Address—B. Conrad
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Well, good afternoon. Let's start our meeting with singing part of hymn #25.
Hymn 25. Just the 1St 4 verses of #25 If someone could start that please.
I shall share.
Our sunglasses.
Let's pray. Our God, our Father, we thank thee.
Were the thoughts expressed in this hymn and in the readings we've had together?
As to the place that we have been assigned by Grace.
Thou has blessed us, as the apostle would say, is exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think.
And we stand like little children before the majesty of Thy Person, Thy Grace, and those councils that thou hast told us about and displayed to us in thy precious word. And so we would ask this afternoon, that would give us the liberty to take up some of these precious.
Things in a way that would be profitable for the young and for the old.
So we commit the time to Thee, our God, and ask for the leading and liberty of Thy Spirit to take these precious things and to rehearse them together. Forgive thee. Thanks our God for all thy love. We ask this Lord Jesus, in thy worthy and precious name, Amen.
Well, I know that we are all used to.
Young Christians meetings, Young believers meetings being largely exhortation.
And I don't plan to.
Umm, take up.
Things that would be exhortation today, not my exercise.
Not that there isn't.
Great profit in exhortation.
We read in First Corinthians that the prophets speak to edification, exhortation, and comfort.
But I've been exercised recently very much.
That sometimes we skip a couple steps.
In our desire to help and encourage one another.
And the step I think we often skip is what I would call explanation or instruction.
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And so my exercise this afternoon, especially for those younger in the faith.
Is.
To bring before you some information.
Say, well, that sounds kind of dry, no?
The world.
This natural world that is around us, on which we stand.
Was formed and is sustained by information.
Information that came from God.
We're all familiar with the 1St chapter of the Word of God. And God said, and God said and God said.
God spoke and it was so, and God communicates.
And he communicates by sending information, if I could put it that way, out into the universe of nothing.
We sometimes think of another retired ironworker and I who are used to in our career lifting and hanging and supporting heavy things. And he said to me, did you ever think of that verse in Joel? He spread, spread it forth the north over the empty place, and hang at the earth upon nothing.
Oh, it's wonderful to think. And now more and more those.
Even unbelievers who are scientists who are studying this natural creation.
More and more they are standing in awe of how a living self, of your body, of all everything that has life.
And even the atoms and everything else that makes this platform on which we stand.
Comes from a God of intelligence, a God of purpose, and he communicates with information.
And so how suit it is, isn't it in John chapter one that he should be called the word of God? That one who in his own person came out from God from that place where he dwelt for all eternity in the light that no man can approach unto, as we read in first Timothy 6?
No being could approach into the into those into that sphere.
Where God exists in the essence of His person. But God has been pleased to come out from there in the person of His Son, and He has spoken to us and communicated to mankind in the person of His Son and through His precious Word.
And in a certain sense, that's information. It is information of a divine source, and it is meant to accomplish things.
As we read the scriptures over the years, decades for many of you in here.
We work at trying to understand what we're reading. Where does it fit with everything else?
And much of developing understanding of the Word of God is learning to discern where things fit.
I'm going to read a verse in Philippians chapter one. It's just to start with that describes that process a little bit. Philippians one and verse 9.
The apostle writing to this, to the Saints in this gathering, this assembly, and this, I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in full knowledge and in all judgment or intelligence, that she may approve things that are excellent, or in other translations that she may approve of and understand things that differ.
Much of gaining understanding of things is to understand things that differ, to make distinction between things and not have them all jumbled together.
Another introductory verse I'd like to read is in Matthew 13.
In verse 52.
Jesus said unto them, sorry, verse 51, have you understood all these things?
They say unto him, Yeah, Lord.
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Then said He, under them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed into the Kingdom of heaven, is like unto a man that is in a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.
And so in your household, on your property, where you live, you have all kinds of things.
You have outdoor things, you have shovels probably you have sledgehammers, you have bars, you have maybe chain falls and and chainsaws and and outdoor stuff.
You have big shears that you maybe trim your hedges in front of your house and things like that.
And then you go into another part of your house and you have little tiny scissors.
That you sew and make clothes, or you cut paper, or you do other things like that you have.
A silverware or, or things that you eat with and that goes in a certain place and you don't just have it and it's a a disastrously disorderly home if somebody comes in and puts a chainsaw down on the kitchen counter.
Or if.
The people that are preparing the food, the ladies of the house, maybe they say, why, where are all the knives that I'm trying to set the table? There aren't any knives here or forks and say, oh, well, you know, Junior had them out in the backyard and they're they're all in the we need to pick them all. And so this is what this is what can happen.
And it takes time to understand where things fit together so that we can have the kitchen, things in the kitchen and the garage, things in the garage and the basement, things in the basement and all the rest.
You and I as believers, we can apply this to ourselves. What the Lord said to his disciples, did they understand what they heard? Most likely not, but they said they did. The Lord doesn't take them up on that, but He brings before them a very important.
Responsibility, if I could put it that way, that every man that is a householder bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.
And you and I have the privilege to read in the prophetic Scriptures, one of the brothers mentioned Isaiah and, and we have the Old Testament prophets. These are to us old things. They're valuable things. We need to understand these things because these old things are prophecies that have yet to be fulfilled, and they shall be.
And distinct from that, there are new things.
If you look in your, if you have a concordance in your phone and you and you use it to look up words like many brethren do nowadays, you'll notice that the word new, there's two words for new in the original language. One means just kind of fresh, you know, like.
You wake up and you say it's a new day, or you say you know, I I have new sheets on the bed or.
Or I put some new water in the vase or something like that. It's just something that has been there before that's fresh. But that's the minority of words in the New Testament. Over 40 or maybe 50 times in the New Testament, there is a word that means, in my American slang, brand spanking new.
You may save your money as a young person and buy a car.
And it may be 10 years old with 50,000 miles on it. And you bring it home and you say to mom and dad, look, I have a new car. Well, it's not really new, but it's new to you. But if you, if you go and you have, you're able to go in the brand new model is hit the streets and you've read about it and you go and you get one of those, then everybody can see, well, that's a new kind of it's brand new. There's never been another.
And in the New Testament, usually the word is brand spanking new, a totally new thing. And that's what you and I have been brought into.
Now, last September.
At a conference that I wished I could have attended but I I I couldn't, a brother that I am close with and have known for many years gave up what I felt was a very helpful address. It was in Mayfield, KY, you can look it up.
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And his exercise was to communicate, and I put this construction on it.
Afterwards, when I listened to it was to communicate information, and the information that he communicated was in the form of two questions. The first question he asked everyone was did the church that you and I are part of exist in the Old Testament?
And he went through a number of scriptures showing that it absolutely did not because it is a brand spanking new thing.
That was formed after certain things that God accomplished took place, namely the coming of the Son of God from heaven.
The rejection of the Son of God from heaven as the stone that the builders rejected.
He became the head of the coroner, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, his sending down the Holy Spirit. And he referred in Matthew 16 to the Lord Jesus himself, saying to Peter and the others on this rock himself, the rock I will build my church future.
And he developed that whole thought. So the short answer that I'll just give you this afternoon is, did the church exist in the Old Testament? No.
The second question that he proposed and and proceeded to answer was a brother here mentioned it a few times this afternoon was was the church prophesied of in the Old Testament? Short answer no, and a brother sitting over here made reference to to a couple passages in the New Testament which show that the Church of God, which is the body of Christ.
And the bride of Christ.
Was hid in God and not revealed in Old Testament times or in Old Testament scriptures.
And you say, well, what about a type? And as the teachers back East where I'm from used to say to us, a type is a type of nothing until you have the revelation of the thing. And once the substance and the revelation of The thing is revealed to you. But then you say.
That's just like Genesis 22, or that's like just like Genesis 3, or that's just like this or just like that, and you begin to see all these pictures.
Of the thing that was newly revealed. So the existence of the church as made-up of children of God that are now gathered together in one was a mystery hidden God and is now revealed as a brand new thing. And he developed that. And so the answer to his second question was no. I thought that talk and I suggest you listen to it.
Not just because he's my brother friend, but.
Because I felt it was really timely and valuable to many. And Christianity Today, we know how the winds are sweeping.
Of different types of error resurfacing in in amongst the people of God and the particular truth that the brother brought out in that address was spot on to put into people's understanding the passages of Scripture, the right information that forms the right thoughts in US and organizes our lives properly.
So that we can be here for his glory because the God's intent by communicating information to us.
Is that it has a process in US and leads us to live a character of life to have a character of thoughts and interactions with others that are consistent with the place that he has for us now in this one Newman in this new thing that he has created the Church of God. I would like in the short time that we that we have.
As that brother focused on the collective side of things.
I would like to focus on a few.
Fundamental and basic Christian truths in from the word of God that are individual. And while I was pondering this, I thought of seven. I don't know if we'll get through 7. Some of them we got through in the reading meeting. Anyway, the first one I want to speak about is forgiveness. Forgiveness. And so we could just go to Ephesians 1.
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We spoke about.
The verse. The seventh verse. Redemption through his blood, The forgiveness of sins.
And you say, how can you say that that's a new thing? Because Psalm 32 is quoted in the New Testament.
And we can go back to Psalm 32, and David speaks about how blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and whose sins are covered. But if you I don't, we don't have time to develop any of these very much. But I will point out to you that the type of forgiveness that David was enjoying as a blessing is not the forgiveness that you have as a Christian.
In second Samuel after David committed.
The horrible sin of stealing your eyes, wife.
And having Uriah killed with the sword of the children of Ammon, Nathan came to him and spoke to him very plainly in in parable form to his conscience. And it had the effect on David of giving him to judge what he had done, and to make confession. And he said, I have sinned before the before the Lord, before Jehovah.
And Nathan said, God hath put away or taken away thy sin, thou shalt be saved.
No.
He didn't. Nathan didn't say to David, it's good that your sins have all been forgiven. No, he said. God has taken away your sin. You will not die.
And David rejoiced and exalted in the fact that he received forgiveness from God for that sin. If I'm right, connecting Isaiah 30, Psalm 32 with that occasion. And I think that's where it lines up.
And so, as brethren have taught for.
Decades and decades.
The forgiveness that you read about in the Old Testament and the forgiveness that you read about in the Gospels before the Lord Jesus.
Laid down his life on Calvary's cross is the forgiveness that has to do with this life. We would call it sometimes we call it governmental forgiveness. Thou shalt not die. God is not going to take your life away, David, because of what you did yes, he was under the government of God in his life as we all know, but.
He had a form of governmental forgiveness.
In John chapter 5.
I think it is there was the man at the pool of Bethesda had been there 38 years. The pool would move and he had no man to put him in. And the Lord showed mercy to him and healed him. And the Lord found him, I think it was the next day and said to him, revealed himself to him and said to him.
Sin no more, unless a worse thing come upon you.
In Matthew 18, in the parable that the Lord presented to the disciples as part of this similitude of the of the Kingdom, the man who who owed in our terms millions, went and begged for forgiveness, and he received it. And then he turned around and ground his, his one who was indebted to him to maybe, I don't know, 5 or $10,000.
Grabbed him by the throat.
And what happened, the forgiveness that he had was revoked. So I just don't have time to develop this. But when you read the word salvation, when you read the word forgiveness in the Scripture, there are different aspects to it and different context to it. And we all need to learn what we're reading about and where we're reading.
What kind of forgiveness do you have? A totally brand new type of forgiveness.
Because your forgiveness is based upon a work of accomplished redemption on Calvary's cross.
And as soon as the Lord was risen, he began to speak about it. He spoke about it in Luke chapter 24.
And as one of the brothers mentioned here, maybe it was here earlier this morning.
Forgiveness began to be preached as soon as the Lord Jesus communicated the Holy Spirit and and the disciples went out. Not to say that there is a future forgiveness as Isaiah and the other prophet said.
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But that if there is a forgiveness that may be laid hold of by faith and may be had as a present possession. And so if you put your trust in Christ, that's the kind of forgiveness that you have. You have the forgiveness of sins. Let's just turn to for for one verse to Acts 13. I believe this is one of the earliest occasions.
When the apostle Paul's, a content of his preaching was recorded in the Word of God.
Acts 13.
Verse 38 Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you. The forgiveness of sins. In Romans 3, where brother Bob referred to us in the reading meeting, we see there that the apostle develops the the the thought, the information.
That God.
Exercise forbearance to men before the Son of God himself came into this world.
Let's just read it, it's quicker than paraphrasing Romans chapter 3. I will reread part of what Bob read.
Verse 25.
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation or mercy seat, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission or passing over of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God.
Old Testament Saints subsisted under the forbearance of God.
Forgiveness was promised as a future thing, but after the work of Christ was accomplished, in the Spirit of God sends out the fruit the message of it.
Forgiveness is now preached and it may be possessed as a present possession by believers, by men and women of faith, and that's what you have. It is different than the forgiveness that David spoke about. It is different than what Old Testament Saints were privileged to know and enjoy.
Forgiveness is.
As someone expressed.
Incomparable.
Mercy, that we have been pardoned.
In the face of the enormity of our sin.
But if God had just left it that way, He could have pardoned you and taken away your guilt.
And left you.
To wallow around, so to speak.
As a Sinner.
Because forgiveness doesn't give you new life.
Forgiveness doesn't give you a new nature. Forgiveness doesn't give you a new object.
Forgiveness doesn't in itself doesn't give you a new standing before God, your forgiven Sinner.
If somebody defrauds you and you see them on the street and you decide to be gracious and to just let it go and say forget it, I've written the debt off, you have defrauded me, I forgive you.
But it's you're not inviting them to coffee, you're not saying you want to enjoy their company. But more than forgiving our sins as the next verse in Acts 13.
Which was referred to this morning as well. Acts 13.
And 39 be it known unto you, I'm sorry, verse 39 and by him, or as a brother corrected it in the reading, in him all that believe are justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. This is the first inkling we have of the wonderful truth of justification.
Of being made righteous, that is beyond being forgiven. Yes, you're forgiven.
You have eternal redemption. Your sins and iniquities will not be remembered anymore. You are pardoned, full and free and forever. But more than that, He has justified you. He looks upon you and reckons you as if you have never sinned before.
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And he develops justification in the end of Romans three, he meaning the apostle Paul.
And into chapter four and five to show that not only are you justified from all things which Moses law could not.
Undertake. But the believer now has a life. He is regarded as a justified person, and has a life connected with Christ, to which sin has never been, nor could it ever be attached.
That's what the New Testament teaching of justification brings before us.
Are you inherently righteous? No, you're not. You have a fallen nature.
You're probably dealing with it today. You are not inherently righteous so that God looks upon you and say I have looked him up and down.
And now that he's a believer, he's inherently righteous. You are not. And by receiving life, which we hope to get to, that doesn't make you inherently righteous either. It's God's estimation of you because of the work of His Son, that he counts you as righteous even though you are not intrinsically so. We read in 2nd Corinthians 5 He, God, hath made him the Lord Jesus.
Sin for us was he did he have sin intrinsically? Absolutely not. He was that holy thing in him is no sin. He knew no sin and did no sin, but he was made sin and then it goes on to say at the end of verse 14. I think it is second Corinthians 5 that we might the ye might be made the righteousness of God in him.
And so it is we have this.
We have this life, we have not only sins forgiven, but this is a New Testament blessing. That Old Testament Saints did not have to be conscious of the fact that we stand before God in a new condition and a new position, and that position was not available to us before the man Christ Jesus was raised out from the dead.
By all the rest of the dead, by the glory of the Father.
There's one man in heaven now. There's one man who has been risen. Resurrection has to do with the body.
And young people get confused. They say my uncle John, my aunt, my aunt Mary, they're with the Lord. And and I, I, it gets all confusing to them. They are with the Lord as to the essence of their person, their spirit and their soul. But their body was laid lovingly in the ground.
They're separated from the body, and that's what death is in that connection.
And you and I know that when the Lord comes, they will be raised, and they will then have a body.
A changed body, a glorified body, a body like his resurrection has to do with the body. The good thing to remember that? And so it is when the Lord Jesus was raised out from among the rest of the dead and took his place as a risen man in a place where no man had ever been before.
He is the forerunner, he's the first fruits. He's taken a place on the other side of death.
And there he is, and God in grace has assigned you and me.
That place in him justified in him. We need to move along.
Yes, there was a desire in Old Testament Saints to be just, to be justified, and there is are certain expressions about Old Testament Saints. There was such a thing as faith in Old Testament Saints, and there was the righteousness of faith in Old Testament Saints, but not until the Lord Jesus is the forerunner.
Burst into the other side and took his place there as a risen man.
Was there, could there be such a thing as being justified in him?
And so you're forgiven and you're justified.
Doesn't mean God wants your company.
There's probably people in this room who have done things for other people.
Gracious things gotten them their first job, helped them get their first car.
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Got them out of a jam or a difficulty and change their condition.
Change their position by getting them funding and education or doing an apprenticeship or whatever it was.
But still that doesn't mean that there is a desire for company and I was enjoyed the brothers comments this in the readings that we've had so far.
That it's about relationship. Because as wonderful as redemption is.
It is a means and I don't mean in the slightest way to be.
To lessen it, but it is as wonderful as it is the means which brings us into a place where God has fulfills his counsel and his desire to bring us into relationship with himself. And so in Romans 5, we read there. I'll turn there for just a moment.
We read in Romans 5 and verse.
10 for if when we were enemies.
We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.
No death of his son, no reconciliation.
Was David reconciled to God? He was not. He was a man after God's own heart. He was a man of faith.
He had divine life, but he was not reconciled to God.
Colossians teaches us and the other four or five verses that we have that speak about reconciliation.
The foundation of it is the blood of Christ shed on Calvary's cross, because God is holy.
And God is righteous, as the brother expressed at the end of the last meeting in his prayer.
We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation.
As you know, in most business disputes or interpersonal disputes, there's usually some error, some some folly or fault on both sides. And so a mediator seeks to kind of get both and nudge both out of their hardened position sometimes to come together to reconcile the two parties. That is not what the word of God speaks about.
In regard to reconciliation.
The psalmist could say thou art the same. God is the one who never changes.
Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever. Thank God he doesn't change.
And He never will in that way. He is who He is, the majestic, glorious one in every, every virtue. All of the movement, all of that translation from point A to point B is on your and my part. We are not reconciled with Him. We are reconciled to Him. And it speaks of as this.
Portion in Romans 5 describes.
It speaks of our joy, It speaks of his joy to have us near to himself. When Joseph revealed himself to his brethren, what did he say? He said, Come near unto me, my brethren. And the great work of Calvary's cross was not only to eradicate sin from before God, though it though it will have done that in the coming day.
But to fit you and me, to be in the presence of God and to be there.
In a right state.
With a capacity to understand him.
And to love him and all of his counsels, that's what God wants.
I've heard brothers say when I was young that the human heart has two needs.
Just talking about a human heart and one of the brothers referred to it this morning.
To be loved.
And to be understood.
Stop and think about it. If you're loved by someone who really doesn't understand how you tick or what you're all about, you appreciate it.
The grandmotherly love that I got from my dear grandmother, she loved me, but she didn't understand me at all.
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On the other hand, to be understood and not to be loved, that's pretty cold.
We don't want that. Perhaps you've had a boss or a teacher or somebody like that who got you all figured out, but you didn't sense that they had any affection for you. That's a cold process right there. I've had that happen. No, but the human heart, he wants to be loved. He wants to experience that, that unique form of, of fellowship between human hearts and to be understood.
And gone.
Not only wants us in his presence, clean, holy, blameless, but He wants us to understand Himself.
And he wants us to love himself and everything about him and his counsel, his purpose. And that's what love does.
Well, let's switch gears a little bit. We've kind of covered some gospel truths, some foundational truths.
All New Testament truths.
The forgiveness we've spoken about, the justification, the reconciliation in Paul's doctrine.
True only of the believers that have been brought to God through Christ.
Not the portion of Old Testament Saints. So let's switch it up a little and move a little to John.
Chapter 5.
The next couple ones I thought about.
Are kind of interrelated as a.
Opposed to what we had with Paul.
And they are the believers present possession of eternal life.
As it has been presented to us in John's Gospel.
That in his epistle that eternal life.
The indwelling and presence of the Holy Spirit.
In the believer who has put his trust in Christ.
And Sonship, which we covered, I trust to some extent those three are related.
Working backwards from Sonship if we go to Galatians chapter 4.
This may have been referred to.
There is an elevation.
To the standing of man and woman of faith since the Lord Jesus.
Ascended on high and sent the Holy Ghost.
In Galatians 4 we read the comparison between what a Jew who had immense privileges compared to all other people on the earth.
Had for his privilege and portion and the believer now.
Whether they were a Jew or Gentile.
Verse 26 Ye are all.
The children of God. I believe it should be the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
And in chapter 4 the air, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all, but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father. Even so we, when we were children, were in ******* under the elements of the world, but when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, come of a woman, come under the law to redeem them that were.
Under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons or sonship. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, ABBA, Father, wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, than an heir of God through Christ.
This passage shows that to be a Son of God which every believer that has put their trust in Christ is is an elevation of standing before God that no Old Testament St. ever enjoyed.
They were children of God. In the John's Gospel we read that the children of God were scattered abroad, would be gathered together in one. That has happened.
Sonship brings before you and me privileges that Old Testament Saints.
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Could not and did not enjoy. It brings a liberty of access, as a brother was telling me at lunch. It brings the reality that we have an inheritance as joint heirs with Christ. It brings intelligence and discernment. It brings privileges that were never known to men and women of faith before.
And it is connected with the gift and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
In John Chapter 7.
The Lord Jesus on that. I think it was on the great day of the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem.
In verse 37 of John 7, in that last day, that great day of the feast.
Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.
He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Parentheses. But this spake he of the spirit, which they that believe on him should receive.
Future for the Holy Ghost was not yet or not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.
In Ephesians chapter one we read verse 13. After that she believed.
You were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
Did you realize it at the time? Maybe you were six years old when you accepted Christ. God seals the Saint. He seals the work which He accomplishes in your soul.
When you believe the gospel of your salvation, not salvation as a theoretical thing.
But the gospel of your salvation as an individual.
Then God seals that just like you seal a finished.
Document A finished set of drawings. A finished legal document. It's sealed.
And the believer who has put his trust in Christ is sealed.
With the Holy Spirit of promise. Old Testament Saints did not enjoy that. How did how did Shamgar do what he did with the with the with the Oxco? The children were singing that how did David slay the lion and the bear? How did all of those things that Samson did, how are they accomplished? The Spirit of God came upon him.
Even Saul, a man who we have no evidence that he was a man of faith.
It says the Spirit of God came upon him.
It's totally different than what you enjoy because the Holy Spirit that sealed you, that indwelt you when you believe, will be with you forever.
Brother Malcolm Hollowell, his son, is here. Maybe his grandchildren, he told me when he was first saved a new Mac many years ago.
He said the reason that I knew that I would be raptured to heaven.
Before the Great Tribulation, which is a subject discussed constantly now in Christianity.
He said the reason I knew it is because John the Lord said in John's gospel that he would send another comforter, he'd be with me forever.
And then I read in Thessalonians that that day shall not come until he, the Holy Spirit, is taken out of the way. And he says, I just put two and two together and realize if he's gone, I'm gone. Interesting way that Matt Caldwell came to that conclusion, which I assume that he kept.
Many years since, but this scripture is plain that an Old Testament St.
Could not and did not enjoy what you can enjoy, the Holy Spirit indwelling you, the Spirit of sonship, so that even the babe in Christ, the Apostle John could say you have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things.
And then he continued to teach them and the rest of his epistle. It's very interesting, but such is the capacity that we have from that divine guess, that divine inhabitant, to the better way to put it.
That we have who will be with us and in US forever, the collective side, which is not my exercise to take up.
Is that when you search through the scriptures that you know and think about them?
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It becomes apparent that even though you have faith, it is not your faith that joins you to me or the rest of these believers in this room.
Or the rest of the believers on the face of the earth, men and women have had faith, thank, thanks be to God for hundreds and hundreds of years. But their faith did not unite them in any kind of an any kind of an essential way. It's the Holy Spirit sent down on that day of Pentecost that united believers in dwelling each one.
And uniting them together into one body.
1St Corinthians 12 I'm going to keep moving along here. 1St Corinthians 12 it's by 1 Spirit we have all been baptized into one body, and so the Holy Spirit indwelling you unites you to me.
As we used to explain to the children, if I take a a bowl full of beads, each one with a hole in it, and I show it to you, I said, what is here? You say that's a bunch of beads. You're right. But if somebody puts a string between methodically inside each bead, now the hole is filled with a string. And then you put it all the way through everyone and tie it together, put it back in the bowl. You say to the child, what do I have here? You say it's a necklace. It's a bracelet.
It took on a character of things that is not just individual, it is now corporate. And so there is that aspect of the Holy Spirit's indwelling you and me as to life.
If we go to John chapter 5.
Among many places we could look.
And obviously you know that we are not exhaustively taking up any of these things.
But if it gets you started on running them to ground yourself, I feel that's a good thing to get to get going on.
In John chapter 5.
We read in verse.
21 As the father raises up the dead and quickeneth them, Even so the son quickeneth whom he will.
When Nicodemus came to see the Lord Jesus.
He was somewhat flattering to the Lord and said, we know thou art a teacher, come from God.
But the Lord in discerning his state of soul and his heart.
Made him back up.
You need to back up and he told him you must be born again.
I know it is common to think that you were born again when you believed on the Lord Jesus.
As your savior. But the scriptures teach that you believed in the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
Because you were born again.
From that to ground, because it's something that's good to understand.
How did you get born again?
The sovereign action of God in your soul.
He quickened you. He gave you life.
The Old Testament Saints had life. We have things in common with the Old Testament Saints.
They were men and women of faith.
They had life from God.
They were put through the paces morally to train them, to prepare them, to grow them. Think of Abraham, think of Jacob. What a work of God, of the Potter on the clay.
They had aspirations for future blessing. They had confidence in God even though they didn't have the assurance of faith that you have.
And you only need to read the Psalms to see that.
It's very interesting. They were many of the Psalms. The psalmist is.
Is tested. He's under tribulation in many places. He says it's because of my sins or my failure or our failure.
But he still has confidence in God.
Because he's a child of God and he has faith.
And so there are commonalities between US and Old Testament Saints, and we know that.
But the difference is that you are not only born again like David and Abraham and these others.
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But the gospel, the words of this life, that divine information was presented to you.
And faith lays hold of the testimony that God gives. And when you laid hold of the gospel testimony as a born again soul, you believed and you're sealed with that Holy Spirit of Columbus. And the Holy Spirit is not only the source of your life, but now he's an inhabitant and one with your life. This is.
A peculiar or distinct Christian blessing.
I know it's.
Sounds confusing to say. Old Testament Saints had life. They did.
The character of the life that they had is not the character that John calls life eternal that you have.
Because John defines what it is in his gospel, in his epistle, and he says this is life eternal, that they might know thee.
Father and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent. And in John's epistles and in the Gospel we see very clearly that the definition of one, the experience of one, the understanding of one who possesses eternal life.
Is knowledge that God is his Father and that He has the life.
Communicated to him, that is the life of Christ.
Before the world was was was founded, before this planet was spoken into existence, that eternal life was with the Father, as our brother mentioned this morning. The Father and the Son in eternity, in delight, in mutual love and glory, beautiful. That eternal life, John says, which was with the Father, has now been manifested unto us.
And not only was it manifested, that would have been the greatest thing that ever happened on planet Earth.
If God himself took manhood and came to earth and displayed all that God is, there's no more question.
What is right or wrong, or what is glory, or what is it displayed in the person of the Son of God? That would have been enough. But beyond that, of course he went to Calvary's cross. He laid down his life when the Greeks, those Gentile seekers, came to him in John chapter 12.
They said to Philip, I find it.
A touching passage, they said, Sir, we would see Jesus.
Would you ever turn away somebody who came to you like that?
At school.
At work in your neighborhood?
No, you wouldn't.
How it must have pained and strained the heart of the Lord to have to say.
Except a corner. We fall into the ground and die. It abideth alone.
But and if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
I'm looking out this afternoon on that fruit, some of that fruit.
The fruit of that one who died, who took a life that had never been displayed before as a risen man, and shares it with you and me.
Yes, it was the woman that was deceived.
And Adam was responsible.
And how gracious of the Lord.
That when he rose from the dead, he gave the message to Mary.
To another woman, he said, Go to my brethren, tell them I ascend them to my father and your father.
To my God and your God, what a message. What a message.
And she did.
The last one, our time is up in Ephesians chapter one.
Perhaps we will touch on this in our next reading.
Ephesians, chapter one.
And verse eight he hath abounded.
Toward.
Us in all wisdom and prudence.
Having made known unto us the mystery of His will.
Joseph.
Was not only savior of the world, but revealer of secrets.
What a privilege that you and I have.
To understand, to be brought into the understanding of things that the Lord Jesus said many prophets, kings, and righteous men desired. To see the things which you see and have not seen them, and have heard the things which you hear that have not heard.
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What a privilege, what a time to live.
What a wonderful time for you and me to live.
To have the communication.
From the majestic God of glory, and that we might understand these things.
Yes, the psalmist or Job. I know that when I die, I'm going to see God. I will stand before him. There were these little glimmers that came from the confidence that they had in God. It's going to work out. They didn't know how or when, but you and I now know it's not just true of the repentant thief.
It's true of all that have put their trust in him that we now know.
We're absent from the body if we die and present with the Lord that we know when the Lord descends from heaven.
Perhaps today and gives the assembling shout, we're going to be changed in the twinkling of an eye. We're going to be like him. Flesh and blood does not inherit the Kingdom of God. We shall, we will. We're going to be with him. We're going to be like him. We know when we know how we even know why. Wonderful Joseph.
Our true Joseph is a revealer of secrets. He's revealed these precious things to us as his friends, Old Testament Saints.
We're not in the good and the knowledge of what you know. I have tried to distinguish between what could have been known by known by men and women of faith in Old Testament times this afternoon and distinguished the unique and special blessings that you have if you put your trust in Christ. And truly it could be said like the governor of the feast, he said to them.
Man, that was having the wedding. They said you've kept the good wine until now.
And so it is. He's kept the best for you and me for me. Nothing higher. Let's just close in prayer.
Blessed God, our Father.
We look up to the as thy children and thank thee.
With these spiritual blessings.
That we've been brought into in Christ, thy beloved Son.
We thank the Lord Jesus for being willing to come as we often sing from Godheads fullest glory down to Calvary's depth wall. We rejoice to have learned that the powers of death and hell could not keep thee without its rise on the third day. And then many eyes saw thee descend into the ascend into the clouds of heaven.
And Lord Jesus, we wait for thy soon return. In the meantime.
We pray that our knowledge, our understanding of these things would result in us being here for Thy glory, our hearts affections engaged.
And our time, our resources, our lives. Lord Jesus devoted to following the While we wait for Thy soon return, we ask Thy blessing upon thy precious word. Give thee thanks for all thy love, Lord Jesus, and Thy worthy and precious name. Amen.