test finished. 12Th chapter of John's Gospel says now is the judgment of this world.
The world as far as God is concerned, he's finished. No more test.
Physical side, we're gonna look at them versus physical side finish.
But a miracle is that though Satan was always trying to break that line from God to Jesus, the Son of God, he was frustrated and every time because there wasn't one of that royal line that was ever broken and had to go to an uncle or somebody else. It was unbroken when it comes to Jesus.
It looked as if Satan had won his final victory and had broken that royal line, that line from God to Jesus. But we know the story.
Jesus rose from the dead.
The triumph of the resurrection, We're going to look at the verses, try to remember that, but this is the end of the.
Natural life. We're going to look for this afternoon to a strange.
Uh, dual situation whereby it's natural. Everyone of us is naturally born here in this world, but all through the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ you and I have received.
01:00:15
A new spiritual life in parallel, going on together. I look into your faces. I can't tell that you're a Christian via the look on your face. I should. But we can't, right? We can't because we're physically here in our bodies. But inwardly we have a new life. Don't. And the internal life.
Unending light And here it's going on in parallel during this life. Now we don't know how long it's going to last. It has lasted almost 2000 years so far. But it's going to end as we're going to see. And then as we come to this rapture, the Lord Jesus coming out of heaven, he's been, he has been in heaven since that time. He's up in heaven, hidden up there and he's going to come back and we're going to go up and then it's going to be.
All spiritual with a here as a heavenly body. Make it plain physical body. A body of we still have the old life.
Our physical life. But we've got a new spiritual life, and when the rapture comes, the body is not.
A new body, but it's a changed body. We're going to recognize your child in heaven.
Because you're going to look as you are, but you're going to have a heavenly body. But oh, what I want to impress on each one of us is that we're living in a time when we have both the physical life and the spiritual. So having said that.
I want to show you the the very important change over the other night that we looked at the beginning of the church period. But I I just want to go back a little bit.
And I want to emphasize to you, First Corinthians 15.
The Fact now that there is a new spiritual life. 1St Corinthians 15.
Verse 35.
But some man will say, How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come? Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickened or made alive, except it died. We've seen now and from this end, from what we said before, that Christ died. And if you're a believer here, you died with Jesus.
That's a problem. Everyone of us, Romans 6 tells that right? But now he came alive, and you and I have a spiritual life, born with this life, born again with a spiritual life. I got the two of them, and I hate each other. And there they go. When the Lord comes or I die, this one is gone and I'm with and like Christ forever. So it's a step now here. That's what he's the spirit of God is mentioning there.
We can't go from this.
Physical life to the spiritual life unless we die. In other words, that's what you're saying, The Lord Jesus would remain alone unless he died.
John's gospel tells us that now go down to the 40s. First there are also celestial bodies that's a heavenly stars and moon and bodies terrestrial that is having to do with like the UH, the planet and the earth. But the glory of the celestial is 1 and the glory of the terrestrial is another. Both are wonderful works of God, but they're they are different. Now then verse 41, there is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon.
And another glory of a star. For one star different from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead is a stone in corruption. It is raised in incorruption. When a person is raised from the dead, we receive a change body, not a new body, but a chained body. And that body is going to be with the Lord forever. Verse 43, it is sown in dishonor.
In natural body it is raised in glory. It is stone in weakness.
It is raised in power. It has shown a natural body. It has raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body. There is a spiritual body. And so it is written the first man, Adam. There is the first man, Adam.
01:05:08
Was made a living soul. God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and it became a living soul. The last atom here is the last atom, or the 2nd man, the Lord Jesus.
Uh, the 2nd man is the Lord from heaven? How beautiful to see that link between the two.
As is the heavenly, such are also the earthly, and as are the heavenlies such are they also that are heavenly, one or the other. But here in this time we have the combination of the two, And as we have borne the image of the earthy physical body, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. I ask you, do you believe that you believe?
Your life shows, whether you believe it or not. My life shows.
By the way, believe it or not and we are saved. That oh, I want to emphasize for our conscience. Now, how are we living as Christians? Are we fast asleep? Are we mixing in with the world? Are we trying to get the best out of this world? The world is finished for us. It can never give one particle of satisfaction. I've tried it and I found I had a handful of ashes. That's all. So only in Christ that you, you dear young ones here I'll be get this from the Lord.
It's only in Christ that you're going to find any satisfaction at all. So there he says we shall. God says it shall is the determinant of tense when it goes to the second person there. Third, the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, all believers that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. This old life can't be improved and uh, and fit in with the new heavenly life, spiritual life.
Break. That is what makes the difference. All right, Now it says neither does corruption inherit incorruption. Incorruption means rotting and dying. Now that's quickly what it tells us. OK, now I want to go a step higher, And this is hard. It's hard. Hard for me, Hard for you. This is very lofty truth I trust.
I.
Won't say it to in such a difficult way.
But I don't want to miss this opportunity of showing you from the word of God that you and I are in a life that calls for total separation from the world. We cannot mix the two. Let's go over to Ephesians Chapter 4.
Now this is the highest truth that we have in all the scriptures.
4th of the decision.
Birthday.
Wherefore is set. When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. The Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus, I should say, was a man, and if he walked on the streets here, we wouldn't look back at him. There was no attraction to his personal appearance. He was just a man with like flesh and bones and blood, like we have. Only one is a death. He left his blood here on this earth.
And his body was changed into a spiritual heavenly body. We've seen them all. At least the apostles said they saw this. They saw him in his heavenly glory, on the Mount of Transfiguration. Wonderful, isn't it, That a man, the Lord Jesus, has been seen in his in his heavenly body. And now I want to try to lift you and me into seeing that this is what you and I are in the sight of God.
So let's go on.
Down to verse 10 he's at descended, came from heaven. Is the theme also that as ended up far above all heavens that he might feel all things. And he gave apostles some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, some teachers. Now this is the verse verse 12.
01:10:04
For the perfecting, oh, there is a new word now we saw that the old creation is very good, but it wasn't perfect. Now God has made a perfect new.
Created nothing, nothing, no work of Satan. But as the Lord Jesus in Matthew's Gospel says, the gates of hell shall not prevail Against this. Nothing is going to frustrate the work of God. You and I, beloved ones, are brought into this heavenly light. Now heavenly are we living it.
Your life, my life shows whether we're living this or not. Let's go on.
For the perfecting of the Saints, this is going on today, not in perfection. Yet we'll see imperfection in the next verse or two. For the perfecting of the thing, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, I just trust the Lord has sent me here to help, to encourage, to stir up myself and you.
No, you're making things interesting and giving history talks and so on. I want to touch my own conscience, and I trust the Lord will touch your conscience too.
There's no, as it says in Ecclesiastes 8, no discharge in this war. It's a battle. It's a battle not against us and Satan, against the spirit of God and Satan. And we know that the Lord Jesus and and the Holy Spirit are going to triumph. We're getting the deliverance. He gets the glory and the victory. So let's go on.
Verse 13 No, I didn't finish 12 for the edifying of the body of Christ. Now that we're going to be talking about the body, we're going to be talking about the church. We're going to be talking about the assembly, how it works here on this earth. Here is the reference to the body. Every believer here in the state of New York is in the body.
Everyone never lose sight of that. Don't just think of ourselves a little group. It's a whole body and I'm going to be speaking about that in a minute. Verse 13 till till until haven't got there yet. We haven't had this change that is going to bring that would be brought when the Lord Jesus comes. For till we all, not one is going to be missing, arrive or come in the unity of the faith.
And then notice that the unity of the faith, I'm going to speak about unity and of the knowledge of the Son of God. Oh, that's all that you and I need to know.
More and more and more and more of that Christ the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, perfect man.
Is that going to be your portion brother for eternity? Certainly is.
It's nothing can fail.
Under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Is no longer a place. It was a place in the Old Testament. No longer. It's a place. It's a person now. May that blessed, glorious person just grip your soul. I fail if I don't bring you closer to Christ this afternoon.
Verse 14 That we henceforth be no more children.
Top to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
Does someone have a new translation here?
Yeah, go ahead John, and read that. Please read it good and loudly. It's wonderful the way that 15.
UH and 16th verses. Listen carefully, please, because it's very, very instructive. How does the body functions and how each one of us needs each other? Even to where the bones join each other, the joints feed each other, each part of our body. Go ahead, John.
But holding the truth in love, we may grow up to him in all things, who is ahead to Christ, from whom the whole body fitted together and connected by every joint of supply according to the working in the measure of each one part works for itself, the increase of the body to itself building up the health. Wonderful.
01:15:22
You don't remember anything, I say. Hope you get that first.
Now we're going to see how this is translated into.
This word Church Word assembly. Now that word Church.
Was just a coined word. Means nothing.
It has been put in by the 1611 translators and is commonly used as church, but the word is assembly or ecclesia. Ecclesia X means like exit to close the door and we are called out once. That's what the assembly means, called out once.
The assembly embraces every person in the world who knows the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. In the aspect that God sees it. All the believers are in thee assembly, the assembly. Now it was like that at the beginning. Lord added to the assembly the to be saved ones. Act 246 and so on. It's mentioned that there was one.
Center at the beginning and then the person was saved. They were at the end of the assembly. But an assembly, an assembly is that area that.
Body or part, I should say, of the body that is in a city.
And that is an assembly. And that's what we're going to look at in two aspects, Lord willing, this afternoon, how the body functions. The body is the same as the loaf.
First Corinthians chapter 10, verse 14 or 15 tells us that loaf in the body is the same. The assembly and the body are the same. So 3 words, low body and assembly are synonymous. They're all one word. You can see that in those scriptures, they like to look at them.
Now we're going to look at how an assembly operates. An assembly. So I make that claim, and assembly is one I I have to say this. If we say that we are the assembly here in Vestal, we make ourselves into a sex. I want to make it very plain. I never say that. I hope, but I am willing to die for the truth.
That I believe that there is only one gathering center on the earth and that is Christ.
Cannot be two, any more than there can be two ways of being saved one way, and we have seen over and over again, as we've been in these talks, how there is only one God only had one purpose in the whole of the creation that he would have his people around him forever.
And what is Satan doing? Dividing.
Dividing parents from children, dividing husbands from wives. Breaking up our society, breaking up the social fabric of our of America. Breaking up the authority of the government so that everybody is doing what is right in our own eyes. The authority of the word of God is paramount, beloved ones in the assembly. And so we're going to see now that the assembly how it operates in its collective responsibility.
Collective responsibility. That means how the assembly only can make a decision. Brothers can't get over in the corner and decide on something and announce that as a decision. Impossible. It's a collective responsibility, and we're going to see how that the Lord gave it on three different occasions. One, He gave it to Peter and he gave him the keys of the Kingdom. Secondly, he gave it to the apostles and he gave them the power to forgive sins.
Thirdly, it's going to look now in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 18. We're going to see what he did there. And this is the beginning now, of the operation of an assembly.
01:20:03
Matthew 18.
Verse 18.
Verily, verily, now these are the words of the Lord. Jesus hadn't gone to the cross yet. He's giving a glimpse of what was ahead. I didn't know what he was talking about. Yeah.
That is giving a glimpse of an assembly and operation, not the assembly and assembly, whatsoever ye it's collective there. And that's the plural. Ye is plural subject. Ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose on earth, shall be loose in heaven, and so on. That's just all we need to read. One verse now tells us right from the lips of the Lord Jesus.
That's an assembly. An assembly.
I'm going to see how it is packed. Has the authority to make a decision that is bound in heaven. Right or wrong, you are our Father. You can tell your boys to do something. If your boys say to you, unless you give me a scripture I'm not going to obey, you know how you're going to feel like I would feel? I don't need scripture. I don't need a scripture. That's one of my boys. If I say that, do that. And he said I'm not going to do it unless you tell me.
And he says I got a scripture. And he goes, and he gets a scripture. Sure enough, he's right and I'm wrong.
I had the authority to tell him what to do, but he proves to me from the Scripture that I'm wrong.
You got it. An assembly has the power from delegated from an offended and glorified Christ to make a decision. A government. We can't. The world can't operate without authority and without power to make laws and to carry them out in discipline. And this is what's happening in the assemblies now.
We're losing our power to carry out the decisions and people are taking it on themselves to say, well, I don't think I need to bow to that. I have to remember this that are this verse in in involves 2 Things. One is that when an assembly makes the decision, it's bound in heaven. One and it's bound on every other assembly around the world that is so gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We must bow to an assembly decision right around.
So I know somebody would just say, well, yes, we're supposed to make a mistake. We're going to see in a few minutes what the scripture says about that. So do I make that plan? Any questions you want to? Uh, I don't want to rush too fast, but I I'd like you to feel free, any of your brothers to ask for a scripture or something on anything I say.
It's bound on Earth. What's the trouble with all? No, that's not the way to put it.
We travel in many countries in the world. We meet lots of groups of Christians. They have one basic problem. So it's not gathered to the Lord's name, and it's a proof positive to me, whether they're a group or gathered to the Lord's name or not. And that is, they don't know how to carry out. They have to make rules. And if you abide by the rules, you're in. If you're don't abide by the rules, you're out. But we can make no rules.
The only rules we have are the word of God, as we're going to see now.
But when a decision is made, it's bound in heaven. It's considered in the same position as it is in the assembly.
All right, let's go ahead now to see the operation of an assembly collective responsibility. First Corinthians, chapter 5.
OK.
With your permission, I'll take up this one point.
I don't know how long it'll take and we'll make a break of 10 minutes or so and then we'll take up another side of also assembly versus brothers meetings.
And then we'll make another break if it's agreeable. I don't want to go too long. It's tiring if that's agreeable. And then we'll have have the final part with the personal responsibility of a person in an ascent. So first contains 5, Now here is collective responsibility.
01:25:19
There are three. I might say this. There are three vital sins. There is.
First, one doctrinal evil. Secondly, there is ecclesiastical evil. Thirdly, there is moral evil. All sin comes under goes to this doctrinal evil.
Saying that you could lose your salvation after you have it.
Doctrine label.
Ecclesiastic Aleva having a minister.
Things of that kind. The way worship of God takes place is comes under the category of ecclesiastically, moral evil. Very plain.
The most evident It's easy to detect morale. Evil. First country in five, First nine. I think it is. It says a little. 1111 is the whole moral evil starts that way. A little stark on that road down and we're down into the gutter.