Sully Conference: 1989
Table of Contents
The Church
Address—T. Cedarland
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287 Which is not far off the hour when Christ will claim his own, Who soon shall hear that voice of power? The Lord himself shall come. 287.
Is not far off the arm when Christ will play it all way to love children.
My life is not our love for you.
Some shallow.
Please this afternoon to the Book of Revelation.
Revelation chapter one.
Revelation chapter one, and beginning with verse one, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass. And he sent and signified it by his Angel unto his servant John.
Verse 10. Excuse me. Verse five. And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings. And praise unto our God and his Father. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every hour shall see him.
They also which pierced him, and all the kingdoms of the earth, shall well because of him Even so. Amen. Chapter 2, and beginning with verse one. And unto the Angel of the church at Ephesus write these things, saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. I know my works, and thy labor, and thy patience, how thou canst not bear them which are evil, and how thou has tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and has found the liars.
And has born, and has patience. And for my namesake has flavored, and has not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou has left thy first love. Remember therefore from once thou art fallen, and repent and do thy 1St works. Or else I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy candle. Stick out of this place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He could have an ear to ear. Let him hear. He can have an ear. Let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
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To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
Well, I'd like to look a little bit this afternoon at the subject of the church. And I believe that there's not a another book in all the Scriptures that gives us an outline of the history of the church as we find in the Book of Revelation, the past and present and future, the things which are and the things which are are going to shortly come to pass. We can find them all in this book.
And we know that this book, too, is one that warms our hearts to the person of the Lord Jesus.
Like perhaps no other, it says it begins in the title of the first verse. It's not what we see in our Bibles. What says is the revelation of Saint John divine, but it's the revelation of Jesus Christ as we see in Christian. That's the proper title of this verse and of this book. And we'll see here, like I say, a little history of the church, that Pearl of great price that the Lord Jesus has sold all he had and bought it.
We have adversary Ephesians in chapter 5 that says Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, and every one of us here this afternoon who know the Lord Jesus Christ are part of that church, which is the body of the Lord Jesus. That tells us in first Corinthians 10, you being many are one bread and one body. We know that the church was something that was future. It was nothing to do with the Old Testament.
Jesus could say in Matthew 16 upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of town shall not be able against it. And so on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God was given and those individual believers that were there were all baptized into one body. There was the beginning of the church. You know that the word of the church comes from the word ecclesia, which means called out companies. And so we see that the the church is not a people that's for this earth like Israel was.
But it's a called out company. Not an earthly people, but a heavenly people.
I was in a bookstore a few days ago and there was a book on the shelf and it said these words. It said whatever happened to heaven? And it attracted my attention and I pulled the books off the shelf and began to read. And the author of this book and was a man who knew the Scriptures very well. He had a good understanding of the the church as being a heavenly people. And he was pointing out how that in the 1970s, he said it was sort of the zenith maybe of and believers looking for the hope of the Lord's coming of the rapture.
Sort of man named Hal Lindsey wrote a book and it had much about the rapture in it. It's called the late great Planet Earth. And many people read those books and they begin to look for the Lord to come. And after time went on and the Lord didn't come, then Israel and was in the land 40 years and the Lord still didn't come. And this man pointed out how many believers today are no longer looking for the rapture of the church, but they're beginning to settle down in this world and try to make it heaven on earth. And there's a great movement in in Chris, Chris London today.
What they call reconstructionism to try to make the world a better place and clean up the world and maybe.
If we do that, we can pressure in the Kingdom. That's the thinking the sun, but only look in the word of God and we see that the believer is always in out of heaven and open. I believe and the time that we're living. Satan is doing everything he can to rob Christians of that hope because he knows the time is short. The time is short. We're right there just at that point. We can't be here much longer. I believe those of us that are in this room this afternoon, the company that are going to be on earth when the Lord Jesus comes.
So may the Lord encourage us this afternoon to.
Had be stirred up to be looking along for the coming of the Lord Jesus, we find in this little chapter we read in chapter 2 about the church at Ephesus.
And another emphasis prophetically represents that first period of time when the apostles in the history of the church, when the apostles were just passing off the scene and emphasis was that church that was given the highest truth, and they had those truths about being seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And we see that they were doing everything right. They had tried those that were apostles and were not, and they found them liars and they were laboring and not fainting and so on. They were going through all the motions.
But the Lord Jesus had to say, nevertheless, I have somewhat to say against thee, thou hast left thy first love. And so we find that the first step in departure in the history of the church and the first step of departure in the history of the individual believer always comes from leaving the first love, that first love. You know, it's always interesting to me when I look at a couple that's newly in love and there's, there's three things that always stand out so much.
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In my mind, when I view a couple that's newly in love, one of the things that I've noticed about a couple that's newly in love is that they always want to be together. Every opportunity they can they they want to be together. I can remember and getting off work at 5:00 and my wife to be was living down and about 40 miles away and just as soon as I leave the office that the nose of that part would be headed South towards Federal Way where where my wife lived so that we could be together.
And I know that tomorrow I'm going to step on an airplane and fly towards home and that plane won't be able to fly fast enough to get me to deal with that person that I love. You know, Peter Rhode and his officially said Jesus Christ, whom having not seen ye love and.
Even now, believing would rejoice with joy unspeakable. So there should be that first love, that desire to be with it, one that we love. Another thing I've noticed about a couple that's newly in love.
Is even when they're apart, they always speak about the person they're in love with. Scripture says out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. You're not around them very long and pretty soon they're talking about that person that they, they love. Their name comes up in the conversation because that person was on their heart. And another thing that I've noticed is that couple that's in love, even when they're away from each other, they always want to please because they don't want to do one thing that will displease that person that they're in love with. They wouldn't want that person to find out that they had done something.
It would displease them and so we could look at perhaps those three things is a little barometer. I first love for the Lord Jesus. Do I have a desire to be with him? Do I have that desire to take time with him each day of my life to have that desire to be at the meetings where the Lord Jesus is in the midst. I can remember being in the meeting room and a brother bounding up the steps of the meeting room and he said this to another brother who said, brother, I hear the Lord is going to be here this morning. He said.
Let's go and meet him into the meeting room and work with great anticipation. He was on his way to breaking the bread. And what is Mike feeling when it comes time for prayer meeting and had a busy day? Do I want to eagerly be there where the Lord is in the midst? Do I want to enjoy His company? There's a little test of first love. Is there that desire to speak about him to others and to give testimony to the Lord Jesus isn't on my heart out of the abundance of the heart, and I'll speak it when I get together with other believers.
Those of Malachi's day they spake often one to another.
Anna, who was there when the Lord Jesus was brought in the temple for dedication, to say she spake of him, part of everything else, but she spake of him to all those that look for the redemption of Israel. Is there that desire to speak of Christ and then to please him in my life? He mentioned so often, but it's so true when you repeat it again, the happiness in being a Christian doesn't come in just receiving Christ. It comes in pleasing Christ. That's where the true happiness is. Maybe a Christian here this afternoon.
And you accepted the Lord, and there was a measure of joy.
But it seems like there's a lack of happiness. Well, I'm not walking in obedience to the Lord. I lose that happiness because the Spirit of God is grieved. So the real joy and the real happiness being a Christian is having the Lordship of Christ in my life and praising him and the things that I do. Well, those at Ephesus left their first love. And so he said, go back and repent and do your first works, those things that you did in the beginning. And there's that need to do that. You know, a couple when they see the nerve starting to wing in the relationship, they go.
Back and do those things they did in the beginning. The husband will come home and he'll buy his wife's bring home some flowers to his wife or maybe he'll take her out to dinner. Maybe months have gone by and they've just gone through the drudgery of of the routine of the home and they've forgotten those things that keep the romance alive. Well, same thing happens in our romance with the Lord Jesus Christ. We get busy in the routine of things and perhaps and we don't go back and do those things.
That we did in the beginning. There's not the time spent in the room and fair. There's less frequency at meetings and there's less talk of the Lord Jesus. And little things that we know are phasing, we let slip, well, here we have an expectation that says he that happened here to here, let him hear what the Spirit say it to the churches. So all of these things are things that we can learn from the Apple movies churches. Well, I don't want to take a long time with these seven churches because I think perhaps maybe four or five years ago we might have taken up to seven churches in Tawa.
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A little bit, but we will touch on them and go on through the book. We're here mostly to look at the church and and that heavenly calling of the church and the history of it is past, present and future. But the next church that's mentioned in verse eight is Smyrna.
We know that Smyrna was that time period when there was tremendous persecution. Satan came against the Church as a roaring lion. And from Nero's time right up to Constantine's time, Christians were persecuted. They were down in the catacombs and many were martyred for their faith. And he says the devil shall cast some of you into prison. He names the root of the trouble. You know the enemy is busy. The devil would like to come right into the assembly appellate and like to cause trouble and cause difficulty in the assembly.
Because dissension if we get our eyes off the Lord.
But though there was tremendous persecution and trial received a really blessing. Church thrived during that period. And you know, sometimes we don't appreciate the trials when they come. But it's been pointed out that this is not our our reigning time. This is our training time. And this trials come and they bring us give us a deeper yearning to be with the Lord Jesus Christ and the longing for his coming and everything goes smooth. Sometimes we're not really longing for his coming.
As we should be your brother chapter Brown and used to ask the searching question. You would say, well, if there was a button you could push that would make the Lord come, would you push it? Would you push it? But sometimes we have to admit there's time in our lives where we get so busy and our affections are on other things and not seeking those things which are above. We might hesitate to push that button. I know there's some here that without the trials and the pressures and maybe the loneliness or losing the main and all of those things.
That if there was a button that would bring the Lord's coming, they wouldn't hesitate. Well, if there's that first love, that would be the desires of our heart. We'd be looking up like we find at the end of this book where there's that cry, Amen. Even so funny, Lord Jesus. Well, we find that 313 AD Constantine came into power and the persecution lifted. And someone said that Constantini found the church in the catacombs and he left it on the throne of the world.
And so the next church, Pergamos, which is mentioned in verse 12, it means a thorough marriage. And there we find that the church got involved in the world. They had the doctrine of of Balaam, which we know in the Old Testament. It was the prophet Balan tried to curse the people of God, but he can only bless them as he viewed them from all sides on the mountain top, because he viewed them according to their standing rather than their state, but he could tell.
That man, they look, you could say, well, I'll tell you what you can do.
You have your daughters come in and bring in mixed marriages and introduce their idols, and then God will judge them. And so they brought in worldliness and mixed it with the things of God, idolatry and fornication and so on. And then God did step in and judge. And so we see that the church began to settle down in the world, The persecution was lifted and they were even involved in the politics of the day, he says.
You're dwelling where Satan's seed is and he says, my faithful martyr Antipas, the slain were Satan seeded. He makes a contrast between those two. There they were involved in those things. And he said also you have you have the deeds of the Nicolaitans, the thing which I hate. Now those at Ephesus, they handle the deeds of Anibal agents. But here at Quermos he says you have those details. What are the deeds of the Nicolaitans? Well, the word nickel.
And knowing the great means ruler and the word lady is the same word where we get our name for layperson or layman. It just means people. And so the literal meaning of the word is rulers of the people. And what happened was as the church began to settle down in the world, they left it to just a few diligent souls to seek out and learn the scriptures and learn the word of God. If they read church history, can read about some of this Miller's church history.
They left it to just a few diligent souls to take that responsibility, and eventually it wound up where there were, you might say, a special class of priests. And finally it wound up in the potpourri. And that's what we have in Thyatira. Well, there's a warning in there for that, isn't there, that perhaps maybe we can get so busy with our jobs and our families and these things and we can leave it to maybe just a few brothers in the Assembly to carry on most of the responsibility. And those brothers may not want that position.
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Sometimes I've been assemblies where there's certain, rather than saying, well, brother so and so and so and so, they always take part in the meeting. But then when you get to talk to brother so and so and so and so, you find out they really don't want that responsibility. And the fault of the problem has come because others have neglected to take their responsibility. And so sometimes we look and point the finger at others, but really every one of us should be exercised, even the sisters, as to what part we should have.
In the assembly and take that responsibility and not just leave it to others to take that responsibility. Well, we don't have time to speak much about fire timer, but it represents the dark ages in the period where Rome was there the woman Jezebel was teaching. But at the end of that we come to the third chapter and we find Sardis and he says about Sardis. I just might mention that the meaning of the name of Sardis literally means.
Those escaping or escaping out of it and it represents that period of time when.
The Reformation period came and there arose a protest against the Church of old men like Martin Luther. He was climbing those steps on his knees trying to earn favor with God. And the Spirit of God brought that verse home to his heart. That just shall live by faith. And the truth of salvation by grace was recovered. And there was a movement that rose in protest against Rome, but it wasn't a complete return to 1St principles. So the name means escaping out of the escaped out of that system.
That they never went back to the very beginning.
So the word Protestant really comes from the word protest. That's where the word came from. And someone has put it this way that if you protest against something long enough, you become like it. And we see an example of that. Some of us remember the days of the hippie movement in the 60s and more young men who grew their hair out born and they didn't want to work and they were living in immorality. And they sit down and their father would tell his son, when you need to get a haircut and you need to get a job, And the son would tell his father, well, you're just a materialistic bigot. You're just interested in making money.
So they argue back and forth and now we look at them 20 years later and the man who the young man is now what they call a yuppie, and he's investing in the stock market and he drives a BMW, lives in a big fancy house. And the father is the one who maybe has the modular, has left his wife and and so on. Well, they protested against each other long enough. They became like each other. And that's really what happened. Much of what was protested against came right back into the Protestant movement.
But when we come to Philadelphia, in verse seven of chapter 3, it says to the Angel of the church at Philadelphia write these things. Say, if he that is holy and he that is true, he that hath the he of David, he that openness, and no man shut us, and shut us and no man openeth. I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. For thou hast a little strength. Thou hast kept my word, and not denied my name.
They will know that the word name Philadelphia means brotherly love.
I believe it represents that period of time where there were believers who went back to the very beginning and recovered those truths that had been held by the river church. It says they kept His word and did not deny His name. In other words, these were Christians who didn't want to settle for anything less or anything more than the whole Word of God. They weren't content to just compromise and bring in some of the traditions of men and have some of the word of God and have a mixture of those things.
I think earlier this morning that God hates mixtures. He eats mixtures. But they were those who wanted to settle for nothing less or nothing more than walking in all the narrowness and all the broadness of the word of God. And so they began to look in the Scriptures. How did the early Christians meet? And on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to do what? Listen to a beautiful sermon, doesn't say that the greatest preacher in the world was there, the apostle Paul. But they didn't come together preach. They came together to break bread. They dug out those crews of the one body and the rapture of the church and so on.
And it was recovered to the church at large and the truth in one body and the heavenly hope of the rapture. And we see those things happen in Philadelphia. There was that desire to keep his word. Not tonight. And someone has said to say that your Philadelphia is only really condescending to lay the same ground. I hope there's nobody here that would say, well, the little group where I go and we're Philadelphia and these other people are all ready to see it because.
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We know these last four belong to the Union, but I believe it's a spirit, Philadelphia Spirit is something that we should covet and it's there. And so you can see that they were those who didn't want to compromise the word of God. Well, I believe the devil would say to someone who would want to walk this way. If you're going to walk in all the narrowness of the wood of God, there's not going to be the opportunities for service with other groups of Christians might have.
But what does he say about those? He says.
Is there no door? No, he says. I set before you an open door. And why? There's a wide open door, he says, which no man can shut and see. Satan would like us to think that if we're going to be connected with a narrow group of believers who are seeking to walk in the principles of the Word of God, that there's no opportunities for service. But that's not true. Number of years ago I can remember.
Going to a little town in the state of Washington.
Way up on the Olympic Peninsula to preach the gospel and we had some meetings in this school and after the meetings there was a couple that came up and they handed me a name on a piece of paper.
And this Papa said, if you ever get to the town of Quil scene another way logging town remotely pound, you said look up this man, he's a Christian. Well, I didn't think any more about it. I just took the piece of paper and slipped it in my pocket and my wallet. A couple weeks later, I woke up in the middle of the night. It just seemed like the word was saying, I want you to go to listening and preach the gospel. Well, I told my wife the next morning I said, I don't know what what's going to happen, but I feel the Lord wants me to go to full scene today. Pray for me.
Put some tracks and went up to that little town. Haven't been there since I was just a child, a boy had been well over 15 years since I've been able to come. But I got there and left some tracks and just seemed like the Lord was opening the door. And so we went down to the to the school. We like to have gospel meetings in the school because it's kind of a neutral ground for some people who wouldn't ever come into a church building or a meeting room or come to something in high school.
And went in and talked to the principal about using the school.
Well, when we told him what we wanted, he said there's no way I could let you use the school and said I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole, probably have the ACLU actress, he said. I just wouldn't do it.
Well, I said, you might think this is kind of strange, but first of all, I said we'd have meetings in other schools and then we had a problem. Secondly, I feel the Lord has sent me here. Well, they said if you were to go down to the superintendent's office and talk to the Superintendent and get permission from him and the board, he said, which I doubt, he said, well then maybe you could use the building. So we asked where the superintendent's office was and went down. If you're in trembling, waiting to be brought in before this man.
Told him what what I wanted and that after I was off he was speaking to him.
He hesitated for a moment when he snapped his thigh and said praise the Lord. He said I've been praying that somebody would come to listening town and have some gospel news. He said I'll take care of all the details as to the use of the building and he did so and we had several nights of meetings and that the auditorium and the Lord filled that building every night with people coming in to hear the word of God. Loggers with their suspenders and their beards. But you know if we were to come there and the last assist of being.
A Baptist minister? We're Presbyterian or some denomination or name. Only the Baptist will confirm the Presbyterians, maybe a few others.
So we could come there and just serve on the Lord when I'm Sinner that's been saved by the grace of God to preach the gospel, the grace of God and other people from all of those groups and many others who came in became the word of God because I believe that there is a door of wider open doors. There is if we're willing to walk. And then in the narrowness of the Scriptures, he says, I sent before to an open door and a known answer well.
From Philadelphia.
Briefly. Atlanta, Sia.
Which is mentioned in verse 14.
You might just mention that these last four churches all go on to the end. The Lord's coming is mentioned in all of them. And the word laodicea, there's that word Leia again, like we had with the Nicolaitans, it means people, but to see it means judging or rights of the people. It's just the opposite of manipulationism.
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Nicolaitanism was rulers of the people or men over the people, whereas.
Laiaciaism is just the opposite of mythologianism. It's the people deciding what they want. It's like what we have in the Book of Judges. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes, and we know that.
In Second Timothy chapter four we have Paul warns. He says in the last days day that is the people will heap to themselves teachers having itching errors.
And so that's what we have today people say. And so that's what we have today. People say, well, I like somebody who preaches a good gospel sermon. So they go over to this group and somebody says, I like good Bible teaching. So they go to this group or whatever. But rather than looking to the Lord for his direction in the industry is the people deciding what they want to hear. That's what the middle meaning of the word legacy means. There is much more to it that's here, but I just make that point because sometimes we don't always look at the means of names and I feel they're significant.
And he speaks about those at latest, he said. You're neither hot nor cold. I'm going to spew the out of my mouth.
Well, we know that when the Lord Jesus comes, the true church is going to be taken out. Every believer, those that are saved in this room are going to be gone down the road and other buildings and homes where there's believers, they're going to be gone. They're going to be taken out. But the machinery of the Falls Church is going to continue right on into the tribulation and make up that great horror that we find later on in the 17th and 18th chapter. We're just going to spew it right out of this mountain with tribulation.
But we're looking for the Lord to come, those who are real.
And the denominations of men and everywhere, all true Saints would be taught to meet the Lord in the air. Well, that's really what we find in the 4th chapter. There's the beginning of the 4th chapter. There's a door in heaven, open verse one, and as a voice that says come up, hit her.
So in chapters 4:00 and 5:00 you could say you're back. In chapters 2 and three we have the history of the church on earth. Chapter four and five, we have the church in heaven to know that the church will not go through the tribulation. The church is a heavenly people. God has not appointed us to wrath. That's the wrath of the tribulation that the kings in chapter 6 are saying it is from the wrath of the Lamb. And he says God has not appointed us to wrath. Another verse says He's delivered us from the wrath, but to obtain salvation or to be saved out of this world.
Speaking of the salvation of the body. And so when the Lord comes for his church, the Lord himself comes to take the church up. But when it comes at the end of the tribulation, the gather is elect from the four corners of the earth, and to sever the wicked from the just, He has the angels do that. And when it comes to His bride, when it comes to you and I, the Lord isn't going to settle in the angels. The Lord himself will come and take the church out. That's what we're looking for. That's about what we're about to hear.
A voice that says come up Hitler and I will show these things which must be hereafter. Well just look at one verse in the 5th chapter.
In chapter and verse 6.
He says, And I beheld and loathed in the midst of the throne will the four beasts. In the midst of the elder stood a lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God set forth into all the earth.
Well, here's the scene in heaven. John gets a glimpse of it, a lamb, and it had been saved. And it doesn't say I looked in there in the front or in the in the the back section, but it says in the midst.
You know this morning we had the privilege here to somewhere in color to gather around the person of the Lord Jesus. We claim that verse a promise of the Lord in Matthew 1820. Two or three are gathered together in my name. There am I in the midst of them.
Where was that loaf on the table that spoke with the body of the Lord Jesus given for us? And I thought it spoke of his precious blood. And the Lord Jesus was in the midst and what we had and this morning was just a little foretaste of heaven because we get when we get to heaven, it's going to be the same way. The Lord Jesus is going to be in the midst. But there's two things that I enjoy that are different. One of those things is I looked around the room and slowly here this morning and there were some empty chairs.
We know there's other believers in the Saudi area who were not there. When we get to heaven, every Christian will be gathered around the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every one of them. There won't be one empty seat, and there won't be one cold heart. Sometimes our hearts are so cold and they feel it, but they're in heaven. The praise is going to go out uninjured. Those thousands who were martyred during the Smyrna time period, they're going to be there. The apostles down to the Dark ages, those faithful ones that only God knows who they are, they'll be there.
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And you think of the millions of Christians that are in the world at this very moment. They'll all be there. And the praise that is going to flow forth to the Lord Jesus Christ, Sometimes we sing that with him. What rich, eternal burst of praise will fill you on courts through endless days, and time shall cease to be. Can you imagine what that phrase is going to be like when you hear that shout and every believer is there around the person in the world? Jesus, we have a little foretaste of it this morning.
But their faith is going to give way to say.
Well, and says, in the midst of a Lamb, as it had been slain, it could be translated a freshly slain land.
When we get to the end of the when we find Zechariah, the question is asked, what are these wounds that are in my hands? It doesn't say what are the scars, but it says what are these wounds? He says, these are the wounds that I received in the House of my friends. And so the proof, the Lord's love to the believers is fresh today and it will be for all eternity. It is just as fresh what he did for us.
Not only that, but I believe here the reason you find it a lamb as it had been slain, a freshly swimming, is that the Lord Jesus in this scene here is just about to loose those seals, the seals of judgment that are going to be poured out during the tribulation. And God has not forgotten what this world did to his sin. God has not forgotten the horrible crucifixion and the despising and the rejection they went through the Lord Jesus, what he went through when he was slain at the cross.
And so he's about to open those seals of judgment and he says a lamb as it had been strained. That is not forgotten. It's still fresh in his mind what this rule did to his son. Well, there's much more in this chapter. We get the song and redeem then the angels joining in and worship. They can't join in in the in the song of the redeemed because angels aren't redeemed. But we find them there too in that scene and then find the end of the chapter of creation.
But in chapter 6 through 18, we have the tribulation period, as we mentioned that we're not going to be here, though there's 12 Chapters that take up with that time. We see the long-suffering of God. He pours out of the judgment and waits for men to repent, pours out a little more and waits for men to repent for the gospel of the Kingdom of being preached. And even at the end, the everlasting gospel is we know that anybody who hears the gospel now will never have a second chance.
From the 2nd Thessalonians, who tells us about those that hear it now, that God will send them strong delusion.
If they believe a lie, that they all might be damned because they received not the love of the truth and pleasure and unrighteousness. If there's somebody here this afternoon who doesn't know the Lord and you've heard the gospel and the rapture takes place today, you're going to be left behind and you'll never have a second chance. Never. But there will be many who have never heard it. And the gospel of the Kingdom is preached that will be saved. Someone will pay for it with their lives, and we have to refuse to take the market at least, but they'll be meaning that will be saved during that time.
But only those who have never heard it. Now well as we mentioned that Falls Church goes into the tribulation. And if we find an immoral order of revelation that God judges and exposes the false church in Revelation 17 and 18 and then the 19th chapter he displays the truth church. And we might mention this, that after chapter 3, never again do you find the word church in the Book of Revelation.
Because God doesn't own the apostate church, but called out company has been called out and is spoken of later as the bride, a lamb's wife that you never found in their church after the third chapter, after the rapture. So I've spoken of that anymore, but it's spoken of as the bride, the man's wife. Well, let's turn over to the 19th chapter and get a little voice.
Of these things.
It says in verse 6, And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, and the voice of many waters, and the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Hallelujah for the Lord God omnipotent greeneth, Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him. For the marriage of the land has come, and his wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the Saints.
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He saith unto me, Right blessed are they which are followed to the marriage supper of the land. The saith enemy D's are the true sayings of God.
We'll now receive this, the scene in heaven, the marriage supper of the Lamb, and there's that rejoicing. There's two suppers in this chapter we might mention. There's the Supper of the great God, which is horrible world and judgment, but here it's the Mary Supper of the Lamb. It's those of us that know the Lord are going to be there very, very shortly enjoying this occasion. This time. No, we don't feel worthy to speak of these things. Israel was an earthly people.
But the believers, the Church, is a heavenly people.
It's amazing the God would love us enough to pick us out of this world. All the sinners here and those of us in this room, probably the worst of them to say I want to choose you're all eternity to be a bribe for my son to be a bride and to be there, a marriage stuck over the land. We deserve help and we don't want to take these things up in an intellectual way. We want to take them up in a way that it might affect our hearts.
It might reach our hearts because we're really when we think about these things, it's as if we're on holy ground. We can't do them justice, even to speak of them, but yet we're going to be there and there, the marriage supper of the Lamb. There's the rejoicing and we can rejoice now. Believers should be happy. Falsehood rejoice evermore.
One person I know, he said a lot of Christians walk around like they've been baptized in in pickle juice. And it might seem kind of funny, but sometimes we can have a sour look in our face. Well.
It should be the happiest people in the world, when you think about what a bright future that we have. Well, there at the marriage supper of the land, he says his wife hath made herself ready, and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness plural, or it should read that could read the righteous acts of the Saints. In other words, this isn't the righteousness we've been made through the blood of the Lord, but these are the things that have been done.
For the Lord Jesus that will be on display for his glory. Someone said Lord saves us by his grace. He works through us by his grace and then he rewards us for it by his grace. It's all of him and so we're told as believers our responsibility is to lay up treasures in heaven, not on here on the earth or thieves breakthrough in the steel and north and West Coast, but where your treasure is there where your heart. We also I often have mentioned that the Christian.
As a hook chest, I know before my wife and I were married that she had in her bedroom.
A cedar chest and in that chest she put away things for a time. It was yet future a time when she believed that a a man would come and take her it could be his wife. And so she put things away in that chest. And you know, she had a couple little brothers and maybe they kind of laughed and thought the idea of their big sister getting married was rather strange and.
And they made fun a little bit and one of them called it a despair girl. But much to their amazement, the time came when a young man came and reported their big sister and took her away to be his wife. And that chest was opened up. And many of the things that were in that chest are on display in our home today. The world is such a believer. He sees them living for a different time and time to come. And he may mock and he may scoff. Tells us that then the last days that we stoppers.
But you know what a privilege we have. What a hope our hopes aren't wrapped up in this world. We have that book called from Above heavenly men by birth, who wants were but the citizens of earth. Oh, the blood of Christ and the work of the Lord Jesus has lifted us in position far above this world. We're already, as it were, seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus where we should be laying up treasures in heaven, living in view of that day.
We find that after the marriage supper of the Lamb once again there's a door in heaven open in Chapter 11 or verse 11 and we get in the coming of the Lord Jesus coming back with his Saints 3 coming spoken of in Scripture. There's his coming to his own. He came under his own and his own received him not that's passed his coming for his own. That's the rapture of the church. That's what we haven't checked before now another door of chapter in verse 11 of this chapter.
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Where he comes with his own, and we see the Lord riding out of heaven. He's on the White Horse and on his head are many crowns. This is the one who left this world despised and rejected men, crowned with horns, hung on a cross, made a purse and lifted up as if to say to God, take him back. We don't want him here. He comes back to majesty crowned with many crowns. And we're going to be with them. We're going to be with them. Can you imagine that? Touch your heart.
Want to make it, doesn't want to make you live for the Lord Jesus now and suffer a little bit of reproach for Him. All said, if we suffer with Him, we'll also reign with him. The sufferings of His life are not worthy to be compared to the glorious that are going to be revealed. Well, the Lord comes back and we see the supper of the great God, when the fowls of the air are called together to eat the flesh of captains and the flesh of mighty men and kings that are going to try to fight against the Lord and his armies, and then the beast and the false prophet.
Those two individuals who headed up, we might say all of that iniquity against the Lord are going to be taken and cast alive into the lake of fire, which is the second day they're going to be in the lake of fire, 1000 years, 1000 years before from what I see, anyone else is there. You'll know later on that the dead, small and great are going to be brought out deaf and hell will give up the dead and they're going to be all cast into the lake of fire. But they're the false, the the beast and the false prophet are taking the cast of life in the Old Testament.
There were two men who were taken out of this world and I never saw dead.
And Elijah, here's the contrast to we leave this world and never saw death, but they're not taken to heaven like Enoch was to be with the Lord, but the cast in the world of fire. And then in chapter 20, we get the millennial reign of Christ where he reigns for 1000 years. We're going to be reigning with them over the years.
And as we find in the 20th chapter.
They lived and reigned with Christ 1000 years. The end of verse 4.
And we know that in the Millennium, righteousness will reign. In the eternal state. Righteousness dwells the Millennium. Judgment goes out every morning, and the righteousness reigns. But there'll be those who will only heal feigned obedience. Their hearts aren't really linked with Christ, and one statement is loose for little season.
At the end of that thousand year ring, they'll gather themselves to Satan. Their true colors will be manifested and then they'll be judged as we find it. Unity chapter, that great white throne, judgment on the dead, small and great standing before the gun. Judas Iscariot and Adolf Hitler and many others will be there along that company. And anybody in this room who rejects Christ will be a little bit company who will stand there before God in the finger of God and look down that list for your name and it says Chris Southern's name is not found written in the book of life.
Will be cast into the lake of fire, which means literally Pearl into the lake fire. Really hope that won't be the case of anybody in this room. God isn't ruining any should perish, but we also come to repentance as well. We see in the 21St chapter a little glimpse of the eternal state. As we mentioned the eternal state. Righteousness dwells in the morning. Righteousness means so it says in verse one and I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
For the 1St heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more seed. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of them, and prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men, He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain for the former things I passed away. Well, this is the eternal state. Peter says, we look for a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. The heavens that we see now, and the earth one day going to be burned up.
It's reserved under fire, and then maybe a new heavens and a new earth, and we see a little glimpse of the eternal state. We don't have a lot to tell us about it because we can't imagine what it's going to be like, but we know this in First Thessalonians 4. So shall we, that is, believers, be forever with the Lord Jesus. Nothing can separate us and the Lord Jesus Christ, and we'll be with and life and for all eternity, while our finite minds couldn't take in the glories that are going to be there.
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But God gives us a little glimpse and then we the eighth verse he gives the eternal state of the unbeliever. Someone has entitled that eight ways to hell.
The fearful and unbelieving and so on will have their part in the lake, which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
I like to call your attention to the very end of verse 9.
The end of the verse that says Come hit her, and I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.
And here we see a little glimpse of God's purposes from all eternity past. I will show thee the pride, the Lamb's life. This is the last. I will in the Bible, the last time in the Bible we find the expression. I will.
Where was the first time that expression was used.
Well, if we were to turn back to Genesis chapter 2, we would see that God says they're showing his purposes in the very beginning. He says it's not good for a man to be alone. I will make it. Help me for him. And what happens? We know the Lord Jesus, he said except the corn of wheat fall under the ground and die and invited the moon. Well, and the Lord Jesus Adam being a figure of that and the first Adam, He went into a deep sleep picture of death.
And his side was opened up, and out of that side he was given Adam a bride.
The Lord Jesus went into the sleep of death. His side was open there at Calvary, and he purchased with his own blood you and I, those of us that are saved in this morning, this afternoon. And Adam could stand back and look at that bride that had been given him, and he could say burn a pipe, bone, flesh of my flesh.
The Lord Jesus looks at you and I and says, This is my body, this is my body. And it goes on to say, for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother? All the perfection of Scripture. The Lord Jesus left his Father's glory, He left his mother there at the cross, and he went all the way to take a bride for himself and cleave unto his wife. And they too shall be one flesh, sometimes with some level of him. Lord Jesus, are we one with thee?
Oh, height. Oh, depth of love. Well, our time is going fast. Let's just look at a few more verses in this wonderful Book of Revelation, the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
In chapter 22.
Verse four, They shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads. Verse 7. Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is He to keep up the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
Verse 12 Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be.
Then in the verse 17 and the Spirit and the bride say, come and let him adhere it. Say come and let him. It is a thirst come. And whosoever will let him take in the water of life freely. In verse 20, he which testifies these things saith, surely I come quickly, Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
Well, after John lays out all of these things by inspiration of the Spirit of God, it's just like the Spirit of God is saying John, stop, stop. After unfolding all of these wonderful truths that I wanted recorded in my words for my people to know what a little warning in there put an invitation after somebody was listening who's not saved the spirit and the bride say come there it is the call, but in the hearth.
Say, come him that is a thirst come, and whosoever will.
Let him come and take a lot of life through. So before God finishes his book, he puts a call, a little invitation for someone who's not saved to come and take it. That water would like to enjoy these blessings that are going to be the portion of every believer for all eternity. Not the supper of the great God endless Willow, but the marriage supper of the Lamb and the eternal state.
Be all eternity discovering the glories of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, then he says at the end, he could testify at these things. Say it. Surely I come quickly. You know, there's a number of of peas that I've enjoyed in this verse and I like to share them with you. It helps me remember sometimes when I put peas or things. But surely that's positive. All right, That's personal. Come. That's powerful. It'll raise the dead and change the living quickly. That's crazy. Surely that's positive.
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You know what he said in one translation of Hosea chapter 6 and verse three? His coming is as sure as the dawn is sure.
When it says in Titus looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing medicine of hope. So like what we hope it might happen, but it's a hope. That word literally means deferred certainty. Something that's going to happen for sure. The blessed hope to coming in the world Jesus. Surely that's positive it's going to happen. I that's personal. They mentioned that when the Lord comes for his elect at the end of the tribulation. He sends his angels to the vehicle when he comes for his bride, the Lord himself.
Showed the same from Heavenly to shall. I don't think there's anybody in this room this afternoon.
Who has ever been to a wedding where one of the groomsmen came down and took the bride up and brought him to come up and stand by the groom? I never have. It's always been the groom himself. I was at a wedding rehearsal this past year.
And there was as the couple came up the aisle and it was just a rehearsal. I was standing on the on the platform and some of the groomsmen were there and the and the groom was there. And as they came up, they tried to be hanging on to the arm of their father. The question was asked, who gives this woman to be married to this man? And the father answered in the rehearsal of her mother and I. And I was standing next to the groom and I watched him take a flying leap off that stage.
There must have been four or five steps that he cleared in the air, and while I was in the air, he let out a shout and he went down and took his bride to be up onto the stage. It was just a rehearsal and I kind of think, I'm sure there was some there who thought that was just a little bit immature. But I couldn't help but think that the joy and the anticipation that's in the heart of the word Jesus, He wants us to be with himself far more than we want to be there.
And he's sitting, as it were right now.
On the very edge of his throne and he's waiting for that moment where the father will say, go catch thy bride, and he'll say, I rise, my love, my fairly. He'll descend from heaven with a shout. There's joy in his anticipation of having you and I to be with himself. He hasn't lost his first love. He hasn't left his first love. He says, yeah, I've loved you with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness, and are drawn in.
What about my affectionate?
What about that love is it there do I need to repent and do those first works. May the Lord Jesus through our hearts to be looking longing for his soon return. He would have this hope within purifying himself. Surely I come that's powerful quickly that's president at any moment says in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 37. Yet a very little while new translation. He that shall come will come.
And will not delay. Will not delay.
It might be in this afternoon. My child doesn't stop there. Spirit of God has one last exhortation in verse 21. That grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Well, may the Lord help us to go on in grace together until He comes to take us to be with Himself. We're just saying that Him 200 and 88288.
For thou whose mercies for Savior.
We can do the worst day.
As him right it falls down.
And he does it. May what the Lord is my name.
1 Corinthians 15
Address—C. Hendricks
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.
The Red Seas Judgment Flood is passed in Him who bought us with His blood.
The Lord is risen. We stand beyond the doom, all our sin through Jesus after 2 #34.
The Lord is red.
Turn with me, please, to 1St Corinthians 15.
First Corinthians chapter 15.
I'll begin reading at verse one.
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein you stand, by which also ye are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I have also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that he rose again the 3rd day according to the Scriptures, and that he was seen of Cephas. Then of the 12 after that he was seen of above 500 graduated, once of whom the greater part remain under this present, but some are falling asleep. After that he was seen of James.
That of all the apostles, and last of all he was seen of me also as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles that have not made to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain, But I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me. Therefore, whether it were I or they, so we preach, And so you believe now if.
Christ be preached that he rose from the dead. I'll say some among you, that there is no resurrection of the dead. But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain? And your faith is also vain. Yeah, And we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he raised not up. If so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised.
And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins, then they also, which are falling asleep in Christ, are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ wisdom from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came dead, thy man came also the resurrection of the dead, whereas in Adam.
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All die so in Christ.
Even so in Christ shall all be made alive, but every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits, afterward they that are Christ that is coming, then come at the end, when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power, For he must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that should be destroyed is death, 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.
All things shall be subdued unto him. Then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be All in all else. What shall they do which are baptized for the dead? If the dead rise not at all, why are they then baptized for the dead? And why stand we in jeopardy every hour? I protest by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts. And Ephesus, what advantage is it me if the dead rises? Dead rise not. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
Be not deceived Evil communications, corrupt, good manners await to righteousness, and sin not for some of not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame, But some men will say, How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come, Thou fools, That which thou sowest is not quickened except to die, and that which thou source, thou sowest not that body that shall be but bare grain. It may chance of wheat, or of some other grain, but God giveth it a body as it is pleased him.
And to every seed, his own body, all flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial. But the glory of the celestial is 1, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There's one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars. For one star different from another star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead.
It is sown in corruption, It is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body that is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body, and so it is written. The first man, Adam, was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit, albeit that was not first, which is spiritual, but that which is natural.
And afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earth, feet. The 2nd man is the Lord from heaven, as is the earthy. Such are they also that are earthy, and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
Now this I say, brethren, but flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. Neither does corruption inheriting corruption. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump well the trumpet shall sound, and the dead should be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, in this marvel must put on immortality. So when this corruptible should have put on incorruption, and this mortal should have put on immortality.
Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law that thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.
Or as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Well, I have read the entire chapter. We won't get that far this afternoon, but I've read it because it's the most beautiful unfolding of the truth of the resurrection, His resurrection, resurrection of Christ and our resurrection when He comes again for us. The two are tied together. The two are part of the same resurrection.
The resurrection of life.
First Resurrection and We have the most thorough and beautiful and in-depth treatise anywhere in the Bible of the Resurrection, right here in this chapter that we've read.
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He begins by declaring to them, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein you stand. He's declaring to them the same gospel which he had preached to them. Or when he went there the first time he preached it, they received it, and they stood in the truth of the gospel received by faith. And then he adds, by which also ye are saved. They were saved by believing the gospel.
That he had preached to them.
If you keep in memory what I preach them to you, unless you have believed in vain, and you see there was a doctrine there at Corinth that he is addressing. And the 12Th verse brings out what that doctrine was. It was a serious error. I'll read the 12Th verse. Now, if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
That was the error that the Apostle Paul.
Was dealing with in this chapter there was a teaching among the Saints at Corinth that there is no resurrection of the dead. Don't know fully all the meaning of that teaching, but he deals with it beautifully in the power of the Spirit of God in this chapter. And so he begins by restating to them the gospel which he had preached to them, which they had received, wherein they stood in their faith, and by which they were saved, He says, if you keep in memory.
What I preached them to you, unless you have believed in vain, unless your faith is null and void and worthless, If this error that had been introduced at Corinth was allowed to stand unchecked and.
Unexposed by the power of God and the truth of God, they would have believed in vain if the logical consequence of that error was carried out, that he develops that so beautifully.
And refutes it so eagerly in this chapter.
So to to have embraced what Paul presented to them in the 1St place as they did. He had received it from the Lord in glory. It wasn't something that came from himself, it wasn't something that originated with Paul, but it came from the Lord in glory himself. He had received it, and he had delivered it, and they had received it. They had. They were standing in the faith of it. They had believed it, and they were saved.
By that gospel, he says, unless he have believed in vain, well, the gospel consists of three.
Essential parts he says in verse three I delivered unto you. First of all that which I also received, he hadn't. It didn't originate from Paul, It came from the the glorified head in heaven, the risen Christ. And he had communicated it to the Apostle, and he had communicated it to these believers. At currently I delivered unto you that which I also received how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures. The scriptures referred to, of course, would be the Old Testament scriptures.
And there are many, many, many passages in the Old Testament referring to the death of Christ, one of the best known as the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, where it speaks of him of being wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of ours. Peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. We know the chapter well. That's just one of the many scriptures that he could draw from and bring out the truth that Christ died.
For our sins. He is the only man that was down here in this scene that chose to die. He was the only man that chose to die. Well, you might say. Well, no. I challenge that there are there are other people who have died for A cause, and some have died for a loved one. Many have given their lives in war for their country, but they didn't choose to die. They simply died sooner.
For the 'cause that they died. For they just simply died sooner than they would have had they been allowed to remain here. But all are going to die. It is appointed unto men wants to die, and after this the judgment. So every one of us is subject to death. But there was one man down here in this scene on whom death had no claim, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He came to God. He chose to die. He said, No man taketh my life from me. I have authority to lay it down.
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And I have authority to take it again, this commandment if I received of my father, he chose to die, and he died not for his sins He had none. He was the holy 1, the sinless one. He died for our sins. This is the gospel. This is the first precious wondrous element of the gospel. I used to wonder why it then adds. And he was buried because he's establishing the fact, the indisputable fact of history, that he truly died.
There are those that would try to do away with the fact that he really died and that he was just in a some kind of a swoon or.
Or whatever they come up with in their infidelity and unbelief. No Christ.
Died, and he died for our sins and he was buried. He was buried. He was truly a dead man. And that's why this doctrine that says that the dead don't rise, That means if the dead don't rise, neither did he rise. And if he didn't rise, the whole Christian faith is a fable.
Is false and everything is lost. He develops that so beautifully in the chapter. Now the first element of the gospel is to establish the fact of history that Christ died and the fact of Revelation that in that death he died for our sins. He died for our sins. The only one that willingly voluntarily laid down his life as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
And that he was buried. He was buried absolutely essential to realize that he was truly dead. The soldier with a spear pierced his side right into his heart. He was truly dead. But that wasn't to kill him. He was already dead. He had already died, but certainly the abundant proof that he was dead. And then they buried him. They buried him out of sight.
A dead man dairy, and then the third part of the wondrous gospel that Paul had preached to them at Corinth, which they had received, in which their faith stood, by which they were saved, was that he rose again the 3rd day according to the scriptures.
Verse four. And that he was buried, and that he rose again the 3rd day according to the scriptures. So he brings before them what he had preached, what he had received from the risen Christ in glory.
The truth of the gospel. The three elements of the truth of the Gospel that he died for our sins. He was buried and he rose again the 3rd day according to the scriptures.
Do away with the resurrection, and you have done away with Christianity. If you ever notice in the book of Acts the main theme that is repeated over and over and over again, Acts 2 Peter says you have taken this blessing one and with wicked hands, and crucified and slain.
And God has made this St. Jesus, whom we have crucified both Lord and Christ.
The the Spirit of God had been given, He had received the Spirit on high in the glory as a man, the glorified man, and he had sent him down. And this was proof that God had raised and exalted the Lord Jesus Christ to his own right hand in heaven. Again with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them. All he is risen is the constant theme in the central crux of the message in the book of Acts. Do away with the resurrection.
And you've done away with Christianity, and that's what he brings out in this chapter. It would have been a simple thing if it had been.
Faked it, hadn't truly died, and then just he awoke from this swoon or whatever it was as they as the modernists have come up with. Because they'll come up with any unbelieving theory simply because they realize that they must do away with the resurrection or otherwise.
They cannot refute Christianity. Christianity stands or falls with the truth of the resurrection. If he did not rise, then he died like any other man. He died as being subject to death and to sin, but only no, he did not die like any other man. As I said before, he is the only man who laid down his life. He's the only one who chose God, as he's the only one who raised.
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Himself and God raised from the dead.
He said to the Jews, destroy this temple, referring to the temple of his body. And in three days I will raise it up. Think of that statement. Think of that statement. Think of a mere man making such a a statement.
He either was telling the truth and all that he said was true, or he was the greatest impostor this world has ever seen. It would have been a simple matter for the Jews at Jerusalem to have, if it was faith to have produced the dead body of Christ. And that's all they had to do. That's all they had to do is to produce the body of Christ in death.
To destroy Christianity.
You know, the early apostles had gone to India, or to China, or to some remote part of the world that hadn't the vaguest idea of what had transpired in Jerusalem in those days.
They could have been told that Christ died for our sins, He was buried and he rose again the 3rd day according to the scriptures. They could have been told that and they wouldn't have been able to refute him. They would have to either just believe it or not believe it. But that wasn't preached there. That was preached in Jerusalem, beginning at Jerusalem, where all these events took place, where he was put to the cross, where he died and was taken down and put in a tomb.
All I had to do if he isn't risen was produce his dead body.
That would have destroyed it all. But they couldn't do it because he's not here. He's in the glory our faith, beloved, rests upon the most solid.
Infallible foundation of all history it is the resurrection of Christ is the most thoroughly documented fact of all this year.
And now he goes, and he produces the witnesses to testify to this glorious truth. He is risen. He is not even.
He is not here. Had he been there, had the disciples stolen away his body? That was the story they invented up, and the soldiers were told to say that. But while we set, the disciples came and took away his body. Well, that would have meant every one of them would have been put to death. That would that would be the immediate thing. But we will persuade them and secure you, they say.
And this story is current among the Jews to this day. The Bible says all they had to do, all they had to do, I say it again, is produce that dead body, a simple thing in Jerusalem. They couldn't possibly, the disciples couldn't possibly have done away with that dead body.
Since they were looking for it.
Trying to find it. If it was truly a false thing, well, let's see what his witnesses are. Verse five, that he was seen of Cephas. Ben of the 12Th, he was seen of Cephas. That's Peter. Peter had said the law denied he yet will not die, and he denied him with oaths and curses. And it says the Lord turned and looked at Peter and he went out and he thought there and he went bitterly. Now here's Peter.
Just imagine if you were Peter and you had denied that your Lord.
With oaths and curses three times. And he had told him he would do that, you might say. Oh.
Would he ever forgive me?
Would would he ever?
Maybe he didn't even enter into the truth of the resurrection. It seems as though the women entered into it far great, far much more before than the apostles. When they came to the apostles and told them that they had seen the Lord risen, they didn't believe it.
Just think the Lord Jesus the first one he appeared to in resurrection, Mr. Cephas.
And that wonderful.
The one who's going to be used as the chiefest of the apostles to proclaim this glorious message of the resurrection. The Lord appears to him as the rest of Christ now no one saw him rise.
No one saw him rise, but he was seen after he was put to death. A man living on the earth 40 days, 40 nights. Let's just look at that. Acts 1.
00:25:01
Acts Chapter one.
We're looking at some of these infallible proofs, and I'll just read it in Acts, chapter one.
The former treatise have I made with Theophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which he was taken up.
After that he threw the Holy Ghost had given commandments under the Apostles whom he had chosen, to whom also he showed himself alive.
After his passion, after his sufferings by many infallible proofs, many infallible proofs being seen of them 40 days.
And Speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
Many infallible proofs 40 days. It wasn't just a sudden appearance to 1 here or to another there, but it was 40 days. He was a risen man on earth and then he ascended Acts one gives the ascension and then ten days later making the 50 days since he was since he rose, comes down the Holy Spirit Acts 2 The gift of the Spirit The day of Pentecost 50 Well, he was seen as Cephas, the one that had denied him the one that thought if he.
I can imagine that he thought he didn't have. He'd never be used of the Lord again. He sees the Lord in resurrection, and he witnesses to this. You know, of all the Apostles, even the one that took the Matthias, who took the place of Judas. He went to his own place. He was. He replaced him in Acts, one of all the 12 Apostles. Every one of them was martyred according to church history, except John. He's the only one that wasn't Martian.
Now these men, these men, gave their lives.
For a cause that they knew was true, they preached.
Christ died and he was buried and he rose again the 3rd day according to the scriptures.
They wouldn't have done that if it hadn't been true. You don't. You don't take sides with A cause. That means you are going to be martyred unless there is truth to it, and unless the one who is the risen one has given you a message to proclaim.
And that's exactly what we have here. He was seen of Cephas, who became the chiefest of the apostles. And then of the 12, they'd all denied him. They all forsook him and fled. It says they hadn't denied him like Peter had, but they were sick and fled. They all felt ashamed of themselves, and he appears to them.
To empower them with the message of going forward.
You get that in John 20 when the disciples are gathered together.
He shows them his hands in his side that isn't Christ. And he says, peace be unto you. And then he says again, peace be unto you. As my Father has sent me Even so send I you. And then he breathes into them the breath of his resurrection life, and says, receive to the Holy Ghost. They were to go forth now with the power of the Spirit of God, the Spirit of life in Christ, and the power of resurrection. They had seen the resurrected Christ.
And they are. They have communicated to them by the resurrected Christ His resurrection life, and Christianity goes forward in the power of that. So he appears to the 12:00 and after that he was seen of above 500 brethren, at once verse six, of whom the greater part remained under this present for summer fallen asleep, there is a a false cult. It has gained millions of adherence, and it was begun by a man.
Joseph Smith was his name.
And he saw some visions, so he says the Angel Moroni appeared to him. So he says he saw some gold plates. So he says, never been able to produce the plates. He's never been able to substantiate anything that he claimed. But there were several in collusion with him to voice this great deception upon men. And there are many that have believed the lie, and they follow the Mormon delusion to this day.
Here were 500 President Once you can get a few to get together, to come up with agreement, to to deceive and to manipulate the masses, that can, that can happen. But here were over 500 brethren at once now, and he appeared to them as the risen Christ. Impossible to get such a company to agree together, to become part of a great deception that would promote a false religion.
00:30:14
These are infallible proofs that he truly rose again and that he was seen alive after his passion.
And then it says in verse 7. After that he was seen of James. Now James was one of his brothers, I believe James the Lord's brother in John seven It says Neither did his brethren believe in him.
They didn't believe who he was. They did not have faith.
He was just the carpenter's son. He was just their brother. And after the resurrection, the Lord Jesus appears to James.
And.
And he becomes the leader in Jerusalem along with Peter, and makes great decisions. And he's very prominent. You read of him quite often in the book of Acts, Paul In chapter one of Galatians, he said when he went to Jerusalem he saw James the Lord's brother and Peter. And besides he saw none other of the apostles. So here the Lord appears to these two. Peter had denied him with oaths and curses. He appears to him to restore him and to empower him to go forth with the message of the resurrection.
He appears to the 12, all of whom had forsaken him and fled because he was going to use them. He appears to these 500 brethren at once impossible to delude such a company all at one time. And then he appeared to James.
And then of all the apostles. Now why does it mention the apostles a second time? It speaks of the 12 and now it speaks of all the apostles. Well, it could be that all the apostles embraced more than just the 12. And it also could be that since he was going to establish them and use them for the to be the center from which king.
Emanated the gospel message and the truth of Christianity that they were.
They were given.
An abundant testimony to his resurrection to that group he appeared twice in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. He appeared twice. For those who were to form the very crux and center and core of the Christian message, he appeared twice to confirm it. Remember when the dream was given to to the to the Baker, and in Joseph's case.
He said The thing is certain because the dream was repeated to us, to Pharaoh, wasn't he interpreted it.
Joseph said because this God has confirmed it, He it's it's it's a certainty. He has given it to you twice. And so this company was given evidence of the Lord's resurrection twice and then the last news.
Was the most unlikely of any of the witnesses to have come over unto the Lord's side to have become a Christian. It will solve Tarsus Saul of Tarsus, who spent all his religious energies to snuff out the hated, despised name of Jesus and his followers. He had letters from the chief priests to bind all that called upon the name of Jesus. Those who were of the way, he he was going to exterminate them.
From the Earth.
They wouldn't have taken all this trouble. All they'd have to have done is produced the the dead body of Jesus. So all they'd have to do Christianity was then destroyed. They couldn't do it because he's not here.
He says, last of all, he was seen of me also as a one born out of due time. He was a Jew that hated Christ with a vengeance, and he was converted by that light from heaven on the way to Damascus. Saul, Saul, I persecutest thou me Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus, whom thou persecutors. It is hard for me to kick against the ******. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
And he was 3 days and three nights without sight. And a revolution took place in that man's soul. That Pharisee of the Pharisees, that Hebrew of the Hebrews, that one who could say, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless, That one who was so confident that what he was doing was God's service. For the time would come when they did killeth. You, the Lord said, will think that they do God's service. Such was Saul of Tarsus. And then he met the Lord on the road to Damascus.
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And in one decision that he made all the doors that were opened to him, the doors of opportunity, the doors of worldly greatness, the doors of of religious elegance, and all that they chosen for he was their champion. He was their Goliath to snuff out this new movement, the sect of the Nazarenes, they called it Solitarsis. And now their champion falls.
At the feet there isn't Christ.
Last of all, he was seen of me as a one born out of due time. There was this Jew that got converted to Christ before the nation.
They will be born again in a day in the coming day, and then all Israel will be saved. And he was one born out of due time.
And what an apostle he became.
He calls himself I am the least of the apostles who will not need to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than they are. All the 12, all the other apostles, He labored more. Abundance is not I, though he is not I. But the grace of God, which was with me, He wouldn't take any credit to himself.
His life was such that he had he thoroughly confirmed himself for what he had done to those who were precious to the Lord Jesus.
What he had done now, he was willing to be nothing to be.
Despised and hated and ridiculed and persecuted and slandered and tackled upon, He was willing to be that Christ.
Because he had come to know the risen, glorifying Christ. All these doors of opportunity, the things he says in Philippians 3 that were gained to me, these I counted unaccounted praise, loss. Yay, doubtless I count all things to be lost for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them to be done, that I may win. Christ founded him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness, righteousness which is of God like faith.
To know Him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering.
If any way I may be conformed unto his death, he wanted to be so thoroughly identified with Christ even in death, that he could be.
He had persecuted the Church of God. Now he's converted the most unlikely man in all the world that would ever turn over and become a follower and an advocate of the cause of Christ if it wasn't real, if it wasn't true. He is risen, risen. Christ sights him down with a light brighter than the new day, sun and solid churches becomes the Apostle Paul.
Whether therefore it were I or they, so we preach, and so we believe, so we preach, And so he believed. What is it you believe? You believe that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried and that he rose together the third day according to the Scriptures. Your faith stands in that. You're saved by that.
Tell them, he says. Now verse 12. We come to the error now. Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
That was the error that he's dealing with. He's established by appealing to the evidence of history, all these infallible proofs and these witnesses, the most unlikely ones. One denied him three times. Another didn't believe in him. He was his, the Lord's own brother, the 12. They'd all forsaken him and fled. They felt ashamed of themselves. They formed the nucleus of this new religion, if I could put it that way.
Christianity.
And then saw the parses himself, the most unlikely one. It would have been impossible for those poor Galilean fishermen to do what bought him out.
It would have been impossible for any sum of money to have changed some of Tarsus. Only a glorified Christ could do it. He's the one that did it.
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Now Christ be preached that he rose from the dead. He'll say some among you, that there is no resurrection of the dead. But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? For he was dead. He was a truly dead man. He was buried. He was dead. He died. He died for our sins. True, but he died. No question about that. That's an indisputable fact of history. And he was put out of sight as a dead man.
And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain? And your faith is also vain. Everything is.
For nothing has no meaning to it. Your faith is vain. You believe the lie. You haven't believed the truth.
They palmed off a falsehood on you, a false religion, and you've fallen for it. You've believed it. If Christ isn't risen, everything collapses.
Why suffer for a cause? Why be identified with A cause where you're going to be martyred, you're going to be persecuted. You might be put on a rack. You might be thrown to the lions. You might be torn to shreds by wild beasts.
Widely identified with such a cause. If Christ isn't risen, it's not true. It's false.
But he is risen.
These are infallible proofs that our faith, beloved, rests upon the solid rock of the truth of Christ is risen.
He says in verse 14. Again, if Christ be not risen, then as our preaching vain and your faith is also vain, our preaching vain. I've given up all the advantages of Judaism.
I have the world of opportunity open before me, and I've chosen to preach this, this message which is just senseless and meaningless and has no, no substance to it. It's not true. It's vain. It's worthless. Christ is imprisoned.
Christ is not risen, our preaching is vain, and your faith is also the thing you believe the lie.
Haven't believed the truth.
You can see why the modernists and the various ones that hate the word of God and the Bible and the Lord Jesus, they want to do away with the resurrection. If they can't do away with the physical bodily resurrection of Christ, Luke 24 makes that soul abundantly clear as the risen Christ, he says to the disciples.
Handily, and see a spirit of not flesh and bones as you see me having. He was truly a risen man before them. He ate not in order to sustain his body, or he had to do that. He had a resurrected body. You don't need food to sustain that, But he ate to show that he was a true man in resurrection.
It wasn't a spiritual thing.
In the sense that it was a spirit that they saw an apparition just in an appearance of a spirit that would vanish no 40 days. He was a risen man on earth, and all these witnesses are brought forward, the most unlikely ones.
And then he goes on to say in verse 15, yeah, and we are found also false witnesses of God.
Because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ when he raised not up there. So be that the dead rise not. We falsely represented God. Our preaching has been that God raised him from the dead and now we've falsified that's not true, that Christ isn't risen.
Where if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. Notice the two are so tied together. You can't have you can't believe in the resurrection of Christ and not believe in the resurrection of the Saints because he's the first fruits afterward. They were the price of his coming. A farmer goes out into his field and picks the stock. In the fall he brings it in and shows his wife and he says, here's a sample of the harvest that we're going to get this year.
And that's just the pledge of all the other stocks that are out there. Christ is the first fruits. We are those that are His and His coming. It also proves the the the coming of Christ. We get to that later in the chapter.
Resurrection involves all these truths, all these truths and his reaction, His resurrection in ours are so tied together and linked together that if the dead don't rise, neither did he rise. And if he didn't rise, the gospel is false. Their preaching is vain, their faith is vain. We falsely represented God.
00:45:00
Said, if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised by 17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain here, yet in your sins. And then he says another thing, then they also which are fall asleep in Christ or perish. Those who have played their lives down and martyred him for Christ. They perished. They were they believed a lie, they believed a false thing. They they died for the wrong thing, no substance to it. Christ isn't risen. It's it's nothing. Christianity is meaningless.
That's what Paul is saying.
And they also, with your fall asleep in Christ, are perish. They lost.
Says in verse 17, if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, you're yet in your sins. Our sins aren't broken.
Everything has been forfeited.
Then in verse 19 he says if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are all men most.
Miserable. There aren't any of us. I don't believe in this room that could say that. Certainly not the speaker.
I don't have the kind of life that the apostle Paul had, the kind of life that he had. But later on in this chapter he says in verse 30, Why stand we in jeopardy everywhere? We don't know what that is. We don't know what it is if we're visiting in a home. Last night we were visiting, and if someone had come to the door and knocked on the front door, we wouldn't have stiffened.
We wouldn't have been filled with fear unless someone would walk in the the authorities and apprehend one of us and drive us off to prison. Well, that's the kind of a life that Paul lived. He was in jeopardy every hour. We don't know what that is. There are those in Europe during the last war that no September.
For their faith in Christ, they never knew when there'd be that knock on the door and the troops would come and take away the head of the family and the mother, the father, the children, take them all off and they never see them again. We don't know what that is. We don't know what it is to have suffered the loss of all things. I haven't suffered the loss of all things. I have a family. I have those that love me and my brother, and so on.
But he suffered the loss. Of all things he could say in Second Timothy, one all would be in Asia have turned away from me. That's the hardest thing to bear when you'd rather turn away from you. Those with whom he had labored, labored so faithfully while he he says, If if all I had is hope in Christ, now I am of all men in the most miserable, because all I'm getting now is persecution and slander and tribulation and distress.
And.
Jeopardy.
Have we suffered the loss of all things? There were some Christians in those early days that were in that position. We know very little of it in this land. There are some today in other parts of the world that can relate to this. So he says that in this life only we have hope in Christ. We are all men, most miserable. Why should I go through all this? Why should I have been? I've given up all that I had in Judaism for a lost cause if Christ is enraged.
Everything is meaningless, senseless.
Unless there's something beyond, unless the reality beyond is so infinitely better, so much greater, so much more wondrous than any suffering that we have here as he could say, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us.
Our light affliction I read through the catalogue of all of Paul's sufferings, all his sufferings persecuted, abandoned the night and the day. I spent in the deep in parallels of rivers, in perils of waters, and perils among my own countrymen, in perils of the heathen, in perils among false brethren. And he goes on and on and on and on, names on And then he says, our light affliction. Oh no, it's not light.
It's enormous. It's more than a human conveyor, but he says our light affliction.
It's working for us, just for a moment.
Just for a moment, he says, works for us in surpassing measures and light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal ways of glory.
While we look not at the things that are seen, but the things that are not seen. He had been there in the 3rd heaven.
He had seen those things. He had seen the risen, glorified Christ. He had talked with him. He knew him personally.
00:50:08
And he was willing to give everything up down here that he might have Christ, and he lived in the future. And if I could say that faith is the substantiating of things hoped for. He lived in the realization in his soul of all the reality of the future that God has prepared for those among the earth that wouldn't be possible without the resurrection. It's all, it all is dependent upon this wondrous truth. So he says.
In this life only I have we have hope. In Christ, we have all men most this report.
Now I'm going to script verses 20 through 28 because they are of parentheses and to get the continuity of thought we'll read verse 29. I'll again read verse 19 and then read verse 29, because verses 20 through 28 are a parentheses. So to get the train of thought, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are evolved and most miserable else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all.
Why do are we then baptized for the dead, and why stand we in jeopardy every hour? Why should I become baptized and identified with the name of Jesus that he's not risen?
Here was one who has died for the cause of Christ. He's gone on, he's been martyred, he's been persecuted, and he's left this scene. He's left the ranks. And now I'm identified with Christ and baptized in place of that one who has gone on and fill up the ranks, identify with that company that has nothing but persecution and hatred and rejection here, if that's the lot of those that are baptized.
To the death of Christ, and in place of those that have gone on in martyrdom.
Why do that if there is no resurrection?
Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead? If the dead rise not at all, why are they then baptized for the dead? Why be identified with a dead and risen Christ and the subject then to all the persecution and trouble and tribulation that comes upon Christians as it did in those days? If there's no resurrection, why replace those that have gone on by being identified as baptism with that despised name, if there's nothing beyond?
Don't rise. It's a lost cause, he says. Why stand we in jeopardy every hour? Why do I subject myself to the kind of treatment that I get every hour? He says. I protest. By your rejoicing or by my boasting of you, which I have in Christ Jesus. I die daily. They were his boasts. They were the ones that he was living for. They're the ones that he was willing to, to go through all this rejection and hatred and persecution. He died daily.
Death was his portion, he said. I'm willing to do that because you're my folks, and I'm doing it for you and the Saints there at court and elsewhere. If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts and Ephesus, these weren't true beasts, these were men that ravaged on him and and and gnashed upon him, as it were, with their teeth, just like beasts, he said. If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage it did me if the dead rise not?
What is he? And drink for Tomorrow We Die. That's the philosophy that pervades today.
Among those that don't believe in the resurrection, they don't believe in a life beyond. They believe you go 6 feet under it and that's it. That's the end of it. If that's the case, let us even drink, for tomorrow we die. You might as well live for now because there is no future for for man. But that's not Christian thing. Young people live for him because what is beyond this scene, all the the pleasures and the enticements of sin that this world has to offer to you.
Is worth a straw. Isn't worth a straw. Look for him, no matter what that brings upon you. Persecution, Rejection, suffering. That doesn't matter. You're living for eternity. You're living for the risen, glorified Christ and the power of his resurrection.
And that's what he's bringing before. So after he says let us eat and drink tomorrow we die. That's the statement of unbelief, he says Be not deceived, evil communications, corrupt good manners, those that talk that way, they are corrupt in their walk.
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And then he says a way to righteousness.
And sin not.
To live like the world lives as though all we have is now.
Is a life of sin, a life of self indulgence and a life of pleasure for self. For some have not the knowledge of God, some are ignorant of God, They don't know him at all. Those who don't have the knowledge of God, they live for now.
They don't live for eternity.
Christian lives for eternity. Paul lives for eternity. He lived for the risen, glorified Christ.
I speak this, he says to your shape.
In your shape he has to rebuke them. Earlier in this epistle he says, you've reigned as kings without us, and I would to God you Ray, you did reign, but we also might reign with you. They were living prosperously down here when the apostles were counted, the off scouring of the world, the refuse of all. Until now the apostles were despised and hated and rejected, especially Poland.
And what made him do this? What was the power that enabled him to go through all the tribulation and suffering and trials that he went through? It was the power of resurrection.
Power of the resurrection of Christ. That's what enabled him.
To do it how he was unable to do it. I see the hours up. I would like to go through the parentheses and finish the chapter. Maybe we can do that tonight.
Let's close by singing number.
94.
The Lord is risen indeed.
And all his work performed, The captive surety now is freed in death our foe disarmed. 94 Someone raised that tomb, please.
More Than Conquerors
Address—Dn. Spence
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Four of the appendix give me the vectors. Name who father fight alone triumphant Saints no honor claim his contest was their own #4 in the appendix. And someone please start.
We have been talking to the young people about a subject that I call. I put put it under the title of Kingdoms at War.
We've been talking about two kingdoms that were opposed to each other, the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of Darkness.
And we've been talking about two other kingdoms opposed to each other, the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of the Devil.
We're not going to go back into that again today, but it's it's been a subject that's been interesting to me and we've covered some of the.
Some of the theories behind it, some of the verses, some of what the Kingdom of heaven really is. And if you would like to know a little bit more about the Kingdom of heaven, well ask our young people because they know quite a bit about this now.
Today we yesterday we talked about the armor of God that will help all of us in the battle that we're fighting. We talked about the tremendous battle that's going on in the heavenlies of which we have become a part. And we talked about the armor that was so necessary. Today, the subject of my talk is what I call.
More than conquerors.
And we're going to look at 3 chapters in the book of Romans.
6-7 and eight. And we have about 35 minutes to do this. We're just going to take selected portions from each of those chapters and we are going to just kind of give a little thought from each one of the chapters, because in these three chapters we see a tremendous struggle going on. But before that struggle, we see some principles laid down in the work of the privacy that gives us victory over the struggle.
And then?
In Chapter 3, we'll look at the power that is ours, and we're going to talk some about the eternal purpose of God in our lives and the glory that's beginning to shine into our hearts and that is there as a gulf of our lives.
00:05:02
So we'll start off with Chapter 6.
And.
Verse 3.
Knowing not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death, therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that life as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, Even so we also should walk in the news of life. Or if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be also in the likeness of his resurrection.
Knowing this.
Notice is that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin, for he that is dead is freed from sin. Sorry that were to stop reading in this chapter because it is so good, but we're going to talk a little bit about some of the fundamental of our.
Salvation in the work that was accomplished with trust.
Now I have felt the need of this, of the book of Romans in my life. It's interesting how you kind of get through life without ever getting the fundamentals sometimes of salvation. And Romans has it. And we've been working on a series of tape ministries on the book of Romans that will be available soon. And these are done by a person that some of you know my brother John and he's been going over it with.
The young Mary's out in Southern California.
And this will be available through Maurice Smith and.
It helps us get a foundation for the whole work of Christ.
In this chapter we find that we have the the word or the words old man and notice that in verse 6, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him. Now I don't know that I could even explain this, but I'm going to try to explain it to you a little bit. The old man.
At any time that you find the old man mentioned in the Bible.
In the New Testament.
It is a it is a person that has been taken care of, has died, has been crucified. Anytime you find that and you'll, you'll find it in several different books. I think there's three mentions of it in the New Testament. But each time, if you, if you look in the proper, in the right translation, every time it's in the past tense. It's dead. It's something crucified. It's something gone.
Now.
Anytime you find the flesh mentioned in the Bible, you will find that it is something alive. It is something active. It is something that you and I need to put to death. You find that.
From the book of Colossians, maybe we could just turn over there momentarily.
The Colossians Chapter 3.
Notice in verse 9.
Light one to another scene that he had put off.
Put on the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new men, which is renewed in the knowledge, in the knowledge, in knowledge, after the image of him that created him. But notice first five mortify or foot to death. Therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil, concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatrous, notice the difference.
The old man is good up.
But the members of that old nature, that fleshly nature.
Or that which you must appreciate.
You must put to death.
I don't, I hope we aren't over anybody's head here. But here's here's the way I would explain it to young people. Here is a plan for a tree, let's say, that is, that is growing And this tree, you know, has a tremendous root system. They say that there's as much as of the tree below the surface as there is above the surface. So this root system is going all over under the ground.
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And I have likened this tree, for lack of a better illustration, to that which is below the surface is as the old man, and that which is above the surface as the flesh.
And you see what?
Romans is talking about Romans chapter 6. Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him.
At this part of that whole structure, that which is below the surface, that which is unseen, that which is at the root of it all, is something that God calls the old man. And this whole, this whole area, the old man, is something that was crucified.
It was cancelled out at the cross, whereas there is still that which is above the surface that comes out in our thoughts, that comes out in our lives, it comes out in our nature, and that is what you and I must deal with. That is the flesh that that we must.
Put to death. OK, so in in this chapter we find that we have we have an old man. And this old man at one time before the cross, he was in charge, and we were under the ******* of this old man, and he dominated our lives. He made slaves out of us. He caused us to sin, and it was impossible for us to break that tremendous *******. There was no there was no human power that was.
Large enough.
To break the domination of that old man who traveled along through life. And so the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross. And when he went to Calvary's hill, there he died upon the cross. And not only was he nailed to the cross that day, but our old man, our old man was also nailed to the cross. And that's where we got rid of the old man. The old man in our lives is no longer.
A factor.
He's no longer there. That which is at the root of it all is gone. He is dead.
He has been crucified at the cross. Our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed, and henceforth we should not serve sin. So you see, you and I who have come to know Christ as our Savior, we have been washed in the precious blood of Christ.
Have had this old man canceled out, and we are no longer that. We should no longer serve sin.
That's something that the world knows nothing about. But you and I do recognize that we do know that not only was this old man crucified, but God does a thorough job when he doesn't work. This old man is now buried and there is a grave, and we'll put.
The old man's grave, there he is buried and gone forever. He is never going to be resurrected. He's going to be left in that grave. And you and I have a part of us that has gone crucified, dead, buried that will never be dug up, will never be resurrected.
And it is that. It is that old man that's so dominated man.
So there has been, there has been in in. As we look back at the cross, there has been something that that has been accomplished besides our sins and that has to do with that old man. He's dead bear it gone forever. And so the new man now is in control of our lives and we have a new man that can walk in.
In perfect harmony, in perfect fellowship, in perfect communion with our righteous and holy God, in that wonderful I I I can't think of anything so exciting as that, anything that ought to thrill our souls. To think that I can walk every day of my life in communion with the God who died for me on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ, and I can walk in freedom from the power of domination of sin.
I could not do that before.
Now that has been accomplished, that the cross may show in my outline that we've had the execution, we've had the burial. But in in this all we have also been resurrected. We have been like it says in verse 5. If we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. And herein lies the victory of our Christian lives.
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You know, we've talked about being called into a Kingdom, the Kingdom of heaven.
We've been talked, we've talked about the testimony that that Kingdom should present and some of our young people are interested in preaching the gospel and we want to encourage that because that's a part of the Kingdom of heaven and.
I.
Here we find in these verses that.
The We have not only been buried, but we have been raised.
And that is where the victory really comes. I remember Chapter Brown, and you remember this too, that he often gave the illustration, and I think this is almost verbatim. He would say Now you go down Windy Moon and you, you go down to the slum section. You go down to the Skid Row section of Des Moines and you see a man there who is under the power, the influence of alcohol. And you see this man week after week, stumbling into a bar, playing there on the street corner under the influence of alcohol.
And one time you come along and you find that this man is gone. Say, where did he go? Well, he died this past weeks. Where is he? He's over in the Moor and you go over to the morgue and you see his body laying in the casket and you come up to him and you tap him and there's no response. You open up a can of alcohol and you had to put it in front of his face. No response.
Why? Because he has died to sin. He is dead to sin. And you know, therein lies the victory in our lives when we recognize that we have been crucified with Christ, as Paul said to the Galatians. Nevertheless, we live. Yet not I but Christ liveth in me. That is at resurrection. Life liveth in me, and the life which I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
That is the.
Principles are the foundation of victory in this battle that we face.
In our lives.
OK.
Now that we've kind of got a little bit of the fundamentals, let's go over to Chapter 7.
And.
We'll kind of move in on the Apostle Paul here.
In verse 14, where we know that the law is spiritual, but I am the carnal soul to understand. Now notice the struggle that is going on for that which I do, I allow not for what I would that do I not, but what I hate that I do.
If then I do that which I would not, I consent under the law that it is good.
You see, what he's saying is if I do, do the things I don't want to do.
I'm agreeing with the fact that the law was right. I have something in me, a conscience that is agreeing with the law. That's what he's saying.
OK, verse 17. Now then it is no more I that do it but sin that dwells in me, says you see I I'm going to go to the root of this problem. It is a sinful nature that is dwelling in me that that is dominating.
For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing takes a long time to learn that, doesn't it? Young people and brother? It takes a long time to learn that in me, that is in my flesh draws nothing good. Sometimes we have to go through life, and we have to go through some experiences and find out that we were under the domination of the flesh when we did that.
And we we have gone out, and we have done things for the Lord sometimes in the flesh.
We have had to learn that in the flesh dwelleth know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me. But how to perform that which is good? I find that for the good that I would I would I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do now if I do that I would not. It is no more I that do it, but sin.
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It will attend me.
And so notice what we've got here is a struggle, A tremendous struggle going back and forth.
My brother Lowell described this yesterday as the the old and new nature struggling against each other. It's kind of like.
A couple of dogs inside of us. It's kind of like an old lion inside of it. So, you know, you take a lion and you take this lion and you put them in a cage and then you decide to starve him to death. Well, what is going to happen to him? He's going to cause a lot of difficulty.
He's going to raise a protest.
He's not going to give up easy and you know, if you if you go out into the jungles.
The dangerous, the dangerous areas are places where lions have are starving because they will attack without any fear. They will attack without fear. And when you, you and I begin to starve that old nature you, you begin to take away that which it has been feeding on. What happens? Why we find that there's a protest that is raised, but he's not going to give up easy. There's going to be a struggle.
Yesterday out of the picnic at the street.
We had a tug of war and one side with full aways and then the other side would rally and they would pull them back and it's that kind of tug of war that is going on within our soul we we had.
We had a picture of the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of God that dominates that new nature.
And the Cape, the old nature being dominated by the devil. And that kind of struggle goes on within us.
And if you don't have a struggle going on inside of you, then there's something wrong.
Because here is the apostle Paul that describes this struggle. The great apostle Paul, did he have a struggle? Yes, he had a struggle. The things that he wanted to do, he could not do. There were times when he set out to do things. There were, there were things that he wanted to do for the Lord. And somewhere along the line that old nature took over. It dominated his life and he did the very things he did not want to do. And you and I have found this, haven't we?
We have found that even in the past few weeks that there have been times when that old nature.
Took over it, pulled us over, tugged us over on the other side and we fell into scent. Said things that we shouldn't have looked at, things that we shouldn't have thought about, things that we shouldn't have, things like that. Where the the struggle was going on, we lost. If there is no struggle going on, then we're probably not safe. It's got to be a struggle going on. It's possible that that a Christian can become so starved.
So spiritually starved that he is fainted and he appears to be as an unsafe person. That's possible.
But in general, there's a struggle going on. You want to go to the meetings.
And then something comes in. You want to read your Bible? We've had a lot of encouragement in these meetings to pray.
And you know that you should get down on your knees and craving for the day starts.
Somehow there's a struggle. There's things that come up.
There's a telephone call, this school work that needs to be done and this struggle goes on. And you, you keep putting that off until it's too late. You know that you should do that and yet you don't do it. And I know that too. And I lose. Paul was going through that tremendous struggle.
With, as I put on the outline, sin controlling the world, attracting the body, yielding to it.
It's a struggle that goes on every day of our life.
And you and I have a responsibility in this struggle to judge ourselves.
We have a responsibility. How are we going to win this battle? Well, as we go down here in verse 24.
Notice that Paul comes to this point, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Think of that. Here is the great apostle Paul struggling with these things.
And finally, he asked himself the question, who will deliver me? How am I going to get the victories?
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And he says I'm going to get it through surrender.
I'm going to get it by surrendering totally 100% to the Lord Jesus Christ who shall deliver me from the body of death. And there's the answer. See, when he gets to the point of surrender, he just looks up. And there is the Lord Jesus Christ in resurrection glory on that the other side of the grave, where no sin can touch him, where no evil can touch him, where no human hands can ever once again hurt him.
He sits there in the presence of God, at the right hand of God, that place of power. And Paul looks up and he says there is my answer.
That is all that Christianity has to do to to to tell you as you go through this struggle that you surrender. And I surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ and say I can't do it myself, but there is a man up there in the glory that can do that for me.
And that is Christ.
OK, now we're going to go over to Chapter 8.
In chapter six, we had the principles of the victory that has been won for us. In Chapter 7, we're talking about the practice, the struggle that's going on, and in Chapter 8 we have the power of that new life.
Now, someone has said if you have an outline from young people, probably have an outline, you have an outline. I say Chapter 8 begins with no condemnation. Notice that there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Now, the rest of that verse should not be there, but should end up down in verse four. That's a mistranslation. In other words, that the fact that there's no condemnation is not dependent on my walk. It's not dependent. That's a mistranslation.
But chapter 8 begins with no condemnation and likely to correct your outline. Chapter 8 ends with no separation. You notice that the end of it spelled false persuasion. I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
I've said this before, and I'm going to say it again, we have we have a guarantee on our eternal leg.
We have a guarantee that can never fail. I've given this illustration before. Perhaps you've heard it. You go down and buy something and you get a guarantee on it. And that guarantee lasts as long as that company lasts. I bought a battery in Southern California. I bought this battery and I put it in my car and after I had it about six months, it failed. So I took it back to the people that I had bought it from and I said.
Your battery failed. And here's my receipt and here's my guarantee. It was a one year unconditional.
Guaranteed said if the battery fails within that year it will be replaced free of charge. They check the battery and it had a bad cell in it. They looked at the guarantee and they said but I'm sorry that we no longer have this guarantee.
We've changed the guarantee and I said but you can't change a guarantee. A guarantee is a guarantee and it's good as long as the company lasts.
If you can change the guarantee that it has no value and they said I'm sorry but we don't agree.
And I said, well, let me talk to your manager. Manager comes out and I explained to him what has happened and he says he's right, you're wrong. Give him a new battery. You see, they guarantee lasts as long as the company lasts, if they've guaranteed something for life.
Then it's good for life. I have a hose that I bought from Sears and I bought it. Had to pay a little bit more for it because it had a lifetime guarantee on it. Anytime it fails, take it back to Sears. As long as I live, as long as Sears last, they will replace that post. Here is a guarantee that is forever.
False persuasion. And he looks at all the possibilities. He says that we will never be separated from God.
From the Lord Jesus, we will never be separated in death or in life. He looks at the worst possible thing that could happen, and he says that won't separate you. There's no purgatory to go through. You're not going to be separated from God and death or in life. Nothing can happen through the broad expanse of life, nor angels, nor principalities. All those powers that we were talking about yesterday, the powers of darkness that want to take us into spiritual ruin. There's not one of them.
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That can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Nor things present nothing today, nor things to come. Look out through life and you don't know what's going to happen. We don't know of the disaster, the trials. That may be false. We don't. We don't know what's going to happen. But one thing that we know is that no matter what happens, we cannot be separated from that love nor height. It's like Paul good, he says, I I, I don't know where else to go, but I'm going to go out to the edge here.
And I'm going to look straight up, infinitely high. I'm going to look straight down, infinitely low. I'm going to cover every creature, angels, men, anybody. And he said there is nothing he's got, he's got it all covered that can separate us from the love of God, which is in prejudice. So this chapter starts with no condemnation, and it ends with no, no separation and in between here.
What we have is no defeat for the Christian, nor defeat.
Like to just look at a few verses and just cover a few points here in chapter 8 verse 2. For the love the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak to the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.
And for sin condemned sin in the flesh.
The death on Calvary's cross freeze me, sets me free from sins. Principle of condemnation.
As people go through life, pair of people right in this community you do not know about salvation. They've never been born again. They're not members of the Kingdom of God. And those people are under the condemnation of sin. They're under the condemnation of sin. But when I come to know Christ as my Savior, it frees me from that, and there is no condemnation whatsoever.
Now notice verse 11.
But at the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth dwell in you. He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken make alive your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are dead, It's not to be the flesh to live after the flesh, and so on. Well, let's read verse 13. For if we live after the flesh he shall die, but if he lives, if he through the Spirit be mortified the deeds of the body, he shall live.
So here's what God has done for us. The Holy Spirit has come to indwell us. He's come to live in. And in a sense you might say we have two persons of the Godhead within us. Because there was verse 10 that if Christ be in you.
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin. Notice the last part of verse 9. Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he's none of his. So we are indwelt by the Lord Jesus Christ and his spirit that that is the tremendous privilege, a tremendous plus in the Christian life, and got in the same spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead, shall also quicken our mortal bodies. We're we're based out in newness of life like we had in this little.
Illustration here.
To walk with him. In that newness of life, the Holy Spirit has come to take over, and he's begun a good work in us, and he's going to finish it, and he's come to indwell us. That third person of the Godhead, that infinite God is dwelling within our hearts and within our life. If that doesn't make a difference, I say nothing will think of that as you walk around, as you go to school, as you go through life. The third person of the Godhead dwells within you.
Knowing Spirit and the purpose of that Holy Spirit is to unite you to Christ.
To unite us together in one body as Christians, and to give us.
That quickening, that newness of life and power in our lives. And so that's why he says that if we live after the flesh, we're going to die. But if we live after the spirit, we will mortify the deeds of the body and we will live. So the effect of that spirit is to cause us to judge ourselves, and that judging of ourselves brings that light out into the open.
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OK, the third thing that I want to look at is in verse 18.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that which shall be revealed in US. I just want to stop and talk a little bit about this.
About this verse, here is the Christian.
And.
All of you who have an outline have an outline. Something like this. Here is the Holy Spirit and the New.
Man. And here's the Christian walking through life and he has a He's on an upward pathway that is headed for future.
Glory.
And that need to think about that we are in a path where the senator glory. But you say I'm suffering. I'm going through some trials. Nobody knows what I've been through.
I'm suffering at this time. I've got a certain sickness. I'm having difficulty with school. I have certain physical problems. I've had an accident with my car I've had. I've lost some friends, maybe there's a girlfriend or a boyfriend who has turned me down. And it seems like the trials that we go through are the worst possible kinds of tribes, doesn't it seems like if we could choose some trials to go through, we would not choose the ones that we're going through.
We would pick the trails that somebody else is going through, but God is using these trials in our lives in a very special way.
You know, if you would, you would take a little prism. You can buy them in stores. And you take this prism and you look at it and you find that it has been ground with certain facets all the way around. And you take this prison and you hold it up to a light. In fact, I should have brought one to hold it up to this. If I held it up to this light, what would happen is as this light traveled through the prism, the prism would break it down into different colors.
Like the colors of the rainbow. And maybe you've seen some of those hanging in windows as the sun comes up in the morning and shines in. There are little different colors that dart around the room. It's it's very intriguing and very interesting.
And I believe that what is happening in our lives here is that.
That through the sufferings of this present time, that God is grinding in our souls, a facet that is someday going to display the glory of Christ in a very special way. You know, if every if every diamond ring were the same, if every prison were the same, so that they all hung up in in in the light, and they all displayed this colors in a certain fashion.
Well, that would be nice, but to think that God in in glory, in that glory to come, every one of us as we are held up to the glory, that sunshine and glory there in the presence of God the Lord Jesus Christ as he shines into our souls in that coming heaven. And each one of us are going to display the glory of Christ in a little different way because of the facets that have been ground into our souls through trial.
Yeah, interesting. I think it's so neat. Here, here, here. You and I are on the way to glory and what happens? There are clouds on the way, and these clouds are causing rain to fall into our lives. But oh, the blessing that is going to come out of it. And we are being fashioned and molded into that same image.
That's I'll just read it. You don't need to turn to it.
One of my favorite verses, 2nd Corinthians 318 But we all with open face, beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord, and as I believe that.
The looking glasses of those days were much inferior to what we have today. Sometimes they were a piece of metal or a piece of glass, and they they somewhat distorted the view. Nevertheless, they were a looking glass.
00:40:13
And I believe that what the Apostle Paul is talking about in the 2nd Corinthians 3 is being brought face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ in his word. You know, maybe you know that as a couple gets married.
Notice a couple? They often look different when they get married, but you look at some 50 years later.
50 years later and what do they look like? They look alike.
Notice that because they have sat across the table from each other and viewed each other every day. And so oftentimes you know these little minds that we don't like to get called wrinkles. They have. Why the wrinkles are the same in each one of them because they have feud each other at a very close, from a very close vantage point. And so it is when we take this book, the word of God, and we open it up and from it we see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and see his face in this book.
We are changed. We are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. That is it. It is an ever upward path of glory. It is ever upward. We are changed from glory to glory. In this chapter they have been talking about Paul has been talking about Moses. And Moses went up in the mountain to get the law and when he spoke with God.
And the law was written down. He brought those tables of stone down. And what happened? His face shone. His face shone so much it was so bright that they they could not behold his face. And they covered it with a veil, and that that glory.
That shone on his face was a fading blurry. As time went on, it faded from their views. Moses did not go through the rest of his life with a sack over his face because the glory faded. But with you and I as we behold the glory of the Lord from his Word, and we walk in communion with him, it is an ever increasing glory, so that other people should look at you and say that person has something different. Remember we were talking about the Kingdom of God.
And now that the effect of the Kingdom of God is to produce, it is to to produce a moral effect in this world of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
That is something that ought to radiate from our life, so that other people look at us and say they've got something that I that I that I want, that I need.
I believe that we need that. We need that kind of thing, that glory that will show from our cases. So there there is the pathway, theoretically, the Christian. Now let's go back to, I'll go back to Romans chapter 8 and verse 28.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are called the called according to His purpose, for whom he did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among the many brethren. Oh, beloved brethren, I I look at this verse, and these verses are beyond my comprehension.
To think that God in that past, in eternity, look down through this very day, and He wrote her names down. He chose us out. He foreknew us. He knew all about us, and He did. The ones that He foreknew, he predestinated. What did He predestinate? Predestinate them for? To be conformed to the image of his Son, To be conformed. And you know, this is where we find a lot of victory in our lives, to accept every circumstance in our lives from the Lord.
Everything, you know, that little track that used to see around called disappointments, are his appointments. And we don't understand certain things. We don't know why certain things have happened in our lives. But one thing that we know is that we know that all things work together for good to them that love God who are the called according to his purpose. And I have no doubt in my mind that the devil is just like in the days of Joe going into the presence of God.
To bring us into trouble and trial, I have no doubt about that. But if we accept everything from his saying, I know that that's for my good, then the devil goes down to defeat. I believe that right right in that verse is one of the formulas, the main formulas in our lives for victory no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in. And so I've got on my little sheet there something like this that says.
00:45:29
Sins with sins.
Penalty.
Sins. Power.
In sins presence.
All these things once stood against us. The cross is canceled out, the penalty of our sins.
Cancel it out.
In his broken the power of our sins.
Completely broken. Broken it by burying and burying the old man. And then someday we are going to be set free from the presence of sin altogether. That's going to be cancelled when you're coming in.
Say that here we've been talking about kingdoms at war and.
How to get to victory and I think we've.
We've talked about it today and we need to go out there into this world that we live with confidence and in community with the Lord Jesus Christ. We've got a job to do, we've got a testimony to give and he has called you and I for some reason, out of all of the peoples in this community.
To bear that testimony, to produce that effect, To walk with Christ.
And to do it not in defeat, but to do it in victory over sin, it's going to require that you and I get into the presence of God on a daily.
Moment by moment, basis in the judge that which is not. In other words, we take that we take, we take that tree of the flesh, and we put it into the same grave where the old man lays, and that that's there in his victory, take that flesh, put it in the place of death.
And you will find then it has no effect. OK.
Bauer has he.
The Presence of the Lord
Address—R. Reeves
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.
241 Savior through the desert, lead us.
Without thee.
We have 241.
Hear us.
I have a number of pictures that.
I'd like to share with you this afternoon.
And the subject that I have at my heart to share is.
The presence of the Lord Jesus.
Projects of the Lord Jesus.
Now the person Scripture.
You will notice is in John's Gospel, chapter one.
John's Gospel, Chapter One.
And verse one.
John 11 In the beginning was the word.
And the Word was with God.
And the word was fraud.
The same was in the beginning with.
God, we're introduced here to a glorious person who's called the Word.
And we learned later in this chapter that.
The Word became flesh.
From the Lord Jesus came into this world and became a man. The work became flesh.
But in these two verses that we read, we find that he is a divine person.
00:05:05
And it says the Word was with God.
God with God.
What did they do together?
God with God.
Was there a fellowship of those divine members of the Trinity?
Was there a fellowship with Lincoln?
Yes, there was. When did it begin? It had no beginning.
Now turn with me to Proverbs chapter.
Pages.
And this will give us a little insight into this fellowship between the members of the Trinity.
God and God, God with God.
What did they talk about?
So did they think about it?
What did they plan?
Now in the book of Proverbs we have a.
Presentation in a way that we don't find it anyplace else in the Bible.
Of the thoughts of the Lord Jesus Christ as the eternal word.
And as a divine person.
Prior to his coming into this world.
Is the book of Proverbs chapter 8 we have him.
Presented as wisdom.
Let's begin reading from verse 23.
Hello verse 22, Roberts 822 The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting from the beginning, or ever fear it was.
I never know that I was brought to it and there were no problems about him with water before the mountains were settled, Before the hills was hydrocortis.
As well as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the rest of the world.
When he propelled the heavens, I was there.
When he set a compass for a circle form the face of the dead.
When he established the clouds above.
When he strengthened apartments of the deep.
When he gave to the sea his decree that the waters should not pass his commandment.
When he appointed the foundations of the earth.
Then I was by him.
As one brought up with them.
Standby with daily his tonight.
Rejoicing always before him.
Rejoicing in the Habitable Department Reserve.
And my delights go with the sons of men. So here, beloved brethren, we see.
The Lord Jesus Christ as the eternal word.
A member of the Divine Trinity.
Portrayed as wisdom.
But God with God prior to the beginning of this world.
And we find what he's thinking about.
We find that what the fellowship was between the two.
In this sense, it says I will deal with his delight.
The Lord Jesus Christ as the Eternal Word, as the Eternal Son.
Was daily the delight of his father.
Even in eternity past He brought delight to his Father's heart. I was daily his delight.
Rejoicing always before them.
And it says my delights were with the sons of men though the thoughts of the future.
And the plans for the world?
And thoughts about you and me.
We're in his heart at this time, so the presence of the Lord Jesus with his Father.
Had as one of its.
One of its characteristics that they planned together, they fought together, and they looked into the future to the time when you and I would live along with many others and that.
00:10:18
Intelligent creatures like we have been made by the head of God should be brought into a fellowship.
With God through the action of the Lord Jesus.
So his presence.
Was there to delight the father, and he looked forward to the time when he could share his presence with you.
Now go back to John's gospel.
Chapter one again.
And we're going to see something that's really wonderful.
We've already spoken of the fact that the Lord Jesus became a man.
He did not leave his position as.
The son because of what he became.
He was always there, and he always will be there, but he did become a man.
But.
He really never left the bootable spot.
Though he came to earth, yet he never left the bosom of his father. How can that be?
But it can only happen when you're talking about God. So in John's Gospel, chapter one.
In verse 18 it says no man hath seen God at anytime.
The only begotten son which is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared them so.
The amazing thing is that though the Lord Jesus became a man.
And though as a man he lived on the earth, yet in the essential.
Godhead being of his nature, he never left the belief of the Father.
All you say, Brother Rod, do you mean he was on heaven or he was in heaven and on earth at the same time? Yes, that's what I mean.
It can only get true of God. He was in heaven and on earth at the same time. You see, that's one of the characteristics of God, that he could be everywhere.
At the same time, and so the Lord Jesus said, you only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, so he never left his Father's heart even when he came to it.
I think what's Windows?
Now turn to John Three, we see a confirmation of that.
John 3 verse 13.
Says no man hath ascended up to heaven, that he that came down from heaven.
Even the son of man, which is intent.
And it doesn't say even the Son of Man, which was man, he says. Even the Southern Language is in heaven.
So the Lord Jesus could be in heaven and on earth at the same time. How can that be?
It can only be.
Because he is God.
And they never left the heart of his father. And he says in verse 13 of the third chapter, though he spoke these words on earth, he said, I'm still in there. I'm still there. Summer land, which is.
Well, now let's go to Exodus Chapter 25.
And see some words that are familiar to us, but yet most precious to us.
Because there's the desire of God.
To dwell with man.
Lexus was 25.
And verse 8.
These are instructions which were given to Moses.
Considering concerning the building of a tent in which God could well.
He says, let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. So God wanted a dwelling place among his people.
And he gave instructions as to how to build this special tent. You see the word tent and Tabernacle.
00:15:01
Are the same word.
Said, Let them make me a sanctuary, that I made well among them. It was the desire of the Lord to dwell among his people, even in the days of the Old Testament, that I may dwell among them.
God likes us. He loves us. He wants to dwell with us.
That I may dwell upon it enough. Go back to John again. Why? It's amazing how many times we're going to go back to John. Why? Because in John's Gospel we see the revelations of the truth that God has become a man in the person of Christ. Look back to John again.
At the moment we're talking about God tinting among his people for tabernacles.
John 11 John Chapter one.
First verse.
14 It says the word was made plain.
Beloved brother. That's a most striking statement, and in the original language where it says was made.
That's the word for Tabernacle. The word Tabernacle.
Just as God erected in the wilderness among his ancient people, the Jews erected a Tabernacle then.
In a more wonderful way, the Lord Jesus was a Tabernacle.
In his own person while he was on earth, the word.
And Tabernacles among us.
This opens the whole thing up in the Old Testament. God reserved in the Tabernacle and it would take us several days to tell you tell to talk about all the details of the cat Maple. But just think from the Lord Jesus became a man.
He was a Tabernacle in his own blessed person, dwelling among his people.
He was a testament. Now turn to Chapter 3 again.
By these, these verses and these chapters are so loaded, they're far beyond our imagination. Our full they are.
Not chapter 3, but Chapter 2 John Chapter 2.
Verse 20 then said the Jews 40 and six years was this temple and building.
And wilt thou gear it up in three days?
But he spoke of the temple of his body.
Well, there's another interesting point. Not only is the Lord Jesus the temple where God dwells, but he was also the Tabernacle. He and his own person is the Tabernacle as well as the temple.
Is that something? All the fullness of the Lord Jesus, both the Tabernacle and you see the Tabernacle is a temporary dwelling track wells and the temple is a permanent weather for God. Else but the Lord Jesus was probably he was the Tabernacle and he was the temple. Well, what's the point? The point is that God wants to go out with his people.
He wants to walk with them. He wants to talk with them. He wants to personally express his love.
Now let's go to Ezekiel Chapter 35.
Is it for chapter 35?
And we're going to see the presence of the Lord brought before us in a very interesting way here.
And this is the verse that triggered my my little message that I'm trying to share with you this afternoon. You see, I'm reading through Ezekiel in my personal reading At Home in the Mortgage.
I came to this verse recently and I was impressed.
He's talking about some people that were enemies of gods, people. And he said to these enemies verse 10 of Ezekiel 35. Because Ralph has said these two nations and these countries, two countries shall be mine and we will possess it.
Now here's the point of this The enemies were ready to come over. Come in and pick over.
That's possessions, and the Lord says they don't realize that I'm there.
00:20:04
They don't know who they're doing.
So the presence of the Word was here spoken of in Ezekiel 3510, to keep the enemy from doing what it wanted to do. The presence of the Lord is a tremendous protection of God's good people and will. The enemies want to take over this land in these cities, the Lord says in this little statement. The Lord is there.
Didn't realize that, but the Lord was there to control those for all matter and below it. Rather, this impresses me. Presence of the Lord is a protection for us, so that the enemies of our souls can't do what they want to do.
They got to deal with God about it.
And those that hate us and the enemy of our souls, the devil, he would like to wipe us out. He can't do it because the Lord is here, and the presence of the Lord prevents the enemy from having his way and the.
That's what the two is equal 35 brings before us, he says. They don't know that I'm there and that they can't do what they'd like to do now. Turn to the end of the individual, where they have the presence of the Lord spoken of again in a different way, but.
Very interesting. I thought I just mentioned this. As long as we're in, this equilibrium is equal the last chapter.
And the 35th verse.
Ezekiel.
48 verse 35.
This is a prophecy of the future. It tells about something that's going to happen someday. It says it was round.
About 18,000 measures, and the name of the city from that day shall be the Lord is there.
Here the city called that.
We got fellow Iowa, Des Moines, IA Newton, but did you ever hear a town hall? The world is there.
Would you want to live in a town like that?
I would. Well, the day is coming when Jerusalem shall be given that name. The Lord will say or you say, if that's the name of the city, then everything is going to be all right. And brother, this is the thing. The day is going to come when the presence of the word physically on earth among his people, they're going to straighten out the whole mess that we know about today. And the name of that city will be.
The Mother's Day.
So I just like to bring that before you as a very happy thought. The presence of the Lord straightens everything, straightens everything out, and in the coming day of blessing on earth.
His presence will straighten everything out.
The name of the city from that day shall be the borders.
I'm upset. I'm not upset.
But I'll turn to Exodus chapter 33.
Exodus Chapter 33.
I don't know how to present my subject beloved, rather without turning to the scriptures.
And the Scripture will speak for themselves. Exodus Chapter 20, Chapter 33.
They'll have the presence of the Lord brought before us here, and in a different way, but a very nice way.
This was when God was speaking to Moses.
And.
Talking about the the future of God's ways with his people.
Exodus 3313. Now therefore I pray thee, if I foundation by sight, this is Moses speaking to the Lord. Show me now thy way, that I may know thee.
And that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider what this nation is thy people.
And he said, my presence shall go with you.
And I will give the rest.
What did the Lord promise his people? What was the biggest thing he could promise them?
The biggest thing he could promise them was his presence.
He says my presence shall go with you.
And I will give you rest.
And I would just like to make that the main point of my little meditation with you, dear brother, and here this afternoon.
00:25:08
The presence of the Lord is the most valuable thing.
That we possess in our Christian life. My presence will be with you. That's better than riches, that's better than fame, that's even better than good health. It's better than anything you can imagine. The presence of the world. And he promised it to his people And now, Moses said.
In verse 15 he says and he said to him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not.
What about praise? Moses said. Lord. I don't want to go anyplace unless you go with me.
Your presence is perfect to me.
If thy presence do not withstate well, may the Lord give us a fresh glimpse of that desire today, and we'll say I want above everything else.
A sense in my heart of the presence of the Lord in my life, and in my way. Well, Moses had that. Here and there were flagged words.
Not turn to Psalm 23, those well known verses that have encouraged so many people for so many years and continue to do their good work today in our hearts.
Time 23.
Psalm 23.
First floor.
Gave when I walked through the valley of the shadow death. I will fear no evil.
Well, I have a great church policy.
Shape. My Bible doesn't read that.
What does it say?
Well, I brought to the valley of the shadow of death.
I will fear no evil without this.
Oh, now we're getting something.
What made all the difference To comfort the heart of this harmless?
The presence of the vote.
And he says, though I walk right in the shadow of death and though death and may overtake me in some way in my personal life or my home.
I will certainly look for that.
In times of sorrow and in times of anxiety.
In times of distress.
What is the thing that they'll do is the most good?
That's the purpose of the Lord Jesus.
I will hear no evil for thou art. He's talking directly to the Lord. And I thank you folks, and have noticed.
Many times that in the Psalm in the 23rd Psalm.
It starts out by talking about the Lord. It says the Lord is my shepherd.
But in this verse, he's not talking about the Lord, he's talking to the Lord representative.
In fact, I was sharing with my brother in Des Moines something that I think people should enjoy here this afternoon too.
My son, Phillips daughter is now 2 pushing 3.
And they're teaching her wishes.
And so.
Sitting next to Mark yesterday, last week at the meeting and.
She said to Mark.
She said that want to learn a verse.
Yeah, so she holds up her Sunday school paper like this and she says, OK, the Lord.
Mark, put on what you're doing, he says.
And she says is my shepherd.
Mark said.
Sure. I looked at you. You're doing pretty good, Mark.
Pretty good.
Well, when are we going to run like?
The Lord is.
Well, the Lord left through the valley of the shadow of death. I will fear no evil thought of talking directly to the and beloved brother in the presence of the Lord. Jesus makes all the difference in the circumstances of our lives. I know a little bit about it, not much, but a little bit. But it doesn't make any difference how much I know about it. It's still the truth.
00:30:16
When Iris turned to Mark's Gospel, chapter 5.
There we have a lovely one. Thoughts about the presence of the Lord.
Mark's Gospel chapter 5 brings before us the case of a man who.
Have been delivered from the power of Satan.
In our marvelous way and.
He was thankful.
And so we'll just read the main point of this story and verse 18 of March half the time.
And when he was coming into the ship.
And when he was come into the ship.
He that have been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him.
There's no device.
He that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him.
This man had learned the hard life of serving safety. He learned it by bitter experience and when he had been delivered, from the power of safety.
He said. I just want to be with Jesus. I just want to be with Jesus.
Oh, please, let me be with him, right? Because Jesus made all of it to him.
And pull up with brother. This is Jesus makes all the glad, the Lord Jesus with us and to be with him makes all the difference. And this man caught the point. He prayed him that he might be with him.
Now turn to Luke Gospel chapter 24.
The presence of the Lord is such a.
Comfort in the soul, such as encouragement and a stimulation and a safeguard.
And we're just talking about a few points about it today.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 24.
Verse 13.
List 2413 and before Two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus.
Which was from Jerusalem about 3 score Pillow.
And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
And it came to pass the Twilight community together and reason that.
Jesus himself drew near.
And when?
Tell you something.
These folks were going the wrong way.
They had their backs towards God's center and they were going the wrong direction.
But to send the throat my heart right in this ish.
That the Lord Jesus joined them and walked with them even when they went the wrong direction.
You know this world, this world's got everything all mixed up.
And you can't trust the world's philosophy. The world has a slogan. God helps those that help themselves.
Sounds good, doesn't it?
No, that's not the kind of God we've got. We've got the God is a lot bigger than that.
We've got a God so big in the Lord Jesus that he loves us so much that even if we go the wrong direction to walk with us and you put the pressure on in the right way.
To get us to make a new turn.
That's the kind of a Lord we know.
Oh, I love it. I love him for what he is and what he's done. And here, here, we're probably a couple. We don't know. We know the name of one of these persons, but.
We assume it may be a man and his wife. They were going the wrong direction and it said Jesus himself grew here and went with them.
And for what purpose?
To encourage them to keep on going the wrong direction? No. Open their eyes so that they can turn around.
Is that the kind of a Lord you've got?
00:35:00
It is. He will never leave us. Ready. Even when we go the wrong direction. He won't leave us, but he'll do the very best he can do.
To help us make AU turn.
That's why you're here. And it wasn't long before and walking with these people going the wrong direction. It wasn't long before he was. He was calling attention to the scriptures.
And it wasn't bound before their eyes were opened.
And it wasn't long before they they went back the right direction.
That's the kind of a Lord you've got.
How can you help but love it? Matthew, chapter 18.
We like to look at this verse.
Because it entered us in a day like the one in which we look when.
The Christian testimony is it ruins.
And people are doing what they think is right, regardless of what God has got to say.
That's already find real comfort in verse 20 of Matthew 18. It says where two or three are gathered together in my name.
Jeremiah in the midst of that the presence of the Lord.
Among his people.
Gathered to his precious.
Why do you folks keep on coming to this meeting themselves?
What? You give it up.
Government people come here anymore.
How come you do?
Well, maybe you say. Wait a minute, you're not supposed to preach like that.
You say to me, I know the reason I come to that Southern Eaton Rd.
We don't have a lot of good preachers.
We don't have any special talent OR we don't have any tremendous performances and great demonstrations. We don't.
But let me give you a secret.
I think I could get this shot at almost anybody in this room. They sold the secret of five. We keep coming to our color meeting room.
To tell you the truth, the secret is the Lord is there.
And let me tell you, your brother.
Grace of God I have been gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus for over 45 years.
And I see an increasing amount of weakness of all kinds among my brother and in myself.
And do you know what's kept me at the meeting?
This one fact, this one fact. The Lord is there.
If it had not been for my understanding and ripple that truth.
Why would I? Why would I continue?
Why would I continue?
Why would I not seek a bigger bunch of folks with a lot more pizzazz and all kinds of stuff that feels like Why wouldn't? I probably would, But you know what holds me back? You know what keeps me here?
Gathered with you, dear President. You know what keeps me here.
That's the point.
For two or three gathered together in my name, there are five in the midst of them. The Lord Jesus Christ is present among those today who are gathered simply in His name, even if there's only two.
And in some places there are just two.
The presence of the Lord driving.
Is everything for the fellowship of his people?
And if it worked for that, I suppose I'd have cooked the meeting long ago, and I know a lot of people that I grew up with.
And I should?
Where are they today? Where did they go?
You know why I think they left?
They didn't see this truth, but the Lord.
It's the truth. Leave it without my heart, your dear brethren gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're solely Iowa.
You can know for sure the world.
And when you see that then keep it together.
00:40:02
May the Lord keep us that we will never lose sight of that precious God.
Now Matthew, Chapter 28.
The presence of the Lord.
Or bless so many things well.
The Friends of the Lord protects us. Presence of the Lord encourages us. The presence of the Lord gathers us together.
Now in Matthew chapter 28.
Verse 20 verse 18.
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying all power.
Is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
What were you there for and teach all nations?
Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. And lo.
I am with you early.
I am with you all.
Beloved brother, everyone in this room has been commissioned.
To share the good news about Christ.
What do you say? Well, brother reply. I've never been called to do. Yes, you have. I do.
Beloved brother and sister, you have been called to share the Christian message in your lifetime. It's right here, and I don't know how you can escape it.
You might say, well, that's just for brother Sorcerer, brother Reeves and brother this and that and so on, but surely not for me.
How do you get out of it?
One way to get out of it is not be a disciple. That's the only way to get out of it.
And here you've got your Commission and you're to go to a Dark World.
And the closest mission field to you as your neighbor.
Giving, glowing a Dark World.
And you can tell it about Jesus.
And what does he say? He says I am with you always, he says. I'm not going to send you by yourself, I'm going to go with you.
Well, isn't that good?
And I'll tell you this if you ask the Lord, and if I ask the Lord for an opportunity to share the gospel.
Don't be surprised if the courage comes and we're able to do it and find an opportunity.
He said. I'm with you. This is my work and I'm sending you to do it. And I'm not going to send you alone. I'm going to be with you all the way. I'm with you all the way, even until the end of the world.
Now Hebrews chapter 13. Let's see.
Last verse that I thought to share with you this afternoon.
The presence of the Lord.
It's wonderful and it makes a lot of difference.
In our lives.
Hebrews, chapter 13.
Verse 5.
What's your conversation be without covetousness?
And be content with such things as you have.
What he had said.
I will never leave these.
Nor forsake of it.
Can you tell me that there's something better?
Than the presence of the Lord Jesus in your life. He's with us personally. He's with us when we are sick, He's with us when we're in trouble, and He's even with us when we go the wrong direction.
He said. I will never leave you and for safety.
So their brother, may the Lord encourage us with these words.
And may the Lord help us to have a consciousness in our hearts.
Of who we belong to and the fact that he has promised. Never believe us.
And let's rely upon his presence.
There were two people sitting together.
00:45:03
One of them was very tired.
And they were sitting on the sand.
There were no chairs.
There was not even a tree to lean against.
And so these two people that were sitting down, resting from a very busy.
A very tiresome journey.
In order to get a little relaxation, they set back-to-back.
He said back-to-back as arrested from the journey.
And.
One of the persons just said to the other.
Lean hard.
Lean hard.
He said I'll never leave you north or so, and he has said not in those words, but in words just like them here, said Rush.
Let's say #52.
#52 Lowered airline.
But I'd love, trust the poor guilty slaves of sin. But thou redeems us to God, and may thy spirit well with their number. 52 Lord, we are fine, but by light.
Over him, he's made of him.
Without being a strange can't stop.
We talked about a wonderful person.
The Son of God.
The Word became flesh, the Lamb of God. And I'm glad to tell you he's my Savior and I want him to be the savior. Everybody in history, let's say #92 of it, and everybody wrote for Jesus.
He who brought a motorcycle.
As an option asked to make this considered good to let him in, but Jesus came to your house tomorrow.
Knock at the door of your house. Would you let him in while he can? Knock it on your heart? Store tonight. Room in here for you.
Room for Jesus. Send this thing the first can last.
Night.
A month or so ago and I went up to a house.
And I saw in the mailbox it had a big sign right there in the mailbox. Got his love.
And I thought, well, I'll just knock on this door and and I'll hand the gospel tracks to the persons in the house. I'll hand them to the person.
Walk on the door? No.
Came to the door.
And I knocked on the door second time.
And a man came to the door, and he was wiping his sleep out of his eyes. I woke him up.
In the left.
And I said, I'm sorry I woke you up. I didn't want to do that. But I saw. I saw the sign on the mailbox. God is love. And I said that. Who put out there? He said I did.
But I said, when did you put that there?
I said a year ago I put my trust in the Lord Jesus measurement of Savior.
And I said to him, he had a mustache in my own dark hair, and he was a little darker, complex, and some of us, I said to him.
Do you speak the Spanish language? No, he says. I came from Syria.
I came from Syria. Wasn't that wonderful?
His whole life has changed. So she put the trust, his trust in the Lord Jesus.
One of my brothers.
Because we're both on the same time. Because they both believe on the same day.
Hymn #216
The One Body
Address—Dn. Spence
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.
30.
What raised the wonders thought or who did it suggest that we the church to glory brush and with the sun be blessed? Oh God, the thought was thine, thine only it could be fruit of the wisdom love, the thine peculiar unto thee #330.
The way.
I'm going to talk a little bit tonight about the Body of Christ.
In First Corinthians.
Chapter 12.
First Corinthians chapter 12.
And verse 12.
00:05:05
We'll just read a few verses and comment on it. We're going to draw a few pictures. I bring my board along so in case there's some children will draw some pictures. First Corinthians, chapter 12 and verse 12.
Or as the body is 1.
And have many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body. So also it is Christ. For by 1 Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
We notice in these verses that we as believers.
Under the shelter of the blood of Christ, and I hope everyone tonight is there, We as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ have not just been given a birthright to heaven, but we have been made members of the body of Christ.
I don't believe that there is any closer relationship on the face of the earth or anywhere that we could ever experience than to be a member of the body of Christ.
I have some relatives and some of them are here tonight and in many ways I feel closer to them and because they not only have spiritual ties but blood ties.
But you know, there is nothing that is closer to me than my own body.
Everything, every sickness, every good feeling I experienced here in my body is a part of me. And when the Lord Jesus went to Calvary Cross, he went there with the purpose in mind. Not only of rescuing us from a last eternity and making us a part of that heavenly sea forever, but he went there with the purpose of making us members of His body.
There is no closer relationship with Christ and that no other people on the face of the earth who have ever lived have experienced the closeness that we, the Church of God, have right now. And if we don't feel close to the Lord, it's not because it's His fault. There may be some problems with us. He has made us members of that one body.
Now the human body is an extremely complex device.
I'm not really familiar with a lot of the functions of the body, but if you just talk about the eye, we'll be talking about the eye tonight. The eye is an extremely interesting device. The eye is capable of focusing. It has an automatic focus device on it. So when I look out there in the audience and I look from the front row to the back row.
My eye automatically focuses.
I didn't train it to focus. It has an automatic focus device on it and what it is doing is trying to focus the image that I am looking at on a screen on the back of my eye called the retina so that that image will not be fuzzy.
In the back of my resident.
Now that I has this screen back there that is so complex because it is not just a screen. Like let's say we were to take this wall and focus an image on it through a projector. It's not just that, but it is thousands and millions of little nerve endings that are capable of converting light and darkness into electronic signals and these electronic signals.
Go down a a bundle of nerve fibers called the optic nerve, and they go into the center of the brain and there they are stored in a certain location that your brain interprets as sight.
Fantastic thing. The human mind doesn't even understand exactly how all of that works.
But it stores it there, and many of you can have. You have images that are stored in your mind from your childhood. Sometimes you'll dream about them and they will come back. They're coming back out of a memory that has stored those, those.
Images there in your mind.
00:10:02
Also the if we were to talk about the ear, the ear is a device that is just sitting there and sound waves are coming through your ear and inside your ear there's a little drum and and the drum begins to vibrate and it transfers that vibration to three little bones in the middle ear. And these bones transmit the vibration 1 to the other right down the line until it comes to.
A device called the cochlea. It always makes me a little nervous talking about these things when I see somebody who's a nurse in the audience. But this cochlea is, is a thing that looks like a snail shell and it has little fine hairs that are sticking out there and it has some liquid in it. And when these these vibrations come in there, some of these hairs inside this cochlea have, they have a resonant frequency in which they begin to vibrate and send a signal down to the brain saying.
Its middle scene.
This is a fantastic thing. And if we were to talk about the nose, we would get into things that that they, they don't even understand fully how the nose, how smell and so on operate and all through the body. They're just they're just interesting and intricate functions. There in your lungs as you're breathing air in and out, there's a tremendous exchange going on of carbon dioxide and oxygen. Those of you who've had dinner tonight have.
A process of digestion going on. And that food is being broken down, right down into the elements so it can route into your bloodstream and give your body some energy. So that the human body is an extremely interesting and very complex device. And so it is with the body of Christ. The body of Christ has many members. It has those functions that are open to sight. It has those functions that are never seen.
It has things that are going on that are vital to the body, like the beating of the heart, like the breathing of air, like the digestion of food. It has all of those things going on so that the body can function properly.
It is sight, it is hearing, it is vision, it is smell. And all of those things in a spiritual way, and those functions are part of the body of Christ. So not only did he bring us into oneness with himself, but he gave us a function in the body.
Now it says that by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body.
Picture here Run Reese gave a little illustration that I enjoyed, and maybe I can. Maybe I can illustrate it for the kids anyway.
I'm going to draw a picture of a glass and this glass is going to have some water.
OK.
There's a picture of a glass with some water, and this glass of water is 1 body. It is one glass. Now what we're going to do is we're going to put in this glass of water a pencil. In fact, we will put a whole bunch of pencils in this.
Glass of water. Let's suppose that there's 12 Pencils in there and now we're we're, we're going to, we're going to liken this to baptism.
You, many of you in the room tonight have been baptized. I still remember my baptism. I was 11 years old, and some will remember Al Larson spoke at my baptism. He put me under, put me under the water. Well, if we were to look at Acts chapter two, we would notice in Acts chapter 2 That there were a group of people, and I'm supposed to say 12 here. There were more than that, but there were a group of people together on a day called Pentecost.
And those people on this particular day were meeting in a place, and all of a sudden there was a sound like rushing wind. And that sound was the presence of God's Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, coming not only to indwell them, live inside them, but coming to bind them together into one body and on that particular day, those.
12 apostles let's say.
Were baptized into that one body.
Now here we are almost 2000 years later, and here we we read a verse like this, for by 1 Spirit we are all baptized into one body. That word baptized means immersed.
00:15:11
So here they were at pinnacles immersed into one body. They were immersed by the Holy Spirit. The water was really the Holy Spirit. But here we are 2000 years later and we got saved. And when we were saved we were indwelt by the Holy Spirit and at the same time we were brought in there and we were baptized or or immersed into that one body. Notice the the way it says. I mean it makes it so plain. For by 1 spirit we are all baptized into one body.
All of us here were the Corinthians. They were, they were not there in Pentecost, and yet they were baptized. They had people at Corinth that weren't going on well. There's some people that say, well, you know, you've got to reach a certain level of spirituality, and then you will, you'll, you'll experience this baptism. But Paul says that you, you were all baptized into one body. He doesn't say now, just the spiritual ones of you have made it. He doesn't say that.
But he says that you have all been baptized into one body, so no matter how old you are here tonight.
No matter how young you are, no matter how much knowledge you have, no matter whether you're walking with the Lord or not, if you've been redeemed with the blood of Christ, you have been immersed in that spirit, and you have been brought into that relationship of one body. You're baptized, you know. So if someone asks you at school, say, have you been baptized by the Holy Spirit, what can you say? What would you say? Yes.
I have been baptized by the Holy Spirit. I've seen so many people among us. I I go around and I ask questions. Sometimes I say, have you been baptized by the Holy Spirit? And there's a little hesitation. There doesn't need to be a hesitation. If you're really safe, you can say I have been baptized by the Holy Spirit. And the effect of that Holy Spirit is to bring us into that one bite, to bind us together in that one body. So what we'll do is we'll draw a little picture here of one body.
And you will notice.
One of my gifts is not artistry.
But here is a body in this body if it's just a body.
That body doesn't do anything. It doesn't function properly. You know, you hear people talk about coordination, you know, and when people are not coordinated, sometimes 1 foot tries to go in One Direction and one foot tries to go in the other direction. But this to give this body coordination there is.
A very interesting, very intricate bundle of nerve fibers that are running all the way out to the tips of the fingers and down to the legs and things like that. And they have little nerve fibers on them. They go everywhere. And that's what binds this body together, makes it function as as one body and gives it feeling and things like that. All of you have those, those nerve fibers in your body.
And.
The and because of that the body becomes one unit. OK, that's what I think is the function of the Holy Spirit. It says by 1 Spirit we are all baptized in into one body. And we notice down in verse 26 and we'll talk about this later. Whether one member suffer, all members suffer with it, that is. That is the Holy Spirit's connection to all members of this body. That gives it feeling.
For the rest of the body.
That gives it coordination. That makes it one, that makes it operate at one as one, And all of that. So that's one of the functions of the Holy Spirit, to bind it together and to connect it to a risen Christ in heaven, and from which all of that direction comes. So it was really the Holy Spirit's function to connect this to Christ and glory. And we read in Romans chapter 8 that the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. That is, you may not know exactly how to pray about an issue.
But when you get down on your knees and you pray the Holy Spirit addresses the throne of God with the right words. He addresses the throne of God with the right thought so that we can be encouraged if we don't feel that we know exactly how to say it or the right words, that the message is getting through to God up there in heaven. OK, now let's go a little bit further.
00:20:10
In verse 14, for the body is not one member, but many.
Skip the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body. Is it therefore not of the body? And if the ears shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were in time, where were the hearings? If the full were hearings, where were the smelling? But now that God has got set the members, every one of them in the body, as it has pleased him? And if they were all one member, where were the Bible?
Now we will notice in this passage what we might call a little bit of an inferiority complex in the body. That is, the foot is saying to the hand, because I am not the hand, I am not important, I am not of the body. Now the foot is at.
Could you say the farthest point away from the head, but it is still the bottom and the foot takes it a lot. It gets walked on, it gets stepped on, and but yet it has a function to carry the body around. And you can see how the foot can take a lot of abuse and it looks up there at the hand. And the hand is a very, very fascinating device because the hand can take something and it can write a letter or it can paint a picture or it can sit down and play the piano.
Can play a trumpet.
The hand can do many things and so the foot is taking all of this abuse, bearing all the weight of the body and it looks up at the hand and says I wish I were more like you. I really don't like what I'm doing and I would rather be in hand. I can get up a little closer to the rest of the body.
That's what we might call an inferiority complex. And here is the ear in this ear is sitting there on the side of the head, and it's feeling rather inferior because it just sits there. And if we could speak in this kind of language, it looks around at the eye and there is the eye.
Now, I don't know. You married couples, how long it's been since you looked into one another's eyes. But if you look.
There, occasionally you will see the most beautiful part of the body. God has designed the eye, and He has designed it with all kinds of beauty. You know, You remember those days when you just used to enjoy looking into somebody'd eyes. And because the eyes not only have a physical beauty, but they convey a plot, you know you can. They convey feeling in the eyes, and the eyes are capable of movement. They're capable of focusing.
And here is the ear sitting there, not doing a thing, not even moving. Maybe some people can move their ears, but normally the ear just sits there. And here is the air looking around at the eye. And it's saying, I wish I were like you. I wish I could do your functions. And so it often happens in the body of Christ that.
Part of the body may feel a little inferior, and it may feel like it would rather be something else.
Another part of the body.
Wonder if you have ever thought about being a member of the Body of Christ.
Never thought if I were to go down the road here and ask you what member of the body of Christ are you, would you be able to liken it to a certain, could we say physical function in the body?
I remember when I was little and grew up on one of your Iowa farms and was rather shy, didn't have a whole lot of company. My dad used company as a threat to the farm work, kind of. He said you don't get enough done when there's company around. So we didn't have a whole lot of company and I was shy. And when I went down to Des Moines and was among groups of young people.
I was shy. I didn't know what to say.
And they would stand around having a good time talking with each other. And I felt uncomfortable in that group. And so I would go over and sit on the side somewhere. Pretty soon, somebody else would come over and they'd sit by me.
And I didn't know what to say. So I would sit there and pretty soon they would start talking.
And I would just listen to them, and I would listen and listen. And the more I listened, the more I learned. And after a while, I began to do what I've come to call active listening. I would ask a question and probe a little deeper. And after a while, it seemed like a lot of people needed somebody to listen to them. So they would come and talk to me. And I didn't know what to say, but I would just listen. So as time went on, I discovered that maybe in the body of Christ, I was in here.
00:25:29
And it was rather exciting just to make that discovery that you're part of the body of Christ and what part you really are so.
I discovered this and then began to use my life in this way. Well, I was I I spoke on this up at Lassen this summer. If any of you were there, you probably heard this. And you know, when I came back home, we found that in Southern California there was a lot of discouragement.
And so we decided to do some plaques on the ground and gathering, and we've been going through them out there. And we found out that there's a lot of problems that we have that we didn't know about and a lot of truth that we didn't really understand about the fundamental basic of the church.
But one day we were talking on the subject and I told my my class to take out a piece of paper and a pencil. And I said, I want you to write on this piece of paper what function of the body of Christ that you think you are. If you don't know, just say I don't know or whatever. So they thought for a long time. And then they wrote and they passed in the sheet and I got all of these sheets back. You know, they were maybe 35 people in the class.
And out of those 35 people, 1/3 of them said they did not know what they were, 1/3 of them said they were not functioning doing anything, 1/3 of them said that they were hands, and 1/3 of them said that they had some rather unique functions of some kind or another.
So I drew a picture of what this body looked like. 1/3 of it was paralyzed so it hadn't crashed. And on the other side of the This body was about 15 hands down it. It was all hands. There was no backbone in this body, so it was bent over and there was no there was no mouth in the body. None of them said that they were a mouth. One of them said they were a mouth. They used to be a mouth, but they got the scurries.
And so there was number mouth on the body and there was number.
There were no feet on the body and it was just paralyzed. There was no reproduction system in the body so it had it had no capability of reproducing itself. So, so you can see that the body that of this of these young believers has some real problems. It was partly paralyzed. It was it was it was all hands.
Some of it, anyway. And then it has some kind of interesting and unique functions that some of them I'd never heard before, but they were interested. So we found that that we did not really know very well what we really were in the body of Christ. And we felt that rather than blame our older brother for the problems that we were seeing in the assembly, that we needed to first of all discover what place we were in the body of Christ.
I wonder how we would do tonight, you know, if we were to take a little test. I wonder how we would do as to whether we really know what our place in the body of Christ is.
All parts of the body are important and we can see that here we've been talking about some very visible parts, very visible parts, and we can see that there's some feeling between some of the parts that probably shouldn't exist.
OK, a little feeling of inferiority.
Now let's go down a little further and diverse 20 verse 20. But now are they many members yet, but one body.
And the I cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more of those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary, and those members of the body which we think to be less honorable. Upon these we bestow more abundant honour. And our comely parts have more abundant comeliness, for our humbling. Hearts have no need, but God has tempered the body together.
00:30:04
Having given more abundance, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked.
OK, we can see that over and over that the Lord Jesus wants to impress upon us that we are one body. And here tonight there are German believers that are a part of that body.
That body consists of every single believer on the face of the earth. There are no favors in the body of Christ. There are none. None at all. We see here in this portion kind of a superiority complex.
That is there, here is the eye and it's looking at the hand and saying, well I'm self-sufficient, I don't need you.
Just saying, I can function all by myself and the functions that I do are totally.
Self-contained. I don't need somebody else.
As superiority complex in the body of Christ, every believer is a member of the body of Christ and every believer is equally precious.
That is, there is no such thing as a remnant of believers within the assembly that is more precious through the heart of Christ. Everyone of them is just the same. There may be a believer out here in the Catholic Church, and that believer is just as important in the body of Christ, just as valuable, just as love, as someone who is here in the assembly gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are no favorites in the body.
Even though they are many members, they are one body. I remember a number of years ago that we used to meet together with a group of engineers on our lunch hour and we had some wonderful times with them. A lot of people got saved through that. They just come in and they sit down and we wouldn't try to pressure them with the gospel, but we would just go ahead and read through the chapter.
And after several months, they would start talking like Christians and the there were three of us from the assembly in Buena Park that were in that Bible study.
And that some of the thoughts and some of the times we had really wonderful and I hadn't seen one of these engineers for about 10 years. I ran into him last year. His name was Dave Peters and he came up and Dave said.
You know, the Bible studies that we used to have over at Rockwell. And I said, yeah, he said, you know, I never have ever heard ministry like we heard in those studies. And he said I have done all over Southern California.
Thoughts that I heard in that Bible study with other Christians, and they were equally excited about them. See here, here is the the assembly. Those in the assembly might be a channel of truth and blessing to others. And you know, I had this one, this one Christian who was in my office and one day I asked him, I said, Bruce, where do you learn the truth of the word of God?
He said from from my pastor, I think I said where else? Well, he said from from the radio, I I listen to the radio quite a bit and I said where else? And he said, well, well, I have some books at home that I studied occasionally and I learned some there and I said where else And he said I think that's it. And I said, Bruce, there's one thing that you forgot. He said what's that?
I said God sent the Holy Spirit down to be a teacher to your soul. I said, have you ever learned anything from him? And he said nothing.
So I said with you could go home some night and just sit down with all the books on the shelf with the radio off and just tune into the Holy Spirit and let him be your teacher for one evening. I said I think he would really enjoy it. So he came in the next day and he said look at this. So he has this sheet of paper and on this sheet of paper is Romans chapter 14 and it is all outlined.
And and he shows this to me and the thoughts were fantastic. And I said, Bruce can I have that outline And he gave the outline to me. And that outline may have shared many things in the assembly in Buena Park. You see it's kind of a two way St. I mean if if he gave me something that wasn't the truth, well I wouldn't share it. But here is the body function. You know someone comes around gives you a little word of encouragement. It built. It helps you out.
00:35:10
Sometimes you may be that one that does that. So the body is something that constantly functions, and the one that ties it together is the Holy Spirit. But here in the body is the possibility of a superiority complex. And what's the body part of the body is saying, I don't need you?
I don't need you, so he says in verse 21. And the eye cannot say In the end I have no need of thee, nor again the heads of the feet. I have no need of you.
Nay, much more of those members of the body would seem to be more feeble are necessary.
And then it goes into the the thought of hidden members of the body. Now I just want to say a little word on feeble members of the body. You know, I have certain feeble functions in my body. For instance, my little finger is rather feeble in comparison to my arm or my leg. But never have I ever felt that my little finger is a worthless member of my body.
So there are certain functions that may be rather weak in the body, but the body is not to look down on those functions now. Likewise, there are certain things in the body that are hidden.
Most of what goes on in the body that that is of real importance is hidden, and those hidden parts of the body I bestow a lot of honor on it.
Now I was over at Marty's for dinner tonight and they're all of this food that's coming by and my eye was functioning as part of the body and it was saying I think my stomach would like that. And so I put some of that on my plate and some of that and she had some of these Pickles called lime Pickles. And I put them on my plate and I tried them out and my mouth tasted them and it said I think I will give some more of those to my stomach. So I all this was coming along.
And I was bestowing abundant honor on some hidden parts of my body.
Now, there are many hidden parts in the body. In the body itself, there's the heart, the very important part of the body. There's the lungs, very important. There's a digestive tract. And some of the hidden parts of the body do not begin to function until a certain age.
Those lands in the body that are just sitting there for a long time.
And all of a sudden in the teenage years, this is a person this the teenage years, those glands could fire up and they begin dumping fluids and hormones and things like that out into the body, into the bloodstream. And I always say, you know, this is the time that parents begin to go to prayer meeting because they can't understand what happened to their family. So all of those functions begin to operate at certain times.
And so it is in the body of Christ. You know, you can have a person who's sitting there and sitting there and sitting there and folks are saying, well, why doesn't something happen? Why doesn't that person start functioning? All of the vital signs look good and everything. It may not be God's time. It may not be time for that, that function of the body to fire up and to begin to function properly. OK, so some of those just sit there. I always, when I look back in my life.
I realized that there were certain problems in my life that exist that existed that may have caused this, but it seemed like all the way through my life until I was 22 years old and there just wasn't a whole lot of functioning going on for the Lord. And all of a sudden, the 22 years of age, there were some functions that suddenly began to happen. So you may be a member of the body of Christ that hasn't started to function yet.
It could be that there is some sin in your life. It could be that you're out in the world. It could be that your focus is not the person of Christ. But if you clear all of those things up, remember that it is the direction from the head that starts that function working. So I don't think the Apostle Paul is saying go out and go into a very, very extended and and kind of a, you know, a.
Frantic race to find out where you are but it's saying be sensitive to any direction that comes from the head of the body. So here are the hidden parts in verse 24 or funding. Parts have no need, but God has tempered your the body together. Have them get having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked.
00:40:21
Now the hidden parts of the body are parts that are very important.
And I realized that in this body of believers here tonight, there are many hidden functions. And oftentimes because our function may not be visible, we may get discouraged and we may not want to function. We may say, well, if I were, if I were visible, I could do something, I would do something in the body, but I'm invisible. But you see, what he's saying here is that those invisible parts of the body.
The invisible parts are the ones that got on it.
Now the visible parts of the body often get their honor visibly. Someone may come up and say that's a nice work that you're doing out there. Birthday thank you for.
Cleaning up the meeting room after we had the all day meeting or whatever. There's certain things that are visible, but there are certain things that are not visible. Much of the real work of Christ goes on invisible, but it is It is not, It is not apparent to the rest of the body of Christ.
I just want to say a little word to you sisters who may carry on some of this work. It could be a correspondence with some soul that is in need and nobody else knows about this. It could be a broken heart. It could be a marriage that is going on the rocks and you carry on this, this work behind the scenes and nobody knows about it. It could be a, it could be a lot of prayer that's going on. You might be able to spend now that your children have grown up, you might be able to spend.
1/2 hour a day in prayer or something like that.
So much of the real work of God goes on invisible, and it is never recognized. It is never honored in the scene. But there's coming a moment when God is going to honor. There's going to be a reward for it, and that reward is going to be very, very great. So if you're doing a work for the Lord.
Well, don't get discouraged if nobody's noticed it. Maybe it's a hidden work that's going on in the body of Christ. Maybe. I've told this story before. I I like this story really well.
There was this brother and I was traveling around a little bit and somebody said to me this brother, and he named him, he said this brother, really, he really doesn't have anything to offer. He really well, he said he's really kind of a worthless member for the body of Christ. That's what the way I interpreted.
What he said, He said he doesn't know anything. He hasn't grown very much. He just doesn't have it. So I stirred that away in my thoughts and one time I was visiting this credit and we were having some gospel meetings in that town. And this brother, this brother came out and he did everything for us. He kept us at his home. He blasted out tracks to all the people in the town.
He carted all the chairs out to the place that we were having the gospel meetings and all of this thing. He worked tirelessly from 6:00 in the morning till 11 at night and day after day, after several days of this work and when we were driving away from this place, one of the brothers I was with, he said I just had a vision of brother so and so and he started to tell me about it and I said don't tell me about it, draw me a picture. He's he was kind of an artist. So he drew me a picture and he drew a picture of a great throne.
And on this throne was a king. There was a little crown on his head.
And down at the bottom of this throne is a little man, little bald headed man. By the way, this man was about 85 years old.
Aiden Butter. And so here was this little bald headed man at the bottom of the stone. Little tiny man grew engulfed by the stone. And on the throne was the king. And there was coming a gigantic prize down this. The king was lifting this prize down to this little man. And over the head of this man was a little question mark. That's a picture that he didn't like.
What is that for? I didn't do anything. I wasn't recognized. Nobody thought much of me.
You see, there are certain hidden functions in the body of Christ that are going to wait until that judgment day that, and then they are going to be recognized. Don't ever feel that because your work is not visible, that it is not valuable to the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ.
00:45:20
Now verse 25, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one or another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, or one member be be honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now we are the body of Christ and the members in particular, so he's saying that now that we are one.
In Christ there shouldn't be.
Any division in the body of Christ. And we know from John chapter 17 that the oneness of that body would be a testimony through the whole world. And so we can see why the devil has attacked the unity of the body of Christ. You and I are meeting on what people call the ground of the one body. Maybe I can draw a little picture of of that and how that works.
Let's get rid of the black.
Here is 1 body.
There's a head.
And this body is standing on a book called the Bible.
And this, this body here is, we'll call it the church or the body of Christ. All believers on the face of the earth are part of that body. And there's there's its head. It's a risen Christ and glory. And now I'm just going to make a statement and we're not going to go into this. But what gives that body unity in a practical way is the word of God. That is the basis of unity in the assembly.
Is the word of God, and it's very, very important that that that keeps us from our own opinions. You know how opinionated people are, especially people like me. We're all opinionated and we all have our opinions and we sometimes have our opinions about the Bible.
And someone of the reasons that you sisters often complain about us getting only from the care meeting is because we have different opinions about what the Bible says.
But this Bible is the basis of unity in the assembly, and it is so important not only that you brothers, but that you sisters understand the word of God and what it really means.
It is the basis of that that unity. But when the assembly started and it was bound together in one body, it was one body of believers in the city of Jerusalem.
But as time went on, what happened was that this the the gospel spread to other cities. So there was there were believers in Jerusalem, and there were believers in Antioch, and there were believers in Rome, but they were still all part of that one body.
In other words, they were still the function as one body.
If they didn't. If Jerusalem operated independent of Rome.
And Antioch did what they wanted to do independent of the rest of this body. Then there was no longer unity within the body. There was no longer communication within the body. And the result was a body that was was operating independent of itself. You know what would happen if this arm operated independent of this arm? It would no longer serve to function as part of the one body. There would be a lot of this coordination and we would have real trouble.
In the body. But in these these assemblies, and there were more, and they spread over the face of the known earth of that day, all operated as one body. So someone who we say someone who was recognized over here at Jerusalem as a shepherd, was recognized in Antioch as a shepherd, was recognized in Rome as a shepherd.
Say because that body was all one somebody who was an evangelist and Jerusalem was an evangelist and Antioch, he didn't need to go to to Antioch and the brethren in Antioch. Look him over and say, who is this? Maybe we better give him about a three-year test and see how he does. They didn't need to do that. Neither did someone who was in fellowship here in Rome or in Jerusalem. I suppose he can't come in here and he's breaking bread and he takes a trip over here to Rome.
00:50:21
And he comes into Rome.
And he didn't need to sit there and let the brethren scrutinize him for a few days or weeks and find out if he was saved and if he was baptized and if he had any bad doctrine or anything like that, he could go right over to Rome and begin to break bread. How was that? Why was that? What was the vehicle for causing that body to operate as one? It was the letter of commendation, letter of commendation that is described in.
The last chapter of Roman's or Romans chapter 15. Maybe this I commend unto you, Phoebe.
Over there in Rome and the Apostle Paul in 2nd Corinthians 3 and verse one says do I need a letter of accommodation when I come to Kirk Corn. So they this letter of commendation went with people who traveled and it said yes, Phoebe is in fellowship or Paul is in fellowship or Silas is in fellowship here in Jerusalem. He's traveling over to your area and when it comes to your area why you should allow him to break bread?
And not only that, he may be gifted in some way. So they might even mention that he's gifted so that the brethren over in these other areas did not need to put that person on trial. And the body, even though it's spread to different localities, still function as as one body.
OK. Now we know that the challenge today, the challenge is that much of the body could you say is split up, It's in division, it's out there in division. It's still connected together by the Holy Spirit, but it is out there in division. But and it is, it is very, very probable that that whole body will never be united in fellowship with each other in this particular way. We we don't believe that will ever happen.
And yet there are a group of believers who are gathered together on the principles of the one body, and they operate as one body separate from all of the division. And you're a part of that, of that testimony. So there there is some oneness that they won, even though all members of the body aren't necessarily human fellowship.
OK, so he says that there should be no schism in the body. And that means that there are times, brethren, when we must be open and honest with each other. There's someone who might be causing us some problems or difficulties. There might be someone who's gossiping about us, or somebody who's criticizing us unjustly. And we need to be open and honest with other never allow feelings to go on, bitterness to exist.
An unforgiving spirit. It's good to go get those problems worked out.
We had just recently and in Buena Park with brother who had been causing some difficulties.
Toward a couple of us. And you know, rather than gossip about him, rather than see how many people we could get on our side.
We just met together with him and we just sat down and said brother, let's get this problem worked out.
And he sat down with us and he admitted that he had been hung. And he agreed to call every single brother that he had affected by what he had done and straightened it out in that better brother isn't that better than to call 50 people on the phone and get them on our side?
The Lord doesn't want any division. He doesn't want a fracturing within the body. But he wants the body to have a care for each other that all the bodies should have care for all of the rest of the members of that body, so that when one suffers, all suffer with it. If somebody, if someone's going through some marital difficulties, the rest of the body hurts. If somebody is in the hospital and pain and agony, the rest of the body feels if one of the body, if one member of the body is honored.
The rest of the body it rejoices with it, and so on. So there is a feeling that exists all among the body, that is, if we are in tune with the Holy Spirit, that causes it to.
Act together Last verse, verse 27. Now ye are the body of Christ and members. In particular, it seems like the apostle Paul wants it over and over and over again. Emphasize the fact that you are a part of the body.
The body of Christ, the body for which He does. And he wants you to know that as a part of that body, you do not lose your individuality. You are members in particular. Well, I guess the bottom line of of this talk might be for all of us to have a real deep exercise about how we can function, what part of the body of Christ we are, and how we can function as part of the body, so that there will be a real unity, a real carrier that will continue to exist.
00:55:32
Click on the button. Let's close it.