Address—Steve Rule
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Good evening.
Like to.
Start it have someone start for us him and the Little Flock hymn book. But so you know where to turn, I'd like to I'd like to sing tonight together to begin our meeting and really to introduce the topic a a hymn by a brother who's what was 5 feet tall.
Great big hook nose, head way too big for his body, yellow skin, scars all over and little Gray eyes.
You're confused because there's 22 of them so I'll pick the one for you #283.
Our Manchester.
We come back.
Was and for God and Dawn.
Of our Christ.
Of Christ, our God.
The same thing.
That I saw.
With Siren.
By Siren.
Together.
Great time.
Let's pray.
Dear Lord Jesus, as we open up my word this evening, just ask that.
My truth would penetrate deep into our hearts, our minds, our souls.
And that we would as a result, Lord Jesus, bring great glory to Thee. We ask that it would be the effect of effect of our time together. We present it to the Lord Jesus. With this request and Thy name we pray. Amen.
00:05:08
Subject on my heart this evening isn't really the content of the hymn. It's what I began with, and that was the body of Isaac Watts. Now that's not my subject. It's the body, and not the body of Christ, which is so often and so wonderfully taken up.
But the human body, the one you're sitting in here tonight, and it's not just your physical body. I'm completely incompetent to take that up. Doctor Paul on Saturday night would do a much better job. I'm not competent with that, but I want to take up the subject of how God views your body. We look at one another and we form all kinds of thoughts and impressions and in fact, have all kinds of ideas that we pick up all over the place.
What the body is and.
I think it's important that we look at what God says the body is. It's a vast subject. There are two main reasons why I've meditated some on this subject over the last year or more here and there. One of which was my mom is she got Alzheimer's and approached.
Her heavenly home.
And the other was a matter in our assembly. But the subject of the body is huge. It touches all kinds of areas.
There's gender issues, abortion, there's drunkenness, there's gluttony, many, many things that touch the body.
Yet is thinking on the subject, reflecting on it, I think we have ideas that we unconsciously import from the world as to what the body is.
And what it's for?
But to introduce how we got there, I want to go on a bit of a digression. It wasn't in my thoughts until this afternoon, but based on several conversations over the last couple days.
Want to start here in Romans 1 to show where we got, where we got, how we got where we are, and then move from there to sort of a core principle that applies to all of these issues that touch the body, what God created the body for, and why it's important.
But how do we get here? How did we get with these confused ideas?
Romans chapter one I want to quickly step through.
Three little.
Well, three major steps downward, three major steps downward, and we won't go through them at all in detail. So that's not the subject. The subject is how do we get fooled into our wrong ideas about the body. Now look very quickly if we can, and verse 20.
Verse 23 this is man who knew God and wasn't thankful. Verse 23 changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like too corruptible man and there are consequences. So man started in his relationship with God, God the Creator here and man's here, and God the Creator in a special and unique relationship.
Man, but man is not happy with it that way. And so in the verse we just read, man in his own wisdom thinks he can bring God to his own level. He changes him into the glory of the uncorrupted God, into the image made like to corruptible man and then it continues. It involves idolatry, but focus on this part. He's taking God from his unique relationship with man, God the creator man and he's.
If you want to use an analogy from driving.
He's crawled from the back seat into the passenger seat in front.
What's the consequence? Three times in this passage, Mr. Darby's translation is consistent. Twice in the King James. They use a little different, but it uses a little different language. Later verse 24, God gave them up. What to the natural consequence of what man did? It's the natural result from a unique and special relationship. What does He give man up to? Any old relationship on par.
Fornication. That's the first step in the use of the body, that unique and special relationship where God created a body and a special purpose. And in the first step down, God gave them up to the natural consequence.
And it's fornication.
The next step down, we're not going to take these in detail, but in verse 25.
00:10:05
Who changed the truth?
Of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more.
Then the creator if you want a visual image for it. Now you've got man saying I'm relegating the creator to the back seat.
Still in the picture.
But now I'm driving the vehicle. That's what man says. God gives man over to the natural consequence, but where? In the body? And then comes homosexuality past the and and the kindred thought. It's not the natural use and it's a judgment that it's a result. It's a natural result of God giving up unto vile affections and so on.
Why no longer just?
A non unique relationship. Now it's man with the idea of what the creation order ought to be. Third step man goes further, never satisfied. Likewise, also I'm sorry, verse 28 and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. God gave them King James's over translation has the same phrase gave them up.
To reprobate mind and then there are 21 Things from there to the end of the chapter, and we won't go through them but in the analogy.
Man's left in his own mind. Man's left and God's no longer in the vehicle, not even there, not in the picture, not retained in the mind. And what's the result? God's left out now, the first time the body can be used in a natural relationship in an unnatural and not unique way.
When God was demoted to the back seat, if you will, the relationship, some form of relationship is still there, but it's now used in the language of Scripture.
To change the natural use.
Now that God is removed from the picture, God is God, God is light, and God is love is removed, and the 21 Things that come at the end are the result.
God of light and love removed the natural consequences.
Our moral anarchy. So in that context, we're maybe not fully there in this culture and in this country and in Canada where the majority of those that aren't from the US are here tonight are from. But in the Western world, let's say we are largely moving into our part way into this third.
Step and so as we.
Walk about and go about our daily life. Little phrases you hear, the things you hear are coming from mouths and minds that have largely or are in the process of removing God from the equation so He has nothing to say to our body now.
I'm going to read 2 verses. We won't take them up, but I'm going to read them. And I'll confess to you, until as little as a year ago, this is how I thought through them, not how I read them.
But how I thought about them, just ask yourself as you read them if maybe you were thinking about them that same way.
As well. The first one is in First Peter chapter 2.
And verse 24.
I'll read it the way my mind unconsciously edited the thought first. Peter 2 verse 24 Who his own self bear our sins on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live under righteousness, By whose stripes you are healed.
Whose own self bear our sins?
Next 3 words. Do we really need those?
In his own body.
His own body it's vital. It's vital to the understanding of what God created the body for one more to read how.
This I'll confess for myself. Maybe no one, maybe everyone else here gave them their proper emphasis, but I suspect not.
In fact, I know not because I've had conversations with a few in Second Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 10.
00:15:21
And again, I'll read it not as I've read it in the past, but as I've unconsciously thought it in the past.
Always bearing about in the mind the dying of the Lord Jesus.
That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our lives.
That's not what it says.
It's not what it says, and there's a very good reason why it doesn't say it that way. Says bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
Just one more analogy, and then I want to go to the core of the subject, the way God views the body.
And I'm sorry I don't have a better analogy for this, so I'm going to tell you at the beginning.
And the analogy I'm about to use in no way mean to equate my father with the devil.
But the analogy is this. When I was a child, I had a mild interest in chess for a while, at least a couple of years. There I would kind of casually play with a little electronic machine and.
Learned a little bit of chess. I bought a couple books and I learned a few games and then I challenged my father to a chess match.
And it didn't go real well.
And so I did a little bit more, practiced a little bit more, and I tried again.
And once again, this exact same kind of thing happened. I get focused in on and I had this strategy and I knew that if I moved this piece here and then I moved that piece there, then I got this piece over to here, then I'd have them in the trap, completely forgetting that he got to move in between each of mine.
And by the time I was ready, I had one more move and I've got them. I look over and I'm nearly in checkmate or some disaster was about to happen.
Want to use that as a figurative way of thinking? Don't play chess with the devil.
Don't approach these topics in man's wisdom with someone far more intelligent than you are, where I am or any of us are. Approach it from the Word of God and the way the Word of God expresses what these things are and why they're important. And so when we take up the body, if you're going to approach and discuss it with somebody else, you're a mixture of.
Serotonin and oxytocin and dopamine and adrenaline and if you get everything all aligned properly, you can have a great life.
And it boils down somewhat to that in man's view, because as soon as God is removed from the equation, then if you can increase your dopamine levels, hey, why not?
And here's how you can do it. In fact, there's all kinds of ways of doing it. And then, oh, that's a problem because.
Getting all kinds of trouble when we overdo this dopamine thing all the time. So here's how to get more oxytocin instead of dopamine, and you'll feel a lot better. And here's how to live your life to do it this way. And in every aspect of it, the body is treated as though it's this. And it is. It's an incredible creation of God. I don't mean to demean that at all. I'm trying to get the focus on the core. But what does God see your body as? How does he look at it?
And here I would suggest it's essential that you begin.
That we begin with the Lord Jesus Himself. It provides the core. So let's go through 4 scriptures that give the core of what the body is in God's sight. Why we have it. And then as you read through the Word of God and as you look for it, keep your eyes open and look how many times the body is mentioned. There's many men. And by the way, as you look, it's not just the body.
It's vessel sometimes is used in in the sense of that physical body. Flesh is sometimes used in the sense of that physical body. Watch for it.
It's pretty beautiful, really, to think of what God designed.
You to be.
An incredible thing. So let's look at 4 verses that establish what God sees that body as.
00:20:00
The first of them I think we need to start with and Luke chapter 2.
It's a vast subject. There are many other places you could turn.
She'll enjoy them on your own in the future.
I'm just going to read 5 verses here.
Luke chapter 2, verse 10.
And the Angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings, great joy.
Which shall be to all people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped and swaddling clothes, lying in a Manger. And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God and saying.
Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace.
Goodwill toward man.
Then the Lord Jesus.
Come walking up to.
Abraham's 10th door.
Didn't he have dinner with him?
Didn't he pronounce on the food that it was tender and good?
So why are the angels here at this particular moment?
In such awe about what God has just done.
If you were to look at, if we had the time to look at it in First Timothy 3, you'll see that the angels.
Saw their creator manifest expressed. Why was there such awe here at this moment? Didn't he see him back then?
Because this was the moment that the Lord Jesus Christ took.
That body.
That body glorified is now in heaven, but it's one continuous thought and it's here at this moment. I believe that the the the beauty of what a body is was first perfectly expressed.
But let's go to how that body is used. Actually 2 verses to show it.
The first in Hebrews.
Chapter 10.
With chapter 10 and verse 5.
Wherefore when he cometh into the world, it's the Lord Jesus.
He saith sacrifice and offering. No, it's not, but a body as thou prepared me. It's quoting from the Psalm and in the Psalm it's expressed a little bit differently. The Psalm, it says my nearest hast thou digged. But when it got translated into Greek shortly before the Lord's time and.
From which it's quoted here. In the book of Hebrews it was translated in this way.
A body hast thou prepared me?
Because the essence.
Of the body of the Lord Jesus was to hear the voice of his Father every single moment of every single day, and to express in that body the glory of God. And so the two thoughts are equated between the Psalm and here that the Lord Jesus ears were digged in the Hebrew, a body prepared here as it's translated into Greek and then into our English.
Because the essence.
Of Christ taking a body was to perfectly express who God is.
And to share it with us.
He took a body so that you and I would know who God is. It would express it perfectly. Yes, He came to die. There's more to it, I guess, but in the aspect of it that's on my heart tonight, it's He took a body so that he could perfectly express who God is and bring him glory and the definition of what your body and mind is.
Is the same. We'll get to it in a moment, but one more verse that I think is precious related to the Lord and to His body.
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Again, as in first again, one that I've often skimmed through. It's in First Corinthians 11.
1St Corinthians 11.
Verse 24.
The last part of the verse, second-half of the verse. This is my body.
And I'll read it from there. And Mr. Darby's translation, This is my body, which is for you.
Isn't that beautiful?
Isn't that beautiful? Lord Jesus body was first and foremost to express the glory of God.
To express it here in this world, imperfection and beauty. But here I think there's a second, second thought. This is my body.
Which is for you.
That beautiful the Lord Jesus took a body that He will have now glorified forever.
For you and I.
Now the 4th and final verse that I think is the core of the how we are to look at the body, not through man's set of lenses, not through man's way of doing his medical science. That's valuable. I don't want to take anything away from proper medical science when I'm talking here, but what I want to focus on is what is, what is the basic foundational core that everything else has to be interpreted based on.
And it's based on this, our creator.
Universe to perfectly glorify God and to bring us into a place of blessing.
Now watch the connection with the next verse, First Corinthians chapter 6.
There's many beautiful verses here.
It's hard to skip past something like our body being the temple of the Holy Ghost, but I want to, I want to go on for the focus here to the 20th verse, First Corinthians 6, and verse 20.
This is our side.
You're bought with a price.
Where therefore as a result.
Glorify.
God in your body.
There's our side. We were given a body by God, and the root principle of it is to put him on display, to put his glory on display.
Going to bring this out a little later and perhaps I will in more detail, but perhaps you're thinking.
That seems a little one sided. I want to give you an analogy.
In business, there are many large corporations that have for many years now tried to maximize quarterly profits, and in their maximizing their quarterly profits, they try to make as much money as they possibly can in the short term.
And sometimes that means they have to sacrifice their vision. Sometimes that means they have to sacrifice their people.
And so if the books don't balance very nicely and they're publicly traded corporation, they can cleanly remove 2000 people from the bottom line.
What they find overtime is that they maximize the short term and lose in the long term and the companies just in the natural analogy of it that focus in on the people and the vision of the company end up with in the long run a much greater profits.
When we look at these things, when we look at what the body is for, designed and created for the glory of God.
If we don't get to it later, there are verses to show it. It doesn't mean that all natural pleasures get lopped off.
It doesn't mean that there's no room for nature. It doesn't mean who created dopamine and oxytocin and all the other stuff in the 1St place. It has a purpose, but it's a byproduct and it's an end result and it's an extra that comes when the focus is in the right place. Satan has tried to lie to you and to me from the beginning, from the garden to say God's holding back the good stuff.
Go get it now. That's been his life in the garden, and it remains his lie to this moment.
00:30:05
And so he would say to you with your body, here's the good stuff. And he has all kinds of wares to sell.
And so if you want the cheap, trashy good stuff, he'll get you into all kinds of things that will ruin your body in the short term. And if you're into the better stuff, he'll have you use your body in a wonderful way for your own glory and pleasure, all the way to the end of your life in a socially acceptable way.
And as long as there's no room for the glory of God, it's a pretty decent objective. But when we put the glory of God and its expression in our body first in the right place, Lord fills in all the other. He doesn't forget it. So let's go to a practical expression of it.
It's one thing to say a beautiful expression such as glorify God in your body. I'd like to illustrate it in this way. Turn to Psalm 139.
I'm gonna read several verses here, but you hang on to just one word.
Read 4 verses here. They're beautiful.
I want you to notice one word out of them.
Where thou hast possessed my reins, thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
I will praise Thee, reading from verse 13 to verse 16, verse 14. I will praise Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well, my substance was not hid from Thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought. Hang on to that word, curiously wrought. It's very important.
In the lower lowest parts of the earth, thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect.
And in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned.
When as yet there was none of them.
That word curiously wrought. It's like needlework or embroidery.
It's only used in one other section of scripture. This is the only quote outside one other book of the scripture, and the only use of that word outside one other book of scripture and then that other book of scripture. It's used repeatedly for at least four different things.
Those four things are, and bear with me, maybe I should.
Maybe I should see a show of hands. It's been 35 years as my account earlier. It's my best guess. It's been 35 years since anyone in the assembly where I come from has ever spoken on the in any kind of detail other than passing reference at an entire meeting on the figures that are in the Tabernacle. And I know this might be regional because I know her brother Norman Berry from.
The Maritimes used to love that subject and he's the last person I heard give an address on it 35 years ago.
So maybe in your area you hear about it all the time. So show me your hand if you've had within the last three years heard a talk on the Tabernacle.
OK, so we got about.
20% maybe I'll give you a little bit more detail, maybe less than I was going to everyone of the other references to this needlework and embroidery occur with parts of the Tabernacle, the hangings that were at the door where you enter the court so quickly for the 80% that haven't had it and refreshed in their mind in the last.
The last three or four years.
We've got the hangings of the cord around the edge and then the Tavern the.
Building there. Then you enter it and you've got the brazen altar and the labor, and then you come to the Tabernacle, and there's the hanging at the entry to the Holy Place, and then there's the veil at the entry to the inner chamber. The holiest of all. Where was the ark? And of those different materials, the girdle of the High priest uses this word.
The hanging for the door where you enter the Tabernacle courtyard.
Uses this word the hanging for the entry into the.
Tabernacle itself into the Holy of Holies uses this word, and the coverings over that Tabernacle use this word. The veil uses a slightly different one, but it contains the same four colors that each of the others do.
The Veil.
00:35:01
That's so beautifully given to us in the chapter. We've already been in Hebrews 10. Somebody quote that verse for me.
The veil is a representation according to Hebrews Tenov.
As flesh.
Lord Jesus.
And that body given in death on the cross, was the entry to the presence of God.
And the material on that veil, it had a cherubim. The other ones that I named didn't, but that veil contained 4 colors. Let's turn to Exodus chapter.
26 I believe.
We'll just cover.
The four colors there.
So bear with me, those of you who have had this refreshed in the past, I want to go over them for the rest of us. And Exodus chapter 26, I'm going to read verses 31 to 36.
And thou shalt make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet.
And fine twine linen of cunning work with cherry bims shall it be made.
Thou shalt hang it upon 4 pillars of shittimwood overlaid with gold. Their hooks shall be of gold upon the four sockets of silver. Thou shalt hang up the veil under the tatches that thou mayst bring in thither within the veil the Ark of the Testimony, and the Veil shall divide unto you between the Holy Place and the Most Holy. Thou shall put the mercy seat upon the Ark of the Testimony in the Most Holy Place. I shall set the table.
With out the veil and the Candlestick over against the table on the side of the Tabernacle and toward the South. And thou shalt put the table on the north side.
And thou shalt make an hanging for the door of the tent of Here we go again.
Blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twine linen rot with needlework. It's the same word as curiously wrought.
I'd suggest to you at least an application. Your body has been curiously wrought by God. This hanging represents Christ as well that we just read it represents Christ in grace being presented to the world and as four colors in it and it's curiously rod. I believe it represents Christ in his body just like the veil, Christ in his body being presented in grace to the world.
And your body and mind is curiously wrought the same way for the same purpose. So let's go through those four colors and apply them. Just I'll give you 4 quick applications of the four colors because they represent what our body is for. It's for a display of the glory of God. And I want to make an application of each of these four colors. You can make your own. You need to make your own. I need to make far more of my own than these four. But this is just to give you a little flavor.
For it so that it can be expressed in your life, the glory of God. The first one is blue, and I'll give you the the four meanings quickly, at least as I understand them. The blue represents the heavenly origin of the Lord Jesus, and I'm going to apply it to blessing in a moment. The purple represents him as the Son of Man, the one with universal dominion, the Lord of Lords and the King of kings. The scarlet represents him as the Son of David.
The one with the right to reign over his earthly people and the fine twine linen. Our business, as Mr. Darby's translation has it, represents him in His purity and in His Holiness. So that's great. You know, you could, could, and maybe you did. It would probably be a good idea. Jot them down and double check them later. See if there's other thoughts on the subject and other applications of it. Please do, and it's nice to have. Maybe you want to stick it in a little piece of paper and put it over there in your Tabernacle file.
Or for those of you who already have one, just enjoy the symbols again. But how do they relate to displaying God's glory in our bodies? Let me give you a personal example. I'm going to skip down to the purple 1St.
It's very fresh in my mind.
Purple is the Lord in his universal dominion, the Son of Man reigning over the whole world, whole universe, really all over the whole universe in the coming day.
Doesn't he have universal dominion now?
Doesn't he have that wonderful right to reign at the moment?
00:40:00
Multiple times more than I care to admit in the last year and a half, the Lord has tested me on this following point.
So maybe I saw it in the rearview mirror a little quicker this time. But about a week and a half ago we we lived set the stage so you can understand this purple. We live on a dead end St. now where we move to accommodate my my parents about a year ago.
Live on the dead end St. and at the end of that dead end St. there's an empty land that the forest preserve owns and they call it part of one of their forest preserves and they mow trails in that forest preserve. A couple weeks ago we noticed that hanging on one of the trees there was one of these cameras, motion sensitive cameras and it was a little disconcerting. My wife walks on those trails all the time loves the loves being out in God's creation and enjoying it. The birds and the bees and the butterflies and all the.
The sunsets, it's beautiful, She was a little concerned about.
Who might have put a camera hanging on that post there. And so there had been a forest preserve truck parked there a little while earlier. Not only that, there had been a forest preserve vehicle with giant mower on the back end of it that came by a couple months ago, sat at the end of the dead end St. that we're on for about an hour and left.
Mower never left the back deck of the trailer. It just sat there for an hour and then turned around and went the other way apparently.
That camera was hung on that tree.
To catch the neighbor that had the audacity to take out his mower and use his own gas in his own mower to mow the trails that the forest preserve hadn't mowed.
And so as I reflect on that, well, I pulled thistles in my own garden. My thoughts were churning. I forgot all about this purple. I forgot all about who has the right to reign over everything. And in my thoughts were how incredibly unjust and ridiculous and impossible these people were to choose to do something that was so detrimental to my family and.
Oh yeah.
The powers that be are ordained of God.
There's a power higher than them, and he's put them in place for good. Romans 13 one.
And so instead of calling up the number on the new sign posted in front of the path, do not mow with a phone number below it.
With a nice little extra edge in the voice.
I was able to thank the Lord for whatever good He wants to bring.
Out of that, I don't know what it is, and I won't pretend to necessarily be naturally pleased with whatever it is in the short term.
But if my voice had been lifted up in anger against the injustice in this world.
Because I had been hurt, my body would not have been displaying.
The purple.
It would not have been recognizing the Son of Man who is over everything, including the Forest Preserve of DuPage County.
Everything he has universal dominion, it's in his hands. He works it for good. And the way we use our body, our mouths in this case, will express the glory of God in those ways. The first in the four colors is blue and.
This can be applied in a lot of ways. I'd like to apply it just in one way in which we can see and enjoy.
Blessing that comes down from above, I probably should turn for a blessing for Christians. Heavenly coming down from heaven, I should probably turn to Ephesians 1.
And read those and turn to one that's a little more of an application, but yet very personal. And it's in Deuteronomy.
I'd like to apply this verse in a certain way to sing God's blessing in our life.
Deuteronomy chapter.
33.
In verse 27.
The eternal God is thy refuge.
00:45:00
And underneath are they ever lasting arms.
I wouldn't trade for a minute the experience that I had on April 25, together with eight others in the room with my mom as she entered the Lord's presence. We had the opportunity for a couple hours ahead of time to sing hymns.
We're looking at a body that reached the end of its natural life lying on our left side, just oxygen in her nose at that point, probably more for our Peace of Mind than anything else. In fact, at that moment, I don't know, maybe it was gone and eventually those breaths became more shallow.
A little more gradual, a little more time between each one until watching carefully at 11:21 PM.
I had this image in my mind.
There was a plane and it had been circling for landing for, in my eyes, five years.
Coming in and coming in, coming in, it was making its final approach.
And 11:21 on April 25.
Mom touched down in the everlasting arms.
They were always there.
But they took her home.
They took her to the blue home, the heavenly home, Not her body yet. I got zipped up in a bag, carried out on a Gurney and put in the ground.
As an aside.
God bought that body. I'm not going to get to that point at the end, and I know it. God bought that body.
God had paid the price of redemption for that body.
Nothing that's his is going to be left behind. He's taking it with them.
There's a blessing in our lives and looking at what God gives.
If we see what comes from his hand of love, His delight to bless, we're seeing the blue and we're expressing it in our life with our mouth, with our hands, with our actions. We're expressing our recognition that our God is blessing God and even in the things of life that to the world are naturally speaking might seem like tremendous loss or tremendous gain when we see them in the light of what?
Our God is the third one, the scarlet.
Is the king of, king of, I'm sorry, king of Israel, king the son of David, if you will. And in looking at that, you can apply it in a lot of different ways, the scarlet and you can apply it in a lot of different ways, but it can be applied also in a sense of God being faithful. There's so much in the book of Romans that takes and incidentally, the book of Romans.
Has.
The second most quotes from the Old Testament in the New Testament, the only book with more.
It was Matthew, but Matthew has 28 chapters, so if you want the density of quotes per chapter, you're going to get more in Romans.
And it shows that faithfulness of that righteous God.
And all his faithful absolutely consistent with himself ways from the beginning until now. And he covers it over and over over again in that book. He's a faithful God. And in chapters 9:10 and 11:00, he shows his faithfulness and his dealings with his people, Israel, and bringing in the Gentiles and then bringing Israel back into blessing so that he can be consistent with his promises. So I'd like to apply this scarlet as God being faithful to himself.
Purposes in our lives so turn to just one of many verses.
Philippians chapter one.
Philippians chapter one. I'm going to read it from Mr. Darby's translation, verse 6.
Having confidence of this very thing that he.
Who has begun in you? A good work will complete it.
Unto Jesus Christ day.
He who has begun in you a good work will complete it unto Jesus Christ Day.
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What he starts, he finishes, and I would just suggest to you that the Scarlet can be on display in your life if you're in the middle of a situation. Perhaps it involves someone in your assembly, perhaps it involves a child or another loved one.
Your heart has gone out in that situation, and it's gone out in prayer. It's presented that cause to God over and over again.
And perhaps in your heart is constantly churning your feelings related to that subject.
I'd encourage you that there will be Scarlet on display in your life.
If in your thoughts you bring in who that person is to the Lord.
You bring into your thoughts the Lord's love for that person. You bring into your thoughts His faithfulness and working His purposes for absolute good in that life. And as you pray and as you express yourself to one another, and as you act in those circumstances, you're putting on display the glory of God by recognizing Him in your life as that faithful one.
The 4th and final is the business, or the white linen, the fine linen.
Displaying holiness. 1 Corinthians 6 would be a great example, wouldn't it, of where we can display holiness. But I want to go to a different one, very different one that touches my conscience. And Luke chapter 12.
Luke, chapter 12.
And beginning with verse 36, I'm not going to read the whole portion.
Just a little bit of it.
And ye yourselves, I'm sorry.
I turned into the I turned you to the wrong chapter, Luke Chapter 7.
And verse 36.
And one of the Pharisees desired him, that is Jesus, that he would eat with him.
And he went into the Pharisees house and sat down to me. Behold, a woman in the city, which was a Sinner when she knew that Jesus sat at me in the Pharisees house, brought an alabaster box of ointment. And the story continues. Lovely story.
A little further down in it in verse 39.
Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a Sinner.
Jesus answering, said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee, He said, Master, say on, And the Lord continues.
There's a situation maybe you've been in.
There's a social situation, the Lord comes into it, and as the passage continues, we could see it, but we know the story. I think he was insulted.
Wasn't met with common courtesy. It wasn't met with common.
Common care of the day.
He doesn't say a word. Not a word, not one.
The woman comes in. She pours out on him an expression of her love for him.
She's criticized, not even vocally. She's criticized in the man's mind. Perhaps it expressed itself in his face, I don't know. The scriptures do not say, but it simply says he spake within himself.
What does the Lord do? He defends her. Isn't that beautiful?
Isn't that beautiful? Not a single word.
When it dealt with himself, except when he needed to reach his conscience later. But at the moment of the act, not a single word, the moment one of his own was touched, he was there to speak up for them.
Isn't that beautiful? Have you been in this situation or another? One of the Lord's own is being shredded with words.
I've been cut down.
Being spoken poorly about.
And because of the nice social feeling.
Kept your mouth shut?
I know I have.
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But were the proper expression to be made?
That properly protects the one who may not even be there. Here was a woman who couldn't defend herself. The Lord spoke up for her. He spoke up for her and kept that perfect robe of purity. Nothing about that social situation guided him in the wrong direction so that he kind of stepped back and didn't say something that would make it uncomfortable.
Yet not a word.
To change the situation when it was his own honor as a man here in the book of Luke.
The white row.
There's a lot more I'd like to read one verse that kind of creates a summary.
And then a conclusion.
Coming back to this effect, 2 verses I guess from First Timothy turn to First Timothy chapter 3 I referenced but did not quote.
First Timothy 3 and verse 16.
And.
Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness or piety.
You know that word occurs more in this epistle than in the rest of the Word of God put together. It's an important theme in the book, and it's presented here as a great mystery. The world doesn't see it.
What is that mystery?
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit.
Scene of angels preached unto the gentiles believed on in the world received.
Up into glory begins with Christ.
Taking a body come in the flesh.
Christ taking a body and it ends with Christ in glory. A glorified body goes from the one to the other. That was the display of the glory of God in a man. Godliness isn't a set of procedures. Check, check, check, check, Godly next one. It's not it. It's living each moment of the life.
In reference to our God in every circumstance of our life, it is in essence doing what God does here in the person of the Son, displaying God beautifully.
In the world, the next chapter, one verse.
Chapter 4.
And verse 8.
Finally, exercise profit of little or for a little time but godliness.
Is profitable unto all things, having promised of the life that now is, and of that which is to come, if we use our body in the way it was designed to express the glory of the God who bought it.
There's no loss. There's no loss at all. There's gain in every circumstance and the life that now is.
And then that which is to come.
Like to.
Read one last verse.
Romans chapter 2 verses together. One last passage. Romans chapter 12.
Verses one and two.
Romans 12 verses one and two IBC Chew. Therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.
Or the compassion of God for all that is shown you. All that has shown me.
That you present your bodies.
To present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world.
But be transformed by the renewing of your mind, transformed as the present tense.
Present in the first verse is a tense. In the Greek that means do it once and be done with it.
But the transforming is a daily thing if our thoughts.
And our minds have been formed about the body, unconsciously, loosely, carelessly.
And by the world around us. And we use our body for our own personal pleasure and not for God in His glory. Then it is a process of transforming that mind. But the result will be to bring greater glory to the One who bought it, the one who paid to redeem it, and the one who won't leave it behind. Let's pray.
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Dear Lord Jesus, we just do ask that each one of us would glorify thee in our body, and we thank Thee, Lord Jesus.
Without immense work. And all of thou has done in my body all that thou has done for us, and we thank thee, and we glorify thee, and we pray in thy name, Lord Jesus, Amen.