Pella Other Meetings: 2022
Table of Contents
Romans Pt3
Address—P. Jennings
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
I like to use in the introduction of the presentation of the foundational truth of the Gospel.
In Romans.
Exodus chapter 13.
And verse 17 it says, and it came to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God them LED them not through the way of the land of Philistines, although that was near, for God said less peradventure the people repent when they see war.
And they return to Egypt. But God LED them, LED the people about.
Through the wilderness of the Red Sea and the children of Israel went up.
Harnessed out of the land of Egypt.
And so.
I like to think of these truths that we have in the book of Romans as bringing us into the blessing of deliverance, not on the ground of the energy of the flesh, but on the ground of death and resurrection. Now we know that the Red Sea is not the most.
Profound.
Type in the Old Testament of death and resurrection and blessing that has come.
Of us being brought.
I'd say out of the wilderness into the land of Canaan and us seeing ourselves dead and risen with Christ. But if we remember what I said before, when the children of Israel passed through the Red Sea, they looked down.
And they saw their enemies dead on the seashore. And so in that sense they had passed through death and resurrection, and they've come up and they saw themselves deliver. Now the book of Romans are the truth.
Of salvation, Let's just turn to.
But before we do.
I would like to turn to one other verse because I I've I've grown to love this verse.
As a verse that establishes the Saints when we open the word of God.
And we we take up doctrinal truth. It's very important that we realize we are in a relationship. So let's turn to Romans chapter one.
And verse 7.
And then we can go on to verse 16.
Romans One and verse 7.
To all that be in Rome, beloved of God.
Called to be to be Saints. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
So as we as we take up these foundational truths of the gospel, we want to do so with the realization that we are in a relationship with God our Father.
That is the first thing is you recall me saying last time that that a child of God comes to understand is God is their father.
Enrollment in first John chapter 2 it says of the little children.
That they had, that they have known the Father.
And so before even we take up these truths of deliverance, before we really begin to understand how full the salvation is that has come from the cross of Christ, I want each one of us to remember our relationship with the Father.
God is our father. We're going to go, we're going to learn, and I don't know that we're going to get into it this, this series, this part of the series, but we're we're going to take up the truths of deliverance from law.
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And again, I don't think we're going to get there this time, but the law puts a distance between ourselves and thought.
So if we find ourselves under law, we find ourselves at a distance. We're not on the ground of grace.
And God can't bless on any other ground.
And so we have to get free.
From that.
Situation of being under law. So as I begin again to take up these truths of salvation, of deliverance, I want to remind each one of our hearts that we are in a relationship with the Father. And what does it say here? Grace and peace.
From God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I just want to ask us, are we in the enjoyment of that?
Grace and peace.
Through God our Father, you know we can take up truths, we can take up doctrines all day long and not be in the enjoyment of the relationship that the work of Christ has brought us into.
And so I just want to make sure that as we begin this epistle, we begin it as it were, as God begins it.
Bringing us into the enjoyment of His presence, into His nearness. Is that where we are as we continue on in the truth of Romans?
Chapter verse 16 of our chapter. It'll help us to get a little bit of a of a review.
Of where we have been.
It says for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for is the power of God.
Unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew 1St, and also to the Greek the Apostle Paul knew.
The value of the truth of the gospel. If we were to turn back to the first verse, it says Paul and a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel.
Of God.
God had given him the specific purpose of explaining the gospel. Romans is the book where the gospel is explained to believers. You and I have spent hour after hour, which has been wonderful.
In the under the sound of the word of God preached preaching the gospel to those who are unsaved. Now those who of us are saved enjoy the blessings.
Of our sins forgiven. The purpose of gospel preaching is to reach souls that have not had yet had their sins forgiven. Yes, it is for the enjoyment of those who do have their sins forgiven. But the teaching of the Gospel takes us far beyond, and it gives us the truth that's unfolded in the first eight chapters.
I again want to remind the the Saints this afternoon that God positioned the book of Romans as the 1St letter in sequence of letters. It was not the first letter that was written, but it's the first one as we open the scriptures and as we get through the book of Acts.
We come to the 1St letter that's written and it's to the Romans, and the instruction in the first eight chapters is to set forth the elementary truths of deliverance or salvation and so.
He says I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Or it is.
The power of God unto salvation. What is that salvation?
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Is it only deliverance from the penalty of our sins?
That's usually the emphasis that's placed in our Gospel meetings, and rightly so, that we want souls to come into the enjoyment of their sins forgiven. We want them to escape eternal judgment that their sins require of a holy God. We want them to put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus.
Who is the one whom God has said as the the truth?
In the life.
But.
The gospel goes much farther. There are other aspects of salvation that you and I need to become very familiar with in order for us to be able to enjoy all of the blessing that has come from the Lord Jesus going to the cross and suffering under the load of our sins. God's deliverance is complete.
And total but you and I.
Grow in our enjoyment and appreciation of the value of that work. And that is a process that is not going to end after this meeting. And you're going to have all the answers and you're going to understand how valuable the work of Christ is with regard to all the aspects of salvation that you need and I need to come into the enjoyment of.
It really is a lifelong process, but if we do not have the foundational truths and still in our soul from the first state chapters.
Then we will be handicapped, like I mentioned that before, we will be believers walking through this world hobbling and and falling and crippled. But God doesn't want that and so he says, Paul said. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ because he knew.
It was God's power for salvation, salvation from the penalty of our sins.
That brings us into a condition before God, which is permanent, as we mentioned before, a permanent condition of being justified. That's a condition in which God sees us as.
Being in a condition of abiding, never changing righteousness before Him.
We are another aspect of salvation we're going to get into today.
Is salvation from the penalty of our sins?
That truth is unfolded in the middle part of Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, and it ends in Chapter 8. Today we're going to take up the truth that's given to us in the last part of Chapter 5. And if you do not begin.
Here you'll never understand.
How we are delivered from the power of sin and so.
This chapter is a chapter and and I will just say I'm not ashamed of the fact to say that when I share these truths as I do wherever the Lord opens doors.
I'm sharing my own journey. I'm not sharing something that I've just gotten out of a book.
I'm not much of a student and you're probably able to tell that.
Sharing something that God has made good to my soul and by His grace it has changed my life.
And so that's my desire as I share these truths. Now, the last part of chapter 5 is one of the most important chapters in my own journey.
Of bringing me into the liberty of deliverance from the power of sin. So let's take it up.
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Romans chapter 5. It starts in verse 12.
It says wherefore as by one man.
Sin entered into the world, and death by sin. So death was passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
We understand that there's a pretty marked.
Division in this chapter at verse 12.
From everything that was previous to this, it was, it was Speaking of the work of Christ and its power to deliver from the penalty of sins. And so it was actually Speaking of our sins, that which we had committed, those offenses that God demanded a penalty for, and God's remedy for that penalty.
As we take up from chapter 12 on from verse 12 on.
We're going to take up the question as to how God has brought us into the blessing of salvation from the power of sin. Now we can say actually.
That.
The work of Christ.
Is sufficient.
For delivering us from the power of sin, whether we understand it or not, we may not enter into the enjoyment.
Of deliverance from the powers and now this is the nature, the fallen nature that you and I have received so I'm going to give an example for the little children we've all heard it but.
A pig as a nature, doesn't it? And it likes to roll around in the mud. It loves to get dirty. I guess maybe there's something about, I don't know, it keeps it warm or something. But it loves to be dirty. And you know, we have a nature.
Fallen nature, we received it from our Father Adam.
And that nature.
Loves to sin.
And it doesn't have any regard for the glory of God. So if left to itself, if left to the nature that we have as born as the children of Adam.
We will do our own way, our own will, and that is sin.
So you don't have to tell a child of Adam to sin, because that is what they will naturally do.
And there is a power connected with it that if you want to get out from underneath the influence of that old nature.
Without knowing God's deliverance.
You never will. You can put yourself under the law as we as we're going to see. You can say, OK, I'm going to keep certain.
Standards.
Because I want to be able to regulate that nature in such a way that I won't displease God, but that nature is going to do it anyway. And the more I try to solve the problem of my sin nature, the more I see it at work.
It just seems like the more I try to stop it, the stronger.
It gets and we all know this, don't we? You know, I've got a three-year old grandson and that little boy has come to know the Lord Jesus as his Savior. And the other day he was praying and he was asking the Lord, Lord, help me to be good today.
Help me to be good today.
This three-year old knew.
That he had a sin nature and he also knew that God has all kinds of power, and so if that sin nature was going to be controlled, he was going to have to go to the Lord and he was going to have to ask him for help.
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And you know what? That's a wonderful start.
That is a wonderful start because God, even a little child who might never know what's in these four chapters that we're going to take up, which teaches us the power of God through the cross to deliver us from the from the power of sin and the flesh that that energy that is in us to do the deeds of.
Our old nature.
He he knew.
He could pray. So if there's a young boy here and you've accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior or a girl and you, you don't want to live according to that old nature, you can ask God for help. And I believe God's going to come in in tremendous ways to be a help to you, but.
There is.
There is a plan.
God has a plan to teach us that He has brought deliverance over the power of this in nature.
But first.
Let's just go a few more verses.
512 and then 513 four until the loss it was in the world. But sin is not imputed where there is no law. So there was a time when there was not there were no rules. God had not set out a a, a a standard of rules for men to follow and and so he wasn't under.
Certain guides to do this or not do this. He was just left to his conscience before God.
And his conscience would tell him that's wrong. And so it's saying here that.
Those that didn't have the commandment like Adam and Eve had, let's just read on because we're going to find that.
Says nevertheless verse 14, death reigned from Adam to Moses even after them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. When I stopped there, Adam had disobeyed a known commandment. God said, do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What did he do?
He ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and Evil, so he disobeyed.
A known command. Now all those that went after that, up to a certain point, they didn't have known commands to not do certain things. And so sin wasn't charged, you might say, in the same way it was to Adam. But what happened?
It says death reigned. You know, the wages of sin is death.
And so the effects of sin when man disobeyed God, even though when he wasn't he wasn't disobeying a known command, it still resulted in one thing. What death?
So that's what always what happens when sin is committed. The result is always death.
And so it says now I'm going to read the rest of verse 14. Who is now this is speaking about Adam. OK, When it says who at the end of this verse who is speaking about Adam? Who is the figure of him that was to come? Let me read the whole verse just to get the context. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that did not sin after the similitude of.
Transportation who is the figure of him that is to come now when the when when the Lord began to open my eyes as to the truth of deliverance this was the first verse that really began to.
Give me.
White as to the truth of deliverance from the power of sin, and I'm going to explain it. It says who is the figure of him that was to come?
You know, as we look at the history of Adam and we say, well, why in the world did God introduce a man that wouldn't be a faithful man, and God's blessing was so hindered by this man?
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It was impossible for God to fully open up the blessing that He had for the human race, because the man that He had put in charge of the human race fell immediately.
And we might say, wow, what a disaster, Why in the world?
Did God choose to have things happen that way? Here comes this man, and he's blessed of God, and he's given special.
Privileges and he was, he was given, he was in charge of all the animals and and almost immediately it turned into a disaster.
And we're going to read how everything after him was affected by what he had done.
And we might think, well, that was that was not very wise plan. Well, let's just read this first again, who was the figure of him that was to come?
That verse tells me.
That it was never God's intention for his flow of blessing.
To come through pattern.
Adam was just a figure of him that was to come.
We need to see this and we need to see it clearly.
Because if we continue in any of the likeness of Adam in our Christian lives, we are in the wrong manner.
And God can't bless.
And this is what God showed me, that His intention was never to bless the human race under the first man. Do you remember when?
Jacob asked Joseph to bring his sons and.
Joseph brought his sons to Jacob, and you remember what Jacob did with his hands. He crossed them and the younger one.
Was the one that got the blessing and the older one and Joseph said don't do that. That's the younger one.
Well, Jacob said. I know what I'm doing.
He's going to get the blessing. The blessing is going to flow through him.
And this is this was the light that came to my soul, that if I was going to get the blessing, the deliverance, the salvation that God has for me, it's going to have to be in connection with Christ.
I'm not going to be able to draw anything from what I am in.
And this brought it brought deliverance. If, if this is all the truth I ever got, when the Spirit of God gives it to us, it changes that briefly.
If there's any tendency for me to use the old man and take up the rule of law, which is the only option?
Because if I take up the rule of law, I'm actually using the old man to do it because the law wasn't given to the new one.
And So what a deliverance that was to my soul, to realize that God's intention was never to channel as a blessing through a through, through Adam. Adam was just a figure. He was a useful figure because what God wants to do is bring us into the blessing that he has for us on the ground of who he is, not on any ground of us creating merit in ourselves.
And so.
We find ourselves what on the ground of grace?
And that's what Paul told Timothy says girl and grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, you know, if there's any.
Merit that we ever tried to give to ourselves. It's not coming through the 2nd man. It's not the blessings not flowing through Christ.
There's still some disconnect of us not understanding the blessing God has for us in Christ.
And so let's go on.
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I just want to reiterate.
That.
As soon as God takes up the question of deliverance from the power.
Of sin, he introduces a new man.
As this is, this is, we have just gotten two or three verses into the portion in which God is setting forth the truth of deliverance from the power of sin, and he's already introduced Christ.
What a tremendous thing for us to get ahold of.
As we, as our souls lay hold of this, our souls rest on the ground of grace. It says verse 15. Now this is where I have to go to Darby's translation, if you don't mind. Since I don't have my Bible, I have to go to my phone.
Verse 15 says, But shall not be active favor be as the offense? For by the offence of one that many have died, much rather as the grace of God, and the free gift in grace, which is by the one man, Jesus Christ, abound unto many.
The rest of this chapter is a contrast.
The rest of this chapter is contrasting the 1St man.
His deeds and the results of those deeds.
The second man, his deeds and the results of those deeds.
So it says.
But shall not the act of favor be as the offense? So when Adam sinned, what happened?
It affected his race.
His race came under the condemnation.
His race received the nature, the fallen nature. His race became just like him. Shall not the act of the offense, excuse me? Shall not the act of favor be as the offense? God is taking us up now.
On his own provision shall not be realized. It's it. It brings in the act of favor first.
The act of favor is going to be on the same ground as the act of the offense. So when God chooses to bless through Christ, He is going to bless everything that comes into contact, as it were, with identification with the Lord Jesus.
That's what happened with Adam. He sinned. Everything that was connected with Adam ended up with the same curse, the same judgment, the same condemnation. But God says the act of favor works the same way.
You and I now could God come out in favor before?
Could God act?
In connection with what his heart really desired under Adam.
He was hindered.
And then when man put himself under the law, that hindered his ability to come out in favor until the law was set aside.
That God says I've got a new man now.
I found one who I can channel my blessings through and there's never going to be a hindrance of my favor flowing through this man. Never going to be a hindrance. There's never going to be an act that's going to hinder my favor.
From flowing.
And let's see here.
Sorry, I find the King James translation to be very difficult.
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It says in verse 16, And shall not as by that, as by one, that sin be the gift.
So because one send death reigned, the result was death.
Because of one gift. What came through the gift?
What's the opposite of death? Life.
So through this one man, you and I come into the blessing.
Of life.
Through Atom.
Just read it again.
And shall not as by one that sin be the gift.
For the judgment was of 1 to condemnation.
But the act of favor of many offenses unto justification.
The result of Adam's sin was God having to act in judgment. You know the opposite of that.
The result of the Lord Jesus acting in obedience.
Open the gate for God's favor to flow, one brought of necessity because of God's holiness, judgment. Holiness demanded that God execute judgment, but because of the act of the Lord Jesus in his obedience, the result was God.
Acting in favor.
Isn't it wonderful that you and I have been brought into connection with the One?
Who's who's favor flows through?
So we're getting a contrast that we don't want to forget. This is important that we see this God sets this contrast before us so that we will never in our practical everyday Christian lives.
Reach back and try to get anything from what we are in.
Or.
In Adam's energy, which is the flesh, we're not even going to get into the the teaching of the Spirit of God. That's the energy for our new life. We're not going to get there. But what we want to understand is God first sets the contrast before us and says all blessing has always been intended to flow through.
The Lord Jesus.
Because that's where my favor, you know, if we.
In our practical everyday life, begin to understand what deliverance and liberty is. It's always going to be a result of God's favor. It's always going to be a result of who God is. Not because of who I am, Not because what I have accomplished, not because of what I have done.
Not because of the determination of my will that I have set to please God. It's going to be because God's favor flows through Christ and I am in him. God says you're dead. You're risen in newness of life. That is the place of blessing and that has a very, very practical everyday.
Result.
Romans Pt4
Address—P. Jennings
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Maybe we can start tonight by seeing him number 29296.
First roots of Thy new creation, faithful, holy, may we be joyful, and Thy full salvation more and more conformed to the exchange. Glory to glory, till in heaven to take our place, and to worship and authority lost in wonder, love and praise.
1096.
Mercies grown.
Save your winds down being plastic surgery.
Crows to all the.
Pray.
When I.
My heart in love.
Or other person's prayers so by yell.
S are made.
For.
Me.
Joyful and by all our nation more and more.
Change from.
The glory.
To.
And we take our lives.
That I have to worship.
The Lord Dorothy.
Well, I just want to thank everyone for making the effort to come out tonight. I know it is an effort and for some maybe it was a very special effort. And so I am so thankful for the privilege of being able to continue to present.
These truths which.
We're all growing in learning.
The value of that which which stems from the cross and forth from the the.
The value of the person of the Lord Jesus and so.
Tonight, we're going to.
Continue. I'd like to.
Refer back to a verse that I may have given in the introduction on the in the first meeting. It's in First Chronicles 22.
And I use this in the introduction to to help us to realize that God has provided a full salvation.
That the cross is all.
God needed.
For his righteous demands for a holy God to be satisfied that the cross of Christ is also all we need.
For a full deliverance, it is true that because of our natural tendencies to depend upon ourselves.
It is a journey. It was for me. It has been for me. It's a journey to come into the realization of the value of the cross of Christ and of its power, of how God has completely dealt with the whole question of sin. But he hasn't just dealt with the question of sin, He's dealt with what we were.
00:05:14
Were in heaven, so he has completely dealt.
With Adam and he sees Adam at the foot of the cross now.
It's a lifelong experience for us to enter into the value of how God sees.
This but I would just like to start with this verse because it hit me one time as I was reading and my normal reading through the Old Testament First Chronicles 22 verse 18 it says.
Is not the Lord your God with you? And hath he not given you rest on every side? Speaking of David here.
And.
It could not always have been said of David that he had rest on every side. David went through many battles. He was he was asked to fight many battles. But this was a period of time in his life when it could could be said David Edwards on every side. And you know, the more and more we come into the to the, to the valuable, to the.
Enjoyment of the truths of the Gospel.
Which is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believe it. The more we come into the realization of what took place at the cross, the more you and I can practically in our everyday life enjoy rest from our enemies on every side.
I wouldn't present this as something that I would expect of a young person to walk out the door tonight after we've taken up the trees that we're going to take up.
And say, well, I expect you to have rest on every side, because it is only as the Spirit of God takes these truths and makes them good and shows them how they work in a practical in our practical everyday life that they do.
Result in deliverance. But that's what salvation is. Salvation is deliverance.
And so I just share this verse as a verse of encouragement that, you know, some some Christians that go through their life thinking, you know what the life of a Christian is just nothing but an endless struggle. And I'm just on the end of this.
I'm in the squirrel cage and I'm just barely keeping my head above water with all my enemies and all the things that seek to destroy me, and I'm just barely keeping my head above water. But I don't believe that's what God intends for us as believers.
Because of the cross of Christ and as we go through the lesson that we're going to have today.
We're going to mainly take up Romans chapter 6.
We're going to find some very key.
Instruction for us.
In learning how God has provided rest for us and deliverance.
So let's just, we didn't quite finish up where I would like to end up in Chapter 5. And I think it's really, really important that we just cover a few more verses in Chapter 5 before we take up Chapter 6 because as we were speaking last last evening, yesterday.
Chapter 5 really presents the head of the new race.
That God has instituted as the the man who he is going to channel all of his blessing through. And you and I, we really can't go into chapter 6.
Without realizing, remember, as we as we began our meeting yesterday, we changed from the question of deliverance from the from from our sins, the the, the penalty and the consequence of our sins to take up the question of deliverance from the power of sin, the nature that which we have were born with, that which can only produce.
00:10:03
Sin.
And so we've, we've we've, we've begun this new division, you might say, of taking up the question of the being delivered from the power of sin. This is something that's very real. We all know it in one way or another. Sin has dominion over us until we understand what it means to enjoy the power of death and.
And so the very first thing, as I mentioned yesterday, the very first thing God sets before us when he brings up the the the question of deliverance or the solution for the deliverance from the power of sin as he changes the man in whom we find ourselves in.
So he we, we, we go from being in Adam in verse 12.
To the man who was introduced, the one who we stated Adam was only a figure of.
So God's intention was to bring all of His blessing and have him have our blessing throw through and flow through another man, and He's going to place us in this teaching. He is going to places in the other man. We know what it is to be an atom, don't we? We know what it is to have Adam's nature. We know what it is to have a fallen sinful nature.
But God has.
Changed our identity as believers, all of us here, I believe we've put our simple faith and trust in the Lord Jesus. We have a new life. We have everlasting life. We have eternal life. And so God sees us now with a new identification. He doesn't see us in our identification in Adam any longer.
Unfortunately, because of our experience.
We often see ourselves still in connection with Adam, but we, as I believe I've stated in meetings before, we cannot judge the truth of God.
By our experience, we cannot judge the truth of God by our lack of being able to.
Lay hold when God says something.
Then we have to by faith receive it and then learn by the the the the instruction of the Spirit of God in our lives, learn what it really means.
And so.
It's very, very important. I would like to turn back to a verse in Romans one, it's very key. I found it to be very key and very helpful and in in the process of us being able to go from what we think of by nature to go what faith brings us into and the blessing that God has already brought us into.
And it's in.
Romans One and verse 5.
It says by whom we have received grace and apostleship for the obedience to the faith.
Then we turn to.
The 17th verse of the first chapter it says. At the end of the 17th verse it says the just shall live by faith. God doesn't promise us.
The enjoyment of deliverance, if we aren't going to walk by faith, it says the just shall live by faith. And so as we take up these truths tonight, they're not going to do us any good. If in our hearts we say, you know what, I'm not going to set Adam completely aside. I think there's still something that I can present.
As acceptable to God by my own doing and by my own will and by my own energy. And I'm just not going to accept the fact that He's completely set him aside.
That he he sees Adam at the foot of the cross and he's condemned. And so by faith we need the obedience of faith. We need to say, I accept what God says about me and I accept the new position he has placed me in. I accept the new identification of not being an atom anymore, but being in Christ. And in Christ, I can never take up the law as a principle for life.
00:15:11
The law, if we take it up, has the potential to bring glory to me.
Something that I can, Gloria.
And so that's the reason why we take it out, because we want to.
Take some credit for this new life of righteousness.
But God says, no, that's not the ground of grace, and the ground of grace is the only ground that I have any intention of blessing you or being on.
And so the obedience of faith is so important. I have to accept God's terms and that means I have to set any potential of ever being able to take credit for anything in the Christian pathway. What a wonderful blessing. It really sets me free so that I can.
Live in all of the provisions of this new life.
And not be put in hindrances in the way of the Spirit of God. It's just a beautiful thing. And so the just shall live by faith. Now we're going to take up the instruction for faith that which God has told us that the cross has brought us into and so.
The beauty of Christianity is that all sinners in the person and the work of Christ. If all sinners in the person and the word of Christ, we come into this blessing that we have, and we enter into the fullness as our Him brought out the fullness of salvation. We enter into the fullness as we.
Realize that he is the source.
For everything. And so as we're going through Romans 5.
Before we get to Romans 6 and we see the, the, the, the what actually took place at the cross, in our association with it, in death and resurrection, we have to see the person that God has placed us in. We have to see the glory that belongs to Him in connection with us being delivered from the power.
Of sin. And so it says in verse 18. It says therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came.
Upon all men to condemnation the offense brought the judgment which brought the condemnation Now I want to help us I'm going to remind us again because I I I covered this in my last year in the last series, but condemnation is a permanent condition so when God.
Placed Adam under condemnation. You know how if you have a house?
And it's got a sign on it that says condemned. Remember, I, I, I shared this with you. It says condemn. The only thing that it's waiting for is not a remodeling crew, but a bulldozer. OK? It's waiting for the, it's, it's waiting for the backhoe because it has been established that there's no hope for this. And we're, we're, we're getting rid of it. And so that's how God sees us. And Adam, that's how God sees that first man. He doesn't have any.
To remodel he doesn't have any plans to try to get anything else out from it. It's it's under condemnation, but so is let's keep reading here. It says Even so the righteousness of one and here's that one that we've been Speaking of the Lord Jesus the righteousness of woman.
The free gift came.
Upon all men unto justification of life. So we, we, we, we spoke about how condemnation is a permanent condition, but justification of life is a permanent condition as well. So Adam brought in a a permanent condition of condemnation. The Lord Jesus brings in a permanent condition of justification.
Justification is a condition.
That we stand before God in abiding righteousness. He sees us in a condition that can never, ever change because it's based upon the work which was accomplished by the One who came and fulfilled God's righteousness and who answered for His righteousness at the cross.
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It's good. So that justification now that we have we have it in Christ and through him and because of the value of his work. And so I just want to point those things out. This is this is so it's it's so beautiful to see that before God takes up the question of our deliverance in chapter 6.
He brings out the superior position.
In which Christ has presented man in a new in a new race. We, we, we now are under the head of a new race. We were under the head of Adam in all that he brought in, but now we're in under the blessing of what Christ has introduced for us. Verse 19 for us by one man's disobedience.
Many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more about. So we see the purpose of the law. The purpose of the law was not to make man righteous, so God.
Knew from the very beginning what the true condition of man is, and he also knew what the remedy for man was, and he knew the remedy for man's condition of.
Of sand and guilt was not going to be remedied by the law, but he knew the law would make the offense abound so.
The law was useful in that it showed us how God see this so saws how God viewed us. We needed to see so that we could come into the blessing of what was going to be provided through the cross, that there was no hope.
Fluorescent atom, and so the law was useful for that purpose.
And so.
But when the law did reveal the fact that sin abounded in this.
Adam, Grace, Sin abounded. It couldn't be. It couldn't be. It couldn't be.
Lessened it just it just multiplied sin because of the nature of man, it couldn't be stopped It it it just abounded. But grace.
Could over abound.
Because.
God is greater than everything that Satan can engineer, that man can produce, God can prove himself to be.
Far above.
All that evil can produce. And so grace over abounds. More over, the law entered the offense might abound in verse 20.
But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto death, Even so my grace reigned through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. You know, sometimes, sometimes we might think, well, we just speak too much of grace.
That you know.
It grace. We don't want to cheapen grace.
And it's true if.
If we go on in the next chapter, and if we're sinning, that grace may abound. We're in one sense we're cheapening grace, but.
Grace isn't cheap.
Grace required the death.
Of God, Sir.
And Grace has.
Reign grace reigns now.
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By righteousness.
God.
Devised a point in which he could take the likes of us.
Children of Adams race.
And he could bring us into a condition.
Of eternal blessing and he didn't have to compromise who he was in the process.
So God didn't just say, you know what, I'm a loving God and I, I'm just going to act in out of my heart of love and I'm just going to bring you into blessing. But that's not, that's not how grace works, not the grace that comes from the heart of God. Grace reigns through righteousness. So God's righteousness was not compromised in any.
Measure at all in order for His grace to reign, for His grace to be free to accomplish what His heart desires to accomplish. Grace reigns through righteousness.
Unto eternal life through by Jesus Christ our Lord. And so we don't, we don't have cheap grace, but we have grace that reigns. We have grace that has gotten a victory, and God is fully glorified.
In all that His grace has produced.
It it's truly wonderful for us to think here we are.
And we're just, we're just the receivers of it. We didn't do anything.
To to merit or or cause God to even want to to act this way towards us. This blessing has come because of who God is and because what His heart has always been for all eternity.
And So what a wonderful thing that we.
You know, brethren, we, we can't, we can't be blessed on any other ground than the ground of grace.
And that leaves us with absolutely no reason.
To be proud.
It leaves us with every reason to be thankful. And so we're just, we're just, we're just the recipients of the heart of God for and we will be for all eternity. And So what a wonderful thing it is that.
All this this beautiful contrast has resulted in God being free to display His heart.
For chapter 6, What shall we say then? Shall we continue and send that grace may abound? So the question is asked, and I, I would like to say as we take up this question, that I don't take up the book of Romans for the purpose of exhortation.
Of trying to get people to the Saints to be a certain thing. I don't take up the book for that reason. I see the book of Romans as a book of instruction.
There is no way that we can get the Lord's people where we think they ought to be unless they have the tools and the understanding of where God has already brought them.
And it is my desire.
Because of this journey that the Lord has brought me on that has taken many, many, many years and much, much pain, much struggle to realize just how free it all is and what blessing is in store. And I can't ask somebody to be something if they don't know what God has done in bringing them into all.
Blessing. And so I don't use the book of Romans as a book of exhortation. It's my desire that it be used as a book of instruction, just that we would learn.
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The value of the cross of Christ that we would learn the heart of God that would be we would begin to understand what grace really is and that.
With those realizations in our soul.
Then comes the energy through the Spirit, as we'll get in chapter 8, to walk this Christian life in a way that is reflective of who the Lord Jesus is. And so that's just a little. So let's just say the question for for us here is, well, shall we use this grace that has been displayed for us for some benefit?
Of what I wasn't Adam.
Or what I am in atom. So I'm seeking of pleasure so that what I am and Adam can continue to to operate. The question is is.
When after we have gone through chapter the end of chapter 5 and we have seen that.
How God has replaced Adam with Christ. The thought is really kind of ridiculous. Should I continue?
In that nature sin the sin nature, should I just allow it to continue to produce?
It's it's sin and dishonor to God when I've been brought into this new identification with the Lord Jesus. So the the question is is really answered as we as we go on, God forbid verse two, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein.
So the I like to think, and Darby's translation isn't as clear, but I like to think that God doesn't even ask me to answer that, because if I answered it, I might answer it according to my experience. And some days I might say, well.
I do continue in sin, that grace may abound. I might go through a day when I don't know the power over.
I don't know how to overcome the power of sin in my life and so in by in my experience, I might say, well, yes, I do consent to continue and sin, but that's not really what God is getting at here. He's getting at the truth of why we don't continue in sin. And so he says, God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin?
Live any longer therein, so the key.
For me not continuing in sin in that old nature, in the on the same course that I was before I was saved and came under the value of the cross of Christ.
The key to that is my understanding of what happened at the cross. So how can you that are dead to sin live any longer there? And so he gives us the illustration.
Of baptism, and says, Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized unto Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death?
So baptism is a picture of going down into death.
In identification with the Lord Jesus and his death, I'm going to give you an illustration.
That the Lord gave me last summer. He actually.
Asked he asked allowed me to have the privilege of baptizing a brother over in Kansas City.
And on my way to Morningstar last year. And so as I was requested, the request came for me to baptize this brother. I asked, well, is there a lake or a river nearby that we could do the baptism in?
And they said, no, no, we plan on baptizing them in the bathtub. So I said that's fine, I can baptize him in about bathtub. And and so as we went about the process of baptizing a grown man in the bathtub.
I.
Really, really wanted to get this guy under the water.
And so here I am with about this much water in a bathtub and a guy that's probably a little shorter than me but not much different in size. I'm sitting there trying to stuff him under the water and there's absolutely no way I can get this guy under the water.
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And so I figured, well, it was in the name of the Father Son and the Holy Holy Ghost, and so he was baptized. And then we went to Morningstar and they don't usually do have baptisms there. And so we went to a, a, a spring and I watched as three or four people were baptized and I noticed a difference.
I noticed that when they baptized these people.
They went down under the water and they completely disappeared. They were gone. And then they came back up out of the water. And I thought, well, that's really what I was trying to get at when I baptized this brother. But you know, I thought of how.
The truth of our death in association with the death of Christ is so that we see ourselves in Adam.
Yeah, and no longer able to function any longer.
Our experience, though, in our practical Christian lives, our experiences that we're always trying to shove this guy down into.
Association with our death with Christ and we don't really see ourselves by faith.
As being dead.
But God does see us as dead. He says, how can you who are dead continue in sin any longer? And so by faith we need to see this truth and we need to practice it so that when we are in circumstances.
Where?
We're presented with.
Temptation to act according to the nature of our sin nature and commit sin.
We need by faith to see ourselves in Adam as not having any life any longer. So instead of going through the process of trying to get ourselves into that position of being dead, because that's not what really God says, doesn't say try to make yourself dead. He says how can you who are dead?
To sin live any longer therein.
So the question is how does that God doesn't see us in that complete condition of no longer being alive to sit any longer. It's our problem is we by faith aren't laying hold of how God sees us and so we.
Are not enjoying the power of death. You know death brings power now.
Baptism is a picture of death.
But have you ever seen anyone who got baptized left under the water?
Have you ever seen anybody? OK, We baptize him. He's down there under the water, and we're just going to leave him there.
No, there's resurrection, isn't there? So we have.
A.
By faith, we can say that my connection with Adam ended in death.
But I have a new connection now and I have, I have been raised again in newness of life. And that's what we'll just read that.
For therefore, verse four, we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, Even so we also should walk in newness of life. And So what characterizes the believer.
Is death and resurrection. Now I would like to remind us tonight of the scripture that I read yesterday in Exodus chapter 13 where it says God LED you not by way of the Philistines, but He led you by the way of the Red Sea, of the wilderness of the Red Sea.
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We're going to use the Red Sea as a picture of this death.
And resurrection and the wilderness of the Red Sea is our life after death and resurrection, and how death and resurrection is applied on a daily basis. Moment by moment, we live in the enjoyment of seeing Adam, our old man at the foot of the cross.
And my new condition is.
I am not in Adam, I am in Christ and I have his life and I live now in resurrection life.
The Lord is the only one.
Who can teach us what this means in our everyday practical lives? But it's not going to be enjoyed if we're not walking by faith.
So faith is always instructed by the Word of God. This is the truth that God uses to help us to understand that His salvation that was, that was wrought at the cross, is sufficient for deliverance from the power of sin, but the only deliverance from the power of sin.
Is found in death and resurrection. This is the key.
And so let's go on.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that the old man is crucified with him, so the old man is crucified with him. You know, I don't, I, I know I'm not a student. So somebody can give us a better definition of what the old man is. But I like to think of the old man as Adam.
Just simply Adam and the body of sin.
Is everything in connection with what Adam is and what he possesses and what he does the body of sin? Is that whole accumulation of everything that comes from Adam, that the body of sin might be a null.
Annulling is setting something completely aside, saying we're living like it never happened.
Do you think God has that for us, a Christian life?
Or the body of sin is annulled. That we see ourselves the old man, we see God. Not only did man take.
Did did man take the Lord Jesus and crucified him on the cross? But God has taken Adam and he's crucified him as well.
Our old man is crucified.
With him.
You know, every bit of identification places us with him.
We see ourselves there in that shameful position.
Of being crucified, the most shameful death that could possibly have you seen.
Yourself.
There, you know, if we saw ourselves in that shameful position of crucifixion, we would never pick ourselves back up again and try to use ourselves to offer to God something of merit.
Because God sees us as having been crucified.
And so.
We just have this wonderful privilege of seeing that yes, God sees what we are in our atom condition as over.
And he has judged it. It's condemned. But we rise in newness of life. We can live our lives absolutely free. When I say that, when I say absolutely free, only absolutely free, We're in the when we're walking by faith. It is so important for you and I to walk by faith.
None of these things are just going to happen.
If we're not living in the enjoyment.
Of these.
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Facts. Promises.
Truths, how God sees us, what he did, His plan of deliverance.
These are all things that we have as our own. You know, it's my desire.
I think I mentioned this in the last series. It's my desire to not tell the Saints of God what they ought to be. It's my desire to tell them what they are and when they know what they are. And sometimes you have to repeat it. You have to tell them what they are, and you have to keep telling them what they are. You have to keep presenting these truths to God's people because that's how we learn time and time again. But as we learn what we are and how God.
Jesus, pretty soon we want to be what we ought to be. We become.
A life that's lived in the likeness of Christ. But we haven't got all the information yet. We haven't got to chapter 8 where we learn that the energy of this life that we now live is the Spirit of God. Such an important thing to learn that it's not my energy by which I live this new.
Likeness of Christ.
Resurrection life, it's not my, it's not my energy, but it's energy that's been given to me because God loves us enough to give us the power to live a life of true deliverance. And so let's keep going.
Verse seven For he that is dead is freed from sin. He that is dead is free from sin. So the so the degree in which we understand our death is the degree in which we are free.
From sin in a practical sense. Now God sees us as being dead. He sees us as being freed. But we don't often live. We're not always living our Christian lives in the truth victory of that deliverance. But faith will bring us into it.
So now, if in verse 8, now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we also shall live with Him.
Knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more. So there's no there's there's no need for any other solutions.
The cross is God's solution to the dilemma of us being under the power of sin. God doesn't have any other solutions. He died and he died once.
Knowing that Christ, by being raised from the dead, diet no more death hath no more dominion over him.
Now verse 10 through verse.
No, let's verse 3, verse 10. For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
So the question of sin.
Is behind us.
At the cross on resurrection ground, the question of sin was completely dealt with. And so verse 10 brings us into how we practically.
Make death and resurrection.
A living reality that brings deliverance. So it says in verse 10, verse 11.
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead, indeed to sin.
But alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord reckon that means that we remember it and that we make make it good. So we we this is this is the the reality. So we've taken up the truth. We've taken up the doctrine. Now God says, take the doctrine and make it a reality.
Live in the enjoyment of it, Reckon yourselves so.
Be in remembrance that God sees you no longer alive.
You know.
Reckon you need yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. So we're not only just dead, but we have new life.
Let not sin therefore reign in your immortal body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof. You know sin used to come knocking at our door, and it used to say, As we open the door, it used to say.
00:50:14
I have full control over you.
And you don't have any option.
I have dominion over you, I reign over you, and you don't have any choice but to let me in.
That's the way it used to be.
That is not the way it is any longer.
Sin shall not reign over you.
That let not sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof. And so God, you know when, when God gives us instruction, he never asks us to do something that's not possible.
And so here he's saying, when sin comes.
The power of sin incomes and knocks at your door. It may be that it used to gain entrance.
But now you have the understanding that you're no longer alive to it. And you have.
The the ability you have the.
The knowledge that you can address this enemy that has come knocking in a completely different manner, you can say I'm dead.
To your power and I'm no longer.
Under your reign, in fact, we can say I am under the reign.
Of grace I am under the reign of who God is and what He has done for me.
And I no longer have to give you.
Sin entrance into my life I no longer have to accept.
The awful results of you reigning over me, I have been delivered because I am dead and I'm risen and I am in Christ. And so it's a wonderful thing to know that sometimes in our practice.
We can't seem to make it work.
We know that, don't we? Sometime in our practice?
We just can't.
Can't seem to.
Realize the strength of death and resurrection, but that doesn't mean the strength isn't there.
It means we haven't learned it.
And God is in the process of teaching us.
And we're going to find as we go on, because I'm going to cover one more verse before we close because it's extremely important.
The the next verses speak of yielding our members as instruments of Neither yield you your members as instruments of unrighteousness under sin, but you yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness, you know.
I just want to tell you what a wonderful thing it is.
To be delivered from the power of sin in such a way that our members.
Become free in the service of God.
I can't tell you what a blessing it is to learn deliverance from the power of sin in such a way that our members become God's tools and we have the privilege of using them for the glory of God and for free. Perry.
We only know too well what our members used to be enslaved to.
But because of death and resurrection, they're not anymore. Now this may not always be our experience, and God is so patient in allowing us to go through the struggles that.
Show us there's something yet we haven't laid hold of because our instruments are still being yielded in ways that are bearing that truth. But I just want to share verse 14.
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For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace. Now this verse to me just came home to me last year last summer as I was communicating these things at Morningstar, and I had never seen this, but this is a statement.
Sin shall not have dominion over you.
When we are in the power of the truth.
That has been presented in the first part of the chapter that were dead and were risen.
Sin has lost its power.
But the verse goes on and it says because.
It says.
For ye are not under law, but under grace now.
As I bring this, this, this thought out just again, I want to remind the Saints here how much time I spend under law. It wasn't something that I had any intention of doing. I didn't know any better. I was seeking to live the Christian life and I was seeking to do the best I can. And I had a series of of of.
Standards to keep and I thought I was pleasing God, but there was one thing that.
Was going haywire. I didn't have deliverance from the power of sin.
And.
Then the Holy Spirit didn't necessarily have power to live through me. But here's the key. Sin shall not have dominion over you. What's the rest of the verse? Sin shall not have, for ye are not under the law. So I just want to, as we end the meeting tonight, I want to give us all something to think about.
The degree in which.
The law has influence in our life will be the degree in which sin.
As dominion over us, the law is the effort of me in Adam to try to produce righteousness for God.
God.
Isn't at all impressed.
With me coming in the energy of the flesh, and in, you might say, the first man presenting righteousness to him, he cannot allow that delivering power from the power of sin, if the law is in any way active in my life.
So sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law so.
We by nature, and we'll always have this tendency. We always revert back to the energy of the flesh in pleasing God. This is kind of our natural default.
We have a tendency to want to please God in the flesh. God says you're not going to get deliverance that way and you're going to go through circumstances in your life which are not going to be pleasant because that is not the ground of grace on which I bless.
And so.
Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under law.
Just a verse that struck home with me and I, I, I just share it. I know there's more to this to this chapter, and I don't mean to because it is. These are verses that encourage us to yield our members in a way that bears fruit for God. And there is a responsibility in our life, isn't there? There is a responsibility for us to live for God, for us to, to, to live for.
Glory. And yet we can't do it. If the other truths that we've just gone over aren't really understood, we can't yield our members as instruments for God.
Without realizing we're on the ground of grace. It's because of who God is and what He has done that gives me this overwhelming desire. And I'm going to end with one more verse.
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Is verse.
It speaks of the heart.
I'm sorry, I should have 17 but but thank but God be thanked. Here's a thankful believer, OK, A believer who is thinking about how good God is. OK, God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, that ye have obeyed. From the heart, so that the flesh it never obeys from the heart it obeys out of duty.
But we have been brought into this relationship where the heart has been set free.
To yield itself and its members for the glory of God. We are set free and we live our Christian lives out of the heart.
Not out of the head or or with the awesome. An overwhelming sense of responsibility.
We do this because God has given us his desires, the Lord Jesus he was.
He he said that you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.
And the Lord Jesus said, I all, I do always those things which please the Father.
He never had an obstacle in his way that hindered him from completely, 100% fulfilling the Father's world no matter what.
The father asked him to do.
Because he had divine life.
We have that life and we haven't even gotten yet to the truth of the power of the Spirit of God. It's so wonderful to realize that this life that we have to live is lived in the energy of God dwelling in me. Isn't it just a wonderful thing to enjoy?
What God Has in View for Us
Address—R. Boulard
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
I'm so glad everybody's here.
Maybe we could sing 127?
127.
Oh, bless the.
Father's house, their love divine the rest, What else could?
Say it is why the hearts of those and Jesus must live.
There's so many art.
It's Father's love.
Oh, wonderful.
Horse and given.
Of abortion.
Of love.
For some.
Love for real life?
And bring Plaza as well. I'll be loved to.
Rise.
In the world.
What is the birds on the birds on the birds on the birds on the water?
And came to her.
Today.
Good morning.
Allow bring my stare.
Bless the Lord.
Therefore, this love.
To go and join the heart, no wild is there.
Today.
Lord shine to everyone.
But I just want.
My spring. My spring to do.
Fill that move to early with him.
Over the sun is given.
May not receive.
Our joy.
00:05:00
And.
I don't know about you, but I often wonder about that home.
What a home.
Such as love, that He must bring us there to fill that form, to be with him.
In all His glory share the Father's house, the Father's heart. All that the Son is given, made ours the objects of His love, and He our joy in heaven.
What a home.
Well, let's turn to First Peter Chapter 4.
And we'll read just one verse there just to open up the subject. That it helped my heart.
First Peter, chapter 4.
And verse 7.
But the end of all things is at hand.
Be therefore sober and watch under prayer.
The end of all things is at hand.
You know, I have been thinking lately and just enjoying the end of what God has in view for those that belong to Him and those that are the children of God and you know and I know.
That God always gives the best. He never gives second best, He always gives the best.
We doubt him and we sometimes reach out for something that he didn't give us and we think we're getting something good. But really what hostile that was not received.
Now, if we haven't, if we've got it and we didn't receive it from Him, we shouldn't have it. And it's not good for us if we didn't get it from Him. So the end of all things is a pan for the believer. The end of all things is at hand for all those that were created by God.
They're not going to have a good end if they don't know the Lord Jesus and Savior and those Old Testament ones that lived in faith will receive a portion of blessing. Those that didn't walk in faith, those that left this scene are not going to have a very good end. But the end of all things is at hand. And so let's read in drove just another verse to open up this this subject.
Chapter 42 of Job, the last chapter.
1St 12:00.
You know, I see some young parents here. 3 verses of scripture to your kids. You don't need to remember the whole passage all the time, but three little verses of scripture. My father read me this when I was young. I've never forgotten.
And he says in verse 12, Job 42, verse 12. So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job Moore than his beginning.
So you came into this world, you were born into this world some.
Most of us perhaps had good parents, some of us maybe didn't have the best parents. But God chose who our parents were, and He formed our character by allowing us to pass through certain circumstances that we might come to this point where we could perhaps bear some fruit for Him. Every one of us has a different set of circumstances. We didn't ask to be sent here into this world. He put us here.
At this particular time and with particular privileges that we have, Can you imagine?
Living at the time after the truth has been recovered to us, and it's possible to come into the presence of the Lord and to know it. To be gathered by the Spirit of God unto the precious name of the Lord Jesus and to know it.
And to come into the assembly and know that you're not going to be told some doctrine, some wicked doctrine, devote the person of Christ and the insufficiency of work, His work, that you have to do your own part and all those sort of thing. What a privilege.
But this here isn't the end. This is the beginning. And so you had a beginning. And some of us had a decent beginning, others didn't have a real good beginning, Perhaps their children being born in Ukraine tonight. And it's not a very good beginning.
But they can't have a good end. The Lord allows for us to have a good ending. So God's going to bless the ending of the believer.
We might say beyond his wireless dreams.
You and I, it's beyond our comprehension of what's coming, but in the grace of God, he's going to give us an end. So I'd like to look at the ending of a believer. I'd like to look at the ending of the church. What's the end of the church in this scene? What's the end of Israel in this world? What's the end?
00:10:13
Of some of the things that we're we're seeing in the world going on the history of this world, what's the end of Russia? What's the end of some of these things? And I don't want to spend a lot of time on each one of them because we'll we want to get through. But perhaps we could just look at the ending as a believer first. And so let's look at.
Just.
Revelation chapter 4. There's a couple of things that we could look at the Rapture first, but I'd like to look at this.
Chapter 4. Verse 4.
Round about the throne were four and 20 seats, and upon these seats I saw 4 and 20 elders sitting clothed in white raiment, and they had on their heads crowned of gold. Verse 11. Well, verse 10, the four and 20 elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worshipped him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord.
To receive glory and honor and power.
For thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are, and we're created. There's going to be an end for each one of us as an individual.
God saves individuals. He deals with individuals. He quickens individuals. He teaches individuals.
He brings us into the knowledge of the truth as individuals, and then when we have the knowledge of the truth, we work with each one of us individually so that we will abide the truth. We'll make that transaction with Him.
And we'll buy the truth for ourselves and walk in it. And so here we just read after the rapture. There's going to be here individuals.
In the presence of the Lord Jesus.
Just after the judgment seat we don't have, you know, it says in Revelation 22/22/12, it says behold, I come quickly in my reward, which is with me. So the judgment seat of Christ, the review for each one of us individually is very closely connected to the rapture. It's not going to be a long time. I used to think, you know, the Lord would come.
Rapture, His Church and.
Boy, there's a lot to do. It's going to take a long time to get around to this judgment seat of Christ and.
No, that's not how it's going to be. It's going to be very quickly. He's going to very quickly have an individual interview with each one of us, and he's not limited by the laws of science and physics. So perhaps in a moment of time we'll have a private review with the Lord. We review our lives and tell us all the difficult things that happen in our lives and all the things that he appreciated.
Why he allowed those things and.
Feel, reward us. Feel the light to just tell us how much it meant to him.
That we went on, perhaps until the end, until we saw him at the Rapture.
That it meant something to him that we had a conference here and that there were just a few, and that there was something of Christ ministered, and that there was some enjoyment of the Lord, and that there were children there. And the Lord didn't miss one of those little ones. He loved each one and he wanted each one there. And He's going to tell us how much it meant to his heart.
He'll reward us.
Then there are going to be crowns given, but there's four and 20 seats, so we know that 12 of them represent the Old Testament Saints.
Individuals and 12 loans represent the New Testament Saints as individuals.
Elders, you don't have an intelligence. They have experience and they are brought into the knowledge of what is taking place. And you and I, one of the things that the characteristic of Christianity is that we have intelligence as to what God did in the past, what he's doing now, and what he's going to do in the future.
But notice they're sitting.
You and I are going to sit in the presence of Lord Jesus on Thrones.
Crowned with a reward in his presence.
I told the little illustration, I don't want to tell a lot of stories tonight, but.
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Have a brother-in-law. He's with the Lord now. I spoke at his funeral. He was name was Keith. Janet. Only brother.
And she had one brother, one sister, they're both with the Lord. And he was, he was autistic. He was at his age level, was probably something like 10 or 11, maybe 12 years old. And he went through life this way and had a hard time communicating, couldn't really tell you how he really felt. He just had a hard time. He was abused by people, robbed and just taking advantage of.
I could tell you stories.
Just a sad life. Had a hard time keeping a job. Didn't keep a job more than a few months or a few weeks at a time. That was just a hard, difficult life.
But you know he would. We would go and get him where he lived in his little apartment, and we would.
Bring him on a Christmas Day to the.
House and feed them a nice meal and so on, and have all the other Saints over and so on. We have a nice time of fellowship.
And he would talk about the Lord's coming and he would talk about the Lord as we drove up to Tamar Bay. And then he talked about the Lords we drove back and.
No one really knew that he was a believer, but there was a little spark of affection for Christ.
When to be with the Lord?
And I read this passage of scripture at his funeral, at the graveside, I said one of those seats is going to be occupied by Keith.
He did something for the Lord. Every man shall have praise of God, and he's going to be on the throne. He might not have a lot of responsibility, but the Lord is going to see to it that he's got a throne. So don't you see in heaven just arrayed a lot of it. Don't want to be introducing imaginary thoughts or anything, but I wondered about a 360° auditorium.
Field to as far as the eye can see.
With Thrones.
And the Saints of God seated in the presence of the Lord, with Himself in the midst, with a full sense of his approval.
That's the end of the believer in the individual to be in the presence of the Lord in this way. Well, you know, we're going to reign with him. We don't have time to go through all those passages of Scripture, but we're going to reign with him. We're going to be like him. With him and like him. We'll have, as we have this weekend, our bodies will be glorified. The very same body that you lived in in this scene, the very same body glorified. And you're going to be just like a young person there, it says in the 110th Psalm.
That the Lord Jesus will be in the dew of his youth, and so you're going to be a young person in heaven.
You'll not mark us in That's the End For you in that glorious scene is really the beginning.
Be a young person in a vital use, not a market standard.
But then there's one man who's going to have the marks of sin. What sin did we'll never forget. Well, let's look at the collective side. You're going to be a part of the bride of Christ. You know, the Lord Jesus as Savior.
Ephesians chapter 5.
Can I get a box of cleanets up here? Thank you.
So it says in verse.
25.
Season 525 Husbands love your wives. Even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to Himself. A glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So what men to love their wives?
Even as Christ loved the church.
As their own bodies.
Thank you.
He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord, the Church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.
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For this college, oh man, leave your father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ in the church.
Nevertheless, let everyone of you in particular shall love his wife, even as himself and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
Well, collectively, you know we're going to be caught up into that heavenly scene.
We're going to be caught up.
To be the object of these affections for all eternity.
You know we could read in First Corinthians chapter 15 and I often times think of this verse of Scripture verse 28.
Maybe we could read verse 27, for he had put all things under His feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that He is accepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, that's subdued to the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus will bring everything into subjection. There won't be any rebellion left.
In this world, when he's finished the.
Then shall the Son also be himself, be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be All in all.
In our older brethren used to remind us that when the Lord Jesus.
Delivers up the kingdoms to his God.
To his father.
Going to deliver the kingdoms up and say it's all all brought into subjection, not a taint of sin.
There'll be the whole of the history of mankind.
There and imperfection, the Lord has cleansed this scene from sin.
You're going to devote his eternity to his bride.
You know God always gives the very best.
And you couldn't want to live in any other time than the time that we live in because you and I are given the privilege of being associated with the Lord Jesus and companions of Christ in the nearest possible relationship for all eternity. So the end of all things is at hand. Now, Peter never really talks about the rapture. His focus is he's speaking. He's the apostle to the.
Circumcision. So he's speaking.
Really to the Jews. And he's speaking from the perspective of the appearing of the Lord Jesus in all of his in both of his epistles. But you and I, we know from the Paul's ministry that we're going to be with the Lord and he's going to nourish and cherish the church.
For all eternity. That's what he's doing now. You know what he did for it before in the past, Verse 25. He loved the church, gave himself Florida, exhibited his love, proved his love that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word. That's what he's doing now.
And what's he going to do in the future? He's going to present it to himself, the glorious church.
Not having spot, not a spot, a stain of sin, no wrinkle, no sign of age or any such thing, but that it should be holding without blemish.
Maybe.
You thought what I thought when I was younger. I used to think that Adam probably had the the most beautiful bride ever. Imagine the Lord.
Performing personally forming a woman for the first man.
Not a not a birthmark honor, not a not a nothing out of place beautiful creature and then bringing her to be a companion to Adam.
How he must have been delighted.
I used to think that probably was the most beautiful bride ever, but you know, I don't think that anymore. I think the Lord Jesus is going to have the perfect bride.
Gonna be composed of you and I.
He shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul should be satisfied. There's not going to be a mark of her. There's not going to be a mark of sin, not a stain of sin. Her nature will be perfectly suitable to his compassion, to his compatibility, that he's going to be perfectly in tune with him.
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What a wonderful to think of the end of the believers. I wonder if there's someone here that's not saved. Perhaps there's these little ones.
They're not, They become the behavior of responsibility. But if you're a little boy or a little girl and you hear my voice and you know about the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross, you could ask the Lord Jesus tonight to wash your sins away so that you'll have a good end, the best ending ever. Well, let's look at another ending in connection with Israel. Let's.
See where we got? Not a lot of time here so.
Let's look at Jeremiah chapter 31.
You know that Israel today is in their land and.
They're at war every day. They're trying to stay in that land and they're trying to fend off the enemies that are trying to remove them from that land and to destroy them in that land. You know, I'm, I'm not, I don't get a whole lot of news or anything like that. But I on my cell phone, I have delivered to my cell phone every day the news of Israel.
I can't remember what the news service is, but it's interesting to read the news from the perspective of Israel.
In what's happening against that nation?
They're at war.
They long for peace.
And they have a pretty tight mark on a tight line of things on what's happening among their enemies.
They're trying to keep Russia at peace with them. They're trying to keep it wrong at Bay. They're trying to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons. That won't happen.
There, Iran is very close to having nuclear weapons.
They're doing everything possible to stay in that land, and we know that the Lord is going to bring them into judgment during the seven years of Tribulation period very shortly. But there's going to be a time. The ending of it all is verse 31 of Jeremiah 31. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah. All 12 tribes will be joined together.
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers.
In the day that I took them by the hand, and bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant were great, although I was your husband unto them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my law in their inward parts, and right in their hearts, write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people, and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, No, the Lord.
For they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Well, how did they get there? How did they? How do you go from having the nation of Israel today where they're at war and they can barely stay in their land because there's so many enemies all around them?
How they get from there to this point where the Lord says He's going to join those 12 nations, those 12 tribes of Israel, and He's going to put their laws and their inward part, His law and their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, everyone in the land of Israel.
At this time.
We have divine life, will be a believer.
Can you imagine being in a country where every single person.
As divine life.
It's astounding.
And to live in that country for 1000 years and never grow old.
And never die unless you sin, but those that have divine life will not sin.
Those that are born and that do not have divine life and sin will die.
But the whole nation will be born again. It will have divine life.
But there's going to be a time when they go through the judgments that the Lord has announced and He's shown in the book of the Psalms. I'm going to just read in Zechariah.
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In chapter 12.
Of Zechariah, we'll just read a couple of verses.
And in chapter 13.
The restoration of Israel will take part in two parts. He's going to deal with the Jews, the nation, the Jews, and the Benjamites. They were in the land of Israel when the Lord Jesus was crucified, so now he'll deal with those individuals first, and that part of the nation, their godly remnant, will be restored to him first.
And then he will deal with the 10 tribes and bring them into the fund of the covenant and so on. But let's read in.
Zechariah chapter 12, verse nine. It shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem, And I will pour out, pour upon the House of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications. And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one that mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him.
As one that is in bitterness for his first born.
In that day shall there be a great morning in Jerusalem as the morning of Hayden women in the valley of Magiddon, and the land shall mourn every family apart, the family of the House of David apart. That's the royal lies.
And their wives apart. The family of the House of Nathan apart. That's the prophetic line. Their wives apart. The family of the House of Levi apart. And their wives apart. That's the Levitical mind.
And then the family of Shemi Apartheid and their wives apart.
And.
I think this shimmy eye.
Is.
Oh my, I can't remember which which line that is.
But what the Spirit of God is showing is that all the families that remain, every family apart and all and their wives apart, there's going to be those that are individually repentant as they recognize that the Lord Jesus is the Messiah and that he was crucified in the land. And so they'll be brought to repentance and then they'll be restored to the Lord.
Then we have in chapter 13, verse seven or verse six, we have the 10 tribes. One shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thy hands? And then shall he shall answer those with which I was wounded in the House of my friends, so they weren't in the land, the 10 tribes, and he's going to.
Reveal himself to them. But you know, before he reveals himself to them, they're going to be brought into the wilderness. Those 10 tribes are going to be brought into the land of Israel.
Let's read it in Ezekiel. I think it's chapter 20.
I just want to show that there is a process of repentance and there's the end of Israel in connection with their time in the land. They're going to be brought into blessing.
That is going to be a process of repentance. Verse 33, Ezekiel 20 as I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, with a stretched out arm, with fury poured out, will I rule over you. And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the country where you are scattered with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm, and with a fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people.
And there will I plead with you face to face.
Like as I pleaded with your father's in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant and purge. I will purge out from among you the rebels, Then the transgress against me, I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel.
And you shall know that I am the Lord, so you know after the Lord.
After the Lord appears, he comes. He begins to set up his Kingdom. He's going to.
Send forth and call forth those 10 tribes out from wherever they are hiding in all the nations of the world where they've been scattered, and he's going to bring them to the borders of the land of Israel.
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They won't enter the land, and he'll sift them out there in his wisdom.
In his knowledge, he'll test them and those that have faith will enter into the land of Israel. Those that don't have faith will be all the way around the nation of Israel. They'll be outside of the nation. And then when the army, the king of the north, the second conquer the Assyrian, he comes through there they are on the outside, and they'll be destroyed.
They'll be annihilated. They'll be judged just as the.
We could destroyers that are coming in from the other, from the north that are coming in, they'll be destroyed. So isn't it nice that there's a work that he's going to do and there will be a remnant of those ten nations that comes in and they'll be a fleet. And so the end of that nation is that they'll all be born of God, those that are remnant, and they'll be brought into the land, They'll be given the land and they'll have the Lord Jesus.
Dwelling in the land with them at the beginning and he'll be setting his Kingdom up in that land. They'll see the Lord Jesus personally.
Personally, they'll see that one with a March in his hands, with his feet, and they'll recognize the sin of their idolatry, those 10 tribes, and why they were sent out of the land of Israel and how they suffered for something like 2700 years outside the land of Israel. And they'll recognize His grace in bringing them back into that land and they'll rejoice. All of them will rejoice together and throw so that millennial.
Will be a scene of joy. We don't have time to to go to other passages of scripture, but I will read 3 verses. The 133rd song speaks of those 10 tribes, those 12 tribes all together. That's the end of the restoration and the the joy that they'll have as they're all together.
133rd Psalm, verse one. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for Brenner to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment.
Upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, beard that went down to the skirts of his garments, as the dew of Herman, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord commanded the blessing. Even life forevermore. All they're just, you know, when it speaks of eternal life in the Old Testament and in the Synoptic Gospels.
You know what it means? It means life.
For as long as this earth exists, that's really the sense of it. And so for Israel, their portion is the earth and their blessing is in the earth, and their whole inheritance, their whole viewpoint is the earth. And so it's not eternal life is what you and I think of the relationship that we have with the Lord Jesus being indwelled with the Spirit of God, knowing the Father, God the Father, and having believed on the Lord Jesus as Savior.
When they have eternal life, what they're thinking of is length, forever on the earth. Let's look at Luke. I'll just give you this as an example. Luke chapter, I think it's chapter 10.
Yeah, Luke chapter 10 verse 25. And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, really provoked the Lord, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
What did he want?
He wanted to live on the earth forever.
Well.
We wouldn't want to live on here forever, not not state for the sin right now, but you know, when the Lord Jesus is reigning and he's the King of kings, the Lord of Lords, and Israel is the Jerusalem is the capital city of the world.
And all the riches of the Gentiles flow into it. And so on.
That you might think it's pretty good operation going here. We could live here for a good long time. Nobody needs locks on the doors or anything like that. As soon as they stand, boom, they're gone.
This man wanted to live forever on the earth, even in the Lords time. That's what he wanted. He wanted to do something to inherit that.
And so eternal life from a Christian perspective, they've spoken of in John's Gospels. And so he begins to present that. Let's let's read it so that I'll give you a definition. I think it's John 17 verse 3.
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So eternal life is spoken of in two different ways in John's Gospel is spoken of differently than in Matthew, Mark and Lucy, John 17 verse 3. This is life eternal.
That they might no leave the only true God and Jesus Christ who now has sank.
So there's several things here, chapter 3 we could look at John three. We know the verse 16 for God so loved the world that who gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So have you believed on the Lord Jesus? That's one one of the elements of eternal life. You have faith in him. You took him as your savior.
And you know the Lord is your God, is your Father.
Yes you do, but you know him as your savior. If you know the Lord is your Savior, your partner, a child of God and.
Your indwelling with the Spirit of God.
Your child of God, you're in love with the Spirit of God. You have eternal life. That's what eternal life is, is relationship with divine persons. Well, this is the end of the the story in connection with Israel. We're not going to go into the eternal state and so on. But I'd like to turn to Ezekiel chapter 38. Let's look at.
Something that is perhaps on the minds of different ones.
Today, the end of Russia.
Ezekiel, chapter 13.
The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, The Son of man, set thy face against God.
God, you know, the symbolic of the leader of the nation of Russia. And so you might say poop.
They set thy face against God, or the leader of Russia, the land of Magog. That's Russia.
The Prince of Meshech and Tubal. What's Meshech? It's Moscow.
To vote, I think, is to bless.
And prophesied against him, and saved. Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against thee, O God. The chief Prince of it should say Rosh. Meshech and Tubal.
So Mr. Kelly's translation, I think Mr. I think Mr. Darger's translation the same. In it says Russia, the Prince of Russia or Russia, Moscow, and Tubul King or tablesque. I will turn me back and put hooks into thy jaws, and I'm going to bring me forth. And all thine army horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armor, even a great company with bucklers and Shields, all of them handling swords.
Persia, Iran, Ethiopia or Sudan.
And Libya with all of them. All with them, All of them with shield and helmet. Gomer, the Crimea.
With all his bands in the House of Togmar, perhaps our Armenians of the North quarters all his bands, many people. With these be thou prepared and prepare for thyself, thou and all thy company that are assembled unto thee. And be thou a garden unto them. After many days thou shalt be visited.
In the latter years, thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword. That's the nation of Israel.
And he's gathered out with many people. So this is after the nation is brought back into the land of Israel.
Against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste but is brought forth out of the nations and they shall dwell safely all of them. So you know the Lord is going to begin to set up his Kingdom. He's going to the you know we could read another passage where the.
King of the North, the first attack of the Assyrian is going to come through the land of Israel.
The first attack will be from the South, from Egypt and her allies, and they'll come in and they'll destroy.
Spring a path of destruction into the land of Israel and the King of the North will come through from the from the north of Israel and destroy a Muslim.
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Confederacy of Nations, you could read we could turn to the 83rd Psalm. I don't want to get into too much detail, but give the the gist of it. Just make a note of the 83rd Psalm. I'll give you the verses to look at and you can look at the.
Nations versus 6-7 and eight and.
The Lord is going to allow.
For Russia to empower the Arab nations.
And to those that are Muslim nations and they're going to be a 10 nation Muslim confederacy that comes down against Jerusalem and destroys they like the land of Eden, the Garden of Eden before they come and then it'll be waste claimed after they leave.
Then the Lord is going to begin to He's going to appear and he's going to judge the Western armies as they come in to try to rescue.
The situation and he'll begin to set up his Kingdom. He'll begin to gather those ten nations in and he'll begin to set all his Kingdom up. And then what we're reading of in chapter 38 is that Russia and her allies are going to say, oh.
Now they don't have any defense, they're just sitting ducks, and we can come and get them. And so this is what it's bringing up here. Verse 9. Thou shalt descend and come like a storm. Thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land. Thou all the band by band, and many people with thee. Thus saith the Lord God, it shall also come to pass that at the same time shall things come into thy mind.
And thou shalt think an evil thought, And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of the unwalled villages.
I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls and having neither gate bars or gates. To take a spoil, take a prey, turn thy hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, upon the people that are gathered over the nation, which have gotten cattle and goods, and dwell in the midst of the land. Well, that's as far as we read that. You know, you can read the 38th and 39th chapter and you get a pretty good picture.
Of what's going to happen to Russia, but it's after Chapter 37. Chapter 37 brings in the new birth of the nation.
And so you can see how the Lord is going to assemble the nation together, chapter 17, and he's going to make a new covenant with them as we read in Jeremiah 31, verse 26 of Ezekiel 37, He's going to make a new covenant of peace with them, shall be an everlasting covenant with them. For chapter 37, you have the rebirth of the nation.
But chapter 38 and 39.
Speak of that last attack of the Assyrian coming from the north, comprised of Russia and her allies, and they're going to think an evil thought. They're going to say we think we can come down and take this country. We think we can take all the wealth that the Jews have accumulated all over the world. They got all this wealth there and there's been several armies that are being destroyed and these.
Children of Israel are sitting ducks.
We can just come in and we can clean up and we'll have it all because you know, Russia is going to come in and occupy those lands that have been defeated by the Lord. And so they'll come in and this is the end. It says in verse 21, I will call for a sword.
Well, let's read a little further on. Earlier on it says verse 19. In my jealousy, in the fire of my wrath have I spoken. Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel.
So the Lord is going, they're going to come down and he's going to send a massive earthquake.
So that the fishes will see the fowls of the air's figurative language, that beasts of the field, all the creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all men that are upon the face of the earth shall shake at my presence. The mountain shall be thrown down, the steep places shall fall, every wall shall fall to the ground.
I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, and so the Russia will come down and their Confederates and it says really, he says he'll call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord God. Every man's sword should be against his brother. So those that are confederate with Russia will begin to turn upon.
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Russia, the Russia will turn upon her own Confederates and so there's not only going to be great earthquake, but they're going to start to fight among themselves.
This is before they get to Jerusalem.
And it says, I will plead against him, or I will enter into judgment with him. Pestilence with blood. I will reign upon him, and upon his bands, upon the many people that are with him, and overflowing them, great hailed hailstones, fire and brimstone. I will magnify myself and sanctify myself, that I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know.
That I am the Lord.
So the Lord is going to intervene with natural disasters, who might say a great earthquake, and then here you have an overflowing rain.
We have different parts of the country and I'm thinking of the Japan, you know how they had an overflowing rain in 2015, I think it was. And they had all kinds of mud slides and mountains that came down. And it just, it was a judgment. It's it's going to be similar judgment from God. God is going to send overflowing rain, great hailstones. He's going to destroy.
Those ones that come against his nation, Israel.
You know, we sometimes wonder what's the end? What is the end of all all these nations? You know, there's all kinds of, there's wars, rumors of wars and even in the day that we live in, it's not the prophecy of being fulfilled. You know, when the prophecy, the prophetic clock starts.
You know when it starts, It's not. It's not moving right now. The arms on the clock are stopped and they won't start moving until something happens. There's one thing we could look at. Daniel 927 is really the key to understanding it.
Daniel 9/27.
He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. But this is the comment here. He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week. So there's going to be an agreement made between the United States of Europe, the revival of an empire.
That 10 nation Confederacy that will form very shortly.
I wonder how quickly it could form.
You know, what's happening in Europe today is that they're banding together in the nations are trying to find enough oil and gas and so on, and they're trying to figure out how they can defend themselves if Russia decides to acquire more territory and so on. They're banding together.
The end of all things, and we don't have long to stay here.
And Russia, you know, in prophetic scriptures, is isolated way up in the north, isolated. She has influence with the Arab nations. She has influence with the Muslim nations in Africa, and so on to the South of Israel.
But she's isolated, she's not a part of Europe.
And so it was the last few years, 2025 years, when she had McDonald's and had all kinds of Western automobile factories and all those sorts of things. That was an anomaly. They had a little preference of light.
And now it's going back Into Darkness. It's a country that's isolated. And she'll have her own, developing her own allies. You know, saw a headline not too long ago in the news from Israel, Israel becoming alarmed at Russia's influence among.
The Arabs. The Arab nations.
Yeah, they're becoming learned.
But that nation of Russia?
Things are being set up, and I didn't think that we would see some of these things when we're here. You know, I didn't think that we would see it forming this way. But what we are seeing, I believe, is that Europe is solidifying. The Lord is allowing that. They are now turning into them among themselves and discussing among themselves how to preserve.
00:55:08
That continent.
And Russia is becoming more and more isolated, and she is leaning more and more upon her own allies.
God's not surprised she's written of these things, you know, it says in chapter 39 of verse one. Therefore, thou son of man, prophecy against God, say thus saith the Lord, and behold, I am against thee, O God, the chief Prince of Meshech and Tubal.
Moscow, I will turn me down and just put a bracket around this leave, but the 6th part of just put a bracket around and it's not there. It's been inserted. It says I will turn me back and lead thee and will cause me to come up from the north parts and will bring me upon the mountains of Israel. I will smite thy bow over my left hand. I will cause an arrow to fall out of the right right hand.
Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel.
You can read the rest of the chapter, but it's.
They're going to have a burying place, the Valley of Ham and Gog. That's in verse 11. Seven months shall the House of Israel be bearing them.
Well, that's the end of Russia and her allies.
But you know, it's not quite the end of 1000. Years will pass.
And 1000 years, there were going to be nations that subject themselves submit to the authority of the word and will not rise up because they know that if they do that, they'll it'll cost them their lives. But at the end of the thousand years, let's read in Revelation chapter 20.
It says.
Let's read verse 6.
Blessed and holy is he that hath heart in the first resurrection. On such the second death has no power, that shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign within 1000 years, and when the 1000 years are expired, Satan shall be moved out of this prison.
And she'll go out to deceive the nations that are in the four quarters of the earth, gaug and Mingogl to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the Saints are about. And the beloved city and fire came down from God out of heaven, and destroyed them. And the devil that deceived them was cast from the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and there.
Day and night, forever and ever.
Well, here's 1000 years later. They've already had this massive graveyard in the land of Israel, the whole valley.
And they didn't learn a lesson.
They had perfect world government, They had Lord Jesus.
And those that.
We're reigning with him. They saw the prosperity of the nation of Israel.
And the Satan was loosed for justice a little time. We're not told how long they'll come out and deceive the nations that yielded feigned obedience.
And he'll deceive them. Russia will lead another armed rebellion against Christ himself.
And the Lord himself will destroy them. And you know the that will be the end of those nations that have rebelled against him. So you know, we can take comfort of this in this, in these days when we see war and all kinds of things that perhaps disturb us.
You know that the Lord has written the last chapter. It's all going to turn out for His glory and He will be glorified in all understanding. He's going to bring it all into subjection. And then we have the new heavens and the new earth. Well, we kind of ran out of time, but we'll.
I think we got something. I hope you've got a little bit something.
Romans 7
Romans 8
Contentment
Address—T. Roach
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
I'd like to start tonight by seeing #52152.
Reading verse 40, that's strong and faith abiding. We may too the Savior plead not with Him, our hearts divided, all for Him content to leave. Are we willing to leave behind all those things in this world, in this life that would take our hearts attention away from the Lord? Are we content to leave that behind? Let's sing #252.
Sweet thumb.
Across we spend life and health and health and peace processing from the dying standards for heaven.
Here we rest in wonder feeling.
All your girls on Jesus.
Way.
And the.
Redemption flowing.
From the side revising me.
Here we find the dawn of heaven.
When we.
See, your transplant stands for heaven.
And I saw triumph. Brave.
Oh.
Faith of lighting.
We made to the sacred clean.
Not with them.
I see why.
All for him.
Turn to me.
May we spell God's mind.
Discerning.
To the land for risen go.
Clear. Do you wander? Stay.
All my bright sun Mercy.
I'd like to talk my subject tonight is about being content contentment, and I'd like to start with a verse in Psalm 38.
Psalm 38 and verse 8.
Mercy, I am feeble.
And sore broken I have roared by the reason of the disquietness in my heart.
To be content, I believe means.
To be happy with what one has and not to be desiring something different and to be satisfied.
And to be content is also to not be complaining. And when I am content, I I have accepted God's plan for me and for my life. And I I will trust God completely in every situation in my life. And when I do that, it will give glory to God.
When we are content, it helps us to have a happy and a productive Christian life and contentment.
Contentment in our life is one way we can glorify God practically and by learning to be content, we show God that we truly believe that Jesus is Lord of our life and that we trust Him completely for everything in our life and for all the details of our life and the results of what we do for the Lord, we're able to completely give that to Him and let Him be the Lord of our life.
00:05:14
Well.
I want to go through several points about being content. The first one I believe is being content gives me strength to do whatever God gives me to do.
And let's look at Philippians chapter 4.
Verse 11 to 13.
Being content gives me the strength to do whatever God gives me to do.
Philippians 4 and verse 11.
Not that I I speak in respect of want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am there with to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things. I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
It may be that the economy is bad. Maybe your business is suffering and you can't do everything that you used to do.
Maybe you've got to cut back on travel, buying nice things, eating out.
And it might be difficult to accept these changes in our lives.
Can we be content in such circumstances in these verses whatsoever circumstance the Apostle Paul found himself in?
He was confident that he was in God's will, and so he was able to be content. And this means that whether Paul was sick or healthy, whether he was rich or poor, whether he's hungry or satisfied Paul, he accepted that circumstance from the hand of God and the Apostle Paul.
He did not automatically become content just because he was a Christian.
And Paul? He had to learn to be content.
And contentment does not come easy.
How, how, How do we learn to be content? I think contentment becomes by choice.
The Apostle Paul, he chose to be content. He chose to be content with God's will, whatever it was. And Paul also knew that whatever circumstance he was in, whether it was good or bad, he could do all things through Christ.
Through that God had given him to do. And when Paul says that he can do all things through Christ who gives him strength, Paul doesn't mean that he can do great and amazing things. And to play professional football or be a world renowned Dr. or or some some amazing thing like this, this is not what this Paul meant by these verses. Paul means that whatever work that God tells us to do in his will, in his word, God will give us the grace and the strength.
To be able to do that work that He's given us to do, and also if we go through an unpleasant circumstance in our life, the Lord will give us the strength and the grace to endure that difficulty.
But it's not always going to be easy to endure.
But the Lord, He will give us the strength. He will give us the grace to be able to endure through that activity or through that trial that He's given us. And when we have a difficult circumstance and and and we we go through a disease or a chronic condition or perhaps a marital frustration and we often pray to the Lord and we ask the Lord for mercy.
Oh Lord, have mercy on me. Heal me. Take this away from me so I can give you glory. But the Lord he might not answer us with mercy.
He might answer us with grace to endure the difficulty, the affliction, so we can learn to be content. We can learn to be content in any trial so that we can learn to give glory to God not through good health, but in spite of our poor health, or in spite of whatever circumstance the Lord allows in our life. There's a verse in Second Corinthians chapter 12.
00:10:11
2nd Corinthians.
Chapter 12 This is when the apostle had Paul had a thorn in his flesh, and he asked the Lord for mercy. And he says in verse eight of Second Corinthians 12, verse 8 For this thing I besought the Lord three times that it might depart from me. See that Paul said, Lord, take it away from me. But the Lord said, No, Paul, I will not give you mercy for this instant.
I will give you grace. You are going to live out your days with this affliction, but I will give you the grace to endure verse 9.
He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness.
Do we want God's strength in our life? It's only going to come through our weakness and when we ask the Lord for mercy.
The Lord often answers us with grace, and he says, my grace is sufficient for you.
The Lord Jesus is saying says I will go through this life long situation with you.
But you need to endure. You must endure this affliction until perhaps you die or until the Lord comes. But I will be with you through this affliction. And the strength of the Lord is made perfect in our lives. When we go through this these trials and of weakness and danger, we go through them with the Lord.
The Lord Jesus, He offers us his grace.
Because we may need to endure the thorn in the flesh for a very long time.
And the problems that we have might never be taken away here in this lifetime. And the Lord Jesus, he offers us his grace.
Whatever problems or limitations that we may have.
If God tells you to share the gospel.
If he tells you to serve your fellow Christians.
If he tells you to visit the orphans and the widows in their affliction, God will give you the strength. He'll give you the courage. He'll give you whatever resources you need to do that to do His will, whatever he's asked you to do. And in spite of the pain and the disability or the persecution, we just need to begin the work in faith.
Even when the service service may sound physically impossible for us to do and.
We know our present condition. We know the way we think, We know the way we act. We know physically what we're able to do. And the Lord says do this, do that. How can I do that, Lord? He'll give us the grace to do that.
When when the Spirit of God commands us to do something, he will give us the grace and the ability to do what God asks.
Sometimes we think it might be a glorious thing to go travel around the world and preach the gospel and visit the Saints.
Do you think it might be easy to be content in such situations?
And it can be a glorious thing, but only if you're doing it in the will of God. Because it does not matter what calling you have. There will be trials. There will be struggles, there will be disappointments. And there are limitations and frustrations that will test us each and every day as we go through our life of service for the Lord. And these trials, they can easily bring us into discontentment.
And I recall, we recall when we were in Africa, in Malawi, living there, being being tested on contentment numerous times, such as thefts.
Threats.
Bodily invasions of parasites.
Car breakdowns out in the middle of nowhere. The Lord was testing us. Satan was tempting us.
God allows Satan to have a certain effect, amount of effect in our lives, but God is overall. Sometimes we'd like to blame Satan for this or for that, but God, he wants us to be dependent on him. He wants us to be content in whatever situation we are in. And we've had. And some more times we're we're tested on contentment, there was food poisoning, and some men are rising in the assemblies like wolves.
00:15:23
Dressed in sheep's clothing, pulling different ones after them, fall to follow them to A to another church or to begin a new new gathering. And there are false accusations. There were incessant beggars. There were corrupt police. There were dishonest mechanics.
Speaking of mechanics.
Most of the mechanics there, we call them shade tree mechanics because they don't have a a place of business. They have a couple tools that don't usually work and they have to borrow your tools and they do it out in your driveway or on the side of the road where you broke down or under a tree. And so we call them shade tree mechanics and this shade tree mechanic. He started coming to our our weekly Bible studies. He had been doing work on my car for quite a while.
And at the Bible study, he told everyone how important these teachings were and that everyone should listen to what Rochi was telling them. And then at one Bible study, he asked and he he said, look at these verses. What do these verses mean in Luke chapter 6?
Luke Chapter 6 starting at verse 27.
But I say unto you, which here love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that curse you, pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smite thee on the cheek, on the 1 Cheek offer also the other and him that taketh away thy cloak. Forbid not to take thy coat also give to every man that asketh thee.
And of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. And so this man wanted to know what do these verses mean? And so I gave a wonderful answer, perhaps a pious answer, as if I was so forgiving and full of grace and kindness and godly contentment. And then we found out the reason why he was asking the question. We found out the reason why our truck was keep on breaking down time after time. And he was, and he was more than a shade tree mechanic. He was a shady mechanic.
And he was taking good parts off the car and putting faulty parts back on, selling the good parts. And the result was a damaged engine and eventually the the truck just it wouldn't run anymore and so.
We didn't use that mechanic ever again.
Then the shady treatment, the shady mechanic. He gathered together a group of thugs from his village to attack the man who had informed me about his dishonesty, and they beat him to a bloody pulp and put him into the hospital.
Well, we sold the truck for enough is the name of the money that they have in in Malawi we sold it for enough kwacha to buy another vehicle.
Now I had to learn to be content writing this new bicycle in the blazing hot sun to nearby assemblies within about a 10 mile radius. You know, Satan is so busy trying to cultivate discontentment in our hearts, and he attacks us with one thing. He attacks us with one thing after another. There's a verse in Philippians 4.
Philippians 4 and verse 11.
Is not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am there with to be content.
The Apostle Paul could say that in even in spite of his difficult circumstances, in whatsoever state I am, I have learned he had to learn to be content. We need to learn to be content. Contentment just doesn't come naturally. It takes energy. It takes determination. It takes a choice to learn to be content.
We each have our own calling by God.
And through that calling, we can serve the Lord. And in this ministry that each of us have been given, we are each going to find that we have our own set of circumstances that we're going to have to deal with in life. And I know that some of you have very difficult circumstances to deal with you. Maybe you have sorrow in your life, maybe challenges with your health. Perhaps some of you struggle with loneliness.
00:20:24
And for some folks, there can be difficulty in accepting the stage of life that you're in.
Marriage, life, the marriage relationship and retirement. Maybe it's not quite what you thought it would be. And it can sometimes be hard to deal with the fact that our children, our grandchildren, are at a very long distance away and and that can bring discontent into our lives. And there can be disappointment when our children choose a different path than what we have expected. You know, life is not easy.
And life comes with sorrows and struggles.
Can we learn to be content in these difficult circumstances?
You know, some of us maybe aren't as personable as others.
We're not as exciting. Maybe we're not as intelligent or athletic. Maybe we think we don't have as good a marriage as we think somebody else does.
And we think that we're less of a person because of these things that bring in discontentment and we become even more discontent.
All of these attacks, they come on our daily life and our soul begins to roar like the line that we read about in our first verse in Psalm 38, verse eight. I am feeble and I'm sore, broken. I have roared by reason of the disquietness in my soul in my heart sometimes.
We just feel like screaming because of the helplessness and the hopelessness of the situation because we're losing control.
Another thing that can make us discontent might be our looks.
Maybe. Maybe you're not happy with your looks and your time might be consumed by trying to improve your looks. And you might be jealous about how good someone else looks, how they can continue to look so good all the time, or how strong they are or how talented they are. But let me tell you that good looks are only skin deep.
If a handsome man or a beautiful woman.
If they're angry.
And they're selfish and they're disagreeable. If they're proud, if they're demanding, if they're unreasonable. Their beauty is like hypocrisy.
You see the good on the outside, but on the inside it's not really very nice.
It is the beauty of the soul that is important and we need to learn to be content with such things as we have.
You might think well.
Yeah, but what does the Apostle Paul? What does he know about my unique situation in this day? I have every right to be discontent. And if Paul was in my assembly, he would understand and he would make an exemption for my case. Because there are no young people in my assembly there. There are some people in my assembly that I cannot forgive. There are people that I cannot love.
I deserve something better.
I cannot be content there.
But with discontent like this, it's easy to leave one group.
And go to another Christian group or congregation where they have perfect, lovable and forgivable Christians with so many 21St century young people. Oh, wouldn't that be nice to go to a place like that? Well, wherever you go, you cannot get rid of yourself.
You may roar again in the bitterness of your heart. You cannot get rid of the bitterness in your soul until you learn to be content in whatsoever condition or situation you are in.
I think of Paul and Silas in one of their worst circumstances, and they had been in Christ. They had been arrested, for Christ's sake, and they were equipped until their backs were raw and bleeding and they were thrown into the deepest, darkest, dankest, dampest dungeon in the in the prison.
00:25:09
And their feet were fast. And the stalks.
With open wounds on their backs.
How could they lay down? How could they rest, and out of the darkness of this dungeon, the Philippian Jailer?
He heard joy and contentment coming out of the dungeon as as Paul and Silas, they sang praises to the Lord.
We need to remember that being content.
Is necessary for us to be able to do the Lord's work that He's given us to do.
Let's go to first Timothy chapter 6.
First Timothy chapter 6 and another point that we have of contentment is that contentment preserves us from temptation, from sin, and from sorrow.
And we'll find temptation, sin and sorrow in these verses that we read.
First Timothy 6, verse 6 to 10. But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us therewith be content, but those who desire to be rich.
Fall into temptation.
There's a temptation. They fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil. There's the sin. We've had temptation. We've had sin.
Which, while some coveted us after they have heard from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Here we find that we should be content with whatever possessions the Lord has given to us, and we we should not desire to have more and more and more, but that is hard in this life, whether we're in North America or we're in Africa.
Whether we were rich or poor, we want more, we want more, we want the best. We want what others have. My wife and I were we stop along the way and to go walking and on our way up to Minnesota, we stopped in Owatonna at at what was the name of that store?
A sporting goods store and you walk in there and you see all these wonderful things and.
It it, it starts eating at your lust. Oh, that would be nice to have that maybe I should think about getting one of those or getting this and and it would be nice to have this or that or both this and that and and there's there may be no constraint and so it is easy to be consumed with the desire for more.
And this desire controls our hearts and our thoughts. There's a verse in Matthew 6.
Matthew 6 and verse 31 and 32.
Take no thought.
Saying What shall we eat, Or what shall we drink, or wherewithal should we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek? For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. And then Matthew in verse 33 he points us back to contentment. He says, Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. The Lord wants us to be content. Put him first in your life. He says all these things.
Will be added unto you. We can be content with such things as we have. God has promised that He will give us the necessary things if we put Jesus first as Lord of our life. And so we don't need to to worry and strive for earthly riches. Let us let us be content with the food and the shelter and the clothing without envy and jealousy and lust.
And we We don't need to have a mortgage on the most elegant house or for the most luxurious car we can get a loan for.
00:30:00
Just so we can have success and look like we're equal or above the rest of our peers, You know, the love of money to get these things can lead us into temptation, into sin, and into sorrow, like we read in Timothy.
When we achieve those things that we strive for, we find it doesn't bring us happiness.
Then we need a little bit more to entertain us, and there's no end of music or the movies or money. And then there's the drugs and the tattoos and the video games and there's no end of the of the entertainment to attract our hearts and our minds.
We can try, and sometimes we try hard to be content without godliness, but there's no gain in that. There's no gain without godliness. We can be certain that all the money and the possessions and the entertainment that we strive for on this earth, we can't take it with us. We came into this world with nothing. We're going to go out of this world with nothing. We're going to leave it all behind. If the Lord Jesus came right now. Everything that you have, your nice shoes, your nice shirts.
Your your eyeglasses, your wallet. Everything that you have in your wallet with the money in it, your nice phone, it's going to be left here behind your pacemaker, It's going to fall out. Your your eyeglasses are going to be left on the table. Your your hip replacement is going to be on the chair. We're going. We're not taking anything with us. We don't need any spare parts in heaven. We're going to be with the Lord forever.
We're going to leave it all behind. True godliness comes with contentment. True godliness with contentment will will store up for ourselves treasures in heaven. And that's where we want to have our treasure. And so, from the verses that we've considered, we also learned that in order to be truly godly men and women, we must also be contented men and women. And it doesn't matter what our search, our circumstances are.
A Christian really has no right to be. Discontent and godliness with contentment is great gain. Now I can say these things here, and I know that sooner or later I'm going to be tested on these things. I say, yes, we can agree that we must be content, but we're going to be tested at any time, and sometimes we have to deal with discontented people around us and.
In Let's look at First Samuel Chapter 22.
David was surrounded with discontented people.
And I just think about the Lord Jesus. He surrounds himself with all the believers.
Are we discontented? Are we surrounding the Lord Jesus with discontent? First Samuel 22 and verse two. And everyone that was in distress, and everyone that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him unto David, and he became a captain over them. And there were with him about 400 men.
In their discontent, they gathered themselves.
To David.
When we are discontent, discontent, when we have heavy stress and anxiety and cares in life, come to Jesus. Gather yourself around Jesus. Just like these men who are discontented, they gathered themselves to David and they had a leader. They had a captain to guide them. Well, the Lord Jesus is your leader. He wants to guide you through this life. So we won't be content. We can. We find that we can cast all your cares on him because he cares for you.
Tell your difficult problems to to the Lord Jesus. Tell them your stress and your cares of this life. Come to Jesus and leave them all with Jesus and accept the situation as it is.
And be content. Oh, we try so hard to change your circumstances.
And we get frustrated because we can't change them. But if we can just be content in whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, we'll find that the circumstances don't really matter much. We can be content regardless of the circumstances and so.
We need to give our fears, our failures, our worries, our anxieties, our discontent. Give it to Jesus and rejoice in the Lord.
In Hebrews chapter 13.
00:35:03
The next point I want to consider.
The contentment gives us the sense of the Lord's presence with us.
And takes away fear and loneliness. In Hebrews chapter 13, verse five and six, Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have. For he has said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
Contentment will help us to overcome our fears and the verse says be content. The Lord will never leave you. He will never forsake you. He is your helper, the Lord Jesus. He has made every provision for us to overcome our fears and our loneliness and our discontent.
Do we have any lonely people here tonight?
If we're single.
We might think that if only I could get married, I would no longer be lonely, and then I could be content.
We tend to look to our husband. The women tend to look to their husband for all the love and the support and the fulfillment that they need to function every day.
But we find.
That our husband doesn't measure up to what we expect of him and we expect him to be. And maybe we're disappointed and we feel lonely in the marriage, or we look to our wife to satisfy our every need. And when it doesn't happen, you may feel lost and lonely and disappointed and discontented.
We have fears in relationships.
When we are not satisfied, And sometimes these fears make us do things or say things that we might regret later on. And we cannot live up to the fullness of Christ. Only Christ can fully satisfy. We can't be fullness to other people because we fail. But the Lord Jesus, he can be fullness to each one of us in any capacity. And the Lord Jesus will never disappoint us. We must look to Christ for our fulfillment.
In spite of our weakness and our loneliness and our fears, we can have triumph through Christ. Let's look in Second Corinthians chapter 2.
In verse 14.
2nd Corinthians 2 verse 14 Now thanks be unto God.
Which give, which always causes us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the Savior of His knowledge by us in every place.
Although we are not the fulfillment of our husband or wife.
We can learn to be content in our marriage and in our relationships with Christ by our side. If you expect your husband or wife to to completely fulfill your needs, you won't be content.
And when we look to Christ for our fulfillment, it will help us to function.
In our in our marriages and through Christ, we can have successful marriages and we can overcome our our loneliness and our fears. And in verse 15.
For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved, and in them that perish.
Are you a sweet savour of Christ to your wife? Are you a sweet savour of Christ to your husband?
We should be.
And in our own strength we're not sufficient for these things, but in Christ he is the all sufficient 1.
And we can learn to be content in all our relationships and in all our circumstances that we might find ourselves in. We can be content our verse says that we had. We said be content with such things as you have. And so I ask Are you content with the wife that you have? Are you content with your husband? Are you content with your children? Are you content being single? Are you content about your job or about your wages or the size of your assembly?
00:40:00
Your abilities, your personality, any one of these things can give us an inferiority complex.
It can make us lonely, can make us afraid. We can be depressed. But can we be content? Can we be content in all these situations? When we have Christ, we have the greatest riches that a person could have.
In Christ we have perfect security and perfect protection and perfect peace.
We need to take time every day to appreciate the Lord, who he is and what He's done for us and how much He loves us and and how he expressed that love to us. And we need to take time to communicate with Jesus, take time to read the Bible, take time to think about it, to pray, and as we meditate on, on, and pray about what we've read.
It will help us to be content in our Christian lives.
Let's go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 12. We have another point here about contentment.
And I I This point is God's contentment in God's grace go hand in hand.
And sufficiency being sufficient is similar to being content and so.
We'll go back to these verses. We read them once already, but verse 9 and 10.
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, and reproaches, and necessities in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong.
When we realize our own weakness and our own nothingness, that is when we will depend more on the power of God.
And we will find that His grace is sufficient for whatever we need. His grace will enable us to be content in even in infirmities, and in reproaches and persecutions, and in distresses and All in all these things we can be content when we look to Christ.
We sometimes have problems having grace with with the brethren, and that will make us discontent. And when we are discontent, we might criticize our brothers and sisters. We criticize their dress and their friends and their hair and their service for the Lord and their motives and and their beliefs. And we expect everyone to live up to the standards that that we set on our own.
And usually we don't have any scripture to support our standards. But if we were content with the sufficiency of Christ in our own lives.
And if we were content to allow the Spirit of God to work in our brethren at their pace, we would not criticize our brethren, and we would not pass on our discontentment to to the others. And when we recognize God's grace to us, and we see His grace working in our lives, and we then we and we extend that same grace to our fellow brothers and believers and sisters, it will help us.
To be more content.
Paul often started his letters or or or closed his letters, either one to assemblies with a call for grace and peace.
In First Corinthians.
Is an example First Corinthians one verse 3?
First Corinthians one verse 3. Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
You may be content in one or two areas of life, and perhaps deficient in another area of life, for the grace of the Lord Jesus is sufficient for us to help us be content in in all circumstances.
So our next point, Let's go to 2nd Corinthians Chapter 9.
And our next point is that contentment is promised for a generous and cheerful giver.
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You know, we always want to get.
We always want to be blessed, but in reality the blessing is not not in getting for ourselves, The blessing is in giving to others. We've read that verse. We read that verse is more blessed to give than to receive, and that's where contentment comes from. And in 2nd Corinthians 9, verse 678, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully every man according as he purposes in his heart.
So let him give not grudgingly or of necessity. For God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able to make all grace abound toward you, That ye always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work, till we can have all sufficiency. That's contentment. We can have all contentment in all things, and abound to every good work.
I think these verses are about generosity and contentment. And if a person is generous, God will give you the opportunity to be generous. God is able to supply us with resources so that we will not only have a sufficiency or a contentment for ourselves, but also that we'll be able to share with others what we have. Generosity. It's not only about money.
Because we have other resources.
That we can share with others. It can be our time. Time spent with someone is very important. We can give that to others and it will help us to be content. It will help our friends to be content if we can give our time. Maybe a listening ear. People need to unload their thoughts and their fears and their troubles and their discontent. Can you lend to them Be content to listen to what they have to say and be a help to them?
Maybe you have a service that you can do for someone. It's giving is not only money, it's time and energy also spent for the Lord.
Generosity is giving of yourself and there's a good verse in Romans chapter 12 about about this.
Romans chapter 12, verse one.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
How much?
Of yourself? Are you willing to give to God as a sacrifice? How much can I sacrifice for God? Well, how much did He sacrifice for you? For me, He sacrificed everything he had. He sold all that he had to buy that Pearl of great price. He gave everything for you. What am I willing? What of my life? What of myself am I willing to give?
To God.
I think we can can conclude from our lesson that when we have a generous attitude.
It will increase our own contentment, which is our sufficiency and and it will help the others that we're helping also in their contentment. And I believe contentment is is one of the keys to help us to walk a happy and a productive Christian life.
Contentment in our life is a practical way in which we can glorify God. And in the little review I'll go over some of these points.
Being content gives me strength to do whatever job God gives me to do The next point, Contentment preserves us from temptation, sin, and sorrow.
Next point, contentment gives me gives us the sense of the Lord's presence with us and takes away fear and loneliness.
Next point, contentment and God's grace go hand in hand. Next point, contentment is promised for a generous, cheerful giver. So by learning to be content, we show God that we truly believe that Jesus is the Lord of our life. And contentment shows that we trust God completely.
Just another thought.
That if we are a God unto ourselves, we begin to try to control everything and everybody that is around us. And if we do that, we're going to become dissatisfied when we start to lose control of everybody and everything in my life and and we won't be content. So contentment comes from trusting God in every situation and to give him control in our life.
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Trust the Lord for everything.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God even when we don't understand God's plan. There's a verse I want to close with in Psalm 17, Psalm 17, verse 15.
As for me, I'll behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I await with thy likeness. I shall be satisfied. I shall be contented when I awake with thy likeness. There's coming a day.
When all of our difficulties and struggles, and perhaps our discontentment will all be gone, when we see the Lord Jesus face to face in our and we will be content forevermore will be satisfied, maybe we can sing number.
282.
Master, we would no longer be at home in that which hated thee, but patient. Can we be patient? Can we be content and go in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus? Patience. In thy footsteps go thy sorrow as thy joy to know we wouldn't know. Confirm the power with meekness. Meet the darkest hour. Let's sing #282.
Master, we would no longer be at home in the dredging, but patience. In thy footsteps go thy sorrows thy joy to know.
Who you are.
Confirm the power.
I've ever tried.
For the western light.
My shame content.
Every joy for now. What's going on?
We can rest content on heaven's eternal shore, but we can be content even now. It's a choice we need to make. We can learn to be content.